NationStates Jolt Archive

Space. Why was it black? Because there was no light? That's not entirely true. There were hundreds of thousands of millions of billions of trillions of stars in the universe; there was no question of there being plenty of light.
Ne'er-the-less, it was black. Black and cold. A deep, deadly cold.
In the midst of this morass of cold nothing, a planet hovered. It was nothing remarkable; mostly a desert world, with some post-industrial society on it but no real importance. The people of the world were on the verge of space travel and technology superior to that of 20th/early 21st century humans. It went about its orbit innocently, not bothering anybody. A few artificial satellites span around it, sending transmissions across their surface, as well as sending friendship messages into deep space, in a search for intelligent life in the empty void that was presented to them.

Space wasn't always as empty as it appeared to be, though. Sometimes, unseen threats lurked, hiding in the shadows ready to pounce upon their prey. The First Fleet of the Klingon Empire was one such hidden threat, though it was hidden no longer. A solid wall of warships suddenly rippled into view as they decloaked. Their hulls sparked briefly, too briefly for the naked eye to see, as they charged their deflector plating and raised their shields.
The fleet was large in number, over a hundred strong, and had various designs of ships; from the tiny, nimble, bird-like vessels that nipped around the front lines preparing for an initial assault, to the enormous, lumbering, God-like vessel that held back ready to bombard the world from afar. There were at least two classes somewhere between these two extremes, as well.

The ships slowly moved towards the planet, in formation. Some of the bird-like vessels lowered their wings into an attack posture and started accelerating towards the planet; half of them dived into the atmosphere, while the other half started shooting down the artificial satellites with powerful green energy bursts from the tips of their wings.

***

On the surface of the planet, a few minutes earlier, it was a fairly calm day. Roasting hot, as per usual, but calm and normal. So far, no other nations on this world had declared war on each other, which technically made it an abnormal day. Kosh didn't like to jinx it though. He looked back at the monitor and folded his arms.

'ETILRP, or, 'The Extra-Terrestrial Intelligent Life Research Project', was a dull assignment and essentially the end to any scientist's short-lived career. It was a laughable job, really; find intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, and try to talk to it. The government funded this project in the hopes of finding a powerful interstellar ally to use against other nations, and as such their satellites frequently got shot down.

Kosh's job was to analyse any and all transmissions received from outer space, and to try using different frequencies and bandwidths with their own friendship message, to try and coax a response. So far, all received transmissions turned out to be background noise, or pulsars. Kosh had continually told the government that intelligent life elsewhere was impossible, as this was the only planet capable of supporting intelligent life, and that they should assign him somewhere more important... but they ignored him, and simply bought him more equipment to use to shut him up. Advanced language translation computers, radio signal analysers, simulation computers, everything really.

But he'd prefer a stripper or something. It was boring out here in the middle of nowhere, roasting to death on his own. He'd...

There was a blip on the computer. A signal! Kosh jumped over and flicked a few switches, and sat near a speaker. Static at first, but it cleared up. And Kosh couldn't believe his ears. Voices! They were using a visceral language he'd never heard before, and it sounded like an exchange between several people, or possibly ships.

He wheeled his chair across the room and typed on a keyboard. The translation computer whirred to life and began processing the signal as it came through. At first, it sounded no different. But as the computer recognised and catalogued more grammar and syntax, the message began to clear up.

"...with... wing," a voice said. Kosh tried to clear up some of the static. "Instruct th... egin planetary anne...tion. The Vor'Cha wings will kee... em covered and assis... 'Var wings in planetary bombardment."

"Yes Ge...al," another voice responded.

Kosh's eyes widened. He had definitely heard the words 'planetary bombardment' in that sentence. He glanced at the various monitoring screens, but they were not detecting any space ships nearby or anything. Maybe they were talking about a different planet? But the message came from nearby...

"The Divinity will protect us..." he said worriedly as he picked up what appeared to be a telephone. He pressed several illuminated buttons, which changed colour as he touched them, and put the device to his ear.

"Sir? Ah, sir, I have received a transmission and... well, I think you might want to hear it," Kosh said quickly. He placed the telephone against the speaker and played the message he'd recorded again. When it was over, he pulled the phone away and put it back up against his ear.

"So what?" the military general on the other end said. "We can't see anything up there. How far away was that transmission?"

"Not far, sir, just a little further away than our furthest moon," Kosh said.

"There's nothing there!" the General shouted. "Did you make that transmission to convince us to give you a promotion?"

"No!" Kosh exclaimed. His eyes widened as suddenly the scope was filled with contacts. They appeared out of nowhere... "There, General!"

There was no response.

"General?" Kosh waited, but the phone was dead. The satellite must have been playing up again. He hung the device back on the wall and went back to work. At least out in the middle of nowhere he wouldn't likely be a target.


[OOC: More later. This is going somewhere, so don't just swoop in out of nowhere to defend the primitives... I guarantee you they won't need it]

Stage one was completed in a final blaze of fire, as an orbital nuclear weapons platform was destroyed by a barrage of disruptor hits; Birds of Prey mockingly ploughed through the flaming wreckage as they finished their pass. Other Birds of Prey had taken out or otherwise immobilised all the orbital communications and defence systems with little or no resistance. They now moved down into the atosphere to join the others in taking down key strategic targets.

Resistance down there was a little tougher. Atmospheric fighters were primitive in comparison to the B'Rels, but they were smaller and could run rings a round the larger alien craft. Their missiles had little effect against the energy shields of the warships, but there were some ocean-going battleships firing slightly more disruptive plasma charges up at them.

Regardless, photon torpedoes rained down on military bases and weapons emplacements, and ocean-going vessels could not survive the disrupter blasts being aimed in their direction. Fighter aircraft were of little concern, but whenever they got in weapons range they were destroyed.



Kosh frantically monitored the chaos as best he could with his remaining ground-based sensors. He watched in horror as hundreds of alien ships deployed themselves all over the planet, using some forms of energy shields to resist all attacks, while dealing devastating blows of their own. The technology of these invaders was just too impressive to resist.

He turned around quickly as he heard a peculiar whining noise from outside. He saw a glow of orange light subside as he looked. He grabbed an emergency handgun from a locker on the wall and cautiously ventured outside.

He peered around the corner to see them. Tall, burly monsters with long, scruffy hair and ridged foreheads. Their clothing and armour was largely ceremonial, and mostly black and silver. They carried vicious-looking bladed weapons in one arm, and what looked like handguns in the other. The one who appeared to be their leader shouted something in their guttural language, and they started walking towards the research facility.

Kosh jumped back inside, breathing rapidly. He could either confront them in the open, far enough away to avoid shots but also far enough away to miss -- he wasn't very good with a gun, and he only had one magazine. Or, he could let them get closer, then ambush them. He decided to wait.

One of the aliens poked its head through the door into the dark, bunker-like facility, and looked around. Kosh stayed just out of sight in the shadows and waited silently. The alien nodded to the others and they all filed in; seven or eight of them. Kosh hoped he had counted seven, because that's all the bullets he had.

One of the aliens shouted something vigorously, spitting as he spoke, and the others laughed heartily, patting him on the shoulder roughly. Kosh chose now to make his move. He stepped up, aimed his pistol at one of the aliens' heads, and pulled the trigger...

*Click!*

*Click-click-click-click-click-click!*

"Umm..." Kosh said, as all the aliens turned their heads around to look at him at the same time. Kosh smiled nervously.

One alien grabbed his comparatively skinny arm roughly and held up the firearm, crushing his wrist until he let go. He then shoved him backwards and held up the weapon, looking at it curiously. A grin came across his face as he flicked a switch.

"Foolish primitive cannot work his own weapon!" the alien bellowed, amused. "The safety was on!"

The other aliens joined in the laughter which reverberated around enough to almost make Kosh laugh. The alien leader suddenly stopped laughing and brought Kosh's gun up to aim at him. He pulled the trigger.

*BLAM!*

Kosh flew backwards, landing on the floor with a thud. He lay groaning, clutching his shoulder.

"See?" the alien leader said, laughing again. "Bring him! We need a native to make this equipment work."

Two subordinate aliens grabbed Kosh roughly and yanked him back up to his feet, ignoring his yelp of pain. They dragged him deeper into the research facility, towards the control centre.

General Suqh'Jeg paced the bridge of the IKS Negh'Var, irritated that this annexation was taking so long. He had given the fleet foolproof orders; it shouldn't be taking them this long. The troops were probably relishing the chance for combat, a chance they rarely got these days, but it would cost them.

"General, B'Rel wings have completed phase one," his weapons officer announced from the station behind him. "We are ready for phase two now, General."

"Good," he snapped, moving to the front of the bridge. "Hail the Vor'Cha wing commanders!"

"Yes sir," the weapons officer shouted. He pressed some buttons, waited, and looked up when a strange buzzing noise blurted from his console. "Channel open!"

"Vor'Cha wings, begin phase two!" the General shouted. "Orbital bombardment of all heavily fortified military facilities! Scan for radiation from nuclear weapons and destroy those as well! Qapla!"

"General, I am picking up a massive energy reading from..." the weapons officer trailed off.

"From WHERE, Commander?"

"From underground, sir," the Commander said. He looked up with a confused expression on his face. "It is coming from deep underground, and it is growing by the second."

"Recall the Vor'Cha and B'Rel wings!" the General shouted. "Fall back to safe distance until we know what that is!"

"It is too late, General!" the Commander shouted, pointing at the viewscreen.

***

"My name is Commander Kek'Raknos, an officer of the Klingon Empire," the alien said. He held Kosh down on the floor with one of his boots. "Who are you?"

"I... am Kosh..." Kosh said, coughing. "I look for intelligent alien life with this station..."

"Har har har!" Kek'Raknos laughed, pressing down harder. "It looks like today is your lucky day! If you wish to be amongst the people we will not be killing today, you will come with me and help me 'focus' our attacks."

"What do you need?" kosh said, struggling beneath the heavy boot.

"Some of your species have built fortifications underground," Kek'Raknos told him. "And they have primitive sensor scrambling systems in operation. Ordinarily our sensors would cut right past such devices, but as they are also underground it will take several hours to analyse and pinpoint them. Either that, or we lay waste to the entire planet. Unless, of course, you help us."

"You want me to give you the scanning frequencies?" Kosh exclaimed. "Never!"

"Then I may as well kill you now, because you will die when the planet is turned to ashes anyway," Kek'Raknos sighed. He pulled his disrupter pistol from his belt and aimed it at Kosh. "This is a nadion disrupter; there will be a few seconds of crippling pain before you are completely vaporised, but if you are a true warrior you will not scream."

Kek'Raknos deliberately took his time. He clicked the disrupter on to slow-charge mode, which made it whine in an increasingly high pitch for a few seconds. He then clicked it to maximum power and took aim. He made sure his aim was accurate, and slowly put his finger on the trigger...

"No! Wait!" Kosh blurted. "I will help you!"

The Commander raised his disrupter and smiled.

"I thought you might," he grinned, stepping back. He glanced back at two of his men and nodded. "Bring him."

Two of the Klingons reached down and lifted Kosh to his feet and led him back into the control centre. He was seated in front of the master console, which had apparently been tampered with in his absence.

"Find all of those underground bases," Kek'Raknos said as he pointed at the screen. "We will know if you have deliberately missed any, and you will be punished."

"I might not know the scanning frequency for all of them though..." Kosh protested.

"Then you will find the frequency to those you do not yet know," Kek'Raknos snapped. "Now get to it!"

"I will try to, but..." Kosh stopped in his tracks as he felt a rumble deep underground. The rumble grew stronger until the whole facility started to violently vibrate, knocking things off shelves and overloading various circuits.

"You lied to me!" Kosh shouted over the horrendous noise as he braced himself against the master console. "You've already started!"

"That is not us you fool" Kek'Raknos roared. He pulled a communicator from his belt and held it to his face. "IKS Negh'Var, this is ground force 1, please report..."

"Sir, look!" one of the warriors shouted. He stood next to a window and pointed. Kek'Raknos walked over and gazed out, and wasn't sure what to think. A huge, brown 'tentacle' had burst from the ground. It was colossal, reaching so far into the sky that he couldn't see the tip. It stopped rising and bent over. The tip plunged down into the ground with such a force that they flew backwards as the ground rippled. They quickly stood up and ran back over to the cracked window.

The tentacle was pressing into the ground to help something much, much larger pull itself to the surface...

"It is the Divinity!" Kosh said, dropping to his knees. Kek'Raknos sighed. He hated super-beings. They never fought fairly.