NationStates Jolt Archive

As if decelerating the ship appeared, in fact that was only after images of its form of FTL travel. To the casual observer the ship looked like a complete and utter wreck, whilst to a trained engineer it was a ship that should not even be functional let alone be performing FTL manoeuvres.

It was more like a zombie with bits of flesh still attached so tattered was the armour. In fact the forward gun batteries or where they were supposed to be didn’t exist anymore, and that was only the start of its problems. Only two of its primary thrusters were still functional, and both were incredibly temperamental. Where her bridge once was there was nothing, its position being moved to an available corridor somewhere further towards the core of the ship. Then there were the now nonexistent hangers, now just dead weight on the already dying ship.

Onboard what little remained of the crew went through the motions of being alive. One mechanically shovelled food into his mouth, whilst another slept fitfully in a hammock. Another person, an engineer, tore out what little useful wiring was left in a burnt out console. Nobody talked, nobody tried, they had all lost so much, they had all given so much already, only one thing kept them going, a determination to see the enemy pay, they had to pay, they had to pay!

Sitting in his chair, well, a chair, the captain looked at the ships sensor data on the area, which was gather by the sole remaining sensor unit, which was also temperamental as all hell , in fact it was just as useful to use the remaining visual systems to judge the enemy’s attacks. He was an old man, far too old to be leading the ship, but alas, no one else could do the job, not with the amount of pressures that were placed upon him. “’Were they going to attack from next?’ That’s what your thinking isn’t it, well it’s obvious, they’ll come straight in at us, then hit us from the flanks, then our engines, then above and below then...” The captain roared. “SHUT UP!” His concentration broken, his patience totally exhausted. “Well fine sir, if you say so, but it’s only logical that the enemy will throw away all strategy now that we’re this crippled...” Again the captain lost it. “Shut up, damn it! Let. Me. THINK!” he shouted. The source of the voice shrugged his shoulders; after all, the old man had lost it a year back, thinking he could still win this war. He was a young man, really young, far younger than anyone else onboard. Then again he was a survivor of the day their homeworld had burnt; in fact he was the ONLY survivor from any of those damned worlds.

His name was Srayth, the one who had taken effective command of the ship, it was him and him alone that had any vision left, but then again, he was crazy, they all were by now, but he was by far the worst. When they had pried the hatch open on the small shuttle that had just been left in orbit they found only one survivor, him, curled up in the middle of the floor, trying to stay warm with the dying life support system. The crew had taken him, gotten a few meals into him, and it was then, a week after the incident they had asked what happened. He had responded with laughter, he told them with glee how the planet’s atmosphere had burnt, how the enemy had picked off the few civilian craft one by one, how he had detonated one of the solid core boosters to ensure that they would not target his ship, how one by one the other passengers had all committed suicide. All the while he told it he was humorous, cheerful, he never frowned once during his explanation of the events of that fateful day. It was only after one of the soldiers called him a monster that he finally revealed his mental reasoning behind the entire incident, the reason he was still alive. It was a loan from the god of death, an extension, nothing more, and well, why be sad when you’ve already survived an event such as that?

He turned from the captain, who was still intently watching his screen, and walked out of the room. As the door closed behind him he locked it, making sure that the captain would not escape and go wondering the ship, his mental state was already contributing to the crew’s low morale, and things would only get worse if more started acting like him. Turning, Srayth started to make his way towards the bridge, or was it tactical operations, maybe it was central control, nope not that either. Srayth finally decided to call it ‘The place where the ships functions are managed somehow.’ ‘Yeah, that sounds about right.” He said out loud.

‘The place where the ships functions are managed somehow’ was in actual fact a junction of corridors, with some dubiously rigged consoles and power conduits, a couple of people that hadn’t slept for days, and about the only other seemingly sane member of the crew, an A.I. unit that was about the size of a small briefcase, in fact that was what his core had been designed to be, an A.I. that could be carried around like a briefcase. In effect that A.I. was the ships central computer, and probably the only thing that allowed it to continue on its haphazard journey.

“Ah, Srayth, how nice to see you, I just wanted to say that it’s a lovely day and that as always this ship is far worse off this very second than it was the previous second.” It said. “So then, in the time it took for you to greet me, and the time it took for me to greet you back this ship’s capabilities have deteriorated significantly.” Srayth responded. “Of course, and there is absolutely nothing that anyone can do to change that one immutable fact.” They both laughed, it was crazy, but times called for them to be crazy. “So, how far are we from the goal point now?” Srayth asked. “Just one more jump and you can say good bye to this accursed sector forever more.” The A.I. replied. “Great, now we just have to hold out long enough for the engines to recharge.” He said to himself.

Outside the ship, a small probe appeared in much the same manner as the ship had. As soon as it discovered the ship, its tiny mechanical brain activated a signal that would call forth the destroyers once more. It was only a matter of time now.

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

Hours passed, the ship slowly charged its FTL, and all the while it’s opponents readied themselves for their final confrontation with the nuisance that it represented. Exactly one minute nineteen seconds before the ships FTL activated, they appeared, weapons turning to lock onto it as soon as they appeared. It was a short bombardment, but one that took its toll. Entire chunks of the ship broke apart, and nearly every compartment was exposed to space. Yet still the FTL charged up, and with a brilliant flash, the ship seemingly accelerated forward, although that was merely an optical illusion.

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

The ship exited FTL, well, it was more like the parts that had formerly composed the ship exited FTL. Inside his personally constructed compartment Srayth sighed. He’d been right about the ships limitations, and it didn’t help that they’d been fired upon by the enemy as they had entered FTL. Next to him sat the A.I., his only friend in reality. “I want you to send the SOS signal now, If we arrived where we meant to, then we should be near some sort of trade lane, at least that’s what the records indicate.” Srayth said. “Sure thing boss, I’ll do it right away, hope we get a good reception from whoever finds us.” The A.I. replied. “If someone finds us that is, only if.”

OOC: I don't care who finds the ship, wether it's pirates, millitary warships, traders, salvagers; it doesn't matter.

OOC: Is this FT or MT?

OOC: FT, I realised that I hadn't added the tags shortly after I posted.

OOC: Damn! Ah well, never mind.

Sphere twenty two of the Technonauts glided throughout the space lanes, its crew hibernating until it reached the next inhabited planet, the next cleansing, even the Overmind was sluggish as it received the signal, as it decoded the message it awoke the Master of the Sphere.

Awaken.
The Master bitterly got out of its hibernation pod, shaking its head to clear out the sickness and reorientate itself, it then patched itself into the ship's sensor and other system's arrays, noting that they were still several light days from any interesting system, its curiosity peaked, it turned onto the Overmind's frequency.
What is it Master?
We have just received a signal, eighty three out of one hundred probability that it is a SOS signal, unknown species origin, we have yet to cleanse their species..
Ok, distance?
Four light hours away, already making course adjustment, estimated time till arrival is forty minutes, tracker, weapon and combat shielding systems are begining their powerup...

Of course the ships sensor had no chance of picking up the incoming ship, nor did the ship have any way of actually defending its self, or for that matter, any way to keep its various pieces from drifting further away from it. In all, it was oblivious and helpless in the face of the new comer.

The Sphere slowly began to decelerate at at a distance of forty light minutes, coming at a nearly complete stop at 20 light seconds from the ship, right away more detailed scans were conducted.
A half dozen major hull breaches, no weapons are left operational, engines are all but gone, barely can detect life support on half a dozen of its decks, don't think there is much fight left in it Master.
Is there commutation hubs still operational?
Barely, we'd have to figure out their specific frequencies to get any thing intelligent through and the SOS didn't give us much in the way of their language.
Those are some nasty weapon scorch marks, do we have the dimensions of the ship yet?
Its small enough for us to take it in, if you wish to Master.
Makes things easier for us, lock onto anything that doesn't looking like it will fall apart with the sudden acceleration try and position the majority of the craft into hanger Alpha, awaken some of our salvage drones to get anything that falls off and of course, solider, repairers and commutation drones. Do any of the airlocks look operational?
That one.
Their power levels are still fairly high so keep your shield operational Master, this Sphere has lost enough over the time.
I'll be careful.
With that the Sphere slowly began to draw in the scattered remains of the craft, small pockets of light could be seen as scavenger drones slowly surrounded the craft picking up anything that fell off and depositing it in the hanger bay, the Master also made his way to the destined hanger bay...

The section of the ship Srayth was on shuddered, obviously something was happening. Was it some other debris, or perhaps had someone picked them up, either way it was something. “Say, what’s happening?” He asked. “Oh, somebody found us and are now towing us into their ship, being pretty thorough about it to.” The A.I. responded. “Nice, so what are the chances of them being friendly?” he asked. Slim, most logical assessment would be neutral, although they may be rather nasty and veil things though.” It replied. “So, be ready for anything, good strategy.” Standing, Srayth readied his equipment. He didn’t have much, just rations enough for six months, although those weren’t very appetizing they were better than nothing. Next was his stolen marine armour, fully capable of operating in airless environments for ten to twelve hours. Finally there was his revolver he’d taken from some marine’s locker, it was rather old, but it would get the job done.

It didn’t take long for him to be ready, and with one final look around the ship that had been his home for the past ten years or so, not that he cared or anything, it was just that he didn’t know what was in front of him, except that it would probably be very difficult to achieve anything for a long while.

He made his way out into the corridor, carefully avoiding damaged sections of the floor. Apparently there was a working airlock up ahead somewhere, although he doubted he could find the power to open it himself. He’d have to rely on whomever it was that had salvaged the remains of the ship to open it for him.

The Master arrived at the bay, looked over the ship using his own scanners. It noted the damaged as it walked towards the ships, overhearing some of its drones talking.
"Is that the airlock?"
"Yeah, we've taken the majority of the ship parts and laid them over there. The drones are ready for extraction into the ship."
"Shields infront?"
"Correct, the cleansers and medics in the back, have you sent the message?"
"Negative, their commutation overlays are offline."
"Might as well get this started, power up the outer door of the airlock."
The Master watched as a pair of drones, rang up with a connector putting it on the door, power quickly flowed into the door, after a few second enough power was restored for the door to open, two shield drones walked in then the connector was fitted to the inner doorway and the process began again.
Any life signs on the other side of the door?
Correct, though we don't believe that they are heavily armed or armored.
Becareful, remember shields in front, use non lethal force if anyone starts shooting at you, try and establish commutation with the holder of the ship and prepare anyone that is injured for immediate cleansing.

Srayth waited impatiently as his rescuers/captors/saviours/enemies opened the door, hopefully they were friendly, although the old record had spoken a various groups that were exceptionally violent; he just hoped that whomever he had come into contact with was reasonable. Then again, if they weren’t reasonable, he could always use that little trick, not that it was an appealing option.

The trick he was referring to was hidden in the FTL system, a failsafe method of communicating distress used by his and other worlds. It used near zero power, and was only detectable by ships equipped with the correct sensors, which included the majority of those hunting him. That was his final bargaining chip, one that he hoped he wouldn’t have to use, but if worst came to worst, it would be his only option.

When the door finally opened, the A.I. activated a series of messages recorded in various different languages that had been in the archives, they were probably garbled and nonsensical but they would get the message across. It was as follows. “I come in peace, I hope you do to.”

To? Wouldn't it be too?
O shh Overmind, we're lucky we decoded it that fast.
The Master stepped into the room, the shield drones had already scanned it for any hidden weapons and signaled that it was clear and the sentient hadn't been armed either, the Master noted the interior damage, it wasn't as bad as the exterior but already the Master could tell that the damage was significant, turning its shield to a lower frequencies so not to shock the sentient it stepped out from behind the two burly looking drones.
"Greetings Sentient, your ship seems to have seen better days, do you have any injured crew members or anyother problems we could solve? Already we are repairing the exterior of your craft, the worst breaches should be largely repaired in a few more minutes..."
As the Master continued to talk and block the viewing of the sentient, another pair of drones began to advance down the opposite end of the hall, searching for other sentients and any damage that would be easy enough to repair, they were to ask for the head of the ship and deliver the same message while also taking detailed shots of the interior of the ship...

Freedom
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2007/310/935993_20071107_screen004.jpg

The Battleship was patrolling a nearby star system trying to find a group of pirates that where reported to have stolen spice from the homeworld. When it received the signal, it was 36 light hours away, and Captain Tamthon decided to investigate.
"Must be more interesting then looking for a group of scared theives.." He muttered to himself, strolling towards the bridge as the ship heated up its engines and jumped into hyperspace...
The crew size for the ship was about 12,000, it was heavily armed and had the firepower to bombard a planet. Given its size and shape and obviously its weight, it had to stay in orbit and could not land on the surface of any planet with a Earthlike gravity.

Srayth stood there for a second, listening to the A.I.’s rudimentary translation, it was really basic, although the language in question seemed to be in the old records, it was rather different now than what it had been, or maybe it was just local pronunciation. Sighing again, he shook his head at the thought of them trying to help anybody that could have survived, if they were lucky they might find a couple, but. “I hope you can heal a deranged mind, for all aboard this ship excluding me have had some pretty bad experiences.” He shrugged. “Not that I care, do as you like.”

In the blackness of space, the enemy sent more probes to probable destinations, determined to finish the ship once and for all. It was a disgrace that it had evaded destruction for so long, and thus, it had to be totally annihilated, lest the reputation of the fleet was tarnished.

Excellent, has that transmitter been found yet?
Aye, you may wish to ask the sentient to shut it off or at least ask if there are any likely traps we should beware of.
Overmind?
The signal is not currently being broadcast through our shields, but if we have to lower them for some reason and they did have several hours.
Aye, better get ready for another jump, there isn't much here anyway.
"We'll do our best, is there any particular areas that any survivors would go to? Also can you shut off the SOS signal that is now still transmitting? We don't believe that it can get through our shielding, but better safe than sorry..."

The two drones continued on their way, minor repairs had already been taken on several important looking sections, a few bodies had also been found and taken for the Sphere...
Still no survivors yet Master, a few bodies though, we have marked them for reclamation.
Good, hold off the reclamation ceremony for the time being though.
Aye Master...

“Survivors, anywhere’s a good place to look for them, and you shut down the SOS signal by simply cutting power to the communications system, it’s not that hard to miss seeing as it’s the only thing transmitting a signal on this ship.” Srayth smiled, this was better than he’d hoped, hopefully things would continue to be this easy.

"Good, some species are overly protective of their secrets even from their own crew, now I must ask what or whom attack this ship and how did you survive when many more did not?"
Power's being cut as you speak, Master.
Good, keep your valiance though, someone could have messed with something without the current sentients or its AI's knowledge.
We'll be careful.

The various repair drones continued to scatter around and in the partly destroyed ship, repairing what they could and salvaging what they couldn't. The ship was pretty beat up and as such there was little that was in decent enough condition for either and the discard piles began to increase. One of the drones let out a slight chirp as the armor beneath it suddenly gave way, repositioning itself to the interior it started to repair, discard and salvage it instead before coming to a locked doorway, the control panel were busted and a slim light could be seen underneath, again chirping it began to cut into the door a small hole...

“The will to live, that’s all that separated me from the rest, the others were, well, the living dead effectively, it was pathetic. It also helped that my residence was the former brig, one of the strongest interior structures onboard this ship that a person could live in.” Srayth began to casually walk forward, hoping that they wouldn’t take it as a hostile gesture.



The captain had survived, somehow, and was shouting into his dysfunctional intercom trying to raise the bridge that hadn’t existed for over a year. “Status report, someone please give me a status report!” He ranted on, trying to get in contact with officers that had died days, weeks, month and even years back, a sign that his sanity was well and truly destroyed.

Behind him, he heard his door being cut open; he turned, thinking that it might be a rescuer. What he saw was a monstrosity, and without hesitation he grabbed his sidearm from his desk. It was an old revolver, much like the one Srayth had, and without a moment’s hesitation, he fired all six rounds at the thing behind the door.

The Battleship came out of hyperspace near the SOS signal, and began to scan the area.
"Get me the captain, we have two objects on radar!"

The captain was marching briskly towards the bridge, while an aid on his right side gave him reports that came in through an earpiece on his right ear.

The battleship came out of space armed, expecting a fight, and weapons systems where on alert. They didnt know what to expect really, and opened hail frequencies...

The repair drone's shields took the burnt of the blows from the olden kinetic weapon, the only outward difference was that the drone began to chirp louder and higher staying at the highest pitch most humans could hear for a few extra seconds before going even higher, fortunately or quite unfortunately for the captain even the repair drones had been ordered to use non lethal force, a small and only slightly lowered powered drilling red beam shot out from the middle of the drone towards the arm that held the weapon...

The Master grimaced as a still high frequency but low power blast of information hit him.
Alert Alert, repair drone Alpha Zeta twenty hundred is under attack, Alert Alert hostile sentient(s) detected! Alert Alert, repair...
Security Drones, find that repair drones location, use non lethal force but take down the threat.
The Master's eyes unglazed as it pulled itself from the overmind.
"Sorry about that, but it seems one of our repair drones found some of the crazies still alive on this ship, if you don't mind would you please not move forward, while we wouldn't like to kill you, if we feel threatened you may find that a nonvital limb or organ has been burned off..."

Master, we have detected another ship approaching, their weapon systems are currently hot and they are trying to establish commutations though they aren't currently broadcasting anything.
Unusual.
Indeed, either you fire as soon as possible or you establish commutations and broadcast something.
Hmm, if they move into an attack position vap them, we still don't know what damaged this ship and we'd not like to learn anytime soon. Also why haven't we gone to FTL yet?
The local environment is interfering with our FTL and the repair of the vessel is taking quite abit more energy and supplies than we first supposed, its wounds were quite serve, its interior is even more destroyed than the exterior was.
We'd suggest that you ask the ship what they want and leave it at that...

Com over the received frequencies and also light pluses from the center of the sphere

"Greetings Sentient(s), we are the Technonauts and we wish to know why you approach our sphere?"

ooc
forewarning to all sides, transporters and FTL type weaponry do not effect this or any other of my spheres without the dropping of the sphere's shields or certain other situations...

Srayth stopped dead in his tracks. “Losing a limb is most certainly not in my plans, and as for the crazy person, who could that be.” He began to mutter to himself. “Who could it be? Probably a marine, no, they were all killed when section three decompressed, one of the operations staff, maybe but doubtful, engineering possible...” He kept on speaking, in a world of his own, there were so many possibilities and too little information for him to actually figure out the likely culprit.



The captain screamed in pain as the gun fell from his now useless hand. Screaming madly he charged forward, hoping to tear the enemy apart using his bare hands if necessary, not caring about the possible consequences.

The drone chirped again, and fired its drilling laser at the charging monster, underestimating the amount of speed that it was moving with, the drone hit it at the knee cap of the left limb instead of the foot like it wanted to, it also backed out through the small hole it had cut through the door...

Damn, it why aren't those security drones in there? The repair drones don't have the best idea of non lethal force.
The drone somehow got itself into the ship, Master. We believe that the ceiling collapsed due to cracks in its structure, they are still enroute, ETA of 30 seconds.
Tell them to hurry, while being limbless isn't necessary a death sentence if treated quickly its still a great waste of resources.
They are hurrying Overmind.

Again pulling itself from the overmind, the Master tried a kind of smile though its muscle structure wasn't like it use to be and it turned out all kinds of wrong.
"The Sentient, wasn't kind enough to shout out its name when it shot at the drone or charged. Though it was in a room locked from the outside, a nearby console was fused, trapping the sentient in the room for who knows how long. Maybe your AI would know?"

Srayth shook his head, this was not the way he had planned it, not at all. “That would be the massively unhinged captain of this ship, and it would be better if you just killed him, he hasn’t been right in the head for a year or so, not since we lost the bridge of our ship.” again Srayth sighed. “He still thinks he’s in that battle, fighting for the survival of our ship, living in the past. I kept him locked up so as to make sure the rest of the crew wouldn’t end up like him, and thus leave us unable to do anything at all, not that it mattered in the end.” It was pathetic that the only other survivor was that person, if he was the only other survivor.



The captains leg came clean off, the wound instantly cauterised by the beam; he screamed and screamed, much like he had before actually, but this time in pain not anger.

The repair drone again chirped as it watched the now legless captain scream on the ground, using an even lower powered beam it vaporized the small amounts of blood that flowed out of the severed limb before gripping it and leaving out the same hole it had just created a few minutes ago chirping the whole way to the front of the hanger bay placing the limb
in a bin with other various scraps of organic life, their water would be reclaimed for the good of the ship...

The two security drones finally arrived at the captain's quarters, noting the hole they broke down the remains of the door while one took out a tranquilizer and injected the captain with it, provided the dose was correct he would be out for at least 20 minutes, the second one alerted that the mini crisis was over and the captain was secured.
The Sentient has lost both a hand and part of its leg, blood loss is minimal due to the cauterizing effect of the repair drone's beam though it will likely need a plasma injection and some liquids in it soon. Reclamation of the mind is still a small possibility.
Good, get it to the med bay as quickly as possible, when it's stabilized began the Reclamation as quickly as possible, we'd prefer that it stay unconscious for the procedure, other survivors have suggested that it is quite insane.

"The ship's captain, it may be of some use just yet then. I might as well tell you, we have a procedure, the Reclamation of the mind where we scan and record a sentient's memories, we have not used it on the insane for a time but it does generally still work as even the craziest have small parts of their mind that is still quite sane. The Reclamation is non life threatening but we would like to have collaborating evidence to your claims."
Switching over to a different frequency that the sentient could not hear, the Master began to question and quiz the AI.
After awhile the Master finally asked if the AI would allow the Technonauts to make a copy of it's memory banks to collaborate the organics memories and stories...

Srayth was intrigued. “You can do that? Really?” he stopped, seemingly deep in thought. Meanwhile the A.I. began to talk to the well, thing. When they finally reached the subject of the A.I. memories it got really agitated. “You’re asking me to give the sum total of my experiences to you? Impossible, they’re my memories; no one else may look at them.” The A.I. began to get even more agitated still. “You can have the sensors logs, internal image records and the like of that ship, but I shall never give you my memories!” It finished, not listening to another word until the other party agreed.

“So, how long will it take you to do that to the captain? I’d really like to find out a few things that he never told me, specifically, well, I can tell you that after you get him digitised as it were.”

Certainly a class 8 AI, I suggest you defuse the situation as quickly as possible, we don't have all the override codes quite yet and a ship this size going bomb within the sphere wouldn't be good.
You go jettison it well before it came to that.
True, but after all we put into this ship we'd hate to see it go boom so easily.
The Master tried to calm down the AI, explaining that their two languages were different enough that it misspoke its intentions.
"We just wished to figure out what happened to this ship and collaborate any evidence we find from the Reclamation of the captain's mind and (most) AIs can't lie about the things we would be looking for. But if you wish to keep your memories private we can understand that. We would then only need any sensor data and any personnel's logs you have. Our techs would also work with you in only taking data that would be useful and leaving your own private thoughts out."

Hoping that it had gotten the message across, the Master switched to a lower frequency to talk with the sentient.
"The amount of time required for a Reclamation of the mind depends largely on the individual's state of mind, age and personality, it can take from a couple of minutes to days depending on whether the captain is in the state of mind of helping or actively hindering our search. As the captain has suffered severe trauma in the past few minutes and been under a terrible amount of stress of the past few months we'd estimate it will take days to get enough information. As for giving you the data, most of it will be in a format you wouldn't be able to understand let alone be of any use, unfortunately the majority of one's memories are from the subconscious including the different stages of sleep and make little to no sense to the original let alone anyone that is not use to that sentient's thought process. But if you really want to you would be welcome to anything that you can understand. We'd recommend that you take a few hours of rest before trying to shift through any of his memories, the Reclamation generally concentrates a sentient's mind into a very potent form, it will probably take us weeks to get any useful data even after the full extraction and if you are not fully rested you could be overwhelmed quite easily either driven insane yourself or turned into an abomination."

The Reclamation of the mind is starting now, Master. We had to give the sentient an extra dose of tranquilizer.
Don't overdo it, its mind is liable to be already stressed and damaged, extra simulation could destroy it before we could learn anything of use.
We'll be careful Master...

“Well then, in that case I won’t bother, my sanity takes precedence to the one little scrap of insignificant information I’m after.” He sighed. “But still, some rest sound good, and do you have some real food? Not the synthesized stuff I’ve been eating for I don’t know how long.”

The A.I. on the other had didn’t react, there was no point. It would hand over all the information, but only after he found an external storage device. Realising it had better ask for one it started to communicate in the same way it had before. “I want an external storage unit that isn’t connected to any other system, I’m not as trusting as my friend over there.”

"Would you prefer mobile or static? One large enough for all your programs or only select systems? Do you have a particular shape in mind? Do you want it large and menacing or small and quick? In a sporty blue or a flashing red?"

The Master switched over to the lower frequencies:
"We don't require food in the traditional sentient sense, but I'm sure some of our stores have something that would set right with you. Would you prefer plant(vegies/fruit) or semi-sentient lifeforms(meat) based food? Also do you wish to rest in this ship or should we provide a berth?"

“Anything will do as far as food is concerned, I don’t care as long as it isn’t synthesized.” He smiled, things were definitely looking up.

Meanwhile the A.I. thought for a second, then responded. “Whatever you believe best for well over ten years of information on everything from sensors data, personal data files and combat records. I’ll get Srayth to connect and disconnect it for me, model the data port on one of the various ones that this ship uses, they are by far the most efficient ones for my use.”

Neither has any preference, at least none for the questions we asked.
We'll bring fruit for the sentient then and the specific storage device for the AI.
Do we have any of the fruit of passion left?
A few, we'll bring some of them and the yellow ones(bananas).

"Now you didn't answer my second question, do you prefer to rest in this ship or one of our berth? Either way we can bring you some food, but we'd like to know where we should bring it..."

“One of your berths thank you, I’ve lived in that wreck over there for far too long.” Things were looking up, in fact it was better than that, everything was absolutely perfect.

The ship came out of hyperspace only a short distance (for space anyway) away from the two ships. It immediatly began broadcasting to both ships.

"This is the Defese Republic Battleship Freedom, we have received a distress signal, please respond."

The ship was tense as it awaited a response, everyone at battlestations in case it was an ambush...

Bump

"Of course, my associates well take you to one of our recently constructed berths."
Level ten, subsection twenty.
Aye, Master. We'll also make sure that his food arrives safely.
The other ship isn't responding Master though they did finally transmit something, its already being decoded.
Try sending our message again while you decode it.
Aye.

"Greetings Sentient(s), we are the Technonauts and we wish to know why you approach our sphere?"

Srayth smiled, things were definitely looking up. Meanwhile, the A.I. was glad that it had dodged one hell of a bullet, nobody knew about that little incident, not even Srayth, now, if it could keep it that way, everything would be just fine.

Elsewhere, many ships prepped themselves for an FTL jump; each was what Srayth called a battle slab, a simple construct that was just guns, armour, engines and just enough living space for the crew. That’s effectively all they were. Soon, very soon they would be ready...

bump

bump

Its business finished and curiosity peaked, the Master turned away and began to walk away ingrossing itself as it walked down the hallway.
Status?
The Reclamation is going about as badly as we feared, it will take longer than we probably have to extract and process the information.
Just make sure to isolate any systems that come in contact with it, I don't want it to spread. We've aleaved the fears and hopefully the curiosity of the sentient, did we learn anything while repairing?
The AI is resisting most of our attempts to extra further data from various systems and since we doubt...
Yes, no need to resort to that just yet. Anything else from that ship?
No, and if it doesn't respond soon it won't have much of a choice, our FTL drives are nearly fully charged we are currently calculating.
Good, notify me if anything else turns up in the investigations.

As the Master left the same hole that it had entered from it scanned the outerhull noting the patchwork look, though that would slowly change as the new patches spread over the previous armor/hull depending on the quality of the armor they could expect a 100% to 200% increase in armor proficiency after it had completely spread, they had decided to leave the weapon systems along for the time being though. They could always ram an enemy ship if it came to that and come out no worst for the wear mused the Master.

OOC: Let’s up the pace of this shall we? I want to get started on my little well massive plan I have, so please bear with my rushed attitude.

IC:

Srayth was ecstatic, things were going better than perfect. How long he’d waited for the day he could finally be rid of that hunk of junk behind him, finally, he could make his place in the universe, he would gain power anyway necessary, whatever the cost; he would have power.

Meanwhile, the fleet that had been chasing his ship jumped into real space, the entirety of it consisted of sixty vessels, each the exact same class ship, each the exact same specifications. All were 400 meters long, all had the exact same armament of 110 railguns, and they were all painted the exact colour, dark grey.

There was one last possible point that the ship they were searching for could be, and thus they prepared themselves for the final jump, and probably the final confrontation with the ship that had delayed their plans for so very long. Soon the second phase would begin; ten years it had taken them to get to this point; but now that they were in reach of their goal, things were going to get interesting. It wouldn’t be long until they would move on to the next point, their pray was close, oh so close.

Warships appeared in reality, their sensors picking up two ships, each of unknown design, each completely foreign to the crews of both ships. Not hesitating, they turned their weapons upon the targets, each of the sixty vessels unloading all their weapons in one single burst, an attack without warning or provocation.

OOC: Okay, these things have only got many guns, and a bit of armour, I’m not going to make them insanely powerful or anything. Engage at will.

ooc
distance to the sphere would have been nice, speed of the railgun shells, what material they are made of, etc o well.;)

0->5 second(s) after first contact of enemy vessels.
The Sphere had began its initial scans the second the vessels had left their FTL identifying weapon and other critical systems, it had only enough time to identify the weapon ports before the first volley was fired. Immediately defense screens were set up, shields were boosted and the GARDIAN systems were activated, brief 400 nm lasers shot out striking the first dozen or so rounds in specific spots heating them to several hundred if not thousands degrees causing a brief Newtonian reaction that caused them to miss their target by a number of degrees.

5->10 seconds
As the laser continued to fire through the small holes created in the shielding in random patterns, the Spheres thrusters also kicked in moving it away from the incoming rounds and enemy craft giving both more time to take out the rounds and to plan. The second round of defense was also launched, the Sphere glit as the outermost layer of its armor came to life releasing millions of miniature nanobots, some were programmed to repair any damage caused by the few rounds that were likely to get through the other defenses while others were launched at the larger groups of railguns, once they arrived they would began to tear apart specific parts of the rounds causing a slight spin in its movements hopefully enough to cause the rounds to miss their targets.

11->15 seconds
Their targeting computers aligned, the Sphere also launched its own railguns at the third largest groupings of railgun rounds. Some were designed to simply crush into their opposites with enough force to make them recoil away from the sphere while others were filled with nanobot and other systems to rip the rounds apart. With its four layers of defense armed and fired the Overmind turned to offense picking the lead vessels and those that once destroyed could cause a chain reaction. It launched twenty matter-antimatter torpedoes/missiles, thirteen nanobot filled railgun shells programmed to go after power sources paying special attention to engines and life support, fourteen regular eighteen metric ton tungsten shells moving at ten percent the speed of light, three ten gigawat laser blasts and two ion shots, designed to knock out any and all electronic systems and allow the Sphere to study the vessels later for any weaknesses.

100 seconds
The few remaining railgun rounds that had not been destroyed by the other defenses, began to hit the Spheres shielding, most harmlessly glancing off by a few degrees while others hit more full on and were able to penetrate before being destroyed by the nanobot/laser defense. In all only six rounds were able to hit the actual sphere and only at the polar regions which were generally lighter defended.

As alarms began to sound through the ship, the Master grimaced before diving into the overmind.
Whats the matter?
Multiple ships have just jumped in system and fired multiple railgun shots.
Railguns? Thats quite the outdatted systems.
Indeed but they launched a massive wave if we had other Sphere our overlapping defenses could destroy them all before they had a chance of getting close but as it is.
Indeed, on my way.
Closing part of its self from the overmind, the Master ordered two nearby drones to find the sentient and escort it to a secure pods, the Master did not want it killed by the sudden acceleration it knew the Overmind would take...

“I guess that means there here.” Srayth said. “Undoubtedly.” The A.I. responded. “Say, did I remember to inform them about us being perused?” he asked. “No, I distinctly remember you not telling them a thing about our pursuers.” The A.I. responded. “Think it’s too late for me to explain?” Srayth asked. “Yeah, it would be just after the nick of time, a very reassuring statement about your cognitive capabilities.” Srayth laughed at the A.I.’s response. “Suppose it would be a bit late.” He stopped speaking, he thought for a second, and then asked. “Why am I laughing? Aren’t we in a battle?” He stood there waiting for the A.I. to respond. “Years of trauma have you become a sociopathic maniac that cares little for the lives of others, and your current laughter is a method of coping with the insanity that has surrounded you from a young age, but apart from that you’re fine, absolutely fine.” Srayth began to laugh again, the universe was truly hilarious. It was then the two drones found him.

The first wave of fire had barely scratched the surface of the enemy “ball ship” as it was now designated. However, two parts seemed to be relatively easy to attack, and thus the enemy broke into three parts, two approaching the sphere, the other moving to prevent the other unknown from interfering.

As the ships approached, their guns continued to fire, each one targeting the enemy at random, hoping to find a random weak spot on the alien vessel.

The two drones showed no outward emotion as the sentient continued to laugh, though they did communicate their misgivings to the Master.
Laughing?
Indeed, it has been laughing for quite awhile now.
Most unusual, get it into a pod as quickly as possible, the Overmind wishes to began accelerations as quickly as possible and our inertia drives may not beable to take out all the G forces.
We're working on it Master.
Indeed, contact us if anything else goes arise. How goes are defenses Overmind?
There is a 8.21% reduction in nanobot shielding, laser effectiveness has dropped by 10% and they are moving closer while our own rounds are not having the effects we planned.
That bad eh, how goes the weapon charging?
Not well we had to divert power to the shields around the poles, they were always under defended and they seemed to have found that out. I suggest getting that sentient into the pods as quickly as possible, acceleration will begin in twenty seconds regardless.
It will be there Overmind just keep defending and attacking until then...

*bumpity*