NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Ok, first off, no awesomely powerful people coming in with guns blazing, turning all people within into a red pulp.

That said, I don't mind people coming in, asserting some authority, maybe getting into a skirmish, etc. A quick bit of gratuitous violence never hurts.

IC:

"Kal'Mel, the Phase Jump Drive is ready. The Flotilla has signalled Jump Readiness. We are ready to move on."

Standing up from his Command Chair, Kal'Mel Andreus Dentar of the Arazi Remnant looked at the primary datascreen. "Understood, Kal'Shi. Signal the Flotilla - have them slave their Jump command circuits to ours." He then linked into the Shipwide - "All hands, attention. Prepare for a Level One Phase Jump. Secure all stations for Phase Jump, I say again, Secure all stations."

Throughout the mighty Warcruiser Arazi, crewmen dashed through compartments, lashing down all loose objects. Engineers were a blur of speedy work, their four hands multi-tasking frantically as they checked and re-checked every ship system. Meanwhile, outside the ship, two other massive starships, the Indomitable and the Deliverance both waited in formation.

Moments later, the status reports flooded in on the monitors, and before five seconds had passed, the ship was secured. "Kal'Mel, all compartments report secure for Phase Jump."

Sitting in his Command Chair, he gave the order: "Kal'Shi... Initiate Jump."

"Initiating Jump!"

Throughout the ship, a bass-like, unearthly rumble as the massive Jump Drive began to shift the ships into PhaseSpace. Then, a powerful vibration began to shake the ship as, in a large bubble around the Arazi Flotilla, space appeared to liquefy and distort. A moment later, the distortion disappeared, leaving space as it was - minus three starships.

"Phase Jump successful, Kal'Mel. Phase Harmonies are in alignment, and the Flotilla is maintaining formation," called the Kal'Shi, as the viewscreen displayed seemingly random wavelengths of light, distorted throughout the dimension the Arazi had come to call 'PhaseSpace'. "I estimate that Reversion will take place in approximately 2.4 hours."

"Very good. All hands, secure from Jump Stations," called Dentar.

----------------------

2 Hours and 24 Minutes Later...

"Sir, Realspace Reversion is taking place!"

"All hands, Emergency! Unscheduled Reversion Underway! Secure for Reversion, repeat, Secure for Reversion!" called Dentar as he dived into his seat, securing his restraints. "Kal'Shi, can you pull us through?"

"I can try..." replied the officer, his hands dancing across four seperate displays as he worked to stabilize the Flotilla's reversion. Sweating profusely, his concentration never wavered as he focused on his task.

In normal space, a section of space, roughly five kilometres cubed, was distorting wildly, as the Phase Jump Drives tried valiantly to push through to normal space.

A few seconds and a horrendous, ship-wide vibration later, and the Flotilla was through.

Leaping from his seat, Dentar began issuing orders. "Damage Control, evaluation! Navigation, get a fix on our position! Sensors, scan local space, and identify potential resourcing positions! Astrometrics, check all planets in this system, and look for matches! Tactical, bring up our Defense Fields! Move it, people!"

The bridge erupted into a furious scramble to get their jobs done.

"Section 4, Deck Five reports hull fractures! Teams dispatched!"

"Local space within five hundred thousand megaKavots clear! Scanning for one million now!"

"Position fixed, we are slightly off-target, but within acceptable safety margins! Compensating!"

However, with a single word, all activity ceased.

"WE HAVE A MATCH!!!" was the triumphant cry from the Astrometrics station.

Turning to look at the officer there, Dentar said, deadly quiet, "Confirm, and cross-check with the Deliverance..."

A few seconds later, the officer spoke again. "Kal'Mel, Deliverance confirms. The third-most planet is 99.9994% match with acceptable standards. Deliverance can fix the variation..."

The bridge was silent as, with a quick clearing of his throat, Dentar keyed in the Fleetwide channel.

"Attention, loyal soldiers of the Arazi Remnant... as of fifteen seconds ago, the Astrometrics divisions aboard the Warcruiser Arazi and the Mothership Deliverance confirmed that the third planet of this system is a match for colonization protocols."

"We have found our goal... warriors of the Arazi Remnant, we have found our new home! The greatest treasure of our people has been found!"

With those words, cheering broke out aboard the Flotilla. Grinning despite himself, Dentar gave the order. "All hands, execute Protocol One-Alpha. Proceed into orbit. Communcations, send to Deliverance this message: Begin Colonization procedures."

A small group of ships bearing unknown identifying marks entered the system, ripping through subspace. However, these ships were obviously lightly armed transport and supply vessels, with a small escort of a single frigate and three squadrons of corvettes. It seemed as they were passing through the system.

However, there were a number of unidentified ships in the system, the Arazi ships. This alarmed them greatly as there were not supposed to be any ships in their way. There were spikes in their power grids as thin bubble-like shields formed around the hulls of their vessels and their weapon arrays powered up.

Mantis, the gem of the Torville System. The third planet from it's star, Mantis was colonised mainly by farmers who had turned Mantis into a beautiful agriworld, to better support the burgeoning population of the Empire of Greater Headhunters. Before the coming of the colonists, the planet's ecosystem had not evolved past plantlife. The colonists had brought grains, fruitrees and grazing animals to better utilize the planet.

The Torville system was protected by the 6th Greater Headhunters' Fleet. Sixteen ship kept watch over the system, protecting Mantis and it's colonists. The 6th Fleet was suplemented by outlying sensors and listening probes. Mantis had very little to fear from pirates and vagabonds. That peaceful serenity was about to be broken.

OOC: Mantis is the planet that Arazi wishes to colonize. Dont worry, I will try not to fight you and I dont want you to think I am godmodding so I am telling you up front, most of my ships are small and outdated.
@Draconic Order, do you want to be part of some sort of Interstellar Trade Alliance?

((I'll go with it.))

There were several cargo shuttles on the surface awaiting clearance to launch. The ships were destined to join up with the supply convoy as it passed through the system. The grain and other supplies they carried were necessary for a fleet staging point in a nearby system.

The DO were readying for a large expansion project and their fleets were gathering for incursions into territory surrounding their systems. Convoys of supplies had been passing through multiple inhabited systems, ones that the DO didn't know existed during the initial setup of supply routes. Since they didn't wish to expend resources conquering smaller neighbors that posed little if any threat to them, they instead established trading relations. The agri-world of Mantis, of the Empire of Greater Headhunters, supplied much needed foodstuffs for the rumbling bellies of the DO fleet.

The knowledge of unknown vessels in the system had changed the nature of the game. The cargo vessels on the ground were given permission to lift-off immediately and make for the other side of the planet, away from the advancing unknown fleet. If they hurried, they may reach the convoy by the time the unknown fleet arrived.

Landman Ernel Hummel looked at the screen in front of him. A fleet of unknown ships was heading the way of Mantis. A convoy of DO ships was also moving towards Mantis, because the DO needed the grains and foodstuffs from the shuttles still stuck on the ground. Hummel gav the shuttles permission to launch. He had not expected these new ships. They definatly complicated things up a bit. He alerted the 6th Fleet of this threat and sent a message to the DO convoy.

OOC: Thanks DO. BTW the GH Empire is in control of six systems. We are small but we are not limited to one system. And we are peaceful, rather trading then warring. Just so you dont go "Wehr did dat ding kum frum!!!!11 WTF!!!11"

((The soldiers aren't in the convoy... the convoy is heading to the fleet.))

The DO convoy received the warning that they already had, about their being unknown ships in system... but at least they could be certain they weren't seeing things now, since someone else saw them.

OOC: Don't know how you guys'll react to this, but I'll play it by ear.

Aboard the Warcruiser Arazi...

Amidst the general cheering and raucousness of the crew's celebrations, one sensor officer peered at his charts, before looking up and calling out, "Contact! Multiple starships detected launching from the planet, Kal'Mel!"

The mood instantly sobered, with crewmen dashing back to their stations. Sitting in his chair, Dentar stood. "We cannot allow another potential planet to slip through our grasp..." he thought, though the knowledge of what he must do saddened him.

Linking into the shipwide comm, he called, "Action Stations, Action Stations. All hands, prepare for engagement." Closing the link, he gave the fateful orders. "Tactical, polarize the Hull Plating and charge Plasma Lances. Move in at maximum speed. Plot an intercept course for the launching starships. Communications, order Deliverance and Indomitable to proceed as planned."

The Warcruiser leapt forward, a subdued purplish glow emanating from its rear as it powered through space, directly for the third planet, Mentis. Behind it, the massive forms of the Deliverance and Indomitable cruised toward the planet.

Aboard the Indomitable, a series of missile-like devices were loaded into specially built silos - Gravitic Bombs that would 'cleanse' the planet, preparing it for seeding by the Deliverance...

OOC: FYI, the Furians are a rather isolationist creed of humans with psionic/telechinetic abilities and a rather long lifespan. They are among the less known realms of the galaxy... I based their racial profile loosely on "The Chronicles of Riddick" but for the sake of simplicity I usually advocate that they be considered an entirely new creed/race of their own...

As the 1 kilometer long freighter was on it's way out of the system, filled to the brim with exotical fruits and vegetables, it was suddenly shaken by a shockwave. The captain, a rather short and big fellow in Furian standards, blinked unbelievingly. A few kilometres away, where previously had been empty space, a huge fleet now stood. "Helm! Port 5 points, full speed ahead, get us out of hear!" the captain barked. If he could just put enough distance between him and the fleet he could safely engage the slipstream-drives and be gone. He turned around to meet the glance of his security officer, a large man by the name of Raidex. "They don't look friendly... I suggest you start working that slipstream-drive or prepare to be fired upon and boarded... what's it going to be?" he calmly asked the captain. As a matter of fact, Raidex couldn't care less. He had been in prisons several times, and had always managed to escape. He had taken this job only because it would bring him somewhat closer to his destination, but as for the greedy traders that had hired him, he couldn't care less about them. His face had a somewhat ironic here-we-go-again expression as he looked out the window at the huge fleet.

OOC: This could go two ways. Either you board my ship (who sends out a distress call that will bring warships running to it's aid) and have a considerable number of soldiers slaughtered by my security officer, or you let me get away and I'll send a warship to investigate, and we can take it from there... up to you...

The Huge Battle Ship The Zealous Truth burst into the system, the Warp bristling with power around it, before the rip in space sealed itself, and the Zealot carried on its way.

General Vought Ivits, former Imperial Guard General, almost fell out of his seat as the warp smashed against the hul of his ship. The ship should have long ago fallen to pieces, but the power of Chaos was holding it in place despite the laws of Physics.
"General." Hissed one of the Cultists, his eyes plucked out and his mind almost completely one with the ship. "We detect a number of ships in the syssstem, and they seem to be battle-ready!"
Vought wiped his brow, "Well, get out of here then, we can lose them if we-"
"You will do what we say, General, or are you having second thoughts?"
A deep voice said behind him, and he turned around to see the huge armoured 10 feet tall form of the Chaos Space Marine Esolon, his horned helmet in the crook of his arm and his dark red power armour rusted and plague-ridden.
"Of course my master, I just was worried for the fate of the ship-"
"You were worried for yourself and yourself only, just like the dog you are."
"Yes master."
"Head towards the ships General, and don't stop until we give the word."
"Yes master, I will master!" Vought nodded, and with that, the Chaos Space Marine vanished into the darkness,leaving Vought alone with the Cultists.

"Kal'Mel, the ships down below appear to be naught but transports - I'm reading a rather severe lack in terms of energy levels. However, I have detected another warship entering the system... by Kar'Os, what an abomination..."

Looking at the main screen, a gravitic 'snapshot' of the new ship flashed up. Curling his lip in disgust, he linked directly into the Tactical channels, allowing him to, in effect, take control of the ship.

The Arazi swung around, curving away from the planet and the multitude of cargo ships below, whilst the Motherships continued their approach.

Soaring in toward the unknown ship, Dentar decided the time for niceties was passed. "Tactical, fire a warning salvo of Plasma Lances across the bow of that beastly warship." With these words, a salvo of needle-like plasma blasts flickered out, missing the bow of the ship by naught but a short margin.

"Admiral Von Hersching, I ask that you mobilize the 6th Fleet. There are currently two hostile fleets in the Mantis System, a trade frieghter of perhaps Furian origin and one friendly DO Battle Group. I also want you to contact the Darwin System and ask them to ready the 4th Fleet, in case of an emergency.", spoke Landman Hummel into the Comms-Piece, "We need to know the intentions of the two hostile fleets before we make our move. Godspeed Admiral."

Message to The Zealous Truth, from the planet Mantis

++StartCodeOn++
To the commander of the ship,
This is Landman Ernel Hummel of the Greater Headhunter controlled planet of Mantis. I wish to ask why you have come to the Mantis System with a warship? We are a peaceful agriworld and want no war between us. What reason have you for such a show of power?
Landman Ernel Hummel
++StopCodeOn++

Message to the Furian Frieghter, from the planet Mantis

++StartCodeOn++
To the commander of the ship,
This is Landman Ernel Hummel of the Greater Headhunter controlled planet of Mantis. I wish to ask why you have come to the Mantis System? Are you traders? If so, you are welcome to stay. We are currently in a diplomatic crisis. Several fleets have entered our system and we do not know if they are hostile or not. We wish that you are not.
Landman Ernel Hummel
++StopCodeOn++

Message to the Arazi Flagship, from the planet Mantis

++StartCodeOn++
To the commander of the ship,
This is Landman Ernel Hummel of the Greater Headhunter controlled planet of Mantis. I wish to ask why you have come to the Mantis System with a fleet of warships? We are a peaceful agriworld and want no war between us. What reason have you for such a show of power?
Landman Ernel Hummel
++StopCodeOn++

The DO cargo ships did not want anything to do with the situation and were running as silent as possible as one can with their afterburners on full throttle. Of course they didn't want to be prey to possible hostile warships so their own subspace SOS joined the other COM traffic heading out of the system. Thankfully they were less than a light year from the nearest fleet staging point, so a response would be forthcoming. Assuming they had ships to spare.

OOC: As you can see, Furia Prime, you're in the clear for a getaway.

"Kal'Mel, transmission from the planet inbound... having trouble getting any form of translation out of it..."

"Ignore it, Communications. Order Indomitable to launch Gravitic Bombs when ready, and order Deliverance to prepare to execute Protocol Sierra-Alpha One. Tactical, keep an eye on all ships in this system. If any of them appear to be taking up a hostile approach vector, fire warning shots."

Message to the Furian Frieghter, from the planet Mantis

++StartCodeOn++
To the commander of the ship,
This is Landman Ernel Hummel of the Greater Headhunter controlled planet of Mantis. I wish to ask why you have come to the Mantis System? Are you traders? If so, you are welcome to stay. We are currently in a diplomatic crisis. Several fleets have entered our system and we do not know if they are hostile or not. We wish that you are not.
Landman Ernel Hummel
++StopCodeOn++

This is Captain Martin, of the Furian tradeship Indefatigable. We entered this system on a trademission, but seeing the current situation we will be leaving soon. Thank you for your time, over and out.

Once again, the Captain of the tradeship was caught by surprise, as proximity alarms started blaring through the ship. Floating silently above them, an enourmous black ship had suddenly appeared, obviously decloaking. He turned to the main screen hoping to be hailed before being blown to bits. His hopes were fullfilled, as a rather young and tall man with a two-days beard appeared in front of him, smartly dressed in a neat grayish uniform with dark blue tinges. Good day to you sir, this is Captain Truxtun of the SHS Black Dagger. Please do not respond to this transmission. You will immediately power up those slip-stream generators of yours and be on your way back to Exardia, where I expect you to inform the military with full details about what you have experienced. Now please make haste.
The transmission was abruptly cut short, and the Captain thankfully gave orders for the ship to leave the system. SHS stood for 'Silver Hand Ship', which meant that the good Captain Truxtun was a part of the Order of the Silver Hand, a fleet which was known to protect merchants and hunt down pirates and criminals throughout the galaxy, and they were Furians at that. Gladly he watched the subdued flash of green as his ship entered slipstream and was safe once more...

Aboard the Black Dagger (http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/718/daggermo9.jpg)

Captain Truxtun stood with his hands clasped behind him, observing the Tactical Holographic Display with a wry expression. Several ships of mixed identities were in the system, but obviously the most worrying was the large fleet, which had caught his attention and made him enter the system to find out what was going on. It was clearly an invasion fleet, his experience told him that much, and he noted with interest that they used plasma weaponry. "Plasma doesn't have enough density to pierce heavy armour effectively, in great quantity it can melt through but that takes too much time to be practical... due to it's relatively fast rate of fire it's generally used to bring down the enemy's shields before firing the heavier guns... so, by scanning for plasma weaponry, we can have a rough estimate on how much of their weaponry isn't plasma based, i.e. how much heavy weaponry they possess..." he reasoned with himself, before giving orders to that effect. The question which troubled him the most at the moment was, did the invaders intend to kill the civilians? If they only wanted to lay claim to the system and would allow the civilians to evacuate, Truxtun would not interfere; the military on both sides would have to handle this between themselves and it was none of his business. But, if they showed signs of attacking civilians, that would immediately change the entire situation. He would first of all call for reinforcements, before mounting a one-man war on those who broke against the conventions of war, and he'd be damned if he didn't whipe them all out single-handedly for such cowardice...

Calmly he began to give out orders. "Mr Jones, call the crew to battlestations if you please. Mr Atwell, draw the shot from the portside and starboard Gauss Carronades and replace with Transphasic shot. The Gauss Carronades fire at my orders only, and are to be locked on the enemy's shield generators and engines at all times. Load and secure all weapons, put shields on standby. Mr Hubbard, make sure our warriors are prepared to repell boarders. Mr Murray, send our coordinates and sensor readings to the forward base, and prepare for immediate use of reflective wormholes if we're fired upon without warning..." he turned to look at the helmsman, who sat comfortably at his post surrounded by a globe-like structure that emanated energy which psionically linked the Furian to his warship. "Helm, prepare for evasive action..." As the crew burst into action Truxtun keenly observed the fleet of invaders. Would they fire at him, would they hail... or would they just ignore him?

.

OOC: I love how everyone assumes I have this massive invasion fleet... right now, I'm comfortably sitting on three starships. And only one of them is a combat ship. It's rather flattering, actually.

IC:
Dentar sighed as local space became steadily more and more untenable. "New ship entering the system, Kal'Mel. It appears to be of a combat design, and I am detecting elevating power levels."

Looking over to the communications station, Dentar asked, "Has there been progress in translating?"

"Yes, Kal'Mel, we have managed to gain a reasonable amount of accuracy with their language."

Weighing up the odds, Dentar decided to try the less direct path. "Very well. Direct a transmission to the planet. Translate as best you can."

ATTENTION DENIZENS PLANET
BY ORDER ARAZI REMNANT PLANET IS NOW OUR UNDER CONTROL
ALL CITIZENRY REQUIRED TO LEAVE PLANET
SAFE PASSAGE BE GIVEN

"I've done what I can, Kal'Mel. Lets hope they understand it. If we can open a direct dialogue, then I can flesh out the translation software fully."

OOC: I love how everyone assumes I have this massive invasion fleet... right now, I'm comfortably sitting on three starships. And only one of them is a combat ship. It's rather flattering, actually.

IC:
Dentar sighed as local space became steadily more and more untenable. "New ship entering the system, Kal'Mel. It appears to be of a combat design, and I am detecting elevating power levels."

Looking over to the communications station, Dentar asked, "Has there been progress in translating?"

"Yes, Kal'Mel, we have managed to gain a reasonable amount of accuracy with their language."

Weighing up the odds, Dentar decided to try the less direct path. "Very well. Direct a transmission to the planet. Translate as best you can."

ATTENTION DENIZENS PLANET
BY ORDER ARAZI REMNANT PLANET IS NOW OUR UNDER CONTROL
ALL CITIZENRY REQUIRED TO LEAVE PLANET
SAFE PASSAGE BE GIVEN

"I've done what I can, Kal'Mel. Lets hope they understand it. If we can open a direct dialogue, then I can flesh out the translation software fully."

OOC: You mentioned a Flotilla in your first post, so I assumed there were more than just the three ships you described... my bad... btw, which one of your ships is the combat one... the one that fired the plasma lances, or the one that is about to fire the gravitic bombs...? Just wondering...
IC:

Truxtun read and re-read the transmission which had been intercepted. "Well, they're giving safe passage to all civilians, all citizens in fact, so that seems to be going quite well..." he said to his 1st lieutenant, a tough figure with a drawling accent. "Aye, but will they give them enough time for the evacuation...? That's the question see, there's two ways of massacring civilians; either you blow them up, or you give them a certain amount of time to get out of the way, and then blow them up..." Hubbard commented with a slighty ironic expression. Truxton had had similar doubts, although he hadn't voiced them quite as his 1st lieutenant had done. "Well.." he said, "the least we can do is sit tight and watch... either way I'm curious to know about that ship they fired a warning shot at... there's something familiar about it.." he shut his mouth on the last words, not allowing himself to reveal exactly what he suspected.

.

OOC: The 'Flotilla' is my title for the absolutely tiny little fleet of ships (three in total). And the ship with the Gravitic Bombs is moving to orbit the planet. The ship that's in the combat zone is the one that fired the Plasma Lances.

((We now await the Greater Headhunters reply.))

Post Coming Soon

To the Citizens of Mantis
The Arazi have asked us to evacuate our citizens. What they do not know is that we cannot evacuate our people given the amount of time. It is with a heavy heart that the Landman has made a descision on the matter.
We the people of Mantis will not forfiet our world to the Arazi. The 6th Fleet has decided to stand their ground and fight. We cannot give in. The Landman has sent a transmission to the Darwin System asking them to send the 4th Fleet to reinforce our position. The DO will also be assisting us in our struggle. If the Arazi do make planetfall, we will make every effort to deny them. Do not let them take your homes and farmsteads without violence. Make them bleed for every inch of ground they take. Carry on brave men and women of the GH Empire. By our deaths shall the Arazi know us.

Code:
ATTENTION DENIZENS PLANET
BY ORDER ARAZI REMNANT PLANET IS NOW OUR UNDER CONTROL
ALL CITIZENRY REQUIRED TO LEAVE PLANET
SAFE PASSAGE BE GIVEN

That has been taken as a declaration of war. Prepare to be slaughtered.
~Landman Hummel

The smaller transports from the surface were about to reach the convoy as the Arazi warship reached the planet.

<Attention Convoy 103, all escorts are hereby ordered to break formation and defend the Greater Headhunters. The rest of the convoy will withdraw.>

The DO convoy received conformation orders from the fleet command in the nearby sector a few minutes after the Greater Headhunters called for assistance. The three squadrons of corvettes and the frigate stopped their circling and flared to life. The nine corvettes skimmed across the outer atmosphere as they moved to intercept the larger vessel, trails of plasma fire trailed behind them like bright streamers as they closed to weapon's range. Before the Arazi would launch the first bombs, the wolf pack would be on them.

*nudge*

*nudge*

*triple nudge*

The DO escorts would expect help soon, as the DO fleet near the system was now ready to march through the stars. They pressed closer to the invading flotilla of three large vessels, unafraid of the possible damage they would sustain.

*nudge*

THERE WAS A FIRE FIGHT!!!

*Flails*