NationStates Jolt Archive

Darting here and there at warp speed, with the occasional sublight stops, the NX-02, better known as the ISC Columbia continued her mission of charting deeps space far from the borders of Trinity Blood territory. Thus far, they had been out a little over a year-and-a-half.

Due to that the NX-01, the well known, by Trinity Blood standards at least, ISC Enterprise, was considered underpowered during her first mission, which doubled as her shakedown cruise, the NX-02 was the first to recieve a refit which more than doubled her number of phase cannons from three to seven, added new, specialized launchers for use with some of the first photonic torpedoes carried by an Imperial Starfleet vessel, installed pulse phase cannons that had been developed utlizing technological specs on advanced phaser weapons recieved from the nation of Ri-an, put in a few, new types of spatial torpedoes into her compliment, installed a Ri-an inspired replicator, replaced the transporter with one rated for organic use, upgraded the navigational deflector, improved computer interface technology, modfied the bridge interior, utilizing stations that were tied directly into the primary EPS junction, and increased the firepower of the pulse plasma cannons. The NX-01 was the next scheduled to undergo the refit after her return from a mission to the Gaian capital, then the NX-00 would undergo it followed by the NX-09 and the rest of the navy's compliment of twelve Novus Exemplar, or NX for short, class of warp five capable explorers. Of course, due to power consumption, not all of the new additions were available while the ship was under way at warp velocities.

It was on another rather mundane, at first, sublight stop for a detailed survey scan that sensors picked up something that would gurantee some excitement, the remains of a ship that had long since been lost in combat. After a quick warp hop to reach the position, more detailed scans were made on the wreckage.

"Report," commanded Captain Erika Hernandez.

"Ma'am," reported the science officer, "judging from the decay rate of the isotope I'm reading in what remains of the area of their main reactor, this ship has been like this for decades. Won't be sure of the exact length until after some more time for analysis."

"Captain," broke in the tactical officer, "reading a large chunk of debris with what appears to be markings of some sort. Possibly the ship's identification."

"On screen."

"Aye," replied the tactical officer as he manipulated the controls to bring the piece in question into display on the main screen.

"Run that through the language database. I won't to know what it says as soon as possible."

"Aye, ma'am," responded the communication's officer.

Unwittingly, the Columbia had stumbled upon the remains of the old Jedi run part of CoreWorlds's capital ship that had long since been lost in a battle with Galactic Empire forces, the Megalodon.

"Ma'am," reported the science officer, "also reading some organic remains in the wreckage."

"Looks like we're going to be having funeral proceedings," said the Captain, "have the Doctor use genetic coding to match the remains that belong together and inform the Chaplain his services will be required."

"Aye, ma'am."

Hernandez sighed. When she had woken up that morning, the last thing she expected to do today was hold a funeral, let alone a mass funeral as this was most likely to be.

OOC: As I don't know if CW will want this thread closed or not (he never specified), I'll leave that for him to say in a post.

OOC: I'd have it invite-only. Tag for now.

OOC: Understood. I'm going to be AFK for a few hours, so I'll post the actual funeral proceedings (I plan on setting one week after discovery) when I get back. I would appreciate it if you would wait before having a ship show up until after I make that post, CW. Though, feel free to RP picking up a sensor blip or something that is what starts the chain reaction that leads you to arriving.

It had taken a weak, but the crew of the NX-02 had carefully and respectfully made sure any Megalodon crew remains had been lain in burial pods along with all other remains carrying the same genetic signature, thus ensuring each contained the remains of only a single individual. It had already been decided upon first discovery of the organic remains that they would recieve a full military funeral with full honors and respect.

Thus, throughout the ship, the crew had halted their daily routine and assembled at monitors and windows in their dress uniforms as the Chaplain proceeded to conduct the funeral, carried upon the intercom for all to hear and recorded, visually and audio, for records in case it ever turned up that Trinity Blood encountered the home nation of the people who used to man the vessel, from his position on the bridge with his back to the main viewscreen.

"We are gathered here today to pay our respects to our honored dead," began the Chaplain, "they may not have been people we knew or had even heard of our nation, yet this act is all we can do for these valiant souls who gave their lives for what they believed in. These men and women died a warriors death, thus they command respect and honour. Though we may never know for what cause they fought and died for, we know that they have joined all those who have passed before us.

"We commend these bodies into the fires of the void from whence all originates so that the corporeal ties to this world are finally removed and their spirits may rest in peace knowing that their organic selves have once again become one with the universe. Let them finally be able to let go of the last remnants tieing them to their mortal coil and join their fellows in Paradise. Let them rest peacefully knowing that they no longer need worry about anyone desecrating their remains. Let them rest knowing we shall honor their noble deaths as well as their memory by using their own vessel to fight in their name.

"As warriors lived and died, their immortal souls shall feast in the eternal halls of Valhalla amoung those of honored warriors past, present, and furture. Songs shall be sung of their deads and stories told of their adventures. Thus they shall always be remembered for the valiant souls they were.

"Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. Death is only the beginning of a far grander adventure that awaits us all."

With that, he turned to face the main viewscreen and, as one, the entire crew saluted as the ship's launchers were used to send out the burial pods on a trajectory that would plunge them deep into the heart of the star at the center of the solar system.

OOC: As you can tell, I kinda threw a few religions together for this. As the Vatican is still a major player in Trinity Blood, there's a big Roman Cathlic influence. However, this was made as multi-demoninational as was possible to account for multiple belief systems (as is common on Trinity Blood ships) amoung the crew. Its also the beginnings of a combat ship-born naval religion I may expand on later.
Oh, and what do you think of the funeral proceedings? Not to over-the-top?

After everyone had changed out of their dress uniforms and was once more in their duty uniforms, they began to conduct a more detailed examination of the wreck of the Megalodon.

"Honestly," commented the tactical officer, "that ship wasn't fragmented to badly, all things considered."

"You know what they say," replied the Captain, "the closer something is to the seat of detonation, the more intact its likely to be found."

"Good point."

"Relay a message back through the comm buoys we dropped along the way. Let Command know that we're going to need some of those new warp freighters they've been building. They'll have to use the ITH to transfer to the node closest to our location and then jump to warp for the last leg, but they're the only way we are going to get what's left of that ship ready for transfer back home for repair," ordered the Captain.

"Aye, she's just going to waste out here," agreed the tactical officer as the comm officer began to relay the message back to Starfleet HQ, "its obvious her original owners didn't want to repair here, otherwise I can't think of any reason she would still be out here."

A few hours later, back at the HQ for the Imperial Starfleet of Trinity Blood, a heated debate was going on in General West's office.

"I can't believe you would even consider dishonouring the name of those people!" roared Admiral Forrest.

"Look!" yelled West in return, "we just don't have the resources to pull of something like this ourselves. Its not that I don't want to send any of our new warp freighters, its just that they aren't large enough for the job and we don't have enough of them to handle the wreck of a ship that size!

"However, I do have a proposal I would like you to consider, Forrest."

"What is it?"

"Why not ask if Ri-an could send a ship big enough for the job? They can drop it off at the CSP where will have the Artimus and all of our warp frieghters standing by to take it through the Hypergate."

"Actually, that's not a bad idea. However, I'll have to bring it up this afternoon at the Council meeting."

"Understood."

Having reached an accord, the Admiral strolled out of West's office and headed towards his own to start on the paperwork needed for the General's idea. He wanted it ready for his signature in case the Imperial Council approved the plan.

OOC: @CW: I've TGed you about the idea I had the Admiral and the General agree on. I'm going to leave off on what the Council decides until I get your 'yes' or 'no' on the idea.

OOC: Bump for CW.

The Megalodon was once a proud 2,500 meter Elite-class Star Destroyer of the Coredian Navy. Boasting nearly two hundred weapons, it was a fitting weapon for the Jedi Order. But alas, even though it has fought over a hundred battles in as many years, the Sith armies have managed to fatally wound it, but not before taking several Imperial ships (which are also floating in the area) with it, and the last person to see it fall was the Emperor Masaki himself.

But today, the gravesite of the Megalodon was disturbed. The ghosts of the past became restless. Those crew sleeping will shortly experience weird nightmares, dark dreams about a giant shark cruising for a meal (the ship's prehistoric namesake, the largest cold-blooded predator ever to swim the Earth's seven seas).

A small beacon, left behind by the Navy as a grave marker, began to beep as it was disturbed by the passage of the NX explorer. Soon, confrontation would become inevitable.

=====

"Someone sniffing around the grave, seems like." A crew member aboard the Tantive-class Corvette Lady Luck reported. It was the closest ship to recieve the beacon's beeping.

"Grave robbers?" The captain, a young Lieutenant named Jenson, asked. The Lady Luck was the Lieutenant's first real command coming out of the Naval Academy.

"Unknown. It's a beacon, not a sensor bouy. Even so, it's not nice to step on a gravesite. Especially ours."

"Right. Notify Command of the situation and let's move out." The Lt. ordered, eyes narrowing.

"Yes, sir."

As the corvette sent the message to the High Command, it warmed up its hyperdrive and made the jump to hyperspace. Ten minutes later, it reverted to realspace, scanners alert.

"I'm detecting at least one ship, sir." The sensor operator said, reading the screen.

"Onscreen." Jenson ordered, and a holoscreen of the ship in question appeared.

"Looks like a Fedral ship." One bridge member noted. The saucerhead of the NX-02 was very commonly seen among the unpredictable Fedral Union.

"It does, but I'm reading a different transponder. Possibly a different nation. Plus, it's smaller."

"Hmm. Hail them." Jenson ordered quietly. He breathed in and out calmly. "Unknown craft. This is Lieutenant James Jenson, captain of the Coredian Navy Ship Lady Luck. It has come to our attention that you have stumbled upon a gravesite of ours. Please state your intentions here."

OOC: Sorry about the delay, I was watching Star Trek episodes (partly for fun, partly to refresh my memory about them).

IC: "Holy...Captain, new sensor contact," reported the tactical officer as the computer automatically took the NX-02 to Tactical Alert, "I don't know where they came from, ma'am. Sensors didn't register any warp signature, so they must have used some form of FTL drive we aren't familiar with*."

"Picking up some kind of transmission from the alien craft," added the comm officer, "its not a subspace radio**, but seems to be some kind of modulated EM signal."

"Put it on speakers," ordered Captain Hernandez.

The Coredian ship's message played over the bridge's speakers***.

"My lord," said the Ensign at the conn, "is that even a language?"

"It would appear so, Ensign," responded the Captain before turning her chair to face the comm station, "I take it by the fact that its not coming in as a language we can understand that its not one in the computer."

"Correct."

"Transmit the following message back at them using the same carrier wavelength they did using as many languages as you can cram into it****."

"Aye, ma'am."

=/\=Attention alien vessel. This is the Trinity Blood vessel ISC Columbia, Captain Erika Hernandez (http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o293/True_Human_Empire/Character%20Pics/ErikaHernandez2154.jpg) commanding. State your intentions here now. If you intend to defile this resting place, know now that we have already ensured that any and all organic remains were given a burial fitting of those who died in honorable combat and we will defend the remains of this ship to the death if we have to.=/\=

Hernandez nodded at the tactical officer once the message was sent. It would be obvious that the NX-02 was coming about so her bow torpedo launchers were pointed straight at the Coredian corvette and her phase cannons rotated the whole time to keep a lock on the alien vessel.

OOC: *They left TB space and have been pretty much on their own from before I bought the Goliath from Huntaer, so they have no experience or knowledge of SW tech hyperdrives.
**As I don't know much about SW comm systems, I'm assuming basic c limit radio, but correct me if I'm wrong.
***I'm going to assume a first contact language barrier, alright? As you didn't specify a particular language (my universal translators will eventually translate it given enough time and samples, but they aren't 100% effective and that's why all my ships have trained linguists as comm officers), I'm assuming its not one in my database.
****That's going to be pretty much all Earth evolved languages (as my homeworld is a take on an alternate Earth, just I call mine Terra and have it placed far from the NS Earth) and a few I've picked up from Ri-an (like Ri-anese, for example).

OOC: The comms tend to use hyperwaves (FTL radio) to do their realtime bidding. If you can recieve holograms, you can have a face-to-face. But in some cases, we do indeed use ordinary radio.

Our language is mainly derived from Japanese, but it's now Galactic Basic, with the main accent being similar to British English.

IC:

"Baka. Lieutenant Jenson cursed. The other ship's message came in over a dozen Earth languages. "I suppose they couldn't understand Basic."

Before he could repeat his earlier warning, a rapid beeping on the sensor console sounded. "Sir! They're locking their weapons on us."

"A mistake." The Lieutenant growled. "Raise shields and lock forward turbolasers and missile tubes on the enemy. Prepare to evade!"

The Corvette may seem small, being only 150 meters long, but as a famous Jedi Master once said, "Size matters not". It packs enough speed and agility to keep up with fighters (useful when pursuing pirates) and enough firepower to put the hurt on ships twice its size. The captain of the corvette was confident that he would come out on top in this engagement.

James Jenson sent one last warning in Old Coredian (Japanese). "Colombia. Once again, this is the Coredian Navy ship Lady Luck! You are trespassing on hallowed ground! Leave immediately or face the consequences!"

"Ma'm, getting another message," reported the comms officer, "this time in Japanese."

"Hmm, then I wonder why they didn't respond to the Japanese version of our original transmission," pondered Hernandez, "retransmit our message in all dialects of Japanese we have on record only."

"Understood."

The same message as before, only this time in all known Japanese dialects, was transmitted to the Coredian ship, but this time with an addition:

=/\=Lady Luck, stand down your weapons. We have no desire to fight you, however we can and will in order to protect this place from any attempts you make to dishonor the memory of those who died here.=/\=

OOC: I can get visual, but its more like a video-phone style kind of thing (holographic view screens don't come around for a couple hundred years).
Oh, and can I get an answer to the question about involving Ri-anese ships for the reason I had my two characters debating about in the post before I did the bump?

"Dishonor? Dishonor?!" Lt. Jenson grew angry. He keyed the comms. "For your information, it is you who dishonor the dead by pillaging the bodies of our fallen! This ship was the Megalodon, one of our most famous ships! I will say this once more: leave now or we will make you leave."

OOC: I suppose I can allow the Ri-an people in this thread.

=/\=We dishonor them...bah, you must be joking. We weren't the ones who just left them sitting there without even a properal funeral. We were the ones who ensured that no scavangers would desecrate the organic remains. We are the ones making plans to honor their memory. What have you done? If you were truely the original owners, and that's a big if as you've offered no proof, you've let them lie instead of giving them a warrior's funeral. You refused to mark the site as a resting place. We, on the other hand, will make that vessel fly again in order to keep the memory of those who lost their lives aboard her with honor.=/\=

OOC: I'll let him know.
As for the GE wrecks, lets just say I don't really feel like honoring those who fought for the Sith right now. However, I may end up having more ships arrive to collect them and give the organic remains aboard them standard funerals. I had picked your old Megalodon because, as far as I could recall, it was the only loss (excluding a few auxilary ships and a mess load of fighters).

"You would not dare touch this ship. We believe in letting the fallen lie where they fall as their souls have already become one with the Force. And as for marking it, if you were not so intent on robbing the grave, you would have noticed the beacon marking this place as a gravesite." The Lieutenant shot back.

"Sir, since they don't believe us, why don't we give them proof that this is ours?" One of the crew asked.

"What proof? Should we have the Emperor himself come out and say it was ours?" James shot back sarcastically, remembering that the Emperor Masaki was aboard the ship when it went under.

"That's not a bad idea, actually." The crewmember replied, temporarily tone-deaf to sarcasm.

"I was being sarcastic." James scowled. He didn't exactly relish disturbing the Emperor for a seemingly trivial matter, prefering to blow this fecking ship out of the sky, but then he'd have to report the altercation and the Jedi Order would not want another international incident on their hands. He sighed. "Fine. Call the High Command. Have them send someone to confirm the identity of the Megalodon."

He then turned back to the interlopers. "We are notifying our High Command as we speak to prove that the Megalodon is our ship. Do not, I repeat, do not move the ship anywhere until they come, or we will fire. Understood?"

=/\=Rob it! You impugne our honor. We came across the site of an apparent historic battle, yet we also found that organic remains still were left for anyone to just come along and desecrate in who knows what kind of medical experiments!

As for moving the ship, look at the size differential before you open you mouth, alright. How would a ship of our size even accomplish that?

Now, as you are sending for one of your leaders, we shall do the same. One who has the tendancy to pull rank on those below, no matter if they even belong to the same nation or not, should be met with one of approximate equal rank to prevent such an accurance.

As for this beacon you claim to be in the area, for one thing, do you honestly expect us to have your language in our database without meeting you? Its only pure chance we both have the Japanese dialects in our computers.=/\=

It was obvious that Hernandez was getting a bit angry at the mule-headiness of the CO of the Lady Luck.

"Send back a message to Terra requesting the presence of someone with clout," she ordered.

"Aye, ma'am," replied the comm offficer with a nod as she bent over her station to accomplish the task.

"Release a Jump Node," ordered Hernandez, "no sense in waiting as long as we did to get here just to wait for the arrival of whomever they send. They'll have to take the long way home, but it would be worth it if they can stick it to those stuck up, arrogant ass holes over on that ship."

A few minutes later, a small device slid from one of the NX-02's aft hangers. After a moment or two, a small thruster kicked in sending the device clear of any obstruction that would obstruct the formation of the Hypergate vortex's terminus. Once in position, it began to emit its unique pulsation that allowed a Hypergate to lock onto it for a one-way trip.

=/\=We have released a Jump Node in order to expediate the arrival of whomever our leaders decide to send. We will retrieve it later.=/\=

They actually came from the CSP.

Captains Thames and Sorgei decided to lend their fleets to the task of
Towing.

At a glance, Ri-anese Warships and Civilian ships might appear to be the same, and you'd be right, because they are. The only diffrence is in weapon amount. Thames and Sorgei had Civilian fleets. nothing more than basic shields and phasers for defensive purposes against things like Asteroids and the like. So for anyone to shoot them down, would be cowardly indeed.

They arrived in system, and immediatly sent out a broadcast.

"Hi! This is Captains Thames and Sorgei, of the Fleets of the same name. We heard there was an old dead ship out here in need of a Tow and some repairs. Might we ask for a pointer in the right direction?" Came a friendly old man's voice.

the Fleets just sat there.

Directed at Ri-anese ships but on an open channel so the Lady Luck could hear:

=/\=Please hold. Apparently a small dispute over the ultimate dispostion of the wreck has emerged and the other party has issued a threat that they will attack if anyone gets near the wreck in question. Though, feel free to pick up some of the other wrecks and take them back to the CSP for us.=/\=

The message to High Command was bounced around like a hot potato. The fact that the Megalodon was about to be carted off like some kind of salvage didn't bode well for the military leaders. So, there was only one thing they could do.

Send the word to me.

"Masaki-sama." The secretary, Scieszka beeped into my office amidst mounds of paperwork. "Admiral Chechen is here. Something about the Megalodon."

"The Megalodon? This better be important. Send him in." I scowled. It has been over a year since I last saw the fallen ship. I could still remember seeing it blow up after barely escaping the Empire's grasp. It was the closest I had come to being captured yet again.

The Admiral, a bookish man tasked with the management of the Navy's ships, walked in, wearing glasses and the customary blue-grey dress uniform. We exchanged salutes and then he told me what's up. "Sir, as of 1535, we have been informed that an explorer ship of the 'Saucer' type has encountered the remains of the Megalodon, and is attempting, in the words of the captain on the scene, to 'rob the ship blind'. The other ship demanded proof that the Megalodon was indeed ours, and, well, here we are."

"I see." I said quietly. I sat back, letting my long hairtail swish around like a cat's tail. I smiled wryly at the captain's words. Seems quite biased, understandably so. However, the fact that someone intended to cart the ship off without at least attempting to notify the original owners is just not polite. Although to be frank, it's one of those issues that can't be solved on the spot because of the varying jurisdictions between the finders (the unwritten 'Finder's Keepers Law') and the owners ('It's a gravesite, so don't mess with it or we'll mess with you!'). Almost enough to make a man laugh.

"Well, I guess you want me or some other high-ranking official to come out and verify the identity of the ship, right?" I asked the Admiral.

"That's about the gist of it, sir." Admiral Chechen nodded.

I looked at the paperwork, some holographic datapads (think the kind from Xenosaga), some actual paper and my inner self began dancing a jig at getting away from the horrid stuff. I smiled sarcastically at the papers. "Well, I really dislike leaving my desk, but I guess duty calls. Have someone send these things to President Sandler."

President Bryan Sandler the Fifth is the de facto head of government. When I'm out on whatever mission I'm on, he runs the nation, although he grumbles a lot about me 'shirking my duties to the nation'.

"Yes, sir." The Admiral nodded as I popped away, leaving a slight cloud of smoke. Soon, I 'hijacked' one of the Star Destroyers in orbit and made the jump to hyperspace for the location of the lost Megalodon.

ETA: half an hour.

The two Ri-anese fleets just sat there like a collection of dead sea life, mostly because Ri-anese ship design copied Aquatic lifeforms. Until it was absolutly certain they wouldn't get shot at, they wouldn't move. In fact, it looked like they were prepared to flee to Fluidic Space.

OOC: TBH, I've never played Xenosaga, so I don't know what your referring to. Sorry. I'll just assume its similar to my PADD, alright?

IC: "What do you want?" requested a sleepy Sforza of the figure she had just opened the door of her quarters for.

"Ma'am," reported the Ensign in a bright, cheerful tune that made the Cardinal frown as, in her mind, one should not be so energetic so early in the morning, "but it seems that a situation is developing over the dispositon of a wreck that the NX-02 has discovered. According to the reports, the bodies have been honored, but a ship claiming to belong to the original owners is inhibiting the honoring of their memory."

"And why are you telling me this?"

"Both the Empress and the Pope agree that you should be the one to represent our nation to the high-ranking official the others are sending to the site," replied the Ensign cheerfully.

"Very well," groaned Sforza as she turned to close the door.

"Oh," added the Ensign right before she hit the button.

"What is it now?" sighed Sforza.

"Your ship will leave from dock six, berth four, slip five in a half-hour," he said, "you'll be taking Raptor 12."

Sforza nodded in acknowledgement as she closed the door and the too cheerful, in her mind, Ensign and began to get ready for the task ahead.

ETA: 35 minutes

OOC: Lol, felt like having my character arrive after yours, due to the distance involved and the limits of my FTL technology, seemed prudent in my mind. Though, to minimize the 'make you wait' time (which would be quite impolite by TB standards and could be construed by an insult amoung my nobility), I decided just to make it five minutes later. Of course, I also had to factor in a reasonable amount of time for her to get ready (as I doubt you would want my representative showing up in her nightgown).

For the next 30 minutes, Thames and Sorgei waited very nervously, pacing back and forth.

Then they saw a ship arrive.

"What now?" they asked.

OOC: The ship I refer to is Coreworlds ship, as per his post.

Five minutes later, Raptor 12 emerged from the end terminus of the subspace vortex that had locked onto the Jump Node from the Hypergate in orbit of Terra.

Broadcast for all involved to hear:

=/\=This is Raptor 12 of Trinity Blood. We have aboard the official assigned to act as the representative of our nation in the matter of the dispositon of the Megalodon and the honoring of her crew's memory.=/\=

OOC: TBH, I've never played Xenosaga, so I don't know what your referring to. Sorry. I'll just assume its similar to my PADD, alright?
OOC: Xenosaga's the kind of game that easily competes with any of the Final Fantasy games. Should try it sometime. But anyway, yeah, it's your generic floating-hologram on a datapad.

OOC: Lol, felt like having my character arrive after yours, due to the distance involved and the limits of my FTL technology, seemed prudent in my mind. Though, to minimize the 'make you wait' time (which would be quite impolite by TB standards and could be construed by an insult amoung my nobility), I decided just to make it five minutes later. Of course, I also had to factor in a reasonable amount of time for her to get ready (as I doubt you would want my representative showing up in her nightgown).
OOC: Haha! Yeah. Daniel would have a nosebleed.

IC:
Thirty minutes later, the Star Destroyer Yamato exited hyperspace in all it's shiny 1.6 km long glory. And yeah, it's shiny. Just been washed and waxed. But I disgress.

I went to the coms and on all channels, introduced myself. "Ladies and gentlebeings! Please give an applause for the one, the only, the Lightning Master, Emperor Daniel Masaki!"

Crickets somehow appeared, chirping as everyone on the bridge sweatdropped at my subtle entrance. I sighed and hung my head low. "It's bad, right?"

"Yes, sir. It's bad." The captain nodded.

"Better work on it, then." I replied, contrite.

Five minutes later, Raptor 12 emerged from the end terminus of the subspace vortex that had locked onto the Jump Node from the Hypergate in orbit of Terra.

Broadcast for all involved to hear:

=/\=This is Raptor 12 of Trinity Blood. We have aboard the official assigned to act as the representative of our nation in the matter of the dispositon of the Megalodon and the honoring of her crew's memory.=/\=

OOC: Lol, Ri-an moved us up so time to use that little treat I've read about known as Fluid Time to move this post.
@CW: A nosebleed? Funny. I've actually read a little joke rule thing on anime saying that 'nosebleed' thing results from the fact that anime characters generally have such large eyes (I can even recall a certain anime I used to watch (it doesn't air around here anymore) where that nosebleed thing happened).

IC: Upon arrival five minutes after the Yamato, Raptor 12* broadcast the message.

OOC: *Except for a few special ships operating as the personal ships for some of my nobility, my Raptors are usually numbered and not given names like my NXs (mainly due to that they are so easily produced in large numbers).

OOC: Lol, Ri-an moved us up so time to use that little treat I've read about known as Fluid Time to move this post.
@CW: A nosebleed? Funny. I've actually read a little joke rule thing on anime saying that 'nosebleed' thing results from the fact that anime characters generally have such large eyes (I can even recall a certain anime I used to watch (it doesn't air around here anymore) where that nosebleed thing happened).
OOC: Heh, nosebleeds came before anime, when old wives would warn young teenage boys to not look at a naked lady or else their noses would bleed. Now it's a gag (and a funny one at that).

IC:

I sent back another message. "Representative of Trinity Blood, where would you suggest we have our audience?"

The Lady Luck fell back to sit beside the Star Destroyer. When our meeting takes place, the two captains would probably be needed to tell each side of the story yet again.

OOC: Heh, nosebleeds came before anime, when old wives would warn young teenage boys to not look at a naked lady or else their noses would bleed. Now it's a gag (and a funny one at that).

OOC: Interesting. I did not know that.

IC:

I sent back another message. "Representative of Trinity Blood, where would you suggest we have our audience?"

The Lady Luck fell back to sit beside the Star Destroyer. When our meeting takes place, the two captains would probably be needed to tell each side of the story yet again.

=/\=How about aboard one of the Ri-an vessels as they constitute as neutral ground?=/\=

Ri-an? Hmm. That's a nation we have an acquaintance, but no formal diplomacy with. Well this is a good time to kill two birds with one stone.

"That will be acceptable." I replied. Then I turned to my crew. "Hail the Ri-an vessel. Ask them if they would like to mediate our dispute."

"Yes, sir." The comms officer replied and pressed some buttons, sending the prepackaged message to them.

Ri-an vessal. Would you be interested in mediating the dispute between us and Trinity Blood over the Megalodon?

Ri-an vessal. Would you be interested in mediating the dispute between us and Trinity Blood over the Megalodon?

In response, a single Octopus ship moved directly between the two, and extended a Tenticle dock towards either ship.

"being a peaceful friendly sort of people, we would be delighted to host such a meeting. come aboard the ship that just moved, and we'll escort you to an appropriate meeting room."

Once the two ships docked, they find someone there ready to meet them. For The coreworlds ship, it would be Captain sorgei. He was an elderly gentleman, very finely dressed, in a business suit, weilding a wooden, jeweled cane.

For Trinity Blood, it would be Captain Thames, he was similarly dressed.

The only visible diffrence between the two, was a scar on Thames's right cheek. Other than that, time and long association had aged the two to look almost identicle. That, and Sorgei's suit was black, Thames wore white.

As a sign of good faith, both were completly unarmed, save for their wooden canes, but who would begrudge an old man his cane?

Raptor 12 docked with the arm closest to her location. Once the seal was confirmed and the air lock was pressurized, the Cardinal made her way to the Ri-anese ship's conference room.

OOC: Meh, I know, not very good, but I didn't see any point in a long drawn out post that says basically the same thing (plus my brain has apparently taken a little holiday right now).

The Star Destroyer managed to dock with the weird Octopus Ship and I went aboard the Octopus ship. As a sign of good faith on my part, I entered the Octopus ships with only my lightsaber and no other weapons (I normally have a considerable arsenal on my person) and perhaps unusually for a national leader, without guards either. Of course, the ANBU guard in charge of royal security objected to that order, but alas, my leadership perogative won the day...for now.

Those watching my entrance into the ship would notice an unusually young man with long dark-brown hair, dolled up in a braid and piercing brown eyes. There is nothing special or regal about the clothing, except that it is dark in color and practical (I'd never be caught dead in a formal kimono), with a Master's cloak over my shoulders, with the Masaki Family crest (http://static.flickr.com/90/215499163_d1b25870e5_t.jpg) adorned on said cloak (without the Jedi part). In effect, I don't look like an Emperor, and I intend to keep it that way.

~SNIP~

~SNIP~

Both discovered a dry hallway.

Thames and Sorgei nodded their heads in greeting. Then walked silently to the conference room. The ship was completly filled with water, because the Aquamarinians that ran it, lived their lives in water. However, an Airbubble kept Daniel and The Cardinel dry, as well as Thames and Sorgei. There were Two Aquamarinians one for each Diplomat, and a third for Thames and Sorgei.

Seats were pulled out on all three sides of the table, that way, if someone got violent, they would have a table to go through first. Thames and Sorgei sat closest to the door.

The Conference room was completly dry.


"Now then lets have introductions first. I am Captain Sorgei, and this is Captain Thames, owners of this Fleet." Captain Sorgei said.

Their Aquamarinian spoke up.
"We have names, but their hard to pronounce. So, call me Moe. The one next to the Lady, call him Larry, and the one next to the Gentleman, Call him Curly." Moe said.

I hid a smile and nodded. "I am Daniel Masaki, Emperor of Coredia and the Lightning Master of the Jedi Order. Call me Daniel."

OOC: @CW: Nice crest there. Oh, and, lol, you can get try to get her to call your guy 'Daniel' as much as you want. Sforza will stick to protocaul, especially since she only just met him especially considering the formality of the situation (she only drops the formal thing with a few she really trusts with her life).
@Ri-an: Lol, looks like your a Three Stooges fan, eh? TBH, I found them quite funny myself.

IC: Cardinal Caterina Sforza (http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o293/True_Human_Empire/Character%20Pics/post-2-1117467913.jpg) greeted Masaki with a bow and introduced herself.

"I am Cardinal Caterina Sforza, Duchess of Milan," she said, "pleasure to meet you, your highness."

Holding up a PADD for Daniel, she added, "I feel you may want to take a look at this."

Contained on the PADD was the audio-visual recording of the funeral proceedings that had been conducted by the NX-02's Chaplain.

I mentally cringed at the formal title. I really hate them, although I'm slowly getting used to Lord Masaki and Masaki-sama (one and the same). I looked at the funeral proceedings. When it ended, I nodded in respect. "It appears that the so-called 'grave-robbing' incident has been exaggerated."

I made a mental note to speak with Lt. Jenkins about letting his emotions cloud his judgement.

"In any case, I'm here to confirm that the Megalodon is indeed a Coredian ship, one of our flagships. In fact, I was aboard the ship when it was ambushed by our enemy the Galactic Empire. It fought hard and well, even when disabled by one of their new weapons, and I was one of the last people off the ship when it blew apart." I sighed deeply. It wasn't a good memory. "Will that be enough?"

Sforza raised an eyebrow behind her monocle at Masaki's reaction to the honorific.

"Not that you don't present yourself as trustworthy," she said, "but perhaps we should have the Colombia compare the logo on the hull of the craft you arrived in to that one of the hull fragments we've located.

"I do notice that you haven't asked what we intend to do with the ship's remains.

"Another thing, do you also claim to have ownership of the other starship remains in the vicinity?"

Sforza raised an eyebrow behind her monocle at Masaki's reaction to the honorific.

"Not that you don't present yourself as trustworthy," she said, "but perhaps we should have the Colombia compare the logo on the hull of the craft you arrived in to that one of the hull fragments we've located.
"Hmm." I pulled out a small logo. "If you can find this seal (http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b269/Coredia/JediStampofApproval.jpg) among the remains of the Megalodon and match it with the seals on the port and starboard sides of the Yamato, then it is our ship."

"I do notice that you haven't asked what we intend to do with the ship's remains.
I smiled. "That's the next item I was going to ask. So what do you intend to do with the ship?"

"Another thing, do you also claim to have ownership of the other starship remains in the vicinity?"
Then I grinned. "Nope. We don't have any claim to the ownership of the other remains."

Boy, would the Empire be mad if these people manage to reverse engineer that Immobilizer Ion Cannon technology!

Said technology amounts to powerful orange streams of sustained ion cannon bolts (ie, lines instead of globs) that is capable of disabling even the largest capital ships. It was the reason the Megalodon, at 2500 meters, was disabled by a ship less than half it's size.

"Hmm." I pulled out a small logo. "If you can find this seal (http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b269/Coredia/JediStampofApproval.jpg) among the remains of the Megalodon and match it with the seals on the port and starboard sides of the Yamato, then it is our ship."

The Cardinal nodded as she accepted the scrap of material.

Turning to one of the Aquamarinians* , she asked, "Would you please take this back to the Columbia and have them check the bits of the wreck for comparison?"

OOC: *Sorry about if I misspelled it before, Ri-an. My brain's turning into mush right now.

I smiled. "That's the next item I was going to ask. So what do you intend to do with the ship?"

Turning back to face Masaki, she replied, looking him straight in the eyes, "As they say, pictures speak louder than words."

She picked the PADD back up and manipulated the controls before handing it back to Daniel.

"Just hit the blinking control and the simulation will start showing you what we intend to do to honor the memory of those crew who lost their lives aboard that ship," she continued.

The simulation would be of a computer generated extrapolation of a repaired and rebuilt with several beauty shots showing off the way they would put her in a place of honor in charge of a fleet commanded by a high ranking official loyal to the Empress.

"As you'll see," she said, "we don't believe in wasting ships like this one is currently having done with her. We can rebuild her, honoring the memory of those who died aboard her here.

"That idea agreeable to you, your highness?"

Then I grinned. "Nope. We don't have any claim to the ownership of the other remains."

Boy, would the Empire be mad if these people manage to reverse engineer that Immobilizer Ion Cannon technology!

Said technology amounts to powerful orange streams of sustained ion cannon bolts (ie, lines instead of globs) that is capable of disabling even the largest capital ships. It was the reason the Megalodon, at 2500 meters, was disabled by a ship less than half it's size.

"Then you'll have no objection to our salvaging them, correct?" she said noting his grin and logging it away for the time being.

She knew he would say something about why he grinned if he wanted and she didn't feel like pressing him about it, for the time being.

She made a gesture at one of the Ri-an captains that told him that they would be free to gather the other ship remains for transport back to the CSP if Daniel gave his consent. The disposition of the Megalodon would be handled later.

OOC: Its Aquamarinians, not Aquirmarians. The Aquirmarinians are an outcast race that are hybrids between merpeople and Aquirmarinians. They live in a Valley on Oceanis, The moon revolving Oceana, the Homeworld. Let us never speak of them again.

IC:

Larry took it, and left for a moment. Then reterned.

"A Runner shall have it delivered to your bridge forthwith." Larry said.

Meanwhile,

A young boy ran excitedly. He ran all the way to the Coreworlds ship, then relised he was going the wrong way, and ran all the way accross the ship to the Trinity Blood Ship. He ran through its halls looking for the bridge.

OOC: Sorry, my bad. I was 9/10th asleep when I wrote that so I did my best at the spelling.

IC: The Cardinal nodded in acknowledgement and turned back to Masaki.

The Boy was was still on The Cardinal's ship looking for the bridge, or someone to take the seal.

OOC: Time warp!

OOC: Sorry, my bad. I was 9/10th asleep when I wrote that so I did my best at the spelling.

IC: The Cardinal nodded in acknowledgement and turned back to Masaki.

OOC: Just a pointer to my post that appeared above yours, which was supposed to be below yours, like this one.

OOC: Sorry. I had accidently hit the submit button before I finished my post. My bad.
Though, why did your post appear above mine?

IC: The interior layout of a Raptor wasn't too complex. The bridge was a straight shot foward of the midline airlock being used to dock with the Octopus ship.

The Captain accepted the bit of material with the symbol on it and had his Comm Officer transmit an image of it to the NX-02 for comparison of the sections of the remains.

OOC: Sorry. I had accidently hit the submit button before I finished my post. My bad.
Though, why did your post appear above mine?

IC: The interior layout of a Raptor wasn't too complex. The bridge was a straight shot foward of the midline airlock being used to dock with the Octopus ship.

The Captain accepted the bit of material with the symbol on it and had his Comm Officer transmit an image of it to the NX-02 for comparison of the sections of the remains.

The Boy waited to run the results back.

OOC: Jolt accidently messes up like that on occasion. Theres a reason for it in Technicle, but I forget what. Something about a Table.

OOC: Ahh, alright. As for now, I'll let CW RP the NX-02 discovering the bit of the Megalodon with the symbol on it as, well, he would know better than I where it would have been located on the hull.

The Cardinal nodded as she accepted the scrap of material.

Turning to one of the Aquamarinians* , she asked, "Would you please take this back to the Columbia and have them check the bits of the wreck for comparison?"

OOC: *Sorry about if I misspelled it before, Ri-an. My brain's turning into mush right now.
Soon enough, the NX-02 would find the Seal of the Jedi Order among the remains of the Megalodon. Most certainly the misunderstanding would have been cleared up...

Turning back to face Masaki, she replied, looking him straight in the eyes, "As they say, pictures speak louder than words."

She picked the PADD back up and manipulated the controls before handing it back to Daniel.

"Just hit the blinking control and the simulation will start showing you what we intend to do to honor the memory of those crew who lost their lives aboard that ship," she continued.

The simulation would be of a computer generated extrapolation of a repaired and rebuilt with several beauty shots showing off the way they would put her in a place of honor in charge of a fleet commanded by a high ranking official loyal to the Empress.

"As you'll see," she said, "we don't believe in wasting ships like this one is currently having done with her. We can rebuild her, honoring the memory of those who died aboard her here.

"That idea agreeable to you, your highness?"
"Well." I mused. "Normally, you'd have to run the gauntlet of Senate Arms Service Commitee, the military brass wanting to know everything about what's happening with their beloved ship, and a few 'Leave the ship alone' groups ranting and raving. Not to mention that I have a personal stake in the ship. Plus, we don't know you all that well. I would like to set a few conditions before you can be allowed to have the ship.

1. We establish diplomatic relations with each other. Exchange embassies and learn more about each other. We need time to get to know each other anyway.

2. You have a Coredian observer at all times with you to watch over the ship as it is rebuilt. He or she will have top secret clearance and be treated as an ambassador with all the diplomatic immunity that entails so that he/she would be able to watch the proceedings properly. The person I send will report directly to the High Council.

3. Understand that any technology you find on the ship (that you don't already have) will need to be approved by me or the High Council before we can let you reverse-engineer it. It's not that we have a Prime Directive or anything, it's just that we don't want said tech to fall into unsavory hands."

OOC: There's a bit of a loophole in that Imperial (the ships you'll be taking away) and Coredian technology (from the Megalodon) are very similar, but there are some unique techs that we have that they don't have, like beamlasers.

"Then you'll have no objection to our salvaging them, correct?" she said noting his grin and logging it away for the time being.

She knew he would say something about why he grinned if he wanted and she didn't feel like pressing him about it, for the time being.

She made a gesture at one of the Ri-an captains that told him that they would be free to gather the other ship remains for transport back to the CSP if Daniel gave his consent. The disposition of the Megalodon would be handled later.
"Nope. No objection." I said, shaking my head.

Soon enough, the NX-02 would find the Seal of the Jedi Order among the remains of the Megalodon. Most certainly the misunderstanding would have been cleared up...

"Hmm," thought the Captain, "it isn't a perfect match, but one should expect that such a design would shift over the years, as well as normal wear-and-tear of normal operations, and battle damage."

Aloud, she ordered, "Let the Cardinal know we've matched the symbol she obtained with one on the vessel's remains to a percent level that leaves little doubt."

"Well." I mused. "Normally, you'd have to run the gauntlet of Senate Arms Service Commitee, the military brass wanting to know everything about what's happening with their beloved ship, and a few 'Leave the ship alone' groups ranting and raving. Not to mention that I have a personal stake in the ship. Plus, we don't know you all that well. I would like to set a few conditions before you can be allowed to have the ship.

"Name them," said Sforza as she raised an eyebrow at all the ineffecient paperwork Daniel had implied.

1. We establish diplomatic relations with each other. Exchange embassies and learn more about each other. We need time to get to know each other anyway.

"Embassy exchanges are one of the main purposes we built the Constantine Space Port for with the help of Ri-an," she said, "though, like the Balroggan represenative was told, its to be considered a neutral place by all and that you keep any conflicts out of that star system. We installed an Arena aboard the CSP for people to take care of greivances. Agreed?"

2. You have a Coredian observer at all times with you to watch over the ship as it is rebuilt. He or she will have top secret clearance and be treated as an ambassador with all the diplomatic immunity that entails so that he/she would be able to watch the proceedings properly. The person I send will report directly to the High Council.

"Being empowered to act as an official representative of our Empress here," came the reply, "it is under my power to allow such an individual into our space beyond the Constantine Space Port, which is usually as far as those from other nations are able to venture. Send your represenative there and he or she will be transfered to the Monac Shipyards. Though, do note, we will have to provide our own guard for any individual you send due to our own internal problems."

3. Understand that any technology you find on the ship (that you don't already have) will need to be approved by me or the High Council before we can let you reverse-engineer it. It's not that we have a Prime Directive or anything, it's just that we don't want said tech to fall into unsavory hands."

"Quite understandable," agreed Sforza, "Truth be told, we have a similar policy in place to prevent our technology from falling into the hands of our enemies."

OOC: There's a bit of a loophole in that Imperial (the ships you'll be taking away) and Coredian technology (from the Megalodon) are very similar, but there are some unique techs that we have that they don't have, like beamlasers.

OOC: Though, this will probably be a great way for me to gain samples of shield technology so I can so R&D in that area with an IC reason. Anything else in there that you may consider minor that would be new for my nation (like cloaking devices, for example)?

As for the weapons, they'll probably have your old 'beamlasers' set aside for later as she's rebuilt as they'll be more focused on honoring the memory of the dead with a ship that will be one beautiful vessel when they are done. The name will be kept as part of the whole honoring the memory of her former crew thing.

"Nope. No objection." I said, shaking my head.

The Cardinal nodded at the Ri-anese captains indicating they could go ahead with the salvage of the other craft in the area. According to the arrangements, they would be taken to the CSP and transfered from there to the Monac Shipyards.

Aloud, she ordered, "Let the Cardinal know we've matched the symbol she obtained with one on the vessel's remains to a percent level that leaves little doubt."

the little boy ran back. An Aquamarinian stopped him on the Octopus ship, and asked for the results. The results were recorded in the Hive, and relayed to Larry.

"The Symbols have been matched. Also, Ships are going to move from the fleet to grab the other ships, and tow them back to the CSP." He said.

As he spoke, so it happened. Octopus ships with their Octo Tractors Grappled with the ships like nobody's business, and towed them back to the CSP.

Imperial Bhouy 3334/221C Wreckage Marker.
Unknwon Contacts Detected.
Vessel XX5B Violated.
HOLOBUSRT


Executor

Tarkin viewed the data with consistent casual glances. His face, eye lines and jaw each contorted to form a self proclaimed superiority over his subordinates. "Sir, Lord Vader is here to meet you." Tarkin ignoring the aide waved the Sith in as neared completion of the report.

Vader stood shadowed and bathed in darkness. his heavy respirator dominating the room. Tarkin ignored the theatrics and continued as though the Sith was any other man. "It seems Lord Vader, that we have trespassers on an Imperial wargrave, one marked with sensitive technological value." Tarkin raised an eyebrow.

"That is of no concern to me Admiral, respond with the nearest battlegroup and exterminate the traitors." Vader took a seat. "Before you dispense my orders admiral, be aware, that I wish to continue our discussion on your support for my succession." Tarkin nodded his head slyly and proceeded towards the holo-room.

Raiders, on Imperial graves! Completely unacceptable, even for the empire. Such actions were dishonourable, dark, contemptuous. There was no place for such violations in his eyes. How better to respond to the situation than with the death star herself.

Lord Vader had ordered to use the nearest battlefleet, and as far as Tarkin could predict there were two, almost perfectly equidistant. Both would be dispatched.

Standing upon the holoplatform he made quick contact with Admiral Damilia.

Death Star Battlegroup

"Admiral Damilia." Moff Tarkins rigid jawline said fondly. "We have received a sensor burst from one of our many wargraves in the Magalodal sector. We have reason to believe that the salvagers are unauthorised aliens making incursions into the infinite empires territory. You are to proceed with the Death Star battlestation and her escort and eliminate this threat quickly and efficiently.

Do not attempt to make contact with these thief's, instead, immobilise their vessels and take prisoners for interrogation. Lord Vader is most vexed at this unfortunate situation.

You shall be assisted by the nearby Huntarian cloaked battlefield, they will flank and prevent any escape for the enemy.

Tarkin out."

Twenty Three Minutes Later

Multiple Hyperspace reversions would encompass the graveyard, all screaming Imperial IFF's. Then, to make the situation worse, one vast gravitational signature would arise, as the Death Star ploughed forth into real space. her communications and FTL jammers fully online.

Without mercy or prudence, the Imperial forces advanced, Tie fighters were mercilessly employed, their numbers coming from the death star too numerous to count. Advancing with the Immobiliser Star Destroyers, Admiral Damilia would resolve this situation quickly.

It was a shame really, for place in so consumed by darkness to once again relive the terrors of warfare and crusade. But the Empire must be protected. Order must be preserved and the Jedi and their allies must suffer the emperors justice.

The sorrow Damilia experienced quickly filtered away into refined rage and righteous composure. "Fire at will. Destroy everything, including our wrecked warships."

To the new ships:

We advise you do not fire on the Ri-an ships. We are simply civilians, and completly unarmed. the danger, is in our engines. They have a delicate balance between Singularities, and if you fire on us, you WILL destroy the entire system, and all things contained therein, including youselves.

OOC: Uhm, welcome to the party, US. So, sending in the Death Star, eh? That's a bit much, IMO (IC'ly and OOC'ly). Still, this ought to make for an interesting escalation and may cause me to bring in one of my mobile starbases (big compared to my ships, but minute compared to your DS). It'll be interesting if the Lost Technology of my Hypergate network (which includes Jump Nodes) will be affected by your FTLi.

IC: =/\=Incoming vessels, hold your fire! We have no intention of starting an international incident here.

If you have come to lay claim to one or more of the wrecks here, then you'll have to talk to the owners of this area of space just as we are currently doing aboard the Ri-an ship our Raptor is docked with. If you wish to make your presence known, why waste what could be a potentially advantages situation for yourselves. Send a representative of your own. If you are interested, contact the Ri-anese in regards to the restrictions for permission of coming aboard their ship.

We are negotiating for the ship we want the one we are meeting next to. Perhaps you should do the same, for the ship or ships you want to lay claim to.=/\=

The NX-02 moved closer to the Raptor docked with the neutral Ri-an Octopus ship after bringing only her defenses on-line. This was done to show that they had every intention of remaining neutral.

The Captain scowled at the waste the new ships were causing with the destruction of the wrecks. Upon noting the other wrecks in the area, they had began active and passive sensor sweeps of everything to see if there were any organic remains aboard that needed burial. They hadn't gotten around to taking care of those they found when the Lady Luck arrived.

OOC: @US & Huntaer: One question...who invited you? Was it CW? Oh, and I included enough clues in my message that it should be obvious my goal is the Megalodon, at least it is at the moment.

OOC: @Huntaer: Thanks. TBH, I had forgotten the names of the specific episodes it was featured in. I recalled the plots, just not the names.

IC: “Is this all there is?” Damilia asked with disappointment. “Such a waste for our battlestation, such a waste…..” His hand slowly caressed the firing trigger to the superlaser, the power, the Imperial might in one switch; it brought a smile to his face.

“I assume the flanking groups are in position captain?” The admirals face flicked towards one of the many operations pits on the death star bridge.

“Our scanners cannot detect the Huntarians, but they should be in position by now. Their cloaking device makes it impossible to achieve any form of communication.”

“Very well, order our vessels to begin vaporising this shrine, and lock tractor beams onto the alien vessels.”

“We are being hailed Admiral.”

Damilia rubbed his hands together eagerly. “Are we now? Put their messages on screen, text format only please captain.” The forward viewer flickered for a moment and then revealed the transmissions. “And please, ensure that our communication jammers envelop all of their frequencies from now on, captain.”

We advise you do not fire on the Ri-an ships. We are simply civilians, and completly unarmed. the danger, is in our engines. They have a delicate balance between Singularities, and if you fire on us, you WILL destroy the entire system, and all things contained therein, including youselves.

If you have come to lay claim to lay claim to one or more of the wrecks here, then you'll have to talk to the owners of this area of space just as we are currently doing aboard the Ri-an ship our Raptor is docked with. If you wish to make your presence known, why waste what could be a potentially advantages situation for yourselves. Send a representative of your own. If you are interested, contact the Ri-anese in regards to the restrictions for permission of coming aboard their ship.

We are negotiating for the ship we want, the one we are meeting next to. Perhaps you should do the same. for the ship or ships you want to lay claim to.

“Commscan, are there any chances that their claims are genuine?” Damilia continued to stare at the transmission.

“We are detecting a heavy gravitational source Admiral, comparable to that of a hyper reactor core. I would advise that we detain the prisoners before destroying the vessels.” The admiral nodded with a shred of acceptance.

“Relay the orders to the fleet. And send a return transmission to these aliens.”

”I am Admiral Damilia of the Galactic Empire, commanding the Emperors personal battlegroup. You, will power down your systems and prepare to be boarded. Refusal to comply will result in your immediate destruction. If you refuse to comply….. The transmission was ended leaving the thread hovering.

In space, the IISD Purity advanced upon the Ri-an civilian vessels, her immobiliser beam turrets targeting the ship carefully and with expert precision. Activating her tractor emitters she quickly had the civilians trapped, and held within an Imperial fist.

The others however would prove more difficult, there was some debris preventing the rest of the fleet in establishing a tractor lock, so the vessels advanced, fighters and cruisers, and destroyers surrounding the trespassers with Imperial conviction.

OOC: Understandable, I was informed via one of my allies as to this threads delicate location within an Imperial war shrine. Gravediggers are not tolerated within the empire, salvaging a crime beyond acceptance even for the Sith. Your intrusion into Imperial space is, as far as the empire is concerned an unforgivable sin. The Death Star and her battlegroup, though a bit much, makes a clear and potent message. Don’t screw with the empire. We honour and protect our dead just as much as the living.

Even though the target was the Megalodon, the empire still holds merit for the enemy, they are enshrined in history within our graves. A testament to battle and the Imperial cause. At least that’s the official line anyway.

My FTLi should inhibit jumpnodes and hypergates. It works be reinforcing the frabric of space time, preventing tears and folds. It can be overpowered providing you have a larger energy source than the Death Stars emitters at present, which I think is doubtful.

As for CW’s ship, so far the Imperial fleet has yet to actually detect within the debris. It’s signatures are very similar to the wrecks, so we won’t actually see it until we gain visual.

OOC: Ironically, my nation is also quite big on honoring and respecting the dead. Though, if you check the engine signature, your ships would quite easily see the remains of my ships' plasma wake goes nowhere near your ships. TBH, I would expect the GE to be more approving of someone coming and laying claim to Masaki's former command ship.
As for which ally sent you, lol, don't tell me....it was Chronosia, correct?
As for the FTLi stuff, got ya.
As for taking things seriously, I would have given the same response you did if it was to terroristic traitors (ie, the RCO).
As for honoring the dead, TB does that by cremation (naval funerals launch the body into a star) is generally preferred to honor the body (though the noble families of TB do have family mausaleums(sp?) in the captial city) and prevent any desicration by scavengers and honor the memory of the dead by repairing the ship they died aboard and using her to pwn enemies in their name.
Oh, and I TGed everyone in this thread with my IM address.

IC: =/\=We repeat, we have no quarl with you and are quite happy to leave whichever ship or ships you want alone. We are already dealing with the former owners of the ship we are most interested in obtaining, which, as said before, is the one we are closest to, the Megalodon. So, please hold you fire and send a representative to the Ri-an vessel so we can talk about this in a civilized manner. As hosts, it would impugne our honor and reputation if anything happend to your representative, so rest assured that he or she will come under no harm as long as we can do anything about it.

All we ask is for a face-to-face to discuss matters like civilized beings. Thereis no since in wasting lives here today in armed conflict when there need not be any. We see no reason why a diplomatic solution to matters here today can not be obtained.=/\=

OOC: Um. You guys coming in. Did you not see that it was INVITE ONLY?!

IC:
I had to sweatdrop when the Death Star showed up. I mean, come on! The Death Star coming to destroy us over some dead ships is like sending a nuke to end the dispute of a kicked-over sand castle. Nothing but sheer idiocy. And the enemy wonders why we laugh at them in the face of total danger.

Then again, since when did the Empire care about being nice?

I could feel the Dark Side wrap around the Death Star and know that Vader is on board somewhere. I sighed. "Again? Why couldn't we sit down for a nice cup of tea?"

I suspected the Yamato's crew must be panicking by now. Certainly they don't want to share the fate of the Megalodon and neither do I. Hmm...how to escape from a number of Imperial ships surrounding us...

OOC: I did ask them if it was you who sent them the invites, CW. Apparently it wasn't.

IC: The Cardinal looked at Masaki and noted the panicked look on his face.

"Pardon me, your highness," she said, "but if you are concerned about being able to leave the area, know that our ships are working on bringing out a diplomatic solution. If you are worried about being identified, I could have a disguise brought over from the Raptor I arrived in for you to use if you wish. I also offer you a ride back to our Constantine Space Port. Judging from your expression, it would probably be best if you ride back with us and transfer back to your own nation later...that is if the new arrivals are willing to let us leave the area with the Megalodon."

Still, to be on the safeside, she had a message relayed back to the Raptor. A few minutes later, the ship's Tactical Officer/Chief Of Security and her Chief Engineer showed up with EM-33 Pulse Pistols clearly visible in their holsters in case the new arrivals sent a representative, he or she would be treated as potentially hostile. The Chief Engineer also carried a duffle bag containing the change of clothes the Cardinal had offered Daniel. The Tactical Officer passed the Cardinal a Phase Pistol, which she concealed inside her robes in case she needed it if the new arrivals sent an armed boarding party instead of a diplomatic envoy. Both Methuselah nodded in acknowledgement of Daniel's presence, but said nothing.

The Ri-ans didn't mind, at least they weren't sent back home. Death was preferrable. But not all of the Ri-an fleet wasn't caught, and couldn't be disrupted, this was because they were Stargons, The Space Dragons that dwelled naturally in the reaches of space. In the Civilian fleet, it was only three adults.

They flew around the other ships.

OOC: I did ask them if it was you who sent them the invites, CW. Apparently it wasn't.

IC: The Cardinal looked at Masaki and noted the panicked look on his face.

"Pardon me, your highness," she said, "but if you are concerned about being able to leave the area, know that our ships are working on bringing out a diplomatic solution. If you are worried about being identified, I could have a disguise brought over from the Raptor I arrived in for you to use if you wish. I also offer you a ride back to our Constantine Space Port. Judging from your expression, it would probably be best if you ride back with us and transfer back to your own nation later...that is if the new arrivals are willing to let us leave the area with the Megalodon."

Still, to be on the safeside, she had a message relayed back to the Raptor. A few minutes later, the ship's Tactical Officer/Chief Of Security and her Chief Engineer showed up with EM-33 Pulse Pistols clearly visible in their holsters in case the new arrivals sent a representative, he or she would be treated as potentially hostile. The Chief Engineer also carried a duffle bag containing the change of clothes the Cardinal had offered Daniel. The Tactical Officer passed the Cardinal a Phase Pistol, which she concealed inside her robes in case she needed it if the new arrivals sent an armed boarding party instead of a diplomatic envoy. Both Methuselah nodded in acknowledgement of Daniel's presence, but said nothing.
OOC: It's not panic. More like a combination of annoyance and bemusement. He's so used to being nearly captured by the Empire that he's actually annoyed when they bring in the Death Star and other big bad ships.

IC:
"Thanks for your help. I would like you to also send word to the Yamato to shut down their systems. Apparently, the Empire hasn't detected the ship yet and if it stays quiet, it's sure to remain undetected." I said, taking the duffel bag. Eyeing the weapons, I added, patting the silvery cylinder on my belt. "I don't require any weapons. I have my lightsaber, all I ever need."

For now, at least.

"Anyway, let me change and we can get going." I thought about doing a Henge as well, but decided against it because Vader could probably sense it. A Henge is a ninjutsu technique allows one to 'transform' into another person, animal, or even object.

OOC: Understood. Oh, and I added a slight edit to what I said in response to US's OOC comment in my previous post.

IC: The Chief Engineer handed Daniel the duffle bag before heading off to relay the message to the Yamato personally. Inside the duffle, Daniel would find the garb of female aide to a noble which included a veil to obscure the face. Also included was a hypospray containing nanites that would temporarily make Daniel appear as a member of the fairer gender, though without actually turning him into one. In the case with the hypospray were several additional vials containing boosters that could be taken when the first dose started to wear off after twenty-four hours. There was also a voice-changer, disguised as a necklace, intended to supliment the minor physical alterations done by the nanites to the vocal chords.

With a wry smile, Cardinal Caterina Sforza chuckled and said, "To be honest, I couldn't think of a more perfect disguise for you. Who would think to look for an Emperor," she continued, "when all indications are that the only non-Ri-anese here are women."

She then proceeded to fill him in on what the nanites and voice changer were for.

I choked. "Whaaaat?!"

Oh, Force, I'm never going to live this incident down...Then again, I won't have to if I'm dead, and besides, I could always transform back. Nanites have nothing on the power of the Force.

Still, my inner self is shedding waterfall tears at the momentary loss of my manhood.

"Very well." I groaned. "In the interests of not dying from a Darth Vader-induced lost head problem, I'll do it."

Sforza broke a broad grin and had a twinkle in her eyes at Daniel's reaction.

"As they say," she said turning her back to give him some privacy to change, "the best place to hide something is in plain sight."

"I guess." I said. In a few horrifying moments of pain and gore (not really), I became a woman, for all intents and purposes.

Naruto's going to have a field day when he finds out. I thought darkly. Not to mention that Katrina's going to wish she had a camera.

The Cardinal chuckled slightly as she heard the tone of Daniel's response.

OOC: Really can't do anything until US gets on and responds to the last message I sent him.

"Your name is now Sally." Said Sorgei to Daniel.

"Pleased to meet you." I answered, suddenly surprised at my womanly voice.

"Its a pleasure to meet you too, Miss Sally Smith."Thames said.

"Can I turn around yet, Ms. Sally?" inquired the Cardinal in an amused tone, "or would you prefer Lady Sally, Baroness of Monte Carlo?"

"You can turn around." I said, still in that melodious voice. "And for once, I'll have that title, since it's known that my male counterpart hates titles."

"Would also make you part of the Trinity Blood nobility if it were true," chuckled Sforza as she turned around.

After looking 'Sally' up and down, she added, "If I didn't know any better, I would swear you were actually born a female. Like the hair?"

She indicated the results of the nanites rapid stimulation of the hair folicles on the head causing it to accelerate in growth, for a few moments, until it reached about mid-back in length as well as shift to a firey bronze in color. The nanites also caused any facial hear, like beard and mustach hair, to fall out rather rapidly as well along with just enough eyebrow hair to make them look feminine. Of course, the lost hair would grow back at an accelerated rate for a few days after the suppression caused by the nanites wore off and the hair would resume its natural coloration as well at that point.

"Actually, the hair's not so bad." I smiled. "Reminds me of a graphic novel I read once about a guy that turns into a girl because of a curse."

OOC: In other words, Ranma 1/2, lol.

OOC: Lol, I've heard of it and I know some of the basics about it, but that's it. Wasn't it also made into an anime?

IC: "Interesting," replied Sforza in a tone that clearly showed that such things weren't her 'cup of tea', "we'll have to merge our respective databases on such things sometime."

OOC: I take it US doesn't post that often, correct?

OOC: Yep.

IC:
"We can do that after we're at a safe place." I replied. "So what now?"

OOC2: No, he doesn't. Sithy's a big church-goer.

"We wait until we get a response from our new 'guests' out there," replied the Cardinal, "until that time, there's nowhere to go. Our warp drives are useless in this distortion field they are creating. I don't know if the Ri-an's are capable of activating their FTL drives in this soup or if your ships are able to. I do know that the Columbia left a string of subspace amplifiers as SOP to ensure comm chatter with Starfleet Command could be maintained as well as personal comm use by the crew."

OOC: They have church on Thursdays?

OOC: Hey, can you get online, TB?

IC:
"All right. We'll have to wait then." I sighed. That's always the hardest thing.

OOC: Online? As in IM, sure, for an hour or two before I've got to go AFK.

IC: The Cardinal paused for a moment in thought before saying, "Masaki, any objections to us creating a short-lived clone of you? If I guess correctly, using it as a barginning chip with our new friends may allow all of us to get out of here safely."

She points to the woman who had just arrived.

"The Doc has a Lyssarian desert larva (http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/en/images/0/05/Lyssarrian_desert_larvae.jpg)," she continued, "if it is injected with DNA from another organism, the larva rapidly transforms itself into a clone of that organism that lasts for fifteen days. Great for use as decoys."

"That might work. However, I know something even better." I grinned. I crossed my fingers in a handseal and muttered: "Henge Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Poof! A clone of myself in my old body appeared. "Hey, what's with the getup?"

I sweatdropped. "Don't ask. You're in my place, so don't screw it up."

"All right." The clone snickered.

"My archenemy Darth Vader can probably sense a difference in clones with a larvae like that. Different psychic -which we call the Force- signature." I explained to the Cardinal. "With a Kage Bunshin clone, not only is the signature exactly the same (and thus Vader can't tell the difference), as long as I can pour my energy into the clone, it can survive a few hits."

OOC:
Daniel's Kage Bunshin is more refined than Naruto's usual clones. Instead of dying after one it, it can take several. It does use more chakra to do it (and less clones to make), but it also can fool even the most powerful Sith. And no, Sithy, I won't accept even a hint of detection.

Thames spoke up.

"I say, that's some trick. Are you an illusionary Clone, are do you come complete with Flesh, Blood, and the exact same level of powers The Drag Queen beside you does?" Thames asked.

OOC: All that work I had to go through getting US to agree to that idea and you use that. Oy vey. Still, I'll keep my idea as a back up.

IC: "Still," said Sforza, "perhaps we should utilize the larva as a Plan B, just in case. Though, I should let you know, some strains of the larva have allowed complete genetic transfer of the duplicated subject's memories, and it'll last long enough for us to get away safely, which, I don't know if I can say for your little duplication trick."

Thames spoke up.

"I say, that's some trick. Are you an illusionary Clone, are do you come complete with Flesh, Blood, and the exact same level of powers The Drag Queen beside you does?" Thames asked.
"I'm flesh and blood and I have the same powers as the original." The Daniel clone revealed.

OOC: All that work I had to go through getting US to agree to that idea and you use that. Oy vey. Still, I'll keep my idea as a back up.

IC: "Still," said Sforza, "perhaps we should utilize the larva as a Plan B, just in case. Though, I should let you know, some strains of the larva have allowed complete genetic transfer of the duplicated subject's memories, and it'll last long enough for us to get away safely, which, I don't know if I can say for your little duplication trick."
OOC: Heh.

IC:
"Well, I suppose it'll help." I said. "If nothing else, it'll be another layer of protection."

"And there's certainly nothing wrong with that," chimed in the Tactical Officer, speaking up for the first time.

"Alright," said the Doctor approaching Daniels, "then all I'll need from you is a genetic sample and then I can return to my sickbay to prepare the larva."

Sithy, I won't accept even a hint of detection.

OOC: Calm down your arrogance boyo. Last time I checked this was freeform role-play. A simple polite message is enough, so please, try to keep out your new found rudeness out of it. It's not very becoming. If I can ICly detect it I fricken well can, just like you can randomly magic up a clone. But nonetheless, I hardly care about "detecting" Daniel, more of your current attitude problem.

IC: "Admiral, they continue to attempt diplomatic measures." A baffled captain remarked perplexed. "Do we have permission for a full volley?" Damilias eyes instinctively turned towards the superlaser firing trigger.

"No.... not yet captain, but all in good time. Instead, give them a full volley of our ion cannons, the entire fleet is to render their ship completely inoperable."

"Understood Admiral." The orders were filtered to the rest of the fleet.

Imperial Star Destroyer Invinceible

Captain Tleor smiled as the order packets were received, the Imperial communication just making it through the blackout. "All ion cannon batteries are to report in immediately commodore." Tleor smirked with vindication. "The Admiral wishes survivors."

Tactical quickly filtered through the numerous green lights. "Port, starboard, stern and bow batteries ready and at your command captain."

"The rest of the fleet reports likewise sir." Commodore Lilow reported from an updated datapad.

"Well then, open fire."

As done a hundred times before the Imperial fleet targeted, confirmed and fired upon an enemy unknown. An entire fleet, accompanied by an Imperial battlestation sundered the saucer crafts with razor blue weaponry, while the dangerous and fledgling Ri-an vessels were tractored towards the ominous underbelly of an Imperial Star Destroyer.

As done a hundred times before the Imperial fleet targeted, confirmed and fired upon an enemy unknown. An entire fleet, accompanied by an Imperial battlestation sundered the saucer crafts with razor blue weaponry, while the dangerous and fledgling Ri-an vessels were tractored towards the ominous underbelly of an Imperial Star Destroyer.

OOC For size purposes, as a refrence, The head portion of the Octopus ship is half the heighth of a standerd Borg Cube, and the tenticles though thin they may be, make up the other half. It is not a squared ship, rather its more of a rounded shape.

The Whale ships are bigger, their the same length and width as a Star destroyer, the width portion being the backside where the engine is, but twice the heighth of the mid section of a towerless star destroyer.

There are 10 Whales, 20 Octopi, and three young stargons. The Stargons however, are not trained for combat, and so are just milling about the Octopus ship with Trinity and CW's ship Docked. Careful about firing on Trinity and CW's ships, if either ship goes up, mine does too, and in chain reaction, so will my entire civilian fleet.

Just things to take into consideration. I'm sure you have defences and ways around it, just in the intrests of honesty and fairplay, I feel I should share this. It may not even get to that point, I don't know.

The Columbia received her fair share of hits from the ion cannons. The sum total effect was that main power was disabled. The NX-02 was adrift with minimal life support and emergency lighting. By pure chance, the ionized plasma utilized by the weapons acted to enhance the flow of the energized plasma in the EPS conduites of the ship. It was arching energy across metal surfaces that did the damage by destroying sensitive, and oft times critical, isolinear chips.

OOC: Sorry, but the best I could do while half-asleep.

OOC: Calm down your arrogance boyo. Last time I checked this was freeform role-play. A simple polite message is enough, so please, try to keep out your new found rudeness out of it. It's not very becoming. If I can ICly detect it I fricken well can, just like you can randomly magic up a clone. But nonetheless, I hardly care about "detecting" Daniel, more of your current attitude problem.
OOC: This coming from the guy who barged in on a supposedly simple diplomatic RP in which no more than three players were expected and decided to take over the RP. On the issue of the clones, you know full well that Daniel has long been capable of creating clones (as well as a number of my 'gifted' people). If he wasn't, I would have told you so. Besides, it's time that the shoe was on the other foot.

OOC: TBH, you two are, IMHO, bickering like a pair of school girls, no offense. Please, can we get back to what really is important here, the actual RP?

Lurking in the area, Solari Task Group 77 took note of the appearance of significant Imperial assets over the Gravesite of the Megalodon. While no Solari had died there, it was still their duty to engage and drive out the desecrating beasts. At least one Coredian vessel was known to be active at that location, but its disposition, armament, and ability to ersist was unknown. Task Group 77 was on its own.

OOC: @TSL: Did CW invite you?

OOC: I did. Unfortunately, my MSN is down so I can only talk like this.

I'm sorry to report that Trinity Blood will no longer be joining us, since he's kinda...SQ. Oh well. I'm off to greener pastures and greater violence.

Yup. Looks like Trinity Blood has gone kersmish. I'd say that kinda renders any arguments about the thread kinda moot...

I'm sorry to report that Trinity Blood will no longer be joining us, since he's kinda...SQ. Oh well. I'm off to greener pastures and greater violence.

so its true mm this makes a mess of things i'm in with him

OOC: The power of the Void strikes again! Oh well.