NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: The last thread was wrecked, so I made a new one.
IC:

Merter

Two thousand years. It was that long. It seemed like forever. The Machines had wrecked the human empire in 1950 with nuclear devices, now more then two thousand years later, the Machines still ruled Merter. The Machine Empire of Merter was its name. A name that was the same for two thousand years. Over one billion humans were trapped on several planets of the Machine Empire. The humans were forced to work day and night on factories to produce the massive numbers of the Machines. Unlike other nations, the Machines did not use big ships or small ships as their naval force, they used robot fighters. Hundreds of thousands of them, probably millions. The machines conserved their few big ships for later. The Machines were led by a Machine named Sasha.

Almos, Merter

Almos was the second largest human "prison city" on the main planet of Merter. Forty one million humans were guard by the same number of robots in Almos. Each human was constantly followed by a robot until he got to the factory, thats when the robot waited outside for their "partner". There were a few humans that worked for machines and had freedom.

Humans sometimes fought back. They were suppressed easily, but this time it was different.

There was this one human, named Revin, who was followed by a robot named RHT34. RHT34 was suspicious of his "partner", Revin. RHT34 always kept a eye on him in the factory. Revin's statistics showed that he was 6'1, dark hair, blue eyes, he was the only child and his parents died soon after. Reven grew up just like every other kid of this time, robots attempted to brainwash kids, but Revin was different.

Revin was heading to the factory again, for the two thousandth time he noted. Revin noticed RHT34 following him again. the robot assumed Revin was just another human.

He was wrong.

Revin took a different path this time, he walked through a alley between two tall apartment buildings. RHT34 followed him then Revin disappeared in the alley.

RHT34 scanned his surrounding areas and found a heat mark nearby, the robot quietly walked over to the heat mark and checked it out.

It was a bomb.

Before RHT34 could do anything, the bomb exploded, and destroyed the robot. The noise could be hear for a mile.

A few minutes later Revin looked out of his hiding place and smiled. It was time to destroy these Machines.

Four Months later

Revin led a small force of twelve people against the Machines. Together, they caused chaos and destroyed a Naval base and a Palace. But the Machines were on their trail. Revin and his team head back to their hiding area, and flew a home-made shuttle out of here.

"Are you sure it will work?" asked Revin, a little nervous. he did not like flying in space.

"Do you want to stay back and get captured? be my guest. Of course it works." said the team's pilot, Wellen. He was a former factory worker who constructed shuttles for the Machines, he was rescued by Revin and Wellen began constructing a shuttle.

"Whatever you say. In four months I wouldn't be surprised if you constructed a battleship." said one of the men at the back of the shuttle. Revin couldn't tell who it was because that was the moment when the shuttle was on.

The hiding place suddenly "opened up" and the house they had lived in for four months was 'torn open". The shuttle took off and now flew toward space.

"The machines are after us. A hundred Black Falcons are after us." said Wellen. Black Falcons was their name for the fighters that the Machines had in endless numbers.

"Launch our decoys, that our only hope." said Revin, very pissed off that the Black Falcons had tracked them down already.

Decoys began falling out of the shuttle's bomb bay. Black Falcons were easily confused and went after the decoys.

The decoys exploded, and the black falcons were blown to pieces. The force of the explosion shook the shuttle as it went into space. However, something was wrong.

A Black falcon had gotten away, barely, now it was after the shuttle. Wellen increased speed to maximum. The Black falcon was still after it.

"Fire the lasers." said Revin. The lasers that were finally charged finally destroyed the Black Falcon, and its debris was floating in space.

The shuttle headed off into deeper space, in hope of finding someone to help them, someone to save them, someone to destroy the Machines.

ooc: if i can recall you err what was it godmoddded your fighters and scared away help but.. im willing to give ya anotehr chance :P
but i have no angle... send out a distress call or something

OOC: Its easy, you just happen to be in the same system and you detect the ship.

OOC: I've been looking for an excuse to resurrect this nation since my last lapse of interest, so I'd like to get involved. My people are semi-nomadic and spread fairly far through the lesser-charted regions of space, so one of our settlements could pick up your shuttle. We're mercenaries, though, so expect to be asked a steep price for waging a war. ;)

ooc: fine greal :P
IC:

A small kewen experiamental task forced made the transition to realspace, the task force compirsed of 6 Allenean vessel which had been bought by the kewen and a experimental carrier the Donahue,

--minutes later--

"this is KEF-03 firing missles now" said a pilot as a black and red fighter streaked past the port bay of the Donahue two bolts of energy zipped out from a indentation in the wings and collided with a larger drone fighter a commander on the donahue smiled as the drone was ripped to shreads in a green fireball.....

---
on the bridge
"Ship leader unknown object approching us, it appears we are still unoticed should we hail?"
Barr though for a minute... still gloating over his name
"indeed, send them this " Unidentifyied object this is ShipLeader Barr on the KSS Donahue who and what are your intentions?""

It had been several generations since the Aletes had had significant contact with the other denizens of the universe. In that time, they had evolved somewhat from the brash and tally-ho vagabonds that roamed the stars in their mobile moon, looking for excuses to unload alarming amounts of ammunition and swindle and price-gouge everyone that had something to give; the days of Rhadamanth Archaios and his cadre of intrepid captains had passed into legend.

These days, the Aletes, as they still identified themselves, made a slightly more sedentary living. Their numbers had increased beyond the capacity of Eos, the artificial moon that had been their original mobile homeworld, and so millions had spilled out into uninhabited systems and wrought new homes in asteroid rings, orbital stations, and myriad other ingenious habitats. A race of feckless mercenaries that still very much retained the mercenary spirit, though was now more given over to feats of cosmic engineering rather than feats of explosive derring-do.

Ivan Volsungsson snapped awake with a painful rush of disorientation and blood pressure as the Truth Stranger Than Fiction’s AI brought him quickly out of hibernation.

“Sorry for the rude wake-up, Ivan,” piped Oenoë over the intercom. Ivan groaned and held his throbbing head. Behind him he heard a bad-tempered hiss and a growl as his shipmate was similarly awakened. The human leaned forward out of his crèche and looked around at the forest of green holopanels that surrounded him as it swam into focus.

“Damn it, Oenoë,” he groaned. “What did you do while we were asleep?”

“Nothing!” The AI’s young girl voice was petulant. “I just picked up something interesting on Truth’s instruments that I thought you should see.”

Not this again. Ivan was fond of his AI, but her penchant for yanking him out of hibernation for such novelties as “Just look at the infrared and gamma patterns from that supernova!” or “Ooh, the ultra-visible light spectra readings from that nebula are just lovely!” left him wishing she had a physical avatar that he could strangle.

His traveling companion shared his viewpoint. “Machine woman,” rumbled several hundred kilos of annoyed Kzin, “If you show me that the quantum probability wavefronts of that binary pair resemble the face of the Mary-Virgin, I will find your processor-box and eject it into space.” Known only by his rank and function, Navigation Officer, the huge tiger-like alien never made threats he did not deliver on, and Ivan prayed for the sake of his ship that Oenoë really did have a good reason for waking them.

“Ships, Ivan!” A holopanel blinked into being six inches from his face and cycled through a number of images of various scanning media, all depicting a half-dozen sizable vessels and a tiny shuttle of some kind.

“The seven seem to be together,” Oenoë went on cheerfully. “They’re all talking to the tiny one,” and the AI actually giggled, “over radio frequencies, Ivan!” The Aletes had long since switched to communications based around quantum-entangled molecules, which were unhampered by inconveniences such as the speed of light. (The AI’s disdain, though, was rather foolish, because radio was the only way to talk to unconnected new acquaintances such as these!)

Both flesh-and-blood Aletes immediately pricked up at the sight of the foreign ships. Foreigners meant foreign money and the chance to acquire it – maybe even a lot of it.

“Decelerate,” Ivan told Oenoë at once. “Let’s drop in and say hello.”

The 200-meter Truth Stranger Than Fiction decelerated from her previous hefty fraction of lightspeed to match velocities with the Kewen convoy and the little shuttle.

“Greetings, aliens,” Ivan broadcast to every vessel present, in what he hoped was an impressive and commanding voice. “This is the Truth Stranger Than Fiction, proud vessel of the Aletes. We are unfamiliar with your kind, and seek contact.”

OOC: I'm goin to Russia for a week but when I come back I'll consider joining, assuming you're all not way far into the storyline by then.

OOC: Well we won't be very far along if people keep not posting!

I am now in this thread and will post tomorrow.

Revin sat in the copilot's seat. Wellen flew the shuttle, so he was in the pilot's seat. Cellia, their best marksmen, of course, sat in the gunner's seat. the rest of the team sat inn the back end of the shuttle, playing cards, planning their next strike.

However, something would happen that would change Merter forever. Revin picked up two transmissions. That surprised him.

"Lets listen to the second one first." said Wellen

Revin clicked some buttons on a computer thent he second transmission came up first. He was almost glad to hear another race's voice.

“Greetings, aliens.“This is the Truth Stranger Than Fiction, proud vessel of the Aletes. We are unfamiliar with your kind, and seek contact.”

Revin immediately sent a response to both messages after he was finished listening to both messages.

"This is the Shuttle, Freedom, we are humans escaping from the Machine Empire of Merter."

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

Machine Palace

The ruler of all Machines in the Machine Empire, Sasha, waited in a nice big conference room in the palace. The Palace was, new and modern. Unlike the old ones of the old imperial days. She waited, patiently of course. She heard about the humans escaping the empire. But that did not worry her, after all, what could worry her when she had tens of millions of fighters under her control that could beat anyone?

The Council of the Merterian city, Almos, entered the room. Each of them were Machines of course, but they each were different programs.

Well?

"Sasha, we tried to intercept them, but it failed." said one of the Machines, sitting directly across her. This Machine was a old version, released during the 23rd Century.

Sorry is not good enough. You had the entire Almos fighter force under your control, and you only summoned a hundred.

"There were only a few of them Sasha, they can't cause a rebellion of-" the Machine was interrupted.

Even a few would be dangerous. They make the rebellion grow bigger and bigger until it expands from Almos. Consider yourself demoted from the Council.

"What? But.."

Do you want to spend a few days at Mount Servus?

"Of course not." Mount Servus was infamously known for erasing memories of Machines.

Then you are demoted to controller of Section F3. The rest of you, get out of here unless you want to end up like him.

The Council, quickly left the building and headed back to the Council building for further discussion.

The Kewen fleet jumped to the location of the shuttle sheild rasied they scanned the area picking up a small shuttle not far off they hailed again.

"Shuttle of freedom, humans escaping from that of merter, We are the kewen, this is fleet Zeta-03X a test fleet testing a new fighter we picked up your hail's and have responded, how may we help you?"

OOC: tag. Post up soon.

Revin looked at the screen."They are sending a response again."

"It depends on who "they" are." said Wellen, looking worried.

"We'll soon find out."

"Shuttle of freedom, humans escaping from that of merter, We are the kewen, this is fleet Zeta-03X a test fleet testing a new fighter we picked up your hail's and have responded, how may we help you?"

"They could be Machines in disguise."

"Unlikely, their transmission is different from the Machines. Plus that have plenty of big ships." said Revin

"Send a response."

"This is Revin, leader of the humans that have escaped Merter. Currently we need supplies and maybe arms."

"currently willing we are of not to act in open aggression to those we not know, docking in hanger we discuss futher and maybe we help, supplies we can, nothing wrong with that" replied the capatin.

A docking bay on the carrier Donahue opened up aa shimering green feild protecting the atmoshper within a small little light beacon emergedfrom the hanger indication to the shuttle this was the place to land.. if it wanted to land

Ivan's eyebrows shot up at the Freedom's reply. "Humans, they say! Well, what are the odds? Oenoë, stop calculating that."

"They are military ships, Ivan," came a low growl from Navigation Officer. Another holopanel sprang up in front of Oenoë's, showing the Kewen vessels on one of the visual feeds from Truth's bow. The bulges and turrets of weapons were very visible, and a small fighter craft flew briefly across the camera.

"Easy, big fella," Ivan said, even as a small chill went down his spine. "No one's said or done anything unfriendly." The Truth was not unarmed - no self-respecting Aletes would own a defenseless craft - but she could not compete mano a mano with a dedicated warship. Of course, there was no cause to suspect the owners to be hostile; the only count against them was that they had yet to reply.

Oenoë bubbled laughter and plopped a readout of the Kewen transmission to Freedom that she had plucked from space in front of him. Ivan's lips pursed as he thought. Aletes were businessmen, even if their business tended to be violence and destruction, and Ivan's inner salesman saw another party angling in on his prospective opportunity.

Navigation Officer tweaked the Truth's position with little nudges of the attitude jets as Ivan cleared his throat and keyed the communicator again. "Shuttle Freedom, this is Truth again. My name is Ivan Volsungsson, and I am the skipper of this ship, and a human as well. I am very interested in hearing your story... would you like to join me and my crew on board? No foul play, I promise."

"Currently willing we are of not to act in open aggression to those we not know, docking in hanger we discuss further and maybe we help, supplies we can, nothing wrong with that"

Shuttle Freedom, this is Truth again. My name is Ivan Volsungsson, and I am the skipper of this ship, and a human as well. I am very interested in hearing your story... would you like to join me and my crew on board? No foul play, I promise."

"Which one?" asked Revin.

"Lets tell the KSS Donahue we will get supplies from them, and tell the Truth that we will be aboard their ship." said Revin, nervously loooking behind him when he heard a noise.

"Agreed." said the crew.

A message was sent to the Truth

"This is Revin, leader of the humans that have escaped Merter. The Freedom's crew and me will join you."

After all, they had nothing to lose.

OOC: Kewen, assume I sent a message saying that your ship should send supplies to the shuttle.

I have to go, response tomorrow night.

ooc: shit forgot your message to me sorry!
IC
“Greetings, aliens,” Ivan broadcast to every vessel present, in what he hoped was an impressive and commanding voice. “This is the Truth Stranger Than Fiction, proud vessel of the Aletes. We are unfamiliar with your kind, and seek contact.”

Barr read thourgh the message and replied

"Greetings, Aletes vessel with long name, We are the Kewen usually peaceful explorers sadly this is a military Convoy testing a classified ship, we are still very glad to meet you"

ooc: mutters you should come abord the large and imposing warships! and i dont know how the fuck i can get supplises to a tiny shuttle from large warships...

OOC: Perhaps one of the crew should stay behind and pilot the Freedom into Kewen's ship after the rest of the crew have boarded Truth.

IC: "Truth to the Kewen, I understand and am glad to make your acquaintance as well." Ivan snorted a chuckle at the Kewen commander's response to his ship's name. A sense of humor was always appreciated. "If you wish, we will not bother you with our presence any longer than necessary. We don't mean to infringe on a classified military exercise."

Oenoë hummed slowly and sweetly as she continued to deliver intercepted transmissions from between Freedom and the Kewen fleet, though Ivan didn't pay much attention. The precocious AI was drizzling the words down the holo-display like strands of honey. She hadn't done that before; probably got to playing with the holo controls while we were hibernating, he thought as he turned his attention to Freedom and her refugees.

"We'll be glad to have you aboard, Revin." He tapped a holokey, activating a blinking beacon on Truth's hull that indicated the airlock. "Just snug up there and the airlock will make a seal."

OOC: Can't post today, really busy.

OOC: *poke*

ooc: *notes* when he said cant post today i think he ment cant post for the week XD

OOC: Well, when he's able to post again, I'm rarin' to get my Aletes fragging some robots. :)

OOC: Really busy guys. I'll put up a post late tomorrow night.

Hope you understand

OOC: Yup, no worries. Just didn't want the RP to die out.

ooc: sure i understand some warning about this spate of inpostyness would of been nice but yhea i looks forward to ya posting :D

OOC: I'm willing to try again from a different approch

IC:

"Never saw Earth like that," said the operator.

The Flagship Super Destoryer Cruiser Lynx was alongside around 20 assault cruiser's, 30 frigates, 15 battle cruiser's and 20 transport carrier's. The Surpreme Admiral looked out into space as their target came into view.

"Earth is no longer a matter of ours," said Surpreme Admiral Xiahou. "That enemy cruiser is our only matter. Bring it down so we can extinct those bastard's forever,"

The Lynx came alongside the damaged Fungi Cruiser as they blasted it apart. Xiahou took a sigh of relief and sat down on the chair as they started to head deeper into the system. Little damage was down to the flagship as a fleet was picked up on the radar. Xiahou covered his eyes with his hands as an operator came beside him.

"We have an unidentify fleet coming towards us at and easy pace," started the operator. "What do wish us to do?"

"Identify it of course. Make no threats just ask them to identify themselves so we can all go home," snapped back Xiahou as he sat back in his seat.

"This is Flagship Lynx of the Imperial Lynion Navy calling unidentify fleet. We request that you identify yourselves," said the operator into the intercom.

Xiahou watched the fleet come closer and closer as he started to doze off.

"Ivan!" The playfulness vanished from Oenoë's voice as a half-dozen new holopanels sprang open, displaying a massive fleet of approaching vessels. Navigation Officer bared his teeth and snarled, the hair along his neck rising as his species' powerful fight-or-flight instinct kicked in.

"They're still a light-minute or so out," Ivan tried to reassure the Kzin. "Moving along at a snail's pace. Sub-relativistic. We've got plenty of time."

"I can smell your fear and adrrrenaline hormones, Ivan-Captain," Navigation Officer rumbled back over his shoulder. "That does not speak of reassurement."

"Yeah, well." Aletes were not the most trusting of people, due the nature of their business and their own penchant for swindling; the sudden appearance of a fleet that size quite frankly spooked the shit out of Ivan, regardless of what their intent turned out to be.

"What will you do?" Navigation Officer seemed to have gotten his instincts under control, for which Ivan was thankful. Freaked-out Kzin didn't make good decisions, generally.

"Our Kewen buddies have more guns than we do, so we'll let them start the talking. Meanwhile," he slapped the comm holokey, "Revin, I'm feeling a mite uncomfortable with these new arrivals, so if you could speed your business along while we've still got a couple billion kilometers between us and them, that'd ease nerves all around, copy?"

ooc: i dont know about the mercanary (Alestes or the shuttley craft butim not moving in fact i havnt moved since i arrived i am waiting for the shuttle to come to me on the contary... so :P and if you were aleardy present insystem and within scanning distance we would of dectedy you. so if you claim you were already in system and just blew up this ship i have to disagree sorry :P

IC:

The lead ship sent a transmission back to the sender of the newly recived message.

"We are the Kewen, Who are you and what is your intentions?"

The shuttle landed onto the ship. Revin was very nervous.


OOC: Sorry for the short post

As the Guardian Fleet came closer and closer to the fleet they picked up a reply.

"Nothing bad we have against them commander," said the radio operator.

"Well it seems something has happened to Earth. Ask them if they know anything about it," said Xiahou as he woke up.

"Hello Kewen Fleet. This is the Lynion Guardian Fleet. We were on a hunting mission but that's completed for the time being. we have one soul intention left to do. That's to find out why earth has turned into machines. Do you have any idea why?" replied the radio operator.

OOC: I was matching velocities with the Kewen ships, so I guess that means Truth is standing still too. :p Also, the robot empire is based on the planet Merter, not Earth.

IC:
As the Freedom snugged up against Truth's airlock, it extended a membrane that molded itself to the shuttle's hull, making an airtight seal. The bulkhead on Truth's side slid open with a whoosh, and Ivan stood behind it ready to welcome his visitors.

<So they're interested in this 'machine empire' as well> he replied over the ship's comm system after Oenoë sent him the Lynion transmission. <Interesting>

<Surpassed only by your interest, apparently> Oenoë said. <What are you planning to do with this, Ivan?>

<Just incite an interstellar war> Ivan replied with a small smile. <If I can get these people back to It'll Do and swing a deal. That's business>

ooc: wtf? what does earth have to do with this LOL >.> <.< this is MERTER! with the machines not earth dont know where ya getting your info

OOC: Sorry people. My bad!

IC:

"Maybe we should turn around admiral," said the pilot.

Lee watched as they kept their eye on the fleet. They looked around as the radar started to pick up a minor astroid storm heading towards them.

OOC: Bump? Anybody?

OOC: I was matching velocities with the Kewen ships, so I guess that means Truth is standing still too. :p Also, the robot empire is based on the planet Merter, not Earth.

IC:
As the Freedom snugged up against Truth's airlock, it extended a membrane that molded itself to the shuttle's hull, making an airtight seal. The bulkhead on Truth's side slid open with a whoosh, and Ivan stood behind it ready to welcome his visitors.

<So they're interested in this 'machine empire' as well> he replied over the ship's comm system after Oenoë sent him the Lynion transmission. <Interesting>

<Surpassed only by your interest, apparently> Oenoë said. <What are you planning to do with this, Ivan?>

<Just incite an interstellar war> Ivan replied with a small smile. <If I can get these people back to It'll Do and swing a deal. That's business>

OOC: Sorry, work
IC:

Revin opened the shuttle hatch and found himself staring at Ivan. He left his blaster in the shuttle, and the other crew members were now leaving the shuttle.

"I am Revin." said Revin introducing himself to the man.

"Pleasure to meet you, I'm Ivan," the Truth's captain replied, shaking hands with Revin and his crew. "The nest is right this way, if you'll follow me." Ivan gestured down the short corridor to the 'nest,' where his and Navigation Officer's creches were located. "The rest of the crew is there as well."

"Their genetic makeup differs from yours by 0.2 whole percent, Ivan!" Oenoë's disembodied voice said excitedly, causing the captain to shut his eyes for a second and sigh.

"That would be Oenoë, our shipboard AI," he said a little resignedly. "She likes to give newcomers polite welcomes."

"This is Navigation Officer, my...well, navigation officer," Ivan said as they stepped inside the small room. The big Kzin nodded in their direction and watched them from his creche. "Hell of a shipmate, just try not to show your teeth if you smile at him."

"Urrr." Navigation Officer slitted his eyes and twitched his ears in the Kzinti equivalent of a sly smile.

"So," Ivan sat on the edge of his creche and rubbed his hands together. "I'll go ahead and throw out why I've asked you here. My people are mercenaries by trade - for generations we've made our living hiring out to anyone who's had a job to be done and something to pay for it. We haven't had any big jobs for a long time, though."

"Not since before we Kzinti joined your wandering," Navigation Officer purred.

"Yes," Ivan agreed, and leaned forward. "I can guess from what you've said that you are escaped rebels from this 'machine empire' looking for allies to help you finish the job. Am I not correct? I am offering you the services of my people to help you accomplish this. There will be a price, of course, but that's always negotiable." Ivan paused laced his fingers together, waiting for Revin's response.

"Pleasure to meet you, I'm Ivan," the Truth's captain replied, shaking hands with Revin and his crew. "The nest is right this way, if you'll follow me." Ivan gestured down the short corridor to the 'nest,' where his and Navigation Officer's creches were located. "The rest of the crew is there as well."

"Their genetic makeup differs from yours by 0.2 whole percent, Ivan!" Oenoë's disembodied voice said excitedly, causing the captain to shut his eyes for a second and sigh.

"That would be Oenoë, our shipboard AI," he said a little resignedly. "She likes to give newcomers polite welcomes."

"This is Navigation Officer, my...well, navigation officer," Ivan said as they stepped inside the small room. The big Kzin nodded in their direction and watched them from his creche. "Hell of a shipmate, just try not to show your teeth if you smile at him."

"Urrr." Navigation Officer slitted his eyes and twitched his ears in the Kzinti equivalent of a sly smile.

"So," Ivan sat on the edge of his creche and rubbed his hands together. "I'll go ahead and throw out why I've asked you here. My people are mercenaries by trade - for generations we've made our living hiring out to anyone who's had a job to be done and something to pay for it. We haven't had any big jobs for a long time, though."

"Not since before we Kzinti joined your wandering," Navigation Officer purred.

"Yes," Ivan agreed, and leaned forward. "I can guess from what you've said that you are escaped rebels from this 'machine empire' looking for allies to help you finish the job. Am I not correct? I am offering you the services of my people to help you accomplish this. There will be a price, of course, but that's always negotiable." Ivan paused laced his fingers together, waiting for Revin's response.

This was a chance to end the machine empire, but......

"I'm afraid we don't have any money. Though the Mahcines do have massive gold reserves on Merter." said Revin.

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

Meanwhile, a lone Machine fighter appeared nearby, scouting for the shuttle.....

"Captain, unidentify fighter approaching us," said the radar operator.

The Ship Captain came over to the radar and looked at it as the fighter was coming closer and closer towards them.

"Must be a scout ship. All hands to battle stations!" ordered Kennedy. "Unidentify fighter, unidentify yourself or you will be fired upon!"

"We Aletes never restrict our payments to money," Ivan said reassuringly. "The operation commanders will probably demand salvage rights to enemy materiél destroyed or captured, plus this gold reserve if you tell them of it. We like to get our hands on other people's toys and see what we can reverse-engineer from them."

A proximity klaxon chirped, and Oenoë plopped a holopanel with a visual of the incoming fighter between Ivan and the Merter refugees. "No lifesigns," the AI said soberly. "Either a drifter, or..." She let the alternative trail off ominously.

"I am not used to space being this crowded," Navigation Officer said grumpily.

"We Aletes never restrict our payments to money," Ivan said reassuringly. "The operation commanders will probably demand salvage rights to enemy materiél destroyed or captured, plus this gold reserve if you tell them of it. We like to get our hands on other people's toys and see what we can reverse-engineer from them."

A proximity klaxon chirped, and Oenoë plopped a holopanel with a visual of the incoming fighter between Ivan and the Merter refugees. "No lifesigns," the AI said soberly. "Either a drifter, or..." She let the alternative trail off ominously.

"I am not used to space being this crowded," Navigation Officer said grumpily.

"Pk, what do we need to do? We can provide with maps and other things." said Revin.

______________________________________________________________

The fighter scanned the ships, then, as if afraid of the ships, flew off and disappeared.