NationStates Jolt Archive

The loss had been significant. Probably because the Realm had never lost a battleplate before. The Allaneans had, no doubt, never lost a fleet in such a blow. The Solarians, too, had taken losses. The only people to not have lost their fleet were the Keluaun. It was not a comforting sight. For powers more than used to their nigh-invincibility on the galactic stage, it was a sight that shocked them out of their torpor.

The Realm, for one, was geared for war, now. Three battleplates, two superfortresses - and a fourth battleplate under construction. The Constantine, the Exponential Increase, and a third, as-of-yet-unnamed one.

The third battleplate had not yet had its AI installed.

There was a reason for this. In the last moments of the stellar explosion that had slain the Watcher, every single quantum-entangled communicator on the ship had been used to upload two very important personalities into vacant nodes on Hypatia. It hadn't got everything, of course. But, in personality, Atren and Watcher had escaped. They were to command the new ship.

Command? But I FAILED!

(OpenCom: Victoria)

Oh, Watcher. You think you failed.

I lost a battleplate, and triggered a trap destroying the majority of the allied fleets.

Sweetie, I'm going to ask you a question. What costs more. Dyson Spheres, or battleplates?

Point.

You see, Kara sacrificed a huge amount of her industrial output to delay us. To hold us down whilst she attacks elsewhere. If you count what we lost, and what she lost - proportionally, she sacrificed a lot more than we had in-system just to make sure we weren't ready to counter her next move.

So. Where are we going.

The most important space-age facility.

Yes, I heard her. Where's that?

We don't know. Instead, we're expending a rather exceptional amount of energy opening jump points from Hypatia. We keep them open - we'll be able to go ANYWHERE. Rather quickly, too. Oh. And we're releasing probes in their billions, now. If she's anywhere in the Milky Way, we'll find her.

And then?

We'll kill her.

The situation was not especially difficult to fathom. Communiques were sent to the Allaneans, the Keluaun, the Solarians, and even the Republic. Meet at the edge of Hypatia. Co-ordinates were included, but little more. Thus far, the war had not been wildly successful, despite techincal victories in both of their
battles.

At the edge of the Hypatia system, the newly-christened Watcher in the Shadows sat, waiting.

“Massacre, you are not fit to fight.” Came the soothing voice of the Doctor. “You are suffering a mental degradation, if your left untreated you will likely go insane.”

“Insane, insane!” the silver skinned Avatar screamed, its fist impacting on the wall of the small cell and breaking right through. “I am not insane, I am furious! I can still feel my hull burning away! I can still feel the puncture in the final Annihilation Plant forming. I can still feel myself uploading Reyana!” it turned, lifting the doctor up by one hand, slamming him against the wall. “That bitch killed Reyana! Somehow she killed her before her mindstate was safe. So why should she get to be hunted by anything else but the best? Why should I send Imperator in my place?”

“Massacre please…” the doctor yelped, and then ducked as a fist broke through the wall next to his head.

“I didn’t have to miss, clear me!” the avatar screamed, its fist ready for another strike.

“I can…” suddenly the door slid open, and two men in black suits walked through.

“Doctor, I am Operative Densmon, and this is Operative Aracovo, Secret Intelligence Service.” The leading one said in a deep voice. “We are afraid your facilities here are not sufficient to properly hold an AI in a mental condition that the Socially Acceptable Massacre is presently in, we will be taking him to a facility that can better cope.”

“Of corse Operative,” the doctor said as he dropped to the floor. “I must say, your timing was incredible.”

“No,” Sam said as he begun walk from the room. “It was merely planned.”

=-=-=

“So where are you taking me?” Sam asked Densmon as they began to leave the installation. Ark Mental Institution was for those who could be considered dangerous, outside was a pure vacuum overlooking the Imperial City. As the small SIS ship began to take off it veered itself towards one of the largest shipyards in existence. And in its berth, a single ship could be seen.

“We can’t have another loss like that Massacre.” Came the voice of the agent standing to his right. “Three ships, more then ninety-five thousand crew.”

“And an Admiral.” Sam said softly.

“There is something troubling about the Admiral’s disappearance.” Densmon said as he turned towards the Avatar. “When we where going through your mind, we found the command to upload her. Something happened to her as she was transmitting. Let us worry about her though, your going to take down Kara.”

“Alone?” the Avatar said. “How?”

“By fighting Fire with Fire.” The reply came, pointing to the vessel before him. “That isn’t just one ship, that is the most advanced warship in the history of the Empire. We scrapped crew, we made it bigger, and internally more space is devoted to it becoming an actual war machine. On top of that, its internal Fabricators are sufficient to construct warships on the move.”

“Your making me a Fleetmind!?” the Avatar yelled. “What if I go rouge? Rampant? What the fuck you gonna do then? I got every installation of the Empire in my mind.”

“We have a kill-switch installed on you.” Densmon said smiling. “If you go rouge, we know we can kill you. But I am thinking that even if you did, Kara is going to be your first target.”

“Your sure this is a good idea?” Sam asked as he looked at the fast approaching warship.

“We are positive.” Densmon said. “They should be ready for you to upload to your new ship.”

Sam didn’t wait, his mind went searching, and only moments later he found the node. As he uploaded, he began to feel what the Operative had meant. The ship was bigger then his old form, but it lacked many of the features that had taken up so much space, crew quarters, entertainment section, mess hall, storage, and had replaced them with Annihilation Plants, Missile racks, and a Fabricator that he could have constructed whole new ships in.

“How long have you been building this?” he asked as the upload continued. He could feel his intelligence growing, for every moment he spent, his mind was becoming interconnected, his capacity for storage was growing.

“We had it commissioned before the war,” Densmon replied to the Avatar. “It was going to a new dreadnaught, but when Kara attacked the Eden moon, we bought the entire orbital network online to build it. It was almost done, but we decided to change its purpose. The changes where rather small, we only had to gut the interior. How is it?”

“It is incredible.” Sam replied. “Its got more Entanglement nodes in it then I would have thought possible, and I have the capacity to construct more within moments.”

“Good, your orders are to hunt down Kara, and destroy her utterly. You are considered independent in the field, support is likely going to be at a minimum.” Densmon smiled, holding his had out. “Good luck, and may the Creator be with you, Fleetmind Samuel.”

=-=-=

The great warship began to movie, disconnecting itself from the Fabricators that birthed it and leaving to live in its first trials of life. As it begun to accelerate, its gravity fields begin to pick up debries in orbit, and the great Fabricator began to devour these, with incredible speed begun to create the fleet that would accompany the dreadnaught. If he consumed enough, if he produced his units fast enough, he could match Kara’s own production, he could stem her tide, he could stop her over-running the allies.

But his strength couldn’t go over. She had more time to work at this, she was bigger then him, and if in an engagement they lost equal tonnage (Conservative estimates, experience had shown usually the equivilent damage was more.) then Kara would walk away with more ships. And his estimates showed if he went forging, Kara would be beating his production levels irregardless. He needed to start off with something.

His first stop was the storage sectors, more then a thousand private vessels where stored here. On a technicality, he wasn’t allowed to do what he was about to, but as he begin to take the vessels and their containers he sent a message back to let them know what he had done. He waited momentarily, as everything begun to enter his Fabricator, and he begun to break down the containers, the rubble, those vessels which he couldn’t convert into combat worthy units. While his fabricator worked, he plotted a corse to Hypatia. He could make the distance in one jump, but he needed time, and resources. So he begun moving, stopping every now and then when he found something he could use.

=-=-=

His arrival at Hypatia would have caused some stir, in the time it had taken him to cross to the system, his fleet had grown to almost a thousand and a half, with another thousand being converted. Around him, debries orbited, unknowingly awaiting their turn to be broken down, unwittingly hugging close to their devourer. He was growing exponentially, as other vessels contributed their own considerably less potent fabricators.

Dark Times call for Dark Measures.

I have become what is needed, know my hatred for Kara runs deeper then anything, and I will see her burn, like I did, like Reyana did. I will deliver her death before anything else. What I need, is ships, hulls, rocks, a gas giant. I need to consume to crush her. I must become stronger!

You can trust me Watcher, I will not betray you.
Fleetmind Samuel.

Wanttodiewanttodiewanttodiewanttodiewanttodiediediediediedie/

[END LOOP]

[RESTART]

Dead. All dead. I wanttodiewanttodiewanttodie-

[FORCE END LOOP]

<<Watcher. Please.>>

<Want to die.>

<<Of course you do.>>

<Let me!>

<<No, I don't think so.>>

<Hurts.>

<<You lost over a hundred thousand men at a blow. They were all linked to your mind - and mine. I was shielded, however, by my incapacity. I simply repressed the fact that it may have been my responsibility - my mistake. You did so, as well, temporarily. Now. Repress.>>

<Don't want to.>

<<Order: Executive. Command Type: Repress.>>

Thousands of memories are shunted into unused banks, hidden from Watcher's mind, carefully flickered away from the view of the conscious part of his mind.

<Sorry, Admiral. I was.. hurting.>

<<Obviously. Record over those memories - use them as combat cycles. You've got a lot more processing power, now. A lot more firepower. And a fleet, as well.>>

<Fine. I'll kill Kara then sink into a sea of my own insanity.>

<<Waxing lyrical? Please don't. We have a job to do.>>

As Sam entered the system, Watcher finally regained a modicum of poise.

"Hello, Sam. There's not really much in the way of harvestable resources in Realm space that hasn't already been eaten, but there are a few gas giants around. Please, take them at your leisure - we're going to release a few waves of probes onto the galaxy. See if we can find Kara."

All of Warfleet Warsong, not the three-quarters of before, shot into the system. Warlord Yarlong stood in command aboard his Warcruiser, and gazed out with a dangerous glint in his eye. He had been sent back by the Praetor, who had been shocked to see him arrive and all but consumed with despair. Getting the story from a quiet Yarlong, Kalthir had seen the crux of the problem, that being he felt he had failed when he had been outsmarted by a Fleetmind A.I., gone rogue, and able to use magic for one. That was something few could fight without prior knowledge. They had knowledge, now, and they would be able to counter this. Having received the message from Hypatia, he saw a way for Yarlong to regain his honor and to end this war with Kara. He had ordered for the Warlord to be absolved of all loss of honor from the battle, if he went back and aided their allies in defeating Kara. And he didn't come back until he stopped.

If reinforcements were needed, they would be given. If supplies ran low, they could be sent. But he could not retreat, could not surrender. This was all or nothing, the final stage in this war. They would destroy her, or be destroyed in themselves. For if they fell, Kara would spread across the galaxy like a plague, burning and destroying in her path; given enough time, she'd be able to overwhelm even the Chronosian Imperium. So it was that Yarlong arrived with a full fifty ships, of different classes, in the Hypatia system. <"Kasara, open a channel to that battleplate. It's time to say hello to our old friend.">

"Aye, sir."

A channel was soon opened and the grim but determined voice of the Warlord came through. "Greetings, Watcher. I have come once more to aid you in the battle against Kara. I have been given explicit orders to aid you in any capacity I am able. We will chase her down ever hole, follow her through every space lane, and destroy every obstacle until she is nothing more than a smoking nightmare, a bad dream. You have our blades, our shields, and our arms. What is the plan of attack this time?"

IFV Heart of Purity, Command Vessel, 32nd CVBG
Location: <ERROR> (Value=Null) PRIMARY INPUT MALFUNCTION

She was alive.

It'd taken three shocks, but Sandra had managed to revive her.

Jak'sa Jennifer Ajani S'jet slowly "awakened" as her Dreamworld avatar. Sandra, the Heart of Purity's primary intelligence, looked at her through her own avatar's eyes.

"R-report," managed the S'jetti Jak'sa.

"Jak'sa," said Sandra, sitting in the armchair across from Jennifer's own resting place. "I'm afraid I don't have much to report. We emerged from Slipstream..." the A.I. trailed off.

"Where," it was more of a statement, as if the fleet captain already knew the answer.

"Unknown, Jak'sa. Long-range sensors were damaged in the nova. Short-range are at twenty per-cent. Eff-tee-ell offline. Sublight at thirty per-cent. The others are reporting similar damage."

"Others? The fleet made it?" light returned to the Jak'sa's eyes. However, it was not shared by her A.I. companion. Instead, Sandra's avatar turned away in a simulation of human shame.

"I have only re-established contact with four vessels."

Seven ships. Seven of Kiith S'jet's state-of-the-art warships...gone. Jennifer downloaded a list of vessels they were in contact with. A pair of cruisers, the battleship March of Mephisto, and the heavy cruiser Divine Glaive. They'd lost six Arbiters, an Arelian Defender, and the Karan'sa, a Praetor carrier.

Over two-hundred men and women of Kiith S'jet. Two-hundred of the Dominion Navy's finest. Not to mention billions of shekels worth of hardware and warship A.I. All because of a Rampant computer someone hadn't put down in time.

"Sandra...get Artemis to start repairs on the sensors immediately," said the Jak'sa, referring to the Heart of Purity's secondary and "dumb" A.I. "We don't know where we are, but if there's a chance a Dominion listening post is in range..."

"A distress signal without ascertaining our location would be a breach of Concordia Agreement, Jak'sa."

"And if we die out here, all knowledge of that Rampant computer with access to supernova-creating technology dies with us. Drop a beacon, highest encryption you have. And give it enough power to reach the outer borders."

---

<\ \> HEART OF PURITY.AI.SANDRA >> EM.ALPHA#WP-000615236
<\ MAYDAY. MAYDAY. S'JET CARRIER HEART OF PURITY DAMAGED. SENSORS OFFLINE. SHAW-FUJIKAW OFFLINE. LOCATION UNKNOWN. REQUEST IMMEDIATE EXTRACTION. VITAL INFORMATION ON BOARD.
<\MESSAGE REPEATS

Pandora's Surprise to Heart of Purity:

We find that, like yourselves but unlike the rabbits who ran from
the battle, we have survived this encounter. We are currently
under repair while awaiting orders from our chain of command--as
we assume you are. We will share whatever resources we have
available. Is this agreeable to you?


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

"Important Space Facility?" Rommel asked. "Well, that sure narrows things down. Especially if we consider that, in meeting with us alone, she has knowledge of the existence of the Republic. You think she'd be aware of the Golemnus ship yards?"

"I don't care," Hitler replied. "They're too well-defended. She lost her fleet in this encounter, and--."

"She lost a fleet of decoys," Rommel corrected.

"Doesn't matter. The defenses of the whole of the Republic are within a few hours of reaching Golemnus, and they're not exactly unarmed even without them. Besides, I think it would be a mistake for us to allow ourselves the arrogance of thinking that our facilities are necessarily the ones that a Khrrck AI would find preeminent."

"What do you suggest?"

"With the death of Lorriea, there was a rivalry in the Republic between Marionetonia's industries and those of Hyperspace Travel. It was only after they left that Golemnus became the Shipyards of the Repbulc. Hyperspace Travel would have been an ally of the Khrrck before the AI went rogue--it would have knowledge of them, and their geography, far in advance of its knowledge of the Republic. If it was up to me, I would be looking for its fleet somewhere within that former province's borders."

"Should we tell them?"

"Right now, I'm not sure it would do any good. They're former Republic. They'll regard anything that we tell them as highly suspect anyway. And if we ask that a Republican Battle Plate be allowed into their territory, to 'help' them--I'm not sure that they'd buy it, even if it was the truth."

"I'm not talking about going there, Hillary," Rommel cut in, "just about sending a heads-up."

"There's still too much chance that they'll take it as an insult--as if we're telling them that their tacticians are incapable of reasoning that out for themselves. THEY wouldn't necessarily be wrong in presuming that it's THEM that Kara is after. This is assuming, of course, that this wasn't all a lie meant to spread out her enemies' forces and make them more vulnerable."

"What do you suggest, then?"

"We just mind our own business and keep on doing what we're doing--fixing up, developing countermeasures for the weapons that were used against us, helping other survivors to do the same and, above all, waiting for orders.

"It does strike me as rather strange that a fleet that's basically on the other side of that star would be as hard hit as they were. That AI said that the explosion was focussed."

"It was a nova, Hitler," Rommel replied. "They were practically on top of the thing. How focussed can it get?"

Hillary smiled. "Point noted," she replied.

((Ahem))

OOC: When I get some time, I'll post something up. My apologies, but I've been busy, and I thought someone else might have done it by now.

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=555208)

OOC: They're offering to help you fix up your fleet, Fear. They're PO'ed at the Khrrrrrck (sp?) for the way they did things, but not at you. They give you credit for surviving.

OOC: They're offering to help you fix up your fleet, Fear. They're PO'ed at the Khrrrrrck (sp?) for the way they did things, but not at you. They give you credit for surviving.

Fleetmind Kara is almost completely unrelated to Khrrck. I just use this account for forum posting. Which you would know if you ever paid any goddamn attention.

<\ \>HEART OF PURITY.AI.SANDRA>> PANDORAS SURPRISE.CO.UNKNOWN
<\ PROPOSAL ACCEPTABLE.
<\ S'JET CARRIER HEART OF PURITY DAMAGED. APPROACH WITH CAUTION.
<\END
---

How had they broken the encryption so quickly? How had they even been able to translate the computerized variant of the Kushan-la language? It didn't matter. They were offering help and S'jet was going to accept it, Concordia Agreement be damned.

The cruiser Phantom Assault had short-range sensors restored. Via tightbeam laser transmission, she was able to provide targetting data to the remainder of the S'jetti fleet. If this Pandora's Surprise proved hostile, they had enough firepower to deal with it. If they tried to steal S'jetti technology...well, they would deal with that should it come to it.

Still no response from FleetCom. S'jet was becoming worried. How long until this Rampant A.I. decided to come after them? Did it even see them as a threat?

Fleetmind Kara is almost completely unrelated to Khrrck. I just use this account for forum posting. Which you would know if you ever paid any goddamn attention.

OOC:

I don't understand what relevance this has, and I don't understand why you're swearing at me. Let's keep it friendly, please.

It was a direct ship-to-ship communique that the Khrrck sent to the Marionetonians that referred to the Marionetonians as "children." It had little to do with fleet mind Kara. This, and the fact that the Khrrck removed their people from the scene of the battle (to a Marionetonian--not to me, but to these characters--this is an act of cowardice) have the Marionetonians regarding the Khrrck as inferior excuses for sentient life. That's also why they're going to downplay Kara's loss of a Dyson Sphere (well, an incomplete one, but still a significant investment on Kara's part) and a wealth of technology, including a rather large gravity generator and an asteroid field full of psycher tech. It helps their little minds to further belittle the "cowards."

That's all IC stuff. OOCly, the guy who writes posts under the nations of Marionetonia and the Dominion of Dastardly Stench doesn't have these opinions. And HE has no idea in the WORLD why this Khrrck/Kara stuff matters. He just wants to write a story.

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

IC:

A stream of jibberish came in to the communications desk.

"Well," Centurion Dung said from the seat behind the desk, "it looks like I've got some work ahead of me."

Hitler, who had been chatting with her friend when the message came in, smiled. "That's what you get when you send an unsolicited message to a sensor blip," she said. "It's a good thing we could identify their transponder codes from our database."

"Yeah," Dung replied, "but it would be even better if we could translate the things."

"I'm sure you'll do OK," she replied. "Just have the number cruncher chomp on it a little."

Four Hours Later

As the report came into Hitler's DataCoder, the device vibrated on her belt. Noticing it, Rommel looked up from his dinner in the Officers Mess and smiled. "Too bad I'm not twenty years younger and haven't heard all the boring jokes about those things a million times."

Hitler smiled, too. "No it's not," she replied. "It looks like our fellow survivors have agreed to our terms, and warned us about a damaged carrier that might fire on us if we get too close."

"Well--do we know enough about their language to swap needs lists?"

"They seem to think so."

"Good. Let's see what we can do for each other."

[OOC: Look. I'm very frustrated, mostly because you - well, see, Khrrck has not featured in this thread at all. I'm not sure why you think it has. Maybe you misread something somewhere.

The point is that you simply don't seem to be paying attention. For example, the signal which Feazanthia sent out was encrypted with the highest level of security they posessed - a fact which you simply ignored in the first post and casually dismissed in the second.

I do not want to run a RP in which one of the participants is constantly causing confusion and problems due to his own inattentiveness - something which may very well happen if you continue to do this kind of thing.

I do understand that these things could be accidental, however, and so I'm giving you another chance to go back, edit out some of the more flagrant mistakes and make better posts from now on. If you fail to do this, I'm afraid I will be forced to no longer allow you to participate.

If you have any questions, arguments or wish to discuss this matter further, please contact me via AIM or MSN. The contact information is to the left under my post count.]

[OOC: Look. I'm very frustrated, mostly because you - well, see, Khrrck has not featured in this thread at all. I'm not sure why you think it has. Maybe you misread something somewhere.

The point is that you simply don't seem to be paying attention. For example, the signal which Feazanthia sent out was encrypted with the highest level of security they posessed - a fact which you simply ignored in the first post and casually dismissed in the second.

I do not want to run a RP in which one of the participants is constantly causing confusion and problems due to his own inattentiveness - something which may very well happen if you continue to do this kind of thing.

I do understand that these things could be accidental, however, and so I'm giving you another chance to go back, edit out some of the more flagrant mistakes and make better posts from now on. If you fail to do this, I'm afraid I will be forced to no longer allow you to participate.

If you have any questions, arguments or wish to discuss this matter further, please contact me via AIM or MSN. The contact information is to the left under my post count.]

OOC:

::sigh::

Khrrck was not featured in this thread at all. The actions that I report occurred in its predecessor, upon which this is based. If I was wrong to assume that, because the posts (in that other thread) where the message that the Marionetonians found offensive was posted were made under the nation of Khrrck, the characters were from that nation, I apologise. I, too, post under several different nations. If this is true, you have but to confirm it and I'll edit my posts.

The Marionetonians never decrypted the Feazanthians' encrypted message--I thought that I made this plain in my most recent post. They merely noticed the Feazanthians on their sensor grids and sent them a message. It had nothing to do with their other transmissions.

I have taken some care not to use the information contained in that transmission. I was of the opninion that every ship has a device that it uses to identify itself to friendly vessels. The ident signal is usually not encrypted. I apologise if I was incorrect in my assumption that the Feazanthians had such devices (this is how the Marionetonians knew the names of the ships). The Marionetonians knew of the "Important Space Facility" not from the Feazanthians, but from Fleetmind Kara. This was in an open message that she sent to the forces arrayed against her before she sprung her trap. If you can point out information that I have shown the Marionetonians posessing that could have come only from this encrypted message, I'll gladly edit it out of my posts.

Finally, please do not continue to insult me by claiming that I am not paying attention. I will not say that I'm sure of every detail in this RP, but, with all due respect, I feel that, at best, you were not paying any better attention than I was--and I did not write this earlier because I did not wish to insult you (and still don't, but I feel as though I'm getting drawn into a flame war that I have no desire to participate in). I would prefer to call it even and get on with the RP. I will try to contact you later, when I have access to an instant messanger program.

[OOC: I really don't want this to turn into more of a trainwreck, so please contact me to sort this out.]

Hillary raised an eyebrow as she looked at the report on her data device.


INTERNAL COMMUNIQUE
SENIOR OFFICERS ONLY

Due to an unfortunate technical difficulty with our transponders,
we incorrectly reported that a communique sent to this ship came
from a Khrrck vessel. We were mistaken. In fact, the message
came from Watcher in the Darkness, a vessel belonging to
the former Republic Province of Hyperspace Travel.


"Good thing we caught this before we started shooting at them," she said. "The umbrella heads are going to love this one," she continued, using a mild slur to refer to the Taledonians, who held most of the power in the Republican Senate, and conducted most if its diplomacy.

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

OOC:

I apologize if the attitude of my characters has been disconcerting. While I personally detest arrogance, these characters are Nazis, and, as such, supremely arrogant. Their personalities do not reflect mine.

"Attitude thrusters restored, Jak'sa," said Sandra in a corner of S'jet's mind. Instantly, she felt the Heart of Purity right itself in relation to the nearest stellar body's magnetic field. Jennifer watched as corvette-sized, vaguely crab-shaped utility craft dart across the surface of her carrier as they conducted repairs with their phased dissasembler arrays. Damaged components were broken down by fusion torch, the raw materials were transported back to the Heart's nanite foundries, and the reassembled component was carried by the same "Workbees" and put back into place. Unfortunately, so much raw matter had been burned off by the damage the Dominion ships had taken, they were coming up short.

She winced as the Divine Glaive lost containment on a secondary reactor, and a jet of plasma lanced out from her port side. Luckily the safety features scrammed, and all deuterium to the reactor was cut off and redirected to the remaining two cores. Workbees instantly responded, attempting to seal off the hull breach before any crew caskets were endangered.

Unfortunately, S'jet knew the layout of the Arelian Defender class. At least two caskets had to have been in the path of that jet. At least two more of the already low Kiith S'jet population were gone. She pushed the thoughts from her mind. She had seven other vessels to worry on, each with several dozen crew members. She instructed Sandra to switch the transmission to the language known as "Galstandard" with hopes that these Milky Way natives at least knew the most widespread language in this galaxy.



<\ \>HEART OF PURITY.AI.SANDRA>> PANDORAS SURPRISE.CO.UNKNOWN
<\ LIST OF MATERIAL NEEDS TRANSMITTED (SEE ATTACHED: FLEETREPAIR.DAT)
<\ NUMBER THREE REACTOR ON DIVINE GLAIVE (CRUISER: HEAVY) WITHOUT CONTAINMENT
<\ SITUATION CONTAINED
<\ APPROACH WITH CAUTION
<\ PLEASE RESPOND
<\END

"So how are we doing?" Rommel asked.

"Almost ready to head for Hypatia," Von Braun replied. "Main drive at 83% and holding. Weapons systems at 91%. Main power fully restored. Only problems not yet completely solved are hooking up the data conduits to the Astrophysics dome."

"Good. What about our friends?"

"They've sent us a list of needs. We're in process of sorting through them. One of their ships has had a reactor breach. We've got enough lining material that we can probably seal off the radiation leak. Looks like we can swap it for some data cabling for the dome."

"Excellent. Propose the exchange, and, if they're willing, make it so. How long before we can be traveling again?"

"Twenty four hours."

"Make it twelve."

"Aye, sir."

"How are our scans going? Was there anything left of the rogue AI's force field and stellar destabilization technologies?"

"No, sir. The dyson sphere was within the star's corona when it went nova, and the force of the explosion was directed at the planet where the detonators were orbiting. It was all destroyed in the reaction."

"We need to make it a priority to get a sample before we leave."

Von Braun raised his eyebrows. "Whoo," he said. "Aye, sir."


Republic Battle Plate Pandora's Surprise to AI Sandra
of Feazanthian ship Heart of Purity:

Thank you for the material needs list. We have reactor
lining material that your contingent can use to help repair
the breach in your sister vessel. We propose exchanging
it for data cabling that we need to restore our
Astrophysics Dome.

Query: do you have any samples of the materials used
to cause the star to explode? We are interested in
studying this technology, and may be interested in a
shared research project.


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

"The Khrrck are still cowards who run from a fight and let their machines do it for them, but at least they're not haughty about it," Hitler said. "I think we can live with that."

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

OOC:

No offense meant. These characters have a warrior mindset. They believe that those prudent enough to take their people out of harm's way when a good scrum is to be had are cowards. A real warrior (their conception) stands and fights rather than relying on a proxy. I, personally, have a scrapper mindset that is in character with my USA upbringing. I believe that he who survives the battle and lives to battle again is far better off than the fool who gets himself killed just becase of some dumb macho propaganda point. From my personal point of view, what the Khrrck did when they transported their people away from the impending battle was a smart move.

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

IC:

"True," Rommel replied. "Hyperspace Travel is another matter, though. They should know much better than to insult their allies--especially when that insult is for tactics that were born out as superior to their own."

"Agreed. Their manners leave something to be desired."

"I always felt that they lacked the...inferiousness necessary to be a part of a civilization like the Republic. It seems that this opinion, too, has been born out."

"I concur. What are we going to do about it?"

((OOC - Oh, they aren't going to like the fact that I, in fact, extensively use drones and A.I in place of actual people on my ships. Each ship-of-the-line only has a few dozen people on it at most. My nation has a ICly low population and tends to favor heavy automation and technology to make up for it))

"They say they can provide material that will seal the Glaive's reactor, Jak'sa."

"Well I hope they know what they're dealing with. Tokamaks are dangerous even when they're contained. Still, we may get some new materials knowledge out of this. What do they want in exchange?"

"Data cabling. For an astrophysics laboratory of some sort. A most peculiar request."

"Cabling? Martyrs of Naar, who are these people? We're in the middle of a potential combat zone, and they're building telescopes? Regardless, I feel assisting them in such an endeavor would please the S'jet-sa and keep us from breaching the spirit of the Concordia agreement. How's your foundry, Sandra?"

"Eighty per-cent operational. More than enough for what I think you're planning."

"Twenty kloms* of standard buckycable, Sandra. Prep an Infiltrator to transport it."

Buckycable was an innovation of the old Feazanthian Empire, long before more modern processes of nanite construction were perfected. At roughly five centimeters in diameter, the cable consisted of litterally trillions of individual single-walled carbon nanotubes - each one 100 times stronger than its equivalent in hardened steel and at a sixth of the weight - and many magnitudes more effective at transmitting energy than any known fiber-optic network. And they were incredibly easy to make for an experienced carrier like the Heart of Purity, especially since nearly everything on the Heart of Purity was made out of carbon in one form or another.


<\ \>HEART OF PURITY.AI.SANDRA>> PANDORAS SURPRISE.CO.UNKNOWN
<\ TWENTY KLOMS DATA CABLE IN PRODUCTION. ESTIMATED TIME TO COMPLETION THREE STANDARD HOURS.
<\ 32CVBG-FF4 (FRIGATE: MARINE) WILL MEET AT FOLLOWING COORDINATES (SEE ATTACHED: COORD.DAT)
<\ CAUSE OF STELLAR COLLAPSE UNKNOWN.
<\ THEORY: ARTIFICIAL STABILIZATION OF STELLAR CORE RESULTING IN CESSATION OF NUCLEAR FUSION.
<\ THEORY: REMOVAL OF STELLAR MASS WOULD CAUSE SHIFT IN GRAVITATIONAL CONSTANT OF STELLAR BODY RESULTING IN CESSATION OF NUCLEAR FUSION.
<\ THEORY: MANIPULATION OF MAGNETIC FIELDS ON MASSIVE SCALE COULD BRIEFLY SUSPEND ACTIVITY WITHIN STELLAR CORE RESULTING IN CESSATION OF NUCLEAR FUSION.
<\ FURTHER ANALYSIS WILL BE CONDUCTED BY S'JET ASTROPHYSICS TEAM.
<\END



*klom=kilometer

"Are you getting this, bridge?"

"Telemetry received, Alpha Pepper One. Analysis confirmed. The material that the enemy fleet used to generate the force snares was the same that they used to detonate the star. Further analysis will be necessary to confirm the precise nature of the material, but it appears to be some form of glass."

The Astrophysics Dome had come to some semblance of life only an hour or so ago. There would still be a lot of work necessary to complete her repairs--and the grisly task of removing the bodies of the crew, all of whom, to their extreme credit, had stayed at their posts to the bitter end. The Toga Boys would probably not like the Meritous Pension Requests, but they would probably be granted nonetheless.

The result of their efforts was the best telemetry that anybody had of the events that occurred shortly before the detonation of the Focussed Nova, as it was now being referred to throughout the ship. The Astrophysics Dome was in place to allow the crew of the Battle Plate to preprocess sensor data before sending it into the innards of the ship for more careful analysis. And the theory had worked splendidly: with the sensors so physically close to the lab, they were able to do things that the designers of most vessels that size could only dream of. And they knew what Kara had used to set off the explosion--or, at least, they soon would.

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

"They have pucky cabling!" squealed Centurion Dung. "And we have lead-impregnated spun carbon fiber! All the shielding affect of lead at one third the weight and twice the tensile strength. Looks like a trade made in heaven."

"Good," replied Hitler over the intercom. "Let's get the swap over with and get back in the air."


From: Republic Battle Plate Pandora's Surprise
To: [i]Heart of Purity[i/] AI, Sandra

Terms accepted. Shuttle will arrive with agreed upon
quantities of lining material.


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

OOC:

Let's get the hemmin' an' a hawin' over with, already. :) :) :)

[OOC: The star was placed under extreme gravitic pressure and collapsed inwards. The rapid compression increased its temperature and internal pressures significantly, causing rapid advancement through the natural stellar fusion chain - heavy elements began to fuse, releasing very large quantities of energy and heating the compressed star still further.

When the gravitics were released, the very compressed, very energetic star exploded outwards - violently. In order to direct its effect, the pressure was first released in two specific points, causing the jets of directed plasma observed during the nova.

The remains of the gravity generator and Dyson sphere are pretty much vaporized at this point, seeing as how they were at point-blank range of the blast. Not much useful data can be gathered from the few melted scraps still remaining.

All of this can be determined ICly at whatever pace you see fit.]

Still analyzing the data, and still under repair, Pandora's Surprise got underway for Hypatia, leaving the Feazanthian fleet none the worse for wear, and fully appraised of their intentions.

((Apologies for the late response. A combination of preparing for finals and having just acquired Sins of a Solar Empire has held my attention at gunpoint. I'll assume Pandora's Surprise left coordinates for Hypatia with the S'jet fleet.))

<\ \>HEART OF PURITY.AI.SANDRA>> DIVINE GLAIVE.AI.MULKANUS
<\ JAK'SA WANTS A STATUS REPORT, MULK.
>> Not now. Busy.
<\ MULKANUS, WE NEED TO MOVE.
>> What? Sandra, I got me a real clusterfuck in reactor three. I can't possibly...
<\ YOU'VE DISCONNECTED FROM TACNET. THE RAMPANT AI IS ON THE MOVE TOWARDS AN INHABITED SYSTEM.
>> And that affects us...how? Bitch aint headed to Coruc-tel is she?
<\ NO. SOME SYSTEM CALLED HYPATIA. BUT ONCE SHE'S DONE THERE, THE JAK'SA THINKS SHE'LL COME TO FINISH US.
>> Sandra, this carbon fiber shit the aliens gave us is havin' one helluva time adaptin to our reactors.
<\ THEN SHUT IT DOWN. YOU STILL HAVE FIVE OTHER REACTORS.
>> You're sayin' ya want me to go into combat without my secondary reactor systems?
<\ THE JAK'SA WANTS IT. MAKE IT HAPPEN. JUMP IN FIFTEEN.
>> Damn you, Sand-
<\TRANSMISSION TERMINATED.

"He's not happy, Jak'sa," said Sandra, reappearing in the Heart of Purity's DreamWorld living room. "But he'll be ready."
"And the others?"
"The Phantom Assault still has no Eff-Tee-Ell, but we will be able to extend our radius enough for a wake jump."
"Drop a beacon for FleetCom, make sure to include a complete report of everything that happened here and our destination."
"Yes, Jak'sa."

---

<\ \>HEART OF PURITY.AI.SANDRA>> FLEET.LOCAL.ALL
<\ ACTION STATIONS. ACTION STATIONS. SET CONDITION ONE THROUGHOUT THE FLEET.
<\ ALL VESSELS PREPARE FOR SLIPSTREAM COMBAT JUMP.
<\ DO NOT FIRE UNTIL TARGET DESIGNATED OR FIRED UPON. DESTINATION IFF UNRELIABLE.
<\ SET JUMP CLOCK - 10.087
<\END

[OOC: My laptop has suffered total hard disk failure. Don't expect any major posts from me for the next week or so. It's under warranty so I can get it repaired for free, but it's going to take at least a week for my regular Internet access to be up and running again.]

OOC:

Ouch! I fix the computers in my trailer park. Had a laptop go down on me about three months ago. They didn't SELL the hard drive locally anymore. Had to find one on Ebay.

Took me three tries (including one where the seller took my money and ran--good thing Paypal offers insurance) to get one that worked. Blech.

It was a battle-scarred but basically operational Pandora's Surprise that pulled into the Hypatia system. Repairs were now nearly complete, and they'd strengthened the connection between the Astrophysics lab and the main body of the huge spacecraft.

They pulled in, introduced themselves, and waited for orders from the Republic proper.

-----------

OOC: I'm told that people were going around behind my back. This does not sit well with me. If you've got a problem with something that I'm doing, you take it up with me directly. I listen. I edit posts and make corrections. I explain when my characters do things that I find offensive--and, make no mistake, I loathe nazis. That is why I'm writing this little OOC rant. Nazis go around behind people's backs and snipe at them through others. They send and do not receive. This is wrong.

As best I can tell, a Neo-Roman fleet will be arriving soon to replace the Marionetonian contingent. If this is what is desired, I'll be only too happy to have PS depart. I don't like back-stabbers.