NationStates Jolt Archive

Silently, calmly, the dark CS Varyag slipped through space, her ion engines glowing brilliant white with raw power as they pushed the large ship through the void between Neptune and Pluto, heading straight for the tiny planet. The vessel's turrets were in stand-by position, and only a handful of fighters flew in formation alongside her. She wasn't going into battle.

The Varyag had been travelling for several weeks now, and had finally reached Pluto after her last jump. Once she was clear, she would commence a test on a brand new 'warp jump' device that Coalition scientists had been working on for years. The warp jump was not thought to be as promising as some other designs, but the Coalition was willing to test any and all possibilities.

Few ships operated this far out. Primarily because there was nothing here. Pluto was a tiny, dead world, which could not support life and didn't have much worth mining. It was more like a comet than a planet, as was its tiny moon. Other than the wreckage of several Alliance carriers from the Great Sol War two decades ago, there was nothing.

This made it the perfect location to test an experimental, and potentially dangerous, new form of transportation. This far out, if the Varyag exploded there would be minimal risk to other ships. The Varyag was a Class 1 Strike Carrier, the second-most powerful ship in the Coalition Navy. Ordinarily they would not risk such an expensive ship on an experiment, but the point was that they had no idea how much stress the new propulsion system would cause; the Varyag was more likely to survive than a lowly cruiser or an older, less sophisticated carrier, and they lacked the resources to build a dedicated vessel.



Admiral Andropov sat aboard his mighty, proud vessel. His command chair was elevated higher than the rest of the dimly-lit, dull-grey command centre. It was a busy, bustling place, with large desks displaying sensor readouts, a huge, yellow-green navigational holo-display was fixed to the high ceiling above them displaying nearby objects, their course and their speed, and a series of navigational consoles lining the front of the cmmand centre, on the lower tier.

The command centre was surrounded by thick windows, which allowed them to see outside into the darkness. Andropov could just see the Sol star at the very end port window; it was tiny from this distance, just like any other star. Through the forward windows, the long, flat hull of the Varyag could be seen, stretching into the distance.

"We are ready, Admiral," Captain Chesnokov said. He stood over by several large stations to the starboard side of the command centre; near several of the civilian scientists that had been drafted for the project. They had been busy calculating power consumption, trajectory, shield modulations and the like. Andropov appreciated their efforts, but he was worried that they may not be working with their collective safety in mind.

"Lieutenant Satyev; recall the Black Sun escort," Andropov said in his gruff voice, looking over at the fighter command station. It was a large square console on the port side, with various overhead displays, built-in displays and touch-panels. No less than four people served on it when there was so much as a single fighter on duty.

"Yes Admiral," the lieutenant called back, and began to speak into his communications headpiece.

Andropov stood up, dusting down his dark grey uniform and tugging at the red trim. He stepped down from his platform and looked out of the windows, into deep space. He could never get over how different the stars looked from here. He wondered how different they would look in a whole other star system...

He watched the fighters head for the hangar bay outside, their engine trails painting across the otherwise dull void they travelled through. Once they were aboard, he looked back across the command centre at Satyev. Satyev nodded, saluted, and put his thumbs up. Andropov turned his head slightly, to look over at Chesnokov. The captain nodded and began instructing the scientists.

Andropov moved down the stairs to the lower tier of the command centre, making his way through the bustling crew. They were on a heightened alert, and there were people everywhere. He walked towards the navigational consoles which sat at the front of the ship. There, five crewmen constantly made adjustments to their course and speed, compensating for anything from particulate matter, to solar winds, to planets and asteroids.

"Crewman Modin," Andropov said quietly into the ear of one of the navigational officers. "I do not have high hopes for this experiment. If something should go wrong, you are to bring this ship to a complete halt without waiting for mine or anyone else's orders, and with disregard for any orders to the contrary unless they come from me. Do you understand?"

"Yes Admiral," Modin nodded. "I understand."

Andropov patted the crewman on the shoulder, and made his way back up to the upper tier of the command deck.

"Clear the bridge," he said calmly. "Captain, you may instruct our guests that they may begin the experiment."



The ship pushed forward once again, without its fighter escort now. It slowly began to accelerate to 100kp/s, its large mass putting a strain on the ion engines as they struggled to accelerate as fast as they could.

Cruising along normally, the Varyag's ion engines began to glow unusually brightly. They kept getting brighter and brighter, though the Varyag didn't appear to be moving any faster. Soon, they were so bright that they would obscure the view of anyone behind the ship, and probably cause damage to anyone particularly close to them. And yet the continued to glow brighter.

Space began to contort and twist around the ship; stars stretched out unnaturally, Pluto, just visible in the distance, became an oval shape, and the ship appeared to grow in length as it was stretched backwards. Suddenly, it pushed forwards... but something went wrong. The engines flashed brightly, a pulse of light that would have permanently blinded anyone looking at them. They went dark. Dead. The Varyag lurched violently to one side, seemingly forced out of the twisted region of space and pushed over to starboard. It slowly began to drift away, rotating slowly, its running lights and internal running lights flickering dangerously.

The twisted region of space she had created, though, became... something. A gash in space, a tear in the black fabric of nothingness that seemed to be growing wider. Something seemed to be coming through it. Something big.

OOC: Don't know exactly what you are looking for here, or what you are doing, but I will do something because I am bored, won't get to involved.

IC:
"Sir, we have reports of FTL activity around Pluto, it appears to be a nation struggling with the advancement of such technology. Recommendation, Sir?" Lieutenant Chang reported.

"Stay out of it for now, we should let them develop this on their own." General Hagans replied.

"Yes sir, however we are picking up an anomoly in the area. No info as of yet as to what it is, but it appears to be caused by the ships FTL attempt. Possible damage to the STC, unsure yet. Shall I contact Galeel Stryer?" Chang asked.

"No, let us determine the exact nature of this anomoly, I expect up to the minute reports as this develops. Also, how is the ship?" Hagans responded.

"Dead in the water sir, shall I dispatch a Hephaestus?" Chang offered.

"No, wait until we understand the anomoly, however, send them a message to see if they need help." Hagans decided.

-----

Transmission to CS Varyag from FSO Sol Alpha

We noticed that you had some apparent misfortune with your attempt at FTL travel. Do you require assistance? Also, we picked up an anomoly caused by your attempt, any clue as to what this is? Sorry for asking questions, but that is our job.

By order of,
Lieutenant General Hagans;
Of the FSSF and TID

OOC: The Coalition aren't yet aware of alien species, or human cultures outside of their home system, so a communication might not be well received, though as they're currently suffering a power loss they won't be able to hear it anyway, so I don't suppose it matters :D. What your people might be interested in though, is that they aren't actually in Sol; their solar system is a mirror-image of Sol, on the opposite side of the galaxy. Their history developed the same as Earth's, right up until a point in the early 21st century when it went off on a tangent. So although it looks like Sol in every way, it's not actually the Sol system. It's pretty much a wreck compared to Sol anyway, not much in the way of resources left, Earth polluted and devastated from war... It's necessary for their history, I'm afraid, unless everyone else in NationStates would be happy with most of the population of Earth being destroyed in a war... a little SoD may be a good thing.
As for the anomaly, it's not temporal in nature so there's no need to worry about that Accord thing. It's more of a breach between dimensions, though, that will become clear in time... when I have time to make a new post, that is :D.

TOMBSHIP 445352,
Kaelis-Ra system,
heavily damaged,
crew 43% annihilated.
FTL drives offline,
Suggest: diplomatic personality.

Message to Varyag

This is Ankhmeti tombship 445352 Mors. We have encoutered an FTL anomoly whilst attepting to pass through this system. The appearance of your ship coincides with this anomoly. Explain.

The Imperium scouts had been trailing the tombship for some time, hunting the Ankhmetians with their slow burning technology; their ancient and decrepit stasis vessels scratching a way through the stars; hoping to in some way convince them of their impudence; to urge them to rejoin the fold of Dark Gods, for they could be worthy again...
Countless time they had spent now, running silent, when the sensors began to resonate; a fledgling FTL signal was being detected. The Captain, a gruff man, clothed in the black armor of the Angelus Ater, had disengaged the silent running; and immediately went to Warp; searching with advanced sensor arrays to pin point the exact location of the new vessel...
Perhaps they would know the 'mercy' of the Imperium; but it was the secondary readings that the Captain ignored; something was wrong in space...

Andropov awoke, breathing heavily. He looked around weakly. He couldn't hear anything, and his vision was blurred. The command centre was dark, more so than usual. Most consoles were offline. Some were on fire, blazing away, and what few crewmen were still on their feet were trying desperately to put them out with fire extinguishers.

He touched his forehead as he felt something drop over his brow, and found it to be wet. He looked at his fingers, and sure enough, a thick red substance coated them. He'd suffered a serious blow to the head, which would probably explain why he felt so weak and light-headed.

The Admiral struggled to get to his feet, and nearly fell down again when a power cord overhead suddenly overloaded and sent sparks flying across him. He shielded his face and started to walk forwards, carefully making sure he placed each foot down, one after the other, steady as he could.

He noticed his hearing coming back; at first just a buzz, but then he could hear sounds. The sounds of fire raging, the sounds of alert klaxons, the sounds of exposed electrical circuits sparking, the sounds of gases venting, the sounds of crew shouting over the noise...

Andropov looked down at the cold, near-black metal floor, and noticed Satyev lying there, blood dripping through the grating. A rather large chunk of metal had wedged itself in his throat, cutting off his windpipe and probably hitting his spinal cord. No point calling a medic for him.

"Chesnokov!" Andropov shouted over the noise, looking around. His vision was still a little blurred, and one half of it was turning red as the flow of blood from his forehead trickled into his left eye. He staggered around, but managed to stay on his feet. "Captain Chesnokov! Report!"

Andropov squinted as a head popped up from the lower tier consoles, and a figure walked over to him. As the figure got closer, the Admiral recognised him. It was Chesnokov.

"Admiral, you are alive!" Chesnokov shouted, relieved. He looked at his forehead gash with some level of concern though. "Perhaps you should go you to the infirmary... or I should call a medic."

"No time, Captain," Andropov snapped, slapping the captain's concerned hand away. "I want a full damage report, a full status report and... and where are those scientists?"

Chesnokov looked around the bridge, and shrugged. Sure enough, the four white-coated civilians who had been present on the command deck were no longer anywhere to be seen, alive or dead. "I do not know Admiral," he said loudly. "I have not seen them since the incident occurred. They are likely seeking refuge somewhere less busy."

"Find them and bring them back here," Andropov roared. "And where is the damage report I asked for?!"

"Damage report is not yet available, sir," Chesnokov shook his head, steadying the Admiral as the ship vibrated slightly, almost knocking him over. "I am going to assume that is a bad sign, however. We do know that our sensors are offline, our manoeuvring jets seem unresponsive and we are suffering mutliple power system overloads across the ship. Most of our consoles are not operational though, so we cannot tell for sure."

"Get this ship under control, Captain," Andropov said, pointing outside. Despite the stars in his vision, he could clearly see Pluto moving across the windows quite quickly, suggesting that the ship wasn't stationary. "I do not want us drifting too far."

"Yes Admiral," Chesnokov nodded. "I will make it our first priority after reactivating some computer terminals sir."

"And what is... that...?" Andropov asked, gasping. He was getting more and more light-headed, and finding it harder to stand up, or even stay awake. He managed to raise an arm, though, and point at something he saw out of the window. Some kind of glowing, purple 'hole' in space, with a large green-blue pointed object protruding slightly from it. By the time Chesnokov turned his head to look, it had already passed.

Andropov stumbled and slammed to the metal deck quite hard. He could hear Chesnokov's worried voice as he tried to aid him, but even though his eyes were open he could not see anything. And then he could hear nothing, either.

A she'Klan corvette on loan to the Space marines was thrown out of Hyperspace outside the orbit of Pluto, the ship was thrown and was out of control. The jump point closed as the ship was set herling out of control towards the planet. On board the 475 meter ship the 38 man crew was full of Space Marine scouts, the ship had burns across its hull.
"Status?" the Commander asked as the ship spun out of control towards pluto, he held on to his chair only able to do this thanks to his augmented strength.
"unknown, trying to keep control of the ship at this speed we will hit the surface of that planet in 6 hours." A battle sister replyed turning to the commander. "commander, sensor data indecates we are in....holy Terra" she sounded shocked.
"what...impossible we're no where near the system of man." The commander said and he knew that for a fact.
"i know but...sir this is the system of man to the dot." The battle sister replyed, "sir, scans report that this system has suffred from a massive war in recent months or years, ship wreakage scatered here and there also a ship is not far from here unknown markings and class or even race."
"Activate the destress becon, get this ship into some sort of orbit around that planet. Ignore all hails unless its on the CCA, AoN, ESUS or other allied signals. I want weapon systems back to 100% i dont want to caught with our paints down." the commander spat.

The ship spun as the pilots tryed to pull it out of its spin, as the ship travaled fast to the planet. after much difficult manuvers the ship was take under control, the ship was heading into a rather bad orbit and with vary little data on this system who knew what was around. IF the pilots were not careful they could sling shot around hte planet and end up anywhere, gun ports were opened and weapons armed. Even tho they only had the 2 Pulse plasma cannons it didnt matter, the ship activated it stelth armor (think of it like modarn day stelth just more advanced) giving it some sorta of ability to hide even if it was a 68%. Marines on the ships got weapons ready, arming them sleves incase of anything trying to bord the ship.

All that was left to do was sit and wait, the ship was stuck in a system with unknown aliens with no reinforcements, no idea if what pulled them so dangerusly out of hyperspace was a weapon by these aliens or something elce. Paranoia was the best weapon anyone in this day and age had and the Space marines used it well.

OOC: Ok, so we mistook this system for Sol's. We aren't even from Earth, and any record of it was lost in our cataclysm of the past...so yeah, we thought we were in Sol's system, and when we found out otherwise we were to lazy to rename the observation station. Good enough for you?

IC:
"Sir, no response to our hail, they appear to have lost power. I suggest we send in a Hephaestus, they may need out help. Also the anomly is still giving off unrecognized energies, I believe it may be interdimmensional. Reccomendation?" Chang said quickly.

"Alright, send in the Hephaestus and a small escort of Milky Way's. Tell the pilots to divert all power from weapons to shields so that we do not appear to be a threat. Send a probe towards the anomoly, I want a closer look. Also, put one of our better negotiators on the damn ship, their assistance might be needed. Since this nation doesn't have FTL capabilities, it is most likely that they have had no contact with other races, keep damage to a minimum." Hagans said heavily.

A Hephaestus Class Salvage and Repair Frigate left the station with a contingent of 10 Milky Way Class Scout craft.

"Keep sending them that message until we get through." Hagans ordered.

"Sir, you might also be interested to know that other ships have begun to show up on screen, we have one from CorpSac drifting quickly towards Pluto, appears to be heavily damaged. Also Chronosian and Ankhmeti ships, status of them unknown." Chang reported.

"Open hailing frequency to the CorpSac ship, they might need help, standard ESUS encryption. Monitor the others." Hagans commaned.

-----
Secure ESUS Transmission from Lieutenant General Hagans of Flaming Souls to unidentified CorpSac ship

We see that you are in a bit of trouble there, is there any way that we may be of assistance? If you are able to, you are more than welcome to dock your ship at our station and we can repair it for you. Whatever your decision, please let us know. Also, there is a ship out here that had a failed FTL attempt, I am monitoring the situation and providing assistance, if you know anything of this ship please let us know.

LT. General Hagans

Drone 954632 walked to the central command pedastal. The drones were walking corpses, literally. Mummified human corpses enhanced with cybernetics to make them move, and processors to make them think. The pedastal blinked online.

CREW: 400 functional
ENGINES: 2 functional
FTL: offline
WEAPONS: offline
MATTER TRANSPORTS: online
BOARDING PODS: online

COLLECTIVE PERSONALITY: aid closest damaged ship. Contact crews.

The drone stared at the console with its mechanical eyes. In a few seconds it and fifty specialist repair drones melted away, reappearing on the Eastern Coalition ship.

The vocoder of the corpse-droid sprang to life, after decades of disuse, sounding harsh and mechanical.

"We are here to aid your craft. Do not harm us."

The repair drones walked around the craft, ignoring crew members, asessing damage.

CREW ASESSMENT: CULTURE SHOCK.

Andropov opened his eyes and groaned loudly. He had the mother of all headaches. He thought his brain was going to explode out of his eyes. He glanced around; he was lying on a hard bunk in the infirmary. A white light overhead flickered on and off, making an irritating echoey clicking sound as it did so.

He forced himself to sit up on the bunk, tenderly touching his head as he did so. He was wearing a dressing, so he assumed he'd been treated already. The infirmary was a large, long room, with each side lined with metal bunks and several open operating tables. There was blood everywhere as the busy medical staff desperately tried to treat the ever-increasing tide of injuries; some more serious than others. After seeing a crewman with half his arm literally burned off, Andropov decided that he was one of the more fortunate of the crew.

"Admiral," a man said, stepping up to him. He wore a white coat, stained with blood, and a belt around his midsection with all sorts of medical instruments attached. This was Dr. Maikov, one of the higher-ranking doctors onboard the Varyag.

"Maikov, how long have I been here?" Andropov asked, looking around. The tall roof had circuits and wires hanging from it, still sparking dangerously, and half of the lights were either malfunctioning or offline. They obviously hadn't completed all the repairs yet. The ship kept shuddering once in a while.

"Only for an hour or two, Admiral," Maikov said. The doctor seemed more interested in Andropov's wound than the conversation. He peeled back the dressing and made some curious sounds as he examined the wound. "Five stitches, Admiral. You must be careful with this wound, it is a nasty one."

"Yes yes, I will..." Andropov said impatiently. He looked up as he saw Captain Chesnokov enter the room. The large doors to the infirmary had been deliberately wedged open -- whether that was to stem a malfunction or just because it would help increase the flow of patients, who could say. Chesnokov looked around and made his way through the crowds of people. His dark grey uniform was stained with white and black smoke, and his right sleeve was torn. Parts of the red trim appeared to be burned or hanging off. Despite this, it still projected a look of power -- the Coalition Navy. Victors of the Great Sol War.

"Admiral, are you well?" Chesnokov asked, saluting.

"Yes Captain, I am fine," the Admiral nodded. "What is our status?"

"We have established minimal functionality of the main computer system," Chesnokov told him. "We are working on internal sensors first, as we believe that the Varyag could be venting atmosphere, and we need to isolate it. We are still drifting, but we do not appear to be in any immediate danger of a collision. Whatever happened in the trial has inflicted severe stresses on all systems. I will not know more until the computer completes a series of tests on all the systems."

"Excellent work, Captain," Andropov nodded. He tentatively got to his feet, and once he was sure that he wasn't going to fall back on his face again, he patted Chesnokov's shoulder roughly and walked out of the infirmary.

Chesnokov followed at his side, through the debris-littered corridors. Most of the lighting was red, casting an eerie glow over everything. They encountered at least one corpse, a poor crewman crushed under a dislodged wall support strut. They couldn't do anything for him, and kept on walking. Once in a while they had to duck underneath hanging metal plates, pipes or wires.

"Have you found our 'guests' yet, Captain?" Andropov asked as they walked, their footsteps clanging down the corridors.

"We have not had many personnel to spare for a dedicated search yet, Admiral," Chesnokov said. "I was not aware their location was more important than ship repairs."

"Find them, Chesnokov," Andropov said, clenching his fist. "The Overwatch are not trained in ship repairs, so deploy our compliment of Overwatch soldiers. Find them, and bring them to me. I want to ask them some questions..."

"Yes Admiral," Chesnokov nodded. "I will need to go and order them in person, sir. Be careful as you proceed; these corridors have not yet been repaired."

"Don't tell me the internal communications are not functioning," Andropov said, stopping.

"Unfortunately not, Admiral," Chesnokov shook his head. "We have been coordinating our repair efforts with messengers. There are some damaged lines and the computer is busy..."

"Maybe now that I am on my feet we can get some things done," Andropov shook his head and started walking off. "Get the Overwatch on a search pattern throughout the ship, Captain. I want those scientists in my office. With any luck they will locate additional survivors in the process. And make sure the Overwatch are fully armed -- I do not trust those four."

"Yes Admiral," Chesnokov nodded, watching the Admiral stride down the corridor. He sighed and headed towards the Overwatch barracks.

"Sir, we have activity on the sensors. Seems some of the crew from the Ankhmeti ship have beamed onto the Coalition ship. Purpose unknown. Our ships are within range also." Chang said.

"Damnit, what the hell is going on here? Open hailing frequencies, get me that Ankhmeti ship on the horn yesterday." Hagans barked.

Attn: Ankhmeti ship
We noticed that you beamed some personnel onto the Coalition ship, please inform us of your purpose on doing so.

~End Transmission~

-----

On board the Hephaestus...
"Sir, we are within minimum distance, shall we dock?" The onboard AI said in a cool tone.

"Yes of course, get boarding teams Alpha, Beta, and Charlie on that ship immediately. Alpha's mission is to find the commander of the ship and assess the situation. Beta should begin a basic structural repair of the immediate boarding area. Charlie is to get to Medical and assist their crew if neccessary, if not have them begin repairs from that point." Colonel Fraker ordered.

The Hephaestus moved along side the CS Varyag and began docking procedure. Once docking was accomplished the three boarding teams entered the crippled ship and started on their respective missions.

Energies swell before the CS Varyag... and within moments a massive wormhole opens up before the vessel.... It hangs their, energies swirling about it for several moments as the mouth yawns wide....

After a few seconds, a vessels slips from its mouth, missing the CS Varyag by a handfull of meters...

The vessel is massive... 3060 meters in length, 650 meters high and 1200 meters accross her beam, alittle more than 2 billion metric tons... Two massive "pylons" connected by retractable arms jut from each side of the vessel, large hangar decks of sorts, which alone are almost 2000 meters long... Along its bow can be seen the name "TRSS Isis BSG-39"...

As the vessel drifts away, the wormhole behind it suddenly destabalizes and slams closed, as if it never existed....

It then puts on more power, and makes a wide sweeping turn to place it bow on with the CS Varyag....

It hangs there is space.....

Andropov reached the top of the large shaft, not daring to look down -- certainly not after a blow to the head. Climbing was never advisable when one had a gash on ones forehead, but sometimes it was unavoidable. He reached up and slammed his fist on the metal panel that blocked his path. The noise echoed downwards.

After a few moments, there was a creaking sound and the metal panel lifted. A crewman opened the hatchway and held down a hand for the Admiral. He took it and clambered out of the shaft, letting the hatch slam shut behind him.

"You are alive Admiral, sir!" the crewman said excitedly.

"Yes Modin, I am alive," Andropov nodded, patronisingly. "Back to your duties now." Modin saluted and scurried off back to work.

Andropov got to his feet and walked across the large command centre. He opened a door at the rear -- manual override was necessary -- and tapped some buttons on a panel that was presented to him. Not entirely unsurprisingly, it didn't respond. He growled and ripped the panel clear, and fiddled with the wires underneath. There was a spark, an unenthusiastic bleeping sound, and a clunk as the 'safe' door unlocked. He pulled the thick sheet of metal open as far as its hinges would go. The emergency arms locker. He grabbed a passing crewman by the shoulder.

"Crewman, issue pistols to all staff," Andropov said.

"Why sir?"

"Those scientists are still unaccounted for," Andropov told the crewman. "And I have a bad feeling about them. It is better to be safe than to be sorry, after all. Now get to it."

Andropov took a pulse pistol and holstered it in his black belt. He stepped down and was about to help with some repairs when he had to steady himself against his command chair. A loud clunk reverberated across the ship and she juddered slightly.

"What was that?" Andropov shouted.

"No idea sir, we don't have sensors," one crewman called back. "She's been shaking like that for an hour at least now, sir, it's probably nothing."

"No... it felt like a collision," Andropov said thoughtfully. He couldn't see anything out of the windows, though their drifting did appear to have slowed considerably.

"Plenty of space garbage out here from the war, Admiral," the crewman shrugged, before slamming his tool against a panel angrily. "Work, damn you..."

"Does ANYTHING work on this ship, Crewman?" the Admiral asked. The crewman looked up again and shrugged as he took a pistol off the other crewman and holstered it. He picked up a flashlight and switched it on and off a few times.

"Here's something, Admiral," the crewman said. Andropov shook his head and waved his hand in dismissal.

"Just get the internal communications network operational," he sighed. He still wondered what that noise was.

The bridge of the TRSS Isis....

"Report..." commands Vice Admiral Johnson....

"We missed the vessel by a hair, Admiral..." says the young science officer... "Preliminary scans show the vessel with minimal power, life-signs are present, some eratic and weak..."

"Weapons signatures?" the VADM asks...

"No recognized signatures...." he responds, " the vessel also does not match anything from any known civilizations...."

"Comms, any distress signals?" the VADM asks, turning to Lt. Michaels....

"No sir...." responds the young Lt....

"It is likely they have no communications...." responds Lt. Roberts, the Science officer....

"Scan the vessel for any entry points...." commands VADM Johnson, "we may need to board them to see if they need assistance.... And try to raise the vessel anyway... just to see if they respond...."

A message is sent out from the TRSS Isis as she begins scanning the Varyag for entry points....


**** Transmission ****
Unknown vessel.... This is the TRSS Isis, Tekanian Stellar Naval vessel, registry BSG-39.... do you require any assistance...
**** End ****

OOC: I don't need to write a detailed post, just putting something.

IC:
Standing on the command deck of the Hesphaestus Frigate, Colonel Fraker only looked at the newly arrived ship with a passing glance. "What is the status of the boarding teams Lieutenant?" he asked impatiently.

"Bravo has secured the boarding area and is beginning repairs, the ship is pretty bad off, might need extensive repairs all around. Alpha is headed towards the bridge and Charlie just arrived in medical." the Lieutenant replied hastily.

"Ok, good, now then. Open hailing frequencies to this new ship." Fraker ordered.

To: Unidentified Ship
From: Colonel Fraker of the Tiger's Blade Repair and Salvage Frigate
Regarding: Your sudden appearance

Greetings, we just wanted to know what exactly you are doing here, and doing coming here in such a manner. I am Colonel Fraker of the Flaming Souls Space Fleet, Repair and Salvaging Squadron. If your intent is ruinous to anyone here, please state so. We are on a peaceful operation to help make sure that this floundering ship will make it home in one piece. Thank you.

Colonel Fraker out.
~Transmission Ends~

Bridge of the TRSS Isis...

"Sir" says Lt. Michaels, "incomming transmission from one of the other vessels.... they claim to be a 'Repair and Salvage' vessel..."

"Put it through," commands VADM Johnson...


To: Unidentified Ship
From: Colonel Fraker of the Tiger's Blade Repair and Salvage Frigate
Regarding: Your sudden appearance

Greetings, we just wanted to know what exactly you are doing here, and doing coming here in such a manner. I am Colonel Fraker of the Flaming Souls Space Fleet, Repair and Salvaging Squadron. If your intent is ruinous to anyone here, please state so. We are on a peaceful operation to help make sure that this floundering ship will make it home in one piece. Thank you.


After reading the message over, Vice Admiral Johnson prepares a reply to be transmitted....


**** Transmission ****
TO: Colonel Fraker, Tiger's Blade
FRM: Vice Admiral Johnson, TRSS Isis BSG-39, Tekanian Stellar Navy

We arived here based on long range readings of spatial anamoly in this region, unknown source possibly artificial. From present situation we assume some form of FTL.

By our odd arrival we assume you mean the Kraskinov... The artificial wormhole by which the TRSS Isis arrived in this area... It is our normative form of interstellar travel. We generate artificial wormholes for long distance travel intra- and inter- galactic.

Our initial intent was research into the anamoly. At this point it is certain that the anomly was artificial. And mission objectives are now rescue and repair if needed. We have at this point, of no surprise, not been able to raise the damaged vessel, since it is obvious your ship has taken up as primary assistance... We will extend the offer to your own crews...

We have engineering and repair crews standing by, and are prepared to launch heavy transports to assist in the repair of the damaged vessel...

Regards,
Vice Admiral Johnson
TRSS Isis (BSG-39)
TSF/TSN/GEDRA
**** End ****

The Chronosian ships tore from the void, black ships; wreathed in great adornments; spikes that rent the void, runes that glimmered in the halflight; great curves and skillful intricacies that would make any architect envious or mad at the impossibility of their creation.

"Unknown vessels; we are the Imperium; we come seeking the source of the FTL disturbance...We will know you..." The hissing voice came across the void in vast and open waves of communication. "State your purpose...."

"well whats going on?" The commander demanded as he looked round. the orbit around pluto was unstable and eractic as the ship tryed to keep itself undercontrol.
"3 new confirmed contacts, it seems they havent noticed us yet tho. with sensors like this i cant tell how long some of the ships have been in the system. Also that.....NFTL (non faster then light) ship the sensors thought was wrackage seems not, life signs detected....human." the Battle sister seemed confussed "sir i dont understand how this is possible."
"well it is up to the Premarch and the Chapter Commissar's of the 7 chapters. but i would think they would destroy this system, its plan to see that this is a Heresy above any other." The commander replyed looking up at the battle sister, "any word from Command?" he asked her. He only had this mission befor he became a full Space marine and this happened, tipical he thought but he was glade.
"yes commander, Premarch Raven herself along with the battlebarge Raven and the Destroyers, Hunter and Kimiko are on route, ETA 8 hours" The battle sister replyed. "our orders are to find out more about the area, find out who and what that ship did to pull us out and to find out more about them."
"thats easy, move the ship at full speed towards that ship (TEC ship) fire the breaching pods. Get 1st, 2nd and 3rd squads to arm up, orders are to Enter the ship capture anyone of a command status and download the computer files." He stood up "ALL HANDS PREPARE FOR COMBAT" he ordered.

The crew was busy, the 3 squads totaling 12 men, in 1st squad Sargent Kimi Delski commanded, she carryed a high powered rifle as the rest of her team carryed standard Plasma bolter rifles. in 2nd squad Sargent Belac Tisk carryed a Flamer and his 2nd in command carryed a high powered rifle as the rest with the standard Plasma bolter rifles. 2nd squad was the team that was going to download the computer files from the ship and Belac was the best dam hacker in the entire chapter.
In the 3rd squad, commanded by Sargent Shade was the heavy weapons team. out of the 4 of them 2 carryed heavy flamers, 1 carryed a heavy Plasma Bolter and Shade carryed a sniper rifle.
As the team geared up in the armory, picking up the weapons, knifes and straping on the armor they looked round. most of them had all the implanets apart from one, all were aged between 16-19 and all were ready to become full space marines.
"Lets go brothers and sister, its time to get the job done" Delski said, the team headed to the Chaplin befor going to the breaching pods. here they would recive rights of passage to the hevens if they died, the battle rights and other rights.

The ship moved fast, being the fastest class of ship in the empire it should be. Its stelth armor was still active, hopefuly they would get in close befor being detected. the 2 pulse plasma cannons primed but wouldnt fire unless fired apon and the point defence system turrents poped out of the armor, its mission was simple fly by fire the pods fly off and wait 10 minutes then come back to the ship as the pods lached off the hull.
Soon it would be inrange of the ships all the commander and the entire crew could do was wait, wait to find out if it would work.

"Commander, Chronosian ships have apeared." the battle sister said with a sign of joy.
"good, tell them of our plan find out if they will or can help us in anyway. also tell them the premarch is on route and she would be vary happy and in there dept if the helped." the commander said, the ship still moved in fast plans unchanged.

"My Lord, Corpsaccian vessels are hailing; they wish our aid."
"Send them my message; by the dark gods we will uphold our ancient pacts and secure this trifling of technology" He chuckled wryly, moving to sit. "Now; let us begin this game; for I sense the ending will be most satisfactory..."

Bridge of the TRSS Isis...

"Unknown ships inbound..." yells Tactical suddenly... "I've got at least one viewable target, and one fast energy reading.. likely a stealthed vessel of some sort, scans are being deflected..."

"What?.." yells VADM Johnson.... as he runs over the tactical display loaded to his console.... "Coms, any traffic..."

"None sir" responds Lt. Michaels.... "All known channels are silent..."

"Damnit... take us to condition 5.... tell Flight to prepare attack wings...." commands VADM Johnson... "If they take an agressive action, open fire...."

Outside, the massive Kali Class TRSS Isis comes alive.... two seperate shield "bubbles" come alive, and mysteriously a thin neutronium skin grows like mold over the ships hull.... and weapons turrents go online, and begin to cycle...

"Are you sure it works?" Andropov asked. A crewman looked up from his place under a console and nodded, banging his head on the bottom of the console in the process. They had effected repairs to some of the primary control stations, and restored minimal computer functions. Their top priorities were sensors and external communications -- they needed to signal for aid from Neptune. Andropov estimated that the small station there could have help out here in less than two weeks.

"Ow... yes sir, most of the lines are repaired," the crewman said. "You might not be able to get through to the aft sections yet, though, but we're working on it."

"Good work," the Admiral nodded, and clicked down a button on his armrest.

***

Some debris blocked up a door. The door to this room -- one of the laboratories -- was apparently jammed open, possibly deliberately, and had been barricaded with sheets of metal. It was quiet, until some gloved hands clamped around the sides of the debris and started shaking it loose.

The metal sheets were pulled to one side, revealing a man in some kind of space-suit armour hybrid, standing out in the corridor with four other men. His helmet had a small visor, tinted probably to combat solar light when outside a ship, and some sort of tiny aerial protruded from the side. The air-tight suit was black all over, except for some red and gold trim and some control buttons on one arm. The flag of the Coalition was painted on to the right side of his chest. The man's breathing sounded mechanical and slow as he stepped back and raised a black assault rifle, aiming it into the darkness. He flicked a switch on the side and a flashlight, slung underneath the barrel, burst to life, illuminating a circle of the room that was before him.

One of the men, whom, judging from the markings on his shoulder plates, was the leader of the small unit, made some gestures with his right hand. Two of the soldiers stepped to each side of the door and leaned over slightly, aiming their weapons inside. One man stepped between them, looking around and panning his light across the room. It was a large room, filled with overturned furniture and debris -- perfect for people to hide behind. He cautiously entered, followed by another soldier. The two split up, moving around the room, and their leader also entered, followed by the two who had been covering them from the door. They too split up, and began moving quietly through the room, searching. Until there was a loud chiming sound.

"Beta team, this is Admiral Andropov, report your status," a gruff voice echoed across the room. The soldiers froze and the leader hurriedly moved to a panel on the nearest of the dark walls.

"I guess they got the intercom working," one of the soldiers whispered jokingly.

"That's about the only thing they've got working," another whispered back, irritated.

"This is Overwatch Search Team Gamma Leader," their commander whispered hostily through his suit. "We are currently -- or rather, we were -- engaged in a stealth search, sir. We have not yet located the scientists, but we will signal you when we have."

***

Andropov chuckled, lounging in his command chair. Whoops...

"Very well, Colonel," he said. "I will leave you to your..."

"Hey, what's that?" a voice off-speaker called.

"I don't know, I've never seen anything like... what the!"

The sounds of pulse blasts ensued, echoing around in that room and coming out through the other side of the communications channel, and into the Admiral's ears. There was some shouting and yelling, and a strange gurgling growl.

"Report, Colonel!" the Admiral shouted into the speaker.

"Admiral, we need reinforcements and we need them now!" the Colonel called frantically. "There's something down here, sir -- it's using energy weapons and I think it has tenta... ugh..."

A nasty cracking and squelching sound cut him off halfway through his sentence, and then a pulse blast signalled the end of the communications channel. Andropov listened to the static for a few moments, as though hoping it would change of its own volition, and finally cut the channel off.

"Order the Overwatch to regroup," Andropov snapped to one of the crewmen. "Send a full unit down to that section."

"Yes Admiral," the crewman nodded.



*****



Outside the ship, the strange, glowing anomaly had kept growing. It was quite large now, and whatever was protruding from it had also grown. It was a long point, with a flat top and curved bottom. Despite its bright blue-green colour, it seemed to be a vessel, though how much of the vessel had come through so far was open to debate. It appeared to be slightly out-of-synch with the rest of space, though. How long it would stay that way was also open to debate.

Bridge of the TRSS Isis...

"Tell flight to launch 5 of the Mules..." commands VADM Johnson.... "2 outfitted with engineers, the others with marines... Tell Colonel Richards to look for command staff... And work with them to get their ship going.... they have company..."

"Aye sir..." responds Comms....


5 largish shuttles deploy from the Isis' port landing pod..... They buzz the short distance to the Varyag... and begin to to attach their small universal docks to the vessel... a distinct clanging sound can be heard...

On the flight deck, 50 fighters are being lowered into their launch tubes for deployment.... pilots giving their fighters a final over-view...

"SIR, UNKNOWN. its coming out of a unknown portal of some kind. Orders?" the battle sister shouted, what ever that thing was comeing out of the portal it couldnt be good.
"do any of the ships detect our aproch?" the commander asked.
"the large ship seems to have noticed something is wrong, if they attack us we wont stand a chance." the BS replyed.
"carry on with the plan, watch that unknown i dont like this. I want to find out what the hells going on here. Contact the Chronosia Empire shipsm find out if they can screen our aproch, once the teams are on the ship i want a direct link to there computers and we will upload it all, its faster and i dont think we have much time anyway." The commander said, his face cold as he said it. he didnt like this, to much was going on at once and it was still hours befor the Premarch arrived.
"Yes commander, relaying the message now." she turned on the Person to person comm unit on her head set. "ALL TEAMS MISSION CHANGE, we no longer need you to hack and download the data base of the target computers. make a uplink, rest of mission is the same." she said, in her ear the echo reply of all 12 men and women replying at once.

The ship got even closer, its corse changed slightly after deteacting the unkown. it would soon to be inrange to fire the breaching pods at the CS Varyag and yet the commander didnt like this at all, something wasnt right at all and he wanted to know what The Eastern-Coalition had done and were/are doing and for what reasons.

"Sir, we have activity on the sensors. Seems some of the crew from the Ankhmeti ship have beamed onto the Coalition ship. Purpose unknown. Our ships are within range also." Chang said.

"Damnit, what the hell is going on here? Open hailing frequencies, get me that Ankhmeti ship on the horn yesterday." Hagans barked.

Attn: Ankhmeti ship
We noticed that you beamed some personnel onto the Coalition ship, please inform us of your purpose on doing so.

~End Transmission~

-----

On board the Hephaestus...
"Sir, we are within minimum distance, shall we dock?" The onboard AI said in a cool tone.

"Yes of course, get boarding teams Alpha, Beta, and Charlie on that ship immediately. Alpha's mission is to find the commander of the ship and assess the situation. Beta should begin a basic structural repair of the immediate boarding area. Charlie is to get to Medical and assist their crew if neccessary, if not have them begin repairs from that point." Colonel Fraker ordered.

The Hephaestus moved along side the CS Varyag and began docking procedure. Once docking was accomplished the three boarding teams entered the crippled ship and started on their respective missions.


The ancient computer banks of the tombship responded somewhat slowly, some of its processors damaged.
We have sent a group of units to assist in repairs. Do not interfere.


On board the damaged ship the repair units recieved a signal from the tombship computer. Within a few seconds they had melted away again, appearing on the bridge of the ship, again broadcasting their intent to help the crew of the floundering ship. They moved to scan the crew, assesing threats, looking for spare parts should the ship be destroyed, and finally moving to the damaged mechanical parts. One unit moved to the commander of the vessel.

" We are Units of the Ankhmeti Navis Necropolitan. We are here to aid you, by order of the holy thinking engines. How can we aid you?"

"I don't care!" the deck officer yelled, waving his hands madly. His hair was scruffy, his uniform torn and dry blood was splashed across his face. He had more important things to worry about now than his personal discomfort. "Walk over there with a space suit on and push them open if you have to! We need eyes and ears out there NOW!"

"Sir, if the doors won't open, the fighters won't go anywhere!" a tech insisted. "These fighters are grounded until I say so, sir. Unless you want to have them shoot their way out..."

The deck officer looked up thoughtfully, as he pondered the idea.

"You are not going to have them shoot their way out!" the tech shouted, panicked. "That's insane! Considering the state the Varyag is in at the moment you might as well be overloading the fusion generators!"

"Alright alright," the deck officer nodded, waving his hands in dismissal. "Just get the damn doors open as quick as you can!"

"What did you think I've been doing, sir?" the tech sneered, and jogged off to the other side of the hangar to try and fix the door mechanisms.

The vast hangar was bustling with activity. Spinning lights caused beams of red to cut through the smoke and cast strange lights over everything. Various types of fighters were lined up, some stowed on the huge walls at the side, all stuck inside the hangar. Pilots wandered around eagerly waiting the order to launch, but knew it wasn't coming soon.

High up on one of the walls, there was an air vent overlooking the hangar. A strange brown alien, with writhing tentacles and four yellow eyes, glimpsed down at the scene below, and overheard the conversation between the tech and the deck officer. It gurgled in anger, and turned to move back down the tube. Perhaps even more curious than the fact there was a bizarre-looking alien crawling around the air ducts of the Varyag, was that this alien seemed to be wearing the torn remains of a Coalition lab coat...

*****

The sight of aliens on their ship was more than enough for crewmen to pull their pulse pistols out and wave them around madly, shouting orders and observations at each other. One of the younger crewmen looked nervous enough to pull the trigger, probably even hitting another Coalition officer.

"Hold your fire!" Andropov bellowed, standing up from his command chair. He aimed his own pulse pistol at one of the aliens, as a reactionary defensive action more than anything else -- he had never seen the like before and had no idea what to think. Though he seemed to be the only person with a firm, confident, steady aim.

"Who - or what - the hell are you?" he asked calmly, but firmly. "And how did you get on my command deck? If you want to 'aid me', you can start by answering that."

Aboard one of the Shuttles against the Varyag's hull....

All aboard are wearing enviromental suits... black uniforms with blackened helmets...

"Ok..." commands Colonel Richards... the Marine in command... "Engineers, get that hatch open...."

Several engineers move to connect power to the hatch.... they slowly force it open....

"I'm reading breathable atmosphere..." says one engineer....

The Colonel slowly removes his helmet... his blue skin reacting a bit to the cold....

"Ok men," says the Colonel, "it is safe..."

The rest of the marines and engineers remove their helmets....

"Ok"... commands Colonel Richards... "Move out... we need to find this vessels command crew.... Engineers, stay with the shuttles..."

The groups move out searching for the vessels command staff.... rifles held at the ready...

OOC: TEC, im just wondering if your alright befor i try and board your ship if the reason your not reacting in anyway that the ship is coming at you and about to fire the pods is due to the fact you have no sensors thats cool just want to confirm with you i will be able to atlest try and hack your computer systems and use a direct link to my ship and if possible kidnap an officer....we er....like to talk to them...with shape objects and other not nice things.

IC:

the She'Klan ship pulled up shaply as it got close to the Strike Carrier fireing 3 pods at it. then it pull some hard manuvers and moved to the Chronosian ship(s) for cover till it had to return.

The pods moved at brake neck speeds, a small ion/partical trust engine on each pods gave them more of a punch. the pods were small carrying only 4 people each, the end of the pods were pointed to help cut though armor and with a small ion cutting beam at the end just to make shore.
They slamed into the Armor of the Strike Carrier, the sound would be heard in the ship in areas around the 3 impact points. anyone at the time right by the impact points would be dead, metel, wires and other bits twisted and broken all around the point. Then each breaching end of the ship made a vacum seel around it befor the doors burst open, anything they saw they shot in no fatel areas.
The 1st squad and 2nd squad were close together and meeted up in the first Corridor they came to. 3rd squad was further down attacking anything that thought of comeing near them and planting Plasma charges and Trip mines in doorways and Corridors they were not going to go down.
"Sargent Delski to Sargent Shade, Destract the Enemy for aslong as possible and capture a Officer of any rank failing that a grunt will do." She said moveing with Sargent Tisk and his squad to the nearest computer terminal.
"yes Sargent Delski." Shade replyed moveing to sacure the area and attack anything. the boarding troops moved in pairs going from room to room the plan was simple one the door throw a Termal Grenade and watch the room burn. Doing this would save some time and corse havac with anyone trying to slow them down.
the 1st and 2nd squad were moveing to find a computer terminal so that Sargent Tisk could hack the system and make a direct uplink to the Ship. where ever it was they would cover all angles as best they could, the breaching pods sealed themselves up and activated the anti Braching systems if it was breached it would set off its small Fusion Ractor making one hell of a bang.

OOC: TEC, im just wondering if your alright befor i try and board your ship if the reason your not reacting in anyway that the ship is coming at you and about to fire the pods is due to the fact you have no sensors thats cool just want to confirm with you i will be able to atlest try and hack your computer systems and use a direct link to my ship and if possible kidnap an officer....we er....like to talk to them...with shape objects and other not nice things.

OOC: No sensors; that's why they're trying to launch fighters, because they do have sensors. The computer isn't fully-funcitonal either, though, so I don't know how far you'd get hacking it.
IC post later.

OOC: No sensors; that's why they're trying to launch fighters, because they do have sensors. The computer isn't fully-funcitonal either, though, so I don't know how far you'd get hacking it.
IC post later.
OOC: lol, my Troops just want to get into the system and make a direct link to my ship even if the computer is not 100% it will upload what it can, once it does and we're in range hopefuly you wouldnt detect the link and it will upload. Its rare to seem RPers to RP like you and i must admit that is a skill on its own i salute you to that. Anyway i will post a proper reply depending if you decide to attempt to stop my party. (if you ever played WH40K there basicly the Space Marine Scouts), if you want to know anything about my weapons most of my stuff is in my storefront (in my sig) that will tell you most stuff.

Bridge of the TRSS Isis...

"Incomming message from Eagle One station, sir" says the comm officer...

"Put it up..." commands VADM Johnson....


**** Message ****
TO:Vice Admiral Johnson, TRSS Isis...
FRM:Admiral Wheelings, Eagle-One, Action CSO..

Insurrection occuring in the Dominion of Thompsonia, Tekanian Republic... You are ordered to complete all operations at present, and return as soon as possible to Eagle One for imediate rearming and redeployment...

**** END ****

"Contact our men on that ship... tell them to hurry... Find that vessels command crew, and start dispatching engineers for repair immediately... whether they find the crew or not.." commands VADM Johnson...

OOC: What aliens on the Bridge would you be refereing too?

Please count all my posts as nonexistant.

OOC: What aliens on the Bridge would you be refereing too?

OOC: The ones which just ceased to exist, apparently o_0. Why, how many aliens are on the bridge? :confused:



IC:

Chesnokov lead ten Overwatch soldiers through the winding corridors, with his own pulse pistol drawn and held in front of him. They ran through the narrow passageways, shoving nervous crewmen out of the way as they went. They were chasing something. Alarms were going off all over the ship, and the lights had just started flashing red again.

"Intruder Alert!", a mechanical voice kept repeating in Russian, which echoed eerily through the corridors the further from the speakers you were. Chesnokov and the unit of ten Overwatch soldiers were in persuit of something which had attacked a crewman, without realising there were soldiers nearby. It now ran for its life.

Chesnokov could just see it. Every time they rounded a corner, it just slipped away. But they were gaining on it. It left a trail of pieces of white fabric as its ruined clothes fell away. Once in a while Chesnokov saw it long enough to fire off a red bolt of energy, but it always slipped away again.

"Overwatch Beta, this is Alpha lead," one of the suited men said quietly into his helmet communicator as he ran. "Now."

As they rounded the corner, they saw the creature stopped in the middle of a corridor. It turned to double back on itself when it saw Chesnokov's team approaching. They stopped running and kept back. Another Overwatch unit had cut the 'thing' off in its tracks, blocking the other end of the corridor with their assault rifles primed on it. It was trapped. It was a light brown colour, had bulbous yellow eyes on its chest, and tentacles writhing around on its hunched-over back. It appeared to have short arms, and human-like legs. Pieces of white fabric dangled from its torso.

"Hold fire," Chesnokov ordered, aiming his pulse pistol steadily at the creature. "What is that?"

"Unknown sir," one of the soldiers said through his helmet. "I've seen some strange ship rats in my time, but that... thing... wins the prize. Looks like it took out our scienctists, anyway."

Chesnokov stepped forwards, but the creature suddenly flicked out one of several of its writhing tentacles, barely missing his head. He immediately stepped back.

A soldier on the opposite end of the corridor wasn't so lucky though. He stepped fowards slowly as the creature was distracted, but the creature must have sensed him. One of the tentacles flicked out and burst through his armour plating and sprayed blood from his back. He was lifted from the air and drawn right in to the creature, which held him still before it.

"Dooooomed..." the creature hissed. With a flick of its tentacle, the soldier was hurled back down towards his unit, knocking half of them over like dominoes.

"Take it down," Chesnokov ordered. Red bolts began to streak across the corridor with deep blasting sounds, hitting the creature. It roared and hissed, thrashing around in pain, but it seemed to survive despite the burning holes in its skin. It squirted some kind of liquid at the wall as it tried dodging the relentless weapons fire. The liquid hissed as it touched the metal wall, and smoke filled the corridor. Chesnokov coughed, standing down and taking cover. The soldiers wore self-contained suits, though, and stood their ground.

When the smoke subsided, the creature was gone. A small hole had been melted in the wall. It had escaped. Chesnokov stepped up and slammed his boot into the ground angrily.

"Unit! Form u..." he was cut off in his tracks as he heard a loud thumping sound, from somewhere at the aft section. "What was that?"

"Sounds like an impact, or an explosion, sir," Alpha Lead said thoughtfully. "We should probably investigate. There could be more of those octopus rats."

"Alright. Beta Team, find out where that hole leads, and try to cut that thing off!" Chesnokov roared. "Alpha Team with me."

Chesnokov and Alpha Team headed back the way they had come, towards whatever that loud bang was.

Beta Team watched Alpha Team leave, and then stepped towards the hole. Beta Lead stopped and noticed something on the floor. They had apparently shot off one of the creature's tentacles in that short shooting match, or the end of one of the tentacles at least -- about as long as a finger. It lay on the floor, the end of it smouldering slightly. Beta Lead snapped his gloved fingers.

"Sample jar, now," he snapped. One of the soldiers handed him a small test tube, which Beta Lead just barely managed to squeeze the small piece of tentacle into. He handed it back when the movement sensor on his wrist bleeped. "We've got movement; multiple unregistered contacts. One hundred metres, six o' clock. Form up, let's check it out."

Beta Team moved away from the hole, heading unwittingly for the Tekanian personnel.

Colonel Richards and his small unit were making down the corridore slowly...

Suddenly one of the Corporals in the front stopped...

"Sir..." he whispers.... "I hear footsteps approaching..."

The Colonel moves forward of the group quietly... He then signals his team to check that their phase rifles are set on the lowest setting...

He then leads the small group of marines around the corner... Phase rifles held at the ready.... Seeing the movement at the end of the corridore, he stops.... He can be seen standing at the end of the corridore... his almost blood red eyes standing in contrast to his dark blue skin, as he peers down the corridore....

"I am Colonel Richards, Tekanian Stellar Marine Corps, from the TRSS Isis..." he says, in a very level voice... "We found this vessel disabled, and are only here to render assistance.... Are you the crew of this vessel?"

Colonel Richards and his small unit were making down the corridore slowly...

Suddenly one of the Corporals in the front stopped...

"Sir..." he whispers.... "I hear footsteps approaching..."

The Colonel moves forward of the group quietly... He then signals his team to check that their phase rifles are set on the lowest setting...

He then leads the small group of marines around the corner... Phase rifles held at the ready.... Seeing the movement at the end of the corridore, he stops.... He can be seen standing at the end of the corridore... his almost blood red eyes standing in contrast to his dark blue skin, as he peers down the corridore....

"I am Colonel Richards, Tekanian Stellar Marine Corps, from the TRSS Isis..." he says, in a very level voice... "We found this vessel disabled, and are only here to render assistance.... Are you the crew of this vessel?"

Beta Lead held up his hand and backed against a wall as he heard a voice from around a bend. He slowly edged around and glanced over. Troops. They weren't Coalition troops, that much was certain. They spoke English though. Perhaps they were Alliance troops that had somehow stowed away here since the end of the war? After taking another look he decided not; he had seen Alliance troops in battle, and they certainly didn't have blue skin. Though, after seeing that strange creature some way back, this one looked quite normal, comparatively speaking at least.

"I am Sub-Colonel Lutrova of the Coalition Overwatch," he shouted back, in a gruff, heavily-accented attempt English. "We are not the crew of this vessel. We are merely troops stationed here. What are you? And did you bring some strange creatures with tentacles with you, by chance? You should speak with Admiral Andropov regardless."

***

Meanwhile, outside, more of the strange, semi-phased ship had emerged from the anomaly, its sleek lines slowly but surely becoming visible. It was already much larger than the CS Varyag, and it didn't appear to have finished coming through just yet.

Communique:
Corpsaccian vessels; we are going to launch a boarding salvo against the unknown vessel; we expect you to proceed with your own course of action....
--------------------------------------

The ship turned and moved through the darkness; readying its boarding pods, before they shot forth with a great howl; tearing through the void towards the exposed hull of the strange vessel; and within, Tech Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Techmarines, and the Skitarii praetorians; a small battle group to examine the ship and begin....