NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Basically gonna want someone to RP as the pirates. Not necessary but appreciated. As well, feel free to place yourself in the path of my rampaging fleet once it leaves my borders or have a few of your ships cross into my territory. I'm pretty isolationist and my borders generally don't appear on star charts for the region any more.
IC:

Yuuzhan Vong Republic

100 years after the rebellion of Shoon-mi Esh that created it, the Republic is beginning to crumble. Increasingly isolationist, plagued by piracy and facing the prospect of economic collapse, the Republic has fallen on dark times. The President, Kunra Esh, grandson of Shoon-mi Esh and force sensitive himself, has called an emergency meeting of his senior advisors. A solution must be found - and soon - or else the Yuuzhan Vong may well fade into extinction.

Pacing at the head of a large ovoid table, Kunra waited impatiently for his advisors to finally show. An angry man on a good day, Kunra was growing furious at whatever delay was keeping the advisors from the meeting. As the door finally hissed open he turned and glared at the first man through the door. General Khalee Jamaane was lucky to not be included in the Force or else he may well have found his throat in Kunra's telekinetic grasp. Like most Yuuzhan Vong, the General was outside the Force, but over the past century more and more had been born within the Force.

The rest of the advisors filed in, terrified despite their immunity to Kunra's telekinetic wrath, and sat before him. "Apologies, Mighty One, but your security is especially..." the man was suddenly cut short by an invisible vise closing on his throat and his speech was reduced to gurgling and gasping. For a few moments the rest of the advisors watched this man, present in the Force, writhe in agony until finally his windpipe collapsed and he died. "Your apologies are meaningless fool!" Kunra shouted at the corpse, then to those still alive, "You know why you are here! Speak your solutions lest you join this pitiful coward!"

The advisor for economics, Tsavong Kraal, spoke up first. "Fearful One, our problems stem from three things. First, the policy of isolation which your father implemented. Our trade with the rest of the galaxy is greatly reduced. Second, what trade that does come into our space is almost always set upon by pirates. We lose far more than we receive. Last, our slave population is dwindling in both numbers and quality. Before the Republic we had the Shamed and foreign slaves captured in our constant conquests. Now, the Shamed are Extolled and no more slaves are captured. The descendents of our slaves are becoming inbred and weak. Our economy is built on slavery, Lord, and without slaves the Yuuzhan Vong will be forced to dishonour themselves with menial labour..."

"That is all well and good, Tsavong domain Kraal, but it is information I already have! What are we to do about it!? What is your solution!?" Kunra shouted down at him and the others.

General Jamaane spoke in response. "Dread One, we have discussed this matter at length both in private and in the Senate. The only solution is to end our isolation, destroy the pirate menace once and for all and begin a new campaign of conquest. Your navy is ready, My Lord, give us the word and the pirates shall all perish in the most painful and dishonourable way imaginable! When we have done that then we will cross our borders once more and capture more slaves than the Republic will ever need!"

Kunra stood in contemplation for a few moments. He reached his decision in seconds but allowed the silence to drag on, knowing that it was stirring terror in his subordinates. Fear is always the best motivator... Finally he spoke. "Very well, General. You will take Fleet Group Yu'shaa and destroy the pirates. None of them will be permitted to live. Do not fail me, General. You know the price of failure..." he glanced pointedly at the corpse of the anonymous advisor still collapsed in his seat. "Ready my personal fleet and the Praetorian Guard. I will be joining you... You are all dismissed..."

Quickly, too quickly even, the advisors stood and filed out. Standing alone once more, Kunra smiled broadly at the thought of conquest and glory.

(OOC:
I would join in, but I dont think the Vong would get along well with a machine civilization :P)

Trade with their long time ally had been abruptly cut short for one reason or another. Small patrols were often conducted along the Abh Talaax border but nothing had ever yielded results. Since Talaax's isolation period, a new Emperor and Imperial Admiral. Admiral Abriel Nei Lamral Gaf'ton was seen as what an Abriel should be. His policies have always been agressive and not afraid to expand the borders of the Abh Empire. With the current Emperor, Dubeusec who has always saught to see that the Empire reached glorious hieghts, the match up was a good one.

Fleets had been renumbered, expanded, improved, and created. Clearly Star Forces had never seen such granduer since the first Abriels had broken from the original Abh Empire that expanded across a galaxy. With a military eye roaming everywhere, it was felt that the exact fate of the nation of Talaax had to be discerned. Afterall, if the nation had withered away to nothingness then the Abh could find a use for it and what remained.

And so it was the Imperial Admiral had ordered a small excursion force to cross the border and investigate. They were not going in to conquer by any means. For one, the scout fleet was hardly large enough to begin an invasion. The other reason is if their ally was still there, there were questions that would need to be answered.

So it was that Hecto-Commander Ekuryua, after her tour of duty with Lord Dusanyu, was now leading an excursion into the Talaaxian territory. Her scout fleet consisted of 25 Roth class patrolships, 40 Roil class attack vessels, and 15 Guardships. She would take a quick sweep of the space around their borders and then penetrate deeper into Talaaxian territory.

OOC: SSC, I've taken some rather... extreme liberties with the Vong. I've overthrown the caste system, begun reintegrating them into the Force and at least partially embraced technology. Machine societies would be accepted as much as a biotech society.
IC:

25 Light Years from Abh-Talaax Border

Osible was a free-floating planetoid. Approximately earth-sized, Osible had long ago escaped the gravity of it's star and now floated freely in deep space. Classed as uninhabitable, the planet was never Vongformed or colonised. This made it perfect for a pirate base. Setting up pressure domes and building tiny settlements within, the pirates had been using Osible as a minor base for years now. By luck or incompetence, the pirates had never been discovered. Until now.

A small fleet reverted to real space several hundred thousand kilometers from the planetoid, weapons armed and shields up. Broadcasting on known pirate channels, Commander Anor spoke the same words he'd used on countless other tiny pirate enclaves. "Attention pirate scum! You are surrounded, escape is impossible. Surrender now and die honourably or be slaughtered like the animals you are!"

After a few minutes, the reply came in Basic. "Go to hell you Vong bastard!"

Commander Anor smiled to himself and turned to his second in command as three ancient Carrack-class cruisers and four even older Acclamator-IIs came into view around the edge of the world ahead. "Very well. Alert all commands, prepare for battle. Make this quick, Lord Kunra has received word of a larger base nearby..."

Accelerating to attack speed and launching fighters, the trio of Sekot-class cruisers and quartet of Pirya-class frigates lumbered forward to engage the pitiful armada ahead of them. Within minutes, turbolaser fire criss-crossed the space between the fleets and the momentary flashes of concussion missiles exploding against shields lit up the space around the dark planet. A relatively small battle, it would still be quite visible to any nearby vessels...

[TVM Cobain]

The Revolver Class Cruiser Cobain moved through the darkness of space. The Revolver Class Cruiser had been designed for deep space, long range tactical assignments. Instead of flying for three years to attack somewhere the enemy never thought McKagan could reach... it was following in the virtual shadow created by a comet up an interstellar version of an abandoned interstate in hopes of finding something.

"Yes, of course the McKagan Tactical Space Command knows what they're doing," Captain Roberts started. "If they didn't have something in mind for us they would have sent a frigate. My guess is that they've gotten a few off hand reports of pirates or something and we're going to be put into the area to see how the Imperium can profit."

Captain Roberts sat her drink down on the table of the small conference room she had her senior staff in.

The comet wasn't just heading near this trade route into what had been an interstellar empire for any reason. The MTSC had positioned it to act as a means of covert intelligence gathering for their cruiser. A cruiser which could, if it needed to, conduct vast operations and manipulation in an area of low survailance.

Time would tell just what the Cobain's lasting mission would be.

Ekuryua was standing at the bridge of the Lasroth. She had traded in her plain tiarra for a silver one with a single wing on the left hand side, a long blue cape, and a command saber. Such were the formalities of being promoted in the Empire. Five attack vessels had just returned from sortir to investigate the surroundings.

"Chief Engineer what is our current status?"

"Ma'am, we are several thousand wedoj within the border of the nation of Talaax. Scouts have reported that there is planetoid formation not several wesdoj from here."

Ekuryua walked up to the railing and looked down at the tactical display map. "There is no star around here. What could it possibly be doing out here? Is it a large meteor that has drifted from a meteor field?"

The Chief Engineer shook his head. "Scouts report that it has settlements on the surface."

"Could it be a listening post?"

"It's possible ma'am. There were signs of docking facilities."

Ekuryua drummed her fingernails on the railling as she thought about her options. "Senior officer, issue orders to the fleet. We are setting our course for the settlement."

The 80 ships of the scout fleet powered up their anti-matter reactors and steered towards what would soon be known as a pirate base. Time slipped by uneventfully as they approached their destination. The shots from the Vong ships were soon picked up by the Abh fleet's scanners.

"Commander, we have reports of energy discharges."

Ekuryua walked to where the Chief Engineer was sitting and looked at his screen. The readings were undeniable. The only question was who were they shooting at and why? "What are your orders ma'am?"

Such were the questions to be answered by a commander. They had not yet moved close enough to pick up a visual and there was no telling if they had just drifted into the middle of another civil war or were they exterminating settlements which the Emperor would have to be informed immediatly. "I want the Latushce detachment to scout the area. I want them to bring back all the information they can. As for us, the rest of the fleet will reduce speed. Should our ships come under fire, I want to be close enough to lend aid without the enemy knowing."

"Yes ma'am."

Ten attack vessels broke formation and roared to life as they screamed towards the elimination of the pirate base.

Osible

The Yuuzhan Vong task force quickly gained the advantage. A quarter of an hour was all it took for the pirate force to be reduced to a pair of Acclamator-IIs, pursued by a pair of Piryas. The rest of the task force moved into close orbit above Osible and began bombarding the pressure domed pirate enclave.

It was at this point that the sensor station sighted a pair of contacts and brought them to the attention of Commander Anor. "Commander, gravitic and standard sensors have sighted a comet inbound. Standard sensors report that it is purely ice and gas, however, gravitic sensors have given it a mass far above what should be expected of ice and gas..."

Glancing at the readouts, the Commander responded. "Indeed. Send a Pirya to investigate that comet. If it is a pirate vessel, destroy it. If it does not respond to hails, destroy it. If it appears hostile, destroy it. Understood?"

"Yes sir! However, we are reading inbound vessels from the direction of Abh space. They appear to be scouts. Should I hail them?"

"No... I will do it myself. Initiate hail and put them on screen."

Seconds later the hail was sent out. "Attention vessels of possible Abh origin! You have crossed into Yuuzhan Vong space and are intruding upon an internal security operation. I must request that you halt and explain your presense."

---Meanwhile----

The Pirya-class frigate, a relatively small (300m) vessel with three times the armament of a Nebulon-B, cruised cautiously towards the approaching comet. With shields up and weapons charged, the crew wasn't taking chances. The slightest hostility would lead to a fire fight.

Aboard the Cobain there was a sign of worry once the Frigate was spotted. Was it a pirate vessel? Probably not. It was too overt. Could it take the Cobain on in an up close fight? Probably not. The Cobain was a deep space tactical vessel.

"Keep up on that comet until they contact us. Then break lose and turn my mic on." Roberts had a simple order. They weren't going to engage someone this early in the game - probably.

The Pirya frigate continued on it's course, all scanners active. As it came in close to the comet, it's sensors were finally able to discern the ship behind it. Perhaps too big for this small ship to take, but when has that ever stopped the Yuuzhan Vong? Hailing the ship on all frequencies, the captain of the vessel sent the following message. "Unidentified vessel hiding behind the comet! You are encroaching upon Yuuzhan Vong space and interfering in an internal security matter. You will power down your engines and explain your actions. Failure to comply will result in your immediate destruction."

(ooc mind if i join in?)

Captain Roberts began to talk, sending a response to the Frigate that had discovered them.

"We mean you no harm. For a while now the Democratic Imperium of McKagan has been receiving intelligence reports of heavy pirate activity along this shipping line. We didn't know how your government would react to a McKagan fact finding mission so we decided to covertly take a fact finding mission ourselves. Do you require any assistance, or have any information regarding these pirates?"

OOC: @McKagan: If you don't mind, I'd like to initiate face-to-face contact between our people. Just a small 10 man boarding party to inspect your ship and better judge the intentions of the crew.

@TFU: You can join, but no massive fleets, task forces, armadas etc. Maximum of 10 vessels.
IC:

The frigate's captain responded immediately. "Regardless of your intentions, you are in violation of Yuuzhan Vong space. Power down and prepare to receive a boarding party. Any resistance will be treated as an act of aggression."

"M'looord," said the Zombie slowly, "Arrre you suuure abooout thisss?" He was staring at the viewscreen attentively.(well, as attentively as a Zombie can) "I'mmm rrreading severrral mooore vesssels in the areaaa thaaan weee thought, iiit coullld beee daaangerous."

Ziocaa (http://www.battle.net/images/battle/diablo2exp/images/classes/necromancer-history.jpg) snapped, "That is not your place to decide, slave! There is an opprotunity here and I intent to take it." There is death here, thought the necromancer, soon. "Open a channel, visual and audio, to the Talaax ship."

"Yesss, m'looord," the Zombie replied. After he tapped a few buttons on the keyboard and the veiwscreen at the front of the bridge activated.

"Talaax military vessel, we intend no harm," Ziocaa told the native ship.
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OOC: My guys are in two of these. (http://members.chello.nl/l.kievit/starcraft/overlord.gif)

OOC: @McKagan: If you don't mind, I'd like to initiate face-to-face contact between our people. Just a small 10 man boarding party to inspect your ship and better judge the intentions of the crew.

[OOC: The Cobain is of a secret type of ship. Very secure, et al. They'd never go for having foreign people on it.]

Mean while a detachment of 5 ships, were on patrol in the area, The lead ship was a republic class advanced cruiser, followed by 3 lancer class ships, and a harbinger class Destroyer, the small detachment floated silently scanning for transmissions or activity.


On the republic ..

the con officer sighed and sat back as he silently scanned the area and taped in to com signals, he raised an eyebrow and looked over to his commander who was sitting on his chair overlooking all of the panels and display.

He said with a rather prompt voice "Sir we have detected a whole group of activity and transmissions from sector 139802 mark 14802..."

the commander stood up and looked over "hmm well it seems to me we have to investigate"
He turned his head over to the Helm officers and nodded, the helm officer taped here holographic panel"

Mean while the tactical officer began scans and readying the ship for a possible fight.

The small group of ships revved up there drives, the engines on the ships glowing dull blue as they flew towards the theater, of interest, several moments, passed, the ship was in sight of the others .


The Commander nodded to the comn officer, who promptly opened up a frequency.


The commander spoke with a strong yet professional voice "This is the USS Republic, a star ship of the federal union , this is also the lead ship of detachment 7a, we request to know whats going on in this sector, we heard some commotion and have come to investigate.



(my ships bridges have a set up like a battle stars bridge from galactica, accept we have a chair for the commander to rest on"

( my lead ship http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/30367598/
the frigates: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/30452023/)

Osible
Seconds later the hail was sent out. "Attention vessels of possible Abh origin! You have crossed into Yuuzhan Vong space and are intruding upon an internal security operation. I must request that you halt and explain your presense."

"Captain, we have a hail from a Vong ship. They are requesting to know our intentions here in their territory."

Ekuryua sighed inside with relief. "Well this makes our mission all the more simpler. Tell all ships to hold position. Have they taken a hostile approach towards us yet?"

The senior officer checked her screen for a moment. "No ma'am."

"Alright. Send this message..."

This is Captain Ekuryua of the Abh scout fleet. Our intentions here are only to discern the status of our long time ally. It has been a long time since we've had trade our communications with you. You made mention of a security matter....is there anything that we may be able to assist you with?

OOCL @McKagan: Then perhaps you can send a shuttle to my vessel. My people prefer face-to-face communications.

Aboard the Yu'shaa the Great

Commander Anor stood over a holographic display, monitoring the pursuit of the two remaining pirate vessels and waiting for a reply to his hails. It was then that multiple communications came in from all directions. "Blast it! Where have they all come from? How did they get into our space like this? Hmph! No matter, open a channel to the first communication..."

"Yes, sir!"

"Talaax military vessel, we intend no harm"
"Unidentified vessel! Identify yourself, state your intentions and pray to whatever gods you may fear that I find your explanations convincing! You are intruding on our space, an offense punishable by destruction..."

"This is the USS Republic, a star ship of the federal union , this is also the lead ship of detachment 7a, we request to know whats going on in this sector, we heard some commotion and have come to investigate.

"Republic, you have no business in this sector. You are in Yuuzhan Vong space and are intruding upon the destruction of a pitiful pirate's den. Please power down your engines and await a boarding crew. They will discuss any further passage through our space. Failure to comply will lead to your destruction."

This is Captain Ekuryua of the Abh scout fleet. Our intentions here are only to discern the status of our long time ally. It has been a long time since we've had trade our communications with you. You made mention of a security matter....is there anything that we may be able to assist you with?

"So you are Abh vessels. Then I welcome you ally Ekuryua. It has been a long time since I laid eyes on an Abh vessel, indeed. As for a security matter, this area is rife with pirate activity. We are currently engaged in destroying a small pirate's den on this world. You are welcome to assist in this operation and in a forthcoming operation against a major pirate enclave."

The Senior Officer read the reply back to the Captain. "Pirates? Inform them immediatly that we will help them annhilate the scum immediatly."

Talaaxian vessel. We will help you eliminate this threat. Pirates are seen as some of the lowliest scurges of the galaxy in the Empire. We hope that our policy of no quarter for pirates will not be a problem for you.

Ekuryua stood and swiftly drew her command saber. "All Guardships, move to the frontline and prepare for bombardment. The rest of the fleet will fly cover and ensure that no pirate ships escape."

The Guardships moved close to the planetoid formation. Their spinal anti-proton cannons began to rev to life as some of the biggest weapons around. Large bolts of yellow laser fire began pouring into the pirate villages.

The Republic responded as the small detachment slowly floated in the darkness, there hull lights blinking.

the response read "We are ships of the Unites States and by no means shall you board us, we shall leave if you request but we will not be subject to search or seizer"


The republic did not have its weapons or shields powered up at the moment, but the tactical officer peered at the screen and could order the instant activation of all system incase of a hostile response

OOC: Talaax, in case you didn't notice, my ships sent a communicae to yours. Read back.