NationStates Jolt Archive

"Communications, open a hailing frequency to the flagship of the enemy fleet. I wish to speak with them." The Prime Minister had to prevent as many unneccessary deaths as possible. Enough people had died that day. His troubles -- and his peoples-- wore heavily at his brow. Terrible things had happened, he and his people had seen their first war, the hell of it. They had seen and heard terrible deaths of their people, had seen the ravages of their capital world, and Yohanne was so overwhelmed that when he thought of these things, he nearly fell to his knees and wept.

"Yes sir. Channel open.


"This is Prime Ministor Yohanne Schutgart of the Federation of Germanic Worlds to the flagship of the Dominion fleet. We offer you peace. Our peoples would most likely anihillate each other, or we would lose. Enough people have been killed in this war. We simply want aid to rebuild the damages that you have caused. Please move your ships out of our space and send a humanitarian fleet to aid in reconstruction. Please allow our marines to return to the Bismarck. I cannot say that we thank you, for I and my people detest your ways of "aiding" others, and we also know that many more will die on both sides if this continues. Please accept our offer of a cease-fire." That was it. He had offered peace. If they did not accept, he would have to continue with this war, but his people were prepared for the hardships. He sank back into his command chair.

*****

Admiral Hermenut was tired of this war, but not as tired as his hatred for the Dominion cowards. When he heard the message of the Prime Minister, his first impulse was to keep shooting the damn dogs. But his leader had offered peace. He would honor his leader's wishes. "WHat the hell is he thinking! THey killed our people! <sigh> I guess that it is in the best interests of our people. Hopefully there will be no more death." He spke the order softly, "Tactical, discontinue firing. Lower the sheilds and order all craft back to the ship." And so it was done.

ooc: please, only those who were in previous RP, and, you must state all ship descriptions, at some point or another, your intentions, and NO GODMODDING! THERE WILL BE NO "I SHOW UP AND YOU ALL DIE" SORT OF THING! ABSOLUTELY NONE! except for the Bismarck, which the RP is based on. for more information, review the first page of the previous RP, we cover the first page and a few posts from the fifth page. all else is deleted, like it never happened.

All fighters were breaking off and heading back to the Bismarck, marines filing back into their transports. Hopefully the war was over and the Dominion would respond.

[OOC: Urge. Sorry for being late with my response in the other topic; I've got it mostly mapped, just need to write it down and Maui's been running me ragid. Be back in Delaware in a few days, with a real computer, and I can bang out the boarding of the Wilmington and a few other things I've been meaning to take care of on my end(lots of explosions, for instance). Oh, and GZ, for the sake of simplicity in that, are your marines fully EVA capable? It'll flesh out the rest of the battle on my side until the petition for a ceasefire.]

***

"Preposterous!" Gaffe said in an equally credulous tone to no one in particular. "They want us to give them what?"

"Reconstruction aid," Lieutenant Bransom, the ship's civil affairs officer, replied in a monotone, "for the damage that has been caused to them, by the PFLTR and what we've inflicted thus far to the enemy's fortress ship," he fought not to tack on the word 'thingy'; the Bismarck wasn't a ship by the Juumanistran definition of the word.

"Aid for an attack that we didn't perpetrate?" Gaffe furrowed his brow.

"Yessir," Bransom nodded.

"And we're entertaining this suggestion...why?"

"Because, sir, we've taken heavy casualties and we need to stall for time," the Bristol's XO answered. Gaffe scowled. The question had been both rhetorical and sarcastic. He'd have to make a point to find the Bristol a new first officer as soon as this little jaunt was over. "And we're still awaiting further orders from home."

Gaffe sighed. He knew where this was going. "And just how much firepower is coming from home?"

"The First Rapid Reaction Squadron, Home Fleet's Fourth Flotilla, and the two new Constantinople-class carriers, JDS Vicksburg and JDS Chancellorsville." In other words, a whole hell of a lot of firepower, Gaffe nodded to himself. When they arrived, the day would be theirs. But that meant dickering for three hours. And he hated negotiating.

"Okay," Gaffe sighed, ready to face the inevitable, "keep up the rearming and repairing of all recovered fighers; put out the word to the fleet to do the same. Coordinate DamCon if necessary from up here. And," he sighed as he signalled the Comm officer to open a channel, "on with the show."

***

"This is Rear Admiral Vincent Gaffe of the JDS Bristol. We have temporarily ceased all offensive operations against Atheos and the Germanic Fedaration. We will not, repeat, will not be leaving Atheosian space. There will be no aid for reconstruction. It was the Germanic Federation that began this war; before news came that Atheos had been razed by pirates, pirates we were sent to help you destroy, we had never made contact with your government. We demand an explanation as to why you declared war in the face of Juumanistran offers of assistence."

ooc: yes. they are fully EVA capable.

"They ask us why we want reparations for damage that they caused to us in a terrible first-strike? What do these people think? Are they completly without honor?" Things just got better and better, didn't they. Ha ha. Juumanistra slaughtered thousands and then does not even lift a finger to help?

"Yohanne, you must not get so aggravated. If you fail, all our people will fail. You must remain strong. THey will have to listen to reason." The words of the Secondary Minister were somewhat comforting. "We will offer them peace once again, and give them a chance to right their wrongs."

The people of the Federation were way to optimistic, the Prime Minister thought. His people expected the universe to be a nice, kind place. But it wasn't. As evidenced by the sneak attack on Atheos.

"Comm! Open another frequency! NOW!" the prime minister shouted, so exasperated was he at the Juumanistran cowardess. "Juumanistran fleet! You attack our capital world, you kill thousands in a lightning-fast attack, obliterate a fleet, then send a battle fleet. And you ask why we demand reparations? Does your dishonor know no bounds? Can you not even offer some help, even though you cannot even possibly pay back one human life? We ask you for help in rebuilding our planet, in repaying us for the fleet that you destroyed, we ask you to atteng the funerals of those you killed. May your gods help you if you do not call off your attack and help us. In the hopes of peace, the Prime Minister Yohanne Schutgart."

OOC: Is it too late to join, and if not, what happened?

ooc: you really should ask Juumanistra, he knows best. Juumanistra? what do you think?

basically, the homeworld of the Federation was almost anihillated by a rogue terrorist group. They used ships of Juumanistran design, so I declared war on Juumanistra and brought my 20 mile long battleship out of mothballs with less than half of the ship functioning and engaged a Juumanistran fleet. I am asking for reparations because i believe that he did it, and they are wondering why i want reparations, its all one big inter-galactic mess.

T Mins Three Hours, Four Minutes until all hell breaks loose(again)

Vincent Gaffe felt like kicking a kitten. He was out up an interstellar creek without a paddle. His reinforcements were still hours out and the Foreign Ministry was still dragging its feet over what to do with the peace that been offered to Juumanistra. And, of course, the natives were getting restless.

"Comm," he sighed, "another channel, post haste."

***

"Look. We. Did. Not. Attack. You. Is that so hard to understand? If we had launched a first strike, why the hell would we have left that blasted hunk of junk you're currently broadcasting from in one piece? Or why would we have offered assistence in attempting to apprehend those who did do this to your world? We are no invasion fleet; that should be obvious by now. Besides, if we wanted to wage war, do you think we would have used a front group with as cheesy a name as the 'Popular Front for the Liberation of Tax Revenues'?"

OOC: Sorry for the shortness; have to be on a plane soon. GZ has summed it up pretty well, actually. As for anyone joining, I'm apprehensive for a couple of reasons. First and foremost is the way people tend to "roleplay", to rape the word, in II; it tends to work like this: "keke I wanna blow stuff so I send 10 million men and 300k tanks and kill j00." Swap out battleships and planet killers for future tech. There's usually no justification beyond a leader's offense and the player's desire to use military force; how many nations mobilize half a million men and send them halfway 'round the world because of an invasion in a nation that they've never shown any demonstrable interest in before? With no public outcry or backlash, no less?

Not that this applies to you, Wormia; I've seen the Chrome Fleet thread(TR's eating his heart out, more than likely) and you've got a good head on your shoulders. I've no problems with you joining the RP so long as your responses are kept proportional. By that, I mean keeping things quasi-realistic; you've heard of war flaring between a tiny nation and a mediumish-sized one, both of which are capable of starflight, but whom you've never made active contact with. You may have heard GZ's cry for help; but by the time you arrive, the shooting will have stopped. I suppose what I'm getting at is that I'd appreciate something sane appearing on the scene; a force of a few destroyers or something to that extent to help deal with the PFLTR(the original pirates) would be within reason in my book. A battle fleet(like the massive number that forced a soft reset of the battle thread) would be out of line. A diplomatic response would better still, but hey, that's not for everyone...

This was insane. Why did the Dominion keep up this screen when they knew that we saw through it? What good was our anihilation to them? Did they have an ancient vendetta against the Ancestors? After all, the Fleet of the Ancestors was attacked and almost destroyed. Only five million of the original 100 made it. But, why would they wait this long?
Dana wondered about this new turn of events. The enemy leader sounded like he was speaking the truth. She reached for the control panel across her desk and activated the comm channel. She could feel the heat from the plasma fires raging behind the Governmental Tower. They had been burning for days now, only 78% contained.

"Yes?"

Dana winced at the hatred she heard in the Prime Minister's voice. She briefly thought on what it must be like up there, on the ship -- but she banished the thought from her mind. "Minister? Are you alright," she questioned softly.

"Dammit, Dana, I'm fighting a war up here, and things are not going well! We've detected a massive fleet approaching the HomeStar, and you contact me and ask if I'm alright?" Yohanne was suddenly awash with hatred of himself. What was this war doing to him? "I'm terribly sorry, Dana, I shouldn't have lashed out like this," he spoke in a calm voice, but he heard his words crack every now and then. "How are the Fires?"

Ahh. Small talk. Yohanne always thought that small talk could fix anything. "They're just about contained. However, the First Landing Memorial was destroyed, along with many other landmarks. But that's not what I had to tell you about. I've been thinking some things over, and the Dominion may be telling the truth."

"Dana, I don't believe you. This has to be one elaborate deception. We have heard of this in the Ancestor's legends. There was once a great war started because of something exactly like this, and the Ancestors were driven from their home! We know nothing of these people. We have had almost no contact with the outside galaxy. The Dominion picked a fake name for an orginization, did as much damage as possible, retreated, sent another fleet for mop-up, and the new fleet is for the invasion. How much more proof do you need? The pretense of aid was bad enough. Juumanistra is obviously very adept at deception!" Yohanne couldn't believe what had happened to him in the last 72 hours. So much changed so quickly. The Dominion dogs wanted dominion over his people. He would not allow it. He was frantic now that the Dominion had convinced some of his highest-level officials. He simply needed more proof. His anger flared again, and he wished to end this. The social turmoil this would cause would be substantial. There was never so much hatred in all of the History of the Federation.

"I am just saying that the dominion does have a somewhat good argument. I just--"

Yohanne cut her off. "I'm sorry, but I must speak with the DOminion admiral now." "Comm, open yet another channel." He would try this again. "Dominion, we need more proof. Understand that this is our first war since the Ancestors fled their homeworld and left the Ancient Relics. We are not used to this, and we have never seen the likes of which you may or may not have brought upon us."

OOC: Hey, what's Delaware like this time a year? Its about 80 degrees every day at 9:00 in the morning here in L.A. Oh, also, shouldn't at least one of your ships, probably a destroyer? And, i am trying to introduce a mysterious history about a race that my people are descended from. I can say that the colony ships that were left in orbit were used in the construction of the Bismarck, and that we now use the station that they built, etc. And, my people are a little paraniod, if you havn't figured it out yet.

"..... Our marines found no medical supplies on your Battle cruiser, the Wallington or something. We also are wondering why we are picking up large trails that originate from Juumanistran engines heading for Atheos? And, the Federation Council has decided that we want only reparations for the destruction you MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE caused to Atheos, and we want your people to see the carnage and chaos. We do not want reparations for anything else. We desperately want peace, but we are prepared to die if you persue war. We wish you to prove that you did not perpetrate such a horrendus crime, and if that is so, we can never be more apolagetic for the wrongful deaths on both sids. Admiral Hermenut out."

T Minus 126 Minutes Before All Hell Breaks Loose(Again)

"DamageCon?"

A youngish lieutenant commander arose. Gaffe didn't recognize him; he'd more than likely come from another ship. Cooridinating the repairing and rearming of seven ships in the midst of battle was beyond the capacities of the Bristol's damage control teams.

"The situation's improving sir; all ships report all major fires have been extinguished," the young commander said, "and the recovery of all outstanding fighters has been completed and are currently refueling and rearming aboard the Bristol, Huntsville, and Ashville. Other recovery operations are proceeding, as well."

Gaffe gritted his teeth. 'Other recovery operations', indeed. That was a nice way saying that what remained of the crews of the Nashville, Newark, and Seaford were being scooped up from the blown out hulks of their ships. Over 1,300 men had manned the three vessels, of which a scant few were expected to have survived.

"Losses?"

"We're looking a quarter of all fighters lost; another quarter are going to require heavy maintanence before they fly again, along with the loss of two destroyers and a cruiser. Heavy damage was also sustained by the Dover and Camden, as well as the Memphis. And then there's the issue of the Wilmington..."

Gaffe found himself reflexively pausing. He'd learned to hate pregnant pauses. "What about the Wilmington?"

"As you know sir, she was boarded during the course of the battle..." the lieutenant commander paused a moment, deciding what to say next. Given his superior's reaction, his career may well rest on what he say next. "...to be quite frank, sir, she's a wreck. While the defensive teams held, six decks were blown out by that HEAMT detonation. They're having a hell of a time getting the ship to function with a quarter of it being a total loss. "

Gaffe found himself nodding. While the news was aboninable, he liked this officer's bluntness. "And what would have to be done to get her back in fighting trim?"

"Her crew's restored her firing control system and hopes to have her engines back online before the fleet arrives, but Captain Meljors has his doubts. He recommends a full evacuation and scuttling as soon as possible."

"When the fleet reverts to realspace, make it so. Reconfigure one of the launch tubes here if you have to; I don't want what's left of that thing to fall into enemy hands, even if it's malfunctioning," with that he dismissed the DamageCon team and turned his attention to Communcations.

"Ensign, please tell me you have some good news."

"A bit, sir," the young ensign dutifully replied, "the vanguard of the reinforcements will arrive in half-an-hour; they've detached the forces five destroyers and three light carriers who've apparently floored it."

"Well," Gaffe found himself smiling for the first time in the better part of an hour, "that is good news."

"There is more, though, sir..." the ensign showed the same hesitation as his superior in DamageCon had, "...the orders from Home have arrived," Gaffe cocked an eyebrow as to why that would warrant cowering before the ensign continued, " 'Rear Admiral Gaffe shall assume command of the joint Juumanistran fleet when the 1st Rapid Reaction Force, 4th Flotilla of the Home Fleet, and the JDS Vicksburg and Chancellorsville join the fight above Atheos.' That was all I'm classified to read, sir; the rest is eyes-only."

***
T Minus 108 Minutes Before All Hell Breaks Loose(Again)

"Sir?" His XO poked his head into Gaffe's office, "you called?"

"Yes, yes I did," he said, with an expressionless face. This would let him vent a little anger at General Command. His XO was the only other person onboard privy to most of his orders, and Gaffe had never really minded using him as a punching bag, so it was a win-win situation.

"We've got our marching orders," he faux smiled, "apparently the President has taken the choice out of the Foreign Ministry's hands. When the fleet arrives, we are to crush all enemy opposition until such time as favorable surrender terms are offered."

"Favorable, sir? We've barely fought off that thing to a standstill!" his XO whistled in shock.

"Well, we do have heavy reinforcements inbound; there are, what, 28 ships in the force?"

"30, sir. The JDS Bear and JDS Magnolia were just reassigned to the Pallidrome before its deployment."

"And the Fourth Flotilla and the Pallindrome are two of our best forces; we'll have five carriers worth mentioning, an equal number of Thebes-class battlecruisers, and a score and a half of other ships of war," he sighed, "apparently the press has kicked up a wildfire of sentiment in support of the war; he's boxed into a corner if he accepts a ceasefire without a victory that can be easily be won with a slightly bigger commitment."

"Which brings us to the problem of dealing with the Federation, or whatever they're called," his XO sighed as well, "they're demanding more 'proof' that we were not sent as a fleet of war."

"Which we don't have; put out a message, text only. Our government rejects the Federation's proposal for peace, given such ridiculous terms. More favorable terms, including the decommissioning destruction of that 'ship', as well as any and all similar to her as well as reparations to the families of those who've died here well bring about a reconsideration from the government," he was probably taking steps that he shouldn't, but he shuddered to think what might happen, should they happen to run into more of those 'ships', to abuse the word, "and talk to civil affairs; they'll help you turn it into something usable. Try to time it with the reversion of the vanguard of the fleet, if you can."

His XO nodded and left. Gaffe had a sinking feeling. It was only going to get worse from here.

***

Meanwhile, in the Juumanistran capital...

Joshua Beckham folded his arms over his chest. The war progressing murkily; operations above Atheos had stalled and the President was abhorrant of a ceasefire that did not produce definitve gains. And so here was the next phase; Operations Deep Flight and Clothesline

Operation Deep Flight was a strike deep into the heart of what once had been the Germanic Federation; a system denoted thus far as Jorius by Juumanistan stellar cartographers that retained a fairly extensive orbital infrastructure above a terrestrial planet. Most of the planet was apparently bombed out, with only a few outland settlements remaining intact. Capturing Jorius Prime, as the world had come to be called, would deny the Federation a key spaceport and trading post, as well as gaining Juumanistra valuable additional orbital production capacity.

Operation Clothesline was similarly a strike into what was once believed to be Federation territory. In the codenamed Sengalla system, there was a super-Jovian planet which had well over three dozen moons, including a three terrestrial-sized moon capable of support human life. Two appear to have once been Federation mining colonies, while the third was a refining and shipping point for harvested goods. Acquiring these moons, named appropriately Sengalla One, Two, and Three would greatly increase Juumanistra's own resource pool, as well as deny them to the enemy.

And both operations were to commence in twelve hours, if he gave them the go. It would be the first time Juumanistran boots had touched another planet's soil; three divisions worth of men, two to Deep Flight and one to Clothesline, were about to be deployed into hostile territory, hundreds, maybe thousands, of light-years from home. It was a weighty decision, one of life and death...

But the choice was obvious; they were too good to pass on.

He picked up the phone to Juumanistran Space Command, "Operations Deep Flight and Clotheline are a go. I repeat, a go."

OOC: GZ, please note that I am not making a powerplay here. I am playing my nation as I've cultivated in NS; a jingoist capitalist paradise which smells blood in the water and an easy victory(a nation of half-a-million versus a nation of far less than that). The landings may well be pushing it, I know, but you have portrayed yourself as an interstellar federation and landing on burnt out worlds that once belonged to you makes military sense. Should you have not in fact been an interplanetay federation, we'll simply say I'm raiding the remains of worlds formerly occupied by the "Ancestors", as you call them.

And secondly, since the PFLTR isn't capable of simaltaneously razing multiple planets(it took almost everything they had to do what they did to Atheos, and that was with its pants down), methinks anyone interested in playing a villainous alien race or alternatively generally detestable group with power(*coughWormiaifyoureinterestedinjoiningbutnotbeingnicecough* could claim to have done it. Or, if you aren't what I've come to believe you are, this can always be rescinded. But, since you did indeed want another alien race involved, I think it all sorta works out, ne?

ooc (yet kinda in-character, if u noe what i mean): Yes, the Federation is an alliance of worlds colonized by the Ancestors. 25 worlds are in it, some worlds with only a population of 500,000 or so. The ancestors left ships in orbit over these worlds after they fled their own space because of a terrible war. They were very advanced, and had ships like that of the Bismarck -- only larger. However, the ships and stations that they left were very small. Many of the Ancient Ships were used to construct the Bismarck, so not nearly as much money was required than if an entire ship was to be built from scratch. Those moons you spoke of are in fact deserted stations of the Federation. The Ancestors had left a structure on the surface, and we checked it out. Our landing forces were obliterated a few months after production. We don't know what by.

IC:
"Sir! We have identified 30 ships aproaching Atheos at high speeds. They are using a method of travel not totally unlike that of the Ancestors."
The ensign had a scar of burned flesh on his neck, he had obviously replaced Commander Uberhurgen sometime during the battle.

"They don't stop, do they? Why do they insist on our destruction? We simply ask for peace, and they are willing to drown us in their own blood yet again. (to science station) Lieutenant JG, what is the enemy fleet's status?" The admiral wondered just how much damage they had done.

"Three ships destroyed, two destroyers and a cruiser, thier battlecruiser is in ruins, and most of thier fighters are destroyed or dead in the water."

"Dunka. ShipBoardOps, damage report."

"Sir! Decks 456-513 reporting minor hull damage, Engineering is reporting that the Core has overloaded and is leaking plasma. 9,237 casualties, 2,193 fatalities. One- fifth of all fighters are non-operational,
shields are holding at 7 % and we are attempting to repair them. We have lost one of the PPCs and the Rift Genorator is finally ready for firing."

"Good. Inform the Austrian Ship-yards to deploy the Carrier. We need as much back-up as possible since the Juumanistrans will not agree to peace." Robert walked to his Ready Room and dropped into his chair. He looked over the Carrier specs. How in God's Holy Name were they going to activate it in less than two hours? His head throbbed like there was a brass band in the room; He needed to pay a visit to the Doc. His people were not prepared for this. They never would be. How would the Federation stand up to such a huge adversary? He felt as though their luck wouldn't hold out for the rest of the game. Oh, he had forgotten! He activated the Comm. "Get me the Prime Minister, Now, or I'll throw someone in the airlock myself!"

T Minus 97 Minutes Until All Hell Breaks Loose(Again)

Vincent Gaffe stared at the chronometer. A minute were left before the vanguard arrived and the battle would renew. As he stared, he could feel the ship tremble ever so slightly as the remaining fighters on the Bristol's flight deck scrambled.

At thirty seconds he gestured to the Communications officer. That broadcast the nicified version of what he'd told his XO; that there would be no peace without victory. Or, at the very least, most victory than a mere ceasefire.

And so, as time ticked down to zero, Gaffe looked out the bridge's viewscreen. On cue, space began to bend as the eight ships of the fleet's vanguard began to reconverge into realspace on the opposite side of the Bismarck. Five Syracuse-class destroyers and three Hellespont-class light carriers quickly materialized dangerously close to the Bismarck, a scant 7,000 kilometers from the behemoth.

"Fire!" And so he had given the order. The fight was begun anew. And his side had not yet begun to fight.

***

In rapid succession, the two Juumnistran task forces openned up; the fresh ships with their torpedoes and subtorpedoes at point-blank range, with fighters and bombers scrambling off the decks of the light carriers to begin their attack runs. On Gaffe's side, the combined fleet openned up with their laser cannons; they'd drawn close enough that even the smallish Type VI was effective. And even the mauled Wilmington's main battery of six cannons chimed in, as well.

OOC: And so ends yet another wonderful peace...but come on, it was getting boring, what with no one proposing mediation.

Ship Count:
1 Delphi-class carrier
5 Hellespont-class carrier
1 Corinth-class cruiser
1 Thebes-class battlecruiser(highly damaged, but bearing 95% of relevent combat systems)
7 Syracuse-class destroyers
270 fighters of varying classes; breakdown can be presented if requested.

T Minus 28 Minutes Until All Hell Breaks Loose(Again)

Joshua Beckham folded his fingers idly as he listened to the preliminary reports from the new offensive that was currently underway in what had once been the space of the Federation of Germanic Worlds. Operations Deep Flight and Clothesline were reporting complete success in their preliminary landings; Deep Flight had met token resistence when it boarded the orbital construction yards from the automated defenses, but it was quickly bypassed. Similarly, much smaller seizures of surviving orbital assets had occurred in three other systems, which too were reporting success. Then again, that was to be expected; initial reports had suggested most of the facilities were derelict, anyway.

Beckham heard the door open. He looked up to snap at whoever had entered; not knocking was high on his pet peeves list. His would-be snapping was cut short when he saw who had come in. That person was the President, and it was not good policy to bite the head off of your boss.

"Mr. President!" Beckham exclaimed, "what brings you down into my little hole in the ground?"

"There is a war on Josh. Didn't you know?" the President chuckled at his own wit, "And from what the Joint Chiefs tell me, we're making good progress."

"Fairly good, Mr. President; we've occupied or are in the progress of occupying most of the prime real estate in the Federation. The Juumanistran banner flies above five systems now, with another four that are under our de facto control. Resistence is non-existent, and we're consolidating our positions. The Federation is going to have a hell of a time dislodging our forces."

"Good, good," the President nodded sagely, "and what of their homeworld? Athens, or something like that?"

"Atheos, sir," Beckham corrected, "fighting has apparently flared up again; the whole of our fleet will join the battle shortly."

"How are we doing up there, Josh? Really, I mean."

"Not so well, sir; one of our darker strategic nightmares is coming true. As you know, our we've never really planned to deal with superdreadnaughts and things of that nature; they were pure science fiction. Twenty mile long ships just aren't within our realm of comprehension," Beckham confessed.

"And that's exactly what we've run into," the President sighed. He'd hit the nail on the head, after all.

"Yes, sir. And it's hard to continually reinforce operations at that kind of distance; hence our bumping up of operations to acquire forward bases in former Federation territory."

"And can we defeat that...thing, as it's been called?"

"Yes sir; if anything, material quantity will win the day. The only question is cost."

"And that assumes there aren't anymore of them floating around out there, either," the President shook his head.

"We've seen some activity in a shipyard on the far side of the planet; Third Squadron was relieved by the Second Rapid Reaction Force in Operation Deep Flight hours ago. She's been hell bent to strike that shipyard ever since. She should be in system within a half hour, just behind the main fleet."

The President nodded again. "What I thought you'd say, most of it, anyway. You've done good, Josh. So I thought you'd like to be the first to know I've decided to offer the Germanic Worlds an armistice; the Foreign Ministry has already drawn up the terms."

"But sir, didn't we just end a ceasefire with them?" Beckham cocked an eyebrow.

"Yes, we did; but we had little choice. The public would never have stood for the loss of three ships and 1,400 men for nothing. These gains provide more than enough cover to declare victory without annahilating Atheos."

"But sir...how, exactly, are you going to get them to come to the bargaining table? The last time we talked, you were fairly adament about not giving them anything they wanted."

"Politics are a bitch, aren't they?" he sighed again, "The fallout from giving anything to them without a shred of victory in a war we didn't start would have ripped the government apart. The party wouldn't be able to elect another MP for a decade, at the bare minimum. It was political suicide; but now that calculus has changed."

Beckham nodded. The President had always been a political animal. Here he was demonstrating that again.

"I got a request a few hours ago from a Federation officer inquiring about the purchase of a Thebes-class battlecruiser," Beckham cocked another eyebrow, "Yeah, that was my reaction, as well. At any rate, if they're interested in our hardware, it may well be a fair bargaining chip; throw in ample amounts of reconstruction aid and we've got an end to this thing. Just make sure the flag's raised over those other four systems; am I clear?" The President smiled. So did Beckham. He'd get on it immediately.

***

To: The Federation of Germanic Worlds

The Dominion of Juumanistra is willing to offer an armistice and treaty to end our current conflict. We propose the following terms:

I) Security
1. Effective immediately, all Juumanistran ships in the Atheos system shall withdraw to Jorius Prime.
2. In conjunction with said withdrawal, all Federation ships shall immediately be spacedocked and restored to a state as they were before the arrival of the Juumanistran Third Rapid Reaction Force.
-A: Within five years all ships returned to said state shall be permanently decommissioned and subsequently destroyed.
3. A ten light-year demilitarized zone shall be established between the new border of the Dominion of Juumanistra(see III.1) and the Federation of Germanic Worlds.

II) Aid & Reparations
1. The Federation of Germanic Worlds shall publically accept responsibility for beginning the war and apologize to the families of the deceased for the destruction of any and all Juumanistran ships above Atheos during the Juumo-Germanic War.
2. Recognizing that the Federation of Germanic Worlds was devasted before the outbreak of the Juumo-Germanic War, pledges $75 billion USD per year towards the reconstruction and rebuilding of Atheos.
3. As well, Juumanistra pledges $40 billion USD in military aid per year towards the reconstitution of the Germanic Worlds armed forces to offset for Article I.2.A.
4. Juumanistra also bestows upon the Federation preferred patron status, entitling her to a 35% discount on any and all purchases from the Dominion of Juumanistra.

III) Territory
1. The Dominion of Juumanistra shall become the soverign power within all territory seized during the Juumo-Germanic War. Citizenship shall be offered to all Germanic nationals currently residing on planets such as Jorius Prime.
2. All nationals who do not accept said citizenship offer are free to remain as equals, or be repatriated to the Germanic Worlds planet of their choice.

[OOC: This does not advance time per se; merely shows what's occurring in another place. Any and all fighting occurs as it would have. And this stems from the urge to do something until GZ responds.]

To the Dominion of Juumanistra:

We are greatly sorry for the contiued loss of life on both sides of this war. However, you instigated this war with your unprovoked anihillation of almost an entire world. We will give you no such concessions, nor will we agree to your terms. We were reasonable and offered a cease-fire and a means to end this war. However, you reinforced your positions durning this time so as to destroy our peoples. You shall pay for these atrocities, even if it means that you must anihillate our entire Federation. We will not sign treaties with backstabbing, honorless, scoundrels. May your people burn in hell always. Good day, and you can watch your destruction in the "comfort" of your "fiery" accomidations.

With much hatred,
THe Federation of Germanic Worlds

PS. If you survive this war, you will regret it. You will recieve no more offers of peace.

***********

Robert stood on his raised platform in the middle of the bridge and cursed himself that he had let the Dominion dogs live. He should have killed them like they killed his family. His terrible rage consumed him and he hit his command panel shouting "Bring the Rift Genorator on-line NOW, Ensign! I want you to send them into the great beyond! Tear thier ships into raw materials for another battleship. They will rue the day that they attacked us! Forever shall they remember our WRATH!"

The Bismarck rocked, new, louder klaxons sounded, warning the crew to get into position. Boots clanged against the metal decks as men and women sprinted to thier consoles and chairs. They had been trained for this, but never actually tested. Who knew weather or not it would work? It was a purly theoretical device!

"Dammit dammit dammit!" Shouted Yohanne as the Juumanistran fleet reverted to real-space. "I never should have trusted a wounded animal," he muttered under his breath. He had caused the deaths of thousands more. "Get me the Austrian Shipyards. They get to flip the switch on the Carrier. Lucky b------s."

*********

"They have desecrated the Ancestors ancient outposts? Is there no end?" Admiral Janus Legrange cursed the damn Dominion. They had recieved the order to activate the Carrier. The ship was left over by the Ancestors, and the Federation had converted it. It held a tenth of a million fighters, all in one monstrous hangar bay. When the Dominion had attacked, enough people to crew the ship had been shuttled to the Star docks. The Admiral was going to activate it for the first time. He had such an opertunity in the face of such adversity. "Dispatch marine contigents to battle the Dominion. They must be reppelled."

A young petty officer carried out the Admiral's orders. He saluted, turned on his heel, and walked off the bridge. He ran down the corridor to Marine Ops, and passed on the order to the Marine XO. "You have orders to shoot somethin'. Make us proud and kill as many of the animals as possible. They have become a pestulence upon the Galaxy." He grinned as he immitated the Admiral.

"Admiral, we have activated the Carrier successfully! It is on its way now in a wormhole. ETA is 10 minutes."

"Good." Finally the cavalry arrived.

***********

A large square about a half a mile on each side opened up on the fornt of the Battleship Bismarck. A large dish-like aparatus extended from the enourmous hole and opened up like flower. It pulsed blue, then flashed a bright white. A distortion began to form around a cluster of ships they began to appear wavy All of a sudden (please forgive, is only minor stating of losses) the ships lost power. What happened next shocked both fleets.

Alpha Six closed on the mass that was the Bismarck. An explosion off to the port caught his eye; for an instant he wondered whether it was Juumanistran or Germanic. It was only for instance, however; the hum in his ear went solid a nano later, indicating he had a lock.

He felt his Avenger buck; it meant his Weapons Officer had launched each of the four Mk. 4 HEAMTs the Avenger carried. He saw the other three bombers in his flight do the same. He slammed his left foot on the appropriate rudder pedal and veried to port, just as energy began to play off his shields from an enemy fighter making a strafing run.

As he pulled off, he could see his torpedoes making their way towards the Bismarck. The first impacted as dozens of others had on the shields; Alpha Six had expected as much. What he didn't expect was what came next; his second, third, and fourth torpedoes careened past where the last torpedo had detonated and slammed into the superstructure of the Bismarck.

"Alpha Six to Echo Base, we've got a hit! Repeat..."

***

"...we've got a hit!"

The sound reverberated through the bridge of the Wilmington. They'd needed some good news; and they'd just gotten it. Captain Meljors smiled. His bird was a tough one. One with teeth.

***

And with that, the Wilmington's main guns belched again, as did the Bristol's. And the continually volley from both task forces, missile and energy, continued upon the now shieldless Bismarck.

***

And so all hell broke loose. At a range of 70,000 kilometers space began to warp and bend, as multiple ships began to reconverge simaltaneously. One, then two, then four, then another four, then eight, then twelve, until all the ships in the force reverted to realspace. Here had arrived the Juumanistran fleet of war; some twenty-two ships, with a full deck launch of all fighter craft, with the addition of every ground-based fighter that could be scrounged up on short notice.

And so the game began anew.

***

Rear Admiral Richard Yevin sat enscounched in the command chair of the JDS Darlington. His fleet had made a headlong rush to get here in time; they had apparently arrived just in time. As the Darlington had reverted to realspace, what was left of Task Force 84 was enveloped in light and phased out of reality.

Yevin's mind began racing; orders to be given, manuevers to be planned, and the like. He'd just seen two-thirds of a carrier battlegroup just disappear without a trace, after all. His planning was interrupted, however, as he gazed out and saw Task Force 84 violently phase back into reality.

He began to ask for a sensor sweep of the battlegroup, the Wilmington's big antimatter guns belched. The Bristol's followed in quick success. And the smaller turret-based weapons of the battlegroup soon openned up in to the pace that they had been at before whatever the hell had happened to them.

They were no worse for wear, for all intents and purposes. Yevin smiled. They'd had all the fun so far. But no longer.

"Give'em hell, boys!" Yevin ordered, "Fire at will!"

***

And so it happened; torpedoes took flight from all of ships, as did turret fire and Mark III fire from the carriers and battlecruisers. The fighters accelerated forward to begin the task of assisting their brethren and mopping up what remained of the Bismarck's fighter complement, as well as launchin their own torpedoes.

And so, 16 seconds later, the first torpedo volley from the fleet crashed into the Bismarck; 215 HEAMTs blew past what little of the shields had been regenerated, with a 167 making their to impact upon the hull itself.

***

OOC: Justification for my actions is as follows; with regards to your shields, it's debatable as to whether that counts as a declaration of loses. Shields are simply another form of armor and, last time I've checked, it's never been a crime to declare penetration of armor. On a similar note, I'd suspect that those Mark III cannons have done some damage by now. With your already low shields(as declared in the post before the arrival of Task Force Alpha(see below)), one of those blasts must've hit the hull by now. And, regardless of how advanced your armor is, an antimatter particle stream with the size and density of a German railroad gun shell is going to maul any kind of matter-based armor.

With regards to the Rift Cannon; consider that a minor, in-gamish use of the IGNORE cannon. I don't tolerate black hole guns, interdimensional wormholes of destruciton, and the like. Why? In general, they're gayness incarnate. In particular, it's already a stretch for the Bismarck to even exist(we've been down that road, I know). Superweapons are simply asking to be IGNORE cannon'd. And, again with the standard, "what the hell" on the Carrier. 100,000 fighters? The ship would need a crew in the millions to maintain and fly that number of ships. Does your nation simply shut down whenever someone mentions war to man these things? And you'd need a logistical empire to successfully bring that thing online; I was under the impression that it was one that had been annahilated at the beginning of the RP.

And the issue of my landing sites; how'd you find about them, in-game? They're out of range of your dilapidated communications system(as was supposedly destroyed in the beginning of the RP) and the worlds are deserted for the most part and Juumanistra would be jamming the systems with known populations. The fact is, you might know that something is up, but you won't know where. Barring some serious dues ex machina, of course.

[Edit: Forgot the ship count.]
4 Delphi-class fleet carriers
2 Constantinople-class medium carriers
5 Hellespont-class light carriers
5 Thebes-class battlecruisers
9 Corinth-class cruisers
10 Syracuse-class destroyers
870 fighters of various types; dump can be produced is asked for

ooc: First off, the Rift Genorator is not a black hole gun, and does not destroy the ships. It only slightly damages the hull and temorarily knocks out all systems requiring power. Second, our people have only had one war, THIS ONE. We are fighting for our survival, and what else would there be to do besides contribute to the war effort? In WWII, almost all industry that did not have anything to do with the war was reconverted. So, it is possible, and, being Germans, we are ready for hardships. As for the installations, the Capital World is not EVERYTHING about a civilization. We still have our automated listening posts to tell us you are there. As for the Carrier, most of the fighters are automated and controlled on ship. About 10,000 fighters are actually manned. Which is a <ahem> fairly reasonable number. And as stated, it is a ship of the Ancestors. Second, yes much damage is being done to the Bismarck, However, there is so much ablative armor on it, and for some energy weapons, there is the deflection screen, can't take much more than a few hits, but its good until it blows out.

IC:

Admiral Janus stood on the bridge of the Carrier. They were about two minutes from the battle, and his hands were shaking, he was perspiring everywhere, and it was hard to think straight. He steadied himself on his command chair and ordered the Hangar Bay doors. They were going to launch everything at the Dominion fleet. His own son was dead because of them, and he would be avenged.

"Admiral, we are dropping into real-space now," A young ensign shouted over the klaxons.

"Launch all fighters now. Open fire with all cannons, and eject the warp cores and set them to explode close to the enemy fleet. Launch all torpedoes, and ready the PPC. We are going to show them what we're made of."

****

Admiral Hermenut pushed himself off the floor for the third time. "Fire all torpedoes on the carriers, Launch the second wave of fighters, and all bombers. Fix the Point-defense again, and get Red particle cannons back on line. Next, saw one of their cruisers into G with all particle cannons. Eject the warp cores like the Carrier and set to explode in proximity. Send them a message, text only, that they can surrender now or die."

"Yessir," the petty officer at tactical responded. "We can make some space dust and sell it for rebuilding money."

****

Fred saw the enemy capital ship in his sights suddenly lurch as a particle beam hit the bridge. He launched his torpedoes and pulled away. He saw the enemy interceptor too late. He hoped that he had made his father proud.

OOC: I'll just list things; it'll be simpler that way.

1) You never gave any clue that the Rift Generator was not a machine that generated rifts. Thus it is easily construed to be some sort of machine that creates dimensional rifts as a means of doing damage.

2) If you've only had one war, how the hell were you able to get the Bismarck online in the first place? Rounding up even a skeleton crew of 80,000 with the proper training to bring it online and operate it would be hard in the limited time between the first message of assistence and the arrival of Task Force 84, even with a well-established active duty and reserve system. And you appear to have managed to get the whole shabang online, with a full complement. That's eating up 800,000 of a 7,000,000 man population; it's only been two or three days in-character since this whole thing started, after all. And you're the one who's been portraying everything in terms of fire and brimestone; to the average reader, it'd be more akin to trying to reconvert all the industry in Germany in May 1945 to try to fight the allies more than anything else.

3) I understand that the capital world isn't everything. But again, you're the one who's painted things in a way that makes it appear that only Atheos had managed to survive the onslaught of disaster that swept through the Federation. As for listening posts, aren't those usually placed in other systems, not your own? And you'd still only know of some, not all the landings. They'd be jammed in the areas where Juumanistra saw remaining populations, after all.

4) So the fighters are automated. You're missing the point. The main problem with 100,000 automated fighters is that each of them requires maintanence. And maintanence on spacecraft is usually manpower intensive. Just because they're robotically controlled doesn't mean they're manpower free. And then there's the need for the personnel to control them. And yes, 10,000 manned fighters is unreasonable. The fighter corps of some spacefaring nations isn't 10,000. You'd still need a crew of over a million to service the fighters and operate the ship.

I suppose this is getting under my skin because I thought we'd been through this before; just because the Ancestors were advanced doesn't mean you've got an unlimited deus ex machina capability. You've still got to maintain what you create and you're in-game status at the moment is still that of a razed confederation of seven million or so. One superdreadnaught which the nation summoned for one last battle with what it perceived to be the enemy was good RP material. An even more manpower intensive behemoth for when the superdreadnaught is destroyed is asinine. I'm ignoring the Carrier. Plain and simple.

****

"Mayday! Mayday! This is JDS Bristol! We've lost the bridge! Admiral Gaffe is dead and--sweet merciful god! There's an accelerator breech on the port gun! Contain it now before we're all--"

Captain Meljors averted his eyes as the Bristol exploded in a fiery explosion. His eyes, however, quickly refocused on the battle, as the Wilmington bucked as another torpedo impacted. A few more of those and we're boned...

"Captain!" the Comm, now the third at the station during the battle, caled, "broadband message from the Bismarck; surrender or die."

Meljors immediately chalked it up to bluster, until he gazed out and saw the Bismarck was heading towards the fleet at what had to be the monstrousity's flank speed. Another blast from one of the fleet's Mark III's impacted against the hull, violently rupturing a long stretch of the hull. The shot would've gone wide, had the Bismarck not turned into the firing line of the fleet.

"Why throw yourself to the lions like that...?" Meljors questioned aloud, before he was interrupted by the petty officer on sensors. He'd detected a spike gamma radiation, as the Bismarck ejected what appeared to be her power cores. It was at that time it hit Meljors what was going on; the Bismarck had just become the galaxy's biggest kamekazi.

"Helm!" he shouted, "ramming speed! Put on us on course with the Bismarck!"

"But sir--"

"Just do it!" Meljors barked. And so it was; he felt the ship begin to accelerate towards the Bismarck. He only hoped that what he was doing was the right thing, because if he was wrong, he'd get no second chances at this.

Proximity klaxons began to sound as the Wilmington closed. Then came the first bone-jarring explosion. Meljors was thrown to the floor; more than likely the result of one of the Bismarck's power cores going critical and exploding. A second came in quick succession; Meljors felt his head impact against his command chair.

For a few moments, he felt an intense pain in his entire body, before descending into darkness and numbness. The klaxons got louder. Then there was light; endless light, bathing him in warmth. And then there was nothing.

***

"Damage?" The President asked. It had been eight hours since the Bismarck been confirmed to have been sunk.

"Task Force 84 is a total loss," Josh Beckham sighed heavily, "Task Force Alpha is at over 50% casaulties, at the moment. The explosion apparently played hell with the thinnerskinned destroyers and escort carriers."

"And the rest of our forces? The combined force of the Pallindrome and the Fourth Flotilla?"

"Mostly unscaved; we've still got a major fleet presence in-system, which has taken up orbit over the planet. They're wanting permission to squash what appears to be the conventional defenses left on the planet."

"Denied," the President sighed, "they think we're barbarians, right? Taking out what little self-defense they have left would just reinforce that notion."

"Noted, sir," Beckham folded his fingers, "but what do we do with them? We've got pickets in the remaining systems of the Federation. Mostly deserted, with a few outlying settlements, none bigger than 5,000 or so. Our control is fairly concrete; the only place it's not is Atheos."

"Which is also the only population center left," the President furrowed his brow, "and as much as I'd like to level the place to avenge for the 10,000 men we've lost and the fourteen ships, that's just not an option."

"Which leaves us with...what? An invasion? Sir, given what we've run into so far, trying to seize the place will be on the level of Okinawa in terms of resistence."

"I know," the President sighed again, "so we're introducing a unilateral ceasefire. The terms are simple enough; we keep everything we've conquered, we blow up any remaining ships of the 'Ancestors' that may be lurking about to ensure nothing like this ever happens again, and we're going to offer to help them rebuild their world, if they'll have us."

"So the war's over." Beckham smiled. While costly, they had won a great victory.

The President, however, didn't. "I can only hope. I can only hope."

ooc:

1) One, it does create a rift, however, not a very big one because we are not ver advanced in the Quantum Pysics. And so, it does little damage and incapacitates the ships for a little while.

2) If i've only had one war. THE AMERICANS OVERTHREW THE BRITISH WITH SQUIRREL GUNS! ALMOST EVERY FREEDON-LOVING MAN THAT COULD FIGHT GOT A GUN AND FOUGHT! Second- we did get 800,000 people to the system, and when we first engaged you, we had gotten everybody on board a few minutes earlier. You read how many shuttles the Bismarck has, right? In a few hours, those shuttles and others could very well gotten everybody onboard. Third, can we play like I have my current population of 68 mil or something?

3) The only disaster was the attack on Atheos. What I painted was the Ancestors fleeing something. They colonized this region of space. As for the listening posts, WE ABONDONED THOSE SYSTEMS because of a defense system of the Ancestors. It killed a full contigent of marines exploring the area. And, if Juumanistra wasn't there yet, when they drop out of space they aren't automatically jamming. My post could've sent a message. And your main fleet is to busy to be worried about jamming anything.

4) You have a point, but if I could <ahem> scrounge up the full crew for the Bismarck, I could probably find a measly 10,000 people. And, if the fighters were being maintained somewhat over the years, it would require much fixing at the beginning of the war. But if it never worked again, only this once, it served it purpose. Who said that I needed to fix all 100,000 fighters? I could only maintain a small amount. However, i should just drop the carrier.

5) I DID NOT SAY THAT THE BISMARCK WAS GOING TO DESTROY ITSELF. IT WAS ONLY EJECTING THE CORES. THE CORES WILL BLOW UP NEAR YOUR SHIPS. NOT THE ENTIRE SHIP.

By the way, I am thankful for your guidance. I really need it. Thank you.

1) On the Rift Cannon, that's why I maintain active dumps on every weapon system I employ. There's never any question as to the effect of what I use, so there's never any question as to what the exact reaction of my weapons do. Again, you never gave any indiciation as to what the Rift Cannon did, so I took the initiative. Besides, it was theoretical in-game.

2) Firing a flintlock musket is not even in the same dimension as flying a future tech starfighter. As technology has progressed, the usefulness of levying entire populations has decreased; finding the appropriate technical skills becomes increasingly harder as the level of technology increases. Not that people can't be retrained; that just takes time. And, since from the beginning you've been portraying your nation as a broken one of a few scraggly survivors, it's fair to question how you maanaged to round up a full complement with the proper skills among the decimated population. On the shuttle issue; since carrying capacity remains unknown, I don't know if it's possible. And the issue isn't carrying capacity; its unloading and processing. The sheer volume of incoming crew in such a short time would flood the Bismarck with men who had no clue where to go and would need to be told, hence processed. Similarly, the airspace around the ship would be hellishly complicated with craft coming and going. An accident waiting to happen.

3) A couple of points here. You're the one who's been painting the picture of Atheos being the only surviving bastion of the Federation. "A federation of 100 million reduced to 5", you said at one point. With the creator of the RP saying things like that, I was under the assumption that Atheos was the only remaining bastion of civilization left in the area. As for the listening posts; touché, assuming the broadcast as the force reverted to realspace. And you're wrong about the main fleet; the Juumanistran Navy contains some 450 warships. I've been trying to keep things reasonable in this particular segment of the RP, given that the said fleet is currently undertaking operations throughout two dozen system simaltaneously.

4) Ten thousand pilots, unless you're going to throw the janitors from the Ministry of Defense into the cockpit. Again, it all comes down to finding the right people with the right skills at the moment, since you don't have time to retrain anyone. Even by the end of WW2, which you've invoked before, new German pilots had at least some airtime before going to the front. It was usually 10 hours or so, IIRC. Anyone scrounged up for the Carrier wouldn't even have had that much. As for the partial maintenance thing; that works in the abstract, but you still have to have launch crews to get the birds off the ground. Again, manpower intensive. It's even more manpower intensive to let the birds sit on the flight deck ready to fly than to prep them to fly. And as for who needs the 100,000, you're the one who made it appear that they were all ready to fly in-game, with no qualifiers of any sort. And yes, it would be a good idea to drop the Carrier, deus ex reasons aside. The biggest mainline space tech carriers I've seen are the JDS Midway(360 fighters) and Klonor's Carrier(300 fighters). 100,000 fighters is just plain ludicruous.

5)
Admiral Hermenut pushed himself off the floor for the third time. "Fire all torpedoes on the carriers, Launch the second wave of fighters, and all bombers. Fix the Point-defense again, and get Red particle cannons back on line. Next, saw one of their cruisers into G with all particle cannons. Eject the warp cores like the Carrier and set to explode in proximity. Send them a message, text only, that they can surrender now or die."

Meljors thought entirely in-character that he the Bismarck was going to try to ram the fleet. So he made a command decision and rammed it first. But yes, I was under the impression that the Bismarck was rigged to go, due to the fact that she was ejecting her primary means of power(I assume so, at least) and the semantics of the second part of the same sentence lend credence to my point.

And, to be quite frank, could the Bismarck, in its current state, survive five million metric tonnes of dense material traveling at 185km/s slamming into it, complete with a substantial antimatter release upon impact? If you think it could, I'll gladly IGNORE cannon that part, but I'd like to hear a damn good reason as to why it would.

A better idea, I'd say, would be to let the Bismarck stay dead and simply fast forward five years or so in-game time. Conduct a diplomatic RP about the return of soverignty to Atheos and the withdrawal of the Juumnistran fleet that has been in orbit since the destruction of the Bismarck. It avoids the still ridiculously large material disparity between you and me, the prickly issue of whether the Ancestors are a deus ex factory, and the like and throws in some other funner ones like repatriation of outstanding populations, reparations for the loss of life on both sides during the war, and lots of diplomatic bluster. Besides, the President is going to make good on his plan to rebuild Atheos, which includes military aid. Which means a rather large line-of-credit at my storefront. :)

okay, I am going to be gone until tuesday evening. so this will be the last post for a while.

we have a failure to communicate here. A BIG failure. THE ANCESTORS colonized Atheos and other planets with 5 million surviving colonists. These worlds banded together after the Ancestors left some thousands of years ago. We reverse-engineered some of thier technology to build our civilization and ships. Now, the engine cores of the Bismarck supply the power to travel at speeds faster than light. Other sources of power are used for slower-than-light speeds. After ejecting the core, the Bismarck can travel at about half the speed of light, but only after speeding up. The Bismarck does not blow up. However, about 1/10 mile of the forward section of the Bismarck are destroyed. That ship, ramming the Bismarck at high speeds, would not do much. Have you seen Star Trek Nemesis? Remember when the Enterprise rammed the Romulan ship? It didn't go very far, now did it. And the enterprise, at full impulse, was traveling much faster than your ship. And the Enterprise is heavier than your ship. Next, the Core is matter/antimatter. BIG EXPLOSION. I have an idea to end this now, with both fleets pretty much alive.

IC:

Admiral Hermenut saw a lieutenant fly back from his console, slowly, he looked as though he was floating. He couldn't shake this gray fog in front of his eyes. He felt hands on his arms and the steps off the command platform dig into his back. He was vaguely aware of a slight rocking motion whenever he was not being dragged. He then closed his eyes and lost conciousness.

Commander Le Tua stood, yelling orders at the bridge crew. Enlisted personnel put out the fires that had sprung up everywhere. He watched as the Admiral was dragged off the bridge, all the more reason to get back to issuing orders. "Fire all operational weapons at the enemy fleet. NOW!"

"This is the Prime Minister to the Bismarck, we have been reviewing all transmissions of the original enemy fleet that attacked Atheos, and they identified themselves as the Popular liberation front of tax dollars, or something like that. The Dominion did nothing. We were wrong. The Ancestors were right. War is no solution.

What a turn of events. How many twists would this take? "Cease-fire. Recall all fighters. Plot a course for the Starbase. And, open a channel to the enemy fleet."

"Dominion of Juumanistra, this is Commander Le Tua, Commanding Officer of the FSS Bismarck. We have made a grave mistake. We came across a transmission of the fleet that bombarded Atheos. They were not Juumanistrans. We have made a terrible mistake. Leave now, and never come back. We want you to leave our space. That is all. We want no reparations for the attack on our planet.

ooc: to be continued.

1) There hasn't been a failure to communicate. You left out key backstory stuff that has only been revealed as the RP has progressed. I've done what I could with what was revealed at any given time.

2) To quibble about Trek semantics for a moment, I'll point a few things. I went digging on the specs for the Sovereign-class starship, which the Enterprise's most current incarnation is. It comes back at 3.2 million metric tonnes; roughly 60% of the mass of the JDS Wilmington. At the Enterprise wasn't hitting with its full mass, since part of what makes Trek's spaceflight possible is the warp field, which significantly lowers the mass of the craft for all intents and purposes. Thus, it was impacting with a hundred-thousandth or in that general vicinity. Juumanistra utilizes no such warp technology and thus the Wilmington would impact at said velocity with far more mass than a lighter Enterprise at a much higher velocity. Also, you do realize that the Wilmginton's stem was a little over 600 feet wide? A tenth of a mile? Please. And, of course, there's also the Wilmington's four reactors going critical, which will be touched on next...

3) I understand how matter/antimatter reactors work; they're the backbone of the Juumanistran Navy. But the Bismarck has also been pounded by antimatter artillery since the shields went down and, to be quite frank, I've yet to see any damage from them. Given how much firepower's been pouring down on the ship, I can only assume that you're discounting the explosive power of what matter/antimatter reactions. And so the detonation of the warp cores was played down.

4) "Pretty much alive?" Sorry, in-game continuity won't let that happen. Juumanistra gave the Federation two chances to do what you're doing now; during the first ceasefire, then under Juumanistra's terms. Backing down now will cause the public to smell blood in the water and demand a kill.

But, then again, who cares? As of this moment I'm IGNORE cannoning myself out of existence in this thread, since it's ceased to be enjoyable.

ooc:Terribly sorry. I assumed that the Enterprise would be heavier, as it is 685.2 meters long, 275 meters wide, and 120 meters tall, that it would be heavier. And, I didn't know the dimensions of your ships. From what I saw, (the Pictures) They looked quite small. But, I didn't know what I was doing. This is my second RP thread ever, and I also don't know just how much anti-matter is in those charges. I do know quite a bit about quantumn physics, and I also know that about a cubic foot of anti-matter at a few thousand particles per cubic centimeter combined w/ same amount of matter would produce an explosion that was quite large. However, if you are firing anti-matter straight at my armor, it will combine with the outer armor and the anti-matter will only destroy the armor. THe resulting explosion may destoroy a few hundred meters of the ship. I haven't had the time to go into that. But, I explained things so that my friends read and understood everything without explanation. I went back and read my posts, loking for some problems. But, for my first time, I don't think that they are to bad. Anyway, If you cuold give the specifications for each ship in the armada, particularly the Wilmington, I will write the explosion and proposed treaty tomorrow. Thanks for correcting me. Sorry for the frustration.