NationStates Jolt Archive

Terror Incognitia was a nation without a history.

In the Exodus from Earth, they had left in a vast fleet of vessels, carrying the entire people. One of these vessels had been the ‘Archive Ship’. It had carried physical objects, along with all the histories and records of Incognitia from the very earliest times, right up until the Exodus itself.

Somewhere in their long voyage, the Archive Ship had been lost. A jump through hyperspace had begun with it in the midst of the fleet – and ended with it lost to the mists of time.

When the loss was noticed, the situation in the Fleet was desperate; they had to press on, find a world to settle. After settling, the struggles of survival were such that FTL travel was lost, let alone any concern for one missing ship in the depths of space.

Incognitia rose again, however. Spread across the system, populated every rocky planet, every major moon, some larger asteroids; man-made stations and the Space Elevators. And…eventually…rediscovered faster than light travel.
Of late Incognitian vessels had roamed the star-lanes, and re-encountered an old ally. Kirisubo. Enough history had been learned from the Kirisubans to create an irresistible pressure to recover the Lost Ship, and thus recover all.
A naval expedition had been outfitted to find the ship, or definitively identify its wreckage.
It was heading for a dead star-system, the last known location of the Lost Ship.

OOC: Quest, in other words. Small groups of ships are welcome to help/hinder/tag along for the ride.

A small ship jumped out of hyperspace. It was cloaked in phase space, an extradimensional point between hyperspace and "real space". Some cloaked sensor packages peaked out in real space, much like the periscope of a submarine.

It was picking up what sounded like a search for a human archive. Maybe they would find something to copy to be added to the Final Encyclopedia, a compendium of first all human knowledge they could find, and now with some of their new allies humanoid knowledge.

It had taken a while for the translation protocols to understand the language, but it appeared to be a variant of one of the "old terran" languages from the second exodus.

Odysseus Cruonis closed his eyes for moment placing his hand on the psi amplification matrix and concentrated, his mind reaching out to see and hear inside one of the ships. He could hear the humans talking and see the unmodified people. Old earth humans, a rare archeological and anthropological find. He would watch, not interfering. Something to bring back for the museums of his race.

The small fleet set out. It was comprised of light naval vessels - the heaviest was a destroyer; backed by three corvettes and six exploration vessels.

Commanded by Captain Thomas Nordin, a fairly young man for the job, but one of distinguished service in the Uplift War; this flotilla carried the hopes of a nation.

They were headed for a dead system, the first jump point after the disappearance of the Archive Ship. From there they would track back to the last at which it had been seen; a significant task in itself, to do while searching every wreckage heap for signs of the 'Rose'.

tag

The Kirisuban government on its new home in Federal Union space despatched the newest Kagemon class ship to join the the search and help their ally.

The Katana would be able to catch up with the fleet soon enough along with ther Tenpeku class cruiser the Sapporo.

Captain Taka Nakamura was commanding the Katana on its first major mission and the Sapporo was commanded by Captain Nomi Muraji.

The fine tradition of female captains would continue as both ships streaked through space at warp 8.

ooc: ok, so i'm totaly disorginized. safe to say, once i get everything set up and you get to roughly the right point in space, you'll come accross me. i'm just waitng to see if i get put on the map or not :)

expect typical Angerman technological weirdness to abound. :D

After an uneventful journey through hyperspace, they arrived at the start of the search pattern.
Entering the apparently empty system which had been the regrouping point after the fateful jump, Captain Nordin was pacing on his bridge.
All sensors were active, and he didn't expect to find anything, but nonetheless this was the start of the mission proper.
"Sir, Kirisuban vessels approaching from astern."
"Ah yes, they were informed, weren't they. Send:"

To: Kirisuban vessels
From: Captain Nordin, TIS Leilani
Good to see you here. Would you assist us with our search?
<Encrypted file containing planned search pattern for the system.>

the viewscreen split into two as the two kirisuban captains appeared with their all female bridge crews in the background.

"Captain Nordin, my name is Captain Taka Nakamura of the NKS Katana. My government has ordered us to assist in your quest. My colleage is Captain Nomi Muraji commanding the Sapporo"

ooc: both ships have all female crews and their commanders look like they're in their mid twenties. they have the typical good looks and long dark hair. Nomi has green eyes and Taka has blue eyes.

Nordin met the gaze of each of the Kirisuban Captains with his steady brown eyes before replying.
"You are both most welcome. We are going to swiftly check this system, then head for the next one on the route; marked on our charts as Zemona Alpha. It's one of the best prospects, according to students of the voyage."

The flotilla dispersed, fanning out across the system, checking with all their sensors for any trace of the ship, and constantly communicating what they had found.
If it was intact it would show up on a gravimetric scan...as long as most of the ship was still together.

The Sapporo and the Katana worked together, the Katana doing most of the scanning since the Sapporo was a mobile gun platform.

Still it was always a good idea to have some muscle in a fight and the Sapporo could float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. With her primary weaponry of the plasma cannon and her secondary phaser banks she could put out a lot of firepower.

The 6 forward plasma torpedo launchers and two aft ones gave them an alternative weapon as well.

Captain Nakamura felt outgunned by her colleagues ship but the Katana was just as agile and tough as the Sapporo.

she kept in contact with the Sapporo as well as the Leilani as both ships searched for the missing vessel..

"We make this system to be empty. Any further points of interest? If not, we proceed to Zemona Alpha.

Prepare to jump."

The vessels entered hyperspace, headed for the next system. This one was more promising, and might show more of interest.

not having hyperdrives the kirisuban ships would have to catch them up later.

they followed the course at warp 9 knowing they'll catch up eventually.

"Sir, jump successful - on approach to Zemona Alpha."
"Very good. What do you see?"
"Gas giants, times three, in the outer system. Each has large moons, worth investigating.
Two rocky planets in the inner system...again, worth a look.
And a substantial asteroid belt."
"Any signs of life? Signals on known bands, any of that?"
"Well...."
"What is it?"
"Repeating signal on the 21cm radio band, sir."
"Get me more information. You have the con Lieutenant."

a few hours later the kirisuban ships arrive and glide in beside the Lelani.

Captain Nakamura comms the Lelani asking for an update..

ooc: you know what? i got bored. hehe. ship incomeing.

IC: the AC/ES Wraith dropped through three layers of H space, and emerged into N space above the eliptic of the system.

"destination confurmed. N space operations mode commencing."

"bring the screws up to full power, stationkeeping settings. don't want to get caught by surprise, now."

"aye"

"sensors clear. Capitan, there are ships here."

the Wraith's capitan, one Eujen uph Pilin, called up the data on his own screen. "humm. interesting. there's something vaguely familiar about those designes. hail them"

"aye sir"

as the order was carried out, Eujen looked around the bridge. as in all Exjara class ships, the bridge was simply another room. no raised platforms, no huge screen on the wall. simply seats aranged to be faceing into the center, with the capitains back to the wall on the far side from the doors, and consols infront of the seats.

"ready sir. cycling frequencys, systems trainslating into all knowen languages. includeing some that i don't think anyone spoke anymore even before the dispora"

"thank you, Eljara. here's hopeing we know some they do." Eujen smiled slightly, then schooled his face to be as neutral as possible. one did not wish to give the wrong signals after all. "this is the AC/ES Wraith of the Star Principality of Angermanland. please identify yourselves. unless you seek our distruction, we wish you well. respond as soon as possible. we shall be departing this system to continue our serveys in" he paused, and called up a display of orbit times for the system "two days as messured on the plaent with the most earthlike rotation speed. that is all. Eujen out."

"Captain Nakamura, this system looks more interesting. We're going to be doing a close-in survey, searching for materials known to have been used in cnstruction of the ships as well as the ship itself.
My XO will keep you updated with our specific search patterns so you can assist."

"Sir! Unknown vessel materialised, red-30-30." (meaning off the port bow by 30 degrees, and 30 degrees above horizontal)
"Any comms?"
"No...ah, incoming. Main screen now sir."
"this is the AC/ES Wraith of the Star Principality of Angermanland. please identify yourselves. unless you seek our distruction, we wish you well. respond as soon as possible. we shall be departing this system to continue our serveys in" he paused, and called up a display of orbit times for the system "two days as messured on the plaent with the most earthlike rotation speed. that is all. Eujen out."

"Angermanland...I know that name...I will reply on the same channel"
"Ready now sir."
"AC/ES Wraith, this is the TIS Leilani of Terror Incognitia. We are on a...sort of survey mission ourselves. What chance of co-operating?"

The name of Angermanland sounded familiar to Captain Nakamura and while the science officer searched the database the tactical officer sized up the ship ahead of them.

The science officer responded "Angermanland originally comes from Terra and was an ancient ally of us and the Incognitians. Maybe they'll remember the shared history we have"

The captain mused for a second and ordered a quiet yellow alert. there was no point in tipping their hand if there was trouble.

Eljara was good at her job, fortunatly, and so picked out the one signal amoung all the various frequencys that a reply could be on. no small feat,there were thousands, at least. the tech helped of course.

"captain, a responce."

"good, patch it through"

Angerman com systems were interesting. the bridge, much like it did not have a single main screen, also did not have a single main speaker system. instead, each station had tightly focused speakers. if you weren't sitting in the chair, you'd have to be standing right next to it and leaning over to hear anything at all.


"AC/ES Wraith, this is the TIS Leilani of Terror Incognitia. We are on a...sort of survey mission ourselves. What chance of co-operating?"



"reply, same frequency and language. set them as standard for communication with the Leilani." he turned slightly to look at the man at the healm console "Lenarod, ahead, if you please, slowly. we don't want to worry anyone. bring us into a more conviniant position relative to the Leilani. conveniant for shuttles and shields, that is. we don't want to aim weapons at them. might consider it threatening."

"aye sir"

"ready for responce sir"

"right." Eujen keyed his own console to begin

"sorry about the delays. lots of things to orgnize, you know? anyway, we can help you out in this system... after that, well, it depends where you're headed and what your doing, and how that alignes with our own mission. who are your friends, by the way? they do not seem to be responding to our hails."

"sorry about the delays. lots of things to orgnize, you know? anyway, we can help you out in this system... after that, well, it depends where you're headed and what your doing, and how that alignes with our own mission. who are your friends, by the way? they do not seem to be responding to our hails."

"Good. We are searching this system for a ship of mass signature and chemical composition given in the files sending now. If we don't find it here, we will be continuing to other systems to search for it.
Our friends can speak for themselves, as I'm sure they will in their own good time."

As he spoke the flotilla began fanning out to scour the system.

Captain Nakamura took the chance and sent a visual signal to the Angermanland ship.

"this is Captain Nakamura of the NKS Katana. We are members of the Kirisuban Exploration fleet and allies of the Incognitians"

The Commonii sat quietly. A simple probe scan followed the signal stream to its source. It was simple to tap into the stream copying the information directly into the wetware of the ship brain. The AI opened itself forming into what looked like a small hologram of a fox with a hunting cap. The AI said, "I can feel them sweeping the systems for presences. It yipped slightly."

"hummm. allies are always good. i'll have my people get to work on those files shortly. judgeing from the faces my com officer is pulling, i get the feeling they're not in one of the computer languages our systems like just now. easily fixed, i hope.

incidently... are either of you picking up some rather odd gravitational distortions? appart from our engines, that is, i know they can mess up grav sensors that aren't set to compensate for them."

Eujen turned adjusted a control on his console, then spoke to the bridge crew.

"full spectrum sweep. the whole system and two AU beyond. check the readings against eachother. ready the missile despensers, but don't open the ports yet. set the engines to combat/stationary mode."

a chorus of "aye sir"s responded.

"one never knows weither what lurks in the shadows is a rock, a mouse or a tiger, after all."

Captain Nakamura shook her head and replied "so far we haven't that up on our sensors. When you find something can you inform us?"

"can do." Eujen adjuseted the settings so as to speak to the Incognitians as well "we're detecting gravitational anomalys, as i said. we're going to check it out. doesn't involve leaveing the system, so we're still around if you need us. Eujen out."

deactvateing the com, he began issueing orders "all systems to ready. weapons on standby, engines to full. like i said, we're going to investigate that anomaly."

ooc: the sensor anomaly being the Fox ai ship thing... kinda hard to be "quiet" on a grav-sensor :)

For a few moments your sensors pick up an anomaly a very small area about the size of a three meter long cylinder. It is moving much too fast to be a normal asteroid. Then it disappears seeming to sink out of existence.

OOC: We have a cloaked sensor package sticking out of phase space which your ship might pick up in real space. It is kind of like a periscope sticking out of extradimensional phase space. Not very likely to find.

For a few moments your sensors pick up an anomaly a very small area about the size of a three meter long cylinder. It is moving much too fast to be a normal asteroid. Then it disappears seeming to sink out of existence.

OOC: We have a cloaked sensor package sticking out of phase space which your ship might pick up in real space. It is kind of like a periscope sticking out of extradimensional phase space. Not very likely to find.

ooc: like i said, it's kind of hard to hide the gravitational force your ship generates, unless you have a grav drive of some sort, which is a bigger and more obvious distortion. what's actually got their attention, is that the grav sensors say there's something there, while the other things are telling them it's just empty space. i'm assumeing, of course, that your cloaking isn't perfect, as that would just be evil. i never specified the other sensors, did i? fairly standard active/passive radar, IR, and UV, as well as standard optical/radio recievers, and of course radio transmitters. obviously my own gravitational sensors compensate for my drive. anyway, IC time.

IC: the Wraith came to a stop litteraly within kilometers of the point of orogen on the anomaly.

"Captain, there is litteraly nothing there on anything but grav sensors."
"well, it's obviously not a black hole. there wouldn't be a starsystem anymore if it was, and we wouldn't be sitting here. hail them. if there's no responce we'll chuck a missile at it. umm... might want to add that to the hail... in the politest possible fasion... something like..

'anomaly at [give it's location], if you are a ship, please respond or leave within the next ten minutes. in the event that we do not recive a responce, we shall detonate a missile at the point of the anomaly to conferm if there is actually something there, or if it is an effect caused from a distance. our own sensors have already been checked, and it is not a hardware error. i repeate: if the anomaly at [location] is inhabited by sentiant life, drop cloak or leave, Now.'

anyway, cycle that once, frequenceys and languages as before. then start the countdown and cycle it again, at the end of the second cycle, open the ports. at the end of the third, wait one minute then fire the missiles."

"missiles and shields ready. we are good to go."

"comm ready"

"sensors ready. we'll monitor the effect of the missiles' detonation, as well."

"engineering confurms accuracy of sensors."

"verywell. begin transmition."

"aye sir"

"oh... and, umm, warn our friends of potentual weapons detonations."

"on it"

The ship moved to a new point in phase space. A thin sensor antenna slid out of phase space into real space. They would not be picking up any incoming signals. Ah, many heavy density materials. It moved into the area with lots of different types of dense materials, asteroid fields. Then the sensor package slid back into real space like a periscope, a hologram formed around it looking much like a big chunk of rock. Typical aggressive reactions. Threaten what you don't understand. They AI of Reynart the Fox chuckled slightly. Odyysseuss Cruonis recorded the actions of the Angerman ship. Then he reached out to the captain, his hand resting on the matrix stone, it amplified the resonance of his thoughts many times over.

"Why do you insist on violence. We are here to observe, not interfere. To be oserved is to interfere." The telepathic voice echoed with a slight reverberation like the resonance of an ampliflier.

OOC: This would be similar to a matrix stone, used in a Darkovan Laran tower (psi amplifier). AKA: Marion Zimmer Bradley. It is amplified telepathy. So it sounds a little odd in the Captains mind.

If you had a weigh of looking into extradimensional space, you might pick up the ship in a distorted fashion. It is riding the area between real space and extradimensional space, out of phase. Normal space sensors would pick up the sensor package.

There might be a slight wake trail from sensor package that is sticking out of phase space. The sensor package would be cloaked so it would be picked up as a slight gravimetric anomaly about 3 meters long. The cloaking is not perfect, just kind of hard to follow given the motion and speed of the ship. When picked up by scanners, the sensor package was lowered back into phase space, then redeployed at a new location. (the asteroid fields).

ooc: is that ment to be telepathic communication with the capitain, or some sort of manipulation of reality/ electronic signals that results in audiable sound?

"Eujen, we've been picking up - to use my sensor officer's phrase - 'funny little fishiesss', largely in grav waves.
Nothing definite, but we're still looking. He narrows it down a little every time it appears."

A few moments later
"Interestingly, with triangulation from our other vessels we make it to be a small anomaly...in terms of metres...approx your current location. From size it can't be a ship, from movement it looks like one. Tread carefully."

Realizing that we will be found if we follow this route, we try a classic maneuver. The sensor pod marks a spot where there is no obvious ship or sensor coverage behind a large moon in the asteroid field. The pod is lowered into the ship. The ship dives fully submersed into phase space then surfaces on the other side of the moon phasing into normal space. It looks exactly like a big chunk of rock, among many other chunks of rock designed to blend in with asteroid, planetary rings or oort cloud materials. Hopefully, its sensor shielding will make it look like any other piece of rock. It cuts its field drive and floats.

Hopefully we will be able to sit quietly and observe.

The Katana and the Sapporo move out and scan the area ahead of them and continue with the original mission.

"Eujen. Seems clear we have company, and shy company at that.

My suggestion is that we leave it. Just keep a watchful eye."

A shuttle detached from the Leilani a few minutes later, and went over to the Wraith. It was carrying material entangled with a block of similar material on the Leilani...to ensure secure communications. The capabilities of these others were unknown, so it seemed prudent.

The other Incognitian vessels were already thus equipped, and beginning to search the system.

"got it" was the short responce.

the shuttle was docked in a port to the rear of the Wraith, as the grav fields there were less turbulant when it was not in motion

he then touched another key, and continued
"Enjiner-Kommander Phindon, meet the incongnitians at their shuttle. they have some hardware for you. get some comm-techs to help out, it's their department."

"aye."

"all right, pholkix, keep track of that anomaly, tell me if it does anything interesting, but otherwise ignore it. we're on search and record duty here. close ports, engines to standby, sensors running on active and full power. you know the drill. i'll be in the gym if you need me"

and with that he left the bridge. this was not such a bad thing as it might be on another ship, as almost any console could be converted for most uses simply by inputting the correct codes. the bridge it's self only existed because it was found that the crew functioned better when they could talk to one another directly, and because it was the easiest way to armour the command area.

ooc: i'd still like to know what kind of communication the fox ship was useing there. i was going to respond to it, at least by way of action... but i couldn't work out an apropriate responce. oh yeah. and "pholkix" is litteraly "folks"

The entangled block was fairly simple to connect up; treated as a 'black box' technology, the outputs were pretty basic.
It was currently only connected to the one in the Leilani. With care, it could be connected to others...as long as they were physically in close proximity - on a scale of metres.

the Katana and the Saporro stay within a light year of each other as they spread out continuing the search.

As science officers on both ships worked away they were hopeful that they could find what they were looking for.

The communication is telepathy. It is amplified by something called a matrix stone which increases the resonance of the persons brainwaves. It would be direct telepathic communication with the Captain of the Angermanlad ship.

It feels like a pressure against the PT Angermanland's Captains forehead when the telepaht is sending. The message further states, "We do not wish to interfere directly, we wish to remain as observers, to be observed is to change the actions of the people being observed. We are seekers after knowledge and are not heavily armed. I and my companion, the Reinart AI are the sole occupants of this ship. The function of our ship is to scout and observe."

Eujen had gone to the gym as he had said, but was simply stretched out on one of the mats. something had been niggling at his thoughts, makeing concentration difficult. the pain in his forhead wasn't helping either.

and so he lay there, focusing inward. makeing use of mental exercises his people had used for melenia to focus on the task at hand, be that the clear sight needed for stratigy, or the pure and focused rage of the berserk.

"to be observed is to change events" the thought occured to him, and he followed it, countering what he persived as his own mind's thoughts "to observe is also to change events"

"direct interfearance is undesirable" ... this one puzzled him. direct interfearance in what? "indirect interfearance is unpridictable. unpridicted results of interfearance often leads to chaos. chaos is undesireable."

"the schollar is not heavely armed" strange tangents. never the less, they would have a meaning if they were comeing to him in this state. what that was, well... this was why humans have minds. "the schollar is not heavely armed because his abilitys allow him to control those who are. simply makeing armiment unnessisary, but not reduceing the threat presented."

"the anomaly is a scout, it's inhabitants few." "a scout is a precursor to something larger. this makes it a danger disproportionate to it's size, if it is indeed a foe at all."

within his own mind, Eujen reached a point of clear thought. the anomaly required further investigation. for the observer to be observed led to a doubleing in the effectivness of a friendly scout, and to the opertunity to eleiminate a threat if that was indeed what it was.

standing up, he activated the gym consol, set it to his parimiters, then contacted the incognitian and kirisubian ships.

"my friends, i have a question for you. the anomaly is a scout. do we blast it on the assumption that it is a foe, and denighing one's foes information is sound stratigy. or do we atempt again to make contact, on the assumption that it is friendly, and allies are always useful?" he ended the transmision, the continued to himself

"or perhaps, there is a third way....."

unsetting the console, which returned it to the default screen, he returned to the bridge.

"Before we decide on that we would have to find it. My sensor officer is no longer spotting "fishiess" - in other words whoever this is has gone quiet.
My suggestion is that we move somewhere, and watch for followers - much easier than trying to pick out one piece of debris amongst millions."

"On that topic, we haven't picked up anything resembling the object of our search. There is one more point to look at, but possibly we draw out this scout first."

having checked their sectors and found nothing the kirisuban ships returned to the Leilani for further instructions.

"Captain Nordin we haven't found anything so far" Captain Nakamura reports over the view screen.

"that is, of course, up to you, my friend. we'll follow your lead. but know this: there is something Very strange about this whole situation. we don't have enough information to analyze stratigy... but tacticaly where we find ourselves is on the razors edge between disaster and glory. Eujen out."

bump

ooc: i think Incognitia is somewhat awol for the moment. holidays or something, i dunno. he proofs my fics, and i'm reasonably sure i sent him the latest chapter some days ago. still no responce.

so yeah, i'm guessing he's unavailable. i just haven't said anything due to lack of anything to say. consider this a secondary bump :)

OOC: Guys, I can only apologise. I've been fairly busy, and haven't actually logged into NS for...some time. Whole long list of reasons, but upshot of it is I doubt I'll be posting regularly before September, and even that's no guarantee.

"that is, of course, up to you, my friend. we'll follow your lead. but know this: there is something Very strange about this whole situation. we don't have enough information to analyze stratigy... but tacticaly where we find ourselves is on the razors edge between disaster and glory. Eujen out."

OOC: If anyone's still interested, that is.

IC: "Done in this system Captain."
"Right, RV round the transfer point."
"Aye-aye sir."
The flotilla gathered ready to move on. To the allied vessels the message went
Next system, co-ordinates given. Keep eyes for any followers.

Captain Nakamura set a course for the next co-ordinates and the Katana and Sapporo jumped into warp heading there.

soon they would arrive and could continue the search.

OOC: If anyone's still interested, that is.

IC: "Done in this system Captain."
"Right, RV round the transfer point."
"Aye-aye sir."
The flotilla gathered ready to move on. To the allied vessels the message went
Next system, co-ordinates given. Keep eyes for any followers.

ooc: well, this is me retaging the thread :D

IC: the Wraith's drives were spun up to full speed, charged to full power, and angled correctly to begin driving the ship forward at the speeds required to enter the higher bands of reality. a message went out
"got it. we'll see you there in... a week, probibly. give or take a couple of days, anyway."
shortly there-after there was a gravitational distortion, best described as a flash, as the Wraith reangled it's grav screws for grav stream travel and pushed over the boundry into the first band.

"Ok, they're gone. Move out people, and keep an eye out in our wake."

"ETA in 170 hours Captain."

"Very good. And a smooth jump as well - excellent."

Arriving in the system, the small flotilla began quartering it for any sign of a vessel. Ten reasonably promising sites were identified, and three even had objects consistent with ship wreckage. This would be interesting.

a little later the Kirisuban ships arrived and picked a search pattern staying one light year apart just as before.

OOC: A little meaning a month or so :P

IC: "Ok, we're nearly done. Just the one left. According to the simulations it's the most promising one, but we shall see soon enough."

Captain Nordin was checking this one personally...