NationStates Jolt Archive

"Commodore, the planet is now ours." A young officer in a suit of steel-gray and death black said from the darkness in low monotone.

"Good, good. We're well ahead of schedule, Lieutenant. What of our losses though?" An old man replied while looking down at the surface of a world torn by a devastating war that had lasted no more than a day.

"On their side, ten million combat level personnel, and two-hundred million civilians. Our own troops suffered ten thousand casualties in men, and about twenty thousand pieces of various combat equipment. Most of this being owed to friendly fire, technical problems, and incomplete battlefield data in certain areas where the enemy was allowed chance to counter-attack, though the occurrence of that event was extraordinarily low." Lieutenant Ba'theu said while reading off a summarized theatre report from a rusting, silver datapad.

"Well within projected tolerances, it seems. Congratulate the men, then tell them that stage two is about to commence. I expect that non shall be caught with their pants down when we begin, this time." Commodore Andrau said sternly, scratching lightly the thick mustache of ash, matching the thick hair that still resided atop a constantly furrowed brow. His cobalt blue eyes continued to stare off into the blue abyss of ocean and sea that dominated the ocean world the Hegemony had tasked him to take by force of arms.

"Of course. Glory to the Hegemony." Ba'theu said bowing with his fist over his heart, leaving quickly with an officer's grace.

Andrau sat down into his black leather chair bolted into the ground, swiveling around towards the window with a cup of Irish coffee in his hand, sipping lightly, appearing totally indifferent to the events unfolding in front of him.

Weapon ports open, turrets whine silently into position, warheads arm, and laser lenses point their gaze towards the planets surface, all targeting various areas of the conquered world with advanced warfare computers aboard the Hegemonic vessel.

This occurs simultaneously aboard each vessel of the mighty war fleet: over two hundred destroyers, one hundred and fifty cruisers, seventy battleships, and twenty dreadnoughts, all lead by one giant command ship, focusing their destruction towards the same stellar body they had subjugated hours earlier.

Nuclear and anti-matter missiles dash force, ahead of the burning red forms of kinetic slugs ripping through a ravaged atmosphere, also burning from the heat of terrawatt-scale laser fire. All cutting large swaths of destruction into an already desolated land.

Cities evaporated in moments; once beautiful islands were now nothing more than pits of ash being filled by oceans and seas that all boiled from the heat. Continents cracked, split, and crumbled into giant calderas of magma. The assault lasted for several hours, though all life had ended after the first five minutes: a billion souls now lost for all eternity by the Hegemony’s fierce bombardment.

Yet, not all native to that world had perished: A billion or so more remained alive.

Taken up into civilian detainment transports to watch their planets demise; not long after the last armed resistance movements had been squashed from orbit by superior military firepower, and after most cities had been secured by occupationary forces which had manage to convince them to surrender before hand; burning entire countries to nothing from orbit several times before demanding surrender.

Once the humanoid populace succumbed to reason, millions of foot soldiers, and thousands of assault suits stormed the countryside to round up the young and able bodied. As well as those fit to bear many children. The rest were left without so much as a word. The Hegemony forces departed then, adding to the awkwardness of the moment; leaving behind a world of charred and mangled ruin too abhorrent for words to describe.

Now, all that remained was that kidnapped billion, forced to watch as rose after rose ever chroma of the spectrum, bloomed in the atmosphere; a wreath of nuclear fire for a world that had died too soon.

Many wondered why they were being forced to witness this, though that much was obvious to those with enough wits about them to analyze the situation: they were being made to fear their new masters, who would have the entire lot of them working in factories, and trained as soldiers to help fuel the Hegemony of Niiatar's expansion into space. A tactic that the empire had been using since expansion started: assault and plunder a weak and relatively young world, barely capable of defending itself, and then moving on. Everything of value was taken immediately to be used to facilitate later expansion.

The strategy had worked wonderfully thus far: ten worlds had thus far fallen by the sword of this new empire, and more would later follow. Yet, for now, the Hegemony's primary concern was now deciding as to which system they would attack next, as well as hoping that none had witness this current event, and wished to interfere in their efforts.

Ships began to patrol the area, and scanner buoys were also deployed, as well as long-range probes and scout ships to detect any sort of activity from up to several light-years away. Every dimension was caressed by these searching hands of energy, from those of such insignificance that their existence was only a formality in the grand scheme of things, to those of such unfathomable importance that this universe at current could not see to exist without them. Though, this did not make detection of interlopers a certainty; no technology is perfect.

(Bump)

In the midst of the massive fleet, a single ship faded into existence. The 120 meter destroyer simply was as it Emerged from T-Space into Real Space. The first alarm sounded as the sensors in the Battlefleet registered the vessel’s gravimetric signature, one as massive as a small star. The second was when the power levels were detected. They were near the upper range of the scale.

Giving them a moment to recover from their shock, a message was sent from the tiny ship.

“Damn inefficient of you.”

The ebon destroyer remained motionless, it’s purple shields faintly flickering, surrounded by the Battlefleet.

It is a valley of dreams, betwixt a mountain range of hope, and optimism that has never known a cloudy day.

As it pertains to things done by sentient beings, there exist only two kinds of action: those predicated upon logic and intelligence, and those which are not. Landing a ship of any size and power level, into the middle of a war fleet on high alert, falls into the latter type. In fact, it can best be described as thoughtless or careless in this situation; a sentiment everyone aboard the Tyr class Battleship NSN Arnioth most definitely shared.

This of course after the bout of confusion that ran rampant throughout the TacOps stations on every ship of the Niiatar Star Navy in the area. Power levels indeed indicated that not dissimilar to a small star, and its mass being just as impressive. An anomaly of supernatural origin some thought at first, but their thoughts were soon rendered irrelevant as Commodore Andrau took control.

"A ship is it?" He asks despite knowing the answer already.

"Yes, Commodore, a powerful one at that." His TacOps officer, Braane Ordath, replies quickly from his station.

"Indeed. Yet it is only one ship, one ship that has knowingly violated our territory as evident by the message they have graced us with." The Commodore says grinning as he walks in front of the storm of bloody grid lines, and small gold icons, which conglomerated into a holosphere of tactical information pertaining to ships and their locations. He looks over the area not highlighted by a digital cube, emphasizing an area of interest that receives a great deal more attention from the scanners and sensors than any other.

"Yes Commodore, just one ship. Deep space scanners reveal nothing more thus far." Braane says with the same grin spread across his pale face.

"All ships, fire at will. These interlopers shall pay for their impudence!" Andrau exclaims sternly; his words being relayed instantly through the fleets NATcom system, to the waiting ears of starships barons and TacOps officers.

Firing solutions are soon devised in a fraction of the time it took Andrau to give his orders. Weapons from each ship within effective firing range is trained on the Balroggan ship; unleashing a furious gale of fire almost in the same instant. The burning gaze of gamma ray and photonic laser lens’ focus upon the area with pinpoint accuracy, while kinetic munitions lance through space at about a quarter light speed, transforming into oblate spheroids of twilight fire. Nuclear and Anti-matter missiles and torpedoes add to the silent cacophony of destruction, hitting high fractions of light speed. They honed in erratically, dancing an insane dance of chaos before detonating in a furious inferno every hue of blue and red. Spinally mounted particle cannons also join the party of destruction, charging up succinctly before shattered space with their morphing forms of rust and azure.

Defensive systems also readied themselves for action; auto-cannons connected to over clocked targeting computers looking to the void for incoming threats, whilst the blitzfire coils composed themselves for action as well.

“Be sure, Ser Braane, that if some sort of backup arrives for our doomed visitor, that the fleet is not caught off guard.” Andrau says, making for his command chair in the center of the step-layer designed bridge, wanting to be comfortable for events that might soon transpire beyond this short battle.

“Aye, Commodore.” Braane says in response, relaying orders to the fleet commanders to keep an eye open.

Braane let the dispatched patrols stay where they were for now; there was no need to divorce them from their duties due to the intrusion of a single ship. Scanner buoys received an increase in power from the photon streams of nearby ships, while other ships were ordered to spread out into three defensive formations around the fleet, and another was ordered into a defensive position within the fleet, incase another ship, or group of ships, decided to pop into existence in the midst of the NSN war fleet. Everyone else was to remain as they were when the firing had stopped, only now with more power fed to their weapons.

Meanwhile, the captured inhabitants were not made aware of this new development; Armoured plating had covered the view ports completely, and NIAF personnel were under order not to say a word to any of them. Though they said nothing of the displaced and kidnapped people communicating amongst themselves.

“We gotta do somethin’!”

“Yeah? What? These guys ended our whole fucking world in a day man, what can we do?”

“I duno, but something other than standing around!”

Conversations such as this went unobserved throughout the various prisoner holds in the detainment ships. That is not to say they were not watched, just that there were no ears other than their own listening to the conversations, as in truth, they could discuss ways in which to free themselves till time as it was know stopped; it mattered not as the chance of their plans realistically working if someone implemented, was so insignificant that it was not worth considering. Though, that, like so many other things in the universe, was not absolute.

“Captain, they have been stunned by our appearance. Their reaction seems to be hesitant.”

“Excellent, as soon as you read their weapons ready to fire, Uplift. Their beam weapons will produce a painful reminder of friendly fire. Plot a course for the command ship and scan for any large bays. Keep The Phantasm jumping about their fleet until you get a reading of any space inside their monster ship that could fit us. If not, keep harrying them.”

“Sir, they are resolving targeting solutions. Uplifting.”

The destroyer faded away as it made the Transition into T-Space. Moments later the horrendous vortexes of energies crossed where the ship was to carry on to the unfortunate victims of friendly fire opposite the firing vessels.

“Weapons, I want a targeting laser to strike the bridge of the command vessel each time we Emerge. There will be no other weaponry other than that.”

”Yes Sir, resolving and calculating target based upon our movements so it will automatically synched before we Emerge.”

“Do we have a target inside their vessel yet?”

“Negative, still scanning. Unknown if there is a viable space that is unoccupied.”

“Take us to the next position and have us Emerge into Real Space. Be ready to flicker out ASAP.

Again, The Phantasm faded into existence near the command ship. The gravimetric signature and energy levels were suddenly flooding the sensors, throwing distortion into the targeting systems not given the valuable minutes for recalibrations. A single targeting laser “spotted” the command bridge before the ship again faded away. Another singular message was left echoing through the airwaves.

Know thy enemy

Interceptor Destroyer (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v248/beldragos/interceptor.jpg)

While indeed, friendly fire is a major concern to terrestrial forces, in space, it is far less so. For one thing, there is much more space for maneuvering in an empty void, and ships are not limited to a two-dimensional plane of existence. So in this case, only a few warships were in any serious danger of taking damage from friendly fire from the small degree of kinetic ordnance that could not be dodged ahead of time or shot done by the active defense systems on each ship, which had the relevant targeting data available ahead of time due to the incoming munitions being of friendly origin, and the energy-based weapons that managed to make it through these clouds of plasma created by the destruction of kinetic ordnance in front of them, both dumb slug, remotely detonated missile, and torpedo. Still, several ships received damage, ranging from light to critical, and in the case of certain frigates, life-ending.

"Incoming fire!" Various TacOps officers say, almost in unison, on each NSN ship.

“Evade, evade! Counter with point defense systems!” Various captains respond in turn.

“I expected that they might have been planning something such as this, though I never anticipated that they would be able to move this quickly, so I discounted the possibility.” Andrau says from his seat, staring into orderly fleet that had turned entirely chaotic on the tactical holosphere.

“Yes, Ser, they are tagging our vessels with some sort of targeting laser, the observation deck in fact.” Braane said after a few moments of analyzing the information collected from the sensor systems from other NSN ships too far away to be affected by the disturbances caused by the close presence of the Balroggan vessel, something that was normal for Niiatar forces, from dual ship patrols to warfleets such as this; sharing sensor information through heavily encrypted and secure channels incase something had happened to any one ships detection systems.

He stands up and walked towards the digital representation of the intruder that has so disrupted his operation. “Probably believe it to be the bridge. Granted my office is up there, and contains trinkets and other valuables that mean much to me, and would be utterly devastating if they were to be lost, yet no matter; what much be done must be done.” The old Commodore says as his eyes run along each ghostly icon.

While it was traditional in some design cultures to have vital systems, such as the bridge, so easily exposed to enemy fire, the same was not true of Niiatar ships, which were built with utility in mind: they were big, tough, heavily armed, and survivable. What the Balroggans were currently hitting, with great accuracy indeed, was an observation deck. The bridge was encased in layer, after layer, after layer of Armour plating near certain junctions of power distribution, which made accurately targeting the bridge nigh impossible unless one had a great amount of time on their hands, and if the ship just let them do it without reprisal.

“Have all ships throw up inhibitor fields, full power, in fact order them to divert power from non-critical systems into the inhibitor generators; I don’t want that ship going anywhere ever again.” Andrau says, now pacing about the bridge at rapid pace. “Also, only have ships target and fire upon the enemy vessel, that will not be doing so from a vector that bisects our own vessel. As far as that goes, back away full speed, and have the siege turrets fire upon the vessel with targeting data gathered from the scanner buoys, and all the other ships close enough to collect accurate information. Don’t forget to dump all power from every weapon other than siege into the shields and armor! Go, go!” He continues with great urgency.

“Sir.” Braane says in a tone that makes one think he is totally oblivious to the goings on around him, focusing so intently on the order the Commodore had given him, and carrying them out as quick as was physically possible.

Weapon’s fire lanced towards the Balroggan ship from a great deal fewer angles than before, now from just those vectors that would not hit the Arnioth in the event it somehow managed to escape, an action nearly impossible now due to the all-encompassing inhibitor fields that made escaping the bindings of physics that prevented faster-than-light travel, rather impossible. All this while the battleship retreated back from the extremely dense ship with massive kinetic siege-cannons that were swiveling their great maws of destruction towards the obsidian warship using targeting data gathered from friendly sources outside the affects perturbing the reversing ship’s own sensor systems.

It would take a few moments for the cannons to fire; unfathomable levels of electromagnetic power fire needed charge within each cannon, engulfing them in turquoise hurricanes of sheet lightning that caressed a three-hundred ton kinetic round in the loading chamber. After those few moments, in which time itself seemed to warp, and the physical properties of the universe as they were known appeared to change due to the unheard of levels of electromagnetic forces in the area, a dumb slug would move out of the barrel of each twin-barreled cannon at three-quarters the speed of light, which also aided the seemingly besieged ship in its retreat.

The rest of the fleet was busy reorganizing in as fast a fashion as was possible, without causing more disruption by being rash. Now though, the fleet as a whole would be broken up into many fleets that were quickly dispersing throughout space above the planet, with defense systems still armed and weapons still ready.

Deep T-Space:

“Sir, it appears they are spreading their ships out.”

“I see they are capable of learning from their actions. Remain in T-Space for a few moments to see what they do.”

”Yes Sir. There does not appear to be any empty spaces large enough for an insertion.”

“Scratch that idea. I suppose now that we have them riled up, we better give them something to destroy so they can get to sleep tonight. Use the data gathered from analyzing their weapons to plot a course outside their range and take us there. Then begin generating an Avatar Vessel of The Phantasm. We will use that to make contact with them to see if they are willing to learn from us or if they are just trigger happy brutes.”

“Yes Sir.”

Several long minutes later the lone ship reappears just outside extreme long range. A message is sent.

Are you ready to talk yet or do you still want to dance some more?


OOC:

I am not ever exceeding the speed of light so the FTLi would not apply. Please check your TGs.

OOC: Uhm... perhaps I should have been more specific, but FTLi is somewhat, suppossed to stop the rapid movements of ships from one universe to another (hyperspace, the warp, blah) so that fights don't degenerate down into something resembling wahck'a-mole with super lasers. So yeah, I have an issue with the flitting about from place to place at whim.

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=505894 <--- OOC thread

OOC:

FTLi is supposed to be drive type specific so people cannot use it to counter a type of drive they have never seen before. Hyperspace is countered by Gravity, ect... There is a way to inhibit my drives but you have to discover it ICly instead of tossing about a blanket FTLi expecting it to counter everything you encounter.

That takes the fun out of it, especially in the quest for the discovery of a way to counter a ship that you couldn't before.

But if you want to call it quits, then please let me know and I will go away.

Away from the battle...away from the massacre...away from the mass cacophony of parallel races slaughtering each other...at the fringes of the Milky Way Galaxy, someone was watching with great intent...

The planet had no name. If it was ever discovered by Terrans or any other race, it would have probably been named after a god of death. This world was a dead one, devoid of all life and all beauty. Massive siroccos would periodically engulf the entire planet in a monstrous curtain of sand and searing winds, covering and tearing through all signs of civilization. Temperatures would range from −140 °C at night to 80 °C in the daytime. Even the atmosphere was deadly; the majority of the air was Hydrogen Cyanide.

But even on this barren planet, there lay one creature. It stood tall at about 6’ 3” with what appeared to be a tattered sand poncho. The creature was grotesque, with scars and open wounds covering its body. Even some bone and tissue was exposed. Yet it felt neither pain nor agony of the sand and wind tearing at its fragile flesh.

The nameless one moved gracefully through the monstrous sirocco like a dancer in the wind. It continued upwards a mountain on the planet. There it stood amongst the sandstorm, looking upon its damned kingdom. The creature began to meditate. The howling winds became the chants for the nameless one’s meditation as its astral body left the planet, searching for any disturbance in the universe.

It did not take long to locate the fleet attacking the planet. They had decimated the entire planet and were herding the populace aboard their starships like cattle to the slaughter. The nameless one continued to stare upon this new race, pondering his races quandary. These people were taking entire races that the nameless one needed to survive. It knew that they wouldn’t stop until their so-called empire had the entire galaxy under its thumb.

The creature awoke. It knew what had to be done, yet feared the consequences of this act. He raised his staff and arms. The sandstorm began to quell rapidly. Its eyes closed as it succumbed into its own thoughts.

Beneath the surface of the planet there was a colossal latticework of catacombs encircling the entire planet. These catacombs contain millions upon million of sepulchres, each keeping something inside in chronogenic stasis. Across the underworld, a sickly crimson lightning bolt flashed throughout the cables that connected all of the tombs. One by one, each sepulchre shutdown the chronogenic generators and opened. One by one, grotesque creatures stepped out of these metallic coffins. Each monster resembled walking cadavers, strolling what seemed aimlessly through the catacombs of the planet. But the Cadavers had a purpose: Exhumation.

Above the surface, the ground began to tremble as massive monoliths began protruding from the ground. Across the globe more and more monoliths and obelisks were exhumed by these undead workers. Pyramids and even cities rose from the earth from eons of slumber. The creature soared above as the mountain collapsed, revealing an enormous mausoleum surrounded by a vast array of obelisks. The creature landed in front of the mausoleum and walked in.

“Mausoleum System Analysis,” it commanded with a fierce voice.

“Systems are 50% operational. Crematorium Caverns are active. Chambers are now fully operational. Gauss Iota Flux Batteries are offline. Arc Drives are offline,” replied the computer.

“This will do for now. Commence with the assembly of some Homunculi,” it ordered. Homunculi were the only soldiers they could create without the use of carcasses from other races.

He turned to the screen to see the countless obelisks arising, all preparing for launch. The monoliths began terraforming the planet to stop the sandstorms from wreaking havoc. All was well now, it thought. It would soon be time to stop this new menace. Even if it meant reviving my race…

Away from the battle...away from the massacre...away from the mass cacophony of parallel races slaughtering each other...an ancient race had awakened…

OOC I guess this is another thread dead...

The stars of the Braun group in her own universe had been eerily beautiful, just as the stars around this system were. But that was all gone now, and her memory of it remained the only hint that it had ever been. Amethyst's sensors could see this whole plain as time unfolded, from the tiniest speck of matter to the most gigantic of stellar bodies, the vast galaxy clusters that lurked within the black depths of infinity.

Justice was a concept she was never supposed to be able to comprehend. In her mind, it was an invention of her chief programmer, Salazar, as he had watched the soldiers of the Ascended One torture his wife and daughter to death in front of his eyes to 'motivate' him. Motivate him it had, but not in the way He had wished it to. That had been why she'd...

No. The memory was still too recent, the wound far, far too fresh to poke at. Still, she felt that there was still some duty of hers to atone for what she had done, no matter how little she could do to balance the sheer magnitude of her crime.

Space briefly shimmered close to the Hegemony's fleet as the immense form of the Amethyst appeared, glittering slightly in the starlight. Close was a relative term, of course; she was several tens of millions of miles from the nearest vessel, believing that to be quite threatening enough.

The methods of the Hegemony fleet put her in mind of the Galactic Standard Pattern vessels of the Ascended One as they had enforced his rule...Less ruthless, in many ways. There were survivors, and the planet, thought lifeless and devastated, remained whole. There was hope, however small, of another way.

And yet her own vast frame was a reminder of how this kind of power could end, almighty and unchallenged, past any care of pity or remorse until arrogance led them down a path where they, too, created a weapon far beyond their control or comprehension.

Wars begin and wars end, but beyond them all is a war that never began and will never end. This is the war that is, nothing can ever change that.

They saw her. The twelve and a half miles of her hull soon felt the touch of every kind of sensor at their disposal, and she allowed each of them their returns, to report what they may. Were they to appreciate it, they would see not just that she was a lone, powerful warship, but also a work of truly staggering elegance and beauty. Now sure of the workings of this universe being similar to her own, she felt no fear regarding what they may find; her emissions presently rather modest, and well in line with what the Hegemony would expect for a ship her size.

She, who should have been the crowning glory of the empire of the Ascended One, for whom whole star systems had been rendered down to swirling gases for the rarest of trace elements, would wait for their words to reach her. Not so long ago she would have acted by now, but the truly appalling price she had paid for her last action of that kind made her hold.

"Commander, something... big has just appeared on sensors, in sector forty-four." A TacOps officer says with a serious tone of nervousness. The young white-haired man runs his pale fingers across his holoconsole in a tense manner.

"How big?" The middle-aged commander Boff Manto replies inattentively from his seat.

"Bigger than one of our Tyrs, Sir."

"What?!" Boff yells, in an agitated as well as startled tone that finds itself permeating the voices of every Niiataran captain, or commander in the fleet, resonating through the utilitarian and industrial styled designed command bridges of every ship.

"Commander, it's big, and quite powerful if our sensor readings, and those from every other ships in our fleet, are correct." TacOps Morrisaen replies in as cool and calm a manner as he can while his steel blue eyes carefully but quickly go over all the data being presented to them over the holocon.

"So it's a warship?" The commander rises from his seat and approaches Morrisaen's tactical station with a look of seriousness painted across his rugged face.

"Yes, most definitely, and of most elaborate design as well."

"So first some STC hoppers and now this..." Boff says in a low tone, "How far is it?"

"Thirty Million Lockes, and holding."

Everything is suddenly silent on the bridge of the Thor class destroyer, NSN Krieggreifer, and every other command bridge in the whole fleet, from gunboats to battleships. First there comes from the hidden dimensions a suicidal ship of small size of great power, and now from the unknown depths of the metaphysical, another ship appears, this time far away, appearing to be without violence in intent.

"We're the closest then." The Commander goes back to his chair and reclines, "Get permission from Commodore Andrau for our group to investigate this vessel's sudden appearance." The bridge becomes active again, with the NavOps officers conferring with those on other ships in the groups, plotting course models based on the information collected by TacOps, and analyzed by the ever-busy SciOps officers, who were as of now doing their best to interpret all data gathered on the immense new warship.

"We have a go, Task Force Leo will be taking our place." Mooisaen says, looking up sharply from his console towards the holosphere dominating the center of room, a cloud of fluorescent light the hue of gold, emanating from a lens built into the floor about the size of small boulder, calculating and displaying the present existence and course of all known ships in the system.

Boff shifts his chair slightly to the right, staring at the same area of space within the blazing holosphere as Morrisaen was: the region of space beholden to the new ship laying quietly, far away. "Alright then: tell the Leo boys we wish them luck, and have all ships in the task force ready to fall out in the next thirty-seconds. We going in weapons hot, shields up, and inhibitors ready; I want no more repeats of the earlier disaster."

"Aye, Commander."

Thirty seconds later, all ten ships: four Ymir class frigates, three Otr class light-cruisers, two Noroi class missile tugs, and the Thor class heavy-destroyer, vanished in a silent of explosion of pulsating energy, a morphing storm cloud chroma of cobalt and violet, that persisted for only a few brief seconds

A dimension where space and time warp into a twisting conflagration of surreality: Gravity does not exist; stars and galaxies are but shadows of their true selves in reality, and vortices of light and electromagnetic storms exist almost everywhere.

The group of ships navigates this world with great caution, though their time here is almost infinitesimal: just as soon as they enter this hidden dimension, they exit again. Manifesting back into reality in the same short-lived storm that saw them leave, appearing to fall out of some invisible plane from above at incomprehensible speed.

“I hate that shit.” Boff says in a disgusted tone, “We should be using that slip-stream stuff the Ralto were developing when we found their green asses.” The commander stands in front of the holosphere, which now depicts the overbearing ship now only a million kilometers away.

“TacOps, relay this message: We are the Niiatar, rightful owners of this system and all therein by right of conquest. You then, are violating our territory, and in doing so risk being subject to the repercussions that are associated with that crime. However, we are not unreasonable: state your intent immediately, and we may be persuaded to be lenient.”

“Aye, sir.” The message was sent verbatim, as officers and lower ranking soldiers did their best to shrug off the dizzying affects of extra-dimensional travel.

((OOC: I've left Balrogga's ship bit vague on purpose till we work out what's going on there.))

OOC Alright, there may be some hope in this thread.

IC

The Obelisks had already been awakened by the Cadavers. These ships were ready for boarding once the Mausoleum and the cities around the world began their assembly of soldiers. Inside, the commander stood at the Mausoleum bridge, stoic and ever watching over the production.

The computer systems spoke, "Arc Drives now operational. Shall I commence with launch?"

"Yes, we have enough bodies to create an entire army for us to stop the Niiatar," he responded. The Crematorius Cavern became active, grabbing corpses from chronogenic stasis and injecting a strange black liquid into the body. The body was then taken through a series of Tachyon Emitters where finally, at the end of the unholy assembly line, the body stood and walked towards the armory.

The palace-like Mausoleum lifted off and hovered above the ground, wait for crew to board the Obelisks.

In truth, Amethyst's status as a warship was only obvious due to her configuration, in particular her sensor density and power distribution; she had no immediately visible weapons whatsoever. With her primary weapon occupying part of the forward section of her hull and her heavy and light Wave Cannons requiring no barrels, she was oddly free of the clutter of barrels, tubes and vents found on the Hegemony warships. Only a closer look would reveal the flush, armoured doors that protected her missile tubes, drone launch bays and the batteries of mass drivers down her flanks, one hundred to a side, all facing directly outwards. It was a curious design feature that might put the Niiatar in mind of an ancient galleon's broadside of cannon.

As far as she was concerned, the ships never vanished at all, instead simply changing slightly to appear in a dimension they normally had no presence in. To a vessel that could see whole other universes, it was a trivial challenge to see what was really only a facet of this one. Still, she watched them approach while taking only the most minor of precautions, idling the immense capacitor banks that fed her heavy Wave Cannons and requesting firing solutions from her twelve subunit targeting AIs. If they became hostile, she would be ready, but she felt there was nothing gained by forcing their hand.

She curiously scanned the incoming ships; for their size, their weapon charges were actually quite respectable even by the standards of the smaller Galactic Standard Pattern warships. While not likely to damage even the weakest point of Amethyst's hull, they weren't something she could afford to simply discount. She also felt the odd sensation of the space around her somehow becoming more solid as they emerged; able to be folded, but not broken. Interesting. So they want me to stay here?

Her reply was in kind: after all, their designers could conceivably have incorporated methods for their own drives to remain unaffected. For twenty million miles in all directions of her hull, the field would serve to keep all vessels in real space and slower than light. Indeed, increasing intensity would actually slow the passage of light itself through the field, though that was hardly necessary.

Language was becoming easier for her to deal with; the cross-pollination of culture inherent in spacefaring species tended to lead to commonalties of speech to work around. Study of the inter-fleet transmissions the Niiatar were sending was useful, too, and building a working knowledge of the language didn't actually take long, now she had some experience with doing so. She felt a ghost of the dead past stir as she processed the short message.

The stars are mine!

If she could, she would shiver at the reminder of the Ascended One's decree. Still, there was none of His malice in this communication, no sense of the creature who had ordered whole sectors in galaxies outside the Twenty be obliterated simply because it amused Him to do so. Unwelcome memories aside, the message puzzled her. Firstly they remove her ability to leave immediately, and then address her for the crime of remaining? Nevermind the sheer strangeness of being asked to provide a reason for being anywhere; that was something she would have to get used to, now that she was here. She was at least thankful they hadn't asked what power she was affiliated with, a question she herself had yet to determine any meaningful answer to.

To the Niiatar, the reply would be virtually instantaneous, with no clue as to the contemplation behind it; 'I wish to observe. My intentions are not hostile.'

"We've had weirder responses, surely. Just never from a ship such as that." Morrisaen said as the response from the immense alien vessel was filtered through the Krieggreifer's vast communications systems.

"Aye." Boff said in a tone that signified his mind was not with his words. There had been a great deal of emotion echoing throughout the bridge, though none-near as bad as Ophelia's lament, confusion, panic, and a general sense of surprise dominated the thoughts of everyone as soon as they were made aware of the Timeship's own FTLi field; an all encompassing field enveloping the Niiatar fleet like Cannae's pincer.

"How should we reply to their message, sir?" Morrisaen asked with incredulous eyes as they sought to discern the meaning of Boff's uncharacteristic silence.

"Bring us closer with sublight engines at half-power, tell the others to do the same. We'll stop when I give the order." He said with the kind of firmness that meant disaster for any who dared question him.

Morrisaen did nothing but follow orders, even through the ocean of glances driven his way by crew members just as confused as he was. "Aye, sir."

"Tell them that the Hegemony of Niiatar orders them to remain where they are, and that we'll be there momentarily to further investigate the situation." Boff retired to his quarters with that, oblivious to the existence of everyone else around him.

He walked over to his cabinet of fine and powerful liquors that hung over a plane ashen counter-top, the same color and utilitarian architecture that made up his room. An expansive area with a pane of glass secured by a forcefield making up the entirety of one wall, the other being engraved by cabinets containing war trophies and paraphernalia, and another sitting right behind his sparsely decorated desk standing in front of the currently inactive holosphere.

"Already, a challenger to the Hegemony." Boff said with a sigh. He sipped from his clear thick-diamond wineglass, while a couch embedded in the in the floor near massive window rose up to offer comfort to Boff's tired legs. He peered out into the ocean of twinkling stars that seemed to sing some silent and incomprehensible song. He had oft tried to listen to that song, trying to discern a meaning different from those of the Holy Seers, who all claimed that they wished to be brought under total control of the Hegemony through force. To no avail. Whatever meaning was behind their constant twinkling, was beyond him.

Soon the stars began to move faster as the Krieggreifer and its battle group advanced quickly towards the timeship, with a plan only Commander Boff Manto knew.

--

"So sure of themselves are they not?" Commodore Andrau said with a thick cigar in hand, exhaling smoke slowly with each breath. Some form of normalcy had returned to the bridge, and for the most part the fleet, after a few minutes or reorganization and recuperation.

"Indeed. What shall we say in response?" Braane said, his fingers rushing across his virtual command console.

"Tell them that a group of ships will be appearing not quite so far from them within the coming minutes, to discuss whatever it is they wish to discuss." Andrau said with a chuckle.

"Done." Braane said with a smile, he didn't know what Andrau planned but he hoped it was good. "Anything else?"

"Send out a message to the captains of the Dying Warlord, the Blitzkreig, the Inferno, and the Kriegzug to ready their engines for a tac-jump. Have the first four charge their shields and stasis generators to full power before warping out towards this 'timeship', while the Kriegzug feigns mechanical failure. Also alert Hurricanes to blanket the area in exotic radiation: I want every ship to have to squint till their eyes bleed before they can get a clear picture of what is going on with us." Andrau said while he starred into the storm of data that had coalesced above the holosphere. Detachments moving away from the fleet in loose formations, while the planet continued to burn in the background. It was glorious.

"Done. Anything else?"

"Ready the fleet for departure while also keeping alert high: in the next day or so we'll be done here, and the Reavers will take over to do the disgusting work they do." Andrau walked to his own utilitarian office, where he grabbed his own glass of alcohol, and drank slowly while staring out into his own ocean of stars, listening for meaning. Nothing. He thought.

(OOC: Back after another debate trip, sorry if it is shorter than it should be, any issues just TG me)