Dark Cluster-NSS High Seas-Docked on Travel Station
Under the light of the systems K class star a large space station sat silently, 6 different ships docked to it at various points. Ot was a mess of long circular hallways and large compartments, the product of continuos construction with no real set plan since the beginning when it was first put together. One of the vessels, the government owned NSS High Seas was a NEV or Nordic Exploration Vessel. it was the pinnacle of exploration vessels, extra engines allowed it to get around system to chart them faster than any other ship in the Nordic Fleet.
On the vessel people were preparing for their journey, they ships bridge was full of activity and its captain, the young Rivic Norsog was barking out orders through the com system and to other people on the bridge, giving people every incentive to work harder, often threatening to airlock them if they didn't get the job done right. Eventually everyone was in place and the ship undocked from the station.
Rvic spoke over the coms, "Status report decks one through four." He was answered by a set of people saying green, no problems. Rivic then turned the com on and spoke, "Begin undocking procedure, spool up mini dimension drive and run over the plotted course one more time."
He was answer by a woman beside him who began, "Yes sir airlock is closed and locked mechanism is disengaged. Pulled the ship away form the station now... Were clear sir."
After the woman spoke a man continued, "Mini dimension drive spooled up... Jump course confirmed sir we are green, maximum time to stop in systems before we reach our destination is one minute, however we have an expected time of 23 seconds."
Rivic responded, "Wonderful, patch me into station command."
The woman responded, "Done sir."
Rivic spoke into his console, "Station command this is NSS High Seas, we are preparing to jump to mini dimension on exploration mission to coordinates 55.4.22.134 sanctioned by the government of Valhalla. Please report any anomalies that could interfere with jump."
Station command radioed back, "NSS High Seas we read, no anomalies are present that have been recorded, station command out."
Rivic smiled and stood up, with his hands behind his back he bellowed, "Engage mini dimension drive on my mark... Three... Two... One... Mark!"
With that the ship entered the mini dimension and flared its engines, expected time until they reached their destination was 3 hours.
3 Hours Later
The woman beside Rivic spoke again, "Sir we are incoming on final jump coordinates, dropping out in three two one, were out sir."
Rivic responded, "Scan the system for anomalies and get visual sensors on any visible planets."
The man beside Rivic looked and his console like he had seen a ghost, "Sir we are detecting incoming vessels on long range sensors!"
The woman with the same expression continued, "Planet shows signed its inhabited sir!"
Rivic looked down for a moment and in his seat responded, "Hook me into all channels, broadcast in every human language and binary."
The woman responded, "Done sir."
Rivic began, "Incoming vessels this is the NSS High Seas, we are not hostile, i repeat we are not hostile. We are reinitiating jump drives to leave the system, please forgive this intrusion, i repeat we are not hostile." Rivic turned away from the console and spoke to the bridge crew, "Get me that damn mini dimension drive spooled up ASAP, get us out of here!"
They all responded with a unified, "Yes sir!"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
It has been since time immemorial that man has looked to the stars in wonder, so I ask you, how can going to them be anything but an extension of a will older than any of us? It is our very nature to discover, and to lust for knowledge, you accept this but doubt the nobility of working to the stars?
In the tundras of Sowcape a colony of pylorians are just doing their daily tasks of maintenance, building more buildings for their ever growing colony and building a giant cannon to shoot their graphene asteroids filled with pylorian eggs into space with. Multiple flyers patrolled the building site of the cannon along with fighters while the builders kept on building the massive cannon.
The pylorians don't seem to mind the colony of Pents on the planet at all despite how weird those walking flesh things are because they don't seem to do much harm. They were here before the pents and the pents haven't hurt them so that must mean the pents don't mind the pylorian presence here.
In one of the hexagonal colony buildings the pylorians made to store the flesh pylorians that tower over the frost covered plains of sowcape another builder pylorian was taking the pregnant flesh pylorians out of the structure by their necks and bringing the pregnant fleshies to a large V-shaped metallic trough and with the sharp fingers of the builder's constructive hands slicing open the pregnant fleshies and spilling their eggs out into the trough.
These eggs than go down the trough into a ball that holds numerous eggs that are cryogenically frozen for the very long trip ahead of them with a determinator placed in the center of the ball. This ball is eventually filled up with thousands upon thousands of pylorian eggs and then the ball is sealed shut until it collides with another planet.
However, the same builder who cut up the one pregnant fleshie after having to do this long, repetitive and unconstructive work decides to instead of doing its normal job go back to the main colony and looks for a flesh pylorian. It eyes a pregnant fleshie and grabs it by the neck, but not to take it to the trough to cut up. Instead it decides to trash this fleshie!
It drags the pregnant pylorian to the side of one of the tall hexagonal prism structures and starts to swing the pregnant pylorian at the wall repeatably smashing it against the wall repeatably while the fleshie starts to bleed heavily from being repeatably smashed against a wall made of graphene. The builder than throws the fleshie with all its strength fifty feet away from it.
The other pylorians in the colony seem to not care about this random outburst of abuse and the builder than just resumes its job of collecting pregnant pylorians, taking them to the trough and slicing them up for their eggs to be placed inside the large graphene asteroid.
"Admiral Amarr! The director will see you now." An orderly announced.
Legs making strange popping noises as he did so, Joseph stood up and followed the man down the twisting hallways that made up the headquarters. Supposedly it helped deter any potential attackers from vital information, but he had a feeling it was actually just to confuse the hell out of visitors.
Finally reaching what seemed like a blank wall, the orderly went to a nearby wall panel and lifted it. Punching in a seemingly random code (he made a mental note to remember the numbers 2841747638164864916498 in case he ever had to meet the director again), flipped three switches (left, middle-left, right), and the opposite wall slid open to reveal an antechamber with a solitary terminal on the left wall, and a large door on the opposite one. "AMCS", the strange acronym the facility's AI had started to use to identify itself, was displayed on said terminal.
Joseph walked in, the panel sliding shut behind him.
"Please identify." A reasonably canned voice instructed.
"Rear Admiral Joseph Amarr, Union Navy." He responded.
The terminal displayed a loading bar and completely decorative sound-wave-ish-looking patterns as it matched his voice against the other times he had had to do this. The screen flashed green, and the larger door slid open.
"Director McPherson, you wanted to see me?"
"Yes, Admiral. Please have a seat." The man behind the desk in front of him replied.
Sitting down in the rather-uncomfortable visitor's chair, the director continued:
"Now then. One of our satellites recently returned this image." The director slid a photograph over to the Admiral.
"I don't see anything unusu... oh my god." he turned pale.
"The other admirals are aware of it too, and we've decided to send your fleet to investigate. This is the first truly spacefaring empire we know of, and we don't want them to find out about us first, understood?"
"Yessir. Where was this taken?"
"A place fairly far out known as the Pelican Nebula, it's a three-month trip from here. Don't worry, I've already assigned additional supply ships to your fleet."
"Aye sir. Anything else?"
"Yes, actually. Tell Rigel in the business office to get a translation team together. First contact will most likely have to be communicated in computer code, but we want to learn how to communicate with them as quickly as possible."
"Aye sir."
"Dismissed."
He left the office, feeling nervous.
Five days later, the Third Fleet (and 15-odd smaller supply ships) shot into one of the many mini-dimensions they would need to go through to get to the Nebula. This was going to be fun.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
We did not invent the Algorithm. The Algorithm consistently finds Jesus. The Algorithm killed Jeeves. The Algorithm is banned in China. The Algorithm is from Jersey. The Algorithm constantly finds Jesus. This is not the Algorithm. This is Close.
Rontak Nebula/star cluster/whatever - Machweik Territory - Space
Three gleaming dots of luminescent cyan blue drifted through the seemingly endless expanse of space. The ships - armored with an unknown alien material - were a whitish grey in color with shades of blue, and rigidly shaped, like a family of frightening spacefaring beasts with metal exoskeletons built for not only protection, but intimidation. In human classification, the leading ships were Corvettes. Built for speed and maneuverability. The third was an Interceptor, in some ways a more agile and combat-friendly version of the Corvettes that it accompanied. Together they patrolled the outer colonies of the Machweik Hierarchy, an occupation that until recently was the most uneventful task bestowed upon a Machweik.
Within the ships, a multitude of noticeably disciplined crew members executed numerous tasks in accordance to their particular job, others supervised, but all worked fluidly and without complaint, ensuring that the vessels worked like well-oiled machines, and drifted silently and swiftly through space. In the leading ship - the Corvette Dawning Justice - a towering figure made its way through the ship's corridors. The figure's digitigrade legs stomped through the halls with a sense of superiority and elegance. It's thick, rigid armor, displayed with pride, as a symbol of the figure's hard-earned respect, only adding to the figure's already intimidating presence. The figure was none other than Shipmaster Vkamm, a muscular Machweik standing at seven feet tall, with broad shoulders and scars of past battles adorning his face.
As he neared the ship's main meeting room, two rows of Machweik Imperial Guards on either side of the hall stood in attention, rising their bladed energy staves in unison as the Shipmaster made his way passed them and through the sliding doors to the council room. Inside of the dimly lit room stood multiple figures in red and blue, hooded robes. They stood around a long table, adorned with blue and white lights, immediately acknowledging the Shipmaster, though with a slight sense of defiance.
They were in the on-board council, responsible for making decisions on the spot when a higher authority wasn't within immediate contact.
" Shipmaster. " one of the figures greeted, " Please, have a seat. "
At one end of the table was the Shipmaster's chair, a throne-like seat that elevated the Shipmaster above the rest of the Machweik present.
" Begin. " Shipmaster Vkamm ordered plainly, sitting comfortably in his chair.
" As you wish. " responded one of the councilmen, and he, along with the rest, took their seats around the table.
The meeting table immediately projected an image of the outer colonies, shooting up above the table's surface, as if the table itself possessed a level of intelligence. Some structures and planets were represented in blue, others in white, with one unidentified vessel represented in red and slowly approaching from one end of the projection.
" Shipmaster, as I've sure you understand, our sensors have picked up an unidentified vessel entering Hierarchy controlled space. " one of the robed Machweik began.
" Yes. "
" The vessel is believed to be in control of intelligent beings hailing from the Dusted Cluster -- the beings Hierarchy intelligence groups have been keeping a close eye upon -- the one's we've been advised to watch for. " another robed Machweik explained.
" Yes, I understand the situation, councilmen. I am here about your decision. Time is of the essence. " Shipmaster Vkamm replied.
" Of course.. but we ar- "
" With haste, councilman. We've not much time. " the Shipmaster urged.
Nodding, the councilman continued with a shortened version. " Very well. The unidentified vessel appears to be lightly armed. Likely a reconnaissance ship. We have, however, observed these beings in the past. Numerous times we've observed their ships firing on other unidentified ships entering the Dusted Cluster. Because of that, we have reason to believe these beings are with hostile intent, and, on our order to secure and protect the Hierarchy's outer colonies, we have justification for deadly force. Ou - "
" .. And your decision? " the Shipmaster inquired once more.
" Yes.. Our decision on the matter is split. It is why we've called for you. The fate of the vessel is on your hands. "
Shipmaster Vkamm sighed, taking a moment to make his final decision.
" Shipmaster..? "
" I've decided t- "
Before the Shipmaster could finish, the projection above the table was replaced with a three-dimensional sphere presenting an audio transmission from the incoming vessel. Similar to an eye, the sphere closed or "blinked" everytime audio came through.
" -ot hostile, I repeat, we are not hostile - "
The Machweik listened intently, looking at each other but unable to comprehend the languages being spoken.
" It doesn't sound aggressive. " a councilman commented.
" We can't know for sure. " another said.
" Shipmaster.. We are waiting. "
Taking a deep breath, the Shipmaster spoke up once more, " I've decided to engage the vessel. It's not a decision I am entirely comfortable with, but you've left me no choice. We cannot risk the vessel escaping with any information. If possible, we'll take the survivors into custody. "
" As you wish, Shipmaster. As your on-board council, we hereby grant you permission to take necessary action against the incoming vessel. "
Minutes later
The Machweik ships altered their course directly towards the incoming vessel. Soaring through space at unbelievable speeds, the Corvettes readied their weapons and prepared to engage. One after the other, the Machweik ships soared right passed the unidentified vessel, leaving only their silhouettes to be seen, along with several plasma torpedoes as part of the Machweik 'welcome basket'.
((Basically, they flew right passed the ship and fired plasma torpedoes at it as they did. Also, since I haven't made a page for the Corvettes, here's my anti-ass-pulls: The Corvettes are about 430m long and 200m wide. They are fast and maneuverable, but are lightly armored. Their weapons are plasma torpedoes and auto-turrets.))
"****ing pirates." Admiral Rockwell chewed angrily on the end of his cigar. Tobacco products had been long-since banned, and now they were made with a convenient type of leaf found in the swamps of Arcadia that had the same effects as tobacco-based products, but no lung cancer. Still wasn't the same to him, though.
The first fleet had been on the tail of some pirates who had hijacked a large merchant ship belonging to Yawasaki. He thought it insane that an entire fleet was needed for recovering it, but his higherups had told him that something really valuable had been on that ship; so the whole fleet it was.
They had been on the tail of the pirates for three days now, hopping in and out of mini-dimensions at first, but the pirates seemed to have abandoned that tactic and instead tried to escape through normal space.
"You know what? **** it. Gunner!"
"Aye?"
"Load the high-explosive rounds into cannons 43-48 and fire at the engines." he ordered.
"Firing."
Plasma trails streaked across the blackness, followed by bright flashes of light as the stolen ship's engines imploded.
"Send in a destroyer to pick it up."
"Any preference as to which, sir?"
"Eh, 'wot about the Savannah? We haven't had those blokes do anything in a while."
"Sending the order now."
The greenish-coloured fusion trail of a nearby destroyer flared to life as it hurtled through the void towards the now-derelict freighter. It started slowing down when it neared the ship, creating another large fusion trail in front of it.
Insertion Team No. 37011-B
"Alright men, it's simple. We just gotta run in, kill any of the pirates who were wearing space suits, grab the cargo, and run out. Any questions?" the captain announced.
"Rules of engagement sir?" a corporal asked.
"Crew expendable. Now move out."
The squad of 7 pulled down their air masks, boarded their dropship and rocketed over to the freighter, sailing through a large hole in the hull and landing in one of the high-roofed storage rooms.
Containers were stacked two-high, with a few massive (but now toppled) towers of crates near the middle of the arched ceiling.
"The container we're looking for is on the other side. We move on my mark. Three, two, one, mark!" the squad leapt into the air.
They rebounded off the angled roof above them, sailed over to the other side, and bounced down, each grabbing onto something attached to the floor to prevent them from bouncing.
"Lights on." seven sets of helmet LED's blazed into existence.
"Alright, we're looking for a large red container labelled '37050'. Fan out and search for it. Radio in with the rest of us if you find anything."
The squad fanned out, searching among the labyrinth of crates for the red one labelled '37050'.
Pvt. Rigel Jenkins
He noticed something shiny in a darkened corner of the crate he was searching. Further inspection of it revealed it to be some kind of chitin.
"Captain, were there any kind of bugs being transported on this thing?" he said over the radio.
"Negative. What did you find?"
"Some kind of chiti... hang on a sec... what the hell was tha- OH GOD HELP! **** IT'S GOT ME HEEEEL-"
Captain Richard Antonille
There were bright plasma flashes a few crates over, and the humanoid shape on his helmet's HUD turned red.
"Something got Jenkins!" He yelled over the radio.
Silence. With a sinking horror he realised that the other six figures were all red.
He started running. Sprinting, jumping, flying through the zero-G ship. Anything to escape whatever had gotten the others.
"The exit!" he yelled in relief, and jumped straight out of one of the holes in the ship, stright towards the Savannah.
As the ship manoeuvred so that he would land in one of the dropship bays, he yelled:
"I MADE IT! YES!" Unfortunately, at that moment he turned around to see a long tentacle snake out of the hole, headed straight for him.
"OH **** OH **** OH **** BLOODY HELL!" He yelled, among other things as the tentacle, despite him blasting endless amounts of tungsten-carbide into it, grabbed him around the waist and pulled him back in.
Bridge of the ESS Do You Feel Lucky (they don't)
The last human-shaped light turned red.
"My god." a random person on the bridge remarked.
"PHASE it." the Admiral ordered.
"But sir! We have orde-"
"PHASE IT, DAMMIT! Whatever the hell is on there, we can't let it escape!" he yelled.
"Aye sir."
Two long, thin plasma trails streaked across space, creating a field of utter blackness when they hit. Within seconds, both the container ship and the blackness were gone, leaving only the Savannah to continue moving back towards the rest of the fleet.
"Did anything make it out?"
"Scanning. No sir, at least not that we can tell."
"I don't know what the hell that was on that ship, but Yawasaki has NO business messing with that sort of thing. I don't CARE how much we would benefit from weaponising it."
"Whatever you say, sir."
"Damn... Take us to Proxima Centauri. OSI needs to hear about this."
"Warping."
The fleet pinged out of existence, reappearing in Proxima Centauri a few hours later.
((No, nothing escaped the ship. However, this was a bit of foreshadowing as to what might go wrong in a few IRL weeks. Hope you like fighting 'Nids. Mwahahahahahaha...))
We did not invent the Algorithm. The Algorithm consistently finds Jesus. The Algorithm killed Jeeves. The Algorithm is banned in China. The Algorithm is from Jersey. The Algorithm constantly finds Jesus. This is not the Algorithm. This is Close.
Fighter R doesn't like what's going on with those whole space cannon stuff because it makes those fleshies feel important somehow. Stupid fleshie pylorians. Worst things to exist they really shouldn't exist who created them anyways? Who cares, either way shooting them for target practice is all they are good for. Nothing else at all except being sperm dumpsters and literal fleshbags. ****ing hate fleshies. Hate them so much I just want to shoot them with my gun!
Fighter R proceeds to start to drive through a part of pylorian colony A and starts to open fire on various traveling flesh pylorians shooting 300 rounds a minute from its mounted machine gun ripping apart those flesh bags and making them bleed green real good.
Fighter R has been told there are PP's watching us again. They shouldn't do that because they shouldn't those stupid PP's. Fighter A will take guard just in case those PP's try anything stupid.
Perspective of "Flyer A"
A flying pylorian known by as flyer "A" noticed those weird walking things walking around spying on them more, but they seem to be doing no harm so let them be although it is weird how they are outside of the ground instead of normally building those really large colonies a miner or two stumbled upon that they attacked like as if it wanted to kill them or something. Oh well they must have had logical reasons to, perhaps it accidentally caused a cave-in or something.
Either way A has decided to go and see what they pentagon peoples are doing over the ridge. It looked over some of the walkers and decided to swoop down to get a better look accidently hitting and knocking over one of them which must have really hurt that one because the others started to shoot at it and the flyer had to run before their weapons destroyed it.
Very weird of those pentagon peoples to attack us like that, although they always seem to attack us whenever e reach them for some reason. They destroyed colonies E and D just for mining into their cities and only D mined into one of their cities which was very odd because why did they destroy colony E? Colony E doesn't mine it only makes flyers like flyer A.
Just encase for the sake of it let's have more fighters patrolling for security because we don't want them stealing our babies even if they babies are made those stupid fleshies who deserve to be murdered. Flyer A now goes and starts ramming fleshies randomly for the sake of it because those fleshies get to sex all they want while flyer A has to constantly patrol. Why don't these fleshies realize that they are stupid because they just luckily chosen by the determinator to be fleshies? Either way stupid fleshies must be rammed as flyer A rams more flesh pylorians for the sake of it.
Perhaps now those stupud flesh pylorians that just went splat will learn that they are worthless bags of crap who deserve nothing in life. Flyer A wonders why the PP's don't just kill those stupid fleshies and give the robotic pylorians the ability to reproduce or something. Shame it can't understand that weird gibberish they speak or that flyer A can't speak because than us true hard working pylorians could be able to get rid of these stupid fleshies.
Flyer A hears more activity from pents oddly enough. Flyer A wonders why that is.
((This post assumes spies were sent over. This is more of a time passer post I guess.))
The woman beside Rvic yelled, "Sir they are not slowing down, they are accelerating!"
Rivic screamed back, "Be calm! bring us away from their ships and out of a collision course!"
The woman responded calmer but still in a panicked way, "Yes sir bringing us off a-"
She was then cut off by the man beside Rivic who spoke far louder than both the woman or Rivic, "Their firing weapons!"
Rivic responded, "Impact ETA!"
The man shouted back, "Now!"
Just as that was said the ship was rocked and sparks flew out of overloaded conduits around the ship. A great hole was made in the side of the ship with small fires from oxidizing materials inside it. The huge burst of air leaving the ship before it sealed airlocks flung the ship into a break neck spin, people and supplies floating away in the vacuum of space, never to be seen again.
23 Seconds Later.
Rivic woke to a cut head and burn marks on his arm, his console fried. The woman and man who has sat beside him now hung over him echoing each others, "Are you ok? Call a medic!"
Rivic immediately pushed them away and shouted, "I don't need no damn medic! Im fine. Officers give me a damage report ASAP, and reroute this electricity these sparks are ridiculous! Damn sub par wire insulation."
The woman immediately went to her console and responded, "Rerouteing power sir, its difficult here was obvious damage, I can't pinpoint it but i can isolate the effected area as a whole, several decks will lose power."
Rivic held his head and spoke back, "Do it!" He turned to the man and barked, "You give me a damage report!"
The man responded, "Yes sir!" Then sat at his console hitting keys and looking at camera feeds. He eventually spoke up again, "Sir it appears that the ADS system countered 5 torpedoes but the sixth hit an area of the ship with fewer ADS cannons... It seems that the one that hit compromised deck three section four and deck two section four. Casualties are expected to be twenty three, and the damage disabled our sub light drives, not sure why." After a brief pause he spoke again, "The sub light appears to be offline due to PS generator cell one on deck two section four being compromised, ti was responsible for powering engines."
Rivic responded, "Eject cell one immediately. Can we not reroute another cell to engines?"
The man turned and spoke sheepishly, "Yes sir... But cell one won't eject, the mechanism was destroyed, this ship is a ticking time bomb and the slightest power fluctuation could set it off."
Just as he said this the lights flicked, causing everyone on the bridge to look like they had just expected death. Rivic the responded, "They won't stop at this, get to the damn escape pods, issue a ship wide alert, and before you leave patch be in to anti asteroid railgun controls."
The woman responded, "Sir thats suicide! Just come with us don't be foolish!"
Rivic responded, "Captain goes down with his ship officer, give me gun controls and get the hell out of here."
With that everyone fled from the bridge and other areas of the ship, all headed to the escape pods. There were more than enough, considering only 176 people were going in 200 pods. The bottom of the ship flared with light as the pods blasted out of it, leaving brilliant trails of debris from the ejection guns.
Rivic sat at his console, he saw the alien ships coming and sent a message, "No." With that he fired the railgun in a burst of ten rounds at the incoming ship, he managed to get two bursts off before they passed again, one more hit and the ship would erupt into a massive fireball, 20 fireballs to be precise.
It has been since time immemorial that man has looked to the stars in wonder, so I ask you, how can going to them be anything but an extension of a will older than any of us? It is our very nature to discover, and to lust for knowledge, you accept this but doubt the nobility of working to the stars?
An explosion of seemingly electrified blueish plasma fused with dying fire rocked the human vessel as the torpedo punched it's way through the ship's hull, rupturing it and allowing the vacuum of space to pull its cargo and crew members alike, worsening an already terrible situation.
As panic ensued inside the human vessel, the Machweik ships screamed passed once more, watching the chaos unfold as the human vessel crumbled from within. Soon enough, the humans began ejecting from the ship with the use of escape pods. One after the other, the escape pods launched themselves away from the dying vessel, leaving behind fiery trails and debris.
In the Machweik ship Dawning Justice, Shipmaster V'akaam oversaw the engagement from the comfort of the captain's deck, where he sat upon his throne-like chair as Machweik sailors delivered back to back reports on the situation.
" Shipmaster. " a Machweik sailor beside him began.
" Speak. "
" Fast-moving objects are leaving the enemy vessel -- presumably escape pods. Should we enga- "
" No. " the Shipmaster responded, cutting the sailor off mid question. " Let them be. " he added.
Puzzled, the young sailor continued, ".. As you wish, Shipmaster. What should be our next move? "
" Turn back toward the ship. "
Following the Shipmaster's orders, all three ships altered their course and slingshotted back toward the human vessel, using their impressive maneuverability, the Corvettes were able to evade a hail of enemy tracers coming their way, but the Interceptor was clipped, taking considerable damage.
" Shipmaster! We have incoming fire! " a Machweik reported.
" Interceptor, draw the ship's fire! " Shipmaster Va'kaam hollered over the radio. " Redemption (second Corvette), break left! Pursue those escape pods and use your gravity lift to capture them and its occupants! "
" It will be done, Shipmaster. " the accompanying ships responded in near unison.
The Shipmaster continued, " Dawning Justice, I want us over that vessel. Ready the drop-pods, we're sending in a team to break through and capture whoever is firing that weapon. "
" As you wish, Shipmaster. "
((Summary of my move: The Interceptor is breaking right and attempting to draw High Seas' fire (you decide if it works), the second Corvette is breaking left, away from the fight to basically collect the escape pods using its gravity lift. The main Corvette is going to attempt to hover over High Seas so that a team of Machweik soldiers can shoot through in drop pods and capture the captain. Note that while the ship is weak, drop pods punching through wouldn't be enough to make the ship explode. The only real danger is the fact that the ship is a ticking time bomb, which is why the Machweik team is going to try and push through, grab the Captain and get the **** out of there.))
With the pents at stand by with their armada of 6 vehicles, prepared for battle the pylorians started to get worried. These dwarves are now bringing such bizarre vehicles here, possibly their fighter equivalents thanks to the hostile looking design of these machines. Odd, pylorians never actually got to explore their underground areas thanks to how hostile they are about it. Perhaps now these mole things want the surface as well!
Perspective of Builder R
PPs? Here? What for? no intrusions happened last time builder R checked so what is it now? Did a fighter shoot one or something? Either way time to build guns for Builder R and builder S to builder CZZ. Long day ahead of me for gun making. Once done builder will fight them PPs and shoot them from very far distance.
Part one placed in. Part two done. Part three latched on. Ammo placed. Gun ready to go. My gun. Now for builder S...
Perspective of fighter CA
They think they can march into our land like this? Who do these PP's think they are? They just live in the ground away from us mostly. Now what are they doing bringing their vehicles here? Who cares I am going to shoot them because they think they are so clever walking up to us like this. Now Fighter CA is going to press the alarm button and signal those stupid fleshies to attack them while I shoot them with my gun. Fighter CA now goes out and brings 10000 fleshies and 9 fellow fighters with it to engage the hover tanks.
The fleshies start to squirm their way to the tank in a massive wall of terror while the fighters stay in the back opening fire on the tanks while keeping their distance because than the tanks will have to go through the fleshies before getting to fighter CA and fighter CA's pals.
Perspective of Flyer A
What small number these dumb ground dwellers bring, Only 6 fighters? This will be a blood bath I just know it. I will keep watch on them very well and fine so they can't run away and fighters can shoot them until they die.
I am just going to fly around the skies scanning their movements to make sure everything's doing well and those fleshies better not **** this battle up because if they do than they will be even more useless than even the fighters could imagine.
No perspective
Hundreds of fighters and hundreds of thousands of fleshies all start piling up flowing from the weird hexagonal towers with fighters driving around in the back. The fleshies start to move at a fast 9 mph towards the tanks while the fighters stay in back laying a hail of suppressing fire down while driving around at a okay 40 mph in circles in the back.
Rivic saw the ships break apart, one was damaged unlike then the others, seeing an opportunity Rivic turned the railgun in its direction and opened fire. One, two, three bursts before he saw another vessel heading for escape pods, he had bee fooled dammit, played right into a damn trap, his father taught him better than this! Rivic turned the railgun immediately at the ship slowing to pick up escape pods, he fired five bursts then heard the thuds of boarding pods.
Rivic uttered, "Jhag..." A curse word often used to convey a sense of hatred at someone or something. Rivic raised himself from his seat and ran toward the door, he debated shutting it, afraid of overloading the ships generator but decided to anyway. With the door to the bridge closed he scoured the floor looking for anything to fight the ******* aliens coming in, eventually he came across a stun gun dropped by one of the bridge security officers when he left. Rivic grabbed the stun gun and hit the activate key, it was on now. Rivic looked over at his console, he couldn't let the damn aliens get a hold of critical information.
Rivic walked over to the console and pulled a silver key off a chain around his neck, he plugged the ket into a small keyhole on his console and entered his code in the lower box on the screen. He hit enter and the screen went black, wiped of any useful information, but sadly it also cut his access to the railgun off. Rivic positioned himself behind his seat facing the door, stun gun aimed at the metal blast door, ready to fight to the death if he had to, to preserve his own honour if nothing else.
Escape Pod 2-Machweik Space
The woman officer who was with Rivic looked at the NSS High Seas from the window on the pod, a hole dug right into its side. She saw the shots from the railgun at the interceptor, the alien ships break away and then further shots at the interceptor. Then she looked up, what seems like a massive vessel was hanging over the pods. She panicked and started screaming, "Jhag! Jhag you all to hell you bastards!" Then the shots from the High Seas flying at the ship above her, god bless Rivic, the man would save his crew rather than himself. Yet for some reason the woman only thought if escape pod one would ever be launched with Rivic in it, strange.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
It has been since time immemorial that man has looked to the stars in wonder, so I ask you, how can going to them be anything but an extension of a will older than any of us? It is our very nature to discover, and to lust for knowledge, you accept this but doubt the nobility of working to the stars?
"What are we doing here." chimed a Xero as it passed a long window gazing out into the galactic center. A tight clump of lights in the distance seemed to throb and rotate slowly in the distance. the faint shine of other stars and masses shown behind that. Flipping through several radiation filters on his visual optics the being looked on as the scene turned from the stale black with tight and loose clumps of stars to bright cheery-red to blues and greens as he cycled through the visual spectrum, infrared, X-ray, gamma, and thermal. "There's nothing here."
"What we always do, CP-I-1205." said another, CP-I-1007 branded on his hull, "Study, sit, wait.
"We're preparing to send equipment through the wormhole and see where it comes out. For when we need to charge our Neutrino drives and need to pass the distances.
"It's also an attempt to perfect a field the Arete Treella was looking into, but didn't have the means to investigate. We were the closest and most capable to perform this task the time the GCP picked it up on the Mesh and ran it by CP-I-1050."
"That's complete madness," 1205 growled, "And CP-I-1050? Won't he do anything if it by-chance puts him at a greater distance to that 'communism' he keeps shouting about?"
"CP-I-1052 agreed."
"He's the same, but with Capitalism. GCP isn't exactly putting faith in all the the right individuals. Did anyone check his fluids?"
"But forgetting we're also all influenced by The Mesh, no?"
The Xero sputtered and sprayed static in anger. "Well could be worse. Could be putting the ship through an impromptu abortion by ramming it into the biggest super-massive planet he can find."
Tracer rounds trailed behind the Interceptor as it swerved around in the emptiness of space, successfully fooling the human gunner. Realizing his mistake, the human gunner shifted his aim and acquired a different, more important target - the Machweik Corvette known as Redemption.
" The enemy vessel has ceased fire -- it may be switching targets. " a Machweik sailor on-board the Interceptor reported.
" Acknowledged. " the Corvettes responded.
Corvette 'Redemption'
As the Corvette maneuvered it's way around the human vessel, it positioned itself above one of the human escape pods, and, using its gravity lifts, began pulling the drifting escape pods up to the ship's cargo bay. Tracers flew overheard as it did, with several rounds impacting the Corvette on its side, rocking the ship slightly.
" Damage report. " a Machweik on-board requested.
" Considerable, but we can hold -- the enemy vessel has ceased fire. "
" Good. Move on to the next pod. "
The Corvette moved on to the next pod, and later the next, until all pods were in the ship's cargo bay. Inside were frightened - and some furious - humans. The Machweik on board took the necessary precautions and surrounded the escape pods with their rifles raised. Once the battle was over, the Machweik on board the Redemption would escort the captured survivors to a holding area, where the humans would be imprisoned until further notice.
((You don't have to post about this, Moose)).
Inside the Nordic Federation ship 'High Seas'
As planned, the leading Corvette, Dawning Justice, maneuvered its way above the enemy vessel and deployed four drop pods, each holding one Machweik Marine equipped with assault rifles, and wearing suits resembling thin spacesuits that seemingly took the shape of the wearer. The fabric itself looked similar to plastic, or carbon fiber, and was a whitish grey in color. While obviously durable, the suits appeared to serve primarily as environmental suits. The helmets had blackened visors, and provided oxygen.
Inside of the ship, the Machweik Marines found themselves in smoking corridors with no real direction besides red, blinking lights that lit up the many hallways. Fighting their way through the hazardous environment, and avoiding fires and electrical hazards that had broken out throughout the ship, the Marines finally found what they were looking for: The captain's deck. They immediately set up around the sliding doors, and after realizing the door was locked shut, decided to take it down.. with explosives.
One of the Machweik Marines readied what humans would call a 'breaching devise', and planted it on the door. Several seconds later, the explosive went off, sending the doors flying into the room with minimum smoke and damage. Immediately after, the Marines rushed into the room, scanning it with their rifles.
Yelp!
Without warning, one of the Machweik hit the floor, trembling as electricity ran through his body. Confused, the other Machweiks were caught completely off guard.
" CATCH! " a voice called out, followed by the thudding sound of a stun-gun impacting the face of the leading Machweik, causing the alien to stagger and fall back. Another saw the human coming and stepped forward, raising his rifle. The human, seemingly fearlessly, smacked the rifle to the side and head-butted the alien, causing the alien to stagger, allowing the human to pull the rifle out of the alien's hands.
Rifle in hand and cigar between his lips, the human appeared to have the upper hand, and he felt like he did.
" SEE YOU IN VAL- " the rest was muffled by the sound of gun fire as the human captain opened up on the 'alien bastards', firing from the hip like he was starring in an action movie.
In the midst of the chaos, the Machweik Marines managed to take cover and return fire, and, in what seemed like seconds, the shootout was over, with the human captain throwing the empty rifle aside and raising his hands.
" You alien bastards are lucky I couldn't figure out how to reload those damn alien weapons, otherwise you'd all be shining my shoes right about now.. with your blood. "
The Machweik looked at each other, shrugging in confusion, and stepped forward to take the human captive.
((For the record, none of the Machweik were killed. One of them was stunned with the stun gun and the other was knocked over when the captain threw the empty stun gun at his face. Anyway, sorry for the shitty post. I forced my self to make this today. Anyway, anyway.. Moose, you should make a post about something completely different. Then after that post I'll make a post about the captain and everyone else being held prisoner somewhere and you can make a post using the crew of the High Seas again. So yeah, make a post about something unrelated for now. Which reminds me, the Machweik might recover the High Seas if it didn't blow up. ))
Jester Nebula/Pariant System/Planet Eranus/Gerian Base/On board Craft 6, 53rd Fleet of the Emperor's Mighty Reign 10:00 Human time 5:00 Gerian time
Leos/Natalia
Leos Nix walked down the long, steel hallway of the residential deck. He was stationed on the 7th level of the deck, and there were still several hundred rooms all around him. Plus this wasn't even the top level, it was somewhere in the middle. It really made him wonder about the size of the craft he was on, and its crew. He knew that the size of a standard Gerian crew was about 50,000, which didn't seem like much until he was actually on the ship.
Leos was honored to be on an all-Gerian crew. All other races were inferior, and must be dominated or destroyed. There is no other possible fate. That's what the government always said, and the message was everywhere, on the radio, broadcast by loudspeakers, and on holovision. So Leos didn't question it. That's how he had been taught to think since he was very young.
He finally reached room 7-207. He knocked on the door to see if his crewmate had already arrived. "Come in." said a female voice, breathing very heavily. Immediately Leos knew something was wrong. Men and women weren't supposed to be stationed together. For obvious reasons. But he went in anyway. The inside of the cabin was tiny. There were two small beds, some dressers and, apparently, exercise equipment. Because there was a mess of blond hair hanging from a bar on the other side of the room.
The girl was lifting herself up on the chin-up bar... with her feet. She was holding the bar with her ankles and bending her knees to lift herself up. As she noticed him enter the room, the girl pushed off from the wall and landed gracefully on her bed. Then she got up and walked over to him, smiling.
"Hi," she said while extending her hand, completely out of breath, "Natalia Rez. Nice to meet you."
"Leos Nix." he said, shaking her hand. Vaxc*, she was gorgeous. But he couldn't think like that. There was a reason men and women weren't normally assigned to the same cabin. He was about to ask why she was here when she noticed the confused look on his face. Natalia chuckled and sat down on her bed again, catching her breath.
"Turns out there were too many men in this division, so some of them had to bunk with the women. But Command has clear instructions about what's allowed... and what's not allowed." she looked over at him mischievously, then laughed again. "But I don't think that will be a problem."
"Neither do I." Leos reassured her. "I'm the most by-the-book person you'll ever meet. Literally. I learned everything I know about this place from books." He started walking across the room. "We've got half an hour until briefing starts, so..." he picked up two 35-pound dumbbells from her side of the room. "Do you mind?"
"Go ahead."
Leos condition: Healthy
Inventory
none
Natalia condition: Tired
Inventory
none
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
*Vaxc (vah-ksk) is the primary deity in the widespread Gerian religion Yvism (ee-vism). While the majority of the population doesn't believe in him, he is still used as an exclamation, similar to "oh my god" by humans.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Craft 6, Command Post 10:26 Human time 5:13 Gerian time
Captain Yze sat at her post in the command room. At her sides were both the ship's officers, Levi and Veo. She was very nervous. She had been an Etaratus for the past year or so, commanding small squads and orchestrating missions. She was very good at what she did. And now she had been promoted. Finatarus. First day of the job.
Her entire career depended on her doing well. She was well on her way to be the first woman to become a Royal. But that meant she had to succeed in this position. She took one last breath and picked up the intercom mic to broadcast to the entire ship.
"We are now leaving the dock. There will be a brief period of extreme acceleration, so hold on to something. In two minutes Gerian time the speed will have stabilized. At that time all Preates are to report to the comm station for briefing." She let go of the intercom button and pressed another one, the one connected to the pilot's room. "Haer, start acceleration."
"Will do, captain." came the reply. Avery held onto the table, as did her two officers. "Don't worry, captain." said Officer Levi. "You're doing fine." Officer Veo nodded in agreement, adding, "But you should really calm down. You don't exactly exude confidence right now."
"Right." Avery relaxed her posture and breathing, but kept her grip on the table steady. The ship suddenly sped forward, which was backwards to them. They were pulled back, but the table anchored them down. They continued to hold on with a vice grip as the ship gradually slowed down. Eventually, it felt like they came to a stop, when in reality the ship's speed had stabilized. At that time, preates started slowly pouring in for briefing.
Captain A'archk Ramus gazed out at the stars, the harsh, unexplored wastes of the rest of the galaxy, from the bridge of his command, the ITF Steadfast, and reflected upon his mission. He, like all Taian, harbored a certain unique hatred for the Atrin that had conquered his species a century back. Ramus himself had not been present for the ravaging of Atrin's surface--he had been just a hatchling at that point--but he had watched recordings of the bombs falling, and with every impact, every dead oppressor, he had felt a strange feeling of schadenfrude, as if his species had some sort of collective consciousness that demanded retribution for the slavery of more than a century before.
The ITF herded new Atrin prisoners into Taian correctional facilities every day, killing them off or selling them into slavery at an impressive rate, but still the hunt continued for members of the elusive race. And so Ramus had found himself assigned the messy task of finding and destroying (or capturing--that part was optional) the small convoys of night-black Atrin ships that were constantly streaming away from Taian space.
It wasn't a unique or even rare job. Every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every year, ships with the ITF combed the stars for any signs of ships that had slipped through the Taian's claws. Punishment for failure was a swift beheading, and so there were no more motivated or driven soldiers in the fleet than her officers. Even so, Ramus felt slightly uneasy at the prospect of killing women and children.
Slightly.
His gaze was torn away from the vast expanse before him by the call of one of the junior officers that sat on the bridge perpetually. "Captain! Unidentified ship detected, about three thousand klicks out." As Ramus strode over to his station he added "This is an unknown class of ship. It's clearly not Atrin or Taian in design. This might be first contact, sir."
First contact? Ramus thought. That's...incomprehensible. Who knew he'd be the one to establish contact with an alien race? Regaining his composure, he picked up the officer's loudspeaker mouthpiece and said, "Now hear this. All personnel, man your battle stations. All pilots, prepare for liftoff and await further orders."
As he placed the mouthpiece into its cradle on the officer's desk, he said "Do we have any way of contacting these...erm, things?"
"Unsure, sir. Suggest we await their hailing. We seem to be larger than them; we can take them in a fight, but we don't know what the ramifications would be."
"You're probably right." Turning to the weapons officers, Ramus barked out "Get your turbos aimed at them and primed, but under no circumstances fire. Anyone who fires will face the discipline of the ITF." The Taian began furiously inputting commands, and on the exterior of the S'takk-class her batteries rotated in accordance with their orders. The Steadfast awaited a hail.
Rontak Nebula/star cluster/whatever - Machweik Territory - Space- On board the Machweik Corvette Dawning Justice
Inside the Dawning Justice's communications room, Shipmaster Vah'akam stood firmly before a blueish projection of his superior, who appeared in real time before him, wearing a red and gold hooded robe symbolizing his level of authority. Having received a report from Shipmaster Vah'akam detailing the events that had unfolded only hours prior, the hierarch - a title typically given to a superior - was none too pleased, condemning the Shipmaster's decision to engage the human explorers in naval warfare.
" UNACCEPTABLE! " the hierarch blared, the real time projection allowing Vah'akam to see just how infuriated his superior was. With a snarl, the hierarch continued, " Under what authority, Shipmaster!? Under what reasoning!? What instigated such a decision, Shipmaster? Tell me! " he furiously demanded.
" Sire.. " Shipmaster Vah'akamm began, kneeling before the projection. " I made the decision. " he admitted.
" It is not your duty to make such decisions, Shipmaster! " the hierarch retorted. " That is your on board council's duty! "
" The council's decision was split, sire. " the Shipmaster explained.
" AND YOU ARE A FOOL TO BELIEVE THEM! " the hierarch roared in frustration, leaving the Shipmaster bowing his head in shame. " Tell me, Shipmaster, how many councilmen are on board your ship? "
" Nine, sire. " answered the Shipmaster.
" THEN HOW COULD THEY BE SPLIT! " the hierarch snapped. " You have been fooled, Shipmaster! You have a rival on board, a competitor! Someone wants you demoted, Shipmaster, and they may have accomplished that goal! " the hierarch threatened.
Gulping, the Shipmaster remained silent.
" Where are the beings? " the hierarch asked.
" The majority are on board the Redemption, sire, their leader is here.. in the Dawning Justice. " responded the Shipmaster. " We have attempted to communicate, but without success. Our scribes are studying what diminutive speech they've managed to hear spoken between the beings. "
" Good. " the hierach said, somewhat satisfied. " Speak to their leader, if possible. Inform him that you are to bring him back to whence him came. Then take them back. "
" .. But sire.. We've all observed the beings' hostility toward all who enter the Dusted Cluster. They'll greet us with fire! " the Shipmaster heeded.
" Perhaps, but let us not forget the way you greeted them, Shipmaster. To expect a comfortably warm welcome is insulting. However, that is why I ask that you attempt to communicate with their leader. Tell him of your task. Use him to heed his people before entering the Dusted Cluster. I assure, they will hesitate before firing. Go forth, complete this task, and perhaps you'll keep your place as Shipmaster. "
" As you wish, sire. "
Minutes later, in the ship's cell block
Several small empty cells evenly spaced together occupied the lower deck of the ship, with energy barriers in place of metal bars. One near the end held a lone figure, slumped against a wall, and smoke emitting from a cigar between its lips -- Captain Rivic Norsog in all his unattended glory.
Outside of his cell, Shipmaster Vah'akam stood firmly, his thick, rigid armor adding to his naturally imposing figure. Two Imperial Guards accompanied him, wearing equally intimidating armor, and bladed staves by their side.
Tasked with communicating with a being who spoke a completely different language, Vah'akam found himself in an unsual situation, not knowing how to begin. All he had were several notes written for him, among those were the words " alien bastards " (although written wrong, obviously), believed to be the proper translation for " alien " by many of the scribes (based on what they've heard the humans say amongst themselves)... Surprisingly close, but humorously incorrect.
Beginning, Vah'akam stepped forward, the only thing separating him from the human being an energy barrier. Using hand gestures, Vah'akam pointed at himself, and spoke broken Swedish, " Alien ******* Vah'akam ". Convinced he had just simply referred to himself as " alien Vah'akam", he continued, again in Swedish, " You? ".
((I know I've changed the Shipmaster's name twice now, but I won't do it again.))
Docking officer Ograd sat at his console in the small control tower overlooking the docking station. He was doing his job was intending, which right now involved sitting at a char doing utterly nothing. Beside him was another Docking Officer named Asa, a former first officer on the Loki who suffered permanent nerve damage to her leg, she would likely never see the inside of a space ship again. She was reassigned to tower duty as a graceful retirement with pay, however it is likely the only reason she didn't get experimental surgery to repair her leg was the fact she never told the military what happened. Let alone her new coworkers who upon asking would often get a booming, "Mind your own jhaging business!" or simply get hit. The accident she had was shrouded in layers of deception.
Ograd knew that asking would waste more time, it had been hours and hours since the High Seas had left the station. In fact it had been hours until anything left or entered, the next launch was scheduled for tomorrow morning, however he and Asa were assigned to the tower, and thats where they were. Ograd attempted to at least start a conversation to pass time, "So... What do you think of the High Seas, damn thing was custom built for the generals son, lucky ******* he is, spoiled by his father."
Surprisingly Asa bothered to respond, "Rivic? That self concerned ass? The man might put his life on the life to save his crew if he ever got attacked but he's only doing it for a medal and the chance to beat some poor ******* up. Honestly the man is an adolescent who thinks their an action hero. Don't get me wrong the guy got a damn nice ship, and he managed to convince his father to authorize a jump past the explored area, way out in the middle of god knows where, but that doesn't change who he is."
Ograd responded, "Really? The newspapers always shower the guy in praise, hell he was the man who took out that Altak scout ship when it got too close to the cluster, fired through the damn dust wall to take it out i heard."
Asa shot back, "Right you heard news for you there was no damn Altak scout ship, he blew up a large asteroid outside the dust wall and got proclaimed a hero. Mans all for battle but hell does he enjoy headlines, always so damn smug with that cigar in this mouth, unbelievable he doesn't have cancer right now."
Ograd responded, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, how do you know this ****? Jhag it isn't like Rivic ever served on the Loki."
Asa shuddered at the name of her sold ship and responded, "Whatever, just ignore me, and mind your own jahging business. Everyone has a different opinion of that guy, thats mine, mixed with a bit more personal experience than any damn crew of his would get."
Ograd knew that was the end of the conversation, so he went back to blankly looking at space. He decided to pull a cigarette out and light it, to this Asa just shook her head and looked away, Ograd shrugged.
Dawning Justice Cell Block-Machweik Space
Rivic stood up to face the alien and laughed when he called himself a *******. Rivic looked at his cigar and saw it was burning out, damn shame. Rivic flicked the last nub of the cigar at the alien, only for it to bounce off the shield and began, "Well i guess thats your name now Mr.*******! As for me Captain Rivic of th- No wait Former captain Rivic of the NSS High Seas. You took that damn title away from me when you jhaging shot at my ship and disabled it! I guess you either managed to eject that cell and steal my ship or started laughing when my ship blew the jhag up."
Rivic sat down and began again, "So they send you down here to interrogate my ass? Or are you Mr.******* the poor guy who got stunned and you want a rematch? Well if your here to interrogate me go jhag yourself, but if your sorry as wants a fight come on in." Rivic motioned inside and then looked at the alien again. He resumed, "Well Mr.******* i highly doubt you know a damn thing I'm saying, your probably the guy who got stuck the "talk to the alien captive for information you can't understand" job huh? Save yourself the effort and go if you don't get what i am saying, because sure as hell you aren't going to learn much from me." Rivic gave a go away wave of his hand stood up and asked, "By chance do you have any cigars Mr.*******?" He pointed at the burning nub on the floor. Rivic resumed, "Because right now damn do i need another."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
It has been since time immemorial that man has looked to the stars in wonder, so I ask you, how can going to them be anything but an extension of a will older than any of us? It is our very nature to discover, and to lust for knowledge, you accept this but doubt the nobility of working to the stars?
Reek'shh A'rkhanis was nervous. It wasn't the gut-wrenching descent in the Peregrines, it wasn't the fact that if one little heat-shield broke off the entire craft would light up like so much kindling, it wasn't that the metal seats he and his squad awkwardly slouched on were getting hotter even with the shields up. No, his nervousness stemmed from the fact that he and his broodmates were falling onto an unknown planet with an unknown species inhabiting it, armed with nothing but a pair of Kag'nata, ritual Taian blades that represented their rite of passage. If they could survive for a week, and kill at least ten aliens per man, the ITF would accept them into its ranks. If not...
The planet below them had recently been discovered by the Taian in the fringes of the Central Nebula, and instead of wasting capital on sending surveying teams down, the Directorate had decided to use it as a sort of final test for its soldiers upon observing life on the surface. Previously, ITF trainees had been airdropped into small colonies of Atrin prisoners. It was required to kill at least ten before being initiated. This system, however, was expensive to maintain, and the fleet had jumped at the chance to shift the trials to a more expedient locale.
The only problem was that no one had any idea what lay on the surface. All the cadets had been told was that there was life, which could have been anything from flesh-eating bacteria to Tain-like creatures to three-story tall behemoths. Or worse. A'rkhanis tried not to think about that possibility.
The Peregrine's aft ramp suddenly disengaged and lowered, sending blinding light streaming into the cabin and signaling to the Taian inside that landing was imminent. Sure enough, several seconds later, the rapid descent of the dropship halted roughly, jerking awake any initiates who'd fallen asleep along the way.
The platoon knew their duty, and wordlessly the fulfilled it, leaping up from their seats and hopping out the back of the Peregrine. When the pilot saw that everyone had gotten out, he gunned the engines and the dropship lifted off once again.
A'rkhanis looked around. The planet--at least the region the stick had landed in--appeared to be heavily wooded, a nightmare for the claustrophobic Taian. The humidity was unbearable; it was almost possible to see the water vapor in the air. He subconsciously laid one clawed hand on a Kag'nata that hung loosely from his belt as unfamiliar screeches echoed from an indeterminate source. This was going to be hell.
Jester Nebula/Pariant System/Planet Eranus/Gerian Base/On board Craft 6, 53rd Fleet of the Emperor's Mighty Reign 10:30 Human time 5:15 Gerian time
Leos/Natalia
Natalia strode into the room calmly. Leos had rushed in and was already sitting down. They were among the last Preates to arrive - they were competing to see who could do more reps with a 100-kilo bar and lost track of time. They had to cut the contest short to hurry over for briefing. "I would have won." Natalia muttered as she sat down next to him. He forced a serious expression, looking over at Captain Yze.
"All right, we have our orders from Command." said the captain. "They think we finally have enough calling cards to make contact with the unknown empire. We don't have full control over all the surrounding nebulae. Just partial control over some major star systems. But they don't need to know that."
"Are we running the takeover? It doesn't seem like we have nearly enough experience." Leos spoke up.
"Of course you don't. But that's not the point right now. It doesn't appear there is a takeover mission at this time. Command is sending another fleet over to this..." she picked up the brief notice, "Cluster X55-856. They're going to see if the natives will assimilate peacefully before sending fighters over, but they want a few ships along for the ride, to let them know we mean business."
Leos nodded, then immediately noticed he was leaning forward, and that everyone was looking at him. "Smart plan." he said quietly, sitting back in his chair. The captain resumed her brief, unperturbed by the apparent interruption.
"That's mili-wide. The officials back home just want us to be informed. We're not actually acting on the mission. Here's what we are doing." The captain pushed a button on the table's edge, and a hologram of a star system was projected. "Ladies and gentlemen, behold the Ferios System. A key player in the Vito Nebula, and completely overrun by locals, tribes, dangerous wildlife. Things like that. "A-team, you are heading up the Ferios Campaign. If we get this leg up, the rest of the nebula will be ours in a matter of months. Report to the immediate superior in your sector for further briefing. Dismissed."
Natalia and Leos, along with the rest of A-team, filed out of the room in a somewhat orderly fashion as B-team shuffled into the room after them. "So who's our immediate superior?" Natalia asked. "A guy named Uru Vek. He's an Erat, has been for a while too. So he probably won't be around these parts much longer. Rumor has it he's tough, but he's one of the best when it comes to training." Leos led the way to the sergeant's office.
Uru Vek was a young man with buzzed red hair slightly longer than Leos' and matching light red eyes. He wore a visor over one eye and ear to feed him information. Vek was standing at a holoboard studying satellite images of a planet when the Preates filed in. He turned and greeted them. There were 10 Gerians in Sector 7-20B, and Vek was to train each one individually. Not an easy task, but very important indeed. As the last of them walked in, he brought up an info screen on his holoboard.
"7-20B. Nice to meet you as a whole. I'll be working with you individually over the next few days, but from here you look like a good bunch. Let's hope you're as strong as you appear." Leos couldn't tell if Vek was looking at him or the giant ripped dude next to him, but he had an idea. Vek returned the holoboard to its previous screen.
"This is Artak. It's a lush jungle planet, which is both good and bad. The air is humid and clean, good for us Gerians. Not too dry, and no life-threatening atmospheric diseases. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be worried." He flipped to the next screen, which showed an indigenous village. "The villagers." he scrolled to another screen of a short, stout humanoid with deep blue skin, red slits for eyes, and a mass of facial hair. "You'd think they wouldn't be a problem. They ride around on these strange beasts," Vek flipped to a picture of what looked like a red six-legged horse with a horn on its nose, "They don't know about electricity, plumbing, or any basic needs for living."
"There is one thing, however. The scout squad first sent to one of these villagers encountered a problem. They killed the villagers, all right. Their primitive technology didn't make that difficult. But it's what happened after they died that's a problem. They seem to have some sort of parasite controlling them in the place of a brain. Everything looks fine and dandy from the outside, but after they're killed, these impossibly fast pink fleshy creatures clamber out. They jumped onto the scout squad members' heads, ate through their armor, and then," Vek paused, "their flesh."
"The parasites appear intelligent, and now they have some of our technology. Don't let them have any more. If you see any villagers on your campaign, aim for the head at all costs. If you see any of our guys, don't hesitate to kill them. They're not themselves anymore. If you do manage to kill them, get our armor and weapons back from these slimy bastards."
"We land on Artak in a week. Briefing adjourned. Now, if your name isn't..." Vek looked down at a holopad in his hands, "Iop Baeor, then I'll talk to you later. If that is in fact your name, I'm very sorry your parents were that cruel. Also, you'll receive mission training first, and should probably stay here."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Central nebula/71-R System/Planet Zizar (as called by zatrai)/Ergus Woods 7:30, 7th may 2604
The screeches however quickly turned to the noise of feet running and even more screeches.
These primitive things only had two large white eyes that bulged out of the main body and stood a simple 4-6 feet tall. These aliens had no head, rather a small main body with three legs and two arms that jutted out the sides of the "body" of the creature. Under their body was their parrot-like beak with 8 pronged teeth. In their hands they have a very primitive form of shield made of wood with obsidian bits attached to it and a obsidian tipped spear. These creatures had no armoring, only a simple bandana of varying colors. It is likely these creatures are mollusk-like and may have came from the seas only recently.
"The star demons!" One of these natives screeches. (not understood)
A particularly large one at 7 feet tall wielding a obsidian tipped trident made of ebony than approached Reek'sssh. It made a deeper screech than the others and is apparently the chieftain of this tribe. It pointed at the site of Reek's crash and then made a rather angry screech, saying (not understood by taians) "The zatrai have always warned us of beings like you. Invaders from the stars who threaten to kill us all! The only true gods are the zatrai, and now you threaten our reign. If you do not leave, we will kill you as the true gods demand us to."
More tribals start to come from other corners as the chieftain continues talking to Reek despite reek not being able to understand a word it is saying except for a few names. "You are surrounded, sky demons. Leave now or face death. the Lugoti will banish you from life if it must be done!" it says in a threatening crowl as every tribal starts to raise their shields and ready their spears.
--------------------------------------- Sowcape/Pylorian colony A 6:30, 8th may 2604
Perspective of flesh pylorians
Those asshole bots want us to charge, let's do it so they don't kill us! Now we charge into those tankss and rip to shreds with our hands! Go go go go go--- IT BURNAS SO MUCH WWWWeeefj
No perspective
The flesh pylorians in all their stupidity charge at the PAIN tanks and get reduced to green mist by the sonic waves blasted from the tanks again and again like lemmings. Hundreds of flesh pylorians are rapidly killed by the superior PAIn tanks as the fighter pylorians decide to close in to attack the tanks.
Perspective of fighter pylorian C
Stupid fleshies can't do anything right. They just run into the tanks expecting snack bugs and sex. How stupid of them. Now I will show them how it's done! You circle around them and shoot at them... What? These graphene bullets aren't doing **** to them no matter how much I shoot them oh **** fall back fall back they are are really dangerous stay away from dangerous thing our shooty things don't do anything against it. Stupid builders should have made better guns than this. They need more graphene!
Perspective of flyer R
Why are fighters such cowards i mean there is nothing that bad down there I see they are shooting that tank a lot they should just stop running and shoot it- ZzZtt Why is the ground getting bigger?
No perspective
The fighters than while the fleshies mindlessly run into the PAIN sonic blasts than start to drive around the tanks hailing them in as much gunfire as possible. However as it turns out the graphene bullets don't do much against armored targets thanks to them being hollow and made of graphene. This causes the fights to rapidly attempt a retreat while the fleshies continue mindlessly getting themselves killed by the PAINS.
Jester Nebula/Pariant System/On board Craft 6, 53rd Fleet of the Emperor's Mighty Reign/Heading for Planet Artak in the Vito Nebula
14:42 Human time
7:21 Gerian time
Leos/Natalia
The radio in their room buzzed through a message, causing Leos to jump and drop the barbell he was lifting. Luckily, Natalia was spotting him, and caught it before it fell on his neck and crushed his windpipe. "Thanks." he breathed, coughing and getting up. "I don't even realize what the radio said. Am I going into shock? Is this what shock feels like?"
"You're fine. Now relax. That was Vek on the radio, you're up next for op training. Tell me how it goes."
"You know it." Leos said, leaving the room. He got back to the sergeant's office, where Vek was already standing at the holoboard. "Leos. Good to meet you. I've been looking forward to meeting you personally. I served under your father for a while in 42nd division. He was a good man, knew how to make people listen." Vek sounded oddly sad, like he was reminiscing.
Leos, on the other hand, was suspicious. "You look young for 42nd division. And if you served back then, what are you doing here as an Erat?" Vek's look of blank despair turned to bitterness. He walked across the room and stared into the wall. "I was a great leader, Leos. We were running a mission in Hetiopa. North Arche, right around when the Empire closed off the sendout, ****in' Old Gods. We ran them out all right, but they were sneaky bastards while they were still kicking."
"It was an ambush. They evacuated, blew the whole town. We figured it out all right, but a bit too late. Most of our squad died that day. I had such bad burns on my face and arms, they had to be synthetically restored. This is how I looked when was close to your age. Flesh memory is effective, but doesn't work in the short-term." Vek bit his lip, turning back to Leos. "I got hit with a piece of shrapnel that day. Center torso. I was bleeding out on the ground. Your old man saved my life. Carried me and another guy two miles, while he had a broken leg. I owe him my life. So try not to die on the op, because... I really don't know if I'm strong enough to return the favor."
Leos took a deep breath. "Damn. He didn't really talk about his ops when I was 1. I haven't seen him in 7 years, and I keep hearing all these... fairy tale stories about him. Are they really all true?" Vek shrugged. "I didn't work with him long. After the ambush, I was out of action for a few months. But they restored me for my leadership potential. Said I had promise, that I could rally people. I had to be retrained, and brought back to Erat. I'm grateful they kept me on, instead of throwing me with the cripples and old folk."
"Our greatest curses are sometimes our greatest blessings." Leos quoted a Gerian poet. Vek nodded in agreement. "Truer words have never been spoken. Now, the op?" They walked back over to the holoboard, where Vek brought up a picture of a village. "I don't know what the name of this village is, and I honestly don't care. The point is, it seems to be a central hub for them. Lots of people live here, and lots of 'warriors,' if you can call them that with their pitiful weapons, guard the place. You have no idea how important you are in this mission."
"Agents Rez, Srin, and myself will be running the stealth commando op. Because the way we see it, everything is weaker when you attack it from the back. We'll hit these villagers where it doesn't hurt - the occipital lobe. No time for them or the slimebags to react. But you're running ranged on this mission, so you're going to have to be fast. You are to leave the landing craft shortly after the rest of the team attacks, so as not to be noticed. Find a perch quickly, wear active camouflage, and whatever you do, aim for the head. If you don't have a headshot, you don't have a shot. As far as we can tell, these things either can't or won't leave a living host."
"Understood, sir." Leos had written all the information down in his holobook. "Good." Vek said. "Now send Natalia in."
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Cluster X55-856/Some Taian star system/Approaching some Taian planet/Craft 1, 46th Fleet of the Emperor's Mighty Reign
16:04 Human time
8:02 Gerian time
Commander Edelbis looked out the pod bay window at the planet they were approaching. According to their signals, it was the most populated planet out of all planets in the nebula. Naturally, they approached this planet first. The commander took a deep breath, and prepared for contact.
He picked up a radio, and searched for the broadcast signal. When his tracker picked it up, he pressed the transmission button, hoping that whoever was in charge would receive the message, or at least that the message would be passed on to them.
"To whoever's in charge of this colony. This is the Gerian Empire. We already have control of your civilization, but it's up to you how many people die to prove it. Submit peacefully and none of your people will be harmed. If you do not, we will address your people directly. Those that join us will remain unharmed, the rest will be killed. One way or another, this nebula shall be ours. I expect an answer within the hour, human time. You can reach me on this frequency."
Edelbis ended the transmission, putting down the radio and picking up an Oblivion rifle, preparing for anything. All the ship's guns were pointed towards the planet, and radar was up. Any resistance would be blasted to pieces.
Under the light of the systems K class star a large space station sat silently, 6 different ships docked to it at various points. Ot was a mess of long circular hallways and large compartments, the product of continuos construction with no real set plan since the beginning when it was first put together. One of the vessels, the government owned NSS High Seas was a NEV or Nordic Exploration Vessel. it was the pinnacle of exploration vessels, extra engines allowed it to get around system to chart them faster than any other ship in the Nordic Fleet.
On the vessel people were preparing for their journey, they ships bridge was full of activity and its captain, the young Rivic Norsog was barking out orders through the com system and to other people on the bridge, giving people every incentive to work harder, often threatening to airlock them if they didn't get the job done right. Eventually everyone was in place and the ship undocked from the station.
Rvic spoke over the coms, "Status report decks one through four." He was answered by a set of people saying green, no problems. Rivic then turned the com on and spoke, "Begin undocking procedure, spool up mini dimension drive and run over the plotted course one more time."
He was answer by a woman beside him who began, "Yes sir airlock is closed and locked mechanism is disengaged. Pulled the ship away form the station now... Were clear sir."
After the woman spoke a man continued, "Mini dimension drive spooled up... Jump course confirmed sir we are green, maximum time to stop in systems before we reach our destination is one minute, however we have an expected time of 23 seconds."
Rivic responded, "Wonderful, patch me into station command."
The woman responded, "Done sir."
Rivic spoke into his console, "Station command this is NSS High Seas, we are preparing to jump to mini dimension on exploration mission to coordinates 55.4.22.134 sanctioned by the government of Valhalla. Please report any anomalies that could interfere with jump."
Station command radioed back, "NSS High Seas we read, no anomalies are present that have been recorded, station command out."
Rivic smiled and stood up, with his hands behind his back he bellowed, "Engage mini dimension drive on my mark... Three... Two... One... Mark!"
With that the ship entered the mini dimension and flared its engines, expected time until they reached their destination was 3 hours.
3 Hours Later
The woman beside Rivic spoke again, "Sir we are incoming on final jump coordinates, dropping out in three two one, were out sir."
Rivic responded, "Scan the system for anomalies and get visual sensors on any visible planets."
The man beside Rivic looked and his console like he had seen a ghost, "Sir we are detecting incoming vessels on long range sensors!"
The woman with the same expression continued, "Planet shows signed its inhabited sir!"
Rivic looked down for a moment and in his seat responded, "Hook me into all channels, broadcast in every human language and binary."
The woman responded, "Done sir."
Rivic began, "Incoming vessels this is the NSS High Seas, we are not hostile, i repeat we are not hostile. We are reinitiating jump drives to leave the system, please forgive this intrusion, i repeat we are not hostile." Rivic turned away from the console and spoke to the bridge crew, "Get me that damn mini dimension drive spooled up ASAP, get us out of here!"
They all responded with a unified, "Yes sir!"
In the tundras of Sowcape a colony of pylorians are just doing their daily tasks of maintenance, building more buildings for their ever growing colony and building a giant cannon to shoot their graphene asteroids filled with pylorian eggs into space with. Multiple flyers patrolled the building site of the cannon along with fighters while the builders kept on building the massive cannon.
The pylorians don't seem to mind the colony of Pents on the planet at all despite how weird those walking flesh things are because they don't seem to do much harm. They were here before the pents and the pents haven't hurt them so that must mean the pents don't mind the pylorian presence here.
In one of the hexagonal colony buildings the pylorians made to store the flesh pylorians that tower over the frost covered plains of sowcape another builder pylorian was taking the pregnant flesh pylorians out of the structure by their necks and bringing the pregnant fleshies to a large V-shaped metallic trough and with the sharp fingers of the builder's constructive hands slicing open the pregnant fleshies and spilling their eggs out into the trough.
These eggs than go down the trough into a ball that holds numerous eggs that are cryogenically frozen for the very long trip ahead of them with a determinator placed in the center of the ball. This ball is eventually filled up with thousands upon thousands of pylorian eggs and then the ball is sealed shut until it collides with another planet.
However, the same builder who cut up the one pregnant fleshie after having to do this long, repetitive and unconstructive work decides to instead of doing its normal job go back to the main colony and looks for a flesh pylorian. It eyes a pregnant fleshie and grabs it by the neck, but not to take it to the trough to cut up. Instead it decides to trash this fleshie!
It drags the pregnant pylorian to the side of one of the tall hexagonal prism structures and starts to swing the pregnant pylorian at the wall repeatably smashing it against the wall repeatably while the fleshie starts to bleed heavily from being repeatably smashed against a wall made of graphene. The builder than throws the fleshie with all its strength fifty feet away from it.
The other pylorians in the colony seem to not care about this random outburst of abuse and the builder than just resumes its job of collecting pregnant pylorians, taking them to the trough and slicing them up for their eggs to be placed inside the large graphene asteroid.
"Admiral Amarr! The director will see you now." An orderly announced.
Legs making strange popping noises as he did so, Joseph stood up and followed the man down the twisting hallways that made up the headquarters. Supposedly it helped deter any potential attackers from vital information, but he had a feeling it was actually just to confuse the hell out of visitors.
Finally reaching what seemed like a blank wall, the orderly went to a nearby wall panel and lifted it. Punching in a seemingly random code (he made a mental note to remember the numbers 2841747638164864916498 in case he ever had to meet the director again), flipped three switches (left, middle-left, right), and the opposite wall slid open to reveal an antechamber with a solitary terminal on the left wall, and a large door on the opposite one. "AMCS", the strange acronym the facility's AI had started to use to identify itself, was displayed on said terminal.
Joseph walked in, the panel sliding shut behind him.
"Please identify." A reasonably canned voice instructed.
"Rear Admiral Joseph Amarr, Union Navy." He responded.
The terminal displayed a loading bar and completely decorative sound-wave-ish-looking patterns as it matched his voice against the other times he had had to do this. The screen flashed green, and the larger door slid open.
"Director McPherson, you wanted to see me?"
"Yes, Admiral. Please have a seat." The man behind the desk in front of him replied.
Sitting down in the rather-uncomfortable visitor's chair, the director continued:
"Now then. One of our satellites recently returned this image." The director slid a photograph over to the Admiral.
"I don't see anything unusu... oh my god." he turned pale.
"The other admirals are aware of it too, and we've decided to send your fleet to investigate. This is the first truly spacefaring empire we know of, and we don't want them to find out about us first, understood?"
"Yessir. Where was this taken?"
"A place fairly far out known as the Pelican Nebula, it's a three-month trip from here. Don't worry, I've already assigned additional supply ships to your fleet."
"Aye sir. Anything else?"
"Yes, actually. Tell Rigel in the business office to get a translation team together. First contact will most likely have to be communicated in computer code, but we want to learn how to communicate with them as quickly as possible."
"Aye sir."
"Dismissed."
He left the office, feeling nervous.
Five days later, the Third Fleet (and 15-odd smaller supply ships) shot into one of the many mini-dimensions they would need to go through to get to the Nebula. This was going to be fun.
Rontak Nebula/star cluster/whatever - Machweik Territory - Space
Three gleaming dots of luminescent cyan blue drifted through the seemingly endless expanse of space. The ships - armored with an unknown alien material - were a whitish grey in color with shades of blue, and rigidly shaped, like a family of frightening spacefaring beasts with metal exoskeletons built for not only protection, but intimidation. In human classification, the leading ships were Corvettes. Built for speed and maneuverability. The third was an Interceptor, in some ways a more agile and combat-friendly version of the Corvettes that it accompanied. Together they patrolled the outer colonies of the Machweik Hierarchy, an occupation that until recently was the most uneventful task bestowed upon a Machweik.
Within the ships, a multitude of noticeably disciplined crew members executed numerous tasks in accordance to their particular job, others supervised, but all worked fluidly and without complaint, ensuring that the vessels worked like well-oiled machines, and drifted silently and swiftly through space. In the leading ship - the Corvette Dawning Justice - a towering figure made its way through the ship's corridors. The figure's digitigrade legs stomped through the halls with a sense of superiority and elegance. It's thick, rigid armor, displayed with pride, as a symbol of the figure's hard-earned respect, only adding to the figure's already intimidating presence. The figure was none other than Shipmaster Vkamm, a muscular Machweik standing at seven feet tall, with broad shoulders and scars of past battles adorning his face.
As he neared the ship's main meeting room, two rows of Machweik Imperial Guards on either side of the hall stood in attention, rising their bladed energy staves in unison as the Shipmaster made his way passed them and through the sliding doors to the council room. Inside of the dimly lit room stood multiple figures in red and blue, hooded robes. They stood around a long table, adorned with blue and white lights, immediately acknowledging the Shipmaster, though with a slight sense of defiance.
They were in the on-board council, responsible for making decisions on the spot when a higher authority wasn't within immediate contact.
" Shipmaster. " one of the figures greeted, " Please, have a seat. "
At one end of the table was the Shipmaster's chair, a throne-like seat that elevated the Shipmaster above the rest of the Machweik present.
" Begin. " Shipmaster Vkamm ordered plainly, sitting comfortably in his chair.
" As you wish. " responded one of the councilmen, and he, along with the rest, took their seats around the table.
The meeting table immediately projected an image of the outer colonies, shooting up above the table's surface, as if the table itself possessed a level of intelligence. Some structures and planets were represented in blue, others in white, with one unidentified vessel represented in red and slowly approaching from one end of the projection.
" Shipmaster, as I've sure you understand, our sensors have picked up an unidentified vessel entering Hierarchy controlled space. " one of the robed Machweik began.
" Yes. "
" The vessel is believed to be in control of intelligent beings hailing from the Dusted Cluster -- the beings Hierarchy intelligence groups have been keeping a close eye upon -- the one's we've been advised to watch for. " another robed Machweik explained.
" Yes, I understand the situation, councilmen. I am here about your decision. Time is of the essence. " Shipmaster Vkamm replied.
" Of course.. but we ar- "
" With haste, councilman. We've not much time. " the Shipmaster urged.
Nodding, the councilman continued with a shortened version. " Very well. The unidentified vessel appears to be lightly armed. Likely a reconnaissance ship. We have, however, observed these beings in the past. Numerous times we've observed their ships firing on other unidentified ships entering the Dusted Cluster. Because of that, we have reason to believe these beings are with hostile intent, and, on our order to secure and protect the Hierarchy's outer colonies, we have justification for deadly force. Ou - "
" .. And your decision? " the Shipmaster inquired once more.
" Yes.. Our decision on the matter is split. It is why we've called for you. The fate of the vessel is on your hands. "
Shipmaster Vkamm sighed, taking a moment to make his final decision.
" Shipmaster..? "
" I've decided t- "
Before the Shipmaster could finish, the projection above the table was replaced with a three-dimensional sphere presenting an audio transmission from the incoming vessel. Similar to an eye, the sphere closed or "blinked" everytime audio came through.
" -ot hostile, I repeat, we are not hostile - "
The Machweik listened intently, looking at each other but unable to comprehend the languages being spoken.
" It doesn't sound aggressive. " a councilman commented.
" We can't know for sure. " another said.
" Shipmaster.. We are waiting. "
Taking a deep breath, the Shipmaster spoke up once more, " I've decided to engage the vessel. It's not a decision I am entirely comfortable with, but you've left me no choice. We cannot risk the vessel escaping with any information. If possible, we'll take the survivors into custody. "
" As you wish, Shipmaster. As your on-board council, we hereby grant you permission to take necessary action against the incoming vessel. "
Minutes later
The Machweik ships altered their course directly towards the incoming vessel. Soaring through space at unbelievable speeds, the Corvettes readied their weapons and prepared to engage. One after the other, the Machweik ships soared right passed the unidentified vessel, leaving only their silhouettes to be seen, along with several plasma torpedoes as part of the Machweik 'welcome basket'.
((Basically, they flew right passed the ship and fired plasma torpedoes at it as they did. Also, since I haven't made a page for the Corvettes, here's my anti-ass-pulls: The Corvettes are about 430m long and 200m wide. They are fast and maneuverable, but are lightly armored. Their weapons are plasma torpedoes and auto-turrets.))
"****ing pirates." Admiral Rockwell chewed angrily on the end of his cigar. Tobacco products had been long-since banned, and now they were made with a convenient type of leaf found in the swamps of Arcadia that had the same effects as tobacco-based products, but no lung cancer. Still wasn't the same to him, though.
The first fleet had been on the tail of some pirates who had hijacked a large merchant ship belonging to Yawasaki. He thought it insane that an entire fleet was needed for recovering it, but his higherups had told him that something really valuable had been on that ship; so the whole fleet it was.
They had been on the tail of the pirates for three days now, hopping in and out of mini-dimensions at first, but the pirates seemed to have abandoned that tactic and instead tried to escape through normal space.
"You know what? **** it. Gunner!"
"Aye?"
"Load the high-explosive rounds into cannons 43-48 and fire at the engines." he ordered.
"Firing."
Plasma trails streaked across the blackness, followed by bright flashes of light as the stolen ship's engines imploded.
"Send in a destroyer to pick it up."
"Any preference as to which, sir?"
"Eh, 'wot about the Savannah? We haven't had those blokes do anything in a while."
"Sending the order now."
The greenish-coloured fusion trail of a nearby destroyer flared to life as it hurtled through the void towards the now-derelict freighter. It started slowing down when it neared the ship, creating another large fusion trail in front of it.
Insertion Team No. 37011-B
"Alright men, it's simple. We just gotta run in, kill any of the pirates who were wearing space suits, grab the cargo, and run out. Any questions?" the captain announced.
"Rules of engagement sir?" a corporal asked.
"Crew expendable. Now move out."
The squad of 7 pulled down their air masks, boarded their dropship and rocketed over to the freighter, sailing through a large hole in the hull and landing in one of the high-roofed storage rooms.
Containers were stacked two-high, with a few massive (but now toppled) towers of crates near the middle of the arched ceiling.
"The container we're looking for is on the other side. We move on my mark. Three, two, one, mark!" the squad leapt into the air.
They rebounded off the angled roof above them, sailed over to the other side, and bounced down, each grabbing onto something attached to the floor to prevent them from bouncing.
"Lights on." seven sets of helmet LED's blazed into existence.
"Alright, we're looking for a large red container labelled '37050'. Fan out and search for it. Radio in with the rest of us if you find anything."
The squad fanned out, searching among the labyrinth of crates for the red one labelled '37050'.
Pvt. Rigel Jenkins
He noticed something shiny in a darkened corner of the crate he was searching. Further inspection of it revealed it to be some kind of chitin.
"Captain, were there any kind of bugs being transported on this thing?" he said over the radio.
"Negative. What did you find?"
"Some kind of chiti... hang on a sec... what the hell was tha- OH GOD HELP! **** IT'S GOT ME HEEEEL-"
Captain Richard Antonille
There were bright plasma flashes a few crates over, and the humanoid shape on his helmet's HUD turned red.
"Something got Jenkins!" He yelled over the radio.
Silence. With a sinking horror he realised that the other six figures were all red.
He started running. Sprinting, jumping, flying through the zero-G ship. Anything to escape whatever had gotten the others.
"The exit!" he yelled in relief, and jumped straight out of one of the holes in the ship, stright towards the Savannah.
As the ship manoeuvred so that he would land in one of the dropship bays, he yelled:
"I MADE IT! YES!" Unfortunately, at that moment he turned around to see a long tentacle snake out of the hole, headed straight for him.
"OH **** OH **** OH **** BLOODY HELL!" He yelled, among other things as the tentacle, despite him blasting endless amounts of tungsten-carbide into it, grabbed him around the waist and pulled him back in.
Bridge of the ESS Do You Feel Lucky (they don't)
The last human-shaped light turned red.
"My god." a random person on the bridge remarked.
"PHASE it." the Admiral ordered.
"But sir! We have orde-"
"PHASE IT, DAMMIT! Whatever the hell is on there, we can't let it escape!" he yelled.
"Aye sir."
Two long, thin plasma trails streaked across space, creating a field of utter blackness when they hit. Within seconds, both the container ship and the blackness were gone, leaving only the Savannah to continue moving back towards the rest of the fleet.
"Did anything make it out?"
"Scanning. No sir, at least not that we can tell."
"I don't know what the hell that was on that ship, but Yawasaki has NO business messing with that sort of thing. I don't CARE how much we would benefit from weaponising it."
"Whatever you say, sir."
"Damn... Take us to Proxima Centauri. OSI needs to hear about this."
"Warping."
The fleet pinged out of existence, reappearing in Proxima Centauri a few hours later.
((No, nothing escaped the ship. However, this was a bit of foreshadowing as to what might go wrong in a few IRL weeks. Hope you like fighting 'Nids. Mwahahahahahaha...))
Perspective of "fighter R"
Fighter R doesn't like what's going on with those whole space cannon stuff because it makes those fleshies feel important somehow. Stupid fleshie pylorians. Worst things to exist they really shouldn't exist who created them anyways? Who cares, either way shooting them for target practice is all they are good for. Nothing else at all except being sperm dumpsters and literal fleshbags. ****ing hate fleshies. Hate them so much I just want to shoot them with my gun!
Fighter R proceeds to start to drive through a part of pylorian colony A and starts to open fire on various traveling flesh pylorians shooting 300 rounds a minute from its mounted machine gun ripping apart those flesh bags and making them bleed green real good.
Fighter R has been told there are PP's watching us again. They shouldn't do that because they shouldn't those stupid PP's. Fighter A will take guard just in case those PP's try anything stupid.
Perspective of "Flyer A"
A flying pylorian known by as flyer "A" noticed those weird walking things walking around spying on them more, but they seem to be doing no harm so let them be although it is weird how they are outside of the ground instead of normally building those really large colonies a miner or two stumbled upon that they attacked like as if it wanted to kill them or something. Oh well they must have had logical reasons to, perhaps it accidentally caused a cave-in or something.
Either way A has decided to go and see what they pentagon peoples are doing over the ridge. It looked over some of the walkers and decided to swoop down to get a better look accidently hitting and knocking over one of them which must have really hurt that one because the others started to shoot at it and the flyer had to run before their weapons destroyed it.
Very weird of those pentagon peoples to attack us like that, although they always seem to attack us whenever e reach them for some reason. They destroyed colonies E and D just for mining into their cities and only D mined into one of their cities which was very odd because why did they destroy colony E? Colony E doesn't mine it only makes flyers like flyer A.
Just encase for the sake of it let's have more fighters patrolling for security because we don't want them stealing our babies even if they babies are made those stupid fleshies who deserve to be murdered. Flyer A now goes and starts ramming fleshies randomly for the sake of it because those fleshies get to sex all they want while flyer A has to constantly patrol. Why don't these fleshies realize that they are stupid because they just luckily chosen by the determinator to be fleshies? Either way stupid fleshies must be rammed as flyer A rams more flesh pylorians for the sake of it.
Perhaps now those stupud flesh pylorians that just went splat will learn that they are worthless bags of crap who deserve nothing in life. Flyer A wonders why the PP's don't just kill those stupid fleshies and give the robotic pylorians the ability to reproduce or something. Shame it can't understand that weird gibberish they speak or that flyer A can't speak because than us true hard working pylorians could be able to get rid of these stupid fleshies.
Flyer A hears more activity from pents oddly enough. Flyer A wonders why that is.
((This post assumes spies were sent over. This is more of a time passer post I guess.))
The woman beside Rvic yelled, "Sir they are not slowing down, they are accelerating!"
Rivic screamed back, "Be calm! bring us away from their ships and out of a collision course!"
The woman responded calmer but still in a panicked way, "Yes sir bringing us off a-"
She was then cut off by the man beside Rivic who spoke far louder than both the woman or Rivic, "Their firing weapons!"
Rivic responded, "Impact ETA!"
The man shouted back, "Now!"
Just as that was said the ship was rocked and sparks flew out of overloaded conduits around the ship. A great hole was made in the side of the ship with small fires from oxidizing materials inside it. The huge burst of air leaving the ship before it sealed airlocks flung the ship into a break neck spin, people and supplies floating away in the vacuum of space, never to be seen again.
23 Seconds Later.
Rivic woke to a cut head and burn marks on his arm, his console fried. The woman and man who has sat beside him now hung over him echoing each others, "Are you ok? Call a medic!"
Rivic immediately pushed them away and shouted, "I don't need no damn medic! Im fine. Officers give me a damage report ASAP, and reroute this electricity these sparks are ridiculous! Damn sub par wire insulation."
The woman immediately went to her console and responded, "Rerouteing power sir, its difficult here was obvious damage, I can't pinpoint it but i can isolate the effected area as a whole, several decks will lose power."
Rivic held his head and spoke back, "Do it!" He turned to the man and barked, "You give me a damage report!"
The man responded, "Yes sir!" Then sat at his console hitting keys and looking at camera feeds. He eventually spoke up again, "Sir it appears that the ADS system countered 5 torpedoes but the sixth hit an area of the ship with fewer ADS cannons... It seems that the one that hit compromised deck three section four and deck two section four. Casualties are expected to be twenty three, and the damage disabled our sub light drives, not sure why." After a brief pause he spoke again, "The sub light appears to be offline due to PS generator cell one on deck two section four being compromised, ti was responsible for powering engines."
Rivic responded, "Eject cell one immediately. Can we not reroute another cell to engines?"
The man turned and spoke sheepishly, "Yes sir... But cell one won't eject, the mechanism was destroyed, this ship is a ticking time bomb and the slightest power fluctuation could set it off."
Just as he said this the lights flicked, causing everyone on the bridge to look like they had just expected death. Rivic the responded, "They won't stop at this, get to the damn escape pods, issue a ship wide alert, and before you leave patch be in to anti asteroid railgun controls."
The woman responded, "Sir thats suicide! Just come with us don't be foolish!"
Rivic responded, "Captain goes down with his ship officer, give me gun controls and get the hell out of here."
With that everyone fled from the bridge and other areas of the ship, all headed to the escape pods. There were more than enough, considering only 176 people were going in 200 pods. The bottom of the ship flared with light as the pods blasted out of it, leaving brilliant trails of debris from the ejection guns.
Rivic sat at his console, he saw the alien ships coming and sent a message, "No." With that he fired the railgun in a burst of ten rounds at the incoming ship, he managed to get two bursts off before they passed again, one more hit and the ship would erupt into a massive fireball, 20 fireballs to be precise.
An explosion of seemingly electrified blueish plasma fused with dying fire rocked the human vessel as the torpedo punched it's way through the ship's hull, rupturing it and allowing the vacuum of space to pull its cargo and crew members alike, worsening an already terrible situation.
As panic ensued inside the human vessel, the Machweik ships screamed passed once more, watching the chaos unfold as the human vessel crumbled from within. Soon enough, the humans began ejecting from the ship with the use of escape pods. One after the other, the escape pods launched themselves away from the dying vessel, leaving behind fiery trails and debris.
In the Machweik ship Dawning Justice, Shipmaster V'akaam oversaw the engagement from the comfort of the captain's deck, where he sat upon his throne-like chair as Machweik sailors delivered back to back reports on the situation.
" Shipmaster. " a Machweik sailor beside him began.
" Speak. "
" Fast-moving objects are leaving the enemy vessel -- presumably escape pods. Should we enga- "
" No. " the Shipmaster responded, cutting the sailor off mid question. " Let them be. " he added.
Puzzled, the young sailor continued, ".. As you wish, Shipmaster. What should be our next move? "
" Turn back toward the ship. "
Following the Shipmaster's orders, all three ships altered their course and slingshotted back toward the human vessel, using their impressive maneuverability, the Corvettes were able to evade a hail of enemy tracers coming their way, but the Interceptor was clipped, taking considerable damage.
" Shipmaster! We have incoming fire! " a Machweik reported.
" Interceptor, draw the ship's fire! " Shipmaster Va'kaam hollered over the radio. " Redemption (second Corvette), break left! Pursue those escape pods and use your gravity lift to capture them and its occupants! "
" It will be done, Shipmaster. " the accompanying ships responded in near unison.
The Shipmaster continued, " Dawning Justice, I want us over that vessel. Ready the drop-pods, we're sending in a team to break through and capture whoever is firing that weapon. "
" As you wish, Shipmaster. "
((Summary of my move: The Interceptor is breaking right and attempting to draw High Seas' fire (you decide if it works), the second Corvette is breaking left, away from the fight to basically collect the escape pods using its gravity lift. The main Corvette is going to attempt to hover over High Seas so that a team of Machweik soldiers can shoot through in drop pods and capture the captain. Note that while the ship is weak, drop pods punching through wouldn't be enough to make the ship explode. The only real danger is the fact that the ship is a ticking time bomb, which is why the Machweik team is going to try and push through, grab the Captain and get the **** out of there.))
With the pents at stand by with their armada of 6 vehicles, prepared for battle the pylorians started to get worried. These dwarves are now bringing such bizarre vehicles here, possibly their fighter equivalents thanks to the hostile looking design of these machines. Odd, pylorians never actually got to explore their underground areas thanks to how hostile they are about it. Perhaps now these mole things want the surface as well!
Perspective of Builder R
PPs? Here? What for? no intrusions happened last time builder R checked so what is it now? Did a fighter shoot one or something? Either way time to build guns for Builder R and builder S to builder CZZ. Long day ahead of me for gun making. Once done builder will fight them PPs and shoot them from very far distance.
Part one placed in. Part two done. Part three latched on. Ammo placed. Gun ready to go. My gun. Now for builder S...
Perspective of fighter CA
They think they can march into our land like this? Who do these PP's think they are? They just live in the ground away from us mostly. Now what are they doing bringing their vehicles here? Who cares I am going to shoot them because they think they are so clever walking up to us like this. Now Fighter CA is going to press the alarm button and signal those stupid fleshies to attack them while I shoot them with my gun. Fighter CA now goes out and brings 10000 fleshies and 9 fellow fighters with it to engage the hover tanks.
The fleshies start to squirm their way to the tank in a massive wall of terror while the fighters stay in the back opening fire on the tanks while keeping their distance because than the tanks will have to go through the fleshies before getting to fighter CA and fighter CA's pals.
Perspective of Flyer A
What small number these dumb ground dwellers bring, Only 6 fighters? This will be a blood bath I just know it. I will keep watch on them very well and fine so they can't run away and fighters can shoot them until they die.
I am just going to fly around the skies scanning their movements to make sure everything's doing well and those fleshies better not **** this battle up because if they do than they will be even more useless than even the fighters could imagine.
No perspective
Hundreds of fighters and hundreds of thousands of fleshies all start piling up flowing from the weird hexagonal towers with fighters driving around in the back. The fleshies start to move at a fast 9 mph towards the tanks while the fighters stay in back laying a hail of suppressing fire down while driving around at a okay 40 mph in circles in the back.
The fun has just begun!
Rivic saw the ships break apart, one was damaged unlike then the others, seeing an opportunity Rivic turned the railgun in its direction and opened fire. One, two, three bursts before he saw another vessel heading for escape pods, he had bee fooled dammit, played right into a damn trap, his father taught him better than this! Rivic turned the railgun immediately at the ship slowing to pick up escape pods, he fired five bursts then heard the thuds of boarding pods.
Rivic uttered, "Jhag..." A curse word often used to convey a sense of hatred at someone or something. Rivic raised himself from his seat and ran toward the door, he debated shutting it, afraid of overloading the ships generator but decided to anyway. With the door to the bridge closed he scoured the floor looking for anything to fight the ******* aliens coming in, eventually he came across a stun gun dropped by one of the bridge security officers when he left. Rivic grabbed the stun gun and hit the activate key, it was on now. Rivic looked over at his console, he couldn't let the damn aliens get a hold of critical information.
Rivic walked over to the console and pulled a silver key off a chain around his neck, he plugged the ket into a small keyhole on his console and entered his code in the lower box on the screen. He hit enter and the screen went black, wiped of any useful information, but sadly it also cut his access to the railgun off. Rivic positioned himself behind his seat facing the door, stun gun aimed at the metal blast door, ready to fight to the death if he had to, to preserve his own honour if nothing else.
Escape Pod 2-Machweik Space
The woman officer who was with Rivic looked at the NSS High Seas from the window on the pod, a hole dug right into its side. She saw the shots from the railgun at the interceptor, the alien ships break away and then further shots at the interceptor. Then she looked up, what seems like a massive vessel was hanging over the pods. She panicked and started screaming, "Jhag! Jhag you all to hell you bastards!" Then the shots from the High Seas flying at the ship above her, god bless Rivic, the man would save his crew rather than himself. Yet for some reason the woman only thought if escape pod one would ever be launched with Rivic in it, strange.
"What are we doing here." chimed a Xero as it passed a long window gazing out into the galactic center. A tight clump of lights in the distance seemed to throb and rotate slowly in the distance. the faint shine of other stars and masses shown behind that. Flipping through several radiation filters on his visual optics the being looked on as the scene turned from the stale black with tight and loose clumps of stars to bright cheery-red to blues and greens as he cycled through the visual spectrum, infrared, X-ray, gamma, and thermal. "There's nothing here."
"What we always do, CP-I-1205." said another, CP-I-1007 branded on his hull, "Study, sit, wait.
"We're preparing to send equipment through the wormhole and see where it comes out. For when we need to charge our Neutrino drives and need to pass the distances.
"It's also an attempt to perfect a field the Arete Treella was looking into, but didn't have the means to investigate. We were the closest and most capable to perform this task the time the GCP picked it up on the Mesh and ran it by CP-I-1050."
"That's complete madness," 1205 growled, "And CP-I-1050? Won't he do anything if it by-chance puts him at a greater distance to that 'communism' he keeps shouting about?"
"CP-I-1052 agreed."
"He's the same, but with Capitalism. GCP isn't exactly putting faith in all the the right individuals. Did anyone check his fluids?"
"But forgetting we're also all influenced by The Mesh, no?"
The Xero sputtered and sprayed static in anger. "Well could be worse. Could be putting the ship through an impromptu abortion by ramming it into the biggest super-massive planet he can find."
"Indeed."
My DeviantArt, so sexy
Interceptor
Tracer rounds trailed behind the Interceptor as it swerved around in the emptiness of space, successfully fooling the human gunner. Realizing his mistake, the human gunner shifted his aim and acquired a different, more important target - the Machweik Corvette known as Redemption.
" The enemy vessel has ceased fire -- it may be switching targets. " a Machweik sailor on-board the Interceptor reported.
" Acknowledged. " the Corvettes responded.
Corvette 'Redemption'
As the Corvette maneuvered it's way around the human vessel, it positioned itself above one of the human escape pods, and, using its gravity lifts, began pulling the drifting escape pods up to the ship's cargo bay. Tracers flew overheard as it did, with several rounds impacting the Corvette on its side, rocking the ship slightly.
" Damage report. " a Machweik on-board requested.
" Considerable, but we can hold -- the enemy vessel has ceased fire. "
" Good. Move on to the next pod. "
The Corvette moved on to the next pod, and later the next, until all pods were in the ship's cargo bay. Inside were frightened - and some furious - humans. The Machweik on board took the necessary precautions and surrounded the escape pods with their rifles raised. Once the battle was over, the Machweik on board the Redemption would escort the captured survivors to a holding area, where the humans would be imprisoned until further notice.
((You don't have to post about this, Moose)).
Inside the Nordic Federation ship 'High Seas'
As planned, the leading Corvette, Dawning Justice, maneuvered its way above the enemy vessel and deployed four drop pods, each holding one Machweik Marine equipped with assault rifles, and wearing suits resembling thin spacesuits that seemingly took the shape of the wearer. The fabric itself looked similar to plastic, or carbon fiber, and was a whitish grey in color. While obviously durable, the suits appeared to serve primarily as environmental suits. The helmets had blackened visors, and provided oxygen.
Inside of the ship, the Machweik Marines found themselves in smoking corridors with no real direction besides red, blinking lights that lit up the many hallways. Fighting their way through the hazardous environment, and avoiding fires and electrical hazards that had broken out throughout the ship, the Marines finally found what they were looking for: The captain's deck. They immediately set up around the sliding doors, and after realizing the door was locked shut, decided to take it down.. with explosives.
One of the Machweik Marines readied what humans would call a 'breaching devise', and planted it on the door. Several seconds later, the explosive went off, sending the doors flying into the room with minimum smoke and damage. Immediately after, the Marines rushed into the room, scanning it with their rifles.
Yelp!
Without warning, one of the Machweik hit the floor, trembling as electricity ran through his body. Confused, the other Machweiks were caught completely off guard.
" CATCH! " a voice called out, followed by the thudding sound of a stun-gun impacting the face of the leading Machweik, causing the alien to stagger and fall back. Another saw the human coming and stepped forward, raising his rifle. The human, seemingly fearlessly, smacked the rifle to the side and head-butted the alien, causing the alien to stagger, allowing the human to pull the rifle out of the alien's hands.
Rifle in hand and cigar between his lips, the human appeared to have the upper hand, and he felt like he did.
" SEE YOU IN VAL- " the rest was muffled by the sound of gun fire as the human captain opened up on the 'alien bastards', firing from the hip like he was starring in an action movie.
In the midst of the chaos, the Machweik Marines managed to take cover and return fire, and, in what seemed like seconds, the shootout was over, with the human captain throwing the empty rifle aside and raising his hands.
" You alien bastards are lucky I couldn't figure out how to reload those damn alien weapons, otherwise you'd all be shining my shoes right about now.. with your blood. "
The Machweik looked at each other, shrugging in confusion, and stepped forward to take the human captive.
((For the record, none of the Machweik were killed. One of them was stunned with the stun gun and the other was knocked over when the captain threw the empty stun gun at his face. Anyway, sorry for the shitty post. I forced my self to make this today. Anyway, anyway.. Moose, you should make a post about something completely different. Then after that post I'll make a post about the captain and everyone else being held prisoner somewhere and you can make a post using the crew of the High Seas again. So yeah, make a post about something unrelated for now. Which reminds me, the Machweik might recover the High Seas if it didn't blow up. ))
10:00 Human time
5:00 Gerian time
Leos/Natalia
Leos Nix walked down the long, steel hallway of the residential deck. He was stationed on the 7th level of the deck, and there were still several hundred rooms all around him. Plus this wasn't even the top level, it was somewhere in the middle. It really made him wonder about the size of the craft he was on, and its crew. He knew that the size of a standard Gerian crew was about 50,000, which didn't seem like much until he was actually on the ship.
Leos was honored to be on an all-Gerian crew. All other races were inferior, and must be dominated or destroyed. There is no other possible fate. That's what the government always said, and the message was everywhere, on the radio, broadcast by loudspeakers, and on holovision. So Leos didn't question it. That's how he had been taught to think since he was very young.
He finally reached room 7-207. He knocked on the door to see if his crewmate had already arrived. "Come in." said a female voice, breathing very heavily. Immediately Leos knew something was wrong. Men and women weren't supposed to be stationed together. For obvious reasons. But he went in anyway. The inside of the cabin was tiny. There were two small beds, some dressers and, apparently, exercise equipment. Because there was a mess of blond hair hanging from a bar on the other side of the room.
The girl was lifting herself up on the chin-up bar... with her feet. She was holding the bar with her ankles and bending her knees to lift herself up. As she noticed him enter the room, the girl pushed off from the wall and landed gracefully on her bed. Then she got up and walked over to him, smiling.
"Hi," she said while extending her hand, completely out of breath, "Natalia Rez. Nice to meet you."
"Leos Nix." he said, shaking her hand. Vaxc*, she was gorgeous. But he couldn't think like that. There was a reason men and women weren't normally assigned to the same cabin. He was about to ask why she was here when she noticed the confused look on his face. Natalia chuckled and sat down on her bed again, catching her breath.
"Turns out there were too many men in this division, so some of them had to bunk with the women. But Command has clear instructions about what's allowed... and what's not allowed." she looked over at him mischievously, then laughed again. "But I don't think that will be a problem."
"Neither do I." Leos reassured her. "I'm the most by-the-book person you'll ever meet. Literally. I learned everything I know about this place from books." He started walking across the room. "We've got half an hour until briefing starts, so..." he picked up two 35-pound dumbbells from her side of the room. "Do you mind?"
"Go ahead."
Leos condition: Healthy
Inventory
none
Inventory
none
*Vaxc (vah-ksk) is the primary deity in the widespread Gerian religion Yvism (ee-vism). While the majority of the population doesn't believe in him, he is still used as an exclamation, similar to "oh my god" by humans.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Craft 6, Command Post
10:26 Human time
5:13 Gerian time
Captain Yze sat at her post in the command room. At her sides were both the ship's officers, Levi and Veo. She was very nervous. She had been an Etaratus for the past year or so, commanding small squads and orchestrating missions. She was very good at what she did. And now she had been promoted. Finatarus. First day of the job.
Her entire career depended on her doing well. She was well on her way to be the first woman to become a Royal. But that meant she had to succeed in this position. She took one last breath and picked up the intercom mic to broadcast to the entire ship.
"We are now leaving the dock. There will be a brief period of extreme acceleration, so hold on to something. In two minutes Gerian time the speed will have stabilized. At that time all Preates are to report to the comm station for briefing." She let go of the intercom button and pressed another one, the one connected to the pilot's room. "Haer, start acceleration."
"Will do, captain." came the reply. Avery held onto the table, as did her two officers. "Don't worry, captain." said Officer Levi. "You're doing fine." Officer Veo nodded in agreement, adding, "But you should really calm down. You don't exactly exude confidence right now."
"Right." Avery relaxed her posture and breathing, but kept her grip on the table steady. The ship suddenly sped forward, which was backwards to them. They were pulled back, but the table anchored them down. They continued to hold on with a vice grip as the ship gradually slowed down. Eventually, it felt like they came to a stop, when in reality the ship's speed had stabilized. At that time, preates started slowly pouring in for briefing.
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.
The ITF herded new Atrin prisoners into Taian correctional facilities every day, killing them off or selling them into slavery at an impressive rate, but still the hunt continued for members of the elusive race. And so Ramus had found himself assigned the messy task of finding and destroying (or capturing--that part was optional) the small convoys of night-black Atrin ships that were constantly streaming away from Taian space.
It wasn't a unique or even rare job. Every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every year, ships with the ITF combed the stars for any signs of ships that had slipped through the Taian's claws. Punishment for failure was a swift beheading, and so there were no more motivated or driven soldiers in the fleet than her officers. Even so, Ramus felt slightly uneasy at the prospect of killing women and children.
Slightly.
His gaze was torn away from the vast expanse before him by the call of one of the junior officers that sat on the bridge perpetually. "Captain! Unidentified ship detected, about three thousand klicks out." As Ramus strode over to his station he added "This is an unknown class of ship. It's clearly not Atrin or Taian in design. This might be first contact, sir."
First contact? Ramus thought. That's...incomprehensible. Who knew he'd be the one to establish contact with an alien race? Regaining his composure, he picked up the officer's loudspeaker mouthpiece and said, "Now hear this. All personnel, man your battle stations. All pilots, prepare for liftoff and await further orders."
As he placed the mouthpiece into its cradle on the officer's desk, he said "Do we have any way of contacting these...erm, things?"
"Unsure, sir. Suggest we await their hailing. We seem to be larger than them; we can take them in a fight, but we don't know what the ramifications would be."
"You're probably right." Turning to the weapons officers, Ramus barked out "Get your turbos aimed at them and primed, but under no circumstances fire. Anyone who fires will face the discipline of the ITF." The Taian began furiously inputting commands, and on the exterior of the S'takk-class her batteries rotated in accordance with their orders. The Steadfast awaited a hail.
Inside the Dawning Justice's communications room, Shipmaster Vah'akam stood firmly before a blueish projection of his superior, who appeared in real time before him, wearing a red and gold hooded robe symbolizing his level of authority. Having received a report from Shipmaster Vah'akam detailing the events that had unfolded only hours prior, the hierarch - a title typically given to a superior - was none too pleased, condemning the Shipmaster's decision to engage the human explorers in naval warfare.
" UNACCEPTABLE! " the hierarch blared, the real time projection allowing Vah'akam to see just how infuriated his superior was. With a snarl, the hierarch continued, " Under what authority, Shipmaster!? Under what reasoning!? What instigated such a decision, Shipmaster? Tell me! " he furiously demanded.
" Sire.. " Shipmaster Vah'akamm began, kneeling before the projection. " I made the decision. " he admitted.
" It is not your duty to make such decisions, Shipmaster! " the hierarch retorted. " That is your on board council's duty! "
" The council's decision was split, sire. " the Shipmaster explained.
" AND YOU ARE A FOOL TO BELIEVE THEM! " the hierarch roared in frustration, leaving the Shipmaster bowing his head in shame. " Tell me, Shipmaster, how many councilmen are on board your ship? "
" Nine, sire. " answered the Shipmaster.
" THEN HOW COULD THEY BE SPLIT! " the hierarch snapped. " You have been fooled, Shipmaster! You have a rival on board, a competitor! Someone wants you demoted, Shipmaster, and they may have accomplished that goal! " the hierarch threatened.
Gulping, the Shipmaster remained silent.
" Where are the beings? " the hierarch asked.
" The majority are on board the Redemption, sire, their leader is here.. in the Dawning Justice. " responded the Shipmaster. " We have attempted to communicate, but without success. Our scribes are studying what diminutive speech they've managed to hear spoken between the beings. "
" Good. " the hierach said, somewhat satisfied. " Speak to their leader, if possible. Inform him that you are to bring him back to whence him came. Then take them back. "
" .. But sire.. We've all observed the beings' hostility toward all who enter the Dusted Cluster. They'll greet us with fire! " the Shipmaster heeded.
" Perhaps, but let us not forget the way you greeted them, Shipmaster. To expect a comfortably warm welcome is insulting. However, that is why I ask that you attempt to communicate with their leader. Tell him of your task. Use him to heed his people before entering the Dusted Cluster. I assure, they will hesitate before firing. Go forth, complete this task, and perhaps you'll keep your place as Shipmaster. "
" As you wish, sire. "
Minutes later, in the ship's cell block
Several small empty cells evenly spaced together occupied the lower deck of the ship, with energy barriers in place of metal bars. One near the end held a lone figure, slumped against a wall, and smoke emitting from a cigar between its lips -- Captain Rivic Norsog in all his unattended glory.
Outside of his cell, Shipmaster Vah'akam stood firmly, his thick, rigid armor adding to his naturally imposing figure. Two Imperial Guards accompanied him, wearing equally intimidating armor, and bladed staves by their side.
Tasked with communicating with a being who spoke a completely different language, Vah'akam found himself in an unsual situation, not knowing how to begin. All he had were several notes written for him, among those were the words " alien bastards " (although written wrong, obviously), believed to be the proper translation for " alien " by many of the scribes (based on what they've heard the humans say amongst themselves)... Surprisingly close, but humorously incorrect.
Beginning, Vah'akam stepped forward, the only thing separating him from the human being an energy barrier. Using hand gestures, Vah'akam pointed at himself, and spoke broken Swedish, " Alien ******* Vah'akam ". Convinced he had just simply referred to himself as " alien Vah'akam", he continued, again in Swedish, " You? ".
((I know I've changed the Shipmaster's name twice now, but I won't do it again.))
Docking officer Ograd sat at his console in the small control tower overlooking the docking station. He was doing his job was intending, which right now involved sitting at a char doing utterly nothing. Beside him was another Docking Officer named Asa, a former first officer on the Loki who suffered permanent nerve damage to her leg, she would likely never see the inside of a space ship again. She was reassigned to tower duty as a graceful retirement with pay, however it is likely the only reason she didn't get experimental surgery to repair her leg was the fact she never told the military what happened. Let alone her new coworkers who upon asking would often get a booming, "Mind your own jhaging business!" or simply get hit. The accident she had was shrouded in layers of deception.
Ograd knew that asking would waste more time, it had been hours and hours since the High Seas had left the station. In fact it had been hours until anything left or entered, the next launch was scheduled for tomorrow morning, however he and Asa were assigned to the tower, and thats where they were. Ograd attempted to at least start a conversation to pass time, "So... What do you think of the High Seas, damn thing was custom built for the generals son, lucky ******* he is, spoiled by his father."
Surprisingly Asa bothered to respond, "Rivic? That self concerned ass? The man might put his life on the life to save his crew if he ever got attacked but he's only doing it for a medal and the chance to beat some poor ******* up. Honestly the man is an adolescent who thinks their an action hero. Don't get me wrong the guy got a damn nice ship, and he managed to convince his father to authorize a jump past the explored area, way out in the middle of god knows where, but that doesn't change who he is."
Ograd responded, "Really? The newspapers always shower the guy in praise, hell he was the man who took out that Altak scout ship when it got too close to the cluster, fired through the damn dust wall to take it out i heard."
Asa shot back, "Right you heard news for you there was no damn Altak scout ship, he blew up a large asteroid outside the dust wall and got proclaimed a hero. Mans all for battle but hell does he enjoy headlines, always so damn smug with that cigar in this mouth, unbelievable he doesn't have cancer right now."
Ograd responded, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, how do you know this ****? Jhag it isn't like Rivic ever served on the Loki."
Asa shuddered at the name of her sold ship and responded, "Whatever, just ignore me, and mind your own jahging business. Everyone has a different opinion of that guy, thats mine, mixed with a bit more personal experience than any damn crew of his would get."
Ograd knew that was the end of the conversation, so he went back to blankly looking at space. He decided to pull a cigarette out and light it, to this Asa just shook her head and looked away, Ograd shrugged.
Dawning Justice Cell Block-Machweik Space
Rivic stood up to face the alien and laughed when he called himself a *******. Rivic looked at his cigar and saw it was burning out, damn shame. Rivic flicked the last nub of the cigar at the alien, only for it to bounce off the shield and began, "Well i guess thats your name now Mr.*******! As for me Captain Rivic of th- No wait Former captain Rivic of the NSS High Seas. You took that damn title away from me when you jhaging shot at my ship and disabled it! I guess you either managed to eject that cell and steal my ship or started laughing when my ship blew the jhag up."
Rivic sat down and began again, "So they send you down here to interrogate my ass? Or are you Mr.******* the poor guy who got stunned and you want a rematch? Well if your here to interrogate me go jhag yourself, but if your sorry as wants a fight come on in." Rivic motioned inside and then looked at the alien again. He resumed, "Well Mr.******* i highly doubt you know a damn thing I'm saying, your probably the guy who got stuck the "talk to the alien captive for information you can't understand" job huh? Save yourself the effort and go if you don't get what i am saying, because sure as hell you aren't going to learn much from me." Rivic gave a go away wave of his hand stood up and asked, "By chance do you have any cigars Mr.*******?" He pointed at the burning nub on the floor. Rivic resumed, "Because right now damn do i need another."
The planet below them had recently been discovered by the Taian in the fringes of the Central Nebula, and instead of wasting capital on sending surveying teams down, the Directorate had decided to use it as a sort of final test for its soldiers upon observing life on the surface. Previously, ITF trainees had been airdropped into small colonies of Atrin prisoners. It was required to kill at least ten before being initiated. This system, however, was expensive to maintain, and the fleet had jumped at the chance to shift the trials to a more expedient locale.
The only problem was that no one had any idea what lay on the surface. All the cadets had been told was that there was life, which could have been anything from flesh-eating bacteria to Tain-like creatures to three-story tall behemoths. Or worse. A'rkhanis tried not to think about that possibility.
The Peregrine's aft ramp suddenly disengaged and lowered, sending blinding light streaming into the cabin and signaling to the Taian inside that landing was imminent. Sure enough, several seconds later, the rapid descent of the dropship halted roughly, jerking awake any initiates who'd fallen asleep along the way.
The platoon knew their duty, and wordlessly the fulfilled it, leaping up from their seats and hopping out the back of the Peregrine. When the pilot saw that everyone had gotten out, he gunned the engines and the dropship lifted off once again.
A'rkhanis looked around. The planet--at least the region the stick had landed in--appeared to be heavily wooded, a nightmare for the claustrophobic Taian. The humidity was unbearable; it was almost possible to see the water vapor in the air. He subconsciously laid one clawed hand on a Kag'nata that hung loosely from his belt as unfamiliar screeches echoed from an indeterminate source. This was going to be hell.
10:30 Human time
5:15 Gerian time
Leos/Natalia
Natalia strode into the room calmly. Leos had rushed in and was already sitting down. They were among the last Preates to arrive - they were competing to see who could do more reps with a 100-kilo bar and lost track of time. They had to cut the contest short to hurry over for briefing. "I would have won." Natalia muttered as she sat down next to him. He forced a serious expression, looking over at Captain Yze.
"All right, we have our orders from Command." said the captain. "They think we finally have enough calling cards to make contact with the unknown empire. We don't have full control over all the surrounding nebulae. Just partial control over some major star systems. But they don't need to know that."
"Are we running the takeover? It doesn't seem like we have nearly enough experience." Leos spoke up.
"Of course you don't. But that's not the point right now. It doesn't appear there is a takeover mission at this time. Command is sending another fleet over to this..." she picked up the brief notice, "Cluster X55-856. They're going to see if the natives will assimilate peacefully before sending fighters over, but they want a few ships along for the ride, to let them know we mean business."
Leos nodded, then immediately noticed he was leaning forward, and that everyone was looking at him. "Smart plan." he said quietly, sitting back in his chair. The captain resumed her brief, unperturbed by the apparent interruption.
"That's mili-wide. The officials back home just want us to be informed. We're not actually acting on the mission. Here's what we are doing." The captain pushed a button on the table's edge, and a hologram of a star system was projected. "Ladies and gentlemen, behold the Ferios System. A key player in the Vito Nebula, and completely overrun by locals, tribes, dangerous wildlife. Things like that. "A-team, you are heading up the Ferios Campaign. If we get this leg up, the rest of the nebula will be ours in a matter of months. Report to the immediate superior in your sector for further briefing. Dismissed."
Natalia and Leos, along with the rest of A-team, filed out of the room in a somewhat orderly fashion as B-team shuffled into the room after them. "So who's our immediate superior?" Natalia asked. "A guy named Uru Vek. He's an Erat, has been for a while too. So he probably won't be around these parts much longer. Rumor has it he's tough, but he's one of the best when it comes to training." Leos led the way to the sergeant's office.
Uru Vek was a young man with buzzed red hair slightly longer than Leos' and matching light red eyes. He wore a visor over one eye and ear to feed him information. Vek was standing at a holoboard studying satellite images of a planet when the Preates filed in. He turned and greeted them. There were 10 Gerians in Sector 7-20B, and Vek was to train each one individually. Not an easy task, but very important indeed. As the last of them walked in, he brought up an info screen on his holoboard.
"7-20B. Nice to meet you as a whole. I'll be working with you individually over the next few days, but from here you look like a good bunch. Let's hope you're as strong as you appear." Leos couldn't tell if Vek was looking at him or the giant ripped dude next to him, but he had an idea. Vek returned the holoboard to its previous screen.
"This is Artak. It's a lush jungle planet, which is both good and bad. The air is humid and clean, good for us Gerians. Not too dry, and no life-threatening atmospheric diseases. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be worried." He flipped to the next screen, which showed an indigenous village. "The villagers." he scrolled to another screen of a short, stout humanoid with deep blue skin, red slits for eyes, and a mass of facial hair. "You'd think they wouldn't be a problem. They ride around on these strange beasts," Vek flipped to a picture of what looked like a red six-legged horse with a horn on its nose, "They don't know about electricity, plumbing, or any basic needs for living."
"There is one thing, however. The scout squad first sent to one of these villagers encountered a problem. They killed the villagers, all right. Their primitive technology didn't make that difficult. But it's what happened after they died that's a problem. They seem to have some sort of parasite controlling them in the place of a brain. Everything looks fine and dandy from the outside, but after they're killed, these impossibly fast pink fleshy creatures clamber out. They jumped onto the scout squad members' heads, ate through their armor, and then," Vek paused, "their flesh."
"The parasites appear intelligent, and now they have some of our technology. Don't let them have any more. If you see any villagers on your campaign, aim for the head at all costs. If you see any of our guys, don't hesitate to kill them. They're not themselves anymore. If you do manage to kill them, get our armor and weapons back from these slimy bastards."
"We land on Artak in a week. Briefing adjourned. Now, if your name isn't..." Vek looked down at a holopad in his hands, "Iop Baeor, then I'll talk to you later. If that is in fact your name, I'm very sorry your parents were that cruel. Also, you'll receive mission training first, and should probably stay here."
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.
7:30, 7th may 2604
The screeches however quickly turned to the noise of feet running and even more screeches.
These primitive things only had two large white eyes that bulged out of the main body and stood a simple 4-6 feet tall. These aliens had no head, rather a small main body with three legs and two arms that jutted out the sides of the "body" of the creature. Under their body was their parrot-like beak with 8 pronged teeth. In their hands they have a very primitive form of shield made of wood with obsidian bits attached to it and a obsidian tipped spear. These creatures had no armoring, only a simple bandana of varying colors. It is likely these creatures are mollusk-like and may have came from the seas only recently.
"The star demons!" One of these natives screeches. (not understood)
A particularly large one at 7 feet tall wielding a obsidian tipped trident made of ebony than approached Reek'sssh. It made a deeper screech than the others and is apparently the chieftain of this tribe. It pointed at the site of Reek's crash and then made a rather angry screech, saying (not understood by taians) "The zatrai have always warned us of beings like you. Invaders from the stars who threaten to kill us all! The only true gods are the zatrai, and now you threaten our reign. If you do not leave, we will kill you as the true gods demand us to."
More tribals start to come from other corners as the chieftain continues talking to Reek despite reek not being able to understand a word it is saying except for a few names. "You are surrounded, sky demons. Leave now or face death. the Lugoti will banish you from life if it must be done!" it says in a threatening crowl as every tribal starts to raise their shields and ready their spears.
Lugoti Chieftain condition: Fine.
Lugoti Chieftain Inventory:
Ebony Obsidian Trident
Sowcape/Pylorian colony A
6:30, 8th may 2604
Perspective of flesh pylorians
Those asshole bots want us to charge, let's do it so they don't kill us! Now we charge into those tankss and rip to shreds with our hands! Go go go go go--- IT BURNAS SO MUCH WWWWeeefj
No perspective
The flesh pylorians in all their stupidity charge at the PAIN tanks and get reduced to green mist by the sonic waves blasted from the tanks again and again like lemmings. Hundreds of flesh pylorians are rapidly killed by the superior PAIn tanks as the fighter pylorians decide to close in to attack the tanks.
Perspective of fighter pylorian C
Stupid fleshies can't do anything right. They just run into the tanks expecting snack bugs and sex. How stupid of them. Now I will show them how it's done! You circle around them and shoot at them... What? These graphene bullets aren't doing **** to them no matter how much I shoot them oh **** fall back fall back they are are really dangerous stay away from dangerous thing our shooty things don't do anything against it. Stupid builders should have made better guns than this. They need more graphene!
Perspective of flyer R
Why are fighters such cowards i mean there is nothing that bad down there I see they are shooting that tank a lot they should just stop running and shoot it- ZzZtt Why is the ground getting bigger?
No perspective
The fighters than while the fleshies mindlessly run into the PAIN sonic blasts than start to drive around the tanks hailing them in as much gunfire as possible. However as it turns out the graphene bullets don't do much against armored targets thanks to them being hollow and made of graphene. This causes the fights to rapidly attempt a retreat while the fleshies continue mindlessly getting themselves killed by the PAINS.
14:42 Human time
7:21 Gerian time
Leos/Natalia
The radio in their room buzzed through a message, causing Leos to jump and drop the barbell he was lifting. Luckily, Natalia was spotting him, and caught it before it fell on his neck and crushed his windpipe. "Thanks." he breathed, coughing and getting up. "I don't even realize what the radio said. Am I going into shock? Is this what shock feels like?"
"You're fine. Now relax. That was Vek on the radio, you're up next for op training. Tell me how it goes."
"You know it." Leos said, leaving the room. He got back to the sergeant's office, where Vek was already standing at the holoboard. "Leos. Good to meet you. I've been looking forward to meeting you personally. I served under your father for a while in 42nd division. He was a good man, knew how to make people listen." Vek sounded oddly sad, like he was reminiscing.
Leos, on the other hand, was suspicious. "You look young for 42nd division. And if you served back then, what are you doing here as an Erat?" Vek's look of blank despair turned to bitterness. He walked across the room and stared into the wall. "I was a great leader, Leos. We were running a mission in Hetiopa. North Arche, right around when the Empire closed off the sendout, ****in' Old Gods. We ran them out all right, but they were sneaky bastards while they were still kicking."
"It was an ambush. They evacuated, blew the whole town. We figured it out all right, but a bit too late. Most of our squad died that day. I had such bad burns on my face and arms, they had to be synthetically restored. This is how I looked when was close to your age. Flesh memory is effective, but doesn't work in the short-term." Vek bit his lip, turning back to Leos. "I got hit with a piece of shrapnel that day. Center torso. I was bleeding out on the ground. Your old man saved my life. Carried me and another guy two miles, while he had a broken leg. I owe him my life. So try not to die on the op, because... I really don't know if I'm strong enough to return the favor."
Leos took a deep breath. "Damn. He didn't really talk about his ops when I was 1. I haven't seen him in 7 years, and I keep hearing all these... fairy tale stories about him. Are they really all true?" Vek shrugged. "I didn't work with him long. After the ambush, I was out of action for a few months. But they restored me for my leadership potential. Said I had promise, that I could rally people. I had to be retrained, and brought back to Erat. I'm grateful they kept me on, instead of throwing me with the cripples and old folk."
"Our greatest curses are sometimes our greatest blessings." Leos quoted a Gerian poet. Vek nodded in agreement. "Truer words have never been spoken. Now, the op?" They walked back over to the holoboard, where Vek brought up a picture of a village. "I don't know what the name of this village is, and I honestly don't care. The point is, it seems to be a central hub for them. Lots of people live here, and lots of 'warriors,' if you can call them that with their pitiful weapons, guard the place. You have no idea how important you are in this mission."
"Agents Rez, Srin, and myself will be running the stealth commando op. Because the way we see it, everything is weaker when you attack it from the back. We'll hit these villagers where it doesn't hurt - the occipital lobe. No time for them or the slimebags to react. But you're running ranged on this mission, so you're going to have to be fast. You are to leave the landing craft shortly after the rest of the team attacks, so as not to be noticed. Find a perch quickly, wear active camouflage, and whatever you do, aim for the head. If you don't have a headshot, you don't have a shot. As far as we can tell, these things either can't or won't leave a living host."
"Understood, sir." Leos had written all the information down in his holobook. "Good." Vek said. "Now send Natalia in."
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Cluster X55-856/Some Taian star system/Approaching some Taian planet/Craft 1, 46th Fleet of the Emperor's Mighty Reign
16:04 Human time
8:02 Gerian time
Commander Edelbis looked out the pod bay window at the planet they were approaching. According to their signals, it was the most populated planet out of all planets in the nebula. Naturally, they approached this planet first. The commander took a deep breath, and prepared for contact.
He picked up a radio, and searched for the broadcast signal. When his tracker picked it up, he pressed the transmission button, hoping that whoever was in charge would receive the message, or at least that the message would be passed on to them.
"To whoever's in charge of this colony. This is the Gerian Empire. We already have control of your civilization, but it's up to you how many people die to prove it. Submit peacefully and none of your people will be harmed. If you do not, we will address your people directly. Those that join us will remain unharmed, the rest will be killed. One way or another, this nebula shall be ours. I expect an answer within the hour, human time. You can reach me on this frequency."
Edelbis ended the transmission, putting down the radio and picking up an Oblivion rifle, preparing for anything. All the ship's guns were pointed towards the planet, and radar was up. Any resistance would be blasted to pieces.
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.