NationStates Jolt Archive

(OOC: A current RP with Van Luxemburg is preparing the backstory to my catapulting into PMT to FT, however, until it's finished, I'll just post the intro right now to get into the FT ring.)

VFS Aegis Fate
In Low Orbit Around Vuhifell Major
2120

Admiral Norman Francke had his doubts. He looked at the complicated holo panels and TV displays around the bridge of his new vessel. It had been several years after the planet was unified under a single government, but only now were the Vuhifellians delving into interstellar travel.

At least, that was the hope...

The Aegis Fate was a small, two-hundred meter long vessel, with the engines and warp system taking up a good half. It would be the first actual test of the Shane-Lorenzo Slipspace Drive, so he was obviously nervous. He was putting ninety human lives into the hands of a few uncertain scientists after all.

But he calmed his fears. He was the head of the newly formed Interstellar Exploration Committee, the most decorated Admiral in the fleet, and he had the best officers and engineers onboard his ship if anything were to go wrong.

He looked out the main viewport, and saw the stars, perfect and clear, and knew it would be alright.

"Lieutenant Anderson," he beckoned to his Navigations Officer.

"Yes, sir?"

"Plot a course to the Sigma Delgrassa system. Lieutenant Van?"

Anderson said, "Aye, sir," before Van, the ship's engine operator, responded.

"Power up the Slipspace Drive. All engines full thrust. I want us out of orbit and into Slipspace before he hit the asteroid belt."

"Aye, sir."

The lights in the bridge dimmed, bars of color streaked across the main computer screen, and the crew began to strap themselves in as the last of Vuhifell's gravity left them. He could feel the ship move, and slowly saw his home planet get smaller."

"We are at minimum safe distance from Vuhifell to activate slipspace drive, sir. Drive will be fully charged in fifteen seconds."

The asteroid belt of the system loomed closer, and he saw their speed go faster on the computer screen, then, a white light embraced them. There was heat, it was like being in ground zero of a nuclear explosion.

Black. Nothing. No stars. No planets. No readings from the computers.

The admiral had to double check if he was still alive, slowly, the lights came back on, and the main view screen was filled with black. The occasional blue dot came into view, and soon computer systems were back online. It turned out that those blue dots were comets.

The ship traveled at three times the speed of light, and the admiral smiled while his crew gawked at being the first Vuhifellians to travel the stars...

Sigma Delgrassa System

The Sigma Delgrassa System was beautiful, two, large orange suns danced around each other, hundreds of millions of kilometers apart. There were several planets, here, too.

It turned out the journey took a whole month. The closest system to Vuhifell, too. Oh well, the scientific data the journey provided would give any scientist back on Vuhifell an orgasm. But, the sensors detected something else.

"Lieutenant Vega, zoon fore camera to maximum at the largest planet in Sigma Delgrassa."

The readings were off the charts, spectrometers showed that something was there that wasn't made of any known material. Radio recievers tracked several signals. And a mass reading showed something was there.

The main view screen popped up with an image:

A rather large, at least much larger than the Aegis, vessel was drifting around the planet....

The Admiral quickly flipped through the IEC's First Contact manual:

'Initiate contact with alien species in a non-threatening manner, broadcast in every known language, including binary, light signal, and morse code. If species returns contact, continue to engage in friendly conversation to be recorded and returned to Vuhifell.'

The message was broadcast, the Admiral hoped they would be peaceful, or maybe it the ship was uninhabited...

To unknown vessel. This is an exploratory vessel. Do not fire. We are a peaceful species. Again, please do not fire. We are on a peaceful mission and desire peaceful contact with your species.

(OOC: Any FT nation can respond to this, I don't mind. There could even be more than one ship in the system. Or more than one FT nation.)

Vast and undaunted by the sheer beauty of the system, the Mythrandir exploration vessel Phoenix floated seemingly aimless through space. The vessel was indeed massive as it housed all of the equipment any systematic survey team would require along with a good number of specialists in varying fields of planetary anatomy. At a closer inspection, a runic alphabet sprawled across the hull under the emblazened image of a fiery phoenix returning to life. Veins of grey metal ore stretched across the ship and grasped it in a protective grip.

This particular crew was of an interesting makeup being that dwarves and elves didn't get along so well. They happened to be the sole races making up the exploration crew this time out which made for interesting conversations and encounters during the down time aboard the ship. Debates were often colorful and more heated as the drink flowed.

It was business today though with dwarves running scans of the planets' surface and studying the minerals that made up each planet while the elves took a detailed look of the atmosphere and the biology of the planets' ecosystems. All run of the mill activities for a normal day in a new system that could prove useful. Then the sirens went off stopping everything.

Commanding personnel rushed to the observatory of the ship to investigate the source of the disturbance. Any signs of spacial activity would have been enough to set off the early warning systems but the arrival of the ship brought a new source of interest.

The holoprojector at the center of the room glowed with life and filled the area with an majestic picture of the ship's surroundings. The length of the system was at their fingertips but they were focused now on the ship that suddenly had entered the system.

"Ye stupid pointy earred elf. I thought ye said dis system was uninhabited."

"Be at ease good dwarf. We don't yet know enough of who this new arrival is to make a judgement."

"Message coming through on multiple frequencies and in different languages." The voice off to the side stole the group's attention.

"Is any of it decipherable?"

"Alphabet does not match our own but it does match other races that we have encountered. Language files do match. Putting through now."

To unknown vessel. This is an exploratory vessel. Do not fire. We are a peaceful species. Again, please do not fire. We are on a peaceful mission and desire peaceful contact with your species.

A sly smile grew on the elf's face as he looked down at his dwarven companion. "As I said. Learn patience master dwarf. It will take you further than rash emotions."

"Bah, sayin' yer peaceful and bein' it be two different things."

"The dwarf speaks truly." All eyes in the chamber turned to the Captain of the ship as he descended the stairway. Captain Elthos' gold and green armor glowed in the light of the hologrpahic projector as he came to a hault at the fringe of the gathered minds. "But, there is only way to truly find out. Send a message back informing them of who we are and our purpose in this system."

"Yes Captain."

"Aye. An elf wit a brain and brawn. Who'd ever thunk it."

Shortly later, a message was sent back to the exploration ship and its crew in full audio and in a language that many nations had come to call Galactic Standard.

"This is the Mythrandir survey ship Phoenix. We have no intentions of causing you or your ship harm. We are simply here on a galactic surveying mission."

Communications officer, Second Lieutenant Jack McLees, was first to pipe up after the discovery of the alien vessel.

"Sir, recieving signal from alien craft. Beginning recording sequence now."

"Can we understand it?"

"It's incredible, sir. We can!"

This is the Mythrandir survey ship Phoenix. We have no intentions of causing you or your ship harm. We are simply here on a galactic surveying mission

"Is this the translation?"

"No, sir. It was broadcast in one of our own."

"Good. That means less down time with comms. Open up direct communications channel. Priority Alpha."

Aye, sir!"

"This is Admiral Norman Francke of the Vuhifellian Navy. My ship is the VFS Exploration vessel Aegis Fate, we wish more direct communication with your species. We are currently in this system on a survey mission as well, you are the first alien species we have come across. Please, let us share knowledge between our two races.

The Aegis Fate began a slow acceleration towards the alien craft, laying several radar and communications beacons along the way. They would soon punch a hole in Slipspace and become navigational aids to additional Vuhifellian Trans-Light vessels.

This is Admiral Norman Francke of the Vuhifellian Navy. My ship is the VFS Exploration vessel Aegis Fate, we wish more direct communication with your species. We are currently in this system on a survey mission as well, you are the first alien species we have come across. Please, let us share knowledge between our two races.

"What do you think Captain?"

Elven captain Elthos listened to the message as it was played back and words accompanied the voice scrolling up a holographic screen. Pressing a button on his golden gauntlet, the Captain waited for the response from the bridge. "Hold the ship here. I believe we are going to have company soon. Also, fix me a secure line back to Mythrandir. I am confident the Elders will desire to be a part of this should this group want to truly talk."

"As you wish Captain." The voice faded away on the other end leaving Elthos with the rest of command personnel for the explorer.

This mission had quickly turned from one of mapping and naming planets to one of diplomacy and first contact. The pressence of bickering dwarves and elves were not needed at a time like this. "You are all dismissed. I am sure you have plenty of work to do with our latest findings. Look upon this time as a means of getting ahead in your work."

There were a few complaints but eventually the group was dispersed leaving the elf alone in the observatory. As the Vuhifellan ship pulled up closer, Elthos was afforded a more panoramic look and watched as, what looked little buoys, were dropped from the ship.

"Captain?" The same voice, a woman's, as before came back through the speaker system. "Is there any message you wish for me to send to the alien craft?"

"Have you made any headway with establishing a line back home?"

"The Elders have been informed but we are too far away for the orbs to be of any use. We'll have to use the ship's communication systems if you want to put them through."

Elthos scratched at his clean angular jaw line for a moment as he thought over the options. "Standby for that. Just send a receptive message to Admiral Norman Francke."

"Right away Captain." The voice faded again leaving Elthos to study the design of the system and file it away in the ship's manifest. Later it would be inputted into Mythrandir's archives.

"Greetings, Admiral Norman Francke. I am Communications Officer Thereasa of the Forge Naval force under the command of Captain Elthos. You have permission to bring your ship around and come alongside. The Captain has suggested that an in person meeting might be the most effecient and easiest way to conduct business. Since you initiated contact first, you may decide which vessel will host the meeting."

A brief shimmer of light, a small almost unnoticeable burst of radiation, and one multimegaton detonation several systems away, and the Andermani Destroyer Ambuscade slipped quietly into the system. It hadn't heard the message, but it had detected an unknown signature, and its mission priority was to gather intelligence, which is why instead of immediately lighting up and sending out communications, it sat silently, and turned its sensors on the two vessels in system. It would sit quietly and listen, until something forced it to act, or until it was deemed prudent to make contact.

As the message came through, the several young lieutenants in the bridge turned their chairs to face him. Yearning for an answer.

"Lieutenant Jaggers. Have the engineers pull the pins to the reactor in case anything goes wrong. Lieutenant McLees, punch a hole in the slipstream and send a message back to Vuhifell that we've initiated First Contact Protocol."

"Aye, sir."

Before he could respond to the alien vessel, light distorted around the ship. The Aegis Fate was once again engulfed in a brilliant white light, before the light exploded around them, and eventually faded.

"Sir, message to Military Headquarters on Vuhifell has been sent. The message should take a few days less to reach home because of those beacons we just launched."

"Excellent. Now patch this message through to the alien vessel:

Roger, Officer Thereasa. I believe it's better we have formal discussions on your vessel, however, your kind is welcome to board ours. It should be noted that we simply don't have any extra room on this ship.

He was about to close the comm channel, before he remembered something:

Oh, and I almost forgot. Our leaders will eventually want to meet and this sytem is mere light years from our homeworld, maybe further relation can be established there?

Not far from the Aegis Fate, the space began to twist and distort as a strange shape emerged from the blackness of space. To a knowledgable species, the trick was mearly a ship decloaking but to a species unfamiliar to the technology, it was a masterclass. Even more so than the ship that emerged

APS Fearless, an F-1 Class Battlecruiser (http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff167/mreynolds058/?action=view&current=F-ClassBattlecruiserPic.jpg) of the Alversian People's Navy, emerged from it's cloak and speed towards the smaller Vuhifellian ship. Although it was primarily a warship, and an effective one at that, it was here on a mission of exploration and peace.

Aboard the bridge, Captain Alexander Cavourna watched thoughtfully as the smaller ship came into view. Admittedly, he had been expecting something bigger but then again, it was their first attempt.

"Ensign" He ordered from his chair "Hail that ship on all frequencies. Relay the following message"

"Sir!" The Ensign saluted and turned to her console in order to imput the orders

TO: Unidentified vessel

This is the Alversian People's Warship Fearless, we intend no harm and
expect none in return. We would be most eager to contact your species
and make contact between ourselves, hopefully leading to a full relationship
between civilisations.
We await your response with earnest

Captain Alexander Cavourna
APS Fearless
080590.3

Lieutenant McLees looked up to the Admiral once again,

"Sir, another signal coming in. It's not natural sir!"

"Roger, patch it directly to my nueral net," the admiral looked ahead sternly. How many aliens were in this system? If two had already been encountered in Sigma Delgrassa, how many were in Vuhifell?

"Lieutenant."

"Aye, sir?"

[OOC: I'm going to assume the broadcast was in English]

TO: Unidentified vessel

This is the Alversian People's Warship Fearless, we intend no harm and
expect none in return. We would be most eager to contact your species
and make contact between ourselves, hopefully leading to a full relationship
between civilisations.
We await your response with earnest

Captain Alexander Cavourna
APS Fearless
080590.3

The admiral pressed a few buttons on his keypad, then took a microphone from above his command chair.

"To all hands of the Aegis Fate, we have encountered two alien species and are preparing First Contact Protocol. All engineers and scientists are to report to their stations immediately. That is all."

The viewscreen in front of him filled again with more bars and graphs. Spectrometers detected more unknown metals, and several of the ship's instruments began detecting unknown physical phenomenon around the ship.

"Lieutenant McLees, send a message to our new visitors:

This is Admiral Norman Francke. In command of the VFS Aegis Fate. We are in this system conducting scientific research and navigational exploration. We are not armed. We request your permission to send a shuttle over to initiate First Contact.

The shuttle in question was actually one of the ship's three only lifeboats. They were also to be tested during this mission, although the original plan called for sending them out uninhabited, not loaded with a scientific mission of humans.

OOC: The Aegis Fate (http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/heat3000/76c07c3e.jpg?t=1196824411)

More sirens sounded throughout the ship as another vessel was detected making an appearance in the system. Elthos removed himself from the observatory and headed back up to the bridge of the Phoenix to better command the situation unfolding around him. The bridge crew came to a hault in their activities as the Captain passed by their stations.

Sweeping his cape to the side, Elthos sat in his throne chair and gently traced the outline of the marble sculpted phoenix heads at the edge of the armrest. A holographic imagery of the space around the vessel was plastered at the front of the bridge. "Who are the new arrivals?"

"Unknown Captain. Not attempting to contact us."

The elf tilted his head so it would rest on his right fist. "Ignore them then."

"Excuse me Captain but we have a response from the Vuhifellian."

"Show me."

Roger, Officer Thereasa. I believe it's better we have formal discussions on your vessel, however, your kind is welcome to board ours. It should be noted that we simply don't have any extra room on this ship.

He was about to close the comm channel, before he remembered something:

Oh, and I almost forgot. Our leaders will eventually want to meet and this sytem is mere light years from our homeworld, maybe further relation can be established there?

Elthos ran his fingers through his long brown hair, pushing it back behind his pointed ears. "Inform them that they may come aboard at their leisure."

"Right away Captain."

One more message was sent out to the Aegis Fate. "Admiral Norman Francke, your party has permission to come aboard as soon as you see fit. You may discuss future relations once you are aboard and our Elders have had a chance to meet with you."

As the Aegis Fate pulled alongside the alien craft, red and blue lights flashed all along the ship, scientific instruments were blazing with information on the vessel. Most of the data that appeared on the view screen, however, came in as question marks and zeros.

"Alright, Executive Officer Meehan, I'm leaving the ship in your command while I initiate First Contact. I want Lieutenants Hikari and Mason to accompany me onboard the vessel."

Brief "ayes" were heard.

The Aegis Fate, along with its three lifeboats, also had an assortment of one dropship, for planetside duties.

Well, it could also dock with other vessels in space, and soon, the three Officers boarded the dropship and disembarked out of the main docking port.

It was surprising taking Hikari and Mason with him, they were in charge of minor duties on the ship, and weren't usually called for. But they were bright, and Hikari was beautiful, the admiral had to give her that.

The dropship managed to dock with the vessel, an engineer from the Aegis was piloting, and gave them a thumbs up sign before re-aligning pressure to the alien vessel, the three of them brought along oxygen tanks, just in case.

And then...they stepped aboard, their three cultures differed, and they greeted the first alien they saw with differing welcoming signs. The admiral gave a crisp salute, Hikari bowed her head, and Mason kneeled on his knees with his head down.

"Hello. I hope we aren't disturbing anything," said Mason.

"Officer of the watch!" an Ensign cried.

Captain Cavourna strolled from his chair to the console and stared at the screen
"You called, Ensign?" he asked casually.

"Yes, Sir" She replied, "They have sent a shuttle to the unidentified vessel. Two male and one female, similiar organic layout to ourselves with minor differences"

"Very good Ensign, I suppose it's fair. They made first contact first so we wait our turn. I'm not in a rush. Hold our position and lower shields to 50% as a sign of trust" he gave the last command to the tactical officer standing behind him.

"Aye, Sir, Shields lowered" the gruff Alversian replied.

"Sir! Message incoming!" Another Ensign cried

"Very well" he lowered himself into his chair, "Let's hear it"

"Playing message now sir"

This is Admiral Norman Francke. In command of the VFS Aegis Fate.
We are in this system conducting scientific research and navigational
exploration. We are not armed. We request your permission to send a shuttle
over to initiate First Contact.

Cavourna shrugged, "I suppose that is the reason we are here" he grinned "Send a reply. What frequency worked last time?"

The Communications Officer typed a few things into her console before looking up "F194576, Sir"

"Use that channel and relay this message"

"Channel open, Sir"

TO: VFS Aegis Fate

We note with relief that you are not here on a mission of conquest and will
welcome any visitors you may have the grace to send. Hopefully we may
learn something from one another

Captain Alexander Cavourna
APS Fearless
080590.5

"Actually" Cavourna turned around "Send an addition"

TO: VFS Aegis Fate

Instead of you sending one of your few shuttles and compromising crew safety, how about we send
one of our own over to accompany you back?

The three visitors had found themselves in the docking bay of the Mythrandir exploration vessel as Elthos had intended. It was also practically empty save for a few space craft used for travelling to planetary surfaces or short trips. This was also what Captain Elthos had wanted. Distractions of a boisterous crew would most likely have ran these representatives off if they were not use to dwarven hospitality.

Instead, Admiral Norman and his company were greeted by a single imposing figure. The elven Captain, Elthos, stood tall, resolute, and regailed in his armor. Golden bronze was mixed with traces of green throughout his armor giving the image of being wrapped in woodland foliage. Designs were etched in his gauntlets and all the way up to his shoulder plating depicting vines and leaves snaking up to his neck. A single phoenix, similar to the one painted on the side of the ship, was emblazened on the front of his breast plate. Elthos kept his winged helm tucked in the crook of his left arm as he steadily judged the three individuals approaching him. A golden cape attached to his shoulders that stopped just above his ankles, swayed easily behind him.

The elf's green eyes finally settled on the man that had snapped a salute. "Admiral Norman Francke I presume?"

None of their gestures were inappropriate in Mythrandir and practically all three of them had been used in some form or another in Mythrandir's history though deeping to a knee was a bit of an old fashion one dating back to the Warring Clan age. The elf brought his right hand up to cover his heart and dipped a curt bow.

"I am Captain Ethos of the Forge Navy of Mythrandir. I welcome you aboard the Phoenix and to this unnamed system."

A stern gaze fell to the man that was asking if they had interrupted anything. "You are not intruding if that is what you fear. This ship is simply full of old wisemen that are looking to run some tests."

Taking in the rest of them in his gaze, "Now we may move to the observatory to speak more comfortably or we may stay here if that suits you better."

Compared to the aliens' armor, the two lieutenants would alone have represented a poor world, with standard bright orange flight suits that had been modified for extra manueverability.

The Admiral, on the other hand, had a pure white suit, with navy blue collars and lines stylishly drawn across his uniform. The emblem of the Vuhifellian Navy, a diving falcon, was etched into his hat.

"Yes, I am Admiral Norman Francke, and these are my subordinates. Lieutenant Hikari and Lieutenant Mason. You'll have to excuse Mason, he's descended from the finest warriors on our planet, they have a tradition of keeping their customs alive throughout the centuries." he pointed at his two officers before returning to the Captain, silently ordering the two humans at ease.

"Let us head to the observatory. I believe we both have much to learn from each other, as for the system name...well, we call it Sigma Delgrassa."

VFS Aegis Fate

TO: VFS Aegis Fate

We note with relief that you are not here on a mission of conquest and will
welcome any visitors you may have the grace to send. Hopefully we may
learn something from one another

Captain Alexander Cavourna
APS Fearless
080590.5

TO: VFS Aegis Fate

Instead of you sending one of your few shuttles and compromising crew safety, how about we send
one of our own over to accompany you back?

Executive Officer Daniel Meehan stood on the bridge, analyzing the streams of data that was pouring in. They were finally beginning to isolate some of the particles the alien ships were emitting, and were soon able to identify several materials with those found back on Vuhifell.

When the message came in, since he had been put in charge the ship, it only made sense that he reply.

TO: APS Fearless

This is Executive Officer Daniel Meehan. Temporarily in control of the Aegis Fate. As several members of our crew have disembarked for the other alien craft in system, you may dock with us in our main port.

"Captain! We have a reply!" The Communications Officer called out

"Well?" Cavourna asked from his chair

"They request that we travel to their ship and initiate contact there" She called out.

"Very well then, Ashe, Jason, Damien You're with me. The rest of you will maintain position until I return. You have the Bridge, Commander Night"

The Communication's Officer saluted as Cavourna, his first officer Ashe and two others departed the bridge and headed for the shuttle bay.

Soon they were aboard one of the APN's Shuttles (http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff167/mreynolds058/?action=view&current=Shuttlepic.jpg)
and, escorted by two sleek XX-40 fighters, they headed over to the Aegis Fate.

As they landed in the shuttle bay, they noted the materials and the layout of the ship. Not done with much practical experience in mind, but still, better than nothing.

Soon Cavourna and his party had landed and they stepped from the shuttle to see who had greeted them.

Elthos swept his cape aside and gestured for the three humans to follow him. The Captain lead them into a turbolift at the far end of the docking bay that would take them up several levels within the large survey ship. There was more than enough room for the four of them but even if they felt cramp, the trip up was a short one dumping them off at the heart of the ship.

Metal doors slid open to reveal a long hallway with plenty of personnel walking to and from their stations. Dwarves and elves passed them by as Elthos lead them down the hall and around the corner. A few nodded their greetings but most kept quiet and went about their work.

The inside of the ship looked pristine with the floors and ceiling shining and almost reflecting their images as they walked. Eventually Elthos lead the three down into a bowl shaped room where a holographic image of the Aegis Fate hovered in the center of the room. The room itself appeared to be built like a stadium in its rising nature but there was very little in the way of seating save for a few high backed chairs along the flat part of the far wall.

"You may sit wherever you like."

Elthos walked to the center of the room where the holographic image was hovering. "Thereasea."

A voice came through the air in no particular direction. "Yes Captain?"

"Have you connected with SIREN yet?"

"Yes Captain. We had to increase the power that is normally necessary for a long transmission before we could establish a connection though."

Elthos nodded his brown haired head. "Very good. Standby."

The Captain waved his hand over the image of the Vuhifellian ship causing it shimmer then contort into different shapes and forms. When it stabilized again, it had changed into a panoramic view of the system. "Well Admiral, you may start this conversation with whatever you deem important to you and your people."

The Admiral sat there, silently staring into the cieling. The blank expression on his face told the other humans that he was fully logged in with the nueral net. Downloading the files on what to ask aliens if ever engaged in peaceful conversation.

There were no files.

He quickly logged out and returned the Captain's remarks.

"I think it's prudent we learn more about each other. History, science, technology, navigation. All the necessities. There is a great deal which you possess which we do not comprehend, and undoubtly there may be knowledge which we possess which you do not dream of. But, judging from the size of your vessel, I'm not sure if the trade would be an equal one."

The Admiral noted that this ship had no rotating sections, but pure artificial gravity.

"If you wish, we offer our entire race's history files as a gift."

"Captain! We have a reply!" The Communications Officer called out

"Well?" Cavourna asked from his chair

"They request that we travel to their ship and initiate contact there" She called out.

"Very well then, Ashe, Jason, Damien You're with me. The rest of you will maintain position until I return. You have the Bridge, Commander Night"

The Communication's Officer saluted as Cavourna, his first officer Ashe and two others departed the bridge and headed for the shuttle bay.

Soon they were aboard one of the APN's Shuttles (http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff167/mreynolds058/?action=view&current=Shuttlepic.jpg)
and, escorted by two sleek XX-40 fighters, they headed over to the Aegis Fate.

As they landed in the shuttle bay, they noted the materials and the layout of the ship. Not done with much practical experience in mind, but still, better than nothing.

Soon Cavourna and his party had landed and they stepped from the shuttle to see who had greeted them.

OOC: Well?

OOC: Well?

(OOC: Sorry, must've missed the post)

VFS Aegis Fate

Several automated camera were focused on the vistors, recording every precious piece of material to be stored and shipped back to Vuhifell.

Officer Meehan was personally there to greet them, along with several members of the science team, Dr. Samantha Iccard being the most pronounced. She was the only civilian on the vessel, and wore none of the uniform dress her crew-mates wore.

Daniel Meehan snapped a crisp salute, "welcome to XV-01, the VFS Aegis Fate. As you can see," he pointed to the large containers spread across the main shuttle bay, "This vessel wasn't designed for space or crew comfort in mind. However, I believe we have much to discuss, should we begin discussions right away or shall I give you a tour of the vessel?"

"I think we'll have a look around if it's okay with you" Cavourna, wearing the standard Officer's Unform (http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/StarWars/images/BookImages/uniform.jpg) of the APN looked around the rather cramped hangar. As well as his First Officer Ashe (http://www.jokes.org.au/userimages/user756_1152835915.jpg) and his Security Chief, Jason (http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/FBCCA393-1855-4A0B-8996-D8C428EE26DA/0/MarineGaryWright.jpg) he also had two Marines (http://www.artplant.no/assets/imagebank/20050919141217_future_dessert_soldier.jpg) to provide protection and to help scan the ship for reports.

"On behalf of the People's Republic, I would like to welcome you to Space travel" He smiled, "Were shall we start the tour?" he asked, clapping his hands togather, "As a freethinking people, we shall help you in any way we can"

"Thank you. This is our first Interstellar voyage and it is very exciting for us. I think we'll start the tour in this hanger, it has just enough room for one dropship. You can see all the clamps and equipment used to secure materials during docking and launch as well as the ventilation system for the airlock."

It was a quick run through the lower deck, as they were just crew quarters, the aft of the ship held some importance, though.

"This is the aft of our vessel, and the Aegis Fate is powered through normal space by a single, massive fusion reactor." Daniel led the visitors through a heavy, steel door which read "ENGINEERING". The engine room was three stories high, and a single, massive, black cube stood in the middle of it, there were several pipes and tunnels leading into the cube.

"Those access vents are used for liquid coolant and for argon lasers which keep the reactor at a stable temperature."

Moving further back through engineering, there lay metal poles on both sides of the room. Black, intimidating, and stretching the entire height of the room from floor to cieling, Daniel quickly explained their use.

"These...these are the reason why you are in this vessel right now. This is the Shane-Lorenzo Slipspace Drive. It's what we use to tear a hole into slipspace. The poles you see here run from floor to cieling and wrap around the ship to connect to the poles on the other end of the room. We can get into the specifics of our slipspace technology later. This was the first time they've been tested, though."

He led them out the door of the engine room and re-locked it with his retina and fingerprint scan. Leading them through the second floor of the vessel.

"These are our on-ship laboratories and maintenance rooms. Everything vital on the ship ranging from life support to the bathrooms are located here. We have specialized computers, sensors, and equipment all across this section of the vessel for our scientists to work with."

He led them up the final flight of stairs. Showed them a "room" which could only be accessed by a terminal. The ship's main computer. It held everything from star charts to the records of every member of the crew, all the way to entertainment software.

This was the only deck with windows, and he allowed the visitors to view the alien vessel to the port side before he led them to the bridge.

"This is the bridge," he said, leading them into the command room. It was filled with dim, blue light. Holo panels showed scientific readings and the locations of all major masses in the system, including the two alien vessels.

"It's small, but the view from our main window and view screens are priceless," towards the front, there was a "pit", there were two empty chairs there, along with two blank computer screens. Behind the chairs, the command chair was located just behind a giant holo panel.

"The Admiral and our two operations officers are out at the moment, as you can see by our idle stations. Now, where shall we conduct our discussion?"

Cavourna was silent through the tour as he took in the technology of this new civilisation. True, it was inferior to their own in terms of complexity but this was their first attempt. He was just used to seeing very, very complex machinary to power ships.
The ship to the port side was of no concern. The Fearless was here on a peaceful mission and it seemed the other ship was doing the same. All the information gathered by this ship during it's time here had been processed by the Fearless' computer within moments. It helped to have some experience in space travel.
Once they were on the bridge, Cavourna listened to the First Officer and came up with a solution.
"As you rightly said, this ship is far from luxurious, which is only to be expected mind," Cavourna added hastily, fearing he may have offended the Vuhifellian, "Better to get the mechanics working before you try and get too clever. Anyway, how about holding the talks aboard our ship? It has a lot more room and talks could be conducted much more comfortably from there"

"Very well. However, I was ordered by the Admiral to command this vessel until he returns, and only he can belay those orders. The science team, however, should be more than willing to come along. Right, doctor?"

Dr. Samantha Iccard stood there in the bridge, she was just as tall as Daniel and had a slender build. Green eyes glistened behind her glasses.

"Of course, officer. Why shouldn't we? Constance, Almerie. I want you two to accompany me, along with Chief Engineer Nuestros."

The three of them quickly assembled before the doctor. The two scientists wore standard white military lab coats, while the engineer wore a navy blue work suit. Dr. Iccard simply wore civilian clothes. Even though she was a civilian, she was the Navy's most important scientist, and personally operated the Slipspace Drive when they accelerated out of system.

"I, Dr. Samantha Iccard, will hold talks aboard your vessel, along with my three person team. Let us go."

"Indeed" Cavourna touched the small transmitter he had stuck in his ear, "Fearless? Six to transport. Hold on" He smiled at the Vuhifellians, "Take a deep breath"

A pop of light and they on the bridge of the Fearless, without so much as a piece of effort, Ashe went to her station on the raised section of the bridge and a still smiling Cavourna indicated that they should follow him.

Unlike the Vuhifellian ship, the battlecruiser was spacious and swarming with life. From Marines to crewmembers to the ship's cat all were wandering the corridors, chatting or completing importent tasks.

Cavourna walked alongside Dr. Iccard and smiled, "This ship has a crew of 4,000 personnel at the moment, the pride of the Alversian fleet, much like your own ship I imagine"

Dr. Iccard simply smiled while her team followed the alien, "The Aegis? Pride of the fleet? That thing practically is our fleet. We're constructing two warships at the moment to test our ship-based weapons systems. By the way, what was that just now? That instant movement? Molecular deconstruction, transmission, and reconstruction? Or something different?"

Her head filled with questions. Took in every detail of the vessel's design and saved it to her nueral net. Indeed, the hallways were larger compared to the Vuhifellian vessel. She would have to make a note of that when she started designing the next class of exploration vessels.

Dr. Iccard simply smiled while her team followed the alien, "The Aegis? Pride of the fleet? That thing practically is our fleet. We're constructing two warships at the moment to test our ship-based weapons systems. By the way, what was that just now? That instant movement? Molecular deconstruction, transmission, and reconstruction? Or something different?"

Her head filled with questions. Took in every detail of the vessel's design and saved it to her nueral net. Indeed, the hallways were larger compared to the Vuhifellian vessel. She would have to make a note of that when she started designing the next class of exploration vessels.

"You got in a nutshell Doctor, we used to use shuttles and fighters as short range transporters but they proved to be an ineffiecient way of moving large numbers of Personel from ship to ship. Instead we deconstruct their molecular structures, digitise it and recontruct it at the desired location. Everybody wins"

Cavourna led the group to a lift, being saluted by two Marines as he passed them. Cavourna returned the salute and entered the lift
"Conference room" he said aloud. The lift started to move
"I'm curious, what ship based systems have you developed?" He asked Dr. Iccard.

The dear doctor grinned widely. She was almost embarrassed say, but did so anyway, "Most of my research has been limited to theoretical science and ground applications. However, I was personally involved in the creation of several offensive and defensive systems soon to be tested by our new warships. In addition, I served as a mathematical advisor to Kane Lorenzo while he was working on the creation of our slipspace engine."

The dear doctor grinned widely. She was almost embarrassed say, but did so anyway, "Most of my research has been limited to theoretical science and ground applications. However, I was personally involved in the creation of several offensive and defensive systems soon to be tested by our new warships. In addition, I served as a mathematical advisor to Kane Lorenzo while he was working on the creation of our slipspace engine."

"Fascinating, and there was me thinking a lifetime of service with the navy was the best thing" Cavourna smiled and stepped out as the lift stopped. They were in a vast room, ornately decorated in Louis XIV style and with a long oak table in the centre.
"If you wish to take a seat, Doctor, then we can begin" He held a chair for her and pushed in again once she had sat down.
"Firstly, welcome to the interstellar community. I would advise caution as your relatively primitive technology would stand no chance against some of the empires that have been assembled out there and not all will be as welcoming as us. Do you have any questions?"
Cavourna preferred to answer questions than give long speeches. They kept him on his toes.

The threat of interstellar war had plagued the Vuhifellians for a long time. It was the primary reason most citizens on Vuhifell had opposed a trip out-of-system. Now, with First Contact finally achieved (and peacefully), the doctor could get the funding she needed to continue her research.

"First, I would like to say that it is very fortunate that we stumbled upon a peaceful civilization on our first voyage, and you have our thanks for hosting us. However, these hostile empires... do you have any files on them? And if you do, is there any way to defeat them.

"Trust me, good sir, if what I have designed is correct, the weapons system our ships will be using would fire a 100 ton, ferrous tungsten-cobalt pole at 4/10 the speed of light. Surely that would be enough firepower to defeat a hostile vessel?"

The doctor was not worried. She was curious. If the weapons she designed could, at least theoretically, defeat hostile attacks; the Navy would begin producing warships en masse. But if they could not, what could be done? How could she cope with that? Her face began to wrinkle, obviously laced with concern now.

"You mean what is informally termed a laser? Most intergalactic empires do use lasers in one form or another but the ships used vary greatly, while some have the power to destroy entire planets others do not. Our own Battlecruisers are far from the biggest ships in the universe"
Cavourna brought up a small datapad and handed it to Dr Iccard
"On this is everything that we know about the empires we have been 'lucky' enough to meet, They include the Calaverans, Forces of Chaos, the Danaversian Empire, the Korr... There are more and they are listed on that pad and it should help you" Cavourna leaned back and relaxed in his chair

"Anything else you would like to know about us as a species?" He smiled, knowing the awkwardness of such a question

"Laser technology hasn't progressed that far enough, good sir. The weapon I have designed fires a projectile."

She paused for a moment, licking her lips, before continuing.

"I can already tell we're biologically similar. However, how long did it take you to reach your current level of technology....after achieving interstellar status of course. And what is the extent of your knowledge?"

"Laser technology hasn't progressed that far enough, good sir. The weapon I have designed fires a projectile."

She paused for a moment, licking her lips, before continuing.

"I can already tell we're biologically similar. However, how long did it take you to reach your current level of technology....after achieving interstellar status of course. And what is the extent of your knowledge?"

"Can you indeed?" Cavourna took great amusement from this statement, "Well, we do possess significant differences as I can already tell. As for our advancement, We were part of an Empire over 300 years back and gained our independance. The old regime left a lot of stuff lying around for us to adapt. Our technology includes advanced A.I, Cloaking devices, teleporters, ion cannons, XX-40 Fighters, a Warp 10 capable ship, Pulse cannons, so on and so forth. There are many more that could be interesting and could not be"

"Well, seeing as we're not dead, we both breathe the same atmosphere, and our gravities seem to be the same. It is good that you have discovered those technologies, as it proves that they are possible, and I need to conduct further research for the Federation.

"As for ourselves, we only share ion cannon technology with you, however, magnetic transportation, nueral nets, optical computers, crystalline energy transfer, the Shane-Lorenzo Slipspace Drive, and the Magnetic Acceleration Cannon are our most advanced technologies."

"Really? Computer, tell me what the Oxygen composition of the planet Vuhifell Major?" Cavourna waited for a second, then a mechanical voice provided the answer
"Oxygen levels are at normal 20.94%"
"Right, and within this room?"
"Oxygen levels are at normal 15.25%"

"We breath thinner air than you for starters" He laughed, "If you were take an X-Ray you'd also find a few surprises. As for technology, the use of neural nets was banned by the APN because it meant the user would be part of the machine and that left them open to control. Something Alversia expressly forbids. Could you explain the crystalline energy transfer for me? I don't think I've heard of that phrase before" He frowned as he spoke, searching his vast memory.

"Crystalline energy transfer is the science of using crystals as a method of transfering energy from one body to another and converting it within the crystal. It's been serving as an effective shield layer in our planet's special forces armor for years, as it's highly resistant to kinetic and heat energy."

The crystals in question were made up of less than 3 percent of known crystal structures on the planet surface. The other 97 percent was an unknown element, with unknown properties, and an unknown formation process. Dr. Iccard informally called the element the crystals were made out of, 'mysterium'.

"Unfortunately, the only crystals we know how to manipulate in this fassion come from well under 100 kilometers below our planet's surface. As for our nueral nets, we've had the last century to perfect cybernetic technology, and small, blood-electricity generators provide the power to a closed system. The only way to 'break into' my mind would be to directly connect with the computer in my brain via a physical connection. It's a pain in the ass to connect with other users, but it's done for security reasons, of course."

"What's wrong with a simple reflective plasmatic matrix?" Cavourna asked calmly, then he smiled, "What temperature do you think it is in this room, right now?"

"Plasma cannot, at least with our current technology, be molded into anything that we like. We've already mastered how to craft the mysterium crystals, and, most importantly, learned how to apply them militarily. Without the crystals, our optical computers, our nueral networks, even the Shane-Lorenzo Slipspace Drive, would not be possible. We don't fully understand how the mysterium crystals are able to do so much, however, we know of no material that can create optical computers or nueral networks, and that is why the crystal is so important to us.

"We have discovered how to generate a slipspace tear by using einsteinium, hydrogen, and radon. However, none of these create energy states as efficient as mysterium. As for the temperature..." the doctor checked her nueral net.

"21 degrees centigrade, according to my nueral net reading of outside temperature."

"20.91 actually," Cavourna corrected her as he nodded "It's our sixth sense. I do not even dare suggest you use our technology if it does not suit you, far from it. Local technology is always the most reliable I find and if that is what you rely on for your technology then don't let us change it.

As for our own FTL what we use is an ore known as Methradyte. When it is mixed with argon in our warp core, the ship is propelled in the direction the engines are pointing, in this case out the back. We can do up to 500 times the speed of light if neccesary"

Cavoura sat back again and began to type various items into a datapad, "How's life in space shaping up then?" he asked casually

"Fascinating, actually. You've actually reminded me to upgrade my nueral net," she saved a note into the net and tucked it away, the "alarm" would be a severe headache later on.

"I've gotten some headway done on my prototype artificial gravity generators while we were in slipspace, and before we made First Contact, I was about to attempt to miniaturize a fission reactor to the size of a backpack. Dr. Constance was also able to create the very first clone of a Vuhifellian citizen during the Slip-Jump. And Dr. Almerie was able to create a prelimenary vaccine for a devastating viral disease on our homeworld."

"However, your Empire...how far does it span? And how many citizens does it contain? Surely, no doubt it must dawrf our one system of five inhabited worlds?"

"Aha! Now there's were the People's Republic comes into her own. Alversia believes in freedom. It is what our entire system is built around, the chance for people of all races and backgrounds to work as one towards a common goal. If a planet requests Alversia's aide then we provide it, we have garrisons across our own system but they are there at the request of the natives. They tell us to leave then we pack our bags and go. That is the Alversian way"

Cavourna started to fiddle with the datapad

"A fisson reactor? It's an unpredictable contraption at the best of times. We could give you one of ours. It's no bigger than a wallet but it does the same job rather admirably and as for cloning, we don't believe in it. If a planet wishes to have clones, that's their deal not ours"

"A fission reactor miniaturized to the size of a wallet? That sort of technology would go a long way in helping to shrink the size of other machines in our possession! Especially in the medical field!" The doctor exclaimed at this new discovery. She was ecstatic. Anything that she did not understand, she took apart and analyzed. If that was not possible, she took notes and studied.

She was about to speak again, before Dr. Vernon Constance cut in. He was a short man. Short, and fat, but very intelligent.

"Cloning. Gene manipulation and editation. Nuero-chemistry. It's all my specialty. But, why does your species not believe in such a useful art as cloning..."

Dr. Iccard was fearful. These damned military scientists had no tact at all. If human populations on Vuhifell reacted negatively to cloning, why would he raise such a question on this vessel?

Cavourna looked at the man thoughfully,

"Thirty years ago, a shipment of clones arrived on Alversia from a neighbouring system where they had been forced to work as slaves. We granted them asylim of course and permitted them to remain as full citizens on Alversia. However, their previous Owners chased across to Alversia and demanded we handed them over. The resulting war cost Alversia 32,000 dead. We were warned by one of the clones, now a Government minister, that huge numbers of clones pose little advantage over an organic child and in fact can be a hinderance"

Cavourna turned back to Dr Iccard

"I can bring down to engineering to fetch one of our reactors shortly, and as for your virus issue, do you request any aide from ourselves or do you have the situation under control?"

Navigational Point Alpha-Charlie-34, Watch Post # 3733

Slowly, silently, its lights a faint glitter of life amid the darkness, the Imperial Mk III Star Destroyer Relentless glided through space. Empty space, oppressively dark space; Long, lonely light-years from the nearest of the tiny islands that were the star systems of the civilized galaxy, drifting at the edge of the boundary between the fringe and the vast regions of Unknown Space, at the edge of known Imperial space.

An officer, a captain to be exact, stood silently looking at the space around his ship. The running lights from the hull illuminated only a small fraction of the darkness that engulfed them. It was quiet, truly so. A quiet that, if harkened to, could send a man into madness…the captain was familiar with cases of space dementia, it was a hazard for men who served on the frontiers of the Empire, observing.


An ensign sat below the captain inside his crew pit, a frown on his face and a small signal feeding into his head set. His computer captured it and played it out a second time, slower, for him to listen to. “Darn thing…it keeps overlapping…ah, I see…yes, mixed signal devices…that’s older than…,” the Com Scan ensign muttered to himself. His fingers flew over his controls with practiced ease.

The Com Scan ensign turned to his counter part at the Communications array. “Hey, Charles, you getting that signal?”

“Yes,” replied the other ensign. “It’s not unreadable, old English or something similar. The patterns match some of the archives.”

“What have you two found?” asked a voice behind the two sitting ensign. They turned to see Deck Officer Jarek staring at them, one eyebrow up. “You two better not be goofing off again or it’s the brig for you.”

“No sir, we’ve detected an incoming signal, a bit of a ways off, next system really, and it’s coming in on several different wave-paths. It’s in old English, or so we think,” replied the first ensign, who had discovered it.

Deck Officer Jarek lost his frown and leaned over their shoulders to look at the consul. “You track the source?”

“Yes sir, we have the source location. It’s in the uninhabited system nearby, designated Palos System; discovered by a Captain Palos of the Fleet some 50 years back. Once explored by probes but never settled,” replied the second ensign.

Deck Officer Jarek nodded and stood back up. “Very good. Keep tracking it and see if it changes. Launch a probe to the source to get a better look at what might be sending it and report any anomalies or enemy signals.” The two ensigns chorused a few ‘yes sirs’ and the deck officer turned on his heel and walked up out of the crew pit. He marched smartly up to the front of the bridge where the captain stood like a statue looking out into space, as was his habit on long runs into space. The deck officer snapped his heels together and his back went ram-rod straight.

The captain turned and looked at the man. “Ah, yes, Lieutenant Jarek…what have you to report?”

“We’ve detected an unknown signal from the Palos System nearby. We’ve founding nothing of a sure match in the data bases, but it matches archival prints of Old English from Terra,” reported Jarek.

Captain Bardeck nodded as he considered the information. His ship was part of a border task force that had standing orders to detect any and all enemies of the Empire and to investigate anomalies within the Thrashian Empire’s sphere of influence. The was definitely one of those anomalies.

“Good job Lieutenant,” replied Captain Bardeck. “Send the coordinates to Helm and make full speed to the source. Also contact the task force and inform them of our present location and all information regarding the detected anomaly.”

“Aye sir.” Jarek snapped a stiff salute and turned smartly away to follow his orders.

Palos/Sigma Delgrassa System

The Relentless came out of hyperspace within the outer edge of the Palos System. Captain Bardeck had decide to play it safe and enter as quietly as possible…not that one could expect such when they entered a place with an Imperial Star Destroyer.

The ensign who had first discovered the signal stood up in his seat and turned to his superior. “Sir! Com Scan reports two further markings in the system. One is an unknown, the second is from the nation known as Mythrandir.”

Lieutenant Jarek consulted his data pad. Mythrandir was a known nation to Thrashia: “Designation – ally or associate of the Abh Empire, known to have contact with the Coredians” was what it told him. Captain Bardeck sighed when Jarek enlightened him to this information.

“Never a dull moment I suppose…communications, get me an open signal to the original source, match the frequency as best you can,” ordered Bardeck.

“Line open sir,” replied the ensign.

“Attention to all vessels within the Palos System! This is Fleet Captain Bardeck of the Thrashian Imperial Navy. You have been detected by our probes and are to answer for your presence here, in a system near the border of the Thrashian Empire.”

Alversian Vessel

Dr. Iccard's eyes lit up immediately, excited. "Yes, please do! I would love to analyze it as soon as possible...and as for the...Remona Virus...Yes. I believe a little help could be welcome. It's a virus that slowly destroys the spinal cord. Several hundred million are infected with it. Its effects are paralysis, mental retardation, or death..."

VFS Aegis Fate

"Shit. Sir, additional contact!" shouted Lieutenant McLees.

"Patch it through, lieutenant. Initiate First Contact Protocol."

Attention to all vessels within the Palos System! This is Fleet Captain Bardeck of the Thrashian Imperial Navy. You have been detected by our probes and are to answer for your presence here, in a system near the border of the Thrashian Empire.

Executive Officer Meehan stood there on the bridge, simply dwelling on the message. Unlike the previous two encounters, this one was...forceful. Truly alien.

Daniel Meehan simply bit his tongue, signalled all lieutenants to pay attention to their monitors, and then opened a frequency to the new alien vessel, broadcasting in every known human language, light code, morse code, and in binary.

"New contact: Thrashian Imperian Naval Vessel. This is the VFS Aegis Fate of the Vuhifellian Navy. We are currently on a scientific and navigational survey mission. Our purpose here is peaceful. Do not fire. We repeat, do not fire."

Daniel stood there and lit a cigarette, violating three different regulations on space vessel safety. He didn't care.

"Certainly, I can have a team down in mo..."

Cavourna was interupted as the bright lights of the room were dimmed down and replaced by an eerie yellow glow
"Yellow alert, Yellow alert, warship detected"

Cavourna leapt from his seat and strode quickly to the door, out in the corridors, people rushed about in a disciplined fashion as each headed for their designated posts. Cavourna was heading for the bridge.

"It seems you have more contact, I suggest you head back to your own ship, or would you like to preview Alversian naval procedure?"

When Cavourna emerged on the brigde, every console was manned an Ashe stood nearby on the raised platforml. She saluted as Cavourna approached, the captain repeated the gesture before standing beside her

"Report" he asked

"Warship, might be hostile, it's from the Thrasian Empire, no direct contact ourselves but others have mentioned them. I've raised the shields and prepared the cloak. It has as much firepower as a Dreadnought and only marginally outguns ourselves" Ashe reported calmly

"Very good Commander, prepare to cloak" Cavourna called out to the crew.

The shape of the Fearless twisted and distorted for a moment before vanishing from both sight and scanner. She was still there but near enough impossible to find.

"Position us closer to the Aegis Fate" Cavourna ordered, "prepare weapons but don't drop the cloak"

The three military officers had elected to be returned to the Aegis Fate, however, Dr. Iccard stayed behind. She wanted to see firsthand the extent of their cloaking technology.

Vuhifellians had cloaking technology too, it had been in use for several decades, but it took up so much energy and was so hard to use that it was limited to special forces or heavy assault vehicles.

"Commander, you have made an impression on me and my colleagues. Truly you must be a noble race. However, the Aegis Fate has no weapons or armor, and our computers can only handle so much. Please protect them in the event that this ship may be hostile!"

"Not to worry" Cavourna sat on the Captain's Armchair and began to type commands into his side console
"Ensign!" He ordered "Move us between the Star Destroyer and the Aegis Fate"
"Sir!" The cloaked ship moved slowly and carefully until she was between the warship and the pioneering vessel.

VFS Aegis Fate

Daniel Meehan had to make a decision. In the absense of the Admiral, he was in charge. But there were still too many people off-ship that would be stranded if the Aegis Fate should either return home or be destroyed.

"Lieutenant Van! Begin powering up the Shane-Lorenzo Slipspace Drive. If anything goes wrong, send it directly to my nueral net!"

"Aye, sir!"

The ship lurched, and they could hear the gentle hum of the fusion reactor powering up the slipspace drive. He was hoping the ship wasn't hostile. But they could the the damn thing all the way from here! Yes, the camera was on maximum zoom, but that still didn't replace the fact that they didn't sound friendly, or at least not as friendly as the previous two races they encountered.

APS Fearless

"Commander...what are your files on the Thrasian Empire?" asked Dr. Iccard, bowing her head to him as a gesture of thanks for protecting her vessel.

Relentless Bridge

Captain Bardeck studied the ComScan readout that was being fed to him via the bridge data-link. The third contact anomaly was a ship of unknown origin and obviously a warship class. The Mythrandir ship didn't look too threatening either. The original anomaly was anything but dangerous.

"Sir!" called the communications ensign. "We're receiving a reply message from the first anomaly. They identify themselves as the Vuhifellian Navy."

"Play it for me," ordered Bardeck.

"New contact: Thrashian Imperian Naval Vessel. This is the VFS Aegis Fate of the Vuhifellian Navy. We are currently on a scientific and navigational survey mission. Our purpose here is peaceful. Do not fire. We repeat, do not fire."

Bardeck raised an eyebrow and mused on that. It seemed as if they expected us to start blazing away at any moment, he thought. "What are we reading on the other two ships?"

"Sir the second contact is making a course to place itself between us and the Vuhifellian ship, its-," the ensign suddenly stopped.

"What is it?" queried Bardeck, turning his eyes to the right crew pit.

"Its disappeared sir. Must be some form of cloaking device."

"Are you tracking the heat emissions?" asked Lieutenant Jarek.

"We can...but its very faint. Wouldn't be enough to get a weapons lock but enough to know where it is moving," answered the pressured ensign.

Bardeck nodded. "Very well then...seems either our reputation proceeds us or else there is some sort of misunderstanding...communications, open a transmission line to the Vuhifellian ship. Shift all power from the forward turbolaser batteries and lower shields by 30%. All pilots to their ships to launch only upon my command."

"Transmission line open."


"VFS Aegis Fate of the Vuhifellian Navy, welcome to the Palos System. If your mission is as you say for scientific and navigational survey then you need not fear us. I am Captain Bardeck of the Thrashian Imperial Navy and we mean no harm. You are simply close to the border of a the Thrashian Empire and I have standing orders to be brusque with outsiders. May I speak with your commanding officer?"

An Empire so close to the borders of the Federation? Executive Officer Meehan made sure he got that recorded onto the main computer before proceeding.

"Sir, Slipspace drive at 80 percent readiness, sir!"

"Keep charging until my command!"

"But we'll blow the mysterium crystals if we overcharge, sir!"

"Just do it, lieutenant! That is an order!"

"Aye, sir!"

"Thrasian Imperial Vessel, I am Captain Daniel Meehan, executive officer of the VFS Aegis Fate and currently in command of this vessel."

Relentless

After a bit of tweaking with the frequencies and a few muttered curses about industrial guilders, the communications crew had managed to duplicate the Vuhifellian signal and opened a long-term line to it, allowing Captain Bardeck to communicate fluidly.

"Good to meet you Captain Daniel Meehan. As one military man to another you can understand why I seemed overtly aggressive when we discovered you...perhaps it wouldn't be too much if you could ask your new friends in the cloaked ship to uncloak and power down? We have no intention of attacking or boarding either of you. Are you from Terra? You're speaking a familiar language to Basic so I only assume you are.

As I was saying, you are near the border of the Thrashian Empire; well not all of it, but one of its major outposts, the Troma System. If you are searching for scientific knowledge on this system and of space technology, then allow me to invite you to come to the Troma System. The regional governor can provide you with anything you might need."


Lieutenant Jarek was sitting next to another communications station sending another message.


Attention ship of the sovereign nation of Mythrandir. This is Lieutenant Jarek of the Star Destroyer Relentless of the Thrashian Imperial Navy. As you no doubt heard from our open transmission to the Vuhifellians, you are near Thrashian controlled space. We have no quarrel with your nation and have no wish to start one. My captain has extended a hand of diplomacy to both you and the Vuhifellians, if you so wish to become acquainted.

The space began to twist and distort again as the Fearless decloaked, it was sitting directly between the Aegis Fate and the Thrashian Star Destroyer.

"Cancel yellow alert. Power down weapons but keep shields at 25%" Cavourna ordered from the bridge, "And send the following message to the Star Destroyer"

The Ensigns saluted and began to carry out their tasks.

Meanwhile a message was sent to the Star Destroyer

TO: Thrashian Warship

Our apologies for the cloaking and powered weapons but in unknown parts
of space it is better to be safe than sorry.

Captain Alexander Cavourna
APS Fearless

The Admiral sat there, silently staring into the cieling. The blank expression on his face told the other humans that he was fully logged in with the nueral net. Downloading the files on what to ask aliens if ever engaged in peaceful conversation.

There were no files.

He quickly logged out and returned the Captain's remarks.

"I think it's prudent we learn more about each other. History, science, technology, navigation. All the necessities. There is a great deal which you possess which we do not comprehend, and undoubtly there may be knowledge which we possess which you do not dream of. But, judging from the size of your vessel, I'm not sure if the trade would be an equal one."

The Admiral noted that this ship had no rotating sections, but pure artificial gravity.

"If you wish, we offer our entire race's history files as a gift."

Elthos looked around the room for a moment as if his eyes could take in the entire ship from this single closed off room. "This vessel does not represent the standard size of Forge naval vessels. Most tend to be smaller in size than this one but size only goes so far as practicallity. A ship of this scale is necessary to house all of the equipment, scanners, and workers to sustain a successful universal survey mission."

The elven captain walked over to the table that contained the holoprojector embedded in its surface. After pressing a few buttons, the imagery of the system faded away and was soon quickly replaced by four images hovering above the floor appearing larger than life. Each holographic image represented the different races that inhabited all of Mythrandir. From the Admiral's right, a dwarf sat at the edge with a man, a griffon, and a high elf made up the four beings peering down at the Admiral and his human escorts. Elthos finally straigthened and turned back to the Admiral. "I believe the files on your people will be most beneficial and helping us understand the natures of your people. Now I would like to introduce to you the leaders of our Kingdom. The ones who have been chosen by our people to lead us through the turbulance that does seem to plague the universe."

Elthos walked around the table to stand between the holographic images and the Admiral. "Elders, I would like you to meet Admiral Norman Francke of the Vuhifellian States. Admiral, these are Elders Thrandur of the dwarven clans, Sebastian of the humans, Raigar of the griffon clans, and Alurial of the light elves."

Each Elder bowed a head as they were introduced sending their greetings to the Admiral and his followers. Captain Elthos was about to continue on with his introductions when warning sirens sounded throughout the ship.

Elder Sebastian looked at the elven captain questioningly. "What's going on Captain?"

The elf wasn't entirely sure but the sound could have only meant that another ship had suddenly entered the system sending off all the warnings. "Thereasa, do we have more visitors?" Elthos' deep voice was calm and commanding, hoping to assure the three humans that there were no problemsn to be had.

"Yes Captain. We have just detected another ship entering this star system. They have identified themselves as the Thrashian Empire. It appears that this solar system as on the edge of their territory."

The Elders above spoke quietly to themselves for a moment before returning the communication in front of them. "This name is known to us. Take heed Captain Elthos for we know not where their true allegiances ally but we do know what they belong to. Our allies have informed us much of galactic politics."

The four Elders allowed the new presence to pass from their minds in order to focus on the guests that were present in the room. Speaking for the Elders, Sebastian smiled slightly as he studied the three forms facing him. It seemed that the universe was full of human races scattered all through the stars. "From the copy of the transmission you sent our exploration vessel, I am pleased to see that you are a peaceful people. In these times of uncertainty in the universe, it is always nice to meet a friendly face. As a gesture of good faith since you have provided information on your people, we shall do the same with providing information on our capitol at Mythrandir and some of the basic information of our people that most nations already know about. Perhaps at some time in the future, you and your government heads could visit Mythrandir and see for themselves who we really are. We offer much to those that interested in a close relation with our people."

Bridge:

Thereasa was soon met with a direct communication with the Thrashian warship. She had hoped that the Captain would finish with three Vuhifellians and return to the bridge, but her hopes were dashed when the offer came to her directly. Taking control of command for a short time, the woman had a message promptly sent back to the lieutenant.

"Attention Relentless. The captain of this vessel is currently with a number of representatives from the Vuhifelllians and is engaged in diplomacy. Moving them to a new location will require their consent as well. What interest do you have with the Kingdom of Mythrandir?"

The Admiral looked up at the elder and bowed his head a little.

"Peace...It's funny you mention that, because for the last 600 years, my planet has been engaged in constant warfare. It was only until recently that the entire planet was unified under the Stellar Government. You have my assurances, however, that we do not wish to carry the sins and turbulance of our homeworld to the stars.

"Seeing as you've disclosed your capital, I believe as a jesture of good will, we should do the same. Our capital is New Hivez, on the Vuhifellian continent on the planet Vuhifell Major. I am ethnically Vuhifellian, and we are known for our logic and philosophy. Lieutenant Hikari, here, is from the Aurelian continent, they are known for their vast knowledge and beautiful culture. And Lieutenant Mason is from the Anean continent. Hardy warriors and cunning souls.

We have no member of our crew from the Leasath continent, but they are known for their deavious ways. Their continent has some of the harshest and most unforgiving environments on our planet, and they can adapt to anything almost instantly."

APS Fearless

The doctor sighed and shook her head. It was a good thing the Aegis Fate didn't seem threatening, not like it actually was - the only offensive capabilities it had were to ram itself into another vessel.

Confident that her ride home was safe, she turned once again to the commander, "so, about that reactor..."

The small cubic science probe was furiously streaming data back to headquarters. It had scanned the system and tagged it with a request for action. The request was noted by communications, and a reconnaisance ship prepared.

---

The good Union Navy starship Mariner powered up its drives. Commissioned in 2960, it wasn't exactly the best of ships to serve on, James Jackson had thought. When he had been granted his captaincy, someone in command had disliked him and put him onto an old heap like this one. But the recent tune-up had made it a much better ship.

He tapped in the code, and the spacedock clamps disengaged from the ship. The ship's AI took over, and used the ship's hyperspace injector to open a wormhole with an objective velocity of nine hundred and fifty times the speed of light. The ship moved forward and shot into hyperspace.

(some time later)
The ship's AI issued a slowdown warning, and Jackson immediately snapped out of a light sleep. Before he had time to react, the hyperspace drives powered down, placing him near the borders of an unknown system. He could see a number of small specks of light near one of the planets, and, intrigued, ordered another jump.

A fraction of a second later, he was right next to the small specks of light - which were now definitely starships, and behemoths at that. With the Mariner's comparative size, his instinct was to run - fast - but he flicked the switch to send the standard first contact files, and nervously awaited an answer.
---
(OOC: I have pictures of the Mariner - it's a 3D model, but it's not Solid Edge standard. I had to use Google SketchUp 6. Sorry guys. Top (http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u46/194thjarmatus/NS%20Images/FNSSMariner-Top.png).Right (http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u46/194thjarmatus/NS%20Images/FNSSMariner-Right.png).Left (http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u46/194thjarmatus/NS%20Images/FNSSMariner-Left.png).Isometric (http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u46/194thjarmatus/NS%20Images/FNSSMariner-Iso.png).Front (http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u46/194thjarmatus/NS%20Images/FNSSMariner-Front.png).Back (http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u46/194thjarmatus/NS%20Images/FNSSMariner-Back.png))

APS Fearless

The doctor sighed and shook her head. It was a good thing the Aegis Fate didn't seem threatening, not like it actually was - the only offensive capabilities it had were to ram itself into another vessel.

Confident that her ride home was safe, she turned once again to the commander, "so, about that reactor..."

Cavourna smiled politely and indicated that she should follow him to Engineering. But, before he left, he turned to one of the Ensigns

"Send a message to Alversia, tell them that we need to get a team out here to help them with a virus that is infecting their people. Immediately"

The Ensign saluted and ran to send the message.

The doctor smiled, and followed the commander down to engineering. She was so used to the massive cavernous design of human engineering rooms that she half expected to see holo panels showing the ship's current slipspace state outside the room's door.

"Thank you for your help with the Remona virus. We have a 'cure' ourselves, but seldom of our species can survive the extreme levels of radiation it requires."

VFS Aegis Fate

"Thrasian Empire vessel, I believe we have more to fear than you from interstellar warships in this system. Our homeworld is close by, and it is one of the only worlds we possess. We will have to wait on your offer to visit the regional governor until a Vuhifellian military escort can be prepared for us."

The doctor smiled, and followed the commander down to engineering. She was so used to the massive cavernous design of human engineering rooms that she half expected to see holo panels showing the ship's current slipspace state outside the room's door.

"Thank you for your help with the Remona virus. We have a 'cure' ourselves, but seldom of our species can survive the extreme levels of radiation it requires."


"We're here to help" Cavourna grinned as they entered a vast room filled with advanced equipment and crewmen running around completing various tasks

"This is engineering" He said smiling, the room was the length of three football fields"

The doctor almost gawked when she saw the size of the room. 300 yards? The Aegis Fate could literally fit in this single room. She took special notice to order her nueral net to save the images she recieved from her eyes.

"It's...amazing." she checked her nueral net again, and cross referenced the room with the schematics for a Vuhifellian cruiser. The largest Vuhifellian space vessel, the VFS Marathon, clocked in at 2 km. Her engine room was only half the size as this...

"This is incredible. You can fit the entire Aegis in here! How on Vuhifell does all this technology work? I've postulated some hypotheses but I can't be one-hundred percent sure unless I've taken some machinary apart and analyzed it or you tell me."

"Simple" Cavourna pointed out various machines and matrixes, "The entire ship is run from this room. There are backups obviously but of something needs fixed, this is where it's done."

He showed her a large console "This machine controls the Gravity field of the ship. It takes the gravity of outside the ship and compromises it so we can stand. Every system is different and some have no gravity all. Like here. This one console produces enough photon power to keep 4,000 people and a ship full of ancillaries on the ground. Quite an impressive piece of kit"

"That's amazing. I've always speculated on the existance of gravitons, but it appears they may exist after all. The artificial gravity I've designed uses high-velocity, rotating Aluminum-Magnesium barrels. I haven't tested it yet, but I'm hoping it will yield similar results."

She pushed some of her hair out of her face before getting closer to the machine, saving numerous shots of it into her nueral net.

"Do you mind if I see it closer? Or do you have even better technology to show me?"

"Well," Cavourna licked his lips, "This is my personal favourite"

He brought her down a few meters to where another piece of machinary appeared to be buried halfway into the floor.

"This is a plasmatic, photenicgenic Reimaging and modulating device. It's the central piece of our cloaking device."

He smiled, "Would you like me to explain how it works?"

"I have a theory, but let me hear you explain it to me."

The Navy was extremely interested in this technology, more than it needed to be. And she, as the Navy's leading scientist, had standing orders to learn as much as she could from any alien races she came across.

Cavourna shook his head and waggled his finger in a mock scolding,

"Well I can't tell you. Such a secret is top priority, as are our phase cannons. I'm afraid I can't show you them. On the other hand, a minireactor is quite alright if you would like to follow me"

He indicated they should move on.

Meanwhile, not so far away from the Fearless, another Alversian ship came out of warp. This one was smaller and seemed to have less weaponry than the bigger Battlecruiser. It was the Cruiser Defiant and she was carrying the Medical Teams and Scientists needed to combat the virus, as well as the materials needed to produce the vaccine.

"Aw, and I was having fun, too," she was joking, of course. But she was having fun. It was good to finally meet someone who knew more than her.

"Ah. Right. The mini-reactor. That should help a lot with my nano-technology research..."

A message came through in Cavourna's earpiece as he lead Iccard through the room. He turned to her and smiled
"Our Scientists have arrived if you would like to greet them? They're aboard the APS Defiant. Shall we head over now? It will only take a second" He asked casually.

"Ah. Yes. I believe I have the files on the Remona virus tucked away in my nueral net somewhere..." she quickly searched through the hard-drive that was lodged in the back of her brain, and raised a fist into the air.

"Yes. I have all files relating to the virus. You're lucky I downloaded them just before we left Slipspace. Shall we leave?"

"Indeed" Cavourna touched the piece in his ear, "Control? Two to transport to the Defiant"

"Hold on a moment, sir" The voice replied.

A flash of light and they were on the bridge of the Defiant. The Captain, a lean and elegant young Woman came to Cavourna and saluted. He returned it.

"Doctor Iccard of the The Vuhifellian States, may I introduce Captain Katherine Mercer of the Alversian People's Ship Defiant?"

Mercer held out a hand to Iccard, "Pleased to meet you" she said.

Jackson frowned. He had waited, and had received no reply. He twisted the dial to switch through the frequencies, but there was still no response.

Suddenly, the computer picked up what appeared to be a... neural frequency? Jackson decided to give it a shot. He modified the package slightly and sent it on its way again.

Alien vessels, this is the Union Navy Starship Mariner. We are in-system doing research. We extend a hand of peace to you and your nations. Please respond.

APS Defiance

Dr. Iccard took the woman's hand and gave a firm handshake, "Likewise, ma'am. I understand you are here to help us contain the Remona virus. I have to thank you personally. I've seen a lot of friends killed by it."

VFS Aegis Fate

Captain Meehan, temporarily in command of the vessel in the admiral's leave, began hearing voices in his head. Normal thoughts would have deemed him insane, but a cursory analysis into his nueral net showed he was still connected to the system.

That was dangerous. If the system got corrupted, he would've been killed instantly. He quickly disconnected the USB cord from the back of his neck and began ordering his crew around once again.

"Lieutenant McLees. It seems we have another visitor in-system. They've sent me a message through the net. Patch a message to them via our radio channel."

"Aye, sir."

New contact: Union Navy starship Mariner. This is the VFS Aegis Fate of the Vuhifellian Navy. We, too, are on a peaceful mission in this system. Since you initiated first contact, protocol dictates that we await your response.

APS Defiance

Dr. Iccard took the woman's hand and gave a firm handshake, "Likewise, ma'am. I understand you are here to help us contain the Remona virus. I have to thank you personally. I've seen a lot of friends killed by it."


"Glad we could be of service, Doctor" Mercer turned to the three men and two women who had assembled behind her, "These are the Scientists who will help you with the Virus. Doctors Rose, Moss, Sandler, Jones and Davids. They each nodded at the mention of their own name.

"Now then," Dr Sandler came forward "Can you tell us what this Virus is?"

"It would be best if you dicussed this in the Conference room" Mercer replied firmly.

"Agreed" The Scientists and Iccard left

"Well? What is it?" She asked again.

The doctor was unsure as to wheather or not their technology was too advanced to simply copy onto a human media format and let them see the files directly and individually, so she explained it to them directly from her nueral net.

"The Remona virus was discovered 141 years ago, in the year 1999, by Dr. Icarus Remona. It is a viral structure approximately 200 nanometers in diameter. It is a class-A retrovirus, with a crystalline structure housing a single mobius of RNA. It infects the host through bodily fluids, including blood, semen, breast milk, vaginal secretions, and saliva. Direct infection is also possible as the virus's main environment is in saline water. Should any contaiminated water get onto any exposed skin, the virus will seep it's way in through the sweat pores.

"The effects of the Remona virus are simple, yet deadly. It finds it's way to the central nervous system and begins to replicate itself in the lubricant fluid of the brain, spinal cord, and eyes. The crystals which make up the virus act as an acid which slowly dissolves nerve tissue. The virus's density usually forces it to reside in the spinal region of the human body, causing the slow, and terribly agonizing and painful death of the victim through the destruction of the spinal cord and the surrounding bone and muscle.

"The products of the Remona virus are paralysis, blindness, mental retardation, and, most often, death. Destruction of the Remona virus is possible with a very high and constant dose of gamma radiation, although this treatment usually kills the host as well. Current success rates for this treatment have been 0.5281%"

The doctor stopped speaking, looking at her alien colleagues. The smile on her face gone, she pushed her glasses back up and sat down.

OOC: Are you making this stuff up?

Suddenly, the holographic display tagged one ship as the VFS Aegis Fate, and brought up a message notification.

The notification icon sped towards Jackson, stopping in front of him and unfolding into a short message.

New contact: Union Navy starship Mariner. This is the VFS Aegis Fate of the Vuhifellian Navy. We, too, are on a peaceful mission in this system. Since you initiated first contact, protocol dictates that we await your response.

It appeared to be on the same neural frequency (Jackson could just imagine what his counterpart's reaction would have been to a direct-to-brain message).

Suddenly, an untagged black ship warped in. It started speeding towards the three ships at 225,000 km/s, making Jackson wince in sympathy for the pilot of the ship. Then the Mariner's intranet sphere locked into the other ship's. It was the Mercy, a hospital ship that had disappeared in the area in 2980. From the look of it, it had been extensively modified with heavy weapons - a pirate ship, Jackson realised, shocked. A fireball erupted from one of its weapons - and Jackson saw, horrified, that it was aiming at the Aegis Fate. He engaged the warp drive, and positioned himself between the fireball and the Vuhifellian Navy ship.

TO: Vuhifellian Navy ship Aegis Fate
FROM: Union Navy ship Mariner
Captain of the Aegis Fate, prepare for heavy weapons impact. The ship that has just fired is a pirate ship, and it is equipped with some of the most powerful weaponry available in the Union. Make ready.

OOC: Are you making this stuff up?

OOC: Yes. Every bit.

OOC: GREAT, So I can make up a completely fake yet smart sounding answer :D

Unfortunatly, the Fearless was still between the Aegis Fate and the Thrasian Star Destroyer when the fireball collided with her shields. The ship rocked for a few moments before stabilising.

"Damage report!" Cavourna demanded from his bridge. The room had dimmed and was now full of red flashing lights

"Shields withstood impact! Sir, down to 2%!" One of the Ensigns called.

"Bring the shields to full power and prepare to engage! Give the Aegis Fate cover as it withdraws!" Cavourna yelled.

Thw crew saluted and soon the Fearless was setting an attack pattern on the pirate ship.

Meanwhile the Defiant went to red alert as well. They maintained a close proximity to the Aegis fate came under direct attack

"Dammit!" shouted Meehan, "Lieutenant Van, what's the status on the Slipspace Drive!?"

"It's in overcharge, sir! Drive will begin destroying the mysterium crystals in 15 seconds!"

"Turn us around and activate the drive. We've come under enemy attack!"

Another voice piped up in the bridge, "Aye, sir. Adjusting heading to two-four-zero-zero-zero-point-one-four-nine. Bringing us in distance of the Vuhifell system, sir!"

"Drive will destroy itself in ten seconds!"

"Activate the drive!"

Brilliant bright light dazzled around the Aegis Fate, engulfing the ship in the glow of a thousand suns. Then...she was gone.

Slipspace

What the Vuhifellians didn't know, was that, because Slipspace had alternate physics, messages travelling at the speed of light also travelled much, much, faster within slipspace. Vuhifell was already aware of First Contact.

And so, the VFS Marathon, a two kilometer long cruiser, pride of the Vuhifellian fleet (and just completed a few days ago with a price tag of a few trillion credits), sailed through Slipspace, and reached her destination much faster than the Aegis Fate, due in part to an improvement in the design of the Shane-Lorenzo Slipspace Drive.

Light flashed at the edge of the Sigma Delgrassa system, another bright light appeared, and a massive slipspace tear emerged from the light. Slowly, painfully, the cruiser made it's way into normal space once again...

VFS Marathon (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c7/Pillar_of_autumn.jpg)

Mariner to alien fleet. My hyperspace scanner is reading more ships inbound. I'm summoning a Union Navy cruiser and two carriers to compensate. Out.

Targeting graphics made themselves visible around his chair. Each one tagged one of the eight ships inbound - five red, three green. The green ones were obviously the Union Navy cruiser Monroe and the carriers Kime and Columbia. The red ones had no targeting information, but Jackson had a hunch that he'd know soon enough. He engaged the realspace drives to try and keep up with the Aegis Fate, maybe riding the tail of its hyperspace jump - suddenly, though, a huge starship came out of hyperspace. Jackson's jaw dropped. The computer figured out the scale, tagging it at two kilometres long - bigger than most of the Union's starships. An automatic datamine on the neural frequency was initiated, bringing up the name 'VFS Marathon on the display. Jackson set the drive to follow and walked over to the backup terminal, where he sent a first-contact report to Union Navy command. It was routed through microwidth wormhole connectors on the incoming hypermoving cruisers, and flashed back to Central in a fraction of a second.

Star Destroyer Relentless

Captain Bardeck was fussing over his controls and trying to figure out his reply to the message the Vuhifellians had sent, saying that they felt they should return to their own home and await a military escort of their own people before traveling to Thrashian space, when the ComScan ensign reported a third signature entering real space.

Lieutenant Jarek was first to react. "Shields to full notch, power up forward batteries!"

"Where is it coming from?" asked Captain Bardeck.

"Twenty-degrees down angle, 800,000 kilometers and closing," reported ComScan.

"Sir! We're intercepting a transmission from the Vuhifellian ship to the new arrival. They're friendlies apparently."

"Second contact!" reported ComScan again, the ensign starting to sweat a bit.

"Weapons ready yet?" Lieutenant demanded.

"Weapons aye," reported the Weapons Officer. "Forward batteries on. Tracking second contact."

"Message intercept from first contact," shouted Communication. "Reports that second contact is a pirate ship."

"ComScan reports weapon energies and heavy armament on second contact. Contact's firing!"

Captain Bardeck absorbed all that was going on on his bridge in a flash. His holo tactical display, which he had called up a moment before, showed him the position of all the other ships in the system in relation to his own. He watched as a small marker appeared to show the second contact, the pirate ship, firing its weapons. "Impact ETA and target?"

"Alversia vessel, impact 3 seconds."

"Forward batteries have weapons lock and firing solution," reported Weapons Officer Keller.

"Fire to disable," ordered Captain Bardeck, a grim look on his face. "Advance at flank speed, I want the flank tractor beam to get him. Range to tractor beam lock?"

"100,000 klicks sir," reported Lieutenant Jarek.


The Relentless plowed forward at top speed. With a flash of red and inaudible blasts four batteries of heavy turbolaser cannon opened fire and smashed into the rear of the pirate vessel, smashing through its shielding with the repeated blasts and piercing through to its engines. ComScan reported in an immediate loss in power in the pirate vessel.

"Flank tractor beam crew reports a lock. He's in our beam," Jarek told Bardeck.

"Fire a round of ion cannon shots, disable any other weapons," ordered Bardeck.


They watched as the vessel was further disabled by the skilled weapon crews of the Relentless. It hung motionless and defenseless in space, slowly being dragged closer to the Star Destroyer.

Captain Bardeck tapped into his communication array. "Now its time to see just who the hell that first contact is and why a damned pirate ship is following in his wake. Com, get me a line! Weapons crews remain ready and shield up, he may have friends close behind. Also, send a message back to the task force, we may need some company."

"Aye sir."

Unknown ship, you are within the sphere of space that borders the Thrashian Empire and are of an unknown nation. You do not seem to be unfriendly but then a pirate ship came in your wake and you may just be a red haring to help your other pirate buddies. You are to remain in position or we will tractor beam you in and board you...so, please, explain your actions and origins.

Relentless, this is Mariner. I am powering down my engines now - let me assure you that the pirate ship is no work of mine. However, my hyperspace scan tells me that he has five friends on the way.

Jackson caught a fast encrypted exchange on another frequency from the Relentless, but the ship's computer didn't have the resources available to decode it.

A second later, the five pirates dropped out of warp. Two headed for the Marathon, two for the Relentless, and one, the biggest, at one-point-five kilometres, covering both the Defiant and Aegis Fate. Unfortunately, the third and fourth ships' vectors brought them close enough for their point defense turrets to take out the armour around the base of the Mariner's command center. Old volatile materials stores detonated, blasting a chunk out of the Mariner - this chunk held the command centre.

'Computer - transmit on all frequencies!' Jackson shouted, then amended 'except the pirate ones!'

In-system fleets, this is the Captain of the Mariner. My command module has been separated from the rest of the ship, and dead in space and unarmed. Some form of assistance would be greatly appreciated at this time, as the three-ship allied support fleet on a heading for this system has an ETA of just over one hour. Please respond.

With luck, the entire assembly of ships would hear, and, well... he didn't know what they would do after that.

Relentless

"Sir, we're getting a reply from the first contact. It identifies itself as the Mariner from the 'Union'. I'm not sure what that means, but the ships transponders are reading a negative on all archival codes we have," reported Lieutenant Jarek.

"Could it be a Fedral Union ship?" asked Captain Bardeck.

"No sir, weapons signatures as well as transponder codes don't match any known Fedral Union ship, and its definitely not a new model or else our intelligence would have warned us. Also the message said something about more pirates coming, so I've kept the shields up and charged up the rest of the turbolaser and ion cannon batteries."

"Thank you lieutenant," Bardeck dismissed him for a moment and turned to the young communications ensign. "Did we get a reply from the task force yet?"

"Aye sir, secure holo-net channel. Commodore Daniels said that the Marduk is inbound, ETA 24 minutes. Our other escorts will be here in ten."

"Very good. Continue monitoring the frequency."

"Contact! Five inbound at thirty-degrees up angle, 1.2 million kilometers and closing fast," yelled the ComScan ensign. He was having a really bad day.

"Calm down," ordered Lieutenant Jarek. "Do we have weapon lock?"

"Weapon lock aye," replied Officer Keller.

"Two targets breaking off and making towards us," reported the calmer ensign. "Size and designation around corvette or frigate."

"All fighters to launch," ordered Captain Bardeck. "They don't have any it seems and we'll use that to our advantage."

Bursting like bats out of hell, four TIE Interceptor squadrons launched from the hangar bay of the Relentless. They split into their respective groups, about 12 to each, and headed towards the pirates. Flight Commander Halleck grinned wolfishly as he maneuvered his Interceptor into a new attack formation. "Black Saber Leader to Home One, we're making our attack run at the nearest enemy ship."

"Belay that Black Saber Leader," came Lieutenant Jarek's voice. "Your orders are to shift attack lanes with Condor Squadron and make runs at the Destroyer-class pirate ship threatening the Vuhifellians."

"Copy that Home One, Black Saber Leader out." He shifted com channels and updated his small tactical screen, sending the information to his sqaudron. "Black Saber Leader to squadron, we're going to protect that little ship over there boys and bag ourselves a Destroyer! Just remember to not scratch the paint and that last one home buys the drinks."

Two Interceptor squadrons screamed away on a new vector and started their attack run on the largest of the pirate ships. The other two squadrons sped up on boosters and launched a ferocious attack on the two nearest ships. Concussion missiles and laser cannon fire blistered out from them like a host of arrows towards the pirates.


"Helm, swing us about thirty degrees port. Weapons officer, have the starboard batteries ready to fire," barked Captain Bardeck. "Lower our rear shields and boost forward and starboard."

"Power transfer done in twenty seconds," commented Lieutenant Jarek.

"Turn done," reported the Helm.

"Weapons lock confirmed on foremost target," said Weapons Officer Keller.

"Fire, fire to destroy," said Bardeck.

The Fearless beared in on the Mercy firing from the two powerful phase cannons on each flank. When she was close enough, she also started to pound it with torpedoes and ion shots.

Then she was clear

"Report!" Cavourna demanded from his bridge.

"Sir! Enemy ship is heavily damaged, crippled unable to return fire!" One of the Ensigns called, "Minimal damage in return"

The Fearless, which dwarved the Marathon moved around again.

"More Hostiles incoming! I detect at least five!"

"Send a message to the fleet! Tell them we're under attack and that assistance would be nice!" Cavourna ordered.

The Ensign saluted and turned to her console.

The Fearless came around for another attack.

VFS Marathon

"This is Captain Velnir Schultz of the Vuhifellian Navy. In command of the cruiser, Marathon, we'll take care of these two ships threatening our twelve o'clock, then we'd like an explanation as to who in the hell drove the Aegis out-of-system. Marathon, out.

The bridge of the Marathon was significantly larger than the Aegis Fate, and the hallways weren't as cramped either. A large, holo panel appeared in front of the Captain as he sat down in the command chair.

"Lieutenant Sallega, I want you to charge up the MAC and fire when ready. I'll manually input the firing solutions."

"Aye, sir!"

The MAC was short for Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, the most lethal, non-nuclear weapon in the fleet, and a weapon Dr. Iccard had personally designed.

It would, when fully charged, fire a 300 metric ton ferrous depleted uranium, tungsten-cobalt slug at its target at 4/10 the speed of light.

"MAC is fully charged, sir!"

"Get ready to launch Fighter Squadrons 666 and 777 as soon as the MAC fires. Firing solution is one-three-zero-point-zero-zero-two degrees. Distance is in Firing Zone C. Fire at will, lieutenant."

The entire bridge crew felt the ship lurch and shudder, and felt a large vibration as the MAC round ripped its way out of the ship towards its target. Out of the main viewscreen, they could see Longsword fighters swarming around and getting in formation.

From the camera, they could see two distinct insignias. One was a hellhound ripping apart chains. The other was an Angel descending from Heaven.

The pirate ship that was closest to the Vuhifellian cruiser flashed, her shield's imploded, and a massive hole could be seen in her starboard side. The MAC hadn't destroyed the ship. It's velocity had simply carried it through and cut a clean hole straight through. But it left a vital opening.

The Captain pressed a button on his holo panel, and shouted into the microphone on his lapel, "All fighters, engage target at will. Send them to the Afterlife, boys."

"Aye, sir!" was all that filled the bridge. The MAC gun was beginning to charge again for another shot at the pirate ship nearby the crippled vessel, while swarms of Archer anti-capital ship torpedos raced towards the shield-less pirate vessel and created a fine line of explosions along it's hull.

In-system fleet, this is Mariner captain requesting pickup! Please respond!

Jackson hit a red button on his command-chair armrest, and a shudder ran through the Mariner command module. Unfortunately, it didn't immediately perform the desired function, and he had to slap the button twice more before the emergency ejector came online. An emergency real-space powercell in the command module's underside came online, activating the inertial dampers and powering up an emergency engine mounted on the command module's base. The ship's computer immediately selected the Marathon and threw the module/escape pod towards it at thirty thousand kilometres per hour.

Marathon, this is Mariner's command escape pod. Please indicate an appropriate docking installation of some type and prepare for impact - I am making an emergency landing run. Mariner captain out.

"Roger. This is the VFS Marathon, please dock at emergency repair station A-16, located on the starboad side of the vessel. Note that if you don't want to slam into two meters of Titanium-A and steel, you'd better make sure you know how to fly that thing!"

The Captain, once he was done broadcasting his message, stood out of his command chair and grabbed the microphone from above his head.

"This is the Captain. All personell in starboard sections A-F are to evacuate to the port side of the vessel immediately. Blast doors are to be shut down and oxygen routed to the storage tanks. Brace for impact on sections A11 to A19."

Before he put his microphone away, he punched in new targetting codes for the new MAC round on his holo panel and ordered his lieutenant to fire.

He felt the entire ship shudder once again, and could hear the moaning of the steel as the huge metal slug left the ship. This time, they had decreased the slug's velocity, and instead of punching a hole clean through the next pirate vessel, their shields flashed and the MAC round hit them with just enough energy to penetrate the hull, but not enough to leave it...

They could see small flashes of light aboard the pirate vessel, and a large, grey cloud emerge from the hull as the ship's atmosphere began to dissipate into space...

VFS Marathon, this is Mariner command escape pod inbound to emergency repair station A-16. Engaging automatic slowdown maneuvers now.

A giant metal slug flew past at two-fifths of the speed of light. He was amazed by just how little he'd missed it.

Coming up on A-16 now.

The Admiral looked up at the elder and bowed his head a little.

"Peace...It's funny you mention that, because for the last 600 years, my planet has been engaged in constant warfare. It was only until recently that the entire planet was unified under the Stellar Government. You have my assurances, however, that we do not wish to carry the sins and turbulance of our homeworld to the stars.

"Seeing as you've disclosed your capital, I believe as a jesture of good will, we should do the same. Our capital is New Hivez, on the Vuhifellian continent on the planet Vuhifell Major. I am ethnically Vuhifellian, and we are known for our logic and philosophy. Lieutenant Hikari, here, is from the Aurelian continent, they are known for their vast knowledge and beautiful culture. And Lieutenant Mason is from the Anean continent. Hardy warriors and cunning souls.

We have no member of our crew from the Leasath continent, but they are known for their deavious ways. Their continent has some of the harshest and most unforgiving environments on our planet, and they can adapt to anything almost instantly."

"Perhaps not so amusing as you might believe. All races, as we have come to see, have a history of violence. What we here judge as how people rise above such aggression and become better for it. Peace is within every man's grasp. It just depends on how hard we strive for it."

Sebastian bowed his head slightly to the Admiral and also as a means of turning the conversation over to Elder Raigar. The griffon's beak did not move as he spoke but there was certainly a voice eminating out from him. Their birdlike biology made it impossible for most races to hear their voices, so a translator was around many a griffons neck to help in communicating with others. This one was a particularly tear drop shaped jewel hanging from a golden chain that pulsated in harmony with every word he said.

"A well versed society, Admiral. Intriguing how different cultures are separated by different landmasses. Still, if you have indeed risen above your violent past, we would like to help you in your endeavours. A trade of goods and services are best when starting a new partnership. I am confident that there is much we can find mutually beneficial here. But first I feel that we must alleviate any questions you might have at this time. Is there anything you wish to ask us?

This is the Marathon. Roger. Repressurizing airlock outside of A-16. Please follow docking procedures and stay in your craft until the hanger door closes. Thank you.

At this point, the Captain began forwarding standard docking procedures to the command pod, including approach patterns and proper locking protocol.

"Perhaps not so amusing as you might believe. All races, as we have come to see, have a history of violence. What we here judge as how people rise above such aggression and become better for it. Peace is within every man's grasp. It just depends on how hard we strive for it."

Sebastian bowed his head slightly to the Admiral and also as a means of turning the conversation over to Elder Raigar. The griffon's beak did not move as he spoke but there was certainly a voice eminating out from him. Their birdlike biology made it impossible for most races to hear their voices, so a translator was around many a griffons neck to help in communicating with others. This one was a particularly tear drop shaped jewel hanging from a golden chain that pulsated in harmony with every word he said.

"A well versed society, Admiral. Intriguing how different cultures are separated by different landmasses. Still, if you have indeed risen above your violent past, we would like to help you in your endeavours. A trade of goods and services are best when starting a new partnership. I am confident that there is much we can find mutually beneficial here. But first I feel that we must alleviate any questions you might have at this time. Is there anything you wish to ask us?

The Admiral looked almost shocked when the griffon's mouth did not move, but moved on quickly, turning the conversation to one of trade.

"Yes, if it is all possible, I'd like to know what trade materials you possibly have to offer. I can hand over a list of our export materials if you wish, and what items we need for imports. We may control several planets, but that doesn't mean we don't have industrial and economic needs."

At the sight of the Fearless three of the smaller pirate vessels turned and fled. They knew not to mess with a fully armed Battlecruiser. So now there were two against three and the odds were against the Pirates.

"Ensign!" Cavourna shouted, "Prepare phase cannons for firing!"

"Readied sir!"

"Await my command, I want to see the Vuhifellian's reaction to these outnumbered pirates. Will they fire? Or negotiate?" Cavourna leaned forward in his chair with interest.

"This is the Vuhifellian cruiser, VFS Marathon, flagship of the Vuhifellian Home Fleet. To all hostile vessels within the system firing upon the Marathon and other alien empires, including, but not limited to, the Thrasian Empire and the alien vessel currently described as the "APS Fearless", you are to surrender immediately and prepare for boarding by a Vuhifellian marine contigent. Failure to do so will result in your destruction."

(OOC: Message was directed to the pirates, in case I was too ambiguous in my post)

ooc mind if i drop in


a jem'hadder attack ship the first of the new Pyroclasm class ships exited warp speed. the vorta a man by the name of jarrod said to the jem'hadder first whats out thier . afew alien shipsn said the jem'hadder first berencoms from the blaze to all alien vessels i am jarrod a vorta of the SHIRIAN millirty empire we come in peace to greet your peoples end coms.

"This is the Vuhifellian cruiser, VFS Marathon, flagship of the Vuhifellian Home Fleet. To all hostile vessels within the system firing upon the Marathon and other alien empires, including, but not limited to, the Thrasian Empire and the alien vessel currently described as the "APS Fearless", you are to surrender immediately and prepare for boarding by a Vuhifellian marine contigent. Failure to do so will result in your destruction."

(OOC: Message was directed to the pirates, in case I was too ambiguous in my post)

OOC: You've turned on us? Fine, have it your way.

TO: VFS Marathon

We are here as Allies but any attempt or thought of bordering our ship shall be met with deadly force. We come here peacefully yet you desire to conquer us? Maybe we were wrong about your intentions.

CAPTAIN Alecander Cavoura
APS Fearless

OOC: You've turned on us? Fine, have it your way.

TO: VFS Marathon

We are here as Allies but any attempt or thought of bordering our ship shall be met with deadly force. We come here peacefully yet you desire to conquer us? Maybe we were wrong about your intentions.

CAPTAIN Alecander Cavoura
APS Fearless

OOC: No, the message was directed at the pirates. As in, "stop firing on Thrasia and the APS Fearless"

EDIT: Yes, I know I have horrible grammatical skills, but the message should've been like this

"This is the Vuhifellian cruiser, VFS Marathon, flagship of the Vuhifellian Home Fleet. To all vessels within the system which are hostile to the Marathon, Thrasian Empire, and the APS Fearless: You are to surrender immediately and prepare for boarding. Failure to do so will result in your destruction."

the vorta replied board the blaze? i dont think so

jem'hadder first beren arm all phaser arrays arm all torpedoes raise shields and lock on to the Vuhifellian vessel
but do not fire we came in peace but if you atempt to board us we will attack.
you have five earth standard minutes
to retract the threat of boarding the blaze or else be prepare to be boared by the jem'hadder

the vorta replied board the blaze? i dont think so

jem'hadder first beren arm all phaser arrays arm all torpedoes raise shields and lock on to the Vuhifellian vessel
but do not fire we came in peace but if you atempt to board us we will attack.
you have five earth standard minutes
to retract the threat of boarding the blaze or else be prepare to be boared by the jem'hadder

[OOC: No offense dude, but until you develop better grammar and spelling skills, I'm ignoring all your posts in this thread; that, and the fact that you completely ignored my explanation post on how the threat was not directed at your vessels. But, then again, it doesn't matter since I haven't even initiated contact with you anyway.]

Marathon command, sorry to interrupt you, but I have an ETA to A-16 of fifteen seconds. Prepare for impact.

The command capsule smacked down onto the floor of docking station A-16 at a measly 300 kilometres per hour. It screeched across the floor, slowing down, until it finally came to rest at the foot of the opposite wall. Jackson popped the emergency top hatch and climbed out, remembering too late the standard protocol that you should always wait for the other to make the first move.

1234 hours, March 3rd, 2554 (Military Calendar)\
UNSC frigate, the Endless Night, Sigma Delgrassa System

Much like the Thrashians, the UNSC was keeping an eye on its own borders, as large as they were despite the fact they had just fought a major war with the Covenant. It was because of that war that they were a little anxious about things such as the battle going on with the pirates. Sensor Station Hades had detected the communications but saw no need to interfere. They didn't want to enter until they had fully determined that they were friendly; the static caused by gravitic anomalies, gravity wells of planets and the distorting affects of blackholes and the sheer distance of the system had caused parts of the message to be distorted and left out, leaving them with no idea of what was going on. However, the part about the pirates, followed by energy and kinetic discharges, had caused them to respond.

So it was that a large blue portal of energy appeared as the Endless Night exited Slipspace to arrive some distance from the separate fleets. The frigate (http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/halo/images/thumb/7/72/Frigate_3.jpg/600px-Frigate_3.jpg) was small when compared to the Alversian, Thrashian and Kostemetsian ships, but it packed a wallop with its single MAC cannon, Archer missile pods, and a set of Shiva-class nuclear warheads. In addition, it held Marines and ODST's for anti-boarding, boarding and ground actions, as well as Longsword fighters to go out and engage enemy fighters. In short, the UNSC Navy was a versatile thing; just at the moment it was very weak.

Commander Delores stood at her station, eyes gazing at the tactical screen. She cursed having no A.I., but they still, even in the aftermath of the war, get them out fast enough for the depleted UNSC fleets. She sighed mentally and then pushed it out. "Lieutenant Briggs, report."

The sensor officer tapped in more commands on his computer, eyes scanning the data. He seemed incredulous, as if something was off. "I am getting some...weird readings, ma'am."

Her eyebrow raised itself in curiosity. "And what are these readings, Lieutenant?"

"Well, it appears to the sensors to see one of those old cruisers the navy used to use, similar to the Pillar of Autumn. The structure, weaponry, even the bloody fighters look exactly like ours. But, the transponders are different, as well as the identification and IFF codes."

Delores blinked twice before refocusing herself. "Interesting. Lieutenant, log that and send it to FLEETCOM, and tell them we may have found another race of humans." Shock rippled throughout the bridge as Briggs nodded. His screen flashed and his eyes widened. "Ma'am, the pirates are engaging the various ships, although they are doing well." A beeping sounded and he cried out.

"Ma'am, three pirate ships coming this way!" Delores snapped into action.

"Very well; looks like we get our initiation into the party here. Bring us to Code Red; Ensign Shara, get my weapons online. I want the MAC cannon prepped, all Archer missile pods unlocked, and that nuke armed. Briggs, tell the Longsword pilots to get going; I want some cover. And tell the Marines to get armed, and ready for some boarding action. I better see Pelicans raring to go in five minutes. Westman, shift vector to course zero-five-three-tango, declination six-eight-three. And for godsakes, get some targeting data on the damn things. I want to know what we are up against."

The frigate blasted into space, swooping slightly under the course of the three ships which had fled from the Fearless. Upon seeing the Endless Night, they must have thought such a small ship would be easy pickings. Delores intended to prove them wrong.

OOC: Hello, good to see you in FT, and in my techbase no less. ^^

OOC: Well, my entire FT nation is based on the UNSC, even Dr. Iccard is based off of Dr. Halsey.

The Captain looked perplexed at the Alversian's response...

"Perhaps there's been a misunderstanding...we are about to board the pirate vessels which are attacking both of our fleets..."

It was then when several lieutenants on the bridge began fiddling with their holo moniters, someone shouted 'additional contact'.


"Bring them up on the main screen!"

A few seconds later, and the UNSC Endless Night popped into view, Captain Schultz nearby collapsed.

"Lieutenant! This better not be a joke! That looks exactly like one of our corvettes! What in the hell...Gah! Nevermind! I want all engine power diverted from main thrusters to the MAC, let's help these boys out. Something has to be up for our vessels to look so god damned similar! Target the pirate ship nearest to the Sigma Delgrassa star! Bearing one-one-zero-point-five-four-nine. Two degrees from the solar eliptical! Fire the MAC when ready!"

"Aye, sir!"

The Endless Dawn, unaware its counterpart was as shocked at their similarities as they were, shot forward to engage the pirate ships. Around the ship, the three Longsword squadrons they held in its hangars shot out and formed a defense grouping around the ship. All over the ship, Marines ran back and forth, their dark green armor shining in the lights of the ship as they hauled boxes of ammo and weapons across the decks of the ship. They rushed to ready themselves for the coming boarding action.

Delores stood on the bridge, hands gripping the bar in front of her as she watched the pirate vessels converging on them. "Ma'am!" She switched her gaze to look at Briggs. "What is it, Lieutenant?"

"Our lookalike appears to be coming at our aid; I detect scans on the leftmost pirate ship and a build-up of magnetic energy. They appear to be readying their MAC gun." She nodded.

"Understood. Keep your eyes peeled for anything else."

"Aye, aye ma'am." She turned to her weapons officer, Ensign Shara. "Ensign, are we in range for our MAC cannon?"

The woman gazed at her screen before replying. "Yes, ma'am. Unless they can move faster than light, we can hit him hard now." Delores nodded.

"Very well; prepare to fire the MAC cannon on my signal and fire a single salvo of missiles from Archer pods A thru F just behind the MAC round. Then, unload another salvo at the pirate ship that is being targeted. Time them to hit after their MAC does its work. Finally, use up all of G thru L, and have all Longsword squadrons move to engage. I want them to disable, I repeat, DISABLE the last pirate ship. I want info and I want it yesterday."

She turned to look at Westman. "Lieutenant, I want you to shoot us past them and bring us about as swiftly as possible."

"Understood, ma'am." She turned to gaze at the ships as they came closer and closer, until finally..."Fire."

The cannon flared and the round shot forth at 2/5 of the speed of light. The pirate ship, seeing the attack coming, tried to move. It only succeeded in turning the ship sideways, where the weaker shield strengths were. When the round hit, a large explosion occurred, followed by a shimmering effect common with when shields went down. The Archer missile pods designated lit up as well and hundreds of missiles shot through space. They impacted with the hull, causing a fireworks show in space, as craters in the pirate ship appeared, shooting oxygen, flame, and bits of ship into space. The second pirate ship had another salvo coming its way, moving to hit after the THS MAC round had done its work.

Finally, the last pirate ship, having seen what was happening to its fellows, turned to avoid the attacks, its starboard batteries opening up on the Endless Night. The frigate blasted through, dancing through space as best as it could under Westman's gentle touch but it couldn't avoid everything. Energy blasts slammed into the hull, pitching Marines and crewmembers alike onto the floor as flame burst from the wounds. Security doors shut and the flames were vented into space, preventing large-scale fires.

It had gotten a shot in...now it was their turn. The full salvo of Archer missiles caught up with it and peppered the shield with overwhelming firepower. The shields lowered, but were not weakened. This was followed by three full Longsword squadrons swooping in for the kill, unleashing ASGM missiles to impact at the weakened points of the shields, overloading them. They moved around like bees, slamming the batteries with 110 and 120 mm autocannons, causing spurts of fire and debris to exit the ship, while one full squadron unloaded everything they had at the engines. A huge explosion, followed by waves of energy, signalled the engines downfall. As the engine flickered out and died, a voice crackled over the comm.

"Commander, this is Corporal Easely; target has been disabled, I repeated, target has been disabled. We recommend Marine support."

"Understood, Corporal. Continue dealing with those weapon emplacements; the Marines are on their way. Endless Night out." She nodded to the communications officer, who sent the orders for the Marines to get moving. They had work to do.

Relentless

The fighter sqaudrons deployed by Captain Bardeck performed as they were expected to: with perfection. Barrel-roles between point defense and magnificent fighter formations that entirely confused the crews aboard the pirate vessels. Laser cannon and concussion missiles rained down at vital points, causing fountains of flame and debry to fly.

"Home One, this is Black Saber Leader; we've depleted our missiles and are starting to be buffered in our usual dive runs. Requesting to return to ship and rearm," Flight Commander Halleck reported in over the com.

"Copy that Black Saber Leader," replied Lieutenant Jarek. "You've landing permission. Good job so far. Home One out."


While the fighters of Black Saber and Condor squadrons had helped to attack and fend off the large destroyer-class pirate vessel, the Relentless and the other fighter groups had taken care of the two closests frigate-class pirates that had attacked the Star Destroyer directly.

The formost had held its ground for barely minutes before the deluge of heavy turbolaser cannon and ion cannon fire obliterated it in a deluge of death-dealing light. The explosion wracked the second enemy vessel along with the stinging efficiency of the TIE Interceptor fighters.

"Second pirate frigate eliminated captain," reported Weapons Officer Keller.

"Very good Lieutenant Keller," said Captain Bardeck. "Aim our long range batteries at the destroyer-class ship, its still fighting back."

"Aye, sir."

"Lieutenant Jarek, tell me as soon as the Marduk and the others arrive," ordered Captain Bardeck.

"ComScan reports several vessels coming in on a vector from Thrashian space," replied the ensign in the crew pit. Lieutenant Jarek gave him a look but nodded.

"That should be them," Jarek added.

Gliding out of hyperspace like avenging angels came the rest of the Thrashian border patrol task force. The pride of place and at the center of the formation came the Marduk, a Venator MkII-class Star Destroyer (http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Upum/Star%20Wars/inprogress1.jpg). Along side came a second Imperial-class Star Destoyer, the Khanate, two Dreadnoughts, and two frigates, a Lancer-class and a Nebula B-class.

Sitting in his command chair on the bridge of the Marduk like some aged and grumpy rock was the indominable Commodore Kalister. Kalister was considered by some an "Old Man of the Fleet". He'd served for more than forty years and risen from the rank of technician to his present rank. Many expected him to gain Vice Admiral within a year if not sooner.

"Lieutenant Piotr, get me a reading of the battle and deploy fighters when ready," ordered Commodore Kalister.

"Yes sir, Commodore."

"See to it that the pirate filth are clensed from this system."

As the MAC round tore through space, punching another clean hole through another pirate ship, the Captain began to recall the 666th and 777th squadrons back to their hangers.

Emergency Repair Station A-16

As the two large, steel doors to the hanger closed behind him, the Captain exited his escape pod, being watched by one of the automated maintenance cameras.

A squad of Vuhifellian marines was quickly dispatched down to the hanger to greet the alien, and also to inform him of standard protocol aboard a Vuhifellian vessel, as well as to get a damage report from him so they could have the fleet send over a mobile repair station for his ship, if he needed one.

Whatever anxiety he must've felt at that moment would've been put to rest however, when several marines stood in the doorway with their weapons down, their commanding officer gave a crisp salute to his psuedo-superior officer.

Bridge of the Marathon

Before he sent a message to the new contacts in-system, the captain made sure he sent a message back to Vuhifell, first.

To Naval Command at North Point. From VFS MARATHON. SIGMA DELGRASSA SYSTEM.

>>Requesting additional ships at Sigma Delgrassa system. At least two additional cruisers. Home Fleet status?

He then turned to the holo panel in front of his command chair, and began typing a message to the new contacts.

"This is Captain Velnir Schultz of the Vuhifellian Navy. In command of the VFS Marathon. New contact? Your technology appears to be very similar to ours. And your weapon and ship designs, too. Tell us, who are you?"

Jackson was sitting on top of the crashed command module when his hand-held communicator beeped. It had managed to automatically piggyback onto most of the other ships' sensor feeds, and had created a composite image of what was going on.

Another ship popped in - it looked almost... Vuhifellian? Jackson assumed that was what it was... until a flurry of high-level comm traffic between it and the other ships changed his opinion. He couldn't decrypt it from the binary pattern it was in, but they were using different communication protocols, which spoke volumes about their other differences.

The image swung round to show eight holes from hyperspace... *wait, what?* Jackson thought. He'd only requested three ships. Five more network signatures appeared with no IFF tags, telling him instantly what they were - pirates. Luckily, they were converted civil ships, it appeared. Each one, Jackson knew from experience, carried a battery of twenty light repeating masers. Not much of a threat to capital ships like the Marathon, but good enough to take over smaller transporter vessels. They accelerated as if they'd received a kick up the backside.

To compensate, the ships he'd requested had finally arrived. The megalithic Monroe and the equally large Kime and Columbia glided out of hyperspace and immediately jumped into the fray, using targeting and communications data gathered from the Mariner's sensors. He hurriedly piped a line of code to their gunners, warning them not to fire on the new unidentified contact.

After manipulating some directories and files on his terminal, he found the communications directory, filled with standard query files. He sent the 'peaceful first contact / battle' query to the new contact, signed with the Mariner's signature after piggybacking on the Kostemetsian FLEETCOM.

A clunk from the docking station inner door distracted him from his mad flurry of data movement, and his terminal printed up A-16 DOOR UNSEALED. He tensed up, waiting for the interlopers to open the door. Suddenly, the doors clunked to one side and a squad of what he took to be Vuhifellian States marines coming through. He jumped down from his ship, putting away the data terminal as he went.

Formalities were exchanged, and a query was made as to whether his ship needed repair, with the officer in question glancing over at the command module. Jackson politely declined, knowing that the rest of the Mariner was radioactive dust by now.

(OOC: Now for an explanation. The Kostemetsian ships all have their own signature so we know what's coming from where - so if I wanted to contact Ship X, but my antenna was out, I'd use the short-range comms to pipe the message through Ship Y and Ship Z. Too ambiguous?)

"Incoming energy salvo!"

"All hands, brace for impact!"

The third pirate ship, shields failing from the THS MAC round, fired off a full salvo of weaponry at the Endless Night, as it was passing by it. At this range, even the emergency thrusters would prove to be useless. The frigate shuddered as energy weaponry played over its hull, shards of metal blowing out from the hull in great, fiery explosions, The autocannons started up when the pirates own missile weaponry came howling in, filling space with lead and blowing up many of the missiles that came in range. But still, some got through, and the bridge was rocked as the force of the impacts rumbled through the ship.

Delores, crumpled on the ground, clutching the bar, pulled herself back up. "Report!"

"Damage to decks 4 thru 24! Fires raging on decks 13, 45, and 67! Heavy damage to port engine!"

"Enact fire suppression protocols! Have the Marines left yet?"

Briggs checked his sensors. "Yes, ma'am. They exited just before the salvo hit." Delores let out a breath of relief. The communications officer piped up.

"Ma'am, incoming message from our similar friends."

"Patch it through, Lieutenant."

"This is Captain Velnir Schultz of the Vuhifellian Navy. In command of the VFS Marathon. New contact? Your technology appears to be very similar to ours. And your weapon and ship designs, too. Tell us, who are you?"

Delores sighed and nodded to the Lieutenant, who opened a channel to the Marathon.

"This is Commander Rachel Delores of the United Nations Space Command Navy, commander of the UNSC Endless Night. I could say the same for you, Captain. We are just as surprised as you are about our technology. As for who we are, we are a nation of humans who are still rebuilding from a massive invasion. I came here from my border patrol when one of our sensor stations, whom had received fragments of your transmissions and arrivals, noticed the weapons discharged. I was sent to ensure that our borders were safe. If need be, I can conduct diplomatic negotiations. I would suggest that it be done on your ship or somewhere else than here. My ship just got hit hard by the last pirate vessel and some parts are being cut-off due to extensive damage."

The light representing the last pirate ship blinked out, and an explosion registered on the sensors as their Archer missile salvo took its toll.


"Ma'am! We got contacts! Five more pirate ships just appeared!"

Delores's eye twitched. When would they stop coming?

"Alright, Captain, you want to continue this conversation after this? I will stay by this captured pirate vessel, to ensure we find out what is going on. I have my Marines on it and I won't abandon them. I trust you can handle these ships." She nodded to Westman, who shifted their course, albeit precipitously as the port engine wasn't doing well, and headed for the disabled ship.

As she discussed diplomacy with the Vuhifellian captain, the Marines of the 56th Division set out in their Pelicans for the disabled pirate ship. On one of them, Delta 347, Sergeant Parker Morris stood at the entrance of the door/ramp and turned to his men. "Already, boys and girls, you know the drill. Stay with your fire teams and search the place. Keep your heads low and aim sharp. We want prisoners, so don't shoot to kill unless given no choice. The commander won't mind if they all die if it means we don't lose anybody. Any questions?"

"NO SIR!"

"Good, because I haven't had enough coffee to deal with questions just yet."

"Here we go, Marines! Touching down in the hangar now. I don't see any resistance but be careful. I'll remain here for evac."

He nodded. "Understood, Baitely. Alright, helmets on, check your seals; lets rock and roll people!"

The Marines wore the ODST suits since they were capable of space combat and they were unsure if the combat between this ship and the Endless Night had destroyed all the atmosphere in the ship. The ramp lowered to reveal their hunch had been correct, at least for the hangar. It had suffered significant damage, as seen that the doorway sealing the hangar from space was blown apart. They filed out from the multiple Pelicans, onto a carbon-scored floor, and immediately moved out, seeking cover and good firing positions. There was only a single, large door at the end. Sergeant Morris opened a comm channel to the Sergeants of the other fire teams. They were all of the same rank, but he had been given command.

"Alright, let's make this quick and easy. Stehler, Bates, take your fire teams and go check the engine and living quarters sections. Harvey, go look at their armory and science labs, see what they have, if anything. Everyone else, you're with me. We get to go see their bridge and get us some idiots who should've known to stay away." The Marines let out a great cheer and separated off into their groups. Four fire teams went aft, four went to the middle, and the last four heading forward.

Sergeant Locklear was commanding officer of this particular platoon of soldiers, Platoon Number 456-77A, charged with ceremonial duties throughout the fleet. But, he was serious when he needed to be, and quickly got on his shoulder radio to notify the bridge that everything was secure, and that there was no necessity to bring a mobile repair station to the system.

"Greetings, sir. I am Sergeant Locklear of the Vuhifellian Marine Corps," he looked into the HUD in his helmet to check into the camera display. From the looks of it, he wasn't carrying anything volatile or dangerous with him.

"Our Captain would like to speak with you, if you would follow us, please," he motioned for the alien Captain to come along with him. Outside, along the halls of S/A Corridor, technicians ran about, bringing tools with them to rearm the fighters coming in from outside. Occasionally, they saw scientists running around, bringing large books and binders under their arms. Filled with data on the recent combat.

They ascended using service elevator 04. It was the only elevator on the level large enough to hold twenty-odd marines, and, more importantly, it took them just outside the bridge. When they got their, Captain Velnir Schultz and Dr. Ignatio Mobius were standing there to greet the alien Captain.

Temporary control of all vital ship functions had been delegated to the bridge crew, in particular, Lieutenant Issen, in control of the MAC gun, had taken it in her liberty to load the weapon with a massive, 700 tonne, solid ferrous-deuterium round. It packed over 10 times the energy as a conventional MAC round, but was slow to fire and expensive to produce.

But seeing as she now had all six fusion reactors on the ship to charge the MAC, time was no longer a problem. She quickly used her small, slender fingures to punch in targeting coordinates for the closest pirate vessel, then sent the MAC on its way...and such energy!

A normal MAC round would vibrate the ship a little bit, but the round she had just fired made it felt like the ship was breaking apart. Violent lurching occured all over the ship, and the steel moaned and creeked as the giant slug made its way towards its target.

It sped past several UNSC dropship en route to other pirate vessels, and slammed dead center in the middle of its target, and tore through the vessel, from stem to stern...And not only did it manage to implode the shields, no, it did far more than that. The pirate ship literally shattered. Her debris flew in every direction, bounced off of other pirate vessels' shields, and dissappeared into the infinite darkness of space.

"This is the VFS Marathon to the UNSC Endless Night, we'll be uploading our firing solutions to your computer before we launch each MAC round to make sure we don't hit any of your boys. Our marine forces will remain on standby here on the vessel. Marathon, out."

The Marathon had other weapons, too. However, the MAC was, so far, living up to its name as the most lethal weapon in the fleet. Why stop firing to test other weapons?

(OOC: This post starts at the same time as my encounter with the Marines. For these purposes, let's just make 'me' and the character, James Jackson, synonyms. I'm not good with long words.)

Just before Jackson left with the platoon of Marines, he asked them to wait for a second, and slithered back down through the emergency hatch to retrieve his portable computer. In the form of a pair of chrome sunglasses, the portable computer had all the capabilities of a ship's computer or handheld data terminal, as well as being easy to conceal. He didn't think he'd need to conceal it, but some identity data would be useful. The small communications antenna in one arm of the glasses facilitated this.

He looked at the platoon of marines, and his handheld data terminal link told him things he knew already - tagging the platoon leader with SERGEANT LOCKLEAR. He also knew Locklear was scanning him, but decided to leave the matter of the shielded maser pistol till a little later.

He obediently followed the Sergeant and his platoon to service elevator 04, where he handed over the pistol, surprising the hell out of the good Sergeant. Sensor tags told him that there were two humans waiting just outside the upper terminus of the lift shaft, and a fuzzy area tagged 'possible human activity' just behind them. The computer's sensors locked onto the humans outside the lift and tagged them as CAPTAIN SCHULZ and DOCTOR MOBIUS, who Jackson assumed were the vessel's commander and chief medical officer.

He could feel a slight pulling down sensation, which gave him some idea of how huge the vessel was - they had been travelling for thirty seconds already.

Jackson took a deep breath and squared his shoulders, just as the lift floated gently to a stop and the doors opened.

(OOC: I have never been good at making character speeches. Your move, VS.) (OOC: EDIT: AARGH! Quit with the super-quick posting! :P)

OOC: I assumed no ships were near me as I arrived some distance away, and the other two were destroyed. I am currently dealing with the disabled ship. The pirate ships are all near you.

Post will be coming...errr later today for me anyways, as I am going to show a detailed firefight. ^^

[OOC: UNS, oh. Koet, ok, and lol.]

The sergeant escorted him the remaining twenty meters to the bridge, before saluting the Captain and simply nodding to Dr. Mobius.

"For you, sir," the sergeant handed the doctor the plasma pistol he was just given.

At first, the doctor looked at it strangely, before taking it and putting it in his pocket, "Thank you, sergeant. Uhh, Captain, I'll call an aide down shortly to store your weapon in a secure location shortly. But before that, I am Dr. Ignatio Mobius, second most important scientist in the Federation."

Mobius had put an extra emphasis on "second", because, in all his years as a scientist, even in bloody primary school, he was still second to Samantha Iccard. There was no one he respected and hated more.

"And I'm Captain Velnir Schultz," a loud, booming voice rang out. Schultz was a dark, tan man; with dark hair and dark eyes. He wore standard VFN officer's dress; a black uniform with red stitching. The colors were polar opposites of the civilian government, white and blue.

On his chest, just below the SCHULTZ on his uniform, he wore several medals and service bars; although he was only thirty, his face had aged with war.


Extending a quick salute, the Captain began to welcome his new visitor, while a female aide in a white lab coat walked up to Dr. Mobius, he whispered in her ear, and she pocketed the plasma pistol to take it to the bowels of the ship.


"It's a pleasure to have a fellow Captain onboard our vessel, err...your name?"

APS Fearless

"Captain! It appears we are not the target after all, someone onboard the Marathon doesn't know their grammar" an Ensign reported.

"Enough of that! Focus your attention to those Pirate vessels" Cavourna ordered from his seat on the bridge. The Fearless had been orbiting the battle, watching the UNC and other ships engage the Pirates. They had destroyed one pirate ship and, for the meantime, were content to sit back and watch how the battle evolved.

Alversia was new to this part of space and these races and civilisations had never been encountered before. Regardless, Cavourna knew what had to be done.

"How many Pirate vessels remaining Ensign?" he asked, thoughtfully.

"Two, Sir" the Ensign replied.

"Right then, cloak and charge Phase Cannons. Bring us in on an attack run"

The Fearless rippled and disappeared from both scanners and viewpoints as they turned to attack the pirates.

"Contact Two-Alpha has dissappeared."
"Roger. Raising alert status to Delta."
"Roger. Roger."
"Let me get a team down on A-16."
"Yes, ma'am"
"Service team Pegasus, on our way."
"Roger."

The bridge was filled with officers silently talking into their headphones, typing commands in their stations. Trying not to disturb the Captain waiting a few meters outside.

The officers in the bridge had elected to let the aliens take care of the remaining pirates. It would be a waste of ammunition to carry on further, when there were already ships from at least five different navies in-system. No pirate force could stand a chance against the forces currently assembled within Sigma Delgrassa.

The Admiral looked almost shocked when the griffon's mouth did not move, but moved on quickly, turning the conversation to one of trade.

"Yes, if it is all possible, I'd like to know what trade materials you possibly have to offer. I can hand over a list of our export materials if you wish, and what items we need for imports. We may control several planets, but that doesn't mean we don't have industrial and economic needs."

While battle raged around the Myth exploration vessel, relative peace and tranquility was the overall atmosphere aboard the ship. Many times before, other races and nations had asked what the Myths could provide in terms of trade that would help their economies. By now the list was practically memorized for the griffon.

"We are able to supply raw resources or finished products for ship building and other construction needs, a number of natural gasses, food, and we offer a variety of arts and trinkets that may be more appealing to the collective side of your culture. Your list of needs will help us to find a place within the market where we can best aid you. Now, what is that your people can offer in return as trade?

'Captain Schulz, Doctor Mobius, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is James Jackson and I am a Captain of the First Fleet of the Union Navy. One of our - sorry, the Union's - science probes alerted recon command, and they sent the Mariner out on an exploratory mission. Talking of the Union, those are our ships out there, in the black and gold livery. Anyway, the rest is history,' Jackson finished lamely. 'It appears the Mariner is radioactive dust now. I liked that ship, but I suppose there's nothing to be done about it now. As ships go, this is a very fine ship you've got here - I've never seen anything like it. I'd ask you a lot of questions about it, but I suspect I'd only annoy you.'

Mythandir Vessel

"Well, our race can provide you with an excess of luxury items and consumer goods, as well as specialized scientific and industrial equipment, specifically in the manufacture of solid deuterium and plasma steel."

VFS Marathon

Doctor Mobius interjected as soon as Captain Jackson finished speaking, "Oh, not at all, Captain. I was the one who designed this class of cruisers. Right now, a doctor known as Dr. Iccard is trying to design a ship that's better than my design, but until she succeeds, this is our pride and joy."

Jackson felt a very strong impulse to raise an eyebrow, but decided not to. After all, the Marathon was an extremely well-made ship.

Suddenly, a communications alert flashed up on his sunglasses from Commodore Roberts commanding the Monroe. The good Commodore had a few questions to ask the Vuhifellians.

'Captain, Doctor, would you mind if I rerouted a call I'm receiving to your communications person? After all, the call does appear to be for you.'

You know, I really should stop making these edits, they make my posts look bad. Anyway, I'm reading Mobius as somewhat insecure and arrogant - is that what he's supposed to be like?

[OOC: Yeah, if you've been following the posts between me and Alversia, you'll know Dr. Iccard is much smarter than him. He can never get past that.]


"Ah. No problem," the Captain and the doctor both extended USB cords from the backs of their necks and plugged them into a station a few feet away from them.

"Alright, link us."

APS Fearless

Dr. Iccard was having the time of her life analyzing the information.

"A temporal disruption in space-time...interesting," she whispered to herself, before turning back to the doctors in front of her, "Well, shall we get back to work. It seems the warships of the various fleets have everything covered here. We should be safe to resume our discussions."

UNCS Monroe - VFS Marathon Communication Link

ROBERTS: Vuhifellian vessel, this is Commodore John Roberts of the Union Navy Capital Ship Monroe. First of all, I would like to convey the Union's deep apologies for the entry of the pirates into your system. Second, I would like to ask what your heading was before the pirates attacked. And thirdly, I would like to ask if you really want to know how many more pirates are heading this way right now. In fact, I don't believe they're pirates - this looks like an organised attack on a level which they couldn't manage.

(OOC: Ye-hay, government-sanctioned conspiracy theories! Don't you just love them? Guys, this might be an opportune moment to call in your national starfleets... Kostemetsian commanders don't get all ominous for nothing.)

"This is Captain Schultz of the Marathon; our heading when we entered this system is classified and deemed as eyes only, by order of the Military Council. Secondly, these vessels pose no threat to us or to allied fleets within this system. Current losses have fared that not a single allied vessel but Captain Jackson's was destroyed, while most, if not all hostile vessels have been annihilated. Nevertheless, the VFS Dragoon and the VFS Ceres are in-bound to this system. They are both Marathon-class cruisers."

ROBERTS: Acknowledged. Captain Jackson, you are hereby ordered to return to your command pod and await extraction and court-martial, and stripped of your rank.

JACKSON: Sir, I respectfully refuse. As I recall, and as does my ship's computer, the Mariner was sent out here on your authority. And given that my sensors are reading approximately... one hundred and thirty-two... hostile vessels inbound to this system, and rising, I would respectfully suggest that this is no time for internecine conflict.

ROBERTS: <sharply> That is irrelevant. You lost a ship, which I daresay is far more valuable than you. You also lost valuable sensor data. Captain Schultz, I request that you escort Mister Jackson down to a docking bay and transmit to me the location of such, or a Union Marine contingent will extract him by force. Given the large pirate fleet incoming, we shall have to conduct peace talks at a later time. Monroe out.

END LINK

Jackson stood on the Marathon's bridge, mouth open, but no sound coming out. Finally, he managed to speak.

"He... he can't do that. He wouldn't have the authority to demote me unless he was an Admiral, and had signed a million forms in triplicate. There... has to be some mistake. Or something deeper."

"Acknowledged," both men disconnected their USB cables from the terminal and looked at each other.

"Captain Jackson, under Vuhifellian Naval Code, Article Three, Section Nineteen, you are to be escorted off this vessel immediately..." he paused, licking his lips for a moment at the proposition he was about to throw out.

"However, as a commissioned officer that has been relieved of duty onboard a Vuhifellian Naval vessel, we are authorized to give you one of two choices: Either you will be escorted off of this vessel under armed guard, as a civilian; or you can take a commission as an officer in the Vuhifellian Navy. It is your choice, Captain," he made sure to emphasize Jackson's title.

"I believe the Ceres is led by a mere Commander..."

"Captain Schultz, I will join the Vuhifellian Navy. But I should warn you that I will be rejoining the Union Navy when this conflict is over. There have been some doubts about Commodore Roberts' sanity before, but he has powerful friends. I need to take them down before the Union Navy can be removed from its current state of bureaucratic dictatorship."

(OOC: Eventually, there'll be some happy events for my character.)

"I agree. Ensign! Decloak and set us on a continial orbit of the nearest system"

"Aye, Sir"

A small distortion and Fearless reappeared into the galaxy.

"What would you like to discuss?" Cavourna asked her calmly

"Very well," the Captain fiddled with the keys in his pocket until he found the ones for his quarters.

"Take this and change into my spare uniform. As you say you'll be leaving the Navy, I'll be giving you Class-D Restricted Access to navigational charts and technology databases. Although we are of equal rank, you are a junior officer and thus are my subordinate. You are to obey all commands given to you by Vuhifellian superior officers or those with more seniority," The Captain pulled out his PDA and began punching commands in;

NAME >> JAMES JACKSON
RANK >> CPT.
SERVICE >> NAVY
DATE OF ADMISSION >> 07.11.2140 VST
ACCESS >> D
COMMAND >> VFS CERES (CA-003)
CSR >> N/A
CSV >> 0090200019::918AA023Σ

Just as Captain Schultz punched the last few characters on his PDA, two more Marathon-class cruisers had jumped in-system. The VFS Dragoon and the VFS Ceres.

"Ceres, this is Captain Velnir Schultz of the Marathon. I hear you are led by a commander, is this correct?"

"Correct, Captain Schultz, sir. This is Commander Jason Hayes, in command of the Ceres."

"I am relieving you of your post, commander. You will hereby submit control of the ship to Captain James Jackson. You are now the designated executive officer."

"Sir?"

"Those are orders, commander..."

"Yes, sir!"

"Captain," Schultz turned to Jackson, "Get to your ship. And that isn't a request, that's an order. Welcome to the Navy," he snapped a crisp salute, before turning on his heels and heading back into the bridge. Dr. Mobius simply nodded and left."

APS Mercy

(Or Fearless. I forgot which ship we left off on).

"About the treatment for the Remona virus...? I have many questions about your technology, but that will have to wait until later."

"Very well," the Captain fiddled with the keys in his pocket until he found the ones for his quarters.

"Take this and change into my spare uniform. As you say you'll be leaving the Navy, I'll be giving you Class-D Restricted Access to navigational charts and technology databases. Although we are of equal rank, you are a junior officer and thus are my subordinate. You are to obey all commands given to you by Vuhifellian superior officers or those with more seniority," The Captain pulled out his PDA and began punching commands in;

NAME >> JAMES JACKSON
RANK >> CPT.
SERVICE >> NAVY
DATE OF ADMISSION >> 07.11.2140 VST
ACCESS >> D
COMMAND >> VFS CERES (CA-003)
CSR >> N/A
CSV >> 0090200019::918AA023Σ

Just as Captain Schultz punched the last few characters on his PDA, two more Marathon-class cruisers had jumped in-system. The VFS Dragoon and the VFS Ceres.

"Ceres, this is Captain Velnir Schultz of the Marathon. I hear you are led by a commander, is this correct?"

"Correct, Captain Schultz, sir. This is Commander Jason Hayes, in command of the Ceres."

"I am relieving you of your post, commander. You will hereby submit control of the ship to Captain James Jackson. You are now the designated executive officer."

"Sir?"

"Those are orders, commander..."

"Yes, sir!"

"Captain," Schultz turned to Jackson, "Get to your ship. And that isn't a request, that's an order. Welcome to the Navy," he snapped a crisp salute, before turning on his heels and heading back into the bridge. Dr. Mobius simply nodded and left."

APS Mercy

(Or Fearless. I forgot which ship we left off on).

"About the treatment for the Remona virus...? I have many questions about your technology, but that will have to wait until later."

OOC: APS Mercy? None of my names start with an 'M'

APS Determination

"Very well, We have analysed the data you have gathered over the past few months, however, we would still require our own research to ensure that there are no anomilies that we may met at a sub-gene level. Do we have you permission to conduct research on, say, ten infected subjects? The tests are harmless and they won't suffer any permenant damage"

"That's going to be easier said than done, as a general rule, there's a mass quarantine on the infected. No citizen is allowed to serve in the military while they have the virus. The only patients we can get you are on our homeworld."

(OOC: Yeah, I believe the Mercy was one of the larger pirates.)

"Sir. Acknowledged!"

[some time later]
Jackson took one of the ship's shuttle pods over to the Ceres, where he relieved the rather surprised Commander Hayes of his duty.

His first observation was that the ship's observation and detection sensor suite was much better than the Mariner's. Each sensor was like a telescope compared to the Mariner's "eyes".

It also allowed him to see the large mass of pirate ships travelling through... Slipspace?... at seventy light years per hour towards Sigma Delgrassa.

"Weapons, prepare the MAC and set the point defense flak turrets to automatic."

(OOC: I read Fall of Reach. Not a bad book. Also, VS, why are your captains so bloody serious all the time? XD)

"That's going to be easier said than done, as a general rule, there's a mass quarantine on the infected. No citizen is allowed to serve in the military while they have the virus. The only patients we can get you are on our homeworld."

"We can surely wear protective clothing? Or allow a Droid to conduct the tests for us?" one of the Scientists reasoned, "One little mistake in the Cure could cause millions of deaths if we are not careful"

Marduk


Commodore Kalister sat looking at the small holo-image of Captain Bardeck as he brought his ship around to form up with the rest of the task force. The captain was reporting everything that had happened up to that point, a strong fighter screen was keeping any pirate ships away from the maneuvering capital ships.

"From what I can tell sir, the Vuhifellians seem to be a young star faring nation, but a good one. They seem very open and honest...though the others are of course to be left in doubt due to their reactions upon our arrival," Captain Bardeck was saying.

"And you're sure that this...Jackson of the Mariner is not a pirate?" asked Kalister.

"Not entirely sure sir, however the Vuhifellians have taken into custody and also I believe given him temporary status as a naval officer to help them direct their forces."

"Interesting," commented Kalister. "Very well Captain. Form up alongside the Marduk and prepare for a full attack on the newly arrived pirate vessels. You've taken aboard the first correct?"

"Yes sir, boarding teams have captured the crew that were left living and have them in cell blocks on board. We await the end of the engagement to start questioning."

"Good, continue as ordered." With a small bow, the miniature figure of Captain Bardeck disappeared from Commodore Kalister's holo projector. The old commander turned towards his adjutant.

"Captain Karl, bring us about and raise forward shields. Helm to flank speed. Long range batteries to open fire upon targets of opportunity. Give the fighter squadrons free reign, so long as they stay sharp," ordered Kalister.

"Yes commodore," answered Captain Karl.


The Marduk had already divulged its fighter compliment along with the other two Imperial Star Destroyers, and started making its first attack on the pirates. On either side of the Venator MkII-class Star Destroyer, the Khanate and the Relentless took up flanking positions so that they formed a wedge shape. The two accompanying Dreadnoughts formed up above and behind to watch the flank approaches and the Lancer frigate and the Nebula B frigate formed up in the center, their lighter weaponry to watch for any sign of enemy fighters.

Heavy turbolaser cannon roared and ion cannon whined with explosive power and the mammoth Star Destroyers moved into the heart of the combat zone, firing heavy salvos as they came. Fighters brought down more than one vessel with their specially placed laser cannon blasts and concussion missile hits.

The Thrashian Imperial Navy made its presence felt.

[OOC: Koet, Captain's are so serious because...well, it's kind of a surprise to see this many aliens in one system all at once.]

APS Determination

"Very well," she took out a small disk and handed it to her fellow scientists.

"That disk contains the navigational charts for the Vuhifell system. If you want to get any first-hand research done on the virus, you'll have to head there...and be prepared for suffering on a Biblical scale."

VFS Marathon

"Don't let us be out-done by the Thrasians! To all Vuhifellian ships, this is Captain Schultz, the flagship for this mission will be the Marathon. Form an arrowhead pattern and prepare to launch Longsword fighters, fire your MACs once the pirates enter the system! I am authorizing the use of all weaponry aboard your vessels."

APS Determinaton

"Captain, we have a heading" The Scientist turned to Mercer and gave her the data.

Soon the Determination was flying for Vuhifell Major at Warp ten

Vuhifell System
Planet Vuhifell Major

The lush planet was bustling with life, both on the ground and in space. From space, you could see the beautiful blue hues of the oceans, the green, white, and tan that dotted the environment, and the occasional patch of grey; the megacities.

Large pillars rose from the planet, the space elevators, and several space ships, large and small, civilian and military, carried out their business. Large orbital stations could be constructing military vessels in geosynchronus orbit around major population centers...

And then, the Alversian vessel appeared. Radio frequencies instantly jammed from the volume of traffic, and the military was thrown into dissarray, before a broadcast was sent from the nearest space station.

"This is Fleet Admiral Stephen Harper, who in the he-"

"Admiral! Don't shoot! This is Samantha Iccard! Let me explain!" the doctor shouted into her lapel radio, garnering a response from her only superior in the Navy.

"Doctor Iccard...I...very well...we'll speak about this later in Olympia."

The several military corvettes and frigates slowly began to disperse away from the alien vessel, cordoning off the area and telling civilians to get back to their business.

"Nice welcome" Mercer muttered as the Determination allowed itself to be escorted down to the planet's surface.

The more advanced ship was looking for a place to land
The first Alversians to set foot on this land would soon dock.

Air traffic controllers all over the planet's surface were murmuring to each other, while Dr. Iccard guided them over the planet's geography, she settled on the City of Farbanti; on the west coast of the Vuhifellian continent. Not only did it have a space-port that could handle Vuhifellian capital ships, but it was near major military installations and houses the fourth-largest detainment camp for Remona virus victims on the planet.

"Farbanti Space Port, this is Dr. Samantha Iccard onboard the APS Determination, requesting permission to land."

"Uh...roger...please take Dock number 41...it's been reserved for the VFS Valhalla, but it seems it's the only dock large enough to accomodate your vessel."

As soon as they docked with the ground station, she planned on taking them directly to Camp λ, and show them the horror of the virus.

The ship soon settled and the crew were granted 24 hour internal leave. They were not permitted to interact with the locals for fear of causing offense. The Scientists were taken to the Camp while Mercer looked around the space port, making a note of the various ships berthed there.

'Ensign Stacker, point defence turrets forward. Target the pirates. Lieutenant Commander Mendoza, activate the MAC gun and target... that pirate ship. Helm, bring us to five thousand kilometres back from the Marathon's port side.'

Jackson issued a flurry of orders. As the Commander of two smaller battle vessels before the Mariner, he'd gained experience in how to handle a vessel like this. Suddenly, the Ceres' scanners registered one new contact... then five... then another twenty...

They all appeared to be custom-built. Some of them were set up like old-style sailing battle ships, with rows of ten heavy maser cannons on each side. Others had the maser cannons mounted at the front. Yet others had mounted point defense turrets. This was no pirate fleet. One of the capital ships still had its Kostemetsian-issue beacon online. No non-Kostemetsian would understand the code, but Jackson did.

"Ceres to Vuhifellian fleet. These are NOT pirates. Repeat, not pirates. They appear to be rogue elements of the Kostemetsian Navy."

Vuhifellian Marine and Naval forces quickly established a parimeter, with three, small frigates circling several kilometers overhead and local police establishing a constant video stream to the space port and to the military.

Camp λ

The entrance to the Camp was a large, concrete wall that encircled the parimeter, five kilometers from the actual campsite. She led them to a large metal door just inside the concrete wall.

"Please follow me," the doctor asked calmly, she led them into a large steel chamber, before gas started to fill it. It was a sterilizing agent, used to kill any bacteria from the outside, and soon, it was vacuumed out of the chamber.

After their sterilization, a clear, bulletproof glass door opened before them, and they were in a large, brightly-lit white room. Several protective suits lay before them, and Dr. Iccard instructed them on how to put them on.

Technicians clad in orange jumpsuits watched them from a secure room overhead.

The doctor took a roll of duct tape and began taping the oversized gloves firmly onto the sleeves of the large suits. Finally, she ordered them all to put on an airtight helmet, and began attatching the life-support systems to their backs. It was bulky. It limited movement. But it was the only way to survive direct contact with the Infected.

They immediately boarded a Vuhifellian Marine Corps APC, where young officers saluted them in Naval space suits.

Main Complex
Stage-One Holding Area

"As you can see...it's an unforgiving virus..."

She had begun showing them the Infected.

"This is Stage-One," she pointed to a large room filled with several hospital beds. Nurses attended the patients in their airtight suits. The beeping of life-support equipment could be heard everywhere.

"As you can see, the patients appear normal, however..." she struggled to turn over one male patient that was nearest to them, and began undoing his garments. Underneath, on his back, were trails of blood and large, sweltering boils.

"I told you the virus attacks the spinal region, and acts as an acid. It burns through the skin, fat, and bones surrounding the spinal cord first..."

She returned the man to his original position, and as his exposed skin touched the bare bed, he began to scream and violently convulge, scraping his hands against his eyes...before the life-support systems flat-lined, and two nurses wheeled his bed away from the scene...

Main Complex
Stage-Two Holding Area

"This is Stage-Two..." she swung her arms around her as they entered a large room, filled with significantly less patients...but they looked much worse. Boils were beginning to appear across the rest of their skin, and they looked horribly malnourished.

"It begins to attack your central nervous system, sending all of the body's functions in dissarray. The adrenale glands are forced open, metabolism is sped up, and the immune system shuts down. This causing extreme malnutrition, dehydration, boils, scars, and eventually causes heart failure. However..."

Main Complex
Stage-Three Holding Area

"There are 'survivors'...this is where we keep them," she immediately turned away.

There were only a few patients here, but they were not in hospital beds, they were suspended in the air. Several black, metal poles pierced their bodies, and several doctors were huddled around the newest patient, attatching several devices to his back.

"By this stage, the immune system is dead, conscious thought ceases, and with it goes all non-vital brain functions. Reproductive organs such as the testes and ovaries are destroyed, and..."

She brought them closer to one of the patients. His back was completely melted away. They could see his spine and a few of his organs sticking out of the mesh of what remained of his tissue.

"It destroys the skin. Destroys the tissue of the eyes, stops blood from flowing to the mouth. Kills the senses...without these poles in their bodies supplying them with a constant dose of steroids and nutrition fluid...these people would instantly die."

The Scientists looked on grimly, taking a sample from a few patients of each stage and putting in an airtight and shatterproof container. When they had finished, they returned to the Determination and began to analyse their data
"Well? How many people have this 'virus'?" One of the Doctors asked which pouring various chemicals into one of the samples. It turned blue

"Test of reactivationary countaintance sub gene beings successful, rate of assesion is point two" He told one of his collegues.

"Better than last time" He replied, "But not good enough"

"Ever since the virus hit in 1999, over 900 million people have been infected. The amount of Infected which are currently still living is estimated to be near 200 million people, with an annual infection rate of roughly 80,000, thanks to quarantine protocol."

VFS Marathon
Sigma Delgrassa System

"I don't care who they are, Captain. Fire your MAC! Kill them all!"

As the transmission ended, the Marathon fired another one of its heavy, solid deuterium rounds at the first vessel to appear out of the slipspace. It shattered, just as the others did.

The Dragoon had begun to fire several of her smaller gauss cannons instead of her main MAC. They could see the rounds bouncing off of shields.

"Well this is our plan so far. You say the Virus acts as an Acid?"

The Scientist held up a small needle with grey gunge inside

"These are PhRDPN, or Nanites to rest of us. Inject a person with this and they will sit away in the body's cavity, dormont. The first traces of the virus as these things will spring to live and attack the Virus itself. The Virus will be neutralised into water and pass through the body as normal. That is the Prevention," The Scientist frowned "We need to find a cure, now"

The doctor hung her head and slowly looked up, folding her arms.

"You say it will dissolve it into water, however, our species contains a fair amount of salt in our bloodstream. The virus's first outbreak was in a fishing village. It was later discovered that that is the virus's natural environment: saline water. I don't know how effective that treatment would be."

The doctor hung her head and slowly looked up, folding her arms.

"You say it will dissolve it into water, however, our species contains a fair amount of salt in our bloodstream. The virus's first outbreak was in a fishing village. It was later discovered that that is the virus's natural environment: saline water. I don't know how effective that treatment would be."

"The water would be pure, no salt content whatsoever and we can adjust the doages to make it more Alkaline if need be. It will be more...unpleasant...but not as bad as the current condition" Was the response from the busy Scientists.

The MAC round passed straight through five of the pirate ships, shattering them all.

Suddenly, a missile launched from one of the larger capital ships to strike the Ceres. The section hit was immediately highlighted in green with a biocontamination warning, spreading rapidly throughout the ship.

"Christ!" Jackson hissed. "Jackson to damage control. I want that bio-deposit cleaned up now!... Damage control?"

Damage control didn't respond, and Jackson saw with a growing sense of horror that the bio warning had hit them.

"Seal off all entries and vents to the bridge!" he yelled.

Mythandir Vessel

"Well, our race can provide you with an excess of luxury items and consumer goods, as well as specialized scientific and industrial equipment, specifically in the manufacture of solid deuterium and plasma steel."

(A tad bit difficult to keep up with this thread. Hope you do not mind if this sort of becomes a short conversation to help move it along.)

"Your resources sound interesting enough that we may be interested in looking into them. I believe we will be able to compliment each other's markets nicely."

The griffon looked over to Sebastian who then took control of the conversation. "If your government will be satisfied with a mutual trade agreement, then I believe this is a good start to a relationship between our people. I would like to offer your government the chance to send a diplomat to our home and take up residence in a diplomatic palace. There we might better work out more details as they come up. It would also give your government a direct line of communication to our ear."

Sigma Delgrassa System
VFS Ceres

Commander Hayes quickly removed his PDA from his pocket and furiously punched in several codes. In the bridge, red warning lights began to flicker on. He had closed the lower sections of the ship from where the missile had hit, and began venting the atmosphere from the contaminated areas.

He ran over to a female lieutenant on the bridge, pulled her aside, and began speaking to her. Her face was firm as she pulled a key from her pocket.

"Captain Jackson, sir!" shouted Commander Hayes, "with your permission, I request that we arm this ship's nuclear and ion weaponry."

Mythandir Vessel

"Agreed, further agreements can be discussed once we can get a permanent envoy to your nation."

Vuhifell System
Planet Vuhifell Major
Farbanti, Greykan Province, Vuhifellian Continent

"I'm still concerned about possible salt absorbtion from the human body...however, I believe it's safe to say that with your superior technology, we can be able to submit the vaccine to the Council of Health for approval."

Sebastian smiled at the agreement. "Then I believe that will conclude our discussion for now. I look forward to meeting whoever comes to represent your people. The good Captain here will see to your needs. Farewell Admiral."

The holographic image of the Elders faded away like dust on a wind leaving the Vuhifellians along with the elven captain. "Admiral, we will escort you back to your ship if that is what you so desire but be advised the current state outside space here is a bit hostile at the moment. If you wish to leave now, we can escort back so no harm comes to you or your personnel."

"Agreed, Commander. Unlock the Shiva warheads. I believe we have," he consulted a terminal display, "five of them onboard. Use them to maximum effect. I am also opening up the ion fire control computers and effecting a lockdown and compartmentalisation of the ship."

The Ceres came about to put a MAC round through one of the larger pirate vessels, then sped forward into the midst of the fight.

As the Marathon and the Dragoon both fired their MAC guns, they were loaded with "light", 100 tonne rounds. The reduced weight allowed both ships to fire three rounds each within a minute.

The lightweight solid steel round didn't pack enough energy to destroy their targets, however, as six rounds were fired, lights on six ships flickered and vanished, and the grey plooms of venting atmosphere could be seen. Longsword fighters launched their missiles and torpedos, having devastating effects on the unshielded and wounded vessels...

But there were still over one hundred of them left, and only a handful of allied ships within the system: three Vuhifellian, one Mythandir, one Alversian, and Thrasia yielded the largest, and, in the Vuhifellians minds, the most powerful fleet.

ooc: Just how many pirate ships are left? I don't see a half-dozen uncoordinated scum giving my task force much trouble. If anything they should all be either dead or fled by now...

ooc: Just how many pirate ships are left? I don't see a half-dozen uncoordinated scum giving my task force much trouble. If anything they should all be either dead or fled by now...

[OOC:Supposedly, there's a 140+ ship fleet that's just arrived in system.]

Marduk

The battle was not going as well as the Commodore had originally intended. The enemy contingent had continued to grow exponentially for the last half hour. More than one TIE Interceptor and Bomber squadron had reported in losing another wingman as the small green and red tactical sigils on Kalister's command hologram screen changed colors, indicating wounded and dying ships.

One of the accompanying Dreadnoughts had undergone a serious blow from astern and below by three frigate-class pirate ships, losing their starboard and rear shields within moments. The loss of these shields allowed enemy missiles to smash into the hull continuously until it ruptured and tore the ship apart. The debris had caused the shields on the Relentless to flare.

Both Imperial Star Destroyers were taking on heavy fire, their larger builds attracting more enemy fire and attention than the slightly smaller Venator MKII or the Lancer frigate which used its small frame and speed to execute spectacular maneuvers resulting in several enemy deaths.


Captain Karl, Kalister's adjutant, snapped his heels together in a quick salute as he came up to the commodore's command chair. "Sir, we've already sent the necessary message via tight-beam transmission. The likely hood-."

"Of the enemy knowing anything is nil," interjected Commodore Kalister with his gruff, bear-like baritone voice. "I understand that captain. When can we expect Moff Grice to react with the Troma System Fleet?"

"Within twenty minutes to an hour. It depends on how alert the system fleet was at the time of our message's arrival, and whether or not Vice Admiral Gilbraec will fully cooperate. You know how much the Vice Admiral and his lordship the governor clash sir."

"I'm well aware of that fact Captain, thank you for the frank and very blunt opinion," growled Kalister appreciatively. "In the mean time, have our forward batteries concentrate on that small group of cruiser-class pirate scum up ahead at around 20,000 kloms."

"Aye sir."



Nearby Troma System

"I'm aware of that Major, and thank you and all your staff at the Intelligence & Recon for alerting me to this," said a tall and regally aged man to the miniature holo figure on his desk. "Alert Vice Admiral Gilbreac immediately and send a Red Alert order to all ships within the system. Have them rally at point Delta-77B for quick hyperspace jump."

"As you command lord governor," the intelligence major said. The figure bowed and disappeared as the holo projector closed down. The aged man who sat in front of it, behind a large and well carved nalwood desk, studied the small edge of his wide office desk as if it held a secret that he direly wished to know.

It wasn't easy to be a system governor in the Thrashian Empire, the dual job of regional imperial representative and all controlling baron. You had to deal with unexpected things, unpleasant things. One of which was an overly boisterous Vice Admiral who mocked you behind your back and worked continuously to undermine your authority. A vice admiral who was also a member of the extended Royal family and therefore untouchable. It called for a lot of brandy.

The holo projector beeped, indicating that someone was calling. With ill thoughts as to who it might be, Governor Grice pressed the answer button.

"Speak of the devil, if ever I believed in them," said Grice in a exaggerated tone of amusement.

The miniature holo figure was that of a man of medium stature and yet completely captivating looks. To call him handsome would be an injustice by some, the word did little to describe the sheer magnetism of the man. He was muscular and well featured, blond haired and green eyed. He practically oozed charisma.

"The only devil you ever see old man is when you dream of your wife," smirked the Vice Admiral Gilbreac.

"I'll ignore your childish antics for now, Gilbreac, simply because time does not permit me to create a commentary that would be necessarily long enough to describe the numerous shortcomings that you pervade...we have piratical scum engaging one of our patrols on our own borders."

"I'm aware," said Gilbreac petulantly.

"Then see to it that this does not turn into a debacle and embarrass yourself, or your command...the Emperor would not enjoy hearing of losing yet another ill-commanded venture," Grice quietly warned.

Gilbreac's smirk vanished to be replaced by a stern, smoldering hate-filled grimace. "I suppose then that I should be on my way. By your leave my lord governor?"

"Indeed Vice Admiral. God speed."

Without another word Grice switched off the holo connection and leaned back in his chair. He sat for several minutes thinking...before finally deciding that he did indeed want a glass of brandy.

One of the pirate ships fired another missile. Jackson almost opened his mouth to order evasive maneuvers, then noticed that the missile hadn't been aimed at the Ceres. It was travelling at 100,000 kilometres per second towards one of the distant Thrasian ships. Jackson checked the missile's signature, and received a shock when the computer told him it was a hybrid bio-warfare/shield-knife warhead. He knew shield-knives were being developed for the upper echelons of the Kostemetsian Navy, which simply added to his conviction that they were rogue Kostemetsians. ...Rogue?

Shaking his head, as if it would clear the thoughts, Jackson was possessed of a sudden surge of anger, and ordered his weapons officer to put some hurt onto the aggressor. In quick succession, three holes made their way through the pirate cruiser's framework.

Vuhifell System
Planet Vuhifell Major
Farbanti, Greykan Province, Vuhifellian Continent

"I'm still concerned about possible salt absorbtion from the human body...however, I believe it's safe to say that with your superior technology, we can be able to submit the vaccine to the Council of Health for approval."

"Trust us, the multi-adaptional bots should ensure that no damage is suffered by the patients. Now," The Doctor frowned, "We need a cure"

"Very well," the doctor now pulled out a PDA from her pocket and began filling out the appropriate paperwork. Within minutes, the Star of Life, the emblem of the Council of Health, appeared on her PDA. With her signature, the vaccine was approved.

"Now if you can manage to cure the Remona virus...I think our entire species would be endebted to you."

"We do have an idea" The Scientist smiled
"I'm afraid that those who have suffered brain damage are beyond even our help but we can help those who are suffering up to Stage two.
This is a Biohygenic-Illusiona Calculating Nanobot or BICN for short, what we do with it is place it on the body and let it work through the blood stream, when it finds a corrupted piece of tissue, a boil or opened adreneline glands for instance, then it will take three trillion pieces of data per microsecond on the neighbouring tissue, on the remainders of what is left and other various calculations and will reform itself to replace that function
We regularly use them to replace bones or damaged organs and there is no reason why it shouldn't work for this as well"

"Medical nanorobots? I see. Robotic systems such as the one you described are in use within the Federation, but are limited to deep space mining and industry. Seeing as there hasn't been a violent medical reaction to any cybernetic treatments within the past 100 years, I believe it's safe to assume that your nano-robots will do no harm to Vuhifellian citizens. Allow me to fill out the appropriate paperwork and approve clinical trials."

"Medical nanorobots? I see. Robotic systems such as the one you described are in use within the Federation, but are limited to deep space mining and industry. Seeing as there hasn't been a violent medical reaction to any cybernetic treatments within the past 100 years, I believe it's safe to assume that your nano-robots will do no harm to Vuhifellian citizens. Allow me to fill out the appropriate paperwork and approve clinical trials."

"Very good" The Scientists could only wait

Within minutes, the Star of Life appeared once again on her PDA, along side the logo of one of the local corporations, OSEC.


"The nanorobot cure has been approved and has been endorsed by the OSEC corporation. It would obviously be beneficial if the vaccine and cure were produced on Vuhifell, as to lower costs and raise supply. Should you approve of that measure, then OSEC will take full responsibility in the doling out of vaccine and cure."

A small distance from the edge of battle, the vacuum of space began to twist and distort, as if being torn from the inside out. Then, with a burst of raw energy, a massive rift in the fabric of space-time opened, disgorging the ships of Task Group Judicator one after another. The flagship, the KSF battlecruiser Blade of Valor emerged first, followed by the destroyers Archangel and Gladius, as well as the assault carrier Aegis.

Blade of Valor

"Captain. I'm picking up multiple energy signatures in the area, both weapon and drive."

Captain Mara Lorant steepled her fingers, a single brow arched.

"How many, lieutenant?"

"Difficult to say, ma'am, but an estimation of between 140 to 200 is the sensor read. Analysis also indicates there are two forces, neither of which match any known profile. They're not Star Demons."

Tapping in commands, the young officer brought up the Tactical Overlay on the bridge's display. The larger attacking force designated red, while the smaller force was color coded blue.

The lieutenant then glanced at his captain, a grim smile upon his face.

"However, ma'am, sensors do indicate that the energy profile of Red Force is a match for the raiders that attacked the Tor Salim colony."

Captain Lorant smiled, the expression akin to a wolf sighting prey.

"Well then, I suppose we should return the favor... Order the Aegis to launch both Acolyte fighter wings. The Archangel and Gladius are to join the Blade and lock all weapons upon priority targets, heaviest to lightest."

The junior officer grinned, and began relaying the orders. As fighters began soaring from the carrier's hanger, and fusion missiles and mass driver rounds began streaking towards the pirate fleet, Captain Lorant opened a comm channel to Blue Force.

Unknown vessels, this is Captain Mara Lorant, commander of Task Group Judicator of the Kaladrian Dominion. We offer our assistance. Please relay any possible tactical and sensor data concerning the opposing force to facilitate targeting and command decisions. Death before dishonor.

(OOC: Kaladria, welcome. I should note that since the pirate fleet is a group of rogue Kostemetsians, you're technically godmoding there... but I'll let you get away with it :D)

Jackson's communicator alert beeped, showing him yet another new contact. He groaned, thinking one of the weaker pirates was breaking and wanting to negotiate - but then he saw the signature. It wasn't a pirate signature.

Captain Lorant, this is Captain James Jackson, formerly of the Kostemetsian Union Navy, now of the Vuhifellian State Navy ship Ceres. I'm not authorised to make a decision, but I believe your assistance would be greatly appreciated. However, you may have chosen a non-fortuitous time to enter the system. I'm transferring you to our task group commander Captain Schultz now.

He hit the appropriate buttons, then told his weapons officer to fire another swarm of flak at the smaller pirates.

Within minutes, the Star of Life appeared once again on her PDA, along side the logo of one of the local corporations, OSEC.


"The nanorobot cure has been approved and has been endorsed by the OSEC corporation. It would obviously be beneficial if the vaccine and cure were produced on Vuhifell, as to lower costs and raise supply. Should you approve of that measure, then OSEC will take full responsibility in the doling out of vaccine and cure."
"Not a problem, the cure was never meant for profit," The Scientists smiled, "Knowing they will save millions of lives is reward enough for us"

The doctor smiled at that thought. Vuhifellians had always been good at developing technologies that made their lives easier, or augmenting their bodies, or technologies which killed people. They had never been too good at medicine. It had been deemed an 'unimportant science' in previous centuries.

But now her world was finally realizing the important of medicine, and she hoped that the cure to the Remona virus would spur an exponential growth in medical technology.

"Yes, I'm glad for that, too. If you wish, you may visit the government offices of my nation. We can surely accomplish more, here on my homeworld, than we did in deep space."

The Scientists and doctors seemed to be thinking about it for a second before shaking their heads
"Thank you for your offer but we would prefer to remain here and try to find a cure for Stage Three. I doubt it is beyond our abilities, we just need data. DO you mind if we hook one of these wave measurers to ten subjects and let us see their brain patterns, if any?"

The Scientists and doctors seemed to be thinking about it for a second before shaking their heads
"Thank you for your offer but we would prefer to remain here and try to find a cure for Stage Three. I doubt it is beyond our abilities, we just need data. DO you mind if we hook one of these wave measurers to ten subjects and let us see their brain patterns, if any?"

"Go right ahead. Our equipment hasn't been able to detect any brain patterns beyond keeping the organs functioning, however. But then again, you have a much deeper knowledge of medicine than we do."

"Go right ahead. Our equipment hasn't been able to detect any brain patterns beyond keeping the organs functioning, however. But then again, you have a much deeper knowledge of medicine than we do."

"Well these are slightly more advanced than your equipment, if we get any pattern at all, then we know there is hope, if not, at least we tried"

The Scientists watched as a series of small pads were attatched to the head of one patient and a machine turned on.
It was flatlining, but the Scientists and Doctors simply settled down to watch.

This is the Ceres to the Allied fleet. Four new allied contacts. One has launched a fighter squadron. Transferring coordinates now - do not fire upon them. I repeat, do not fire.

One of the Ceres' heavier topside cannon turrets swiveled to fire at one of the pirate gunboats flying by, making a hit carrying such force that the pirate ship shattered into several glinting pieces.

"Helm, take us in, high speed."

The Ceres' engines shot the craft forward into the densest swarm of pirates. Each of the turrets swiveled to take on a strike craft, destroying and switching targets every couple of seconds. Tactically, the Ceres was flying into the deepest darkest pits of hell.

"Sir! Another contact! It's..." the navigator trailed off.
"It's what?"

Suddenly, a huge, gaping rip opened in the fabric of space, and a giant, monolithic starcraft glided out. The Ceres was flying over the bow of the ship, and one of the grooves on the surface alone could have accommodated ten times the width of the Ceres. The ship was so gigantic it was causing minor gravitational distortions. Suddenly, a path showed itself on the radar sensors, and the Ceres dipped down it, into a tunnel leading into the depths of the ship.

"We still have contact with the fleet," Communications reported.
"Okay. Send the following message."

Allied fleet, this is the Ceres. Our sensors report that this target is too dangerous. I suggest you fall back to the nearest star system and call upon whatever fleets you may have... even if the fleet was twenty-five times its current size, it would not make a difference. We, the crew of the Ceres... he paused, wondering whether to say it or not... may not make it out of here alive. Good luck and Godspeed.

Marduk

The specialized enemy missiles aimed at with the intention of destroying the integrity of the Thrashian Star Destroyers failed. Using a tactical doctrine introduced more than thirty years prior by Grand Admiral Thrawn, the Lancer-class frigate that lay in wait, shadowing the Star Destroyers movements, used its advanced anti-fighter/missile targetting system and advanced laser cannon array to completely wipe out any missile threat to the Thrashian Capital ships. That however did not keep the second escort Dreadnought from being overwhelmed and destroyed by several cruiser-class enemies.

The shields on the Marduk flared once again as enemy fire impacted upon its near invisible surface. Commodore Kalister gritted his teeth. Captain Karl noticed his commander's knuckles whitening as they clenched tightly in frustration.

"What are our shields looking like?" questioned Kalister.

"The forward and flank shields have been reduced by a marginal 30 percent, whereas the rear shields remain at near perfect levels. I've seen to it that energy reserved for point defense has been shifted to backing up the shields, and shunted about 20 perfect of the rear shields to the others," reported Captain Karl.

"Very good, be sure however to maintain our current speed. The longer we stay in one spot the easier we are to corner," growled Kalister.

The Star Destroyers had kept in their original formation as easily as if they were on a parade exercise. Their size and power allowed them to bully their way tight nit areas of enemy vessels and break through, only to swing back around in formation to smash the enemy once again.

"Commodore!" shouted an ensign in the crew pits. He gained several scowling looks from the deck officers and captain karl. He however didn't care.

"Sir, ComScan reports a vessel about to leave hyperspace and entering the system."

"What about it?" asked Captain Karl.

"It's registering from our sensors as a super dreadnought-class vessel."

The entire bridge went silent at this. It was one thing to be outnumbered by a numerically superior, if qualitatively inferior foe...but to be put against a vessel that could take more than a hundred times the damage of an Imperial Star Destroyer and dish out nearly as much in return...it was near suicide. Each man on the ship gained a birds-eye view of that futility as the ship itself came into real space. Commodore Kalister was the first to react.

"Helm, bring us about eighty-degrees and increase our speed to twice flank speed. Bring us within long range battery fire of the new enemy command ship. Lower forward shields and shunt their power to the engines! ComScan, analyze the ship and send any information regarding weak points to our fighter squadrons, have them begin harassing it; their ordered to ignore all other targets."

The bridge burst back from its trance-like state into a hive of activity. Captain Karl coughed perfuntionally and leaned forward next to Kalister. "Sir, we've nearly run out of our supply of concussion missiles. Our bomber squadrons have already returned to their bays because our supplies of shadow bombs is gone...what good will they do?"

"Enough good to distract them," replied Kalister, his voice now grim. "I have faith in them to use their current stock of weapons to the best of their advantage."


The Star Destroyers came into long range distance from the super dreadnought and Kalister ordered all heavy long range batteries to concentrate firepower on the forward bow of the ship, as well as ion cannons at specialized targets where ComScan reported a high output of energy and therefore a connection hub for the enemy ship's ability to operate.

"Sir, we've just received a message from one of the other national ships in-system fighting the pirates," reported Karl, showing the commodore a data card.

Allied fleet, this is the Ceres. Our sensors report that this target is too dangerous. I suggest you fall back to the nearest star system and call upon whatever fleets you may have... even if the fleet was twenty-five times its current size, it would not make a difference.

Commodore Kalister laughed. Crew members turned and stared as the old grizzled man roared to the roof with laughter. His whole frame shook. Karl almost thought he saw a tear fall. Once it had subsided, the commodore cleared his throat and opened an open com channel over his ship and that of the Khanate and the Relentless.

"Men, this is your commander speaking. Our would-be allies have just sent us a message in light of the arrival of the new enemy vessel. They warn us and others that it is too dangerous to face. That we should retreat. That we are not enough to face this new foe..." He let his words hang for a moment, letting them sink in. One thing that no Thrashian has ever been called is a coward. Commodore Kalister played on that and the pride that filled every beating heart aboard the ships of his command.

"We are the Thrashian Imperial Fleet. We have fought enemies more than twice, nay three times, our strength and triumphed. We have faced down the horrors of Chaos and the insidious influence of the Sith. All the way back to Antiquity, we Thrashians have never surrendered nor retreated unless it was thought a proper course of action to further the lively hood of our people.

"Gentlemen, I tell you this because to retreat now would invite this foul piratical scum to follow us to our home ground and pillage and attack our loved ones. It invites us to throw our pride and dignity to the dirt, to forget the lessons of our forbearers and to forget our heritage. More than that...it offends the man we have all sworn fealty to until death in his service. So I ask you: Shall we fight?"

A roar of voices filled the bridge, both from those standing on it and from more than a dozen speakers and men from all the ships responded. A new fire of enthusiasm was lit within the hearts and stomachs of the Thrashian crews. If die they must, they said, then they would do so bringing down an enemy that dwarfed them by legendary standards.

Just as Commodore Kalister was ordering for the batteries of all the ships to concentrate fire on a certain point, as fighters scrambled across the gargantuan surface of the enemy super dreadnought, firing and going down in what some considered a 'blaze of glory' the ensign sitting in the crew pit aboard the Marduk, now highly enthused by his commander, nearly cried in joy. His smile stretched from ear to ear.

"Captain! Commodore!" he called.

"What is it ensign?" asked Kalister. "I swear if its another enemy vessel of that-"

The ensign cut him off in mid-speech, a brave act under any other conditions but at that moment more than appropriate. "No sir. ComScan reports a large number of vessels coming in from hyperspace in quadrant AA-7, twenty degrees down angle and to our stern. Sir, one of the signatures matches the Gallic Conquerer!"

"BY DAMN!" shouted Captain Karl, forgetting himself completely in the moment. "Its the system fleet!"

* * * * * * *

Standing before the forward view port of his command bridge, Vice Admiral Gilbreac grinned like a naughty child given the keys to the candy shop after its closing. The large bridge teamed with activity as more than a dozen weapon officers, two dozen deck officers, and two major officers (a captain and a commodore) helped manage them all. Four massive crew pits, two to each side, creating a pathway between them, thrummed with authoritative voices as orders passed efficiently on to their receptors.

"Commodore Philips," Vice Admiral Gilbreac called over his shoulder. "See to it that all fighter and bomber squadrons launch when ready. Let Flight-Admiral Hadriel determine the best targets at his command bridge, he knows his pilots' abilities more readily than I."

"As you command admiral," replied the commodore. He snapped his heels and went about following Gildreac's orders. The captain, stepped up next to the admiral for any further orders.

"Anything else sir?"

"Yes...see to it that the fleet comes about in a double phalanx formation and bring the Gallic around to face that enemy super dreadnought. We will draw attention away from any allied vessels under threat. Has Commodore Kalister contacted us yet?"

"Yes admiral. He has already sent along a report of the battle thus far, targeting information, a package of information gleaned from his ComScan crews on the enemy vessels and capabilities."

"Very well...inform him that his task force will join our main battle line once it passes him. His men have done far more than what is asked of our fighting men. Send him also my regards and his crewmen my approval of their actions," said Vice Admiral Gilbreac.

"As you command."

The Imperial Super Star Destroyer, Executor-class Gallic Conquerer, flagship of the Tettrean Imperial System Fleet maneuvered its great size to face its only real challenge in the battlefield. Behind it, forming up into two 'lines' of supporting fire and maneuver were thirty Imperial Mk III-class Star Destroyers, 17 Venator MkII-class Star Destroyers, and a small host of support and escort vessels such as Dreadnoughts, Lancer frigates, and others. More than 70,000 TIE Interceptor, Bomber, Fighter, and Phantom fighters launched from the hanger bays of the Gallic Conquerer along with the unnumbered mass of other fighters deployed by the entire fleet.

The hammer of Thrashia struck the piratical anvil.

Blade of Valor

A shudder rocked the ship, distracting Captain Lorant from the com. With a snarl, she glared at her tactical officer.

"Report!"

His face grim, he nodded.

"Armor has sustained moderate damage, magnetic shielding in central and aft sections are down 46%."

She growled.

"Transfer available power to the shields, otherwise keep us moving, lieutenant!"

"Aye ma'am!"

Settling back into her command chair, Captain Lorant watched as the Archangel loosed another volley of fusion missiles, their bright glow streaking across space to slam into a pirate cruiser despite their efforts to evade, causing severe damage. A predatory grin creased her face at the sight. A grin that quickly disappeared.

"What in the name of Mechades is that!?"

Her bridge crew didn't respond, awestruck by the monstrous vessel which had suddenly appeared in real space.

"Report, now!"

That, however, startled them to attention.

"Unknown, ma'am. Sensors indicate it to be many times larger then any ship we possess. Power readings are off the scale..." Trepidation crept into the young lieutenant's voice.

Suddenly, the com crackled to life.


Allied fleet, this is the Ceres. Our sensors report that this target is too dangerous. I suggest you fall back to the nearest star system and call upon whatever fleets you may have... even if the fleet was twenty-five times its current size, it would not make a difference. We, the crew of the Ceres...may not make it out of here alive. Good luck and Godspeed.

She stared at the com for a moment, stunned. Then, she laughed. And soon, her bridge officers joined her, the shock and fear washing away.

Clearing her throat, she reopened the com, amusement in her tone.

Since you do not know my people, Brother Captain Jackson, I will forgive the insult. Kaladrians do not run, and we certainly do not let such worthy allies fight alone. We offered our assistance, now we stand and fall as one. Through honor we triumph!

"Ma'am! A large fleet matching the ship profile of several of allies has just arrived in-system!"

Mara turned, and smiled slowly as multiple blue targets began appearing and engaging on the tactical overlay.

"Beautiful..."

She opened the com yet again, this time to the task group commander.

Captain Schultz, I apologize for not introducing myself earlier. Captain Mara Lorant of the Kaladrian Dominion. I wish to place all of my forces at your disposal. Use us as you see fit, for we are but blades, tempered and trained for battle.

"Helm, keep us steady."

Jackson couldn't stop himself from staring in awe. This vessel was not built by human hands, he thought. They were flying through tunnels ten times as wide as the Ceres, and the tunnels never seemed to end. They zoomed through a transparent tube over some sort of huge structure, and on the ground they could see dots moving around strike craft. The thing was, these strike craft were not (at least recognisably) human.

A detonation rocked the superdreadnought and threw the Ceres to one side, severely damaging half of the vessel, and throwing the bridge crew into walls and such. It also knocked out a large chunk of the tubing, and Jackson, working on pure instinct, punched the emergency thrusters, throwing the Ceres into the main docking bay. The helmsman staggered up and wrestled the Ceres into a straight downwards glide, in the end hitting the floor, bouncing, and screeching to a halt about five kilometres from the point where they'd originated. The Ceres paused, then toppled slowly, hitting the floor with enough force to carve a crater out of it. This, unfortunately, threw the bridge crew to one side again, throwing Jackson head-on into the welcoming arms of unconsciousness.

"This is Captain Schultz of the Vuhifellian Navy! Captain Jackson, you do not have the authority to humiliate our Navy in such a way! We shall not run. For Vuhifell! Fight for her! Defend her! All ships, fire at will!"

"Blade of Valor, this is the Marathon. Fire at will. Send that son of a bitch back to hell!"

The Marathon and the Dragoon had taken quite a beating. Repeated missile hits had penetrated some sections of their ships. They couldn't take much more punishment.

But they fought alongside these new allies. As their alien counterparts fired, both ships had fired their MAC rounds, with solid deuterium slugs. Every fighter picket within the system fired their Archer anti-ship torpedos. Every weapon in the Vuhifellian arsenel: from 300mm rotating cannons firing depleted uranium, to even the .50 cal point-defense guns and the fighters' rotating gatling gun, were firing upon the new target...


And Captain Schultz watched in horror as all of it simply bounced off of their shields. Two solid deuterium rounds flickered in the distance, before imploding.

"

Sebastian smiled at the agreement. "Then I believe that will conclude our discussion for now. I look forward to meeting whoever comes to represent your people. The good Captain here will see to your needs. Farewell Admiral."

The holographic image of the Elders faded away like dust on a wind leaving the Vuhifellians along with the elven captain. "Admiral, we will escort you back to your ship if that is what you so desire but be advised the current state outside space here is a bit hostile at the moment. If you wish to leave now, we can escort back so no harm comes to you or your personnel."

"I believe, under Vuhifellian Naval Protocol, I am authorized to act as an envoy to your people on the behalf of the Vuhifellian government. However..." he sighed as he evaluated the situation outside. He had silently linked up to the nueral net of the Marathon during their conversation...

It didn't look good.

"At the same time, I cannot abandon my people, please, escort me and my crew back to the VFS Marathon."

Jackson opened his eyes. He instantly wished he hadn't, as he was experiencing the most unpleasant sensation of having a sledgehammer pound on his cerebrum.

He shook his head gingerly, and reached for the Kostemetsian standard painkiller pills he kept on him at all times. He wet his lips and took the pill, and after a second his headache dampened down and he was able to focus more clearly on the tactical situation.

He hit the replay button on his hand-held data terminal, replaying the last transmission from before the crash.

"Captain Jackson, you do not have the authority to humiliate our Navy in such a way!"

He smiled grimly. Patriotism was one of Captain Velnir Schultz's better qualities, of that much he was certain. And that pride was justified. The Ceres' bridge crew were stirring, shaking their heads groggily, and standing up.

Or sideways, depending on your frame of reference. Jackson enjoyed the peculiar sight of standing at right angles to the floor. He clambered up the bridge tiles, up to a panel marked "Emergency". It contained a blow torch and some impact tools, which he, along with the unknown helmsman and navigator, used to smash open the twisted, bent bridge doors.

After opening the doors, he climbed back down to check the bridge crew's status. Everyone seemed to be fine, except for Hayes, who remained unconscious. Jackson could see a number of cuts and bruises on the man where he'd fallen against the command console and various sharp objects, and his breathing was erratic. He picked up the man and slung him over his shoulder, height and strength being some of the Kostemetsian Navy's better selection criteria.

The bridge crew formed up behind him, and in a group, they trooped off to the weapons stores.

(OOC: VS, that's one hell of a patriotic captain you got there. Also, guys, don't make assumptions about this big gray starship. :D)

(Alversia, was your last post meant for me to reply to, or are you simply going to simulate the patients' brain capacity in your post?)

VFS Ceres


Thankfully for the Captain and the crew of the Ceres, the ship's rotation thrusters had fired just before impact. Only the steel on the bridge had twisted to a 90 degree angle compared to the rest of the ship.

As they made their way down the halls of the Marathon-class cruiser, the full damage she had taken was finally evident. Steel blast doors were closed on several levels and compartments, and it took them almost a half hour to reach the armory. They found Staff Sergeant James Orion, with his platoon of marines, already there.

"Captain, sir!" the sergeant immediately saluted, "it's not good, sir. I've got dozens of wounded in the residential compartments and in engineering. Everyone below deck above deck seventeen has been killed, sir. Explosive decompression."

A beautiful, young, fair skinned woman stepped forward. It was the Ceres's navigation officer: Mai sif-Aldrii.

"James, where's Daniel?" she looked at him for a while, brushing hair out of her face every few seconds.

"He's in back, he broke his leg during the crash, but he should be al-"

"Sir?" she was bowing her head at an almost 90 degree angle to the Captain.

"I request permission to leave the bridge crew to head to the back of the armory, sir."

ooc: The later

For hours and hours, the Scientists sat and watched the flat-lining monitors. Coffee after coffee was drank, pizza after pizza consumed as the Brainiacs tried in vain to spot life amongst the readings their machines were giving them. Some stimulation, any stimulation was all they needed. One TINY nerve that was fighting the inevitable and transmitting one faint signal. That was all that was needed to prove them right. The hard part had been done. It was now the waiting.

Basically, they planned to use the same technology for Stage 3 as Stage 2, except many times more advanced. It would find the active nerve and, using the genes that handled the complex matrixes of thought and self-conciousness, they would be able to recreate a clone of that gene through the cortex structure. Every strand within the brain had the same, basic sub-gene DNA, all that was different was the matrix data relayed on top of it and that could be taken from the other sources. But for any of it to work, they needed one live nerve.

The Scientists yawned, scratched their heads and prepared for another cup of roasting hot coffee to try and keep awake at least for another hour, they owed it to these people to try and find a cure to this disease.

Then a beep from the machine brought them all back to life with a jolt. Had they imagined it? It must have a dream, a figment of their overworked and sleep depreived imaginations? No. There it was again.

Life!

Whooping and hugging each other for joy, the Scientists got down to work and typed rapidly on their consoles, after an hour of solid work, they found the news couldn't be any better.

One nerve, controlling the imagination of one man was trying to fire signals down to dead recievers, but they would be revived, that was the important thing, they could be revived.

They had the cure and the way to do it, now all they needed was approval to go ahead with a trial run. To do that, they needed to talk to Doctor Iccard.

Soon, they were in her office, ignoring the inky blackness outside and planning the cure that would, combined with the others, save millions of lives.

Dr. Iccard had requested an office from the local Administrator, and had gotten one. Of course, the Provincial Administrator owed her many favors, and she was soon working diligently on another one of her projects...

A single, small tungsten cylinder spun rapidly on her desk, while she read a physics report from her old professor from the University of Dinsmark. A large device sat next to her desk, reading the force of gravity around itself. It wasn't the most sensitive gravity-sensing machine in the world, but since she wasn't at her lab, she could only settle for what the local government had on hand.

"Hm, if I adjust the inner magnesium core and configure it as an inverted pendulum, and figure out how to balance that at 200 kilometers an hour..."

She stood over the device now, book in one hand, a screwdriver in the other.

"Just one...small...adjustment..."

She twitched and proceeded very carefully, she needed to time this right...

Then, a loud bang interrupted her, and she realized someone had just violently forced her office door open...

'If this isn't the god damn Director...I'm going to stab them straight in the hea-'

She looked up, and saw that the Alversian scientists were the ones who had barged in. She put the screwdriver and the book down, and asked them.

"Please tell me you found a signal? Did you?"

"Staff Sergeant Orion, I would request that you and your marines try to find a serviceable exit from the Ceres. We have made contact with medical personnel, and I am heading to sick bay now to bring them down here. Navigator sif-Aldrii, your permission is granted."

"We have!" Came the ecstatic report from the Scientists, "And now we request permission to try and test this out!" They could barely contain their excitment "We are this close to wiping the virus out once and for all"

It was the first time in her life she was glad to file government paperwork. Again, she pulled out her PDA and began typing furiously on it's keypad.

Instantaneously, she received approval from the Council of Health, and was about to sign her signature when a red alert icon began flashing on her PDA.

Apparently, her old colleagues at James Island Research Facility had discovered the make-up of the virus:

-98% Mysterium
-0.98% Hydrogen
-.02% Fluoride
-1% Trace elements

Likely cause of Remona Virus, type-A: Exposure to pure mysterium. Mysterium discovered in 1995, virus first appeared in 1999. Recommend closure of all mysterium mines across planet.

She dropped her PDA. Mysterium had a nasty habit of exploding when it wasn't handled correctly. She guessed that was why the virus acted as an acid.

Nevertheless, she picked her PDA up off of the floor and signed her signature on the pad, before she could dwell on the issue.

"I will only approve these treatments for full scale industrial production and medical distribution if the trials show that at least 90% of the patients have shown recovery within twelve months, and none of the patients relapse into viral state within a period of five years.

"Clinical trials for the vaccine, Stage1/2 cure, and Stage3 cure have been approved by the Council of Health and myself. Godspeed, gentlemen, I must get back to my work."

"I believe, under Vuhifellian Naval Protocol, I am authorized to act as an envoy to your people on the behalf of the Vuhifellian government. However..." he sighed as he evaluated the situation outside. He had silently linked up to the nueral net of the Marathon during their conversation...

It didn't look good.

"At the same time, I cannot abandon my people, please, escort me and my crew back to the VFS Marathon."

"That will not be a problem. I shall have a wing of fighters escort you back to your ship in a transport. The elevator at the end of the hall here will lead you back down to the docking bay and your ship. Fighters will link up with you outside."

There was not much left for the Captain to do now. The Admiral would be safe on his way back to the Marathon and they could conclude their conversation later. "Do you require assistance in dealing with the foreign vessels? I can have a Myth fleet respond in quick order to handle the situation."

OOC: Seeing as my system fleet has the obvious advantage of firepower, command, experience, and other factors, Kostemetsia could you perhaps write a glorious and fiery end for our piratical friends? I will reciprocate by a follow-up post of the post-battle mop up along with a few narratives concerning different characters. After that we can get on with the diplomatic parts. As much fun as this battle has been...its stretched on for a bit too long.

Blade of Valor

The smile on Captain Lorant's face deepened, a feral aspect to it. As she replied, her tone could be described as almost a purr.

"As you command, Brother Captain."

Quickly, she relayed the orders to the rest of her forces. The Archangel and Gladius began maneuvering into position, Wolf and Reaper Squadron of Alpha Wing providing support, protecting the two destroyers as they acquired their new target. As confirmation was received, Captain Lorant nodded.

"Open fire."

With silent fury, volley after volley of missiles, and solid slugs streaked towards the massive enemy vessel.

(OOC: This what you wanted?)

Kostemetsian Scientific Probe
The probe duly noted the entry of the new vessel into the region. It noted that the smaller ships had attacked it, and that one of the vessels had disappeared into its innards.

It noted the ship tagged Marathon disposing of a large share of pirate vessels; the Thrashian ships raining down fire furiously upon the unwanted interlopers; the Kaladrian vessels slicing through them like a hot knife through butter; and the Mythrandir ships taking occasional potshots at such pirates.

Suddenly, the superdreadnought's top half split to reveal two large, rectangular components rising from the sea of metal. Hexagonal and circular gun-barrels, respectively, telescoped out from the components, with the hexagonal ones lining up on the pirate vessels and the circular ones lining up on the incoming flak.

The eight circular barrels immediately started a staggered automatic fire, successfully vapourising most of the flak and letting the harmless remaining ones strike its energy shields.

The two hexagonal gunbarrels rotated and inclined slowly, lining up pirate ships for maximum impact. Within about two minutes, the hexagonal cutter guns had made mirror-precision holes through seventy-one of the pirate cruisers and frigates, with the circular ones shattering the remaining forty-nine strike ships, and five being disposed of by outside forces.

Finally, the dreadnought retracted its awesomely powerful weaponry into its hull and sat there, passive. The only thing that appeared to be emitting from it was a weak Vuhifellian transponder signal coming through the hull.

The probe retracted its mechanical "eye" into its hull and activated its electronic counter and counter-counter measures, rendering it effectively invisible and invincible to electronic attack. It had seen what it needed to see.

In normal circumstances, a nanny-ship would have been along shortly to pick it up. But these were definitely not normal circumstances...

[OOC: Yes, the battle was fun, but this is a First Contact thread after all]

As the Marathon's fighter pickets continued to rake up the remainders of the pirate fleet, Captain Schultz simply sighed, and made a log in the computer.

>>SIGMA DELGRASSA SYS
>FLEETCOM
>AVD SIGMA DELGRASSA SYS UNTIL HAZMAT CAN ARRIVE
>SYS CLUTTER. DANGEROUS TO VUHIFELLIAN VESSELS

It would take months for a Vuhifellian HAZMAT team to sweep the remains of the battle from the system, effectively rendering it dangerous and useless to the Vuhifellians.

"Well now. Now that our pirate friends are no longer with us, does the Thrasian Empire wish to conduct a diplomatic mission with the Vuhifellian Federation?"

Gallic Conquerer

Captain Bardeck and Commodore Kalister stood beside each other on the bridge of the massive Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Gallic Conquerer at rigid attention in front of an annoyed vice admiral. Captain Bardeck's arm lay in a sling, his arm broken when the Relentless had lost the majority of its forward shields and suffered a broadside attack from a pair of cruiser-class pirate vessels. Commodore Kalister, though iritated and angry over losing the Khanata, was none the worse for wear.

"So gentlemen," growled an iritated Vice Admiral Gilbraec. "Would anyone care to start to explain the situation now that the scum are gone?"

"I will let Captain Bardeck brief you sir," replied Kalister. "He was on the site before the battle."

Captain Bardeck silently cursed his superior but simply half-bowed and snapped his boots as Admiral Gilbraec's green cat eyes settled onto him.

"Sir, would you like the long version or the short?"

"Short Captain, and make sure it is."

"We were in the process of establishing first contact with the nation state known as Vuhifellian. They had happened upon the system and were in the first stages of inacting scientific experiments when, though we're not sure, two other nationals appeared; those of Mythrandir and Alversia. Contact with Mythrandir has been sporadic and not official due to their known association with the Cordians. We've had no contact up until now of Alversia.

"When we were on our usual patrol we discovered the Vuhifellian transmission signal and made way to here. We made contact and in the process of creating an oppotunity for a diplomatic exchange when the first few pirate vessels appeared, following in pursuit of a Kostemestian ship. We engaged and captured on of the pirate ships. They are on the Relentless.

"Then the battle escalated when more pirate elements arrived. I then alerted the rest of my task force under Commodore Kalister and prepared for a long battle. 29 minutes after the start of the battle the task force arrived. We continued fighting until the pirate forces grew so great the the Commodore asked for the system fleet to come and reinforce us as the pirates had grown to larger and larger numbers. When the fleet arrived we lost two of our escorts and the Khanate. And thats about it sir."

Vice Admiral Gilbraec nodded and thought through the report. His fleet had suffered the loss of another three Imperial Star Destroyers, two Venator MkIIs, and more than a dozen escort vessels; the number of fighters lost numbered nearly two entire squadrons. It had been a comparitively cheap exchange in return for the near hundreds of pirates killed by the Thrashian Fleet, but it was still costly enough to make Gilbraec wince at the thought of what Moff Grice would say.

Gilbraec looked back up them. "Very good gentlemen, you may return to your ships. Captain, have your pirate prisoners transfered to the Gallic Conquerer." He turned to the comm station. "Open a transmission to the Vuhifellian ships. I'll speak with them."

"Line open sir."

"Attention commander of the Vuhifellian Forces. This is Vice Admiral Gilbraec, commander of the Imperial Thrashian System Fleet of Troma. Before this battle broke out you expressed wishes to establish diplimatic contact; I would like to offer that same extention."

From the port side viewport, Captain Schultz could see the Dragoon. She was venting atmosphere, and there were fires along her aft. She would survive, but the cost to repair the ship would be immense. Compared to the rest of the ships in the Vuhifellian Navy, cruisers were obscenely expensive...

"Ensign Lovell, send a reply to the Thrasian Empire. VOICECOM, please."

"Aye, sir."

The blue lights in the bridge slowly dimmed, before Ensign Lovell spoke again, "microphones are active and transmitting, sir, you may send your reply to the aliens now."

"Wonderful."

"Vice Admiral Gilbraec, this is Captain Velnir Schultz of the Vuhifellian Navy; space operations branch of the armed forces of the Vuhifellian Federation. We would request dialogue between our two peoples to promote peace and harmony between our nations, unlike the bloodbath we have both just witnessed and taken a part in.

A breeder exited hyperspace its black skin acted as a natural camoflauge in space, its telepathic think to the hive minds echoed as it hailed threwout space and into the enemy ships, its Virus frigates ichted at the chance to deply from its belly. The voice spoke " We are the Infected lower your shields and prepare for integration and unity within us, you will recieve new life and new duty..."

A breeder exited hyperspace its black skin acted as a natural camoflauge in space, its telepathic think to the hive minds echoed as it hailed threwout space and into the enemy ships, its Virus frigates ichted at the chance to deply from its belly. The voice spoke " We are the Infected lower your shields and prepare for integration and unity within us, you will recieve new life and new duty..."

(OOC: No offense mate, but we've already had one person drop in randomly. Also, I'm sort of having issues with your spelling and grammar there; that and the fact that none of us have initiated contact with you. For that reason, I'll have to ignore your posts in this thread until you do initiate first contact with proper grammar and spelling.)

A breeder exited hyperspace its black skin acted as a natural camoflauge in space, its telepathic think to the hive minds echoed as it hailed threwout space and into the enemy ships, its Virus frigates ichted at the chance to deply from its belly. The voice spoke " We are the Infected lower your shields and prepare for integration and unity within us, you will recieve new life and new duty..."

[OOC: Well...if you want. But since this is my very first experience with FT, could you hold out a bit until I'm experienced in the RP style?

EDIT: Which would mean not in this thread, please? Definately later, though, if you're still up to it and once I actually know how to RP FT'ly.]

(OOC: Dammit VS! :D okay N. Cal, I've just reread your post and will factor it in.)

Some time later - outside the Ceres
A thought suddenly blasted through Jackson's mind. He jumped backwards, stunned at the menace and horror of the thought. Looking around, he noticed everyone else seemed to have "heard" it as well.

We are the Infected. Lower your shields and prepare for integration and unity within us. You will receive new life and new duty.

And with it, an image of a black chitinous exterior somehow thriving with assimilated life. He raised his voice.

"Okay, people, a very big bug is coming our way! Get in whatever vehicles you can find and form up on me."

He jumped into a Warthog, turned the ignition key, and gunned the accelerator, speeding across the smooth metal floor of the monstrously huge hangar bay.

Several Vuhifellian High-Lift dropship swooped low overhead above the Warthog LRV, their back doors closing simultaneously. The occupants could clearly see their 'Captain' driving in the damaged hanger bay, and assumed he was looking for a dropship of his own.

Sergeant Orion immediately got on his radio and hailed Captain Jackson,
"Captain. This is Sergeant Orion. We have all other crew members of the Ceres onboard these dropships. There aren't any more pilots left, but there should be a Korsa Light Assault Dropship a few hundred meters ahead of your position. Use that to fly back to the Marathon. Godspeed, Captain, we're prayin' for ya'."

With that, the sergeant cut out, before the dropships all entered the primary assault airlock.

"Oh, and I forgot to tell you, Captain, we've activated the ship's self-destruct sequence so nobody else will get their filthy paws on our ship. You'll have to leave before it blows in five minutes. That's how much time I reckon we have."

"Fuck!"

Jackson hunched over the steering wheel with a manic determination, his hands gripping hard enough to actually compress the rubber a few millimetres. He mashed the pedal to the ground.

Precisely thirty-one seconds later, a dot appeared in the distance, growing rapidly into the dropship. Jackson calculated the trajectory, then hit a button on the Warthog's dash. The ramp started closing slowly, and just as Jackson was about to hit it, he climbed up onto the frame of the Warthog and jumped, catching a hold of the dropship's stern.

The Warthog's emergency brakes activated once it detected the lack of a driver, and it screeched to a halt in the Korsa's cargo hold. The ramp slammed shut and sealed.

Jackson clambered up and ran down the dropship's top, jumping down into the pilot's cocoon-like cockpit. The bulletproof glass screen sealed, and he gunned the ventral and aft jets, throwing the dropship forward at slightly over two gravities. With the two-kilometre distant L-intersection rapidly approaching, he hit the starboard ventral jets and blocked the port aft jets, throwing the dropship into a "powerslide" manoeuvre worthy of any Formula One driver. The huge exit port was straight ahead, but was rapidly closing.

Throwing caution to the wind, he gunned all the ventral jets, then all the aft ones, depending on his trajectory to get him through the port.

It worked. The light dropship sped out through the port with millimetres to spare. In the distance, he could see a swarm of sparks, and reengaged engines normally to catch up with them.

He stopped a moment to consider the consequences. Schultz probably wouldn't be too happy about the Ceres' loss, but at least the crew had gotten out alive. Getting them back to the Marathon before the Infected ship, only a few hundred kilometres distant, attacked... well, that was another matter entirely.

He opened communications.

"Marathon docking control, please open your docking bay to our dropships, we are coming in at an extremely high speed and will likely require artificial braking. Jackson out."

It was only then that he noticed that the Kostemetsian ships had disappeared into the ether. Rage clenched his insides. The traitorous bastards left us here to die!

A bright light flashed from the edge of the system once again, and another, rather small Vuhifellian vessel lurched its way out of Slipspace...

But unlike Vuhifellian Naval ships, this one had the most advanced technology Vuhifell could offer, including cloaking and a Class-A Artificial Intelligence.

"You aren't going anywhere, Captain Jackson," was all that was broadcast from the new vessel.

"New contact, identify yourself," It was Captain Schultz, defending his fellow officer.

"This is the ONI Prowler, Satan's Helm. Captain Schultz, you are to turn over Captain Jackson and the VFS Ceres's crew to us immediately!"

"Or what?"

"Or we'll have you summarily executed and your remains thrown into the sun! Obey our orders, Captain..." It was a female voice on the other line, but from the tone of her voice, she wasn't pleased.

"Captain Jackson. Please dock in Fighter Bay F-11 and prepare for immediate departure for the ONIV Satan's Helm. I expect the Office of Naval Intelligence would like to debrief you on the current situation."

"Vuhifellian ONI Prowler Satan's Helm, this is Captain Jackson. I will follow your orders without question once I receive identification from you."

Jackson quickly transmitted an encrypted, double-compressed file of his commander's log to Schultz's station over a higher-dimensional frequency, ensuring that the ONI prowler couldn't catch it without some extremely sophisticated, Kostemetsian-exclusive equipment, before going through the motions of turning towards the Satan's Helm. He pressed one of the numerous touchpads in the cockpit to silently order the other dropships to form up on him.

"I'd also appreciate not being threatened."

ONIV Satan's Helm

Also unlike other Vuhifellian Naval vessels, the ship had many docking ports. The exact reasons were classified, but many suspected they were used by ONI spooks as mobile intelligence stations.

Once Captain Jackson and the remaining survivors of the Ceres were onboard the vessel, several, well armed, VPA soldiers came from out of their barracks and began to search the survivors for weapons.

For the Vuhifellians, the bar-codes on their necks were scanned, and they were led into a waiting room.

For Captain Jackson, however, a tall, slender, tan woman emerged from another room. She wore all-black clothing, but no body armor.

"Follow me."

She was merely a Lieutenant in ONI, which roughly translated into a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy; although she ranked lower than Jackon, she still dispelled an aura of pure mistrust and discipline.

She led Captain Jackson into a rather well lit room. There were two couches on either side of the room. In between them was a single pillar, before the woman touched it and offered Jackson a seat.

Welcome back, Lieutenant Commander. I trust all went well during Slipspace?

"Yes, Dadalus. Everything was fine. Plot a course back to Olympia. We have much to discuss on our way back, so, if you would, would you mind contributing to the conversation a bit?"

"Of course, Commander. Plotting course back to Olympia as I speak. Welcome Captain Jackson. I hope your service in the Navy has been rewarding thus far. I reviewed your file before you came aboard this vessel.

The AI's voice was calming and serene. A sharp contrast from the ONI spook who was sitting across from Captain Jackson, holding a PDA and typing furiously into it's surface.

The breeder deployed its Virus boarding frigates, as its Plasma cannons charged, it positioned itself aiming broadside against the wounded vessle. The twelve viruses frigates sped towards the ship, there tentacles readying to tear through the armor of the ship and deploy its warriors.

Jackson raised an eyebrow. He had no idea what in the nine circles of hell this was about, but decided to play along. Quietly moving around slightly, he hit a pressure-sensitive switch on a device in his back pocket, which transmitted a trojan to the PDA.

The trojan unloaded a keylogger, so he would be able to review the contents of the conversation log. On top of that, the keylogger was embedded deeply inside sophisticated defender software, and compressed to one percent of its normal size, so the difference in data-space use would be too small to see.

"Let us begin. Oh, but first..."

Jackson pulled out a Kostemetsian KSA121 .45 pistol and placed it on the table. Sleight-of-hand could come in... well, handy, sometimes.

The Virus frigates slammed against the hull, rocking the ship, there clawed tenatcles went to work, ripping through hull armor and preparing to deploy warriors inside. The breeder fire to broadside plasma shots, the low-pitched Voice echoed again. " Resistance will be dealt with, join us peacfully, and be intergrated into us brothers."

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/7/7d/250px-Wraith_Hive-Ship_--_Stargate_Atlantis.jpg : Breeder

(OOC: There are no wounded ships in the area; which one are you referring to?)

(OOC: There are no wounded ships in the area; which one are you referring to?)

OCC:Ceres

(OOC: a] that's my ship, b] I evacuated it a few posts ago so there's nobody onboard, c] it's crashed inside another ship. Good luck :D)

(OOC: a] that's my ship, b] I evacuated it a few posts ago so there's nobody onboard, c] it's crashed inside another ship. Good luck :D)

they will just go threw them and search at first.

(OOC: Please *read* the posts. Some time ago, the Ceres crashed inside a large alien cruiser. A few minutes later, the cruiser locked down and my character and his crew barely escaped with their lives. There is no way you are getting into the larger ship, let alone the Ceres.)

ooc: Vuhifellian, word of the wise - Never, ever, don't do it, ever try rp'ing with guys like N.C.; they've no sense of roleplay and are very bad to rp with because they do so, the majority of the time but not always, godmoddishly. So if I were you I'd just kick out of the thread, there's already more than enough of us here.

The Battlecruiser APS Fearless was still in orbit around the Vuhifellian homeworld, awaiting the Alversian Scientists to complete their concluding studies on the virus that had so devastated the world. It seemed they had been successful. The cure had a 99.99% cure rate amongst those infected and the amount of new carriers were reduced dramatically. It seemed to have defeated the virus once and for all.

However, they were now ready to return home and their next mission. The cruiser Defiant was also present to bring the Scientists home. The Fearless would remain in system to try and build better relations with the Vuhifellian.

OOC: Sorry, but I've missed a load of this thread and thought I would just pick up where I had left off, instead of trying to post on the more recent events and making myself look like a N00b.

ooc: Vuhifellian, word of the wise - Never, ever, don't do it, ever try rp'ing with guys like N.C.; they've no sense of roleplay and are very bad to rp with because they do so, the majority of the time but not always, godmoddishly. So if I were you I'd just kick out of the thread, there's already more than enough of us here.

[OOC: After his last IC post I was planning on doing that already. My Super-IGNORE Cannons have been fired on him, NC, get out.]

Farbanti

It was done. Clinical trials were proving most effective. She couldn't wait for OSEC to begin mass production of the cure.

Dr. Iccard stood there, on the balcony of the Provincial Capitol Building. She had changed into a black dress which hung from her neck, which also starkly contrasted the white granite of the capitol building.

She had pushed some bangs of hair out of her face, before looking at her newest creation, holding it in her hand like a mother would a child.

"I'll name you...Maxrir," she whispered to the tiny piece of mysterium in her hand. It was the first 'sentient' AI on the planet. She had created polysentience and near-sentient algorithms for ONI before; her very first AI was named Dadalus, and was somewhere within ONI. But she now held a being...it was like being a mother.

"Dr. Iccard, they're waiting." said a calm voice from behind her. It was one of the many butlers the Provincial Administrator employed for state functions.

"Ah. Right. I'll be right there," she replied, quickly stuffing Mexrir into her dress, she walked back inside the Palace.

Inside, in the grand dinner hall which was filled with large tables, she could see everyone she knew:

The ONI Panel of scientists, the Military Council, the Provincial Administrator, the CEO's of various corporations, and, of course, every executive, legislative, and judicial member of the Federal government. Including Director Morisato.

It was a grand party, with guests talking all over, and had been hastily arranged by the Federal government and by ONI. A welcoming to the Alversians: the first aliens to set foot on Vuhifellian soil.

All that was left was to wait for the guests of honor themselves.

A small buzz of light and the Scientists appeared. Each was dressed in either a smart tuxedo or a long and elegant gown. With them, in full unform was Captain Alexander Cavourna, persuaded to join the group by the scientists themselves. He didn't exactly feel comfortable in these sorts of situations but he did enjoy a party and so he was looking forward to that.

The other Scientists were already smiling and laughing when they appeared. Although they were servants of Science, they knew when to let their hair down and this was one such occasion. They had worked on the limit for weeks and now it was time to reap the rewards, a chance to relax was enough for them. Captain Mercer from the Defiant had also joined the party, wearing a long white dress and looking stunning. She and Cavourna walked hand in hand while the other Scientists were also split into pairs

(Hopefully no one will mind me speeding up the conclusion to my end of this thread)

By all reports from the bridge, the fighting outside had ceased all together. No one on the Myth exploration ship knew exactly the circumstances behind the battle, but it appeared that the hostile guests had been driven off or destroyed. Regardless of the apparent calm aura of the space surrounding the explorers, Captain Elthos had a fighter wing escort the Vuhifellian Admiral and his fellow officers back to their ship. The fighters would see to it that no harm came to their guests and were transported back safely from whence they came.

With the business of handling diplomats concluded, the elf captain returned to his post at the command level of the exploration vessel. He had received a message early that there were other races in the system that had been trying to contact them but due to all of the excitement in the area, little contact could be established.

Once he arrived back on the bridge, the command staff moved aside for the elf and allowed him to assume full command once more. "What is the status of the fighting around us?"

"All enemy forces appear to be eliminated or have retreated. Damage control for other alien vessels appears to be in progress and the status of our vessel is relatively secure."

Elthos eased himself down into the throne chair at the rear of the bridge, his elven armor creaking all the way down. "Very well. Get me in contact with the reported ship that was trying to communicate with us earlier."

"Thrashian by their own admission Captain."

"I see. Very well."

Thereasa worked at her station for a moment, working runes into their proper place until a communication channel could be established with the original Thrashian vessel.

"Attention Thrashian vessel, this is Captain Elthos of the Mythrandir exploration vessel. You will have to forgive my absence but I was previously occupied with other matters. I was informed that one of my officers has been entertaining you until now though. What is it that you desire here?"

A standing ovation was given, with the important leaders sitting at the very end of the hall, at a table all to themselves. Servents in tuxedos began to lead the Alversians to a table directly in front. On the way, they passed the businessmen in their suits, ONI and Navy staff in their dress uniforms, and politicians and socialites dressed in traditional Vuhifellian robes.

Dr. Iccard herself was on the floor above them, looking down on them from the atrium, yet she was clapping just as hard as any politician down in front.

A single man sat in a large throne, effectively splitting the front table in two. He wore a pure black robe with a white outline. A white rose was imprinted on the back. He had short black hair and light brown eyes, and lay his head on one of his fists, before standing up with his arms raised.

"Greetings. I am Director Keiichi Morisato. Elected executive of the Vuhifellian Federation. Welcome to our planet."

"It is an honour to meet you Director Morisato. I am Doctor Robert Smith" one of the more senior Professiors replied, he turned and introduced his comrades, one by one until only the two Naval personnel were left at the end
"Finally, May I introduce Captains Alexander Cavourna and Joanna Mercer. Commanders of the Fearless and Defiant respectivly"

The two Captain's reponses varied wildly. Cavourna gave a firm military salute while Mercer simply gave a low and respectful bow.

Nodding in return, the Director slowly moved his arm around the table, introducing all the important members of the civilian and military governments. Before he finally realized she wasn't in her seat.

"Ah, Dr. Iccard, will you please come out?"

Samantha mentally slapped herself. In all her daydreaming about her new AI, she ahd completely forgotten that she was the main envoy during the party, and quickly ran, as fast as her high heels would take her, down the steps and to the table.

"There she is, here is the President of the ONI Panel of Scientists, Doctor Samantha Iccard, quite a genius she is."

"Oh-thank you, Mr. Director!" she blushed and quickly bowed, showing her respect to her leader.

He motioned for everyone to take their seats, before he began the speech that would open the "official" First Contact ceremony.

"Seventy years ago, Steven Daniels stood in this very room and spoke, just as I do now, of peace. Peace for a war that would never end. Peace, for our small planet, so devastated by war. Though the sacrifice was great, incredicle individuals rose up against the tide of war and brought peace upon our lands. Though conflict has erupted since then, none were so devastating as that war. The war that brought us to the brink of self-annihilation.

Now, I stand here, together with unknown individuals, just as Steven Daniels did, and speak of peace. Of harmony between nations. So that a war on the scale of the last shall never erupt again.

Applause cluttered the massive hall until the Director sat down, and spoke again.

"Now, let us feast with our new brethren. A feast for peace and harmony!"

Cavourna was smiling, clapping and generally enjoying himself. He approached Dr Iccard once the formal elements of the party were navigated and the food consumed, Cavourna had never seen such a banquet in one place before, then the Guests could intermingle and get to know each other.

"Quite a thank you" He commented happily.

Meanwhile Mercer was mingling with various Officials and officers, as were the Scientists. The Alversians seemed to have mixed with their new friends perfectly. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves.

"Indeed. It seems my race has taken a liking to yours," she indicated over to the Vuhifellian scientists, chatting happily with their Alversian counterparts. Some of her friends brought various gadgets from their pockets and began poking them around with their cutlery, trying to get some work done while they were at the banquet.

"Um...Here's a gift of thanks to you and your scientists for finding the cure to the Remona virus...from the Vuhifellian people...and from me."

She reluctantly reached into her pocket to pull out the small piece of mysterium that was encased in metal, before poking it, slightly.

What do you want, I'm trying to sleep. And can you keep the noise level down, Sam?

"Max, that's not very nice, I finally have a task for you. Diplomatic envoy. Doesn't that sound fun?"

No. Now who the hell wants me as an envoy?

Slowly, a hologram flickered from the mysterium, before a small woman appeared. She looked exactly like Dr. Iccard, only with shorter 'hair'.

Oh...Oh! So this is the alien you told me about! Hiya, sir! the hologram was quick to bounce up from her sleeping position and snap a quick salute.

"Alien?" Cavourna raised his eyebrows with interest and gave a small smile, returning the salute "At ease. May I enquire as to the name of our friend here?"

He seemed amused, relaxed. He was enjoying the company and it was a perfect way to end the first co-operative act between the two People's. Alversia would no doubt request permission to allow her people to settle on the planet should they desire it and offer the same to the Vuhifellian people. But that was politics. He was a soldier, she was a Doctor, neither was really interested in that world.

"You programmed her, yourself?" He asked her in interest, taking a particular joy in looking at the hologram.

OOC Is it a handheld hologram or a full sized one.

[OOC: Handheld]

The name's Maxrir, at least according to Sam, here. But you can call me Max.

"Yes. It took me the better part of my life to figure it out, but she's my..."

Baby is what she wants to say, but she's too embarrassed to admit it.

"Max!"

We're all unique, our programming is the same, but because each person is unique, we're unique, too. Ain't that right, Sam?

"Y-Yes. I technically programmed her, but it's the poly...AI itself that chooses their personality and their hologram."

I chose Sam because she looks cute! If only you cut your hair a little more often! Like me.

"Max!"

"Really?" Cavourna was looking from Max to Iccard in amusement, "I see. She is your 'baby'? It's okay to be connected like that. I once built a plasma seal containment belt from scratch. Took me months. Using no advanced tools. Just a spanner and the manual. It was my 'baby'. Wild horses couldn't have dragged me away from her. It still directs the engine power through my ship" He grinned

"Max is a much more fascinating than some belt though. I have to admit she does appear to be perfect"

You hear that, Sam, perfect, I think he likes me.

"Uh, yeah, Max."

Fleet Admiral Stephen Harper had been lugging himself through the crowd. Easily visible from the pure white uniform he had on, and by the five golden stars on his shoulders in the form of a pentagon. A single, black star was in the center.

"My, my, my, Dr. Iccard, what do we have, here?"

You again, baldy?

She had forgotten to mention on how a Third Generation Polysentience was made: by running a high energy plasma bolt through the base of someone's brain. The resulting Theta radiation was enough to liquify any brain tissue, and Dr. Iccard had secretly ordered a sample of her brain cloned for her experiments.

Unfortunately, the thoughts of such an AI were also very close to the thoughts of the person they were modelled after. Not so much in personality or ethics, but in perspective.

And Dr. Iccard did think that Admiral Harper's bald spot was hideous.

"Another one of Iccard's little monsters, huh? Didn't I cut your funding for this kind of work, doctor?"

"Uh, well...I..."

ONI and the Director gave her unlimited resources, baldy! She can do whatever research she wants from now on!

"What? Max, I never..."

"Outrageous!"

Don't believe yourself, check with Director Morisato. He signed the order himself.

Clearly frustrated, the Admiral sulked off.

"Max..."

Well, not yet, anyway, but I checked the Director's PDA just now, and he logged that he's very interested in giving you unlimited funding.

"Max! I told you not to do that kind of stuff! It'll get you in trouble!"

Relax, Sam. I'll be fine. How about you, sir? What do you think of Sam?

Cavourna decided to remain silent during this little exchange. When the Admiral had moved off, he let go of a small snigger

"Quite an outspoken little creature aren't we?" He stated looking at her "She's like your little devil"

He then looked at the back of the retreating Admiral then at Max a few times, then he gave a calculating sigh
"I agree, Max" He said in a mock serious voice "That has got to be one of the worst haircuts I have seen in all my time in space" He smiled again

"Any sign of a drink, I wonder?" He asked curiously looking around at the smiling crowd.

Ah, allow me, Max began to jump in her holo-form, trying to whistle and snap her fingers, before Dr. Iccard cut in.

"Here, Max, let me help," the doctor laughed a little, before raising her hand in the air and snapping it a few times. A nearby butler came immediately.

"Yes, ma'am. What can I help you with?"

"Some champagne and Brunakian coffee, please."

"Right away, ma'am," the butler soon left for the bar.

"Yeah, she's smarter than me, but because she's not used to the various social customs...she's a bit...eccentric."

Who's eccentric? Sam?

"Champagne, ma'am, and your Brunakian coffee," the butler came back with a bottle of champagne and coffee cup on a plate.

"Thank you. Here's your drink, and here's mine. Cheers, eh?" she raised her mug and toasted Alversia and Vuhifell.

Cavourna lifted his glass and smiled

"Cheers" he said happily before taking a long drink. He was about to open his mouth when a beeper went off in his pocket.

He pulled a small silver device from his pocket, it was flashing red. He glanced over to Mercer and noticed that she too had taken out a small silver device. Their eyes met and they nodded similtanously.

Cavourna stared at the contraption for a while

"Level Silver alert from APNHQ. They're recalling all warships from deep space missions." He frowned again and placed the device to it was tucked behind his ear

"Go ahead, Fearless" He instructed. Mercer was already talking to her crew. The Scientists were now looking at each concernedly and pointing at the two Captains.

Cavourna's voice seemed to go a pale blue. His mouth opened and closed for a few moments, like a fish. His eyes widened in shock and he looked around in disbelief. Mercer was looking the same.

"The...the SASM have returned" He announced sadly to Iccard while turning to the stage "They have decimated one of our fleets. 34,500 Dead so far. 11 Ships destroyed. If they get into our space it could destroy us!"

Cavourna reached the stage at the same time as Mercer. He faced the audience and announced
"Ladies and Gentlemen. We are eternally grateful for the great reception you have given us here. However, now a threat which could end our people looms from the depths of history. Alversian High Command has recalled all available warships to face the threat. We must go. The Scientists are willing to stay if they so desire but we have a duty to our homeworld to aid in the defeat of this menace. I thank you"

With that, Mercer and Cavourna were gone
"How many other ships have been recalled?" Cavourna asked on his bridge

"The entire Deep Space fleet, Sir" An Ensign replied, "All Sixty-three ships"

"Then set a course for Alversia, Warp 9!" He ordered, "Set the crew to red alert. I want to join this battle at full tilt. They will need our help"

A burst and the two warships were gone.

Now the Scientists were strangely muted and subdued. Whispering in small groups and shuffling uneasily about. They were also starting to consume vast amounts of the alcohol available.

Over by one of the tables, several generals and admirals were huddled together in discussion.

"What should we do?"
"Should their enemy discover the coordinates of this system from their vessel..."
"First priority should be the safety of the executives."
"Concurred. Admiral Harper?"
"Yes?"
"Defend the system with the Home Fleet; I'll see if I can help using the Combined Fleet."
"Understood."

=====

What's going on, Sam?

"Come on, Max. I need to get back to my lab. There's a war going on."

A...war? Is Vuhifell involved?

"No. But nevertheless..."

She looked around at the various officials. The private citizens were being evacuated by local police, however, several dropships awaited on the rooftop of the building. Soldiers had already come in and were evacuating all public officials, including the Alversian scientists.

Director Morisato sat on his throne, before standing up and heading out the main entrance to a waiting motorcade.

A soldier grabbed Dr. Iccard's shoulders suddenly.

"Ma'am, we need to get you out of here. You're a priority Alpha official." With that, he grabbed her over his shoulder. Bewildered, Dr. Iccard let herself get carried to the waiting dropship, before she heard the roar of fighter engines as they set out for a patrol over Farbanti.

Goodbye, sir. T'was nice meeting you.

The Scientists went quietly and without fuss. The SASM were amongst the most deadly races in the galaxy. However, Dr Smith heard the Admiral's conversation and called out
"You fools! You do not have the smallest realisation of what you are up against! These are no average pirates, no average enemies! They have been exploring space since we were dwelling in caves! They are the most devastating species in this galaxy and I prey they never make it this far!" Dr Smith fell silent as the truth of his own words struck home.

"They will not be easily defeated" He concluded sadly

The marines and officials merely stared at the scientist before resuming their work. The various admirals and generals also heard, and were once again busy preparing defense plans.

"So...offensive first strike is ruled out?"
"Yes. I propose sending corvette-frigate patrols, here, here, and here. As well as reinforcing Olympia's defense."
"We can't reinforce Olympia without taking resources away from Vuhifell."
"Our military epicenter matters more than our civilian government in this situation."
"And what of the civilian population!"
"Evacuate them to Malhiem!"
"We can't even evacuate this city to Malhiem! What makes you think we can evacuate our entire homeworld!"
"I never suggested that!"
"Focus!"
"Yes you did!"

Their conversation quickly broke down into an arguement on the best defense plans for protecting Olympia, Vuhifell's military headquarters. And Vuhifell: homeworld of the Vuhifellians.

=====

"Right this way, sir. You'll be taken to Olympia, shortly," the scientists were loaded onto a very large dropship. A Super-Heavy class. Soon, it would join with several Vuhifellian warships in their evacuation of the military to Olympia.

The Scientists nodded meekly and followed him, they knew that, if the SASM completed it's mission. Then they would be the last Alversians alive.

Planet Olympia

Several frigates could be seen under construction around the planet. Even a Marathon-class cruiser could be seen under construction.

ONI vessels went to and from the planet. Carrying spooks and intelligence equipment. The black metal of the Vuhifellian vessels contrasted with the blue, green and silver of the planet below.

"This is Bravo 717, requesting permission to land at Loto-Hivez Defense Station."

"Bravo 717. This is Loto-Hivez DSV. This is a high priority defense base. What is your cargo?"

"Priority Triple-Alpha personnel."

"Roger. We will send fighters to escort you to base."

As the dropship carrying the scientists descended through the atmosphere, generating heat along its bottom, they could hear the roar of several fighter engines nearby. However, the roar of the engines were soon drowned out, as outside of the window, they could see frigates and corvettes descending rapidly to the planet's surface.

Two, massive steel doors opened up out of nowhere in the ground. There were no buildings in sight, but this was Vuhifell's most important military installation: Mount Olympus.

The dropship quickly descended several kilometers in a shaft that burrowed down into the surface of Olympia. Before long, they hit the bottom. Marines surrounded the craft and escorted them to their new quarters, where they were given the highest levels of security clearence in the military.

Dr. Iccard wasn't too far behind...

"Would someone mind telling me who these SASM are?" she asked, folding her arms and taking off her glasses to rub her eyes.

"How much of a threat do they pose to this system?"

ONIV Satan's Helm
In Orbit Around Olympia

A dropship containing Captain Jackson was rapidly descending to the surface. Before long, her pilot was hailing a military base on the surface for landing clearence.

"Loto-Hivez, this is Zulu Echo Delta 119, requesting permission to land."

"Roger. Opening gates."

Unlike regular Naval dropships, which required a clearence level of Alpha or above, even the most trivial matters could be used as an excuse by ONI personel to access restricted areas. Given the nature of their work, it was bad to get in their way...

When the dropship landed on the bottom, several kilometers below the planet's surface, there was a dropship there with the marking 'Bravo 717'.

Strange. It wasn't an ONI vessel? Who could possibly warrant enough attention to be dropped into Mount Olympus on a regular flight?

Planet Olympia
Dr. Iccard wasn't too far behind...

"Would someone mind telling me who these SASM are?" she asked, folding her arms and taking off her glasses to rub her eyes.

"How much of a threat do they pose to this system?"


Dr Smith approached her and sighed
"400 years ago, the SASM were the most devastating race in the known galaxy. They were...monsters...their technology is advanced beyond even our wildest dreams. They brushed aside hundreds of species, dissecting each one and turning them into creatures known as Bioroids"

The Doctor brought out a datapad and tapped a few things into it then he showed Dr. Iccard a picture of the Bioroids (http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/t/terminators.jpg). What they do is test the body of the subject until they are virtually destroyed, then they take out the subjects brain and insert them into that monstrosity I have just shown you. The result is a very powerful killing machine with absolutely no morales and no heart whatsoever"

He shuddered for a few seconds then continued

"400 years ago, when our first fleets were setting off into space, we encountered the SASM. We tried to negotiate but they're not really the talking type. By the time we had managed to find an effective weapon against them. All our colonies had fallen apart from Alversia itself. We were finally able to defeat them but it was at such a sacrafice"

He shook his head sadly

"I fear that even today, their technology may be too advanced for us. Rotating Phaser Frequncies allow them to bypass sheilds, massive battle Bioroids able to swarm an entire ship with ease. Ships that can mould themselves into any vessel stored in their database, which unfortuneatly is most of them. They are the ultimate threat"

The Dr. turned to one of his comrades who was working on a radio he had been given by the Guards "Well?"

"I've managed to lock onto the Alversian Naval frequency and this thing has the power to travel that far once I hook it into one of those big aeriels"

"Very good, give it here" Dr. Smith took the radio and listened in "We have to find out what's happening at home"

As he listened, his face paled
"Three colonies have fallen" He spoke quietly to the other Scientists and Iccard, "84 ships destroyed, 270,000 military personnel killed, 250,000 civilians dissected already" He shook his head.

"They are back" He said sadly.

Two more scientists, Vuhifellian this time, burst into the door: Kyren Siriin and Julius Shane.

"Samantha!" Kyren immediately hugged her long-time childhood friend, now boss, while Julius simply nodded.

"What going on?"

"ONI is holding a special meeting in The Hall. They want you to testify!"

"Testify?" Dr. Iccard asked, puzzled.

Julius spoke up this time, raising a hand to block Kyren, "ONI has authorized a full mobilization of the armed forces. They need you, seeing as you're a member of the ONI Council."

"Fine...if you will just excuse me for a moment," she said to the Alversian scientists, "if there's anything you need, Julius and Kyren will be more than glad to assist you."

With that, she was out the door.

"The Hall"
ONI Council Special Meeting Room

The cieling expanded for what seemed forever, with only a few lights lighting up the darkness. She could see the silhouettes of her collegues, as one man briefly chastised her for her lateness.

"Well, Dr. Iccard, now that the President of the Panel of Scientists is here, maybe we can begin this meeting, yes?"

"I have authorized the full mobilization of the Navy under Constitutional Protocol. Special wartime measures." said a loud, booming voice. It was Admiral Harper.

"Special wartime measures! What authority do you have to proclaim Vuhifell under a state of war! That authority belongs to the civilian government, admiral!" she recognized this voice, too. It was the Councillor of Internal Affairs. It looked like the civilian government was taking a part in this meeting as well.

"The civilian government does not understand the gravity of this situation!"
"And this is another attempt by the military to sieze power from the elected government! How many times have we been through this farce before, admiral!"

"Enough!" shouted a relatively short man, still wearing robes as black as the room. It was Director Morisato. "Dr. Iccard, would you mind telling us about this...SASM. Your friendliness with our alien visitors must have given you some worthy military intelligence?"

"Uh...well, sir. Apparently, they have been a spacefaring civilization even before the times of the Zillati Empire"

[OOC: Note, Zillati Empire is Vuhifell's version of the Roman Empire]

"They're technology is, roughly put, what our technology would be in maybe...five-thousand to seven-thousand years."

"Absurd!"

"Quiet admiral!, continue, doctor."

"Yes, sir. Even their cybernetic technology is more advanced than ours. They have, apparently, managed to construct fully functional human-droids."

"Doctor, android technology is advancing at a rapid pace, you cannot even say-"

"No, admiral! I don't mean androids or entertainment robots - I mean fully functional, completely synthetic robot soldiers, with just as much dexterity, intelligence, and strength as any human...maybe more."

"Well, then, doctor, if that is the case, then we will just have to force them to make a land invasion, everyone knows the Navy is a joke-" It was Commander General Loki. Head of the Army, including the Marine Corps.

"What was that, general!"
"You heard me, admiral. Under your command, our Navy was experienced the slowest rate of growth, ever!"
"Maybe if I had more funding, instead of having to wrestle it away from land-pigs like you!"

"Enough! Or I will have you both dismissed!" again, the Director had restored order to the Council. "Well, doctor, what would you have us do?"

"I...I would entrust defense targetting to independent AI, sir. Have all human populations evacuated to secure locations and ready Vuhifell and Olympia for land invasion. The Navy would stay close to the worlds and form a defensive cluster around our ion cannon array. Bring all ships out-of-system back as soon as possible...and have ONI start a media blackout."

"Your knowledge even stretches to the military, doctor. I am impressed. You are dismissed, I have much more to discuss with my other advisers."

"Thank you, sir!" She stood up, bowed deeply to the Director, and left the black room. Garnering snares from each military officer in the room.

~SCANS DETECT LIFEFORMS BEARING .34 TERRAHURTZ

~LIFEFORMS ESTIMATED AT 7 BILLION. TECHNOLOGY IS INFERIOR

~SET COURSE TO INTERCEPT

~ORDER CONFIRMED. ORDER IMPLEMENTED

At that exact moment, three of the Pathfinders diverted from their course and headed for Vuhifellian space. Each one was at least six kilometers long and contained 15,000 Bioroids of which only 100 were needed for piloting, the rest were for land and boarding missions.

Mount Olympus

"Contact! Three vessels, bearing 038 from Olympia! They're near Vasto!" an ensign in the crowded Naval Command Bunker shouted out, several low-ranking admirals were near him

"Initiate the Iccard Plan! Have the Combined Fleet fall back to Olympia and the Home Fleet form around Vuhifell! What's the status on our out-of-system ships!?"

"Two vessels will be arriving in three minutes, sir! All other vessels will take nine hours to get back home."

"Activate the grid!"

Residentail Block A-111

All three Vuhifellian scientists pulled out their PDA's. Each was flashing red with the Council of War's emblem on it: an eagle grasping the arrows of war, surrounded by a field of stars.

TO: ALL FEDERAL ALPHA PERSONNEL
FROM: COUNCIL OF WAR
CC:
ONI
MILITARY BRAVO PERSONNEL

CONTACTS BEYOND VASTO. ICCARD PLAN INITIALIZED. ION GRID ACTIVATED. VUHIFELL IS NOW IN A STATE OF WAR UNDER COUNCIL OF WAR PROCLAMATION 1140-F.

"Damn..." Dr. Iccard's voice drifted off, before slowly looking up at the Alversian scientists. "They're here."

The Scientists paled as Iccard spoke
"Then your race is doomed" One said slowly

Vasto

One by one, the three massive warships pulled out of space. Their shields were already up and the Bioroids within were beginning to deploy to battlestations. A message was sent to the population below

WE ARE THE SASM

YOU WILL DEACTIVATE YOUR DEFENCES AND PREPARE TO BE DISSECTED.
ALL HOSTILE VARIABLES WILL BE ANNILIATED.

The Pathfinders began to deploy into an attack position.

In Orbit Around Vuhifell

The evacuation of major population centers was going...slow. Shuttles were taking large swatchs of civilians into the mysterium mines, hundreds of kilometers below the surface. Other, richer citizens, upon learning of the impending invasion, were renting interstellar civilian craft and leaving the system altogether...

Either way, evacuation of cities such as Golden Skies City, with populations of 500 million, were impossible.

"All ships, remain in formation! If Olympia falls, we are the last line of defense for the Federation!"

"Aye, sir!"

TO ANY SASM UGLIES LISTENING.

WE WILL STAND OUR GROUND.

Under normal circumstances, they fleet would have welcomed these new visitors with open arms. But this was different. Three-ship defense parimeters were established around strategic points on the planet. The VFS Halcyon, a five-kilometer Heavy Cruiser, designed by Dr. Iccard and pride of the fleet, stood lone watch in orbit around the Vuhifellian capital.

Olympia

"Maybe not...this facility is over 200 kilometers beneath the planet's surface. We're protected from the mantle with over 100 meters of MOLOGBI and plasma steel, I doubt-"

"Julius! Don't think yourself invincible...I heard that some civilians are evacuating the entire system altogether...Plugging in random slipspace vectors and getting the hell out of here. We can possibly do the same? In case this system falls."

~DEMAND REJECTED

~COURSE OF ACTION. BEGIN DISSECTION PROCESS

~ORDER CONFIRMED. ORDER IMPLEMENTED

~ALL HOSTILE VARIABLES WILL BE ANNILIATED

The Pathfinders began to advance towards the planet and the cities, all the ships were in tight formation. Almost immediately they began to target vast swathes of civilians on the ground and beam up to the labratories onboard. The Perimeter grid was just outside of range for a few moments, then the Pathfinders strayed casually within range again. They had destroyed thousands of species more technologically advanced than this one. There would be no challenge here. Although, just in case, another 47 Pathfinders were on route and would arrive within five hours.

"All ships, fire at will. Have the ion grid target the lead ship. Focus your firepower!"

Ships from the other side of the planet were breaking their formations to form on the enemy, which was currently huddled over the west coast of the Aurelian continent.

The orbiting ion cannons (http://www.cncden.com/cnc3_concept2/Ion%20Cannon%20firing.jpg) began to fire on the lead ship in the formation. Unfortunately, the stronger, land-based systems (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/27/Excalibur_ballistic_missile_defense.jpg)were on the other side of the planet...

Thirty MAC rounds, ranging from small, iron-steel rounds to massive solid-deuterium slugs were fired towards one of the ships flanking the lead, while fighters were scrambled from ground stations to help deal with the threat.

The Combined fleet was en route and would be there within thirty minutes.

"This is Fleet Admiral Harper, from the Cruiser, Pacific. All ships are authorized to use ion and nuclear weaponry. Kill the bastards! Dr. Iccard, there's a shuttle fleet leaving from Olympia soon to a randomized exit vector. I suggest you get on one of them and take everyone around you with you. We need to buy you time to find something...anything...Harper out."

The steel round just bounced off the shields of the big Ships, they didn't even shake under the pressure from the biggest rounds. The ion cannons were causing more damage but, as the shield frequencies needed were not available to the Vuhifellians and so the minimum of damage was caused.

However, each Turret was now targeted by at least fifteen of the beam cannons on the Pathfinders. Each one was aimed by a connected Bioroid who was making billions of calculations per second. They struck with deadly accuracy. Each Pathfinder had about 5,000 Civilians onboard already and the process of converting them to Bioroids had already begun.

~VESSELS DETECTED AT 0.12 TERRAHURTZ

~WEAPONRY INFERIOR. CHANCES OF DAMAGE ARE 1.5%

~TARGET MAIN VESSEL AND PREPARE TO FIRE MAIN BEAM

~COMMAND CONFIRMED. COMMAND IMPLEMENTED.

The main beam cannons, three of them on each ship started to target and fire at the main cruisers of the Vuhifellian fleet.

"Activate the AI-" the Valhalla burst into a brilliant explosion, debris began to rain down upon the planet.

As the armor boiled away of each targetted vessel, it sent the atmosphere of each vessel in one of two directions: either the atmosphere vented instantly, causing explosive decompression and a detonation of the reactors.

Or, the atmosphere simply ignited, throwing shrapnel into the surrounding area.

"Shit! Report!"

"We've lost all ships guarding the Ceres Ocean, sir! There are a few frigates remaining, but they've fallen back over the Pacific Ocean!"

"Tell them to get back in position! Activate the AI's!"

"Roger, sir! Turning control of the ion grid to ONI AI's."

Previously, all activities relating to the ion defense grid were in control of human operators at Naval Command, but with the destruction of some of the mightiest warships in the fleet...in a matter of milliseconds, something had to be done with ONI wartime AI.

AI Mythril, reporting!
AI Crusader, reporting!
AI Skuld, reporting!

As each AI transplanted themselves in their respective ion cannon's computer core, they took over every action of the cannon, rapidly decreasing the time it took to recharge.

"AI's, fire at will. Halcyon, what is your status?"

"We're over the North Pole right now, sir!"

"Hurry your ass up, they've decimated the Ceres Defense Parimeter! Use your trump card, son."

"Aye, sir."

The Combined fleet was 28 minutes away. The frigates and corvettes of the fleet merged their forces with the fighter squadrons from the ground in an attempt to confuse and disorientate the enemy. Keep them from firing on the larger vessels.

Several orbital defense stations were in place in geosynchronous orbit around major population centers. In the attack on the Ceres Parimeter, several of these stations had been lost as well. However, as the planet rotated and the battle drew near to the east coast of the Leasath continent, several new stations appeared in range.

"All ODS-V stations, fire at will!" Simultaneously, one again, several ships and stations fired a salvo. There were no cruisers in range to fire solid-deuterium rounds, but as the smaller vessels fired their iron-steel rounds, each station shuddered as they fired 3000 tonne, solid depleted uranium slugs. Enough energy to penetrate the crust of Vuhifell.

Olympia

"Well, Sam, are you coming?" Julius and Kyren were standing by the door, a pair of M78 Commandos were about to escort them to the escaping shuttle fleet.

Dr. Iccard looked up at the Alversian scientists, before turning to the commando standing next to her.

"Only if they're going."

The fighters were irrelevant, no damage in the slightest was being done by their weapons or the frigates. However, the Oribital Defense stations and the AI Controlled Ion Cannons were the main targets and these were given a relentless pounding by the powerful Pathfinders. The uranium rounds did something to the shields and they flickered for a few moments. Then they held. Not even these mighty weapons could defeat the ancient space race. Not with one volley anyway.

The three Pathfinders were still in the area and, while they were busy decimating the Vuhifellian defences, they continued to beam civilians from the surface up to the labs for conversion. By now about 40% of those on the surface were in SASM labs undergoing the conversion process to be converted into Bioroids.

Olympia

The Scientists looked at each other, some muttering a few words. Then, one by one, they shook their heads.

"No." Dr Smith replied firmly "Over 700,000 of our brother have been killed because they haven't withdrawn. We would betray their memories if we were to flee from these monsters"

A new update came through the radio and Dr. Smith diverted his attention back to the broadcast. Paling he turned to Dr. Iccard and swallowed hard.

"The Deep Space fleet has been destroyed" He reported sombrely "The Fearless and the Defiant were amongst the casualties. Captains Cavourna and Mercer are dead"

The Alversian scientists gasped, some lowered their heads, others put their heads in their hands as tears started to fall.

"Alversian casualties so far are over 1 million killed or dissected.

Olympia

Slowly, the two scientists took turns reciting an ancient Vuhifellian battle prayer.

"May Tyth be with you."
" 'Til the Great Ascension"
"And should Razgriz bless you in battle,"
"To your grave forever more..."

"Amen." all three said at once, before Kyren gave her friend one last hug. The commandos saluted and bowed, and left.

Suddenly, they could feel the base shake, before the loudspeaker system activated.

Dr. Iccard, this is Director Morisato, I am broadcasting on the base's microphone system for one last time. ONI and the civilian government are evacuating completely. We all had great respect for you, even the admiral. I see you have chosen to take a stand for our nation alongside the Admiral. May the Gods bless your souls and guard your ascent to the Holy Sanctum. Amen.

The roar of the shuttles was all that could be felt in the base, before it slowly dimmed, and bagpipes began to play 'Amazing Grace' over the loudspeaker.

Over Planet Olympia

"Randomize exit vector six times for each vessel and then converge on Tribute system."

"Yes, sir!"

Slowly, each shuttle was enveloped in brilliant white light, before silently dissappearing into the darkness of space.

Over Vuhifell

"Eastern Leasath Defense Parimeter has been destroyed!"

"Where the hell is the Halcyon!"

"She's on the southern coast of Anea, now, sir!"

"Patch me through! Captain Glepnir, what took you so long!"

"Sorry, sir. But I had to deploy my dropships to help the evacuation of Anea."

"Hurry the hell up and fire! We're losing ships here!"

"Aye, sir!"

The Halcyon was a special ship, sporting four MAC cannons instead of one. The shared magnets dimmed their power, of course, but the ship's length, five kilometers, made up for that.

A salvo of four rounds was fired, each was solid mysterium. Vuhifellians had one small trump card over their new enemies, and that was this crystal.

While mysterium was, itself, a stable substance, high forces of energy tended to set it off in a massive explosion.

The crafting of mysterium in a laboratory or factory wasn't enough energy to make it explode; however, firing it at 2/5 the speed of light into an enemy shield was enough energy to force the mysterium slugs to explode, and that was their significance.

[OOC: OOC note. One ounce of mysterium, when detonated, equals several Hiroshima bombs.

Were it not for the Halcyon's many stabilization thrusters, she would have plummeted into Vuhifell's atmosphere instantly after firing her mysterium rounds, each weighing about 800 metric tonnes.

Though the East Leasath Defense Grid was gone, the perfect position of the battle was now in place: Once the enemy ships passed over the Hild Plains, they would be in the killzone of the entire Leasath Continental Defense System, which also happened to include two land-based ion cannons.

The mysterium rounds exploded against the shields of one Pathfinder and, at first, it looked as though it had survived. Then it seemed implode throwing debris across a wide area. However the destruction of the Pathfinder also resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Vuhifellians who had yet to be dissected. The other two learned their lessons and, while the secondary beams focused on the ion defences on the ground, the main beam cannons of the other two Pathfinders focused all their firepower on the Halcyon. There were now few citizens left on the moon's surface. Most of them had been dissected and converted into the cold and heartless Bioroids that dominated the SASM Pathfinders.

However, the rest of the fleet was approaching rapidly and soon they would join and throw their weight behind the battle.

Olympia

"You didn't have to stay" Dr Smith remarked sadly to Dr. Iccard, "We stay because it is our duty as Alversians. You have no such need"

The rest of the Scientists were still in a state of shock and were wandering around aimlessly

"I can't believe they're both dead" Dr Smith took off his glasses and sighed sadly, "Mercer was only 22. A great future ahead of her. And Cavourna," He sighed again and placed his hand on his heart "Today a legend has been killed"

Olympia

"I stayed because it is the honorable thing to do...I'm sorry about Cavourna. I only knew him for a fraction as long as you did, however, from the impression he gave me, he must have been a great man."

Maxrir's voice appeared over the loudspeaker now.

Sam...the Halcyon has been destroyed. But we've found a way to kill them...mysterium!

No! Vuhifell was the only planet in the system to have mysterium, and judging from spectrometer data from exploration missions; it was the only planet in the known galaxy to have it.

"Max...they will kill me. And when they kill me..."

I'll destroy myself so they don't find our randomized vectors and they won't know where the fleet will re-emerge. Do you want me to start the self-destruct sequence?

"Yes, Max. Please...I'm sorry, but will you destroy yourself now. Before they overwhelm Vuhifell."

Yes, Sam. As you wish...I love you...Mom

'Self-Destruct sequence for all levels activated. Waiting until all biological signals are clear from the base until destruction.'

"Thank you...Max,"

The light that inhabited the piece of mysterium in her hand slowly dimmed, indicating the loss of intelligent AI in it, and the death of Maxrir...

Dr. Iccard collapsed to the floor and began to cry, as the PDA she left on her table went blank, indicating that Naval Command on Vuhifell had been destroyed.

Over Leasath Continent

"All stations, fire!"

The two ground stations had been damaged beyond repair, but their sacrifice, along with the crew of the Halcyon had bought the fleet enough time to lure the enemy into the center of Leasath.

The smaller vessels acted as cover for the larger stations and ion cannons as they focused their energy on the two remaining vessels. As they drew closer to the Vuhifellian Continent, the larger and greater the defenses were. Ion cannons were not only firing their main weapon, but also generating small bursts of gamma radiation. Orbital stations slowly began to appear larger, their magnets were stronger, and their depleted uranium rounds were heavier by up to 400 tonnes.

Vuhifell may fall, but that didn't stop their undying conviction to kill as many of these...demons as possible.

The Pathfinders continued to ignore the smaller fighters while focusing completely on the Ion Cannons and other Ground-based weapons. The Ion cannons did little more damage when fired togather as they had when fired alone. There were now millions of Civilians on the Pathfinders, each being slowly converted into Bioroids.

Unfortunately one flash of light later and 37 more Pathfinders had arrived. Each was filled with Bioroids and now they were assembling to finish the strike against Vuhifell. Now, as the amount of people on the surface began to dwindle, the Pathfinders focused more on the defending stations of the planet and those above it.

On the surface, the Scientists were about to say something when a loud buzzing could be heard. Then they were standing in the middle of a Pathfinder. The smell of gore was sickening even to the strongest of stomachs and the ear-splitting screams echoed throughout the ship.

The Scientists and Dr. Iccard were faced by a group of Bioroids (http://www.shizzlepie.com/wp-content/screenshots/terminator4.jpg). The began to push and force the group down the halls, through the pools of blood and into containment chambers

"This is it. From now on we are Bioroids. It was an honour to meet you, Dr, Iccard" Dr. Smith said before he was thrown into the container. Along with the other scientists.

Jackson's first knowledge of the impending apocalypse was when the lights flickered. This base, whatever it was, was several miles underground, and quite likely had its own power supply. It took a lot of trauma to make something like that flicker.

The door lock on his door disengaged with a heavy click. When it opened, the corridor was chaotic. The signs seemed to say that something major was happening. Something major in a definitely not good sort of way.

Trying to bluff his way down the corridor as just another Vuhifellian Navy captain, he passed an open door. He heard a faint sentence over the room's loudspeaker...

"Sam... Halcyon... destroyed... kill... mysterium!"

Turning back, he caught the final parts of the conversation between the female scientist in the room and the person behind the loudspeaker. After looking at something in her hand, she started crying.

He went in and asked, "Ma'am... is there anything I can do to help?"

As a brilliant flash of light appeared, Fleet Admiral Harper held his breath...thirty-seven enemy vessels were now forcing their way to Vuhifell...

They had barely managed to destroy one of the bastards, and that was with the loss of half of the Home-Fleet...

"This is F-Fleet Admiral Harper...All ships, initiate Operation Judgement Day, then proceed with the final stages of the Iccard Plan!"

This was a plan developed forty years earlier as an "ultimate last resort". If the extinction of the Vuhifellian people was at hand, Vuhifellians were to utilize their greatest asset in order to give them an "honorable death"...the detonation of the planet's mysterium reserves.

In between the crust and the mantle of Planet Vuhifell was a planet-wide, ten kilometer thick layer of mysterium. This...strange crystal was both a godsend and a killer.

It was responsible for the Remona Virus and several other ills that plagued the Vuhifellian people, but at the same time, their advanced technologies would not be possible without it. Who knows how farther these "SASM" would advance if they got their hands on the crystal!

Suddenly, every ship in the Vuhifellian fleet...every remaining one, at least, turned away from their enemies and towards the planet, and simultaneously fired all their MAC weaponry into the crust of the planet...

Thirteen Seconds Later

Fleet Admiral Harper had the worst headache he could imagine. Apparently, in the resulting explosion, his ship, because it was still several million kilometers away from Vuhifell, had not been destroyed. But the damage had been instantly recognizable when there were two suns in the system now...

"May the Gods forgive us for our sins...All ships, break formation and initiate the final stage of the Iccard Plan!"

A bright, white light enveloped the remainder of the Vuhifellian fleet - all seventeen ships of it, and soon they were gone. Vuhifell had fallen, six billion citizens were dead, and mysterium: possibly the universe's greatest source of energy and power, and a resource only the Vuhifellians possessed and could enjoy, was destroyed and gone forever.

[OOC: Mind if I close this thread and start anew with the Aftermath of what just happened]

Jackson's first knowledge of the impending apocalypse was when the lights flickered. This base, whatever it was, was several miles underground, and quite likely had its own power supply. It took a lot of trauma to make something like that flicker.

The door lock on his door disengaged with a heavy click. When it opened, the corridor was chaotic. The signs seemed to say that something major was happening. Something major in a definitely not good sort of way.

Trying to bluff his way down the corridor as just another Vuhifellian Navy captain, he passed an open door. He heard a faint sentence over the room's loudspeaker...

"Sam... Halcyon... destroyed... kill... mysterium!"

Turning back, he caught the final parts of the conversation between the female scientist in the room and the person behind the loudspeaker. After looking at something in her hand, she started crying.

He went in and asked, "Ma'am... is there anything I can do to help?"


[OOC: Cool, alternate ending!]

"Max...Vuhifell...we're all going to die. You should get out while you can," she reached into her pocket and pulled out an ID card, before throwing it at the man.

"Here, use it to ride the space elevator to one of the ONI vessels in high orbit..."

She looked at his uniform, a navy captain's, and saw the nametag. "JACKSON J."

"Captain Jackson, you have served the Federation well, but please go. I can tell you are not Vuhifellian, but when you leave this place, use my ID card in the ship's computer and it will take you wherever you need to go. May the Gods bless you, and be at peace."

OOC: Not a problem

All of the 39 Pathfinders had been in close proximity to the planet when it erupted. Even though their shields were more advanced than almost anything in the galaxy, even they could not survive the explosion of such magnitude.

All 39 Pathfinders exploded one by one as their shields failed and their hulls buckled. Taken along with all 39 of the Pathfinders were their crews, combined as a total 600,000 Bioroids and another 4 billion Vuhifellian citizens who had been dissected. Among the dead were the dissected Alversian Scientists and even Dr. Iccard herself. But the result was that, by the heroism of the Vuhifellian peoples and their supreme sacrafice. The SASM's war effort had been badly hurt by such a massive loss. Even though she was one of the most powerful peoples in the galaxy, her numbers were low and this battle did not help matters in the slightest.

The Vuhifellian sacrafice would be remembered forever. As the turning of the tide.

(OOC: Htf am I going to explain this? Alternate future?)

"No, ma'am. Leaving people behind is against my personal code of ethics, and probably a number of Navy rules. Please, come with me."

He pulled out his old Kostemetsian Navy PDA and started tapping commands in. Thirty seconds, a few beeps, and a number of network nodes later, he'd gained access to one of the few surviving surface network nodes. Taking advantage of his knowledge of Kostemetsian computer architecture, he routed through a dark server onto the civilian docking darknet. Encrypting the transmission, he sent a number of key commands to one of the receivers in the list.

A second later, the maw of a wormhole opened in the corridor outside. Helping Dr. Iccard to her feet, he instructed her to go through...

[OOC: I know, we'll just say that, while you saved Dr. Iccard, because of extreme mental duress, the other scientists thought Dr. Iccard was with them all along. We'll just assume, though, that she's not returned to Vuhifellian space and everyone assumes she's dead.]

Slowly, she got up to her feet, walking dazed. Like a zombie. She began muttering to herself as she proceeded to the wormhole.

"My daughters...Max...Mira...I'm sorry..."

Another loud bang dimmed the lights of Mount Olympus. This was the end.

"My daughters... Max... Mira... I'm sorry..."

Jackson shivered. Everything was wrong somehow. He gently nudged the bereaved woman in through the wormhole, then jumped in himself.

Now this was an environment he was familiar with.

"Ma'am, I'd advise you to strap in. Welcome onboard the Good Cause."

Jackson sat himself in front of the flight controls, remembering how to use them, then pulled out his PDA. After a couple of seconds of punching in coordinates and disengaging drive locks, he jammed down the large red WORMHOLE button on the interface keyboard, then throttled up and shot into the opening terminus of a wormhole at half the speed of light.

VFS Marathon

He wondered what could be so damn important as to pull him back Vuhifell urgently. He understood he was not an ONI spook, but he still didn't know why FLEETCOM was in such a rush...

Until he saw a small sun where Vuhifell once was...

"Olympic Naval Command, do you copy?" He immediately asked on his radio. His entire bridge crew was focused on the new sun, shielding their eyes with their arms but nevertheless not looking away.

"Olympic Naval Command, do you read me?"

Static.

"Does anybody hear me? This is Lieutenant Schultz of the Office of Naval Intelligence! Does anyone hear me!"

A few of his officers started to cry. Others simply shook their heads and looked up at their Captain.

Lieutenant Schultz, this is the AI McNamera...I'm sorry to report to you that Planet Vuhifell and its moon of Vuhifell Minor have been completely destroyed.

"What happened here, McNamera?"

I'm sorry, sir, but that is Priority Triple-Black information. Only the ONI High Council can access that data.

"Well where are they!"

All members of the ONI High Council have successfully evacuated this system, sir. I'm sorry, but they have entered randomized exit vectors. I do not know where they are.

Jackson throttled down as he entered the Vuhifell system. The change was shocking - where Vuhifell Major had once been, there was - nothing. Just a cloud of energised gas.

He gaped at it in shock, then knew what he had to do.

Picking up the subspace radio backset, he put it on and started a transmission across the system.

"This is Captain James Jackson of the Vuhifellian Navy. Any Vuhifellian forces, please respond. We are transporting survivors via wormhole onto the KCS Good Cause."

In the distance, he could see a speck traversing the brightness of the Vuhifellian gas cloud - perhaps an orbital installation... or perhaps a surviving Vuhifellian ship.

ooc: apologies for not having replied yet. RL issues have been popping up like acne on a junior high kid. I am out of town on business this weekend starting today, but I will have a reply to everyone on monday, if not earlier. again, sorry about the delay.

"Attention Thrashian vessel, this is Captain Elthos of the Mythrandir exploration vessel. You will have to forgive my absence but I was previously occupied with other matters. I was informed that one of my officers has been entertaining you until now though. What is it that you desire here?"

Relentless Bridge

Lieutenant Jarek was in command of the Relentless while Captain Bardeck was gone, giving his debriefing to Vice Admiral Gilbraec, and little did he desire to shoulder the responsibility of a possibly tricky diplomatic situation. Never-the-less he answered when he got the call.

"Greetings Captain Elthos of Mythrandir. I am Lieutenant Jarek, second-in-command of the Relentless. My commander is off ship reporting to his superior. When we arrived before the battle my captain had attempted to speak with you concerning the possibility of creating a diplomatic opportunity between our two nations."

"Vice Admiral Gilbraec, this is Captain Velnir Schultz of the Vuhifellian Navy; space operations branch of the armed forces of the Vuhifellian Federation. We would request dialogue between our two peoples to promote peace and harmony between our nations, unlike the bloodbath we have both just witnessed and taken a part in.

Gallic Conquerer

Gilbraec was just about to dismiss Commodore Kalister and Captain Bardeck, thought about it then decided not to. He turned to them. "You both had better stay here and listen. I just might be using one of you as a courier."

The handsome admiral turned back to his transmitter. "Hello Captain Schultz, it is a pleasure to meet you. I'm in agreement with your statement, and would be agreeable even more to begin a diplomatic discussion between our nations. If possible we could transport you or any of your diplomats to Thrashian Space, or we could send our own diplomatic team with you back to your own territory. I'll leave that up to you."

VFS Marathon
A few Minutes Before

"Sir, urgent message from FLEETCOM, they're requesting all ships return to Vuhifellian space immediately!"

"Damn. Well, alright, then. Let's get a message out to the Thrasians, first.

Attention Thrasian vessel, it would seem that an urgent matter has been brought to my attention from my government. However, before I return to my home planet, I will be dispatching a diplomatic envoy from our vessel. You may speak to them aboard your vessel or your space.

Schultz immediately turned to one of his lieutenants.

"Tell the team to rendervous back in Vuhifell system once they're done initiating contact."

"Aye, sir."

At once, a small craft disengaged from the Marathon, a Korsa II Heavy-Dropship. Before the Marathon and Dragoon were both enveloped in brilliant light, and disappeared.

"Vice Admiral Gilbraec, this is Second Lieutenant James Ackeron of the Vuhifellian Office of Naval Intelligence. My team and I shall act as official diplomatic envoys to your Empire. Please recieve us, now."