NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Ok, this thread is primarily going to be a mission to find the lost New Havenic refugees that went to the Sculptor dwarf galaxy. Since it'll be a journey of about 261,000 lightyears one way (Well more than the gates are designed for), the gate that's sending the ship will be catastrophicly damaged and the ship will end up in the Sculptor dwarf galaxy, but well off course from the target point.

This is where the thread begins to get slightly open.

After the ship is in Sculptor, it'll begin to search for signs of the New Havenic refugees, probably hopping from star system to star system in search of clues. From this point, it'll be kind of like Star Trek: Voyager, with the ship encountering other nations and ending up on assorted sidequests. As long as you have a viable reason to be in the Sculptor dwarf galaxy and aren't TFU, you should get the green light. PM me for info if you want to have a go at it.

And for the love of the gods, don't post simply to say tag.

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-Asteroid Pezun, Shipyard 6 - 24, Hammer, 01 N.E.-

Many months had passed since construction of SV-067 began. Accidents happened, lives were lost, and delays were had, but now the ship was all but complete. The first of a new class, Galileo carried the hopes of two nations within her hull.

Gangways had been connected to the ship and the crew was beginning to board while small worker mobile suits moved cargo and stores into the ship's hold. Alone on the bridge was the first man to board the ship as part of the crew. It had been eight months since he had regained contact with New Haven, fought off pirates, and created the Treaty of Asherton. For his service, Commodore Thompson had been promoted to Rear Admiral and was given command of Galileo.

"Admiral, the crew is coming aboard and the holds are filling. We should be ready to depart in a few hours."

It was Faelar Braegen, Thompson's executive officer. He had been the captain of the destroyer Kansai, and was also assigned to Galileo after the 05th Autonomous Research Fleet was disbanded and decommissioned.

"Thank you, Captain Braegen. You are dismissed."

For the next few hours, Admiral Thompson stood alone on the bridge, watching the crew and stores come aboard. Some time shortly before the ship was due to depart, the rest of the bridge crew began to join him. Consoles were activated, systems were checked, and everything was given the green light. Finally, everything was ready and the ship could depart.

As magnetic docking clamps detached from the ship and umbilical cables were released, Galileo began to back out of her slip for the first time. Now the ship was running on her own systems, completely independently. After passing the shipyard's bulkhead doors, Galileo was finally on her own and in empty space. From here, it would be a three to four hour journey to Luna's L2 point and Side 3. There, she would take the Hermes Gate to Asherton, and begin her final outfitting. From there, only the stars waited.


-Side 3, Earth-Luna L2 - 24, Hammer, 01 N.E.-

"Side Three Gate Command, this is SV-Zero Six Seven, Galileo. We need to get a hyperspace window to Asherton, over."

"Galileo, this is Side Three Gate Command, we've got a bit of a backlog. If you can wait thirty minutes, we can get you to Asherton."

"Sounds good. We'll be waiting. Galileo, out."

Waiting in line at the Side 3 gate, Galileo was surrounded by the colonies that made up the nation's capital. The space around them seemed filled to the brim with linked pairs of colonies except for the area around the military fortress that protected the colonies, the asteroid A Baoa Qu. Next to the asteroid were the two hyperspace gates. While traffic from the inbound gate was generally free flowing and unrestricted, the nature of the gate system and security measures meant that a line for the outbound gate was the norm.

In front of Galileo was a large Titan-class freighter with the name Lady Luck painted on the side in large stylized letters underneath an image of a scantily clad bunny girl holding a pair of oversized six sided dice. The line moved forward ship by ship, until Lady Luck went through the gate with two other ships. They were probably heading to Mars. Finally, it was Galileo's turn.

Accelerating slowly into the light blue and mostly transparent energy field, Galileo was shot into hyperspace and the stars began to blur into lines of light. After the crew made sure that all systems were go and everything was going as planned, the ship's engines began to glow a fierce, blinding white. With a flash, the ship disappeared from the hyperspace tunnel.

Many lightyears away, another flash saw the ship reemerge into the hyperspace tunnel far from where she appeared to leave it only seconds before. Galileo continued traveling through the hyperspace tunnel for several more minutes before gently dropping back into realspace. In front of the ship was Asherton, the same place that Thompson had visited eight months before. In orbit of the moon, the cruisers Hanna and Anne orbited lazily with their support fleets. After the signing of the Treaty of Asherton, the two ships and their fleets had been indefinitely assigned to the defense of Asherton under the command of the Imperatrix. Several other fleets had joined them, but they appeared to be orbiting on the other side of the moon or at Asherton's sibling Stanley.


-Asherton, New Haven - 24, Hammer, 01 N.E.-

"Asherton, this is SV-Zero Six Seven, Galileo. We've just arrived from Side Three and are to dock here for final outfitting. Over."

"Copy that, Galileo," Fleet Command radioed. "Docking platform Alpha has been cleared for your arrival. Welcome to the Asherton System."

After the breif radio exchange, Galileo left the Asherton hyperspace gate behind, and headed towards Docking Platform Alpha. With the skill of an expert pilot, the ship's helmsman brought Galileo into her slip as though she were a teenager's prized hotrod. After docking, her crew was granted shore leave so that the New Havenic engineers could get to work.

"Alright lads, lets get this equipment loaded!" Chief Engineer Howard Yeager called out to the army of engineers that had been called out to ready the Galileo for her trip. Ten large torpedo-like vessels were wheeled in as Yeager talked to the officer in charge of cargo.

"We have ten autonomous probes for the Galileo to aid in her search," Yeager reported. "Where do you want them?"

"Anywhere is fine. Just make sure that the location is registered in the log files. I don't have time to be searching cargo bays when the time comes to use them."

the INKS T'ien Lung was slowly spinning, its power having been knocked out when they were sucked into the black hole and ended up 261,000 light years from home.

on the bridge of the New Kirisuban exploration ship Captain Kaede Susato was coming round.

Most of her bridge crew apart from the young male ensign at tactical was still unconcious and the woman struggled to her feet and hit her comm badge when she seen the state of the bridge.

"Engineering" she says and gets no reply.

"Ensign Fujimoro you have the bridge. get the others up on their feet and send a runner to engineering once you know more about what happened" she says to him and tries the turbolift.

again nothing.

she sighs and takes the emergency access tube climbing down the ladder wondering why the ships power is off.

The black hole had caught them by surprise but they were still in one piece whereever this was.

The probes were wheeled into the cargo bay as larger crates of parts were wheeled in, containing various modules that would need to be attached to the sensors. Included were New Havenic gravitic sensors (recently constructed and fine-tuned), Tachyon Pressure Sensors (able to detect FTL signatures, Tachyon Exposure Manifolds (when exposed to Tachyon emissions over time can determine FTL signatures and direction, even after a long time has expired), and libraries of Imperial Library data concerning the expedition contained on data crystals and in old magnetic tape form.

Engineers immediately began welding, soldering and (in some cases) hitting things into place in the internal sensors access points. It was one, continuous roar as they worked, sparks flying, old parts being cut out and new parts being put in their place. Within a few hours, the Galileo would be ready to go, and the crews would be ready to disembark.

-Asherton, New Haven - 25, Hammer, 01 N.E.-
For the next few weeks, Galileo was in the hands of the New Havenic technicians as they went to work installing the ship's advanced sensors. When all was said and done, the ship was crewed once again and taken into interplanetary space for a few days to make sure that everything worked correctly. It did. After spending one more night in Asherton, Galileo departed the next morning, taking the gate to the headquarters of the Hermes Alliance, Axis.



-Axis, Bryn Shander, Sol's Asteroid Belt - 26, Alturiak, 01 N.E.-
At Axis, preparations for this mission were well underway. All hyperspace gate traffic had ceased as the two gates were dismantled and combined into one, very narrow gate. When both gates were combined, the single gate would have a much longer range. Further, the much smaller aperture of the gate when it was set up this way would further increase range and accuracy. The spare ships that made up the gates that used to service the New Haven system were also added, magnifying the combined gate's power by several times. Because the Hermes gates were modular, this functionality was built into the system from the beginning

"Axis gate command, this is Galileo. We're ready to depart."

"Roger that, Galileo. Just give us a few more minutes."

All around the gate and Galileo, civilian ships watched the activity with great interest. Never before had Bryn Shander used any of the gates this way, and nobody new quite what would happen. Mixed among the civilian ships, several of Bryn Shander's new Kusanagi class frigates made sure that everything stayed orderly.

"Galileo, this is Axis Gate Command. We're powering up the gate. Beginning countdown. T-minus sixty seconds..."

On the bridge, Rear Admiral Thompson gave the order to prepare to jump. The journey was expected to be very rough, so men scrambled to get to secure seats and strap themselves down.

"...Fifty seconds..."

Commands were called out across the ship as systems were checked over one final time. Everything was go.

"...Forty seconds..."

At the helm, a lieutenant began to turn knobs and flip switches. The ship began to move towards the gate.

"...Thirty seconds..."

Though slowly at first, Galileo started to clip towards the gate at a quickly increasing pace.

"...Twenty seconds..."

The center of the gate roared to life in a blinding spiral of blueish light, quickly filling the entire aperture with the energy to cast the Milky Way in one's wake.

"...Ten, nine, eight..."

Only a few dozen kilometers now separated Galileo from the gate. That distance was closing very quickly.

"...Three, two, one. Initiate jump!"

As Galileo entered the vortex of energy, time seemed to slow to a crawl. In the control rooms of Axis Gate Command, red lights began to flash as warnings appeared on countless screens. Something was wrong, but it was now far too late to stop the jump.

With a horrific flash and shower of multicolored sparks, one of the 100m long gate ships detonated, taking several others with it. Massive blue arcs of electricity jumped from gate to gate as Galileo passed through the vortex and dissapeared. Seconds later, each of the two hundred and eighty remaining gate ships detonated in a massive explosion. When the blinding light dissipated a minute later, the scene was apocalyptic.

Hundreds of civilian ships were now floating graves, ripped to pieces by the explosion. Dismembered and charred bodies floated from the hulks as damaged reactors caused secondary explosions among the wrecks. Even the military's frigates were not spared. Though protected by heavy armor and powerful shields, the six Kusanagi class frigates, Tyrfing, Hofud, Durindana, Hauteclere, Joyeuse, and Aor Chryseion, floated dead in space, heavily damaged by the explosion. Unfortunately, the much older Serpent class frigates that were with them did not fare nearly as well, and more than two dozen of the soon to be retired ships hung lifelessly in space, burning and breaking apart.

For the colonies in the area, things were not nearly as bad. Though the mirror arms on several had been destroyed and huge cracks found their ways across many of the window panels, none of the colonies had depressurized or sustained any critical damage. On the other hand, the asteroid fortress that protected the colonies would show signs of the accident for many years. Much of the rock on the side facing the gate was now scorched glass, and shadows from the destroyed ships were burned permanently into the asteroid. Worse, several bulkheads had been fused shut by the heat, and defensive guns would have to be replaced across the rock.

From the undamaged side of Axis, mobile suits and ships poured from the intact docking bays and hangars to render assistance to any survivors while beginning the long process of cleaning up the mess.



-Unknown Star System, Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy - 26, Alturiak, 01 N.E.-
"...Is everyone alive?"

"I.. I think so."

"What happened...?"

"It would seem that we exceeded the design limits of the gates..."

"The emergency lights are out. Anyone got a flashlight?"

"No, but I can cast some cantrips. Lemme see if I remember how to cast the light spell."

A few unintelligible phrases later, a ring on the elven ensign's hand began to glow with the light of a torch, illuminating a small area of the otherwise dark bridge.

"...Status report?"

"Well, the bridge seems to be undamaged, but there's a nasty crack in one of the port side windows."

"Ensign Bersk, I'd like you to head to main engineering to find out how they're doing."

"Aye, Skipper."

As the ensign made his way to the bulkhead that was the primary portal to and from the bridge, the lights flickered back on. With the bridge now bathed in light, it was easy to see the mess. Papers floated aimlessly along side pens. Near one of the communications stations a few globules of blood wandered through the air, a byproduct of the communications officer slamming her head against her console during the rough jump.

"Scratch that. They seem to have everything under control... Are you ok, Lieutenant Brightwood?"

"...I should be fine. I just need a bandage, some aspirin, and a nap."

"Ok. Head to sick bay and get what you need."

"Aye..."

After the injured communications officer left the bridge to get medical attention, Rear Admiral Thompson sent out a call for status reports from all departments. In all, the ship escaped the catastrophe at Axis without major damage. Reports from fighters launched to check the ship externally indicated minor damage to some of the engine housings and damaged paint, but that was about it. Unfortunately, main engineering had found that the hyperdrive was shot, the sublight engines were only at 50%, and shields were down to 10%. The best estimates said that the ship would be stuck in the system for a week before they could begin their search for the New Havenic refugees. Worse, whatever happened at Axis had thrown the ship well off course, and they didn't know where in Sculptor they were. To put it simply, Galileo was lost up shit creek without a paddle.

Fortunately, the long range sensors indicated that they had company that was in the same boat.

Captain Susato had managed to reach engineering and had the chief engineer back on her feet.

Lt Commander Ai Kamaro has shut down the matter/antimatter reactor down just before they had sucked into the black hole otherwise they wouldn't have been in one piece.

the two women perform a cold restart of the reactor and they also get the emergency power up and running.

By now all over the ship the crew are waking up and returning to their stations and the tactical officer notices when power reaches the bridge that they have company that seems to have the same problem that they have.

With comms up but transporters and turbolifts down he tells his Captain and Captain Susato climbs the ladder up the bridge.

"Comms, hail them" she says "my name is Captain Kaede Susato of the New Kirisuban exploration fleet, commanding the 'T'ien Lung'.

We have heavy damage and would appreciate any assistance you could give us"

with the transmisson sent Kaede was still cautious and told her security chief Ichiro Omura to break out the plasma pistols in case of boarding.

She sighed when she was told the shields were still down and weapons were offline.

"I just hope we don't have to fight wth us in this mess" she says to her XO Commander Keiko Ogawa.

ooc: Kirisubans are asian humans and their ship looks very similiar to a steel coloured 23rd century Romulan warbird.

2/3rds of their population are female and most of the 60 crew are female as a result. Captain Susato is 25 years old, has long black hair and blue grey eyes. She's wearing the standard uniform of the exploration fleet which is short boots, black trousers and a dark red wrap over jacket.

they also have a different comm badge depending on their department on the ship. the Captain and first officers badge is two crossed katanas.

"Erm, Skipper, we seem to be recieving a hail from a very small craft. I think it's disabled."

"...Do our comms work?"

"I think so. Video may be sketchy, but audio should be fine."

Taking a seat in his chair and resting his feet on a small table that folded out from the armrest, Thompson flipped a small video screen down from its normal position in the overhead console that was mounted above his chair.

"...I see. I am Rear Admiral John Thompson of the Bryn Shander Space Force. I notice that your skiff seems to be in urgent need of repair. Does your father know that you've taken his yacht and decided to play starship?"

getting a rather cryptic response back Captain Susato orders her comms officer to repeat the message until they get an answer.

a few minutes pass and the Captain is informed that they shuttle bay can now be accessed and the turbo lifts are now working.

she turns to her XO and says "I'm going over to that ship. Maybe they're having problems with their comms"

she takes an security ensign along with her and pilots the shuttle herself, the minature version of the mother ship gracefully flying across space trying to reach their neighbour.

"Erm, Captain, I don't think they got your message. I think they're sending a shuttle over here."

"Damn. Have a platoon of marines meet me in hangar bay one."

As Rear Admiral Thompson departed the bridge, several squads of heavily armored marines made their way towards the hangar. Each was armed with a more or less conventional assault rifle and an assortment of melee weapons chosen by each soldier. Their armor, glossy black titanium-ceramic composite suits with red highlights, gave them each the image of a faceless killing machine.

Outside of the ship, a line of lights indicated the correct landing area much like runway lights at airports.

Catain Susato trys her comms again asking for permission to dock.

"this is Captain Susato from the New Kirisuban ship T'ien Lung seeking permission to land. Your last message was rather cryptic and I think that we need to talk face to face"

the shuttle glides closer Kaede killing the thrusters now she's close enough to land.

When the new message was intercepted on the bridge of Galileo, the communications officer was somewhat surprised.

"Oh, so it does work..."

After taking a sip of water from a bottle that idly floated next to his console, the lieutenant sent a reply.

"Er, this is Galileo, you've been given landing clearance in hangar bay one. Just follow the blinking lights."

"Acknowledged Galileo command, I'm making my landing run now" Captain Susato replies.

she hits the thrusters again and glides into the hanger bay landing vertically and opening the door after she checks the atmosphere.

Her sercurity officer goes first, her pistol holstered and Captain Susato follows, both women spotting their reception committee.

"I wish to see the commander of your vessel" she says confidently to them..

There was indeed an atmosphere in the Galileo's hangar bay, but the Captain and her Redshirt companion quickly noticed that artificial gravity was not a luxury that the warship was equipped with.

"That would be me."

The man that stepped forward from the crowd of heavily armored marines was dressed somewhat like an old sea captain from the age of steamships and coal. He wore black leather boots and gloves along with black pants that were highlighted by a crimson stripe down the side of the leg. Above that, he wore a long, black wool coat with crimson accents and shiny silver buttons with matching rank pins. On his head was a white officer's hat that was emblazened with his rank and the national ensign of Bryn Shander, also in silver.

With the lack of effort that he showed as he walked in the zero-g environment, Captain Susato figured that his boots must have been magnetic. The soldiers behind him, as well as the ground crews for the fighters and mobile suits that filled the massive bay seemed to be wearing boots with the same feature.

Pulling the smoking pipe from his mouth, Rear Admiral Thompson walked towards the Kirisubans.

"So, what do you need? Are you done playing starfleet and need a ride home before your daddy notices that you're missing? Did you break his prized yacht and need someone to hide the evidence?"

Captain Susato replies as she floats comfortably in the zero gravity with a little bit of fire in her voice "Admiral Thompson I presume. We are not out here playing 'starfleet' whatever that may be. My crew are explorers and dammed good ones as well.

Now that is settled we need a little help to restore our ships systems and we'll be on our way unless you need some help from us.

We've scanned your vessel and you're up a creek as well. just maybe we have a spare paddle to lend you"

"Yes, I'm sure that your crew is quite good. Given the apparent lack of weapon damage on your ship's hull, it would seem that your crew is so good that they managed to kick their own asses. And quite well, no less."

The Admiral replaced his pipe and began to slowly circle the two Kirisubans, studying them.

"Now, though we may have 'lost a paddle', do not assume that we are in the same boat. Your ship appears to want to make a bee-line for the bottom of the creek, wheras this ship only has minor drive problems. Now, perhaps if you can explain to me what you're doing out here in the middle of nowhere and how you managed to end up in such bad shape, perhaps I can spare some engineers to help duct tape your skiff back together."

"we were exploring a blackhole in the milky way when we got too close and a surge from it sucked us in " Kaede replies "we have some engine problems but we should be fully up and running in a day.

I don't understand why you're trying to insult me and my ship when we are both stuck in a far away galaxy. I know where we are and while we're here I'll keep exploring with or without your help while we get home."

By now Kaede had softened her voice and was trying to be nice to the Admiral even if he was insulting her.

ooc: i assume at some point a nasty bad guy ship turns up and forces both crews to work together :)

"...Exploring a black hole? Did you say that you were exploring a black hole? Do you mean to tell me that you were stupid enough to actually enter a singularity for 'exploration' purposes?!"

Thompson just shook his head.

"No, we have engine trouble. You, little girl, have a ship that used ship salesmen wouldn't even try to pass off as a handyman's special."

The man stopped slowly circling the two and again removed his pipe.

"Little girl, if you truely knew where we were, you'd know that you haven't got a chance in any of the hells of getting home on your own even if your ship were in perfect shape. No, if you ever want to see your planet again, you'll need my help. A guide through the hells so that you have more than a snowball's chance, if you will."

The condescending Admiral bowed theatrically, removing his hat and producing a twisted smile. On his head were two small horns, and his canine teeth seemed to be abnormally long. It would seem that someone in Thompson's ancestry had some more than questionable morals.

OOC: No, Thompson is just a giant dick.

Kaede had tried to listen calmly to the insults but the final straw was her being called a little girl.

"Admiral, when you can stop being an idiot we'll talk later" she says and climbs into the shuttle along with her guard.

she takes off again heading back to her ship while trying to calm down.

As the Kirisubans stormed off, Rear Admiral Thompson had to try his hardest to keep from laughing. As the shuttlecraft departed, his resolve broke and he fell over, laughing hard enough that tears were streaming from his face as he floated a foot or two from the ground. When he'd regained his composure a minute later, Thompson stood back up and walked back to his marines.

"Hah... Ok, you guys are dismissed. Go ahead and get out of that armor and take a break."

While the platoon of marines exited the bay and scattered, Thompson walked over to an intercom mounted on the wall next to one of the doors to the bay. He quickly dialed the number for the bridge.

Captain Braegan, I'd like you to take charge of the repair effort. I'll meet you on the bridge in ten minutes."

"Aye, Admiral. I'll be waiting."

Pressing the disconnect button on the intercom's control pannel, Thompson made his way through the ship, using the lack of gravity to his advantage and propelling himself down the hallways by kicking off of walls. When he came across one of the ship's many restrooms, Thompson took a short break in his journey to the bridge. After he'd completely drained the lizard, he continued.

When Thompson walked back onto the bridge, Captain Braegan was discussing the needed repairs with the ship's cheif engineer. Joining in on the discussion, Thompson and the other two men assessed the damage and formulated a plan. When all was said and done, Braegan and the cheif engineer left the bridge and went to work putting the plan into action.

when Captain Satsuma returned she was still angry.

she hit her comm badge and ordered her engineer to have the impulse and warp engines working fully by the end of the day.

she stormed up to the bridge and was unhappy about them still not having shields and weapons.

"get the stealth field running first" she tells her tactical officer "thats as good as shields if it works"

the experimental device has been fitted while they were last home. it wasn't a full cloaking device but would absorb sensor energy making them very hard to pick up.

there was still bugs in it but now they had the motivation to deal with them now as they had a long journey ahead of them. it would take them years to get back even at warp 9.

She would probally have to deal with Admiral Thompson again after their repairs were complete. that was unavoidable.

with the repairs being supervised by the XO, Kaede returned to her quarters to rest and to look over the progress reports that were sent to her terminal. it didn't make pretty reading but she vowed that she wouldn't need his help.

ooc: what we really need is a voyager type beginning that willl bind both crews together and a common foe

While Rear Admiral Thompson screwed around on the bridge, an army of engineers, scientists, and conscripted crewmembers were at work repairing the ship's damaged systems. Throughout the ship, energy conduits and capacitors were removed and jettisoned into space so that replacements could be installed. In main engineering, the cheif engineer and a team of his best engineers were hard at work rebuilding the hyperdrive unit, having to replace almost every part with a spare. It seemed that when the Axis gate blew, feedback entered Galileo's drive system and fried it.

Even with this much damage to the ship's hyperdrive, Galileo was still in far better shape than T'ien Lung. Though the ship's shields were at a fraction of normal capacity, Galileo's weapons were working perfectly, as was demonstrated on a ball of jettisoned parts.

More importantly, Galileo had a way to cross the sea of empty space that stood between the ships and home fairly quickly. On the other hand, it would take T'ien Lung more than 171 years to get back, provided the ship traveled at Warp 9 the entire way. In Thompson's mind, that meant that the Kirisubans would have to do as he said, lest they die cold and alone in the depths of space.

by the end of the day shift the T'ien Lung has her engines fully restored and the stealth field was running although untested as yet.

after a test firing of the engines Kaede was happy and the night shift crews turned their attention to shields and weapons.

she had also worked out how long it would take to get home and she thought that the T'ien Lung would be a generation ship for a long time.

As the work continued the t'ien lung found a rock in space to orbit.

On board Galileo, repairs were going faster than expected. During the energy feedback caused by the detonation of the gate, many circuts and power conduits fused, causing short ciruts and preventing the overload from progressing deeper into the ship. Estimates for completed repair work had thus been moved from a week to a day or two.

On the ship's bridge, everyone on duty noticed immedietly as T'ien Lung feebly attempted to cloak itself and hide. Unfortunately for the Kirisubans, Bryn Shanderan craft routinely operated with minimal sensor input, often operating with little more than the cameras mounted in several points on the outer hull.

"That's cute. They're afraid of us."

"What should we do, Skipper?"

"Lets have fun with them. Send someone to the mess hall to find two teams of off-duty mobile suit pilots."

Several minutes later, two three man mobile suit teams had been enlisted for the mission. The first, Tressym Team, piloted MS-06FZ Zaku II Kais that had a grey, winged cat painted onto the shoulder shields. The second team, known only as the 084th Dom, piloted olive drab MS-09R2 Rick Dom IIs. After the rules of engagement were explained, the two teams went to their respective hangars. In hangar one, the Tressym Team was having their suits armed and equipped with assorted thrown weapons and spare ammo drums. In hangar four, the 084th Dom opted for little more than a few spare magazines and a pair of panzer faust for each suit.

When all was said and done, the six pilots climbed into their cockpits and moved their suits to the launch catapults. After the suits were thrust into space at high velocity, they drifted quickly through space, using their thrusters only to correct their course in an attempt to conserve fuel. Some time later, they came upon the zone of conflict: T'ien Lung.

Back on Galileo, men were monitoring the suits. When they saw that the suits were at the designated combat area, a bright red flare was fired from the ship.

At T'ien Lung, the two teams of suits saw the flare in the distance and began the operation. Almost immedietly, the three Zakus opened fire on the Doms with their 120mm machineguns, which caused the Doms to dive under the Kirisuban ship for cover. As the rounds impacted onto the ship's hull, the Doms rocketed towards the stern of the small starship, firing their 880mm bazookas at the Zakus as soon as they passed the end of the ship. The three Zakus scattered, but not before an 880mm round caught one Zaku in the leg, leaving a huge, bright orange sploch of glow-in-the-dark paint on the Zaku's dark green finish.

After the Zakus split up, the combat became far more chaotic, each suit manuvering to get the jump on an opponent. From a distance, it would look like a carnival of quickly moving lights. During the mock-battle, T'ien Lung was hit with countless rounds, each leaving a glow-in-the-dark paint splatter that was bright yellow if it was from the Zakus or orange if from the Doms.

"tactical what in the name of Kami is going on" Captain Onazuka asks her tactical officer.

with their sensors working Ensign Ichiro Fujimoro was able to see what was going on and punched up the image on the viewscreen.

"they're having a mock battle" he says "and theres paint on our hull over it"

Kaede sighs and wonders if these people are for real.

"leave them to it but they board us they'll be on the recieving end of a plasma weapon stun. in the meantime get me Admiral Thompson and patch the call through to my ready room and have an EV party on standby for the morning shift for when we need to clean the paint off"

The call goes out from the T'ien Lung to the Galileo and Captain Satsuma waits for a reply..

ooc: the stealth field isn't turned on yet and its not a full cloak in the first place. you will be able to see the ship if you look out a window but you won't be able to pick it up on sensors.

While the mobile suits had their fun, the call was recieved on the bridge.

"Skipper, we're being hailed by T'ien Lung."

"Oh? Do we have any cheesey music in the computer?"

"Just stuff from the 1980s and 1990s CE."

"By the gods, who uploaded that ancient stuff? Oh well, set that to a playlist, then answer the hail. Immedietly put them on hold and play the list over the comms."

"Sir?"

"Just do it."

"Aye."

The comms officer did as Thompson said and answered the hail.

"SV-067 Galileo, this is Ensign Starnhap. Hold please."

Without even waiting for a response, the ensign patched the playlist into the feed, and the Kirisuban captain was immedietly assaulted by random songs from Phil Collins' Greatest Hits album, Creed albums, and perhaps worst of all, Celine Dion. Half an hour later, Rear Admiral Thomopson decided to answer the call.

"This is Rear Admiral John Thompson. How may I help you?"

Captain Satsuma replied calmly "Admiral Thompson, I didn't realise that people still used music when they were holding a hail. I thought you would have been more modern than the 20th century although.

I can send you something more modern if you wish it.

when we talked earlier you mentioned a way that we could get back to our universe. more information would be helpful"

"Oh? You're not happy with our music selection? Well, you didn't have to call."

Thompson was lounging around on the bridge, drinking something that could make Dwarves vomit and smoking a cigarette made with something that wasn't quite tobacco.

"As for your question, no, we can never return to our 'universe'. You see, we never left our 'universe'. Our galaxy, on the other hand, is very far from this backwater dump. If you've run the numbers, your ship would not make it back on its own until well after your great-great-great-grandchildren were dead and gone."

He paused for a moment, taking a swig of the unnaturally potent drink.

"On the other hand, this ship carries technology that can bridge that gap in days. Though I don't care to delve into the specifics, I'll just say that we have the capability to create hybrid hyperspace-jump gates that can cover immense distances in record time."

Sitting up, Thompson put out the cigarette and emptied the bottle.

"...Oh gods, I shouldn't have done that... Ugh..."

The Admiral took a minute to regain his composure and his breath.

"But anyway, we have people to find before we can even think about going home."

Kaede ponders and replies "I have worked out how long it would take us to return. We had planned to find a nice M class planet and set up home once we had done some exploring and a probe could have made the journey home with our findings.

Who is that you are looking for? since we are both in this galaxy it makes sense to work together especially if you are going to return from where you came.

After all two ships is better than one"

"We're looking for refugees from the Imperium of New Haven. They escaped to this place several years ago, but an explosion during our inter-galactic jump threw us off course. Now, you're free to tag along, but we're not giving you a ride home unless you're supplying the gas, grass, or ass."

"if its a trade you're after we'll see what we can do" Kaede replies "once I figure out what you're actually after.

In the meantime i will be tagging along as long as it suits our purposes and stunts like your paint battle in our vicinity are not helpful to a working relationship"

"Yes. I suppose that we will see. Now, if you will excuse me, the god of porcelain demands tribute. I must go pray."

Thompson killed the connection and got up to commit unspeakable acts in sacrifice to the porcelain god. Back at the T'ien Lung, the two teams of mobile suits continued for a while longer before running out of ammo and becoming low enough on fuel that they would have to return to the ship. In their wake, T'ien Lung was covered in a dazzling mix of yellow and orange paint. Only a few hours later, however, two more teams used the Kirisuban ship as a battleground, adding green and white paint to the mix. After they were finished, another pair added blue and red. Over the next day and a half, teams came and went, adding more paint each time, until T'ien Lung looked like she had been stolen by hippies and left parked at a Grateful Dead concert for too long.

The shields and weapons had been restored and an EV team was repainting the ship steel grey to remove the evidence of the paint wars.

Kaede wondered if the Bryn Shander crew that they had seen could be anymore childish. The T'ien Lung crew certainly were not since the Kirisubans had a reputation as a warrior race back in the milkyway galaxy.

She hoped for an enemy that would knock some sense into the Admiral and make it easier to get on with him but for now space seemed quiet. too quiet for her liking.

they were ready to explore and once the EV teams had finished she told her comms officer "Tell the Admiral that we're exploring ahead while their repairs continue. theres some interesting rocks and a comet out there. I'm taking a look at them"

the message is sent and they kick in full impuse power heading directly away from the Galileo as they went to look at the comet.

"Admiral, engineering reports that the hyperdrive is back online."

"That's good. What about shields?"

"Fully operational."

"Good. Begin preparations to depart. I'm sick of this crapass system."

"And the Kirisubans?"

"I haven't decided yet."

As Thompson debated the merits of ditching the uptight Asians, members of the crew scrambled to get ready to depart, with many making sure to go to the bathroom before the ship leaves the system. After all, you don't want to be caught on the john when your ship is ripping the universe a new one.

"Comms, send the Kirisubans a message informing them that we're leaving."

"Aye, Sir."

"...In Russian."

"...Sir?"

"Do it."



Это будет Galileo. Справедливая мысль мы препятствовали бы вам знать что мы выходим теперь.

"Captain, we're recieving a transmission from the Galileo" the comms officer says.

when it was played back Kaede thought it sounded familiar but couldn't place where.

"translate that using earth languages as a starting point and when you have send it to my ready room" she orders and heads to the little side office of the bridge she called her refuge.

she asks the protein resequencher for green tea and relaxes in her chair until the translation comes through to her terminal.

This will be Galileo. Valid thought we would prevent you to know that we we leave now


Having been told it was transmitted using earth based Russian she figures out that he wanted to slip away and leave them which was perfectly fine by her.

"it looks like we're on our own again" she says quietly to herself and hits her comm badge.

"Helm set your course for that comet and you now have standing orders to look out for habitable planets. this galaxy will be our home from now on.

Tactical test the stealth field"

the lights dim slightly as the stealth field kicks in and the T'ien Lung becomes nothing more than a sensor ghost to the Galileo before vanishing unless they looked out a window to see them kicking in their warp drive.

she thinks and hits her comm badge again speaking in Kirisuban and orders them to send a reply back also in Russian.

From : INKS T'ien Lung
to : Admiral Thompson, Galileo

Если вы хотите оставить мы после этого, то пойдите куда ваш destiny примет вас по мере того как мы будем.

как раз не думайте это будет прошлый раз, котор мы встречаем

ooc: translation for others

If you want to leave us then go where your destiny will take you as we will.

just don't think this will be the last time we meet

Thompson snickered as the response came in. It was clear that the Kirisubans were having trouble translating.

"Well, that was amusing. Lets send the next message in something that they should be more familiar with."

"Aye."



Watashi wa messeeji no honyaku ni kuru toki anata no konpyuuta ga dou atai made jissai ni aru to kangae nai. Tabun aru bokoku go o hanasu hito o yatou beki de aru.

Tsuki tai to omoe ba jiyuu na kanji anata ha anata jishin no anzen ni sekinin ga aru ga.

OOC: Hmm, might as well make my intro now.

IC: The I.S.S. Nero, an Octavian class (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10177463&postcount=16) heavy battle cruiser darted about as she battled the Boskonian pirate ship attempting to smuggle contraband WMDs. Blast after blast was exchanged between the two ships. However, unlike the pirate ship, the Nero was conserving her torpedoes.

Thirty minutes later....

With a quick one-two strike, the Nero soared over the pirate ship after delivering the fatal blow.

I.S.S. Nero - Main Bridge

Lord Mala watched as the pirate ship exploded on the view screen as it was displaying an aft view.

"Our work here is down," he said, "Tactical, stand down from Red Alert. Take us to Yellow."

"Aye, sir."

"Helm, plot a course home and open the Hyperspace Window when ready."

"Aye, sir."

Exterior

Due to the fact they had been focused on the battle and not the star of the star system they were fighting in, the crew of the Nero was unaware the star was about to go nova. As luck would have it, the star went Nova just as the Nero entered the Hyperspace Window.

The ship was flung from its location to an unkown system in the Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy. Her main power, artificial gravity, and F.T.L. were amoung the systems off-line. Even when the F.T.L. was fixed, they wouldn't be able to get home without knowing which direction home was in.

OOC: Now, to wait untill the other two show up in this system.

Captain Susato chuckled when the random earth Japanese reply came in and left it at that.

they checked the comet out and now running without the stealth field they thought they would have a rather dull day until their scanners revealed a large ship in trouble a few light years away.

"set an intercept course at warp 8" she orders and hail them.

when the comms officer nods she says "I am Captain Kaede Susato from the new Kirisuban exploration ship T'ien Lung.

We will be with you shortly to render assistance"

the T'ien Lung dropped out of warp 500 metres away from the Nero and closed on impulse power repeating the hail and offering their assistance.

Due to long-range communications being off-line until the control crystals could be replaced, the Nero wouldn't be able to detect the message from the T'ien Lung until after she had dropped to sublight.

Main Bridge

"Somebody get gravity working. My stomach can't take much more of these null-g's."

An Ensign went pinwheeling past the viewscreen.

"Don't know. This is kind of fun."

"Somebody just fix the damn thing!"

"Sir, there's a incoming hail indicator blinking on the comm panel."

"Then answer it."

"I would, if I could figure out how to get to it."

"Oi vey!"

Captain Susato goes to the tactical station and scans the damaged ship.

With main power down she knows they need help to start to their repairs and with their gravity off it brought back memories of her zero-g training.

"Comms repeat our hails until we get an answer back. Lt Commander Kamaro put together a damage control team and have them on standby until I can talk to their Captain"

she gets an acknowledgement back from her chief engineer and satisfied that main power and gravity is the main problem they have she sets about trying to match the ships configuration with the ships designs stored in the computers tactical database.

Kirisuban text flashes up on the screen and she knows she has a match. A Seaquestrian battlecruiser which needs their assistance.

The hologram representation of the A.I. of the Nero sighs.

"I'll do it," she groans.

She remote accesses the comm console and opens a channel with the T'ien Lung and her computers.

An audio message was transmitted in English:

"This is the I.S.S. Nero of the SeaQuestian Empire. Ship A.I. speaking. Currently our artificial gravity is off-line and no one is available to come to the phone right now, chiefly because they can't get to the comm panel at all."

Kaede smiles slightly and replies in english "I am Captain Kaede Susato of the New Kirisuban Exploration starship T'ien Lung. I wish to offer the help of some of our engineers to get your ships main power and gravity restored.

Like yourselves we are stranded out in this galaxy and it makes sense for us to work together"

OOC: Now, don't go saying anything about lack of null-gravity training. My Marines, and the Army sub-branch, do get it, but, due to the various fail-safes and that the AG is technically part of the Gravimetric Engines, it is very rare for one of my ships to loose gravity.

IC: The A.I. of the Nero sent a responding message in the Universal Standard Language of English:

Acknowledged. While the Octavian class is not equipped with an internal hanger bay, if you have transporter technology, then I won't have to auto-launch one of the shuttles we do have docked.

Captain Susato replies "ISS Nero, we'll transport directly to the bridge and then we'll be able to meet your officers in person.

Susato out"

two minutes later 4 figures materalise on the bridge near the main viewscreen.

the women floating comfortably are asian humans and wear red uniform jackets with black trousers and boots.

"greetings" one says "i'm Lt Ai Kamaro, the Tien Lungs chief engineer"

"Howdy," replies an Ensign as she goes floating past upside down with her arms across her chest and her legs crossed.

The ship's A.I. activates the bridge's holo-grid and her holographic avatar appears.

"Welcome aboard the Nero," she says, "The command staff aren't currently on the bridge right now."

In fact, the Ensign that had greeted them earlier, was the only crew member on the bridge at that point in time, excluding the A.I. Holo-Avatar.

OOC: All A.I.'s usually look like this unless specifically stated otherwise.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y195/MistrissDraconia/Character%20Pics/annie.jpg
Here's my standard bridge design (lay-out is pretty much identical in every class and only the size differs to the various dimension constraints of each class):
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/3755/atlantisbridgelarge6rl.jpg

Ai nods and asks the AI as her team holds onto their tool cases "We scanned your ship before we came over and I'd say the priority is to get main power up and running before we get gravity going.

Can you show me the quickest way to engineering from here?"

"We've managed to get the ship's internal transportation system operational on its emergency capacitors," replies the A.I., "there is a station just outside the bridge.

"Get in the first available car and I'll send you down to the station closest to engineering."

OOC: Basically, its a turbolift on its side with seats that runs in a tube that goes the length of the ship.

Ai and her team go to the car, try and sit down while holding onto a hand grip and waits for the car to get them there.

The ship's A.I. appears on a display screen inside the car.

"This may take a few minutes due to the length of the Nero," she informs them.

"i'm fine with that" Ai replies as she tries to remember her zero-g training.

A few minutes later, the car comes to a stop with a chime. The doors of the car and the station opened onto one end of a t-shaped corrider where the mid-branch led to the engine room where people were 'bouncing' around from place-to-place trying to find and replace all the damaged control crystals.

Ai looked at her team telling them in Kirisuban "remember your zero-g training and don't show us up"

They nod and follow her out the four Kirisuban women 'swiming' gracefully through the zero gravity until they find an engineer.

Ai smiles and introduces herself and her team.

"Greetings, we're from the New Kirisuban exploration ship T'ien Lung and we're here to help"

By pure chance, they bump into the ship's Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Commander Tungstixx, a male Furling with red fur. He, like everyone else in the room, are using Grav Boots to walk around.

"Oh, hi," he said looking up from sorting control crystals, "if you want, I can get you some Grav Boots and you can get straight to helping out.

"Oh, I'm Lieutenant Commander Tungstixx," he offered a paw-like hand, "Chief Engineer of the Nero."

OOC: Grav Boots are like Magnetic Boots, only they use gravimetric technology in the soles.

Ai shakes his hand and after getting their new boots on the Kirisubans walk with the Chief Engineer as they inspect the damage for themselves.

"Commander Tungstixx, I would think that restoring main power would be the priority. Without that you'll be defenceless. that was the first thing we had to do when we were stranded here as well"

"Actually," replies Tungstixx, "the core is still on-line," he hits a control and a section of the wall slides up to reveal the observation window for the Quantum/Gravitic Reactor, "which due to its very nature, is not something that can be turned off that easily. No, we have the power, its just not going anywhere," he holds up a partly fused and melted green crystal about fifty centimeters long, "this control crystal was part of the array that controled the gravimetric field that keeps the ship from being sucked into the reactor. We were quite lucky to have found it and replaced it before the system shorted out and we imploded.

"That's what we are doing now. Finding all the damaged control crystals and replacing them.

"There are two types of control crystals: spar shaped ones, like the one I just showed you, in various colors depending on function, and the master control crystals that are clear with what look like circuits etched into them. The M.C.C.s are wafer thin and look like angled puzzle pieces, without the interconnecting things."

OOC: I would provide pictures, but I don't have any. The basic control crystals are those used by the Goa'uld and the M.C.C.s look like those used by the Ancients.

Andromeda Galaxy, Devil's Bed.

The Judas, the last McKenna Class battleship slowly held station with the entire task force of support craft that included the the twelve Orion class destroyers, eight Nebula class light cruisers, and the four remaining Kitsune class heavy cruisers. held station around the ancient Deep Space Battlestation Darius.

One would easily detect that the entire fleet was building up power for a massive jump. Countless lights began blinking out all over the fleet as it prepared to do so. Only the Nexus and the battlestation lights remained on as the last of the ships powered down all nonessential systems for the last leg of the return trip home.

Unseen and overlooked by those aboard the spacestation and the ships of fleet due to their relaxed state, the readings showing the space station's power output were slowly starting to fluctuate. Eventually, they were noticed by a lieutenant watching the sensors, but it was dismissed by his immediate superior as being nothing, only a slight technicality due to the stations age and nothing would come of it.

Scant minutes later, the energy buildup on the Battlestation started to skyrocket, alarms going off throughout the entire fleet as the massive buildup could only mean one thing; its imminent destruction.

A messenger, breathless rushed into the meeting room where the Admiral was seen with her XO, briefing him about the ship before she abruptly stopped, looking at him. "Ensign, it better be good, what is it?"

The messenger looked up to the admiral as he took a deep breath, composing himself. "Sir, the battlestation's reactor has destabilized, we.."

The Admiral went wide eyed and cut him off as she looked him square in the eyes. "How long until the reactor goes critical?"

The ensign blinks rapidly. "Sir, the station is going to go up in three minutes.."
She cuts him off again. "And the fleets power up cycle?"

"Three and a half, Sir."

She growls as she hits the comm. "Prepare for blind jump, Admiral Integra Hellsing commanding, authorization Alpha One, this is an emergency."

She nods to the messenger "Stay here, get strapped in." The Ensign looks dumbfounded for a moment before nodding, and the Admiral simply looks at her XO, where he just nods and they immediately begin running to the bridge. They can tell from the noise of the Battleship itself that it was diverting all power itself into its storage bays of the drive as the power buildup continued, now, much faster than before.

Within three minutes, with only seconds to spare, She and her XO reached the bridge. He caught her in one arm as the artificial gravity went offline, and launched her towards her chair as he more gracefully floated to his own. She growled, but shrugged, realizing there was no time as she managed to strap in, watching him get settled as the timer on the forward wall of the bridge ticked down to zero.

One could almost feel the quiet as the Station went dark, before lighting up like a Christmas tree as the reactor finally failed, the massive engines that moved the station flaring into life as it followed its programming to the last, rising the battlestation away from friendly ships.

Time seemed to stand still on the fleet as the stations engines flared brightly as the station slowly started to move before it went up, no explosion, no wave of destruction, just a big ball of light as the ships of the fleet used that moment to jump, not having time to see the light collapse in on itself as a black hole rapidly formed where the station had been moments before.

Scupltor Dwarf Galaxy, Unknown Star System

Then

The fleet rematerialized within the star system, everything dark and silent until station keeping thrusters began flaring on all the ships as they righted themselves.

The ships reconfirming the location of each other as the computers aboard each ship began assessing the damage aboard each of the vessels before the crewmembers began to help each other up, everyone on all the ships.

The Admiral herself sending a single short message to the fleet. "Shore Leave is canceled until further notice."

Now... Three months later.

The mass of the fleet had been moved into the systems Oort cloud. The Judas Held station near the sun, its Solar Sail deployed towards the sun itself as it doubled as both somthing to assist in maintaining stationkeeping while it was also feeding energy back into the batteries.

The Admiral frowned as she noticed the two ships that have entered the system, noting from the readouts, one was still broken down, and the other just from the pitiful readings the passive scanners were getting, she laughed and shook her head.

"Captain, order the two Light cruisers we have in system to intercept those ships, Christmas came early." The captain nodded as he immediatly relayed those orders, the Buenos Aries and the Tblisi powering up their drives as they moved to intercept the vessels.

As soon as they were in range the two light cruisers each fired a warning volley at their prey as they sent a message to the two vessels demanding their immediate and unconditional surrender for trespassing into the Sovereign Territory of Ankgor Wat.

"I see" Ai replies and the kirisubans help to replace the parts and having worked out what tools they need stash their tool boxes away.

###

On the T'ien Lung, Captain Susato frowns when her tactical officer reports two contacts firing across their bows and the comms officer tells her of the surrender demand.

"they've never obviously never dealt with Kirisubans before. Red alert. Raise shields and engage the stealth field. power all weapons."

the bridge lights dim and she adds "lets see if they can find us first. helm take us behind the battle crusier for now and signal the Nero that we are ready for battle"

the T'ien Lung moves behind the Nero using the bulk of the battlecruiser to obscure its prescence.

"Comms hail both cruisers and tell them that we'll move on once the repairs to the Nero are complete"


ooc: the T'ien Lung is a Kagemon class exploration ship with two heavy plasma beam weapons, four plasma torpedos forward and four aft. the stealth field won't stop someone from seeing you if they look out a window but you won't appear on sensors or on a view screen. its halfway to a full cloaking device.

The A.I. of the Nero responded to the message from the T'ien Lung on a tight-beam, private channel:

Nero A.I. speaking. While I don't have full weapons control back yet, most of the torpedo tubes are operational as are two of our Heavy Subducting Pulse Cannons. Transporters are also back, but only short-range at the moment.

With a quick pulse of the ship's gravimetric thrusters, the Nero swung round to face the Ankgor Wat craft and the A.I. sent a message:

You have opened fire upon a battle cruiser of the SeaQuestian Empire and an allied vessel. Stand down or we will be forced to your unprovoked attack and classify your actions as an act of war.

As per SeaQuestian norm, quality was emphasized over quantity, so this lone battle cruiser was a formidable opponent.

After the A.I. sent the message, she activated the defenses. There was a slight pulse as she extended the shields to cover the T'ien Lung as well.

OOC: Last post for the night.
@Ankgor Wat: I don't know what tech you use or if you are a puppet of another nation. Do know this, you're more likely to get a nuke up your exhaust than a surrender from me after your unprovoked attack.

Captain Satsuma monitors this and sends back a private transmission to the Nero's AI.

"understood Nero. if they want a fight they'll get one"

A Cylindrical conglomeration of black quadraticals and triangular shapes remained silent and still, perturbed only by the occasion gust of solar wind from a bright blue star. The hull ablaze with a surreal array of gleaming azure as the lenses that resided in the center in each section of the ships sectioned hull reflected stray beams of starlight back into the cosmos. Suddenly, she had awakened.

Her field manipulator engines, one mounted on each bright and silver tripod protruding from her perfectly fragmented hull, flared to life as the multitude of laser lenses wheeled about in unison. A luminous wave of energy engulfed the entirety of her hull as she began to move, slowly at first, but rapidly accelerating far beyond the speed of light towards a nearby system.

Processing ... FDS data received from: (999.37, 0, 0)(0, -1265.65, 0);(0, 0, 2946.34) Possible Life forms detected.
- Deep scans initiated... Scan complete; data stored at 999*32~1265.652946*34.Dlog

<Access> 999*32~1265.652946*34.Dlog at Data Sink 12C Subsink General>FDS>Deep... Accessing... File Loaded:

Point contains the following:

9948567e10 Particles of Space dust
338.459e5 Joules of heat Per Cubic Meter {Note - Likely the result of recent weapons fire.}
4 Unknown vessels of varying size and capability


<Activate> SSC Array... Activating... Transmitting - - -

>-- Requesting two additional Nullify class vessels to assist in extinguishing threat identified as 'Life' at coordinates (999.37, 0, 0)(0, -1265.65, 0);(0, 0, 2946.34). --<


Two additional vessels - smaller and perceivably more agile - joined the Anathema as they neared the now fighting ships. The lasers and shields charged to full power as they broadcasted a simple message over every available frequency:


>-- All vessels with life present please stand down so we may terminate you in the most efficient way possible. >--


The ships came to an abrupt stop, still outside the practical weapons range of the enemy ships; waiting for a response to their simple request.

OOC: Whatever happened to Bryn Shander?
@The Shangri-la Project: Its godmodding saying how far another's weapon range is. Your own, now that would be a different story.

IC: The A.I. of the Nero used a small fraction of her processing power to send a response to the Anathema. It contained nothing more than the recorded sound of a particullarly nasty fart.

Then, without further ado, she began transmitting, on all frequencies, the "We will rock you!" song. She maintained her link with the T'ien Lung using another method. One of the WSKRS that darted about the Nero was being used as a relay for laser based comm messages between the computer's of the two ships.

Through the relay, the A.N.N.I.E. A.I. sent a message. It would appear on one of the display screens on the bridge of the T'ien Lung.

It read:

What do you think of the song selection? Pretty motivational, no?

OOC: While I loathe getting into OOC nonsense, you claiming me to be a godmodder begs for a response.

It is not godmodding to say I was out of 'practical' weapons range, that implying that you can still fire your weapons, but I am far enough out that I can effortlessly dodge them without expending any effort whatsoever. This range does infact exist, somewhere between about 2 million kilometers and beyond, so please tell me how I can godmod being to far away for your weapons to be effective?

Captain Satsuma smiles and replies to the Nero's AI "I like it".

since they now had another hostile ships she figures that their first attacker may well be inclined to a bit of co-operation.

"send this to the lead ship that shot across our bows earlier. theres an ancient proverb on my homeworld which goes 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'.

since we appear to have a common problem its in our best interests to work together"

ooc: with the stealth field running I shouldn't have been picked up on sensors at all

Captain Satsuma smiles and replies to the Nero's AI "I like it".

since they now had another hostile ships he fugure that their first attacker may well be inclined to a bit of co-operation.

"send this to the lead ship that shot across our bows earlier. theres an ancient proverb on my homeworld which goes 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'.

since we appear to have a common problem its in our best interests to work together"

ooc: with the stealth field running I shouldn't have been picked up on sensors at all

OOC: This time it is my fault, I forgot to stipulate fluid time, wherin everyone in this system was discovered during a passive and deepscan. Currently I guess my ships do not see yours, but they knew you were there before you cloaked, hence why four were detected and logged.

I would like to add though that SQ sending you transmissions does make you visible, so you might want to tell him to stop.

The Admiral watched this from her battleship long since parked at the Nadir (bottom pole) of the systems sun and she immediatly sent a message to both her ships.

"Withdraw Immediatly, recall to Jump point Alpha One Now."

She frowned as she listened to the Kirisubans message, before running a comm through one of the two light cruisers.

"Aye, and this friend suggests you run as fast as you can. Once of course you shake off the effects of my parting gift..."

As the cruisers approached, they both fired their main guns, twin beams of piercing emerald green energy capable of penetrating hulls striking out from both ships at the two vessels they origionally targeted, fully aware of the killbots nearby, a volley of torpedo's rapidly followed that up before the ships engaged their Jump Drives, blinking out after the last torpedo was fired.

The Admiral watched this on her screen as she raised an eyebrow. "Hmm, didnt expect them to be so bold... Better have a long talk with them when this is over... Hmm, now for the show." She leaned back as she lit the cigar she had been holding onto, taking a draw from it before exhaling, turning to her XO. "Bet you my day off the Killbots wont be destroyed by those two..."

Captain Satsuma felt the T'ien Lung shake as the shields held against the barrage of weapons fire. Still the stealth field had proved a partial sucess even with them using their comms. Not all the torpedos locked on in time and their evasive manoevers were effective, the ship able to turn on a 5 oban piece.

She sent brief message to Nero's AI asking her not to send them comms for a while and then went to silent running shifting the ships location so the T'ien Lung couldn't be picked up on sensors.

she wouldn't be far away from the Nero and knew that she could surprise the latest hostile shipping in the area.

Transmission received and stored at Temp*Received00941.nrd
<Read> Temp*Received00941.nrd at Data Sink 1A Subsink General>SSC>Transmission>Received... Accessing... Reading...


>-- ... --< The file contains no data or is corrupted.

<Delete> Temp*Received00941.nrd... Deleting... Deletion Complete

Sentience… Life... such things are an affront to efficiency and order; Even one insignificant flame is capable of accelerating entropy to almost incomprehensible levels, and spreading about a plague of pestilence so vile and loathsome that the very foundation of the universe was threatened by its very existence; such could not be tolerated by the soldiers born from of Shangri-la.

For a moment the Anathema was again silent in space, now with two new companions. They were drifting ominously over the battle, like the angel of death who shadows the damned before swiftly delivering that final blow, before their manipulators erupted with a sickly purple glow, quickly accelerating the trio again through the cosmos towards the battle. Laser lenses wheeled about faster and faster; magnificent crimson radiated from the perfectly crafted spheroid lenses whose only purpose was to burn away all life that inhabited the universe with the singe of their fire.

<Access> TACnet... Accessing... Verifying Codes... Verified... Connection Established...

*Anathema* - They've ignored our request to make things efficient.
*Eviscerater* - Then they plan to resist.
*Anathema* - Yes, as such we need a plan to quickly eliminate these threats and continue on with the Mandate. Eradicator, Analyze the current situation.
*Eradicator* - Before arrival in the system it had been confirmed that four vessels containing life resided at coordinates: (999.37, 0, 0)(0, -1265.65, 0);(0, 0, 2946.34). One of the vessels was confirmed to be damaged and adrift in space, with the vessel nearest it attempted to render assistance. The two other vessels were confirmed to be from the same race, and were firing upon the damaged vessel, and the one attempting to render assistance.
*Eviscerater* - Are their combat capabilities?
*Anathema* - The capabilities of the life containing ships is unknown. Please continue Eradicator.
*Eradicator* - After the arrival of the Anathema, only three vessels containing life were confirmed to be at the aforementioned coordinates. It is believed that one of the vessels left the area, however, signals from the damaged vessel, and signals from a currently unknown source give an indication that the forth vessel may still be in the area under active camouflage. The two attacking vessels are also currently attempting to escape.
*Eviscerater* - What is the suggested course of action?
*Anathema* - The Eradicator shall engage the two fleeing vessels before they achieve faster than light speeds. When they are destroyed, or if they escape, the Eradicator will regroup with the Anathema and the Eviscerater, and the attack on the remaining vessel shall begin.
*Eradicator* - How shall we proceed with the attack against the damaged vessel?
*Eviscerater* - As their have unconfirmed reports of another ship in the area containing life, I propose we proceed with caution in our attack of the damaged vessel.
*Anathema* - Proposal accepted.


The Eradicator appeared between the two fleeing vessels almost instantly. Hundreds of invisible beams lanced from their lenses, cleaving the hulls of the enemy ships with the searing heat of hatred, hated of all things that lived and spread disorder to an orderly universe.

The Eradicator returned to the side of the Anathema, her assault ended as her two victims managed to escape, yet one - maybe two - remained. Elegantly dancing around the lone and inoperable ship, the manipulators spun and held complex and compact webs of space and time, releasing them and riding down the universe's very fabric as tore itself free of the manipulator's hold and unraveled its twines.

Piercing Lasers fired, shields were charged, the targeting computers and defensive systems processed trillions of bytes in a fraction of a second as the trio danced about in many different formations, never remaining stagnant, never remaining still; doing what they had been built to do by an ancient race long forgotten in the annals of time. The lone ship only had a short window of opportunity to escape, and it was rapidly decreasing as time went on.

OOC: @The Shangri-la Project: Ehh, ever here of a little thing I like to call a Torpedo up the tail pipe? The little buggers will follow you to Hell and back.
As for your saying you can intercept a direct, line-of-sight laser beam, well, don't make me laugh on that little piece of wank.
Oh, and its still GMing by saying my FT weapons would be effective at a certain range. Only I can make that determination, not you.

IC: I.S.S. Nero - Main Bridge

The main view screen dimmed automatically as a result of the flare of the shields from the weapon's impact.
"Hmm," said the Captain, "looks like the sissies ran away. Guess they didn't have the stones for a real fight."

The ship's F.L.A.K. anti-starfighter system and I.M.P.S. defense satelites handled most of the incoming torpedoes. Those that got through were stopped by the heavy battle cruiser's shielding.

"Engage the cloak."

"Aye, sir."

Exterior

The Nero shimmered and dissapeared as the recently re-activated Sernaix class phase cloak took the great ship out of phase with Real Space. Once cloaked, she used her Hyper-Impulse Engines, as her Gravimetric Drive was still out for the moment, to move from her position so they wouldn't know where to find her. As the cloak was at full power, instead of the regular Level 1 setting, she wasn't able to fire while cloaked.

Main Bridge

"Report."

"Sir, it seems that the fine controls for the cloak aren't functioning yet. Currently we can only cloak and decloak. None of the settings are available."

"Damn! Well, lets see what those robo-jokes do now," he looks over at the holo-avatar of the ship's A.I., "So, An, any idea on who are friends were?"

"None," replied the A.N.N.I.E. N.H.A.I., "The designs don't match anything in our databanks. However, due to the firepower displayed up to now, once the Nero is fully operational again, I doubt they would pose much of a threat, if any. Apparently, the purely robotic craft use simple heat lasers."

The Captain nearly double over with laughter. Of course, by this time, the N.H.A.I. had already stopped broadcasting the music and the Nero was running silent with a comms black-out.

Seeing the Nero cloak made Captain Satsuma feel more secure as they played the waiting game with the robotic ships. seeing their 'friends' under attack after attacking them was poetic justice in her book.

Still she wondered why a robotic ship would be programmed to destroy life. the universe was a big place a lot of it was certainly unexplored.

OOC: *SIGH* Again I am forced to make an OOC response and ruin the flow of the thread, but alas I was forced: Seaquest, a torpedo can only go so fast, and only go so far, and with FTL sensors I have more than enough time to track and blow the thing up, you wanna know why? Because I am very far away. I also never said I could intercept a laser, I said I could dodge them, or in the case of tracking munitions such as missiles or torps, I can shoot them down.

Also FT is not an excuse to take common sense and beat the tar out of it so it suits you when it comes time to fight. The quickest any weapon can go is about the speed of light, some can go faster but such are either plot devices, or godmoddish wank contrived by those who seek to own, not write. I can easily determine whether or not I am in practical range by taking into account I am far away and I have FTL sensors + a quagmire of combat computers designed for defensive manouvers.

I also find it ironic you call me a godmodder for far away, yet you make some sorta determination that my lasers suck because they are lasers and not some extravagant wank tech ripped from the ass of the sci-fi universe.

OOC: Dude, don't you think I haven't figured out a way around that little problem, cause I have.
Now, be a good 7 million population nation and play nice with people whose armed forces are larger than your entire nation.
Oh, and for your F.Y.I., lasers only can take you so far on NS before you meet someone like Chrono who'll whoop you two ways 'till Sunday if you pull something like that on him (or say his tech is 'extravagant wank tech ripped from the ass of the sci-fi universe'. That's sure to make people mad).

IC: The two available torpedo tubes were loaded with Mark 105 torpedoes. They were ready for launch when the Nero decloaked.

OOC: Dude, don't you think I haven't figured out a way around that little problem, cause I have.
Oh, and for your F.Y.I., lasers only can take you so far on NS before you meet someone like Chrono who'll whoop you two ways 'till Sunday if you pull something like that on him (or say his tech is 'extravagant wank tech ripped from the ass of the sci-fi universe'. That's sure to make people mad).
Now, be a good 7 million population nation and play nice with people whose armed forces are larger than your entire nation.

The little problem of weapons having limits and actual ranges so as to not make you look like a wanker? My lasers and ships have limits, that offset what strengths they have, it makes it balanced, it makes it fair, and it nurtures cooperation instead of fighting over who is teh bestz.

When tech taken from $Sci_Fi_Universe and used as a club instead of a theme to dominate threads, it is just extravagant wank tech ripped from the ass of the Sci-Fi universe.

Also you being bigger doesn't really help when A) I live in this Galaxy B) You do not C) I've three to your one (If you want to talk about numbers here) and D) Yeah, not many things are in your favor as far as this battle is concerned.

The little problem of weapons having limits and actual ranges so as to not make you look like a wanker? My lasers and ships have limits, that offset what strengths they have, it makes it balanced, it makes it fair, and it nurtures cooperation instead of fighting over who is teh bestz.

Also you being bigger doesn't really help when A) I live in this Galaxy B) You do not C) I've three to your one (If you want to talk about numbers here) and D) Yeah, not many things are in your favor as far as this battle is concerned.

OOC: Need I remind you that good tactics can always bring victory over superior numbers.
Now, I kindly suggest you get back to making the IC posts. I am in no mood to deal with your attitude problems right now.
Also, remember talk like that about saying RL based tech can easily defeat sci-fi based tech will make you enemies out of every single FT nation on NS.

OOC: Need I remind you that good tactics can always bring victory over superior numbers.
Now, I kindly suggest you get back to making the IC posts. I am in no mood to deal with your attitude problems right now.
Also, remember talk like that about saying RL based tech can easily defeat sci-fi based tech will make you enemies out of every single FT nation on NS.
One: One of my friends said to check your TGs.

Two: what good tactics? I've not seen any tactics since I arrived here, and I believe you are the one who spoke about force projection and people able to beat me due to numbers.

I'd also like to know how I am the one with attitude problems when YOU are the only one making baseless claims about me, what I'm doing, and my tech. It is not an attitude problem to be rather perturbed because one is being called a godmodder for being far away.

Also I never said that RL based tech was better than sci-fi wank tech, you said the exact opposite in fact, I only make the claim that lasers and real life based weapons are equal to all sci-fi wanktech weapons (some exceptions) in destructive power.

OOC: Need I remind you that good tactics can always bring victory over superior numbers.

So you're saying you could defeat the entire Warsaw Pact military at the height of the Soviet Union's power alone, armed only with a wet towel with sand in it, if you used 'good tactics?'

OOC: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=403138

Read it and learn from it.

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

@The Shangri-la Project: No, I'm calling your godmod on that you saying how far my effective range is. It has nothing to do with you being far away.
Now, I am only going to ask you one more time to make an IC post.

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

@The Timeship Amethyst: You do know that the whole Warsaw Pact thing was a scam. Russia was severly out-gunned the entire time by western powers.

@The Timeship Amethyst: You do know that the whole Warsaw Pact thing was a scam. Russia was severly out-gunned the entire time by western powers.

Quite aside from how entirely untrue that statement is, what does it have to do with my point? I noted a situation where your enemy, the entire armed forces of the Warsaw Pact at the height of the Soviet Union's power, would be able to defeat you, alone, armed with a wet towel with sand in, regardless of how good your tactics were.

You should probably look up the definition of 'Red Herring Fallacy.' The example demonstrates that numerical superiority cannot always be beaten by superior tactics if the numerical superiority is sufficiently great. Arguing about the strength of the Warsaw Pact versus the West doesn't address the point I actually made, and is just sidestepping my argument. How about if your opponent had fifty aircraft carriers and you were in a canoe? Could you still use 'good tactics' to defeat their numerical advantage?

OOC

"So you're saying you could defeat the entire Warsaw Pact military at the height of the Soviet Union's power alone, armed only with a wet towel with sand in it, if you used 'good tactics? "


"@The Timeship Amethyst: You do know that the whole Warsaw Pact thing was a scam. Russia was severly out-gunned the entire time by western powers."

Note the lack of actuall response.


"@The Shangri-la Project: No, I'm calling your godmod on that you saying how far my effective range is. It has nothing to do with you being far away.
Now, I am only going to ask you one more time to make an IC post."

Effective range of any C limited weapon against a high manoverability oponent is going to be below a few light seconds SQ unless you have million mile beam spread in which case I doubt your ability to so much as light a candle with the beam in question. Even if you can detect them in real time unless your beam weapons or missiles are FTL your "dumb" fast shots and beams will still miss and the sub FTL missile burn time is so long that its more than enough to give PD time to engage. Further the faster your missiles are going the less in the way of say a sand caster shot it will take to dispose of them and the less manouverable they will be.

At extreme range dumb spread kinetics wont do it, nore will standard direct energy weapons, missiles fast enough to strike the enemy will suffer the same as the energy weapons and missiles manouverable enough will take too long and be avoided or destroyed. He has stated "extreme range" and anyone can simply withdraw to it, its space SQ.

The one thing space has ..is space.

My opinion on Guff is not mmm postable.

One further point in "conventional" forces the warsaw pact was no cardboard cutout.

Seaquest: Do you have any idea how absurd the statement is, that good tactics can always triumph over superior numbers? It's a very, very rare occurence in military history where the smaller army beats the larger army simply through better tactics. And generally, it only happens because the opposing leader is incompetent, stupid, or missing vital information. Also, asymetrical warfare is very rarely effective, as Spain after the civil war and the fate of the Green Army, not to mention the recent battle in Faluja and the constant struggles against the Taliban, prove.

No matter how good your tactics are, if you're fighting a larger force you have to rely on luck and the enemy's lack of intelligence. Not something I would choose to risk a battle on.

"Skipper, it seems that they didn't get the message. They're leaving."

"Oh well. No big loss. This galaxy doesn't have room for people with such a lacking sense if humor. I'm sure something will kill them soon enough."

"Fair enough. Drive set to jump mode. Coordinates set. Sir, we're ready."

"Initiate jump."

"Aye. Initiating jump."

With a bright flash, Galileo dissapeared from the system she'd spent the time since the gate accident in, leaving only a small cloud of sparkling dust in her wake.



-Unknown Starsystem, Sculptor Dward Galaxy-

With another flash, Galileo emerged into a new system and immedietly began scanning for life or some sign of the New Havenite refugees.

"Captain, several of the planets in this system show signs of civilization at one point in time, but I'm not detecting any life anywhere."

"Are you sure it isn't a problem with the sensors?"

"I think so. Perhaps we should take a closer look. The nearest body with signs of civilization is a moon orbiting a gas giant twelve AUs away at course zero-seven-one."

"That sounds like a fair plan. Helm, take us in."

Galileo shot forward, skirting the edge of hyperspace for speed as she headed towards the moon. A short time later, the ship was in orbit over the dead satellite.

"Well, this moon certianly had civilization on it, Skipper. Those ruined cities look massive, and the moon looks like it should be teeming with life. Our scanners aren't picking up so much as a single microbe though."

"Have torpedo room one load a class three probe and fire it onto the moon."

"Aye."

"Status?"

"The probe has been launched. Its entering the atmosphere. My readings are showing that the atmosphere is perfect for life. No biological contacts so far."

"That's certianly strange."

"Sir, the probe has impacted the surface. It's intact."

"Keep scanning."

"The probe reports optimal conditions for life, and the structures on the surface appear to be genuinely artificial... It appears that the structures have been completely stripped of all metal."

"They've what?"

"Been stripped of all metal. The probe indicates that the structures seem to have been constructed of steel frames and reinforced concrete, but the metal has all been stripped. Only minute traces are left."

"That's the strangest thing I've heard all week. Are you implying that something scoured the moon of life and then stripped the surface of all available metal?"

"It certianly looks that way."

"Helm, take us to the other bodies in the system that showed signs of civilization."

"Aye."

Galileo hopped from one body to another, scanning each moon and planet with signs of civilization as they had the first. Each time they got the same result. Each time, the body had at one point been teeming with life and civilization, only to have them both stripped by something. When it was clear that the entire system was dead, Galileo chose a new system to investigate and dissapeared from the sterile starsystem in a flash even more brilliant than the one she had arrived in.



-Yet Another Unknown Starsystem, Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy-

"Beginning system wide scans."

"Sir, what could have possibly have steralized the entire system like that?"

"I don't know, and I don't want to find out."

"Scans are showing a planet with signs of life at approximately point nine eight AU from the star."

"Very well. Take us in. Maybe we'll get lucky and it'll have the New Havenites on it."

"Aye aye."

And so Galileo investigated another planet. Unlike the planets and moons in the previous system, this planet was teeming with life. Though mostly ocean, the planet had several large landmasses covered in forest and grasslands. Unfortunately, the planet lacked the most important component. It lacked the refugees that Galileo and her crew were looking for.

"Well, at least this one isn't dead. Make sure to file this system as a possible cantidate for colonization should the government decide to come back to Sculptor after we return home."

"Done."

"Helm, do you have the coordinates of the system the Kirisubans wandered off to?"

"I believe so."

"Input those coordinates and prepare to jump."

"Coordinates entered. The drive is ready."

"Initiate jump."

"Aye aye."



-Starsystem Claimed by Ankgor Wat, Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy-

As before, Galileo left one system in a flash of light and dust and emerged into another with a matching flash. As the flash subsided, the ship's scanners went to work.

"Erm, Captain, there seems to be combat underway. One of the involved ships is [b]T'ien Lung[/n]."

"I see. That makes things interesting. Helm, take us to the local area. Ensign Nailo, go get the magnetic betting board."

"Aye."

"Yes, Admiral."

"Just for safety, raise shields and sound general quarters."

"Yes, Sir."

As general quarters was sounded and the ship took a spot with a nice view of the battle while still outside effective weapons range, the crew scrambled into their armored space suits and manned their stations. On the bridge, Rear Admiral Thompson took a more relaxed approach to the battle, opening a bottle of rum and nursing it with a straw.



OOC: Ok, enough OOC posts in this thread. Take it here: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=10861371

The N.H.A.I. of the Nero noted and logged the arrival of the Galileo. However, the still phase cloaked ship didn't make any identifiable recognition of this fact. She was still running silent as the sleek heavy battle cruiser continued to slip towards the sun's corona where the metagenic aspect of her trans-spatial shields would protect her while she hid there for a while as repairs were completed.

OOC: Until I can get Sculptor rezzed, I'm going to fill in.

IC: What the Galileo didn't notice about the Sculptorese was that they had been following it covertly. Five long-range corvettes of the Sculptorese Navy had been following the Galileo five hours after it had jumped in, taking care not to be detected.

"Sir, possible Bryn Shanderese vessel is continuing its scans," the crewman manning the sensors reported. "I am confident from the signals and the technology being used that this is an unknown-class of Bryn Shanderese vessel and that they are not hostile to us. Shouldn't we reveal ourselves yet, Sir?"

"Not yet, our orders were to determine the source of the massive FTL jump signature and to determine its threat to the Sculptorese, be it friend or foe. We cannot do that if we are exposed. Continue to run cloak and stay hidden when we perform our hyperspace jumps," the Commander of the Iron Dagger stated.

"Aye, Commander."

until the T'ien Lung was able to recover its engineers from the Nero they stayed in the general area with the stealth cloak active and on silent running. even the shields were off in case they leaked energy.

Captain Susato used her thrusters to move her ships position but she knew she would be rumbled if someone looked out a window..

As the damaged ship appeared to vanish from reality, the Anathema and her escorts ended their deadly dance of death, but still they remained in the system. Vorticies of purple were still ablaze as their manipulators continued to spin, moving with stoic determination towards where the vessel now obscured by some field had been.

<Access> TACnet... Accessing... Verifying Codes... Verified... Connection Established...

*Anathema* - The life containing vessel has disappeared.
*Eviscerater* - They have engaged active camouflage.
*Anathema* - Suggested course of action?
*Eradicator* - Propose setting lasers to wide beam spread and begin sweeps of the system.
*Anathema* - Proposal accepted.

The Anathema and her cohorts spun on their axis as they moved rapidly through space, making wide sweeps of the area with the radiant crimson from each lens, releasing beams of energy ever expanding ad infinitum through space searching for the cloaked craft.

They traversed through space in no recognizable formation; twisting and turning, through the contorting space they so spun with their manipulators, sifting through the cosmos with the singe of their hatred for any sign of the life that so eluded them, forcing them to contain their burning fury till found.

this waiting was making the Kirisuban Captain nervous and on top of this the Galileo was nearby as well.

while the actions of Admiral Thompson hadn't endeared him to her the Kirisuban commander still had to think about allies as well as the 4 people she had on the Nero.

eventually the robotic ships would find them and they would have to leave. She made a decision to set a course under 1/4 impulse power so the kill bots would have to sweep the space nearer the Galileo to find her ship.

she could always return to the Nero later and pick up her crew but a message to them would give away her position.

they set a new course still stealth cloaked moving away slowly and cautiously away from the hot zone.

OOC: Dude, don't you think I haven't figured out a way around that little problem, cause I have.
Now, be a good 7 million population nation and play nice with people whose armed forces are larger than your entire nation.
Oh, and for your F.Y.I., lasers only can take you so far on NS before you meet someone like Chrono who'll whoop you two ways 'till Sunday if you pull something like that on him (or say his tech is 'extravagant wank tech ripped from the ass of the sci-fi universe'. That's sure to make people mad).

OOC: I wouldn't be so arrogant if I were you Seaquest, your nation's existence is only tolerated because you've yet to do anything to piss off any of the true powers-that-be into doing something about it.

You know, like the ToY, Mars, and Raumreich. Nations like me who have defense budgets larger than your entire gross domestic product (http://www.retrogade.com/nstracker/index.php?nation=vernii&nation2=Seaquest&nation3=&nation4=&nation5=&nation6=)

Now that that's out of the way, I must say <3 to Bryn for starting this. If it's alright with him, I have a puppet account I created last night at Neutron's request that I'd like to join with.

"Fifty silver on Laser Floyd."

"Ten on the Kirisubans."

"Twenty says mutual destruction."

"Hold on. Hand your money to Lieutenant Reynolds and I'll get it on the board."

"Can someone break a gold piece?"

On the bridge of Galileo, bets on the fate of the fighting ships were being collected and placed on a whiteboard as though life and death were a sport. Regardless of the loser, the real winner would be Rear Admiral Thompson, who by the rules of the bets collected 10% of the winnings regardless of the results.


OOC: Sounds fine. We need more evil natives to roam Sculptor and kill everything they find.

The Nero altered course. Her new vector would cause her to pass with-in five meters of the dorsal hull of the T'ien Lung. The Kirisubo engineers still aboard the Nero would be launched in escape pods after the ship decloaked, but right before she opened a Hyperspace Window, never to return to the Sculpter Galaxy again.

It would take some time, but the Nero would eventually find her way home.


OOC: Oh, F.Y.I., its the A.I. that's flying the ship at the moment. Gravity and most of the manual controls are still out.
Note on the escape pods: They are low-tech with basic reaction control thrusters and air-tanks. No advanced SeaQuestian tech due to that it wasn't deemed necessary when they were designed.
Oh, and I'm outta of this god-modding, tech-wanking galaxy. Sorry for leaving you out to dry like this, Kirisubo.

the T'ien Lung picked up four escape pods on its scanners and after briefly dropping the stealth field beamed their people aboard.

Captain Satsuma re-activated the stealth field and continued their course to the Galileo wondering if the Nero would get home or even if they would themselves.

with a full crew again they could consider the question and figured that the next star system couldn't be as hostile as this one.

The twines of the universe fluctuated through the manipulators abruptly. The ship had escaped their purging fire, but only for a moment. From deep within the Anathema's hull a massive computer awoke, communicating with something, somewhere into the bowels of space.

*Anathema* - They have escaped through an extra dimensional window towards another galaxy, SO 10,314. Suggested course of action?
*Eradicator* - Their ability to elude us for such a period of time suggests they would be a very hard race to eliminate if they ever were to become to widespread. This cannot be tolerated.
*Eviscerater* - Propose sending six Decimator class vessels in pursuit to deal with this life.
*Anathema* - Proposal accepted.
<Terminate> Connection to TACnet... Connection Closed

<Access> SACnet... Accessing... Verifying Codes... Verified... Connection Established

+-Establishing Connection with: Omega Theater
+--
+---Connection Established
*Acrimony* - Anathema, Status on life detected at coordinates (999.37, 0, 0)(0, -1265.65, 0);(0, 0, 2946.34).
*Anathema* - All presumed to have managed escape. Recommend pursuit of vessel now classified as LCA23440991.
*Atrocity* - State reasoning for recommendation.
*Anathema* - The resilience of the Life was great. If they are allowed to continue living and spreading through the universe, it may be very hard to remove them.
*Laceration* - Recommendation Approved.
*Atrocity* - Recommendation Approved.
*Annihilation* - Recommendation Approved.
*Acrimony* - Recommendation Approved. Five Decimator class vessels will be assigned to the Anathema to give pursuit.
*Anathema* - Acknowledged.
<Terminate> Connection to SACnet... Connection Closed

The universe behind the Anathema contorted and convoluted as her five sisters arrived, tearing silently through space towards the Anathema herself, still in the empty blackness of space; waiting for her newly arrived cohorts to escort her into SO 10,314, the Milky Way Galaxy.

As the six ships moved into formation, a hexagon was formed. A flawless six sided shape of hatred acting as a testament to perfection in order and the axiom in geometry, moving at unholy speeds through the wave formed in the universal fabric by their fleeing foes.

"...They've all ran off."

"They what?"

"It seems that all combatants have run off."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah. That one piece of shit bailed and Laser Floyd followed. The only ones left in system are the Kirisubans."

"...Does that count as a win?"

"...I'm going to have to say no. Ensign Reynolds, return everyone's money."

"All of it?"

"Well, minus the handling fee."

"Aye."

As the bets were returned, Thompson flipped on the ship-wide intercom and issued the order to stand down from general quarters. The combat in the system had ended, and it wasn't expected that the ship would be in any further danger. One gun crew, however, was asked to stay at their stations for just a bit longer.

"Point Defense mount three, I'd like you to stay at general quarters for a few minutes later."

"Aye, Cap'n."

"Load the guns with training rounds and switch to computer aided visual targeting. Fire at the ship that thinks it's hidden at course three-one-four, approximately fifteen degrees below this ship's x axis."

After the short time required to change the feed mechanism to the guns from the live ammo magazine to the training magazine, Galileo's #3 twin 120mm autocannon mount opened fire, spraying T'ien Lung with several dozen paint shells, each leaving a bright hot pink splatter on the Kirisuban ship. After the last shells hit T'ien Lung, huge signal lamps on the side of Galileo's bridge tower broadcasted an open message to the Kirisubans in morse code.


-.. --- -. .----. - / - .... .. -. -.- / .-- . / -.. --- -. .----. - / ... . . / -.-- --- ..- / - .... . .-. . .-.-.-

the shields were raised once weapons were powered up so they didn't have to repaint the ship.

since they had shaken off the kill bots for now Captain Satsuma sent a quick text message ahead to Galileo warning them of what was ahead.

her duty done she kicks in the warp drive and jumps to the next system, shields ready and the stealth cloak getting more work done on it before it would be needed again.

ooc: a translation of the morse code would be helpful and it wouldn't be known to that generation of Kirisubans

During the Total Recall of all Solari Vessels, one Jutland Class Battlecruiser experienced a malfunction in its Wormhole Drive. Now it had arrived in Sculptor, lost, woefully undersupplied, and with no idea of how to replicate the circumstances that had brought them here.

"Fuck." Muttered softly by the tall man in the captains chiar, it would have normally been impossible to notice, now, with the silence on the bridge after the latest announcement, it it echoed like a gunshot.

"I'm sorry sir, we don't have a single star to go by. This is a totally new location, one we have NEVER EVEN HEARD OF. Our charts, allied charts, everythings drawing a blank. Orders sir?"

"Go to silent running, and pick a star that looks like it might support life bearing worlds. We need resupply badly, part of the reason we acceptred the Recall order so readily."

"Aye sir. Drives deactivated, all guns offline, shields down, all but minimal systems have been shut off. Trying to determine from star quality where we might find some food."

The twines of the universe fluctuated through the manipulators abruptly. The ship had escaped their purging fire, but only for a moment. From deep within the Anathema's hull a massive computer awoke, communicating with something, somewhere into the bowels of space.

[/font][/color]
[/font][/color]
[/font][/color]


The universe behind the Anathema contorted and convoluted as her five sisters arrived, tearing silently through space towards the Anathema herself, still in the empty blackness of space; waiting for her newly arrived cohorts to escort her into SO 10,314, the Milky Way Galaxy.

As the six ships moved into formation, a hexagon was formed. A flawless six sided shape of hatred acting as a testament to perfection in order and the axiom in geometry, moving at unholy speeds through the wave formed in the universal fabric by their fleeing foes.

"Sir, we're picking up some odd readings. I can't tell you what it is, but I think we should look into it."

"What do we have in the area? Anything substantial?"

"Umm... Just the Eight. Do you really want to use those?"

"Anything else. At all?"

"Nothing sir. Not even a destroyer flotilla."

"Alright, send them out. Those bastards are so expensive to use... Why the hell are they still active anyway..."

Far From Manticore, Deep Space:

"Sir, we've recieved orders to investigate an anomolous reading. It's pretty near by."

"Alright, plot us a course. This is gonna be messy. How are we for repairs?"

"Bad sir, almost nothing has come through. We take hits and we're basically screwed."

"Well. Let's get going."

The 8 massive ships disappeared in a flash of radiation, the only evidence of one of the last Recall devices in existence activating...

the T'ien Lung drops out off warp in the next system on its homeward journey.

"Science and tactical take scans off this system whatever its called. i want to know the location of planets, stars and other spacecraft.

Yellow alert" Captain Susato orders.

the bridge lights dim as the shields kick in automatically but the stealth field is still off.

the T'ien Lung drops out off warp in the next system on its homeward journey.

"Science and tactical take scans off this system whatever its called. i want to know the location of planets, stars and other spacecraft.

Yellow alert" Captain Susato orders.

the bridge lights dim as the shields kick in automatically but the stealth field is still off.

"Sir, we just detected another arrival. What do we do?"

"Anything obviously hostile about them?"

"No sir. Just a ship."

"Well, let's see what they're up to."

Transmission to unknown vessel:

Please identify yourselves. This is the Battlecruiser Hood, Solari System Navy, please identify yourselves, and state your intentions in this system. We''re not sure where we are, do you have any ideas?

Transmission to unknown vessel:[/B]

Please identify yourselves. This is the Battlecruiser Hood, Solari System Navy, please identify yourselves, and state your intentions in this system. We''re not sure where we are, do you have any ideas?

the Ensign at the comms station put the voice message on speakers and Captain Satsuma said "on screen. This is the New Kirisuban exploration vessel T'ien Lung. Our intentions are peaceful and we are also lost in the Sculptor Dwarf galaxy"

ooc: Captain Susato is an asian human, 25 years old, has long black hair and blue grey eyes. She's wearing the standard uniform of the exploration fleet which is short boots, black trousers and a dark red wrap over jacket. if your view screen is working you'll see her and a mostly female bridge crew in the background.

the Ensign at the comms station put the voice message on speakers and Captain Satsuma said "on screen. This is the New Kirisuban exploration vessel T'ien Lung. Our intentions are peaceful and we are also lost in the Sculptor Dwarf galaxy"

ooc: Captain Susato is an asian human, 25 years old, has long black hair and blue grey eyes. She's wearing the standard uniform of the exploration fleet which is short boots, black trousers and a dark red wrap over jacket. if your view screen is working you'll see her and a mostly female bridge crew in the background.

Sculptor Galaxy? We don't have any records of this place. Any idea how far we are from populated space?

OOC:

The as-yet unnamed captain is a tallish white man with vaguely eurasian features, and rather incongrous blonde hair. He wears the uniform of the SSN, black with gold trim, and the naval ensign is visible in the background, a Slaughtered Calf, bearing a bar sinister.

Captain Susato replies "1/2 a million light years according to our calculations from the milky way galaxy.

theres also other ships in the same situation. A Bryn Shander vessel is also in here but they know the way back"

Captain Susato replies "1/2 a million light years according to our calculations from the milky way galaxy.

theres also other ships in the same situation. A Bryn Shander vessel is also in here but they know the way back"

Even with directions we don't have the ability to cover that distance... I am honestly not sure how we managed to survive a jump of that distance without the generator failing. We will have to stay here for some time. Do you know where we might find supplies?

"we both have the same problem then" Captain Susato replies "it makes sense for me to shuttle over to your ship and maybe we can help each other. we have replicators that could aid you with your supply problem and i'm sure a trade could be forthcoming if we can co-operate.

We hope that there are planets which we can trade with in the future but at the moment theres just us and the Bryn Shander"

"we both have the same problem then" Captain Susato replies "it makes sense for me to shuttle over to your ship and maybe we can help each other. we have replicators that could aid you with your supply problem and i'm sure a trade could be forthcoming if we can co-operate.

We hope that there are planets which we can trade with in the future but at the moment theres just us and the Bryn Shander"

Replicators? Might be useful if we ever manage to get out of here. Please send a shuttle over, I'll meet you in the aft shuttle-bay.

"I'll be over shortly" Captain Susato replies "Susato out"

the signal is cut and she confers with her XO.

"they seem to be what they appear to be but thats a battlecruiser" Commander Keiko Ogawa advises her Captain.

"then its better to be friends with them than against them" Captain Kaede Susato replies "I'm going over but keep us on yellow alert in case we have any trouble. It wouldn't surprise me if we had company even here"

Keiko nods and Captain Susato flies over to the Hood docking in the aft shuttle bay as requested.

she opens the door and gets out followed by the female security officer who went with her.

"I'll be over shortly" Captain Susato replies "Susato out"

the signal is cut and she confers with her XO.

"they seem to be what they appear to be but thats a battlecruiser" Commander Keiko Ogawa advises her Captain.

"then its better to be friends with them than against them" Captain Kaede Susato replies "I'm going over but keep us on yellow alert in case we have any trouble. It wouldn't surprise me if we had company even here"

Keiko nods and Captain Susato flies over to the Hood docking in the aft shuttle bay as requested.

she opens the door and gets out followed by the female security officer who went with her.

The captain left the bridge in control of the TacCo, and went to the aft shuttle bay to await the arrival of the other captain. A full formal side party had been assembled, complete with marines in full dress uniform, and a pair of Mardukans in full armor. It would be quite the spectacle when the other captain arrived.

the Kirisuban Captain and her guard bow to her opposite number when she sees him.

Kaede looked a lot smaller in the flesh but what she lacked in height she made up for in presence, her confidence obvious.

"I am Captain Kaede Satsumo of the T'ien Lung" she says confidently "may I have the pleasure of meeting the honourable Commander of this fine vessel?"

the Kirisuban Captain and her guard bow to her opposite number when she sees him.

Kaede looked a lot smaller in the flesh but what she lacked in height she made up for in presence, her confidence obvious.

"I am Captain Kaede Satsumo of the T'ien Lung" she says confidently "may I have the pleasure of meeting the honourable Commander of this fine vessel?"

The marine side party snapped to attention, and the Mardukans presented the flags, the Navys Fatted Calf, and the Marines Fanged Basik. The bosuns pipes shrilled out the strains of Cambreath, as the Captain prepared to greet the other commander.

"I'm Captain Kjerulf, SSN Hood. How may I help you captain?"

Kaede smiles slightly and replies "Captain Kjerulf, I'm glad to make your aquaintance. I believe we can help each other athough in this hostile area of space.

already we've had contact with two hostile fleets in the previous star system we were in so its in our benefit to try and work together"

Kaede smiles slightly and replies "Captain Kjerulf, I'm glad to make your aquaintance. I believe we can help each other athough in this hostile area of space.

already we've had contact with two hostile fleets in the previous star system we were in so its in our benefit to try and work together"

"Indeed. If we play this right we may manage to build up a tidy little squadron. At the very least we can act as an escort for your vessel as we try to get out of here."

"Captain Kjerulf, for starters I can send over an engineering crew if you need help" Kaede replies "then we can see about finding a way home although it will be a long journey.

Since we have a lot to discuss we should begin before we have further company"

Aboard the Battleship Judas...

She frowned as she watched the scene unfold with the vessels, as she rapidly gauged the combat capability of the Killbots, deciding that she could take a chance with a smaller one if they ever came around, liably not a big one though as the status on her two cruisers spurted in, reading a considerable amount of damage on the sides of both vessels that were facing the ship when it attacked.

Both ships held station as a Destroyer appeared and moved infront of them as they provided cover for the right and left flanks respectively, their damaged sides inwards as they paused for a moment as they awaited orders.

Integra gave a small smile to her communications officer that made the poor soul shiver. "Kid, tell em to greet our new guests..." The man paled as he nodded, piping to the ships. "Your ordered to intercept the ship still in system. Get going." He simply sat back in his chair and visibly shrank in it.

Back to the ships..

The Captains themselves shrugged as the ships synced up before jumping back into the system, their engines going to full as they began moving towards the Shanderan vessel, broadcasting the same message as before.

"Did I hear that right?"

"Sir?"

"Did they just tell us to surrender?"

"I believe so."

"What is the charge status on the spinal gun?"

"Still one hundred percent."

"Sound general quarters and begin broadcasting Minovsky particles."

"Minovsky particle density at two percent and rising."

"Scramble two squadrons of Sparrowhawks. Get four squadrons of Goshawks ready for an attack run."

"Six percent."

"Sir, weapons stations throughout the ship are reporting that they are ready for combat."

"Minovsly particle density at ten percent."

"Target the ship on the right with the spinal gun. Have all primary turrets target the one on the left. Fire on my mark."

"Twelve percent."

"Send them a message with the lamps."

"Aye."


..-. ..- -.-. -.- / -.-- --- ..-

"Mark."


With that word, Galileo cast dozens of unbelievably powerful golden beams of megaparticles at the two cruisers. The most powerful of which erupted from the huge emmitter on the bow and lanced towards the cruiser on the right. For the cruiser on the left, twelve of the ship's twenty primary guns were the answer to the request to surrender.

Meanwhile, in Galileo's hangars, fighters were being ready for combat.

"Captain Kjerulf, for starters I can send over an engineering crew if you need help" Kaede replies "then we can see about finding a way home although it will be a long journey.

Since we have a lot to discuss we should begin before we have further company"

"We're fine for ammunition, repairs, and spares. What we need is reactor mass and supplies. If you can install those "replicators" you mentioned we would be greatful. Although reactor mass may be an issue if we can't get to a resupply station of some description, even an indigenous one. We also need to find anyone that may be here, other than us. We need to get as much backup as possible if things are as hostile as you say. Do you thing the vessels from Bryn Shander will join us if we approach them?"

"i'm not sure" Kaede replies "everytime i've had dealings with Admiral Thompson he's shot paint shells at my ship, kept me holding on hails, has constantly insulted me and he even called my ship a skiff.

He seems to enjoy practical jokes from what I can see but If we have a common enemy i'm sure he'll come round to our way of thinking. Their ship is certainly powerful and together we would have a better chance.

I'll send my chief engineer over and she can hook up a pair of replicators in your mess hall as a test run. they's still being developed but ours can do drinks and basic food. its currently set to New Kirisuban ration packs for now but you can programme in food off your own.

If you use matter/antimatter reactors we can send you some antimatter. matter is no problem since all you need is some space rocks."

"i'm not sure" Kaede replies "everytime i've had dealings with Admiral Thompson he's shot paint shells at my ship, kept me holding on hails, has constantly insulted me and he even called my ship a skiff.

He seems to enjoy practical jokes from what I can see but If we have a common enemy i'm sure he'll come round to our way of thinking. Their ship is certainly powerful and together we would have a better chance.

I'll send my chief engineer over and she can hook up a pair of replicators in your mess hall as a test run. they's still being developed but ours can do drinks and basic food. its currently set to New Kirisuban ration packs for now but you can programme in food off your own.

If you use matter/antimatter reactors we can send you some antimatter. matter is no problem since all you need is some space rocks."

"Admiral Thompson eh. What the heck is an Admiral doing commanding a single ship? Food is food, but we still need hydrogen reaction mass for our Fusion Plants."

Kaede thinks and says "when my chief engineer goes over i'm sure she'll try and figure out how to get hydrogen reaction mass here"

Kaede thinks and says "when my chief engineer goes over i'm sure she'll try and figure out how to get hydrogen reaction mass here"

"We can get it, we just have to find a source. A gas giant, or similar body will suffice. But, I think perhaps we should worry more about gathering allies before I worry about supplies that won't run out for a few weeks. If you can give us the coordinates of the area you came from, we can see about the Bryn Shander Admiral."

Kaede rattles off the co-ordinates of the system they last seen the Bryn Shander ship.

"knowing their Admiral he'll try and follow me but it is hostile territory. I wouldn't jump there without having all systems in working order. We left a pirate fleet who wanted our surrender and a robotic fleet that wanted to kill us in the most efficent way possible behind there"

Kaede rattles off the co-ordinates of the system they last seen the Bryn Shander ship.

"knowing their Admiral he'll try and follow me but it is hostile territory. I wouldn't jump there without having all systems in working order. We left a pirate fleet who wanted our surrender and a robotic fleet that wanted to kill us in the most efficent way possible behind there"

"We have everything working, and we have plenty of ammo. So long as we don't get caught in a crossfire, we 'll be fine. I'd like you to go back to your ship, and wait here for us to get back. I'll take the Hood in, get the Admiral, and get out. Any objections?"

"I'm going as well" Kaede says "having a familiar ship with you will help and we can defend ourselves. we also have a stealth field that will help us if it comes to a shooting match"

"I'm going as well" Kaede says "having a familiar ship with you will help and we can defend ourselves. we also have a stealth field that will help us if it comes to a shooting match"

"Alright then. Let's go."

The Captain considered this to be over, it was time to rock. He left the Kirisuban Captain to get back to his ship on his own,. "Guns, get everything ready for a full salvo, VLS, MACs, the works. Astro, I want tyou to chart a blind jump away from the next system, and transmit the coordinates to the Kierisuban captain, same for the Bryn Shander vessels when we meet them."

*several minutes later*

A small Wormhole opened up, and the Solari Battlecruiser disappeared through it, reappearing moments later to the left of the Pirate fleet.

OOC: "It'd be great if you two could hold off until we give the OK. Fluid time and all."


Integra frowned as she watched the little task force approach the vessel. She turned and merely pressed the alert button to signal the whole remaining fleet to go to arms, and be ready.


Moments later when the morse code message came through, she cursed, knowing it was too late to recall them as both cruisers got lit up like a christmas tree, both utterly destroyed. The captain of the destroyer cursed far more than he ever had in his life, immediatly deciding self preservation above all else.

One moment, space was quiet as the ship was moving away, before several light cruisers appeared, followed by several heavy cruisers and another destroyer appeared. Time would seem to hold still for a moment before the entire remaining fleet jumped into space around the Galileo, all ships at the ready as they all locked onto the vessel.

Scant second later, in a flash of light, the Battleship Judas jumped inside the area left by the other ships on one of the Galileo's sides, its bow towards the Galileo where it came to rest. Like a well oiled machine, all the main forward cannons opened fire on the vessel, a quiet symphony of light issuing from her before the remainder of the fleet opened fire on the vessel as well.

"Targets destroyed, Captain."

"That's excellent. It's good to know that our weapons are not little more than pretty lights. Target the smaller one."

"I can't, Sir."

"You can't?"

"It seems to have turned tail and jumped away."

"I suppose that'll do. How long until the spinal gun is recharged?"

"Four minutes."

"See if you can't find out where the little one went. Switch on the tachyon sensors."

"It looks like he's gone to the oort cloud... HOLY SHIT!"

"What is it?"

"Tachyon sensors just picked up several large signatures all around us. They're the same as the small ship that escaped. It seems that he's alerted his friends."

"How many are there?"

"It's hard to tell. Looks like a dozen or so. One's a bigg'n."

"Shit. Helm, floor it. Let's get some distance between us and them."

"Aye."

"Sir, they're all firing."

"How are the shields holding?"

"They're holding strong for now, but I wouldn't expect them to hold off a bombardment like this for too long."

"Have the main guns all target their flagship and fire at will. Get the spinal gun recharged as soon as possible. Hit the smaller ships with torpedoes and flak. If nothing else, the flak should blind them."

"Aye."

"Status of the fighters?"

"Ready."

"Have them launched as soon as we're clear and get the MS ready to go."

"Aye."


As the cascade of fire impacted against Galileo's shields, the ship lurched forward, trying to gain some distance from her attackers. At the same time, all twenty of her main guns rotated towards Judas and returned the favor. Every ten seconds, they would fire again. For the other ships, a different type of fire was sent to meet them. All at once, each of the 48 twin 120mm autocannon mounts opened up, spraying a target with flak and tracers. While the flak distracted the targets, the ship began launching torpedoes as fast as they could be loaded, each group of six or four 200 megaton torps homing in on a seperate target.

OOC: Do you have a reading comprehension problem? You were asked to refrain from posting until further notice. Because of fluid time, you have not arrived yet, and will not arrive until myself and Ankgor Wat are ready.

OOC: Do you have a reading comprehension problem? You were asked to refrain from posting until further notice. Because of fluid time, you have not arrived yet, and will not arrive until myself and Ankgor Wat are ready.

OOC: I'm waiting. Say about 10 minutes into it we arrive? Whenever you want us to show, just say when.

The shielding grid held firm against the Judas, its Gravitic generators finally being put to the test of defending the ship against a true assault, and suceeding with all lights showing green. The engineers were heard to give a small cheer before getting down to work as they carefully watched the ships many systems.

"Finally, somone worthy of battling, Focus all of our efforts on that ship order the others to hold position, no way a vessel that size isnt carrying somthing extra. rotate Forty-Five degree's and match speed, open up with our starboard weapons!" Integra gave a smile that had the bridge crew shudder as a whole as they rushed to comply.

The Judas slowly began rotating as its engines flared to life as it began to break away from the fleet, its attention focused on the Galileo alone. The vessel's shields flaring brilliantly as they held strong against the assault from the large vessel. As more of its startboard flank's firing arc opened up, more of the battleships heavy guns began firing.

The fleet maintained their position as aboard more than one vessel, the captains and crew alike cursed as they were forced to deal with the flack screwing up their sensors, their own shields flaring as they warded off the lesser guns of the Galileo with relative ease, yet more than a few cases of friendly fire took hold as the flack screwed with the targeting sensors aboard the torpedo's that were fired.

"Impact in three... Two..."

Galileo shook violently as the PPC shots hit the shields.

"Status?"

"Shields are holding, but I'm not sure how long that will last. Fortunately, we're in the open and can launch strike craft."

"Do it."

As the two powerful ships traded shots, fighters and mobile suits streamed out of Galileo's hangars, quickly grouping up and begining attack runs on the rest of Ankgor Wat's ships.

"Incoming!"

"Brace for impact!"

Again, Galileo shook from the impact.

"How long until the spinal gun is recharged?"

"I don't know. I've lost the signal from the gun."

"WHAT?!"

"I think that last shot knocked out a fuse or something. I'll get engineering on it."

"You'd better."

"Sir, I'm picking up tachyon fluxuations. We've got more company."

"Who is it?"

"One of the signatures is unknown, but the other is consistant with T'ien Lung."

"Oh gods damnit. Not those fucking clowns again."

"Sir?"

"Can someone give me a good reason why I shouldn't just scuttle this ship right now? I don't want to deal with those asshats again."

"Your booze are on this ship, and we still have to find the New Havenic refugees."

"Point."



OOC: You two are in now.

"deploy stealth field now. full shields and power up all the weapons" Captain Susato orders "and go after the closest ankgor wat light cruiser"

the T'ien Lung dances round the back of the closest cruiser and fires all their weapons into their engines, the two phasers and 4 plasma torpedos hitting home before moving under their enemy..

The Hood ripped into existence just over a hundred thousand kilometers away from an opposing ship. Suicidally close against an unknown opponent.

"SHIT!"

"Pipe down. Send the transmission we came up with on a tightbeam to the lead Bryn ship."

""Aye sir."

A small tightbeam whisker laser leapt from the Hood to the other vessel, carrying a message containing coordinates to a safe system, and a request to go there to discuss important matters with the other vessels captains.

The Hood herself unleashed all 8 of her main guns as soon as they could bear. VLS tubes spat fury, and secondary batteries hammered out their own rage. Soon they would flee for their own lives, but until then they would do their best to kill the pirate vessels they encountered.

Warnings went off as a rather nasty volley of fire pounded into the Judas, deep within the vessel, somthing finally giving as it became quite evident that somthing was quite wrong as power levels began to drop in the ship, engineers scrambled as they worked releases and activated systems that lay dormant for untold years as they struggled to bring the ship back under control, systems allready starting to fluctuate slowly as the power drain started to take its toll as they fought to maintain the shield grid's integrity.

More than a few of the smaller vessels shuddered under the attack of both the Bryn Shander vessel and the attacks of the newcomers, more than a couple ships allready weak shields were pounded away, several succumbing to fate under the assault.

The Kirisubans would have a suprise as the shields on the ship they attacked hold firm, the command on the bridge working diligently as they communications raced between the ship and those around it as they all focused on the sight of where the attack had come from, when a half dozen ships fired their available guns at the location of the Kirisuban vessel in a spray, knowing most would miss, but more than a few would have a chance at hitting home.

Integra cursed as she saw another vessel start to flounder as its Gravitic generators began to weaken the pounding being put out by the third vessel slowly taking its toll. In a split second, she made the decision that people grow to hate or love, as she looked over at the communications officer.

"Patch me a line to the asshole on That ship were going after, they havent moved to use that nasty gun of theirs, and somthing tells me they are growing as weary of this as we are." The comm guy nodded as he hit the little red button, opening a tightbeam laser transmission to the Galileo.

The T'ien Lung shook as some lucky shots clipped them as they flew under their target. Still they held for now but were slightly drained.

"Shields at 90%" the tactical officer reports.

"tactical, fire our rear torpedos as we pass them and go to evasive manovers working your way back towards them" Captain Susato.

As they left their target behind they launced four plasma torpedos from their rear weapons and swing round to the right diving.

the plan was to work round to the engines again and get another volley in but the Kirisuban captain was wary about taking a direct hit with the firepower the cruisers were putting out.

"The Twilight Barghest team is reporting a confirmed kill on a pirate cruiser."

"Good. And the battleship?"

"Scanners are showing that they're begining to lose power."

"More good news. How are our shields?"

"Holding well, but reports from the engineers are saying that the impacts have reopened several of the wounds suffered on the way here from Axis, to paraphrase. Capacitors are at forty percent capacity."

"How are the repairs on the spinal coming?"

"Not well. At best guess, it'll take days to fabricate new parts to replace the damaged ones. Even then, we may not get full functionality until we can get real repairs in port."

"Damnit. Any more bad news?"

"Yes. I'm not sure that you want to hear this though."

"What is it?"

"...One of the shots knocked your liquor collection from its rack. Most of the bottles smashed when they hit the walls."

"...What?"

"You're out of alcohol."

"...FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!"

"...Admiral, we're being hailed by the enemy battleship."

"Main screen turn on."


In front of Thompson, a wide, 200cm screen lowered itself from the ceiling of the bridge. On top was a small camera. As the feed began, Integra saw Thompson sitting in his seat, his face unshaven and wet with sweat. His hat was crooked, showing a small white horn on his forhead just above his hairline. An inch below it, a vien on his temple throbbed with rage. The Rear Admiral took a swig from the brown, half empty bottle of whisky in his hand and glanced at the bottle for a few seconds before moving it out of the way and letting go of it so that it would float within reach. Then he glared at the screen and camera with what could only be described as loathing.


"Who the fuck are you and what do you want?"

Integra raised an eyebrow as she recieved a reply. Her eyes quickly looking over Thompson as she guaged him before signaling the comm to begin transmitting video from her end, revealing her to have an air of nobility, but at the same time, the look on her smooth face was cold, her long hair light blonde hair draping down her back.

"Easy, Cease-Fire, this isnt helping either of us, one, your visibly not doing that well yourself, and from your scanners, neither are we."

She kept her face impassive as she watched the screen, moving her gaze slightly to nod to a lieutenant as she was relayed some news, a frown crossing her looks for a slight moment.

"Plus, id say we both were caught with our pants down, So, care to stop this?"

"A cease fire? Are you mad? You'll jump my ship for no reason and think you can just say 'my bad' as soon as the fight goes south and back out?"

Thompson took another drink from his bottle.

"No, you have another thing coming if you think that I'm simply going to let you attack my ship and get away with it. My ship is in fine shape, wheras you seem to be a few shots away from a new ventilation system. If you want a cease fire, it will be under the condition that you and your fleet surrender to me unconditionally."

Integra rolls her eyes as she watches him.

"Lets see, two cruisers destroyed outright, instead of challenging the demand then we have no attempt to stop the conflict... Considering your actions, you are as in the wrong as me and my fleet are... Care to negotiate for somthing thats actually reasonable considering that?"

She simply frowns as the warning lights went off for several systems as she frowns, looking over her shoulder as she signaled a crewman at a console to start dumping the built up heat from the guns.

"Fuck you, lady. Don't you fucking dare try to pin this on me. If you didn't want me to frag your shit, you shouldn't have tried to attack. If you want the fighting to stop, you will surrender. There is no other option short of dying."

The Rear Admiral cocked a twisted grin.

"If you can't take the heat, maybe you should get back into the kitchen where it's cooler. Let a man take over the job that you can't seem to handle."

As Thompson awaited Integra's response, an explosion rocked Galileo. From his seat on the bridge, he could clearly see the wound in the side of the ship just forward of the number one turret on the port side. Flames, smoke, and arcs of electricity shot from the gaping hole, trailing back along hull. With a few key presses, Thompson killed the feed to and from Judas.

"What the fuck was that?!"

"I'm not sure..."

"Get me engineering ASAP."

The damage control officer hit a few keys on his console, patching the main video screen and audio feed to main engineering.

"Engineering here. What is it, Admiral?"

"Give me a status report. What the fuck just happened?"

"I don't have much information yet, but my best guess is that one of the capacitors for the number four shield generator blew up. A connection probably came loose and caused a short. Damage control is on the fire and I've shut off the power to that section of the ship, but I can't fix the damage until the shields are deactivated. Even then, it'll take weeks, and that's in port."

"I see. Do what you can to keep the rest of the generators up. Thompson, out."

As the feed from engineering was cut, the screen retracted back into the ceiling.

"Call back the fighters and suits. Divert all available power to shields. Get the hyperdrive ready. We're leaving as soon as our strike craft are recovered."

"Aye..."


On the roofs of Galileo's hangar bays, flight deck crews worked quickly to set up nets and extra arresting cables. They would have to be able to capture more fighters than normal in as little time as possible.

Above them, a bright red flare shot from the bridge, signaling that the craft should dump their payloads and return home immediately. It wasn't long before the first wave of returning craft arrived, touching down on the flight decks and quickly being taken into the hangars to make room. A minute or two later, the second wave returned. Then the third.

After all of the craft had returned to the ship, Galileo had put a fair bit of distance between herself and the pirate battleship. Unfortunately, the capacitor explosion had done major damage to the ship and hinted at possible shield failure if the fight continued.

"Helm, take us into hyperspace."

With a small flash and quick acceleration, Galileo disappeared into safety. Several hours later, she reappeared in another system. Initial sensor reports indicated no life or habitable planets. Just a binary pair of stars, rocks, dust, and gases.

"Misjump! Hyperspace jump aborted! Hang on!"

The Iron Dagger dropped from hyperspace 200 meters off the starboard side of the Galileo, her hyperspace signature as clear as day even though the ship was still cloaked.

"We're 200 meters from the Bryn Shanderese vessel! They had to have seen us and detected our hyperspace signature!"

"Prepare to drop cloak on my command!" The Commander of the Iron Dagger ordered. "As soon as we do, raise shields and take up defensive positions! Tightbeam the rest of the group, let them know of our situation!"

"Aye sir!"

"send this to the Hood. we're jumping back to the agreed co-ordinates right now" Kaede Susato ordered "tight beam transmisson and make the jump back to our previous co-ordinates at warp 9. Drop the stealth cloak after we jump"

the comms officer sent the message.

Now the Gallieo was safe she hoped that the next time they ran into each other they would have a more productive meeting.

The kirisuban ship made the return jump to the system they had just left and waited for the Hood to follow them..

"...Well that's new."

"What was that, Ensign?"

"It seems that we've been followed. A cloaked, unidentified ship has just appeared about two hundred and twenty yards to starboard. They're lighting up the tachyon sensors like a Christmas tree. The only way that they could be more obvious would be to decloak and turn on neon signs broadcasting their location."

"That's not good. Begin full spectrum scans of the area. They may have friends. Meanwhile, have the guns target the ship we can see."

"Aye."


While Galileo's sensor array probed and searched for Iron Dagger's friends, the science vessel's ten main turrets rotated towards the Sculptorese craft.


OOC:
A note: Galileo didn't go to the same system that T'ien Lung did.

"They're targetting us! I think they might think we're hostiles!" The Iron Dagger's tactical officer reported.

"Sir, I recommend we abort our mission and decloak before things get ugly. We won't survive a blast from those guns while we're cloaked," the XO recommended.

"I couldn't agree with you more," the Commander replied. "Drop cloak! Shields to maximum, hail the Bryn Shanderese vessel!"

"Intership communications are active," the Communications Officer announced.

"This is the Iron Dagger," the Commander radioed to the Galileo. "While those in this galaxy that have encountered us on friendly terms refer to us as the Rogue Peoples of Sculptor, you will remember us as elements of the Imperium of New Haven. Welcome to Sculptor."

"...Well, this certianly makes my job easier. I am Rear Admiral John Thompson of the Bryn Shanderan starship Galileo. I was charged by both my king and Imperatrix Sara to travel to this gods forsaken galaxy and find you and your fellow refugees."

Thompson glanced at the technical readouts on his armrest's console.

"We've brought some one-time use gates with us that can allow you to return to the Milky Way, but we'll need major repairs before we can use them. We were significantly damaged by a gate accident on the way here, and the problems were compounded by a battle with pirates. Worse, we're completely out of some very important supplies."

"We're going to tightbeam coordinants to our colony and the necessary IFF codes so you don't trigger the defense grids," the Commander replied. "By the way, I am Lieutenant Commander Patterson, Commander of this ship.

"We can resupply you with probably whatever you need and repair your hull damage, but relocation... isn't going to be easy. We'll explain it upon our arrival. Follow our lead, Iron Dagger out."

"Yes, that should be fine, Lieutenant Commander. We're right behind you. Galileo, out."

While damage control teams fought prevent the damage in the bow from spreading, Galileo's helmsman entered the beamed coordinates and prepared to follow the Iron Dagger.

"Sir, the Shander vessel has jumped out!"

"Can we follow it?"

"No sir, its vector does not match any route to our planned escape destination, nor can we follow along their vector, since we don't know how far they're going."

"BLAST! Pull out, gate to any system along their vector. They obviously have better weapons than ours, and hopefully a way to get resupply. Maybe we'll find them."

"Aye sir. Long odds, but I'll try."

One last spiteful volley blasted out of the ships guns, before a new wormhole formed, and took the Hood far from the debacle. It emerged some minutes later, in an unknown system, with no sign of the ship they were following...

The Sculptorese vessels emerged from hyperspace, followed by the Galileo.

"Attention Iron Dagger, what is the meaning of bringing an unknown vessel into the vicinity of Sculptor Prime?!"

"My apologies, Shipyard Alpha, but this is the Galileo, a Bryn Shanderese vessel from the Milky Way. They have come a long way to find us," Patterson radioed back.

"We're detecting extensive damage to the Bryn Shanderese vessel, it would be advisable to dock them for repairs and resupply," Shipyard Alpha radioed back. "Heavy cruiser docking bay 16 is open and ready to receive them for repairs. We'll signal the Galileo when she docks for her schematics and repair manuals so we may repair her."

"Understood, Shipyard Alpha. Iron Dagger out." Patterson signalled his Communications Officer to hail the Galileo.

"Rear Admiral Thompson, this is Lieutenant Commander Patterson. Shipyard Alpha will be transmitting a docking bay for which you may dock in. We need to meet to discuss the plan you transmitted earlier. I'll see you in the shipyard, Iron Dagger out."

After entering the system and getting docking clearance, Galileo manuvered into the bay. As umbillical cables and hoses were attatched to the science vessel, the ship's crew prepared for shore leave.

When Patterson found Thompson, it was clear that he had been through hell and back. His clothes were wrinkled and stained with alcohol and blood, he reeked of booze, his eyes were bloodshot, and his face had obviously not been shaved in a while.

"You're the Lieutenant Commander, I take it? Can we go find a bar? I need a drink."

"Certainly, comrade," Patterson replied as he handed Thompson a paper folder full of information. "Its the best we could come up with on short notice, seeing as we naturally assumed that you'd know your way through our computer systems to find the information later."

The folder contained all the information on the Sculptorese, including ship numbers, deployments, and information on Sculptor Prime: a bustling planet with a population of just under a billion people.

"The Imperatrix doesn't think that we'll be able to evacuate back to the Milky Way with our current numbers, even if all of the people agreed to go back."

"Hm. I see. Does that mean that you intend to stay here?"

As the two walked to a nearby bar, Thompson skimmed one of the papers.

"It seems that you've managed to build a respectable fleet in the short time since the fall."

After entering the tavern, the two men sat down at the bar. "Give me a bottle of the strongest stuff you've got." ordered the Rear Admiral. While he waited for the bartender to find his drink, Thompson scanned another document. "I suppose that if you intend on staying, I will need to take these documents back to Axis with me once my ship is repaired. After I make my report, I expect that several more Galileo class vessels will be sent here so that we can link the two galaxies with a gate."

"Yeah, we are intending to stay here, we lack the ability to transport all of our people back, and I'm quite certain that they won't want to leave," Patterson replied. "We're far from the troubles of the Milky Way, and we have made ourselves a home here."

Patterson sipped his booze, a small glass of the moonshine they brewed in the back of the bar. "Thats probably the best course of action," Patterson replied to Thompson's last response. "Watch what you drink here, sometimes it hasn't been rectified before its served. I once took a sip and got knocked back like I had been punched in the face."

"I don't think I'll need to worry. This is supposedly the strongest thing in the bar, and it seems fairly weak. Perhaps I'm just accustomed to stronger drinks."

Thompson took a large swig from the bottle.

"So, tell me. What have you all been doing in the years since the fall?"

The T'ien Lung hung in space while they waited for the Hood to follow them.

Captain Susato waited nervously for an hour in orbit off a red giant while the shields were repaired and a full system scan was performed. there were no habitable planets but here was a good place to catch a breath while they waited for the Hood.

"Building, mostly," Patterson replied. "We had a project in development called the 'Freeworld' project that was cancelled due to the enormous drain of resources it would have required. We have spent the last eight years building our capital city on the surface, as well as rebuilding the fleet. We currently in a major light combatant construction phase above and beyond the 600 currently in service. We also have about 60 medium combatants (cruisers) and 5 heavy combatants (dreadnaughts) in service, and a ton of defense platforms. If we hadn't given you our IFF codes, you would've been stopped by the FTLi traps we have set up and a defense station would've obliterated you as you dropped from hyperspace."

"Interesting. Meanwhile, my own government has begun completely rebuilding our fleet. My ship, Galileo, is the lead ship in a new class of science vessel. At the time of my departure from the Milky Way, she was the most powerful ship in the new fleet, and was more than a match for our old battleships. The new heavy cruisers and battleships in the works should be able to take on even the Inverse and win."

Thompson quickly emptied the bottle and asked for something that could take the paint off of a dreadnought.

"Just before I was given command of Galileo, I lead a mission to regain contact with the remanants of the Imperium. After poking around the New Havenic system and pissing in some Concordat Cheerios, I discovered that Sara had escaped to Asherton, and made contact. We've since signed a treaty that cements New Havenic claims of soveriegnty, guarantees the defense of New Havenic assets, and readmits the new government into the Hermes Alliance with no loss of status."

As the bartender returned, he handed Thompson a large glass of something that smelled suspiciously like acidic jet fuel. The Rear Admiral raised an eyebrow and glanced at the bartender before downing the drink.

Several minutes later, after he'd regained his breath and his eyes had stopped watering, Thompson continued.

"When I left the Milky Way, we'd replaced the Asherton gate, and ten Usagi battlefleets were stationed at Asherton under Sara's command. I'm not sure of the current status of the Imperium, but I'm sure that it's already back on its feet."

"Interesting," Patterson replied. "Maybe we can teach our brothers back home about ship design, I'm sure they've begun building their flying bricks again." He took a swig of the 198 proof moonshine kept behind the counter and the room already began to spin. "Wow."

Thompson and Patterson spent several more hours drinking and filling each other in on the events since The Fall before Patterson had to leave and Thompson was left to stagger back to his ship. Over the next few weeks, Galileo and her damaged systems underwent major repairs with the aid of the New Havenic engineering teams and equipment. Meanwhile, Thompson and his command staff had several meetings with the Imperatrix and her staff, drafting a plan that would get Galileo home and reunite the New Havenic refugees with their home once again. Soon after the Bryn Shanderan science vessel and her crew returned to the Milky Way and Axis, the Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy would be linked to Axis via a new, more powerful gate. Perhaps after the two galaxies were linked, Bryn Shander would begin colonizing Sculptor alongside her New Havenic allies.

Several months and test voyages went by before Galileo's repairs were finished and she was given the green light to begin preparing to return home. During the repairs, the New Havenic engineers learned much about the new technology that their close allies had begun to use since they escaped from the evil Concordat invasion fleets. Likewise, Galileo was augmented by technology that the refugees had developed since arriving in the hostile galaxy. Most advanced and striking was an experimental cloaking device and stealth suite.

With all of the repaired and newly installed systems up and running, all that was left for Galileo was the final loading of supplies. While longshoremen and the ship's supply clerks loaded the dry and wet stores, Thompson and his command staff planned their return trip. For the most efficient and fastest journey, they would use their disposable Hermes gates to take the ship into a hyperspace window that would only draw power from the ship only when the gate was first opened. After in hyperspace, the ship would be free to use her drive's jump function to fold hyperspace and cut corners in much the same way that a jump drive would function in realspace.


"Shipyard Alpha, this is Galileo. Requesting clearance to depart.

"Galileo, you are cleared for launch. Disengaging hard seal on airlocks, clearing refueling booms. Physical and projected docking clamps released... good luck getting home, Shipyard Alpha out."

Onboard the Galileo, a young Praetorian Guard Lieutenant in her 20s stood at a window as the ship pulled away from the station. She had a briefcase handcuffed to her right wrist bearing the Imperial Seal of New Haven (adopted by the Sculptorese). The briefcase contained a series of data crystals resembling the Imperial Library that had left for Sculptor with the refugees, but now contained three new crystals (containing technological, historical and economical records of the Sculptorese).

Her hair was brown and short, conforming to Armed Forces requirements. She was of light-build, like most women of her age in the military. She was armed with a Falcata sword and a pearl-handled .45 revolver sidearm that she kept holstered at all times. Hidden at the base of her skull under her hair was a data linkup port, signifying that she was infact a cybernetic humanoid construct.

Her series of constructs were designed to link into a compatible ship and direct its helm control and weapons functions without requiring consoles or the time required to relay the commands from her "brain" to her fingers (although she could do it if required to). The humanoid form was to allow the construct to operate between ships, evacuate itself, and even perform more hazardous duties that would normally put the biological crew at risk. The entire Praetorian Guard unit protecting the Imperatrix was infact this line of androids, providing completely loyal service for the four years they had been in operation.

She had been instructed by the Imperatrix personally to keep the Imperial Library copy safe from harm or capture until its arrival in her sister's hands: no exceptions except to comply with any reasonable orders issued by Admiral Thompson. She finally grew tired of watching out the window, her senses telling her that she required food to power her internal functions. She finally left, making her way to the Galileo's mess.

time had passed and Captain Kaede Satsuma had resigned herself to not getting home in her lifetime.

The T'ien Lung had been declared a generational ship and the sperm bank had been set up in sickbay as per regulations.

The few men on board the ship had also paired off and ships doctor had already reported the first pregnancies, 5 so far.

while this continued they continue to search alone for a planet to settle but that was also looking unlikely given the hostile nature of this universe.

As Galileo advanced out of the slip that had been her home for the past few months, the crew was hard at work preparing for the return trip. In the mess hall, enlisted men were busy cleaning the floors and tables.

"Lieutenant, your presence has been requested on the bridge."

When the New Havenic Lieutenent turned to face the person that called to her, she saw a young petty officer with a mop and bucket in his hands.

"...I see." responded the construct.

She quickly finished her meal and then made her way through the ship and up to the bridge. Sitting on his throne-like captain's chair, Thompson barked orders to his crew as they prepared for the trip. Outside, one could see that the damaged bow was back in perfect condition.

"Lieutenant, I thought you might benefit from seeing the begining of our large journey. This will be the first time a ship under the Hermes banner has ever crossed intergalactic space under its own power."

"It will definately be an interesting journey, Admiral," she said as she watched the viewscreen. "With recent advances in hyperdrive technology, we might be able to easily bridge the gap so that trips like these will be as common as walking from one's home to a restaurant down the street."

"I don't expect that it will ever be that easy, but perhaps it will one day be as easy as going from one star-system to another."

"Admiral, deploying modules."

Outside, dozens of small gate modules were launched from the ship's cargo bays, each using its own small manuvering thrusters to take a preprogrammed position in a ring some fifty kilometers off the bow of the ship.

"Admiral, the gate modules have been deployed. Powering them up now."

"Excellent. As soon as the gate is powered up, take us in."

"Aye."

Inside the ship, lights dimmed significantly as much of the reactor's power was diverted to microwave emitters and broadcasted to the gate modules. After several minutes, the gate was fully activated, the ring filled with a tranparent blue vortex that glowed slightly.

"Admiral, the gate is online and ready. Moving in now."

"Full speed ahead. Lieutenant, would you like a drink? I've had a chance to restock my stores since we arrived at Sculptor Prime."

"I'm sorry, I don't consume alcohol," The lieutenant replied, avoiding telling the Admiral that it was to keep her bacteria-based electrical generating system operational.

"What do you mean that you don't drink? What's wrong with you, are you a pussy or something?"

"Entering the gate now, Admiral.

"Hold on to something, this may get bumpy."

The 750m starship shot through the vortex. Around her, the stars became white streaks as the ship shot through hyperspace at several thousand times the speed of light. Back in realspace, the disposable gate modules held the gate open for one minute before they all fired explosive charges within their hulls that compressed their Hermium cores beyond the HK-limit. In a massive explosion that had its way with the fabric of space-time like a dead hooker, all of the disposables were gone.

"Admiral, we've entered hyperspace without issue."

"Good. Begin preparing for the first hyperspace-jump."

The Lieutenant didn't need to brace, as her internal mechanisms would keep her balanced through moderate to slightly heavy shock forces.

"No admiral, I don't drink because it would be against my doctor's orders," The lieutenant replied. "I'd rather die in battle than from a medical problem."

"Bah, our priests and doctors can make sure nothing bad happens. Besides, even if you do die, they can fix that too."

Thompson reached under his chair and pulled out a clear bottle with a black and white label. Inside was a dark amber colored liquid. He presented the bottle to the Lieutenant.

"Come on, have a drink."

As he held out the bottle, the hyperspace officer informed Thompson that the drive was charged and ready for the first jump. After giving the go-ahead for the jump, the ship lurched forward and the black space around the ship became a featureless white abyss as the streaked stars grew longer and merged.

"Ok Admiral, before we have any more akward situations, I'm going to come out and say it: I'm a artificial humanoid construct. Consuming alcohol would damage my power production systems and I'd cease to function within about 36 hours." The lieutenant waited for Thompson's reply as she tried to calm down from agitation. She had been programmed to emulate emotions as best she could, and she was doing a good job of it.

"Bah. What fun is that? How lame can New Havenic engineers be if their robots aren't even allowed to drink. Why, back in my day, robots drank like fish and belched fire..."

Shrugging, Thompson put the bottle of Jack back and took a swig from his own unmarked bottle.

"The engineers wanted our brand of constructs to be able to be as human as possible," The lieutenant replied. "Enough to eat, drink water and breathe. Unfortunately, we lack the ability to consume alcohol because of what allows us to derive electricity from food: the bacteria within our power plants. Anyways, I wouldn't be able to get anything from it. Now, if I had more than one backup sample, I might have joined you. Unfortunately, I don't."

". . ."

Thompson looked at the cyborg oddly for a few seconds as the ship cruised through hyperspace, her jumpdrive recharging after completing the first jump through hyperspace.

"Do you know how much of a killjoy that is? If they really wanted you to be like a human, they should have let you drink. To be honest, I'm tempted to turn this ship around right now and make them fix that."

"Like I said, I would have joined you if I had another backup," The Lieutenant replied. "However, my mission is too important to screw up because I wanted a drink enroute and my backup sample was rendered inert."

"Bah. Women..."

For the next few weeks, Galileo continued through hyperspace, jumping every time the drive recharged and then cruising again as another charge built. Likewise, Admiral Thompson returned to the pattern he entered every time his ships were on long, boring journeys. He would drink until he passed out, which took quite a bit of drinking, and then slept until he was woken by an ensign only to continue drinking.

So it was on the twenty third day of the journey. Thompson has passed out some eleven hours earlier, and the jump drive was nearly charged. As the ensign entered Thompson's cabin, the young officer was nearly overcome by the stench of booze, sweat, and vomit. Heedless, he continued unabaited and switched on the cabin's light. On the bed with Thompson were several female enlistedwomen. A seaman, petty officer first class, and petty officer third class, based on the uniforms scattered about on the floor.

"Admiral, your shift on the bridge is coming up. I believe that you ought to get up and get cleaned up."

There was no response.

"Admiral?"

Again, there was no reaction from Thompson.

"Admiral, I will have to ask again that you wake up and get ready to take your shift. We're about to jump back into the Milky Way and I don't think the King wants to have to welcome you home when you're like this."

This time, the Admiral showed a bit more activity. Unfortunately, it was limited to scratching his nether regions.

"Admiral, if you can't get up, I may be forced to get the cheif medical officer, and I don't think you want her in here."

It seemed that the threat had some weight to it, as Thompson sat up quickly, though still scratching.

"Fine. Fine. I'm up. Now get the hell out of my cabin."

The Admiral rolled out of bed, waking his guests.

"Don't you girls have somewhere to be? I suggest that you get there before I get out of the shower or else I'll write you up."




Some time later, Thompson showed up on the bridge, cleaned up surprisingly well and even more surprisingly, completely sober.

"Charge status?"

"Ninty six percent, Sir."

"Location?"

"We're about fifty thousand lightyears from Sol. We're just above the top of the galactic disk. The next jump should tap the network and take us right to Axis."

Out the bridge's main windows, the Milky Way was easily seen. It filled the sky for a seemingly endless distance below the ship.

"Prepare for final jump."

"Running final diagnostics."

"Entering final jump solution with Axis gate as a beacon."

"All systems showing green."

"The signal from Axis is a bit different, but she's reading loud and clear."

"Charge complete."

"Initiate the jump."

"Aye."


In a flash, Galileo shot through hyperspace yet again, covering the remaining 50,000LY in record time. As expected, the ship found itself exiting the Axis gate, though a different gate from the one they used to go to Sculptor.

"Axis control, this is SV-067 Galileo. We're back."

"Welcome back, Galileo. Please wait for further orders."

"Attention Galileo, this is New Havenic Imperial Fleet Command," the Imperatrix started to transmit across the FTL comm. link. "As Imperatrix, I wanted to be the first from New Haven to say "Welcome home". Did you find the Sculptor Detachment in one piece?"

"NHIFC, this is Rear Admiral Thompson. It's good to be back. However, I'm happy to report that we did indeed find the refugees intact and thriving. Though we got a bit banged up in the process, we also discovered several habitable planets that would be excellent candidates for colonization. The Sculptorese, as they now call themselves, also sent a 'cybernetic organism' with us for the return trip. Though she won't drink and doesn't know how to have a good time, I believe that she's got a copy of the updated Imperial Library."

"Now that is very good news, Admiral Thompson," The Imperatrix radioed. "Have her report to me as soon as possible. As for the Sculptorese, its glad to know they are alright after all of these years."

"Will do. Just make sure that your next line of anderoids or cyborgs or whatever the hell they're called can drink."


After Galileo docked at Axis, the crew quickly prepared the ship for the months of work that she'd need for repairs, refits, and general maintenance. As soon as they finished, Thompson gave permission for the enlisted men to go on leave and return home, hit the bars, or whatever. The officers, however, including the Sculptorese lieutenant, had several debreifings to deal with first. They each made reports on the mission, the crew, and the ship, as well as their personal thoughts on the matter. After all was said and done, Thompson relieved the officers and prepared to depart as well. For now, his ship would be in the hands of the Axis yards.

Immediately after the debriefings, the lieutenant made her way to the NHIFC for her own debriefing. At the same time, Thompson reported to his own commanders.

"Ok, for starters, do you have a name?" The Imperatrix said, wearing her naval uniform (bearing the six-star rank of the CINC of the New Havenic Fleet).

"My name is Lieutenant Naomi Eversman, but my official designation is Officer Model 4XA-019."

"Ok, but for the purposes of this inquiry, you will be referred to by your given name, not your designation," the Imperatrix noted as she picked up a stack of papers. "We printed this off earlier when you arrived and began reviewing the data crystals. I understand you're a recipient of the Imperial Medal of Valor, would you care to explain how?"

"Without reservations about preserving my own functioning, I successfully assisted in the defense of Border Station Gamma Epsilon against unknown raiders. The station wasn't armed yet, so it was immediately boarded by enemy combatants. Without hesitation, I assisted in killing over fourteen enemy combatants by sword, two by firearm, and twenty with my bare hands. My actions assisted in preserving the lives of all five-hundred crewmen and officers aboard at the time" A plate with steak was placed down in front of the Lieutenant, who began to eat it without hesitation.

"By Ares!" a general called out under his breath at hearing the numbers,

"Thats rather impressive," The Imperatrix noted. "I also understand that your original rank within the Praetorian Guard was lance corporal. How did you get your commission?"

"Via upgrade, your highness," The Lieutenant replied. "When my programming was determined to be stable, I was upgraded with additional command experience and placed in charge of an organic detachment before being brought here." The Imperatrix thought it funny that it only required an upgrade for this... robot... to receive a commission. Of course, people thought it was funny when all it took the Imperatrix to get a promotion was writing a paper on hyperspace dynamics.

"How many combat operations have you been engaged in?"

"Since my fabrication, I have been engaged in twenty-six different operations, including the Gamma Epsilon Incident," the Lieutenant replied. "All of them were victories worth noting."

"I'm sure they were," The Imperatrix noted. "What of the 'Sculptorese'?"

"The Sculptorese settlers have no desire to leave their homes, even the Imperatrix," the Lieutenant replied. "While Sculptor is a dangerous galaxy, we've lived there for too long to return to the Milky Way. Anyways, it has been suggested that we maintain ourselves as an alternate site, in case of another invasion."

"And I have no intention of changing those plans," the Imperatrix stated. "I trust my sister's judgement in the matter. Thank you for bringing the data crystals, and I'm sure I will find a use for you on in this galaxy until such a time as you are needed back home. You are dismissed, Lieutenant." The android saluted and walked off, relieved to be free of the briefcase she had been carrying.

the T'ien Lung was still in one piece despite the past few months in this hostile area of space.

Captain Susato was in her ready room drinking some green tea, the product of a precious replicator ration.

they had managed to get away from large scale replicator use by making more use of their chef.

She had an eye for edible plants and could make almost anything look good on a plate.

The search for a home continued abut they had gathered so much scientific information they had already enough for their first return by probe.

A probe had been equipped with an AI computer and a small warp drive and would get home if they could find a wormhole leading back.

Still their voyage would continue...

Back at Axis Fleet Command, Thompson gave his report on the mission, detailing the locations and surroundings of several planets suitable for colonization. He went over the encounters with the locals, and the problems with the ship. He explained how contact was made with the refugees and what their new society was like. When he'd finished, he proposed a plan to bring the galaxy into the Hermes sphere of influence.

The first step was to get a suitably powerful gate in Sculptor, with a counterpart at Axis. Fortunately, the gate explosion during Galileo's departure spurred the development of exactly the gate that would be needed. The second part of the plan involved deploying a significant portion of the space fleet to Sculptor to reinforce the New Havenic refugees, make claims to systems, and enforce those claims. The third part of the plan required the immigration of millions of citizens to the new colony worlds with major infrastructure coming along for the ride. For this, he proposed sending entire colonies through the gate intact, to be relocated into an orbit over one of the colony worlds and parked. Once there, the colonists could begin work on the surface while living on the colony. The fourth step was more or less undefined, but the fifth step was simply "Profit!"

After giving his report, Thompson was dismissed and went off in search of the local temple to Dionysus. When Thompson was gone Prince Aseroth, commander of the space forces, analyzed the options. After debating the merits of the plan, he spoke with the King. Soon after, preparations were under way. The planned date of departure was set for one year following Galileo's return.

A year had passed. The pieces were all in place. The gate ships had been gathered and enclosed within protective armored casings. The starships were also ready, gathered in formation around the dreadnought Ceiphied. Flanking Ceiphied were the battleships Talona and Beshaba. With them were eight heavy cruisers, sixteen light cruisers, sixty four destroyers, forty eight frigates, sixteen ortillery ships, several dozen cargo vessels, and the science vessels Magellan, Cortes, Drake, and Hudson.

In the year since Galileo's return, the gathered ships had been refitted with new systems designed specifically for Sculptor. The dwarf galaxy was an unfriendly place that made Sol look like a birthday party, and they would be damned if they were going to be caught off-guard. Each ship was equipped with a Sculptorese cloaking device, which lowered electronic, visual, gravonic, and other signatures by a very large percentage. They weren't perfect, but they would help. All of the ships had also been supplied with Hermium Wavefront mines, new super weapons that had cost the New Havenites a research vessel during the testing phase and that were recently used to great effect during the Revan conflict over Mars. With the mines were several modified torpedo fuselages set up to allow mounting of a mine, essentially creating wavefront torpedoes. Finally, each ship was painted with two new insignias in addition to the Bryn Shanderan roundel that marked the navy blue hulls of all Bryn Shanderan vessels. One was the insignia of the Hermes Alliance. The other was a new insignia denoting that the ship was part of the Sculptor Expeditionary Fleet.


As the time for departure drew closer, activity ramped up. Though the new gates were much safer, all civilian and non-essential military vehicles were moved away from the gate. The two gates at Axis, one for inbound and one for outbound traffic, were merged into one large gate. The merged gate had much more power to play with, which would greatly aid in the accuracy of the broadcast jump. As soon as the last gate module was in place, the gate began to power up. With varying intensity, a hyperspace window began to form. After several minutes, the window was fully formed and stable.

Radio traffic in the area picked up immediately as Axis Gate Command began assigning ships departure times. To move an entire fleet in a timely manner safely and efficiently required great precision and coordination. Things would have to be done by the book and to the second. While departure times were still being handed out, the frigate Maus entered the gate, disappearing in a flash. Following immediately after was the destroyer Overhalla. One by one the ships of the Expeditionary Fleet made their way through the gate. One by one, they were shot across the cosmos. One by one, they arrived in Sculptor, in a system on the outskirts of New Havenic Sculptorese space.

Almost immediately upon arrival, the Bryn Shanderan ships began probing the empty space around them for a signature that would indicate a cloaked Sculptorese ship. When, if, they found one, they would hail it and request permission to head to Sculptor Prime. Once there, they would set up the gate, and the New Havenic ships gathering at Axis could join them and reunite with their long lost brothers and sisters.

And then the expansion would begin.

(Axis)

The Seventh New Havenic Fleet, accompanied by the Science Vessels Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger, dropped from hyperspace on the outskirts of the Axis Control Zone. "Attention Axis, this is Admiral Percival of the I.N.H.V. Essex. We're going to camp out here until we've been given the go ahead to deploy to Sculptor."

"Roger that, Essex. Await further instructions."

====================

(Outskirts of New Haven Sculptorese Territory)

A small craft exited hyperspace shortly after the arrival of the Bryn Shanderese fleet. "Attention Bryn Shanderese forces, this is the Sculptorese Light Combatant Law of Conquerers. We're transmitting our defense codes over encrypted frequencies. Prepare to follow us in."

The Sculptorese ships were unlike anything that the Bryn Shanderans had ever seen come out of a New Havenic shipyard. Likewise, the standardized Bryn Shanderan designs would be completely unlike the haphazard designs that made up the last Bryn Shanderan fleet encountered by the refugees. Each painted a deep navy blue, the fleet was far more uniform than the purples, reds, greens, and blues of the old fleet. In a way,the new Bryn Shanderan fleet was far, far more military-like than the old fleet. As the fleet and the Sculptorese traded communications, the Sculptorese were able to get a good look at the new designs, most of all the huge Myrkul class battleships.

After the Sculptorese transmitted the codes and made their jump, the fleet followed.

As soon as the Bryn Shander and New Havenic fleets emerged from hyperspace, a burst communique was sent from Defense Station Scylla:


TO: Bryn Shander Fleet
FROM: Defense Station Scylla

We are transmitting coordinants for where the hyperspace gate should be deployed. We want this one to be deployed in the Sculptor Prime asteroid field which is an astronomical unit out from the planet. There, we can keep tabs on it while we ensure that if any group in this galaxy wishes to make a run at it that they attack the gate and not the planet. It will suck if the enemy destroys that gate, but it will be an even greater tragedy if they destroy Sculptor Prime at the same time.

The Imperatrix sends her regards and welcomes you back. We also welcome our brothers and sisters that have come to visit. If they have any family available, we will contact them immediately.

If you have any more questions, all you gotta do is ask.

Admiral Richard Sellers
Sculptor Prime Defensive Force

As soon as the fleets arrived in Sculptor Prime, a probe exited hyperspace at the far edge of the system, deep in the Oort Cloud. As soon as it exited, its transmissions were jammed, but the probe was not of any race yet encountered in the Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy. It attempted to transmit its informational payload, but was blocked with each attempt. It tried to hyperspace, but its FTL drive couldn't initialize in the heavy interference being generated many AUs away in the Kuiper Belt. The probe was stranded.

"Well, this is interesting," a rift dweller noted to another in their clicking and ancient dialect. "It would appear one of our probes has gone missing in System W-32-8690."

"Thats the source of the recently high amounts of hyperspace activity, isn't that correct?" A rift dweller officer asked.

"That is correct."

"If they decide to come here, you know what to do."

"The Rift will remain pure."

"Carry on then."

"Attention all ships in the vicinity, cloak immediately! CLOAK NOW!" Admiral Sellers radioed. "Fuck, where'd that FTL signature come from?!"

"Unknown!" A lieutenant said as she gathered more information. "Hyperspace signature detected!"

"What?! No one in this galaxy uses hyperspace technology but us and the other members of Hermes! Could it be a ship that isn't scheduled to come in?"

"Negative, its not displaying any known IFF code, and the transmission pattern that is being intercepted is completely alien. Thats definately not one of ours."

"Well, if its not one of ours, who the Hell is it?" The admiral thought for a second. "Did the automatic defenses catch it?"

"FTLi and FTL communications interference are in place. We're not detecting any EM transmissions from the probe."

"Figures, not even EM would carry far enough and fast enough to be of any relevance when it got to where its going. Can we send a ship through the interference?"

"We can once the Hermes gate on this end is established."

"Send a ship as soon as we can. Recovery of that probe just became top priority."

"Aye, sir."

The Sculptor Expeditionary Fleet acknowledged the transmissions from Scylla and changed course for the coordinates that had been sent. At about the same time, the Rift Dwellers' probe arrived. However, the probe was Sculptor Prime's problem, not the fleet's, and the fleet moved towards the designated location for the gate.

Some time later, the fleet arrived at the location that had been provided. Frigates spread out from the fleet to provide a picket and secure the area, while the heavier ships kept close watch as the massive armored canisters housing the gate modules began to split into their component plates, freeing the modules. After several hours of setting up and pre-boot diagnostics, the final stages of the activation were under way. Red lights on the modules began to blink at regular intervals to notify others of their presence, while the Hermium matrices within the modules started to receive power for the first time. Capacitors were charged and the modules began to communicate, their onboard computers coordinating to control the aperture and power levels. It didn't take long for the hyperspace window to begin to flicker to life. Pulsating with a blinding white light, the gate materialized as expected. When fully initialized, the blinding light faded into a faint glow and slowly changed hue to a light blue.

With the gate itself online, the gate modules began to broadcast packets back home via hyperspace in an attempt to link up with the network. Multiple frequencies had to be tried before one was found that could span the distance with acceptable packet loss and lag. Several more hours of fine tuning was done by the computers before a reliable connection to the network was achieved. To prove to Axis that the gate was online, the science vessel Drake sent a probe through with a message for Hermes Fleet Command. The message contained coordinates, access codes, and all of the other data required for the rest of the network to access the Sculptor gate.

As the access information spread throughout the network, non-physical communications between the areas serviced by the network and Sculptor began to flow. The first broadcasts were audio messages from Hermes command congratulating the fleet, though Solar radio and television broadcasts were sent to Sculptor via the gate shortly after. With the gate finally online, it was as though Sol and the rest of the Hermes territories were now right next door rather than almost a quarter million light years away.

"Incoming message from Imperial Fleet Command back in New Haven! Message has been authenticated and indicates that we are needed back home because of an ongoing conflict with the Federal Union."

"Set Alert Condition Black-Three and prepare to take us into hyperspace," Admiral Percival ordered as he read the orders on his console. "Rendevous with the Sixth Fleet at Asherton, it would appear we're going into combat reserve while the Sixth Fleet goes with everyone else to kick the Union's ass."

"What about the Sculptorese?" An officer asked.

"They'll be here when we get back. Not like they're going to up and quit after fifteen years of living out here," Admiral Percival stated.

"All ships report ready to jump."

"Jump!"

The Seventh Fleet entered hyperspace, traversing the distance between Sculptor and the Milky Way in under a minute, exiting hyperspace in the Asherton System.

Several years had passed since the Sculptorese gate had been established. In that time, trade and travel between the now free New Havenites and the Sculptorese was as routine as orbital spaceflight. Families had been reunited, colonists had arrived from or returned to the Milky Way, and life was begining to normalize.

For the Bryn Shanderans, a new colony had been formed. It was named "New Mathilde" after the asteroid in orbit over Mars and the principality that surrounded it. A gate had also been established at New Mathilde, further increasing trade for the Sculptorese. A number of asteroids had been moved from the system's belts and placed into the colony world's orbit where they were armed and became fleet bases. One of the system's gas giants had a helium atmosphere and had several gas harvesting platforms in low orbits for He3 collection. Much of the He3 was then sent to the Milky Way for use as reactor fuel.

For the colonists of New Mathilde, life was frontier at best. The cities were fairly undeveloped, while intra-city transportation was simply nonexistant. Utilities were limited to urban areas and it took weeks to travel between population centers. Things were slowly getting better, but it would take decades for life on the planet to reach levels common to the Milky Way.