NationStates Jolt Archive

Jirus stood in the central control room of the City ship Aquarius, his mind buzzing with activity, his hand hovering over his weapon holster. Months, if not years of planning depended on the next few minutes. For years the Asurans had shunned those who wanted to follow in their creator's footsteps and ascend, to met them as equals instead of creations. However, over the months their numbers had swelled thanks to marches and protests, but still, they only numbered about 5 million, hardly enough to sway the oppressive government with their plea's.

And so the more aggressive members had come up with a plan, one so daring that no Asuran could anticipate it. They would leave their world and seek out those who would be willing to help them. This of course would be no small feat, but still it was their only hope of surviving without being persecuted.

Over several months large numbers of the ascendants had requested transfer to Aquarius, each one ready to help bring the ship under their control. Others had begun to gather supples and equipment from their places of work, including large quantity of ZPM's.

The plan was simple, hold the Asuran council hostage until their demands were met and they were about to hyperspace, taking the city ship and four Aurora class destroyers with them.

Suddenly, in the center of the room a circular slot slowly opened, showing the ring transporter inside. As the rings began to ascend from the floor Jirus and the other cult members began to run forward, ignoring the shouts of protest from the other guards stationed in the gate room. When the rings lowered and the Asuran council stepped forward from the rings they were greeted by the cult members, each one's pulse pistol pointed directly at them.

"Greeting's" Said Jirus, leader of the cult, "Now, I have several demands which will be met, or else we will wipe your programs....permananty!"

Three days later

After many talks the council had finally agreed to the requests of the cult, though thy labeled them outcasts, and vowed that if they wer ever sen again they would be destroyer on sight. The entire cult had been rounded up, told they could take only thier possessions and forced onto the city ship. After three days the entire cult was ready to begin thier Exodus.

With a deafening roar Aquarius took to the sky, its Star drive thrusting it forward at top speed, its shield dome raised for the up coming hyperspace journey. The Cult was leaving the Pegasus galaxy, and heading for the Sol system!

On the edges of the Sol System, a small 5-man observation station on Pluto picked up a number of hyperspace signatures just outside the system. At the time, only two of the officers on board were awake, whilst the other three were asleep or carrying out minor repairs to an air conditioning unit that had fried itself a couple of days earlier.

The station was commanded by a Flight Lieutenant who happened to be on duty at the time, staring at a screen that rarely showed anything except normal movements of the Oort cloud beyond the edges of the system. Without warning an incredibly vast sensor contact appeared, flanked by four smaller but still formidable vessels. The signatures were unmistakable. Alteran designs, but with lifesigns faint enough to be nigh-undetectable at range. Asuran ships. The Flight Lieutenant sprang to action immediately, accessing the emergency channel to the Giza-controlled subspace communications relays that lead to Giza's headquarters on Atlantis, now stationed on Earth's Moon.

"Giza this is Cheops-One Emergency, picking up five unfriendlies at perimeter six. One Atlantian plus four Orion, convoy-formation. Cannot estimate ETA due to insufficient data and sensor interference."

The response was recieved quickly, a crackly message from the massive city-ship that was the headquarters of Giza.

"Cheops-One Emergency, the stations are going to quiet running. Giza has authorised the launch of Beagle-III, she's headed to your location now."

Ten minutes later, the boxy form of the enhanced BC-303 HMS Beagle-III came into view, moving at a surprising speed for such a frankly ugly ship. The name had been something of a joke passed around by the RAF personnel at Giza when they heard about the ship being built, until Parliament officially requested that it would be the official name of the ship.

After a few seconds of silence, the Beagle began broadcasting on a number of frequences, to get the attention of the Asurans.

"This is Group Captain MacNamara of the RAFS Beagle-III, with a message for the Asuran fleet intruding on the United Nations Giza Council's jurisdiction. Leave the system immediately or we will bring all available weapons to bear. Respond immediately."

The small crew of the sensor satellite was discreetly beamed away, and its self-destruct sequence prepared.

A text file came through over the RAF ships radio, containing a single word. "Help".

On board the City ship things were growing worse. When they had left a month prior the cult had be able to bring supplies and equipment for setting up a colony when they arrived at Earth. However, this had meant that they had been unable to bring large quantities of their most vital supply, Energy pods, small pods that provided power for Asuran nanites. Usually these pods were recharged while the user was walking through the city, as energy was transfered to them through induction. However, before the ship left the charge rails had been sabotaged by the Asurans who stayed behind. They hoped to kill their brethren before they reached safety. The rails could easily be repaired....if the fault had been discovered in time. Unfortunately it was only when entire Asurans reverted into thier nanite components when thier pod's ran out of power that they realized, and by then it was far to late. Now only one of the 5 million survived, feeding off power supplied by the city's control chair, staying on the edge of shutting down while he piloted the ship to earth. Jirus smiles slightly as he viewed the ship before him...before his nanites finally lost coherency and fell into a fine powder, waiting for a charge large enough to power them to re engage them.

MacNamara just looked at the nearest screen, puzzled at the Asuran answer. He turned to his executive officer, who just shrugged. The Message flashed on the screen in the strange blue light of the bridge, with a group of three of officers standing around staring at it.

The XO stared at the screen for a few seconds, then turned to MacNamara and spoke quietly.

"It could well be a trap. That fleet has huge firepower and it's in approaching Earth. I suggest we deploy Horizon and nuke that city-ship. The outpost can take the others."

"I agree, but we can't well ignore the message, not completely."

"Really?"

"Asuran fleet: stay at your current location and do not power weapons or shields. Any attempt to power weapons or shields will be met with excessive force. This is your only warning. What is your situation, what assistance do you require, and frankly, why should we help you?"

The tactical officer began scanning the Asuran city-ship, looking for locations that would be especially susceptible to the tender mercies of the Horizon's multiple gigaton payloads.