STGOD2 Main Story thread

Thirdfain · Post by **Thirdfain** » 2003-11-25 09:25pm

-: OBSERV-CAM DATA :-
-: AUTOMATED VEHICLE 55/49 (CNL)(AREGATH):-

Heavy Response Fleet Kappa formed the spearhead of the formation- off to her wings, a Krytos Dreadnought group and a Corporate Security carrier squadron fanned out.

The CNV Hathor was the center of the Commonwealth squadron. She was five kilometers long, and inelegantly fat, ringed with gun decks and the serried ranks of missile tubes characteristic of the "Artemis" class. Her chameleon hull had been set for parade- a 2-kilometer long image of the ancient Egyptian goddess of revenge and good sex stretched across her bulk.

The team of heavy and light cruisers which supplemented her firepower spread out around her, each vessel surrounded by a halo of escort frigates. The squadron's Strike Frigates were with the Corporate element of the fleet, where they would join the Corporate fighter squadrons.

The opposition squadrons were just entering range.

The two opposing fleets began pouring volley after volley of missiles into eachother. Heavy Reaction Fleet Kappa timed her FTL-missile barrage to coincide with the arrival of her STL birds. Dozens of enemy vessels broke up under the bombardments, as their PD was overwhelmed. The counterblow was focused on the Hathor and her squadron- the enemy fleet knew that the outcome of the missile duel would depend on the defeat of the massive missile platform.

The Hathor shook under fire, her shields flickering momentarily as a flight of Aquarian torpedoes scored hits through the squadron's PD networks. A half dozen of the Hathor's escorts went up under the pounding.

The volley-and-countervolley game continued for minutes. Finally, sections of the opposing wall closed with the Hathor. Her single battery of heavy particle-beam cannon blew two destroyers into nothingness before she succumbed to the fire of the enemy fleet.

The opposition fleet carved up the remaining squadrons. The Corporate carrier group formed the nucleus for a successful retreat, but casualties were heavy.

The battle was over. It was now time for the two joint fleets to evaluate the combat. It was apparant that fleet PD direction had been sub-par. Next exercise, they would get it right.

-: ENDFILE :-

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-11-25 11:10pm

1. Captain Elissa Bane was in a rather good mood. While the for a few months the going was rough aboard the RMS Curious Cat as the four formerlly separate crews worked at integrating themselves into a while, they now acted as a single smooth team. Their former priest even begged his way back onboard: Bane grudgingly put him back on the rolls, though the old man proved quite useful in exorcising some demons on Prebus IV.

The hauls weren't quite as good as that marvelous find all those months ago, but they were rather nice. The ship received some refits, the crews received their bonuses and, well, life was good. The extra blockade-enforcement duties had also padded their paycheques - they had occasionally helped out the Space Guard in enforcing the embargo against the Aquarian Union. They even got prize money when they took down and captured that Q-ship a few weeks ago...of course, it was so banged up by the end that they didn't make too much cash off of it.

It was time for a vacation. Engima's Northern Hemisphere was in winter this time of the year; the snowfall was rather nice (as was the skiing). Yes, it was indeed time for a vacation, and a lot of the crew had never been there...maybe they'd take a tour of the Palace?

2. Captain's Log: the shipments of arms is going well. Halite would be pleased; we just hi-jacked a freighter full of blaster carbines and missiles They might be popguns and old missiles, but they're impossible to trace these days. We've armed more revolutionary groups. A few more years, and we can trigger the revolution for Atlantis to reign once more...

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-11-26 07:03am

Vulcan Naval Dockyard, Tannenberg system

The crew began marching aboard even while the dark blue paint was still being applied to the twelve hundred meter hull. The vessels type was relatively new to the fleet, a Hunt class destroyer. But the design was not, it was a mobilization design prepared some time before, the design staff had identified every point, which might slow construction and found alternatives whenever possibul. The manufactured parts where suited for mass production off site, leaving the specialized equipment of the yards to do only assembly and what specialized work could not be farmed out. The result was a ship inferior in combat power and manning requirements, but one that could be built cheaply, quickly and as fast as the required resources could be collected. No gear-cutting machine would slow down this job. As the new destroyer headed out for her finnal trials, work continued on dozens more, and on larger vessels.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2003-11-26 06:12pm

Aregath System

Vice Admiral Dana Weir finished the Datasphere replay of the excercise. "They really got you there, Carlos," she drily observed to Commodore Menedas.
"Well, I jumped right into it," he answered, still terribly miffed about the near 'destruction' of his squadron in the fleet excercise.
"Yes, you most certainly did..." She chuckled shortly. "But we did win in the end. With casualties, of course. And we did learn quite a lot about the other Alliance members. Working together would be interesting, given the differences in doctrine and possibilities. But time will tell."

A virtual chime spiked the interest of her Datasphere mind copy, while continuing the conversation with Menedas. It was Fleet President Miller. As she entered the secure Datasphere conference, he was sitting in a immaculate virtual version of his personal chamber, and the deep orange shining through the transparent floor was lighting up her mood. Aregath's gas giant didn't have much the same beauty as Avalon PRime, she mused.

"New orders, Dana," he came directly to the point. "There has been some...diplomatic tensions between us and this Repuplic of Corneria. We want another eye on them. So it was decided to add a listening post to the Command Station. It shouldn't be too difficult. Your guess?"
"We could use the construction ship currently enlarging Command Station to add a listening post outfit, too. Maybe 2 days. There are still open capacities with the ship."
"Good, do it. And if you can, maybe on a 'patrol', drop some stealth recon drones around our new territory. We don't think anything will happen soon, but then no one expected this whole Aquarian matter, either."
"Will do, Sir. Anything else?"
"No, that was it. Good work you're doing. Until next time." And with a flicker he was gone, and soon she did shift her main mind focus back into the real life.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2003-11-26 08:12pm

Phoenix shipyards, PRC:

"We seem to be getting close to managing to reverse engineer the trans-universe drive. We can make the ship go out, but getting it to come back is a problem. We'll hopefully have the targeting issues resolved soon."

Post by **Beowulf** » 2003-12-02 07:36pm

[ooc]Hmm... two posts in a row. Oh well, time to further my schemes. [/ooc]

"Project Grendel is proceeding apace. The only remaining items to do are to mass produce the organism, and the incubators, and create the biological shutoff, incase it manages to get used against us."

"Excellent."

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-12-09 05:14pm

The small ship, as yet unkown in this part of space, dropped out of hyper into the plane of real space near to the target system and it's powerful senser had fixed on the appropriate planet, at least what had once been a planet. It had been successful in it's mission in evading the system's defenders and now it's powerful sensors found the other half of it's mission.

It's displacers did it's work and the man stood on what was effectively the bridge of the GAWV Sac Tearer. Despite an atmosphere that should have been lethal to his kind he stood there supremely unconcerned.

* * *

The real commander of the ship, the proto-Mind at the heart of the vessel, noted the patrolling vessels were reacting and in accordance with it's Captain's previously stated order it jumped out as soon as the displacement was completed.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-12-10 04:13pm

Chambers of the Great Leader

He stood perfectly still within the room, his mind reaching out to search the stars for any plotting which might undo his own plans. But then their was something, something new stirred in the galaxy.

Finally The Great Leader returned his main attention to what was present. He keyed a comm. link. "Admiral Medetsky, a new powerris returning from isolation within the galaxy. Find them, find them at once." The first scouts would be underway within twenty minutes as all data was combed for possibul clues. While they had little to go on, all involved knew The Great Leader would soon tell them more.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-12-11 07:36pm

Empty System K-42461310

HAB survey craft B.122 and B.90 slowed to sublight speed as they passed the systems outermost planet. Neither was technically military, the ships belonging to the Bureau of Mapping and Exploration and jointly operated with a minor branch of the Ministry of Foreign Development, but it was hard to tell as both where constructed with the HAB's typical heavily overbuilt and armored design philosophy, they also where armed to heavy patrol boat standards.

B.90s's beaver Capitan Rahman plopped down into his luxury seat, it had long ago replaced what the ship had originally been equipped with. The ability of low-level officers to freely make modifications, within reason, was one of the benefits of serving on a government survey ship. "So no sign of some new lost power of mysterious mystery?" "Nothing sir, except that ship that doesn't show in the registry a hundred thousand kilometers off." Rahman fought back to urge to kill his subordinate for being so slow. "Hold our course, attempt to open communications." Shields had already been raised on the return to sublight.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-12-11 07:47pm

[GAWV Red Knife]

The proto-Mind that ran the war vessel had detected the pair of intrudering vessels shortly after they had entered the system. It had followed it's captains orders and snuck as close as possible to the vessels; thanks to it's sophisticated sensors it now had map of the vessel right down to the stress patterns of the vessels hull.

The Affront Captain had drawn himself up proudly and had buckled on his uniform, looking relatively smart given how hung over he had been when the ship had notified him of the contacts. He mumbled something to his first officer approaching coherent sentence.

"Greeting, hoooman, to what end to you venture here?"

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-12-11 08:34pm

A technician found a way to convert the respective video singles into something useabul. A 2D image of Rahman appeared on the Affront screens. Like many beavers within he wore only a vest, sufficient to provide pockets, partly conceal his weapon, and not provide too much drag or weight in the water.

"I am no human," replied the beaver. "That is a human," he pointed to a crewman partly in the frame. "To keep things short I am a gigantic space going beaver representing the HAB, a powerful multi species star empire within this galaxy. Our Great Leader has sent these vessels and many other to seek you, an emerging star power. You will find close relations with the HAB to be greatly to your advantage."

Rahman glance to the side, checking that the conversation was being recorded and broadcast in coded pulses back to HAB space.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-12-11 08:41pm

The Affronter blinked his multiple eyes a few times at the screen and muttered something harsh to his first officer.

"Powerful, egh? We'll see about that. So far we have found no worthies here in this neighborhood. Perhaps you will be."

The Affronter again paused,

"Whether you be prey or fellow hunters you have found the Affront. We carry none from Diplomatic Force here but we can agree to a rendevouz upon which they might decide what to do. Is that acceptable?"

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-12-11 08:59pm

Stormbringer wrote:The Affronter blinked his multiple eyes a few times at the screen and muttered something harsh to his first officer.

"Powerful, egh? We'll see about that. So far we have found no worthies here in this neighborhood. Perhaps you will be."

The Affronter again paused,

"Whether you be prey or fellow hunters you have found the Affront. We carry none from Diplomatic Force here but we can agree to a rendevouz upon which they might decide what to do. Is that acceptable?"

"Name a location.....Affront. It is acceptable, and the HAB will demonstrate its power at that time. Should it be an issue with your superiors, you have spoken with Rahman, Captain, HAB forces."

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-12-11 09:03pm

Sea Skimmer wrote:"Name a location.....Affront. It is acceptable, and the HAB will demonstrate its power at that time. Should it be an issue with your superiors, you have spoken with Rahman, Captain, HAB forces."

"One week, this system. We will be there."

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-12-11 09:23pm

System K-42461310, seven days later

The scouts arrived an hour before the main body, searching the systems planets and englobeing the waiting Affront vessels. They played briefly with the fighters, neither side wishing to display there full potential and then the scouts leapt away, barely passing the 100c mark before falling back into a sublight formation. The HAB fleet arrived within it. The protected cruiser Blake led the way, be behind her was the centerpiece, the new and well escorted battleship Four Days Battle, at 4.7 kilometers an improved version of the Glorious First Of June type. A huge luxury yacht followed, careful to keep out of the battlewagons turbulent hyperwarp wake, and then two large freighters, laden with gifts, technological examples and a few other things HAB diplomats thought might be useful to have close at hand. Though powerful jammer's masked their contents, and all the ships in the fleet.

Communications where opened. "This is HAB warship Four Days Battle, we leave it to you to decide whose vessel negotiations are opened upon." On cue the yacht and a small escort moved out of the formation, the yacht dropping its active jamming completely and the escorts throttling back to protect only there internal details, so as to allow the Affront an almost clear view of the vessel, one choice for the location of negotiations.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-12-11 09:37pm

The Affront fleet was far less grandiose, though perhaps equally potent. It consisted of a single Bloody Knife Medium Offense Unit and two smaller Night Lances. They made no response the HAB display.

* * *

"Four Days Battle, this is Colonel Alien-Befriender Twotide Deepscar of the Surf Stalker clan. I am the official representative of Diplomatic Force." replied the Affront.

"I suggest we hold negotiations on your vessel, our atmosphere is rather fatal to you humans. We will Displace over if you wish or we can take a shuttlecraft."

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-12-12 08:59am

"Very well, use a shuttle to transit to yacht October Revolution, transmit details of any special accommodations your diplomats will require as well."

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-12-12 12:11pm

"We require no special atmosphere, our equipment can easily handle a human atmosphere. We will await your shuttle."

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-12-12 04:42pm

A heavy shuttle quickly whisked the Affront diplomatic team to October Revolution. They where scanned, then escorted into the second largest of the reception halls, and from there into a close meeting chamber. Executor Kristal awaited them, "so" he asked, "shall we begin?"

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-12-12 06:09pm

The Affront diplmatic team followed their HAB escorts, in deference to their human hosts they had forgone their usualy weaponary even if going to a social function was like a human going with out pants. That didn't stop them from casting appreciating the obviously functional weapons of their escorts.

As they entered the meeting room they assumed a slightly relaxed pose.

"Indeed, lets. We understand you have been exploring the systems around our doman, naturally we wish to know why and what your intentions are. Once we know if you're friend or foe, prey or a fellow predator then we shall see."

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-12-12 07:51pm

Kristal spoke, "That is a question which has arisen in the minds of several species that I can personally recall, though my life spans but a portion of the existence of the HAB. One now forms a large percentage of our population, another currently is forbidden to advance beyond the Iron Age on its shattered worlds, and the last is now classified as extinct. You may draw your own conclusions. The HAB has turned to search this sector because we leave no threat unknown, and the Affront if not our ally constitute one."

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-12-13 04:33pm

"A supremely uninformative answer. We simply wish to know who you are and what it is you want. Yet you give us riddles."

The Affront tensed a little, not that the humans would have realized it.

"We need not be enemies yet it would do well to speak in more than riddles."

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2003-12-13 04:49pm

From: Aquarian Union Department of Defense
To: Allies
Re: Intrusion into Allied Space.

Our sensor logs picked up a bit of an anomaly... It is consistent with an intruder in the Valeth system. Profile doesnt match any known ship

*sensor logs sent, encoded*

We have no military presense in that system... So it may be wise of those who do to investigate.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2003-12-13 06:28pm

Avalon Prime, Stuart Plaza

"And you're sure about it?" CEO Gladstone quizically looked at Fleet President Miller.
"Yes, we reckon Malka is the source of the pirate activity north to us."
"Pirates! At our own borders!" her Chief of Staff cried out. "Remember those times when we were alone, and no outsider meddled in our affairs?"
"Past is past. We have to face those realties now," Gladstone answered him.
But the newly arisen problem was nothing she'd hoped to ever see. Malka was an unimportant system some 200 light years off to the north from Stuartian space. On the system's sole habitable (for mud-sitters) was home to a humanoid species making their first steps towards space. Thus far, the system had a threat assessment of 0.01, and not considered worth caring. But as of lately, a highly increased numbers of pirates annoyed the border regions. While not really dangerous, the Corporation had a history of squashing threats as early as possible. Like this.
And as it seemed, the pirates had used the Malka system, and their populace, to base their operation on.
"This will end," Gladstone flatly told Miller. "Instruct the fleet. To avoid any interference of foreign polities, we'll mask it as a 'resuce operation for the cultural integrity of the indigeneous life forms' or somesuch. If need be, we can put a naval base there, and do some cultural adjustment..."

***

Shortly after the meeting, Hope sector fleet was tagged with the operation, and after FTL sensor drones brought back the latest update on the system status, the fleet jumped the mere 200 light years.

Malka system

Hope fleet instantly appeared in the system. Fighters were launched.
An open channel boomed Admiral Griskov's low rumble voice through the system to the main pirate base on the outmost moon of Malka 3.
"To all pirates in this system: surrender, or die. You have 5 minutes. This is our only warning."
The five minutes passed without any answer from the pirate base.
She turned to Commander Derring besides her. "Status?"
"They've activated their shields, and some vessels have been launched of unknown design. From the readings it looks like a combination of several other polities. Picking up Azegarte, Cornerian, Aquarian, and some other unknwon components. Must have grabbed every spare part from here to the other side of the galaxy..."
"Very well," she looked on more time at the system plot Milsphere projected directly in her brain. "The fleet will fire."
The fleet flushed their launchers, and scores of FTL missiles raced away from the ships, only to vanish, and re-appear nearly 42 light minutes away an instant later. The less-than-perfect shields of the 'base' might have fended off a dozen warheads. Not the volley it was now facing.
As the torrent of gravitonic warheads exploded, the tiny moon with its base simply vanished.
"The Battle Line will advance."
Slowly accelerating forward, the fleet picked off ships suddenly racing for their survival. It was rather tragical, really. They didn't even had a chance.
After thorough sweeping the system with sensor drones and fighters, the system was cleaned from any pirate and most of the fleet transfered back to the Hope system, leaving only a small picket force which settled in orbit around Malka 3 to begin with the 'cultural development assistance'.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2003-12-13 06:29pm

Alyrium Denryle wrote:From: Aquarian Union Department of Defense
To: Allies
Re: Intrusion into Allied Space.

Our sensor logs picked up a bit of an anomaly... It is consistent with an intruder in the Valeth system. Profile doesnt match any known ship

*sensor logs sent, encoded*

We have no military presense in that system... So it may be wise of those who do to investigate.

To: Allies
From: Staurt Corporation
Subject: Intrusion

Heavy Cruiser dispatched, and beginning investigation. Report pending.