NationStates Jolt Archive

On a distant world in the outskirts of the galaxy...

The stars shined bright in the skies above them, illuminating the pearls of sweat running down their foreheads. In the otherwise calm night, their eyes searched the surroundings for something - or someone, their breathing was heavy and their legs moving faster and faster.
Not far from them, they could hear the others coming, closer and closer by the minute.
They had been running for hours but it felt like days, criss-crossing around the endless fields of jungle-covered ruins. Suddenly, he fell heavily to the ground in front of her with a large hole in his back, with dark grey fumes pouring out.

Her face twisted in both anger and fright, but she quickly realized that she had to keep running. Instantly, she turned left and headed for a large pillar, lying crumbled on the ground, covered with thick roots. She crept and pushed her back against it's solid surface and closed her eyes, quietly whispering the same word over and over again.

"Eleidon, Eleidon, Eleidon, Eleidon, Eleidon...."

With a flash the pillar and the roots wrapped around it was covered in a bright light, and she could see a tall figure walking towards her, but the intense light made it impossible too see anything less but it's contours. It stretched toward her and almost instantly she opened her eyes - and she could see.

Her body became warm, her soul calm and her breathing slowed down. She wasn't afraid anymore, but who was this peculiar figure infront of her?

"It is time for you to forget...", The tall man said with a dark voice, and within seconds her mind became as empty as the dark night around them, and as quiet as the fainting stars on the sky above them.

The tall man turned to his followers, and pointed at one of the men.

"This was close enough. Did you find the beacon?" His voice seemed less frightening, and the man in front of him slowly nodded.
Satisfied with the answer, he and his followers left the dark jungles.

But as they left, the darkness slowly returned and revealed a faint twinkling light lying in the bushes. It was a small rectangular object made of steel, with a little display glowing in the faintest blue. On the display, the same message rolled over and over again. "EMERGENCY BEACON ACTIVATED - TRANSMITTING -EMERGENCY BEACON ACTI...."

Just over an AU away from the planet, a scout detachment of the Second Sertian Exploration Fleet dropped out of drift, the four ships seeming to flow from space in glowing particles until they had reconstituted themselves into the forms of one cruiser and its tree destroyer escorts. They had come to scope out the system, see if the planet was habitable of if it already contained life and relay the information back to the fleet before moving onto the next system.

That changed after a few moments when the cruiser picked up on the beacon...

"Sir, we're detected some sort of communication... Some latent radiation from reforming in Real-Space is clouding out EM sensors so it'll take a while to piece it together," spoke the communications officer to the right of the commander, his form looking like a slim lizard race, his reptilian eyes focused on the information reporting in front of him.

"Get on that as soon as possible... Otherwise I want all available sensor arrays on that planet searching for any signs of intelligent life... That could be a warning telling us to back off, and I don't want to have any more ships damaged after what happened to the First Exploration Fleet.."

Aboard the SS Mephistopheles...
The Mephisto was not a large ship, nor was it impressive in any way, but inside it's darkened hull was the commanding officer of the Galactic Exploration and Interstellar Research Forces, commonly known as the GEIR.
Commander Venabili leaned back in his chair and looked out through the 'window' at the right wall of his cabin. He knew that it wasn't an actual window, but merely a large screen of energy that displayed the vast, dark space outside. The screen blurred and went blue-ish, and a voice told him that Pfc. Darell asked for him.

The doors slid open and the Private stepped in to the cabin and saluted the Commander.

"No need for that, Private. What is on your mind?", Venabili asked with his calm and steady voice.

"We've lost communication with Team Xerxes again. One of our Hyperstellar relays picked up a distresscall from their sector just moments ago."

Venabili turned to his desk and pointed at it's surface, wich instantly took the same blue-ish glow as the 'window' had before. He touched it a few more times and the distresscall was played.

"....this is.....repeat.....found the source of.....unbelievable value.....strange...."

The Commander touched the desk some more and the so far static and insufficient message became clearer.

"...are being hunted down! This is amazing. We have actually found it! We need immediate escort. Unknown hostile forces are closing in, and...and...no. They know we're here. Sam, they know! How...no. Run, run!"

The Private stared at him and said: "Is it true? Have they found it? The source of..."

"Has anyone else seen this, Private Darell?", Venabili interupted.

Darell shook his head with the Commanders eyes fixed at him, and somehow he could hear the Commander speak even though his lips did not move.

"Then it is time for you to forget."

Sertian Detachment Force

As the ships crawled towards the planet under sublight drives and Commander Jonathon of the Detachment Force was staring intently at the holographic model of the nearby planet and his ships. So far there wasn't much to it, their sensors were propping the system but so far they could detect nothing from this range. The best his technicians had managed to find about the beacon was that it originated on the surface of the planet, and that there was a possibility it was encoded or the wavelength it was broadcasted on was incompatible with their technology. Either way, they were blind to what they were being told yet it could just as easily have been a distress call.

Just to make sure they didn't get caught undefended, he had ordered shields raised despite the interference with sensors and all weapon systems were to be powered up for combat. He had also taken precautions to send a message via Drift to the rest of the second exploration fleet so that if something did happen and they didn't report in on time, at least the fleet could come and help them...

Until then, everyone on board was doing their best to crack the message. They did have a few hours at current acceleration until they reached outer orbit to work on it after all.

On the dark side of the planet...

The tall man was walking ahead of the group, limping just a little bit with his left leg making him seem unstable and fragile. One of his followers ran up by his side and cleared his throat and staring intensely in to his eyes.
They talked to each other, but their lips did not move. They could hear, but no sound breaked the heavy silence of the night.

In an archaic language, the other men overheard the 'conversation'.

"We have visitors.", the follower 'said'.

"I know. They will pass.", the tall man 'answered'.

The follower made several expressions, one after another, and then became neutral again.

"No, they will not. They are newcomers, they are not seekers.", the follower 'replied', and he turned to the rest of the followers and made a swift movement with his hand towards the sky and the air above him kind of vibrated.

The vibration reached through the atmosphere and out to the dark space and, one could probably see it as if like the stars were slowly vibrating, it reached for the small fleet in the distance.


Aboard the republic space station Aeschylos...

In what seemed to be a large control room, two small screens went blurry and a faint noise could be heard. A large robot arm of solid steel flew across the ocean of small screens and hoovered above the blurry ones.

In an office further inside the immense hull of the station, Colonel Weyden was writing reports with his touch-activated desk. Suddenly, the otherwise blue-ish desk went somewhat red and he touched a little window that had popped up in the middle.

"Two probes missing....one hyper-relay dead.....hm...just without power, huh? Stupid machine. When are you going to learn that if they are physically there - they aren't dead or missing. This is probably just some solar storms, causing a blackout in the region. Nothing to worry about.", he said with his weak voice and closed the little window.

The ships continued their silent acceleration towards the planet, or at least silent because there was no air to transmit the sound of the mass drivers at the end of the ships hurling super heated plasma behind them. That was, until some unusual energy vibrated through their hulls and shut down their engines...

"Engineer Fela, what on blazes is going on here!" shouted the Commander as he stood up, just in time to see the twitching hologram in front of him short out and die along with the rest of the light on the bridge. More unexpectedly though, was when he looked down to the wrist-gauntlet of his armor and found that the suit's sensors were dead as well. "Did we just get hit by an EMP?"

"Unlikely sir," one of the bridge officers called to his left side, trying vainly to type on a dead keyboard. "There was no Electrical disturbance in our systems while things were shutting down, nor was there any strong EM pulse detected before things went to hell..."

"What about back up systems, are those still online?" the commander spoke just in time, dimly lit lights gave illumination to the bridge once more and the stations came alive with back up power. A list of systems still operational were announced: Life Support, Short Ranged Communications, Short Ranged Sensors, and Manual Door Controls.

"Sir, we have a report due to the fleet when we were expected to reach the planet two hours from now, it might become suspicious and send more ships to see what has happened to us... Also, our remnant of artificial gravity is dissipating now, expect free fall to occur... now..."

The commander made a grab for the side of his chair just in time, as many of his other bridge members, "That's the last thing we want right now... Until we can figure out what did this and prevent it from happening, we could doom the rest of the fleet to drifting through space like us..."

The Sertian gave a small sigh as he had to strap himself into his chair now, his fingers drumming over his chin as he thought. "Have people on all vessels examine a compilation of whatever data we could retrieve, then dedicate all engineering staffs to check the fusion reactors and make sure their operational. If they are, find out what in blazes is causing this effect on our ships and counter it! Also, our current time to the planet now?"

"At best calculations..." his tactical officer in front of him spoke up as he ran fingers through his short hair, "We will now reach where the planet is within ten hours and, this is but a rough estimate mind you, we will be put into an unstable orbit around it... Expected entry into the planet's atmosphere within three to four days unless we can restore power to the engines."

"Looks like we have a time limit... Double speed men, move it!" now with his orders relayed, the Commander took his time to silently worry at the back of his mind just what in the Empire had happened.

The group had scattered and left was the man who still had his hand pointed at the dark sky above him. From the expression of his face, it was clear that he was beginning to get more and more exhausted, but he also put more and more power into whatever he was doing.
His other arm joined the one already strethcing out, and he mumbled with a grin on his face: "Leave....Leave...You want to leave. You are afraid. You are horrified of this world. Leave..." The vibrations got more and more intense.

Suddenly, a hand grasped his ankle and pulled hard, making him fall to the ground with a bounce. He turned to his left side and found that he was just aboout to be smashed by a large stick. Quickly, almost instinctively, he rolled to his right and avoided the heavy fall of the stick.
He tried to make his way on to his feets but felt the burning pain in his knee, probably from the fall, and now, the figure that had swung the stick at him, limped towards him with a loud moaning.
He stared right at him and said, without moving his lips: "Lie down. Now."

But the figure ahead of him kept limping, altough he moved a bit slower now. In a matter of seconds, the figure had reached him and grabbed hold of his legs, pulling him and then, finally, beating him until there was nothing recognizable left. The figure continued his moaning, then fell to the ground, revealing a large and bloody hole in his back. "They must...find...it...", he mumbled quietly as his head sank down to the ground.

The Commander had a hard time controlling his crew, shouting at them, getting them to stop their quivering... It was perhaps due to his service in the war twenty years ago, but the Commander seemed never to know fear, only a deep and dark anxiety attempted to crawl into his mind, and that was easy to hide to gather back to the moral of his bridge crew... He was about to make a ship wide announcement to everyone on the ships to get them into order when, suddenly, the panic stopped and all power returned...

"What in blazes is going on here?" he shouted as systems seemed to power up by themselves, shields and weapons coming back online as if nothing had ever happen. The back up systems usually put in place in an EMP attack didn't even activate, it was... like the power drain had never happened.

"Not sure, Sir... But all systems on board all ships are active again... Orders?"

"Download that damn message and get us into the Drift, we're going to come out right on top of that darn planet and find out what in the Empire is going on! Disable the main canons and have the secondary weapons activated in case of orbital bombardment, also get the pilots to their fighters. Move it!"

Unaware to the commander though, one of his officers was far from listening... While everyone else was trying to get systems back online during the phenomena, he had instead focused on any energy detected before systems shut down...

That was when he managed to sift through the sensor logs and manage to partially reconstruct an energy wave that hit while the sensors were shutting down. Looking through it, he matched what he had against any records of other energy disturbances... And as everyone around him seemed to go into a panic, he had pulled up an energy wave that matched in many ways... It hadn't been seen in twenty years since the one it belonged to had been killed by then Admiral Trilano, but it left no room for doubt... They had been under attack by a Psywave.

The Rip'Lard tactical officer looked around at the bridge as it was calming down, watching the systems come back to life... What if that psychic could probe their minds from this range? He couldn't tell the Commander and the rest of the bridge, that might alert to whatever had held them prisoner that he was on to them... Instead, he had to act more covertly, "Commander Sir, I have a message ready to the fleet telling them of our situation, shall I deliver it while in Drift?"

A quick nod and he quickly composed the files he had sent, the reports of the event, and what his suspicions were... And as space around them seemed to dissolve, and the ships seemed to dissolve into a stream of particles that dissapeared into nothing, the lizard-like officer sent the message...

Two seconds before they were about to enter into real space in the planet's outer orbit, a message that had been relayed from Alpha Division came through, telling them to remain where they would be undetected...

Fortunately for them, it would seem like they had just left the system like they were told to do while a communication link was established with the S.S.V. Crusader, Flagship of Templar Alexander, commander of Alpha Division itself.

The sun had begun to rise above the three tall towers that dominated the landscape. From the air, they were hard to see as they had the same dull, grey appearance as the rest of the ruins and torn building surrounding it, but from the ground they were somehow stunningly impressive.
If one would ever get close enough, he would find hundreds of small windows all over.

Inside one of them, a seemingly short and hairy, dark man could be seen.

"Golan! He has fallen! Time is short, we must act now!", the dark man said - actually moving his lips, but there was no one else in the comfortably small room he sat in.

"Yes, ofcourse - I agree with you.We have foreseen these events, but Golan...he shouldn't have died. You know what needs to be done now, so get it done.", he continued after a while.


Aboard the SS Mephistopheles
Commander Venabili stormed out of his cabin and headed for the bridge where the rest of his crew waited for his orders.
The brigde was very small, too small one might think, but it was outfitted with the latest technology known to helvetian civilization. Everything from bodyshaped chairs to advanced thermal camouflage that could hide them even with their engines on maximum power.
Venabili entered and immediately sat down in his comfortable chair, wich automaticly turned towards the First Officer.

"Take us to sector Xerxes. Fast.", The Commander said with his usual militaristic tone.

The First Officer nodded and then relayed the order to the navigator and the pilot, who quickly began touching their screens. In a matter of seconds, the Mephisto was inbound for the Xerxes sector - the very edge of the galaxy.

Tag for imperial post

Exploratory Fleet Detachment - In Drift around planet

[OOC: Forgive me if this post is a bit lacking, currently about to head to bed with the flu, but I thought I would try my best to not hold up the RP.]

The commander could only look awestruck at the hologram that currently showed the flow of the dimension they were now in, his eyes blinking surprised as he prepared to be rerouted to the leader of Alpha Division. He knew him well, having served as a tactical officer in one of the ships he lead to follow then Admiral Trilano’s crusade to this galaxy twenty years before in the Great War. Even after two decades his memory still recalled his visage, tall at six feet and a half while wearing the regalia of his religious cast proudly. He was second in tactical genius only to Trilano, but his fervor and capability to rise the moral of his troops far surpassed the Grand Admiral. To put it short, it was an honor to speak with him directly once again…

Fortunately though, he didn’t have to contemplate long before the hologram shifted to the Templar. At once the entire bridge crew, even himself, snapped to attention, right palms slapping against their chests in salutes.

“As you were,” he would state quickly, “We have no times for formalities… Now, from the data package we received from you, we believe that this planet you are in the vicinity of might belong to the United Resistance. The data from the EMP-effect you were attacked with is similar to something we’ve observed before.” Of course it was a lie, but they had to keep the ruse of not knowing about the psychics as long as possible to prevent them from knowing, if any of them was a telepath, that they were on to them.

“Fortunately, we’re close to devising a counter measure to the technology. Unfortunately, since your ships are not equipped with the necessary generator, you’re going to have to modify the magnetic field of your engines… You’ll be trading propulsion for a chance to defend yourselves from another attack. Make haste with the changes and drop out of Drift to observe the location of the beacon. You should have had a Fighter-Bomber wing to replace the usual Feather Darters of your ship, use them to observe the location in detail.” And with that he disappeared, leaving them to make the needed modifications that would leave them sitting around the planet…


Just under an hour later the ships reappeared in real space, the four vessels reforming in glowing particles in geosynchronous orbit around where they detected the beacon. Their engines offline, relying on mere thrusters to remain in orbit as the defenses were powered up, magnetic fields designed to slightly deflect psywaves. It was like trying to grasp a slimy object with dry equally slimy hands. The physics would be able to clearly ‘sense’ the ships were back, yet they would find attacking the vessels much harder to do.

--- PEACS ship CrimsonBird, Cockpit---

"OI John! picked up something on sensors weird energy disturbances, Coming from the nearby system" Alex turned around pointing to the screen

John moved down to view the screen and then looked out the front window

"Looks like it could be a disturbance, this technology cannot tell"

"Cant blame the computer sir, it is 130 years old. Heck this ship served in the Expansionist War"

"Move the ship to the system, with all we know it's a great discovery" John said this with little excitement, He was under the PEACS charter to explore any weird activity but most of the time it could be just a faulty scanner. The Society was under a tight budet and couldnt afford Military grade, but naturally that was the whole point of the pricing system. So nobody outside the military could afford to buy anything more then 70 years old.

When Belcameron II was funding it was different, we could construct our own ships but now without the donations and Empress Nadine putting money more into the Defence Systems and the like we just cannot operate the way we used too.

"Keep the scanners in check, only another 2 hours and then it's Jessica's and Dockcleaners turn" A Grun like Alex does not approve of swearing so better to use slang then to anger a natural hunter.

"You heard the situation in the Colonial Free-Worlds?"

"What about them?"

"Apparently the Empress is putting pressure on the local councils to allow more ships to be stationed, The Bandits in Ex-Qwelva space are getting desperate since the joint-colonies were founded and apparently are raiding trade barges to try and fund there movement"

"No offence but if the Empress had it her way she would control everything, all I ever hear is these new laws that practically have left her in control of half the military and turn the Senate into a advisory council" Alex laughs when John says this and simply replies

"Belcameron did the same thing and it was seen as a attempt to stop corruption, his daugther does the same thing and she is a tyrant in the making. If it was another persons offspring I would agree but I doubt the Daugther of Belcameron the second was not brought up with morals"

John smirked, he continues to watch outside the window not really expecting to see anything.

"lets just get this dam mission over and done with then we can head back to the Buoy and re-enter the Citerian Galaxy"

((OOC: If I rattle on a bit it's only because it has been awhile since I have posted outside a Rp I am doing))

A shuttle left the Novaen home planet. A standard flight to a planet in a nearby system, the captain had done this trip many times before, perhaps even a thousand times.

On board the small ship were the captains, and a total of 6 bodies passengers. Of the total 8 people on board, there were 4 identities, 4 humans and 4 sapient dinosaur looking things, a species known as Saurons. A weird quirk of the society of these beings was that a Sauron and a human shared an identity in all matters of law and culture, they were one.

The human captain scrumpled his face they were getting weird data from the ships engine and the sunstone at it's heart. Normally if anything like this would happen they would immediately land and do maintenaince on the engine, but the closet place that they could land was their destination anyway. They looked at each other and expressed their concerns, and the decision to continue on with a simple look.

It didn't really matter what they did in response to the strange surge, the result would of been the same anyway. The ship was engulfed with a white light and found themselves suddenly in a totally different location the energy readings of the engine returned to normal.

No one was sure where they were and were concerned with all these new stations, those there would soon suddenly find a new ship in the system. It just appeared in a moment with nothing to indicate that it arrived... merely that it was there now.

At the Xerxes Sector, aka The Very Edge of the Galaxy...
On the far side of the local solar system, a tiny light flashed and out of it came an even smaller vessel. It was the SS Mephistopheles, roaming towards the suprisingly large amount of ships ahead of it.
Inside the thin hulls of the small corvette, the brigde was unusually calm regarding the circumstances. This was one of a few times the helvetian navy had encountered extra-terrestial lifeforms - or atleast that was what they assumed to be controlling the ships ahead of them.

The Commander leaned back in his chair, which comfortably bended slightly backwards, and pointed at the large screen at the head of the bridge.

"I want communication established ASAP", he told the First Officer and then turned towards the Tech. Officer behind him, "Turn down shields to 20 percent, we're not here to fight."

The screen zoomed in on the formation of ships ahead, and Venabili focused on what he thought would be the flagship. His eyes grew larger and his already intense focusing got more and more instense - making him look kind of ridiculous.
In the deep cores of his mind, he thought, over and over again: "We are friends, you are peaceful. You are calm, as calm as the silent space surrounding us. You will speak to me in agreement. You will understand, because you are my friend...."

The Five Constellations ship had detected the emergency transmission, but had largely ignored it for its origins were to far away and someone being in trouble was of no matter for the Empire of the Five Constellations. At least the Synthetics thought so; they did not bother to inform the other four races of the Five Constellations. Seeing as the transmission proved to be as useless to the robotic race of A.I.s, known as Synthetics to the humans, as to their close friends. However, the large energy reading that followed bothered the Synthetics. While they themselves did not possess FTL technology the massive energy required to power one did show up on their sensors.

Whatever was happening had suddenly became the business of the Five Constellations. Orders were clear to all military vessels of the Five Constellations' fleet. If you find a FTL faring race, destroy them for they are too big of a threat to let be. Thus a small transmission was sent to a nearby Berserker warship (one of the other fives races of the Five Constellations Empire) and they met each other on the furthest rim of the solar system they currently resided in. The two Warships (classified as such for their ability to fight entire wars on their own) moved next to one another and when the news was spread the Synthetic ship broke off to see what was happening.

The Synthetic ship is smooth and looked very high tech. The ship's (forward) section is pointed and the rest of the ship's body is circular. A few cannons, guns, and missile launchers marked parts of the ship; antennas, dishes, and heat radiators also marked other parts of the ship. However, a certain design not found on most alien ships is the Synthetic ship's tails. At one point the ship's body broke off into three, very narrow sections that each separated from each other and were fairly far from any part of the ship where fragile equipment (computers, the Synthetics themselves, etc) could be found so as to avoid the excess radiation from the powerplant and engines. Each of these three tails turned into a large circular structure inside of which held two (highly advance) nuclear fusion reactors each, then the tail continued onto another section that is rectangular and is open on the opposite side of the ship. Each of these blocks contained two Ion engines each, besides the tail in between the outer two tails. This one contained the prize of the Five Constellations. The one thing that showed the universe how much more advance they really were, the photon engine. An engine capable of traveling at ninety-nine percent the speed of light.

Thus the Synthetic Warship moved at two-hundred and eighty million meters per second towards the source of the high energy readings. Due to the lag caused by the ship's speed, the vessel seemed to be invisible. No naked eye could see it, just as how no one sees the spectrums of light all around them. Of course there were bad things that came with the photon engine. One it required a godly amount of energy to power; all six fusion reactors were at critical and all, but the most critical equipment that needed energy were turned off. The Synthetic crew were doing everything they could to reduce the damage caused by the increase gravity (which would turn any human into mush) and all of them went into sleep mode to avoid further damage. While the ship traveled very quickly, it would still be some time before they would arrive. Until then, the heat radiators all over the ships surface did everything they could to get rid of energy waste least the ship blow up due to overheating.

OOC: Is this okay? This is my first IC post.

The four ships in orbit around the planet were obviously built for war and conquest, as even a quick glance across their decks and shapes revealed how every angle was meant for optimal placement of weapons and tactical advantage, and further scans would reveal the lacking of the sensitive and powerful scanners that usually accompanied exploration vessels. Those same scans would reveal that the ships had power running to those large canons and apparently two different layers of shields: One was quite mysterious, they could see it but it had no affect on their scanners, the second seemed to be a modified magnetic field designed to block a certain wavelength.

Not to mention that these warships, three destroyers over 600 meters in length and one Cruiser just over a kilometer, were very agitated due to the sequence of events that had happened since they had arrived. Understandably, when they detected ships popping in everywhere around them just after they had returned from the Drift, active sensors locked on to as much targets as they could and a message was released to everyone in the system.

"This is the Sertian Heavy Cruiser Xieon, leading vessel of this scout detachment. We do not know your vessels, nor do we know your intentions in this system. However we have already been attacked while within the space around this planet, and we will not be caught with our guard down again, so do not misunderstand our preparation as hostile. We will not fire on your ships first, but we would also like to warn everyone in the system that your ships could be endanger of being rendered helpless by whatever force exists."

Jesica shouted over the noise of the bridge "John, we have a problem"

John runs into the bridge to see several blips on the Sensor Screen

"Hostile?" John asked

"I dont know, but they are heavily armed. Not all belonging to the same faction by the designs but I dont feel comfortable finding out how agressive they are"

"Unfortunately this is where the Empires Charter of Exploration comes in, we have to make contact with atleast some of the aliens otherwise we could find ourselve void of funding"

John turns around to Adam

"Go to the 6 meson blasters and activate them, ah you might need this" John chucks a screwdriver towards Adam as he catches it

"I dont know anything about Meson blasters, why doesnt Alex do this!" Adam said in protest

"Learn because Alex is going to be busy making sure that the Photon Beam is used to maximum effectiveness if we are in trouble"

You could not tell the difference in energy because Phenixican ships were always battle ready, but the CrimsonBirds weapon systems were rusty the ship was made for a crew of 50 and with only 4 people it was costly enough having to refit it to need such a small amount. It was better then the ship used to meet the Federation because atleast it had shielding and a ancient cloaking device..so ancient any ship looking would find us.

When they got the message from Xieon John was quick to kick the communication console and press a button to open a direct communication.

"This is John Meris of the Phenixican Exploration of Alien Cultures Society or PEACS, we are simply on a Exploratory mission and under the Imperial Charter of Exploration all activity that can threaten the well being of the Empire has to be explored, proven and transmitted. We have no military intentions in the system and are simply a scout vessel"

The small shuttle sat in space just hanging there as their occupants tried to figure out what was going on. The system, the ships, it all looked so foreign. The navigation system that they had based on a system of a known point. This could be a planet or starship but there was nothing of the sort in the area so it was no good.

The ship had only limited FTL capabilities which would by no means take them home and though thier sub-light engines where well fueled for the trip they were along way from home with little hope of getting back there without help. Communications still worked, all Novaen communications were adaptive systems and could identify the basic protocols. It wasn't long until the communication system was ready to receive and send.

As far as they knew there was nothing sent to them and things were perhaps to get a bit... nasty. So they waited and hoped that they either wouldn't be noticed or would be noticed by a friendly.

(OOC: Sorry for inactivity! I've got some plans for this RP, so let's be calm until we somehow get down to the surface of the planet...thanks!)

Aboard the SS Mephistopheles...
The large screen at the brigde, even though it wasn't really that large, showed the messages coming through. The Commander sat just in front of it and simply nodded at the incoming transmissions.
After a moment, he pointed at the first message, displayed above the other one.

"Hail the Xieon at once.", he said and wetten his lips.

"Greetings, Commander of Xieon. This is Commander Raphael Venabili, I am the leader of this small ship, researching this area for strange energy activities. It is my wish to visit your ship, and, perhaps, we could work better and faster if we worked together.", he said while his eyes were fixed to the large screen.

Meanwhile, on the planet...
The sun was gazing, and pearls of sweat ran down her forehead. She had been sleeping for hours, but it felt like she had been asleep for days.
She got out of her small bunk in the even smaller tent and opened the door to get out.
In the middle of a huge, one would find the word endless apropriate, city of ruins - consisting of large, even huge, pillars, blocks of stones, torn down buildings and at some places some kind of technological remainings - they had placed their basecamp.
She stepped out on the dusty concrete and looked around, finding that the otherwise peaceful base was now destroyed. The large tent containing the lab was still burning slightly and the tent where Sam had lived was completely gone.
Confused and scared at the same time, she got back in to her tent and got hold of a satellite communications device. She pushed down the little button on the main display that said "Send" and opened her mouth.

"Hello, this is....", she said and then released the button. What was her name?

In the hanger of the Xieon

The pilot stood in the cock pit of his fighter, the hatch wide open as he waited for his gunner to arrive. Things certainly had been hectic since they had arrived in this system, but finally things seem to have been settling down despite the large increase of activity in the past few seconds. Now though he and three other fighters were preparing to launch and explore the source of the signal they had been getting, which they had finally half-deciphered to be some sort of report.

"Source... The source of what?" the fighter asked himself, his fingers tapping along the dashboard of his craft when he finally spotted his gunner running up. Looking around he noticed the other fighters were already being loaded onto the loading platforms, after a few minutes of last minute checks and a mission review they would be away...

Back on the deck of the Xieon

"Sir, we've received two replies to your communication, displaying them in order that they were received," the communication officer stated before typing on the keyboard, the two messages quickly superimposed themselves on the tactical display of the star system.

The commander then quickly browsed the information, nodding as he thought, "Could we use the aft bay to hold a meeting after the fighter's are deployed?"

"Commander Del'rai, I don't suggest that..." the tactical officer responded, but quickly catching himself before he revealed the secrets within his head. "After all, we don't know if they could have a miniaturized version of the device used, and they could easily be apart of whatever it is this world is allied to... We would be inviting them within the only shields we have against whatever this is!"

Del'rai turned to look at his subordinate, weighing his advice before letting out a small sigh, "Understood, it is a risk... But if one of those vessels are apart of this it would be best to get on the good side of someone capable of that power, no? However, I will take your advice... Prepare a communication to all vessels in the area."



The message went out seconds after the fighters were launched out of the bay, the four long range fighters catching the magnetic field of the planet and slowing their descent, cruising at a stable mach one towards the source of the original communication.

"This is Commander Del'rai of the Xieon responding to vessels in this system. We hear your peaceful intentions and, as an act of good faith, are deactivating our primary canons. We've also deployed the first of many men to explore the planet in more detail, and thus have a port opened up for a conference if you wish to visit our vessel... However, it might be best to meet on neutral grounds on a base camp on the planet's surface..."

Aboard the SS Mephistopheles...
Venabili was eager to listen to the incoming message, although he somehow already knew what it would tell him. Even before the playback had begun, he had ordered the ship to dock with the Xieon, surprising the entire brigde - and they got even more surprised when they heard the message.

He leaned forward and nodded at his First Officer, meaning that it was time for him to reply to the message.

"I am pleased to accept your offer. We will dock with the ship you call Xieon in a matter of minutes. As you can see, all of our defenses are down and I can assure you that we are peaceful. When we have docked, I will meet you accompanied only by one man - not for protection, but for insurence. I would like you to do the same. I am looking forward to meet you.", he said.

He rose from his chair and pointed at the First Officer.

"Prepare the airlock and tell Pfc. Darell I want him ready in two minutes. When I leave, I want you to deactivate all communication devices, all receivers and all transmitters. Isolate the ship, make sure nothing gets in or out. Is that understood, Lieutenant?"

The First Officer looked at him anxiously, but somehow - and this was a big mystery to him - the managed to calm down, and answered:

"Yes, sir. Isolate the ship, sir."


On the planet...
The tall man walked around in circles, discussing something with someone. He was alone in the amazingly large hall, and his voice echoed all the way up to the incredibly high ceiling above him.

"...yes I know. They must have some sort of blocking device, I am feeling it too. You must try harder, that's the only way.", he said while he scratched his chin - still walking in the same circle.

"Well of course it's hard. Try again and again, it must break. Anyhow, Raphael will soon be inside and take control of the situation. Everything is still under control. The Sertians are the biggest threat, the rest of them...", he stopped and looked up at an enormous statue hanging on the wall in front of him.

"Yes, just what I was about to say - I will handle them with ease. Well, hopefully we won't meet again. Be well.", he said with a relief.

He raised his hands and stared at the far end of the ceiling, slowly speaking as if someone was up there, far far away: "You hate. You are full of raw, black hate. Your only purpose in this life is to hate. You are so full of hate that you want to leave this world, this space, this very universe. Your hatred will lead you to peace. Let it guide you...."

On the planet...

The four fighters traveled towards the forest where they had originally picked up the transmission, where the beacon was still transmitting. They were about to slow down to circle around the source when one of the fighters picked up on a weaker communication not far away, although it seemed to cut off and on; perhaps because the message had an unstable or weak power source of the person sending it couldn't quite figure out what to say...

Regardless of which, the wingleader decided that this signal was more important to follow up on and also not to far away. A message was sent back to the Xieon telling them of the change in mission plans, and they decelerated to half their speed to cruise towards the ruined city that was the source of the transmission...

Back on the Xieon

"Sir, the ship has just docked with our available hanger," the tactical officer noted with the small chill of fear caught in his throat. He didn't know why he was so afraid, perhaps it was the remnants of that terror that had swept through the ships before...

"Noted, I'll be taking their invitation. Frevor, you'll be in command of the bridge while I'm gone. Soldier Zenrack, you're with me," he nodded towards his Tactical Officer while the soldier on the bridge nodded, moving a hand to the plasma rifle on his back. "Leave that, side arms only Soldier."

"Commander Del'Rai, I must object!" the Tactical Officer leaped from his chair as he objected, only to be met by the Commander's stern glare.

"Frevor, this is my ship and while under my command you will follow my orders. See to it that the bridge is taken care of," and with that he moved with the soldier out to the hall, leaving only the sound of his boots smacking against the alloy of the floor.

When the Tactical Officer slumped his way to the chair though, he found a small message waiting for him on the Command Seat's personal screen, a small treat from Alpha Division for him. 'You must stop him...'

"Susie, take care of the bridge for me!" he shouted out, leaping from the chair and following the Commander out before anyone could object.

Xieon's Primary Lift

The commander stood as the lift descended towards the level with the dock, Zenrack ahead of him. But unfortunately a floors to early the lift stopped and opened up to reveal Frevor, "What are you do-." He couldn't even finish his sentence before the ion bolt from the stun-rifle impacted against his chest, quickly causing him to slump against the floor.

"Sorry Commander..." and with that the placed the Rifle against the magnetic holster, taking Del'Rai's plasma pistol and hooking it to the other hip. Then dragging his Commander's sleeping form to a nearby room and proceeding in his place.

As the ship got closer to the ship they all got worried.

"Sir, this situation does not suit the CrimsonBird if this turns out to be a hostile element the ship does not stand a chance" Alex said with a calmed look on his face

"Dock with the ship, keeps the weapons offline and Shields down"

The Crimson heads towards the Xieon and prepared to dock, John puts on his brown overcoat wearing a white shirt, red vest and black pants. Typical Phenixican clothing.

The ship lands, being so small it fits in the hanger nicely as the ramp goes down John and Jessica go down the ramp. Alex and Adam stay aboard to watch out for any activity, Years of diplomacy gone bad has made the Empire a nation hard to gain the trust of.

"Remember Jessica, no smartarse comments. I do the talking and you just be the eye-candy"

He smiles as he got the most dirty look ever from the ex-imperial pilot, sure she had the looks but in her books thats the last thing you should judge her on.

"Yutar Shuk John" (your a dick John in Old Phenixican)

"None of that either, all Diplomatic matters are to be spoken in English. No foreigner is allowed to learn the native tongue"

"Sometimes I wished I just stayed home"

"This is much more exciting then patroling the same route again and again, try to enjoy yourself"

She was wearing a blue-buttoned top which left nothing on her chest to the imagination and slightly baggy jeans. Her typical Phenixican red hair (for women) almost glowed, John always said she had a body made for bedrooms.

They step onto the floor John awaiting who ever was to meet them, the ship was safe with Alex and Adam. Alex being a Grun makes his a great fighter and Adam being a Ruidian means he as three times the strength for somebody his build.

Venabili and Darell stepped down the ramp that led out to, in their eyes, the quite enormous hangar. After a moment of looking around and stating that was, in fact, a really large and impressive ship they were inside of, they headed to the group of people ahead of them.

Suddenly, they stopped and Venabili tilted his head slightly, focusing his eyes on the Sertian Commander. This was not the person he had talked to before. He did not have the same patterns of thought, nor did he have the same type of mind at all. This person was what some leaders would call true soldiers, holding on to protocol and obeying all orders - no matter what. This would become a problem.

He and Darell continued walking and finally met up with the small group, consisting of two Phenixians and the two Sertians. He nodded at the one pretending to be the Sertian Commander and said:

"I am very honored to meet you, especially in the very flagship of this fleet of yours - Commander."

He then nodded at one of the Phenixians infront of him, sensing that one of them was somewhat of a leader - and so he spoke to that one:

"And it is with excitement that I meet you."

She still sat there, confused and frightened by the very fact that she did not know her own name. She tried to recall her last memory, but it was all blurry. In another effort to remember, she headed out of her tent to take a walk, and she thought that ,maybe, this would clear her mind from the blurryness.
The sun was still gazing and it was unbelievably hot and dry outside - almost like a desert, or a really, really warm summer.

She walked a few meters until she heard a dull sound behind, but it was so far away - or at least it seemed to be so far away - that she could barely hear it. She turned around to see if she could see anything, but nothing was there.
The sound grew stronger until it got so loud she had to cover her ears and run for cover. On her way to the tent she could see a glimpse of something flying above her. Could it possibly be a resque patrol? She had to know, and this was her only, and perhps last, chance.

She ran inside and fetched the dusty radio lying in her bunk and pushed down the button once more:

"Unidentified flying objects, this is the surface calling. I need immediate support! Please! I repeat..."...

In the hanger of the Xieon...

Frevor walked towards the four delegates with a cool, collected smile on his face while one hand rested gently, almost lovingly, on the hilt of the stun-rifle to his side. It took some convincing to get Zenrack to follow through with this skit, but he finally managed to get him roped into it. "You most apologise for the ruse," he started with the most confident voice he could manage, "But it is common practice during first contact situations to have a bridge member act as the Commander in case the aliens are hostile, that way we don't give away the most valued mind on our bridge." Even as he lied though he kept a single thought running through his head, projecting it forward as best he could. <I am not the Commander, I am not the Commander, I am not the Commander...> over and over again, the single thought being so compulsive it was acting as a mental shield, covering his surface thoughts to make sifting through it to his true thinking harder.

As requested he and Zenrack where the only Seritans on the bridge, however both were wearing the black and red colored armor that was effectively their uniform, the metal seemed oddly comfortable though, not appearing to hinder their movement to any excessive level, and they had only brought sidearms, "Regardless of our ruse, I offer the humblest welcome to our vessel, the Xieon. Of course being a military ship we lack most of the comforts of home, but we should soon have some chairs and tables moved from the mess hall down here so that we might relax."

Frevor then, however, turned towards the Phenixican duo, giving a slight bow to them even as that run throught continued to muddle up his surface thoughts, "I must also offer my congratulations to the pilot of your vessel, landing in this hanger while the Mephistopheles was drawing close was quite the feat, yet you pulled it off marvelously."


On the planet bellow...

Of course they might have been expecting something form the camp bellow, but they weren't quite hoping for something so, easy. The wingleader quickly designated two of the fighters to land at a small clearing not to far off, while the two other fighters would resume a high atmosphere circling of the area for any dangers.

To those bellow, the noise would get stronger while the two fighters accelerated, spinning off back into the upper sky, while the rest of the fighters would continue to slow, the blazing engine trails growing fainter as the large machines coasted towards the landing area...

Aboard the Xieon...
A few moments later, the requested chairs arrived and the six delegates sat down. Both Darell and Venabili noted how uncomfortable the chairs was compared to ordinary helvetian chairs. Darell turned and twisted with a small grin on his face, while Venabili obviously had the disciplin and courtesy not to show any sign of discomfort.

He put both his hands on the slightly oval table and looked directly into the eyes of the uniformed Sertian in front of him.

"I have many questions to ask, and many answers to give - but all this have to wait, I'm afraid. We are here to talk about the strange energy in this local sector.", he said while his eyes - for just a millisecond - rolled.
<You realize that your disruptive defenses does not work while I'm in here, Frevor. However, no one outside can overhear what we say or think in this moment...>

"Our opinion is that this is some sort of solar energy streaming through the sectors at the very far end of the galaxy. We have large amounts of data showing that this is the case, and according to our research this is an extra powerful solar-beam - so to speak.", he continued while staring intensely at the uniformed Frevor.
<...You feel calm. This is important, so I don't want you to be stressed out. I am not your enemy, trust me. I know that your fleet has the power to destroy those who are the real threat. Work with me. If you are in on this, comment my beret. If your'e not...well, it won't be hard to convince you.>

"Now, I would be surprised if you presented any theories that would make more sense than ours?", he smiled.


On the surface...
The two fighters slowly declined towards the ground some hundred meters from the base camp where she was.
She looked at the with excitement and relief, maybe they could tell her what the hell was going on. But suddenly, she realized that she could not spot the GEIR insignia on either of the two fighters declining.
Confused, she took a few steps back, reached for her small sidearm and carefully loaded it. Who was flying those ships - and who did they fly for?

John smiles at Frevor, there was something not right here in the mans body language.

As normal it's straight to Business.

"My pilots were at one time members of Imperial Defence, you would not meet better Pilots and Soldiers. I am John Meris of the Phenixican Exploration of Alien Cultures Society or PEACS and this is my Pilot, Jessica Kure"

He then turns to Venabili

"I am guessing your scouting efforts have much better funding then ours, all we picked up was a large energy disturbance in the system and came here to investigate. At first with all the foreign ships we thought it could of been a mis-reading from weapons fire, when we found it was coming from a Stellar Body that got our interest"

He looks at Frevor again, this man troubled him very much. Then again most military men do, but something about this man just made him uncomfortable.
Because he was so far from the Wargate Buoy there was no help out here for atleast 3 weeks.

"Tell us what you have found about this 'Solar Beam' is it a Natural occurance in this system? The sensors on my ship are farely out of date so we couldnt pin-point the cause for it, until we find out if it's Natural or possible even a weapon we cannot leave the system because the Empire has to be notified of all possible threats posed to it"

On the Xieon

"Actually..." Frevor spoke softly, cautiously as he pondered his options, dropping his best attempt at a mental shield as he did so. It was as he suspected, one of these people was a psychic, but what was the nature of his relation with the others? Is it true that he was against him, or was it an elaborate ploy to get him to drop his defenses? Regardless, if something did happen to him the real commander was safe and could easily give the order to open fire if need be - if it came to that. "We were here when that energy manifested and I do not believe it to be a solar flare of any kind."

He took a breath and decided, "We believe it is some kind of weapon which acts a lot like an EMP in that it disabled most of our systems by somehow draining their power, or at least disrupting it. We managed to record a partial reading of the energy wave that we believe is responsible, and have triangulated it to the planet we are now in orbit of. Fortunately we developed a partial countermeasure to this, device, so your ships are safe while in proximity to ours."

He closed his eyes and leaned back against his chair, his arms splaying across his lap while he finally made up his decision, "By the way, Venabili was it? Your beret seems familar to me, perhaps our people have had partial contact before?"


In the clearing outside the Base Camp

The two fighters modified the magnetic field of their engines, effectively shutting them down while they converted to hovering mode, allowing the two long range planes to coast to a stop on top of their landing gear, the metal prods sinking into the tall grass. It was only until the engines had fully shut off that the hatches opened, allowing one of the pilots to stand up and look around the area.

After speaking into his helmet the four pilots jumped out of their planes, locking the machines down so that they couldn't be stolen. They weren't equipped with the same armor that was uniform to the soldiers up above, instead it seemed to be a lighter version with a black fibre weave across most of their body, a few of the alloy plates protecting some parts of the pilots, most notably their head and chest.

They weren't equipped with anything above a plas-pistol, but still they headed towards where they had detected the radio, walking at a leisurely pace so that they could look out for any ambushes or traps.

(OOC: I'm sorry, but my internet connection is messed up so my replies are and will be somewhat delayed. I hope you understand...)

Aboard the Xieon...
Venabili relaxed and leaned back in his chair and once again noticed how stiff it was, but he made sure no one noticed his discomfort.

"Maybe we have, or maybe we have not - that is not the point here. This disruptive weapon you speak of is merely a very strong field of solar energy. Unusually strong, that may be, but still just solar energy.", he said and then turned to the Phenixian.

"I do not know much of you,your species or your technology, but the power of solar storms and eruptions is common knowledge in the helvetian republics. These storms are very common in almost every solar system in all sectors - galaxywide."<John, can you and your crew be trusted with the very secret of the universe? Can you handle the pressure, the stress and the eventual death of your entire species?>

They consist of small energy eruptions, travelling across the local space at tremendous speeds. But these 'beams' that we have observed for a period of time are by far much more powerful, and one could say that they are a concentrated version of the storms. Our interest is, ofcourse, how to harvest this energy."<John, this isn't your mind playing you a game. This is Commander Venabili right next to you. I have this ability, just listen to what I say, and everything will be fine. I have made a discovery to meaningful to keep secret, and you and Frevor will help me unveil it. This will, ofcourse, put your life at risk. Are you with me? If yes, then don't say it out loud.>

He rose from his chair, Darell immediatley following. Something was wrong, he could sense that someone tried to reach his mind.

"Gentlemen, may I advise you to move this meeting further inside the ship. This is vital."

John was shocked, a psychic was not a good thing.

"I am happy to move the meeting further inside, lead the way"

Jessica looked at him sternly, not understanding John rash move to put them in a vulnerable position.

He mouthed 'trust me' to her, she nodded slowly.

John then adds "The Phenixican Empire hails from the Citerian Galaxy and due to our isolationist policy you would not know much about us, it's the way we prefer it. We have had many bad experiances with inter-galactic diplomacy, the PEACS pretty much is the eyes and ears of the Empire"

Discovering the meaning of the universe and a possible destruction of his species did not settle well in John's mind, he was a long way from home and couldnt fight a battle in this position.

Comfort was if this had some sort of Religious meaning behind it the Phenixicans were immune. Phenixicans are said to come from the Phoenix and that means we can die, yet we also resurrect.

Problem is if it did not the Empire was in no state to handle something like a invasion, the economy is strained and the fleet is spread thin. The only advantage was that the location of the Citerian was unknown to all outside nations making a invasion impossible.

[OOC: So sorry for the delay, I'll try to get a post up by this afternoon as soon as I get some free time. ^^ Till then, will edit this later.]

Somewhere inside the Xieon...

The commander's head felt like it was on fire as his body woke up, his limbs aching from the electrical pulse which had traveled through his nervous system. It was with this aching in mind that the events leading up to his stunning passed through his forebrain, and with a short groan he cursed his Tactical Officer. But, when he stood up to try and gain access to the nearest computer consul, he was greeted by one of the soldiers under his command, sitting silently on a chair at the doorway with a small communicator in his hands, "You may want to keep seated Sir, I'm being sent a text communication of what's being said at the meeting."


In the cargo bay of the Xieon

Frevor was about to speak out against the solar energy theory once more when Venabili interrupted, causing a small sigh to leave his lungs. "There's a room designed for diplomacy meetings near the center of the ship, just a few dozen meters away from the magnetic generators of our engines if you'd like. Of course, you'd be entrusting us with your safety an security so far away from your ships."

<Are you just trying to get deeper into the shields to get away from your fellow psychics? Or are you just trying to get to a better position to exert your own influence on our soldiers? Either way, if I resist you'll just make me say what you want, won't you?>