NationStates Jolt Archive

Space. . . silent AEthreal abode of Gods and Men who thought themselves as such. Centuries had passed, the God Prince lay dorment for decades and his people had grown weak in his absence. Civil wars had split the fleet apart, dealing more damage to the mighty Takian armada than had the near constant warfare that had racked her. In just one generation, the immortal dynasty had fallen.

Space folded, bent and twisted, spewing it's remants into the Sol system. Crushed hulks, some still burning internaly, others still filled with the doomed. A handful had enough power to break thier uncontroled spin, the rest lazily spun away towards deep space. In the center, anouther fold spilled the large form of the flagship, Prince Taka. Listing heavily, pitted with so many holes and burn marks that entire sections appeard to be little more than cobbled together wrecks, the once proud ship looked pitiful. Massive in size, she looked more ancient than her three centuries of service should allow, corrosion and damage covered her entire surface. . . but she still flew under her own power.

High Admiral Damien sat on the throne, the inert form of the prince floating behind him, now little more than a specimen in a jar or preservatives.

"Take a count, I want to know everything that's remained intact through the fold, get any ships that are still able to move to conduct rescue opperations. . . I want reports within the hour. Coms, Sensors, I want to be informed of everything that enters the system. . . nav. . . where the hell are we?"

The navs officer turned and nodded, his face half burned off by an old plasma wound, his mechanical eye like silver spider nested in his skull.

"We are still running tests, sir, the system appears to have four terrestrial planets on the interior, four gas giants in the exterior, and a few ice planets on the outer realms, we are currently near the inner most gas giant, the largest in the system. Other than that, constelation charts haven't come up with a match quite yet."

The young admiral stiffled a shiver and nodded.

"Keep an eye out, untill we have full confirmation on everyone who has survived, I am assuming command of the reminants of the Takian Fleet."

"Shields online and holding at twelve percent power, Armor penetrated over 80% of the ship, computer systems offline, AS system offline, Cyberbrain activity null, Life support stable at 90%, Civilian areas penetrated in section E12 through E118 and F12 to F118, civilian casulties sustantial, estimated loss of life estimated at five hundred million."

The technical readouts continued, none of them particuarly possitive. Damien rested his head on his hands, and sighed, he didn't want to hear the growing list of damage and destruction from across the fleet. He waved his hand.

"Would it be easier to tell me what still is intact?"

The officer swollowed hard and flipped through the list

"Two dreadnaughts are salvagable, though are hardly combat worth, one carrier, one battleship, and five of our heavy cruisers are combat worthy, an aditional two battleships and three cruisers can be repaired. As far as smaller craft, we have six squadrons all in all, with a few left over."

He removed his glases and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Sir, permission to speak plainly"

Damien looked around, no member of the bridge staff had escaped injury, they all looked tired and sore.

"Go ahead, god knows you've earned it."

"We're fucked" the man said, unappologeticly. "Worse comes to worse, we can establish a colony somewhere, but if forces from Pegasi or the Arbiter system show up, we could hold out for maybe an hour before we were overwelmed. We need help, and we need it now."

Damien nodded absently. "Do we have any contacts in system?"

The comsman shook his head. "Dead silent, sir."

"Send a general distress call."

"Sent sir"


Attention, any and all ships in the vicinity. This is the Ship, Prince Taka. . . we have sustained sever damage and require assistance to rescue civilans in damaged transport units. Please respond.

The corvette, Kerona, which was semi-permanently station in the Sol system, as well the visiting corvettes, Aroka and Lorta, both heard the distress call, and swung around and shunted full power to the engines, over-ridding the normal charge up time. The engine shunt sent the ships into red condition and prompted the captains for Red One or Red Two. Almost as one, which was a matter of a great deal of drill and training, each captain tapped the commands for Red Two, which was the coding for emergancy, non-hostile.

As the three streaked forward, the captains held a quick con-fab.
Kerona: "Alright, we've got a rather large, but obviously damaged force. Even from here our sensors can pick up the rents in the hull and general crap condition of their ships, whoever these poor bastards are, they've been thought quite a bit, so may be a bit on the itch side."
Aroka & Lorta: "Agreed."
Arota: "As you're the local, we'll defere to you."
Kerona: "Got it, set def for full, but unless they decide to itch, don't blow them, even then, shot for weap rather than kill."
Aroka & Lorta: "Gotcha, untill hell's."

Once in mid-range from the fleet, the Kerona sent out a reply to the distress call, as well as one of the dropships that happened to be on 'vacation':

This is the TNS Kerona, please inform us of status, and number of civilians, and critical problems.

Admiral Damien watched the expances of space in the deathly silent control room. Sporratic reports had come in earlier, now there was nothing. He almost jumped when the coms officer shouted up to him.

"Sir, we have radio chatter, it appears to be an offer of assistance from the TNS Kerona. They request our status, responce?"

"Tell them what we are working with, but fail to mention that we are defenceless. . . if this is a ruse, I don't want them to know we are floating targets."

"aye sir"

TNS Kerona, This is former TSA Prince Taka, we have been leading a refugee fleet from the old Klonorian Pegasi system when we were ambushed by loyalists, our military power is intact, but our civilian transits have mostly be crippled or destroyed. Estimated some three billion civilians still unaccounted for amoung the wreckage. We request assistance in search and rescue opperations. In adition, we require maintainance and repair assistance on our military vessels, if you've got someone that can negotiate prices, we'd love to talk with them.

The officer thumbed the switch to send the message in a tightly packed response.

"Excelent, keep ship on alert, I want all civilian personel on my ship accounted for and moved to the interior most sections, start atmosphere scans of the breached areas, I want marines to begin combing any section that has an atmosphere."

Once again, the bridge errupted into activity, orders relayed and scans of the interior of the ship being conducted as rapidly as the faulty power grid would allow.

The Super-Destroyer HNS Aeolus silently sat just beyond Earth's grasp. Its sensors set to active, it patiently pinged various sectors of the sky, waiting for all-too-common responses from merchant vessels, military patrols and civilian haulers.

TacComms officer Hewitt winced, his earpiece breaking into static. The second he reached for the volume, a message came through...

Attention, any and all ships in the vicinity. This is the Ship, Prince Taka. . . we have sustained sever damage and require assistance to rescue civilans in damaged transport units. Please respond.

"Admiral, we have a general civilian rescue call. Patching to speakers..."

The mesage was replayed, minus static, through the bridge speakers. Vice-Admiral Grandt remained in the hot seat, viewing sensor readings. "TacComm, open general band, hail Prince Taka."

"Aye, sir. Patching..."
Attention Prince Taka. This is the SuperDestroyer Aeolus of the Hammerian Space Navy. We are en route, deactivate all weapons, we mean no harm. We are forming a defensive perimiter around your remaining vessels, as per ISMP Code 5.22.3. Aeolus transmission concluded.

Kerona: "Three farking bill civs?"
Aroka: "They have a problem, not even home could deal with them and combined with the Drop, we'll only have around a hundred people here."
Lorta: "Ya, the others are scattered throught space and would take far to long to get here, the Drop can at least take a hundred and twenty five."
Kerona: "Well, we'll do our best."

We are highly limited in the amounted of aid possibly in dealing, both in S&R, and in evac. The problems are very limited numbers of people here, and the most civilians we could evac are only a hundred and twenty five thousand people at most. As to the issues of maintence, our shipyards are quite a distance away from here, and it doesn't appear that your ships could make the jump.

Meanwhile the dropship arrived, a lumpy, but long modular ship and headed toward the damaged fleets, while the corvettes began scanning for pockets of trapped civies.

OOC: Whoa! Is this the same Taka that started the Dozle war? If so, then welcome back!

((ooc: same one))

"Deactivate weapons. . ." the entire bridge stifled a chuckle as Damien continued. "send a coms, let them know that our weapons are offline, dirrect that dropship towards a ship with active distress, meanwhile, dispatch as many assault craft as possible, I want every deralict and dead ship to be searched for any survivors."

* * * * *

In the hangers below, pilots pulled themselves out of light naps. Many of them had not had a full nights sleep in week, and all of them were begining to show it. The fourth and fifth wings had bore the brunt of the assault, acting both as spearhead adn rearguard. As such, no wing would be launching that hadn't lost at least one pilot. The Agrol Assault boats were little more than flying drills, designed to penetrate ships to disgorge assault marines into the belly. Ugly, cramped, and ancient, the ships were like angels flying across the expance of space. The target, the TSA Griphon, a dreadnaught transporting mostly civilians, loomed larger than life on the view screens. Radio communications came through, chatter spilling into the deathly silent and mostly empty hold.

Aeolus, weapons have been brought offline. Request you dock with the Griphon to assist marines in search and rescue, damage sustained to this ship is minimal, but we have no contact to the interior, suspect possible boarders, be forwarned that they may be hostile. Sending targeting information, over. Kerona, request dock and evac of crew from the TSA Osprey to the Prince Taka, Crews of Osprey report fires and hull breaches on multiple levels, be advised that life support will last six hours on that ship, but no more.

The commands to the various ships of the Splintered Takian armada made thier rounds, each ship being sent to investigate ships with no responce or to evacuate the most damaged ships. Slugishly, the Agrol assault craft pulled out of the hanger, only a few medical crewmen and marines aboard, as it headed towards the Griphon to act in concert with the Hammerian rescue crews.

The four kilometer modular dropship angled toward, and docked with TSA Osprey. As the compartments filled with refugees, the section that had been filled split off and flew itself to the Prince Taka to divest itself of passengers and return to pick up more.

Onboard the Dropship/TSA Osprey, the fifty five permanent crew began aiding those who couldn't travel or bring themselves to the dropship themselves. The crew weren't worried about lifesupport failure for themselves as standard uniforms could serve as a vac-suit for a period.

OOC: How long is the vessel I'm docking with? The Aeolus is 1.6km, bow to aft.

IC:
The Aeolus angled slightly as manuevering thrusters brought her to a halt above the Griphon. Grandt ejaculated commands at his bridge crew. One of Aeolus' docking rings slowly descended from one of the dorsal hangar bays, latching onto the Griphon.

"Ops, dispatch entry teams Epsilon through India. Send in all medical personnel with powerarmor escorts. I want every marine and civilian on that vessel accounted for."

"Aye, sir. Dispatching."

"Nav, hold us steady. Continue to hail the Griphon and request handoff of their nav controls."

"Aye, sir. Hailing, sending handoff requests."

"Comms, confirm docking sequence with the Takians and scan the Griphon for any lifeforms."

"Aye, sir. Confirmation en route, sensors activating. Bioscanners online."

A repeating message was broadcast on a closed channel to the Griphon:
Attention any and all personnel aboard the Griphon. This is the HNS Aeolus of the Hammerian Space Navy, Fifth Earth Division. Confirm presence of life. If possible, handoff remote nav controls to the Aeolus. Prepare for scanning and boarding. Aeolus transmission concluded.

((OOC: The ship is about 15 km from end to end. Also, I'm not sure "ejaculate" was the proper verb to use here.))

The Griphon was dead silent, life form scans showed a number of possible contacts, as well as several strange ghost readings shifting through the decks. The computer responded sluggishly, turning over controls to the Aeolus after an override from the flagship was sent. As the entry teams poured into the hull, bright spots appeared across the hull around them, Agrol assault craft punching through and opening.

Hammerian marines, we have been sent to reinforce and assist you however possible

The simple message was repeated before exit ramps slid out and Takian personel stepped out. They looked around, the lights flickerng and eliciting a stream of flashlights clicking on. The entire ship was silent, the air held a metalic tinge like old pennies so thick the men could taste it. The lights flickered further down the hallway, dying and leaving an inky blackness at either end that seemed to defy the light trying to penetrate it. From that dirrection, a single, tourtured scream came, followed by silence.

((OOC: The ship is about 15 km from end to end. Also, I'm not sure "ejaculate" was the proper verb to use here.))
OOC: Despite what most people think it really means, it can also mean "speak" or "say".

((I'm aware, it just provoked an amusing mental image.))