NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: The story isn’t very original, but not much is truly original anymore. It’s also not the most well written thing, but it serves its purpose…Peaceful relations are welcome, but I don’t want a war right away. I haven’t played NS in a while, so I need to get back in the groove.

And just and FYI, I’m planning on loosing two of these ships in some catastrophic way I haven’t decided on yet. I’m thinking maybe a nice collision in the middle of space…

Also, I forgot to put (Open, FT) in the title (still getting back into things) so sorry to those who entered this thread and aren't interested in FT. Whoops.

IC:
Three huge ships drifted silently through the vacuum of space. They were colony ships, and they were all that remained of a once strong and proud civilization, called the Alomenno. Their star-nation had spanned multiple star systems, but wars with their neighbors and internal political strife caused the collapse of their nation. In a last ditch effort to save the Alomenno race they launched these three ships to try to restart in a place far away.

Two of the ships were Generation Ships, where people lived, worked, and died in a continuous cycle. They were entirely self-contained ecosystems, the result of years of research in microbiology and recycling systems. Literally millions lived on these ships, the descendants of those who first boarded them long ago.

The other ship was a Sleeper Ship, the first – and last – of its kind every built by the shipyards of Alomenno. In the cryo-bays of this ship were placed the most intelligent of Alomenno society. Scientists, mathematicians, historians, and the like were placed in suspended animation, bidding their time until a new colony was founded and they were reawakened to help rebuild Alomenno to its former glory.

Stored inside the vast cargo bays of the Generation Ships were the remnants of the Alomenno Space Navy. Though most fighting vessels stayed behind to help hold off their enemies while the colony ships left, 2 cruisers and a few dozen destroyers were placed within the ships to help protect them if they encountered any hostile ships.

Though the ships had capabilities of Faster-Than-Light travel, dozens of years of use and erosion caused them to fail often, and the ships were reduced to using them for short periods of time. It had been five generations since the ships were first launched, all those who originally inhabited the Generation Ships had long since died, and the ships subsystems were beginning to show their wear. Power outages were not uncommon, and more than once had the reactors turned off altogether.

There was now another one of those power outages, as one of the Generation ships, aptly named Generation 2, drifted through space without lights and barely enough power to continue to run the most basic of functions. Jack Finley sat back in his chair on the bridge of Generation 2, trying frantically to regain full power. He was the senior engineer of the Alomenno Navy, which meant very little anymore since the navy was all but defunct. “Have we found the short yet? Self-diagnostics has put it somewhere between decks 20 and 34,” he said into his headset.

“Negative, we are still looking,” was the response.

“Captain,” Finley said. “We still haven’t found the problem, but we will soon, we have it narrowed down to just a few decks. Expect power back within 3 hour-cycles.”

Captain Fredrick DeLeary turn his captains chair to Finley, “Good, I’ll alert the council of the progress.”

Just as he said that an alarm sounded off over the radio. The communications officer turned to the captain and said “Sir, CS Sleeper just reported a major power outage. According the preliminary reports, it looks like the reactors may have failed critically.”

DeLeary jumped up from his seat, “Contact generation 1 and the council for guidance. If the reactors have failed they need to be ejected immediately. Finley, get over to the Sleeper immediately and help them with the problem.”

The communications officer turn to the Captain again, “Sir, the council is sending off a distress signal, and has told the Sleeper to jettison the reactors, total meltdown has been confirmed.”

Before the captain could begin speaking Finley was out of the bridge on running down the dark corridors of Generation 2 to the shuttle bay, where he would jump on a shuttle to the Sleeper.

Out of the communications housing on the CS Generation 1 came this message:

Attention all vessels. This is the Council of The Fleet-Nation of Alomenno. We are in dire need of assistance. Please respond immediately to these coordinates. We come in peace and only seek a new homeworld. Please help us.

Sometime after the message was broadcasted, a gravitational disturbance was formed not too far away from the ships. It was a Pressure Space Rift, a large one. The reason for the size was because of the contents, two curisars and an Explorer. Always good to bring a diplomat anmd some muscle when you're unsure of the situation. The Explorer put out a message:

Alien ship, this is Greywatch Response Team. We have been sent here in response to your distress call. Please state the nature of your emergency.

The Hasantos drifted sliently thrugh space, its black form blocking out a few stars, this being the only thing signifying its presance.

In the ships small temple 30 shade stood praying to Kal while on the bridge a handful of Gokai manned the various stations. They had been out here for days trying to reach the starting point for thier pilgrimage to Necrum Sil and absolutly nothing had happened, as such the Gokai had resorted to having a Pong tournament.

It was the big final between No 1279 and No 1346 when the transmition from the Generation 1 was recived. Several minuits later the ships captain was tood on the bridge, wearing a necklace made from the bone of the unfortunate Gokai who had to interupt mass and tell him what the situation was. "And have you sorced it?" the captain said to one of the Gokai
"Yes Captain"
"Verywell, set a course maximum warp"

4 hours later the average sized frigate droped out of warp with a blue flash and sent out a transmition
This is the TSSA temple-frigate Hasantos calling the 'Council of The Fleet-Nation of Alomenno'. We understand you need help, hope we're not to late

A small distance away from the Generation and sleeper ships, a wormhole opened up, from it roughly three hundred small box like craft poured from it, each one was a dull rectangular shape, merely ten meters in length, eight meters in width and six meters in height, they swarmed round each other, the wormhole closing once they had all emerged. They began to form a larger shape, locking together, a spherical structure began to form.

"Greetings, this is a Swarm Ship of the Klikiss Hives, we are responding to your distress message. Please state your situation."

The Solhaien System, on the outskirts of the Zirzlan Confederation, was not one of the most exciting places in the universe, far from it. It was technically habitable, but so far no one had bothered, as it was scarce on natural resources and a long way from the major trade routes. But as Zirzlan territory, it had to be patrolled and guarded.

The frigate Sword of the Lightbringer was currently the vessel carrying out this duty. It was at the end of its six-month patrol duty cycle, and the crew was beginning to feel the strain. Not from stress and hard work, but from sheer boredom. It was hard for them, highly trained combat specialists as they were, to just sit on their backs and just conduct routine patrol work and file reports.

Captain Aeric Stae was deeply worried about his crew's morale. It was getting harder and harder to maintain discipline. In the latest two weeks, he had had to stop three fights among crew members. He had on several occasions observed that some of the men ignored their duties. He had punished the offenders, but atmosphere onboard remained tense.

He felt fairly sure that the risk of mutiny was little, but just in case he had had two of the Changed Ones woken up from their slumber in the cargo compartment. They were only Class IIs, as he was patrolling a low priority section, but the two demon-possessed beings standing by the door in large, comfortable cabin could easily handle even a major mutiny. On a casual glance, they looked exactly like humans, but if one looked closer, one could see the red eyes, empty of life and emotion, the unnaturally pale skin and the long, forked toungues.

It was not known why the human body started to change when it was inhabited by one of the Dark Ones, but that it did was a fact. The speed of the change varied with the power of the possessing demon and the genetic disposition of the host, but with Class IIs it usually took about fifty years before the first mutations started to show, so Stae guessed that these two had been alive for at least a hundred and fifty years. If life was the right word to use for their state of existance, that was. They totally lacked intelligence and emotion, but they could be taught to understand simple orders. They were much stronger and faster than a normal human being, and could recover from wounds that would kill normal men. In short, they were primitive but useful beasts of labour, totally loyal to their commander. Very useful for situations like this.

A voice came in over the intercom, waking him from his thoughts. It was the watch officer, Stae's second-in-command lieutenant Jaecoc Uieris, a promising young officer who had a shining military career ahead of him. He was also one of the men Stae was sure would remain loyal in case of a mutiny.

"Excuse me, sir. We have intercepted a message from an alien vessel two light years away from here. Sorry, make that four vessels. The computer is working on the translations, but it seems that the original message was a distress call, and that the other ships are responding to it. What are your orders?"

"We'll intervene. Send a message to the commander on Dhareal III and report our position and decision to intervene. Send a copy of the intercepted messages, too. It might be of some use to the intelligence services. Then make us ready for the Jump. From the moment we enter the Way, battle stations will be manned at all times. Wake up eight more of the Changed. We will not take any risks. These aliens might be friendly and in genuine need of help, but on the other hand, it might be a trap."

"Right away, sir."

The speakers clicked off and Stae settled back into the chair. He wondered what the aliens would look like. Only a few Zirzlans had ever encountered other species. There were many living on the central worlds that doubted that they even existed. All Navy personnel knew, of course, as there had been a couple of border incidents. But so far no hostile races had been encountered, thank the Lightbringer.

A sudden shudder went through the ship as it entered the Way. Ten minutes later it reappeared at the emergency site, dropping out of the Way with a flash of unnatural energy. A message was sent to the Generation 1.

Unidentified vessel, this is Starship Sword of the Lighbringer of the Zirzlan Confederate Navy. Please the state the nature of your emergency.

The Zirzlans had arrived.