NationStates Jolt Archive

“I’m sorry, but I’ll need to see clearance,” the station commander said, looking at the comms officer who sat looking confused. “Tell them it’s just too dangerous beyond Bretonian territory to allow people to wander.”

“But sir, they say they are a mining vessel bound for system 282-B,” the comms officer protested.

“There are no exceptions, they will transmit their clearance codes or they will turn around,” the commander said sternly. “They’re holding up the queue.”



“They want us to send clearance codes,” a gruff man said, turning around to look at a shadowy figure, looming in the shadows. “What should I do? Blow it now?”

“I was guaranteed that the codes we have obtained are accurate,” the figure said in a neutral, calm tone. “The last person who lied to me is… well, I am wearing their teeth on a wristband. Send the codes.”

“If you say so…” the man shrugged, turning back to a control console.



“They’re transmitting a code,” the comms officer sighed. He hated when ships were refused entry; the backlog, the paperwork… he could drown in it. “Code checks out. Crisis averted...”

“Good,” the commander nodded. “Keep the traffic moving.”

“Cargo vessel ‘Supernova’ Beta-1181, you are cleared for jump gate access,” the comms officer said, carrying on with standard procedure. “Activating jump gate system.”



In space, beside a large space station, a peculiar ring-shaped device, colossal in size, began to whirr. Coils began charging as energy fields were established. Two prong-like barriers slowly opened wide, giving the appearance of pincer-like jaws, gaping open. Within the centre of the ring, a swirling energy whirlpool began to form, blasting light and radiation out as it grew to fill the centre of the ring.

As it appeared to stabilise, a standard cargo ship began to accelerate towards it. It slowly began entering the jump hole, everything proceeding as normal. Until it was about halfway through. An explosion blasted through the rear cargo pods of the ship, quickly spreading across the entire structure. The jump hole began to grow and shrink randomly as a plasma fire ripped through the superstructure of the gate. Metal shards were hurled into space as the ring devolved into a sprawling mass of mutilated superalloys.
A jump gate essentially served as a huge superconductor, which stored more energy at any one time than a thousand nuclear bombs could ever release. The explosion from that alone blasted the space station to pieces, and all nearby ships waiting to pass into the jump gate. When the jump hole itself destabilised, the explosion could be seen from hundreds of lightyears away. A bright flash of light blinded everyone as radiation poured through the solar system, reaching as far as a nearby planet before its effects became negligible.



On the other side of the jump gate, in the Alpha-Epsilon star system, the jump gate flashed and flickered before shutting down completely. A short burst of radiation poured through the jump hole before it shut down.

“What the hell was that?” the nearby station commander, Commander Parkins, asked as he watched.

“I… I don’t know,” one of the gate monitors shrugged, tapping buttons. “The gate is completely offline. It’s not receiving any signals. Even the micro-hole we use to maintain communications is gone. It’s just… dead. There was a short burst of neutron radiation before it went down. That can’t be good.”

“Did the cargo ship make it through?” the commander asked. “Any survivors?”

“Negative,” the gate monitor shrugged. “Even if they did make it through, though, that radiation surge would probably have killed them.”

“Something must have happened on their end then,” Parkins said. “Can we get any signal through?”

“No sir,” the monitor shook his head, sitting back and folding his arms. “Nothing can get through the Great Barrier. The anomalies in there simply absorb or destroy anything that tries, even if it’s not in normal space. How they modified this jump gate to work is completely beyond me. Those eggheads can do anything if they put their… well, eggs to it.”

“Damn,” Parkins said. “Comms; send a broadband message to every ship that’s currently exploring beyond Bretonian borders – have them come back here immediately.”

“That should be the HMS Victoria, the HMS Illustrious, the HMS Coventry and the HMS Ludlow,” one officer said. “I’ll make sure they’re accounted for, sir.”

“Now we sit back and wait to see if anyone fixes the problem on their side,” Parkins said, sitting down and folding his arms, gazing at the dead jump gate, its lights shut off, and its ship barrier half-open.

OOC: So what are you doing, sending out a message again?

OOC: Giving an IC excuse for not apparently existing for the past couple of weeks. I will add something to it tomorrow, when it's not 1:20am :D.

OOC: Ahh ok, join the GE!

Carlson flicked an elastic band across the room, smacking it straight into Peters’ face. Peters rubbed his cheek and shot Carlson a less-than-wholesome look, and continued to tap away at his datapad vigorously.

“Come on, man, you’ve been playing that damn game for the past three days!” Carlson whinged. “Put it away! Let’s stop at Planet Curacao and see if we can’t find some ‘companionship’!”

“No way my friend,” Peters said. He didn’t look away from his datapad. He appeared to be playing something akin to Tetris crossed with space invaders, though how it worked was not obvious at first glance. “Married man here, remember? We’re not stopping. We’re behind schedule as it is, and I don’t fancy telling the duty supervisor that the reason is because you wanted t o get laid.”

Carlson sighed and stood up, stretching his limbs as best he could in the cramped metal room. “You’re not as fun as you used to be. You’d be the first to suggest it!”

“I have a family now, man,” Peters said. “I can’t just rampage around the galaxy like an intergalactic pimp anymore. It’ll happen to you one day.”

“What, I’ll get a ball and chain shackled to my leg?” Carlson mocked. “I don’t think so.”

“No, you’ll grow up, and you’ll…” Peters was cut off in his tracks as a proximity alarm bleeped from the cockpit. Carlson’s eyes widened and they both immediately went through the door to the cockpit and sat down.

“Are we there already?” Peters asked.

“We’re between trade lanes, middle of nowhere,” Carlson said. “I’m picking up six small craft heading out of the asteroid field nearby. No transponders. Pirates.”

“Damn Corsairs,” Peters cursed. “Every time we make this run they make a pass at us. I’m bringing the EMP cannon online, maybe we can drive them off like before.”

“I don’t think so man,” Carlson said. “Another six fighters coming out of the tradelane on our six!”

“Which ones are closest?” Peters asked, pulling down a rickety targeting scope from overhead and peering into it.

“The ones to starboard,” Carlson said. He pulled some straps from the chair across his chest and plugged them into the bottom of the seat.



The large freighter slowly turned in space as it’s lone turret whirred to life, coming around to aim to starboard. It fired a sparking burst of energy towards the incoming fighters. It slammed into one of them, sending it swirling off out of control into space, immediately crippling its weak shields and sending it spinning off into space, temporarily out of control.
The turret recharged and fired another burst, but the fighters dodged it and kept coming.
Six came from the rear and began pounding the engines, crippling the ship. The fighters coming from the starboard shot its turret clean off, and fired at some of the cargo container clips, releasing the cargo containers from the behemoth’s grasp and allowing some fighters to grab them with tractor beams and haul them away.
Once they had all that they could carry, they launched what appeared to be military-grade torpedoes at the freighter, blasting it to pieces with ease. They turned and skulked back into the asteroid field with their prizes.

Similar scenes took place all over Bretonia; as the military devoted resources to the Manchester system and the devastated jump gate there, organised pirate strikes took out important cargo carriers. One Corsair squad even managed to capture a full-scale military station with next to no resistance.
But the pirates were the least of their troubles. The Dublin jump gate had been accessed in the confusion. A ship came through. At nearly 400 metres long it appeared to be built out of scrap metal, but it was armed to the teeth. It launched a barrage of daranium-tipped nuclear warheads at the nearby Border Station before it could even react, destroying it in seconds, and proceeded to enter the trade lane unopposed, straight towards Planet New London.



“All is going according to plan,” said one Corsair, to their shadowy leader. He nodded, probably smiling though it was too dark to tell.

“Yes indeed,” he said. “The Mollys will lay waste to New London, and once they have what they want, our new dreadnought will move in and take power from their crippled government. With extortion of gold from the newly formed Dublin state, and taxes from the people of Bretonia, we will make more money than was ever dreamed of before…”

"We have a priority 1 situation here," Admiral Rochester said, leaning down onto a large conference table deep within the belly of the HMS Carina. "The fleet has been put on Condition Red status until further notice. At 0817 New London time, the Manchester -> Alpha-Epsilon jump gate was attacked. As with all non-controlled gate shutdowns, the resulting explosion destroyed nearly every artificial object in that half of the system, and irradiated the nearby planet we were terraforming."

"Any leads on who did it?" Admiral Winston asked, sitting at the opposite end of the table. He was apparently the oldest man there, his frame frail and skinny compared to Rochester's stocky, middle-aged bulk.

"All bets are on Mollys, but the size of the explosion has made finding evidence difficult," Rochester said.

"There are several ships still beyond the boundaries of the Great Barrier," Admiral Winchester grumbled. "They are stranded, and there are no food production facilities outside the Barrier. I told you leaving the protection of this gaseous blue monstrosity was a bad idea."

"It is true that we have no contact with the outside world at the moment," Rochester said. "And all personnel stationed on ships and facilities on the Alpha-Epsilon side are stranded for now. We are still working on a second jump gate on the opposite side of Bretonian space, though it is nowhere near completion we have made preparations to increase the pace to allow those ships to return home for supplies, or at least to send some supplies."

"Why don't our new advanced cruise engines work in the Barrier?" Admiral Winston asked. "I was under the impression they are not part of normal space."

"Yes, they operate on a similar principle to trade lanes and jump gates in that the ship is phased out of normal space into 'jump space'," Rochester nodded. "However, it is closer in function to trade lanes, which do not phase the ship completely; it is in a state of limbo, if you will. However, even jump gates, which completely remove a ship from normal space, are negatively effected by the anomalies in the Great Barrier. Temporal anomalies, subspace anomalies, gravitational anomalies all act as magnets to ships passing by, even if they are phased out of normal space they will be dragged back in and destroyed by the stresses. There is currently no way in or out of Bretonia."

"We have more pressing concerns," Admiral Jones piped up. He was the youngest in the room, not including the female admiral who sat fairly quietly towards the far end of the table. "Ever since we sent the bulk of our forces to the Manchester system to try and rescue any survivors and investigate what happened, there have been reports of pirate attacks throughout Bretonian territory. We have lost record numbers of civilian cargo ships in a matter of hours. Worse still, we appear to have lost contact with our forces in the Dublin system, as well our Dublin Border Station in this system."

"I am aware of these threats," Rochester said, nodding. He sat down and placed his hands on the table. "I have received government approval to initiate an emergency lock-down of all jump gates, trade lanes and planetary docking facilities until we can secure the problem. Military vessels are the only ships with advanced cruise engines; locking down the trade lane infrastructure will force any pirates or terrorists to travel using conventional means; it will take them many hours just to travel within a solar system."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Winston asked. "Yes, you will leave the pirate ships stranded, but you will also leave any civilian ships using the network stranded also."

"I believe they have a better chance of survival if the pirates do not have access to the trade lane network," Rochester said. He pulled out a card, with a chain dangling from one corner, out of his pocket and slotted it into a round port on the table. "I need everyone here to enter their ID cards to initiate the lock-down."

The admirals looked around the table at each other, and reluctantly pulled out their cards and slotted them into the ports on the desk. They all turned them simultaneously, and a computer panel opened up on Rochester's end of the desk. He hesitated for a few seconds, and then pressed a series of buttons before pushing his thumb down on a scanner.

"Authorisation confirmed," a computerised female's voice said. "'Blue Horizon' scenario has been acknowledged. Counter-measures activated."

"Mobilise the second fleet," Rochester said after a solemn pause. "Have them come to New London using their conventional engines; best possible speed. I want them to see what's happening near Dublin." There was a chime, and Rochester pulled out his communicator.

"This is Captain Yates," a voice said. "Sir, Her Majesty, what little royal family she has left alive, and the ministers of parliament have all just arrived onboard and are being taken to self-contained living quarters."

"Thank you Captain," Rochester said. "Ensure Her Majesty and the Prime Minister are wanting for nothing during their stay here, and keep the energy sheath online at all times from now on, is that understood?"

"Yes, Admiral," Yates said, and the communication was ended.



Meanwhile, across Bretonia, bursts of light emanated from trade lanes; pulses systematically sweeping through entire systems as the trade lane network shut down, one ring at a time. Ships lurched sideways as they were abruptly pulled back to normal speeds. Jump gates ensured that any ships travelling through them reached their destinations before shutting down completely, leaving lines of traffic stretching back for thousands of kilometres.

The 400 metre monstrosity from Dublin suffered most of all, lurching sideways into an asteroid field as the trade lane it was using shut down. It sustained several hits before it managed to pull itself clear. It was only half-way to Planet New London. It began cruising there under its own power instead.

OOC: So this is just a story saying why you have not existed for like a month?

OOC: So this is just a story saying why you have not existed for like a month?

OOC: Pretty much. I have been meaning for the terrorists and/or pirates to try something big for a while now, may as well kill two birds with one stone.

OOC: Anyway I could get into this? Send a small diplomatic convoy and they get attacked somhow? Or I have a ship nearby that contacts the station?

OOC: Well, without the jump gate not much is going to go in or out without losing limbs... the Great Barrier essentially functions as a natural FTLi (some people even think it isn't natural, though the Bretonians sure didn't put it there...), albeit with nasty destructive side-effects. But if you can think of anything to do from the outside, go right ahead.

Be advised though -- if you so much as think of trying to hurt any puppies in this RP, I'll hunt you down and kick you in the shins... Kittens are expendable though.

OOC: Hmm, that 12km battleship, 3 of em actually, might be able to get though, But one is busy, one is being built and the other is busy, I'll send somthing small.
Greenway crusier, armed to the teeth, Prehaps they could work with the station to figure out how to get a message through the great barrier?
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OOC: Hmm, that 12km battleship, 3 of em actually, might be able to get though, But one is busy, one is being built and the other is busy, I'll send somthing small.
Greenway crusier, armed to the teeth, Prehaps they could work with the station to figure out how to get a message through the great barrier?
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OOC: If you were to try and breach the Barrier with a ship, the last thing you'd want to do would be to send a large ship in there. These aren't bad guys shooting at you, they're rips in space-time, gravitational anomalies with almost as much destructive power as black holes, and so on, all tightly packed into a blue ice nebula filled with asteroids and chunks of ice. If it gets you, it gets you, and bigger ships just make it easier for them to get you. Think of it this way; who has the best chance of walking through a minefield untouched -- a man with giant feet, or a child with tiny feet?
Thus, the perfect ship size-wise would be a shuttle or a fighter, or even a torpedo casing or something, but they lack the power required to generate strong enough shields to survive the other stresses. So something mid-sized, mid-powered would be the best bet, although the damage it would likely suffer would be horrendous, and once inside there's no 'quick, let's warp out!' chances due to the various anomalies that inhibit FTL travel.
A message would be considerably easier to manage, though. The effects of the gravitational anomalies wouldn't really bother a subspace message, nor would the asteroid fields. Just have to figure out how to shield it from interference from the other anomalies, and off it goes...

OOC: A Greenway cruiser is only about 340 Meters. I'll have it on a follow up diplomatic mission.
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IC:

" Dropping out of warp now, sir I think that is the same jump gate the admiral came across some years ago. " The bridge crew looked at each other; they felt something was very wrong.

" Open a COMM. to that station, something doesn't look right. " The captain said.
" Aye Aye opening comm. " As the COMM officer flicked a few buttons on the console. " Channel Open "

" Hello this is ECF Greenway to Bretonian station, do you read? We were coming here on a follow up mission. However you appear to be in distress. Some years ago, our admiral learned that the gate was not supposed to be closed. Are you in need of help? "

The ship moved close to the alien station.

One of the control officers looked up. "Sir, incoming alien vessel. No match on visual identification, but transponders suggest it belongs to the same aliens who operate that space station a way from here. And... now they are communicating." He flicked a button and let the message flood in through the internal speakers.
Two Bretonian ships had already returned to base for debriefing and defensive duties. They were motionless, docked on either side of the station. One of them was marked 'HMS Victoria'. Her commander, Commodore Williamson, was the highest ranking officer outside of the Great Barrier now, and he had assumed control of all operations on the outside until contact with the Admiralty had been restored. That included assuming command of the border station, which had superior command and control capabilities to any ship.

"Response frequency," Williamson said, pointing at the control officer as he walked across the multi-layered command centre of the border station. Windows surrounded the large round room, giving a view into space from all angles.

"Frequency established," the control officer said after he finished aligning the systems.

"Greetings ECF Greenway, good to see your people knocking around still; this is Commodore Williamson of the Bretonian Armed Forces, onboard Border Station Alpha-Epsilon," Williamson said whilst he looked over some sensor logs on another officer's panel. "We are just having some technical problems on the other side of the Barrier, I expect the jump gate will be up and running within the next..."

"Sir!" the control officer exclaimed, looking up and pointing out of the window, in the direction of the massive, light-blue nebula. The large round structure that hung in space against that backdrop suddenly pulsed with light.

"What was that?"

"Another pulse of neutron radiation, smaller and more controlled; that wouldn't fry you if you were nearby like the last one," the officer said, frantically tapping buttons. "It looks like the jump gate just lost contact with the entire jump gate network, not just its partner gate. The entire jump gate network has gone down!"

"Alright, ECF Greenway, those technical problems might not be so minor," Williamson said as the activity faded. "Our jump gate network is apparently experiencing some serious problems, and without the jump gate it is fairly impossible to find out what those problems are. This jump gate lost contact with its partner gate some hours ago, almost as though the partner gate was destroyed. Now it's lost contact with the entire network, which either suggests catastrophic failure or controlled shut-down. Either way we're cut off for the time being. If you were hoping to go through it looks like you'll have to delay for a while; though docking pylon 5 is not booked, so you can park your ship and wait it out if you want."

OOC: Going to make this nice and quick, it's 3 in the morning now. Just don't get freaked out by the 1st officer, there are a small population of furrys in my nation (I don't know why, part of some RP like 9 months Ago), but she is the 1st one to get rank, and It's going to tie into some other RP's so try and not get her killed.
Plus, I've been playing WAY too much Star Fox lately, and the rest of my population is human, only about2% of it is furry.
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" Sir I've been compiling records from the Prometheus's old logs. And I think it might be useful. Captain. "

" Very nice, very nice. Your turning out to be a great 1st officer, I'll be sure to send my regards to Starfleet. You should be proud; you’re the 1st member of your race to gain rank in Starfleet. "

She was a young blue furry was the 1st of her kind to gain rank in the ECF navy. And she was turning out to be a huge help.

http://www.starfox-online.com/armada/images/art/krystal01.jpg

They had compiled all the data from the Prometheus sensor logs and reviewed it, as the ship moved to dock with the station.

" Ahh, so according to these scans, a Micro tunnel has to be open to keep the gate in operation. And you did not detect one? Correct? " The Captain asked the young 1st officer who still seemed nervous; it was only her 3rd day in space. She begun to sweat, she was nervous it was also her 1st day on the bridge.

" Yes sir, according to Admiral Willing, this gate is the only way out, and when shut down it means there could be some sort of problem. They hardly had anything out here when the Prometheus came by all those years ago. Now look, this station is quite impressive for a nation on this tech level. In my opinion sir, they should have some form of FTL. If I may offer it sir "

He smiled and put his hand on her shoulder " Hey loosen up relax a little bit, your going to strain something if you keep that up. You’re doing fine. Now our sensors can’t get through the anomalies around that empire. Do you know what it is? "

She still seemed to be shaking slightly; she was still getting used to being around humans all the time. " Bringing up the data now sir, As you can see the entire empire is surrounded. The Prometheus made the mistake of getting to close; there are Temporal and subspace anomalies. The warp drive systems employed at that time nearly destroyed the ship, it was advised that it used the gate, which it did. Sir! "

The Captain reclined in his chair slightly " I see, didn't they teach you how to not look terrified? It's ok; I'm not going to bite you. Now you have the bridge, take us into the station and hail them. And let’s try to relax a little, ok? "

She seemed even more scared, she was given temporary command of a federation vessel. * I hope to god I don't screw this up, or its back to the village I came from *

" Yes Sir, it's just been that I've never been around humans in such close quarters before. " She shifted around in her seat and finally got the courage to give the order "Ye Yes Sir. Helm lay in a new course heading for the station. Mark 192... points 3. " She still seemed to be shaking a bit.

" Aye, Ma'm, We are nearing the station docking port. "

All her fur was standing on edge; she couldn't screw this up.

" Ok, cut the impulse Rotate Z-Axis minus 34 meters, maneuvering thrusters only. Prepare the Airlock. "

" Aye, Dead On Ma are we've lined right up with the station. Docking now. "

The Captain coughed several times.

She Froze and tried to remember " Engineering, bring Sub Light Engines to Cold shutdown. "

" Very good Number One, nicely done. Now, Hail them; ask for permission to board. "

She stood up in front of the monitor " Open a COMM Channel to the station. "

She stood as straight and she could and smoothed out her uniform as much as she could.

" VISUAL Channel Open "

* Oh why did he have to do that. *

The Image of her surrounded by the human bridge crew should have appeared on the station monitors.

" I am 1st Officer Krystal Omi currently temporally commanding the ECF Greenway. I'd like permission for both our crews to come and go onto the ship
And station. Your crewmembers are allowed to visit our ship and look around, and vice versa, if that is ok with you. If you would rather speak to my captain, he is available. And we think that we know what may be going on and would like to talk it out with you. Greenway out. "

The bridge crew begun to appealed her, she started blushing.

" Number One, very well done. But next time don't stand so rigid, you look like some kind of assembly robot. But you did very well. Now sit down, and relax. Why are you so shy? "

Even though most of her was covered in her uniform and blue fur, her face was still deep red. " I'm sorry, I learned all of this in my village, and we never acted like humans did. Starfleet trained me in my village, Your some of the 1st humans I've seen. Sorry Sir! I thought humans might have a problem with me"

The captain seemed angered. " Who told you that? "

The responded " A young man in the space docks. "

The captain slammed on the shipwide comm. " Does anybody here has any problems with the race or background?! If anyone does let me know now!"

Not a single deck reported in any comments.



" Come on Relax, and when the Bretoanians get over here, I don't want acting so weird. No one has a problem with you, now sit back and wait for a response. "

" Yes Sir. "

"What the hell was that?" an officer exclaimed after the image shut off.

"Looked like a meemow, only... blue... and with clothes on..." another added.

"And bigger," yet another chimed in.

"Stow it," Williamson snapped, still pacing from station to station operating numerous controls. "Commander Parkins, get down to airlock five and greet the ECF personnel."

"Aye sir," Parkins nodded, apparently annoyed that he was taking orders on his own station. He pointed at two armed guards. "You, you, standard security parameters, let's go." The two soldiers nodded and followed him into a large, spartan elevator, which started whirring down out of view as soon as they were all inside.

"Lieutenant, signal Captain Thrace on the HMS Coventry; tell him to disembark from the station and go and find out what's taking the other two ships so long to get back," Williamson shouted to an officer on the far side of the command centre. "And open another channel to that ECF ship!"

"Aye sir," the lieutenant nodded, trying his best to carry out two separate tasks at once. "You have one to the ECF ship now sir."

"Officer Krystal Omi, this is Commodore Williamson," he said. He never seemed to stop moving around, doing various jobs at once it seemed. "I have sent the usual commander of this station to greet you at the airlock; he is as well versed in the current situation as I, and will assist you accordingly. I am a little busy at the moment but if you wish to speak with me as well I will find some way of making myself available. Williamson ou... no, don't activate that subsystem the jump gate could explo..." The channel was cut as Williamson went off to correct the work of an apparently new officer.



While Parkins and the guards made their way to the airlock, the smaller of the two Bretonian ships docked at the station cut itself loose, and started pushing away. Its hull started to glow with a rippling green-blue energy field, and it suddenly shot off into the distance at a rapid speed, vanishing from view in a nanosecond. It left a barely-visible bluish trail, which dissipated shortly afterwards.



Parkins reached the airlock and started the compression cycle. The two guards stood casually behind him, leaning up against the wall, their weapons shouldered. They weren't particularly concerned, at least if they were, they weren't showing it.
There were some hissing noises, some clanking noises, and finally the two large, round doors both whirred open to the sides, and the airlock was open. A gust of wind blew out, and then all was calm. ((OOC: I am assuming that either one of your officers was now heading for an airlock, or you have guards stationed nearby. Please correct me if I'm wrong and I'll edit it accordingly.))

"I am Commander Parkins of the Alpha-Espilon Border Station," he said, apparently proud of his position. "I have come over to discuss the situation as best as is possible at the moment. Commodore Williamson sends his regards, but he is busy with my station at the moment..."

"What the hell was that?" An officer exclaimed after the image shut off.

"Looked like a meemow, only... blue... and with clothes on..." another added.

"And bigger," yet another chimed in.

"Stow it," Williamson snapped, still pacing from station to station operating numerous controls. "Commander Parkins, get down to airlock five and greet the ECF personnel."

"Aye sir," Parkins nodded, apparently annoyed that he was taking orders on his own station. He pointed at two armed guards. "You, you, standard security parameters, let's go." The two soldiers nodded and followed him into a large, spartan elevator, which started whirring down out of view as soon as they were all inside.

"Lieutenant, signal Captain Thrace on the HMS Coventry; tell him to disembark from the station and go and find out what's taking the other two ships so long to get back," Williamson shouted to an officer on the far side of the command centre. "And open another channel to that ECF ship!"

"Aye sir," the lieutenant nodded, trying his best to carry out two separate tasks at once. "You have one to the ECF ship now sir."

"Officer Krystal Omi, this is Commodore Williamson," he said. He never seemed to stop moving around, doing various jobs at once it seemed. "I have sent the usual commander of this station to greet you at the airlock; he is as well versed in the current situation as I, and will assist you accordingly. I am a little busy at the moment but if you wish to speak with me as well I will find some way of making myself available. Williamson ou... no, don't activate that subsystem the jump gate could explo..." The channel was cut as Williamson went off to correct the work of an apparently new officer.



While Parkins and the guards made their way to the airlock, the smaller of the two Bretonian ships docked at the station cut itself loose, and started pushing away. Its hull started to glow with a rippling green-blue energy field, and it suddenly shot off into the distance at a rapid speed, vanishing from view in a nanosecond. It left a barely-visible bluish trail, which dissipated shortly afterwards.



Parkins reached the airlock and started the compression cycle. The two guards stood casually behind him, leaning up against the wall, their weapons shouldered. They weren't particularly concerned, at least if they were, they weren't showing it.
There were some hissing noises, some clanking noises, and finally the two large, round doors both whirred open to the sides, and the airlock was open. A gust of wind blew out, and then all was calm. ((OOC: I am assuming that either one of your officers was now heading for an airlock, or you have guards stationed nearby. Please correct me if I'm wrong and I'll edit it accordingly.))

"I am Commander Parkins of the Alpha-Espilon Border Station," he said, apparently proud of his position. "I have come over to discuss the situation as best as is possible at the moment. Commodore Williamson sends his regards, but he is busy with my station at the moment..."

" Good job, now prepare a small briefing, I'll return, just give them a basic idea of what we want to do. I'll be going to the airlock, make sure you keep engineering informed. You have the bridge Officer Omi. "
The Captain went down the turbo lift and towards the airlock. Leaving the scared 1st officer to work on the briefing.

" What's wrong? You can’t relax and you won’t take it easy. You’re going to have a heart attack if you keep it up. "

The turned around to face the tactical officer standing above her at the Tactical console, and she stared at him for a minute. " I'm sorry, but I am scared of humans, As you know our race lives in a very remote area, I've hardly been in contact with humans. And our race hates them, out of fear. Look at this ship its just another killing machine. We don't see a need for things like this, or even a reason to leave Athens. I was different. Most of my people have never even seen humans. I'm still scared and a little worried I won’t be expected. And to tell you the truth I feel alone. "

He seemed a bit shocked " I see, you could use a friend, dinner tonight in the mess hall? " he said, and others seemed to stare at her, but no one saw anything wrong.

She seemed incredibly shocked " well I ran out of food I brought from home, I'd be happy to have dinner with you. "

" Now that wasn't so hard was it? "

Meanwhile at the airlock. ( Lets just say they started following )

" Hello, Nice to meet you. I am the Captain of this vessel, welcome aboard. I have an idea of what might be going on. And it would mean going into the rift without the gate. But we've done some homework, it may be possible. Please follow me to the conference room. "

On the way they passed several crew members, and walking by the Quantum Converter, Engineering was visible on the other side of a large lexan pane. A Large Red Sign Read " Current Reactor Power output 2,000,000 Terawatts running at 14% *

" The Quantum Converter is great, a good replacement to anti matter generators. "

They headed into a conference room, where the 1st officer, engineer and tactical officer were seated. " Meet my 1st officer, Commander Omi, and my Engineer, Shall we get started? "

* Super Power Point!, A Video starts playing, and Commander Omi stands up and begins talking. *

" As you already know, a Total failure of the jump gate, and according to sensors scans, the micro gate is down. According to information over 20 years old. Recovered from the Prometheus. We think that a total network failure has occurred on your so called " Trade Lanes " this is a huge problem. And we wish enter the rift, and then enter your territory, to find out what is going on. Engineer Warrison? "

She sat down and leaned on the captain, she seemed very traumatized after that ordeal. She still hadn't gotten used to any of this yet. “ You did fine, off. I’m married. “ He gently pushed her off him.

" Thank you, I'm sure you’re wondering how we can get though without being destroyed? And I think the answer is very simple. We've done scans of the rift, and while we cant get in very far. We may have a way to get through. However we would need a pilot who has been through before. I'm sure you can find someone who was on that battleship when you got through.
I think the shielding system can protect use from most of the stuff inside. However we cannot survive the anomalies, we would need someone at the helm that knows the inside of that place. if you approve, we can get started rerouting power to the shielding system and sub light engines. "

" Alight, if you approve, we can get going by tomorrow. "

"Entering the Great Barrier is not recommended, but as proved by the Commodore a few years back it's not impossible," Parkins said. "Though his ship was so badly damaged afterwards that it had to be shut down and towed back to shipyards... excuse me, for one moment."

He stood up and walked away, pulling up a communicator.

"Commodore Williamson, this is Commander Parkins," he said as he clicked it on.

"What is it?" Williamson snapped, shouting at someone just after.

"These lunatics want to try going inside the Great Barrier," Parkins said. "They say that they might be able to survive with someone at the helm who's been here before."

"And?"

"And... what should I say?"

"It's not impossible," Williamson said. "The Victoria made it through without someone inexperienced at the helm."

"With all respect sir, the Victoria had an energy sheath constructed specifically to withstand the effects of the Barrier," Parkins said. "Even then she was crippled."

"Their shields are more powerful, it'll compensate for that," Williamson said.

"Again with all due respect, power isn't the problem with the Great Barrier," Parkins said.

"Look, if they say they can do it, then we will help them do it however we can," Williamson said.

"Alright then, sir," Parkins sighed. "Who was your helmsman at the time?"

"My helmswoman was Lieutenant Page," Williamson said. "She's currently occupied but I will send her over as soon as possible. I will also send Commander Brady, as he somehow managed to keep up with the energy fluctuations in the sheath and may be useful somewhere."

"Alright sir," Parkins said. "Out." He clicked off the communicator and walked back over to the Captain and his peculiar-looking first officer.

"Alright," he said. "Commodore Williamson will be sending over a Lieutenant Page and a Commander Brady as soon as they are available. They both have experience of the Great Barrier from a navigation and engineering point of view. I hope that's enough. Also, I will make this available to you."

He pulled a datapad from his belt and tapped on the screen a few times, calling up some files. He then flipped it round, hesitated for a moment, and then handed it to Omi.

"That is a datapad with all the information gathered on the Great Barrier by Bretonian scientists thus far," he told her. "Sensor readings, probe readings, detailed reports of previous attempts to enter the Barrier and why they failed, theories made about the Barrier, and most crucially the entire sensor records and log entries of the HMS Victoria regarding the Barrier, the only ship to successfully pass through the Barrier so far. I would tell you what they did to the jump gate to make it work through the Barrier, but even if it weren't classified... I have no idea. They keep a lot of their inner-workings secret at the best of times. But this information might help you some more in configuring your systems. I will instruct the border station to monitor the edge of the Barrier so that we can find the optimal entry point when the time comes. We will also need clearance from the station to attempt to enter Bretonian territory... but that's just a formality. Computer records aren't exactly flexible, you know how it is."

"Entering the Great Barrier is not recommended, but as proved by the Commodore a few years back it's not impossible," Parkins said. "Though his ship was so badly damaged afterwards that it had to be shut down and towed back to shipyards... excuse me, for one moment."

He stood up and walked away, pulling up a communicator.

"Commodore Williamson, this is Commander Parkins," he said as he clicked it on.

"What is it?" Williamson snapped, shouting at someone just after.

"These lunatics want to try going inside the Great Barrier," Parkins said. "They say that they might be able to survive with someone at the helm who's been here before."

"And?"

"And... what should I say?"

"It's not impossible," Williamson said. "The Victoria made it through without someone inexperienced at the helm."

"With all respect sir, the Victoria had an energy sheath constructed specifically to withstand the effects of the Barrier," Parkins said. "Even then she was crippled."

"Their shields are more powerful, it'll compensate for that," Williamson said.

"Again with all due respect, power isn't the problem with the Great Barrier," Parkins said.

"Look, if they say they can do it, then we will help them do it however we can," Williamson said.

"Alright then, sir," Parkins sighed. "Who was your helmsman at the time?"

"My helmswoman was Lieutenant Page," Williamson said. "She's currently occupied but I will send her over as soon as possible. I will also send Commander Brady, as he somehow managed to keep up with the energy fluctuations in the sheath and may be useful somewhere."

"Alright sir," Parkins said. "Out." He clicked off the communicator and walked back over to the Captain and his peculiar-looking first officer.

"Alright," he said. "Commodore Williamson will be sending over a Lieutenant Page and a Commander Brady as soon as they are available. They both have experience of the Great Barrier from a navigation and engineering point of view. I hope that's enough. Also, I will make this available to you."

He pulled a datapad from his belt and tapped on the screen a few times, calling up some files. He then flipped it round, hesitated for a moment, and then handed it to Omi.

"That is a datapad with all the information gathered on the Great Barrier by Bretonian scientists thus far," he told her. "Sensor readings, probe readings, detailed reports of previous attempts to enter the Barrier and why they failed, theories made about the Barrier, and most crucially the entire sensor records and log entries of the HMS Victoria regarding the Barrier, the only ship to successfully pass through the Barrier so far. I would tell you what they did to the jump gate to make it work through the Barrier, but even if it weren't classified... I have no idea. They keep a lot of their inner-workings secret at the best of times. But this information might help you some more in configuring your systems. I will instruct the border station to monitor the edge of the Barrier so that we can find the optimal entry point when the time comes. We will also need clearance from the station to attempt to enter Bretonian territory... but that's just a formality. Computer records aren't exactly flexible, you know how it is."


The Captain was looking over the data pad. " Sub Space Rifts eh? Engineering! Bring the warp engines back online! We are going to need the extra power for the shielding systems. Commander Omi, I need some downtime, I'm going to lunch. Care to join me? " He looked at the alien officers " Interested in going to lunch while our people are prepping the ship? "

* Going to assume they said yes, Meanwhile in engineering, I guess your engineers showed up. "

" Yes, this reactor can output that much power and we should be able to output 13% more if we use the warp engines. " He walked the officer over to a large table, showing a diagram of power output and system status. " Now I'm going to need help reconfiguring the power manifolds to put more power into the shielding system? Care to help? " He tossed the officer a containment suit " Quantum Energy isn't fun if you get exposed to it. "

* Meanwhile on the bridge *

" Here is the helm control, and to your right you will see Engine output, and shielding grid output. Pay Attention, Anything else you need to know? Oh yes everything is touch sensitive, you just need to tap it. "

* In the Mess *

" Commander Omi, you still seem nervous. Whets with you? "

He Turned to face the alien officers, " Ever have an officer who is too nervous about everything that she can’t even eat?

OOC: Sorry, that was kind of cacky, I'll make it up. Just assume that they are getting ready, and why my 1st officer is freaked out, I got a meeting I need to run to, so sorry for crappy post.

OOC: Sorry; ironically on a thread explaining IC where I've been I can't stick around very much :D. I will post whenever I can, but it'll probably be slow-going for a while so bear with me.

IC:

"This is impressive," Brady said while he looked over some of their power flow settings. "They've been tinkering with laser-induced fusion reactors back in Cambridge, but they don't produce quite as much power. And... here. This should stop your power conduits from spontaneously combusting."

He tapped some keys and the power transfer rate changed slightly, apparently not having any effect on anything. He looked at some other panels and frowned.

"If I were you I'd tell your captain to disable those things," he said. He pointed at a diagram of the ship, at the warp nacelles. "The power system itself is fine, but those engine coils will act like big-ass magnets if they're charged, I swear to the Divinity. Anyway, the adjustments I've made should last about half the trip; they'll need changing halfway through or they'll explode anyway, but for now this should do the trick."

***

On the bridge, Lieutenant Nathalie Page nodded as she was instructed in the use of the helm, and then tried out some simulations to get the hang of it.

***

In the messhall, Commander Parkins looked over at the Captain as he asked a question.

"Too nervous to eat, you say?" Parkins exclaimed. "No, can't say that I've ever had that problem. I tell you what though, a Bretonian sure loves their food. They'd have to be seriously ill to not want to eat a good meal. Why what's up with... her? What is she, exactly? I won't claim to have seen many... well, any aliens, but that's gotta be one of the most bizarre species I've ever clapped eyes on before."

OOC: Akk, I've been busy to, so I'll post when I can, C? This post will begin the final preparations. Sorry if it's shifty. Spelling may suck. I dont have the money for word. So I use Abi Word 2.2
************************************************************
ICly:

Engineering:

He saw him fiddling with controls. He walked over and said " You know, Those are not warp nachells, to the extent on the ship that you saw 20 years ago. It's called Cox-aile(how the hell do you spell that ) Warp Drive. It's an incredibly advanced FTL, only a few years old to. They don't act like warp nachells. But I do see your point. Lets turn this bitch off! "

He began pressing several LED's on the control panel, and the Coaxile nacelle powered down.

" Hey Watch this! " He pressed several red buttons, and power levels begun to raise at a rate of 40% a second. Within 10 seconds the reactor was at full power. " OK, time to reroute power to the shielding grid. "

On The Bridge:

" OK, you seem to have it down. Remember, you can hit the boost and get this bitch up to .70C if the need be "

Mess Hall:

Commander Omi seemed to get teary eyed, the Tactical officer sat down at the table, she nuzzled up on his side.

The captain looked back in the direction of the alien officers " Well Well, it's story time! You see, she is what is referred to as a " Furry ". She still wont tell me what they call themselves, though she has only been in space for 3 days. Now on Athens, 2 races survived up until this point. Which is very very very rare. Anywhere, as you must have figured out if you've discovered FTL drive. They were almost wiped out by humans long ago, in a massive war. Nearly 4,000 years ago. And ever since then they have distanced themseveles from us. Hardly anything is known about them. Expect for the fact that this one seems to be very shy. There is a large amount of fear, on there part. Commander Omi is the 1st and only furry to take up the offer of joining the armed forces. The rest just ignored us. But they are not really an established race. They have never even made it into space. Because of the fact that while they were still recovering from World War 7, there was only about 200 of them left. The East Federation was already hard at work developing FTL Drive. She is the ' Fox ' breed, probably because thats what she kinda looks like. But As i said. She wont even talk to hardly anyone, expect a few of the crew. Seems like she is warming up to our tactical officer. I'll need to have a talk with her, she doesnt appear to like our food, I'll have chef whip her up a salad or somthing, I dont think they eat meat.

But yeah she is incredibly nervours, I'm not sure why, but it was damm funny, her " Uniform " wasn't exactly regulation when she got on board, she is strange, http://www.starfox-online.com/media/wallpaper/krystal-800.jpg
Tell me a bit about the food on your homeworld. And please, if you want more pizza, just ask. This PDA is cool and cool! I forgot I had these pictures

What other pictures do I have?

Oh look at a new ship that is being built! Take a look at the computer renders http://s4.invisionfree.com/USF_Communications/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=8610524
http://s4.invisionfree.com/USF_Communications/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=8619139
It's the avenger, due out quite soon actually. The ship is furthest over to the left of that picture, the rest are Xemssthian Naval Vessels, a close ally of ours. ( Photo credit to him ). Our ship is 3rd over in the top. Next to the Small Triangle. This bitch is gonna be 12km of pure fun! Will be a good sister ship to the other 2, 12km ships we have* insert several minutes of convo *. I cant get through to her, your probably more experiaced with this, you try talking to her. We have half an hour to kill before they are all ready. I've tried, maybe you can get some info out of her, ha! "

The tactical officer was reading a PDA, on a couch and she was snuggled up next to him, he seemed very interested in the plans to the Avenger.

bump?

OOC: I'm afraid this RPs a little redundant now, ECF, sorry. I never had time to respond to it and I left it so long that I thought you wouldn't be interested in it anymore, and now Bretonia's not isolated anymore.

OOC: I'm afraid this RPs a little redundant now, ECF, sorry. I never had time to respond to it and I left it so long that I thought you wouldn't be interested in it anymore, and now Bretonia's not isolated anymore.
True True, and I realized that they weren't isolated when I did a search on your name. And never mind the fact that my nation from like 2 months ago has been destoryed about 3 times.

True True, and I realized that they weren't isolated when I did a search on your name. And never mind the fact that my nation from like 2 months ago has been destoryed about 3 times.

OOC: Yeah, I saw that, and it also made me wonder if this would be remotely possible even if it weren't redundant :D.

OOC: Howabot a an RP invovling my " new " nation. Would be cool to do an character RP in an uber paranoid communist state.