NationStates Jolt Archive

“Mankind has always had a dream to explore the unknown. Always had a dream to expand and perceiver in knowledge technology and good morals. Today we commemorate this ”

Said A suited man standing on a holo podium speaking out, it was President Logan, his form was slender his black suit well pressed and made, his tie crisp and his voice loud. He continued on after a short pause.

“I am In my last months in office before the election takes hold, While this ship you see before you, is a testament to not only the military might but the technological genius of the federation. It is also a testament to the will of exploration. I therefore christen this ship, the USS Jupiter, the embodiment of the god of the sky him self. ”

A bottle of vintage campaign swished by floating in space, its crystal clear form glinting in the sun of the local system as it went through the masses of artificial constructs finally slamming on the hull with a shatter droplets of liquid freezing instantly. The Jupiter.. The newest ship in the federation fleet with very special systems. Its sleek smooth form was accented by the soft yellow light of the star system. Shadows of the shipyards exoskeleton flowed over it.


Logan smiled, he looked over to a man sitting in between several other officers. That man stood up, his name was Captain William Xavier , he was young, black hair brown eyes, slender semi muscular form. He nodded to the president and walked over to him saluting swiftly and with a snap. Logan then started to speak once more.

“Here is Captain William Xavier. The new Commanding officer of the USS Jupiter and the man .. Who will make history. What you are about to see... will change space travel for ever... Captain take your station”

“Yes sir”

he said in a friendly voice, he motioned the rest of the crew to follow as he traveled down the long winding force cat walk, in to the belly of the 464 meter ship. The inside of the ship was smooth, sleek, holo panels lined every few wall panels as they all started to walk to their stations stepping through doors that desegrated open then re-solidified behind them. The ships interior had a warm relaxing feel, the lights bathed the blue uniforms every one whore, accenting their forms.

William smiled at his female XO, she smiled back and they both nodded as they stepped through two massive doors. The bridge as in any other federation ship had been streamlined, immersion-holo stations where fortified by flat panel 3d holo projector screens.

Officers sat in their stations, the bridge was lit like the rest of the ship with a soft white color over the white greyish chrome and metal construct of it. Ship status and three dimensional projections of the ship and its systems came online, energetic noises and an angelic began to reverberate throughout the ship and the bridge. William smiled his brown eyes focusing on the blackness of space that was only dotted by stars and infinite white points.

The avatar came online, it was female it had a standard federation uniform on, its form was smooth, skin silky in appearance and hair wavy and blond. The XO by contrast had short black hair, curly, still had silky skin but her eyes where green instead of blue.

Willian raised his hand as he sat down on his hovering chair, he spoke out in a soft voice ordering.

“All power to engines, Take us out and engage inter-phase drive.”

He smiled as he said this, it had been long and hard, and he had been in the star navy for many years and he finally after working so long had gotten his own command . The tractor beams and cat walks disengaged from the ship sleek and smooth form. The ship started to glide out of space dock, the mass of metal skeletal structure being left behind by the smooth grey hulled ship, its form silhouetted in the sea of stars as it slowly moved out, the top of its saucer section read, USS Jupiter LC-2190. The ship banked to the left slightly, its form shimmering as the soft yellow light of the sun accented it. A crackle of energy started to envelope it, its form started to glow brightly with blue and yellow like flames of energy where pouring from its hulls surface. In a split second later the ship was thrown and twisted in to a distant point of flashing blue energy trails of white and blue particles leaving its engines behind it. An utter instant later, hundreds of millions of light years away it re appeared, dropping out of this Inter-Phased drive.


Its form went back to normal, its body silhouetted once more against a sea of stars, but different stars. It was in another galaxy , the avatar started to speak in her soft female voice.

“Sir we have reached our first point of exploration, the outer edge of the andromeda galaxy.”

William stood up his eyes fixed on the space ahead of his ship, a soft smile came over his pale face as he folded is hands behind him.

“My god we actually did it , it felt like we where every place at once.. No body no physical form but here we are.. Millions of light years from home. Lets see what’s out there. Sensors to full!”

The ships sensors crackled to life, scans started to become apparent space was being mapped the crew where still astonished that they had survived such a thing, from 0 to inter universal speed in an instant. The Secondary mission was exploration, but the primary was to find a suitable world for alpha site colonization the Terrans. Meaning if any thing happened back home the UTF would remain intact far.. Far away.

For now that would have to wait until the ship got its bearings...


http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d110/USFU/USSJupiteroversolaris.jpg

The D.E.S. Loki speed on in her transwarp bubble, as she had done for over 6 years.
All thrughout her hull her crew slept in their pods, nothing to disturb them exept the gentle pulsing of the bio-conduits over head and even that wouldn't work.

On the bridge the captain sat frozen in the middle of an argument, his finger pointedly raised with an iceicly hanging off his knuckles. A single droplet of water fell from the iceicle, leaving a tiny pool of water on the floor for a brief second. Then it evaporated as a wave of heat shot thrugh the ship, thawing the captain and trigering the revival cycles on the pods.

"...And another thing, it's completly... Damn ship. Computer where they hell did you take us!?" the captain roared as his vocal cords loosened, definatly in an argument then.
"I don't know" a childs voice came back over the speakers "I got lost after I ran into that super nova" it sounded genuinly scared, worried even, a quiver creping into its voice.
"For the love of... Why did you revive us then? I assume you wern't happy with aimless wandering any more?"
"Mission objective alpha, unusual energy signature detected. Droping out of transwarp now"
"Wait til lthe crews here!" bellowed the captain, too late it seemed as they stumbled thrugh the door (the phi-breed perking up in his tank) as the ship shuddered back into real space.

Near the UUS Jupiter
A greeny-white rip in the universe opened up and allowed a few sparks in to real into the real-world before it widened and the curving form of the Shrike class scout/destroyer D.E.S. Loki (http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh161/dragonsclaw56/IMAG0068.jpg). The Loki shot from the rift, narowly missed an asteroid, and came to rest about 200 megameters from the Jupiter. A transmition was sent reading
D.E.S. Loki to unknown ship, if our AI hasn't gone completly insane then you're in Dragona teritory. That can be dealtwith in time, for now perhapse you can tell us where we are?

William was sitting at the ships bar peering out in to the utter darkness of space, whips of red and purple could be seen in the distance as they where close to a nebula, the ships engines rumbled throughout the halls and quarters and other parts of the ship, he looked down at a crystal clear glass filled with dark golden carbonated liquid and sighed picking it up with his smooth slender hand and taking a few sips of the stuff, he made a sour face as the tangy bitter liquid went down his throat, burning it a bit. Soft jazz filled the room, crew members where socializing and playing holo games at hovering tables, the second officer who was male, stood at a window. He peered out of the holoport, a smile over his young face.

Ronald hues was his name, a bright young officer who had gotten this assignment at Williams request. As William downed the last bit of that liquid klaxons began to blare yellow. Quickly he put the glass down and stood up calling out.

“Status report!”

The avatar responded.

“Captain we are getting communications from a dragonan ship.. They do not appear to be chairing weapons”


William exclaimed as he crisply walked out of the bar a down the long winding smooth grey hall way and up to the door that de-materialized in-front of him leading to the large bridge.

“What?! This far out?!”

He nodded to his XO who was about to reply to them when he stepped in, the avatar played the message for him via Internal link.

He responded with a diplomatic and some what tough voice.

“This is the Terran Federation Ship USS Jupiter, your territory ? Do you realize where in the andromeda galaxy?”

The comn was put on mute on their side until a reply from the ship was tendered to them, the Jupiter’s shields where raised but there where no signs of any energy build ups in its disruptor or pulse bank and no loaded torpedoes. The ship floated gently silhouetted against the new night sky, its form shimmering gently with the local light of a sun less than a light year away.

"Barzlun! Andromida you say? Loki you idiot. Sorry if we scared you Jupiter, we WERE on an experimental mission but the ship had other plans. Our power cells are pretty badly drained from being in trnaswarp so long. You don't mind if we hang around for a bit, recharge thrughn the solar panels?"

OOC: Possible Coredian presence TBD later!

William raised an eyebrow and shrugged responding in a diplomatic voice.

“This is not our space so do what ever you please...-

He was cut off by engineering officer reeves, who was a female, she was sitting several meters away from him at the other side of the bridge, she peered back at him as she spoke in a soft voice.

“Captain, you better come see this.. “

William nodded to the view screen and it cut off, he made his way through the bridge avoiding various consoles, as he came behind the female officers station, he could smell her soft perfume wafting in to the air, it was a juniper lilac mix. He peered on the screen, his brown eyes went wide, he almost had his jaw drop as he asked hesitantly.

“You mean the Inter-Phased warp drive didn’t do this It was a wormhole..?”

The brunet headed female with yellow eyes nodded , her form shifted gently in the hovering chair as three dimensional holo consoles popped up and around her with new readings. She spoke out.

“Apparently it was caused by an energy surge in the drive coils.. I mean we can get through the galaxy in a few days at high inter phase warp .. But the void might be an issue..”


William raised an eyebrow and asked as he started to straiten up, shifting his uniform a bit. The executive officer was speaking to the second officer and the crew where going about normal. William asked reeves in a low tone..

“Why?”

Reeves responded quickly ..

“Well sir since we are on the edge of the andromeda galaxy I’ve managed to get long range scans of the void, its not good. Space time differentials.. Dark energy jetties, it will reduce our inter-phased speed by at least ½ perhaps more... we where taught the void was empty space between galaxies, but this is different. These two galaxies are moving towards each other and the more they do that the more anomalies happen... Its going to be a long trek sir...”


William’s heart sank he looked down a bit and then back up with a sigh, his eyes looking at the female and then to the crew who had been so happy, and excited, now he would have to brake the news. He would have to brake their hearts and harm their spirits.. But it must be done, and he must rally the will to inspire hope in them. He nodded to the engineering officer, who then turned back to her console, she went from professional to a bit solemn in her body language.
William stood up he nodded to the second officer and first officer and said.

“Open a comn frequency to the entire ship and that dragonan ship, they deserve to hear what I’m about to say to.”

The avatar complied a blip was heard, and William started to speak.

“Greetings, new comers.. Crew mates.. Friends and loved ones, it has come to my attention thanks to the many talents of my engineering officer that our drive was not the one that got us here quickly, it was an accidental wormhole. While we can cross this galaxy with in a few days with this new drive, we cannot go nearly as fast in the void.. Comparatively it will be a crawl due to the masses of anomalies and odd readings there. I cannot say how heart broken I am about this news, and I know you are as well. For my ship for my crew we need to perceiver, we need to stand up and say this wont get us down, because we will not rest until we get ourselves home, we will not rest until we are safe back in the arms of the people we love and our families. I will personally see to that. I say again, please have faith, Have courage and have honor .We will get home. May what ever god or gods you believe in bless you.“


The comn was cut to the dragonan ship but kept open to the rest of the Jupiter, William spoke out again with a commanding voice as he walked ver to a hovering chair sitting down and crossing his uniformed legs, adjusting his blue uniform as a force of habit.

“All departments, report I want a status on supplies, energy the induction core food, every thing..”


Reeves spoke out a bit saddened as she shifted to look over to William.

William asked “What is it reeves?”


Reeves responded as she braced to tell him the news. “Sir... the induction core wont keep open with out a supply of fuel in the void, we have enough to sustain the constant strain on closing it but usually federation ships don’t need to carry that much to keep it open as it stays open for years, we need enough fuel to keep opening it every few weeks at least!”


William growled under his breath and sighed, his eyes looked up and out in to the darkness of space his hands folding on his lap as he sat up on his chair. He responded.

“We need to find supplies any way as I just got the report some stuff we can’t fab we need to mine, meaning we need to poke around in here, set long range scanners for these parameters”

Reeves and the avatar standing next to her both nodded, The XO her name Kelly Madden walked over to William and spoke to him softly.

“How did this happen sir? The crew are going to want details...”

William responded softly back to her looking up at her form.

“It will be in reeve’s report but for now spread my message spread inspiration any way you can. I want you to see to security measures and what ever else you can.”

Kelly nodded a smile coming across her face, as she looked around the bridge .


Reeves spoke out, William turned over to look at her and the avatar the hum of the engines reverberating around the bridge, soft holographic consoles blipping now and then. The air was semi cool, the lights accented every ones form and the forms of the consoles.

“Sir we are detecting a cluster of debris near by its in a system no sign of life though.. But I can’t be sure long range sensors are being interfered with.. Some sort of field”

William signed and shrugged speaking out.

“All-right set a course to that system, engage Inter-Phased warp and let the dragonian ship we’ll be heading there if they want to come. Now we wait for their reply..”

William slumped back in to his chair raising a smooth hand ver to his chin gently scratching it as he looked out in to the utter darkness of space that was just dotted by thousands of white lights. He sighed as he turned his attention to officers walking around the bridge going about their business. It was obvious the gravity of the situation did not hit them fully yet, but every one was starting to feel the affect, Reeves, Kelly, Hues... and the rest of the crew.


It was now up to him and to them to keep each other sane, raise moral and keep things moving along. Tactically the ship was sound, Full stock of standard torpedoes and a half a stock of advanced torpedoes, full round compliment for the quark cannons and full power to the displacer banks. But this mission would be more than about fighting and getting home it would be about making friends along the way and preparing people for what would be out there should the Terran federation come this far out. This was the secondary goal, the primary goal now was survival. And William will see to that.

There's something very unusual about suddenly finding yourself in a foreign and strange galaxy far away from home and suddenly finding something that reminds you of home. While it might be a stretch The Garbage Men was a fixture of the waste, sanitation, recycling, cleaning and practically any other similiar industries that exist. They were back in the region of space where the Jupiter was from and where in the region of Space where the Jupiter is now. This was evident by a standard hyperspatial jump into the current system by what would be classified as a destroyer.

The destroyer started on the far side well outside the gravity well of the system and slowly started to enter the system.. it would take hours for the ship to reach it's destination in amung the inner planets. It was clearly TGM the 3 white letters would gleam in the bright of the sun as it got closer. ID codes were broadcasted and the ship was going about it's business. For now they did engage in communication with either of the ships, the D.E.S. Loki or the UUS Jupiter.

The Jupiter again jumped with a rumble and a crackle of white and blue energy in to a white flash, its form twisted as it disappeared In to the darkness. Kelly was now in command for the time being as captain William was in his ready room, the ship hummed stars wished by at amazing bright flashes of red and blue could be seen as each passed by at massive speeds, only a few seconds passed until the ship dropped out of inter phased warp its form crackling with energy that was dissipating as it did.

William as in his ready room, his black boots on top of his glassy table, to the side of his personal holo computer, his hover chair was just in front of a large reticular holo port that showed the darkness of space, he was laying back on his chair a soft velvet covered book in his hands, with actual paper. The ships engines rumbled its noise reverberating around the ship, in the ready room it was drowned out by soft jazz music similar to what was in the mess hall and bar. William had an affinity for mysteries and jazz music and old earth culture as any Terran did. He shifted in his chair sinking back in it continuing to read.


Mean while Kelly was on the bridge with reeves and Ron, they where all at their respective stations taping on three dimensional holo consoles. The news started to sink in to the crew it was obvious now. Kelly her self was in distress but didn’t show it her soft hands folded upon her uniformed lap, Ronald was assisting reeves and the ships avatar with various things at his own stations, the soft blipping noises of consoles accented the slight rumbling and roaring of the engines from the ship.


Kelly graduated the academy in 2780, she had been in fleet for over 32 years, this was her first posting as first officer of the ship, previously she had served on the galaxy class USS Odyssey as second officer, she had an extensive background in military tactics and ship operations. But she was no scientist. Knowledge like that was required for an extensive command position like captain. She was like the rest of the crew hit hard by the fact that they would not make it home as fast as they had hoped, she had three kids and a husband on Tyrian waiting for her. She held this in and thought what a mistake it would be to let an inch of such feelings seep out as she had been told by the captain to stay strong and set an example.


William on a slight other hand was single.. He had been divorced for three years, he was a loner but had two kids he saw now and again he understood some of the plight of the crew members with kids. He had been distant with his but now more than ever he yearned to go see them.



Ronald in sharp contrast was unmarried had no kids, and had nothing but parents and a brother tying him back home, he didn’t feel the sting as much as the others, he was a capable officer graduating three years after Kelly did, and earning his first post as second officer on the USS Albany, a ship that was heavily damaged in the GPI war he’s seen the horrors of war just as Kelly on the Odyssey and William on the Manticore.


Reeves had not been experienced in any war, she was a L.T fresh from the academy, single out going and dynamic as well as technical and extremely bright she was the perfect for engineering. With such a veteran group the crew knew they would guide this ship in the right directions there was no doubt in any ones mind they would.

The avatar had set the ships course to move in to the inner system towards a trail of debris, the Jupiter flew in gently towards the trail, the reddish orange light from the sun accenting its white grey sleek hull the black infinite expanse of space and white dots of stars behind it. The avatar scanned the TGM hulk, she spoke out to kelly and the other officers.

“We are detecting an alpha quadrant metal signature”

“What?!”

Kelly Exclaimed leaning forward to stand up. Reeves and Ronald both nodded in confirmation as Kelly looked at them.

“What kind of ship?” She asked folding her arms over her chest, Ronald spoke out in response.

“Ermm Ma’am it’s a TGM ship..”

“Those trash hullers eh?” She snidely remarked then continued on with another question.

“Any life signs or power signatures? “

Reeves took this one she shifted in her hover chair looking back at the female XO.

“None that I can tell Ma’am, it looks dead..”

Kelly sighed and taped on a back hand mounted comn device.

“Captain we have detected a ship in this debris field, you better come up here.”

William mumbled to him self slightly cursing, he picked his feet up from his desk and put them on the ground putting the book back and shutting the music off with a mind command simultaneously.

“On my way” He spoke out in a loud yet deep voice, he stood up from his chair and walked out in to the large now busy bridge , on the screen was the ship they had detected, the light of the star shining in to the bridge from the viewer. He raised an eyebrow and asked.

“What am I looking at Commander?”


Kelly responded quickly.

“A TGM hauler”


William exclaimed as he heard this loudly.

“What?! This far? Either they have holdings out here meaning....-“

He was cut off suddenly by Ronald

“Or they followed us and got thrown out at a later time, our drive has a large pull in factor sir.. Each time we jump to Inter phase warp we create a massive gravity well and pull ships in with us. But it looks to be some what intact. I couldn’t tell you the effects on a ship if it was pulled in with us.”

William signed and started to pace around the carpeted bridge.

“Right well, Scan for atmosphere in there, I want to send a team over, also send out drones to scout for the list of materials we need scavenge them from these ships.. Andromeda is a new galaxy people with new things I want to investigate these ships before using these parts.”


As he said this reeves had already started the scan, the avatar had deployed small gray sleek drones, and Ronald was getting the team roster together.

The Loki had followed the Jupiter, mostly becuase she had nothing better to do, but also because of her captains mild paranoia. They were, after all, in unfamiliar teritory.

After exiting hyperspace (the slowest yet most energy-efficent FTL for the dragona) Loki drifted contently along side Jupiter, apearing some what dwarfed. She had rotated on her axis so that her dorsal plane was facing the new sun, absorbing the energy hungrily incase it was needed.

On the bridge the crew worked at a steady pace, analysing the wear and tear that Loki had recived after 6 years of almost continual transwarp travel, when the phi-breed piped up, his voice echoing slightly from a speaker somewhere near his tank
"Captain, Loki detects a particulaly large object dead ahead."
"Stand by with the forward disrupters, we'll blast it away."
"It looks like a ship sir, but none that we've encountered before, It seems to have a few elements that match those of the terrans, thoe what they are I can't tell."
"Then perhapse they know more about it than we do? Send them a text message and ready 3 boarding teams in novialths, intensify scans and bring us to a stop as soon as we're close enugh to use transporters."
"Yes captain" the phi-breed said happily, manipulating the necesery bio-conduits.

Jupiter, this is Loki. I assume you see that thing up ahead aswell. We plan to dispatch 3 boarding teams to investigate, what is your opinion?

"Oh dear." That phrase has accompanied many events in the history of the universe, from the petty squabblings of primitive tribes, to international planetary dealings, to intersystem fighting and finally to the galactic stage where an empire would often receive another empires declaration of war with a simple "oh dear."

In this case however, the "oh dear" escaped the lips of a man who, in the most convienient sense of the word, was not entirely sane. Or maybe he was, who knew, the actual process of multiple personality dis-order was not very well explained even in the far future; so maybe he was sane, and the other more unstable parts of his mentality were not. Either way, the nature of his mentality was not relevant, his dealings were.

His non-expletive statement was accompanied by a significant space time fluctuation a distance away from the U.S.S Jupiter and the other vessels who had improbably arrived in this otherwise unremarkable system. A half second later a crude, run down space station of modular design roughly four hundred meters in length and two hundred meters in height dropped back into the fabric of reality; fluctuating ripples in the space time continuem cascaded all around it.

"Engernerium(?)" Of The Space Station Progressive Degradation

The body of Drake Antony Gabriel Dewairt stood glaring through five inch thick quartz at his reactor as it proceeded to pump energy into his slipspace coils and fry his electrical systems. One system in particular was of immediate concern, the cloaking device which had kept him safely hidden; it was now smoking slightly in the corner. Pulling on a thick pair of gloves and gingerly picking up an old fashioned axe he strode towards a number of thick wires trailing across the room.

It is worth noting at this point that historians back in the M.R.A of Hydrosteria in the twenty first century stated that you could never be quite sure what personality was in control, thus his body was more or less a subject of personal indifference; whoever would be looking out of it's eyes was up for debate.

"Stanford." He yelled as he rose the axe above his head and then brought it down upon a thick wire, seperating the reactor from the main electrical systems.
"What's our, I mean, my, situation."
"Uncertain." The computer known as Stanford replied in a simple synthesized voice.
"Well... a systems diagnostic would be, what's the word? Handy." He said in the direction of the nearest camera as he proceeded to exit the room.
"Unable to process."
"Why?" He muttered as he exited the room, looking with disdain at the poor spelling one of his other halfs had used to identify the room.
"I'm playing monopoly."

He sighed in despair at his "intelligent" creation, in the least he was in the middle of nowhere, not a living being withen the next few light years. And with that in mind he headed to what remained of the stations control center, oblivious to the vessels lurking outside.

ooc: EPIC LOL!

As the scans poured over the ship it could see it could see a number of points of interest, firstly the atmosphere was perfectly acceptable though a little high in carbon dioxide. The reason for this was a number of fires their atmospheric signature was obvious to anyone with experience.

The fires themselves seemed contained to a particular area but the smoke and gases generated weren't, the life support was functioning well and for most part filtering out most of the smoke, though throughout most of the ship there a fine smoke haze enough not to be a problem short term but if they stayed in there long enough without adequate protection they could suffer the effects of smoke inhalation and die.

The energy generators were working, in that they were providing some energy, enough to run life support and some lights as well as most of the consoles, but far less than they should. For the most part the hull and structural integrity seemed perfect, though there were small areas where structural integrity was damaged. Everything in these areas was still together but they wouldn't last for long

As for life signs, there were none, it seemed this ship was derelict, but there was no obvious reason why it should of been so, no signs of a major firefight that would of caused evacuation, no distress signal, granted there were the fires but most of the systems seem to be handling it well enough for them not to be a problem. It was a mystery, just like how the Jupiter and Loki would get back home.

Ronald was already on his way down to the transporter room, he noted all the things he needed to including the fires on the TGM ship, He stopped by the armory where he met the other members of the away team, he smiled as he walked in, the marines coming to attention. He spoke out softly as he picked up a sleek Phaser assault rifle, and checked the charge taping on its mini console near its scope. Sargent Major Tom Richardson spoke out to the Commander.

“Sir, marines are ready to go, we will beam in right.-”

a holographic map of the ship appeared over a holographic projector , and the marine pointed at a compartment highlighted in green.

“There”

he finished is sentence crisply , his voice was deep and strong, Ronald nodded to marine and responded as he stepped over to the transporter pad. the other burly semi power armor suited marines stood with him, he secured is helmet in a slight swish, followed by the rest of the team. Crackling energy engulfed each of them in a bright flash of light, their forms shimmered in to existence in the tattered compartment of the TGM ship. Their sensors started to scan and take in information as soon as they appeared, Ronald motioned Tom and two other marines to one side and tome motioned a team to the other, they communicated via QE comns. Tom spoke out to the other team.

“Explore for supplies and other things, we’re going to check the records”

Ronald attempted to locate what looked like a main computer, the light enhancements in their helmets activated. Other sensors where scanning and showing things on their HUD. The other team mean while made their way through another area of the ship their forms wading through the thick black smoke that fires had created.

Mean while on the bridge the sudden appearance of that station alarmed William, Kelly, and Reeves. William spoke out loudly looking to the avatar.

“Yellow alert, Try to scan that station and hail them”

The hull of Jupiter crackled to life as spherical shields activated over its form, the ship loomed over smaller pieces of debris. William looked at the station and Reeves started to speak out while Kelly assumed Ronald’s station.

Reeves said

“Sir we have evidence of space time distortions ahead of us that station seems to be generating them but I can’t get a lock on any scans”

Williams spoke out as a blip was heard activating the comns.


“This is the Terran Federation Ship USS Jupiter to who ever is on that station if any one, we come in peace, we’re only trying to find a way home”

The comn. was cut William went over to the command chair and sat down on it folding his hands over his lap, Kelly continued to work at the second officers station manipulating the three dimensional holographic controls. The Jupiter loomed in the middle of the large debris field silhouetted against the back drop of stars in the darkness of space. The avatar had sent an automated response to the dragonan ship.

We are sending a team of marines to investigate the derelict, feel free to send a team over


Her voice was soft and angelic. Mean while engineering officers where starting to receive materials inside the cargo bays from the drones, tones of charred metal seemingly aged equipment and things with markings appeared filling the cargo bay. Michel Kayborn was the officer in charge of the items, he was taping on a holo pad as officers told him the stuff that was present and cataloged the white light of the cargo bay bathed the various colors of the metals materials and containers they had taken from the feild.

William had raised a hand an ordered as he sank back in to his chair.

“ Maneuver us in to a defensive position keep our torpedo tubes towards them ”


The ship turned the engines rumbling to life streams of white and blue particles flowing behind it fading out in to the darkness of space. Its form shimmered slightly with in the orange red soft light of the star . It had turned to bare its torpedo banks and Displacement arrays inactive but ready to activate in a moments notice. The shields where at full power now, and it was waiting for a reply running lights blinked gently at random points and intervals along its sleek smooth hull and form.

The sleek black form of the RTMR Lantern, A small recon carrier, slipped into normal space out of a swirl of shadows, the ships sensor bafflers primed to hide from anyone not paying too much attention. The ship, only 200 meters long, was commanded by a rather young Ctarl officer, who at that very moment was more than a little aggrivated.

"Lieutenant, where the hell are we? This is NOT Pegasis command!.." The captain said with a noticeable growl in his voice. He had stood up while speaking, his dark blue furred tail swaying behind him, standing out starkly against his black scaled body armor There was a marking on the breast of the armor in red.

The captain looked over to the tactical officer, an anthro fox with reddish brown fur and a simple black uniform, who was staring at the navigation officer. The fox's screen flickering with data. "OI!! LIEUTENANT RAMIREZ PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR STATION!" The captain screamed. The tactical officer nearly jumped out of his skin, saluting the captain with a sharp gesture, eyes wide as saucers as he replied. "My apologies sir."

The sensors officer cut the captain's reply off as she called from across the room. "Multiple contacts Sir, Reading a TFU vessel approximately one hundred thousand clicks." The TFU vessel appeared on the holo display in the forward half of the bridge, appearing as a small blue dot far above the ships own green dot. "We're having trouble with details, the sensors array was kinda battered durring that jump... We're also picking up a TGM ship, its running dark, optics onscreen."

The screen was filled with the perspective view of the TGM Hauler. "Yep thats TGM alright, looks a little worse for wear..." The captain said, looking intently at the screen. The sensors officer continued. "We're also picking up two unknown contacts One appears to be a station, as its not moving, the other is an unknown contact. They both seem to be active."

The captain nodded, "general transmission," He paused a moment as the front viewscreen panned out to show the whole of the assembly so far. "This is Captain Fiereck of the Red Talons Mercenary Repuplic vessel Lantern. does anyone out there know whats going on here?"

The transmission ended, The captain turned and returned to his seat. "Helm, orient us with the group, ahead one quarter impulse. Signal for general quarters, have all pilots scramble and be ready to launch if anything goes south." Red lights flashed as various species scrambled to their stations. The ships shields coming online.

Loki followed suit after the Jupiter, ignoring the station as they couldn't read the temporal distortians, after the shuttles launched.

They landed on 3 decks, one after another, one up form wherer the terrans had beamed in their teams of 12 men armed with energy-spears. Once they were sorted they split into 2 groups and followed a similar search pattern to those of the terran marines, their helmets sealed to protect against the smoke.

The Space Station Progressive Degradation

Drake marched through the tattered corridors which wove throughout his, he meant their, crumbling station. He banged on a metal panel which had came loose as he strode past, it popped out of it's casing and clattered to the floor, he strode on without so much of a backwards glance.

"Sir's?" The ships computer's voice echoed throughout the vessels aging structure.
"There's only one of us thank you very much." Drake replied irritably.
That's rude you know, a little voice inside his head chimed in, you could hurt our feelings with crude words like that; how unthoughtful.
"Oh god" he muttered.
Actually your atheist, the voice said simply.
By the time I'm finished there will be one of us in this head and body Haahaahaahaa! Another added somewhat psycotically.
You'll need me for that you'll find. Said yet another.

Drake sighed and was about to retort to the menagerie of thoughts inside his head when the computer butted in.

"I have detected a number of vessels gathering withen the system, two have hailed us."

Drake reeled in momentary horror as his world was thrown upside down; into this mental breach stepped one of his more psycotic personalities.

"What!?" He cried spinning around for dramatic effect and raising one of his clenched fists.
"I have detected a number of vessels, one of which is facing our general direction... it seems armed."
"Argh you fools you've uncovered our veil of secrecy through your foolish meddelings!" he yelled at himself and the others as he launched himself back down the corridor.
Is it so much to ask to have an operational microwave?
"Nonsense! It is this that has brought all our cunning plans to nought!"
Your plans, not ours actually.
And come on, would it kill you to actually eat something more appealing once in a while?
Even I have to admit that a diet of fast food is not the most satisfying thing in the world.
Seconded.
Thirded.
What's the next one?
Fourthed?
"Silence!" He yelled shrilly as he strode into the heavily damaged control room, "Cooking is but a mere human inposition upon myself as I strive towards worls domination!"
That didn't make sense...
Are you insulting my cooking?
"What? Silence you foollish fool of a fool." He muttered tapping away at a control panel.
You dare insult my culinary abilities?
Hehe...
"What? No, now shus-"
I thought your cooking was lovely.
Thank you.
"You suck up, it's irrelevant!"
I'm irrelevant now am I?!
"What? No I-"
I am so going to slap you the next chance I get...

Grumbling he fiddled with the answering machine they'd rigged up.

“This is the Terran Federation Ship USS Jupiter to who ever is on that station if any one, we come in peace, we’re only trying to find a way home”

"This is Captain Fiereck of the Red Talons Mercenary Repuplic vessel Lantern. does anyone out there know whats going on here?"

Who are these people?
Not a clue.
How about you?
That's a dumb question...
"Quiet you fools whilst I respond to these imbe-.... imbesils..."
You don't know the word do you?
"Oh shut up."

He stretched his finger towards the reply button, deciding to ignore Captain Fiereck since he didn't know the answers to his question; at the last moment he hesitated, after all, they were floating in space with little nothing than an anomaly defending them. That hesitation however proved to be a mistake on his part as another messed up persona shoved him out the way and came to the forefront.

"Why hello there gentlemen, this is Von Tony Dewairt here." the new voice drawled in a strong English accent which overemphsised and drew out every vowel, "How may I aid you in a mutually beneficial manner? This station is crewed by a variety of people of different backgrounds, A kind of idealogical retreat if you will. What may I ask brings you out here to our little slice of heaven?"

The path to the closest console where information about what might of happened to the hauler was fairly simple, especially as the mapping information they had was complete in this regard. Corridors lead them to the closed archway of a door. The grating that made up the floor seemed to have been fashioned from a single piece with no apparent joins.

The door had some sort of security as soon as they got near ir a voice spoke, stuttering “I-I-I-Identifi-FI-FI-FI-Fi-cation Requ-qu-qu-quired.V-V-Voice Pr-ri-ri-rint Auth-ent-ent-entication.”

The tone was being distorted during the stutter and clearly malfunctioning to some extent just how much it was malfunctioning was anyone's guess

As Soon as the Red Talons ship Appeared William called out orders he stood up from his command chair looking towards the avatar.

“Red alert!”

The bridge went dark and suddenly red started to bathe the bride, klaxons started to blare Reeves turned from one part of her station to the other right away. Kelly started to bark out orders as well her voice deep and professional.

“Load all torpedo banks.”

The Jupiter changed its position its sleek smooth form rumbling to loom over the red talons ship, it was obviously in a defensive position. William looked over to Kelly and then to reeves.

“I want a full scan of that ship and open a Chanel, I want to know what the he’ll their doing out there engage the sub space shield”

“Aye sir”

Reeves responded and started to scan moving her hands over the holographic console in front of her renditions of red talons ship, the station and the TGM ship all came up on her screen, the sector of space on the other tactical consoles where suddenly filled with various markers three showing active ships, two in blue one in red. A blip was heard through the bridge, and William spoke out as the screen flickered on to his view.

“I don’t believe we’ve met but I assure you I was at the battle of alavara, and I know who you are, you threatened to attack our ships and cost the lives of hundreds of crew members and my friends, what are you doing here and what do you want!?”


He growled a bit, Kelly understood where he was coming from she was at the battle to, the events that lead to the fighting where rather interesting and foggy but nonetheless here they where. The Jupiter’s weapons where fully powered, phaser banks torpedo bays, quark guns, and pulse emitters. The ship was ready to fight. The sub space shield had prevented all scans of it by any other ship.

Mean while on the TGM ship, the leader of the other team who came upon the door raised his wrist and started to tap on it slightly a holographic projection of a key pad over it, it was a tricorder, medical device and armor regenerator all in one , his eyes peered through his helmet at the door, he called out in a muffled voice to another member of the team a few feet away.

“I’m going to try to by pass this door it will take some time”


Ronald and the Sargent major had been there to greet the dragonans but then they had went back to trying to establish what had happened using the same wrist mounted device, Ronald had peered
at the computer looking at it, his other hand on his wrist mounted pad taping on it trying to get command function restored.


William was fuming, he knew the red talons ship was for hire by the highest bidder, but he also knew they where hostile, he waved his hand and said in a commanding voice as he sat down again the red light blaring with the klaxon every so often.

“Open a channel to the team tell them to prepare for emergency beam out should we need it god knows how many other ships they have running around here. Any luck reeves”

He added on looking at the female she responded

“Sir nothing, it seems from our scans that the way the dropped out of faster than light is still not enough information to determine how fast they can go, how ever it is a gravatic based drive system coupling this from the knowledge at alavera gathered by ships we can possibly use the beacon to send this data back and they could put it to tactical use, other than that we cant do much here unless we rig some thing to stop them from dropping out on top of us”


William raised an eyebrow and folded his hands on his lap, he shifted back his blue uniform bathed in red just as the rest of his officers where, the air in the bridge was tense now, he folded one leg over the other and responded.


“All right, do we have the nessary-“

He was cut off by the message from the station, he looked to Kelly and then the avatar, he waved a hand to the latter, a blip was heard the view screen turned back to the station. William began to speak with a diplomatic voice.

“We originally came to explore this galaxy but then we found out the disruptions in space time in the void will prevent us from going at full speed, we wont risk being destroyed by trying that again as it almost did the last time. So as of now we are stuck here gathering supplies and metal and other things in this field before we start our long trek back”

He Spoke out, this was a wide band transmission so even the red talons ship could hear it, the Jupiter was now surrounded by one seemingly friendly ship a derelict, a station and one ship they thought hostile.

Reeves suddenly spoke out loudly her eyes lighting up as she looked to William and Kelly.

“Sir Ma’am, we are detecting the source of the temporal anomalies in this system, it’s the station I crossed temporal sensors with the others and managed to pin point it, its massive, and I think its trouble but I can tell until we get closer.”

Kelly Looked over to William and he looked back nodding they both said at the same time.

“Temporal Integrity Act..”

Reeves said as she heard that raising an eyebrow “what?”

William responded quickly saying.

“You will learn that when you reach command level, it was enacted by fleet command the senate and president, it requires in all events of temporal readings if applicable we are to investigate it, and if it is harmful to the time line eliminate the source of it.”


He sighed a bit this was just not his day, lost in andromeda, surrounded by unknowns, surrounded by enemies, temporal anomalies, a walk in the park he thought right? In a sarcastic tone, right now he could have used the ships counselor right about now. But of course there was no rest for the weary and now he had situations galore to deal with.


Reeves had no idea what was going on or what the relations where to every one and this event. Ronald was clue less as he had just received orders to prepare for beam out if things went down hill he didn’t question the orders but was rather confused, and was still attempting to get access to the TGM main computer.


Kelly was at her station waiting for orders she knew what was going on but did not want to face the reality that they might have to run from this battle if there was one rather than fight it.

"What is it Human?" one of the dragona said gruffly, walking up to Reeves, the front of his helmet turning clear to reveal his vivid green scales "Problems?"

Onboard Loki the crew were rather rather suprised that the Jupiter had fadded off their sensors and so decided that they should cloak to be on the safe side.
"Power the weapons and sheilds, stand by to fire if we need to. Try and find where the humans went." the captain yelled as the ship interier was bathed in a crimson glow.

"The UTF ship is hailing is captain." Called the comms officer, the tactical officer started to pale a bit. "I'm picking up energy spikes from the UTF vessel. Its entering tactical alert."

The captain growled a bit as well. "Put them on screen!" He said, standing up. Glaring at the screen as the man spoke, he responded after a moment. "I lost my mate as well as two siblings in that battle, or do you not remember the dozens of our ships you cut down... " He paused, growling a moment before sighing. "In any case, you were a worthy opponent, and i'm not in a hurry to cross blades again... We wont shoot, but if we are fired upon, we will defend ourselves." He said, sitting back in his chair. "Now, i dont think your people have a holding over here, otherwise there would be more of you by now. We have no charts of the systems here, so we have no idea where we are. SO, we can either try to kill eachother, or we can work together, your choice..."

The captains image would vanish as he finished, he had effectively muted the call. He sat back, looking at the image of the Terran captain with half a smile. "now we get to see if i called his bluff..."

"Seems like an assortment of oddities that have gathered here in our backyard." Von Tony observed as the U.S.S Jupiter seemed to perform a few maneuvers and shimmer like some kind of interstellar christmas tree. A few lights blinked rapidly on the control panel which Von Tony looked at in utter confusion; he didn't so much as get as far as "wha?" when he was shoved out the way by someone who did know what he was doing.

"Aha!" He cried, whipping out a pair of goggles from withen the overcoat which they wore and donning them, "it zeems to me zat zis U.S.S Jupiter has obstructed our more specialised zanning zystems."

Oh please drop the accent already.
"What? I mean, vat?"
Hahaha... you idiosyncratic fool!
Yes most smooth.

The answering machine blinked and whined erratically once more, a few quick prods and whacks and it burbled the Unions response.

“We originally came to explore this galaxy but then we found out the disruptions in space time in the void will prevent us from going at full speed, we wont risk being destroyed by trying that again as it almost did the last time. So as of now we are stuck here gathering supplies and metal and other things in this field before we start our long trek back”

"Evidently their technology is decades behind mine own!"
You can't even hook up a microwave...
Or complain about it...
Beg pardon?
Nothing... paranoid floristic ber-
You can't mutter in here you twit!
Curses.
"Zilence! Let us formulate a reponse."
"You mean me I believe." Von Tony said calmly as he resumed control, "now lets see..."
The green button.
"Thank you."

He hit the reply button and sent them their response.

"Quite a pickle you seem to have gotten yourself into, space time disruptions eh? Quite a conundrum there, zilly fool, you don't know what zat is, it's enough that I recognise it's a problem now be quiet whilst I converse with these people; sorry about that, just one of my companions. Now then, seems as if we have a mutual interest of sorts, these other entities withen the system seem to be causing you a bit of trouble, and we don't want them here... perhap we can be of assistance to be each other?"

System: New. Recording.... Recorded. System marked as L812. Engines disengaging. A crimson warphole appeared in a section of space, a Stormrunner-class (http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z107/Kain1235/Stormrider-classLRRC.png) Long Range Recon Class vessel dropped out of the warp, it's warning sensors blaring.
"Contacts! Raise shields!" The crew onboard scrambled to their stations. The shield's power signiatures flared on any watching scanners, shortly followed by the ship disappearing, it's Shimmer-Shard cloak activating. The ship was not properly invisible, as it's outline was still visible to anyone with a sharp eye, but it eliminated the threat of locked-on fire, at least for the time being. Once the situation had been brought under control by the hands of the crew, Captain Perseus sighed. "50 recon jumps and nothing. We arrive here and we suddenly find a whole bunch of signiatures. Aren't we lucky." He tapped a few buttons on his command chair's armpad, and a breach hail was sent out to the system.

All receiving craft, this is the VTN Gorgon. A voice called to the captain on the hail, and a faint bleeping could be heard as the ship picked up the weapons signiatures from the TFU craft. Uh... Did we interuppt something?

"You have us there Gorgon.. Evidently the humans don't like the ship thier pointing at, but you can guess that no doubt. D.E.S. Loki at your service by the way."

OOC: Mind if I join? I RP in FT as a hyper advanced bug race that uses humans and other forms of life as food. They're imaginatively called Mantis's.

IC: The picket force of four scout corvettes, two scout cruisers and the local Cell home ship were cloaked, watching the foreign forces that had recently jumped into what was thought a conquered system.

Apparently, it wasn't. Those that were feeding on the stock of beings that were recently shipped were ordered to battle stations, and the picket force remained in cloak. A trans-ship, a small, faster-than-light corvette, was dispatched from the Cell home ship and sent towards the nearest Hive planet. Forces would need to be called to deal with this threat.

Once the threat was diminished, however, they could gain valuable intelligence on where these beings came from...and how many of them there are, so as to plan for their harvest and eventual ingestion.

"Engaging Viper FTL drives.....lets hope this works. Engaing FTL in 5....4...3....2....1......Jump!" Cried the Fox who was siting at the FTL control station, as his paws typing in the experimental co-ordinates they had been given by Deep Space Observation. As the bridge crew of the TCAF Dawn unto Heaven, a BC-304 which was one of three ships that had been fitted with the new Viper long distance FTL drive. It was ment to be able to transport them large distances across space, further even then the FTL drives on the new Nova-Class Battlestars. As the fox uttered th last word, the TCAF Dawn unto Heaven engaged its FTL.

Coming out of the FTL jump and the FTL drives spining down, the Fox once again called out, "FTL jump complete, however we seem to have overloaded the drive cores. Almost at the same time, Commander Shaw's personel Radar Screen lit up with contacts and weapon signatures, Klaxons began ringing all along the ship. Commander Shaw as the ships XO began issuing orders even before Captain Jackson got to the bridge. "Shields up! Arm Rail Guns! Start tracking targets and get me the CAP in the air now!" Also get me an open channel to the other ships.
"Channel Open Sir" Cried a human crewman from the coms board.

"This is the TCAF Dawn unto Heaven, to any ships in the vecinty, have we stumbled into the hornets nest here?"

IC: The picket force was indeed surprised at yet another emergence of ships. It increased the threat level of the enemy forces, but the Cell home ship had just gotten word that the closest Hive planet was sending a battle fleet to deal with the situation.

Soon, these food sources would be empty particles of nothing and their home planets turned into collective farms. Before that could happen, the enemy forces had to destroy each other first, and that was not yet completed.

"TCAF ship? Then you are friends. Unfortunatly we couldn't tell you WHAT you've wondred into, we're ont sure our selves..."

William sighed, the other was right, even though the Jupiter was well more advanced than the ship it was facing they wouldn’t get any place with fighting, he motioned the avatar to send another message, he stood up from his chair his brown eyes peering at the screen, he said in a professional and deep tone.

“All right, well stan-.”

He was cut off by the avatar who started to talk to him, the screen was un muted so the other ships could here what was going on.

“Captain we detecting another ship it dose not register as any thing we’ve met before..”

William grumbled this was just not his day, one after another things seemed to get busier, he responded looking towards reeves asking her.

“Scan them, I want to know weapons, hull configuration any thing to know about them”

Reeves nodded and quickly she started to manipulate the holographic console in front of her mean while Kelly had walked over to the other side of the bridge, the klaxons still blaring, she started to tap on a few of the three dimensional tactical maps of the area.

William looked back to the red talons captain and started to speak again, he spoke out in a professional and stiff voice.

“Looks like we have company and I don’t like the looks of those distortions”


William Looked to Kelly and started to talk to her.

“Open a channel to that ship”

A blip was heard and William again started to respond to yet another ship in the area.


“This Is The Terran Federation Ship Jupiter, so we see, who are you and are you from local space?”

He was getting sick of personally communicating with so many people but it had to be done star fleet regulations. He walked over to his chair and sat down folding his hands on his lap, he sighed again thinking of what was going to happen next. Mean while Kelly had sent a response towards the station. It was in her voice.


“It seems your little slice of paradise is getting crowded, is there any thing you can tell us any maps you can give us we are at a loss here.”


The Jupiter just sat in the middle of all the ships, the sun light still hitting its grey hull. Drones continued to go back and forth from fields of debris like trails of ants going to an ant hill.

It was time. The battle fleet was an hour away, and the enemies had sat around, doing nothing. It was very...irritating.

And so, four scout corvettes, two scout cruisers and a Cell home ship dropped out of cloak and accelerated towards the enemy fleets. The scout corvettes and cruisers were armed with nothing but small laser turrets, and the Cell home ship had but a few ports for fighters to launch from, which they did, and missile batteries.

Energy torpedoes were fired, although only two were launched due to the lack of ammunition. Missiles streaked from the Cell home ship as well, bearing on whatever enemy ship was closest.

The attack force wouldn't survive. Not that it mattered, so long as it distracted the forces already in-system.

It didn’t take much for the door to react to what the Terran said… it replied saying “Eoym” pronouncing it somewhat similar to I’m. However that was not the only thing that it did, it started repeating it over and over and over again. Each time a little bit quicker and a little bit higher pitched.

It took just a couple of seconds for the response to reach a very high and very quick response which ended with an electrical spark blowing out a hidden control panel. Things suddenly died down again before a calm and consistent voice responded. “Authorisation Granted… Mechanical Door Failure, Manual Override Procedure #638 required.”

The officers grumbled and where suddenly taken aback as the panel was blown out, one of them looked to the other and chuckled slightly, they attempted to look inside where the panel had blown out to search for any form of wiring circuitry any thing they could by pass. Ronald mean while was still attempting to get access via wrist comp to the main computer, The Sargent major was holding his rifle like a sentry peering out in to the still smoke filled command center.


Ronald commented frustratingly

“This is bloody amazing, of all the times..”

He continued to mumble as he manipulated his wrist computer taping on the semi holographic projection over his wrist. The smoke was still thick he could only see via sensors or light enhancement.

On the Jupiter....


“Their firing?!”

Yelled out Kelly who was at what was the equivalent of a tactical station, her hands all over the consoles and panels on the large holo projection table, a tactical map was displayed and it did display incoming fire torpedoes and other things. Sweat started to bead on her forehead, William stood up from his chair once more and looked to the ai He started to bark out orders one by one in a commanding tone his own mind running with thoughts and tactics.

“Evasive maneuvers, target transphasics on that large ship ready all phaser banks! Point defense get a solution on those fighters and torpedoes.”

Reeves spoke out shifting back in her own chair she peered up to William who already knew this day was going to get worse than better.


“Sir more a coming sensors are detecting multiple same signatures as these ships about an hour away”

William sat back down bracing him self he growled a bit and looked over to the avatar, his eyes filled with thought.


“Set a course for the void and on my mark when we get every one from the away team engage in the mean time Fire !”

The 464 meter Jupiter class ship shifted its form silhouetted against the bright orange light of the star and the thousands of white dots in the distant darkness of space, Yellow torpedoes screeched from the ships tubes, one by one they flew at high speed their massive warheads charged and primed, their yellow warp flares traveling through space, in total fourteen torpedoes had Been launched all from the three forward facing tubes of the ship.

The Jupiter began a series of evasive maneuvers its form changing direction erratically and quickly streams of white blue particles flowing from its engines lighting up the back of its sleek form.

William folded his hands as he stiffened up in his chair his eyes focusing out on the holographic view screen he was peering at the odd ships he had never seen any thing like that, apparently not all races in this galaxy where friendly. In fact he hoped they where not the galactic superpower of andromeda.

Ron received a message in his head set along with the rest of his team, he cursed his luck, he motioned the marines towards him and called out for the rest in a muffled voice, the other team was traveling through charred metal debris and other things trying to get to the beam out point, the drones and other units began returning to the ship.

The Jupiter was now orbiting the enemy group at high speed turning and banking back and forth up and down using its dispersal field and its Sub space shield to prevent lock on via auto sensors and missile homing.

William unfolded is hands and put one hand on his chin his mind was racing with thoughts just as the crews where, the first hostile race in this galaxy unknown what weapons they had or what they had just fired. Mean while the crew was reporting to battle stations once more, marines filled the decks and critical areas in full powered armor with phaser assault rifles.


Engineers wandered on the force catwalks near the massive induction reactor, the engineering section of the ship was massive the reactor hummed angelically with energy, its cylindrical form was covered by chrome like metal with a removable chamber in the front facing main engineering. Holographic consoles lining the walls and the force walks of the engineering section.

Drones began shimmering back in to the cargo bay with a glowing crackling energy aura around them, they solidified with in neatly placed launching tubes that lined the shuttle bay.

William then spoke out with a general message to all ships including the wolf hold ship that had appeared there as well, his voice was corse and sounded dead serious.


“To all ships in the system, we have detected additional hostile forces inbound, we as we are only one vessel will not be foolhardy enough to stand and fight, we have only engaged the enemy as we must get our people back from their away mission. We will be heading for the void to start our long trek home . We wish any one who will stay behind luck in their endeavors."

The comn was cut and William sank down on his chair waiting for the word that Ronald and is team had made it back to the ship he knew the drones where back, he folded one leg over the other and then folded his hands on to his lap sitting back.

The missiles and torpedoes homing in on the picket force were good. They had drawn the fire of the enemy, and now they were able to collect meaningful data on their food source.

The picket corvettes, unable to deal with the damage being sent out, simply were obliterated. The cruisers fared better, but they too were nothing more than molten slag.

The Cell home ship had taken extensive damage, but was still functioning. The information drones were updated, and sent to the battle fleet that would soon arrive. The death of the picket force, and of the Cell home ship, would not be in vain.

The ship accelerated to it's top speed, and fired one last volley of missiles before trying to ram the enemy ship. Kamikaze drop ships, 10 in total and loaded with huge amounts of nuclear missiles, descended from the ship and headed for the food source.

- - -

In transit, Battle Fleet 109

Twelve frigates, nine destroyers, five cruisers, six battleships, two super dreadnoughts and a Cell home ship traveled through space at faster than light speeds, urging their engines on in an attempt to get to their target destination faster.

They would be there soon. Their food sources would be waiting.

Drakes colelctive mind watched in deepeing, shock, horror and amusement as the system gradually became increasingly crowded... it was against all astronomical odds that this would happen... the laws of physics should have laws against this Drake mentally muttered.

Von Tony received the Federal Unions response, once again activating the console to respond.

"Quite so, me and my fellows are most... displeased with the situation, as for any maps, we have a detailed system map which we can send you... sending... now... Anyway, seems as if thes-(pause as the Cell home ships begun firing)- Yes.... anyway, if you could be a good sport and kill them all it wold be very much obliged, if sure we'll be able to aid you in some manne- Move you fool! We're under attack! This is no time for chit chat! We must move immediatly! . Apologies my dear lady, put those maps to good use would you? We'll see what we can do."

"Aha! I will crush these fools beneath my mighty heel!" Cried Kyzburg, their psycotic megalomanic other half.
I picked out those boots i'll have you know, most stylish.
"I know... and they make me look sooo evil! Mwhoahah!"
Please focus dear chap, we're potentially under fire here.
"Ahh yes, of course."

Kyzburg jogged out of the control center onto a balcony which looked out over a cluttered runined warehouse, filled with supplies, components and drones trying to do whatever menial tasks they had been assigned.

"Attention peons! Do my eevvilll bidding! To your battlestations!"

They turned to focus their telescopic eyes at him in utter bewilderment.

Directive four nine two i'll think you'll fine.
"Ahh yes... Directive four nine two you fools!"

The drones kicked into action as they went into preperation for battle, a minute later Kyzburg was striding down a hallway towards their resident professors laboratory.

The Lantern, far below the battle, was powering weapons.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DIDNT PICK THEM UP RIGHT AWAY!" The capotain screamed across the bridge. "I want a repair crew on the sensor systems YESTERDAY." He looked at the screen. "We'll follow you, let us know when your set." He turned, gesturing offscreen. "Helm, bring us up with the Jupiter, Communications, send the new non hostile contacts the standard text greeting, and add that we will be following the Jupiter.

The sleek black form of the carrier rose up, rather swiftly to enter formation with the jupiter, on its way up, it rolled gently, bareing its teeth to the hive ship bearing down on the jupiter. "All guns, supporting fire, FIRE AT WILL!"

The carrier lit up as its weapons slid out and locked into place. four heavy plasma cannons in two turrets, their blue bolts streaking across space, followed by a single cohesive red beam from a keel turret, the beam reaching out across space like a lance, the targeting computer dragging the beam to intersect with the hive ship like a giant blade.

The captain continued to bark commands. "All fighters are to remain on standby..." The captain thought for a moment, looking at the screen and the Federation captain.

"You wouldnt be opposed to leaving some nasty traps for our new friends?" He said with one of those smiles that makes you glad your on the same side.



The message that was sent to the wolf hold ship and to the Gorgon was as follows
--This is an automated message from the Red Talons Mercenary Republic vessel Lantern. We are unable to speak with you in person due to more pressing matters. We would love to meet with you once matters have been dealt with. ADD LINE_ We will be following the TFU Jupiter into the void, if you want to tag along, the more the merrier--

"Contacts!" yelled the tactical officer aboard Loki as the ships decloaked "They're firing, incoming missiles.!"
"Full power to sheilds, arm weapons and point defences, Target the lead ship, full disrupter on an S34 spread. Activate thaleron cloak!" the captain shouted back, the phi-breed carrying out his orders faster than any of the crew could.

Loki twisted in space, her hull shimering slightly as the thaleron radiation spiked for a second before disapating. Now she was claoked Loki shot forward towards the hostile ships, weaving between the missiles as her point defences cleared a path, none the less she was still hit 3 times before she passed the volly and opened fire with her outer disrupters, the average sized rounds speeding to their target as the more powerful bolts impacted seconds later.

Banking around she fired a full spread of torpedoes from the side and rear mounted launchers.
"The Jupiter send words that she plans to move to into the void and invite us to follow. "
"Send word that we'll follow them, but we'd need a way to contact the empire when we reach their galaxy."

“To all ships in the system, we have detected additional hostile forces inbound, we as we are only one vessel will not be foolhardy enough to stand and fight, we have only engaged the enemy as we must get our people back from their away mission. We will be heading for the void to start our long trek home . We wish any one who will stay behind luck in their endeavors."

"No problem, captain." Perseus smiled as he tapped out a message which would be relayed to Command. A new race, and an agressor at that, meant that the Navy could actually put itself to work. "We'll be staying here to fight off whatever else arrives and see if we can get an evac for the life signs on that station. God speed and good luck getting back." The captain nodded to the comm officer, who switched the message from the Jupiter to the Loki. "Loki, could you relay this message for us? We're too far out here you should be able to contact them from TFU space. See attached." A message was sent with the hail to the Dragonans, written in coded Templarian, with the ID code VTNBS0912 included.

Qaakqalt. Efbylfa lyvielyk. Zyy pa-alkefosyz, xyopaf opsejosyk. Hdaqzwoly lyppattyfkyk.

Ron and his team had finally made it through the destroyed remains of the TGM ship back to their beam in point, Ronald tapped is wrist quickly and spoke out, his voice was heard over the comns on the bridge of the Jupiter.

“Beam, us back we’re ready I suggest you tractor the ship as well it could provide us valuable information on these things”

William nodded and quickly their forms shimmered in to nothingness their bodies engulfed with energy as they where beamed back in to the armory, their armor was dirty with soot and dirt, Ronald and the rest of the marines took their masks off .

“Well, that was fun”

Ronald idly mentioned as he looked around the armory that was now lit in red blaring lights, and he also noticed marines at the entrance to the door now. The ship was on full condition red. He nodded to the Sargent major and said as he walked out the two doors.

“I’ll be on the bridge get your men to their security stations”



The Sargent nodded, and he started to bark orders by now Ron had been out of hearing range to actually make out any words he was saying. Mean while on the bridge William stood up he said loudly as he looked to the avatar a sense of urgency in his voice.

The Jupiter had locked on a tractor beam to the TGM hauler a incandescent blue hued beam engulfed a section of the ship pulling it close to the Jupiter as it maneuvered.

“Get us out here!”

With that the engines started to hum and crackle to life, the bridge was filled with an energetic high pitched noise, the holo port in front that was displaying empty space suddenly was filled with color, seemingly trillions of stars started to whizz by as the ship entered inter phase warp drive, the ship crackled and rushed in to a single point of blue and white light disappearing from the system.

William slumped back on to his chair as he sat down sighing, as he watched the masses of colors pass the view screen, the red blaring klaxons had stopped and the ship return back to condition yellow, the white mundane light of the ship returned, William looked to Kelly and then to Reeves he said in a soft commanding voice.

“Let me know if our friends are following us, also reeves give me every thing you have on those.. Odd ships that attack and every thing on our route home I want to be apprised, I will be in my ready room”

Reeves nodded and shifted back to her holo console tapping a few bottons on the three dimensional console. Her smooth hands sliding around them. William stood up from the command chair and walked towards a small door to the left of the bridge, his eyes locked on to Kelly as he wandered towards it, he said softly.

“You have the bridge.”

It was obvious the Captain was stressed out, the crew was no better facing unknowns possibly death at the hands of god knows what is out there in the galaxy wasn’t exactly healthy for morale. Ronald had just gotten back on to the bridge, he materialized back on to the bridge trans pad in his blue uniform, he stepped out from it just as he saw the captain walk in to his ready room. He nodded to Kelly who said to him.

“Good work over there, Reeves said it will take us a day or two to get to the void, we’re all the way on the other side of andromeda.”

Ron nodded and sighed as he took his station behind the captains chair that was now occupied by Kelly her self, he started to resume his normal duties, he was shaken but kept it inside, he wanted to get back home even though he had no one back there it was still better than being stuck and dying in the middle of an unknown galaxy at the hands of some odd race. The ready room echoed soft jazz, as William sat back on to his chair sinking in to it with an auburn colored drink in his hand, it swished around in the crystal clear glass as he shifted to drink from it, placing the cup to his lips and sipping from it, the tangy sour taste hitting im hard, he placed both feet back on his desk as he watched the billions of rainbow colored streams pass by his window.

Mean while the rest of the ship went quiet, so far no sign of any pursuit by enemy forces the crew was starting to wind down and relax slightly but the events of the past day had really taken a toll on them. The mess hall was filled with the dinner crowd already. The Jupiter its crew the captain seemed to be all alone in the night, all alone in a distant galaxy trying to return home.


------ End of Chapter I ------

Loki replyed to the templars, saying simply "We will, Ansetak qe mrith wux" and prepaired to beam the away team away from the derilict ship when the Jupiter dragged it into warp.
Rolling his eyes the captain said "Loki, follow them then, and remind them our men are still over there."
The console infront of him bliped an afirmative and the ship jumped to transwarp and transmited the relvent message as it pulled into position next to the Jupiter and added We may have to charge our cells again before we enter the void, we didn't get a chance to with the location change and combat...

Twelve frigates, nine destroyers, five cruisers, six battleships, two super dreadnoughts and a Cell home ship burst out of nothingness as shields were powered up and weapons charged.

Two of the cruisers sported large hangar bays, as well as one battleship and the Cell home ship. Large scores of missiles and energy torpedoes were fired at all of the remaining enemies in the system, and two hundred fighters launched from their bays.

A message, using the language of the food sources, was broadcast in broken English:

"SurReNder y.ur popu*lat1ons an^d yo're de3th sha11 b3 qu,ck a>d pa)nless."

A surrender would never be accepted, but it would hopefully stop the enemies from retreating from the system in hopes of establishing peace.

At the end of the day, the farmer left his plow and field and returned to his family and the warmth of the hearth. The fisherman eventually returned from sea with a full net and rushed off to see loved ones that had to wait for their return. Merchants and peddlers would take their day’s earnings and head to the tavern for an ale and warm food. Such was the life for most of the hard working people of Mythrandir as they went about their lives and lived in peace.

For the Warriors that kept a constant a vigilance over the Kingdom and were called upon to defend its realms, there was only the constant training for battle and the brother and sisterhood that composed the Warriors of Mythrandir. Their profession was war and nothing was more valuable to them than the freedom that they shared with everyone else. Nothing would burn a fire hotter in the heart of a Warrior than when their freedoms were threatened by others.

Amidst the countless days spent at each other’s side, the Warriors looked upon one another as family and every loss to their ranks was heart wrenching. Despite the bond shared by them all, there was danger abound simply through their constant practices to hone their edge like a razor.

The Wall of Jericho was a massive asteroid belt that encircled the Aero System and had been molded into a solid first line of defense against any attack. Goblin fighters were stationed in some of the larger chunks of rock as hidden bases along with several command bases to keep the Wall and the rest of Mythrandir abreast of what was transpiring around their borders. Along with the tumbling boulders, laid mines, intricate defense network, and the patrolling warships of the Forge; Warriors trained in combat with their Golems as they raced through the floating sea of asteroids.

Flashes of light could be seen from afar as their mock engagement took on a dance with death. There was no margin for error as one false step would mean speeding into a solid mineral rich piece of rock that was unforgiving. The speed at which the Golems maneuvered through the rocks was staggering.

Muzzle fire flashed in the dead of space as three of the armored beats shot at a fleeing lone Golem. The Golems appeared to be giants fully encased in armor with the head unit adorned with a helm to protect the pilot. The fleeing Golem sported an energy blade in one gauntlet with a rifle in the other. Deftly missing a volley of incoming shots, the single Golem banked on its back and fired a series of quick shots at its pursuers. The rounds bounced off the armored giant’s shields on the left.

Jeishka’s Golem was in synch with her as the Golem’s eyes were her eyes. Every movement that she thought, the Golem obeyed and performed as if it were her own body. The elf was one of the Wyvern riders and hade made a smooth transition to the Golem under Captain Lukien’s direction for some of the Warriors to become diversified in their combat abilities. With the shape of the battlefield constantly changing, it was Lukien’s job to make sure that the War Mistress’s Warriors were prepared for all eventualities. Jeishka had shown great skill with a Wyvern and great courage against the Tannelornian Knights so she had been among the first of the elven Captain’s choices.

She grunted slightly as she watched her shots glance off the shields of one of her pursuers. The elf was the last of her unit, the rest having fallen to Captain Lukien and his unit of Golems. She couldn’t help but feel a bit of agitation at the fact that the Captain had replaced the opposing unit with his own. Now Jeishka and her squadron had gone toe to toe with Captain Lukien and his men. They had fought valiantly but Jeishka’s comrades were quickly taken out of the engagement. She had seen the elven Captain do things with a Golem that she thought impossible.

Now she was on the run, leading them deeper into the asteroid field to use the floating rocks as cover against her relentless attackers. Lukien was down to three Golems including himself as Jeishka banked hard behind a large rock. The Captain pulled up short then signaled for the others to circle around the asteroid. He was ahead of her strategy and would not fall for something so simple as that.

“Captain, she’s gone.”

Lukien frowned. “Gone? What do you mean gone?”

The elf pushed his Golem around the asteroid to inspect for himself what his men had found. Coming about to face the monstrous rock where his men were scanning for Jeishka’s Golem, Lukien saw nothing but the pocket marked face of the floating asteroid. Nothing appeared on scanners and it was as if she had simply disappeared. The elven Captain was stroking his chin inside the head unit of the armored monster.

He reached over to one of the holographic control panels and contacted his two other squad mates. “Fire into every crater you see.”

The two Golems did as ordered while Lukien brought his own rifle to bear. All three of the Golems emptied a clip into finding the location of Jeishka and her missing Golem. They floated there in silence for a moment waiting for some sort of response.

A response came in two well placed shots that scored a direct hit on one Golem’s helm and breast plate. The call of “fatal hit” sounded over the communication links as the downed Golem took itself out of the fight. Jeishka wasted no time in keeping with her momentum. She screamed out of the crater with energy blade drawn.

The other two Golems shouldered their rifles as well and drew swords to meet the wild charge head on. Jeishka’s energy blade crackled dangerously close to Lukien’s helm but he threw it off with a great heave. The elf moved the Golem as if it were an extension of his body and performed fluidly with the beast.

In order to survive, Jeishka knew she needed to eliminate the Captain’s other squad mate if she were to even remotely stand a chance against Lukien. Their blades were a whirl of blinding light and clashes of energy. She moved back and forth fending of Lukien’s blade and pressing the attack on the other Warrior. In one swift stroke, she had the other Warrior’s blade up and she moved in underneath the strike. Her blade was quick to make contact with his breast plate and drain the shield.

“You’re finished.”

The defeated Golem left the fight leaving Lukien and Jeishka to fight to the last. The Captain was not deterred by her efforts though. His blade rain down heavy and swift as Jeishka was pushed back into a defensive stance. Around and around they danced as the onlookers lost sight of the sword arms of the Golems so quick were the strikes. A torrent of white energy encircled them and continued to build until it appeared as if a new star had been born.

The brilliant light faded though and the fighters parted. The shields on Jeishka’s Golem flickered then faded. Lukien had scored a number of unseen hits that had fastly drained her shielding system. The elf knew she couldn’t beat the Captain in a stand up fight like this so she did the only thing open to her.

She ran.

Lukien sheathed his energy blade then picked up his rifle. Tracing the path of Jeishka’s Golem, the elf fired of a few quick shots. A round caught Jeishka in the back and sent the Golem spiraling. It seemed that Lukien’s shot blasted through the remnants of her shields and hit the armor square.

On board the Golem, Jeishka fought to maintain control of the monster as it quickly spiraled out of her control. Warning sirens sounded along with flashing runes alerting her that there were system failures in the armor. Thrusters to keep the Golem moving straight had been damaged so she was now flying through an asteroid field.

Jeishka kept calm as best she could while she worked with the on board systems as she tried to bring some control back to the hulking beast. A new warning appeared before her eyes. A lumbering asteroid was headed her way.

“By the spirits...”

Her mind race at what she could possibly do. There were no controls and her weapon wouldn’t destroyed the floating rock. She was left with only one option. She punched in Warp coordinates for outside of the asteroid belt. It would mean that she was admitting defeat but it was better than losing her life.

A Warp point began forming before the Golem as she was pulled inside. Something solid hit her in the back as she was thrown into the Warp causing her to stumble in the head unit and hit the floor hard. The last that she remembered was the light of the Warp pulling her in.

Lukien’s Golem made it to where Jeishka was just as she disappeared. The elf scanned the area for her whereabouts. He flipped on the communication link.

“The exercise is over. All ships form up and begin searching for Jeishka. See if she Warps back in somewhere in the system and be ready for retrieval. Her Golem was damaged in the attack so it’s doubtful she can go far. Contact Jericho command and have ships standing by incase we need to widen our search. I want the officers in SIREN monitoring all frequencies for any sign of our sister.”

“Yes Captain.”


When Jeishka awoke next, her Golem was floating through open space. The elf rubbed her head and shook her sight back to normal. She had the Golem’s scanners search for her whereabouts.

She was unpleasantly greeted with no familiar star formations. Looking over a status report of the Golem, she discovered that her Warp drive must have been hit by an asteroid when she was jumping. Her coordinates had been thrown off so there was no telling where she was in the universe.

“Great.”

Jeishka sunk to the floor and pulled her knees up to her breasts. She was stuck on a Golem that didn’t have enough power to make it back home nor she did she know how to get there from here. She was drifting aimlessly through space and far out of contact with SIREN.

With a wave of her hand, she brought a holographic screen and control panel in front of her. She had to buy time so a number of systems were shut down to make sure there was enough oxygen for her to breathe. In a last ditch effort of hope, she launched a beacon in case anyone was looking for her. It might be strong enough to reach nearby ships if they were listening in. Then again, she didn’t even know where she was and if her Warrior brethren were searching for her.

Jeishka leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She was in for a long wait.

The control panel didn't seem to have any thing in it apart from it's wiring. Some of it was in bad but usable condition everything else was just shot to pieces, but there wasn't time to properly investigate as the explorers had to return to their ships quickly.

As the Tractor Beam pulled the derelict it bumped through some of the debris which resulted in nothing of any consequence and with the shields of the Jupiter extending round it the ship maintained what integrity it had.

Exploration for now was postponed but whatever was there to be found would still be there do be found.

The battle fleet paused, confused. Yet another sign of ANOTHER enemy? This was too much to bear, and the Fleet had not the resources to take on a multitude of enemies.

Firing off the last of their missiles and torpedoes, the battle fleet send their remaining fighters on a kamikaze run against the enemy ships. The battle fleet would warp back to whence they came, and wait until the number of enemies had significantly decreased.

Then, they would come back, and feed. Until then, the various other civilizations they had conquered would have to suffice.

William and the rest of the senior staff had fallen asleep. Each of them shifted in their beds, dreaming about home William, dreamt about a warm summer day on new earth, his skin absorbing the soft yellow sun light that filtered through the blue crisp sky, he watched a shore line as it was blasted by waves of water crashing upon it the spray of salty Luke warm water spraying over his form.

William was jolted awake suddenly, his brown eyes opened as he heard a loud burst of three blips a second, he shifted in his bed feeling the silky smooth covers over his skin. He slammed is hand down on a panel and the blips stopped he spoke out in a corse tired voice.

“What is it?”

A soft female voice came through it was reeves she was left in charge of the bridge while the senior staff got some shut eye.

“Sir, we’re detecting an object ahead faint life signs, Im setting a course to intercept, as it could be a ship in distress”

William nodded and responded as he got up from his bed his eyes peering out to the window watching as the stars came to a stop, noticing the loud rumbling and humming of the engines coming to a low angelic echo. The ship came to a stop and started to bank towards the unknown object long range sensors had detected. Its form silhouetted against the stars with the blue hued tractor beam dragging the damaged hauler behind it like some sort of prize. William splashed water on to his face and looked in to the mirror .

His smooth face started to look older and less like a boys. His eyes had bags under them, he examined his face and sighed a bit before standing up right. William had started feeling depressed ever since this ship was thrown out in to this situation he knew that he would have to stay strong for his crew, but being a new captain he didn’t know where to start, sure he had been in command before but never in a situation like this..

He walked through the doors of the bridge, his uniform well pressed and well ironed, his form slender and his hair well kept. He had to keep the professional look at all times so taking time to do his hair and his uniform even at 4 am was paramount. Ronald and Kelly where both awakened as well, and where on their way to the bridge, they walked through the doors seeing Reeves stand up and give a salute to the captain, Reeves was just about to take her station when William spoke out.


“You are relived lieutenant, its time you got some rest.”


Reeves nodded and stood up from her station, William Motioned Ronald to take , Reeves and him traded glances as they walked past each other nodding. Each of them knew things where going to get more interesting and they both hoped it wasn’t in a bad way. William spoke out to Ronald and the avatar.


“All right Put that object on screen and Hail it on general frequencies”

“Aye sir” the Lieutenant Commander said Tapping a few holographic bottons, he sighed as the avatar started to display the fruits of his console manipulation, a scan was displayed of the object it was projected by the avatar on to the tactical table. A slight blip echoed through the well lit bridge William sat on his chair as the channel was open, he sank down on it looking out in to the darkness of space and to the ship that the Jupiter had intercepted, if it wasn’t a trap or hadn’t open fire by now then it was probably a ship in distress he thought for a split second before giving the standard message.


“This Is The Terran Federation ship Jupiter, I am Captain William Xavier we mean no harm and have detected your ship floating out in well we can only assume is dead space, if theirs any one still on there please respond”


He added the last few bits on, this was an interesting situation, one he hoped he made the right decision by sending out a general signal like that, the Junipers shielding was still up as it was on condition yellow. William and the crew where waiting for either those ships to pop up or some one random with a fleet to show up and attack them. Ronald folded is hands over his lap as he leaned back upon his hovering chair taking a look at the scans.


Meanwhile Reeves had made it to her quarters, she was exhausted her quarters twin doors opened up as she entered and closed behind her, she slid her uniform off piece by piece, he slender form accented by her under cloths, she slid in to her bed not even bothering to hang her clothing up her long hair smoothly shoulder length. She sighed with contentedness, the first rest she had gotten since leaving the milky way. She was still shocked they where lost out in the unknown and it would take them years to get back home she didn’t know what to expect she was afraid and worried about her family back home.

Ronald looked over to the captain and spoke out as he stood up slightly, William looked up and him as he did so.

“Sir I’d like permission to go back to that hauler with a small engineering team, I think there is information in there we need and plus the sooner we get it the sooner we can let it go..”

William nodded and waved is hand he sat back on his command chair as he responded is eyes still locked on to the distance of space.
“Fine, but be careful”

Ronald nodded he had already gathered his team and they where waiting for him back in the armory, as soon as he suited up he went there and put his mask back over his head, he nodded to the three other men and one woman. Their bodies started to shimmer with crackling energy around their forms, as.


They appeared back at their old beam in spot, he quickly motioned another team to go back through to the door that was jammed this time they had phaser pistols, Ronald and his team went back to the main computer using their arm mounted tri-corders to try to interface with the system.

The away tea would find several dragona swirling their spears to fire on the new arivals, realising a second later that the new arivals were the terans again, and lowering them again.
"Nice of you to join us again, pinky." the leader spat, obviously a bit shaken by the sudden jump to transwarp in a disabled crat, he had gone noticably paler from inside his helmet.

As the Jupiter jumped back into reality so to did loki. She, however, remained claoked and sidled up to the ship, activating a scanner beam* to analyse the ship and make sure the area WAS completly safe while the Jupiter did whatever it was she was doing.

OOC: * (see the part at 8:36) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGLAweqzEJI&feature=PlayList&p=3248C87E3630FA4B&index=5)

On the bridge, the navigations officer calle dover. "Sir, the Jupiter's gone into transwarp, extrapolating their vectors, approximately Five minutes before the computer has a jump solution."

The sensors officer stood up, hands flying across his station. "New contacts, same signatures as the last hostiles. 35 contacts, looks like its a full fleet." The com officer called over. "Incoming message from the hostile fleet!" The message played, the captain scoffed. "Open fire! Target the largest vessel. Deploy minovsky particles"

A white mist spread out from the carrier, spreading out, any ships observing the carrier would note that its signature became hazy, along with an increasing area of the space around it as the particles spread.

"engage stealth systems, deploy bit drones and shield drones." The captain said. The tactical officers hands running across his console. "Contacts have opened fire, they appear to be deploying fighters."

The captain nodded. Send a hail to the ship that stayed behind with us." The captain was standing, holding his katana in hand, its black blade oddly colored in the red light of the bridge. "Attention unknown vessel, we will be jump capable in a few minutes. we're going to provide fire support untill then." The message was directed to the Void Templar ship.

As he spoke the ship hummed as the Mega-particle cannon discharged again. The ship deployed about 40 small drones, each shaped like a garbage can with fins, in the nose was a barrel. Other drones crawled out across the ships hull like spiders, their body's were flat and round.

"The captain nodded to the helm officer. "Take us up, full speed, maintain our distance from the largest vessel," The ship began to rise, in an orbit around the fleet, increasing speed as the static field spread like a smoke cloud from the carries hull. "have all heavy guns target that vessel, all other weapons systems target incoming missiles and fighters. Launch multikill torpedoes." Two long missiles shot forward from the carrier, arking back and accelerating before bursting, 400 micro missiles spreading out and picking their targets from the fighters and larger missiles. The captain continued. "Load thanatos class torpedoes." The tactical officer called out. "Enemy contacts are falling back!"

The captain growled a bit, turning and swiping his command chair with his blade. "BLOODY COWARDS!" he screamed, half of the chair falling over and sparking.

He turned back. "mop up what they left, see if we cant contact the Jupiter..."

The comms officer nodded and set to work on the Ansible, trying to contact the Jupiter.

OOC: So, apparently, none of my kamikazes got through? :S

In space, a small box floated by. It possessed no known markings and was about the size of a large tractor-trailer. It was very strange to have a box with no markings floating in space. After all, what's a box doing floating in space with no engines or reactor system?

Curious. Curious indeed.

What's in the box? Well, there's only one way to find out...

OOC: some will, give me a moment.i was being rushed by my mate last post so i couldnt make it as long as i wanted, i'm gonna make a second post, yes, it would be bad form to not take any hits, but also keep in mind your kamikazi's are funneling from one direction, along with the missiles. realisticly all it would take is concentrated fire from experienced crews, i'm not gonna be an asshat like that though n.n;;;


IC:
The lanters turrets continued to buzz as they struggled to keep up with the incoming swarm of fighters and missiles. The micro-missiles zipping around, some getting hit by stray crossfire, others finding their mark, some colliding in flight. The trail of fire as the recon carrier continued on its climbing arc. A few of the fighters making it through the flack fire and impacting the hull. The bridge shook, the captain holding his stance. "Damage report!" The engineering officer called forward, "Decks six and seven have been breached along compartment twelve," There was a pause as the bridge shook again. "impact on aft starbord side, looks like another fighter, hull breach on deck four" The captain nodded. "Continue fire orders, increase power to aft shields,"

The bridge rocked as a third fighter slammed through the shields, the fire thinning out as the last few fighters were shot down, two more missiles finding their mark on the Lantern's miships on the port side. The ship floated, no longer following its climbing arc. "Report!" The captain yelled back across the bridge, which was now dark. "Main power offline, emergency power coming in." The lights flickered on, a crimson red, the controls lighting up. "Re-routing main power, Impulse drive at 40%, tactical drives functioning normally. Main power restored." The lights brightened and turned to normal lighting, the alert canceled.

"Damage to port midships, two medium missiles cought us on the inside, theres a big hole in the port hangar, bay 3. that last fighter damaged our main power relay, half the ship lost power for a minute there."

The captain nodded. The nav officer saying slowly. "Sir, i've lost the jump calculations, we'll be starting over." The comms officer spoke up, "I'm continuing to try to contact the Jupiter, no response yet."

The captain nodded waving his hand and sheathing his blade. "Are we still jump capable?" He asked. The engineering officer replied "Yes sir." The captain nodded. "Very well. yellow alert, we dont know if they'll be coming back."

The ship aligned itself, twisting around gracefully, the drones returning to launcher bays along the ship as the carrier moved back down to its position near the station.

OOC: Ah, alrighty then.

IC: The cloaked picket corvette that had been left behind watched the remnants of the fighter strike impact against the enemy. While not dealing a lot of damage, it did allow the battle fleet to jump out of the system without being attacked.

A drone was sent, and the picket went back to watching the enemies.

The box was patient. Of course, it's a box, so boredom doesn't affect it the same way a person would, but it still had an aura of patience around it. If someone were to get a closer look with the box, one could see that it had a lid with red lettering on it. So it wasn't totally markless. Just hard to spot at first.

The box would wander the stars until it hit something, like a planet or a ship. But space is big. Bigger than big. Bigger than anything that could ever be big. So one wonders how it would actually hit something. There was certainly an infinitesimal chance that someone would wander by and get hit by the box, but of course, that was a chance that was closer to zero than one...

*CLANK*

...or perhaps the vagaries of probability mechanics means that it might actually happen.

OOC: Ok, guys. one of you pick up the box, please. It just hit a ship, but who's ship, I obviously don't know.

the hull resounded with a clank, causing most to look around in confusion, a few more scrambled to their stations expecting another alert. The captain simply looked over from his now half of a chair. "The hell was that?"

The sensors officer responded slowly. "It... looks like a box sir, about the size of a freight container.... i'm having trouble getting a visual on it." The captain nodded, "Have a retrieval ECA bring it into the starbord hangar. Have security waiting in the hangar with a sience officer, proceed at the science officers discression."

A team of EVA suited marines tethered the box and moved it into the hangar, a full detail of suited marines were waiting. The science officer, a rather scruffy haired mouse anthro, was holding a metal detector looking object, a wrist-comp on his other arm, which he was staring at intently. "I'm picking up a single life sign... thats strange..." The mouse paused a moment, looking at the marine commander. "Its about as big as the container..." The marines commander nodded, "All units, form up on the door, i want a man ready to disengage the artificial gravity in this room, and four men ready to shove this thing out the door if it gets too ugly." He gestured to another two marines, as another five moved to follow the commanders orders. Another 10 marines were standing, rifles at the ready infront of the door at about thirty feet away. "Open it up." Two marines moved to the door and hit the release latch to open the container.

*hiss*

Foggy air immediately wafted up as the box opened. The two marines then saw two yellow glowing orbs...and a mouth full of grinning teeth. As the foggy air dissipated, more of the monster was revealed. It looked to be a giant mouth on legs with a devil tail and short wings. A bird sat on its neck, doing the avian equivalent of grinning in an evil way. The teeth were as long as a man's arm and the tail looked like it could spear through power armor with ease. Oh no!

"GROWL!" The monster suddenly launched itself at the marines, it's mouth hyperextending to eat them whole...

The marines stepped slowly back as the creature appeared. They screamed when it lunged, the sound of gunfire fulled the hangar bar as the marines opened fire. The ten infront of the door diving every which way, away from the creature. two marines were unlucky enough to not jump fast enough.

The mouse turned and ran, disregarding his quipment as he tapped his com "unknown xeno has escaped the container, security report to hangar bay one NOW!" The last bit was a scream as he continued running, diving into a corridor.

Meanwhile, the marines had spread out, firing bursts of tungsten flachette into the creature.

The lettering on the box's lid revealed the monster's name: Beware the Ultimate Chimera!

The Chimera did not appear to be affected much by the attacks. It was as if the soldiers were trying to poke steel with straws. Instead of dying or even getting weakened, it ROARED, sending a shockwave outwards that could knock men down.

Then it pounced on the nearest soldiers to tear them apart...

The incessant droning of a beeping signal disturbed the elf from her little nap. Her eyes opened slowly and she rose to her full stature to ascertain what all the commotion was about. From what was left of the Golem's power supply, Jeishka was able to gaze into the darkness and spy a ship coming into view. It was unlike any other ship she had seen before so it was safe to assume that it was not a rescue party from the Kingdom.

Jeishka shook the drowsiness away and went to work on a nearby holographic keypad. She punched in a few runes to access saved information on ship designs and foreign markings. The language itself granted a large collection of matches but they were quickly peeled away with the outline of the ship and its origins. Finally, the runic name flashed in front of her widen green eyes.

The Fedral Union had been at the battle with the Tannelorn knights and had aided the tyrants in their attack on Mythrandir. For whatever reason, the Union had quickly retreated after the onset of the battle. Such a loss proved fortunate for the Warriors over Mythrandir and ultimately aided in forcing the Tannelorns off Mythrandir. Now here one of their ships loomed down on Jeishka's crippled Golem.

The armored giant could not move and the elf did not have enough power to command one of the monstrous arms to draw an energy blade or reach for its rifle. While powerless, the elf was not willing to surrender so easily. There had to be a way to fight and escape so that her people could find her.

A slight lurch of the Golem shook Jeishka from her thoughts as the tractor beam closed around her Golem and dragged it towards the Fedral Union ship. She couldn't fight aboard her Golem but perhaps there was a means aboard their own ship. Jeishka hurried to a sealed compartment in the back of the head unit and opened it. Inside rested her armor and a few of her personal weapons.

The elf quickly donned her armor along with the phoenix winged helm typically worn by officers among the Warriors. She reached out with her gauntlets and grabbed her energy pike and a long curved elvish blade. Laying strapped to a leather belt were a series of black orbs. Jeishka picked the belt up and fastened it across her body from atop her right shoulder down to the left side of her hip.

She did not have the luxury of a full arsenal that would normally accompany a Warrior into battle since she was a training exercise but Jeishka was confident in her abilities. The elf shrugged at her fortune. There was simply no reason to complain. She was in the here and the now with the resources that were availible to her. Lieutenant Jeishka would simply have to improvise which the elf was confident she could do as she waited for the Golem to dock with the Union vessel.

The marines spread out further, moving with a swift grace as if they were in zero gravity. Unloading 25mm plasma accelerated slugs. A few marines firing underslung micro-anti armor missiles at the creature.

On the bridge the captain ordered a boarding alert. "Have all marines report to the hangar bay, heavy gear. whats the status of the crew active in that section?" There was a pause. "All non-essential personelle have exited the bay, venting atmosphere." The captain nodded. Venting the atmosphere was standard procedure against threats onboard a ship.

The marines spread out further, moving with a swift grace as if they were in zero gravity. Unloading 25mm plasma accelerated slugs. A few marines firing underslung micro-anti armor missiles at the creature.

On the bridge the captain ordered a boarding alert. "Have all marines report to the hangar bay, heavy gear. whats the status of the crew active in that section?" There was a pause. "All non-essential personelle have exited the bay, venting atmosphere." The captain nodded. Venting the atmosphere was standard procedure against threats onboard a ship.
The air was sucked out of the hangar bay, eliminating any chance of breathing.

60...59...58...57...

But the Ultimate Chimera was ultimate for a reason. It continued to pounce on the Marines, the missiles exploding on its body, but doing little more than singeing the fur. Still, it instinctively knew that it only had sixty seconds with which to attack folks before the vacuum forced it into hibernation. It needed to get inside the ship itself. To that end, the attacks increased in ferocity and he attempted to reach the hangar bay doors...

56...55...54...53...52...

"Sir, creature is moving towords the bay doors, its trying to get deeper into the ship." The captain nodded. "Means it likes to breate. have all crew on the starbord side prep for zero atmosphere."

At about this time, the blast doors a little ways up the hangar opened up, marines charging out, along with a large tank. The heavy battle tank had two large barrels, which leveled down the deck at the creature as the few lucky marines left alive shot through the air away from the creature. Two deep purple-blue muzzle flares lit up the hangar as both guns fired, the tank listing back a bit, two shells screaming through space towords the creature along lengths of particle beams.

"Sir, creature is moving towords the bay doors, its trying to get deeper into the ship." The captain nodded. "Means it likes to breate. have all crew on the starbord side prep for zero atmosphere."

At about this time, the blast doors a little ways up the hangar opened up, marines charging out, along with a large tank. The heavy battle tank had two large barrels, which leveled down the deck at the creature as the few lucky marines left alive shot through the air away from the creature. Two deep purple-blue muzzle flares lit up the hangar as both guns fired, the tank listing back a bit, two shells screaming through space towords the creature along lengths of particle beams.
45...44...43...42...

The Ultimate Chimera sized up its opponent...and caught the shells like it was a dog. Both were swallowed...but one was spat back at the tank with devastating force...

38...37...36...35...

The tank shuddered from the impact, a good sized dent it its skirt armor. It fired again, this time using HEAT(High Explosive Anti Tank) rounds. The tanks crew wondering how the creature liked the taste of explosive rounds.

Meanwhile the atmosphere was evacuated from most of that side of the ship in case the creature attempted to tear its way deeper in. The marines opened fire with anti-armor weapons, mainly comprised of micro-missiles and a few using heavy mining lasers.

The Jupiter did not travel unnoticed as it made its way through Andromeda's unknown systems. One piece of arcane machinery flared to life as it detected a foreign method of travel. Functions set in to place thousands of years earlier flared to life, slow meticulous analysis of the available data, then a decision. Two pulses were sent out, then the arcane machine, no more then a meter across, alone in the blackness of interstellar space went silent once more.

***A planet not far from the Jupiter's course***

"Speaker of the Gods, is it really time once again, do the gods call us to the great hunt once more?" Hunts at Dawn, a typical male of the Varendi race, five foot two inches in height, with a broad stocky build stated. Speaker of the gods looked down on the young warrior from his plinth, Arms raised, sun spear to the sky he spoke loudly in response to the young brave. "The goddess Vendia has spoken, through her servant Alephia. The light's at the temple grow bright, all the ancient rituals and supplication's have been reverently practiced. Now the gods grant us the use of the sacred chariots that will be used to bring the sacrifice to temple." The elder Male Varendi roared, his face tendreils and back-gill's flaring in the morning light.

The Varendi had many legends, of the times of hubris, when they reached to the stars without the aid of their Goddess, and of the times when the gods would call them upon the great hunt. The Servant Alephia had personally come to gather the tribes for war the last time, six lifetimes of the Varendi ago, this time only her voice summoned them. That and the activation of the sacred chariots.

The warrior-brave's shambled to the twelve barrow's that surrounded the sacred temple on the plain's of truth, and entered the portal's that now opened for them. All the brave's knew they were honoured in this task. Any that died pursuing this goal would ascend to the side of Vendia herself, as one of her servants like the beautiful Alephia.

Within moments of the tribals entry to the mounds, the ground started to rumble as the twelve silver vessels's broke free from their long confinement. As one the vessels soared in to the sky, breaking orbit to the wonderous shouts of the crowd of Varendi women and children below.

++++


The vessels started to trail the Jupiters course, jumping behind them, but never getting close enough for the Jupiter to detect them, they would wait, as the patient Garshlak'ul waits in its burrow for passing prey. Then they would strike, and bring the interloper's to the Temple, where the Servant Alephia..or if they were truly blessed, the Goddess Vendia herself would take them, as well as the honoured braves away to serve her.

The tank shuddered from the impact, a good sized dent it its skirt armor. It fired again, this time using HEAT(High Explosive Anti Tank) rounds. The tanks crew wondering how the creature liked the taste of explosive rounds.

Meanwhile the atmosphere was evacuated from most of that side of the ship in case the creature attempted to tear its way deeper in. The marines opened fire with anti-armor weapons, mainly comprised of micro-missiles and a few using heavy mining lasers.
25...24...23...22...

The Ultimate Chimera dodged the HEAT round nimbly and stuck out its tail, grasped the HEAT round, grunted and dug its claws into the metal floor as the round's momentum was forcibly depleted, and then shot the round at the marines attacking it with micro-missiles and lasers.

Then it hyperextended its jaws and attacked the tank, intending to eat it. Whole or in pieces, it didn't matter to it.

18...17...16...15...

The maines spun the turret sideways and rammed the chimera, bailing out the aft hatch in an effort to push the creature out of the hangar bay with the tanks thrusters, which were set to full.

The maines scattered, managing to avoid the shell, the explosion not doing much due to no concussive force in space.

The maines spun the turret sideways and rammed the chimera, bailing out the aft hatch in an effort to push the creature out of the hangar bay with the tanks thrusters, which were set to full.

The maines scattered, managing to avoid the shell, the explosion not doing much due to no concussive force in space.
10...9...8...7...

The Chimera chewed on the turret, but alas, being consumed with consuming the tank meant that it was heading back out from whence it came as the tank headed out of the hangar bay.

5...4...3...2...1...hibernation!

As it sped out into space, it fell asleep, its jaws loosening from the tank, and began to float away. The rampage of the Ultimate Chimera was over...for now!