NationStates Jolt Archive

Laishk

There are many worlds in the universe, each with its own unique features. But most of the worlds fall into one of several broad categories: rocky, icy, or gas; cold or hot; large or small. Of all these worlds, Laishk is in a category of its own, for it is not exactly a world. It is a ship.

The Homeworld Project occupied four hundred years of the Union's history to fulfill the initial requirements alone, and additional construction continued to the present day (and would probably continue for thousands of years). But it was ultimately successful. The world-ship of Laishk -- High Keruvian for "sphere" -- could host billions of inhabitants; its massive processing centers turned out immense amounts of energy, food and materials to supply those inhabitants; and its engines, absorbing power from sunlight, annihilation plants and various types of nuclear plants, had an output sufficient (if necessary) to move Laishk and all that surrounded it by tens of thousands of light-years.

Branching out from the world-ship, connected to it in a variety of ways, were several smaller worlds, perhaps the size of moons or asteroids. These were natural worlds that had been tractored into Laishk's orbit and attached to it; they provided raw materials and were home to small clumps of colonists, rarely more than a few million to each. The change in position had altered the climates of the worlds to strange levels, giving them unusual species diversity, about which the inhabitants cared little, and unusual climatic diversity, which was useful for visits and military training but otherwise not noticed.

Laishk was the Damalgian Union's ultimate triumph over the circumstances of its diaspora. It comprised the bulk of the Union's holdings through the galaxy; there were many more worlds under its control, but most of these were sparsely populated and mostly used for the harvest, and for Laishk's benefit. An average star system, even without life-bearing planets, could sustain the Union for a few weeks or months. One with native life was even more valuable. So the Union continued to do what Damalgians had done since the days of the Passing: look for new worlds, absorb them into the Union, sustain the existence of the species.

-----------------------------------------

Fleetbase Six

Overcaptain Yad k'Verthazi arranged his bulk at rest and, with appendages deriving from his main stalk, surveyed the vastness of space beyond. Two of Fleetbase Six's home fleets had recently returned, and the base was a hive of activity and noise as soldiers mingled with families, friends, and comrades in arms, while outside ship after damaged ship was tractored into one of the huge repair-harvesters for replacement parts and upgrades. To escape the activity Yad k'Verthazi had retreated to one of his favourite places, at the very bottom of the fleetbase: the hum of the engines rather than the hubbub of conversation and laughter pervaded the room, and few others came here because it required Overcaptain clearance.

Despite the congenial atmosphere upstairs, the situation was bad. A routine fleet action had turned into a debacle, with perhaps a hundred ships lost; moreover, forty or fifty of those had left no debris to harvest, instead being captured by an enemy. It was a severe tactical mistake; a gamble that had failed to pay off. Yad k'Verthazi was well aware of this and also that, presented to the Admiralty the right way, it could cost the commanding officer his career.

The commanding officer was Overcaptain Silithas. They had first met twenty years ago; Yad k'Verthazi had immediately concluded that Silithas was vain, condescending, immature, reckless, and unprincipled, while Silithas viewed Yad k'Verthazi as stuffy, overcautious, holier-than-thou, traditionalist, and uptight. They had, of course, remained fast friends, despite many falling-outs over the years. But now politics might change that. Every battle, every victory, was pivotal -- no matter how slight a skirmish it seemed.

A door creaked open behind Yad k'Verthazi. Without looking round he said: "Drink, Sil?"

Overcaptain Silithas slid or rolled surprisingly rapidly across the floor to join Yad k'Verthazi at his perch. "Don't mind if I do."

"Well, get it yourself, lazy. How's it going today?"

"Not bad. Catching some R&R and preparing for the big weapons test tomorrow, of course."

Yad k'Verthazi eyed his comrade critically. "I heard about your little skirmish. Sounds like you messed up pretty badly."

Silithas uttered a noise equivalent to laughter. "Not that badly. I hadn't even gotten to the heavy weapons yet, and they were already on the verge of destruction.... I'd totally have won if the planetside thalia hadn't sided with the aliens."

"You taunted and threatened them," Yad k'Verthazi said. "I've seen transcripts. Plus, there were already aliens on that planet. What made you think they'd side with you?"

"They're Damalgians. We're Damalgians. The math isn't hard. Why take the side of a bunch of aliens who'll only bite your [large anterior forelimb] when they get tired of your food? The Union's bigger, better, and better-protected. But no, they liked the aliens so much they put themselves deep on the Union's shit list and condemned themselves to a slow painful death. People are stupid," Silithas concluded. "C'mon, let's head to base. It's quieted down a little."

"Thanks." The two rose from their at-rest positions and began to move towards the door. "Then you left?"

"Well, sorta. After they hit us with the Sudden Death we were in a bit of a bind -- they'd targeted our interdictors, so the fields were losing power. So we hit the nearest fleet with a death ray."

"Neural Pulse?"

"Yeah. I don't remember their names. Queenies or Kuwanies, some weird alien name. Wiped out all life forms all right, but I guess that triggered emergency protocols -- the baseline AIs sent out distress calls or something, and a couple hundred more ships broke interdiction and arrived. We could have handled it, of course, but I noticed that the other guys we were fighting before were moving back into position to hyperjump as well, and we didn't want to get stuck under their ID. So we quit."

"Leaving a clear trail straight to Laishk. Nice work."

"I'm not stupid, Yad. I had them do two to six locus jumps apiece before jumping away towards 37.81.65.714 to regroup. With echoes pretty hard to track beyond a few hundred light-years there's no way anyone tracked us. Checked for probes at 37.81, too -- nothing."

"They'll find 37.81, if they look."

"Maybe. But what will they get from it?"

"So tell me about your new weapon."

While Silithas was an Overcaptain, and thus involved in both political and tactical maneuvering, his first love was building things. Especially things designed to kill other things. It was to a great degree his expertise in creating weapons and using existing systems creatively that had kept Silithas thalia at the top of the Union's food chain, and prevented the High Admiral from kicking Silithas to the dogs the first time he'd lost a system to alien enemies just in order to test a new tactic. The skirmish he'd lost was of minimal importance to him compared to the weapons test, while to another commander (such as Yad k'Verthazi) it would be a crushing disappointment, in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- it being only a minor battle that probably wouldn't even make it into the news announcements.

There was something else on both their minds, however. High Admiral Saiki, de-facto leader of the Union, was old. He was nearing retirement -- everyone knew that, even if they didn't actually say it. He was going to appoint a successor, and that would leave inevitable vacancies on the admiralty council. The overcaptains in turn had to get into position for promotion, whether through outmaneuvering the others or through killing them. Time and again it had happened throughout the Union's history in much the same way, a quiet and private struggle that usually favoured the best strategists. But with typical flamboyance and foolhardiness Silithas had completely changed the nature of the conflict, as his comrades would soon find out. He'd done something no overcaptain had previously attempted.

OPEN INVITATION
to a
WEAPONS TEST

At a Wild & Remote location, we shall test the Effects of our new Weapon, "New Life" -- so named as a Counterpart to the so-called "Sudden Death" -- upon a captured Warship obtained in combat with Aliens, among other Controls.

BE THE FIRST TO WITNESS AN EXPERIMENT OF INVALUABLE SCIENTIFIC & MILITARY KNOWLEDGE!

This Test will occur at the planet designated 184.96.96.477. Star maps provided upon request. The Union is not liable for any damage caused to you while attending this test. Space is limited; please bring your own ship, as the Union cannot provide transportation to and from your home planet. FTLi fields will require you to undertake several hours' travel in realspace before reaching the test site. Do not pee in the bath.
The message -- left as an advertisement in the back pages of a few intergalactic news sources -- had been largely the work of Silithas himself and a handpicked intelligence team, which scoured galactic communications, built a working Damalgian Standard-Galactic Basic translator, and looked at similar events around the area. Now it remained only for someone to pick up on it. Silithas was bringing foreigners into a time-honored tradition of backstabbing, mudslinging, and occasionally assassination -- even if only indirectly. There was no telling where things would go from here, which was, of course, just the way he liked it.

OOC: This thread will go into a lot more detail about the inner workings of the Union, the Damalgian military, and a bunch of important characters. If you join, expect a combination of character and military roleplay with character predominating. You can drop me a line via TG or IRC to let me know what characters you want to contribute (sentences, not those annoying factsheets) or just start writing and let me figure it out myself. That's if anyone shows up. My posts don't tend to get off the ground; maybe they're too long.

High Admiral Saiki stretched lazily and turned towards the young officer who'd interrupted his rest. "He's done what?"

"Well, of course the evidence is inconclusive, it's always possible that...." the officer started.

"Of course it's inconclusive," Saiki murmured. "Evidence can be twisted all over the place."

"Sir."

"Silithas is smarter than he looks, I'll give him that."

"Sir."

"Get me Captain Sakar'athiml!ati'fithalonbadzjekar'o'aki*. Tell her to keep her fleet at readiness. I'll relay her further instructions when the time comes."

"Sir? You know she's loyal to Silithas, right?"

"Of course. Isn't that the whole point?"

----------------------------

Elsewhere....

....on a satellite now orbiting a sparsely inhabited world, dominated by a few native species and the evolved cattle that had once supplied a thriving human colony, before the Damalgians came: workers and robotic assistants hauled no more than a dozen large red canisters, each a little bigger than a telephone box, and dropped them into position in launchers. Switches were flicked to on, tests were run, solutions were acquired. And the canisters were ready for use.

Their contents: monsters.

* For simplicity, "Captain Sakar" hereforward. (Names like "Silithas" and "Yad k'Verthazi" are not actually given names but instead their common titles, which they share with their fleets.)

There wasn’t really such a thing as boredom for a Vorlon. They had an immense capability for introspection, honed endlessly throughout their history. Aside from analysis of the archives of their race, it was all the average member of the culture actually did on a day to day basis. Thus, Uler wasn’t actually bored as her ship raced through the ‘FTLi’ zone, nor was she impatient to arrive. Patience, is also a weapon when used correctly, as the proverb went.

There was some debate as to where exactly the Vorlons’ policies should take them, and missing the evolving debate was the only thing that troubled her, though she had left a fragment of herself with one of her children to represent her opinions in that debate. She was one of the last of the Vorlons to directly have children, long ago, and even now, that still made a considerable impression on who she was.

The hundred and ten meter long blue ship shot through space, its forward engines slowing it down, even as the ‘petals’ that covered the aft half of its body extended. These were flexible arrays of sensors and transceivers for communications and scanning functions, sheathed in the flexible hull-material used for all Vorlon ships.

The language of the Vorlons was incredibly complex, but their translation systems worked adequately to express most concepts, especially imperatives, and so it was simple enough for her ship’s systems to transmit a fairly mundane message.

Destination: Weapons Test Facility at planet 184.96.96.477.
Origin: Vorlon Diplomatic Transport

I have arrived to witness the weapons test in accordance with your invitation to the testing of the ‘New Life’ Weapon. I wish you every success. Will witnesses be received aboard your vessel, or remain on their own?

Having seen the advert, the President ordered that someone was to attend. A small group was assembled, including a few scientists, Govenor Mirox and David LaSalle, and their guards, armed with M2282A1 EDPW's (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14401787&postcount=6) boarded a small ship (http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/resistancefallofman/images//3/32/Chimera_Dropship_05b.jpg) from Planet Ustio. It took them towards the facility co-ordinates. As they went, they transmitted a message;

To: Weapons Test Facility at planet 184.96.96.477
From: Govenor Julius Mirox, Planetary Govenor Of Ustio

We are en-route to witness the testing of this 'New Life' weapon. We wish you the best of luck with the test, and are anxious to see what it is capable of.

The world designated 184.96.96.477 was unremarkable at first appearance. It was inhabited, but not by anything capable of higher reasoning; and it had the desertified appearance of a terraformed planet whose imposed artificial climate was decaying in the absence of maintenance equipment. In orbit around it was a fair-sized space station with a ship docked to it, and orbiting those two in turn were a few objects that had once been ships of some description, none much longer than a hundred meters or so.

On board the station, the newly arrived Overcaptain moved into the control room. (The decreased gravity on board led him to appear as though he was floating, which wasn't too far off the truth.) He nodded in approval. It contained everything he thought a control room should contain, including huge banks of dials and computer equipment -- although the actual computers were run through neural uplinks and required only a few small controls and screens, control rooms just didn't look right without enough gear to fill a four-year college course.

"Hey there, Ensign, uh, whatsyername. Everything in position?"

The Ensign, who had long since consigned himself to the fate of being a nameless minion, swiveled to face Silithas. "Indeed it is, Overcaptain. We're just setting up the last canisters now."

"Excellent. And our guests? Have they arrived?"

The Ensign looked a little uncomfortable. "Er, the first ones are in the system now. We should be receiving confirmations of arrival any time now."

The incoming messages were impossible to miss. While flashing lights and voice cues would have been of little use to Damalgians, who couldn't see or hear them, the alarms had a similar sensory effect. The first message came from a Vorlon ship; Silithas didn't know much about the Vorlons, and they didn't look like anybody he'd ever fought, so he went from existing evidence: There was only one of them arriving. He decided it was probably a lone scientist or engineer, a kindred spirit; that, or a spy. Bearing this in mind, but remembering to maintain some semblance of diplomacy, he sent out the following response:

To Vorlon Diplomatic Transport:

Come aboard the station. It'll make it easier for me to explain what's going on. You can leave your ship attached to the docks; it won't kill it.

The second message was received from a Governor Mirox. This was another nation Silithas knew little about, a category including many thousands of other nations spread across multiple galaxies. "Ustio" looked kind of familiar, so he assumed it must have been one of the names his intelligence teams had dredged up in passing, but he couldn't be bothered to remember in what context he'd seen it. They were "anxious to see what the weapon was capable of", so he assumed they were potential buyers. He made a note of this.

To Governor Julius Mirox:

The only anxiety you should feel, my dear Governor, is that regarding whether you might arrive too late for the demonstration. We're holding it on the space station in orbit around the world; can't miss it. Docks are available for everybody.

OOC: Yeah you said something about my ships for testing? That's good, you can use one of the Crusader Corvettes.

IC:

The newly promoted Captain Zomak was patrolling his sector when he received a message on his HUD.

<<Computer, please read it to me.>>
<<*Reading Message*>>
<<Set course for coordinates AI.>>
<<Will do.>>

Suddenly his sensors received a faint but familiar signal. One that came from a Crusader's Corvette when damaged or captured.

It must be from that battle with the Damalgians... It must have ejected a message pod before being captured...

<<Send a message to Control Center AI, tell them that we received a message from Crusader NK-128-903-375.>>
<<Yessir.>>
<<In addition computer you are to disguise our ship information as that of a random nation, any one will do. Say we could be the Tarion Empire.>>
<<Loading new information data.>>

The ship under the new name TESF-Cerunnos warped into the numbered system and sent the following message:

General Message
This is the TESF-Cerunnos we are here to witness the "experiment".
We are here strictly for diplomatic reasons.

Overcaptain Silithas had a new message. It came from a ship even now passing through the FTLi barrier, much like the previous two; it was the "TESF-Cerunnos", and its design was vaguely familiar to Silithas, but he dismissed his suspicions immediately. They were raised again when he noted that it claimed to be in the system only for diplomatic purposes. Silithas himself had only ever used talking as a stalling tactic and he didn't trust anyone who did it for a living. He assumed them to be bonafide spies or perhaps tech thieves; certainly not buyers, as buyers would not have identified themselves as such. (Sil had never learned an essential aspect of diplomacy: that diplomats rarely ever say what they mean, and it never crossed his mind that the vague "diplomatic reasons" could refer to anything up to and including war.) Well, better to keep an eye on them. He wrote:
To TESF-Cerunnos

Welcome aboard, gents. Lose the quote marks, though. This is a real experiment and we intend to keep it that way. Pop over to the station, can't miss it, we have docks aplenty.

A hundred light-years away, or thereabouts, someone watched the situation play out on several monitors. The watcher was, at present, doing nothing but taking notes, and thinking. This would be a useful opportunity to show off tactical skills and fill the ranks of Overcaptains, which always tended to get depleted during such political maneuvering. Now if only Silithas didn't have to die.

The disguised ship was guided to the station and docked. Several soldier were handpicked to go along with the XO.

<<AI, be prepared to call in some forces as soon as something seems suspicious around here, we don't know if they still remember us.>>
<<Yessir, I will hack their system to be sure.>>
<<Remember not to connect through the Ziolisian Servers.>>
<<Will do.>>

In a few moments the Damalgian computer would receive a signal coming from an unspecified planet several light years away, which was actually routed from a hacked data server on a trader's ship.

The Ensign, whose name can be reasonably shortened to Kai, was the one seated at the computer at present. He noticed the incoming signal and gave the computer its new orders: trace the signal and ping the origin. This it did within several microseconds, pinging the trader's ship.

"Overcaptain?" the Ensign asked without looking up.

"Yes?"

"Have you ever seen one of these?" He projected an image: the computer was scanning the trader ship and drawing a complete picture, the lines rapidly filling in even as they watched.

Silithas probed the image carefully with appendages near the top of his main stalk. "Doesn't look familiar."

"Thank you, sir."

The Ensign put the computer in safe mode to continue. The AI would have to break a randomly generated password of a million characters, each one uniquely different and bearing no resemblance to the letters or symbols it was used to. This would distract it for sufficiently long for the onboard computers to determine who was trying to hack them. Meanwhile, the crew could relax.

OOC: I'll acknowledge your people coming aboard when (if) everyone else arrives. Also, bump.

OOC: Right then I'll sit around and have a hack battle with you.

IC:

"Sir they are to identify our signal."
"Great. Start throwing up random junk from any place you can find onto the ship's servers. Also cut the connection from the trader ship to the Damalgians when you have uploaded enough."

Several minutes passed as the trading ship's servers were crashed by the influx of data coming from the ship. Anything attempting to route a connection through the trade servers would find nothing because the connection was cut leaving no connection logs behind.

There was probably one thing no one counted on being interested in a Weapons test, and that was a horde of monsters. Heck, they were weapons. As Irene read the article in the back of The Inter-Galactic Enquirer aside snippits about Bat boy and people who kidnapped Terrestrials for "experimentation", she decided to take an Armored Hive and go investigate.

Of course, they were probably the last to know, so they knew they'd probably be the last to arrive.

So it was that a single message arrived at the station via a Frequency not used by normal communications methods.

You have captured the interest of The innumerable broods of The Eternal Swarm. We are coming to witness what will surly be a historic event, and if you disappoint us, we will eat you instead. You will be delicious and eaten raw with a dash of salt. Have a pleasant Galactic day.
~ Irene, Queen of the swarms.

Shortly before the test, a Hive Ship covered in an Organic Metal substance the swarm called Biosteel arrived. One might think the Swarm's message threatening, but then, the Swarm was simply stating facts, not being hostile. In fact, they were being the soul of courtesy, by at least warning them first so that the Swarm could be adequately entertained.

"I do so hope we have arrived on time." came a message from the ship.

A small ship on its way home happened to be in the neighborhood. It had been hitching rides in the cargo bays of much bigger ships that did have "true" FTL rather than the half-assed version the Free Priesthood used. This hitch-hiking was much easier than it was supposed to be due to the telepathic abilities of one of the beings on board, although those abilities didn't work on all species.

The name of the unarmed but cloaked ship and also of its AI was Harmony.

---

"Do not pee in the bath? What's that supposed to mean?" said Aniska, while giving one of her children that had chosen an uncomfortable place in her hair a gentle push.

Harmony replied, "Beats me. I do think the rest of the message is supposed to mean we should get out of the way."

"Hmm. First have a look who has come to the party."

"Scanning ... ... ... ... We don't know any of them, one of them looks like a Ziolis ship but it uses a different name."

"That could be bad news. Their ships don't tend to get captured, so there must be some kind of trouble happening. What do you think, Sanka?"

The girl shrugged.

"Jonathan?"

"Better check it out, but we should be careful."

"Alright. Harmony, send them a friendly but only slightly interested sounding message."

"Okay."


This is the independent ship Harmony. My crew of six is bored, a chat with intelligent lifeforms such as I would hope yourselves would be very welcome. Also, that test might be interesting if it's not just yet another thing that goes "boom".


Jonathan shook his head. "She said friendly, not arrogant."

"Hey, I can't help that AIs get characters similar to their creators. Oh, what about that FTLi thingymabob? I don't sense anything that would stop us from breaking the speed of light."

"Don't risk it. If it doesn't cause us technical trouble, it's still impolite to show beings that their tech doesn't work, and that gets us a different kind of trouble."

"You're such a bore" said the AI. "Moving to our hosts at a polite speed of 0.999 c."

Jonathan smirked. "She really is a clone of your character."

Aniska blew raspberries at him.

@Ziolis:

The computer noted the overloading of the trade ship's computers. It resembled a DDoS attack. However, as that discounted the trade ship as a source of the attempted hacking, it proceeded to ignore it and instead started looking for a nearby AI to route its own anti-hacking efforts through. After a momentary search it found one -- an AI on a Ziolisian (sorry, "from some other place that totally isn't Ziolis") ship, currently engaged in several delicate tasks, but with enough processing power free for the computer's purpose. This would do nicely.

The computer directed a signal from the definitely-not-Ziolisian AI to hundreds of satellite computers in various parts of Damalgia and Laishk, set to scan the area and implant "spacedy keyloggers" on whatever computer next tried to access the satellite's AI, to track it down to the source. The redirection was not only a courtesy, but a requirement of sorts for a computer in safe mode, which couldn't access hyperspace communications networks without safe mode being turned off.

@Eternal Swarm & Free Priesthood:

The messages were coming in rapidly now. Well, more rapidly than before. That was good, as countdown to the tests was beginning anyway; diagrams and information had been set up all over the place, the floor-to-ceiling windows of the examination room had been unshuttered to reveal the pair of ships floating outside, as well as a third, different-looking ship that also didn't look particularly Damalgian and probably belong to one of the other numerous nations the Union fought every day or so.

First, a message from the Eternal Swarm. Silithas had never interacted with them personally, but he knew of them fairly well, and upon reading the message, he decided that he liked them. His response was, of course, typical Silithas:
To Irene, Queen of the Swarms:

You're certain to love this weapons test. To some degree it's even based on the way species such as your own operate! Except, of course, with more explosions. If you're disappointed with our test, we probably won't eat you. That's disgusting. But we may harvest you and your ship for raw materials. And what's the difference between a Galactic day and a normal one?
Second, a message from an independent ship, whatever that was, called Harmony. Which, he noticed, despite being small and apparently underpowered was pointedly traveling just under the speed of light as though in a show of defiance. He'd encountered defiance a lot in his career as an Overcaptain, such as the time when, just to spite his new weapon which broke apart the bonds between atoms, an enemy battleship had steadfastly refused to disintegrate. He'd marked it as a kill anyway and gone home. Nonetheless, he appreciated a kindred spirit in the message received.
To the independent ship Harmony:

If your crew really is so bored, we can make their lives a lot more interesting (albeit shorter) by transporting them onto the first test subject. And while the new weapon does indeed go "boom", that's only an optional extra. Come aboard, you won't regret it.

OOC: Leaving about 12 hours or one more arrival, then we can get down to business.

Harmony arrived at her destination, braking to a full stop much more quickly than should be healthy for any lifeform inside, and definitely much, much more quickly than the simple light thrusters should be capable of. This little ship obviously had some kind of engine that messed with the properties of space. She switched off her cloaking layer, revealing a smooth seagreen surface and elegant aerodynamic shape.


I think the infinity of the afterlife must become rather boring after some time, and I know for a fact the first years after reincarnation are a waste of time, so we'll decline that offer. Ready to dock when you are.


"Let them know who we are" said Aniska. "Open cards, I don't think these beings are likely to be scared by us, and they might dislike surprises."

"No open cards" said Sanka. "You know why."


Your guests are Sanka, human-fir!nan hybrid child and my owner; Aniska, hybrid bodyguard and priestess of Death; Jonathan, human bodyguard and priest of Sol; and three little hybrid children. Watch out, the little ones bite. No joke.


"Is that a good enough compromise between the wishes of you two?"

"Yes, send it."

Sanka covered her mouth with her hand and spit out a human tooth. "Last one." She grinned, showing off her new, dangerous looking teeth (and one gap).

Aniska smiled. "Well well, princess. Your people are going to be quite surprised."

Jonathan seemed less amused. "Remember not to give our hosts any toothy smiles. It may be interpreted as a threat."

Sanka nodded to Jonathan, then replied to what Aniska had said. "They're not my people. If that stupid war ever ends, and then IF I ever become empress, the first thing I'll do is introduce democracy. The second thing I'll do is get aboard Harmony and leave."

"If that's the way you want it, hon." Aniska took the tooth and put it away. "Let's say hello to these beings." Then, in fir!nan language, {Stay in mommy's hair, or else no dinner.}

To Irene, Queen of the Swarms:

You're certain to love this weapons test. To some degree it's even based on the way species such as your own operate! Except, of course, with more explosions. If you're disappointed with our test, we probably won't eat you. That's disgusting. But we may harvest you and your ship for raw materials. And what's the difference between a Galactic day and a normal one?
"We can explode with alarming power if we so choose. If you want to eat a Swarmling, may I suggest a Roasted Swarmling? It's been designed to be nutritious but it's taste leaves much to be desired. Regrettably, it's the only non poisonous variety of Swarmling.
As for normal days and Galactic Days, might I remind you that each sphere reotates on it's axis around it's star at different rates, thus days are longer in some places than others, and shorter in some places than others. A galactic day is standardized to allow for efficient communications between nations, species, and worlds. At last vote, a Galactic Day was set at twenty five hours, twenty five being the average of all days when taken into complete consideration. Enough chitchat, we need a docking port."

OOC: Meh... So many people I already know in here :eek:

IC:

The so called "TESF-Cerunnos" was waiting for the other ships to arrive so they could all get off and have a look at the experiment.
The captain knew it was a Ziolisian ship being used for testing but nothing horrible had happened so far so there was no need for a whole armada to jump in and use their newly developed Rift missiles.

Long metallic arms unfolded from the station, searching for the ships; each arm attached itself to a ship with a disconcerting noise that also signaled a change in the artificial gravity, if the ships were so equipped with it. The arms drew back to their concealed positions, dragging the ships inside with them, into the docking bay where they waited, poised above the blackness of space, as pressurized tubes emerged to connect the ships to the main body of the station. Visible from down here was another ship, presumably Damalgian; a warship about three hundred meters long, Silithas's own flagship, with which he had traveled there. (Why he felt the need to go everywhere with a several-million-ton block of steel armed with hundreds of deadly missiles is a question for the psychologists.)

As the occupants of the ships emerged from the tubes onto the lowest level of the station, they were met by the Ensign. It was possible to tell, if you knew your Damalgian anatomy, that he had a strange device attached to his lower main stalk; this was the Basic translator, which outputted an obviously mechanical and uncannily androgynous voice, also the first thing the newcomers heard.

"Greetings, sapients. I am Ensign Kaiphotha'w*esktathboan!i'tikgobhakthi'sha [or something like that], er....." Brief pause as he made some unintelligible sounds, apparently consulting his notes. "....you may call me Kai. I am here to take you to the observation room, where the Overcaptain will meet with you and provide background regarding the experiment before and during its course."

Some listeners would render "Overcaptain" as "Commodore" or "Rear Admiral", depending on the rank structure of their local space navy. "Overcaptain" was only the most literal translation of a Damalgian word requiring forty ASCII characters to display.

Dangaloth took things literally, and rendered Overcaptain as Overcaptain.
"Greetings, I am Dangaloth, Cerebrate of The Swarm, when shall we begin?" Dangaloth asked. His voice was smooth and mellow, for a giant monster. He had the body of a Hive Tyrant, and so had an unsual shape topped with claws, fangs, and symbiotic weaponry. Wings graced his back, but were neatly folded.

Zerion and company stepped off in a diamond formation. Zerion was wearing the formidable Jihad armor.

"Greetings, I am the Tarion Lord Marshal. I await your testing to begin."

Aniska was the first to walk out of the airlock. She stopped to listen for a moment, to gather some information about the new environment from its sounds and echoes. Three tiny creatures that looked very similar to her were clinging to her long blue hair, on a mission to secure dinner. From the way she moved it was easy to tell she was a carnivore, and that she had been through years of combat training. It would probably surprise the other beings that she didn't carry any type of weapon or armor.

Sanka was next, to anyone who hadn't seen a human-fir!nan hybrid before she would appear to be a hybrid child in a simple light dress, who had once done a blue hair dye experiment that was growing out (natural color: green). Apparently she was the highest in rank - how strange. Again, no weapons or armor.

Third and last was Jonathan. It certainly should be surprising that a being as fragile as a human would go without weapons or armor. Again the appearance of years of combat training, and the scars one would expect to go with it (which Aniska didn't seem to have any scars at all). He wore the same simple grey uniform as Aniska did, with a row of pins stuck through a flap. What were these? An indication of rank? A tool? A weapon?

Apparently these three went without conventional weapons. Were they complete idiots, or did they rely on something else?

Jonathan and Aniska gave the other beings a quick look-over, they didn't seem the least bit surprised or intimidated. They noticed the Ziolisians were indeed Ziolisians, something odd was happening here indeed.
Ziolisians - we know how to make friends with them, therefore not a threat.
Damalgians - not a threat except to Sanka.
Swarm beings - potential threat to Jonathan and Sanka, probably not to Aniska.

Aniska gave a nod to Sanka, who stepped forward. "My name is Sanka. Pleased to meet you. Let's see what you guys made, then."

"Follow me," Ensign Kai said, directing them to an elevator. As they followed him they noticed that what had been taken for decorative columns or parts of the ship unfolded themselves and moved (rolled, or slid, or something) towards the elevator door to guard it. They were in fact security guards, encased in eight vertical feet of powered armour: environment suits modified for military use.

Emerging from the elevator they came into a room with vast, floor-to-ceiling windows, looking out upon three ships held in place by gravity beams, as well as the surface of the planet. Two of them were captured Ziolisian ships; the third wasn't, and was slightly larger and also a bit further to the right, indicating that it was destined for a different part of the experiment. Around the room were numerous long benches, the closest thing Silithas could get to a chair that would accommodate humanoids, and a variety of other equipment including strange helmetlike devices, scale models, something resembling a futuristic slideshow, et cetera. Silithas himself was seated with his back to the windows, facing the group, and as he rose they could observe that he was "wearing" something with a pattern of materials apparently arranged by the concentration of carbon in them (the uniform wasn't chosen for its colour scheme but for the Damalgians' carbon-detection senses, so it looked somewhat more impressive to Damalgians). His voice modulator was obviously different, more realistic-sounding, and somewhat lower-pitched.

"All right! Welcome in, everyone. Have a seat...." he paused. "....or, something. I'm glad so many of you were able to make it here today. My name's Silithas. Well, it's not, but that's the best you're going to get. I hope everyone here brought their own drinks, because I have no idea what you people like." He waited a moment for people to get settled before continuing. "Now, before we begin, a word of explanation. The ship on your left, behind me--" he indicated it with an appendage-- "is our test subject today. It's going to be hit with one canister of 'New Life', normal conditions, and you can experience conditions inside by putting on one of these [750-gram] helmets. The ship on your right is the control. It's going to be hit with an empty canister. You can experience conditions inside by putting on one of these [775-gram] helmets. Are we ready? Any questions? All right, Ensign, fire."

Visible from the window, two large rectangular boxes emerged into the line of sight. Slowly, although not too slowly, they approached the edge of the energy shields, which had been activated for this purpose. Both boxes became semi-transparent for a moment and simply passed through the shields, sped up, dodged to avoid point defence fire and hit the hulls. The box on the left flattened itself against the hull, appearing to meld with it; the box on the right simply bounced off and continued bouncing back and forth between the hull and the energy shields.

OOC: I'm assuming everyone's characters made it up to the examination room and are present, whether they posted or not. I'll give space for questions before continuing.

Aniska looked at the ships and pretended not to recognize their design. That explains why those Ziolisians are using a different name she thought.

They waited for someone else to try the helmets first, "experiencing conditions inside" didn't sound pleasant.

Irene didn't need a helmet to experience conditions inside, she simply concentrated and extended The Swarm's vast senses to the inside of the ships. She wasn't so trusting as to put on an alien device.

The head scanners of the Ziolisian troops were sufficient to see inside the ship.
-------------
Private Comm
-------------
<<Christ, what are they doing to our ships?>>
<<Don't know Zerion, whatever you do, don't give your team away, we can't get reinforcements in that fast.>>
<<Fine captain, but if this gets out of hand I'm killing them.>>
<<Agreed.>>
-------------
Real World
-------------
"So...Silithas, what does the 'New Life' canister do?"

The others didn't seem willing to try the helmets either. Aniska knew Sanka would be listening in to her thoughts. Sanka, are there any beings on those ships whose minds you can read?
She heard the voice of the girl in her head: I don't know, let me see...

Sanka concentrated on the ship that had been hit with "New Life", looking for minds.

There was no one on the ship being tested -- all organic beings captured along with it had been recycled long ago -- and it was controlled only by an AI yoked to the main computers of the space station. The same went for the control; there was no point in keeping crew around on a ship whose only purpose was to be destroyed. Silithas observed that none of the others seemed to want to put on a helmet. He'd spent minutes on that simulation, too. Oh well. It was just one of those things.

"So...Silithas, what does the 'New Life' canister do?" asked the Tarion Lord Marshal.

"I'm glad you asked that question!" Silithas pulled an interactive diagram towards himself and pointed. "First stage is what I like to call The Part Where It Moves. The canister emerges from the launcher, travels slowly to be able to maneuver out of the way if it encounters weapons fire, and this little thingamajig here fucks with enemy sensors, making it totally undetectable. It phases out of realspace to pass through shields, then hits the hull. That's where the second stage starts.

"I call the second stage The Part Where It Becomes Alive, 'cause that's exactly what happens. The weapon is called New Life because it's, uh...." he paused, cycling through several Damalgian words that sounded like random clicking and noises to the onlookers. "Organic, yeah. As you can see on this diagram, once it's hatched it starts burrowing through the actual metal of the hull, using its many arms to gain access to -- ah hell, take a look out the window." He magnified the view of the afflicted ship a few times. From the impact site, it looked like a giant spider (or something with a lot of legs and a central ganglion) was growing under the metal. "From here, you have options. That's why I call Stage Three The Part Where You Have Options."

He moved back towards his seat and drew down a large roll of paper resembling a projector screen. "Since you all aren't going for the cool simulation thing I set up, we'll have to go with the next best thing, a camera. Means you can't explore the ship to see what's going on in other parts of it, but whatever, your choice." On the screen, an image from the engine room of the ship appeared; visible were numerous tentacles, or something, apparently descending from the ceiling and wrapping around the engine core. Even as they watched the visible portion of the creature was expanding and solidifying rapidly.

"As you can see, it's in New Life's nature to seek food and energy. So it always goes first to the engine room to get power. From there, we can generate lots of little creatures to overrun the ship -- mostly useful for colony ships and such-like --" Silithas pressed a button and, from around the stricken engine core, hundreds of small flying creatures about the size of weasels, with more teeth than body, emerged in clouds, emitting long keening screams as they covered a conveniently placed table of food, picking it clean in seconds. "But if we're not just fucking around and have a real military advantage to gain, we can gain control of all of the ship's systems, like so." He pressed another button. Visible out the window, more tentacles started to snake through the hull of the ship from the central ganglion, towards the bridge.

"The nice thing is, New Life is organic and intelligent, so we can issue it commands and have it follow them." He connected to the neural comlink, which looked like an ordinary comlink except it connects to your brain. "Launch forty mass driver rounds at that planet!" Lo and behold, the weapons angled out, and dozens of slugs of metal burst from the innards of the ship and were gone in a moment, descending towards the planet. Silithas magnified the planet's image in the window and allowed them to watch as the impacts were visible from orbit. "+20 -35 +9, at point zero zero three three." Lo and behold, the ship started moving along the stated vector at the leisurely speed of one thousand kilometers a second, disappearing from view very rapidly. "Return to starting position." Lo and behold, the ship did so.

"And, of course, if you want, you can simply destroy it -- New Life, destroy the ship --" A sound like a large crunch came over the camera, which was reduced to static. "-- and harvest the remains. But if that's all you're after you may as well fire a missile or two." Nonetheless, Silithas replayed the view from outside the window, showing as the monster flexed its tentacles, causing the ship to buckle inwards and be reduced to a useless hunk of metal while the kraken became visible around it, now starting to spread its tentacles towards the station itself -- deprived of the engines it was seeking a new source of power. Into the comlink, Silithas said: "Sde'ashi, kk*vorth'wa shnkhd'taku kfi," and monster and former starship disappeared from sight. Sil turned back to the Lord Marshal.

"Anyway, that's your basic New Life demonstration. There's a lot more you can do with it, mind, which I'll be only too happy to demonstrate if you'd like."

Nobody on there as far as I could tell.
Good.

"Fascinating," Aniska said after the demonstration and explanation, "it reminds me of these." She took a glass jar out of one of her pockets. It appeared to contain black marbles. "Or perhaps these. Oh! And this too of course." Another two jars, small pink things and grey powder. She juggled with them for a moment, then put the first and last back in her pockets. "Of course mine aren't able to control ships. But then again, they're portable, and I can control a ship myself. Anyway... what was I saying? A most fascinating experiment. I'm sure the Fir!nans would love to swap ideas with you. If they could be convinced not to rip you to pieces first, naturally. They're rather xenophobic, you see."

Aniska let the jar with pink things spin on the tip of her little finger. "I presume that wasn't one of your own ships? The design looked different. Not that I care much. I..."

Jonathan interrupted her: "Aniska, stop playing with the flesh-eating bugs. It's not polite."

"Fine, fine... woops!" she caught the jar just before it would hit the floor.

"You did that on purpose."

The "Lord Marshal" involuntarily twitched his hand near his pistol as he saw what happened to one of the ships that had survived.

"Uhh...So is 'New Life' still in the developmental stage or is it ready to be used in war?"

--------------
Private Comm.
--------------
<<Jesus, ZFCC, the Damalgians are creating a new weapon called "New Life", I'm scanning a picture to send to you.>>
<<Be careful.>>
--------------
World
--------------
One miniature cloaked recon droid silently warped in with no trace and began to scan the Damalgian defenses. This droid was registered to no one.

Irene smiled inwardly, showing utterly no trace of emotions outwardly. New life had potential, certainly, but it lacked the finesse and grace that only The Swarm could give it.

"Flesh-eating bugs? Awesome," said Silithas. "I've always liked those things. We have about six different species living in the wildlife preserves on Laishk. They're really cute. And yeah, it wasn't one of our ships.... we captured it from some random aliens in a little skirmish a couple days ago. Same with the control, by the way."

He turned to the Lord Marshal. Definitely a sale there, he decided. "Oh, we're still developing it. There's a lot more it can do: once it controls a ship it can devour other nearby ships, and turn them into copies of itself, for instance. The military-grade version will probably merge the monster and the ship more wholly, so that the metal of the ship itself is what comes alive. We've also developed a microorganism it can emit in clouds, like nanobots or something, which I only bothered to make because it can strangle living organisms to death with their own internal organs, from the inside. Isn't that cool? There's loads more in development for New Life all right."

He paused. "Wait, rewind a little. Who are these fir!nans? They sound interesting."

-----------------------

Elsewhere.....

Captain Sakar decided to move in a single ship. Cloaked. Cloaking in space is not particularly effective as a rule, but she was aware (correctly) that Silithas was going to be too busy to adjust scanners anyway, and the others would presumably be on board the station. The ship she cloaked was a harvester, simply because it was the only thing large enough to fulfill all the functions she wanted it to fulfill.

It was one of about fifty ships under her control, and hopefully the only one she'd have to use this time.

"Fir!nans are the native sentient species of the planet on which I was born. They're very good with biotech and nanotech. Long story short they made almost every creature on the planet both aggressive and poisonous, simply because they don't like strangers. I could open one of these jars to show you some of the smaller things they've made, but I don't think you and the other guests would consider it amusing. Unless you like it when you or the ship get eaten, of course."

"I see, are you planning on selling this to other empires or for your own personal use?" asked the Lord Marshal.
----------------------
Space
----------------------
The droid scanned and sent a encrypted message to an unspecified planet which transmitted to a orbital station which in turn transmitted to a ZFCC perimeter station.
----------------------
Damalgian Station
----------------------
"If you are selling it, we might be interested in buying a few test samples.

"Oh, we might be selling it once we've finished it. Not widely, though. Only a few people are good enough to deserve the kind of weapons we Damalgians have been perfecting for years, in preparation for our extermination of every non-Damalgian in the galaxy which the Admiralty Council keeps putting off every few years for some reason." He almost sighed. "Government competence is not what it used to be. You're interested in buying a few? I knew it. You looked like a sale the minute you showed up in-system, heh. We have a few.... down.... stairs......" The station shuddered. "Ensign. Can you check on how many canisters of New Life we have down there?"

There was a brief pause and the Ensign's voice came over the comms. "None, sir. The station has just lost mass consistent with fourteen canisters of New Life. Transporter, I'd reckon."

"Damn. I knew I should never have handed over those blueprints for the Transporter Through Shields. Hold on--" There was a click as the translator shut off. From there the two Damalgians conversed rapidly in their native tongue, nearly incomprehensible even to those with personal translators (although it would grow more so as the translators absorbed more of the language).

After a few moments Silithas's translator came back on. "Er. Sorry about that, everyone. There's no reason to panic, but a ship two and a half kilometers long just showed up in-system, our experiment has been sabotaged, we've been locked out of the docking bays, and in the next few minutes this station may experience some electronic malfunctions and then explode." He paused. "This was rather unexpected. Anyone for drinks?"

"I'll have a scotch on the rocks." Irene said, surprisingly nonchalant when faced with the possibility of her untimely death.

"Sad, but I'll take some rum. In the meantime, is it possible to get aboard one of those test ships to examine?"

Sanka fainted, Jonathan caught her before she could hit the floor.

Aniska rolled her eyes. "Locked out of the docking bays, and I suppose the rest of the ship will be on remote control too. You incompetent idiots." She typed some commands on her WMDA (the device that was attached to her left arm), and some loud noises were heard from the direction where Harmony was docked. Moments later a hole appeared in a wall, a door opened in the middle of it. "When the door is locked, you make a new one. Or a big hole, that works too. Does anyone want a ride, or would you rather try what hard vacuum feels like? Think fast."

"I'd prefer my own ship actually, guards, you know what to do."

The 6 troops choose a section of wall that lead to a passageway that led to their hangar using their headsets.

One of them was equipped with a Maser Rifle which he put to good use carving a large hole in the wall.

Secretly the demo-specialist placed a small hidden anti-matter charge on the hole's rim to try and kill Silithas.

"Let's get out of here men."

They walked through and back to their ship.

"I'll take hard vacuum, being immune to the effects of space. One of the perks of being a swarmling, you get to fly in space without a ship if you have wings. But that doesn't matter, as I can die, but I cannot be destroyed. If I die here, I'll merely reincarnate back into the swarm elsewhere. Now, where's that scotch I ordered?"

Ensign Kai opened a compartment inside what resembled a pillar, and removed two containers of liquid and ice, passing one to Irene and the other to the Lord Marshal. "Here you go. And no, I'm afraid you can't.... it's reserved for further testing, once we get back those canisters."

"Um, Aniska?" said Silithas. "I wouldn't do that if I were...." the door appeared. "...you. Ahem. You see, the station's AI has been remotely taken over. We would have had it under control within a few minutes, but moving your ship to connect with this part of the station allowed the foreign AI to take over your systems as well." There were some explosions from the other side of the wall, and the WMDA appeared to power down, then immediately restarted. "But your AI seems to be fully capable of defending itself. Like I said, there's no need to panic. We have computer teams downstairs working on it, and of course my flagship happens to be in-system. If you're really worried, we have escape shuttles out that way."

The Ziolisian attempting to blast a hole in the wall found it difficult, as a security 'bot heretofore disguised as part of the environment extended a long appendage and removed the maser rifle from his possession as he brought it to his shoulder. The 'bot made some sounds which Silithas translated. "It says not to fire that thing inside, or it will be forced to kill you. Anyway, the shortest way back down to the hangars is that way."

"It seems you don't understand what I did. I told Harmony to disconnect, to prevent any damage to her docking system. Then, I told her to use her nanobot layer to melt her way to this room. If anything, this made it more difficult to hack into our systems, because the only point to attack would be..." The WMDA restarted. "... drat." Both Aniska and Jonathan switched off their WMDAs. "Jonathan, get in there and do an emergency shutdown to manual control. I'm not taking any chances."

Aniska turned around for a moment before boarding her ship. "Sorry about making a mess of this place, I'm just doing my job. If you knew who that girl is, you would know panic is a very appropriate response right now." She dropped the jar of grey powder, whatever the stuff was destroyed all metal it touched, changing it into more of the same grey powder. "Ciao."

Silithas watched the powder as it rapidly dissolved the metal. "So that's what it does. Ensign? Pick up some of that stuff -- with plastic, preferably -- and pour it over the main console. Downstairs." The Ensign hurried over to comply. Silithas relaxed again, submerging a canister of some liquid inside what was presumably a mouth (as it was roughly circular had many, many rows of teeth). He appeared to be receiving information on the crisis as it went on from a source unknown to the others, as they couldn't hear anything. Abruptly all of the lights in the room blew out, and the artificial gravity failed; but only a few seconds later the gravity returned, and floor-level lighting illuminated, as the rogue AI was locked out and the station's controls returned to manual.

"We're receiving a transmission," said the Ensign from downstairs, audible over the regular comm.

"Who's it from?"

"Captain Sakar'athiml!ati'fithalonbadzjekar'o'aki and the Yad k'Verthazi fleet."

"Huh. I wonder what they want."

"Overcaptain! Turn yourself in now, and your prototypes will remain intact. Otherwise we shall turn you and your station into an expanding cloud of monatomic dust."

"Well, that explains that. Sakar, what the hell are you doing? Thinking you can take on me and my flagship with just Yad Fleet? I mean, seriously."

"We have missile locks on your station and your flagship. Our AI strike has reduced you to manual systems. You cannot possibly expect to respond in time. Make your decision now, before we add insubordination and treason to your crimes."

"I already had insubordination. From last year." He hit the mute button and gestured at the assorted aliens. "Okay, now you can panic."

The "Lord Marshal" sighed and asked "So what now eh?"
"Can that bot be turned off so we can blast a hole in the wall? Or could we get aboard one of those test ships? I assume they're still functional, correct?"

Moments after Aniska closed the door behind her, Harmony suddenly changed into a cloud of inert dust.

At almost the same moment, the group (ooc, that is, all my characters) were very surprised to find themselves on a different ship, with another hybrid.

Jonathan asked "Niranna? How did we get here?"

"Teleportation. Your AI sent a distress signal."

"Since when do we have teleportation tech?"

"Couple months. Firna invented it."

"Firna inv...? never mind, tell me later."

"Sorry about the ship, I thought it would be best to destroy it."

"Well, I was quite fond of the AI..." said Aniska.

"Do these memory units look familar?"

"Thank you for thinking of her."

"So shall I get you lot out of here?"

Jonathan shook his head. "No, there are Ziolisians there, we can't just fly away from friends. Let's watch from a distance for now."

"Yeah, we can turn off the 'bot... in theory. But you don't really need to blast holes in the walls. All you have to do is this." Silithas pulled down a switch. There was the sensation of rapid motion, then the artificial gravity changed: the floor tilted, dropping everyone to one side; a wall slid away to reveal inky blackness below, and they fell through into very conveniently placed chairs. Lights came on and they were revealed to be in a computer room of some kind, with technicians and officers seated all around them.

This maneuver was far more impressive to the independent observers aboard Niranna. There was a station about five hundred meters long, with a warship three hundred meters long attached to it. When Silithas pulled the switch the station seemed to collapse around the warship, forming.... a much larger warship. This was Silithas's flagship, and had the Ziolisians been able to see it from the outside, they would have recognized it.

"Captain Sde'ashi -- we're ready to punch some holes in Sakar's fleet. You know these aliens?"

Sde'ashi, a contraction of a name several hundred letters long, was Silithas's executive officer and to some degree the only reason he'd survived over four hundred battles and skirmishes. She glanced briefly at them. "You said they were coming, yeah. That's Irene, hive queen of the Eternal Swarm, whose very presence here is incidentally placing us all in mortal danger--"

"Hi Irene," chorused the officers on the bridge.

"--and this is the former Captain Zomak of the Ziolisian Navy, whom we congratulate on his recent promotion to the position of Tarion Lord Marshal." To the supposed Lord Marshal it seemed almost as though Sde'ashi was winking at him, even though she lacked eyes.*

"Hi Marshal."

"You didn't eat the other folks, did you, sir?"

"What? No, of course not. Supper's not for a few hours yet. And... you said Ziolisian Navy? That sounds familiar."

"I can't imagine where you'd have heard of it before, sir. All hands, brace for hyperspatial travel."

Transmission to independent ship 'Niranna'

Following the 'damaged ship' protocol, your vessel has been hyperspace-linked to ours so that we can drop you and the other aliens off at a safe location. Otherwise you are likely to alert "certain people" to your position, and with children on board you really don't want to risk that. Instant death is the best thing that can happen to aliens in the claws of the average Damalgian. You'll just have to trust us.

Captain Sde'ashikhelonavwit*ikthsalytpor'antkqwitfhp!rla'aayt'ga
Union-367 (Autobot)

"Overcaptain?"

"Yes, Sublieutenant?"

"They have powerful sensor nets and interdiction fields surrounding us on all sides but one. Too powerful for us to punch through. Our probes are being jammed, but the one direction left to us is towards Laishk, and presumably the fleet."

(Meanwhile, point defense weapons could be heard firing, and the ship shuddered a few times, informing everyone on board that they had just narrowly escaped fiery death thanks to the shields.)

"So we'll go towards Laishk, then."

Then, the ship moved. From a certain perspective hyperspatial travel takes only a few nanoseconds. From another, it takes millennia. It's best not to think about it too much, however, or you'll go insane. If only from looking at the fuel costs.

* Sde'ashi is either one of a small number of Damalgians with mild psionic abilities, or she just knows people very, very well, and does the research every time. I haven't decided yet.

Irene finished the drink, then stood up and stretched all four thousand body parts simultaneously.
"Alright this has been fun and all, but, who do I have to kill?"

OOC sorry for any confusion, Niranna is a person (yet another hybrid female, and I mark this one a redshirt), not a ship. I name the ship... let's see... Starstream. And if you think that's a bad name, consider I also have one called SunnySideUp. Also, this one doesn't have an advanced AI - ships with talkative AIs like Harmony are a bit of a curiosity in my nation.

IC


Starstream is not an independent ship, but property of the Council of the Free Priesthood. Unlike the other ship you've seen, she's quite capable of disappearing without leaving a trace, but we're curious about where you might take us, so go ahead.

Lady Niranna, second level diplomat of the Free Priesthood


Sanka woke up, Jonathan put her in a chair. She looked around herself. "Hey this isn't Harmony."

"No dear, this is Starstream, and my name is Niranna. What's yours?"

"Xa... My name is Sanka."

"Aniska, may I ask why you're flying around with a child with two names that isn't yours and looks suspiciously like a modified human?"

"It's better for your health and that of everyone else, including those aliens, if you don't ask."

* Sde'ashi is either one of a small number of Damalgians with mild psionic abilities, or she just knows people very, very well, and does the research every time. I haven't decided yet.

OOC I suggest picking mild psionic abilities, then you can notice there's a telepath running around, one who is able to take control of the minds of my characters (the amount of influence she has on other characters is for their owners to decide).

OOC: LOL, My cover is now dead.

IC:

Zomak was momentarily speechless as one of the Damalgians had found out what he was. But luckily his face HUD concealed his expression.

//Private Message\\
<<ZFCC, One of the Damalgians has seen through our disguise. Send reinforcements in cloaking under a different Empire name.>>
<<Are you in trouble? No nothing's happened to us yet but the Damalgians are under attack by the Damalgians. In other words a coup of some sorts.>>
<<I see...Maybe...>>

Several Battlecruisers slipped through a warpgate and would arrive cloaked soon.

On the monitors a massive planetoid became visible, about the size of the earth; and attached to it by what looked like long passageways or elevators, numerous smaller planetoids, so that Laishk resembled a pincushion. "Welcome to Laishk," said Silithas. "Home of the Damalgian Union and, at this point, quite possibly the only place you can be safely dropped off. Captain Sde'ashi? You and the fleet are assigned to protect these aliens from all comers. I'm sure you can do it. I'll take Fleshgrinder and Bloodthirster and show that krth'jttzh Sakar how real people fight."

It seemed he had intentionally left krth'jttzh untranslated. Its meaning, nevertheless, could be divined from context.

"Alright this has been fun and all, but, who do I have to kill?" asked Irene, Queen of the Swarms.

"Would you like to kill someone?" Silithas asked. "'Cause I'm going to do just that. If you'd like you can accompany me."

All right, Starstream -- sorry about the mix-up, by the way -- but I wouldn't get too cocky about dealing with the Union. Stick close to this ship, and you'll be safe. If you'd like you can even dock with it; Captain Sde'ashi has been assigned to escort you and the other aliens, and might even offer you a tour of the area if you're nice. ;-)

- Sili

Niranna composed a reply.


The only times we're not nice are when we're trying to get out of a bad situation, then we tend to "blow shit up". Aniska apologizes for trying to dig her way out through your ship.


"... how did you do that, by the way?"

"Reprogrammed nanos. Don't tell the Council, or they'll make all diplomats go into space without armor or cloaking."

"Sure, if you don't tell them about the tricks I do with the new engine. It has a lot of potential as a weapon."

"I'm sure it does, I've used the old ones for that purpose."

"Really? You must tell me about that! Anyway..."


We will dock, but we'll use some countermeasures to make sure nobody gets access to our systems. A tour would be nice.


Jonathan pointed at some wires that had been hidden behind a panel next to the door. "This plug here?"

Aniska nodded. "Yes, that will make it a separate circuit, so we can shut the rest of the ship down and still open and close the door."

* Sde'ashi is either one of a small number of Damalgians with mild psionic abilities, or she just knows people very, very well, and does the research every time. I haven't decided yet.

OOC I suggest picking mild psionic abilities, then you can notice there's a telepath running around, one who is able to take control of the minds of my characters (the amount of influence she has on other characters is for their owners to decide).

OOC: Irene, as you might have guessed, has major Psionic abilities, barely contained within her body. It'd take someone far greater than her to wrest control of her mind away from The Overmind, such as a Ta'nar. Conversly, Irene, and by extension, The Overmind could take control of everyone's mind. In theory of course.

IC: "I'd love to help you go killing, who we gonna start with? Do they have a ship that needs stomping?"

Several cloaked Battlecruisers arrived under yet another fleet designation, but under the same empire name.

"It seems my reinforcements have arrived, do you need any help?"

OOC: Also any telepath would effect him minimally though able to read some not so protected thoughts. (We have implants in the arms and chest that are under testing to jam psionic waves, so it might fail)

That's fine, Starstream. We're not expecting any more trouble, as even if they do find out we have aliens on board, they wouldn't try attacking a fleet of three hundred ships.

(And yes, in case they hadn't noticed, the occupants of Starstream were in fact surrounded by a massive fleet of allied ships, all under Silithas's control. Most of them appeared to be at rest, but a few were always maintaining fleet-linked shield coverage, enough of it to block a few hundred missiles' worth of explosions.)

On board, Silithas appeared to grin. At least, he did something that looked like a smile. "A ship! My dear Irene, there are at least fifty ships that need destroying right now. Follow me, if you please."

Fleshgrinder and Bloodthirster were two identical ships, looking no different from any of the many other Damalgian warships in-system. Silithas didn't board either of them. He boarded a small vessel about the size of a shuttle and took it out. As it moved, the two warships moved with it. "These two ships are linked to mine. They both have crews of zero, being run only by AIs, and by me. Now, in order to command them both, I'm going to upload my consciousness onto the insta-comlink, use full power to break interdiction and jump. As soon as we get there, you're free to start killing things. You'll have about two seconds though, so prepare what you want to do now." Silithas said. Then he keeled over and died (at least to external readings).

The linked ships jumped, leaving Laishk and the Autobot far behind. A little over eight light-years away, they emerged from hyperspace at the position of a med-sized fleet: two harvesters, four command warships, thirty-five other warships, five interdictors, and eight arsenal ships.* They were about a light-second away. Silithas had had the first three commands keyed in preemptively; number one was to fire a full spread of all available energy weapons at the five interdictors from point-blank range, number two was to jump several light-minutes out again once they were all dead, number three was to fire over a thousand hyperspace-capable missiles (almost the full complement of the two ships) to target every ship but one of the harvesters. Several probes lurking around the edge of the fleet had made this task easier, obtaining targeting solutions in advance, and Sakar had trained under Silithas, so she dismissed drones as useful only as a last-ditch resort, making her former commander's task easier.

As Silithas had promised, these three steps took only a couple of seconds.

---------------------------

Meanwhile, at a defense station near Laishk, a Sensor Officer noticed an anomaly. There were mass readings from out near the edge of interdiction; consistent with an object wandering into the eight light-hour-wide field. Ordinarily this wouldn't be much of an issue, but med-range sensors were also picking up gravitational ripples, such as those generated by such an object rapidly appearing where no such object was before.

The Sensor Officer reconfigured active scans to start frequency hopping, searching for a frequency sufficiently high or low that cloaking didn't affect it. After only a few minutes, FTL scans had revealed enough of the objects that it became obvious: they were ships of some description, traveling under cloaking fields and attempting to mess with sensors in an effort to get close to Laishk. This happened on occasion, as the Damalgians had made a lot of enemies and many of them were sufficiently advanced to seek out the home system. Overcaptain Silithas's fleet was already out between them and Laishk proper, but it didn't seem to have reacted, so the Sensor Officer contacted a Weapons Officer and launched a warning shot at the battlecruisers.

The Damalgian Union's FTLi could be bypassed in hyperspace by anyone with a designated friendly signal. This was easier than continually turning it off and on whenever someone wanted to fly through it. As a result, a "warning shot" of about twenty-eight missiles per battlecruiser needed no assistance to pass through FTLi, so the two shieldbreaching missiles attached to each swarm were all of the additions to the twenty point five gigatons of death that would hit each battlecruiser within a few nanoseconds.

It was a "warning shot" because it warned the home nation: Try that again, and we will wipe you off the face of the universe.

* Harvesters: very long and bulky ships, about 2.5 km on average; unarmed except for point defence weapons, with heavy shields. Purpose: resource retrieval and manufacturing.
Command warships: exceptionally large warships as used by commanders, often with various special features such as the ability to hyperspace-link damaged vessels to their own. Anywhere between 500 and 1500 m long.
Warships: Workhorses of the Damalgian Navy, each one with a full complement of FTL missiles, mass drivers, plasma batteries, and all kinds of other cool stuff. Anywhere between 200 and 600 m long.
Interdictors: Warships capable of generating fields such as FTLi, anti-grav, or anti-psion fields; usually under-armed as a result.
Arsenal ships: They hold supplies. As large as they need to be. The ones here are a little smaller than warships.

The battlecruisers uncloaked and revealed their empire and fleet designation.

This is the Battlegroup Alpha-D-9,
From the Tarion Empire. Cease Fire we have an ambassador and a frigate docked at your station.