NationStates Jolt Archive

An avatar manifested on the bridge of the balrogga frigate. The figure was a gray haired neko wearing black and red traditional samurai robes. "I am Isahil, Ambassador to the Red Talons Mercenary Republic. I am an avatar projected to you so that we may continue negotiations in private." He smiled.

The first thing Isahin noticed is there was no bridge. As a matter of fact there was no interior of the ship at all. The ship was solid as a drone. No, more than that. It was a solid piece of metal with no mechanics inside.

The second thing he noticed was the crew. They were there inside all that solidness. He could feel their presence but not their bodies for there was none.

There was plenty of minds though. That was the third thing he noticed. The minds were strong and he quickly found himself enveloped by one. Within the mindscape created by his Host, a flat plain appeared. Two chairs were waiting of which he was already seated in one. Across from him was a second individual. He was tall and seemed to be cloaked in a grey robe.

"Greetings, I am Captain of the ship that appeared to you. My name is D'Vry. I approve of this for there can be no lies spoken using this medium. What would you require for the use of your forces? I am sure we can create a satisfactory working relationship between our two nations."

Isahil paused for a moment, looking around. "Your race has trancended the physical to purely the mental plane i take it?" He asked in slight astonishment. "But i digress, there will be time for such things later." he paused a moment. "The standard payments are raw material and or technology. As long as we hold a contract with a group, we wont take any contracts against said group. As it stands we have no contracts active." He smiled slightly. "The actual price for our services will depend on what you are requesting us to do, suicide missions, of course, are rather expensive."

"Yes, we have. You are not far behind for few races have the Psionic skills needed for such a meeting as this."

“Suicide missions?”

The Host seemed to be put off for a moment.

“I have no intention to send you upon any one way trips. Our agreement will not include any such missions. If the occasion arises they will be considered a separate agreement and will be negotiated as such.”

The robed being gestured with his hand and an ornate teapot appeared. He poured rich liquid into two cups that materialized as the tea left the spout just in time to catch the steaming fluid. The captain took the nearest and sipped it.

“Just right, I know there is no real tea but it serves the same purpose. You may decline to have any, I am just offering as would any proper host.”

He set his teacup back down; the handless green glass was ordained with a delicate ancient flower pattern that would resemble an ancient earth flower called jasmine.

“There, now back to business. We would like to procure an open contract. You will provide services of which we will provide you with raw resources. We come across many mineral deposits as we wander and have no need for them so they remain left behind or simply rendered unusable for those who might follow behind. It would fill a much more logical sense to use these resources as a retainer for you.”

“We also have a technology called Replicators by other races that can be used to create edible foodstuffs. They use matter and rearrange the complex carbon molecules to resemble those you set in the memory. You can program the unit to produce a steak and it will. The meat will not taste as good as a real one but it will be close enough to satisfy yourself. As we harvest worlds, we can provide the necessary carbon base needed for the devices to create the foods you need. Again, normally we would just render the material unusable so nobody else can use it, ‘salting the well’ as an old saying goes.”

“A normal mission would entail you to enter a system and raise hell. You would cause enough chaos so we would be welcomed in after chasing you away. We would harvest the system and the star for materials we would need, paying you in resources from the haul. This would be the standard procedure we would follow.”

“Anything goes wrong and we can just wing it. We have no interest in harming your nation. You kinda remind us of long ago.”

“Of course, we will also supply you with the replicators. They cannot be reverse engineered without destroying them but they will be included as part of the deal if you wish. I understand this would most likely require you to confer with others so a decision is not required at this moment. Feel free to talk among yourselves.”

“If you have any questions, feel free to ask.”

Isahil thought to himself for a time, considering the proposal. He glanced at the second teacup and it floated gently to his hand as it reached out for it, bringing it in one smooth motion to his lips, not spilling a drop.

"I hold the rank of high ambassador within the Red Talons, acting directly under our leader, so i am not required to request permission to verify contracts." He paused.

"Your proposal is fair and logical, I accept the contract." He smiled, sipping the tea. "It tastes wonderful, even if it isnt real." He replaced it where it came from in the same manner in which he picked it up. "All i need now are the details as to how we will 'raise hell' or are those to be left up to us?" He leaned back in the chair a bit, folding his hands in his lap.

"You know your talents best so we will let you decide this yourself. The only thing we request is we place ships with yours so when we show up and start firing on you to drive you away, yours are not hit and ours are. It would look funny if you were driven away without taking any damage and we can create that illusion by planting targets among your forces."

"These forces will remain at your rear and take the brunt of the attack and survivors will flee with you. Later when we pay you in resources, those ships can accompany yours to pick them up and they can return to the fleets."

The look on his guest's face showed there was a bit of confusion.

"I see you are wondering how our ships can be mistaken for yours. The answer is simple, they are metamorphic and can obtain the guise of any ship we scan, eat, or otherwise gain schematics of. Now you are wondering why we need you when we could just imitate others. The answer is also simple. Your fighting style is not the same as ours. If we came in using our own ships to fight doppelgangers we placed, the fighting styles would be too similar and give the whole thing away. Your own individuality is needed and your needs for resources allows us to reward you for your duties.”

Isahil nodded. "but what about your own ships? the ones in the 'rescue' fleet that we'll be firing on." He asked calmly, taking another sip of his tea, this time not putting it down.

"I understand why you wouldnt do it yourselves, its the same reason we havent done something similar ourselves." He said with a sly smile.

He gestured with his hand beside them and a backdrop of space, like a hologram video. showing two separate ships. on one side, was the Ragnarok class dreadnought. On the other was a different ship. Its design wasn't anything the same as the Ragnarok. it bore none of the same weapons systems. The visual layout of the ship was nothing like the ships that floated in the system. "Thats our two crowning achievements in naval technology. The Ragnarok class superdreadnought, on the left, and the Anubis class superdreadnaught on the right. Neither of the two ships posses the any of the same technology, we've been contemplating performing a plan such as yours or something similar for quite some time..." He paused. "But we realized the same thing you did. Our tactics would be the same regardless of what are ships look like." He smiled a bit.


((images))

Ragnarok
(http://fc40.deviantart.com/fs10/i/2006/094/c/d/AFF__Ragnarok_Superdreadnought_by_failurecrusade.png)
Anubis (http://fc83.deviantart.com/fs9/i/2006/065/8/d/AFF__Thoth_Superdreadnought_by_failurecrusade.png)

"I believe we can take the fire. Besides, the initial opening volley would basically frighten you away. The mimics we station with you will be utterly destroyed and that would be reason to flee. We will make it as realistic as possible and the Shipminds will flee along the Link so they will not actually be destroyed. The broken pieces will reassemble later after we collect them and then reform into their regular form so there is no sign they are yours inside the carriers we bring.”

“As you can imagine, the lasers and bullets will not harm the Childer or Ta'Nar in those ships. Also, you can have your Psions command the ships through proxy so they will be using your tactics."
The Captain waited a moment before continuing.

“We would also listen to your suggestions. This operation is one we are doing together. It will take both of us to make it happen correctly. If you have some tactical you wish to add, I would welcome them. A chessboard looks completely different when viewed through the other player’s eyes.”

Isahil thought a moment. "Our standard tactic is to use our ships P-drive to drop in without warning at close range. Though our second fleet isnt equipped with such drives." He paused, thinking for a short while, sipping his tea.

"Well, i was thinking that we use our ambush tactics in force to obliderate orbital defenses, letting a few shots miss to impact on whatever planet happens to be there. After we are fully engaged in combat with the enemy naval forces, after a little bit, you warp in and 'scare us off' which would be a little more realistic than us running away after defeating the whole of the enemy." He paused for a moment to sip the tea.

"Us being in a position for crossfire on our fleet gives a more believable situation for a full retreat, then you talk to the enemy fleet, and when they have their guard down, well, their already wounded from fighting us so they shouldnt put up much resistance." He smiled.

"That sounds like an excelent tactic. When we employ them, the mimics will be under your command as any of your ships are. Anything less would be dectable by the target."

He picked up the teapot and refilled his cup. Taking a sip of the steaming golden fluid he sighed.

"All we need is a target. Do you have any in mind you would like to test our strategy upon? It would be a good idea to figure out how many mimics we would need to make a sufficient ploy. Too many and things would be as obvious as too few. Also, which of your two fleet types are you going to use. The second can arrive with us if you wish. We use wormhole for long-range and Dimensional Drives for ranges under 40 light years. There is a tem nimute tranferal period needed for wormhole travel but it can go anywhere. Our top speed Dimensionally is about 4 Ly per minute."

"Well, Our fleets P-drives can take our ships anywhere in the univers instantly, but if time isnt taken to carefully calibrate the drives between jumps then it has some rather nasty effects on the crew..." He paused. "Our main fleet is currently subdivided into two fleets numbering five hundred ships, not including supply vessels. in all we have a little over one thousand, though our 'pirate' fleet dont have suffecient numbers to turn the tide in a mass battle... there are only approximately 20 ships in that fleet at this time."

He refilled his teacup and took a sip. "I believe that our main fleet will be sufficient for the needs. If we encounter trouble we need only call in the second fleet to assist the first, and in the process double our number in combat." he smiles.

"Then it sounds like we have almost everything set. Now all we need is a someone to test our tactics."

D'Vry set his empty cup on the floating tabletop. With a smirk he looked over at his guest.

"You wouldn't happen to know of any 'volunteers'?"

Isahil sipped for a bit longer at his cup of tea. "I'm not sure, i havent really considered who would be a target if we hat to choose our own. Usually our clients have a specific target in mind." He smiled a bit. "And your plan 'specifically' targets everyone, so to speak."

((OOC: not sure who we should go for first... i'm not sure if we want to target a player or an NPC. I have no idea who we'd pick.

Also, i'm posting from my mate's grandpa's house before we pack up the comp and after tonight, i'll be MIA for about 6 or 7 days.))

OOC:

That is fine, enjoy your trip.

If there is anyone checking out this Thread that wishes to participate, just post an OOC comment. I will let RT chose, otherwise he can create an NPC to have fun with.