NationStates Jolt Archive

OOCL Factbook!
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=435346

The Azanian Economic Bloc was born of a region of the world that had suffered economically. It was a coalition of various megacorporations, ones that learned to flaunt the laws of their weaker host government. The majority of their operations were based offshore, in international waters where they could run their businesses at will.

But times were changing. The AEB would soon expand beyond its humbled earthly borders. Projects were underway to bring the operations of the megacorps into space.

[Over AEB]

It was their most expensive investment yet. The space station started originally for materials fabrication was rapidly becoming a shipyard. Raw materials were being pulled in from Earthside to help construct an interplanetary starship: Many regions of the solar system were ripe with resources, something that interested the various mining corporations of Azania. Compared to other spacefaring nations, their technology was primitive. But they would travel on as best they could, hopefully with some help from outside nations.

As Makaarian intelligence operatives scoured the base for any sign of possible threats to Makaar, a small vessel dropped out of warp next to the shipyards. About 60 metres long, it was a tiny science ship, with a crew of 21, as well as no weapons but quite heavy shields. It hailed the station.

"Greetings," it broadcast. "This is the HMM Science Ship Nova of the Royal Stellar Navy Scientific Division. We have been assigned to observe the construction of your nation's first interplanetary spacecraft."

OOC: Since I really hate the FT cliché of "I somehow knew what was happening and sent a large fleet to investigate and possibly shoot up people" so I'll keep this primarily OOC as I haven't yet thought of a better way to join into this RP. However, if you do need any ships for your PMT / FT fleet, just click on the link in my signature and we can talk, I offer good PMT-FT fighters at a low price, so you might be able to actually afford something :p

[Over-AEB]

Over AEB was originally designed as a spacestation, and the older, clunkier hull section in the center reflected that. Now it was only used for storage and power supply, the Tokamak Fusion reactor humming away silently inside it. The rest of the station was arrayed out in a ring around this, with scaffodling extending from the center of it, where the ship itself was to be built. The station was completely unarmed, save for whatever hand weapons the Corporate Security Forces carried onboard. Corporate logos covered the white, radiation-hardened station, along with various sensor panels.

Over-AEB's commander was an Aerospace industry professional, James Greaves. Overseeing the construction of the AEBSS Hermes One through remote monitors, he sipped coffee through a straw (a necessity in zero-gee), when a sudden alarm light flashed, illuminating the control room.

Magnetic sensors, among others, beeped and whirred as he sent one of the cameras looking for the object. The RF-communications pod reported something scanning the frequencies, and then transmitting.

Gulping down his coffee, he listened as the spacecraft communicated.

"Ah, greetings to you too, Nova. This is Over-AEB commander James Greaves. Nice to have some visitors."

The craft had come out of nowhere.

"Light years ahead of us..." another man muttered, chuckling at his pun.

"Nova, we can assure you this vessel is being designed for peaceful purposes. Our nation, the Azanian Economic Bloc, is a group of corporations. We hope to use this vessel as a prospecting ship to set up mines in the Belt, and as a general testbed for the capability of the AEB's space technology.

"If your docking couplers are compatible, you're welcome to come on in for a visit."

News was being relayed back home already.

OOC: Since I really hate the FT cliché of "I somehow knew what was happening and sent a large fleet to investigate and possibly shoot up people" so I'll keep this primarily OOC as I haven't yet thought of a better way to join into this RP. However, if you do need any ships for your PMT / FT fleet, just click on the link in my signature and we can talk, I offer good PMT-FT fighters at a low price, so you might be able to actually afford something :p
OOC: Thanks for the offer. Hopefully once the ship is built, I could have it stop by in your area or something.

I might buy your ships, though I am kind of interested in designing my own (i'm a pseudo-art freak), so if I do, if you could critique them that would be cool.

[Over-AEB]

Over AEB was originally designed as a spacestation, and the older, clunkier hull section in the center reflected that. Now it was only used for storage and power supply, the Tokamak Fusion reactor humming away silently inside it. The rest of the station was arrayed out in a ring around this, with scaffodling extending from the center of it, where the ship itself was to be built. The station was completely unarmed, save for whatever hand weapons the Corporate Security Forces carried onboard. Corporate logos covered the white, radiation-hardened station, along with various sensor panels.

Over-AEB's commander was an Aerospace industry professional, James Greaves. Overseeing the construction of the AEBSS Hermes One through remote monitors, he sipped coffee through a straw (a necessity in zero-gee), when a sudden alarm light flashed, illuminating the control room.

Magnetic sensors, among others, beeped and whirred as he sent one of the cameras looking for the object. The RF-communications pod reported something scanning the frequencies, and then transmitting.

Gulping down his coffee, he listened as the spacecraft communicated.

"Ah, greetings to you too, Nova. This is Over-AEB commander James Greaves. Nice to have some visitors."

The craft had come out of nowhere.

"Light years ahead of us..." another man muttered, chuckling at his pun.

"Nova, we can assure you this vessel is being designed for peaceful purposes. Our nation, the Azanian Economic Bloc, is a group of corporations. We hope to use this vessel as a prospecting ship to set up mines in the Belt, and as a general testbed for the capability of the AEB's space technology.

"If your docking couplers are compatible, you're welcome to come on in for a visit."

News was being relayed back home already.

The captain chuckled. "We utilise teleportation technology," he said. "We hope to be able to share our technology with you. Makaar is a nation of peace, and we are an enlightened race." He was a cheerful man - not a characteristic you often found in Makaarian captains - as well as being charismatic.

"We are not here to judge your space military fleet," he said. "You have every right to construct a defence force, even one in space. If you allow it, I'd like to teleport over with two scientists to examine your progress."

"Teleportation... Amazing."

He turned the commlink back on.

"Alright, you're welcome aboard. Come in at your own leisure."

When they arrived, they'd find a station that was not that far from the ISS (Indeed, the AEB operates in a timeline of late 21st century technology). It was less spartan though: The crew of around 100 had more amenities than others did, since their posts were just as long, and they were a good way of allieviating the stress of being in such cramped conditions and difficult work.

"I don't think we'll get to the point of a military space force anytime soon. Right now we're concerned with setting up a line of commerce with the Asteroid belt for mining."

The captain and two scientists materialised in the command centre of the space station. Immediately, they began floating.

"Oh god..." one of the scientists was already panicking. The captain held himself away from the cieling, floating up and down and around, trying to stop himself.

"Tell me you have artificial gravity," he said, with an almost shocked look on his face.

OOC: I have to go now, unfortunately. Carry this on tomorrow (I live in Britain - probably a different timezone from you) - feel free to post a tour of the station or something, I'd love to read what it looks like inside.

OOC: Yep, other side of the pond...
IC:

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/3072/overaeb8aa.png
(Shaded outline is the hermes)

"Artificial gravity, ah, we aren't that advanced. We can go into the hab area, it's oh dot five Earthside."

The two men were lead into an airlock. There were many of these in transition areas around the ship, to prevent catastrophic failures of the internal atmosphere. After the airlock cycled, they floated through a cylinder which served as a passage. Greaves grinned a bit, adjusting himself.

"This is gonna be real disorienting, but when we get in there, gravity is gonna be that way." he pointed to his left, towards where they came. A ladder ran down the entire side of the corridor. The vibration of the rotating crew habitat could be felt if you touched to the 'wall'. Then, pointing to his right, he gestured towards a hatch.

"So when we come up, it'll be like coming out of the basement."

He tapped on a keypad.

"Get ready."

The airlock opened, and Greaves made his way down the ladder. Once everyone was there, they were in what seemed to be a hallway in a strange combination of a normal space vessel and a futuristic hotel hallway. The air filter was a steady hum, and above their heads were 'skylights' of armored 'glass'. The lights were sheets of glowstrip, not too harsh on the eye, giving the surroundings a pleasant lighting. The colors were painted in similarly passive shades.

"Designed for relaxation."

There were multiple floors, and naval-style staircases to get to them. Along the main corridor were plenty of plants and other greenery.

"Stuff we pulled up from zero-g research. These aren't our main gardens, that's a seperate sector, but we figure they look nice and they help out the air a bit too. Most of these rooms are crew cabins or storage."

They continued along the circle, towards the mess halls. It was furnished in a manner similar to those earthside, and since there was some gravity, the chow was generally better than that of the zero-gee variety. Continuing on, there were multiple gyms, as well as several recreational centers. Filled with a variety of games and entertainment, there were also models of the station itself and the yet to be completed Hermes One.

"Most of the work is done with automated stuff, but even then, lots of human supervisors and maintinance for the bots. If you want to take a peek at the vessel 'erself, we'll have to go back into the command center and take a crew elevator down the spine."

[Earthside]
[Azania]

The floating megacity was never a dull place, but beyond the fluttering air traffic, the blimps, the ships, there was something brewing bigger in the AEB Space Projects Center.

"So who are these people again? They never came up in our study."

Project Director Nathaniel Ksuili was a native African, raised in one of the many generations under Azanian capitalism and idelogy. An accomplished businessman, he was voted by the Project Investor board to lead the Hermes program and other AEB space activities. His staff sat at the same table as him, a nice hardwood one, as a flatscreen monitor displayed images of Over-AEB and the visitors.

"They didn't come up," the aide said, glancing at the screen again, "Because we quite simply couldn't follow their example. This is a small organization of 6 million people. They are an accomplished spacefaring nation with technology centuries ahead of anything we could hope to accomplish."

Ksuili squinted for a bit at the foreign vessel, and took a drink of water.

"I thought the American DARPA started studies on the physics around a century ago..."

"But nothing came of it. In any case, we're one of the newer Earth-based nationstates to be moving to orbit, apparently, because they're showing a lot of interest in us. I don't think we need to worry about being behind, unless there's an equipment failure, most agree the fusion-based drives we want on Hermes One will be more than sufficient."

The conversation continued while a dirtier line of work continued elsewhere.

[Zambian Copper Mines]
[AEBRDF 55th Company]

The dropships roared over the jungle on airbreathing engines, banking and manuvering to get as low as safely possible. The pilots of the camouflaged craft were linked in neurally, sitting in their cockpits with the interface helmets on, chattering over the radio. Inside the bays of the dropships were the armored and armed commandos of the 55th AEBRDF. Todays case was unusual: Rather than the standard riots or thieveries, it was an armed assault on the highway from one of the copper mines, a supply convoy specifically.

They roared over the gaping shaft of a copper mine, and then banked hard again. In the distance something was burning, gunfire crackled and cackled as the fighting continued. Screaming down the road, a dropship moved in to drop a load of A45 Combat Armored troops, heavy battlesuits. Holding their G5 rifles and a variety of other weapons, they quickly set up a perimeter.

Sgt. Jan Nikolaas looked over the helmet visor mounted interface of his A45, robotic waldo hands on the suits arms readying the rifle for action. The enemy was a typical hodgepodge of Afircan armed banditry: Everything from old Cased Chemical rifles (OOC: The weapons of today, if you will) to one of the older tripod mounted heavy coilguns. That would have to be eliminated quickly. He raised the rifle, targeting symbology centering itself on one of the men, and fired a three round burst. It was a single crack at that rate of fire. The bandit's chest exploded, his old rifle clattering to the ground. A steady rhythm eminated from the tripod coilgun, and he thew his suit to pavement. Someone else raised the left arm of the suit, activating a riot launcher that was standard issue. But instead of CS gas, it was filled with old-style frag grenades, still useful after 200 years with little change. The launched choonked and then choonked again, a blur as the grenade canisters flew towards the coilgun. The bandits were already fleeing from it, but it was too late. The airburst caught them and threw them to the ground viciously, shrouding their deaths in a cloud of dirt and smoke.

Jan got up and quickly resumed combat. After hunting down the last of the bandits, the dropship arrived again, and the A45s clunked onboard, one after another, while a Paramed craft airlifted the wounded employees to company hospitals.

Just another day on the job.

[Haven System]

Laser fire lit up the skies of Haven I. A fleet of pirates, larger than had ever been put together before had attacked the battlestation, taking Haven fleet off guard. The sheer volume of firepower coming from the haven battlestation was immense, creating a green cross-hatching effect. Soon the pirates found themselves forced to disengage, followed by the Haven Fleet.

"This is Star Destroyer Blade of Ra. You will cease all activity or be destroyed. Please respond."

The pirates responded by sending a wing of their fighters on a kamikaze run. In an atempt to dodge, the SD started an uncalculated hyperspace jump, but not before the flight hit.
Huge chunks of the hull were ripped open, leaving gaping, jagged holes, leaking oxygen and crew members. Quickly, the emergency systems got into place and closed off the area.
The captain looked around the bridge. The bridge crew was nearly entirely gone, after an old TIE boarding craft got a commando team in. Luckily there was a sizeable force of stormtroopers on the bridge, reporting to the commander at the time.

"Where are we?"

A grey uniformed navigation officer spoke.

"We are... Some distance away from Ankhmeti borders, sir. Short range scans indicate local life forms which may have technologies capable of repairing some of the least sophisticated systems, but no guarantees."

"Oh. Send a friendly message. Get on their good side."


This is star destroyer Blade of Ra. We come in peace, on an exploratory mission. Unfortunately, we have been attacked. Does anybody here have the capability to repair our ship?

Greaves was showing the two Makaar visitors around when a headset he was wearing began to beep. Tapping the headset, he looked in the direction of the command room, even though he couldn't see it.

"Jimmy G. here, what's up?"

"Sir, we've just got another communication. Fucking warship out there. Must have detected the Makaar vessel dropping in and figured we were a good rest stop."

"Hold contact." he muted the headset. "I'll be with you two in a minute."

Looking for a hatch to descend back into the command room, he climbed out, and once in zero gravity, pushed himself towards the central command room in the middle of the hub.

"Alright, what Buddha's blue balls is happening now?"

He listened to the transmission.

"Ah, Blade of Ra, this is Azanian Economic Bloc Station Over-AEB. Looks like we might be too low-tech to do what your asking... Well, that and your ship is roughly 3 times the size of our station ahd shipyard itself, but we'll do what we can."

Gods, that thing must be a mile long. Guess we're going to be having some fun out here in the big black yonder.

--
OOC: This is just a bit of fluff about the Hermes One spacecraft I want to get down.

The Hermes One
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9828/hermesone8xs.png

The Hermes One is designed as a multirole 'prospecting ship' for traveling throughout the solar system. Constructed from some earthside components and Lunar-extracted materials, the Hermes One runs on a nuclear-fusion based deuterium/helium-3 system (correct me if this is unrealistic as I'm a bit new to PMT/early FT propulsion), with extremely long range endurance. It cannot reach the speed of light.

The vessel is designed to be modular, with four-sectioned spine in the middle of the vessel. Each section can carry 4 cargo pods, or one 'wheel' of a centrifugal habitat. Most liquid supplies are carried in a frozen form, and extra storage is located rearwards towards the engine section. It can be transported to the ship's command center at the bow, or to the habitat areas through a Maglev system mounted inside the spine.

The vessel is not designed as a warship: indeed, it carries no weaponry. However, it carries an extensive array of sensors, as the asteroid field where will likely operate as a prospector is rife with dangerous objects. The vessel is similarly only armored to withstand debris impacts and hard radiation. Extendable solar panels can be used to generate energy to supplement the fusion reactor.

The vessel is highly automated, but a large human crew is still necessary. The Hermes One and other vessels it its series is roughly 325 meters in length, making it as large as the Earth's largest freighters.

The primary mission of the Hermes One will be to set up a system to bring asteroids into L4 or L5 for mining and extraction.

The communications officer of the Blade tapped the captain's houlder.

"Sir? We've been monitoring local communications. It turns out... These people aren't as advanced as we thought. It appears that this place has until now been isolated from the rest of the galaxy. Recently representatives of Makaar arrived, and ended that. But htat doesn't seem to have lessened the shock of a mile long star dreadnought appearing in their space. Perhaps we should offer them something?"

"A good idea. We could offer them bacta. Isolated civilisations often have problems with medical technology. Send them a message."

To the Anzanian Economic Bloc government: We realise that having a large military vessel appear above your territory must be a shock, and we are offering to give you a sign of good intent. We offer you several cannisters of bacta healing fluid. Once submerged in this fluid, a wound will heal almost miraculously. We await your response. Blade out.

"Ah, roger that Blade. We'll recieve it on-station and ship it back when the next autolifter shoots up from Earthside."

He turned off the commlink as he looked through one of the cameras at the warship, a safe distance away to avoid collision, but still utterly massive. As if they could do anything about it anyway. There was no weapon in their arsenal save for some kind of nuclear device (Greaves didn't even think they had nukes, but a few Deep Space Warfare papers called for them). It was best to just take their gift. They wouldn't necessarily be able to use it: Any foreign object from space has to be examined and scrutinized (And if necessary, decontaminated) to avoid exposure to the possiblity of spaceborne diseases.

The Makaarian group stood outside the command centre, having followed their 'tour guide' there. The captain took out a small communication device.

"Nova Alpha 1 to Nova, come in please."

"This is the Nova, we read you," came the reply from their ship.

"Radio back to Makaar. We have made contact with the Azanian Economic Bloc. Tell them that we have confirmed friendlies here, and ask them to send a diplomat ship."

"Roger that, captain. Nova out." The reply came before the device made a beeing noise signifying its shutting down.

The Galactic War, mostly in its infancy, was still spreading across the face of the galaxy. Though the stellar nations currently in the newly explored system were not a part of the ever-spanning war, that didn't help them when it came to wandering warships. A single Kepesk Class Destroyer (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/azureink/ships/IonCannonFrigatemod2.jpg) and a Caex Class Frigate (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v90/azureink/ships/cruiser01.jpg) were passing by the outer rim of the system when they caught the profile of a Star Destroyer class vessel. Since the enemies they faced used that class of ship, they believed it to be another enemy staging ground. The ships veered into the system, full power to weapons, shields, and engines.

Draconic Order info (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=8381392#post8381392)

Diplomacy? Aren't we in a bit over our heads here?

That was the message that seemed to eminate from the faces of the rest of the crew. Greaves nodded, and looked at the camera staring down towards earth. It was night there now, and the blob of dense lighting that was Azania and its manmade island was shining brightly from the dark nothingness of the ocean.

"Well, I think for that, you'll have to go Earthside. We're just engineers and crewdogs here, everything government is down thataway."

The small repair shuttles surrounding the craft were building a huge frame around the Star Destroyer, putting it in place to enable repair efforts to begin properly.
On the bridge, the intel officer looked down at the planet below. He turned to the two crimson guards at the door, and turned to the captain.

"Amazing that such a world can survive in these times. Just a few years ago policy would have dictated an attempt at a full scale planetary assault. How times change. Perhaps we can aid these people in some way? They don't seem to have much in the way of space-faring craft, and what we've sen is unarmed. Their weapons... Ugh. We detected crude atomic weapons, less than the gigaton range. Less than the power of a single turbolaser blast. But I suppose that's out of the question?"

"We couldn't give them more than a laser cannon from a junked TIE, and event hat would requier several years of negotiation. Besides, we hardly know these people."

"So they're just sitting out there?"

Greaves looked at the massive vessel with interest. One thing was for sure: They were going to need some weapons when they went out there. The AEBSF had already posted its proposal for the first vessel: The Windhoek class. If the Hermes went well, construction of this next vessel would be even quicker, it was roughly half the size of this massive craft, and resources would be coming in from the Hermes' mass driver, so less would be lifted from Earth.

The prospect of what it would need to be armed with was even scarier. Already Defense Industry analysts were suggesting volleys of not just conventional missiles, but hydrogen bombs. A nuclear weapons program was already underway: plenty of similar materials were refined for the fission/fusion based AEB energy sector, but it would be along time before a significant stockpile was built. Hopefully the time to war would be even longer.

The weapons officer of the Star Destroyer spotted the energy buildup in the approaching ships, and informed the captain.

"Inoming ships. 2 contacts,coming in hot. scans indicate they have a lock. Almost definately unfriendlies. Request permission to open fire, all batteries."

"Permission granted. If they want to scare us, they're going to have to do better. Inform command. Send for an eclipse to be sent to this sector for clearup duties."

"Aye sir. Flight decks are hot, all wings are go. Turbolasers at full power. "

"See how they like 2,400,000 megatons of firepower headed in their direction. Have all fighters move in fast, attack, regroup and attack again."

The vessels cruised closer into the inner rim of the system, small signals indicated the launching of their own fighter screen. The Star Destroyer, badly wounded already, would have to hope the ties it launched to be enough. Several minutes after the ties were launched, the two warships, their starfighters, and the Star Destroyer's starfighters clashed. Small puffs of plasma and laser fire filled the void around the two motherships as they continued closing on their main target.

Several tie bombers broke through the fighter screen and made a successful attack run on the frigate. The shields on the vessel buckled under the impacts and one of its capital ship laser cannons was blown from the hull. The destroyer broke through the tie defenses. A groan echoed throughout the lower decks as power was being diverted from the turret array and transferred to the front of the ship. The ship grew dark for a moment before a huge expulsion of energy poured out of a cannon that ran the length of the ship. A stream of charged particles launched itself from the vessel. The cylindrical beam shined like the stars as it cut through the void, smashing into the side of the Star Destroyer. All along its path everything was crushed, blown apart, and/or disintegrated, claiming one or two flights of fighters from both sides.

[Over-AEB]

Some of the lights and electronics on Over-AEB flickered on and off, combined with mass reports of moving objects and even more alarming reports of an instability in the usual field of Electromagnetic energy. Greaves cycled through the camera views until he could find the image. A massive ray of energy, some kind of particle beam, he suspected form the sensors, was lancing towards the Star Destroyer. He immediately had the communication systems go into full band mode, and began pleading for the two warring nations to take their battle somewhere else. Sounding the emergency alarm, he prayed to Gods he never worshipped to keep them from mistaking Over-AEB for an enemy repair post.

The bridge of the Star Destroyer was covered in debris. Huge chunks of the deck were ripped out, and the lighting minimal. The commander stood at the window, watching the battle. He turned to the communications officer.

"Send a message. I want to know why these idiots came in on an attack run!"

"Yes sir. Attention alien vessel. This is the Star Destroyer Blade of Ra. Why have you attacked our vessel? If you do not desist a carrier group can be called to this system within 12 hours, and we will not hesitate to call in the heavy guns if it looks like we'll loe. We have no wish to fight. Please desist."

The beam crippled the ions cannons on the side that was hit, and one deck lost viability. The IC's on the other side opened up, hoping to hit the weapons systems of the enemy craft.

"Comms officer. just call in the reinforcements. Cancel them if the 'enemy' stops."

"Aye sir."

One of Kazecistan's numerous Torpedo Ships (frigates) was hoping from system to system cataloging all that it found. It arrived near the inner most planet of this particular system and began to scan.
"Sir, there's life in the system." After a short pause, "It appears as if several races near our own tech level have come to investigate a far more primitive one, just building their first ship it would seem." The science officer looked up from his Holo-Display for the caption's response. This particular crew had been together for a long time, and the caption need but nod and the helmsman had already set the course.

As the ship neared the station and other ships, it slowed to half speed, then full stop. It's numerous weapons and shields were inactive.The K.N.S. SharNavar greets you. We have peaceful intensions.

"Sir, there appears to be a battle on the other side of the station." The holographic information column in the center of the room was suddenly surrounded by red text. The passive blue updates that usually swirled around replaced by battle reports and sensors readings.
"Shields up at full, no weapons." The caption was calm, despite the alarm running at half intensity in the background.

A very old song began to repeat over and over on all frequencies:War! Huh! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!...

[OOC]

Hope you don't mind if another MT/PMT throws in.

[IC]

Jensai Scientific Space Station, Orbit

Dr. Allan Rickman, head researcher for the scientific team on board the staion, floated over to the main viewport.

"What the hell is going on out their?"

A tech looked up from his control panel, "I don't know Doctor...we've been monitoring the transmissions going back and forth and it looks like AEB encountered alien life-forms! Then that masive ship showed up an-Wait! Another transmission coming through..."

The tech punched a button and the lines of an old song played over the PA.

Rickman looked back at the tech and raised an eyebrow. The tech shrugged.

Jensai High Command, Dirt-side

"Mr. President, we've been recieveing transmissions from our own sattilites and just recently from the JSSS. Apparently the Azanian Economic Bloc made alien contact. And apparently two or three ships are duking it out in space."

President John Ryies stared at his Secretary of Defense for a moment before speaking, "Aliens?"

The seceretary nodded, "Yes, sir."

"And you're not pulling my leg?"

"No, sir."

"Jesus Christ. I always figured the AEB would find something big...Give their Board of Directors and call and conragulate them on being the first to make alien contact. Tell them that we would like to send a represantative to any talks they might hold with the aliens, if that's alright with them...Oh, and keep this quiet for now."

"Yes, sir."

Message to the AEB

Greetings from the Republic of Jensai! We would like to congratulate you on making alien contact. You have taken an enourmous step in the human path towards space. We would like to send our own ambassadors to meet the aliens, if we have your permission and if they are indeed talking to you.

The Department of the Exterior,
Jensai

"Sir, do you think that they will get the message behind that pointless bit of humor?" The weapons officer was always a bit uptight.
"You don't?" The caption said with an air of disbelief.
"With all due respect sir, no I don't."
"Alright, let's give them plain Kazeci*." The caption said with a sigh.
Kazecistan asks that all parties involved stand down and talk this over like civilized people.
ooc: *plain Kazeci is a dialect of English.

[Earthside]
[Azania]
[24 hours earlier]

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/319/aerofighter5ux.png

"Shareef don't like it... Rockin' the Casbah! Rock the Casbah!"

The four fighters streaked over Western Tanzania, armed to the teeth with PGMs and land attack munitions. And once again, Lieutenant Michaels was singing classic music again.

"Shit, learn a song that ISN'T decades old and do the rest of us a favor, OK?"

The fighters began to break off as the target neared, all of them old trucks set up for the training range. The fighters were odd looking, but they were also designed to function as spacecraft when equipped properly. Aerospike engines flaring, Michaels continued with his song, arming weapons to the chorus.

"Drop yer bombs between the minarets... Down the Casbah waaaaaaay!"

The bombsights for the targets appeared in his display, target symbology flickering as the dots of the trucks appeared. All of his munitions were red for armed.

"The Shareef don't like it!"

With the flick of a swithc, smart cluster bombs rained down over the first section of the column's beaten and broken down target vehicles. He slowed a bit to improve the bomb glide for his next line up.

"ROCKIN the Casbah!"

The next cluster fell down, and a new plume of dust flew as flames and explosions flickered, danced and multiplied in pyrotechnic brilliance.

"ROCK! The casbah!"

The rest of the aircraft followed in behind him, releasing their own loads on the range. Fuel to spare, the Lieutenant rolled the frame of his Geesvalk aersopace fighter, thrust vectoring flipping and twitching to execute the little stunt as he headed back to base.

[Present Time]

The airfield section of Azania was filled with fighters, with alarms sounding as Michaels and the rest of his flight scrambled to their aircraft. Sitting in their hangars, sleek and gray with extra fuel tanks fitted onto their hulls, the Geesvalk were also armed with something special. But Michaels took no time to appreciate it. He snapped on his Direct Neural Interface helmet and nestled into the G-Web, and immediately began taxiing out. He flickered through the dispays as the fighters autopiloted themselves through the takeoff and escape-boost sequence.

SIM-56 wasn't an unfamiliar weapon to him, he'd used them on a test run, but this variant was a C. And that could only mean one thing. His squadron leader was now in charge of several high-yield nuclear weapons.

"Ah, Major, what the fucking hell is going on? Everyone else loaded up with nuclear ASATs?"

"We're going radio silent soon, but yes, we are. We've got some hostile warships up there. We're going to clear them out by threat. If they say no, we waste the fuckers. The orbit is high enough to avoid Argus effect, just follow my lead."

The fighters aerospikes switched over to He-3/Deuterium, Scramjet fuel and boost pods lifting them up into the air at over Mach 20. The sky darkened as the heat-ceramic the Geesvalk was equipped with did its job. The four aircraft exited atmosphere and peeled off towards the station.

[Over-AEB]

Greaves was slightly relieved when he saw the four green traingles of the friendly fighters appear on his net. They were running in full stealth, luckily he'd recieved the autopilot flight from Earthside.

"ATTENTION ALL FOREIGN VESSELS. WE ASK THAT YOU VACATE YOURSELVES FROM THE AREA IMMEDIATELY, OR WE WILL BE FORCED TO TAKE DECISIVE ACTION TO CLEAR YOU. YOUR CONFLICT IS A DANGER TO A NEUTRAL PARTY."

The four fighters slowed, moving to full stealth as their ballistic computers calculated angles and velocities should the need to strike be apparent.

Ic:If this is what you truly want, then Kazecistan shall leave, but know that our intentions are peaceful and are weapons are powered down. We await your decision.

ooc: Can I get some statistics on those fighters? How many missiles each, etc. Thanks.

[Over-AEB]

"Roger, just get away. I don't want anything attracting fire near this station."

OOC:

The Geesvalk is a transatmospheric fighter, fast and stealthy was the design ideology. The pilots are nestled in a G-Web so they can sustain extreme manuvers, and each aircraft has 2 nuclear missiles, in internal bays.

Other armarments include lighter-anti fighter missiles, an anti-missile laser, and a quadruplet of automatic cannon.

Understood, the K.N.S. SharNavar will relocate to the other side of the planet.

ooc: Not bad, though I'd worry about only four fighters goung against such large ships... suppose one would get through, and that's all it takes.

OOC: My nukes are long range, standoff stealth(y) missiles. The fighters don't go in close, they go high speed to boost speed of missile, and then run away... Waiting for other people to reply now.

ooc: Ah, I see. Definatly a threat. Good luck with that.

OOC:

OOC: My nukes are long range, standoff stealth(y) missiles. The fighters don't go in close, they go high speed to boost speed of missile, and then run away... Waiting for other people to reply now.

Just so you know, most FT people have ships that are now immune to nuclear weapons. Even my science ship's shields would withstand multiple A-bomb blasts.

IC:

"Sir, the AEB station has launched fighters," the science officer aboard the Makaarian ship commented. The first officer, now acting captain, looked to his science officer. "Can you give me a tactical analysis, commander?"

There was a pause. "It's carrying missiles that rely on nuclear energy," the science officer said. "Hey, this is interesting...despite their primitive technology, these fighters can go faster than our own RX's..."

"But Makaarian fighters aren't built for speed, they're built for manouvrability and durability," the first officer said. "How long could they last in a firefight?"

"Against the other ships? Ten to twenty seconds," the science officer said.

OOC: You're saying your ships would be completely immune to a DIRECT HIT (these missiles get direct contact with the hull), a 1 Megaton contact blast?

Or do all ships now have some kind of magical shield that can stop physical objects...?

OOC: A shield that can stop physical objects? Yeah, that's actually exactly what it is. What the hell is the point of shields that let through physical objects? A ship travelling at very high speeds would have to slow down and plot a new course every time a piece of dust showed up on the scanners!

Remember, in FT, nuclear weapons are very old-fashioned. You might as well throw a spear at a modern-day tank.

It isn't magic, but haven't you ever seen, say...Star Trek? It is said twice very explicitly that physical objects cannot get through shields!

EDIT: If the shields were down, a 1 megaton blast would probably melt through the hull of most ships, unless they were godmodded, but the shields would be pretty much immune.

OOC: Ugh, nevermind then. I thought maybe since I'm RPing a realistic space nation I could expect some admissions to the laws of phsyics...

Shields=magic. I don't consider Star Trek/Star Wars to be even a near realistic source of science and technology when it comes to weaponry and defense.

OOC: Put two magnets together, with the South poles facing each other, then tell me what is and isn't possible. That's what energy shields do - absorb the blasts from energy weapons and basically create a forcefield, repelling or deflecting solid objects. Besides, if you want to be an FT nation, then it's going to be very difficult getting from star to star while obeying the laws of physics. It would go something like this:

"We've been here for two years and now an alien fleet is attacking us. Now, we'll just wait 4 years for reinforcements to arrive from the nearest starsystem, because ships can't travel faster than the speed of light."

If you want physics, stick to MT. Obeying the laws of physics makes FT impossible.

OOC: Well, I guess your idea would work extremely well if I was shooting a magnet's south pole at you.

Granted, obeying the laws of physics completely would be hard in FT, which is why I'm willing to make concessions in terms of propulsion. But 'boink my invisible fields can bounce off incoming weapons' doesn't seem to serve any purpose but to add dialogue and a purpose to the engineers on Star Trek.

OOC: Then...what the hell is the point of space ships? "Oh, here comes my fleet!" "Too late, I nuked them." "Oh. Well, bye then."

The shields add proper space combat! Weapons more powerful than nuclear weapons will be able to reduce the power of shields. Laser weapons can reduce shield power. But normal nuclear weapons have the same force when dropped in space as a lead weight of the same size.

Think about it; it is concievable that in the future, we will have defences against nuclear weapons. We already have the point defence system and SDI networks - the shield is an energy barrier that operates in basically the same way.

If you aren't willing to accept shields, don't RP in FT! Almost *all* FT nations use shields, and if you dismiss them as godmodding or something, then people won't RP with you.

OOC: Are you aware of how weak nuclear weapons are in REAL space combat?

Space is a big place. And in space, nuclear weapons lose their ability to create shockwaves, overpressure, extended thermal damage, etc. You need virtually a direct hit to kill a ship, and even then most spaceships wouldn't be close enough to be killed by the same nuclear blast. At most, one nuke takes out one ship, and thats with an accurate shot.

And if it means I can only RP with three or four people who practice hard sci-fi than degenerating myself to the usual science fantasy drivel, I think I'm happier with that than 'LOLOL NOOB I HAVE SHIELDS! GIGATON LASER BLAST HA!' for the next three months until I can actually get a nation large and old enough to have OMG UBER fleets and weapons.

ooc: It's not very relevant right now, but I have energy shielding that does just that, it stops energy weapons, slowly weakening with every hit until it fails. It does nothing for physical objects, which is why I have come up with a more realistic solution,Our magnetic particle shielding is billions of tiny particles randomly flying around the ship at high speed. The particles are controlled by magnets. We can intentionally open a hole of any size and shape in the field to allow us to fire and to allow fighters through. It is effective against missiles and fighters. And the response, Your magnetic shielding works like this, right?

There is a pulling magnetic field projected out to n meters/kilometers form the ships hull. then there is a pushing magnetic field projected out to n-m meters, M being the thickness of the shield.

Inside of that area where the pulling force is farther out than the pushing force is the magnetized particles.

The thing behind it is that the pushing field makes it so the shield stays where it is supposed to be, so the particles don't drift towards the ship.

And the shield automatically 'fixes' itself in the ram scoop style of picking up magnetic interstellar particles
Which is exactly correct.

Ic: The Kazeci ship repeated it's message asking the childish parties involved to sit down and talk out their diffrences.

OOC: I will be away for 10 days minimum from tomorrow. Sorry for any inconvenience.

The destroyer and the frigate slowed to a stop four kilometers from the beaten down Star Destroyer. Their weapons silenced as what remained of their starfighters broke off from their dog fights with the tie fighters and went into patrol paterns. Small, quick sparks appeared around the scorched hulls of the two large vessels as repair droids went about fixing the damage sustained by multiple bombing runs. The tie fighters retreated to their carrier. A garbled transmission came through from the destroyer, as they were in the process of repairing and rebuilding the communications array.

<... Star Destroyer 'Blade of Ra'... ksst... Surrender yourself... ksst... be destroyed. The Empire will not control... ksst... region of space.>

ooc: can we assume that Makaar has taken a nice neutral stance and diplomacy can continue for the rest of us?

Ic: "Sir," came the science officer's voice, "weapons fire has ceased."
"It appears as if our message got through to them." The caption said with a hint of self-flattery.
"There are dozens of reasons why they could have stopped, what makes you think it was our messages?" The captain, reluctant to enter this pointless debate, asked for an open channel, sending a very informal message.
Good, now that that is settled, we would like to meet with you, all of you. All of those present are invited to talks aboard- The message broke off while he conversed with his crew. Who wants to host the talks?

<All other ships... ksst... to this system are to depart... Immediately. Failure to... ksst... will result in termination.>

The Draconic ships replied to the latest response. The maneuvering boosters on the frigate powered up, rotating from its position, to face the Kazecistan's ship.

"Sir!" came the voice of an alarmed ensign.
"Holy s***! Why the h*** are they mad at us? Open a channel."
We mean you no harm! We are on a mission of peace! Our vessel is but a single frigate, we could not hope to win this fight! Our weapons aren't even powered!
"Sir, command says that these 'Draconics' have attacked Kazeci ships before, random hit and run strike, usually in first contact situations." The comm. officer blurted out.
"If we could speak to them, work this out-" The Diplomatic officer began.
"Not in this ship, they would blast our tiny frigate to bits before talking with us. I'm not going to risk this crew on such a thing. We need more and bigger ships before they will listen, that's how these kind are." The captain was adamant in his words.
"We cannot provoke them to violence any further, we can't bring in more ships." The diplomatic officer protested.
"Fine, you get one chance, that's it."

OOC: I'd like to pacify this situation and let negotiations commence.
IC:
Aparently the Hiigarans had seen it fit to view the new-comers to space and to see them off as well. After all, the Hiigarans had a calm and peaceful understanding with many nations, and it never hurt to get an early start. Although initial plans called for a nearby frigate to handle negotiations, the frigate, seeing the intense battle being waged overhead by two overly zealous and war-mongerring nations, decided that the battle be stopped before it endangered their new possible allies and customers.
So they called in from Hiigara's outer patrols the battlegroup delta, from the Makaan, which had the flasgship, a Battlecruiser, known as Sajuuk's Grace.
The transmission was recieved, and the Hiigarans, always anxious to quel warring fools, hyperspaced the entire strike force in, consisting of a Battlecruiser, Carrier, two Destroyers, Four Ion Cannon Frigates, and Six Flak Frigates. Joined with the Flak Frigate Nabaal Seven, they would be the peace in the area.

Hiigaran Emperial Ship Sajuuk's Grace, five kilometers from Azanian Economic Bloc station
"Sir, we have posotive ID on the warring ships. They are Kazecistan and Makar."

"Hmmm?" Rear Admiral Julik said absently. "Oh, right, the bafoons. Move in in-between them, flash the guns, and order them to stand down."

"Right, sir."

Message to all forces, broadcasted into the clear:
"To All Warring Vessels: You are disrupting acts of great science by fellow nations, and endangering their lives. You are also endangering a possible trading partner and ally of the Hiigaran Empire. Cease, desist, and leave the local space, or we shall force you to. We offer your chance for peace right now. You have two minutes to comply."

The battlegroup stayed back as the Hiigaran Battlecruiser Sajuuk's Grace moved forward at her maximum speed of 94 m/s. It would close the distance and be a physical, five kilometer barrier between the two.

The Kazeci logs since their arrival were transmitted along with this message: Our role is one of peace. Our weapons are not active and our shields are purely defensive. From what we can tell, Draconic Order ships entered the system aggressively and the originally peaceful Makaar ship made a first strike against them. We have plead for an end to this pointless battle and when we got it, the Draconic Order ships turned upon us. We have had encounters with them before, they would enter a system-using hit and run tactics with out responding to hails. Help us talk to these... people.

HES Sajuuk's Grace
The message was put up onto the main screen.

"Kazecistan. Wait, you mean Kazecistan Kazecistan?"

"Sir, we can confirm their logs as correct now, they're allies of our state. New and not terribly well known, but allies none the less."

The Rear-Admiral nodded and made a course change to put the ship between the Draconic and Makaar ships. Perhaps that would top them.
The same message was blasted again as the massive ship powered up its weapons and shields and neared the two sides.

[Over AEB]

"New contacts..."

A massive warship, only five kilometers from the station. Things were just getting better and better. Greaves clicked the headset on again.

"Alright, I'm fucking serious." his voice was even, a forced calm. "You are all to clear out of this station, and continue your petty little war elsewhere, is that clear? The next person to discharge a weapon will be fired upon."

As he spoke 20 more of the fighters were already burning through the atmosphere on aerospike scramjets, sleek frames loaded with internal missiles, staying stealthy as possible. All their targeting coordinates were being updated from the Over-AEB station, they could stay completely invisible as they fired their weapons, since they wouldn't have to turn on their fire-control sensors. In a split second they could launch all 48 nuclear devices.

"I am running very thin on patience. All armed vessels will leave, or we will fire upon you. Our entire executive branch is tired of this bullshit. Clear. Out."

The Kazeci ship, weapons down and shields up, moved off, but did not leave the system.

OOC: This is reference stuff for when mines go up, and I no longer have a seething horde of warships around my space station... I've been writing this for awhile (a lot of this is posts I've patched together from the NS Forum thread, just want to get it posted so I don't lose it.

Gets kind of confusing doing two paralell RPs. It's really interesting because they start out with the same post, but go in completely different directions for each forum.
IC:

[Over AEB]

There it was. 325 meters of aluminum, radiation shielding, lunacrete, and trailbrazing work for the AEB. The entire station, and indeed, the entire nation watched the event carefully. AEB had set up a variety of webcams and live-television cameras around the site, and you could turn into many channels or download a stream off of the internet to witness the final Tokamak check of the Hermes One.

Months after they first ventured inside the Hermes One, those four men went back into the ship, and now they were finally emerging again. No emotion could be detected through their space suits as they egressed, but everyone knew they entire station was filled with excitement.

In another few days, they would be launching towards the 'Aten' Belt. This was much better for the Hermes One than starting a full scale Belt enterprise because the Aten belt is closer to the Earth, thus making it a better 'test' voyage for the Hermes, and it would give them enough resources to begin construction of more materials, making the Belt trip more profitable.

[Factory-Ship L5-A-1]

This was wasn't a ship so much as a space station with engines. Nuke-rocketed to Lagrange Five, the Factory Ship was chock full of construction and refining materials for the payloads that would be incoming from Aten. It was empty until now.

The Cycler 'Tweety' wasn't a glorious spacecraft. A big bulky carrier section attached to an engine module, mostly made from materials of the spent-fuel boosters from the shuttle launches. A masterwork of improvisation, it was now carrying the crew to the Factory Ship. The Factory Ship itself had a small centrifugal hab-ring, it was mostly automated. However, it still needed a crew of human overseers.

[Hermes One]

Commander David Gltunbo smiled as he looked over his vessel. A former fighter pilot who'd gone into aerospace, this was all of his dreams come true. He was going to be the commander of the nation's greatest spacecraft yet. He would be in the ship's command section for the initial burn- it would be easier to work if gravity was pushing him down rather than hitting him from the side.

The attitude thrusters were doing rapid fire volleys of corrective manuvering as a small 'tug' like vessel lead them out of the shipyard. It would take 15 minutes, but one didn't want to break the shipyard or the Hermes. Once it was several kilometers clear of the station, the initial burn began. An alarm was sounded to indicate to the rest of the crew, and the fusion reactor began to work on its reaction mass. The ship began accelerating on a precisely tuned course to the Aten belt.

[Earthside]
[Azania]
[Azanian Economic Bloc Space Force Headquarters]

The men wore spartan uniforms, there was no call for ornate decorations in this nation. After they watched the Hermes One launch towards Aten, they switched their flatscreens towards a completely different vessel. To all the officers, the aides of a few Aerospace corporation CEOs handed out packets of paper.

[SDD-1 Windhoek Class]
http://img279.imageshack.us/img279/4681/destroyer2oc.png
SDD-1 Windhoek with crew habitat extended, in Centrifuge over Earth.

[Design/Accomodations]

The SDD-1 Windhoek is classified as a Destroyer, a multirole vessel serving the AEB Space Force. It is roughly 140 meters long, massing about 10,000 tons on Earth Gravity (estimated, of course. The SDD-1 wouldn't last two seconds in atmosphere!), making it much smaller than the noncombat ships. The reasoning behind this is complex. The AEB cannot afford to operate many ships, and thus speed is of necessity when responding to a combat situation. Furthermore, as a warship it is necessary that the SDD-1 remain manuverable (in zero gravity, less inertia can be beneficial), and much of the massive cargo and passenger space on noncombat vessels like the Hermes is unecessary. The SDD-1 does not maintain a full centrifugal habitat, capable of .3 Earth Gravity at full spin. During combat, these four habitats enclose towards the hull, minimizing profile. Then all crew can be called to combat stations. Inside the ship, the way things are arranged is much different. It seems more like a skyscraper, so that during acceleration gravity is pulling you towards the ground rather than hitting you sideways. Overall, this is much more efficient in combat. In addition to that, the crew all have G-webs for work during manuvering, and special adhesive garments for working during zero or microgravity. There are small cargo bays rearward capable of storing unmanned vehicles or for deploying satellites.

[Sensors]

The SDD-1 relies primarily on its massive phased RADAR arrays, capable of acting in both active, passive, and semi-active (LPI/NPI modes). These have the longest range of detection against objects like missiles and ships. Also included is LIDAR, which is much more effective as a system for targeting once an enemy is acquired via other sensors. Other sensors include thermal cameras, and a specialized electromagnetic array. This can detect the trails of fusion-engines or reactors, as well as ion propulsion from some distance away, as well as nearby masses of magnetically reactive material (good for detection of incoming missiles or KE weapons).

[Powerplant]

The SDD-1 has a pair of fusion reactors that power nuclear fusion engines, with significant stores of deuterium and helium-3. These are the primary tools for acceleration. For adjustment of course and manuvering, smaller thrusters are mounted throughout the length of the ship. For accumulating extra power for more minor systems, solar panels can be unfurled from the rear of the ship.

[Armor]

The SDD-1 uses a heavy composite of space-mined metals, radiation shielding, thermally absorbent armor, and high-KE resistant material to defend itself from a variety of attacks. The SDD-1 does not mount shielding in the conventional sense, instead it relies on EM fields that can scramble the electronics of incoming missiles or slow down low-velocity projectiles. These are only activated when necessary as they increase sensor profile exceptionally. Also included are a variety of antimissile systems (see Weapons). Heavy radiation shielding for use against solar flares also doubles as help against directed energy weapons.

[Weapons]

The primary weapons of the SDD-1 are its missiles. It mounts 12 tubes for Long-Range, antiship missiles along the forward section (missiles to be described sometime later), and 60 tubes for Short-Medium range light interceptor missiles or anti-fighter missiles, along with extra reloads for these smaller weapons.

Also useful against ships are the Mk109 Hypervelocity railguns. Capable of hurling slugs at over 9 km/s at full charge, there are six Mk109 turrets around the ship, each with its own fire control.

Smaller Mk36 Defensive Turrets are placed around the vessel, 8 in all. Each mounts a smaller, faster firing railgun and a High Energy laser for use against fighters and missiles, as well as lightly armored targets.

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/326/destroyer25zh.png
The SDD-1 with centrifugal habitats retracted, ready for battle.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," spoke a CEO as the rest finished reading the papers, "I give you a proposal for the first generation of Azanian military power in space."

"So when can we start building these things?"

"Once we get shareholder approval, we can set some up at the L5 Factory-Ship while Over-AEB builds Hermes Two. It will take about the same time as the first Hermes, it's smaller and we'll have more resources, but we will have to lift a lot of components from Earth."

This would be kept extremely secret, of course. There was no need to alarm anyone outside the Bloc just yet.

[Cycler 'Tweety']

A collective sigh of relief filled the commlink as the cycler decclerated, and they watched through lunaglass armored viewports as the factoryship awaited them. The crew of 100 would be cycled over in groups.

Factory Ship L5-A1 met them with a magnetic airlock, docking arms embracing the cycler onto its steel-aluminum hull. Massive solar panels unfurled like a robotic flower, supplementing the fusion reactors. The vast majority of operations here would be automated, using the latest in zero gravity manufacturing techniques. Now all they needed was resources.

[Aten Belt]
[Hermes One]

The Hermes One began to discharge the equipment that had been strapped to its hull and cargo modules: in space, aerodynamics was not an issue, One was the equivalent of an overpacked truck. Minature space stations, small centrifugal habitats were all set up as the home away from home for the miners that would oversee the robotic equipment. As the massive asteroids passed slowly by, crews and robots worked to set up the magnetic filter-canopy on one of the asteroids. A giant conical dome, the canopy would minimze excess debris and help sort out metals from nonmetals.

Gltunbo watched from the command deck as the space station/processor assembly was put into place. It would match orbit with their current asteroid. It was a fairly simple centrifuge and central storage hub, but the centrifuge was lined with booster-tugs for the processed asteroid material. It would be a week before they started sending anything to L5-A-1, but after that they'd simply move on to a new asteroid. Armored CERMET spacesuits made their way across asteroid and station alike as the mining operations began in earnest.

[Tanganyika Proving Grounds]

Major Piet van Shrakenberg grinned under the visor of his direct neural interface helmet, his body and suit nestled in a protective environment g-web as he tried out his newest aircraft.

The Geesvalk Fighter was a marvel of Azanian engineering. Like the other vessels of Azania, it was utilitarian, but it had more of a grace about it. Fuel pods still clung to it, there were plenty of sensors and you could see the tiling of the ceramic heat armor even through the camouflage, but as an air-space fighter it was certainly the greatest ride Shrakenberg had ever seen. In the time that Hermes One had launched, Over-AEB had gotten an addition: A wing for the Space Defense force, chock full of sensors and ports for their new fighter. Geesvalk roughly translated to 'Ghost Falcon' in Piet's native tounge, and he thought this fighter deserved it. A stealthy, quick, and somewhat graceful killing machine, he remembered the feeling he had when he first flew a fighter jet as a nineteen year old, the rush, and he was getting it back. No matter how many times you did it in the Geesvalk, going spaceward was a rush. The aerospike scramjet roared as it started to reach escape velocity, then converting fuel over for a more efficient, exoatmospheric burn. Blue faded away to the sparkling dark, and he danced his fighter about a little on course-correction jets as he angled it towards the station, letting their autopilot take over. Sliding into the hangar bay, he made sure everything was zero-gee ready, and that his aerospacecraft was clamped in before he carefully exited: There was no gravity in the hangar. He pushed off a repair/docking arm towards the airlock, stretching a bit. While the fighter was great, the G-webs of the newer aircraft were a bit claustrophobic. As the airlock cycled, he bounced 'down' the ladder, and into the hub of the centrifugal hab ring for the military section. Another pilot was talking in the hallway nearby.

"Hey, Piet, you have a nice ride up?"

He nodded and observed the surroundings. Not quite as good as a nice hotel, but he added 'Not bad for a tin can, this place."

"You've got that right. You get a snack attack in zero gee, and you're sucking paste through a tube. With some gravity you can actually get some goddamn cooking done. Speaking of which, I'm hungry. We're gonna hit mess."

And life continued on as the new generation of spacefarers reached Over-AEB.

OOC: Here's an image of the Geesvalk...
http://img304.imageshack.us/img304/3107/aero27ne.png
Kind of inspired by those military ships from Cowboy Bebop.
IC:

[AEBSF Command-Over AEB]

The AEBSF was an odd looking attachment, almost like an upside down Over-AEB strapped to the top of the original station, with a hangar bay instead of a shipyard scaffold/dock. Another lifter/lander (http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/6705/lifterlander3lz.png) burned through the skies towards the station on massive dual engines, exhaust visible from under the boat-hull. The aerospace craft had launched from the seaborne landing zone near Azania, and now was course correcting as it dispensed robots and loadercraft to help deliver its cargo.

General Erik Provost stood space suited in the gray CERAMET gear that served the AEBSF. He looked no different from the rest, it was a workingman's piece of equipment, and he stood in the bay, boots magnetically clamped to the floor to avoid floating off. The spindly, hazard striped arms of a loadercraft whizzed past him as a dockworked looked on at his cargo through the bubble cockpit.

A Colonel stood beside him, overlooking the cargo itself.

"Twentyfive millimeter AHEAD ammo, Kinetic-Kill missiles, those high-manuver anti-fighter bastards, H-warshot loaded long range arms... Jesus Christ. The defense industry must be loving this."

The general turned his head, the helmet of his suit turning slightly in response, He was chewing gum, a habit he'd picked up to get him off the nico-gum they had in place of cigarettes up here. No reason to waste oxygen with a bunch of smoking cigs.

"Yeah, all sorts of mutual contracts with the miners, the industries are virtually one up here. Can't blame them. All sorts of warships and nasty shit up here. We're behind, we're small, and we've got to get moving."

The two vessels began to turn toward the outer system, opposite the incoming ships. Their engines flared as they accelerated away from the station. What remained of their fighter escort docked on the destroyer as they moved away. Tiny blips appeared on the scanners in their wake before disappearing... mines. Some began to drift toward the orbital docks under their own power.

During the confusion this would take, several deepspace torpedos were launched out of the back launchers of the destroyer as it cleared the outer rim, heading directly for the shattered remanants of the Star Destroyer. Though the missiles were far enough away from the mines to not be destroyed by their premature detonation.

The Kazeci logs since their arrival were transmitted along with this message:
Our role is one of peace. Our weapons are not active and our shields are purely defensive. From what we can tell, Draconic Order ships entered the system aggressively and the originally peaceful Makaar ship made a first strike against them. We have plead for an end to this pointless battle and when we got it, the Draconic Order ships turned upon us. We have had encounters with them before, they would enter a system-using hit and run tactics with out responding to hails. Help us talk to these... people.

((actually it was Ankhmet... not Makaar.))

[Over AEB]

"What the hell are those?"

Hundreds of years ahead of them, the enemy still hadn't found a way to defeat the good old standby of phased-array radar. The objects were drifting towards the space station itself, slowly, but there wouldn't be any chances taken.

The twenty four fighters primed their coilguns and point-defense lasers. Accelerating in, tungsten flew and laser beams lanced out to detonate the incoming mines. What a bunch of fools, the Draconians were.

"Idiots should have known mines aren't offensive weapons." remarked a pilot as his coilgun rotated and shivered out a burst of gunfire towards an incoming mine. Soon all were mopped up.

The next time they returned, they'd face a pleasant barrage of hydrogen warshot.

The AEB began to arm itself.

[Over AEB]

"What the hell are those?"

Hundreds of years ahead of them, the enemy still hadn't found a way to defeat the good old standby of phased-array radar. The objects were drifting towards the space station itself, slowly, but there wouldn't be any chances taken.

The twenty four fighters primed their coilguns and point-defense lasers. Accelerating in, tungsten flew and laser beams lanced out to detonate the incoming mines. What a bunch of fools, the Draconians were.

"Idiots should have known mines aren't offensive weapons." remarked a pilot as his coilgun rotated and shivered out a burst of gunfire towards an incoming mine. Soon all were mopped up.

The next time they returned, they'd face a pleasant barrage of hydrogen warshot.

The AEB began to arm itself.

As the mines were easily destroyed, their real nature became apparent. For their destruction triggered massive EMP shockwaves. The point became clear that they were not designed to destroy, but to pull the wool over the eyes of their enemies so they could escape without being tracked and then become safe from reprisal. The more imminent threat though came from the fact that now the torpedoes would be able to hit their target while everyone was blind and helpless.

"EMP... Cute."

There was some minor fuzzing of the sensors, but the Draconians were apparently not familiar with the idea that nuclear warheads also contained EMP: Since AEB planned to use nukes as standard anti-ship weapons, every single piece of equipment was hardened against EMP and radiation. There was a slight blurring in the passive radars of the fighters, but the more powerful radars of Over-AEB burned straight through it.

It was one case where preparing to fight against primitive enemies was a great help. Most of the mines couldn't blow off properly: 50% wouldn't be able to release a full blast because of damage to their warheads through the hypervelocity slugs of tungsten from the 25mm gunpods.

The torpedoes were found, but as they were tracking towards the faraway Ankhmet warship, they wouldn't be intercepted, only incoming targets towards the AEB station itself.

The Kazeci ship, having moved away, was negligibly affected by the EMP bursts. The caption decided he needn't defend the other ships in the area from the two lonely torpedoes, as they would not be hard to intercept.

The destroyer and the frigate slowed to a stop four kilometers from the beaten down Star Destroyer. Their weapons silenced as what remained of their starfighters broke off from their dog fights with the tie fighters and went into patrol paterns. Small, quick sparks appeared around the scorched hulls of the two large vessels as repair droids went about fixing the damage sustained by multiple bombing runs. The tie fighters retreated to their carrier. A garbled transmission came through from the destroyer, as they were in the process of repairing and rebuilding the communications array.

<... Star Destroyer 'Blade of Ra'... ksst... Surrender yourself... ksst... be destroyed. The Empire will not control... ksst... region of space.>

"This is Blade of Ra. Unfortunately, we don't seem to be communicating properly. In 11 hours 30 minutes an Eclipse Super Star Destroyer with accompanying planetary siege unit will enter this system and pacify all starships. They won't attack the planet, but they will purge the surrounding space. You are in no position to make demands. I would also like to direct your attention to what should be showing up on your sensor screens now. You should see our reactor giving off 10 times the usual output. If you continue your attacks, an explosion with incredible force will scour the system. Then the PSU will arrive. Cease your attacks NOW, or the consequences for your people will be immense."

A nervous Ensign tapped the captain's shoulder.

"sir, we just intercepted a somewhat threatening message from these Anzanians. Some kind of threat to attack all armed vessels if they do not leave. Patently ridiculous, but a problem nonetheless. Perhaps when the PSU arrives we could fire a superlaser shot at their moon? It would serve as an example to them that there are civilisations billions of years older than them who are no longer restricted by certain moral codes with regards to military technology. Given that their ship-to-ship weapons appear to be fission-based. "

"Good. Alert the PSU, have them charge the superlaser to 50% of full power, adn transmit the co-ordinates of the nearest satellite, alng with projected positions."

"Aye, sir."

The bridge was by this point almost entirely dark. Thankfully, one of the shield officers had the sense to concentrate 30% of total shielding on the bridge, which had deflected two lucky torpedo shots. Enough to make the commander cringe, but not enough to kill him.

ooc:I'm using the superlaser as a way of getting people to sit up and stop!Surely people won't keep fighting if they run the risk of:
a)Getting a neutral world smashed.
b)getting their fleet smashed.
c)Getting involed in a war of superweapons.

OOC: You do not have a laser that can destroy an entire planet. Physically. Impossible. Don't even complain about it, I've already stated before that I'm not RPing with people who decide to ignore the laws of physics.

And by the way, I have fusion weapons. They're called hydrogen bombs.
IC:

"Listen, you stupid sons of bitches. There is nobody else in the system except us. Leave. We don't want your help, your visits, or, for that matter, your fucking wars. This is a peaceful station, but I think everyone here is a bit tired of your bullshit. There's nothing for you here. Leave."

ooc: It's not physically impossible. However, it would require incredible amounts of energy... And an Eclipse SL is not a planetkiller.
Note: it's RP. Most of the technology here is total BS. If you don't use a little BS technology, you're going to have a civilisation confined to their own system for the next several millenia. Have fun.

ic:
"Arm forward cannons."

"Aye sir."

"Aim for their 2 largest ships, and fire a full barrage at 100% turbolaser power. This stagnant little pond is wallowing in what it percieves to be a superior mindset. Let's show them how small they are. Oh, cancel the PSU. Have two Imperators move to help us out."

OOC: I know it's RP. I'm willing to tolerate FTL, but not uber-lasers that can devastate entire planets in one blast. And like I told Makaar earlier, I would rather RP with people at my own tech setting than legions of SW/ST/what have you inspired uberweapons and systems.

I find the 'have fun' statement a little ironic. I think I'd 'have fun' not leaving the system for a few millenia more than I'd 'have fun' having the entire purpose of creating this nation and this RP blown away because someone likes pushing around smaller, technically inferior nations who, by RP logic, I shouldn't even be interacting with.
IC:

"They're powering up lasers."

Greaves sat in the control room as someone emerged from the airlock, carrying a box of batteries.

"What the fuck are those for?" asked a crew member, still fixated on the sensor screen.

"Silly greenback, you've apparently never done naval duty before. It's my emergency supply."

He waded through the batteries until he came up with what he was looking for: a bunch of jurryrigged packets full of scotch. He threw the packets around the control room.

"A toast... To a society's inability to overcome dickheaded imperialism after millenia of technological advancement."

The rest of the crew raised up the packets, and then began to drink.

"So what does the ROE say about firing?"

"That they have to fire first. At anything."

"Well, that's fucking wonderful. When we die, I hope those SF fighterjocks manage to shove some H-bombs up their pompous assholes."

Greaves nodded as they drank, and waited.

"Commander. The forward turbolasers are at full power. We await your command."

The captain adjusted his officer's cap, smiled slightly, and gave the order.
"Fire the forward turbolasers. Have our protons target the second largest ship, and fire."

The turbolasers fired, huge green bolts of incredible power, slamming into the Anzanian ship.The bridge officer who advised him to use the Eclipse spoke again, in an urgent tone.

"Sir! Our sensors can see their fighters. They are a threat. An asessment of enemy firepower says they could do enough damage to breach core containment."

The smug look on the captain's face disappeared.

"Can we overpower the core again?"

"No sir. We'd just overload the grid, and we would be left floating in space without any functioning systems."

"Shit! Redistribute 15% shield power from the bridge to the reactor plating."

"Aye sir. Shields redistributed. This will be messy."

"Recall any surviving fighters, form as much of a defensive screen as we can. Have the laser cannons fire at will."

OOC: I only have two ships, if the space station counts as a ship. And as I said earlier, I doubt your shields are going to be able to stop physical mass unless you care to explain your system to me.

I'm seriously considering just ignoring this entire RP on the basis that your tech is all godmodding for my tech setting, that and the fact you're using it as an excuse to just 'pwn some n00bs'.
IC:

"Launch attack run. Ignore the fighters, their weapons are ineffectual. Simple lasers, won't get past our refractive layer and the Ceramet heat shields. Bloody idiots still haven't mastered their technology."

The fighters would form up, using the vessels own screen to blind enemy sensors. Debris from the exploding space station would also make these 24 fighters extremely hard to track as they roared in at nearly 20,000 miles per hour. Their first volley would utterly devastate the enemy shields: SKM-2 kinetic missiles, each would be traveling at 27,000 miles per hour when they hit the shields. Virtually impossible to track among the debris as they relied on kinetic energy alone, the already wounded enemy vessel would have a massive gap in its shields as 384 tungsten projectiles raced in, inflicting a massive amount of power on the shields in a relatively tiny spot.

Sajuuk's Grace

"Shots fired, shots fired!"

"From where?" the rear-Admiral asked.

"Ankhmet ships sir, they've attacked the Anzanian ship."

"Bring up all weapons. Have the four Arbeiter Heavy MAC cannons and the two Ion Cannons aim at their forces. Load up the torpedo tubes, and come about to their heading. Load the main MAC cannon, and prep for firing. Give them one last warning."

"Yes sir. Routing power now. Engines answer speed. Weapons online, Arbeiter Cannons charged...Ion Cannons Charged...Tubes loaded and ready for firing...We've almost come about to face the Ankhmet ships, and the main MAC cannon is preped."

"Good. Give them their final warning."

Transmission in the open, to Ankhmet and all parties:
Ankhmet ships: Cease fire immediately. Power down all weapons, and leave the system now. Failure to power down your weapons in the next five seconds will be considered an act of war against the Hiigaran Empire and will result in our battlecruiser opening fire on your ships.
To all parties involved: Power down your weapons immediately. You are endangering the progress of great science and a potential ally and trading partner of the Hiigaran Empire. Failure to power down your weapons in the next ten sseconds will be considered an act of war against our empire.
To the Azanian Economic Bloc: Please recall your fighters. We wish to help bring peace to this area, and your fighters are not helping. When the situation has been pacified, we also would like to offer an envoy to land and commence possible negotiations of common goods trading and peace between us.

The mighty battlecruiser's weaponry was nearly all turreted, and it was all aiming at the Ankhmet forces, preped, and waiting, nay begging, for them to not comply with the demands set upon them. The massive ship was also manouvering so that it's nose was facing them, and that nose clearly contained a single, very powerful MAC cannon that ran nearly all of the five kilometer's of the ship.

OOC: I can explain my tech. I'm using Ion cannons (super-charged negative Ions travelling in a beam form), Fusion Torpedos, and Magnetic Acceleratoe Cannons, or MAC cannons. These accelerate a piece of Tungsten-Ferrite to a very high speed. The Ion Cannons are nasty, usually cutting ships like a knife through butter once the shields are down, the torps can melt away entire sections of frigates, and the Arbeiter cannons (MAC cannons) can split ships wide-open. The large MAC cannon (the one that runs the length of the ship), is absolutrly lethal. Which is why it's facing the Ankhmet forces, ordering them to stand-down.

[Over-AEB]

"Re-... Report?"

The lights flickered back on in the station.

"Jesus Christ... We're alive."

"What's our station status?"

"We've lost about 1/32nd of the ring, and we had to cut air, but amazingly, they attacked the station with lasers... Heat and radiation shielding (that's solid materials, not any kind of energy field) absorbed most of it. We're fucking-a-live."

A Hiigaran radio transmission crackled across the room, something about their fighters.

"Ah, Hiigaran warship, that's a big negative. One of these bastards already left shooting, and our fighters were the only things that stood between our station and a minelaying attempt. We're keeping them here until those sons of bitches are out of orbit. I already have 15+ dead civilians sucking vaccuum because of these cocksuckers..." Greaves continued without trying to focus on the people he just lost, but his voice slowly rose as he realized which of the men were dead, the other crewmembers muttering the names of who was lost "And I am not standing down what little defense this station has until they are way out of here. I am not letting a bunch of murdering, superiority complexed butt-stabbing imperialists just hang around after they've killed my men!"

His eyes were starting to water now, though you couldn't tell it from his voice. The little balls of tears began to float, and he willed them away. He wasn't going to lose it. Not now.

The Kazeci ship sent a one-word message out on all channels and frequencies. It could be viewed as a 3D holographic spinning word, audio only, and text only.
Why?

[Over-AEB]

"Re-... Report?"

The lights flickered back on in the station.

"Jesus Christ... We're alive."

"What's our station status?"

"We've lost about 1/32nd of the ring, and we had to cut air, but amazingly, they attacked the station with lasers... Heat and radiation shielding (that's solid materials, not any kind of energy field) absorbed most of it. We're fucking-a-live."

A Hiigaran radio transmission crackled across the room, something about their fighters.

"Ah, Hiigaran warship, that's a big negative. One of these bastards already left shooting, and our fighters were the only things that stood between our station and a minelaying attempt. We're keeping them here until those sons of bitches are out of orbit. I already have 15+ dead civilians sucking vaccuum because of these cocksuckers..." Greaves continued without trying to focus on the people he just lost, but his voice slowly rose as he realized which of the men were dead, the other crewmembers muttering the names of who was lost "And I am not standing down what little defense this station has until they are way out of here. I am not letting a bunch of murdering, superiority complexed butt-stabbing imperialists just hang around after they've killed my men!"

His eyes were starting to water now, though you couldn't tell it from his voice. The little balls of tears began to float, and he willed them away. He wasn't going to lose it. Not now.


[turbolasers are plasma based weapons. With a yeild in the tens of megatons O_O, and as for my shields: I'm not an experimental quantum physicist. I don't have a clue how star wars shielding works. Anyways, the point of my last post was that my ship is really nervous about this, what with the whole 'outnumbered quite badly' thing. In fact, I'd say my ship is well and truly f**ked in the arse.]

"This is Commander Braihe of the Star Destroyer Blade of Ra. We do not want to fire again. It appears that somehow your station is resistant to capital-scale plasma weaponry. As such, we do not want to get drawn into a long and protracted battle we would likely lose. We will leave. If you can tell me how your ships resist turbolasers! If you tell us, I will also mark this system as 'unremarkable' in the WNI galactic registry, making you safe from further incursions. CComms officer, hail the 'hiigarans'. Good. This is the Star Destroyer Blade of Ra. The capabilities and primitive energy weapons of Hiigaran ships do not scare us. Whilst you could undoubtedly destroy my ship, it is a crippled, old-generation example of a of towered Star Destroyer. Consider getting into a war with an enemy who has the production capability to produce hundreds of these ships, of a new generation each year. By getting involved you noly risk your sovereignty."

OOC: Well, for one thing, you called them a laser, so I can't help but assume they are lasers... And please explain how you're going to get a plasma weapon to work, considering even in space plasma disappates ridiculously fast, making it ineffectual as a weapon. So chances are, if you're shooting plasma at me, I survive longer. But I'll humor you slightly and keep the damage.

I'm not going to claim I'm an expert on anything plasma related, but considering it's a state of matter even hotter than gas, it's going to be even less dense, thus really hard to use as a weapon. I'm sure there's one of those lovely 'debunking movies/physics/what-have-you' sites.

IC:

"Ah, sorry, we just did. All of our vessels are heat shielded, and then its heavy radiation shielding. If you murderous bastards can't figure it out, well, cry me a fucking river."

He switched to all frequencies as another 24 fighters lifted from the atmosphere, moving into formation to defend the station from previous attacks. Already, down home, the population was outraged that civilians had been attacked, and were calling for the vessel to be expelled from the system.

"We maintain our position. Fighters stay until the destroyer leaves."

ooc:Okay... How about this:

Perhaps my weapons fire plasma filled solid cartridges fired railgun style from the cannons? Happy? Is that good enough for you?

ooc:Okay... How about this:

Perhaps my weapons fire plasma filled solid cartridges fired railgun style from the cannons? Happy? Is that good enough for you?

((Turbo lasers are not plasma based... they are just a stronger form of laser blast used in capital ship weaponry. The problem is that there is no scientific evidence as to what a turbo laser is, the books just say that it is a stronger form of normal laser. Also, since they don't use nukes, its hard to know if it even approaches a nuke in power. Nukes are very hard to use in space effectively, since they derive much of their power from the surrounding air, and there isn't any air in space... unless they manage to penetrate the hull of a starship that uses oxygen and detonate inside.))

OOC: I think its better off for your damages to the station that it just be an uber laser, due to the fact that plasma is ridiculously low in density, a railgun shot wouldn't carry anywhere near the power of a megaton.

However, DO, even in space a megaton is still a megaton: it's not based on the damage, its the latent energy in tons of TNT that the reaction releases.

((Turbo lasers are not plasma based... they are just a stronger form of laser blast used in capital ship weaponry. The problem is that there is no scientific evidence as to what a turbo laser is, the books just say that it is a stronger form of normal laser. Also, since they don't use nukes, its hard to know if it even approaches a nuke in power. Nukes are very hard to use in space effectively, since they derive much of their power from the surrounding air, and there isn't any air in space... unless they manage to penetrate the hull of a starship that uses oxygen and detonate inside.))

[Go to stardestroyer.net. Nukes also deriove a lot of power from the sheer energy of splitting an atom.]

OOC: I went to that website, and look what I found!
http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/PlasmaWeapons.html

They don't actually appear to work.

ooc: Will there be any more RPing in this thread, or just more nit-picking and technical hair splitting?

OOC: It depends. I'd rather all the warships clear out so I can do what I intended to do in the first place: start the goddamn mining... In any case I've made the last IC post. Waiting for replies.

Comms officer, hail the 'hiigarans'. Good. This is the Star Destroyer Blade of Ra. The capabilities and primitive energy weapons of Hiigaran ships do not scare us. Whilst you could undoubtedly destroy my ship, it is a crippled, old-generation example of a of towered Star Destroyer. Consider getting into a war with an enemy who has the production capability to produce hundreds of these ships, of a new generation each year. By getting involved you noly risk your sovereignty."

The message came up, and was played for the entire bridge to hear. The Rear-Admiral sent back this message.

"If I can undoubtedly destroy your ship, than I suggest you power down your weapons. Now, or face the severest possible consequences. We care not of your production abylities. We have faced enemies far superior to yours in every way, and triumphed. Whilst you may maintain better production and technology, your nation wastes it on obviously incompetant, over-zealous commanders such as yourself, if you are the typical commander of your navy. We have offered you twice peace. Now we shall offer it once more. Stand down. You are pushing me into war. All I ask is that you power down your weapons, and leave this space that you have so eagerly defiled with unessesary war. This is, I promise you, your last warning."

To the Azanian Economic Bloc.
"Very well, this is your space, and I will yield to your requests. We are attempting to remove the war-mongers through peacable means. If they do not respond to these means, we shall remove them by force. Unless, of course, you command differently. This is your space, and we have come unannounced, and therefore are subject, by our military law, to your orders. You are now in command, in a manner of speaking, of the Hiigaran Battlecruiser Sajuuk's Grace, and its fleet of one Carrier, two Destroyers, four Ion Cannon Frigates, and seven Flak Frigates. The number of Strikecraft inside the carrier numbers to around one-hundred. We will carry out the order of pacifying the situation for you unless directed otherwise by your forces."

The Battlecruiser's main cannon was armed, charged, and facing the Blade of Ra. All of the turrets of the battlecruiser faced the ship, targeting various areas such as the engines, known weapons, suspected weapons, where the bridge might be located, and all the torpedo tubes were preped and had solutions that would envelop the ship in high-yield plasma explosions when its shields failed.

The Hiigarans waited for a response.

ooc:Plasma explosion? But surely they wouldn't work :P. Besides, how could they be lasers? They're pulsed, not beams. And they don't travel fast enough.
ic:

"I hope you are aware that in destroying me you would be dooming this system to a short and bloody war of extermination? Stand down, or this system is toast. And your pathetic drivel about fighting superior enemies holds no ground with me. But fine. Destroy my ship. I hope you know that if I choose to deactivate core containment for my reactors I could trigger a catastrophic explosion. Nobody wants that. It also appears that nobody is willing to stand down, and I can understand that. Please, do not do anything as stupid as what you are considering. My Planetary Siege Unit is on the way, and it would see nothing wrong with bombarding the planetary surface, or indeed just swarming you with several hundred fighters. You don't want that. Stand down, or risk the lives of millions.End communication. I hope they don't know I can't shut down core containment. "

"I'm sure they don't."

President Rhyies looked grim as he entered the situation room.

"What's happened?' he asked. There was brief moment of silence before David Wodehan, the Secretary of the Exterior, spoke up, "Mr. President, we've been monitoring the transmissions going back and forth between the AEB and the various alien craft. Most of the aliens have agreed to leave the system as the AEB has asked. However, the massive warship is remaining and threatening violence."

Wodehan gestured to a technichian and the lights dimmed. Moments later the giant screen at one end of the room lit up. A giant red triangle, with several smaller ones, was positioned in between the moon and Earth. A small blue circle was positioned in Earth's orbit and a group of small, blue triangles was screening it from the red one.

"As you can see," he said, "the warship is currently holding position. The blue forces are the AEB fighters and space station. The warship fired on the AEB station a few minutes ago, causing some damage. Beyond that that's all we know."

Rhyies pounded his fist on the table, "Isn't there anything we can do to help? THis is our planet too, dammit!"

"Sir, the only ship we have capable of combat is the Phoenix prototype. The Fighters we orderd from the Azanian Bloc haven't arrived yet."

"Then use it. Equip it with whatever we have that can hurt that thing!"

"Yes, sir. We'll have it prepped for launch within the hour."

OOC: Look, I'm going off your own source. Your explanation makes them worthless as weapons, so I'm going to go with the lasers. I already warned everyone beforehand that I wouldn't piss the laws of physics away, that's why I'm RPing with realistically designed spacecraft and not whatever ubertech happens to be in fashion. Either you work with the RP or you can find one that's suited to your taste.

IC:
[Over-AEB]

"Set off your fucking reactor. I don't care. It won't do anything that our radiation shielding can't stop. We're rated to stop solar flares more powerful than anything your ship could possibly hope to produce, or has your superiority complex caused you to believe everything you do will give you victory? Drag your asses out of here. This is our home, and if you want to waste money and lives trying to wipe us out, you're perfectly welcome to."

Captain Braihe stood on the bridge of his ship, looking out at the planet, and the damaged space station. The darkened bridge was a mess. Huge girders were lying around on the deck, and ceiling plates were hanging down, tangled and burned. An ensign braved the mass of tangled metal to bring a message to the commander.

"Sir! 60 seconds to incoming PSU!"

"What? How is that possible? Our hyperdrives aren't that fast."

"The hybrid Hyper-IDF Q-space drives... Sir!Look!"

Off the port side of the Star Destroyer three victory class star destroyers and one nebula class ship materialised, immediately moving around the stricken Ankhmeti Star Dreadnought.

"Sir, we have a message. Audio only. It appears to be from... The Choking Grip...The Flagship..."

"Shit.Play it."

"Commander. I see your incompentence has gotten your crew into a near-death situation again. You are relieved of your command. Troopers, take him away. Repair ships are moving to help repair efforts, and fighter squadrons are starting a screen defence. I suggest you start acting with some diplomacy. I am sending a message to the locals, stating our intent."

The is Fleet Admiral Tuvari of the Choking Grip. We do not intend to cause any harm to your ship, only to retrieve our damaged vessel and asess the local system. Any ship moving to within a kilometer of our fleet will be fired upon. We are moving further out, just in case any ships are within that range now.

ooc:
Turbolasers work in the same way as blasters, only immensely scaled up, so:
Blasters were a considerable improvement on the laser design, however. The bolt fired from a blaster was not just light. Some of the gas used to generate the beam was energized to a plasma state and fired with the highly energized light at supra-light velocities, perhaps partially in hyperspace. This combination of light and plasma formed the deadly bolt fired from a blaster. Because the bolt traveled at faster-than-light speeds, targets could show signs of damage before the visible portion of the bolt hit. This was because the visible portion, as well as most of the heat, was a side-effect of the actual, lethal bolt.

OOC: The blaster explanation makes more sense, I guess, except lasers can't 'push' plasma out, nor can you really shoot plasma out of a lens. But that's discussion for combat.
IC:

Greaves spoke coldly and evenly after the Ankhmeti transmission.

"Roger that. You may collect your ship."

After clicking the radio off, another man muttered "And I hope the door hits your ass on the way out."

The debris floated around the station as the fighters remained stationary, weapons still armed, though being missiles, nobody could really know this. Dirtside, the government was already accelerating its military plans for space. This would only confirm them.

The commander of the Choking Grip was scheming. He disliked the attitudes of the local people, and had prepared a plan. A long-term plan, but one that would in the end allow future generations of Ankhmeti Explorator fleets to make friendlier relations.

"Blade of Ra. Commence order PCP-DT110. Have all dark troopers get to the stealth pods, and prepare to fire decoys."

"Aye sir. I won't disappoint you again admiral... I promise."

"That's going to be beyond your capabilities as a vapourised corpse."

"WHAT?"


***CORE CONTAINMENT CRITICAL FAILURE***

***CORE EXPLOSION IN FIVE MINUTES, EVACUATION PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED***



Hundreds of escape pods balsted off in all directions, including many decoys,and some genuine pods containing crew. Nestled amongst them were the elite drop-pods of the Dark Trooper stealth insertion corp, dedicated to long-term survival in unfamiliar environments. Their escape pods worked much like the stealth bombers of Earth's 20th century, absorbing radar, whilst the sleek black profile was hard to spot in space. The 20 troopers were briefed to land on the planet and do nothing but survive without attracting attention.
When the core exploded, it ripped apart the Star Destroyer, killing all those who had not got time to get to a pod, amongst them poor captain Braihe.
The Fleet Admiral hailed the station.

"Oh.. .Shit. Our ship appears to have lost core containment... Some of our pods are headed for the surface of your planet. They should be transmitting a very strong signal. We would be endebted to you if you could either pick up our crewmen or let us pick them up... Shit..."

[AEB Aerospace Force, Earth Defense Command]
"Multiple contacts... Escape pods, most heading for sub-saharan Africa and the south Indian. Send the coast guard ships to the seaborne ones. And that stealthy contact, I want a full AEBRDF team on that fucker. Everything else we'll leave to local units. Try to keep these guys contained. And let's hope the locals don't get to them first."

"For their sake."

"The locals or the crew?"

"The crew. You remember how heavily armed the mainlanders are?"

"Shit. Yeah."

However, they were rounded up fairly quickly, with the locals shouting and screaming at these people who had attacked them. The police didn't like it either, but it paid the bills and they cooperated with the orders of the government.

[Over Zimbabwe]

"Stealthy my arse... They forgot how heavy a reentry burn was, didn't they."

Four Rooivalk Heavy Fighters roared over the scrub and jungle, following the search/targeting radar illumination from one of the mainland air defense station. They could see the tiny light flickering in the sky, as dawn began creeping over the 'dark continent'. Accelerating, the Rooivalks moved in.

The Rooivalk was a deadly looking fighter, not quite as flashy as the Geesvalk, but still deadly. Heavy weapons hung from their central hardpoints, and the majority of their armarment was air to ground. They were a paveway flight for the high-speed transports that would be delivering the AEBRDF teams. The fact that this one wasn't transmitting was odd indeed, possibly some kind of infiltration force. They waited for the escape pod to land, and then it would be surrounded, under constant monitoring of an AEBRDF Recon Company.

The small 'cargo' of the stealth pod was terrified. These pods were for use for boarding actions, not planetary insertion.

"10 seconds to impact!9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,..."

The pod smashed into the ground. Seconds later, ten black clad troopers ran out, carrying a variety of sniper weapons, rocket launchers and survival kits.

[Zimbabwe]
[AEBRDF, 108th Company (Force Recon)]

The two VTOL dropships moved in about 2 miles from the landing site, adjusting their thrusters and disgorging their soldiers. Every one was suited in either battledress or the A45 full powered armor, and they were fully loaded with weaponry as well. They began moving towards the landing site quietly, as the Rooivalks made a more interesting entrance.

The first Rooivalk came in at a high subsonic speed, roughly 600 miles per hour on its aerospike/scramjet. Roaring over the escape pod, it fired course correction jets and swung around so that it was facing towards the escape pod and the people around it, the muzzles of its autocannon peering out from the weapons hardpoints. Rocket and missile pods sat underneath its wings, and no cockpit could be seen, only the sensor eyes. A loudspeaker boomed over the engine.

"ATTENTION ANKHMETI SOLDIERS. IF YOU DO NOT LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS WITHIN 30 SECONDS, WE WILL CONSIDER YOUR PRESENCE ON THIS PLANET AS PART OF AN INVASION FORCE, AND THUS AN ACT OF WAR. YOU ARE SURROUNDED AND OUTGUNNED. LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS AND LIE ON THE GROUND WITH YOUR HANDS OVER YOUR HEADS."

The company of soldiers began moving to surround the area. Machinegun emplacements were set up, soldiers finding cover as they prepared for the worst.

Locating the proper high ground, 6 sniper spotter teams selected enemy snipers. They were better prepared for combat here, as they could blend in with local vegetation, and even avoid thermal detection through the use of a Thermat cream and ghille suit. The 7.5mm Magnum rifles only added to the arsenal trained on these men.

Someone began humming the tune to an age old song as they awaited the answer of the Ankhmeti soldiers.

The faceless troops stopped, looked around for a second, and knew they were outgunned. Seconds alter, the droid self-destruct programs initiated, causing the entire team to explode, just enough to vapourise the troopers and equipment, but not enough to cause any real damage beyond a 20-metre radius.
In orbit, the Star Destroyer taskforce fired one last volley at the space station, and left, leaving 50 unarmed and unequipped stranded naval troopers in escape pods.

[Over-AEB]

Once again, the lasers managed to inflict damage, but not enough to kill off the station. Most of the fire this time impacted the 'spine', where there was no oxygen anyway, however, it did make bringing the shipyard crew back quite difficult.

[Outside Johannesburg, South Africa]

The last escape pod was assumed to be hostile. A police unit suited up in full SWAT gear, and as an entry team moved in, they were given orders to shoot anybody who emerged from the escape pod.

The crowds had been pushed back, away from this pod, though you could hear the chants for blood standing at the scene of the incident.

A Rooivalk from Durban screeched overhead, in its bellymount, a 60mm railgun. The huge weapon swung around as the aircraft stabilized itself. The 60mm railgun was easily capable of ripping the escape pod to shreds as the entry team was called back, and the Rooivalk opened fire, spewing tungsten armor piercing slugs into the hapless escape pod. Orders were given not to leave a single Ankhmeti alive. Communications around the pod were jammed completely. Nobody outside Earth would now what happened.

The Kazeci frigate slowly moved toward the station, weapons and shields off line.

Are we welcome here?

Sajuuk's Grace

"Sir, we're detecting high energy readings from within the ship."

"What?! Are they going to fire?"

"Triangulating source...No sir. They're not channelling the energy...at all...and it's getting rather severe. I'd advise we move away. Now."

"Make your course--Nevermind. We don't have time for that. Flank speed, aft!"

The great ship lurched backwards as escape pods were flung from the ship that seemed to be powering up for either an enormous weapon, or an enourmous explosion.

"Engines answer, sir. Flank speed, reverse!"

"Good! Come about that way!" The Rear-Admiral pointed toward aft.

"Yes sir!"

Then he broadcasted this message:
"Ha! Gotten yourself in a bit of trouble, have you? Either that, or you've decided to go down with the ship. Either are wise choices, my friend. By angering me, you would have been angering the Legion of Defence, The Tradelands, and my intrests in Santa Barbera and the Resi Corporation. A wise choice indeed."

This message was sent to the AEB:
"It seems that the situation has been rectified, at least here in space. We wish to send an envoy to discuss trade and peace negotiations with your fine nation. Please reply."

[Transmission to friendly vessels]

"Your presence is welcome for now. The Economic Bloc is willing to open up relations with your nations."

--

[Factory Ship L5-A-1]

The huge device was starting up on it's first major project: The SDD-1 Windhoek. L5-A-1's 400 meter shipyard-scaffold was now housing the construction of the 140 meter long warship, and components were streaming in. Steam rockets arrived daily with refined metals and materials, and soon the cycler-transports from Over-AEB were coming in with earth-made materials and components. Defense was already increased substantially. Fighters patrolled around the area daily, and defensive weapons pods were dashed around the hull, point defense weapons, railguns, and short range missiles had turned L5-A-1 into a fortress of sorts.

The new defense bill had been approved overwhelmingly, with major corporations agreeing to combine forces with the defense industry in order to protect their operations. Both were making a ridiculous amount of money through cross contracting: The defense corporations got cheap deals on materials, and the miners got mercenaries for dirtside and vac-side operations.

The AEB was determined to be able to repulse attackers. No longer would they be content to rely on foreign aid whenever another nation came their way.

In that case, Kazecistan would like to send a delegation to meet with your leaders.
The Kazeci frigate entered a high orbit, near, but not too near, the two space stations.

[I'm definately watching you.:) i have nice surprisees for you if I ever try anything again.In fact, to illustrate this as noobishly as possible:
:mad: :sniper: :mad: :sniper: :mad: :sniper: ]

[I'm definately watching you.:) i have nice surprisees for you if I ever try anything again.In fact, to illustrate this as noobishly as possible:
:mad: :sniper: :mad: :sniper: :mad: :sniper: ]

((And I am watching all those that leech off of Empire tech... Especially those that try to conquer and expand like them.))

((And I am watching all those that leech off of Empire tech... Especially those that try to conquer and expand like them.))
[HAH!I stopped leeching off Imperial Tech. And now I have a new class of ship...]

[HAH!I stopped leeching off Imperial Tech. And now I have a new class of ship...]

((I've noticed...))

ooc: You really mean that you are going to use that, thing? It wasn't a joke thread?

OOC: Thank you all for your pointless OOC wangwaving.

I have a bigger IC post coming up, and when it's posted, stop filling the thread with this.
IC:

[Transmission to all friendly vessels]

"You are authorized to land a shuttle at Azania, you will have a flight path cleared over the Indian Ocean. Your flights will be shadowed by fightercraft, please do not concern yourselves with them, they are required by the new defense bill."

Fairnessburg will poop on your face

ooc: Thank you for laying down the law.

Ic: Before the bay even finished opening, the Bullet transport had already shot out at full speed, considerably fast for a craft of it's size.
"BT- 374.893, Slow down, I repeat, slow down. You are moving in too fast, we don't want to be considered hostile."
"Flight Command, this is BT- 374.893, we copy.” He looked over to his copilot after severing the connection, rolling his eyes. "I can't believe this, I feel like I'm in flight school, 'don't go to fast'" he said in a mocking tone. Slowly he began to throttle down to half speed. To an outsider, the craft was still moving fast, but to the pilot who had flown them most of his life, it was painfully slow.

The unarmed transport followed it's flight path, not taking notice of those slow fighters which tailed it. Soon it had landed, a door opening on the side. 3 people stepped out. The woman in front said in a kind voice, "I am Katie, these are my students. I hope you do not mind them tagging along as they need the experience." They each wore the traditional robes of earthen tones and bore an intricately carved whitesilver staff.

[Azania]

When the Kazecis set down, they would find themselves in the sprawling aerospace port that served the Western sector of Azania. Water could be seen, along with a variety of aerospace craft landing and taking off from it. The section on the artificial island was filled with more conventional aircraft, airships, and shuttlecraft. As the Kazeci aircraft landed, a government owned VTOL transport's engines whined as it landed. Out of it stepped a pair of guards, wearing gray, spartan military uniforms, along with body armor and field caps. G2A6 carbines hung in shoulder straps, and both carried holsters for pistols. They didn't speak much as they lead the three into the aircraft, which quickly lifted off.

From above they could fully see the massive island, one of the largest in the Indian Ocean by right. The dominating features were the megastructures upon the massive bulk of the artificial island itself: two kilometer high arcologies, designed to save space on the island itself. They would be flying over the island for awhile before they got to the government center, but the windows on the VTOL did allow some of the best views of the island you could get.

Sajuuk's Grace

"Sir." The comms officer announced.

"Yes, son?" the Rear-Admiral questioned.

"The AEB has approved the landing of a small diplomatic craft over the ocean."

"Excellent!" His eyes brightened up at the thought of completing his original task. He also took the time to mark the war-mongering nation of Ankmet as a warned nation of the state; which was merely a formality for a state just outside of war. In any case, a small craft that had been stripped of all weaponry in leu of nicer and more spacious seating was the standard diplomatic vessel. It's re-enforced hull allowed for re-entry, although it would require some help to get back out; towing via faster craft was usually the preffered method.

The craft was launched, it's seating carrying an envoy of the empire -- Diplomat Simm Sjet -- who was quite prized within the empire at first relations.

The craft approached, broadcasting it's intended course to the Indian Ocean, and entered the burning atmosphere. The craft, lacking large wings, fell like a rock, and relied upon its powerful thrusters to keep it on course. It crashed to the earth at a dangerous pace, and when the appropriate place had been seen, the craft activated its main thrust, pushing with all its might against the force of gravity, and it soon suceeded. The craft skimmed the ocean's surface, a few meters between it and the deep blue below. It then proceeded to land.

The craft requested clearance, and was given a small helipad to land on, to which it touched down on with ease. The main hatch opened, and a single man stepped out. He was tall in stature, as most Hiigarans were, and carried the fominant blonde hair and fair eyes of the Sjet family. He moved toward the first man he saw to make plans to go to a proper diplomatic quarter in which peace and trade could be discussed.

[Azania]
A similar VTOL landed near the Hiigaran vessel, and out emerged similar guards. Gray clad, they told them there would be a reception at the Azanian capital on the other side of the island.

[Azanian Senate]

President Cyper De Boer looked over the Senate building, where he would be holding the conferences with the foreign representatives. The Senate building was relatively new like everything on Azania, but it was made to look old and distinguished, an almost slivery gray building with the neoclassic styles that marked many other government buildings. It was infused with modern touches, but the lawn where Cyper waited wasn't anything that looked out of place in past years. The landing field was a few hundred meters out, and he could hear the thrumming of the turbofans as one of the insectile VTOL aircraft descended, with another close behind.

The two students whispered about the primitive design of the aircraft they were in. A sudden and harsh word from Katie silenced them both, instantly. "Do either of you want to be retained?" she asked without turning to face them. "Because that's exactly what is going to happen if you continue to mock the advancement of a potential ally."

They were silent for the remainder of the ride. Upon arrival, Katie introduced them again.

tag

[Azanian Senate]

"Welcome to the Economic Bloc, I'm Cyper De Boer, President. And who do I have the pleasure of meeting?"

As the President walked across the lawn, a group of suited men shifted in a manner that was imperceptible to anyone but a professional killer or soldier. Azania had a high crime rate, indeed, it was a nation made out of the machinations of the black market and industries and policies illegal in the west, and this was a situation where they didn't want any kind of intervention.

[Zanzibar]

Jesus Christ, this hurts.

Why he was invoking Christ, he didn't know. He didn't do Christianity, or any other kind of religion for that matter. Somewhere, 700, 800 yards back, there were a bunch of festering TransAfrican PMCs lying dead in the sand. He was getting too old for this shit, yes indeed.

His wiry frame moved with the grass, draped in thermaGhillie, his Polers Mag-7 clutched in his hands. Too old indeed. His spotter was Otete Njera, a good kid who could work a marksman's rifle well enough. He was already up there, staking the place out. The TransAfrica launch facility was heavily guarded, of course, but he needed to clear a path somehow. The op was too coordinated to have him fail now, but the two dead men lying back there gave him a bad feeling. The kind you get just before you hear the privately-owned gunship NOE over you.

A few inches at a time, he kept moving.

"I am Katie, diplomatic ambassador from Kazecistan, a nation of the Republic."

"And I am Simm of the Kiith Sjet. A pleasure to meet you."

He shook hands, and then pulled out a crystaline-filled datapad. It was clear, and looked as if only a piece of plastic inhabited it. However, nano-computers did work their wonders within the empire.

"In any case, I think that we need to set-up a peace agreement, of course; which is rather simple, and possibly a trade agreement. Technology (Unlike some other players, ALL my tech (save FTL drives) is entirely within the laws of physics), common and uncommon goods, or even military alliances. However, this is all a little pre-mature, isn't it? You must be a bit shocked from the engagement earlier. Before I start asking questions, do you have any of your own? A bit of history and explanation, perhaps?"

The President nodded as he listened.

"Our history is a strange one. Our nation hasn't officially existed until 75 years ago. It began in the early 21st century on our planet's timeline, when a few major corporations began operating in Africa, primarily through the former nations of Kenya and South Africa. Many of our activities were banned or discouraged in other nations, but the continent of Africa had weak governments. We flaunted laws and international convention, amassing mercenaries to protect our operations until we decided to form a joint-stock investment: That's Azania, the artifical island we're on today. We could operate in international waters, and do anything we wanted, really. Eventually, we became the largest economic power in Africa, and we decided to form the Azanian Economic Bloc with Sub-saharan nations in order to solidify our trading agreements.
"What we're hoping to get out of all this is, of course, peace, and more trade. A military alliance we are unsure of, we'd certainly appreciate it, however, I doubt we have anything right now that could really help your nation in a full scale war, especially one in space."

[Factory Ship L5-A-1]

"WINDHOEK, ARRIVING."

Commander Erik Norman looked over the vessel with pride as he floated towards it. 140 meters of armor, weapons, and sensors, the Windhoek was an amazing vessel, in the distance he could see her sister, the SDD-2 Nairobi, also preparing to launch. Cycling through the armored airlock, he made his way towards the CIC, where the rest of the crew was waiting.

Strapping himself in, they went through a full systems check. He activated the DNI interface, camera and sensor views melding into his conciousness, for there were no windows in the heavily protected belly of the ship.

The tugs pulled the destroyer out of the shipyard scaffolding, and angled the vessel towards Earth, which was quite visible at this distance. The tugs cleared, and he sounded the acceleration alarm. Pulse fusion engines began to push them towards Over-AEB.

AEB

"Hmmm, I see. So you're a rather new nation yet, are you? Well, this is quite an odd couple. You see, you're speaking with a Hiigaran, which is an Empire which spans over several millenia, so, to say the lease, this is quite the odd couple. Our history is long and diverse, and contains many wars, much peace, and even more strife. Please, when you get the time, read this (http://www.freewebs.com/spacenavy/hiigaranhistoryandsociety.htm). It should give quite an insight as to our history and social structure." He handed him a similar but smaller, crystaline-filled view screen computer.

"Consider it a gift, if you will. Reverse-engineer it if you like. You will find nano-computers to be a most-valuable asset in space exploration and combat. Oh, and the History section of this document is what I'd reccomend reading first...unless you really want to understand our society, that is."

"Now, how about we retire to a more...suitable place for negotiations, yes? As much as I love the outdoors, I find that chairs and table have their uses for long discussions."

Sajuuk's Grace

"I wonder how things are going now..." the Rear-Admiral mused.

"Quite fine, I'd say sir." his comms officer ventured.

"I hope so, son."

"Sir!"

The Rear-Admiral's eyebrows raised as the unexpected man looked at his short-range sensors officer. "Yes?"

"Sir, we have a contact moving around the AEB."

"Bring up the high-resolution cameras, visually identiy it."

"Yes sir!"

The main viewscreen, which had become occupied with the power fluctuations of the ship as the weapons were powered down, suddenly flicked into view a small ship moving over. It's design suggested that it was put together by a small nation, and the fact that scans produced that it had fission reactors and no shielding of any nature confimed it. Then the hi-res camera zoomed in on a familiar logo -- the AEB logo.

"It's an AEB ship, boys. Calm down. However, keep it up on the view-screen, I'd like to see what it's up to, none the less."

The Rear-Admiral sat down in his chair once again, and watche the curious vesselas it moved across the space. A nation making it first steps...Just like us, so long ago.

"Gillium!" the Rear-Admiral said sternly.

"Yes, Commander? What is it you request?" the ship's AI asked back in return.

"Move us toward the AEB ship. Slowly. And open communications. Hopefully we can make some friends up here, while that Sjet emmisary is down there."

"Yes sir, I will do so."

The ship moved, slowly and calmly under the power of it's fusion engines under the careful guidance of the ship's advanced AI, Gillium. Gillium was, at least in the Hiigaran Empire, the most advanced nano-computer AI. Only the sentient AIs had more power than he.

The Hulking five kilometer-long battlecruiser, painted sky blue, as all Hiigaran vessls were, moved slowly toward the AEB vessel, and then turned broad-side to it, hailing them on open, friendly channels. The Hiigarans had perhaps saved the AEB from a war earlier, and perhaps that act of generosity would not go unnoticed here, the Rear-Admiral thought.

"Yes, a more suitable place. Kazecistan, as well as the rest of The Republic, of whom CT is a part, are interested in peace, trade, and alliance. There are a wealth of technologies that we would love to share, for a price."

The President nodded as they continued towards the Senatorial building, much better suited to conferences.

"Before we begin, what's this multinational Republic you speak of?"

[Over-AEB]

"Ah, Hiigaran vessel, this is the SDD-1 Windhoek. We're stopping in our space around Over-AEB for a full armarment."

As he clicked the radio off, Norman found it curious their intentions were being questioned in their own space. But he shifted his attention as the weapons began to arrive. The Lifter lander was filled to the brim with weapons and equipment: high density linear railgun slugs, and a ridiculous amount of nuclear weaponry. Hulking fusion warhead missiles and the tactical nuclear anti-KE reflex weapons were being loaded onto the vessel, along with plenty of more conventional anti-fighter weapons.

"The Republic Is a grouping of nations who have come together to bring order and peace to the galaxy, or that's how I think the slogan goes. We come together for peace and trade. Unfortunately, we are at times forced to defend ourselves, and the secondary purpose of defense had arisen. We are ruled by an elected senate of nations, about half of us. We have 13 nations including, Taledonia, CT here, Nirs, Deatharon, ISF Devastator, Vrone and of course Kazecistan."

ooc: It is as much an Ic alliance as it is a Region. Our forums are here. (http://s10.invissionfree.com/Republic_Forum/index.php?)

"I see... Quite interesting. However, about these trade deals. Obviously a non-aggression pact is in order."

He drummed his fingers on the hardwood conference table in the center of the Senate Hall East wing meeting room, half-examining the strange nanocomputer the Hiigarans had given him. He wondered if it was nanomachined computing surface, like the carbon computers that had begun cropping up in the early 21st century, or if this was a new method entirely.

"In any case, trade in our nation primarily consists of minerals and metals of all kinds. That was the one lucky thing our ancestors did by setting up shop in the dark continent, after oil crashed, was that minerals made a comeback. All sorts of material to be refined for new technologies, uranium was the backbone of the new fuel economy, and so on. But other than that, it'd primarily be weapons which you have no interest in, and mercenaries."

He drummed his fingers again, eyes flitting to one of his aides as he looked over a tabletcomp.

"This is considered the darker side of our nation, but one I want you to be fully aware of before trading with us. We redefined hostile takeover. Africa is a bloody continent, always has been, and will be for as far as I can see. Every corporation you do business with," he lowered his voice, "Has its own force of paramilitary forces. We use the private contractors to bolster our own forces as well. You keep in mind, that up in space, you're probably safe from that kind of activity right now, but once you start doing business planetside, then things get messy. And it won't be long until it spreads to our space colonies. It's a fact of life in the AEB. Bloody continent. Always has been."

[Zanzibar]

I am too old for this.

His target was designated by Otete as he raised the rifle, his body creeping like the landscape itself was stirring to life. The lights and glow of the TransAfrica research and launch facility. The polymer-metal stock of the Polers was cool, but firm, the free floating barrel shrouded with ghillie and thermat. His scope was zeroed, and he checked the distance. About 500 yards. The guard he was targeting lay in the crosshairs. Poised in the shooting style taken from bits of Afrikaner long-range work and Soviet-era rifle team doctrine, he readied himself for the shot.

The Polers 7mm Magnum was an improved version of the Remington design, though this variant was a pecular subsonic version. The guard outside the facility had been splattered, unaware the main force of the facility had been subverted. The entry team moved up, clad in black-gray OLED active camouflage shrouds. Silenced CR75 carbines and a variety of other weapons were in their hands as the datashock crew began to assault the systems of the research facility electronically.

They ticked down the seconds. TransAfrica had a nanoresearch lab here, supposedly some of them weapons grade. Their inside man was hopefully going to simulate a containment failure, which would lock the entire system down. And then, they would override their path to the lab with their target material, and the inside man, as requested, would be airlifted out.

They literally walked through the front door as the datashock team overrode security. Still advancing cautiously, the lockdown alarm occurred right on schedule. They kept moving through the corridors, knocking out any scientists or personnel they encountered. Moving towards the nanolab, they opened the door to see the containment cylinders right where they were expected. Opening a specialized backpack, a few were loaded in and the soldier carrying them shrugged it back on. Now they could egress, provided the extraction team had recovered the inside man, one Howard Smith. As they moved their way down the corridor, a radio message crackled through the air: "Brownbag team, this is Blackhat 1, the mole's gone bad." Gunfire crackled in the background.

"Shit."

Their lockdown procedures had been overrode. A fucking backstab, either that or a brilliant intercept. They were right outside the main doors, in the polished stone, statues, and greenery of the research facility lobby. The walkway above them was filled with heavily armed TransAfrican PMCs, as was the front door. Searching cover, it seemed like a massive mexican standoff. Just beautiful.

"Drop your weapons, now."

The black clad entry team stood stock still, one of the commanders muttering something. A soldier clacked his weapon, a huge, more modern cousin of a double-barrel shotgun. Raising it towards the walkway, a TransAfrican spun and raised his weapon to him. The soldier looked down from the walkway to see the enemy aiming down the sights at his head, and then saw a flicker of light on his nightvision, a flash of a ray.

It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, or it was until the man's head exploded, half ripped away by a full velocity, converted 7mm Polers Magnum round. A fine mist appeared, as if the result of a magician's trick, the boddy toppling over. Another crack. And another.

The sniper, one of four, had made many shots like this. As had his fathers. The Evert family was a line of white killers in a black continent, their true skill beginning in the Boer war with an Afrikaner sniper using his Mauser 98 to score 1000 yard plus kills on British officers. A Belgian ancestor was another form of random death on the trenches in the Great War before moving to the Congo, and promptly having his ancestors in the Belgian Paras to fight in that nation as well. Meanwhile a man on the Dutch side of the family began to assasinate Soviet advisors during the war in Namibia, and by the turn of the century the Evert's ancestors were mostly businessmen and mercenaries, their latest progeny now wreaking havoc in Zanzibar. He cycled the bolt again, aimed, and fired.

As the bodies began to drop, that soldier acted on his good luck. The shotgun of sorts spun to the walkway, and he fired the first barrel, the Krieghoff-Militec weapon burping out a 20mm ONC grenade, custom made like the gun itself. It shattered the walkway completely, pulping several unfortunate occupants and injuring the rest as the thing slowly collapsed. Dust filled the air as he swung around the second barrel, and fired another ONC shell into the flanking line of soldiers. Ducking behind a bullet chewed column, he withdrew, reloaded, and snapped the weapon shut in a fluid motion. Peering down the reflex sight, he fired a deershot slug into the remaining men, and then another, in concert with his squad as they dealth death upon the TransAfricans. When the gunfire stopped, all that could be heard was the alarm klaxon and the tinkle of still rolling shell casings, punctuated by the occasional moan. Moving back in formation, they recovered their dead, along with what was left of the extraction team.

They moved through the hills quickly, and soon the VTOL whine of their extraction vehicle could be heard. It would be good to get out of this Island. Their pay would come at a high cost, but all in all, thought Evert as he chewed his gum in the passenger hold of his getaway ride, it was profitable.

The things you'd do for money in Africa...

"Well, despite your, um, darker side, we are willing to trade with you and gain a bond of trust.

It is good that your nation has an abundance of minerals, as that is the main thing Kazecistan wishes to acquire. What are you interested in gaining from us? We could certainly provide you with technology to out match your competitors, and refined, manufactured, goods and luxuries are also available. You name it, and chances are we could provide it, for a price.

Non-aggression treaty, easier done that said. Say the word and we can have a draft here for your approval. We would hope to take our relations further, fully aware that you could put less in than we would." She had a kind, genial tone, one that would put the most agitated person at ease. She spoke as if they had been friends all of their life, and that their needs mattered more than anything else in the world. Thus was the skill of any Kazeci diplomat.

Bump

"Excellent, let's get the NAP done first. Trade will be more complicated, as we're capitalist and you'll have to do business with individual corporations. I'm going to warn you again: Be wise. You're going to get a thousand different offers to give someone this, or deny someone that. I suggest you think carefully in what you export and who you give it to, military technology or otherwise."

"Ah, Mr. President?"

De Boer looked up at the aide who signaled from across the room.

"Excuse me for a moment."

They walked to a hallway, and all that could be heard from the negotiation area were words like 'Zanzibar' '15 confirmed' and 'TransAfrica'. Finally, the President capped it off with a completely inaudible remark, well, not inaudible to the aide, who nodded and returned from whence he came. Straightening his tie, the President returned.

"Ah, sorry about that. Now where were we?"

"We are prepared to trade with a capitalist nation, we often have in the past." She reached into her robe and pulled out a small silver orb. As she placed it on the table, it hovered, perfectly still. Holographic documents floated in front of everybody at the table. "The short version of this would be that no nation or corporation present or allied to those present will make hostile moves against another, with the exception of self defense. Of course, as you can see, there are many more words in the document, but that's the gist. If you would sing with your fingers, please."

"Yes, and a non-agression pact with our nation is even more simple. You would need only to sign here, please."

He motioned toward his hand, in which was a larger, clip-board sized clear tablet with text from various major galactic languages running along it.

"And, of course, a fingerprint ID here," he pointed along the blank that indicated such. This treaty states, quite simply, that we will not harbour any agression toward eachother, and will respect each-other's 30 light-year zone boundries. Also, you are not an unbound race -- you are bound by the shackles of sub-light travel, it seems. We would like to, if permitted, to introduce you to the Bentusi, an ancient race among the stars, and true un-bound. They shall introduce you to FTL technology, as they have done countless times to others, if permitted."

De Boer thumbed both documents, and then turned to the Hiigaran.

"An interesting proposition. We already have a research arm and some quantum physicists checking out methods for FTL travel, but we'd be interested in what you have to offer. It's unlikely we'll utilize FTL soon other than for diplomatic purposes, there's still so much that can be done within our system, we haven't even begun mining the asteroid belt itself. But I'm sure we could call up some program directors to speak with these Bentusi."

"Kazecistan wishes to remind you that our treaty is vallid for the entire republic and allows you to enter our space freely. There is no reason that you cannot sing both of these, however. We also wish to reming you that we are willing to sell our FTL drives and plans as well. These are usefull for in system travel as well as intersystem travel."

AEB

"Yes. Are the documents to your liking? Or do you have a ruling council that needs to see this as well, like our Diamid, perhaps? Oh, and the Bentusi have expressed their personal wishes to meet with the leaders of your nation...in their own fashion. You see, no one has ever actually seen a Bentusi, to say, so to "meet" with them is a bit...different. We'd have to arrange a meeting in high orbit. The meeting would be through communications. The Bentusi are a very secretive race. We have communicated with them for nearly four millenia now, and we still know so terribly little about them. However, what we do know about them is good. There are a good people who take on Sajuuk's role and have fathered many a race into peace and prosperity, urging them to reach toward the vast expanses of space -- to become unbound. They offer to any race extremely valuable trade and peace in exchange for peace in return. That is their only condition. We could arrange for you or and envoy to meet with them..." he checked his PDA and looked up, "Now, if you like.

"They are standing by approximatly thirty-five light years away from now, awaiting our signal. Normally they would not even inform us of such a thing as a new nation, nor ask us to send negotiations first, but they saw the conflict that was to happen here, and sent us in to dissolve the situation first. You see..." the Sjet man stopped for a minute and looked down at the ground, paused, than looked up again, "the Bentusi...don't wage war...for the cause of peace. And if you are curious about this...read that entire article I gave you earlier. But neither the Bentusi nor us Hiigarans like to speak much of it. It is a dark part of our history...for both our ancient races.

"But I must be boring you. What is your command -- meet with them now, later, or not at all. Also, when might you sign that document? It's rather simply written. Unless you have a high council that needs to see this, of course. Take as much time as you need."

HES Sajuuk's Grace

"I see. I hope things are going well down on the ground, Windhoek. Sorry, I seem to have misplaced my manners. This is Rear-Admiral Uradin Soban speaking. I believe that a proverbial shaking of the hands might be in order when you have the time. We've already got the champaigne cooled, friend. I hope that we can make a few friends up here while the Sjetti diplomat is down their with your president."