NationStates Jolt Archive

The star system in question was inhabited. It was at the very edge of charted space, and those that had settled it -- while not many in number, perhaps only twenty or thirty million -- had evidently been working to set up a research facility. It had one habitable planet; on the planet's surface (it was only in the opening stages of terraformation) were a pair of cities, both encased in domes to keep the oxygen in and the largely nitrous and carbon-dioxide based atmosphere out.

Strange and unknown life gamboled around its vermillion fields; fishlike creatures "swam" through the air, and beings with six trunklike appendages slithered across the ground, sucking in nutrients and occasionally pausing to let a tongue taste the air. The scientists were undoubtedly fascinated, and recording everything they saw. Perhaps it was sent back immediately to their home system, or perhaps it was stored in the facility's computers; either way, it was information, and vital information.

It was merely a research facility in the long run; unarmed except for hand weapons and a pair of outdated frigates that sat lonely and empty in space, orbiting the planet like twin moons. Nonetheless, its eventual plans were to draw up a starchart of this sector of the galaxy; both the system in which it resided, and any nearby systems as well. Habitable systems and planets would be especially searched for; even potentially habitable planets, those which would require more extensive terraforming. Science would always prevail, after all.

But some would say that there are things stronger than science.

It was another ordinary day; the planet had completed about two-thirds of its eleven hour rotation, and on the surface the researchers were monitoring the progress of a drone immersed within one of the large subterranean solid water deposits. The surface of the planet was permanently below 260 K, so what water did exist was invariably in solid form; nonetheless, it did appear to be the home to several varieties of creatures. In orbit, the planet's communications relay was quiet; it hadn't been used in almost a day due to the lack of anything more to report.

Suddenly it crackled to life as it registered something. The people watching Comms had fifteen seconds to comprehend what it was before the relay was destroyed. A moment later the two frigates were burning hulks of scrap metal, and then the instruments in the domes might register a barrage of six hundred large objects sprinkling like rain from the heavens at alarming rates. Within seconds those instruments had fallen silent for the last time.

Those magnificent domes, now resembling Swiss cheese, began to deflate; areas in which pressure had been lost were locked down to conserve the precious oxygen, but it was too late. The life-support systems had been targeted as well, and replaced with a raging inferno; the combustion only fed faster on the little oxygen that was left, and the few men and women surviving died significantly more unpleasant deaths than had their comrades who had died instantaneously.

The cause of this sudden destruction, while still invisible to those on the ground, was the abrupt appearance of no fewer than sixteen capital warships in the system, and their equally abrupt disappearance within sixty seconds. They had apparently jumped in from hyperspace with all weapons readied; rather than attempting to find out who (if anyone) lived on the planet, they had simply attacked it, with neither apparent cause nor apparent provocation. They were medium-to-large vessels, some of them over a kilometre in length; and all were fashioned of a darkish material, although that was all that the sensors would have had time to extrapolate, and they had been destroyed at any rate.

The six hundred missiles, or mass drivers, or whatever weapon they were, had not been the only attack the ships had launched. Twenty seconds after the weapons had hit, another eleven projectiles had been launched. One of them, perhaps a probe, drifted out almost lazily into orbit and began to record information; the other ten fell straight down to the planet's surface and split open. Within thirty-three hours, all life on the planet would be extinguished; the probe was only there to make certain of it, and would self-destruct if swept by enemy sensors or electronics.

Naturally, the representatives of the Government that had set up the research station would eventually notice that it had stopped reporting in; or perhaps even sooner they would pick up the very beginning of a distress signal that someone had managed to send out in the chaotic final minute of the research station; or perhaps, even with all electronics destroyed, they would manage (by some means) to recover portions of the data the sensors had continued to collect even with their destruction bearing down fast on them. And almost certainly would they investigate.

There were three star systems close enough to the research station to have mounted such a quick assault, as investigation might reveal; this was still largely uncharted, and none of the systems were known to be habitable. Seven point eight light-years away was a star almost universally known as 7383 AR-4; eleven light-years away, 347 ZH-13; fourteen and a half, 8066 QI-37. AR-4 had five planets, ZH-13 seven, QI-37 four; that was all that even the most advanced long-range sensors could tell at this distance. As AR-4 was closest, one might be able to pick out two terrestrial planets and three gas giants that orbited it, along with moons; but that was iffy.

Just as mysterious as where the assault had originated was its cause. The facility attacked had been unarmed and had made no belligerent moves. It had not even surveyed beyond its own system; and the life that had resided on the planet in question had not been advanced enough to build spaceships to strike back at the scientists studying it. Besides, all life on the planet's surface had been exterminated by the alien bioweapon. There had certainly been no attempt at negotiation or declaration of intent; it had been the perfect ambush upon an unsuspecting -- even civilian -- world. Was it simply mindless killing for its own sake?

What it was, in fact, should be quite obvious to anyone of a similar mindset (there were likely a few such individuals, even races, in the universe). But we leave that behind; all we have are thirty million dead, and a star system that now will never support life.

OOC: You are the person who owns the research facility and planet, or a passerby (remember that this is a lonely and uncharted corner of the universe, I don't want 20 different Galactic Imperiums and Star Sovereignties jumping in). I am the person with the planet destroying warships. Your aim is to collect at least two thirds of all the rings in this level. Go.

"Admiral, we've received a partial distress call with a partial combat indication code from outpost colony "Shackleton" on the far edge of the galaxy," an Admiral's aide reported.

"'Shackleton'?" The Admiral asked. "I'm not familiar with it."

"A group of scientists and pioneers decided to head out for that planet on their own in an attempt to better understand how to colonize cold worlds," The Aide continued. "We were going to use the research to make Baltic Major more habitable after they figured out a way to warm the planet up."

"How many people were on 'Shackleton'?"

"Twenty-five thousand, two-hundred sixty-two civilians and five hundred planetary physicists."

"Dispatch a Suiseiseki light cruiser, four Trondheim destroyers and three Kusanagi frigates from Second Fleet immediately. Put the rest of Second Fleet on standby, and make sure the detachment is armed for the possibility of combat."

"Aye sir."

OOC: Just figured I'd post the acknowledgment so you could figure out immediately whom you are dealing with.

The New Havenite ships would find nothing new to us, but certainly information that would surprise them: the system dead, its domes shattered and deflated by the missiles; no life signs on the planet itself; the embers of massive fires still smoldering under the piles of wreckage; the probe, in orbit, self-destructing in a nuclear fireball the instant sensors pick it up, reduced to pulverised dust from which no information could be drawn. On the ground it was the same; the missile shells had combusted, with any identifying marks that may have been on them burned away. The canisters that had toxified the planet's surface bore no markings at all; there was no registration, nothing to indicate who had made them.

They would be left with the three systems in the immediate vicinity (as already described), the logical choice to investigate. Or so it might seem.

"Command, this is 'Shackleton' detachment," Captain Randal West radioed over FTL communications. "We are detecting no radio communications, power signatures or signs of life. Our recovery crews have found nothing but rubble, on the ground and in orbit. The orbital debris mainly consists of old Serpent-class frigates the Bryn Shanderese built ages ago, probably bought second-hand by the colonists to shore up their defenses. Too bad they got caught with their pants down."

"Any idea who did it?"

"Negative, not yet command," West radioed. "We're sifting through the ground debris for data crystals, seeing as the orbital debris is practically dust. One thing of note was that there was a probe in orbit that self-destructed as we came in... at least thats what we assume because our initial scans triggered some kind of self-destruct."

"Any chance of getting a positive lock with tachyonic pressure sensors?"

"Probably not, we would've scrambled the residual pressure fronts when we jumped in," West replied. "The star charts indicate several places to focus our search at... the closest being the most promising, seeing as we're already reading Doppler wobbles indicative of terrestrial and gas giant planets. However sir, I want to report something very important."

"Whats that?"

"The enemy used some kind of biological weapon to eradicate all life on the planet... all of it. We have some samples of it now and we're containing it aboard one of our frigates for now, but we'd like a Galileo to come and conduct further analysis."

"Very well. We're having the Achilles-class heavy cruiser Canis Major and the rest of the group's light cruisers, destroyers and frigates in to assist due to the potential threat this new enemy posses. Furthermore, we're putting the rest of 2nd Fleet on immediate deployment standby. If we lose communications or if you request it, we will send them to your aid."

"Even the battleships?"

"Especially the battleships! Imperial Fleet Command out!"

West put the receiver back into his command chair and looked at the Chief Navigation Officer. "Plot a hyperspace course to 7383 AR-4 and jump as soon as you're ready."

"Recovery crews in the hangar bay indicate they have discovered several intact data crystals bearing time-stamps for the attack! We will have the data by the time we arrive in 7383 AR-4," the Junior Science Officer, standing in for the Senior Science Officer, reported from the sensors room.

"Very well!" West called back to the junior science officer before picking the receiver on the command chair back up. "All hands, stand to battle stations! Raise shields and prepare for immediate combat!"

The light cruiser group entered hyperspace above the planet, leaving the dead 'Shackleton' colony behind.

7383 AR-4 was a lonely system. As its dim sun came into view, the busy scanners of the New Havenite ships would undoubtedly search for life. And life they would not find; as they reverted to realspace it would become more obvious that the two terrestrial planets that orbited it were incapable of supporting life as we know it. Significant, now, was a ruined hulk of what had once been a starship, lazily orbiting the smaller of the two terrestrial planets (designated on star charts as AR-4-1929); the planet seemed to have a surface temperature of six hundred and fourteen Kelvin, almost the exact opposite of the planet Shackleton had settled.

The ex-starship seemed to be some kind of light cruiser; what was left of it looked to be about two hundred metres long, with the remains orbiting it in a ring of spacedust composed of iridium, bronze, vanadium, depleted uranium, and some elements and substances totally unknown in the natural periodic table. There is very little iron, copper, magnesium, carbon, or any of the other more commonly seen elements; this itself is a clue. Evidently the planet where the enemy originated is rich in heavy metals. Inside the ship, the dead slumber in peace, their skeletons shattered and sprinkled across the floor by the uncertain solar winds that occasionally buffet the world. It might be two hundred years old and looks rather primitive, but the few surviving weapons ports betray that even then their weapons were advanced.

By now, however, the New Havenites are undoubtedly more interested in scanning the two other nearby stars, ZH-13 and QI-37. At this distance, while the FTLi cannot be detected yet (nor the weapons satellites or warships), one can make out faint hints of a developed culture. ZH-13 consists of eight planets, three rocky, four gas giants, one icy. The second of the rocky planets is at the right distance from its sun that water on its surface can remain liquid, although the mean temperature is twelve degrees Kelvin higher than on Earth; and originating from its moon, even at this distance, one might pick up very faint, old-fashioned radio transmissions.

ZH-13, they must be resolved by now, is decidedly it. Of course, it would be foolish not to scan QI-37 as well, and a basic scan thereof would reveal a system more similar to AR-4, two terrestrial and five gas giants, but on the surface it looks less promising. ZH-13, therefore, it is; and one might imagine the New Havenite ships hyperspacing in with weapons armed and powered up, shields at full. Once within ten light-minutes of the system, however, they are abruptly yanked into realspace by the FTLi and granted five seconds of attempting to identify the scene before them before the natives paint them as hostile and respond accordingly.

What looks like a massive floating platform, covered with weapons, appears to be firing on them. A little under a third of the attacks are mounted by beams of directed energy; the rest appear to be some kind of missile, designed in such a way that if hit by point defence weapons the projectile explodes, sending tiny pieces of shrapnel in all directions to hit the shields and anything else nearby at near-light speeds. Not particularly effective now with shields at full power, of course; but once the shields were depleted from the bolts of energy and missiles that rained towards them, the shrapnel could do quite some damage. In addition, some kind of disruption originating from another type of energy weapon overloads the ships' long-range communications and sensors, preventing them from receiving or transmitting information.

As the platform comes into clearer view -- itself nearly six kilometers in length -- the planet behind it is darkened by the outlines of more ships, and the attack quadruples in strength. All attempts to make contact with the unknown enemies are rejected or ignored; the ships themselves appear to have some kind of shields, although using an unknown frequency, an unknown source of energy. (The ships have no visible engines, the trails of heat that exist emerging only faintly from the back.) As long as sensors are not occupied with tracking the enormous number of weapons and enemy ships, they may record a few details about the attackers -- approximate size, weapons strength, materials -- and cursory information about the planetary system in which the New Havenites have so unfortunately found themselves.

Once the New Havenite ships began to take heavy losses, a transmission was received on the short-range comms; audiovisual. The visual: the strangely built, totally alien face of one of the attackers -- a face incapable of comparison to any existing creature, as it appears to have evolved on an entirely different set of organic compounds -- evidently a captain; the audio: a strangely musical series of calls, yips, throaty growls, long whoops, and scratches that sounds like few languages devised and has no syntactical equivalent in Standard. Or at least it might seem. Given enough time, the computers could conceivably decipher the message; the translator produces garbled nonsense; but with the circumstances, it can well be interpreted as a request for acknowledgment of surrender.

On the other hand, if they choose to retreat now by heading past the FTLi barrier at sublight speeds and then hyperspacing back to friendly territory, they will not receive this message; but they will almost certainly be destroyed before they can breach the barrier, unless they begin to do so with shields at more than two-thirds strength. Anything else would be hard-pressed to hold.

OOC: Just for clarification, are you stating what might happen if I take that course of action or what?

OOC: Just for clarification, are you stating what might happen if I take that course of action or what?

OOC: Yes. I'm assuming that a) you actually travel to AR-4, which you may decide not to in mid-hyperspace; b) your sensors can then detect the life signs on ZH-13; c) you decide to investigate ZH-13 on your own rather than calling for backup. I'm not sure what New Havenite policy in such situations is, but you can do pretty much whatever you want.

Almost a hundred light-years behind the Havenic force, a pair of drastically different intelligences kept watch.

One of them was a swarm of collectively intelligent sensor drones, each one individually stealthed and cloaked to make its small shape nearly undetectable. At the center of the swarm, folded in many-layered fields of confusion and distortion, the smooth two-pronged form of an Augmented RAC lay hidden.

The two of them shared a mission - to keep a watchful eye on the buisness and whereabouts of the Havenic navy. And for the first time in quite a while, their job was about to get interesting.


AugShip Questionable Intent> I would say that this is probably the most boring job I have been assigned to.
AugShip Untouchable> Bah, you're just angry because I keep winning.
AugShip Questionable Intent> Rubbish. It's because this job is boring. Besides, I wouldn't lose so often if you'd choose games with a proper parallel-processing interface.
AugShip Untouchable> Oho.
AugShip Questionable Intent> What?
AugShip Untouchable> Our friends have found something.

blink

The pair makes a calculated and near-undetectable jump, another twenty light-years closer.


AugShip Questionable Intent> Well whaddya know. Seems like our friends have found themselves a new enemy.
AugShip Untouchable> Like they didn't have enough already? Let's take a closer look at this.

blink

Range to target: forty light-years.

AugShip Questionable Intent>They're calling in support. Looks like something drastic happened down on the planet. I don't see any life there, and it's on file as having some.
AugShip Untouchable> Damn, I wish I had your sensors.
AugShip Questionable Intent> You just shut up and concentrate on keeping your signature radius down.
AugShip Untouchable> Aye-aye, Supreme Overload.
AugShip Questionable Intent> Ah, shaddup. I've got a lock on some of the nearby stars. Quite heavy defense build-up around one of them. Looks like our friends are in for a suprise if they go that way.
AugShip Untouchable> Oh shit.
AugShip Questionable Intent> C'mon, you don't honestly care about what happens to them, do they?
AugShip Untouchable> No, I just got pinged. They've seen us.
AugShip Questionable Intent> Aw, damnit. They must have been working on their sensors. I'll pull us back out to one hundred LY. With any luck we'll just look like a glitch.
AugShip Untouchable> I'll get us some backup just in case. Six BC should be enough.
AugShip Questionable Intent> Get them to hold at two hundred LY. Those things are a bugger to cloak and I don't trust them to keep their sig rads and mass shadows down low enough.
AugShip Untouchable> Right-O.

blink

*** Mode Change "+v Sheikh_Navarrone" for channel #Department of National Defense by Mudkips

*** Mode for channel #Department of National Defense is "+stnr"

*** Channel #Department of National Defense was created at Thur 29 08:45:12 2885

<Mudkips> I wonder what people were doing hundreds of years ago.
<Rashid_Taha> Take a look at Mars...then educate them beyond the fourth grade and you will have what you're looking for.
<urboss> hay u thnk tehy use to tlk on irc bk then
<Mudkips> Of course they didn't!
<Gorgon> You guys are assholes.
<Sheikh_Navarrone> Why the hell is my multi-trillion dollar warship on IRC?

Gorgon has left channel #Department of National Defense (Oh shi-)

<Sheikh_Navarrone> So, I'm looking over the logs and I've found out that you guys have done nothing productive at all on this channel. You guys are politicians and god damned military men...why in the name of fuck are you wasting your time on IRC making fun of world events instead of working?
<urboss> lol
<Mudkips> It's the internet, sir. Serious business.
<Rashid_Taha> Series of tubes, sir.
<Sheikh_Navarrone> What?
<Sheikh_Navarrone> You guys are so getting deployed to Elysium.
<urboss> :0

OOC:

Why in god's name do I see so many threads where National Leaders, Politicians and Generals are chatting away on IRC? Why are Warships chatting on IRC like 15 year old girls?! Plot hook's over, everyone go home.

Consider this a sophisticated Tag.

OOC: Well, Auman, maybe its because...*GASP* its how their nations are played! Wow, imagine that.

Its the way they played their nations, shut up and leave them alone. You play yours one way, Khrrck another. So, unless you can get used to the idea that people have these things called opinions, I would advise shutting up, crawling back into the hole you came from and stop insulting the people here.

Oh and the only one that can "order" people to leave is the OP. And unless I am seeing things, that ain't you

Seriously, if you don't like it, DON'T POST. Wow, another new idea! I hope you are taking notes, you might actually learn something.

If you want this gone Tenuria, I'll gladly delete it.

[OOC: My warships don't talk via IRC. But I find it convenient to translate their communications into that style.

Mmk?]

Auman, probably because that (to us) is the best-known method of non-face-to-face group-to-group community. I'm guessing that in three thousand years, IRC will seem like Mesopotamian clay tablets. Not least for its security holes; one could expect conversations like this on an almost daily basis:

President_Jones (~President_Jones@127.0.0.1) has joined private channel #Top_Secret_Military_Planning.
Mode +o President_Jones by ChanServ

<@President_Jones> so every1 lets plan the invasion
<+Minister_of_Defence> yes sir
<+Minister_of_Defence> i propose we launch a pre-emptive strike against the aumanii. theyll never see it coming b/c were otherwise so peacefull lol.
<@President_Jones> thats a good idea. we should launch 372777 crusiers, 58348590 OMG UBARWANK battleships, 489484 battle planetoids armed with our SEKRIT WEAPON, and maybe sum escorts 2.
<+General_Williams> Sekrit weapon?
<@President_Jones> ya u kno, the nova bombs.
<+General_Williams> oic, sorry
<+General_Smith> when should we deploy?
<+Minister_of_Defence> 3 hours
<+General_Smith> k..... but there's 1 thing u forgot...

*** General_Smith is now known as ENEMY_SPAI.

<+ENEMY_SPAI> HAHAHAHAHA IT WAS ME ALL ALONNNGGG!!!1
<+Minister_of_Defence> oshi-
<+Minister_of_Defence> i just remembered General Smith was on vacation >.<
<+ENEMY_SPAI> I SHALL BRING THIS INFORMATION TO UR ENEMIES LOLOLO
<@President_Jones> haxxing into private channels? u will get thrown in jale 4 this!!!1!!1
<+ENEMY_SPAI> XD
<+ENEMY_SPAI> I'M ON A PROXY
<+ENEMY_SPAI> YOU'LL NEVER CATCH MEEEE!!!

*** ENEMY_SPAI has quit irc.esper.net (Quit: IM IN UR BASE KILLIN UR DOODZ)

<@President_Jones> aw bugger....

which obviously won't happen on whatever post-telepathical system we have in 5270, or at least not so easily.

Anyway, how about let's stick to IC posts from now on.

OOC: IMHO, it doesn't seem likely that I would have gone in as haphazardly as you have suggested... especially the entire fleet. What kind of nutjob would fly his entire group into an ambush like that anyway (thats what we have probes for).

Seriously anyway...

OOC: Yes. I'm assuming that a) you actually travel to AR-4, which you may decide not to in mid-hyperspace; b) your sensors can then detect the life signs on ZH-13; c) you decide to investigate ZH-13 on your own rather than calling for backup. I'm not sure what New Havenite policy in such situations is, but you can do pretty much whatever you want.

Mmk?

Do whatever you normally do in such situations. I simply indicate what would happen if you did send in your whole fleet upon finding out that your probes weren't coming or reporting back. (As that's what would happen; the probes would arrive in the system and immediately be hit by a wide variety of weapons, due to Shadowlanders' extreme paranoia in the wake of the weapons test described above. The interdiction field would prevent any transmissions beyond visual range from reaching your fleet; and if your fleet is within visual range, it's going to get attacked too.)

I simply imagine that at a certain point, you will actually send warships into ZH-13 -- I'm not sure how many of them, or how well they'll be armed, but I am sure what kind of response they'll get: as described. Consider the field a kind of one-way mirror: your sensors can't scan beyond it because they're not adapted to scan through it, whereas Shadowlanders have grown up with that field and can see through it, so we can see you coming before you can see us seeing you coming.

As for sitting outside the field and attempting to recalibrate your sensors to be able to scan through it, that would likely take long enough that we could attack you before you succeeded in performing said recalibration. (You say wank? I'll take two, please.)

The task force emerged from hyperspace at the edge of the star system. "Group Captain, we're detecting a major anomoly ahead that is interfering with our sensors," The Senior Sensors Officer reported. "It appears to be a naturally-occurring feature in this region that is not allowing us to scan anywhere past its surface area."

"Thats unusual," Group Captain Titus Williams of the Heavy Cruiser Canis Major noted. "Any way to penetrate the barrier with a probe?"

"We could penetrate the barrier with a probe, or a starship for that matter, but it appears we won't be able to send or receive transmissions from outside of the barrier," the Science Officer on watch noted. "I recommend extreme caution."

"I'm inclined to agree," Williams noted before signaling for the Senior Communications Officer. When the SCO approached, Williams handed him a hand-written dispatch. "Transmit this to Imperial Fleet Command and mark it PRIORITY... and make sure its coded!"

"Yes sir!"

The Canis Major transmitted a message via Particle Entanglement Real-Time Transmission:


VJQMS OSBBN NPCCL PCKWQ BFWMMS ODTQK QIFBB IZEUP BRPWK YBVUS BKDM KIYRB PHFBU BFKZC TLDUQ TVAET HDXZR OXSHL OTDSN ATKNG LEDQG TLVZZ YFVDB CZIJQ FRVSS HKCBP JULUC UFGTV UFDVQ IYOQF FDDZF KZZHZ MVQTM DPEBW CYNZK YUXZD EGEOQ PDSWBDAX FBQGB PGXIM PWVRW NQRHQ NSRXL QDXOM IYYRK EPVKK MVRKK NHCPM SHVZZ UBIWL KUNUW GKENT SLPKZ YZYRN KHHYW IZCPE VZWWY ZPOMJ MRRBY OBWLT BRMWP JJRVK OKDTX SBNRB FAXUU QWWSO JBTUR TXVSG BXDSDTN XZMPF PLC

The New Havenite ships may have recorded that their position corresponded approximately to the galactic-south boundary of a patch of uncharted space marked by gravitational and electromagnetic anomalies, pockets of spaceborne dust and gas, and a few fractured star systems of which ZH-13 was the closest to the boundary; an area that had been dubbed 'The Shadowlands' by travelers and spacers. The only and best information on this area could be found by word of mouth, from those who had passed through and lived; some had passed through many times, avoiding the inhabitants and the anomalies and interference and perhaps coming out with only a few turrets or thrusters or an engine missing, or a few square kilometres of hull.

Of course, the New Havenite ships would not have too much time; even as they watched, from beyond the boundary what seemed like dozens of ships suddenly began to materialise, weapons fully charged and pointing straight at the Imperial ships. Within five seconds the wide variety of Damalgian weapons had been launched, and within thirty seconds they would hit; targets were any visible engines, life support structures, or anything else. Energy beams, particle weapons, as well as electromagnetic pulse-type weapons that disrupted communications and sensors; and by the time the weapons had hit, the Damalgian ships were vanishing once more behind the boundary, not bothering to make sure of their kill. Partly because they could always launch another assault if it didn't work, and partly because they wanted the New Havenites to return home with tales of terror and destruction; the few carbon-based life forms on these ships could barely feed the crew of a single strike cruiser for two or three weeks, requiring a much larger fleet to fully satisfy the needs of the Damalgians.

Communication would be useless, partly because the language barrier was insurmountable (translators would return mostly gibberish); and partly because both sides were pretty pissed off at each other by now, each considering the other the aggressor. (The Damalgian attitude would be, "We perform a weapons test on a useless world that's far too cold to do anyone any good, and some ships try to attack us!")

"Damage report!" Williams demanded.

"Shields almost went out, we're dissipating built up energy now into the hyperspace module!"

"Enemy ships have vanished according to our gunners!" The Tactical Officer reported. "They were using the anomaly as cover! The gunners were caught completely by surprise!"

"Damage reports coming in from all over the fleet," the SCO reported. "Light cruisers and destroyers are reporting that their shields also came close to the brink, but the frigates are a different story. Some are reporting severe armor damage, others are reporting damage to specific subsystems. Sensors are also malfunctioning but will be back online in no time."

"I figure that constitutes a warning from whomever lives in there," the XO told the Group Captain.

"Alright then, back us off an..."

"Incoming FTL signatures coming from 210 degrees!" The SSO reported. Just as he said that, the rest of the 2nd Fleet arrived, its Myrkul-class Battleship hailing the Canis Major via visual light signalling.

"Looks like you boys could use some help," Admiral Lay of the Myrkul-class Battleship I.N.H.V. Hera had flashed over. The Hera transmitted an FTL message to Imperial Fleet Command letting them know that four Kusanagis would be returning with damage.

At the same, the ships began projecting Minovsky Particles as the undamaged Kusanagis engaged their Sculptorese cloaking devices (minimizing their gravitic profile and masking their electromagnetic presence entirely). The frigates began to slip through into the anomaly while the rest of the ships basked in the below-visual bandwidth dead zone created by the Minovsky field.

=======================
At Present, the 2nd Fleet consists of:

1 Myrkul-class Battleship (Hera)
4 Achilles-class Heavy Cruisers (Canis Major, Virgo, Gemini, Fornax)
6 Suiseseki-class Light Cruisers (Trajan, Nero, Hostilian, Tetricus II, Augustus, Maximian)
24 Helsinki-class Ortillery Vessels*
12 Trondheim-class Destroyers*
8 Kusanagi-class Frigates*

* - Haven't gotten around to naming all of them yet.
=======================

can i get in on this?

"Sensors have been restored onboard the ships that were attacked," the XO of the Hera reported to Admiral Lay. "We are still having no luck penetrating the barrier with our sensors, but we have gained valuable insight into our enemy's attack patterns and weapons systems." Admiral Lay put his vodka flask away and began to read the fifteen page report.

"Can you give me a brief summary, Commander?" the Admiral asked as he put the papers down. He was normally a man of few words who cut straight to the point, and was abnormally impatient due to the threat level in the area.

"It appears they use particle weapons, energy beams and EMPs to engage ships. The only reason they were able to overpower the sensor systems of the afflicted ships was because they were at maximum gain trying to scan through the anomaly."

"Tell the 'SCO' to signal the other ships not to go to maximum sensor gain unnecessarily," Admiral Lay responded. "Is there any way we can adapt our shields against their weapons?"

"What sensor data we got indicates our shields should be capable of sustaining their weapons fire at a normal rate, especially with the energy offloaded into the hyperspace module or weapons systems," the XO continued. "Nothing the shield and armor technology haven't been able to handle normally in standard tests."

"Obviously it was, otherwise our Kusanagis would all still be here," Admiral Lay noted. "What about their tactics?"

"Very similar to our brothers and sisters in Sculptor... use the sensor disadvantage in their home system to catch unexpected ships and disable them, but unlike the Sculptorese, these guys appear to be posturing rather than seeking to draw blood," the XO noted.

"Is that your analysis?" Admiral Lay asked, looking his XO straight in her eyes.

"Thats a negative, Admiral," the XO said without skipping a beat. "This comes direct from the eggheads at Imperial Fleet Command..."

"Someone should tell the eggheads that these bastards killed a fair number of our countrymen," Admiral Lay interuppted. "These guys play their offensive just like anyone else, and their defensive like our brothers and sisters in Sculptor. Have Sculptorese tactics ever been played agaainst standard tactics in any wargames simulations?"

"Yes, Admiral," the XO noted as she walked over to a storage access, thumbing through several texts before removing a folder. "Operation: Three Blind Mice, a simulation against three of our fleets against a contingent of loaned Sculptorese ships, was conducted over a year ago in the asteroid belt of the Asherton System. The simulation indicated that when the Sculptorese ships had the advantage, they were able to inflict severe simulated losses against our ships until the advantage was nullified. Then the fleets gained the upper-hand and defeated the Sculptorese force swiftly. It was considered an overwhelming victory, even though almost an entire fleet was simulated as a total loss."

"What defeated their cloaks?" Admiral Lay asked.

"The cloak operates by bending visible light from behind the spacecraft in front of it with no visual glitches," the XO noted. "The ship's gravitic signatures are also reduced, making them appear as if they were small meteors or thick pockets of gas and dust. However, the battleship Neptune accidentally collidied with an asteroid during training, causing a multitude of meteors to fill the battlefield. The trajectories of these meteors could be determined via sensors, especially when they would suddenly change course for no reason... its like a blind man throwing pebbles in an open field trying to find a tree and succeeding."

"So I suppose you're going to tell me that negating this advantage will subsequently change the odds in our favor?" Admiral Lay asked.

"You know better than to ask a question like that, Admiral," the XO replied.

"I'm growing more and more senile with age, cut me some slack!" the Admiral joked. "Any word from any of the Kusanagis?"

"One of them reported in five minutes ago and reported that beyond the anomaly's perimeter, sensors work inside the effect but cannot penetrate the surface area. Communications were not possible with the fleet from inside the barrier as well, but were possible with other friendly ships inside the barrier."

"I'll take that as a defeat to their advantage," Admiral Lay noted. "Signal IFC that we are transiting the perimeter of the barrier and notify them that communications will be impossible once we're through. If we do not report back within 24 hours, they are to send additional reinforcements."

"Aye, sir..."