NationStates Jolt Archive

*Milky Way Galaxy, Sagitarius Arm*

A single Hikari Treeship this time, Fourth Generation Oku`Ari, touring the old absorbed United Mankind territories of that now rather old war. Lady Asakua, an up and coming ristar of the Angel Galaxy Touman and recent new Partner with the Tree of the same name, of the Palace Tree in Sherishe Galaxy, commanded.

The all of a seventeen year old, raven maned of look, (nevermind the thirty-four years actual,) was touring for no more reason than to get used to her new charge. Her own Treeship crew and command was an honor for those that proved through the work and challenges of the Republic Touman, for the responsibility garnered.

She was leaning near the glasssteel viewports, melded serenely into the carved living woods and spidersilks that binded the vessel, while her crew was checking out a mundane S-Type Super Gas Giant.

Her mind was however focused. She knew someone else would come along.

About a day later, Lady Asakua orders a jump to another plain star system, the crew not expecting anything out of the ordinary.

After six jumps after leaving the home supercluster however a couple of weeks back, the crew is wondering if anything 'would' happen. Just to liven things up a little.

"Inbound ship, captain...doesn't look heavily armed."
Captain Typho looked up. "Approach them, and warn them to get out. Probaly some convoy scum. This is claimed Dominion territory now."
"Very well captain."

Typho went back to his review of nearby scans, the commander of the light battlefleet having been in the system for three weeks. The Dominion, now trying to expand its already large borders, had found this uninhabited system and began setting up posts. Already a prefab Class I space station was being erected around the fifth planet in the system, an iceball with odd ruins portruding from glaciers and snowdrifts. Now the presence of passing interlopers was not welcome.

"Send two corvettes, lieutenant...just scare them up."
"Right as you wish it, sir."

Two Otari-class corvettes, leaving the operations around the fifth planet and the construction vessels nearing completion of the station, boosted away into the space around it, sending comm channels to the treeship.

"Unknown vessel, you enter claimed Dominion territory. Unless you want to risk the destruction of your ship in occupied military zones, I highly suggest you depart the system."

Lady Asakua was about to pace back toward her command seat, when a Sensor-Tech calls out... "Two vessel signatures approaching from the night termination zone of this planetary body."

Just then the comm signals are picked up..

~ "Unknown vessel, you enter claimed Dominion territory. Unless you want to risk the destruction of your ship in occupied military zones, I highly suggest you depart the system." ~

Asakua looked reflected this with her partner Tree onboard for a moment, before responding. "Nice to know the universe is a vibrant place.

Open a response channel. Also deploy basic defense screens and prepare an emergency Fold vector into the jump comptroller."

Comm-Techs and Nav-Techs comply in short order, as she then speaks openly into the open air, using voice comm first before any visual comms.

--

:: ~ Appologies remarked for our unexpected intrustion. The Ascendancy Sphere Empire and Republic has no need for other's secrets, so our departure will be expedient.

I 'would' prefer to avoid undue events, so we profess our appologies continued. ~ ::

At that, she nods to her Tree mentally, and the vessel begins the shunt sequence for the Fold to more known neutral space on the other side of the Milky Way Core Galaxy.

A dead, rocky world constituted the only planet left in this ancient, unclaimed star system in neutral space. Its brown surface bathed in the warm orange-red glow of the dying red giant star, which had long ago swelled to a size several orders of magnitude larger than it was originally. This lone planet had once been home to a race of pre-industrial humanoid lifeforms, as one could just about tell from the few ruined buildings that had been left intact. Now, it was uninhabitable. Its oceans had evaporated, and its atmosphere had literally burned away into space, leaving a dead brown husk with a few ruins strewn across its surface. Judging from the sheer number of craters that formed a dotted pattern across its outer shell, the catastrophe was now a thing of ancient history. Nature was a remorseless adversary.

The dead planet, its dying sun and the various loosely-packed asteroid belts were not entirely alone in this ghost system. In a decaying orbit, a large vessel of wholly alien origins could be spotted, dormant and powerless. It drifted aimlessly around the planet, slowly being drawn closer and closer inwards by its gravity. It glistened in the heated glow of the star, its smooth, shiny outer hull primarily a light brown colour with seemingly random green markings and a few red dots at the front. It was a massive living creature, in a great deal of pain as its body decayed, slowly dying from starvation in this desolate region of space. It had come here seeking food, somehow remembering this star system as teeming with nutrients, but it found nothing but rock. The last of its energy had been consumed in coming to this place, rendering it helpless and immobile, and it now waited for the end, be it from starvation or from crashing down into the surface below. Judging from the gradual rate of orbital decay, the creature had been waiting for quite a long time.

And considering its large mass and its ability to store large amounts of fuel, this behemoth must have been searching for even longer. The 'vessel' appeared to have evolved naturally, and then been captured and modified with both biological and technological enhancements by an unknown race. It had numerous hardpoints designed to mount powerful weapons, though it had not been fitted with any. This combined with the scars around its 'neck' that had been received from some kind of enormous control collar suggested that it had escaped from captivity before it had been 'completed'. It did have the capability of generating some kind of exotic shielding, and some metal plating had been forcibly welded into place over its vulnerable areas in what must have been a somewhat painful procedure, but its shielding lacked power and its artificial armour was incomplete. Its sublight propulsion was seemingly part of its natural physiology, a crude but effective biochemical thruster, but its superluminal propulsion, if it had any, was harder to detect. Perhaps stranger than all of this, it maintained a breathable oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere deep within its massive body. It had a higher consistency of nitrogen than most creatures were used to breathing, but it was still habitable. Whether there were any lifeforms living within this enormous lifeform was impossible to determine.

Ordinarily it had a sense horizon with which to detect and analyse objects and phenomenon within a certain radius, but presently, the creature was blind, possibly as a result of the constant bombardment of intense radiation being emitted by the nearby star. It had no idea it was drifting ever-closer to the planet below, and even if it did it had no way of correcting its orbit.

"Get a tracker on them...they have something up their sleeve."
"As you wish, captain."

The two corvettes made a sensor sweep around the ships, at the same time the leading corvette quickly and unobtrusively launching a tiny device from a small launch tube at the treeship. Latching onto the ship's hull, the device activated a tiny shield and began transmitting a continuous data stream back to the station. It would provide information on the ship's location.

The Treeship wasn't stupid, and detected the tracker unit as soon as it attached to the hull.

Asakua was informed of this, and then the Sensor Techs a moment latter. The Lady meanwhile only shrugged. "Let them have their fill. Isolate the frequency spectrum just in case.

What about that other signature."

Sensors replies back.. "If it's going at it's current velocity and vector, it'll run headlong into that planet in about a half-hour, maybe less. Orders?"

Asakua rubbed her chin. "Wonder why it's here. Let's find out. Reorient our approach to about 1,000 meters off the starboard bow of... that... whatever it is. And broadcast signals through the dimensional translator and see if we can get it's attention."

The two corvettes are ignored as the Treeship pays more attention for the moment, on a more imminent threat. One that had mass extinction or at least really bad explosion written all over it."

The behemoth seemingly ignored the signals, and did not even see the presence of a ship so close to its side. Perhaps it didn't hear them, or perhaps it was unable to speak, and it certainly did not see the ship so near to its side. As with many of its systems, decay and energy shortage had rendered its ability to communicate negligible -- direct contact was probably the only way of reaching its consciousness now. It continued to drift along in its suicidal orbital path, unpowered and unknowing.

Asakua just blinked when there was no response at 'all' to the Gaian comm attempts.

"Talk about a heavy sleeper." ..she then looked back to Sensors again. "Give me something to work with for docking and boarding that thing, as well as a way simultaneously to nudge the thing's path away from the planet, and I mean fast on the latter."

"Are you serious?" ..the senior Sensor-Tech replied back. Not like Asakua didn't see that coming. She only replied. "I'm going to have Oku`Ari and I send one 'really' loud Hikari birst psy stab into that vessel and see if that gets any attention."

She then chuckles.. "And I mean 'loud'. So let's do it, no arguing. We have a planet to keep from being obliterated."

She soon sits down on the grass floor of the deck, and begins mental preparation, while the crew look to complete both objectives in hyper short order. They just hoped no outside interference would occur, of the planet just beyond was history.

The creature seemed to be responsive to telepathy of some kind. As the psychic signal reached it, there was a very slight increase in its energy levels. But the creature was in too much pain and confusion to understand it, or reply to it. The energy levels dropped off again immediately, and it continued to drift silently in its decaying path around the dead world. Shortly afterwards, however, a new lifesign could be detected within the craft, distinct and unusual enough to be distinguishable from the creature itself. As though something had been woken up by the signal. The new lifesign began moving around through what looked like passageways deep within the creature.

Meanwhile, an orifice opened up on a softer patch of the creature's outer shell. It was round, and seemed to function similarly to an airlock. It was the right size for an average humanoid to stand upright in without trouble, at any rate.

The Sensor-Techs noted this immediately and helped pilot the ship over to the apparent airlock. As they did so, the Tree deployed it's three Angelhawk Wings to begin altering the physics of the inertia and matter of the large ship, rather than just using plain thrusters alone.

Lady Asakua meanwhile sensed she had gotten through, if for a moment. When she is told that the airlock had been found, she rose and brushed her kimono clean as is practice. "Good work. Now I will need two Angel God guards to accompany me into the vessel, while you guys here keep a teleporter lock on us, and also an eye on the two corvettes that are still out there.

If the locals demand anything more, just tell them we're trying to save their backsides from a planetary catastrophie. Understood citizens?"

"AYE!" ..in one sharp response comes from the steady, if uncertain crew on the deck present.

A few moments later, the small party is at the airlock and ready to enter the next unknown. Her next attempt was to contact the being within, or who/whatevers, directly.

The airlock made an unusual gulping sound once they were inside, and the outer-door iris circled shut. They stood inside a small, tubular compartment, with no illumination nor any apparent control mechanisms. The ground beneath their feet was solid, but strangely soft to the touch. There was a hissing sound and a breeze blew over the occupants as the air from their ship was removed and replaced with the air from within the behemoth -- notably thinner, and quite humid and warm, but habitable. A few moments later, the inner-door iris opened quietly.

They were presented with a long, straight passageway, leading deep into the creature. The passageway was tubular much like the airlock, with no flat surfaces or angles. Instead of lights overhead, the very walls and floors themselves glowed with a soft blue light, probably as the result of a biochemical reaction similar in nature to that of a firefly. The light was normally brighter than this, however; it was quite dull, and occasionally flickered as though the creature was struggling to maintain it. Following the passageway, there was little of interest other than the oddly textured walls, with their smooth touch and interesting patterns -- though, they were obviously suffering from starvation, as the slight wrinkles and cracks developing on them suggested. Everything seemed soft and damp, as one may expect within a living creature, but these passageways apparently served no biological function except for allowing people to live inside it. There was a musty smell in the air; not unpleasant, but certainly unusual. The sounds of the behemoth itself could be heard all around them; a distant pulse could be heard beating at an unhealthily slow rate, and various groans occasionally bellowed through the passageways.

Halfway through the long, uneven corridor, a small, white, blob-like creature emerged from one of the walls and plopped down on the floor in front of them, hissing. Presumably, an enormous anti-body, capable of dealing with organisms somewhat larger than an average virus. It had no eyes, nor any other apparent way of sensing things, yet it seemed to note their presence. Nor did it have legs, it simply flowed its way around like a liquid. It remained there for a moment, hissing at them, as though unsure what to do, and then finally disappeared into the opposite wall from whence it came after a particularly loud groan echoed down the passageway. The behemoth seemed to have some degree of control over functions that would normally be autonomous within other creatures, and it seemed to want to allow the visitors to move around within it.

At the end of the passageway they were presented with a T-junction. A taller, wider passageway branched off in either direction. The light here was a slightly lighter shade of blue, and slightly dimmer than before. Perhaps most interestingly, this passageway was lined with alcoves of some kind, covered by thin layers of transparent skin to make them seem like they were part of the walls, and filled with thick, clear liquid.

Each alcove contained a strange alien creature. Their posture was hunched slightly; they had two back-jointed legs (which looked springy enough to give the creatures a high running speed), and two long, spindly arms ending in clawed, three-fingered hands. This was not to mention a third arm folded away tightly against their small, skinny torso. A large, bright-red eye dominated their faces, though four smaller eyes surrounded this large eye. Their mouths were small, but sharp teeth jutted out of them menacingly. Their skin was mainly a very dark brown in colour, with a lot of green mottling all over their bodies. The creatures floated peacefully in the liquid-filled alcoves, oblivious to their surroundings. Many of the creatures were dead, and looked to have died within the alcoves a long time ago. A few of them were alive, but sleeping heavily. It looked as though the behemoth was keeping them alive, and had been forced to sacrifice some to provide enough nutrients to the others once it began to starve. There were no apparent controls anywhere in the passageway for opening the alcoves.

One alcove, however, was empty -- the thin skin covering had been torn open from the inside, and the liquid that had spilled all over the soft organic floor suggested that it had been opened quite recently. The musty smell seemed to be emanating from this liquid, which had quite a strong aroma to it.

There were only two directions they could take from this point. One led off to the left into darkness, and a trail of wet, clawed footprints led away from the empty alcove and disappeared into this darkness. The alcoves seemed to line the walls of the entire passageway in this direction. The other direction, to the right, was a steep, curved incline upwards, possibly leading to more important areas of the behemoth. This way was illuminated, the light turning from blue to a dim yellow further up, but there were no further alcoves in this direction. A slight, high-pitched, persistent whining sound could be heard from somewhere up there. The behemoth made no indication of which way to go, simply letting out what sounded almost like a bellowing sigh.

The three enter, using light sources to aid their progress, either via the Power Key Staffs the Angel God guards use, or in Lady Asakua's case, touching a small 'slit' on her kimono, which causes all the fabric edges of her kimono to light softly, but noting enough for sight aided.

Passing through the sights and sounds of the organic interior was not one for the weak of constitution (or for the recently eaten.) Asakua took note with a quip at one point.. "Cozy little pad, all the amenities and sights."

..and then they enter the large alcoved chamber. "And a family room."

One of the Angel God guards notes and points to the evidently recently opened hibernation unit. Asakua notes the footsteps head towards the darkness and the lady sighs. "Let's do like our royal forbearers and follow the light, shalt we? Be on your guard for anything foul or disturbed."

The three move forward towards the unknowingly important areas alit, while Asakua keeps appraised of the vessel's path and goings.

--

Which was replete in activity, as the crew decides upon time remaining before planet impact and other physical factors, to begin changing vessel drift into a low to medium orbit over the planet ever slightly, instead of altering path completely.

What occured inside would have to determine the planet's and vessel's overall fate.

The Gaian Techs also prepared one desperate option in case they had no other choice....

The passageway curved around slightly as it climbed upwards, the next twenty feet ahead always just out of view around the bend. The ground here had a rougher texture, and was even softer, to prevent people from slipping over and falling down the passageway like a giant novelty slide. The further up they went, the louder the high-pitched whining sound became, until finally they reached the top.

And they were presented with a dead end. There were no doorways or controls, and no more of the alcoves. The only thing there was fairly unusual. A ball of sparking light, hovering in mid-air. This was the object emitting the whining sound, and it was almost deafening at such a close range. It did not give off any radiation, be it thermal or otherwise, and it registered as having no mass, and no energy -- if it even registered at all. It simply hovered above the ground, motionless. Its core was bright white, the next layer was yellow, and the outer layer was a light green, and occasionally jolts of yellow and orange lightning sparked out from it and harmlessly lashed against the walls. Though even though it appeared to be bright, it cast no light on the surrounding walls, nor any shadows from the new visitors who stood before it.

A simple adjustment to conventional sensing equipment would suggest that it was a tiny dimensional tear, a deliberate dimensional tear. Its only logical function was to allow fast travel through the vast behemoth without the need for excessive walking or the use of elevators (the latter of which the creature did not have anyway), like a form of transporter. It would 'teleport' the user into another dimension (possibly, the creature's home dimension) and back again to a different point in space in this dimension instantly, probably a point decided by the creature itself. Presumably, simple contact with the object would be sufficient to be transported to another part of the creature, though there was no visible indication of which part of the creature that might be.

Being as it was a dead end, it was either through the portal or back down the passageway and into the darkness, and whatever lurked therein. It seemed unlikely at this point that the creature intended to harm them. It had plenty of less complicated methods of doing so that it could already have attempted had that been its intention, ranging from its deadly-looking antibodies to simply purging the passageways of atmosphere.

By the time the trio reaches this area, they are actually a tad neutered to the awe of the place, having seen things and places like this before. The strange glowing orb at the end of the long and narrowing corridoor make Asakua look quizzically, before guessing a possible intent due to the dead end it is in.

She then contacts Oku`Ari, and through it, her crew. "Looks like a form of teleportation. Try to keep a good lock."

":: No pressure then. And advise the trajectory of budging that ship is not going very well at present. There's additional mass not apparent in the base physics of the alien ship. We're not sure where. ::"

Asakua nods. "Endeavoring." ..and then looks back at her escorts and nods to them both. She thenbreathes and juts a hand softly towards the energonic orb.

And unto..........

By the time the trio reaches this area, they are actually a tad neutered to the awe of the place, having seen things and places like this before. The strange glowing orb at the end of the long and narrowing corridoor make Asakua look quizzically, before guessing a possible intent due to the dead end it is in.

She then contacts Oku`Ari, and through it, her crew. "Looks like a form of teleportation. Try to keep a good lock."

":: No pressure then. And advise the trajectory of budging that ship is not going very well at present. There's additional mass not apparent in the base physics of the alien ship. We're not sure where. ::"

Asakua nods. "Endeavoring." ..and then looks back at her escorts and nods to them both. She thenbreathes and juts a hand softly towards the energonic orb.

And unto..........

[OOC: Very sorry for not responding for so long, I haven't really had any time for posting until quite recently.]

As her hand approached the orb, it suddenly swelled in size to fill the entire end of the corridor, its whining sound becoming a deafening scream as all sorts of unusual rasping sounds were regurgitated from it. The sparks flickered everywhere and the ship's own lighting dimmed as though power was drained from it. And then, the orb of light calmed down and shrank to its previous size, returning to its dormant state. It had completely engulfed the small party of visitors, and they had vanished.

They found themselves standing on a pink-purple rock, floating in mid-air. They were not in space, but were instead surrounded by the endless green-pink coloured dimension that was Xen, and a strange, relaxing humming sound could be heard all around. As far as the eye could see, similar rocks were strewn across the endless expanse. Gravity seemed to work in different ways here, allowing the rocks to float around peacefully but still holding the visitors firmly down to the rock. There was air here, but it was only as breathable as the air on the bio-ship back in their own dimension. Strange blue creatures, similar to manta-rays in shape, took advantage of the unusual gravity and gently floated around in the distance, occasionally casting yellow beams of energy down to the rocks as though drawing something from them. On a larger rock in the distance, large enough to be considered a veritable floating island, they could just make out a pack of some strange dog-like creatures, lime green in colour, scampering around playfully. One of them leapt from the island, and floated right across the expanse to land on a smaller island, and began to chew on an unusual blue plant that grew on it. It was a very peaceful place, though they weren't allowed much time to savour it.

Almost immediately after depositing them on this floating rock, another orb appeared, and began to whine deafeningly as it expanded, engulfing the group of explorers.

They found themselves lying on the floor of the bioship once again. They were no longer in the corridor, but instead in an enormous round room. The ceiling was rounded into a dome shape, and glowed a deep orange colour which pulsated slightly every few seconds. The sound of the creature's pulse was somewhat louder here. Several sections of the round wall were transparent, allowing glimpses of what seemed like massive nerve fibres running all around the room, which occasionally sparked brightly with a blue electrical charge. They could hear whispers, but they were coming from their own minds as though they were surrounded by a strong, but very distressed, telepathic presence. It was possible that they were somewhere within the creature's brain.

This was the first time they had seen any sorts of controls anywhere in the ship. One part of the round wall was dominated by a large monitor and an even larger control panel beneath it, both constructed from a dull grey metal and very industrial in style. It was certainly alien in origins, and had clearly been installed in a hurry. Cables were viciously rammed through the organic walls and forcibly connected to the massive nerve fibres for power and to interface with the ship's systems, which couldn't be a particularly pleasant sensation for the creature. The console had received some kind of damage, as the corner was blackened as though it had been burned. It still functioned though, and if the flickering blue image on the monitor was anything to go by, it seemed to control communications and monitored the creature's vital signs, which were obviously not showing up as too healthy. The method of communication used by the creature was unclear, as there was no apparent form of transmitter anywhere, but regardless it seemed to be offline.

More disturbingly, a trail of cream-coloured blood led their gaze to the corpse of another alien creature, slumped up against the wall with nasty holes scorched into its torso. This one was nothing like the dormant creatures they had seen in the alcoves below. To start with its face was much more menacing -- it had a side-opening mouth, which was now wide open to reveal its vicious teeth. Its massive, muscular grey-brown body seemed to have been specifically built to deliver raw, brutish power and endurance, and some kind of exotic, glossy metal had been welded directly to its flesh, affording it considerable durability. Its feet, most of its chest, its broad shoulders and most of its head was covered with this metal. Only its arms, legs and its mid-section were left bare, and its mid-section seemed to have been left out due to a third arm which grew from it. It was here that some kind of powerful weapon had literally melted chunks of the creature away. One of its arms was completely obscured by some kind of bulky organic weapon, which seemed to still be alive given how much it was twitching. It was definitely a warrior of some kind, and it didn't look like it was too easy to kill.