NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Right, this is the IC thread for an FT war devoid of godmoding and wanking. OOC and sign up thread can be found here:
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=465706
There would be some loose rules to prevent wanking of all kinds. Lets try using sneaky, underhanded tactics instead of just making a supergun.
so.
1) Don't whine unless you really have to. If someone comes up with a clever plan and jumps his group of antimatter charges into your Super Star Destroyer, then live with it (Even if your SSD wont). Don't say "Well I have armour X and I block it all/Send it into your fleet/eat it" Of course, if he does do something wrong, just telegram me. Don't spam the boards with whining.
2) Keep it reasonable. Don't tech-wank completly. Don't use a tech that's the be all and end all of everything. Mini Mehim's (however you spell it) warp field thingys are a no-no unless used in moderation (ie: Don't just say "I use the fields!!!" whenever something bad happens. I know it's not fun to win all the time (I've powergamed before), but please give the others a chace. I'm saying you can use it, just don't make it invincible. And if someone gets around it. (I dont know, say they teleport an antimater through another demension into your fleet) don't quickly metion that your fleet has Y nd is immune. Then no-one has fun.
3) Superships are allowed. Superships with guns that destroy the universe in one shot are not. Or ones that have armour that is just invincible-period. i for one will not be using ships over 1k long.


I know these rules sound harsh but with them, everyone can have a good time, not just the people who are winning due to tech-wanking. If you catch me doing something cheesy, TG me and ill fix it

Factions so far:
Nova Boozia and Rhinera:
Noova Boozia
Rhinera
Waldenburg2
Dyik Raah
Nistolonia


Toops:
Toops
Relative Liberty
Amazonian Beasts
Nebarri Prime
The Exodians
Moro


With that said, I wish everyone a good time. Enjoy the RP!

Floating Scrapheap 14, In Orbit of Snizbukkitz (Moon)

Pieces of scrap metal both large and small crashed together and shattered into smaller pieces, some strayed towards the edge and bounced off the primative Shielding mechanism, it may have been crude but it kept the scrap within the confines of the Heap and kept raiders out, a Large cluster of junk came towards the field, as it came closer it drifted towards one of the many Shield amplifiers.

The two pieces of metal collided and a large chunk of the Shielding fell, now the Heap was open and the Raiders came to sieze the many valuable pieces of wreckage and cargo, at first only a few tens of ships came, as word spread more began to flood into the Heap, for Heap Kaptain Griznak this was unnaceptable.

"Launch all Hulk ships, tell tham to fire on all Raiders planning on entering or leaving the Heap, get the tow ships ready for salvage!"

A loss of some salvage could be made up for in the aquisition of Pirate loot, they always had valuable cargo, be it booze, metals, or some of the Toopish wreckage.

(OOC: The heap is now open, waiting for the diplomatic ship to drift inside.)

Diplomacy. It was not a word used all too often in the Rhinaran Star Sovereignty. The Rhinarans were a proud people. Perhaps, some say, too proud. Their sense of superiority over what they felt as the lesser species of the galaxy had caused them to close up from outsiders over the millennia. T'vookhu, the Rhinarans called them. Aside from conquest, the t'vookha were hardly worth the attention of the Star Sovereignty. That is not to say, however, that Rhinarans saw all outsiders as such. There were certainly those that had proven their worth to the Rhinarans, those who had shown honor, strength, and wisdom at the level of, or even beyond that of, the Rhinarans. These the Rhinarans were not afraid to admit had equal or even superior standing to the Star Sovereignty. At least, within private circles. After all, the Rhinarans were a fair people as well - some times. For the most part, credit went to where it was deserved.

The Nova Boozians were not among those the Rhinarans considered as equals. It started with their name. Boozians? A sensible Rhinaran would not take anyone called a "Boozian" seriously. But the essence of the people should not be judged by their name, no matter how silly it may be. And so the Rhinarans gave the Boozians more chances to prove themselves worthy, though the Rhinarans never once even gave the hint that they were judging these Boozians. Potential allies typically looked poorly upon the fact that they were being scrutinized in such a manner, after all.

And so limited contact continued between the two people. Xenophobic as they were, the Rhinarans never allowed any Boozians to cross over into Star Sovereignty space, let alone onto their ships. Any contact between the two people were either through communications channels, or at the most a Rhinaran delegation would board a Boozian vessel for conferences in person. In one such occurrence, the delegate brought back something from the Boozians, a gift from their government, which the Rhinaran scientists found to have a large potential use if applied correctly. More Rhinaran interest began to focus on this, and it was soon determined that trade between the two powers would be a very worthwhile venture. They would not make it too obvious that they were interested only in that one thing, but rather would keep the trade general at first.

That was the job of Ambassador Taraan, to open up trade. He has had dealings with the Boozians before, and so the two sides of the delegations ought to know one another just well enough to make the talks easy. He looked out of the viewport of the shuttle as it approached the Boozian craft. His diplomatic attache and honor guard were sitting across from him, the first one furiously going through his notes on his PADD, the second one having an emotionless and unreadable look on her face. A slight smile touched the edge of Taraan's lips. His aide had only been in the diplomatic services for a couple of years, and felt that poring over his notes constantly would prepare him for everything. While he was partially right in that thought, Taraan knew that, sometimes, no amount of preparation could compare to experience. But then that was why his attache was coming along, to earn experience.

The shuttle docked with the Boozian ship, and the trio walked out of it to meet the Boozians welcoming them aboard. Ambassador Taraan wore a white diplomatic robe with simple folds along the shoulders that offered a distinguished look, with a trim of silver all along the edges of the robe. While Rhinarans had gently tapered ears, the Boozians would hopefully know by now not to call them elves. Such an insult would be a big diplomatic no-no. After the initial greeting, he introduced the members of his delegation. With a half nod in the direction of the man wearing civilian garb, he said, "This is my adjutant, Palleth." Then to the woman in a uniform, "My honor guard, Sirall."

In the hangar bay, the Boozian negotiater, Captain Drenek (in Boozia, every government organization is military-based) waited, accompnied by his own honour guard, who was looking very Boozian, fully kitted out in black trenchcoat, stahlnhelm, gasmask, back-of-the-neck cover, and shiny gloves and boots. Not to mention his rifle.

"Welcome aboard, Ambassador, we hope our vessel is to your liking. Of course, it doesn't represent the best our shipyards can do, but it is a lot safer, strangely, then Oprichnik or Hallget. No-one will look for us here, I assure you. Not even life-sign scans will really pick her up, as there is almost no crew." He began walking towards what would have been the combat bridge before the little corvette was refitted for peaceful purposes, talking vaguely about all the excitement this new disovery in some dead nebula was causing with the Scientific Administration section. Soon, they reached a door, marked "Do not disturb except in emegencies, and Drelek swiped some kind of keycard.

Inside was a ordinary looking, circular, conferance room, with six chairs and a large screen on the opposite wall, currently showing the bow sensors view.
Drelek flicked it off (which, due to a slight programming error during the refit, also cut the sensor feed to the whole vessel) and urged Taraan to sit down, before taking a seat himself.
"So, ambassador, what you like to talk about first?"

Meanwhile, a small power coil in the engines flickered and sparked. It shouldn't of been doing that, but no-one had yet noticed.

OOC: Tag for future posting. Put me on the underdog team.
I'll post when I'm done my homework and studying :rolleyes:

(ooc: Bump)

Taraan eased himself into his chair, leaning back and folding his hands together. The other two Rhinarans sat in the seats next to him.

"Very well, Captain. On to business," the ambassador said with a smile. "In short, my government believes that our acquaintance with yours is going well so far, and that we can begin to further develop that into a working relationship through such things as trade and exchange. We'll start out small at first, and see where it goes from there."

Meanwhile, a cloaked Rhinaran probe sat silently some distance away from the Boozian vessel, simply watching and recording. They wouldn't be Rhinarans otherwise.

OOC: Which side should I join here? Are they overbalanced at all?

"Kap'in, sumfin's coming!"

A Goblin shouted out from his console, the Captian looked out of the Hulk's viewscreen and peered into the depths of space, indeed there was a vessel and it was moving towards the heap.

"I is not reedin' any life signs!"

The Captian let out a grim smile.

"The Scrap Gods 'ave rewarded us fur ar payshuns in tha test, we 'ave been given a starship, prepair tha tow shipz and get us moving!"

"Checking systems. Comms?"
"Clear."
"Engines?"
"Hang on, the intenal sensors are down."
"Sensors?"
"Nothing works. It's a computer blip, still trying to isolate it."

Meanwhile, in the conference room, the talk continued.
"There is a standard system Boozia has for an initial trade agreements. Basicly, we each state a network of open, protected trade routes, with commercial planets as nodes, and a list of needed and and illegal goods. Then we set a quota on the number of merchants in our space and the nature of their ships. Then are traders get otherwise free reign. Is there anything in this that would violate your..."
The door opened.
"Sir, sensor error, we traced it to here."
Drenek looked up in annoyance.
"Yes, do as you must, crewman."
He began flicking switches systematicly, until engines spoke into his helmet mike.
"Coil messed up. We may have been drifting a while."
"This is external sensors, tugs everywhere."
Drenek sighed.
"I appologise, ammbassador, but this may be dangerous. We should head for a boat. Comms, send a distress signal, don't let them hear it, and find their frequency."
There was a very unpleasent crunch.

A Grapple pod had smashed into the side of the vessel, careful calculations had been made to make sure that no salvagable systems were damaged, the pod clunked and two large wings embedded the tow into the vessel.

"This tow ship wun, we's got tha salvage in grapple and are bringin' it in, cover us 'gainst possabull pirate fire!"

The tow ship began to slowly drag the vessel into the heap, there it would be stripped of essential equipment and salvaged into a working Hulk.

Taraan remained calm, although clearly not too pleased at what was happening. Sirall was on alert, and Palleth had nothing to do. "What is happening?" he asked, walking down a corridor to a boat. He would head for the Rhinaran shuttle, but that had long taken off and returned to its mothership after initially dropping the three of them off.

The ship shook, and the ambassador reached out for the wall to steady himself.

"Are we under attack?" Sirall asked, one of her hands resting on the disruptor hooked onto her belt, in preparation for a hostile boarding party.

Palleth looked a bit anxious. "We should contact the Khirvan? Ask it to come here with all haste?"

"Will we be able to send a message to our ship?" Taraan asked one of the Boozians escorting them to the boat.

"Most likely, but the hangers crunched shut. It will take a while to get out of here. We can't use the warp drive, not in all these ships. It takes quite a bit of coordination for a ship to jump in anothers micro-gravity."

Taraan nodded. "Then please, allow me to contact my vessel. Meanwhile, what exactly is happening outside? Are we surrounded by hostile ships? If my vessel will encounter fighting, then I wish to alert them of that lest they arrive unprepared."

"As we understand it, they are attempting a boarding action. They may not realize we are hear, but in a moment we should have their frequency."
He swiped a keycard on a door with "Comms" stenciled on it.
"We will have to use the array directly, the console isn't responding."

Sirall drew her disruptor out of its holster when Drenek mentioned that a boarding action was in progress.

"If the attackers do not realize we are here," said Taraan, "then it would be wise to alert them to that fact over all comm channels."

They entered the communications room to access the array, but after fiddling with it for a while with no progress, the ambassador ceased his attempts. "It appears your communications array is malfunctioning," he said to Drenek. "Or there is some dampening field or jamming device preventing me from contacting my ship."

The vessel rumbled and shook again, and the creaking of the weakening hull echoed throughout the ship.

The tow ship pulled up aside a large metal hub, it stopped and waited before detaching itself from the salvaged vessel, almost suddenly the hub sparked into life and several arms shot out, they grabbed and grappled themselves onto the stricken vessel, more arms popped out and began to make incisions, they began to slice apart the FTL drive, the Weapons and if possible the Shields.

Boss Griznak looked at the ship as it slowly got turned into salvage, for this whole day he could expect a decent promoton off the heap.

"Sah! tha deflekshun shield is bakk up!"

For all the scrap that had been lost on this day he had made up for tenfold for bringing this vessel into the heap. The goblin behind him had been dragged away and was talking to another of the goblins, they sounded alarmed and Griznak turned to find out why they were so worried.

"Bozz, tha hub's skannaz say thar mite be a krew!" Now Griznak was alarmed, for this he could be expected to be thrown into war jayol, and likely that this could spark a mass galactic war which the Toops did not wish upon themselves.

"Tell tha Skannaz ter switch off, kno-won herd about this, as far as we all conzerned this were a normal day skrappin'!"

OOC: Introduction and informational post for those who don't know of the Empire.


IC:


The Empire of Tanthan:

A vast Empire ruled by a kind empress. The people of Tanthan are a mixture of Elven , Humans, Tovenaars and Feles. The power holders in Tanthan society are then Elven, rich and powerful, they are the aristocrats of the entire Empire. They deal in all matters of political and social, and in dominate entirely in religon.

Tanthan's people are happy and are very busy, with a strong work ethic. The nations high technology and efficent production are staples of the nation. Tanthan is currently isolationist. The people have not ventured outside the Empire's boundaries in 2000 years. However that does not mean the people are weak, the Empire's society is run by military rankings. They even stage battles with each other as a game of sport and training.

Tanthan is peaceful, but eagerly awaits the arrival of the demonic force that is predicted to arrive. The holy mother, Kajanta, predicted that a powerful force will stumble upon the Empire and thrust the people into a great war, filled with many battles on the homeland and at the homeworld of the enemy. Religious scholars believe in the whole Kajantan holy book and implored a large military always being ready to quell this force. The reason....Kajanta will return to aid Tanthan and her people into another era of peace.

OOC: Tanthan, that's a little bit too early. It's a good post, but we are not offiially at war, or even aware of eachothers species. The idea is the ammbassadors die, Rhinara and I launch an inquiry, and blame Toops. Boozia is naturally aggressive, and I'm sure Rhinara has a reason, then both appeal for aid.
IC:A crewman hurried into the array.
"Sirs, shes buckling. Alot of the armour was stripped to reduce her density scan signature. The bays messed up, so everyones trying to blow a hole in the debris, but there's near to no weapons aboard. Comms malfunctioned under the pressure before we could find the foriegn frequency. This way."
He walked, very briskly, towards the hangar. When they got there, the door had a big red "Warning! Vacuum!" sign, and a bunch of open-pocketed honour guards hanging around it. One was looking naked without his rifle. Through the viewport, a crewman in a beefy maintanence spacesuit was aiming said rifle at a pile of grenades tied to a satchel charge and a looted fuel tank, and one guard was shouting instuctions.
"Okay, fire!"
There was a large, shaped so it went out the way, making a gap in the detritus.
A new crewman appeared, with a pair of more slender suits. Then the hangar roof caved in. After the rumbling stopped, someone spoke up.
"Should be fine, we can still squeeze..."
"Too much pressure on the doors!"
They cracked, sending a sharp blast of released air into the void. A man who couldn't hold his breath well went red, then purple, as others started to do the same.

[OFF] Bump

OOC: Oh sorry.... let me edit my post...

Well any ideas on getting communication to my little nation? :D

Sublieutenant Nataal was monitoring communications traffic in the sector, aboard the Rhinaran Star Sovereignty vessel Vortaraax. There were a number of intercepted messages that she was reviewing from foreign powers, sifting through them to see which were important enough to pass up the chain of command and which were not. Most of them were pointless personal messages, although a few were encrypted and came from governments and militaries. Nataal ran those messages through the decryption algorithms and moved on to the next task. After completing that, she went on to the data feed coming in from the cloaked probed they dropped off to watch the Boozian craft that the Rhinaran ambassador was aboard. She glanced over the video feed as well as the sensor readouts, then fastforwarded it as little was happening. But then the ship started drifting, and she furrowed her eyebrows as she watched. Soon enough, the recording showed the Boozian ship being attacked by other vessels from the debris field - a field known to be controlled by some goblins of Toops.

The comms officer quickly tapped a key on her console. "Nataal to bridge."

"Treyvak here," came the disembodied response.

The sublieutenant said, "Sir, we've got a problem."

***

A short while later, the Vortaraax appeared out of a transwarp conduit, its black form (http://people.ucsc.edu/~mattko/destroyer01.JPG) shifting back into normal space near the junk heap controlled by Griznak and his goblins. The ship's shield immediately went up and its weapons were armed. Sensor scans quickly swept through the area.

The bridge of the Rhinaran vessel had a strip of red lights running along the ceiling and floor rim, indicating their alert status.

"Reading multiple civilian vessels in the target zone," said the operations officer, looking over the sensor readouts. "Some of them are armed, but all of them have a low threat level. Probability of defeating all of them with few casualties on our end is high. There is a shield surrounding the entire wreckage heap, though. We'll have to disable it before we can engage those vessels." A pause. "Detecting a ship that is likely of Boozian make near the center of all the activity. It's...literally being ripped apart."

"On screen," said the commanding officer, a Subcommander Nijal.

The viewscreen switched to the Boozian craft, showing the vessel being violently torn asunder by the arms of the hub. Practically nothing was left intact anymore.

"Any Rhinaran life-signs?" asked the subcommander.

The ops officer double-checked the sensors. "Negative. There aren't any Boozians either. All I'm detecting are goblins. The ship is in pieces and there is no life support anywhere in it. It is possible that the goblins have captured them and the shields are masking the life-sign readings."

"Open hailing frequencies," said Nijal. "Audio only. Have the translator put it into the Toops native language."

"Frequencies opened," the comms officer replied.

Nijal stood up, clasping her hands behind her and slowly pacing the bridge as she began to speak. "Attention, Toopian salvage heap. This is the Rhinaran destroyer Vortaraax. We have reason to believe that you are in possession of a Nova Boozian craft carrying various personnel who belong to us. Please lower your shields and allow us to investigate this in order to locate our people." She nodded to the communications officer to end the message.

Once the comms officer confirmed that the channel was closed, Subcommander Nijal turned to the ops officer and said, "In case they refuse, figure a way to forcibly lower their shields as quickly as possible."

The ops officer nodded. "Yes, Subcommander."

(OOC: the Shields are purely meant to keep junk in and pirates out, they can be very easily overcome with little weapons fire)

"Sah! Messidj kumin' in from a vessull outside tha perimitah!"

Griznak turned to look at the komms goblin who had a desperate look of panic, judging by the events of earlier it was obvious what this was about, he quickly made a decision.

"Make sure the shields are at full, mobolise the wreckers don't let them in, from here on they are considered Raiders!"

OOC: We should probably speed this up a bit. It seems as if people are posting once every few days.

IC:
Captain T'lessa absently continued to scroll through The Venom's (http://www.3drt.com/3dm/fighters-fleet/sf-20_01.jpg)daily report log, not really reading the endless amounts of space dust traces, comets, and other bits of intersteller garbage that the sensors picked up. With a disgusted sigh, he blanked the screen and sat back to stare into space out the viewing window. It, as normal, looked black, as it did all the time when skipping through hyperspace. Suddenly, stars flared into life, and the ship jolted suddenly, as the ship shifted back into realspace longer the the few nanoseconds it normally did when skipping. He pushed the intercomm.
"Captain T'lessa to the bridge, what is going on?" The reply came back from the Chief Operations Officer, Keor'a.
"Captain, we've picked up something on the passive sensors. We need you on the bridge."
T'lessa stood. "On my way."
He flipped off the intercomm and jogged down the short passage that would take him to the bridge.
_____________________


"Sensor control, report"
"Captain, we picked up two unidentified ships, neither one moving at any significant speed, off the port bow. We've glanced through our database and concluded that one of the them is a goblin pirate ship, run by the nation of troops. The other appears to be a Rhinaran cruiser."
"Put it on the my viewing screen"
The holograms hovered up infront of him, one for each ship.
"We are also dectecting remains of another ship inside the goblin hulk. Scans show it was captured recently, within the last hour or so."
"We may have a situation here. Yellow alert! Bring all shields online, begin charging the weapon systems. All combat teams, stand by. Weapons Control, engage the cloaking field (Note: As in Star Trek, a ship can't fire while cloaked)" T'lessa sat, and ops readings around his chair flaring into life.
"Keep active scanners on both those ships, and send a message to the next ship to Command, just in case it turns nasty."
"Yes, captain"

Subcommander Nijal paced the bridge as she waited for the reply from the goblins. Hopefully, the goblins would realize that they were up against a military vessel with superior firepower, and would agree to the proposal without stirring up any trouble. It was a reasonable proposal, after all. At least, in Nijal's mind. All she wanted to do was investigate the wreckage to confirm its identity, after all.

"Subcommander," the ops officer spoke up, "they're reinforcing their shields and several of the civilian crafts are on an intercept course with us."

"Still no response from them," said the comms officer.

Nijal took a deep breath. This was obviously not going to be easy. Walking over to ops, she asked, "Status report on their shields?"

The person on operations tapped a single button on their console and said, "Their shielding system is rather primitive. A sustained volley of weapons for several seconds would be more than enough to bring down the entire thing. But, I'm detecting a weakness right here," he pointed to a spot on the layout of the Toops salvage heap's shields on his screen. "Their shielding array utilizes various amplifiers to sustain such a large shielding bubble around the salvage. This one was recently damaged - probably why the Boozian vessel was able to drift into it, from what our probe recorded. They've got the amplifier back online and the shielding in place again, but we can easily bring it back down in a few shots. That'll open up a sizable hole in their grid and allow us to fly right in."

"Will they be able to bring the shields back up while we are still inside of there?" Nijal asked.

The ops officer shook his head. "The amplifiers are too spread out to be able to compensate for that one should we destroy it. They'll have to bring another one out to replace it, or they can shrink the entire array of amplifiers - which they're unlikely to do since they're pretty full of wreckage as is. In either case, we'll just destroy the amplifiers from the inside, where they're unshielded "

"Well done, lieutenant," the subcommander said. "Open comms channel. Transmit in their language."

"Channel open, sir."

Nijal raised her voice. "Toopian salvage heap, your current actions may be viewed as hostile. We request again that you lower your shields and allow us to investigate the cause of our missing personnel. By refusing to respond and by continuing your current actions, we will view your intentions as hostile. If you do not release the Boozian vessel along with everyone aboard it when you captured it, we will be forced to use whatever means necessary to retrieve our people. You have been warned."

She stopped and waited, then glanced over at the communications officer, who shook his head to indicate no response from the goblins. Very well, then. Every minute they wasted waiting meant it was that much more likely that the Rhinaran delegation on the Boozian craft could be dead before being rescued. There was no more time left to waste.

"Open channel," she said. "Toopian salvage heap, you are found to be in violation of both Nova Boozian and Rhinaran property rights. By attacking and stripping the live Boozian vessel, you are hereby branded as pirates and are subject to prosecution." The subcommander nodded to the comms officer to end message. "Target their weakpoint and destroy it. Once their shield drops, move us in toward the Boozian vessel. Scan for Rhinaran lifesigns and beam them aboard if any are detected. If the Toopian ships get in our way, destroy them. Engage!"

The Rhinaran destroyer began with a bombardment of the shields around the weakened Toopian amplifier that had failed earlier.

"Sir, the Rhinaran ship is opening fire."
Captain T'lessa looked over at the vidlink, which scanned through the data coming in over the sensors.
"Go to red alert. And hail the Rhinaran ship."
The comm officer nodded as the the lights dimmed in response to the battle alert.
"Comm open"

T'Lessa stood. "Rhinaran ship. This is Nistolonian Light Cruiser Venom. You are engaging what appears to be a neutral vessel. Please state your reasons for performing what could be considered an act of war against another nation."

"UH-OH, they's hittin' are sheelds!"

The politely observant bridge crewman pointed out before being deftly smacked back across the bridge by the nervous captain.

"Brin' up tha fleetz sheelds! 'ave us kum about to tha weekund amplifeer!"

The fleet sort of danced about for a bit before getting into formation and moving to engage the ship if it got itself through, the ships tensly awaited the anticipation of the battle ahead, weapons could not be fired from this side of the shield without damaging the only thing protecting the wreckage.

"Preepar' all foightaz!"

Primative looking ships began to crawl out of all the ships orrifices and nooks, they seemed to be little more than lumps of wreckage with cockpits, weapons and an engine, almost immediatly following came a large explosion from the amplifier which detonated in a most excellent fashion.

After hearing the message from the Nistolonian vessel, Subcommander Nijal said to the comms officer, "Tell them that these are pirates we are engaging. We have sensor logs of them launching an unprovoked attack against a Nova Boozian vessel carrying several of our personnel. We have reason to believe that they are holding our people and the Boozian personnel captive, if they have not already killed them, and we are here to rescue these captives."

"Subcommander, the section of shields we have targetted is down," said the ops officers.

Nijal nodded to the comms officer to indicate the end of the message before saying to the rest of the bridge, "Move us in. Let them make the first shot. We'll return fire in defense. Use the tractor beams to move them and their wreckage out of our way."

The Vortaraax zoomed in with great speed, ducking and dodging through the heaps of junk and the Toopian wreckers and fighters as it made its way to the hub where the remains of the Boozian ship was. Being 80m long, the destroyer was not too large, but the constantly shifting wreckages did not make for easy travel. Several times, a random floating piece of twisted metal would get in the way of the Rhinaran destroyer and get launched backwards as the fast-moving craft's shields deflected it away.

The Hulk intercepted a transmission sent towards the Rhinarian vessel, another ally? Gritzk wanted to be sure of his political leaning.

"This Gritzk, Kap'n of tha Heap, we's need assistunz cos tha enemy thinkz we destroyed thar vessull on perpuss, pleez kontact fur more informashun!"

The fleet had adjusted to follow the Rhinarian vessel, they did not want to cast the first stone but were willing to defend to hub with all their defensive might, as the Rhinarian ship approached the hub the orders given for the fighters to begin to crowd the enemy ship, hopefully blinding them.

The construction site was exteremly dark, but it always seemed that way in space. This site however was as far away from Waldenburg as possible while still being in the Empire, and here they were supposed to build a station to fend off whatever came through. 24 warships and other hulking frieghters built the station and put up the minor turrets around it. This had happened for the last 4 months and it was nearly done.

"Sir we're picking up something on the MIS scanners," a young ensign looked up from his station on the 180 gunned Divine Wind.

The captain, Ajax Sloan walked over with a sigh, " let me guess it's a rock or maybe some wreckage floating by. We only see everything in the entire universe with these MIS things, and it's barely ever accurate."

"Well yes sir, but it was a ship firing on what appears to be a giant shell of metal in space. Then I ran the long range sensors on the spot, there's at least two ships, haven't really exchagned fire yet but they look close."

The captain smiled, "Well it's out of our control so just hush it up before the Divine Legion figure it out and order us to purify the sector." The ensign looked very uncomfortable and sat just that little bit more to attention.

"Ah... Commander, I heard every word and think you are right we should purify another sector and add it to our most divine Empire. Prepare your ships however you do that." The captain cursed under his breath and turned to Bishop Kliderhound of the Divine Legion who hovered slightly off the ground. He nodded, there was no point in arguing with the priest they controlled the Empire and could break your neck with the flick of a wrist.

"We'll make sure the construction teams are working well then we can pull out. Again once we're there we'll have to pick sides we can't purify everyone."

"No," the Bishop turned a thin face to him, "We take everyone all the frieghters everything that isn't nailed down. Once we're there we will pick sides." Under the gaze of the Bishop the fleet entered hyperspace towards Toops and Rhinara.

OOC- 180 gunned is how many railguns that each ship has either shooting a 1 ton shell per second or a ten ton every ten.

OOC: Sorry I haven't been posting, holiday.
IC: In space, a small squadron was orbiting a gravetic amplifier. The Commodore was talking to someone from intelligence.
"And they started moving their fighter screen round the Rhinaran."
"So I will be going there?"
"Indeed."
The officer walked out into a hangar bay and climbed the ramp onto his privately owned pinnace, which sped back to his flagship.
"All ships warp. The coordinates are being sent."
The squadron vanished, leaving strange holes in reality which quickly shut.

A smirk briefly appeared on the edge of Nijal's lips. "So they want to play. Prepare the point defense. Bring down any shields they may have, then damage their engines and weapons. I want them crippled but intact. We will return to arrest these pirates after we have looked for our own people."

A number of turrets slid out of the smooth hull of the destroyer in concentric circles, like Protoss cannons activating after a dormant period. They shot brief lances of disruptor blasts, exchanging firepower for higher agility in its targetting abilities. Yet, the descreased firepower was perfect against these fighters, as they would not be so strong that they would destroy the fighters upon impact, merely damaging the targetted sections of the fighters.

Red beams of light from the point defense weapons went out in all directions, shooting until enough of the fighters would be crippled to open up a space in front of the destroyer for it to pass through. And if a few little fighters had to be rammed out of the way in doing so, then so be it.

Captain T'Lessa reviewed both messages, then turned his second, sitting beside him. "Well? What do you think?"
"Scans show the ship being destroyed was Noova Boozian in origin, but we don't know why it was...scrapped by the toopians. From records dealing with them, I'd be inclined to believe the Rhinarans."
"You do realise that what you think could lead to war?"
"Yes, I do, milord."
"Very well. Lock all weapons on that hulk. Combat Teams, Report to the operations briefing room. All fighter pilots, man your ships. Helm, accelerate to attack speed!"

The Venom swerved and angled in towards the hulk, its bay doors opening as its single compiment of six fighters streamed out.

"WAAAGH! 'Nutha too nayshuns kumin' ter kill us!"

The Sensors Goblin was now so utterly alarmed that he needed another Goblin to take his place, the fighters had, for the most part, been damaged beyond further use, now there was little left to defend the heap from three attackers, not to mention the constant flow of raiders who would only be so far away.

"Engage enjinz, take are 'ulk bakk ter Toopy territory!"

The Hulk barrelled round towards the gap in the shields and pounded as quick as it could into FTL, hoping for no response in following the Hulk.

"Apparently we missed it your Excellency the fight seems to never really have started." The captain looked out at the ships sitting in space where Goblins had so recetly been. The fleet fell out of hyperspace only moments ago.

"Prepare a course to follow them we shall attack," the Bishop stated as if reading the words of an ivisible card in front of his face. "Before that prepare a not for the nations of the ships that are gathered here. Message as is follows captain.
" We have seen the entire action that took place here and believed you have been wronged. We shall follow the Goblins back and bring them to justice and those who shelter them as well. We ask that you to could bring up reinforcements as it very well could be a terrible fight. We shall try not to harm any of your personel and hopefully bring them back to you if they are still alive. Best of Luck to Us."

Signed:
Bishop Kliderhound

The course had already been laid and the fighters that were capable of hyperspace already out of the hangers, ready for immediate action. The fleet jumped again only about 30 minutes behind the goblins.

OOC: Guess it's time for me to intro...

IC:
The Amazonian frigate Avenger cruised through sub-space, out to head to the latest areas of conflict between the Dominion forces. Out in non-Federation space, the ship could expect to not find hostiles, at least those of the Dominion seperatists. But sensor screens aboard the Avenger reported weapons fire, this far out...Captain Hannah Kearny, commanding the ship, worried about the potential problem of Dominion scout forces. She decided it was time to prove that as one of the only woman commanders of the fleet, that she could make a difference and potentially halt the problems that may exist.

"Lieutenant Keyes."
"Yeah, Cap'n."
"Set a course to the responses of weapons fire, I want to see what's going on."
"You think it's Dominion forces?"
"Maybe...but I don't know what they would be doing out in non-Federation space."
"Could be a hostile takeover..."
"Possibly...but set a course."

The Frigate hit hyperengines, the boosters of the 300+ meter craft igniting to full as the ship propelled into hyperspace.

As the Avenger got there, the Toops ship jetted into FTL away from the battle.

"Sensors showin' an FTL-transit, captain."
"Keep sensors active...for now."

The Hulk jumped out of FTL just shy of the First Heap, Toophium planet was the central hub of the Salvage universe, all scrap was proccessed and rebuilt in this one central area, dominating the whole heap was the Battleship Gritznak which dwarfed the Hulks in the area which were busy welding layer upon layer of junk onto vessels, outside of the Heap was a field 5 times as powerful as the one witnessed on the deep space Heap.

Traders, merchants and pirates all jumped throughout the Heap, they sold, bought and stole, the very activity could not have been measured any other way than to have seen it yourself.

"This Heaper Gritzk, we's been got inter trubbull."

The message passed through the shielding and down onto the planet, there it was presented to an independant Transportation Goblin who's job it was to lower the shield, as soon as he read the possibility of trouble he communicated his superior who rushed to the communications hub and contacted the Captain.

"Sen' orll rellivent datar ter tha King, tell 'im tha truff or we'll be killin' ya!"

The Boozian squadron de-warped by the adandoned heap and hailed the other vessels. The Rhinarans recieved the following message:

"This is Commodore Gerdens, Boozian navy, requesting advice on course of action."

The Waldenburgian and Nistoltonian vessels were sent:

"Unidentified ship, please state your intention and nationality."

"This is the Nistolonian Cruiser Venom. We incountered the Toopian ship in this area and were advised by the Rhinarans that it had engaged in acts of Piracy against your nation."

The light cruiser slowed as the Toopian ship jumped, and fighter squadron slowly looped around and began to head back for the hanger bays.

The Toopian hulk barely missed hitting the Rhinaran destroyer in its scramble to jump to FTL speeds. The Vortaraax stopped and swung about to face the hole in the shields.

"Track them. Don't let them escape," Subcommander Nijal ordered. "Any signs of Rhinaran biosignatures?"

"Negative," said the ops officer. "But several more ships have entered the region. Reading identification markers for the Amazonian Federation, a small Nova Boozian fleet, and a fleet from the Waldenburg Empire."

The communications officer chimed in, "Incoming messages."

"Let's hear them," said Nijal.

After listening to each in turn, the subcommander ordered for a tightbeam channel to be opened to the Boozian craft. "Commodore Gerdens, this is Subcommander Nojal of the Vortaraax. The Toopian pirates have scavenged one of your ships and fled the area. If you will, please have your fleet patrol this salvage heap from raiders or anyone else from tampering with it. It is to be considered a crime scene and another Rhinaran vessel will arrive soon to investigate it. We will begin pursuit of the Toopian vessel shortly."

She nodded to the comms officer to end the message before sitting back down in her chair and typing something into her armrest console. "Return to the other pirate ships that attacked us," she said. "Locate any lifesigns aboard them, and beam them directly to the brig. Contact the nearest Sovereignty outpost. Alert them of the piracy that occurred here and request for a ship to investigate this heap. Tell them we'll be in pursuit of the pirate hulk. Then prepare a transmission probe. Have it repeat the following message." She sent the message she had on her miniconsole over to another station.

The Rhinaran destroyer went through the crippled fighters and wreckers in search of survivors to be arrested. Once that was done, a probe launched from the ship, stabilized its position near the center of the heap, and transmitted a looped message that said:

An act of piracy has been committed against Nova Boozia and the Rhinaran Star Sovereignty here. As such, this area is closed for further crime investigations. The Nova Boozia fleet is here to ensure that no one tampers with possible evidence of said piracy before an invesitgation could be launched. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and thank you for your compliance.

With that, the destroyer cloaked and went into warp behind the Waldenburg fleet.

(OOC: Toops, any survivors that I managed to capture?)

(OOC: maybe a few Grobbles and some low-level scrapherders, nobody important.)

A probe entered back out of the warp tunnel where the Rhinaraian ship had been attacked it spoke the following message to the general area while picking up tactical data.

"The Waldenburg Empire believes that the Toopian ship seen so recently here may be the cuase for disaperances and raiding on the Waldenburg boarder. 'not really of course' Along with the iveidence here we are fully justified in pursuing the ship. We hope to retrieve any crew or civilians of the ship that was recently taken by Toops."

At the other end of the tunnel the Divine Wind and it's fleet pulled out about 100,000 KM's away from the Toopians, then started to fan out in a long line that would give the MAC guns the best angle of fire.

"Hail them," the Bishop said and when and ensign signaled it was ready to record the Bishop spoke againt. "The nation of Toops has exactly five minutes to surrender the crew of the ship that attacked a Rhinaraian vessel, along with any survivors, and anything else not belonging to your own faction. If we do not have a posative answer in five minutes you shall be dealt with most harshly." As the message was sent to the jumble of hulking metal monsters that was Toops general quarters was beat on all the ships in Waldenburg's fleet.

Each ship in the the Boozian squadron took up a circular patrol at angles to the others, making a kind of globe. Several small scanner boats filled in the gaps.

(OOC: woah, ships are at my home-planet already!!!?)

Fortunantly this moment had been planned and several ships had already been mobolised, as well as those already on call, 5 battleships altogether, they moved through the shielding and into a suitable formation to stop the lone invader.

"Yooz outgunn'd, leeve are territ'ry nar or we'll 'ave your gutz!"

Subcommander Nijal sat in her command chair, reading over a brief summary of the Waldenburg Empire. Considering the technology on the Waldenburg fleet that appeared, either their borders were completely undefended or they were lying about the Toopian pirates raiding them. Such a primitive and poorly armed Toopian salvage ship could not even put up a fight against the Rhinaran destroyer, and it was probably too busy keeping away other raiders from its junk heap to bother going out and raiding Waldenburg borders. Irregardless of Waldenburg's supposed reasons for their galactic policing action, Nijal was not about to trust this Waldenburg Empire. There had been too little contact between the Star Sovereignty and the Empire to warrant much trust.

The Vortaraax exited warp while still under cloak some distance behind the Waldenburg fleet, making sure that as little attention as possible would be attracted to itself.

"Keep tracking that hulk," the subcommander order. "Try to find a weakness in those shields to exploit. Have sensors search for Rhinaran lifesigns, but keep the scans to a minimal to avoid detection. When and if the Waldenburg fleet engages the Toopian ships, I want to be able to chase after that hulk and retrieve any personnel we may have on it."

And so the Rhinaran destroyer just sat there, at a distance, under cloak, until something happened.

The Avenger pulled out of hyperspace, tracking the Toopian ship, and arrived soon after the Waldenburg craft had issued its ultimatum. Kearny scanned the situation briefly before she turned around to issue commands.

"Keep an eye on the situation. If the Waldenburg ship continues to press an attack here in Toopian space, we'll go to the Toopian aid here."
"Yes ma'am. Keepin' sensors active."

OOC: I think it does seem strange that we're here already, but I'll hop on the bandwagon.
IC:A rapid response squadron arrived in the Toopsian home system, following
Waldenburg, and hailed bath the visible fleets:

"Waldenburgians, calm down a bit, I'm sure an attack on their homeworld will just aggravate the problem."

"Toopians, we require that you surrender all personel involved in the loss of our vessel, men, and Rhinaran ambassadors, and aid in our enquiry. If you refuse, you will be boarded. If you are responsible for malignant damage to our men or equipment, we will not hesitate to fire."

(OOC: Toopsian? ¬_¬ you want me to destroy your nation don't you? :P)

Although the King was willing to comply with the ultimatum, Gritzk had other ideas, he had taken control over one of the many Scrap Fighters, by now he was well past Toophium Moon.

The King was left with little choice, Gritzk, according to eye witness, was the one who had ordered the destruction of the Boozian vessel, then he remembered that one of the protagonists had it's guns pointed at the Toops.

"We will be duin' ner such akshun, yurll 'ave ter fite us fur arr wurld!"

Nijal took in a deep breath after hearing the various messages from each side. "They're going to turn this piracy incident into a full-scale war. Can't let that happen," she muttered. Speaking up, she said, "Comms, open a channel to the Boozian and Waldenburg fleets."

"We're losing the hulk among all that wreckage, Subcommander," said the ops officer. "Unless those fleets start fighting soon and the shields are dropped, we won't be tracking the hulk for much longer."

The edge of Nijal's lips turned down to a frown. On the one hand, she did not want the apprehension of a pirate to escalate into a war with a nation. On the other, an outbreak of fighting was exactly what she needed to continue chasing after the pirates. What to do, what to do...

"Belay that order, comms," said Nijal. "We'll let them fight it out amongst themselves."

"That's five minutes sir, it's now or never," an ensign remarked after looking at his station clock. The fleet was at full stand by with the last squads of fighters pullinig out of the hangers.

"I'll right we have to pull forward, but we do not fire first. Just get in their poke around and try to find the ship. We will not start a war here today I'll though the Bishop has already lied to a Major Star Power and our intent here is to capture the sector, but on paper we must not start this war." Ajax Sloan spoke over a loadspeaker to all his ships and called down to the Pelican Gunship bay to see if a boarding action was possible very soon.

"Transmission coming in," the same ensign said. "It says we should prolong the attack till investigations are made.

"Ignore ensign."

"And Lo the great Prophets did walk the desert alone with nothing to protect them but their faith. And they came back great men, regents of God in the universe, the Oracles of all truth. Now on this ship you have shields but your faith is truly what will turn the fire from you and if you see not the end of this day you have died serving the Prophets." Bishop Kliderhound had materiliezed in back of the Captain and snatched the speaking tube. From the smirk on his face he thought this had been a very inspirational speech but most of the crew were shaking their heards and pocketing more ammo.

In a vanguard formation with the Divine Wind at the very point and two 110 Gunneds at each point they began to move toward the enemy. The frieghters stayed right behind in the center of the Vanguard as they would mostly likely would be needed soon.

(OOC: don't forget there's a shield around the planet, it's weak but stronger than the one around the Heap)

The enemy fleet was getting a little too close, the King was alarmed, he had not protected this nation for a century only to have it destroyed now because of one Goblins sheer stupidity.

"Warning to oncoming fleet, moving to within 5 Toopish Units of the Orbital shield will result in war with our nation, move out or we will be forced to fire!"

"Waldenburgian fleet! Halt, you aren't helping the situation! Do you wan't this debacle to spiral into war?"

Back at the site of the original heap where the Boozian craft was attacked, a Rhinaran scoutship (http://people.ucsc.edu/~mattko/corvette01.JPG) came out of transwarp. Its compact, black form glided over to the opening in the heap's shields, transmitting to the Boozian squadron its intention to investigate the heap in light of the acts of piracy that the Vortaraax reported on. It then entered the heap and began scans.

OOC- About the shield around the planet... I didn't want to bring it up but would it be absorbant or plasma, if it is absorbant our ships would most likely pass through as with mass and movement and such. Perhaps we should just post all our technology in one great lump to get this all over with. Anyway i'll just assume it's absorbant and if it isn't i'll edit and have the front of a ship burn away. EDIT agian it depends on shield type, but after reading Ic and OC i'll edit.

IC-
Ajax Sloan looked at the incoming messages on his command consul and saw another from Nova Boozia. He clicked on the comm recorder, "Nova Boozian ships we are performing a neccesary action. The goblins are pirates, who have stolen from many Star Empires. Now it is our mission to find your lost crew and you try to halt our progress? If at any time a compromise can be made with the goblins to end this problem we shall happily agree. Until such a time as a compromise can be made the Waldenburg Empire shall maintain the boarders and exsistance of any Star Power." The message ended and the captain already felt as if he were a Divine Legion Bishop, this was trash he was spouting.

The fleet reached the shield. The Divine Wind, it's massive engines flaring rammed the shield. The universe expected it to either burst through guns blazing or the front of the ship to turn into a molten heap of flying metal. No, instead sirens wailed throught the ship as the shields were taken down to 30% and the ship bounced off and gentely slid into a fighter squadron. Another 24 fighters not pulling out of their wild charge either smashed into the shield and disapeared or bounced off leaving them dead in space.

"And there went half of my fighters. Damn now we have to fire first for countries I've never heard of." the captain looked to the comms station and motioned for it to be on, "To all ships of the Waldenburg Empire fire on the shield, but once we're through do not fire on enemy ships. They will most likely fire on us but wait for my signal to fire." The Divine Wind who becuase of the ram into the shield was already turned for a broadside, let loose 800 tons of fire unto the shield. The few ships that had turrets opened up while turning to let loose which they eventually did.

OOC Any chance of boarding actions coming up? Search and Rescue Thing

The commodore started to record some stuff about investigations, then stopped. Would they listen? No. Woud it help anyone? No. Instead, he sent:
"We will not become involved. It's your war."
The squadron warped out, leaving a frigate.
How wrong the officer was.

(OOC: Wald, did you just say that you fleet poked through? how can a fleet just poke itself through a shield!?)

The fleet of Hulks adjusted heading and sped down towards the invading fleet, they had disturbed Toopish territory and now they must be halted, as a sign to other Pirates. The lead Hulk shot out a large piece of wreckage which slowed to a halt just off the enemy fleet, it began to flash red, for a while it seemed that little was happening, then a few pieces of wreckage began to close in on the probe, more pieces shot round from every corner of the Heap attracted by the red light of the Probe. The probe itself was on a heading towards the enemy fleet, followed quickly by a shower of wreckage.

The Vortaraax crept in closer to the shields in preparation to move through it should it go down.

(OOC: I don't really have much to do at the moment, so don't wait up for me. Also, Toops, Waldenburg said that if you don't allow ships to just move through your shields like that, that he'll edit it and have the front of one ship get damaged in the attempt. Up to you.)

(OOC: hmmm, don't know why I didn't see that, in any case, if you simply thrusted into the shields then you'll bounce off, if you drive into the shields and keep driving then you'll take considerable damage at the expense of the shield frazzling at one point.)

OOC: Like Rhinara said, don't wait for me until I get back into action.

OOC- Anyone left, I already edited, quite a while in fact see last post of mine.

OOC: I'm still waiting for a good oppurtunity to make a move...

Bump

OOC: Yeah, it would be good if Toops could call out for help or something. We other guys haven't got an IC reason to intervene yet, and until then this war's going to be a little one-sided.

I declare this thread dead, and any restarting attempts zombies. My ships have all left.