SDNW4 Story Thread 1

[Alyrium Denryle]

Recommended Listening

Sector Q10, Suspected Pirate Base

They had their location, and the trap was set. Commander Alrynchus' plan had gone off without anything even remotely resembling complication, and his taskforce had tracked the fighters their agent had sold to the base, suspected of itself being a pirate nest. With no warning, the pirates were completely unprepared. The light carrier receiving the fighters had just gotten them fueled, armed, and taken aboard. Other ships, including two light cruisers, and pairs of missile frigates and destroyers were being refueled on the station's docking pylons, five corvettes patiently waited in a neat little queue. The Ranoidean fleet had approached very slowly in hyperspace, off lane and using a nearby star cluster to avoid detection. By the time they were detected by the early warning net and the alarm sounded, the fleet had just enough time to get their crews--on shore leave aboard the station--scrambled back to their posts. The corvettes only just began to break from their queue and form up as a defensive screen when the Ranoidean fleet exited hyperspace.

Commander Alrynchus, aboard the Ambystoma Class Cruiser TSS Maculatum which was serving as his temporary flagship.

"Patch me in on all frequencies"

"Aye commander" said the Communications Officer, who's name he honestly did not remember. They were, afterall just introduced. He picked up the receiver when she nodded at him. They COULD use visual displays. On the other hand, why? Why the hell would you let your enemy see the layout of CIC? Besides, this was more energy efficient.

"This is Commander Alrynchus, Omega Fleet, Anti-Pirate Battlegroup Sigma, Technosocialist State of Ranoidea. We have intelligence implicating your space station and associated ships with initiating acts of piracy against both state and privately owned merchant vessels of the TSR, as well as attacking military vessels. You are hereby ordered to power down your weapon systems and engines, lower your shield grids, cease all other flight operations and prepare to be boarded. Your crews will be detained and your cargo-holds, data-banks, and personal effects searched. You will be detained until this search is complete, at which time you will either be released or remanded for a fair trial where you will be afforded all due process of law including presumption of innocence, the right to council, and the right to confront all evidence and witnesses against you. Resistance will be met by the destruction of your ships. Any prisoners taken from any resisting ship will be detained, telepathically scanned, and if guilty of piracy stripped naked and shoved out the nearest airlock. You have fifteen seconds to comply" He added the naked part.

He set down the receiver and turned back to the communication's officer.

"Rebroadcast that in INTERLAC and signal the Dendronastes to scramble fighters. DRADIS contacts?"

"DRADIS is picking up five corvettes, two missile frigates, a pair of destroyers, a light cruiser duet, in addition to a light carrier. Also, it appears that they will not be complying with our request. They are raising shields and powering weapons. I estimate one minute before the docked ships have cleared their moorings and are able to maneuver. Corvettes splitting into two groups. On centered at 5,5,0 absolute, the other at -5,5,0 absolute. Weapons configuration unknown."

"Sir, we have a firing solution"

"Open fire, all batteries, target missile frigates one and two." He then picked up the receiver and pressed a preset frequency. "Alpha Group, open fire on Corvette Group one with all weapons. Beta Group, do the same for Corvette group two. I want missile barrages time-on-target, first interceptors, with heavier ordinance on their heels. Gamma Group, target the space station."

"Sir, we have energy spikes from the Station, it looks like mass drivers."

"Randomized Evasion Protocol level 5" Upon saying this, the helmsman programmed in an algorithm to randomize thrust, vector, and timing of thrusters along each axis, serving to make the ships very difficult to target at range with slow firing mass drivers, unless you had other tricks up your sleeve.

...

Alpha and Beta groups each consisted of a pair of missile frigates a destroyer, and two corvettes. They all turned broadside to the organizing corvette groups and opened fire. At these ranges however, it was possible for enemy ships to accelerate along random vectors for random periods of time and evade the lethal rain of high-velocity tungsten. The station by sheer chance took a few scattered hits to its shields, but the lighter weapons were insufficient to penetrate. During this time the corvettes were able to open fire with their primary battery. Bolts of plasma thudded with heavy impact against the shields of the destroyers Chrysoscelis and Versicolor, slightly damaging their port-side Phaser arrays. The missile frigates Ocellatus and Achalensis were also hit--lightly shielded but took fewer hits and suffered no significant damage.

It took about fifteen seconds for the missile tubes to be loaded with warheads and to program the time-on-target algorithm into the targeting computers, then every ship launched ceased their gunfire to avoid hitting their own missiles and launched a salvo. First the slowest anti-ship missiles left the tubes and accelerated toward their targets, then the multipurpose chassis launched, followed closely by the interceptors. The interceptors were by far the most numerous and had the largest drive signatures. They would serve to decoy point defense fire away from the larger and more damaging projectiles.

It was at this moment that the secondary battery of the pirate corvettes was revealed. Phaser arrays arranged in panels along the hull. They struck out with lethal accuracy, decimating the buzzing cloud of interceptor missiles and scoring hits on both the general purpose and anti-ship munitions. The missile strike was not however, completely fruitless. Each of the lead corvettes took hits from the general purpose missiles, as they initiated their nuclear reactions and sent the cone shaped blast wave to wash against their shields, not penetrating the shields but causing significant bleedthrough damage to the outer hull, the intense radiant heat welding fragile sensor arrays to the hull and knocking out easily damaged Phaser emitters. Then the anti-ship missiles came. Only sixteen were launched, of which four made it through. Rather than impacting on the shield surface facing the missile barrage, and thus where shield power would be diverted, they sailed past their targets for mere milliseconds before firing a pair of maneuvering thrusters, spinning around on their axis and initiating a shape charged thermonuclear reaction. They completely obliterated the shield grids on two of the five corvettes, and welded weapon mounts to the hull on another through the shield.

At the same time, the Mass-Driver shells from Gama Group, consisting of the Destroyers Arborea and Cinerea, as well as the Corvette Histrionicus and Strike Cruiser Dendronastes were coasting through space, alongside those fired by the Maculatum. Those would arrive second though. The first salvo from the much higher velocity Heavy Mass Driver shells from the Maculatum and Dendronastes were getting close to their targets... just a few more seconds...

...


"Commander, the shields on Corvette's one and three are down, Corvette four has taken moderate bleedthrough damage to her outer hull and cannot rotate its aft dorsal plasma turrets. No hits scored with the mass drivers. The Chrysoscelis reports twenty five percent damage to port side Phasers, the Versicolor fifteen."

"Do Alpha and Beta groups report sufficient data?"

"They do"

"Signal them to Initiate Bayesian Targeting Protocol."


...

The smaller ships did as they were told, and in a matter of seconds, rather than saturating the volume occupied by enemy corvettes, Alpha and Betta groups began rapidly shifting from one area in the spatial grid occupied by their targets to the next, the computer system had enough data to predict the most likely areas the corvettes would occupy within the space defined by their evasive pattern. Then it ran its targeting algorithm. Each battery with its fast reacting turrets shifted mere milliradians per second to target the volumes most likely to be occupied by an evading enemy ship, it cycled through the most probable areas, and then ran through the sequence again, and again before the crews of the Corvette's could react and change their evasive patterns. Not that they would know, until it was too late.

A great many shots ran wild, however, it was highly statistically improbable that no bursts would hit. One of the unshielded corvettes took a raking shot against its entire port side. The shells penetrated the first armor belt before the slug deformed enough for antimatter containment to drop and the ship blew apart into a combination of debris and ionized gasses. The other unshielded ship was a bit more fortunate and took a single round to the aft engines. The resulting annihilation reaction fragmented the engine and secondary explosions and spalling damage caused the reactor core to failsafe and shut down. The remaining crew-- the ones not cooked alive by the sudden intense burst of gamma radiation--abandoned ship.

The fifth corvette managed to narrowly dodge a long string of high velocity death by less than fifty meters, but caught a stray shell to the shields, which absorbed the impact. The statistics gods smiled upon the other two, being nowhere near the line of fire.

...

"Commander, Corvette one is irradiated scrap metal, corvette three is dead in space, I am detecting no drive or reactor signatures. The corvettes are accelerating at what I can only imagine is flank speed, trying to flank us. Corvette four, bearing -9,-7,0. Two and Five, 10,-11,0. Fire from the Corvettes is concentrating on the Flavovittatus which is reporting shielding at seventy five percent and dropping. No system damage. Frigates have broken free of docking clamps. New DRADIS contacts, salvo of... 600 enemy missiles from the Station and Missile Frigates!"

The fighters were still forming up, and would not be available for another minute, that left the fleet without its first line of defense.

As fast as his slimy hands could move, Commander Alrynchus picked up the receiver and pounded the frequency preset.

"All Fleet Units, inbound missile storm, Flakwall Flakwall Flakwall."

...

The missile frigates, still desperately getting the last of their crews into combat stations released their docking clamps and fired off a full salvo of missiles...right as the first salvo from the Maculatum's Heavy Mass Drivers made contact. The first ship was in the broad scheme of things very lucky. At this distance, with the bobbing and weaving the Maculatum was doing to avoid incoming fire, only twenty six percent of her shells were on target. Still, out of 120 shells in the last minute, that still left 31 high yield shells. The shields on a missile frigate were no match for sustained fire from a cruiser. After a dozen or so blinding flashes her shields collapsed, and after another one or two so did the chances of a single one of her crew being left alive.

The second frigate was not even that lucky, and took eighty six percent of inbound shells. She lasted an even shorter amount of time, though there were the same number of blinding flashes of light across the electromagnetic spectrum as plasma fragmented her hull.

That still left a space station, a number of combat craft, and a storm of hundreds of missiles to deal with.

[Shroom Man 777]

Inhumanitarian Aid Ship Bearing Care
The Outback



"Where is the Anglian ship?" the IBGV HUMINT agent growled as he poked his head out of the hatch.

"Sir," the human HUMINT operator, brainwashed and de-educated to flawless Byzonist loyalty, saluted his commanding officer. "It has left the Century Egg and is vacating the premises."

"Have you recorded the telemetries?" the agent asked.

"Sir, yes, sir!" the HUMINT operator saluted again.

The Bearing Care was a civilian vessel officially owned by an Altacarian NGO, a UN-affiliated organization doing good works in and around Wild Space to impoverished worlds everywhere. It had gone to Pendleton several times already to provide relief goods. Unofficially, and in truth, the NGO was an IBGV proxy and the ship was one of its spy vessels. Upon closer inspection, the sensors on the ship were actually a grade or two above civilian standards - though they were not Bragtech, for obvious reasons. They observed the HMS Alison Lusankya leave the Century Egg. Their mission there was twofold, firstly to observe if the Anglian SIS did its part of the deal, and secondly - the true nature of the IBGV's 'favor' to the Anglian SIS - to observe the capabilities of Anglian naval vessels in real-time operations, and to better learn their shoal patrol capabilities.

When earlier challenged by a Coalition vessel, the Bearing Care had stopped and presented itself, and the Coalition inspection had found within the ship a totally unremarkable supply of relief goods, aid supplies, medical equipment, food, rations, hand-me-down clothings, and so on. Contraband such as dual-use equipment, including transmutative utilitarian nanotechs and certain fertilizers that could be reconstrued into explosives, were absent. All in all, the Bearing Care was for all points and purposes a 100% legitimate vessel delivering goods to Pendleton - because it was a 100% legitimate vessel delivering goods to Pendleton. The only extra thing was that, as it did so, it also scrutinized the activities of the Coalition fleet in and around Pendleton, to better discern their capabilities.

"Then continue your course!" the IBGV agent barked. When the Coalition ship had inspected the Bearing Care, the agent had disguised himself by hiding amongst the large living livestock carried in the ship. When the Coalition inspection was finished, the IBGV agent returned to his post smelling of literal bullshit. It was convenient having to ship livestock to Pendleton, as inspection teams couldn't sift through the entirety of the ship or poke every cow and did not have the inclination to do so, with the Bearing Care being an officially chartered by a legit NGO and with other more suspicious vessels to search. The IBGV agent had to thank the Shepistanis, because their nuclear bombardment of Eel and Dogadishu had also incinerated a significant portion of Pendleton's dairy industry, reducing the livestock population into irradiated steaks that ignorant freed slaves fed on (to their demise) - necessitating the heavy importation of cows and cryogenically frozen bull semen to the planet.

"Aye aye!" the human operator saluted for the third time and went on carrying his duties.

The IBGV agent removed his cow costume and threw away the strap-on udder. A human HUMINT operator took the strap-on udder and began suckling from its teats, for it was an anatomically correct and fully functional strap-on udder made out of vat-grown cow tissue. Such was the extent of the IBGV's disguise-making ability, for the cow costume the IBGV agent wore was for all points and purposes a living, breathing cow made out of living, breathing wearable cow tissues all designed to fool human lifesign scans. The IBGV agent discarded the still-bleating head of a cow, which he was using for a hat. The human HUMINT operator took the head and nursed it with the strap-on udder, performing maintenance on it by feeding it.

After finishing recording Coalition fleet activity in the Bannerman Gap, they transitioned to Pendleton actual and dropped off their relief supplies. Officially, the Altacarian NGO was there to serve an indeterminate populace of emancipated and emaciated alienoid slaves - for they were performing inhumanitarian aid. Courtesy of the intel provided by Agent Bragga, the IBGV agent had heard of the presence of Chamarran slaves on Pendleton, although unfortunately all the Chamarrans had been bought by the Collectors - presumably the price for their aborted alliance with the slavers. Aside from the Chamarrans, there were other alienoids still on Pendleton, taken by the slavers from all over Wild Space - Gron dinosaurianoids used for gladiatorial games, Orthii catfolk kept to breed 'kittens' to be made as pets for the children of aristocrats - and the Coalition was still in the process of contacting the various scattered home nations of these menagerie of alienoids. At the moment, these alienoids were kept on Pendleton while awaiting repatriation.

The Altacarian NGO had established a presence on Pendleton. The IBGV agent, still wearing the cloak of living cowskin (that had a micro-vascular system, with a tiny heart pumping blood to the tiny capillaries lining the skin's subdermis), was bound to link up with the NGO/IBGV proxy and basically quietly reestablish the IBGV's presence on Pendleton. The IBGV agent was going to be Bragga's replacement.

At the moment though, his mission was to ensure the safe repatriation of the alienoids still trapped on Pendleton. To Bragule's eyes, the Pendleton slavers and their enslavement of the non-human brethren-species of Bragulamotu was an ultimate act of humanistic evil and thus in the name of Byzonism the disenfranchised and dispossessed alienoids must be liberated in an act of class-struggle against the bourgeois oppressors, in the name of internationalismic inter-alienism. Such an important duty could not be left in the hands of the predominantly human-led capitalistic Coalition forces for they were ideologically untrustworthy pigdogs.

It was also an opportunity for the IBGV to learn firsthand of the multinational methodologies of counter-insurgency and occupational operations employed by the various Coalition forces, and see these in progress.



Result:
IBGV watches Coalition ops in Pendleton.
Also, does good works for any stranded alienoids in the planet.

[Shroom Man 777]

BRAGSPACE, simultaneously in the Turukhansk colony sector (BB-26) and the Kirensk midsector (X-28)



The cargo ships bound to Chamarra, Shepistan, and Umeria had finished their preparations. Their ancient shell-like hulls were antiquated fossils from pre-Byzonic times when the Bragulans once traded with the rest of the galaxy. They were elegant ships for a more civilized age. Before the dark times... before the Star Empire. It had taken long to refurbish them from their rusted down states, to relearn their archaic pre-Byzonic mechanisms and technologies, but still despite hailing from before the dark age of technology they were still crude and Bragulan, thus modernization and Byzonization was doable despite the dielectrical difficulties.

In their true forms, fully unarmed and operational, they were massive vessels - as large as any mighty dreadnought-sized paleocruiser and nearing even that of the battleships of Bragulanity, and twice as ponderous. Yet they were defenseless, and their shields were feeble for vessels of their size, but still huge in their sheer enormity. So huge that a bottomside view would reveal innumerable quantities of containers festooned upon their underbellies - each container carrying precious things, be they Spuds or vegemites or Spuds with vegemite-encrustations, or precious chromium. Even the half-finished Shepistani gunstars were sequestered within the wombs of some of these transport ships.



Eventually they departed for their destinations. The ones from the Turukhansk colony sector (BB-26) would venture northwards, flying around the territories of the defunct Outlands (and the newly established pseudo-friendly Refuge) to detour around the unfriendly Spin Zone powers such as the League of free Stars, the Hiigarans, and the Anglians - Bragule wished nothing to do with them, for surely they would covet the shipments of chrome to Umeria, and protest the Spuds and gunstars to Shepistan.



Meanwhile, those ships bound from the Kirensk midsector (X-28) to Chamarra would skim Sassanid space and then fly through Pfhor space - which was nominally friendly with the Bragulan Star Empire - taking a straighter, less curvaceous route to Chamarra to bring to them vegemites and Spuds as well. This route would bring them dangerously close to the perfidious Solarians and the corrupt Cevaucians, but it was hoped that they would not be foolish enough to directly infringe upon the Imperator's own vessels.



Either way, for defense each of these convoys would be escorted by a paleocruiser and two gunskimmers. Yet these paleocruisers and gunskimmers were no ordinary warships. They had modifications to their engines, necessary for such long voyages. These modifications, that would conserve the raw atomic pulse engine outputs to maximize fuel economy (nigh preposterous for Bragulans) had the adverse effect of lessening the radiation spewing from the Bragships, conserving the radioactivity. These lessened emissions, plus with the ships conserving other systems to allow for such long voyages, would hopefully conceal their nature as warships to any aspiring privateer, making the paleocruisers and gunskimmers look to sensors like more cargo ships. Any pirate making this mistake would be in for a nasty surprise. Which was precisely why the Bragulans took such great pains to minimize the rad-levels of their leaky paleoships.

Meanwhile, the vessels that would pass by Sassanid territories would also drop by and acquire coordinates to Neko Space - for Bragulan ships seldom traveled those routes. Thus they needed the maps of the Sassanid Spacing Guild, which were plotted by their grotesque Guild Navigator masters.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Previously, on Ranoids

"...New DRADIS contacts, salvo of... 600 enemy missiles from the Station and Missile Frigates!"

The fighters were still forming up, and would not be available for another minute, that left the fleet without its first line of defense.

As fast as his slimy hands could move, Commander Alrynchus picked up the receiver and pounded the frequency preset.

"All Fleet Units, inbound missile storm, Flakwall Flakwall Flakwall."

Missiles flew through space, ever accelerating toward their targets when they made contact with the bursts of fire from Gamma group and the Maculatum aimed at the station and the former frigates. Ninety five missiles through sheer probability and a shared vector collided with a shell and were energetically vaporized by the resulting annihilation reaction, which sometimes created chain reactions with shot coming in behind or nearby, destroying more missiles.

The fleet ships set their guns to proximity burst and opened fire on the incoming horde of self-propelled projectiles as the targeting computers worked as fast as their CPUs and memory would permit to spit back an updated firing solution. The pirate vessels still docked also cleared their moorings and moved to firing range.

...

As the fleet changed targets to deal with the missiles launched from the station and ex-frigates, the station had its own problems. The Mass Driver shots from the Dendronastes, Arborea and Cinerea made contact and of the sixty shots fired, thirty six hit, slamming against the heavily shielded station's shields to little effect. While the frigates could not withstand sustained heavy weapons fire, a hardened installation could, and the impacts were little more than a very expensive light show.

...

"Enemy vessels have cleared their moorings. Dendronastes reports her fighters ready to engage. Flavovittatus reports shields at forty percent, taking bleedthrough damage to outer hull. Her turrets are having difficulty tracking, phasers are knocked out." She looked as lights flicked on at her console. "Data-streams are synchronized"

"Have her fall back behind the Achalensis for cover, order the Achalensis and Amabillis to missile salvo corvettes two and five. Have all ships fire range sets for thirty seconds then switch to flak on my mark... MARK!"

"New DRADIS contacts." She looked down at her display and started laughing. Not the sort of laughter from a funny joke. No, this was the sort of laughter you do when you realize that someone other than you was royally screwed. "Thirty mk 3 Acris, Twelve mk 3 Agalychnis" she said between breaths of air. At which point, the entire bridge crew opened up into that same sadistic laughter.

The fighters were not only outclassed, but still had the tracking devices on them.

"Oh, I forgot. They also have thirty fighters that have launched from the station." said the sensor operator when she caught her breath. "Are those? No. Zeta Drive Yards model nines? Really? Those things are still flying?"



That got Alrynchus thinking. These were different ship profiles than the ones targeting shipping lanes in Bombina sector. The ships were all old models. Hull class to hull class they were hopelessly outgunned. Even the specific missile frigate he let go was not here. The ones that just got destroyed were a different ship class. Same general design philosophy but a different ship class, he expected to see that one docked for repairs. They were pirates, not doubt there. Hell, they resisted when could have just done what they were told and been released. He turned inward for a moment and felt that familiar feeling in his head as he used precognition to fast-forward his own logic.

Fall Guys. He had been duped. He needed to get this over with quickly.

"Communications, send data request to fleet command. I need the data logs from Agent Aurelias' freighter"

...

As the Flavovittatus retreated behind the larger frigate, still firing her weapons she managed to take down the shields of the fifth frigate, already weakened by other missiles and mass driver rounds, just as the the Achalensis fire all her rear and lateral launchers at the ship. With many of her point defense guns knocked out, and unable to rotate her aft dorsal turrets, she was chewed apart first by dozens of interceptors, then the heavier munitions with their directed charge thermonuclear inititations. Her outer hull and first armor belt were slagged beyond recognition and her remaining crew left huddled inside the secondary hull which housed most crew spaces and vital ship systems. She was out of the fight. Corvette two and managed at such close range despite all odds fight off the majority of the Amabillis' missiles and begin a strategic retreat.

More like a flank speed run for her life.

The first wave of flak made contact, each of thousands of shells sending out little sensor pulses that detected missiles that could be hit in its blast wave, when a missile was detected, antimatter containment would drop. If matter was Thesis, antimatter was Antithesis, and the meeting of the two at Synthesis was accompanied by both being converted into energy, which was expressed as high speed lethal streams of subatomic particles, a gamma burst, and wash of plasma out from the blast site. In effect the area immediately surrounding such an effect was illuminated by the birth of what would seem to the naked eye to be a tiny sun--not that doing so would be in any way sane. Two hundred and ninety six of the incoming warheads were destroyed in this way, with another fifty six losing their targets due to the intense gamma radiation interfering with their sensors and blinding them. When it was said and done, of the original wave of six hundred missiles, only two hundred and three remained when the sky between the missiles and the now visible to the naked eye fleet erupted into a solid wall

The Ranoidean ships had synchronized their shells to detonate at a set distance, represented by a plane of space which became a killing zone for anything that attempted to pass through. This stopped the remaining missiles nearly cold, as only sixty made it through, only to be immolated by even more concentrated flak than existed farther out.

..

"Missiles Destroyed, Corvettes two and four are retreating at flank speed. Enemy battlegroup--such as it is--forming a battle wall at 0,0,+5 absolute. Two fighter groups at -7,-4,0 absolute and 17,-3,+1 absolute. Our own fighters are engaging."

Alrynchus' jaw hardened "Groups Alpha and Beta drop to -5 on the Z axis and move to flank, set up a crossfire. Arborea, Cinerea and Dendronastes form center, Histrionicus. hold position."

...


Alpha and Beta did as they were told, dropping down on the Z axis, they would be able to flank their enemies without having to worry about hitting eachother with their missed shots.

The Maculatum and Dendronasties spear-headed the offensive by letting off salvo after salvo at close range with their heavy mass drivers, sending shot after shot careening into the shields of the light cruisers, who fought back valiantly with plasma cannons--which hit with impact on the Maculatum's shields and scattered missiles, which were washed harmlessly away by fire from the gatling mass driver batteries, which themselves danced across the heavy shielding of the pirate vessels. The destoyers did not hold up as well. Each was one ship against Alpha and Beta groups, when only the destroyer in each group would have eventually been a match.

Missiles sang through space, only a few striking their targets but with lethal effect, while laser arrays lanced across the distance striking shields and eventually raking naked exposed hulls and anti-matter did its dread work. In took only minutes for the cracked and burned debris of the two destroyers to drift through space, as her crew fled like rats from sinking ships, or were forced screaming into space, only to have their lungs explode inside their chests, water in their tissues cold-boil, and the oxygen pulled from their blood by negative pressure as their flesh bloated, capillaries burst, and they suffer immediate and severe radiation burns from the gamma radiation caused by annihilation reactions--if they were not mercifully vaporized first.

...

Major Rhyncops watched the numbers tick down as his squadron rapidly approached their targets-- a squadron of older model Acris fighters. The newer Acris were some of the best interceptor/superiority fighters in the sky. They were well shielded for fighter craft and heavily armed... but more importantly their acceleration and maneuverability were greatly enhanced over prior models. They used a vector-thrust system for maneuvering and facing, but most of the motive forced was provided by a gravitic drive--and the inertial compensation was improved accordingly. The mark threes were good ships still, but they still relied on a high performance ion drives, so their acceleration was nowhere near what it could be.

Their companions, a group of ten Agalychnis class gunships were similarly designed, but larger, and were thus more on par with galactic standard. They were due to eventually be upgraded to Mark six, but that was still in the prototype phase.

"Alright guys, we are entering weapons range. Pick your targets and remember, if he does something funky, get out of the line of fire, dont try to maintain weapon's lock with your mass driver, that is what Phasers are for."

...

Both opposing fighter groups let loose a salvo of missiles, but the faster and more maneuverable Mark Fives got the better end of the exchange. Their superior maneuverability and upgraded Phaser arrays--something not added until the mark four--allowed them to evade or shoot down most enemy missiles. Only a few of the fighters took hits, and most of them survived. The pirates on the other hand were forced to do everything in their power to evade missiles, which allowed the much less taxed Ranoidean fighter squadron to break formation and engage with phasers and mass drivers en passant.

...

The Maculatum's bridge heaved as a bolt from a heavy plasma cannon struck her port shield.

"Shield grid operating at fifty percent"

*BOOM*

"Make that forty five"

"Fuck this" Alrynchus cursed. His ship was taking fire from two light cruisers and a carrier. His shields were heavy enough to avoid major system damage so far, but this needed to end.

"All ships concentrate fire on Light Cruiser one. Time on target"


*Writers Note: I actually rolled hundred sided dice to see how many missiles would be killed at each phase. Frontal assaults are not the way to hit ranoidean ships with missiles. Especially not from a light second out.

[Force Lord]

SECRET COMMAND MATTER!

CHIEF'S MATTER!

READ ONLY BY OFFICERS!

CSB GENERAL DIRECTIVE NO. 3527: SECURITY SITUATION OF 1100TH ESP TOURNAMENT

3 August 3400

The CSB is naturally concerned with the safety of the 1100th ESPer Tournament, what with it taking place on Dovan Sector, one of the jewels of the Centrality's crown. Hence, all police, Sector or Central-level, are on high alert. CSB agents are to perform all sensitive security tasks. All detection devices are to work at peak capacity. Guards are to be stationed at all times at strategic locations. The CSB allows for agents to go undercover, camouflaged, or even cloaked in order to fool any potential disturber. Said disturbers are to be immediately locked up, and execution is possible if said disturbers are spies or saboteurs from hostile nations or local terrorists.

The CSB is to collaborate with Intelligence and military officials to ensure better safety. All of Faust beyond the Olympic Complex will be placed under martial law for the duration of the Tournament. CSB agents are to collaborate with local police, Sector Defense militia, and Army troops in enforcing the curfew. No-fly zones will be instituted, and only military craft will be allowed to occupy the skies in the meantime. The planet will be assigned a full Fleet in the next few days, and by the time the tournament starts another one will take position in the outer ring of the Faust System.

All ships now entering Dovan Sector are to be scanned and, if necessary, boarded on for detection of possible contraband. Banned items and anti-ESPer devices such as Blitzschag Fields are to be confiscated if found and then destroyed. Offenders are to be imprisioned until the end of the tournament. Local criminals who are arrested are to be shot. Foreigners are to be sedated and deported immediately, unless they are spies or saboteurs, in which case execution is possible. More lenient punishments are to be given to the competidors in case them violating the law, as their prescence is needed so that the tournament can function.

Security measures on the Olympic Compex itself are to be made in a way that does not affect the tournament activites or the competitors' comfort in any way, but that maximizes their safety. All competitors must be subject to drug detection, such as urine or blood tests. CSB agents are to collaborate with Tournament security forces in case of disturbances or disqualifying acts such as cheating or murder. All competidors caught by the CSB doing illegal acts are to be arrested and expelled from the Centrality, after their trials, of course. Foreign spies, saboteurs or terrorists found inside the complex are to be taken to the nearest prison and executed.

All CSB officers are to be let known about possible foreign threats. The Karlacks and Shepistan are high on the list of threats to the tournament, for historical reasons. The Karlacks never miss an opportunity to observe the capabilities of ESPers, and it is very likely that they will try to infiltrate the Tournament. The Shepistanis, even before the revival of General Sheppard, have not hidden their open opposition to ESPers, though they have never been so brazen as to actually sabotage previous tournaments, even under his leadership. Nevertheless, with this tournament closer to Shepistan than before, perhaps Sheppard will feel the need to do something hostile, to the detriment of our nation's security, for if his agents can sabotage the Olympic Complex, it discredits us in the eyes of the population since they can attack elsewhere in the Centrality as well. Therefore any confirmed Karlacks or Shepistanis found spying or attempting terrorism are to be shot on sight.

ESP-capable agents are to use their abilities to aid in all CSB operations, be it for searches, enchanced interrogation, and riot control. Telepaths and empaths shall collaborate in ensuring the collaboration of all beings in the Tournament, discreetly of course. Telekenetics, Pyrokinetics, Electrokinetics and ESPers who amplify their strengh, speed, endurance and resistance, are to aid the authorities in putting down any disturbances inside or outside the Complex and to capture suspects. Precognitives are to forsee every possible events, so that contingency plans be written down for each. ESPers with amplified sense of perception are to detect unusual objects that are a threat to the functioning of the Tournament with discretion.

The CSB shall do everything in its power to ensure peace, safety, and order to the Tournament.

Always serving the State,

Natre Layu, Director of the Central Security Bureau

[Simon_Jester]

Königstadt, Neu Preußen, Sector U-11
Prussian Capital
UNREAL TIME

By the beginning of April, the prolonged absence of Chancellor Hoffman, now entering his third week away from Königstadt after his sudden decision to go to Reisenburg for talks, was leaving his Government facing minor domestic difficulties. There was no specific event out of the ordinary, nothing in the news beyond routine petty scandals and minor political protests by inconsequential fringe groups. But Hoffman's absence made all these things seem to take on excessive weight, as he was no longer present to comment on them. Questions that Hoffman's speechwriters could have smoothed over in minutes remained outstanding and began to draw the public eye.

As Hoffman himself was well aware, his Government was not especially stable by parliamentary standards. He had staked a great deal of prestige on his ability to come to an understanding with Umeria. As weeks dragged by with no tangible progress in the negotiations, his cabinet found itself short on political capital.

Acting Chancellor Schrödinger did his best to keep this from becoming too great a problem, and was not entirely without success. But by April 1, the situation was becoming troubling, though it was still far short of anything that could be called a crisis.

On that day, a hyperwave tightbeam message arrived from the Centrality, describing troubles in the antispinward regions of Known Space. Shipping was being harassed by the ferocious and formerly little-known "Zebesian Pirates." The ruling triumvirate of the Centrality, wanting to avoid charges of expansionism near Iduran and United Sectors space, appealed for the creation of a multilateral coalition to suppress the pirates.

From: Ravin Nostrum, Foreign Secretary of the Centrality

Sirs,
We have growing problems with Space Pirates near our region of space. Our shipping and that of our near neighbors are under attack by these vermin, costing us many lives and treasure. We want international help in dealing with this problem. As a gesture of goodwill, this diplomatic note includes the Intelligence we have gathered so far on these Pirates.

Once you read this, you will understand why we call them "Zebesian Space Pirates".
We welcome your assistance, if you decide to send any. If not, our relations won't suffer.

Sincerely,
Ravin Nostrum

It is common for a government facing problems at home to try and divert public attention with military spectacles abroad. Schrödinger and the Hoffman Government reacted quickly to the Centralist message, replying almost immediately:

Prussia is willing to send a large portion of its fleet to combat piracy.
Sincerely,
Julius Schrödinger, Acting Reichskanzler

As a matter of course, the first round of planning revolved around battleships and heavy cruiser-weight ships, plus whatever incidental light units might be needed to screen and scout for them. The scale of the expeditionary force grew rapidly as the General Staff considered the situation. There would, as always, be a planetary bombardment; they needed missile-armed cruisers to deliver a suitable barrage of thermobarics. They might conceivably face cruiser-strength opposition; they needed battleships to counter it.

By the time the Kaiserliche Admiralstab was finished drawing up what they would need to defeat the pirates, the force in question was more than great enough to meet Schrödinger's promise that Prussia would send "a large portion of its fleet." Indeed, the units referred to as Second Fleet contained nearly 20% of the Imperial Navy's line of battle, along with a significant fraction of its light units: a force nearly on par with that sent to Volksland.

The publicly announced commitment of large Prussian forces to a long-range campaign of piracy suppression heartened supporters of the Government and created a divided reaction among the Opposition. This eased the difficulties faced by the cabinet, exactly as Schrödinger had hoped.

In a further stroke of good luck for the Hoffman Government, the Chancellor returned by April 10, announcing to all and sundry that he had extracted from the Umerians a promise to meet for an international conference on the matter of Neu Lothringen. His credibility as a leader rose slightly, and the concerns that had undermined confidence in his administration faded. The problem that led the Prussians to promise support for the coalition against Zebes was solved. But the League could not be seen to go back on its word again so soon after the awkward matter of their diplomatic correspondence with Umeria.

Thus, preparations for the expedition continued, with Chancellor Hoffman confirming all Schrödinger had done and even insisting on further expansion of the force. After conferring with the Admiralstab, Hoffman also signed off on the Staff's recommendation that Admiral Gregor von Mückenberger be appointed to command the Second Fleet. Narrowly passed over for command of the Neu Lothringen and Mordor operations, von Mückenberger was represented as the ideal candidate for a planetary siege operation. Hoffman knew that such a man would be needed, since the Zebesian pirates were based out of the world Zebes: its capture would surely be the war-ending battle.

The difficulties of providing mid-flight refueling for such a mighty force meant that the ships would have to watch their power consumption carefully, which prohibited a high speed redeployment. In consequence, the expedition would have to set out rather earlier than might otherwise be needed.

In May 3400, the League prepared to launch a fleet of one hundred ships, with the Kaiser in attendance. There were many who welcomed the decision to send the expedition. Reinhard von Musel was also pleased with the decision.

---

Formal Review of Fleet Personnel
May 10, 3400

Korvettenkapitän Siegfried Kircheis, left; Konteradmiral Reinhard von Musel, right

Siegfried stood in the back of a ground car alongside his commanding officer, part of the grand precession the Imperial Navy had organized in honor of Second Fleet's upcoming departure to fight the Zebesian Pirates. Admiral von Musel's own Sixth Battlecruiser Squadron was not a part of Second Fleet, but since they were currently stationed at the capital, some functionary had invited the squadron to send a contingent to join the parade.

He supposed it was a political gesture. With Kaiser August Wilhelm II attending, the Ministry of War would want the parade to be enjoyable for him, as he often took a special interest in naval affairs. Keeping him happy would discourage him from trying to meddle in the military bureaucracy's area of responsibilities.

Years earlier, the Kaiser had taken an interest in the Valkyrie-class battlecruisers that were now assigned to the Sixth. He had therefore been disappointed when the Staff decided to stop production of the class after the first production run of five, arguing that the relatively specialized command cruisers were unnecessary, given that any fleet of significant size would best be controlled from the heavier battleships. His fondness for the design had translated into fondness for the formation they were placed in. Between that and Reinhard's status as was one of the Kaiser's favorites, Siegfried could understand why Sixth Battlecruisers was represented in the parade.

They were young yet. Reinhard had risen through the ranks with immense speed; tactical flair and a knack for getting the best out of his subordinates had elevated him from below, and the Emperor's political support was a great advantage from above. Siegfried's own promotions had been much slower, more in line with his age- but then he was content to stand in his friend's shadow, acting as Reinhard's aide, his confidant, and above all as a restraint on Reinhard's bitter flashes of temper.

But today, the newly minted Admiral von Musel was in a cheerful mood as he turned to his childhood friend.

"As soon as I make flag rank and am given command of a squadron, this expedition comes along. Good fortune is coming my way."

"I don't understand, sir." Sixth Battlecruisers wasn't attached to the Second Fleet; how was it to their advantage that someone else go off to receive glory fighting pirates?

"Think about the enemy's raiding pattern, the timing and scope of their attacks. How many ships must they have? Compare that to the number of ships the Centralists' scouts have spotted already around Zebes."

Siegfried calculated for a moment, his jaw flexed to the side and his eyes distant. There had been the long-range attacks, the effective shutdown of some of the routes through the shoals themselves. Allowing for maintenance... Hmm... oh! "You think the enemy is more powerful than the Admiralstab believes?"

"I know it, my friend. Not only stronger, but more organized. There is something... subtle here, I can feel it from looking at their dispositions. I don't know what, not yet. But I know the enemy will not simply sit still and wait for us to flatten them. And what would you do, Kircheis, if you saw Second Fleet massing supplies for an offensive against you but lacked heavy units to strike first?"

"I would attack our- their supply lines, of course."

"Exactly." Reinhard nodded, then looked up as their car drew near the reviewing stand. He twitched his head towards the dignitaries: "Look at von Mückenberger. He looks so dignified." The grey-haired admiral stood like something from a recruitment poster: the personification of Stalwart Leadership.

Admiral Gregor von Mückenberger, CO Second Fleet

Reinhard smiled devilishly. "But of course, he merely looks dignified."

Siegfried sighed. Von Mückenberger has the support of the Staff. He is, by all accounts, a good logistics planner, a good trainer of low-level personnel. He is not a bad man. But... something is missing. I'm not sure I have a word for it. Hopefully, it wouldn't matter; Second Fleet was so large that it was hard to imagine anything less than the combined forces of a major nation posing a real threat to it. But... he worried.

As their car passed the reviewing stand, Reinhard and Siegfried saluted the Kaiser, and the tightly-packed cluster of notables and staffers flocking around him. Once they were a decent distance past the stand, they relaxed; Reinhard resumed their conversation.

"So yes, the pirates will step up their raiding, and try to direct forces against our own supply convoys. I expect at least one convoy to be destroyed before the Staff starts sending adequate escorts, but I doubt we'll lose more than two. And when they start sending cruisers to deter the raiders' larger units, we'll be one of the few unattached heavy units not part of any fleet once Mückenberger departs. That is our opportunity."

"You hope that we'll be attacked in turn on a convoy escort mission, and to earn credit by defeating the attack?"

"I don't count on it, but it's certainly possible. Past that... I could see many things happening. It's hard to say."

"I feel bad for the convoy sailors."

"You know what will happen if I try to warn the Staff. They'll say "It is not the place of line officers to dictate staff concerns." And "Von Musel is trying to manipulate us to get a combat assignment." Only destroyed ships will convince them they've made a mistake. And then they will have to send me into action, whether they want to or not."

"It's a bad day for the League when men have to die to convince the Staff to listen to an officer with combat command experience."

Reinhard smiled sadly and shook his head. "Kircheis, Kircheis, we must face realities. I'm blocked either way as far as the Staff is concerned. When I achieve something to advance by merit, they play politics to give their favorites the credit. When I advance by influence, they accuse me of being a political animal, promoted to his level of incompetence."

"And yet you do advance, sir."

"No thanks to the Staff. Among the lower ranks of the line commands I am well liked; among the upper circles of the aristocracy I am well known and therefore respected. But the Ministry of War and the admirals who rise by their connections with the Ministry... there I am neither liked nor respected."

"This I cannot deny, sir."

"They resent it when the Emperor intervenes in military affairs, and doubly so when it is to my advantage. They resent it when I accomplish anything because of my ties among the line officers, doubly so when it makes their own paper-pushers look bad. They want to have it both ways, and leave me with neither. If it was some wunderkind, the nephew of a friend of some Staff division chief, trying to warn them about the need to protect the supply convoys, he might get a reception. But it won't be. They're too busy planning their next move to see the enemy coming."

"Don't be so broad in your condemnation; they're not all that bad."

"I suppose you're right, but I swear you can measure how much the Staff loves a given commander by how much attention he pays to intricate planning of brute force solutions, and how little to what the enemy might do to disrupt his plans. The Line officers with greater combat experience should have authority over the naval staff, but here in Prussia, we have the opposite. If I had the power to change things..."

"Some day, sir. Some day."

"Heh. And when that day comes, you will be right there beside me, trying to keep me from dealing too harshly with our nation's bumper crop of fools."

Siegfried spread his hands and shrugged, wordlessly. Reinhard was right, of course, but what was there to say?

[Beowulf]

Annam governate, Aurore
Stairway Hyperspace Lane
Sector W-5

It's been said that an army marches on it's stomach, but more importantly, an army marches. Especially so, a light infantry one. La Compagnie de Barthe had been at this camp, training new soldiers for 3 months now. Most of the first two months had been basic soldiering. That is to say, spent marching around, doing calisthenics, following the arbitrary and sometimes capricious seeming commands of their drill instructors.

For the past month, it was the same, but with the addition of marksmanship and small unit tactics. Part of the first two months was also seeking out those who would be able to command their small detachment of men. The problem with making a rebel army from whole cloth was that one didn't know ahead of time who would be able to lead.

Fortunately, he knew that the enemy didn't have anyone who could lead either. At least, not anymore. The Integrationists had largely purged their army of people who could lead for those who were good at covering their derrieres.

Soon, this camp would be abandoned, to turn back into the jungle from whence it came, while the men trained here would disperse until it came time to strike. It wouldn't be long, as the preparations here could not be hidden for much longer.

[Alyrium Denryle]

From:
Maxim Chernov, Second Technarch for Foreign Affairs

To:
-Katya Perry, Director, Wairen Bureau [Tianguo]
-Ludwig Gottlieb, Foreign Secretary of the Prussian Star League
-HM Foreign Office [Altacar]

BCC:
Dr. Alytes Muletensis, Chairman of the Federal Committee Regarding Foreign Functions, Technosocialist State of Ranoidea


As of today, April 5, 3400, negotations with the Prussian Star League on the subject of the planet Volksland would appear to be making progress. In an effort to ensure that the interests of the Grand Trunk powers are met, the Technocracy of Umeria proposes the following:

-That a conference be held between the four main signatories to the Grand Trunk Accords: Tianguo, Umeria, Prussia, and Altacar. The goal of this conference will be to draw up an appendix to the Accords, specifically on the matter of Volksland.

-The opening Umerian proposal at this conference will be that a multinational force of light starships be used to secure the system against intrusion, while guaranteeing its neutrality in the event of hostilities.

-That the planet Volksland be declared a Prussian mandate, to be administered by Prussia, but with oversight from the other three Trunk powers: Tianguo, Umeria, and Altacar. Over the long run, this mandate will be governed with an eye towards the restoration of the planet's independence.

-That the conference convene in July on Altacar, as it is arguably the most neutral participant and the one least dependent on the fate of Volksland. If the Altacarans do not wish to host the conference, the Technocracy offers its own offices for the purpose, or is open to holding the meetings in Tianguo. At this time we are averse to holding the negotiations in Prussian space, but will consider doing so if it is the consensus of the other powers that this be done.

From:Dr. Alytes Muletensis, Chairman of the Federal Committee Regarding Foreign Functions, Technosocialist State of Ranoidea

To: Maxim Chernov, Second Technarch for Foreign Affairs

Subj: Out of Office Message

Nearly every member of our species will be be attempting to mate until June 3400 and non-essential government functions will be delayed. If this matter is of particular urgency, concerns a treaty obligation, or military threat, please send the message directly through your embassy or send through the Gold Channel Emergency Frequency.

Sent: April 5th, 3400

The Federal Committee Regarding Foreign Functions was still processing the literally thousands of back-logged diplomatic communiques. This process included secretaries sorting the missives into categories and then sending them off to various sub-committees which put them on the calendar, decided if they warranted attention other than acknowledgment and then sending them to the Policy Analysis SubCommittee which generated recommendations for the area-specific SubCommittee, which decided on a coherent policy objective. These were then presented in a weekly briefing to the Dr. Muletensis, which brought them before the Executive Committee where the final decision was made.

This process took months, backed up all the later by piles of new communications piling on top of the olds ones. It was not until August Third that the communications from April were stacked on the Chairman Mutelensis' desk. He thumbed through them, not really wanting to deal with most of them other than to have the Executive Committee rubber stamp them. Still, he had to do his due dilligence and make sure the people over in Policy Analysis and the SubCommittees were still doing their jobs. Then one caught his interest.

"Ah. The Grand Coreward Trunk." he almost twitched with excitement as he read the communique. He had made it his personal mission to become a signatory of the Grand Trunk Accords--which guaranteed the neutrality of the Grand Coreward Trunk. A sociopolitical historian by trade, he was fascinated by the general region, and in recent decades the Trunk had become very important for the TSRs rimward trade. If it were up to every other member state, the TSR would have joined the Accords seventy five years ago, but every year, just as when the Accords were being negotiated Tianguo would throw a massive screaming fit and veto their petition. Tianguo did not recognize the right of non-humans to exist, let alone form nation-states and sign treaties. Unfortunately, the Accords required unanimous consent to admit new member states.

What it did not require however, was unanimous consent for non-members to participate in multi-party talks. All that required was an invitation by a member state, which the Umerians had extended by sending notice of the conference. Just the thought of watching the Tianguo representative--more than likely Katya Perry herself-twitch and foam at the mouth at his presence was more than enough reason for Alytes to attend. Even if there was no tangible reason. Thankfully, the Ranoideans had several very strong national interests in attending.

The first was Sentientarian. With one subkiloton munition at Lake Kulturkampf, the Prussians had killed over thirty one million civilians. The massive column of flame did not just rain down fire over a large industrial center, causing over one hundred thousand deaths. Eighty-five percent of the massive Lake Kulturkampf's volume was not actually water. It was flammable toxic waste of mixed composition. The fire put enough energy into the mixture to cause a cascade of chemical reactions, which converted the majority of the lake's volume into over a cubic kilometer of toxic gases. This poisonous cloud, for the most part heavier than air, sank into low places. In other words, it flowed downhill. Bound by the river valley itself, it pooled into a river of death, snuffing out the life of anything and anyone who could not climb a building tall enough to escape, before it went out to sea, where it was finally dispersed by heavy winds. When it was all said and done, it killed over eighty percent of the population in the affected region.

The bombing of Fuhrerstadt alone killed one point seven million civilians. It was the general stance of his nation that a people who would indiscriminately bombard a civilian population who did not have the freedom to object to their government's actions--where dissent was met with being sent to a deathcamp, were not the people to rebuild that same country. The Prussians had done that, and then they had annexed the nation. To make matters worse, they had done this during the beginning of winter, and had not made adequate arrangements for humanitarian aid. They even summarily shot civilians who dared rise up against the very people who killed their children, leveled their homes... No.

As he began looking over the Policy Analysts report, he noted that in this respect, their recommendations were the same as his. The negotiating position of his government would be not to allow the Prussians to administer Volksland directly. Instead, they would pay for the rebuilding, but it would be overseen by a third party, or council appointed by those at the conference. He knew that Tianguo would oppose because he had said it, and Prussia would object. However, if Altacar and Umeria could be brought on board, everyone affected by this clusterful would win. Except for Prussia of course. Honestly, he felt it was somewhat naive of someone normally so sharp as Dr. Chernov to expect that the Prussians would ever grant the Volkslanders their sovereignty.

There were a few other things to deal with of course. Piracy was one of them. Wolfpacks of Pirate Fascists had started attacking shipping along the Trunk, including venturing into Duelmannohyla sector proper. Ranoideans were not even the right species, let alone the correct ethnic group. There were confirmed reports that Ranoidean ships were being disabled and used as bait to draw in rescue ships. It was being debated whether or not the recently formed Anti-Piracy Taskforce Sigma, with Omega Fleet was going to be used to track them down and annihilate them.

It was a well-established rule that whenever a state falls, the surviving fleet would resort to piracy within the region. The Prussians had made no attempt whatsoever to hunt them down, and in a time when Piracy--particularly well organized piracy was on the upswing, that behavior is irresponsible.

And none of that at all addressed the issue of Trunk Neutrality. He was going to enjoy this lovely little conference.

From:Dr. Alytes Muletensis, Chairman of the Federal Committee Regarding Foreign Functions, Technosocialist State of Ranoidea

To: -Katya Perry, Director, Wairen Bureau [Tianguo]
-Ludwig Gottlieb, Foreign Secretary of the Prussian Star League
-HM Foreign Office [Altacar]
Maxim Chernov, Second Technarch for Foreign Affairs

Subj:The Volksland Incident

My Esteemed Colleagues,

Dr. Chernov forwarded my government the proposal regarding the administration of Volksland in the hope that we will be able to send a delegation. My government apologizes for not responding sooner, however certain biological drives cannot easily be overcome, and our government is just now getting back up to speed with foreign affairs. It does however, please me to say that will be able to attend to this matter personally. While not signatories of the Accords, we do have a vested economic interest in what happens within the region, and as a consequence of the Prussian invasion and annexation of Volksland. We also possess a shared interest in the stability and military neutrality that the invasion of Volksland has called into question. We also have an interest in promoting the well being of all sentient life forms, and wish to ensure that the people of Volksland, for once in a long time, are able to control their own destiny and are treated with the respect and dignity that all sentient beings are owed by all others.

It is my hope that we can come to mutual agreement in the coming talks, and reach a solution which is satisfactory to all our governments.

With Regard,

Dr. Alytes Muletensis

Sent August 3rd, 3400

[MKSheppard]

Forward Outpost Alpha Bravo
Shepistani Federation



Colonel Tiberius Winter read the report on the Centrality for the dozenth time and then put it down.

Infiltrating a psyker police state to teach them a lesson was going to be very hard and tricky, even for the SIS's Special Enforcement Division.

Winter sighed. His father -- Augustus Winter -- never had to deal with this crap. Everything back then following the Amplitur attack was all clear as black and white, and he was one of the few who knew President Frederick's true nature, a secret that he had passed on to his son.

Maybe if he read something else, he would get an idea on how to handle the Centrality's ESP tournament.

Pulling a report at random from his desk's inbox, he read it.

Apparently unrest, paranoia, and absenteeism were on the rise in the Feeleepeens star system following President Shroomarcos decision to use FREEDOM PRIME combat units for routine traffic control duties.

Apparently people didn't like looking over their shoulders constantly, wondering if parking in a handicapped space would cause you to be designated a Communist and thus eradicated by the fifty jigjawatt laser in each FREEDOM PRIME's head.

Moving on to the next report in the pile, it was a detailed report of the profit sharing agreement between R. Julia and the SIS regarding the "Shroom Fighter" tournament profits from intergalactical merchandising rights.

But that bit about repurposed FREEDOM PRIME combat units causing terror in the Feeleepenes refused to leave his head.

It was then that he realized it.

The realization was like being shot...shot with a diamond bullet right through his forehead.

My God...the genius of that.

The Will to do that.

Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure.

We would be stronger than them. They wouldn't realize the total obscenity of our ideas. Because they're not monsters like we are. They're men...men who fight with their hearts, not with their intellects.

If they had the strength...the strength...to do what I am about to do, then the Centrality would have to fear no one.

But they don't have the strength, and thus I am about to make them bleed.

Bleed like a whore.

Putting down the report, he began to call around to set his schemes in motion.

[Force Lord]

The Central Times

4 August 3400

By Daj Lonag

SHEPISTAN EXPELS CENTRALIST AMBASSADOR

In a shocking move, the nation of Shepistan has given our ambassador the boot. Omran Gatte, the Centralist ambassador to Shepistan, was told by the Shepistani authorities that he had 24 hours to leave or else he would be arrested and unceremoniously expelled. This sudden termination of diplomatic relations is but the latest action in the increasingly worsening Centrality-Shepistan relationship.

Some experts believe that this move by Shepistan is a response to the fact that the Centrality is hosting the latest ESPer Tournament, and that this tournament is closer to Shepistan than before. They argue that previous tournaments have been done far away from Shepistan and in smaller scale due to this nation's infamous anti-ESPer views, and so have never recieved more that diatribes from the Shepistani leadership. This has become especially marked ever since the notorious General Sheppard was revived and assumed power. Now, with the tournament about to take place in Dovan Sector, the Central Intelligence Service has warned that "certain foreign elements" are planning to sabotage the competition. There is no doubt that the Central State is worried about a possible Shepistani action, though the Karlacks also seem likely to spy on the event.

The Triumvirs have declared that any threat to the tournament will be dealt with "decisively and swiftly", and announced that Faust, capital of Dovan Sector and the location of the current tournament, will be placed under martial law two days before the tournament starts and will last for the duration of the same. All citizens are advised to learn about the recent government directives before visiting Faust. Some members of the government have argued for a partial mobilization of the military, but such an option has been rejected by the Triumvirs. Nevertheless, Faust system will be under the protection of two full Fleets and an entire System Front for the duration of the Tournament, as well as a heavy CSB prescence.

Shepistan's fanatical anti-ESPer stance and unpredictable behavior has limited relations between that country and the Centrality, despite the fact that no ambassador sent there has been an ESPer. Recent events have not helped, and the Centrality must be ready for any Shepistani actions.

[MKSheppard]

Vulture Rock Command Bunker
Shepistani Federation
Night, 4 August 3400



"Wait, we expelled the Centrality's diplomat?" asked Sheppard as he read the latest message traffic.

"I don't remember authorizing that. Must be Tib's doing."

Sheppard was about to ring up Colonel Winter when the Double-Red tabbed folder landed on his desk with a thud. Looking up, he saw the stern face of the Grand Dominion's Secure Courier.

Sighing, Sheppard scrawled his signature on the carbon copy paper that the courier handed to him, and once the man had left, opened up the folder and began to read it's contents.

The cigar in his mouth fell to the floor in shock, and he reached over to stab the intercom button to his secretary.

"Get me Saul Tarsus. I want him here ASAP. Also get me the Dominion's military liason to the JCS. We may need to implement CASE WHITE and it's inter-governmental annexes."

[Siege]

Hyperspace
Edge of Centrality space

Hyperspace was a seething mass of cascading fractals.

This was what the universe looked like from the Sensorium of the Remembrance of Apexaia, nestled comfortably in a high-energetic hyperband as it hurtled toward the Centrality at incredible speed. The Sensorium was an all-encompassing hallucination, allowing the small crew to experience not just the awe-inspiring sight of hyperspace but also the clement wash of exotic particles against the vessel's pseudofields, the fiery heartbeat of the ship's dark energy reactor, even the cosmic song of the universe itself. The Remembrance of Apexaia resembled a massive disc, circular levels looping radially from a central core. There were no cannon ports visible on the ship, no gun batteries to be seen. A vessel like the Remembrance didn't need such crude weapons.

Foor sat cross-legged in the middle of the Sensorium. There were no control surfaces, no computers to be seen. The ship broadcast telemetry directly into the roiling cerebroenergetic theatres of his mind. He could change directions with but a wish, adjust heading or reactor output with a stray thought. But there was no need for that now. He had told the ship where to go, and it had complied. It hadn't traveled this far in many centuries, but it could still manage it with but a single hyperjump – truly, the engineering prowess of the Apexai race knew no bounds. So, Foor sat in the middle of the pulsing circular space and allowed his formidable mind to roam free.

It would be difficult for a human to tell, but Foor was excited. Truly, his kind had come a long way since that rueful day so many cycles ago. When the Bragulans had come. He had warned the Council of the impending doom, but they had scorned him – and paid for it with their lives. Their longevity, he had come to realize in the long and dark decades after, had been their folly. The Apexai were creatures of titanic intellect and immensely long life, and they had believed that they would always have enough time to think their way out of any situation. But Byzon – a thousand curses be upon him – had not given them the decades they had thought they had. His armadas had struck hard and fast, and before they had known it the Apexai had been scattered to the wind, their ancient homes destroyed.

Oh, how the vile Bragulans had laughed. Foor remembered all too well how those barely sentient mongoloids had galumphed through the ravages of his ancestral homeworld, desecrating the holy places with their guttural speech – nay, with their mere presence. They had thought themselves invincible, forever.

But that had been many cycles ago.

There would be Bragulans where they were going, Foor had heard. He sneered. That was good. Let the vulgar savages see that he had taken steps to rectify the mistakes of the past. Let them have a taste of what was to come. He doubted the Eternal Enemy was intelligent enough to understand the implications of what they were about to witness, but that was alright. They would understand soon enough. He would make sure of that.

The Remembrance of Apexaia hurtled toward the Centrality, and in its great and silent Sensorium Foor cackled.


Local Space Control
Maschtek, The Centrality

General Lahaine consulted his watch. “Twenty five minutes. They're coming in fast.”

Around him, the level of excitement and panic rose considerably.

It wasn't everyday that you got to see something unusual in the Centrality, but for the operators in Maschtek sector Local Space Control today definitely qualified. Today's strangeness had begun with the detection of an unknown contact, heading for the Centrality at a fair clip and in an unusually high hyperband. It had been hailed repeatedly but so far this had failed to elicit a response. This had caused the Centrality's famously paranoid military to prepare orbital missile silos as well as space security squadrons and several special defense organizations on high alert – but since the object had not yet breached the border of the Centrality, no shots had yet been fired in anger. That moment, however, was now approaching rapidly, thus explaining the nervously excited atmosphere in the LSC.

A few relatively uneventful minutes passed as the military watched the unidentified object make a beeline for the border. More and more weapons were being brought online to aid in the inevitable destruction of the object should it decide to run the gauntlet of the Centrality's formidable firepower, until suddenly:

“General, Sensor One. I have a realspace transition by Bandit One Five Alpha. Heading in-system at flank 135 Mark 087, tracking for Gamma Charlie Epsilon.”

“Visuals?”

“It's fifty AU away, sir general sir. Lightspeed data from the ship hasn't even begun to hit our long-range telescopes.”

Lahaine twitched involuntarily. Should've known that he impatiently realized. “Keep tracking. Plot an intercept for the security squadron. Open hailing frequencies.”

“He’s jumped again!” an operator shouted. On the holograms that flickered through the LSC, a second hyperwave disturbance bloomed not far from the false-color shadow of the first. Almost instantly the ship re-emerged from hyper, much closer to the orbital upon which the LSC was located this time.

“The drive emissions are… crisp.” A heavily augmented controller tried to put the folding of eight-dimensional spacetime geometries in a form of English the general had a remote chance of understanding. “That is a jump within what would be the hyperlimit for our own drives. We're dealing with a very advanced hyperdrive, moreso than our own anyway. It might be able to carry him all the way here without much trouble.”

Lahaine twitched again. “Ready the heavy lasers. What about those hailing frequencies?”

A third disturbance flared on the display. It was now uncomfortably close to Maschtek.

“Plot a shortstop.” General Lahaine said tersely. “Rodney, Beytisse and Ramage are to intercept the contact.”

“It's now barely half an AU away,” one of the senior controllers reported. “Lightspeed imagery of the ship should arrive just about...” she looked at the chronometer. The general and the rest of the room counted down the seconds with her. “... now.”

With a flicker, an image appeared on the holographic displays that dominated the room.



For a brief moment the room fell very silent. A few of the less restrained controllers even let out little gasps. It was to be expected. None of them had ever seen anything like this ship before. It was Lahaine who finally broke the silence. “... what the hell is that thing?”

“Checking all available databases sir,” one of the data-controllers said. “No hits.”

“It's coming toward us!”

“I'm not seeing anything on emissions. Nothing on thermal, no atomics, no gravitics... Jesus what is powering this thing?” A note of panic crept into the voice of the controller.

Lahaine thought very quickly. Although the Centrality didn't always promote its staff officers on a basis of military aptitude alone, it didn't promote fools either. You didn't rise to be a general in an environment as generally cutthroat and unforgiving as the Centrality if you didn't have your wits about you, and Lahaine had long since learned to draw his conclusions almost intuitively. So instead of answering, he ordered, “run the readings through the Aural Spectrometer.”

A techie did so and uttered a cry of surprise. “Fucker's got psychoencephalographic waves! But the pattern is strange...”

“But unmistakable.” Lahaine remarked and smiled a little. His leap toward suspecting this had something to do with the Esper Tournament had been right. He turned toward the data-controller who had so far been unable to identify the vessel. “A psychic ship. Anything in our databases about those?”

The controller rattled some information into his computer and frowned. “There are some results but... Nothing we or anyone we know have actually seen before. There's a lot of hysterics and conjecture in here sir.”

Lahaine looked serious. “Cross-file against all the nationalities known to participate in the Esper Tournament.”

More tapping of keys. Then a beat. “I'm getting something, sir. But...”

The general looked annoyed. “Out with it.”

The tech looked at his screens. “Sir, I'm getting hits on scatted records from some old databases. Like, ancient old. They're UN after action reports from observers sent to investigate hyper-perimeter conflicts in the galactic south. Late 29th century; there's talk of a massive war between two alien races in the unknown regions beyond the frontiers of the Byzantine Imperium. One of those races was the Bragulans-”

General Lahaine interrupted him, looking slightly stunned despite himself. "Are you telling me that thing out there is an Apexai wardisc?"

“... I'm saying that's the hit I'm getting sir. Nobody's seen a ship like this in ages. Not even what little fragments of Sovereignty data we have describe this thing.”

The general took a moment to arrange his thoughts. He was about to speak when another tech spoke up. “We're being hailed!”

Lahaine scowled. “Open a channel.”

“Sir, that ship appears to be psychic. Are you sure that is that your final opinion?”

“It will have to do for now. But audio only, and tell the security programming to check for memetic content.”

A sonorous chime echoed across the LSC command deck as the channel opened. The gong-like sound was followed by a pleasant if slightly accented female voice that stated, with a faint accent: “Salutations. I am the Remembrance of Apexaia, carrying a delegation of the Silver Shield to the planet Faust for the 1100th Esper Tournament.”

The general waved his hand in front of his throat and a tech cut the channel. Lahaine asked, “what is it doing?”

“Nothing sir. It's just stopped at a quarter of an AU from us. It's just sitting there.” The tech paused and then added, “at less than a hundred klicks from the border, I might add.”

Damn, Lahaine thought. Now he had to actually make a decision on whether to let the ship through or blast it to atoms. He wondered if...

“We're getting a transmission from the alien ship,” a controller reported. “It's an identification signal, corresponding to a CIS ident tag for the Silver Shield delegation.”

The general was actually relieved to hear that. If he let them through now and they turned out to be something other than what they pretended they were, he could at least point toward the Central Intelligence Service and let them carry the blame. It would be out of his hands. He nodded. “Tell the Ramage to stand by for escort duty to Faust. Open a channel to the alien vess-”

He was interrupted mid-sentence by another cry from the communications officer. “Another transmission from the alien ship! Transmission reads: 'You have our thanks for the escort, General Lahaine. I will set course for the coordinates you have transmitted. Live long and prosper.'” The tech frowned in confusion. “Err, sir, appended is an earlier message with a set of coordinates, apparently transmitted by us... Except we haven't sent anything of the kind?”

As a seasoned veteran of Centrality politics General Lahaine was more than a little familiar with inexplicable or outright weird psionic effects, so this didn not faze him as much as it did his underlings. “Not yet,” he replied sourly. “We haven't sent that message yet. But I doubt causality is something these people respect very much. Transmit the all-clear, lieutenant... And tell the Ramage they need to spool up their drives. I think they'll have their work cut out for them trying to keep up.”

[Steve]

Palace of Parliament Government Offices, Westminster
New Anglia, Star Kingdom of New Anglia
5 August 3400


"...and now that we have settled our discussion of the Pendleton insurgency issues for now, I believe we need to consider this nasty business with Shepistan and the Centrality," Stephen Penton remarked from his seat at the table. He received nods of agreement from some quarters and plain looks from others. "I will not even imagine to ponder what is going on in Montgomery Arco concerning the severing of diplomatic relations with the Centrality save to ponder why the Sheppoes even invited relations in the first place. Having to carefully screen our Foreign Office personnel sent there to exclude Espers is annoyance enough but I'm at a loss as to how an Esper-controlled state like the Centrality does it."

"The Shepistanis have made their rather... extreme views toward Espers long known, and this is a logical consequence," Baden-Grey remarked. "The Esper Olympics, whenever attempted, have almost always been held in locales far from this quadrant of the Known Galaxy. The closest it's ever been before now was Earth itself and engaging in chicanery with the UN is something even Shepistan would not do lightly."

"Pardon me, Lord Prestwick, for not being familiar with the complexities of the Shepistani mentality, but I have a question," a voice spoke up. It was recognizable as coming from an MP from the Commons, Allen Crestmere, who held portfolio as the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. "Everyone knows how paranoid they are about them, but how does Shepistan viiew an Esper sporting event happening over 10 sectors away as a threat requiring belligerent activity? I was always under the impression that they didn't particularly care in either way how other nations dealt with Esper populations."

Stephen looked to Sir Charles Stewart KAE MP, the Minister of State for Esper Affairs; a department of the Home Office. A Class 5 telepathic psion himself, Sir Charles was the man at the table best-suited to coommenting on the Shepistani attitude toward Espers since, for educated Espers, learning about the Shepistani mentality was considered key to understanding basic potential issues of Esper/Non-Esper relations. "As simplistic as their paranoia and hate seems to be, Mister Crestmere, the Shepistani attitudes toward Espers in other countriex isn't entirely so simple. At a basic level the Shepistanis understand there's nothing they can do to deal with Espers beyond their borders, not as a population. Although there are the various rumors and reports of leading Esper advocates in other nations being assassinated or otherwise incapicitated by or with the aid of Shepistani intelligence, they usually are content to just deny entry of foreign psionics into Shepistani territory. They, in fact, do seem to be fairly understanding about warning other nations' Espers about the dangers of entering Shepistani territory with its prevalence of Blitzschlag Fields."

"However, this does not mean they like it. Shepistan is, in fact, supportive of any effort to curtail the Esper population of the galaxy, and has generally promoted the spread of anti-Esper propaganda nad the founding of anti-Esper groups across the galaxy. At the core of Shepistani attitudes remains this; the belief that Espers are a threat to the very fabric of galactic society and will subjugate the rest of Humanity under a tyranny of the mind if given the slightest chance. Regrettably, the fact that the most prominent Esper-governed nations in the galaxy do tend to be authoritarian and to promote Esper supremacy in some form or another suggests to them and others the viability of this belief. The fact that the host nation is, in fact, the totalitarian Centrality made Shepistani hostility unavoidable."

"A very good summation, Mister Stewart," Baden-Grey agreed. "I believe that should answer all questions, save the most obvious; what it matters to us. As you might have guessed, not many people want to risk stepping on toes in a police state-governed society like the Centrality in the first place. Though the Anglian Esper Athletic Society has been promoting the formation of a national team to attend, few are stepping forward and I could probably count the number of active ticket-seekers on my fingers. Our little row with the Centrality earlier this year, and the issue of the refugees from the Datton, isn't helping matters..."

"The Navy did get around to returning that ship, by the way?" Stephen leveled a teasing glare toward the First Lord of the Admiralty.

"Of course, sir," MP Dale answered defensively. "I believe the paperwork was finally completed two weeks ago. The Centrality's recovery crew has already taken her out of Anglian space."

"And it only took the Navy almost six months to arrange a release that Lord Prestwick and I called to be expedited about five months ago?" Aside fromo letting himself sneer for a moment, Penton moved on. "Anyway, I see no point in getting too wrapped up in this business. Few of our people want to even visit the Centrality, I don't think we'll have many people iin jeopardy there. Though..." Mischief now made itself visible on his expression. "I think Sir Charles and Mister Schumpeter should get together on discussing an offer to host the Esper Olympics here in New Chatham the next time they are held...."

There was some laughter at that. Before the laughter could subside, there was a tone from Baden-Grey's pocket. He took out a receiver and whispered into it. His face betrayed some excitement and surprise. "Lord Prestwick?", Mr. Arginosa, the Secretary of State for Education, inquired gently.

"I believe the Shepistani situation may have taken an interesting turn, according to Director Bronson," the Foreign Secretary informed the assembled. "He has confirmed a report from the Shepistani desk at MI6 that the Shepistani military has begun fleet mobilization procedures."

The mirth that the Prime Minister had inspired in the room died away instantly; the cabinet meeting became far more tense as they debated how to react to this development.


Summary
A small Anglian team will be fielded at the Olympics, but only by a medium-sized Esper organization of the Kingdom. Travel warnings from the Anglian Foreign Office and the public knowledge of the Datton Affair will dampen travel to observe.

The Shepistani mobilization to implement Case White has been detected and confirmed. Anglian fleet assets are not going on alert, but MI6 and Naval Intelligence will be keeping an eye out to see what happens. Given the unpredicability of the Shepistanis, nobody is willing to take unnecessary chances about their purposes.

[Mayabird]

Written mostly by Force Lord.

The Central Warp Gate, Centrum, The Centre System
The Center Sector, The Centrality

The Centrality was expecting visitors. A First Contact situation, which was rare.

The Central Warp Gate was activated, and the Refuge ships, unmistakable in their boxy shapes, appeared. There were four of them, three being in a pyramid formation guarding a smaller ship that was definitely the diplomatic vessel. They were all surrounded by Centralist ships, though many were there to keep curious vessels at a distance. The Centralist ships themselves were also distant, the only vessel being near was the dreadnought Nova, the first of the Nova-class dreadnoughts in service with the Centralist Navy.

The little flotilla of Refuge ships continued until they reached their destination: the Space Battlestation C-7. Not the largest armed space station in Centralist space, but it was enough.



The Refugees had followed their instructions precisely, deviating hardly a meter from the intended course. They had reached the hangar and were allowed to land inside. The hangar was full of Centralist troops, in case contact turned out to be fatal. There were Marines, Army soldiers, Black Berets, battle droids of all clases, even armoured vehicles and Special Corps ESPers. All were kept far back from the Refugee ships, however. First impressions always counted in diplomacy such as this. Soon, the doors in the foreign ships opened, and ramps extended.

First came the giant machines, all alike in size, shape, and armament. There were two ranks, marching in perfect synchronization. They were far outnumbered by the Centralist soldiers, but still they gave the impression that any attempts to fight them would end painfully, with heavy losses. At least, that was what Lagis Fronte, Director of First Contact Section, thought. One shared by Tagdef Borlon and Ravin Nostrum, who were also there.

The three had been sent to represent the Centrality, not just because of their diplomatic skill, but because Borlon and Nostrum were telepaths and Fronte was an empath. A high proportion, if not all, of the Central Government's members were telepathic or empathic ESPers, due to the fact that these abilities enabled them to outwit rivals who had none. An exception was the late dictator Gabriel Enduvos, who had telekenesis. Predictably, he failed to forsee the coup that killed him. The lesson was: don't try to fool people that know to see your thoughts or feelings.

Look at the size of those machines! You'd think that we're dealing with Collectors!, thought an exultant Fronte. It was a very long time his agency had seen any use, and the sudden appearance of the Refuge had excited the FCS, Fronte himself most of all.

Yes, but these are from a nation that appeared out of nowhere. We should be on our guard, warned Borlon telepathically.

Let's just hear what they have to say. Maybe we can get a good deal out of this, responded Nostrum.

For security measures, an ESP Amplifier was placed inside a box at the hangar, so that, pardon the pun, the abilities of the Centralist diplomats and the Special Corps ESPers were amplified. It was hoped that the latter would have to do nothing...war-like.

The Refuge machines continued marching, their great size awe-inspiring. In the middle of the second rank of soldiers, however, was something that was quite different. Significantly smaller than the soldiers, mostly black instead of the plain metallic tones of the machines, and flying instead of marching. Its flight was deliberate, as close to being in sync with the marching legs as possible - or perhaps, the soldiers were marching to match the wing flaps?, thought Borlon. It was an idle thought, and not an important one.

The two ranks stopped, and the front made a short, brusque movement to leave a path for the black bird. It flew forward and landed before the Centralist officials, then stood stiffly at attention, red and gold shoulders flashing like braid. And then he spoke.



“We come here as representatives of the Refuge, honored by your nation's invitation. I am the chosen ambassador for this meeting, and may be called Epaulette.”

Borlon was quick in reminding Fronte and Nostrum (telepathically, of course) to keep subtle their use of their special abilities and do nothing that might alarm the Refuge's ambassador.

Yes, we wouldn't want to upset this...bird. He smiled at the last word. Business as usual.

"Greetings, Epaulette", Borlon spoke. "Welcome to the Centrality. I apologize if you have seen my nation's troops back there", pointing behind to the soldiers farther down. "We are quite...cautious. Had you've been in my shoes, you would have done the same."

"Of course," answered Epaulette. "It is a perfectly understandable and reasonable precaution when dealing with the unknown, as we are."

"I believe this place is too exposed for negotiations between us. Would you mind following us to someplace more private?"

"Yes", said Nostrum. "Or you would like to remain here?"

"We are intruders upon your hospitality already and newcomers to this region of space in general. As such, we would not wish to be presumptuous by causing further inconveniences. We will follow you to a more private location for discussions."

Borlon smiled and motioned for one of the officers to come. He spoke to the officer quietly. "Ready a room for us. Make sure it is soundproof." And he added, telepathically, And place an amplifier in a innocuous place in that room.

The officer nodded and marched out into a nearby corridor with several men. Borlon turned back to Epaulette.

"Come. We have much to discuss."

The four diplomats soon walked to the same corridor the officer went.

[Shroom Man 777]

THE TRUTHER TIMES TRANSMISSION
An associated publication of the Orion's Guardian



THE CENTRALITE AMBASSADOR WAS AN INSIDE JOB

The Shepistani government has not done a thing to the Centrality diplomatic mission on Montgommery. The Centrality news report alleging that "Omran Gatte, the Centralist ambassador to Shepistan, was told by the Shepistani authorities that he had 24 hours to leave or else he would be arrested and unceremoniously expelled" is merely another fabrication by the liberal media that controls such outlets such as the Centrality News Network, the CNN!

The Liberal Media, as we all know, is playing to the homobortionist agenda, the liberals, degenerates, and the Anglian Welsh - all comprisng the pro-psykerists communoid conspiracy that threatens to sap and impurify our precious cerebrospinal fluids. That the Shepistani government remains hostile to psykers is justifiable, in light of the Centrality's own true form - where the psykers have subjugated the entire star nation to their totalitarian will. While the Centrality is ruled by a Jungian junta of jerry-rigged juvenile jockstraps jerking-off to their perfidious pluralizing pykeristic hivemind of horror, the Shepistani Republic - by virtue of being the only psyker-free society in the universe - has remained a free country enjoying the sound principles of democracy and freedom.



Now the Centralites, with their Liberal Medias and CNNs, have moved against Shepistan by slurring and sullying the nation with their allegations of diplomatic defenestrations - when the Shepistani government has done no such thing, and when the Centralites kicked themselves out of Shepistan! What these psykerites are playing at, no one knows. For what evil lurks in the minds of mutites? Only General Sheppard knows!

Yet the other nations of the galaxy, those who would partake in the Centrality's blasphorities, have been swayed against Shepistan due to the insidious insinuations of the psykers, those megalomaniacal mutants who have brainwashed the populaces of their poor planets to their will, assimilating them into the greater hivemind's collective communoid consciousness - no different from the Arachnid Karlacks, or the Amplitur craboids who so threatened the nations of the Loin Stars. Yet these psykers are worse, for they conceal their true forms whereas the craboids and arachnids come in clawed and chitinous carapaces denoting their horrific nature - the true ugliness of the Centrality, and all other psyker-nations, are hidden in a veil of seemingly true but false humanity!

Already, rumors have spread of psyker alienoids consorting with the Centralites. Sightings of flying saucers and Grey alienoids. These ominous signs and portents mark the coming of the cattle mutilations and the probings! Readers beware, and remember to KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES!


A UFO (Unidentified Freaky Object) recently sighted at the Centrality border.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Imperial Chronicles
Cananaan


Tyrus looked at the spectacle happening down in the city square. Down below, King Guynald de Chatilusignon was indulging in his daily routine, surrounded by an audience baying for blood. Wielding a chain sword named, Holy Guillotine of the God Emperor, he was about to slice off the head of a xeno stupid enough to stumble into the Cananaan system and then caught by the local police forces. Naturally, being ardent followers of the God Emperor of Terra, they were naturally incredibly xenophobic, and carried their duties with a fervour quite unrivalled, even within the Imperium itself. Crazy insane nutters, thought Tyrus.

“In the name of the God Emperor of Holy Terra, do I pronounce your sentence, and commit your infidel soul to the void,” declared King Guynald. The raucous crowd cheered and egged the King on. The poor xeno, if one would even consider it remotely pitiful, had multiple wounds throughout its body, and was scarred from various wounds inflicted by hours of torture at the hands of the dungeon torturers. The tired xeno was too exhausted and in pain to even look up at his executioner. He simply whimpered quietly, obviously hoping that his sorry life would end soon.

“Die foul xeno!” King Guynald swung the chain sword with great force, and the neutronium teeth of the chainsword sliced right through the xeno’s neck, causing blood to spill and splash over King Guynald’s face, beard, and chest. The crowd cheered and roared in approval. No wonder the crazy bastard’s beard is forever red. It must be from the blood from the various heretics and whatever scum he beheads, Tyrus sighed mentally. He detested this place and seeing it first hand was like being sent back to the age of barbarism, where humans simply sliced and diced each other on the whim. Sure their worship of the God Emperor was admirable, but in some ways, it was way too fanatical for Tyrus to stomach. Little wonder where the Roman curia happily wished these fellows away after many of them settled in the Imperium centuries before. And now, the spectacle of a scene seemed to hark back from the Middle Ages on old Earth. He recalled reading that at a certain Tower of Londonium in old Londinium on Earth, such a scene replayed itself after some schismatic King or Queen decided that they had enemies to behead. Tyrus sighed heavily again.

Weeks earlier, Tyrus had starred gapping at the data that his interrogator Petr Somn had brought him. “Are you serious?!” Tyrus roared. “These scum balls had the nerve to set up shop close to ... Cananaan space?!”

“It would appear so my Lord. Perhaps its close proximity to Shinran space simply made it convenient for the pirates to use it as a stopover point,” Petr Somn spoke evenly and calmly. He had expected Tyrus to react badly to the news, but his analysis was impeccable and he knew it.

“You do know what this means, right? It means if we were to follow these scum back to their hell hole, it means going by that accursed backwater backside of a shit pit of swirling to the brimming with lunacy and with crazy morons born with their brains missing or their mothers were simply retards or they simply had their brains degenerating due to cellular necrosis the moment they were born. It’s as if lunacy decided to wear and skirt and shirt that says ‘Here I am, here I remain!’ and then proceeds to do a horrid strip tease!”

Petr stifled a sigh. He also knew what it meant, and he did not like it much either. “Yes, my Lord, I know what it means.”

“Get me a communication link to Terra. It looks like we will be needing to borrow that corvette a while longer.”

“Yes, my Lord.”

And so they were now here, after picking up a couple of squads of Deathwatch Astartes on the way to Cananaan. Tyrus was quite pleased with the addition of the two squads to his retinue. At least if they could provide extra firepower just in case for some forsaken reason, he ended up in a middle of a fight between the three warring lunatic factions here. Sure, Jaunt’s Jokes were here with him, but the odds of getting into a fight was rather high. But what he was not pleased about, was to bring along a bunch of fanatical priests from Terra. The Ordos Diplomatica had an interesting thought of using Cananaan as a missionary base to serve to spread the Word of the God Emperor. Tyrus knew why the Ordos thought it was a good idea, given the number of crazy lunatics in the system, of whom were breeding like rabbits. But Tyrus hated the idea of having to deal with King Guynald de Chatilusignon. “The bastard walks, smells, and stinks so much I wonder how his subjects don’t just fall over and die from his foul stench,” he told Petr earlier.

The door opened, and a servant walked through and announced, “The King will see you now.”

Sighing quietly, Tyrus turned to Petr, and Jaunt, the two Deathwatch Astartes sergeants and the two of the priests and said, “Let’s ... get this show over with.” And they walked out.

[Force Lord]

CIS General HQ, Central City
Centrum, The Center Sector, The Centrality
5 August 3400

The sound of a running woman could be heard in the hallways, reflecting a sudden breakthrough in the CIS's investigations regarding Shepistan. She could be sensed by Hoover Gates already. And he already formulated his responses when the female entered his office.

"You found something?", he asked.

The woman took a moment to breathe, and responded, "Director, CIS agents assigned to observe Shepistani movements just outside their space have found something very important."

In her hand was the report, but Gates knew what she was talking about. He was a telepath, after all. For the sake of protocol, however, he allowed her to give him the document and pretented to read. After some tense minutes, he finally spoke.

"So Shepistan is mobilizing its fleet? I knew those insane scum would try something sooner or later."

"What should we do, Director?"

"Get me the Triumvirs."

Central Party HQ

"The Sheps are mobilizing? Am I hearing this right?" Fredon was incredulous.

"They had to do something sooner or later, my friend. Our hosting of the tournament was bound to give Sheppard the jitters," said Tredell.

"The Shepistanis were never known to be avatars of reason. They are basically human Bragulans," Borlon agreed.

"We have no firm conclusion about their possible intentions, but given their recent actions, I won't be surprised if we are in their sights, said Gates from the holo.

"Should we mobilize?", asked Tredell. "Shepistan is very unpredictable, and we should not be caught with our pants down."

"Mobilization is a last-resort move. We wouldn't want the tournament to get more tense than it is. We must wait for Shepistan's next move," stated Fredon.

"My agents will keep track of any other noticeable movements in Shepistani Space. I will contact you in case of further developments. Long live the State."

And Gates's hologram disappeared.

Borlon turned to Fredon and Tredell. "I believe I have to tell you something that our recently expelled ambassador to Shepistan suspects."

It was Tredell's turn to raise an eyebrow. "And what does he think?"

"He said that he learned from comlink that he was going to be expelled. The voice he heard claimed to be General Sheppard, but the ambassador said that the voice he heard did not sound like him, because he once spoke with that man on comlink when he first arrived on Shepistan."

"Strange", Fredon said. "Sheppard's usually very controlling."

"Maybe it was one of his lieutenants trying to scare us," Tredell snorted.

"Perhaps. But maybe there's something more sinister afoot," Borlon responded.

"Enough of this Shepistan business. We have a tournament to take care of. I wouldn't want to miss our teams go for the gold." Fredon smiled. Oh, that would be good.

"You and me both," Tredell said.

"And me. It's about time I've had some entertainment," Borlon said.

Suddenly, Kierger popped out from a desk.

"Me fourth!", he shouted happily.

The other three men sighed. Yes, the succesor to Enduvos would have to come too...

[Shroom Man 777]

The Pendleton Proliferation

"I am the greatest."



Nah Oslo walked down the ramp of the Century Egg and looked around excitedly. Finally he was on Pendleton, after the long voyage through the Bannerman Gap, after the thrilling pursuit of the Anglian ship, how they nearly had him, and how he narrowly escaped their vile imperialistic clutches. Damn he was good! If he thought so himself, and he did! Yeah. Alright! Oh yeah.

Behind him, Brewbacca hauled some stuff out of the ship and barked something incomprehensible. There were deckhands around decked out in chrome-plated protective gear/armor that made them out like protocol droids. Nah wondered if he could steal their chrome-plated protective gear/armor and sell it to Umeria for a quick buck. It reminded him of this time he was in the Feelipeens to get some chromium and sell it to the Umericans. The memories of the Feelipeens made him hungry, and he wondered if he could get some fried dog here on Pendleton.

The memories of the chromium shipment to Umeria reminded him of another, less pleasant, thing. John Tamrin. Goddamn that Tamrin! Goddamn him to Space Hell! Nah Oslo gritted his teeth and stormed off in a huff. He would show them, alright. They laughed at him, but at the end of this day, they wouldn't be laughing anymore. No one would! Not at him - Nah Oslo! He'd done the Bannerman Run in less than twelve parsecs! He was sure 100% that they were all talking about it now, ruing the day they looked down at the one and only Nah Oslo!

Nah giggled and gibbered, still high from the coffee rush. As per his requests, Brewbacca had filled the espresso to the brim with artificial sweetener, and it was taking its toll on Nah now.

Speaking of coffees, Nah saw his contact. The man called Java. Java the Butt.

They began to haggle.



"Bargon wan chee kospah," Java the Butt began, speaking in Buttese. It was an interstellar language known to traders and spacers and used to carry out their deals, of which Nah Oslo had passing familiarities. "Da beesga coo palyeeya pityee bo tenya go kaka juju hoopla."

"Whatever you said, I don't like the way you said it," Nah Oslo said defiantly. This caused intakes of breath from the people around them. Nah grinned a cocksure grin. He knew what he was doing. He drove a hard bargain. "You know hoopla isn't any good, Java. I want payment in quatloos."

"Chespo kutata kreesta krenko, nyakoska!" Java exclaimed in his guttural tongue, displeasure evident in the tone of his incomprehensible voice.

"No! No! No!" Nah shook his head. He didn't do his daring deeds to get haggled out of his profits. He had to repulse those damn Anglian boarders and fly through the maelstroms of shoal space to evade the entire Coalition fleet. He demanded more. "I demand more! More quatloos, Java. I want more quatloos!"

He stamped his feet to accentuate his point.

"Bona nai kachu." Java growled menacingly before leaving Nah Oslo to his own devices.

"Damn," Oslo muttered to himself as he watched his customer leave the port. "Now what?"

***

"The subject has made contact with suspected elements, but the package is still with the subject."

"Shall we proceed?"

"Negatory, the transmitters have yet to be disseminated."

"Requesting instructions."

"Remain on standby. Wait for the subject to transfer the package to the suspected elements, and then begin tracking the transmitters."

"What of the subject?"

"The subject is of no value to us. Once the package is in the hands of the suspected elements, prioritize their surveillance above the others."

"For now, we wait."

"Acknowledged."



TO BE CONTINUED

[Akhlut]

[Posted something with a bit too much haste, will repost after some consultation]

[Force Lord]

This is CNN!

The Secretary of State, Falko Tredell, has announced, after some discussion with leading members of the State, that the day before the Tournament will witness a "grand parade" in honor of the same. Said parade will include people such as actors, athletes, and military personnel, and will be attended by the Centrality's leadership. Foreign dignitaries were invited to attend, though from states and organizations that will send teams to the Tournament.

In other news, the ESPer Tournament Commitee has finally announced a date for the start of the Tournament after repeated postponements. The day is 16 August 3400, the latest cause for the delay being the recent Shepistani behavior and subsequent security measures taken by the Central State.

Remember, only CNN can give you fair, unbiased reports! Don't go away yet! The next news will come soon!

*cue commercials and propaganda*

[MKSheppard]

Vulture Rock, Supra-Executive Level
Shepistani Federation Command Bunker
Afternoon, 5 August 3400


Interior of Vulture Rock, being patrolled by Shepistani Troops in AP-100 Armor with AP-764 towers nearby

President Sheppard slowly cooled his heels outside the entrance to President Frederick's chamber, waiting for the others to arrive.

As usual, he had arrived very early; but the others in this little cabal were running late.

Ten minutes later, the others arrived.

Sheppard stood up and shook hands with each of the new arrivals.

"Tib, how's the project you have going with the Esperlympics going?"

"Excellently, Mr President," replied Tiberius Winter. "The first stage has been executed, and the items should begin arriving just as the Esperlympic starts."

Turning to the other late arrival, Sheppard looked Tarsus in the eye. "Admiral, is the fleet ready for any possible problems lately?"

"We're as ready as we can be, sir."

"Right, muttered Sheppard. "Well, let's see what's got Frederick all upset as a bee in a bonnet."


President Frederick

"Gentlemen," began Frederick. "The Shepistani Federation faces it's greatest threat in centuries. All the evidence I've gathered so far points towards a new Amplitur offensive."

"I find that hard to believe," scoffed Tarsus. "I Nova-bombed their god-damned homeworld back in 2989, we haven't seen any major Amplitur Naval combatants in two centuries, and our most recent punitive expedition through the former Amplitur holdings back in 2375 didn't show anything on those worlds surviving above extremophiles."

"Grand Admiral Tarsus, I have seen those same reports," replied Frederick.

"While you were extraordinarily throrough in your decimation of the core Amplitur worlds four centuries ago, Admiral...evidence has surfaced recently that suggests that we did not drive their last remnants into a pre-stone age existence."

A screen on the wall next to Frederick's housing flashed into life, showing a complex graph.



"This is based off data supplied to us recently by the Grand Dominion via secure courier. For the uneducated, it shows the distinctive signature of a 'step-through' drive via a sleet of cyclonic radiation."

Frederick paused; most likely for dramatic effect, since as a computer, he didn't need to breathe.

"This signature was found near the wreckage of P.N.S. Springer Mountain, as well as her two escorts."

"So the Dominos lose three ships. Why is this such a big deal? We know that they've had a string of catastrophic failures recently in their Navy due to old units they can't afford to replace. It's really a crying shame what happened to the Dominion Navy..." said Tarsus.

"Admiral Tarsus, I am well acquainted with the problems that the Grand Dominion's Navy is encountering with fleet obsolescence due to the last few centuries of poor political decisions." replied Frederick. "What is crucial about this piece of evidence is that it was the only piece of evidence that the Dominion could find."

"You're shitting me. That signature's the only thing? What about the sensor logs, visual recordings; EEV beacons?"

"Precisely, Admiral. Whatever destroyed the Springer Mountain occured with such overwhelming force that the only trace of evidence as to the attacker was this signature found in the emergency backup memory banks of an aft-facing DRADIS array."

Tarsus stared towards the graph for several seconds before cursing. "That's a lot of overmatch. The N'iss have Step-through-Drive, but don't build ships of that level of overmatch; and the Collectors, while building ships that big, use conventional FTL, as the data from the Annapolis has proven. So the only thing left is a god-damned Choir Vessel."

"Excellently put, Admiral. I know the Navy is loath to admit it, but we know of at least three Choir Vessels that survived the Final Campaigns."

"Wait," interrupted Sheppard. "As powerful as a Choir Vessel may be, there are only three of them left in the universe. The Navy can deal with that scale of threat."

"Yes, General. There are only three known survivors." replied Frederick with a computer generated sigh. "But I would like to point out that these were the largest ships in the Amplitur Navy that we could not account for. Innumerable smaller ships and freighters were also unaccounted for. Admiral Tarsus' Navy accounted for no less than five FTL capable ships in the 2350 punitive expedition."

At this, Colonel Winter spoke up.

"Odds are they've rebuilt some orbital facilities out beyond the Red Line to service those three Choir vessels, and they might even have built one or two more ships of that scope, along with many more smaller craft. I've seen pirates in the rim build things like you wouldn't believe for a pittance in resources."

"Well said, my dear Colonel. Unfortunately, your expertise will be needed to cleanse this latest infestation."

At that last line, the entire chamber fell silent.

Shit. If Frederick's saying we need Winter, things are about to get fucked up. thought Sheppard.

"Why would my services be required, Mr. President?" asked Winter.

The graph on the screen disappeared, to be replaced with split-screen views showing the Centrality embassy on Shepistan from multiple angles, along with several real-time data collection streams.

Shit. thought Sheppard. Now the strange behavior by the Centrality makes sense.

"I'll get to the point, gentlemen" announced Frederick.

"The Centrality's recent announcement that we have expelled their ambassador when we have done no such thing was such a severe devitation from my statistical graphs and extrapolations of Centrality behavior that I instructed the SIS to examine the embassy closer."


Deviation of Centrality behavior from Extrapolated Behavior

On screen, several images changed, showing street level video from various sources.

"I was able to use disguised protectorons in civilian markings to examine the embassy grounds; and their onboard sensors detected a intensely strong psychic source centered on the Embassy."


Psychic Intensities near the Embassy

"You can see how for most of the coverage; esper activity is near null, thanks to the comforts of the Blitzschlag field. However, near the embassy, there are strong psychic intensities..."

Before Frederick could finish, he was interrupted by Winter, who cursed out loud. At this, everyone turned.

"Sorry," he replied. "I was thinking out loud, but it's bad. See on the map? Most of it is the comforting deep blue and violet of normal human esper intensities. Some are cyan, which are around the range of a top human esper. But red....red is for immensely strong psychic minds...far above human extranorms. It's Amplitur."

"God-damn." muttered Tarsus. "Have you notified fleet command yet? We can vector a battlestation over the embassy and surgeryize the infestation with its onboard weapons. No risk to anyone on the ground."

"Admiral, as much as I admire your enthuasism and while I admit such a method would be the best as far as cost-efficiency ratios are concerned; I have extrapolated Centrality and galactic reaction to such a course of action."


Extrapolated Shepistani Popularity

"It would reduce our intragalactic standing to near zero, which is a non-desirable outcome. No, Admiral; we'll have to accept a non-optimal cost-effective ratio for this one. Colonel Winter, will your E.N.C.L.A.V.E. team be ready to assault the Centrality embassy in less than 4.31 hours?"

"Wait!" interrupted Sheppard. "Wait just a god-damned minute. How the living christ did a honest to god Amplitur get onto Shepistan, and into the Montgomery Arco-region?"

The lights on Frederick's housing blinked rapidly, indicating he was in deep thought. "General; I have thought this over, and using backdated footage from our SIS surveillance teams who have each embassy in Montgomery under surveilance, I have identified what I believe to be the source of the infestation."


SURVPHOTO #21315AF

"This crate was delivered to the Centralist Embassy approximately 2.12 hours before the Centrality claimed that we were expelling them. At the time, we noted some interference in local Blitzschlag fields; but the technicians on duty put it down to the Centrality trying out some anti-blitzschlag field equipment at the time."

"My god," replied Tarsus. "It's all coming together now. The goddamn craboid sealed itself up in that crate, along with a protective null-field generator to keep itself from going insane during the trip across Shepistan...and it got into the Centrality embassy by posing as a persecuted psyker who wanted asylum in the Centrality."

"Excellent deduction, Admiral. It correlates with my extrapolated graphs to a 99.98 per-cent certainity. Once it was in the zero-Blitzschlag field zone around the Embassy, it quickly took over the minds of all the Centrality Embassy personnel," finished Frederick.

"God-damn fools," muttered Sheppard. "We keep telling the god-damn galaxy how dangerous an Amplitur is. But they keep poo pooing us and saying that they could counter any such esper threat with their own espers. Well, you stupid fucks, you just got mindfucked. How long did it take this time, Frederick?"

"According to my calculations and readings from nearby sensors, it took approximately 34 seconds; which is 6.5 seconds longer than the baseline Shepistani resistance to esper of cattacks of such magnitude."

"They're gonna try something soon," stated Sheppard. "Why would they leave safety to blow up those Dominion vessels and send an agent into Shepistan unless they were planning something big?"

Pausing for breath, Sheppard continued. "The Springer Mountain was a test of either their refurbished Choir Vessels or a newly built one; and the Centrality Embassy's crucial to their plan."

"They know that they can't beat us in a full on slapfight. They did that four centuries ago, and we nova-bombed them to the stone age. And we've only gotten more powerful since then."

"However, we didn't face any external threats other than the Amplitur during that period, so we were able to focus our full might on them. Hence why they want to provoke something between us and the Centrality. So the embassy had to be taken over."

Sheppard paused again.

"...shit. If we do nothing about the embassy, we leave an Amplitur cell in place in fucking Montgomery, but if we cleanse it; we risk intergalactic backlash. Shitty choice all around. But that's why I'm the god-damn president."

"Tarsus, mobilize the fleet under ESPERCON TWO. Winter, get your ENCLAVE boys ready to storm that embassy. I'll send a fully bragcrypted message to Lord Fairfax concerning this. He won't like it a damn bit."

Site E, undisclosed location, Montgomery



"Everyone onto the vertibird!" shouted Sergeant Limestone as he slammed the RT-56 helmet onto his head. "We don't have time to give you a full DCS and tactical database assimilation, so we'll do it in the air en-route to the target zone. This is the big one, boys!"

[Akhlut]

Xinmahwakat Tepamitl

Tewktyao Tepoz was in his chambers, examining the casualty reports from Eztenkitontu. Bogega had been hit hard by the Nacheninga, a Daigwan class ship. The Eztenkitontu Fleet had been split between pirate duty several light years away, clearing out a stray star's pirate and mercenary bases and the rest on training exercises to prepare for potential skirmishes with the Collectors. So, the Nacheninga exploited the hole in security and jumped in right above the planet, shot out three orbital defense platforms and rained down torpedoes on several cities. Shields did not immediately turn on due to the IFF not registering the NenAltKik as a threat, allowing several torpedoes to hit. Hundreds of thousands died in horrific anti-matter induced flames. The Nacheninga jumped away when the planetside defense weapons locked on target and the nearest Fleet ships started to jump toward Bogega.

Tepoz clacked his jaws while reading. He had failed the NenAltKik. He was too focused on the pirates and mercenaries and Collectors instead of the secessionists and the deposed Hweykwali-acalli. He should have known that Metzat would have taken the Nacheninga, as he had been the Tlaka-acal of the ship years before and still commanded enormous respect among the crew who had once served under him. Given that a large portion of the ship had been kipaktli didn't hurt when Metzat commandeered the ship after formally requesting a visit "one last time, to relive good memories."

That contemptible parasite. He had broken his oath to the NenAltKik and to Imakwa, while Tepoz had failed his oath.

I will hunt down those who remain and slay them.

The Nacheninga had been destroyed, though, along with the two Mohlabani that had been captured by two other Hweykwali-acalli. The Mohlabani ships had roved the NenAltKik for days, hitting outposts and crippling merchant ships, trying to draw off ships so they could strike the Eealtepekali with all their weapons. They had made one enormous miscalculation, though: they had thought Tizokik would betray as well. Upon seeing the commandeered vessels and their energized weapons, she ordered firing solutions upon them. Both ships were molten slag in less than two minutes and hadn't been able to fire upon anything other than the ocean upon Tlali. The Nacheninga ran into problems by running out of fuel near the Texoti Fleet, which had brought the guns of the original Kokopalalatik down upon it. The ship was designed to eat through planetary shields, so a low-armored cruiser stood no chance.

Yet, in spite of these victories, Tepoz felt defeated. Yes, they hadn't changed any naval plans after the forced retirements, but he did not think to advise the Kwi-acalli to alter themselves as a precaution. They had paid dearly for that mistake. Tepoz vowed never to make that mistake again.

[Lonestar]

Port Hatteras, Shepland
OICAS
Nova Terra




Dick Colson, of Colson Industries grumbled at the man who had casually broken into his penthouse suite at the top of Colson Tower. Twice before the man and his associates had casually walked through his security measures, without so much as a "oh by the way Dick I'm in town and I need to speak to you." Jesus Christ. Colson wiped the sweat from his brow. He wasn't that good of an engineer, and not even that good of a businessman; he had just inherited the company from his father. He hadn't forgotten the night of the funeral when he had shown up.

"If you want to keep the lifestyle you're accustomed to you'll do as I say..."

Bloody throwbacks who live out in the Rim, folks who think they can just re-live faded nations. But even with the Old Dominion being defunct the House of Fairfax still had its claws in the OICAS, which remained(nominally) independent of the UN. Including...



...Blitzschlag

"Herr Colson, we have need of your assistance." His faceless assistant, standing behind him in a combat suit, stepped forward and dropped a data slate onto the desk. Colson carefully listed the slate, reading through the list with a growing sense of dread. The sole reason why these Neobarbs paid him visits was to get access to restricted instruments and materials that the UN banned from foreign sale. In this case it was a set of dangerous elements and isotopes that were used for FTL research, specifically the kind that knocked down multiple dimensional walls at once. Colson shook his head.

"You're telling me you can't manufacture this on your own?"

"Of course, but Nova Terra all on it's own has double the number of labs and facilities than the entirety of the Grand Dominion. We need a sizable amount, and soon. The program is a bit time sensitive." The assistant stepped forward and helpfully tapped the due date on the screen.

"I won't do it. This is...no, I've run too many risks, the UN will catch me eventually."

"Do it Colson," The man stopped and frown, and Colson noticed the bodyguard was cocking his head. They're receiving a transmission... and his supposedly suite was shielded for cerebral implant transmissions. Swell. "Colson mein freund, we must leave. Have the shipment ready for my man to pick up...or Mr. Wade will be paying you a visit." The two left.



****************

"What is it Vlad?"

"I have been recievink a transmission, as you beink knowing the War Department is to forward all messages of..."

"Ja ja Vlad, what is it?" Blitzschlag said irritably.

The towering APE looked down "There is beink an Amplitur Choir ship that destroyed a light cruiser."

"Ach...well, nothing we can do about that here. Next on our list...."

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

A Certain Electrical Army
Tokiwadai Military Academy, Academy City, Hyogo
Kansai Sector, Holy Empire of Haruhi Suzumiya
4 August 3400

One of the Holy Empire's longer-running military projects was Project Radio Noise, an ongoing effort to mass-produce clone ESPers for military purposes. Mikoto Misaka was one of the first SOS Imperial Armed Forces ESPers to volunteer for the project when it began over a century ago; as such, her clones were among the most prolific, with approximately 20,000 fully-trained Misaka clones in service with the SOS Imperial Marine Corps by 3400, enough to form a corps-sized infantry unit by themselves if needed.

Of course, mass production did have its drawbacks. Under the standard Anglian ESPer classification system, Major General Misaka would be considered a Class 6 electrokinetic; the average Misaka clone was only a Class 4 when her basic training was completed, with a few clones attaining Class 5 status after additional training and enhancements. Given the sheer size of Project Radio Noise, it was deemed uneconomical to augment all ESPer clones beyond Class 4 status, but an army of Class 4 electrokinetics was still nothing to be trifled with.



Tokiwadai Military Academy, located in Hyogo's Academy City district, was one of the few service academies in the Holy Empire with an emphasis on military ESPer training. All clones produced by Project Radio Noise had to spend a full four-year term at Tokiwadai as part of their basic training, just as natural-born ESPers in the Armed Forces did; in addition, all Project Radio Noise ESPer clones were given orders to report back to Tokiwadai at regular intervals for evaluation and, if chosen for it, additional training and enhancement. It was during one of these evaluation periods that Major General Misaka herself was called in regarding a certain upcoming event...

"So, let me get this straight. The Empress and the Joint Chiefs want us to send a team to the Centrality for the ESPer Tournament?" General Misaka asked. "Don't we typically leave participation in those events to the civvies?"

"Typically, yes, but as you can already tell, this year's ESPer Tournament is already shaping up to be a very atypical event," Dr. Harumi Kiyama, a Tokiwadai civilian staff member and a high-ranked researcher with Project Radio Noise, replied as she and General Misaka made their way through the corridors of the school. "Long story short, the Sheppoes are pissed at the Centrality choosing to hold the Tournament so close to them, and they're willing to do anything to disrupt the proceedings. Hell, they just expelled the Centralist ambassador today. Whatever the Sheppoes are up to, it certainly won't bode well for the Centrality and the Tournament."

"So why are we going to put our ESPers at risk for some vanity event being held on the other side of known space that's at risk of terrorist attack by a nation full of anti-ESPer bigots?" General Misaka asked.

"You ask a lot of questions, General Misaka," Dr. Kiyama replied. "The Empress deemed it so, and she passed her request on to the Joint Chiefs, who then passed it on to us. You said it yourself, it's a vanity event, meant for nations all across known space to showcase how powerful their minds are. What better way for the Holy Empire to show force than to send a group of your clones, among the most powerful produced by Radio Noise, to the Tournament?"

General Misaka and Dr. Kiyama eventually arrived at a security checkpoint. After showing their credentials to the guards stationed there, they were ushered over to an elevator, which would take them down to the expansive bunker complex under Tokiwadai, where the SOS Imperial Armed Forces conducted the bulk of their work regarding Project Radio Noise...



"Ah, I see everyone's gathered already," Dr. Kiyama remarked as she and General Misaka entered one of the bunker complex's training facilities. Of the 400 or so Misaka clones currently undergoing evaluation and advanced training at Tokiwadai, 50 had been selected for further inspection by Dr. Kiyama; their dossiers and progress reports had been sent to General Misaka, who was given the final say in who to send to the ESPer Tournament.

While sizing up the finalists in this contest, General Misaka's eyes fell upon the 51st member of the group, a young girl in civilian attire standing in the center of the formation. "Dr. Kiyama, may I ask why there's a civilian girl mixed in here?" the general asked.

Dr. Kiyama heaved a heavy sigh. "...I suppose now's a good time as any to introduce you to Misaka 20001, codename Last Order," she replied as she walked over to the girl in order to lecture her. "What are you doing here?! I thought I told you to stay with Dr. Yoshikawa!"

"Misaka Misaka just wanted to know what was going on with the other Misakas!" Last Order whined. "Besides, Misaka Misaka heard that Oneesama was gonna show up today! This is gonna be Misaka Misaka's first time to see her!"

General Misaka smiled. "Well, Oneesama wants you to listen to the doctor for now," she said chidingly. "Don't worry, I'll spend some time with you when I'm done here, okay?"

Last Order pouted. "Fine," she said as Dr. Kiyama took her by the hand towards one of the guards.

"Find Dr. Yoshikawa and tell her not to take her eyes off this girl!" Dr. Kiyama ordered. "Until then, you're her guardian!"

"Yes, Doctor," the guard said as he slung his rifle behind him and picked up Last Order. "We've all had our hands full trying to look after you, haven't we?" he said to the girl as he went off to take her to Dr. Yoshikawa.

"You'll have to forgive her," Dr. Kiyama said as she walked back towards General Misaka. "I suppose she couldn't contain her excitement when she heard you were gonna be coming down here. That verbal tic of hers even came back."

"So I noticed," General Misaka said. She sighed. "So, back to business."

An uneasy silence set in as General Misaka undertook her final deliberations. After a minute of thinking, she finally came to her decision. "9982, 10031, 10032, 10039, 10777, 13577, and 19090, congratulations. You have been chosen to represent the Holy Empire at the 1100th ESPer Tournament in the Centrality. Please see me and Dr. Kiyama later for additional orders. Everyone else, dismissed."

---

RESULTS:

The Holy Empire sends a team to the ESPer Tournament while I trample all over the Toaru Majutsu no Index canon.

[Force Lord]

Centrality Embassy, Montgomery
Shepistan

The sound of rotor-craft was proof enough for the Black Beret troops guarding the embassy that there was something amiss.

The embassy was largely empty of important diplomats. What was left was several embassy staff from the Centrality awaiting a ship to take them home. It was scheduled to arrive in a few minutes. The Black Berets ensured that the embassy was safe in the meantime, but now it seemed that Shepistan really wanted them out.

"Everyone in the building, now!", shouted the BB commander. The BB soldiers obeyed, and ran into the building.

The Black Berets took defensive positions over key portions of the building, breaking windows and a few walls to aid in any possible defense.

"Someone get a megaphone or something similar!", ordered the BB commander through comlink. "And find a spokesman who's willing to use it!"

The plan was to question the Shepistanis of their intentions. If there was no response, or if the Shepistanis wanted to occupy the building, the Black Berets would wait until the Shepistanis fired their first shot. Then they would open fire in response. The event would be recorded and transmitted by the strongest signal the station's emitters could manage, and broadcast it until the emitters were destroyed or overwhelmed by jammers.

The Black Berets could now see the Shepistani rotor-craft deploy elite troops and surround the area. They waited for their next move.

"Remember, let the Shepistanis fire the first shot! We will not be the agressors!", shouted again the BB commander through his comlink.

Suddenly a loud voice was heard: someone had gone to the megaphone.

"Shepistani troops, what are your intentions here? We are waiting for a ship that will take us home, so let us leave in peace. If you intend to attack us, know that you are doing a great mistake. So let us leave, and you will be free to look for whatever you intend to find."

For several agonizing seconds, there was only silence.