NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Sign-ups and OOC is located here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=587482). Also, remember that this is the start of Torqueamada's rise to power, where he stages a coup against the Emperor. For all intents and purposes, he seems to be a decent sort at this time, if a little zealous. Also, the intro is a coupla posts. Might not be done tonight. :(

IC: The Old Templarian Empire. A bloated, corrupted beast, it spanned a number of star systems over the thousands of years it existed, some of it through the military prowess of it's people, but mostly because it was surrounded by uninhabited, or at least relatively backwater, planets and systems. Currently under the rule of one Emperor Salah Bassam Whyt, it was in the midst of recovering from a devasting self-inflicted war against the AI system, MI/IS (Machine Intelligance/Idiot Savant) and it's hijacked fleet. Starvation, unrest and cult worship was rife, with people doing anything to survive. Oddly enough, for many people, staying alive meant charging into armored coloumns with brooms and pelting patrolling gunships with rocks. A number of factions had risen to some form over power all over the scattered empire, from roving Kytaf warbands to alien freedom fighters and meglomanical Templar's with delusions of granduer, the one great power was stretched to the brink of collapse. The most powerful, and arguably the most ruthless warlord of the lot was a man named Torqueamada Abaddon Zadkeyl Karasi Abbepyl Templar Fathi (http://blog.chewxy.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/cc_screen_kane.jpg).
Torquey to his friends.

He led a splinter faction of the Imperial Navy, an old fashioned Kalist to the core. He moved across the galaxy, garnering a reputation as a kind man who would walk through captured cities, ordering medics to help the injured. He also gained a reputation for public executions of 'Dissidents, Heretics, Traitors and Mongrels'. His flagship, the Crusader, as the single strongest craft in the Void. A Superheavy Dreadnought, it's main batteries were capable of removing millenia of life from the surface of a planet in a few seconds. It's PDF laser batteries gave it 359 degree protection, the only blindspot being a few centimeters directly below the craft. As a precaution, the hull of the craft seethed with tiny Terror Drones (http://media.moddb.com/images/games/1/7/6670/59188.jpg), which could leap onto enemy vessels that got to close and turn a bomber into a convertible with their claws. Currently, the vessel was helping it's entourage give the Loyalist fleet a run for their money near the system of Omera.

The torrent of fire ripped through the Farseer’s hull, tearing into her power block and sending the cruiser up in flames, a greeny-white corpse light from the dying ship casting an eerie glow over the battle, interrupted by streaks of red and blue laser fire.
“Farseer down, sir. Remaining fleet stands at an operational efficiency of 20%, and a combat efficiency of 15%. Recommend we withdraw our forces.” The young officer was hunched over a terminal in the command and control room of the VTN Harbinger, staring into the screen wide eyed, sweat beading on his brow, watching the green blips that represented the Loyalist fleet disappear one by one.
“Negative! You will hold!” The man sat in the Command Chair slammed his hand against the armrest. Face scarred and weathered with age and with grey hair arranged in a polite manner, the officer recognised him. Hell, most everyone in the fleet would. Thomas Dragomir, aging master of House Templar, short tempered and an army boy by nature. This was enough to earn him derision from the fleet (The Templarian Navy and the Legion have long had a history of one-upmanship),but he was universally hated for another reason. The bastard child of Templar’s previous master, one Aleksandr Radoslav, and a foreigner, he was despised by the other houses and the Emperor because of his impure bloodline. The fleet, however, hated him because he was an idiot. Using his position as Master of house Templar, he elevated himself from a private in the army to a General. After he lost an entire army against a Kytaf clan rebellion, he was discharged into the navy (the greatest dishonour for a soldier is to be sent to the navy, and vice versa) where he once again elevated himself to an Admiral. He commanded an entire fleet, and he knew how to do it as much as a blind man knows how to read. He blindly felt his way through a few minor battles, but now his fleet was being decimated and blind pride was getting the better of him.
“Sir, please, we can’t take any more of this! We’ve lost the entire damn 2nd group! We need to pull out!” As if to helpfully emphasise his point, the enemy took this chance to fire, volleys from the enemy destroyer’s railguns tearing through the hull, wiping out 3 decks. Thomas glared at the officer, eyes burning with malice and voice dripping with poison.
“What is wrong with you? Where is your honour, man!”
“I lost that with the rest of the fucking ships!”
“Bite your tongue.” The aging admiral jumped onto his feet, his age seemingly not affecting his vigour. “Or I shall cut it off.” He stood above the officer, towering above him thanks to the small well the terminal was in.
“Sir. We’ve lost eight- Make that ninety percent of our fleet. We need to pull back, or we will be killed.” This seemed to cut it with the admiral. His eyes flashed momentarily. He turned around, unsure of himself, and then shouted “Order the retreat! All ships, jump to the rendezvous point at Omera!” Through the view port, Thomas saw the other ships jumping out, sliding into crimson warpholes which opened in front of them. Following a goodbye salvo from the enemy, the Harbinger did too.

"Look at them run!" Torqueamada grinned widely, clapping as the Harbinger slipped away into it's jump gate from the command room of the Crusader, his flagship, a Crusader-class Super Dreadnaught. "They're cowards as well as fools! Follow them, lock onto their ion trails! There is no escape for the enemies of Kal!"

A motely collection of burning half-destroyed craft dropped out of warp over the planet of Omera. Immediately, the orbital laser cannons that were in the system swivelled to meet them, before reading the friendly ID codes and rotating back to their original positions. On board the Harbinger, the crew were busy tending to the emergency repairs.
"Ground control, we're losing atmosphere! Main engines are dead, back ups are barely running and life support is struggling! Only a couple of weapon systems still online, do you copy?"
The com was silent for a moment, before a resigned voice spoke.
"Harbinger, Govenor Harle. I understand, the evacuation order is being issued as we speak. Kal willing, we'll have most of the civillians evac'ed before those monsters get here."
"I wouldn't bet on it, sir. Chances are they followed us back, they should be here any second."
"Our laser batteries will hold them off for a few minutes. Hopefully, that will buy us some time?"
"Understood." Thomas moved to close the hail, then suddenly realised something. "Sir, what about us?"
"You? What about you? You are an admiral of the Templarian Navy. You took an oath, death before dishonor, admiral. You are expected to uphold it."
"So we stay and fight?!" The officer at the terminal grinned smugly here.
"I place emphasis on the Death before dishonor, Admiral. Grow a goddamn backbone. You are expected to stay and fight off the enemy, however it ends. If you attempt to warp away without my say-so, I will order the orbital defenses to open fire on you." The officer's smile dropped.
"You're condeming us to death!"
"To save civillians!"
"To save yourself!"
"Silence, admiral. I outrank you, and if matters were different I would have you executed. Since you are likely to die anyway, I will not press charges. Try not to cower when the enemy arrive." The hail cut out, the Admiral cursed, and a very large magnetically propelled metal slug ripped through the bridge of the Harbinger from a crimson jump gate that had just opened.
"Surprise, gentlemen!" The Crusader was the first out of the jump gates that sprang to life and it immediately opened up on the Harbinger and the two remaining battleships. The laser cannons turned to fire, but were met with a salvo of missiles and laser fire from the rest of the fleet that jumped through.

Fire and explosions tore along the Harbinger's hull as the railgun rounds from the Crusader tore through it. Dropships (http://www.dcgraphics.biz/images/SF-Dropship04.JPG) and snub fighters (http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/cnc/images/f/fa/Venom.jpg) dropped from the hangar bays of the fleet's 4 carriers and the Crusader, shooting down towards the planet through the flak that rose to meet them. Within moments, the orbital defenses were destroyed and the fleet took positions around the Empire's capital planet. On the ground, marines (http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z107/Kain1235/Black_Hand_Laser_TW1.jpg) poured out of dropships, gunning down any resistance. Behemoth walkers (http://kanelives.org/userimages/userimage263_800.jpg) kicked down the gates of the Arkavo palace, the troops inside succoming to the laser-based persuasion of the marines that stormed the ancient building. Within the hour, the crimson banner of the Empire was edited, painted with the Eye of Torqueamada in the center of the 3 arrows. After that, the few remaining loyalists in the city lost hope and surrendered.

"Welcome." The video feed, seen all around the Empire on every channel, showed Torqueamada standing inside the chapel in Arkavo Palace, standing behind a lectern. "Welcome to the future. To those of you who don't know, my new beloved citizens, I am your new Emperor. I am Torqueamada." He smiled and proffered a hand to the camera. "And I am here to help you. Look around. Look at your homes. Look at yourselves. Look at your empire. Our empire. What do you see? We have fell, my friends, fell from our seats of power, honor and piety. And why?!" He clentched the open palm into a fist. "Our government! Our Emperor! The very man who swore to bring us into our golden age has brought us to the ground in flames." The camera zoomed out and showed a noticeably bloodied Emperor Salah being held on his knees by two marines. Torqueamada paced over to him and held up his chin, showing his face to the camera. "Took a look. Your hunger? Your pain? Your deaths!? This man. This man is the cause. He has allowed the Empire to cave in, to die slowly from the poisons of heresy and sloth, and all to line his pockets." Torqueamada chuckled and stood up. "My friends, do not look away. What I do now, I do for you, I do for the honor of our people." He smiled sadly to the camera before picking up a sacrifical dagger from an altar in the catherdral. He brought it up above Salah's neck, before swiftly bringing it down. Leaving the knife in place, he raised his jackboot and brought it down on the face of the now deceased Emperor before calmly returning to the lectern. "As Time Tells, so All Things Hence Back to their Home. From Void to Flesh. From Flesh to Void. Kal is testing us, my friends, my citizens and my faithful. That man-" He pointed to the corpse of the emperor, now lying on the floor in a pool of blood and unrecognisable, "was our first test of faith. Next shall be our trial by fire. I ask you, my brothers and sisters, to pledge to me your support in the coming days. The old Empire is gone. In it's stand stands your hopes, your desires and your dreams. And, Kal willing, they shall be fufilled." He bowed to the camera, turned and kneeled to the statue of Kal in the background and left the chapel, stepping over the dead ex-emperor on his way out.

OOC: Open for posting now. :D

"I like this guy" Chanceler Var'jin said happily as the holo recording was played to the councel for the 3rd time.
"He's certainly devoted, if a little worrying. But then, he IS a templar." the emporer said, frowning slightly
"We've been tense with the tempalrs recently, always have, but we didn't join the civil war, has to count for something" another counceler said, a human this time "But like us doing something like that ever stoped them."
"It matters not. I do not wsh to start a war with this man, this Torquemada, and he has a very good profile from the war. Friendship has to start somewhere, may as well be here. Council adourned." The emporer finished, bowed and left, as did the rest of the council.

Shortly afterwards a very showy transmition was sent to Torquemada, giving the general message of We've been tense for too long. We have no wish to fight. You are a good man, we like to think we are too. Let us make peace formaly at last!

cryo CPU-planet serenity
incoming transmission>/analyzing/
war communications>/send support?/
VR cabinet meeting outcome>/send immediate support/
awaken crew of aurora WC>/crew woken and breifed/
ETA>/1 week/
the aurora was a huge cube shaped warship able to decimate entire planets with one of its main guns,it wasn't very fast but it did have a hyper drive and that is all it needed the crew where happy to be out of cryo sleep but where unhappy that they had been woken up 200yrs early...
"power systems online"
"fusion core stable"
"powering up weapons"
"weapons systems online and stable"
"starting sub-light engines"
"engines started no problems to report"
"launch aurora war cube"
the huge cube started to lift off,the tarpaulins that where draped over her started to fall as dust fell off all the gun barrels,the missile launchers shining in the light from the local sun,she rose up and out of the atmosphere with ease and rocketed into a hyperspace window.

"This looks like it could be problem, and a big one at that, I sense the mark of a mad man bound to destroy what ever he wants" the chairman said in the meeting room. Around the small room was several of the general staff from the military, members of the national defense committee and several others in the government. The intelligence department brought them information about this new empire formed by a person the chairman just called a mad man.

"Hmm To be on the safe side put the military on alert, set defense level yellow"

"Are you sure sir?"

"Very sure, I've been in politics long enough to know what a person can be planning just by listening to there voice, and watching there facial expressions"

"As you wish your excellency"

Around the oval table in the heart of the command centre were 4 creatures or furs as they called themselves. A wizened and aged arctic wolf, a young looking vixen, a yonger looking black wolf and a racoon. They were the 4 top military lords of the Empire of The Wolf, they held the most power in the entire empire and now after seeing the transmission of the coup in the Void, they were discussing how to respond.

"Is this report confirmed"

"Sadly yes, Physi-ops has confirmed that they believe this new Templan leader to be unstable at best"

"So what should we do? Raise the alert level across the empire? Re-call the outer fleets? You know the alarm that would cause."

"What else do we do? Try and make peace? You of all furs know these people!"

"Fine, I accept that point, so we bring the alert level to full and re-call the outer fleets? Agreed."

"Agreed"

"Agreed"

"Agreed"

Somewhere in the Outskirts of Templarian Space, between the voids of one star system or another

Space was filled with all sorts of myths, from those of utopia paradises to nightmares that were used to scare children into obedience. Most were believed to be fancies created and spread by drunk merchants or soldiers, some had their bases in reality yet just inflated beyond the point of being recognizable. Still, even rarer, were the legends that under inflated the source. A myth that paled in comparison to reality. Unfortunately, one such case of this was what had unofficially became known as the Lost Marauders, monsters of space’s abyss that committed horrors that were grotesque and unspeakable even to the most hardened commanders of war. Their ways unpredictable, their methods and tactics suicidal at worst, maverick at best. Still, one couldn’t deny that the most frightful thing they saw was a ship gleefully ramming right through their vessel, only to come out intact at the other end…


Lost Commander Gyerkc awoke from his sleeping position, floating in one of the various rooms of the frigate they had assembled from scattered parts of who knows what Empire. Recently they had come to the space of the Templarian Empire, who’s problems with a robotic war and, recently, a civil war allowed them to plague various backwater worlds that were lightly defended. During these times a few emergency reports might have gotten out, talking about some unknown force of patchwork ships slicing through the meager defenses. When reinforcements came they found that one, maybe two or three cities at most were gone, burnt, and the civilians either traumatized or mutilated in unspeakable ways. But they were never considered more than a nuisance compared to what the Templarian Empire was currently facing, and thus they were allowed to pillage and rape unimpeded.

Now though, now his crew was getting bored. They had had it with messing with small, backwater worlds. It was something they had done for the previous few millennia, and while forcing any civilian who had some measure of beauty into getting their rocks off never ceased to be amusing (indeed, if it wasn’t for the biological pleasure that was programmed into every fiber of their being, they would have likely gotten bored of that in their long lives). But, the problem was, they were bored. And when a crew got bored they tended to turn on their captain to take out their boredom on. Which, the Lost Commander Gyerkc would admit, was a fun affair for the few hours or days they could make his torture and rape last, until he finally died and had his thee days of blissful nothingness as his body reformed itself. But in the process he would lose his right to command and might have to wait a few millennia to get his chance again, and he wasn’t quite finished with being commander just yet.

So he got up and floated (his ship had no gravity at the moment, his techies having decided to reroute that power into their engines to make for better grappling maneuvers. Besides, it had been a few years since they’d experienced prolonged free fall and it was slightly bemusing). Various crewmembers would give him greetings ranging from a wave to the Marauder form of a middle finger, as well as having to bat a few, floating dead bodies from previous pillages out of the way because someone hadn’t bothered to get rid of it (or, as they usually did, given to whoever had a necrophilia tendency at the moment). But, after the short escapade through his own ship, he made it to his bridge where only one other person was currently (the lazy marauder floating in space asleep). He greeted that soldier with a swift kick to the gut and watched him float into the roof, “Pilot, take us somewhere fun!”

“Grah! Orders to return to Port Anxri then?” he said startled, his body literally cart wheeling through the room until he hit the ceiling with a thud.

“Nah… I think the crew is hungering for more of a challenge, these misbegotten filth worlds are nice for some people to kill and have fun with, but there is no challenge in the act. I think we should start getting involved in… military affairs, so to say.”

“Aye sir… I’ll look through the maps for some place that has a pretty good ship complement that could reasonably destroy us. That should be just the challenge the boys need,” he spoke with a grunt as he launched himself down to the floor, catching a railing on the bridge so he wouldn’t just bounce back.

“Sounds good,” the Commander spoke back with his own grunt, before turning on his heals and making his way back through his vessel. Who knows, maybe he could pick up one of those bodies on the way to entertain himself until some fun could be had.

ooc: 0_0. Eeeeeeeeeeeeew

We've been tense for too long. We have no wish to fight. You are a good man, we like to think we are too. Let us make peace formaly at last!

Torqueamada held a transcript of the transmission, prepared by his stewards, gingerly in a gloved hand. Sitting the royal study of Arkavo, he light from the setting red sun still glared fiercly through the window.
"Years of war, bloodshed and lost honor against these heretical half-bred dragons. And they want peace?" He crumpled the paper and tossed it across the room, then stood and paced over to the window. Looking out, a group of civilians, balaclavas or bandanas covering their faces and guns in hand, ran past the gates of Arkavo, firing shots behind them. A squadron of marines followed after a second, returning fire. Behind them, a number of buildings were reduced to rubble. Throughout the city, this scene was repeated. Torqueamada closed the windows and went back to his seat. "For now, you lucky bastards. But not for long." He grinned, then set about composing a response.

I would be honored to finally draw an end to the seemingly endless fued between our two people, and welcome peace. Should you wish to arrange a proper diplomatic meeting, we would be honored once more to host it.

The message was revived shortly afterwards and a response sent quickly
Very well, the emporer is unfortunatly unable to attendm by we shall send our most diplomatic counciler, we look forward to it

The message was revived shortly afterwards and a response sent quickly

We welcome the opportunity for peace.

A fleet had been prepared, stationed in high orbit above Omera. A full quarter of the Empire's naval resources had been poured into this operation, the rest going into upkeep... and the operations aftermath, of course. Leading the battlegroup of over 1000 Main Battle Craft (Anything above Corvette-class) was the Crusader, noteably absent of the newly ordained Torqueamada. It was instead under the command of one Lieutenant Admiral Seth (a very appropriate name), Torqueamada's second hand man and one of the most fanatical in his faith. On board all the vessels, crew scampered to and fro, checking the systems readiness for the coming conflict.
---
"Sir, incoming transmission from the surface. Rerouting to TacFleCom." The comm officer onboard the Crusader tapped a few buttons, and then the viewport onboard all of the craft in the fleet, from the Super-Dreadnought to snub fighters, was suddenly illuminated in crimson and the image of Torqueamada.
"Today, brothers and sisters, we are embarking on the journey to our true history. We take our first step on the road to glory, and the road to purity." The on-screen image turned into a map of Sector 243, a Dragonan star system. It circled twice, before zooming in on a planet. The screen flashed up some information.
Planet Name: Puffi'ca
Political Affiliation: Dragonan Empire Loyalists
Purpose: Outer Rim Nursery World
"I believe the Old Terrans had a saying: "The children are the future." So what better target?" The screen changed back to Torqueamada. "We shall move in swiftly and destroy their planet. If you have any doubts about the glorious mission you are about to undertake for the wellbeing and honor of the Empire and her citizens, please think of all those who these monstrous cockentrice people have killed in their existence. By their own hand, these beasts have proven themselves monsters unworthy of life, deserving of nothing more than a firm hand and a blessed bullet. If you still have doubts, please report to the nearest airlock for emergency retirement." The feed cut out, and the voice of Seth echoed over the TFC.
"You heard him, fellas. Time to move out. All fleet components, arm weapons and jump for the relayed co-ordinates. Activate jammers, don't let them get a message out until we've finished our duty." With that, the Templarian fleet jumped into the warp, headed for System 243.

Puffi'ca system
The cold void of space was pushed back by the roaring inferno of the twin stars Puffi, a red dwarf, and Ca, a blue giant. To gether they burned brightly, heating the nearby planets, creating desert like environments for the msot part.

Puffi'ca, the 3rd planet from the sun, however, was a perfect balance between desert, jungle and ocean, not unlike the Dragona homeworld. The sprawling colony near the planets northern coast gleamed from space, the intricate spires reaching high into the sky and thrugh out the city the sounds of children laughing, and crying, could be heard ringing from the many hospitals and homes. Not a single resident of the colony had less than one child, excluding of course the children.

It was another, beautiful day. The sun shone on the fountain in the main plaza, reflecting a thousand rainbows on the faces of a nursery class from a nearby school as they learned about spiritualism. Blissfuly unaware of the coming danger.

So too were the few cruisers and frigates orbiting the planet as a defence force, most of their fleet had been sent off to the boarder teritorys to deal with marauders, pirates and other rif-raf. And of course to guard from an invasion from the broken Templar empire.. What could posably go wrong.

Space fortress Noah II
Two hours after Condition yellow was called


Floating in the cold depths of space in orbit around a small blue planet was the fortress Noah II. The size of a small moon Noah II was the command and control center for roughly one eighth of the entire fleet. It was also in command for the defense of one of the many space colony clusters. Still not ready to settle down on a planet just yet the collective space colony clusters go through space providing defense for each other as a unified nation. Noah II was no exception to this having hangers for warships and other combat equipment. Inside Noah II the entire command and control of everything in the area was all sent to one large Combat Information Center in the heart of the base. From this point the defense level can also be raised "So we're at Yellow now eh? first time in awhile we've gone to yellow, only two more and we go to war"

"Yeah but at red the reserves are called up and all forces are on alert, hell I heard the nuclear arsenal might be brought out of storage this time"

"Chairman's getting serious I guess"

"Well apparently this guy is a real whack job, chairman doesn't trust any thing about the man, intelligences division doesn't either, that is why we are on alert, heck the colonies are ready to jump away at any time"

"Well means we get some work to do"

"Indeed it does"

The USS Concorde Floated mundanely in to the darkness of space along the Federation Border, it was escorted by two Nebula class assault destroyers, several Albany class frigates, and multiple Akira class torpedo destroyers and two galaxy class medium cruisers .

Its large form was silhouetted against the sea of stars, its sleek form imposing over the other ships. The task force was composed of 14 star ships in all, including their fighter compliments.

On the bridge of the Concorde

Admiral Alexi Stukov sat on his command chair, his eyes peering over the various three dimensional scans of space around his ship from several million KM to multiple light years. The steppe war had just ended, and he was enjoying the peace and quiet peace time was providing him with. His gloved hands folded on his lap as he leaned back on his hover chair, the Intrepid was one of the most advanced ships in the fleet, and it was put in to the most advanced task force’s in the fleet. He knew fleet command put him out on the frontier to impress the federations foes.

These ships while still basically stolen and adapted designs from alternate reality star fleet command, how ever they where still advanced enough in basic concept to adapt to these technologies the UTF had perfected.

He mumbled a bit to him self, the white lights of the bridge accenting the various chrome and grey colored wall , floor and console system. The Federation had been integrating temporal technology in to its fleet for some time now, but these ships where some of the first to refitted in to the quantum age. Other designs had been designed around quantum technology. The avatar of the ship shimmered on to the bridge , her form was smooth her eyes blue. She looked like Joan of Ark, included with the medieval armor over her graceful form.

“Admiral, we are ready to test the wraith gun ship test bed, I have rigged it with surveillance technology ..”

Alexei nodded and responded as he shifted in his chair. His voice echoed through the silent bridge.

“Good, launch when you are ready at will..”


Naval command had heard some things about the territory they where about to send the drone in to. But this mission was to intercept transmissions and information about the people of this region. Alexi was a stiff man, he had seen many battles and many a wars, he had also been a diplomat. And Acted as a lesion. The Federation fleet wasn’t exactly stealthy, the power levels they had exhibited could be seen several light years away. But even so their ships had a “stealth” system that prevented direct scanning of their vessels due in part of their gravatic drives, but also due in fact to the large amount of power poured in to the ECM systems. The sleek form of the wraith class drone appeared from the ship, its nacelles retracted in to its body. The ship powered up, its retracted nacelles extending.

A crackling slip point tore open the mundane darkness of space, it was a small portal lighting like arc’s of energy lunged from the portal the split second it was open as if souls and life was trying to escape some sort of hell by reaching for the stars.

The drone appeared at the other end in empty space, its body floating silently, its sensors gathering information and signals from where ever it could.

Puffi'ca system
The Templars enjoyed war, so much so that their religion was essentialy dedicated to it. Because of this love for war, they had had a lot of experience of it. Because of this experience, they were ruthless.

The first sign of the Crusade actually happened a few seconds before the fleet arrived. A communication was sent in Dragonan to the nursery world, simply:
lowan! Or, in Basic, 'Death!' Moments after the message was received, the fleet in orbit would find their long range communication systems shorted out from an unknown jamming source.
The aforementioned source announced it's presence with a 100-strong railgun salvo.

The larger ships stayed far away from the enemy, sniping them with their long range cannons, while the frigates, corvettes and bombers advanced under the watch of the fighters, aiming to overpower the Dragonan's through both force of numbers and firepower.

The ships were caught unawares and imediatly a cruiser blew up, 2 frigates were engulfed in the blast. The remianing ships automaticly acted, swiviling cannons to engage the templars as their sheilds flared into life, abosrbing as many blasts as they could. After 5 minuits the last ship was destroyed and the few orbital defence platforms were inactive or worse.

DMI HQ
A blip apeared on the console to the left of High admiral Pa'uh. Frowning he turned his chair to face the console, glaring over the captain's shoulder as he examined the data being displayed.
"Dispatch the 5th recon fleet to Puffi'ca, find out what's wrong with their comms."
"Yes sir" the captain said calmly, pushing several buttons and transmiting the new orders to the fleet's flagship.

From near the huge space station that was DMIT's headquaters 26 ships jumped to transwarp, headed for Puffi'ca.

"All forces eliminated, procede with the operation." 5 of the Battleships and the Crusader moved into orbit around Puffi'ca while the rest of the fleet took up defense positions in case of reinforcements. The ships slowly and painstakingly positioned themselves over the major cities, before armor plates slid back on each one, revealing a double row of a half-dozen missile launchers on each one.
"Co-ordinate fire, one missile to city, the rest are on spread. On my command... Fire." With a flash of light visible from the surface, 72 high-yield thermonuclear missiles shot out from their silos onboard each ship, shooting off into space before retrorockets kicked in and blasted them towards the surface.

the war cube jumped in near space fortress Noah 2
"scanners are picking up a large fort"
"contact them we need information"
"yes sir"

"Commander! unknown object just jumped in, Five Three Seven Carom Two Two Eight, unable to ascertain friend or foe" came a shout in the CIC of Noah II. The response was immediate and quick "Set condition Red, all combat systems online have the closest vessels intercept!" the base commander ordered. The shimmer of a red light moved across Noah II and many ships around it as there shields went up. Three destroyers broke from the fleet to intercept the war cube. As they moved to intercept a message was sent out "Unknown vessel, you have entered commonwealth military airspace, state your identity and purpose, if you fail to respond we will consider you hostile and take the necessary actions to defend our selves." all across the fleet rapid response air groups had already laughed and others were ready to go at a moments notice.

"this is the war cube aurora we are hear because of an uprising in a near system,apparently there was a military cue we need information and we also need to know what is actually going on so we can restore peace to this sector we support the opposing side to Torquemada."
the war cube shutdown its weapon systems as a sign of good will it then slowly moved towards Noah 2
OOC:i support split break:)

"Very well, we are sending you docking coordinates, we can talk then, Noah II out" was the reply message. The three interception destroyers then moved into a escort formation as they escorted the war cube towards Noah II. As they approached the true size of Noah II could be seen, a asteroid roughly twenty kilometers in diameter, brimming with large cannons along the out side. As they approached one of the ship hangers a set a markers lit up in a path to show incoming ships the proper angle for docking. Meanwhile a group of officers were heading down to greet there guests.

Back on Omera, just as the Templar fleet had started to fire upon the fleet guarding the hatchery world, a small event took place. Well, compared to the insignificant lives of those on the world it could evolve into something of note, but in the long, night immortal life spans of the Marauders, a race that had seen, hell, caused the extinction of entire species, it was a small note. The commander of the Marauder vessel had broadcasted out to brothers and sisters who were also getting bored with small, meaningless battles that lead to pillaging and raping the populace of small worlds. Together they had decided to take on the fleet that was, previously, located on Omera. Needless to say, when they arrived and said fleet wasn’t there…

Nonetheless, the first sign that something was amiss came when a pinprick of space suddenly started to burn a bright, scarlet red. It was an insignificant area of space, no more than a few centimeters in diameter. However, said ball of space that, for some reason, was glowing harmlessly in space seemed… innocent enough. Sensors that racked over it revealed nothing but incongruous energy spikes, and it just stayed hovering there. Some might have interpreted it as an act of god, given that there was no known reason for it being there. Perhaps a sign congratulating the Templars for their action on that nursery world? Unfortunately, said people that believed in that theory were proven wrong as, just over two minutes since the ball of light presented itself, it exploded in an Earth Shattering Kaboom. Any vessels that were sent out to greet the seemingly harmless ball of light would be lucky to survive the titanic blast, and if they were they would find themselves hurtled outwards by the force of the explosion. Luckily for the planet, the explosion took far enough away that the energy of the explosion would do no more than light an aurora on the skies of the planet, an innocent display that might amuse some people on it.

But now, instead of a benign ball of light, hovered five vessels in the void of space. It’s design seemed like the vessels had jumped out of the nightmare of some young child rather than the smooth and clean designs of a space faring nation. All five of the vessels were devoid of any possible symmetry, and looked as if someone had slobbery sliced apart different ships and stitched them all together. They were no more than two hundred and fifty meters in length, no shorter than one-hundred, for everyone of those ships were uniquely built. No high energy emissions could be detected, although they were easy enough to spot with both active and passive sensors, they made no effort to hide and as could be seen, no effort to raise any sort of shields. Those foolish enough to zoom in on their hulls would be greeted by the grotesque sight of humanoids that were impailed onto the hull by whatever means the cruel, apathetic race might have come up with at the time (some were impaled onto the small caliber canons of all things!). They all seemed to have been mutilated differently, bearing unique wounds, but one thing was common among all of them - it was clear they had been nailed there out in the vacuum of space alive. Some might have been greeted a lucky death of suffocation or being toasted alive as they entered the atmosphere, others seemed to have cruelly been given a breathing mask so that they could be baked alive by their own bodies.

A full minute after they had entered space after their titanic entry, a single message would be broadcasted to the forces around the planet, “Where’s the fun at? There was supposed to be a fleet here for us to play with!”

as the war cube neared the Noah 2 it came to a stop and 2 raptor shuttles exited from a hanger
"so capn, i cant believe that we don't have compatible docking systems"
"well that's why its good to have shuttles,we,ll clue them in about our nation when we get on board"
the 2 shuttles made for the large hatch and quickly entered

When the shuttles docked a set of doors quickly opened allowing there guests to board the base. They were greeted by a escort party of four soldiers and one officer. Being a military installation every person had a gun, and it was designed like a military base. The officer stepped forward "Sorry about this but, its military protocol, please this way to the conference room" the officer said before taking them away to the conference room. It was a long walk through the massive base, every where they went personal were doing something, and all of them had a side arm or a rifle over there shoulder. Once they reached the conference room the officer sent them inside. The escorting soldiers also followed inside and took positions inside the room. The room itself was pretty plain, a couple paintings on the side walls and a long table with chairs around it in the middle. At the far end of the table sat three high ranking officers, the second in command of the base, and two others. The Second in command of the base spoke up "I'm Lieutenant-Colonel Dimitri Anderson Please, come in, have a seat I hear you have some questions to ask, please address them to us"

“Where’s the fun at? There was supposed to be a fleet here for us to play with!”

"I must say, I like your style." A reponse hail was connected, Torqueamada smiling disdainfully, a corner of his mouth pricking up. "There is no mistake that you are nasty. In outward appearance, at least. I have no opinion on you personally, so please do not take offense when I say that you will be reduced to simmering ashes in a few moments. Do you often launch attacks on empire's homeworlds, or am I to assume that we're special?" The oribtal defense laser cannons swiveled in their mounts to face the mish-mash ships, while the remaining forces, 2 battleships, 3 medium cruisers and an orbital space station engaged the enemy. A distress signal was sent out to the fleet around Puffi'ca, ordering their immediate return. Until then, the garrison would hold.

inside Noah 2 conference room:
"my name is James Tigh XO of the war cube and yes we have some questions"
"which galaxy are we in and what is the enemy's naval strength and tech level?"

Dimitri sighed as he heard the question "You really aren't from around here? any way this is a Milky way galaxy, information on the enemy is currently unknown, our intelligence division is currently gathering information, all we know is we can expect no mercy in a fight and that this situation is spreading by the day, at the rate we've heard systems are falling we can expect enemy contact in this sector by the end of the week, mind you there not officially our enemy but it seems they treat every one as such, which is why a task force is being assembled, while our colonies and such escape the task force will stay behind at a strategic location to wait and see" he explained what the current line of thinking was about the situation. His priority was to the protection of civilians which meant stopping all threats to those people.

"I must say, I like your style." A reponse hail was connected, Torqueamada smiling disdainfully, a corner of his mouth pricking up. "There is no mistake that you are nasty. In outward appearance, at least. I have no opinion on you personally, so please do not take offense when I say that you will be reduced to simmering ashes in a few moments. Do you often launch attacks on empire's homeworlds, or am I to assume that we're special?" The oribtal defense laser cannons swiveled in their mounts to face the mish-mash ships, while the remaining forces, 2 battleships, 3 medium cruisers and an orbital space station engaged the enemy. A distress signal was sent out to the fleet around Puffi'ca, ordering their immediate return. Until then, the garrison would hold.

The Marauders let out another hail to the person that responded, audio only though. The commander’s voice was deep, and there was obviously some harmonic disruption, sounding like a second voice that was just slightly out of time with the Commander’s voice, perhaps an error of glitch with their translating device. “Home worlds? Not often, mostly they’re not to much fun… We usually hang around the borders of empires, striking worlds that do not expect a conflict so that their populace can be easy pickings for… Entertainment…”

The voice let out a soft chuckle as the hind quarters of the ship began to glow a deep, dark red. However, even though this red aura soon encompassed the entire (small) fleet, they didn’t seem to be charging any weapons that could be detected, nor priming any docking craft. There was an unsettling sight though, as the bizarrely shaped hull of the Marauder fleet’s seemed to… shudder? Nevertheless, the strange commander’s voice continued, “But my men grew a bit bored, so we decided we want a bit more fun… I do have to admit, we didn’t know this was a capital world, we were only looking for the fleet that was here a few moments ago!”

The commander would then pause for a second, a mumbling could he heard from the same room, but no other sounds. Then the strange voice would pick up again, “What do you mean you can’t find the warp trail!?” More mumblings and, what sounded like either apologies or insults about how entering with a large titanic blast tended to blow away any ion trails that would allow them to track a warp vessel. “Well, seems like we can’t find our fun anymore…”

The marauding ships then seemed to react even more, their hulls quivered and shook, as if the very ships were alive and quivering, preparing to fight. Energy signatures that ranged from mundane weaponry known throughout the galaxy powered up while the largest, center ship’s energy signatures seemed to defy any known weapon technology. “So, I don’t suppose you know where your fleet went off to, eh? We’ll be happy to meet them on their terms if ya like! Not to insult your defenses or anything… they truly seem deadly,” the voice said with a slight, psychotic snicker. “It’s just that… My crew grows tired of pillaging planets, we were looking forward to a fleet, ‘ya know?”

Dimitri sighed as he heard the question "You really aren't from around here? any way this is a Milky way galaxy, information on the enemy is currently unknown, our intelligence division is currently gathering information, all we know is we can expect no mercy in a fight and that this situation is spreading by the day, at the rate we've heard systems are falling we can expect enemy contact in this sector by the end of the week, mind you there not officially our enemy but it seems they treat every one as such, which is why a task force is being assembled, while our colonies and such escape the task force will stay behind at a strategic location to wait and see" he explained what the current line of thinking was about the situation. His priority was to the protection of civilians which meant stopping all threats to those people.

"we are from a galaxy called Poseidon if you used your current FTL/jump technology it would take you 3 years to reach,our ship the war cube is due for decommissioning in 6ix months,but it could handle itself in a fight against this base with extreme ease."
"where are the forces now?,since we are not owned by your military we could launch a preemptive strike"

"I don't know about where you come from, but in this galaxy you dont judge by appearance, it can cost you your life, just like this fortress, any way there current coordinates are several sectors away" he said bringing up a map on the screen in the middle of the table "We are here, and they are here according to our latest intelligence reports, if your FTL technology is as good as you say it is I'd say that is one maybe two jumps to the target, a preemptive strike by you could also provide us with needed intelligence on the enemy, if your willing to help us with that intelligence we can help you with supplies and repairs for your ship"

"that would be fine, and its about 0.8%of our FTL capability we'll scan their ships,shoot them up a lot and then leave by 2 jumps so they cant follow us,also our ship is in no need of repair its just old.but could you repaint it? the paints kinda faded over time"

"A paint job? heh yeah sure I'm sure a few gallons of paint here and there and we can have her looking like she just got out of dry dock" Dimitri replied with a bit of a laugh, out of all the things for a new found ally to request, a paint job. After he was done with his tiny bit of laughing he looked right at the man "Just send over what the pain sceme is and we'll have it done in no time at all"

"okay thanks we'll send you the new scheme colors and designs, its a pleasure to meet you, ill send you the scheme with my PDA
paint scheme:black with the words WAR CUBE E-91 in white
"so lets talk tactics..."

Meanwhile in the Charzak System

"My lord it seems that the galaxy has once again come to war. Our long range scouting drones have detected a race known as the Templars, and that they have attacked some of the more well known nations in the galaxy. What should we do?"
Emporer Fanwe of the Galactic Empire of Charzak sat on his throne in the Imperial Palace on Charzak. He listened to his most trusted advisor, brother, and Grand Admiral Fingolin.
"My brother, go and do what is needed to preserve our ancestor's Empire which has stood for over 4,000 years. Take the Pride our new prototype superdreadnaught and the 4th fleet to defend the Noldor System. It is one the we cannot lose and their most likely point of entering our territory. Assign the 1st and 2nd Fleets to the Charzak System and leave the 5th fleet on standbye at the Lorien System. It holds all of our secrets."

2 Days Later
Noldor System

The Pride and the 4th Fleet dropped out of hyperspace on the outermost planet. All were inhabitable and all had colonies. One Imperial Battlestation was above each of the 5 planets. The Pride and the 4th fleet consisting of 10 dreadnaughts, 15 cruisers, and 25 frigates. Took up station in order to defend the colonies.

Charzak
The 1st and 2nd Fleet had now merged into the Home Defense Fleet. 20 dreadnaughts, 30 cruisers, and 50 frigates took up an orbital defense screen and waited.

Lorien System
20 dreadnaughts moved into position above a research facility that held all the untold secret research, both bioengineered and technological. A planetary shield sprung up and the fleet moved just outside of its range.

"Tactically speaking this region of space is full of nebula's which can mask ships one way or another, also best option is for a long range engagement however we can't come up with definite tactics until we know the enemies size and combat potential, once we know the details we will decide how large of a task force to leave behind"

OOC: Actually, I haven't invaded anyone yet. I've attacked a Dragonan nursery world, but unless you had eyes in the system (cue TFC's drone) you wouldn't have gotten word yet.

“It’s just that… My crew grows tired of pillaging planets, we were looking forward to a fleet, ‘ya know?”

"My apologies. I am sorry to have disappointed. Well, you have a choice. You can be blasted into ash, or you can leave." He paused then smiled. "Actually, we may be able to come to a mutally beneficial agreement. You want to fight a fleet. It just so happens that a that we would like taken out fleet will be jumping in to a system we have our eyes on. You are welcome to them. That way, we don't need to shoot each other to pieces. What do you think?"

Puffi'ca system
OOC: im gonna assume VT's ships are gone now, seeing how even transwarp takes over an hour to reach the empires outer edges, even 'now'.
IC: The familier greeny-white cloud erupted into the void around Puffica, allowing the 26 ships that had been dispatched to return to real space. Slowly they hovered around the planet taking scans.
After a further hour they sent their results back to HQ and 2 minuits later they were ordered to Corvoth to RV with the rest of the 5th and 3rd battle fleets.

The Marauders captain gave a whistle over the communication link, then some more mumblings as they talked about what to do. Sure it might mean waiting a few more days or weeks, but losing ships on a venture that wasn’t as fun? That was just a waste of perfectly good stolen technology and materials! So, after what seemed like a full minute or two he responded with a short answer, “Do ya mind sending over the details of this fleet you want us to play with? Gotta make sure the wait is worth it and all.”

"thank you verry much for the intel we'll leave soon for the enemy fleet but we must go and tell our superiors"
"OOC: im gunna be away for the next 7 days so ill be back soon"

"Well then good luck to you" Dimitri said before concluding the meeting as the guards then escorted them back to there ship. After they left the room the three began to talk among them selves "Well this could get ugly as hell" one of them commented as he stood up and activated a bunch of screens showing current statistics "Hell would be a cake walk compared to this, we are dealing with a force we know nothing about and are expected to defend against it" the other said.

"Well at least we know they're there other wise we would be screwed by a surprise attack" Dimitri told them both.

"Well if they show up we got a fair sized fleet here to deal with the problem, couple hundred ships not to mention thousands more aircraft, and we just need to send one message and help would be sent from the others"

bump

on-board the war cube:
"telemetry coming in now"
"message archive:this is command you have a go for launch"
"great, contact Dimitri tell him we are go for paint then launch"