NationStates Jolt Archive

If a Battlestar is assigned to patrol the dead system of XL768, then it is a sign that it will soon be decommissioned. And if a high ranking officer is its commander, then they too are not long of the Fleet. Commander James Stagion knew this. And he had requested that for the last year of his service he be placed in command of his old Battlestar, the Disillusioned. They had seen through a civil war together, and James had grown to love the ship like a child. The Disllusioned was an old ship, nearing the end of its 200 year lifespan. Its hull was marked where 3 nuclear missiles had hit it. The starboard fighter pod had scars all over it. In all, if it turned off its engines and drifted, like they were now, the Battlestar looked all the part a derelict ship. Of course, if they were anywhere else, they would be actively patroling. But whats the point when you are in a dead system, 3 FTL jumps from the nearest inhabited planet.

OOC: feel free to have a ship jump in. i won't reply til tomorrow.

Two Ships dropped out of warp into the System. All reports showed that the system was dead. However longrange sensors had picked up a large object in the system so the UHS Voyager and Intrepid were redirected.

"Sir, 2 ships just jumped into the system,"said a technician.
"Finally, something interesting. Go to Amber alert and power up engines,"said Command Stagion, walking to a coms station. Picking up the com unit, he hailed the incoming ships

Greetings, I am Commander James Stagion of the Battlestar Disillusioned. We are peaceful and wish to talk. And welcome to ICO space.

"Full scan" The Voyagers Captain Captain Harry Smith ordered
"They're hailing" Lt Commander Kovut at tactical reported.
"This is Captain Harry Smith, of the United Hawk Ship Voyager, we thank you for your welcome, though it's unexpected, we thought this system was dead" Harry replied

The Comms Officers eyes flicked across the multiple screens at his station. Taking in vast amounts of data each minute, he had to think quickly to make use of this current... predicament. After several seconds of deep thought, he slowly moved his hands over the keyboard, and hit a few, short keystrokes.

"Heh... checkmate you bastard" Me muttered. Across the room, the Systems Officer stood up, and threw a crumpled up ball of paper across the room. It struck the Comms Officer in the side of the head.

"Fuck you!" He said as he laughed. "You got me with that same move last time, and the time before, one of these times I'm going to wise up to it, Marrik!" 1st Lieutenant Marrik sighed and laced his hands behind his head. "Sure you will Pearson. Sure you will." He smiled. Reaching forward, Marrik closed the game of chess that had occupied his last 2 hours.

To find a wall of coms data and transmissions, in what should be a deserted system. Quickly glancing over it, Marrik turned. "Pearson, get the CO." He said, eyes wide. "We have company"

-----24 Minutes Later-----

The base was full of activity, Soldiers running every which way, equipment being moved and shifted, and the facilities 3 Lancer Class fighters being fueled and prepped, as well as the transport shuttle. Battle ready Marines stood in the hangar, ready to be deployed if the order came.

Colonel Jacobson Heinricks stood in front of the Comms terminal, reading the same information Marrik, still seated at the terminal, had seen just minutes before. "What do we do, sir?" Marrik asked.

"We watch," the Colonel answered. "And we wait. Send a tightbeam to command, tell them we have visitors"

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Tightbeam Transmission, Encoded NMES3, Standary Longkey
-Imperial Communications Relay 43x5s2b1 Sending
-Imperial Communications Station 0x0s4a3 Receiving
Relay detecting multiple transmissions within system, unknown affiliation.
Multiple ships detected in system, 2 distinct construction types. Advise.

"Full scan" The Voyagers Captain Captain Harry Smith ordered
"They're hailing" Lt Commander Kovut at tactical reported.
"This is Captain Harry Smith, of the United Hawk Ship Voyager, we thank you for your welcome, though it's unexpected, we thought this system was dead" Harry replied

"The system IS dead,"said Commander Stagion, glad to have someone, or something, to talk to."We just here to make sure that pirates or some other form of nasty dosn't come here and make themselves at home. Anyway, i don't really have the clearance to make much more then idle chat and Command is about 3 jumps away." Covering the com unit with a hand, James shouted to his XO:"Get those engines running and start spinning up the FTL drive!" Turning back to the coms, he continued:"3 jumps in this thing will take about 2 days for a round trip. Think you can wait?"
While the Commander said this, the Disillusioned was coming back to life. Its 6 massive sublight engines begin to glow as they started back up and all along the sides of it lights when springing up, highlighting all of its 2 Kilometre length.

OOC: I hope you guys don't mind, but I'd like to throw a little fighting into the mix.

IC: "In the name of the Emperor! Your ships are to power down their engines and prepare to be boarded!" The voice came through loud and clear on the comms-unit, filling the bridge of the pirate fleet's command ship. Well, fleet was probably too strong a word. This was more like a flotilla, if anything. Four small frigate class ships. While small, they were remarkably fast for ships of their class, and when combined, had enough firepower to overtake an unsuspecting trade convoy. Each ship had it's own hangar bay, as well. A fighter compliment of twenty pirate interceptors per ship completed the pirate fleet.

However, this time, it seemed, the Navy had found them out. Two Exorcist Class destroyers and Three Mars Class Battlecruisers from the Angenterian Imperial Navy were in hot pursuit. However, the destroyers were large, heavily armed warships. Nothing like the fast sleekness of the pirate vessels.

"In the name of th-"

The Pirate captain, an Eldar man of indeterminate age, smiled coldly, and nodded to his crew, which was an assortment of races found all over the Holy Imperium (Humans, Eldar, and Tau.) The broadcasting transmission cut off, and the Warp-Engines hummed to life.
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Captain Oberon Glaw looked onward from his command chair as the four pirate vessels grew smaller and smaller, eventually, disappearing into the Warp. He was a tall, lean man, who had seemingly spent most of his life in space. The black uniform of Angenterian Naval personnel suited him well.

"Sir." An officer reported. "The pirates have gone to Warp."

"Damn it!" Glaw cursed, slamming his fist on his seat's armrest. His ships had been pursuing those pirates from a destroyed merchant convoy for three days, and it had finally seemed like they were within his grasp. "Navigation, can we track them?"

The Navigation officer remained fixed on her screen. "I'm running the possible course calculations through now, sir! Looks like this scum didn't even mask their warp-trails."

"Excellent." Glaw responded. He pressed a button on his chair. "All hands, this is the captain. Prepare to go to warp!"

Meanwhile, the pirates had dropped out of the warp in a seemingly dead system, quickly moving behind the nearby star to avoid detection. It seemed like they weren't the only ones there...

Marrik clicked through several screens as warnings flashed all over his terminal. After closing down the more obvious ones, he settled down to read in the information. Turning to the Colonel, he motioned at the new warnings. "They've brought conventional engines online, and I'm picking up a secondary energy signal, low, but building. Could be anything at this point."

The Colonel turned and shouted some commands down the hallway. Troopers set off running.

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On the second planet in the dead system, the dim starlight shone on the dry arid surface. Covered in a haze of dust and dirt, nothing moved.

Suddenly, a crack appeared in the side of one of the larger slopes. Widening, light shone out from the interior, revealing the North Mack Communications Relay Post embedded into the mountain side. One of thousands across the galaxy, it served to monitor local systems, and relay long range communications across the Empire.

As the hangar door reached its fully open position, the 3 fighters within could be seen nearly fully ready. Fueling cables were retracted, missile racks removed, and the pilots sat in the cockpits ready for any action that might occur.

"Sir, there was an energy pulse, near the star,"said the scanner technician, handing the Commander some readouts.
"Hmmm..."picking up the coms unit again, he hailed the Voyager and said:"We just picked up some rather interesting energy readings in the system. Care to take a look?" with that, he scanned the readouts into the coms unit and sending them as data to the Voyager.
"Oh hellfire...Energy readings from the second planet,"said the techy, as the XO's referred to them.
"Well, this sure beats patrolling,"said the Commander.

"Sure" Harry commented nodding to science who began scans

"Hey!" One of the pirates, a human female, called out to the captain. "They're coming this way."

"They must have picked up our energy trace." The Eldar captain said simply, folding his arms. "No need to worry." He soothed. "We'll wait until they're right on top of us. There's only three ships, nothing we can't handle."

The Vojvodina-Nihonian destroyer Oswegatchie was wildly off course. It had miscalculated the angle of entry for one of the trickier hyper-jumps and was now lost in uncharted territory, many light-years from home.

This was in itself not a big deal. All they had to do was find more jump points by analyzing the gravity signature of the stars and planets they landed around and determining where along the curvature induced by the object could a wormhole be opened with minimum expenditure of effort. They made several jumps, but all to uninhabited, empty systems; of which there is a preponderance in the universe.

At length Captain Rejoice-in-the-Lord Sanderson decided he'd had enough. Based on the direction and velocity from which one approaches a jump point, the wormhole can go in several different directions; sometimes, to several different star systems. So Sanderson sent several collections of nanoprobes through the jump point at different angles: wormhole arrays. They would send information back through the jump points to reach Oswegatchie itself, currently in an uninhabited system with no planets designated Xavier 3661, after its star.

The destroyer's MADISON unit was in charge with receiving it. Sanderson had been clear on that point: "I want a star system with inhabitants. Or at very least, ships. Nothing empty."

So when the AI returned to him later on and said, "One system is occupied by several ships, of uncertain origin. The others are empty," he didn't hesitate. Even if he was jumping into a warzone, Destroyers are miniature powerhouses of armament and shields, and besides, there was no reason why he wouldn't be able to negotiate.

"The angle's rather awkward, but I think I can calculate it correctly," said Maddie. "It'll take us out right near the star, on the other side from where the main terrestrial planets currently are in their orbits, so we'll have to go around it a little ways to find anyone of note...."

"Yeah, whatever," said Sanderson. "Commander? Let the crew know we'll be heading for another system. Bridge crew, brace for acceleration."

"Will do, Captain," said the Commander, rather doubtfully, as the bridge crew buckled themselves into the padded seats and prepared for the gut-wrenching lurch forwards. Destroyers could accelerate very fast. In this case it was going almost 0.4c when it hit the jump point.

Within a few moments, two hundred and forty meters of shiny metal death emerged into the supposedly dead system, technically above (relative to the galactic plane) the star, and immediately began to decelerate as it moved away and "down" towards the planets. Then Maddie chimed, opening her avatar's mouth somewhat to issue a sound no human being could make. (Of course, the blue skin -- standard for AIs -- could have been a giveaway as well.)

"Active sensors indicate several vessels near the star, within about fifteen light-seconds. Frigate class or smaller."

"Should I hail, Captain?" asked the communications officer.

Rejoice-in-the-Lord Sanderson paused. "Er. Well, if they're right next to the star, it's probably because they just came out of a jump point. So yes. Hail them and ask for directions."

"All right. I'm putting them onscreen now."

The Captain cleared his throat and said to a hardnosed bunch of cutthroats, mercenaries, and pirates, "Greetings. I am Captain Rejoice-in-the-Lord Sanderson of the Royal Vojvodina-Nihonian Star Navy. We are somewhat lost and were hoping you could assist us. Where does the jump point you have just emerged from lead to?"

"What?! man, my luck...." Commander Stagion looked at the scanner screen as ANOTHER unidentified ship jumped in.
"Sir, its hazy, but it looks like there are some ships behind the star,"said a techy, pointing out the readings on a screen.
"Send a Falconite to see what they are doing there,"said the Commander. About 2 minutes later a Falconite flew out of the starboard flightpod and headed around the star.

OOC: Yeah, this kind of thing always bothered me about FT intro threads: "We've never encountered aliens throughout our 6000 year history of exploration! Now we wander into $random_system and... 21 nations? And one with a six hundred ship battlefleet?!"

OOC: In an effort to do something fresh, I shall not be sending in anyone. Yet anyway. ^_^

IC: A tear appeared in space, a great green gash running horizontally at first, then suddenly cracking open, a rift in space like ground cracked open from an earthquake. This would not be unusual to any nation that had had contact with the Void, as their standard FTL Jump drives resulted in this relatively interesting effect. What would be relatively unusal, however, would be what emerged. Or rather, how it emerged.
A Sabbath-class Dreadnought (http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z107/Kain1235/sabbathclass.jpg) was uncouthly ejected, being suddenly thrown out sideways, erupting into blue fire from it's , a series of chain reaction explosions tearing through the hull, spewing debris, bodies and fire into space. This continued for almost a minute, explosions tearing the ship apart, before it finally stopped, the ship sitting dead in space, a weak S.O.S broadcasting from it.

OOC: If you scan it, there are still life signs, but extremely few, in the Bridge deck. Rudimentary back up power is running, with only the bridge, hangar and engineering rooms still running. Feel free to board. :D

Picking up the ship on sensors, the Intrepid, under the command of Katheryn Yates, altered course towards the ship.
"Captain, markings ID it as a Void ship" Tactical officer Relon reported.
"Take us along side, full scan" Katheryn ordered "Prepare rescue teams"
"Sir, these are the bastards who nearly destroyed the Valiant, and Starbase One!" Relon said outraged.
"We're duty bound to lend assistance, take us along side. The Intrepid came along side
"We've got a few lifesigns, bridge deck"
"Prepare a shuttle"
A shuttle was launched shortly later from the shuttle bay and headed for the docking port near the life signs

Picking up the ship on sensors, the Intrepid, under the command of Katheryn Yates, altered course towards the ship.
"Captain, markings ID it as a Void ship" Tactical officer Relon reported.
"Take us along side, full scan" Katheryn ordered "Prepare rescue teams"
"Sir, these are the bastards who nearly destroyed the Valiant, and Starbase One!" Relon said outraged.
"We're duty bound to lend assistance, take us along side. The Intrepid came along side
"We've got a few lifesigns, bridge deck"
"Prepare a shuttle"
A shuttle was launched shortly later from the shuttle bay and headed for the docking port near the life signs

A few of the lasercannons jarred half-heartedly as the shuttle approached, the bay doors automatically opening slowly. Once the shuttle was inside, the doors suddenly slammed shut, the lights inside flickering as power started to leak from the energy grid going to the hangars. The shadow of a VI (Virtual Intelligence) appeared, flickering from the lack of power. Unlike the Unbound AI/Cyborgs, the VI's were simply green holograms projected in a human form. It spoke, it's voice arficially booming.
"Greetings, and welcome to the VTN Hierophant. Your ship does not register as a Templarian or allied design. We hope that you are here on a diplomatic mission. Otherwise, we request you leave or face the consequences. The consequences being a supercharged plasma round to the skull. Thank you, and have an [translation missing, please consult your ship technician]." This bay was in ruins, burning husks of shuttles smouldering all around and rubble strewn everywhere.

The rescue team consisted of Four medics, two engineers and three Security officers. The Security took the lead. The officers phaser rifles were merely insurance and they had a tactical light on the front which lit the area up.
"Where are those lifesigns?"
"A few decks up, we'd better move"
The team moved out of the bay into a corridor.

"Umm, captain?" Another pirate reported. "They're, uhh, hailing us."

"What?" The Pirate Captain responded, growing irritated. "How did the mon-keigh animals even notice us? Whatever. What are they saying?"

"I'll play it through."

"Greetings. I am Captain Rejoice-in-the-Lord Sanderson of the Royal Vojvodina-Nihonian Star Navy. We are somewhat lost and were hoping you could assist us. Where does the jump point you have just emerged from lead to?"

"They're lost." Another crewman said.

"Thank you for stating the obvious." The captain retorted. "And if I am to be killed, please be so kind as to point that out as well." He turned his attention to the bridge crew. "Those ships are getting closer. What's our status?"

"Weapons are charged and ready." Another crewman reported. "The Imperials didn't even touch us."

"Excellent." The Eldar Captain smirked. He could taste the blood already.

"Then the time has come."

The rescue team consisted of Four medics, two engineers and three Security officers. The Security took the lead. The officers phaser rifles were merely insurance and they had a tactical light on the front which lit the area up.
"Where are those lifesigns?"
"A few decks up, we'd better move"
The team moved out of the bay into a corridor.

Each corridor they passed was filled with debris and dead bodies, some thrown and disembered by explosions, some sprayed by shrapnel, others burnt by fire. As they reached the bridge level, a half dozen plasma rifles were levelled on them.
"Wods! Qwa ef swy foty ab Nod oly uai?" The leader of the 6 marines was helmetless, a large fresh scar over one eye. The rest of the soldiers had fared no better, one propping himself against a wall, a part of a support beam in going through his leg. "If you're here to scav you just fuck off back to where you came from."

The Colonel stood. "Well, we might as well hail them, they've no doubt noticed us now that we're unmasked. Call command, ask for backup. I'd say... Minimum of a Destroyer Group."

----------


This is Imperial Communications Relay Four-Three-Xray-Five-Sierra-Two-Bravo-One.
We are a communications station for The Terran Empire. We have been monitoring this system.
Please state your intentions.

Space and time ripped open, three Slip points crackled to life flaring up arcing charges of white and blue electric like energy spewing forth trying to grasp on to normal space. Out of these three chaotic portals, three ships came. The USS Churchill it was a six hundred and fifty two meter long Galaxy Class medium cruiser, the USS invincible and the USS valiant both of the invincible class attack ships only one hundred and seventy meters long. The portals behind these three ships flared out and space returned to normal as if nothing was ever there. These three ships made up patrol group delta, the Terran Federations Deep space patrol units, general reserved for border sector duty. They had detected multiple ship signatures in this system from their posting with in Federation space. Captain Mark A Billings Of the Churchill had ordered the three ship formation to slip point in and investigate.

Billings was a tall and built man, obviously not young but not old either, he had salt and peppered black hair and brown eyes, his blue uniform was well ironed and pressed against his slender form. The darkness of space was sliced through by these three ships maneuvering towards the various ships in the system. Streams of blue and white particles left the engines fading off in to the darkness as the ships moved silhouetted against the sea of stars that made up the galaxy. The smooth grey hulls of the ships where emphasized by the soft white light of the systems star.

Billings looked over to the avatar it controlled both the helm and tactical stations, but the federation always had officers incase the AI had failed. He said with a crisp and deep voice.

“Slow to One half speed, and center us on that big ship I want you to open a channel to the other ships in the system.”

The avatar nodded, and softly the ships began to slow, rumbling over any thing smaller than them ominously, the two attack ships began to flank the Churchill in a defensive wedge formation. Billings began to speak loudly his voice echoing through the com system .

“This is Captain Mark Billings of the Terran Federation Ship Churchill, we come to this system to investigate various contacts on our long range sensors, you do not seem to be any races we have encountered before but we greet you on behalf of the United Terran federation.”

He smiled, he sat down on the hovering chair, officer walked around the rather spacious and well lit bridge to three dimensional holographic consoles doing various tasks. Avatars and robotic companions where doing work as well. The bridge had a center table with a three dimensional tactical map of the sector system and general area where the three ships where. Who ever could receive visual communications could see this and many other things.


As a default all of the ships shield systems where activated, how ever their weapon systems where not.

(Ooc: http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d110/USFU/GalaxyClassUTF.jpg The Churchill
( The Invincible and the valiant: http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d110/USFU/USSInvicible.jpg )

"Ok, NOW i'm nervous,"said Commander Stagion. He knew that a Battlestar can handle anything short of nuclear bombardment, but all of these unknown ships were a) unknown, and b) most likely armed. So to make sure nothing horribly bad happened, he boardcasted to all the ships.

TO ALL SHIPS IN THE XL768
We give greetings on behalf of the Imperial Colonies of Orinon.
However, if any ship fires on us or any of our fighters then we will respond with force.
We are of peaceful intent, however the Disillusioned is a warship, and is heavily armed.

Meanwhile, the Falconite rounded the systems star and saw 3 ships in somewhat close formation.
"Hellfire...ok, now to get back..." with that, the pilot spun the Falconite end over end and headed back towards the Disillusioned

While Commander Stagion knew the capabilities of his ship, the Eldar pirate captain did not. Instead, he saw this chance as an opportunity to get what he wanted. Those hostages from the merchant convoy they raided would seem to finally have a use other than torture.

He smiled, brushing the long, white hair away from his face.

"Open transmission."

The transmission was opened to all ships in the system. What they would see would be a long, slender individual with long, white hair. He wore black, form-fitting clothing, no semblance of uniform present.

"Captains, commanders, admirals, and everybody else." He said, smiling coldly while clearing his throat. "I'm sorry if I happen to be intruding upon everybody's wonderful first contact with each other or what-not, but I believe that this is something everybody should hear." He paused for a moment, placing his hands behind his back. "As you can plainly see, I am the leader of quite a band of disreputable fellows." He purposefully avoided using the term 'space pirates.' "There's more of here than you think, and I believe that you are trespassing on our territory. So, you all are going to surrender your valuables to us, before we take it." He made a motion with his hand, and the transmission panned toward a number of individuals, all bound by the hands, and blindfolded. "These Mon-Keigh were merchants from the last vessel we raided." It was easy to see that they had not been treated exactly well. "It would be a shame to see them perish so needlessly."

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Captain Glaw folded his arms as he paced the bridge of his destroyer. His battle-group had been traveling in the Warp for hours now.

"Status?" He asked again.

"We're making progress, sir." An officer responded. "The Navigators report no warp-related calamities detected. We'll be dropping out within the hour."

"Excellent." Glaw responded, tankful for the good news. He just hoped he wasn't too late.

As the com unit had only a small screen, the Commander could only just make out the figures behind the pirate captian. He looked at the captain for a moment, then burst into laughter."hahaha....Look at your scanners...See that big metal object in space? The one about 2 km long? Thats the Disillusioned, MY ship. You should go back to playing with kiddies, BOY, before you bite off something you can't chew." Turning back to his XO, Stagion then said:"Amber alert. Being weapons online. Engines to full power." After having the orders relayed through the ship, there was a mass movement on the sides of the ship. The source was the Battlestar's rather large amount of guns, cannons and other devices meant for killing.

The pirate captain, sticking to the personality of his race oh-so-well, didn't even bat an eyelid at the Commander's threats.

"Oh, yes, Commander." He said, folding his arms absently. "Or captain. Or Admiral. Or some other naval rank which is probably very important to you. We see your wonderful little ship. I have a few ships, too, you know. And the Imperial Navy? They're full of them, damn their souls." His features hardened. "And I have lived for ten of your lifetimes, Mon-Keigh. Do not think to scare me with threats of death." He waved a hand dismissively towards his bridge crew.

"Kill the first hostage."

While probably not as well-armed as the alien ships they had encountered, the pirates certainly had the advantage in speed. Their four cruisers were heavily modified to give the best of what their engines could do. And their fighter compliment, meant for swarming over unsuspecting merchant convoys, would certainly give them an advantage in numbers, if they were to launch.

Turning off the com unit, the Commander truned to the CIC and shouted his orders:"Red Alert. prep for in-system jump. if they want a fight, they'll get one,"said Commander Stagion, waiting for the pirates to make the first move.

If the pirates had the sense to run a energy scan on the Disillusioned, they would see that a huge amount of energy was building up in the ships FTL drive.

The Colonel stared at the screen as the events above unfolded. "Wow. Looks like some fun is about to go down. Maybe we should call command for something... larger then a destroyer group."

Marrik nodded. "I'll radio for a cruiser. Better safe then sorry, eh sir?"


From: Imperial Communications Array
To: Systemwide Broad Sweep
All ships in system are to power down all weapons systems or be considered
hostile. There will be no fighting today gentlemen. This is your last warning.

As the pulse was sent out, a second message was send, tightly encoded, towards a distant star. Even with all the technology of the Empire, it would still take several minutes to cross the vast space between the relay station and Fleet Command.

"send a message back sir?"asked a techy, looking at what must be called the wraning.
"out of the way, i'll do it,"said the Commander, typing out a message.

TO IMPERIAL COMMUNICATIONS ARRAY
We didn't start this, but we will follow your wishs. But if they fire on us, then we will fire back and damn the fallout!

The Commander then ordered the ship back to Amber Alert. However, the ships FTL drive continued to spin up.

Marrik pointed at the energy signatures. "They've powered down some weapons, but their drive is still spinning up. Not a good sign, but they did follow the warning."

The Colonel nodded. "It's all up to what the other group decides to do, now isn't it."

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Above the second planet

The stars peaceful light was interrupted violently as space over the second planet began to twist and writhe. Out of the turbulence, the hulls of ships cut through like ancient wet navy ships through the surf. 4 distinct shapes appeared over the the planet.

NMSS Battler's Luck - Vengeance (http://www.nswiki.net/index.php?title=NMSF_Vengeance) Class Frigate
NMSS Drake - Vengeance (http://www.nswiki.net/index.php?title=NMSF_Vengeance) Class Frigate
NMSS Orca - Hammer (http://www.nswiki.net/index.php?title=NMSF_Hammer) Class Destroyer
NMSS Genesis Dawn - Swiftstrike (http://www.nswiki.net/index.php?title=NMSF_Swiftstrike) Class Cruiser

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OoC: Sorry, I've been reading over my past posts, and I've noticed how sad my RPing really is :P It's been a long while since I've done this. Sorry guys :$

OOC: its ok. i'm still a bit of newb myself.

"Woh,"said Commander Stagion, in awe of the huge ship that just jumped in.
"that thing...it's bigger then us!" he said. His thoughts were interrupted by a techy.
"Sir, FTL is fully charged. We could get back home if we pushed it,"he said.
"good. We might need it..."said the Commander, rubbing his head.

Aboard the NMSF Genesis Dawn

The Admiral McGuire had a problem. Mainly, that she was a woman. Despite having achieved one of the highest possible ranks in the Fleet, being credited for an amazing tactical and administrative mind, and for having a battle record that made napoleon look like a child playing with toy soldiers, she was stuck. She should have had a Battlecruiser under her command, with 10+ escorts. She had this Cruiser, and 3 escorts. And no prospect of any change in the near future. All because she was a woman.

Equality in North Mack was nearly perfect in all aspects. It didn't matter if you were a woman or not, if you did your job, and you did it well, you would go far. Apparently that didn't extend to Fleet.

Admiral Amanda McGuire turned on the command deck. "I want reports on the system in my hand in 5 minutes! How are the escorts faring?"

Senior Lieutenant Kevin Sester ran his hands across his display. As the coms officer he could see the status of the other 3 ships in the group with the push of a button. "Drake and Orca made the jump fine, Battler's Luck knocked one of their missile pods loose again"

Amanda clutched at the rail encircling the captains chair. "I told them to secure it before the jump... someone is getting chewed out after this!" Calming down, the Admiral released her grip on the rail, and sat in her chair. Calling up holographic displays around her, she began surveying the tactical data on the other ships in the system. Nothing the Dawn couldn't handle without too much trouble. "Lieutenant, send a system wide message."


This is Admiral McGuire of the North Mack Star Ship Genesis Dawn.
All ships in system are to immediately stand down or be labeled as hostiles.
You have 3 minutes to comply. Any ships with active weapons at the end
of those 3 minutes will be fired upon.


She nodded. "Yes, that should do fine." Pressing a button on her chair, she leaned towards the microphone. "Weapons, power up the Plasma cannon, and place the MAC on standby." She released her finger and stabbed another button. "Escort Group this is Admiral McGuire. Power up weapon systems and prepare to fire on any targets painted as Hostile by the Dawn."

Leaning back in her chair, Amanda sighed slightly. Battles in space she could handle. At least she wouldn't have to worry about battles with her superiors for another few days.

"Ok, time to leave,'said Stagion as soon as the scanners picked up that the large ship was powering up weapons.
"Sir? where to?"said the FTL techy.
"The next system. The Bloody Mary should be there,"said Commander Stagion, before quickly typing out a reply to the message:

TO UNKNOWN SHIP
Catch me if you can. Then we will talk. I've had enough of this system anyway.

After he had sent it, Stagion said:"Jump."
And jump they did, the Disillusioned disappearing in a massive flash of light.

The Admiral sighed as one of the largest ships disappeared from the system. Upon receiving their message, she turned to Sester. "Can we track them?"

The Lieutenant studied his console for several long seconds. "Background ripple shows that it was an FTL Drive rather then a Warp Drive, which certainly makes it much easier." McGuire frowned.

"We have no way of knowing how far they traveled. If we just follow the path and check for their wake, we could be jumping for days, and we might even overshoot them. It's a hassle I don't think I'm will-"

"Ma'am" Sester interrupted, earning himself a glare from the Admiral. "There is another system directly in line with the path the ship jumped out on. It's possible they ran to there. If not we could always return". McGuire walked across the command deck, back to her chair. Calling up some of the displays again, she nodded slowly.

"Have the escorts stay here in orbit over the relay station. They should be able to hold their own against these ships, and if not they can always call us back. We'll pursue this ship out of the system on our own. Keep weapons powered up."

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

The 3 escort ships backed off from the Genesis Dawn to just outside her jump bubble. Once again the stars rippled and twisted, and with a flare of the engines, the Dawn was gone, leaving her 3 smaller cousins to hold the system.

The Disillusioned appeared in the system ZX776 where the Pegasus Class Battlestar Bloody Mary was patrolling. the Bloody Mary earned her name in blood, with the most Battlestar kills in the last civil war. Her CO was Commander Katina Mariann, one of the few female officers in the fleet. she was also a nasty piece of work. She hailed the Disillusioned and said:'Why the FUCK arn't you in your system?!"
Stagion answered with:"because it has at least 6 unknown ships in it. Thats why"
That info shut up Mariann.

OOC: 2 types of battlestar: Galactica Class and Pegasus Class. Based off their namesakes from the show.

OoC:
Sorry, I've only seen one episode of Battlestar Galactica, and looking online I can't find any stats about the size of the Pegasus class, can you list them so I know what I'm dealing with?

OOC: http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Mercury_class_battlestar link and put the length to about 2100 metres and you got my version.
and last post for the night

OoC:
Same here. It's getting way to late for my liking.

IC:
The stars rippled as the Genesis Dawn came through the warp rift, weapons fully charged and ready for an ambush that never came. The Dawn did a quick scan of the system, spotting the 2 Battlestars.

McGuire quickly read over the data. "Well, neither one is larger then us, but together they might be a problem. Power down the main weapons and charge the warp in case they decide to try something now that we're out of escorts"


This is Admiral Amanda McGuire of the North Mack Star Ship Genesis Dawn.
You will notice we are powering down weapons, we ask that you do the same.
We do not wish to fight, but we will defend ourselves if necessary.

Aboard the VT ship

The Officers immediatly raised their weapons and a stand-off ensured
"I'm Lt Commander John Gate, of the UHS Intrepid, we picked up your distres call and detected lifesigns onboard" Joh Gate the team leader said

OOC: A dreadnought dropping out of warp on fire seems to have been relatively ignored :(

Aboard the VT ship

The Officers immediatly raised their weapons and a stand-off ensured
"I'm Lt Commander John Gate, of the UHS Intrepid, we picked up your distres call and detected lifesigns onboard" Joh Gate the team leader said

IC: The soldiers kept their guns pointed for a moment, weighing the targets off, before the captain barked "Bleyfkdu, weapons down." He hobbled over to Gate and proffered a hand. "Gunnery Sergeant Fedor Stanimir. Welcome onboard the Hierophant, such as it is right now."

John shook the offered hand "We bought some engineers across, but they don't have experiance with your tech" John said "We can evacuate you to our ship and tow you to the nearest starbase of yours?"

Billings growled as he heard the various messages come through, he stood up from his chair folding his hands behind his uniformed back. He motioned the avatar to open a channel to every ship in the system a blip was heard and Mark started to speak aloud.

“This Is Captain Mark Billings Representing the United Terran Federation . Whilst we would normally reply with such a request the manner in witch you presented it leads me to believe you want more than to have us stand down. Using this reason we will not only keep our shields active, we will arm weapons. As not only you have presented us with a threat you have also a criminal element who is hostile to all orderly nations in this system. Any attack on this ship or its escorts will be considered an act of war against the United Terran Federation.”


A second message was sent to the pirates in the system:

”As for the pirate ship in this system, we do not take kindly to criminal enterprise such as yourself you most likely have been involved in anti federation activities if your in this sector of space, Using this reasoning we demand that you lower your shields and prepare to be boarded and taken in to custody ”

Billings crisply looked over to the avatar and nodded saying in a commanding deep voice.


“Red Alert, all hands to battle stations. Arm all torpedo tubes and disruptor banks.. If they want a fight they’ll get one but don’t fire the first shot. Also put us in between them and that bloody pirate ship, have the invincible and valiant flank them”


The six hundred and fifty meter ship powered up, its engines started to glow as it maneuvered in-front of the pirates ship, any one in the system could see it was a forced to be reckoned with while only 652 meters the power build up was off the scale and exponential. Each of Its eighteen disruptor banks could fire twelve beams at a time, its forty two torpedo tubes and fire five high gigaton yield torpedoes in a single burst, and continue firing five per burst in rapid succession. It was armed with fifteen rapid fire pulse conversion guns and ten conversion beam emitters. Its fighter bays held over fifty two fighter craft, several squadrons where already scrambling ready to launch at a moments notice.


The ships escorts made their ways to strategic defense positions arming their own weapon systems. The Church Hill was ready for any thing , even though various ships in the area had size as an advantage, the 652 meter ship could out maneuver and out tech them. for now it was a waiting game to see what would happen.

OOC: Aww, why'd you have to leave? :( Now my real ships have to arrive sooner. Also, the stats for my ships are in my factbook. Just follow the links.

IC: The Pirate Captain laughed heartily as the first ship jumped from the system. Whatever their purpose, they were happy for it. One less ship to blow up.

"The stupid Mon-Keigh ran for the hills with it's tail between it's legs!" The captain roared, some members of his bridge crew letting out small bits of laughter. "And in this day and age, who isn't going to take kindly to our trade." He pointed dramatically toward the remaining ships. "Attack!"

Leaving the relative cover of the sun, the four pirate vessels emerged, their weapons blazing at any target they could acquire. Fighters flew from the hangar bays, armed to the teeth.

It was at this moment yet another opening in the Warp could be seen, and the Angenterian battle-group (OOC: Which was detailed in my first post) emerged from warp-space.

"Assume formation delta." Captain Glaw said, folding his arms. Delta would put the smaller ships in front, with the larger ones in the back. A basic formation for dealing with a basic enemy. "Battle report!"

"Void-shields are at 100%!"

"Lance batteries fully charged!"

"Gunnery crews report ready! Pilots are launching as we speak."

"Excellent." He said. "Open channel."

"...channel open!"

This is Captain Oberon Glaw, of the Holy Imperium of Angenteria, to all unidentified ships. We have come in pursuit of a local pirate floatilla who has recently fled from the Emperor's Justice. Any help in eliminating this scum would be greatly appreciated, and perhaps more friendly negotiations may follow.

OoC:

IC:
The stars rippled as the Genesis Dawn came through the warp rift, weapons fully charged and ready for an ambush that never came. The Dawn did a quick scan of the system, spotting the 2 Battlestars.

McGuire quickly read over the data. "Well, neither one is larger then us, but together they might be a problem. Power down the main weapons and charge the warp in case they decide to try something now that we're out of escorts"


This is Admiral Amanda McGuire of the North Mack Star Ship Genesis Dawn.
You will notice we are powering down weapons, we ask that you do the same.
We do not wish to fight, but we will defend ourselves if necessary.


Onboard the Bloody Mary
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2 words summed up the mood. Complete. Chaos. The Commander rasied her voice above the chaos in the CIC and shouted:"EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!" Silence was instant."Good...Now, that ship is bigger then us. So, we listen to them. power down weapons," being trigger-happy when people disobeyed you was a good way to keep order on your ship and a good way of making sure your orders were carried out.

Onboard the Disillusioned
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Having already met the Genesis Dawn, the Disillusioned's crew were much more calm. After ordering a weapons power down, Commander Stagion hailed the Genesis Dawn and said:"Ok, you followed. We can talk if you want. Name where."

OOC: is it ok if i come in???
IC: Two Lul'crelk-class cruisers and 1 Province 2 Destroyer entered to an area unknown to them, but received multiple readings of unknown vessels. They had entered what seemed a battle.

Some-what unprepared, Province 2 destroyer captain ordered for all ships to prepare for battle.

Province 2 destroyer: 1,688 meters 250 meters width
- Narcia Reflector shields
- Armament: Quad turbolaser battery(20) Dual laser cannon batteries (10) Heavy ion cannons(2) Point-defense ion cannon battery[30] Proton torpedo launcher batteries (40)

Lul'crelk- class Cruiser: 1,000 meters 198 Meters width
- TL shield
- Armaments: Point-defense quad laser batteries(20) Assault Laser Cannons (48)

The sensors officer turned to McGuire. "They're complying; They're powering down weapons." The Admiral nodded. She had expected them to. Although only slightly larger, the Dawn looked formidable, though she was only a cruiser.

"Admiral!" Lieutenant Sester called across the command deck. "Hypercom message from the Orca! 4 unknown ships have been classified as pirates, and are being engaged by a new set of ships" McGuire sighed and clutched the armrest of her command chair. Why couldn't things ever be simple?

"Open a channel" she ordered.


How about a de-facto alliance, as it were. We just received word of battle
from our escort ships in the system we just left. Jump back, and help us
pacify the system. Once the pirates are cleared, we can sit down, and open
talks about who exactly everyone is, and why they are in that system. I am
assuming it has some importance to you, for such a large ship to be deployed
there.

"Sir,"said Stagion's XO, passing him a printout.
"hmmmm.....Ok, tell them we'll help. Spin up FTL and brace for combat jump." walking over to the coms unit, he hailed the Bloody Mary and said:"Commander. Sync-up. Now."
"Fine,"said Commander Mariann, before shouting across the CIC:"SYNC-UP WITH THE Disillusioned. NOW!!!"
"Sir, syncing up in 3....2....1....sync started....and complete. Ready for jump,"said a techy, looking at 3 screens at once.
"Good..."hailing the Dawn, Stagion said:"Ready to jump when you are."

OOC: a sync-up is when 2 Battlestars link their systems. If one jumps, so does the other.

McGuire looked at Sester. "You said they jumped using FTL, am I correct?" Sester nodded.

"Yes ma'am. The signatures seemed to suggest a FTL drive rather then a jump drive."


Our sensors show you are using a Faster Than Light drive, whereas we use a
Jump drive. We will arrive instantly after departure, whereas you will take
transit time. Can you give us the estimated transit time so we can co-ordinate
our jumps?

Flicking a few switches so that he didn't have to run to the coms unit to talk, Stagion said:"About 5-10 minutes. wait....yeah, 5 minutes for a combat jump."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All over the 2 Battlestars, signs of combat readiness when evident. Turrents were moving, cannons were lifting out of their cradles, and on the top of the Bloody Mary, several panels lifted to reveal missile launch tubes. Nuclear missile tubes.

McGuire nodded to the officer at the jump station. "Start a 5 minute timer when they jump, then jump when it hits zero. If we time it right, we should come out at the same time." The officer nodded. Leaning back in her chair, the Admiral began issuing the orders heard on every ship of North Mack before a battle. "Power weapons to full. Charge the Plasma cannon! Load the MACs, issue a full alert to the fighters to board and prepare for full launch."

Turning in her chair, McGuire nodded.


Ready when you are

-----------------------------------
Fighter Bay 3 of the Genesis Dawn
Midshipman Jason Sigal sat in the cockpit of his Omel (http://www.nswiki.net/index.php?title=NMSF_Oeml) Fighter. Designed for fast, ship to ship combat, it was an ugly little thing, but it was functional, and it was HIS. Running through the preflight checks, he watched the time to jump tick down in the HUD. Satisfied at last, he locked the cockpit and toggled the lever that signaled he was ready to launch.

With a jolt, his fighter began to rise on its platform, up into the ceiling. As the hatch below him closed with a hiss, the air began to pump out of the airlock. 2 Minutes later, the hatch above opened, and his fighter emerged onto the airless launch deck. The other 14 fighters in his group rose to take their places alongside his.

"ok, combat jump on my mark....3.....2....1....MARK!" Shouted Stagion. Both the Disillusioned and Bloody Mary jumped at the same time in 2 massive flashes of light.

The Genesis Dawn sat and prepared for battle, waiting as the timer clicked down. When it hit 5 minutes, the stars around the ship warped and twisted, and the Dawn slipped through the tumultuous stars, back into the previous system.

The Bloody Mary came into the system fine, but the Disillusioned jumped in too close to some space junk and the CIC jolted as it impacted with the sides of the ship. The junk was quickly blasted away by Ventus cannons.
"Report,"said Stagion.
"Space junk sir. nothing major,"said the Damage Control techy.
"Good,"flicking coms back on, he hail the Dawn and said:"Tell us what to shoot."

Billings nodded to the avatar as he stood up starting to bark out orders.

“Target that pirate ship, All disruptor banks and pulse cannons fire, Torpedo tubes ten through fifteen fire!”

“Aye sir”

The avatar said with a soft female voice.

The ship maneuvered quickly in to position, several arrays charged up and fired beans, with pulses screeching behind them from the pulse emplacements. Orange glowing beams crackled out in to space lighting up the darkness with its color, the pulses screaming behind them where blue in color. As the energy fire swept forth towards pirate ships torpedoes screeched at high speed warp flares oscillating as they raced from various tubes.

The captain looked back to the avatar and said as he sat down upon the hovering leather like chair.

“As soon as their shields are down I want a transporter lock on who ever we can get, Some one needs to tell use about these people and these pirates need to stand trial for crimes”


Billings grinned as the two escorts opened fire as well, Pulsed disruptors crackling through the darkness of space followed by screeching torpedoes. The multi gigaton warheads of the torpedos would be enough to rip through the shields and hull of any ship. Beams of crackling orange energy and pulses of blue made the area in between the federation and pirate ships well lit with a cornucopia of colors.


The invincible at its sister ships began strafing runs, maneuvering like they where fighters, their four pulsed disruptor cannons fireing out orange onioned bursts. Strafing from side to side as they targeted the hostile ships weapon and shield systems, as the Invincible turned and started to strafe its top disruptor emitter fired out multiple coherent beams before the ship turned facing forward firing another rapid burst of pulses.

"Jump!"

The Dawn once more cut through the warp, back into the original system. McGuire painted the pirate ships on the display, and sent the information to the escorts. "All ships, this is the Genesis Dawn. Open fire on all painted ships!"

The lights dimmed in the Dawn as power was temporarily drawn to the ships 2 main weapons, the MAC cannons. Unleashed in a furious blast, the 600lb Tungsten Slugs raced down the barrel at more then 3% the speed of light. The Pirates would have mere seconds before the slugs hit.

Simultaneously, the 70 fighters launched from their respective launch decks, and began screaming towards the pirates.

"FIRE!!!" Shouted Stagion and Mariann at the same time.

The Battlestars started moving towards the pirate ships and opened fire, the sides of the ships flaring as several hundred cannons opened fire. The Commanders knew that they could do much at the distance that they were at, and so started trying to close in and circle the pirate ships. To all who watched, the Battlestars looked like flying weapon beds.

OoC: Bump? ATTN: Angenteria