NationStates Jolt Archive

"CL-261, this is Axis Gate Control. The requested coordinates have been entered and a signal has been broadcast. You and your group are free to enter the gate."

"Thank you, Gate Control."

The bridge of the light cruiser Starn, flagship of the 05th Autonomous Research Fleet, was buzzing with activity. This mission would be very important to the future of Bryn Shander's foreign relations. On this mission, they would be attempting to regain contact with the nation's only ally: New Haven.

"Radio, send a message to the group that the gate is ready. We move on my signal."

"Aye."

"Helm, flash the high beams twice and take us in."

The Musai Daioh class cruiser lurched forward as the helmsman hit the gas. On two ear-like extensions of the bridge tower, bright white LEDs signaled the group's advancement. Acting almost as one ship, the cruiser, two destroyers, three science vessels, and four frigates of the 05th Autonomous Research Fleet moved into the blue ripple in space that formed between the seventy two gate ships of Axis' outbound gate. In an instant, the space outside of the ships seemed to stretch into infinity as they entered hyperspace. Stars became white streaks as the space between the stars was bridged, becoming the tiny points of light they usually were only a minute later as the ships fell out of hyperspace at it's target point in a high orbit above the gas giant New Jupiter in the New Haven system. Appearing on the side of the planet opposite the system's star, the group should have a bit of grace time before anything deeper into the system could pick them up.

On the bridge of the Starn, the captain assessed the situation.

"Radio, send a request for role call."

"Aye. This is CL-261 Starn reporting in. Role call."

"DD-602 Kansai reporting in."

"DD-603 Akihabara, reporting in."

"FF-1524 Helix here. Everything is go."

"FF-1525 Bucky reporting."

"FF-1526 Crusher reporting in."

"FF-1527 Bones here."

"SV-013 O'Neill, everything is green."

"SV-014 Newton, we're intact."

"SV-015 Archimedes, all systems functioning."

"Captain, everyone is here and unharmed. Orders?"

"Have everyone begin full range passive scans. Lets try not to let anyone know that we're here just yet."

"Aye."

The system was obviously under Concordat control, with 200 or more battlestations in orbit of the old Imperial Homeworld. The Bryn Shanderese Fleet began to detect sporadic FTL communications eminating from the planet and from outside the system, originating from the various old Imperial systems. Several hinted at a sovereign Imperial entity known as the Independent Stewart Kingdom, and hints that it would become the resurrected Imperium.

"Captain, all traffic seems to be Concordat. It seems that they have complete control of the system."

"Shit. If the backstabbing space-Jews are in charge here, I doubt we'll find anything useful."

"Orders, Sir?"

"Set course for the L4 point of the planet Juno in the Asherton system and ready the hyperdrive. Comms, radio the fleet and flash the ears on my mark."

"Course is set and the drive is charged."

"Message sent."

"Mark."

As before, the fleet entered hyperspace. This time, however, they did not have the support of the gate system, and the process was far less refined. The journey would also take far longer than the previous trip. The only sign that the ships had even been in the system were some faint residual EM signatures and a small, black, Sputnik-like probe that orbited New Jupiter while blinking a small red light and collecting data to send back to Axis.

Nearly two days later, the ten ships fell out of hyperspace among a small collection of asteroids that had collected in the planet's Lagrange point. Among the debris and so far from any resources or habitation areas, it would be unlikely that they would be detected.

"Comms, begin full spectrum communication scans and have the O'Neill and Newton take a look around."

The Tiburonese controlled the asteroid belt on the inside of the gas giant's orbit, mining away at the resources of the belt. Deeper in the system came FTL and EM communications from the colonies of Asherton and Stanley, most of them mentioning the ISK and its efforts at reconstruction. It was an oasis of New Havenic culture and technology in the system, one that immediately gathered the attention of the Bryn Shanderese.

"Captain, I'm picking up radio traffic from Tiburonese miners in the belt, and assorted broadcasts from Asherton and Stanley. It seems that New Haven is mostly intact in this system."

"If the Pussies are the only Traitors in the system, we shouldn't have any problem here. Helm, take us in. Comms, inform the fleet that we're going to run the belt and head to Asherton. Make sure that weapons are armed and shields are up."

"Aye."

"Get our own shields and weapons online, and keep an eye out for any foreign craft or probes. Let's go"


The ten ships began to accelerate, making their way towards the belt and inner planets relatively slowly compared to most foreign starships under sublight power. As they sailed, passive monitoring of sensors and communications continued.

Two weeks had passed since the 05th Autonomous entered the system. From the trojan asteroids that they hit among in Juno's L4 point, the fleet made their way into the thick belt. Days went by with nothing in the vicinity of the ships but orbiting rocks as they headed towards the planet Vulcan and it's moon, Asherton. Eventually, the last asteroids were behind the ships, and relatively open space was all that stood between the fleet and it's destination.

Fortunately for the 05th, the planet was in close to Juno's position on it's orbital path. It would likely only be a day or two more.


"Captain, we're coming up on Vulcan. Asherton is dead ahead. They should be detecting us shortly."

"I see. Take shields to full and broadcast an IFF signal. Make sure our weapons are armed and strike craft are ready just in case."

"On it."

"I want sensors monitoring everything they can. Keep an eye on all com frequencies."

"Aye, Sir."

"Shields and weapons are armed. Broadcasting the IFF"

"All ships are running passive scans."

"Fighter squadrons four and five are ready. MS team seven is preparing to launch."

"Helm, take us to Asherton."

(Imperial Fleet Command)

"Warships emerging from the asteroid belt, they came out of nowhere!" A junior sensors officer yelled out in Fleet Command.

"Set Condition Black, ready all weapons platfo..."

"Commander, incoming IFF code," the senior communications officer called out. "Its a Hermes code! Bryn Shanderese vessels!"

"Go to Condition Red, lets see whats going on," the Commander ordered. "Radio them and ask them what their intentions are."

====================
(Message to Bryn Shanderese Vessels)

Attention Bryn Shanderese vessels. You have entered the outer defense perimeter, please state your intentions.

"...Did I just hear that message correctly?"

"I believe so, Sir."

"They're asking us to state our intentions?"

"Yes."

"You've got to be shitting me..."



"Fuck you. We're supposed to be allies, I don't need to state my intentions to you."

"Sir, they just told us to fuck off and that we're allies," the communications officer responded.

"Thats a Bryn Shanderese vessel alright," the Commander replied. "Open direct audio FTL communications." The Commander picked up his microphone and hailed the warships.

"Hail comrades, its been a while. We've had to be careful since we got jumped by pirates. We took a lot of casualties and they made off with some of our assets. Please respond..."

"Captain, we're getting audio comms. I'll route the signal to your station."

---

"This is Captain John Thompson of the KNS Starn, who am I speaking to? My government has sent me to see what's up. If need be, we can help out with the cleanup."

:confused:

The darkness of the stars opened as the jump point was openned by the Explorer Class Ship, U.S.S. Ranger...... The ship entered the new system and began complete and long sensor sweeps.

The Ship began broadcasting its message into the new area of space.....


"Hello and Greetings we are and Long Range Explorer Craft from the ReUnited Realms." stated Commander Lang. "We mean no harm we are exploring and wish only to establish relations and possible trade." the transmission was sent out on all bands.


"We will await all enqueries upon from the sentients that we tracked here?"

" We are lauching our fighter screen for prtection, Commander Lang over,"

The Explore Ship began sensors sweeps and rebroadcast of the message.

The Ship also launched its six fighter wings (36 Thunderbolts) flying a protective fighter screen.

The Commander ordered his fightercraft in a protective arc around his ship with strict orders to not arm weapon systems and to display peaceful intentions.

Commander Lang ordered his weapon officers to bring all weapons on-line and ready, by to stand by as ordered, no hostile intentions.....

The explorer ship ended its sensor sweeps. The Ship sent a long deep range transmission into hyper and sub space towards a familiar beacon. They had sent all the information that they had gathered to some distant point in space.

The transmission sent out a emp pulse that was noticed by anyone that might be using most known communications.

"This is the U.S.S Explorer Ship Ranger, we are now leaving thank you and hope that we will be able to speak when you wish to, we will leave a beacon behind."

The commander ordered the ships beacon to be left behind, the ship opened a jump point, and the ship and its fightercraft proceeded through.

"Commander to all ships, lets get moving to the next assignment. Our job here is done for know. All ships begin jump........."

"Unknown vessels preparing to jump," a senior sensors officer called out.

"Initialize FTLi, keep them from jumping," the Commander ordered. Underneath the surface of the habitable moon named Stanley, giant fusion generators switched into high-gear as great FTLi field generators kicked into full power. The whole system, out to the Kuiper Belt, was now a zone where FTL drives would not work.

"FTLi field has been activated, sensor bouys with particle entanglement communications reporting that FTLi fields have reached out to the position."

"Excellent, keep me informed."

"Captian, we've got company!"

"They're flooding our comm systems with traffic."

"Sensors indicate that they're powering weapons."

"Strike craft have been launched."

"Shit! EMP! We've temporarily lost contact. Give me a few minutes to adjust and reacquire."

"Sir, I'm picking up a heavy FTLi field coming from Stanley. Looks like New Haven doesn't want them to escape this time."

"Sounds like the pirates Asherton reported. Sound general quarters, launch attack squadrons two and four, fighter squadrons one through fourteen, and MS teams six through twelve, and open fire on the enemy ship."


One by one, the strike craft poured out of the ship's hangar bays until the eight attack craft, fifty six fighters, and twenty four mobile suits were in formation and screaming towards the Ranger and her fighters. At the same time, Starn opened fire with her ten megaparticle cannons, followed shortly after by Kansai, Akihabara, Helix, Bucky, Crusher, and Bones.

Commander! yelled the NavSensor officier, "we have interference, and we have strange craft approaching!!"

"They are weapons hot sir!"

Commander Lang ordered! "Shields to full, prepare stealth mode and bring cloak up!," He than yelled: "Forget the hyper point, prepare secondary sources for hyper entry.!! the bridge and engineer officers began for emergency rift jump.

"Sir that will deplete our fuel reserves by 40%!" related an engineer,

"I know but it will get us out of here, dam shoot happy natives!' replied Lang

"Weapons prepare to blow the beacon!!" he shouted!

Weapons officer Kurgi replied, "But sir that will leave an equal antimatter blast that will scramble the area with high Radation and Plasma our peaceful intents will be lost!'

"Kurgi they have weapons lock on us and have fired, we need the blast to take out the weapons fire!!!"

"Do it know!!!"

The ships began to open a rift in space, due to the inrterferreance with the jump point from the primitive hostile natives.

The beacon began to glow and powered up and began the readiness to begin the burn.

"Ranger to hostile craft, we mean no harm, We are pulling back and leaving. We are going to blow our becon to ensure our saftey, if you don't stop your attack!, We will be forced to destroy the area. You will be entering a hell fire of you don't stop."

He bellowed orders, " Fighters into the rift know, fire in self defence only, and prepare for backlash........, Weapons Staitions prepare...."

The ship turned and began its emergency jump and pulled into the rift that opened with its fighter craft in lead.

"God help us all! Lang yelled. Kurgi began the count of the lost of its fightercraft on the computer screen. "We estimate that 20% of our fighters
might not make it back!

Lang ordered the retreat, still. " Where is the dam comm, officer!"

The comm officer, took her station as she raced from the nova deep range transmitter. "Have you repaired the comm short?" She shook her head no. ", listen Stern get me a Telepath up here fast!"

Stern looked in dismay, she never trusted those Teps. Lang looked at her, "listen Teps are valued tool, a weapon, a resource, and last chance."

None of the Bryn Shanderese strike craft responded or turned back as the Ranger and her fighters tried to escape. Instead, they attacked, launching torpedoes and firing beam weapons. Like the strike craft, the ships of the 05th Autonomous also continued their assault on the escaping pirates.

The Ranger's crew reacted with speed and training of a elite crew that was the envy of Confed forces. The klaxtons blurred in the back ground and the crew readied themselves at action stations.

The ships beacon began to glow and the plasma and rads built up, and the jamming and the some of the beams were becoming distorted and weakened.

Stern got on the internal comms and called "Jstar to bridge code red!"


The Dilgar got to the bridge, "Yes Commander, what is your wish."

Lang replied; "We need your speciality!'

Jstar reached out its intelligence to the void of space. "Oh enemies, trouble, death, loste I sense...."

"Wish would be to sense, strike, see beyond, protect?" Jstar questioned

Lang looked at the feline like Dilgar, "We do not strike or attack unless we must." Lang looked badly at the Dilgar. "I need you to lock on to our fighters and keep them on our heading through into rift." he then ordered the way toward the beyond,,,,, "Can you handle that?

Jstar gestured, "yes task easy you ask me to do." Jstar turned its head, "you wish me to strike at the enemy that comes at us, this is easy to do?

Lang looked at the Dilgar, "No, just keep my pilots safe, can you cloud the minds of those that are trying to engage us?"

"Why do you ask, easy tasdk that is too?" Jstar questioned. "They appear like yours aggressive,fearful, and many, many modes of thoughts."

Lange looked at the sensors, "Great more aggressive, opposable thumbed, little minded humans...."

Jstar looked "yes like your kindness, before times".... "only five kinds of life in the whole universe, predators, prey, declined, acented, sentient."

Lang replied, "so you say."

Jstar followed, "Yes Dilgar once predators, Allaince teach us declined, but Confed teach us acent, strange is your kind....." the great cat closed its eyes and reached into the depth of space.

The intelligence of the Dilgar Telepath reached out to the fighter pilots and locked them into its thoughts and the feline sat upon the the comm officers side. Stern was uncomfortable with the felines mindset and the link was then complete with the fighter craft.

The area of space winked, the Dilgar began to blank out the minds of the approaching craft in hopes of diluting the pilots from firing on RANGER and her craft. Only time would tell if this worked.

Kurgi responded: "" We have torps in bound and we are taking damage!" The weapons officer was scared as he watched the shields degrade in leaps and bounds and the armored hull shake.

The beacon signal came through, Lang looked and Kurgi,

"Full ECW(eletronic counter measures) deployed, and Lite'm up weapons!"

"Brace for impact and get that Cloak up.!" barked Lange to engineering.

The weapons office deployed full measures to drive off the in-bound weapons to limited effect.

The beacon recieved its orders and went sub-nuclear and exploded with the power of a small fusion star in the few seconds. The blast wiped away men machines, and matter in the area effect...

The RANGER was hit by torps, and other weapons fire. The massive ship shaked and baked from the enemies weapons.

The shields took massive damage and then were wiped out from the beacons' fission antimatter blast. The aromored hull was braced for such blasts, but parts of it buckled and broke.

Most of the Rangers fighter craft made it to the rift, but the Ranger was busily sheilding them from the worst of it. The death count on the Ranger began to rise, the vailaint crew fought to save itself and its sacred mission.

The ships cloak finally engaged, and the USS Ranger disappeared into the blackness of space and the badly hurt ship lumbered into the rift.

Stern yelled, "Sir we have reports of the lost four fighter craft, damage to helm, engines, and lower decks 12 14 have buckled."

Kurgi shouted from his station. "Beacon has gone nova, our shields are down, we have cloak in place."

The great ship darkened and the ship phazed from space and seemed to disappear into nothing, The enemy sensors had trouble locking on, then some of the pilots and weapon people had trouble seeing the information on thier tatical displays.

Lange looked at the helm, and the Dilgar, "fighters through? yet? Get us out of here,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"

Helm responded; "Aye sir all craft through, we are almost at rift point in ten sir!"

The Dilgar responded, "tes most fighters through three not, one lost in rift, trying to lock.... yes the enemy attacks, cloak working, minds begin to cloud,"

Helm responded ," Nine, Eight, seven, six," explosions sounded through the bridge, "five, four , three. two, we have lock!"

Lange yelled, "Jump, give me comm to mainbase as soon as we are cleared!!!

The shadow of a great dameged ship loomed toward the open rift and space winked and the USS Ranger dissappeared into the void...........

The strike craft turned back and scattered as soon as the first torpedoes hit their target. As the anti-matter bomb detonated, each suit and fighter was bathed in scorching light. Fortunately, the distance and vacuum insulated the craft from most damage. Regardless, most of the deployed craft would have to be repainted and spend a week under repairs.

"Captain, they've escaped, but we seem to have inflicted heavy damage. I don't think they'll be returning any time soon."

"Very good. Recall the strike craft and get the remaining ones on stand by. When they get home, their friends may want to try their luck."

"And Asherton, Sir?"

"Let them know that we've driven off the invaders and that they can drop the FTLi. As soon as the FTLi is down, send a request to Axis for some heavier firepower."

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Condition Red>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


Lt. Kagi looked at his display, dam he had lost contact with Jstar and with the Beacon.

His fighter was in good condition and non damaged.

He had failed to make the rift, he went into stealth mode, he would wait and see...

He saw the alien craft flying about, his screens were holding, and his shields were deployed. He would wait and see....

"Good going Kagi another trip into another troubled system with primitves and and unelightened."

His fighter drifted in the area of space, he had time, and the nerves needed to be calm. His ship had more than 78 hours of life support.

He had time, and the knowledge to survive, and he knew Confed did not give up on thier people, and Commander Lange would never give up if any hope existed.

He was susccessful on getting a homing lock on the enemies movments and tatics. He had sensed the Dilgar, and he kwew the Dilgar had sensed where he was, He just needed to wait it out.......

"Commander, the unknowns have escaped but were badly damaged," the sensors operator reported.

"Disengage FTLi and radio the Bryn Shanderese, notify them to remain on full combat alert. Radio the fleet and tell them to get their asses back from patrol," The Commander ordered. "Once the fleet arrives, have them begin scanning the area for gravitic signatures, we can't be too careful."

"Roger that."

As soon as the FTLi was powered down, a message was sent to Axis Fleet Command requesting aid. In response, the cruisers CA-089 Hanna and CA-090 Anne jumped into the system with their fleets, aided greatly by Axis' hyperspace gate.

Back on Starn, the arrival of Hanna and Anne was met with great relief. The 05th Autonomous was formed to protect the three Chronos class science vessels attached to the fleet, not defend a star system from an invading enemy. With the 17th and 18th Usagi Battlefleets in system, the 05th Autonomous could get back to it's mission.

On the bridge of Hanna, on the other hand, the arrival in the system was a puzzle. It was rather ballsy for pirates to attack a planet alone, and few would have the technology to bypass a FTLi and escape, let alone produce a fusion bomb of the magnitude reported by Starn. Because of this, Hanna's captain, Andrew Kestrel immediately ordered his fleet to high alert, and on Anne, Capitan Kimiko Reed did the same. As part of high alert, Hanna and Anna probed the local area, especially near where the rift was formed, with every sensor they had, from radar and infrared to gravitic and magnetic arrays.


"Captain Kestrel, our gravitic sensors are picking something up near where Starn reported the rift. It appears to be a small craft of some sort."

"Oh? Ready MS team four and fighter squadron six. Comms, send a message to Stanley and ask them to bring the FTLi back up. We don't need them escaping again."

"Message sent."

"Begin broadcasting Minovsky particles to combat density and launch the fighters and MS when they're ready and have them go take a look."

"Anything else?"

"Keep an eye out for anything strange. I don't think these people are mere pirates. They probably have someone high up financing them. Maybe the Concordat."


As the MS and fighters departed Hanna, Starn and her fleet were continuing on to Asherton.

"Asherton, this is CL-261 Starn again. Now that Hanna and Anne are here, we'd like to resume our mission. Can I get docking clearance for the 05th Autonomous?"

Lt Kagi waited, his sensors detected the new craft that arrived in the area.

He rigged his ship for silent running, let them try to use thier sensors, the Confed cloak, technology was the best. The radiation and rift distortions would cloak any gravity sensors as well, he needed to wait it out....

The T-bolt drifted in the darkness of space, he wondered, "What the hell was Confed thinking, when we tracked those comm signals from here?"

"OK Kagi, lets think this out," he switched his controls to passive, and then checked supplies and life support. "Let see the military protocal states that silent runnning no comm, but what about, telepathy, no, not strong enough myself...."

He pondered, if he could drift near the center of the rift, he might be able to reach out to the Dilgar Telepathy and hopefully get hope.

What Lt. Kagi had not counted on, however, is that the Bryn Shanderese craft were using a technique developed long ago on Earth during the Cold War. Back then, submarines on both sides had become so silent that they could not be picked up with passive sonar during silent running. In order to detect their opponents, the sonar operators adapted and began to search for the quietest areas in the sea, as the submarines were quieter than the surrounding ocean.

Thus, instead of searching for some signal indicating the craft, they searched for the absense of one. In an area of such turbulent, torn space and radiation, the cloaked fighter would stick out like an oil spill on a snowy plain if it's cloak was even half as good as the unfortunate lieutenant thought they were.

As such, it wasn't surprising when the commander of MS Team Four recieved a message from Hanna via laser informing him of the craft's location. Signalling to the other three suits of his team, the commander deployed his suit's funnels, special telepathicly controlled remote weapons. One by one, the other three suits did the same, their pilots using the targeting data from Hanna and their own innate abilities to surround the fighter with their funnels. Aiding them, the four fighters of Fighter Squadron Six circled the area like sharks around a life raft.

As though warning the craft to de-cloak and surrender, Team Four's leader fired on the craft with a single funnel set to a low yield.

Lt Kagi laughed to himself.

He had deployed the Changling Drones earlier, and they were doing the job well. The drones were designed to give the impression of different ships, even steath and cloaked ones.

The drones were doing thier job well, these people were searching for such possible surviors. He saw four of these craft approaching one of the drones.

He chuckled to himself, these search craft were even trying to use the old stlye sounding ranging against submarines of old.The back ground static of the small nova blast also sent static over the whole area and would last several days thier attempts seemed archaic. He wondered why they would try to use sound style in the cold vaccum of space, they wanted him bad...



Kagi watched as four craft approached his drone, he wanted to launch the self destruct of the drone, the blast surely would destroy their craft, but that was not Confeds primary mission.

Kagi watched the sharks cicrle the drone. These guys wanted the advance tech that Confed had, but that was against poilcy.

He decided the smart thing to do was set the done for large electronic pulse that would scramble thier equipment and leave those ships dead in space without means to attack, or defend themselves for short time but with the life support in tact.

He could leave the drone to keep emitting until he got a safe distance and then the unit would power down after he got out range, but in this system there was no safe place.

He also could then attack with hopes of taking these people with surprise, his sense did detect that they had telepathy talent, weak, but still they did.

He could must possible try to negotitate a mutual release, but the Ranger had tried that with message of greattings and possible establishment of relations, but the fired first and tried to shut down the jump point.

They must be hostile, and possible dangerous and contact must be minium.

Lt Kagi checked that the four drones where deployed.

He checked his weapon load.

Pulser Guns fully charged,

Nuetron Plasma Gun loaded

Gravitic Cannons loaded,

Photon Torpedoes,

HARM Missles,

and the two beacons like the Ranger had deployed.

These suits or craft were not unknown to Imperial Scout Service, they were sitting ducks.

Kagi readied himself, he would try to talk first, then if he had to disarm them and then try to negotitate, this might allow him set out a long range transmission, a S.O.S. and maybe his people might be in hyper waiting searching and waiting for him to signal.

He knew that the Dilgar had a lock on him, and could follow him,

This is what he hoped and waited for...........

The hunt was not going well. Several decoy drones had been discovered and destroyed, but so far no results were produced. On Hanna and Anne, the captains of the two ships had another plan in mind. When the planning was finished, three flares were launched from Hanna. One red, the other two yellow. This signalled to the deployed craft that it was time to return, and after recovering ther funnels, they did.

Once the fighters and MS were recovered, the two battlefleets began to flood space with micro missiles, all aimed at the rift and surrounding area. Without onboard computers, the missiles would just travel in a straight line, swarming the local area. Upon contact with anything, they would explode, damaging whatever they hit and marking its location.

Kagi saw them deploy weapons and saw that they were going to unload the first salvo upon the drone. They circled with a leathal weapons fire on the drone.

He was ready, He was lucky he was in the Highguard position against the enemy. He would allow them to fire and and then he would pull the bear trap.

(Colonial Defense Wing)

"Alright, someone is playing games out here, lets find out who," Aerospace General John Wright said as the Colonial Defense Wing took off from ground bases and sped off into space. "Keep gravitic sensors on high, look for pockets of environmentally low gravitic signatures. Launch torpedoes at anything suspicious on sensors that hasn't been identified as a friendly."

The fighter-bombers unleashed their payloads, screaming off to any sensor oddity, especially near the rift. Each warhead carried the antimatter/matter equivalent of matter and antimatter, which would be enhanced by the remaining fuel depending on how much was left on detonation.

"Time to detonation 3... 2... 1..."

Kagi saw the new fighter wing come up on the tatical display, he allowed the one sensor drone further away towards them to come online.

Then space came alive as an craft appeared out of nothingness, its signature showed up on every sensor that was deployed on the search.

The enemy saw the craft appear and open up fire on it, its shields switched on taking some of the fire. The four ships saw the other craft come up, they realized they were in trouble, for then the craft they fired upon also appeared, raising its shields and then its nova reactor began to emit upon the area.

The new fighter wing launched its weapons upon the first drone, and then it began to raise its reator output. The sensor and comm screens of the enemy screens were jammed, the drones were doing what they were built for.

Kagi took postion as he locked his weapons upon the four mobile suits.

He turned on his ecw and was able to send to the comm through the drones, that were able to send a message to the moblie suits and fighter wings.

The mobile suits began to depower from the interference of the drones, and the fighter wing also began suffer tatical lost of operations.

Over the comm static of the drone came. "Hello and Greettings, This is Lt Kagi of Confederation Forces Imperial Scout Service."....


"

"We come in peace, we mean no harm." Kagi breathed heavy, he was worried, this guys might be primitive, but hopefully they could be reasoned with.

"You will notice that your sensors, and comm are being over powered." He hoped a show of force is what they understood, they had tried peacefully, but that failed. "I will presume that you will notice that your helm and navigation seem to be less than capable of handling the trouble that is being caused."

"You have been the aggressor, and you have attacked us, we are sorry that you are not ready yet for contact." Kagi looked at his sensors and saw that the fightercraft and mobile suits were have great difficulity in operating.

"We have not taken any aggressive actions against you, yet but we are cable of protecting ourselves if need be."

Kagi lets his words sink in, he hoped that the translator was working fine, it should, for these were humanoids in all com scans that were studied back at Starbase. The computer was programmed with thier speach.

Kagi then turned off the cloaks on the remaining two drones. The enemy noticed four very powerfully craft appear out of the nothingness that was space.

The craft appeared, but they began to show high energy weapon signatures on the bases on the capital ships.

Lt. Kagi fllipped his deep range transmitter on, "<<<<<<<<Automatic Distress Signal Activation>>>>>>>>>

I.S.S. Request Priority Rescue, Natives Hostile Intent, Request Rescue.

the signal repeated and repeated.

Kagi was glad to get the distress signal out, and he knew help was on its way hopefully.

"Lt. Kagi to hostile craft." he waited a second. "I have weapons lock upon your four mobile suits, We could easily destroy them with our weapons."

"I request that you pull off and don't attempt to further any more contact that is needed."

Kagi was playing poker, and he had a dead man's hand. He would destroy himself and the tech that he was sure not from falling into primitve hands.

He knew that they mostly did not want to die themselves....

"We have come in peace, and wish to leave as peacefully."

Kagi tried to talk peacefully as he could, but to back it up with a much force as could be mustered.

"We are Imperial Scout Service of the Confederation Forces of the ReUnited Realms!" he shouted.

"We traced communications comning from this system and came he to open up peaceful realtions."

He looked at the power levels on the drones.

"We were attacked and shown aggression, we are Explorers, not conquerors!"

"You have shown yourselves to be too warlike, we wish to only return home and will not bother with you or your on again, perhaps maybe when you have matured."

He hoped to appease thier human side in getting home.

"We ask only to be allowed to return home when our rescue comes."

He allowed the one drone to lock its energy weapons on the leader was a show of force. It fired its blast. The ship rocked and its propulsion died and the command ship drifted, but he was still alive, all his helm were fried, but life support was still operational. Weapons were also fried.

"Kagi to hostiles, we are not pirates, concord, do you understand?"

The dam primitves, "Do we have a understanding, over?"

In deep space a mighty battle fleet of thirty warships on patrol was responding to distress call from the USS RANGER.

The was a complete alert as they notices a distress signal from a Confed Thunderbolt went off at a com station...........

Kagi once again anounced: "What are your intetions?"

”Asherton? Are you there? This is CL-261, KNS Starn, requesting clearance to land for the 05th Autonomous Research Fleet. I repeat, this is CL-261, KNS Starn, requesting clearance to land for the 05th Autonomous Research Fleet. Do you copy?”

While Starn awaited clearance to land, the 17th and 18th Usagi Battlefleets upped the ante. One by one, each combat ship in the two fleets fired a salvo of torpedoes in the area that the fighter was last detected. When they reached the area, each of the hundreds of 200MT and 300MT torpedoes detonated, filling the area within and around the rift with death and destruction. For anyone trapped in the area, escape was impossible.

"Permission granted, we are transmitting coordinants of a deep enough lake for your ships to land in close to the capital," Fleet Command radioed. "Its rather large for a lake, but it will suffice. Asherton out."

”Sounds good, Asherton. We're coming in.”

While the fireworks lit up space behind them, the ten ships of the 05th Autonomous lit up the atmosphere around them as the ships began colliding with ever increasing densities of air molecules. It wasn't long before all communications with the outside world was lost as a bubble of superheated plasma formed around each ship as they plummeted through the moon's sky. Below them, the lake would be easy to see, had blast doors not closed over the large windows on the bridge.

After several minutes of descent, the ten ships had slowed enough that the air provided cooling rather than heat, and the soft red glow that had found itself on the underside of the ships subsided. One by one, the ships of the 05th Autonomous activated their Minovsky Craft systems, allowing them to operate in the atmosphere as gravships. Eventually, they found themselves over the lake, landing in the water soon after. From there, it was only a short, bobbing journey through the waves to the port of the moon's capital city. Hopefully there would be open slips available for the ships when they arrived.

Lt Kagi knew he could not defeat several fleets. His ship was cripped, his shields gone, and the whole helm no longer responding. He had failed

He looked into spacing hoping that he could get back home. That was a dream, he was already dead from the level of radiation, the screens had failed, and ship was mostly vaporized.

His cockpit life boat floated losing itself in the void of hail and brimstone.

The stars opened as the rescue ship arrived from the deep range fleet. Confed thought it was rise to send only one ship and not risk any other confrontations.

The ship hailed "This is the U.S.S PRIDE, to all combatants." the comm beamed. "We are on a search and recovery mission after one of our ships, we ask for permission to enter and begin our operations, may we be allowed to commence?" The was a monement of silence.

"We seek to speak with your, and hopes of ending any possible wrongs that have been committed." and then it beamed. "Can there be a understand between our peoples. We await your response."

The sixteen man crew hoped that the weren't to late, and that aggression wouldn't be the outcome.

The Hermes Transport hung in space, its screens were up due to the high level of radiation.

The captain of the ship ordered all weapons to remain off line.

They hoped that this was not an pirate or the natives trick to gain more victims and equipment.

Commander Lange had warned them of pirate and the hostile nature of the natives of this area.

Jstar stirred into the void of space, and he sensed nothing, the pliot was most likely dead. He was saddened at the lost. He senesed the others out there.

"These ones are predators, but not the ones which we were seeking." Jstar mention on the bridge of the PRIDE.

Captain Mendoza nodded, "Yes but we still need to recovery the remains, and hopefully end what might have been started here........." She looked to the comm officer.

"Keep the message repeating, and all comm stations open, we need to talk to these people."

"Keep trying barked the captain to the comm officer."

The transport kept repeating its message and began its recovery operations.

"Captain, the craft has decloaked. We've surfaced her."

"Good. Status?"

"I can't tell with the localized radiation and interference, but it appears to be disabled."

"Good. Send a MS team to get it."


Before the new ship entered the system, yet another team of four mobile suits was deployed. As a group, they made their way to the disabled craft, dragging it back to Hanna.


"Captain, another ship has appeared. It seems to be of the same maker as the craft the Starn reported encountering."

"What is it's status?"

"It's hard to tell through the effects of the rift. Our Minovsky Particle broadcast is preventing much of the other data from being collected."

"Fire a warning shot across their bow and flash them a warning."


On Hanna, turret one rotated to aim at empty space just meters from the intruding ship's prow. With a mild flash, the golden beams pierced through space. As the eyes on board the Pride followed the beams back to their location, they would see a systematic pattern of bright white flashes. It seemed to be Morse Code.


ATTENTION INVADING SHIP
YOU HAVE ENTERED THE SOVEREIGN TERRITORY OF THE IMPERIUM OF NEW HAVEN
WE ADVISE YOU TO SURRENDER
YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO SURVIVE MAKE YOUR TIME
THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING

The Imperatrix waited by the docks for the Bryn Shanderese delegate as she adjusted the swordbelt on her ceremonial armor. It was a warm day in Ashertonopolis (roughly 30 degrees celsius), with clear skies overhead. The pilots of her transport had already wandered off to take a piss against a building somewhere, something she had no interest in seeing.

The ships moved to a halt in their respective docking spaces as she stood ready to greet the Bryn Shanderese delegate.

When Starn in port, dockworkers immedietly began tossing mooring lines to the ship, where they were grabbed by crewman on the ship, their magnetic boots giving them good footing even on the wet, uneven green hull. As the ship came to a stop and settled into its slip, a gangway was brought up from below deck and spanned the distance between the ship and the pier. Following soon after was the ship's captain.

As he walked onto the ship's hull, the sudden temperature change almost stopped him in his tracks. Inside the ship, it was only 20C with 40% humidity. Outside, the temperature was 50% higher and the humidity was much higher. Regardless, Commodore Thompson had a job to do and would not be stopped by some overly warm weather.

Walking down the gangway, the Imperatrix could see that he was a man of average height with short black hair somewhat hidden under a black and red officer's hat and a well maintained goatee of the same color. His eyes matched his hair, and he wore a silver earring in his left ear. His uniform was a black tunic with matching black pants, gloves, and boots. Each was accented with crimson trim, and his collar and shoulders were marked with a single golden star, an indication of his rank, while on his shoulders and left breast was the national ensign of Bryn Shander. At his hip were a silver revolver and an ornately carved saber. It looked like mithril, and anyone could tell that it was anything but ceremonial. One other thing that she noticed is that the Commodore didn't seem quite normal.

When he'd reached the Imperatrix, he removed his hat and extended a hand.

"Imperatrix Sara? I am Commodore Thompson of the Bryn Shander Space force. My government has sent me to regain contact with New Haven, and I've brought a copy of the combined Hermes databanks. In addition, the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Usagi Battlefleets have entered orbit to deal with the pirates we encountered earlier."

"I welcome the reestablishment of contact between our two states," The Imperatrix stated. "We will refuel your vessels immediately, as I assume that your fuel storage tanks are in need of being topped off." The Imperatrix paused before saying the following line: "By the way... welcome to Asherton."

"Excellent. The King should be delighted. I believe that he'll want to meet with you personally in the future, and I'm sure that he would be most pleased if your sister, Ashley, would attend as well."

"I'm sorry to inform you, but Imperatrix Ashley is no longer with us," the Imperatrix noted.

"Oh. I see. I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure that the King will be unhappy when he hears of your loss."

Clearly, the Commodore was a bit embarrassed to be this far out of the loop.

"What...?" The Imperatrix started. "No... she has not passed on to the afterlife. She led a contingent of six million to the Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy. It was a one way trip, and even though I know where their exit point is, I doubt they would've stuck around it for too long."

"Ah. I suppose that's a bit different. Fortunately, we're working on rebuilding our fleet with all new ships. Plans are in the works for new science vessles that'll make this fleet obsolete. Supposedly, they'll have far more firepower than Starn and will have the capability to operate alone for years at a time. If you request it, I'm sure that the King will be more than willing to send one of the new ships to look for her once one is completed."

"That would be appreciated... greatly," the Imperatrix said, the gratitude showing through clearly. "If we knew where they were, we could reestablish communications and even try to get them home."

"Anyway, we will likely need to get down to business soon. I have been charged by the King to work on getting embassies reestablished, find out what we're going to do about the repossessed gates, and aid New Haven in its return to former greatness."

"We can convert the old Bryn Shanderian consulate in Asherton into your embassy within the ISK," The Imperatrix noted. "No one really has been in there since the occupation, but I'm sure one or two people might be camping out in it. The repossessed gates will probably need to be returned so that we may resume our previous level of interstellar travel, which will ultimately return us to our former power."

The Pride saw that the ship known as the Hanna was attempting to establish contact.

"Captain they are shooting across our bow, but our sensors show that thier weapons show no power to them." said the weapons officer.

Captain Mendoza ordered a bouy to be lauched to establish contact.

"Make sure that the bouy is blinking and send our message in morse code."
she said to the sensor officer.

The bouy was launched with its blinking array in morse.
"This is the U.S.S PRIDE, to all combatants." the comm beamed. "We are on a search and recovery mission after one of our ships, we ask for permission to enter and begin our operations, may we be allowed to commence?" The was a monement of silence.

"We seek to speak with your, and hopes of ending any possible wrongs that have been committed." and then it beamed. "Can there be a understand between our peoples. We await your response."

"We are ready to be boarded and establish dialog." was added by Mendoza orders. The crew looked in horror at the order.

The Earth Allaince Ship Hermes transport craft hung in space as the Hanna and the mobile suits closed in.

"Jstar be ready," she looked at the Dilgar. "We may have need of your protection and abilities if we need to talk to these people."

"I understands, I ready to be truthsayer, and ready to protect." The tall feline readied its psionic ablilties.

"Jstar ready to send peaceful intent and calm reinsurements." barked the Captain.

The Feline began to try to establish a repore with the new sentients.

Captain Mendoza talked to her crew.

"Attention crew we have entered a controlled area of space, they appear to be very territorial and say that we have transgressed upon thier space." She took a deep breath.

"We need to put this confrontation to and end, I order that all crew to stand down, but am authorizing all crew to arm themselves and suit up for emergency boarding by the enemy, if this should go wrong."

She was taking a risk, she and the Dilgar knew that these were not the pirates that had attacked the Confed outpost. These people could be for more dangerous, but Confed never started a war first, they only finished them...

"All crew are to remain at ready stations and prorioty conditions for first contact are implaced." She ordered.

"Comms get that bouy sending and open all comm stations. Lets prepare for guests."

The ship turned its hatches to be boarded and the flashing of the launched bouy, and the lights on the ships began to blink in sink.

"This is the U.S.S PRIDE, to all combatants." the comm beamed. "We are on a search and recovery mission after one of our ships, we ask for permission to speak and peacefully explain our intentions."

"We seek to speak with your, and hopes of ending any possible wrongs that have been committed." and then it beamed. "Can there be a understand between our peoples. We await your response."

"We are ready to be boarded and establish dialog."

Yes, that will work nicely. If you give me a day, I can have a treaty drafted that will ensure the replacement of the gates."


------


"Captain, they've launched somethng. It's blinking. Looks like a response."

"Tell them to prepare to be boarded and take us in. Send a message to Anne and ask her to join us."

"Message sent"

"Attention crew. This is Captain Kestrel. Prepare for boarding action. All hands, prepare for boarding actions."

Throughout the ship, men and women rushed to the ship's armories to get their equipment. One by one they slipped into their armored space suits, grabbed a rifle and a melee weapon or two, and moved to one of the ship's boarding hatches. Others climbed into bulky and heavily armed powered armors, while the ship's mages activated golems, and summoned elementals, outsiders, and undead.

As Hanna pulled up along the tiny ship, a team of mobile suits floated in front of it's bridge, each with their huge bazooka aimed directly inside. With a series of loud thuds, boarding tunnels were shot across from Hanna, magneticly locking over the tiny ship's hatches. Flanked on one side by a large iron golem and the other by a nasty looking green, great axe wielding, winged fiend known as a nycaloth, the commander of the first wave knocked hard on the hatch with the pommel of his black, serrated cutlass that seemed to have an evil red glow coming from the blade. In his glossy black and red armored space suit, it would be easy to see that he wasn't here for tea. Behind him, rows of men in similar suits with an assortment of weapons were lined up, along with dark patches that seemed to be living shadows.

The crew responed back to the Hanna. They prepared to be boarded. The transport readied itself. The crew had suited up into thier powered armored space suits.

The Tech-18 Battle Dress Suits were armed with a Fusion Placment Gun, Twin Micro Plasma Missle Launchers, Two Pulser Hand Lasers, and new Regen Force Shield Generators. Force and Shield Weapons were issued as secondary weapons. The crew had thier Phase/Gauss and Accelerator Sidearms handy, these weapons were gifted from the Technocracy and the Tecnomages of the outer rim..

The next few moments would be tense.

"Attention crew, prepared to be boarded, no hostile actions unless for self protection."

The captain and the Dilgar and four ships troops were waiting at the airlock.


The Battle Dress suits were very impressive, and the the four ship troops were armed with the 4cm RAMs with Plasma clips if the need arised in addition to the additional weapons.

"Jstar prepare to induce psion shield and protection." Captain Mendoza issued to the feline.

"I will send out pain and stun if need be to the primitves if you wish." the cat replied. "I have wall shield up, to protect from weapons, captain." the cat looked confused. "May we not stun them first then issue talk?"

"We came in peace remember, and its going to stay that way, understand?"

"Yess we will see." said the big cat.

Mendoza looked at the Dilgar, and thanked that they were freindly know and not so warlike as before, but they still had an aggressive side.

"Captain sense many others, mages, and astral, psion to full guard if you wishes so, the feline beamed to her.

"Yes make it so, be prepared to attack if need be, on my mark." she beamed back to the Dilgar.

The airlocked opened, and the Captain and Jstar and the four honor guard prepared for the meeting.

The captain step forward and outstreched her hand in peace.

"Greetings?" She said hoping the translator worked and that she was speaking the proper language that Confed had taught them for this mission form all the comm traffic that they had been listening to for all these months.

The others replied..................

The Hermes transport craft was in space being boarded. The crew was worried.

Would this new race be friend, or foe?

The standard action of the Confederation ship and crew was not to allow its technology to fall into hands of others, so each ship was tied to its captain, and it waited to see what actions would be life or death.


Confederation crew, operatives, and the ship and its limited intelligence, itself waited, and waited for the outcome would be.

As the airlock opened, the commander of the boarding party entered, followed by several dozen men in matching armor. Some carried spears of various size and shape, some carried swords and axes. One carried a large silver hammer encrusted with runes and ornate carvings. Slung over each man's shoulder was a black rifle of some sort. It would be hard to tell the function of them until they were used. Mixed into the ranks were the large iron golems and vicious looking nycaloths, while the undead shadows snaked along the walls. Covering the flank of the group was a group of large fire elementals that would block any chance the Confeds had of escaping to Hanna

Once on board, the marines split up, canvassing the small transport and disarming everyone they came across. Those who resisted would be shot or stabbed if lucky, or turned over to the shadows or nycaloths if they weren't.

As he met with the captain of the ship that so blatantly violated New Havenic space, the commander of the boarding party was clearly not amused by the ruse the pirates were trying to use. Even through the suit's muffled speaker, he sounded agitated.

"Do not play games with me. Who are you and why have you come here? If you do not answer neither you nor any of your crew will ever leave this system alive."

The Dilgar froze, he shielded the crew. His very impressive psion talent cloaked the crew and thier powered armor.

The enemy saw the crew one by one cloak and disappear.

The only two were left were the Dilgar and the Captain.

"What are we doing here?" replied Mendoza.

"You people open a gate and broadcast across the universe, you send out signals and comms."

She looked angry. "We came here following your signal, we came seeking intelligent life, we are here because you sent."

She lifted her visor, and turned off her force shield.

"We were getting ready to send transmissions to your sphere, but our outpost was attacked by raiders and privatteers. So we sent an explore craft to follow them and hope to open talks with the nations namely you,"

She looked at these primitives with disdane.

"We come out of jump sending messages on all bands to broadcast, we left a sensor/comm bouy when no respones." she looked at them.

"We said we came in peace, and wanted to open talks, no one responded for a long time."

"Our protocal stated we leave a comm bouy and that you could contact us at your ability." she stated. "Instead you send beams to cause interference with our space travel, then you fired and damaged and killed many of people as we tried to withdraw without harming."

"You were the truely the aggressor, we lost a pilot, and you fired on destroyed his craft." she was getting upset at thier single mindlessness.

"We could have fired an caused a great lose of life, or we could have our navy sent in a battle group, but we sent a recovery team insead, and we came with open arms."

First contact with primitives were always trouble, why did Confed think that this was a good idea, after the pirates and the attack, they should have just followed the pirates and blasted them, and not involved the local powers.

"So thats what we are doing here, what are your intentions?" she asked the aliens?

"We can begin a war, or end it here and begin dialog, and see what this pirate problem is all about." Mendoza looked at her psion, and waited for a reply.

She reached into her pouch, and handed them her sensor reports. "This also contains the sonsor logs of USS Ranger, as proof of our intent."

Unfortunately for the Dilgar and his crew, Bryn Shander had psions as well, and very talented mages. Almost immedietly the marines shook off the illusion. The golems, undead, elementals, and outsiders had not even been effected. Their work continued, and each of the Confeds recieved a clear mental message.

"I would not try that again if I were you. You are toying with things that you cannot possibly understand."

The commander's blade seemed to glow even brighter as he spoke again.

"A likely story.Is your first attempt at 'diplomatic contact' always invading another nation's soveriegn territory? What ever happened to sending a letter? To be rather frank, I don't believe a word that you are saying. Diplomats do not deploy fighters and set off EMPs to make contact. Pirates do. As such, I will be taking you and your ship into custody. If you make any attempt to resist, my ship will destroy this craft immedietly."

"Our intention was not cause any harm, or disrespect ones sphere of control."

She was getting tired at this dialog, telepathy would be so much easier, but rules stated no.

"If you wish and allow it we will recovery what is ours and will will leave you and your domain alone." She than offered. "If you wish it we can leave a comm bouy that you may later open talks with us if you so wish."

"Our people will be waiting to hear from us in little bit, and lets hope we can keep this from escalating any further."

She nodded to the Dilgar.

"Tell it to the judge."

The commander flashed hand signals to his men, who began to round up the crew of Pride and usher them towards the airlock at gunpoint. On Hanna's side of the boarding tunnel, another group of marines was ready to recieve the prisoners.

"We are not pirates," she stated.

The Hermes heard the psion broadcast , it replied.

"Excuse me!!, my crew will not be harmed, and to think I am pirate scum!!"

Mendoza replied, "Hermes relax, they did not mean any harm."

She beamed to the crew, "Please stand down, Jstar be ready with full protection, she also beammed to the others."

The Hermes came alive and the marines on the other side felt the ship shake.

"The ship beammed, "NO!!!"

Mendoza shouted, "Our ship is partially organic and self aware, its a bit testy!"

"I would advise that you leave marines aboard and keep us here, we will follow you were ever you want us to go." She then suggested that she was in charge and was solely responsible. "I will go with you aboard your ship, but my crew stays aboard the Pride."

"how rude!!, first a pitrate and now this...... it beamed....

Captain Mendoza began following the aliens. The Dilgar followed, the crew and ship refused.

The Hermes was angry, but followed its orders from the captain.

Mendoza stated, "I and Jstar will come, but my crew and your guards should stay on the ship, it will make him alittle more relaxed."

"I will have my ship go were ever you wish it go, we need to send a comm to fleet." She looked less than pleased. "We will give you the comm station and codes you need to send it, if you wish."

"I do not care if your ship is self aware or not. You and your ship, its crew included, will follow my orders or be destroyed. I do not believe that a self aware ship will want to discover the pains of re-entering a massive gas giant's atmosphere. You and your crew have one last chance to be escorted off of this ship. Resist and you will be carried off in bags."

The captain, dilgar, the ship, and the crew knew what it needed to do. It was time, the aliens were to limited, aggressive, and they were on a decline.

The powerful Dilgars' superior psion was now powered for what the captain wished. The ship senesed it also, the crew was ready. This contact was a failure.

Hermes readied itself to phase, on the captains wish, it was saddend, it enjoyed this crew. It would miss them. It would not be alone, Jstar would be with it upon the return.

"We seem that there can be no understanding between us, you send out signal, we responded, and only lost can be." The catain responded.

The mages, outsiders sensed the shift upon the PRIDE. They were fearful, for they sensed the energy that was building up.

She sensed to the crew, the ship, and dilgar, they were all in agreement, the bonds were strong, and they served to the end.

"You will be noticing that we are now ready ourselves in heart and minds." The captain announced. The alien commander looked at her with hatred. "Our ship is ready to return home in one way, as our we ready to retrurn to greatness that lays beyond the flesh."

The ship shuttered and quaked, the other beings that served the aliens sensed the power and shift of realities. The aliens began to try to get the crew of the Pride off the ship.

In turn each crew member began to blink and shine with a eternal brighness. The ceased to exist, and blinked into a bright light one by one.

The alien commander looked at Mendoza. "We return to that which was prepared, prepared long ago." She was saddned, but also happy. "We live for the One. We Die for the One." she began to shine.

"Our ship prepares a return home in a fashion, we voyage on in our own way." She paused. "You have a few monents to return to your own understanding and path, or you may join us on our new path, the choice is yours?"

The aliens began to hurry back to the airlock and their ship. THe commander looked at the shimering form that was Captain Mendoza. She was speaking to the Dilgar.

"Jstar do you have the pilots essence?" she questioned.

"Yes my captain, it will travel with me and Hermes back to home and the collectiveness." the Dilgar was saddened, to lose its new friends. "You wish to return home also?" The creature asked.

"No our time has come and gone, it is best that this failure not be repeated."

""I am One. We live for the One, we die for the One. We go to the dark places where no one else dares venture! We stand on the bridge and no one passes."

The ship began its phasing into nothingness, the aliens hurried back to the ships awaitng them. The ship also pulsed a comm signal into the void of space.

The area around the ship glowed into a very bright light. and than it completely disolved into nothingness

The form that was Mendoza spoke in the minds of the aliens one last time.

"We have sent a signal to our brethern, no more contact and retributions will be forth coming." it spoke. They heard also. "I leave the location of the pirates in your computers. It was that we, and you seeked, may you find your way.............."

Then there was nothing but the aliens and empty space.

"Well, that seems to have sorted itself out. Take us back to orbit over Asherton and send out a message that all further ships from that group are pirates and should be killed on sight."

"Aye."

And so Hanna, Anne, and their fleets returned to Asherton.

The star child was born, he was once known as Kagi, but he wanted to see these primitives, he began exploring the system...........

And the star child was promptly smitten by several gods at once, never to be seen again.

(OOC: This thread is over. Kindly GTFO.)