NationStates Jolt Archive

This history of the Cluster, or Pocket as it is known by Tannelornian's has thus far been short, but very bloody.

This strange phenomena was discovered at first by the tiny emergent nation of Waterhelper. Soon after the discovery, and the announcement that the people of waterhelper wished to share their discovery, the aggressive empire of Mini Miehm was soon hot on the trails of their exploratory fleets. They at first offered to protect Waterhelper, splitting control of the Cluster. However waterhelper wished to allow others to share in this wonderful discovery.


The cluster itself was unique. Over 500 star systems, each with at least one planet capable of supporting carbon based life. Waterhelper and Mini Miehm had not realised the implications of this, as had tannelorn. After all Genetic engineering had been a way of life for Tannelorn for thousands of years. And Tannelornian scientists had know right away..that these worlds had been crafted. For whom? No one knew..yet. However a large ship had been discovered in one of the tannelornian systems.


A desolate desert world circling a blue star of massive proportions. Protected partially from its deadly rays by the massive Gas giant she orbitted. The rays were so harsh they actually blew layers of gas off of the planet, it swirled and eddied about like ocean surf around the world, before falling back in due to its intense gravity. Perhaps clues to the creators of the Cluster, could be found within this ancient ship, at least 17 000 years old by the Researcher castes reckonings.

Mini miehm quickly resorted to his old, and very well known ways of warring upon any nation the emperor had a small grudge with, as well as those they did not. Revelling in the opportunity to fight. Many other nations started to arrive, starting colonies. The gate buildiers were almost immediately set upon by the Wraith as well as the Mini Miehm forces, starting a long pitched battle that only ended when Tannelornian and Balroggan forces interdicted.

The people of waterhelper had asked only that they share this discovery in peace..but peace was not on the minds of the Younger races. When the Tigerlanese and pananab entered the system..a flash point was set, and a small war broke out between Tigerlan and mini miehm, before it was stopped by balroggan forces.


Others came, the nations of Hobbeebia, Chronosia, Communisit gov's, the Russo Soviets, Utopia, Kith Somtaaw and sea quest all entered the cluster.

Most of whom of course entered peacefully. However all those who have had dealings with mini miehm, found themselves at war with them.

For a short month there was peace. The younger nations tried to build their colonies and cooperate with each other.

This all came to an end with the Tigerlan civil war. It was not very long, and ended with reconciliation however it nearly started a majour war within the cluster itself. The Pananab declared their territory to be "outside" of the cluster, then allowed the Tigerlan refugees sanctuary. This angered both Tannelorn and Balrogga.

The result of this was one destroyed Super star destroyer, a large number of dead pananab, and a few dead tannelornians before the Balroggans interceded, asking for a cease fire. The Tannelornians were very angry with the Pananab for providing protection to the Tigerlan rebels. After all they had been considered terrorists. And with a terrorism problem back home the Tannelornians would not abide such actions within their new colonies.

Long years of civil war had made the navy of Tannelorn wary of the intentions of the Pananab and the Tigerlan. Currently negotiations between tannelorn and pananab are ongoing, and likely to end with at least a non aggression pact.

However these events pale in comparison to those of recent days. The Miehm unleashed the power of the warp within a system, flooding it with energy released directly from the imperium, via stargates located within the immaterium itself. the sacrific and devotion of the miehmish people towards the chaos gods..had created a permanent rift between the two planes of existence, which the balroggans only barely managed to halt.

As well as this the miehmish invaded the home world of Waterhelper, in an insane bid to gain control over the Cluster by proxy. As waterhelper was nominally allied to Tannelorn and Balrogga, Tannelorn acted.

The cluster was declared open space, allowing those who controlled territory to be able to police it properly, with the principal that those within the cluster that wished to work together would. The council was kept however, and in coming months the Tannelornians plan to expand on the concept.

For now however..there is only war. The Tannelornian fleet sent 75% of its cluster resources to launch a surprise attack on the miehmish colony. 20 seconds after word reached the miehmish of the declaration of war, a massive armada of nearly 110 warships entered Miehmish space. Attacking the ships in a massive assault, attempting to prevent them from leaving the system, while starting a full scale invasion of the world. It began with lances of pure energy blasting all power sources from orbit, as nuclear missiles rained down in unihabited areas, creating a nuclear winter with which to conceal their attack vectors.

However as they started their attack the Miehmish once again proved to the Cluster how truly misguided they were. As soon as the mars cruiser started to break apart under the attacks of a small portion of the fleet, sending volleys in to the massive vessel as they passed by, the miehmish struck.

They had hoped that flooding energy from the warp in to their own star would cause it to explode, creating another maelstrom of warp energy. However it did something far worse. Unbeknownst to the Tannelornians soon to take possession of the system the Miehmish had left a booby trap. One far deadlier then any explosive or weapon system. They had left behind a chaos tainted star, its baleful radiation carrying the winds of chaos to every planet within the system..and possibly beyond.

As it is now the ground campaign has only just begun. And the future of the cluster is now in the hands of those with the will to cooperate..and make this dream of peace and security amongst the stars, a reality.


OOC WELCOME! all of you who were involved in the older cluster thread. And my thanks to communist gov's for the WONDERFUL map. Alright this is the new cluster thread. Anyone who wishes to join, but isnt listed as already having territory, do not fret. There is plenty of territory left, and in fact though the actual boundaries may be smaller the star density is higher at the center.

Several rules. You can war if you like, however you better be able to deal with balrogga or Tannelorn, because if you cant..and you cross the line on them[ ie nuking CIVVIES tannie doesnt care if you use nukes, they come from mars] well it wont be fun. Also this is a peaceful thread, anything beyond declaration of war needs to be taken to the Cluster war thread [ or later threads linked to the cluster.] It is mainly colonial and research stories as well as adventure/exploration threads.

So to the people who were here in the first place. Welcome back, this one will be more organised, and hopefully leave alot more of the "war" out of it.

So the nations who were involved were.
Mini miehm
Balrogga
Waterhelper
Tannelorn
Kith simtaaw
Tigerlan
The gate builders
Chronosia
Pananab
Hobbeebia
The Phoenix Milita
Seaquest DSV
Communistic governments [thanks again for the wonderful map!]
Now the territory described as Cluster Capital now belongs to Cluster3
The waterhelper rebels after MM attacked Waterhelper.


Once the thing with MM and WH is dealt with, much of that territory [seeing as WH has territory] will be given to anyone new who wishes to show up. Except for a few systems to represent a common Cluster government, much like the UN.

So everyone please right a "Story so far" on your nations involvement in the Cluster, and we can continue the colonisation, exploration and diplomacy [and war] rp's that shall grow from here!

And here is the Current Cluster map. Areas marked black are unclaimed, however territories within the black area will be much much smaller. As each small area contains dozens of stars.

http://img129.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cluster4ez.jpg Cluster map.

*tag*

OOC: You mentioned territory still being up for grabs, does this mean I could still join up and be part of the famous Cluster Community?

The Imperial Union of Communistic Governments' expedition...

Chapter One: The Expedition

**inserts Sepiroth's theme**

An icy planet sitting in the dark void of the newly discovered star cluster. An average size world with very little life and little significant value. Then, a ship of gargantuan size appears out of hyperspace. A Dark black ship with a triangle surface to it, a huge gun protruding the tip of the behemoth. A structure that looks like a flight of stairs climbing toward a tower. This tower the bridge of this ship, the Eclipse Class Super Star Destroyer Black Death, commanded by an experienced and stern Admiral by the name of Aleksander Kra'Dem. The Admiral look out onto the icy planet as the Captain approched him with a datapad for a report.

"Admiral the rest of the fleet should be arriving from hyperspace any second now"

Admiral Kra'dem replied, "Good Captain, send probe droids down onto the surface of that world and report back any finds you have uncovered"

Captain Ulgand, "Yes Admiral", salutes the Admiral and does an about face.

Kra'Dem looked out to the horizon as he sees the expeditionary fleet come out of hyperspace. 16 Imperator III Star Destroyers, 30 Victory II Star Destroyers, 2 Modular Taskforce Cruisers, 5 Strike Class Cruisers, 34 Lancers Frigates, and 2 Carrack Frigates and the Executor Class Super Stardestroyer.

Chapter Two: The Mystery Element

Captain Ulgand checked his chronometer, it has been 8 hours since their arrival in this star cluster with a mission to explore this region for the Imperial Union of Communistic Governments. Then the Lieutenant gave him the report, the Captain raised his brow, "Interesting..."

"Admiral!"

"Yes Captain what is it?"

"Sir we found something, an unusual element 1000 times more powerful than Naquadah and we have found sources of titanium, yttebrium, iron, and other carbon substances."

Kra'Dem looked at the datapad interested in the mystery element. What power can it have and what is its applications?, he thought.

"This is interesting, Captain. Establish a base onto the site of the element. I want the research scientist to discover and test the nature of this element. We shall name it element X for now. Now for the continuation of this mission, send out the Carracks to do recon work of this system and alert me of hospitable planets."

Captain Ulgand replied, " Yes Admiral Kra'Dem it shall be done. Oh I almost forgot sir. We have recieved a sort of weak distress signal coming from a sector thats 216 Light years away. But we have no reports of another expeditionary force in this region and it could be a radio wave of a nearby Quasar."

A distress signal, thought the experienced Admiral, hmm how strange. "Redirect a Carrack to this area to investigate this disturbance and I want it to keep a low profile"


Captain Ulgand saluted the admiral and returned to his station giving orders to his subordinates.

Admiral Kra'Dem looks back at the horizon. A strange turn of events a mystery element that could power a shield generator indefinitely and a distress signal from an Imperial Star Destroyer that could be a fake. I better tread carefully.

Chapter Three: The Bomb and the Delegation

Message from Waterhelper:

Unknown forces please state your intentions in our cluster.

Captain Ulgand,"Sir we are recieving a message from a nation called Waterhelper"

Admiral Kra'Dem looked at the datapad. He looked and thought about the possibility of meeting a foreign nation.

Admiral Kra'Dem,"Send them a message that we would like to meet with them at the research facility on the planet."

Hours Later...

Captain Ulgand,"Admiral we still haven't gotten a reply from the Waterhelpers"

Admiral Kra'Dem," We shall have to be patient Captain, the message was long range after all"

Captain Ulgand,"Yes I shall try to remember that Admiral"

Admiral Kra'Dem,"Any word from the Carracks"

Captain Ulgand,"The one investigating the distress signal still hasn't returned a message, but the Carrack on recon duty has discovered two more habitable worlds in the system."

Admiral Kra'Dem," Send the Red Storm and Iron Curtain with 2 Victory escort each"

Captain Ulgand turned to the Lieutenant and gave the orders. Ulgand then went back to work on the mystery element.

Days later....

A huge fireball erupts on the expansive snowy plains of the planet. An explosion big enough to destroy a nation of 1000 miles and its height being in orbit charring the atmosphere. Capable of giving a person with 3rd Degree burns 100 miles away from the blast radius even with the planet's subzero temperatures. The test was a complete success as there was a tremendous amount of data gathered from this test. Since the discovery of Element X, as Admiral Kra'Dem called it temporarily, the researchers at the base have been marveling at the elements extreme power amount. The size of Element X explosive device used for this test was the size of a marble and the method of explosion was fission-fusion, similar to the Tsar Bomb during the 1st Cold War Era on Earth. So far the researchers have discovered that the vein contains about 267,918 Megatons and so far they have carefully extracted 1.268 Mts afraid that one mistake or chip will set off a chain reaction as they don't know the true applications of the element yet. Captain Ulgand watched in amazement of the nature of the blast out his viewport in his quarters. He put on his tunic and uniform and rushed towards the bridge. He was in such a hurry that he bumped and knocked down a couple technicians. After a short turbolift ride he finally got to the bridge when his subordinate Lieutenant Talrund gave him the report of the test results. He skimmed the datapad and looked at the results with extreme interest. He nodded to the Lieutenant and dismissed him. The Admiral was staning near the large viewport watching the spectacle. Ulgand started towards him with the results.

Admiral Kra'Dem didn't even look at the Captain we he told him,"Amazing isn't it?"

"Yes sir its quite a marvel." the Captain replied

Admiral Kra'Dem,"The blast seems to be receding now. The would make it 13 minutes and 37 seconds."

"Sir here are the results." Ulgand insisted towards the datapad.

Admiral Kra'Dem,"Hmmm...interesting...very interesting. What was the amount of the substance used for the reaction."

Captain Ulgand replied,"About 10 milligrams sir, the size of a child's playing marble."

Admiral Kra'Dem,"What of radiation? Is the land still hospitable?"

Captain Ulgand hesitated as he searched through his datapad,"Well....uh...sir the blast area..."

Just in the nick of time for the Captain an update came to his datapad. There it is, the Captain thought.

"...the blast area, aside from the snow being melted away, is virtually not radiated. Althought there is some radiation it is only minimal, no lethal dosages. The Half-life of the element, after it has gone through the nuclear reaction, must be quick only a few seconds. The land is completely hospitable."

Admiral Kra'Dem raised his brow and then said,"What is the power output of Element X."

Ulgand replied,"The power of the element at a good amount the size of a bowling ball could provide enough power for this ship for the next 7 millenia. Broadly speaking if we can safely extract Element X and refine it we could power countless worlds."

Kra'Dem looked in disbelief as he stared into the datapad. A power source thats not only powerful but cheap. The IUCG High Command would be pleased of this discovery and perhaps a colony and even a IUCG Naval Base can be stationed here. The military applications of Element X are also phenominal.

Communistic Govts's research center....

A small shuttle lands at the site of the research center. A female diplomat emerged.

In high orbit above New Siberia...

A Lambda-Class shuttle debarks the Black Death and heads towards the research facility. As Admiral Kra'Dem walked through the door he saw the delegation that was to meet him.

Admiral Kra'Dem, "Welcome people of Waterhelper, I hope you feel that our accomodations are at least adequate for your brief stay. Drinks are over there, as we have fine ro'lak wine and Union vodka."

Meanwhile back on the ship....

Captain Ulgand was overseeing operations for the time being."Captain Ulgand..." a Lieutenant called out "sir we have an incoming message. It seems it is from Imperial High Command."

Captain Ulgand,"Patch it through."

The Lieutenant replied,"Yes sir."

An Imperial message out here? thought Ulgand. What could they possibly order?

Imperial High Command Message:

Admiral Kra'Dem,

At the advent of this new element we are very interested. The power this element can produce far outweighs importance and the proctection of it by an Expeditionary fleet. We will send 50 Star Destroyers 100 Victory Class Star Destroyers 1000 Lancer Frigates 50 Carrack Cruisers 5 Executor Class Star Destroyers with 3 more Eclipses. The fleet should arrive by the time of this message. This is a good find Aleksander and for this great achievement I am promoting you to Grand Admiral.

Grand Admiral Iosef Ryurik


Captain Ulgand felt appreciation for the Admiral as he thinks that Kra'Dem deserves this prestige. "Relay this message to the research facility. Inform the Admiral...wait....the Grand Admiral of the message."

The Lieutenant replied,"Yes sir." And smiled while he did his duty.

Back at the New Siberian Research Center...

"Yes I believe it will be, and welcome to Star Cluster M4312 unofficially known to the people of aquahelper as the Milus Group.Also on the way down we saw evidence of a naquadah explosion, or something about the same what happened?" said the Waterhelper delegate.

Admiral Kra'Dem replied,"Thank you for your greeting. The explosion was a test of a new element unknown at the moment. We are temporarily calling it Element X for the moment."

An alert came up on his datapad.

"...excuse me."

"Sounds like our first test where we blew up a asteroid well guess we have to wait."

As soon as Kra'Dem left the delegates put some nanoprobes on the walls where they would infect computers (well only steal information) without leaving a trace

Admiral Kra'Dem read the datapad and was surprised. He had been promoted to Grand Admiral. Grand Admiral had a nice ring to it but this not gave the experienced officer an alter ego.

Grand Admiral Kra'Dem then when he was about to turn his attention towards the delegation the head of security spoke to him,"Sir may I have a word with you."

Kra'Dem nodded."What is it major?"

"Sir our scanners in the conference room have picked up the Delegate from Waterhelper bugging our computer system. It seems they are using a form of nano probe technology."

Kra'Dem replied,"It seems that these delegates distrust us. Let prove them wrong and earn their trust. Well in any case try to remove the nano probes from our computers."

The Grand Admiral then headed for the conference room and spoke to the delegation."It would seem that there is a general distrust among us. Your nano technology is very impressive so I propose a deal. We will 'give' the information and perhaps a megaton of Element X if you agree to share your nano technology. We could even perhaps consider an alliance of sorts."

"I doubt that you would remove them they are heilded from EMP (by the faraday cage) and can eat your computers well..." he takes out a device and recalls all the nanobots. "Also there are only a few minerals that can be that powerful: one naquadah, and two tiberium. Our home system and they systems in this cluster are abundant with both we jus dont have the ability to harness it to its full potential. However the nanoprobes are our only form of defence against larger ships becuase of their ability to eat ships and absorb most energy weapons. Observe."

He spills the nanobots on the floor. Then he shoots it with his chronometer laser. they stop for a second then move again.

"See."

He puts the nanobots back in the bottle.

Admiral Kra'Dem looked in amazement as he was surprised there wasn't a blast crater in the floor. "We have been trying to apply the energy given off from Element X as a power source for our shield generators. The problem is that we are having a difficult time extracting the element from the vein being extremely cautious. Maybe your nano tech can help us extract it more quickly?"

"The way we extract metals most efficiently with less damage to the environment is to use the nanoprobes to eat the metal to make more, they then return to the surface and deactivate. They also act as support where there aren't enough leftover material to make them."

Admiral Kra'Dem, "I guess we should name this element. In honor to the planet's name, New Siberia, we shall now call it Siberium. If you agree to letting us use your technology we will give you any important information concerning Siberium and a trade agreement of the element."

"Siberium... sounds like a cliche. Ah well we will accept just give us a ammount of iron or carbon. We will then give you a batch of nanoprobes... we must warn you that if they are ordered to do anything but mine they will explode on you... if what you say is true I believe this planet may blow up." He then transmitted the new orders to the nanoporbes that he already has and got ready to do their list of tasks.

Hours later...

Admiral Kra'Dem,"Done. The Carbon and Iron is en route to your ship. If you would like you can leave a research scientist here as a kind of ambassador for your world and can help us with the applications of Siberium and with other discoveries we uncover here."

The delgation returned to their shuttle and sped away to their ship. Then the ship went into hyperspace for the Waterhelper homeworld.

A Week Later....

5 Refugee class DD, 20 Archer class PT, 50 Arlington class FF, 100 Hernand class PT, a standard Waterhelper fleet which can take care of most threats, dropped into the system and proceeded to New Siberia to protect their interests there. Also on the surface several billion nanoprobes were transported to the mining site to remove all useful metals and the siberium from the vein.

Chapter 4: The Recon Mission

The IUCGS Star Destroyer Iron Curtain with its two Victory Star Destroy escorts finally reached the planet temporarily known as UCGP-2. A serene world with a heavily forested landscape. Two oceans divide 5 continents and a archipelago, engulfed by water, to the southern quadrant of the planet.

The young Captain Sokylov, 28 years old and in the top 10 percent of his class at the Imperial Union Naval Academy, came here with the first expedition fleet. Although his education in tactical, strategic, and logistics is superb, his experience in the field was rather inadequate. This would be his first experience as a Captain in the field but not his very first experience in the field where he served as a Lieutenant under Captain Terenov during an attack on pirates terrorizing the space lines between the IUCG colonies of Niznhiy and Kalashnakovia.

A Lieutenant in the pit looked up and told the Captain that they are in position of IP-2.

Sokylov nodded as he adjusted his tunic. He walked slowly to the viewport watching the planet coming into view after they dropped out of hyperspace.

Captain Sokylov,"Release the Carrack cruiser berthed in our docking bay."

"Yes sir. Docking ring is releasing the cruiser. Its descending out of the bay and.......its clear."

Captain Sokylov,"Good. Open a comm link to Major Torov."

A crewman in the left hand pit flipped a switch on his console."Comm link open sir."

Captain Sokylov began issuing his command,"Major, scout out the planet and report back to me once you have completed your scans of the terrain or if you find anything of importance."

Major Torov,"Yes. We are underway with the operation."

Captain Sokylov,"Major do not make me remind you next time that you are addressing a Captain of the Imperial Navy. Address me as sir."

"Yes sir'" Torov replied in a sarcastic manner. Torov had no respect for the young Captain as he was 18 years older than him. A man of more experience than his superior, but is stuck at his current rank because of his "conduct" with other superior officers. It was a miracle that he became a major. Despite this drawback he had earned the respect of his men and their trust.

The Carrack Cruiser entered the atmosphere and started on its mission to scan the planet.

Several hours later on UCGP-2 the reconaissance mission is already underway...

TIE Recon pilot, "Finished with the scans Major returning for reattachment."

"Sir thats 3 TIEs that have been accounted for but we still have not received a transmission from our last TIE." the Lieutenant reported.

Hmmm something must have gone wrong. thought Torov."Scan the area for the pilot, see if his TIE had a malfunction and crashed. Play the last transmission."

The Lieutenant flipped a switch and pushed a button on his console."Playback of recording has now started sir."

Recording of the pilot

"Nothing out of the ordinary so far...Helloo what do we have here. Looks like I found something..." Then the sound of a couple of blast bursts came immediately

Transmission ended

Major Torov,"It seems we are not alone on this rock. Is the pilot alive? I will not leave a man behind."

The Lieutenant replied,"Our scanners are not picking up the TIE Sir it has gone out of range of our scanners."

Major Torov, "Dammit. Alright lets start searching. Which direction did he go"

Lieutenant,"The TIE had gone North Northwest. His transponder signal went out around here." The Lieutenant points to a map of intial scans in space.

1 Hour later....

Major Torov,"Any sign of the pilot."

Lieutenant,"No sir....wait 2 objects coming in at bearing 5.68!"

Major Torov,"Get the sensor up I want a designation of that fighter."

After a few seconds the Lieutenant finally responds."One of them is the TIE we are looking for but I have no clue what the hell the other one is. It seems the bursts in the recording came from that fighter and damaged the pilot's transponder and transmitter."

The ship looked like a flying wing of sorts with two laser cannons merged into the edges of the wings. It was boomrang in shape and sleek and smooth like marble. Evilly black though and made a threatening *thwap* sound each time it fired.

Major Torov, "Its a damn good thing those recon fighters are shielded. How far away from them are we."

Lieutenant,"We are within firing range sir."

Major Torov,"Release the attack fighter and target that fighter. I don't want that thing to reveal our position."

As the TIE fighter was released, the laser cannons boomed from the Carrack. The TIE recon pilot couldn't shake him and was barely hit by a couple of shots. The recon pilot tried to lead its pursuer towards the carrier and with his luck the fighter did not go for that trick but instead ran for the hills. The TIE fighter ultimately caught up with the unknwon fighter and shot it down. The Carrack flew over the crash site.

Major Torov, "Is anyone alive?"

The Lieutenant checked the scanners."The pilot is almost dead."

Major Torov, "Land the ship and retreive the body and whatever remains of that fighter. Place it in storage and then we continue with the mission."

The Carrack landed by the crash site and crews started to get the fighter remains on board. A medical team picked up the barely killed pilot and secured him in a cryotube. Then the Carrack then lifted off and continued with its mission.

It has been a day since the attack on one of the TIE Recons by a unknown fighter. Major Torov and his crew continue with their mission, now with a new objective, to find the source of this unknown fighter. The crew had been searching for hours for a hidden base or downed capital ship. Then all of a sudden an alert came up on the energy scanner of a crewman.

Crewman,"Sir I think I found something."

Major Torov, "What is it?"

"Our energy scanners have picked up a huge energy source about 100 kilometers West from our current position. The power levels are off the scale!", the Crewman replied

"Land the ship 90 kilometers from the energy anomaly. The deploy the scouts.", Major Torov ordered.

The Carrack landed in a small clearing, the tall trees gave the ship its cover.
Scout troopers were deployed with their standard 74-Z Speeder Bikes. A total of 10 troopers were sent out to scout out the area. Their commander was Squad Leader Aran Colural, who was Major Torov's most dedicated scout.

Colural reached the site of the energy source. He saw nothing and checked his position on the datapad. He noticed that his squad was in position around the site and concluded they say nothing. Then something happened. There was a distortion in the middle of the field and then a structure appeared. Some kind of cloaking device? thought Colural.

After looking through his microbinoculars Colural saw a structure that was basically a ring with strange symbols that are arranged in a circular pattern. A sort of dial appeared before the structure which had a red node and symbols similar to the ring structure.

Colural picked up his comm link. "Colural to base come in."

Major Torov,"This is base, whats your status."

Colural, "Sir I found something." Then he relayed the pictures from his microbinoculars to the cruiser.

Major Torov, "What in the hell is that?!?"

Colural,"Its covered by some sort of cloaking device sir. At first we were going to dismiss it as a glitch on our scanners but it just appeared right where the energy source is located."

Major Torov,"Very good return to..."

Colural interupted,"Sir something is happening."

Major Torov,"What now?"

Colural, "The ring just lighted up and the symbol ring is spinning."

Major Torov, "Keep your men in position and get as much information as you can any sign of danger and you get the hell out of there."

Colural, "Yes sir."

The ring finally stopped its spinning then a gush of water like substance bursted out about 10 to 15 feet out. Then was sucked back in and then a serene puddle like field filled in the inner portion of the ring.

Colural, "Scout 5 whats the status of the rear of the structure."

Scout 5,"The rear looks the same as the front."

Scout 4,"Sir I scanned the Ring. Its made of naquadah."

Naquadah? Hmmm... Colural,"Ok Scouts 4 through 6 return to base."

All three in unison,"Yes sir."

A few seconds after the scouts hummed away on their speeders back to base. A humanoid emerged from the portal like device. The humanoid was dressed in a strange armor and had some sort of chainmail as a cape. The humanoid had a staff looking device clasped to his hand and a snake like object on his side, a possible sidearm. The humanoid appeared to be caucasion and had a strange golden mark on his head.

Colural reached for his comm link.

Colural,"Colural to base. I think we may have some company here."

Major Torov,"How many of the humanoids are there?"

Colural,"So far one...no wait more are coming through."

Two columns of humanoid troops came through the portal.

Colural,"I count 30 troops plus the one. I think that one is their commander sir. They appear to be hostile."

Major Torov,"Colural thats all you need to know to get your ass out of there."

Before Colural could confirm that he saw a huge massive ship fly over head. It looked like a flying pyramid. The troops at the portal scattered and three rings appeared out of nowhere and appeared to lift right back up. Boxes appeared before the humanoids where the rings touched the ground. It seemed like supplies for building a base. Colural saw th flying pyramid go back into orbit. Then he saw some troops heading towards his and the rest of his squads position.

Five humanoids came through the forestation, one of them passing a tree with Colural hiding behind it on his back side. He looks to the other way once the humanoid passes and then nods towards Scout 3 who was hiding in the bushes. Scouts 2 and 4 were in the trees with their sniper rifles. Scouts 8-10 were also hiding behind trees like their commander. As the rear humanoid looked down at an intrusion Scout 8 came up from behind, muffled the mouth of his victim, and slit his throat with his vibroblade. The other 4 did not even notice. The four humanoids then came across the covered speeder bikes and were startled that such technology existed on such a backwater world. Then Colural signal and the ambush was set. Scouts 9 and 10 underestimated the strength of the humanoids and were beaten away as Corlural came up from behind and stabbed one of the humanoids in the back with his vibroblade. Scouts 2 and 4 picked off two of the humanoids. The fourth humanoid evaded the sniper attacks and shot at Scout 4 with his staff. A big thwap hit Scout 4 instantly killing him. Colural then came up from behind and hit him in the back with a hammer like blow with both of his hands. As the humanoid stumbled down to the ground Colural continuosly beated him with a series of kicks and punches and banging the humanoid's skull against a rock, killing him. Colural ordered his troops to get on their speeders as they were about to return to base. As Scout 8 was approching the already mounted Scouts he was shot in the back by one of the staff weapons the humanoids had. Colural and his remaining squad members instantly took off after Scout 8's demise. The humanoid that shot Scout 8 alerted the other troops.

Colural and his remaining two scouts were racing to get to home base. Racing against time as the imminent alert of their presence on the planet was growing close. Ten minutes later there fears had surfaced as two fighters appeared behing them, these were the same as the mysterious fighter that was shot down half a day ago was chasing them firing there plasma cannons at them. Then Scout 3's bike was hit in the rear engulfing him in a ball of flames.

Colural,"We need to get out of the clearing head into the forest."

Scout 2,"But sir..."

Colural,"Do it or your dead trooper!"

They went into the forest dodging tree trunks, branches, and limbs. The fighters were shooting blindly into the forest some of the shots were way off as some were near fatal misses. After a few more shots and a near miss Scout 2 looked behind to look at the shot that almost killed him

Scout 2,"I got lucky on that one didn't I sir......"

Then Scout 2 looked back to the front.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH........."

An explosion was made in the back as Scout 2 was killed when he crashed into a tree stump. Colural was alone now going through the forest then he noticed something that troubled him. The last 10 kilometers was all clearing and this was extremely dangerous as the pilots on the fighters would have a more accurate shot. Then Colural decided to punch it and went to maximum speed zigzagging across the clearing to avoid the shots. He was nearly grazed by one of the plasma hits. He was about two kilometers away from the cruiser and the 1 kilometer from the treeline. He again twisted the bike back and forth avoiding near misses then abruptly he was knocked off his speeder by a nearby blast. His speeder bike crashed into a tree and he was lying in a bush unconcious.

Major Torov sat back in his chair as the news of Colural's transponder signal was lost. He can't believe it, his best scout gone. Scouts 5, 6, and 7 made it back with the information and holos.

Major Torov,"Get us out of here before more of those things arrive."

Lieutenant,"What about Colural sir?"

Major Torov,"He would wanted us to go and finish the mission. He knew the risks and would want nothing more than to complete this mission. Now get us the hell out of here."

Colural woke up from consciousness and saw the Carrack leave the planet's orbit.

They must have thought I was dead when the transponder in my comm link was damaged. Well I hope my scouts got the information back. Now I need to hide from those humanoids., Colural thought.

The two fighters started to pursue the Carrack into space, firing at it continously.

Major Torov,"Fire all batteries at those fighters."

Lieutenant,"Sir we caught one of them by surprise it has been destroyed."

Major Torov,"How is our shields holding up?"

"Minimal damage to shields and hull. No life threatening damage." one of the Crewman answered.

All of a sudden a 5 TIE Fighters appeared and chased off the fighter. The lead fighter destroyed the fighter and commed the Carrack.

Lead TIE Pilot,"This is Delta Leader, come in Major Torov."

"Copy Delta Leader this is Torov. You guys came in the nick of time."

Delta Leader,"Good to hear from you sir. We will escort you to the Iron Curtain. Captain Sokylov is awaiting your return."

As the Carrack continued its course towards the Star Destroyer, he can't help to wonder what were those humanoids, what was that ring, and most of all about the condition of his dear friend Colural. He thought Colural isn't dead and that he is still down there.

An Hour Later...

Captain Sokylov was pacing the bridge as he awaited the arrival of Major Torov with information of the planet. A few minutes later Torov entered the bridge with a furious look on his face.

"Where is the information, Major?" Sokylov said in a strict tone.

Torov replied,"Fighters of unknown class and origin attacked our cruiser and scouting team. I am reporting six casualties and one MIA."

Sokylov,"One MIA? It is assumed Colural is dead, Major. We must return to New Siberia and report this to Admiral Kra'Dem." (They have not heard about his promotion yet.)

"But..."

"But what, Major" Sokylov interupted.

"I never leave a man behind. I must go back." Torov answered.

Sokylov,"This is unacceptable, Major. Colural was expendable to our mission. Now get back to your post!"

Major Torov would have turned around as he was heading back to his post. Instead he gave the Captain a sucker punch to the jaw.

Torov,"Colural is still alive Captain and I intend to go back with or without your permission."

The guards were about to apprehend the Major but Sokylov rose up.

Sokylov,"NO! Let the fool go he will surely die in vain on that planet and that is punishment enough."

Major Torov took the Turbolift down to the docking bay and returned to his cruiser. His men volunteered to go despite the odds. They loaded onto the ship and prepared to take off but the docking ring would not let them go.

"Command release the docking ring." Major Torov ordered.

Sokylov,"I intended to let you go Major, but not in an Imperial vessel."

"Fine so be it!" Torov yelled.

The comm link cut off.

"Target the docking ring, then switch all power to shields and engines." Torov ordered.

"Yes sir." replied a crewman.

The cruisers turbolasers destroyed the docking ring and blasted out of the docking bay.

"Status report." yelled the infuriated Captain.

A crewman in the pit replied,"Our docking ring has been disabled, sir. They targeted it with turbolasers."

The Captain pounded his fist on the viewport."What are you waiting for lock on the tractor beams."

"We can not get a lock-on they are out of range."

"THEN FIRE EVERYTHING WE GOT AT THEM!" replied the infuriated Captain.

As the cruiser was about homefree a storm of turbolaser and laser fire was released on the fleeing cruiser.

"What is the status on the shields." Torov asked.

"Sir we are taking some severe hits on the back quadrant." The Lieutenant replied.

A few minutes later...

"Sir they stopped firing." the Lieutenant replied.

Torov replied,"They probably sent in fighters."

And sure enough his hunch was correct a group of 5 TIE Fighters and 2 Bombers were attacking the ship.

"Sir we can not take more of this. One more hit by the bomber and we are done for."

Torov,"Looks like this is it."

Then, to Torov's surprise 5 TIE Fighters appeared out of nowhere killing the TIEs.

Delta Leader,"We are coming with you Major."

Torov,"You will be counted for treason but I guess that is to late now. Hook up on the racks."

The TIEs did and the cruiser made its decent to the planet on its illegal mission of rescuing Colural.

Little did they know that a cloaked Sea Questian ship was following them and their intentions are unknown.

Meanwhile in orbit around New Siberia, the bridge of the Black Death....

Captain Ulgand,"Admiral, we are recieving a message from the Tannerlorians."

The Captain hand him the datpad. Kra'Dem read it and replied,"Tell them we will send a representative to this council, but we are mostly keeping a neutral stance."

Message to Tannerlorn:

We will send Moff Deala as our representative. Moff Deala is an excellent diplomat on the homeworld and will excellently represent us in your council. To remind you we are taking a neutral stance and she will remind you every time we are pressured into war.

OOC: Last chapter lol sorry its so long but i have to make a reference posts

Chapter 5: Siberium

One month earlier at the research facility on New Siberia....

The lead researcher, Dr. Ivan Pavlov III, was experimenting a way of utilizing Siberium as a power source for a city and possibly a planetary grade shield generator on a capital ship even possibly small frigates and starfighters. The tests on an isolated asteroid in the system shows that Siberium is stable if it is heated (which in turn can be malleable and ductile) or frozen at super temperatures, shot at by turbolaser or projectile weaponry, or has been radiated. The tests conclude however the only unstable characteristic of the element is if it is put through a fission-fusion-fission reaction the effects can be devestating, as seen in the test explosion 3 months earlier. If it is put through a fission reaction the effects are quite stable for some reason, a marvel of Quantum Mechanics.

Two Weeks ago....

After recieving the Lavarium from the Tigerlanians the research of the material was under way. After skimming the datapad full of information from the Tigerlanian Research Archives, Dr. Pavlov found Lavarium to be quite interesting. He then initiated his next project combining Siberium and Lavarium into a strong alloy. According to the datapad and the Tigerlanian research Lavarium is quite stable during a fission fusion fission reaction. With this knowledge at hand, Pavlov hopes to create an alloy for the UCG starships that were being created in the shipyards above. Siberium although highly explosive in power is highly resistant to laser fire, so much that, in some cases, actually reflect laser fire back at the shooter or at random spots. Other cases the siberium actually absorbs the energy. But the problem of the matter is through the use of atomic manipulation there is a fear of the ship exploding and perhaps taking the entire fleet with it let alone the system. The heat required to melt Siberium would be the heat of a Siberium fusion reactor.
The process would have to be done on a asteroid facility as were the tests. The asteroid belt found between New Siberia and UCGP 2 was a perfect location for the facility.

One week later...

The facility was made already and the testing initiated. To the scientists surprise the Siberium fusion reactor has been succesfully achieved and the Siberium has been melted successfully as well. Now for the Lavarium, which according to the Tigerlanian Archive, was easy to do as it is melted easily. The two were combined in the foundry and the first Siberium-Lavarium alloy was created. Pavlov and his research team celebrated in completing this endeavor and Pavlov quickly began testing plans that would ensue in the following week.

Present.....

After several tests with atom manipulation of the Siber-Lavar alloy, several asteroids being consumed by Siberium blasts, and a few lives being lost in the name of science, the research team finally perfected the delicate balance of the alloy. It succeeded in Lavarium stabilizing the quite extreme effects of Siberium. After weapons testing and durability the armor proved extremely resilient. The research team was celebrating and the vodka flowed. Now the UCG has completed two projects: producing an armor and producing a form of shield generator utilizing the fusion reactor model on the asteroid facility. The facility will now make full production of Siber-Lavar armor and shield generators for the new ships of the UCG the Ryurik class Star Destroyer. This would be the only facility so far, but more will be made elsewhere in the system, perhaps on UCGP 5, 10, 19.

OOC: And again I apologize for writing this novel of posts but this is IUCG's story

**bump**

***Esys3: Terturaga's moon:three months ago***

Katherine was tired of waiting for back up. After all lieutenant gorski could be injured or worse. She gulped and took a deep breath activating her thrusters with a thought impulse she jumped in to the abyss, her mecha floated perhaps 200 feet before landing on the "ground" underneath. The ship was silent, and on advanced optics it looked ancient, it felt ancient. It wasnt so much rusted as worn, so much crumbling as succumbing to entropy.

Still it was a majour find. However Katherine couldnt find Gorski anywhere.
She attempted to raise him on vox, and found herself unable to. A little more worried now she started to move inside the massive...whatever it was, she wasnt a scientist, she couldnt tell.

The sound of the mecha's metal feet clanging against the metal surface, the only sound in the derelict ship. It was more like a tomb, she thought to herself as she continued down the passageways, careful to let her helper bio-com continue to map the area. She kept advancing until her sensors picked something up ahead of her. There was a large drop off..and movement on the bottom floor.

She boosted down the tunnel at great speed and hovered over the pit, peering down and taking a rather good look at what lay beneath. Underneath her was a roiling sea of...she didnt know what. Also was Gorski's Morgenraete..or what was left of it. Whatever these..things..were, they were capable of causing her great harm. She attempted to raise gorski on vox again and took a few readings.

There were no life signs. She sighed and looked up..and had to stifle a scream as she saw the same sight that was on the bottom of the pit upon the roof of the area. She immediately boosted forward and out of the area, going back the way she came as fast as she could. Warning klaxons starting to blare, and she could almost feel the masses of nanites tearing away at her morgenraetes hull. By the time she made it back to the entry point..full ¼ of the armour on her raete was missing..and some of the nanites were still working, though they seemed to burn themselves out rather quickly.

She managed to exit the vessel in time for two horizont dropships and a squadron of morgenraetes to meet her. She dismounted as quickly as possible, fearing that her raete may not be structurally sound any longer as she called in everything she had learned on the Vox.

However it didnt matter much, as the horizonts unloaded she was told to get inside, her ship was being assigned to a rather large operation that would take place within the cluster itself..and she had to go with them. The shield carrier faithful, with its scientific caste complement was already there to replace them and continue the investigation in to the crashed vessel.

On the bridge of the Eclipse Class Super Stardestroyer Black Death...

Captain Ulgand walked over to Grand Admiral Kra'Dem with a datapad.

"Sir, here is the shipyard reports. So far 12 Ryurik Class Stardestroyers with the
Siber-Lavar armor and planetary grade shields have been completely constructed," the Captain reported.

Kra'Dem,"Excellent Captain. Crew them immediately and mobilize them into the fleet."

Ulgand replied,"Yes sir."

Kra'Dem,"How goes the construction of the two Super Stardestroyers?"

"It will take at least six more months to complete them and maybe another to plate on the new armor," Ulgand replied

"How goes the production of the alloy and where are we producing them?" Kra'Dem asked.

"The alloy is being produced at about 2 Mt a month and we are setting up new foundries on UCGP-5, a desert planet, UCGP-10, a water world with little land mass but just enough for a foundry, and UCGP-15, a planet that is highly forested," Ulgand answered.

Kra'Dem,"Good. That is all captain, you return to your duties."

"Sir I must request something," Ulgand quickly said.

"What is it Captain?" Kra'Dem replied

Ulgand asked,"My family has started their new life on New Siberia..."

"And you would like shoreleave to spend time with them." Kra'Dem finished his sentence.

"Yes sir. If I cannot I certainly understand," Ulgand said.

"Captain, there is nothing that can boost a soldier's morale more that some time at home with his family, so you have permission to take a six month shoreleave. Speaking of your family how goes Torrel's training at the academy?"

"My son is doing extremely well, top of his class. They say he will graduate in six months and make Lieutenant."

"That is excellent news Captain. There is a postion open in six months under the command of Admiral Pskov when the new Super Stardestroyers are built, tell him the offer is on the table," Kra'Dem politely gestured.

"Thank you sir. I will tell him upon graduation," Ulgand said.

Captain Ulgand left for the shuttle bay to catch the next shuttle to his family on New Siberia.

OOC: Can i join up with my wierd variation of Homeworld Tech?

ooc note: Yes you can, however whats the wierd variation [all ideas are welcome]

OOC: Can i join up with my wierd variation of Homeworld Tech?

Yes, you would need to go to the origional thread and ask WaterHelper if you can join.

I believe all the requests are being handled there.


http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=467217

Recent events within the cluster had proved to be surprisingly interesting and indeed aided the Chronosians. While the experiment with the gate had merely been meant to scour clean the hated Seaquestrians from Botany; it had instead provided an intriguing new method of warfare. Massive Warp exposure by proxy. The Miehmish, as usual, had proved to be capable and violent pawns. Now all that remained was to extend their own power; to prove themselves capable of holding positions and attaining glory through these worlds; worlds that had become, by right of conquest, vassals of the Imperium.

Upon one, bathed in the baleful light of the warp; A Chronosian Research facility lay; slumbering; it's occupants going about whatever black science might aid the Imperium; extrapolating theories about the effect of the recent experiments upon the cluster. Weapons and men, supplies and resources arrived through Traders and Imperial Navy vessels; and defence construction was progressing nominally. The facility had even been earmarked for an Imperial visit. The Emperor would play his hand in the Cluster soon enough; till then; they could wait...And work.

OOC: Id just like to add here, for further refrence, Tigerlan Control's Utopia, Its a weapons platform/space settlement

Six Months Later on the Homeworld of the Imperial Union of Communistic Governments of Comerand....

Its been four hard years at the Imperial Fleet Academy, four years of studying tactics of old wars and strategies of Generals long gone. Four years of space combat training and simulations. Finally his hardwork and determination payed off as Torrel Ulgand stepped up to the podium during the 418th Imperial Graduation. He looked at his father who sat with a grin on his face, with his mother Lin and his 3 siblings, Terra, Torek, and Tomov. Then his name was called and there he saw the certificate that will grant him the ability of entering the fleet with the rank of Lieutenant. A rank of privilage and responsibility and Torrel was ready for it.

Captain Ulgand walked over to his son, a Lieutenant of the IUCG Navy, to congratulate him, with the document that will give him the permission to transfer to the newly built Executor II Class Super Star Destroyer Endurance.

Torrel stood in an officer's posture in his Imperial Cadet Uniform as his father came near. Then the two hugged and stepped back.

"Im proud of you Torrel. You have done an excellent job here at the Academy," a proud Ulgand said.

Torrel replied to the compliment," Thanks dad, I couldn't do it without your support and inspiration."

"Your prowess here has gotten the attention of some brass, including my commanding officer Grand Admiral Kra'Dem," Ulgand said.

"Grand Admiral Kra'Dem! Now thats a surprise, why would a man of that high caliber be interested in me. Unless you had been bragging about me," Torrel said.

"Don't look at me..." Ulgand laughed "it was all you my son, top ten percent at the academy, setting a new record on the combat simulation, Battle of Kirovia. If you want to blame someone on bragging, blame the high command," Ulgand said then laughed a little more.

"Okay. What's that you have in your hand dad," Torrel gestured.

Ulgand answered,"This, Lieutenant Ulgand, is your permission to serve on the newly built Super Star Destroyer Endurance under the command of Admiral Pskov. Once again this was all Grand Admiral Kra'Dem's doing."

"The Endurance huh...I just might have to take my time with this dad. It is a big decision," Torrel said

"Do what you think is right and what makes you happy. Thats all I want from your son," Ulgand said.

An hour later at the Graduation Ball while Ulgand was chatting with a few of his old friends who's kids are also graduating, Torrel gave his decision. "I'll take the post!"

Ulgand turned around,"What?"

"I'll take the post dad. I thought it over and why not. I can be near the rest of the family and take the post on a Super Star Destroyer. I'll take it," Torrel said.

"Thats great news..." Ulgand stood up and talked into his datapad that was linked to the intercom system."I would like to propose a toast in honor of my son's new post. To new beginnings." Ulgand rose his glass towards his son.

"To new beginnings," everyone said in unison.

Torrel was embarassed but did not show it and the Graduation Ball resumed while Torrel sat with his father, Captain Terek Ulgand.

Meanwhile back in the cluster in high orbit over New Siberia...

A lieutenant in the pit of the bridge on the Black Death reported a message to Kra'Dem,"Sir we are receiving a holo transmission from Moff Deala."

"Patch it through," Kra'Dem ordered.

"Yes sir," as she relayed the transmission to the holoscreen.

"It is good to see your face again Ka'rin," Kra'Dem said.

Deala replied,"And to you Aleksander."

Kra'Dem asked,"Why have you called Ka'rin?"

"Today is the start of the first Cluster Congress and I would like you to participate in the proceedings and voice your opinions," Deala said.

Kra'Dem replied,"I am quite busy but I guess I can make time for this Congress. Expect me to be there in 2 hours. Kra'Dem out."

The transmission ended.

Kra'Dem ordered,"Send a transmission message to high command and tell them I am at the Congress and to alert that Captain Ulgand is needed here."

"Yes sir," Lieutenant Sha'rev said.

On Comerand at the Imperial Academy Ballroom...

As Torrel and his father were chatting with the faculty, a woman in a Imperial Navy uniform came up to the group and handed the Captain a datapad saying it was an urgent message from Kra'Dem. The Captain excused himself from the group and headed to a more isolated area of the ballroom area. Torrel interested followed his father to the isolated area.

"What is it dad?" Torrel asked

Ulgand turned around, "It is a message from Grand Admiral Kra'Dem, I am to return to the Black Death immediately. It would seem the celebration is cut short for me. Sorry son."

Torrel shrugged,"Well safe journey back to New Siberia, Captain." Torrel saluted.

Ulgand saluted back,"Same to you when your transfer is underway, Lieutenant." then Ulgand smiled and walked towards the exit for his speeder car.

See ya at New Siberia dad Torrel thought.

Meanwhile at the Cluster Capital World...

(OOC: We need to come up with a name. I can't make it up as it will contradict with the other rpers.)

Kra'Dem's shuttle arrives at docking bay near Moff Deala's residence."Ka'rin! It is good to see you for the first time in months since your appointment here."

Moff Deala replied,"Yes Aleksander it is a pleasure to see you as well. The time of the congress is in a few days you may wait here to pass the time."

"Is there any other option..." Kra'Dem luaghed, "let us discuss the issues at this...congress, so I may get a better idea of the situation."

"It would seem there was some mysterious ship movement within this region," Deala reported.

"Mysterious ship movement? Of what kind?" Kra'Dem asked.

"There were some reports of Tannerlorn vessels being recalled for an upgrade of some sort that reduces the ships' size considerably but give off a reading of being larger than what is seen. These reports have yet yo be confirmed," Deala replied.

Kra'Dem looked puzzled at this news. What is happening to the Tannerlornian vessels? "I'm guessing this congress or whatever should resolve this problem, Ka'rin."

"Hopefully Aleksander, hopefully."

Deep within the Cluster the territory of the Empire lay, surrounded by all the others. The Headquarters of the Cluster Police and the Council Chambers for those nations who decided to make this their home was located at Draconus Prime. Aboard the Blackstone fortress an entire level of the massive structure was reserved for police activities and ruling the cluster through the council.

The Imperial Fleets were carefully patrolling the entire territory while The Asmodeus, a Planet Killer bought from Cam III so many centuries ago lay in wait for anyone foolish enough to invade the system. Accompanying her was the Homeguard, ships assigned to patrol and defend the system and to keep things secure.

The Imperial territory lay adjacent to the core of the Cluster, the region at the center where the close proximity to other stars caused a high amount of background radiation that made the worlds not only uninhabitable, but extremely toxic and hostile. The trick gravity wells created by so many stars made the region all but impossible to navigate using standard FTL.

Everything was about to change.

For the past few weeks, the steady recall of battle groups to the Cluster HQ was noticeable to Tannelorn which was required to play a more active role in policing the rest of the Cluster. When the ships were seen, it was noticed they were much smaller than before.

It was theorized the ships were being recalled for some sort of upgrade. What sort of upgrade would reduce the size of a ship was unknown but the ships still registered as possessing the mass of a small sun with power readings that could only be described as incredible.

A meeting was called and all residents of the Cluster was asked to send a representative to the Council Chambers.


OOC:

I will start the meeting with whoever shows up in one week. Wednesday the 10th.

OOC: I will be there, I just need a location

OOC: Well I am already there at the meeting place balrogga as explained in my earlier post. The meeting should begin in a few RP hours which is till your due date. I could change my earlier post to fit with yours. Such as instead of a few hours the Admiral will stay for a day at Moff Deala's residence. I think I am goin to open a romantic relationship between the two.


O ya we need a name of the Cluster HQ planet.

OOC:

The meeting is in a few hours NS time but I am allowing all the others with territories here a weel RL time to notice the post and to reply.

The meeting is in the Council Chambers at Draconus Prime.

Sorry for any confusion.

OOC:
1.) I need to be added to the list in the first post. Don't know why I'm not in it.
2.) Bal, I'll just assume you sent the co-ordinates for the meeting with the cluster-wide transmission requesting everyone send representatives.

IC: A discovery had been made in the Belle Terre star system. One of such import, that the SeaQuestian Empire had been beefing up the system's defenses.

Many new stations orbited around the system's star, some SeaQuestian designed and built, others purchased from various other nations.

The SQian Empire had also been seeking a venue that would allow them to broach the matter of this discovery with those pretty much in charge of the cluster, the Cluster Police, that seemed to be led by the nation of Balrogga.

A sample of the material was carefully packaged and stowed aboard the I.S.S. Atlantis 8100 herself. Not only the class ship for the Atlantis class advanced command battle cruisers, this custom modified ship was listed as the flagship of the entire SeaQuestian navy.

The Atlantis cloaked and dissapeared into a Hyperspace Window en-route to the co-ordinates in the invitational message transmitted by the Balroggans.

ooc you werent in because of an accident sorry. I will fix that.ooc you werent in because of an accident SQ, sorry. I will fix that. And sorry all about fluid time, alot of events made me do it. Anything without a timeline on it is considered present.

***New Carpentaria***

It had been almost 6 months since construction had begun on the three cities on each of the three planets around the jovian world known as new carpentaria.

The orbital space of the gas giant was starting to become rather crowded with defense installations as well as shipyards and construction facilities. In fact many of the uninhabitable moons had a great deal of resources attached to them, and already nearly automated Markaia stations were dredging up great amounts of resources, and diligently refining and purifying the elements, as well as synthesising those that they needed.

Resource wise the new colonies were likely better off then their home system..however there were still so few Tannelornians living in the system.

Perhaps 3 million Tannelornians had arrived to live in the already finished parts of the large well layed out cities that were forming on the worlds below..and another 500 000 people were living in space above the giant world.

Still it was very busy, and people were arriving from Tannelorn all the time. Utilising the ancient Ikazuki hull as bulk transporters for people and equipment the projected 1 billion people inside the pocket within 5 years was well on schedule. However more Markaia units were needed. And the costly construction-aides took time and resources to produce. The system Prefect decided at that point to start manufacturing his own..however long it would take.

However the most important task of the shipyard above New Carpentaria was in affecting the projected fleet refit and reorganising of the 1st expeditionary fleet. And it had been in full swing for the last month and a half.

The ships themselves were almost completely upgraded, moving in 12 at a time, 6 for the larger vessels to be completely retrofitted with the new ubeck fields, as well as the new weapon systems available to them.

However the Mark III morgenraete Omega patterns were taking longer to build then the fleet refit. After all they had to produce a rather large amount of them..and simply couldnt use the old models for something else. However this was not all that had happened in the last few months.

Every single GAP vessel involved in the liberation of Waterhelper returned not to sol, but to the cluster itself. They would comprise the primary defensive forces of the colonies. 200, kilometer long assault ships and 1 million replicant soldiers, each with their complement of 75 Faust superiority fighters and 25 Hellebarde high maneuver frames.

They would serve as not only the ground army but the first line of defense against any invading force, if the expeditionary force was unable to stop them outside of the system. Also they would take up many of the policing duties of the Tannelornian navy itself,to help lessen the burden of cluster security. Already pirates and brigands were trying to take advantage of this new frontier, and the fleet of Tannelorn was needed primarily elsewhere, it was up to the civilian army, the grand army of the prefecture to provide much of the outsystem might of the navy itself. And it was eager to start doing so..


***Reinheit moon: New carpentaria***

Construction had started months ago, and was still going strong in the rapidly expanding city. There was an absolute air of excitement surrounding the construction. Reinheit was a beautiful mountainous world. Most of the water was stored in hundreds upon hundreds of lakes and rivers and streams which dotted the world, winding down mountain sides and pooling in valleys below. The wildlife was also rather incredible, not one lizard or insect had so far been catagorised, the fauna consisted primarily of carnivores which ate the vast amount of hardy herbivores, stalking and feeding on the hills themselves, and in the deep but strange forests covering the land.

Still construction would continue, and Reinheit would become the first truly completed city of the Tannelornian pocket. Already a million Tannelornians called it home..and millions upon millions more would join them shortly.

***Lehenstreue***
The capital city of Tannelorn's pocket was coming along a little slower then the other two cities..after all it had to be far grander then the rest, including a palace for the king, despite his disappearance. Still it was going to be a beautiful site. The city was built on several small islands in the middle of a rather beautiful quay, surrounded on each side by massive cliffs leading out to
sea. The beautiful purplish water seemed to lap up on the shore gently.

The group of people currently looking at the city as flights of bio mechanicals expanded it further were rather enjoying the novelty of being in the open air. The skies were something that needed a little getting used to, especially in flight as the massive gas giant seemed to threaten to swallow the tannelornians as they flew..but after a while it was a welcoming sight.

Construction would continue unabated on this garden world, unceasing until the very end of time itself as they transformed this paradise in to a new home for their people.

OOC:

Could someone please fix the map? I have always been in the center and the Blackstone located at Draconus Prime is used for both the Council Chambers and the Police HQ.

As an alternative map, you could use the 3 layer one I designed:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v248/beldragos/clusterupper.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v248/beldragos/clusterupper.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v248/beldragos/clustercenter.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v248/beldragos/clustercenter.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v248/beldragos/clusterlower.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v248/beldragos/clusterlower.jpg


I always imagined my position in the cluster as Territory #13

ooc Balrogga, lets use your map then :) no problems at all. We can use both i assume so long as we manage to make them fit with each other. Only thing we really need is a legend then we have it made.

Dispatched in the name of the Imperium to attend the meeting, was a certain Lord Idasu Ari; famed Inquisitor in the service of Ezekial himself; who now stood ready and able upon the bridge of a Despoiler class Battlecruiser; the Hammer of Fate. Fingers closed over each other as he sat, leaning back into the command chair; indicating the point on star charts that flickered and danced in holographic arrays.

"There." He whispered, fingers toying now with his long black ponytail. "There is where we shall attend this Balroggan meeting. If it is of import to all of the Cluster; then by rights we must attend."

((Hi guys I'm back anyway someone care to fill me in.. I already know that MM got kicked out (aperantly from what I hear) anything besides that))

OOC: Well you could read our first posts in this thread. But in short some guy named The Federal Union, is invading SQ. We are having a council or Cluster Congress as i like to call it on Draconus Prime and we were about to start it this week but idk what happened to bal.

Tonight is Wednesday night, the day I was going to have the meeting.

After I get my errands done I will sit down and compose the post.

Look for it in a few hours.

Draconus Prime, the home of the Council lay on the outer edge of the Balrogga Territory in the Cluster. The council chambers were occupying a single level of the Blackstone Fortress the Empire placed there long ago. Nearby, the Asmodeus waited for anyone foolish enough to attack.

The fortress also served another purpose, headquarters for the Cluster Police, the Tannelorn-Balrogga joint program approved by The Founder to keep the Cluster tenants from fighting each other.

That was the only stipulation originally laid down for permission to occupy the territory by WaterHelper, the Founder of the Cluster. Later it was decided that anything that happened in the Cluster, stayed there and nobody was allowed to bring in outside allies. The reason was to keep all battles out of the Cluster.

Today is the meeting of the Cluster Council. The Empire issued notices to all tenants and those that wished could attend. If they failed to show, then they would not get a say in the workings of the Cluster.

The council chambers were prepped and the table was extended to fit all 20 possible tenants. The vaguely triangular table was set up so the Founder sat at the apex with the two Police nations on his sides. The rest would sit along a gracefully curving site that allowed for 17 people to sit comfortably. There would not be any need for all 17 seats for at least four territories remained unclaimed so far. Several other nations were never heard from again once they showed up and were given their territory, selecting to lead an isolationist existence.

D’Rant entered the chamber accompanying the Founder and the Tannelorn rep. When he got to his seat he sat down and looked around the room to see who had bothered to show up.

12 Hours Earlier

After Grand Admiral Kra'Dem had agreed to stay at Moff Deala's residence for the 2 days till the Council meeting, he had talked with Deala over the matters at hand and of course some catching up since there last departure. It was during the academy 20 years ago they had been rivals achieving top in their classes. A friendly competition of sorts as each other would compliment the others achievements. Ever since graduation when Deala set off to military politics and Kra'Dem set off to the Imperial Navy and the news from the Supreme Commander Ryurik that Deala would be the council member at Draconus Prime, Kra'Dem was eager to meet her, but never had the time to see her till this event gave him the opputunity. Perhaps they have feelings for each other or they are good friends, no one would never know.

6 Hours Later..

Kra'Dem and Deala were getting ready for the council this morning. As they were about to leave for the shuttle Kra'Dem's datapad sounded an alert. Kra'Dem grabbed it and looked at the message.

"What?!?" Kra'Dem yelled in surprise.

"Aleksandr, whats wrong?" Deala asked in response to his explosive yell.

Kra'Dem gestured her the datapad,"Check for yourself Ka'rin."

Deala took the datapad from his hands and looked at the message:

Message from Imperial High Command via the Black Death

Sir we are getting a message from Supreme Commander Ryurik. The Commander says that he will arrive at Draconus Prime in three hours from Comerand to attend the Cluster Council. He will meet you and Moff Deala at her residence on the planet before proceeding to the council chambers.

Message End.

"Aleksandr this is quite a surprise. The Supreme Commander..." Deala said.

"I guess he wants to observe the council meetings." Kra'Dem said.

"Lets hope he will only 'observe' my dear Aleksandr." Deala replied.

Three Hours later...

Supreme Commander Ryurik's shuttle landed at the landing area. Out of the ramp of the Lambda class shuttle came the Iosef Ryurik, a man of earned respect and a well mannered look on his face.

"Aleksandr it is good to see you in person since the expedition was set off. And Ka'rin, I see you are doing well here mediating our stance."

Kra'Dem, "Sir if you do not mind the meeting will start in about three hours."

"Of course of course." Ryurik said

Kra'Dem led the Supreme Commander and Moff Deala to the Scimitar Shuttle where it will head for the council chambers at Blackstone Fortress in high orbit.

"So Aleksandr inform me of the situation in this cluster," asked Ryurik.

"Well sir we have been getting reports of ship disapperances or deformities in the middle of the cluster lately," Kra'Dem replied.

"What kind of deformities?" the Supreme Commander asked.

"The ships seem to be smaller but of the same mass as the ship was originally," Deala said.

"Interesting, is there anymore?"

"Yes sir, there has also been reports of an invasion on the Sea Quest Imperial Holdings here." Kra'Dem informed the Supreme Commander.

"Yes we have been getting reports back at HQ too. This will be a tough fight for both sides of the conflict. I am guessing this is what the council is about," Ryurik asked.

"Not really sir but we will find out soon enough, we are here," Kra'Dem gestured to the viewport. Outside a giant fortress of immense size appears.

As the three got out of the shuttle they are aproached by a guard.

Guard,"You must be the IUCG delegation."

"Yes, I am Moff Deala, councilwoman of the Imperial Union of Communistic Governments, with Expeditionary commander of New Siberia and outlying colonies Grand Admril Aleksandr Kra'Dem, and Supreme Commander of the Imperial Union Fleet Grand Admiral Iosef Ryurik."

Guard,"I see. This way to the council chamber."

OOC: Supreme Commander is not the Imperial Premier. Just a very HIGH ranking official.

OOC:

The Blackstone Fortress is a space station. You were right about it being huge tho...

There are details on mt site if you want a picture.

Lord Kharrack stood at attention before his chair. After all he did not want to sit before his guests. There were many topics on the agenda today. What to do with the miehmish colonists, what to do about the waterhelper cluster as well as the pananab. The pananab especially were troublesome in that they chose not to come to the council meeting.

It didnt matter though, the largest issue the Cluster residents had to face at the moment was the continuing war between TFU and Seaquest and his allies.

TFU was a massive nation, easily capable of crushing the tiny nation of Seaquest under their industry alone. Not only this they had brought along many allies. Tannelornian ships had already arrived on the scene of the massive battle over the planet, and were likely at this point to communicate the necessity of the SQ forces to retreat and force TFU's forces in to much smaller battle groups, only then could they be handled properly.

However word had been sent to Tannelorn itself, and it was preparing to send reinforcements. After all, the pocket [cluster] was the hope of Tannelorns future. Kharrack prepared himself to greet the first guests in the fashion of Tannelorn..

Ryurik, Kra'Dem, and Deala walked into the council chambers. There they saw the representative from Waterhelper, the representative Kharrack of Tannerlorn, and the representative from Balrogga waiting patiently for the arrival of the other cluster member's envoys to come. They were greeted by Lord Kharrack of Tannerlorn and they greeted him back. They talked a bit about the situation and other such issues such as an invitation to some sort of alliance. After there conversation the three found out there was only seventeen seats and Kra'Dem and Ryurik gentlemen as they are, offer Deala the seat and agreed to stand behind her.

Meanwhile on the Black Death....

Captain Ulgand, since his visit to the Imperial Academy on Comerand to attend his son's graduation, had came back to the Black Death and wondered where the Admiral was. Then Lieutenant Sha'rev gave him the datapad to update him on current events. He read the datapad and said "I see..."

He turned his view to the Lieutenant,"Thank you Lieutenant."

"Its good to have you back sir. Holding down this fort is harder than it looks." Sha'rev admitted.

Captain Ulgand nodded,"Ya it was hell on me when I first tried. Well back to your post Lieutenant."

"Yes sir," Sha'rev saluted.

I wonder when this council will end. Ulgand thought...

OOC: I never declared my piece independant, I just said that I'm only entitled to my own agreement with Waterhelper: No starting fights, which I was going to follow until I blew the powers out of the region.
IC:
--Talks with Tannenlorn--
Pananab is unable to attend to a meeting for our previous disagreement, as we suspect Tannenlorn is. We hope that in teh future we can sign something formal, but Pananab wishes a temporary Non-Aggression Pact until our problems are through and we can sit down and speak over our problems peacefully.
--Pananab Civil War--
-Backstory-
After Stowes dragged his fleet away from teh Cluster and swapped it for teh Second Semi-Fleet, he was lured to Remiel, where the psychic Kao'Tu split Stowes into his three entities: Chaos, Balance, and Law. Law escaped Remiel seperately, whereas Balance and Kao'Tu were able to escape on their own. Chaos's wherabouts are unknown and it is suspected he is raising some sort of hell.
-Current affairs-
With Law Stowes on the move towards the CLuster, the Second Semi-Fleet is preparing the borders for an assault by the split Stowes. It is suspected that their tactics will be orderly and performed to the letter, which will call for Zheng to use 'Space Guerrila' tactics against them once they show. The other denizens of teh Cluster have been warned to not interfere, as one or both fleets may fire on them, especially Law Stowes, who will be disgusted by the lack of order in the other nation's military (However much of an extent that may be.)
The Panrabia 2, which is almost finished, has been moved successfully to Zheng's domain, where it is being staffed, commissioned, armed, and hidden. Other defensive projects, such a mine fields, are being set up in the Pananab systems.
-Chaos Stowes-
Knowing that the material fleet is no longer present near Chronosia, Chaos Stowes has summoned his own chaos fleet. Being the same size as the Semi-Fleets, the actions of these summons are completely unpredictable, and their very exsistance cannot be predicted, but Chaos Stowes is too weak to create ships powerful enough to do any real damage to teh space/time continium.

The I.S.S. Atlantis had arrived in the Draconus Prime star system with plenty of time to spare.

Ambassador Terinxx took a Trident II shuttle over to the Blackstone, which, when compared to the Atlantis, was like comparing a bowling ball to a flea. Once in the hanger of the giant station, he found an escort to where he needed to be. A sample of the discovery that would be announced at this meeting was in a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. The Furling scratched at the chafing skin around where the metal of the handcuff encircled his wrist.

"Should have worn a pad underneath it," he thought, "then it wouldn't itch so damn much."

Once in the Council Chambers, the Furling Ambassador representing the SeaQuestian Empire's holdings in the Cluster, took his seat. He reached a hand into his left pants pocket to make sure the key for the cuffs was still there.

OOC: Sorry about the delay. Been kinda busy.

...meeting...
To begin the meeting the Waterhelper rep. stood up.
"Representitives of the cluster empires." he looked around. "First I would Like to make it clear that we would like not war in the cluster, however we are willing to disscuss these diplomatic shortcommings by races that still have a taste for blood."

As the last of the representatives arrives the doors closed and sealed. The Council Meetings were private and none would be allowed to enter or leave except in the case of a dire emergency. The suppression field was activated to prevent any eavesdropping or bugging attempts. All communications were to be channeled through the systems installed for that purpose.

The Founder stood and addressed the Council.

"Representitives of the cluster empires." he looked around. "First I would Like to make it clear that we would like not war in the cluster, however we are willing to disscuss these diplomatic shortcommings by races that still have a taste for blood."

With that proclamation, the meeting had begin.

The Imperial Councilman stood and addressed the ones assembled.

“The first order of business should be the one that is foremost upon our minds. The battle that is threatening to disrupt the entire cluster.”

He waved his hands toward the walls and holoscreen blinked into life showing dozens of views of the battle as it was being fought live.

“What do we do about this?”

"We would support our Federal allies in their efforts; out of ancient pacts of blood and loyalty. We ask what loyalty the people of Seaquest have? What pacts they abide by? We would say that it matters not whether the Union or the Seaquestrians triumph; but that one shall be driven out.

The rights of territory are guaranteed only to those who can defend it. Those too weak or too impotent to hold it, must be ground out. It should further be made known that the Cluster police were founded to prevent the same squabbles between the soverign nations who rule this cluster. This argument is between two nations; one from within; one outsider. They should settle it themselves; and amongst their allies."

Space Lord Abarrakh looked over the delegates. "Master of the chronosians, let me remind you of our AEON ties in this issue, TFU attacked seaquest, whom, like you is a member of the cluster compact, simply by being here you agree to the compact." he said softly.


He rose from his seat."TFU forces have invaded not only seaquestian territory but the gatebuilders as well..this in turn has led us to take action against them, any attack on the cluster is by default an attack on Tannelor..."

Abarrakh was suddenly interrupted, he turned to his aide, they whispered to each other. Abarrakh suddenly turned and looked over the seaquestian delegate witha cold fury on his features. "You..." he pointed at him angrily. "You were not only going to destroy a moon, but in the process ignite a power source in the hopes of destroying the TFU fleet?" he practically snarled the words.

"Well played; well played. I must admit-" The Inquisitor chuckled. "I am most impressed. I would almost mistake you for a Chronosian. The Seaquestrians shall know the wrath of countless snarling hounds; let them flee to their own holdings; and our galaxy be rid of them. We have had enough trouble with extra-galactic vermin than requiring to endure its presence amongst our stars"

A cold laughter "We are glad that certain members of this council see reason. This atrocity is unthinkable. To use a moon and some power source to wipe out the majority of a fleet; we have perpetrated acts most foul in our time; but the disregard of the Seaquestrians for the stability to the Cluster..." A sigh "Not since the Miehmish invoked the glory of the Gods has such an act presented itself. Might we ask how you plan to dispose of the moon?"

“The Empire can take care if it so it will never be seen again.”

D’Rant interrupted, causing his voice to rise while staring the SeaQuest Rep straight in the eye.

“We can Uplift it to a dimension where only energy can exist. This will completely annihilate it beyond all possibility of recomposition.”

D’Rant noticed a small movement of Terinixx’s eyes, as if he glanced down at the briefcase chained to his right wrist. D’Rant could feel the uncertainy flowing from Tarinixx and detected the sudden change of resolve as he decided upon his action.

Quick as a flash, D’Rant sent a massive blast of Psi energy intending to not only stun the ex-ambassador into inaction but also to leave him reeling and dazed for quite some time.

D’Rant stepped up upon the table and walked across the top of it directly towards Terinixx. As he walked closer towards him, he continued to send blast after blast of Psi energy directly into the mind of his victim.

“How DARE you try to use this Council for your own purposes!”

BLAST

“How DARE you endanger the citizens of the Cluster!”

BLAST

How DARE you risk the stability of the Cluster itself!”

BLAST

“How DARE you try to USE the Empire for your own benefit!”

BLAST BLAST

“For that I will FLAY your mind wide open and let every FEAR you have FEAST upon your subconscious. After they are done with you and have you nice and TENDER, I will COME for you and start all over. I will prevent you from DYING, keeping your pitiful mind TRAPPED within that frail shell of yours until I tire of your WIMPERING and MEWING. I will then let OTHERS have their way with your mind, turning your existence into a living HELL that only DEATH will reprieve you from, but I will NEVER allow you to die. You will suffer for an ETERNITY under my most careful ministrations.”

BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST

By this time D’Rant had stepped off the table and used the ambassadors chair as a step to get to the floor. He stood over the fallen ambassador.

“I will show you the face you will see every sleeping and waking moment of the rest of your existence.”

D’Rant flooded Terinixx’s mind with visions of the Ta’Nar’s true form and the things they did when they were still a race living in the Warp and hunting the Warp Demons for sport. The visions of 5 meter tall spider-like nightmare creatures would torment Terinixx for the rest of his pitiful existence.

Space Lord Abarrakh looked over the delegates. "Master of the chronosians, let me remind you of our AEON ties in this issue, TFU attacked seaquest, whom, like you is a member of the cluster compact, simply by being here you agree to the compact." he said softly.


He rose from his seat."TFU forces have invaded not only seaquestian territory but the gatebuilders as well..this in turn has led us to take action against them, any attack on the cluster is by default an attack on Tannelor..."

Abarrakh was suddenly interrupted, he turned to his aide, they whispered to each other. Abarrakh suddenly turned and looked over the seaquestian delegate witha cold fury on his features. "You..." he pointed at him angrily. "You were not only going to destroy a moon, but in the process ignite a power source in the hopes of destroying the TFU fleet?" he practically snarled the words.

"As we speak the 1st expeditionary force is dismantling your moon and attacking your forces in concert with TFU forces...and you shall surrender now or we shall go to all of your holdings in the cluster and sieze them as we did mini miehms. Do not trifle with us."

"Furthermore seaquests holdings will be immediately siezed and given to TFU, which means...that TFU is no longer attacking the cluster, but defending his own holdings. Chronosian delegate, the time is now right to fulfill ancient treaty vows, the cluster compact and AEON accords, let loose the dogs of war in any way you see fit."

Terinxx launched out of his seat and roared, "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT! THAT IS NOT A DECISION YOU CAN MAKE AS YOU ARE NOT THE MASTERS OF THIS CLUSTER. THAT RIGHT FALLS TO WATERHELPER!

"As for our moon, we are only preventing something that can be used IN weapons, not AS a weapon, from falling into TFU's hands. Any power source related matters are down in our own home galaxy where we can control who gets close to it and who doesn't!

"Be fully prepared to back your claims, dear representive.

"As for the material you think is a power source, I've brought a sample for the Balroggans to analyze. That was the primary purpose of my visit here. This meeting is only secondary in classification as defined by the SeaQuestian Emperor himself!"

He took out the key from his pocket and undid the cuffs on both him and the briefcase. He then set the case on the table in front of him and opened it with the retinal scanner. He removed a transparent container containing a sliver of green crystal suspended in the middle. The crystal appeared to be glowing with some strange inner radiance.

"Now its true that the material emits radiation, but that's the only energy that we can detect coming from it. Inside this container, its safely contained."

"Well played; well played. I must admit-" The Inquisitor chuckled. "I am most impressed. I would almost mistake you for a Chronosian. The Seaquestrians shall know the wrath of countless snarling hounds; let them flee to their own holdings; and our galaxy be rid of them. We have had enough trouble with extra-galactic vermin than requiring to endure its presence amongst our stars"

A cold laughter "We are glad that certain members of this council see reason. This atrocity is unthinkable. To use a moon and some power source to wipe out the majority of a fleet; we have perpetrated acts most foul in our time; but the disregard of the Seaquestrians for the stability to the Cluster..." A sigh "Not since the Miehmish invoked the glory of the Gods has such an act presented itself. Might we ask how you plan to dispose of the moon?"

Terinxx snarled back, still in a foul mood, "And wouldn't you be ready to defend your holdings in the cluster at any and all costs if it were you under invasion?"

“The Empire can take care if it so it will never be seen again.”

D’Rant interrupted, causing his voice to rise while staring the SeaQuest Rep straight in the eye.

“We can Uplift it to a dimension where only energy can exist. This will completely annihilate it beyond all possibility of recomposition.”

D’Rant noticed a small movement of Terinixx’s eyes, as if he glanced down at the briefcase chained to his right wrist. D’Rant could feel the uncertainy flowing from Tarinixx and detected the sudden change of resolve as he decided upon his action.

Quick as a flash, D’Rant sent a massive blast of Psi energy intending to not only stun the ex-ambassador into inaction but also to leave him reeling and dazed for quite some time.

D’Rant stepped up upon the table and walked across the top of it directly towards Terinixx. As he walked closer towards him, he continued to send blast after blast of Psi energy directly into the mind of his victim.

“How DARE you try to use this Council for your own purposes!”

BLAST

“How DARE you endanger the citizens of the Cluster!”

BLAST

How DARE you risk the stability of the Cluster itself!”

BLAST

“How DARE you try to USE the Empire for your own benefit!”

BLAST BLAST

“For that I will FLAY your mind wide open and let every FEAR you have FEAST upon your subconscious. After they are done with you and have you nice and TENDER, I will COME for you and start all over. I will prevent you from DYING, keeping your pitiful mind TRAPPED within that frail shell of yours until I tire of your WIMPERING and MEWING. I will then let OTHERS have their way with your mind, turning your existence into a living HELL that only DEATH will reprieve you from, but I will NEVER allow you to die. You will suffer for an ETERNITY under my most careful ministrations.”

BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST BLAST

By this time D’Rant had stepped off the table and used the ambassadors chair as a step to get to the floor. He stood over the fallen ambassador.

“I will show you the face you will see every sleeping and waking moment of the rest of your existence.”

D’Rant flooded Terinixx’s mind with visions of the Ta’Nar’s true form and the things they did when they were still a race living in the Warp and hunting the Warp Demons for sport. The visions of 5 meter tall spider-like nightmare creatures would torment Terinixx for the rest of his pitiful existence.

As the still SeaQuestian Ambassador regained his footing, he stared straight back at D'Rant.

"You, sir," he whiped a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth, "are very sorely mistaken. I came here at your invitation. However, I would have come anyway to let you know about the moon. Its not my fault SeaQuestian F.T.L. engines can only go so fast.

"As for the Cluster, we didn't endanger a thing. The material was there when we colonized Belle Terre. If anything, as has been noted before, its quite obvious this entire star cluster is artificial in origin.

"We were also in the process of removing the material from the moon to our own holdings elsewhere. Feel free to have your people study the sample I brought to give you. You'll find like we did that, while the radiation is of the types lethal to practically all forms of life, you'll also find that would be more useful as a focusing crystal and any warhead made with it would be a dud.

"The sample was being brought to you as you are the closest to experts on dimensional tech known. So it was thought you would be the best to provide an analysis on the material as it is multi-dimensional in nature.

"The plan was to destroy the crystals using harmonics and use Isolytic Burst charges to open rifts into subspace to remove any left over material that survived from our realm of existance. All the while knowing full well it would render half the planet below into a place where no life could exist.

"As for your spider thing, that reminds me more of yesterday's lunch than anything I would fear.

"Now, shall I go on, or will you continue to react on baseless and foundless fears?"

With that, the Ambassador's strength gave out and he slumped back into his chair.

"Search my mind if you wish," Terinxx gasped, "You'll find that I'm telling the truth as I know it. Also, feel free to study the Quasar Olivium sample, you'll find out that everything I told you is true as well, at least, as far as can be known with SeaQuestian technology and science."

OOC: @Bal: Where the hell are you getting these ideas? Now, let me tell you what's really been happening (ie, the truth). Now, I'll accept your character's attacks on mine, but, until I know you know everything, they won't be deadly or incapaciting (as I only have the one character to tell the info through).
Also, one you thing you need to know, one thing you wouldn't feel from Terinxx is uncertainty. A youthfull Alteran maybe, but not from an adult Furling like Terinxx.

"We would fight to hold it, and by virtue of our strength, power and faith in the Gods; we would triumph. Were it the will of the Gods that we be driven out, then it would occur; but you face overwhelming odds; and still you think victory in your hands before victory and deceit. You knew the secrets of this moon and yet you failed to share them with the Cluster, with the Council; with any who trusted you with a position in this gods-forsaken corner of space."

Idrasu sighed softly, adjusting his position in his seat; reclining. "Whatever punishment is decided; we shall stand by. I am an instrument of the Emperor himself; my words are his will; and so I hope that the judgement of this council comes swiftly. We do, however demand that swift penalty be administered to the Seaquestrians. The Moon destroyed by one method or another."

"We would fight to hold it, and by virtue of our strength, power and faith in the Gods; we would triumph. Were it the will of the Gods that we be driven out, then it would occur; but you face overwhelming odds; and still you think victory in your hands before victory and deceit. You knew the secrets of this moon and yet you failed to share them with the Cluster, with the Council; with any who trusted you with a position in this gods-forsaken corner of space."


Terinxx sat up straighter and responded as best he could, "We had departed from Belle Terre before the Federal forces attacked. We left to bring that," he gestures to the Quasar Olivium sample, "to the Balroggans here. I was only informed of this conference mere moments before we activated the hyperdrive.

"So, please don't say we weren't going to bring a sample here. We had to figure out how to safely extract it due to the radiation first.

"That's what I said before, and I'll keep on saying it."

Idrasu sighed softly, adjusting his position in his seat; reclining. "Whatever punishment is decided; we shall stand by. I am an instrument of the Emperor himself; my words are his will; and so I hope that the judgement of this council comes swiftly. We do, however demand that swift penalty be administered to the Seaquestrians. The Moon destroyed by one method or another."

"Penalty for what?

"As for destroying our moon, that's pretty much already going to happen no matter if you want it or not. Last I heard in a message we got a few hours before dropping to sublight was that the Quake Moon was going to be destroyed by No Endorse forces and weapons. It took some fighting to get the right to do it ourselves."

"Say what you wish, Xeno." Idrasu smirks almost goading the being with his eyes and voices, his tone and his posturing. "You can say it a thousand times, and we shall take it as we wish, believe it as we wish. We care not about your samples or your prattlings of what you were or were not going to do. Any motion to have this...Moon dealt with by a body of an outside force, shall simply not do. The point remains that you should have and could have notified the Council at any time."

"You chose to wait; and you chose to wait until such times as it was to be taken from you by force. Evidently your allies understand the need to destroy it; swiftly. What would you do? Destroy it at your leisure? Leave it till the final moment and despoil yet another Cluster world? Or another fraction of Cluster space?"

He chuckles softly, adjusting his cloak about his form, toying at his armor "It is the suggestion of the Chronosians that the No Endorse forces be stopped by diplomatic means, or should they persist in their endeavor, that they be stopped by force. The Moon shall be dealt with by the Council; as rightly should all Cluster affairs."

Abarrakh looked over the members of the council, then cocked his head to the side, as if he were listening to one who was not there.

"Enough, seaquestian delegation, i apologise however..there is the very serious issue of the moon and your allies interference in this issue..it shall NOT be destroyed..if we have to destroy the no endorse fleet ourselves." he looked across the chamber.

"The chronosian delegate was more then right, it is a cluster issue, as Lord Altansel stated in several communications. At this very moment a cease fire is being proposed with TFU forces, as the moon is now under the jurisdiction of the Cluster council and the Cluster police." he stated flatly.

"Order your forces to retreat, we cannot help you now that no endorse has entered the fray. Tell your allies to stand down, all of them. Chronosian delegate, tell the TFU commander to stand down. Whatever issue they have with seaquest, and by extension any of his allies they can take up in open warfare outside of the Cluster." he smiled.

"And if this becomes an AEON matter then of course we will be forced to assist our chronosian friends...Outside of the cluster only."

he paced back to his chair and sat. "We shall await more news from the front until, then relax and refresh yourselves..these new events have added some great deal of time to the first council meeting."

"Say what you wish, Xeno." Idrasu smirks almost goading the being with his eyes and voices, his tone and his posturing. "You can say it a thousand times, and we shall take it as we wish, believe it as we wish. We care not about your samples or your prattlings of what you were or were not going to do. Any motion to have this...Moon dealt with by a body of an outside force, shall simply not do. The point remains that you should have and could have notified the Council at any time."

Terinxx ignored the Xeno comment. As a diplomat, he had been called far worse.

"You still aren't listening. We didn't register the material inside the moon for some time. It was actually a bored scout ship captain with nothing better to do who is officially logged as the discoverer. A sample was retrieved and I was dispatched here with it as soon as was possible."

"You chose to wait; and you chose to wait until such times as it was to be taken from you by force. Evidently your allies understand the need to destroy it; swiftly. What would you do? Destroy it at your leisure? Leave it till the final moment and despoil yet another Cluster world? Or another fraction of Cluster space?"

"You do not have all the facts in your posession. Thus, you have no valid foundation for your current stance.

"As for the moon, things are under way that could effect its ultimate fate."

He chuckles softly, adjusting his cloak about his form, toying at his armor "It is the suggestion of the Chronosians that the No Endorse forces be stopped by diplomatic means, or should they persist in their endeavor, that they be stopped by force. The Moon shall be dealt with by the Council; as rightly should all Cluster affairs."

"Perhaps by allowing a Union and a Inferno representative in here, we can settle this whole matter diplomatically.

"Diplomacy. If I'm not mistaken, isn't that a rare move for a Chronosian?"

Abarrakh looked over the members of the council, then cocked his head to the side, as if he were listening to one who was not there.

"Enough, seaquestian delegation, i apologise however..there is the very serious issue of the moon and your allies interference in this issue..it shall NOT be destroyed..if we have to destroy the no endorse fleet ourselves." he looked across the chamber.

"While we support the decision not to destroy the moon, we won't support any action against the Inferno forces as any such action by us would constitute a breach of the constitution we signed upon joining the Federation."

"The chronosian delegate was more then right, it is a cluster issue, as Lord Altansel stated in several communications. At this very moment a cease fire is being proposed with TFU forces, as the moon is now under the jurisdiction of the Cluster council and the Cluster police." he stated flatly.

"Then consider this, perhaps the Quake Moon could be moved to a more secure location where it wouldn't threaten the security of the Cluster. I'm sure the Emperor of SeaQuest could pull some strings to see if one of our allies with space in this galaxy has room to spare."

"Order your forces to retreat, we cannot help you now that no endorse has entered the fray. Tell your allies to stand down, all of them. Chronosian delegate, tell the TFU commander to stand down. Whatever issue they have with seaquest, and by extension any of his allies they can take up in open warfare outside of the Cluster." he smiled.

"A diplomatic solution, as proposed by the Chronosian representative, still sounds best. Perhaps allowing a representative from every nation involved here today would allow us to resolve this peacefully and without further loss of life."

"And if this becomes an AEON matter then of course we will be forced to assist our chronosian friends...Outside of the cluster only."

"Let us hope it doesn't."

he paced back to his chair and sat. "We shall await more news from the front until, then relax and refresh yourselves..these new events have added some great deal of time to the first council meeting."

"Pursuing a diplomatic end to this conflict is currently the best course of action that I can see, sir. I stand by my proposal of allowing all nations involved to send a represenative to stand before the Cluster Council.

"In my opinion, war is the coward's way out and is used simply because its easier to forge than peace. Don't you agree?"

"Thinking. Wit. Is that not a rare move for a Seaquestrian? Let us not have this degenerate into a bickering squabble. You have sinned; against all of us, broken our trust. I see no reason why the moon should persist. Especially since these Xeno filth did not see fit to inform us of it until now. We shall tell the Federals nothing; this is their war; not ours. I suggest you coordinate with them and have it utterly wiped out."

Idrasu rose, addressing all who had gathered;

"In my opinion; fleeing and dirty fighting are a cowards way out; your attempt to detonate a moon and some mythic power source, to maul an entire world and an entire enemy fleet because you lack the sheer firepower and strength to repel them. I would rather have the entire system cleansed than allow your cowardly Xeno taint to persist."

“I am sick and tired of listening to this worthless excuse for an air-breather to keep pumping his foul filth into this room. I not only propose ending the discussion right now, but also ending his miserable existence too.”

D’Rant walked around the table. As he walked, he continued talking.

“I am sick of the lies this nation has been putting out for months. I am sick of their arrogant methods and petty squabbling. I am tired of having to deal with their rather cowardly actions.”

D’Rant stopped at the head of the table.

“I second Tannelorn’s proposal to omit the nation of SeaQuest from the Cluster. The Federal Union will gain possession of the holdings from this moment. This proclimation can only be overturned by the Founder. Tannelorn had declared Martial Law after Mini Miehm attacked WaterHelper and that assumed all decision from the Founder due to influences of Mini Miehm. It allowed the Police say into matters of State in the Cluster, provided we were in agreement.”

“I further think we should go to the battlefield to directly oversee the problem we are discussing. I can have this entire Fortress there within 125 seconds. We will see how this Peckla would be willing to stand within the damage radius of his trap.”

D’Rant thought for a moment.

“Yes, that does seem like a great idea. We can use the main guns to remove the damn moon from this universe forever.”

He reached out and touched a button on his chair arm.

“Commandant, prepare to take us to the coordinates uploaded to your counsel. You are authorized to access K-Space to get us there in time.”

He folded his arms and looked at the ex-ambassador.



OOC:

Please see note in the OOC Thread

http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10960778&postcount=285

The still Ambassador returned D’Rant's stare from his position in his chair.

"Have you been listening to a thing that's happened? If I'm not mistaken, I do believe the Tannelorn representative retracted that proposal which was submitted to a misunderstanding elsewhere.

"Now, will you accept the proposal to solve this peacefully or not?"

Terinxx winced in pain as he adjusted his position in the chair. He didn't know how badly his insides were injured by the Balroggan's unprovoked attack on him, but he knew it had to be bad from the way he felt.

"The Imperium stands by the Balroggan decision that the moon be destroyed; and will lend any support nessecary to the implementation of its demise. After all you have done, peace is no longer an option. Perhaps the Seaquestrians must admit that their place as fabled seeders of mankind is defunct. That they hold no true power outside of their own heads; being subject to laws and restrictions as much as the rest of us.

You are the fallen and broken masters of humanity; and we are the grandest that humanity has produced; its true Masters. Mankind will bow, in time, to the glories of Chaos. I pray, ambassador, that you live to see it. We second the Balroggan dictat that the moon be destroyed and Seaquest be evicted from the Cluster; and put this proposal before the council"

D'Rant looked over towards the ex-ambasador. He was still sitting in his seat (I think) pretending like he mattered to the council.

"I really care not if the vote passes. I will order the Cluster forces of the Empire to obliterate Bell Terre of every SeaQuestarian left on it when we get there. The Dimensional Cannons will obliterate the moon you value so much and spread it's atoms throught the dimensions, forever lost to you. That will end the intrest of No Endorse and your allies that you have drawn here. If they leave quietly, then they may live, otherwise they will be counted as invaders and repelled."

He looked over to the wall of displays. The results of the gate network scan was displayed. The map of the nodes was clearly displayed for all to see.

"That will be entered into public record for any Cluster Council member to access. If they sell the info, we ask half the price goes to the Council coffers."

D'Rant watch the realization dawn upon Terinxx's face what that really meant.

"Yes, we have been scanning your active gate network for some time while you were evacuating your citizens. We know exactly where they went and with our wormhole technology we can go there. You will leave the Cluster quietly and without any traps or suprises or your precious worlds will be finding the same fate as the moon below us."

D'Rant pointed to the monitor that showed the external view of the station. The Asmodius still occupied it's position near the station but the rest of the view changed. They were orbiting the Quake Moon.

"The Imperium stands by the Balroggan decision that the moon be destroyed; and will lend any support nessecary to the implementation of its demise. After all you have done, peace is no longer an option. Perhaps the Seaquestrians must admit that their place as fabled seeders of mankind is defunct. That they hold no true power outside of their own heads; being subject to laws and restrictions as much as the rest of us.

Terinxx groaned and rolled his eyes.

"Honestly, I can't believe you take the anti-SeaQuest propoganda at face value without looking into it yourselves."

You are the fallen and broken masters of humanity; and we are the grandest that humanity has produced; its true Masters. Mankind will bow, in time, to the glories of Chaos. I pray, ambassador, that you live to see it. We second the Balroggan dictat that the moon be destroyed and Seaquest be evicted from the Cluster; and put this proposal before the council"

"SeaQuest won't be leaving squat unless asked by Waterhelper, whom we leased the space from. While you may try to drive us out, you hold no power over the true nation that is master of this Cluster.

"And we never said we were ever masters of mankind. All we ever wanted to do was be left alone and explore space."

D'Rant looked over towards the ex-ambasador. He was still sitting in his seat (I think) pretending like he mattered to the council.

OOC: Will you stop doing that? Terinxx will always be an Ambassador, until he is promoted to Diplomat.

"I really care not if the vote passes. I will order the Cluster forces of the Empire to obliterate Bell Terre of every SeaQuestarian left on it when we get there. The Dimensional Cannons will obliterate the moon you value so much and spread it's atoms throught the dimensions, forever lost to you. That will end the intrest of No Endorse and your allies that you have drawn here. If they leave quietly, then they may live, otherwise they will be counted as invaders and repelled."

"Honestly, by declaring war on a nation is no way to keep the piece in this Cluster

"As for the moon, don't do it. Things are already in motion to move the moon and get a peaceful resolution to things.

"And the others came of their own free will. We didn't draw anyone anywhere or call for help at all."

He looked over to the wall of displays. The results of the gate network scan was displayed. The map of the nodes was clearly displayed for all to see.

OOC: Not going to accept that GM. You know nothing about my Archways (I don't use Stargates anymore thanks to MM). One thing you should know, is that you can only get general direction of an active Archway's destination from its point-of-origin, nothing more. For all you know, I could have sent the colonists to some Independence class craft off in some random direction that will go FTL after they've got everyone.

"That will be entered into public record for any Cluster Council member to access. If they sell the info, we ask half the price goes to the Council coffers."

"Interesting display. Too bad it doesn't mean anything at all."

D'Rant watch the realization dawn upon Terinxx's face what that really meant.

D'Rant would be in for a surprise. While he didn't know that much about Archways, Terinxx knew that they were untracable when not activated.

"Yes, we have been scanning your active gate network for some time while you were evacuating your citizens. We know exactly where they went and with our wormhole technology we can go there. You will leave the Cluster quietly and without any traps or suprises or your precious worlds will be finding the same fate as the moon below us."

Terinxx started to chuckle.

"Very interesting threat, considering that all SeaQuestian Stargates are buried in blocks of Lead after the Botany incident and haven't been used since, so I have no idea what you think you've been recording, but's not been anything SeaQuestian I can assure you."

D'Rant pointed to the monitor that showed the external view of the station. The Asmodius still occupied it's position near the station but the rest of the view changed. They were orbiting the Quake Moon.

Terinxx smirked as he noted the defenses targetting the station. He knew that as he had updated his digtized memories in the computers of the Atlantis before he had come over to the station, he knew that if he died here, his clone would know everything he did before entering the lair of the decietful Balroggans.

OOC: Honestly, Bal. A slight exposure to Chaos wouldn't cause this. A few weeks worth, perhaps, but not the ammount you mentioned.

After a month of travel, the PHX Eden (http://ic1.deviantart.com/fs9/i/2006/046/7/b/Terraformer_by_SpartaN_PhoeniX.jpg) dropped out of warp in the system it had claimed and began it's descent on the planet. Once called C-56A909, it would soon be known as Nova Terra. The terraformer activated it's wing like structure (which is actually the energy shields reforming on a skinny nano tube matrix to aid in landing operations) and came in low over the arctic desert-like terrain. They could have easily chosen a warmer environment as there was a large selection of planets to choose from, but this planet was the right size and had an oxygen rich atmosphere as well as 1.2 Earth's gravity. It also had an L-class moon which could serve as a military base for defense and woul influnce tides once much of the ice was melted by industrial phasers. Eden type terraformers could easily transform the planet into a warm, wet, semi-tropical climate in as little as 100 years or a temperate climate is only 65. Once the ice was melted much of the work would be done as the yellow sun would heat the surface once it was no longer white (which reflects most of the light) and began to absorb solar heat. The system also had a large asteroid field which would be useful for mining and defense.
As the terraformer's thruster melted a landing path it slowed to 100 kph and then deactivated it wings. It fell 200 feet in a matter of seconds and sunk into the heated ice pack. Luckily the colonists felt almost nothing since the inertial dampeners were on full power. As soon as it landed, the entire ship started to move, doors opened, ramps were lowered, whole sections of the ship began to divide and spread out. the 3 domes sunk into place, metal rings driving 500 foot piling into the ground to keep them stable and level.
Soon a few warships would land nearby to offer manpower and transport some smaller colony components. Project Nova Terra was now fully underway.

Field Marshall Seville looked down at the colony with the super zoom lens of the main sensor array and declared the colony of Nova Terra offically founded to the appluase of the fleet.
He turned to the helmsman of his flagship and announced:
"We are heading to a council metting concering matters in this cluster, engage at maximum warp, we are late."

"If you wish for peace, prepare for war. You have wrong us all greviously, that is not propaganda; that is fact. You have betrayed your allies in the Cluster compact; you have betrayed everyone here who ever strove to aid or help you; and now, all that you possess will die. If you fail to agree with the decision of the Balroggan Empire; then there shall exist a state of war between the Imperium and yourselves. I'm sure others here would be more than happy to back us up."

Idrasu bows his head towards D'rant "Esteemed Ambassador?"

As things went from bad to worse, the young Tigerlanian Moff Sergei Licenov burst from his chair

"You cannot destroy Bell Tara! The Royal Prince himself is attending a meeting there!"

OOC: Just reposting this for Phoenix because he is really too late to join this council meeting and I don't think he knows where the OOC Thread is:

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=468170

Someone in the Police force should send a guard to say that his envoy is not allowed in if you want to take the IC way.
[OOC: Tannelorn told me to use fluid time so I can still arrive "before" it is too late ^_^]

Seville's ship dropped out of warp and he beamed into the meeting room with only moments to spare.

D'Rant calmly replied to the Tigerlan complaint.

"We are not planning on destroying the planet, we will be removing the moon only because it is the reason War was brought to the Cluster. A replacement will be found and moved to occupy the position of the onld one so there will be no damage to the planet below."

He gestured towards the screens.

"If you care to watch, then feel free."



OOC:

The next event is in the other Thread. Here is a link to that post.

http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10972705&postcount=100http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10972705&postcount=100

The Blackstone Fortress faded into existence as it Emerged from Dimensional Space. Energy crackled the length of the massive barrels and discharged into space, forking into eerie imagined shapes that triggered subconscious and half forgotten images. It was the Entropy from the Warp Cannon that was still discharging its residual charges. The Asmodeus appeared along side the station and then moved into its escort position alongside the rest of the ships.

Within the council chambers, D’Rant looked about the room and calmly asked those present, obviously referring to Terinxx.

“What should we do with this one? He is no longer a recognized representative of any tenant. I place his fate in your hands. This must be taken care of before we can continue with Cluster Business seeing as that is confidential and not for his ears.”

Moff Deala rose up to speak to the council.

"I suggest that we spare the former representative and escort him out of the cluster into a Sea Quest held territory outside the cluster. If there is any left," Deala motioned.

After discussing a few things with Kra'Dem and Ryurik she had another motion in mind.

"And that the former Sea Quest Territory be part of the unclaimed zone for future nations who would like to join our esteemed community."

Deala sat down and Kra'Dem then took the stand. "To contribute to the safety of this cluster I am assigning Admiral Pskov's fleet to police work. Pskov's Fleet is our newest fleet and we see this as the perfect oppurtunity to test our new ship classes in the field. If that is alright with you Commander Ryurik."

Supreme Commander Iosef Ryurik stepped up. "I shall allow this assignment to happen as I do agree with Grand Admiral Kra'Dem that our new fleet needs a little field experience."

Moff Deala, "Good as long as the council will allow the fleet into the policing duties."

"The Council should be firmly established as an administrative body. It appears as though the former occupants of the Cluster, the Seaquestrians do not appreciate our power not our decisions. As such, perhaps it is time to enforce an equal, authoritative body that can deal with issues such as this. We, as members of the Cluster are the only ones who can truly make said decisions.

We have to make them see that the Council is nessecary."

"I agree we have a lot to talk about but first we must deal with the pressing matter of what to do with that."

D'Rant pointed over to Terinxx who hadn't said a word since the destruction of the moon or since the return trip of the Fortress to Draconus Prime.

"We must finish that business before we start making plans for the Cluster. I personally don't want him to hear anything if we were to let him go. It would be a security risk."

"We must first decide what to do with Tarinxx."

Lord Abarrakh watched his fellow representatives speak, then rose.
"Yes, we do believe that the Cluster itself should by adminstered by those who live here. However we also wish to push for the formation of a true cluster policing force, administered by the cluster and funded by those who live within in it."

He smiled." In this way we can maintain a large fleet, to be certain that another invader such as TFU will never be able to attack a member of the cluster again, to be certain that those that break the rules are punished by the cluster council and only the cluster council."

He look over at Moff Deala. "We second the Communistic Govt's motion, and we also propose to administer some of the territory in question through a joint council administration, until such time as the territory has been utilised." he strode forward.

"Also in the measures of peace i propose that the most verdant world in the Seaquestian sector be transformed in to a joint colony, where joint civilian and research endeavours shall be practiced."

Moff Deala rose to answer Lord Abarrakh's plan.

"I suggest that we use Belle Terre as the joint colony site. The sight of this planet in the hands of other nations will incite demoralization amongst the Sea Questians still in the cluster and will leave a memorable mark that the Council and the Police of this cluster mean business.

Moff Deala looked to Lord Abarrakh.

"Do you agree Lord Abarrakh?"

"The Seaquestrians should be driven before us like dogs in the street. Already the glorious Astartes wage war upon the treasonous dogs, and plan to assure a total securing of the world. Might I add that, the Union is aiding in this procurement, and would be invaluable in the long run. They can be quite reliable; quite loyal; and are most assuredly a power to be reckoned with; one which is easily in excess of those who once dwelt here.

Perhaps in addition to joint colonies, an observed Federal colony could come into existence?"

"I know they have been busy with the fighting and all but we have yet to hear from them. When the Fortress was transferred, we requested they send an Envoy. The Federal Union must go through the proper channels to request a territory. If they don't, it could be taken that to gain entrance all you have to do is invade one of the territories."

D'Rant was calm and his voice showed no malice what so ever.

“I am not against his joining as long as he adheres to the rules set by the Cluster and this Council. He must not endanger the Cluster in any manner. SeaQuest already did and they had to be evicted.”

Abarrakh nodded slowly. "Yes and likely our own troops have even landed by now, nearly a quarter million were sent to assist the seaquestians, before their falsehoods and arrogance came to light! Truely those of the Fedral union were just in their reasons for war."

"We agree wholeheartedly that the fedral union should be allowed in to the cluster, in fact i would go so far as to let him have the Seaquestians own worlds."

Moff Deala rose up to speak to the council.

"I suggest that we spare the former representative and escort him out of the cluster into a Sea Quest held territory outside the cluster. If there is any left," Deala motioned.

"I will be taking my sample of Quasar Olivium back to the SeaQuestian world of Belle Terre when the invaders have been driven off."

After discussing a few things with Kra'Dem and Ryurik she had another motion in mind.

"And that the former Sea Quest Territory be part of the unclaimed zone for future nations who would like to join our esteemed community."
*Snip*

"An illegal action that won't be supported by the SeaQuestian Empire," growled the injured Terinxx.

Lord Abarrakh watched his fellow representatives speak, then rose.
"Yes, we do believe that the Cluster itself should by adminstered by those who live here. However we also wish to push for the formation of a true cluster policing force, administered by the cluster and funded by those who live within in it."

He smiled." In this way we can maintain a large fleet, to be certain that another invader such as TFU will never be able to attack a member of the cluster again, to be certain that those that break the rules are punished by the cluster council and only the cluster council."

"It seems to me," responded Terinxx, "that you are targeting the victims here. We SeaQuestians broke no rules of the Cluster. We came to inform you of the deposit inside the Quake Moon as soon as possible. We did not invite any outside allies to the battle at Belle Terre."

He look over at Moff Deala. "We second the Communistic Govt's motion, and we also propose to administer some of the territory in question through a joint council administration, until such time as the territory has been utilised." he strode forward.

"It already has been utilised," replied Terinxx, "under control of the SeaQuestian Government. Last I checked, there was no clause on there saying where a non Cluster founder could invoke such a motion."

"Also in the measures of peace i propose that the most verdant world in the Seaquestian sector be transformed in to a joint colony, where joint civilian and research endeavours shall be practiced."

"We shall expell any such colony from our any of our worlds as they have no right to be there without authorization from the SeaQuestian Empire."

Moff Deala rose to answer Lord Abarrakh's plan.

"I suggest that we use Belle Terre as the joint colony site. The sight of this planet in the hands of other nations will incite demoralization amongst the Sea Questians still in the cluster and will leave a memorable mark that the Council and the Police of this cluster mean business.

Moff Deala looked to Lord Abarrakh.

"Do you agree Lord Abarrakh?"

"If you hadn't noticed, Chronosian troops are currently on Belle Terre. I highly doubt you could get them to leave without destroying the planet or the ecosystem.

"Besides, you'll have to go through Imperial forces before you could get to any of our planets."

Abarrakh nodded slowly. "Yes and likely our own troops have even landed by now, nearly a quarter million were sent to assist the seaquestians, before their falsehoods and arrogance came to light! Truely those of the Fedral union were just in their reasons for war."

"What falsehoods? What arrogance? I've told you the truth about the Quasar Olivium. I told you the truth about why a sample was needed as proof. I told you the truth about why the transit time between Belle Terre and here was so long. I told you the truth about everything."

"We agree wholeheartedly that the fedral union should be allowed in to the cluster, in fact i would go so far as to let him have the Seaquestians own worlds."

"Honestly," snorted Terinxx, "we would rather render them unihabitable and worthless ourselves in the war that's already under way over SeaQuestian space in the Cluster.

"If you want to give the Union space in the Cluster, last I checked there were still other unclaimed pieces that were no where near SeaQuestian space.

"As for the Federal Union's illegal invasion of SeaQuestian Cluster space, we will fight tooth and nail to protect what is ours!"

"Should you persist; we will have no choice but to burn you from every single world that you hold within the Cluster. The decision of the Council and the Cluster Police would seem unified; a single vision with which to expel you. If you were to simply surrender your territories; such bloodshed as we behold upon the surface could be avoided. I'm to understand that the Lord Warmaster is proposing a skull taking competition between his Lord Commanders. Such fun..."

A chuckle slipped from between Idrasu's lips. "If you do not surrender; we shall have no choice but to enforce our decree by solemn and most holy force. You cannot stand against us all...Think on that, as we come to the zero hour."

D’Rant watched Terinxx ramble on about the might and glory of his nation still not getting it through his thick skull that he was not a resident in the Cluster any more. His insistence on stealing material from the moon they had destroyed less than an hour ago was also laughable. D’Rant could barely contain a chuckle. The difficulty to hold back the laughter grew easier as he babbled on and on until finally D’Rant decided enough was enough. He began to speak in a voice that was barely a whisper but somehow demanded to be listened to.

“Terinxx, that is enough. You have been allowed to stand here making a fool out of yourself far longer than you should have. I suggest you shut your trap before someone here gets tired of the sounds emitting from it and decides to permanently close it themselves.”

He checked the Chronometer and noticed it was almost time for lunch.

“I am calling a recess of two hours for lunch. Please return here within two hours so we can begin the important part of the meeting. I notice some delegates are missing so I will send some frigates to see if they need a lift here. This next part is important so we need all those who are willing to help make the Council.”

He pushed the intercom button calling the guards. Two entered the room after unsealing it.

“Security, escort Tarinxx to his quarters where he will pack his belongings. If he does not, assist him. Then take him to his ship and make sure he gets on it and the ship leaves. He is no longer a member of this council and does not have a right to be here.”

The two guards approached the ex-ambassador and stood on either side of him.

“Make sure there is a constant video from the surveillance system to document any attempts he might make. If anything happens to him, it will be used to show it was his fault. I would also like to have one of the Council Members assist in the escort to bear witness. Councilman Licenov, would you be so kind to assist in the removal of this individual?”


Elsewhere in the cluster, several frigates were given individual missions to proceed to each of the territories to remind those who were not already there about the meeting and to offer fast transportation to the meeting. Ships appeared in Pananab, The Federal Union, Kiith Somtaaw, Godular, The Gate Builders, Hobbeebia, Utopia, and Russio-Soviets Territories.


The frigate approached the territory. The sleek black craft was one of the newest frigates added to the fleets only a few months ago but the angular lines were unmistakable. It was definitely an imperial frigate and nobody could mistake it for anything else. The ship crossed over the border while deep within T-Space and went directly to the territorial capital. When reaching it, the ship Emerged into Real Space and broadcast a message.

Attention, this is the Imperial Frigate here on Official Council business. I have been requested to remind you that there is a meeting going on at this moment you might wish to attend. It is taking place at Draconus Prime in The Council Chambers. I can have you there on time if you wish to get back before the Lunch Recess is over. Please reply as soon as you can.

This ship will remain here until it either receives an answer or the time expires. After that it will resume its patrol duties.

Thank you for your attention.

Meanwhile at the fortress's Mess hall...

Ryurik," Damn that meeting was as fierce as a Comerand Huskie."

Ryurik then took a bite out of his steak and a drink from his glass.

Kra'Dem,"I concur Iosef. Terinxx was just to stubborn and blinded by his zeal to see what was truly going on, although he did get severely injured by psychic attacks from the Balroggan ambassador."

Ryurik,"Well the situation might turn for the worse if we don't get that police up and running."

"Well I assure you our contribution to the Police force is more than adequate. Admiral Pskov is a competent commander and with the new ships he will do fine."

"Speaking of Pskov, where is he?" Ryurik asked.

Kra'Dem replied,"He is at the AEON conference. I sent a holomessage to his datapad to return ASAP. He should arrive in the next 3 hours."

Ryurik then saw Moff Deala coming towards the two's table.

"Ka'rin nice of you to join us," Ryurik stood up and pulled a seat for her. She then sat down and gave a comment, "Quite the gentlemen," she laughed.

Ryurik smiled and sat down himself. "Whats the situation?"

"Admiral Pskov has sent a message back to Imperial High command. He says that he signed the AEON charter and the Imperial Union is officially part of that alliance and left the conference immediately after reading the message. His ship should be arriving at New Siberia on the Endurance within 2 hours."

Kra'Dem,"Oh yes thats right the Siberium power source increases the hyperdrive speed of the ships. I swear it must be old age."

"Nonsense Aleksandr," Deala then smiled.


OOC: These three went to the academy together so thats why Kra'Dem and Deala refer to Ryurik on a first name basis in private but in professional terms they refer to him as sir or whatever respectful term. Just a sidenote.

Sector 15, System 3, "Cambria"

"Dude! Dinosaurs, dude! Six eyed dinosaurs!"

The trio of Godulan prospectors roamed about their landing spot on the mesa, watching a vast herd of bulbous four legged pseudo-sauropods as they stomped and hooted across the vast plains below, kicking up a sizable dust cloud in the process.

A pair of avian creatures, like pteradons but far more muscular and sporting a decidedly not-beaked toothy maw, inspected the scout vessel under the watchful gaze of a pair of cougars. A possible sign of sentience behind their eyes as they seemed to recognize that the metallic anti-vehicular mechanoids would prove more than a match for them, and that their continued existence depended on not getting overly experimental with the strange thing that had landed in their territory. One chirped interrogatively towards one of the massive leonine constructs and recieved a warning growl in response.

"Gotta admit, Xenith made a good choice with this stuff. Didn't even have to pay for anything! Just asked for a spot and bing! Five systems all our own. That's what I call cost effective."

"Shit yeah!"

"Heads up guys. We're getting a comms from a Balroggan ship at the edge of the system. Says there's some sort of meeting going on."

"What, NOW?"

"Yup! Who here has experience with that kind of crap?"

"I once actually managed to not get kicked out of one!" The third prospector commented, looking up from his scanning binoculars.

"Better than nothing. Alright we'll send word."

"Make sure you tell 'em we're down on the surface and NOT on the heighliner!"

"Picky picky..."

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

Message to the Balroggan vessel in Cambria System:

"We don't have much in the way of diplomatic staff around at the moment, considering we just got here. But we can send a guy over with a recorder and such to listen in. His name's David... can you lot teleport?

OOC: Just RP snagging 'David' and bringing him to the meeting whenever.

D’Rant watched Terinxx ramble on about the might and glory of his nation still not getting it through his thick skull that he was not a resident in the Cluster any more. His insistence on stealing material from the moon they had destroyed less than an hour ago was also laughable. D’Rant could barely contain a chuckle. The difficulty to hold back the laughter grew easier as he babbled on and on until finally D’Rant decided enough was enough. He began to speak in a voice that was barely a whisper but somehow demanded to be listened to.

“Terinxx, that is enough. You have been allowed to stand here making a fool out of yourself far longer than you should have. I suggest you shut your trap before someone here gets tired of the sounds emitting from it and decides to permanently close it themselves.”

He checked the Chronometer and noticed it was almost time for lunch.

“I am calling a recess of two hours for lunch. Please return here within two hours so we can begin the important part of the meeting. I notice some delegates are missing so I will send some frigates to see if they need a lift here. This next part is important so we need all those who are willing to help make the Council.”

He pushed the intercom button calling the guards. Two entered the room after unsealing it.

“Security, escort Tarinxx to his quarters where he will pack his belongings. If he does not, assist him. Then take him to his ship and make sure he gets on it and the ship leaves. He is no longer a member of this council and does not have a right to be here.”

The two guards approached the ex-ambassador and stood on either side of him.

“Make sure there is a constant video from the surveillance system to document any attempts he might make. If anything happens to him, it will be used to show it was his fault. I would also like to have one of the Council Members assist in the escort to bear witness. Councilman Licenov, would you be so kind to assist in the removal of this individual?”


Elsewhere in the cluster, several frigates were given individual missions to proceed to each of the territories to remind those who were not already there about the meeting and to offer fast transportation to the meeting. Ships appeared in Pananab, The Federal Union, Kiith Somtaaw, Godular, The Gate Builders, Hobbeebia, Utopia, and Russio-Soviets Territories.


The frigate approached the territory. The sleek black craft was one of the newest frigates added to the fleets only a few months ago but the angular lines were unmistakable. It was definitely an imperial frigate and nobody could mistake it for anything else. The ship crossed over the border while deep within T-Space and went directly to the territorial capital. When reaching it, the ship Emerged into Real Space and broadcast a message.

"I will Gladly Escort Mr. Tarinxx" responded Licenov

Later in the Hall"Tarinxx.....I am sorry this happened........I realize how much pressure you must be under....However I have more bad news.....Tigerlan will be Invading Belle Terre to ensure the safety of the civilian population.....I do hope you surrender....If you fight us...It will only lead to death of innocents....Tigerlan will do its best to ensure that your military personnel not be harmed if they lay down there arms.....I Implore you...Do not fight us.."

Utopia "This is Victon Divenof of the Tigerlanian station Utopia, I believe we have sent our Delegate, let me check with command. please hold....Afirmitive, our delegate is at the meeting, is that all I can help you with?"

OOC:

Apparently there was possibly a mistake made on the origional WaterHelper's map attributing one of the regions to Utopia. It was assumed there was a nation named such and I was sending the ship there.

Please forgive the error.

OOC:

Apparently there was possibly a mistake made on the origional WaterHelper's map attributing one of the regions to Utopia. It was assumed there was a nation named such and I was sending the ship there.

Please forgive the error.

OOC: all is forgiven

UIS Warrington:

The president stood on the large bridge looking out of the destroyers holographic view port, his long skinny body shimmed in his suit as his dark brown eyes panned out in the
Endless black star filled void of space. His smooth facial details were enchased by the light from the ship and the stars out side.

The large sleek ship moved in to the system, its majestic engines pushing the large gleaming ominous ship forward , blue and white particles flying backwards as the object moved towards a semi stationary position.

Rob stood looking out the ship stopped suddenly. A comm. Single came from it:


This is The UIS Warrington we have come to deliver our delegate to the conference, and wish to have docking premssion.

"Welcome to Draconus Prime. I assume you are here for the meeting. It is scheduled to resume in about 90 minutes. You have permission to dock. Pull in near our port gun. The docking mechanism will be in the underside of the lower arm. The entire level is devoted to the Cluster Council and has their own set of docking arms. You are cleared to approach on the Alpha Vector we are uploading to your Nav Computers."

Off in the distance drifted The Asmodeus, the PlanetKiller assigned to protect the Fortress and it's staff of council members. The Rest of the Tactical Fleet patrolled the entire system or waited in reserve in case anyone was stupid enough to attack the Capital System of the Cluster.


Meanwhile…

The individual frigates continued holding position while they transmitted their messages. They had about 90 minutes remaining before they would leave to resume patrol duties. The message continued to replay constantly until they received a reply from the territorial capitals.

In the quarters of the Imperial Union delegation....

Ryurik was looking through the transparisteel window at the ship coming into station. "Looks like we have more guests Aleksander."

"It would seem so. I wonder who it is?" Kra'Dem replied.

"Its The Fedral Union delegation," Deala said as she walked into the room,"I recognize the ship class from the Balroggan holodocuments of the battle."

"TFU huh? Do you think they will lay claim to all Sea Questian territory?" asked Ryurik.

"I am not certain, but I think they will bring it up in the council chamber."

"Well we have about 85 minutes before the meeting starts. I think I will take a brisk walk through this station's level," Kra'Dem said.

"Don't be late Aleksander. Remember when you took one of your walks at the academy, you missed most of the Tactics and Strategies class and the instructor made you memorize the Kursk offensive down to last detail." Deala said then laughed.

"Alright alright, I promise," Kre'Dem said, smiling and giving Deala a wink. He left the quarters and started his brisk walk.

As you walk through the station's Council level, you notice everywhere that all the architecture seems to be based off huge proportions. The doorways seem to be designed for a 5 meter being instead of the standard 2 meter human. The doorways also seem to be scaled wider to match the increased proportions. The over all effect was to make it seem like you were a child again walking through a world populated by giants, except there was obviously no 5 meter beings walking around the station.

This resulted in several catwalks and raised platforms being used to utilize the excess space. The suites were large and spacious and some had partial or complete lofts within them.

As you walk by the landing bays set up for the Council level, you could see it was possible to bring in whole ships. Shuttlecraft was stored upon automated racks along the walls and moved by some sort of anti-grav/tractor beam system. A few shuttles would be arriving and leaving, passing through the blue containment field covering the large opening into space.

The basic layout of the place was each suite was arrayed around the Council Chambers, ensuring the easy access to the great room by the people who would be spending a great portion of their stay within. The landing bay was located in another arm of the Station. Each delegate present had their own berth for their shuttle and there were several docking arms for those who wished to walk on themselves. The third arm was designated as the food and recreation section with not only the mess hall, but a couple restaurants and some entertainment establishments. There was a couple gymnasiums and even a Zero-G Gadroon Court.

After reading the computer display in the hallway, Kra'Dem was impressed by the Balroggans' incredible hospitality.

I should visit the restaurant with Deala sometime. he thought.

"Hmm 45 minutes till the meeting resumes. Should I go back? Nah, twenty more minutes, I want to see what else this station has." Kra'Dem said to himself

OOC: I am assuming the above post is IC so I took the initiative and turned it into a sort of computer display as Balrogga did not specify where the message came from. If that is alright with you bal

With 45 minutes to go until the meeting resumed, an Alteran ship of the Jove class burst out of a hyperspace conduit near the location of the council meeting. After a few seconds the ship started to transmit a message:

This is the Alteran Diplomatic Ship Ultimate, carrying the Alteran delegate to the Cluster Council. We request permission to transport him to the meeting.

Within a minute the command center replied to the Gate Builders' request.


Greetings and welcome to Draconus Prime. The first part of the meeting has started this morning but they are on a lunch break and should convene in about 30 minutes. Please aproach the Council docking structure located in the lower station. Those facilities have been reserved for Council useage. We are uploading the approach vectors to your Nav Computer and you can either use one of the Docking Arms or land a shuttle in the bay.



OOC:

Just assume there are several computer terminals to assist you with navagation aboard the station. Everything is set up for convienance and the food is really good in the "mess hall". The restaurants are even better. There are some that specilize in various cousine from many of the Cluster Nations. Just assume I went all out to provide a place for the Council that you really wouldn't want to leave.

OOC: Balrogga, I did respond. Its just that since I only just started moving things there all that y'all're gonna get atm is a rather bewildered prospector.

The ships are waiting for the nations that have not contacted them. Godular, TFU, and TGB have already showed up at the Fortress.

The computer will send out pages to the representatives about 15 minutes before the meeting is to begin to allow everyone who are exploring the station ample time to return. Those just arriving would have gotten to their quarters about the time the page was sent so you don’t have to post the actual arrival to save time.

I will start the meeting tomorrow after I gat home from work and get some sleep.

Fifteen minutes till the meeting starts...

As Kra'Dem was walking through the station exploring its contents, he decided to check his chronometer. Oh my god, I am late, Kra'Dem thought.

As he was running back to the quarter to meet up with Deala and Ryurik, he got a call on his datapad, it was from Deala.

"Aleksander, I knew this would happen," Deala scolded.

"Yeah, Yeah. Where are we going to meet?" Kra'Dem asked.

Deala replied,"Well, since the meeting will not start in the next ten minutes or so, I guess we will meet at the council chambers' entrance."

"Done. Meet you there Ka'Rin," Kra'Dem said.

Deala switched off the transceiver.

Ryurik said,"Thats Aleksander for you."

Deala,"Yeah."

Immediately the Alteran delegate went straight to the entrance to thecouncil chambers, not wanting to be late for wat would be his first, and could be his last time in the Cluster Council.

Adjusting the gleaming white uniform of an Alteran captain, he turned to his aide with a worried face.

"Do you think this'll go well? The cluster 'police' is a little heavy-handed."

"I think they'll accept our statement, sir. They don't want another sector of cluster space to be annihilated."

"I sincerely hope so. I just want to get in, make my speech, and get out."

David, the Godulan prospector whose only qualification for being at this rather auspicious gathering was that he somehow managed to avoid getting kicked out of one, already sat in the meeting room, hastily reading through a datapad in which the proceedings of the meeting until that point were stored. He didn't claim to understand much of what happened, but he did find himself chuckling at the floundering of the seaquestrian representative.

He took another grape from the large bowl at his side and munched happily whilst reading through as the timer ticked down for the meeting to restart. Apparently something was happening with the nation known as The Gate Builders and their particular section of the cluster. Something rather swiftly began to nag at him about the whole issue...

As the last of the representatives returned, the doors closed and sealed with the customary armed guards standing outside to prevent anyone from trying to enter.
The Council Meetings were private and none would be allowed to enter or leave except in the case of a dire emergency. The suppression field was again activated to prevent any eavesdropping or bugging attempts, as well as teleportation. All communications were to be channeled through the intercom systems installed for that purpose.

D’Rant was already at his seat when most of the people arrived. He sat calmly reading through some reports displayed on his holo projector, the secure setting activated so one could only read from the front.

He turned to those assembled and spoke.

“Welcome back. I hope everyone had a relaxing lunch so we can get to business. Those assembled here will be making the rules that those who decided to not show up will have to follow in order to remain in the cluster. Personally I wish to keep them simple so common sense could be used. Also, I suggest setting up penalties to levy upon the violators.”

“I believe we should start with the rules first.”

D’Rant took his seat so the meeting could begin.

Rob stood in back near the doors, he had just gotten in before they were locked, his skinny but slightly muscular body was hidden as his black suit with a white undershirt and read tie shimmered in the light, he began to walk slowly forward, hearing the speech get louder as he moved towards the seating, he grabbed a chair pulled it out subtly and sat down, his smooth skin gleaming in the light his eyes panning towards the speaker his hands on the table calmly together, he hoped he wasn’t intruding to badly.

His mind was absorbing the information like a sponge, he glimpsed slightly every so often at others around him.

His mind was racing with platuides of politics and negotiations, he had some proposals in his hand, his nation was new to the cluster, he might not get much attention but it was worth a try.

The Alteran delegate sat in his place almost sneering at the gathered delegates.

Get on with your politics, little beings. Just be quick about it.

He almost ended up shouting it out, but settled for whispering.

The Alteran delegate sat in his place almost sneering at the gathered delegates.

Get on with your politics, little beings. Just be quick about it.

He almost ended up shouting it out, but settled for whispering.

D’Rant noticed the rep from The Gate builders muttering to himself during the silence that followed his turning over the floor to the assembled council.

“Ah, excellent! The Gate Builders wishes to start the meeting. I did not hear what you said; the microphone system seems to be on the blink. I did not quite understand your statement, however brief it seemed.”

D’Rant gestured towards the TGB rep (sorry, don’t have a name for them yet).

“The floor is yours.”

"Yes, lets get on with this. Too much hangs at stake to prolong squabbles. Let us cut deep to the issues at hand." Idrasu bowed his head lightly. "On a fonder note, Lord Remiel sends his regards to your kind, Alteran. He realises there is much to be done between us; but for now, for now we must settle your squabbles here in the Cluster."

5 minutes before the meeting

"Where is he?" asked Deala waiting with Ryurik at the entrance of the council chambers. They watched the other delegates of the cluster go in but they waited still for Kra'Dem.

Ryurik replied,"I dun---wait here he is!"

"What took you so long?" asked Deala.

"Got a little lost at the last corner," Kra'Dem said.

"Well, come on the meeting about to start," Deala said.

The three walked into the chambers and found three seats this time for them. It was considerate of the Balroggans to provide three seats so the two gentlemen can sit, instead of standing behind Deala like in the first part of the meeting.

Meeting starts

The three listened to the D'Rant's opening speech for the 2nd part of the meeting, eager to participate in the legislations that are about to follow. They looked around and saw the TFU delegate come in the nick of time. Then their concentration was interrupted by D'Rant's gesture to the TGB delegate. They waited for his response.

Meanwhile onboard the Black Death

Lt. Sharev was in the pit when she saw the Endurance appear in New Siberian space and the holo tranmission being transmitted to the ship.

"Captain!" she yelled.

Ulgand walked over to the pit standing above Sharev. "What is it Lieutenant?"

"Sir, the Endurance has arrived in New Siberian space. We have recieved a message from Admiral Pskov," reported Sharev.

"Put the transmission on," the Captain ordered.

"Yes sir, holoprojector online." Sharev said.

"Admiral its good to see you," Ulgand said.

"Likewise captain. What is the situation?" Pskov asked.

"Situation is at a slightly heightened alert but normal here," Ulgand said.

Pskov replied,"Then why was I summoned here so quickly."

"I have only gotten little detail from Admiral Kra'Dem, but it seems you are in charge of a police fleet for this cluster," Ulgand said.

"A police fleet? Hmm. Alright can we get a hold of the Admiral," Pskov asked.

Ulgand replied, "Not at the moment sir. Grand Admirals Kra'Dem and Ryurik and Moff Deala are in a heavily guarded council that no tranmission can be sent.Unless... we relay with the Balroggan control on the Blackstone Fortress. I'm sure they will be considerate enough to relay it for us.

"Alright I wait here on the Endurance until the meeting is over or otherwise, Pskov out," then his holo tranmission ended.

Ulgand turned to Sharev. "Send a message to the control center on Blackstone, to relay this message to the Admiral."

"Yessir," Sharev complied.

Message to Grand Admiral Kra'Dem

Sir, Admiral Pskov has arrived in system and is waiting for further instruction.

Message ended.

Lord Abarakh grinned softly at the Alteran delegate. His genetically augmented hearing (and just about everything else) had picked out the Alterans comment. With a rather casual disregard he didnt even bother looking over the Alteran, only getting back to the business at hand. "The formation of a cluster council authority shall be the first priority, this authority shall have full judicial and arbitrational authority over matters concerning the cluster itself." He rose stepping over to the middle of the chamber. "Furthermore a true cluster compact shall be flushed out and signed by every single member of the cluster council present. This article, subject to ratification only by a majority vote by the cluster council."


Cluster Compact of free peoples.

1 All members of the compact shall live and work together in peace and harmony. Those who endanger the peace shall be penalised dependent upon
the severity of the case.
2 If indeed conflict should break out between two parties within the cluster itself, the conflict shall be kept strictly between the two parties, and their forces present inside the cluster itself. Should they bring in the help of outside allies, or further escalate the conflict by bringing it in to the territories of others, they shall be subject to penalties.
3 The cluster council shall build and maintain a force devoted to security and arbitration throughout the cluster itself. This force shall be solely under the comand of the council.
4 The council shall be the sole arbitrator except in matters of defense of the cluster itself against outside attack. If an enemy does come for a member of the cluster, the cluster itself shall be required to assist in its defense with all necessary means. This clause shall only apply to attacks within the cluster, but if total war looms shall be excised outside the cluster.
This is to prevent any large scale alliance from attempting to destroy the cluster and sieze it for themselves, or daring to attack a nation within the neutral borders of the cluster compact.
In matters of defense of the cluster, the elected leader of the cluster defense forces and the Cluster police representatives shall be the leader of the cluster combined forces in these matters.
5 A cluster scientific commission shall be established to catalogue and explore the wonders of this realm as well as a trade commission, to allow the spread of new ideas and wealths to all nations sharing in the bounty of the Cluster.
6 All nations shall be free to do as they please within their borders so long as it hurts no one else around them.


"We submit this draft for the Approval of the Council."

With a courteous smile, Hypopheralcus stood up, a sheet of paper in his hand, and nodded to the Chronosian delegate.

"I hold in my hand an official communique from Janus, the head of state of the Dominion. I myself have only briefly read it, but I will read the full text now. It's only short, but I think very clear." He looked down almost uneasily at the sheet of paper, and cleared his throat quite loudly. "Since the discovery of this cluster of stars, there has been an authority looking after those who have chosen to attempt to make a new life here. These people are the pioneers of our universe, looking for great opportunities, and they find them here. These people need an effective force protecting them fromharm, because often they cannot do it themselves. The Alteran Dominion had great faith in the Cluster Police. They appeared to be a perfect solution to what could have been a ghreat problem. A cluster like this could be a haven for any number of malefactors, and the Police have effortlessly swept them aside. However, they have been impotent in the face of the worst threat to face those who dwell in the Cluster! When the Cluster Police was needed most, when the rules of the Cluster were swept aside with careless abandon they did nothing! It is no secret that the Alteran Dominion has had no love for SeaQuest ever since they mounted an assault on the Lantean System, but they deserved the help of the Cluster Police in driving out the invaders, but instead of helping,t he Police blew up a moon! The ALteran Dominion can no longer trust the Cluster Police. This message is the official warning that the Alteran Dominion Cluster holdings are now officially a part of the Dominion, instead of a 'leased' territory. Our borders have been sown with mass-shadow mines and interdictor stations. Whilst civilian vessels need only submit to standard scans before entering Alteran territory, any ship of the Cluster Police attempting to enter the territory of the sovereign Alteran Dominion will be fired upon and destroyed."

Hypopheralcus paused, scanning the faces of the other representatives.

"Thank you for your time."

"We of the Imperium are pleased by these ratifications. We would formally put forth members of the Adeptus Mechanicus to further aid in fathoming all the worlds in the confines of this strange and wonderous realm.

We also possess the military power to contribute on a large scale to the defence and protection of the entire cluster. We stand ready to help the Cluster Police in any of their endeavors and to further the cause of the Council throughout Cluster Space.

On another note" Idrasu bowed softly. "I would like to voice my unconditional support for the Federal delegates and their claims to the formerly Seaquestrian territories. We stand similarly ready to aid in pacifying any Seaquestrian resistance, as we do now upon Belle Terre" A smile crosses his lips, "Lord Cabot's legion shall be truly enough to burn them from the face of existence. And should that fail, the Emperor shall doubtlessly commit someone such as Lord Lucian to the cause."

"We would advise caution to our Alteran brothers. The Seaquestrians posed a threat themselves. The Federals came for war, true enough, and the Cluster police moved to act, but the nature of that moon and outside plans to destroy it, would have compromised far more than Seaquestrian holdings. The genocide inflicted upon the Federal forces by such a cowardly attack, would have brought them smashing down upon us.

We hope that we still reside, somewhat in your graces. We would not wish to stand as enemies of the Alteran people."

(Sorry I haven't been around much also I think I'm going to completely change my tech base again its getting annoying I need something new =) )
"The delegates from Waterhelper Vote Aye to the proposed Compact.
(Althogh I Think I am under MMs rule so I don;t think I qualify as "Free" peoples)

OOC: Are there any planets left open?

Rob sat there waiting for his turn to speak, his lips quivered up slightly grinning at the support he got, his body shimmed as he sat back in the chair quiet observing his hands together in a peaceful way.

His eyes panned the other delegates, he scoffed slightly, he raised his hand boldly waiting to be selected upon for a chance to speak, and he quietly sat there his hand over him professionally. He looked around a little more…

Meanwhile his mind was running with how much of a fool the gate builders took him for, he knew there real reasoning behind things, he wanted to bait the cluster by making hollow threats, and watch as the flames of war consumed them in laughter, he knew about it all..

Hypopheralcus listened to the wording of the cluster compact, and was bored. He'd served his purpose. So he drew a picture. A picture of a lizard, and held it up so Bastidas could see it, smirking, combined with an obscene gesture.

Rob responded by standing up his form was shimmering his lips curled slightly in an dark grin, he began to speak with a rather clam non affected tone.

“as you can see from the person named Hypopheralcus, this nation is not serious about this, his recent bait has forced me to consider his maturity and sanity in question, if I were not more mature than him, he would be laying on the ground in a pile of his own blood, how ever I am civilized and will act accordingly, it is my pleasure to invoke article 9 of my constitution and declare all trade with The Gate Builders, ceased, all there assets will be frozen in my nation, this is all due to the cause of The Gate Builders show of there sanity, seems to be bating other nations and bating other delegates at a public function with obscene marital, so at this point these clauses will be effective Immediately, and to prevent security breaches all The Gate Builders citizens diplomats or business are no hear by expelled from my country, and our borders closed for there citizens, Now I will wait for my turn to speak again I apologize for my interruption.“

Rob sat down crossing his arms over his chest grinning and smiling he had
proved his “superiority” over The Gate Builders through the way he acted.

Hypopheralcus stood once more, the smirk not yet gone.

"I applaud the 'maturity' of Mr Liz- I mean Mr. Bastidas, but would like to point out that our two nations have no trade agreements, no official diplomatic relations or assets in each others' states. Of course, it was a brave gesture, but meaningless. Very well done, for a human."

"I had thought that a race priding itself as the fathers of humanity would have more common sense and less childish idiocy. Perhaps when the Alterans are required to sign anything, we can expect more from the creche," All good will had faded from Idrasu, replaced by an unsympathetic annoyance.

"We are here debating the fates of worlds and systems and you two disgrace this council with the acts of imbeciles. If you cannot act like civilised men, then I would prefer that you leave our sight. Honestly; know your place..."

Rob ignored Hypopheralcus finding it below him to even socialize with such an infant, he looked over to the Chronosiain delegate with a grin on his face saying “I’m glad some one here is as sane as we are, and we also want to re enforce our claims to the cluster territory we so wonderfully fought for , and we are glad you stand by us”

Robs form stiffened a bit, paying no mind to the drooling mentally infantile delegate trying to insult him.

He swiped him self clean his form standing in defiance.

Finally, David had figured out what was bothering him so much about Hypopheralcus...

"Now hold on there, homeboy. I may not be proficient in the vagaries of diplomacy and political intrigue but I find myself curious about a very critical thing. These systems that were 'leased' to you, that's a key word there, 'leasing', you don't see it very much at picnics and pinochle. In protest of what you deem to be the impotence of the cluster police, you have 'severed' your systems from the cluster's control. Now with terms such as 'lease' and 'evict', this little clump of hydrogen balls gives me the impression that this isn't so much a section of real estate as it is a metaphorical apartment complex.

"If my impression is correct, what you are essentially doing is 'taking' the property of another. So I find myself curious as to whether you are prepared for the full ramifications of your nation's actions. Namely, dear sir, monetary compensation to those whom you have 'stolen' these systems from, should you intend to stay along this path. That, sir, or as a result of your effective 'annexation' -- that's a key word there too, that word don't show up at dinner parties -- whether you are prepared to respond to defensive efforts by the cluster to combat what effectively amounts to an invasion by all legal definitions."

D'Rant remained sitting back in his chair, watching the new council members interact. This act of in subornation will have to be dealt by the council. The Gate Builders attempt at theft of a whole territory would not be tolerated but to step in as Police would be to undermine the authority of the Council.

He had read the reports of their earlier activities and knew something like this would happen. The actions of TGB would serve to cement the council’s powerbase. Their idiocy would give the authority and power to the Council to act and to impose their collective will. The only options are to cave in or oppose. The result for both would be the same. The reins of power would be firmly established by the Council and it’s multi-national force.

D’Rant sat back and smiled as he watched The Gate Builders stumble blindly into the trap. It was set when he sent out the ships to defy their “do not enter” statement which led them here.

"We don't intend to offer 'reparations' to anyone. If a successful invasion of Alteran territory occurs, we will annihilate the sector. We are prepared to turn it into an area of black holes, and I'm sure you all realise the change to cluster 'geography' this would entail. An invasion would be costly for all involved, and would have obscene results. Millions of extinct species, trillions of currency units in resources and many interesting artifacts, along with a very appealing debris field would be lost forever, and a massive stellar shift would occur."

"You would do well to keep this civil. Idle threats do not sit easy with the Imperium; idle threats which threaten to destabilise this entire region of space. We do not intend to get involved in a fools war for the sake of your pride; and so we would rather have a civil end to this."

"This is not an idle threat. This is policy. The mechanisms of destruction are in place. The next move is yours. If a Police group enters Alteran Space, that space will collapse."

"And we shall simply sit back and watch you sacrifice what you possess for idiot pride. Once again; idle threats"

"Well you'll just have to pardon me if I say that such a course of action is highly unseemly of your ilk. You have no right to 'sever' yourself from the cluster at all. You 'reside' on those worlds because you agreed to not cause trouble as the only condition, yet I do believe what you are doing is causing trouble. If you will not offer reparations, perhaps it would be prudent to... exact reparations from you. Strike at systems not in the cluster to make you feel the pain you intend to inflict in support of your petty protest."

"None of you know the locations of anything but minor outposts. Lantea is no longer inhabited, and Vis Uban has retreated into hyperspace. All that remains is beyond your reach or expendable."

"Then why risk so much over so little. You have been invited that you might gloriously partake of the ruling council; that your decisions might affect systems and worlds, and you rebuke us over pride and the desire to be free? My words might be harsh, but you are being fools for the sake of posterity. One nation has already been cast from our midst; we do not wish to cast out another."

"Cast away. This is a diversion for the Ruling Council of Altera, nothing more. We like our diversions to be... Interesting."

"It's easy for you to hold the property of others hostage, isn't it. Especially when you believe yourself immune to turnabout. I never thought of the Alterans as thuggish cowards but I see that my report will force many to revise their opinions."

"The sons of the Emperor and the True Gods do not serve as amusements for you and your get. We are warriors, ever expanding the bounds of our Empire; always bringing the true light of the Warp to new corners of the galaxy; even the Universe.

What have you ever brought forth other than self-interest and arrogant pride? We are not puppets to dance for your merriment; we are warriors, diplomats, scholars; we have art and culture and religion going back millenia. What do you have, besides your own pride to cudgel other races with in vain attempts of glory?"

"The opinions of short-lived beings like yourselves hold no weight with the ruling council. Your opinions are like the winds, ever changing seemingly without cause. As for you, puppets of your desires, you may expand your culture, but in the end it serves as our entertainment. We watch, and we take note, but in the end it's all worth as much as a sitcom to us."

"And so you fester and you rot while you watch the accomplishments of others, and your society grows stale and dead and useless! You are nothing; envious rogues, crouching upon the apex of your civilisation, rubbing your own supposed superiority in the faces of others and proclaiming yourselves the glorious.

A company of Astartes would show you the wretched worth of your triumphs. You would know the work of true warriors then, not layabouts and malcontents."

"We do not rot. We simply continue to exist. We returned from Ascension. We had reached perfection. You sit there, in your bag of grease and blood and sweat, whilst we exist eternally, aware of all that is around us. If only you could see what we see, little being."

"We see the glories of the Gods and the Warp. If you were so powerful; why return? Why regress to grease and sweat and blood? Regardless of all your wretched, arrogant babbling; you are just as mortal as the rest of us; self-styled Gods reduced to husks, human shells.

You are pathetic. At least we realise our place before the Gods; you seek to emulate them, and once you find the monotony of ascended existence too great; you return to the flesh and expect to continue to have the status of those ascended? Pah!

You are nothing."

"We are nothing? You snivel and beg for scraps from your patrons. We don't beg, we bestow. You can bluster all you want, but in the end you're all trying to avoid what for you is inevitable. Your civilisations are all geared around a quest for immortality. You all seek celebrity so you will be remembered, to live forever in some form. We have immortality. We have what you want and can't have without brown-nosing some foetid 'gods'."

"Correction: Had."

"Had? Why, our leader is still a being of pure energy. None of us have left that state fully. You can kill these bodies, but in the fullness of time we may return, if we so choose."

D’Rant yawned and straightened himself in his chair before calmly addressing the TGB rep.

“Let me get this straight. You profess to steal your entire territory from the Cluster? You confess to mining the area and you threaten to destroy the Founder’s property all because you think your shit doesn’t stink?”

D’Rant waited a moment for his words to sink home.

“That is one hell of a position to claim when I know for certain I could send in a single ship and destroy just about any of your worlds with that one ship. You argue that your worlds are “secret” and unreachable yet your mercantile traffic continues. I bet we could pay just about any merchant for that info, or just pry it from their minds if they resisted.”

D’Rand touched the intercom button and spoke into the microphone.

“Sly’Thon, offer a bounty for all Gate Builder worlds. Circulate it through all networks, including the ITH member list. Yeah, standard bounties for info based off importance of worlds.”

D’Rant looked back up and continued.

“Heh, I bet I could even take it from your mind right now where you sit. Or perhaps from your shuttle, or through the connection to your ship. I could order one of my Ta’Nar to completely purge your nav computer within moments. Maybe it already was when we connected to your nav computer when you approached the station.”

D’Rant chuckled when his words caused the predicted reaction he wanted.

“Perhaps we already know where you secretly live by scanning your traffic in your territory. We have been masters of Dimensional and Gravimetric technologies far longer than your nation has even existed. We certainly can examine your mode of transportation as easily as SeaQuest’s.”

D’Rant looks over to the screen still displaying the complete SQ network from earlier that morning.

“Too bad your Alterian council has no jurisdiction here. Your council has as much authority to dictate out claims that we have over your Homeworld. None what so ever.”

D’Rant sighed.

“Now stop this foolishness and learn to play nicely with your neighbors or we will have to do something about it. You are under the Council’s Jurisdiction here no matter how much you dislike it. Your only option is to pack your shit and leave, just like SQ.”

“If you decide to continue on this foolish and immature path, the Council will be forced to act and I believe you will not like the end results.”

D’Rant chuckled at their supposed claims to immortality. He had been alive for eons and would continue even longer than the pitiful being playing godling before him.

[lol, think of the Ori galaxy. Not much mercantile traffic from there, was there? That's my home galaxy. Not literally, but in the secrecy sense.]

"I doubt it, mortal. Our computer systems would be as incomprehensible to your little calculators as quantum physics is to a parrot. They were built with ascended knowledge. As for ripping knowledge from my mind... Have you tried interrogating god recently?"

"Which begs the question of why you are still here. If you are so high and mighty these planets should be of no consequence to you, so why threaten to destroy them? They are not yours to destroy."

"As previously stated, entertainment value. Have you ever seen several systems collapse at once? Marvellous."

"We have all the immortality we need. Purity and glory beyond anything you and your fetid Xeno race could understand! We are the apex of Mankinds purity; dedicated to something grander than ourselves. The Imperium shall live forever, longer than your bleating civilisation! Perhaps we should test the theory that your life will continue over and over again."

Idrasu's rage rose, his hand playing across the butt of his bolt-pistol.

"You dare to sit there and criticise our culture. The Emperor protects; and by his will we endure. He has travelled beyond death; not feigned godhood by false means; ascended by some trickery. A true warrior, a true savior, needs no ascension, but to walk amongst his people and lead them as the Gods incarnate; as the Living Emperor, as the glorious Scion of Chaos. We have faith, heretic, and that is something more than your kin can claim. You're not gods; you're a race of imposters and charlatans. No more gods than the astral bodies that the primitive races worship as Gods of Sun or Moon."

"You see, Chronosian, we never claimed to be gods. However, even before we ascended, we made our way into the mythology of countless races. Nothing to do with us. Sheer recognition of brilliance." Hypopheralcus eyed the bolt pistol.

"Go ahead. Blow me apart."

The diplomatic vessel outside the station made a hasty jump to hyperspace, claiming diplomatic immunity all the way.

"I find myself amused at you, Alteran. Perhaps you do not understand how severely we can hurt you. There will be no entertainment value when you are actually feeling pain as a consequence of your immature actions."

"I've known what it is like to have the sum of all knowledge at my fingertips and lose most of it. Pain is nothing to fear. I doubt you could even make me flinch, little being."

"Computer, play back the third TGB statement before the last."

"I doubt it, mortal. Our computer systems would be as incomprehensible to your little calculators as quantum physics is to a parrot. They were built with ascended knowledge. As for ripping knowledge from my mind... Have you tried interrogating god recently?"

"Now play back the second to last statement"

"You see, Chronosian, we never claimed to be gods. However, even before we ascended, we made our way into the mythology of countless races. Nothing to do with us. Sheer recognition of brilliance."

"Go ahead. Blow me apart."

"Hmmm.... I detect an untruth."

"It is not me you should fear. I am but a humble prospector acting in proxy for those who can make you not only wince but beg for cessation of existence in all forms."

"I was making a comparison. I'm ascended, or halfway, like the Goa'Uld Anubis. The comparison is valid. Regardless, the claim of one Alteran doesn't represent the feelings of the species. Godulan, after a point power is pointless. Once you are immortal, no power can truly hurt you. Pain becomes just another feeling, as you cannot be damaged. The physical feelings of this greasy shell do not trouble the spirit."

"Yes it does. When it comes to one such as yourself it most DEFINITELY does."

"Oh, you flatter me, little being. I am however, not like most Alterans. Whilst they share my distaste for your kind, they at least try to cover it up. That is why I was sent. To be blunt with mortals. Hmmm... I should leave soon. Unfortunate that my ship is gone."

"Distaste? Pitiful arrogance. You say you have gained legions of knowledge and lost it, pray tell I wonder how you would react to it happening again. D'rant, I believe you are proficient with the proper mechanisms?"

Hypopheralcus snorted.

"There are no mechanisms for probing the minds of the ascended. We are a closed book. Feel free to try though."

OOC:

This sounds like it has escaladed into the region of GodWanking.

TGB, tone it down or else you will be IGNORED for it.

Post commig

[I should tone it down? You've more or less stated that you have a guaranteed method of probing the minds of basically anyone/thing, and that you can access any computer for some reason without meeting resistance. That's wank. I'm fighting wank with wank. :)]

OOC: Agreed with Balrogga. And a couple other kinds of wankage too, namely the "Ha ha you can't find me" wank...

TGB you are a precise example of why I have the Triad: Killing Godwankers.

[Well.. You can't. I mean you could quite easily find and annihilate my Milky Way colonies, but you don't have a clue where the rest are.

Hell, you don't even know how much of Hypopheralcus trash talk is true and how much is bullshit.]

OOC: We can find them. We can hunt them down. We can destroy them. We may need some exotic means to do so, but nobody is unfindable.

[There's no way to 100% guarantee you can do anything beyond breathe.]

OOC: Yes there is. Calling you on it whenever you try to wank yourself out of anything that could even remotely prove detrimental to yourself. Such as godwanking like you are presently doing.

[*snort*

Destroying my Milky Way colonies would be more than 'remotely detrimental'. There's a difference between IC trash talking and godmwanking. Learn it. You can't ever completely trust what a character says. If its in quotes, treat it with some doubt. But hey, that means you don't get to throw around accusations!]

Two things

1 please, if you don't want to be part of the Cluster then get the hell out.

2 take the OOC chatter out of the IC Thread

If you are so godlike then you can locate the correct Cluster OOC Thread

[You're the one who started the OOC chatter. You probably also need to learn the difference between IC and OOC... Consider it. :)]

"So, when does the agonising pain start? I don't feel my mind being probed or destroyed.. Could it be that was all empty mortal posturing?"

The whole time, the annoying smirk never left his face.

D’Rant smiled.

“You know, this is neither the time nor place to respond to your dick-waving. You made your statement and we all had a good laugh. Now sit down and shut up or I will have you gagged.”

"Or better yet, shot. We will not have you sit there and mock us, try to turn us to act for your amusement. The only amusement will be ours as we repeatedly break your face. Now, act like a diplomat, or leave.

We have no time for pissant little malcontents from the broken remains of once ascended civilisations, who have a permanent superiority complex."

Rob started to speak a little “seems to me The Gate Builders are to self absorbed for there own good, the fact that they claim all this greatness and superiority over us, is clearly a sign of a new Hitler, either that or an immature insane teenager , never the less you make me laugh, you and your claims, this act of stupidity and convoluted incompetence here today further reinforces my claims, and Hypopheralcus we could care less of your back water, non important insane backwards nation, you claim to have all grate technology, believe me you have not seen imperial technology at work, or any of our allies, so the fact that you sit here and constantly claim your greatness is disturbing, because we see you as mentally unfit, I second the motion to remove you from this room if you continue this behavior , now back off and stop acting like a child”


Rob sat down sighing in relief as he got that off of his chest he panned over a look to Hypopheralcus with a look of death, confidence, he had a smug smile on his face.

Deala looked at the Council ruling proposed by Tannelorn and showed it to Ryurik and Kra'Dem.

Deala whispered,"All is in order."

Kra'Dem whispered,"I would say so. Iosef what do you think."

"I think I will have to talk to the Imperial Premier about sending more ships here." Ryurik replied.

During the arguement with TGB

When will this baby shut up. thought Kra'Dem

He just keeps talking about his compensation for his penis. thought Deala.

SHOOT HIM. DO IT IDRASU thought Ryurik.

After the arguement...

"Finally." Kra'Dem mumbled sitting back crossing his arms.

Deala replied,"I know what you mean. It questions his reputation as a delegate. No professionalism here."

Ryurik,"I do hope Pskov is here. You said two hours right."

Deala,"Thats what the High Command report said."

Kra'Dem,"The TFU delegate is making a comment."

After the comment

"Oh god I hope it doesn't start again," Kra'Dem whispered leaning towards Deala.

"I'm not a diplomat. I'ma general. I wasn't sent here to be diplomatic. And Mr Bastidas, is something wrong with your face? It appears to be contorted. Something like smugness, although I couldn't think why."

"The council has requested you keep your opinions to yourself. You obvoiusly cannot exert self control so we will have to do it for you."

D'Rant sent a mental command to the guards outside the room. After a few seconds, three entered the room and aproached the TGB rep. Two guards took a position either side and held the obnoxious one down while the third proceeded to wrap duct tape around and around his head. When he had used the entire roll, he stepped back and the two flanking guards let go and also stood back waiting for the taped one to get violent.

D'Rant watched as his guards completed their duty.

"They were right, it does have a million uses."

"The council has commanded you to practice restraint. Since you were unable, I was forced to assist. Some days this job is so rewarding."

"Unless he wishes to leave, I think we can get back to Tannelorn's proposal. The entertainment is over."

"Is that really necessary D'rant? Surely we are more civilized then that. Would you kindly allow me to escort him out of the meeting, as to not cause further disruption?"

"I told him that would happen if he persisted so I had to follow through to show him the council would not put up with his outrage. If the council wishes him to be removed, then you may."

D'Rant looked around at the other members waiting for them to voice their opinions.

Rob spoke with a slight grin “Frankly I have had enough of his personal insults, if the others want to remove them they have my full support we should not tolerate such immaturity “

Lord Abarrakh had watched the display with a rather large grin on his face. "No need to resort to such, let the man speak after all, he did lower himself to our level to deign to grace us with his presence." Abarrakh stepped down and looked over the Alteran.

"Yours is not the only race with ancient histories, my people had lived on mars for countless AEON's before they left the bosom of sol. To be honest i have had enough of your talk of ascension and other gobbldey-gook and your immortality is frankly rather amusing, as any race with even a fair knowledge of genetics could mimic its effects."


"The territory in question is not yours, only the members of the original cluster police actually excercise full control over their territories, and as for your claim of the greatest threat the cluster has ever faced...even mini miehm never attempted to destroy a planet." he looked over the delegation.

"There is great honour in even defeat if you give the enemy your all, and never back down but to destroy a world simply to stop the enemies main thrust...was an arrogant and despicable action of a desperate honourless government, collapsing under the weight of its own muliticulturalism and decadence."

"The TFU fleet was far too large for the cluster police to push back on its own, regardless of the quality of our ships 100 against 1000 was suicide, and we did INDEED assist sea questian forces until it became clear the base treachery they had planned. As an addendum a set of rules and guidelines by which a systems resources may and may not be utilised, including alterations which may be visited upon them should be compiled. First and foremost amongst them, no one shall have the right to destroy a world."

Lord Abarrakh looked at the gate builders general. "Now if you would kindly sit down and take your rightful seat as a member of the cluster council, this meeting can continue..so long as you understand the systems do not belong to you, and if you still fear for those within the cluster's protection, then make your fears known and heard in the manner which we are all gathered here today."

Lord Abarrakh nodded towards TFU's delegate.

ooc Ok i have been away a few days, sorry for the monster post, and for the ooc about to come out.

SQ did some dodgy stuff and got in trouble for it. Not only was he going to blow up the moon, his allies were going to. He knew the rule before yet he had many allies coming, whether or not he could control them was the factor.

TGB what happened to SQ is highly unlikely to happen to anyone else. Mainly because i will imagine no one will be so silly as to try to blow up planets again. I oocly find the concept silly to be used in a situation like that, and more so its against the spirit of the Cluster in every way shape and form.

The reason bal and i have territory is that we do have to help nations under attack, as well as monitor and prevent large scale attacks. When TFU came knocking with everything he had, we were outnumbered 40 to 1. The only way to win would have been to hit and run him till the entire cluster could mobilise something to stop him. Thats the ooc fact on the issue. My ships are nasty beyond all belief, at least navy ships, but 100 versus 4000 is insanity.

once again sorry for the ooc, sorry i was away so long as well..very very sick with the flu. Now lets flush out this agreement, TGB you have a way to avoid any troubles whatsoever right now, so take it. This is supposed to have more peaceful RP then conflict, right now conflict is taking 1st seat and not 2nd as it should be.

“Yes, it is your choice to either leave with your silly nonsense or sit down and behave. Make your decision now so we can get to work.”

With a mental command and a little use of ExoTeleport Psionic power, the tape on Hypopheralcus’ face disappeared only to reappear upon the table before him.

“Make your choice now.”

After a long moment of silence, D’Rant continued.

“I would like to suggest a continuation of the rules we have been enforcing. The No Allies clause that has been part of your lease was originally designed to keep masses of outside nations from using the presence of an ally to bring in forces to “ensure the safety” of their ally. This would result in a massive power buildup that would threaten the safety of the Cluster.”

“I would like to propose the further elaboration of making outside alliances be superceded by the Authority of the Cluster Council.”

“What I mean by this is the outside alliances do not matter to the territories within the Cluster. In my case, the ESUS doesn’t exist within the Cluster and they cannot assist me in any way. They could help the Empire outside the Cluster but the alliance has no business within our borders.”

“Also, the alliances we make here will not transfer outside the Cluster Borders. If you want to interact with any nation outside The Cluster, you are free to negotiate that on your own time but as far as the Council and the rules they devise, they will not extend outside their authoritive boundaries.”

“This will allow us to make alliances here that would not be able to exist outside our Cluster. We will be able to work together to achieve the complete defense of this little gem tucked away in this corner of the Galaxy.”

After a long moment of silence, D’Rant continued.

“I would like to suggest a continuation of the rules we have been enforcing. The No Allies clause that has been part of your lease was originally designed to keep masses of outside nations from using the presence of an ally to bring in forces to “ensure the safety” of their ally. This would result in a massive power buildup that would threaten the safety of the Cluster.”

“I would like to propose the further elaboration of making outside alliances be superceded by the Authority of the Cluster Council.”

“What I mean by this is the outside alliances do not matter to the territories within the Cluster. In my case, the ESUS doesn’t exist within the Cluster and they cannot assist me in any way. They could help the Empire outside the Cluster but the alliance has no business within our borders.”

“Also, the alliances we make here will not transfer outside the Cluster Borders. If you want to interact with any nation outside The Cluster, you are free to negotiate that on your own time but as far as the Council and the rules they devise, they will not extend outside their authoritive boundaries.”

“This will allow us to make alliances here that would not be able to exist outside our Cluster. We will be able to work together to achieve the complete defense of this little gem tucked away in this corner of the Galaxy.”

The Tigerlanian Delegate stands up from his chair "I second that proposal" and then he returns to his seat.

*Snip*
Later in the Hall"Tarinxx.....I am sorry this happened........I realize how much pressure you must be under....However I have more bad news.....Tigerlan will be Invading Belle Terre to ensure the safety of the civilian population.....I do hope you surrender....If you fight us...It will only lead to death of innocents....Tigerlan will do its best to ensure that your military personnel not be harmed if they lay down there arms.....I Implore you...Do not fight us.."
*Snip*

"If they followed procedure," Terinxx managed to get out, "Then the civilian colonists are long gone through the Archway which melted down after the last was through."

He shifted so he could get the handle for the case containing the Quasar Olivium sample back in his hand after it had fallen.

"Oh," Terinxx added, "You can be sure that SeaQuest will be back and we'll be wanting our territory returned to us, its rightful owners. The Cluster hasn't heard the last of us."

Fluid Time Later

"Make sure they don't turn the Cluster into a place where the weak are controlled by the strong like the current trend has been," Terinxx said to the Tigerlanian as he waited for the shuttle's hatch to be opened so he could enter and return to the SeaQuestian cap ship waiting to take him home.

"Keep the control of the Cluster out of the hands of the power mad," he added as he boarded the shuttle, "and be careful who you believe in their. Many are there interested only for their own gain."

He turned and gave a quick saluted and said, "Until we meet again."

Terinxx then handed over a PADD to the Tigerlanian representative.

"That contains a request for your government. We don't have the ships needed to return our Belle Terre colonists to home space with this war going on and would appreciate if your nation could provide a planet for they could be placed on until the war is over," he said.

Closing the hatch, the SeaQuestian Ambassador's shuttle gently lifted off from the deck and quickly departed the treacherous Balroggan's station.

OOC: @All: If you are going to be this crabby and kick me out from the Cluster for being attacked by an outside nation, fine. Just don't GM to do it. I've broken no damn rules.

I'll just use the free-form aspect of NS to get myself a new Belle Terre system complete with a Quake Moon in a location I have control over.

I'm sick and tired of being the one everyone picks on. I've had it up to here with all this bull. Now, just leave me the hell alone before I snap and do something we'll all regret.

@Bal: Stop GMing my guy's rank. As he is my character, I am the only one to say if he's an Ambassador or not.

And stop GMing knowing my Archway network. You have no idea how it works, and thus you

@TGB: I've never attacked any place of yours. I've never even heard of any damn Lantean star system.

@Tannelorn: I've TGed you my MSN address and I'm still waiting for you to add me. There are things we need to discuss and facts we need to get straight.

The thing with the damn moon was a last resort option forced on me by OOC threats of NE destroying the ENTIRE STAR SYSTEM.

I've never tried to blow up a damn planet. OOC'ly, I consider Planet Killer tech on the low side of wanky. IC'ly, it goes against SQian ethics to waste a useful planet like that.

@TFU: You've won nothing. The BT space battle devolved into a mess. IMHO, we should restart the thread and make it closed. We can keep the ground combat thread going on at the same time (good thing for Fluid Time).

[I should tone it down? You've more or less stated that you have a guaranteed method of probing the minds of basically anyone/thing, and that you can access any computer for some reason without meeting resistance. That's wank. I'm fighting wank with wank. :)]

OOC: I hate to say it, but I agree with TGB on this.

Attention:

Please place all comments in the appropriate Threads where they can be replied to without disturbing the IC Thread.

Lord Abarrakh watched for some time as the room grew more hostile. He stood, knowing the first rules of politics and governance were power, and that people not only lusted for power, but that people had to understand it.

"The territory in question was not seaquests, nor is it the Gatebuilders. Balrogga, Tannelorn, Waterhelper truly control our territory, but we must still abide by the laws of the cluster council, of the government."

"This governments laws must be absolute, its hand firm in these formative times, these times of tumult and the birthing of the cluster compact,
TFU attacked seaquest for his arrogance, which indeed was shown. But more importantly it was the threat seaquest represented inside the Cluster, the callous disregard for his nation, the hatred it recieves from many foes would leave us fighting forever." Abarrakh paused.

"We could have tolerated this, but for the fact that regardless of whether or not they were able to stop their allies from entering, they did not do it."

"Facts remain, only one law existed in the Cluster, to live in peace, and in fact to come to a better understanding of this, I propose we discuss the formation of a true cluster council military force, and a limitation of military forces within the cluster itself."

Abarrakh paced across to the center of the floor, his long black cape billowing behind him, his red and black trimmed uniform, complete with a large, wide brimmed hat shone in the light. It of course was made from synthesised fibres designed to give it a rather spectacular effect.

"Fleet asset reduction to no more then 2 million tonnes per nation, regular ground force not exceeding 1% of the civilian population." he turned, looking at all the delegates in turn.

"This is to be a place of peace, of sanctuary its defenders will be of the cluster, trained and groomed in the cluster, made up of all those in the cluster. And its might shall be used in the defense of the cluster and its citizens, from this point on the cluster itself shall be an independent political entity, the sovereign states claiming portions of the cluster will be second to the cluster council itself in all matters of security and cluster policy." he returned to his seat.

"Internal policy and leadership will be determined wholly in the fashion of the people of that nation, as well as the rightful government of said nation,
this is an area the cluster council shall have no sphere of influence over."

"We have all come in peace, no more bickering and arguing, let us discuss the best way to prevent any more incidents such as this one from occuring."

Kra'Dem spoke out loud before Deala got up to reply.

"Only 2 million tonnes? That is roughly the wieght of my ship the Black Death. I suggest that a exact number of ships of each class be the limitation instead of weight."

Kra'Dem then sat down and Ryurik stood up.

"My colleague here is correct we would not know the exact weight of some ships due to some nation's gravitic distortion and illusionary technologies. If you do not recall the events prior to the meeting of a ship dramatically degrading in weight but retaining its size."

Ryurik sat back down.

"A very good point indeed for our ships register as having the mass of a small star due to classified details involving our engines."

"The Imperial fleets are designed around it's carriers. Each carrier in a fleet has it's escorts, called a Battle Group. Each fleet will have from five to seven Battlegroups."

"We currently have two fleets assigned to the Cluster, one for defense and one for Police activities. The battlegroups are on constant rotation throught the Imperial territory while each system maintains their own Homeguard, much like the Coast Guard of old Earth. They are a small group of ships whose numbers are dependant upon the system classification. Draconus Prime is rated a Primary system so it has the greatest defense rating."

"The Empire would like to donate the use of a battlegroup to the Defense Fleet. This would be more than enough to take most any system by itself. The Commander in command will report to the Fleet Admiral the council determines. The remainder of the Fleet will stay here in case further policing is required."

Abarrakh listened to the rest of the council members present, then started to continue. "Very well if 2 million is unnacceptable, perhaps a number closer to 20 million then, either way the idea is to limit the amount of forces we have inside the cluster, while building and maintaining a seperate joint fleet, of new vessels and construction for the cluster itself to represent the majour military arm of this compact."

"However many of you use vessels far larger then others may be used to building, for whatever reasons and therefore you would not have enough ships to be able to secure your own space without any cluster police help, tying up ships that could be used within the "Free" sections of the cluster."

@TFU: You've won nothing. The BT space battle devolved into a mess. IMHO, we should restart the thread and make it closed. We can keep the ground combat thread going on at the same time (good thing for Fluid Time).
snip...
(OOC: Sea quest I won the BT space battle IM SICK Of you trying to push that fluid time crap in my space, I did not agree to that, So I don’t know what your doing, get back to the ground battle, we agreed to in an ooc convo to go on with the thread knock it off and stop acting like an ass.))

“Why don’t we all donate the same fraction of a fleet, taking into assumption the fleets are about equal in power. How about 15% to 20% of one of their standard fleets, like I just did a few moments ago. That would give us theoretically 3 to 4 fleets. We certainly don’t need 20 full fleets defending us at this moment.

D’Rant checked the Holo-Display of his computer. The next subject would be important but if it was not agreed to, another member would be forced to leave. He certainly hoped they would cooperate and he planned on being forceful to show them there was no other option.

“And now, another topic that reared its ugly head just this morning. Mining rights.”

“The nation of SeaQuest was evicted because of several violations which included the attempt to destroy a moon and the world it orbited. He claimed only half the planet would be made inhospitable by the radiation forgetting the atmospheric movements would have spread it across the entire planet. Belle Terre would become a dead world within one encircling of its jetstream.”

“You may be asking what this has to do with what I am about to say. You will understand in a few moments.”

D’Rant issued a mental command to the computer and the Holo-Projector in the ceiling above the table flickered into life. It displayed a long range scan of a massive station. The station was in the act of consuming a small moon of a gas giant. A label floated in the area above the display naming the station Utopia.

“We detected this a few hours ago. As you can see, it is clearly destroying the moon in the pursuit of mining. While mining is not prohibited, this method is. Tigerlan must not only stop Utopia immediately but they must also remove it from the Cluster. Its presence violates the destruction of Property that contributed to the eviction of SeaQuest.”

“Out of courtesy to the newly assembled Council, I will adhere to what they decide. The fact that this has occurred before their inception gives Tigerlan the chance to make things right. The Council needs to propose a resolution that will prevent this from happening ever again.”

D’Rant looked squarely into Licenov’s eyes.

“If you do not immediately comply, I will propose the first act of the Cluster Armada will be your complete removal. The choice will be yours, of course.”

Taking his eyes off Licenov, he looked around the room at each council member.

“I also hope all other illegal mining procedures will also be checked and discontinued before they are brought before the council too.”




OOC:

Please keep OOC comments out of this Thread. Respond to them in the proper Thread.

Moff Deala stood up to speak.

"Our "donation" has already arrived in New Siberian space. It is made up of our most advanced ships currently available: 1 Endurance Class SSD, 25 Ryurik Class SDs, 50 Victory III Class SDs and 1000 of various other small ships. The commander is currently resting on the New Siberian surface after attending a diplomatic event."

Deala then sat down

Lord Abarrakh nodded after listening to both speakers, then rose from his seat. "On the matter of the cluster police, we had a different idea, however a donation of military forces until such a time as a true cluster fleet can be formed ,designed and crewed by those of the cluster itself, would be most useful."

He smiled, the Tannelornian plan was simple, provide shipyards, training equipment, engineers scientists all to design classes of ships all members of the cluster could be comfortable with, kit all members could be comfortable with, as well as efficient and deadly.

"I believe the UCG donation is most welcome as a start for the new cluster rangers, with all members donating a battle group, a true defensive armada could be forged within months, and not the years it will take the cluster police to ready. However we believe its imperative that we do form a unique military in the cluster. To show its strength and diversity and to further the spirit of cooperation."

He paused a moment then continued.

"In this way we can join many aspects of our societies together, research, engineering, socio-economics, and politics as well as military might, to forge our compact truly and completely free from domination by one power or another. An attempt by one power to control the cluster military would never be possible under this authority."

"As for planetary systems and how they may be used. Strip mining of verdant and life bearing worlds is strictly forbidden, those who lack techniques of mining a systems oort cloud can gain support from nations with this ability, as well as knowledge in this." he paused again before continuing.

Abarrakh looked across the assembly and smiled. "Many bodies within a planetary system are perfectly ripe for exploitation, debris fields of all descriptions, dead moons and worlds as well as non harmful mining techniques on lifebearing worlds. Each system has a potential for a monstrous amount of resources to be harvested, however its in taking the resources without harming the system that we are discussing."

"I propose we immediately ban strip mining of worlds to the point of reduced planetary integrity, including core taps on Jovian bodies. Though the metallic hydrogen found in the core of these worlds is a wondrous resource, the damage of widespread exploitation on a planetary core of that scale could be disastrous."

"I await further comments and ideas."

OOC important ooc relevent to the cluster in all ways. http://z7.invisionfree.com/Waterhelper_Cluster/

This is our official Forum thank our newest member Allanea for this, he is from sol and my group there, welcome him and lets ramp up the cluster! We have forums that can be made for all sorts of rp's from minor wars, which we will have legislation for, to research, to political intrigue and massive character rp's as well as the cluster police and large threats that we will have to face.
Anything from diseases to killer robots to extra galactic invaders heh. Now that we have a forum the Cluster is really able to take off!

((OOC: I recommend we move this entirely to the forum but if that fails Im reading up. In the famous world of McArthur:
"I shall be back"))
IC: (comming soon if not out dtated by new posts)

"The Imperium wishes rights of exploration and expansion, and in return shall offer portions of its defence forces to aiding the maintenance of order throughout the Cluster. We shall fight and die to ensure peace and stability, so long as the workings of the Imperium prosper and grow. We cannot forge new links and ties from dust and ashes; we must ripen them with blood and honor; seed new worlds with the glories of the Gods and the Word of the Emperor. This is the way it must be; and shall be.

Just as Belle Terre and all the former Seaquestrian colonies shall fall; so too shall we grow in power and influence. Might I suggest that orders and fleets be dispatched to escort the Seaquestrians from the worlds, other than Belle Terre, which are no longer theirs?"

... waterhelper sector....
The entire populaton and defencive fleet arrived at the cluster. The refugee ships quickly landed on another M class planet and returned to its orgininal state albit on another world. During the time that the cluster seceeded from the main government they captured several documents of technology from MM. they were basic but it inabled the inhabitants to develop several new technologies that would be used on the arriving fleet. (which is modular in design)
...several months later...
The waterhelper homeworld was relocated to the waterhelepr provincial capital in the cluster. They brought with them the complete libary of knowledge contained by the scientists. With the devestation that the assault broguht on waterhelper prime many hours of effors were poured into building a defence net with countless automated defences in the asteroid belt and several hundred Super MAC cannons on the captial planet along with a large planetary point defence and shield system

The computer beeped a warning and a flashing message appeared upon D’Rant’s Holo screen. He quickly silenced the alarm and opened the message using his psi signature. He read the message three times to be sure he understood it completely. After he was done he stood so he could speak.

“It is a great displeasure to fall upon me to inform you one of our allies was attacked by a member of the GFFA. Because of the attack, some other members of the ESUS has declared war upon the GFFA. We will do our best to keep the war out of the Cluster but the message I have received indicates they will not follow the same rules we do here.”

“We must decide upon the state of the Cluster Fleet immediately and assemble it to defend The Cluster. Analysis of the GFFA tactics as well as the psyche profiles of their tactics shows a large chance they will attempt something here.”

“Does the Council want to allow them to turn our beloved homes into a battleground? Please decide because time is short.”

"Matters of Cluster defence should fall to the Police; yet in these dark and treacherous times, we should remain steadfast and firm, united. We cannot afford to take sides in a war that could lead us only into complete destruction and damnation"

ooc placeholder, must sleep, will edit upon awaking from my torpor.

OOC:

Placeholder for argument to use cluster defence force to keep all invaders from entering the cluster and upping the contribution to an entire fleet. Will adjust content after Tannelorn posts.

Grand Admiral Kra'dem stood to speak.

"The Expeditionary fleet is prepared to defend the cluster from any invader and will defend the cluster as if it were the home territory of the Imperial Union."

Grand Admiral Ryurik also stood.

"I will have to get hold of the Imperial Premier to assess him of the situation and to allow reinforcements to come here. With the council's permission of course."

The two Admirals then sat down.

OOC: Ok we need to continue with this now its been two weeks without any reply from Tannelorn. I say we continue posting. Sorry tannelorn.

ooc no need to be sorry those two weeks i worked like crazy and i came back to my name for tannelorn no longer working on forums >.<. Sorry about my extended absence.

Lord Abarrakh rose from his seat and looked around the council chambers. He had recieved information that the Proconsul himself would be arriving shortly..and he wished to donate the 3 and 4th GAP assault fleets to the cluster police forces. Abarrakh didnt truly care. Most of the expeditionary force had already returned to sol and the GAP vessels were starting to take up the position of defenders of the realm.

"This is not entirely a matter for the cluster police, as we all share these lands, however my people wish to utilise the GAP 3rd and 4th assault fleets in defense of the cluster, almost 1 million highly motivated replicant soldiers and their heavy assault ships would most definetly be a welcome move i would hope. If all those in the cluster could match such bids..then the cluster police would be able to call upon a formidable defensive armada..until such a time as we can start to manufacture vessels purely for the clusters defense...designed to work within the cluster and thrive here."

OOC: Ok now waiting for Balrogga to post so....

**Bump**

D’Rant then took his cue from the Tannelorn rep sitting down. He stood and again addressed the assembly.

“The Emperor has been considering moving a majority of our holdings within our territory here. That would be moving over twenty systems in order to consolidate our widespread territories and create a powerbase for the Empire right here in The Cluster. This would not only show we are dedicated to keeping this alive, but also two thirds of our Homeguard would be available for defensive purposes.”

D’Rant looked around the table.

“Then this ESUS-GFFA war started.”

“We cannot relocate potential targets into The Cluster. It would draw their attention to us and The Empire wishes to keep The Cluster out of the war. When it is over, we will begin to start relocating our holdings.”



OOC:

I have mentioned this idea to WH via IM and he seemed to be for it.

Deala stood up in the council chamber, "Then it is decided that it is imperative that we form a Cluster Defence Force to defend against foreign invaders and uphold peace within. I assume that this meeting is over, I am sure that Admirals Ryurik and Kra'dem are eager to get back to High Command and the Fleet, respectively."

OOC:

I am back in town from a family death.

Sorry for the delay.




IC:



After this stupid war is over The Empire will relcate their systems so over half lies within the Cluster, reason for an adequite defence of the whole.

If anyone has a problem with this, please let this council know now so an alternative plan can be concieved.

***The story so far***

Events of the last few months had run quicker and hotter then anticipated. With the Proconsul came millions of tannelornian immigrants. The prefects march was slowly being depopulated back home, but all that stopped three months after the Prefectures arrival. Lord Abarrakh was no longer negotiating in the council. He had finished his duty laying out a plan to secure the cluster while ensuring no one military presence was larger then any other, with the exception of the cluster police of course.

All was not well, for the Proconsul had come bearing ill will towards the Divine navy. Of the three remaining DCNT flotilla's, Flotilla Heart of valour, Flotilla Divine salient of light and Flotilla Valorous heart's of hellesponto's an ancient formation, they were quickly forced out of the main system of New carpentaria.

There was no naval engagement, the Proconsul made his speech, his GAP vessels powered up as well as those of the Navy. Abarrakh ordered that they retreat to Esys3 and their naval base, rather then cause casualties amongst the civilians who lived in orbit. Yanislev was not above using low orbit as a shield to his warships. They withdrew before a shot was fired. So far Yanislev had not sent any forces to root them out of Esys3, instead they waited and sent bad-hertzfeldt's to claim every system within their territory, three to each system, sixty of his two hundred ship fleet.

Yanislev was now the cluster representative for tannelorn and inside the cluster this made him the leader of the Tannelornians. With no word from the government of Tannelorn, or Abarrakh on the issue, at least inside the cluster his word was law.

***New carpentaria***

"Great leader, the DCNT has fled the system to their fleet base, we are succesful but...back home things did not go as planned." A slight feminine voice stated to the Proconsul. Professor Yanislev was laughing now, proud of himself at what he had accomplished. Too proud. His aide informed him of the utter failure of the coup at home, but that did not bother the Proconsul, what bothered him was the other transmission he recieved in his quarters a few minutes later. Enlil was not his, MAIA had escaped him thanks to that damn Schneider, curse his eyes.

Yanislev raged for a time, screaming and throwing great fits as he destroyed the interior of his room. Amidst torn finery and splintered real wood furniture, from earth he lay on his knees, he let out a howl of rage that brought two of his replicant guards running to his aid.

The guards looked at him bewildered, he smiled at them. "Do not worry, it was only a momentary fit, there is great and troubling news, millions of true servants of the prefecture may die, it troubles me." The replicants eyes welled up with tears at the news. They were frightened and feeling a great deal of sympathy for the Proconsul and those they swore to protect. Of course this was part of their programming, they were but children and listened to all he said like a dutious daughter to her father. Of course the additional training reinforcement the Cluster garrison of GAP soldiers was given en route from waterhelper space helped.

They left, a few moments later one of his Prefects, an elf named Darion Altethis entered. "Proconsul, I bear a message to you, one that i believe you will wish to hear, its Space Lord Weissman." Yanislev remembered this name, he had replaced Space lord Brenner as the commander of the Eastern reaches. He was also an excellent commander of men and an expert in fighting fleet actions, as all the space lords had to be.

The Proconsul activated the holo-cube holding the message sent to them moments before. Before him stood a holo graphical representation of the short, wiry fleet admiral, well short for a tannelornian at only five feet eleven inches. He had a sly grin on his face and was wearing his ceremonial officers cap at the time. After all why not make an impression when one has all the cards.

"Greetings, Proconsul and we are so sorry to report the utter failure of your coup, both at home and abroad, with me are nine tannelornian assault flotilla's, prepared to annhilate your forces without a second thought." The space lords image walked around the room. "However, heaven and our new lord Chancellor Schneider does not wish for any more innocent civilians to die this day, however you are by far not innocent." He looked directly ahead of him, the holo projector angling the image to stare directly at the Proconsul. "You shall give me your surrender, bowing to the forces of righteousness and heaven, the coup removed the current leader from power and now you must bow to the chancellor." he grinned.

Yanislev looked like he had seen a ghost. "No.." he said softly as the message continued. "I shall arrive within an hours time, meaning i shall see you in less then twenty minutes." Yanislev knew he was only one thousand light years away at the most, he knew they were doomed. Even if they could sieze fafnir it was not completed, the cluster laws strictly forbade the sort of mining that would have been required to get the necessary resources to finish the behemoth in less then a years time, balmung had been completed ahead of schedule.

"Do not be too dismayed, you shall still be the proconsul of the Prefecture, of course you will have to keep that rank through elections." he grinned.
"After all good doctor, thirty two million tannelornians would follow you in to death and we have need of your skills with free market economy." he grins softly and grasp the pommel of his sword. "As a member of the Divine Celestial Federation of Tannelorn, it is your right to rule as your people see fit, but of course you must abide by the terms that shall be given to you, with no questions asked."

"The just shall always vanquish the wicked Professor, remember this when you die with the blade of Johannes schneider twisting in your guts, this was the only message the Chancellor wished to give you, that and to welcome you to the federation." Yanislev watched as the holo image faded. He would have to go through with the ceremony, lest Schneider sic his son against him. Still he would not lose hope, of course he would definetly need more guards. Yanislev went to the main council chamber of Lehenstrue city, to make his newest speech....

ooc also in the cluster forums. http://z7.invisionfree.com/Waterhelper_Cluster/index.php?showtopic=2&st=0&#entry8536467
Lets all start posting again there, the forum is fixed, bal and i have admin status.

...cluster council...
My speeker stood up for the first time in a while
"No the meeting is not over... yet"
he turns to the gate builder's representitive (if hes still here I forgot)
"Gate builders your action will not be tolorated. (darn it i need to talk with pannab too) Your actions will be considered a invasion of waterhelper controled space seeing as how I am leasing sections of the cluster to everyone here. If you had any dignity at all you wouldn't just walts into someones territory and say "this is mine". (I also wonder why you aren't dead yet because you interfere with our matters) Also just because you are acended doesn't mean that we can't read your computers. It just emans it will take time to decipher them. If you haven't noticed my nanobots each have a gig of memory and their processing speed is one terahertz using parallel processing it would take a very complicated or long encryprtion method to keep them at bay. (think of the book digital fortress and its code breaking machine... just more powerful and resourceful) I do believe you have experienced nanite technology so you should know the implications of this." (or not since I'm the only one who uses nanites to the extent that I do)
he paused,
"Now regarding the mining of worlds, mining is alowed on any planet that you own. The only restriction, like stated before, are tapping the core of a jovian body, or strip mining a terrestrial world. There are sufficient recources in the other planets and asteroid belts that you do not need to strip mine a M class world. The government of waterhelper will also use whatever forces it has in the cluster for defence matters. Waterhelper currently has around 2 thousand ships to be used in this manner although they may be recalled for other duties.

"I agree."

After the Founder was finished talking, D'Rant took the opportunity to have his say.

"The Empire will persue any guilty of stripmining any M class world to the fullest extent possible, including military intervention. Furthermore, with the large abundance of asteroids, there should be no reason to rape any planet or star in such an undignified manner."

"Planets can be terriformed into habitable worlds capable of supporting life. Planets you consider inhabitable could support other life unknown to you. You could be destroying sentient life without even realizing it until it was too late."

"I would also like to remind you the destruction of any world or moon is the destruction of the Founder's property. That will not be tollerated. If you feel you need to destroy His property, you must request permission in meetings such as this so everyone will know of the exception granted to you."

D'Rant looked to the Founder.

"Is this acceptable?"

"It is acceptable. I will accept most mining issues unless it destroys life, or competely destroys the planet and/or its biosphere.

ooc fluid time, as this is indeed the first meeting still going on several months ago in the timeline.


***cluster council***
Space Lord Abarrakh stood in his seat. "Excellent, i believe the conditions of this treatise are acceptable to all parties, first and foremost is the issue of what private militaries may be left within the cluster." Abarrakh looked outside, watching for the tiny explosions on belle terre's surface.

"The cluster police and the founder being the exception, other then military vessels on layaway to the council, how many vessels should each of us be allowed to have." The Space lord was pondering this now.

"After all here we are fighting a battle that need never have happened but for seaquestrians militarisation of their cluster holdings."

"A very good suggestion indeed and one I believe the council should have more say in than you or myself. I suggest the other Council Members and The Founder decide upon this."

My representitive stepped forward.
"I believe that the total number of ships should be defined as no more than 20% of the ships that are in the defence force or belong to members of the police.(under the assumption that it will remain a seperate organisation which i think it should) The total amount of ship will be devided amoung the ermaining members and can be of any ship type as long as it is not a WMD or weapon of similar porportions." (of course i am excempt from this as it is my capital and it is why i have some 16 SSDs here now... automation and androids rule... along with my trillions of nanobots that can for things like those replicators from stargate)

"We currently have two fleets dedicated to protection of the Cluster and our territory. That is only a total of about 300 ships. That means 20% of our forces would be about 60 ships. That is not much to defend their systems."

"I suggest either a new system needs to be created or have it only account for ships not dedicated to the Cluster Defense Fleet and allow each nation to cycle ships into and out of the Defense Fleet to retain fresh crews."

"Safety is the biggest concern."

Kra'Dem stood up, "Our defense fleet is composed of 100 Ryurik Class SDs, 200 Victory III SDs, numerous smaller ships and 3 SSDs, one Eclipse Class and 2 Invulnerable Class. Currently we have orbital repair yards over New Siberia which can be converted into ship building docks if we lose our ships. Is this an acceptable number of ships to be left in the defense of our colony. If you are worried about my flagship's superlaser, I assure you that it is a last resort method if we deem the threat to be too great. For the defense of the cluster and for the defense fleet I will offer our Siberium armor technology, but only for the defense fleet.

We could have a 200 ship limit per nation it would be more effective.

"What if we just have a limit on the capital and super capital ships allowed? The IUCG has numerous amounts of smaller ships such as our transports, lancers, and carracks and should not count in the Ship Reduction Act," Deala said

D'Rant thought this was a good idea but restrained from voicing his opinion.

This was their decision and after all things were said and done, they would have to enforce their own laws.

"That is a good Idea actually, if there is no further disscussion needed, all in favor"

OOC:

Lets try to get this going again. After you guys finish the council meeting, I will transfer my systems into the Cluster to ensure the importance to me and to help keeping this active. Also don't forget to go to the Cluster Forums and use those boards too.



IC:

D'Rant sat back and continued watching the proceedings. They were hopefully going to set up a decent system of guidelines in this first meeting that would help the entire Cluster.

D'Rant sat listening to the others debate the bylaws of the Cluster Council hoping the others would finally approve of a workable system for self rule. He thought about the troubles in the past and how things had barely pulled through because nobody knew what their place and responsibility in the Cluster was. That was the reason the Founder supported the concept of the Council. The tennents of the Cluster would impose what they felt was fair and equal responsibility for their codes and conducts.

After a moment when the topic at hand seemed to be resolved, D'Rant took the opportunity to speak.

"The Balrogga Empire wishes to make it known that in the case of a repeat of a simular event like the incident between The Founder and Mini Miehm, we will use the same procedure that Tannelorn employed. If anyone invades Waterhelper, their territory will automatically be considered a protectorate of the Cluster Police. This is to ensure there is no way to take control of the Cluster in a violent manner without first utterly destroying the Balrogga Empire."

D'Rant paused before continuing to look at the faces of those present. He was guaging their reactions before continuing.

"It might be in your interest to consider a simular stance with the Cluster Fleet. It would send a message to would-be invaders that you would only allow their yoke of control if they were to place it upon your dead bodies. It would make such attempts too expensive in their resources and lives to undertake."

The federal diplomat looked at his brief case computer and smiled at the sudden message he got, his eyes opened wide, he stood up thrusting up looking around the council chamber, he looked over to D'Rant, and nodded a little, he suddenly with a loud voice started speaking.

“I apologize for my interruption, but there is news of grate importance I must share with you comrades, as of this point forward the cluster will now be overseen buy The United Terran Alliance of the federal union, meaning that water helper is no longer your chief overseer, this might be short notice but its news.. to validate this I shall project a copy of the treaty of surrender of water helper in the middle of the room.”


A simple message was sent to the new government containing a surrender treaty, the treaty was written by the secretary of state and president and it read.

We the people of the Terran alliance herby purpose in this treaty that this war will end, and that the people of water helper and the federal union shall live in peace and harmony together as one, we want to scrounges of war and scars of defeat to be lifted from you and your nation revived as a powerful free and democratic republic, the United Terran alliance dose not seek to conquer but facilitate a free people and help them along there way with enlightenment, this treaty hereby guarantees that the United Terran Alliance of the federal union and the country of waterhlper are at peace, and further more that the UTA will hereby render aid, defensive materials and other nation building efforts to waterhleper, this treaty will also include a treaty of surrender under the following conditions:

- Cluster command and oversight shall be transferred to the United Terran alliance, effective immediately
- Waterhelper military forces shall make an oath of loyalty to the New government of water helper
- And that all internal laws must be changed to represent an enlightened neutral nation.
- 4 planets shall be seceded to union control effective immediately

-A free and democratic government must be elected by and for the people upon the country of water helper.

While he Union apologizes for civilian casualties during the war we maintain innocence in any wrong doing, we will pay damages to families and provide support in the form of aid military defense, and political re enforcement, we shall also hereby put in this treaty that the nation of waterhelper is a protectorate of the United Terran alliance.

Signed
President Robert Bastidas United Terran alliance
Secretary of state bill Thompson
speaker of the house timmy Gladstone
The Temorary Government of Waterhelper


The representative smiled his eyes panned the council for reactions to what happened…

He then started to speak “Be assured that union oversight will only mean forward improvements and we shall not seek to destroy intuitions such as the cluster police or council because we feel it is important for us to work together for form a tighter better and more active cluster, our war with water helper while short will improve that country in the long run as we will rebuild it give it advanced technologies and help it defend it self against imperialist enemies, while this is short notice and I don’t have a speech to give, Ill make it short I am glad to be abord…”

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=12072691#post12072691

D'Rant chuckled when he was presented with the paper copy.

"You seem to forget that nothing outside the Cluster is allowed to affect the inner workings of the Cluster itself. Control of the Cluster cannot be taken from the Founder under threat of violence. You will have to destroy us all before that happens."

"By sending your fleets in a hostile manner to the Founder's world, you broke the agreement you accepted when you were granted possession of your territory. SeaQuest tried the same thing and he was evicted for it."

The man smiled his brown eyes panning D’rant up and down as he shook his head, starting to talk again. “My dear friend I wish to work with you, but if you insist on attempting a coup d’état I will have no choice but to suspend you from any power you hold with the cluster police, I am not here to be a tyrant I am here to bring balance and a balanced vision to this council and to bring it to life again, but I will not have totalitarian minded forces attempt to rip this cluster apart In to a civil war, what I have observed so far is that the cluster police have to much power, this means balanced must be achieved.”

"Then you are truely the fool you put yourself to be. What do you think the whole establishing a Cluster Council is? We are handing some of the authority of self goverment. If the, as you called us, "totalitarian minded forces" was afraid of losing our hold then why are we trying to get the territories to take their own fates into their hands and establish their rules for the Cluster?"

"The only one I see trying to do a power grap is the one standing before me. You already threaten to remove the first obsticle that stands in your way, by what can only be called pulling rank provided your claim is legitimate."

The diplomat smiled and sighed looking at D’rant, he raised his hand and made a dismissive move responding.

“the treaty has been signed, I’m now oversight and have founder ship over the cluster the treaty says it, it’s the founders own prerogative who to transfer power to, also legally My military had nothing to do with the toppling of water helpers government it was his own people, they simply decided to surrender to our force. We simply rendered the treaty to them, as for your word attempting to evict the new founder will be an oxymoron and will spur views of hypocrisy and imperialist intent , The UTA is not a tyrant and wishes only to restore balance to the cluster and lead it in to a mutual beneficial area for all .”
he sighed and waited for reply it was turning in to a debate already..

Making a gesture to the assembled Council Members D'Rant again spoke.

"It is up to the Council to decide if they want to accept this. The question of legality will also be decided by them. It is common practice that anything signed under duress is neither legal nor binding. If it was we could just hold a gun to your head and make you sign your property over to the Council. That is why matters settled like that are not legal."

D'Rant turns and walks away, leaving the TFU rep standing where he was all alone. Returning to his seat, he turns the proceedings over to the Council.

"I have spoken enough. It is up to you to decide if WatherHelper, TFU, or even yourself is to be your boss. I believe the Americas in old Earth History had this same decision to make."

D'Rant sat back and allowed the council to make the decision on their fate.

The diplomat peered back to D’rant and, his body shimmered gently in the council chambers light as he started to speak again.

“and pray tell what is your definition of duress, you seem to misunderstand the situation, see the water helper people were under a dictatorship that was illegitimate, we did not force the people to overthrow there entire system of government, they did that with through own prerogative, because they were simply sick of iron fist totalitarians dictating every thing in there lives.” He coughed a bit putting his hands on the desk in front of him and looking at D’rant again. He started to speak in a confident calm and diplomatic voice
As he did before

“Show me evidence that the people of water- helper where in fact happy with the old government hey had? It was actually under duress during Mini that the people were forced to disarm and… the government was minimally armed, thus there was no possible way for the people to have a revaluation during that time of his rule, and In-fact that the cluster council or cluster police during that time refused to help water helper out of its situation until what ever was left with it pleaded for cluster interference, so please tell me how you were taking care of the issue my friend?” He stood up again waiting for a reply instead of an evasion to the question. He calmly watched the council and D’rant.

"It seems that I recall Tannelorn taken the territories of WatherHelper into Protective custody so they could use their military to oppose Mini Meihm and a great number of battles were fought by Tannelorn un the name of WaterHelper. You can study the history records if you want to see the truth.

While Tanelorn was busy devoting his forces to assisting WaterHelper, Balrogga took over his Policing duties to ensure the safety of The Cluster did not suffer.

Instead of using this line of questioning to distract the Council, you should allow them to concentrate on the issue in hand."

Meanwhilst, the Godulan delegate, named Shin'Raxis, sat in his seat without expression or any physical sign of disposition whatsoever. Hands clasped in apparent prayer, it turned its stoic gaze upon the hologram of the Fedral Representative for a moment, then gave a serene smile. His emerald eyes flashed with an ever so slight glint of malice that vanished as quickly as it appeared, though his control over the rest of his expression seemed to hint that the lapse was completely intentional.

The Kython Overlink allowed Shin'Raxis to converse together without giving any outward sign of doing so.

We will not allow an imperial lapdog such as the Fedrals to hold sway here. Perhaps it would be amusing, to say nothing of poetic, to 'secede' from Fedral control?

No... such would be handing him the victory he claims. Perhaps it would be better to Secede THEM from control.

Deala rose from her seat. "It would be for the best interest and safety of the Cluster for the TFU forces withdraw from the Waterhelper territories within the cluster. Of course any territory taken outside of the Cluster will not be affected by our decision. As it was stated no conflicts should be brought into the cluster from outside no matter what even if you are arch enemies. So my vote would be in favor of a TFU withdrawal from the Waterhelper section."

OOC:

Comm channels have been opened so all reps can contact their Cluster worlds to get the best and latest information on this topic so as to make an informed decision.

Please consider all the info your people might know and relay to you (both correct aind incorrect as human nature will be) when you make your decision.

As I have demonstrated before, the decision on what to do is up to you and I will not vote in this matter.

Thwe waterhelper representitive contacted thier home world to get the inforamtion that he needed. When he finished he began speeking.
"All governments will be replaced, changes, fall, die off, and may be recreated in the event that it falls to a conquerer. This is just the natural progression of thigs, who are you to question what the people of waterhelper, the former rulers of the cluster, do to the cluser THEY used to own. The police was mearly a unit to enrue stability in the cluster, and therefore they really have no political power other than influence, it is the same with the council each person must infulence the other major members because linke in the old earth United Natins Security Coucil, any one of the major nations may veto a vote.

It has been in the intrest of waterhelper that we hand over formal control of the cluster to the Federal Union. These types of events should be out of the control of the coucil as just a year ago most political maps would have said "Territory of Waterhelper" on them." The representive sat back down.

Shin'Raxis leaned forward slighty in his chair and placed his chin in his left hand and turning his emerald glare upon the Waterhelper delegate. His lips did not move as he spoke, the surface of his entire body instead seeming to vibrate in order to generate sound.

"Recognized... critical aspect of discourse: utilizing past tense. 'Used to own.' 'Would have said.' Happenstance alters, circumstances shift, things change, as you have shown us this day. You have... ceded control. Unfortunately, we will not recognize this transfer of power. Content were we to co-exist with the Fedrals in the same sector of space, neither claiming dominance over the area and in general having little or nothing to do with the other.

"As stated, things have changed. The Fedrals claim lordship over this sector and we simply will not recognize it. Nor shall we recognize you any longer. You might claim to be acting in what you deem the best interests of your nation but it is recognized that you are operating under coercion. Your right to 'rule', as you say, is similarly forfeit."

He stood up as if to adress the rest of the room at large, alternating glares between the Waterhelper and Fedral representatives.

"We would seek to submit that the council be the sole power, with no entity holding sway over another, of this cluster. Waterhelper shall lose representation on the cluster council due to its... transfer of voice to Fedral authority. Barring this, we seek to submit that the cluster be instead recognized as 'unclaimed', with all the ruckus it would entail."

"We of the Imperium fully support the Union motion to take control from the ailing and corrupt Waterhelper government till such time as the new governing body is in a position to adequately handle their affairs. As I see it all the proceedings of the Cluster shall remain the same save the name on the deed, as it were, a situation we have utterly no problem with. We are assured that the Council shall remain in the state of power and modicum of balance it has always maintained, while the Cluster Police needn't overstretch their reach in attempting to police all under 'Martial Law'."

The diplomat allowed a fleeting smile to cross his lips before continuing, letting his voice raise above the delegates, flowing like water throughout the room.

"We also oppose the notion that Waterhelper should be struck off the council, for surely though it has transfered ownership on the whole it maintains its colonies here. I see not why the Godulan's should wish to evict others and spurn the noble intents of the Union in this, and invite civil war amongst our noble body." Another feral smirk "The Waterhelper delegation has our full support and as much a right as you, if not more, to sit on this august council. Need we remind you that, were it not for them, you would have no right to be here, nor would any of the others here gathered."

Shin'Raxis' eyes turned to bore into the Chronosian Diplomat like a laser.

"You speak as if such required some form of sacrifice. We will not recognize the transfer. As Waterhelper is fundamentally under the control of the Fedral union, its voice is tainted by that of the other, and as such should no longer be considered so long as such circumstances are in effect. They are unfit for such service.

"We came here to the promise of neutrality and relative peace. A tenuous balance, but one that holds today. The moment one of the members here sought to annex control of this Star Cluster, that balance was disrupted. In order to preserve such balance, it is necessary to remove the entity that sought to take it, and the entity that gave it. To preserve the balance that has held for so long, and to prevent any one political entity from attempting to enforce its rule upon the cluster.

"We seek no level of control beyond our own cluster and a voice on the council, but we seek to allow no others an attempt to expand their own influence."

"Godular, the waterhelepr government accuses you of trying to own the cluster for youself. Before we only wanted one thi, peace. We shared this great cluster which is to large for us to fully control. Because of that we let other nations enter, they however also had their own intrests in mine people like TDoMM tried to initiate war int he cluster or take it over. You are treading on dangerous ground, it was ours to control and do with as we wished, for all you know we could have imposed taxes or evoked people, and yet we didn't. If you care as much as to remove us then so be it. Politically the cluster councila nd police have no right to say weather or not we decide to transfer power. If you decide to interfear then you have passed the limits of your power. The cluster was ours to begin with and it should be ours to do with as we please." the representive looked around
"also, just so everyone knows before the invasion of whatever system sparked the war which end in waterhelper's invasion there was a military coup, this led more more militaristic views which led to said invasion. When TFU cam the people revolted and we freed of their temorary rulers, pleace conisder this."

The emerald eyes turned back onto the Waterhelper delegate, emotionless in their response but no less intense in their glare.

"You have 'ceded' control, and we will not recognize those you have ceded it to. You have no right to dictate anything to us, at this present point in time. The key consideration, again, stems from the utilization of past tense. It 'was' yours to do with as you please. You 'could have' levied taxes and other fees. Insistence of past control is irrelevant to this discussion.

"Be it realized that the Fedrals' attempt to usurp power is recognized whether the honorable delegate from Waterhelper seeks to admit it or not. If the Fedrals were so focused on freeing your people from your short lived period of militocracy, which is a wholly internal matter for your government and in no way related to the well-being of this cluster, why then was it that this supposed transfer of control from your nation to the Fedral Union was considered a high priority on the eventual peace treaty signed between your respective nations? If Cluster control did not matter, why was it mentioned?

"We submit to you that the Fedrals intended from the start to usurp control of the Waterhelper Cluster Authority, in addition to four of the planets that Waterhelper itself sustains within this cluster. Had the Fedrals not wished to procure greater power for themselves, whilst hiding such intent behind a veil of goodwill, then they would not have required transfer of Cluster Authority in the treaty. It would have been anciliary to the goal. Something to be pondered afterwards, to be subsequently acted upon in a manner maintaining equitable operating procedures for the cluster as a whole."

"So basically you are saying that you admit that I was in power and owned the cluster. That would mean i would have complete control over all political concerns concerning the control of the cluster and its relations with other nations, correct? Well then why do you REFUSE to accept that i also have the power to transfer power? Also if any of this is incorrect then please tell me, but if any is incorrect then you should have been expelled from the cluster long ago." he thought for a moment.
"This is what all of you are doing, on earth and its colonies I presume there are buildings called apartments, these are rented out by tenants. This is what is happening right now. We the government of waterhelper wants to pass on the deed and y'all, the tenants say "You can't give that to someone" for whatever reason, none of which are legit."

"Incorrect," Shin'Raxis replied. "You gave control to the council. Why else would we be here? If you DID have 'complete control' over every single facet of day-to-day operations, we daresay that you would have had a much more difficult time acquiring... 'tenants'.

"No. Transfer of whatever power, or even transfer of the 'deed'..." Shin'Raxis paused slightly just before mentioning the word 'deed' and smirked, "Should not have been an issue at all on that amusing little piece of paper you signed. It should not have been a priority. It should not have been a concern. You wanted this to be 'neutral' ground. For all intents and purposes you did an admirable job... that is, by keeping your ass out of it. Which raises the point of why you deemed it necessary to make any form of concession on the issue at all, or why one was demanded. After all, it is not like you dedicated much in the way of resources towards administering this place. If such a thing amounted to power we would further daresay that the Balroggan and Tannelorn participants have far more power to adjudicate this cluster than you.

"In answer to your previous accusation that we seek to take over the cluster, we would be hard pressed to care less about 'power'. Under your most meager of purported oversight, the cluster was as close to a neutral ground as one would seek to find anywhere. The Fedrals... are not conducive to that atmosphere. Were you to truly feel that you were incapable of whatever form of administration you performed, it would have been far easier to simply allow the Council to take up such duties. After all, it is not like we did much else."

D’Rant sat there and listened to the debate, noting the different points. He remained silent and seemingly emotionless even when the false acquisitions were levied at him. He knew it only made them look worse. Letting the council settle this themselves was the most damning thing he could do at this moment. It proved he was sincere with his actions of self rule for the Council even before the Unionist produced his paper copy of the Treaty. He knew at least two different ways to invalidate it on the spot, no, three ways. He wanted to see if any of the others would think of them and act upon them.

"The cluster council and police were originally founded to maintain the cluster. Therefor they have control over the internal aspects and not the external. Also originally the cluster was not a "neutral" ground as we owned it, the definition of neutral is: assisting or siding with neither of two opposing forces, that is impossible because it is owned, therefore it can be involved in the owner's war. Also the only reason the cluster council and police exist were to settle disputes because having a small fleet of fifty ships equivalent to old earth ships from the beginning of their interstellar exploration around 2200. our ships were underpowered and couldn't stop a fight if our lives depended on it. We tied to maintain it as a neutral ground, but when MM invaded old waterhelper prime and we moved permanently to the cluster that would be impossible since the cluster would directly be involved in wars."
The representative thought of another allegory,
"Those in the cluster should see the owner, council, and police in this manner: in an old earth country called America there were three government branches, executive, legislative, and judicial. The executive would be the owner, the legislature would be the council, and the judicial the police. However, the "executive" branch in this would have most power since it would be the sole authority in determining who will operate in the cluster and its external aspects like foreign relations. Internal laws should also be suggested by members of the council but any major laws would have to be approved by the owner. This would provide a stable government in which the owner would control most major aspects of the cluster, and yet in the transferal of the 'executive branch' you would essentially revolt. Nothing you say can justify this action."

"Ahh, but there is the rub," Shin'Raxis replied, nodding slightly to D'rant as if in acknowledgement of something kept between them. "By the rules that you yourself ostensibly put into place, what occurs outside the cluster stays outside. Which returns us once again to the notion that it was wrongful to have any consideration towards the cluster at all in that purported treaty that you signed, in effect breaching one of your own rules.

"Also keeping the 'rule in question' in mind, it is noted that the ONLY situations of interest for this cluster are internal in nature, which would once again put the Cluster Police participatory nations, Balrogga and Tannelorn in this case, as the ONLY authority in the Cluster, by your own admission.

"Now, what allows the right of 'ownership' here? Rule of law? Such is technically considered forfeit the moment you recognized that you could not hold the cluster by yourself and petitioned others to come 'hang out'. What determines ownership? Claim or presence? You claim ownership, but the simple fact of the matter is that the majority of the worlds within this cluster are held by nations other than yourself, and chances are they would not deign to leave unless forced to under the barrel of a gun. Strength of Arms? you require the cluster police to keep the peace. Your own capacity for enforcing anything within this cluster is highly suspect at best and essentially nonexistent at anything less than best. If one stops to consider, it is primarily because we let you have your little eccentricities, but you have no strength to back them up.

"And also, utilizing your own analogy, the three branches in the United States of America were placed to counterbalance each other, the Executive had power, the Legislative had power, and the Judicial had power, differing theatres but equivalent scope. The Executive branch, which you liken yourself to, was held in check by the other branches and could be called to account for various things. It is this latter issue that is of utmost prevalence now, as further utilizing your own analogy, how is it that the rest of the 'government' would be unjustified in the refusal to recognize the 'President' transfering 'ownership' of the United States of America to some mugger on the street? How is it that the rest of the 'government' would be unjustified in removing that 'President' from power entirely, citing incompetence or even insanity?

"As you can see, your analogy is flawed."

The representative was irritated "Fine! Then don't use that analogy, every nation has corporations right?! Well then Waterhelper was formally the executive as they would be the CEO owning 50% ((well i guess its technically 49%)) of the shares, therefore i can veto anything you propose as long as we have one vote in our favour. We have our one vote therefore the measure passes! Also rules were meant to be broken as proven by this cluster's inhabitants petty squabbling... well at least formally petty. This rule was broken more than once and yet I don't see anyone else getting kicked out of power and/ or out of the cluster. Look at the facts, that rule was hopeless, ignored to the point that it shouldn't even exist, and yet when we break it you try to kick me out of my rightful rights that belong to me, the former owner, the power to transfer ownership! Your logic is flawed. We the people of waterhelper would be the CEO of the company and if we want to resign and pass on our shares to someone else then so be it, so why are you trying to prevent this if you have 10% while we have 50%."

((I'm sure that made no sence but my rep is in a fit of rage))

Shin'Raxis showed neither emotion nor motion, choosing to remain as still as a statue with an unblinking emerald stare at the Waterhelper representative.

"Even in a corporation with a primary shareholder, the board can vote to remove even the CEO from office, typically for incompetence," he retorted, clearly enunciating each word with tremendous restraint... but not restraining anger or fury... the words spoken and tone taken were clearly calculated to hold in check... glee. "After all, in a corporation, if it becomes recognized that the CEO's actions are a serious impediment to the financial well being of the corporation as a whole, there must be some measure of control. In other cases, one might even witness a corporate split, as the opposing shareholders simply elect to... sever themselves from that incompetence."

"Once again we return to the authority granted not through rule of law, as you forfeited that with your actions, but strength of arms. Id est, the capacity to enforce your will, and sustain the peace. The cluster achieves this not through you, but through the Cluster Police, those from Balrogga and Tannelorn. If we properly recall the reports, however sketchy, neither of these two nations would have a willingness to allow the Fedrals to attain even a modicum of control over them. Prior hostilities and alliance affiliation at present time remains the deciding factor. To... bequeath your 'authority' to the Fedrals in what for all intents and purposes was a completely unrelated issue, when multiple nations have such grievances with them, is eminently provocative.

"If war comes, it will be because you started it, with your ill-considered actions. We will not recognize Fedral authority. We will not recognize the Fedrals as 'owners' of this cluster. We will not recognize the transfer... we... veto your motion." Shin'Raxis turned again to D'rant, then back to the Waterhelper representative. "We have our support as well."

Things had changed since the departure of Space Lord Abarrakh and the arrival of the Prefecture civilian government. There were differences in the methods with which either party did business. Abarrakh would have sided with the Balroggans in a heart beat, however the Civilian administrator Ralth Torama would not so quickly jump to conclusions. One had to weigh the pro's as well as the cons.

Waterhelper even at its most cosmopolitan had been a rather isolated nation, several invasions and much silence marked its history. Inside the cluster the waterhelper government often deffered to the cluster Security officials of Balrogga and Tannelorn, they did not make the greatest of leaders. The Fedral Union however, though at times a bit brash and more then willing to exchange blows with those they disagreed with could at least be called upon to make decisions. However this leads to a second conundrum, would they listen to the security council and those that had their own sovereign territory within the Cluster itself?

These answers of course would best be left up to debate by the Prefects council, however as for now the real problem was how to come up with an equitable solution. The Prefecture had been gearing up its commercial industries, preparing to start trade with the outside universe. There was opportunity here though one had to step carefully.

Ralth stood, his white and red uniform pristinely cut and groomed. He grinned softly, his youthful face was offset by his shock of white hair signifying his status as an aged Tannelornian.

He started to speak softly, as if speaking to his electorate during the week before the polls were to be sent in. "I would suggest we all take a step back and see the situation for what it is." He smiled softly. "Essentially the waterhelper government has collapsed under its own weight, as military dictatorships often will, the Fedral Union has stepped in to ensure the safety of its civilians, at least as we have been assured." he grinned softly and continued to speak, gesturing softly with his hands for emphasis.

"However the most contentious issue is still at hand, with Waterhelper handing over "founder" status to the Fedral Union, it places them in the position of "leader" to the cluster." he looked over the assembled delegates.

"As for the Balroggans and Tannelorn, we share some defensive and trade pacts with the Fedral Union, we have had many dealings with them, but this still doesnt answer the question of what happens to us, or to the council." he took a long pause to drink from a glass in front of him before continuing.

"I can answer this, it has been established that the Cluster council is the head authority in the cluster, the founder acts as its president, or a closer comparison, Lieutenant Governor in ancient Terran nations such as the UK or Canada." he smiled.

"This does not give the Fedral Union the power to impose itself on others, which in itself should allay the fears of those who are now worried this means some sort of takeover of the Cluster." he smiled wryly.

"However this does indeed give the Fedral Union power to run certain aspects, as well as the duty of making this place known to others, to invite others in to join in our compact and the peaceful coexistence and sharing that has taken place so far."

"We believe it is in the best interests of the Cluster at this time to continue on as we have, names change as do leaders, in this case the new "founder" is The Fedral Union, who still must abide by the compact they signed and helped to write." He looked over at the rest of the delegates, sitting down.

"The Cluster compact was built on the premise that we could all work together peacefully for the prosperity of all, it was built on the ideals of cooperation, friendship and trust." he smiled.

"Our vote goes to trusting that the Fedral Union will not impose itself upon the others, our vote goes to allowing this to take place, at least for now. After all the future is not written before us from simple actions, one can never truly predict exactly what shall happen. This being said the Balroggan and Tannelornian domains are still the domains of the Cluster police, we provide a check and a balance to the Fedral Union as the Council provides checks and balances to us." he sat down and awaited a response.

"Things change, though the old military government of Tannelorn would never have abided such a thing, allowing only for the military to be in charge, we are not such people, we believe in giving democracy a chance, it is the most sacred belief we in the prefecture have, to believe in the power of your own voice and the voice of others. The Fedral Union as founder brings more democracy to the Cluster, which in itself is a virtuous goal, lest we become like the Greater Prussian Empire, puppets on the string of a warlord, as the Knights of the DCNT would have had us all."

"Now let us all go together in peace and friendship, welcoming in a new era of prosperity for all of us, this could quickly come to war, I say as my government says..let us see this new heading to the end of its course." He took another sip of his drink. It would be a long, hard day and peace was at the forefront of his mission.

"No," Came Shin'Raxis' simple and surprisingly monotone response. "There can be no peace."

He straightened slightly before turning to the Tannelorn representative. "We speak not of unwillingness, but of incapability. There can be no peace between the Godulans and the Fedrals, and the same would be true of the Chronosians were we not held in check by alliance ties with the Extrasolar Union.

"We have never ceased our state of war against the Galactic Empire, and we will not do so until we are either victorious or eradicated. We will not allow ourselves to be answerable to the authority of any Imperial Puppet.

"Recognized: If the Fedrals are allowed to take 'Leadership' of the Cluster, we shall announce our departure. It is suspected that you will not miss our presence, but you might miss the five planets we will take with us. It matters little, we are sure you will agree. But we would seek to avoid hostilities within this cluster, out of respect to those who seek to remain, however misguided and naive we believe them to be. We prefer to be the ones to decide where combat takes place, and we would breach that practice by remaining.

"We might be unreasonable, but we shall not be... inconsiderate."

"The Cluster Police and the ideals you would claim to serve would prevent you from removing any world from this Cluster, since by right they are not yours. You have the right to squat upon them, to live on their surfaces as parasites but they shall never be yours, nor any other nations. These worlds are ripe and pristine, untouched by the powers of the universe. It was only the benevolence of Waterhelper which brought them to our attentions"

He turned his gaze upon the Balroggan "Do not allow friendships and pacts to dictate your opinion on this matter. The Godulans have no more right to these worlds than any amongst us. The Union has never demanded its worlds to secede, nor has the Imperium. We have abided by your laws, but now the Godulan's intolerance for change and his petty spat with the Empire Incarnate drives him to acts of treason against this Council and the Cluster Police.

Such transgressions shall do nothing but tear this Cluster apart, and they shall not see reason! There is peace here in this Cluster, here and now, seperate from the squabbles that tear the galaxy apart beyond our borders. But this shall shatter even that, and the precedent shall be laid down. What is to stop others demanding that the worlds they hold become theres? Or other worlds? Would you have allowed the Seaquestrians at the height of their insolence to commit such an abomination?

No. You would not, and if you commit yourself to this you will doubtlessly choke on your own hypocrisy. One does not right a percieved wrong by burning the books of Law. You prove yourself merely thieves and vagabonds and tricksters with empty words and gestures."

Golular, you anarchist nation! Of course you want to be against this, anarchies haveno order, they are chaos! The reason you have no criminals is because tehr are no laws, your people live in open rebellion free to do with their lives as they please. The definition of anarchy is: The absence of law and order; a gernal state of disorder and confusion, in other words a nation with out a centeral covernment of any real type. Anarchist means somone who believes in anarchism and if used loosly a terrorist, so take your terrorist activities out of this cluster should they bring a threat to the stability of the cluster like they are now. You ahve been given a chance to make a compimise and yet you refuse, should you leave the cluster with any ammount of planets, you will have commited an act of war against the owners in dispute. please consider this.

"What is law to you, Chaos hound?" Shin'Raxis asked, turning his gaze to the Chronosian representative. "What is peace? As the representative from Tannelorn spoke not moments ago, each system qualifies as sovereign territory to do with as we please. We are not told how to farm or forced to follow building codes. We are not given pollution restrictions nor are we prevented from defending ourselves. You may do with as you please on your own worlds as well, so long as it does not harm the well being of your neighbors within the cluster. Unfortunate it is that some have taken the opportunity to protect themselves from being ejected from the cluster by rigging their own worlds to explode, but we are considerate, we are economical.

"We would submit that the Council be the ultimate authority in this cluster, beholden to no one entity or prospective overseer. All would have equal voice. All would have equal representation. None would be 'ruler'. None would be 'in charge'. This is not anathema to us... equal representation, with none held as 'more equal', does not make us cringe. Why should there be any 'owner' at all? We do not seek control. We seek freedom from control."

Turning back to the representative from Tannelorn. "Would that not be the properly democratic course? The representatives sent here today should be sufficient to administer the... somewhat sparse workload of overseeing the well being of this cluster as a whole. No primary authority would be required whatsoever. Was such simply not considered? Was it not recognized as an option?"

Back again to the Chronosian, "And what of you, Chaos hound? You find it agreeable to place yourself as another's bootlick once again? The same as you have done with the Sith? You find it agreeable to ride the coat-tails of others and follow their every beck and call as you have been bidden by the Empire? Is submission to one entity not sufficient for you, peon? You assisted us at Terivine. You have our gratitude for that, and you had our trust. Admitted now is our mistake in giving the latter. Long ago, we would have known better. We once thought you beyond subservience to the Imperials. We once thought you 'better than that.' When we endeavoured to predict your movements, you always surpassed our expectations, save in that one aspect. We thought you beyond knuckling-under to the Imperials, we thought you had the capacity to break your bonds. For once, we were wrong.

"Pawn. No, you are 'Warmaster of the Galactic Empire' now! Your collar has a shiny new tag! The Chaos hound is now the Shephard's sheepdog, keeping the sheep in line and on 'the proper path', but only as the owner's whistles bid you to do.

"You told us once there was a grand plan in your actions. You told us once that your subservience was a means to an end. There is no end to your means. Your machinations serve no plot. We once sought to help you out of your bondage and you attempted to use us in return," Shin'Raxis indicated D'rant. "Ever serving your master, the leash is not hard to break, but you have never shown the will to break it. And you would seek to repeat your folly here. Somehow... we expected better. Beneath expectations again. We are... not surprised. You accuse us of fearing change, yet you fail to see the hypocrisy of your own words. In this... our expectations have been met."

Sweeping his gaze across the assembled representatives. "No ruler. No power over all. The council should control. All voices should be equal. This is our stand. We will not recognize another."

“Dear esteemed Chronosian Envoy, you do not need to remind me of my duties here. I have been carrying them out since before you knew about The Cluster. Tannelorn and Balrogga enforce the laws of the Cluster. That is our job. I know my place.

The problem I have with the recent state of events is the illegal acquisition of ownership. In their attack, The Federal Union committed criminal acts within the Cluster. They broke the First Rule. They attacked another resident within the confines of the Cluster. That makes them criminals and they should not profit from such criminal activity in any way.”

D’Rant paused to take a sip from the water glass, the tinkling of the ice heard from across the room.

“As far as your accusation of possible favoritism, it has not happened. Please accuse me of crimes after they are committed, that is the proper way to go about things. To do otherwise would be committing slander.”

“Besides, no alliance from outside the Cluster exists within. That is the Second Rule, agreed upon by the very members in this room long ago. That means the ESUS, GFFA, GE, AoN, or any other alliance or agreement made outside the Cluster does not exist here. That is what makes The Cluster a bastion of peace. Nothing that happens outside The Cluster actually counts. If any agreement occurred outside, it cannot be held accountable inside the Cluster. That is why the ESUS-GFFA war doesn’t exist for any tennents of those two groups here. We can peacefully act together as if it was not occurring because from this vantage point, it is not.”

“Now can we actually work together to resolve this?”



OOC:

Another gripe I have is the fact the hourly patrols of WH territory would have discovered the invasion within an hour of their showing up (maximum) and within ten minutes the secondary CP fleet in the Draconus System would have been there. For the record I have half a Battlegroup patrolling the four homeworlds of each tenant which allows me to make several visits a day if needed. In times of war, extra ships are rerouted to make hourly patrol checks as well as watchers hidded nearby for residents involved in the war. This would have been both TFU and WH territories because they were having altercations outside the Cluster..

I was not aware OOCly or ICly the war between the two was actually in the Cluster. The majority of the attacks occurred when I was offline and without access to Internet so I was unable to respond even though I would have been there ICly to defend WH from attack.

Tannelorn was involved in a RL event that kept him from even knowing about this until days afterward. He will have to fill in his own details.

"We play our part in the long War, but accuse us not of beign slaves when you know nothing of how our Lord operates! Warmaster indeed, declared Master of all aspects of the Empire's Military, declared equal to the Sith in their capacity as political rulers. Do not think us idle hounds waiting for the call of a non-existant Master. We held no power true as the Emperor itself, but now we control the very lifeblood of the Galactic Empire.

Control has always been our end." He snarls, anger rising in vile choler. "We would never be bootlicks to the Union, no more than we were bootlicks to Waterhelper, nor shall be to anyone who sits within this council. You know not the difference between subservience and equality, between serving ones own ends and playing the roles the Architect of Fate has lain down for us. We do as we please, we are as moral and as rational as hurricanes! We smite down the foes who oppose us and our allies, we stand beside you on the field of battle against the Federation, would we do that if we were slaves to the Empire? Would we aid those who they hate and fear? Palpatine has no power to tell the Imperium where its might shall be deployed, no more than you do.

Would you forget the blood spilled at Teravine for you? The Blood that shall be spilled for you when the Federation lashes out in its desperation? We may be savages, we may be zealots and we may follow the countless ways of war but we honor those pacts adhered to in blood and we serve those allies who have proven themselves to us on the battlefield. But we will not be insulted and belittled by theives who cannot come to terms with a natural progression.

We spit upon you and your accusation, blind and whoreson fool, we spit upon you and your lies and half-truths."

D'Rant slowly stood and then clapped his hands together once. The loud noise that resulted was amplified beyond any that could have normally been made. Once he had their attention, he spoke in a voice that was quiet but very noticable.

"Now that I have your attention, please return to the matter at hand. We have important work to do that involves neither hastly spoken words nor hot blood on anyone's behalf."

"Can we acheive in this chamber what we have done for so long without, a peaceful way to act together?"

After a moment, D'Rant sat back down and waited for the proceedings to continue in a more civilized manner.

"Equal? Is that what the Emperor whispered into your ear as he slipped on the new collar? Naivete is unbecoming of you, Chaos hound."

Shin'Raxis was prevented from commenting further before D'rant issued his thunderclap, though he did not flinch or show even the slightest tinge of surprise at the move.

"Recognized. Accusations of predisposition to subservience are irrelevant to the discussion. We would seek a response from the representative from Tannelorn as to the question we posed earlier, in order to return to the subject at hand."

"Now that we are calmer, are there any last statements before I call for a final vote?"

D'Rant looked about the Council Chambers waiting for anyone to make their say.

...New waterhelper Prime...
The former emperor of waterhelper (twice removed by coups) sat on the verge of tears looking at what was happening the the chamber. (assuming he still has the codes... which he should) The cluster he had helped to forge (having the ability to have your consciousness transferred into an android is nice even if not a commonly practiced technique in waterhelper) was falling apart. His nation had been invaded and defeated in mere days, and yet the invaders were hailed as heroes. The cluster was also in dire states, he had only insisted on one rule, no fighting within the cluster. The cluster, formally recognized as the territory of waterhelper, was being divided up by a pack of hungry scoundrels who refused to view the right that waterhelper had in finding this cluster. Waterhelper found the cluster and opened it to any and all nations, and yet they only brought war and two invasions. Waterhelper was being treated as a plaything, something which had no rights as a nation just because it was weaker in power than the rest, its political status in the cluster had been removed and the cluster was no longer theirs and up for grabs.

The former emperor still had many supporters even with his relatively unknown state. He was also recognized throughout the cluster as the rightful leader of waterhelper... at least was. Everyone in waterhelper also knew that the emperor was imprisoned and later released by the military dictatorship that took over. Many people were calling for his return, for under his leadership in the past the people of waterhelper had prospered with many nations in the cluster for it to trade with, now however they were declining and nothing could change that unless a good leader would step forwards. The current government was weak and bland and would submit to anything that TFU says.
A soldier came into the room.
"My lord, your supporters are in every branch of the government (like in batman begins... well the king isn't a villain... unless you re the provisional government/ TFU) if you wish to make a move, do it now and we may be able to regain some of our standing in the cluster and as a nation."
"Very well, begin the coup."
...provisional government council meeting room...
a man received a message through his subcutaneous receiver. He pulled out a weapon from under the desk and quickly shot all the other council members.
"Council secured."
...waterhelper...
Crews in the navy's mutinied, with the androids being reset yet again due to a hidden command code. Within seconds the mutiny was over with the kings supporter's victorious. The same thing happened in the armies and national police corps at the same time. The king was back in power and unless TFU took action waterhelper would be a free nation once again.

...council...
"I am sorry it has appeared that in this short time there has been yet another coup in waterhelper, I must beg your leave as this situation is resolved."

((OOC: Last chance for anyone to take action, The king is against TFU and the population is split. This is the last chance for the council to take action as these are the last of the people to refuse to see TFU as their saviours. (what you cant expect any coups to be flawless, in this case there are are always the people who refuse to believe that TFU saved them from an oppressive government who destroyed a whole city just to maintain its power.) besides i cant give TFU over there such an easy task at having a subservient population))

D'Rant seemed to be expecting this interuption and took the convienantly given chance and picked up the gavel.

"The vote is delayed until this new situation is resolved. The discussions may continue if you wish but the vote is detained for the time being."

D'Rant banged the gavel twice as the Waterhelper rep left the room. He sent a telepathic message to him as he exited. "Tell your renewed emperor we remember our duty."

D'Rant also relayed a seconf telepathic message to a point outside the Council Chambers. "Send the command, it is time."

Waterhelper Prime:

Several vessels faded into existance as the 3rd and 5th battlegroups Emerged from T-Space where they were waiting into Real Space. The three dozen vessels consisted of two carriers and several battleships, destroyers, criusers, and frigates. Their ebon hulls almost unseen in the inky black of space but their distinctive spines silhouettes outlined against the stars. The sensor readings on the ships showed each as pissessing the mass of a small star and the energy readings were astronomical.

They sat silently, waiting...

Waterhelper Prime:

The Imperial Union's "donation" to Cluster Police, The Endurance Fleet, had came out of hyperspace along with the Balroggan fleets. The Fleet consisted of the newest class of ships:

1x Endurance Class Super Star Destroyer

25X Ryurik Class Star Destroyers

20x Victory III Class Star Destroyers

The commanding officer, Admiral Pskov, gave the order to halt.

Galactic Sector 886/322
Imperial Government of Waterhelper
Direct Assistance Requested.

"Moff Tarkin, we require direct and immediate assistance. The old government has retaken control of the palace and has swayed military support through subservant means. We are in direct need of all emergency assistance. I repeat we are under attack from rebel incursions, direct aide required.... imm... he....l............request..........bac...... Destroyer....."

Transmission Ended.

"Well gentleman." Whillhuff Tarkin began slowly. "It seems the newest member of the empire is experiencing some problems. I would like to hear your suggestions on how we should proceed. General Triul."

"Sir." The general rose from his chair and moved over to the holo map. "The recently emplaced Imperial government was relocated into this section of the central continent. Surrounded by civilian infrastructure we can be assured that our officials are still alive lest the military suffer a full blown civil war. We do believe that the central government has been taken prisoner and is probably held within a ship in orbit, however the symbol of recent Imperial unification remains intact. I propose a full ground invasion and orbital assault."

"Poignant and concise general thank you." Tarkin motioned for him to take his seat. "Admiral Netter, your input please."

"Thank you Moff Tarkin. I would like to begin by first of all pointing out that space superiority should not be a problem. There is significant Chronosian reserves nearby and the Terran Alliance has numerous forces in the region, however as we are the first to receive the distress beacon we must intervene before the rebellion gains momentum." The Admiral flicked a small control on his arm rest allowing the holomap to zoom outwards depicting the entire star system. "I advise that we have the fleet emerge in system over four alternate pathways, converging upon the planets upper atmosphere. The fleet will then launch an orbital strike upon these key facilities." Several hundred red dots began to blink. "Meanwhile the Executor and her honour guard will arrive behind this moon, masking our presence. The enemy will proceed to engage our forces orbiting the planet, and we will then engage and begin combat procedures. The enemy forces should be demoralised and rounded up rather efficiently."

Tarkin smiled wryly. "And Inquisitor Malorum, what about the palace politically?"

"The government of Waterhelper has joined the Galactic Empire of her own free will and singed the treaties encompassing that decision. We are forced to intervene and restore order quickly and efficiently, with minimal loss of civilian life." The Inquisitor glared around the table. "The Emperor does not wish civilian casualties, all military rebels are to be stored in carbonite chambers until they can be re-educated. There will be no bombardment of civilian centres on the ground."

"Thank you Inquisitor." Tarkin rose from his own chair and looked at each of his officers. "We will assist the restoration of order and peace within this sector quickly and quietly gentleman. The emperor does not want this to rise upon his priority list, and nor do I wish him to be troubled by such a small inconvenience." Tarkin began to pace, hands clasped tightly behind his back. "Begin the co-ordination of the fleet Admiral Netter, and order our squadrons to begin training cycles."

IMPERIAL COMMUNICATION ENCODED

- Emperor Remiel: Imperial Warmaster.

"My Lord, we have received direct calls of rebel insurgency upon the planet Waterhelper Prime. We have direct transmissions requesting aide from our observers on the ground and would like to take this moment to forward the situation report.

Eighteen hours ago, the rebel insurgency attacked and overrun the legitimate government. We are bound by the civilisation of Waterhelpers recent Unification with the empire to intercede and stave off disaster. We are at current preparing several contingency actions, however with Chronosian forces closer, and within the cluster itself we are awaiting directions on how to proceed.

The Executor battlegroup is standing by, and operational plans are prepared for an immediate call to arms."

- Grand Moff Whillhuff Tarkin.



UPLOADING BATTLEPLANS

As swiftly as the D'rant and Shin'Raxis became aware of the situation, the news coursed through the Godulan Legion as sensory information would travel to the brain. Plans were introduced, outlined, debated, refined, and finalized within moments of the initial notification.

There might be some resentment towards us. Shin'Raxis WAS rather... loud, and no doubt they might have taken offense at the alternatives we provided.

Indeed. It is hoped that direct interaction with the general populace will not be necessary, but if such is forced, effort must be expended to minimize contact. We must also make it clear we are there to uphold the original government's claim, and that with the original government in place our objections will be considered null.

Different government, official actions of governments inserted via coup considered null. Return to original, return to originality. Recognized.

The Fedrals will be angry that their claim is annulled.

The Imperials are angry. Military High Encryption comms recognized between Imperials and Chronosian Adjuncts. Recognized plan of Imperial takeover appears compromised by Waterhelper coup.

Sweet.

Follow plan. Reinforce Balroggan presence. Maintain peace. Enforce current legitimacy of Waterhelper government. If Imperials attempt to compromise, maintain defensive cordon and kill kill kill.

Recognized. Rawr.

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

A great crystalline dreadnought materialized into existence a short distance away from the Balroggan forces and moved to a supporting position. Curious flexings and warpings rippled across the vessel's superstructure as strange protrusions manifested on the surface and the entire ship seemed to be changing shape.

The Kython overlink told the Balroggan strain that the Godulans had come to assist...

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

Contingency Maneuver: prepare probability jump calculations for fast strike and harsh combat scenarios. Javelins and Red Rain must be ready in the event they are needed. Slaughterstars 2G and 3G reset for Waterhelper insertion, to engage on mark.

Ralth spoke softly, his vox enhancer making it sound like a booming crescendo. "This is not a time to argue over who is trying to harm who or who is attempting to gain power for themselves. This is not the issue here, the Fedral union has no power over the council or the Cluster police, they also do not have the right to remove anyone from their position. This is the sole responsibility of the Cluster police since the first attempt by Mini miehm to take over the cluster ended with a new treaty."

Ralth stood now, facing the auditorium. "The Fedral union as caretaker only gives their people more responsibilities and no more power then they had before. As we of the security council are responsible for the defense of the Cluster, the Fedral Union is responsible for the economic wellbeing and openess of the cluster itself to new peoples wishing to make for themselves a home in a peaceful, ordered region of the galaxy. There is no need to worry about what the Fedral Union can do, but what the Cluster Council can do. It is still the sole legislative party, a veto for the Fedral Union would not affect this, especially as the Veto's of the security members counteract each other. " he smiled.

"The Fedral Union and Chronosia may be part of this Galactic Empire, but they are also here in the Cluster, living side by side with members of ESUS as you say, then why should we worry? The Fedral Union is as bound by the Cluster compact as are all of us, so they are now responsible for making advertisements and encouraging tourism and trade as a whole in the Cluster. So be it, Waterhelper was too silent for such a task, too isolationist."

"After all if the Fedral Union wished to conquer the cluster, history shows they wouldnt attempt to do so politically, but militarily..this does contain the second in a sense, but it also contains the first which leads us to this conclusion, nothing has changed save for the hand that beckons people inside of the Cluster. This is a place of peace and cooperation, between friends and enemies, let us move forward then in the spirit of the Cluster compact to discuss how to best ease this transition, after all we are the council, we make the laws and rules not the Fedral Union, Not Balrogga and not Tannelorn. It is the way it should be."

"There is enough war in the galaxy to last a thousand lifetimes, here we are witnessing the possible start of another, it is our responsibility to the citizens under our care, in this place of peace unprepared for the savage bloodshed a full scale war would unleashe to find a way to peaceful coexistence, as we have for the last four years. Let not the changing of one representative for another be such a catalyst. "

"I have heard the concerns and responses to those concerns, the way to peace is simple. The Fedral Union is now the Cluster's steward, and as such the responsibilities of the Fedral Union as well as the limitations must be clearly outlined, let us outline what these things are. We are the head, it is us the representatives of the Cluster colonies that determine the laws and rules and the way they are enforced, we of the Cluster police enforce those laws, the Cluster Stewards responsibilities are clear, the healthy economy of the cluster and making it an attractive place to settle. We must now make sure that these three roles are clearly defined. After all one man, or even a group of men could become a tyrant, it is our responsibility as a democracy to ensure that never happens. We can do this here, today in this chamber, after all it is the duty of the Council to ensure that the voice of the people is heard. "

"And there is no greater duty then this. The strife that destroyed our ancestral home could be repeated here, let us be wiser and braver then those that came before us."

Ralth sat down again. He knew he was walking a thin line, on one side he had two super alliances with a long history of warfare and bloodshed sharing the same five hundred light years of space. On the other hand he had his responsibilities as representative of the Cluster police. At this point in time their was a clear path to war and a foggy path to peace. As long as he was able he would stumble about on the path that would lead to cooperation, maybe even friendship between the two groups, at least within the confines of this wonder of the galaxy, the Cluster.

Shin'Raxis leaned over slightly and mentioned to Ralth:

"Um... not sure if you noticed... but Waterhelper had another coup and rescinded the transfer."

He grinned softly. "We did notice, the fact is that the actions of the old Waterhelper government were still legal actions. We have to wait and see what happens, this being said if TFU opposed forces attempt to challenge the validity of the former claims, we shall then have to see through a judicial hearing on the matter, after all a new government may not be legitimate if other factions are equally as powerful and equally in control of their portions of the nation." he looked over the crowd. "Things often change, but at this point the fact of the Transfer of power to TFU is still the motion we were discussing, until such a time as the situation changes again, it is still the situation we must deal with."

Ralth shook his head. This was an unexpected event, as was the event of the Fedral take over, adapt and flourish, stagnate and die was a saying in Tannelorn. At this point Ralth wished to deal with each matter one at a time.

"As for the coup in waterhelper, the cluster police should only become involved if it threatens to spill over or cause massive ecological damage to the systems and nearby systems involved, this is an internal matter for the time being, the issue of the Fedral Union as steward is external and still on the plate."

OOC

The prefecture of Tannelorn is very legalist, but we bend rules to avoid war. Seeing lots of big guns possibly blasting at each other over the cluster worlds has the Prefecture nervous, at this point they are going with legalism for the waterhelper Coup. Until such a time as the new government is 100% recognised, the issue of TFU as steward is still on the table. After all it was the old government that signed away that right.

For now at least things are as they should be, and sorry for the delayed responses, I hit submit before I could address the issue of the coup *<.<*

Prefecture of Tannelorn is one of the four nations that make up the Tannelornian federation, they control the cluster holdings and are a civilian democracy, the rest of the nations are based on knights leading free men, or civilians or democracy with the military and civilian government in a power share.

Prefecture of Tannelorn [Democracy]
Celestial Republic of Tannelorn [Democracy]
Federation of Grahfsberg [dictatorship]
The Divine Kingdom [Monarchy]

All under the DCFT [Divine Celestial Federation of Tannelorn. In the old days, this would have meant war at the outset, but now the Prefecture is in charge. They actually favour a cosmopolitan steward to invite more people in to the cluster for economic gains. Of all the nations of Tannelorn they are the only one with a currency based economy, the rest are command economies.

This is mentioned because there are Knights in the cluster at Terturaga the DCFT system in the cluster. They dont call the shots, but are opposed the change of leadership, silently fuming over the Prefectures decisions. This is an important bit for intrigue ooc. Sorry for the long winded ooc bit in this thread, but its very relevant.

"No, I think we shall disagree on that. With the old government in place, the TFU transfer is considered null and void. We support a return of power to the Waterhelper jurisdiction as for all intents and purposes the other governments were themselves illegal.

"And there appear to be multiple forces preparing to converge upon the affected systems, including Imperials, if you must know. But hey, if you want to cower in a corner while everything goes to shit that's your bag."

Shin'Raxis plodded back to his seat and sat down, plopping his bare feet upon the table and reclining into a dozing position.

Ralth's eyes narrowed slightly. "The old government is not yet in place, there is still much fighting going on in waterhelpers territories, as for cowering, it is not the cluster councils place to involve themselves in political struggles unless they go over the bounds of what is acceptable. At this time it is still an internal, primarily planetary affair. The moment large scale WMD or ortillery actions start to take place, rest assured we will step in, but only adding more combatants to the fray threatens to escalate the situation and may cause it to broil over in to adjacent sectors, the very thing we are devoted to stopping." Ralth finished.

"We will release thirty two Solarin battle ships and twelve Solidarity carriers to immediately start patrols along the borders of adjacent territories to ensure the fighting does not spill over, furthermore we will mobilise said forces to prevent others from entering the fray as well. No one else shall enter this conflict save those already involved, the borders to the waterhelper territories shall remain closed until the end of this coup."

"However this has clearly shown that the role of steward over the cluster needs to be as well defined as the council and the cluster police, as well as their rights and priviledges, also limitations are definetly needed considering the current situations rather..fluid changes."

"It has already started. Balroggan forces are already in place, as D'rant can confirm. Godulan and other cluster forces have moved in to assist Balrogga in the conduct of peacekeeping operations as necessary. The Fedrals have nothing now but a worthless sheet of paper with some ink on it.

"Long live the King. May the Imperials burn in righteous fire."

"I do not agree with that last comment but it is indeed true that the Endurance Fleet is supporting the Balroggans with peacekeeping operations. The fleet shall make patrols along the borders of the waterhelper borders to ensure security. They shall assist the Balroggans with escort duty and make sure that actions do not get too hostile. Now the matter with the legality of the TFU stewardship is questionable. Was it not that in one of the policies of the cluster that a nation can never bring in external conflicts or hostile rivalries into the cluster?" Deala spoke up.

"And what right have the Godulans to take such matters into their hands. Oh you may pretend to support the Balroggans all you wish, but honestly you're simply possessed of an itchy trigger finger and a flawed mental outlook, so determined to claim Imperial lives that you and your get would knock aside Masaki himself to hurl yourselves into the full brunt of the conflict" A chuckle breaks the silence as he pauses, sipping at a glass of water.

"I think that the Godulan actions here have shown quite clearly that their actions are driven only by a deep rooted and irrational external bias, and so call for a vote of no confidence in any Godulan military support.

They are not fighting for the Cluster Police but rather engaging in a pathetic and petty vendetta based entirely upon their hate of the Empire, a purely external matter that, well I thought, was not going to interfere with the inner workings of the Cluster. How wretched a race must you be to be so ruled by your little hatreds?"

D’Rant seemed to be in thought until he looked up after the Inquisitor Idasu Ari was finished speaking; he took the floor.

“There has been an error; The Cluster Fleet is under the authority of The Council. While it is intended to defend the Cluster from outside threats, the Council has to send it there. There has to be unity behind our actions here.”

“Who has the Council determined is the Admiral of the Cluster Fleet? Until there is an invasion, the matter belongs under the jurisdiction of the Cluster Police. While the enthusiasm is appreciated, the fleets of the Cluster need to follow the orders of their elected Admiral. That is the Chain of Command that must be followed.”

“It is for this reason I ask that all ships that does not belong to the Cluster Police to remove themselves from the WaterHelper territory. They are under the command of the Council and will remain outside the territory of WaterHelper. WaterHelper and the Cluster Police are the only warships that will be allowed within that territory.”

You went too far, Shin'Raxis. Rectify.

Shin'Raxis jerked slightly at the sudden incursion, as if he had been whispered to by a ghost.

Our apologies, Baron. We shall seek a secondary avenue.

"By your leave, D'rant, we would seek to request permission from the Waterhelper authorities to remain within their territory and conduct humanitarian operations. There would be wounded that require tending, and while..."

Shin'Raxis gave the Chronosian Inquisitor a smirk.

"While we DO wish to inflict significant amounts of physical distress upon the Imperials no matter what theatre, we also wish to ensure that secondary casualties are kept to a minimum. We simply could not live with ourselves if we could not assist the Waterhelper citizenry recover from the strife that has ripped through them not once but three times in rapid succession."

"Of course a more simple way to ensure that such a travesty does not occur is to ban all forces besides the Cluster Police from the warzone. That way, by their leave, there would be no secondary casualties that would not be caused by...Heavy handed malcontents, obsessed with vengeance that is by right not theirs. After all, so much ill can come of foolhardy zealots in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We wouldn't want the Godulans, or any other faction for that matter, agitating the matter further. I trust the Cluster Police shall see the wisdom in that, for to allow vermin and bacteria to swarm an open wound invites infection, disease and trauma to spread throughout the body politic...

The Emperor protects."