NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: This has nothing to do with Undershi MT/PMT RP-ing... other than the True Undershis etc. being used in both.

The planet Undershi, its dry salt seas and its pale tan deserts, lay bellow, moving slowly through the void. From the Undershi Fleet space station Aleksander, one could almost look down upon it and imagine a fairly peaceful minor world... almost - the massive black splotches, lit up with the lights that marked civilization, stood out - those were the Undershi cities, where over one and a half billion True Undershis lived and labored, in something resembling a grim industrial hell.
Admiral Simon Grunning couldn't help but feel a sense of sorrow, when he looked down at that world bellow - he remembered stories of the Homeworld, long ago... he remembered the stories - virus bombs falling on rebel cities, atomic rings eating millions... he knew about the Great Migration, one hundred thousand True Undershis, flung into space to escape the slave revolts and the resulting chaos...
Now they had a new world, one still sparsely settled, but one that was fully industrialized and militarized, and now waited, waited for some future date when their strength would increase once more, and they would be prepared to move, to act and to achieve what was theirs by right - domination of the universe. They were not ready yet - that much even the most ardent Militarist admited - but they were building up their strength...
A little over one and one half billion people was not a lot, as world populations were concerned - but they had achieved a lot. Most of their industry and agriculture was fully automated, and that freed up a lot of good strong True Undershis to serve in the military or to research... someone had once said that True Undershis were not tillers of the field or laborers in factories, and he had been right - now, however, they used machines to do their work, not slaves...
He looked at the computer screen he had been examining, abandoning his thoughts of destiny to return to his work and to the present. The statistics it showed were promising - three new cruisers would be completed this year, along with eight destroyers. Impressive.
The Undershi fleet tended to rely on heavier craft - why else would they be building a third Dreadnought class Super-Battleship? These new ships would even out the fleet...
It was good, that the Undershi Empire in Exile was gaining strength once more...

Undershi System Asteroid Belt

Senior Captain Hans-Dieter Baumann stood in front of the Command Deck view screen, and watched as the spinal atomic laser of the Dreadnought class Super-Battleship Gilgamesh sent beams of pure destructive force into the asteroids. The Atomic Laser was one of the main weapons of the Undershi fleet - a magnetic bottle, and an atomic bomb... or, for the heavier ones and anti-matter charge... the magnetic bottle would catch the energy of the blast, and send it spewing out to destroy whatever it was targeted against. Like that asteroid, for example... it was really quite impressive, even if the silence of the void deprived it of its full splendor.
The Gilgamesh possessed sixteen spinal Atomic Lasers - each could focus the equivelent of a giga-ton of force into a single deadly beam. The other weapons it relied on were more conventional - eight banks of rail guns, based on the positively ancient Gauss cannon design that had come through the Great Migration with the fleet, and a few particle beam turrets for Point Defense.
The Gilgamesh was a typical Undershi ship where its engines were concerned - standard sub-light and Jump drive both took up a lot of its space... as did computer systems - the Gilgamesh had a crew of one hundred and twenty, but as few as eight men could crew it if they had to... as his thoughts came back to the present, he watched in admiration as the Attack Craft of their sister ship, the Carrier Beowulf, executed a perfect attack run against the asteroid fragments... he'd heard talk of how someday space warfare might go the way of old earth's naval warfare, with Attack Craft replacing battleships... he doubted it, though - you couldn't fit Jump drives into an Attack Craft chassis, you couldn't fit decently powerful Atomic Lasers in either... maybe at some future date - from what he could see, the present was a time for battleships and Super-Battleships like the Gilgamesh.

Lieutenant Senior Grade Abdul Hartzmann stood at attention in front of the massive metal desk, and watched as Imperial Inteligence Colonel Heinrich Khan studiously ignored the man he had called into his office.
Finally, after a suitable show of dominance had been made, he acknowledged his visitor, looking up, and speaking:
"Well... I believe I owe you an explenation of why we have summoned you here, and removed you from your duties back in the Tunnels..." Abdul nodded, a single brisk motion, his genetically modified perfect features showing concern. The Inteligence Colonel returned his nod with a grin, before explaining:
"You see... the Undershi Empire has been an Empire in Exile for too long without contat from the outside world. I want you to take command of a scout ship - the Imperial Undershi Fleet's own scout ship Assassin, along with a crew of five others... and you will take this ship, and scout out the nearby systems. There might, after all, be feral norms about... or aliens." as he added those last two words, he motioned over his shoulder, towards the preserved trophy that hung over his desk - the head and horns of a warrior from the species that had previously inhabited the world the Undershis had settled on. The single-shot musket he had used in battle against the invaders hung beneath his head.
Some of that proud dead warrior's descendants still fought on, living as nomads, little more than vermin... they were all that was left, some paltry hundred thousands, of a race that had once numbered two billion.
When his orders and crew had officially been assigned, and his promotion to the rank of Junior Captain registered, Abdul left the office respectfully, smiling as he did so - soon he would achieve undying fame, as the head of the first Undershi expedition out of their system in centuries... he could only wonder what they would find in the nearby systems...

OOC: Well, well, well. ^_^. Exams are mostly over, for this week. I'll be on our MT RP presently. Also, this is a system near yours. Not your home system, obviously.

Manifest waited. The pain it had suffered was enough to drive it further, and further, to the brink of the madness that threatened it. And, in its madness, it struck. Ships materialised out, into the void, flickers of red and.. blue, intertwined, once-perfect spheres twisted into horrific shapes, squirming under Manifest's supreme will.

It was angry. A single planet. Thousands of teeming lifeforms. Perhaps there were cities. Perhaps they were unintelligent. It didn't matter. The Purpose mattered! To assail all life, and bring it down, despite the cost to oneself.

And so the burning began. Five hundred of the tiny Battlespheres, the miniscule, weak craft that made up the majority of Manifest's forces, preparing flickers of red lightning, shimmering around their surfaces. But they could no longer rightly be named 'spheres'. They merely battled, and the pain Manifest felt was manifest upon them.

The agonising forms took up geosyncronous orbit, slowly moving into the correct positions. And then.. ever so slowly, they fired. And fired again, spurts of red lightning crackling down to the surface. Where it hit, massive detonations of energy appeared, wiping the surface clean of life. Again. And again. And again.

A bombardment of this magnitude would take days, but Manifest.. was prepared to wait. There had been deemed the possibility of a star-faring race near here. Such a thing was unacceptable, now.

Manifest shuddered, as the voices rose up around it. KillKillKillKillKillKillKillKill!, they sung. And it obeyed...

The scout ship Assassin, with its crew of six, materialized in the nearby star system, the energy field of its Jump Drive fading away as it returned to normal space.
Junior Captain Abdul Hartzmann examined the scanner read-outs critically... and shuddered at what he saw - a dead world, only recently scourged from orbit. Something had murdered a world... and he could see it - out there in the void - a fleet of small vessels clustered around a few larger ones. The sight terrified - what were those little ships? That fleet had incinerated a world, reducing its continents to glass and its oceans to poisoned steam... in a moment of clarity, he could see a fleet of ships like those approaching Undershi, brushing aside the assembled might of the Undershi fleet, and reducing another world to death, as it had this one... murdering whatever potential the True Undershi race might have had as it killed their world... such an event could not be allowed to occur - that he resolved grimly as he heard the other crew members whisper in horrified fascination. He spoke loudly, so that he could be heard:
"Alright... we've just seen why scout ships are necessary. Gentlemen, we are going back home... to warn the Fleet about what we have just seen..." as the crew made ready the Jump drive once more, mere minutes after they had first appeared at the edge of the system, he continued:
"Everyone always said this galaxy of ours was filled with evil aliens and feral norms intent on our destruction... it looks like they were right." while the scout ship prepared to Jump, Abdul thought suddenly of the alien warrior's head mounted above Colonel Khan's desk on the Aleksander - would True Undershi battlearmour helms someday adorn alien walls... the thought was too terrifying - he repressed it, and looked at how to escape...

OOC: Are you ok with a minor chase, to add a bit of tension to the escape of your scoutship?

Kill them.

Red lightning lanced out, shattering a tiny group of refugees as you would shatter a glass, again, and again. The main extermination was over. It was merely a clean-up operation, life dying in the thousands. Even with that level of devastation, though, it was conceivable that the planet's ecosystem would recover. Life could flourish once more. And so a final, terrible measure was taken.

Radiation was a catalyst, it was said. A catalyst for change within living beings. Yet the red-lightning of Manifest's craft was merely deadly. It did not do the sheer, unmigitated damage that nuclear weaponry could do. And so another type of beam lanced out. Blue. The misty, wispy blue of Truespace, the energies that had previous slain Manifest.

And, everywhere it touched, a nuclear reaction took place. Fission on a massive scale. Nowhere near massive enough to even remove the crust - but that was irrelevent. It would all but strip away the atmosphere, and leave the planet a burning mass of lava for many, many years. It would suffice.

And, inside the depths of Manifest's mind, another personality arose. The act of creation was previously one that only happened when it willed it - now, it seemed, controlling it was far, far harder. Keeping the energy matrixes of its mind together required endless conscious effort, and, when it failed to keep them together.. new personalities arose.

Who are you?, Manifest asked, tenuously. The lack of control it experienced was frightening. And the personality spoke.

The *submind* has assigned me to restore *sanity* to this region of space. You are failing. I have taken a large section of unsuitable particle with me. You will find it has stabilised your mind.

Yes. Ah. Then you are Bloodied Ending. Or merely Ending. You are the next personality within the Maker-Mind. If you feel the *nexus* that forms the Magnius-Enemy's mind, flee. He has crushed many subpersonalities in the days since his reincarnation. But that is irrelevent. Ending. Take the *hands* here.

There was a life-ship here. I will find it. Farewell, Manifest-Maker.

With that, the intercourse between minds ended, and Manifest let go of the Battlespheres there. It was frightened, still. When it had ascended from the raging madness that composed the Maker-Mind, it had named itself Manifest in honour of what it was. The manifestation of the Maker-Mind's purest ideals, its greatest strengths. And now, it seemed.. it was weakening. Repressing the thought, it moved onwards. The actions it took seemed to be random, now, and directed more by emotion than anything. That was also troublesome...

Well, well, well. I believe it is time to.. find those ships. Ah. There it is.

Ending, the latest personality within the Maker-Mind, moved the Battlespheres forward, utilising their power to move them in a specific direction. Like an unskilled chess player, its control was somewhat clumsy, and organisation was poor.

And then it discovered the rift. A Battlesphere imploded, as it relaxed control of the rift-field that surrounded. The intelligence it had been born with was fading, as it was no longer in contact with the vast repository of information that was Manifest.

And it moved the Battlespheres. It was almost like a game - a game where you had to turn around, and the players behind you had to move, at which point you whirled around, and tried to catch them. Directing the craft through the rift seemed impossible - like feeding a piece of rope through a needle. And then Ending sort of.. shunted them in that direction, and simply didn't sense them.

A tenth of a second later, it looked back. And it saw Battlespheres, clouded around the rear of the enemy scoutship. Ah, mindspeech. Manifest could shatter minds with its progidous powers. Ending, on the other hand.. it spoke. The voice wasn't fear-inspiring, didn't crush minds, and it didn't eat souls. But it did seem to come from nowhere. And that was frightening all on its own..

Hello.

As the Assassin fled towards the homeworld, they heard a voice in their minds - a mere hello. It frightened them - Junior Captain Abdul Hartzmann cringed as he heard it - the universe he had thought he had known, of sanity and rationality, was fading fast... what was that thing?!? Finally, stuttering in terror, he addressed the air about him:
"... who... wh-what are you?!?" even as he did so, he knew he would not like the answer, whatever it was...

OOC: Wasn't your scoutship -preparing- to Jump? As in, it was in the same system as I was? Or did I misread that completely? (If it's back in your system, just ignore that last post.)

OOC: The scoutship was preparing to jump - that's what I meant in that last post.

So the Maker-Mind is moving against these newcomers... I shall have to dispatch a sub-intelligence.

A large ship prominently featuring enormous domes on either side materialised in the space near the battlespheres, followed by a number of smaller vessels, also featuring glowing domes.

Archmage also sent out an ominous message.

Well, well, well... What do we have here? We mustn't let such things go unpunished, can we?

The domes opened up to reveal brilliant blue, crackling energy being suspended in the middle of the ships.

---

Further away, a tiny ship, still equipped with a large dome, materialised slowly into the system. It carefully probed into the Rift, taking what measures it could to avoid its presence being detected.

The scout ship Assassin lept towards the Undershi home system, its Jump Drive engaged, as the fleet that persued them neared. They had much to warn the homeworld of...
As the Jump completed, and real space returned, they immediatly began broadcasting a warning to the space station Aleksander and to the other Undershi ships - something very wrong was heading towards the Undershi star system...

The Sixth exploration fleet had been watching the Undershi for months now, silently probing into their computer banks, tracking ship movments, pondering whether their race was ready for first contact. They had just decided that the it was time to introduce them selves mere minutes before a scout ship they had seen FTL out of the system awhile ago returned, and the message that they were picking up was not a good one. The ships that they discribed matched those of two race's that had been in the Cyveron incident. Other than knowing that the ships were increadable strong the Enclave had no knowlage on them....they didn't enen know who controled them or whether they were allies or enemys. However, it seemed likly that atleast one of them was going to attack the race that they had just marked as potential allies, this could not be allowed to stand!

With an amence flash the fleet left the Warp. It was not a large fleet, consisting of only three small capital ships, but it served its purpose as a light scout/exploror fleet. A simple message was sent off to the Undershi "This is the Farsight Enclave sixth exploration fleet. We have been watching your race and have deemed you worth of first contact, however, we had found that two emmence powers could soon be apon you, as such we have come to offer to assist in your systems defence and any form of evacuation to an alpha site. We have contacted the Third battle fleet to assist us. Please let us know your responce soon, Fleet out"

OOC:
A. Mind me joining in?
B. I'm well awear that I'm a tiny power and that Hyperspatial and Hakurabi are basical gods compared to me, but I'd be realy happy if you would give me a chance (Haku you should know I'm not a rubbish Rper :))

OOC: Oh, we're not gods. We're just larger. And you'll find that, when you're fighting two or three wars, your resources become remarkably.. stretched. I'm really just over near Undershi burning worlds for what seems like fun. Oh, and Hak, can we not get into a bantering-fight again? We don't want to take away the focus from this RP.

IC: Enemy! The Enemy! There are orders.. directives. To fight? No, this system is cleansed of life. To run? Yes. Yes.

The spheres surrounding the now-gone scoutcraft startled, and began to flee, sparks of red heralding their exit from the material plane. Ending felt shame. Manifest never would've fled. Manifest would've stood, and fought, and killed the Enemy! But it was not as smart as Manifest, not as strong. No, it would do its best to keep the Enemy from stopping what it had planned, and, if it failed.. well, there were always Warspheres to summon. If not many, due to the battles raging across the Maker-Mind's territory.

Archmage had never before had true warfleets. At first, the Maker-Mind had simply shattered the defenses it has possessed, and ravaged across the surface of the world it owned, leaving due to a.. peculiar change in circumstances. No, a fleet now would be built to counter Maker-Mind ships. And that was what Ending could not risk. If Archmage had pitted itself against the Maker-Mind, it would lose. It sent out a call, ringing through the threads of the lattice loudly.

A Warsphere. A single damned Warsphere. One capital-ship equivalent. Ending smashed a blast of energy into a filament of the lattice in anger. It didn't know what to do! Well.. it would wait. And then, hopefully, it would attack..

(OOC: Of course not. The lines have already been drawn.

And Farsight - as Hyperspatial Travel said, far from gods. Archmage is actually considerably smaller than the Maker Mind in terms of military force, but it's also less universally hostile and is devoting more of its resources to fighting the Maker-Mind.)

So the Maker-Mind knows fear, does it?

Sub-Intelligence K-29 remained, probing into the lattice, watching. K-29 was untested, for the time being, and had been commanded to watch, listen and learn. Pragmatism dictated that it would not make itself known to the Maker Mind.

However, the warships winked out of existence, departing in pursuit of the newcomer vessel. This starfaring race would need to be evaluated for potential use and possibly corrective action.

OOC: um...can I get a factbook link? As many have said "Know thy ememy...so when the time comes you can kick there heads in XD"

Close beam communication
To: Archmage Cyber inteligence
From: Shas'El'Voir'La'Shi
most revered Archmage, we have been collecting data on both you and the maker mind. After seeing your plight we offer you our support in any form of upcoming combat. We also extend a mercenary contract to you in hopes of continued contact. Please send any and all replys using this secure frequency
O'Shi

End message
OOC: After lots of reading into the past I have chosen to side with Archmage, mainly because he is actualy user friendly...and doesn't seek the end of al organic life.

The command deck of the space station Aleksander was filled with frenzied activity, as officers worked to prepare the entire Undershi fleet for action. The aliens who had offered help had been accepted as allies, and their offer of evacuation had been turned down. Undershi would fight. Already, massive Planetary Defense anti-orbit guns on the surface were coming online, as orbital weapons platforms went to full alert, and Civil Defense centers began preperations for a possible bombardment.
All of the Undershi cities on the surface were primarily underground, well protected by meters of rock and dirt, reinforced with meters of metal.
The fleet made itself ready as well - destroyers and cruisers clustered by squadron, while the massive Super-Battleships, the Gilgamesh, the Beowulf, the Siegfried, the Hector and the Achillese, they moved to each act as the center of a globe of lighter ships.
The Undershi would not allow their world to die. It simply could not be.

TIS Wayfarer was a fair ways from home. Only a week's travel on Level A Hyperspace, though that was fuel expensive.
They'd actually been cruising level D, looking fairly closely at the systems they passed.
"Um, sir, we have some very funny readings on the scanners."
"Anything more than that?"
"From that system over there Captain. Can we go for a closer look?"
"Yes...if we weren't to check out anomalies and look closely, we might as well point a telescope this way from home. Helm, 14,25,5."
"Aye sir."
"Silent running in 5 minutes on my mark. Mark!"

A little later...
"So, as I said, you can see there is a major battle shaping up here. Looks like this planet is under threat."

Captain Allen gathered his officers on the Bridge for a brief discussion.
"In conclusion, whoever these people are, I doubt they deserve conquest of their planet and who knows what to follow.
Are we agreed on our course of action?"
Nods all around.
"Right, in that case prepare to transmit. In clear, broadcast, a spread of frequencies."

Transmission:
This is Captain Sadik Allen of the Terror Incognitia Ship Wayfarer. As explorers passing through here, we've happened upon this system. To the defenders:
We can see that you are under threat. What is the situation, and do you wish us to trip home with all speed to call for aid?
If convinced of the cause, we could have a fleet of 200 warships here in less than 21 days.
Allen out.

The Enclave fleet moved into defendable positions. Hiding in the mass shadow of the outer rim planets, Their massive topredo salvo's already being fueled and loaded into the tubes. From their positions the fleet could easily attack any ship that entered the system, as their torpedo's could stay active for days worth of travel. The Tau way of war demanded long range weapons after all, that and stealth.

Aboard the capitol ships the Manta's were already being loaded with crisis and stealth teams, as well as hammerheads and skyrays, these would make for effective space troops ans all had tau antigrav manuvering packs and could operate in both the vacuum and atmospheres. On the edges of the fleets positions Tiger sharks were deploying Gun drone squads, ready to engage any enemy who got to close the the fleet.

In his personal state room El'Kais began to dorn his crisis battlesuit, waiting for the battle's enevitable start.

You would do well not to be so presumptous in your communications in future. Your offer of a mercenary contract has been noted, and perhaps I might find employ for you at some stage in the future.

The message came with a slight hint of annoyance at the Tau, but otherwise reasonably beign.

The domes opened again and the gaseous blue mass was revealed again, cycling in a fashion reminiscent of a black hole, though it was far from it. On either side of the vorted small jets of the same glowing blue were being ejected from the center, only to be pulled in again.

The ships did not make any move towards the Undershi, but neither did they deign to alert them to their status in this battle.

OOC: sorry, i was trying to be respectful and all but with out a fact book I've been puttingtogether scraps of posts to try to discover Archmage's psyke. Soe help would be apreciated since his mind is far more complicated than The maker minds, which just wants to kill all organics

(OOC: Nah, no need to apologise. It's more that Archmage thinks of itself as a sort of self-styled god. It's benevolent, but a little inflated in ego. Don't worry, the AI's still friendly enough and would probably fight against anything really dangerous heading your way, but does not really go around making tight alliances.

Think of it as a manipulator type. It believes that it has a moral obligation to keep things running smoothly.

The factbook? I'm working on it.)

Then.. let us leave.

With that, the Battlespheres sped off through the lattice, the tiny force weaving its way towards the latest battlefront. They were outnumbered, there. The Purpose must be followed, yes, but to exterminate life was an end - the means by which one did so were also important. And a suicidal assault was not a useful means.

But.. it would not do to have the enemy become complacent. A single Battlesphere slipped through the cracks in reality, materialising a fair distance away from the gathered allied fleets.

It amuses me. The little fleets gathered here. One advises that you leave this world to its fate. It will suffer extermination, sooner or later. Opposing the Maker-Mind will merely hasten your destruction.

Ending left, then, the single Battlesphere hanging in space, as a piece of its consciousness, giving it vision to what the enemy expected to be the battlefield. It would interesting, to see what they would do..

The fleet in the lattice moved off. There was no more purpose of keeping it there. It had the capabilities to burn the tiny world - or, it would, provided that Manifest granted it assistance, but it was not.. worth the effort. In a nearby system, the Battlespheres winked into existence, flickers of red light heralding their arrival.

Uninhabited by intelligent creatures, a world, who's only crime was possessing microbes, and a tiny semblance of life, was about to burn..

OOC: hence the merc contrat, I don't like being tie to alliances ether, being a merc is far more intresting. Also, to Hyper, may I open fire on that one ship, after giving a speech, would be a good show of my long range ability.

OOC: Freeform RP, buddy, you can do whatever you like. Although killing a single fighter-ship after a grand speech isn't really going to be all that impressive..

OOC: it will be if its just my commander in his crisis suit...or it I hit it from the other side of the system XD (Tau are VERY long range)

OOC: Yeah, but then you've got the whole 'it might move ten centimetres to the left and screw up your aiming entirely' factor to factor in. Big guns aren't all that scary when seeing me takes minutes.

OOc: Ah, but thats were the Tau's ability to launch drone guded torps cme's in Xd very hard to miss when the torpedo has a drone pilot.

The remaining Battlesphere was soon located and the signal that connected it and its masters was isolated. A message was prepered by the Water caste members of the fleet. It was then transmitted directly to the now shattered mind of the Maker Mind. The message was simple, a declaration of defiance towards the being.
"Maker mind, or what ever you have become. We refuse to bow to you. We will not allow you to cleanse this world, or anyothers that have sentiant life. Sentiance is the greatest of all things within this universe, even you posses it, and to remove such a gift is a crime against the entire universe. We of the Farsight Enclave will stand against you, to the last drop of blood we will stand!"
And with this a the fleet fired off a single rail cannon, and watched as the sphere exploded in a great flash.

The sphere appeared, then the aliens attacked it... onboard the Aleksander, Grand Admiral Andrew Ogvanofski ordered his ships to engage... they would do what they could.
Titanic forces were unleased, as the Atomic Lasers fired, sending pulses of star fire towards the hostile ship... these laser blasts traveled at the speed of light, but it still took a few moments for their strike to be registered...

OOC: Oh, and I'm currently accepting all offers of alliance - yours included,Terror Incognita. Nice name, by the way...

"They're clearly under attack. Projections give 90+% probability that they're defending their home planet...meaning if they lose they will face anything from occupation to xenocide."

"We've had no explicit response, but we can't wait any longer. Someone might come out following our signal."

The Captain listened to the flow of discussion between his officers. At last he gave his decision.

"Helm, set course for home with all speed. Are there any tube points on the way?"
"No, Skipper."
"Right, Level A all the way home then. ETA?"
"All going well, 140 hours to full comms with Fleet Command, sir."
ALL HANDS PREPARE FOR JUMP. ONE MINUTE FROM MY MARK. MARK.

Now turning to his officers.
"When we get home, what do we tell them? And as those who've been on the scene, what do we recommend?"
"We don't know who these people are sir. They might be monsters. And yet we are in no position to judge them - we don't even know them - and from what we've seen, doing nothing may well mean condemning them."
The argument continued for some minutes, but none could refute the simple truth of the first words, cast in by the normally quiet ship's Doctor. When Wayfarer reached home, her Captain and crew would say with one voice - help these people, sail at once.

OOC: please let me know if my last post was to agressive, i was going for defining moment style speach but may have gone a bit to far....ah well I'm not going to change it, since that would ruin the RP XD (Please don't wipe me out in like an instant)

And with this a the fleet fired off a single rail cannon, and watched as the sphere exploded in a great flash.

OOC: You do realise the difference between 'firing' and 'killing', right? One is something you're permitted to do, simply because the roleplay here is freeform, but RPing the death of my craft.. I'll let it slide. This once. And only this once.

OOC: Many apologise, did that post when I was feelimh a little tired, forgot about rule's of Godmodding, I will change if you want me to....though the chances of me missing without you FTLing are slim......Tau tech and all (I realy should just sit down for an hour and copy from the codex the relavant data, save confusion)

OOC: "Tau tech" doesn't mean that your weapons hit automatically. Hell, all I would've had to do was move, and - boom. A miss. Unless you have some means of detecting my movement faster than light can, and shooting a shell > c, your chances of hitting a two metre by two metre object which is probably around an AU away... yeah. Good aiming systems are one thing. Having to casually rape physics to get what you want is another.

OOC: Ok, to clarify, Tau rail cannon ammo consists of a warhead mounted on a magnetic acceleration core. The shell is controled by a Tau drone processor. This means that the round can activly track a target, as it has manuvering thrusters and a micro ether drive. I should have said this earlier but I had no time as the bus to school arrived. I'm sorry, mmy last post made me look like a GMer....I pray I never become one. Let me know if I have done anything else wrong, as I wish to learn and not become a dirty god modder. PLEASE DON'T LIKE ME BECOME A GOD MODDER!
Also I didn't know the size of the sphere...so for all I know it could have been corvette or frigete size. anyway, hope this sorts it all out, if it doesn't let me know and I'll work it out some how....

Big
Umbrellas
Mean
Pain

OOC: Having built in 21 days delay, I'm now lurking til that time has passed and I can bring my fleet in. In a little while I might RP the arrival of the message home, gathering of the fleet, etc.

OOC: Well, TI, since nothing's really happening, as such (my ship is dead, Archmage's ships and the Tau are just floatin' around..), you could ask Undershi if you want to fast-forward the RP 21 days, or something along those lines.

OOC: Sure, I'm up for that...

The arrival of the Wayfarer in homespace, weeks before she was expected, came as quite a shock to the Admiralty.

Still more so was the demand that vessels be sent to aid an unknown people. That was pushed all the way up to Consiliar level.
Fortunately, however, the Admiralty pushed through the necessary replenishments and gathering of vessels so that when a tight vote gave political approval the fleet could depart at once - less than a week after the message came through.

Commanded by Aaron Bashford, it comprised 200 capital ships of one form and another, from battlewagons, via cruisers, fighter-carriers, and destroyers; and accompanied by a variety of support vessels.

With scouts out in front, dropping out of hyperspace regularly to check on the situation, that fleet was now approaching the battlesite.

"We're beginning to see wreckage sir. Still awaiting confirmation on what's out there, and what the situation is."
"Very good. Keep me updated. And try to get actual contact with the people planetside - check they're still kicking and find out who the hell they are."
"Sure you don't want to come in quietly sir?"
"Anyone missing the arrival of a 200 vessel warfleet is some mong not fit to command a shower cubicle. Get to it."
"Aye sir."

OOC: I have A feeling that my exploration fleet maybe a bit small....considering it consists of like 3 emmesary class cap ships, some wardens in their grav hooks and then their onboard support ship complament.....200 cap ships....Heck i probly have about that much in my entire space navy! Ah well . I think i'll wait till after the battle begins before bringing in my battleships. after all 40k warp travel is VERY unpradictable, it could take months or even years in the wrong conditions XD.

OOC: Yeah, but you have what, 250 million people? I have 3.8 billion (assuming we're working on NS populations).

IC: Descending from hyperspace in formation. Coming out in gleaming arrays of sleek, dangerous-looking fighting ships.
Appearing from nowhere, carrying their hyperspace-capable missiles and heavy laser batteries.
This was a major deployment of the fleet, and they had been sent expecting combat...so as their sensors interrogated the surrounding region of space, trouble was expected at any moment.
Nonetheless, they needed to be a little careful, as they had no real idea who was friend and who was foe...

OOC: I wasn't complaining, 200 cap ships was a good fit for your nation size. I'm just going to have to reconsider wht my role in this fight wil be. I think I'll end up being long range fire support and ammo/fuel resupply. Ah well.

IC: The last 21 days had been spent well by the Enclave ships. Astroides had been collected and broken down into their partical components, then reassembled into fuel, ammunition packs and a small supply station. The construction drone's had been working none stop to finish these projects, ready for the arrivel of the Terror Incognitia. Their fleet size's were far to small after all to do any real damage in the upcoming battle, but atleast they could make sure that the other fleets were supplied. The tactic's had already been drawn up, and the fleets ships were in positon protecting the station and supply transports...or hiding from sensors in the mass shadow of the systems planets. When the Battlefleet finaly did arrive they would be ready to cover it's exit from the Warp...and then join them in their mass salvo assault.

OOC: Terror Incognitia, you are welcome to head to the station to resupply. It also has some minor recriational facilitys for your crew while the ships refuel.

"Sir! We have a contact ahead; appears to be an asteroid base."
"Friendly?"
"No word yet sir. We can wipe em out if they aren't, I'd reckon."
"Send them a greeting, word of what we're doing here, and ask whether they will help us, stand against us, or stand aside."
"Narrow band I assume sir?"
"Yes."

To: Unknown station
From: Incognitian Expeditionary Fleet
We have come to assist the inhabitants of this system. Where do you stand? Also what information can you give us on the situation?
Regards, Admiral Aaron Bashford, TIN

Tight band transmittion
Channel:14
To: Terror Incognitia fleet
From: Automated response drone 0001, Enclave combat supply base
This facility is for the use of all those supporting the Undershi race. The Farsight Enclave has sided the Undershi force's in their defence. As such this station was constructed inorder to assist those taking part in combat.

Station alert status is at defence level 3, as combat has not begun yet.

Please present Valid ID before attemping to dock with this supply station.....Checking ID.......ID validated, Terror Incognitia fleet has been cleared to us all station facilitys. Please state what you require from this station.

Message ends.

"Ok sir, the locals are Undershi; these are friendlies; and they offer resupply."
"We're only a week out of port. Thank them and tell them we're fine."
"It's an auto-drone, sir."
"Oh well. Ignore it then. Deploy expecting an attack from the inner system, prepare to move inwards.
So...two squadrons, separated by maybe twenty degrees. I want them close enough to support one another if necessary, but separate enough to constitute two assaults."

"Aye sir."

The fleet began manoeuvering, splitting into two squadrons of roughly equal size. Destroyers remained on the outside, for now, with the fighter-carriers in the centre out of direct fire, and the battleships and cruisers between the two.

Scout craft were sent skimming (a bit of hyperspace, bit of normal space, then back again...so you can move fast but still see what's happening in normal space) to cross the inner system; once through it they would arc well over the ecliptic to return to the fleet and prepare for another run.

The Dreadnought class super-battleship Gilgamesh and its attendant cruisers and destroyers, raced out to meet the new arrivals. They had not expected so vast a fleet - even with two and a half billion people, heavy use of automation and a well developed industrial base, their fleet was only able to maintain around 200 capital ships in total - and that was when they were dedicating every penny they could to Defense, working as best they could, sacrificing every luxury including personal space... they ate vat grown yeasts and proteins, and lived like insects in a hive... and from that, they were able to build 200 capital ships. This new fleet they faced... it must have come from some mighty star empire, to have that many ships... and that empire must have striped its colonies and home fleet to send that many. That, at least, was the conclusion made by Imperial Inteligence. They had not expected such a massive fleet...
Senior Captain Hans-Dieter Baumann, Flag Captain of Fleet Group Gilgamesh hailed the new arrivals, asking:
"Greetings on behalf of the Undershi Empire. We wonder why you have sent so many ships, and would like to know who you are." he sat back, and waited for a reply... even with FTL communications, at such a distance there would be a lag...

OOC: I can accept if I'm wrong, but I reckon (taking a cue from the number of ships of the line that can be supported in napoleonic times and extending it to industrial nations and starships) that 1 capital ship per 5 million people is reasonable. That gives me about 750 starships.

IC: "Incoming signal...contact from the locals at last, sir!"
"To the effect that?"
"The Undershi Empire greets us, wondering who we are and why we have sent such a fleet."
"Keep it simple. Send this:"
To: Undershi
From: Admiral Bashford, Terror Incognitia Expeditionary Fleet
An exploratory vessel of ours spotted an assault on your planet, and took that news home; it was decided that since we were able to assist we should; as we inhabit all the planets of one system rather than many systems gathering a fleet was straightforward, and we came here with all speed. What is the situation here, and how may we assist?

The response was an exceptable one... it looked as if they had new allies. Senior Captain Hans-Dieter Baumann listened to it, and then had his communications officer send a response:
"Alright. On the behalf of the Undershi Empire, I accept your offer. We will see what we can do when the Enemy shows up again." with those words finished, he glanced at the scanner screen again, and saw all the industries of a world working frantically to assemble a defense - everywhere he could see in the planetary orbit, weapons platforms were taking shape, forming a network of defensive nodes that would hopefully protect the world bellow. He hoped it would be enough...

OOC: I understand what you're saying, but I'm using a different basis for how many ships my fleet can build. (namely the stats for WWI era Dreadnoughts) So, I have fewer, which puts me at a disadvantage... oh well, this should be fun...

"Ok, first direct contact with the locals, our presence is accepted."
"But there's so much we don't know. We need to know who these enemies are. Where they are coming from. How many."
"And where our hosts believe we can assist most."
"True."
"Send this."
To: Undershi Commander
From: Admiral Bashford
Where can we be of most assistance to you; and what intel can you give us on the attackers - numbers, types, axis of attack, ETA?

The Undershi reply was swift:
"We have encountered one enemy scout ship in our system... it was some sort of small spherical vessel. The main fleet of the enemy that we encountered was further out, in a nearby system... they destroyed one of the planets in that system, for no apparent reason. Our scout ship barely escaped to warn us."

"In which case we will, surely, wish to stop them as far out as possible so they get no chance to attempt this on your own planet.
We assume you have scouts out in that direction; how much warning can they give?"

OOC: Who is the enemy again, and are they still active?

OOC: I'm not sure if he's still active but the enemy is one of the multipsykes of the MakerMind: A huge and increadable powerful AI which wants to wipe out all organics....I'm not realy sure why as of yet. His mind was shattered by Archmage, another AI, who was attempting to save the people that My nation knows as New Oxfardians. He failed to save their home world (I think) but managed to defeat the Maker mind and shatter his mind, thus spliting his millitary forces between seperate sub AI's. Thats my interpritation any way.

OOC: Essentially, that fairly well sums it up.. The Maker-Mind was created, as these things are, to be the ultimate weapon. Self-preservation was given highest priority. It decided to increase the power it held in order to increase the chance of self-preservation - and, considering its creators, the Realm, held the self-destruct key (which it later nullified), it felt destroying them was vital to its survival.

Hakurabi ships were present at the time in which the Maker-Mind destroyed the Realm - it couldn't be sure whether or not they were a threat. Whilst it finished off all but a few scraps of the Realm, it continually built up its power to perceive and to compute.

It created vast navies, and launched an attack on Hakurabi, more specifically, the AI Archmage. However, during that time, the AI used an attack of some sort, nullifying the Maker-Mind's ability to 'stop seeing'. It had managed to set itself on the path to omniscience - to see everything, and it didn't have the ability to stop. And nor did it have an infinite mind, to comprehend everything. As a defense against death, it went insane.

The sheer flow of data was stemmed, but life overcomplicated things. The destruction of all life would be helpful to its sanity, and thus it decided, as a protective measure, it would exterminate all life in the universe.

Being insane, it was unable to fight as well as it had, and the saner remnants of the Maker-Mind joined together to form a sub-AI routine named Manifest. It, in turn, created smaller AI, realising that if they were destroyed, it would be less hazardous to its survival and sanity. It was attacked by a joint Realm and Abh taskforce, however, searing out several moments of memory, and making it a touch less sane. As such, every time part of its mind becomes 'unstable', it spits it out as another sub-personality.

That fairly well sums it, I think. And, right now, a few hundred Battlespheres (fighter-equivalents, although a touch tougher, a bit slower sublight, and with a lot of hitting power, designed to slag planets) are gathered in another nearby world, ensuring no life evolves there.

Whew.

OOC: Ok, I get it. Touches of the Inhibitors (Alastair Reynolds). Cool concept.

IC: The fleet spread tentacles across the system, sending scouts out across, above and below the plane of the ecliptic; hiding sensors on the opposing sides of planetary bodies, to prevent their being used as cover, and generally surveying the system with a view to fighting over it.
They would concede no advantage in the coming battle.

OOC: I think we need to discuse tactics for the coming battle. I have some idea's for suprise attacks but I don't know the specs of your FTL TI. Can you hold your position in hyperspace and wait for a signal or is it constant linier acceleration? For my idea to work you need to be hidden in hyperspace...or some where near by. Ofcource, its up to both you and shi as to whether we use my plan (which will not be disclosed as of yet, still working on some details.)

Also, Hyper, yur probly going to have to act suprise at the plan as it unfold even though you will probly read it when I post it. Though looking at your posts I think you can pull that off like an expert. Anyway,sorry if it seems I'm trying to take control of the situation, I just got this idea and it seems like a realy amazing plan

OOC: My FTL is based on David Brin's Uplift series. The basic premise is that hyperspace is like normal space only smaller and emptier. You jump to hyperspace; your momentum on entry carries over into hyperspace, and you can accelerate, decelerate etc in hyperspace, then you jump back.
There are 4 levels of hyperspace, A to D. You travel fastest in A, but it's hardest to jump to. My ships can jump in and out of D quickly and repeatedly, but that only allows travel at a few times light-speed.
Short answer is, yes I can hover in hyperspace, with a scout in normal space awaiting a signal that can jump to pass it on.

OOC: Exellant. Then my plan will work. Ok it uses the two parts of Tau hunting, those being The Patient Hunter and The Killing Blow.

Stage one: Your fleet enters hyperspace to hide your presence. Mean while my battlefleet and a persentage of Shi's fleet hide in the mass shadow of the planet. The way the patient hunter works is by exposing a lure, in this case my suply station with a light guard of Tau fleet and several Shi ships being "Serviced". Once the enemy goes for the station I deploy a LOT of sheild drones, which will project a ray and partical sheild sphere around the enemy fleet, effectivly stopping them from moving until they destroy the feild, which will not take them long. This makes way for stage two.

Stage two: Your fleet exits hyperspace as behind them as I drop the sheilding in your way. As you begin to shoot them while tey are caught (Like Fishin a barrel, or in this case a sheild) My and Shi's fleets leave the mass shadow of the systems planets and open fire at their front and sides, stopping them from fleeing in tohse directions, even after the sheild fails from their fire.

So, what do you think, good plan or bad plan?
(Nice Hyperspace idea by the way, reminds me of Quasi space from star control....ah good times, good times)

OOC: Possible. I was contemplating more an open battle, conducting fire and manouevre to give ground slowly, destroying the enemy all the way, letting them run at massed firepower, as from HT's description of his ships we have more weight of shot. Then when enough of them are destroyed they should withdraw, at which point we pursue aiming to wipe them out. Sweet and simple. I can work with either option.

OOC: As, but you must remember that the ships have no pilots. As such they have no reason to try to spare them selves. I think....Hyper, am I right or wrong with this asumption.

Any way, i'm fine with ether plan as weiil, though I think that mine will give both mine and Shi's fleets more to do, since they are smaller than yours.

OOC: Well, my attack will be a probing one. With a mere hundred fighter-type craft, we're not going to be a match for hundreds of capital ships, who can outgun us by some orders of magnitude. Also, keep in mind that one of the defining parts of my tactics is rift travel, which involves extradimensional travel, (my FTL), which can be used often, thus trapping ships might be a touch difficult. You could probably assume my firepower to be equal to five or ten capital ships, at best, so I'm going to be immensely outgunned.

Oh, and your plan fails to take into account three-dimensional movement. Even if you're in front of me, in back, and to my sides, I can simply drop down.

And, whilst your planning, keep in mind that our primary directive is to exterminate all life. Thus, destroying planetal biospheres, which so often bring sentient life into existence, will take precendence over destroying ships, which can't do anything of the sort.

Also, I use extradimensional sensors (when travelling extradimensionally), but these can't actually tell me anything other than energy distribution. Thus, ships flying around in space are dead obvious (well, as much as an asteroid is, at least, and ships tend to use fancy things like antimatter power-plants which make them light up like beacons), but my chances of detecting something on-world, or near a sun, whilst extradimensional, is fairly minimal.


(Nice Hyperspace idea by the way, reminds me of Quasi space from star control....ah good times, good times)

*mutters about the filthy Arilou, and cleansing them for the good of humanity*. Yeah. I was more of a 'slaughter the aliens and bring the nuclear fire of humanity to their pitiful cities' kinda guy. I lost that game quite a few times.. ^_^

OOC: The Archmage vessels use a quasi-intertialess drive for sub light, and quantum squirts for FTL travel. The drive is only inertialess in that the ships can kill their momentum immediately, but still need to reaccelerate if they do so.

The weaponry is based around the contained <indeterminate matter/energy> in the central sphere, and can be arced through multiple targets simultaneously, with the larger ships able to support more/larger arcs at the same time.

OOC: I feel bad adding MORE OOC, but heh.
Facing large numbers of not massively powerful but fastmoving craft, we're going to need to defend in depth.
My suggestion is, we meet them initially as far out as possible with part of our combined fleets. They do as much damage as possible as the enemy pass, then jump at full speed towards the centre of the system, hopefully overtaking them on the way.
Meanwhile the next group will be fighting them, then making a similar jump.
Then possibly the largest contingent waits in the heart of the system to mop up the remainder.

The Undershi fleet tends to run heavily to large capital ships, as they have not yet discovered the engine technology which make small attack craft a plausible weapons platform.
Plus, their social structure tends to frown on independant action, so they produce few decent fighter pilots...

Their organization is as follows:

- Fleets:
Two fleet exist, Home Fleet and Space Fleet. Home Fleet is tasked with defending the Undershi planet, and consists primarily of slow, weapons heavy, ships and planetary defense space stations and space platforms. Space fleet, on the other hand, is much, much, more mobile...
- Home Fleet:
- Defense Platoforms: The Defense Platforms, which aren't very mobile, form their own Squadron, with the space station Aleksander as their Squadron Command Ship... ironic, considering that it's a space station, not a ship at all...
- Scouting Flortilla: This consists of almost all of the fast light ships assigned to Home Fleet, and is used as a combination picket force and rapid reaction strike force.
- The Heavy Squadrons: The 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th squadrons are the Heavy Squadrons of the Undershi fleet. Each is centered around a Dreadnought class super-battleship. These flag ships are:
The Gilgamesh, the Beowulf, the Alexander of Macedon, the Caesar, the Hindenburg and the Bismark.
- Planetary Defense Centers: The surface-based defenses form their own squadron, with command and control located in a section of the Department of Defense compound in Undershi City. These consist of the following designs:
- Heavy anti-orbit guns: These are massive atomic laser cannons dug into the ground, ready to fire at any targets to enter High Orbit.
- Light anti-orbit guns: These lighter guns are placed in batteries of three, and are less well dug in. Their targets are any enemy ships to attempt bombardment in low orbit.
- Anti-Aircraft: These missile and laser batteries engage enemy landing craft or bombers, pummeling them as they come in low to attack or land. These can either take the form of emplaced weapons located near possible targets, or mobile units, mounted on light hovercraft.
- Planet-based Light Attack Craft: The Undershi military maintains only a few Light Attack Craft, but bases some of them on the surface of the planet. These fighters are tasked with engaging enemy attack craft or landing craft, and with escorting missiles in for their attacks.
- Note: The Undershi Army falls under the control of the Planetary Defense Squadron. The Undershi Marine Core falls under the control of the various Fleet units to which it is assigned.
- Space Fleet: This force is much more mobile, and consists of only space worthy ships. They are divided into:
- Command Squadron: Consists of the super-battleship flag-ship Colonel Yursuf Schmidt and its escorts, along with ten battleships and their escorts.
- Line Squadrons: 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th Squadrons are considered Line squadrons. These squadrons each consist, with the excpetion of 13th Squadron, of a super-battleship, ten battleships and their escort ships. 13th Squadron instead has the only Light Attack Craft Carrier in the Undershi fleet.
- Support Squadrons: 14th and 15th Squadrons are marked as support squadrons - they consist of supply ships, transports and so on, as well as their escorts.
- 16th Squadron: 16th Squadron is the last Squadron of the Undershi fleet, and consists of a number of fast light capital ships, which are meant to act as a scouting and rapid reaction force.

Well, that's the Undershi fleet.

OOC: Is anyone still there, or has this RP died?

OOC: I'm here. I was working on the impression we were waiting on HT.

Attack? Defend? Donotknow! No.. ask Manifest.

Ending's brief musing was ended, as it contacted the mind which had brought it forth into the world - the somewhat unstable, but still manifestly brilliant, Manifest.

Ah. Have you not ended life as you were created to do so? Why do you contact me?

[information]. *detection* tells me I/I am/will be defeated. Query: Help?

Manifest looked at the tiny mind before it, the matrixes which had once been part of its subconscious swirling, and reached out, absorbing it once more. Perhaps it would become somewhat more unstable. But facing the Enemy with but a newborn mind would not serve it well.

It felt for Ending's forces - and found them. A hundred Battlespheres. Enough to devastate a world, provided that they were not destroyed. Thus.. it would have to.. plan. A tenth of a second later, the battleplan was completed. Horribly slow, but it was still subsuming the remainder of Ending's energy matrixes, as well as planning for the greater war at hand.

Like a chess player moving a piece, Manifest moved its will to another, nearby, fleet. The miniscule Blades of Battle, all but unused, at present. Too small to devastate worlds as it preferred, and too weak to challenge Federation capital ships en masse - they would suffice. Perhaps two, three hundred of the tiny craft could be mustered. Measuring no more than a few metres in diametre, and perhaps thirty centimetres thick, the Blades of Battle were suited well to destroying immobile, weakened enemies, and fighter-craft. Not capital ships.

But they would do. The forces skipped through the lattice, to where the rest of the Battlespheres were. Surely enough to do as it needed to. The strategy it had taken upon itself was simple - attack with a fair amount of force from one angle, and use its superior mobility to isolate and destroy enemy ships. Once they were drawn away from the planet, it would do what it could to demolish the major population centres, and render it uninhabitable.

In the Undershi system, a trio of Battlespheres appeared, well out of range of the enemy fleet. There. That should pique their interest...

"Sir, we have a very small enemy force just appeared on scanners. Three roughly fighter-sized spheroids."

"Very well. Launch...ten 'fin fighters should do it. If they run away, leave them, otherwise advance to contact and take them out."

"Aye sir. Launching Lima Echo squadron."

###

"Limassss, on meee." Zebada was a 'fin, like the rest of her squadron's pilots. Nigh-on perfectly adapted to control a fighter in three-dimensional space combat, neo-dolphins crewed the vast majority of Incognitian fighters.
Lima Echo squadron left the protective shelter of the fleet, and began working in on the enemy vessels, in a loose 'pod' formation.
Eyes out; ready for anything; weapons armed.

Priority 2 transmittion
Channel: 43230982
From: Air Caste Fighter command
To: TI Fleet command

TI Fleet, we have also noticed the enemy ships, we are dispatching a squadron of three Barracuda Space Superiority Fighters to assist your attack. We are sending coordinates for our force's to meet, please meet our fighters their so we can procide with a joint strike.

Message ends

Onboard the super-battleship Colonel Yursuf Schmidt, Senior Admiral Schrader watched with interest as the new arrivals poped into existence at the edge of the system.
They appeared intent on menacing the outer reaches of the system, the refineries in orbit of their gas giants, Conquest and Empire. He smilled - they would soon see why a world had feared the Undershi when they had been a young race...
He turned to his communications officer, and gave an order:
"Prepare the fleet for a larger enemy attack. Put all Outer System resource gathering stations on high alert, and tell them to ready their defense crews. This could get ugly..." as he said that, he thought despairingly of Outwatch station far from the fleet, watching the ether for signs of attack from the other side of the sun... they would be doomed if an enemy fleet came from that direction. He hoped that no such fleet would come... but he couldn't spare ships even if one came. Undershi itself needed to be protected more than any of its colonies. Sighing, he continued:
"And get me the commanders of our allied fleets. We need to talk about possible strategies."

Here is the makeup of the Undershi star system, which might be useful since a lot of fleet action looks likely to occur:

Outer System: This is the section of the system that is beyond the Asteroid Belt. It includes the following:

- Conquest: A gas giant, has a few refining stations in orbit. One watery moon, Slave, has a small permanent settlement that serves as the main Undershi base of opperations for that planet and its enviorns. Over 50,000 Undershi live and work there, with plenty of automation to help.

- Cerberus: An uninhabited planet, very small and hot, in spite of its great distance from the Undershi system star.

- Ares: A small rocky ice ball, the furthest planet from the Undershi star. A very light permanent Undershi presence, just a few automated sensor stations and an even smaller number of automated defese units (a scattering of eighty light, not dug in, anti-orbit guns.) A permanent population of less than three hundred.

- Outwatch Station: A small space station on the opposite side of the Undershi star from the planet itself, meant to warn of possible attack from that direction. Armed with a single mega-tonne Atomic Laser, as well as several lighter kilo-tonne models, some particle beams, railguns and missiles. Has a crew of 1,200.

Asteroid Belt: Tons of Undershi mining activity occurs in the asteroid belt, mostly in the form of small mining ships that harvest ores, then deposit them at refining stations, where they take on air and water. The main stations are:

- Midway Station: A large-ish station, has a number of anti-asteroid guns and even some heavier weaponry. Basically, rail guns, missiles and particle beams, with some kilo-tonne Atomic Lasers thrown into the mix. Number of people there varies, but is generally around 1,500.

- Harvest Station: Another largish station, this one with only a few particle beams, railguns and missiles. No Atomic Lasers. Population of about 750.

- Makeshift Base: Located in a hollowed-out asteroid, quite well defended (widely refered to as "old hedgehog," after all the weapons sticking out of its surface.) Population of about 2,000.

Numerous other Stations exist, but most have only a few hundred people and no real weaponry.

Inner System: This covers everything on the interior of the Asteroid Belt.

- Empire: This is a large gas giant that has some refineries around it, and some other stuff. About 60,000 Undershis, with a lot of automation to help out.

- Victory: A rock ball that is mined for very rare metals, such as uranium and so on, which exist there in great abundence. About 200,000 Undershis live and work there, with a lot of automation to help out with their work. This planet is protected by several anti-orbit guns, both light and heavy, and a light network of largely automated orbital defense platforms.

- New Redton: Named after a major city in the old Undershi Empire, this rockball hosts nothing more than a fleet base and some monitoring and defense posts. (About 5,000 Undershis at any given time. They have a few Heavy anti-orbit guns, backed up by Light anti-orbit units and a few dozen batteries of anti-air emplacements, not to mention a good two dozen planetary defense orbital platforms.)

- Undershi: The planet Undershi is the main center of the Undershi system. Over one and a half billions Undershis live on it, in massive underground cities where they subsist on vat-grown proteins and yeasts. Almost all of the industry in the Undershi system is located either on this planet or in orbit. (A whole lot of orbital industry exists, mostly that which involves nano-technology.) About two million Undershis live in orbit. Undershi has two moons, Paxton and Southland, named after colonies of the old Undershi Empire.

- Punishment: This inner system rock ball is quite hot, and plays host to no permanent settlements whatsoever. A few automated sensor platforms orbit, however, for no real reason other than the scientific data they return from sensor readings of the surface.

- Discipline: This world is a lot like the Sol system's Mars, and plays host to an Undershi Army Hostile Enviornment training camp. No civilian activity occurs on this planet, and only about 40,000 Undershis are there at any given time. The base itself is defended by a single Light anti-orbit gun, but no other parts of the planet are defended. (although Discipline has a dedicated picket force of two destroyers and a cruiser, which are normally used as punishment duty, not to mention four unmanned defense platforms.)

- Slave: This tiny ball of rock and magma orbits the Undershi star in a manner such that it will fall into that same star in a matter of some few decades. As such, it is the subject of some study. The planet itself has a few automated science stations on it, and a few sensor platforms orbit around it.

OOC: Thanks for the information, looks good.

IC: "Sir, the Undershi want to speak with you."
"Put them on a comm channel. And send them a skiff with quantcryption gear so they can set it up and we can speak freely."
"Are you sure that's wise sir?"
"Yes. The physical principles of it have been known for centuries, and having an example of it won't help them eavesdrop on our comms. We do have a spare set, right?"
"Yessir. One. It's on Dauntless at the moment."
"Well, have half brought here and added to our array, the other half sent to the Undershi."
"Aye sir."
"You'll learn the importance of comms, Lieutenant."
"I learnt that in the Uplift War sir. I was wondering if we know enough of these Undershi however."
"Ah, of course, you won your medal at Rorke, didn't you? Well, send them the equipment Lieutenant. I'm sure there won't be a problem."

OOC: Quantcryption - use of entanglement properties for secure communication. Advantages: impossible to eavesdrop without detection. Disadvantages: limited range (light-minutes) and bandwidth (voice only), only works between matched pairs of units (you have to set it up with a physical transfer before you can talk to someone).

The shuttle from the Dauntless was greeted by two Undershi escort Light Attack Craft. They were about as fast as any other decent LACs, but their weapons showed as rather underpowered - Undershi high technology tended to gigantism, hence their super-battleships had Atomic Lasers which could do giga-tonnes worth of damage... while their Light Attack Craft were seriously undergunned compared to similar such craft.
That was why they didn't use many of them. Of course, that in turn set further demands upon Undershi destroyer squadrons, which led to their needing to build more such ships for escort duties, which led to fewer resources for those same super-battleships that their technology so favored... but that was all unimportant at the moment.
The shuttle was escorted in to dock with the Colonel Yursuf Schmidt, where they were recieved by the First Officer and a party of marines in dress uniforms, their infantry Gauss rifles held ready for inspection.
When the shuttle docked, the First Officer greeted the officers onboard, and explained that he was to escort them to the Communications section, where they would be able discuss this new technology with the communications officers.

The Comms officers followed until they reached their counterparts, at which point they began explaining their system, of which they were quite proud.

"Well, in the early stages of the Uplift War, a young physicist volunteered for the military.
This was a civil war over the uplift process, and in the early stages communications were regularly intercepted, as both sides were using the same comm systems. Anyway, this physicist, name of Marta Brown, well she realised that her labwork for her PhD might help. She managed to persuade enough people up the hierarchy, and a year or so later, the tech-teams came out with an early version of this. That won the battle of Discord for pro-Uplift forces, and after the war the system was implemented across the fleet."
"Now if you don't mind, treating this as a black-box system to install it, then we can discuss the inner workings of the beast afterwards? I believe we're staying here until you're fully satisfied with it."

The communications device was fairly easily intergrated into the Undershi system. The Undershi technical staff was helpful, but they seemed puzzled by the mention made of the Uplift War. One of the technicians asked:
"What is... "Upflit" anyways? You fought a war about it... it must be important to your society."

OOC:TI, thy hath idgored my post :mad:

"When our people were beginning to turn outwards towards space, we did not know of other peoples; and there was a powerful feeling of loneliness.
A massive effort was devoted to genetic engineering of dolphins and chimpanzees, to make them as intelligent as ourselves, companions as we moved towards the stars.
It took many generations of work, with some major setbacks, but eventually both could be considered sentient. It was at this point that conflict arose; all but a few lunatics had accepted the initial plan, but when 'fins and 'pans began demanding, and getting, equality; many found this unacceptable.
The tension rose and rose, til eventually it sparked a civil war, with the military split between government loyalists, aided by almost all the Uplifted, and those trying to destroy the 'abominations'.
Now, both uplifted species are integrated into our society, with 'fins providing most pilots in our fleet.
Uplift is a living monument to our society; and the Uplift War was our last extensive experience of space combat, thus informing much of our tactical thought."

####

Farsight contingent, welcome. We suggest substantial separation and separate axes of attack to avoid mistakes.

Squadron, ready. ETT 1 minute.

(Estimated time to target)

The communications technician nodded, seemingly satisfied, and exclaimed as though the comparison had just struck him:
"Oh! Like the Undershi themselves. When we were back on our homeworld, our earliest Warlord Scientists decided to create a new race, which they refered to as the 'True Undershi'. We ruled over large sections of our homeworld before the Final War. We lost the war, so fled to this new system, making the Great Journey. Perhaps..." he hesitated for a moment, then continued:
"Perhaps the proccesses you refer to are similar to the ones we used to use on our norms, to edit their genetic codes? We created a few different semi-human species from that... but of course, that was different." the tech seemed thoughtful for a moment, but then shook his head briskly and went back to work.

"Somewhat similar, perhaps, except that our techniques work best on embryos, and ethical issues prevent us from all but remedial work on embryos - preventing disabilities, that sort of thing."
"Now, about the entangling matrix" he returned to work, considering the discussion over.

The Undershi fleet was preparing for any possible attack. New patrols were constantly being sent out, as the Undershi Fleet put its large number of destroyers to good use. No matter which direction the enemy chose to attack from, they would be spotted.

"Understood TI Fighter wing, our ETA is 2 mins, but our longrange missles will be within range in 30 seconds. They contain Gamma ray disruption warheads, as the data we have collected from research sujests that their sensors are unable to penetrate a gamma ray wash. They should arrive and engage for 5 seconds, covering your final approce and attack vector. The sources have a very low half life so by the time you reach them the gamma levels should be below the levels experianced by solar and cosmic ray emmitions. This should stop penetration of your craft hull. Make sure you don't take them all out in one run (:)), Barracuda leader out "

The Undershi Light Attack Craft joined the attack run, following in behind the Farsight Colony's light craft. They had their weapons ready, but the weapons they had were underpowered - they would be of little use. Still, they could carry a pair of deadly anti-shipping missiles... those would no doubt come in handy, even if their close-in weapons were all but useless.

Becuse
Undershi
Must
Prevail

OOC: Once again, is this RP dieing?

Lima squadron came in, from system south (below the ecliptic).

Zebada led; first each of the ten ships launched missiles, divided roughly equally between the three enemy; then each 'rode it in', following hard on the heels of their missile.

Particle cannons were armed and ready. Barely would the enemy have dealt with the missiles when they faced a first pass by the Incognitian fighters.

The Undershi Light Attack Craft fired off their pairs of ship killer missiles, sending them in to strike at the enemy ships... then they broke off, sending only their missiles to aid the attack being conducted by their allies. Undershi LACs possessed only light weaponry beyond their missiles - they would die far too easily in amoungst the enemy point-defense weaponry, and would be unable to do much of any use.
Once they had pulled out of the attack, they returned to their carrier and to the other bases from which they had launched, there to rearm. One thousand missiles flew in to attack...

OOC: BUMPing for interest... is anyone even there?!?

I'm interested, but there doesn't seem to be anyone out there.

OOC: Yeah, Hyperspatial Travel pretty much bailed on this thread, so it seems that the main adversary is gone. Oh well. How about we say his fleet didn't show up, and then have this whole "sign treaties and so forth" phase? Well?

OOC: Ok.

IC: They waited. They patrolled. Eventually though, when there was still no sign of an enemy, they had to decide that there wasn't one. Even patrols to the system that had been destroyed, showed up nothing.

"Well, lets talk to the Undershi. See what benefit we can get out of this, since we trekked all the way out here."
"Aye sir. Opening comm channel."

The Terror Incognita communications were greeted by the Undershis with cautious friendship. They offered that negotiations should take place aboard the command station of their planetary defense forces, the Undershi Military Space Station Aleksander Miller, apparently named for one of their great heroes and for the battleship named after him that had apparently achieved some sort of glory.

"Negotiations aboard the space station? Very well. Captain, prepare a shuttle."
"Yes sir."

In a Wave-class shuttle, Admiral Bashford and a couple of select aides crossed to the station.
As a fleet commander, by tradition the Admiral carried plenipotentiary powers; carrying over, it was believed, from the days of sail, the tradition had been given new meaning in these days of star travel. He could negotiate a binding deal; thus, of course, he had to get it right.

The Admiral was met by two squads of black armoured Storm Troopers (not part of either the Army or the Marine Core, they answer directly to the Undershi intelligence agency as a sort-of private military force. They actually tend to be less effective in real combat than either Marines or Army, but they also tend to be well drilled and quite disciplined.) They went to 'present arms' in one smooth motion, then stood motionless as Fleet Marshal Nathan Drylar, the supreme commander of the entire navy, saluted the Admiral. Behind the Fleet Marshal two junior officers stood at attention - a Senior Agent of the Intelligence division in a perfect black dress uniform, and an Admiral Junior Grade in fleet grey.
The Fleet Marshal smilled as he saluted, and announced in a booming voice:
"Welcome aboard, Admiral."

Admiral Bashford returned the salute, then cut it away.
"It's good to be here. Since the enemy appear to have disappeared, we were wondering if we could cut a deal before we go home. The Consilium, after all, will be somewhat disappointed if this expensive deployment returns with nothing to show for it."
His dark blue uniform matched those of both his aides, with just a little bit of extra gold to show his rank.

The Fleet Marshal smilled, and answered him as he waved towards an open airlock hatch:
"I quite understand your concerns. We will be glad to come to some sort of agreement. Come with me, we have a conference room prepared." that said, he began to walk, obviously indicating as he did that the Admiral should walk alongside him.

"Thank you." Bashford replied, joining the other.
"So, how much external trade do your people engage in? I am sure we have many things we could provide you with, and many goods we would like in return. Especially our sub-AI computers are excellent, and we could possibly gain by comparing our different hyperspace technologies."

The Fleet Marshal actually laughed as he heard the question about trade, then paused to explain:
"You see, at this point we're utterly self-sufficient. We have a fair ammount of in-system space industry, but not much else. Until this point, we didn't really have contact with other star nations, let alone trade. We would, however, welcome trade and cultural exchange at this point."

"In that case we will tell our merchants what we know of your markets when we return home, and they will make their own decisions.
Moving on, would your people have any interest in a mutual defence pact?"

The Fleet Marshal nodded, and replied:
"Of course. There are many dangers out here in the depths of space. We look forward to standing against them alongside you, as allies." that said, he explained:
"However, I am not authorized to make political decisions. You'll have to take that up with the Diplomatic Ministry and the Leader when you get down to the surface."

"Easy for me to forget that, having been sent far from home, I have been given many powers that an Admiral would not normally have.

It has been useful discussing with you, and I look forward to meeting with those with whom I can discuss other matters, such as defence agreements."

The shuttle down to the surface took a meandering route. It circled the landing site, so that the Fleet Marshal could point out "the sites." "The sites" effectively ammounted to a cave network which had apparently been dug by the planet's native inteligent life form, and the city itself. Or rather, that portion of the city which was visible from the surface.
The planet Undershi had never been habitable by humans, and millenia of unreserved industrial exploitation had done little to improve the situation. Therefore, all Undershi cities were underground, with only landing platforms for shuttles, access hatches and fume release smoke stacks as the only portions of the city reaching above the ground level.
When the shuttle finally landed, it was met by three full companies of Undershi soldiers - one from the Army, one from the Marine Core and one of Imperial Inteligence Service soldiers in their distinctive black. All were perfectly drilled and saluted in unison.
The Leader himself was not present, but the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs greeted the Admiral personally, and welcomed him to the city. The Leader, the admiral was informed, was waiting in his section of the underground bunker network, and they could reach it shortly.
A few minutes of walking, twelve security checkpoints and three elevator rides later, the admiral was welcomed into the presence of the Leader of all of the Undershis.

The route to reach the Leader reminded the Admiral more of a trip into an old nuclear bunker, deep beneath the planetary surface, than a trip to meet the Consilar-General in Nescia.
No matter. These people made their own choices, and if a room with a view wasn't one of them, so be it.
"Sir, I am here from Terror Incognitia. We have already reached agreement on certain matters of trade, but my government would be interested, perhaps, in a mutual defence agreement.
We have all too few friends amongst the stars, and are fully aware that there are many threats out there."
Bashford stood easily, awaiting the Leader's reply.

The Leader of all of the Undershis was... odd. He sat behind a desk, or so it seemed at first... upon closer examination, one could tell that he was actually an organic part of a great machine which occupied the area of the desk, and probably some area beneath.
He smilled to see the admiral, and responded quickly in an odd monotone:
"We welcome alliance at this time. A pact of mutual defense would be most agreeable at this time, no?"

"A mutual defence pact would be most agreeable to us. And, though it is not to be spread too far abroad, we are often prepared to help our friends even when they aren't under attack, if you take my meaning."
Ifni only knew what was up with the Leader, but it seemed they could deal with these people, and Incognitia would benefit from having another ally. After all the Kirisubans barely existed any more and were little, if any help; and the League of Free Worlds was untried. Who knew how it would stand up to a harsh test?

The Undershi leader nodded thoughtfully, then replid:
"Alright. On behalf of the Undershi government, I accept your offer of a mutual defensive pact. It would seem the correct choice."

Welcoming this development, Admiral Bashford indicated that he would be present to sign the actual agreement, and then head for home with his fleet.

The Undershi Leader agreed, a treaty was prepared and everything was made ready. Additionally, he offered to send one of his fleet's Cruisers along with the T.I. fleet, carrying an official ambassador to the Terror Incognitia homeworld.

"That would be most welcome, however due to different FTL technologies we will have to give your cruiser the co-ordinates and meet them there, sending word ahead so that they get a suitably friendly reception.
Nonetheless, a minor issue, we would welcome having an ambassador from your nation. We will arrange to send our own ambassador here on our return."

The Leader nodded, smilling and in so doing showing a few too many teeth that seemed a bit too white and pointy.
He accepted their suggestion, and ordered a Cruiser made ready, along with an agent of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

With the Undershi cruiser accompanying, the fleet at last left for home. They had been successful beyond their hopes, in that the Undershi had not been crushed, and were now an ally of Incognitia.
In an uncertain galaxy, that was a great boon indeed. For the Undershi would be no drain upon the alliance; a strong people, with a strong military tradition, they would only need assistance in the gravest of circumstances.
Help would of course be given against even a trivial assault, as a strong show of force initially could forestall further trouble; but Admiral Bashford felt Incognitia was in a stronger position now than before the agreement was signed. Their deployment had been a gamble, which had now paid off handsomely.

"Helm! Set course for Incognitia System."
"Aye sir."
Heading home.

Heinrich Muller, Junior Captain and commander of the cruiser Fiendslayer, watched the Terror Incognitia fleet jump. He glanced at the man from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, recieved a nod, and so said aloud:
"Prepare for Jump." the crew hurried to and fro, the deck and the walls and the ship itself began to hum...
Three seconds.
"Jump."
The ship vanished from the Undershi system, to reappear elsewhere...

They had given the Undershi co-ordinates some little way outside the system, as they had no idea how accurate their jumping was, and didn't want any incident if they leapt right into the middle of the Belt or something.
So they were now out beyond the outer planets, somewhat above the ecliptic, looking down at a prospect of the Incognitian system.

The Fleet had mostly gone to its various bases, dispersing to other duties; the remaining vessels to escort the Undershi in were arrayed around.

As the Undershi ship arrived and was spotted, a quick vid-message from the TerrorGens Council was sent their way.
Welcome, Undershi. Welcome our new friends, in a dangerous and uncertain universe. You will be brought in to a Fleet Base where you can dock, and from which your Ambassador and any support staff can be brought down to the surface.
An embassy site has already been selected; if you have any special requirements these can be catered for, otherwise you can move straight in. We would welcome your presence at our next meeting in two days time.

The man from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the reply:
"We gladly accept your generous offer, Friends. On behalf of the Undershi Empire, we thank you and accept your welcoming." that said, things became quiet on the bridge, as preperations were made.
Soon they were on their route in towards the docking site they had been given.
As they neared it, the Ambassador ordered Junior Captain Heinrich Muller to have the ship's Marines brought to readiness.
As he left the bridge for the docking bay, he added that he expected his bags to be there.
As the Fiendslayer docked, the non-essential crew were cleared away from the docking bay, and the ship's Marines were formed into an Honor Guard for the man from the Ministry.
He seemed odd for an Undershi from what they had seen, somehow off... he was shorter by far than the shortest other Undershi they had seen, and his skin was not that odd unnatural tan color that the other Undershis had, but rather a more flesh-like hue.
As the airlock opened, he stepped forward, carrying two heavy bags made from some sort of dark synthetic material, and nodded towards the people waiting on the other side.

It was a small party waiting on the other side; the Admiral of Fleet Base Dmitri, in one of whose docking bays they were; a Foreign Office Minister to the Council itself; a small escort of Incognitian marines, both 'pans and humans.
"Welcome Ambassador. I am asked to inform you that the Council accepts your credentials as the Ambassador to Incognitia from the Undershi, and welcomes you to our home."
The Minister, having spoken the traditional words on arrival of a new Ambassador, retrieved from historical texts when diplomacy once again became an issue, then stood aside. The NCO commanding the small escort brought his men to attention, and had them present arms. And just like that, the Ambassador was officially so, and there was permanent diplomatic representation from Undershi in Incognitia.
"The next step, Ambassador, is to head planetside; we've got a shuttle large enough for you and any staff you wish to bring with you waiting just a little way down the base."

OOC: Sorry about the wait - RL issues kept me busy.

The Ambassador nodded his understanding, but explained that he had no staff, not now at least.
He added quickly something about more to come later... but that was all. Then it was time to go into the Terror Incognitia ship, and then... and then, he would go down onto the surface of their world, the first Undershi to set foot on another world in milenia.

From the Fleet Base, they took a shuttle to the Elevator. From that gleaming tower, dangling from geostationary orbit down to the surface, you could see a prospect of the green lands - and especially the shining blue oceans - of Incognitia. You couldn't see the other tower, as that was on the opposite side of the planet.
Over on the night side, some of which was visible, very little light could be seen. There were lights, of course, but in all the cities they were carefully designed to cast downwards. It had long been decided that all should be able to see the stars, even in the cities.
At this point a red glow of re-entry surrounded their elevator pod. This swiftly disappeared however, to show the planet, ever growing closer.
Somewhat larger than Earth, but with an even higher proportion of ocean - a little over 75% - Incognitia was the perfect planet for her people.

When they reached the surface, some little while later, a small party was waiting; no major dignitaries, as that had been covered by the Minister, and in any case the Ambassador would be invited to a slew of formal events with high mucky-mucks.
In the midst of one of the busiest (ground) transport hubs in the known galaxy, focal point for almost half the trade of a populous and wealthy planet, the arrival of a new ambassador, as significant as it was, barely registered.
The Foreign Office man at last spoke again.
"Well sir, we have a helicopter not far from here which will take us to Nescia. Once we get you settled in to your quarters, you will doubtless receive requests for your presence at various official, semi-official and frankly frivolous events; feel free to accept or decline these as you will, though a request from the Council is best not treated lightly; speaking of which I have the first one here" he handed over an archaicly paper note:
Ambassador of Undershi to the Council
The Council welcomes you to Incognitia, and requests your presence at it's next formal session two days hence.
The Council of Terror Incognitia
"Besides that, you may come and go as you please, and we will happily arrange for you to visit anything in which you take a special interest."

The Ambassador nodded politely, and commented as they continued through the city:
"You know, all Undershi cities are underground. This entire trip is a new experience for me."
He glanced about, examining the buildings with some interest.
As he did, he added,
"On Undershi, every last structure is designed for defense... the results, I guess, of a society created by paranoid refugees. To see a city like your cities... it is interested. Different from our own cities, and very interesting." That said, he just smilled, and seemed to remember something. He reached into one of his bags, and drew out a synthetic leather case, which he opened. From it, he withdrew a sheaf of heavy papers, made from vat-grown celulose, pages filled with typed paragraphs and hand-written signatures, stamped with wax seals and old-fashioned ink stamps.
Several signatures filled one of the pages.
He held out the papers, smilling as he did, and explained:
"These are my papers. Accoarding to some of our rituals in this reguard, I am to present them to an official of the host government as I begin my ambassadorship."

"In that case I suppose you might feel more at home somewhere out in the Belt; we have a heavier military presence there, and obviously everything there is below the surface."

"Ah, thank you. Quite unnecessary from our perspective, but welcome nonetheless. I am sure someone at the Ministry will know what to do with these."

At this point they arrived at the residence designated for the Ambassador. Designed to accommodate him and a substantial staff, it was set within it's own grounds, with a perimiter fence, already rigged up against intrusion, and a guard post - inside the perimeter - which would be staffed by Incognitian police unless and until the Undershi sent guards. At the centre of the compound was a building in a neo-classical style, columns and light coloured marble abounding. The ceilings were high, the decoration elegant, and all in all entirely appropriate for holding diplomatic receptions and the like.
"Well, here we are. If there is anything you need, you have only to ask and, within reason, it will be provided. A car/copter with driver; catering for a party; you'll find the contact number for an aide instructed to arrange any reasonable request you have inside. Anything he can't arrange for you, he'll ask his superiors, and you'll probably get within a few hours anyway."

The Undershi ambassador thanked them, then began to settle into his new quarters. The first thing he did was to set up and activate a pair of devices that occupied most of one of his bags - devices meant to ensure that no one could monitor his activities.
That done, he unpacked the clothing and personal affects that filled the other bag, then sent a message to the Fiendslayer in orbit. He requested that a squadron of Undershi Marines be sent down to act as an embassy guard, and that then the Fiendslayer depart for the Undershi system, carrying with it a sealed message for the Leader and a request that a full staff be sent for the Undershi embassy with Terror Incognitia.

"Thank you Ambassador, I'll leave you to settle in. Security services will be notified to permit a small marine contingent through, numbering perhaps thirty - I don't suppose any more would fit in the compound.
I am sure the Council are looking forward to meeting with you at their next gathering."

With that the man from the ministry departed.

When the Marines had arrived and done a search of the compound, they gave the Fiendslayer the clear to depart, which it did. It set its course for the Undershi system, cleared its exit with the Terror Incognitia authorities, made the appropriate pleasantries, then Jumped.
Soon another ship would come, and the embassy would become fully established.