STGOD 4 Game Thread

[Alyrium Denryle]

The army advanced The city proper becoming closer with every step

So did the suburbs, which surrounded it. The roads through it were dragged up, bridges destroyed, areas underneath roads mined and rigged for explosions, road blocks covering practically every rought, razor wire, improvized barricades. Anything and everything that could be put up in the way had, there were even massive 'traffic' jams on roads that prevented anything, people, horses, rats, not to mention tanks, from passing through. There were people, people who rather liked their planet and their neighberhood, and didn't want it to be overrun by aliens, much less aliens bent on conquering the planet in the houses next to the roads.

The only exception were four roads into the city, these roads were big ones, though not to big, and were relativley untouched. Yes there was a road block here or there, yes there was a crater or two in the road, yes a bridge on one of them was blown out. But altogether, once you worked your way through roughly ten miles of heavy obstacles charecteristic of the other paths, and roads in this was smooth sailing. The roads led too different entrances to the city proper though, roughly a North, South, East, and West entrance, but nonetheless these were entrances that led the invaders unimpeded to the city proper. But, inside the city, there was a different story waiting.

"Why the he.... they are obviously going to use those roads as chokepoints. How many civilians are lining the other streets?"

"Not many general, mostly the upper crust, the pirate supporting aristocrcy. They number roughly 1% of the population and control 98% of all wealth. They have everything to lose by our coming here"

"clear them. we are glassing the major streets"

'How are we going to clear them? without killing them?"

"We have cargo transporters on our ships. They are safe for humans... transport them into the brigs"

Witht that, people started vanishing one by one, each one painted by flying repulsor gunboats with a tracking dart before being beamed aboard. this took a few hours to do in the desired areas, but it was done regardless.

After that, the light lasers on the capital ships had their targets marked by ground troops, and opened fire, setting their guns to lower power... just enough to glass the roadways, and everything on the roadways. Flame retardent(a very advanced flame retardent) was used to keep buildings from catching fire from heat transfer Needless to say, the explosives in the roadways and mines were all pretty well destroyed

However, it would take a while for the roadways to cool off. In the meantime, hevily shielded repulsor gunboats made a foray to the outskirts of the city proper.

[SirNitram]

ATTN: Etern
From: Monacoran State Department
Subj: Envoy
*Hand-Delivered*

We would like to send an envoy to you to discuss matters that would interest you. Do you have any objections?

Your representative will be met at the edge of our space. You may supply an honor-guard of no more than one cruiser-class vessel and escorts.

[Straha]

ATTN: Etern
From: Monacoran State Department
Subj: Envoy
*Hand-Delivered*

We would like to send an envoy to you to discuss matters that would interest you. Do you have any objections?

Your representative will be met at the edge of our space. You may supply an honor-guard of no more than one cruiser-class vessel and escorts.

Ambassador Halifax was already under way, he was being carried by one of the more modern Jardanian frigates, but that was all. THe frigate soon sped towards the meeting point and yadda yadda yadda let's get it on!

[SirNitram]

Halifax was taken before the Clan Heads, a strange grouping if any was assembled. The oldest there were heads of the administrative clans; brooding, decrepit forms that showed wrinkled, pallid skin and rusted implants. Then there were the vain members of the entertainment clans, whose synthetics required a second-glance to notice. Then the accountants, the farmers, the industrialists, whose adaptations were obviously suited to their jobs. The warriors were most disconcerting, including the elder of Clan Trafas, whose torso was sitting atop a massive armoured.. Thing, reminiscent of a scorpion. The stinger looked like a rocket pod. He had to weigh several tons.

"Ambassador Halifax. We welcome you to the Collective of Etern's Chamber Of Wisdom. Please, speak, and be heard by the rulers of every Clan."

[Spyder]

"Chancellor, as your security advisor I strongly urge you to order a major step up in this compound."

"That wont be neccessary."

"Look sir, they took out Robertson. It's only a matter of time before they..."

"I said that wont be neccessary. That is all Major. You are dismissed."

With that, a messanger, obviously Draconis walked up to spyder and said "Your defense system has arrived, when do you wish us to install it?"

"You may begin when ready. I'd like for you to concentrate on the main compound for now. We'll worry about my chambers once the new system has been tested."

[Straha]

Halifax was taken before the Clan Heads, a strange grouping if any was assembled. The oldest there were heads of the administrative clans; brooding, decrepit forms that showed wrinkled, pallid skin and rusted implants. Then there were the vain members of the entertainment clans, whose synthetics required a second-glance to notice. Then the accountants, the farmers, the industrialists, whose adaptations were obviously suited to their jobs. The warriors were most disconcerting, including the elder of Clan Trafas, whose torso was sitting atop a massive armoured.. Thing, reminiscent of a scorpion. The stinger looked like a rocket pod. He had to weigh several tons.

"Ambassador Halifax. We welcome you to the Collective of Etern's Chamber Of Wisdom. Please, speak, and be heard by the rulers of every Clan."

"Thank you. I greet you in the name of the princes and parliment of Monacora. And I bring with me three offers on their behalf. Firstly, we would like to set up a free-trade agreement between our two nations, we feel that we would have much to gain from trading with you, and we hope you feel similarilly. Secondly, we would like to discuss terms for a mutual defense pact between our nations. Finally, we would like to arrange an exchange of ambassadors between us, so that we may discuss matters of importance in the future, without needless ordeal."

[Spyder]

"I'm sorry sir could you clarifiy that? Most of the nations in the local sector are friendly towards us, if not outright members of the Alliance. The United Protectrates postion however does vary based on the nation in question itself. Is there a certain action you have questions about?"

OOC: I'm not sure what you mean Spyder, do you mean the local sector of the known space for the UP or what?

Alex presents the representative with a list of nations (all of them).

"We're just a little curious about what relationships the United Protectorates have with the other nations. Nothing specific, just a quick summary. Now that Minmatar has become politically active again it is important that we understand the needs of our friends and potential allies."

[Alyrium Denryle]

"Chancellor, as your security advisor I strongly urge you to order a major step up in this compound."

"That wont be neccessary."

"Look sir, they took out Robertson. It's only a matter of time before they..."

"I said that wont be neccessary. That is all Major. You are dismissed."

With that, a messanger, obviously Draconis walked up to spyder and said "Your defense system has arrived, when do you wish us to install it?"

"You may begin when ready. I'd like for you to concentrate on the main compound for now. We'll worry about my chambers once the new system has been tested."

"Are you sure? That is a little bit of an odd request. But, as you wish"

ANd seeral hours later, his home was literally his castle.

[Pablo Sanchez]

Matar

Alexander had been of a mind to abort the mission until a safer method of assassination could be located, but Artur had overruled his boss. No system was fully closed, and by closing the door Spyder had opened a very large window.

Artur shifted into a more comfortable position in the passenger seat of the ground car. His driver was a dhampir of about 75 years, not experienced to the most ideal point but well-trained and very reliable. He ought to be suitable for the purposes of this mission. They pulled up to the gate of the presidential mansion in the intelligence agency vehicle, which had been lawfully and duly checked out from the motor pool.

The inhumanly large and stony-faced cyborg guard approached the driver's door and rapped on the glass. The driver rolled down the window and extended his credentials. Everything was perfectly in order, and they had even made an appointment.

"We're sweeping the mansion for any bugs the Draconis might have left behind earlier," the driver explained, unnecessarily.

The guard read the papers, which were in order, and frowned, "Nobody asked for you."

"It's a precaution that falls under our jurisdiction," Artur interjected at this point, "you aren't equipped to sweep as well as we are, not yet anyway. If you want you can send us away."

The guard stared silently across at him for about ten seconds, hoping to save some face by intimidating the agent. Finally he waved them through.

"A little risky?" the driver whispered.

"Shh."

Thus they drove right through the defenses that the Draconis had installed with but a moment's difficulty. The scanners detected that both men were armed, and rightly so, as they were intelligence agents and expected to carry weapons. The two dhampir drove around to the service entrance of the mansion and entered through there. The front doors were for recieving diplomats and the like. They carried with them their load of equipment designed to detect active transmitters and assorted listening devices. They started in the lower rooms and over the course of an hour worked their way closer to the presidential chambers.

Finally, they approached the door to where Spyder was sleeping, or freshening up, or whatever it was he did in his spare time. This final door was ten meters down a hallway and protected by four guards of mammoth proportions. Artur's backup swept the walls of the corridor while he advanced down and presented his credentials to the guards at the door.

The guard smirked, "Careful, he's sleeping in there. And I'll need your piece."

Artur dutifully handed his pistol to the guard, together with his combat knife, and then submitted to a quick frisking. As they waved him through the door, one of the guards hesitated.

"Hey--don't we need to check him, too?" he pointed at the backup man.

The backup man turned casually at the hips and flicked his flimsy plastic ID card to the guard--across eight meters of empty space. One of the security detail caught it out of the air with a look of mild surprise. He glanced at the card, then at the backup man, then at Artur.

They had just begun to reach for their weapons when Artur struck. He was within arms' length of two of them; with his hands formed into the shapes of blades he struck quick, hard blows to their temples. He was moving before they hit the floor, snatching his knife out of the hands of one of the guards and leaping into the other two; he kept himself between them and the alarm switch. He sank the blade into the first one's throat, but the other fell back out of range, clutching at his pistol and pulling a radio from his belt. There wasn't time to take him out before he alerted the whole mansion.

Then the guard flopped to the ground, a combat knife buried into the back of his neck. Artur's backup man stood with extended hand, looking a little sheepish. The silent combat had taken perhaps two seconds.

"Stupid. Don't let it happen again," Artur ordered sternly.

His knife dripping blood, Artur entered the presidential quarters. Spyder was still sleeping peacefully. Alexander slammed the blade of his knife through the Chancellor's trachea and jerked it hard through the cartoid artery for good measure. The dying man's eyes shot open and for a few moments he locked eyes with his killer. Then shock took away his vision and his eyes rolled back. The death rattle came through his neck as a wet gurgle.

Arterial blood pumped out through the hole in Spyder's neck, and Artur dipped his right hand in it; he then reached up to the wall above the man's head and left the red handprint there.

Artur then entered the Chancellor's bathroom, admiring the fixtures, and washed his hands thoroughly but quickly. He checked his wrist chrono as he exited the chambers. He picked up his pistol from the floor as he passed the pile of corpses, quickly screwing on its silencer and thumbing off the safety. The patrolling guard came by right on schedule, just in time to catch a double tap in the brain pan.

Artur nodded to his backup man, "Let's go."

----

"Find anything?" the gate guard asked.

The driver looked the man up and down, "No. But a worthy precaution nonetheless."

They pulled away into the night.

[Spyder]

Minutes after the pair left a lone shadowy figure arrived and stood over the Chancellor's body. He looked at the red hand print on the wall which was starting to drip. "Three guard down, looks like stabbing. Another was shot. The Chancellor's dead." The figure whipsered.

"Hey!" A guard entering the room cried seeing the figure over the body. He raised his weapon but not quite in time to receive another round to the head. "We need a containment crew."

The next morning at the main government complex.

"The Chancellor's late. He's never late."

Another entered the room. "I've just been informed that the Chancellor wont be attending any meetings today, for classified reasons."

"That's not good enough. He's the leader of our entire country, where the hell is he?"

[Thirdfain]

Matar
Minmatar Freeholds

Minister Bronson strode into the chamber, straightening his expensive Monacoran suit as he went. His emotions weree kept under control by his iron will, but he glowed inside, full of the rush of success. His contacts with the RimTech conglomorates had come through, and he'd gotten the news already. Spyder would be dead, and the way would be paved for him to take charge.

His efforts and lying low had been the finest. While some fools had let their contacts with RimTech appear out in the open, Bronson had kept his diversion of funds under the hood. He had smelled Spyder's reforms, and had succeeded in avoiding the clever man's agents. He had remained in Spyder's confidence even as the sting operations had cleaned out the rest of the government. His information pipes had allowed Robertson's death, and had assisted the RimTech agents in their assassination of Spyder in the end. He was flush with success- now, he could take over fully. There was no longer any competion- Spyder had done the clean-up for him. Chancellor Bronson- He smiled. The name just rolled off the tongue.

He burst into the council chanber with two of his guards.

"Ladies, gentlemen, I'm sure you've heard. The Chancellor is dead."

Shocked silence greeted him.

"Agents of the despicable monsters who infested our fair nation struck him down in his sleep. It is a true tragedy- but I bring excellent news. My agents in the ministery of the interior have traced the external bribes to a set of people who have worked behind the Minister's back, using treachery to bring him down even as he worked to save our nation from the cancer of corruption!"

There were sharp intakes of breath across the room.

"Yes- the Minister of Finance, the Minister of the Police, and the Minister of the Navy are all implicite in this! Guards! Seize them!"

The Minister of Finance, face ashen, stood up.

"Wait- this must be some kind of mistake!"

Guards were already moving menacingly towards him.

Bronson smiled broadly. In seconds, the last pillars of the Spyder government would be gone, and he would be alble to take charge. His contacts would assure him that!

[Spyder]

"Belay that order." Came a voice from the back. The gathering turned around as the newcomer entered the room, bodyguards at his side.

"What the hell is going on?" One shouted.

Bronson watched the proceedings with a look of astonishment. Something strange was happening. The fact alone that a single minister stood up and declared the chancellor dead was enough to shock the government house. What came as a further suprise was the chancellor himself proceeding towards him down the isle.

"Chancellor... Bronson stuttered. I was informed that you had been killed."

"Informed?" Spyder paused. "By whom?"

"Well," Bronson removed a small cloth from his pocket and mopped away the sweat from his brow, "by the security agency, of course. I must say I am... that is..." Bronson knew that he was in trouble. "I am overwhelmed that their information would be so...inaccurate."

"I see, guards take Mr Bronson into custody. He is to be charged with high treason."

"Wait, wait!" Bronson protested as the guards pulled him away and took him to a small dark room, closing the door behind him. The experience of a single strand of fibre wire closing around his throat would be Bronson's last.

"I think that's enough theatrics for now. Mr speaker, you may continue."

Later that evening.

One of the conspirators sat at his home, downtown Minmatar city. The news appeared. He sipped a little wine and waited for the news of the Chancellor's demise.

"Here to present the new budget proposal for the next financial year, Chancellor Spyder."

A spray of fermented grape juice and saliva struck the screen.

"After going over this year's budget the first thing I look forward to the next year with founded optimism. The figures indicate considerable growth in many key areas."

He suddenly began to feel a burning sensation in his throat. The wine contained a little more then it would appear. After a few moments the convulsions ceased, as did the man, alone in his chair.

"We can all look forward to a bright future for the Minmatar Freeholds."


Later...
"That can't be him. Spyder is dead, I saw it with my own eyes."
"A clone perhaps?"
"Perhaps, but why use a clone? Surely there are better ways..."
"I don't know. Something isn't right on Matar."

[Pablo Sanchez]

Matar

"I should have done it myself. I would have detected whatever was wrong about him," Alexander said.

Artur shook his head, "We couldn't have risked your involvement and you know it."

"Your face will be on record."

"I'll be changing it," the assassin replied. He was an average looking man and a few easy modifications would obfuscate his appearance enough that he could escape cursory examination. Nevertheless, he would be excluded from further high-value operations.

Alexander didn't bother asking about the various evidences of the attempt. The uniforms and papers had been burnt; the vehicle had been stripped to pieces sold bit-by-bit on the black market; the weapons would not be found without a thorough dredging of the sewage system. It was easy to make things disappear in a slum.

Artur continued, "Shall we try and salvage some of the Hajr's pets?"

"No. Those that have been detected are no good to them alive, any more. It's better to let them die."

"Are we going to try an extraction?" the assassin asked.

Alexander considered. The timetable had been completely thrown, and standard procedure would be to flee. "No. Not yet. The danger is too great now, and anyway there might still be things for us to accomplish here. I'll try to get a message to our dear Lady through one of the front companies, discretely."

[Straha]

The talks between the Prince and the director went on for hours, when lunch was served, and then went on an hour more. At the end both left smilling, made a brief show of friendship in front of the press, before the Director left Earth.
Back in the Parliment/Palace the Prince, just arriving back from sending the other head of state off, walked to a computer terminal and sent a closed line message, with instructions for Ambassador Welles before he went off to Asgard space to negotiate the final part of the new Krytosian treaty. After that he went off to oversee an uneventful session of Parliment.

Things were good.

[Bugsby]

By order of Monacoran intelligence, Talys had been placed under guard. The guard was fairly easy to spot, so the man that approached the guard was unarmed. He wanted information, not a blasterbolt to his forehead.

"I'm here to see Talys. I heard he was back onworld, and I wanted to see him."

"Business or pleasure?" the guard demanded.

"A bit of both, I suppose. He's a friend, but we do some business. It will only take a minute."

"Very well, enter." The guard's scanner showed no weapons on the visitor, so the man went in to Talys's apartment. It was small and uncomfortable with boxes all over. It had been hard to coordinate the move when his things were on Varathrax and he was back on Earth. The apartment lacked the lived-in feel, but it was still horribly cluttered. The visitor found Talys digging through one of the boxes, trying to find some item or another. Talys looked up at the visitor's entrance, and his eyes lit up with recognition. "You!"

"Hello, Talys. I hope you enjoyed your trip. Meet me in the park on the thirteenth level of the archology at 10 tonight. I would like to walk and talk with you but I have things to do now, you understand. I will see you then?"

"Sure. Yeah, I'll be there. Look, I wanted to say, about -"

"Tonight. We talk tonight." The visitor turned and left, nodding to the guard stationed outside on his way out.

[Spyder]

Mars: A long time ago.

One of the environment suit cladded men picked up a rock and put it in his satchel. The sunlight reflected off his amber tinted visor as he examined the various specimens.

The radio clicked into operation: "What the hell are you doing?" One of them asked.

"To explain properly you'd need to get behind a microscope." The man responded. "We're here to scout sites for new colonial deployment, may as well learn everything we can."

"It's a rock, what's there to know?"

"Many things."

"Right." The man spoke. "Hey Spyder," he called over the radio to one of the others, "are we done here or what?"

"Just a second. I'm having trouble getting a density reading." He worked away with his instruments for a few moments. "There, that should do it."

[Dahak]

Gladsheim Prime

<<Sir, there is an incoming message. You won't believe it...>>
Silas Orvold, the current Foreign Affairs Minister, looked up at his assistant.
<<Yes? What is it?>>
<<It seems to be a Pirate, of sorts. He seems to be the leader of those holding one of our ships, the Radana.>>
<<The fleet has already been dispatched to that pirates, hasn't it?>>
<<Yes, Admiral Fiarat should enter the system the ship is held in short time.>>
<<Well, this must be the most stupid pirate or whatever of all times... Put this leader through. This should be fun to watch...>>

A hologram materialized above his desk. A middle-aged man wearing a makeshift uniform grinned out of it. It was a bit blurry, but that happened when one had to make do with primitive hypercom systems, and the sender wasn't in the best of states, either.
"I have an offer to make," the deep voice drawled.
"I see," he nodded. "And what would that be?"
"I hold one of your ships. I'd be willing to release it for some platinum."
Silas smiled. "Why would we give in to such a demand?"
"Because we will destroy your ship and crew, that's why!" he snarled.
"I see." He chuckled. "Next time you should spend some time researching those you want to rob, shouldn't you?"
The man looked confused.
"The loss of the Radana would, of course, be regrettable, but nothing else."
"We will blow it up! I'm not bluf-" he was cut short as some alarm klaxons went off behind him. "What's happening?"
"Oh that?" Silas smiled warmly. "That is the self-destruct sequence of the Radana."

***

He accessed the visuals of the Radana and the sensor systems of the fleet now in-system. It was almost laughable.
The pirate base was located almost halfway between Gladsheim and Ravenlock territory. The main complex was hidden away inside a small moonlet and their ship currently hung in orbit around this small moon, surrounded by pirate ships.
Now those were frantically moving away from the Radana as it went through its self-destruct sequence. The explosion was brilliant.
Through it lashed several FTL missiles from the Superdreadnoughts of Admiral Fiarat's small, stealthed, task force, taking out defense emplacements.
Into this confusion, a squadron of Fast destroyers swallowed out a mere light second off the pirates ships and started pounding them.
While they were tough enough to take out merchants or smaller civillian ships, they were in no way fit to stand up against war ships.
The rest of the small fleet swallowed in after the Fast Destroyers and threw their wrath in with the other ships.

***

In the hologram above his desk, the man screamed. "We surrender! We surrender!"
"Surrendering is not an option I'm afraid. You have been selected as an example. Good day," he cooly said and switched it off.

***

The fusion, anti-matter and gravitonic warheads tore the the small moon. He watched as the last gravitonic warhead was seemingly enough for it, and it broke apart, shattered like a child's toy.
The pirate ships were destroyed until only a small ship survived. It was scanned and only two life signs were left. Its drive was slagged and it drifted in space.
This should be the sole survivors of it so they could tell other pirates how unfortunate it would be for their own safety to threaten Gladsheim.

After all was done, the fleet left and returned home.
The damage was minimal. One destroyer would have to spend the next week in the repair yard due to an unfortunate hit, several other destroyers had smaller hits. Nothing serious, of course.
The only loss was the Radana, which had served its purpose as distraction. The crew of one hundred people already in re-grow.

[SirNitram]

"Thank you. I greet you in the name of the princes and parliment of Monacora. And I bring with me three offers on their behalf. Firstly, we would like to set up a free-trade agreement between our two nations, we feel that we would have much to gain from trading with you, and we hope you feel similarilly. Secondly, we would like to discuss terms for a mutual defense pact between our nations. Finally, we would like to arrange an exchange of ambassadors between us, so that we may discuss matters of importance in the future, without needless ordeal."

"Trade is, of course, a welcome offer this far out, and I am sure you will find many goods you wish to share with your people. Your first request is easily enough granted, as is your third. A mutual defense pact.. I am taking it that this pact would only activate if another was the aggressor, and attacking on non-legitimate means?"

[Thirdfain]

New Michigan
Former North American Union



Jarid looked absolutly haggard. His eyes were sunk deep in his face, and thick black rings surrounded them. He was skinnier than he had been, what with all the sleepness nights in the safe house, co-ordinating agents and handling the crisises Spyder had kept placing in the path of the Hajr's deep-cover operations.

He had always carried an air of superiority, of poise- but that was now gone. His shoulders were slumped, and he seemed haunted by the demons of his failure.

Only Kusha and Dayn were present. Hyrina was somewhere in the Freeholds, along with the other three Blackeyes special agents. They had been in touch via freecast (this close to Hajr space, it was easy to hide messages in the flood of civilian Freecaster transmissions that Eketrina and her attendant clusters radiated,) but they hadn't heard from her in hours. The assassin was almost certainly the most dangerous person on the planet short of the Vampires, but enough grunts would be able to bring her down.

"Kusha. Word is in from the Cluster. WE're off. Complete shutdown. We've all been recalled for... debriefing. You do know what this means?"

Kusha's heavy-lidded eyes closed.

"Yeah. I'll give the orders at once. Our replacements?"

"Already on planet. This operation is dead. The Speaker isn't even willing to leave us on to find out how he survived."

The three sat in the dark room for a second, with nothing more to say. This was a disaster, at least fo their small part in the great works of the Hajr.

"Now, we'll have to deal with the Matar in space, warship to warship, gun to gun. At least, friends, we have the joy of knowing that in the end, they will fall with the rest."

Less than an hour later, the RimTech offices on Matar exploded, apparantly due to a gas leak. Their records, stored in the basement, were incinerated completely.

On Matar, out in the woods kilometers outside of the capital, a figure in slate grey huddled beneath a tree.It was raining hard, and a harsh wind blew, but she didn't shiver at all. Hyrina su Miitgar thought, long and hard, about her next move. She needed to get in contact with the others, then make her escape. Word from the Lady was to ensure the survival and escape of the Vampires as well.

She moved. Time was of the essence.

[Beowulf]

Varathrax

"Mark Strang" received the message: "I've ordered the gun you wanted. It should reach you in another couple days. Don't forget to take pictures. Petey."

He continued working on his modifications to the gear he brought.

[Spyder]

In the depths of space, the chances of a wandering starship just happening to encounter an object that isn't on any of the main routes is quite litterally billions to one. Thus its anonymity was the first line of defense for the Diomedes Skunkworks facility. A quiet and inconspicuous space station right out in the middle of nowhere provided the Minmatar with a safe place for the development of new and sometimes potentially dangerous technology.

"Ok, let's take this from the top. Ready ignition."

The machines hummed as various scientists and engineers stood around the test chamber as they watched their subject at work.

"And engage."

A red beam shot out from an emitter in the ceiling and struck the rectangular device in the centre of the chamber.

"We have a reaction."

"Power output?"

"Nominal, wait." The technician tapped the keys, "rising. It's working!" A moment passes. "Umm...it's not stopping."

"It's going critical! Shut it down!"

"It's too late, jetison it!"

At the pull of a lever the object was moved into a firing tube and blasted out into space.

"5 seconds to detonation."

"It hasn't cleared the blast radius yet!"

"Ops! Pump every last joule you have into the shields!"

..."Why, what's going on?" Came the voice over the com-link.

"JUST DO IT DAMN IT!"

The explosion collided with the station's shields leaving some of the energy to bleed through. The station rocked slightly and the bulkheads groaned under the strain.

The men all looked at each other, slightly dazed and confused. "So what's next on the agenda?" One of them asked.

Meanwhile, in another part of the station. "Greg, take a look at this," One of the station's biologists looked through the microscope at the sample being studied.

"That's amazing. It's so lifelike."

"Perfect artificial replications of human blood cells. Self replicating, hardened against virus attacks and fully customizable genomic sequencing. Bioscanners can't even tell the difference."

"So when do we go about constructing a living specimen?"

"Soon."

[Straha]

The hustle and bustle of the office was quiet, and determined. Dozens of different media corporations were setting up cameras, while the prince scanned through the piece of paper at the desk once more. Finally, after everything was set up, the prince stared at the cameras, as the taping began.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight I broadcast a message to the Draconis Republic. As many people have guessed it is about the Tortugan invasion.
My message is simple, as of this broadcast we are leveling sanctions against the Draconis Republic, these sanctions; the banning of sales of weapons, fuel, or military grade electronics, a value tax against all imports into the Draconis republic, a recall of all our tourists inside the Draconis republic, and finally the banning of any new tourists from the Draconis Republic coming into our nations. These are not permanent, they will be lifted after a treaty is established between the Draconis Republic and the government of Tortuga, if a cease fire is not established between these two nations in the next fourty-eight hours however, along with the above sanctions a state of war will be declared between us.
"It is important to note here that we are not alone in this, I speak on this night for the Gladshiem, the Asgard, us, the Etern, the Ravenlocke, further more other nations have pledged there support with us, and are willing to go with us untill the end of this, whether it is forced for us to go through bloodshed, or not.
"That is all, may the peace of the void cover us all in the nights to come."

[Alyrium Denryle]

"By wat right do you declare war for the above nations? We wish to hear THEIR tranmission on the matter. We have already agreed to allow you to set up an international force to oversee the reconstruction.

We may be able to work out a cease fire with their government as far as the ground war goes. However, they have engaged in well documented acts of piracy againt out nation and many of yours, which are matter of public record.

Therefore, we will NOT cease out hostilities against those ships unvolved. Is that acceptable?"

[Hotfoot]

From: Office of the Director
To: Draconis Republic
Subject: Monacoran Statement

If you have yet to apprehend the ships that have harassed your shipping lanes, we would consider further acts to bring recorded criminals to justice only logical. However, a full scale invasion of a planet, resulting in the deaths of millions of sentients on both sides, including innocent civilians, does not seem warranted given current intelligence on the matter.

[SirNitram]

"By wat right do you declare war for the above nations? We wish to hear THEIR tranmission on the matter. We have already agreed to allow you to set up an international force to oversee the reconstruction."

"The Collective of Etern handed over full authority to the Earthers to make the announcement. Perhaps the Draconis Ambassador would prefer it in less diplomatic language: We are coming for you. If you continue to run roughshod over those who do not conform to your twisted ideals, we will hunt you down. Every ship that fights will die. Every individual who resists will be killed. It is with zero hesitation that we throw our lot in with the Coalition against this travesty. If any Draconis vessels wish to avoid being destroyed as an enemy vessel, they are advised to surrender.. Immediately, to the nearest vessels of the Etern or our brothers in the Coalition.

Once more, in case the lizard is hard of hearing: We are coming for you."