NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Gonna start with a trade between the Red Talons and Sertians, however afterwards other ships can drop by the Solaron system and start trade agreements or just see how a formerly barren desert world suddenly became the center of a new species that popped up.

Grand Admiral Trilano sighed, taking advantage of the break of the conference and leaning back against his chair. For the past few days he had been tied up with relations between the remains of the Enkaire Federation and the Sertian Empire back home, all while acting as representative of the Sertian Expedition. In those few days they were able to sort out a few issues, namely what would happen to the Enkaires - but most importantly the future of the Sertian Expedition as a military unit.

The Empire had decided that the one hundred and twenty million military personal currently stationed in the galaxy was enough to stake their ‘claim’ so to speak, and the rest of the military ships needed to be stationed on defending the Empire as well as the expansion into the other local galaxy. Normally this would have frozen the Sertians population, had it not been that for some reason the Empire had decided that Solaron would be reclassified as a colony of the Empire itself, and not just a military planet. This had led to the first patch of colonists beginning a more intensive terraforming of the desert planet - more fusion cores built on the planet to refine CO2 into O2 and H2O. This also brought the creation of suburbs around the only city on the world, streets and buildings built around the mighty walls of Solaron-1 , while another city was propping up at the base of a mountain to oversee the creation of the planet’s first river.

This brought the total number of Sertians in the Milky Way Galaxy to over 220 million, and climbing as more colonists came to the planet. But that wasn’t the end to the growing presence in the galaxy, since the Enkaire Federation, now the Imperial State of Enkaire, was also growing.

They were a species of anthros that had been racked in a civil war, what they called a ‘World War’ for several years, the devastating effects causing their population of two billion to decrease to a mere 116 million. Their planet was a wreck, their population demoralized, but the Sertians had arrived and turned the tide of the never ending battle in one’s favor, in return the Enkaires had been the first species in the Milky Way to join the Empire.

That to was decided, since the distances were so great and travel between the Empire and Milky Way limited to only the few citizens that made the journey to colonize, it was impossible for the Enkaires to have a seat in the Congress of Representatives. So instead it was decided that they would be a territory of the Expedition until their planet was rebuilt and a stable form of travel between home and colonies established.

But what was still to come, was deciding over current diplomatic ties and setting up a legislative government to oversee the citizens on Solaron as well as guide the Enkaires into the ‘correct’ political culture (it was easily decided that Trilano would use his powers as Grand Admiral to act as an ‘Emperor’ of sorts for the Expedition). So far it was decided that the representatives of the Expedition government would be proportional to the ‘territories’ and the Empire citizens. For example, with current population the Sertians would have twenty-two delegates while the Enkaires would get sixteen. It seemed to be a fair system, and the Enkaires reasoned that when newer territories were added to the Expedition the Sertians would cease to have a majority in the system.

Beyond that though, was trying to establish what powers the Expedition Congress would have compared to the abilities of most state-regions and compared to the Citizen’s Council and Congress of Representatives themselves. And that was only one headache! A military order by the Emperor dedicated all research personal on Solaron to dedicate their time to planetary warfare, leaving the much larger task force back home to commence a major overhaul of Sertian space technology after realizing how far behind they were not only to the United Resistance, but also to the nations encountered in the galaxy.

“Time to get up.”

The voice made the Admiral shuddered as he turned to look at Rael, the data psych they had discovered thanks to the UTF’s help. He still suffered from his twenty years of stasis in a ship’s computer, and more than that his very voice seemed to echo a primitive machines. He had once known Engineer Rael twenty years ago, in fact it was on his ship that he went insane and jettisoned himself into the Drift Disturbance they were monitoring, and now he had to say the Engineer acted like a completely different person, despite the fact he looked exactly the same.

“No, not anymore… arrgh… Get Alexander to go to these blasted meetings in my steed. In the meanwhile, send a communication via drift to where the Red Talons most probably are, mention the trade agreement I’ve been working on and suggest they come to Solaron for the exchange, please,” he had to remind himself to ask politely, part of Rael’s rehabilitation.

“Alright,” he said unblinking, his mind communicating with the base’s systems and sending a message to Alexander and a message to Roze of the Steel Talons. He then just stood there, looking at the Admiral still like he was expecting something. “Anything else, sir?”

“Please, just call me Trilano, Rael. You’re technically not apart of the fleet until after your rehabilitation…” it was a sad fact, but even though Rael was legally bared from being a soldier and wearing armor, his immense capabilities for computer and electronic technology kept him very close to the military development teams on the base.

“Alright, Sir Trilano. Can I do anything else?”

“Not really, get some rest and help out the IA-43 development team if you want, but mainly… Just have fun Rael.”

“I’ll do my best, Sir Trilano.”

On the Pegasis, 5/4 was leaning back in his captains seat as he oversaw the tests in the asteroid field. A yellow furred kitsune in a lab coat stood infront of him on the bridge. "As you can see. The crystal carbon is progressing ahead of schedule. The structure is rather simple in its design and it can be grown as well as manufactured."

5/4 nodded, "And what of the interceptor program, Project dart?" He asked, leaning forward a bit. He was very interested in the progress of the concept interceptor.

The scientist sighed. "Its having some trouble. Though at its current stage of development we're only slightly behind schedule. The focused particle afterburner system is showing bugs. The magnetic containment field has trouble staying charged for long periods. So currently we cant maintain the desired level of thrust. Also we're having trouble fitting all the systems into such a compact frame."

5/4 nodded, sighing. "ok. So whats the progress on super capital class?" He asked, he noted the com officer motioning to his own console then to the one on 5/4's chair. Roze nodded. "please hurry."

The scientist nodded. "We have designs drawn up for our new series of ships, and will be refitting the fleet. as for super capital. It would take nearly a month to construct a dreadnought with our current construction capabilities. The Sanctuary's bays just arnt big enough. We've been tossing around an idea in R&D, but we would need a good sized moon."

5/4 cocked an eyebrow. "I like where your going with this. but would you hold on for a moment please." He tapped the station on his chair and read the message from the Sertians. He cocked an eyebrow and nodded. Looking to the scientist. "Return to Sanctuary, Continue the reaserch." He looked to navigation "plot a course for the Sertian expeditionary force, Inform Isahil that he will be required on our arrival."

The pegasis' engines lit up. The particle impulse drives moving the ship away from the asteroid field as a shuttle left one of its bays. A dozen frigates moved out with the carrier. Their sleek black hulls blending with the blackness of space. Each ship moving in close to the carrier as a massive warp portal opened up outside the belt. The small fleet entering the foldspace tunnel.

"All systems green, ETA one hour." Called out the navigation officer. "Wolf squadron reports all green" Called the com officer. The 12 frigates riding the same warp tunnel as the Pegasis.

An hour after the message was recieved the 13 ships would exit foldspace just above the systems orbital plane. 5/4 stood up. "Send a broadcast to the sertians informing them of our arrival And ask them if we could scout the system for a moon they dont need." He said with a half smile.

I'll drop by, if you don't mind. I'm bored as hell right now, and I've got a squishy-FT (hard/soft) nation that might enjoy having something to do with this.

I'll be away for three days though... see you on Friday... perhaps.

<OOC>
I'm also interested in joining, if you'd be willing to accept a first-time RP'er. If so, then here's my intro.
</OOC>

White streaks shot past the bridge window of the GCS Peacemaker at a rate too fast to count. The captain had tried once, and almost immediately given up.

Captain. He didn't think of himself that way yet. The Galactic Corporation's military forces were expanding, and more and more people were finding themselves thrust into roles they weren't prepared to take. Erican Shne knew that his promotion had rested as much on political loyalties as military skill. A fine military record could be marred by a single statement made in an unguarded moment.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the navigation officer.
"Preparing to revert to realspace."

The streaks dissapeared, and in their place was a planet. Contrasted with the bright sphere were the telltale profiles of ships - some of which, according to the weapons officer, were very well-armed.
"Orders?" the weapons officer asked.

The unidentified ships apparently hadn't detected the Peacemaker and its group of tenders and support ships, and they were also in range of the long-range turbolasers. Shne didn't mind that the Peacemaker had only one dual-mount long-range emplacement. The things were more useful for sieges than anything else, and what kind of scouting fleet would get itself into siege warfare?

"Keep all batteries on standby," he ordered before turning to navigation. "Close on those unidentified ships at moderate speed. Make no hostile movements." He then looked at the communications officer. "Inform the rest of the task force of our intentions and establish a link with one of those ships - preferably the largest one."

The bridge was filled with mostly silent activity as the crew went about its tasks. It would be the first contact the scouting fleet had made with a space-faring race. He couldn't see any known identification markings on the ships. Despite the graininess of the images - which were at maximum magnification - he would have recognized any emblem from the Galactic Corporation. As far as he knew, it was a first contact.

"Prepare a squadron of TIE Interceptors for launch, and have my shuttle on standby," he ordered to nobody in particular. Somebody would hear the order and act on it. Regardless of whether a comm link was successfully established, Shne had a feeling he would be on the planet soon.

The tactical officer called out from the bridge of the Pegasis. "Incoming FTL Signature. Unknown origin, bearing three three seven mark two one mark four seven. Single contact."

The Pegasis was a massive supercarrier. The Command & Assault class vessel was unique as it could stand toe to toe with multiple capital ships in a knock down fight. Its crew had not only been trained extensively in space tactics, but had spent twice the time of most enlisted men in actual combat. The nation of mercenaries had perfected space warfare down to an art form. The flat black sleek forms of the carrier and its 12 frigate escorts hung just above the systems orbital plane, their ships masked visually against the black backdrop of space.

5/4 stood from his chair. "Switch to silent running. Engage cloaking screens and deploy decoy pods. disengage drive systems. Have Interceptors prep for launch. Tactical formation. All ships general quarters."

The pegasis's running lighs and bay lights switched off. The frigates blinking out aswell as the 13 ships shut down their particle impulse drives, switching to gravity induction as their induction cores spun up to power the cloaking screens.

Each ship deployed a short range jamming field. Degaussing systems de-magnetizing the ships hulls as electronic buffer screens powered up. The combination of jamming systems and sensor buffers causing the ship to blend near perfectly with the backdrop of open space. The finishing touch came when each ship began to emit trace amounts of radiation from their secondary nuclear cores. The radiation venting of of exhaust ports like a smoke screen. At the same time, each ship launched three filing cabinet sized objects. One each of the first two going off in a separate direction. One pushing itself vertacle, climbing above the galactic plane. The second group of 13 pods moving forward ahead of the fleet. Each pod emitting signals to match the ship that launched it. causing any sensor systems to pick them up as their ships. The third group of pods moved to station themselves between the fleets ships and the unknown vessel. Masking the ships signature behind their own.

The overall effect was that the small fleet would seem to split into three identical fleets. Each group of 13 moving in a tactical formation in a different direction. The ships black hulls ensuring that any visual scans wouldnt be able to distinguish them from the backdrop of space.

5/4 called out. "Have the first group of probes begin active scans of the unknown vessel. Direct a signal to the Sertians through the second group." He paused as the coms officer nodded that the channel was ready. "Sertian command, this is Grand Admiral 5/4 Tiger Roze. Can you identify the unidentified vessel that just entered this system?"

The coms used laser trancievers. A focused FTL signal that could only be picked up by a ship in the line between the two communicating parties. The signal may or may not be detected. The pods used a narrow band standard com array. The signal would bounce between the three groups of pods to confuse anyone watching.

At about this time Isahil stepped onto the bridge. Clad in his normal japanese style robes he blinked at hearing the commotion of the ship. "Looks like this isnt such a standard ooperation anymore." He said, standing beside and behind 5/4.

[Hey, the more the merrier :3]

“Our testing of the SP-33 goes well Grand Admiral, the ion shell around the plasma bolt allows it to last longer in atmospheric conditions as well as increases the over all destructive power of the weapon, at the expense of extra power to ionize oxygen and nitrogen in the air to create this bolt of course,” Trilano had managed to escape from the further ramblings of the meeting by sending his charismatic lieutenant in his place, unfortunately he still had to listen to the R&D divisions reporting their latest findings.

“Good, good… It looks like you might develop your heavy rifle before the armor system designed to use it Julie,” he spoke back to the Riplard engineer who was giving her report, before turning to the Enkaire that stood off to her side. The Enkaire’s were a bit different, he had to admit, but strangely they spoke a dialect of their Sert - as did most of the galaxy’s inhabitants it seemed. An Enkaire wasn’t much different than a Selac, except for the fact their fur was a more crimson color on average, and their ears were smaller. The main differences were biological though, not cosmetic, as the Enkaires lacked the sensory abilities of a Selac, instead seeming to be more ‘balanced’. They weren’t exceptionally good at anything, thus leaving a wide variety of occupations Enkaires could fulfill. “And what about you Jake? How’s the EWT-01 coming along?”

“We are amazed by your technology Trilano, and already our adaptions of it to our standard uses have proven surprising results. As compared to your newly developed SP-33, we believe our railgun wouldn’t be as damaging, but would make up for this with a faster firing rate, slightly greater range, and better ammunition capacity, although we’d have to use bullets which will encumber a soldier more than your plas-cells.” Another surprising aspect of the Enkaires was that they came equipped with symbiotes, small creatures that would burry under their skin and bond with their central nervous system, filtering nutrients away from their host by providing increased mental capacities, as well as being able to transfer skills if a symbiote was forced to leave a dying host and transplanted into another one. So because of this, an Enkaire rarely ever used the pronoun I, instead focusing on ‘we’.

“That’s good… Keep up the good work people, we need to make sure we don’t fall behind in global combat with the Empire focusing on space vessels…” he was going to speak more, but just then the black haired Admiral was interrupted by a message from his TAC, or rather a beep that announced a message. A few seconds later another beep emerged, “Err… Excuse me, but I’m afraid I have to get to that.” A few polite nods and smiles at the scientists and they both left his office, or bunker if you preferred to call it that, leaving the door to lock behind them automatically.

He left little time to slump into his chair and turn on the Tactical Assistant Computer’s holographic systems, pulling up a map of the system. There was a G-class star, a few billion years old and in the prime of its life, and around it several different planets, two rocky ones that were within the HZ of the star. Further outside of these rocky planets where two gas giants, one about three times larger than the other. The inner most rocky planet housed two moons and was currently the planet the Sertians had called Solaron, the second however was left uninhabited due to the fact there were trace amounts of arsenic in the atmosphere which could prove dangerous for anything short but a full on terraforming team - something the Sertians weren’t prepared to do at this moment.

However, disregarding most of the system he focused on the planet which showed many gold dots virtually littering the innermost rocky planet, representing Sertian ships as they danced along the outer atmosphere - some making trips between the mining operations on the two moons to various reactor sites on the planet or dropping off resources to one of the two cities on the surface. Outside of this though, were other dots. Red indicated the forces they had identified as their allies - the Red Talons, apparently consisting of about a dozen ships just above the planetary plane. Another force was identified as green, unknowns, and they seemed to be a bit farther than the Red Talons were.

He didn’t receive any communications yet, considering they had to be listened to by the commanders of the ships that received them then filtered down to him on the planet. But in the mean time he watched what looked like the Red Talons fleet multiply to trice its original number, all with dimmer signals, “Computer, input information from the Planetary Defense Platforms scanners into the projection.” A beep from the TAC confirmed his request, and shortly there after the advanced sensors of the defense satellites around the planet revealed the thirteen original ships, marking out the 26 in a darker red coloring. “Can we get detailed scans of the Red Talon’s ships?”

“Negative Grand Admiral Trilano,” the computer announced in an obviously synthetic voice, “Despite utilizing the advanced Oscillating Matter Sensor Array’s of the Planetary Defense Platforms, energy interference from their stealth technology only enables the systems to detect the amount of mass.”

“Alright…” right around then he would receive two, wait three messages. One came from a Mobile Fortress, a station capable of warp travel to and from systems to act as a mobile defense platform around planets. Originally designed to protect border systems at the Empire’s edge, the Sertian Expedition has access to two of these five kilometer diameter ships, one stationed on each pole of the planet. The one closest to the foreign fleet directed their message to him first. The second and third came from Roze, someone he had heard of being the leader of the Red Talons.

“Computer, send a message to the unknowns identifying us as the Sertian Expedition, the arm of the Sertian Empire within this galaxy. Ask them their purpose within our system, and let them know that we have no intentions of firing our weapons at them unless we detected multiple energy build ups indicating weapon systems.”

“Understood,” the synthetic voice answered.

“Also, send another message to Roze… Tell him that Grand Admiral Alexander is busy in a meeting, but Admiral Trilano will see him on Solaron-1 if need be, we can discuss the trade agreement as well as perhaps lending or selling one of the gas giants moons.” He remembered that to Roze and the Red Talons Alexander was still playing the part of Grand Admiral, so it would have to be the first topic of their meeting to tell him of this lie, and explain his reasons for doing such a thing.

"Goddamnit, another month?" Commodore Tarra Karzori swore at the new directive. He was supposed to take his ship and escorts out for patrol for another month, possibly missing the Imperial Fencing Championship, in which his son was competeing. What the hell, why would they do this?

"I'm sure there is a good reason, sir, considering nobody misses the IFC, and your son is one of those expected to make it to the semifinals."

"You'd better be right. I'm getting sick of thi--" The comm interrupted him.

"Commodore Karzori, this is Commander Brezshnyi. We're picking up some...well, sir, ships. Lots of them. in fact, a few hundred." The Commodore blinked.

"Holy hell. Call back to Fleet Command. Let's investigate."

*** ***

The Commodore took his Divikarei class battle cruiser and a few escorts into the area, and immediately hailed what looked to be the flagship of the mass of vessels.

Greetings! This is Commodore Tarra Karzori of the Dersconi HMS Divikarei 052. We were carrying out routine patrols, and stumbled upon your quite large fleet collection, so we thought we would drop in and say hello. Please respond.

Expeditionary Force Fiery Comet

Standing on the bridge of his personal flagship and looking out over the task force assigned to him for his newest mission, Colonel Cruz Laflaga (http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Upum/New%20Ships/char_aznabel_by_sharingandevil.jpg) stared in admiration into space. He was an officer of the Fleet Mobile Suit Corp, but had been given command of this, the second major expedition for going outside the Kardhes System and beyond the power and writ of the Dominion. It sent a thrilling shiver down Colonel Laflaga's spine. It was going to be an exciting trip.

His flagship, a custom designed warship, the Cyclops (http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Upum/New%20Ships/eternal.jpg) sat in orbit about the fifth moon of Planet Desgaia. It was a planet with a moderate amount of population, but was a major industrial point for several mining industries who had invested their businesses in the moons orbiting it and the asteroids which had been tractored into orbit so the miners could exploit them. The orbital space was teeming with moving ore haulers and PDF cruisers. His task force was the only major military presence around the planet beside the lunar base on Lunar II (second moon).

Laflaga glanced at his task force. It consisted of two Lancer-class cruisers (http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Upum/New%20Ships/123757.jpg), the Diocletian and the Cerberus. Beside them laying in wait was the Hydra-class missile cruiser (http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Upum/New%20Ships/EDF_Prinz_Eugen_by_xzarno.jpg) Prince Eugen. And in their battle-train were a collection of Harrower-class supply ships carrying materials and other necessities that the expedition would require. Also, almost hidden but still very distinct in shape, was a Aegis-class sensory ship (http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b184/Upum/New%20Ships/EDF_Observation_Island_by_xzarno2.jpg), the Seer.

It was a moderately powerful force as far as the usual task forces of the Solar Fleet were concerned. Onboard his own ship Laflaga had six mobile suits, and several more were being kept amidst the supply ships. A half-squadron of Lightning-class Fighters was operating out of two supply ships as well. He had enough firepower to defend himself and his men until they reached a new system where they could start a new colony.

"I just hope it's enough," Laflaga said out loud.

"Sir?" queried his adjutant, Captain Martin who stood close by.

"Nothing captain. Are we ready?"

"Aye sir, we've just completed all star drive jump preparations and all ships of the task force have reported ready for jump."

"Initiate star drives then, and let us be on our way," ordered Laflaga.


Ten hours later....

Expeditionary Force Fiery Comet came out of its star drive systems and came to a halt within a new system. The warships immediately formed up in a protective arch around the supply ships and the Seer, which had already begun its pre-ordered scans and system-wide detection search.

Colonel Laflaga stood behind Captain Martin who sat in the command chair of the Cyclops. He looked over a large holo-map that was being updated by the computer, getting information from a intel-feed from the Seer's uplinks. There was a G-class star, a few billion years old and in the prime of its life, and around it several different planets. Two rocky ones that were within the HZ of the star, and further out from these where two gas giants, one about three times larger than the other. The inner most rocky planet housed two moons within its orbital caress.

"Report Captain Martin," said Laflaga.

"The Seer has reported several signatures, calibration designating them as star ships sir," replied Martin. "As many as several dozen, an accurate count has not yet been made."

"The system itself?"

"One seems to be currently inhabited, we're picking up a large amount of radio and other types of communication traffic from its surface. The second however is uninhabited and shows no sign of life," said Captain Martin.

"Have any ships detected our presence," asked Laflaga, coming up to stand behind the captain's chair and look down over the uplink page.

"We're fairly far out on the edge of the system sir," responded Ensign Desiree, standing nearby. "From what the Seer reports, we're in a blind zone to them; least so long as we move no further into the system."

"Surprise can be handy at times, but in others it can get you killed by a trigger-happy friend," commented Laflaga. "Are we picking up any communications?"

"Aye sir," reported the communications ensign. "Its not too complex. From what I can tell we share a view vowel functions and other things. The computer's translation algorithms are putting it through its paces. We should have a clear picture."

The crew on the bridge of the Cyclops waited patiently as they waited for the computer to give them a viable communication. Finally after a few minutes the ensign smiled and caught himself before saying 'woot.' The glare of the computer screen lights gave his face an ghastly look as he turned and looked up at Laflaga.

"We don't seem to be the only new arrivals in system sir," he said, sounding a bit puzzled. "The strongest message going out and on practically every known band of communication is from the inhabited planet's surface."

"What's it saying?" asked Captain Martin.

"Something along the lines of 'Unknown ships, we are the Sertian Expedition, an arm of the Sertian Empire within the galaxy who hold sway in this system. What is yor purpose within our system? We have no intentions of firing our weapons at you unless we detect energy build ups indicating weapon systems becoming active' and then it just starts repeating itself,” said the ensign.

"So we found other humanoid races!" smiled Ensign Desiree.

"Indeed," said Laflaga. "Since we're not the only ones to suddenly drop in, I suppose we can mosey on in and say hello. Captain, bring us further into the system by about four million kilometers. Once past the blind zone, begin broadcasting a message of greeting."

"Sir, yes sir."

Attention to the members of the Sertian Expedition of the Sertian Empire! Greetings and good health to you. This is Colonel Cruz Laflaga of the Dominion of Kardhes, commander of an expeditionary task force that has stumbled upon your system. We wish you no ill will or have desire to engage in combat with you. I would like to speak with your commanding officer if I may. Laflaga out.

OOC: Here is my factbook (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=556166) in case someone needs to look at something. Also, what's the name of this system? Is it the Solaran System?

The Com officer of the Pegasis worked franticly at his station as the various messages bounced around the system. The tactical officer looking a little nervous "We've just picked up two more FTL signatures warping into this sector. Numerous unknown vessels. Shall i prime weapons?"

5/4 waved his hand. "No, wait for a moment. Coms, whats being said out there." There was a slight pause. "The sertians say that their admiral is busy at the moment and that they'll arrange a meeting on the surface if we wish. And that we may be granted the use of one of the moons in the system. The other two signals are coming through the translator now. It looks like two other fleets, no apparent relation."

5/4 nodded from his seat. "Navigation, take us into orbit of the planet. Tactical, recall the drones, but keep the stealth system engaged. Communications, send a message to the Sertians." He paused. "This is Grand Admiral Roze. We are moving to high orbit, we're maintaining our stealth screens untill we have confirmation of the intentions of the unknown vessels." He waited a moment. "Now send a transmission to the other vessels." He paused.

"This is Grand Admiral Tiger Roze of the Red Talons Mercenary Republic. We wish no ill will towords your ships but we will defend ourselves if necessary. We would like to request a meeting with representatives form our respective nations so that we can clarify territories and any possibilities of trade.

The 13 ships proceeded under their particle impulse drives. "Sir, ETA approximately 20 minutes." Called the nav officer.

[Sys-Solaron is the official name in Sertian maps, so basically the Solaron System is right]

The Admiral blinked as he leaned back against his chair, another beep came from the Serathan, a cruiser that was on the edge of the system scouting out the outer field of comets on the system, tagging ones that were rich in water to be towed later towards Solaron as part of the terraforming process of the desert planet. They reported a brief energy fluctuation and a brief spatial disturbance, something the Admiral shrugged off as the delayed reaction of the other ship’s jumping into the system - until the Kardhes ships announced themselves.

“Hmmm… Well looks like we’ve found some people,” the Admiral smirked, tapping his fingers along the consul of his desk. “Computer, send a message to the Dersconi and announce who we are and our claims to this planet for the past several months. Send another message to the, Car-hes? Or whatever with the same message.”

A few more beeps announced that the message was carried forth, “Now, get me the Neanderthal, she’ll be emitting a beacon to announce where their ships can go into orbit as well as provide fighter escorts to the planet’s surface. She should be coming around the northern polar cap now if I remember correctly…” The computer responded by zooming onto the planet, specifically the northern hemisphere and flashing one of the small dots to indicate he was correct. Afterwards the map zoomed out once more, but the ship continued to flash indicating it was emitting a message - announcing that it was to act as their guide and escort around the planet.

The ship engaged its plasma engines, adding a bit of tengent acceleration to bump it up to high orbit, and there waited for the friendly and unknown fleets to come to it. It was a Phoenix-Class Cruiser, a two kilometer long capital ship designed for scouting and quick fleet interception, but its shields and weaponry were enough to defend itself incase any ships were hostile.

“In the mean time, route all information to my armor. I’ll be heading out to enjoy the sunshine for a few minutes until they get here.”

“Yes Admiral, is there anything else?”

“What’s Rael doing?”

“Civilian Rael is currently resting in his room, however body temperature and muscle movements indicate he is having trouble sleeping.”

“Eh, let him be… Hopefully he won’t reach out to the other ships, he still hasn’t quite learned how to control himself…”

Bridge of the Cyclops

Colonel Laflaga stood looking into the comm camera eye and speaking to the three officers of his escort ships, each of their faces displayed on the holo-table in sharp detail. The one on the left was frowning.

"But Colonel, we can't just let you go alone. Grand Admiral Kilrani would have us court marshalled at the very least," protested Captain Conner, the Diocletian's commander.

"Not to mention how shamed we'd feel," added Captain Solomon, the Cerberus's commander.

The third officer, Captain Waneright - commander of the Prince Eugen - simply shrugged and sighed. He knew that none of their complaints or threats would keep the young colonel from doing things his way.

"They've sent a message designating a meeting place," said Laflaga. "It would rude for the commanding officer of this expedition not to go. And I go alone, so as not to alarm them with our entire fleet's presence." The three officers nodded in defeat.


Thirty-Minutes Later

Leaving behind the rest of the task force in their original positions the Cyclops flew on, going at medium speeds for the planet from which the communications with the Sertians had been issued. After a short time the ship was within distance of it and came to an orbital holding pattern. Beside them was a ship twice as long and large (Phoenix-class Cruiser).

Colonel Laflaga opened a communications channel. "Attention to the commander of the Sertian ship, this is Colonel Cruz Laflaga of the Kardes Dominion. (Pronounced Car-dis) I'm here to speak with the leader of the Sertian Expeditionary Arm, if I may."

"How many newcomers are there?"
"There's no telling. Many of them appear to have cloaking devices."
Shne considered going ahead and opening fire. He had a newly-commissioned Star Destroyer at his disposal, as well as three frigates, a carrier, and his ace in the hole, an Interdictor Cruiser. The Interdictor could project gravity wells that would play havoc with any FTL systems even close to the standard Galactic Corporation hyperdrive.

"New plan: make a micro jump to get some distance between us and all these unidentified vessels. Then we'll make a transmission to make our intentions clearer."

It took just a few minutes to prepare and execute the jump, just enough time to restore the captain's peace of mind. As far as he knew, none of the ships were hostile. He could work with that.

"Captain, we're ready to broadcast your message," the comm officer said.
Shne cleared his throat and signalled for the transmission to begin.

"This is Captain Erican Shne of Galactic Corporation Exploratory Task Force 12." Technically, it was Expansionary Task Force rather than Exploratory, but he decided to leave that part out. "Our intentions are peaceful. Unidentified vessels, please lower your cloaking shields and respond. Repeat, we have no interest in a conflict."
He nodded to the comm officer, who cut off the transmission.

"Now," the captain said, "let's see how many takers we have."

"Tactical jump detected!" Called the tactical officer across the bridge of the Pegasis. The 3km supercarrier moving slowly towords the planet. Its frigates looking like a pack of wolves following a semi truck. Their weapons would appear to be powered down. Having no power build up or charge.

5/4 raised an eyebrow. "Who's fleet was that?" He asked calmly, his nerves being set on edge. The coms officer looked back. "Its the Galactic corporation. They want us to lower our cloaking screens, they claim to not want conflict." Isahil raisd an eyebrow from his position standing behind the Admiral. "So, another corporation... Shall i proceed as usual?" He asked in a gentle voice. 5/4 nodded to Isahil.

"Have the wolf-pack disengage cloaking screens and cycle up their induction coils, have all ships prep P-drives. Just in case." He waited a moment. "Com, open a channel to the Corporation..." He waited, the screen blinking to show it was recording. "This is Admiral Roze of the Red Talons. We are dropping our cloaking screens. Please state your intentions in this system." The screen went blank when he was finished as he pressed a button on his console. Entering a few more keystrokes holo images of the corporation ships appeared in the middle of the bridge. He stood and walked forward to the edge of the railing. The images filling the 3 story open area of the bridge.

Isahil walked forward. "Those don't look like expedition style vessels..." He said, holding his hands in his sleeves of his robes. The gray haired neko looking over the holograms. "I don't trust the corporation feet..." Isahil said. 5/4 nodded. "I dont trust them either." He said as the diagram was filled in as the sensors identified various objects on the hull. The star destroyer indeed was impressive. That many weapons on such a ship. "Do you think their lieing?" 5/4 asked. Isahil shrugged and sat down. "I'm going to do a bit of spying."

With that, Isahil went into a trance. Projecting his mind across the expanse to the bridge of the star destroyer. His senses showing him in real time what was happening on the bridge. Looking around the bridge he felt for the surface thoughts. Feeling for the captains true intentions. To find if the man really did mean for peace or for war.

The Commodore immediately sent his reply.

Is that so? Curious we missed you. Well, anyway, since we're here, care for a drink to talk things over? I have a splendid bottle or two here. Your place or mine.

A minute or so after sending the message, CIC sent an alert. "CIC to Bridge. Possible threatening jump, coordinates sent. Advise." A few seconds later Comm sent the message from the Galactic Corporation. Karzori shot a nervous glance to the XO.

"How long is fleet command?"

"they can jump and be here in a few minutes."

"Radio them to stay ready. I don't like these GC folks."

"What should we do about the cloaking?"

"Nothing." They both turned around to see the cloaked Dragon Lord glide onto the bridge, the spiked and armoured tail sticking out ever so slightly from behind the cloak.

"If they're asking, that means they can't see us. Stay hidden, ensure that all communications are being heard only by our potential new friends. Passive target lock on the GC folks, so that we can lock and fire the moment they try anything."

The Galactic Corporation would detect hundreds of vessels around the closest planet to the sun, at least fifty seeming to be capital ships over a kilometer in length. Then there were the numerous other ships which could possibly be civilian or military hardware, not to mention the two gigantic mobile fortresses stationed on the poles. There was also detection of several dozen other objects around stationed in orbit around the planet, possibly small ships but their geosynchronous movement and lack of any engine signature revealed them to be a grid of orbital defense platforms.

Closer scans would reveal the Neanderthal open its hanger bays, releases quick ships that registered like fireflies amongst the large phoenix class and the Cyclops. Fighters that flickered with intense heat because of miniaturized bussard ramjet collectors which collected the atmosphere or interstellar medium within a small distance (depending on the density of the material collected), forcing it close enough together via magnetic fields to ignite the material to undergo fusion reaction. Combined with the articulated directional engines upon its sides, the Feather-Darters danced around the ship. However, as the Red Talons drew closer a detachment of fighters from the cruiser turned towards them, using the power of their fusion engines to catch up to the ships, then breaking to escort them within the planet's orbit.


Trilano was now outside the central building of Solaron-1, the megatropolis which was first started by four MDIAC dropships and built outward into a massive walled military installation that housed the first one-hundred million troops of the Empire, and now with the suburbs around it contained the majority of all the Sertian population in the area. He received a beep from his armor and looked down, one message had come from the Dcerson about the lack of detection, and another was from the Kardhes that were now in orbit, a request to meet him.

"Computer, message the Dcerson ships that the Grand Admiral is not able to leave planet, however if need be he can respond via teleconference between him and the other representatives that have arrived in our conference planet side." He then turned to the other message, tapping at the keys on the underside of his left gauntlet, manipulating a holographic screen above his arm to show the Kardhes' message.

"Computer, open a com link from communication station b37 to their ship, secure channel." The commander turned his back on the evening sun of Solaron, the bright star falling towards the horizon behind him. Its rays started to turn the desert world's sky a darker red, casting a pink reflection onto the lake not so far away from the city's walls. But that was beyond view from Communication Station b37, instead it showed a humanoid wearing black armor with the helmet removed, to reveal an equally black haired individual with onyx tiger stripes around his neck. His eyes were a steel gray that turned themselves to look directly into the camera, almost like he was looking directly at the Kardhes commander. Behind him another metal building of the central command area blocked off the view of even the wall, which prevented the evening sky from being seen.

"Welcome Commander to Sys-Solaron, the home of our Expedition you could say. I am Grand Admiral Trilano of the Expedition, supreme commander of our forces within the Milky Way," the secured channel would ensure that the Red Talons didn't intercept the message, as he planned to reveal who he was to them later (besides they were tied up with messages from the commander of the Neanderthal). "As you can no doubt tell I'm currently planet side, so if you want to meat in person we would have to arrange for a shuttle landing for you."


Meanwhile the Red Talons were in fact being messaged by Commander Sarah of the Neanderthal, asking them if they planned to send a shuttle to the planet for the meeting the Admiral was preparing for all of the forces, and if they accepted a set of way points for their atmospheric entry.

Shne rubbed his temples and considered his next move. Despite having gained some room in which to maneuver, he was having trouble concentrating. "Get me Captain Findos." The captain of the carrier Gunray quickly replaced an image of one of Red Talon's ships.
"Why did you order that tactical jump?" the Neimoidian demanded.
"I was gaining space and time. We are dealing with a number of unknowns here, and I want to know if they are trustworthy and, more importantly, if they will trust us."
"And give them a chance to get in the first shot? I think not!"
"I don't intend to draw the combined fire from that many ships by acting so recklessly. And even if I did want to make every single one of them my enemy, I wouldn't do so without every ship at my disposal."
"Then call on the Emergency Reserve," Findos said impatiently.
Shne mulled it over, but knew Findos was right. He'd need to call up the reseve. "Very well. And I want you to launch two TIE Fighter squadrons in a combat patrol around the fleet, with two more squadrons and a TIE Hunter squadron on standby."
The alien captain nodded. "As you wish."

Shne terminated the connetion and turned to the comm officer. "Dispatch a range probe to the location of the Inferno and Fury. They are to come to our current position immediately."
"Yes, captain."
Upon arriving in the station in which the two frigates were stationed, the probe would send a burst transmission before going inactive. The reserve would then jump to reinforce Shne's task force.
Immediately, of course, was a relative term. It would take more than a day, possibly two for the frigates to arrive. To designate such insignificant ships a "reserve" would have been laughable if not for the new (nearly-experimental, in fact) weapons and systems they boasted.

"What do we do until Inferno and Fury arrive, sir?"
"We wait," Shne replied. "And look for more answers about our current situation."
He couldn't wait until he could leave the Unknown Regions and return to civilization. Sys-Solaron was too unpredictable for his tastes.

An image of the Peacemaker:
http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/a/a7/ISD_arrow.jpg
An image of the Gunray:
http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/f/f3/Federationbattleship.jpg
I assume you know what a regular TIE looks like, but here's a pic of a TIE Hunter:
http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/2/2a/Hunter.jpg

Outskirts of the Solaron System

With a flicker of light, the GSS Xuthus exploded into being. Its sensors immediately began signaling the presence of nearly a hundred spacecraft of varying size, as well as a number of smaller objects that appeared to be putting out a massive amount of radiation for their size. This had the effect of further confusing Xuthus' sensor officer, whose tally of ships crept up and down as the sensors updated. The communications section was similarly bombarded by messages, some scrambled and some not, between the dozens of apparent factions present in the star system.

At the center of Xuthus bridge, hunched over the situation table, Commander Elizabeth Sargent took it all in with an expression that bordered on despair. The Gurguvii Star Union was a relatively small spacefaring nation, and the assembled warships numbered well over its entire space navy. If the mass readings were correct, Battle Squadron One was outnumbered nearly three times over by ships in its own weight class, let alone by smaller ships. Suffice it to say, the Space Navy would have little difficulty convincing parliament that it required an increase in funding after receiving this report.

"Major Ennis," she said, indicating her commander of the air group. "Dispatch a Raptor-courier with a request for backup, and have our sensor logs downloaded into their computers." Ennis, a stocky pilot with dozens of years' service indicated by his sleeve decorations, saluted and picked up a handset to pass along the order.

"Lieutenant Corning," Sargent continued. "Transmit a standard friendship message on all channels in Standard, English and Simplified Mandarin. Hopefully they'll pick up on one of those." Corning, the on-duty communications specialist, bent to obey.

Greetings from the Gurguvii Star Union, we offer peace and friendship in the name of our government and people. Ours is a peaceable race, traders and explorers, and we mean you no harm. We hope that you share our ambitions for positive relations, and we extend the hand of friendship.

The com officer relayed the message to 5/4, who nodded. "Tell them i'll be sending a representative planet side momentarily." He paused a moment as the tactical officer called that another fleet had warped into the system. He nodded, tapping the fleet com at his own pad. The Ansible system used the precise vibrations of atomic nuclei to transmit messages instantaniously over any distance. Not only could the Ansible not be detected, but it would take another Ansible system to recieve it, even then it would need to be tuned to the proper frequency.

"This is 5/4 to the Crown of Swords, the Destiny, and the Kergerin. Have your task forces stand by for P-jump on my order only." The transmission included coordinates for the system, including the exact positions for where they would arrive if called. He waited for a confrmation reply from the various captains before switching the channel off. He looked at Isahil and nodded. Isahil turned and walked off the bridge, taking the turbolift to one of the hangar bays where a shuttle was being prepped for him.

The Crown of swords, The Destiny, and The Kergerin, along with their escort fleets of 8 destroyers and 16 frigares each. Each of the three small fleets, also accompanied by a strike carrier, were currently stationed at various points around the milky way. Each one searching for possible mining locations. Each group primed their Philadelphea drives. Adjusting magnetic and gravitic fields to ensure a safe passage. The drive systems still in their beta stages of use. The side effects of such drives having rather unpleasant effects on the crew if the drives werent calibrated properly before each use.

The Tactical officer looked back at 5/4. "Sir, Corporation fleets are deploying fighters." 5/4 nodded. "Aquire passive target locks on their capital ships. with the main guns. Dont prime weapons yet." The tactical officer nodded. The tactical crew adjusting the gun targets to the corporation ships. Each of the external guns posessing a small camera turret for passive and active locks, focused on the Corporation ships.


((OOC note: The Ansible system works on a similar idea as a radio where normally ships use a telegraph. That sort of thought process when it comes to intercepting the coms.))

The Commodore sent a quick reply.

If you wish, I could come with a small staff to the conference itself, rather than rely on teleconfrencing.

The Commodore had very little to do, so sat around at the console, waiting for the response.

The Admiral smirked at the camera, “Yes that would be best, however I didn’t want you to think that you were required to come. We have a capital ship, the Neanderthal which is emitting a message on a 10 meter wavelength radio band, that is acting as an escort for everyone in orbit for the conference. There is currently one ship from the Kardhes and the Red Talon’s miniature fleet. Don’t worry about the Talons, we’ve known them long enough that they won’t fire first.”

His message however, stopped before he could go on when a few beeps announced to him that another faction had arrived in the system. He told the computer to allow the commander of the closest vessel to handle the greeting while he went back to his office to deal with the other issue that hadn’t yet resolved itself, a small group of ships that had recently undergone a tactical jump. After their initial message to them about the escort cruiser for negations no further message had been received from them. To be safe preparations were being put into order to prepare just in case, although another message was sent to their fleet warning them that any energy spikes akin to weapon signatures would cause their entire fleet to treat them as hostiles.


Having been situated with the responsibility of handling the xenos, Commander Justina wasn’t in the best moods. It was remarkable that a borderline xenophobic had made it to the ranks of Commander, but a good talent with tactics, membership in the Cult of Searing Flames, and the remarkable ability to keep her opinions hidden from public life kept her job safe. “Communications Officer, tell these… things… that the Sertian Empire would be glad to open up relations with their people, albeit with another commander more, suitable to their needs.”

Thus the trouble of dealing with the ‘xenos’ was handed over to a more liberal Commander by the name of Ala. Taking the message, she smiled and opened a communication link to their ships, “This is Commander Ala of the frigate Falcis, I heard you had to listen to Justina of the Yeon. Don’t worry about her to much, just a bit stiffer than your average Cultist. What can I do to make your trip within out system easier?”


Now back at his desk, Grand Admiral Trilano situated himself into his chair and, with a light bang on the consul, reawakened the TAC holograph. Drawing a box around the potentially hostile fleet the computer responded and zoomed in, revealing the small detachment of ships now patrolling the ships. “Computer, contact Admiral Kira of Squadron 13omega - if I remember right he leads a combat squadron and is on the far side of the planet from these ships. Have them head into the drift and stay outside of real space nearby their detachment, if they make a wrong move I’ll send them a command to drop out of Drift. If they don’t learn to put themselves back into line after an entire squadron surrounds them… Well, we can’t risk giving them a third chance.”

Another fleet flashed into existence.

"What's the meaning of this?" Shne demanded of nobody in particular. "Why is this backwater system suddenly the most popular in the Unknown Regions?" He sighed and gave an order to Lieutenant Tebut, the Peacemaker's Information Officer. "Update fleet assets compared to the other ships in-system."

The hull scans being conducted were rushed and missed a great amount of information, but it was enough for the moment.

"Things certainly don't seem to be going in our favor at the moment. Just look at that supercarrier. That thing is the size of an Executor-class Super Star Destroyer!"

He turned as if to leave the bridge, saw the pair of droidekas guarding the bridge doors, and turned back. There was something unnerving about distinctly non-humanoid droids. After the CIS had overthrown the Galactic Republic, the Trade Federation and other major galactic corporate entities had "liquidated" their private droid armies by selling them to the government. Emperor Sidious, for his part, seemed willing to expand the military any way he could, which was fine with Shne.

"Put another squadron of TIEs on Combat Fighter Patrol. I don't want anything penetrating the perimeter around the Gunray."

"Any other orders?" asked Lekauf, at the Communications station.

"No, I'm content to wait for now."

There was a flash of green light and an explosion to port. One of the frigates had fired.

"Open a channel to the Shelsha immediately."

A blue-tinted hologram of the captain of the Shelsha materialized in front of him. "What is the problem?" he asked.

"Why did you fire? You were under orders to keep your weapons on standby and not to fire unless fired upon."

"There was an asteroid with a more-than-acceptable risk of colliding with us."

"And your shields couldn't have dealt with it?"

"Well... I - I'll make sure it doesn't happen again."

Shne closed the channel and went back to the hull scans. If the precarious situation descended into a firefight, he would find himself facing superior numbers and firepower. Whatever the Sertians and Red Talons were up to, it would be bad news for him.

And what of the new arrivals and the surely still-cloaked ships cruising the system? No, it would be for the best if he didn't disturb that particular insect hive... at least, not until he was sure what was inside it.

Weapon Energy Spike detected, unknown laser based weapon fire detected.

Trilano looked at the message displayed underneath the holographic representation of the unknown ships. Sighing the Admiral waved at the hologram, "I assume Squadron 13omega has already arrived to the designated location?" The computer's answering bleeps were more than enough to confirm his thought.

"Order them to come out of Drift in a typical firing man formation, forward facing their ships, radius .1ly. Have shields and weapons ready and give them a message stating that any more weapon firing will result in their immediate destruction." Giving his orders, the admiral sat back in his chair, eyes watching the hologram as fifty blips appeared around the Emperial ships.


13omega was a spatial assault squadron and, unlike most squadrons, lacked any dropships within its compliment. Instead it relied on five capital destroyers and two capital cruisers, escorted by a compliment of frigates, regular destroyers, interceptors, and carriers to ensure success by sheer fire power alone - despite the aging Sertian space fleet.

Now, dropping out of Drift resembled going into it, except instead of particles dispersing over space it seemed like golden flakes of material were appearing around a general vicinity and quickly flowing together to create a physical shape. The result was that the ships were suddenly surrounded by fifty ships all pointed towards them with bright plasma shields covering their Emprium hulls while plasma driver and coilgun turret weaponry started targetting them.

Amongst the chaos of their appearance was a message from Admiral Will, commander of the squadron that was now around them. "This is Admiral Will of the Sertian Expedition, commander of Squadron 13omega. We have taken action against your fleet due to your lack of communication, distance, and recently detected weapon fire... We're giving you a chance to identify yourselves before being labeled as hostiles, resulting in all ships to open fire upon yours."

OOC: I wanna join, just gotta read all the other posts... they're all so long...

IC:
There was a brilliant flash of light and then a huge bright blue rift, resembling the jaws of a massive monster, tore open a literal hole in space. A huge pulse of energy would be sent throughout the area thousands of kilometers away. From the spacial rend came forth a reformatted Greywatch World Starter Class cruiser followed by three Calamity Asssault Cruisers, five Harbingers and ten Hornet Frigates. The 35km long, 6km wide, 3km deep World Starter emerged from the rift slowly, followed by its accompanying vessels. The vessels stopped for a moment as they began for real-space travel.

On the bridge of the World Started, better known as the Hive, several officers scurried about to bring the ship back up to speed. The three ship captains sat on the bridge looking out the huge window at a nearby planet. "Sirs! Pressure Space Rift successful! Beginning scans and uploading coordinates into the computer!" Yelled one of the many officers. "Sir, all systems are rebooting at ideal speed. Shields at 190% and lowering for post-PSR travel." Yelled another. "Captains, scans are showing multiple energy signatures and lifeforms scattered about! Orders?" The captains listened as more updates were given. They were all decorated and well-recognized but it was their first time being in charge of one of the Greywatch Empires most valuable ships. The captains all hailed from similar backgrounds, one was an Elden, the other consisted of a Human and a Leanorian, both of which were decendant of the Elden. "This is gonna be exciting isn't it?" The Elden said, his long white hair glimmered in the light on the bridge. The Leanorian looked up at him, she smiled in a way the beared her teeth (a Leanorian is like a anthro-lion[ess]), "Yeah, seems like it." The human captain said nothing but waited for the hologram emitters to clutter up the window with information, which, unsuprisingly, happened a few seconds later.

The human captain got up and beagn walking to the exit, "I'll leave you two with this. I haven't gotten any sleep as of late and I'm going to bed." The other two captains looked back at him and then to the multiple holo-screens. Another officer looked up, "Sirs! Ships, unknown orgin, and there are a lot of 'em!" The Elden looked up, "Keep shields raised, change them from 'bubble' to 'skin' mode. Tell the other ships to do the same. Bring weapons on the bow up to 50% and keep all other weapons between 10% and 25%. Tell all other ships to prepare for a possible fight but not to fire unless the order is given." The Leanorian chimed in as the Elden took a breath, "Send out message, Peace: Subject Prime, Exploration: Type 2. Let 'em know we don't by unless bitten first." The human, who'd not yet gotten to the door then yelled, "Contact Umbra, tell him and his drones to begin going through the CN and contact the FM so they can tell GwP of the news." The Leanorian then came back, "Begin a full sweep of the immediate area, electric, thermo, the works. Be sure to also scan for mines and any other threats."

The bridge of the ship became abuzz with activity only a few minutes after dropping out of Pressure Space. No one had expected this. Meanwhile the rest of the city ship was alive with other activities as citizens went about their daily lives upon the ever moving city. Military personel and average citizens worked side by side to make sure the ship ran perfectly. Meanwhile the small ships were all relaying tactical information between each other and Hive. It had been awhile since the last time a Greywatch Empire exploration/expansion vessel had just randomly stumbled accross a planet that harbored so much activity. None of the citizen were even aware of the new world as the captain had not yet announced it and retracted the artificial holo-sky to show what was really outside the ship.

The tactical officer visibly paled as the 35km ship exited warp. The nav officer stuttered slightly. "New contact. One, no nineteen ships exiting warp. By the gods one is bigger than Sanctuary." The tactical officer called out/ "Weapons fire detected from Corporation vessels. New contacts confirmed to be warships."

5/4 nodded, standing up. "Inform Sanctuary command to have The Ragnarok warp in along with a full combat detail. Have them use the P-drives. Inform the Crown of Swords, the Destiny, and the Kergerin warp in aswell, send new coordinates." He tapped his com, sending a message to the nearest sertian command vessel. The Neaderthaul."Reinforcements are incoming on my behalf, numbering approximately 80."

After a matter of seconds, a cluster of bright blue flashes showed up near the Pegasis. What appeared on sensors was four Destiny class battleships(400m), one Ragnarok class superdreadnought(4km), The Kergerin battlecruiser(320m), 24 Flayer class Destroyers(200m) and 48 Hunter class frigates(100m). The dreadnought dominating the center of the group. It was the only ship that posessed shields of any sort, and they went up. The ships flat black hull gleamed in the light of the systems sun as 8 massive turrets moved to point in the general direction of the corporation and the new ships.

The dreadnought was flanked by the four battleships. The battlecruiser covering the vertical most point of a pentagon formation. The destroyers spaced evenly around the capital ships as the frigates set up a loose picket line wall in front. The signal went out from the Pegasis as it stayed in orbit, priming its gravitic drives to join the fight if need be.

"This is Grand Admiral Tiger Roze of the Red Talon Mercenary Republic to all unknown vessels. Stand down at once. This is not the time or place for a battle. Should we detect any more hostile activity we will have no choice but to open fire."

The 3km long bulk of the Pegasis began to shift its position so its bow was facing the corporation and greywatch fleets. Its hangar bays opening in preparation to deploy fighters as its bow panels slid open to reveal the quantum cannon arrays. Across the fleet launching tubes were loaded with thanatos class cruise missiles, their outer launch tube doors remaining closed.

Ragnarok (http://fc03.deviantart.com/fs10/i/2006/094/c/d/AFF__Ragnarok_Superdreadnought_by_failurecrusade.png)

Shne paled as he found his small fleet surrounded by fifty vessels. He swallowed audibly and started giving orders.

"Divert all power from engines and inessential systems to shields and weapons. Prepare all TIE squadrons for launch on my mark. Have the Detainer charge its gravity projectors. And open a channel to this Admiral Will."

It was a matter of seconds before an audio link was established, though the holographic projector remained inactive. It was probably for the better, considering the shock he was still in.

"I said it before and I'll say it again," he said with all the indignation he could muster. "This is Galactic Corporation Exploratory Task Force 12. We do not have hostile intentions but will fire if fired upon. Our recent weapons discharge was to prevent an asteroid collision with one of our frigates, and I have discussed the matter with the captain of that ship."

He cleared his throat and continued.

"As for our position, we took up this position due to the new arrivals in this system. I believe one occurred mere minutes ago. The potential for a mistake resulting in loss of life is unacceptably high. If it would give you peace of mind, I would like to formally request permission to remain stationed here until the situation stabilizes."

He waited for a response and hoped that the Inferno and Fury would arrive soon. Once that happened he wouldn't have to take any orders and could start operating more freely.

Hive immediately powered up propulsion systems and began moving towards the newly emerged fleet with slow speed. Move of its propulsion generators were still rebooting but almost all the weapons systems were online and the shields were still at 150%. The holo-screens displayed infrmation about the ship, the ship's location, the immediate area, the city, and the new contacts. "Sirs! New contacts and a lot of them! What should we do?" A tactical officer called out. "Sirs! Weapons on standby. The others are already prepared for a fight." Said another officer.

"Hold," said the Elden, "We know nothig about them, why should begin fighting?" The Leanorian studied the screens, "They'd be slaughtered... even with all those ships... Such a loss of life..." She muttered. "Focus Eroa, focus. We have a situation, everyone prepare for a possible bat-" The Elden was cut off as a comms officer stood up, "Sirs! New message." Without waiting for them to respond the message was played, everyone of the bridge listened intently. Eroa looked around, "Hostility already? What have we done?" The Elden looked over at her, "We came with a fleet, multiple warships and our weapons online. That's all they need." One of the officers looked up, "Uh, sirs..." He said quietly, pushing a button on his console, "Check this out." A holo-screen came up that displayed a zoomed in image of the Ragnarok's weapons. The Elden raised an eyebrow, "So the beast is already bearing its teeth without known the situation? Interesting, send a message to them. Audio only."

<Greywatch Empire Fleet message: Topic: RE:>

<It is not possible for you to ask us to stand down when we have not yet stood up to begin with. We have commited no 'hostile' activity yet your weapons are found to be pointing at us. We are not looking for a conflict but will not hesitate to defend ourselves.>

The reply came quickly to the greywatch fleet via directed transmission. It showed 5/4 himself, both video and audio. He wore black and red scaled armor. At his waist was a sheathed katana.

"It appears we are of a like mind. We apologize for our hasty assumptions. There is an unknown fleet in the system that has already showed possible hostile intent. Your sudden appearance, with your weapons primed and online, soon after questionable actions from the other fleet caused me to act a bit more rashly than i should have. We would be more than happy to count you amongst our allies. We do not wish conflict if it can be avoided."

The Red Talon ships still had their weapons powered down. The ragnarok shifting itself along with the rest of the fleet to point away from the greywatch fleet to focus on the corporation fleet.

“Oh good they got back to us nice and quickly,” said the Elden with a smile as the message played on the holo-screen on the bridge. Hive’s weapons quickly dropped to 10% strength and the shields were now at 110%. The other ships began to pull in towards the Hive. A message was sent back, also using both audio and video.

The Edlen Captain had his long white hair pulled and tied back. His green eyes were shimmering in the light. He was wearing standard elite officer garb, a white Greywatch Army uniform with gold trim, a number of medals and badges decorating his left chest. A holstered pistol was under his right hand which was against his side. The Leanorian wore a modified warrioress’ armor, a silvery armor with blue patterns depicting a flame on it. A white cloth hung over her left shoulder and was also covered with various medals and badges. Here golden fur was mostly covered by her armor; her deep blue eyes looked at the screen; she wore a small, shy smile.

“Can I assume that there is now a new standard of communication between us?” The Elden Captain said with a grin, “This is a Greywatch Empire commissioned fleet that has been ordered to look for planets to incorporate. We’re sorry about the misunderstanding but Pressure Space requires our shields to be far past maximum and because we never know exactly we’re going to end up, weapons have to be on. When we came out we weren’t sure if you were a welcoming committee or a band of pirates, no offense.”

“I’m glad that we could get this all resolved…” The Leanorian captain said quietly, “I mean, we’re glad this all got resolved…” She was stuttering as another man appeared beside her, he had long black hair the stuck out from underneath his black cloak and hood. He whispered something in her ear for a moment; she quickly whispered something back before looking once again at the screen. “I’m sorry about that, the drone don’t have much in the terms of manners…” She spoke with a shy voice, the man dissolved into the floor after she finished with him. “More importantly, my name is Eora and this is-” She was cut off by the Elden, “My name is Winter. You don’t have to address me by my title. Just call me Winter…” Eora looked at him with a smile before turning her attention to the screen once more, “There is one more, but he had retired, I’m sure he’ll be quite willing to meet with you later.” The Elden turned around for a moment and signaled to one of the officers in the back who in turn nodded at him. The message was then sent. “Well that wasn’t so bad,” Winter said with a sigh, Eora nodded at him and smiled.

OOC: Red Talons, I want you to know ahead of this post, I get that this isn't hard sci-fi. I just like a little realism, rest assured that my sensors will be very confused by whatever cloaking scheme you have. I just won't accept that you can make a zillion ton starship invisible to a dedicated scout craft. Considering that if this turns into a shooting war my entire space navy amounts to essentially bringing a knife to a gun-fight (based on the portrayals of your navies as I get them from your posts) I think I can afford to give myself a little advantage in the 'I can see you and my lasers don't get entirely directed away by your mirror hulls' department.

Oh, if you guys want to have an OOC thread, I'm game. I'll even be the annoying one who explains why all of our ships are ridiculous and thereby ruin everyone's fun!

Avalon, Aurora System

The admiral commanding Battle Squadron One holds a certain cachet that not even the First Space Lord does in terms of directing naval policy. For a spacefaring nation, the space navy is the lifeblood and the only line of defence that really matters. If the space navy, united to any one purpose separate from that of the nation, were to revolt, the nation itself would cease to be. For a nation such as the Star Union, with only one heavy ship squadron, the commander of BatRon One can fairly easily hold the entire government hostage from orbit. Accordingly, that admiral is picked not only for skill, but also for loyalty and no small amount of political influence.

Vice Admiral Lady Sharon McKenna kicked back in her groundside office chair and studied the readings from the raptor-courier off Xuthus. They were grainy and fairly low-res despite the best imaging equipment and sensor data that the Star Union's exploratory craft could carry, speaking to the fantastic distances involved, and a certain amount of sensor stealthing. A true cloak was impossible in space (http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3w.html), but this wouldn't be the first time that someone tried to spoof Gurguvii sensor arrays, and not unsuccessfully. Naval Intel would want to have a crack at this, but McKenna trusted that the Lords Admiral would forward the data. She slid the image captures, largely uninformative, to the side. Heat readings suggested a number of large starships as well as one or two capital class vessels. Active drive plumes numbered fifty three large and over a hundred small, many of them probably fighters.

It was an anomaly that the commander of BatRon One was looking at these images in the first place, although certainly not a shocking one. Properly the Xuthus and attached craft belonged to ScoutRon Six, Rear Admiral Davidson's outfit. The information on McKenna's desk was sent to her by one of Davidson's aides, probably with the admiral's consent and by his suggestion. It went against the proper channels of information, of course, which should flow only upward to the Admiralty and not laterally to other squadron commanders, but BatRon One was a special case. McKenna had been surprised at the content of the information but not at its arrival; any request for re-enforcements almost always got copied to her desk in case the Star Union's heavy combat fleet was needed.

Solaron System, GSS Phalanx

The re-enforcement fleet, while nothing to sneeze at by Gurguvii standards, was not likely to do much to either the newly arrived Greywatch, nor the rather more numerically impressive Red Talons. However, three missile cruisers and as many light cruisers gave the group enough courage to creep in for a closer look.

"Helm, make your course four-one-one carom two-five relative to the system primary. Replay friendship message, all bands and all channels." Captain Michael Hargrove's words were transmitted to the command decks of the entire squadron, copied over tight-band laser comms rather than radio.

"CAG, deploy your combat air patrol to escort formation delta. OOD, sound general quarters and prepare for possible hostiles." The orders were repeated back by dozens of mouths both on the Phalanx' CIC and over the comms of the fleet. Throughout the ships, ammunition feeds spun up and slotted rounds into gun barrels, bringing reloads from centrally located armories through a network of chutes, high-speed belts and other feeding mechanisms. Along each ship's spine, the gunners activated their remote controlled stations and the damage control teams prepared to rush from the heavily armoured central compartments to plug holes in the hull.

An outside observer would see seven cruiser-sized fusion torches light simultaneously, streaks three or four times as long as the cruisers themselves, showing up on thermal scans like small suns. If the Gurguvii fleet had been missed before, it could not possibly be now, broadcasting recorded messages of friendship and lighting the sky like the crack of doom.

5/4 sent a response to the greywatch fleet. "I am 5/4 Tiger Roze, I understand the misunderstanding. I'm personally glad this didnt degenerate into a battle." He stopped looking to the side, in the background someone could be heard. "Sir, new contacts, seven vessels. Unknown types." Roze looked back to the screen. "Hold that thought." The screen went blank.

On the Pegasis, the com officer recieved the message and the whole bridge crew breathed a sigh of relief. "Atleast they wont start shooting at us... Inform all vessels to stand down from general quarters and disperse. Tell the Ragnarok to fall back to flank us."

The fleet began to break apart, entering foldpsace rifts as the Ragnarok turned itself around and moved back to the planet to where the Pegasis was. The pegasis closed its forward bays, covering the delicate quantum cannon focusing arrays.

OOC: I know my stealth systems arnt perfect. Active gravity scans will pick out the ships from the drones in some cases, but the most reliable is mass detection scans. As my ships lack a way to hide their mass from being detected. Thus the Pegasis and the Ragnarok have a difficult time hiding. The Ragnarok doesnt even try to cloak itself.

ooC: us this now open after a bit :P and i was wondering if im allowed to join in? or not.

OOC: Red Talons, I want you to know ahead of this post, I get that this isn't hard sci-fi. I just like a little realism, rest assured that my sensors will be very confused by whatever cloaking scheme you have. I just won't accept that you can make a zillion ton starship invisible to a dedicated scout craft. Considering that if this turns into a shooting war my entire space navy amounts to essentially bringing a knife to a gun-fight (based on the portrayals of your navies as I get them from your posts) I think I can afford to give myself a little advantage in the 'I can see you and my lasers don't get entirely directed away by your mirror hulls' department.

OOC: Well while I'm sure your dedicated scout craft will be able to pick up the ship somewhat, a cloaking system is a cloaking system, so pray (or RP) that your scout has some very compact and advanced detection systems because it, unfortunantly, doesn't matter about the size at times. If his ship is huge and has a decent camo system, start scanning for heat sigs, electric sig and so forth, that's what my ships started doing. Plus, no hyperbolic words! XD We need a OOC thread...

IC:
Hive was still moving pretty slow as the populsion system were still not working at full power. Half of the fleet, however, was told to approach the planet. On the bridge, officers were in their seet trying to get information about the new ships that had appeared. "Well this is turning out to be a busy day..." Winter said sitting back down. Eora, "What now...?"

((OOC: For the record, its DEW's that bounce off my hulls, such as particle beams and lasers. Plasma still takes its toll, as do KEW's as long as they're moving at high enough fractions of C. Larger missiles like cruise missiles and torpedo's get mowed down by the point defense guns. Smaller anti ship missiles can get through in sufficient numbers.

In the case of DEW's, a sustained beam will melt through. The armor still heats up at the impact point, and if a sustained strike is achieved, it will start to warp and then bubble and breach.

And yes, we need an OOC thread.))

OOC: Wouldn't particle beams technically be KEW?

Commodore Tarra Karzori was unfortunately at the conference on the planet, so it was only the ship's XO, Commander Vanar Brezshnyi, to merely stare at the holodisplay of the space turning into a warzone.

"Holy fuck, you have got to be kidding me..." The Dragon Lord on board sighed.

"I see this won't be as diplomatic as thought." Commander Brezshnyi nodded.

"Indeed." It wasn't much longer that the red light on the communications console in the bridge started to flash. After all, Fleet Command possessed all of the data from all of the ships in the fleet in the Fleet Command Centre inside the coreship. He looked again on the console. It was the Grand Admiral. Oh, shit. Brezshnyi never spoke to anyone higher than Captain -- well, in this case, Commodore. Now the Grand Admiral? He gulped, shook it off, and answered.

"Commander Brezshnyi speaking."

"This is Grand Admiral Makarobran Krepkoisky. Am I reading this right?"

"Yes, sir, you are. This place is going to turn into a war zone. Very quickly."

"I see. Send the Sertians a message, ask if they wish assistance. If they do, I'll move in the fleet." The console shut off, and the Commander let out a sigh. Brezshnyi called down to CIC, and the message to the Sertians was sent. Now, it was just time to wait, and pray no one decided to pick off the tiny task force.

((OOC: Depends on teh particle beams, something that causes quantum fluctuation or tears aart atoms will work, but normal particle beams are still reflected due to the way he Ablative plating is made. The atoms are magnetically aligned to be perfectly flat, so it acts as a mirror to most energy weapons.))

OOC: Particle beams do not work that way. Think of it as being sandblasted at .999~c.

OOC: Sorry bout the absence, hectec last two weeks of school and getting ready for my part time job to blame (and then distracting me for an hour with an interesting web page about space stealth, damn you! It's 1:45 AM now ._.). Anyway, I'll make an OOC thread if someone hasn't made one yet, and now, to post! Also, I like to think of particle beams as thousands upon thousands of millions of nucleon sized bullets impacting your hull at near c velocities. :3

IC:

Admiral Will nodded hearing the corporations reply, sending a message back, “Well unfortunately you must understand, our first duty here is to protect our people, and your ships were displaying characteristics of combat tactics that implied future engagements with our planetary forces. Despite the numerical superiority we most likely have, a few high energy weapons slipping into the atmosphere might damage some of the terraforming facilities, which would be costly and dangerous to the people manning them.” As the admiral spoke the warships kept their shields raised, plasma particles racing along the hull in one of the most basic shields imaginable, but their over reliance on plasma and magnetic technology made it a, relatively, effective barrier to laser weaponry.

“If you are afraid of other factions, we would be perfectly able to provide an escort and guard duty for your stay within our system,” of course Will left out about the part of the ships being within close sensor range to vastly increase their chance of detecting any deception. “And we intend to punish all forces that devolve this into a war, in addition to our miniature armada we also have a planetary defense grid and various other systems scattered throughout the system to assist in defense.”


Back on the planet, Trilano frowned as the TAC zoomed the holographic map out, representing the entire system out towards the comet field surrounding the system. Of course, such a map prevented detailed resolution of the events around the planet, but it was enough to let the computer reveal the relative positions of all known ships, as well as the location of several scattered scout ships in the outer system that were searching for water rich comets. Another press of a button and the map suddenly zoomed out to encompass the entire galaxy, a single bright spot of gold representing Solaron within those clouds of stars and gas, with fainter twinkles of gold scattered throughout the Orion arm that represented the scouting detachments looking for Atrixes, alien races, or technology to acquire.

Pressing the original button the scene zoomed to as close as it could while still displaying all the non-Sertian ships in one hologram, it seemed like the desert planet of Solaron itself was seating in the center of the attention, with the deadly cloud of golden dots representing Sertian warships protecting it.

“Computer, what is the current military strength of our vessels within the system?” he asked, ignoring the fact a potential ally had just landed on the planet to greet him, ignoring that message for now.

The computer responded in a bland, obviously artificial voice, “Solaron currently contains 10 squadrons: Three spatial assault, four planetary assault, two scout divisions, and one capital defense devision - soon to be lead by the first of the NXT class as your flagship Grand Admiral. In addition to these five hundred vessels, one hundred independent operating ships are within the system, sixty-five percent of which are on scout duty.”

The Sertian nodded, resting against his chair, “Send a message to any faction we haven’t greeted yet, stating that we currently hold claim to this system and want to keep this a ‘peaceful’ meeting to promote goodwill amongst our species - but if any detection of hostile intentions are found we will act to protect out soldiers and citizens. Other than that, I want the other two spatial assault squadrons, 04alpha and 23kapa, to have their capital ships prepare warp bubbles for interception incase someone acts. Also, what is the condition or out automated defenses?”

“The Planetary Defense Platforms are only set to scan mode, however their range is limited and cannot reach as far as our Drift Sensor Arrays. Detailed scans can only be made within .3 AU. Both of the moons as well as Solaron-1 are armed with standard AA-AS canons, capable of firing within .01 AU. No other automated defense systems are active or deployed at this time.”

“Very well… Have the Defense Platforms prepare to activate plasma canons and coil guns if things get heated, have power be transferred to the anti-space guns to prepare for activation incase anything gets within bombardment dist-.”

“Grand Admiral Sir, a representative of the Dcersoni are hear to see you,” the voice of the officer that had greeted their messenger announced from the now open doorway, allowing the guest clear sight at the holographic map that revealed the position of active warships detected within the system.

A wave of his hand through the lower most portion of the holo-map and the thing wavered out of existence, but not before the computer gave a few acknowledging beeps that stated his commands had been executed, “Greetings… Sorry for that, but with the situation up above has prevented any other delegates from arriving at the moment. Until then, we might be interrupted whenever an emergency demanding my attention comes up. But, to start off on the right foot, my name is Grand Admiral Trilano of the Sertian Empire, military commander of the Sertian Expedition, a pleasure to meet you in person sir…?”

OOC: Well, that makes sense. I'll tweak the effect for particle weapons, most likely based on how big of beams. Keep in mind though the armor is specifically designed to defend against energy weapon types. Basically, on one to ten, its energy defense would be 8 and its ballistic would be 4.

The Crystal carbon armor on the Ragnarok on the other hand can withstand all but direct KEW hits. not sure what particle beams will do to it, but i know most energy weapons will cause it much pain as black absorbs light. I'll have to sit down an work out what it can an cant do. I think i'll make a thread on it >.>

The captain slowly let his breath escape as he thanked Admiral Will and terminated the transmission. "How long until the reinforcements arrive?"

"Eighteen hours," Lieutenant Tebut said. "Best case scenario."

"Right. Is there any possibility of additional fleets being in our vicinity?"

"Almost none."

He had to do something, if only to keep the crew busy. "Withdraw all but two TIE squadrons. We don't want too much activity. It might get our Sertian hosts worried again. By the way, is there any useful information that can be gleaned from that conversation?"

Tebut answered again. "They're terraforming the planet. If push comes to shove, those facilities would make a perfect taret."

"Well, let's just hope it doesn't come to that. I want a long-range probe dispatched to the nearest garrison. Load it with all the information we've gathered on this mission. And one last thing..."

"Yes?"

"I'm going to the hangar bay. I was serious about visiting that planet, and when I do I'm going to take some Storm Commandos with me. I want a squad in my private hangar as quickly as possible."

"That might give mixed signals as to our peaceful intentions."

"Yes, well, I'd like to get a better sense of everyone else's intentions before I drop my guard. Keep the shields at maximum strength. In the event of my absence, you'll have the bridge."

Tebut knew that also meant command of the task force. Findos would be very displeased if he found out about the new chain of command. "Yes, captain."

Commodore Tarra Karzori glanced around at the command centre, taking it all in. He watched as the Sertian personnel scrambled to assess and control the situation. Tarra could feel the tense, oppressive air weighing upon not only him, but the rest of the frantic officers. Granted, being a Karzori, a descendent from one of the Master Clans of the Amaranthine Imperium, he was not pressured by it, but fed off of it. The clan he descended from attained master status through its guild responsible for sword forging. Even now, his grandfather of five generations retained his title as Guildmaster. Of course, the reason not only for his superb health in old age, Tarra’s own ability to sense such things beyond the norm, but the Karzori Clan’s ability to even attempt to forge such master weapons, would be their stronger-than-average connection to the supernatural aura of the universe – The Force, lifestream, Weave, call it whatever you wish. Unfortunately, the clans were not blessed with their own innate psionic abilities. But that really didn’t matter, as Derscon was a master of nanite technology, and technopisonics. All ship captains possessed nanite implants that provided an artificial telepathic connection not only to all of the other ship captains within the vicinity, but to the AI networks on board ships – which themselves were interconnected – so effectively, each captain had full possession of the Imperial BattleNet, as well as the communications system.

Commodore Karzori didn’t wear his typical power armour, as to not give a hostile first impression. The Sertians had enough to deal with. He merely wore the blue and gold battle robes of his clan, with the commodore rank insignia imprinted on his left breast. He approached the Sertian Admiral with a box – a “get to know you” present of sorts – still admiring the setup. When Tarra came up to Admiral Trilano, he bowed and shook hands, a friendly smile on his face.

“I am Commodore Tarra Karzori of the Divine Prussian Empire of Derscon. I’m sorry if I came at a bad time, but…” He cut himself off and presented the decorated oak box to the Grand Admiral. “An offering of goodwill on behalf of my family, and my Tsar.” Inside the jewel-studded oak box rested a glistening Flamberge Flammard, the blade made of the same material used for all of the Guild’s swords (except for those for “special” persons, beings, or occasions, in which a material was used that not even the Guildmaster knew of, for those secrets were locked in a temple only enterable by the Lord of the Guilds – a position not held in over three thousand years). The blade was a pure white, with ethereal blue and red wisps dancing about the blade. The handle looked gold, studded with alien jewels, but it was not a handle that would ever fade.

“Obviously, I am here to facilitate communications, in hopes that your nation and mine can become friends. However, you seem to have more immediate concerns, so I may either leave you be, or stay and help out, and if you want, call back to the Dersconi Grand Admiral for reinforcements.”

The group of ships that had broken off from the larger fleet were approaching the planet in a calm matter. The most important thing to do was establish a good relationship amoung all the parties. The frigates, along with a harbinger approached until they could successfully maintain orbit before turning off most propulsion systems. Seeing as there was no response, the rest of the fleet began moving in as well, slowly.

OOC: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=13698532#post13698532 There we go :3

IC:

Trilano gave an audible whistle as he glanced over the blade, admiring the wispy coloration of the blade while his dark gray eyes traced along the fine edge. "A fine weapon indeed, I've never seen a physical blade so marvelous in all of our Empire, although my lieutenant Templar Alexander is more likely to make use of such a weapon in conjunction with his archaic plasma hilt sword, I do thank you for your gift Commodore Karzori."

The Sertian gave a smile, looking up to the guard that had escorted the Karzori, giving a slight nod for him to leave the doorway and return to his original tasks. The room wasn't as impressive as you might expect for a commander guarding over two-hundred million Sertians - citizen and soldiers. It was what someone might call a large office with no windows, lighted from above by a dazzling white light from a single source that seemed to supply all the light needed. The room was dominated by a large desk, a full Tactical Assistant Computer Module complete with holographic projectors and motion-thermal sensors to interact with the various hand gestures that battle commanders use to give exact details to troops in combat - a real time command structure so to speak.

Turning back to his desk, placing the elegant gift on one of the flat surfaces of the computerized desk, making sure to set it where someone could easily see it, then motioning to one of the chairs in front of it, the admiral gave a cheerful smile, "It's nice of you to offer, but I don't think we're in any 'critical' danger right now. As I'm sure you had a glance of our military presence in this system is stronger than anywhere else in the galaxy, and in addition to that we've got numerous land based defenses and orbital defense satellites to help out," he did take a moment however, to turn towards the area of his office that was previous occupied by the hologram, "We've also got over fifty capital class ships here, a number of which have a three kilometer long plasma canon that's the strongest non-super bomb weapon we know in existence. However, if that does fail, I'd be honored to have your people fight with us and our allies."


Back in space, a separate vessel, the Calibine, was assigned to escort the greywatch fleet. Compared to their massive city ship it wasn't much, a 900 meter long aerospace carrier - moderately armed with a single heavy plasma canon but numerous point defense railguns and stronger coilguns to deal with enemy fighters while dispersing its own. The commander hiailed the massive city ship, alerting them of potential threats to their orbit if a few certain variables were unaccounted for, and also wishing them a peaceful trip within the system - even as massive canons capable of blowing ships in orbit to pieces lay waiting for any signs of deception.

Meanwhile the assault squadron 'escorting' the Corporate vessels didn't deploy any fighters themselves, but the tell tale signs of plasma shields magnetically locked in a layer over their hull signaled they were more than prepared for a fire fight. If given permission to allow an envoy to the planet, they would hand over a set of coordinates via communications of where the shuttle or small ship could go into orbit around a planet - and from there directions to land at the main city on the planet.

Avalon, Admiralty Board

"These plans seem satisfactory," Lady Ellen de Guignes slid the schematics–actually a digital image on the touch-screen table–to her right. Sir Hugh Garrick, Lord Deverell, gave the multiple sheets a look in turn. Deck by deck plans of Battlestar Type Columbia, a heavily expanded Muse class, blinked rapidly as he cycled through them. Noting their armament and air group that numbered an even hundred, Deverell nodded to himself.

"Projected cost per unit?" The old admiral braced himself for an astronomically high number. Selling the Columbia class to Parliament would be something of a trick, but that charming job would be put to Lord Anglesey, the First Lord of the Admiralty. Deverell could content himself with allocating resources and funds once Anglesey had wrested them from Parliament, and considering the news from Solaron those funds would be forthcoming. It was high time, Deverell thought with something of a smile, that the navy had a Battle Squadron Two.

Avalon High Orbit, GSS Calliope

McKenna's view was, of course, unparalleled. The Vice Admiral of BatRonOne had her own Combat Information Center, a privilege that no other admiral enjoyed. Given her responsibilities to direct a squadron of nine battlestars in heavy combat, the setup made sense. Nobody wanted an admiral's commands to be shouted over a commander's in a unified CIC, better that the navy shoulder the expense of modifying one of their battlestars to have a dedicated bridge and a separate CIC from which the admiral could direct a battle.

The CIC took the form of an arena, the center of which was dominated by an enormous planning table that would host small miniatures of BatRonOne and its air groups, as well as foreign ships. Screens depicting radar readouts hung from the ceiling, giving the CIC the feel of a basketball court. All around, the various stations associated with fleet command had row upon row of stations and dozens of staffers. Tactical and Communications warred for largest spot in CIC, but with the Calliope in slipway still Tactical was barely manned. The vertical board, a depiction of the battlespace lit by internal lighting filaments; was dark. A grease pencil and an electronic stylus hung from a pair of twine cords, the one a backup for the other in case of power failure. There was such a thing as too much high-tech wizardry, and though most surfaces in the CIC were capable of dynamic information retrieval all of them retained a dedicated printer and, if necessary, a grease pencil. The Calliope would suffer no technological breakdowns in the event of partial power failure, and McKenna's staff would be able to direct a battle so long as the communications links still functioned in any way.

"Comm," McKenna's voice cut through the low murmur of officers preparing for deployment. "Contact BatRonOne COs, have them report readiness." The squadron had been put on call after another courier from Solaron reported weapons discharge in the system, only a few jumps to the unexplored galactic southeast. The Star Union was entering into another wave of expansion, bordered on the north and west by other small nations its explorers and colonists were embarking on transports and colony ships going east and south. Solaron was a possible candidate for bioforming, although the process used by Star Union scientists was neither as complete nor as efficient as the one underway currently. It was simple bad luck that the Sertian Empire had selected Solaron and environs as their bridgehead into the area, although they were a new trade partner for the Star Union's disproportionately large carrying trade.

These considerations, of course, were not McKenna's. Her job was simply to act as possible re-enforcement and extraction of the much smaller fleet currently in Solaron. For all its size relative to the rest of the Gurguvii Space Navy, BatRonOne could fight what amounted to little more than an effective rearguard action in the event of combat in Solaron. McKenna scrubbed at her face with one hand and leaned on the situation table. This could get very, very messy very, very quickly.

OOC: ppfft, lame, I thought you were in a command centre, not an office. XD

Commodore Karzori nodded to the Grand Admiral. "Of course, I don't in any way mean to say you need our help, but I would just like you to know that, if you require it, there is one coreship and approximately one hundred and thirty or so capital-class vessels -- not including, obviously, numerous non capital ships and fighters -- waiting in just a few minutes jump time with the Grand Fleet. It can come at any time, even if just for a show of force." He let that sink in before continuing.

"Of course, the real reason I'm here is to establish diplomatic relations with you and your nation -- Sertian, is it not? Normally, such things are conducted on the admirality level, or even diplomatic personnel, but with the Grand Admiral comes the fleet, and it's a charged situation."

The Greywatch fleet moved along without question, taking in all bit of information from their scans of the system and the other ships. Nothing specific, just basics things, what was in the area, armor strength. Hive was a different story though, it was not meant to orbit a planet, it was meant to land on planets to establish locations for capital cities. It was the hope of the entire Greywatch fleet that Hive would be allowed to land on the surface of the planet, even if it did not begin construction and developement of the immediate surrounding area.

The shuttle landed at its designated area. The door opened to show Isahil, wearing his black and red formal yukata with his katana and wakazashi at his hips. He carried no firearms. He was also alone, he was the shuttles only occupant beyond the pilot.

In space...

The Ragnarok kept its position as the frigates flanking the Pegasis moved forward to surround it. The pegasis remained in stationary orbit of the planet. In its bays thousands of interceptors were ready for launch. On board the Ragnarok, Ainya sent a message to the corporation fleet.

"This is Admiral Ainya of the Red Talons Mercenary Republic super dreadnought Ragnarok. What are your intentions in this system. This system belongs to the Sertian empire, and your fleet bears a striking resemblance to a warfleet. Your weapons remain powered despite multiple requests to stand down."

The message was both audio and video, showing the Ctarl woman standing in full battle dress. Wearing scaled body armor that was black with red trim. At her left hip was a katana. Her long ears stuck out from her long silver hair and twitched every now and then as she spoke. A cat tail swaying from side to side.

On the Pegasis, 5/4 sent a signal via Ansible to the sanctuary. "Have the same ships stand by for jump back here but continue their missions as scheduled. I shouldnt be needing them unless someone makes a stupid mistake again. Have the reaserch division put a bit of a rush on the new interceptor." He paused, closing the channel after hearing the affirmative. Opening a channel to the Ragnarok.

"Admiral Ainya. I'm putting you in charge of the situation with the corporation fleet. Let me know the instant something happens."

Ainya nodded, having closed the channel waiting for the corporations response. "Yes Grand Admiral." She saluted sharply, placing her right fist to her chest with a thump. "For the glory of the Talon." 5/4 nodded, saluting back. "Victory or death." He responded, the channel closing.

5/4 opened a channel to the Neanderthaul. "Whats the situation on your end? Have the corporate ships decided to stand down or announce their intentions?" he asked calmly, leaning back in his chair.

The commander of the Neanderthal frowned at the message, before sending a text based communication to Admiral Will, who didn't even receive the message as the communications officer of his vessel replied with the appropriate message. Afterwards, the commander of the Phoenix Class reported back to the Red Talons, "The Galactic Corporation has stated that they are an exploratory task force, and their 'ready' status is a result of multiple recent arrivals. They've seemed to have recalled some of their patrolling fighters and we believe they might be sending a shuttle to meet on the planet. We 'believe' that the situation is under control, for I doubt their ships could sustain a full bombardment by an entire squadron. However, if they do prove remarkably difficult, we have other squadrons and multiple independent ships to reinforce the position."

As regards to the Greywatch request, it had to be filtered to Trilano who - taking a second from their discussion read the text based version, then replied with a set of coordinates the ship could land IF if was only a temporary situation. The place was on the other side of the largest lake of the planet, coincidently just within viewing distance to the massive sprawling city of Solaron-1, mainly by the huge walls that protected the inner, larger sector that was the military base.


Turning away from his wrist gauntlet, the admiral smiled to the Karzori, "Yes I suppose so, even better since the, legislative, portion of our expedition hasn't quite received the legitimacy from our soldiers. They believe that the Citizens Council and Congress of Representatives are the supreme law making powers and thus are the only ones capable of remotely enforcing military actions, but what they don't realize is that our Expedition is so far remote from it that we need our own sub government to rule ourselves."

Trilano smirked afterwards, "So pretty much every decision we come up with needs my support behind it or else the soldiers just won't pay attention to it. In other words, I'm probably the best person to speak to concerning a diplomatic or trade agreement anyway."

OOC: Its funny 'cause I never Rped my fleet asking for permission to land. :D

Hive was preping to enter the atmosphere, its systems were adjusting for what could be a little bumpy. They were glad that they'd been given permission to land even if it was only for a while. The 'citizens' of the ship were informed of everything that had happened and began preparing themselves to see a new world. The rest of the fleet would remain in space, there was no reason for them to join the Worldstarter on the planet. For the time being they'd act as extra defense for the planet's surface.

The commodore chuckled. "Ah, yes, I know how that works. A cousin of mine is an Imperial Governor of the Valszhc'hi System. That's in another galaxy. Thankfully, Tsar Xavier was smart enough to ensure that he was also a Grand Admiral, but we can't all be so lucky.

"But yes. We're both military men at heart, so let's cut right to the chase. I would like to move in a few scientific vessals to examine the various systems under Sertian control -- only quick sweeps, nothing more -- as well as offer you a candidacy into an alliance of sorts. A mutual self-protection and trade alliance, namely. You seem to have a remarkably suitable navy, and I have no doubts that there is a strong planetary network behind it as well. Once this situation dies down, perhaps you and the Dersconi admiral can meet and talk things over in detail?"

Solaron System

Frontier diplomacy was part of the package that came with flag rank, and Rear Admiral Sir William Burroughs Davidson's experience taught him that often, it is better to negotiate than train weapons. Davidson paced the bridge of his flagship, the Tempest class missile cruiser Cyclone. The Cyclone and her battle group formed a small arrowhead in space, gunships ringing the more vulnerable missile cruisers and scoutships acting as a sort of long-range CAP. A few wing pairs of fighters flitted amongst the larger cruisers, acting more as a show of force than an effective deterrent to attack.

The bridge of the Cyclone was not set up for fleet command, and Davidson was forced to share space with his commander and her staff. It was far from an optimum arrangement, but it would serve for the time being. Davidson had no intention of immolating his small group by pressing the Union's claim to the system with violence, so combat considerations were decidedly not at the forefront of his mind.

"Lieutenant Toscini," he said, indicating the chief of his comm section. "Pipe a message to the planet requesting a meeting with the sector authority. Inform them that the Star Union occupies neighbouring space and desires a closer relationship with the local authorities." Toscini saluted and began speaking into his microphone, his words effectively conveying Davidson's intent. "Major Zacharias, signal the fleet to stand down from general quarters and break combat formation. We aren't here to fight." Zacharias, the fleet's chief of staff, frowned slightly.

"Sir," he said. "With all due respect, we don't know the intentions of all the parties here. It could be days before BatRonOne is in a position to act as a rearguard for extraction, we shouldn't lower our guard until we're sure of our safety." Davidson scanned the situation table, a cramped affair by battlestar standards but still large enough to dominate the Cyclone's small bridge.

"You're right, from a tactical standpoint." Davidson, unlike some officers, valued a certain judicious skepticism in his subordinates. Zacharias had the makings of a fine flag officer, and Davidson was keen to nurture the younger man's command talents. "On the other hand, we're dealing with a multiple first contact situation, probably on an unprecedented scale. We're decidedly the weakest power in-system if scans are accurate, so a combat formation doesn't do us much good besides suggesting that we're a bunch of unfriendly assholes. If we need BatRonOne to dig us out of this, we're dead already. I'd rather do my best to make friends, and so by my reckoning we're better off in open order." Zacharias nodded and relayed the commands, showing nothing more than a slightly thoughtful look on his long face.

"We have weapons fire!" Lieutenant Sikorsky, watch officer for the tactical station, was already at his board with the stylus pen. It looks like one of the smaller outsystem fleets. They're in the middle of an asteroid belt, but they're also close enough to another group of ships that it might be... tracking... they definitely just blasted an asteroid." Davidson breathed an inaudible sigh of relief.

"Good. Tactical, designate that group India One, detail a tactical section to watch them." Any fleet that thought it would be a good idea to discharge weapons in the general vicinity of so many armed ships was worth watching, if only because–

"Update on the planetside ships. They appear to have detected our burn from one hour and six minutes ago... light speed lag suggests that they have yet to detect our presence. Expect that to change in eleven point two minutes. They vectored... are closing hangar bays... fleet is dispersing... they're taking us seriously. I don't expect that they'll be too thrilled when they detect the full fleet's entrance echo."

"Designate that fleet India Two, breakdown by divisions. Assign one of our scout ships to constant monitoring duty; they're far too big to ignore. Communications, send friendship messages on their channels. Officer of the deck, signal the fleet to vector laterally against their largest warships so that we don't come in directly at them. Give me some time. Dispatch a courier to Avalon, alert them that we may be requiring BatRonOne for escort duty immediately." Davidson chewed his inner lip until he tasted blood. "Commander Zacharias, do not order a general quarters. We haven't a hope in hell against that fleet. Signal the fleet: open order, non-combat formation six-gamma. Let's hope they're friendly..."

OOC: FYI to all I'm leaving tommorrow for a week-long trip to Russia, I'll RP one more thing but then I think something needs to happen so I can stay in this without having to talk or anything.

"Power down, let's say... half the turbolaser batteries. I want all ion cannon ready, though."

Captain Shne drummed his fingers on the side of his private shuttle. He had a comlink connection to the bridge, and would stay in command for the time being.

"Open a communications link with the Sertian command ship. Inform them that I intend to take a shuttle to 'their' planet, though the rest of the task force will remain right where it is. If at any time you lose contact with me, Lieutenant Tebut is in charge."

He received an affirmative and boarded the shuttle, along with a dozen commandos.

"Going planetside?" the squad leader asked.

"We'll see."

There was a message sent to all the Greywatch ships via Sniper Network. All ships were being called back to Greywatch Prime. Hive, followed by the rest of the fleet began to change direction and preped a PSR rift. The information was relayed to the other ships in the area over an unencrypted channel before a PSR was opened and the ships quickly shuffled through. Before leaving they announced that as soon as whatever they were going for had been resolved they return.

OOC: Damn school trips...

The Admiral nodded to the other, smiling subtly from his desk. Quick and direct, obviously not a politician, which was a good thing. "Indeed, of course I might have to check with my contacts about this alliance of yours to be as objective as possible, and for our planets?"

He smirked obviously now, letting out a slight chuckle, "Unfortunately we only have access to two planets right now, an a virtually abandoned outpost on the edge of UTF space. Most of us, that is everyone but the Enkaires, come from the Sertian Empire, which is housed in a nearby dwarf galaxy. It's distance makes it hard to travel between the Milky Way and our nation with current technology, a several month trip just to the edge of this galaxy."


Meanwhile, the message by the Gurg- was received and replied by one of the commanders patrolling the planet's orbit, stating themselves as the Sertian Empire and welcoming anyone with peaceful intentions within the system, but any detection of weapons or hostile intentions would have to be responded to quickly and severely.

Meanwhile the Neanderthal messaged the Corporate shuttle, giving it a set of coordinates to follow to enter low orbit, from which a fighter would escort the vessel towards a landing bay.

The shuttle, painted the same drab gray as most Corporate military ships, slipped though the hangar's atmosphere shield and into the vacuum of space. A pair of TIEs escorted it to the jump-point.

"We'll follow the Sertians' coordinates and rendezvous with a fighter escort above the planet they've dubbed Solaron-1," the shuttle's pilot said. "You don't seem concerned that this will turn into an ambush."

"They've had the opportunity to attack us with overwhelming force already. A battle wouldn't serve their interests. That planet's a military liability and they know it."

The pilot shot a questioning glance at Shne, then turned back to the shuttle's controls. "Whatever you say, sir."

With a flicker of pseudomotion, the shuttle vanished into the higher dimensions of hyperspace.

Commodore Karzori frowned. "Ah, that is unfortunate. Perhaps Dersconi or allied gate networks could solve that problem. Should you accept, of course. But yes, Derscon has had that trouble in the past -- for reasons that even history books don't detail anymore -- and we could help you out in that regard."

OOC: Not much else to do. XD *sits and waits*

5/4 yawned as he sat in his chair. Keeping his attention focused on the immediate area of the system.

On the Ragnarok.

Admiral Ainya kept her place standing on the bridge. The com officer held a paw to his headset. "Incoming transmission from new fleet. Their intentions are claimed to be friendly." The tactical officer called out a moment later. "Unknown fleet moving on a lateral vector to our position. Closing distance from point bravo."

The holo display of the system seemed to shrink as it took up most of the inside of the bridge infront of the admirals position on the third floor. She looked down at the display, the ship locations and fleet clusters were highlighted in various colors. The newest fleet showed up high above the system, angling down. Ainya nodded, checking the vectors with combat maneuvers she knew but didnt recognise any. "It looks like they mean what they say. Transfer their data to the Pegasis and the Grand Admiral."

"Ma'am, Corporate vessels have powered down main batteries. it appears that secondary weapons are still at the ready, they're in an asteroid field." called the tactical officer.

"I can see that well enough tactical. We'll assume any weapons discharge from this point is due to proximity with asteroids. Navigation, plot the system for the next week, i want to know what every one of those asteroids is going to be from now till then. Open a channel to the Pegasis."

There was a pause before the Grand admiral appeared on the forward screen. "Sir," she said saluting. "Ragnarok's maiden flight is going smoothly. No abnormalities or difficulties."

"Thats good to hear Ainya." 5/4 said smiling. "Keep an eye on all unknown vessels and report any weapons discharges. i'll be handling the Pegasis. Your our first line out there Ainya."

He saluted as she did, closing the channel.

"This is Admiral Ainya to escort vessels. Hold defensive formation on me. Keep weapons powered down." She said over a lansat transmission that was beamed directly to the frigates flanking the Ragnarok. The 12 frigares in a four point delta formation. Three ships on each wing with the ragnarok's 4km bulk in the middle.

The Admiral nodded to the Hermes representative, leaning against his chair while thinking, "Perhaps, but we don't want to expand to quickly in the Milky Way Galaxy and alert the attention of anything we can't handle. Right now the UGF is acting as a convenient ally from attacks, and we're building our own alliances too." He stopped speaking as two messages played on his wrist gauntlet again, one announcing that the Corporate Shuttle had entered FTL and another stating that Isahil of the Red Talons had arrived. He gave the go ahead for Isahil to be escorted to the room, while waited for further information about the shuttle.

And as Isahil would have it, he was escorted by one Commando Dera, who specilized in plasma blade combat, and one familiar Citizen Rael who had found trouble sleeping and decided to greet the neko, "Greeting Isahil... The Grand Admiral has given us permission to guide you to his chambers. He's already in communication with one admiral, and we expect more to arrive after you."

OOC: Is this RP still alive/going anywhere?

IC:

GSS Cyclone

"Communications, wire a message to the planet requesting a meeting, I'd like to see who we're dealing with face to face."

The shuttle reverted to realspace and began its approach to Solaron-1.

"See if you can get some close-range scans of those fleets on the way down."

There were too many ships to count in the space surrounding the Sertian base. Knowing how many were armed would be invaluable.

"Once we land I'll take two of you with me," Shne said, motioning toward the commandos. "The rest will stay with the ship."

He settled back in his seat as the shuttle entered Solaron-1's atmosphere. Things were calming down, and that suited him just fine.

"This is Shne to the Peacemaker. We'll land on Solaron-1 in about three minutes. I'll send another transmission then."

(Hmmm, we DO need something to do… Alright, I’ll guess I’ll tip my hat and let the United Resistance appear to harass the ships in the sector… A few shouldn’t be overkill… And besides, might help set up a future RP where they start following the Sertians into the Milky Way XD)

The GSS Cyclone was quickly given a reply stating that a meeting was being set up between the Galactic Corporation, Red Talons, and Derconi, and that it was hopeful that everyone would be able to attend to talk about potential alliances, trade agreements, or just recognition that any hostile fleet in the vicinity of the planet in the future would be blown to pieces by all available guns.

In fact, coordinates were given to a landing pad capable of holding a shuttle at the main city, and permission was granted to have a ‘lightly’ armed escort to accompany any ambassador that would accompany them…


“Now then, Karzori… We are actually preparing a new wave of technology thanks to a substance we’ve recently found… If your Hermes Alliance wants to send an envoy in a few months as we prepare to test some of the new equipment and-” He was suddenly cut off from his sentence as a small alarm sounded on this gauntlet, but it seemed like whatever it was alerting to him to the base wasn’t made aware of it since there were no alarms.

He turned up from his gauntlet and seemed much more like a military commander now, “Looks like we may be needing that fleet of yours after all, depending on how many United Resistance ships are currently hiding themselves in warp…”


The shuttles decent was fairly uneventful, and scans of the ship indicated that they were utilizing hot plasma shields, underneath that some indication of an unknown alloy with properties not quite understood. But before long the shuttle was within the atmosphere and piloting towards the megatropolis of Solaron-1. It’s city was composed of two parts, a huge military base comprising the center and largest portion of the city, and a residential and colonist district that was growing out. The two were easily distinguished by a 300 meter tall wall around the military base, guarded by what looked to be rail guns, plasma canons, and every now and then the huge Anti-Air Anti-Space Coilguns.

Then the shuttle zipped beyond the wall to reveal the large buildings dedicated to research, engineering, and training. Others barracks for the troops, and a few landing bays equipped to refuel Sertian engineered vessels. It was one of these landing bays that the shuttle was being piloted to, and as it landed five Sertians remained waiting to escort them - one of them bearing discrete marks on his armor that might have symbolized him as an officer.


Meanwhile, back in the cold outer reaches of the system, one of the lone frigates patrolling potential comets for mining blipped off the screen of radar, so fast that its crew couldn’t even send a distress call as spatial disruption canons literally ripped through the primitive shielding and buckled the resilient hull like tissue paper. The ship existed just for a brief second on the most advanced of sensors, a 150 meter diameter ship designed somewhat like a four pointed shuriken. But just as soon as it appeared it disappeared again, and yet only Trilano seemed aware of the threat as the engineers and commanders of the Expedition raced to figure out what just happened to the frigate

OOC: I'm baaaaaack.

IC:

A Pressure Space Rift opened back up and through it shuffled a 3km Greywatch cruiser followed by three harbingers and a number of frigates. Their shields were up but their weapons were off completely. The cruiser opened up a channel to all ships in the area, "The is captain Redemption of the the Greywatch cruiser: The Dragon. We're here to handle diplomatic matters since Hive had to be called back to Greywatch Prime." The group didn't wait and immediately began moving forward towards the other ships. On the bridge, the captain began finger-combing his brown hair out of his face. Unlike the first group, the officers aboad his ship were unphased by the other ships and were calm in all that they did. It had been awhile since Redemption had been allowed to take on a non-specop mission and he enjoyed the change.

Captain Shne tried to absorb the data collected during their descent. Coilguns? Either the Sertians were nostalgic for slugthrowers or they'd pursued some very different technological pathways than the GC, which would make intelligence gathering difficult.

"Shne to Peacemaker. We've landed, and the Sertians seem to be genuinely interested in talks. Maintain your position and inform me if the situation up there changes." He closed the channel and move to the back of the shuttle.

As the main hatch opened he saw the escort waiting for him. "I assume you'll take me to meet Trilano now."



Aboard the Peacemaker, the klaxons sounded as the signs of a brief struggle elsewhere in the system were detected.

"What was that?" Tebut demanded.

"One of the Sertian ships is gone," the intel officer said. "Well, I mean it was destroyed, not that it jumped or cloaked. Something vaped it and vanished from our sensors."

"Inform the Captain of this incident and let the Sertians know that we'll be bringing all batteries back online and launching additional fighters. If there's anything hostile out there I want to get in the first shot."