[STGOD] Primary Story Thread

[Thirdfain]

There were about thirty of them, wrapped in power armor. The skull-and-crossbones spraypainted on each pirate's back was just the sort of defiant touch privateers loved. The suits were well-maintained and clean, though of older design- obviously, this captain was heavily into discipline. Most of the soldiers carried shiny new Roman zero-G combat lasers, though a few carried old-model OU assault rifles. One even had a Fenari flechette-gun, modified for his human hands. The scene shook suddenly, accompanied by a dull booming.
"That does it, the fuckin' skinnies have wasted the AG. They'll be boarding any second now." The message was accompanied by a burst of static- these pirates were using old-model radios for communications.
"Hold steady! The skinnies won't expect to find us in fighting trim, boyos. Stand your ground, keep your mag-boots on, and we'll fuck em up so hard, their children'll be born with sore assholes. Now, Jenkins, set up your beamer covering the doorway. Crowe, Leman, take the flanks. We'll butcher them!"
A ragged cheer rose up from the pirates, temporarily clogging their comband with static. They spread out like professionals, chitinous figures in the red emergency light.
They stood, unmoving in their light powered armor, weapons trained on the primary airlock's armored surface. The blast was sudden, earthshattering, followed a fraction of a second later by a second. The portal blew open with a sprray of whitehot metal and noxious gas. The pirates opened up almost instantly, reflexes honed by hours of drill. Rifles barked, coilguns whined, and a volley of coherent light turned stabbed through the opening. The automatic xaser flashed again and again and again, stabbing beams of luminous white into the sundered portal. The fire went on for a very noisy five seconds. there was no way anything, even the reinforced combat armour of a Floater marine, could have taken that sort of punishment. The captain's orders to cease fire were obeyed instantly.
"There's no one there! CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE! CEASE-"
He went quite with a small grunt, his armored suit jerking violently forwards as his magboots disengaged. Bubbles of powdered bone and liquified organs were already popping out of the hundreds of tiny, pin-size holes in the back of his armour. The rest of the band began to turn, began to reorient their weapons, but they were already folding, one, then a dozen. Black-armoured shapes, lanky, spiderlike in the dark, skittered forwards, gripping the "ceiling" with prehensile toes, functional looking weapons in their arms. One lept forwards, allowing his momentem to take him across the cramped hallway. The figure spun in mid-air, bringing his gropener across in an almost lazy motion. A pirate's torso floated away from his legs, which stood stupidly upright, held in place by powered armour and magnetic boots. The gropener hummed mildly as it split another pirate from crotch to crown, releasing a cloud of blood-bubbles.
"They are coming through the bulkhead! jesus chri....." Another pirate's head exploded in a stream of high-velocity flechettes. It became obvious that the floater raiding party had breached to ship's hull from two directions, one as a diversion.

The remaining pirates jumped for whatever cover they could find. Most miscalculated, expecting gravity's pull, and went flying into the center of the corridor, where they were efficiently and quietly butchered. A few scrambled behind crates, firing wildly, howling curses. From their defended positions, they began to unleash a withering counterfire. One black armored figure snapped backwards, tumbling, a bright hole opened on his arm by a powerbolt.

The pirate's swearing was drowned out by the roar of the Hellthrower. A tongue of superhot gas lashed across the hallway. Dura-steel armor ran like milk under the assault, and flesh exploded instantly into steam. A second later, the hallway was clear. The pirate ship "Sweet Home Alabama" was in the hands of the Xanadar Militia.



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

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a demonstration of what Xanadar weapons can do. This footage was taken from the cameras of that very pirate vessel, during a raid we conducted last year. Bidding will begin an hour before tonight's dinner on the concourse." Freewoman Captain Kyle El-Riyadj smirked. "Or, of course, you can go next door and purchase some Fenari weapons...."

---
For sale:
Xanadar Gunsmithy EM-22 Fletcher: Anti-infantry weapon, effective against armoured and unarmoured targets. Uses electromagnetic propulsion to fire hundreds of needle-sized flechettes at high speeds. The weapon's electronics cause the rounds to detonate inside the target, after peircing armor, causing extreme internal damage. Single-man portable. Lacks the sophisticated targetting devices of Zarathrustran and Kharamite weapons, but easy to use and repair.

Xanadar Gunsmithy EMS-42 Superfletcher: Anti-infantry weapon, effective against armoured and unarmoured targets. Crew-served version of EM-22. Larger rounds, longer barrel (higher velocity rounds, more accuracy.) Triple barrels, to avoid overheating. Requires 3-man crew (gunner, loader, power operator.) Effective against aircraft and light vehicles.

Xanadar Gunsmithy EML-9a Longbow: Longbarrel sniper-rifle variant. Extremely high velocity, fires in 5-needle bursts. Can penetrate light tank armor. Effective range, 9 miles. Comes with active/passive targetting sensors, surveillance drone (10 pounds, propeller propulsion), and bipod.

Xanadar Gunsmithy EMG-2 Jazzer: Multipurpose autogrenade launcher. Uses electromagnetic propulsion to fire minigrenades from a clip, 480 RPM. HEAP and HEAT rounds available. Single-man portable.

Sun-Tzu Experiments Hellthrower Mk. 2: Plasma weapon, short range, high power. Requires backpack-mounted power and fuel source, effective against armored infantry, soft targets, and heavy armor (tanks, other vehicles) at short ranges. Used like a flamethrower. Single-man portable. Dangerous temperatures and weight, user must wear power armor.

Sun-Tzu Experiments Gropener Mk. 5: Melee weapon. Uses microjets and a vibrating blade to cut through even heavy armor very rapidly, excellent for cramped zero-G boarding actions.

Sun-Tzu Experiments Razorwhip Mk. 3: Short range weapon. Monofilament wire-whip 4 meters long with microthruster cluster on end for control in zero-G. useful against light power armor or unarmored targets, terror weapon. Excellent for boarding actions.

[HemlockGrey]

Marcus Lucius was a happy man. A freed slave, he had amassed over the years a reasonable sum of money from his kind master, who had granted him a generous sending-off package when Emancipation came and Marcus decided to strike out on his own. His master had also 'accidentally' leaked news of the Trajan Land Project.

Marcus had traveled to the planet, discreeting purchasing equipment, hiring skilled engineers and workmen, and making a name for himself. When he was halfway finished, the Trajan Land Project had been announced, and newly freed men and women had flocked to the barren planet, buying Marcus' tools, partaking of his services, making him a very rich man.

Not everyone who came to Trajan was quite so industrious. Most took their free fifty acres and sold most of it to land companies who then sold it to mining companies or sold it to individuals in smaller lots. Trajan's population quadrupled overnight; the mines blossomed and several small cities sprang up, with most of the comforts and imagined luxaries due a Roman settlement. Traffic between Trajan, Imperator, and New Byzantine increased steadily and the Imperial coffers brimmed with taxed moneys.

On Imperator, de'Lorin signed another contract. One providing for the purchase of Trajan Land Franchise, the largest land company on the planet.

He smiled, sat back, and began to count a stack of coins...

[HemlockGrey]

On the deck of the Gaius Julius Caesar, Admiral Decimus felt like God. Or at least a Saint.

The ship hummed beneath his feet. The finishing touches were being added as the Imperial Suppy and Cargo Fleet brought up some last-minute items from the surface of Gladius and Imperator.

The flagship of the Empire had no escorts; all ships completed to date were assigned to the Astralegios I, under the command of Commadore Apollodorus of the battleship Constantine, and they were tasked with guarding Earth.

Decimus gazed across the void to the shipyards of New Byzantine where the last two frigates of the Astralegios I were being completed; one more battlecruiser was undergoing construction at the Hegemony shipyards. The Astralegios I had been completed at a breakneck pace; the other seven would be built much more leisurely speed, as to not expend the capital of the Empire at too great a rate. The Aktaeon construction had not yet begun- it would not begin until the completion of Astralegios II.

The ship was a thing alive. Clustered beneath its hull were a hundred point-defense missile tubes, reportedly filled with interceptors.

Reportedly. Only a select few knew that the tubes really contained the fruits of the ultra-confidentional Project L- the X-Laser pulse bombs capable of single-handedly shattering fighter formations and missile swarms.

Fifty missile tubes were nestled beneath each of the battleship's wide 'wings'. Black strips crisscrossed the hull of the vessel; many point-defense lasers lay buried in each of them. A thick layer of ablative armor covered the sturdier hull armor and deep within the bowel of the ship six generators stood ready to snap a powerful energy shield into place. Immensely powerful tractor beams jutted out from the port and starboard sides; they were interspered with nearly eighty massive X-laser ports that would thrash out the question as to whether or not Rome was the dominant power in the galaxy- but, hopefully, not for some time yet.

The great ion engines of the warship pounded out a veritable swarm of interference and deadly radiation that failed to penetrate the Roman hulls. The engines were a trademark of the fleet, the fastest of their kind in nearly the entire galaxy, ensuring that no battleship would outrace a Caesar.

Decimus sighed with pleasure, then frowned. He still needed to brief much of Rome's military brass on the capabilities of the new ships.

Today. Or maybe tomorrow.

[phongn]

NAU BuOrd Exhibition, IDCEX

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the North American Union once again displays her technical expertise with the new Mk. I Phased Array Point Defense Installation. Developed over the last months by United Defense Industries, this is a weapon designed around high-powered microwave emitter arrays to damage or destroy incoming missiles. It is capable of handling large salvos, as we will shortly demonstrate at the firing range.

"While other nations may have their own systems that are comparatively inexpensive, the NAU has designed this system to be universally compatible with a great variety of sensor, power, data and mounting options. Other systems have hidden costs involved with integration - ours minimizes that cost.

"Observe on the flight screen. We've brought a large barge to fire missiles at the ground-based defense battery. We will launch a salvo of no less than 200 missiles at it: their warheads will be mere bursting charges in this test, but the arming circuits remain identical. I need not remind you that these cruise missiles are intended to operate in a nuclear EMP environment. "

From the landing barge, hundreds of missiles pour forth from the vertical-launch cells and immediately dive down to the surface, skimming at low altitude to minimize detection time. As soon as they crest the local horizon the holocam focuses on the missiles. Some begin sparking violently but otherwise apparently unaffected. Some lose control, others completely lose power. Not a few detonate as their firing circuits misfire. Many of the missiles that continued on overshoot their intended target and keep going, where a second battery destroys them. None actually score an intended kill

"As you can see, the system is quite effective while utilizing low power outputs. Antimatter warheads are particularly vulnerable as the weapon interferes with their containment fields. Finally, while the installations offer their own independant sensors, we offer the Westinghouse Griffon sensor in conjunction for ground-based installations. It is unique as it integrates it's own Local Operation Center; all of the competition in its design range require separate LOCs to control multiple centers."

[Spyder]

"The 200 kilotons of steel above us is suspended by a single thread the width of a human hair."

"Ooooh" The crowd ooohs.

"Silk steel is extremely high tensile material that can be woven into flexible thread that has a tremendous variety of industrial and military applications. Armour reinforced by silk steel mesh provides an excellent barrier against incoming projectiles and many forms of energy weapons.
Over to your left we are demonstrating the new EX-1 Magnetic Dispursion rounds that can be scaled to suit anything from an assault rifle to a battleship's cannons."

A blonde woman held up the assault rifle and smiled at the crowd.

"The Magnetic Dispursion rounds are designed to deform metallic barriers such as armor, thus weakening it before attacks from high penetration weapons. MDRs also function as a form of EMP."

The blonde fires a bolt of purple energy at a target droid, which is instantly crumpled as if hit by an RPG, only without the explosion. The droids lights went out, as did all the lights of the surrounding 5 exhibits.

"Umm, moving on...."

The blonde woman picked up a high calibur assault rifle and pointed it at the thin sheet of metal. There was a horrendously loud rattling as the woman put enough holes in the metal that it could be used as a tea strainer.

"Artificial Organic Alloy. Minmatar scientists have created an alloy that actually remembers what shape it is supposed to be in and over a brief period of time, heal itself."

As the presenter spoke parts of the metal sheet slowly started moving back into their original position, covering the holes that were created. Within seconds, the holes had become scars.

"It of course takes time for the scars to fully heal and the manufacturing process is expensive, but as you can imagine the reduction in hull repair costs alone make this alloy worth every penny."

[The Yosemite Bear]

Flechettes were nice for hunting lightly armoured "prey" but for something wearing armour even the slave servants in the next chamber something more stable was required. Checking that their frequency swords were intact, the marines also readied their "Assult Rifles", even with their folding stocks these weapons were enourmous, the 50mm bores, still the gyrojets combined with the synchronized firing of the EVA/Armour kept the aim steady, and minimized recoil, at least when selected to Zero Gravity, personally the Fenari perfered at least two of the human gravities.

The first of the parasite's gaurds came forward, buried in stasis alongside their false "god". In space one could not hear the roar of the rockets firing as fast as the Fenari could tap the firing studs. The Bolts reached the KE damening shields and by means of the continuous push of their spin stabalized solid jet drives kept going albet slower, one shot struckagainst the armour held their for an enterity by the shield until it's arming trigger finally flattened against the hard armour. The crucible superheated the metal atoms of the dart into a near plasma, as part of the reaction, litterially melting through the "Jaffa".

The parasite emerged now, with a wave of his hand mounted weapon he slamed five of the boarding pack into the wall with about 50g's of accleration, even with armour, the whiplash was fatal, or almost, one of the disarmed warriors crawled forward, his back broken, but still pulling himself along by his arms. With great distain the parasite's surviving gaurds struck him, hard an vicious, until their master moved in to deliver the killing blow. It was then that the Gamma pack warrior remembered his "Frequency" knife, the 90cm blade was protected by a destructive forcefield, it would cut through virtually anything. The host's arm offered no resistanceas the warrior struck.

Clean up had begun in earnest now, the host was badly maimed, the total destruction of it's weapon arm had caused great distress to it's parasite as well. Medical help would be needed for the marine who had brought down the shadow prey, his spine was shattered where the ridged armour had struck a bulkhead. The Second pack was still clearing out the command hive. Prisoners of the slaver parasites would be restored to their planet of origin, well sort of, The Fenari could not find a real thing to do with those souls so long torn from their homeworld, but purhaps to bring them to the great meeting of the packs, at the exposition.


---elsewhere---
The pirate's had not expected to see it come to this, The Fenari ships had been just part of a merchant convoy, the Drakkar's were not that heavily armed. They watched as the main force of four merchant drakkar's broke at 90* angles from each other leaving two in the rear, just holding position. moving to engage one group would allow the other two to escape. The captain of the "Master Haxor" considered his options. Fuck it, go for the two that aren't moving. As his modified container ship came about he noticed anomales developing forward of the two unmoving ships, they were opening worm holes, they didn't have any forward interia how could they expect to get anywhere. Idiots! Then the faster moving Drakkar's swong around their handling was superb for cruisers their size. The first volley of missiles went out not much, these were merchant ships of course, but still the bomb pumped lasers were strong.

The four pursuing ships had launched thier bomb pumped lasers right into the wash, where the shields were weakest, but the armour was it's strongest. The X-rays battered at tehm slowly overloading sinks and tearing at the shields. Whiles the "Haxor's" missile defense and the Fenari Drakkar's playied a deadly duet. Eventually, the greater power ratio of the drives placed four Fenari ships gaining at an area the "Haxor had little coverage. The Fusion beams lashed out, cancelling the forward motion of their firing ships as fusion bombs detonated in magetically sealed firing chambers, and were focused and forced out in one direction, almost the full force to the 60megaton bombs was tranfered to the target. It would be awile before it would be safe to fire the weapons again. But still it was a "crude but effective" short range weapon, the blast had blown apart shield generators deep within the ship, throgh EM and KE feedback the engines themselves had triggered their safety overrides, sparks had flown off all interior surfaces of the metal hull.

The creatures had wasted their shots though he would soon blast them with his missiles while they recovered from the strain of firing their overgunned weapons. Then it happened. a wierd disturbance in the air, as the bridge became an abbitior. Armoured troops came in to deal with the invaders, saw a Three and a half meter tall metal she bitch stride through, the crimson tinged light reflected off of her spotless shiny metal armour, complete with six oversized metal "Tits", the face mask was painted in a garish "Shark Smile" Thier Zero G lasers dispursed and turned into a rainbow display as the frequency shileds broke them down, while their kentic weapons, seemed to shatter, and break apart by the same destructive field. With a thought the armoured form switched from flechette to squashhead, the high KE explosive gernades wouldn't penetrate the target's armour, it wouldn't need too. The Rag Dolls were a bloody pudding inside them. Within a few minutes it was over after the first murderous display the "Den Defenders" had little trouble with the pirates, of course that was the way they fought, the armour and it's shields only had a limited amount of "Charge" the trick was to strike very fast, very heard and look like something out of a nightmare. Few knew that every pack flag had such warriors on board just to protect the Navigator, and the <Pack/Fleet Alpha> they kept to themselves.

[Darksider]

Supreme admiral Jack O'neil stood aboard the new Argo-class battleship Pride of Krytos, constructed in secret it, and it's new weapons system, the fusion cannon were on display at the IDCEX. "Sir we're in position to fire the fusion cannon and we have conformation that the projected impact area is clear of all civillans". "Begin charging sequence for the main cannon". Deep in the bowels of the ship it's fusion reactors came to life pouring energy into the cannon at a rapid pace. It took two minuites to charge a full-power shot. "Sir, the cannon is charged". "Fire" a reddish orange beam lanced out of the Pride of Krytos and raced twards the surface. It hit with a force of about nine gigatons, producing a massive impact crater and liquifying a large percentage of the impact area. The Admiral turned to his XO. "Captain, have my shuttle prepared, i think the other delagates will be interested in this weapon"

[Cpt_Frank]

PIR representative General Fei watched as the Artificial Organic Alloy started to 'heal' itself. "Nice magic trick" he thought "but for all that money of armoring one ship with that stuff you could build another one."
He turned away from the watching crowd and headed back to the PIR display, where the young officer still was advertising the Type-98.

[Sea Skimmer]

Supreme admiral Jack O'neil stood aboard the new Argo-class battleship Pride of Krytos, constructed in secret it, and it's new weapons system, the fusion cannon were on display at the IDCEX. "Sir we're in position to fire the fusion cannon and we have conformation that the projected impact area is clear of all civillans". "Begin charging sequence for the main cannon". Deep in the bowels of the ship it's fusion reactors came to life pouring energy into the cannon at a rapid pace. It took two minuites to charge a full-power shot. "Sir, the cannon is charged". "Fire" a reddish orange beam lanced out of the Pride of Krytos and raced twards the surface. It hit with a force of about nine gigatons, producing a massive impact crater and liquifying a large percentage of the impact area. The Admiral turned to his XO. "Captain, have my shuttle prepared, i think the other delagates will be interested in this weapon"

The reply took only a moment to come, Kokand security vessels where on a high sate of alert. The capital ship Thunderer aligned her four heavyset gun turrets on the Krytos. Her first warning was when the interdiction and jamming systems of the Thunderer and other Kokand vessel snapped up. Then the guns fired. Krytos was without shielding, and no armor could hold against a Black Forests VH partial beam weapons. The first shot slammed into the fusion cannon mounting, utterly destroying it. Another pair blew vast craters into the ships hull, targeted on weapons concretions. The last one high the hull abreast of the main reactor spaces. It failed to penetrate to the compartment but inflicted heavy shock damage, knocking several systems off line. A single frequency opened among the jamming.

"This is fleet admiral Stonewall of the Kokand Imperial Starfleet. You blatantly violated regulations of this event and used an illegal weapon of mass destruction against a planet of the Kokand Empire. You have thirty seconds to power down your main reactor and surrender your force before I blow what's left of your ship away. Any attempt to raise shields, launch any craft or so much as move a single gun turret will result in your totally destruction. The same for your escorts."

A second and third Black Forest along with thirty escorts where already moving into an encircling position. All had missile hatches open and guns trained on the force.

[Cpt_Frank]

Onboard the Type-59 cruiser 'Five Stars' Captain Long watched with shock as the Krytos fired the weapon at the planet. An alarm klaxton sounded and the bridge was illuminated by flashing red and blue lights.
"What was that? Senors! Report!!"
The young officer's face was pale as he looked up from his screen.
"They fired a weapon at the planet, estimated yield is well above 8 gigatons!" Captain Long didn't even have the time to finish saying "Are they insane" before the Krytos was bombarded by Kokand ships.
"This is a most unexpected turn of events. We must report this to President Li! Establish a connection to the president immediately, high priority!"

[Sea Skimmer]

"Attention all in system NBA vessels. The Kokand Imperial Starfleet formally requests your assistance in dealing with the Krytos vessels. Please acknowledge."

[Cpt_Frank]

"Captain!" the communications officer called. "Kokand vessels are hailing us!"
Captail Long turned around and slipped out on the coffee someone had spilt when the Krytos had fired it's main gun.
"Well put it on audio" He said as he got up.

"Attention all in system NBA vessels. The Kokand Imperial Starfleet formally requests your assistance in dealing with the Krytos vessels. Please acknowledge."

"This is Captain Long from the PIR cruiser Five Stars. Your request for assistance has been approved. Moving into position."
The Type-59 powered it's engines up and moved into the gap between a black forest and it's escorts, thus closing the circle around the Krytos.

[Stormbringer]

"Attention all in system NBA vessels. The Kokand Imperial Starfleet formally requests your assistance in dealing with the Krytos vessels. Please acknowledge."

"Captain, a message from Kokand Command. They've been attacked!"

The Indefatigable-class BC Hammer swung into action. She began accelerating at full speeed toward the attacking vessel. Her escorting cruisers hung back to protect the suddenly very vulnerable frieghters.

"Unidentifid Battleship, you have one last chance to surrender. Stand down or we will open fire"

The Hammer began deploying pods and training her weapons batteries. The whole ship waited for the Krytos's response.

[Thirdfain]

"Attention all in system NBA vessels. The Kokand Imperial Starfleet formally requests your assistance in dealing with the Krytos vessels. Please acknowledge."

"This is Freewoman Captain Kyle El-Riyadj of the Xanadar Militia strike cruiser "Black Alice." We stand ready to provide assistance to NBA vessels in system. We are powering weapons and deploying ECM and decoy drones, and moving to cover the Pride of Krytos."



- Strike Cruisers, BTW, are battlecruiser -sized vessels, with the firepower of a heavy cruiser, and the agility of a destroyer.

[Sea Skimmer]

"Stand clear floater vessel. All NBA craft switch to secure comm. channel six three bravo."

[phongn]

"The Magnetic Dispursion rounds are designed to deform metallic barriers such as armor, thus weakening it before attacks from high penetration weapons. MDRs also function as a form of EMP."

"Ma'am, this is all well and good, but what happens if you use it against a nonferrous material?

[phongn]

Federal Office of Exploration (FOEX)
North American Union

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"The North American Union will be launching a series of deep-space surveying missions to explore uncharted regions and prospect for mineral abundance. They will also expand the Bell SRN and provide navigational markers for future exploitation and colonization.

"We need trained, experienced and motivated crewers for these missions! The NAU offer generous pay and benefits.

Mission duration will be no less than ten years. Expected maximum mission duration will by 50 years, with projected duration of 35 years. Age deceleration treatments will be made available. Hazerdous duty pay included, NDA agreement required."

[Sea Skimmer]

"As you can see, the system is quite effective while utilizing low power outputs. Antimatter warheads are particularly vulnerable as the weapon interferes with their containment fields. Finally, while the installations offer their own independant sensors, we offer the Westinghouse Griffon sensor in conjunction for ground-based installations. It is unique as it integrates it's own Local Operation Center; all of the competition in its design range require separate LOCs to control multiple centers."

"Please leave your system active." Said the range controller. A potential customer wishes to try something out with it." A minute later a new missile flew over the horizon. The array locked on and engaged. Nothing happened. The system began focusing more and more emitters onto the missile, finally causing it to glow slightly just as it passed over the emplacement. A small bomblet dropped away and streaked towards the emplacement, before hitting and bouncing off, an inert demonstration version of an anti armor submuntion. The missile meanwhile began orbiting, still unaffected.

"What is that thing?" Asked a concerned United Defense rep.
"MGM four zero one block three loitering attack munitions with an anti armor load out."
"Then it should have been brought down by now?"
"Well the block two should have been. This ones new. Twenty percent of the warheads been removed and a level one light vehicle shield generator has been installed. Alliance Aerospace builds both and already had the plans, though they shelved them because most anti missile defenses could overwhelm the generator with one shot." He paused. "They've got plans to modify the rest of our arsenal as well."
They looked back at the screen, which still showed the LAM circling. It swung back over the emplacement and dropped another submuntion, attempting to kill it without having any live warheads aboard. Several members of the audience had already left. They had better things to look at.

The controller suddenly placed his hand to his ear and listened for a second. "Everyone please remained seated, there's an emergency situation we expect will be resolved shortly." The main doors to the room had already shut, and several fully armed soldiers emerged from a secondary entrance. On screen the LAM had exploded, or rather been self-detracted. The point defence array had had its power cut. The same situation was repeated throughout the halls of the main exhibition building and the lesser firing range structures.

[Thirdfain]

"Something's not right here. Tactical! I want a stealthed recon drone following all NBA ships in the system. Communications, broadcast a request for reinforcements over the great cluster. Strikeship command, order all Lancers to launch, I want a fighter screen up immediatly."

"Should we call in the "Battle Angel," skipper? There's no way we can take all the ships in-system single handed."

"Negative on that, communications. We'll hold that ace up our sleeve until we need it."

"ECM up, skipper."

"Excellent. If those NBA fools try anything, I want us ready."

[Companion Cube]

[Aleikum-OA Fleet HQ]

"Sir!" The Admiral turned at the sound of his Aide's frantic exclamation.

"Yes?" The Aide paused for a moment to compose his thoughts, and said:

"Sir, we've received reports of a military engagement in progree in the Kokand Empire's territory!"

"At the IDCEX?"

"Yes sir, a KSE ship apparently opened fire on one of Kokand's planets." The Admiral stared at his Aide for a moment, indredulous.

"What? Why would a Krytos ship attack the KE? It must be a mistake of some kind."

"Our sources report they were testing some new form of weapon, and they used it on one of the KE's worlds. The area was unpopulated, but the KE was understandably upset."

"Of course..."

"At the moment sir, it looks like the situation might ignite, if any of the other ships open fire-"

"We can only hope they keep their cool down there..."

[Stormbringer]

"Please, our friends the Floaters this is the AIN Hammer cease and desist. Kokand has come under attack and the situation is being dealth with. Please back off."


The Floater ships were playing a deadly game. The Kokand were on a hair trigger and might open fire. All the vessels in the system were now at the ready and manuevering. All it would take was a sneeze for war to break out.

"Sir, drone traces astern. Not sure who's it is"

"Monitor it for now. And get a firing solution on it for a counter-missle"

[Sea Skimmer]

"Admiral, where tracking small craft launches from Floater vessels."
"Flag them hostile and lock all weapons that can bear, that is an act of war."
Stonewall activated the comm. system once more.
"Floater vessels recall all craft immediately and the leave the system or be destroyed. Krytos, this is your finnal warning, your crippled ship is no match for us. Surrender now."
He shut down the system.
"ETA on task force seven?"
"Three minutes, another group is a half hour out."
"Good, if the Floaters so much as open a missile hatch or move a gun turret switch combat to automatic and blow them and Krytos to hell."

[HemlockGrey]

On a shuttle on the edge of space stood a single Roman patriacian; Marcus Scipio Crassus. He had come, on behalf of the Roman Empire, to observe the event.

"What the hell was that?" he snapped at the pilot. The man shook his head.

"Some kind of massive energy weapon...all ships are being hailed by the Kokand Empire."

The two silently observed the proceedings.

"Vir optime! What are your orders?"

"Raise shields. Prep the hyperspace engines to be activated on my mark."

[Cpt_Frank]

Captain Long paced the bridge nervously. This wasn't looking good at all, and if someone made a mistake by now they'd be in the biggest war of all of history.
"Weapons, status of our EMP missiles!"
"Can be loaded into the launchers withing a matter of seconds, but it's my duty to remind you, sir, that they were intended for demonstration purposes, not for..."
"I'm aware of that fact, Lieutnant. Load the missiles, and open a channel to the NBA vessels."
"Channel is open sir."
"Captain Long from the Red Star speaking.
We could use our Type-00 EMP missiles to disable the Krytos. That way, unnecessary bloodshed can be prevented."

[Thirdfain]

"Enemy active sensors are hitting our vessels, skipper- It looks like targetting devices."

"Do you have source tracking?"

"Yes, ma'am, we have a solid lock on the nearest Kokand warship. Call the shot, and I can put a full 'driver volley into their hull."

"Excellent. I don't want you firing a shot until I order, understand?"

"Of course, skipper."

"Skipper, I have confirmation over the Great Cluster- The Kharamite Dreadnought "Thor's Hammer" and the attack carrier "Deacon" are within 12 minute's translation time, along with their escorts. They are on their way."

"Communications, broadcast this message: As long as our people, and our weapons, are on the planet, we will remain in-system. I will leave no freeman/bondman/lovebound stranded in that infernal gravity well!"

"Yes, ma'am- broadcasting now."

"Open up a tightbeam channel- ask the Krytos warship just what the hell they were doing. I want this figured out."