[STGOD 2] Story Thread

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2003-07-14 03:23pm

Pablo Sanchez wrote:To the UCS and Federation of Shadow

The Caliph has decided to commit a carrier group to the defence of Earth, as circumstances have changed sufficiently to convince him of the need to do so. It will depart for Sol upon your confirmation of this message.

He also requests that the UCS and Federation ambassadors to Baghdad would meet with him in the interest of deciding a permanent solution to this matter.

We have received your message and thank you for your contribution to the JEDF. Our KAK personnel are always available for diplomatic negotiations and they will meet with your leader as soon as possible.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-07-14 04:32pm

Pablo Sanchez wrote:To the UCS and Federation of Shadow

The Caliph has decided to commit a carrier group to the defence of Earth, as circumstances have changed sufficiently to convince him of the need to do so. It will depart for Sol upon your confirmation of this message.

Message confirmed, our cruisers at the jump points will be expecting your vessels.

He also requests that the UCS and Federation ambassadors to Baghdad would meet with him in the interest of deciding a permanent solution to this matter.

That can be Arranged

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-07-14 04:39pm

Sol System, Cruiser Dido

"A cloaking device you say?"
"It fits the last recordings, an energy spike and then nothing. They probably had to crank up reactor output before activating."
"Then will assume we have at least one lurker in the inner system. Coordinate drone patrols with the Adalbert on the far side. We've got the jump points secured and no cloak can mask a ships main or FTL drives."
"Right sir, when the Arabs show up we can peal in another couple cruisers and maybe find them with a Bistatic array but I wouldn't' put much hope in that."
"Good, for now we wait. Their fuel and food wont last forever."

Pablo Sanchez · Post by **Pablo Sanchez** » 2003-07-14 10:37pm

The Granada class carrier Omar II (named after the great and wise third Caliph of the current dynasty)--accompanied by its escort formation of two battleships, three battlecruisers, and associated smaller craft--departed the Baghdad system via the FTL lane that led directly to Sol.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2003-07-15 03:12am

Meanwhile, aboard the small transport.

"Great, now what the hell are we going to do?"

"Hmm...hey Bob, what's going on out there?"

A faint signal came out from behind the cloak.
"There are some probes flying around, it doesn't look good out here and I think military ships are on the way..."

"Shit," said the first guy, "we've got to call for help! The Nexus wont let this happen I know it wont."

"Bob, prepare to relay a transmission."

"Uh...ok."

The first guy began typing furiously at the console. "I'm filling in a reinforcement requisition. How many do you think I should ask for?"

"Hmm...A thousand ships perhaps."

"Pardon? Most of the guys on Zerus don't even like us, what makes you think the Nexus will spare a thousand ships?"

The second one narrowed his eyes and glared over at the first. "We can't encrypt the signal with our equipment, if we request only a few they will be walking into a trap. I just need you to trust me on this. Fill out the order."

"Alright... reccomended ship classes?"

"Start with the heaviest and work your way down."

"O......k...."

"Tag the transmission with the following code. XR13445-6."

"This is insane...but it's ready."

"Send it."

"Ok..." The first one hits the final keystroke. "Well, once it reaches the nearest buoy someone in ops is going to have something to laugh at."

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-07-15 03:58am

Threats from the likes of a foreign human will not be tolerated. Your ambassador and all staff a here by expelled. They have twelve hours to leave the surface of our capital, it is two standard days to the closest jump point. The guard ships will note your departure from our space. Failure to do so will result in serious consequences.

Dido had maintained her orbit for some time, circling with Adalbert and a sphere recon drones. Sweeps of the inner system with drones had brought up nothing since the suspected cloaking, until now.

"Captain, comm. single detected coming out of sector two three six zero nine." The area was highlighted on the tactical display.
"Can you localize."
"No sir, burst transmission got caught by a drone."
"How many objects in that sector, seventeen major, eighty two medium and about two thousand five hundred small. Only the first two could be a ship or hide a ship."
"Then we find them the old fashion way. CAG, prep the alert five and fifteen drones. I want the ready thirty craft loaded up with heavy weapons. But don’t launch."
"Yes sir."
"Helm, jump us to the sector. And alert Adalbert

The big cruiser turned in space, before making a short jump to the edge of the asteroid belt. Here it unloaded its first four drone fighters, each sporting lasers and small anti ship missiles. She and her drones also began jamming long-range communications frequencies. Another micro jump in deeper and more where released, this was repeated several times until thirty of the sixty combat drones aboard where deployed. Then they went active, strafing their lasers on low power across every object that might be a ship or hide a ship. Once there controls where satisfied at the results they moved on. Dido joined in, working over the largest rock with her point defence guns. After a period only a few rocks remained.

A fighter strafed one, but got a plume not of rock but of refined metals, the cloak protecting the Hive craft failed, burned out by the high-energy input and physical damage. Conveniently the shot had also blown off its main drive nozzle, preventing escape. Ten minutes later the small crafts crew where face to face with a Scythian MI boarding crew, they wisely chose not to resist as they where taken into custody. Within an hour the Hive vessel had been powered down, scanned for bugs or tracers and attached to Dido. She went to hyperspace, carting off her semi valuable cargo towards Federation space.

A note of the matter was quietly passed to the Admiral aboard Omar II.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2003-07-15 05:34am

Sea Skimmer wrote:Threats from the likes of a foreign human will not be tolerated. Your ambassador and all staff a here by expelled. They have twelve hours to leave the surface of our capital, it is two standard days to the closest jump point. The guard ships will note your departure from our space. Failure to do so will result in serious consequences.

...

A fighter strafed one, but got a plume not of rock but of refined metals, the cloak protecting the Hive craft failed, burned out by the high-energy input and physical damage. Conveniently the shot had also blown off its main drive nozzle, preventing escape. Ten minutes later the small crafts crew where face to face with a Scythian MI boarding crew, they wisely chose not to resist as they where taken into custody. Within an hour the Hive vessel had been powered down, scanned for bugs or tracers and attached to Dido. She went to hyperspace, carting off her semi valuable cargo towards Federation space.

Wether it was too late or not, the craft did not engage their jamming devices until after the transmission had been sent. Only time would tell how the recipient of the message would react

The head scientist stepped forward.

"We are civilian scientists on an expedition in neutral territory. I demand to know why we are being detained!"

OOC:
1 There are no Hive diplomats in anyone's territory except for Quan, who's currently somewhere else. 2 The Hive has made no open threats to anyone as of yet. 3 Expelling diplomats because of what civilians are doing is a horrendous over-reaction. 4 Posts represent chronological order, you probably agree with that but it's something I should point out none-the-less.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-07-15 05:50am

OOC: Please just ignore that diplomacy bit. It was left over from your original, deleted post and shouldn't have gone up. What I did mean to post went up four times because it kept locking up on me, and when my post didn't show up after refreshing I just tried again.

I didn't mean to have your please send 1000 ships bit jammed anyway. Just any "help were fucking screwed" followed up.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2003-07-15 05:54am

Sea Skimmer wrote:OOC: Please just ignore that diplomacy bit. It was left over from your original, deleted post and shouldn't have gone up. What I did mean to post went up four times because it kept locking up on me, and when my post didn't show up after refreshing I just tried again.

I didn't mean to have your please send 1000 ships bit jammed anyway. Just any "help were fucking screwed" followed up.

OOC: Ok, we're cool.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-07-15 06:18am

Spyder wrote:
The head scientist stepped forward.

"We are civilian scientists on an expedition in neutral territory. I demand to know why we are being detained!"

A lieutenant checked off a list items removed during a search of the prisoner's. He lowered the small data pad.
"You where warned not to come to the Sol system. Now you've become pawns in a larger struggle between our respective star nations. Now you get to study the interior of a regulation standard Federation naval prison cell. Give us trouble and you'll get to study the inside of a coffin cell. Guess at what the name implies." He nodded to the guards, who hauled the head scientist off, before moving on the catalog what had been seized from the next scientist.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2003-07-15 07:42am

While the second shook uncontrollable while he was processed, the head scientist calmly waited in his cell.

Atmospheric vents, toilet, bulkheads, Don't give them any trouble on penalty of death, an interesting threat. What was he in a position to do that they would kill him for? The answer probably wasn't going to come to him based on what he'd seen so far but it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye out.

Within the Hive there are people that carry on as normal and there are certain people that know people, such as someone that can get them cheap vehicles, or a good deal on property insurance, sometimes the connections ran a little deeper. This man was one of those people. While he was cut off from any of his connections at present, anything he saw or heard could possibly become useful at some point in the future. But for now there was little he could do but wait.

Pablo Sanchez · Post by **Pablo Sanchez** » 2003-07-15 02:23pm

OOC: Deleted that ugly quadruple post, SS.

...

Admiral Rashid ibn Tariq recieved the message and forwarded it back to Baghdad with his assessment. It was his opinion that if the Hive spies had been operating as a legitimate operation, then it would not have been necessary for them to hide from the authorities in an asteroid belt--and what were they doing with a military grade cloaking shroud, anyway? It was all very suspicious.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2003-07-16 07:25pm

Meanwhile back on the asteroid; Bob, still clad in his EVA suit emerged from his hiding place.
"Oh man, they're all gone."
No ship, no food, and probably not a lot of air.
"I'm screwed." Bob moped. He returned to his hiding place and awaited the inevitable.

The head scientist sat quietly in his cell. All he could hear was the sound of the occasional Scythian soldier patrolling the corridor outside his cell. Most military ships in the galaxy had floors that would clang when someone walked over them, the Hive did the same thing, makes it easier to detect boarding parties should internal sensors be comprimised. The food was horrible, some form of protein mix designed to keep him nourished and nothing more. But it would do for now.

Every now and then he could hear the sound of a door opening followed by a man weaping, in a voice that sounded much like that of his partner, which appeared to come from the cell next door.

He remembered a message he received from the academic council shortly before beginning his expedition.

"To Dr Gregory Heinz

We wish to inform you that we cannot support your proposed expedition to Terra. We see little value in exploring this region, scientific or otherwise. The area is potentially hostile and we cannot guarantee the safety of any expedition sent there..."

The academic council was not Heinz's only connection within the Hive. He knew that his code had to have been received, but the question was how would the recipient react to the message. It looked doubtful that anyone within the Hive would lift a finger to spring him from his cell, which meant his fate would lie in the Federation's hands, for now at least anyway.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2003-07-17 06:23am

Hours passed. Bob's breathing became increasingly heavy as he realized that his time was drawing near. He had never been more frightened in his life. Abandoned and alone there was nothing he could do but sit and wait. The thought of removing his helmet had crossed his mind but he could never bring himself to do it.

His armband began to beep. His oxygen supply, he assumed, was nearly depleted, if only. If only Heinz had shelled out for the new mark 2 rebreather; he thought to himself. Then he would die of something much more admirable like starvation or prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation.

Bob became convinced that his time was at an end when he started seeing a bright white light. It seemed as though he was getting closer to it. There was no sound, no feeling, nothing.

As Bob looked up he found himself staring at the underside of a superconductive alloy plating. One of the three man crew pulled the semi-conscious person through the underside hatch.

The craft gently glided away from the asteroid, the Huntsman's engines flared and the 45m craft dissapeared into the darkness.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-07-17 07:01am

The armored cruiser Adalbertdropped out of hyperspace ontop of the tiny frigate as it moved away from the asteroid. It took ten seconds for her massed guns to slice the frigates shields to shreds and rip deep into the hull. The vessel went dead in space, venting atmosphere rapidly. The cruisers captain served the wreckage.

"Tell the support group to get a freighter here as quickly as possibul, we may be able to salvage this poor excuse for a warship wholesale. Launch two shuttles to recover any survivors but orbit no closer then fifty kilometers, the reactor might be unstable."

OOC: You know, only one out of eight cruisers left, in addition to two other nations forces.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2003-07-17 07:08am

Meanwhile...

Heinz clutched his hand in pain, something was very wrong. He let go briefly to let some blood spill to the floor. A small device, about the size of a flea crawled out from the back of his hand on three silver wire legs, each about 3cm long. Heinz watched in bemusement as this small three legged spider dissapeared into the vent. He kept his other hand pressed against the wound, still trying to work out exactly what the hell that thing was.

"Sir, picking up what looks like a data transmission....That's odd, the computer can't read it, can't be one of ours."

"Can you desseminate it?" The Captain asked.

"It defenately looks like data packets, I've never seen this kind of formatting before. Let's see..."

The Lieutenants fingers danced across the keyboard as he attempted to manually interpret the data. He ran several tests, having the computer look for reoccuring sequences throughout the transmission. A few minutes passed.
"The computer's found 1,048,576 unique characters. It's a data transmission alright, it breaks down to binary codes. If this is a line change, and this is a header...then this must be the contents of the packet...wait these characters aren't encoded like the others..."
With one final keystroke he managed to bring the contents of the packet.

Coding standards, formats, character arrays, encryption algorythms, someone was learning how to operate Federation data systems and were helping themselves to a few encryption keys in the process as they were being used by the internal systems.

"Where is this transmission coming from?" The Captain demanded.

"I'm tracing it now...sir it's coming from us, all comms arrays are open."

"Kill this transmission immediately! Set up the jamming arrays if you have to."

"Controls are overridden, we'll have to disconnect manually."

"Then do it!"

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-07-17 07:40am

A pair of engineers nodded before flipping the appropriate breakers. All power to long-range communications died. That of the shorter-range system was killed nearly as quickly. The transmission was cut off.

"So what did it get?"
"Not much, long range comm.'s go cover one time pads, I've already deleted those they stole. Tactical communication systems may be compromised, for all the good being able to read a laser that’s pointed away from you will do. Medium range VHF also compromised, the standard will have to be changed."
"Not that it really matters."
"What sir?"
"Where in hyperspace passing through empty space, it will take five months for that communication to reach a booster and another month to reach the Hive. The fleet would have switched standards by then anyway."
"Your right sir, but if it had happened in-between jumps we might be in trouble. It appears our internal comm. security was corrupted from a data error that when undetected. A new chip should restore security."
"Good, and yes we would have but it didn't. Tell the crypto boys to disconnect the antennas physically before they begin rebooting off rom chips."

Captain Kurtz walked away and over to the waiting Colonel, commander of the ships troops and security. He had been waiting patiently since the alarm had sounded.
"Execute the prisoners, whatever that infection was it came aboard with them. Search the bodies from head to toe and then get to work on the insides."
"At once sir."

Heinz looked up as the door opened, right into the barrel of a gun. Simple steel jacketed round through the head served to end his pointless existence, with minimal damage. The process was repeated fro each prisoner.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2003-07-17 08:59am

OOC: There's method to my madness Skimmer

Guess what you forgot to put a stop to...

Federation Territory:

Prisoner transport 01, 02, 03 finally reached their intended destination. The Federation border world home to a swift justice system, several population centres and is in close promxitiy to a nearby prison world. The Scythian colonial magestrate was somewhat concerned that the Hive had managed to round up enough criminals in Federation territory to fill three transports but that wasn't his concern, his superriors agreed to take prisoners from the Hive, and he had not received any instruction otherwise.

"Mayday, mayday! This is prisoner transport 02, we've got a critical engine failure! We're going down! Launching pods!"

About 40 pods, each carrying 20 convicts were jetisoned as transport 02 crashed into the main settlement. Colonists gasped as a massive fireball shook the foundations of the Scythian colony leaving a wake of destruction in its path. There was immediate power failure leaving a lot of Scythians in the dark, the massive initial destruction was soon to be the least of their problems.

The pods touched down without incident at random locations throughout the settlement, as did the other two transports at the spaceport.

"Get emergency crews down to the crashsite now!" Someone in charge yelled.

"There are bodies everywhere, they're all dead." A Scythian woman cried as she looked over the burnt bodies of her scythian brethren killed in the blast.

Suddenly, the pod doors opened and the convicts emerged, freed from the shackles and armed. A transmission came from the still intact transport 01. "Alert, weapon locker breach in transport 02. Prisoners may be armed."

"Oh shit!"

In the space of one minute nearly 800 convicts with plasma rifle in hand a burning hatred for everything that wasn't them and an unquenchable thirst for freedom were set loose upon the nearby settlements.

The streets raged with the sound of angry men as a torrent of rioting convicts proceeded to engage everything in their path. Before another two minute passed vehicles were turned over, buildings were set alight and shops were blasted apart. The bodies of colonists began to litter the streets as the people began to flee in panic. The Scythian colonial militia showed up but a full scale riot was hardly expected on a Federation border world, they were ill equiped to handle the situation.

Suddenly a salvo of missiles escaped from 01 and 02, raining death upon what little colonial millitia had been mustered to defend the city and drawing the entire colony into total anarchy.

The crew of the spaceport tower watched in horror as everything was burned down around them. The sound of gunfire and screaming came from below. The door to the control cab burst open. It was human, at least it used to be. One of its eyes had become completely white and what was left of the skin was a shade of blue. Metallic framing protruded from the creature at odd places. A few sensors mounted on the shoulders and around the cranial area and various forms of machinery filled the gaps in between the remains of this creature's body. The sound of heavy breathing came from its chest cavity.

With no hesitation the creature aimed its weapon at the tower crew and reduced then all to a bloody smouldering pulp under a hail of automatic plasma fire.

Meanwhile, downstairs, one of the solders that had piled out of transport 01 was busy patching into the colonial mainframe.

"Transmission received. We have the alogrythms. We have the keys. We have the standards, the AI is calculating the code pattern now."

"How long?"

"30 seconds."

The sound of gunfire rang throughout the facility as the Hive Elite and Hive Recycleds continued to mop up all remaining resistance.

"Got it, uplinking with Federation command matrix."

With the touch of a few keys, the soldiers had what they came for.

"It's all here...Space ports, factories, population centres, census data, planetary defenses, state assets, military capacity, star charts."

"I want a broad spectrum transmission, all frequencies, maximum output. I want this information available to every single terminal in the sector. That includes ours."

The soldier tapped one last key and the mission was a complete success. With access to the Federation's coding standards they were able to use their own repeaters to propagate a hyperspace transmission to every foreign power, every criminal element, every mercenary, every sentient being in the entire sector with access to a data terminal.

Through the careless actions of one starship captain, through the neglegence of Federation officials simply forgetting about the prisoner transports, through the Caliphate's own rediculous attachment to the Sol system and finally through the Nexus' careful exploitation of all of the above the Federation of the Shadow found itself torn from the fog of war and thrust into the light for all to see. It would take months to rehide all the infrastructure that had just been exposed to the entire sector and this was time that the Federation did not have, its enemies would make sure of it.

Now that a mortal wound had been cast it was time to let the poison spread.

A single soldier raised his weapon to the air and let off a few rounds to catch the attention of the convicts below.
"People! Your freedom is now! This spaceport is loaded with transports. Leave this place and start your lives anew! Let this region be your new Eden! Let it be your promised land! For freedom!"

The crowds roared as they tore through the gates and packed into the waiting craft. Soon, the soldiers and the convicts had scattered, leaving nothng but death and destruction in their wake.

An hour passed before the first Federation ship entered the system to survey the damage. The perpetraitors were already long gone, left in stolen transports. the prisoner transports were also gone, the colony was in ruins.

Between the transports over 1200 convicts had been unleashed upon the Federation cluster, but that was not the only problem. Leaders from at least eight criminal syndicates were already eying up the supply line data flooding in from that transmission. The soldiers were scattered over a dozen different captured transports. It would be impossible to track and capture them all before they reached Hive space. Besides, the Federation had more important things to worry about.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-07-17 09:08am

Spyder wrote:OOC: There's method to my madness Skimmer Guess what you forgot to put a stop to...

My ship wouldn't return to Scythian space for weeks and your transmission cannot be picked up by anything before the codes are changed. My population center are also far fucking better defend then your trying to pass them off as. 1200 whole convicts with rifles? Wow, those will last real long against a corps with heavy armor and shielded fortifications. My outposts are completely military in case you missed that, and major and minor planets armed to the teeth.

I tolerated your absurd little probe that would have melted the moment it spliced into a cable, but that’s the end of it. Thus your bullshit shall be ignored in this STGOD.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2003-07-17 09:21am

Sea Skimmer wrote:
Spyder wrote:OOC: There's method to my madness Skimmer Guess what you forgot to put a stop to...
My ship wouldn't return to Scythian space for weeks and your transmission cannot be picked up by anything before the codes are changed. My population center are also far fucking better defend then your trying to pass them off as.

You didn't specify a location for your ship, with available information we know that it would take a month for a transmission to get back to the Hive and we know the ship is somewhere between your space and Sol, given that you assumed the transmission was meant for the Hive which you claimed was impossible it is fair for me to assume that transmitting to Scythian space is possible. As far as planetary defenses, you are the one that didn't terminate the prisoner transfer agreement so the defenses wouldn't have been used before it was too late.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-07-17 09:26am

Spyder wrote:
You didn't specify a location for your ship, with available information we know that it would take a month for a transmission to get back to the Hive and we know the ship is somewhere between your space and Sol, given that you assumed the transmission was meant for the Hive which you claimed was impossible it is fair for me to assume that transmitting to Scythian space is possible.

The nearest booster was fifth months off. After that it would be about the same distance to either power.

As far as planetary defenses, you are the one that didn't terminate the prisoner transfer agreement so the defenses wouldn't have been used before it was too late.

So you wish to claim that my forward deployed totally military bases would no be on alert when a transport known to be leaden with criminals arrived, and that those 1200 criminals could then overwhelm 10-25K military personal with rifles and then easily gain access to information which such a base would not have access to in any way? That’s called bullshit.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-07-17 09:36am

People with a serious interest to continue with the STGOD please sound off. The whole things been at a near standstill since the first post, I don’t know if its because we all got bored and frustrated with it or just poor universe design.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2003-07-17 09:40am

Sea Skimmer wrote:
The nearest booster was fifth months off. After that it would be about the same distance to either power.

Fact made up after the event. You can't just assume you know where every single relay is in open space. We've already established that I have ships somewhere in the region, you blew one of them up (also without any preceeding transmission or attempt at roleplay or establishment of purpose of the attack which is powergaming.)

So you wish to claim that my forward deployed totally military bases would no be on alert when a transport known to be leaden with criminals arrived, and that those 1200 criminals could then overwhelm 10-25K military personal with rifles and then easily gain access to information which such a base would not have access to in any way? That’s called bullshit.

I didn't send it to an outpost, I sent it to a border world as per the agreement. Do you not have civilian colonies? Why the fuck would civilian criminals get sent to a military outpost?

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2003-07-17 09:54am

Sea Skimmer wrote:People with a serious interest to continue with the STGOD please sound off. The whole things been at a near standstill since the first post, I don’t know if its because we all got bored and frustrated with it or just poor universe design.

Too rigid empire and ship specifications
Too high an emphasis on defense
Lack of background
Lack of fun factor
Lack of standards
Requirements of players are too high. (seriously, if anyone wants to work out the damage ratio of a 5mt energy weapon dispersed over a ceramic area 3m in diamater filled with superconductive conduits and alloys and then shield absorbtion and piercing rates then be my guest. Don't forget to factor in natural resistances inherrant in the armors.)
Zero flexibility
To few active players to form an alliance structure for epic battles

Pablo Sanchez · Post by **Pablo Sanchez** » 2003-07-17 12:25pm

Spyder wrote:Fact made up after the event. You can't just assume you know where every single relay is in open space. We've already established that I have ships somewhere in the region, you blew one of them up (also without any preceeding transmission or attempt at roleplay or establishment of purpose of the attack which is powergaming.)

There's not going to be infrastructure set up around the Earth. The only power which could concievably rout transmissions to and from the Solar system is the Caliphate, because it has an FTL lane sitting there and hosts regular pilgrimages to it.