NationStates Jolt Archive

It was just another day. A convoy of Kostemetsian trader ships powering between the stars in their usual roughly majestic way. People cursed at coughing engines and hit those engines with spanners. Consequently, those people's clothes caught on fire. Just another depressingly normal day.

Then an abnormality occurred. A deep fissure opened up in space; three of the four ships (CTS Royale, Quantum, and Officer) managed to veer away desperately. The fourth, Net Profit, wasn't so lucky. Having not lived up to its name, its emergency thrusters were in some need of repair, as were its main engine tubes.

Had an observer been looking from one of the other, better-maintained traders, they would have seen the Net Profit disappear into a gyrating, twisting purple vortex.

* * *

Had an observer been onboard the Net Profit, however, they would have been party to an entirely different series of events. Just as they were thinking they were going to die, a white flash enveloped them. Then they were somewhere else.

On comparison to the Commonwealth Standard Astrogator's Charts, the stars didn't seem to match any on the mapdisk, from any point of view. However, there did seem to be a G2-class star a few light years away. A few short FTL jumps later and the Net Profit was there. One more FTL jump and they were just inside the orbit of the outermost planet.

* * *

Cautiously tuning in the communications suite, Technical Officer Thomas Bryce had the computer analyse all the bands (comms looked to be a good idea, as the FTL engines had gone down after the last jump - nothing serious, but they'd not brought the full required spare stocks). There seemed to be spikes of activity on a few, so he handed the mike over to Captain Bayern... Brandon Bayern, rather - although he hated his given name, so he preferred to be addressed as Bayern.

After the multi-frequency simulcast was set up, Bayern began to speak in his distinctive baritone.

"This is Captain Bayern of the Commonwealth Trading Ship Net Profit. We are lost and in need of assistance, as we are currently unable to achieve faster-than-light velocities. We have reason to believe there is intelligent life in this system - if you can hear us, please help," the middle-aged captain said earnestly.

The kewen were shocked when a unidentified ship managed to get all the way up to outer most orbit of the planet Doze ancestral home to the kewen it was the fact the ship evaded all kewen detecting right up untill it broadcasted a plea forhelp

after flurried communications and a small breakdown in the Chain of COmmand and the sacking of oabout half of the patrol captains a decision was reached and things were sent in motion first of was the hiding of the Pinical project various snesor screens were setup and barracdas visual were put in place.

second was the dispatch of the nearest 2 ships the two Deliverances Kes and Tral. along with 6 mining tugs to tow it too the Rock, a orbital facility."This is the shipleader 8C of the KSS Tral of the Holy Kewen Empire, we are here to assist please power down you engines and allow the tugs to take you to a safe dock as many of our defense systems are still up and will fire upon you if you star into retricted Space."

A weird hissing and clicking came through the speakers, then switched abruptly to a neutral voice as translation-analysis protocols came online. Accompanying the voice was text scrolling across the viewscreen - what the translator suite was making of the sound.

"This is the shipleader 8C of the KSS Tral of the Holy Kewen Empire, we are here to assist please power down you engines and allow the tugs to take you to a safe dock as many of our defense systems are still up and will fire upon you if you star into retricted Space."

The helmsman spun down the engines, unlocked the surface of his control panel, and allowed the controls to automatically retract into their wall-ring mounting. Immediately, a holographic view matrix lit up around the deck, lights simultaneously darkening, to allow the better reporting of the situation.

A weird hissing and clicking came through the speakers, then switched abruptly to a neutral voice as translation-analysis protocols came online. Accompanying the voice was text scrolling across the viewscreen - what the translator suite was making of the sound.

"This is the shipleader 8C of the KSS Tral of the Holy Kewen Empire, we are here to assist please power down you engines and allow the tugs to take you to a safe dock as many of our defense systems are still up and will fire upon you if you star into retricted Space."

The helmsman spun down the engines, unlocked the surface of his control panel, and allowed the controls to automatically retract into their wall-ring mounting. Immediately, a holographic view matrix lit up around the deck, lights simultaneously darkening, to allow the better reporting of the situation.

With confermation of deativation from the new arrivals the 6 tugs moved into place their magnetic locks humming
to life as they attached to the alien hull with a "thud" engaging their engines they made their way towards a
free dock on the "rock" a large Hollowed out asteriod use for military production and as a fortress.

As the Tugs pulled the craft into the Docks if someone was looking they could still see part of the huge skeletal
frame that was part of the Pinicle.

The Net Profit pulled into the dock with a solid thud. Shields flickered for a brief moment, then melted away. Blue engine flames died.

On the lower decks, the ten mercenaries the ship had brought for insurance were arming themselves with their modified, higher-than-standard-lethality weapons. Power armour was broken out and secured to its proper bodyframes.

Tentatively opening the inner prow airlock, a crewmember stood back to let two of the mercenaries clomp past and take up their positions in front of the outer lock. Red lights flashed, and the inner door slammed shut. At the same time, the outer door slowly irised open.

When the ship landed and began to open its doors 8C stood waiting for them to greet them next to him stood tall and oound two HSH assult vechiles large tanks each easily 4 times the size of a normal man carrying lethal weapons although disarmed and unpowered its thorax glowed a ominous green signaling it was powered. The Red and black painting refelcting agianst the pulseating greenish black walls.

with about 6 other kewen ghuards with him their bio-rifels giving a faint green glow(2 sitting on each tank and two behind him) 8C said, in english "Welcome to the KSS Tral,a deliverance class warship in the Kewen navy, we are pleased to meet you"

if someone was to look around the room they would spot some lighter modles of the vehils these small spidertanks were scaling the ceiling and getting good vantage points their thorax glowing a bright if somewhat duller than the HSH, green.

ooc: the HSH and the lighter modle ACH are spidery exoskelitons basical a armour spider suit sorta if you seen ghost in the sheel stand alone complex its the ASH is basically one of them small blue robots thhat have AI google it they kinda look like weird spiders and the HSH is basically a Huntsman spider enlarged given armour painting and heavy weapons :P after all.. im not sure of your intentions.AND YES I LIKE THE COLOR GREEN!

The general consensus on the trader's bridge was 'holy shit'. Gigantic armoured spiders?

The mercenaries, to their credit, managed to keep their composures. The feed showed targeting grids sliding down as weapons were lowered. Then a surprise was wreaked upon both sides. One of the mercenaries' visors unblurred to reveal a face immediately recognisable all over the Commonwealth - a young woman with bushy auburn hair.

This was Christine van Ooijsten, former President of the Commonwealth and current Chair of the Council Intervention Asset. An odd person to send on a trip that just happened to involve a first contact, but this was entirely coincidental. The CIA had chosen this ship to throw into the fissure, knowing that it was a win-win situation - if they lost the ship, they lost a bunch of worthless pirates. If they got the ship back, they'd have new scientific discoveries to eventually give to the Commonwealth's citizens. What they hadn't noted was the fact that the Chairwoman had decided to take an unscheduled holiday a few days before the Net Profit had been scheduled to launch.

ID verification flashed out across the various computing devices tuned into the feed a second later. Weapons were deactivated by the payload of a last-line-of-defence virus.

Stepping forward, the young woman said politely, "Greetings, Shipleader 8C. I must admit, I'm surprised you can speak Kostemetsian Standard."

8C cocked his head to the side
"Ko-smt- eme-tain?" he said a bit confused
"we speak the language of kewen and that of the discoverers or.. english as some say"
with a slight nod his guards stoped aiming in the general direction of these new arrivals and pointed there guns at the floor

"we welcome you to kewen space, is there anything we can do to help? repairs or even use of our communication system to get words for help?"

Deciding to pass over the practicalities of an arachnoid hive mind speaking English, Christine continued, "Kostemetsian Standard is English... or Kewen, whichever you prefer... updated for one thousand years of linguistic progress. English ceased to be spoken in 2102, when the Gaian Empire began its exponential expansion stage. Kostemetsian Standard became an official language in 2801.

"Now, as for aid... we appear to have lost our faster-than-light drive, but we won't bother you with that yet. We're frankly quite fascinated with your... facility here," she waved a hand lamely at the wonders, marvels, and big freaky guns all around. "Would you mind giving us a basic outline of the Holy Kewen Empire?"

"sure, this is a popular tourist destination for many kewen so the harm in you seeing what they see is minimal if none," said 8C the twin HSH on his flanks moved away their bulk maing nonoise as they moved quick quietly and proudly. sitting back into a corner they powered down the glow of the reactors died away and a hatch popped open on one of them and 2 kewen climbed out and skirted away.

while the guads moved off chittering away in the kewen languge
"please, if you wish follow me" he said turning around halfway and pointing to a rather large door sliding open, before it seemed like an ordinary wall but.. itwas in fact a very large door. what laid behind it was a rather large space a hollwed out asteriod in fact filled with large factories and kewen walk flying and climbing about part of the 3.4k Pinicle skelton could be seen jutting from the far east part. a wide walkway was clearly visble and a few Kewen tour groups looking around walking under guard and guides.

Christine gasped, astonished. For a civilisation to build something of this scale in isolation was truly an incredible feat. She'd seen some of Admiral Jackson's classified logs from when he'd been inside the Vuhifellian CASTLE complex, but this exceeded that scale of measure.

Walking inside a few steps, she looked up and stopped to let her mind absorb the sheer massiveness of the edifice. It was something that Kostemetsians didn't usually see outside of under-construction warstars.

Turning to her arachnoid companion, she said faintly, "How often do you build structures of this size? This is... amazing, to say the least."

"This facility itself at the moment is one of a kind" he walking down the ramp and stepping onto the walkway his hard chitinous fleet claking on the floor
"but more are planned when the reasources are avaible and a suitble asteriod is found, although i am not at liberty to tell you much" he began pointing at the visible part of the Pinicle " i can tell you that all production has stopped until that is done"

taking a breath he peered over the edge
"if you like take a look over the edge and you will see a few almost completed warvessels in the various internal docks but do not fall off there are no rails and it is a 2.8 km fall to the bottom from this point"

Recognising a don't-ask-me signal, Christine backed off from the subject of military strength -- then was immediately forced back onto it by the sight of the war vessels. These too were truly amazing in size - her helmet computer ran through some quick calculations and returned a result of two point eight kilometres length.

"Your warships are suitably menacing, if you don't mind the comment. Ours tend to be more exercises in how many guns we can fit onto a spacegoing artwork."

ooc: err the Pinicle is only 3.2 or something km while the warvessel beneath the walkway are either Deliverance at 1.3km or Reverance at 600-900meters

8C chuckled at the comment
waiting for the alien party to stop gazing he continued walking and talking
"well, to tell you more about the ways these factories work its called a PDA in english a Phased Dissasembler array, simply put you put in iron ore and it turns it into anything basicially or feed in power that works heh rubbish does too but not very much, everything has a value in matter Iron can make more stuff then rubbish, we use PDA as rubbis disposals making our factories clean nuclear waster is recycle in to completly new nuclear materials making it harmless so.. in esseance we have a very clean economy as the old discoverers put it"

Christine snapped out of her reverie with an effort.

"It's very much like making matter out of nothing. If we could do that... I can't even consider the implications. They're mind-blowing."

8C was just about to lead the new aliens to the elevator to show them more when a young enrustling(baby kewn) came speeding around the corner running into 8C

"picking up the dazed encrustling 8C cooed to it in a calming manner sounding very muhc like a melody after the encrustling stopped crying(very highpitched kinda like a dog whistle..heh you know hard to hear? unless you a dog) he found a nearby guard and handed him to him
"find this little crustlings parents please"
"i would be delighted" he said a moved off towards where the crustling came from the small 22cm high thing managed to get over the guards sholder and waved looking very much like a ball of fur, kewen in early stages of life have a fuzzy coat which sheds when our exoskeleton hardens.

"If you would follow me" 8C said turning back to the group he began to walk towards a rather large lift easily able to fit 6 HSH on it side to side indeed 2 were inactive on parts of the lift.

Christine noted that everything seemed to be large in the Empire. Still, the spider people were big -- except for the cute (whoa, paradigm shift) "encrustling" type. Oddly enough for big spiders, they seemed to be quite amiable from her short experience. More amiable than most humans she knew, really.

Clipping her rifle to her back, she motioned to the other "mercenary" to unblur his helmet. This one was SEALHOUND (apparently named from classified SASM War files), the only agent who had known of Christine's holiday and wanted to come along. Barely 20, he was full of energy and youthful enthusiasm, and the trip seemed to have heightened it.

Christine had never found out his name, but she knew the weaknesses of the chrono-young. She herself had recently celebrated her 140th birthday, but biorejuve tech was a great aid to looks.

Stepping onto the Elevator he called out to the Aliens
"Would you like to see more of this facility? it's a long way down maybe you can tell us about you"

Matching 8C's step onto the elevator with a few of her own, Christine said, "Of course. We'd be happy to oblige - what would you like to know?"

Shooting Sealhound a grin and getting a fake scowl in response, she stepped onto the elevator.

"We'd also like to know a bit more about the Kewen, if that's all right with you. This is a genuinely fascinating situation for me - we've only ever had a few contacts, and most of them have been human or similar."

Watching the data-feed from the bridge, the traders realised that this woman wasn't just the graceful public-relations figurehead they'd judged her to be while she was President. There was something deeper about her.

With a nod the elevator began the 2.8km accent into the upper echelons of the facilitys passing the ship floor they entered the factiores row upon row of military hardware cannons, HSH's, ACM's laying side by side being built and being shipped off...

"Well, theres not much more to know about 5000ish years ago were we a primitive huntergather society living on the rocky and dry planet that was our ancestral home, we were discovered by a group of rouge humans who sought out this system fors its mineral wealth and our new planet, for the next 2000ish years we went from living above ground to underground becoming pests and vermin in the eyes of the human" 8C said nearing the end he had a angry tone underlaying his voice subtle yet prominent
"but eventually they realised we were intelligentand good for something, mainly because we attacked on of their settlements and began exhibiting gurilla tactics, we were slowly intergrated into their socity all the tribes interbreeding till only one species of kewen survied, us. we became the human workers,engineers,builders,miners,slaves and servants for a long time." pausing to take a breath he continued

when the humans stumbled upon the Hive verse, the Hive sought us out and bestwoed upon us sentinces and the ability to break free from human shackles we used the humans own technology agaisnt them, we created a virus so simple so deadly so undectecable it slowly destoryed the human repoductive organs till only about 2 humans were born a year of course they never expected the loyal mindless kewen to behind it instead they blamed the Hive verse and its radiation" a gleam came to 8C's eyes.

"of course by the time they realised it was us it was too late only 200 or so humans remianed they did something noble though rather then hate us and try to destroy what they made they taught us ,befreinded us again we learned to live and forget as one of them once said "better to let live and forgive then Die in vain for trival matters, i remeber fondly the day the last human died over 2000-3000 years ago i was but a little encrustling then"

Christine experienced mild shock. Humans doing something like that? Still, she decided it was the best choice to take 8C's words as truth. It had been two thousand years ago - 1000 AD... wait, 1000 AD? These would not have been Earthers then.

The anti-reproductive virus stirred some rather angry thoughts, but again, she let it pass. If what 8C was saying was true, an anti-reproductive virus was nothing compared to the crimes the humans had committed against the Kewen race.

"Well, it's nice to know that you can forgive and forget. We as a race these days seem to be much more cynical, sadly."

The Elevator reached the very top of the Facility the doors opened to veiw a rather large COmmand room stepping into it 8C said
"well then,this is where we head and manage all that goes on here if you want you can send message back to your friends for help?" he pointed towards a kewen comms officer

With absolutely no inkling of protocol established, Christine nodded politely and smiled at 8C, then walked over to the communications officer. Sealhound stayed behind, warily scanning the area and auto-collating data.

She suddenly stopped in her walk. 8C was an infant 3000 years ago? The enormity of the fact hit her. Adding it to the collection of marvels she'd already seen, she briskly made her way across the remaining distance, then had another realisation - she had no way of reading the Kewen script on the being's front-right-leg nametag. Salvation soon came, however, in the form of a perfectly-recognisable monospaced alphanumeric sequence, albeit in very small text, below the nametag. There also appeared to be a rank sequence on his other front shoulder, which she saw when she tuned into Sealhound's armour cameras. He was apparently a Senior Drone.

"Hello, Senior Drone 194C. Shipleader 8C informed me that I might be able to send a message back to my home world from here. If it's alright with you, I'd like to do this - but first might I ask what the transmission speed and bit rate of your systems are, for reference?"

She knew she was taking a big risk here. 1.6-metre-tall spiders, shorter than her though they might be, were still horribly strong and frightening. It was a good thing she wasn't arachnophobic.

194C turned around to face the human who just said his name
cocking his head a little bit he relied slower then he should have
"that being me, helping you i can and will. transmission speeding being 5 light yearsing in 1.4 rots or.. seconds bit rate bieng 87000 i thinking," standing up from the chair he moved so she could get clear access to the console
"uses these dials to angle the dish in a wide pattern to the area of space you need, pressing then green button here speaking to into thising next message senting then after green button is realesed"

8C silently appluaded the drone in his mind, excellet work he though this is going well.

Activating her mindlink, Christine silently subvocalised a message into her neural weave.

Clearance to Council Intervention Asset only. Sent by CVO. Ignore nonstandard message data; authentication code GRISHAM-005374.

Race of arachnoid aliens discovered. Native name Kewen. Apparent ruling body Kewen Hivemind. Current location unknown - am hoping Asset can locate self and accompanying agent, Sealhound.

Racial data follows. Height approximately one point six metres. Human-like emotional and mental state. Lifespan upwards of three thousand years. Can speak English - do not query, just accept. Data is attached.

She attached the audiovisual data Sealhound had collected so far.

Please reply to armour transmitter code KAF-00532754. FTL engines are under repair - kindly pick a less rough method of transit next time.

Converting the mindsound to a normalsound recording, she listened with satisfaction as static crackled from her speakers, then played the static into the microphone and transmitted the message to a receiver she knew existed at a set of coordinates that apparently didn't. Stepping away from the receiver, she thanked 194C.

moving back to his seat he resumed his duties with no futher thought to the human.

8C checked the watch on one of his wrists deciding to hurry this along he said
"if you want we can go to a more private place and sit down where we can talk somemore."

"That would be quite appreciated. Thank you, Shipleader."

* * *

In the meantime, a mindsound recording was traveling back through a certain spatial fissure and being picked up by a certain subset of communications technicians.

One of the technicians examined his display intently, then turned to shout to the duty officer.

"Commander! Message coming in, header-footer unknown. Sent by Captain van Ooijsten."

The captain read the message and analysed the location code. His first thought was This is impossible. Christine was fifty thousand light years away. The staff had never known the fissure went that far. And broken FTL engines, too!

A deployment of CIA ships was immediately ordered.

As 8C took a seat he motioned for The human and her companion to sit down two two medium sized chars had been quickly built to a general human posture they would be perfect but they would fit and with suffiecent padding too

"if their anything you need? a drink or food perhaps?" 8C offered " Im sure we can make something foryou, back to more pressing matters, is their anything else you would like to know about is?"

Christine allowed herself a genuine smile. "To be honest, yes, there is, but it would take far too long to fully expand upon it. And--"

She was abruptly cut off by a loud beeping. Pulling her PDA from her pocket and throwing an apologetic glance at the large Kewen shipleader, she glanced down at the screen to see a squadron of CIA ships insystem. Her momentary elation was replaced by horror when one of the ships fired a heavy bolt at the nearest Kewen ship, misinterpreting it as a threat.

"Oh no. Shipleader, call your personnel off, please! I'll attempt to reason with my own, but they are members of an intelligence agency - normally one of the reasons their captains are selected is because they're frankly pigheaded, stubborn and militaristic. No disrespect, Sealhound."

When the new humans ships arrived in system the kewen though they would be peaceful but when it fired upon the kewen vessel Tral the kewen were shocked and outraged.

"ship leader"said a dorne barely managing to stand upright "huill intergrtiy down to 67% main engines off lines bio-shields down"

the KSS Kes moved in front of the tral sheilds up it returned fire on the ships
its Heavy lancers opening up on the nearest ship 5 of its turrets swivled around and aquired lock on the neasrt ship after a brief glow at itstips 5 deadly hot beams of plasma arched out towards the clostes offending ships the beams specifically targeting the engline area.
more kewen warships approched the rear of the alien vessles closing in to Lancer range the kewen wanted these people alive.
---

8C ran into the control room already he could see on the main veiw screen almost a dozen kewen heavy warships closing on guns hot
"ALL SHIPS STAND DOWN I REPEAT STAND DOWN" he yelled quickly into a nearby comms console

Christine was yelling pretty much the same things into her PDA.

"All CIA ships, stand down immediately! You're facing demotion as it is, and if you do not stand down immediately I will allow the Kewen Empire's fleet to blast you to hell!"

The Asset ships came to a complete stop, weapon power levels plummeting. Christine was satisfied, but still angry as hell. Three hours of contact with a new race and already the Asset were in there bollixing it up. Sometimes she wondered why she bothered.

Unfortunately, one ship managed to get its STL engines sliced off by a Kewen plasma lance. If this kept up they'd all be in need of engine repair, and she doubted the Kewen would be inclined to provide it to the - she checked her PDA for the ship's name - Quantum Truth.

"Sealhound, question; would you be willing to get out there and scare the hell out of your superiors? On my authority, of course?"

Sealhound, pushing back his dark hair in a vid-celeb fashion, replied, "Definitely, miss - I'll get right on it. Transport may be a problem, though," he finished lamely, looking around at the rather angry arachnoids.

The command room was in a state of flux reports were streaming in and a ship was sent to help the Tral meanwhile most of the kewen ships formed a perimiter around the Offending aliens still a fair clip away but none the less there.

a nearby drone listen to the exchance between the two nice aliens on thecommand deck speaking up to the one they called "sealhound"
"Excuse me Mr...errm Seal Hound if you would like a kewen shuttle or fighter can be arraged to transport you to your vessels"

Flicking back his hair again, annoyed with it getting into his eyes, Sealhound took up the offer of transport.

"I'd appreciate that. Oh, and I'd be much obliged if you'd keep those Asset idiots nice and frightened. This is their fault, you know; bloody bunch of paranoid crazies that they are."

He suddenly realised he was speaking about his immediate superiors and abruptly shut up.

"Pleasing to follow me" said the drone pressing his middle right hand to a small scanner on the wall it opened to a express elevator right down to the hangers
"please to be stepping onto the elevator" said the drone again standing at the back prepping the lift.

"please hold onto the rails for your safty and lock your feet in"

Stepping onto the elevator as directed, Sealhound locked his feet in. Unclipping his automatic rifle, he loaded it and aimed it at the floor to check the targeting sensors. He wanted to be able to scare the bejesus out of the damned Asset captains.

When the drone activated the lift it began its decent it was one of 7 lifts around the facility desgined purly and solely for surpirse and running away.... the lift speeded up to speeds of 78mph before slowing to a halt mere seconds after accelerating to 76mph

"are you allright? " said the drone the drone opening he stepped pasted the human and into the hanger

Sealhound managed to keep calm... just. Following the drone obediently out of the elevator, he squelched his armour warnings.

the Drone gave a few quick orders and a joking bap to the head of a few pilots a fully fueled and active Rock rat was brought up to launch position, two kewen sat in the co-piolt seats preping systems and such,

"Mr sealhound person, that fighter over thier is ready for your use, we have decided to let you fly it... no worries it not being bads"

Climbing into the Rock Rat fighter's pilot seat, Sealhound studied the controls intently. They appeared to be quite human-friendly, which was surprising to say the least. Attaching a video log of the controls with probable functions, he took a seat.

One of the kewen Co-pilots said over the fighteer comms to sealhound
"here is a overview of the controls"
after he finished explaining the controls to the human he added
"You may take off now" starting up the fighters engines it rose of the launch platform hovering a few feet in the air its engines glowing green faintly

the outer hanger door opened smoothly a sleek green feild protecting the atmosphere within
"Be warned this hanger is facing away from your ships so you will have to fly under this facility"

Taking hold of the joystick, the young Asset agent gently accelerated the fighter out of the facility. At first, there was a slight jolt, but it was mostly the same as his Planetary Defence Matrix fighter training.

Firing the engines, he spiraled down into a tight loop under the facility, then gunned the drive to bring himself in towards the Asset squadron.

Finally, the small fighter was in amongst the larger, blackish-purple ships. It drew in towards its assigned docking bay (given it by a very frightened tower).

Docking procedures were duly completed, airlocks attached, and Sealhound and his Kewen companions marched out, the latter to the shock of the Asset crew, who'd never accessed the report.

The two kewen pilots hoped out of the fighter and stood to the side out it not sure what to do when faced with lots of humans with gawking looks on their faces one of them waved the otehr said
"greeting human's,we are the Kewen"

Looking at the still-wide-eyed crews, Sealhound said, "They've come to destroy you and kill your babies, et cetera, et cetera, so on and so forth, ad nauseam, et cetera. Where's the captain?"

"Um... on the bridge. I would think. Who are you?" said a young lieutenant, who was identified by Sealhound's armour as a gunner.

"You're not cleared even to know that I exist, Lieutenant. Don't push it."

"Right... sir," the lieutenant said with a touch of insolence. Sealhound was an ensign with administrator privileges - he could supersede any non-agent authority at will - and sometimes he felt like pulling rank. Especially since he was in no mood to be nice to the idiots who'd tried to shred the Kewen.

Calling a freight lift, Sealhound stepped inside and beckoned to the Kewen to enter the large capsule. These traveled at a reasonable pace, and would probably get the trio to the bridge inside around twenty seconds.

And indeed it did. The agent marched imperiously and insolently onto the bridge to confront the equally imperious and insolent captain, who himself was in no mood to talk with 'the big-bureaucracy lapdog'.

"Captain, please explain why you attempted to shred the Holy Kewen Imperial ships with no provocation and no explanation to Captain van Ooijsten."

The captain, undisturbed by the Kewen, stiffly said, "Well... sir... we interpreted a fast in-vector by the ship identifying itself as Tral to be an attack, as it matched all the parameters of an attack."

"For God's sake, Captain, couldn't you at least have verified with myself and the Commander?"

"We decided it would behove us to take initiative."

"this attack vector you claim we initiated is just being our patrol route which you just seemed to have flown right into the middle being fired upon by the people we just helped is a shock too..." said a drone joining the converstation speaking in passable english.

switching back to kewen he spoke to his adjuntee(other copilot)
"Such insolence! such foolish ness! even a young encrustling would know better then this and this is supposed to be a captain responsible for its empires actions, a foolish captain i say.... such disregard for consequences...with no tacticle information on us its a supid thing t odo blindly atack if it wernt for our ways im sure they would all be dead by now... it also seems this "sealhound" has the authority in this engagement.maybe the person we rescued is more important then she seems?"

they chattered to each other in clear quite almost musically chirping and screeching noises

"It was a required precaution," the captain said, real anger creeping into his voice. He completely ignored the Kewens' quickfire conversation, and instead focused on Sealhound.

"A required precaution? I think not. Correct procedure for an Asset deployment is not to fire unless instructed to. You fired gratuitously, unnecessarily, and illegally. Even in the Asset there have to be rules."

"You're overstepping yourself, Agent," snarled the captain. "Security! Remove this man."

Leaving peacefully, with somewhat of a smirk, Sealhound quietly beckoned the Kewen to follow. He knew this captain by reputation and some rather unpleasant personal experience.

The lift capsule shot down with none of the previous comfortable acceleration to max speed. Five seconds later, it stopped with a heavy jolt at the hangar bay. Making his way back to the fighter, Sealhound prepped for disengagement. After noting the two Kewen entering, he gunned the engines and shot out away from the ship.

All went well for something like the first forty seconds. Then all hell broke loose. A storm of red-golden bolts rained from the ship's turret, looking nothing like the white spheres normally fired by CIA frigates. Jinking the fighter left and right, Sealhound just managed to avoid it.

Between frantic jerks of the joystick, he managed, "2981F, I would be much obliged if you could activate our stealth. This is a stealth fighter, isn't it?"

This was begining to reach the end of Kewen patience first they jupmed in and fired AFTER we rescused them the they fired after they were told not to so... for all kewen captains listening this was givining them free reign as these people have gone rouge the KSS Tral and the 4 closest ships moved into lancer range sheilds up and guns ready already a Hail of Heavy kinetic Cannon rounds was speeding towards the human vessel follow shortly by a dazzaling barrage of Heavy Fuison missles These Kewen captains were determined to reduce this ship to slag weather it be condoned or not.

---

2981F's many clawed hands danced across the controls booting up systems with a smirk he said
"Stealth systems online dropping from active scanners now" as the engine glow died away the ship propeeled by other more secret means and its emssions droping to zero any guns would have a hard time tracking this...

Sealhound linked his PDA up to one of the myriad sensor screens, knowing that even the best weapons on the Commonwealth couldn't track stealth fighters.

Tapping it, he said firmly, "System, get me Agent Deathwish."

Deathwish was Christine's codename. They'd all had to assume one when they entered the Asset.

"Christine."

"Christine, this is Sealhound. One of the commanders has snapped. Smith, I think it was. Need support now!"

---

"Need support now!"

Sealhound's voice echoed throughout the control room, dimly reverberating.

Christine looked stricken. She couldn't just leave Sealhound out there, but on the other hand she couldn't go in with one Kewen fighter and attempt to rescue him. She looked desperately up at 8C.

"Shipleader, do we have any options here?"

"first advise your firend to make headway towards the hanger on the far side the one he left in at max speed, and inform any of these ships that are still loyal to you to move away and seek shelter near this facility otherwise they may be fired upon by my ships, that lone ship wont last long" said 8C studied reports most of the kewen group had moved into lancer range but now
multiple batteirs of lancers opened up on the ship and more salvos of HKCs and Fusion missles were loosed

Christine spoke into the PDA.

"Sealhound, return to your point of exit immediately."

Switching channels, she spoke again, calling all ships except Smith's.

"CIA vessels, make your way to my call-point and seek shelter behind the asteroid while the Kewen ships engage the Quantum Truth. Captain Smith has betrayed us."

Turning to 8C, she asked, "Shipleader, do you have any armaments that we could equip the CIA frigates with? Captain Smith seems to have modified his weaponry systems, and normal CIA systems are either experimental or pure-deterrent - needless to say, quite weak."

"yes we do, but the time it would take to intergrate these into your ships would be too long, not to mention highly difficult best you can do is move your ships out of the way before they are fired upon, im afraid in battle the distinction between "neutral" and "hostile" is blurred sometimes.

Thrusters kicked in, and three CIA ships jumped to the side just in time to avoid a bolt from the rapidly advancing Quantum Truth.

Finally, salvation came in the invisible form of Sealhound. Quickfire shots came flying out of nowhere to strike the stern of the Truth and flash down its shield. Then the fighter disappeared into nowhere again.

The loyal CIA frigates moved in to attack the Truth, but they simply could not penetrate its strengthened shields. Purple flashes appeared where their masers struck. Finally, one CIA ship was knocked tumbling through space by a fluke shot to its engine tube. The rate of disablement slowly increased until there was only a single frigate left to fight.

At that moment, however, the Kewen barrage hit. A terrific flash later, and the Quantum Truth's shields were reduced to a flickering wreck. The small frigate sped up to escape more barrages and wait for its shield to recharge.

Christine said urgently, "Shipleader, the Truth is now at its weakest. We have a predicted vector for it, and our ships will move into attack. What munitions can you deploy?"

The Kes and three more Deliverances made a pursuit corse as they contiued firing at the Fleeing frigate.

---

8C studied its course and laughed loudly,
"do not fear its fleeing right into our defense network"
switching back to kewen he gave quick and loud orders
"Activate Defense grids Z2 D4 Authorise all firepower destory that vessel"

---

back in space the CIA frigate was fleeing directly into the path of the numeros defense stations suddenly the feild came to life what would of registered as flying peices of junk arrayed around the system came to life powering up sensor would of picked up massive energy spikes and the total 3000 defense satalites around the system activated, sadly only 100 were in rage after reciving targeting data the turrets swivvled and soon fusion missles werer streaming out of some while others where firing HKC round or Lancer beams at the fleeing frigate.

---

Back in the Facility Hanger bay numerous tugs sped out of the bay and made a beeline towards the disbled CIA frigates they slowly began towing one of them back while others began clamping magnitic locks agaisnt the others hull

8C turned towards theh uman on his bridge and spoke
"We will tow your shuttles into our hanger bay where they can be repaired"

The Quantum Truth disappeared in a flash.

Christine stared, stunned, at the screen. Surely it couldn't have been that easy?

And it hadn't. The Quantum Truth reappeared with another flash only a few kilometres from the asteroid and began to fire its weapons systems determinedly at the control centre.

When all hope appeared to be lost, a blue icon appeared on Christine's PDA screen. She stared at it, a stunned look growing on her face. Inside a circle of smooth light blue lay a shield on two swords - the insignia of the First Naval Battle Group.

The fifteen Commonwealth Navy ships sped into the system with none of the CIA's collateral-damage tactics. Heavy turret barrels swung into place and began to fire salvos at the rogue frigate. Shields were brought up to stave off any accidental Kewen attacks.

* * *

Smith stared, dumbfounded, at the viewscreen. He'd come so close to wiping out these damned aliens once and for all.

"Pull out."

When the hostile appeared in front of the facility nd fired directly on the control room things were hetic but only for a minute blast doors were activated and the control room was sheilded, dozen if not hundreds of weapon emplacements activated all over the facility quick targeting pulse guns active and heavier cannons swivvled and loosed shots of at the frigate followed by stationar missle banks and nearby kewen vessels

---

When the new alien ships come the kewen were two preoccupied with hunting this one down to pay much notice other than "dont get hit" nothing was said

The Quantum Truth disappeared into the webbing of space again. Christine tensed, expecting another surprise attack. Nothing.

The First Battle Group's maser pulse guns fell silent. A few bright blue streamers streaked off into the distance and lasted a few seconds before evaporating.

Right on time, the AI gestalt matrix came online. Fifteen artificial sentiences combined into one supermind.

Vessels of the Holy Kewen Empire, we respectfully request that you cease fire. Our targeting suites show no sign of the Quantum Truth anywhere in this vicinity, but we advise you to stay alert.

Opportunistically hijacking an unsecured CIA link, the gestalt projected its unified chorus of voices into the asteroid control centre. Custom-built signal-boosting equipment came online to amplify the voice's relevant aspects and create the appropriate emotional atmosphere.

Crew of unnamed Kewen asteroid, we are Outreach #1-39BC of the Commonwealth Central Polysentience Gestalt. You, however, can call us Outreach for short. We apologise for the unprovoked attack by Captain William Smith, late of the Council Intervention Asset. Appropriate measures are being taken to track him down.

When the hostile ship dissapeard again the kewen vessels stopped fireing no need to waste any energy or ammo on something that wasnt there... most of the defense satalites around the system were active by now..

the resuce tugs had lached onto any ALien vessel incapable of self movement and also to the Tral towing them back to dock for repairs and to make sure nothing happened.

As the tugs pulled the damaged vessels to the inner part of the dock with a breathable atmospher 10 more kewen vessels came out of the hanger fully crew and armed they began patroling the system while the kewen vessels who had been after the hostile frigate, stayed goruped togehtor.

---

In the command center 8C listenend to the voice that was coming over the speakers when the "Oureach" finsihed speaking 8C spoke.
"Outreach, the attack by the hostile vessel did little damage other than damageing a vessel when it first arrived, Your damaged frigates and moving into our hangers where it is safer that sitting out their your are welcom to dispatch repair crew to them"

8C sent a data packet to the Alien vessels it conatine the approximate firing range and areeas of the kewen defense system it also warned they any ship starying into any of these areas will be fired upon as these satalites have not had any new ship profiles added to their friendlies list.

Registering the data, Outreach added it to the local fleetnet engineering and no-fly matrices. Engineering specialists were then alerted to report to the CIA squadron's docks, and a proviso was placed under Executive Order 39 that they never mention any unusual objects they might see without express permission from the CIA or the Executive Council.

Sensor targeting grids expanded out invisibly round the ships, keeping the maser turrets on high readiness for the return of any possible threats; armed shuttles were dispatched to patrol the local area.

Shipleader 8C, we thank you for your generosity. We apologise for having to ask this, but could we borrow your stealth fighter for a few hours, please? Agent Sealhound needs to report to KSS Reality's Pride for debriefing.

Speaking to the AI again
"that is really up to the Pilots i woud think right now"

---

Back on the Stealth FIghter one of the co-pilots had patched in the comms so they could here this
"sealhoud,you can take the fighter back to your ship,we dont mind"

Guiding the fighter gently and expertly into the hangar bay of the Naval Intelligence strike carrier Reality's Pride, Sealhound lowered it to the deck and let the force-field clamps hold it while he stepped out.

Saluting the two Kewen co-pilots, he turned to face the three wooden-faced NI officers in front of him - two lieutenant commanders and a commander.

"Sirs, I've been informed that I'm to report for debriefing here. Where should I go?"

The commander, a young woman, stepped forward.

"Ensign Sealhound. You are instructed to report to Deck C, room one hundred six, ten minutes from now. Lieutenant Commander al-Barsawi will accompany you, whereas Lieutenant Commander Brown will remain here and observe the Kewen Hivemind representatives' actions."

al-Barsawi, a young Arabic type, about Sealhound's age, stepped forward and nodded briskly to the CIA agent.

Nine minutes and thirty seconds later
"I have been instructed to wait here while you are debriefed, Agent."

Walking into C-106, Sealhound immediately noticed a frankly rather obvious lack of light. Flicking on his enhans lenses with his neural weave, he watched everything flash into daytime except three starkly silhouetted figures sitting at the table in front of him.

Agent Sealhound. You have been brought here to report on your encounter with the Kewen.

"Yes, sir." He couldn't tell which one had said it, but the voice was a deep, resonant baritone, likely a male.

Agent Deathwish has informed us that you are the most qualified to report on this.

"Well, yes, sir. The incident began at 0200 hours ship's time, when the Net Profit was spontaneously transported through a fissure."

And so it went on. Some hours later, Sealhound walked out, blinking in the light and frankly relieved it was over - the CIA's top echelons could be a quite frightening lot, what with their lack of identity, emotions or personality. Nobody knew who they were - except Christine, and he suspected even she only knew limited details.

He made his way back to the hangar bay and paused just outside the door, then opened it to see the fighter looking somewhat eccentric hovering about seven feet above the deck.

* * *

Outreach smoothly thanked the co-pilots over intership comms for allowing Sealhound the use of the fighter. All of the agent's briefing data had been stored in secure fleetnet intelligence matrices, and so Outreach now had time to mull over it and form opinions.

The Pilots wanting to impress these new aliens engaged the stealth systems the outer hull shimered for a second before fading away to nothing it was as if the fighter was never there but it was...

Landing near sealhound a pilot seat hatch opened revealing a birght interior a voice floated out
"wanting lift back?"

---

Back on the station 8C sighed turning to the female alien on his bridge he spoke
"would you like to go down and meet up with your fellow people in the hanger or stay up here?"

Sealhound stared for a second, then regained his composure. After all, it was a stealth fighter, and he was a CIA agent. "Sure, why not?"

- - -

Christine sighed as well. Enervation and just plain lack of energy after discovering Smith's duplicity had started to get to her.

"I'll head for the hangar, if you don't mind. This branch of Outreach seems quite reasonable as far as Outreach manifestations go, and I probably need to report to it anyway."

The kewen copilots watched as Sealhound jumped into the fighter guiding it out of the hanger they returned control to him
"take us back then" one of them said happily into the comms

--- back on the bridge.

"very well then, this way please" said 8C directing her to a smaller quicker elevator
opening its doors he stepepd onto it motioning for her to follow he powered it up..

Sealhound gunned the engines, and the fighter soared out of the bay, banking sharply to port under his guidance. Throttling up smoothly, he guided the small singleship along the cruiser's side and out into open space, heading for the asteroid facility.

Christine, however, back on the asteroid, was doing something completely different. Stepping in after 8C, she waited for something to happen.

*end of RP* >.><.< was agreed OOC to finsih this off so nomore! *weeps*