NationStates Jolt Archive

Flynn, the arrogant young captain of the ex-Blasfisian command Carrier ‘The Crone’ sat and surveyed the bridge.

Only only a few officers manned it… and they were all in comfortable clothes. Not one in uniform. But they knew their job.

‘Prepare for our last swallow jump – recon suggests that the next system is inhabited. Lets see what they’ve got to offer us!’ He finished with a wolfish grin. The female navigation officer signalled her understanding of his orders with a wink.

<This is Flynn to all ships; as soon as we’re in-system I want you to establish contact with whoever’s around. Upload prime into their main communication system; disguise it as a greeting program. After we’ve done that, make sure no ships leave! I want them contained. Neutralise any defences and military ships in orbit, then we’ll land troops and see what there is we can use. Once we’ve acquired everything of value we’ll sterilise from orbit and move on.>

The fleet swallowed simultaneously.

They emerged on the edge of a small system. The BF-1401’s spotted the small installation on the gas giant almost immediately.

‘Establishing contact…’ muttered the comm. ‘There’s something weird about the system their using… but we’ve uploaded prime… damn… our jamming isn’t going to hold! The best prime can do is start a diagnostic cycle! We’ve only got 30 minutes until they’ll be able to call for help!’

‘Well, we better get this done quickly then!’

<Flynn to all ships, move in! Target any weapons that prove to be active! BF-15’s, front and centre! If there’s anything down there that packs a punch, obliterate it! BF-1401’s, if anything makes a run for it, make sure they don’t get away using any form of FTL drive!>

‘Copy that Flynn.’ Replied the captains of the heavy battleships and escort vessels.

The Pirate Fleet began their assault.

On the ground, men were being trained in the Greywatch facility. They were outside and in the open doing obstical courses and practicing moves. The rocky landscape was barren but the weather was nice as usual. Leanorians and Drones watched over the men and women who were being trained. "Good, good. Everything is going according to plan." Said an officer.
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Control Center:

Officers scurried as a head officer walked in, "What's going on?!" He yelled. A few men looked up, "Sir, comms are down! We're being jammed." "Multiple ships just appeared, they're entering the atmosphere!" "I think we're under attack!" The officer's eyes widened, "All of you to you seats. Full sweep, find out who they are, bring the battle cannon all line, target any ship in orbit and fire. Get everyone inside now, tell them to arm themselves. Move people!"
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Outside:

Alarms went off to the suprise of everyone who didn't know what was happening. A cadet looked up, "Is this apart of training?" She said to Leanorian. "ATTENTION! ATTENTION! THIS IS NOT A DRILL, TRAINING FACILITY 845 IS UNDER ATTACK FROM AN UNKNOWN HOSTILE FORCE. REPEAT. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. EVERYONE PROCEDE INSIDE NOW. PREPARE TO DEFEND. ALL OFFICERS, PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR COUNTER MEASURES, ENEMY IS BELIEVED TO BE USING MULTIPLE ORBITING SHIPS." The alarm kept going and it took no time for the officers to begin screaming orders to the trainees. It was not going to be a good day.
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Anti-Orbital Cannon:

Two men were frantically working on their consoles. "First target set!" "Power at 98%!" "Good enough, fire!" The cannon fired a long red beam of energy at one of the battleships. The beam lasted for five seconds before stopping. "Prioritize another target and fire!"
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Facility:

Officers and trainees came running in. SAM site were already up and prioritizing targets. Officers and professional soldiers stationed at the outpost grabbed their weapons and prepared. Lucky for them, more the 75% of the base was underground.
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Hanger:

Engineers ran back and forth. An officer ran in, "Everyone listen up! CLose those doors now. Reinforce them and activate shields, we're not leaving. We can't, they've prepared well, anything that leaves will be capped in no time. Make sure they care get in, activate holo-camo panels." People nodded and prepared everything, pilots armed themselves with pistols and SMGs. Engineers even took weapons, the mission was to make sure some trainees made it out, they were the future soldiers of the Greywatch Amry, they would be protected.
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Barracks:

Drones were already prepared, these emotionless constructs were ready and waiting. They would be thr trump card if needed. A Drone hive was deep inside the facility, it promissed to make the enemy's job very difficult.

The Pirates didn't even slow their approach to the planet, picking up speed all the time, moving in erratic patterns and scanning for any energy signatures that appeared.

The BF-15's led the charge, not as nimble as the other vessels, they relied on their armour and shielding instead of being able to dodge incoming fire.

The Hammer was struck without warning, high on the port-side prow plating. The energy displacement shields flared bright red as they tried in vain to disperse the incoming beam, but the armour took most of the blow. Even the nine meter thick ablative heavy alloy couldn't entirely resist such energy and began to vaporise almost immediately. Fortunately, due to the duration of the directed energy beam and the movement of The Hammer during its desenet towards the planet, the beam scorched a thick trench in the armour of the battleship rather than causing any significant damage to its systems.

Within the ship itself the blow was most definately felt by the crew, some of whom were almost knocked off their feet. Hull intergrety generators activated, stiffening the structure of The Hammer against further attack.

'Return fire! Forward batteries!' Screamed the captain, incensed that the prey below should target his vessel!

The kinetic cannon and forward plasma emitter opened fire almost simultaneously, sending a stream of charged particals and a bolt of superheated plasma energy slamming towards the anti orbital cannon on the surface.

Within Flynn's command carrier, landing craft and fighter escorts were being prepped for launch once the threat to them on the surface had been neutralised.

One of the BF-1401's had detected an AA battery on the surface and lined up on it. Launch tubes spat 3 combat wasp torpedos towards the planet, they were programmed to be kinetic and explosive weapons only. The Pirates didin't want to irradiate the installation before they had chance to loot it. The wasps accelerated away towards their target at a frightening speed, moving in erractic patterns and sending out electronic warfare signals to confusing targetting sensors of there targets.

Multiple AA bateries opened up on everything in range. They were using gatling cannons and cluster missles. They would only do so much damage, especially against hardened war vessels. The anti-orbital battery preped and fired again at the same vessle, this time at full power and targeting the engines. The beam went for 7 seconds this time. Then there was rumbling as the AOC's shields flared up, "We're taking damage!" "It matters not, fire again, same ship!" The cannon opened up again on the same area before its shields hit 30%. The AA turrets were dealing with the missles, they had to be wiped out. Inside the facility, guards were prepared to defend with there lives. The enemy would have to enter the main building and proceed down the stairs into the recieving room, a very large area that had portable shields set up. Soldiers waiting with gatling cannons, they were going to die most likely but didn't care.

'Combat wasps have been neutralised... it seems that their AA guns are to be taken seriously, our electronic warfare signals are having no impact!'

'Hmmm... we could probably take them out with a massive wasp launch... but why waste the missile?' said the captain of the BF-1401 with a mirthless smile.

'Target them with the main beam cannons.'

Gattling fire raked the hull, smashing a sensor bulb... the feed was immediately replaced by a redundant bulb. The turbo-lasers destroyed the erratic incoming missile fire.

The BF-1401 opened fire on a single AA battery with their beam weapons... Yellow directed energy lanced directly toward the fixed emplacement.

Meanwhile The Hammer took another shuddering blow from the orbital cannon. This time the displacement shields failed. A chunk of armour was gouged from the engine housing and spun off into space.

Inside the vessel a conduit ruptured in the engine room, spilling bio-matter coolant all over a maintainence bay.

'Damn them! Open up with the Ion beams! I want that shield down!'

This time both BF-15's opened fire. A hellish combination of destructive force darted towards the cannon. Followed by a salvo of combat wasps lauchned by a BF-1401 as it rolled away from an on-coming missile.

The Command Carrier had established itself in high orbit. Clouds of fighters were lauching, they escorted the bulky transports down towards the surface. BF-1401's shielding the fighter formations and transports as they approached the atmosphere.

An AA battery went down immediately as the beam of energy hit it. The AOC's shields failed shortly after and the cannon took serious damage. "Activate the afterlife shield." "Are you sure?" "Yes, even if the cannon is not fuctional, the shield will hold off anything." "We must leave then." "No, seal the doors. We stay here, grab a weapon, if the enemy gets in we self-destruct, they cannot capture this cannon but we must keep it in one piece if possible."
Meanwhile, more AA batteries were firing, but they would only hold so long. Inside the facility, the soldiers prepared to introduce the enemy to their playing field. Leanorian and human soldiers were to be feared, alone, but together they were borderline unstoppable.
Inside the command center officers waited for the comms systems to come back. "We almots have it sir, the Sniper Network cyber-defense grid is eating away at the jamming signal." The commander nodded, "Underneathe your seats are emergency weapons. Take them in case the enemy gets in. Prepare the underground AA Batteries to surface and fire. We'll take them by suprise."

OOC: Don't forget, my AOC fired twice at the engines, not once.

'Damn it!' exclaimed the captain. The second lancing beam of energy had wrecked The Hammer's exaust ports. With no displacement shield and damaged armour, the engines were severly damaged.

'We're breaking off the assault. Moving away from orbit on thrusters. We'll try and repair these drive systems, but there's no way we can continue to bombard a planet like this, we could get pulled into the gravitational field if a drive cell outheated and blew, we need open space.'

Flynn was irritated by the loss of the BF-15's firepower, but the technology in the orbital cannon intrigued him. Such powerful beams and a shield that seemingly couldn't be penetrated... He assigned a full regiment of 'boosted G9troopers' to land near the cannon and make it their priority to get inside and loot anything they could rip out.

'Sir, the remaining AA guns are being neutralised by the BF-1401s as they escort the landing craft down... we should have several hundred ground troops landed in just under 2 standard minutes... But, prime has reported that its jamming efforts are being countered. There'll only be another 15 minutes at most until they're able to use their comm array.'

'That shouldn't matter.' said Flynn casually. 'It'll be a few hours before anyone gets a signal from here. And even longer to organise and travel to this system. That should give us plenty of time.'

'Once all AA defences are down have two BF-1401's stand in close orbit for planet side artillery support. Have everything else form up around The Hammer and hold station out of orbit. Our command Carrier will stay in high orbit to provide fighter and landing craft with more troops where needed.'

'Our first lander has just touched down.'

The AOC was gone now, it was unoperational, but the shields would at least hold. The remaining surface batteries were gone too. With the first lander touching down it was only a matter of time. Officer frantically tried to bypass the jamming to no avail, the Sniper Network would eat it away on its own. At least one orbiting ship was nuetralized. A pair of drones were preparing to give the visitors a warm welcome, the soldiers inside would wait for the attackers to get inside and then open up. Underground AA batteries were offline, for now, they'd be used for a suprise attack as soon as one was needed. For the moment, the Drones had command of the situation outside.

Boosted troopers began spilling out of the landing craft. They were astonishingly varied. Some resembling normal humans, others indistinguishable from fighting mechs. These men were upgraded in all imaginable ways... and armed to the teeth. But they lacked organisation. When they'd been in the Blasfisian army they would've been grouped into units with abilities, attributes and upgrades that would have compliamented eachother. But as pirates, they were more of a mass of men... not leaderless, but not as efficent and as effective as they used to be.

Most accessed a map of the area using their NCI links to the BF-1401's in orbit and advanced towards the building that happened to be closest.

But one unit seemed to move with a purpose. They were all heavily modified, armour grafted directly onto their flesh. Reinforced skelletons and organ membranes. Boosted muscles and senses. Extra weapons implanted in their limbs of every imaginable variety.

These men moved as if born to life as special forces troopers. They were G9. The elite. And they had a cannon to capture.

OOC: Confirm - all your troops are inside buildings? None out in the open to oppose my landings/advance?

OOC: Two Drones are outside
IC:

The two Drones watched as the men offloaded with smiles on their faces. "They approach us brother." "Yes they do." The two drones did nothing but stand as the men approached.
Inside the base, everyone simply waited for it to begin.

OOC: You remember their descirptions? Pale skin, black clothing, teeth, hair, nails, lips... and so on?

'Movement! 2 of 'em!'

The advancing boosted troopers kept their discipline and moved forwards as they had been trained. One particularly huge mech-like trooper standing over 9' tall with heavy TIP carbines fitted above both shoulders, swiveled at the waist to bring his weapons to bear on the strange looking aliens. He never even vocalised a command to surrender, just activated his prime governed targetting program and opened fire.

Explosive ammunition burst from the twin muzzles tracking towards the two individuals who had moments earlier stood up and revealed themselves.

Meanwhile, at the Orbital cannon...

The G9 troopers had reached the cannon and were in the process of analysing the shield technology. One of them reached out a limb (one of 6 that the boosted trooper possessed!) and attempted to pass through the shield.

The two drones moved effortlessly out of the way of all incoming fire. "You should not be so quick to react. We have something you should know." One of them said.
Back at the AOC, the shield responded violently by flooding the body of the soldier with energy. Then there was a soft sound as an invisible wall smashed into anyone five feet away from the shield. This was its defense, Anti-gravity propulsion generators were installed behind the shield, they were its secondary defense. AG pulses were able to get out, but just like everything else, they could not get in. The shield itself was powered by multiple underground generators that were scattered all of the mesa and even the cnayon below. Such a shield had been developed to protect the most precious of devices.

'By Fish, they're fast!' thought the boosted trooper into the NCI band...

His communication was picked up by others who had moved around the drones. They circled back to surround them.

One of the troopers nearest heard the aliens vocalise something and ran it through his prime translator...

'Oh really? And just what is that?' replied the boosted soldier and the auto feeds of the grenade launchers slung under his arms buzzed to life. 'Tell me something I need to know and we might just let you live!'

"Shall we let them know, brother?" "Yes brother, we shall." "You are not undetected." "We are the drones, elite super soldier constructs of Greywatch." "We are hive minded." "Yes, indeed we are." "We come in squads of fifty, there are ten of our caste members here." "That means forty other offworld Drones are aware of this attack." "And there is always one drones at Greywatch Prime." "Our creators know of the events that have transpired." "We are of the Lightning Foot caste, we are here as the first line of defense." "We have told the others of your arrival." "Fear no, they are not coming." "We wish to have fun, we don't want the military to stop our fun. So our brothers at home have not alerted anyone as to your presence." "You are safe, for the time being." The two Drones laughed, suddenly electricity built around them. There was a massive arc of it around their bodies, they continued to smile. "We were created by those who imagined speed could be the greatest weapon." "Feel the power of their creations!" The ground exploded and the Drones were up in the air, electricity surrounding their bodies still. "Attack!"

'Mother Fu-GAHHH!!'

Many of boosted men fell. The electricity coursing through their bodies blew out several delicate impants, forcing the soldiers to their knees. Others simply keeled over, their sensory processors overloaded. Several were obviously dead, their skins blackened and sizzling, boosted muscles spasming.

'Fate protect us! Did you see that?!'

'Well don't just stand there! Pour it on! RAAAAAAAGH!'

The dozens of boosted troops in the area linked their targeting programs and allowed prime to govern their movements. A hail of fire erupted towards the airbourne drones. Explosive rounds, electron beams, mini-smart bombs, gattling fire, lasers, pulse rifle rounds, gauss carbines... and even the whine of a solitary hand-held rail-gun.

Back onboard his command carrier, Flynn sat up straight as he accessed the NCI feeds from his troops below on the planet. Could what the drones said have been true? Had the alien nation already been alerted to their presence here? And more importantly... were these drone creatures not totally obedient? Did they have some free will? Could that be exposed as an advantage? And where could Flynn get himself some soldiers as powerful as the drones obviously were?!

Back at the orbital cannon the G9 troopers had finished gathering info. They were trying several different approaches to breaching the shield, such as creating a small feedback window, digging under the shield, inverting the polarity of the shield itself. On top of that they were attempting to upload prime programs into the enemies mainframe and field emitters.

The foolish trooper who had attempted to force his way in lay blackened and forgotten as they worked.

The Drones smiled as the fire ripped into them. They were promptly torn apart and didn't try to dodge the oncoming fire. This was meant to be a taste of what was to come, the two bodies smashed into the ground but there was no blood. Only a gray ectoplasmic ooze came forth, their smiles were still on their faces as their hollow solid black eyes gazed up at the sky.
Meanwhile at the AOC the shield was still holding, it was an intelligent shield. It would hold off many different strategies before going down. It generators were well hidden, and without the complete destruction of all of them, the shield would not fall. On the inside, none of the computer or consoles were just in case of hacking. The two officers just sat with their guns, eating away at some sandwiches. The only way in was an elevator that went down quite a ways into the underground parts of the base.
Inside the command center, officers continued to wait. They knew about the Drones abilities but were not think rationally at the moment, they had completely forgotten about the Drones's hive mindedness.

'Fish in hell... take these things back to a transport. Flynns going to want to take a look at them... or what's left anyway.'

The drones remains were taken back to a transport which promptly took off and started towards the command carrier.

'Flynn, there's only a few more minutes that Prime can keep their comms down.'

'Alright, alright...'

<Flynn to all troops, assault the main entrance. BF-1401's to provide supressive fire.>

The BF-1401's in close orbit immediately opened up with their turbo lasers. The weapons were intended for anti-fighter/missile use, but in the atmosphere they made one hell of a show.

'That should keep their heads down! Inflitration and extermination's the name of the game boys!' Shouted one of the leading boosted troops as he activated a flame-throwing weapon. 'Let's play!' He grinned and moved forward towards the entrance.

The orbital barrage stopped just before the Pirate troops entered the building and proceeded down the stairs, they launched smoke cannisters and sensor-strobing grenades and then lauched themselves into the chamber, trusting in their armoured implants and integrated weapons governed by prime software to give them the edge in the hellish environment.

The attack served only as a lightshow. The doors to the facility were reinforced and shielded, even after the first one was blown down, there was one more. Inside the other soldiers waiting as they heard the rumbling of weapons striking the armored doors. "This won't be easy," one of them commented. Everyone of them engaged combat armor, it covered their bodies making them more durable and gave them a few extra bonuses. "Well they'll be here soon, everyone's ready?" Said another soldier, there was loud chanting for a second in response.
The Drones that had been loaded aboard the transport were motionless. But, unfortunantly, they were far from dead, they were built to last, and that was something they were very good at. They gave no indication of their still being alive. The ectoplasmic sludge continued to drip and ooze from their bodies.

The transport arrived at the command carrier. 2 Bio engineers looked down into the pod that the chewed up bits of drone had arrived in...

'By Fish... well, there's almost nothing here to disect! Bio pod?'

'Yeah, thats the only thing I can think to do with 'em.'

The remains were tipped into a nearby organic module and a medical/scanning stasis field was activated.

'Activate the nanonic implant unit... lets see if we can't find a way of accessing whats left of their minds...'

Meanwhile, on the surface...

The boosted troopers were crowded at what they thought must be the last door they'd have to burn through. There were several hundred strong and all prepared for close to medium range combat on the other side of that door.

They'd set up the thermite based explosive to burn through a wide section of the final armoured door, to give them room to move through in their dozens rather than at single file.

The explosive was activated. A hole 20 feet wide was blown in the door and through it the boosted soldiers threw sensor strobing grenades and smoke devices as well as pouring in supressive fire and bio-paralysis gas. The Boosted would be protected from the gas by their modified repiratory systems. mere seconds after the chamber was filled with smoke, the soldiers moved in. They'd linked their targetting programs and allowed their movements to be guided by prime. Flame-throwers and close assault weapons were fired while others lept forward on boosted legs, eager to scramble over the shields and reach the aliens within with their bare hands.

What the pirates would be greeted by would make a lot of people wet themselves. Five gatling cannons operated by humans. Three Leanorians in the back armed with swords. And finally, Two more Drones, drones were like ghosts, they required no armor because there were many things in the physical world that didn't hurt them. "DU shells! Frag out!" Then the room ereupted into fire as the soldiers began firing at the door way, it was a big room, it didn't take long for the Leanorians to disappear. Luckly, both races had their battlesuits on to provide protection from the barrage of nastiness that came down the stairs. Problem was, they were using heat sensors and that wouldn't distinguish between enemy and Leanorian going melee.
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Meanwhile, the Drones began looking around, one wouldn't be able to tell though due there eyes being a solid black. Their grins stayed on their face. "Hey." One of them said, "Must be mighty proud, thinking you killed us. Eh?" The other one began laughing.

OOC: I'll excuse it this once because I didn't properly describe drones. They have no life signs ever because they are technically never alive, think of a ghost walking around in human skin without the need of muscle, a brain, etc. That's the makeup of a drone. Don't change it though, this makes the story more interesting.

OOC: Ok, cool. Do you have a factbook about things anywhere? I'm struggling to piece together exactly what drones are... its a hassle trawling through threads when I never really get the full picture. - I'll edit my last post.

IC:

The Bio stasis pod began to initiate a nanonic infiltration of the Drones cell structure. The nano-tech was searching out neurones, attempting to access the memories of the two drones that the Boosted Troopers thought had been neutralised. It was a slow process. The prime program governing the procedure was meticulous. Once neural cells were located the nanobots would infiltrate them to learn more about these mysterious 'Drones'.

Inside the main underground chamber on the planet below the battle had been joined. 4 boosted troopers had fallen back as they rushed the breach, almost cut in half by the ferocious fire of the gattling cannons. Others stepped forward in their place.

One boosted soldier resembled a mech rather than a living being. He slowly lumbered into the breach in the door, gattling fire tracking accross his composited armour didn't seem to affect him. In place of a head the boosted trooper had a band of sensor bulbs circling his armoured torso, one of which shattered and pulped as it was pummeled by incoming fire. The trooper didn't even seem to notice the damage. Two heavy flame-throwers deployed from what looked something like humanoid hips, and bathed the area in flames. Some of the boosted fell back from the inferno, while others strode forward into the hellish environment, safe in the knowledge that their implanted shields and armour could safely tolerate the temperatures.

Two of the boosted pirates even clung to the walls of the chamber and scuttled, spider-like, towards the gattling positions.

One pirate who had strode forth into the flames found himself face to face with a humanoid figure in white armour, clutching a sword... could it still fight in the inferno? The boosted trooper didn't wait to find out, he lashed out with a heavily armoured, boosted muscle limb.

OOC: Yeah, I need a factbook, don't worry, the great thing about drones is that they explain what they are.
IC:

The Drones smiled, "Still not listening?" "Shall we explain brother?" "Yes, we are the Donres." "We are the unliving." "We are not dead either. We are cryptic." "Cryption: The ability to manipulate the universe." "Cryption breakdown: Cryption breaks into two pieces, Cryption and Encryption, attack and defense, respectfully." "Origin, the Elden, the ancestors of Greywatch humans and Leanorians." "Cryption allows the user to create fire, lightning, water, and other things as well as manipulate fire, water, air, earth, shadow, and many other things." "The Enden: The decentants of Twilight Demons, powerful creatures that Greywatch has had little contact with." "Drones: Cryptic Constructs, we are the result of the Forbidden Ministy's work." "Very few men and women can use cryptic abilities." "All Leanorian possess encryptic abilities like hyper-regeneration." "Drones are the blood of supersoldiers, the blood of Elden, and pure cryptic energy." "We are ghosts, not living and not dead." "Our skin is artificial, it is simply energy that has shaped inself into a material very similar to skin. The gray ooze inside of us is cryptic energy, but it is crude and un-processed." "the Elden are thousands of years old, many of them can no longer have children, the oldest living Elden known is approximently seven thousand years of age." "Redemption, brother?" "Yes. That would be Red, the dragon keeper." "Needless to say, your efforts are in vain... we have no cells... we are ghosts... we are crude, cryptic energy. Demonic energy." The two Drones laughed as their bodys began coming back together, regeneration. Red circles formed in their eyes, "Drones have been set to Genocide Protocol Rank 3, 2nd to final rank of Genocide Protocol." "Eliminate all things that have not been classified as allies."
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The soldiers were caught in the inferno, many of them being killed instantly. The Leanorian had broken off for this reason, there was a terrible roar as the lion-like being brought their swords down on any fleah they saw. They were the elite melee units, and with their regerative capabilities, they were borderline unstoppable. The drones in the room smiled as they helped surviving soldiers to safety. After they were they made their presence known. "Drone squad attack! Genocide Protocol Rank 3! Terminate all non-allied forces!" The two drones began building elecricity around their bodies and charged into the crowd. The Leanorians jumped back as the Drones slammed in with full force.

OOC: Ah, Drones are mythical demon sort of creatures then... hmmm... I don't deal well with that sort of thing...

IC:

Prime detected movement within the bio pod... unable to access any biological cells and unable to extrapolate how the specimens within the pod were moving within stasis, Prime took action, and vented the contents of the pod directly into space, and issued instructions for the nearest turbo laser to lock on to the mass and fire.

On the Bridge a comm officer looked over to Flynn, 'Sir, prime can no longer keep the enemy communications off line, they are able to call for help. Oh, and The Hammer's propulsion systems are coming back on line.'

'I wouldn't worry about the aliens turning up with a rescue party just yet... it'll take them some time to get here surely... I believe we have enough time to get at least some of what we came for.'


Down on the planet...

The crowded door way became a scene of mayhem. The drones had crashed head-long into the giant boosted mech-like soldier who had been bathing the chamber in flames. The energy that they shunted into his body turned him, for a slip second, into a cyborg-lightbulb. Every conductive atom in his body acted as a filament. The chamber was filled with blinding light as the trooper vaporised. This gave some of the illdisciplined pirates pause for thought... several even began to flee the carnage at the door way.

One G9 trooper had used his superconductive armour to tranfer the electrical energy directed at him, straight into his own, plasma weapon and had grabbed hold of one of the drones, he was attempting to press the muzzle of the plasma weapon into the drone's chest and fire.

Other boosted men had spilled past the drones in the trumoil and made straight for the leonian's, bloodlust clouded their judgement and stim-software packages boosted their reactions as they engaged the aliens in hand to hand, swinging and strikeing wildly powerful blows at the lion analogues.

In the control center a message for help was sent via Sniper Network Comms system. WIthin two minutes the council had recieved and heard the message, and thre Greywatch Worldslayers were on their way.
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Inside the dark halls of the Forbidden Ministry an odd machine lit up and began making an strange sound. Then a hatch in the machine opened up and two masses of gray color matter rolled out, over the next 30 seconds they began shaping themselves into humanoid figures and then they stood up. "Well bother, they don't seem friendly, do they?" "No brother." A woman approached them, she was tall and cloaked in a black coat. "Mother," one of the Drones said, "They didn't let us use Genocide Protocol..." A smile could be seen on her face as she petted them, "I know... don't worry, there will be other enemies for you to kill."
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The Drone smiled as the weapon was aimed at him. He then grabbed the weapon and began forcing even more electrical energy into it. Enoguh to possibly overload the weapon and do damage to anything near the two. The other drone kept running around, darting between pirates, its hand consumed in electricity, it slashed at enemies with an electrical blade of an arm. The Leanorian smiled and charged, their swods were made from a dense and lightweight material. The brought their blades down on necks and heads. They barred the claws and teeth and dug into enemies foolish enough to expose vitals.
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Meanwhile in Greywatch space, the Worldslayers were ready and already preparing to open a Pressure Space Rift. It was going to be over soon.

The butchery that the drones wrought amoung the boosted soldiers was horrific. Most of these men were used to being able to hold their own in close range combat, their implants and boosted muscles usually gave them the edge over other military ground forces... but this was something else.

The plasma pistol overloaded, frying the soldier it was intergrated to, and engulfing the drone that he'd been wrestling with in an explosion which killed two other nearby boosted combatants.

The other drone was darting around at will quicker than most of them could follow, the electrical discharges he emitted were disabling almost every trooper he chopped into... and the ones that could withstand the charge to too slow to respond and the drone danced away from their powerful swipes.

The fight agains the lion-creatures was going slightly better, but not by an awful lot. The G9 troopers outnumbered the Leanorians, and they seemed to be evenly matched in combat. For every trooper that went down with a severed limb or sliced artery, a leanorian would be hit with a powerful attack or an energy discharge from close range weapons system implants... But the Leanorians seemed to get back up more often than not! Their ability to recover from even major injuries seemed such that they could rejoin the melee within moments of being struck down!

On the Bridge Flynn sat bolt upright as his NCI link showed him a sensor scan of the system.

'Something's jumping in!'

The three Leanorians weren't used to this kind of combat, the creatures they fought landed brutal hits and had the energy discharges to boot. The drones that overloaded te plasma pistol was gone, that was the only way to kill a drone, to eliminate its body alltogether. The other Drone faired better but didn't possess raw cryptic power. Its energy levels were being depleted as it wasn't even an Elder Drone, it was still very young. The Leanorians did all they could to hold back their enemies but soon there was a loud crack as one of them hit a wall. "Sister!" Another one called out before turneing to take another swing. Being mortal creature made them vulnerable, they weren't like th Drones, they had more limits.
-----------------
The people in the command center watched as on screen, their soldiers were slowly being nuetralized. They only had a few others and once those were gone the facility didn't have any other automated defenses. They prayed the Worldslayers would make it in time.
----------------
Above the planet a Pressure Space Rift was opened, in sent a gravity disturbance throughout the region, anything too close being pulled into it. Two Worldslayers shuffled out, the third one had stayed behind and wa son standby. The two ships had no accompanying vessels, their shields were at 200% but their weapons could not activate for about a minute due to the energy spikes of PSR travel. They didn't bother to put out a message, the 38Km length of the ships did all the talking for them.

'What the Fuck are those!?' Flynn almost screamed on the bridge of his command carrier... the 9km vessel looked pitifully small on his NCI sensor display.

'How can they have gotten here so quickly?! Launch all fighters! Equip half of them with combat wasps!'

<Flynn to all BF-1401s concentrate all your firepower on the one nearest me! Err.. I mean, nearest the command carrier! BF-15's full ship to ship engagement! Give 'em everything you've got!>

One of the bridge crew turned to Flynn... 'Should we charge weapons?'

Flynn looked down at the crewman... 'All avaliable power to engines and shields! Get us behind the planet - we'll monitor the battle via NCI link! We can't let the command carrier be taken... the whole fleet would fall apart!' Flynn justified his cowardice.

400 fighters blossomed in a cloud from the command carrier and split off into wings. Half were armed with combat wasps and the others were forming up to escort them on their torpedo runs.

The BF-1401s in orbit broke off and join the other escort ships in their erretic attack pattern on the lead behemoth enemy vessel, they readied their wasp launchers and charged the main beam cannons.

The BF-15's powered up their immense capital weapons and started to accelerate towards a vessel each. There was nothing a BF-15 had ever come up against that could go toe toe with their awesome firepower and ridiculous armour and shielding... but something told the captains that this was going to be an unusual day...

*******

In the next system...

The pursuit fleet, led by Admiral Razer in the command carrier The Valient jumped in system...

The 20 BF-1401's immediately started scanning for the pirates jump signature. While the 3 command carriers and 9 BF-15's waited for the smaller ships to forward them co-ordinates. This was not a small fleet. It was a medium military force... not to be taken lightly, and more than enough to take on the pirate vessels.

They'd been chasing the pirate fleet for months... and were 'anxious' to put an end to their little game of cat and mouse once and for all. The Valient was equipped with a 'swallow inhibition device' which would prevent any Blasfisian swallow drive from forming a stable portal within range. Once the pursuit fleet caught up... there would be a reckoning... and Admiral Razer sensed they were close.

"Great..." Said one of the captains of the lead Worldslayer, Wargazer. "They're gonna send everything at us..." The weapons of the two craft were still charging with the shields at 150%. The two ships were preparing for combat. Then a transmission was put through.

<You think you're going to stop us? You're in Greywatch Empire territory. You think these are the only ships we have? There are many Worldslayers back at home who'd be willing to drop by. I urge you to reconsider your actions, these ships were name Worldslayers for a reason.>

With that the ships began moving forward to the approaching ships. Officers aboard the two ships scambled to get reports and data on the enemy. One Worldslayer was about to break off after the lead enemy ships but didn't. It was time to mop up. But the one thought in everyone's minds were, what was the situation on the ground?

OOC: hope you don't mind my minor god-moding in the ground battle, just trying to progress things.

IC:

The last Leanonian fell, shudding, with a hole in the back of its head. The G9 trooper lowered his arm and felt the shotgun implant recoil into his flesh. It had been a bloody fight, many of his men lay around him, unmoving.

The drone had finally been grasped by a G9 trooper who had been so genetically altered and boosted with muscle that he'd begun to resemble a grossly oversized gorilla, who had flung the drone so hard that it'd actually made an impact crater in the solid concrete of the installation wall. As it tried to rise, troopers rushed in and took great delight in firing their weapons into the demon... eventually they were just firing into a thick grey goop.

It was then, with horror that the remaining Boosted troops began to take notice of thier own NCI displays...

Almost as one they made a run for the door and the steps, sprinting back to their ships. Behind them on rubble and corpses remained.

In orbit around the planet, Flynn's command carrier vanished behind the planet while the BF-1401s closed in on the lead worldslayer... they initiated their standard attack evasion patterns, rolling and swooping, always changing their vector on approach to the massive ship, as they came into range the ships launched salvos of combat wasps, 82 of the vicious craft began their own streaking approach towards the huge ship, they were programmed to use all avaliable force against the vessels... including atomic submunitions. The battle had become serious for the pirates.

The BF-15s were up to speed, flying straight in towards the huge worldslayer vessels, they unleashed huge gouts of Ion cannon energy followed up by repeated volley's of plasma, beam weapons and accelerated kinetic cannon fire. The string of destruction arched in towards each of the two 39km long ships.

The BF-1401's also opened fire, their charged particle beams slicing down through the swarm of combat wasps to strike at the vessels, before the torpedos reached their targets.

'Whatever the result of this battle is... I can always swallow away.' Thought Flynn to himself as he concentrated on his NCI display where the battle unfolded.

********

In the nearby system...

'Jump signals traced... sending co-ordinates now!'

The pursuit fleet began to align on the next system, not knowing what they were jumping into...

OOC: I'll accept it this once
IC:

The Worldslayers took no shit from anybody. Weapon fire made their shields light up a bright blue. They had been given the ultimate order, Hold Nothing Back. Soon, railgun, energy cannons, lasers, as well as many other weapon opened fire. Worldslayers had more than 3000 individual turrets scattered accross their hulls. There was soon a lightshow as weapons went back and forth. Then another PSR opened up and a third Worldslayer shuffled out. The two others continued firing everything they had, even live-uranium shells were loaded into the railguns. Fighters meant nothing, the lead ships were the target, the main job was to destroy. If a ship did manage to survive, it would be boarded and seized. Now things were getting serious. The third Worldslayer turned to face the single fleeing ship, as soon as it was ready, the Slayer Cannon would be fired. The Worldslayer ultimate energy based weapon, it could easily rip though anything in its path without resistance. They only problem is that weapons would be disabled for at least five minutes.
----------------------------
Back in the complex, officers hung their head in respect for the fallen. A few soldiers who been pulled to safety went unnoticed, but it was bad. One officer had his finger on a button on his console, as soon as those sons of bitches pulled out, the four underground SAM sites were going to make sure they regretted everything they did.
----------------------------
Three Drones came into the room to view the slaughter, they were very young but they held sniper rifles. The enemy had fled, but the fight was not over, these Drones didn't have developed cryptic abilities, but a sniper srifles with ecplosive shells would make up for that. They proceeded to the entrance and zoomed in with their scopes. Once they had marks, they opened fire on the skulls of the fleeing enemy.

'I don't believe this! Another one?!' Flynn was getting nervous. 'Power up the reactor, I want the option to swallow out if we need it!'

'What about the third vessel? It's wheeling to face us!'

'They may be big, but we know we're fast! Put the planet between us and them.'

The command carrier was indeed a sleek and fast vessel like most Blasfisian ships, and it slipped away from the third worldslayers line of fire and over the horizon.

The sheer weight of fire coming from the two worldslayers made for an impressive spectacle... One BF-1401 had been unlucky enough to be transfixed by the opening shots, and unable to manouver, had been torn to shreds by the continued fire.

But the others were working well... moving fluidly and gracefully, dancing around the incoming fire, firing their own beam weapons at targets of opportunity, turrets on the hull, already weakened sections of the shield etc...

Occasionally a BF-1401 would sweep in towards the worldslayer, firing wildly, taking one or two hits that the energy dsplacement shields flared brigtly to repel, coming to just outside the permimeter of the shield at great speed, before performing a tiny swallow jump before impact and emerging nearby, only to resume their attack.

The BF-15's faired less well. Their lack of manouvering ability made them an easy target as the barralled towards the worldslayers. They continued to fire with everything they had as the repeated impacts damaged their shild emitters and armour plated hull...

'Are we even doing any damage?' asked Flynn over the NCI.

********

On the surface the boosted men were sprinting for their lives, the last few transports were lifting off to redevous with the Command Carrier. Some were desgined to be faster than others and made the ships easily. Those lumbering mech-like boosted G9 troops and the wounded came slower. To add insult to injury they came underfire from drone snipers, one troopers head burst like a over-ripe melon as the explosive round caught him at the base of the skull...

The transports weren't going to risk a lucky shot disabling them, they began to lift off... One last trooper made it by making an impressive leap (at least 15 feet) on his boosted legs, to grap hold and haul himself into the transport as it took off. The remaining troops found what cover they could and engaged in a long range fire fight with the sniping drones. Carbines and TIP rifles spat kinetic and explosive rounds (as well as the occasional plsma bolt) back at the drones position. They were effectivly dead if the outcome in orbit didn't go their way...

The third Worldslayer continued to move towards the fleeing ship, it wasn't the fastest ship because it had just emerged from PSR, but it would have to do. The Other Worldslayers were having a difficult time as ships weaved around thir weapons. It was then that the two ships decided to 'cheat' the enemy. They opened up Pressure Space Rifts a few meters off their bows, each rift was like a small (and very weak) black hole. The Worldslayer hoped that the emence gravity of the rifts would help them, all turrets began firing once more. In actuality, the shield were holding, not a single one had even dropped to 75% yet. These were the Worldslayers, what purpsoe would they have if they couldn't take in this much abuse? Cannons and turrets began to fire randomly placed shots as well as using the targeting systems.
---------------------------
The officer in the command center pressed down hard and outside, the SAM Sites came out of their holes. These were different through, they possesses laser cannon and gatling cannons. The AA defenses fired at the transports, particularly the engines, no one wanted those transports to go anywhere.
-------------------------
The Drones kept firing even as enemy fire was being returned. They were careful with their aim. One of them got hit and fell over, it waited a few seconds for its chest to regenerate before opening fire again. One of the Drones then turned to the AOC and saw a few straglers, it promptly began opening fire on them.
--------------------------
The lead Worldslayer opened it docking bays and released three Harbingers. Each one in turn released about 300 fighters, half of them were unmanned droid fighters.

The transports were defenceless... without their fighter escorts and with no support ships in orbit, they were easy prey for the SAM sites. They were all destroyed. One or two of the boosted pirates did survive the enemy fire, and the fall to earth, but they weren't combat effective.

The pirates on the ground engaged with a long ranged battle with the drones were coming off worst. They'd lost two more of their number and their return fire wasn't nearly as effective as it had been at close quaters against the drones.

The Elite G9 unit hadn't moved the the shield of the AOC. All this time they'd been trying to figure out a way to get inside. They'd concluded that a seires of concentrated ionic pulses with a specially configured frequency would probably do the trick... unfortunately they lacked the equipment to undertake that approach and had been attempting to install prime into an open port anywhere around the AOC... when they came under fire. Their response was not to take cover, but to advance rapidly. They were aware via the NCI network that dozens of their brethren were pinned down by the snipers... if they could draw the sniper fire away from the other troops, maybe their superior numbers could once again overwhelm the drones... there were only 3 of them... and with them removed perhaps the pirates could gain access to the facility.

In space above the planet the situation had gone from bad to worse. 2 BF-1401's had been sucked into the anamolies generated by the alien vessels before being able to swallow away. There were only 5 of the highly effective vessels left in the fight, and they were being swarmed by enemy fighters and were having to swallow every few minute to avoid being overwhelmed... on top of that prime was having difficulty with the enemies new strategy of firing randomly placed shots... it made it almost impossible for the program to get the ships close enough to attack while keeping them safe.

The BF-15's were once again, coming off worse... warning sirens were sounding on the bridge of both vessels as their shield emitters started to overload under the constant fire from the worldslayers. The captain of The Hammer made a decision... 'Ramming speed! Straight for them!'

The other officers grimly obayed... they'd seen this done in training, a BF-15 was an ideal vessel for ramming, big, heavy and a wedge shaped prow... but ramming something the size of a worldslayer seemed like hitting a saber-toothed bear with a vaguely shapened rock... if you got lucky it could kill the bear... but more than likely you'd just piss it off. The BF-15 went in hard and fast, it's integrity generators at maximum.

Flynn didn't like the way this was going... his carrier was being pursued around a planet by a huge worldslayer that would finish his vessel off in a matter of minutes... the pirate captain gave the order to jump out... but just before the carrier managed to charge its jump cells...

********

Admiral Razer couldn't believe what his display was showing him... his fleet had jumped in-system and found a full blown battle in progress.

'It's definatly the pirates! I'd recognise that power signature anywhere!'

'Activate the jump suppressor!'

The Valient began to hum as the massive field generator came on-line.

<Hello Flynn...> The Admiral chuckled.

The Drones on the surface weren't going to be toyed with and took no time in breaking off from one another. One of them began to run towards his enemy while still making acccurate shots. The other two broke from one another, stafing, but still managed to fire at their enemy with 85% accuracy.
--------------------
The lead Worldslayer took in the full brunt of the ramming, its shield lit up and one could clearly see the ripples across the shield. The captain was pissed of at this point and on his command, three turrets all aimed for the same spot on the ship, what looked like it may a bridge and then fired right at that spot, hoping to disable the ship's control center completely.
--------------------
The droid fighters were intelligent beings, everything they did was planned out. Their seemingly random flying about and swarming was actually internal processors plotting tactical info and predicting how the enemy would react. However, this fight wasn't over yet.
--------------------
The other Worldslayer paid no attention to the new arrival. Instead it opened up a PSR and then appeared again a few kilometers away from the lead pirate ship. A transmission was put through:

<You're going to lose this fight. We've met others of your kind before and we know how to track you. Accept your fate.>

The cannons were prepared to take out the ships engines and shields but once more the PSR had drained the ship's weapons capabilities. It had to wait, in the meantime, multiple boarding craft were being prepared. Drones were being loaded onto each one.

The pirates were really very screwed.

The waves of fighters that had been launched by their command carrier had been wiped out to a man.

The Hammer's attempt to damage the worldslayer by ramming seemed to have failed and it was taking heavy fire from the turrets on said world slayer.

The BF-1401's were no longer able to swallow to escape the attentions of the enemy fighters and were being overwhelmed.

And their leader seemed to have abandonned them completely.

One by one the ships began to transmit surrender messages... all except the carrier with the cornered captain Flynn.

On the ground, the boosted personnel knew the fight was now hopeless and laid down their arms.

Flynn was enraged... he screamed orders that nobody responded to.

********

<This is Admiral Razer to unknown Alien vessel, I'm a member of the Blasfisian military and I... - wait, did you say you'd encountered our kind before??>

'Admiral... that could wait! Flynn's charging the carrier's weapons!'

'Yes, right, of course!'

<Alien vessel, the ones who've attacked you are rebels and pirates, unfortunately from our nation. They have crimes to answer for accross the galaxy... we've been pursuing them for months. I can only apologise that they weren't caught sooner. Now that we are here, we request that you let us deal with them.>

The pursuit fleet deployed around the pirate command carrier, charging their weapons, leaving the pirate nowhere to run...

The Drones beckoned for the modified soldiers to come closer, their weapons were aimed at the head just in case.
-----------------------
Any ship that had surrendered was now in luck, the captains of the Worldslayers felt merciful to those who were smart enough to give up. Another PSR opened up near the two Worldslayers, far away enough to prevent damage to any vessels, this time, hundreds of firgates and cruisars emerged. They were here to round up the remaining pirates.

<Anyone smart enough to stop fighting, we applaud your common sense, take position under the Worldslayers and stay there until given a command to do more.>
-----------------------
The other Worldslayer did what it had to do, in a minute most of its weapons had their targets. The engines were fired upon by multiple syncronized cannons and turrets. The next issue was to fire towards the middle of the ship using the same method in an attempt to burn a hole straight through and prove a point. That Worldslayers were not to be tampered with.
----------------------
In the control center, everyone breathed sighs of relief as they found they were now, for the most part, safe.

'Sir, they're bombarding Flynns carrier!'

'Let them ensign. It's nothing to do with us. Flynn attacked these people and refused to surrender even when we showed up. And I wouldn't want that carrier back. Who knows what sort of software bugs and traps Flynn created while he was in command. Let these aliens do what they want.'

The pirate carrier didn't last long. The 9km vessel was massive and resiliant enough to endure a few blasts, but a concentrated barrage like this with nowhere to run to? No. The sporadic return fire was quickly silenced and within minutes of the worldslayer starting its barrage, the carrier was a lifeless hulk, spinning and burning in space. Moments later a lucky shot found the antimatter storage device and the carrier was literally blown in half.

<This is Razer to any alien vessel. Please respond.>

"Huh, I didn't expect only two shots to completely destroy it." Said one of the captains, "Send boarding craft and a few engineer teams. I want to know how that thing works." Like that, it was done several craft were deployed to the ship, damaged or not they wanted the remains. A few craft were deployed to handle the fires. The came the message, everyone listened and then the reply was put through:

<We copy, what do want?>

It was slightly harsh but everyone was a little annoyed, they'd already gotten a report from the surface. Things didn't sound good.

<Message to all pirate craft - You will answer for your crimes.>

<Message to alien vessels - We leave the fate of the pirates and their ships in your hands, unless you'd rather we dealt with them? After what happened here I believe it's your right to decide their fate... we only ask that if any of them are ever to be set free they are returned to us, so that they can answer for their other crimes.

Also, a warning about the ships of the pirate fleet... you see, the thing is->

*Every remaining pirate ship switch off its anti matter containment pods at the same moment - the BF-15's explosions were the largest and most powerful, owing to the high energy requirements of the vessels. Every remaining pirate ship was completely destroyed at the reaction used up the matter of the vessels themselves in a completely uncontrolled cataclysmic series of explosions.*

<ah... yes... we were trying to warn you about that...>

As the Worldslayers were pushed from the blast everyone held on. Luckily none of the frigates or cruisars were close by. The two captains of the lead Worldslayer were busy screaming at the pirates actions and at their officers, for lack of anyonw better to scream at. Then a report came in, "Sirs! Our blink network was established a few seconds before the blast, we managed to get four pirates off the bridge." The captains stopped and fell silent, then one of them responded, "Who authorized this?" The officer gulped, "A Drone sir, it got into one of the blink rooms and materialized the pirates before the blast..." The bridge was silent for a moment before the other captain finally spoke, "It did this why? Are you telling me it knew?" The officer shook his head, "I- I don't know sir... I just got the-" "Find the hell out NOW!" "Yessir!"
----------------------------
The other Worldslayer hadn't seen what had happened but the datastreams going back and forth between the ships was enough. The two captains of the other Worldslayer were in silence, one of them left the bridge without a word. The remaining one couldn't even be bothered to look at the screen, "All of them... all of them are dead... not a single ship for us to go through... from the looks of it.... we have nothing to gain here... why? What was the point of all of this...? What did they hope to accomplish?" An officer looked up, "Sir, captain... we have a hail... should we respond?" The captain didn't look up, "Transmit message..."

<There's nothing to say now. We will be leaving the system shortly, we wish only to check to remains of the command ship. A team will come in and clean up the rest of this mess. Once we are done we will leave, there is nothing left for us here.>

The message was put through and captain left. "First mate, you're in charge, I need to rest."
---------------------------
Back on the surface the Drones jumped away from the remaining pirates. They weren't taking any chances, "I can only assume that you too are suicide bombers? Answer me." Said one of them, rifle still leveled. They all tensed their legs, prepared to jump away if they needed to.
-------------------------
The command center was silent, everyone felt the sting, they had lost good soldiers in a pointless battle. There was barely anything there worth stealing, yet lives had been lost. Greywatch gained nothing, all the technology of their enemies was in ruins, at least most of it. This was not the kind of thing Greywatch was used to, the battles they fought typically had meaning. This was... completely different.

One of the pirates glanced up at the drone that had spoken...

'It's not us you know... it's the software. There are things you can change about prime... Flynn was good, he changed a whole lot of things... and you can delete the program... we have, that's probably the only reason we're still alive... it makes us less... takes away a part of us that's been around since we got our first NCI implant...

But in the end, prime is quasi-sentient... it knows what it wants... it has an agenda of its own. Those ships surrendering... obviously that went against whatever twisted version of prime Flynn had installed on their mainframes.

You don't mess with prime.'

********

<We're sorry for any trouble these pirates have caused...> transmitted Admiral Razer.

<Is there anything we can do in terms of material or medical aid?>

The Admiral held off from asking the question that burned within him. News of the colony. If these aliens had encountered Armstrong and his expedition, did they have any idea how important it was the the Blasfisian people? 1/20th of the population... and an economy that had borrowed heavily and invested in the contrustruction of the two huge colony ships...

Razer had to know!

The Drone closed its eyes for a moment. It was making sure every other Drone had heard these words, hive minds helped the knowledge pass to those of its own group, from there it would be knowledge passed by words. In only a minute, more than half of every Drone ever created had heard the pirate through simple sharing of memories, the Forbidden Ministry had a new toy to play with. "You will have to wait here, if this program is all that you say it is, we have ways of... downloading it. We wish to study such a thing further."
-----------------
The boarding craft were on what was left of the commander center, the sihp was more than heavily damaged but that didn't keep a team of Drones, engineers, and scientists from going aboard, all of them in Greywatch bio-suits.

The other two Worldslayers weren't all that great either, their shield were at 12% from the concentrated blast. They pulled away from one another, one of them left via PSR.

The final count came it, 12 Greywatch soldiers were dead as well as 3 frigates and a cruisar who'd actually been to close to the blast, the ships weren't wrecked, but the damage had cause massive damage that ripped through the shields and tore open the hulls in a few areas. The lead Worldslayer took care of that by towing them into its own shield and then using grav locks to hold them in place on its hull. The other frigates and cruisars left via PSR only a minute later. Then a message was put through:

<If you're here for any other reason state it now please. Otherwise, please accompany us back to Greywatch Prime, the council may wish to speak with you. We already know they're going to want to speak with us.>

<Greywatch prime? Is that your homeworld? Do you know anything of our colonial expedition? Please, you said you've encountered our kind before... what did you mean by that?

I apologise for all these questions... our mission was to stop the pirates and bring them to justice... but the chance of hearing news from the colony. It overrides everything.

We'll happily accompany you to see justice done to these pirate scum... but please, tell us what you know of the fate of our colonial fleet!>

<Yes, what we meant by we'd seen you kind was that we know of the colony. We actually had to save them when they apparently crossed onto someone elses territory. We are now in the process of a joint-colonization in another system. Greywatch Prime is indeed the captial planet of the Greywatch Empire, despite your worry, we have no choice but to bring you there first. The council most ikely wants to meet you and register your ships as 'allied forces,' then we will take you to the colony.>

OOC: I was thinkin' if we bring them into the colony thread, it should be like a month or two after everything was started, just so there would be some well-established stuff that could help add to the dynamics of it all.

OOC: Sounds cool.

IC:

<Of course we'll accompany you to your home world, just give us the co-ordinates and we'll get underway when ever you're prepared... will it be a long trip? (OOC: these guys still don't know of PSR)

You say 'co'colonisation? This is a turn up for the books!>

<For your tech level, yes, it will take you maybe a week. Hold on please.>

The third Worldslayer put out a call for escort ships to arrive while also sending a report to the council. A minute later, the familiar gravity disturbance came, this one felt like a very weak black hole but one could still feel it. Four 3Km Cruisar emerged and stopped near the third Worldslayer.

<These are your escorts, they will take you into PSR. I suggest you go with them, it'll be much faster that way. And yes, we are joint colonizing with others of your kind. Hold on.>

The third Worldslayer accessed Greywatch archives and sent a few pictures taken by one of the Worldstarters, it showed the new system, the other BF forces, the planet they'd taken, the asteroid belt, the twin suns, the gas giants and Greywatch's Worldslayer beginning to build a capital city.

<That should be proof enough that we're not lying. Not only that, but as of this moment you are moved to 'Allied' status with all ships in the Greywatch military.>
------------------------
Meanwhile, on the planet and in space, repairs were being made. The lead Worldslayer took to the surface, it didn't land, but instead floated over the training facility. Multiple dropships came forth, each one carrying soldiers, technicians, engineers, medics and even a few vehicles. The massive ship was only a kilometer or two off the ground and could be seen quite clearly.

The Drones still had their rifles leved, "So, how do we disable Prime then? Or should we simple pump you full of EMP and go from there?" One of them said, another one shook his head, "The FM has viruses for this kind of thing. And no one can doubt the Viruses created by the FM, they're the ones that made us..."

'I can't believe Armstrong's managed to co-colonise and make allies of people this advanced! This is excellent news!' Thought Razer to himself.

<Greywatch vessels, confirm, we'll accompany you to your homeworld. We'll send back one of our vessels to our home system to relay the news and our whereabouts!>

One of the BF1401's peeled away from the Blasfisian formation and began to line up for an out-system swallow.

********

'Our prime programs have been deleted. We deleted them ourselves when we were left behind. If we hadn't before we surrendered it would have probably set off all the ammunition we carry in our implants or released some sort of toxin into our system from the NCI gland.'

Sensing an opportunity, the pirate tried his luck...

'If we help you to learn about prime, and what it can do... will you let us go? I mean, none of us could program it for you... that can never happen again, the original code was more of an accident than anything else... some programmers were trying to improve on AI constructs when 'prime' just seemed to burst out of the code! It's amazing really a thinking, living piece of software... do you know it even named itslef? Anyway, since then the base code has been copied and adapted so many times that prime exists everywhere now. It can be an effective weapon... but if there's no way to upload or install it onto a computer system, then it can't get in... it's not magic... but it's bloody good. We've never seen anything to match it... not even nearly. You lot might have 40 kilometer long ships... but Blasphemous Fish controls the biggest, baddest piece of software out there.'

The pirate sounded almost proud.

The escort craft positioned themselves around the BF craft. They were all facing the same direction.

<Don't move from there please, we're intiating a protective bubble around your ships, please position yourselves and face the direction we're facing. This is required for a smooth PSR experience.>
-------------------------
"You mistake what we are." Said one of the Drones, "We are the servants of the FM and the Coucil, it is their decision what will become of you, not our own. And we've come into contact with Prime before."
Just then three dropships landed a few meters away. Fromt them came a storm of soldiers followed by large 14ft mechs, each one heavily armored and possessing a variety of weapon. The soldiers lifted their weapons and kept them at the pirates' heads. "Get your 'ands up! Now!" One of them said in a british accent. "Al'ight lads! Move out and secure the area. Make sure nothing is lingering about in the facility!" Soldiers stormed the entrance with shotguns and assault rifles.
Next came several engineers and technicians, some of them went into the facility and other went to the AOC. Then another man came out, his armor had a red stripe on the left shoulder, "Drones," a filtered voice said through the helmet, "If these are captives then they are now out of your hands. Stand down, you are reduced from Genocide Protocol." The Drones nodded and the red circles in their otherwise solid black eyes vanished.

The lone BF-1401 swallowed out-system, eager to return to the homeworld and report that the pirates had been dealt with and that they had news of the colony... and new allies.

The other Blasfisian ships held position and allowed the Greywatch ships to encircle them and create a bubble.

********

The pirates were glad that the demons seemed to be under control at last.

'I tell you what,' whispered one to his comrade... 'I don't reckon even a gladiator would be able to take down one of them 1 to 1.'

'I don't know,' replied another pirate... 'those gladiators are big and fast... we've all seen the games...'

The pirates quietened as their new human guards approached.

The bubble complete, the escorts opened up PSR and less than a second later, exited above Greywatch Prime, ships in tow. Infront of them was a massive orbital docking bay.

<Go there and dock, everything else will be taken care of shortly.>
-------------------
The commander eyed the remaining pirates. "Lead, I need a prison ships ASAP." He eyed them again, "Cleavers!" He yelled, two new Drones appeared from the ship he'd exited. These ones were different, they both were armed with large metallic case strapped to their backs and Anti-matter rifles with large bayonets were in their hands. They were covered in tattoos and they wore no shirts. Their faces were covered by masks, they spoke in unison, "What can Redemption's Cleaver do for you?" Said their deep, filtered voices. "Take them," said the commander, "Make sure they don't run off, if they do, you know exactly what to do." The two Drones nodded, "Of course, Redemption's Cleavers will obey."

The Command Carriers and BF-15's docked. The BF-1401s held station nearby, allowing their bioware sensors to take in everything that could be seen.

********

The pirates went meekly. Without prime, some of their weapons implants were useless, and the lesser software they used as backups wouldn't have allowed them anywhere near as much speed and strength through communication with their implants, boosted muscle and NCI gland as prime would have. They were lucky to still be breathing.

It was a fairly typical docking bay, a large orbital structure. There was a central command for it all, there were large walkways that would run along side ships that docked, large rings were around the ship, almost like a tunnel except the rings were several kilometers apart. These were the AG locks that would hold ships in place. Blink networks were used to transport people from ships to walkways. The walkways were large, they ran the length of the docking bays, which were about 15km long, 20km wide, and about 70km high so as to fit multiple ships. What's more, the central centers had docking platforms on both sides. It was an impressive structure, and there were plenty of them. Its silvery hull glimmered in the light and the Greywatch insignia was printed on every docking port. Diplomats waited on the walkways for the captains of the visiting ships to give the word for blink networks to be established. A message came from the escorts.

<Contact the Central Command of the docking bays so that they can set up blink networks. We only want to speak to the captains, there is food and other services inside the stations. Or if you'd perfer, stay on you ships and the council will address you as a whole rather that talking to you in the conference center.>
-----------------------------------------
Back on the planet a prison ship landed, it was a large, rusty-looking ship that looked as though it had seen a lot. But despite its looks it had some of the best captive-holding tech Greywatch had to offer. The two drones led the pirates to the ship. "When you're inside, you will put in lockdown cells equipted with energy shield technology similar to that of AOC. The trip to Greywatch will be approximently 10 minutes. You will then face judegment." Both Drones spoke in unison without emotion.

The pirates made no response. Since the deletion of prime, they had become increasinly withdawn.

********

<This is Admiral Razer. Myself and the two captains of the Command Carriers will greet your council if you'll set up a 'blink' to transport us there?>

A message came in from the docking station:

<Negative, the council doens't typically do face-to-face kind of stuff. We already have a conference room set up with a link up to the council, we've already scanned your ships and located the bridges. ALl we need is for the two captains attending identify where they are standing so we don't pick up the wrong person by accident.>

The two captains and Admiral Razer held a quick NCI chat and confirmed that they were all standing just infront of their respective main command chairs. They were the only ones standing on the bridge, each in a roughly central position.

<Ready for transport.>

Razer transmitted the co-ordinates via his NCI link through the ships communications array and waited, not know what to expect.

<Affirmative.>

For new comers, it was like whiting out and then realizing you were somewhere else altogther due to the blink system. One way or another, they were standing in the conference room, a large screen in front of them. There were two Drones in the room, not elders but not young ones either. They were both leaning against the walls looking at the captains with their solid black eyes. "The conference will begin shortly." One of them said.

Razer and his two captains reoriented themselves...

'Thats a technology I wouldn't mind getting my hands on...' was the general consensus of their NCI traffic.

Several thousand officers Blasfisian officers back on the ships were activating the feed from the captains perspectives via NCI, waiting with baited breath to see what would happen next.

The Drones smiled at the captains' obvious suprise, they also chuckled to each other, wondering if the captains had noticed them yet. Suddenly they hushed as the lights dimmed a little and the screen activated. On it were to people, and Elden and a Leanorian, female and male, respectively. "Sorry," the Elden started, "The Council busy with some other things, so we are serving as their representatives." The Leanorian then decided to speak, "There isn't too much to talk about so you'll be done here quickly, we just need some basic information. We want to know exactly who you are, how do you know those pirates, and about your interest in the colonies. Just for our records really."

The admiral cleared his throat...

'My name is Admiral Razer, commander of the Blasfisian Command Carrier; The Valient, and leader of the task group currently docked here.

I was ordered by the government of Blasphemous Fish, to hunt down and bring to justice, the pirates that have been marauding throughout the galaxy for the past 8 months. They were lead by an exceptionally resourceful and cunning man... Obediah Flynn.

Flynn used to be one of our most gifted programmers and military officers... unfortunately he became corrupt and lusted after more powerful technology. He lead his small fleet away from our rule and begin his piracy career. We've been chasing him ever since. It seems that he met his match when he attacked your outpost though.

Our interest in the Blasfisian colonial expedition is understandable when you consider the economic, cultural and social investment that went into that colony! The hopes of many are pinned on the fortunes of that mission. It may represent the first step of our only hope to make contact with the people we come from... our ancestors.

We're relieved to find that they seem to have aquired such advanced and understanding allies in yourselves.'

The Elden looked to the Leanorian, "Are we done then?" The Leanorian nodded, "Yes we are." He then looked forward, "Prepare for a blinkscape to send you back to your ship. Escorts will take you to the colony."

OOC: So after the diplomats finish with the Kewen, we need to tell everyone about the fastforward thing right?

OOC: Agreed. We'll wait till diplomatic talks are over and then suggest taking things on by a couple of months.

OOC: Cause I forgot about this.
IC:

The prison headed off in PSR but came out somewhere different. It was not at Greywatch Prime, it was above a dark planet, a planet who's surface was shrouded by thick poisonous clouds. The ship went into the atmosphere and flew into a cave before landing. To the holding room came men dressed in black robes, their faces were obscured. They smiled as they looked at the three captured pirates. "Well well, quite the catch." Said one of them.

'Thanks... I do my best... but you're really not my type.' Said one of the pirates sarcastically.

The men laughed, "Oh come now, you look like one's who's been through a lot. Your body most likely holds some interesting secrets. Secrets that the Forbidden Ministry could do so much with..." The man pulled back his hood. His face was covered in tattoos and his eyes and teeth were like the Drone's, "I am father Twilight the second. I will be the one conducting the experiments on you and then using you for soldiers later on... if you're good. Don't think that Greywatch knows about this though, we operate out of sight, out of mind, and without any laws or restrictions. We've already erased you from the records, there were no survivors." The other men laughed.

Realisation dawned on the pirates... with prime deleted... they were essentially helpless... even unable to end their own lives... utterly at the mercy of this alien who wished to experiment on them.

"You look a little scared, don't be, those who remain vigilant recieve the highest of honors. Those who lose their will become less valuable then corpses. We are the Forbidden Ministry, the creators of the Drones and several other 'Black Weapons.' We know plenty about you, the Drones tell us everything through their hiveminds.... Now then... we shall discuss what to do...." With that a sleeping gas filtered into the cells. It was potent and those who inhaled it would be put out for hours, just another FM invention.