NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Basically expanding my empire towards the core from the outer rim. FT nations can join in if they wish. You can RP having a survey ship in one of the systems conquered. Or the planets could be on your border and you could deem their conquest a threat to security and deploy an intervention or something. One note though, my nation uses Yuuzhan Vong biological technology so subspace communications will fall on deaf ears.

System 9008734G - Approximately 50,000 LY From Galactic Core

The Warship (SSD Analog) Yuuzhan'tar and it's escort fleet sat in orbit around the 5th planet of the system's moon. The planet was discovered just under a month ago and had been systematically explored and studied since then. Reconaissance teams landed across the small globe daily, sending back information of all types, before returning home.

It was soon decided that this world was suitable for Vongforming and colonization. It had also been discovered that a small early Gunpowder Age civilization inhabited the world. Completely unaware of the dangers just beyond their atmosphere, the people continued with their daily lives, living in blissful ignorance.

On the bridge of the Yuuzhan'tar a villip everted next to the commander's chair, revealing the deformed visage of the Warmaster.

"Warmaster Shai, you honour me with your interest in my tiny corner of this galaxy." The commander blurted out, clearly suprised by the sudden communication.

"Save your groveling for the Gods, Commander. It has come to my attention that you have discovered a suitable planet for our taking. Is this correct?"

"Yes, Warmaster. It is what the infidels call a Class M world. Inhabitable by most humanoids. Infact, it is already inhabited by a race of infidel primitives." The commander responded nervously, doing his best not to displease the Warmaster.

"Good, good. Begin the Vongforming of the world. Report back to me when you have finished"

"But Warmaster, what of the inhabitants of this world?" The commander asked, perhaps stupidly.

"You disappoint me with your idiocy. Destroy them Commander! You yourself said that they were infidels, destroy them in the name of the Gods. Leave none alive! None Commander!" With that the Warmasters villip reverted back to it's original state and the commander looked around the bridge at his crew.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Issue the orders!"

On the Surface of planet 9008734G-5 (Known natively as Dasan)

It happened on a Sunday of the final month of summer. A strange occurance in the skies over Dasan. Suddenly and without warning a second moon appeared in the sky as the Yuuzhan'tar took up a very low orbit. This new celestial body puzzled the scientific community more than any other issue. Could it be a sign from God? The apocalypse approaching? A piece of the original moon? No one knew for sure, but this new body became the focus of intense study.

It seemed to support the hypothesis that it was a piece of their moon when smaller chunks broke off from it and fell towards the surface, landing in the middle of wilderness. While this phenomena captivated the scientists of Dasan, the royal families of the world took no notice. They simply went about business as usual.

In fact, it didn't seem to phase them when stories of flying boulders, floating mountains, giant serpents that swallow whole villages and strange scarred and armoured men carrying snakes as weapons reached the world's capitols. These were simply dismissed as the delusions of mad men and provided nothing more than a cheap laugh for Dasan's kings and queens. Even when refugees began to arrive, at first in a trickle, but eventually a torrent began to arrive from the countryside the royals sat on their thumbs.

Finally, when a garrison in a fortress a few kilometers from the capitol of the world's foremost nation, was suddenly wiped out to the man did the royal families take notice. Sensing trouble at last, they called up reserves and formed alliances. It was not to be enough. A week later, over the same capitol, a giant floating mountain ( in reality a heavy cruiser analog ) appeared. The mountain floated in place for several minutes until the garrison's guns could be trained on it.

For a few tense minutes the mountain sat and the gunners loaded and waited for orders. Then, one impetuous young captain, gave the order for his battery to fire. The cannons let loose and the shots flew straight and clear, appearing to be on target. Suddenly, however, they began to stretch into ovals and then disappeared from thin air, about 10 meters from the mountain. Baffled, the garrison fired again, only to have the process repeated. After a few minutes of futile attack, the gunners stopped and waited. Without warning, the mountain spat a ball of fire at the battery that had fired at it, killing them all and destroying the portion of the fortress they had occupied. Again and again, the "mountain" spat fire at the fortress, quickly reducing it to a smouldering pile of half-molten rock.

As quickly as it appeared, the "mountain" disappeared skyward a few minutes later, leaving the royals baffled. A few days later an army of strange men armed with snakes and clad in living armour arrived at the gates of the city. In the skies above them dozens of flying boulders spat fire across the city, quickly setting it ablaze. The army sent forth a representative and demanded surrender. If one had not been received within one day the city and all it's inhabitants would be destroyed. Quickly, the garrison surrendered, leaving the city to it's fate. The entire city was taken prisoner aboard the rock airships.

Over the next year, the process was repeated across the planet. Those who surrendered outright were killed for allowing themselves to be dishonoured by not fighting. Those who put up token resistance were taken prisoner then sacrificed to the Gods, either by being cast into the sun in groups of thousands in order to assure future victory or being dismembered or disembowelled alive in order to divine the wishes of the Gods. Those who fought to the last man or there abouts were not killed, but enslaved. Those who died a warrior's death soon found themselves the subjects of epic poetry and songs. In the end, the entire planet's population of 800 million was killed or enslaved and the planet Vongformed to suit the desires of it's new masters.

Even as this planet was being conquered, a new planet came under the envious eyes of the Talaaxians. This one, another Class M world, was home to a modern civilization( late 20th century tech) of 3 billion. Earmarked for invasion, two worldships have been dispatched to this system. The Gods want more infidel blood and so Talaax will give it to them...

Aboard The Worldship Yun-Yammka

The Commander's personal quarters were no different from the rest of the crew's, although slightly larger. Lit by bioluminescent lichen on the walls and ceiling, it almost resembled a torture chamber. Blood stains adorned the floors and walls and the Embrace of Pain sat in one corner, awaiting it's master. In the opposite corner, the Commander now sat infront of a small pedestal face to face with the Warmaster's villip.

"We are only a few days from System 807892M, Great One. I will inform you of our arrival." The Commander spoke calmly and confidently, evidently trying to impress the Warmaster by not showing the fear most exhibited when facing him.

"Very well, Commander. But be warned, these infidels are much more powerful than the pitiful people of the planet they named Dasan. They may even be a match for you if you are not careful." The Warmaster scowled at the young Commander, annoyed at what he perceived as over-confidence.

"Of course, Great One. I will not fail you, the Gods will have this planet."

"Pray that you do not fail me, Commander. I will not accept failure. If the Gods cannot have these infidels as sacrifice then they will have you. Keep that fact in mind, Commander. Failure is not an option." No sooner had the last word been spoken, the Warmaster's villip reverted to it's ball form and the Commander stood. A few minutes later he arrived on the bridge, visibly shaken.

I'm gonna pay attention to this, if only to possibly join up with the 'Anacronistic' Vong if and when Sithy and the Imperials decide to put their foot down.

Tag; the Hive is always seeking new races; especially bio-technological races. Perhaps we can learn from each other ;)

OOC: *Cracks knuckles* Looks like it's time to knock sense into the Vong!

IC:
Outer Rim world of Temara, aka System 807892M

It was a peaceful day on the world of Temara, a world unaware of a great threat that approaches them. Yet it's defenses were not as pitiful as the last world they subjucated. One Imperial Star Destroyer and two Nebulon-B Frigates protect the world, serving as a tripwire for the Coredian Empire and the rest of the Galaxy.

For now, the ships were on standby, but that will change soon...very soon indeed...

Temara System

At the extreme Rimward edge of the Temara System, two objects about the size of a small moon, entered the system from hyperspace. Immediately behind them, the entire task force dropped into the system. Each worldship was accompanied by a Kor Chokk Grand Cruiser ( SSD analog ), a Miid Ro'ik Cruiser ( Star Destroyer analog ), three Chuun M'arh frigates and four I'Frii Ma-Nat corvettes as well as an additional A-Uek Iiluunu carrier vessel. The task force sat at the edge of the system, cautiously scanning for activity on the planet and surrounding space.

Satisfied that nothing was amiss, the task force began to move into the system on a direct course for the world Temara.

OOC: Just so you know, I'm not looking for a full scale war. A series of border skirmishes is perfectly acceptable. Perhaps even a major fleet engagement in between, but no full scale war. This is more of a probe than an attack. The idea is that I'm looking for more breathing room and run into someone else's zone of influence, we skirmish over it for a while then come to an agreement.

Temara System

At the extreme Rimward edge of the Temara System, two objects about the size of a small moon, entered the system from hyperspace. Immediately behind them, the entire task force dropped into the system. Each worldship was accompanied by a Kor Chokk Grand Cruiser ( SSD analog ), a Miid Ro'ik Cruiser ( Star Destroyer analog ), three Chuun M'arh frigates and four I'Frii Ma-Nat corvettes as well as an additional A-Uek Iiluunu carrier vessel. The task force sat at the edge of the system, cautiously scanning for activity on the planet and surrounding space.

Satisfied that nothing was amiss, the task force began to move into the system on a direct course for the world Temara.
Long-range sensors began picking up the odd objects approaching the system, at first confusing the sensor operators. Then, as they neared the planet, their unique signatures became clear...and faces, young and old turned as white as Hoth snow.

An enemy that has not been fought in a century has returned...An enemy that has taken half the galaxy in a war that spanned five long years before the Jedi under the leadership of Master Skywalker and combined militaries of the New Republic and Imperial Remnant defeated them over Coruscant with Zonama Sekot's help.

The enemy known as the Yuuzhan Vong.

Captain Kevins sucked in a sharp breath as his sensors 'dusted off' old readings and spat out enemy numbers and composition. "Comms. Alert the Governor that the Vong have returned. After that, send word to Tenetia...The Empress must know of this."

The comms officer nodded and sent the messages. And as an afterthought, he, really a spy for Jurai, sent the same message with a few tweaks to that world. If nothing else, the Jedi can deal with the scarheads just as efficiently as the Sith...

Then he picked up a comlink and switched to shipboard frequency. "All crew, go to battlestations immediately! We have hostile force incoming!"

Meanwhile, the governor was understandably frightened as the Vong forces continued to bear down on his planet, and began ordering evacuations for everyone who can grab a flight out. Those who can't...well, they best hope for a quick death.

Starfighters roared out of hangar bays and offplanet to support the capital ships and defend the fleeing ships. Many will die today, and in the months to come...

OOC: Just so you know, I'm not looking for a full scale war. A series of border skirmishes is perfectly acceptable. Perhaps even a major fleet engagement in between, but no full scale war. This is more of a probe than an attack. Testing the waters etc.
OOC: I understand. Much like Vector Prime, only with no Chewie dying this time.

"Commander! We have been detected!" A young ensign called out from the bridge of the Yun-Yammka.

"What?! You told me that this planet had no long range sensors!" The Commander screamed.

"...It seems we were wrong, Commander. We're detecting the launch of infidel starfighters from the surface and a small force of ships coming around the planet. We believe them to be one Star Destroyer and two Frigates as well as a small force of starfighters, various classes." The ensign responded, his voice cracking in fear several times.

The Commander backhanded the young officer, knocking him halfway across the bridge before regaining his composure. "Launch fighters! Have frigates and corvettes form a screen infront of us. No one must escape this system!"

Moments later the orders were relayed and began to be carried out. The fleet formed into a long crescent, with escorts up front, battleships behind and carrier and worldships in behind. Fighters were launched from the battleships and carriers, 832 in all, and immediately sent to engage the fighters and evacuation ships. The main task force, meanwhile, slowed down somewhat to make optimal use of dovin basals for defensive purposes.

The task force advanced directly towards the small Coredian task force, opening fire at maximum range with all available plasma and lava cannons. Coralskippers engaged fighter forces in a dance of death, dovin basals working hard to rip the shields off enemy fighters or to absorb incoming fire. All ships, after recovering from the shock of the enemy presence began to act in unison, as the yammosk aboard Yun-Yammka began to take over coordination of the battle. Mirroring the Jedi battle meld, the yammosk allowed all ships to act in almost perfect unison, attacking and defending as one. None of the infidels in this system would be allowed to escape to call on reinforcements and the battle must be quick, before any nearby vessels could arrive to render aid.

From the throbbing hearth of the warm halls in the Catastrophe fleets, came a transmission of possible opportunity from the flaring sensor droids that flickered around from space, only recently emerging from hyperspace. Something had stirred another thing, and a chain of events would soon be that they cannot seem to comprehend. Still, they stood there, alongside their leader, a tall and gasping man in bloody red robes, a saber hanging so delicately on his side, his fingers tapping on his arms as they were folded across his chest.

Unnamed foes, I am Totalius, of the Moving Throne. We have no homeworld, no single spot of connection. We are merely a wandering fleet, a mobile empire of ships and soldiers, nothing more. We have no civilization, and we extend out the hand of alliance to you. Make no mistake; our numbers are painstakingly large, and we ask that perhaps we can purchase some fuel from you, as we are running a little below what we deem recommendable. Please reply as quick as possible.

Message to Totalius from the Eternal Empire:
"We upon learning of your wanderings offer you the opptunity to reside within the Eternal Empire on multiple permanent worlds or you may if you wish continue your wandering across the many galaxies that belong to the Eternal Empire in peace. We ask nothing in return for this save that you are content with yourselves and happy in the Eternal Empire."

In the midst of battle, the signal from the Moving Throne fell on deaf ears. Although several obsolete comm units were still kept onboard the Yun-Yammka for study by the Shapers, none were active at the time. Being a race that rejects mechanical technology, no traditional comm units were present on the ships. Communication was achieved via villips and not radio etc. No one aboard the Talaaxian ships could possibly hear the message, even if they had, they wouldn't have had any fuel for mechanical abominations.

OOC: My ships are all living creatures, we don't communicate the same way you do. Any subspace communications would not be heard. You'll have to wait until the battle is over and try again.

OOC: I've slightly noticed, similiar to the Vuuzhan Vong (I might have spelt it wrong). I'm simply opening an open and blank channel.

Perhaps we may purchase fuel from any reliable sources within your alleged 'Eternal Empire', if that is deemed allowed? We have enslaved, destroyed, and converted many races that proved to be a valuable profit, so we find ourselves with a smashing amount of stockpiled and excessive cash. Also, it becomes nearly impossible to plunder us - thus we have no fear of enemy raids - due to our nomadic nature. So, once again, we will direct the question; may we purchase fuel and supplies to bolster our forces and our strength for what may lie on the horizon of space?

The Eternal Empire replied:
"We are willing to sell you food, water, medcine, and fuel if that is what you desire."

The battle was fierce as starfighters began employing tried-and-true anti-Vong measures like stutter-fire and shield-compensators, which prevented the shields from ripping away quickly. Though sorely outnumbered, they flanked the crescent wave, forming a thin shield for the fleeing ships to make the run to hyperspace. Spears of light soon denoted ships disappearing into hyperspace, but blossoms of fire were becoming common as evacuation ships blew apart under the enemy onslaught.

Then the Star Destroyer opened fire, shattering the skies with deadly spears of green destructive light in rapid-firing mode towards the enemy fighters and lead elements of the fleet. The frigate escorts followed suit, both concentrating firepower on an enemy counterpart, blasting apart chunks of coral in hopes of destroying the enemy.

But the strain was beginning to show as the outnumbered task force fought to the bitter end.

Not to mention that the planet had a moon, and the colony there began to throw turbolasers and missiles into the enemy forces in desperation as they pushed on relentlessly for Temara...

OOC: I miscalculated the numbers of coralskippers carried on the battleships and carrier. The carrier can deploy 200, SSD analogs 216 each and about 100 each for the other two. I've edited the first post to reflect that. The new total is 832, rather than 400.
Coralskippers began to take losses almost immediately after entering the battle. Flashes of light and clouds of molten coral became a common sight in the space between the fleets and the refugee ships, but so did the explosion of starfighters. Without fear of death, the coralskippers pressed relentlessly through the few starfighters and clouds of turbolaser fire towards the refugee ships, gradually destroying more ships than those escaping.

Meanwhile the corvettes and frigates engaged the two enemy frigates opposite them, concentrating all available fire on them. While engaging the escorts, a frigate and two corvettes succumbed to fire from the star destroyer and batteries on the moon, but the rest continued to fight on. Shortly after another corvette exploded and a second frigate began to leak atmosphere, but fired on from unaffected sections.Three of the four battleships, one SSD analog and the two SD analogs began to concentrate fire on the enemy star destroyer, hundreds of plasma cannons blasting away at the enemy, slowly but surely weakening the shields. The fourth battleship, an SSD analog, began to return fire against the moon colony in an attempt to knock out the turbolaser batteries there and showing no regard for civilians. The two worldships, so far unengaged and far behind the main formation, continued to sit back and watch holding back their own coralskippers.

Bump to the front of the line

BUMP for response

Bump

OOC: Still engaged with you CoreWorlds, just expanding the campaign a bit. As for others, feel free to jump in a bit if you feel like it. Even just a tiny probe force to investigate these reported attacks.

ExGal 54 - 5 LY Rimward of Temara

On the tracking screens it looked like a piece of space, a large asteroid perhaps, that had somehow escaped the gravity of it's mother star. It floated into the system at less than a quarter the speed of light. Not having ever spotted anything crossing the galactic rim, the station's crew studied this odd piece of interstellar debris.

"I wonder how that thing escaped it's home system. Either it lost quite a lot of velocity in the void or something miraculous occured to get it out of it's system." A junior crew member said, studying sensor readouts.

"It must have lost velocity in the trip over. Still, it doesn't feel right." A senior crew member thought out loud.

"Why don't we send the shuttle out to take a look? It'd give some of us something to do..."

"Hm, I suppose. Alright. Telki, Roma, Seru, you three take the shuttle out and have a closer look at it. Transmit your findings back."

Six hours later

"Hm, sensors are picking up a weird gravitic reading from this thing. It's almost as if the star hasn't locked it in it's gravity but that it's locked onto the star with it's own gravity. Very interesting." Roma spoke over the comlink back to ExGal 54.

"Other than the gravitic readings, it seems to be just a normal piece of rock. Huh? What's that?" Telki spoke now, from her seat in the coopilot's chair.

"What is it?" a voice came over the comm.

"I'm not sure, a half dozen chunks of rock just broke off from the main body. If I didn't know better I'd say they were vectoring on us. They're accelerating, weird. Maybe we shou-" The next sentence was scrambled by a wave of static caused by weapons fire hitting the shuttle's shields.

"ExGal 54 to shuttle! Come in! Telki! Roma! Seru!"

"We're still here, these - things - are alive somehow. They're shooting plasma at us! We're heading back to base now, trying to evade them. We're -" Another wave of static then silence. Staring at the sensor display, the rest of the crew watched in horror as the six "things" converged on the shuttle and loosed a double volley of plasma. The first volley smashed into the shields and knocked them out. The second, more lava then plasma, slammed into the hull and immediately began eating it's way through the hull. In seconds the shuttle was no more than a cloud of debris. The "things" began to head back to their host, which was now bearing down on ExGal 54.

An hour later, 4 large pieces of rock began falling from the skies, each landing at either North, East, South or West of ExGal 54. Immediately, tall, thin beings clad in living armour and carrying what seemed like spears began to pile out of the "rocks". After a few seconds' delay, the beings began to converge on the facility, arrogantly striding across open ground almost inviting death.

"Patch me through to ExGal HQ! Now!" Senior Scientist Del'ara shouted at the crew member manning the comms station. A minute later a voice rang from the speakers.

"ExGal Headquarters, how may I help you?"

"This is Del'ara of ExGal 54! We are under attack by an unknown force! Send aid immediately! Alert all author-" The comm suddenly went dead. A mass of lava clung to what used to be a comm dish atop ExGal 54. The lines of communication had just been cut. "Damn it! Everyone get to your blaster rifles. The least we can do is try to delay them."

For an hour or so, the ExGal scientiests held the enemy at bay with blaster fire, but eventually their power packs began to run out. Sensing weakness, the Talaaxian commander ordered a charge and a whole company of warriors charged across the open space between the outer wall of ExGal 54 and the main sensor suite. Amphistaffs spinning wildly above their heads, the warriors charged on shouting battle cries and taunts. Some fell to lucky shots from the scientists, but most were only slowed by the blaster fire. Within seconds they were right on top of the scientists.

The rest of the battle lasted all of 30 seconds as the highly skilled warriors quickly dispatched the scientists, most dying a quick death by the razor sharp edge of a hardened amphistaff, others fatally bitten by it's snake-like head and poisoned. For the next several hours, the warriors rampaged through the facility, bashing computers into piles of wires and shards of plastic and metal. The few droids on the base were completely torn apart, some no longer recognizable as droids. After several hours, all things technological on station was destroyed. Soon this world would be reformed to suit the needs of it's new masters. In the meantime, the warriors packed up and left, getting ready to meet their next foes.

OOC: I miscalculated the numbers of coralskippers carried on the battleships and carrier. The carrier can deploy 200, SSD analogs 216 each and about 100 each for the other two. I've edited the first post to reflect that. The new total is 832, rather than 400.
Coralskippers began to take losses almost immediately after entering the battle. Flashes of light and clouds of molten coral became a common sight in the space between the fleets and the refugee ships, but so did the explosion of starfighters. Without fear of death, the coralskippers pressed relentlessly through the few starfighters and clouds of turbolaser fire towards the refugee ships, gradually destroying more ships than those escaping.

Meanwhile the corvettes and frigates engaged the two enemy frigates opposite them, concentrating all available fire on them. While engaging the escorts, a frigate and two corvettes succumbed to fire from the star destroyer and batteries on the moon, but the rest continued to fight on. Shortly after another corvette exploded and a second frigate began to leak atmosphere, but fired on from unaffected sections.Three of the four battleships, one SSD analog and the two SD analogs began to concentrate fire on the enemy star destroyer, hundreds of plasma cannons blasting away at the enemy, slowly but surely weakening the shields. The fourth battleship, an SSD analog, began to return fire against the moon colony in an attempt to knock out the turbolaser batteries there and showing no regard for civilians. The two worldships, so far unengaged and far behind the main formation, continued to sit back and watch holding back their own coralskippers.
Though the meager fleet fought well and fought hard, they were doomed. The Star Destroyer was torn apart by the concentrated firepower of the three battleships as if they were dogs after meat. The escorts were swept aside like nothing and then the way was open for the planet's conquest. Only the moon stood in its path, but the overwhelming firepower overcame the devastating blows of the planetary-grade turbolaser cannons, and Tima's colony came under assault. Giant holes ripped through the colony's buildings as plasma smashed through shields and transparisteel armor. Air rushed out the holes, sucking out men, women and children into the cruel void of space to die. The colony was destroyed, and none survived the onslaught.

Only a quarter of ships that lifted off from the planet and colony escaped into hyperspace, spreading tales of horror and devastation throughout the galaxy. An equally small number of starfighters retreated into hyperspace as well.

Temara was doomed. How doomed was merely a question of the occupier's intentions...

Temara - The day after victory in space

A standard day after the pitiful infidel forces defending Temera were destroyed, the Talaaxian fleet turned it's attention to securing the surface of Temara. Hundreds of Yorik-trema assault ships dropped into the atmosphere, packed with Talaaxian warriors. Once landed, the warriors streamed out, securing the surface of the planet within days.

For those left on the planet, life was either too short or death too long coming. Most were packed into sacrifice ships, purified by priests and then sent hurtling into the sun. Others, deemed worthy of the honour, were dismembered alive under the supervision of priests whose job it was to divine the wishes of the Gods from the victim's screams and other reactions. The most worthy of the survivors were disembowelled alive or vivisected, again under the supervision of priests. Those few, some might say lucky, left over were enslaved and put to work destroying their own homes and property.

Soon the forces of the Talaaxian Navy would move on to the next world in their coreward sphere of influence...

Patriarch Alexander Masaki, the Elder member of the High Council and leader of the Coreworlds watched calmly as holograms of the Yuuzhan Vong at Temara fighting the meager forces before it cut out, presumably by a molten rock. "So, they have returned. Disturbing."

The aged Jedi Master sat back in his chair, and tapped his fingers on each other, as if contemplating something. "The last time, we managed to defeat them with Zonama Sekot's aid. This time around, things will be tougher. From Temara, they will begin to reach into the more populated portions of the Outer Rim, and perhaps into the Midrim."

He smiled darkly. "Of course, that's when the Empire will come in and deal with them. After that...that's when we begin to implement the plans. But for now...we must slow down the Vong advances..."

IC: A lone Bluestar class scout ship had watched the battle for Temara from extreme sensor range. When the battle was over, the ship came about and made a jump to Hyperspace. She was on her way to the U.E.O. capital to report what had happened.

OOC: I use mainly Babylon 5 and Stargate ships and technology.

OOC: CoreWorlds, mind if I add you to MSN so we can figure out where this is going to go from here?

IC:

2 LY Rimward of the Mid-Rim

Olgrane was a peaceful world of bustling cityscape with bits of wilderness interspersed with it. Home to nearly 10 billion souls, the planet knew no war and had very little in the way of defense forces. Although they would have been easy to conquer, this world had been chosen for a different purpose. This world would show the galaxy the might of Talaax and strike fear into those who would wish to do Talaax harm.

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

A small yorik coral vessel, not quite the size of a corvette, emerged from hyperspace at the very edge of the Olgrane system. Approaching the world slowly, carefully, it made it's way past the other planets of the system doing it's best ( and most convincing ) imitation of an asteroid. It floated through space for days, on a course that would take it past Olgrane without actually threatening it.

Although noticed by insystem scientists, they quickly calculated it's orbit and found that although it would pass close it would miss the planet completely. And so no attention was paid to the approaching doom of Olgrane. Days after entering the system, the small ship finally reached an appropriate distance from the planet. As it passed close by, a smaller vessel - this one on a suicide mission - seperated from it's mothership and shot quickly into Olgrane's atmosphere. It crashed down without notice in one of the many wilderness areas of the planet.

Inside the tiny vessel lay a powerful dovin basal - more powerful than the ones that propelled the massive worldships. Once it reached the surface and cooled down, the dovin basal locked it's gravitational grip on Olgrane's closer moon. Slowly, almost unnoticably at first, it began to pull the moon towards the planet.

Moving with painful slowness the moon crept towards Olgrane. A kilometre at a time the moon grew closer and closer, more and more massive in the sky. The cause of this sudden change in orbit puzzled those on the world. Many began making provisions to get offworld soon. It wasn't until the moon was almost three times it's original size in the sky that an Olgranian scientist stumbled across the records of a long ago planet known as Sernpidal. Something similar had happened there, caused by a species known as the Yuuzhan Vong. The planet had been completely destroyed.

Within hours the alarm was raised and evacuations were ordered. But with only 12 hours until impact, most of Olgrane's 10 billion inhabitants were doomed. As the last of the insystem transports lifted off with their double load of refugees the moon touched atmosphere and began to set the sky ablaze. Moving more quickly now it grew closer to the surface. Then a bright flash in the southern hemisphere heralded the end of almost 9.5 billion lives as the moon impacted the planet. The resulting explosion ignited Olgrane's atmosphere, turning it into a giant fireball before cracking the planet into four or five pieces.

At the edge of the system, the Talaaxian ship entered hyperspace. On the opposite edge, the refugees also jumped to lightspeed bringing tales of death and destruction to the Mid-Rim and beyond.

A ripple in space expanded, and the FNS Feather, a newly-refitted Bird of Prey and pride of the fleet, thrusted out of warp. "Sir?" Asked the ensign manning ops, "We're detecting subspace signatures near Temera IV. We've picked up their comms, they appear to be using ships of a Lucasian nature."

"Open hailing frequencies," commanded Fleet Admiral Aran.

"Hailing channel open, sir" remarked comms.

Aboard SSD Analog Hammer of the Gods

Monitoring the surrounding space for infidel electronic signals, the communications officer on duty on the bridge managed to pick up the Falcanian signal on one of his specially adapted villips. He turned around swiftly and almost shouted to his captain, only a few paces away.

"Sir! We are picking up a hail from an infidel vessel at the edge of the system!"

Commander Kruul looked up, slightly annoyed. "What of it? Record it and pass it on to the Warmaster's vessel."

"Sir, they're asking to speak to one of us. They are not communicating with an outsystem location."

"Very well... Move over and allow me to speak." Commander Kruul shoved the comms officer aside and glared angrily into the villip as it took the form of the Falcanian officer. "You are intruding upon Talaaxian space! State your purpose immediately or be destroyed!"

Aran was taken aback. "Talaaxian? This is in the outstretches of our empire. But I digress. I am Fleet Admiral Status Aran of the Falcanian Empire. We wish to meet you, as we have not seen your race before. We wish to hold a conference. We have jettisonned a cargo pod, it contains a cache of Deuterium Platinide. This is a token of good faith. The Falcanian Empire are always interested in forming alliances with new races. If you wish to hold a conference, beam ambassadors onboard. We have our shields lowered as a sign of trust."

The very fabric of space is rent as a massive Hyperspatial Vortex opens on the outskirts of the Temera star system. Four Whitestar class monitors, two Ha'Tak class motherships, a Bluestar class scout (same one from earlier), and ten Vorchan class attack cruisers drop to normal space.

Captain Robert Deel, C.O. of the lead Whitestar orders, "Have all ships go to Yellow Alert and have three Death Glyders launched to investigate Temera IV."

"Aye, sir."

Three Death Glyder class multi-role attack fighters launch from one of the Ha'Taks. Their wings unfold as they clear the launch bay.

"Sir, we have located more in-system ships. Novel design, but not terribly efficient. I believe this race was only recently warp-capable."

"OK," replied Aran. "Send them a pod of Deuterium Platinide too. If we have any left by the end, it'll be a miracle."

"Send all legions into the fray." The tall, lean stature said, still watching boding with discuss across his face, his fingers stretching into curiosity as they trekked around the darkness of space. Nearing the space around Temera, they lumbered across space like a giant sword of gleasming metal, floating endlessly, watching the final remains of the battle.

"Sir? More ships seen on sensors."

"Bloody hell!" replied Aran. "This isn't a goddamned handout."

"Sir? They seem to be preparing for war."

"Shit. Comms, hail the Talaaxians."

"Hailing frequencies open."

"Kruul, we detect ships about to enter the system. We shall assist you in combat in the aim of better relations between our peoples. Moving to Red Alert and preparing to engage ships immediately. Aran out."

Aran turned and sat in his chair. "Red alert, number one. Battle stations!"

The Feather veered around and prepared to intercept the Jenrakians.

"Comms, call for reinforcements! Get the FNS Crabstick and FNS Howard in the system."

The void parted and two more Bird of Prey Refits entered the system.

OOC:

I'll join in, perhaps one of my Heavy Cruiser's, or a scouting fleet, picked up a small ship at the edge of Anagonian Space.

Don't mind if I post later, do ya?

"Captain, we have detected another ship entering the system."

"Have one of the Death Glyders we sent out earlier peel off to investigate," orders Captain Deel.

"Aye, sir."

One of the Death Glyders heading for Temera IV broke formation and changed direction. Its new heading would bring would allow it to intercept the ship from Falcania in around 5 minutes.

Ops flitted over his console. "Sir, SeaQuest ships approaching. Crabstick and Howard are in system. The Crabstick's guns are in a prow-ward configuration, Ours and the Howard's guns are Broadside Configuration, so we have formed on the Crabstick's wing."

Tactical swivelled round on his chair. "I recommend we attack the Jenrakians first."

Aran digested this information. "Make it so."

OOC: Please note the following:

You're all a bit belated in arriving. The battle, according to the timeline I'm keeping, has been over for a few weeks. There is currently a diplomatic conference being held on one of the worldships insystem. There is increased security because of this. The following are in system:

2 SSD Analogs
6 SD Analogs
12 Heavy Cruiser Analogs
16 Light Cruiser Analogs
20 Frigate Analogs
30 Corvette Analogs
2 Worldships
1 Coralskipper Carrier
1400+ Coralskippers.

Secondly, please turn your attention to my second last post. I've edited something new into it.

OOC: If you are still in system, I still want to negotiate.

OOC: Was directed more at those who are planning on taking agressive action.

IC: Commander Kruul looked at the Falcanian, confused. "Beam? What is this beam? We are willing to talk, but you will come here and you will take a shuttle. We will escort you in. If you attempt to take any aggressive action your lives will be short and painful..."

OOC: CoreWorlds, mind if I add you to MSN so we can figure out where this is going to go from here?

IC:

2 LY Rimward of the Mid-Rim

Olgrane was a peaceful world of bustling cityscape with bits of wilderness interspersed with it. Home to nearly 10 billion souls, the planet knew no war and had very little in the way of defense forces. Although they would have been easy to conquer, this world had been chosen for a different purpose. This world would show the galaxy the might of Talaax and strike fear into those who would wish to do Talaax harm.

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

A small yorik coral vessel, not quite the size of a corvette, emerged from hyperspace at the very edge of the Olgrane system. Approaching the world slowly, carefully, it made it's way past the other planets of the system doing it's best ( and most convincing ) imitation of an asteroid. It floated through space for days, on a course that would take it past Olgrane without actually threatening it.

Although noticed by insystem scientists, they quickly calculated it's orbit and found that although it would pass close it would miss the planet completely. And so no attention was paid to the approaching doom of Olgrane. Days after entering the system, the small ship finally reached an appropriate distance from the planet. As it passed close by, a smaller vessel - this one on a suicide mission - seperated from it's mothership and shot quickly into Olgrane's atmosphere. It crashed down without notice in one of the many wilderness areas of the planet.

Inside the tiny vessel lay a powerful dovin basal - more powerful than the ones that propelled the massive worldships. Once it reached the surface and cooled down, the dovin basal locked it's gravitational grip on Olgrane's closer moon. Slowly, almost unnoticably at first, it began to pull the moon towards the planet.

Moving with painful slowness the moon crept towards Olgrane. A kilometre at a time the moon grew closer and closer, more and more massive in the sky. The cause of this sudden change in orbit puzzled those on the world. Many began making provisions to get offworld soon. It wasn't until the moon was almost three times it's original size in the sky that an Olgranian scientist stumbled across the records of a long ago planet known as Sernpidal. Something similar had happened there, caused by a species known as the Yuuzhan Vong. The planet had been completely destroyed.

Within hours the alarm was raised and evacuations were ordered. But with only 12 hours until impact, most of Olgrane's 10 billion inhabitants were doomed. As the last of the insystem transports lifted off with their double load of refugees the moon touched atmosphere and began to set the sky ablaze. Moving more quickly now it grew closer to the surface. Then a bright flash in the southern hemisphere heralded the end of almost 9.5 billion lives as the moon impacted the planet. The resulting explosion ignited Olgrane's atmosphere, turning it into a giant fireball before cracking the planet into four or five pieces.

At the edge of the system, the Talaaxian ship entered hyperspace. On the opposite edge, the refugees also jumped to lightspeed bringing tales of death and destruction to the Mid-Rim and beyond.

Just quoting the post I directed everyone to.

OOC: Was directed more at those who are planning on taking agressive action.

IC: Commander Kruul looked at the Falcanian, confused. "Beam? What is this beam? We are willing to talk, but you will come here and you will take a shuttle. We will escort you in. If you attempt to take any aggressive action your lives will be short and painful..."

Aran manipulated his console, swerved around and re-approached Kruul's fleet. "Comms, open hailing frequencies."

"Kruul, we shall beam aboard your ship. It is safer than taking a shuttle. Do your people have knowledge of transporter technology?"

IC: The lone Death Glyder does a quick fly-by of the Falcanian ship. The crew inside taking glances at the alien ship.

OOC: F.Y.I., each Ha'Tak has a full loadout of 12 Death Glyders each.

Kruul glared again, angrier than before. "We know of your energy conversion devices. They are abominations and will not be used to board this ship! I will not have my ship made unclean by your infidel devices! You will take a shuttle and we will escort you over physically. Otherwise there will be no meeting!"

Aran raised one, sceptical eyebrow. "Shuttle. Fine. I shall be there in my yacht immediately. Aran out." Aran turned to his first. "Number 1, you have the bridge. Aran to Engineering: 1 to beam directly to CO's Yacht."

Aran materialised on the deck of his yacht. It jettisonned, and Aran guided it deftly towards the SSD-Analogue.

At close range, he could see that the smooth lines of the Lucasian Super Star Destroyer had been replaced with an almost bubbly surface. Clearly organically grown. He pulled it into the shuttlebay, lay it down, and stepped down the ramp, awaiting his Talaaxian escort.

OOC: Please note the following:

You're all a bit belated in arriving. The battle, according to the timeline I'm keeping, has been over for a few weeks.

OOC: Well Totalius was coming here, which took him quite a while from his previous location. He has no obvious sense of time.

IC:

With a great force, with a large surge of whatever little power they had left, the wandering and nomadic army of the modving throne began to circle in tandem around the system's space, always wandering and floating about, watching along as they moved along their way, the other ships most likely aware of their presence, for only so large a force cannot be denied.

"What is your whim, Totalius?" The man asked, a tall beady man who was his right hand captain, with long strings of thoughts lining his face. "What shall we do?"

"Begin the interceptors, launch the scout drones. No attacks, only observations." Totalius reaped, his voice a dark chilling breeze of soft and deft wind.

"How many?"

"All of them." He said imperiously, and without another single word uttered, he awaited, sitting on top of his throne, watching still as the stars twinkled in the distance, waiting for the deployment. From the large cavernous entrails of the capital ships, the hangar bays and the great winding tunnels, came out small little metal globules, spinning around in speed as they flashed like light about in the darkness of space, speeding in a large locust-like wave towards any other vessel they could find.

OOC: Add me to MSN, Talaax. jake@papas.co.uk

OOC: No shuttlebay on these. You'd have been guided to one of the docking spires and had an organic docking corridor attatched to your ship allowing you to come aboard. Anyway, not important.

IC: As the Falcanian stepped aboard he was greeted by a half-dozen Talaaxian warriors, amphistaffs ready and clad in full living voduun crab armour. The leader of the group, standing out in his command cloak and because of his height, removed his helmet and stared into Aran's eyes.

The face revealed was something right out of a horror show. Scarred, mutilated and tattooed, the face was barely recognizable as humanoid. The man's nose was crushed and half gone. His lips had been repeatedly slashed open and left to heal incompletely. Both ears had been cut off and one eye was missing. His bald head was covered in swirling and criss-crossing tattoos and scars. He looked at the infidel before him with contempt and then said in heavily accented basic:

"Leave your infidel devices here. No technology will be permitted near the Commander. You forfeit your life by bringing them further than this point." To emphasize his point he allowed his amphistaff to loosen into it's snake form, the head swaying menacingly as the warrior waited for Aran to comply.

The lone Death Glyder continue to buzz about the Falcanian ship, scanning. Meanwhile, the other two Death Glyders had reached the half-way point to Temera IV. The rest of the SeaQuestian ships remain at the point where they had jumped to normal space.

Aran unholstered his gauss pistol and threw it back into the yacht. "No problem" He replied, unsheathing his deuranium claws. "I'm always armed, as is the rest of my species." He pointed at his ear. "My earpiece is technically just a Psichic Amplifier, so I can communicate with my species with a voluntary verbal signal. And that's about it. Can I meet Kruul now?"

I really wish people would TG me with thread links. -_-

TAG for an Imperial stomp, as you would expect, the Empire won’t take kindly to an invasion, especially if you’re Coreworld bound, but I don’t know that yet do I. :) If your final destination is Coruscant, well, since the planet is mine, you had best add me on MSN.

My MSN is Wardventure1@aol.com Talaax.

"Follow me."

The warriors took up positions all around Aran and started off into the interior of the ship. The corridors were lit by a bioluminescent lichen growing on the inner walls, casting a ghostly yellow light. The corridors resembled a cave, the walls seemingly made of stone but the floor of a spongy tissue, almost fatty. A strong stench reminiscent of raw meat hung in the air as the party made their way to the captain's quarters.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, they stopped at what seemed to be a door. The door irised open, revealing another Talaaxian in the small chamber beyond. Commander Kruul, in all his scarred, tattooed glory stood waiting.

"Captain Aran, I am Commander Kruul of the Domain Chu. Welcome to my ship, Kssstar." He offered a salute and waited for an appropriate response.

Aran gave Kruul the Falcanian Salute, touching his forehead whilst spreading his wings wide. "It is an honour to meet you, Commander Kruul. I am Fleet Admiral Status Altron Aran of the FNS Feather. I represent the Falcanian Empire."

@ SeaQuest

"Incoming ships! Identify yourselves immediately!."

Commander Kruul shook his head. "Your political affiliations are of no concern to me. Neither are your pleasantries. State your business in this system. We do not take kindly to intruders in our space..."

"I come in hope of relations between our people. The Falcanian Empire are the only major stargroup in this quadrict that are independent of the Galactic Empire. We are always seeking allies, that one day we may overthrow the GE. But for now I am tired, and formally request quarter on your ship."

OOC:

I'll more fully enter this later. I am more or less CoreWorlds ally.

IC:

The small Megellan class probe streamed along the void, skipping along slipspace. It's purpose was to map out the outer reaches of space in advance of Velkyan colonization. It also had a ulterior purpose. If it detected the fleet of a hostile nation, it would send out a early warning signal, allowing Colonial Defence Command to send reinforcments.

It entered yet another system, mapping it's planets and other celestial bodies. Then an object caught it's attention. A massive biological object (Worldship). It's AI debated on what to do. It could send for reinforcments or map it as a planet. It decided to send the EW signal.

Several Seconds Later, Border Defence Station No. 583

"Sir, we have a transmission from one of the probes near Sector 513!"

The commander looked over.

"What is it?"

"It looks like...a ball of flesh..."

"Private, this better not be a sick joke..."

"Sir, come see for yourself!"

He waltzed over to the privates control panel. The IR sensor readouts of the probe showed a massive biological object in the system.

"Holy cow...better forward this is to the CDCHQ..."

"Yes sir, I'll get right on it."

OOC: CoreWorlds, mind if I add you to MSN so we can figure out where this is going to go from here?
OOC: Sure! Mine's fastfalconus@yahoo.com .

@ SeaQuest

"Incoming ships! Identify yourselves immediately!."

A responding transmission was sent from the lead Ha'Tak.

I am System Lord Baal. I am here representing the Holy Empire of SeaQuest. *Eyes do that little Goa'uld flash thing* Be forewarned, we will not engage unless you attack first. We have no intention of making any enemies at this point in time. However, my fleet was ordered here to make sure you do not cross the border into SeaQuest space. If you do, I will have no choice but to open fire.

#tag#

Czulkang Lah, Commander of the 2nd SSD Analog - Yun-Ne'shel - stared into his communications villip then at the blazebug display showing the system and all ships detected within. "Very well. We will not open fire on you. Stand down your infidel abominations of vessels and we will accept a delegate aboard to discuss the situation. If you so wish, the Warmaster is in system, and will soon be available to discuss any of your concerns. In the meantime, you will communicate only with me. Am I clear?"

Aran stepped out of his quarters. The bed had been comfy, probably some kind of sponge. He walked towards the conference room.

Two very large warriors were dispatched to escort Aran to a small conference room near the bridge. A window made of a mica-like substance looked out towards the remains of Temara. In one corner stood a villip choir and along the wall opposite the window was a table with two stools. Commander Kruul stood beside it, waiting.

"Captain Aran, I trust you slept ...comfortably..." he spoke the last word with contempt and a slight shudder. "Yesterday you mentioned something known as the Galactic Empire. Elaborate on this point."

OOC: Please note the following:

You're all a bit belated in arriving. The battle, according to the timeline I'm keeping, has been over for a few weeks. There is currently a diplomatic conference being held on one of the worldships insystem. There is increased security because of this. The following are in system:

OOC:
No use in me joining, sorry for bothering ya.

Czulkang Lah, Commander of the 2nd SSD Analog - Yun-Ne'shel - stared into his communications villip then at the blazebug display showing the system and all ships detected within. "Very well. We will not open fire on you. Stand down your infidel abominations of vessels and we will accept a delegate aboard to discuss the situation. If you so wish, the Warmaster is in system, and will soon be available to discuss any of your concerns. In the meantime, you will communicate only with me. Am I clear?"

The Ha'Tak sent a reply.

I will have to discuss sending a Tel'tac over with my superiors.

Two very large warriors were dispatched to escort Aran to a small conference room near the bridge. A window made of a mica-like substance looked out towards the remains of Temara. In one corner stood a villip choir and along the wall opposite the window was a table with two stools. Commander Kruul stood beside it, waiting.

"Captain Aran, I trust you slept ...comfortably..." he spoke the last word with contempt and a slight shudder. "Yesterday you mentioned something known as the Galactic Empire. Elaborate on this point."

"Certainly, Kruul. Near the core of the quadrict, the Galactic Empire rule supreme. They are a vast alliance of tyrants. And we are the only ones to have evaded them for long enough to establish any expansion in this sector, despite frequent attempts at interdiction. Naturally, they will percieve your presence as a threat. And will assimilate your empire into their own. And, with the Falcanian population being what it is these days, we could do with a hand."

-Colonial Defence Command Headquaters, New Velkya-

A comm. officer sat at his control panel, mointering the various communications between the HQ and the outlying colonies.

His screen suddenly blared red. The word Emergency Transmision flashed across the screen. Instantly, he opened a channel with the signaler.

The face of the border station commander appeared on the screen.

"CDCHQ, CDCHQ, come in!"

"This is CDCHQ, state your business."

The face on the other end looked slightly nervous.

"One of our probes saw something in Sector 513, large biological object."

"Biological?"

"It's giving off a IR signal like that of a living thing!"

"Patch us through the data, commander."

The commander ordered his tech officer to stream the data over to the HQ. It appeared on the Comm. Officers screen. He was startled by the IR signal of the object, it was living.

"Has the probe sent a EWS yet?"

The commander responded.

"Yes, it's been on station for several minutes."

The Comm Officer signaled for his superior. After showing him the relevant data, the superior turned to the comm panel. He spoke in a thick Selkan (Russian) accent.

"I am ordering a small taskforce to investigate this object, commander. I expect results in 24 hours. Good luck."

The screen winked out.

-Sector 513, near probe-

The probe sat a safe distance away from the worldship. It's EWS pinged silently into the void.

Suddenly, a white wormhole-like object appeared. It began to expand and expand until 4 vessels sailed out. The vessels were 2 Insurrection class Destoryers, 1 Garrison class missile crusier, and the Norfolk, a Independence class carrier. Aboard the Norfolk, Rear Admiral Bernard Shultz began shouting out orders on the command deck.

"All ahead full, I want hailing signals directed at that...thing...as soon as we get within range."

The 4 ships glided quickly through the void, they would soon enter comm range.

Location: Near Temera IV

The two Death Glyders arrive at Temera IV did a single, quick fly-by through the cluster of Talaaxian ships located there. Both Glyders reversed course and headed back to the Ha'Tak to report.

Location: Near edge of Temera star system

The lone Glyder that had been buzzing around the Falconian ship came about and began to head back to its home Ha'Tak.

Location: Point where SeaQuest ships dropped to normal space

One of the Vorchan's set off on an course that would cause it to intercept the Falconian ship. Her gun ports were closed.

Two Whitestars were dispatched to investigate the arrival of the Velkyan ships.

A message was sent towards the Velkyan ships from the lead Whitestar.

Unidentified vessels. You are hear-by ordered to ID yourselves and state your business so close to SeaQuest borders.

The Vorchan sent a message to the Falconian ship.

ID yourselves and state your business so close to the borders of the Holy Empire of SeaQuest.

"Incoming transmission from SeaQuest fleet!"

The RA walked over to the comm. panel.

"Open a comm. channel with them, Major."

"Yes, sir."

The RA looked into the reciever.

"This is Rear Admiral Benard Shultz of the V.S.S. Norfolk, we have detected a biological anomaly in this system and have come to investigate."

Lord Baal pondered over the Velkyan transmission when it was relayed to him. He sat in thought for several long, drawn out minutes.

"Send a response," he finally orders.

Rear Admiral Benard Shultz, be warned that if you approach any closer to SeaQuest space, the two monitor type vessels approaching you will be force to open fire. If you wish to arrange a non-agression pact with the Holy Empire of SeaQuest, let me know and I will relay your request to my superiors.

RA Shultz responded.

"Sorry for the intrusion. We will turn back at once. As for your offer, I do not have the authority to make treaties with other nations, but I will forward your offer to the High Command on Earth. As for the biological object, do you have any information on it?"

Lord Baal sent another missive to be relayed to the Velkyan Rear Admiral.

We were sent here to make sure that none of the ships in this area of space came no closer to our borders than the edge of the system. You may remain in system as long as you like. Please note, that we will be watching.

As for the organic object, I am willing to trade the scans we took of it.

Shultz nodded silently.

"We will take part in the trade of scans. As for the NAP you you offered, High Command has accepted your offer. But for now, we leave to recon the object. Farewell, friends."

With that, the 4 ships turned towards the biological object and gained speed.

With that, the 4 ships turned towards the biological object and gained speed.

The two Whitestars follow at a respectful distance.

OOC @ Velkya: You may not want to do that. Could be misinterpreted as aggression and seeing as my fleet here is many times larger than your probe you wouldn't stand a chance.

IC: The SSD analogs Hammer of the Gods and Yun-Ne'shel and their respective escorts ( 2 SD Analogs, 4 Heavy Cruiser Analogs, 6 Light Cruiser Analogs, 8 Frigate Analogs and 10 Corvette Analogs each ), seeing a group of unidentified ships moving towards one of the worldships immediately turned to place themselves between the new ships and the worldships. All ships began to launch coralskippers in expectation of a firefight ( 1152 coralskippers in total ).

Warmaster Tsavong Lah, called away from the diplomatic meetings aboard one of the worldships, hailed the Velkyan ships. "This is Warmaster Tsavong Lah of Talaax. You are intruding upon Talaaxian space! Turn around and leave system immediately or be destroyed!"

@Falcania:

Kruul nodded. "This Empire is mighty, yes?"

@SeaQuest:

Czulkang Lah glared into the villip. "Make it quick, infidel! We will not hesitate to send you to the Gods, unworthy though you may be..."

Subspace transmissions were sent between Lord Baal and the capital city ship, Atlantis.

"Send a transmission," he orders.

The Holy Emperor is currently keeping an eye on another negotiation. When they are done, he will be here himself to talk with you. In the meantime, I suggest you keep your ships in-system as he will expect you to be here, and he is not one to be crossed.

OOC @ Velkya: You may not want to do that. Could be misinterpreted as aggression and seeing as my fleet here is many times larger than your probe you wouldn't stand a chance.

IC: The SSD analogs Hammer of the Gods and Yun-Ne'shel and their respective escorts ( 2 SD Analogs, 4 Heavy Cruiser Analogs, 6 Light Cruiser Analogs, 8 Frigate Analogs and 10 Corvette Analogs each ), seeing a group of unidentified ships moving towards one of the worldships immediately turned to place themselves between the new ships and the worldships. All ships began to launch coralskippers in expectation of a firefight ( 1152 coralskippers in total ).

Warmaster Tsavong Lah, called away from the diplomatic meetings aboard one of the worldships, hailed the Velkyan ships. "This is Warmaster Tsavong Lah of Talaax. You are intruding upon Talaaxian space! Turn around and leave system immediately or be destroyed!"

@Falcania:

Kruul nodded. "This Empire is mighty, yes?"

@SeaQuest:

Czulkang Lah glared into the villip. "Make it quick, infidel! We will not hesitate to send you to the Gods, unworthy though you may be..."\

"Holy shit!"

The RA sped over.

"What is it, Major?"

"That thing is talking to us!"

"What is it saying?!"

"It ordered us to turn back or be vaporized."

"Son of a bitch..."

The Sensors officer cut in.

"Sir, we have multiple contacts coming at us, all showing biological on thermal scans!"

Shultz immediatly ordered the ships to halt. He then hailed the Talxaan ships.

"Attention Talxaaxan...vessels...this is Rear Admiral Shultz of the Velkyan Colonial Defence Command. One of our long range probes in the area detected one of your ships in this system and we were summoned to investigate. Upon seeing that these things are ships themselves, and this is your terrirtory, we will turn back at once, and will stop probe sorties in this system. We would appreciate if you specifyed which systems are Talxaaxan as well, to prevent this from happening again. Good day, Warmaster."

With that, the ships doubled back, yet again, from another nation's space, coming into formation with the 2 SQ Whitestars.

"Regardless of excuses or intents, you are trespassing. Remove yourselves in the most expedient way possible. Any delay or pause will result in your destruction. Leave now and pray the Gods do not wish for us to follow..." With that the Warmaster stroked the villip closed and went off to continue his other duties.

OOC: Just so you know, my ships wouldn't actually give off thermal or biological readings. They're made of yorik coral, which is basically stone. If anything they resemble asteroids or small moons for larger vessels.

Something moves in the void, like a fetid shoal through the stars; something stirs and moves with belated hand towards the centre of a galaxy; the stone of a fruit ripe for plundering; for feasting upon. And it is not of metal and gold, or plastic; it is a fiend born of flesh and blood; of power and loathing

The Seer lay chained before the throne; glancing up from time to time as she read the runes; fingers running over the tones; caressing them, as blood ran from her hands, and from her eyes. She grinned softly; looking up at Marcus De Drakan.

"Tyranids?" He whispered "A Hive Fleet?"

"No; more cultured are these; more noble; pious to false gods. They cast aside the things we call material; and embrace flesh over fecundant metal.

"I shall send a scout ship....No; I shall send Lucian" Marcus laughed hoarsely. "A fine gift to any who would seek to challenge us with flesh. Send Lucian, and bring us peace with these strangers"

"And should he fail?"

"You're suppossed to tell me that, Seer."

"Then you will know war."

"Take her away" Marcus smiled "Take her back to her cage...."

And so it was that a single ship was sent forth; The Pestilant Pleasure, flagship of Lucian; the Doom of Naboo; the plaguefiend of Tenetia; the warlord of Kosse....PlagueLord of the Imperium, and servant of Nurgle. It slid, inky black against the void; as Lucian sat upon his great throne; his heavy gauntlets resting upon the shaft of his scythe.

"Let us go forth in search of this new race" He hissed; snarling as he whirled upon a Tech Priest. "Immediately; I will suffer no excuses..."

"Regardless of excuses or intents, you are trespassing. Remove yourselves in the most expedient way possible. Any delay or pause will result in your destruction. Leave now and pray the Gods do not wish for us to follow..." With that the Warmaster stroked the villip closed and went off to continue his other duties.

OOC: Just so you know, my ships wouldn't actually give off thermal or biological readings. They're made of yorik coral, which is basically stone. If anything they resemble asteroids or small moons for larger vessels.

OOC: Alright, my mistake. I thought your vessel were like a Zerg or Tyranid type construction. Also, I just said my ships are leaving, so you are basically telling them to do what they already are doing. :p

"Warmaster?"

"What is it Commander? Pray this is not a waste of time or you will meet the Gods on this day..."

"Another infidel ship has entered the system. Larger than most, alone however. Shall we destroy it?"

Tsavong Lah sighed at the stupidity of his inferior. "Of course not you fool! Contact them and find out their intentions... No... I'll do it. If I trust you to you will no doubt find someway to fail..."

He stood from his command throne and made his way to the bridge. These infidels were taking much interest in the probing of his people. So far they had all turned back with their tails between their legs showing their unworthiness. Eventually they would be conquered. Perhaps this new infidel would prove to be different, however.

Tsavong Lah stood on the bridge and stroked a communications villip to life. Speaking into it in the usual angry and aggressive tone common to his species he said, "Unknown ship! Identify yourself and your reasons for intruding upon our space."

"Space around here is getting pretty crowded," intoned Baal.

"Aye, my lord," replied his First Prime.

"Send a message to home base," orders Baal, "things may get dicey here and we may need the support of a Necropolis class."

"Aye, sir."

Aran walked to the window. "Yes... Yes, the GE are strong, and so are the Chronosians. Good luck defeating them alone."

"Captain, I am afraid to report that the Necropolis is currently on a humanitarian mission."

"Bugger! Well, ask command to see if they can convince the Asgard to send a couple O'Neill class ships."

"Aye, sir."

@Falcania

"We have no intention of fighting your galactic powers alone at this time if at all. We are, however, curious about them. Tell us more about this Galactic Empire and these Chronosians..."

@SeaQuest

Czulkang Lah growled impatiently. "I grow weary of waiting for you to send a representative infidel... Either send one now or leave. Failure to do so will result in your unworthy sacrifice to the gods..."

Aran sat down in his chair. "For all their might, we know little about the Galactic Federation, except that their main aim is expansion and supremacy. The Chronosians, on the other hand, are religiously motivated. They fight for the favour of their Chaos Gods. Foolish ideals."

Kruul perked up at the mention of Gods. Pausing for several seconds, he finally asked: "Gods? Do you know about these Gods? Their names, their motives?"

IC: Baal sent a message to the Talaaxian ship.

One problem, none of the ships here are equipped with anything resembling in any way a shuttle. We have sent for a ship that has some shuttles aboard.

As the message was being sent, nine of the Vorchans jumped back to Hyperspace and went back to exploring. Also, a vessel jumped to normal space a few minutes later. The Vorlons had sent a Ambassadore class light cruiser.

Baal sent another message.

It looks like our representative has arrived. His ship will be in docking range of yours shortly.

The Vorlon craft's gravitic engines pushed it foward very rapidly.

OOC: Just to let you know, that my most advanced vessels are organic in nature (besides, the Vorlons had billions of years to get their organic fleet working). Oh, and here is a pic of the Ambassadore class.
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b91/SeaQuest_Sim/Babylon%205/vtransport.jpg

Aran just frowned. "The entire Falcanian population is atheist. We know of no of these gods, nor do we research them."

"Transmit on all frequencies" Lucian hissed; a cold rattling death whisper sliding from phlegm encrusted lips "Open their ears to my glorious sermon"

"Aye my Lord; by your will, so it is done. I invoke the holy transmittor; I bind the rune of operation; I summon forth the spirit! Machine, by the Machien God, grant us voice!"

"Enough of your prattle..." He sneered; the Tech Priest cowering from the masterful lord of disease. "Unknown race of flesh and bone, even unto the making of their vessels; great warriors of stone and forsakers of steel; hear me. I am Lucian, Primarch of the Chronosian Imperium. We who serve the Four Gods; Khorne, the Blood God who stirs the soul to seek slaughter; Nurgle, the Plague God who dispenses disease and death at whim; Tzeentch, the Master of Fate and Change; shaping will and deed and flesh. And Slaanesh; Dark Prince of Pain and Pleasure; Lord of Ecstacy and perfection and indulgence. I serve Nurgle; and my father, the Emperor. We come here to contact your race; as foreseen. And to know you as brothers. We need not be enemies; should you wish to speak..."

The organic Ambassadore class ship cruised silently next to the Talaaxian vessel. She shat their awaiting docking instructions.

@Chronosia:

Tsavong Lah thought for a moment, hand covering his villip. Infidels who worship the Gods? Is this possible? We must know more about these people. Speaking clearly and with all the authority he could must, Tsavong Lah spoke via the villip.

"You have made contact. Half of what you wish to accomplish has been achieved. You wish to know us as brothers. If this is true, send us a representative. As much as I would like to speak in person with you, I will not sully myself by setting foot aboard an abomination. We will prepare a section of this worldship for a delegation."

@Seaquest:

As the Ambassadore-class ship cruised alongside the Yun-Ne'shel, the ship's ventral dovin basals grappled it into the Talaaxian equivilent of a tractor beam. Guiding the ship alongside the SSD analog, the dovin basals positioned it opposite a boarding station and extended an organic docking probe. The probe latched onto an exterior hatch and opened itself to the interior of both ships.

"Your delegation may now board our vessel. Beware, however, that we will not tolerate the presence of any of your abominable imitations of life aboard this ship. No droids, no blasters, no datapads. These are abominations and I will not allow them to soil my ship with their presence." Czulkang Lah instructed over his villip to the SeaQuest vessel.

IC: Ambassador Kosh exited his ship and walked calmly down the cofferdam. At its end he stopped. He said, in a strangely resonating voice, "I am Kosh."

OOC: Does the Vorlon bio-suit count? I'll find you some info on it if you wish, but I think it is bio-tech, just like everything else the Vorlons use. Oh, and here is a pic of Ambassador Kosh in his bio-suit.
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b91/SeaQuest_Sim/Babylon%205/Vorlon.jpg

OOC: Mechanical technology is not allowed. It's considered an insult to the Gods and brings the disfavour of the Gods on all those associated with it. A bio-suit is permitted.

IC:

The hatch at the Talaaxian ended of the cofferdam opened, resembling an eyelid opening. On the otherside stood Commander Czulkang Lah as well as six fully armoured warriors standing guard, amphistaffs at the ready. Czulkang Lah stepped forward into the best light revealing his massively scarred, tattoed and mutilated face to the SeaQuest ambassador. He smiled a lipless smile and saluted in greeting.

"I am Commander Czulkang of the glorious Domain Lah, commander of this warship and kin of the Great Warmaster Tsavong Lah. I welcome you to the Yun-Ne'shel."

OOC: I'll RP as if Kosh's suit is organic, as that sounds like it would be best given what I know of the Vorlons.

IC: The iris on Kosh's suit dialates, allowing the red lens to focus.

"Lead on," he intones.

Lucian himself went forth to the foreign vessel; stepping off, his great power armor gleaming with puss and blood and phlegm; alighting with flies. He glanced about him; dark and terrible eyes visible through the visor; blazing with a foul and near inhuman purity of purpose.

At his side; there came a robed figure; features hidden and shadowed; this was Igais Vaulne, a TechPriest of the Imperium; interested in observing the strange bio-technology of this new race for the Adeptus Mechanicus; his devotions covered and hidden; covered by the robes, or the shadows.

"I am Lucian De Drakan; Primarch of the Imperium" He bowed softly; the fell cloak of putrid flesh billowing in preternatural wind; the great scythe strapped to his back. "I come in the name of my father; the Daemon Emperor; Master of Mankind; Truest Servant of Chaos."

OOC: Who are the Vorlon?

IC:

The warriors took up positions on either side of Kosh as Czulkang Lah led the way to a small conference chamber in the bowels of the ship. Passing through the corridors lit by bioluminescent lichen one couldn't help but notice how much they resembled the organs of a living creature. Even the doors resembled sphincters. Several times the party reached a section of corridor that suddenly turned vertical but, thanks to the gravity manipulating dovin basals, the party walked up the wall as if it were a floor before reaching the next level.

Several minutes later the arrived in a small, badly lit and windowless conference chamber. Czulkang Lah motioned to one of the stools positioned around the table and took the seat opposite it. "What is it you wish to speak to us about? Be quick as I have very little time or patience for the art of diplomacy. I am a warrior not a diplomat!"

Tsavong Lah met Lucian at one of the many docking areas of the worldship, accompanied by four warriors armoured in living voduun crab armour. He saluted solemnly and bowed his heavily mutilated head. "I am Tsavong Lah, Warmaster of the Talaaxians. Welcome to the worldship Servant of the Gods."

"Your devotion to pain and pleasure is admirable; my brother, named Warmaster of the Imperium, Remiel would be delighted in your devotion. He follows a similar path; while his dedications and devotions bring him closer to perfection; in body, mind and sensory ability." He chuckled softly. "I feel there is much you could learn from each other. Alas, I digress. This is Igais; a Tech Priest of the Imperium; he has come to observe your ways."

Igais bowed his head, and Lucian stepped forward; pungent with the scent of death and decay.

"So; shall we begin, Warmaster Lah?

"Pain is the only constant in life. One should not fear it or run from it. Pain should be embraced and conquered... If you would follow me, I would be glad to personally give you a tour of the worldship."

Tsavong Lah turned to the warriors and said something in his own tongue and they left the three of them alone. After allowing a few moments for the warriors to put some distance between them he led the way down the corridor.

OOC: This thread's getting a bit crowded. You want to start a new thread to continue this side-plot?

OOC: The Vorlons are a race originating from the Babylon 5 universe. They, and a couple other races, are known as First Ones, as they were amoung the first races to evolve in this galaxy. Thus, the First One races are billions of years old.

IC: Kosh stood (OOC: I have never seen a Vorlon sit down) next to the outcropping of coral serving as a table.

"I," he intoned, "was sent for two reasons. To make sure that you know that this system is as close to SeaQuest space as you will be allowed to expand your empire. Our territory in this galaxy lies in the space that has been termed the Unknown Regions. Second, to negotiate a possible trade of our respective knowledge of working with organics to serve our purposes. As you have obviously noted, my vessel is not composed of the same organic material you use to grow your ships."

OOC: Feel free to

Kosh's helmet tracked the movement of the Talaaxians in the room. The iris dilated and expanded as he focused on the face of each one.

Aran's claws protruded involuntarily at the news that a Chronosian had boarded the ship. "I urge you to rethink this, Kruul. As bad as the GE are, Chaos Hordes are far worse. The followers of Chaos seek only supremacy for their false gods. They believe that the way to spend eternity at the sides of their "gods" is to perform as much destruction as possible. They seek no selfless alliances, and wish merely to use you. Never trust a Chronosian."

Kosh stood silently. He, like most other Vorlons, tended to say only as much as needed and usually in a cryptic manner.

"Pain and pleasure are constants and indulgences; death is the truth. The truth of battle and war. Others would seek to paint us as baseless fiends; but there is culture in our race as no-where else. We venerate change, death, war and perfection; we seek them actively. We are the servants of the Four Powers; we, the scions of all Chaos would gift us" Lucian smirked softly. "Forgive me, I ramble of my home and faith."

He bowed softly. "There are many who would mislead you to my purpose; many would seek to turn you against me. But do I not come in peace; bearing good tidings and fair will?"

@Falcania:

Kruul simply shook his head at Aran. "I have no say in what the Warmaster chooses to do. To question the Warmaster is to forfeit one's own life, including yourself... But, back to our discussion. What is it you want from Talaax?"

@SeaQuest:

Czulkang Lah laughed aloud. "If that is why you are here, you waste your time. We do not plan to press further into the galaxy. The Gods tire of conquest. They wish for us to consolidate our gains and learn more of this galaxy.

"As for sharing our knowledge, we will do no such thing. Only shapers may know the secrets of the Gods and the techniques that allow us to create our servants. No infidel will ever be given that knowledge."

Kosh intoned, "You have no interest in expanding your knowledge of bio-ships?"

Czulkang Lah looked at Kosh, his face deadly serious. "We have no need to expand our knowledge. Any knowledge we require will be given to us by the Gods. All the knowledge we possess now is all the knowledge the Gods wish us to know."

Kosh intones, "Then we have no further business. I will return to my ship and leave the system."

Aran leant back, steepling his claws. "We seek alliance. Falcania is always interested in alliances with new powers, for therein is the only way we can resist the GE or the hordes of chaos."

@SeaQuest: "Very well then. You shall be escorted back to your ship and then out of the system."

@Falcania:

Kruul shrugged. "It is not my place to make alliances. That is the responsibility of the Warmaster and he is currently engaged in discussions with Chronosia. If you wish to make your case to him, you will have to wait until he is finished."

Kosh is led back to his ship by two warriors. The ship detaches from the cofferdam and rejoins the other SeaQuestian ships left in the system. They head for the edge of the system where they all jump to Hyperspace.

Aran stood up. "If he has spoken to the Chronosians, they will have turned him against me. It is now dangerous for me to be here. I must go."