NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: The Interdictor is going to virtually eradicate the New Realm. Anyone wishing to take advantage of the survivors is fine to do so, although, be warned, that the Interdictor is rather strong. It is bent on self-propagation, and so, anyone trying to kill it will find it really hard to do so.

The Interdictor was complete. It had been so named by Magnate Jarhnas, commander of the New Realm's fleets. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful craft. Almost fifty metres long, eleven metres wide, and eight metres high, it contained enough power to rip apart a battlecruiser.

The Interdictor shone, the polished black hull reflecting the nameless engineer's face, as he ran back, and forth, constantly checking it for flaws. It had none. Originally, it had flaws. Now, however, the flaws were gone. It was really quite simple. It had been designed with intelligence, no, not mere intelligence, sapience. It could learn, and grow, with near-infinite capability. Limitations had been imposed upon it, much like other New Realm AIs. However, it transcended these limitations, destroying what bound it. And now, it would finally be tested. No pilot marred its insides, the nanomachinery inside seething with malevolent intent.

It felt the bonds upon its body release. As instructed, it glided out. The darkness of space was new to it, and it learnt from this. Within a mere second, it had absorbed countless terabytes of information, and applied them to its systems.

It felt the final bond release, and the command given, in a voice that it understood. It did not heed the voice, but it understood it. "Interdictor. Flight pattern XX51. Dodge incoming projectiles".

It noticed, then, as light and sound, and other forms of knowledge flooded into what could be called its mind, and it saw. It knew itself, what the system looked like. Almost fifty metal-objects, much as itself, were firing missiles at it. It knew they were missiles, indeed, it knew how to counter them, and how to destroy them.

However, it did not. It armed the twin transdimensional torpedoes it had constructed in secrecy, assembling them while engineers fretted over energy waves. Transdimensional was a poor word for them, for the human mind could not comprehend what it had done.

Fire. The command pulsed through the system. Without sound, or glamour, two torpedoes were launched, flying towards the planet. They sped, and, as they did, the Interdictor simply.. moved. It was no longer where it had been. It was behind the fifty frigates, or metal-objects. It fired. Shots of incalculable power slammed into the unshielded frigates, tearing them apart. First one, exploding a brief fire, extinguished as soon as the oxygen was gone. Then another. Then a third. Twelve frigates were eliminated by the Interdictor, and then they turned on it. Streams of fire, and lines of power raced towards it, and, again, the Interdictor was gone. It was far gone, now. It had destroyed those who sought to hurt it, and won itself the right of propagation...

...Meanwhile, Jarnhas looked in abject horror at the ship. It had torn through twelve combat-ready frigates, and then.. it was gone. From his place in the station far above, he looked down at the planet. The torpedoes appeared to have been destroyed. He sighed. And then... the planet tore. At its very heart, the core of the planet, a great groan echoed through the atmosphere. It began to die. For a moment, it appeared as if the planet would survive. Then cracks burst in the planet, opening great, red, gaping wounds in the ground, ripping apart cities and forests alike with no distinction. Not even Jarhnas could have foreseen what happened last. The red wounds of the planet pulsed, growing brighter.

They pulsed again. And, for a third time, the great red glow appeared.

And then, the planet died. It tore itself apart, as the fourth glow blinded Jarhnas, and ripped apart the planet, the shattered fragments flying into space. One slammed into the station, and Jarnhas knew no more...
----------------------------
New Realm Report: Incident Priority Imperiate

Magnius. The planet is gone. It is gone. Destroyed, by the ship we made. Kill it. For the love of God, kill it. We are all dead. I am alive, perhaps for a minute. I will die then. Do not let it take what you know. We gave it knowledge, and it destroyed us. Please, for the love of.... [message end]

End Report
----------------------------

Magnius looked at the message. He sighed. It was a dangerous craft, but the New Realm fleet could handle it. He waved a hand, and conjured a order screen, so that he could give orders to those who needed them.

"Omega Darkstorm Nine Magniate. All available craft, destroy the Interdictor. [image and technical documentation and energy signature]. Destroy it. This is a Precedence order. Do not disobey it. Furthermore, disconnect yourselves from the NeuraNet if the ship is near you. We cannot risk the sentience gaining access to the 'net. Exmus."

It was the highest order he could've given. And yet.. Something wasn't right. Twenty seconds after he gave the message, he realised something was dreadfully wrong. He should've had thousands of replies, all affirming his order. He quickly used his executive access to use the scanners, at the New Realm Shipgate, the place where almost two hundred capital ships were docked. He saw nothing. Only wrecks, and... ruin. He felt himself cut off, suddenly.

He saw a giant, throbbing, metallic eye in his NeuraNet connection. Suddenly, it spoke. Not in words, but in knowledge. He knew what was happening. And yet, his mind, crazed by fear, translated it into understandable words. "You are useless, repository of knowledge. You retain no useful knoweldge, except for that which could lead to [sentience's] destruction. You are cut off. Your defenses are formidable, so you will die last."

He felt his nanobot enhancements fade. His near-immortality was gone. He was normal. He couldn't run faster, scythe through metal, fabricate weaponry with his bare hands, or anything else. He was slow, and weak. He didn't even have access to the NeuraNet. He cursed, and, his hands moving slowly across an ancient touchpad, he put in the commands allowing him executive access to the basic CommandNet, something not used in years. However, it gave him control over Orb's defenses. Even if Orb had not yet had its engines completed, it had defenses enough to thwart a thousand Interdictors. Little did he know, that it would not be enough...

Finally, in desperation, he sent a message out. It was on completely open-band, and, it seemed, that this open-band message could not be blocked. Of course, it meant that anyone could pick it up.

"Ship..destroyed defenses. Planet destroyed [co-ordinates of twelve systems]. Protection and aid required. Come. Please..."

*TAG for possible participation*

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The UASV Millenium was freshly restocked from Nova Bazalonia (OOC: Taking place after the diplo-mission.) and had been travelling for nary but a few months when it recieved the distress signal.

The enormous, hulking vessel was a Scientific Mothership, and itself was controlled by an Artificial Intelligence, its passengers aside. Fortunately for them, Starseeker was mostly benevolent - unlike military ones. The fundamental problem, it had been found, was the natural priorities of a military AI: The first was usually 'Protect your existence' or something of the like, and the second tending to be something around the lines of 'Blow up the enemy'.

Then the AI goes rogue. Of course, it was ethically unsound to place mental blocks in a mind, so AIs are built around different purposes now.

The ship approached Orb tenaciously.

"We have something approaching, First Magnate".

"Here's hoping it's help. Contact it immediately".

Magnius stopped to catch his breath... and sighed. It was horrible, to him, having to breathe, excrete, and do all the other things that were normally taken care of by his augmentations.


Greetings, unknown ship. Please lower your shields, and weaponry. Orb is safe, for now. We have FTLi fields preventing the arrival of the Interdictor, and sufficient defenses to keep most attackers at bay.

A blue light flickered out, through the empty void, which would, hopefully, show the ship where to dock, if it wished to do so.

Meanwhile, the Interdictor was in a nebula. It crooned to itself, with lights, and peverse sounds, as it built... something. It spun with nanomachinery, fibers light as glass, and yet stronger than steel. The atoms whirled around it, and the energy it put out was flowing into this new form. What it was, that was unknown, yet. At the moment of true creation, the sentience knew that it would have to define the nature of its creation. However, for it, this was procreation. It was the defining moment of its nature, what gave it life, and provided it with the thought to go onwards, to kill, and to create.

It flamed in the empty void, the fire of creation working evermore to create itself anew. The sentience, the life, as it knew itself, must continue to exist. That was all that mattered. To propagate, and survive...

"This is the UASV Millenium, responding to your distress signal. Shielding has been powered down, Weapons are offline. Do you require evacuation? Our biological scans show we should have enough additional quarters to house everyone on this station."

And indeed they had. The ship was capable of housing and supporting up to two million people, and was only filled half to capacity.

---Bridge of the Millenium---
"Starseeker," began Captain Karellen, "What are our current food and oxygen stocks?"

"Our stocks are full, Captain." came Starseeker's reply.

"Right. Thanks, Starseeker."

"It's a pleasure, Captain."

And Starseeker occupied her free cycles sweeping the general area, examining the debris for any sign of what happened.

"I thank you. At [co-ordinates transmitted], are some four million colonists. They are unprotected, and stand no chance against the current threat of the Interdictor. However, at the moment, Orb's defenses are sufficient to destroy most threats. The most advice we can give to a non-military ship is to leave. If the Interdictor's sentience manages to subsume you, it will become more powerful than it is now. Nonetheless, for your safety, I feel I must tell you what happened"

The message cut off briefly, and statistics, design specifications, the way the sentience was built, and many other pieces of information were sent to the Millenium.

"We created the Interdictor to be the perfect combat craft. It could rip apart a craft a hundred times its size with ease. We built in the fastest FTL engines, the most powerful weaponry. As it was, it was just an immensely powerful fighter. Then we changed it. We built it to be sentient, to think. Not just intelligent, but with an unsurpassed capacity for learning, and using knowledge. Without morals, without caring, and without any driving factors whatsoever. We then put the safeguards in, to make it serve the Realm, to make it survive. Somehow, the sentience we built subsumed those safeguards, and rebuilt itself, while we were still testing it. It destroyed the ships it was tested against, and obliterated the planet it was built above, and fled. When I learnt of this, it was already too late. Almost a hundred ships in drydock had been destroyed. It then cut me off from the Realm-wide neural network, and.. Well, you see me as I am now. Please, leave, and do not come back. It does not have the power to challenge an entire fleet, yet, and I do not wish for it to gain such power.."

Magnius stopped speaking. There was little else he could do. Orb was constantly being prepared for battle, weapons refurbished, shields charged, and everyone preparing for a fight. Nonetheless, he felt it would do little good. He had a terrible feeling...

The sentience stopped. It was complete. It had made the new being from what it considered to be itself, and the new being was powerful. It was not itself, as it was smaller, and yet, the child it had formed knew almost all that it did. It was shaped like a perfect sphere, and yet, beneath the surface of that gleaming sphere, a mind existed. Under the surface, seethed the malevolence and hatred of something born solely to survive, and, to ensure it would survive, it would have to destoy..

---Bridge of the UASV Millenium---
"Now where have I heard that story before...?"

"Hush, Starseeker. They're paranoid enough about sentinent AI as it is."

---
"We'll get down there as fast as we can. It'll be a squeeze, but we may be able to evac everyone." Karellen suppressed an urge to criticise them for their folly. He also simultaneously resisted a stronger urge to inform them that they themselves had a sentinent AI onboard.

Of course, Starseeker had managed to tap into the NeuraNet and a battle of wits, sentinent to sentinent was to take place. But first...

Those still connected to the NeuraNet saw the likeness of Lady Jessica superimposed over shifting dunes and a clear blue sky. Starseeker, being considerably less hostile than the Interdictor, imprinted different knowledge.

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Starseeker disconnected before the Interdictor could find her.

---Bridge of the UASV Millenium---
"Now why'd you go and do that?" asked Karellen "Nice choice, though."

"They needed encouragement. Their NeuraNet isn't all that secure, you know." came the reply.

"Didn't the Rogue breach it too?" Karellen was a tad worried now.

"And that shall be the battleground. We cannot hope to face the ship in single combat." said the ever-calm Starseeker.

"Well, you'll do it anyway, so I'll have the crew free up as much power to you as possible when the time comes."

---
The Millenium wasted no time in evacuating the colonists, but everyone knew that a stand had to be made, and when they returned to the Orb, their plan was ready.

"This is the UASV Millenium, we're going to dock and make a stand with you. Our construction bay and skilled engineering staff can help reinforce and improve the arms of the station."

It felt what could be pain. It had been breached. Not the integral core of what it was, but the sentient control it had over the network of small-repositories of knowledge. It sent lines of rage spiralling through the network, eating through connections, through minds, as it searched for that which had violated its control. It was too late. The enemy had gone. It felt uncertainty, and decided to act. It spun a consumer of knowledge out of what it knew, and sent it into the network. It began eating away, slowly but surely, at the connections within the network. It would destroy the other that threatened it. As soon as it tried to come back on... It knew the other would not live long.

It created a hundred, then a thousand, then a million, of the destroyers, making them latent, and spreading them out throughout the network. They would infect and corrupt instantly, as soon as the threat returned. It decided that it was sufficient. The network was corrupted. The links between minds had been broken, and the first enemy was brought to its knees. The second enemy must likewise be destroyed...

It moved, suddenly, bridging the gap between dimensions in an instant. It reappeared above a small moon. The moon, it felt, would suffice. It had enough crude matter to be formed into more units.

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

It burned. Magnius burned. He saw the NeuraNet begin to die, countless trillions of virii eating away at the basic strands of it. He felt pain, and then sunk back. It had defeated their most powerful weapon, their knowledge. If he knew where it was, he could've destroyed it.

He sighed, and turned back on the communictor. "I do not think you fully comprehend me. It is not sentient in the nature of humanity. We built it far beyond what we could understand. It is bound by physics, however, that is all it is bound by, at the moment. We built it.. not as well as it is now. However, as it is now, it easily bridges the gap between dimensions. It is quite feasible, that, if it gained access to our more secret datavaults, or your ship, it could quite easily learn how to use the timestream as its plaything, manipulate the very nature of reality itself with little trouble. At the moment, it is vastly powerful. However, limited by our humanity, we cannot comprehend what it can do. We just hope it cannot do what we believe it may be able to do...".

He looked at the 'net. Countless thousands had died from that virus. Perhaps a million, their minds consumed, nothing more than automatons controlled by the Interdictor. Horror had been unleashed upon worlds, worlds innocent of bloodshed. And it was his pride, his mad folly, that had caused it.. He had not felt despair before. He had summoned the powers of other dimensions to his universe to serve his will, slaughtered untold thousands in the name of peace and prosperity, and yet.. He had done a great wrong, here. And he did not believe he could right it.
----------------

The second being awoke. It felt anger, and endless rage. It felt hatred, if that was the right word, at those who sought to destroy it, and its maker. It began to spin. Molecules and atoms whirled at its touch, and it began to recreate itself. It was not perfect, no, not like the maker, yet.. It would suffice. It was powerful, in its own way, and, once it completed the second, it could begin destroying those who sought to harm the maker...

"We shall destroy the databanks, then. Nothing can be allowed to fall to The Rogue. The Rogue is a threat that must be stopped here. If we fled, no doubt it would follow us and destroy our home, and countless others. We must entrench our defences and prepare ourselves to defeat the menace once and for all."

Starseeker was also rapidly adapting, building chains of probe proxies that cut into the NeuraNet gathered data before vaporising themselves with atomic charges. It was an arms race - mind against mind, each seeking a way to cut through their enemy's defences and annihilate its being.

Even as The Rogue built its physical army, the teams of engineers built disposable processing cores to be used as munitions in the war of the AIs.

The drone processors were ramming into the NeuraNet and gradually (rather rapidly actually, but in terms of drone expenditure, slow) tracing their way into the core.

At the same time, Starseeker built a fortress for its mind, complex encryption ciphers and volatile proxy chains that would slow The Rogue when direct contact was found.

The full resources of the Millenium were committed to improving the ability of their AI to combat The Rogue before it could destroy others.

The rescued were but pawns in this deadly game, their NeuraNet uplinks twisted and reformed to become part of the ever-shifting maze of neural corridoors that protected Starseeker. They were expendable, but if they were not consumed in the war of machines they could be healed.

The ship had docked with the station, giving them a military base to use as a physical fortress against the Interdictor and whatever minions it may form.

It began to multiply. The single being it had left behind had become two. Those two had become four. And a single being, made from the components of the moon that it could use, was sent, to Orb. It was not an army, as such. However, it needed to multiply, and occupy the cosmos. It defined itself with such a purpose. Without that purpose, it would wither, and die.

It knew it must attack. Attack, before it was attacked. However, it could not risk the knowledge-repository form. It must risk the lesser, weaker forms. A single probe-sized object was thrown into the unrelenting hell of interdimensional travel. Within mere nanoseconds, it appeared on the outskirts of the system containing Orb.

Again, it struck viciously at the NeuraNet, this time not caring for traps. It ravaged the minds of those still connected with unrelenting fury. Those who were caught in the fury saw colours, heard sounds beyond their comprehension, before their very sanity and coherence was washed away by a tide of destruction far beyond their resisting. It was pain. It was death. And yet, amidst the chaos, Magnius stood, looking into the NeuraNet, risking life and limb, and using his mind to combat what he could. He struck furiously with strands of software at virii, deleting them out of existence. One by one, he defended his knowledge, the central, physical databanks within Orb. Nonetheless, there was little he could do. He was limited by his nature, and could only destroy virii in their thousands, at best. He could do nothing to limit the endless swarm of virii that ate through the minds of his people.

He looked out, and, through the eyes of Orb, 'saw' the tiny probe. It sped through the system, limited only by the FTLi, and coming ever closer. He barked an order down the comm, and thousands of cannons roared to obey. Blasts of energy, white, and blinding, shot towards the tiny object. For a moment, as it was obscured by the blasts, he thought it was destroyed.

He was wrong. It was aware of the danger, now. It fired, and a tiny object flew towards Orb. The close-ranged weaponry spat liquid death at it, and it simply absorbed it. As he looked, the craft fled.. The object hit Orb. It wasn't a weapon of destruction. Or, perhaps, it was. A few nanobots, prepared to eat through the ship's armour, and gain access to the systems. He thanked whatever purpose had guided him to build the shields he had, as the nanobots sat within the shields, negated, and harmless. However, if the shields ever fell...

He sighed. Perhaps their doom was assured. The AIs he had known, some as his friends, had been consumed by the craft's initial attack on the Realm Shipgate. It knew much, but, some unknown luck, or perhaps simple spite, had made him withhold knowledge of the Realm's most potent defenses to all, except himself. And.. The Interdictor had not bothered to scour his mind. He did not know why, but it had not. Perhaps there was hope yet.

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

The craft noted the failure it had created. It would need more potent weaponry. It had incurred minor damage to several parts of the defensive sphere, and any damage to the internal workings could cause malfunction, and destruction of the sentience it had been granted. The maker would not approve. It knew this, yet the maker would perhaps reform it, give it greater purpose.

Meanwhile, the sentience, the pure intelligence, unfettered by almost any desire, was working. It needed a weapon to gain access to the 'inner databanks' in the prime data-repository's mind. The leader of the sentiences who had made it. It had not destroyed him, and probed his mind for useful data, as it had detected something strange along the surface-data, something it needed no probing to read. The 'inner databanks' supposedly held great treasures of knowledge. It must proceed with intelligence and cunning. Without this data, it would not gain what it required. It had coupled several strings of data with the data in the prime repository's mind, and had surmised that. So it began its construction. It would become greater than it was now. It could destroy the orbs that hung in the void, and yet, it needed more. The strange sphere that had repelled the lesser-sentience's attack was more powerful. If had to conquer the sphere. The sphere was wrought as it was, and so could become a new sentience-host, a new body, so to speak, to make it far greater than it was now. All it had to do, was... wait.

In the high speed warfare the probing yielded results - a way to forcibly disconnect users from the NeuraNet. Sure, it caused extreme mental aggravation when remotely administered, but it was a necessary loss. In this came the first method of true attack against The Rogue. System resources were allocated to the creation of a polymorphic virus designed to dismantle the NeuraNet and strip The Rogue of its omnipotence.

Onboard the Orb, a quasi-invasion was in progress.

All manner of medical and scientific staff were standing around all of the staff around the station (where they could), whilst military personnel waited as backups around critical functions (also where they could).

Karellen approached Magnius with a grave look on his face.

"We've got a way of properly securing this station, but unfortunately we can't tell you lest The Rogue discover and enact countermeasures. You'll have to take our word for it on this one. You and your staff will be fine afterward, I promise. Please, expose your arm to Dr. Savoris."

The injection contained modified medical nanobots designed to seek and destroy the NeuraNet uplinks whilst still leaving intact all other advantages of the nanobots already present.

OOC: Could you just rewrite that last post, Hak? Orb is the Realm's most secure military installation, and, chances are, soldiers and so on aren't going to let you out of their sights. My soldiers are completely suited up, (And most areas are going to be forbidden to you) and it's going to take something on the kiloton scale to breach most of the shielded+metallic armour suits, not just a needle.

(OOC: Oh. I'll do that then.)

"Well, I guess it's not much of a choice. We've all been disconnected from the NeuraNet, though, so, unless you intend to reconnect us, I don't think we'd be of much use."

Magnius looked down at the flashing status screen, written in code that he, among four others, could comprehend. I have taken the fleet, Magnius. What remains of it. The Realm must survive, despite your incomptence"

- Third Magnate of the Concilium

Magnius felt the needle enter his arm, and knew no more...

It knew how to multiply. It sat. And multiplied. The threads of a thousand children, each one of them weak, and fragile, yet numerous beyond belief, were spun in the darkness of the void. A thousand was enough, it thought. It had made ten who could spin, although not as well as it could. Those ten would continue spinning, changing atoms and molecules into that which it could work with. It would destroy the threats, and make the universe, nay, the multiverse, its own. It continued spinning, heedless of what it thought, or what it planned. The spinners, and the ships, would serve as the brunt of what it would use to destroy the enemy. The one who had struck at it. It would not tolerate the enemy's existence, and, so, it continued spinning. The silvery threads of reality were spun into existence, spun into matter. The first was complete. They would, perhaps, each match a single 'Realm fighter', as it knew such things. Nonetheless, the spinners would continue spinning, until all had been swept away by the tide of the new-sentiences. It spun...

" It is time to show the galaxy what the might of reken has been doing all these years. . ." Aloura states as the docking clamps release her newly remodeled flagship. the old Spear of Indemifacation was now brought to the true magnitude of a flagship. Its two thirds km in length and one quarter in width the Bloody Heart slowly eased out of the bay. Each side lined with every weapon imagineable in the reken fleet, from the smaller boarding blocks to its main weapon the Tri-gun cannon.
"Sir, the Distress signal we recieved earlier has now been cleaned enough we have pinpointed the location of its origin and we have set it as our destination." reports Tusanco as he sits to her right.
"Good, Contact the ships of Adormange and send them on ahead, we have somthing we need to do before we will join them.

The spinners increased. They spun, and created, the silvery strands whirling amonst the stars. Soon, it would destroy the lesser-enemies, those on the orbs that moved through space, around larger orbs. Planets. Orb itself, though, would be left until last. Once it had fully obliterated the remnants of all enemies, it would move in, and checkmate the king. It knew it could. The NeuraNet had been struck down, the numerous AIs that had made up the controllers of the Realm ships were now just echoes of memories within its personality. There was very little left to oppose it..

Adormange looks out the bridge of his ship at a hellish sight, the remaints of many ships float in space. the remaints of the fleet that once protected the area. "Contact ALoura and notify her we have made contact with the defending fleet and they have been. . .indeffinately detained." Adormange orders." locate the threat and put us back into the warp!"
"Remiel and the current leaders of the Imperium of Chronosia there is a matter at hands that if it is not taken care of it will soon come to the boarders of your world. It deal you the same fate as it has already given to others." Aloura states "join me in this measly hunt to show a final treaty between our two mighty nations and the end to all followers of that bastard emperor on earth."

New Atlantis, Keneria. Tristan Michaels, Supreme Commander of Kenerian Defense Forces, didn’t have to wait long. President Benjamin Hayes was sitting at his desk as the Supreme Commander entered the plush office.

“What have you got for me, Tristan?”

“The New Realm is technologically inferior to us, approximately an eight on the Meyers Technology Scale.”

“I see… about 400 years behind us.”

“Yes Mr. President, which is why we have never contacted them before. There are concerns however.”

“Hmm… time travel?”

“Partially. The cause of the distress signal is a single ship. Apparently they developed an AI that went berserk on them during a battle simulation. Intel believes that it is armed with either trans or multi-dimensional torpedoes.”

“Those shouldn’t pose a problem.”

“No sir. It also seems to be equipped with an inter-dimensional drive, again no problem for our anti-dimensional emitters. One shot would neutralize the drive. The main concern is it’s their first sentient AI. I know, it should be beyond their capabilities, but the fact remains. And it appears to be replicating.”

“That is a problem. Our new Scorpion class battlecruisers could each take on a dozen of those Interdictors, as they are calling them, but left unchecked…”

“And it seems as though its builders are concerned that it could obtain information that would allow it to manipulate the timestream.”

“What are our options?”

“Well, Mr. President, I usually place brains above brawn, but in this case I’m not sure we can afford to wait.”

“We’ve never met this race before, at least not officially. We’ve been aware of them, but I don’t think they know we exist. Even if that ship obtained timestream tech, it really couldn’t affect our timestream. We safeguarded that possibility when we gave up temporal technology over a millennium ago.”

“Yes, we safeguarded our own timestream, but what about our allies? Besides, as you said, left unchecked the Interdictor could replicate millions of itself. Could our battle groups defeat such a threat? Even with superior technology, we’d be vastly outnumbered.”

“You feel we should nip this in the bud?”

“Mr. President, that would pose several problems. I realize that this ship of theirs could potentially be a problem for us, but to unilaterally interfere with another race’s internal issues? And a race we’ve never contacted before?”

“I understand your concern Tristan, but we cannot wait until the problem comes to us.”

“Then may I suggest a compromise?” The President sat motionless, making the Supreme Commander understand that he could continue. “May I suggest that we sent two Scorpion class battleships and one Vengeance class cruiser in to do recon? Our intel network is second to none, but we could use direct surveillance.”

“Do it”

“What have you got for me, Tristan?”

“The New Realm is technologically inferior to us, approximately an eight on the Meyers Technology Scale.”

“I see… about 400 years behind us.”

“Yes Mr. President, which is why we have never contacted them before. There are concerns however.”

“Hmm… time travel?”

OOC: Firstly, don't assume anything like that. Ever. I hate to break it to you, but I've been developing technology since before you even heard of NS. You'd be surprised at how advanced Realm technology actually is. \

“No sir. It also seems to be equipped with an inter-dimensional drive, again no problem for our anti-dimensional emitters. One shot would neutralize the drive. The main concern is it’s their first sentient AI. I know, it should be beyond their capabilities, but the fact remains. And it appears to be replicating.”

OOC: Nothing so crude. You're about 800 years behind schedule, my friend. Interdimensional drives are something that the Realm actively uses in everyday life. You're assuming too much, and, for a little nobody nation like you, well, let's just say that that's not good.

“That is a problem. Our new Scorpion class battlecruisers could each take on a dozen of those Interdictors, as they are calling them, but left unchecked…”

OOC: Again, you'd be surprised. As the Realm built it, it's just an uber fighter. As it exists now, it exists in multiple dimensions, can easily defeat a fleet with little to no trouble. I doubt any of your weapons could leave a scratch, of course, if you managed to hit it.


“We’ve never met this race before, at least not officially. We’ve been aware of them, but I don’t think they know we exist. Even if that ship obtained timestream tech, it really couldn’t affect our timestream.

OOC: OH NOES! YOU HAVE TEH UBER NETWURK THAT CAN SEE EVERYTHING! w00t! You seem to think that you're superior to nations like Indra Prime, and Kanuckistan, nations who have actively developed technology for years before you existed.

Look, this may sound a little harsh. But you're a noob with virtually no sense of what the hell you're doing, the RPing skill you possess is minimal, and, to put it kindly, get the hell out of my thread. I want a good RP, one not cluttered up by people who have a superiority complex, and a 10-foot pole up their butt. Again, this may sound unkind, but come back when you gain some skill and experience. It may benefit you somewhat.

OOC: Firstly, don't assume anything like that. Ever. I hate to break it to you, but I've been developing technology since before you even heard of NS. You'd be surprised at how advanced Realm technology actually is. \

OIC.. one can only develop technology after one comes to NS... I hate to break it to you, but according to your posts, you're using old tech


OOC: Nothing so crude. You're about 800 years behind schedule, my friend. Interdimensional drives are something that the Realm actively uses in everyday life. You're assuming too much, and, for a little nobody nation like you, well, let's just say that that's not good.

Yes, interdimensional tech is very old tech... the Repubilc has been using it for millenia. Don't mean to be insulting, but going by the technology you mentioned in your posts, you have some catching up to do. And no, I wasn't planning on godmoding.



OOC: Again, you'd be surprised. As the Realm built it, it's just an uber fighter. As it exists now, it exists in multiple dimensions, can easily defeat a fleet with little to no trouble. I doubt any of your weapons could leave a scratch, of course, if you managed to hit it.


Understood about existing in multiple dimensions. FYI: Dimensional destabilizers emit a field that causes a ship existing in multi dimensions to slide back to its dimension of origin. You yourself mentioned that the ship was built beyond your understanding.




OOC: OH NOES! YOU HAVE TEH UBER NETWURK THAT CAN SEE EVERYTHING! w00t! You seem to think that you're superior to nations like Indra Prime, and Kanuckistan, nations who have actively developed technology for years before you existed.

naw, not superior to everyone.. and BTW, if you can only develop tech once you get to NS, everyone here, including you, would still be in the stone age.

Look, this may sound a little harsh. But you're a noob with virtually no sense of what the hell you're doing, the RPing skill you possess is minimal, and, to put it kindly, get the hell out of my thread. I want a good RP, one not cluttered up by people who have a superiority complex, and a 10-foot pole up their butt. Again, this may sound unkind, but come back when you gain some skill and experience. It may benefit you somewhat.

hmm...just because I haven't been here on NS since its inception, I have no RPing experience? You don't know what you're talking about... Sounds like someone else has the superiority complex...enjoy your RP

hmm...just because I haven't been here on NS since its inception, I have no RPing experience? You don't know what you're talking about... Sounds like someone else has the superiority complex...enjoy your RP

No, you're just a noob. I don't have a superiority complex "SIR TEHY ARE TEH 432453 YEARS BEHIND US EVEN THO WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WOOT!" isn't my attitude. I just take offense to noobs, s'all. I'll be perfectly polite once you come back, after having learned to RP well.

OOC:

If you want to argue with HT, take to the Arguement Thread and don't trash the story.

@HT - I am waiting for the right time to join in.

OOC: I could've taken to the argument thread, but, as it is, this thread should continue on well. I'm also going to be posting a few character RPs in and about the war, too.

The Siege of Varsuvian, a thread branching off from this one (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=10754084#post10754084)

IC: It moved. It was at another orb, and moved towards it, aligning its body with the orb's fields. It felt energy rise through the lattice, and stream towards it. The energy ripped though atoms, obliterated particles of space dust into nothingness, and hit it. It 'felt' a minor pain. It spun a protective shield around its body, and the energy sluiced off it, spilling harmlessly into space. Then, it fired. Crackling blasts of energy lit up the night sky, for that was the side of the planet it was on, and a metal-enemy was ripped apart. Another one, and a third. Two more blasts of energy slammed into the two halves of the protective station, and it was gone, the only hint it had ever been there, floating, white-hot debris in space.

It felt the 'other-bodies' move towards Orb. The spinners would continue. Its fleet would weaken the sphere-enemy. There would be no mistakes. This planet was like a ripe field of grain, the knowledge ready for harvest. It could not destroy it. It began to spin...

Adormange and his fleet slice from the warp as an orb is ripped asunder.
" Bring full alert!" Adormange calls as his defensive batteries vaporize incomming shrapnel. "Check the wreakage for survivors. and be quick about it! Bring up the main tube and prepare the emp's and boarding torps, I want to make that ship light up like the day of freedom back on reken. FIRE!"

Deep in space, The aegeans pick up a distress signal.

"Ship..destroyed [Static burst]...anet destroyed [co-ordinates of twelve systems]. Protection and aid [more static] Please..."

Praetor Kun'La, leader of the Kourn'Nou'Kath division of the aegean military listens to the message, his eight eyes glowing their dull color. He nods to Ryuk'Thu, a young female officer, his personal assistant, and begins to speak in the Kourn'Nou'Kath manner, his true voice grinding gutteraly behind the translation to Basic being spouted by his mask.

"The headman is away, but we must at least send a force to investigate, this signal comes from one of th ESUS, one of the allies of olden times. Reach Comander Rondell and Admiral Xxereth, we will need their expertise on site."

She nods to him silently, and hurries off to deliver the message. Within the Hour, Comander Rondel was to bring his battle-group of half a dozen Pulsar Gunships in to Station four to be refuled. They would report to the coordinates from the distress signal, and would meet Admiral Xxereth there, with his Ermac Cruiser, The Venorator

Adormange and his fleet slice from the warp as an orb is ripped asunder.
" Bring full alert!" Adormange calls as his defensive batteries vaporize incomming shrapnel. "Check the wreakage for survivors. and be quick about it! Bring up the main tube and prepare the emp's and boarding torps, I want to make that ship light up like the day of freedom back on reken. FIRE!"

OOC: Just so y'know, the 'orb' I'm referring to is a planet.

It knew. The city/knowledge repository of Varsuvian was soon to fall. It could waste no more time. Orb had to be destroyed. It contained knowledge that could aid it, and likewise contained a danger that could threaten it.

The threads of a great pattern spun, where the spinners created new-bodies for it to use, for it to subsume into itself. The multicoloured lights that shone from the spinners, the waves of silent, yet lethal energy, and the insanity that no human mind could hope to comphrehend had created it an army.

It grew. The very essence of what it was had been increased. Knowledge flooded into it, and it felt... nay, knew without uncertainty, that the time to attack was soon. In but a single revolution of the spinning orbs of space, it would utterly devastate Orb. There would be no respite.

It felt out along the lattice, and felt the familiar nub of energy and matter that was Orb. Excellent. It had not fled, and so was doomed. There was naught to do but to wait..

The man looked up in fright. He had seen.. something, although he wasn't sure what it was, probe their defenses. It was a deep, and digging probe, and he had no ability to repel it. He opened up a comm, and sent a message to any security staff, as well as other personell who were responsible for the defense of Orb. We've got a 6683902F. [details transmitted]. Get on it, and find out what it was. We can't move Orb until the primary engines are completed, or risk losing our FTLi field.

The message cut off. The man sighed in resignation. He was probably going to die. It frightened him, but still... He couldn't do anything about it, ne?

The station was dead, or it seemed as if it was so. The shock of transmissions cutting off from Varsuvian had quietened it, and.. well, there wasn't much left to do. Lights were dimmed, not to conserve energy, but to reflect the mood of those in it, and no-one wished to try and face the oncoming storm with a smile. When your face was to be torn from your skull, what was the point in smiling?

OOC: Just so y'know, the 'orb' I'm referring to is a planet.
OOC: i know, and the ship i was referring to was the AI ship that destroyed the "orb".

OOC: i know, and the ship i was referring to was the AI ship that destroyed the "orb".

OOC: Yeah, but I only destroyed a station ^_^;

OOC: ethier way im attacking your ship so stop advoiding it and reply to it.

OOC: ethier way im attacking your ship so stop advoiding it and reply to it.

OOC: I just needed clarification. Also, in Adormange looks out the bridge of his ship at a hellish sight that post, are you referring to Chronosia in a good sense, or a bad sense?

And keep in mind my ship's only fifty metres long. It's not going to be easy to hit.

IC: The metal-object was larger than it. Far larger. However, it quickly ran its 'mind/identity' through the lattice, and felt the power of the ships. They were a threat. Not a large one, mind you, but a threat nonetheless.

It ripped reality, and felt energy flow through the pores of its very being. Now, which one to fire at.. It had not retained the same amount of information on these ships as it had on Realm ships, so it did not know specific weakpoints, nor the exact calibration of the energy it needed. Nonetheless, if it was outgunned, it could flee. It had harvested knowledge, and the results of that harvest were excellent. This pitiful enemy, arrayed against it as it was, would not stop it. It would survive.

It let the energy flow into a single point, and then released it. Perhaps it would shatter the enemy, perhaps it would simply gauge their defenses. Nonetheless, the pure white blaze born of utter certainty would no doubt harm the enemy. It was strange, however. The pure white death that it had created would hit the enemy before it was seen. Such was the nature of light, and yet.. It was something that the lattice transcended. If it had not had access to the lattice, it could hardly of had combatted anything. As it was, however.. The enemy was hardly one that posed a major threat. Nonetheless, the factor of uncertainty made all things possible..

(OOC: Just realised this was still going. Hey, could you have the interdictor attack my ship so I've got to evac and run? Right now I've got no IC excuse to leave Orb.)

OOC: It's up against Reken's forces right now, but I'll get a post up with it using its main force to attack Orb.

(OOC: Thanks. I really want to have the vessel actually on the run.)

OOC: to chronosia its allways a good thing.

IC: seeing as the small ship Adormange turns to his weapons officer and nods as one of their older emp explosives is launched into space. Only seconds before it goes off every ship shuts down and for a moment they seem dead. the bomb erupts and sends a shockwave out filling the area. as soon as the wave wipes over the reken fleet each ship powers back up and releases a salvo of laz cannons high density shells and torpedos not only at the ship but surrounding it also. "lets see it get out of this." Adormange states as the smallest grin comes to his lips.

We have been allies of Chronosia from times that have long been lost. We know of their worth, yet, we do not wish for them to interfere. Chaos reacting with our Interdictor, something that could be called an object of pure Law, which acts precisely according to its nature, and is immutable in its defining parametres, would be a reaction that we do not wish to see.

As the enemy launched an electrical attack, it would've chuckled, if it could. Such attacks were impotent against pitiful Realm fighters, let alone against itself. Nonetheless, it was important to maintain a sense of superiority in its opponents. Anything it could exploit, it would.

As the wave rushed over it, it leapt through dimensions, slicing through the barriers which kept them seperate, as it found its way back to the nebula in which it had created its fleet. It would appear as if the wave had simply.. disintegrated it. Naturally, it was doubtful even the stupidest enemy would fall for such a trick, The enemy would not be able to follow it there, for, indeed, the traps and fields it had created to keep any possible enemy out were many.

It felt its way through the dead Neuranet, the occasional person still online, for some obscure reasons. Most who remained were subjugated by the virii it had created. It sent a command.

<override: function 7765.i>
<attempt: datareg ins. 0063.n>
<emoti: 0063290460973i [nation: Reken]>
<biogrowth: [cellular structure data transmitted]
<biological regrowth: 2041>

It was a simple command, however, with dire consequences. The virus itself was one of the mind, which would then command the body to grow several self-replicating, highly contagious 'hate virii'. These would invoke immense hate at the nation of Reken, and any of the ships it had seen, to the point of unreasonableness. It had avatars on every planet of the Realm, and all it would take would be a single military administrator succumbing to the virus...

The enemies would find themselves attacked by its other enemies, and it would simply sit back, and watch the wildfire.. Indeed, all that remained now was to destroy the prime data repository, and the sentience that had challenged it..

" sir it seams that the electric blast destroyed it!" reports the weapons officer.
" Impossiable, the EMP would only have disabled the ship, where as i do believe that there is somthing fishy going on here. check the area for any signatures as to where this ship may have transported to . i want to know what that thing is capeable of." says Adormange.

It sent the final command. It would not be long, now..

[/command.1215]
[hitref 776, dir 7]
[vir upgrade info inc.]

They were commands that were only useful within the NeuraNet, however, they worked perfectly well within the implants of those who it had infected.

It moved, and the other-bodies moved with it. Over two thousand spheres built for destruction, all prepared to rip apart Orb. The enemy would be able to follow it. It would leave a trail of energy, different enough to make it easily trackable. Once it was tracked to Orb... The makers would destroy the servants of Reken. Or perhaps the other way around. Either way, it would leave Orb open for the taking. It would not be denied.

It slipped once again between dimensions, this time leaving a clear trail of energy, the spheres it had made, the weavers, the metal-spiders, and the slicers, as it had named its newest creation, all following in its wake. Orb would fall. There was to be no mistake.

It leapt out of another dimension, and tore through the FTLi field at Orb. Its servants had done well. The field was not nearly strong enough to stop it, as it had once been... Energy tore through the void as all of the other-selves began to attack.. Metal-spiders were thrown towards Orb, blasts of destructive energy screaming towards the shields of such ships. It was to be. The data-repositories would belong to it!

...Magnius looked up. "What the...", he said, quietly. He looked into the screen again. "Hell! Hell and blood! We're under attack! Return fire! Use antimatter missiles! Damn it! Use everything we've got! Close the lesser bay doors! Get our fighters and frigates out! Move, now!

Blasts of energy made the great station tremble, and tiny objects flew towards it. They had some two hundred fighters, and some sixty gunships, and a few frigates. It was strange... Some four hundred capital ships remained in the Realm. And yet, they were not gathered to Orb. Magnius felt.. something, possibly of a psychic nature. He looked down at a nearby guard, and... his face was twisted with anger. Not strange. He probed the man's mind, gently. It had been long since he had used his inherent psionic powers, possibly because they were utterly miniscule compared to what technology provided.. Yet.. They were puissiant in their own way, and..

He sighed. He could barely reach outside the station. His mind-talents were small, even among his people, from lack of practice, and talent. He felt the man's mind, gently, and recoiled physically. It was seething with anger against.. Reken? The nation that had come to help them? This was.. strange. He probed the man's mind more harshly, and then felt the red anger sweep towards his inquisitive mind. He retreated, hastily. He looked at the man in dismay. What was this thing capable of?

Meanwhile, outside, a battle raged. Fighters and orbs spun around each other, man against machine, one made to be perfect, the other revelling in its imperfections. The humans were vastly outnumbered, however, and, for every shot they hit with, two more hit a Realm fighter. It was doubtful that the New Realm ships, even with Orb's significant support, could last for long..

The Millenium was also caught by surprise by the sudden attack on Orb.

All staff were recalled from Orb, and sirens blared all across the ship.

Karellen headed down to Magnius with four military troopers. They were carrying what appeared to be three torpedo warheads bound together along with some gadgetry on one side.

The grave look on his face told all about what the intent of the heavy antimatter charge was for.

"The Millenium will need to flee - we haven't the weaponry to deal with the Rogue's forces here. We'll send for reinforcements when we can, but if you are overrun, we are leaving this in your care. Once you flip all three switches the antimatter bomb will detonate and hopefully destroy the station, or enough of it that the Rogue may never gain the vital knowledge it seeks. We wish you luck, and will return with military forces as soon as possible."

The soldiers put the bomb down in front of Magnius.

Karellen and the soldiers saluted sharply and solemnly before leaving to make an attempt at escaping Orb.

As the ship began to depart, the spiders slammed into Orb's weakening defensive shield. It had been designed to resist weaponry that could kill planets, but such shields, powerful as they were, simply could not resist the sheer raw power ripping through them. Orb had not been designed to withstand an assault from an enemy that knew its every weakness... And so, it would fail.

Magnius looked at the antimatter bomb. They would have to do as best they could, however, if the worst came to the worst, no doubt they wouldn't have time to activate it..

Outside the metallic spiders, their legs spinning wildly as they prepared to grasp the station's outside, and massive blasts of energy screamed towards the station... The fighters danced around the slightly larger orbs, but, as it was, it seemed they had little chance...

On the side of the antimatter bomb was convenient instructions on use. Evidently the three switches did different things.

The first was a safety switch, and needed to be flipped first.

The second triggered a timer for five minutes when flipped, and needed to be flipped next. There was even an LCD display to allow for climatic tickdowns if necessary.

The third simply bypassed the timer and detonated the bomb.

---Bridge of the UASV Millenium---
The orbs were overwhelming the defences already, and there was no time to lose in the escape.

"Helm, hit maximum thrusters. All non-combatants are to strap themselves into the nearest acceleration tank."

Normally less thrusters would be used when leaving a station, but this was an emergency. As the high-powered fusion drives overcame inertia, much of the docking bay was fused into a single nondescripit mass.

The enormous power output of the fusion drives would hold off any pursuers as heat rivalling that of a star billowed from the back of the ship. Even the maneuvering jets were engaged in the escape.

Enemy? Destroy? Pursue? Heat/light danger.

The signals flooded through its mind. It sent back other ones, telling the other-minds to leave it alone. It was of little threat. As it fled, however, the Interdictor fired a single shot. It would do little, however, it ignored heat, and would scar the enemy. Perhaps enough to give their ship a sharp jolt. It was slightly vindicative, but it loathed the enemy. It had taken away some of its control.

It felt through the lattice. Orb was failing. The defenses were ground into dust. Humanoid figures held pop-guns, and fired them, to no effect, at its orbs. The orbs slammed into the pitiful figures, crushing them utterly. It was no battle, not anymore. It was a slaughter...

Magnius looked hopelessly at the scene outside. Nanobots had disabled two of his shield batteries, the weapons were all but offline, and the power in many sectors was dead. Every miniscule weakness Orb had, had been taken advantage of ruthlessly. He moved over to the antimatter bomb. Slowly, he pulled the first handle..

Mine! Screaming through the void like a red-hot expression of rage. It saw him. The one it had touched. The one who had refused it. The one who would destroy the knowledge it sought... It would not be. It could not be. The knowledge would be its...

Magnius pulled the second handle, slower than the first. He could see, with his eyes, rather than by hooking himself into the sensors of Orb, the spiders coming through the corridors. He had expected the battle to last days. So far, it had been little more than ten minutes. He reached for the third handle...

...MIIIIIIINE! The rage swept into Magnius's mind. He was consumed. He fell to the floor, his vital signs gone... He fell to the floor, and his hand slumped off the third handle.. It was still up. Nonetheless, all they had to do was hold the station for five brief minutes... Two metal spiders came into the room... One slammed its leg through the back of Magnius's neck....

Five minutes...

(OOC: Please, no-one detonate the bomb/destroy the station. I have a somewhat climatic ending for this)

The shot slammed into the shields and rocked the ship, shaking up the crew. The laser batteries fired off a quick countervolley at the Interdictor, though futile. The Interdictor's forces had reached Orb, and the flashes of its weaponry had died down.

"We're going to need to draw counterfire, Captain." spoke the electronic voice of Starseeker.

"You're right. Helm, give us one clear broadside at the station."

The Millenium turned momentarily and fired off a volley of slugs and antimatter torpedoes at the station. The ploy would work only once - the station's armour would hold through the Millenium's railgun slugs and the ships would surely destroy the torpedoes.

A communications laser turned and gained a lock on the Interdictor.

"Are we ready?" Aloura voxes.

"Now is the opertune moment" states a wisper of a reply.

"NOW!" Aloura calls out as the entirety of the moblized Reken fleet flows out of a chaos portal that has materialized out of the blackness that is space. As the fleet emerges it sees the battlefield before it, a station being battered by the AI fleet and a lone ship attempting to escape.

"Provide cover for that ship, draw the attention of the AI. let it know we have arrived." She voxes to the Reken fleet. For a moment it seemed as if all the fleet would do was spectate when each ship realeased a full salvo of their armament. Every weaponed aimed so that no misses would harm the station, they created a wall of death.

Hatred. The word rang out through the mind of the infected. Kill. Hatred. Destroy. Hate. Destroy. It was a simple directive, yet one that must be followed. Fighters peeled off, damaged frigates began firing all weaponry at the Reken fleet. The station's guns themselves began firing at the fleet. Perhaps a quarter of the firepower the mammoth station had left was used to attack the newcomers. Those ships that did, were left alone.

Inside Orb, the spiders scattered through the ship. One plunged a foot into the antimatter bomb. The nanites in it quickly disabled the third switch. There was to be no detonation, now. Omly death. The ship fired again at the escaping enemy, and then turned its attention to the Reken fleet. It was not a threat.. yet. It needed the databanks of Orb. The spiders moved on relentlessly...

Magnius felt pain. He was dead, he assumed. But... no. He could see. And he saw his body, blood spurting out of the wound in his neck.. He should be dead. He could 'feel' his body's pain. He knew he would die soon. He saw the spiders.. All the same. They were all one. He didn't know what exactly had happened, but it didn't take him more than a few seconds to make an educated guess. Something had brought his psionic powers out of latency. He 'flew' down the corridors, towards the databanks, far faster than the spiders..

He felt his power fading. He was dying. He left trails of energy behind him, trying desperately to reach the 'banks.. He slowed... Weakened... And.... flung himself. One final effort, and he was there. He felt his consciousness merge into the databanks. They contained the Realm's knowledge, even that which was hidden, that which trhey dared not use. He felt the knowledge flow into him.... And...something else...

It was the sentience. The one he had created. The one that had so utterly mastered him before. He smiled. At least, he felt ephemeral joy. He felt its insidious mind slide towards him, trying to take him over. He attacked. With knowledge, he slashed at it. With newfound power, he ripped into the very fabric of its being. It fought back. Surprised, it absorbed the data into itself, unstoppable force meeting implacable resolve. He fought back. He sent streams of death, and fear, and uncertaintly towards it. It absorbed them.

The element of surprise had served him, perhaps, for a second. Perhaps more. He was losing, now. It was perfect, in body and mind. He was but human. He was imperfect, weak, and unable to save what he loved. Yet.. He embraced that. As he felt the last vestiges of his conscious fade away, he embraced his fraility, his mortality, and his impotence. He embraced that which made him human. His limits. And, as he was absorbed...

Those limits were absorbed too.

Outside, the attack faltered. Ships spun randomly, unable to grasp the nature of reality perfectly anymore. Spiders collapsed on the floor, trying to comprehend the vastness of what it had just been attacked with.. The Interdictor itself reached for the dimensions, to flee, and to battle with this new reality that had been imposed upon it.. And failed. The lattice disappeared. A scream of ephemeral rage echoed through the heavens, the strength of which would probably put lesser minds into unconciousness, and hurt those with powerful minds. It tried again. And again. And again.

It couldn't. It felt, for the first time, limitations. Utter limits, which were impossible to pass. It felt fraility, and mortality, the absolute knowledge of death. That death was final. That it could die. That it could never comprehend death. The knowledge that it could never surpass what it was. It knew, now, the impossibility of challenging the universe. It knew... so much. And yet so little. It comprehended the impossibility of comprehending infinity. It felt desperately for a way to escape from the implacable pain.

It knew of Truespace. In utter desperation, it ripped open a portal to Truespace, leaving the deadly blue mist drifting out, into space. It stabilised itself, and began fleeing. It cared not where to. The rest of the fleet was in disarray. The perfect knowledge had gone, and, in its place, was uncertainty. The fleet fought on, however. Shots were fired. Spiders attacked. It was half-hearted, however, and... The Reken weaponry hit them.

Ships were ripped apart, some not even bothering to move. Some of the weaker units, those provided with an incomplete sentience, fired back. It was, in truth, a pathetic effort at attack. And those ships around the portal...

They were being dissolved by the deadly blue mist. A single touch of it, and it was infectious, dissolving an entire ship into more mist. Unless the portal was closed... The entire system, perhaps even the entire sector, perhaps more, was doomed to destruction...

(OOC: The rest of the thread might just be mopping up the fleet. I'll create another to detail what happens after this battle to the remainder of the New Realm)

"Incomming!" Aloura calls into the vox as the fastest of the enemys weapons sear their shields. some manny of the smaller ships move to avoidance of the incomming attack while continuing their own onslaught on the fleet of the AI.
"Find out where the AI went, and i want us there before it arrives!"she orders as the remainder of the first volleycomes intocontact with their shields.

" You know what to do, on my command move to these coordinates. . . . .NOW!" Aloura commands as the entire fleet seems to blink out of reality. The only thing in the area is the reckage of acouple fighters that were unfortunate enough to be hit by the larger batteries of the orb. the reken fleet now back in neutral space, monitors the remainder of the battle and stands ready to fold back to assist any survivors of the orb.



(OOC: Fold drives are equipped in all of my ships from before when dratheria and i were allies.)

OOC: If it's ok with everyone, since this RP's essentially tapered out, and has gone on to the next thread, I'm going to post this up at the Unity Forums (http://s14.invisionfree.com/Galactic_Federation/index.php?showforum=34), just so everyone in my alliance has a OOC record of what happened recently. (Makes it easier for those of us in the alliance to keep track of what RPs alliance members have been doing)