NationStates Jolt Archive

Pirates.

The very word stirs feelings of fright and dismay into animals and people alike. It summons up the worst emotions in us; the emotions that may us scared, tell us that there is no hope, take away from us everything that we want. It tells us that our sense of safety is misplaced, that we must do as our emotions tell us to do. It tells us that we must be afraid, that we must be very afraid. It tells us that something is wrong and that whatever is wrong, it is a danger to us. It tells us that there is nothing right left in the world.

But not all pirates are equal - just like pigs or humans or anything else, not all pirates are equal. There are the strong, ruthless type, the type who care little about the costs, only about the gains. These are those who get their just dues, gain what they wish for, and are gone, as their own misplaced ruthlessness turns against them. These pirates are bloodthirsty, rapacious, and evil. But they are cowards on the inside, and, in a day not far away, they will fail. These pirates are not good pirates, for they are not intelligent or cautious enough.

There are the kind who dislike to mess with the law, who gain letters of marque from various governments and then go around flaunting those letters of marque as an excuse for pirating. These pirates too are cowards, though there are exceptions, and these pirates know little about breaking the law and breaking it well. These are the pirates whom, when another nation gets fed up with them, finally they break and and are broken by another government. They fail, because they are not ruthless enough, and they rarely roll the dice, preferring instead to stay on the far side of the Rubicon.

There are those pirates who fail to estimate or control their own crews and, instead, are defeated by devices of their own making. These pirates do not strike the careful balance between personal gain and communal sacrifice. They do not understand that are pirates are pirates, and while they are not equal, they hold similar standing in the eyes of pirates. No good pirate begrudges the pirate who overthrows a violent commander and becomes successful. It is the fault of the aforementioned deposed commander for his own downfall.

There are many other pirates as well, many who are successful and many who are not. There are those pirates who are strong and swift, those with great foreign technologies, those with wisdom beyond all meaning. There are those who rob the right areas and those who are paid by international governments to rob areas. The diversity of the styles of pirates is akin to the diversity of styles of international diplomats. Their success rate and monetary gains are similar to those of international diplomats - international diplomats who a get a piece of what they sow, of course.

And yet, all successful pirates have one element in common - luck. It is luck that separates the wealthy, strong pirate from the weak whiner who just happens to own a ship. Luck is the thing that cuts the cream of the crop from the rest of the crowd. It is what all pirates wish for and only a select few possess. It is a commodity prized far above gold and jewels, for with luck comes gold and jewels in copious numbers.

Luck was the one thing that Captain Helmer Agorian did not possess.

He was an intelligent man. He owned letters of marque from nations spanning many galaxies. He had a ship that, while fairly out of date by national standards, still took him around without breaking down too much. He had the right combination of ruthlessness and prudence. He had the trust of his crew and yet still managed to take a large part of the rich pickings - when there were rich pickings. In short, Captain Helmer Agorian was the perfect pirate...perfect, all but for his lack of luck.

He would have given money, his ship, his crew, even his limbs for but a small slice of luck! He would have given up everything for but one drop! But as he continued his way, trying to rob and steal, picking the right ships, preparing infallible traps, he would fail. All his work, his preparations, would fall in upon him at the last minute. A motor would crash. A country would decide to send ships to investigate after having decided not to. A ship would turn out to be empty. Once, even, an asteroid had ripped off the top of his own ship as he was ready to gain the largest amount of booty he had ever seen.

His luck was always that bad.

That was why Captain Helmer Agorian was waiting, with his ship, the Gorgon's Wrath, near a smallish moon on the outskirts of some planet, somewhere. He was waiting for a fat merchantman, maybe, or perhaps a warship, or even a diplomatic carrier! He was waiting for something that would give him something to float on, possibly even change his luck around! After all, there was no harm in hoping, was there? He had long since realized that there was not. His luck was bad whether he hoped for success or did not.

OOC: Please jump in! Feel free to be a ship approaching, another pirate, a ship looking for him, anything! I'd be very happy! Thanks in advance!

Most human space-faring vessels are built with care and attention, with even the worst at least having properly constructed and designed to avoid the dangers of the emptiness beyond the windows. No matter how incompetent, a human or elfin ship-builder will likely have training and experience enough to design ships that, according to the laws of physics, should work at least reasonably well.

Unfortunately (perhaps) for the occupants, this ship is not human. Goblin craft, in comparison to human, tend to be randomly thrown together in a manner that looks vaguely correct, with large engines and rather more guns that is strictly necessary on a ship three times its size. Ships such as this one would be deemed usable only as scrap metal by most nations, especially as it was not actually, mechanically at least, airtight.

At the best of times it is luck and magic that holds any Goblin ship together, the diminutive, greenskinned crew relying upon Da Powa to stop air from rushing out, to keep unconnected engines running, and ensure that even where there are large empty gaps in the middle of long lines of cable everything flows smoothly.

Even the unlucky Goblin captains are smiled upon by Lady Fortune – even to get their ships in the air needs more good chance than a most humans need in their entire lifetimes.

However, despite the usual inordinate amount of luck that Goblins seem to possess, it does not do everything for them – Lady Fortune certainly does not bother to navigate for the little greenskins and so many ships turn up pretty much at random.

So it was that the two-hundred metre long Goblin WarShyp Sparki Shrooms dropped out of SupaSpeed somewhere near the moon where Captain Helman Agorian was lurking.

“Ah…dis aintent be’in da Entri Gayte…”

“Nub.”

“Buggrit.”

The 36th Exploration Group had been charting vast expanses of space far from the United Imperium of Crossman for about a month now. After a long period of isolation the U.I.C. had opened its doors to the universe once more. More importantly, the universe was again open to the United Imperium. Emperor Crossman had finally unleashed the Imperial Crossmanian Navy, allowing the vast fleets of the U.I.C. to once again sail the stars and seek out new civilizations and new territory for His Imperial Majesty. Naval High Command had formed the Exploration Groups to span out from the United Imperium and gather information, chart unexplored territory and re-explore previously known territory.

The 36th EG had the fortune of being selected to search an unknown swath of space far beyond the borders of the United Imperium and its known vacinity. However so far that fortune had given them little. Luck had been against them as they had found a scare amount of remotely habitable systems and even those were not rich in resources. No intelligent life had been found other than a few barbaric worlds that were on the brink of their own industrial ages. The planets were filed and the information sent on to High Command. No doubt the Inquisition was preparing to send out teams to study the civilizations and wait for their technology to advance them enough to bring them into the Light of Crossman and the jurisdiction of the United Imperium.

So on the 36th EG went, searching the cosmos for... anything. As with all of the exploration groups, the 36th was well equipped to deal with anything that it come into contact with. It consisted of a cruiser, the 5,000 meter long Desolatia; a light cruiser, the 3,500 meter long Valiant; and a squadron of 1,500 meter Cobra-class destroyers, Hawk, Aquila, Greyhound and the Devonshire.

The bridge of the ICS Desolatia was quiet aside from the hum of the ship's massive engines and blips and bleeps of computers. The Fleet Mistress, Flag Captain Drastique Darkwood sat in her command throne looking over the multitude of reports about all the nothing they had found. As she looked down at the data slates she blew some loose strands of dark violet hair from her face and glanced through the information.

A loud beeping came from one of the sensor stations. Drastique looked up suddenly, hoping that it might be worth while.
"Lieutenant Valeris, report."

"Long range scanners have detected a small signature deeper in the system we are entering, Mistress. Its definitely a starship, though from these readings it does not appear as advanced as our systems. At this distance I cannot get an accurate size, though it seems much smaller than one of our own destroyers. Under 500 meters, but I'm not sure the exact size," Lieutenant Valeris crisply replied. He turned to the Flag Captain to await her orders.

Darkwood nodded he approval. "Excellent. Finally someone who can at least get off their own rock. Helm! Set course for that ship. Communications, inform the rest of the fleet of the situation and tell them to match our heading. Go to yellow alert and keep an eye out for anymore ships."

"Yes Mistress," came the reply from the crew.

The ships of the 36th EG came about and began to cruise further into the system towards the newfound vessel.

The sails of the Soleil-Royal were blazing in the radiations of the star, soaking up copious amounts of energy from this (Almost) infinite power source while preparing for the ship's rather rapid departure.

Nobody was on the open decks of the beautifully crafted (If slightly mouldy looking - but well, it was an old ship and hadn't seen an overhaul since shortly after the conflict with the Osage) three-masted ship of the line - radiation resistant as the Sanglanti were, they weren't quite radiation resistant enough to the degree that they'd survive bathing in the photosphere of a K-class star - but inside the mildly cramped confines of the ship, they were reasonably safe, while still getting a nice tan.

Ancient uniforms not seen since the eighteenth century, adorned with medals of dubious origin and value, a french that'd make any patriotic frenchman shudder at the quite brutal violation of his or her precious language, uttered in bursts of EM, largely because air to transmit sound wasn't present on board of the vessel (Of course, it was difficult to understand in the first place, as the star's EM output interfered quite considerably with the smalltalk - 'Maiden' turning into 'Whore' because a brief burst of infrared screwed up pronounciation wasn't particularly beneficial to flirting).

Sailors clad in little more than rags, occasionally trying to hit on one of the few (Real) women on board (Which usually resulted in a slap or worse), card games, arguments, and boredom - the lives of pirates tend to be boring most of the time, as actual prey is scarcely seen.

And when it's seen, it tends to be too big a fish for a single ship. Now, if they had an entire fleet... But they didn't. so it was a moot point.

Of course, this was why they were soaking up energy, slowly moving across the surface of 'Their' smallish star, and waiting for the transition to proceed - this system was empty, devoid of activity (Apart from a largish, automated mining craft - but mining craft were 1. worthless and 2. not a good idea to board when they belonged to the pirates' host nation).

And then they were gone, leaving nothing but a minor, and quickly fading imprint on the local star's electromagnetic field lines, and out to hunt in another system.

They didn't know that the curiously mischievous goddess of destiny and fate had already arranged for one of these quite improbable mass-congregations in the middle of nowhere to occur, nor that they were apparently going to be a part of the same.

Instead, they just slingshot out of the star in whose photosphere they'd arrived, leaving a trail of confused-looking EM and particles behind them while vast, invisble, and quite incorporeal sails spanning sizeable fractions of a slightsecond squared flared nearly to the point of ripping apart (Only pussies who didn't deserve being called a pirate would bother with safety and undo the rigging while in transition).

"And where are we now?"

Commandant Alphonse Legrand raised his eyebrows, small but curious eyes looking over similarly small glasses where one would suspect an eyepatch to be. "I'm looking..."

The parchment-gone-future on his desk wasn't really a starchart - instead, he was using it to do the absurdly complex calculations needed to figure out where their chronically inaccurate FTL method had dropped them off, not entirely unlike the way commandants of ages long past used the stars and a sextant to figure out where they were.

"Hrm."

Always a bad sign.

"Not quite where we wanted to be, I suppose... Well, lets leave the corona until we can actually see something. Then I can tell."

"Qui, mon Commandant."

"Oh, and look out for any traffic. Been a month since we last saw some action."

Against all rationality, the lone Frigate cruised slowly through empty space toward the planet's moon. With no reason to be there except curiosity, it was owned by a group of Austarian Merchantmen; rich enough to own such a fine and well upgraded vessel, not rich enough to not be searching for new sources of wealth. Wasting little time, they scanned the area for precious metals along with other 'presences' who might be with them. There had been warnings ever since they had left the designated safe-zones that they were in an uncontrolled area, and that safety could not be assured. Venturing this far put them out of the protection of the Austarian Space Navy, much less, their insurance policy should anything go astray from what they had planned for this trip. With nothing but information on board, their most prized possession was the vessel herself.

"I sense that there are a few ships in the area," noted one of the crew. "Standard procedure would be to take caution, and to lower signatures to avoid detection. Should I do this?"

"Aye, follow these procedures," replied Hughes, the Officer in Command.

Within seconds of this order being issued, the ship would remain virtually but not entirely undetectable. With the risk of pirates or other hostiles in this area, they employed such measures inbuilt into the vessel to maximize stealth. Level of Alert had been placed on Level 3 a while ago, and there was no reason to heighten this. In the meantime, scanning of the moon and nearby planets would continue - if they were to find even traces of anything, they were to be logged and investigated at a later time and date.

On Board The Gorgon's Wrath

To say that Captain Helmer Agorian was surprised, when his fairly-archaic-but-yet-fairly-successful radar-like scanner picked up a signal from a whip that appeared to be heading somewhere near them, would have been an understatement. The word "ecstatic" would have been a closer guess to the truth. For someone who had gone for such a long time, devoid of prey or even of hope, he was giving a standard reaction. He never expected anything to come near him, especially out here, wherever he was, in the middle of some system, unmapped, and unidentified. It was a like finding a vein of gold in the mountains.

But Captain Helmer Agorian had been so long without that elusive concept men called luck that he failed to recognize it when it came. Instead, he saw a trap, of enemy ships fast approaching. Instead, he saw his luck having abandoned him once more, instead of having served up food on a silver platter. It hadn't actually done that, but compared to his previous run, this was as good as his luck serving up food on a golden platter. But Captain Helmer Agorian failed to notice it for what it was and, alternatively, saw a trap where it was not there, looking at the half-empty glass as poisoned.

That is not to say that seeing traps where are none is necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes, in fact, it works very well. Distrust is useful, particularly when dealing with those who do not deserve trust. But to not trust anything (or anyone, for that matter) and to see traps where there are one can also serve a person very badly. Trust is a vital element in everything, but so is distrust. But too much of anything is bad, with anything at all. Is that not true of human emotions as well? Or are human emotions separate? Trust, for one, is too important to be used liberally or no at all.

Still, as Captain Helmer Agorian looked at the screen in front of him, his first mate, Scevar, looked back at him, turning his upper body slightly to face him. "They ship, in itself, is not very advanced. If our guns do cooperate for once -" The Captain shook his head. "Fat chance of that." he muttered. Scevar looked back at his captain. "If everything goes as it should, we could easily beat them up." The Captain stared back him. The first mate was grinning. It was rare that they ever had the upper hand in an engagement.

He was not quite expecting the screen to go insane as he stared at it a second time. Six ships, considerably bigger than the ship that they were facing, too appeared on the screen in front of them. Their estimated weights and sizes were on the screen alongside them. His eyes almost leaped out of their sockets. "Estimated size 6000 meters? What" He noticed the inaccuracies, but it had to be somewhere close. He looked back at Scevar, stricken. "I'm suggesting we hang all the choices and lie as much as we can, captain." Scevar's advice usually was good. The captain began to craft a small plan.

Greetings, friends,

I wish to welcome you to our little corner of the the world. It is generally peaceful here, and kind. While this is not actually our precise home, we are currently scouting for areas to expand to. Our own home planet, that of Auxilia, is currently overflowing with people. We thus welcome you to our little area and hope you enjoy your stay.

In Greatest Sincerity,
Captain Helmer Agorian of the Gorgon's Wrath

Scevar shook his head. "It's dreadfully transparent, captain. Even to the outsider, it sounds like utter bunk. Send it, but you do know that it is very fake, right?" It was very fake. The only truth in it was that their home planet was called Auxilia. As the message was sent, the captain failed to notice that two other ships had arrived in his little area. They did, however, receive the message.

The Urban Jungles of Auxilia

Avarice walked down the hallways of the a building in the city-planet of Auxilia. It was the great docking-port of the Pirate Brotherhood, their hearth and their home. Auxilia was a city of bars, women, lights, and fun. After all, these were pirates, buccaneers, freebooters, scalawags, and a thousand other names. These were people who were used to death, destruction, chaos, blood, and booty. Every day, thousands of fights broke out in hundreds of bars across the city. Every day, pirates killed each other with wanton abandon, recruited crews from the layabouts in the city, and did a million other unsavory things. Auxilia was known far and wide as the place where if you wanted a drink, you should come, if you wanted companionship, you should come, and if you wanted to sell something without any questions asked, you should come.

Avarice was different than most pirates. She was female, for one. An orphan, found on the street and taught piracy. She was quick, ruthless, and intelligent. In some way, she was the best known and best liked pirate in all of Auxilia. It was a title that any pirate would have been proud of, let alone a female pirate. She was proud of the title. But she harbored a different ambition, a stranger, colder ambition. Avarice wanted to become queen of the Pirate Brotherhood. In some way, she fulfilled her name.

Auxilia reeked, but it was home.

OOC: The second part is mostly a bit of background on the Pirate Brotherhood and what they call home. It's also expanding a backstory for later.

Bridge, I.C.S. Desolatia

Lieutenant Valeris watched his monitors as a second small ship appeared.
"Fleet Mistress, I've detected a second ship near that moon we're closing on. It does not appear to be of the same origin as the first though it is comparable in size."

"Mistress," Lieutenant Iwata, the communications officer cut in. "We're recieving a transmission from them."

"Well, let's hear it," Flag Captain Darkwood said, she shifted in her command throne folding her arms across her chest. After hearing the message she turned to Iwata. "Open a channel. Captain Agorian, this is Flag Captain Drastique Darkwood of the Imperial Crossmanian Starship Desolatia and Fleet Mistress of His Imperial Majesty's 36th Exploration Group. I thank you for your kind welcome. We too are on a mission of exploration and reconnaissance. We were on our way to investigate the ship that you are nearing. Is she one of yours? Darkwood out."

Iwata closed the channel.

Darkwood stood and walked to the huge arched viewports that curved around the front of the large bridge. Starring out towards the direction of the Gorgon's Wrath she considered the situation.

Just then Lieutenant Valeris made another announcement, "I'm detecting another two ships in the system. One further inward towards the system's star. The other further out, though it seems to be trying to keep a low profile, I almost didn't notice it. It keeps fading in and out, but its out there. Neither match the these ones or each other."

Darkwood turned on her heel and made her way back to the command throne. "Tactical, prepare to arm weapons and inform the launch bays to begin preflight operations. I like to err on the side of caution and this seems an occasion for just that. Copy orders to the fleet. Just don't make it noticeable yet. Maintain current heading." She sat and looked down at the readout of the Gorgon's Wrath on her command monitor then starred accusingly out the viewport. "I'm not sure I'm convinced by that story. That ship doesn't look like any scout I've seen. Though, they do seem less advanced. No matter, we've got four unknown ships and I'm not taking any chances. Open a general channel. To all ships in this system, this is Flag Captain Drastique Darkwood of the Imperial Crossmanian Starship Desolatia. Identify yourselves."

Standing on the bridge of the ACV Halloway, Captain Robert Hughes frowned as the message was received. Fortunately, there was no certainty that they had been fully noticed - it had been received on a much broader channel than one if the message had been even vaguely private. Nevertheless, the I.C.S. Desolatia seemed to be a government-owned war fleet, its owner "Crossman" being relatively unknown to them. Hughes would have most certainly preferred to avoid confrontation, and risking that they might have been noticed after all. They were not pirates.

A shout came from below him, "Orders captain?"

"Hmmm," he pondered. It was interesting that nations and their fleets seemed to think that they had the right to command other ships of an area within open space. Of course there were their risks that other ships in the area could have been pirate vessels, but they were hardly a threat to the war fleet which consisted of such large proportion.

He had much to consider; one one hand identifying himself to the fleets could be a mistake - he had no idea whether they were hostile or friendly, whether they had even detected him or not. On the other hand, should he not identify himself, will they then become hostilen to the ACV Halloway and its crew? Certainly, just shooting at ships would be unwise at least diplomatically. Then again, such authorities did exist.

He threw the dice.

Sending a more private response, he would have rathered at least not make himself known to other vessels. Should anything erupt of this however, his orders were to not engage. This was a civillian-owned craft for christ's sake. The response, in the meantime, was automated.

"This is the ACV Halloway. We are on a mission of exploration on behalf of the Ridges Mining Corporation, searching for new materials and resources. We are not hostile to you, or to any other craft in the area."

Bridge, I.C.S. Desolatia

"Acknowledged Halloway. We're just exploring the neighborhood ourselves. Just checking who all is out there. Go about your business. Feel free to let us know if you find anything of value out here. Desolatia out."

Drastique turned to Valeris, a pondering look upon her face. "Keep an eye on them."

Valeris nodded, "Yes Mistress."

"Now," Drastique said inquisitively. "Who are our other friends out here..."

It was the work of a few moments to discover that the "Navvygaritor" had been asleep in his "Navvygoratin' Chair". The Goblin captain shrugged, punched the sleeping crewman and ambled back to the command deck.

"Roite den, show uz da messiage."

There was a pause as pointy green ear listened to the Desolatia's message.

"Hoo da hell do deyz fink dey iz? Weez un offishal business fer da Collektiv."

Then comes a chorus of "Yeah"s and other affirmative sounds, each Goblin in the command area eager to appear "in widda capitayn". A few seconds later one of the raises a hand.

"Uh, bozz? Deyz big."

"Huw big?"

"Look onna screen. Reelly big."

The Captain looked at the screen. He looked at his crew. He looked at the screen.

"Roite...well den...reddi da gunzez just in casez, Oi want da SupaSpeed geniarator reddi fer goin'.

"Oi dunno hoo eidder uv dese guyz iz, but led's send a messiage."


Capitayn Helmer Agoreeyun,

Tanks fer da welcom, weez gots lotzez uv too many peepolz back home az well.

Weez heer fer explorin' an' lookin' about, kinda-sorta, an' a liddle bit lost.

Were eggzactly iz we?

Ta muchly,
Capitayn Fripan,
Sparki Shrooms
Uv da Comboined Goblin Collektiv


"Roite, send dat wun off. Wishez weez 'ad a proper talki-type over 'ere. Reddy fer da next wun?"


Capitayn-wiv-a-flag Drasteek Darkwood,

Dis iz Capitayn Fripan onna lil' Warshyp Sparki Shrooms fer da strong an' big an' mitey Collektiv. Weez explorin' typez fer da bossez back innna Nebula, see? Got a lil' bit lost, but finded a noo systeem, so all guud rite?

Watts yooz 'ere fer wid all dem big an' 'uge shypz?

Ta muchly,
Capitayn Fripan,
Sparki Shrooms
Uv da Comboined Goblin Collektiv

Bridge, I.C.S. Desolatia:

Drastique listened to the message from the Sparki Shrooms and couldn't help but smirk. Huge ship, she thought to herself. If only he could see the real 'huge' ships of the fleet. The Desolatia, though very large, was an average sized cruiser for the United Imperium. Though even one of the Exploration Group's small destroyers would seem giant to such a small ship as the Sparki Shrooms. Well, I suppose I should be nice an assure him we aren't about to turn hostile. She smiled to herself again then spoke.
"Iwata, open a channel."

"Yes Mistress. Channel open."

"Captain Fripan, I'm sorry to hear you're lost. My fleet is on a similar mission. We are also exploring this area. I assure you, we mean no harm. We're just passing through. Darkwood out."

She smiled again. She had always been a bit of a sadist. That's probably one reason she had rose through the ranks so quickly. She just enjoyed spooking people. But then, she was just your average Crossmanian woman. Determined, aggressive and sadistic. Though that was true also for Crossmanian men. It was really a wonder that anything got done in the Imperium with all the competing egos. That was the way the Emperor had taught them all to be. However he also taught understanding and tolerance. A truly bizarre combination. She missed home. She missed the Emperor. Everyone did.

OOC: Just thought I'd give a heads up, I'm going out of town tomorrow (more specifically today), New Years Eve. I'll be back sometime in the afternoon on New Years Day. Just thought I'd mention it.

The Gorgon's Wrath

Negotiation is not one of the strengths that any pirate possess. Most pirates are locked into the "shoot first, ask questions later" mode. Most pirates are used to killing and destroying with reckless abandon. To argue is not something that pirates are either used to or good at. The great game of international diplomacy is not one in which many pirates have played a hand and those who have are either kings, or dead. But the average pirate on the street (or ship, as it may be) has no idea how to interact with others or their nations. The average pirate very seldom knows what "negotiation" is.

In that way, Captain Helmer Agorian of the Gorgon's Wrath was rather unique. He knew slight bits of international diplomacy, what it was, how it worked, and so forth. He had been an international citizen first and a pirate second, and thus, this upbringing had taught him at least the basic of negotiation. He could understand what each side wanted, to a point, and he could bargain fairly well. It had to do with his merchant blood, he guessed. Merchants tended to be able to bargain very well and to swindle their enemies. The captain only hoped that he could live up to that reputation.

His first mate, Scevar, seemed a bit more anxious when he received the message from the I.C.S. Desolatia. Not simply did they have military superiority in this encounter (when one discounted the elusive ship that had only just appeared and had not yet identified itself) but they also were aware of it. The captain had managed to isolate various messages going between the ships in the area. Of course, his technology was nowhere near able to identify what the contents of each message was, but it was adequate. What had the first mate concerned was that almost all of the messages (all but those to the Gorgon's Wrath, in fact) had been sent to the Crossmanian fleet. Was this an indicator of problems? If so, what were they?

"I have a another response written up to the fleet, Scevar." the captain said, passing it to him. The first mate rather quickly skimmed through the message, cutting out words and marking others down. "It is still very transparent, you know. All these questions and lack of proper spacing - this gives it a very hasty feel. While it serves its purpose, captain, it may not convince them of our purpose." The captain rubbed his brow. "It doesn't matter, Scevar. Just send the message." The first mate nodded and proceeded to do so, a dubious look etched on his face.

Flag Captain Darkwood -

That the is the very object which we are also currently investigating. As far as we can tell, this ship is from a far more primitive society than our own (more primative than us compared to you, for example). We also wish to know why you are currently in the space that is the claimed territory of Auxilia. Why is this? Also, this is an exploration fleet? Six ships? This is surprising to us. Are all your exploration fleets this size or this a special case?

In Greatest Sincerity,
Captain Helmer Agorian of the Gorgon's Wrath

Another message quickly appeared on the screen following the message from the I.C.S. Desolatia. This was from the primitive ship that had been noticed by both the Crossmanians and the pirate. Both first mate and captain stared at the message for a second, tilting their heads in almost total unison, trying to decipher the almost-phonetic spelling of the words. It took a barely-educated deckhand to figure it out - this was how the deckhand usually spelled, apparently. Both the captain and first mate looked at each other and then proceeded to write a response out.

Capitayn Fripan of the Sparki Shrooms,

You are lost? There is a careful remedy to that. As you can see, over there is an asteroid belt. Chances are that you arrived here via that belt. How did you come here? Was it by some sort of jump? If so, all I can advise you with is to try that again and hope for the best. Also, why are you exploring the sovereign territory of Auxilia?

In Greatest Sincerity,
Captain Helmer Agorian of the Gorgon's Wrath

The stream of particles accelerated to absurd velocities in the Soleil Royal's complex (Whether this complexity was intentional, or the result of a remarkable lack of skills was yet another object to discuss) field structures, the rapidly propagating edges of the same, and, of course, the absurdly gigantic 'Sail' of the ship were quite possibly not the most useful characteristics of a pirate ship - a pirate had to be unnoticeable, quiet, and careful to avoid being pounced by someone stronger than him.

Of which there tended to be many.

It was a disadvantage that came with using stellar masses to enable superluminal travel. A nuisance, certainly, but it sure as hell avoided the need to utilise somewhat more confusing means of doing the same.

Regardless. That everyone in the system would know about their presence within the time it took light to travel the distance from ship to ship (Or faster, if more exotic means of detection were in place) was petty much obvious. And the Soleil Royal being what it was - smallish by any standard but that of the Sanglanti -, plus the by now rather obvious presence of a sizeable fleet detachement that'd pesumably pulverise him in a second flat, Commandant Legrand wasn't exactly going to take chances (As much as his men were interested in capturing some prey, and the Austarian ship did sound (Seeing it was difficult, but listening to their transmissions, well... Less so) quite tasty indeed).

He simply had his ship coast about, slowly decelerating through what amounted to rather creative maneuvering, and watched.

Well. Listened, really.

In any case. He was interested in who was here, he did desire to know who amounted to usable prey and who didn't. And the fact that he hadn't actually had a successful raid in about six months' time didn't really help when it came to the pressure he was under, either.

Eavesdropping to see if something could be gained in here seemed like a good idea.

Hrm.

This did sound interesting.

The inhabited rock-thing was most likely uninteresting. Sure, goblins did allegedly like shinies - but well, just because they liked them didn't mean that they actually had them.

The exploration fleet that'd popped up was, well... Too big a fish. Way too big a fish. He'd have to wait until they were gone again before doing anything, really - hopefully, it'd be quick.

And then there were the Auxilians.

Sovereign territory... Only a single ship...

If nothing else, it'd keep his men occupied.

Fellow residents of this beautiful system,

I figure that since you've already traded introductions, it is time for my own person to introduce itself, rather than taking the risk of being considered something along the lines of an illegal alien.

As such, I wish to make known that I'm Commandant Legrand of the Soleil Royal, a ship of the Toulon Confederation, and I've arrived in this system on a more or less random basis - my apologies if I've been rude in doing so, however, as it appears to be somewhat unoccupied, I figure that I haven't yet triggered any security alerts.

In any case. Our purpose here appears to be rather superficial, given that the system seems to have been claimed already, and we'll as such leave relatively soon - of course, preparations will take a while.

In the meantime, it appears that our intersystem transition has broken some of our tubes - would it be terribly rude of the Auxilia to assist us in repairing the damage while we're still here?

Yours sincerely,

Commandant Legrand

The message was, incidentally, featuring an atrocious french - that the recipients of the same would probably be incapable of understanding it didn't appear to bother Commandant Legrand - after all, it was a beautiful language, and if they didn't seak it now, they could always learn.

Furthermore, it wasn't until after the message had been sent that someone on board of the Soleil Royal noted to his Commandant that the system was considered 'Empty' on all available charts - rather new charts, no less.

"Um. So you're saying...?"

"Either there's some seriously rapidly expanding empire out there, or they're lying through their teeth, just as we do."

"Hrm."

Maybe Legrand would've to change his plans, after all.

Drastique looked confused as she listened to the transmission from the Gorgon's Wrath. Sovereign territory, she thought. I thought they were exploring for new worlds. Oh this just keeps getting more interesting. And questing our purpose for being here? Ha, we could vaporize each of them before I blink my eyes. She smiled.

"Ms. Iwata, open another channel to the Gorgon's Wrath."

"Channel open mistress."

"Captain Agorian, as I said we are on a mission of exploration. This system was uncharted, hence we are here exploring. As such, we could hardly know this was sovereign territory of a nation we have never met nor heard of. Also, didn't you say you yourself were searching for new worlds for your people? Am I to understand that this system you were exploring was already claimed? Though to answer your question, yes, the is a quite average scout group for this type of mission, exploring the unknown. But, they have been known to be bigger than this fleet." She motioned for Iwata to cut the channel.

As she did, Hoshi Iwata noticed something on one of her displays.
"Mistress, our ship-to-ship transmissions have been being eavesdropped on. I mean, other than the general broadcasts."

Drastique's brow furled. "Source?" she demanded.

"It appears to be the unidentified vessel further in system."

"Jam their listening equipment. Don't block out their main comms though," Drastique said, her temper obviously rising. "I'm really beginning to not be happy with this situation. There's something shady going on. Someone's lying. Open encrypted fleet network. All ships, this is the Fleet Mistress. Something is amiss here. Hawk and Devonshire, keep an eye on that so-called mining ship. Valiant and Greyhound, watch that inbound ship. Aquila stay near me. If any of our friends so much as flinch I want them disabled, boarded and their commanders brought to me. Don't make anything apparent yet unless need be. Darkwood out."

"Mistress," Iwata said suddenly. "The unidentified is broadcasting a message. Universal translator says it was originally French."

"Well thats probable cause enough to have their ship taken down," Drastique remarked, drawing laughter from the bridge crew. Though Crossmanian English was the official language of the Imperium many languages were still spoken. French always found itself to be the butt of jokes after a failed uprising of French descendants long ago in the Imperium's history. "Well, let's hear it."

The message was read off and Drastique shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing for us to really say back to that. Let Agorian handle it. After all, its his territory." She smirked. "Just keep an eye on them Valeris. I've really got an odd feeling about this. Women's intuition."

"Aye Mistress," nodded Valeris.

Of all the presences in the region, it seemed the only one not eavesdropping or doing anything at all was the ACV Halloway. For the most part, they just floated around minding their own business. Scanning this location for this precious material and that location for signatures of life. Chartering all this information into the log books automatically, the crew was left to sit around and do nothing... literally. Just to be safe, they manned the bridge of the smallish ship; abandoning their post wouldn't exactly be helpful if in the event of attack or even just the receiving of a transmission from one of the ships nearby. In the meantime, the mission went smoothly and the Captain even joked about how 'useless' those warnings seemed to be-following procedure on stealth-like operations did their trick enough.

A small warning appeared on one of the displays of the crew, "Captain, I'm detecting some kind of pull on our starboard... have you any suggestions as to what this might be?" She paused. "It's starting to compromise on our integrity."

Cursing, Captain Hughes hit one of the rails that protecting him from falling, making it rattle. "Goddammit. Those fucking mechanics assured me they had replaced the $mechanical_part." He frowned. "I should have listened to Mario."

The crew members were puzzled, "Captain?"

"Nevermind," Hughes retired to his situation with a sigh. "I think we have a problem with the $mechanical_part. We're going to have to run some diagnostics, and possibly send someone out to have a look."

"Jenny, low our signature muffling efforts... we can't have that and provide enough power to diagnostics at the same time. It might make us visible to the craft all around us, but it's a risk we'll have to take." He snickered. "Unless, you guys don't mind not getting home at all."

The crew was in silent agreement.

Bridge, Crossmanian destroyer I.C.S. Devonshire:

Chief surveyor Angus McAndrews watched his monitor as the fluctuating signal feedback from the Halloway suddenly began to stabilize and show itself fully. "Commander! The Halloway has ceased its attempts to hide itself. Its showing up clear as day right now."

Commander Johann Walken looked down at his command monitor. "I'll be damned. Thats odd."

McAndrews continued, "It looks like they may be having some sort of mechanical issue, though I can't tell what."

"Hmm," Walken scratched his chin. "Well, just keep track of them and if they start anything suspicious we'll inform the Fleet Mistress. I'm sure they're noticing this as well on the Desolatia. Their sensors are better than ours, they'd be blind to not see it. We'll wait to hear anything from them before we make any moves. So, just stay awake and keep me posted."

"Aye sir."

(OOC: Just checking to see if this is going to keep going.)

[OOC: Been unable to post IC'ly with this account - sorry guys. Crossman, don't worry. Some of us like a leisurely pace to our RP's. *wink*]

[OOC: Been unable to post IC'ly with this account - sorry guys. Crossman, don't worry. Some of us like a leisurely pace to our RP's. *wink*]

(OOC: Ah, okay. I had been having some trouble with my account a while ago. Haha, no prob. I was just checking. I build up momentum sometimes and get anxious. Besides, my trigger finger is getting itchy. :p Well, whenever you guys are ready.)