NationStates Jolt Archive


Blood & Iron: Thrashian Expansion (FT)

Thrashia
31-05-2006, 17:56
Space was quiet, nothing disturbing the fabric of its deep rich blackness. The few planets, some ore rich and others fertile in land, their primitive civilizations continued on with their lives as the systems star shown light upon them, signaling the start of a new day. They plowed their fields, fed their children and animals, and woke up to the new dawn…a dawn that would change their worlds forever.

Out of hyperspace burst a small group of ships. Their arrow shaped frames angling toward the unsuspecting planets like knifes’ of Death. There were five of them, along with several other smaller ships, fighters flew out in front of the formation of large ships, scouting the system.

“Captain, we have entered the Liperdium System. So far comm scan has detected no enemy vessels, nor opposing ships of any kind,” reported a Lieutenant, his data report coming up on his consul screen. Captain Julius Caracas stood on the bridge of his Super Star Destroyer looking out into space. Caracas was tall, some 6 feet in height, and was broad of shoulder. His gray admiral uniform clung tightly to his body, his muscles taunt under it. His black iron hair was short and combed back as was the style of most Fleet officers. He spread his feet slightly and put his hands behind his back.

Captain Caracas looked out over his task force, a part of the Expeditionary & Expansion fleet of Thrashia which he commanded, was assembled before him. Three Venator Star Destroyers, two Acclamator Assault Ships, and a small contingent of the Supply Commissariat; all were assembled in correct formation of Caracas’s command ship, the Medusa . Caracas smiled, he was only 43, and he had the power to make an entire system bend to its knees before himself, on behalf of his Excellency of course. Caracas turned to the deck officer.

“Thank you Lieutenant. Have scouts launch and begin their patrols. Tell Captain Niles on the Eroberung that he is to begin a launch of probe droids throughout the system. I want it fully patrolled and watched at all times,” ordered the captain. The Lieutenant saluted and turned smartly away to follow his duties. The Captain turned back to the view. He looked at one of the largest, a beautiful blue-green orb, and that Intelligence had dubbed Liperdium Prime.

Captain Caracas turned to his adjutant. “Have all vessels reported in and functioning properly?” he asked.

“Yes sir, all three of the Star Destroyers and smaller vessels have arrived on schedule. I have taken the liberty to have the Acacia prepare its troops for landing,” said Lieutenant Stiehl. Captain Caracas nodded and put his hand behind his back, looking back out into space.

“Good Stiehl, very good; has comm scan detected anything on the planets’ surfaces?” Veirsan asked, he turned his eyes to the green-blue orb.

“No Captain, according to what the last scans showed, the level of civilization the locals are at is of any consequence to us. They are still at a stage of, I had to research the ships computers for this, ‘powdered guns’ and are not in too large numbers. We estimate under a few hundred million on Liperdium Prime, and perhaps a few million on the other two planets in-system,” said Stiehl. Caracas nodded again.

“Very well captain. Bring us in orbit of Liperdium Prime and begin our operation, have the Cossack and the Odin’s Eye begin operations over Liperdium 1. Eroberung and the Phoenix are to handle Liperdium II. His Excellency is expecting us to keep this expansion quick and under a tight schedule, I want no slip-ups. Understood Lieutenant?” asked Caracas, he had turned away from the view of space and was now looking strait at Stiehl.

“Understood sir, I will begin deploying the fleet now,” said Stiehl. The Captain nodded and marched off the bridge. Stiehl stepped out of his attention stance and walked to the communications crew pit. “Begin deploying the fleet, and give me a transmission line to the Cossack and the Odin’s Eye. We will be starting operations.”


OOC: No massive fleets please. This is a simple expansion into an unihabited system (as in no nations claim it other than I). First contact is welcome.
Thrashia
01-06-2006, 19:27
The man rubbed the dirt off his hands onto his tunic as he stood up from the earth. The sun beat down on his small field from above, few clouds were present in the air. He looked from his hill-top view into the small settlement to the west. He smiled when he noticed the small form walking down the trodden path from the town. It was his wife leading the milk cow over from the market. He imagined her soft skins again as he closed his eyes and leaned on his wooden plough shear. Suddenly his dream was disturbed. Disturbed by the sound of thunder and a loud roar.

He opened his eyes and before him saw red thunder pouring down upon the earth around the village, as if it was rain. His eyes widened with horror as he thought he heard the faint sound of a scream, and his wife disappear in a fountain of exploding earth. He ran. He ran down the hill, onto the path and towards his wife. He forgot the red lighting that was still raining down. He did not see it. All he saw was his wife’s gentle face.

The man reach a small crater in the path, in it his wife laid, her body burnt and mutilated. He fell to his knees, tears pouring down his cheeks as he reached down to her. He felt such pain.

Then he felt none. Suddenly he saw his wife standing before him again, as if the red rain had never come, she smiled and offered him her hand. The two walked into a great white light and disappeared.


Lieutenant Stiehl flinched when he saw on the viewing monitor a Liperdium local hit directly by a laser. “That must have hurt,” he thought to himself. He turned to the other tactical screens and watched as his ship the Medusa and other smaller cruisers were laying down a barrage of laser fire from orbit around the planets of the system.

The other two planets, Liperdium I and II, were receiving the same treatment. “Well it will soon be time to land the troops,” he said aloud to himself. He walked over to the comms officer.

“Alert General Covel that he may begin his preparations for landing now, I will notify him when he is able to launch,” said Stiehl. “Yes sir,” replied the deck officer standing at the comm station.
Thrashia
03-06-2006, 18:15
The weather seemed calm and undisturbed by the acts of war happening below its watery blue skies. Thrashian clone troops hand landed under the command of General Covel more than three weeks before. Since then the Leperdium System's planets had one by one been systematically conquered. The Clone Divisions had spared not one local inhabitant except for those captured and slated for heavy labor.


The line of hulking and slimmy looking Kraidens (http://www.zaon.net/Zconceptuals/ZAONconceptual_speciesRanaNui.jpg) stumbled forward in line, chains hung from their limbs, tightened by shackles and weights. Armored clone troopers guarded them closely. One of the creatures fell to the ground. The entire group was forced to stop, some other of the Kraiden falling to the ground in a domino effect.

"Get up! The camp is just up ahead!" yelled one trooper. He walked over to the fallen creature and kicked it in the side. "Up!"

With a mumble in its native tongue the creature came to its feet, unsteadily. Once more the group continued on. They walked over the green-brown terrain of the open plains of Liperdium Prime. They crossed a ridge, the column struggling not to catch their chains on outcropping rocks or some of the planets characteristic massive roots.

When they reached the top of the hill they came to see a giant wide clearing. It was a massive fenced in area. Large towers, bearing large laser cannons and armed clone troopers, surrounded the area. A large metal gate stood nearby, two AT-STs guarding it from either side.

Within the sprawling camp gigantic pre-fabricated block houses sat, Kraidens and other denzins of Liperdium were standing around these buildings or laying next to them. Beside these massive block houses were a large factories. In accordance with his orders Captain Caracas had made contact with the Industrial Guild and turned over to them the prisoners taken. Since then the money-loving merchants had set up these sweat shops where the simple minded Kraidens could work to create machinery parts for the military.

The group of prisoners finally made it down the hill and to the gate. The clone officer in charge of the column came up to the gate. A group of three troopers stepped out of a command post next to the gate.

"Identification," asked the lead clone, his armor color marking him as a Lieutenant. The column leader, a sergeant saluted smartly.

"Sergeant CC84930, 12th Division, 3rd Brigade, 1st Company, 2nd Platoon."

"Purpose?"

"Delivery of Kraiden prisoners. As of order 'Dionysus', 0900 hours."

"Very well," said the lieutenant. "I'll take over them from here. You are relieved sergeant." The sergeant saluted and turned on his heel. His twenty men turned on their heel as well and marched past the column of sad looking prisoners. They headed back off into the hills.

"Alright, 3rd Squad! On me!" called the Lieutenant. The gate opened, groaing with weight and a group of clones marched forward. "Escort these prisoners to Block D3."

"Yes sir," replied the corporal. The column marched off the enclosed area of the block houses. The Lieutenant went back to the command post and contacted his superior, telling him that the last group of prisoners had arrived.



"Affirmative Lieutenant 8890A," said the comm officer. "Your report has been logged. Medusa out." The comm officer on the bridge of the Venator Star Destroyer Medusa closed the line and logged the last report from the ground forces. He turned in his seat and motioned for Lieutenant Stiehl.

"Yes ensign?" asked Stiehl, the bridge second-in-command walked forward and stood over the comm monitor.

"We've just confirmed the final end of ground operation Dionysus, sir."

"Very good, carry on," said Lieutenant Stiehl. The medium height blonde haired officer turned and walked to the head of the bridge where Captain Caracas stood. He snapped to attention.

"Captain, Operation Dionysus is complete."

Caracas turned to his adjutant and nodded. "Very good, very good. Our job here is nearly complete then. All that is left is to wait for our relief. Fleet Command said that a new class of Star Destroyer will be handling the garrison."

"A new class?" asked Stiehl, interested in the subject.

"Yes, they say that a new Venator MkII has been created. Rediculous is all I say," said Caracas, not seeming to notice Stiehl's interest. Stiehl was about to reply when suddenly a deck officer stood up.

"Sir, we have ships coming out of sector 47!"


Out of hyperspace came three large Star Destroyer-like ships. Tie Fighters launched from their bays as was normal procedure with the fleet in the case of entering any system that could be considered a war zone. Liperdium was still a questionable safety area.

"My god," said Caracas when a smal vid screen of the ships appeared before them.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Upum/Star%20Wars/VIIsquadron.jpg

"They're quite the ships, thats for sure," said Stiehl. "Can't wait to be on one."

"Enough of that. Lets get this place ready for a changing of the guard," growled Caracas. The two officer turned and went off the bridge.
Thrashia
03-06-2006, 19:38
The newly pieced together orbital space platform was the location where Captain Caracas, General Covel, and Lieutenant Stiehl were to meet their incoming comrades and the newly appointed Thrashian System Governor of Liperdium. Caracas, as leading officer of the Fleet and co-commander with General Covel, who lightly resented being talked to by a captain even if when put together their rank was near similar for their mission, was presenting the change of guard over the system.

The large and new Venator II-class Star Destroyers that were in orbit beside the platform was a stark specticle which had drew many of his own squadrons men. They were impressive to say the least. But for now Caracas had other things to worry about.

A Lamba Shuttle had just set down onto the main platform, escorted by four Tie Interceptors which cut off and went back to their respective hangers. The Shuttle had Imperial markings, which was slightly strange since Governor Grice had been selected by his Excellency Treize; to not see the OZ symbol was a wonder.

The ramp opend up and exhaust blew out. On either side of the walking path of the occupants were assembled four companies of clone troopers and a several groups of Fleet personnel.

Two Imperial Reserve officers came down the ramp followed closely by an OZ officer. All three men walked down and then to the side, facing inwards and stood at attention. Down the ramp came a man in tight fitting robes of silken black. He had a trident beard of black-going-gray, and stark black eyes as well; his high regal forehead had a sheen of brightness from the lights above.

The reception troops came to attention with a singular snap of boots on metal.

Captain Caracas and Lieutenant Steihl, followed deftly by General Covel, walked forward. Caracas bowed as he stopped in front of the governor.

"Governor Grice I presume, welcome," said Caracas. His adjutant and the general also bowed.

"You presume correctly Captain Caracas. I am pleased to see things have gone as smoothly here as your reports detailed. I believe this is the fastest campaign of conquest and expansion to date," said Governor Grice. He walked past the officers that had accompanied him and Caracas turned to walk beside him as they walked.

"Thank you Governor. It was a quick campaign. The locals were not much in the way of warriors."

"Indeed."

The group exited the hanger and into a smaller conference room. General Covel made a small formal introduction of himself to the governor and then the group seated themselves. Servants entered and layed delicate china on the table, steaming drinks for the officers and the governor.

"Captain, General, I would like you to meet my escorts and garrison commanders: Captain Noveilla of the Magnificent, commander of my System Fleet Garrison; his adjutant Lieutenant Miel; and Major-Marshal Liom, OZ political and domestic commissar," introduced Governor Grice. He nodded to each of the men as he said their name and station.

Caracas nodded in turn. "Captain Noveilla, how are the new models?" he couldn't really resist asking and he knew that if he didn't then Stiehl would overstep himself somehow in asking.

Captain Noveilla, a man who gave a stark impression with his short yet broad figure and even starker green eyes and night-black hair, smiled at Caracas.

"It is a very capable ship. I would it could give your Venator Mk Is a run to the pastures," the captain said.

Caracas smiled. "I don't think we'll be driven out to pasture just yet. But its nice to see our engineers are doing something."

"Indeed," said Noviella, a look of understanding passed between the two officers.

"Yes, thank you gentlemen for that," said Grice. "However I am here to take control over this system. Caracas, I would like you to give me an in-depth breifing on it."

"I have already had it prepared my lord Governor," said Caracas. He turned to the far wall and activated a holo vid. The group remained in teh breifing for several hours before Caracas and Covel had finished their presentation.
The Appalacians
03-06-2006, 19:49
OOC: Did you steal the name of your thread from the book American Empire: Blood and Iron? That's an awesome book. As well as the rest of Harry Turtledove's work.
Huntaer
03-06-2006, 19:49
OOC: No massive fleets please. This is a simple expansion into an unihabited system (as in no nations claim it other than I). First contact is welcome.

OOC: How about establishin' small colonies with you to gain a better relationship?

Tag.
Thrashia
03-06-2006, 19:52
OOC: Did you steal the name of your thread from the book American Empire: Blood and Iron? That's an awesome book. As well as the rest of Harry Turtledove's work.

ooc: Well he [Harry Turtledove] stole it from Bismarck, and did the same; I've not read to many of the American Empires series.

@Huntaer: That would be interesting. Come on in. There are three inhabitable planets and Thrashian settlers have yet to arrive. So yea, I can see that happening.
Thrashia
03-06-2006, 20:21
ooc: bump for Huntaer
Thrashia
03-06-2006, 21:16
bump
Huntaer
03-06-2006, 21:20
OOC: Thanks man.

IC:

A man in a red and black uniform, similar design to the standard Grey Imperial uniform in the Galactic Empire, walked up to Darth Aelikes within his chambers on Coruscant. "You summoned me, my lord?"

"Yes Admiral Valenkorn. I've just had contact with the Thrashian leader. They're willing to let us colonize in the same sector which they've begun to colonize," Aelikes wheezed through his mask.

"Ahh..... I'm unfamiliar with the Thrashians sir. Who are they?"

"Former enemies of the Galactic Empire if memory serves. We're to send in a colony fleet in the same system to better serve our relations."

"And the reason you summoned me is to take command of the Huntarian Empire Colonies?"

"Yes. We've lost controle of our own colonies in the Lorita, Bunitash, and Korjar systems to the Alliance. We're going to try and build up another bunch in other systems other than the Aphotic Galaxy."

Valenkorn nodded his head, understanding the Kirtir Dark Lord's desision, "So that way, we won't be invaded by other enemies?"

"Correct Admiral. Report to the Tenebrous (http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a172/Huntaer/Huntaer/Capital%20Ships/TenebrousClassTSD.jpg), and take a taskforce of 3 other Eradicator Class Towerless Star Destroyers, and two Armageddon Class Cruisers. You will meet the Thrashian Commander of their colony fleet. I will expect a report from you within the week of your arriva."

"Yes Darth Aelikes. As you command."

OOC:
Thrash, spec info for my ships can be found in my sig and on the GE forums if you needed to know their capabilities.

Task Force:

Tenebrous Class Towerless Star Destroyer:
Tenebrous- Flagship

Eradicator Class Towerless Star Destroyers:
Emperor's Wing
Opportunist
Valient

Armageddon Class Cruisers:
Crazy Man
Halo
Thrashia
03-06-2006, 21:31
ooc: no problem.

IC:

The Fleet was working fast. It had gained the full cooperation of the Trade and Industrial Guilds, allowing for resources to quickly flow in from the Julian and Tettrea Systems. Already the entire system had been equipped with a new sensor detection system, a orbital docking station for ships built, Liperdium Prime's main new city already being finished; the work was trully advancing quickly.


Ensign Fidel Talon sat at his station aboard the Dauntless Venator II-class Star Destroyer, watching his scanners dutifully. It was a rather normal day, nothing in particular of interest to release boredom. The Dauntless had been sent on patrol around Liperdium II, the gas giant, where Governor Grice was wishing to build a Tibanna gas mine. Ensign Talon sighed heavily and nearly closed his eyes when suddenly his station lit up with alerts.


"Lieutenant! We have ships coming out of hyperspace at sector-grid 34. Unknown as of presently," he called to the deck officer. Sitting up Ensign Talon worked his controls. He watched powerlessly as a small group of ships came out of hyperspace.

"Affirmative Ensign. Comms, inform Captain Noveilla and Governor Grice immediatelty," commanded Lieutenant Pital, adjutant to Captain Marcus and second-in-command of the Dauntless.

"Prepare for possible enemy assault."
Huntaer
03-06-2006, 21:35
"Admiral, we've reached the system."

"Confirmed. Status of the Thrashian Fleet?"

"It looks like they're on high alert. They probably think we might be an enemy."

"Comm, hail them."

"Channel open sir."

"This is Admiral Valenkorn of the Huntarian Empire. Please stand down weapons. We have agreed to colonize peacfully within the system to better our relationships."

"Message sent. Sir.... I'm reading some rathe unusual signatures from the Thrashian Fleet."

"Such as?"

"Old warships. Star Destroyers," most of the bridge crew who weren't doing anything important turned their heads to the view screen of the bridge and looked at the older designs. Most of them have only heard of the legendary capabilities of the older relatives of the Towerless Star Destroyers, but have never seen them in combat.
Thrashia
03-06-2006, 21:46
"This is Admiral Valenkorn of the Huntarian Empire. Please stand down weapons. We have agreed to colonize peacfully within the system to better our relationships."

"Sir," said the comm officer. "We're recieving a message, using Galactic Empire related frequincies...I've identified them as belonging to the Empire of Huntaer."

Captain Marcus had arrived on the brige only moments before. He stood there on the bridge and listened as his varried reports came in.

"What are they doing out he-"

"Sir, priority message from Governor Grice," interupted the comm officer. "He is waiting on the line."

Marcus grumbled about political interferance but walked over to the holo projector none-the-less. A small figure of the Governor stood there waiting.

"Governor, how may I help you? We are in a delicate situa-"

"I know Captain," Grice cut him off. "The Huntaerians are here at his Excellency's invite. I was not informed until a short while ago. You are to respond diplomatically and escort them to orbit over Liperdium Prime where I will recieve their commander."

"But-"

"Is that understood Captain?"

"Yes Governor. I understand pefectly."

"Good. Do not fail me." The small holo gram figure disappeared from the comm table. The ensign working there was dutifully acting oblivious to anything.

"Well, get a line to the Huntaer commander; this Admiral Valenkorn," ordered Captain Marcus.

Attention Admiral Valenkorn, this is Fleet Captain Marcus Jil'kanar. I welcome you on behalf of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation of Thrashia. If you will, I will escort your fleet to Liperdium prime where my lord Governor Grice will recieve you.

ooc: also, as a side note, the Venator II-class is one I just recently made; and is completely unknown to the majority of the outside universe (icly); so your ships would recognize its SD design but not the class, per say.
Huntaer
03-06-2006, 22:06
"Admiral, we got a reply. They wish to escort us to Liperdium prime."

"Confirme them. Have a squadron of Tie Enforcers meet with their Tie squadrons. Lower weapon status. Send message back."


The Admiral accepts your escort to Liperdium prime. He looks forward to meeting your commander in person.
Der Angst
03-06-2006, 22:10
I hope you don't mind - if you do, this post can always be deleted. Anyway...

Some sapients are just odd. Incapable of accepting the idea that living inside the universe's most densely populated (And arguably most civilised) system is nice and perfect and doesn't require anything like 'Exploration' apart from finding nearby systems with the resources the economy back home needs, they simply jump into a ship, and start travelling through the local galactic cluster, trying to find interesting civilisations, detonating stars, heart-shaped black holes, the likes.

The Astral Romance was filled with about a dozen of such sapients, all of them out to find more interesting things (This was about as specific as they'd be able to define their desires) than their home could offer them.

So far, they had been severely disappointed.

At this moment, the Astral Romance was floating in Between space, maybe a lightyear or two off the system the Thrashians had recently occupied, and spent most of the time watching it with what amounted to a gigantic telescope-swarm, which it had formed by placing its subcraft around it in a cloud of machinery about a lightyear in diameter.

No, it wasn't a particularly dense cloud, but it did what it was supposed to do. Which was to gather information.

Drive emissions, gravitational distortions, the likes. And of course the system's general layout... Down to microasteroids.

Maybe it were the aggressions that had built up over the time the ship and its inhabitants had spent finding what essentially amounted to nothing. Maybe it was a somewhat hypocritical desire to piss off 'Evildoers' (That DA itself wasn't exactly a white gown of innocence, either, didn't really matter to the somewhat one-sided public opinion), or maybe it was something entirely different.

But after having spent a fairly considerable time simply watching the system and what was happening in there, the inhabitants of the ship had decided that they wanted to do something.

BL-FTLCOM@BL1e20&EM=1e-5; SL 8; Tightbeam
From: IEU Astral Romance
To: SEU Twink Factor
Subject: Hrm.

You know - I've made a fairly interesting discovery . I'm of course rather incapable of doing much, and I'm equally aware that anything high-profileesque would be insane, but... I heard that you're in contact with a few people who would like to screw certain, ah, 'Civilisations' (Yes, I lose the term loosely) over.

BL-FTLCOM@BL1e20&EM=1e-5; SL 8; Tightbeam
From: SEU Twink Factor
To: IEU Astral Romance
Subject: Hrm.

There's this thing called 'Plausible Deniability, ya'know... And how the fuck did [i]you get access to milgrade encryption? But, anyway - yeah, you're sorta correct, although my acquaintances aren't quite ready yet... it'd be very low profile, so to speak.
-
I see. But that'd be ok. Anyway - I sent you the information I have. Got it a fair while after all of this happened, of course, but god bless lightspeed lag. It's still fresh.
-
I see your point. Yeah, I'll relay the information to my acquaintances, they'll decide. In the meantime, do you intend to do anything?
-
... I'm an explorer, not a warship. But, uh, lets say, my inhabitants have some fairly interesting ideas.
-
So you're going to make contact.
-
Essentially, yeah. I suppose that I should fake my civ-of-origin, though.
-
Oooo... that kind of contact. Yes, that'd be preferable. I mean, we've deniability, but I'd rather keep troubles as miniscule as possible.
-
Hee - the ones higher up the command chain would've told me to fuck off and get back ASAP.
-
Good that I'm not one of them, huh? :D
-
Yah. Anyway, see you.

Over the time the conversation had taken - lag between the individual messages was amost an hour, courtesy of 50000 lightyears between the Astral Romance and the Twink Factor - the Astral Romance had gradually moved towards the system, while simultaneously starting up its internal manufacturing, and producing what it called its 'Little Toys'.

Which is to say, infantry drones, bombs, a few missiles, a hangar full of EW machinery, and a considerable amount of assorted von Neumann derivates, not to mention a lot of smaller, and simpler stuff.

Simultaneously, it had also changed its own layout a little, improvising a few extra field-emitters, and adding a few low-quality turrets to its otherwise smooth, and not particularly armed surface. And once it had been finished with itself, it had done the same with its small fleet of subcraft (Of which a handful of additional, more military-biased ones - though not milgrade ones - had been manufactured as well).

That it had also quit slacking with its damage avoidance procedures went without saying, although its inhabitants, aggressive as they had been, hadn't quite agreed with this measure.

It re-distributed its subcraft, coasted a little further into the system, and then shifted into relativistic space, together with its subcraft - for now, it kept the more military-biased ones to itself, and went with a decidedly civilian (If armed civilian) approach.

To the system's inhabitants, it was pretty much as if a hundred-million ton ship a klick in length had decided to pop in at the edge of the system.

Which was exactly what had happened.

Together with it came the subcraft, vastly smaller than the main ship, and on occasion out-sized by a mere fighter, distributed over a vastly wider volume - they also didn't drop in where the Astral Romance had dropped in, but stayed a fair few billion kilometres off the local star, content to coast between the comets and asteroids around the system.

So far, so good.

Language Code [Basic English] embedded EM-CCOM@EM=1e-2; SL 0; Widebeam
From: Captain Franklin Seneca, IEU Astral Romance
To: Whom it may concern, local presences
Subject: Hello!

I'm Captain Franklin Seneca of the Interstellar Exploration Unit Astral Romance, and we've kind of noticed the growing EM-sphere created by, well, you.

Interested in contacting as many civilisations as we can possibly contact, I decided to drop by and, well - say hello, as (And my crew) am fairly interested in learning more about you.

As such, well - may I ask for permission to coast a little closer without being shot at? Your guns look fairly scary...

On board of the Astral Romance, the gigantic wasp the ship had decided best represented itself, grinned at Franklin. "Very good, 'Captain'."

"Oh, do shut up, please. Do you really think this will help us? Pretending to have such things as 'Captains' and using widebeam-microwaves?"

"Well, it might avoid them shooting us immediately. Might believe that they can board us - and maybe they'll start out friendly, which would buy us some time..."

"Meh. Maybe."

Sitting to Franklin's right, the female who had giggled throughout the entire transmission (The ship had filtered out the giggling, and added the sound one would expect from a bridge occupied by about half a hundred men) looked at Franklin, amused. "Well, at least you make an excellent captain." She stood up, clicked her heels, and saluted. "Captain Franklin, Ensign Rebecca Toulouse reporting for duty! The bridge is yours!"

Franklin sighed. "Don't mock it..."
Thrashia
04-06-2006, 14:02
The cabal of capital ships sat in orbit around the orbital docking station of Liperdium prime. The strange Huntaerian ships drew many a stare as its towerless form sat in dock next to the Venator Mk II. Several transports from the arrivals had already set down in the docking bay. An entire division of the recently arrived clone trooper garrison stood at attention. Captain Noveilla and Governor Grice stood waiting for the transports to open their ramps.

“Sir, did you have previous knowledge of this?” asked Noveilla through the side of his mouth. Governor Grice nodded slightly.

“That I did. An Envoy from his Excellency is also due soon,” replied Grice.

The ramp of the transport opened, exhaust spewing forth. Their guests began walking down and studying their surroundings. They got their bearings and started walking toward Governor Grice who wore his usual black silk robes.

Grice was about to greet his guests when suddenly a red alert sounded throughout the hanger. Red lights were flaring and alarms blaring. The voice of Lieutenant Karrad, commander of the platform’s communications and sensory arrays, came over the loud speaker.

“Attention Governor Grice, unknown ship has entered Liperdium space!” said the worried sounding lieutenant.

Grice looked shocked. He took out his comm device and spoke into it. “What do you mean an unknown ship? You’re sure it’s not his Excellency’s envoy?”

“Yes Governor,” said Lieutenant Karrad's voice over the comm device now, no longer on the loud speaker system. “I am sure. You need to get to the command center immediately.”

Grice spun on his heel and looked at the startled Huntaerian Admiral. “You might want to return to your ship for now Admiral. I am sorry for the interruption but we currently have a situation. An unknown ship has arrived in-system. I suggest you coordinate your ships with Captain Noveilla here.”

Grice turned away from the group and walked through a doorway out of the hanger. He was escorted by a pair of clone troopers. Quickly making progress through the plated hallways, Grice stepped into one of the emergency lifts. He typed in his command access code and felt the lift rise at high speeds.

It came to a jarring halt and the three occupants exited into a darkened command room. A large hologram projector on the fall wall showed a scene depicting an unusual ship in space. The room was modeled after the bridge of a star destroyer. Grice walked down the central path to where the worried Lieutenant Karrad stood waiting.

“Sir,” the lieutenant saluted. “We’ve received a message from the ship.”

“Play it for me then,” ordered Grice.



I'm Captain Franklin Seneca of the Interstellar Exploration Unit Astral Romance, and we've kind of noticed the growing EM-sphere created by, well, you.

Interested in contacting as many civilizations as we can possibly contact, I decided to drop by and, well - say hello, as (And my crew) am fairly interested in learning more about you.

As such, well - may I ask for permission to coast a little closer without being shot at? Your guns look fairly scary...


Grice turned to the Lieutenant. “Did some officer order a party of gays to come calling, or is this some kind of joke?” Several technicians sitting nearby cracked into a harshly stifled laughter. Karrad turned a shade of red at his neck.

“No sir! Comm Scan reports that they are quite heavily armed for what appears to be an exploration unit,” said Karrad. Grice nodded and turned to look at the ship. He didn’t need this now. Not now.

“Sir!” called another technician. “We have detected hyperspace signatures in sector 47. Computer says its signature matches that of an Imperial Star Destroyer.”

“And that would be his Excellency’s envoy to the Huntaerian ship,” grumbled Grice. This arrival of an unknown ship was very frustrating. Seconds later an Imperial Star Destroyer appeared out of hyperspace. It made a direct path line to Liperdium Prime. Grice turned to a communications officer, he had to quickly resolve the situation.

“Get me a hailing line to this Captain Franklin Seneca.”

“Yes sir,” replied the ensign hastily, seeing the look of irritation of Grice’s face.


“Attention Astral Romance, this is sub-sector governor Grice. You have entered Thrashian space without authorization. You are to halt movement as of this moment, power down all systems other than life support and ship maneuvering, and subject yourself to an onboard inspection. Failure to comply will result in dangerous consequences. Grice Out.”

Grice put down the small recording device and watched as the comm officer sent the message off.

“Now, alert Captain Veers and Captain Polarin to maneuver their ships to this new arrival. Then contact the new arriving Envoy and ask him to bring his Star Destroyer into orbit. I’ll contact him momentarily,” ordered Grice.

“Yes Governor.”

Two Venator-class Star Destroyers Mk II increased their sub-light speed and came round the second planet outwards of the system and came into eye-sight range of the newly arrived ship. Captain Veers, standing on the bridge of the Dark Lance, pondered the situation. “Will they comply or force me to deal with them?”
Tannelorn
04-06-2006, 14:27
In a massive burst of brilliant greenish blue light Explorator ship Markaia 001 appeared at the edge of the system. With a rather single minded determination she started to move towards the systems Oort cloud, releasing a massive swarm of tens of thousands of bio-mech worker's as she moved slowly in to the system.

A few weeks earlier the Markaia hive mind had logged this system as uninhabited, and ripe for exploitation and preparation according to her mandate. And when she arrived in system, she had not been prepared for the new arrivals. In fact she didnt even scan for them.

Instead she rather happily and unceremoniously sent her "children" out in to the murky depths of the debris field with the directive to bring back more resources so more of her "children" could be spawned so that she could prepare this system for her masters. And it pleased the hive, to know that in their great works they serve their masters as only the most loyal of pets.
Der Angst
04-06-2006, 16:32
Astral Romance

EM-CCOM@EM=1e-2; SL 0; Widebeam
From: Captain Franklin Seneca, IEU Astral Romance
To: Governor Grice, Thrashian Presence
Subject: Received and Understood

Well, I'm sorry - the point of the initial message was to acquire authorisation. Do you think we're sitting several billion kilometres off you and spend a fortune worth of energy communciating over such a distance for shit and giggles?

In any case - onboard inspection's not a problem. You'll excuse us for continuing to run our sensors, though - I hate colliding with asteroids. I hope you wont mind a few extra watts.

We're keeping up basic uncertainty-collapse procedures, of course - I'd strongly suggest to take a shuttle or so, as teleporting would be sorta hard through this form of jamming.

Anyway, waiting for you, and coasting to a stable orbit around the star about four point two billion kilometres off its centre.

Sincerely,

~ His Most Glorious Captain Franklin Seneca of the Interstellar Exploration Unit Astral Romance

"Don't you think you overdid it?" Rebecca asked as soon as the message had been sent, eyebrows raised.

"Nah. Besides, the longer they believe we're random idiots in space (tm), the better."

"He has a point," the gigantic wasp containing the ship's mind hummed.

"Well, if you say so..."

The ship itself did pretty much as it had been required to do, slowing to a full stop in a stable, and rather far off orbit around the star, drives operating at exactly zero percent maximum (As in, they had been shut down), weapons utterly inactive (This was hardly surprising - they were always inactive, until the reactors started to run. That the energy-spike warning would take all of a second (Assuming a full-power pulse) was a rather neat side effect. Besides, sufficient energy densities had been stored beforehand - it wasn't all that much, but sufficient, if something bad should happen.

Around the Astral Romance, a few subcraft were hovering, orbiting their ship of origin lazily, sensory fields extended, and watching their surroundings.

In the Between, not quite unobservable, but close to it, relay stations and assorted drones resided, taking note of potential energy releases. It'd be pretty useless if the locals were to come really close, but it was worth a shot.

In the meantime, the Astral Romance backed up the mindstates of its inhabitants and itself, and sent them off in a brief burst of information, general direction the Twink Factor.

Just in case, of course. Nobody wanted to die, even if death only meant a limited memory-loss.

Sensors were still running, of course, and taking note of the system and its inhabitants, the by now spread-out (If distant) cloud of sensory relays (Most of them passive, active scans would probably be considered hostile, and were therefore rather limited) providing a fairly reasonable degree of information.

Comets and Asteroids

Imagine a little package, worth a few tons of mass at most.

Imagine it being ejected by its carrier, slowly coasting through space at a few kilometres per second, heading for its destination - an asteroid a couple, or a comet several dozen kilometres per second faster.

Imagine the package firing its small thrusters, expelling reactionmass, and adjusting its velocity to that of the asteroid. Or comet.

Imagine it slowly getting closer, eventually touching the rocky - or icy - body of its target, a few hundred, maybe a few thousand metres in diameter, cold and lifeless.

On impact, machinery gets damaged, certainly. The 'Landing' is never perfect, and it's assumed (And statistically proven) that about ten percent of the package get irreversibly damaged.

The rest goes to work. Temperatures rise by a fraction of a Kelvin. Infrared radiation so miniscule it could just as well stem from random collisions between these objects in outer space is emitted - nothing when compared to the titanic energies constantly produced by major ships. Weak, pointless, irrelevant.

Machinery starts to work on the asteroid.

Multiply by five-hundred.

Astral Romance

"Are they going to fucking ram us?"

Arnold Ikito stared at... Well, at nothing in particular - the sensorlogs (Changed as to be 'Computable' to a civilian-scale augmented brain) were, after all, sent directly into his mind. Still, it was pretty shocking.

The wasp shrugged (By way of tipping its head forward and back a little), and hummed on. "Not our system. Their engagement ranges are somewhat, ah... Different from ours, and they're used to visual-range interaction, military and otherwise. At least, that's what I think. So I doubt they'll ram us. Besides, we're denser than them, so them ramming us would be a vaguely stupid idea."

"Stop bitching. Look at ME and learn what pain is!"

Franklin had a point - he was now dressed in the uniform of a Pantocratorian admiral, a shiny white suit with golden buttons and rank insignia (In his case four ornate golden crosses on each shoulder), a silvery 'Cross of the Order of the Pantocrator' hanging tightly around the neck, and thirteen very shiny, gold-and-silver-and-gemstones medals spread out evenly over his chest. "This medals are HEAVY. Did you have to produce real gold?"

"Well..." The gigantic wasp looked apologetic. "It's supposed to look real. Tin with yellow paint over it doesn't."

"Excuses."

"To be fair, I made them out of reactor-wastemass. They're slightly radioactive... So they'll lose a small fraction of their mass, over time."

Franklin replied by staring at the wasp, and shaking his head, eventually whispering something that sounded like 'Freak'.

The rest of the ship's (Post)human inhabitants, eight in total, were dressed similarily, albeit without the heavy medals and with lower rank insignia. Rebecca was first mate.

"Well then," the wasp eventually said. "Are we ready? Sadly, I cannot actually increase the size of my crew-" Giggling ensured as soon as the ship had mentioned the term 'Crew'. It waited until the giggling had subsided.

"Please, a little bit of seriousness. There's two warships out there, within baseline visual range, and I'd like you to appreciate the threat. Anyway - I can't increase the apparent size of my crew, as the fields used for such would most certainly be detectable to relatively primitive equipment. As such, we'll have to do with what we have. You-" The wasp looked at two smallish drones floating on eye-level with it. "I expect you to produce some humming, and possibly some static electricity, too. It'd be neat if your maneuvering was somehow impaired, too - remember, if this is the kind of 'Civilisation' I suspect it to be, they may have issues building drones with proper bipedal movement. And we don't want to look too advanced."

"And you get to fly around as a gigantic wasp with a sting the size of a human's arm..."

"No, actually. I will stay in the background, and not be seen. Anyway. Everything's ready? Good. I suppose we can explain your lack in numbers by this being an explorer ship, and not a warship with a bazillion turrets and triple-redundancy. And with this said: Attention!"

Rebecca clicked her heels again, much to the amusement of everyone.

"The rest of you, too... Better. Now, we're going to receive guests in a minute or so - I expect you to best your best behaviour. Which shouldn't be hard, given your usual behaviour."

"Yessir!"

"Thanks. And remember to be in position - I didn't build all these manual interfaces for nothing."

And then, the Astral Romance - its wasp-body on its way to be stored in the equivalent of a broom-chamber - sent a message to the two ships that had come up to it (Using Franklin's voice, of course).

EM-CCOM@EM=1e-2; SL 0; Widebeam
From: Captain Franklin Seneca, IEU Astral Romance
To: Whom it may concern, milships nearby
Subject: Well?

Well, we're ready - guide beam's on, hangar's open, and you're welcome to board.

Sincerely,

~ His Most Glorious and Ineffable Captain Franklin Seneca of the Interstellar Exploration Unit Astral Romance
Huntaer
04-06-2006, 16:54
The Admiral walked out with his Space Marine Guards behind him just as the alarm sounded.


Grice spun on his heel and looked at the startled Huntaerian Admiral. “You might want to return to your ship for now Admiral. I am sorry for the interruption but we currently have a situation. An unknown ship has arrived in-system. I suggest you coordinate your ships with Captain Noveilla here.”

"I was about to suggest we coordinate ships. I will return to my vessel. We will provide fire-cover for you since, if your Venator Star Destroyers haven't been upgraded with newer technology that is, our weapon's firepower out-put is 125% more powerfull than the traditional Star Destroyer's. I'll have several squadron's of Tie Darts and Tie Enforcers ready for combat if it need be."


Grice turned away from the group and walked through a doorway out of the hanger. He was escorted by a pair of clone troopers. Quickly making progress through the plated hallways, Grice stepped into one of the emergency lifts. He typed in his command access code and felt the lift rise at high speeds.


The Admiral turned to his group, "let's go." They boarded their Hornet class Lambda Shuttle, and took off. While they did so, they activated their cloaking system and continued onward to the Tenebrous.

When the Admiral arived, he began to bark out orders.

"Red Alert. Raise the shields and powerup the Turbolasers. I want torpetoe launchers loaded with Transphasic Torpetoes followed by a volly of Hell-fires and Quantum torpetoes. Two Transphasic's should be plenty to ward them off if they decide to attack."

"They don't appear to be attackin' Admiral."

"I know. Comm, monitor communication's between the Thrashians and the unknown ships. Hack in if you have to, I don't care. We need to see what their purpose in this system is.

"Communication's chatter sir!"

"Play back."

I'm Captain Franklin Seneca of the Interstellar Exploration Unit Astral Romance, and we've kind of noticed the growing EM-sphere created by, well, you.

Interested in contacting as many civilizations as we can possibly contact, I decided to drop by and, well - say hello, as (And my crew) am fairly interested in learning more about you.

As such, well - may I ask for permission to coast a little closer without being shot at? Your guns look fairly scary...


"They're joking right, Admiral?"

"Hard to tell. Never underestimate your enemies Lieutenant."


“Sir!” called another technician. “We have detected hyperspace signatures in sector 47. Computer says its signature matches that of an Imperial Star Destroyer.”


A new signature came up on the Huntarian Fleet's scanns, "Sir! New signatures comming into this sector."

"Source? Do they match the unknown ships?"

"They appear to be Imperator Star Destroyers."

"Probably the Trhashians's envoy."

The Security Commander punched several button's on his command post, "Confirmed. Signatures match the Thrashian Venator Star Destroyers."

"Have Halo, Crazy Man, and the Opportunist meet the Envoy for protection."

"Aye sir."
Huntaer
04-06-2006, 16:57
Astral Romance

EM-CCOM@EM=1e-2; SL 0; Widebeam
From: Captain Franklin Seneca, IEU Astral Romance
To: Governor Grice, Thrashian Presence
Subject: Received and Understood

Well, I'm sorry - the point of the initial message was to acquire authorisation. Do you think we're sitting several billion kilometres off you and spend a fortune worth of energy communciating over such a distance for shit and giggles?

In any case - onboard inspection's not a problem. You'll excuse us for continuing to run our sensors, though - I hate colliding with asteroids. I hope you wont mind a few extra watts.

We're keeping up basic uncertainty-collapse procedures, of course - I'd strongly suggest to take a shuttle or so, as teleporting would be sorta hard through this form of jamming.

Anyway, waiting for you, and coasting to a stable orbit around the star about four point two billion kilometres off its centre.

Sincerely,

~ His Most Glorious Captain Franklin Seneca of the Interstellar Exploration Unit Astral Romance

"Sir! New chatter. It appears they aren't going to attack."

"Stand down to Yellow Alert. I still want the Point-Defences and regular turbolaser's charged. Shields can be lowered."
Thrashia
04-06-2006, 17:00
The Imperial Star Destroyer Path of Vengeance maneuvered toward the main planet of the Liperdium System. It was an older model Star Destroyer, but had seen many years of dedicated service and several internal upgrades through the years as playing the flagship of General Bast.

Major General Bast himself stood on the bridge of his Star Destroyer watching the approaching planets. They were a wonderful color and the light of the star caused the shades to blend. It was truly beautiful. Reminded Bast of the time when he was with Tarkin over the planet Yavin 4 and its marble-red surface. Bast shook his head slightly to clear it, bad memories weren’t needed. Suddenly Captain Varus stepped up to the General, disturbing his thoughts.

“General Bast, sir,” said the Captain. “We’ve detected two anomalies within the system.”

“Anomalies?” Bast turned and faced the younger man. “What do you mean ‘anomalies’? If it’s strange ships, then it’s most likely the Huntaerians and their escorts. I already told you that we-.”

“They’re not Huntaerian sir,” interrupted Captain Varus. “One is being responded to by Governor Grice’s system fleet, but another has just come out of hyperspace in quadrant delta-5. It’s near the outer rim of the system. CommScan just detected it,” said Captain Varus. “I doubt that Governor Grice is yet aware of it.”

Major General Bast frowned as he listened. Ideas began formulating in his head as of how to deal with the situation. He sighed to himself and looked carefully at the captain.

“Inform Grice that we have detected another ship on the outskirts of his system. We will deal with it. He is to continue handling the other using his own devices,” Bast said. It was unusual for any Imperial commander to order around a planetary governor, let alone a system governor, around; but then Major General Bast was no ordinary Imperial commander.

“Very well sir,” Captain Varus said. He turned smartly in military fashion and went to the communications crew pit on the aft side. There several technicians were busily doing their duty.

“Lieutenant, send a transmission to Governor Grice. Inform him that we have detected a ship I quadrant delta-5. Major General Bast has decided to deal with it personally. Inform Governor Grice that the Pride of Vengeance will handle this possible threat.”

“Yes captain,” the lieutenant said. The man turned and relayed the order to the comm ensign who then began transmitting. Captain Varus turned and went to the other crew pit.

“Helm, I want a 156 degree port turn. CommScan can verify the coordinates of the new ship that arrived in-system. Make headway at point 5 cruising speed,” ordered Captain Varus. The Helm officer nodded and began working his controls. Like a great bird of prey the majestic Imperial Star Destroyer began turning. Captain Varus walked back over to Major General Bast.

“Done sir.”

“Very good. Have all our pilots man their fighters. They will launch upon my command,” Bast said. “We’ll not be surprised by anything.”


Orbital Platform, Main Hanger

Captain Noveilla stood nervously watching the receding figure of Governor Grice. Why did he have to give me the diplomatic job? he asked himself. Buckling up his strength he turned and faced the seemingly surprised Huntaerian Admiral. Because he didn’t know whether or not to salute, Noveilla simply bowed slightly.

“Admiral, if you would be so kind, I ask that you return to your flagship. We may be under attack. I must return to my own ship and prepare. I would be honored if your men fought alongside my own. It would perhaps be more cementing of our relations that even living next to one another perhaps,” said Captain Noveilla.

Several clone troopers stepped forward at Noveilla’s command. “These men will escort you back to your shuttle.”

Noveilla took out his own comm device and spoke into it. “Lieutenant Miel, get the Magnificent ready for possible combat; red alert.” He got a quick affirmative from his adjutant then changed frequencies to the command signal of the orbital platform commander.

“This is Commander Dorden, what can I do for you captain?” asked a voice dryly. The orbital commander was a very comical man.

“Not now Dorden, we have a situation. You are to activate all your orbital defenses immediately, we may have a situation,” said Noveilla.

“Very well consider it done,” responded Commander Dorden, more business-like now.

“Oh, and did your techs finally get the shield generator up?” asked Captain Noveilla.

“Yes they did. Want me to activate that too?”

“Yes I do indeed, if you would,” said Noveilla with mock depravity. “I want nothing to harm our new construction programs on the surface, should these newcomers get past the fleet. Also alert your fighter pilots stationed here on the platform to get to their ships.”

“Consider it done Captain Noveilla. Dorden out.” The line went dead. The clone division which had been at attention up until then suddenly began dispersing. Dorden no doubt had them going to their assigned combat positions.

“Good,” said Noveilla. He turned to a nearby Lieutenant. “You, get my shuttle ready.”

“Yes captain.”
Huntaer
04-06-2006, 17:04
OOC: Side note, My admiral already left when you previously suggested. Post number 18, somethin' like that.
Thrashia
04-06-2006, 17:13
OOC: Side note, My admiral already left when you previously suggested. Post number 18, somethin' like that.
ooc:I know, I was already writing when you posted. so just treat it as 'water under the bridge'. I'm trying to keep things fluid.
Thrashia
04-06-2006, 17:28
Captain Veers intercepted the message from the alien ship. It was large, a bit larger than their own craft. But at the very least it had complied with Governor Grice's orders and halted as well as powering down. Captain Veers turned to the Helm.

"Halt here, we're within a few dozen kilometers; I think thats more than enough to impress upon them the situation," said Veers.

"Right you are sir," responded the Helm officer. "Halting now."

The two large Venator Star Destroyers settled to a stationairy positon before the alien and unknown ship. The main heavy turbolaser batteries of each leveled their guns at aim at it. A single squadron of four Tie Interceptors launched and began taking a course to search the area, making sure to give the strange ship a wide burth.


"Comms, get me a hailing line," ordered Veers. The communications officer worked for a moment then isolated the frequincy that the ship had used. He opened a direct link.

"Line open sir."

"Good." Veers turned to the recording device.

This is Captain Veers, commander of the Dark Lance. I thank you for following our directions. A boarding party will launch momentarily to board you. Be aware that our weapons are trained on you only as a precaution. Any signs of evasive or otherwise unknown movements or actions we detect will be punished. I am sorry, but that is our proccedure. Captain Veers out.

Captain Veers motioned for the line to be cut. The comm officer did so quickly. Lieutenant Faira stepped forward from behind Veers.

"Which squads shall handle the boarding process?" asked Lieutenant Faira.

"1st Company shall. Have Commander Walker handle them. He is to do the usual," said Captain Veers. "Also, inform helm that should the situation turn to combat, they are to retreat to our maximum firing range of 40,000 km."

"Yes sir."

---


Within a dozen minutes several assault transports launched from the hanger of the Dark Lance, a group of Tie Interceptors followed close behind, escorting them.
Der Angst
04-06-2006, 19:08
EM-CCOM@EM1e-2; SL 0; Widebeam
From: Captain Franklin Seneca, IEU Astral Romance
To: Captain Veers, Dark Lance
Subject: Still Received and Understood

This fits our own schedule perfectly. And don't worry - we expected as much, re: weapons. So, well... I'm awaiting you in hangar two.

Sincerely,

~ His Most Glorious and Infinitely Ineffable, Most Serene and Hypochondriac Captain Franklin Seneca of the Interstellar Exploration Unit Astral Romance

Franklin stared at the wall. "Ship?"

"Yes?"

"Idiot."

"TeeHee."

Hangar Two

The hangar itself was, well... Largely empty. There was some maintenance-related equipment about, a handful of subcraft, a load of spare parts, some empty munition boxes, some remote drones of the ship doing cleanup, a few decidedly civilian-function biased orbital drones (Essentially satellites) and not much else. At present, the hangar was depressurised (The ship was loathe to use its fields to keep the air in, but didn't want to lose any of it, either), though this would of course change as soon as the hangar would be closed again, once the Thrashian transports had entered.

Otherwise, not much there - no decorations, nothing. Just naked wall and mostly-inert machinery.

A bit further in, behind closed doors in what the Astral Romance now termed its 'Reception Area' (It had also outfitted it as such, red carpet, some flowers, white painted walls and a few drawings and photos on said walls, even a fly hummed through the room), Franklin, Rebecca, and one of the two drones - Kalin Re - were waiting, in full formal dress (Did Pantocratorians have anything that wasn't full formal dress?), which in the case of the drone meant a tie bound to its ellipsoid casing (The static electricity it was producing now had the tie essentially glued to said casing, as opposed to it pointing downwards, though), and chatting along as the ship transmitted them the sensorlogs of the TIEs and the assault transports getting closer.

"Tsk. I thought it was 'Inspection', not 'Occupation'?"

"I thought so, too. Well, an occupation would probably provide some fairly interesting situations - I wouldn't be opposed to it. And regardless of what happens - it buys us some time."

"True, true. You've the walls seeded?"

"Are you mad? My field emitters can deal with anything that could possibly happen to begin with, and micro-dusting them would be pointless - they'd be on their ship, with the dust, they'd know a little about our actual capabilities, and the dust would be pointless, seeing as I could hardly access it through their ECM screens. Granted, some explosive dust would be an idea... But no, I figure that they can detect that."

"You've a point, I suppose." Franklin sighed. He'd never get used to talking to a shipmind by way of addressing its walls. "Considered shutting down the AG?"

"No, although this might happen, anyway. My systems are a bit faulty - typical for the new AG stuff. Although... I could've asked for them to allow us a 1g accel, simply to accommodate gravity... But meh. By now, they should get some emissions, anyway, so it'd be pretty pointless."

"I see. Ah well. Would've been fun to watch their search team floating through you, trying to get used to zero-g."

"Yes. Yes, it'd have been. I bet the vid would storm the download-charts. But, anyway - maybe the better choice. If we look totally like a relativistic civ that has just found its first FTL drive, they'll prolly try to enslave us. Better to avoid that."

"'pose so."

"Back on topic. I've set up manipulated emission- and reflection spectra for the walls etc. Should be essentially unnoticeable for the kind of equipment a human can carry. If they look, I suppose they'll take our armour - and, for that matter, energy production - as being about an order of magnitude less capable than it actually is, including vastly simpler pico- and nanoscale structures. Same goes for computronium, CREWs, accelerators, displacers, sen-"

"I get it. Just shut up."

"As you wish. About thirty seconds before they'll enter, anyway, so it's silent-time for me, I suppose. All further communciations will go directly into your brain."
Tannelorn
05-06-2006, 09:09
Markaia 001 was quite oblivious to the ships in the system, after all her long range scans had shown no signs of any sort of colonisation or civilisation on the worlds. The size of many of the Thrashian vessels led her to believe, at least at this distance without making any attempts at an active scan to be large asteroids. Asteroids with a rather high density of valuable minerals!

Already she had set many of her workers to the task of replicating themselves, the goal was set to double the number of active workers each day for one month, to ensure there were enough workers to finish construction on time. After all 001 only had 1 year to ready 12 star systems for her masters, and to prepare dozens more for automated resource extraction and construction facilities. Time was of the essence. She had shilly shallied far to long in the original system they had claimed, and any dilly-dallying now would waste far too much time.

So she had sent some of her children to attend the immediate construction of the Markaia sub-queen that would reside in the systems oort cloud. This would enable her to leave in two weeks, moving on to the next system on her list, then she may be able to spend a little more timy shilly-shallying..maybe even a little dilly-dally too.

She sent several thousand bio-mech workers in the general direction of the closest "Ferrous" asteroids to her. After all should they survey them and they turn out to be useful, They could be utilised to make very fine and pure element's and composites, allowing the hive to provide only the best for their masters. And the pets loved and cherished their masters very much, and wished to give to them only the best. As they exist to serve them, the masters give them purpose and love.

From long ranges sensors it would be possible to make out the average worker drone. A squat semi angular almost bug shaped object, cradling 6 mechanical legs, each leg containing a different tool. Their foreward section or head looked rather like a comical, or cartoon representation of a smiling and jovial termite. Of course the fact that these termites contained many systems very useful in mining and construction, such as high powered cutting lasers, AM charges, seismic charges and even a few small nukes as well as over 40 different kind of manipulator/tool units, showed they were built for more then just looks.

The swarm moved towards the "ferrous asteroid" at a relatively slow pace, not quite unlike that of a swarm of termites looking for a new nest....

And all the while "mother" happily sang the song of birth, caring for each of the children she was crafting deep inside of her metallic womb with great care, and releasing them to join their brethren already at work in the oort cloud.
Der Angst
07-06-2006, 13:43
oocness: Essentially a bump - nothing of (Immediate) relevance for Thrashia, and most certainly nothing he'd need to specifically respond to (As per his wishes as they were TGed) - I just hate posting 'Bump' and prefer to add otherwise irrelevant IC snippets. Thank you for your attention.

Lines of Communication

The Twink Factor - right now residing in a smallish dwarf galaxy several dozen kilolightyears outside the milkyway, unusual for a warship, but it'd never been one to follow conventions regarding availability - was only the first entity to receive the information in question. After all, being the talkative entity with lots of contacts it was, it wasn't above spreading said information, so long as it was spread appropriately, rather than randomly.

To it, the Kiss My Ass and Nuts and Bolts fit the description of 'Appropriate' quite perfectly.

From there, things went somewhat 'Erratic'... A (Human) mind in Iskander, a server farm in The Territory (That had been the result of a little mistake, but it was rectified soon enough - besides, the Territorials were sympathetic), and bits of it eventually reached a few public messageboards, albeit so grotesquely distorted that any real informational value had long since been taken from them, with the result being something along the lines of 'Space Monsters from Andromeda attack the Milkyway - Fleet's stepping up alert levels', obviously a form of (Dis)information nobody took particularly serious.

Other - rather less manipulated - versions of the Astral Romance's initial message went through different channels, with one of this channels eventually ending at a not-quite-civilian institution on Duat, which in turn relayed the information to the Erisavenus.

Nothing spectacular of course, nothing 'Official' (As official as such things could go). A notice of 'What', 'When', 'Where' and 'Who' at the availability of curious minds, and little else. A drop into the informal and rather restricted information-pool that had since been established, no different from the snippets that had reached the Kiss My Ass and its peers, and no different from the snippets the Erisavenus itself might occasionally relay to sympathetic craft.

Comets and Asteroids

And then they were building.

Slowly, of course, and shoddy, with neither the speed nor the quality of the products matching those produced by proper ships or earthbound industries.

Of course, while this was a considerable disadvantage, the seeding also had an advantage - it was supremely cheap.

Slowly, bit by bit. A bit of carbon here, a bit of iron there... And what isn't present in the first place is produced via the tiny, original reactors inside the package.

It's still a long time until completion. It's also a long way off the system - many billions of kilometres, in fact.

But it gets done. Slowly, and bit by bit. A little like cancer, really - once the first metastases develop, it's bloody hard to stop. Of course, right now, metastases are still a bit off...
Thrashia
16-06-2006, 23:23
bump, for upcoming post...
Thrashia
16-06-2006, 23:48
Hangar Two, Astral Romance

The large assault transport came smoothly into the hanger that had been designated by the bridge of the new ship. Commander Walker stood behind the pilot of the transport looking out the port side at the few gathered figures. He did not like the idea of this, but then orders were orders, and besides he had an entire company of stormtroopers. He hoped that would be sufficient in the case of unknown trouble.

Once the transport set down the side ramp and hatch opened to be at the feet of the waiting crew of the Astral Romance. Commander Walker, befit in his black uniform and shining knee high black boots, walked down in neat military style along with a group of his men. Two humans and what looked like droids stood waiting.

Walker walked forward and bowed stiffly. He looked at the man standing before him was dressed in a ridiculous outfit, as was the woman beside him. Walker decided it wouldn’t be very diplomatic to mention his thoughts on their apparel.

“I am Commander Walker. I presume that you are Captain Franklin Seneca?” Walker asked. “My orders are to search your ship. It is routine for unknown ships and is not meant as an insult.”

Behind Walker the 300 stormtroopers marched out in file out of the transport and formed up into lines. Several dozen technicians with scanners and other checking equipment also came forward and stopped next to them. Several astro droids also came tooting down the ramp.

“Might I have the full schematics of your ship for my men to check?”


Imperial Star Destroyer Path of Vengeance

General Bast watched as his ship came into range of the strange mass of unknown ships. Or at least he thought they were ships. They moved around in a swarm around a larger thing that was collecting resources and creating more of the bug-like machines at the same time. It was highly strange to say the least.

Bast turned to Captain Varus. “Have our main batteries fix on that large one and fire three successive volleys. I want that thing dead…” Bast said.

“Yes General.”

Without even a warning transmission or a half-hearted farewell, the Path of Vengeance’s main heavy turbolaser batteries turned and took aim at the large anomaly.

“Fire,” ordered Captain Varus
Der Angst
17-06-2006, 15:33
Astral Romance

Before

Fucking reactiondrives. The ship sighed (Metaphorically, of course) and quickly established a few magnetic fields to redirect the charged exhaust of the assault shuttle out of the hanger, then closed it, and let the air in.

After

Rebecca had a few issues when it came to giggling, and avoiding the same - partly because she found the rather stiff attitude of Commander Walker hilarious, and partly because the fly the Astral Romance kept in the room was resting on her nose, tickling her - but eventually she managed it, and bowed as well, equally stiff.

So did Franklin, medals clinking on his chest, kind of like a miniature chime.

"Yes, I am. Honoured to meet you, Commander Walker." Franklin did his best to keep up his most serious attitude (Not all that hard, given that he knew that they'd start shooting, sooner or later - preferably later). "Nice uniform, by the way. In any case... Given that your superiors demanded this action of yours, and we - I - agreed to it-" (Here, Rebecca snorted) "-I can say safely that I'm not taking it as an insult. One has to be careful, after all, and it'd suck to suffer horrific losses due to a lapse in security."

He smiled. "As such, certainly, the schematics are all yours. If you'd wait for a moment... Ms Toulouse, if you would...?"

"Certainly, Sir." Rebecca smirked, while simultaneously having a somewhat heated (And of course non-verbal - she had implants for a reason) discussion with the Astral Romance about ship schematics, or rather the lack thereof.

The Astral Romance took care of it, quickly lasing a few hundred pieces of paper with the schematics as they were supposed to be presented to the Thrashians (With CREWs turning into mere UV lasers, particle beams suffering an order of magnitude greater divergence, reactors turning from induced matter-annihilation plants * into rather more simple fusion reactors with an order of magnitude less energy output, the likes. Keeping it primitive, but close enough to the truth to be believable for a casual analyst, so long as one didn't knew what one was looking for).

Of course, the most basic elements - I.e. that the Astral Romance could essentially run with no, or almost no crew whatsoever, and that there was a distinct lack of maintenance-related machinery and/ or men, were somewhat hard to hide. On the plus side, neither was it possible to miss that despite its 'Militarisation', it still remained thoroughly non-milspec, with or without manipulation of basic specs.

"If you'd excuse me? I fear I have, ah... Left the schematics behind... It'll only take a minute."

Rebecca blushed, and left the room, leaving Commander Walker, his entourage, 'Captain' Franklin and Kalin Re alone.

The drone occupied itself by way of fullband-scanning the droids accompanying Commander Walker, without saying anything (Although its static electricity was now quite literally raising hairs, and the Astral Romance had to tell it to tone it down a little - its tie promptly dropped, now hanging loosely around its ellipsoid casing), and Franklin managed to look, well, a little embarrassed. "Well, this shouldn't take too long... Ah, there she is again."

Rebecca came back in, with exactly nine-hundred and seventy-two pieces of paper, maps, and notices (Sure, the Astral Romance could have projected the details holographically, but where was the fun in that?), almost tripped over, and handed the papers to one of the men in Captain Walker's entourage. "Organised according to the tour we think you'd like to take - the fastest one, of course, although you can of course split into groups..."

In the meantime, Franklin poked the ship. Inaudible, of course.

So?

Nothing too naughty. I checked energy sources and -levels, potential wavelength/ frequency parameters, potential exotic emission profiles, material compositions, hardware configurations - I figured that checking the software, too, would be a little too invasive -, submolecular- and molecular structures, basic brain wave functions and neuron activities, electron orbital configurations, etc, etc, and, well, nothing I'd consider overly dangerous. Hardly surprising, given that they boarded us, rather than shooting us - they have to reason to just 'Trick' us, given that we're a mere explorer in their system. They can force the issue without trickery, when necessary.

Ah. Well, a good thing, I suppose.

Absolutely. And incidentally, I've found a very interesting species of... Well, I think it's related to Chlamydiae, on the armour of one of their troopers. It's gene-

Oh, shut up, I'll believe you. Incidentally, do you think it's necessary we hide our actual capacities? We might have some advantages, but they still beat us in raw power, and are numerically, uh, vastly superior. We're not exactly an obvious threat, regardless.

Yes, but I think it has its advantages if they missjudge us. Might give us a tactical advantage once the shooting begins. I figure that we're vastly more versatile than them, but my armour's not exactly warship-grade, and I don't even have a tenth the firepower of a similarly-sized warship. I'd rather keep the few advantages we do have secret... Assuming that we have said advantages in the first place, which isn't exactly guaranteed.

Point. Incidentally, the Twink Factor?

At least a week off, depending on Between-currents. Not sure if we can stall them for an entire week. It's now making a full-speed-ahead for us, but, yeah.

Meh. And other warships?

Forget it.

Well, great. 'Against all odds', huh?

Quite.

* For the record - no antimatter involved. I'd explain it in detail, but, eh... It's made-up to begin with, so no point in explaining it.
Thrashia
17-06-2006, 18:14
Commander Walker nearly swore when he saw the large stack of papers that Captain Franklin had said were the ships schematics. He turned to one of his sergeants and sub-vocalized into a protected command channel. “Contact the ship, and tell them to run a diagnostics scan on this ship.”

“Yes sir,” the stormtrooper sergeant replied. Without moving the stormtrooper activated his comm unit and secured another line to the ship and began inquiring to Commander Walker’s request.

Commander Walker turned back to them. “Thank you. It will be of some assistance.” He turned to his men. “Split up, half-squads sized, look everywhere.”

“Yes sir,” said a sergeant. The stormtrooper company broke into groups of 6 and marched out of the hanger into the ships belly. Several troopers stayed behind with the ship. Commander Walker approached his scanning crews.

“Check everything; if you find any anomalies…report it immediately,” ordered Walker. The technicians nodded and picked up their equipment. The astro droids rumbled off following the technicians.

Commander Walker turned back to Captain Franklin. “Where is it you come from exactly?”
The Ctan
17-06-2006, 21:31
The necrontyr starship INS Erisavenus wasn’t what one would call close by. Four hundred parsecs out at the time it had, via relay from the Sol system, altered its course and made arrangements with its many contacts and the support network it had established.

The ship was fast, very fast, colossally fast, ridiculously fast.

It took a look at the source of the Twink Factor’s original transmission, and headed there, flicking to its destination in around three seconds – it had, after all, delayed quite a bit already, arranging for the headquarters vessel Élmbar, to take up position around a parsec out from the system in question. It made a few estimates about velocity, and hared off at seven million times the speed of light, before shooting a signal off to the ship in the Sol system that was acting as its relay, to the relay in orbit of Mars that was currently the means of communication with the Twink Factor.

Its message was quite simple;

To: SEU Twink Factor
From: INS Erisavenus
Subject: Hey there.

Many apologies for the delay in responding, I’ve been busy contacting friends, arranging for this and that. I’m putting together a little staging post for this little shindig [co-ords attached] and if you’re interested in getting there quick, I can give you a lift if you’d like.
Thrashia
17-06-2006, 21:42
ooc: lol...ok. I'll accept C'tans arrival, since I have great respect for him. However under no means is this allow for the pretext of invasion. Understood?
Huntaer
17-06-2006, 22:02
ooc: lol...ok. I'll accept C'tans arrival, since I have great respect for him. However under no means is this allow for the pretext of invasion. Understood?
OOC: Waiting for that envoy to meet with the Admiral....

IC:

"Sir, whats taking them so long?"

"Pacients.... They'll come. We have unexpected visitors who we thought was going to attack us. Still, keep the scanners going. We don't want any more unwanted surprises."
Der Angst
18-06-2006, 22:08
ooc note: Just to reassure you - the objectives I mentioned to you in... one of the TGs I sent haven't changed. And really, all that has happened is that rather than one exploration-grade ship (Essentially somewhere between proper milship and simple civilian), there's now one exploration-grade ship and two milships (Which are unlikely to show up until after shooting starts, anyway) - still vastly inferior (Numerically, anyway). In any case, an invasion (Or rather, occupation, depending on your definition of 'Invasion') is certainly not intended, neither is smashing the whole Thrashian sphere to bits - the only objects of interest to the now three - well, four, counting the Élmbar - directly involved ships are this system's surviving natives, and the Thrashian installations therein. Not their occupation, though. Hell, they're not even operating on governmental initiative - it's their private pastime, which sorta limits their resources.

There's of course the possibility that the CLA (Clone Liberation Army) might choose Thrashia as a potential target (Well, actually, it has already done so <.<), but I'd TG you about that seperately, to discuss options - and, for that matter, asking if you're interested in the first place, as I can't really start something without such consent - with you.

Also, did this post in a rush, but I hope it's sufficient.

Astral Romance

Commander Walker, Reception

'Captain' Franklin Seneca and Rebecca Toulouse listened rather quietly to the various orders Commander Walker was giving to his underlings, and only Rebecca smirked a little when Commander Walker ordered his men to report anomalies 'Immediately'. Other than that, she left the field to Franklin.

"Where we come from? Oh..." He spent a few moments - fractions of a second, really - thinking, his rather extensively modified brain considering options.

Eventually, he went for the most amusing one. "A second, I've the coordinates here, somewhere..." He typed some commands on the keyboard of a nearby terminal (The keyboard was fake, and not actually connected to anything, even though a cable vanishing under a table suggested otherwise, but the Astral Romance had no issues synchronising its - well, the terminal's - reactions with Franklin's typing), and eventually the screen showed the coordinates of Sol, relative to the system they were presently in, together with a rather neat in-system map.

On the map, which omitted a variety of megastructures and had the population structure adjusted to show off a feasible distribution for DA alone (Rather than it and its neighbors counted by the dozen), everything was labelled Angstian.

"That's our, ah - home. You've any specific questions? If not, I do have some, regarding your, ah, local presence inside this system... I was thinking about a sort of, oh... Deal. But this does, of course, have time until after I've satisfied your curiosity."

The Search Parties

Fifty search parties of six men each, on a ship made to be permanently inhabited by at most fifty sapients (Though it were usually only about a fifth of these on board).

It wasn't even necessary to add crates (Although they were there - apart from their utility in storing various bits of equipment, spare parts, and the likes, the ship also found them useful during the occasional re-enactment of assorted first-person shooters its inhabitants tended to enjoy) - everything was quite simply incredibly crowded, and more often then not, the engineers and troopers had to wonder how to get to a specific place, as the pathways to various sensitive parts of the ship had been made for ship-slaved drones only a fraction the size of a human.

Fifty million cubicmetres of ship. About a third of it was all engine, perhaps a tenth of it was acommodation, and the rest was either exploration- or defence-related.

Well, right now, more defence than exploration, really.

Arnold Ikito blinked briefly when a group of storm troopers, engineers and droids entered, but otherwise continued looking like an incredibly busy engineer (Which he was. Just, his engineering didn't usually have to do with the ship), and poking a boiler with his wrench while looking at the heav- well, not quite heavily, but still armed troopers. The search party nearby did make him somewhat nervous... Eventually, he poked the ship about them.

You're sure they're harmless?

Absolutely. And even if they were to start shooting, and I was somehow lazy and waited entire seconds before interfering, I could still field you and deal with their blaster fire - that's an infantry-scale weapon on a bloody starship. Do you think I'm inept?

Well, actually, I was more thinking about their sniffing around - I know you provide cover, but as you say yourself - nothing is ever undetectable. Merely hard to detect.

Well, yes, although I'm fairly confident that they wont get my true hull composition, nor how my weapons and reactors and effectors and field-emitters and-

Ok, ok. I get it.

In any case - I figure that one or two might notice the field emissions (I try to make them look 'Natural', but, eh) but I've already set up the necessary procedures. Whatever they radio back to their commander is inevitably intercepted by me. Should the information they sent be in any way sensitive - on a scale that suggests them starting to shoot, rather than raising their eyebrows -, I, uh, block the message. There's lag involved, of course, but it'd be in the microsecond range - nothing the meatbags would notice. In the meantime, I'd reply in place of Commander Walker.

Not notice? Not until they get back and tell the commander in person, you mean.

... Do you think I can't manipulate soundwaves? But, well, as soon as they're back on board of their assault shuttle, they'll notice, yes. Assuming that they find something, of course. And assuming that I don't program blockades into their heads.

Will you?

Mhm. Depends. I'd rather keep things running peacefully until after we've politely asked them to hand over all the surviving natives of the system. I figure the vNDs have by now begun seeding by themselves, but it'll still be a while until we've the ordnance we need. Besides, you're one to worry - our secret-talking may be encoded and directed, but it's still a security risk, if only a small one.

Elsewhere on the ship, Naomi Ricardo - doing her best to look like a skilled and quite serious helmsman (Well, helmswoman) - giggled helplessly as she noticed one of the ship's slaved maintenance drones - barely the size of a mouse - climbing up the armour of one of the Storm Troopers, and apparently starting to clean it (In actuality, it was carefully isolating microbes from it).

"Don't worry. It's harmless."

That, and it looked rather cute.

Outside the Astral Romance

As far as the 'Diagnostic Scans' of the two SDs residing at spitting distance from the Astral Romance went, well - the Astral Romance wasn't running at full power output, and neither its drives, nor sensors, nor weapons emitted anything intrinsically useful when it came to figuring out the ship's potential performance. Its potential yields and acceleration essentially remained a mystery, although it was of course obvious that it generally lacked weaponry - more of the same could've fit on it, alas, warfare had never been its primary purpose.

What was noticeable - apart from the general shape and mass of the ship, as well as some basic numbers, I.e. its gun turrets and chibiesque missile launchers * - were some odd radiations coming from the hull, whereas the hull itself was somewhat... well, not quite easy to analyse.

Most likely due to the odd radiations.

Twink Factor

There was some lag involved - it took almost a minute for the Twink Factor to receive the message - but eventually the message arrived, seconds after the Twink Factor itself had registered the - at its present velocity - almost unnoticeable mass shadow and emission source that was the Erisavenus.

The surprise was limited - it had sent the message, and while it hadn't quite anticipated such a quick response, it hadn't exactly discarded the possibility, either.

It's reply - sadly requiring the same, unnecessarily complex and long transfer route the Erisavenus itself had used - followed quite promptly.

BL-FTLCOM@BL1e25&EM=1e-5; SL 8 (ENE-standards when reaching the Erisavenus); Tightbeam
From: SEU Twink Factor (Relayed through SEU Kiss My Ass and others)
To: INS Erisavenus
Subject: Hey there

No issues - to be honest, surprised that you responded at all. This said, you're nonetheless more than welcome.

I'd very much appreciate the lift, too - it'd take me at least a week to get there (Although I figure that ten days are more realistic), and I figure that the Astral Romance will likely run into trouble a good time before that. I'd prefer staying out of it for the moment, though, maybe a lightyear or two off - I suspect that given our numbers, the Astral Romance's talkative approach is the better choice, potential individual superiority aside.

In any case - initiating braking routine as we speak, and I should be able to talk to you directly in about three hours, and join you in about nine.

Yes, deceleration is a bitch, in here.

Yours,

Twink Factor

* I figure between 32- 48 capship-grade turrets, and about as many PD, as well as, uh, sixteen or so small missile launchers. There's also some stuff inside the ship - bombs and a few heavy missiles - which your search parties will doubtlessly notice, but those are pretty much improvised.
Tannelorn
19-06-2006, 11:49
***Systems Oort Cloud***

001 was rather happily coordinating her children when she noticed something wrong. Horribly wrong. Sailing towards her was a rather large ship, not an asteroid and it had opened fire. She barely had time to raise PBS screens, and even still the 6 or so 50 meter discs of force could in no way stop most of the shots screaming towards her. Her hull rippled with the force of the blasts. Massive rents and holes were torn in her "body" as she screamed.

She was not meant for warfare, her armour was not meant to take such punishment, as it was only her 5 km frame saved her from catastrophic destruction.

She had to leave, she was far too important to be lost here, but her children would have to be left behind..she couldnt do that, even though she had to.

With a heavy heart the highly complex, mobile bio-com industrial complex turned sharply away from the aggressor, relaying one last order to most of her children.

Stop them.

With this the vessel turned, limping away at first before activating the DEM jump system. She fled the system before any more harm could come to her, damage was interfering with her thought processes. She wanted revenge for the harm done to her, revenge for the theft of the world she had surveyed..revenge for the thousands of "children" sure to be destroyed by the aggressive metal beast.

In system the bio-mechs started to move towards the star destroyer in great clouds, reminiscent of swarms of earth termites scouting out a new territory. However these ones knew what they were after.

Their last orders were to gather the resources of the large "ferrous" asteroid that had fired upon Markaia, and as dutiful children would they moved towards it as rapidly as they could manage....
The Ctan
19-06-2006, 20:48
The Erisavenus coasted at around five million times the speed of light, intangible and invisible to all but the ship it had matched velocities with. Indeed, itself, it couldn’t see anything with its own sensors except in the broadest terms at these velocities. It could maybe detect a planet, if it were to pass close to it, but other than that, all it could find was stellar objects.

Hyperbeam Encrypt Level M256 • [Course and Velocity Ref Omitted] → Mars Relay 19 (BL-FTLCOM@BL1e25&EM=1e-5; SL 8 on arrival) Stuttered Tightbeam Transmission
To: SEU Twink Factor
From: INS Erisavenus • [Relay list omitted]
Subject: Hey there.

Mmm. Sounds like a plan. At least for now. Élmbar’s asking if either you or the Romance have any information on the composition of the destination world’s atmosphere its gravity, light spectra and any other potential life support issues. Optimist, I call it.

Incidentally, how long does it take those deliciously obscured emissions of yours to reach those of us in ordinary space-time? If it’s fast, you could perhaps cut or pulse your engines in order to work around this lag to signal to me when (or if, let’s try for optimism) the excrement impacts upon the rotary air circulation unit. A minute is a long time to wait for support in an emergency.

And, it’s currently out about a parsec from the target area, but if you want, we could narrow it down to a light-year or two if you like.

Has the Romance any ideas on bits and pieces that might be useful for the afore-predicted fan-ramming probability? I may as well start making munitions and such now, after all.

See you soon,
Eris
Der Angst
22-06-2006, 13:45
The Twink Factor was ramming its drive fields about the place, manipulating and utilising currents, avoiding calm and turbulent layers alike, coasting to a stop by way of utilising flimsy energies so colossal they made a sun look vaguely inadequate.

The oxymoron - coined on the barely tangible energies in the Between, rather than the energies the Twink Factor itself produced - made sense. After all, it was FTL, and what else could one reasonable expect from something like that?

Waves of activity flooded forward, disrupting layers and creating the equivalent of a (Weak) shockwave, slowly dispersing in the distance. The echoes of relativistic-space radiations, already distorted and weakened, became, though not unnoticeable, very close to un-interpretable, little more than a background noise, like a snow-crashed screen.

As if my view hadn't been fucked in the first place, the Twink Factor muttered, mostly to itself, while its ability to see the radiation-induced echoes of the planets and stars ahead of it was further infringed, leaving it in a position not too dissimilar from a Londoner trying to find Big Ben in the midth of a fog dense enough to cut with a knife.

And another nine hours to go... Just great. Well, it'll get better, over time, and I shouldn't divert more than four or five degrees off course.

Well, while it was flying blind, it should at least be able to talk shop with the Erisavenus.

BL-FTLCOM@BL1e25&EM=1e-5; SL 8 (ENE-standards on arrival); Tightbeam
From: SEU Twink Factor (Relay list omitted)
To: INS Erisavenus
Subject: Hey there

Mhm... I think the Romance included that in its info-package... lemme look - ah, there. Pretty standard, all in all, deviations from Earth-standard are minor and inconsequential. At least according to the Romance, but as it made this analysis from over a lightyear off-system and in Between-space, deviations might be more significant than expected. Should probably ask it for an update... But given the (Near?-)human characteristics of the system's present owners, I figure that we're safe. The Élmbar should make sure to have water aboard, though - rather watery worlds, and judging by intercepted low-sec stuff, we're intending to extract an amphibious species.

In any case [Infoburst: System Characteristics Attached]. For you to dwell in.

's far as my emissions are concerned, (Near-)instantaneous - I'm after all occupying the same space in conventional four-dimensional space-time geometry. But considering how hard I'm braking, and the layer I'm in, there'd be a considerable information-loss involved by using this method, I think... No different from me using 'Standard' communications. I'll try it, though. Worth a try, given how much drive energies exceed comm-array power levels, and their energy density is rather greater than that of a star's radiation two lightyears off (Incidentally, should work both ways, if it works at all). Expect a message coming the pulsed way approximately ten seconds after this one reaches you (Accounting for time-deviations during transfer, here. Can't be entirely sure...). Code attached to this message.

As far as distance-from-target is concerned, a parsec's ok, given that I'll most likely stay inside your cargo hold until we move over, anyway. Come to think of it, it's preferable, too - judging by the Romance's messages, the locals are a little on the near side of things, so I doubt they've recon that far out, but better safe than sorry, as they say.

It doesn't have much in the way of recon, though [Infoburst: Recon Attached]. We know a little - not all - about hull structures, materials composition, armament (Numbers. Yields are more-or-less educated guesses, although I figure that their ranges are pityful, compared to mine, given how close they got to the Romance: A few dozen kilometres indeed), their overall numbers, and system-wide constructions, as well as the basic astrography (Objects below a cubicmetre in volume have been omitted from the list), but that's it. Sadly, it can't really afford doing full-scale active scans and effector screenings just yet, given that such could be considered a hostile act, and we don't want to start the fan-induced modern arts masterpiece just now.

Still, as it looks, we'll be severely outnumbered, if the shooting starts before we'd like it to start (Read: While we're still there).

See your pulses,

~ Twink Factor

It waited a little longer than a minute, then started to fiddle a little more with its drive fields - however, rather than fiddling with directions, it fiddled with energy levels.

Eventually, it worked. The occasional bit would certainly be... 'Hard' to understand, or be lost completely, but it was better than nothing.

The pulsed message thus started: Two Knootians enter a bar. Says the first...

oocness: And this reminds me. Thrashia, would it be possible for you to write a short, rough breakdown on the system's structure? So far, I count three vaguely earth-like planets, all in the habitable zone (Post 1), one hot gas giant (post eleven), a cold planet (Gas or solid?) further out (Post 16) and most likely an above-average (Sun-like?) star, and, well... Not sure if that's all and/ or correct in the first place. Also not sure about possible asteroid belts or not.

So, yeah - I'd be much obliged.
Thrashia
26-06-2006, 20:30
ooc: I will not be online for a few days guys, I apoligize for the wait.
Der Angst
08-08-2006, 11:31
I sent a TG poking Thrashia, but... Well, people going directly into the forums without checking their nation and TGs can be at a disadvantage when they actually receive TGs.

Hence, this bump. As a note: When I don't respond to an ooc note saying 'I'll be busy for a while' it means 'Ok, I'll wait', not 'I lost interest'. Which in this case means 'Can we move on, now that you're back from whatever you did?'

Anyway. Because I'd hate bumping without an IC bit...

Comets and Asteroids

A little push, and the package is free, leaving the meager gravity well of the sizeable comet it had been in a few moments ago.

Reorientation. Passives perk up, listening to the radiations filling the vacuum. Preprogrammed routines set in, informing the package where it has to go.

Reactors start up, processes that cannot really decide whether they're fission, fusion, or something else boil matter, ripping electrons from atomic nuclei, and with the assistance of localised EM fields, eventually toss the thusly created plasma out of the package's thrusters.

Acceleration is mediocre, and reduced the faster it goes.

Not that it needs to go fast, of course. Its target isn't far off - an icy rock, less than ten lightseconds away. It should reach the rock within a few hours.

Where it came from, others like it move away from the comet that was used to create it. Dozens of them, all quite small, quite light, and quite, quite black, swallowing the frequencies of the EM band and releasing them again, as infrared radiation, directed outwards, away from the local sun. Away from the sensory networks of the locals, billions of kilometres further system-inwards.

Where it came from, reconstruction takes place, slowly. The packages were but the first step - now, a rather more serious purpose requires attention.

The first thing the decidedly subsapient routines organise is the creation of notably larger 'Facilities'.
Thrashia
12-08-2006, 17:19
ooc: c'tan, I think you have it down there flat. That description works for me, and I can think of no other variables, other than perhaps that there is at least one moon around each planet.

IC:

Astral Romance

Commander Walker grimaced to himself but kept his face emotionless. These people were more obstructing than a tight-fisted clerk down at the Imperial Bank. Walker took the coordinates and handed them to his aide. He looked at at his wrist watch and saw that his patrols would be returning in a few moments.

"Very well Captain, it would seem that everything checks out. Once I have reported to my superiors, it will be them with which you will be speaking," Walker stated. He turned as several stormtroopers returned. The company little by little came filtering through the doorway. Each of them would make reports once they got back to the mother ship.

"Thank you for your patience, I bid you good day." Walker stiffly said and walked back into his transport. The company loaded up its gear and the transport made ready for launch. After a few moments of checks the lander's engines roared to life and it backed out of the hanger bay. Without any spectacular manuevering it headed back quite promptly to the Star Destroyer.
Der Angst
12-08-2006, 20:35
Astral Romance

"That'll work, I'm sure," Franklin answered, pseudo-Pantocratorian medals clinking on his chest, and eventually winking at the commander after he'd turned his back towards Franklin. "Although, there's this one... Umm... Erm... Ah well, I'll ask your superi-"

"He's gone."

"Yes, I noticed. So... Romance?"

"I'm listening." The ship had changed its avatars, and its present one was using the decidedly martial outfit of a WW 1-era grenadier, including a pickelhaube and the appropriate Mauser-rifle when it entered the room. Rebecca giggled. "Did you build that just now?.

"Nah. Kept it in reserve. See, I'm a bit fo an atomic-age geek. But, back on topic... They shouldn't have gotten anything. Well, not much, anyway. They might disbelieve the low-end estimates on my reactor capabilities, and therefore the low-end estimates on how much fire I can take & project. My sensory capabilities and versatility should be a surprise for them, though. On the other hand, while they're not entirely clear on the yields I can project, they do know how many guns I have. Similarly, they would have to be insanely inept to have missed the missiles and bombs I've produced before we shifted.

"As such, I think we can safely say that they do not consider us a threat, or they would already have started shooting. Incidentally, they're not entirely incorrect with this assessment - I'm vastly more voluminous, and can safe a lot of space due to my limited number of inhabitants, but I'm not a warship. I'd dare going one-on-one with one of their warships. Two, uh, I'd rather not, although I do still lack information on their acceleration, delta V and effective engagement ranges. This said, I doubt that actual shooting would help us in achiving our initial goal, anyway, hence me not interfering with the neurons of our guests, nor placing micro-ordnance in their shuttles."

"So much for the tactical situation. How about, uh, space? For our soon-to-be guests?"

"Well... I figure that we can carry up to about a hundred thousand of the native species, together with the appropriate fauna and flora to replicate their former environment. The latter largely in genetic samples, mind you. Together with our, uh, 'Reinforcements', we should be able to carry off all the survivors within a relatively short timeframe, assuming that they let us. Come to think of it, if I use the hangars for living space, increase that number by an order of magnitude."

"Hrm. Well, lets try the former first." Franklin said, looking a little tired. "You know, I had hoped for a little more action. Ah well."

"I'm sure you'll get it. Incidentally, Twink Factor's in favour of an ultimatum, Erisavenus in favour of a 'Nice' approach. I'd prefer the latter, too."

"Yes, yes. Nice it is, then. Anyway... You're transmitting?"

"As soon as you wish."

"Good then. Now, please."

EM-CCOM@EM1e-2; SL 0; Widebeam
From: Captain Franklin Seneca, IEU Astral Romance
To: Captain Veers, Dark Lance
Subject: Now that we've figuratively bent over for the anal cavity search...

I figure that our sub-milgrade - in proportion to our volume - militarisation has satisfied your curiosity, and that you're now reasonably certain that we're not a threat to you and your combined fleets in the system.

Which enables me to get to the original point of this visit: Apart from establishing relations with a formerly unknown entity, we've, ah, observed certain events that took place in this system in the relatively recent past (Lightspeed lag is good for that).

So. While we'd like to have contact with some of your higher political entities - I figure that doing so will take some time - in order to establish basic relations, we'd also like to, ah...

Acquire some of this native, sapient species you've recently subjugated.

Actually, some is a bit of a misnomer - we'd like all still-living specimen. And probes of the planet's environment - we'd spend a while collecting them. Call it a month or so at most. We'd also like to stage some archeology, come to think of it - the purpose should be obvious.

Naturally, we realise that aforementioned still-living specimen are of considerable value to you, and are prepared to pay you - as we're lacking previous contact, and therefore the ability to properly compare our respective currencies' values, I figure that an exchange of raw materials and / or territorial holdings is the most appropriate solution.

Oh, and yes, I realise that this is likely outside your authority - please relay this request to whomever has the authority to make decisions on this level.

Sincerely,

~ His Most Glorious and Infinitely Ineffable, Most Serene and Hypochondriac, slightly holy and considerably intoxicated Captain Franklin Seneca of the Interstellar Exploration Unit Astral Romance
Thrashia
30-08-2006, 22:48
Onboard the Venator II Star Destroyer

Captain Veers stood aboard the bridge of Dark Lance and listened to the storm trooper Lieutenant’s report. He felt rather agitated that no further information on the personnel or data pertaining to the ship itself had been found.

“Very well lieutenant, you are dismissed,” said Veers, rather put out too. The officer saluted smartly and marched off the bridge. Veers turned to his adjutant. “The transport was checked when it returned?”

“Yes Captain,” said the deck officer. “No kind of explosives or miniature devices. When our teams searched the ship we found small fluctuations on a level we’d not encountered before except in remote cases. I checked the archives and have found no match. I think it safe to believe that this ship is capable of things that they’re not showing us.”

Veers sighed. “Why did I know you were going to say that? Doesn’t matter anyway, not now; have the main cannon-.”

“Sir, we’re receiving a transmission from the alien ship,” called the communications officer. “I’ll patch it through.” Veers nodded and turned to the hologram projection table. It was only a few moments before the small figure appeared again in the ridiculous uniform.

EM-CCOM@EM1e-2; SL 0; Widebeam
From: Captain Franklin Seneca, IEU Astral Romance
To: Captain Veers, Dark Lance
Subject: Now that we've figuratively bent over for the anal cavity search...

I figure that our sub-milgrade - in proportion to our volume - militarization has satisfied your curiosity, and that you're now reasonably certain that we're not a threat to you and your combined fleets in the system.

Which enables me to get to the original point of this visit: Apart from establishing relations with a formerly unknown entity, we've, ah, observed certain events that took place in this system in the relatively recent past (Lightspeed lag is good for that).

So. While we'd like to have contact with some of your higher political entities - I figure that doing so will take some time - in order to establish basic relations, we'd also like to, ah...

Acquire some of this native, sapient species you've recently subjugated.

Actually, some is a bit of a misnomer - we'd like all still-living specimen. And probes of the planet's environment - we'd spend a while collecting them. Call it a month or so at most. We'd also like to stage some archeology, come to think of it - the purpose should be obvious.

Naturally, we realize that aforementioned still-living specimen are of considerable value to you, and are prepared to pay you - as we're lacking previous contact, and therefore the ability to properly compare our respective currencies' values, I figure that an exchange of raw materials and / or territorial holdings is the most appropriate solution.

Oh, and yes, I realize that this is likely outside your authority - please relay this request to who ever has the authority to make decisions on this level.

Sincerely,

~ His Most Glorious and Infinitely Ineffable, Most Serene and Hypochondriac, slightly holy and considerably intoxicated Captain Franklin Seneca of the Interstellar Exploration Unit Astral Romance[/QUOTE]

“Have quite the humor about them do they not?” asked Veers aloud. His adjutant had the wisdom to not answer. It had been more than on one occasion where a smart-assed reply had sent a deck officer to the brig for several months, and even worse. Veers turned to the communications officer.

“Get me a communications line to Governor Grice. He is the ‘political higher up’ here for this situation.”

Veers sat down in his command chair as the comm ensign nodded and went to work. Within a few moments the ensign gave the thumbs-up sign and pressed a switch. A hologram appeared and showed Governor Grice in his formal office dress. Veers decided that he would never get involved in politics, the clothes were enough to make a man itch just seeing the uniforms.

“Captain Veers, I hope this is good news. I have the Huntaerian delegate here and I have no wish to screw this up. What have you to report?” asked the governor. Veers went strait into it, detailing the report that the stormtrooper lieutenant had related and also the recent transmission. When he was done Grice had a thoughtful look on his face.

“The Liperdium species is nearly already dead…why would they be interested in them?” asked Grice.

“I don’t know Governor. How would you like me to proceed?” Veers asked. “I have the Dark Lance armed and ready to blast them out of space.”

“No! We want no intergalactic incident to come up from this…no, get me in touch with them. Link this feed to their frequency now,” ordered Grice. Veers nodded and turned to the comms officer who nodded, already having heard the order. Within a few moments Grice had what he wanted and began conducting a message to the Astral Romance’s crew.

“Greetings newcomers, I am System Governor Grice. I have full political, economic and military control over this, the Liperdium System. I have looked over your request for the acquisition of the indigenous species of the system. Perhaps I am simply puzzled but why would you wish to take in a useless and near-dead people? Simply a question I had, pay it no mind.” Grice coughed slightly and went on.

“I am willing to give you the remaining Liperdium species. Captain Veers will be your liaison in this matter. Once you have arrived in orbit for this transfer I will speak with you face-to-face concerning your other requests.” Governor Grice’s face disappeared and the line was cut.

Grice reopened the line to Captain Veers. The captain looked put out and obviously did not like being out of the loop. Grice couldn’t have cared less. “Captain you are to escort the Astral Romance into an orbital position where they can connect to the docking station. Once there I will meet with them. No ulterior actions are to be taken by you or your crew. Understood captain?” asked Grice. He watched the captain’s face contort slightly but he nodded and saluted Grice. Satisfied with that Grice cut the line.

The governor’s aide who stood nearby smiled. “Well done sir.”

“No need for flattery Micheal, we’ve not the time for it. Prepare for our newcomers arrival.”

“Yes sir.”
Der Angst
03-09-2006, 14:42
Astral Romance

EM-CCOM@EM1e-2; SL 0; Widebeam
From: Captain Franklin Seneca, IEU Astral Romance
To: System Governeur Grice
Subject: Transactions

Oh, call it scientific interest - we're intend on conducting a few experiments with them, esp. regarding the ability of comparatively prmitive species to adjust to rapidly changing conditions, in particular varying biospheres and mild atmospheric diversity, as well as the cultural effects of suffering from this kind of OCP. And as we stumbled upon such a case, well, why not take the chance?

In any case - we're very grateful for your decision, and will proceed with preparing for the arrival of the, ah, 'Commodities'. If we may ask - how many are still there?

Regardless. Going to see you in a little while, then, I suppose.

Sincerely,

~ Captain Franklin Seneca, IEU Astral Romance

A little while later, and after receiving the necessary clearance and directions from the Dark Lance, the Astral Romance eventually started to move again, towards what had now been christened the 'Transfer Point'. Radiations spewed into space, fields with a tendency of violating certain principles of classical physics just a weee little bit came into existence, and acceleration - first rapidly, but becoming consistently less as the ships' velocity increased - occured.

It was a bit of a trip - quite a few hours in fact, enough for the Twink Factor to complete its deceleration-and-shift-out routine and reenter relativistic space in a decidedly unremarkable fashion, many, many lightyears away -, but eventually, they arrived, and the Astral Romance, not being constructed for the standards in use within the Thrashian empire, eventually improvised a few 'Bridges' for the purpose of docking.

Within the Romance's hangars, the ships' avatar once more looked over the uniform Franklin was wearing. Unnecessarily so (It could do so in any number of ways), but very caring. "Hrm. Yes. Perfect."

"And heavy."

"Well. A few more medals are appropriate. Captains tend to acquire those on an hourly basis."

"Now you're exaggerating."

"You think so? Anyway - all's ready, I think. Oh, and a few of your medals contain minor field emitters, just in case. No missiles, though - that'd be rather more aggressive than what we want to look like. Also, could you wear this pistol? Oldish civ-grade CREW, neurolinked. It'll tell you the details on how to handle it."

"Um. You know I'm a bad shot. I think the last time I handled a pistol was... Actually, I never handled one."

"Now you do. Fireweapons for self-defence purposes tend to be considered the hallmark of the Captain, a sign of honour. You really should have it. Besides, you just have to keep it in your holster. Not to actually use it. Oh, and I figure that you really should have a sword, too, but, eh. This one has to be enough."

Frankling took the weapon, and sighed. "It's heavy..." I'm a Mark VII Humanoid-Bias CREW (Diplo-Grade), a non-sapient, non-upgradeable construct. Yield 1E7Watt; 1E8 Joules burst. Spectrum 1E-11- 1E10m. Aperture 1cm^2. Control through neurological links (You have been identified as optic nerve user; I'm re-configuring myself for optimum performance); Aiming- and firing assistance is given within the limits of my hardware and programming. Entirely manual control available, but I must advise you that it's better not to get into a situation in which my - or your - hardware suffers failure to degree that'd make manual control necessary. If you wish to make the use of this weapon owner-dependent, I can now program your genetic fingerprint and neurological characteristics into my user-database and exclude everyone not featuring aforementioned characteris-

"... And it talks to me. It's annoying."

"Deal with it. Incidentally, I had my subcraft shift back into less-than-relativistic space. Completed their shifting routine a while ago. We're alone now, and seeding's progressing as exected. Sensorlogs suggest that someone else was/ is there, too - origin's unknown, although analysis of manufacturing principles and general design suggest a Vascilian - specifically, Tannelornii - origin. But don't quote me on that, as it's just the most likely possibility. There's loads of others."

"I see. Well. Anyway... What was the name of the genocidal fuckhead I'm supposed to suck up to?"

"Governeur Griese. Erm. Grice."

"Ah. Well. Here we go."

Doors opened. Again, in a very unremarkable fashion. And then 'Cpatain' Seneca - with an equally unremarkable-looking gun in his holster, and looking somewhat like a Napoleonic cavalry sargeant in space - stepped out of them.

With Rebecca, of course, who was now dressed in a mini-skirted, relatively martial looking black uniform looking more like 'Secretary' than 'Mistress', and lacking Franklin's medals.
The Ctan
07-09-2006, 09:59
Newtonian Space, Some Distance from the Liperdium System

The Erisavenus was speeding up, aiming to dock with the Angstian ship that would soon re-enter ‘real’ space. Real space was a strange phrase, perhaps concrete space would be a better term, for normal space where untoward weirdness rarely happened. That said, concrete space had entirely the wrong word-image.
‘Hell-o there!’ It shot, as at last the Twink Factor reappeared in concrete-space, and it moved to rendevous.

‘Welcome to Necron-Death-Ship airlines, I will be your pilot today. Today we will be cruising at a velocity of four by ten to the eleven times the speed of light, travelling the distance to the four hundred and fifty two point seven two light years to the Liperdium System in approximately thirty six milliseconds.

‘Please do not forget to purchase your duty-free before coming aboard, and we remind you that you are only allowed to bring one hundred megatons of hand luggage on board, of which not more than eighty six percent should be offensive weapons. Please stow all planet-killers the overhead racks provided above your seating.

‘In the event of an emergency, we will all die, or be doomed to shoot though the universe for all time, however this is immeasurably less likely than my deciding I want to kill you, anyway, and so the risk is negligible. Do back up your mind-state now, and be careful to check fine print in life insurance contracts. Willingly going aboard necron vessels sometimes abrogates these, or causes a payout.

‘Any personnel who wish to disembark before our flight leaves are welcome to do so via our large collection of interstellar portals. Additionally, feel free to visit the ‘museum of idiotic warfare’ which we sponsor, sited inside Erisavenus Intergalactic Airport.

‘Necron-Death-Ship airlines does not hold itself liable for costs incurred by forced resynchronisation of quantum-level communications equipment.

‘If you care to look to your left, you will see a large region of the uncivilised universe, infested by slavers, pirates, sith, and various other kinds of predatory bottom feeders. You will see the same if you look right, up, or down. Also you will likely have the same experience if you look backwards.

‘Please stow your seat-back trays in their upright and locked position, and prepare for takeoff. Thank you for flying Necron-Death-Ship airlines, our motto is ‘Bend over and kiss your ass goodbye, Thrasia.’
Der Angst
27-09-2006, 13:36
Comets and Asteroids

Patch it a 'lil here, a 'lil there... Increase the size of the main construction facility, poke the mini-robots into moving, deal with the debris of an unnecessary detonation in the kilojoule range...

Plonk a bit of plating there, turn it into armour elsewhere. Construct the necessary ordnance to cause a catastrophic self-destruct in case someone comes snooping, and try to get the materials available at the moment to turn magnetic.

All in all, the tasks aren't easy, and if the kilometre-in-diameter comet worth a billion ton mass this is happening couldn't be converted from 'Dirty Ice' - or, as it happens, 'Icy Rock' - into somewhat more valuable - if, at least initially, usually mildly radioactive - ingredients, it'd be flat out impossible.

Fortunately, the von Neumann ordnance package can do all of this.

Of course, the universe isn't perfect, and neither is the von Neumann ordnance package: It has to balance between quality and speed, and neither are particularly great in the first place. Tiny robots and auxiliary field emitters (Only used when absolutely necessary, owing to the need of staying undetected for as long as possible - that the comet happens to be about ten billion kilometres away from the local sun, and therefore happens to be relatively unlikely to be noticed in terms of a temperature increase by somewhat less than 0.1 kelvin is irrelevant: Risks are to be minimised regardless) aren't the same as industrial scale machinery, taking longer to move materials around, to convert and utilise them, and the package's tiny, subsentient - yet alone sapient - mind is of limited utility when it comes to quality control.

Bit for bit, tiny fractions of the comet's mass are converted into something useful. It's an agonisingly slow process, and the ordnance package, though subsentient, certainly has the statistics available: Soandso many percent of its production will fail at launch. Soandso many percent will fail during transit. Soandso many percent will fail during the final stage.

Of course, this still leaves soandso many percent to actually do what they're supposed to do. That's the point.

Necrons

Geez. A lot of space to waste, was the Twink Factor's first reaction upon observing the - to it - pointlessly vast, well... Hangars within the Erisavenus, before engaging in a bit of smalltalk, and basic tactical simulations with the Erisavenus - apart from informing it that the degree of military action required to manage the extraction would presumably be limited, given that the Thrashians had just agreed to the same on a voluntary basis. Most likely, they'd serve as ferries for the population they intended to extract, and that'd be the end of it.

Which was, curiously, a disappointment for the Twink Factor, which upped the estimated industrial resources of Thrashia by a factor of two+, owing to them apparently considering slavery a means to get rid of undesirable species without wasting munitions, as opposed to considering it an economic system.

Well, that, and it wouldn't have minded a 'lil brawl. That's milships for you.