NationStates Jolt Archive

Space...definitly not the Final Frontier. If anything, space is simply the gateway to a thousand other frontiers, perhaps the First Atrium would be a better term. In any case, space is hardly the last place you can go, especially when you know how to go...elsewhere.
For just a moment one of the many 'elsewheres' was visible in some anonymous region of space, a rather unpleasant looking dustball of a planet bore witness to the rapid opening and closing of something which might be called a 'door' or a 'tear' or a 'hyperspatial trans-planar warp-rift', its name doesnt really matter either, because it doesnt exist anymore, chiefly as a result of the robed man on standing on the ships bow not holding his hands up and chanting anymore.
One might ask, "Why is this man standing on the bow of a starship? How is he chanting? Everybody knows you cant talk in space. Plus he'd be too busy imploding to try to talk anyway." But such questions are rather futile, because the man in question isnt talking. Well, he IS talking, but to the ships captain. Not you. If he DID deign to talk to you he might get irritated and spray your vital fluids all over the wall or something, especially at this particular point in time. He has also heard of the 'Fourth Wall' and while he isnt going to break it, I might just do it again.
The ship in question looks like an accident involving a time machine and the navies of several nations across the temporal plane. The layout is somewhat similar to a classical Ship of the Line, with elements of galley, battleship and ironclad thrown in on the side. Three massive pipes poking out from the ships underside appear to be spouting what is best described as steam (well, steam made up of ice crystals, but it LOOKS like steam,) leaving a steady trail from its point of appearance.
And to top it all off, the whole thing is painted green. Not a sublte camoflage green, but a rather bright shade of jade. Clearly concealment is not an issue, unless there is some other method of hiding the ship which negates its eye-jarring paintjob.
All of this is somewhat irrelavent background detail, however, because on the bridge of the ship a rather elderly man in an impressive set of robes has just kicked the large crystal ball which acts as the ships main radio, sensor and entertainment device.
Those recieving video of the broadcast would behold a rather impressive nose, presently occupying a significant part of the screen. Just barely visible behind said nose are a pair of watery eyes which appear to be focused several feet past whatever is recording the image.
Those with the additional benifit of audio would recieve a thunderous declaration of:
I SAY? IS THIS THING ON? HALLO?
Delivered in the traditional tones of a person working with technology (or technomancy, if you will) who is not particularly familiar with the device in question.
The image is briefly overlayed by a field of green roughly the same shade as that of the ship, which is revealed a short time later to be the arm of a dress, attached to a rather pretty young (looking) lady, whose most startling feature manifests itself in a pair of mismatched eyes, one green and one red. The effect is only slightly offset by the somewhat fish-eyed perspective imprated by the crystal ball transmission device.
"Ah, let me apologize for Magus Ybrel, the finer points of technology sometimes escape him," She glances off-camera, "Such as not shouting into the reciever!"
There is a brief exchange to one side, chiefly composed of 'WHUT?'
"Ahem...in any case, I am Magus Kaima Vanima, representing the Tolarian Academy and the interests of the Jade Star Federation. At present we are situated on leyline junction 12-223-46, approximatly six junctions eastwards of the Grand Stream.
"Any parties particularly interested in contact are free to show up, as our schedual is presently unnoccupied and no appointments are required. You'll pardon us if we dont have the velvet ropes up just yet, but as it is we've run out. We'll be waiti- Dammit Ybrel dont touch tha-!"
The transmission promptly ends in a wash of static.

"Captain, are you there?"

"Yes, what is it?"

"I was scrying on Lieutenant White when my spell was overridden by a wierd signal. I couldn't record it, but I did manage to catch some wierd coordinates in the message."

"Oh really?"

"In my professional opinion, I think we should investigate the sauce of this arcane interference. It could be relevent to our interests."

"How long do you think it would take to figure out the coordinates?"

"With the odd data I gathered from the transmission and a bit of divination, not too long."

"I'll consider looking in to it. Get back to me when you can figure out where it came from."

"Right away, Sir."


As the ship's chief mage went back to his quarters to look into the intrusion, the captain returned to his previous task. He had been relaxing in his chair on the bridge of the Kusanagi class frigate Ghost of a Chance (FF-1739) and playing a small handheld video game. On the screen, a small blue and orange amphibian battled an oversized koi with a massive horn.

Meanwhile, the ship's chief mage was hard at work, scouring the transitive planes for residual traces of the broadcast. At this range the trail was faint, but enough remained that it was easy to follow it back towards its origin. A series of remote divinations allowed him to triangulate the signal's source, and a rough location was soon established.


"...and so I think that the signal came from right about... Here!" explained the mage as he pointed out the general area of the broadcast on a starmap.

"How many light years from here is that?"

"...It's- Its over nine thousand!"

"What!? Nine thousand!? There's no way that can be right! Can it!?"

"The map can't be wrong."

"But the power level required to broadcast a message that far and still be able to override my divinations...!"

"If that's the case, we've got to investigate."

"Agreed."

"Helm, set course for the following coordinates."


As the captain barked out orders, the frigate turned towards the source of the Magus' broadcast. Her FTL drive gave off a torrent of tachyons as the ship accelerated into hyperspace. It would be several days before the ship arrived, so the ship's spellcasters spent the time investigating the origin of the broadcast.

a slaughter class strike cruiser exited the warp brother captain xenos veseel detected amber alert snaped the space marine prepare the boarding craft heat all weapons raise voidshields

(Oh u, sephy.)

Once it was within a range of the ships direct comms-range, the Tolarian vessel contacted the Ghost via a more standard method, although the visual transmission still had the fisheye effect imprated by the crystal.
"Ah, somebody seems to have picked up our little invitation." Kaima once again occupied the screen, "Are you fine gentlemen of the shuttle-using sort or the teleporting sort? I would strongly advise against having Mr. Scotty beam you over, unless you have a particular interest in winding up with arms on your arse."
She paused for a moment and glanced offscreen.
"Ah, we seem to have some less than friendly visitors, pardon me for a moment~" Kaima stepped offscreen, which was quickly followed by a good deal of shouting.
"Yes, RAISE the repulsor field, RAISE it. OK, do the ritual to START it then. Whatever. Get it working! And load the guns or whatever you militar types do. Honestly, if I have to do it myself I'll throw you overboard, captain!" She promptly returned to the screen.
"Some rather unpleasant types appear to be, ah, chargin' their lazor's at us. And they havent even bothered talking yet." The woman adopted a pouting expression before smiling again, "But I think we should be quite alright until you gentlemen show up."

The JSF ship dipped very slightly, brining the majority of its impressive firepower to bear against the Sephriothian ship, all eight of its main guns had been positioned in such a fashion that they could target the same point while the ship 'faced' its enemies in this manner, along with the compliment of nearly fourty secondary guns mounted in turrets on top of the ship. Only the ships four bombardment cannons, sponson-mounted secondary guns and anti-fighter cannons were unable to target the opposing vessel.
Several men in olive-drab jumpsuits were scurrying around the ships top deck, hurriedly preparing what looked like a helipad. Like the previously mentioned old man, they appeared to be doing just fine out in space with no suits.
Soon enough, the ships captain faced whatever was commanding the Sephriothian ship.
"We note with some apprehension that your vessel appears to be engaged in aggressive manuevers in regards to our own ship. We advise you stand down, we have no aggressive intent towards you or any other peoples in this particular universe, unless they have aggressive intentions towards us. So, we're hoping you'll be kind enough to stand down and act like civilized people."

The ship's chief mage was on the bridge reporting his latest findings when the more conventional broadcast arrived.

"...That'd be them."

"Ah, I see..." acknowledged the captain as he turned to the primary display. "Ah, so you're the person responsible for giving my mages all this trouble. Our ship has its own shuttle, but I'm sure that Jones here can teleport us if need be. I don't keep him on this ship simply because he gets pay per view on his crystal ball, after all."

The captain raised an eyebrow as the Tolarian woman explained the commotion.

"That sounds serious. I can have my engineers try to get us to the scene faster, but we'll still be a while. Good luck with your skirmish, and try not to get shooped before we arrive."


OOC: Just a quick post before running to work. Expect more when I get home.

CNS Willink

O Y Hello Thar. Today I will be bringing you the adventures of the CNS Willink, an AirHippo class battlecruiser designed to blow anything up with the flick of an eye. Today's Admiral will be Chuck D. Norris, no relation to the famed kickboxer, but some relation to the angry black man who raps in Public Enemy.

Strangely enough he also happens to be an angry black man. And he also looks like Chuck D from Public Enemy.

Dressed in his white uniform and cape... I mean cap, he was one of the few lucky ones to get his hands on a battlecruiser. There are only 12/13 of them. I'm still not sure. Moving on. He was located on the bridge, as most officers in charge of a ship are. The bridge, was pretty good lookin' too. It had a giant plasma screen television, nice comfy chairs, consoles. The walls and floor were painted a light olive geen, and everybody was dressed in generic Naval tights. Like from Star Trek. Don't know what colour though, I've yet to decide.

"Man, it's just. My woman's probably cheating on me with a foreigner, I know it. I know it." Chuck ranted. "You know what? Funk Jay-Z. Also funk Sephrions. Trying to invade us for no reason and all that. Pffft."

An officer sighed. "And he's in charge of diplomacy..." BEEP. "A message... oh hey! I know these guys, they were on the Remian Station when during that incident. I was part of the crew on that battlecruiser. The Jade Star, they want to meet foreigners."

Chuck D snorted. "The people want to see Chuck D so the people will see Chuck D. Engage warp, man!"

WOOSH. And there went the ship... and there it was! I mean seriously I can't get more descriptive with warp. It's unpossible.

A message was sent.

To: Magus Kainus Vanima
From: Admiral Chuck D. Norris

Hello! I am Admiral Chuck D. Norris of the CNS Willink, Cassiopeian Star
Navy. It seems that our two cultures have met before, but not formally. I
want to propose a meeting with you so that we may discuss things, such as
destroying the white man, I mean, trades and all that. I will be waiting for
your response.

Chuck D. Norris
Admiral, CNS Willink

Meanwhile. Another officier picked something up. "Sir... Sephrions. They seem to be targeting the ship. Suggestions?"

Chuck D. flinched. "... KILL WHITEY." He paused. "I mean, KILL THEM. But not before sending a message to stand down, and if they don't stand down KILL THEM."

Instead of sending a formal communique an audio link was established. The Admiral spoke. "This is Admiral Chuck D. Norris of the CNS Willink. Why are you targeting a peaceful ship? Stand down, your aggression is a waste of time and money."

Wee I think this is the fourth time the Sephrions and the Cassiopeians had tensions. Fun.

"Well, once we've dealt with this little...inconvinience, we'll be glad to have you on board." Vanima smiled, "Until then I dont think sending a shuttle over would be a terrilby smart thing to do. We'll just have to wa-...ah, it appears we have another guest nearby. I'll put you on the same channel..."
A moment later the Cassiopians were patched in alongside the Ghost's captain, "Hello to you, it appears you've got here just in the nick of time, we were about to deal with our overly aggressive friends in a manner of their choosing. Youre welcomed to join us if you like, it appears that you two dont like each other too much, hm?" Kaima raised an eyebrow curiously, "Well, we would prefer to avoid a fight in the first place of course, but I suppose that part is up to those fellows. Anyway, we'll be glad to talk to you all soon enough. The good captain says he'd be happy to coordinate our tactical computers, but it seems your system isnt compatable with ours. Apparently it something about 'analog physical computers' and 'digital data' and suchlike."

GATTAI!
...No wait, thats wrong...

The Ghost of a Chance's engineers did indeed get the ship to the scene faster. Almost immediately, even. In simple terms, the chief engineer activated the FTL drive's jump mode while still in hyperspace cruise mode. Though it was an effective tactic first used by the science vessel Galileo, it had the unfortunate side effects of tending to send the ship off course by many lightyears and put extreme stress on the drives. Fortunately, the ship stayed on course this time.

When the ship exited hyperspace at the targeted coordinates, it was met with some very odd things. On one hand was a bright green 1880s steam clipper sailing through space. On the other hand was a poorly written ship from an illiterate and entirely undiplomatic civilization. On the third hand that resulted from two years of time on The Planet Mars, there were spacedy negroes. It almost seemed to be the result of one of Rear Admiral Thompson's weekend drinking binges. Unfortunately, it was all too real.

Over the open channel the captain began to speak with Vanima and Chuck.

"Well, that was quick. How are you today? Are there any woops that need shooping?"

The captain recieved a few odd looks from his bridge crew.

"Anyway, I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Captain George Zimmer, commander and public face of the Ghost of a Chance. If need be, we can help. I guarantee it!"

"The woops in question appear to be thoroughly unresponsive, in fact, they've not done anything since our last message." Kaima gestured expansivly towards the viewport, out of view from the perspective the crystal ball provided of course, "Not very conversational, are they? They might be expecting to BORE us to death, of course."
"I am Magus Kaima Vanima, head of Green House of the Tolarian Academy and commander of this little expedition, as you have no doubt already heard," Smile, bow, etc., "And this is Magus Ybrel, our theoretical diplomat." Ybrel was just visible to one side, inspecting what looked like a small steam engine of some sort, "He tends to leave the talking to me. And the ship is the Jade Dream, my personal flagship and the spearhead of our lovely diplomatic mission to this particular level of reality. If the fellows in the doom-kroozer dont respond, we may consider bringing over diplomatic parties from you fellows soon, no reason to get bored while we wait for them to decide if they want to be blow up, yes?"
Vanima winked and made an expansive gesture, "I'm sure you'll all feel quite secure while aboard our lovely vessel, provided you dont drink any of the captains private stash. Technically its used to clean the mess hall tables, but you can get drunk with it as well."

"In that case, I look forward to our visit. How shall we transfer to your ship?" queried Zimmer. Meanwhile, the ship's weapons began to passively target the Sephrion ship. Specifically, the ship's spinal mega-particle cannon.

"One question." queried the chief mage, referred to so far only as 'Jones'. "When you say 'this level of reality', are you implying an extraplanar origin? Where are you from and how did you get here?"

ooc i do gota sleep ya know


ic lauch a thunderhawk and take 4 btother terminators and me aboard said the brother captain sire said the tech priset maining the sewnors caspaion ship present target em with half our arsnall

CNS Willink

An officer sighed. "We're being targeted..."

Now see Sephrion/Cassiopeian relations were always strained, but that's what happens when first contact happens to be an attempted invasion, which failed by the way. Now funnily enough the Cassiopeians have always thwarted the Sephrions in all sorts of ways, whether it be wargames or politics, and in the minds of Cassiopeians, that's probably why they hate us.

Oh and the whole warmongering jazz.

The Sephrions will probably try to screw over the Commonwealth, until they actually acheive it. Or at least that's the point of view Cassiopeians hold. But never mind that.

Chuck D. fahed. "Fah!" See? "Those fools, bam, here comes the dope jam. Go to Maroon Alert, if they attack at least we'll be ready."

The ship started to ring, its lights becoming... maroon. Not red, maroon. Why I chose maroon is well, I like maroon. It's a strange colour. Also maroon is a funny word. Say it to yourself three times.

The Admiral also decided to reply to the radio transmission. "We appreciate you sharing your databases... or at least trying. It appears that you don't use computers, you use... something else. Voodoo? Hell if I know." He paused. "By the way that's a strange ship you guys have man, reminds me of the time I smoked too much Mary Jane." He blinked. "When can I go down there anyway?"

The battlecruiser meanwhile turned towards the Sephrion cruiser, it'd have to surrender. Outnumbered three to one by ships vastly superior then that... thing, it'd be stupid if they didn't stand down.

Then again the Imperium of Man, Sephrion Edition, was never too smart.

"A simple shuttle should do quite well, we can dispatch one of our own if you like. Our docking facilities can be somwhat...challenging for those not used to them. But that is, of course, up to you." Kaima focused her attention on Jones, "We are, strictly speaking, from this universe. However it became somewhat difficult to maintain certain research facilities while subject to the various physical laws of this universe, and we didnt want to blow up any significant portion of an inhabited galaxy, after all. So we made a new one and went there. Its quite nice, you should come see it some time..." The woman glanced offscreen once again, "Our spotter informs me that the silent fellows have launched a shuttle of some sort. Are they normally like this? One would think they would send some sort of, "Oh, we want to talk, dont shoot us.' message first...or is the shuttle some sort of attack?"
"Our computer systems are...complicated." Vanima said with a smile, "Theres some complicated military name for the one on my ship, but I just call it 'Clicky,' but thank you, I suppose, for the compliment. We will send a shuttle along shortly unless you have your own craft."

"I'm sure my pilots can manage. I'll be over shortly with Jones and some of his underlings." replied Zimmer. The transmission ended as the captain got up and walked off-screen. A few minutes later, the ship's single shuttle deployed from the tiny hangar deck on the underside of the hull. It slowly made its way to the Jade Dream.

Meanwhile, back on the Ghost of a Chance, the weapons began to actively target the Sephrion ship, specifically targeting the bridge. The ship's small compliment of four fighters and two mobile suits was also readied for deployment while the atmosphere was vented into space to prevent explosive decompression in the event of a hull breach.


OOC: Oh shi- I'm late for work! *ninjavanish*

(OOC: I was going to wait for Sephy and Cassiopian, but...uh....>_>; )

The shuttle found itself on a flight deck which would not have seemed out of place in the first world war. Near the bottom back edge of the ship, it was essentially a wide open space interspersed with structural support columns, having no provisions for charging, fueling or pretty much any of the routine maintenance that 'modern' shuttles undergo.
On exiting their craft the captain and his various minions were greeted by an officer in what is best described as Napoleonic uniform, flanked by a pair of guards in similar dress, carrying muskets. Another pair of guards with similar armament were guarding the door which most likely led to the ships interior.
The officer ripped off a salute, "Sir. Lieutenant Aurel Naelmaren, 12th Nenyavada Marine Regiment, at your service."
The officers cap had been modified slightly to accomidate a pair of pointed ears slightly longer than the average humans, although his uniform was apparently tailored to make him look shorter, he still managed to maintain, despite his military bearing, that special arrogance with which Elves hold pretty much every species that doesnt live forever and get their own special effects team.
"Magus Vanima has directed me to bring you to the bridge pending the arrival of the other persons present. If you will please follow me, I would be happy to guide you to the bridge."

CNS Willink

"Officer Griff!" Chuck shouted. "You're in charge of the ship while I go to that... mess of a ship. If anybody shoot, bust a cap."

Officer Griff (who for some reason was wearing a red beret) saluted. "Yes sir!"

The Admiral exited the bridge via elevator, did the random hall turns, random ensigns greeted him, I think there was a party. Sexy party? Hell if I know, so... I'm going to explain more irrelevant things. Let's see, umm, got it! You know there's only twelve or thirteen of these ships in existance, and I mean, they're very capable. They carry their own fighter escorts, shuttles, it has a tractor beam, and missiles! Thermonuclear missiles! Of death! Well they have to be of death because if they were love missiles it'd be awkward.

Though if somebody does design them you have your first customer.

Moving on... the Admiral boarded the shuttle with two Marines and a pilot, flew towards the ship, and made the random I wish to land in your ships plz etc etc so on and so forth. "This is Shuttle 5111, I request landing please." Said the pilot. And see? I TOLD YOU. I told you he said that.

(I was waiting for Seph >.> Also sorry for the crappy post but, move things along etc etc.)

The Cassiopeian shuttle was likewise landed on something more suited to servincing biplanes than shuttlecraft, and was likewise greeted by a small escort, and, likewise of course, was escorted to the bridge by an officer. This one was human though, and was from the 17th Nova Rossiya Naval Infantry. He was also very slightly drunk, but did a commendable job of not looking like it.
"Welcome to the JSF Jade Dream, I'll be taking you to the bridge. Miss Vanima is 'pparently eager to meet you. 'Course she's eager to meet just about anybody. Heh." He gestured to the door, "If you'll follow me I'll take you up. S'a bit of a walk though, damn elevators busted."

OOC: If we waited for Sephrioth before everything, we'd be here until 40000000 GET!.

The flight deck was certainly out of place in space, but not unfamiliar. Bryn Shanderan naval pilots were trained first in biplanes using replicas of antique ships, then moved up to monoplanes on slightly less antique ships, then to jets, crude space planes, and then onto full blown starfighters. Every person in the navy was likewise first trained in canoes and outriggers, then triremes, galleys, caravels, galleons, and so on through the evolution of naval warfare until being stationed on active warships. Because of this, training took three years before the final year of conscription was served in active service, but by the gods they knew how to operate warships and fighters. Training for ground combat likewise started from bare fists, sticks and rocks, and then moved on to more advanced forms, but that's not really relevant for the current setting.

"A marine, eh? I wonder how you'd fare against my own marines back on the Ghost. Maybe we'll have to have a little skirmish later." commented Zimmer as he surveyed the ship.

Meanwhile, Jones was busy examining the arcane makeup of the strange vessel using a pair of special goggles with a detect magic spell permanently in place.

"Mystra help me... This ship has more arcane energy flowing through it than an array of mythallar... What have we stumbled upon...?" commented the bewildered mage.

Aurel shrugged at the captains suggestion, "That would, of course, be your descision. However the Magus is generally opposed to fighting, it upsets her. She does tend to go...overboard sometimes. It took us nearly a week to get rid of the dragon from the last time." The Elf smiled slightly at the mage, "Most likely you are detecting our drive system, which is based on a powerstone array. I am sure the Magus would be pleased to give you a tour later if you can stand the company of the engineers. Blasted dirty little creatures..." The last sentence was delivered in a mumble, and a few of the marines smirked at the Elf, who quickly regained his composure and went on to usher the group through the door to the bridge, which they had arrived at with perfect timing, thanks to narrative convention.
The bridge of the Jade Dream was, suprisingly, uncluttered and composed chiefly of open space, only a few uniformed men were running around doing nautical things.
The room was roughly fifty feet in legth, perhaps twenty wide and the ceiling perhaps thirty feet. Large portpoles every few feet provided an excellent view of the surrounding space, including an impressive view of the front of the ship, which stretched away for some distance.
The main feature of the bridge was a rather large set of desks, three tiers which held a number of officers, most of whom were currently not doing a whole lot, some had maps and charts out and were scribbling frantically. Each chair had a mess of speaking tubes next to it, and impressive brasswork and expensive looking wood had gone into the construction.
Moving along, a large crystal ball was positioned in the center of the bridge, in order to give a clear view from pretty much anywhere within the space. It hovered just off the floor and was orbited by a number of smaller versions of itself. As the captain and company watched, one of the smaller crystals hovered off on business of its own, proceeding to float in front of one of the officers working on a chart, showing obscure lines criss-crossing the galaxy.
At the front of the bridge, occupying most of the foremost porthole, was a large targetting device of some sort, numers optical protrusions, and a few less obvious devices, sprouted from what was essentially a very, very, large telescope manned by six men.
At this point further observation is pretty much impossible because a lady in a bright green dress has just obscured your vision.
"Ah, youre finally here! I do hope that Mr. Naelmaren didnt bore you TOO much. He didnt start going off about Goblins did he? Thats his favorite subject." She smiled, bowing slightly, "Ah, excuse me. I am Magus Kaima Vanima, again, at your service," She looked slightly better without her face being stretched beyond its normal proportions, although close inspection would reveal that her left eyebrow was just growing back in and the hair on that side of her head was a slightly different colour than on the right. "I apologize for the crowd of course, but our overly aggressive friends are still out there."

"No, he was a fine escort. I wouldn't worry about our 'friends' though. My executive officer has orders to destroy them if they attempt anything. In fact, I believe that their bridge will cease to exist within a second of aggression on their part." explained Zimmer.

''launch a thunder hawk.'' snaped the chaplin with the brother captain and 5 brother terminators on board he said coldly and would some damn tech priest please fix this damn door!.

OOC: Wait, what the hell are you doing? Can you try using quotes and punctuation to separate your dialogue from your narration? Perhaps post more than one line? Be more descriptive? I honestly have no idea what you've just tried to do.

''launch a thunder hawk.'' snaped the chaplin with the brother captain and 5 brother terminators on board he said coldly and would some damn tech priest please fix this damn door!.

"Launch the Thunderhawk!" snapped Chaplin Velaspian, using a crackling power weapon, held tightly in his armoured hand, to emphasize the order. The pilot turned and gave Velaspian the thumbs up before turning to face the windscreen. Quickly, the pilot amped up on the throttle. The Terminator squad, brothers in blood and battle, could feel the acceleration. The G-forces pulled at their bodies. Velaspian noticed a meter next to the rear ramp of the Thunderhawk was not reading properly. The seal was not as tight as it should be, and slowly, they were losing cabin pressure.

"Brother Harblinium, Emperor bless his soul." Velaspian speaking coldly, continued 'He must call upon the machine spirit to repair this cursed door!'

OOC:

Fixed!

The Cassiopeian shuttle was likewise landed on something more suited to servincing biplanes than shuttlecraft, and was likewise greeted by a small escort, and, likewise of course, was escorted to the bridge by an officer. This one was human though, and was from the 17th Nova Rossiya Naval Infantry. He was also very slightly drunk, but did a commendable job of not looking like it.
"Welcome to the JSF Jade Dream, I'll be taking you to the bridge. Miss Vanima is 'pparently eager to meet you. 'Course she's eager to meet just about anybody. Heh." He gestured to the door, "If you'll follow me I'll take you up. S'a bit of a walk though, damn elevators busted."

The Admiral saluted. "Likewise soldier!" He turned to the pilot. "Stay behind and guard the shuttle, don't want any white people trying to steal it."

One of the Marines (we'll call him Bob) turned to Chuck. "I'm glad he hasn't fired me..." He mumbled to himself.

Description time! Well we all know how the Admiral looks like, but what about the Marines? Well the Marines are dressed in a contempory... well I don't know what year it is in the future, but let's go ahead anyway. Anywho, they were dressed in some nice sexy armour like from that Battlefield 2142 game, so it was pretty much like an American military uniform, but in the future! I.E. instead of Kevlar there was plastic. Plastic is the future, and we're living in it my friend. In terms of weaponry they carried a knockoff of the E-11 because they're Marines, they're going to be boarding. They won't need distance. That and E-11s look good.

As for the pilot? Green jumpsuit and a helmet. Also hello.

The second Marine (we'll call him John) looked around at the strange ship and all that. "... I'm so glad I'm not drugs."

The Admiral turned to the drunken Talorian. "Take us to the bridge so we may discuss rightous black power, I mean, trade."

"If they can find anything when our own weapons are through with them, hm?" The magus smiled again, "People do tend to underestimate our ships based on their apperance, the last pirate captain was rather amused until he was eaten by a screaming horde of demons." Vanima shrugged, "But if you gallant gentlemen are willing to do the job for us, we'll save our ammunition. And our other guests seem to have arrived, how fourtunate!"
The Cassiopieans were shown onto the bridge in short order, and after exchanging greetings the whole party set off for a handily located confrence room.
The room was, essentially a hemisphere of glass (or some glasslike substance, anyway) with another large circular plate of glass set about halfway between the ceiling and the bottom of the sphere. The floorspace was mostly occupied by a table and chairs, which Vanima gestured at, "Please be seated gentlemen, if you would like any refreshments they will be delivered immidiatly."

The Sephriothian Thunderhawk was directed to the top deck, as its rather large frame would have some trouble fitting into the somewhat cramped lower decks. However the upper elevator was working and so, despite their tendancy to wear oversized armour, the Sephriothian delegation arrived at the staircase to the confrence room without trouble.
Of course, now they were faced with the problem of getting down a rather narrow spiral staircase through a door designed to allow passage of a normal human, as opposed to one already six feet wide with a bunch of power armour on.

The Jade Star

Admiral Chuck looked around the bridge, impressed with the elaborate designs and all that. It was certainly different from what he was used to, and he didn't mind. He was an open minded man. Except when it came to white people, but that's a different story. The two Marines were more confused then impressed, but that's because they're Marines and the straight men (in the comedic sense) for this lovely trio of Cassiopeians.

Bob looked at the Shander...ian? delegation. "Nice to see ya." He said rather amused as he held his E-11. He held it good.

Chuck did indeed request a drink. "I'd like some purple drink." He nodded. "Extra sugar."

Bob coughed. "... milk is fine."

Smith nodded. "Water here."

The Admiral turned to both the Talorian and Shander...ian delegations. "Well then I think we should be formal huh? I'm from the Cassiopeian Commonwealth. A small country, a system, but we can whip anything that comes our way."

Bob nodded. "It's true, you don't wanna piss us off."

Chuck continued. "What about you two?" Meanwhile he was unaware the Sephrion delegates were going to enter, but that'd just make the meeting funner.

"I'll take the strongest drink you've got." Zimmer explained. He admired Rear Admiral Thompson, and intended to one day have as much tolerance for alcohol as the legendary captain of the Galileo.

"If you have any, elven wine." requested the clearly far less manly mage.

"We're from the Eternal Kingdom of Bryn Shander. Our own society is also a mix of high magic and technology, but technology has largely far surpassed magic where we're from." said Zimmer.

"On the other hand, there are still pockets where the arcane still reigns supreme. Of course, those of us who think that scrying is for spying on the female showers wouldn't understand the Art enough to understand that." spat Jones, who was clearly irritated by Zimmer's comments and apparent misuse of his equipment and abilities.

Drinks were produced, including a drink served in a thick glass mug with a warning not to spill it on anything metallic which went to Zimmer. The contents were neon blue, clung to the sides of the glass when moved, and caused an unlucky fly burst into flames as it passed over the beverage.
Vanima nodded as the Cassiopieans spoke, "We have no intention of starting a war, of course. We're generally peaceful, of course a few of our member nations squabble occasionaly, but usually we avoid excessive casualties, since the Archmagus made it clear that anybod who gets too frisky will find their government has gone missing one morning."
"And whose to say spying on the shower rooms is wrong, eh?" Kaima grinned at the scryer, "But it is interesting to encounter another...ah, magical nation. We tend to employ magic and technology together, the ship itself is an example. The drive system converts magical energy stored in crystals into the energy which propels and powers the ship, of course we have instances of pure magic and pure technology as well. The crystal ball sets which we use for navigation, and the computers we use for targetting, although both are tied into systems of other natures and support each other as well."
"As to the Jade Star Federation, we are a collection of various planets and nations. The Tolarian Academy is authorized to speak on behalf of those nations and conduct their external politics. Internal trade and so forth is, of course, up to the nations themselves. Most of the population is composed of Goblins, followed by humans, Elves, Orcs/Orks, and various minor species. All in all we hold about twenty systems and a number of planets."

The Jade Star

Chuck held up his glass of purple. "To friendship." He then took a big swig of it, because, he can do that. "The Cassiopeian Commonwealth doesn't believe in war. In fact we haven't been in a war. We been in skirmishes, but not wars. Cause see, the Man thinks that we weak, therefore we end up kicking the Man in the face. Obviously this leads to the Man being very angry at us, and why we despise the Sephrion Imperium."

Bob continued the explanation in a less... biased manner. "See, what happens is. We find a new form of life, and then, somehow somebody thinks it's a good idea to attack us. Don't know why."

Smith nodded. "So we end up blowing everything up. Those Sephrions outside are a prime example, I was at a station over Cassiopeia, our homeworld, when they decided to bring their largest ship. Obviously that didn't work, we scared them away. Now they hate us because we're better then them." He took a sip of his water. "Good water."

Chuck took another swig of his milk. "Have you any crazy stories too? Or do we just got bad luck?"

the 6 space marines emter the brother captain and his five brother terminator escorts he glares at the Cassiopeians

the brother cpatian sais i am broter captainxander of the ultramarines

Kaima joined the toast with her own glass, which contained what apppeared to be orange juice, "Friendship indeed, lets hope it lasts!" After gulping down the rest of the drink, the magus seemed to consider the Cassiopieans question, "We've had our fair share of incidents. Mostly in diplomacy with the Orks. If you know what an Ork is you know that the only thing they respect is firepower and sheer brute strength. The Archmagus 'convienced' them to join the Federation by turning their Boss into a rabbit. Theyre very well behaved towards everybody but other Orks now."
Glancing up, Kaima gave the Sephriothians a friendly wave, "You gentlemen are welcome to come in whenever you want, but I dont think youre going to get down those stairs in that armour~" She grinned rather widely, "I'd be happy to bring you in if you want, of course~"

After the toast, Zimmer took a good hard look at his drink. He wasn't too sure if it was safe, but Thompson wouldn't care. If he were going to be more like Thompson, he'd have to take this drink like a man.

Eying the contents of the mug warily one last time, Zimmer closed his eyes and took a very large swig. Almost immediately, he slammed the mug down, splashing it all over the table and began to grasp at his throat. A silent scream was all that he could manage as his face and throat began to melt, liquefied flesh dripping down from the now visible bones that made up his jaw and skull. Jones looked at his captain in horror as the drink exposed more of his skeleton and removed more flesh in a path following his esophagus. By now, the flailing had stopped as the fumes in his nasal cavities killed the brain cells required for consciousness, and it wasn't long before the drink ate through enough of his chest to render his heart and lungs inert. Zimmer, it would seem, was quite dead, and in a very unpleasant manner.

...What the hell did you give him!!?" shouted the shocked and horrified mage.

the brother captaain glared astartes do not remove thier power armour

he spoke in high gothic my brothers have you loaded your weaponry thier be xenos

The Jade Star

Chuck chuckled. "Good to see these Orks were disciplined."

He then saw the Sephrions enter the ships, he was more amused then angry. He snorted. "Well that's a surprise, I see you ain't tearin' up from da flo' up."

Bob and Smith, meanwhile, silently got into MAROON alert as they grabbed their rifles more steadily just in case the meeting was shot to hell, literally.

Chuck blinked as he saw Zimmer spaz and die due to the hard alcohol, or whatever it was. He was a happy man. I mean not because he was glad to see another man dead, but because he was happy to be alive. Never take your life for granted kids, or you might accidentally die due to antifreeze. Though just in case. "Mmm." Chuck then proceeded to punch himself in the stomach, and what came out... was a burp. "Little gas there..." He then took his last sip of purple.

Bob coughed and saw the now dead Zimmer drooling. "Hey what's that smell...?"

Smith interjected. "That would be him releasing his bowels. Unless you want this to smell like day care, I think you should clean that up."

Admiral Chuck covered his nose. "Man that STANKS!" He sighed. "Well while you get a cleanup crew..." He turned to the Sephrions. "So why did you decide not to blow up this mary jane ship?"

two things one get the hell out of my face 2 i wish to speak to the fools who managegd to leash the orks

The Jade Star

Chuck smirked. "Sephrion diplomacy at its finest eh?"

Bob scratched his head. "I don't know if you want to call future allies fools, but, that's just me."

Smith blinked. "Gee man no need to be rude either."

By now the Cassiopeians were starting to get used to the smell, but that's just because eventually people get used to stinky smells. It's just that Cassiopeians had that genetic gift. Don't ask me why, it's confusing. Probably because I'm on drugs... yet I don't take anyway. Craziness.

Chuck continued to speak. "My marines have a point ya know. In my hood we don't kick someone in the face then expect them to be our best friend. I doubt after your display they'll want to give you help. But they seem nice folk, so I'm sure they'll forgive you. But after all incidences and backroom affairs involving our two nations, you won't get it from us." He paused. "And don't you even think about popping a cap on me, because then your ship, you, and your bodyguards are screwed. And then you'll have no Ork help."

Bob coughed. "Why do I get the assignment with the angry black guy..."

he smirked my my one would think we shoot first ask qeustions never you fool dog of chaos

Vanima sighed, "Gentlemen, please." She stepped over and stared at the somewhat...melted captain, "Thats never happened before...but no worries! We can fix him up in a day or two with the right equipment." She patted the panicing Shanderiananan...an mage on the back, "He'll be just fine, provided our...friends here dont blow us all up."
Turning her attention to the escalating Sephrion-Cassiopiean conflict, "Please gentlemen, you cant fight here. This is the war room. If you MUST kill each other, then we would be pleased to escort you back to your respective ships, however these rooms are quite expensive and difficult to fabricate, if you dont mind we would prefer you didnt get blood and bullet holes everywhere."
"As to the person who tamed the Orks, the Archmagus does not see visitors. However he has produced a self-published documentary which chronicles the events fairly well, if you avoid the narration. I must say that I was rather impressed with the spells he used, particularly the one which caused the Orkoid fungal colonies to become highly aggressive and...ah...eat each other. Its a difficult spell to manipulate somethings basic makeup like that. Very fine detail."
She paused, then raised a hand, "I'd almost forgotten..."
The Sephrions blinked out of existence for a moment and promptly popped back into reality sitting in chairs around the table with everybody else. Oddly enough the chairs they were sitting in had tripled in size and were reinforced to take the extra weight of powered armour.
"Please, do try to stay comfortable gentlemen, any drinks you'd like?"

"No, don't bother. I've long since grown tired of his idiocy. I'm sure that even the gods themselves would find this latest incident so stupid that they'd deny him the chance to disgrace the mortal planes once more."

Jones sighed and held his forhead in shame for even being associated with Zimmer.

"In fact..."

Jones muttered a few unintelligible words and poked Zimmer's corpse. Immediately, the corpse and the odors associated with it vanished. Those who looked could see the corpse now floating in space outside of the room, slowly drifting away.

"Now, I believe that we can get on to more serious issues. Bryn Shander is also populated by humans with minorities of elves, orcs, dwarves, and other goblinoids, humanoids, elementals, and outsiders. Many of the races and churches within the Eternal Kingdom are mortal enemies, but the order is kept by the fact that our royalty wields power that comes close to rivaling the gods and that they do not hesitate to smite those who would seriously disturb the peace."

he smirked and said glory be to the emperor of mankind and his loyal space masrines

The Jade Star

Smith scratched his head. "Gods? What are you talkin' about? Jesus Christ is God."

One small minor detail. Cassiopeians could be described as fierce Christians. Now in the ancient world (modern tech) this style of faith was the most common, in space worship gave way to the Force, pagan gods with immoral sexual urges, and and a flying spaghetti monster. Once in a while there was a Cult of Tupac Shakur but that was a rarity as well. But when it comes to Christianity the Cassiopeians could be described as the only intergalactic society that takes it seriously. Of course there were fanatics, and most were slackers. But at least they went to Church every Sunday. Or whatever Sunday is in the future.

Bob nudged Smith. "It's their religion dummy, they obviously won't believe in the same thing as us."

Chuck ignored the two Marines. "Elves? Orcs? The hell are those? All I ever seen are humans. Don't know what those things are." He shrugged. "Well as long we're talkin' Government. We're a Republic, but we call ourselves a Commonwealth cause the name is sexy. We have a President, elected. An Assembly, elected. We have a Judicial System too but the President takes care of that."

Bob interjected. "Hail Mr. President Clint Eastwood." He said as a friendly joke. Yes we have Dirty Harry as President, and?

Smith snorted. "Pfffft, Don Johnson is better."

Chuck scratched his head. "Seems the Universe prefers empires, it's all we see. At least you didn't try to kill us with a giant triangle."

Smith nodded. "They made great target practice."

Bob rolled his eyes. "Yes at the cost of hundreds of lives, but at least we took hundreds of thousands in return."

"Quite." The Admiral stated. He turned the Sephrion as he hailed the God Emperor. He merely let out an amused chuckle at their fanaticism. He then turned to the Magus and Jones. "We really should to somethin', seems our folk'd get along fine... man."

"Err...alright, then." Vanima sighed, making a note to retrieve the body and revive him anyway, just to make sure the Shanderian goverment didnt get upset, "Sounds rather like our government. The only reason the Elves and Orcs arent killing each other is the knowledge that the Archmage will turn their militaries into space dust if they get too uppity. They seem to get along fairly well now, although their mutual high commands seem to enjoy trying to put each other in the worst places during wartime. The Elven high command thought it was terribly amusing, sending seven foot tall Orcs into three foot tall Goblin tunnels during one of the revolts on Gundabad."
She smiled at the Cassiopieans, "Now now, gentlemen, there are lots of self-described gods out there. Sheogorath is a fine gentleman when he isnt trying to drive you insane. He writes some very good poetry. Lets not start a religious war here, alright? Have some more purple drink."
Kaima turned again, this time to the space marines, and gave a somewhat forced smile, "And you? We have some particularly fine amasec, very well aged."

"That's excellent news. Our allies are nations of communists and drunkards, both of which lack the ablility to cast a cantrip to save their lives. Until now I had thought that perhaps the Eternal Kingdom was alone in the universe." explained Jones. He took a sip of his wine before speaking again.

"Perhaps it would be fitting for Jade Star Federation to join us in the Hermes Alliance. We've got an excellent faster than light gate network that allows nigh instant travel between all connected systems, as well as some of the brightest technological and arcane minds in all creation. I feel that there is much that we could learn from each other."

Jones glanced at the Cassiopeian delegation.

"We also boast probably the three most powerful navies in this cluster of galaxies. It could be quite beneficial for nations that are constantly harrassed by the forces of illiteracy to join us as well. It would certianly bolster your national defense if nothing else."

we would rather be dealing with upity orks and the tau but yet we are sent here to you to meet you

The Jade Star

Chuck drank more purple drink. "Thanks yo."

He turned to Jones as he talked about some Hermes Alliance. Hell if he knew what that was, he knew about the Galactic Empire and the GFFA. He also heard some rumblings about ESUS but all and all his, and most Cassiopeians, were ignorant about alliance politics. The only ones who had any real knowledge was the President and his Closet. It's like a cabinet but, it's actually a closet. I'll admit I stole this idea from somewhere else, but, I don't want them to kill me so I'll just keep quiet.

Nevertheless he did follow standard Cassiopeian procedure. He also explained a few things. "As much as I truly like that offer, and I do, I don't got any power regarding that. That's up to the President and the Assembly."

Bob snorted. "Would be a shock if those old farts let the Commonwealth into any organization."

Smith rolled his eyes. "Well Bob you need to understand that when your first intergalactic meeting with a nation involves a giant ship wanting you dead, I doubt that the Comonwealth would fully want to be involved with any nation. Saying that I'm surprised we're still seeking new life."

Chuck continued speaking. "If you want I can give you coordinates so you can send the full documentations and all that jazz to the Assembly, or, you can go there yourself. But if it was up to me, I'd join now."

Bob turned to the Sephrion as he made his off colour remark. "What are you here for, exactly?"

well wouldnt you like to know chaos spawn

The Jade Star

Smith scratched his head. "What the hell is chaos spawn, I'm a Christian..."

Bob was also mildly confused. "Why yes, I could like to know. Thus me asking a question. If I did not want to know I wouldn't have asked and I would've probably be lost in dreams of alcohol and women. Not drugs though, because, they suck."

Smith looked at the Sephrion. "He has a point..."

Chuck then nudged both of them. "Don't even try." He said in a whispered voice. He then proceeded to have another gulp of his purple, because purple is delicous. Not the crayon, that's disgusting. He then turned to the Magnus and Jones. "Well since our Sephrions friends don't wants to tell me, what are you two here for? I came for the free drinks." He chuckled. "What about you two cats."

the brother captian sat thier iddly toying with his stormbolter the other marines aperead to be awake but acctuly were asleep

(OOC: I'm new to this so please bare with me. Tips are welcome ^_^)

The Ravager begins to hum as it detects energy patterns in a nearby system.. Commander Xavier Carter tells his crew to jump over to the system and find out what the pattern is. The Ravager warps to the other system and notices a pack of ships... Commander Xavier begins to relay a transmission.

<Transmission begining>

Friend or Foe?

<Transmission ending>

"I'm here because of an arcane broadcast that overpowered my divination spells. After I triangulated the location I discovered that the broadcast came from an absurd distance. The power level required to overpower my spells from such a distance is so massive that it was a divine quest from Mystra to seek out and investigate the beings capable of harnessing such levels of arcane power." replied Jones as he grew irritated by the Sephrions. He silently began to plot some way of ending their taint of physical existance.

bump

*cough*