NationStates Jolt Archive

It was almost like ancient history when the Novaens first appeared on the intergalactic scene in somewhat of a less than magnificent entry. A somewhat of a disabled colony ship that contained approximately 5 million people in stasis. What followed was the start of relationship between the novaens and a number of GFFA members.

However, this all changed, when the entire planet just disappeared, one second it was there, the next it wasn't the only indication that there was once anything there at all was a number of communications sattelites that were orbiting the planet at the time, but even these didn't last long as the gravity of the planets sun pulled them into itself. Thus the only thing left of the Novaens where the memories left in peoples mind, as well as the one thing that the people of the planet called Nova. Was the Time Manipulation Field Engine, but even with the technology of the engine living on, they soon passed out of all knowledge.

Then just as suddenly as they disappeared, they re-appeared, still the same yet different. The Novaen slug still roamed the planet, however many things had seemed to change. The most Notable is that the entire planet seemed to be caught in this dimensional rift of some sort. The planet seemed to be unsure wether it was indeed here or not. However not only the planet it seems all native peoples on the planet seemed to be intune with this purely random flux.

If the fluctuation caused by this dimensional uncertainty wasn't enough to attract anyones attention a message was sent, directly to the GFFA. The following message was sent, it appeared on a variety of GFFA communication devices even ones that were not supposed to receive messages from light years away.


ATTN: GFFA

The people of Nova Bazalonia, wishes to engage in conversation with the fabled Galatic Federation of Free Alliances. Please come to Nova for discussions, co-ordinates are included. We will contact your delegations with further instructions once they get close.


OOC: While the meeting portion of this RP is closed to GFFA members only I'm sure the randomly flucuating readings of that the planet is generating will attract other people. If it doesn't oh well. If it does then you are welcome to join in on this.

The Phyrexian ship, a thing of spines and disturbing black bulges, almost organic in appearance, stopped some distance from the (apparently) new planet. This was unusual. Planets did not normally pop into existance in mapped sectors.
The Phyrexians were interested in unusual things...
Thus, the ship drew nearer, once within communication range it sent out a quick series of signals in Phyrexian, searching several channels and communication methods, seeking one which worked. The message, however, was generally the same:
Sk'k'k'taaakt ashi'k'k't? Ssssshhht'takkkkkt, sssshht't't'akkkkkt aakkhita. Asssshiraaat't'tkt."

OOC: To introduce a new character! :D

IC:
"Mom! Hey mom, look at this!" The aging woman turned, looking crossly at her daughter. "Doctor Firenza or simply Elizabeth while on the job, please Alex."

Alexandra Firenza looked up at her mother, adjusting a rather large set of headphones. "What? Oh. Err.... Elizabeth, would you come look at this? Incoming on old Federation channels, origin shooting dimensional instabilities like mad."

Elizabeth took the headphones from her daughter, bending over the readouts. "Good catch, strange readings though." A few deft adjustments to the machine in question brought the target into even sharper relief, pinpointing its exact location. "Hmm.... Bazalonians.... Get this to Sanctuary Control immediately. Archer should know what to do, if the damn fool still has sense left."

"Yes'm...."

"Yes, you can go if you want. It will be good to have you there to investigate these readings. Try to get Captain Perez, he generally knows what to do. Plus, his friend Sandy should be there too, she'll keep you out of trouble."

"Thank you, ma'am."

Kids these days....

===============Indeterminate Time Later===============

A sleek shape spun out of jumpspace, radiating energy off every line and face. Its sleek form parted the void with ease, looking more a submersible than a space craft. A short distance behind it, another ship came out of the jump, a colossal craft dwarfing the first.

The lead vessel, a Sea Lion class fleet carrier, pulled in closer to the larger, second vessel, an Orion class Second Rater. Spacial fluctuations like these were nothing to play around with, something big might go down, and it was hoped that these forces could survive long enough to get away or reinforced in case of problems. After a short time, a message was sent out from the Orion.

This is Captain Nikola Perez of Second Rater NES Harmony, with Second Rate Carrier NES Quantum Storm, here to investigate communications on old restricted Federation channels. We assume more official GFFA forces will arrive soon. Where should we send our delegate?

(OOC: I'm glad I never officially cancelled my membership in the GFFA - it opens doors to more RPs than it closes.)

Gardon stood on the platform in the middle of the room which was his office, and a communications processing centre. He was one of hundreds on New Oxford who handled the myriad communications every day and simultaneously acted as the first buffer against a computer virus.

"Commence Communications interfacing."

The room was covered in a blue spherical wireframe, and thousands of messages out of the millions sent and received every day filled the sphere, whipping past at an almost blinding rate.

Only the comm-tech's special headset and cybernetic eye allowed him to process this practically, and one in particular caught his attention.

"Halt Interfacing."

He reached out and tapped it, and the message grew to dominate the sphere.

The people of Nova Bazalonia, wishes to engage in conversation with the fabled Galatic Federation of Free Alliances. Please come to Nova for discussions, co-ordinates are included. We will contact your delegations with further instructions once they get close.

"Commence Encyclopedia Interfacing."

The message moved across to a corner of his field of view and several columns opened up, literally millions of luminescent blue words scrolling up at a blinding rate. Gardon's expert hands tapped the lists in turn, bringing up the records for Nova Bazalonia.

Visited by the Millenium, vanished shortly after founding of New Oxford...

"Open Comm Link to Interstellar High Command, they're going to want to know about this."

---

The NOMV Centauri shunted out of hyperspace roughly at 1 pd*, the oblong battleship sleekly reflecting the light from the star.

On the bridge of the mighty warship sat Captain Fradrich Herbler, his lower half encapsulated by a hemispherical interfacing system. Around him were over twenty bridge staff members of various specialisations, each with a hemisphere in front of them and managing all of the three hundred crewmen onboard the warship.

"Engineer Tovast, report to Sector 14C for minor repairs."

"Sublieutenant Asano, report to Sector 12A for DN-550 spill cleanup."

"Ensign Wu, you are late for your medical checkup."

"Sector 8, Shift change in thirty minutes."

The bridge, even out of combat, was always buzzing with activity. Somehow, he and his staff were able to cope despite the low numbers of bridge staff. The Centauri was one of the newer Schrodinger battleships, and had a smaller crew complement than the old Rutherford IIs, though the larger vessels had mostly been converted to similar systems.

"Display Navigation Interface."

The hemisphere projected a holographic representation of the solar system, with multicoloured pips designating various other ships and spatial objects.

"Navigation, bring us in at maximum travel velocity. Hail at thirty light hours."

Herbler dragged a line with his finger across to the dimensionally unstable planet, while all number of charts and interfaces appeared around him.

"Raise travel shields."

The diagram of the ship was surrounded by a scintillating red line, with myriad information he quickly interpreted to ascertain that the ship was working just fine.

---

"This is Navigation, now reducing velocity."

As the ship slowed, Herbler cleared away the other interfaces to the side and brought up a single large comms screen, with the others clustered around in reduced mode.

"Open Comm Channel."

His face materialised on whatever communications interface was currently available to the Novaens. As a matter of fact, he looked quite eerie, illuminated from below by the blue glow of the command hemisphere. His left eye was a cybernetic interfacing device, and glowed a flourescent blue. He was wearing a headset, the little microphone extending from the earpiece in his right ear to beside his mouth.

This is Captain Herbler, of New Oxford. Our records show that your peoples were one that was visited by the Millenium, and we picked up your communications on an old polystate channel.

*Pd - Practical Distance. Approximately 7 Light Hours, and a 14 hour trip at normal travel velocities. Gives a very safe margin of error.

*snip*

The Phyrexian ship was scanned before a response was sent...


Unknown ship,

You have approached the planet of Nova. This planet is inhabited by sentient beings, please identify yourself and your intentions.


Ships moved and soon the Phyrexian ship, just like the planet itself all these ships seemed to be dimensionally unstable and not only that they seemed to be in perfect sync with the planet itself.

However along with the planet there was what seemed a dimensionally stable Space port, the stable space port could be seen from any place around the planet, due to the instability. The station was just as much a curiosity as the planet, how come the planet and ships are dimensionally instable while the station is?

This is Captain Nikola Perez of Second Rater NES Harmony, with Second Rate Carrier NES Quantum Storm, here to investigate communications on old restricted Federation channels. We assume more official GFFA forces will arrive soon. Where should we send our delegate?
The NES Harmony was sent the following reply...


Welcome to Nova, Captain. On the far side of the planet there is a dimensionally stable Space port that will serve as the location for talks. Please send your delegates there.


This is Captain Herbler, of New Oxford. Our records show that your peoples were one that was visited by the Millenium, and we picked up your communications on an old polystate channel.

A face was sent back to the ship from New Oxford, though one they probably weren't expecting. It was that of what many would consider a dinosaur, a herbivorous dinosaur. He or she, the captain could not tell, responded...


Greetings Captain Herbler, Welcome to Nova. Our records confirm interaction with the Millinium, particularily extensive usage of it's construction facilities. However, records also indicate that the ship was a Hakurabian ship. For confirmation please supply us with the name of it's captain at the time. Thank you."


OOC: Hak, I was thinking of especially mentioning you in this thread, but I just wanted to know if you wanted to be involved in the GFFA meeting or if you had perhaps something else to do.

oh, and... For the information my people requested you can find it Here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=472548)

(OOC: Heh. I'd already pulled it before I noticed the link, and was about to post it myself :p)

Captain Herbler was somewhat surprised at the reptilian face which greeted him on the response. While dealing with a reptilian didn't faze him in the slightest, the Novaens appeared to have either made great advances in genetics or had sharply changed in physical form since their long absence.

Greetings Captain Herbler, Welcome to Nova. Our records confirm interaction with the Millinium, particularily extensive usage of it's construction facilities. However, records also indicate that the ship was a Hakurabian ship. For confirmation please supply us with the name of it's captain at the time. Thank you.

Herbler's fingers brought up more screens, which positioned themselves to the sides of the communications screen. He brought up the aged staff dossiers and biographies of Alephis Karellen and Lawrence Korlis. The command staff of the Millenium were part of every child's early education, and these two were no exception. The captain was easy - he'd done a project on him in 4th grade, but the diplomat he needed to check the files.

The captain of the Millenium was Alephis Karellen, born 27 Pre-Fall and died 68 Post-Colony. The diplomat was Lawrence Korlis, born 55 Pre-Fall and died 37 Post-Colony, and his delegation met with Steward Tournard.

As Herbler recited these names, so well known in New Oxford (No small surprise, given that everything was rebuilt from the Millenium), archival photos of Karellen and Korlis popped up on the sides, miniature versions of their biographies popping up and scanning through rapidly for effect before they vanished again.

He paused the communications for a moment (It was hardly reasonable to expect real time conversations at twenty light minutes away, after all. Anything faster needed high energy rigs which were normally reserved for emergencies) to make note of the change in circumstance.

"Encyclopedia Note, Nova Bazalonia entry no longer accurate. Later correspondence will be needed to renew dated entries."

He reactivated the communications interface, and the room around him once again faded away into background noise as sound dampeners were reactivated. He could tell that the high power commmunications array was being prepared for his message to be hypersquirted back to New Oxford. It took a lot of energy to shunt energy across, but when it was launched it was nearly instantaneous.

The Phyrexian ship was scanned before a response was sent...

Ships moved and soon the Phyrexian ship, just like the planet itself all these ships seemed to be dimensionally unstable and not only that they seemed to be in perfect sync with the planet itself.

However along with the planet there was what seemed a dimensionally stable Space port, the stable space port could be seen from any place around the planet, due to the instability. The station was just as much a curiosity as the planet, how come the planet and ships are dimensionally instable while the station is?

Some consideration was given to this message. For a while, it seemed as though the Phyrexian ship was simply going to sit there, hovering in space, ignoring the planet.
Then, the reply came through. As opposed to the machine-sounding ratchet noises of the first message, this one sounded as though it was being delivered by a young woman. But, her voice seemed to have something of a background echo, as if the first voice had simply been overlayed by the second.
G-greetings in t-t-the name of the I-Ineff-fable, p-planet Nova, w-we a-a-are Phyrexia. W-we a-a-are aware o-of your p-planets status a-as inhabited. H-howev-ver, i-it s-s-seems th-the last ca-cartographic mission t-to thisss sector n-noted n-no planet here, mu-much less an-n i-inhanbited one.
A-as t-to our p-pur-p-pose...w-we are ssseek-kers o-of k-knowled-dge, a-as you c-c-can i-imagine, y-your...s-situation intruges ussss.
The message ceased, the Phyrexian ship, apparently disinterested in the vessels closing with it, remained in place, the occasional thruster burst keeping its position relative to the planet stable.

The captain of the Millenium was Alephis Karellen, born 27 Pre-Fall and died 68 Post-Colony. The diplomat was Lawrence Korlis, born 55 Pre-Fall and died 37 Post-Colony, and his delegation met with Steward Tournard.


As Herbler recited these names, so well known in New Oxford (No small surprise, given that everything was rebuilt from the Millenium), archival photos of Karellen and Korlis popped up on the sides, miniature versions of their biographies popping up and scanning through rapidly for effect before they vanished again.


The same Dinosaur once again appeared after a couple of minutes..


Confirmation accepted, permission has been granted to enter orbit. Dimensional instabilities currently make visiting the planet impossibly dangerous, however the Orbital Space Station is dimensionally stable and let us encourage you to visit.


The message ended, the planet and all Novaen ships that were visible were still in a state dimensional flux.

G-greetings in t-t-the name of the I-Ineff-fable, p-planet Nova, w-we a-a-are Phyrexia. W-we a-a-are aware o-of your p-planets status a-as inhabited. H-howev-ver, i-it s-s-seems th-the last ca-cartographic mission t-to thisss sector n-noted n-no planet here, mu-much less an-n i-inhanbited one.
A-as t-to our p-pur-p-pose...w-we are ssseek-kers o-of k-knowled-dge, a-as you c-c-can i-imagine, y-your...s-situation intruges ussss.

Greetings, represenatives of Phyrexia. Permission has been granted for your ship use the facilities at our Orbital space port. We will know hand you over to air traffic control.

This is Novaen Traffic Control Tower Alpha-1... Can we please have designation for your craft?"

T-t-thank-k-kssss t-to you.

SkIIIIIkt-t-kasji-...My ap-pologies. I am a-a-afraid t-t-the q-questionnnn isssss ssssomewhat-t-t-t ssssubject-t-tive. P-please definnne 'd-designationnnn'.
.

A small humble gateway to Fluidic Space opened. From out of it came a single Ri-anese Octopus ship.

The ship stopped, as though surprised.

Inside the Aquamarinian Hivemind....

"Its there, its actually there!"

"The Temporal Rift we detected."

"It appears to be inhabited, furthermore, its ships seem to be in synch with the anomaly."

"What should we do?"

"What, we're going t let these folks sit there and rot, feeling unwelcomed by Intergalactic Society? No. We're going to do the neighborly thing and say hi."

"Will we need him?"

"No, but he's on board with her, should they become, neccessary."

Outside, onboard the ship...

The ship opened a frequency.

"Uhh, Hi. We're the Ri-anese. We detected an anomally here, thought the universe was ending. Wasn't expecting to find a planet with people here. Why don't we trade histories, maybe start a friendship. You never know where it might lead." A young man's man's voice said.

SkIIIIIkt-t-kasji-...My ap-pologies. I am a-a-afraid t-t-the q-questionnnn isssss ssssomewhat-t-t-t ssssubject-t-tive. P-please definnne 'd-designationnnn'.

This message left the Traffic Controller somewhat bemused and then sent the following reply.


Designation, a name, an identifier. Something that is used to uniquely identify this ship, as opposed to others.



"Uhh, Hi. We're the Ri-anese. We detected an anomally here, thought the universe was ending. Wasn't expecting to find a planet with people here. Why don't we trade histories, maybe start a friendship. You never know where it might lead." A young man's man's voice said.

Greetings to the People of Ri-an from the planet of Nova. The story of our nation is a long one, but one we will gladly share. We have a stable orbital space port which will serve all necessities for the exchange of information and story. Permission has been issued for your ship to dock at the station. We'll now hand you over to air traffic control.

This is Novaen Traffic Control Tower Alpha-1... Can we please have designation for your craft?

This message left the Traffic Controller somewhat bemused and then sent the following reply.

"O-99761-M."

The Ship landed. It suckered itself onto the landing pad. It would take a truely herculean effort to move that ship before The Ri-anese were ready to leave.

As Delegates of Ri-an, out walked a woman in very nice robes. They were black and had stars all over them. Infact, closer looks would reveal constellations and patterns, but it was rude to stare overly hard at a lady. She was young, and very pretty. She had brown hair, and brown eyes and the whitest skin you ever saw. next to her was a man in sore need of a cup of tea. He wore a nice pants suit and looked very nice indeed. He looked use to carrying a teapot and a cup of tea. Yes, on Ri-an, they were very well known, but elsewhere, not so much.

OOC: A cookie if you can guess who they are, NB.

Confirmation accepted, permission has been granted to enter orbit. Dimensional instabilities currently make visiting the planet impossibly dangerous, however the Orbital Space Station is dimensionally stable and let us encourage you to visit.[QUOTE]

"Activate Navigational Interface, short range."

The communications interface moved away and the Herbler was surrounded by the representation of the system.

"Chart docking course for ST-001."

He ran a finger from his ship across to the station, highlighting it. Reactivating the communications interface, he sent a reply message.

[QUOTE]Acknowledged, the NOMV Centauri is moving into docking course.

---

The warship maneuvered slowly into docking position, and began slow orbits of the station.

The whole sequence was an algorithmically generated course based on the shape of the station, as the battleship's AI Core rapidly compensated for changing conditions.

Finally, after half an hour, the loud clunk distinct of the synchroniser systems locked the ship into a firm orbit along one of the docking rings.

---

The shuttle itself had a control sphere, and the pilot rapidly adjusted the course on the fly, screens manifesting and vanishing almost as soon as they appeared as Herbler watched.

Even time for solitaire. he though, bemused.

As they approached the landing pad, three legs extended themselves, and the shuttle touched down softly with scarcely a whisper of gas. The landing pad sealed itself from the vacuum once again, and the occupants disembarked.

Heading the delegation was Captain Herbler, given that warships didn't normally carry diplomats. His interfacing eye was covered by a small eye-screen, extending from his left ear and his communications set was gone. He was flanked by Sgt. Reika Akasha, who was garbed in the venerable compound armour worn by marines for so long. Her weapons were shouldered and holstered, and while she wasn't wearing a helmet, she did have a similar eyepiece to the Captian, though she had no interfacing eye.

While various other miscellaneous staff streamed out to do various things onboard the station, a pair of heavily armed and armoured powersuits moved to guard the entrance. There was a lot to do, and once everyone in the first shuttle had left the landing pad, with the exception of the vacuum-capable powersuits, the shuttle lifted back off to transport more crew members. There was a lot to do, and one landing pad wasn't a lot.

*snip*
*snip*

As both the delegations had landed on the Orbital Space Port, the first thing they noticed was the presence of both human and Sauron (the Dinosaurs) beings. For every human there was a dinosaur next to them and vice-versa. Each of the pairings were going around performing whatever business that they had, looking with wonder at the first people to have external contact with the Novaens but indeed they kept this curiosity under-check not wanting to stare nor cause any issues that might cause a diplomatic problem. There was interest in the visitors but they were left alone.

However there was a pair, A pair of youngiosh males. Around 30 years old. They welcomed both Stella and Chrono from Ri-an and Captain Herbler and Sgt. Reika Akasha from New Oxford.

"We are extremely glad that you have come to the Hawdon Space Port, We understand you may have many questions and would like to know what is going on. If you would please follow us we'll direct you to where you can get the answers."

Neither the human nor the dinosaur seemed to dominate over each other infact they both shared saying the previous phrase in way that seemed like as if one person was speaking.

They were directed to a room where there would find out all that they wanted to know but now they waited.

OOC: eats the cookie.... I'll wait for the Phyrexians to land and then I'll get the nity gritty. I think it will be better if we do it all together that way we can other nations interacting with each other as well. Oh, and also feel free when I get it started to interact with the person. It will be told as a story, Novaens have a strong culture of story telling.

Ap-pologiessss. R-refffrenccce n-number offf t-t-this sssship-p issss FS-5,iffff t-t-t-this issss sssuit-table.

Stellae and Chron nodded. They would follow them wherever.

They turned to Captain Herbler and Sgt. Reika Akasha.

"Greetings." they said.

"A message? From the Bazalonians? It seems like ages since we've heard any word from their government or about their people. What is it that they desire after all this time?"

Water trickeld around the Jade Throne while Emperor Debeusec waited for the messenger's response. The holographic screen hovered in air as the Abh officer on the other end. "They would like all Galactic Federation members to convene for a meeting in their nation. The matters of which they wish to discuss is unknown."

The head of the Clyuve royal family seemed mildly interested by the proposal. Though that state of mind was quickly passing. "Who do we have available as diplomat?"

The officer paused for a moment. "All of them your Majesty. With many ties broken at this time, our diplomats are here in the capitol until they are needed or serving with the fleet in their previous posts."

A smile came to his face. "Ah yes I remember now. This little 'war' of theirs. I suppose we should act interested and send someone anyways. I will not pull someone from their stations in Star Forces at this transitional time so why not use someone who's post has failed to bring about any gain."

"Who would that be, your Majesty?"

"Our Mars diplomat has been working hard for some time but has yet to see any rewards for her efforts. It is clear to me now that the little idea was a bad venture. Now I would like to give her a slightly easier task. Let the Martians destroy themselves for all I care. They've proven petty with their constant bickerings and unworthy of our attention."

The officer snapped to a salute sensing that the emperor was coming to a close. "Then shall I alert Mira Furlan of her new assignment?"

"Yes and be sure to send a message to the Bazalonians informing them that they can expect her arrival."

"Yes Majesty."

To the Nova Bazalonian Government
From the Abh Empire:

Your message about a meeting has been acknowledged and given the attention by the Imperial Emperor. An unarmed royal liner will be dispatched to your territory in due time where Kilo-Commander Furlan will represent the Abh Empire in your meeting.

Ap-pologiessss. R-refffrenccce n-number offf t-t-this sssship-p issss FS-5,iffff t-t-t-this issss sssuit-table.

"FS-5, Novaen Traffic Control Tower Alpha-1, designation accepted please....." said the traffic controller directing the ship to their selected slot.

OOC: When you land basically the same thing happens for you as it did as both Ri-an and New Oxford.

*snip*

The old records were enough to confirm the prescence of the Abh empire when the royal liner appeared. They were greeted warmly yet with minimal chit-chat.

Just like everyone else they were directed to the dimensionally stable Hawdon Space Port.

Kadus Starfall stood on the bridge of his ship as it and its escorts appeared on the edge of the Bazalonian system. The Razorback Cruiser, Eternal Star, and its four Harpy Frigates casually made their way into the system.

Pleased with the transition back to normal space Kadus instructed the pilot to proceed towards Nova and the communications officer to declare their presence to the Bazalonians. With that delegated he turned to the two standing behind him and motioned that they should follow him back to his office. Aeroh stood as silent and still as a rock, his large feathered ear twitched and he gave an arrogant glance to Celric Sunfist who was shifting his weight nervously while watching the view from the display screen. Celric looked up at Aeroh and motioned for him to go ahead of him, but when no action was taken Celric finally gave up and walked past Aeroh to follow the Admiral. When he passed, Aeroh turned to follow behind, still no change to his stonecold appearance.

The human and two avians left the bridge. This was one of Celric's first voyages offworld, one where Aeroh felt he really didn't belong. Kadus had his reasons for bringing the young celt along. Celric had become a popular leader amongst his people, one that Kadus prefered over many of the others. With the celts starting to play more of a prominant role in Tidan the Admiralty had been putting pressure on Tidani leaders to start taking the celts under their wings to ensure their society continued to mature in a way favorable to the Tidani. How would it look if Kadus did not follow the demands he made of his subbordinants. Kadus had spent much time with the young paladin lately and liked him more than the political Clanlords.

In Kadus' office Celric shifted his rune covered armor and blew a few strands of white hair out of his face. "So what is so special about this world and its inhabitants. I've studied the records of your people and found no mention of these Bazalonians. This hardly seems like a duty for a member of the Admiralty let alone the son of the Grand Admiral."

Aeroh continued to look down at Celric condecendingly. Kadus shot an angry look at the elite Eclipse agent, and then returned his attention to his human friend. "I'm not surprised that you havn't heard of them, most of Tidan is unaware of them aswell. A long time ago, when the other nine Tidani tribes still shared the stars with us, one of our ships rescued the Bazalonians when their colony ship became stranded in the middle of a battle. We protected them and brought them to safety. Because their new home was unprotected and vulnerable, and we were one of the only people who knew its location we agreed to keep it secret. All navigational data regarding the Novean colony was erased."

Celric still seemed confused. "That still doesn't explain why no one has ever heard of them."

Kadus smiled. "Isn't patience a virtue priest? I was getting to that. Several years ago the planet and all trace of the Novean civilization disappeared. Due to the suspicious nature of their disappearance most information about them was classified and all that remained was not enough to draw much attention from the populace. Now that they have returned, the Admiralty decided we must send someone who has not forgotten them to find out what happened. Since I am incharge of Eclipse I was sent."

"Interesting, a nation ceases to exist and then returns. Well I hope we get there soon. I am looking forward to getting my feet back on solid ground."

*snip*

The Eternal Star and it's escourts were scanned, combined with the message there was enough confirmation from the archives to validate that indeed this ship was the Tidani. The same Tidani that protected, sheltered and provided aide to the Colony ship all that time ago.

A response was quick...

Welcome once again to Nova, since your last visit you may find that things have changed. but indeed they have changed for the better. We have set aside a special bay for your arrival, your ships will have priority in traffic control. Welcome it is indeed an honour to see the Tidani's, a great people of Legend.


Many people, both human and Sauron kicked into gear as they prepared to welcome their honoured guests.

The Phyrexian ship docked with something approaching grace, its hull spines retracting to allow it to fit into the docking space.
After some time, again, as if considering its environment, a door opened on the side of the ship and several figures stepped out.
It was, perhaps, a joke of some sort. Three of the figures were hulking brutes, two apparently once human, but now twisted out of proportion, their grey skin stretched tight over bones and muscles, their mouthes wide, promising that they contained anything but pearly white molars. They moved like the Phyrexian ship, a mix of grace and deadly effeciency. They made no sound, but were clearly looking at everything around them with their wide eyes, taking in details and assessing threats.
The next figure was taller even than the hulking warriors beside him, and appeared to be constructed entirly of metal, a skull-like 'head' contained two deep-set red eyes, which glowed from within their sockets. Little of the figure itself was visible, save a glimpse of a skeletal arm or leg here and there, as it was covered in a robe which seemed to be constantly in motion, not just from the figures own movements, but as if the fibres of the fabric (if thats what it was) were crawling into new positions constantly...which they were.
The fourth and final figure was appaulingly, almost horrifyingly, normal. A girl, perhaps sixteen or seventeen to judge by her appearance, standing in front of these monsters. Perhaps five foot four, with brown hair, wide eyes and a friendly smile. She was, unlike her companions, utterly unintimidating, her hands clasped in front of her and her eyes cast slightly downward. She was dressed in a white robe, adorned with Phyrexian sigils, phrases along the lines of 'Hail the Ineffable, bringer of light' and similar, not that anybody present would be able to read them except the Phyrexians.
The girl smiled as the two Sauron approached.
"Hello!" She smiled, the sort of smile which might have lauched perhaps a hundred ships, give or take, "I am Neela," She bowed, "We greet you in the name of the Hidden One, I speak for Him and Shk'ark'kta'k'k't," For a moment, the girls voice changes, as she pronounces a name which nobody without a transmission for a voicebox could say under normal circumstances, "He hs one of the chief servants of the Hidden One, you should be most honoured, it is rare that such a high Phyrexian chooses to attend exploration missions." The girl virtually beamed at this.

A single Shaylar class Destroyer Explorer detected the bizarre anomaly, so similar to their own Temporal Gates, and yet amazingly dissimilar as well. Nothing this strange could be left alone. A single Shaylar class Destroyer Explorer, no more than 600 meters long, entered the system, silently as possible. Admittedly their entrances seemed to go unnoticed quite often, but that had yet to stop them. Something to do with the exact operation of their FTL drive, and its esoteric entry vector. At any rate, they entered the system, and approached the planet non threateningly. The 2 main guns posed no threat to most heavy ships, unless they were frighteningly fragile, and its primary concentration was on defense, both point defense and armor. Nothing could possibly be threatened by something sio small and manifestly ill equipped to wage war.

*snip*

OOC: There is one human and one Sauron. not 2 Saurons. Sorry if I wasn't clear on that.

IC: The first three 'monsters' got more looks from the many normal Novaens around running here and about. The pace had seemed to have picked up dramatically than it had with, as the two Novaens approached, one a human the other a Sauron, they bowed, acknowledging their important visitors.

"and we graciously accept the greetings in the name of the Hidden One, Neela." The human smiled widely on behalf of both, smiles don't translate well inter-specially "If you and those of your delegation would follow us. We'll take you to where you can find out how come last time you charted this system Nova was not here." They directed the entire delegation from Phyrexia to the same room where the Ri-anese and the people from New Oxford.

The room had a small dias type thing just slightly higher that the floor that had two empty chairs, a door by the dias was, assumedly where people, probably both human and Sauron, would come through and speak to those around. Apart from the dias. The walls were surrounded with comfortable chairs, apart from a refreshments table in a corner. Food and drinks suitable for human and Sauron consumption where on the table. The rest of the room was empty.

*snip*
As was normal, the ship was scanned and a message was sent, the contents of the message was not much. A number of ships, No Endorsian, Tidani, New Oxfordian, Abhian, Phyrexian, Ri-anese and now Sharonians added to the list. (OOC: I think I have got everyone right, If I haven't let me know)

Greetings, You have entered Novaen space please declare your intent

Once the reason for the Sharonian mission was discovered they were handed over to Traffic Control which directed them to use one of the landing bays on the Space Port. By the welcoming pair, a Sauron and a human, they were warmly welcomed and directed towards the room where soon everything would be revealed.

The Smilie on Chron's face was almost Creepy as he spotted the Tea. He poured himself a cup, that just never seemed to empty. It was best not to ask how, or why. He brought a cup to Stella.

They sat in a pair of exceptionally comfortable chairs.

The Eternal Star and it's escourts were scanned, combined with the message there was enough confirmation from the archives to validate that indeed this ship was the Tidani. The same Tidani that protected, sheltered and provided aide to the Colony ship all that time ago.

A response was quick...



Many people, both human and Sauron kicked into gear as they prepared to welcome their honoured guests.

Eventually Eternal Star and her escorts arrived at the station. A shuttle was launched and came to rest in the bay designated for them.

The door opened and out came Aeroh. He charged with the safety of the Admiral and conducted his job with utter devotion. Kadus was not really worried about anything happening but certain regulations were hard to shake. So rather than have a procession of body guards he opted to bring his old friend Aeroh along. Aeroh was a veteren of the Emerald Guard and one of the highest ranks in Eclipse that and active agent could reach. What he lacked in personality he certainly made up for in competence.

Scanning the room quickly he motioned for his charge to follow and Admiral Kadus Starfall exited the craft with Celric in tow. Kadus put a hand on Aeroh's shoulder. "I know you have a very important job to do, but please keep in mind that these are our allies and we were invited. And would it kill you to smile once in a while?"

Aeroh continued scanning the area with piercing glances. "If I ever do anything worth smiling about I'll consider it. I'll have plenty of time to relax when I'm dead, which thanks to my concentration will hopefully be a long way off."

Kadus rolled his eyes and shrugged his wings. The man walked up beside the two avian tidani. Celric looked around the hanger. "So here we are. Have you met Bazalonians before?"

Kadus shrugged. "Back during our most frequent contact it was the aquatic tidani who originally rescued and conducted most of the diplomacy with them. We were still very isolationist at the time. I don't recall if any avians had met them, and you wont find it in the records now. I know they had met some of the other tidani tribes like the arboreals, they practically ran the diplomatic corps while they were still with us. It looks like we are about to find out."

OOC: There is one human and one Sauron. not 2 Saurons. Sorry if I wasn't clear on that.

IC: The first three 'monsters' got more looks from the many normal Novaens around running here and about. The pace had seemed to have picked up dramatically than it had with, as the two Novaens approached, one a human the other a Sauron, they bowed, acknowledging their important visitors.

"and we graciously accept the greetings in the name of the Hidden One, Neela." The human smiled widely on behalf of both, smiles don't translate well inter-specially "If you and those of your delegation would follow us. We'll take you to where you can find out how come last time you charted this system Nova was not here." They directed the entire delegation from Phyrexia to the same room where the Ri-anese and the people from New Oxford.

The room had a small dias type thing just slightly higher that the floor that had two empty chairs, a door by the dias was, assumedly where people, probably both human and Sauron, would come through and speak to those around. Apart from the dias. The walls were surrounded with comfortable chairs, apart from a refreshments table in a corner. Food and drinks suitable for human and Sauron consumption where on the table. The rest of the room was empty.


As was normal, the ship was scanned and a message was sent, the contents of the message was not much. A number of ships, No Endorsian, Tidani, New Oxfordian, Abhian, Phyrexian, Ri-anese and now Sharonians added to the list. (OOC: I think I have got everyone right, If I haven't let me know)



Once the reason for the Sharonian mission was discovered they were handed over to Traffic Control which directed them to use one of the landing bays on the Space Port. By the welcoming pair, a Sauron and a human, they were warmly welcomed and directed towards the room where soon everything would be revealed.

(OOC:
Bah >_>)

The taller Phyrexian, identified as Shk'ark'kta'k'k't, continued to stand in the confrence room. The two guards squatted behind him, leaning against the wall and (apparently) attempting to blend in with the crowd.
Neela took a seat, and, every now and then, the tall Phyrexian would screech something at her in Phyrexian, which would be followed by a fast-paced exchange. Eventaully, after a few such conversations, Neela retrieved some of the food from the table, passing a morsel to Shk'ark'kta'k'k't, who snatched it and promptly withdrew it into his robe, after which Neela, apparently reluctantly, consumed the remainder.

"We are extremely glad that you have come to the Hawdon Space Port, We understand you may have many questions and would like to know what is going on. If you would please follow us we'll direct you to where you can get the answers."

Sgt. Akasha blinked twice, and shook her head. She simply took a short drink of coffee from her canteen. It was too early for this.

While his escort was coming to terms with this unexpected change (well, to her at least) Herbler simply nodded, and followed.

"Yes - the divide between our peoples has become too great."

Stellae and Chron nodded. They would follow them wherever.

They turned to Captain Herbler and Sgt. Reika Akasha.

"Greetings." they said.

"Your reputation precedes you. I am Captain Fradrich Herbler, of New Oxford, and this is Sergeant Reika Akasha."

The captain still looked oddly ethereal, though this time it was a result of coincidentally placed lighting, rather than any personal lighting.

Eventually Eternal Star and her escorts arrived at the station. A shuttle was launched and came to rest in the bay designated for them.

The door opened and out came Aeroh. He charged with the safety of the Admiral and conducted his job with utter devotion. Kadus was not really worried about anything happening but certain regulations were hard to shake. So rather than have a procession of body guards he opted to bring his old friend Aeroh along. Aeroh was a veteren of the Emerald Guard and one of the highest ranks in Eclipse that and active agent could reach. What he lacked in personality he certainly made up for in competence.

Scanning the room quickly he motioned for his charge to follow and Admiral Kadus Starfall exited the craft with Celric in tow. Kadus put a hand on Aeroh's shoulder. "I know you have a very important job to do, but please keep in mind that these are our allies and we were invited. And would it kill you to smile once in a while?"

Aeroh continued scanning the area with piercing glances. "If I ever do anything worth smiling about I'll consider it. I'll have plenty of time to relax when I'm dead, which thanks to my concentration will hopefully be a long way off."

Kadus rolled his eyes and shrugged his wings. The man walked up beside the two avian tidani. Celric looked around the hanger. "So here we are. Have you met Bazalonians before?"

Kadus shrugged. "Back during our most frequent contact it was the aquatic tidani who originally rescued and conducted most of the diplomacy with them. We were still very isolationist at the time. I don't recall if any avians had met them, and you wont find it in the records now. I know they had met some of the other tidani tribes like the arboreals, they practically ran the diplomatic corps while they were still with us. It looks like we are about to find out."

The door opened from the docking bay to reveal a quite unexpected result. While the people of Hakurabi had played their own part in Novaen history. The Tidani had a special place in Novaen history. It was like welcoming an old friend they hadn't seen for ages. At least from the point of view of many Novaens whose history was passed down through stories, in books and by word of mouth, from Grandfather to father to son.

What the Tidani's saw would have been a great surprise, not only at the Saurons but also with everything that was around. A red-carpet had been laid for their guests, and decorations that had been hastily put up once the Tidani ships were first detected. At the end of the Red carpet stood a Human and a Sauron, both of them were arrayed in fine clothes and a Gold Chain denoting the position of their Office. They could hear one of the few other Novaens in the room shrill with excitement. "Oh, my God, Oh, my God. They're here."

The pair, the human and Sauron standing (or the equivalent for the Sauron), infront of them respectfully bowed to the delegation. "We are honoured to once again have the Tidani's on Novaen territory. It has been far too long." they both said almost perfectly in sync with each other. Obviously they had gone to alot of trouble to arrange this greeting.

OOC: For the non-GFFA members feel free to interact with each other for now, Once Sharona is there. I'll get started with the story. For the GFFA-members, sorry only Tidan gets a welcome like this :p

The old records were enough to confirm the prescence of the Abh empire when the royal liner appeared. They were greeted warmly yet with minimal chit-chat.

Just like everyone else they were directed to the dimensionally stable Hawdon Space Port.

The trip was relatively short for the commander much to her relief. "Commander, we've arrived. Permission to dock has already been granted. You may disembark when ready."

Mira rose from her seat on the bridge of the transport vessel and headed over towards the elevator. "Keep the ship on course until I return and have all crew members to stand down from their posts for the time being."

"Of course, Commander. Good luck."

Without much word, the Abh commander made her way down to the shuttle bay and took control of one of the calickes. She wasted no time in navigating it towards the designated docking area. Having landed, she exited her small shuttle and departed as much as the other guests had though she did not say much to anyone.

The similarity between this anomaly, and our own temporal gates is what drew us here. Seeing so many nations gathered together, I would be remiss in my duty to the Union if I did not join you in conversation, however. I shall be along momentarily, as soon as my pinnace is dispatched.

Some five minutes after the transmission, a small ship docked with the port. Onboard were two men, of average height, and relatively unremarkable appearance. Jet black uniforms with silver insignia were the stock in trade of the Sharonan Navy, and both pssengers wore them with obvious pride. For the captain, a single Andaran Sol rune, denoting his rank, and the twin starbursts of the Sharonan navy graced his uniform, while his companion wore the single Zig rune of ONI, and the paired lightning flashes of a full Squadron Captain. Intelligence officers were assigned to every Explorer, and due to the scarcity of properly trained AND low ranking officers, they almost always outranked their Naval commanders. Now he was going to be the contact man for the entire Union, with more than half a dozen nations.

"Your reputation precedes you. I am Captain Fradrich Herbler, of New Oxford, and this is Sergeant Reika Akasha."

The captain still looked oddly ethereal, though this time it was a result of coincidentally placed lighting, rather than any personal lighting.

"It is a Pleasure. We are Stella and Chron Shareemo, married for five years, this lifetime. In total, more than 1,500 years. But, some people do not believe, cannot believe, and so, we might seem rather strange, but indeed there are those that would call us masters If you would believe, if you choose to believe, who can force belief, then you already know just exactly who we are, what we are, and why it is appropriate that we would be here in a place like this." They said. They said it seperatly, they said it together, like they admitted, they were strange indeed.

*snip*

This time it was a different pair that greeted the Abh delegation. This Human-Sauron pair looked like they were getting old, but they were still male.

They bowed their heads in a show of respect for the Delegation. "Welcome to the Hawdon Space port. It is indeed an honour to have the Praetors of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances here with us. Please follow us to the meeting room and we'll get started when everyone is here."

This speech was split between the two of them. It was so seamless that either they shared a psychic-link, they knew each other so well that they could finish each others sentences or that they had spent a long time practicing it.

They were directed to an elegant yet functional meeting room with chairs where the meeting would take place. it had plenty of room.

*snip*
The Sharonans were warmly welcomed and directed to the room where the Ri-anese, Phyrexians and New Oxfordians were already waiting.

Once the Sharonans arrived, everyone in the room heard some footsteps and clawsteps, for some reason the pathway leading up to the door was causing loud echoes to enter the room. Perhaps it was designed for this to alert people when the story tellers were coming or perhaps it was just an odd design quirk. For whatever reason this didn't change the fact that the door opened to reveal another pair. These seemed quite elderly but still managed to keep themselves going. They sat on a chair and leaned forward...

It was now that the door everyone else sprung open once again and some children both Human and Sauron came and sat on the floor. "This story is a popular one for the children and when they heard that we were going to be telling it we just could not stop them. Some in this room already part of this story but many still do not. So we'll start at the very beggining. Where all good stories start." This once again was split up between the storytellers. They paused for dramatic effect...

OOC: As well as being interested in the story, the children will most likely be interested in your characters as well. Children are like Children most places so, You can have at your discretion a Human-sauron child pair do various Childreny things involving your characters. Though please don't do anything that would cause a problem.

The Phyrexian warriors remained in their alert-slouch posture, only tensing slightly when the children entered the room, glaring at their backs just in case they happened to be deadly assassin droids in disguise. It had happened before.
The girl and the larger one, however, remained calm. Neela maintained her cheery expression, apparently somewhat excited at the prospect of a good story, Shk'ark'kta'k'k't remained inscrutable as ever, his metal face unmoving, possibly because it couldnt.

ooc: Damn, leave for a day and look what happens. Nice to see ya back, and you're much more productive than I am.
IC:

Welcome to Nova, Captain. On the far side of the planet there is a dimensionally stable Space port that will serve as the location for talks. Please send your delegates there.
A reply came quickly, tightbeamed at the origin of this transmission.
Acknowledged Bazalonia Control, shuttles in transit. As you can probably imagine, the dimensional instabilities of this planet are of significant interest to the Inferno. As such, I'd like to ask permission to send down a scientist and conduct certain observations from space, if such is tactful to ask.

===========================================

Alex was strapped tightly in her seat. Uncomfortably tightly in fact. Military shuttles were not known for their creature comforts, extensive G-dampening and cabin pressurization being considered such. She strained around from inside her pressure suit, her head locked in place by several restraining harnesses. From what she could see, the gang was all here. Captain Perez, Captain Farsee, Minister Archer, and the obligatory two bodyguards were all wedged into their positions, carefully adjusting their restraints for maximum efficiency. She could hear movement behind her while they were docked,.

The shuttle had been coasting for several minutes now, the intensity of its initial burn hammering home just why these restraints were here. "Captain Perez, what's our ETA?" The arrival clock was just beyond her field of vision, blocked by Archer's tall stature. But it was the pilot who answered, cutting Nikola out on the channel. "Entering the atmosphere in twenty. This is your first flight in one of these girls, isn't it? Well, brace yourself. Right, everyone, heat shields down."

Straining her right hand, she just barely managed to reach a small switch labeled 'HTSHLD,' flipping it nervously. A metal shell extended down from behind her head, enveloping her in a one-man escape pod, just in case anything went wrong during entry. As it locked into place, the shuttle entered the atmosphere, shaking violently. Within her metal box, Alex observed the shuttle's skin temperature skyrocket, going from pale blue to white hot in an instant.

"Try not to tense up too much" crackled a voice over the intercom. "It's better if you let the suit tense for you." After a few moments, Alex responded. "I just want you to know, if we get through this, I am never riding one of these things again."

Finally, after a few minutes of constant deceleration, the shuttle leveled out. Its was skin cool now, the from the conventional entry totally dissipated. She retracted her heat shield, initiating the restraint loosening process. The shuttle was now gliding smoothly through the air, its antigrav system cushioning their fall into the Bazalonian hangar. There was a flurry of activity once they hit the ground, everyone removing pressure suits and 'umbilical cords,' the thick cables connecting their suits to the shuttle's life support systems.

Soon, all of the passengers had left their tank-like shuttle, Bazalonian delegates directing them to the meeting room.

ooc2: just to get me there, looks like things are starting.

Chron and stella smiled when the children entered.

Of course they stared a bit at the two odd foreigners, and the two odd foreigners stared right back.

One of the more mischievious children made faces at Chron, and stuck his toungue out. Chron, being a child at heart, made faces right back and stuck his toungue out too.

"Chron!" Stella whispered quietly elbowing him in the gut.

"Right," was all Chron said, stopping and looking as though nothing ever happened. Then he snuck in one more face, with his toungue sticking out.

"If you keep doing that, your face will freeze that way." Stella said.

"No it won't." Chron said, not catching the dangerous tone in her voice.

But he didn't miss the look. No man could possibly mistake the danger in that look.

"Oh." was all Chron said as he slunk down further into his seat.

The door opened from the docking bay to reveal a quite unexpected result. While the people of Hakurabi had played their own part in Novaen history. The Tidani had a special place in Novaen history. It was like welcoming an old friend they hadn't seen for ages. At least from the point of view of many Novaens whose history was passed down through stories, in books and by word of mouth, from Grandfather to father to son.

What the Tidani's saw would have been a great surprise, not only at the Saurons but also with everything that was around. A red-carpet had been laid for their guests, and decorations that had been hastily put up once the Tidani ships were first detected. At the end of the Red carpet stood a Human and a Sauron, both of them were arrayed in fine clothes and a Gold Chain denoting the position of their Office. They could hear one of the few other Novaens in the room shrill with excitement. "Oh, my God, Oh, my God. They're here."

The pair, the human and Sauron standing (or the equivalent for the Sauron), infront of them respectfully bowed to the delegation. "We are honoured to once again have the Tidani's on Novaen territory. It has been far too long." they both said almost perfectly in sync with each other. Obviously they had gone to alot of trouble to arrange this greeting.

OOC: For the non-GFFA members feel free to interact with each other for now, Once Sharona is there. I'll get started with the story. For the GFFA-members, sorry only Tidan gets a welcome like this :p

When the external door opened to the bay the sight was well beyond what any of them had expected, especially Celric who had no idea what to expect.

Aeroh still showed no emotion as Kadus strode past him smiling. He walked up to the pair with Celric shadowing him closely and returned their bow. "Indeed, it has been too long. I am Admiral Kadus Starfall and this is my companion Celric Sunfist, we would like to thank you for the invitation to your world. The Admiralty is quite anxious to discover what became of you so long ago, why you have now returned to this existance, and why you have chosen to reveal to the galaxy the existance of your world which you once held secret. I'm sure you have planned time for all of that however and I am getting ahead of myself. Before anything else I would like to welcome your return and once again offer the friendship of Tidan. Much has changed in our space since your departure, but from the look of things I think more may have changed here."

*snip*

"Yes, indeed, much has changed on Nova since our dissappearance a long time ago. However now, is time for business and there will be plenty of time to answer those questions later. If you would please follow us, We believe our other GFFA guests are waiting."

*snip*

OOC: yep, your there.... However you probably forgot one important detail. The entire planet of Nova and everything Novaen (apart from the Hawdon Oribtal Space Port and the Novaens on it) is in a state of Synchoronised dimensional flux. Going onto the planet now would certainly not be a good idea, hence the Space port. Following instructions of the Novaen, it's Novaen not Bazalonian for a number of reasons. Anyway so you are now on the Hawdon Orbital Space Port and the meeting is about to start.

IC:
Being greeted in the same fashian as the Abhian delegation the No Endorsian delegation were directed to the same room as the Ahbian delegation. A few minutes later the Tidani and the same pair that greeted the Tidani took the chairs at the head of the table (there were 2 of those as 2 was the standard size for the head of a table) and "Please, everyone take your seats."

The room seemed the perfect back drop for a diplomatic meeting of this importance to the Novaens. Once everyone had taken their seats.

"As you may have guessed, much has changed for Novaen society but some things such as friendships stand the test of time and it is here that we would like to re-new old friendships that we have with the GFFA and the Tidani in particular." they both spoke together, and then looked at each other and smiled. Well, it was assumed the Sauron smilied partly because the Human did and many of the people in attendance were, less than informed on Sauron expressions.

OOC: Story to begin once Hak posts

Mira was not taken aback by the split dialogue since she had heard of brothers and sisters that could finish each others sentences. Perhaps they were simply close. Instead she simply saluted in the Star Forces fashion of greeting and introduced herself. "Greetings. I am Kilo-commander Furlan and thank you for your reception. I must say though, that the Galactic Federation has gone through some governmental restructuring and the Empire has changed its leadership positions."

Mira fell in behind the two as she was escorted to a room with plenty of furniture. It seemed nice enough to suit her so she picked out a chair off to the side and waited for other members to arrive.

(ooc: sorry about the adjective confusion. I forget things easily, but now I know which you prefer. :D)

Kadus and Celric proceeded to the meeting room with their hosts but Aeroh stayed behind with the ship. The Admiral prefered not to have bodyguards present during a meeting, even when his bodyguard was also his friend and Eclipse agent. However Aeroh would not be idle, he sat in the ship monitoring the readings transmitted by the health nanites in the two ambassadors. From here he would be able to identify any reason he should interrupt to protect his charges.

In the conference room Kadus and Celric sat down at the table next to the end where their two hosts had indicated. They greeted the Abh and Inferno delegates and then the Novean welcomed them all. Kadus was not too surprised by the way they spoke together as the Tidani lack vocal chords capable of reproducing basic but are able to communicate with other species through way of directed telepathic projection transmitting their thoughts to the desired targets. For Celric though this was a new and surprising thing to see. The poor man had only a few years ago known no one except his fellow celts, then they met the Tidani, and now he was being exposed to more new cultures and species. It was all becoming a little too much too fast for him, but he kept his composure tried his best to be a good representative of his people. As Kadus had suggested he intended to stay quiet unless spoken to for now, as his experience in these matters grew so would his confidence and abilities.

OOC: Hehe, the only one that used the wrong adjective formally was no endorse. I'm not anal enough to comment on adjective in private communication but, well the two main reasons we use Novaen. Firstly that's the Humans called themselves once they arrived and Nova. And it is also Sauron-friendly. Bazalonians is too much sided on the humans. Anyway.. onto the RP

IC:
@ the GFFA Meeting

"For years the GFFA had nurtured, protected and had kept our location secret. We relied heavily upon your nations to provide support so that what was originally a new colony of 5 million on a new planet could survive and flourish, and for this we owe, particularly the Tidani, a debt of gratitude that we will never be able to repay." They paused, allowing the previous phrase to sink in before continuing on.

"It will be something that we will never forget and now that we have returned from our long absence, it seems appropriate that we should renew relationships we once had. Of course, we secrecy of our existance and our location is now no longer required." they both let out a bit of chuckle, seeing as the current dimensional instability of the planet was like a beacon advertising their exact location.

ooc: ah, I thought the station was on the planet. And sorry bout the adjective, will remember from now on :P

ooc: ah, I thought the station was on the planet. And sorry bout the adjective, will remember from now on :P

OOC: That's alright, I thought it was on the planet too for some odd reason. I have no idea why either, having absolutly no proof that it was, and all the proof that it was not.

"As you may have guessed, much has changed for Novaen society but some things such as friendships stand the test of time and it is here that we would like to re-new old friendships that we have with the GFFA and the Tidani in particular." they both spoke together, and then looked at each other and smiled. Well, it was assumed the Sauron smilied partly because the Human did and many of the people in attendance were, less than informed on Sauron expressions.

Captain Herbler nodded, and spoke.

"I think the something on all our minds is, if you do not take offense, what are the saurian creatures you have with you at all times? Is it a mind link or otherwise?"

ooc: ah, I thought the station was on the planet. And sorry bout the adjective, will remember from now on :P

OOC: No problem....

As long as you do remember... Or else.

*Lifts up a baseball bat in one hand and starts taping it against his other hand.*

Captain Herbler nodded, and spoke.

"I think the something on all our minds is, if you do not take offense, what are the saurian creatures you have with you at all times? Is it a mind link or otherwise?"

The 2 storytellers laughed, "no it's not a mind link." Said the human "from birth every Novaen is paired up with someone." added the Sauron. "if you are human you are paired up with a Sauron, " the conversation returned to the human who then passed it onto the Sauron. "and if you are Sauron you are paired up with a human." They both then shared the next phrase. "It is the closest and most fundamental relationship that we have. We are like one, we each speak for each other and legally we are one unit. I hope that answers that question. And now let's start the story which will answer your other questions..."

The two of them shifted in their seats to their story telling possition. "Our story starts a long time ago in a place very far from here and with The last breath of a dying star system, a single ship the BSFS Hawdon containing many refugees from the planet in the system that would otherwise be swallowed up had made it out a live just barely in time before the sun exploded taking away with it the last remants of life in that star system. Now with out a home and barely having enough fuel to sustain their movements for long the ship hurtled through space not finding anywhere to call home..." the story continued as the two Noveans weaved their story (OOC: Please read the Nova Bazalonia NSWiki. It's in my sig). Right up until they they landed and colonised Nova.

and then they paused the story for a moment. "It was at this time in our history that we meet a large numbers of nationalities. One of those where the Hakurabians who were the first non-Tidani foreigners to ever set foot on Nova. And here with us today are decendants from those Hakurabians. welcome from New Oxford." They said pointing out Captain Herbler to the children who Oooed and aahhed in amazement and looked googly eyed in amazement at the captain. It was like, for them, history was with them right in the room.

"Life for them continued as it had always done under a cloud of secrecy for fear of attack. Up until the discovery of the Sunstones which is a story of it's very own."

"Now, they said. Time for some refreshments." they said as The Children cheered and rushed the table in eagerness, however the story tellers where ready for this and were already at the refreshments table dolling out food and drinks for the children. There was a short pause to allow questions from the visitors or should they wish to further interact.

The pause was there primarily for the children but also for te visiters to allow those that where just finding out all this information for the first time. Of course some of it wasn't quite accurate, but it indeed the story tellers told the story well and all the children were enthralled with it.

"What is a Sunstone? Is it anything like the Mage Crystals we can make?" Chron asked. He pulled a brilliantly shining Crystal out of his pocket. It glowed brightly with the light of a star.

Then he put it away, and pulled out a Time Crystal, which showed the exact local time, with perfect precision. Then beneath it, all the infomation on the local Time Displacement.

Chron looked at this.

"Intresting."

OOC: Actually, OOCly, they are. Having read Dinotopia myself, I know what a sunstone is, and based the mage Crystals off that, but make them in my own fashion, and with a very great variety indeed.

"Yes," they said "that pretty much looks like a sunstone, or at least a type of. "they said as the children had settled down and were eating and drinking. "If no one else has any questions we'll continue the story." All they looked for was signs from the Phyrexians, Sharonans or the New Oxfordians to see if indeed they had any questions.

"Interesting enough." The black clad officers listened impassively, waiting until the entire story was finished before they considered askling any questions. It ws quite possible anything they wanted to know would be answered later on, after all.

"No - I for one wish to know what happened. It seems like an enormous change." replied Herbler.

There were a few questions on his mind, but they could wait a bit.

They once again smilied it was good to feel the story not only held interest for the children, but for their new comers too, and they went right back into story telling, the children their inaudible murmerings and listened intently.

"From the beginning it was obvious that the Sunstone was a source of great power, but just exactly how to harness the energy inside was a great mystery to the Scientists. Meanwhile, on a planet somewhere else, another Nova in another universe entirely. The Saurons who had lived on the planet for untold generations started to receive odd signs. Their Sunstones for the first time in recorded history started to fluctuate, going bright and dull and then returned. No one knew what was happening but, it was evident that something strange was happening and they could only watch and wait to determine what it was. Now, the Humans had tried a number of ways to draw the energy from the SunStone, some were more successful than others but all only realised a small fraction of the Sunstones total possible output. Until an idea by a time/space engineer saw the Sunstone intergrated into the inter-stellar engine using a unique idea. It worked but it worked in a way that no one had expected, instead of powering the craft to move in Time and Space. It moved time and Space itself. The Entire planet disappeared from the space were it once was located and with a bright white light. For the first time the Humans and Saurons saw themselves as the humans as well as a human settlement known as Hawdonia appeared in the same white light. Everyone one was shocked, everything was the same yet it wasn't. Confusion and Chaos reigned for a few days everyone on both sides tried to work out what had happened and how each other seemed to suddenly appear on their territory. This was how a charted system had a planet and yet didn't. As our Phyrexian visitors had found, in one of these universes Nova no longer existed, but now that we are back it does so. This seemiing merging of the Human and Sauron Nova meant that life for both the Saurons and Humans would never be the same again."

They took a sip of water that was on the floor by their chairs and

"Intresting." Chron and Stella said at the exact same time, in the exact same tone. It seemed like one voice was speaking for two. But, other than that, there was no sign of reaction. They were very well known, even among their friends for keeping their emotions and reactions well in check. Thus, it was highly unlikely that anyone knew just what exactly they meant by intresting.

Alex made a small hand motion, drawing attention towards the tight pod of No Endorse personnel tucked away in a corner. "Umm.... will there be more information made available about the nature of Sunstones?" She glanced at John Archer somewhat nervously, who gave her an almost imperceptible nod. "I have never encountered anything like what you've described, except the Avalonian Crystals."

The Children giggled.. "fancy not knowing what a Sunstone is." They received a glare from the storyteller and the child that spoke soon had their mouths shut.

"You'd have to ask an engineer the details, but As the Mage Crystals, they shine brightly and output enough energy at a reliable rate to power a space ship, back to the story."

"As you might guess finding a city in a place that you knew well just appear in seconds with beings that you have never seen before caused quite a commotion, some panic and a bit chaos. However it was agents of peace from both the Humans and Saurons, Lucas Hawdon, another from the direct line the direct line of decendants and Kh'rrrk from the Sauron side. This lead to the first meeting of the Novaen Council. The name of the planet, rather than the people living there on.

The first Novaen council laid the foundation for further council and the basic fundamental goals that the council wanted to acheive. As time went on more councils occured and the peoples of Nova came closer and closer together, of course it wasn't without it's rough patches. As we got closer and together, groups started to emerge opposed to the close links that we had forged over the time that we had been there. Groups set for national and Racial identity caused stained what was so far untested relationships, the groups stayed but waned in power, the Novaen council had managed to thwart an initial attempt to break the now allied Human and Saurons, but this was the begining these conducted secret meetings and plotted to find a way to destroy the Alliance forever.

They plotted and schemed and built and lied and pretty much nasty people, until a young human and sauron Child, friends that had grown up together found out was happening and with some help from various adults, This is also a full story in itself but not the one we are telling today. It was these events that lead to the final Novaen council in the form it previously had."

"After much outrage, and the longest recorded sitting of the Novaen Council it had come time for the last block to fall into place. It was time to officially unite the Humans and Saurons into one society, this was seen by many as the next logical step. as for all those years human and sauron society began to grow closer to each other, as the closer we got, the morethe process speeded up. It was inevitable and everyone knew it. A new initiative of the Novaen council was created as well, the establishment of life partners. Where at or very close after birth a child would be paired up with a child of the other species. To develope strong bonds and shared responsibility. This new relationshp that was to be formed would be the core of the Novaen Code, the laws of Nova where there is no concept of an individual, in everyway, in every aspect of the law Life Partners are the most fundamental concept and something done to one of them is something done to both something one of them does is done by both. The Novaen Council reformed itself as the ruling body, the adults of the different species started to pair up and soon there was no one that was without a life partner. As we grew, we learn more and more about our partner and get to know them more and more intimately there is nothing that anyone can hide from their partner as indeed actions by one affect both of them. That's the reason why many of the pairs can so easily finish each other centres or flow in sync with each other for they know each other so well that they are in essence one being. So now we have a unified and homgenously heterogenius society living in peace with one another."

The children were bored this started to turn into a history lesson, the story tellers stories required a fundamental knowledge of Novaen history and this was what let them down. However the important notes where there.

"Despite this things would soon happen that would threaten the survival of our existance..."

Chron and Stella seemed absorbed by the story.

"Before any of this happened inside the planets many caves their lived the Under-dwellers, they looked like a type of flying Sauron but where nothing like a like Sauron. They where carnivores lived to feed off the flesh of others, a long time the Under-dwellers prayed upon the Saurons. And it was only by the wit and intelligence of the Saurons that they managed to entrap them in the earth and to seel them for all eternity. However one of the various side-effects of the merging of the 2 Novas from different dimensions was that these creatures had been set free.

Luckily, they were not the brightest bunch and naturally kept their numbers down by fighting each other. It took upto now for the Undre-dwellers to find and attack the first joint human-Novaen settlement that had been operating for some years. However we caught surprised being peaceful and in a very peaceful region of space there was no even inkling that we needed any sort of military and that was how the first Skybax force started, ever since then the Skybax had kept the Under-dwellers in check and just recently we managed to banish them to another planet in the system. So despite this threat we had prevailed through determination and courage, now our military has been built up and Novaens who in this dimension once where scared to make their location known now come to you, confident of being able to deal with threats as they come, particularily with some renewed Allies.

Chron wondered what a Skybax was, and this was written on his face as plain as if he had spoken the question. But he also knew it would probably be answered soon enough anywar, so he just sat there wondering what a Skybax was.

The human story teller was adept at reading expressions and Chron's just screamed his question.

"I could perhaps describe a Skybax for you," they said with a cheeky grin. "But perhaps in this case it's better for you to see with your own eyes."

and with that the children all cheered, they apparently liked the idea of a Skybax demonstration, "but first we have to finish our story."

"Awwww..." the children went when they realised that they weren't going to have demonstration now.

Herbler nodded, keeping silent and his face inscrutable but clearly interested.

"Interesting. So where did you go from there?"

"The attack, only brought us closer, but it had other side effects, as well as stimulating the military, it also stimulated culture. Librarians and other keepers of the nations Lore had decided that our history needed to be saved and passed down from generation to generation, not only in recorded forms but as Verbal traditions passed from one generation to the next would ensure that the history and unique cultural heritage of two independent nations joining together should not be lost, and so the first of many story tellers emerged to pass on the knowledge of the current generation to the next. As the stories where told the children started to grow up with the knowledge of history and why Novaen culture and society why it is the way that it is. And so being brought up on both Human and Sauron history many children started to wonder about this other place, with the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances. A body that had dramatically shaped Human history and of this other reality. Once these children grew up; plans were first drawn up for the Novaens to return to this dimension but as the scientists reasearched and prepared. The mathematics told them something that put the return to this dimension in trouble."

The mathematics revealed a complication, As you may know it is always easier to return something to it's home dimension than it is for it to bring something to a foreign dimension, this known fact showed something that would tear apart the foundation of Novaen society. Trying to return Nova to this current dimension would not only split the planet into many and various parts but also seperate Novaens from each other. Humans would come to this dimension but Saurons would stay. And this was immediately removed as an option.

On a seemingly un-related tangent scientists had created a device that could identify which dimension something belonged too, while it was still in the testing phase there was something where the device would not give a definitive answer it kept changing between the two. It was thought to be a problem with the device but no, the device was working perfectly, everything was tested individually and together. But still it gave indeterminate readings. They had found a substance that had it's dimensional home in too dimensions at the same time. It was isolated and now with the new element researchers now have a way to deal with the problem of the mathematics.

OOC: Eh, can't be bothered putting this into story form for the moment. Assume it was told in the same manner as all the others have been. Also GFFA people, you can assume that you have delegations here as the No endores have shown.

IC:

The story tellers went on to tell them how the dual dimension homes for the element managed to solve the dimensional problem by acting as a bridge, as glue, Between the two dimensions allowing the Hawdom space port to be created and transported through dimensions. However there was not enough of this material to dimensionally transport everything. As a result, in a temporary measure, a controlled dimensional instability was created to return Novaens to one of their homes while measures are taken to artificially create more of these multi-homed materials so we can become dimensionally stable again.

"And that has now finished the story of the Novaens return to this dimension. Does anyone have any questions?

*bump*

Anyone?

Mira kept seated as she listened to the tale from the Novaens but hardly said a word to anyone or showed any interest. The Abh simply kept on listening to what was said. She personally had no questions for anyone as she had heard information about some nations using crystals as energy sources and the likes. She simply assumed that's what this was.

She was far more interested in the reason why they had called a meeting.

OOC: For the GFFA meeting, this (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12454207&postcount=40) was the last post I found, let's get this back up and going.

If no one has any questions in the next few (2) days then I'll move on.

"What level of renewal do you seek?" Kadus took the opertunity provided by the silence to speak. "As could be expected time has not left the alliance unaffected either, nor the nations that form it's constituency. Tidan has suffered greatly during your absence, losing many of our people and then almost being lost ourselves to our own isolation. We have recoverned now and only just returned to normal life in the galaxy despite having those you once knew and called friend taken from us forever. Myself and my human friend represent all that is left of the proud people you once knew. Neither of us is capable of undoing what time has wrought, we can however decide how we will live with what it has left us. While we also desire to pick up our severed relationship where it fell, I'm sure we are all curious how far you wish to take it right now."

*snip*
"We, of course would have not expected for this dimension to stay the same since we left, just one of those changes had been that the Abh Empire is no longer the Praetor of the GFFA but we know many other changes have occured. We wish to live in harmony, peace and unity with those in this dimension. As to the exact level of renewal, that would depend on how much has changed."

"What would you say are the three biggest threats, military and otherwise, that the GFFA faces at the moment?"

"What would you say are the three biggest oppurtunities for us should we fully enter the GFFA?"

"So, how many dimensions total have you been to, just the Two? If you can travel to many, have you ever entered the Dimensia Harmonia?" Stella asked. She seemed particularly worried about that second question, regarding Dimensia Harmonia.

OOC: Dimensia Harmonia is a particularly difficult dimension for anyone to get into, much less stay in. OOCly, there is no way a Dimensional Flux such as the one in your backstory could by chance bring you there. Its just that, ICly, Stella and the other Magi-Masters worry about it for a certain, reason.

*snip*
"Okay, Children time for you return nack to your parents."

"Awww...." the children were disappointed but where appreciative of the story. Though they were soon bubbly again and soon had their child-like energy race through the door.

Now that the children had gone the story tellers could talk to the others in the room.

"We have no records of anyone ever being in any other dimensions than this one and the other one. So yes, this and the other dimensions are the only dimensions we have been in, we haven't heard of this 'Dimensia Harmonia', and we would be interested in having dialogue based on that subject. Any other questions?"

"We, of course would have not expected for this dimension to stay the same since we left, just one of those changes had been that the Abh Empire is no longer the Praetor of the GFFA but we know many other changes have occured. We wish to live in harmony, peace and unity with those in this dimension. As to the exact level of renewal, that would depend on how much has changed."

"What would you say are the three biggest threats, military and otherwise, that the GFFA faces at the moment?"

"What would you say are the three biggest oppurtunities for us should we fully enter the GFFA?"

Aaaaaaand that's our que! John Archer stiffened, making a minor hand motion, drawing slight attention to the clustered No Endorsians hanging in the corner.

"Now that they're gone, to some slightly negative topics. The military threats remain the same, all pertaining to the Union. Of note, there are only a few major events in recent times, one that should shock you down to the core. The New Realm has finally fallen, overrun by the endless hordes of the Maker-Mind. We were ready to step in should the final attack come, but we were too slow. By the time we would have been able to respond, it was all over. But somehow, the abomination known as the Maker Mind was destroyed in the process. Magnius, may the Gods look kindly on his soul, did something, we have no idea what, and it just ended. Everything, the ships, the rifts, they just ended, almost as quickly as the Realm."

John drew a sharp breath, and continued. "Maybe without the Maker Mind, we can end this war. Fortunately for the Federation, the Union is the only major opponent it faces. The Empire is mostly fragmented, the Republic appears uninterested, and no other parties have shown themselves to be highly excited about a war. I'll let the other more involved members speak further."

Aaaaaaand that's our que! John Archer stiffened, making a minor hand motion, drawing slight attention to the clustered No Endorsians hanging in the corner.

"Now that they're gone, to some slightly negative topics. The military threats remain the same, all pertaining to the Union. Of note, there are only a few major events in recent times, one that should shock you down to the core. The New Realm has finally fallen, overrun by the endless hordes of the Maker-Mind. We were ready to step in should the final attack come, but we were too slow. By the time we would have been able to respond, it was all over. But somehow, the abomination known as the Maker Mind was destroyed in the process. Magnius, may the Gods look kindly on his soul, did something, we have no idea what, and it just ended. Everything, the ships, the rifts, they just ended, almost as quickly as the Realm."

John drew a sharp breath, and continued. "Maybe without the Maker Mind, we can end this war. Fortunately for the Federation, the Union is the only major opponent it faces. The Empire is mostly fragmented, the Republic appears uninterested, and no other parties have shown themselves to be highly excited about a war. I'll let the other more involved members speak further."

OOC: Um, There are 2 seperate meetings.... The meeting with only the GFFA, ie Tidan, you and Abh and then everyone else with the story. You can assume that all you guys now know what has been said at the story but at current the two are totally seperate.

IC: There was a few people taping on a keyboard as John spoke images of HThe New Realm and the Maker-mind appeared on a screen on a wall of the meeting room with the other GFFA members. And then onto ESUS, while they had been known that they had been existed there were not extensive databanks, though there were some military information there that had been directly copied from friendly sources.

"What's happening as a result as the death of this maker-mind? If there is some aid that we Novaens could provide for the people in need. Then it would be our duty to assist. As for the Union, what is the current state, is there a hot war, cold war, tensions and posturing for a posturing for a potential war or purely tensions that could lead to hostilities?"

OOC: Is there an active thread for the repurcussions after the death of the maker-mind or has that all been dealt with?

(ooc: I think its all been dealt with but I don't know that for sure. I havn't been keeping up with everything that went on in the war so far so maybe you could fill in some of the major events Abh.)

"The war has been hot and cold. It seems to have cooled off more recently.
At the outbreak of war the Godulans resigned and took up arms with the Union, and recently Xanthal was defeated in battle and forced out of the war with threat of enslavement. I'm still going over the reports myself so perhaps the Abh can shed more light on what has happened, but it appears that the Solari and the Horde have also fallen from our ranks as no contact has been made for some time."

"The Federation has had our share of victories as well though."

OOC: Bumping for Abh...

If Anyone else with the story group has any questions please ask. I've got something planned but it has to wait for now.

Mira shifted her weight as she crossed her legs again. "With the fall of the Maker-Mind, we find that the Union has less cannon fodder to throw at us now. It is one less enemy to worry about that is not affected by many forms of FTLi. We no longer have to worry about thousands of little ships popping up everytime we wish to go on the offensive. At the moment the only clear victories have been the fall of the Maker-Mind and the Union's victory of Xanthal. Other than that, most battles have been stalemates with no clear victor. We are currently engaged in our own campaigns to take the fighting to the Union instead of always reacting but it will be some time before we hear any word on whether or not they are successful."

(OOC: I'm still technically in the GFFA, remember.)

Herbler sat in the room, silently taking in the news from the war. So far New Oxford had managed to keep out of the conflict, but that could change at any minute.

"So Magnius finally managed to one-up the old rogue, did he now?" asked the captain, oblivious to the ancient leader's ultimate sacrifice.

The Novaens pondered the situation, before blaring lights and noise started coming through. A single Sauron busted through the doors and alerted those at the meeting, particularily the Counsellors what was going on.

"They're attacking again, All non-military are to evacuate the station immediately for your own safety." The Sauron said

"I thought they had been banished!" asked one of the Counsellors on the Novaen Council, but it was too late the Sauron had come and gone.

"Well, it seems that this meeting will have to be postponed... The Under dwellers are attacking." They said quickly packing up there things. "Please return to your ships and find a spot out of the way." They said before heading out to return to whereever they came from.

While where the story had just finished a very similar thing happened instead instead of the messenger being Sauron it was human. However the difference is the story tellers acted as a sort of sheperd and focused on getting the visitors out.

Any visitor that looked out of the portals showing the vastness of space would see no signs only a flurry of activity by the Novaen ships already in orbit, even the ships hanging around in orbit using whatever sensors they had could detect nothing. It seemed that the information about a surprise attack that they had recieved did not exist. Though whatever was going on the Novaens certainly took it seriously.

The port was a flurry of activity, military and civilians... What was going on?

The room began to clear quite quickly. Kadus and Celric were swept up in the crowd as their hosts ushered them out.

Back at the shuttle Aeroh hung out the ramp and pulled Kadus onboard. He then looked past the Admiral into the busy bay. "Admiral, where is the young knight?"

Kadus spun around. "He was right behind me. I hope he hasn't gotten lost on his first mission."
____________________________________________________

Celric was lost.

In the hurried escape from the conference room and the connecting hallways he had been pushed around in the crowds. After losing sight of the Hyren Admiral, Celric tried to force his way back to where he thought their ship was waiting. Unfortunately he was still getting his barings in this new environment and was easily turned around.

When the crowds began to thin out, Celric saw nothing familiar around him and no one he recognized.

In the ruckus caused by the evacuation, Sgt. Akasha was thrown against a wall, while Herbler was unable to take stock until he managed to get back to the shuttle.

Looking around, he suddenly noticed that his erstwhile escort had mysteriously vanished. "Where's Sergeant Akasha?" he asked, suddenly aware of her dissappearance. The powersuits shrugged. "We're also missing a number of the crew."

"Damnation! Alright, you two wait here, we're going to set up a shuttle command post. Buckle up, we're going to be in this the whole way through."

The shuttle returned a few minutes later, laden with a number of officers and almost the entire contingent of powersuits. The battleship then undocked and left, moving with the other vessels to safety.

"All we can do now, is wait, and try to hold out."

---

Reika stood and shook her head. The eyepiece crumbled to pieces, crushed by the impact.

"That just made my day." she muttered, the crowds already dispersed. She ran to a console, and checked the docking areas. The ship had already left... There was nothing to do now, but try to survive and find out what was happening.

She unslung her rifle, checking the load. Whatever these Under-Dwellers were, she would need to be ready to fight them off.

It was not long till despite the chaos till a random pairing of Novaens directed the missing personnel including Reika and Celric to the General on-board the port.

The directions weren't that hard in fact it seemed that they had gotten themselves into a sort of slip stream that was heading towards the General.

Though one again the General, where in fact Generals. A Human and Sauron.

Once they were all there the General paused from issuing various commands to turn and address those that had assembled.

"You have a number of choices, you can choose to stay and fight with us, but I'll go into more detail with that after I have given you all the options. You can stay here on the port and as long as the port does not explode and you stay out of he way you will be safe. We are not sure exactly how but while the Underdwellers had been bannished to another planet it seems they have gained access to space ships we don't know how but for now the port itself is not under direct threat."

"If you want to fight, you will need to take these pills, it's pure Dimensium. It makes it so that your actions are in both dimensions at once, though you will experience input from both dimensions, it will be weird but I have all confidence that you will be able to deal with it."

They said, their eyes being serious as he pulled out from his pocket some capsules.

"Your choice, take the pill and fight or don't but find a nice out of the way place."

The General said waiting to see the response of those that had gathered.

OOC: If anyone chooses to take the pill it will only have temporary effects for you though no one ICly knows this yet.

"Sir you must leave now." One of the deck crew said to Kadus.

"I told you we can't leave without our companion." Kadus stubornly repeated.

"He has been located and taken to the command center of this installation. However it would take too long to bring him here. Your window to leave is closing. He is in the safest place on the station." The Novaen continued.

This time Aeroh stepped in before Kadus could reply again. "Sir, the goal of bringing him along was to get him used to dealing with off-world situations was it not? If he is safe where he is now, then we cannot endanger his life willingly by bringing him back to the docking bay during an attack. Admiral, your ships need you and we could only cause more harm to the young knight and ourselves by waiting."

Kadus hesitated, not wanting to leave his friend behind but feeling the weight of his responsibility. "Very well. Aeroh get us back to the Eternal Star immediately."
___________________________________________________

Celric pondered the options before him. As a Knight of Aodh he was taught to come to the aid of all victims of injustice and to stand his ground when faced with hostility. He had also learned today of the friendship that the Hyren had enjoyed with his hosts which his people had entered into when they were adopted by the Tidani Hyren.

He decided as quickly as an emergency was not a time to delay. Before he took the pill to aid the Novaens he needed to ask a few questions.

"I will stand with you General. I just need to know something first. Will it allow my armor and weapons to be effective in both dimensions as well?"
____________________________________________________

Kadus arrived on the bridge of the Eternal Star. "All hands to battlestations! Communications send this message to the Novaen station, and switch over to the Novaen military frequencies."

<This is Admiral Starfall onboard the the Eternal Star. As a first step in renewing our affiliation, the Tidani battlegroup stands ready to help defend your world in any way possible.>

Reika looked across the gathered personnel, including many of her fellow crew members. What surprised her, however, was the presence of the captain, along with what was considerably more than two powersuits.

As she pondered why the Captain was still on the station, Herbler spoke up. "We will assist in the fight against the Under Dwellers." he said, making a blanket decision for all those of New Oxford.

The marine sized up who was here. There was Herbler, of course, now carrying his sidearm and wearing an almost imperceptible mesh overlay over his uniform, and there were a number of the ordinary crewmen, unarmed. The powersuits numbered about six, and all bar one was carrying the signature heavy vulcan cannons so often associated with the powersuits, while the other was carrying a misile launcher - loaded with a high explosive rocket, no doubt.

Herbler, who was looking around as well, noticed her, and nodded. She gave a quick salute before turning back to look at the General(s).

Sidearms were passed out to the unarmed crew members, and one by one the New Oxford personnel took the tablets, the powersuits taking notably longer thanks to the complex process of removing the helmet, helping them swallow it, then resealing the suit properly. One of the officers was passing out Vac-kits to everyone, while she was returned her helmet, which she held on to in case they needed to go somewhere hostile to human life.

ooc: I'm back! *does a happy dance*

IC:

"A dialogue, would be acceptable, but that's as far as we would be willing to go.

The Dimensia Harmonia has the rather unique feat of being in both subspace and superspace at the same exact time. There is no solid matter there, its all pure energy, all kinds. There are those, even stronger than I, who purposly seal The Dimensia Harmonia, though, as I said, random fluxuations could lead one there. I cannot, will not share why, it is not my story to tell, though, if certain events transpire, then, you will be able to experience, the Dimensia Harmonia. It is a wonderful place, where sight and sound have no diffrence. It has been suggusted, that it is impossible to share with the blind, the beauty of the sunrise, with the deaf, the magnificence of the moonlight sonata. But what if you were in a place, where the two were the same thing? Its a truely magnificent place, but, as i said, for reasons, it is kept, sealed." Stella said.

On the attack:

Both Magi-masters volunteered to stay and use their unique skills to help. They appeared to swallow the pill, and no one would think otherwise, but really, it was pocketed in one of their many, many hidden pockets.

Then their ship was ordered to vanish.

they were in both dimensions at once.

They stood ready at the side to help in less than scientific methods. How, was best not asked.

"We can't be certain how long it will last nor how much connected to you will be brought along with you, but yes, it does look like it has brought your armour and weapon." One of the Generals, the Sauron, said to Celric while the human was just getting a brief on the current situation.

And he started to address the crowd the including the New Oxfordians, Ri-anese and Celric.

"We don't know how but the Under-dwellers have gotten access to spaceships. They are heading this way. We think they will try and take over this station. The Novaen space navy has just engaged the first ships they are estimated to to be here in 10 minutes. For now we can only get into position and wait, For the visitors that are going to help I have assigned the people from New Oxfordian to aid the 3rd division defend the the most vulnerable locations for boarding, the docking bays this will be where the bulk of our forces will be deployed. Celric you will be with the 1st Defense Battalion, your job will be guarding the command centre for this port. We don't expect them to make it this far but better safe then sorry, and finally Stella and Chron, you will be guarding the power room with a defense battalion there, since theirapparent acustomedness to Sunstones you will ensure that nothing happens to it." The briefing had nearly finished but he was talking to everyone not just the visitors from the other nations, the tone and actions were such that everyone knew exactly what was happening After a brief pause "Come on people, hop to it." responses "Yes, Sir" were heard from all around, and with that

And the briefing of the General finished, the first thing that happened was the leaders of the Novaen troops approached and introduced themselves to the non-Novaens, basically just giving them their rank and then identifying the troupe they lead and then leading everyone under their command towards their destination.

All visiting ships were officially informed that their personnel had choosen to fight along side the Novaens in repelling the invaders. They still had any communications device that they might have and were allowed to talk with their ships but where discouraged from talking over unencrypted lines about operational matters ie, where they are now and where they are going.

Meanwhile in space Novaen ships where flying and engaging the enemy. Still being dimensionally unstable the ships had a 50% chance of missing their target but also that meant 50% chance of not getting hit.

From the multitude a space craft around only the Novaen ships could be seen engaging an enemy that quite simply did not exist in the dimension they were sitting in, but an enemy that was just as deadly to Novaens and anything that existed in any sense in their dimension.

One ship was destroyed it blew apart as if it had just spontaneously exploded but no it was destroyed by the fire of attacking ships. The ships where getting closer but they were hindered in stopping the ships from advancing from being half in one dimension and half in another. The Under-Dwellers were getting closer as everyone made their way through the orbital space port to their designated places

As the New Oxfordians headed towards the docking bays they passed windows out in the mist. For the first time they saw something that existed in one dimension but not another. They received inconsistant data saying that the ships (either there own or other visitors or even the Under-Dwellers) both existed and didn't at the same time.

The others meanwhile started to head deeper into the station. Celric and Stella and Chron started along the same path but soon split as the troops they were attached to seperated.

Herbler surveyed the map of the docking areas, before deciding on a location to fortify as a last hold. Six powersuits were nigh on impossible to get past, but there were only six of them, and they couldn't be everywhere.

"Alright, all non-military personnel, we need barricades at all these corridoors, and a kill-zone set up here. Close every bulkhead possible, and prepare corridoor sections for demolition if they're overrun."

The captain tapped the holographic map of the docking zone downloaded from the station's AI core.

"Deploy all the autocannons on the barricades, and set up the shield generators. We want to force them to attack the kill-zone."

He paused for a moment, considering better ways of channeling the enemy.

"Mine the barricades. Fortify them with spikes. Set up automatic sentry guns facing down each docking route and mine them. Set up motion sensor posts, and patch in the security feeds."

Stella and Chron nodded to the troops who would be assisting them.

In the power room, Stella took out an energy Crystal made by Xos himself. A quick Glance and one could easily confuse it for a sunstone, were it not for the fact its color kept changing.

Her and Chron set up Several Shields around the Sunstone in addition to its normal defences.

The curious thing, is that this in no way interfered with its normal operation.

Each shield was diffrent in some manner from the last.

Finally, in preperation, They pulled out two seemingly useless guns from their pocket, and put Lightning Mage Crystals in the guns, to shoot Lightning at the enemies if Neccessary.

OOC: Strong enough only to stun its targets.

The Shields are of many diffrent types.

Herbler surveyed the map of the docking areas, before deciding on a location to fortify as a last hold. Six powersuits were nigh on impossible to get past, but there were only six of them, and they couldn't be everywhere.

"Alright, all non-military personnel, we need barricades at all these corridoors, and a kill-zone set up here. Close every bulkhead possible, and prepare corridoor sections for demolition if they're overrun."

The captain tapped the holographic map of the docking zone downloaded from the station's AI core.

"Deploy all the autocannons on the barricades, and set up the shield generators. We want to force them to attack the kill-zone."

He paused for a moment, considering better ways of channeling the enemy.

"Mine the barricades. Fortify them with spikes. Set up automatic sentry guns facing down each docking route and mine them. Set up motion sensor posts, and patch in the security feeds."

The Novaen corporal noted that they could indeed funnel things back here but it would require time that they might not had. He also indicated 3 choke points that they should be primarily be able to hold. He stationed what troops they could behind some static defenses while others started on this funneling. closing and locking Bulkheads and finding large things that they could use to block of passages. And it was just in time as the enemy blasted their way into the orbital space port. At these choke points the soldiers waited but the enemy didn't seem to come. Something was happening that should not have, they normally would just come in and attack. They had to investigate.

Stella and Chron nodded to the troops who would be assisting them.

In the power room, Stella took out an energy Crystal made by Xos himself. A quick Glance and one could easily confuse it for a sunstone, were it not for the fact its color kept changing.

Her and Chron set up Several Shields around the Sunstone in addition to its normal defences.

The curious thing, is that this in no way interfered with its normal operation.

Each shield was diffrent in some manner from the last.

Finally, in preperation, They pulled out two seemingly useless guns from their pocket, and put Lightning Mage Crystals in the guns, to shoot Lightning at the enemies if Neccessary.

OOC: Strong enough only to stun its targets.

The Shields are of many diffrent types.

The post was expected to be an easy one, no one really expected the Underdwellers to come in this deep. A few eyebrows where raised at the shields by the soldiers but it was not their place to ask questions.

The post was expected to be an easy one, no one really expected the Underdwellers to come in this deep. A few eyebrows where raised at the shields by the soldiers but it was not their place to ask questions.

What could the Magi-masters say? They were magi, not Military tacticians.

Stella's robes flickered to show the Enemy's actions in Real time. As it happened, it showed on her robes. She took them off and suspended it in mid-air. Now she only had on a black catsuit that complimented her very curvy very sexy body. Stella and Chron watched what was going on.

"So what are we doing now?" Alex looked from one face to another in the shuttle, attempting to pry herself out of the prisonlike harnesses.

"We don't quite have the Delta-Vee to outright catch the Quantum Storm," called Nikola, already unstrapped and passing to the cockpit. Sandy was right on his heels, whirling for one last comment before the cabin door closed. "We're entering a slow geosynchronous orbit that should put us no more than a few hundred kilometers from the station and in perfect alignment to get picked up by magnetic beams on the 'Storm's next pass."

"I know that!" Finally free, Alex drifted through the cabin to a small computer readout, cycling through various screens. "I mean what do we do until then?" She paused for a moment, and then depressed a contact, extending a large holographic interface. "This thing has dimensionally anchored scanners?!"

"Why else would we use it for this function , Miss Firenza?" John Archer floated at her shoulder, adjusting a few dials to bring the reading vaguely in-focus. "Not comfort, I can assure you. By the way, you never saw these."

"Right." She manipulated the controls a few more times, bringing out a massive holographic representation of the dimensional field in the area. "This makes no sense!" exclaimed Archer, studying the readings. "They're.... they can't exist. This whole planet should be another Great Drift!"

"No sir," Alex mumbled, increasing the contrast in the representation and narrowing its dimensional field of view. "It is what it is by the grace of limited collision. Only two dimensions collided, and apparently benign ones at that, they're as safe as could possibly be expected under the circumstances. The Drift is somewhat different...." She depressed a contact and the readout faded, replaced by a telescope image of the station. "Looks like hell in there."

"Don't worry, we can get an evacuation team in within twelve minutes if things go wrong, and we'd be there in three."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

ooc: feel free to call people in, I'm more than happy to send help. They'll just need time to come.

"Damn. No time to get any mines down. Commander Schwartz, take your men down and do a sweep of the area - Sergeant Akasha, you go with them too."

Reika pulled on her helmet, sealing it against her armour, and checked her rifle, before following the team of six powersuits, intimidating with their spinning vulcan cannons, arm-mounted laser cannons, left shoulder grenade launchers and the paired submachineguns on their right shoulders.

The design had come a long way, and their backpacks even featured miniaturised vertical launch missiles.

In light of such an immense combination of protection and firepower, even if at expense of speed, most if not all marines inwardly wished to be assigned to a suit of the KMES-45 armour.

Light infantry was still more mobile, though, so Reika quickly swept the vicinity, moving from cover to cover and coordinating with the more powerful sensor packages equipped to the cumbersome powersuits.

I feel like an artillery spotter...

At the command center Celric stood out of the way while the Novaens prepared their defenses. He was here to fight not lead.

He put on the rest of his armor, the holy runes glowed a golden hue as they began protecting him. He positioned his shield onto his left arm and checked his plasma sword was secured to his belt, he then readied his staff. The staff was long and at the end were two advancing blades forming a tight 'U'. In between the blades was the barrel of the staff's energy rifle. Celric checked the charge to be sure it was full and then held it at the ready.

All that was left now was to wait.

At the command center Celric stood out of the way while the Novaens prepared their defenses. He was here to fight not lead.

He put on the rest of his armor, the holy runes glowed a golden hue as they began protecting him. He positioned his shield onto his left arm and checked his plasma sword was secured to his belt, he then readied his staff. The staff was long and at the end were two advancing blades forming a tight 'U'. In between the blades was the barrel if the staff's energy rifle. Celric checked the charge to be sure it was full and then held it at the ready.

All that was left now was to wait.

The Novaens had finished organising their defenses and it was just time to wait

"Damn. No time to get any mines down. Commander Schwartz, take your men down and do a sweep of the area - Sergeant Akasha, you go with them too."

Reika pulled on her helmet, sealing it against her armour, and checked her rifle, before following the team of six powersuits, intimidating with their spinning vulcan cannons, arm-mounted laser cannons, left shoulder grenade launchers and the paired submachineguns on their right shoulders.

The design had come a long way, and their backpacks even featured miniaturised vertical launch missiles.

In light of such an immense combination of protection and firepower, even if at expense of speed, most if not all marines inwardly wished to be assigned to a suit of the KMES-45 armour.

Light infantry was still more mobile, though, so Reika quickly swept the vicinity, moving from cover to cover and coordinating with the more powerful sensor packages equipped to the cumbersome powersuits.

I feel like an artillery spotter...

As they turned a a corner not far from where they came from they almost ran right into the under-dwellers, the creatures looked cruel and evil, claws as long as a hand and large predator teeth screached at the soldiers and attacked trying to bite them.

Reika reflexively leapt back and held her spotlight on the Under Dwellers, not bothering to shoot and instead moving back around towards the relative safety of the powersuits as quickly as possible.

"Found them, sir! Patching through camera data."

Back at the command post set up by Herbler, red blips suddenly filled a portion of the screen where the active scans picked up the Under Dwellers.

"She's clear. Open fire!"

The powersuits made their presence clearly known when a high explosive rocket streaked into the swarm of Under Dwellers, creating a respectable crater where it struck. The initial confusion inevitably caused by a missile flying into their midst (Well, hopefully there would be confusion, but one could never be certain. Either way, the follow up needed to happen quickly to exploit any potential confusion) was followed through with blaring vulcan cannons, five streams of high caliber rounds normally reserved for heavy atmospheric fighters tore into the ranks, the deadly streams sweeping slowly across the group.

The radars were still operational, though, and they would know if any other concentrations were coming near.

As the streams of death continued, Reika swept the other coridoors, and kept an eye on the exterior for any surprise breaches.

There were no surprise breaches and soon those under-dwellers where incompacitated, if not dead and blown to smithereens. For a moment there was an eery calm before the radar picked up a large concentration of forces, and they where coming in from two sides.There was about 200 in total coming, only a fraction of the total force that was estimated to be landing. Novaens where there and taking up their defensive line, they were not going to let the Under-dwellers through.

But unbeknownest to them it had already happened. Under-dwellers had popped out of hidden maintenaince shafts and started their attack... on the Bridge.

Novaen forces had engaged in the battle and military communications relayed details to all allied forces in the station. As well as the fact that the Maintenaince shafts had been used.

"How?!" exclaimed one of the Novaen officers in the defensive perimeter as all the maintenance hatches except for one nearby. "How did they know what to look for and how to open them."

There were no surprise breaches and soon those under-dwellers where incompacitated, if not dead and blown to smithereens. For a moment there was an eery calm before the radar picked up a large concentration of forces, and they where coming in from two sides.There was about 200 in total coming, only a fraction of the total force that was estimated to be landing. Novaens where there and taking up their defensive line, they were not going to let the Under-dwellers through.

But unbeknownest to them it had already happened. Under-dwellers had popped out of hidden maintenaince shafts and started their attack... on the Bridge.

Novaen forces had engaged in the battle and military communications relayed details to all allied forces in the station. As well as the fact that the Maintenaince shafts had been used.

"How?!" exclaimed one of the Novaen officers in the defensive perimeter as all the maintenance hatches except for one nearby. "How did they know what to look for and how to open them."

Stella and Chron turned to the Novaens with them.

"Go, assist your countrymen on the bridge. Do not worry for us, or the sunstone." Chron said.

"Damn it! Alright, we can hold the docking bays. You Novaens return to protect the command centre. Captain Schwartz, get your men down to the bridge as fast as possible, and all personnel are to don helmets. Sergeant Akasha, go with the Novaen soldiers."

The powersuits made a fighting retreat, mowing down any foolhardy underdwellers, before turning and making full use of a transport cart to get them to the destination as fast as possible.

The chokepoints were handled by the autocannons which had been set up, the under-dweller's rush tactics being soundly defeated with high powered automatic weapons, just like in World War One.

(oh right I guess the bridge would be the command center...)

Celric had been watching a corridor leading to the bridge for some time with nothing to show for it. His attention started to wander until he heard shouts and orders flying around behind him. Apparently the bridge personnel and defenders were preparing for something. He refocused his attention down the hallway.

The lights in the hallway shutdown. Celric strained to make sense of his surroundings in the darkness with only the light from the bridge behind him. Shapes and shadows were dancing before him but he was unable to make sense of them. On his shield was a large sun shaped rune which he now touched and it began to glow brightly casting light into the hall before him.

Down the hall he could now easily make out dozens of vile creatures that he knew must be the Under-dwellers. He took aim and let out volley after volley of heavy energy fire from his staff. The aliens took several hits and the survivors started rushing their assailant. Celric kept firing until they came too close, he then quickly shifted the staff to his back and pulled out his energy blade. He readied himself and then charged into the mass of enemies. Shield and sword clashed with claws and fangs. Celric was well armored so it took a long time before their wild slashes and bites did damage to him, and meanwhile his blade cut and sliced with righteous fury.

The first wave lay in a heap at his feet. His armor had failed in a few places, one dripped blood. Celric did not worry much about his wounds now, he knew his regeneration was much higher than average humans and was too taken by the fighting to care even if he wasn't.

He stared down the rest of the aliens further down the hall. He guestured at the dead by his feet. "Your fate awaits you beasts. Come and claim it!"

Stella and Chron turned to the Novaens with them.

"Go, assist your countrymen on the bridge. Do not worry for us, or the sunstone." Chron said.

It was moments later that the Novaens there received information of exactly what was happening with orders to go to the Command Centre/Bridge and help defend it.

And so they left the Ri-anese behind guarding the power. about 10 minutes later and with nothing physically to go by the Under-dwellers came upon the 2 Ri-anese, defending the engines and the store of Sunstones. They were creatures that were vile, foul and twisted versions of the Sauron, they looked dinosaurs but still visually and behaviourly they were all together different from the civilised Saurons that they had come to know.

The Under-dwellers screeched at the Ri-anese, but did nothing... They obviously wanted something and tried this subtle approach to get it, whatever it was.

*snip*

They waited, screeched and generally made a lot of noise, they seemed to be not only accepting the knight's challenge but also issueing one of their own. The second wave of Underdwellers seemed to charge all at once and they all seemed to head for Celric even though only 2 could could attack him at once there were others there to aid and strike these foul and vile creatures down.

"Damn it! Alright, we can hold the docking bays. You Novaens return to protect the command centre. Captain Schwartz, get your men down to the bridge as fast as possible, and all personnel are to don helmets. Sergeant Akasha, go with the Novaen soldiers."

The powersuits made a fighting retreat, mowing down any foolhardy underdwellers, before turning and making full use of a transport cart to get them to the destination as fast as possible.

The chokepoints were handled by the autocannons which had been set up, the under-dweller's rush tactics being soundly defeated with high powered automatic weapons, just like in World War One.

The tactic would have worked as well, if not had been for the fact that the autocannons did not exist in both dimensions, the pills only affected people and what the people were wearing. However a bright young Novaen soldier had a strange idea that might work using the last remaining pills he broke them open and rubbed them on the cannons, and yes it seemed to work the Autocannons now existed in both dimensions at once ready to fight.

After dealing with initial threats the rest of the docking bay area seemed to be empty, The map that they had was updated with the maintenaince tunnels through the structure. There was one nearby, and that was assumed to be the one that the under-dwellers used to access the rest of the ship. Once they arrived where the map said it was, nothing seemed to inform them that there was a maintenaince tunnel here. Was it the wrong place, or was the tunnel hidden, or is the map wrong? There were alot of possibilities."

It was moments later that the Novaens there received information of exactly what was happening with orders to go to the Command Centre/Bridge and help defend it.

And so they left the Ri-anese behind guarding the power. about 10 minutes later and with nothing physically to go by the Under-dwellers came upon the 2 Ri-anese, defending the engines and the store of Sunstones. They were creatures that were vile, foul and twisted versions of the Sauron, they looked dinosaurs but still visually and behaviourly they were all together different from the civilised Saurons that they had come to know.

The Under-dwellers screeched at the Ri-anese, but did nothing... They obviously wanted something and tried this subtle approach to get it, whatever it was.

Chron seemed to flicker in place, then stopped. He took out a little device, and held it up. It had the unique ability of translating Under-dweller speech into something Chronm and Stella could understand.

"Now, what did you say? We couldn't understand you before." Chron said.

The device emitted the appropriate under-dweller screeches, translating Chron's words.

Chron seemed to flicker in place, then stopped. He took out a little device, and held it up. It had the unique ability of translating Under-dweller speech into something Chronm and Stella could understand.

"Now, what did you say? We couldn't understand you before." Chron said.

The device emitted the appropriate under-dweller screeches, translating Chron's words.

Once again the screetches came from the leading Under-dweller as the device translated it.

"You speak We speak. Stones that shine like stars will be given to us." the device translated. The Under-dwellers paused waiting for a response from the strange people that could speak with them.

Once again the screetches came from the leading Under-dweller as the device translated it.

"You speak We speak. Stones that shine like stars will be given to us." the device translated. The Under-dwellers paused waiting for a response from the strange people that could speak with them.

"These ones here? I'm afraid that's not possible old Chap Their keeping us all alive, and we promised to keep them here. However, we'd be happy to give you these instead." Chron said, as Stella opened her robes to reveal The ri-anese equivalent. They Sparkled like a Sunstone. Stella had made them all herself.

They were at the ready to unleash a Barrage of Lightning from their Lightning Guns if the Underdwellers said no.

"These ones here? I'm afraid that's not possible old Chap Their keeping us all alive, and we promised to keep them here. However, we'd be happy to give you these instead." Chron said, as Stella opened her robes to reveal The ri-anese equivalent. They Sparkled like a Sunstone. Stella had made them all herself.

They were at the ready to unleash a Barrage of Lightning from their Lightning Guns if the Underdwellers said no.

The Underdwellers were shocked they didn't expect to be offered what they thought to be Sunstones but were infact Mage Crystals, but an offer is an offer.

"You are not our enemy, you are not Novaen. Give us the stone that shines like the stars and we will leave." the leader screetched he stepped
forward.

Extending his claw as a hand to take position of the shining stones that the Ri-anese had offered.

The Underdwellers were shocked they didn't expect to be offered what they thought to be Sunstones but were infact Mage Crystals, but an offer is an offer.

"You are not our enemy, you are not Novaen. Give us the stone that shines like the stars and we will leave." the leader screetched he stepped
forward.

Extending his claw as a hand to take position of the shining stones that the Ri-anese had offered.

the Crystals were gathered and put into a bag. The Bag of Mage Crystals were handed over.

"Pleasure doing business with you." Chron said.

On the way, the one with the rocket launcher had the expended pod replaced, and the grenade launcher tweaked a little. Unlike the others, that suit already had significant anti-vehicular capability, in the form of a set of four ground-to-ground missiles and eight surface-to-air missiles.

The packs of the powersuits contained a large ammunition compartment, with the capacity to belt-feed into various weapons. Normally, as in the case of the vulcan cannon equipped ones, they were filled with thousands upon thousands of rounds, feeding into a drum on the cannon.

However, as the missile launcher did not feature a reload mechanism, the excess space was used to support a belted grenade launcher, with varying amounts of fragmentation, high explosive and incinedary grenades. While it was unable to achieve the incredible rates of fire of the vulcan cannons, it was able to lob the explosive ordnance at high rates due to the vehicular-grade frame of the powersuit and the small amount of flash coolant packed in each grenade.

Reika ran back as soon as she found out about the maintenance tunnels, being the only marine on the station at the moment.

Heading down to the freshly fortified area near where the maintenance tunnels were supposed to be, she began prying at various panels, tapping on them to see if she could find an access point, if any.

---

As the powersuits arrived, they burst into the room (breaking whatever bulkheads there were with sheer force) and opened fire, using primarily their submachineguns (they weren't absolutely, positively trying to kill everything in the room, and it didn't make sense to fire such imprecise heavy automatics when there were friendlies about) and trying to pinpoint the access points.

As they found them, the missile launcher equipped powersuit fired incinedary grenades at them, in order to close it from access by the under dwellers.

On the way, the one with the rocket launcher had the expended pod replaced, and the grenade launcher tweaked a little. Unlike the others, that suit already had significant anti-vehicular capability, in the form of a set of four ground-to-ground missiles and eight surface-to-air missiles.

The packs of the powersuits contained a large ammunition compartment, with the capacity to belt-feed into various weapons. Normally, as in the case of the vulcan cannon equipped ones, they were filled with thousands upon thousands of rounds, feeding into a drum on the cannon.

However, as the missile launcher did not feature a reload mechanism, the excess space was used to support a belted grenade launcher, with varying amounts of fragmentation, high explosive and incinedary grenades. While it was unable to achieve the incredible rates of fire of the vulcan cannons, it was able to lob the explosive ordnance at high rates due to the vehicular-grade frame of the powersuit and the small amount of flash coolant packed in each grenade.

Reika ran back as soon as she found out about the maintenance tunnels, being the only marine on the station at the moment.

Heading down to the freshly fortified area near where the maintenance tunnels were supposed to be, she began prying at various panels, tapping on them to see if she could find an access point, if any.

---

As the powersuits arrived, they burst into the room (breaking whatever bulkheads there were with sheer force) and opened fire, using primarily their submachineguns (they weren't absolutely, positively trying to kill everything in the room, and it didn't make sense to fire such imprecise heavy automatics when there were friendlies about) and trying to pinpoint the access points.

As they found them, the missile launcher equipped powersuit fired incinedary grenades at them, in order to close it from access by the under dwellers.


It didn't take long with the powersuits, with the Novaen re-inforcements that had arrived from where the Ri-anese were and the troops that had already been stationed there to destroy the second wave of attack, from the Under-dwellers, combat and any other scanners that there were showed no sign of Under-dweller activity In the area.

These things usually were relentless in their attacks, they were stubborn with their attacks with their targets. The Novaen generals where there pondering the situation before it clicked. "Quickly, to the Power room." He lead everyone down the path towards where the Ri-anese and the Under-dweller was in discussion

--

Reika searched proded and tested looking for the maintenaince tunnel that should be there, she proded, poked and tried to leaver nothing seemed to work until just before she gave up, she put her hands on something and pushed, And the door seemed to melt away, being absorbed into the frame around the doorway to the maintenaince tunnel had been found.

For now she could see nothing nor hear anything in there.


the Crystals were gathered and put into a bag. The Bag of Mage Crystals were handed over.

"Pleasure doing business with you." Chron said.

The Under-dweller turned away and went away with out screeching a word, but before it even took one step turned around and back handed the translator out of Chron's hand and against the wall. It fell apart being into many pieces.

The Underdweller then from his location screetched a loud and relatively high pitched screech, they needed to cover and try to protect their hearing it was that loud. It could be heard almost throughout the entire station. Everyone heard it, even Reika but only just.

The Under-dwellers started walking away from the Ri-anese with the Mage Crystals inhand thinking that they indeed where Sunstones.

The Under-dweller turned away and went away with out screeching a word, but before it even took one step turned around and back handed the translator out of Chron's hand and against the wall. It fell apart being into many pieces.

The Underdweller then from his location screetched a loud and relatively high pitched screech, they needed to cover and try to protect their hearing it was that loud. It could be heard almost throughout the entire station. Everyone heard it, even Reika but only just.

The Under-dwellers started walking away from the Ri-anese with the Mage Crystals inhand thinking that they indeed where Sunstones.

"Jokes on him. Now I know how it broke all those years ago. Remember dear?" Chron asked.

"Yes dear. You think we should give the frequency to the Noavens incase they need it?" Stella asked.

"Sure. Silly translator took me a year to fix." Chron said as the translator faded away.

He pulled it out of his pocket, fixed, and considerably older.

"Now at last, I can get rid of it." Chron said.

He hurled it at the wall with the same amount of force, and it broke all over again.

He proceeded to fetch a broom and sweep it up, disposing of it in a waste receptible.

Then they took a seat on a pair of folding chairs they pulled out of the air, and sipped tropical smoothies in coconuts with little bright neon umbrellas.

They were well and truely pleased with themselves.

"I wonder if sunstones can give one a tan." Chron idly mused.

"Jokes on him. Now I know how it broke all those years ago. Remember dear?" Chron asked.

"Yes dear. You think we should give the frequency to the Noavens incase they need it?" Stella asked.

"Sure. Silly translator took me a year to fix." Chron said as the translator faded away.

He pulled it out of his pocket, fixed, and considerably older.

"Now at last, I can get rid of it." Chron said.

He hurled it at the wall with the same amount of force, and it broke all over again.

He proceeded to fetch a broom and sweep it up, disposing of it in a waste receptible.

Then they took a seat on a pair of folding chairs they pulled out of the air, and sipped tropical smoothies in coconuts with little bright neon umbrellas.

They were well and truely pleased with themselves.

"I wonder if sunstones can give one a tan." Chron idly mused.

"Quickly, They must be attacking the Power room!" the generals exclaimed as they heard the Under-dweller screech that echoed throughout the station. They had arrived to what they thought would have been a battle zone but were shocked to see Stella and Chron lounging in their deck chairs and sipping their drinks.

"We are expecting an Under-dweller attack here any moment and you are lounging about sipping drinks from a coconut?!"

Turning back to the troops he said "Set up defenses here and here," indicating two other points on the computerised maps. "Becareful they might be already there or within the defensive perimeter."

One of the soldiers that where with the Ri-anese originally silently asked them. "Um, Where did you get the deck chairs and the drinks from?" he obviously could not work out how they got them nor even where they got them from.

---

As this happened, for Reika masses of under dwellers seemed to come from no where, simply pushing Reika out of the way doing her no harm, the under dwellers seemed to be heading back to their docking ships.

The whole behaviour of the Under-dwellers seemed to be overall weird.

Reika looked puzzled, then radioed the captain. Fortunately, the helmet easily muffled any sound that could be heard from the outside.

"Sir, the Under Dwellers appear to be retreating! Get the cannons ready, they're not getting out of here alive."

The powersuits had returned to the base, and were now taking up position near the identified breaches, while autocannons were rapidly repositioned near the breach sites.

As the under dwellers streamed out, autocannons and vulcans blared, cutting throught their ranks while others pointed into the ships, in case any were still in there.

"Don't let any of them through! They've already got what they came for, so let's get it back!"

Reika, meanwhile, made herself scarce - leaving behind a satchel charge primed for two minutes while she raced from the maintenance tunnels into a safe room.

Herbler contacted the command centre.

"They seem to be attempting to retreat! We're going to hold them off at the docking bays!"

"Quickly, They must be attacking the Power room!" the generals exclaimed as they heard the Under-dweller screech that echoed throughout the station. They had arrived to what they thought would have been a battle zone but were shocked to see Stella and Chron lounging in their deck chairs and sipping their drinks.

"We are expecting an Under-dweller attack here any moment and you are lounging about sipping drinks from a coconut?!"

Turning back to the troops he said "Set up defenses here and here," indicating two other points on the computerised maps. "Becareful they might be already there or within the defensive perimeter."

One of the soldiers that where with the Ri-anese originally silently asked them. "Um, Where did you get the deck chairs and the drinks from?" he obviously could not work out how they got them nor even where they got them from.

---

As this happened, for Reika masses of under dwellers seemed to come from no where, simply pushing Reika out of the way doing her no harm, the under dwellers seemed to be heading back to their docking ships.

The whole behaviour of the Under-dwellers seemed to be overall weird.

"Oh yes, the underdwellers were here. Had a pleasant conversation with them in which we learned that this whole attack happened because they wanted the sun crystals, or, as their brutish leader said, Crystals that shine like stars. So, we gave him all of Stella's Mage Crystals. They thought they were the real deal and left peacefully. their going to be highly disapointed a few months later when they find their Crystals have just vanished, disapating back into pure arcane energy. Oh yes, They have a shatter frequency, much higher than the scream the underdweller used to leave. In fact its so high its practicly silent to nearly eavery species we have thus far encountered." Chron said.

Then to silently answer the man's question, stella silently said
"We conjured them out of thin air."

"Oh yes, the underdwellers were here. Had a pleasant conversation with them in which we learned that this whole attack happened because they wanted the sun crystals, or, as their brutish leader said, Crystals that shine like stars. So, we gave him all of Stella's Mage Crystals. They thought they were the real deal and left peacefully. their going to be highly disapointed a few months later when they find their Crystals have just vanished, disapating back into pure arcane energy. Oh yes, They have a shatter frequency, much higher than the scream the underdweller used to leave. In fact its so high its practicly silent to nearly eavery species we have thus far encountered." Chron said.

Then to silently answer the man's question, stella silently said
"We conjured them out of thin air."

"Hmmm, check that all the Sunstones are still there. quickly. We need the information now..."

Another different pair of Noveans that were guarding the room entered and did a quick visual survey of the sunstones comparing it against visual memory.

"They all seem to be here." they replied... "Let them go. Not worth an uncessary battle. They are leaving and have not obtained their objective which is satisfactory. Sunstones and Mage Crystals should be different enough to cause major problems. The joke will be on them."

"No, everyone stand down."

--
As for Reika, she was ignored, as the flow of Underdwellers finished out of the maintenaince tunnel. She estimated that it would take 5-10 minutes for all the underdwellers to reach their shuttles and leave. If she was going to be a lone wolf and try to stop the Underdwellers leaving she would have to act fast and on her own.

Stella pulled a note out of her sleeve.

"If you can make something emit a noise at that frequency, The Mage crystals will shatter. It also causes bleeding in the ears, rupturs eardrums, and often times, renders its targets uncouncous, due it its extreme frequency. Helpfull if they ever decide to pop on over and use them against you." Stella said.

They took a sip of their tropical smoothies.

They waited, screeched and generally made a lot of noise, they seemed to be not only accepting the knight's challenge but also issueing one of their own. The second wave of Underdwellers seemed to charge all at once and they all seemed to head for Celric even though only 2 could could attack him at once there were others there to aid and strike these foul and vile creatures down.

Celric stood his ground as the mass charged down the hall. Shield up he waited for them to get close, then lunging himself as quickly as he could and struck the leading Under-dwellers with his shield. The force of their charge meeting his and the push from behind killed the first few.

Now held to fight. As the charge faded the battle became easy for a time. The crowd continued to force new victims onto his blade and shield, and the fallen bodies made balance and skilled combat hard for the beasts. After a time though Celric started to fatigue, and there seemed to be no end to the onslaught. He continued to fight but did not know how long he could continue.

Celric stood his ground as the mass charged down the hall. Shield up he waited for them to get close, then lunging himself as quickly as he could and struck the leading Under-dwellers with his shield. The force of their charge meeting his and the push from behind killed the first few.

Now held to fight. As the charge faded the battle became easy for a time. The crowd continued to force new victims onto his blade and shield, and the fallen bodies made balance and skilled combat hard for the beasts. After a time though Celric started to fatigue, and there seemed to be no end to the onslaught. He continued to fight but did not know how long he could continue.

OOC: Sorry, Tidan, you must have missed some recent posts. The second wave had already died thanks to Hak's power suits.

This is current situation as I see it...

All Novaen forces (apart from Reika) are either defending the bridge/command centre' and are currently facing no opponents or are with the Novaen generals (Though some could be on the way). It is not possible for anyone that had fought against the first or second wave of Under-dwellers when they were attacking the brige/command centre to get ahead of the Undwellers unless they can teleport.

So that means Reika is the only one that could even try to stop the Under-dwellers from leaving. Hak your latest post is unpossible in the circumstances as I see them as I beleive your posts had all your guys (inc. the power suits) as helping with the 1st and second wave of Underdwellers at the brige/command centre. I may be wrong, I may be confused but as I see them, your latest just could not happen.

(oops, didn't realize anyone elses actions had intersected with mine yet. Is it ok if we just pretend my post happened just before the help arrived?)

(oops, didn't realize anyone elses actions had intersected with mine yet. Is it ok if we just pretend my post happened just before the help arrived?)

fine with me...

(OOC: 'Im-possible'. I'll still go with the field command people racing to secure one ship, though.

Only the powersuits left, actually. The field post remained in place.)

Reika activated a 'satchel charge' (read: Grenade + Cutlery + Baggie) and dropped on the ground, moving away from it as fast as possible.

Herbler, meanwhile, was rushing to get as many autocannons as possible redeployed to one of the entrances.

Eventually, two were set up, while everybody else gave way.

The two autocannon emplacements opened fire, doing their damndest to keep the Under Dwellers away from the ship, while others were set up at openings to finish off as many as possible.

(OOC: 'Im-possible'. I'll still go with the field command people racing to secure one ship, though.

Only the powersuits left, actually. The field post remained in place.)

Reika activated a 'satchel charge' (read: Grenade + Cutlery + Baggie) and dropped on the ground, moving away from it as fast as possible.

Herbler, meanwhile, was rushing to get as many autocannons as possible redeployed to one of the entrances.

Eventually, two were set up, while everybody else gave way.

The two autocannon emplacements opened fire, doing their damndest to keep the Under Dwellers away from the ship, while others were set up at openings to finish off as many as possible.
(OOC: Yes, I know, Un-possible was meant as a little joke. Okay... continueing on...)

Things didn't seem to be going well for the Under-dwellers firstly they had taken the wrong crystals and now the New Oxfordians and seemingly made it so that death was the only option. However in Reika's haste to get away from the satchel charge failed to notice a shadow move, this shadow in particular belong to one of the few truly intelligent Under-dwellers in existance, the leader of the invasion force.

IT knocked her down onto the ground with it's claws and then grasp her neck. IT screeched at her, it obviously was not happy and could crush her neck within moments, She was in a very precarious position and she was lifted up off the ground so she was face to face with the under-dweller that had caught her. Screeching another time in her face, the only things she could tell was it had the worst breath, and that it could crush her but it wanted to keep her alive and working, at least for now.

Meanwhile for the response to the information that they were retreating the New Oxfordians received a message. "Under-dwellers failed to achieve directive, let pass no need for any unnecessary deaths." though this was unaware of the latest incident with Reika

(OOC: Well, she couldn't, actually. She's wearing a helmet. One of those full vacuum helmets, and not just a 'combat helmet'.)

"I don't fear you, Underdweller Scum." she said under her breath, as the grip tightened. The thing could not hear her, of course, behind her helmet. She was also very scared, though airtight jumpsuits tended to stop such odours from escaping.

She contacted the field post.

"We have a smart one. He caught on to my satchel charge. Keep an eye out for him and cut him down."

She remained perfectly still.

Meanwhile, at the field command posts, the autocannons stopped, new information filtering down from the Command Centre.

The Under-dweller holding Reika screeched, and soon avout 20 or so remaining Under-dwellers that had been held back by the leader noting what was happening to it's forces seemed to suddenly surround them. The head Underdweller and Reika in the middle and all the others circled tightly around.

One of them attempted to bite at Reika which resulted in a quick and jolted movement fir Reika away from the attacking Underdweller. The leader wanted her alive for now.

Though in response it screeched again About of the others started to attack and destroy the one that had tried to get Reika, leaving a great big mess.

The group made it's way out of the maintenaince tunnel and past the New Oxfordian Outpost.

The officers and autocannons swivelled round at this convoy, taking careful aim at the leader. They made it perfectly clear that a wrong move would result in the horrible deaths of the entire convoy, with or without Reika's survival.

"Sir, if they get within 10 feet, and I'm still in their slimy claws, open fire."

Those were some of the hardest words she'd ever had to say, but in her heart she knew that was the right thing to do. If the shadow thing managed to get to the ship, she was dead all the same.

She waited as they came into full view of all the assorted weaponry. She noted a couple of the higher ranking officers were holding plasma accelerator pistols, as opposed to the standard assortment of rail and laser pistols.

"Has anybody with an ion gun got a clear shot at this thing's skull?"

"Sorry, Sergeant, but everybody who has a clean shot is either manning an autocannon or doesn't have an ion gun."

Reika was sweating bullets as she stared down the Under Dweller, allowing her hands to fall to her sides.

"Tell my family I love them..."

She grabbed her rail pistol and whipped it under the creature's chin, and fired.

"Reika!"

The cannons began to blare, the characteristic 'whud whud whud' of the heavy rounds erupting from their barrels.

The Under-dweller leader screeched as the shot went through it's lower jaw from the surprise shot by Reika, this was the only thing certain as it suddenly descended into chaos Noise and movement, bullets and blood filled the air.

Once the guns of the New Oxfordians stopped it fell eerily silent, bodies and blood of the fallen Underdwellers, Also the body of Reika, lying collapsed on the ground.

Meanwhile the last boarding ship of the Under-dwellers that would leave the Hawdon Space Port had left, onboard was the Undweller, the shot from Reika had left a hole in it's lower jaw, Indeed it had survived though not one of the Underdwellers that had provided a living shield survived.

The ship dissappeared as it's FTL engines fired up and the ship disappeared from sight.

(OOC: No, don't worry. It's better if she perishes as a result.)

It happened like a dream. Herbler watched helplessly as the sergeant reached down and grabbed her pistol, thrusting its barrel under the leader's chin, and pulled the trigger.

"Reika!"

The bullets tore through flesh and steel alike, the soft muscle and bone offering no resistance to the terrible fire of the autocannons. The nearly silhouetted form of his crewman spurted blood, as bullet after bullet ravaged her body, before she finally collapsed, another casualty of that heartless game known as war.

When the thunder of the cannons had died away, one of the crewmen fell to his knees, sobbing.

Even the most battle-hardened of the crew bowed their heads. They had lost one of their own.

Goodbye, Sergeant Akasha. Goodbye and Farewell.

---

Captain Herbler walked into the Command Centre with his head bowed.

"I'm afraid Sergeant Akasha will be unable to join us."

He shook his head, before looking up again.

"The invasion was repelled, but we couldn't find the leader. He'll have trouble eating now, though." At this last sentence, a small smirk crossed Herbler's lips.

(OOC: No, don't worry. It's better if she perishes as a result.)

It happened like a dream. Herbler watched helplessly as the sergeant reached down and grabbed her pistol, thrusting its barrel under the leader's chin, and pulled the trigger.

"Reika!"

The bullets tore through flesh and steel alike, the soft muscle and bone offering no resistance to the terrible fire of the autocannons. The nearly silhouetted form of his crewman spurted blood, as bullet after bullet ravaged her body, before she finally collapsed, another casualty of that heartless game known as war.

When the thunder of the cannons had died away, one of the crewmen fell to his knees, sobbing.

Even the most battle-hardened of the crew bowed their heads. They had lost one of their own.

Goodbye, Sergeant Akasha. Goodbye and Farewell.

---

Captain Herbler walked into the Command Centre with his head bowed.

"I'm afraid Sergeant Akasha will be unable to join us."

He shook his head, before looking up again.

"The invasion was repelled, but we couldn't find the leader. He'll have trouble eating now, though." At this last sentence, a small smirk crossed Herbler's lips.

OOC: Okay, Edited to reflect her death

IC:

"This makes no sense!" stated the Generals as they were pouring over all the data they had about the Under-dwellers invasion, before Herbler walked in.

"Everyone please, a minutes silence for all that lost thier lives today."

All Novaens stoped in their tracks and bowed their heads for the minute. The human general siddled up to Herbler after the minute was up while his Sauron Life partner returned to analysing the battle data.

"Nothing I can say could ever dull what a loss of a great soldier will do but know this, She will live on through Stories, every Novaen from this generation on will know of her and what she had done."

The grizzly task of dealing with the dead began, every body whether Novaen, Under-dweller of what-ever nationality were treated with the utmost respect, for indeed a life had been taken. Arrangements were made to deal with the visitors dead, particularly special arrangement was made for Reika.

OOC: Just so you know this thread is not dead yet... though before going to the last stage of this RP. I just wanted to have a bit of time for everyone.

Stella and Chron quietly assisted. Where their deck chairs and drinks had gone off too, was unclear.

"She will not be forgotten." said Herbler, quietly.

The battleship returned, and the crew emerged to help with the treatment of the bodies.

Things seemed to go quickly the mood was sombre and no one seemed to talk and if they did it was short, to the point and only what was needed to get the job done.

But soon enough assuredly it was done, the Novaen generals that lead the defense had dissappearead, no one was quite sure where they had gone but everyone was sure it had something to do with the assault that had just happened.

They were not the only ones busy, Novaen Councillors 4 of them, 2 of them where part of the delegation that welcomed the Tidani the other 2 no one had ever seen before.

They invited Herbler and higher ranking members of the New Oxfordian military, as well as Stella and Chron as well as Cedric to be honoured guests on the surface of the planet. They informed that the pills they had taken would keep them in sync with the dimensional flux of the planet. And that at any time shuttles were available to take them to the surface.

Things seemed to go quickly the mood was sombre and no one seemed to talk and if they did it was short, to the point and only what was needed to get the job done.

But soon enough assuredly it was done, the Novaen generals that lead the defense had dissappearead, no one was quite sure where they had gone but everyone was sure it had something to do with the assault that had just happened.

They were not the only ones busy, Novaen Councillors 4 of them, 2 of them where part of the delegation that welcomed the Tidani the other 2 no one had ever seen before.

They invited Herbler and higher ranking members of the New Oxfordian military, as well as Stella and Chron as well as Cedric to be honoured guests on the surface of the planet. They informed that the pills they had taken would keep them in sync with the dimensional flux of the planet. And that at any time shuttles were available to take them to the surface.

Stella and Chron stepped into the shuttle, and rode it down. It was as if they had taken the pill, but as no one but them knew, they had not. They did not need the pill, having the ability themselves to keep in sync with the flux.

Celric stood silently with the others while they waited for someone to come back and give them instructions. He applied biofoam to the deep wounds and sat down focusing on his body's regeneration.

When the Novaens returned he joined them and boarded the craft for the surface.

Everyone that was coming had boarded a the shuttle and where on the way to the planets surface. The shuttle itself once it had left the area the ORbiting Space port started to join in the dimensional flux, taking with it the people on board. There on the outside were viewports, They saw all the ships of the visitors fade in and out as if it was they who where trapped in the dimensional flux while the Novaen planet itself looked solid, though there did seem to be some almost imperceptible movement when the flucuations happened.

It wasn't too long till they landed, they meant by more councellors each one eager to meet their honoured guests, no matter the rank.

Everyone that was coming had boarded a the shuttle and where on the way to the planets surface. The shuttle itself once it had left the area the ORbiting Space port started to join in the dimensional flux, taking with it the people on board. There on the outside were viewports, They saw all the ships of the visitors fade in and out as if it was they who where trapped in the dimensional flux while the Novaen planet itself looked solid, though there did seem to be some almost imperceptible movement when the flucuations happened.

It wasn't too long till they landed, they meant by more councellors each one eager to meet their honoured guests, no matter the rank.

Stella and Chron shook hands with everyone, re-introducing themselves numerous times. They didn't mind.

Herbler bowed shaking the councillors' hands. He had his sidearm in his coat pocket, but that was to be expected, given that he was still a naval officer, and now had no escort.

It was then the guests onto the planet found out that they would be honoured guests in a special ceremony that afterwards would end in a function with them also being the guests of honour there. While the details of the ceremony where kept secret they were asked if they could dress formally. The ceremony would be at dusk which was still 4 hours away so they stil had time to go look around and then get into what dressy clothes or uniform they had.

It was then the guests onto the planet found out that they would be honoured guests in a special ceremony that afterwards would end in a function with them also being the guests of honour there. While the details of the ceremony where kept secret they were asked if they could dress formally. The ceremony would be at dusk which was still 4 hours away so they stil had time to go look around and then get into what dressy clothes or uniform they had.

Stella and Chron went outside to enjoy the environment.

When it was time for the celebration, they came back in their formal cerimonial Magi-master Robes.

They were both indescribably beautiful and ornate.

Stellae's was like looking in at the universe, from the outside, and seeing all the Galaxies contained therein, yet also, it was like looking with the most powerful of all Microscopes, at the at the Quantum level, beneath the sub-atomic level.

Chron's was like looked at every moment in time, from outside of time.
Most beings saw time as a spectator, watching events happen one after another. Chron's robes saw what it must have looked like from the perspective of the Gods. Both robes inspired deep philisophical thoughts.

Watching them move, no one would be able to prove that their feet and legs had ever actually moved.

They stood off to the side, out of the way, unsure of their role.

Celric had no dress uniform with him, he would not need one though as his armor was ornate enough. It would have to be cleaned and repaired first of course. So he headed out in search of somewhere to conduct his repairs until the ceremony would begin.

He had been missing his home something fierce by now, never had he been off world so long. He was very thankful for the chance to once again set foot on solid ground, whether it was in his dimension or not.

Bump

Captain Herbler had his parade uniform sent down, and arrived wearing a blue uniform with stylised shoulder rank pads, and a braided gold strap extending from his left shoulder to the right top button.

Most conspicuous was the absence of the interfacing eyepiece, and an artificial overpiece to obscure the sometimes disturbing cybernetic eye. Except under close examination, even the characteristic blue glow was gone.

All in all, he looked rather like a normal navy captain would, in different times. His sidearm was nowhere to be seen, though he managed to produce it from somewhere inside his coat and check it at the door all the same.

Celric easily found someone who was willing to do the work to repair his armour, however when the time came to pay for it the human and sauron actually refused any payment saying that it was necessary.

As the time for the ceremony came closer everyone was herded to position on a sort of natural dias one looking as you would from large crowd that had assembled the visitors where on the left side of this large stage like thing and the entire Novaen Council on the right.

Whatever was happening was indeed big because a large crowd had assembled, the mood was celebratory, though tinged with Sadness.

The Chief Councellors of the Novaen Council approached the centre of the stage and suddenly everything went quiet. The reasonably old life partners started to speak,

"Today has been a tremendous day for us, not only have we returned to one of our Dimensional homes but also have re-affirmed old allies, re-established ties with nations we knew of old, but also establishing ties and relations with many new nations. However there has been some less than happy times as well today an unforeseen surprise attack by the under-dwellers had not only threatened us but also our new friends. Today standing before you to my right are just some of those people that aided us in the defense against this ferocious attack, and it is them that we have assembled here to honour coming to our defense they have not only shown themselves worthy but have also brought us all closer."

An applause and noises of ascention to the words of the Chief Councellors were made by the assembled crowd as reacted to the words spoken. After the Brief pause They said. "Captain Herbler, would you please come forward."

"Captain Herbler the lead of a people that once helped us before and where the first non-Tidani to ever set foot on Novaen soil after our human anscestors colonised Nova. To you we would like to extend to you the honour of the following Title. From this day forth you shall be known as Lord Herbler Captain of the Guard."

Two young Novaens, girls came up onto the stage and presented the Chief Councellors with a medal. And they scampered off again. "Please accept this as a token of your new title." and the councellors presented the medal to the Captain, however before the captain could slink back to his previous position "We have something else, during the battle we would like to honour the loss of Reika, another New Oxfordian that lost he life defending us. To these ends we wish to posthumously award her the title Lady Protector Reika of the People. Captain would you please accept this medal on her behalf."

This time two young males came and presented the medal to the Cheif Councellors who presented the medal to the Captain.

"Thank you Captain, you may now return."

"Celric, would you please step forward."

"While not ethnically from the Tidani clans Celric has shown us the core of his heart, and like the Tidani of old he put his life in risk to ensure the safety. To you we would like to extend you the honour of the title Lord Celric True in Heart." the same two young females that presented the Captain his initial medal came and presnted a medal to the Chief Coucillers who presented it to Celric. "Please accept this medal as a token of your new title."

"Thank you, you may now return."

"Stella, would you please come forward."

"Today, Stella and Chron together faced off against the threat of the under-dwellers and stood their ground, convincing them to leave. It is by the actions that no more lives were lost today. To you we would like to extend the honour of the title. Lady Stella, Mistress of the Stars."

The young boys approached once again.

"Please accept this medal as a token of your new title."

"Thank you, may now return."

"Chron, would you please step forward."

"For the part you have played in this event we would like to honour you with the title of Lord Chron, Master of the Under-dwellers."

And it was the last time that the two young girls would present the medals which were to be presented to Chron.

"Thank you, You may now return."

Once he returned the assembled crowd roared in appreciation clapping and generally making a lot of noise. However the Chief Councillers once again got control of the situation and made one final speech. "Today will be a day that none of us will forget, and thus it should be and with the setting of the sun, we close the chapter of this day onto the next chapter of tomorrow."

And so the formal ceremony had ended but still the night had only just begun.

Stella and Chron stepped forward when asked, and accepted the medals graciously, wearing them atop their robes. They bowed politely when the audience lauched into their applause.

(OOC: It might be better to run it straight (partway) into the next scene, as currently the rest of us are sort of stuck in an RP rut - there's not a huge amount to go with here.

Perhaps try doing the conclusion of a 'scene' then immediately going into the introduction of the next, setting the scene for the characters to mill about in.)

"May she rest in peace."

As he sat down, he thought about the Sergeant. He hadn't known her well, but already she had gone down indelibly in the annals of history, as had he, and every member of his crew.

He did ponder the ramifications of this human-dinosaur symbiosis and the fact that it was a dimensional instability, but he quickly dismissed it.

Still it would be an interesting topic for the anthropologists to explore, and there was the possibility that the Saurons were, in fact, parallel doubles of the Novaens.

Herbler didn't occupy his mind with that, though. He was a naval officer, not a scientist, or a diplomat. He was not here to make deals, or analyse their culture, but to re-establish contact so those better qualified to conduct diplomacy might come afterwards.

OOC: Yeah, I probably should have done more but for some reason I have a personal aversion to long posts, but I knew that I needed to do this scene justice. And so I didn't do anymore. Anyway... Here we go I'll continue on.

IC:

After the Formal Ceremony all of them were directed off the dias, the councillers following behind. Tonight was their night and everybody knew it and so they all celebrated, no alcohol but drinks where made available which made a similiar effect in that everyone was in the party mood. Novaen Music and Dances where made. Although they weren't stylisticly foreign it was indeed interesting to see the interplay of human and sauron musicians and dancers.

However the celebration was cut short, The Chief Councillers broke up the party. "Now that you are here on the planet, and with the bestowing of titles there is one last thing for us to show you. It requires a long walk..."

Small sunstones where handed out to act as personal torches for Herbler, Celric, Stella and Chron. While indeed the other New Oxfordians that were on the planet they were forbidden. This for those with titles only, whatever it was obviously held deep significance and probably was the closest that Novaens had to sacred ground.

Celric received his medal and title with great humility and appreciation. When the party began he notified the ship in orbit that his stay on the planet might be a little longer than expected and then returned to the festivities. He mingled around and allowed himself to be wrapped up in the atmosphere, trying a few of the strange new drinks but not too many. He watched the Novaen dances for some time before feeling confident enough to give them a try with some of his friendly hosts. There was much to do and much going on, which was why it seemed so odd when the Councillor stopped it. Still he went where instructed and took the sunstone offered him, anxious to see what was so important and secretive.

OOC: Yeah, I probably should have done more but for some reason I have a personal aversion to long posts, but I knew that I needed to do this scene justice. And so I didn't do anymore. Anyway... Here we go I'll continue on.

IC:

After the Formal Ceremony all of them were directed off the dias, the councillers following behind. Tonight was their night and everybody knew it and so they all celebrated, no alcohol but drinks where made available which made a similiar effect in that everyone was in the party mood. Novaen Music and Dances where made. Although they weren't stylisticly foreign it was indeed interesting to see the interplay of human and sauron musicians and dancers.

However the celebration was cut short, The Chief Councillers broke up the party. "Now that you are here on the planet, and with the bestowing of titles there is one last thing for us to show you. It requires a long walk..."

Small sunstones where handed out to act as personal torches for Herbler, Celric, Stella and Chron. While indeed the other New Oxfordians that were on the planet they were forbidden. This for those with titles only, whatever it was obviously held deep significance and probably was the closest that Novaens had to sacred ground.

When the dances were going on, they danced with each other, and they danced a dance that was so old, as to have come from another time. Yet, Stella and Chron were not more than 25 years old, from where could they have learned such an old dance. It was remarkably diffrent from the current styles being shown, yet went with the music remarkably well.

Stella and Chron carried the sunstones, wondering what would require a long walk, and not a ride. Not that they were lazy, far from it, rather they just hadn't expected for anything to require much walking.

They looked at their sunstones and felt the innate diffrences between sunstones and Mage Crystals.

They started to head up the side of the mountain, the Sunstones shedding their light making them visible for everyone having a line of sight. As they headed up the walk was not a hard one, it went up steadily, the Chief Councillors otherwise would have not lead them up.

The mountain was covered with trees but still the sunstones shone out, up until they almost stumbled across a cave entrance, one that they could only see when they where nearly right on top of it. It was narrow and required some squuezing to get through but once on the other side it billowed out providing plenty of room. Should they follow the Chief Councellors started a blurb describing something that had happened so long ago.

"When our human ancestors first discovered the Sunstone, there was something else that had found as well, artifacts of an ancient society, our first clue was something that looked like a pillar embedded in the stone in a cave much like this. It depicted a fight between two sides at which where described as 'Creatures that seemed like Dinosaurs being attacked by other winged Dinosaurs.' Yes, There was a long time ago in their dimension a civilisation of Saurons, however for these ones the Under-dwellers killed them off and then turned on themselves wiping themselves out. We are going down in this cave to show you for yourselves the full history of this dual-dimension planet. You will be the first non-Novaens to ever see this. Though we still have some way to go."

They spoke as they continued on walking down the tunnel, going deeper and deeper inside the planet, their visitors would have plenty of time to ask questions.

Herbler said nothing and continued following the group, simply taking in the sights and absorbing the history of the place.

Like Herbler, Stella and Chron said nothing and followed along, though privatly, they wondered if they were going all the way to the center of the earth.

OOC: Assuming Celric has nothing to add as well I'll continue this along

IC:

As they headed deeper into the cave they started to notice drawings, on one side of the cave where stories regarding to basic human figures. The stories were fairly basic and basically contained pictures of what they did each and everyday. It was much like the rock paintings that many ancient human civilisations had. On the other side where stories of Saurons.

"This cave system existed on both pre-merge Nova's on one side of the cave an ancient human civilisation known to our Sauron ancestors only as the Ancients kept records in drawn form while on the other side an ancient Sauron civilisation very little was known about them. Despite the fact that from pictographs like this that it seems the under-dwellers killed them off. Though these aren't the ones I want to show you."

Apparently there was a particular pictograph that they wanted to show.

OOC: Assuming Celric has nothing to add as well I'll continue this along

IC:

As they headed deeper into the cave they started to notice drawings, on one side of the cave where stories regarding to basic human figures. The stories were fairly basic and basically contained pictures of what they did each and everyday. It was much like the rock paintings that many ancient human civilisations had. On the other side where stories of Saurons.

"This cave system existed on both pre-merge Nova's on one side of the cave an ancient human civilisation known to our Sauron ancestors only as the Ancients kept records in drawn form while on the other side an ancient Sauron civilisation very little was known about them. Despite the fact that from pictographs like this that it seems the under-dwellers killed them off. Though these aren't the ones I want to show you."

Apparently there was a particular pictograph that they wanted to show.

Stella and Chron wondered just what pictograph they intended on showing them.

(havn't been on lately. Still reading along though.)

Celric followed along and wondered just how much how much was known about this mysterious civilization.
"Have you learned anything about them since your dimensional encounter?"

(havn't been on lately. Still reading along though.)

Celric followed along and wondered just how much how much was known about this mysterious civilization.
"Have you learned anything about them since your dimensional encounter?"

"We only know about each of these ancient civilisations from pictographs like these, we have yet to find any major settlement archeologically and we fear that the Dimensional merging might have damaged the settlements though there still is some hope in finding something."

About 5 minutes later... the Chief Councillor stopped, they had apparentlyy arrived but he had steped to the side, blocking something from view before speaking.

"Something that not many even Novaens know is that the Ancients dabbled in some sort of prophetic. The details and how they did it have been lost probably destroyed to prevent the Under-dwellers getting their hands on it but we hae here recorded some of their prophesies they don'y make any sense but about half an hour into the festivities this one finally made sense."

And then he moved to the side revealing a particular pictograph. It was a depiction of a floating building that seemed to have a a shadow. Inside it where obviously Stella and Chron in their deckchairs (them to having shadows but something else was odd about the shadows of them. There was a human, possibly looks like a man looking over the dead body of a female (she was in a dress, but did have weapons) and a man on his own, obviously Celric using a sword to kill the last of the under-dwellers (which was acturately represented). The images did not have a context apart from the settings they were placed in and it was only looking back over the events of the past day was it able to be seen that this indeed happened.

All of them where indellibly in history before they were even born.

Herbler sighed.

"Prophecy. It's a fate I wouldn't wish upon anybody."

He recognised one of his crew members in the pictograph, and shook his head.

"I think it was for the better that the powers of prophecy were lost. If nothing else, I recommend these pictographs be sealed away forever, lest somebody attempt to take fate into their own hands and bring about their own demise."

Shaking his head, he took care not to look at any pictographs depicting the future.

"Prescience only seals one's own fate. It is better to live without it and be free than to know it and by your actions ensure your own destruction."

"Why are our shadows so funny?" Stella asked.
"Its probably because of our abilities." Chron said.
"That is true, I mean, we are in dimensional synch with the planet, even though we didn't take the pills." Stella said.
"It is the most likely explaination." Chron said.

Celric noted Herbler's statement. "On the other hand, if someone went to the trouble of writing these all out there must have been some purpose. Who's to say the purpose wasn't to stop some fate far darker than that of dabbling in the business of the heavenlies." He stared intently at the picture of himself that had happened barely a day ago. "If we are being warned, should we discard the tremendous effort it took to do so? There is always risk in warnings."

"Ever since we had discovered these prophetic pictographs, we have been unsure exactly the best way to handle them, but it was agreed early on that the general populace must remain blissfully unaware, and that is why all the secrecy.

"You are probably wondering why show us then? The answer is simple we determined that you should have a right to see this, also considering that this is the last prophetic pictograph and it has now been fulfilled that there is nothing to be gained from keeping these secret." The Chief Councillors said soothing fears of the New Oxfordian.

However that was not the last pictograph, there was another one next to it, which was only stuck out because of the play of shadows highlighted. From where they are they could only see what looked like to be a mass of Novaens, human and Sauron combined.

"It is a shame. The prophets may have already locked us into a predetermined course, and their folly may yet be persistent. It is a shameful mistake to do such a thing to people millenia later, but it has been done, as evidenced by the picrographs. Our archives have a case where an entire race has exterminated itself through foolishness with prescience. Their legacy is known to every officer - that which has already been foretold is inevitable. Oh, how they tried to avert the course, and finally hid away their legacy, before they finally lost against the inevitable."

He shook his head sadly.

"They were one of the lucky ones. I don't know about you, but I think it can be agreed that prescience is a tremendously dangerous legacy, and sending warnings forward only allow us to prepare for the aftermath."

Herbler finished speaking, and after a few more seconds a thought suddenly occurred to him.

"Say, Chron, your name suggests time manipulation... This wouldn't happen to be your work, would it?"

"It is a shame. The prophets may have already locked us into a predetermined course, and their folly may yet be persistent. It is a shameful mistake to do such a thing to people millenia later, but it has been done, as evidenced by the picrographs. Our archives have a case where an entire race has exterminated itself through foolishness with prescience. Their legacy is known to every officer - that which has already been foretold is inevitable. Oh, how they tried to avert the course, and finally hid away their legacy, before they finally lost against the inevitable."

He shook his head sadly.

"They were one of the lucky ones. I don't know about you, but I think it can be agreed that prescience is a tremendously dangerous legacy, and sending warnings forward only allow us to prepare for the aftermath."

Herbler finished speaking, and after a few more seconds a thought suddenly occurred to him.

"Say, Chron, your name suggests time manipulation... This wouldn't happen to be your work, would it?"

"While yes I can manipulate time as expertly as Mozart wrote his music, I did not go back in time to warn of what had just happened. I gave up on prophocy after Ludwig Von Beethoven refused to believe he was going Deaf. Oh, his symphonies were marvelous to listen to in person the first time they were played."

bump

(OOC: Was waiting for your next post... I'll post again then.)

Herbler looked across the pictographs, down one way and then the other. He jumped as he realised there were more.

"You're hiding something, Councillor. If we don't know what's going to happen, we can't organise to have the results end as amicably as possible."

The Chief Councillors looked like theu had expected this...

"We're not hiding something it's just not relevant. When I said this was the last prophetic pictograph we have I was telling the ytuth but it wasn't the last pictograph. Sometimes they are prophetic and sometimes they are just art. This is a case of the latter."

Getting closer you could see the topic of the art, In the dead center of the image there was two Saurons with swords attacking each other, a human nearby with a sword raised to attack the other human. The image was in perfect symettry from where the two swords met, the faces where in distinguishable from one another as they couldn't get a clear image of them. Indeed if the pictograph was prophetic it seem to tell of a massive civil war that would put tear the society into two. Not one split down human sauron lines but down another.

"We as a people are close and the concept of civil war when we all strive for unity and understanding is as about as laughable as one can get. This is just a piece of art." finished the Chief Councillors trying to convince those that looked on that this indeed had no basis in any reality.

The Chief Councillors looked like theu had expected this...

"We're not hiding something it's just not relevant. When I said this was the last prophetic pictograph we have I was telling the ytuth but it wasn't the last pictograph. Sometimes they are prophetic and sometimes they are just art. This is a case of the latter."

Getting closer you could see the topic of the art, In the dead center of the image there was two Saurons with swords attacking each other, a human nearby with a sword raised to attack the other human. The image was in perfect symettry from where the two swords met, the faces where in distinguishable from one another as they couldn't get a clear image of them. Indeed if the pictograph was prophetic it seem to tell of a massive civil war that would put tear the society into two. Not one split down human sauron lines but down another.

"We as a people are close and the concept of civil war when we all strive for unity and understanding is as about as laughable as one can get. This is just a piece of art." finished the Chief Councillors trying to convince those that looked on that this indeed had no basis in any reality.

"Even art can be prophetic. We have something similar." Chron said.

He took out of his robes, a painting by Sephrena, the life goddess. All her paintings came true, no matter what they depicted.

This painting showed Ri-an, the peaceful serene nature world, and another Ri-an, one burning with fire and hatred, armed and ready for war.

Where they intersected, it showed Lady Ri-an, on one side, the peaceful loving Worldspirit, and on the other, a terrible Warspirit out to conquer all. It didn't show two lady Ri-ans, rather it showed both merging as one. It had not as of yet, come true.

"Let us assume that painting on the wall is a prophecy, similar to this one. Take all previous prophecy's into account. Can you Guess how something like this could actually happen?" Chron said.

"Even art can be prophetic. We have something similar." Chron said.

He took out of his robes, a painting by Sephrena, the life goddess. All her paintings came true, no matter what they depicted.

This painting showed Ri-an, the peaceful serene nature world, and another Ri-an, one burning with fire and hatred, armed and ready for war.

Where they intersected, it showed Lady Ri-an, on one side, the peaceful loving Worldspirit, and on the other, a terrible Warspirit out to conquer all. It didn't show two lady Ri-ans, rather it showed both merging as one. It had not as of yet, come true.

"Let us assume that painting on the wall is a prophecy, similar to this one. Take all previous prophecy's into account. Can you Guess how something like this could actually happen?" Chron said.

"We have no idea, even taking into account what wfe know about the other prophecies... a civil war would require some major about turn on alot of things we hold dear. Of course there is no guarantee that it isn't prophetic but, if it is... it's not predicting a civil war." the Chief Councellor seemed to be determined in his statement about their not being a civil war despite the potentially prophetic statement in the piece of art. What else could it mean?

"All things pass, councillor. Who is to say what the opinions of a generation are? Your plans must account for a civil war, Councillor. If this is truly a prophecy, then any preparations must be made with its inevitability in mind."

"We have no idea, even taking into account what wfe know about the other prophecies... a civil war would require some major about turn on alot of things we hold dear. Of course there is no guarantee that it isn't prophetic but, if it is... it's not predicting a civil war." the Chief Councellor seemed to be determined in his statement about their not being a civil war despite the potentially prophetic statement in the piece of art. What else could it mean?

"If it was a prophecy, and it was not civil war, then there is only one other, very frightening possibility I really don't want to mention, but I must, because it could effect any one of us, and probably explains this picture.: Chron said. He banished it back to Ri-an.

"You know of the Multi-verse, with all its Dimensions, planes, realities, and everything else that comprises it. That is one side of the Coin. There is another side. To us, it is The Mirror, to them, WE are the Mirror. Everything is the same, yet diffrent. They know about us, just as you now know about them. There is a natural desire for one side to destroy the other. They are our mirror reflections, everything we are not, like some sick twisted Parody. That is how must view them, and that is certainly how they view us. I know, because I have faced and merged with my Mirror Sister, alletS.
If it is not prophecising a Civil War, then it fortells of an invasion, From The Mirror Universe." Stella said.

"While We're still not convinced that is prophetic, it would be foolish of us not to be prepared for either eventually, but first let me ask you something... how can you target a threat from within without setting a pair against their neighbours?"

The Chief Councillors seemed to take this to heart, recognising the need for preparing for such horrible things.

"This is all that is here to see, you are welcome to continue looking but there is nothing more to see. There are small lights that have been placed on our descent... follow them back up to the surface. For now... We leave. Farewell friends of the Novaen people... if indeed this is prophetic we may have need of your help sometime in the future..."

They trailed off both seemingly disturbed by thoughts that seemingly crossed their minds at the same time, they started go back to the surface. "Oh, and one more thing We'd appreciate you're discression on what you have seen here tonight. These where for your eyes only." and with that the echo footsteps of the Cheif councillors left though some Novaens did stay behind with their visitors.

"While We're still not convinced that is prophetic, it would be foolish of us not to be prepared for either eventually, but first let me ask you something... how can you target a threat from within without setting a pair against their neighbours?"

The Chief Councillors seemed to take this to heart, recognising the need for preparing for such horrible things.

"This is all that is here to see, you are welcome to continue looking but there is nothing more to see. There are small lights that have been placed on our descent... follow them back up to the surface. For now... We leave. Farewell friends of the Novaen people... if indeed this is prophetic we may have need of your help sometime in the future..."

They trailed off both seemingly disturbed by thoughts that seemingly crossed their minds at the same time, they started go back to the surface. "Oh, and one more thing We'd appreciate you're discression on what you have seen here tonight. These where for your eyes only." and with that the echo footsteps of the Cheif councillors left though some Novaens did stay behind with their visitors.

Stella and Chron quietly went back up to the surface. They weren't sure if indeed everything was over and it was time to go, or if there was still something left to do.

A page had been turned and with it the close of a chapter, but who could say for certain that is story is ever finished for around the corner is always another adventure lurking...

OOC: Hak... and any others involved here aka Tidan. You may soon be called upon to defend against a mirror invasion... Link (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=524377)

Celric listened in wonder as the others tried to interpret the pictures. There were some in his order who were capable of seeing the future in visions and in the world around them, so he took this seriously, but he was not experienced enough in such things to know what these mean.

Before his hosts left he thanked them for the day he had spent with them and for their hospitality. He said good buy to the others who were with him and wish them all luck before heading to the surface.

"Sunfist calling Gallant."

Static broke and his call was answered. "This is Admiral Starfall. Go ahead Celric."

"Things have concluded here on the surface. I am ready to come aboard."

"Good to hear. Stand by for teleport. We will be heading straight back to Tidani space at all speed. Something has happened. Kharik is in a state of emergency and they wont tell me what is going on."

"Understood." Celric closed his eyes as the warm light surrounded him. A slight tingling at the extremities was the only sign that the beam was beginning to disassemble his molecules. A small implanted chip recorded his last brainwave patterns before he ceased to exist for a moment to be reconstructed and reanimated high in orbit. What could be happening back home that a member of the Admiralty is kept in the dark?

(ooc: gotcha looking forward to it.)