NationStates Jolt Archive

OCC: This is an introduction rp, open, for my FT nation. Perhaps someone might like to rp the nation that I encounter in this scouting mission.

IC:

An intense eruption of bright light surged briefly as the heavens split apart, the very fabric of spacetime itself tearing open. The Iridian Kah’thal-class battlecruiser Tekath burst out of the spacetime rip, ominous and threatening. The starship’s formidable weapons array and defence shields were powered up, ready to defend itself should the need arise. The battlecruiser had come on a scouting mission, to investigate system XDJ-33423-B. It had been ordered to scour the system for any habitable planets, resources or sentient cultures that may occupy it. If intelligent life was found, the Tekath was to make contact, establishing diplomatic ties.

The Iridian starship scanned the system for life, cataloguing the different worlds and other celestial bodies in range. It waited silently, its crew wondering if the Tekath’s presence would be challenged.

The Kah’thal-class battlecruiser Tekath:

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a25/Dennis134/Tekath.jpg

Length: 7.8 km
Maximum velocity (sublight): 0.5c
Armament: Unknown. Believed to be largely laser, microwave and particle beam technology. Also large amounts of projectile weaponry.

The Iridians:
Very little at all is known of this technologically-advanced spacefaring race. They are certainly carbon-based life forms but nothing like humanity. They are best described as insectoid or spider-like, though that is not accurate as they possess leathery skin not unlike an amphibian might and also have features generally common to crustaceans.

The typical Iridian is two metres high and seems like a giant tick (which is the best method for picturing its general body structure). However, it also has a thick exoskeleton, like a crab might, as well as mandibles. It walks on six short legs which appear small compared with its body, each one ending in a sharp point. Its large abdomen, apart from being armoured, also usually has spines and ridges.

An Iridian has two sets of arms in addition to its six thin legs, at the front of its body. These arms are not comparable to human arms in appearance but they do end in long, sharp fingers which are extremely dexterous, enough to manipulate objects well. An Iridian has a cluster of 22 eyes on its head, making it seem eerily like a spider.

The Iridian is usually possess a green colour so dark it is almost black and bright red eyes. Its skin and exoskeleton are shiny and glisten. Although appearing massive, the Iridian is quite physically capable. It can easily run down a man, can climb up walls and on the ceiling and may jump extremely high. It is also very powerful, capable of ripping through steel. It is known that Iridians are also cybernetically enhanced, and that they have genetically engineered species for doing specific tasks.

The Iridian Confederacy:
Even less is known about the Iridian state then the anatomy of its people. Due to the fearsome appearance of the Iridians, many negative stereotypes exist about these people and they are often portrayed as animals or monsters. In fact, the Iridian is generally extremely intelligent. However, their minds are completely alien and they do not think as humans do. Their culture is an ancient one, and the Iridians became capable of FTL travel millions of years before humanity even evolved. They are generally peaceful, and seek tie with other space empires. Little is know about Iridian culture except that it places a heavy emphasis on honour and duty.

The Iridians have had numerous bad incidents in the past with humans, and prefer to establish relations with other alien cultures. They generally look down on humanity, regarding it as barbaric and uncivilised. However, realising that considerable variety is perhaps the most prominent human trait and that, combined, humans represent the most powerful force in the galaxy, they have not yet designated the human race as one that should be exterminated.

Generally, Iridians are highly suspicious of new nations.

((Factbook? or is this the Factbook?))

edit- AHHH! a Sevenaths!(sp?)

Technical Sergeant Ryo Mitsukui glanced at his watch. Only one hour until he would be relieved...sometimes he wondered if he had been assigned the job from hell. Frequently, in fact. Staring at an isolinear scanner screen all day was enough to make his eyes blur and his mind mush, especially when the only remotely noteworthy events consisted of civilian transports and trade ships loafing through the sector, all transmitting similar civilian identification, so as not to be blasted into space dust.

A blip showed on the scanner screen, approximately one light-year outside of White Diamond proper. Meh, Mitsukui thought to himself, but he found himself automatically tuning the sensors to get a better approximation of the inbound object, as a matter of standard operating procedure. His conplacency evaporated, however, when the object was brought into a reasonable focus...

An eight-kilometer long warship, not broadcasting any sort of identification frequency? Holy f***! Mitsukui's day had suddenly become interesting, and not in a good way...he quickly dialed the emergency line to the local defense commander.

"Captian Lowen, Star Destroyer Dominion."

"Uh, Captain, there's a huge freaking warship a light-year out of the system. It's not transmitting any identification code at all." Mitsukui paused as the isolinear scanner picked up a new bit of information. "It appears to be eight kilometers long and appears to be conducting a passive scan on our system."

"Hmm...OK, I'll send out the proper welcome party."

Now, Mitsukui breathed a sigh...he didn't know if it was out of relief that he had passed the buck, so to speak, or out of nervousness that the newcomers would bust out the Klingon ale and fart all over the debris of Evil Woody Thoughts' finest.
------------------------------------------------
Captain Lowen immediately put all defenses Evil Woody Thoughts could muster on the highest alert possible, and ordered the twelve Immortal (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=8714167&postcount=2)-class Star Destroyers in the system to prepare for immediate interception operations. Though Evil Woody Thoughts is a small nation, claiming only the White Diamond system and an archipelago on Sol, it takes defense seriously, and maintains a fleet of about twenty Immortal-class Star Destroyers, roughly half of which are in White Diamond system at any given time. And thus, all Star Destroyers in the area received orders to calculate a microjump to intercept this alien force.

(OOC: EWT does not operate the "standard" Imperator-class star destroyers.)

Once the EWS Dominion completed the necessary calculations, she transmitted the necessary navcomputer information to the rest of the fleet, which promptly jumped into hyperspace...

...and dropped out of hyperspace not a second longer, only about two light-minutes away from the alien craft. Captain Lowen immediately ordered the fleet to raise shields, and ordered the comm officer on his own vessel to establish contact.

"This is Captain Lowen of the EWS Dominion. You have strayed into the territory of the sovereign nation of Evil Woody Thoughts. You are hereby advised to identify yourself within the next thirty seconds."

Lowen then issued anothe order while he waited for the reply: "All TIE pilots, to your fighters. This order applies to the entire fleet."

OOC: Bump. Edited my other post.

OCC:
((Factbook? or is this the Factbook?))

edit- AHHH! a Sevenaths!(sp?)

Right now I have a few ideas of how I want this nation to develop but not the time to form them into a factbook. So I’m using this thread to get a feeling for my nation and how it acts. A factbook will follow later.

And, indeed it is a SJ Sathanas from Freespace, at least in shape.

IC:

Sub-Commander Vorath looked at his captain, reading his instruments carefully with several of his eyes. “Triearch, we are reading 12 large starships, all made ready for war and closing on our position. They have sent us a communication, challenging us,” announced the sub-Commander.

The Triearch, As’thal, regarded his second in command carefully, answering excitedly, “These people appear honourable and true. They come to us with open hands and their intentions made plain. They would be a most worthy nation to establish diplomatic relations with. Let us respond to their conduct in kind, open all weapons ports, lock onto their ships and charge all defence shields!”

“Yes Trirach, it is done. We show them that we have nothing to hide or to fear,” said the sub-Commander.

“What do we know of this “Evil Woody Thoughts” nation?” asked the Triearch.

The Commander’s intelligence officer, Vath’tul replied, “Very little, Triearch. We believe they are human, based on their language of communication and ship design. They appear a fairly small yet powerful nation.”

The Triearch was shocked, “Humans? Those barbarians?" his mouthparts gnashed together with contempt. "We can’t trust that savage race, they have been shown to be violent and foolish.”

Vath’tul, however, disagreed, “Triearch, not all humans are likely to be as the people in Epsilon Gamma 687 which we encountered. This race seems honourable, they have not launched a cowardly strike on us as those humans did. We should give this a chance.”

The Triearch thought the situation over a little, and took charge. “Very well, come to full stop. Respond to the EWT fleet immediately, first in Iridian and then, after 10 seconds of delay, in English. I want the English part in text only, we don’t want to offend them with poor pronunciation.”

The following message was broadcast, a terrible sounding tongue which made most humans fearful. It was full of hissing and clicking, an ancient language created long before the ancestors of the human race had even fallen out of their trees so long ago:

“Oghor-ha pushdug sharkû krimp hai búbhosh ghâsh gûl! Nazgûl Oghor hai Lugbúr snaga sharkû thrak ash ronk! Búbhosh sharkû ûk ishi!”

“Greetings, noble people of Evil Woody Thoughts! This is the battlecruiser Tekath, a warship of the Confederacy of Iridian States, here on a scouting mission in order to make peaceful contact with alien worlds. Our commander is Triearch As’thal.”

ooc: I'm also intrested in meting you, if you would premit.

OCC: Yes certainly, although should that be in this thread or another? Either way I imagine would be fine.

Captain Lowen glanced at the second hand of his watch while waiting for a response. It would be considered an archaic instrument by many races, probably including this one, but it nonetheless served its purpose. Just as he counted down the last second, a booming voice sounded over the command deck, that of the alien commander, in a tongue that obviously nobody from Evil Woody Thoughts could decipher. In a pinch, however, the starship's translation software could attempt it...

The words "Nazgûl" and "sharkû" did not exactly put the bridge crew at ease, for those words had certain connotations to anyone familiar with terran movies, and Evil Woody Thoughts had only left the confines of Sol system about twenty-five years ago, having purchased and reverse-engineered most of its technology in the intervening years...

However, after the voice stopped, a text caption appeared on the comm screen that left Captain Lowen in a better position to respond. Nevertheless, this was probably better handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since they had indicated a desire for peaceful contact.

Captain Lowen briefly considered his options. A minute or so after the alien transmission, he activated the commscreen again to address the newcomers. "If your intentions are indeed peaceful, we advise you to hold position until the proper diplomatic corps arrives. You may expect their arrival in a standard terran hour, maybe sooner."

Lowen then transmitted a 205 signal to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that meant "Alien race, interested in peaceful contact" and the necessary coordinates. The EWS Dominion received a 306 signal (able to dispatch diplomat in 10-20 minutes) in reply.

OOC: EWT uses brief numerical transmissions to indicate various codes, in much the same way that 404 means "page not found" error on the Internet...alien races will see the number but probably won't ascertain the meaning behind it on first contact.

ooc: Doesn't matter to me, I'm willing to encounter you at 'random' in the void of space, at your world(s) or mine. The entire thing is up to you. Do you want two diffrent metings in one thread, or two diffrent threads? I don't mind either way.

OCC, Kazecistan:

An encounter in deep space sounds like it would be interesting. However, I need to leave soon, so I’ll write up something later. Or, if you would like to initiate the contact that would be equally fine by me.

IC:

The Iridians listened to the message. Tactical Officer Jerthul asked indignantly, “They would dishonour us by having a military envoy meet with a civilian delegation?”

Vath’tul tried to explain, “Please remember that their customs are different from ours. They likely mean no disrespect. We must accept the practices of barbarians if we are to establish ties with the rest of the galaxy. I say we should agree to their demands.”

The Treiarch agreed. “Yes, as guests we must show courtesy to our hosts and accept their traditions, no matter how strange they may be. Activate audiovisual communications.”

The sub-Commander interjected. “Sir, are you sure that is wise? Nations seem inevitably to react violently whenever they view our people.”

As’thal was adamant, however, “Nonsense. It is our way to show that we are honest and worthy, to do any less would be an insult to EWT.”

On the bridge of the EWS Dominion the image of the Tekath’s bridge was shown. The Treiarch was at the front, his spiny abdomen held high and thorny arms wide. The crew were immediately reminded of ticks back on Earth. The Iridian bridge was gloomy and dark, with the frieghtening silhouettes of other creatures in the background. The Treiarch spoke, firstly in his own terrible language and then in a tortured and barely understandable English, his mouthparts struggling to form the words and snapping together threateningly.

“We accept, most graciously, your offer to meet with your diplomatic representatives. We will remain on stand-by until then.”

Captain Lowen acknowledged the Iridian response by likewise transmitting a live feed of the EWS Dominion's bridge; it was a bit more brightly lit, with grey metallic walls and many blocky panels and displays. The florescent lighting cast its own weird shadows across the bridge deck, but they were merely shadows of instrument panels and the humans overseeing them. On this live feed appeared Captain Lowen's face as he replied to the transmission, which was suprisingly devoid of any facial reactions. "We apologize for the wait; however our diplomats should be here a bit earlier than expected."

The other crew members on the bridge also looked at the transmissions from the Tekath, aware that their reactions were being broadcast live to the other ship as well. Most of the crew had, in fact, seen other alien species before, as aliens frequently sold their wares in White Diamond's marketplaces and returned home with exotic minerals forged by Evil Woody Thoughts' deep and intricate knowledge of terran geology. Therefore, the vast majority of the crew did not display the shock that the Iridians might have expected from humans.

Captain Lowen ordered the fleet to lower shields to seventy-five percent capacity, for he thought the Triearch's voice had sounded...stressed...as if he was suspicious of the motives of humans. Not seconds after this order was given, the Dominion received a 350 "en route" transmission from a diplomatic courier ship, and Lowen responded by transmitting what information he had gathered of the situation to the diplomatic ship, so that its commander would be able to briefly peruse the information while calculating the hyperspace microjump, and get himself a clue as to what was going on.

OOC: Nice ship design. I'll wait for you to finish up your current diplomatic meeting before I have one my ships meet yours. Will that be okay? Or would you rather I have one show up now?

The EWS Negotiator darted out of one of the docking bays built into the six Golan III orbital defense platforms that formed a ring around White Diamond Prime, usually just called White Diamond because none of the other celestial bodies in the White Diamond star system had any substantial number of inhabitants. She is a small ship, about fifty meters in length, and though she completely lacks offensive weaponry, her shields are incredibly strong for such a small vessel, should she need to escape when first encounters go horribly wrong.

The Negotiator could, in a pinch, be crewed by a single pilot, but the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs managed to pull a fighter pilot away from his coffee break before boarding. While the fighter pilot started making the proper calculations for the microjump to the indicated coordinates, Vice Minister Benjamin Brocksen skimmed over the ever-increasing volume of transmissions from the Dominion, analysing it on the spot and knowing full well he would have to confront the Iridians, which, judging from the fragmentary information he was receiving, were quite warlike.

Brocksen looked up as the stars elongated into starlines, and faded back into stars almost as soon as he could blink. As a matter of Standard Operating Procedure, the Negotiator's shields automatically raised themselves after dropping back into realspace, and Brocksen found himself looking out of the cockpit window at the largest ship he had ever seen in his life.

However, Brocksen was not at all intimidated, perhaps because the Iridians had not fired a shot despite being challenged, and then made to wait, perhaps because he would dwarf nearly any other human with his heavily built, 6'10" frame, perhaps because he had negotiated with many disparate alien species who now regarded the country he represented as trading partners. He wasted no time in hailing the ship, and having listened to audio clips of the Iridians pronouncing their own names and titles, took great care in pronouncing their names, lest a mispronounciation lead to greater blunders.

The hail was fully transparent, allowing the Iridians to see the bridge of the ship, or what there was of one, and it had much the same overall "feel" as that of the Star Destroyers that surrounded the area, albeit much smaller. Benjamin Brocksen seemed to take up most of the space on the claustrophobic bridge as he directly addressed the Iridians:

"Greetings Triearch As’thal of the Confederacy of Iridian States, on behalf of the nation of Evil Woody Thoughts. I am the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Benjamin Brocksen, and I apologize for the inconvienence of waiting for a proper diplomatic reception. It is my understanding that you have come on a peaceful exploration mission. Further, should your race wish it, I have the authority to negotiate treaties and submit them for ratification."

OCC, SeaQuest:
Yes I would be happy to have a diplomatic meeting with your nation, after I have concluded this one. At the moment I am a little busy with other work so I may have trouble responding to this frequently, but in a couple of weeks I should have no troubles.

IC:
‘Triearch, I am reading a reduction in the energy output of the shields of the EWT warships,’ reported tactical officer Jerthul. ‘It seems I may have been wrong about these barbarians.’ [OCC: “Barbarian” is used by the Iridians not as a term of abuse but rather to refer to any non-Iridian. It is not considered insulting by the Iridians, unless of course it is applied to another Iridian.]

The Triearch was mildly surprised, ‘Very well then, lower our shields. We will show this noble nation that we trust them. Continue to keep weapons powered and locked on the EWT starships, however, we don’t want to appear as if we are hiding something.’

‘It’s done, Triearch,’ sub-Commander Vorath informed the bridge.

‘Triearch, a small vessel has just appeared off our port bow. It appears to be an EWT diplomatic starship, and it’s hailing us,’ said the intelligence officer.

‘On screen,’ As’thal commanded, as the Iridian listened to the message.

All the Iridians on the bridge were quite impressed with this new individual and with the fact that so high a ranking government member had been sent to meet them.

The commander of the Tekath responded to the message. He made a cruious shifting of his legs and arms which appeared strangely to Brocksen as if it might be a form of bow. ‘Greetings most noble Vice-Minister Benjamin Brocksen!’ As’thal said in his poor yet understandable English. ‘We are honoured to have past your test of patience that you have laid before us. We would very much like to commence a diplomatic meeting in person with you, in order to facilitate the establishment of full relations between our most worthy nations. The Tekath has limited authority to negotiate contracts and agreements between your state. It is our custom that the nation which initiates the first contact with another race should host the first diplomatic meeting, therefore we would be honoured if you could join us on the Tekath. As’thal out.’

Four sleek Vor’lak-class heavy fighters (shown below) streaked out and rapidly converged on the diplomatic craft, their shields raised and weapons armed, locked on the craft (as was the Iridian custom, to always approach a friendly ship “with nothing hidden”). These ships would escort the EWT vessel to the Tekath.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a25/Dennis134/Vorlak.jpg

Brocksen considered the alien requests for a short moment. One one hand, he was somewhat relieved to see a reciprocal drop in shield output from the Tekath, but he was also somewhat disturbed by the armed starfighters approaching his postion, fully prepared to blast him into space dust. But he realized that had that been their objective, they would have sent far more starfighters for the purpose.

Moreover, while most diplomats carried a small entourage of bodyguards, Brocksen had not been able to collect one on such short notice. He had only his pilot for a bodyguard.

But one thing would address his concerns: transparency. If the negotiations were filmed and transmitted live to the twelve "escorts" surrounding him, any betrayal could quickly be addressed.

Brocksen hailed the Tekath again, because they had terminated the earlier transmission. Apparently they didn't like long conversations, which would make negotiations a bit more interesting. "Hello again from Minister Brocksen. I accept your proposal, provided two requests are met: I wish to be accompanied by my pilot, and I request that I be allowed to film the proceedings and transmit them live, because our society places an extremely high value upon transparency in negotiations. I do have considerable authority to negotiate treaties, but any treaty I negotiate must be submitted to the Parliament for ratification." He kept the transmission open for a reply.

Brocksen did not reveal his reasoning behind his second request.

[OOC edit]Since your race seems conflicted on whether humans are worth bothering with, I have an idea to make this RP more...interesting. If you want to create a big incident, along the lines of having some Iridian who thinks humans are dishonorable scum attack Brocksen, with Brocksen managing a defense until the Treiarch or somebody breaks it up, it would make for more interesting negotiations.:D If you're interested drop me an Winblows Messenger IM at cmw502@truman.edu or if you don't have MSN, you can just telegram me...but if you don't like this idea, just ignore it in the next post and I shall strike it from the record.[/end OOC edit]