NationStates Jolt Archive

"This is an exciting day, gentlemen. Not only will we finally be able to reach anywhere in our solar system much faster, but we can begin to explore the depths of space without taking centuries!"

The man was rather vivid. He could almost be seen as a lunatic for all the laughing, riddled with snorting, he was doing. The white lab coat swung around ferociously as he ran about from table to table to desk to desk, checking last minute calculations he had gone over hundreds of times. It was pointless checking them, even if he thought there might be a mistake anywhere in the procedure, because at this stage you couldn't make a recall of a two-billion credit prototype when it's already taken five years to reach the outer part of the system. He just didn't want to sit still in front of government officials.

Magistrate Henry Danielson fiddled with his silver cuff-links absentmindedly. The small, classy, reflective rectangles adding a sparkle to the rather well-tailored light-gray suit. The linen shirt he wore underneath the jacket, navy in color, was well pressed, and the red tie bound in a double-Windsor knot. "Very well, Doctor Libber, continue with the demonstration. Skip the sales pitch, though, if you please."

The smile faded briefly on Libber's face, but returned quickly when he realized he had been asked to explain the theories behind the device he had developed with his team.

"Using our portal technology, we have created a long 'corridor' of portals. The vessel simply accelerates to full and enters the first portal, which is also accelerating into the next, larger portal, and so on and so forth. Basically, they will enter each other smallest to largest, and when they exit largest to smallest on the opposing portals, they will have the momentum of the larger portal they entered, as well as their own, and with the continual exchange of energy, the original vessel which is being sent will have the combined momentum of all that was before it, sending it at incredible speeds, which we hope will surpass the speed of light."

"He's a nutcase," whispered Samantha into Henry's ear. "Why did we even allow this farce to begin in the first place? The theory is full of holes, and the actual science seems like it was done by a crack-head."

"Because," replied Danielson, "Military command isn't full of scientists like you, Miss Gladstone, and seems to have the biggest budget. Not like they need anything else right now, so why not invest in big shiny toys that won't deliver?"

We're ready to begin, Sir. Engines are online and functional, and the portals have all been opened and are beginning to accelerate.

The order to start was sent back over the same communication channel, and the viewscreen depicting the whole affair in space showed the cruiser Meteor begin to rapidly accelerate. Everything was going as planned. The vessel entered the first portal right as it entered the next and so on. When they began to exit on the other side, each one left behind suddenly exploded, finally ending with the Meteor being launched at a relatively slow speed, not even near that of sound, into the blackness of space. Fire spewing out of it as it greedily gobbled up all the oxygen in the now ruptured and disabled vessel.

Henry sighed as he turned from the viewscreen, first to see the shocked and angry generals and military officials, then to Sam. "Fitting, isn't it? Streaking across space as a flaming husk. Picked a good ship for the job. Have the emergency crews move in and clean up this mess. I wouldn't be surprised if God himself felt that explosion. The shockwave will be traveling for a good distance, ensure that the magnetic deflection fields are active on the planets to minimize the damage."

A small Greywatch scout ship promptly came into the area via PSR a few hours after the explosion. It wasn't too hard to miss and was moved onto the 'stuff to check out' list by the Council. Whatever was here, it would be interesting, and hopefully friendly. The ship itself was only suited to hold about twenty people and as soon as it arrived in the area it immediately began scanning for anything of intrerest.
OOC: Sorry if this is half ass, I'll add onto it later if need be.

(OOC: Not a problem, not entirely happy with my intro either.)

IC:

"No no no no no NO!" Libber was kneeling on the floor holding his head and trying not to tear up. This was his life's work, this was suppose to be his legacy. The man who invented faster-than-light travel! The dream was gone even faster. He looked up angrily at the screen, which depicted the emergy vessels evacuating the floating Meteor, while others began towing away the bits and pieces of the gates using magnetic containment fields. "Why? WHY?! You were suppose to work! You were suppose to...What? Wha-what is that?"

He rubbed his eyes, removing the tears that had formed, then focused upon the videoscreen. A strange vessel had suddenly appeared out of nowhere at the edge of the system, close to the accident. Ringing and beeping began to sound throughout the room as everyone important got calls. Scanners had picked up the craft immediately, and it wasn't one of theirs.

"It would take years to get reinforcements there!"
"What do you mean the explosion took out communications with the area?! I want the local garrisons to respond and contain the area!"
"Who the hell are they? Do we have any information on them? Well what are the scanners picking up damn you!"

The military men bickered with their respective devices, while Samantha simply listened to whoever was talking to her, and Henry gave slow, calm, simple orders. "We have ships out there, right? They're intelligent enough, I know the local Magistrate, he's a smart man, he'll figure out something to do. Notify the Supreme Magistrate, and put planetary defenses up. We can't do much more than that, I'm afraid. Oh, call my wife. Tell her to have the coffee ready when I get home."

Unidentified Vessel,

Hello there. You probably don't understand a word coming out of my mouth during this communique, but whatever, why not try right? If anything, it might sound amusing to you. I am Magistrate Trek, acting authority for the local sector. That is, so long as my designated planet is in this sector, silly things star systems, always spinning. Everything is a circle, we like to say...or an ellipse in this case. Close enough. But enough of my prattle, might I enquire what you're doing, or more importantly, how you got here? Actually, who you are might be even more important. Oh, and please don't mind the starships moving to your location, can't be too safe right? I do hope you understand that, at least.

The response would take a little while but surely enough it came:

Well hello to you too. This is a Greywatch Scouter, we're here because we detected some energy fluxs coming from this area. Don't mind our presence as we mean no harm to you or your race. Perhaps a meeting in person would be more in order, eh? I imagine it would quell any suspiscions your government would have about an un-IDed vessel sitting on the edge of the system.

Virgil Castro stood at the command precipace of the Alliance Keyship Virtue of Might, looking over his Ensign's report on the energy anomoly they had detected on a long range probe. The thirty-year-old heir ascendant to the Chancellorship of the Commonwealth chuckled uncontrollably at what he saw. He turned towards Ensign Merrus, his ever witty helmsman and friend, barely contained laughter leaking through his eyes.

"So, let me get this straight... you think this was from some race trying to achieve faster-than-light transport by using some sort of glorified, spacial distortion, portal-based slingshot?"

Ensign Merrus was chortling under his breath, tears streaming down his cheeks as he tried to remain composed. His command station was positioned a good five feet below Virgil's platform, and he had to crane his head upward to attempt to look Virgil in the eyes and keep a straight face. He was failing so far too. "Yeah... yeah... that's... -snort- that's what we think..."

There was a brief silence that decended over the bridge crew of twenty five men and women. Then the entire room erupted with laughter. Even the elite Azure Gaurd stationed on the bridge, Alliance's elite royal bodygaurd whom are renown for their stoicism, were belly-laughing. Virgil roared with laughter, wiping tears from his eyes.

"Meuh... Meh... Merrus... set... set-Pffft-... set coordinates into the fold generator... contact Atlas Destroyer craft Intrepid and Valiant and tell them... tell them they're on escort duty with us... slave... slave the drive units of our escorts to our computers so they space fold simultaneously with us... we've... we've..." Virgil nearly screamed with renewed laughter for a moment before he could finish his sentence, which he could only manage in a substancially higher pitch that made the bridge crew laugh even louder. "... we've got to see this for ourselves!"

***
Within minutes, after the nigh-endless laughter subsided, the fleet enacted Virgil's orders, and the Virtue of Might, flanked by the two Atlas Class Destroyers the Intrepid and Valiant activated their drives. With a shockwave that rippled through the fabric of reality, space bent and warped, hurling the three ships through time and space, where upon they reappeared with another space-shaking concussive wave roughly midsystem. The Virtue of Might and it's flank guards popped into existence, the silver and blue hull of the Virtue silhouetted against the stars like a brilliant predatory bird.

Virgil surveyed the scene, observing the flaming hulk in orbit around one of the other planets, and also noting another starship... from what he could gather, it looked familiar... what was their name? Greygaurd? Grey... shield... no, that wasn't right... Greywatch! That was it! He remembered them from the rather scandalous Yaujta Diplomatic talks. They were a good society, and he was confident they would be friendly so long as the Virtue kept it's weapons powered down.

"Take us in slowly, Merrus. Nice and easy like. We want to be as non-threatening as possible..." he briefly snorted again, but quickly stifled it. "Oh, and Ensign Diana?"

The female comms officer grinned widely at him, "Yes, Virgil?"

"When these poor bastards attempt communication with us..." he sighed and finally managed to composed himself fully, "try not to laugh..."

The Virtue of Might and it's escorts continued in system along their current trajectory. Virgil considered their situation carefully and continued to regard the planet.

"Ensign Diana! Perhaps it would be a more enlightened course of action if we took the first step forward in this contact. Broadcast on multiple unencrypted public channels, both visual and audio." The brunette engineer nodded and fiddled with the holographic panel in front of her. A small, half-foot-wide robotic camera floated down from the ceiling, supported by the frisbee-like maglev projector sitting on the top of it's tiny body.

"Sir, you'll go live in five, four, three-" she continued counting down on her fingers. Virgil took a deep breath and straightened himself up. He was still wearing his hardsuit, and the armor gave him the appearance of a medieval king more then a modern heir to the Chancellorship of a mostly democratic society.

Good day! This is the captain of Alliance Keyship Virtue of Might. I am Virgil Castro, twenty-third heir ascendant of the Commonwealth of the Second Alliance, representative on their behalf and acting commander of this fleet strength. We detected an energy event which we beleive to be an attempt at faster-than-light travel. We commend your ingeniuty, I have to say that was quite creative.

I can see that we weren't the only ones who noticed this. Hello, Greywatch craft. I doubt you'd recognize me personally, but our two great peoples met at a recent conference with the Yuajta.

Our weapons are completely unpowered. We mean no harm, and certainly seek no conflict with any force present here. We will move to any coordinates you choose to designate. I am prepared to open diplomatic discussions at any time and will attend them personally. We look forward to any diplomatic relations. End.

Virgil slumped into his chair. "That should get their attention."

The captain of the scouter got that awkward feeling most people get when a person regonizes them and they don't recognize that person in return. The captain of the small vessel pulled long black hair from her face and then looked to one of the officers on the bridge, "Please open a SCN connection with the Archives. Crap... they had to know us... great, not I feel like an ass for not knowing who they are." The officer looked back from his console for a moment, "It's not our job so I wouldn't worry too much about it." He pressed a few buttons and began looking up some keywords. "Right then, apparently we've had contact with them on one other occassion...." He continued to read the little information in the databanks about the Second Alliance. The captain sighed, "Well, I suppose we have to answer now don't we?"

Yes, I just read up about the Yuajta conference. Nice to see a familiar face.

The message was short and sweet, there wasn't much more to be said. The captain looked at the holoscreen in front of her displaying the approaching vessels, "Hopefully they're friendly military folk," she said with a smile. The scouter had very weak weapons and wouldn't survive a firefight, but the first message she recieved assured her that her ship wouldn't be fired about and that was good enough for her.

"So... there's another minor race on the block eh?"
The ensign who made the comment was a young one, full of fervor and xenophobia, he'd be cured of that soon. Captain Bunev of the GCS Inquisitor strode on deck to salutes from around the bridge. The Inquisitor was currently just outside of the system where aparently another race was attempting to make a foolish FTL system.

"Eta until we break warp?"The captain's voice was crisp as it always was despite him having just being awoken by the comm officer. It was important to look fierce even when you weren't.

"Sir, we should be leaving warp in 1 minute and counting."
This would be another adventure, and as everyone knew, where there was a new race, everybody wanted to sniff around. Bunev expected to be a little late to join the party, but he would be there.

"Breaking warp in 5... 4... 3.. 2... breaking."
There was no jolt or sound as the ship left the warp bubble, but suddenly on the sensors above, multiple signatures came to life. Four FTL capable ships, and some little craft from the planet. He was right, they were late to the party.

In the distance they could see the remains of what looked to be a gateway for accelerating ships. How primitive this race was.
"Ensign, open comm channels."
"Aye Sir."

This is Captain Bunev of the the GSC Inquisitor, we noticed a large energy fluxuation in this system. We come here in peace to explore and enlighten. Our weapons are powered down and we are hoping to help you in your quest for Faster than Light travel.

To the other ships in the system, although we have had no contact before this time, I hope our peoples may live in peace together.

Now it was just a matter of time and waiting for an answer. Bunev just hoped they were friendly.

The door closed softly, the shouts emanating from the office it connected to suddenly silenced. She was pretty, the secretary, and young. Her brown hair was done up in an elegant bun, and she wore a black satin blouse with matching black skirt. A look of horror on her face. She sat down gratefully in her chair and took a breath, then began relaying the messages to all the proper people. Working for the Supreme Magistrate was a large headache, but the pay and benefits were well worth it.

The gateways lying in orbit of every planet in the system began taking increased traffic as military vessels began to shuffle about, attempting to get to the scene of the accident, where it appeared alien peoples were appearing out of thin...space. Cruisers, frigates, even battle cruisers began to flood the scene. Countermeasures were ready, as were the weapons. Communication systems were back up, and the Magistrate who had first made contact was now blocked out from replying. Instead, they got the big cheese.

Alien Peoples:

This is the Supreme Magistrate of Kereth. You have entered our sovereign territory uninvited. Do not attempt to flee, nor will any acts of aggression be tolerated. The gateway nearest to you all will transport you, once you send a text transmission to the gate with the following code[017], to our chief military spaceport. There you will be given more information about what to do.

"This could have gone better..." Said an officer, the captain sighed, "Could have gone worst... Looks like we dno't have too much choice. We could always PSR our way out of here but something tells me Prime would have a problem with that... begins scans for this gateway and take us to it." With that the small ship began to move forward, quickly and quietly. "Prepare our PSR dirves... just in case we need a quick exit... and input that code they gave us." The ship sent the code to the gateway, in text as requested, and went through.

Virgil grimaced in his command chair, "A simple 'no thank you' would have sufficed," Things had just changed, dramatically. Virgil had come expecting to tow a burning ship out of orbit, and engage in a diplomatic and scientific exchange. He had expected maybe a few military ships, a handful of roughly corvette-sized starships to come out and escort them. He had most certainly not expected to be surrounded by a fleet of warships for his efforts. The heir ascendant was no longer feeling so generous in his mood, what with them staring down the collective barrels of a fleet's worth of weapon systems.

"Ensign Lars! Begin cycling the capacitors for the main mass driver cannons and all anti-ship Linear Accelerator turrets! Ensign Johnson, check the shield grid and stand ready to bring it up at a moments notice! Ensign Merrus, deploy the repulsor sails and prepare for combat manuevers, and make ready for an emergency space fold if necesary! All hands, secure yourselves! If things get bad, we may be in for a fight!"

Virgil had no intention of firing the first shot, but he wasn't going to let someone draw the metaphorical gun on him and not pull out his own. He knew he couldn't take on this whole fleet by himself, even with his escorts, but he could probably get away without too much damage. And if these Taledonians decided to open fire on them, he was confident he could at least cripple a few ships on the way out. Ensign Lars looked nervous; this was his first bridge command.

"Steady, Ensign, steady." Virgil hadn't brought up his shields yet, or made any sudden moves, but he did intent to let his new found 'friends' know he wasn't about to be shoved around. Ensign Lars nodded towards Virgil, updating the heir's command displays that the Virtue and it's escort's weapon bays were charged. Virgil also called up an inventory screen of his ship's weapon systems:

-Eighteen Defensive Linear Accelerator Turrets across his hull
-Four Offensive Foward-Mounted Heavy Linear Accelerator Turrets midship
-Two Anti-Ship Super Heavy Mass Driver Cannons hung below the Virtue's hull.

Virgil solemnly called up a smaller, seperate screen, which displayed how long it would take to ready his ship's two HYLE (High Yield Low Emmisions) Nuclear Warheads. While the weapons were nowhere near as effective in the void of space as they were planetside, but they were still powerful enough to crack the hull of nearly any craft like an egg with a direct hit, and could easily shatter the most powerful shield grid and still cause substantial damage to the target. Only Keyships like the Virtue carried nuclear weapons, and even then, only the heir or Chancellor in command of a keyship could deploy the weapons with their unique DNA key. Virgil left the safety locks on the two HYLEs. That was a line he refused to cross. Unless someone here really screwed up, and innocent lives were put at stake, he'd rather die than unleash that hellish weapon.

He set a course for one of the gateways at a painfully slow pace. The Virtue and it's escorts slowly lurched forward, intentionally reducing their progress to a snail's pace. If he was to move, he would move on his terms.

These people weren't very friendly it seemed. Strange too, Bunev wondered to himself, they were making threats and yet they didn't even have FTL travel, although they did have a lot of ships.... The Inquisitor wouldn't be able to defeat all of these ships, but maybe a few, even the larger ones.

Then the transmission from the planet came, fine, they wanted to be all tough. Then they could be tough.

"Ensign, raise our shields and prep weapons. If things get bad, we want to be ready." It seemed that one of the other arrivals was feeling the same way, if they worked together, they may even win, let alone survive.

"Enter in the codes they sent us, we'll follow along for now. Have half our shock troopers ready in case of trouble." The Inquisitor began moving very slowly, following the three ships of another arrival.

Bunev smiled to himself, let the games begin.

The glowing orange portal, seemingly made of fire, suddenly became a picture frame at the entrance of the right code. There, within the fiery frame, sat an immense spacial station. It sat in no orbit, for it was far from any of the planets in the system. In fact, it was as if it was a planet, for it had its own orbit around the blue star. Around it, ships of varying size and design hovered in the nothingness of space, slowly moving about as if sentries to the station. The station was curious in the fact that it had no docking ports, or any other visible methods of entrance.

When the foreign vessels entered through the picture, they found themselves there. Once all were through, the portal behind them, which was now a picture of the area they had just come from, sat in a watery picture frame. Promptly, it changed again, back to a rippling oval of what seemed like dark blue water.

Alien vessels,

This is Hyperion Station. Please submit to us the exact X,Y,Z coordinates of your party that will be meeting with the Supreme Magistrate, relative to the center of our systems sun. Once we receive your transmission, we shall open a portal for you to board our station.

Hyperion out.

The area of space not far from the planet was disturbed once again as a vessel emerged from the deeps of transwarp. The vessel that had emerged from the portal, the artificial wormhole being sealed behind as the stern returned to the depths of normal space. The ship was a warship, as was evident from the line of turrets that were placed along the sharp-angled hull. It was the same shape as an arrowhead, with three engines protruding from the rear of the vessel. The bridge super-structure was arranged on top of the sleek vessel, below which was the designation NDD-2894-1 and the name below that identified the vessel as the APS Lioness, a Destroyer of the Alversian Deep Space Fleet.

Standing on the second tier of a three tiered bridge was the Captain. He was a tall man, powerful looking. He had an air of authourity that came only when one had a lifetime of service in which he could place his experience. His grey, rapidly thinning hair clung to his head in a crude form of a crew cut, while his beak like nose stared at the monitors of his Junior Officers. His blue eyes were narrowed into a frown.

"Unknown?" He asked looking at the data streaming from the console screens. The younger Alversian nodded,

"Yes Sir, an unidentified Species. Shall we make contact?"

"Sure," The Captain was not in the mood to elaborate on his sentences or his queries. It was late into the First Shift, he was tired, he was hungry and he wanted to go to bloody bed. Of course, duty called first. As always, "Send a message," He ordered and settled back into his chair.

TO: Unidentified Species

This is the Alversian People's Destroyer Lioness. We are here on a mission of diplomacy and exploration, thus we were wondering as to the possibility of a meeting between Emissaries of our two peoples?

Captain Robert BURNS
APS Lioness

"Geez... so many protocols... please open up a channel." Said the captain with a sigh.

Our ship is too small for something like that and I don't want to risk it, if you don't mind. Could you just give us a room we could blink someone into? I believe it would simplify things.

After the message was put through she thought to herself. "Oh crap, move us forward. When those other ships come through, I don't want them to hit us." The scouter quickly pulled forward, away from the portal.

Negative on request. We have no information of what a 'blink' is, and thus will not allow such to occur. We have scanned your vessel, and it is large enough. The portals are the size of a normal person, and completely stable. If you cannot fit one of those within your hull, then perhaps we will simply have to exclude you from the conference.

In regards to the Alversian vessel, a simple message was sent. The Supreme Magistrate had left express orders for simple communication with anyone not Kerethan. Thus, a simple explanation of how to get to Hyperion, as well as the portal identification code was transmitted to the Lioness.

The Lioness recieved the rather curt message from the Natives and the Comunications Officer looked mutely on as his Captain and First Officer read the note that had been left. It seemed like these new people were not the warmest of hosts. A point summed up neatly by the Lioness' First Officer. The man turned to his Captain and said,
"Charming bunch of Buggers, aren't they Sir"

"Meh," Burns shrugged, again he was too tired to even bother argueing the point. It was something to be addressed once one reached the location detailed to them. Where was it? He did not know and, at the moment, he did not really care. He merely nodded and allowed his vessel to navigate it's way into the gate with the necessary codes and positions ready for relay once they were challenged.

"Well this bunch just became less friendly." The captain muttered under her breath, "Fine then, give them what they want. I'm going in, you know how to reach me if anything goes south. The coordinates will be in my quarters." The tactical officer shook his head, "Ma'am, a bit risky, don't you think? We should call a diplomat in from Prime." She shook her head, "That won't go well with these folk. Only way to do that without maybe alerting everyone would be to use a Star Shadow, and that's a cruisar if I'm not mistaken. Something tells me that wouldn't gain us any kudo points..." The officer sighed. She smiled, "I'll go get my second in command to watch over you all while I get ready. I'll take someone else along if it makes you feel better..." She left the bridge, a few minutes later a man walked on dressed in the typical scout uniform and took the helm. "Captain's ready," he began, "transmit co-ords to our hosts now." The comms officer nodded, "Aye sir. Transmitted."

Imperial Destroyer
Emperor's Beneficence
Bridge

"Captain, the navigators are preforming the warp-exit rituals now." A console operator reported, his hand on his comm-bead.

"Very good." Captain Tomas Diresan sat at his command throne. He had been ordered to investigate a strange warp-reading detected by a Imperial sensor station a few sub-sectors away. The Angenterian Imperial Navy took such things very seriously, and dispatched armed warships to investigate, as a precaution.

Within a few minutes, yet another warp-disturbance appeared in the system, and the Emperor's Beneficence stormed through.

"Captain, there are multiple ships in the system, all in close proximity to a planet. One of the ships has the transponder of a Greywatch vessel."

"Greywatch..." Captain Diresan had read the now-famous Fleet Admiral Hawkespur's reports of such a species. They were a (mostly) peaceful race, but could be extremely powerful in war, especially when their massive Worldslayer ships were brought into play. Emperor protect anyone who crossed them.

"Can we identify any other of the vessels?"

"No, sir, but there also appears to be a rather primitive warp-portal on the other side of the planet."

"A warp portal. Hmm..." Diresan thought to himself. It was likely that this could be what the sensor station had detected.

"Send a message to all the aliens in the area, and raise void-shields."

"Yes, sir."

Captain Diresan brought up a message screen on his command throne, and composed a message:

Attention all vessels,
This is Captain Diresan, of the Holy Imperium of Angenteria. We have come investigating strange warp-readings from this area. Identify yourselves.

The Virtue of Might continued to glide forward at it's slow pace, and as it went, the massive repulsor sails* deployed from it's lateral lines. The massive, semi-transparent membrane lit up with with a pulsing blue glow that rippled through the sails in hexagonal patterns. Ensign Merrus updated the heir's command pads and then turned towards Virgil.

"Sir, the repulsor membrane is deployed. All systems are green. Helm control has improved by a factor of 2.3516 and rising. We are now capable of combat manuevering. The crew is all secured for inertial turbulence and accounted for. We're ready to enter the portal on your command." Ensign Diana's command panel pinged twice and blinked with two identical frequency messages.

"Sir, the captains of the Intrepid and the Valiant have confirmed they are also standing by for combat manuevers and are also ready to enter the portal at your command."

Virgil stood up at the precipace, his height boosted by the extra foot of height his hardsuit gave him and the six feet of elevation of his command platform, making him tower over the other bridge crew in an impressive fashion. Virgil pointed towards the portal on the large, main visual display hologram hovering in the air at the front of the bridge. "Ensign Diana, input the text code to the gate. Ensign Merrus... gun the engines and take us in." Ensign Merrus grinned and slapped his hand on the accelerator panel in front of him.

The Virtue hurtled forward with acceleration more befitting a fighter craft than a kilometer-and-a-half-long starship. The craft flew through the portal in front of it, with the Intrepid and Valiant in hot pursuit. As they passed through the portal, Ensign Diana caught the beginnings of what sounded like a transmission from a ship captain, but the signal cut off as the Keyship cleared the portal.

Ensign Diana called up the message from Hyperion station as Virgil listened. He nodded grimly. "So be it. I suppose since they've been jerking us around by the chain successfully so far, why stop now?" The heir ascendant was becoming somewhat tired of these games. He was also becoming more and more concerned by the minute. These Taledonians seemed to be far more advanced than he had figured. Their lack of faster-than-light travel aside, this portal technology of theirs was, while lacking in efficiency, effective and evidently widespread. They evidently had the resources to construct a freestanding orbital platform and a small fleet of ships to protect it. This was quickly becoming more dangerous then he would have bargained for. For a moment, he regreted not space-folding the Virtue and it's escorts away when he had the chance earlier. He quickly snuffed out the thought. He was an heir ascendant, destined to reign over the entire Commonwealth after his brothers and sisters completed their services; doubt was not a luxury he could afford. He turned back to Diana, "Send them the coordinates, but piggyback a seperate transmission on the message's signal. Record the following..." The little robotic camera floated down again, this time as if dropped abruptly from the ceiling as opposed to the smooth glide from before, like a statement of frustration for being overworked. Virgil projected his voice as clearly as possible, so every note of his voice rang with authority.

The Virtue of Might complies with your request, Hyperion. However, be advised, I will be taking a personal bodygaurd with me comprised of six of my Azure Guard. They, as well as I, will be wearing Hardsuits, our analog to what is commonly known as powered armor, and we will be armed with gas-powered sidearms, as well as defensive close quarters weapons in the interests of of self defense and personal security. This is not a request, but a non-negotiable term for these talks to continue. You have set all conditions prior to this, consider this as our required conditions. Virtue out.

The bridge fell silent as he awaited Hyperion Station's responce.

*Repulsor Sail technology is not actually a sail, but rather a tough yet thin membrane of memory metal that can conduct magnetic energy and Chernokov radiation. The repulsor membrane discharges the accumulated energy to rapidly adjust the craft's orientation in space. This manuevering system, combined with the fully articulated NERVA engine mounts at the aft end of the craft, allow a Keyship to perform what would be considered otherwise impossible acts of agility, such as a no-stop 360 degree turn in under two seconds, or a 45 to 90 degree course change in less then one, all while retaining it's existing forward momentum. While such manuevers can create great deals of inertial stress, Keyship's superstructures are designed to take that sort of abuse, and the crew is trained to secure themselves safely to prevent injury from the gravity-overriding momentum. It's for this Repulsor Sail technology that Keyships are considered by many Alliance strategists to be so effective in combat, as the Keyship's tactical agility is second-to-none against other Alliance starcraft, and few other races possess craft with similar mobility that can match the firepower and armor of compact and deceptively well armed Keyship. To sum it up, if Alliance Keyships have one advantage, it's nearly always manueverability. This craft is the only warship Alliance has constructed that can literally "turn on a dime", and their commanding heirs are trained to press that advantage heavily.

"Well, so much for a teleconference. Looks like we're going to the station. Sargeant, get four of your men and suit them up, if we're going to that station I want to have some backup. And Ensign, open a comm channel to the what are they called? Taledonians."

The view monitor came down in front of Bunev's face and he gave his short message.
"We would be happy to come aboard and we have input the coordinates, however I myself shall be bringing along a personal bodyguard. Please understand this is simply a safety precaution and in no way a threat. Thank you for understanding we shall be aboard shortly."

As the monitor receded into the ceiling Bunev input the codes for the portal into the comm system. Bunev turned smartly on his heel and headed for the door. The portal would open in a storage area, just for safety measures in case anyone tried to come the other way.

"Ensign, keep weapons systems online, if something happens make sure that station is dust before you leave."

"Aye sir!"
The door closed behind Bunev and he made his way to the now opened portal and his five guards.

[OOC: I hope ya guys don’t mind another party in the system, but to be honest I’m bored and need an FT thread to join in. =P]


In all the confusion of ships entering the system, the remnants of their energy signature and surely the scanners focused on the obliterated wreck of their first Faster Than Light Travel, the commander who had ordered the droid frigate into the system hoped that they wouldn’t notice the usual spike of gamma radiation that announced a ship dropping out of Drift, nor they wouldn’t notice the light show a few million kilometers away from the source of the accident as a ship.

But whether they did or not the thirty meter long frigate was now poised in space, its sensor array quickly taking in what it could from the surroundings before it went into stealth mode. The four ‘wings’ that bore two missiles each folded over the craft, the alien stealth generators on the outside of the craft kicking in over the now pyramid shaped craft. Combined with the cold plasma shields* that the craft kept about itself, it would hopefully disguise the entire vessel as a small dust cloud that messed with sensors, perhaps the remnants of a comet that had broken up.

Now the craft waited, taking in the information it could from the limited sensor capacity it had in ‘stealth’ mode. Comparatively primitive sensor arrays hoped to pick up on drive emissions and communications and, if they were lucky, the number of vessels in the area.

*Just for those that don’t know, a cold plasma shield is essentially a ‘cloud’ of electrically stimulated gas similar to plasma, noted for its capability to deflect electromagnetic waves within itself and absorb them.

(OC: Ditto to the above lol, looks like things will get busy)

A Klikiss Hive Ship picked up the disturbances created by the portal through sub-space many light years away. The Klikiss were slowly becoming the only face of the Ciscilian Ascendency, as the Ciscilians became increasingly paranoid and slightly concerned with regad to their protocals. As such it was up to the hive minded Klikiss to deal with outer border matters.

The Klikiss Hive Ship simply appeared in the system. Flawlessly completing a quantum jump, for a moment the Klikiss Breedex focused it's attention on what was left of the burning hulks remanents.

That preoccupation lasted for about a second.

Suddenly the sensors pinged at the detection of various ships of different configurations and make ups, the Breedex focused her attention at many different ships, contemplating what to do. Dozens of Klikiss Drones listened to the transmission which filled space, increasing the Breedexs knowledge, aware that many things were unfolding she moved her ship further away from the rest, powering up her defences and weapons, noticing that one vessel seemed familiar she began conversing with a Klikiss from across the Ascendency, finally she had the name. Greywatch.

The Breedex contemplated for a moment, before exchanging information with Drones back on Ciscilia, their govenmental hub, after five minutes of frantic arguing the beuracrats gave the go ahead to at least contact the Greywatch vessel to get a handle on the situation. An artificial, calm, female voice broadcasted a message to the Greywatch vessel:

"Greetings from the Breedex of the Ciscilian Ascendency, for informative and documental purposes recent legislative changes have seen the structure of the former Ciscilian Empire change, we are now the Ciscilian Ascendency.

After detecting a rupture in slip-stream and an after shock in sub-space we have been sent to investigate. We are picking up many things from various broadcasts but would wish to assertain the situation from a source deemed reliable. Also we wish to enquire if you are in need of help. Thank you."

The small Greywatch scouter was silent for a few moments before a message came back, encrypted:

<From what we've learned so far, the race who created the spacial wreckage, which I imagine you've seen, was attempting FTL travel. Needless to say, something went wrong. It was shortly after the attempt that Prime ordered us to come investigate. All the other ships you see are here for, more-or-less, the same reason. After my captain exchanged some words with the aliens, we were told that we had to come here, to this space-station. Essentially the message the aliens gave us was: we were in their space, we were to meet with one of their officials, and we were not allowed to leave. My captain is currently preparing to be transported to the alien space station for this conference. From the sounds of things, no one else here is very comfortable with the current situation. I hope that is enough to bring you up to speed. As to your second concern, we do not feel we will need any assistance, these aliens seem slightly paranoid, but I imagine they would be with all the ships that have appeared within the last hour.>

The second in command sighed, "Something tells me this may get a little hectic." He slouched in his seat and looked out into space, "Hopefully this won't get too ugly." He knew space was big, and due to that whenever something happened, no matter the size, it usually attracted a lot of people.

The Breedex received the Greywatch vessels message, thinking about it for a moment she ordered her vessel to follow the others. If she had the oppertunity to send one of her own she would but for now she was content to follow and watch.

Virgil stood on the precipice for a few more minutes waiting for a responce. Virgil shook his head angrily, "Fine." The heir stepped down from the command platform and when he was on the bridge floor, swiveled on the spot and addressed them, "Ensign Merrus, you have the bridge. Keep the ship at it's current position. If these Taledonians approach the Virtue or her escorts on obvious hostile vectors, contact me immediately. Ensign Diana, you fixed the coordinates so that the portal should open up in the starboard hangar bay, correct?"

Ensign Diana shot bolt upright and snapped off a salute, "Yes, Virgil. In accordance with Interspecies Contact Protocol Treaty of 2311 ECA, Page ten, paragraph 3, line twelve, for purposes of security all alien contact must be confined to main hangar bays, secured diplomatic conference rooms and corridors which lead directly between these two locations. In case of an aggressive boarding effort by the alien species or an unforseen contamination hazard to the crew or alien diplomats of any nature, the hangar bay doors are to be blown. The vacuum should remove any threat into the void of space, or at least isolate and contain a boarding attempt. As protocol dictates, I have set the coordinates sixty feet away from the starboard hangar doors. As protocol dictates." She snapped her hand to her side again with a contented look. Diana may have an anal retentive attention to detail, but from time to time, it paid off. Virgil nodded towards his crew.

"As usual, you've done a fine job. If any other alien craft arrive, hail them and initiate communications. Give them an update on what has transpired." The heir let loose a sigh of relief. His crew was on the ball today, one less thing to worry about. "Alright, I'm satisfied. Azure Gaurd, let's gear up!! I want you in that bay in five minutes in full Hardsuit loadout! MDS-06 sidearms and 113a-MERCURY molecular halberds only, no other weapons! Evidently, our hosts aren't going to respond to us, so we're just going to have to trust they'll open the portal on time. Let's move!!" The armored troops in the room snapped off quick salutes and jogged off towards the armory at the aft of the ship, and Virgil followed them, letting the bridge crew get to back their stations.

***
Four and a half minutes later, Virgil and his six bodygaurd escorts stood in the starboard hangar of the Virtue of Might. They stared at the fiery portal in front of them and checked their gear over one last time. The heir ascendant tossed his head forward, and the hardsuit responded to his neural impulses, deploying the armor's crowned helm with a series of clicks and snaps as the armor plates reconfigured to Virgil's skin. With a quiet whistling of air, the Hardsuit sealed itself from the outside world, and the hardsuit's internal HUD lit up. Virgil glanced around to see his bodygaurd's armor performing similar transformations.

"Alright gentlemen. Let's go meet the natives." With that, Virgil and the Azure Gaurd hefted their halberds and stepped into the burning corona of the portal.

(OOC: I wanna join too.)
Imperial Destroyer
Emperor's Beneficence
Bridge

Captain Tomas Diresan drummed his fingers on his command throne. The aliens seemed to be completely ignoring his first message. Aliens are so rude. He thought to himself. He was about to re-send his message when a deck officer disturbed him.

"Captain, two other ships are entering the system. One of them bears a Ciscilian signature."

"Ciscilians?" Diresan replied, cocking his head. "This seems to be attracting every alien across the galaxy."

"Sir, they seem to be transmitting communications with the Greywatch vessel."

"Do they now?" Diresan replied, now resting his head on his chin. "This could prove interesting."

He sent another transmission, this time to the Ciscilians:

Ciscilian vessel,
This is Captain Diresan, of the Holy Imperium of Angenteria. You seem to have a greater knowledge of the general situation then we do. Perhaps an exchange in information is in order?

The Breedex received the message from the new comers:

"Ciscilian vessel,
This is Captain Diresan, of the Holy Imperium of Angenteria. You seem to have a greater knowledge of the general situation then we do. Perhaps an exchange in information is in order? "

The Breedex flicked through her memories like one would go through a scrap book, Angenteria, familiar name... her thoughts hummed through the hive as she recalled memories, recent memories... had she heard something from the other Breedexs? One of her drones back on Ciscilia began inquiring to other drones from other Breedexs, soon the full details of an expidition to a far off world involving the Angenterians had been explained to her; they were friends. An exchange in information was indeed in order,the artificial clam and soothing female voice broadcasted the Breedex's message:

"Captain Diresan of the Holy Imperium Of Angenteria. This is a Klikiss Hive ship of the Ciscilian Ascendency, formerly known as the Ciscilian Empire. Your request for information will be acknowledged and carried out. The resident species in this system attempted a faster than light technlogy, it failed. The effects sent disturbacnes throughout the other diemensions as well as other affects in real space. As such many faster than light species are coming here to investigate the cosmic disturbance. Information is currently sketchy, the alien hosts seem to be directing all arriving vessels to a portal leading to a meeting area. As to what will transpire there is unknown, to us at least. Is this information enough for you? You may draw your own conclusions"

Imperial Destroyer
Emperor's Beneficence
Bridge

Captain Diresan of the Holy Imperium Of Angenteria. This is a Klikiss Hive ship of the Ciscilian Ascendency, formerly known as the Ciscilian Empire. Your request for information will be acknowledged and carried out. The resident species in this system attempted a faster than light technlogy, it failed. The effects sent disturbacnes throughout the other diemensions as well as other affects in real space. As such many faster than light species are coming here to investigate the cosmic disturbance. Information is currently sketchy, the alien hosts seem to be directing all arriving vessels to a portal leading to a meeting area. As to what will transpire there is unknown, to us at least. Is this information enough for you? You may draw your own conclusions.

Captain Diresan nodded slowly as he listened to the message from the Ciscilian ship. It seemed their protocols had gotten the best of them.

The Ciscilian Ascendency. Diresan made a mental note to report this change of power to his superiors. For the time being, however, they needed to figure out what to do in the here and now.

Diresan sent the Ciscilians a small response, thanking them for their cooperation, and wishing them the Emperor's Blessings. For the primitive race, however, things were getting complicated.

"Send the primitive aliens a transmission." Diresan ordered. He wasn't sure they would even pick it up, or have access to universal translator technology, but it was worth a try. Perhaps they could be enlightened in the ways of the Emperor.

Unidentified Species,
This is Captain Diresan, representing the Holy Imperium of Angenteria. According to our readings, your people have attempted to activate a faster-then-light energy, but have failed. Are we correct in this assumption?