NationStates Jolt Archive

Hello and welcome to Bretonia Colonial News -- News for all the colonies.

Today it was announced by the Queen that the Great Barrier, the massive field of ice which has essentially ceased Bretonian expansion, has finally been breached by the HMS Victoria. The HMS Victoria, first of the line of Victoria-class battleships commissioned just last year, was sent on an expedition to try and find a way to navigate the hazardous field.

Without a jump gate on the other side, the Victoria had to use conventional cruise engines to pass through the Great Barrier. It has taken almost eight months for her to arrive there and send a signal back. The Battleship Norfolk was at the time the closest ship to the Great Barrier, and was the first to receive the partially garbled signal. Her captain immediately forwarded the signal on to New London for analysis. The Norfolk's captain told BCN news that he was "very, very proud to have been at the forefront of such a historic turning point in our progress".

The Victoria contains enough tools and materials to construct a new jump gate on her own in a suitable location. This will allow her to return home via the jump gate network, circumventing the Great Barrier altogether, and receive some well-earned maintenance. Most ships which have attempted to leave Bretonia space through the Great Barrier have been forced to turn back because of strange gravitational anomalies, and collisions with large 'ice asteroids'. The field is also known to garble navigational sensors and even clog engine exhausts and cause serious damage to reactors. The Victoria is the first battleship ever produced which utilises an 'enery sheeth', which is why she was believed to be our best chance yet of exploring space beyond our own six solar systems.

In the Queen's speech earlier today, it was announced that the Victoria was broadcasting a friendship message on all known frequencies, in the vain hope that other intelligent life exists in the galaxy. The Great Barrier has previously prevented such efforts. Her Majesty was cautiously optimistic that the Victoria would receive a response, but told us not to quote her on that. Sorry, your Majesty. The Victoria is under orders to attempt communication with any possible alien intelligence they can find, and to avoid negative encounters at all costs.

In other news, earlier today the Gaians launched another crippling strike against the Spa and Cruise liner currently visiting the Manchester system. Once again, torpedoes were used to cause massive damage to the starboard side of the luxury cruiser, before they retreated back into the nearby nebula. Police have told BCN that although they have been looking into the horrific destruction of the Camelot in two months ago in the same system, they still do not know who is supplying the terrorist organisation with torpedoes. More news as it becomes available.

And now the weather. Planet Leeds authorities have finally deactivated their pollution alert as the acid rain stopped three days ago. Meteorologists do not believe it will occur again for at least a month. Clean-up operations are already underway. New London is still undergoing flood season, with rains falling on all areas of the city. Planet Cambridge is the current hot spot for holidaymakers, with the current highest temperature of all Bretonian colonies at 42 degrees celcius.

This is John Evans of BC News, signing off until next time.

"Sir, if we're going to set up the jump gate anywhere, it has to be in this system!" the engineer shouted over the venting gas and fires. "We're running low on MOX fuel, and our air is venting! If we don't get back soon we never will, and we won't survive another trip through the Barrier!"

"Alight!" the Captain shouted back, squinting. "Set it up near the outer planet then! Some tugs can come through and move it later if they want it any deeper!" He coughed, and reached for a button on his chair. "Cargo hold, get to work with those gate parts!"

"Yes sir," came a muffled shout.

"Communications officer, are we still broadcasting?!" the captain shouted to the other side of the bridge.

"Yes sir!" the young man looked back, shouting as loud as he could. A holoconsole to the left of him exploded suddenly, almost knocking him from his chair, but he held on.

"Any responses yet?!" the captain asked.

"Negative sir!" the officer called. "Although I wouldn't be surprised if our receiving array was broken! EVERYTHING ELSE IS!"

"It's not so bad!" the captain shouted, grinning, as another conduit burst and poured steam everywhere. "Alright, just keep broadcasting! Helm, see if you can keep us still while they assemble that gate, will you?"

"I'll try sir!" a woman shouted, her red uniform torn. Blood poured from the top of her shoulder, staining the white parts of her uniform. "We're definitely not going far!"

"I know the feeling," the captain muttered, but she didn't hear him. Medics finally arrived on the bridge and headed for some of the bodies sprawled out on the floor. Another began helping the helm officer with her shoulder. The captain tried to keep calm on days like this, and simply stared out the forward windows. In Bretonia space, you could either see a polluted cloud of fog, or the bright blue-white Great Barrier. He'd never seen the stars like this before, and that was enough to help him keep calm.

"Sir, we are losing hull integrity," the engineer called to the captain. "We've got five minutes before it becomes too unstable to go through the gate!"

"Is the gate ready yet?" the captain shouted back.

"It's powered up and I've configured it to interface with the network back home," the engineer told him. "All we have to do is go through it!"

"Communications officer! Anything?" the captain shouted in the opposite direction of the engineer.

"Nothing sir!" he told him. "I've tried variable frequencies, signal boosters, swearing, you name it! There's nothing out there, sir! We're on our own!"

"Her Majesty will be disappointed with that assessment, lieutenant!" the captain shouted. "Stay here for as long as you can! Broadcast friendship messages in as many ways as you can, lieutenant! You've got five minutes, and then we'll have to wait a year!"

"I'll try my best sir, but I don't think there's anyone out there to listen to it," the lieutenant said, and turned around to his holo-console. The captain sighed, squinting through the steam and gas to look through the window. The jump gate had opened up; a glowing hole in space sat in the middle of it. Beyond, stars. He hoped there was something living on one of them.

"Sir, we have to go through NOW!" the engineer shouted in a panic. The captain looked at the communications officer, but he shook his head.

"Alright," the captain stood up, ducking under a piece of bulkhead. "Helm, take us into the jump gate, nice and easy."

The long ship's engines fired up. Only three of the four emitters glowed; the other seemed damaged. It slowly moved towards the glowing hole in the middle of a metal ring.

It reached the hole, and suddenly accelerated, threading through the metal ring and plunging into the hole. A few minutes later, the hole flashed, and disappeared. Two huge metal 'arms' whirred as they slowly moved down to partially cover the ring's hole. The flashing red lights on the end of two long marker posts stopped flashing. Silence. Beyond the huge jump gate, a huge, bright, blue-white nebula could be seen, a nebula which surrounded a thriving civilisation. A civilisation that nobody knew about.

A small marker buoy remained where the Victoria had been resting before departing. It had a flashing light on the top of it, and a small communications array underneath it. It was transmitting the same friendship messages the Victoria had been sending, only, nobody could respond to a communications relay.

"Sir! Incoming friendship message!" yelled the communications officer of the Veredian Seeker 7 class exploration ship.

"Roger that comms, pinpoint source then feed navigational data to helm. Helm, once you have the data, plot a course and take us there. Helm, send a response message. Alright people, this is what they pay us for" the captain ordered as he started drawing up first contact procedures from the database.

The comm. officer pinpointed the source and sent a standard greeting message, but got no response. he set the greeting message to repeat every five seconds and fed the coordinates to the helm station. The helm officer set in a course and turned to the captain, "course laid in sir".

"Roger that, comm, any response?" the captain asked.

"No sir, I've set the standard greeting to repeat every five seconds. The ship could be in trouble, or it could be some sort of satellite or buoy" the helm officer responded.

"Okay, if it is a ship, and it's in trouble, we oughtta offer a helping hand. Helm, take us there" the captain ordered.

The exploration ship shuddered and entered the blood red of hyperspace. After travelling for several hours through hyperspace, the ship opened a jump point back into normal space and emerged near the gate.

"Sir, there is a large structure, looks like some of jump gate or trade lane type system. I don't see any weaponry yet, but I've only had a glance so far. Judging from what I can see right now, it was built pretty quickly, probably an exploration ship set it up" the tactical officer reported a few minutes after the ship emerged.

"Thank you tactical, comms, is the gate the source of the transmission?" the captain asked.

"Uh...no sir, there appears to be a communications beacon of some sort transmitting the message." the comms officer responded.

"Okay, tactical, feed your sensor data to the boys in the labs, see if they can figure out if it is a jump gate of some sort, and if so, how it's activated. Engineering, I want a mark 3 long range probe to be ready to launch within the hour. If we can figure out a way to get the gate working, we'll send it through." the captain ordered.

The captain turned to the PA system in the left arm of his chair and activated it, calling the hangar deck. "Commander Velasquez, get your ship up and running ASAP and begin investigating the large nebula".

With the orders given, the captain sat back and relaxed in his chair, waiting for his crew to do their work.

The New London jump gate that had been constructed to connect with the new gate outside the Barrier came to life. On the nearby border station, bored personnel noticed and suddenly started activating weapons and readying communications channels

The huge arms whirred open, and a hole burst to life. A ship poured out, leaking gasses from various places, sparks flying from missing hull plates. As soon as it was clear from the gate and had slowed down, a variety of small ships moved from the border station. Some of them were simple shuttles loaded with repair crews. Some were repair ships, complete with external robotic arms. A few were evacuation shuttles, just in case.

The Victoria was immediately covered with them. Several shuttles queued up to land in their hangar bay. Repair ships set to work containing the leaks and reparing key structural areas. The Victoria herself came to a halt a few metres from the docking clamps of the larger-than-usual border station. The entire crew would have to be evacuated into the station to repair some of the hull breaches.

"My God..." one of the people on the border station exclaimed, looking at the scarred behemoth as clouds of gas blocked out the windows. "They really made it..."

"Signal the HMS Norfolk in the Cambridge system; tell them to get here as soon as possible," the base commander said. "Get the Victoria fixed up enough to head for Southhampton Shipyards for a full repair. I shall send a message to Planet New London alerting them that the Victoria's back. And keep an eye on that gate's activity, just in case." Various 'aye sirs' came back to him, and he turned and left the command centre.

The gate span to life, the large arms slowly whirring open. The HMS Victoria had been repaired, and was ready to go back through and continue her mission on the other side of the Barrier. Only, this time, she'd be fully operational as she wouldn't be required to traverse the lethal Great Barrier.
The gate activated; a hole flickered to life. The massive engines of the Victoria glowed to life, propelling the long ship forwards at a moderate speed. The last of her Crusader fighter contingent docked, just as her nose entered the hole. The ship accelerated, and then she was gone. The gate on the New London end shut down, and the arms closed back up again. Personnel on the neaby border station went back to being bored again.