NationStates Jolt Archive

March 11th, Post-Devastation Year 322, Earth Government Scientific Research Facility

"No Dr Langsteen, I do not think it is a good move to be setting all these credits aside. You know as well as I that the corporations will eventually notice the drain on our organization's resources and become curious. They must not know what we're doing here; it is something meant for the good of all mankind, Martian or Earthen, not for the profit of the corporations. If they find out they will attempt to forcibly take our research over", blurted a man who, had the population in question not been wiped out during the Great Devastation centuries ago, would closely resemble an American Indian his face was so reddened.

Before him, sitting behind a small but sturdy looking synthwood desk, was a much smaller and decidedly paler man, obviously not one as emotion driven as his boss, "Mr Jonan, I assure you that I have thought this move through. I know I should have informed you of my credit shifting, but I felt it would be best to keep it as secret as possible. This is my trump card because, let's be honest with ourselves, the corporations will find out about our work regardless of whether I let these credits keep flowing or not. I feel we need some resources to draw on in our own defense".

The bull of an accuser, his face lightening slightly, from a furious red to a spurned pink, almost laughed, "Oh, and you think a few medium MTs and static defenses will be enough to drive off attacks by any one corporation, let alone all four?"

Quietly, yet very smuggly, the doctor responded, "Sir, I think you have under-estimated the amount of money I have set aside. I guarentee you that any attack by standard or even elite corporation forces would be deflected".

"You better be right Langsteen, because it's all of our asses and very likely the future of mankind if the corporations get ahold of our research, especially after all the progress we've made in recent years"

"Oh, you might say I've made very sure that these credits are going to be put to good use", Langsteen replied, smiling broadly.

Just as these words started to calm the larger man, the red hue returned to his face, but this time by no fault of his own. The building's alarm system's emergency lighting had gone on, accompanied by the wailing of the alarm's auditory complement. Both men immediately turned to the room's door, Jonan being the first to jump out of his chair and rush for it, quickly followed by the leaner but obviously still fit scientist.

They burst out into the metallic corridor, now splashed with the blood-red coloring of the emergency lights, and rushed down it towards the large and important looking hatch at the end. It took them a dozen seconds to cover the entire fifty meter length of the hall and they didn't slow at all as the door opened before them and they rushed into a large room adorned with countless computer displays, holographic terrian maps, and communications consoles.

The sparse amount of people manning the consoles spoke to the underpreparedness of the complex to attack, but security was never a concern to the research organization, seeing as they freely spread the knowledge they gained from the small grants the even smaller government was able to give to them. That they had been hiding a secret research project for a decade now should have reflected on the efficiency of the ogranization's security posts, but it had been decided to not call undo attention to itself by any such change.

Small increases had, of course, been made, as the installation of holographic theater sensors evidenced. Now the men in the security control room could effectivily keep tabs on everything going on within a radius of five miles outside the building. Not that they could do anything about intruders, of course, as the entire complex had nothing more than a single missile launcher to be used in defense against organized pirating attempts and a pitiable force of security officers armed with handguns and the occasional sub-machinegun.

The entire operation's best defense was that it had very little worth stealing, as one could acquire everything the facilities personnel knew just by reading the standard science reports that were published on the 'net every month.

Nothing except what could possibly be the most secret government run project since the Great Devastation. Not that the government entirely expected the corporations not to find out eventually, and not that the government expected the corporations to respect the governments "superiority" and not attempt to steal the information for themselves, but the longer they could keep it secret, the closer they could get to completing the project before that eventuality came about.

Apparently, though, that grace period was up. The facility's sensors were picking up a force of MTs and tanks that were bearing the crest of Neo Zeta, not that anyone was fooled by it. Langsteen was willing to bet it was the work of Mirage, they seemed to appreciate such things as misguiding and subterfuge.

The defenses in place could hope to destroy four, maybe five of the MTs and up to seven of the tanks before succumbing, and all the personnel in the security room knew they couldn't count on support from the official military, as occupied as it currently was on Mars. So, Langsteen had put aside some credits as insurance, and that insurance was about to pay off.

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Geo-synchronous orbit above the facility, privately owned Cruiser Hadrian

"Cap, activity on the E band, patching the message through to your console. Appears to be text only, rather short at that", intoned a very lanky man in a uniform that would pass for a archeological find at some pre-Devastation digsite.

A much cleanly dressed but still rugged looking man in a chair at the center of the room replied to the announcement, "Acknowledged Mr Shepperd, thank you". He brought a screen hanging from the side of his chair to sit in the air in front of him and quickly read the green text appearing on it.

"Ok then, this is it", the captain said, a smile on his face, "We get payed today men, but first we have to earn it. Mr Glassly, go inform Pilots Truman, Casey, and Jones to get to the hanger and begin to prep their vehicles. I want them loaded into their pods in three minutes and launch in five. Any more and they forfeit half their cut of the profits".

Another lanky and badly dressed man closer to the bridge's door got up from his console and ran to the back of the room, pushing in a button and speaking into an intercom, "Attention all personnel, we have go for mission launch. Pilots 1, 3, and 5 are now authorized to go hot. Pods in three and drop in five. Bridge, out".

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Geo-synchronous orbit above the facility, privately owned Cruiser Hadrian

The hanger was a scene of moderately organized chaos.

The three pilots had arrived within seconds, seeing as their barracks were attached to the hanger, and had already entered the elevators up to their cockpits by the time engineering crews started unhooking their machines from various power cables and stablizer towers. One of them in particular, Pilot Truman, was nearly flying. As soon as the gate between him and his open cockpit opened, he was off the elevator platform and into the nerve center of his personal war machine.

He settled down into his command chair quickly and punched the release button that closed the cockpit and returned the armor plating it jutted out of to its proper alignment. Dialing up the computer, he ran through an all systems check, getting green across the board, then started up his generator.

The resulting sound was among the things he loved the most in the world. An almost otherworldly hum, the generator powered the entire complex machine he was now encased in. Once the generator hit full capacity, and then pulled up a diagnostic systems map. Weaponry was at optimum, booster showed a power capacity over that of its stock rating (I've got to remember to buy my engineering team a round of drinks for that one), and everything else checked out just find.

A red light that shone over his head suddenly turned green as the larger elevator platform his craft sat on lowered him swiftly, maybe too swiftly, down into the drop pod he'd been assigned. Truman checked the mission clock that he had set into his personal assistance device (PAD).

Two minutes, fourty seven seconds, the captain'll be pleased.

He smiled, then, confident his fighting machine's systems were optimal, settled back into a kind of psuedo-meditative state, preparing for battle. Truman had to be in the right state of mind to fight and win. Any man could pick up a bar stool and swing it around, but it took a determined man to swing it with finesse.

Overhead the launch control teams were finishing up final preperations and, at mission time four minutes and fifty nine seconds, the superior controller pushed the confirm key on his console. In quick succession and with little more than a clicking noise resounding through the hanger, all the drop pods detached themselves from the cruiser and began the swift decent down into Earth's atmosphere.

Truman felt the change in inertia as his pod began to fall and, satisfied he was ready, watched the countdown display on his screen, waiting for it to hit zero and for his pod to begun firing de-acceleration thrust.

Ten seconds.

Five.

Two.

None.

The sudden push was akin to hitting a duracrete floor after jumping off a tall building, but Truman was used to it and his command couch absorbed most of the force, leaving him uninjured. The thrust continued for another dozen seconds and then Trumans job really began.

He was exposed to sudden light as the drop pod burst into eight equal parts, each jetting away as soon as the locks were broken. Glancing at his sensor readout, taking in his surroundings in an instant, Truman immediately activated his boosters, slowing his already paltry decent to a near stop and settling to the ground like a feather on water.

He opened his comm channels and was immediately subjected to Casey's confident laughter, "Hey boss, tune your comm frequency down a step, the corp forces aren't even encrypting their transmissions".

Truman shook his head, a smile spreading across his lips, "Casey, you really need to find a girlfriend", tuning his frequency to the appropriate channel anyway.

"Commander, I'm reading three contacts, unknown type...wait...my tac-com is generating a match...nonono. Shit, commander, we've got three ACs behind us"

Truman almost laughed, thinking to himself: Yes, be afraid, for the Ravens have come.

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Earth Government Scientific Research Facility

Jones smiled a very grim smile. The type of expression one might expect the Grim Reaper wears every morning before he goes to work harvesting souls. In fact, one could almost think Jones saw himself as a kind of grim reaper. He had no friends outside his five fellow Armored Core pilots on the Hadrian, nor did he desire any. They all thought he must have been depressed or something, especially because of his complete lack of interest in women, but they just misunderstood him, as every one did.

It wasn't that he didn't like women, it was just that he saw no reason to care about them. Or anyone. Anyone except his friends, of course, but a warrior must always care for his fellows, especially on the battlefield.

Even a relativily slaughterous battlefield like this one.

His sensors were showing him that there were two groups approaching the facility from two slightly different directions, both groups having eight medium MTs and a dozen tanks each. Jones took a quick glance at his rifle's ammo count and gave another one of his grim smiles, I could probably take this group all by myself.

He activated his boosters and began moving towards the column closest to him, noting that his two fellows did the same. Casey had apparently already gotten a lock on a few of the MTs nearest them, as he fired off a volley of missiles from the dual launchers on his AC's back. The flight of missiles would be enough to cause even another AC pilot to fear for his health. That they were targeted at a group of MTs reminded Jones of an old phrase he had heard from before the Great Devastation.

Like pigs to the slaughter

He let out a single bark-like laugh as he got within optimum weapons range and let loose with his rifle, taking out two MTs in a single sustained burst, neatly complimenting the four tanks destroyed by Casey's missiles.

Deciding that he should make the best of the situation, Jones decided to have a bit of fun, and switched to the medium linear cannon on his back, letting his AC settle into a reinforced firing position, not really showing any fear to the return fire from the pitifully weak MTs. After his AC had settled, he began a rather systematic destruction of the remaining MTs.

One shot, one kill.

Two shots, two kills.

Three shots, three kills.

Then he stopped firing and got slightly annoyed.

Beh, Truman is showing off again.

Indeed he was. The lead pilot had made use of his AC's overboost feature to get within very close range of the MTs very quickly, then made judicious use of his AC's powerful laser sword. He made quick work of the remaining three MTs and then turned his attention to the tanks that were all that was left of the column. He immediately bisecting a tank with a quick but graceful cut and then pumped a single shoot from his powerful energy rifle into the next one in line. One more cut and another tank exploded.

While Truman danced his AC among the tanks, killing them at will, both Casey and Jones closed in, taking one of the remaining tanks each, the rest having fallen to Truman's enthusiastic swordplay.

Jones activated his third weapon, a largish but otherwise innocuous looking missile launcher. He got a locking tone almost immediately and activated his boosters, setting his AC flying. Firing his missiles, he flew over his target before the missiles even reached it, for they first flew down low to the ground before starting on a beeline to the tank.

All four of the fired missiles impacted at roughly the same time, tearing the tank apart before it could ever hope to react.

Meanwhile, Casey dispenced with the theatrical part of the fight and simply fired a single bazooka shell into the lone surviving tank, turning it into so much overheated scrap metal.

The other column of corp forces decided to beat a judicious retreat, but none of the three AC pilots was about to let them.

Truman immediately began charging up his overboost function again and activated both his main boosters and the supplemental set he had attached to the back hardpoints of his AC, blasting off in pursuit. Jones decided upon a more leisurely dispatch, merely reactivating his linear gun and firing upon the retreating enemy from a distance. Even Casey added several volleys of missiles to the whole fiasco.

Within 20 seconds, it was all over.

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March 28th, Geo-synchronous orbit above the facility, privately owned Cruiser Hadrian

Langsteen, a man not entirely familiar with space travel, stared at the various displays that showed the view outside the vessel with a mixture of awe and, mysteriously, respect. The greatest thing he felt, of course, was anticipation. He was so excited about what was going to happen -- and secretly almost as afraid -- he was able to completely ignore the transparent platitudes Jonan was raining on the Hadrian's captain.

"Captain Herses, you know as well as I that the Earth Government's gratitude to you for your assistance a few weeks ago knows no bounds. However, you also know that we are as much paying you with these modifications to your ship as you are doing us a favor. This journey will be a proof of concept, a way of saying 'thank you, but can you help me with this, too?'. You don't need to help us if you don't want to"

The captain glowered at the big man as if he were a few feet shorter and less wide. He had been spouting nonsense like this since he had arrived, no doubt not liking the idea that a non-government vessel would be the first to test their new technology, "Mr Jonan, while I appreciate your care, I am willing to take the risk. If this works, and I have had many assurances from your scientists that it will, the Hadrian will be the first Earth ship to have it and, on top of that, I will be getting it without having to pay you, as per our contract. This is worth any risk to me, the business advantage alone will pay back any damages incurred upon the ship".

Feeling spurned and a little disappointed, Jonan sat down in a chair that had been provided for him, "Well then, I guess we better get on with this. Both emitters are in place by now".

The captain allowed a slow smile to spread across his face, "Very well, onward with progress, eh doctor?"

Langsteen, not realizing he was being talked to for a second, jumped as if startled, "Oh, yes captain, of course. I'll give the engineering teams the order to turn on the engine".

Langsteen hurried off to a console that hadn't been on the bridge several weeks ago. He typed in a few commands and rattled off a few status updates, "Navigational computer reports a direct line course to Mars is set, reports no known obstructions. Power levels nominal. Science crews report all green with the Motivation Drive". The scientist stood up, a mix of glee and seriousness somehow evident on his face, "We're ready to go on your command captain".

The captain pondered for a moment what was about to happen. He came upon a memory, some twisted remanent of a story about some entertainment program from the ancient history of the pre-Devastation world. His smile grew broader, "Make it so, doctor".

The scientist, not getting the reference, nonetheless chuckled for a moment and then turned back to the console, typing in a single line and then hitting the confirm button.

"Motivation Drive activated sir, all forward cam-sensors channeled to main bridge screen, all other sensors ready to record".

Everyone on the bridge turn their heads simultaneously to watch the screen that dominated the forward part of the murky metallic brown room. At the moment it showed a star field that shone with the backlight of the Earth and the Sun itself. However, even before the eyes of all who watched, the starfield slowly began to warp, brighten, until each individual point of light grew in strength and joined those around it, until there was only one remaining black hole at the center with a single shining dot at the core. Upon closer examination, this dot obviously became Mars and, in a flash, close examination became very possible.

"Motivation Drive holding, approaching Mars at...by the duece, is this possible? Reaching High Mars Orbit in an estimated twelve seconds".

Time ticked by slowly as all eyes remained riveted on the main screen and all ears tuned directly to Langsteen's voice.

"Five...four...three...two...one...Motivation Drive shutting down"

The screen showed the intense light flickering slowly until it resolved back into the original starfield and, amazingly, the face of the terraformed planet Mars.

The captain, standing slack-jawed, could only say one thing, once again remembering something of ancient Earth culture:

"My God, it's full of stars!"

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Post-Devastation Year 325

The faster-than-light capable Motivation Drive, invented by Earth Government scientists and distributed by Earth Government manufacturers, was enough to partially break the hold of the corporations on Earth and Mars. While they were all still powerful forces to be contended with, the government could finally say it was truely in charge and superior. There were still corporate wars and every corporation still maintained powerful individual armed forces, but the government now stood unmolested by any other power.

There was, of course, one group that still maintained full autonomy and was prospering as much as any because of the new available mobility. With both Earth and Mars and any other human colony in the Solar System within reach, the hundreds of Ravens spread throughout the human domain could do business as they pleased, doing what they did best. Their ACs kept the peace and destroyed it, fighting for corporations, the government, and even some smaller, private interests.

But of greater importance was a program the government put into action over the last year. Thousands of probes were built, equipped with the new Motivation Drive, and sent to star systems that were previously outside the reach of humanity, but no longer. They searched for resources, for planets that could be terraformed, and especially they searched for others.

The Earth government had kept another secret for several decades: they had begun to intercept casual transmissions from what appeared to their best analysts to be a thriving galactic community that made war, engaged in commerce, and just generally lived. Knowing its limitations, the highest officials decided it would be best to find and make allies as quickly as possible as they built up their strength and spread throughout their part of the galaxy.

OoC: Hey guys, new nation here. I'm sorry I made you read all that (at least I hope you read all of it), but I hope you liked it. Obviously, it's based off of my interpretation of the universe presented in the Armored Core series of video games. I hope you all are glad to know that yes, I'll be opening a sort of storefront soon enough from which you can hire Ravens to do your dirty work for you.

I'm going to go to bed now, so don't feel pushed to answer right away. Indeed, take the time you need to type a good, well written post, and I'd be happy to RP with any of you that replies.

Ugh >_>

{OOC: Wow, that looks good, even though I haven't finished reading it. Keep up the good work.}

OoC:

Thanks, I hope you enjoyed the whole thing. I also hope others might do th esame *Cough*

Well, this is starting to get familiar.

Sittin' sippin' sorrow
It's gone straight to my head
I say the pain shall come and it shall go
A friend once said
You ain't livin' for no God, no
You be livin' for the dollar sign
I say a frown upon your maker's face
You shall find

>_>

...

OOC:
Very nice.

IC:

The RFV Halo a small scout ship, was passing through the system.

A very bored Captain Angeles as sitting in his chair on the bridge, staring into the stars. A small beeping noise rang accross the bridge. The science officer called the captain.

"Sir, I have something."

Captain Angeles face didn't even twitch.

"Let me guess, Ensign Mckay, yet another nebula?"

"No sir, it seems that a primitive Super-Luminous drive was used in this sector, nothing that could travel between stars effectively...wait, it seems that these two planets, LI-120-03 and LI-120-04, show signs of civilization. Lots of leftover radiation on 03, similar to Carray Prime or Columbia 03."

Captain Angeles stood up, and walked over to the console, leaning over the shoulder of Mckay.

"Incredible. Hail the nearest ship...I suppose we should use old-style 2D transmission?
This is the Red Fleet Vessel Halo. We are of a star aproxamitely 3000 light years away. We would request an audience with your planetary leadership."

Angeles sat back down, and awaited a response.

~TAGGY
OCC:Nice work I'll post more later

Post-Devastation Year 326, In-Transit between Europa and Ganymede, Earth Government Ganymede Colony Transport (GCS-T) Noble Steed

Chris sat at his console, bored as usual. He had always felt slighted whenever he was on the bridge of a ship, that he had been shipped out to serve in the Jovian system was even worse. It didn't help at all that water transports were now in such high demand due to the population boom on the formerly quiet Ganymede colony because of the Motivation Drive allowing for Earth-Mede transit in minutes instead of years.

Chris didn't want to be here, sitting in front of the sensor board, starring at flatscreen readouts and a fuzzy holographic tac-readout, he wanted to do something exciting. He always had. Excitement was like a drug to him, one he had become addicted to as a kid. Being the son of a Raven tended to have that effect. Both because of the moderate fame his father achieved and because of his adreneline addiction, he felt he was destined to be a Raven, as well.

Then the small business he had been running on Mars to try and save up for an AC of his own had been destroyed in the war between the Mars LCC and the corporations, killing his father and destroying his leg, also destroying any chances he had of ever becoming a Raven. He had been forced take a job with the LCC as a bridge officer and, now in his thirties, he'd subsequently spent an entire decade on the edge of civilization, servicing the Ganymede colony's water needs.

Nothing exciting would ever happen out here, even the advent of faster-than-light travel rarely brought Ravens out this far. Chris could do little more than rest his chin on his hand, almost nodding off in front of the tac-display that failed to show anything but a scattering of tiny asteroids, meteors, and some strangely shipped un-identified object.

That last caught Chris' attention when the synapses in his brain finally realized it was there. HE sat up immediately and call to the Noble Steed's captain, "Sir, UO on scanners, it appears to be moving under power. It's just passing the orbit of Lysithea and will intersect our orbital path to Ganymede in two minutes".

The captain, an aging ex-military man, looked up slowly from his equally old command chair, ready to reply, when he was interrupted by a man who could have been his grandson, the comms officer, "Sir, recieving a transmission from the UO. It doesn't appear to be a normal radio transmission and I'm not quite sure how we're picking it up, but it appears that it's a flat-panel transmission, not holographic".

Spurned by what he obviously percieved as rudeness, the captain glared at the comms man for a second then growled, "Patch it through to the main screen".

"Aye aye sir", replied the comms officer, oblivious to the temper his commanding officer was showing. The forward screen turned on, lighting up the formerly dark and rusty-brown metallic room.

What it showed would completely revolutionize origins science back on Earth, something no one present quite appreciated except for Chris, who was just content to finally have some excitement in his life. A human face (OoC: I hope I'm right in guessing that you're human...) appeared and spoke out a terse message:


This is the Red Fleet Vessel Halo. We are of a star aproxamitely 3000 light years away. We would request an audience with your planetary leadership.

The captain was slightly taken aback, but immediately smirked. He was either dealing with a rogue military outfit trying to legitimitize themselves or the genuine article, in which case he could claim first-contact rights, something the corporations would pay a lot for. Of course, being ex-military gave him knowledge that the others around didn't have, so he could easily assess the claims presented.

Hmm, the fastest Motivation Drive I know of was a military prototype that had in the works a year ago, claimed it could go up to 100 times lightspeed, a lot more than the paltry 30 times this piece of junk can do. Even then, I don't think any civilization would send a scout that small on a more than 30 year journey just to pop in and say hi, so we're either dealing with a very advanced civilization or a couple of deserters. In case it's the former, I guess I should be diplomatic about this

He keyed the comms button on his command chair and, when it stuck and refused to go on, motioned for the young comms officer to turn the system on from his console. The captain hoped this alien civilization had holographic technology, because the Steed's flatscreen recorder had been knocked out a few days ago on Europa, so they'd have to transmit on holographic levels.

"Alien Ship Halo, this is the Ganymede Colony Ship Noble Steed, please identify your intentions and announce any weaponry you might be carrying"

A holographic image came onto the holo-circle on the bridge, showing another human.

Angeles ran up to the holo-transmission circle, and sent a reply.

"We intend to make first contact with your people and your leadership. Our ship is only a small explorer, carrying two...wait, i'm sorry, i just remembered, according to our laws, we are not allowed to introduce new techlonogy to less-developed civilizations, unless we are sure of their loyalty. I am Captain Angeles of the Red Fleet, and I also hold the rank of Ambassador to New Galactic States."

The young comms officer turned to the captain, "Recieving a reply, sir. Holographic this time patching through to forward projectors"

We intend to make first contact with your people and your leadership. Our ship is only a small explorer, carrying two...wait, i'm sorry, i just remembered, according to our laws, we are not allowed to introduce new techlonogy to less-developed civilizations, unless we are sure of their loyalty. I am Captain Angeles of the Red Fleet, and I also hold the rank of Ambassador to New Galactic States.

The captain frowned throughout the whole message, then smirked when it finished, Cocky bastards they are, but it looks like we are dealing with a first contact scenario. By the deuce, I'm going to be rich.

He signaled for the comms officer to turn on the holo-recorder and started to speak, "Alien Vessel Halo, I regret to inform you that I cannot take you back to Earth right away, though I'm sure you already know where it is. I can, however, take you back to the Ganymede colony located on the moon a quarter rotation around Jupiter, the gas giant we're orbiting right now. Also, I assure you that no one will try to steal your technology, it is just standard protocol to declare armaments in a situation like this. The Noble Steed being a water transport, we carry only a single standard Crest shipboard anti-shipping missile launcher".

He could have, of course, taken them directly to Earth, he was lieing through his teeth about having to go to Ganymede first, but he had to get into range of the message drone launcher on Ganymede so he could stake his first contact claim. He could also send a message to the government and they could send out a proper military escort which would be able to bring the aliens to Earth in style.

TAG

Maybe you'll get one of my ships to pass around in exploration.. good begining..

TAG

Maybe you'll get one of my ships to pass around in exploration.. good begining..

Or you can run into one of my probes in any one of thousands of surrounding systems.

^^

Ethereal Kau'In was sitting in a chair, his long Single braid falling down the back of his head. He was reading through the planetary reports when someone knocked on the door.

"Ethereal?" a Fire Warrior said, his voice highly mechinized through the Helmate. "One of the Air Caste Craft found a probe a few days ago." he looked grimly. "It seems to be advertising their location."

"Well, pay them a vist, tell someone to send a message to the Water Caste to send All Reprisentatives of the Castes interior to the planet."

"Yes Ethereal" Came the reply.

A few days later, a Tau've ship exited the Warp in High orbit of earth. Immidietly, the image of a Tau was sent to all ships, along with peace hails. BUt they would let the humans make first contact, that was there way.

"We will not be stopped by someone like you. Halo out."

The ship went to full sub-light speed, and headed for earth, broadcasting it's message.

"SIR! I've detected another starship! Looks like Tau designs!"

"Send a broadcast, claim this sector in the name of the Red Star Federation of Yugoamerica."

The people on the ship where a mix, Tau Representing Four of the Castes where on Bored, an Ethereal Transmitter was also present. When the Halo Claimed a system that was already claimed on a message pod, they where quite annoyed. Being Diplomatic, the Fire Caste Representaive was the first to respond.

We do not recignize your claim to this sector, please to not attempt to steal other peoples land, or For the Greater Good, we will be forced to assist them.

After seeing the message and hearing Chris confirm that the alien ship had a new heading, the captain's mind went blank.

Oh shit...this situation just went down the toilet

He clenched his jaw, made a snap-decision, than stood up from his command chair, "Navigation, plot me a course to Earth then route it right to the central computer. Helm, as soon as you recieve that plot, I want the Motivation Drive activated. If we aren't at Earth within the next three minutes, things are going to turn very ugly very quickly".

A pair of 'aye ayr sir's were all the response the captain recieved as the entire bridge crew settled into their work. The Noble Steed, though slow in comparison to military ships, was fast enough to bring them and their message to Earth long before the aliens could reach her, provided they stayed at sublight speeds.

The 'medes would have to wait for their water.

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Privately owned Cruiser Hadrian, now flagship of the 131st Raven Corporation battlegroup

"Cap, I'm reading a massive burst of energy coming from planetary north. Detecting some kind of ship at its epicenter, but it isn't anything I recognize. Looks like the military types see it, too", reported a cleanly uniformed man from a console off to the side of a now well-lit bridge.

Captain Herses, a man who, five years ago, had had only a broken down cruiser and six Raven pilots contracted to his name but was now in charge of a well-polished and fixed up cruiser along with two Void class destroyers, smiled, welcoming the possibility of action and the chance to earn a bonus on the contract he had with the military, "Very well Mr Glassey. Mr Conners, bring us about and up to full acceleration on heading", he paused for a moment to look at the tac-holo in front of Mr Glassey, "Ninety by one oh seven. Relay the same to the Victory and Bleeder, I intend to beat those military dupes to the--"

A still lanky but now much better dressed man interrupted the captain, "Cap! I'm recieving a transmission, but I'm not entirely sure how, it isn't a radio signal of any type. The ship appears to be the property of someone calling themselves 'The Tau' and that they come in peace. There's also a flat-screen picture attached, sir, shall I route it to the main screen?"

The captain's smile disappeared, replaced by a stern concentration, "Go ahead Shepperd".

The main screen flickered and was then dominated by the image of something that was, to everyone on the bridge, obviously not human.

"Well...this changes things. Mr Conners, keep our current course but begin to deccelerate when we reach the half-way mark between us and the alien ship. Mr Nathaniel, power up all forward weapons and open missile tubes. Mr Shepperd, prepare a standard hail and ask for the purpose and origin of the vessel. Also, relay these orders to our destroyer friends", Herses barked out, shooting rapid fire orders at everyone on his bridge. He then pressed a button on his command chair and made an announcement, "All pilots, I repeat, pilots 1 through 6, report to your ACs and prepare for drop. We're looking at a possible engagement with an unknown force and I don't want to risk your lives and equipment when I don't have to".

Once that was all done, he sat back in his command chair, watching everyone as they went about their tasks. He was about to ask Shepperd if he had sent his message (which he had), when he leapt out of his command chair as a ship deactivated its Motivation Drive almost directly in the Hadrian's path, passing over the cruiser just barely, a scant ten meters worth of miss.

"HOLY SHIT", was the cry that rang out from one of the bridge mates, which one Herses couldn't discern. He was about to turn and admonish all of them when Shepperd again interrupted him.

"Sir, recieving a radio-holo broadcast from the ship, claims to be Captain Elles of the GCS-T Noble Steed. Want me to patch it into the forward projectors?"

Already annoyed, the captain gave Shepperd a look of scorn and replied, "Of course, it must be something important if he's broadcasting it in the open".

The air at the fore of the bridge shimmered for a moment until the aging captain of the Steed appeared, "Attention all Earth Military Vessels, Corporation Militia Vessels, and Armed Civilian Vessels, this is Captain Elles of the Ganyemede colony logistics and transport corps. There is an in-coming alien vessel of unknown power and possible hostile intent enroute. The course it had set when I last saw it should bring it to roughly my location within the next several minutes. I repeat, unknown vessel of possibly hostile intent is enroute to Earth".

Herses took this all in for a moment, then set himself into action, issueing new orders for the third time in twenty some seconds, "Mr Shepperd, open a channel with the Steed and activate holo-recorders. I want a real-time feed".

"Aye sir, channel has been accepted and recorders are coming online now".

"Good. Hello Captain Elles, this is Captain Herses of the 131st Raven Corporation, under contract with the Earth Government Military. If you'll driect your sensors to planetary north, you'll see we already have a visitor of our own"

The hologram looked off to the left a moment, then nodded in that direction and turned back to face the captain, "This is most disturbing news, for that is not the vessel that I encountered earlier. Has this new ship announced its intentions?"

Herses nodded his head, "Yes, they claim to come in peace. They're obviously of some advanced alien race".

In response, Elles swore, "Well, then they don't even appear to be from the same civilization as the others. The ship we encountered was crewed by, oddly enough, humans. Do you think they'll recognize each other and start shooting?"

"I hope not, and I really don't want to risk it this close to Earth. Who knows how powerful their weaponry is. No, I'll send my destroyers to intercept the incoming alien vessel and continue on to the other alien vessel. They should have recieved our hail by now", he turned away from the hologram for a moment, "Mr Shepperd, signal the Victory and the Bleeder and instruct them to head out along the Steed's entry vector, warn them to expect incoming. Also, instruct the Victory's captain to relay the vector and information to the military, they should send a group to reinforce them", he turned back to the hologram, "Thank you for the your warning Captain Elles. I'm sure the Earth Government will suitably compensate you for your detour. Hadrian, out".

The hologram faded away and Herses settled back into his chair, his mind even more occupied than the last time he had done so.

The message that emitted from the Tau Ship next was a flat screen again. The Tau they saw was of an undetermoned height, but was smaller then those around it, its face was a blue colour, and it was very skelatorial. A mouth slightly set forward was toped with two eyes. There was no nose, mearly a smooth skin, and where the nose line ended, a slit went from there to cover the entire forhead. The top of the head was hairless, much like a balding man, but the sides and back where adorned with black Hair, which was tied back into a Long Braid. On each side of the face, green tatoos that looked like ocean waves stood. When the creature spoke, its voice sounded almost like what an insect would.

"I am Ual'Ma, A Member of the Water Caste, or as humans commonly refere to us the Diplomatic core, of the Tau've of Naggeroth. With me are Representatives of Each of the Castes, Bar The Ethereals, as well as reprisentatives of each species within the Tau've. We have come to offer you one of Four choices, we hope you do not choose the last corse, for it would be a waste of lives on both side.

First off, we offer that you may, should you wish and only should you wish, Join the Tau've. You would be allowed to govern yourselves as you see fit, as long as you keep within the Rules and regulations set by the Ethereals, and will not be called apon unless it is required.

Second is to forge an Allience With the Tau've, allowing trade to come in and out of both our lands, assisting eachother when times of conflict arise and roughtly protecting eachother when the time comes for it.

Thirdly, we will leave, you may pretened we never existed and we will never return. This is a sad option, but we will respect your wishes.

Lastly, if you must, you may attempt to conquer the Tau've. This will result in loss of life on both sides, and one side or the other would end up being the Less looser, but still a looser all the same. Please to not take this corse."

He stood, his transmission not leaving.

((Descriptive and way longer than I plan on writing any post on nationstates... but it's good rping.))

When the transmission ended, it took a second for Herses to figure out that it was a real-time feed, but when he did he coughed to give himself a moment to think and he came up with a plan, "Hello Ual'Ma of the Tau've, I am Captain Herses of the Earth Independent Vessel Hadrian. While I am in no position to make decisions such as that on my own, I am in a position to, under my contractual agreement with the government, give you clearence to land near the Earth Government's capitol city of Mygria. I'm sure the corporations will also be thrilled by your arrival."

"However, I must ask you one small favor: coming along the entry vector, based on a Earth-centric coordinate system where each light-second represents a single unit and each unit is cut into ten equal parts, my communications man is sending you now", Herses motioned for Shepperd to do so, "is another alien vessel of, from what we can determine, a different origin than yours. If you would maintain orbit for another couple minutes (OoC: Until Yugoamerica responds, sorry if it takes till tomorrow or anything), we would greatly appreciate it if you could search any databases you might have and inform us if you are familiar with the make and design of the ship, perhaps allowing us insight into any familiarity you might have with the ship's race".

"From there, I would be happy to provide you with escort to the capitol city on the surface", the captain concluded in his most diplomatic voice, waiting for a reply.

Ual'Ma paused for a moment, before speaking again.

"This would be a waste of time, I suggest instead of this, a Dropship will land where asked, and abored will be the reprisentatives of all. The Air Caste Member in control of this ship will confere with known infomation now, and we will do a search of our database. When the ship arrives here, the search should be finished. We know the nations name is Yugoamerica, this is all. Our dropship shall leave on your confrimation."

Nearly taken aback by the alien's forcefulness, Herses nonetheless was able to continue on without breaking his rythmn, "Very well then Ual Ma. Your drop ship may enter the planets atmosphere along the provided approach vector", the captain again motioned for Shepperd to send the standard approach vector for getting to Mygria from this orbital slot, "along which it can continue until it reaches the capitol city. It is a mite bit of a distance away, just over the horizon now, our orbital elevator, which is based in the capitol, Nexus should actually just be coming around in a few minutes, but it will only be a short hop. I will provide an escort of two Armored Core units".

He looked away for a moment, pressing the intercom button on his command chair, and barked out an order, "Pilots one and two, prepare for drop on my command".

Looking back, he once more addressed the alien, "If that will be all, you are free to be on your way".

OoC: I really ought to be getting to bed. Thank you for the wonderful RP, I should be back sometime tomorrow to continue.

Also, thank you for the compliment Draconic.

Ual'Ma nodded, before diconnecting the communication and moving off. Three Tau, a Human, Eldar and Kroot followed him. Behind them, a Guard of Ten Fire Warriors followed, and following these a Drone with a hologram projector flew along on the anti-Gravity engines. They entered the hanger, before mounting and loading into the Devilfish. Softly, the ship rose, and then exited the hanger. The Craft flew towards the said location, expecting the AC's to catch up with them. They took the path asked, and the distance was taken up slowly.

"How long will this take?" Jal'nin Asked, the human had a tendancy to forget himself.

"as long as it takes, for the greater good!" Ual'ma said.

The captain hit the intercom button on his command chair, "Pilots 1 and 2, drop imminent. You are to shut down all non-essential and combat systems and feed power to your boosters. You'll be escorting a low-flying shuttle around the horizon to Mygria. Hanger control, drop in 20 seconds". He shut off the intercom and turned to look at his sensors man.

He studied the man's face for a moment, then turned back, "Helm, as soon as drop pods 1 and 2 detach, bring us around on a course alon ghte Noble Steed's entry vector. We're going to join the Victory and the Bleeder in their wait for the other alien ship".

"Two away, sir", a voice rang out from behind Herses' chair, quickly accompanied by the helm man's report, "Aye sir, coming about. We're under way".

The captain let himself settle back into his command chair as the Hadrian made her way to a rendevous with her subsidiary ships.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

115 miles from Mygria, Capitol City of the Earth Government

Truman mentally shook himself off from the orbital insertion as he routed power from all his weaponry and defensive systems to his AC's boosters. Once the command had gone through, he reached over and activated his comms system, tuning into the unit frequency he and his fellow AC pilots of the Hadrian used, "Michelle, you ok out there?", he ask the younger pilot who had accompanied him on this drop.

The reply came quickly, tainted ever so slightly by indignation, "Of course I'm ok big brother, what do you think I'm some kind of little girl?"

Truman smiled. He wasn't literally Michelle's big brother, they were actually from completely different planets, him being of the Mother Earth and her having grown up on Mars, but they'd been together on the Hadrian so long that all six of the AC pilots felt like siblings.

"Ok little sister, just making sure. Wouldn't want you to mess up your new haircut", he teased, smirking widely at the irony. Though Michelle was definitely no kind of beauty queen, even if she was kind of naturally attractive, she had joined the Hadrian's crew as a wide-eyed 17 year old, just breaking into the ranks of the Ravens but showing a lot of promise fresh from the Mars arena circuit. Even though she was a healthy ten years older, none of her fellows let her forget that she was the youngest of them.

"The shuttle should be passing overhead any moment now, we're simply to follow after them, keeping them company, a sort of honor guard thing, I guess", Truman read off his objectives screen, following a ritual meant to establish that both their ACs computers were in-synch.

"Ha, mind if I just put Charybdis on auto-pilot and nap through this Truman", Michelle replied in a very sardonic tone.

"Very funny little sister, just keep your eye on your radar and hand on your throttle. They'll be coming in at just under orbital speeds, so I don't want to miss them"

"Hahaha, fine fine, whatever you say big brother, I'll watch the sensors"

Both ACs settled down to wait for the shuttle to pass overhead and then begin their glorified honor guard routine into Mygria.

OOC: sry guys g2g, will edit later.

^^^

The Halo moved quickly, attempting to reach Earth as soon as possible. When they arrived, they were met by the Tau ship.

"Open a channel:
This is Captain Angeles, of the RFV Halo. We propose tripartite negotiations with this Earth and your Water Caste."

The Water Caste member on the ship nodded, looking at the infomation. It had drawn up blank, there was no recorded histroy Of Yugoamerica in the data banks. He then opened a channel.

"I have been left to wait for you, a shuttle has been dispached towards the capital of these people, i would suggest you request permission to also go to this place, for there negotiations may start." With that the screen cut out.

Meanwhile the shuttle screamed through the atmosphere, not even slowing down as the fire streaked its hulls. It zoomed across the continient, at speeds not normal for the standered of this ship. However, the Devilfish had been refitted for Water Caste Use, it was faster, with no armour and the two forward Gun drones had been refitted to Sheild ones. It flew over where the AC's where, not slowing its pace.

The Red Lander streaked through the sky, where it saw the distictive Tau ship. The ship landed, with the foreward landing door facing the diplomatic building. A red star blazed on each side of the ship, and the ramp came down, where five uniformed diplomatic officer disembarked, including Captain Angeles.

OoC: Yugoamerica, would you kindly delete your last post, it completely ignores every response I've made to your actions since you ran off from the water transport. Plus, think of the plausibility: do you think that, after having acted ina possibly hostile way, bulling your way into our home solar system, attempting to make claim to it, and then just showing up at the homeworld, we wouldn't simply blow you out of the sky as soon as you came within range of the nearest Void destroyer squadron?

OOC: Well you obviously did not read my post about tripartite negotiations.

OoC: Oh, I saw it, but for two reasons my characters don't know about it and don't care about it:

1. You addressed the message to the Tau. Since you were holding what amounted to a real-time conversation over inter-planetary distances, you obviously do not use radio or any other kind of sub-light only communications. Since radio is all that my nation has available to it, I've treated it as a sort of plot device that we can only recieve messages that are directly targeted at one of the ships under my control, seeing as we have no kind of recieving equipment for any such super-luminal communications.

2. Like I said, you ship acted in a hostile manner, was preceded by another ship that warned the rest of the orbital guard about your prescence and prediliction, and were approaching along a vector that was guarded by a significant amount of the orbital fleet by that time. Even if you somehow managed to bull your way past the fleet, planetary defenses would have opened fire. If you found your way past those, not to mention the defenses placed around Mygria, I can guarentee you that the only reaction you would get would be an immediate arrest of your personnel and an impounding of your ship.

Now, if you want to go that way, fine, I'd be willing to RP it, but OoCly I'm a little irked that you ignored all my RPing towards you in favor of a single line that I wasn;t even ICly aware of (even ignoring my plot device, you never made it clear whether I heard that or not, something that forces me to assume the latter, since your message was originally pointed at the Tau, anyway).

Naggeroth: I apologize for the hold-up here. I've been rather busy with life outside NS for the last couple days (work, play, and more play >_>), and now we have this situation. I do not want to continue on until we resolve whether or not Yugoamerica's last post is going to end up being final, since that will dictate what my next several actions are.