NationStates Jolt Archive

-( OOC: )-

This RP is closed, with the exception of those within the New Sparta Region. This is a mix of different Tech levels, mostly FT, but with others as well. Note that there is a possibility of outsiders joining, this can be discussed via TG, but I won't make a single guarantee. Enjoy.

-( IC: )-

In Orbit around New Sparta, New Spartan System, Neutral Territories

A rather plain cargo ship dropped out of VL-Space, in its proper position relative to the normal traffic in and out of the system. The cargo ship was not named, and was only known by its designation as: HCS-3725, which identified the ship by its serial number, its class, and which faction it belonged to. This cargo ship was of Hashin design, with the typical Crimson Vaal engine design for FTL travel. Most factions in the system used the same engine, as most other designs had proved to be too expensive or inefficient.

The cargo ship dropped into a stable orbit, and another transport moved closer to transfer its contents to the Planet’s surface. This is when the otherwise simple procedure went awry. The error was noted by several listening posts, yet no transmissions were sent.

Instead of slowing, the cargo ship suddenly lost its stability, impacting the transport. Both ships embraced in a tight hold, and both were doomed when the motion caused their orbit to decay. The hulk burned uncontrollably through the atmosphere, and hurtled towards the unknowing populace below.


In the Capital City of New Sparta

Theresa Vega stepped into the office that served as the New Sparta Treaty Organization (NSTO) headquarters. This was the organization that served to keep the factions inhabiting the system and surrounding territories from becoming too belligerent. Though an alliance was the basis of the organization, support for another faction during times of trouble was voluntary, not forced. Its main purpose is to keep peace, as there were the occasional disagreements on massive weapons testing on the outer ring of asteroids and in other systems. Most notably was the new Bore Cluster Nanites that had been developed by the Hashin Empire, which was, coincidently, the topic of discussion today. Mrs. Vega was led towards the executive debate room, which was already filling up with various delegates.

Theresa took her seat, her red clothing conforming to her body in the typical Vaalite fashion, loose and comfortable. Revealing clothing was normally frowned upon in Crimson Vaal, but citizens had more to worry about than clothing trends. Red was the color that represented Vaal, the Homeland. Usually a politician wore something with a red color to show their support for their homeworld. The tangent thought was buried by the Kreich’s wife, and she focused.

Theresa, the Crimson Vaalite Kreich Sergei Vega’s wife, was in charge of producing Crimson Vaal’s support of the new Hashin weapon. She hated the idea of the Clusters, the terror and the agony they caused during death, but it wasn’t a woman’s place, at least in Vaal society, to speak against their husband. At home, Sergei was definitely not the master of the house, but on the political table, he was a force to be absolutely reckoned with. She shifted in her seat, knowing full well that weapons were only used for one thing, Death.

“Are we ready to begin?” asked a senior delegate from the Hashin faction. He was obviously a rookie to the political table, which seemed odd in the terms that this was a major political debate. Perhaps the Hashins relied more on Vaalite political sway than they should. A sign of other weakness? She didn’t know.

“All necessary elements have arrived,” Theresa said in a light tone, shuffling her prepared statement that had been written by her husband for this meeting.

“Good, we are, to remind you, here to discuss the objections to our new technology, the Bore Cluster Nanite Attack-Drone. We invite Crimson Vaal to begin,” the man said smartly. Theresa was slightly annoyed by his lack of political skill, but let the notion slide.

“The Protected Expanse of Crimson Vaal voices its support for the BCNAD, and hopes to acquire a sample for future testing. My husband, Sergei Vega, is pleased to hear that the Hashin Empire is capable of such fine feats of technology,” she explained, reading from her memorized version of the text she’d been given. “It is our hope that such a weapon will never be released on the general civilian--”

The statement was cut off by an extremely violent BOOM, the floor shook, and several occupants of the room began to panic. A sickly whine, as well as short, agonized screams began to be heard... along with disgusting crunches. Theresa Vega’s eyes ballooned when the door was literally eaten away by a silver-gray cloud, Bore Clusters. She tried to run, but nothing could be done -- there was only one exit. The cloud turned those nearest to the door into wet spray of red after several seconds, the victim able to fully experience the pain that came when the body was forcefully cut apart from the inside on a molecular level. The cloud came closer, inexorably coming towards her. She screamed.


Kreich’s Quarters, The Red City, Crimson Vaal, Vaalite System

Sergei Vega sank back in his chair, dropping the piece of paper onto his polished black desk. He was extremely confident in himself, and was a loving character, though his politics served to undermine that caring nature. His wife was now dead, and his family was torn apart. Theresa had been the one thing he’d been able to hold on to, and now she was gone. Whoever did this, shall pay. Sadness washed over him like a cold rain, completely permeating his essence and dampening his soul.

He read through the report on the incident, over one thousand dead in less than two hours. Only the neutral New Spartan military, supplied with a special type of weaponry, had been able to exterminate the Bore Clusters, but not before the entire political embassy had been wiped clean. Gone. He’d lost extremely valuable political resources, not to mention his lover. Sergei Vega, the man leading arguably one of the more proficient and powerful nations in the system in terms of military might and tenacity, put his head in his hands and cried. The last words he read were: “Transportation of Bore weaponry controlled by Crimson Vaal allies: Empire of Hashi”. Rage and Grief exploded in the man’s mind, spreading like a fire freshly exposed to oxygen.

“Your orders, sir?” his aide asked in a kind tone, offering a tissue.

The Kreich grimaced in anger, and the aide pulled away. “Prepare our forces. All of them,” he ordered darkly.

“Sir? Surely you must understand the--”

“I am Kreich, you are not, correct? Surely I know the consequences of my actions,” he short back. The aide gulped.

“..Understood, sir. It is my job to remind you of your actions, and to help you. Please, sir, do not engulf our beloved empire in war.”

“War has come to us, herr, we have not gone to it. The Hashins will answer for the deaths of those people. They will answer for the death of my beloved wife, and the…” he trailed off. “Grief… and rage that has consumed me…”

“I understand, sir.”

“No, you do not.”

“I try my best sir. Would you like to send a transmission to the Hashin Government?”

“I would. The communications sector will receive my orders in one hour.” The man’s promise was met exactly one hour later.

To: Malak Jah
From: Kreich Sergei Vega

It is a sad day, for those who held loved ones inside of the Beloved Capital. Conclusions have been drawn showing your Empire as responsible for the molestation of that peaceful city. The Expanse demands to know why such an accident was allowed to occur. Too many lives have been lost for this to be simply explained away as a fluke. I hope, for the sake of all those involved, that a good reason is ascertained. We await your reply.

Sergei flipped off the recorder and sent the message on its way. He sat back and sighed, and a holo of the news was turned on for his display. The main story was the tragedy that had occurred. The image of the Kreich’s wife was put on then, causing a brief pause from Vega. That woman had been his last grasp to what a normal person would be like, and inside of himself, a final door sealed off whatever human-felt pains plagued him. The broadcast was from a New Spartan news channel, and Vega wondered if war would engulf the uneasy peace that had once survived between his people and the rest. His citizens were mobilizing, his country would be ready for war if it did indeed come.

The aide once again spoke up, noting the Kreich’s cold gaze. “Kto smeet, pobeda, comrade.” Who dares, wins.

“Let us hope their daring will be met by our own. Dismissed, comrade.”

Hashin Parliamentary Building, Senti

Malak Jah had considered how to respond to the Vaalite message for the good part of half an hour. He had considered giving no reply, but that would increase the possibility of worsening an already tense situation. After several additional minutes of silent contemplation he decided on an appropriate message.

Kreich Sergei Vega,

It is my duty to inform you on behalf of the people of the Imperial Republic that the Hashin Empire is not at fault for the unfortunate incident in the New Spartan capital. The Republic claims no responsibility for the incident and denies any and all accusations put forth against us. We have noticed an increased alertness throughout the Vaalite fleet along with a mass mobilization. We remind you that the Republic is perfectly capable of defending Hashin territory and that any breach in the New Spartan Treaty Organization’s Controlled Territories Act will result in the immediate declaration of war against The Protected Expanse of Crimson Vaal.

Malak Jah, Führer of the Armed Imperial Republic of Hashi

He ordered Red Night, his AI assistant, to send the message to the Hashin embassy in the Crimson Vaalite capital for transfer to Kreich Vega. Transferring the message through the embassy would allow the use of heavy encryption protocols and give some assurance that the message could not be blocked or intercepted before reaching the embassy for transfer. Malak made sure to send a discrete sub message to the embassy ambassador giving him orders to wipe the embassy’s computer mainframe including all AI’s clean of all information and destroy all written records that could give the Vaalite’s any sort of tactical information or otherwise, no matter how small, at the first sign of hostilities. If a war was on the verge of breaking out, Malak wanted to be absolutely sure that the Vaalite’s would not have any kind of advantage what so ever.

Malak had just finished inputting the final commands for transfer of the message when Red Night’s holographic image appeared above a small pedestal beside his computer screen.

“Sir,” said Red Night in a soft computerized voice. “Your 1500 hours meeting with the Military Advisory Council is in ten minutes. General Zeala and Admiral McKay are already in the parliamentary briefing
room. Shall I tell them when to expect you?”

Malak took a second to think and then replied.

“Yes.” Malak started “Tell them I will be arriving in five minutes. Thank you, you are dismissed.”

The hologram stood at attention and nodded.

“It is an honor to serve you, sir.” He said and shimmered out of existence.
The Führer took a second to collect his thoughts then grabbed a blank interactive data pad from the corner of his desk. He headed out of his office and down the hall to the briefing room. He arrived about two minutes later and sat down next to Captain Noland Jissera, commander of the Home World Defense Fleet, who must have arrived no more than a few minutes before him. Over the course of the next five minutes, three additional members of the council arrived and took seats across and to the left of him. The table now consisted of eight individuals. General Zeala, General Poverzenic, Brigadier General Ai’na, Admiral McKay, Admiral Riz’ma, Captain Jissera and Commander Cira all sat at the briefing room table with data pads in front of them. Captains Tashira and Darrell soon joined them via view screens through slipspace communication. This meeting was to discuss what military actions Hashi should take in the event of a war with Crimson Vaal.

“Now that all parties have arrived,” began Admiral McKay “We can begin assessing the tactical future of Hashi.”

Admiral taped his data pad twice and a holographic, two-dimensional map of Hashin territory was projected from the table. He taped the data pad again and the image zoomed in to a solar system close to the Hashi-Crimson Vaal border.

“As you can see here,” continued Admiral McKay “Crimson Vaalite ships have begun to mobilize and are on a heading that would put them in the Terrani system. As I’m sure you all know the Hashin controlled agricultural planet of Terrani is located in that system. It is the location of the Terrani Industry’s trading and distribution hub from which approximately one eighth of all Hashin food products derived. By chance it is also the closest planet to Crimson Vaal territory, at just over two light-years from the Hashi-Crimson Vaal border. If the Vaalite were to capture Terrani it would strike a huge blow
to the Republics economy and effectively cripple food supplies throughout the Empire.”

“Then what do you have in mind of what we should do, Admiral?” Malak asked.

“Captain Tashira is to proceed at best speed with the Second Defense Fleet to the Terrani system where she and the fleet will link up with battle groups Harlan and Pagelantic for defense of the system,” replied Admiral McKay. “Captain,” he asked Tashira “Do you have any objections?”

Malak was trying to read the Dae’gilan’s facial expressions to no avail. He had always been intrigued by how the species could remain so still and expressionless at times and then freely show a variety of unique expressions at others. Malak couldn’t even begin to interpret what she might be thinking. One thing was sure though, she was honor bound to carry out any orders she was given to the letter without question.

“No sir.” Tashira said in a calm clear voice. “I have already taken the liberty of relaying your orders to the Daelin’s AI for distribution throughout the fleet. We should be underway in within ten minutes for rendezvous with battle groups Harlan and Pagelantic. We will contact HRGN Command when we arrive.”

“Very good Captain,” said McKay “Dismissed.”

Captain Tashira nodded and vanished from the view screen.

“For our next order of business,” said Admiral McKay “I would like to focus your attention to sector Charlie three dash one-oh-eight.”

The holographic image above the table changed into a two-dimensional view of an eleven-planet solar system. The map showed the size and orbit of the planets as well as actual images of most of the planets. One planet in particular was highlighted to stand out. Malak read the planet as P108-03. He read the planets information closer. P108-03 seemed to be a class H planet with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, the perfect living conditions for plant and animal life.

“As you can well enough see,” the Admiral continued, “Planet P one-oh-eight dash oh-three is a class H planet rich in metals and prime agricultural land. It is also inhabited by sentient humanoid species obviously still in the developmental stage. The cruiser HRS Sakura discovered this planet while perusing a Third Colony Rebellion ship that escaped the raid on the Dovan asteroid colony. After destroying the TCR ship, Sakura took light scans for analysis by HRGN command. This planets potential strategic value has increased since the possibility of war with Crimson Vaal has in turn increased.”

“Admiral,” Malak said in quizzical voice “Are you suggesting that Hashi stake a claim to this planet?”

“I am, in fact,” replied Admiral McKay.

“Isn’t it against the New Spartan Treaty Organization’s First Contact Protocol? Member empires are forbidden from initiating first contact with any civilization that is not technologically advanced enough for interstellar travel. To do so we would risk sanctions against us.” Malak said.

“We would forfeit our position in the NSTO and lose some very valuable trade negotiations,” remarked Brigadier General Ai’na with a hint of distress in her voice.

“I don’t think the NSTO will have much say about any of our affairs after recent events,” replied McKay “But in the interest of political safety, we can still lay claim to the solar system in which the planet is located without initiating first contact with the native species. If war does break out between Hashi and Crimson Vaal, it will be our cue to procure any potential strategic options to help in our cause. That includes P108-03, breaking NSTO protocol or not.”

Malak didn’t know if he liked the idea of forcefully taking the home planet of a civilization that was not at an equal technological level, but desperate times called for desperate measures. He would authorize any plans that his advisors thought up. No matter how extreme it might seem in the short run.

The sun rose over the horizon and cast a stunning red glow through the huge plate glass window of Potana Śuba’s office. It was a beautiful, yet empty room, consisting of only a desk, a chair, and a large TV-like display on one wall. The room seemed futuristic in a way – white and glossy walls, flawless marble floors, and of course, the entire out-looking wall made of glass. This building, like most within the city, was stunning from the outside, and sleek on the inside. Looking through the window, as the Triumvirate was doing now, the architecture would paint in one’s mind a picture of a society with spaceships, lasers, robots, and the like, yet seeing the Triumvirate himself produced a very different result. He wore no shirt or shoes, and his pants seemed made of cloth or linen. Most noticeable, however, were the black, feathery wings protruding from his back. Upon closer examination, one would see his piercing purple eyes, soft face, and pointed ears, and would come to the conclusion that he was out of some sort of fantasy story and most definitely in the wrong setting now. This conclusion would be wrong, because the Sekosa, sentient species of Flego, are indeed very interesting...as is the planet of Flego itself.

Kreich's Quarters, The Red City, Crimson Vaal, The Expanse System

Sergei read over the transmission from the Hashins. He had never truly trusted them, and this transmission was either genuine, or a hastily constructed lie. His expression was one of solemn resentment of his circumstances. The Kreich wondered about the possible threat to his homeland. A first strike would be pointless, space was a large place, and was time consuming to travel and even more to properly defend. Tactics was something he understood, and so he consulted his waiting friend in the War Room.

Upon his arrival, the single most powerful man in the Vaal military stood over the table. This man was Alexei Veganov, a Grand Fleet Master. 'Master Veganov was the Kreich's most trusted officer, and friend. The two looked at the hologram, which detailed all information relative to conflict, including opposition intelligence operations. It seemed that the current maneuvers had been detected, with reinforcements arriving near the targeted agricultural planet, the objective of Case Teal: Economic and Civilian Disruption.

"Something other than your beloved's death troubles you, Herr," Alexei observed.

"It is this situation, how War may wash away our Homeland, and destroy the Peace we've sewn," Vega answered honestly.

"The decision is yours, Kreich Vega. I will follow until the very end."

The Kreich valued the man's loyalty, treason carried hefty and swift penalties anyway, but his officer's devotion was something that was always celebrated. Something snagged his notice however, and he zoomed in on a region that contained a scouter scan ship. It was very far out, too far.

"That is neutral territory, is it not?" Vega asked.

"As far as we know, Herr, yes it is. It is beleived a species inhabits that system, and we have left it alone due to previous irrational encounters," came the Admiral's reply.

"Then why is.. this group moving towards it?" th Kreich asked, pointing to a blip of non-Vaal origin. Its true destination was inconclusive, but it was a valid question.

"They could have any number of missions, perhaps they wish to establish first contact--"

"That is forbidden with technologicly inept species."

"I see."

"Send them new orders, I want to know what's down there. To hell with the consequences of the bureaucracy, its tiresome, and does little to help us."

Aboard the RCVF Crimson Dawn, System Identified As: OT-2535

Ship Master Rikka Gelaris read through the orders direct from Grand Fleet Master Vega, and The Kreich, direct from the nerve center of Vaal. It was surprizing, and it also detailed the tradgedy that had transpired. Rikka's heart burned in rage, wondering how such an 'accident' ever occurred. His ship, the Dawn, was now ordered to identify the species located on the LS-Class planet, and determine their political correctness. That term meant to acertain whether they'd join Vaal or not. A neutral party would be useful, and an ally would be useful, but an enemy would be... to put it in simple terms; dealt with. Though his own ship was absolutely incapable of military action, apparently others would rain death on hapless others, the morality behind that escaped the lowly Ship Master.

Still, like all good Vaalites, he did as was told, and dropped into an orbit. The move into and through the atmosphere overloaded all hope of running dark, Rikka hoped this wouldn't be detrimental.

Inside Balakor, Capital of the Incorporated Republic of Lusunia

Cathedral, the fine and mighty leader of the great nation of Lusunia woke up. His trivial look gave away his passion for sleep, unbeknownst to him what had been happening.

"Sir, there has been an accident," said General Pastal, the right-hand man directly for Cathedral.

"Pastal, what kind of accident are we talking about?" Cathedral covered his eyes so the sunlight couldn't penetrate his weakened pupils.

"A ship crashed inside the New Spartan Capital, and caused a huge explosion. Sergei Vega's wife, and few other governmental personnel died there, and he blames Malak Jah and the Hashins."

"WHAT?!? Knowing Sergei Vega, he would want to wage war...and try to invade planets as fast as possible! We must prepare -- I want all generals of the armies to meet me at The Palace of the Ancients in one hour. I feel we may have a brewing epidemic on our hands," Cathedral replied impatiently.

One hour later, at The Palace of the Ancients in Balakor

"People, people. We have gathered here today because of an incident of great importance. As many of you have heard, an incident occurred in the New Spartan Capital, yesterday afternoon. A ship crashed with a Vaalite ship, causing it to burst into flames when it impacted with the planet.
Sergei Vega has set blame on Malak Jah and the Hashins. He has mobilized his troops, and has his eyes are set for war," Cathedral said to the government personnel.

"I think we should join the Vaalites in this war. We are strong allies with them, and they are one of our majoring trading partners. Without them our country would go into ruin," replied General Pastal hastily.

"Don't make assumptions just yet. Vega may just be trying to scare the Hashins with military force. We cannot trust him because he has his own personal ideas towards our nation, and I feel we need to take that into consideration," said Captain Frlov, who holds the title of Captain of the Lusunia Armed Forces.

"Hey, I am of Hashin descent. The Hashins will not back down from a fight. The leader, Malak Jah, knows tactics and war strategies extremely well -- that is why he has succeeded of glorifying the Hashin economy. I say we join his side because they have the technological and militaristic abilities to win this war," announced Admiral Lyric, of the Lusunia Space Program.

Cathedral said violently, "Please, stop all this annoying clutter. We do not need it, and I will not care for it. I am the leader of this nation and what I say goes, you understand? I am close friends with both Malak Jah and Sergei Vega, and know them both very well. I will use everything in my power to try and restore peace created by the New Sparta Treaty Organization, hopefully coming to a concrete and agreeable result.

Onboard HRS Corruption and Justice, en route to C3-108

Roland Bordan sat at his ready room desk staring unenthusiastically at his computer screen. He had just spent the last five or so minutes skimming over the fleet’s status report. The report had been the same as the previous hours report and the one before that, and the one before that. If the fleet were to continue on their current heading, he would be able to predict the next hour report too. That would not be the case though. In approximately twenty minutes, the second carrier fleet would drop out of slipspace, or VL space if you wanted to get Vaalite technical, into system C3-108 where they would carry out their orders. Roland was almost finished the report when the comm. system chimed.

“Captain Bordan, please report to command,” an omniscient voice said.

He immediately recognized the voice as belonging to the ships artificial intelligence, Corruption and Justice. As per the AI’s request Roland closed down the status report, set the computer consol to standby mode, straightened his gray command uniform and walked towards the door to the command deck. As he walked out on to command he was greeted by and ‘Attention! Captain on deck!’ Every officer quickly turned and stood straight up, saluting him.

“At ease,” he said while returning the salutes.

He noticed that while he had been in his ready room a new shift had come on duty. He recognized it as the day watch crew, which consisted of the ships senior officers. He wasn’t quite sure of all their names, such is the disadvantage of being promoted to captain of the HRS Corruption and Justice and the entire Second Carrier Fleet no more than two days previously. He would have to make it a priority to memorize their names. He noticed that his first officer, Commander Lash Tano, was standing by his command chair and seemed to be beckoning him over.

“Commander,” he said in a formal but relaxed voice, “what do you have for me?”

“Sir approximately five minutes ago long range sensors detected a disturbance in P one-oh-eight dash oh-three’s atmosphere,” Commander Tano replied.

“Elaborate,” said the Captain, obviously interested.

“Sir,” she continued, “the trajectory and displacement of the disturbance does not match any previously recorded natural event for this planet. We considered that the disturbance might be have been caused by debris from the planetary rings but average debris size and mass are inconsistent with the disturbance. This has therefore lead us to conclude that perhaps a ship is attempting to land on the planets surface. We won’t know more until we get in close enough for a thorough scan.”

“Thank you Commander, keep me informed,” Roland said.

Commander Tano gave a clear ‘Aye sir’ with matching salute and walked off in the direction of the ships Operations consol.

The twenty minutes seemed to pass quickly. Roland kept himself occupied by reading over the data collected on the possible unknown ship.

“Fleet transiting out of slipspace. Arriving at designated coordinates, sector Charlie-three dash one-oh-eight.”

The slight lurch and his helmsman stating their arrival caught Roland slightly off guard. He closed down the disturbance data report on his chairs personal computer screen and called up the real time system wide sensor readout. As it appeared there was in fact a ship landed on the surface of the target planet. This interested Roland, but he decided that it could wait.

“Fleet status?” Roland asked.

This time the Ops. Officer replied.
“All seventy-eight ships report successful transit,” he said, “No problems detected.”

“Good,” Roland said. “Commence designated coordinate deployment orders for all ships and get me an ID tag on that unknown down there.”

“Aye sir, relaying orders,” said the Ops. Officer.

Roland watched as the fleet divided into groups and assumed positions encircling the systems third planet. They would have to maintain a far enough distance from the planet as to not be detected by any possible scanning or radar devices or maybe on the off chance, visual detection.

“Sir,” said the Ops. Officer, “I’ve been able to get an ID tag on the unknown ship. Its energy signature is Vaalite and the design matches a Crimson Vaal scout ship. The ships registry is however is not in the database.”

“Thank you Lieutenant,” Roland said, “Corruption and Justice, open a hailing frequency to the Vaalite ship.”

“Aye sir, channel open.” The AI replied.

“Crimson Vaalite vessel, this is Captain Bordan of the Hashin Carrier HRS Corruption and Justice. You are in violation of Hashin territory and New Spartan First Contact protocols. You are to leave this system immediately or be fired upon. You have been warned, I suggest you head it. You have ten minutes.”

Roland gave a motion to cut the transmission and turned to his tactical officer. “Target that ship. If they don’t take off within the allotted time, fire missile pods one through ten.”

Aboard the RCVF Crimson Dawn

The Dawn burned through the atmosphere with a fiery trail. The small ship finally decelerated and engaged in landing. Unknown to those on board, an anomaly had damaged the main thruster, and when the ship landed, the engine shut down completely.

"Incoming transmission," the Comm operator reported two minutes later, breaking the silence of the post-landing protocol.

"Let's hear it, crewman," Gelaris ordered firmly.

The message pumped through the ship's internal speakers, and told a terrible story. This mission was illegal? The Ship Master knew for a fact that if he'd known he'd have questioned the orders, but he hadn't. His area wasn't politics, neither was criminal action.

"Your orders, sir?" the helmsman asked, a touch of concern radiated from him.

"Status on landing checks."

"Completed, ready for orders."

"Get us out of here," Rikka said softly.

"Da."

The rear of the ship rumbled, and then powered down. The resulting BLAM! lurched the ship forward, crushing the landing gear, effectively stranding the ship on the planet's surface.

"Report!"

"Severe engine malfunction! Its.. Its gone, sir."

Gelaris fumed silently, but remained calm. The Hashins were almost certainly responsible for this somehow... someway, they were. War, as it were, seemed inevitable. He solemnly wished that his country would come out of it.

"Let's move," Gelaris ordered his crew. "We have.." he looked at the chrono. "Eight minutes, to get as far away as possible. Let's go."

The crew, which consisted of only five men and three women, walked outside and took in the scenery. Rikka spotted a likely-looking sheen from where he stood, and decided that was as good a place as any to start. With any luck, it would be a city, and with even greater luck, the Translator would actually work correctly.

"That shine, that's where we're going," Rikka said simply.

"Sir?" asked the lead engineer, a woman.

"Do you have any better ideas Kerithila?" he asked in a harsh tone, delving into rather harsh language.

"..No, sir," she replied back, acting like a typical Vaal woman; unnaturally passive and obedient.

"Good," the 'Master ended, getting the last word. The group was quiet the rest of the way, and Rikka wondered how far they would get with the local population.

Onboard HRS Corruption and Justice, System C3-108

The Vaalite ship had still not left the planets surface. This somewhat concerned Roland.

“Ops,” Roland said, “status on the Vaalite ship.”

“Sir sensors report no change in ships position. There was an energy spike within the ship but engines are still cold.”

“Thank you lieutenant, continue monitoring.” Roland switched his gaze over to his tactical officer. “Weapon status?” He asked

“Missile pods one through ten are armed and prepped for launch. Awaiting countdown completion.”

“Excellent. Fire once deadline is up.”

“Aye.”

The next few minutes were fairly tense. The Vaalite ship appeared to make no effort to lift off from the planet. Hm, perhaps the Vaalite’s are trying to call our bluff. Thought Roland. Well it’s going to be a rude awakening for them when they find that we intend to keep our word. At the one-minute mark Roland was surprised to see that the Vaalites were still just sitting there.

“Forty-five seconds remaining until countdown completion.” Corruption and Justice computerized voice stated.

When Roland heard the AI he decided to send another warning. He didn’t know that it would be falling on deaf ears.

“Ops send them a general warning. Maybe they didn’t hear us the first time.”

“Aye, warning sent. They should be receiving… no response to warning.”

At twenty seconds Roland ordered a birds eye view of the ship on the main view screen. The large metallic ship seemed out of place in the field where it landed.

“Ten seconds remaining until countdown completion.” Stated Corruption and Justice again. “Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Countdown concluded. Deadline for Vaalite ship takeoff is now up.”

“Firing missile pods one through ten in a consecutive spread.” Reported the tactical officer.

Roland heard the rumbling of the missiles launching from their tubes and seconds later witnessed the ten missiles impact and explode on the Vaalite ships bare hull one after another within milliseconds of each other. The missiles should be been small enough to not be seen during their descent into the atmosphere by the native inhabitance. Twenty seconds later it was all over. Where the ship had once been was now a smoking black crater. The only ruminants of the ship were a few small intact hull fragments and a few miscellaneous debris.

“Ops, any survivors?” Roland asked not knowing what answer he wanted to hear more.

“There’s still interference from the residual radiation of the warhead detonations but I’m reading what looks like six, possibly seven contacts moving away from the former ships location.”

Roland stared at the smoking crater on the screen for a few seconds more then ordered the visual link terminated. He turned to face the pervious location of his first officer to find that she had moved in and stood right beside him.

“Ah, Commander.” Roland said. “I didn’t see you there.” He gave her a slight smile and continued. “I need you to assemble a salvage and recovery team. Have them prepped and ready to move out when I give the orders. Your team is assigned to,” he looked at his computers screen, “dropship delta thirty-four. We need to clean up our mess down there, might also find something useful.”

“Aye sir,” she said saluting. “We’ll be ready within the hour.”

“Good, see to it.”

She gave another salute and walked out of the bridge. Roland figured that it was time to move on to the next priority on the fleet’s agenda.

“Ops,” Roland began, “Instruct the fleet to begin intensive scanning of the target planet as well as prepping the first and second waves of fighters along with all dropships and assigned loads. We’re a little behind schedule so tell them to get to it.”

“Aye sir, relaying assigned orders to all ships.”

“Good, I’ll be in my office. Contact me when preparations are complete.”

Roland stood up from his chair and crossed through command to his ready room. When he entered he sat down at his desk and activated his computer console.

“Corruption and Justice,” Roland started, “get me Admiral McKay at HRGN Command. Priority message.”

On The Planet, Location: Not Yet Identified.

Rikka Gelaris heard missiles impact the ship that he'd managed to get command to on two occaisions. He'd been rotated to the same ship twice, which was a rare occurance. He'd bonded, and now that ship was likely a smoldering ruin. The Crimson Dawn was now a memory. Gelaris pushed away his contempt and focused on walking. The Hashins would get whatever justice that was deemed necessary.

"Sir, there is something strange about this place," the tactical operator noted.

"What? I don't see anything, what could be the problem?" Rikka asked, concern scratched his voice.

"That is the thing, there are no animals. Is that strange?"

"I doubt any animal would be too eager to be near an explosion from a Hashin missile barrage, crewman," the Ship Master observed. His reply was a 'yessir'.

The group of Vaalite Navymen stopped at a cliff that overlooked a city. It was stunning to them, the amount of glass was something that no Vaalite was accustomed to. Windows gave entry points for snipers and assassins, and there were plenty of both in wartime. Vaal was always ready for war, whether it was peacetime or not. Every person had to have military training, and serve somehow, someway. If Vaal was invaded, the attackers would fight house to house, and the children of Vaal never surrendered.

"Camp here, we're staying."

Tactics Room, The Red City, Crimson Vaal, The Expanse System.

The red blip that represented the scout ship on the surface of the planet winked off. Contact had been lost, which could either be a technical problem, or worse; destruction.

"Can we contact them?" Sergei asked.

"We can," Veganov replied, pressing a button on the console. The message request was sent, but no reply was returned. The Fleet Master tried once more, and accomplished the same result. He shook his head to the Kreich.

"...Prokliatie"

"I can request a ship to investigate, sir," Veganov offered.

"Which ship?"

"The Red Cascade, I beleive it was just recently refitted. Though, it is the only available ship, and.. it is of Io class."

"A battleship?"

"Yes sir, one of the largest. The Cascade has a former crew, all of which have not gone through the process of reassignment, shall I send it? It is fully ready to depart."

"Da."

Aboard the RCVF Red Cascade.

Ship Master Malak Revan looked over his orders. His ship was barely out of spacedock, and already there was a new mission. His stone expression was one of doubt, and his partial decent in the Hashin bloodpool was one that he still looked upon with respect. He was a Vaalite, but also a Hashin. The idea of war with a part of his ancestry troubled him, but he shoved it away and kept a neutral face.

"Your orders, sir?"

"Ahead, full speed. Jump to VL-Space on my mark," he ordered in a heavy, gruff and deep voice. The typical angular look of a Vaalite was lost on Revan, and he looked out of place in terms of ethnicity on the command deck. After five minutes, the Io-VI class ship was out of the gravity well of the system.

"Go."

A red portal opened, and in 'real' space, another opened in-system. A half-second later, the ship appeared on the other side. In VL-Space, however, it was a seven hour trip. The science behind the time difference was something that gave Revan a headache. He let the think tank ponder that one, he had a job.

"Comm," he said simply.

"Sir, readings show the Dawn is not on the planet."

"Excuse me? What do you mean, not there?"

"...Only a crater is at the last known location of that ship. A SAC-Class Hashin ship is near the planet. Data shows the explosion matches a volley of Hashin-type missiles."

The data astounded Revan, and he clicked the Comm on himself.

Hashin Vessel. This is Ship Master Revan of the RCVF Red Cascade. It is disconcerning to see that you have decided to open fire on a Vaalite vessel. Crimson Vaal demands to know why this was deemed necessary, especially after recent events in the Neutral Territories. Assault on the Kreich's soldiers is an assault on the Kreich himself. Explain yourselves wisely, Revan, out.

He'd been told that the Hashins would most likely claim that the vessel was there illegally. He'd been told that was not the case by the Kreich himself, that it had been on a simple recon mission. He trusted his country like his own brother, it was never wrong, and it never lied. He followed behind it like a diciple behind his chosen religion: Unquestioningly.

Hashin Parliamentary Building, Senti

“… The Führer has approved your mission. You are to proceed with the next phase. Take whatever means necessary to complete your objective. Contact HRGN Command in twelve hours to report your progress. Dismissed.”

Admiral McKay taped a button on his computer console, which terminated his link with Captain Bordan. McKay put his elbows on his desk and rubbed his temples, digesting the recent news. As it appeared bad news was the only news on this particular day. Within the last few hours a bad situation was worsening.

Talks with Crimson Vaal had disintegrated to the point where yelling across the room in one’s native tongue was the only way to make oneself heard. A fistfight had almost broken out when one of the Dae’gilan politicians over heard and off colour comment about his species mating habits. One thing that McKay had learned in his many years of navel service was to never get in a fistfight with a Dae’gilan. The scales on their fist are as hard as ship grade titanium and can leave a nasty bruise. He shoved the thought aside.

McKay stopped rubbing his temples and activated his personal computer. He noticed that an official looking message had made its presence known on the screen. It was addressed to all administrative staff and military advisors. When McKay read it he knew that Hashi had taken one step closer to war. The Führer had brought the Hashin Civilian War Act into effect. The act dictated that all significant civilian owned industries, businesses, facilities, etc. were now under Hashin military control. The Führer planed to make a general address to the Republic in one hour to officially inform the public to prepare for and accept any military orders given. It is the duty of every Hashin citizen to give his or her total support, no matter what.

Onboard HRS Corruption and Justice, System C3-108

The order had been given. Their mission was a go. For the last few hours Roland had been sitting in command waiting for the preparations to be complete. It took a while to prepare and organize an invasion like this. Troops, tanks, supplies. All of these would have to be transported to the surface, but not before two waves of fighters descended towards the planets surface in an attempt to knock out all communications.

The Hashin military had never used this tactic before nor would it have ever been considered if it weren’t for these “special” conditions. Due to the fact that the native inhabitants of this system had not developed any type of interstellar travel or even artificial satellites it gave the Hashin military a chance to prepare extensively in close proximity to the planet for a full scale invasion.

The tactic that they would be using was a modified version of a proven military strategy that originated in ancient Earth Germany. The lightning war strategy, or Blitzkrieg in the old german tounge.

This strategy would let the invasion force keep the advantage of surprise for as long as possible. Roland continued to think about the method of deployment when his thoughts were interupted by his Ops. Officer.

“Sir, fleet reporting all preparations complete. Awaiting final orders.”

“Excelent,” replied Roland “What have our scans revealed?”

“Scans have reveald several optimum locations for where to land our assets.” Said the lieutenant. “I’ve uploaded the landing coordinates to the dropships. The scans have also reveald some areas of increased energy comsumption and output consitant with some kind of communications hubs and powerplants. I’ve uploaded these targest to Alpha and Bravo squadrons. Alpha squadron will target the communications hubs and Bravo squardron will target the powerplants.”

“Very well. Relay orders to the fleet to launch Alpha and Bravo squadrons.” Roland ordered.

“Aye sir, relaying orders…” Roland heard the lieutenant stoped mid sentence. He was about to turn around and ask why he had stoped when he heard the ships proximity alarm sound. “Perimiter alert!” Shouted the Ops. Officer. “VL event twenty thousand kilometers off starboard! One ship has emerged, checking registry. Vessel is of Crimson Vaal origin. We are receiving a transmission.”

Roland listend to the Vaalite transmission. Typical of the Vaalites to send a warship to investigate the disaperance of a recon ship. This was a problem, but nothing that couldn’t be delt with a little bit of creative thinking.

“Ops,” Roland asked, suddenly getting an idea, “what is the status of the fleet? Are they still out of detection range?”

“Yes sir. Every ship is still holding position and designated coordinates.” The Ops. Officer said slightly confused.

“Tell the fleet to move into detection range and make sure their all hot. Tell them to increase detectable energy output to maximum safe levels, just so the Vaalites can see who they barged in on.”

“Aye sir.” The lieutenant said now understanding the captains plan. “Do you want me to order them to cancel forces deployment orders?”

Roland thought for a second and desided against it. “No. We’re behind schedual as it is. Continue deployment but make sure that all dropships and fighters make their presence known as well.”

He received another “Yes sir” from the lieutenant and turned his attention towards preparing his ship should a conflict arise. Bringing weapons online could be interpreted as a hostile act and prevoking a Vaalite warship was the last thing he wanted to do. The best that Roland could come up with was to play defensive.

“Tactical, bring the Point Defence Weapons online and load the forward cannon but don’t charge it. Store the nessesary power in the reload batteries so we can shunt it to the cannon if we need to.”

“Aye sir. What about the missile pods?”

“Load pods one through ten with anti-shipping nuclear warheads and the rest with mid-range cruisers but leave them on standby. Do not arm untill I give the orders.”

Aye sir. It will be done.”

“Now that that’s taken care of,” Said Roland, “time to deal with the beast head on. Corruption and Justice, open a channel to the Red Cascade.

“Acnowledged captian. When you are ready” Replied the omnicent voice of the AI.

His voice was followed by a quiet clicking sound representing that the channel was open. Roland stood from his chair and walked to the middle of the command deck.

This is Capatin Roland Bordan of the Hashin carrier HRS Corruption and Justice. You are tresspassing in newly aquired Hashin territory as was your scoutship. Remove yourselves now or risk further conflict with us. This is your first and final warning. Bordan out.

The transmission link was terminated. Roland hoped they would buy it. If not, he would hate to see another piece of smoking Vaalite wrekage. He took a minute to collect his thoughts and then ordered for a force deployment update.

“All fighters and dropship are deployed and are awaiting your orders.” Said the Ops. Lieutenant.

“Alright, all fighters and dropships are cleared to proceed. In the mean time, Corruption and Justice, ship wide.” The distinct sound of the ship wide announcement horn came on through the bridge speakers. “All hands this is the captain. Prepare for combat alert. Seal and secure all emergency bulkheads and report to battle stations. Captain Bordan out.”

Roland sat back down in his chair and watched on the main screen as the fighters approached the planet for their run. They looked like little flaming arrows as they passed through the planets atmosphere. He continued watching their decent followed by the dropships and knew that it had begun. War.