StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Hi! My names Chris, and this is the first piece of work I've exposed to the public eye. First off, I'd like to ask that there be no debate/arguing over the way the Federation and Imperium deal with each other. Spoiler . Beyond this, critique me all you want! If I suck, please tell me how and why so I can improve. I'm an aspiring writer, and I'd like to have the chance to improve. So. Without further ado..........

Part 1: Bridge of Light

Prologue
3.763M41 Imperial
Lubyan System, Delta Russ Sector, Segmentum Solar

The Retribution class battleship Ave Humanus trembled and shuddered as its vast weapons batteries sent teratons of death towards the eldar raiders hamstringing the supply effort to the great Crusade raging in the Sabbat Worlds to the galactic south. The Imperial Guard troopships, and Munitorum supply and fuel vessels scattered behind the great Imperial fleet defending them from the vile eldar raiders. Aboard the mighty vessels bridge, Lord Captain Gabriel Nuskov gripped his command throne and let a small grin cross his face. One of the fragile eldar vessels had been shattered by his battleships guns, and its wreckage slowly spun out in a small star pattern.

“Adjust course!” he called out to his helmsman. “Bring us about! Charge the xenos!” he ordered before turning to the armory officer. “Prepare the Nova Cannon,” he said with a wicked grin on his face before turning his attention back to the great window that looked upon the void. Already, the view was changing as the mighty ship altered its course to bring its armored prow and mighty Nova cannon to bear on the raiders. Nuskov grinned as he flipped open a small red button on his command throne.

“Do we have a target lock?” he asked as he rested his finger on the button.

“Yes, m’Lord,” the weapons officer replied, not taking his eyes off his panel.

“Suffer not the xenos to live!” Nuskov declared in a triumphant voice as he smashed the button. The Nova cannon on the bow of the might battleship let loose a streak of fire as the magnetic rails propelled the shell at an unimaginable speed towards the eldar raiders. The bridge crew could not help but take their eyes off their consoles to view the destruction that the mightiest weapon the battleship could boast unleashed upon the xenos raiders. The resultant explosion ignited right next to the massive ship at the heart of their formation. Against an Imperial vessel, the explosion would have crippled the ship, but the ship would have remained intact, and even have the potential for repair. But in demonstration of how the xenos fell far behind the glory of Human technology, the explosion vaporized the solar wing that propelled the sleek vessel, and left a gaping hole in its side. The vessel seemed to struggle for a minute, trying to stay together before whatever sorcery held it together failed, and the vessel tore itself apart.

The loss of the vessel seemed to dishearten the remainder of the fleet; no doubt the ship had been where their lead witch had been, and the death of the psyker had broken their spirit, and were fleeing back to whatever portal they had used to enter the system. With screams of vengeance and fury echoing along the Imperial communications channels, a chunk of vessels broke away from the main Imperial Fleet, with the Ave Humanus at their head. As the chunk charged, it slowly morphed into the vanguard of the entire fleet as nearly every surviving Imperial vessel in the system charged the fleeing xenos. Battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and even the transports seemed to be unified by the words still echoing across the Imperial channels. Lord Captain Nuskov couldn’t help but smile as he saw the Astartes Strike Cruisers that had been stopping off in the system for resupply lead an entire squadron of Imperial frigates into the very heart of the remaining eldar ships. Flashes of weapons battery and lance fire lept from the Imperial ships, smashing into the scattering fleet. One eldar vessel, its solar wings ripped away and its hull blackened and punctured by Imperial fire rammed an Imperial cruiser.

Lord Captain Nuskov closed his eyes, and formed the sign of the Aquila on his chest, sending a silent prayer for the souls of the men who had just perished at the hands of the foul aliens. As he opened his eyes once more, he frowned. The cruiser was still semi intact, and was trying to limp away from the battle itself. He gave an order to try and communicate with the frigate, but the vessel was unresponsive to their attempts at beginning communication, but was still broadcasting information in broken streams.

“….core! The core is breached!” the voice of the vessels commander tried to scream over the communication ways. “….we’ve….away…..Repeat. Moving……core breach!”

Nuskov’s eyes went wide with realization. The entire fleet was moving at maximum speed towards a vessel with a warp core that was about to explode, potentially tearing a gateway into the Warp. They’d fly right into it, if not be sucked in, and already they were so close that they wouldn’t have time to stop, and flying in a formation so tight no ship could turn around without slamming into another. In other words, Battlegroup Lubya was doomed. Nuskov took a deep sigh as he saw the cruiser explode, and a rift of rolling energy opened up. Ships tried to pull away, but their attempts were in vain. One by one, the vessels were drawn into the wound in space, dragged screaming into the foul depth of the Warp. Nuskov closed his eyes for what he feared would be the last as his bridge was flooded with displays of impossible colors, tumbling and boiling as more and more ships were drawn to their doom.

Quick word of advice when posting stories to message boards: we can't indent paragraphs, so to make it easier on the eyes it's best to put spaces between them instead. Not fun to read the walls of text. You can edit this one or just note it for future reference.

Alright Mayabird, thanks for the tip.

Chapter 1
Romulan Frontier
Warbird Terix Prime

The sleek, green warbird was the front line vessel in the Romulan Navy. It dwarfed even the Federation’s Galaxy class frontline vessels, and could out fight, or with its cloaking device, outrun nearly any ship in the entire galaxy. One on one, the Terix Prime would defeat nearly any ship in the known galaxy.

But it was those two words that were weighing heavily on Commander Mortak’s mind. Known galaxy. There was still so much out there that had yet to be explored, and who knew who else might be out there? The information blackout within the Empire prevented him from knowing for sure, but the Romulan commander had heard rumors. He had heard whispers of massive cubes wiping out entire fleets of the Federation’s finest, and blasting their way to Earth itself. The heart of the Federation, and a sight that he could hardly fathom fighting his way through without suffering casualties so heavy they would doom the Star Empire. But the ships he saw in front of him dwarfed even the most exaggerate description of the cube that had come s’o close to destroying the Federation.

The smallest were the size of his own vessel, and he felt he could take them on in battle and have a chance at victory…at least, one of them. The only problem was there seemed to be dozens of the smaller vessels abounding, and then he had to consider the larger ones. The biggest ship laid out in front of him was nearly five times the length of his warbird, and he had a nagging suspicion that the vessel could no doubt overwhelm anything the Empire had to throw at it.

Even then, it was not the sheer size of the vessel was not what made him feel true fear deep in his heart: it was their design. They were coated with spires, arches, and great statues, and many of these structures seemed to house great weapon, for long barrels extruded from many of the arches in a way that simply couldn’t be a peaceful manner.

“Science officer,” Mortak said quietly, glancing over his shoulder. “What is your analysis of the situation? What are these vessels? Who do they belong to?”

“Scans are inconclusive sir,” the Science Officer replied, turning away from her post for a second to respond to Mortak. “These vessels…..their armor are almost ridiculously thick. I’m only getting partial pictures of the interior of the vessel.”

Mortak sighed as he turned his attention back to the view screen, frustrated slightly at the lack of knowledge he had on this new threat. As a Romulan, he prided himself as always being able to outthink an enemy. To know the enemy well enough to win. To not know anything about the enemy he was facing was extremely discomforting, and something he wanted to rectify as quickly as possible.

“Open up a communications channel,” he ordered quietly, determined to see what the situation on board the vessel. “And prepare the cloaking device and warp drive for immediate use. I want to be able to escape the instant I want.” With a quick nod, he felt the engines of the vessel begin to spiral up, causing the very deck to tremble beneath him. He assumed a relaxed position, letting his hands hanging loosely at his side as he stared back at the view screen, waiting for whatever was on the bridge of those vessels to respond to him. He waited, and waited, and waited, and just as he was about to give up and return to Romulus to report his findings when his sensor officer began to panic.

“Sir! We have massive energy readings aboard several of the vessels!” he shouted, frantically running along his consoles, responding to whatever signals the warbirds array was feeding to the officer. “More readings!” he shouted back. “Dear God….” He said, pausing at a single console, as he tapped it slightly, trying to make sure the reading it was giving was correct. “This…this…this is impossible!”

“What is?” Mortak demanded, leaving his position at the center of the bridge to run to the sensor console. His sensor officer pointed at the read out he had been referring to, and Mortak’s jaw dropped. The energy readings of these vessels were off the scale! They were putting out more energy than should be physically possible, and several of the larger ones still seemed to be powering up. Mortak turned to look back at the view screen, and saw that the vessels were beginning to take up some kind of formation, and the smaller ones were maneuvering so that they were in a defensive screen around the larger ones at the very center of the fleet. The vessels were turning their running lights on, and the display that they projected only served to increase Mortak’s anxiety and fear. If they had been frightening and awe inspiring before, now….now they were terrifying and beautiful at the same time!

Now, he could see the heraldy that seemed to adorn each vessel. All but one were a dark green, with their mighty statues a brilliant gold, and their massive brows a near blinding white, marred with deep black holes, that Martok couldn’t help but feel were even more weapons on top of those housed alongside and above the ships. The one other vessel was left mostly with a grey skeleton, yet some parts were painted a deep royal blue, and while most of the vessels boasted a dark grey bird with two heads, this blue outlier had a white symbol, that almost resembled a cross section of pot. Martok frowned slightly as he studied the symbology, trying to think back to his old lessons on the history of the enemies that surrounded the Romulan Star Empire. His frown deepened as he remembered.

The double headed bird….an eagle if he remembered correctly was an ancient Imperial human symbol, used by many of the empires that had risen and fell in that planet’s history. The pot was an ancient human letter, in an even older language that apparently meant simply….the end.

As his brain processed this information, Martok’s frown was slowly replaced by a smile as he returned to the center of the bridge. Humans, no matter what new ships they travelled in,, were humans. Simple. Easy to understand. They would try and negotiate, and would avoid a battle. They would listen to him, and would no doubt follow his orders in an attempt to avoid starting a war with the Empire. Martok nodded, and put the smug, arrogant smile that his people seemed to be born with on his face as he nodded again at his communication officer. As the channel crackled and opened, there was only a small nagging doubt in his mind….how had the humans penetrated this far into the Empire? Why were they in a ship so much more massive and heavily armed than any other Federation starship ever encountered? He shrugged slightly. All those questions would be answered soon when these simple minded, basic humans answered his hail. He couldn’t help but grin even wider as the channel locked and opened, revealing (as he expected) a human officer. Martok stumbled over his smug, arrogant greeting as he studied the man on the other side of the communication screen. He was not in the simple, one piece uniform of a Starfleet officer, but was instead dressed in a far more ornate uniform; covered in medals and gold braid. The man’s face was itself a parody of the aesthetical love the Federation usually showed. It was heavily scarred, lined with what seemed like decades of anger and hardship. Just as Martok was about to demand some answers from this human, he heard him seem to flare red with anger and scream.

“DIE FOUL XENOS!” the human screamed. They were the last words Romulan Commander Martok ever heard.



Aboard the Ave Humanus , Lord Captain Nuskov turned on his subordinates, looking away from the expanding cloud of debris that had once been the xenos ship. His face was practically glowing red with anger, and his low, guttural growl was much more frightening than the scream he had just uttered.
“Gather the Tactica Command,” he ordered in that low growl. “And find out the where the Emperor we are!”

The Emperor approves of this fine work, and He extols you to keep impressing Him. Failure to do so will result in the Inquisition paying you a visit...

It's the Romulans' fault for being so provocative. They even look like Eldar!

Well, if you squint and turn your head just right, they might resemble Eldar a bit ... But if that doesn't show anti-Imperial tendencies, what does?!

Thanks! I'll keep it coming then! Expect some more action again next chapter. Spoiler Chapter 2

Retribution class battleship Ave Humanus

Location Unknown

“You blind fanatic!” General Alexi Noskova said in an exasperated voice as he buried his head in his hands. The rest of Battlegroup Lubya stared at him in a range of emotions. Lord Captain Nuskov, the target of the General’s frustration looked so taken aback that he had yet to pull himself back together enough to merit a response. Lord Commissar Halvors, sitting at the General’s right hand side had anger growing in his eyes, and his hand was twitching towards the bolt pistol holstered along his side. The four other officers that together comprised the Battlegroup’s Tactica Command were staring at the General with either smoldering fury, or surprise depending on their loyalty to either of the senior officers.

“Would you mind explaining yourself, General?” Nuskov finally responded, having pulled himself together enough to throw out a response.

Noskova sank bank into his chair, still keeping his eyes locked on Nuskov. “Because, Captain,” he began, smirking slightly at the small put down the name of his naval colleague’s rank allowed him. “As much as it is our duty to serve the Emperor by slaying xenos wherever they are found, your course of action did not allow us to be used to our full potential.”

“What do you mean?” a Naval commander piped up, curious as to why the General believed the destruction of a xenos vessel could not be considered a full use of the potential of the Imperial Battlegroup. Noskova glanced over at the naval officer, smiling slightly at the display of initiative in the young man.

“Because, Commander, put quite simply: we are lost,” he said simply. “You all saw the damage reports,” he continued, standing up as he strode around the round table the Tactica Command sat at. “Most of our psykers are dead. Our astropaths have all either died or gone completely insane, and our Navigators can no longer sense the Astronomican,” he said, counting off the list of more subtle casualties and damage the fleet had sustained. He could almost smile as he saw the entirety of the Tactica Command pick up the reports that had been laid in front of them. Quite clearly, they had been tricked by the boundless descriptions of the valor that the men of the Imperial Navy had shown in repairing their damaged vessels so quickly, and had not read all the way through to the end of the document. Hidden away in the casualty lists, and not marked at all as being of any significance, were the names of almost every single psyker human in the Battlegroup, and a small report by a Navigator that declared his and his brethren’s inability to sense the Astronomican, as well as the odd perception that the Immaterium was somehow…..cleaner than what they were used to encountering.

There was a long silence among the members of the Tactica Command that lasted even after the last member of the council closed his report, and looked eyes with the Lord Captain. As the commander of the fleet, he was the de facto head of the command while the Battlegroup was in deep space, and now the entirety of the Command looked to him for an idea of how they should proceed. The reports in front of them had made the situation much more serious.

“Send for the Navigator, and any psyker still alive,” Nuskov finally ordered. “Let us talk to them personally.”


“ Navigator Patriarch Iasus Locanno, present m’Lord,” a servitor said in its emotionless voice before retreating back through the conference room door, and allowing the fleet’s senior navigator mutant to join the council. The council shifted slightly, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the mutant as possible. Despite the abhuman’s importance to the operation of the fleet, none of the true humans present were truly comfortable in its presence. Its pale, translucent skin seemed to flutter as it sat down, like it was a cape draping the Navigator’s spindly form. Its hardened black orbs where its eyes should be looked around the chamber along with the hollow socket in its forehead. As its eyes began their second past, the creature began to speak in a soft, nearly inaudible voice.

“You have summoned me to tell you what I can sense, have you not?” it asked.

“Yes we have,” Noskova said as he nodded over at his naval colleague. Lord Captain Nuskov stood up, trying his best to lock eyes with the Navigator.

“Your report indicated that you can no longer sense the Astronomican?” the naval officer demanded, trying to sound authoritative and in command of the situation.

“Yes,” the spindly mutant said through nearly closed lips. “The beacon of the blessed Emperor is gone from my sight. All I see is the Warp.”

“And what of your observation that the Immaterium is….clean?”

“CleanER,” the Navigator corrected, shifting slightly in his chair, and causing his skin to flutter again. “The Warp is still stained with the taint of Chaos, but it is not as hellish as it usually reveals itself.”

The Tactica Command glanced amongst themselves, unsure of how to respond. Eventually, General Noskova stood and turned to the Navigator. “Can you tell us where we are?” he asked.

“Unfortunately, not,” it replied. “Without the Astronomican’s Holy Light I can not determine our position.” The council almost devolved into conversations amongst themselves, trying to determine their next course of action when the Navigator spoke again.

“However,” he commented. “I can……guess at our location,” it continued hesitantly. “While we were travelling through the Warp,” it explained, glancing at the confused looks being sent at it. “I did not sense the Astronomican growing weaker. I only felt it vanish in an instant,” it continued. “I believe the Warp rift we entered did not send us mostly through space, but through time.”

“Which means….” Noskova said, a light dawning in his eyes.

“Which means that we may not be far from our original location. Close enough to pinpoint it with star charts of the sector.”

“Get on that immediately!” Captain Nuskov ordered one of his subordinates, seemingly happy at being able to get out of spending any more time with the mutant. The two lower ranked naval officers seemed to agree with their commanding officer’s opinion and rushed out of the council chamber to carry out their orders. Nuskov turned towards the Navigator again.

“Once we get our location,” he began. “Can you plot us a course for Lubya?” The Navigator nodded.

“With no access to the Astronomican…..” the Navigator began, only to be cut off by Nuskov waving his hand dismissively.

“Speed is no concern,” he said flatly. “We must get to Lubya. Discover how much in time we have travelled….and if there is still an Imperium left to serve,” he said menacingly. The Navigator nodded before gliding back out the same door it had entered, leaving Nuskov and Noskova alone in the Tactica Command. “General, a minute,” Nuskov said as his Guard counterpart turned to leave.

“What is it?” Noskova demanded, turning on his heel quickly.

“Forgive my blasphemy, Comrade General, but there is a very real possibility that the Imperium no longer exists, or has yet to be founded.”

Noskova nodded slightly. “Your blasphemy is forgiven,” he replied. “But what are you asking of me?”

“I am asking,” Nuskov replied quickly. “What our course of action should be if our worst fears are realized.”

There was a long moment of silence as both men considered the answer to the question just posed.

The question is "Is the Immortal Emperor alive in the 24th century?" If he is, then the battlegroup will obey him. If not, then they are left to their own devices.

This is a major question, considering how fuzzy the Emperor's origins are. He might be alive in the 24th century in an earlier incarnation (if the "reincarnated shaman" theory is accurate), or as an earlier version of himself (if the "ancient immortal" theory is correct).

Conversely, this might be a predestination paradox, and the crews of the battlegroup might have the ancestral bloodline of the Emperor. One of them might actually be the Emperor in his youth!

Just throwing out some notions.

Hmm, wonder how they'll view the Federation?

The Federation will be viewed as all true Emperor fearing men should; as xeno loving filth that must be cleansed!! Ave Imperator

Indeed, but the real question is this: How will the Enterprise fare against a foe who doesn't negotiate?

BOOM!!!

Night_stalker wrote:Indeed, but the real question is this: How will the Enterprise fare against a foe who doesn't negotiate?

Well, if the Imperial forces are reduced to a single gunboat with a single operational tertiary weapon, the Enterprise will have a slim chance. Unless Picard decides to do something silly like let a "negotiating team" beam aboard his ship. If the Imperials board, some lucky Imperial Marine will get a Data-head to hang on his trophy-belt.

I wonder what they will do when they encounter the Borg. That will be a fight I will enjoy reading Space Marines and Imperial Guard taking on Borg Drones can a Space Marine be assimilated.

I agree with Gundam, BOOM is the only possible result from that meeting followed quickly by "THE EMPEROR PROTECTS" as a squad of terminator marines is teleported in to the Bridge of the Enterprise, swift cleansing and execution of all heretics onboard to follow there after.

True, but one can never be too careful. I mean, who thought the Borg could lose to the Federation?

As far as the Borg Cubes/Drones are concerned two words big guns. An 60ft long armored torpedoe will make quick work of any cube and as for the drones them selves, chain swords, bolters, plasma, meltas and just plain good old power fists. End result of that meeting...borg spare parts for everyone!

Ave Imperator!

drklord wrote:The Federation will be viewed as all true Emperor fearing men should; as xeno loving filth that must be cleansed!! Ave Imperator

You could make a fairly decent argument that most of the so-called "aliens" in Trek are really what the Imperium would call abhumans. Your average Trek alien closely resembles humans and lots of species (including humans) are able to interbreed with each other and produce viable (and at least in some cases fertile) hybrids. I've often said that the most sensible explanation for most Trek aliens is that they're hominids that only diverged from humanity relatively recently (maybe in some cases like Vulcans gene-spliced with alien lifeforms, explaining stuff like the green blood and different organ arrangements) - I don't find the explanation given in The Chase remotely convincing, and neither would a lot of Imperium biologists unless much of what 2010 Earth humans know about how evolution works is lost knowledge in the dark future of mankind.

I suppose it would come down to how hardline, bloodthirsty, and pragmatic the people in charge of the conquest were.

your explanation reeks of heresy !!! And while the explanation may be plausible and logical those mongrel offsprings will still be subjected to the wrath of the Emperor's servants if they do not repent their sins!!!!
Ave Imperator

Yeah, the odds of the Federation to getting purged are nonexistent.

** Gets some popcorn, and drinks for the ensuing crubstomp battle**

Night_stalker wrote:True, but one can never be too careful. I mean, who thought the Borg could lose to the Federation?

The Borg only sent one cube everytime they confronted the Federation and it took a Federation Fleet to stop it with heavy causalties. It would be a very different story if the Borg Queen sent a fleet of cubes to Earth

Heh-heh-heh.

You thought we couldn't figure it out? Well, now that I think about it, it's obvious.

The Immortal Emperor is alive in the 24th century. And his identity is plain to see.

The Emperor is the most powerful of all psykers ... a being whose very will can alter and change the Warp itself.

And what human in the Star Trek universe fits that description? Only one.

The Immortal Emperor is ... WESLEY CRUSHER!!

Think about it.

HERESY!!!! HERESY!!!!! The inquistion will have words with you very soon....the implication of what you say, the audacity, the stomach churning words you have uttered are only comparable to the traitor Horus and his ilk!!!! BURN THE HERETIC!!!!
Ave Imperator

But seriously can we get an update soon?!?!?!

drklord wrote:HERESY!!!! HERESY!!!!! The inquistion will have words with you very soon....the implication of what you say, the audacity, the stomach churning words you have uttered are only comparable to the traitor Horus and his ilk!!!! BURN THE HERETIC!!!!

I said it and I'm glad I said it. So there.

Burn the Heretic! Everyone knows that the IGEOM in the 24th century is actually the bartender on the Enterprise!

Night_stalker wrote:Burn the Heretic! Everyone knows that the IGEOM in the 24th century is actually the bartender on the Enterprise!

The Emperor is male. The Enterprise's bartender's got lady parts. Not compatible.