NationStates Jolt Archive

Shipping lanes were dangerous places, if you're in the wrong area of the galaxy. Extremely dangerous in the roughest areas. Pirates still abounded, despite many cartels being destroyed by roaming fleets. One such fleet was Task Force Renegade. A faction of the Crimmond Imperial Navy that split off decades before, when Crimmond withdrew from galactic politics and focused on Earth.

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Plasma rippled past the frieghter's bridge as the two raiders arched around to come back for another pass. The simple lasers the frieghter carried were long since gone, the shields were about to join them. There were three other freighters under attack by a pirate destroyer, who was softening them up nicely for the raiders. Plasma, missiles, torpedos and even phasers and turbolasers were used. Pirates weren't picky about what they fought with.

Suddenly one of the raider's was consumed by explosions, engines ripped free from it's hull. Air was pouring from the dying ship, it's crew joining it only a minute later. The other raider and the destroyer cut off the attack on the frieghters to face the new threat. A Renegade Assault Ship (http://usera.imagecave.com/Alpha-Zero/RenegadeAssaultShip.bmp.jpg) coming around a stray asteroid. This is the RAS Vindicator. Stand down or die. Only chance.

The two ships came around and charged weapons, as another ship came around the asteroid. A Renegade Heavy Cruiser (http://usera.imagecave.com/Alpha-Zero/RenegadeHeavyCruiser.bmp.jpg). The assault ship was a match for both the raider and the destroyer. The heavy cruiser would chew them up and spit them out, being designed solely to pound smaller ships to dust.

The heavy cruiser fired volley after volley of meter long missiles at the pirates, their shields overloading from so many impacts so fast. Then the ships hulls were pulverised and breached. Both ships self destructed, denying the Renegades any bounty or the ships themselves.

Then the two ships fell into the line of frieghters, escorting them to the nearest base were they could effect repairs. The Renegades took no moorings, of course, only taking the freighters close enough for the whole station to get a good look at the Renegade ships. This is the RSS Castle. This sector is now under the protection of the Task Force. The pirate cartels operating in this area will be found and will be destroyed, by order of the Fleetlord. The message cut off and the two ships moved away from the station, to patrol. It had been a while since the Renegades had taken to protecting whole sectors publically. Cartles were becoming more assertive, though. That had to be answered in more visable ways.

Fleet Captain Yusuf Basr scanned his Corsair Fleet's survivors. "...they have attacked us twice in three galactic weeks!" The Captain shouted angrily into his flickery comm screen. "The Kafars and their transports keep escaping! We have lost the Hawk, Allah's Vengeance, and Jafar, and the Saladin and Mahdi will require extensive repair work."

Azim Amir-Al-Kawakazim, The Supreme Commander of the Corsairs of Wabu-Dhati, touched his face. "Allah preserve us, who are these people?" He signed off the comm, and turned to face the wall. "...Leave me."

His guards vanished without a sound. The Amir rose to his feet and walked through the wall to another communication's room. He sat in the chair.

The screen flashed for a moment, then another man was visible. "What is it, Amir?"

"...I wish to speak to your master, ArchChancellor." Amir hissed.

"Is this about your recent failures, Corsair? The Emperor has already been informed. And he has authorised me to take steps."

<Temp End>

The Amir bowed his head low. "Lord ArchChancellor, I accept that there have been errors recently." The Corsair started to sweat. "However, with more support I would be able..."

"No more chances, Amir-Al-Kawakazim." The ArchChancellor held up his hand and smiled. "I don't feel any are neccessary." The man gestured, and a tightly bound, beautiful young woman was brought to his side. "Do you remember her?"

The Azim clenched his fists in impotent rage. "Fala!" He shouted. "Release my daughter, ArchChancellor Cassander!"

The nobleman ignored this. "I believe a demonstration of our seriousness is in order. Therefore, I am going to have Lady Fala handed over to the Imperial Punitive Battalion, for the assorted monsters there to do what they will with her."

Fala shrieked through her gag and tried to break free. Cassander's tight grip on her shoulder grew stronger yet, and his expression filled with darkness. "Look, damn you! THIS is the price of..."

"Now, now, Cassander." Another voice broke in. "I hardly feel that's neccessary..." A broad shadow detached from the darkness behind Cassander to stand behind Fala and her captor. "Azim Amir-Al-Kawakazim. You have failed repeatedly in my service and broken our contract. Do you deny this?"

"My Lord Emperor..." The Corsair murmured, bowing his head low in shame.

"However, I am merciful..." There was a harsh intake of breath, and then Fala crumpled to the ground. The Emperor returned his dagger to his belt.

The Corsair Admiral looked up in shock and anger, shaking in his fury. "What have you done to my daughter?" He hissed.

"...Fala? She is of no concern any more." The Emperor leaned forward and brusquely shoved Cassander out of his way. "Listen to me. You will find these renegades, and you will request that their 'Fleetlord' come to me. Failure to comply will mean steps...will have to be taken." The Emperor turned around and walked off.

The Admiral covered his face with his hands and started to sob. His mourning was broken only by Cassander picking himself up. "...I will transmit instructions to you forthwith, Azim." The ArchChancellor murmured, seeming a little shell-shocked. "...this isn't what I wanted. None of this."

"I know..."



The Corsairs searched for weeks before they found a Renegade PatrolShip. Rather than engage in contact, they simply fired off a message-drone and retreated.

Most Honourable Adversaries...

We have been asked to invite your leader to a meeting with the most high Emperor of Roania, Alexander Black. Co-ordinates are as follows. It is our sincere advice that your leader attend this meeting

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/Roania/Lakutika/saladin.jpg
Azim Amir-Al Kawakazimp

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/Roania/AB.jpg
????

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/Roania/Cassander.jpg
????

The RSS Castle listens to te transmissions, then fires on the probe, destroying it. Standard proceedure. Who knows what kind of equipment was on those probes?

The message was relayed through five other patrols, to keep the location of The Guardian's Errant a secret. When it arrived of the Fleetlord's desk, he laughed. Im Kmmta was there and blinked. "What is funny, Fleetlord?" The non-human Commodore asked, befuddled by such human reactions.

"Roania wants me to come and meet their emperor personally. Alexander Black." He laughs again and punches up a file, listing several communications between Davion Varchak and Alexander Black. "These communications date back before the Task Force split from Crimmond. Apparently Roania and Baggera didn't like one another. And, apparently, Varchak took power in Crimmond a while back and they don't like Crimmond now." He looked serious and stared at Im. "You can guess why I don't find this a good idea?"

The alien nodded. "I understand perfectly. Therfore you should send someone of... lesser importance."

"Exactly. Which is is why I'm sending you, instead. Also, the Archangel is to stay docked here. I'm not risking my best commander and my best ship in a possible trap. Take an Elasi Cruiser." Im nodded and left without a word.

http://usera.imagecave.com/Alpha-Zero/renegadefleetlord.bmp.jpg
The Fleetlord

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The RSS Eris lept away from the solar system of Discord, which revolved around a white dwarf nicknamed Eris. An arbitrary bitch, but she kept the Renegades alive.

It took a round about course to Roania and travelled in silence, not answering any hails of any kind, heading directly for the coordinates sent. It only answered when threatened and with a simple We are travelling here at the request of Alexander Black. Stop us and we will deliver your heads to him, personally. which seemed to convince a patrol ship that the old Elasi cruiser (http://usera.imagecave.com/Alpha-Zero/Renegadecruiser.bmp.jpg) wasn't worth it.

Finally arriving at the said coordinates it shut it's engines down and a channel opened, showing Commodore Im Kmmta. "I am Fleetlord of Task Force Renegade. State your bussiness with me within ten terran minutes, or I return to more pressing duties." And the channel cut out. An interesting ruse. No way the Roanians could prove he wasn't the Fleetlord. No one outside teh Renegades knew what he looked like, or what species he was. And none had seen Im, before. The Archangel, his normal command, never engaged the visual transmitter when dealing with outsiders.

http://usera.imagecave.com/Alpha-Zero/renegadecommodore.jpg
The Faux Fleetlord

Roania was a large planet in the Crux Arm of the galaxy, orbiting a G-class variable star at an orbit slightly beyond that of Earth in relation to the sun. It was a lush, temperate world, with little pollution or global warming because most heavy industry had been relocated to the moon an aeon ago.

None of this was really visible, as both orbs were covered by a shimmering blue planetary shield. In geo-syncronous orbit above the north pole a massive defense station sat, scanning the entire system for enemies.

The transmission was answered. "Greetings Fleetlord. Welcome to the Divine Imperium. Please continue on your current heading. Deviation will lead to an unfortunate accident. Transmitting this hour's password to your navigation computer."

The Renegade vessel was allowed to pass through the planetary shield. As it did, a squadron of atmospheric fighters took off from a concealed airbase to provide an escort. The Squad Captain sent a transmission. "Continue at your present heading and altitude. The Imperial City Starport is 20 miles away."

The Elasi cruiser came to a stop barely a mile from the shield and seemed to hesitate about what to do. The cruiser's frame would rip apart in atmospheric forces and it would be crushed under it's own weight, if it landed.

A single Razor Fighter (http://usera.imagecave.com/Alpha-Zero/renegadefighter.bmp.jpg) launched from the fighter bay and swung around. The cockpit camera showed the 'Fleetlord' wearing a headset and HUD eyepiece as he piloted the single seat attack craft. "The Eris is unable to enter an atmosphere. This fighter is. You will note it is armed only with it's onboard gun." He says, cutting teh transmission as he passes through the shield and is flanked by fighters of different configurations. Matching their speed, he follows them, skirting a cloud that he didn't feel like flying through.

The sensor suite of the fighter was impressive. It allowed him a virtual view of 360 degrees, in the space of about 120 degrees, the edges being compressed, allowing things directly in front to be viewed normally. He could also look at something in the compressed area for a second and it would automatically uncompress, without him having to come to bear on it. There was no physical viewport in the craft. Windows were more risk than reward in space.

The flight continued for fifteen minutes. Every time the Renegade made even the slightest deviation, as in flying around the cloud, the Roanian pilots squeezed the triggers gently. Soon Imperial City appeared behind a hill, growing organically from the ground in spires and domes, culminating in the tremendous crystalline terraces of the Crystal Palace.

"Attention, Renegade." There was further radio communication. "Land at the glowing landing pad."

As soon as the fighter had landed, a massive dome rose from the ground and covered it over. Lights flashed on and soon workers and mechanics came in to see if they would be needed. Two Imperial Guardsmen stood waiting. "FleetLord, we have prepared ground transportation to the Palace. Please, walk this way."

The fighter landed, insect like landing gear alowling it to actually walk about ten feet, until all the inertia had died away, before settling down.

A pannel opened and Im stepped out, dropping to the deck. Immediatly a static was seen over the hull as a security shield went up on it's hull. Enough to keep out any curious mechanics, but not to stop weapons fire.

Im nodded at the guards and paused to eye the mechanics. "I wouldn't advise touching the fighter. The security shield tends to cause third degree electrical burns in human flesh." As they walked away from teh fighter, it was obvious from more than skin color that he was alien. Differences in bone structure and height were apparent as well. He was a foot taller than most humans and more slight, almost birdlike in his movements. "I have heard your nation has a bad reputation with non-humans and non-elves. I trust if I don't observe any obscure custom of respect, I won't be shot?"

The Roanians (themselves averaging a foot earlier than earthlings) all shrugged and gestured to one another to back away from the ship and the alien. The guards pointed to the limousine one more time. "Sir, off-worlders consistently allow themselves to be injured by overjudging our lower gravity. Therefore, a VIP such as yourself cannot be allowed to wander freely."

"As to your fate, His Most Supreme Lordship Lord-Emperor Alexander Tyrol Black will decide that, not us. Provided you obey all instructions and do not attempt to injure anybody, your safety is guaranteed."

Im pauses and leaps into the air, higher than a human could leap, flipping backwards and landing on his feet. "I rather like lower gravity. Comes with spending your life in space. Besides one Sol gravity unit is rather tiresome to move around in, don't you agree?" He then got into the limo. Obviously wasn't built like humans, to perform such a trick. Birdlike more so.

Im was going to enjoy pestering his keepers. Oh, not a lot, but enough that they'll have a slight headache at the end of the day. "Understandable. And it is good you do not try and speak on my fate, when you know not what all the facts may be."