I was just reading 'Weapon Combinations' and noting the interesting but extremely off-topic life story post near the end. Considering this is an idle banter area, I thought it might be interesting to see some other supposed life stories. I'll jump-start it with mine:

At one point I was just heading off to see if I could take out that alien cruiser once and for all, in my heavily modified Kestrel nicely filled up with 8 lightnings. Anyway, I finally got there, and there's this alien cruiser in the process of trying to warp space-time. Seeing our fleet coming, the alien fighters came through and blew up the Rebel cruisers astoundingly quickly. Then they came for me. I was just in the process of unloading my lightnings when the fighters hit my power core. The ship was almost gone as I clambered into my last lightning and took off, trying to remember how to fly it even as I did. Then, seeing the space-time portal finish opening, they abandoned their assault and came racing towards the portal. Acting on a hunch, I ordered my squadron to come with me, and followed them. The portal began to close, with a shockwave which wiped out every ship in the system except my fighters, which were sucked into it by proximity.

We chased the aliens through hyperspace for two days before we saw the ships. It was an abandoned Obish/Elejeetian combined civilian fleet. It was escorted by ten Obish Escorts and an Elejeetian cruiser. Now, every ship was disabled, though I could see the wreckage of an alien cruiser and 3 fighters.

We searched the fleet. Finally, we found one survivor. It was an Elejeetian, from the cruiser. He could say only a little. "Salrillians...secret weapon...attacked us with weapons we hadn't seen befor-" He then dropped dead.

Some of my pilots were engineers at heart, and we were able to repair the cruiser and five of the escorts. I then took the ships we had and went to Ishima. After a long chat with the beaurocrats, I got them to agree with my 'Finders Keepers" philosophy and teach me how to fly the ships. A while later, I helped the human crew of the modified Ishiman HVC to blow up the gateship, and then returned to my fleet. So now, under my command, there is a small fleet of Obish/Elejeetian vessels and 8 CDX StarWorx Lightning Fighter/Bombers flying around in Human/Ishiman Cooperative space. No-one knows what happened to that alien cruiser...

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*** 8 Lightnings - Point at Confed Frigate and hit 'F' to destroy

One question: How could anyone be so bad in EV that he'd lose to an Alien Cruiser with a Kestrel?

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"I don't say yes or no, more like the other way around"

Ankh Starrunner, The Diamond Blaster

As long as I'm here, I might want to tell you how I got my first promotion, to the rank of Rear Admiral all the way up from crewman.
It was my first tour of duty, during the 3rd Great Salrilian/Nijayias War. I was fire-control server manager for the cruisers Peril on patrol in an uninhabited system. While crossing the orbit of a very large rocky planet (a really large planet), we were surprised by a Salrilian ship jumping in. The size of the jumpgate immediatly indicated it was no ordinary ship - it was an Major Target Invasion BattleStation - MTIBS, for short. Now, these are very large ships - 300Km in length - and are used only for attacking large stationary targets, like planets with Class-1 planetary shields or major starship factory stations, such as gateship works. Their armament consists of a variaty of point-defense beam weapons, and huge railguns that fire slugs the size of gunships so fast they can go all the way through a planet's crust. Anyway, the Commander in charge of the ship decided to clear out ASAP - his best option. However the Sals didn't want their position reported, and fired the big guns at us. The capt managed to dodge most of the shots, but one glanced the ship, knocking us straight tword the planet. To add insult to injury, the Sal in charge of the MTIBS had forced open the comm and was taunting us about our failing our Emporer. We used our pk powers to hold the ship (and ourselves) together during the crash, but I was the only survivor. I took a survival pouch and a photokinetic beam rifle and left the ship on foot, after setting the self-destruct. Unfortunantly, the Sals had spotted me leaving and decided to leave no survivors. As they were aiming a railgun, I sensed what they were doing and zoomed my rifle's scope all the way in. Using my powers to zoom further, I noticed a lose wire in the gun being pointed at me. I shot clean through it, and the gun misfired, badly damaging the MTIBS. I then shot the repulsor system as it tried to leave the orbit it had entered. The foolish Salrilian designers had though noone would notice the repulser generator, but I felt it out, and blew it, sending the ships plunging down. As a final gesture to the Salrilian who had killed my friends aboard the cruiser, I laughed at them about how a simple Nijayias with a rifle had brought low an entire MTIBS. The explosion as it struck was so bright I had a shadow thousands of kilometers long (it was a very large planet). In fact, it was so bright that the shadow was only of my skeleton, the light going right through my body. Fortunantly, my powers held my eyes together so I could watch the magnificant specticle. Eventualy I was rescued by the next ship to patrol this region, and I was personaly thanked by the Emperor (an unimaginable honor for me at the time) and promoted to Rear Admiral in charge of the suppy lines of the main fleet. I'll tell you about my heroic acomlishments in that post later.

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Commander-in-Chief of the Nijayias Interstellar Navy.

Ankh Starrunner wrote:
**One question: How could anyone be so bad in EV that he'd lose to an Alien Cruiser with a Kestrel?;)

**

Err..I'm not really that bad. Okay, here's the technobabble excuse: The alien fighters were being powered by a massive electro-surge beam being sent to them by twelve Sal carriers doing nothing but transmitting it. Normally they aren't like this, so they're easier.

Anyway, it's just a story.

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*** 8 Lightnings - Point at Confed Frigate and hit 'F' to destroy

My ancestors left Earth long ago. However, their ship was not the Appollo/Ares.
Just before the initial Cantharan attack, a secretly developed artificial intelligence, called ALAI-2, made its first prediction: Earth was destined to be taken over by distant extra-terrestrials within 50 years.
With quick work, a multi-generational ship, capable of moving only at near-light-speed, but also capable of supporting life indefinately, was created. The very best of humanity, as chosen by ALIA-2, were ferried onto the ship and fired into space by the year 20 (our reconing of time is counted in Earth-cycles upwards from the day ALAI made the fatefull prediction, or so the historians theorise).
The Historians are not sure if ALAI was wrong, or if the claustrophobic conditions of the enclosed ecosystem had gotten to my ancestors somewhere along the way and caused them to go mad, but everything was forgotten within a few generations. With the deaths of the original crew of the ship, so died the knowledge of how to fly the ship, how to read the written records, and indeed everything that was our heritage from Earth. To these people, Daedalus was their entire world, and 'Allay' was their god, who had crafted the world and placed black, everchanging, and cold boundries forever swirling and changing at various spots in the fringes.
Throughout the years, the culture remained unchanging and relatively peacefull. Food was plentifull due to the automated combination of limited nanotechnology and pink-tank cloning devices. Environmental controll devices kept the entire ship at a constant 10° Celcius, making clothing unnecessary. Famillies were divided into small clans, for the purpose of determining lineage and thus preventing inbreeding alone. With no posession and no unsatisfied needs, these people really didn't have much to fight about.
Their world-view was shattered when the Daedalus crash-landed on a planet known to the locals as STHRIKARI, and it was revealed that Daedalus was not the center of the universe. The crash-landing shattered the self-perpetuating eco-system in which the refugees from Earth had lived for nearly a thousand years. For the first time in their lives, my ancestors had to forrage for food. They had competition as well. The ship had crash-landed in the middle of the country of CHTREAUG, a broken-off part of a larger empire of insectoid locals, who had been cast out for their monotheistic religion. The CHTREAUG did not wish to share their world with the to-them hideous human beings (we resembled the vermine that ate the food they produced if it was not properly sealed), and the insectoids were clearly not creations of Allay in the eyes of my ancestors. It was a time of violence and bloodshed for all concerned. The CHTREAUG were at war with the world around them, and with my people. My own people divided themselves into two factions and fought amongst themselves. It eventually ended with the accidental discovery of gunpowder, which allowed the faction from which I descend to annihalate the natives.
The human factions were divided for several hundred years. The Allayns were still devoted to their world view in spite of the evidence, and prayed nightly to their god, the dead ALAI or 'Allay', asking 'him' to return and provide for 'his creation' once more. My own people, The Heric, were interested in discovering the truth of the world. We kept in contact with the Allayns for purposes of trade. This, the Historians, realize now, was a mistake. If we had gunpowder, they had gunpowder. If we had electricity, they had electricy. If we developed artificial sattelites, so did they. The old books were eventually translated into our language... and the Allayns scoffed and laughed at this history, calling it heresy against Allay. And if we developed space-travel... Then a paranoid and violent people were now capable of reaching other worlds. I hope it was their influence on the Heric that caused both factions to unite and make their way towards Earth, erradicating any life in their path. But, whatever the reasons, humanity was taught a harsh lesson when they found STHRIKARI. And they interpreted it to mean: no two sentient species can share the galaxy.
I realized what was going on and fled for the newly freed Earth in a stolen cargo ship, where I learned the parts of the story I hadn't heard before. Why am I referred to as 'Soldier of Binki'? That has to do with a resistance movement, in the name of Binki The Spider God, against the Heric/Allay Union...

((damn, this would be a sweet plugin if only I had the patience and the 3-D program to make the 'other' human ships...))

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Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for the Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie.

-The Lord of the Rings

Tonight I have for you the story of how I became a full Admiral after being appointed Rear Admiral (you know most of how I became Fleet Admiral, so I'll save that for later).

It was during the 9th Great Salrilian-Nijayias War (we have a lot of them, and we live extrodiarily long lives). I was ordered to take the 3rd Prince, Kachew, to review the main fleet. I welcomed him to my battleship with all required cerimony, and installed him in my quarters. After recieving assurances from the Admiral that no enemy surprises were in our path, we set out.

Halfway to the front the jumpstream abruptly cut off, stranding us in normal space. It didn't take long to figure out why - a large Audemedon force, including 3 (yes, 3) jumpstream inhibitors. In ordinary circumstances, protocal was to fight to the death, but we had the Prince aboard and his safety was paramont. We imediatly attempted to run, but they had many cruisers and were soon pounding my battleship with all guns.

The Prince demanded to know what all the jolting was, and I explained the situation. He counseled surrender, but I invoked our code of honor (which not even he is above) and said I couldn't surrender him. He suggested putting him in an escape pod, but I replied he would be captured by the Auds all the more easily.

My gunners managed to bring down quite a few Auds, but the cruisers had almost gotten through our shields, when I decided to do something desperate. Nearby was a dyson sphere skeleton - a giant web encicling a star). I flew the ship through the web, mindful of what happens to those who let the children of the Emporer down, as Aud cruisers, in their zeal to disable the ship, slamed into the frame. Eventualy I plunged deaper, where the girders are closer together - in some places only a few meters wider than my ship. Finaly, there were few enough for my gunners to kill and we escaped the rest of the fleet, rocketing away to the main fleet.

After my report, the August Emporer replaced the previous Admiral with me, as he had nearly gotten the prince captured, and I had been the only thing that saved him.

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Commander-in-Chief of the Nijayias Interstellar Navy.

Tonight I shall regale you with the tale of my journey from Admiral to Fleet Admiral.

The High Admiral of the time (it was called High Admiral then) was Ridish, a tratorious honorless fiend who had gotten the post through supreme trickery and deception. He didn't like me and tried to eliminate me.

His solution was to assign me temporarily to an undercover mission - taking the place of a Salrilian Admiral with the same name. He had the athority to make me, so left my fleet and used my powers to get to Salril.

Once there the Salrilian Darkk "disapeared". I used my powers to disguise myself and took his place. I exicuted Salrilian orders with no more than normal inteligence, and relayed all battle plans to High Admiral Ridish. After a while he terminated my assignment without my notice, and secretly informed the Salrilians of the plot.

I knew this, however, through a friend in the palace, and escaped just as the real Darkk reappeared, only to be tortured to death by the Inquisitors. I immediatly used what I had learned about Salrilians to my advantage.

It all came to the fore in the epic battle of Tanaratus. The Salrilian fleet was 2x mine, and the Sals were already gloating. Suddenly, I noticed what tactic they were using - the Omicron Delta trick. This tactic involves fake ships ships - special frames with engines. The fake ships make up the central axis of a cone shaped formation. I realized we had even forces!

Quickly I surrounded the cone with my ships. I also knew that the fakes were controled by a single ships, and how to spot it by its behavior. I quickly blasted it, and the fakes were out of control, causing the sals considerable confusion. In a few minutes, it was all over.

Then I saw a civilian Salrilian ship in the midst of the armada. Once brought aboard, I found the Salrilian who had recieved Ridish's transmision. His brain, when scaned, revieled that Ridish was a mole! He was secretly sending data to the Sals, and had secretly murdered his predeceser, right before the war began.

His heinous crimes so disgrace his rank, that after his painful execution (which lasted a month - we believe the punishment should fit the crime, not some arbitrary thing about cruel and unusal punishment) the rank was replaced with Fleet Admiral, and I became the first one for destroying an entire Salrilian fleet (a defeat so shocking it ended the 11th Great Salrilian/Nijayias War all by itself) and uncovering this disgrace.

Since then the knowledge of Salrilians I gained and my supreme tactical knowledge helped me win many battles, including Thera Delta.

In that battle I had a gateship and its escorts, having left the 1st fleet (my usaul place) to go inspect the defenses at the gateship works where another was nearing construction. There I was greated by a panic - almost the full Audemedon navy was bearing down on the yard. I knew we couldn't afford to lose the station and nearly finished gateship (we have exceptionaly large gateships 40km long and 20 wide and tall. The Ish ones are about 30 long and same width and length), so I arrayed my forces in preperation for the attack.

I knew much of the audemedon combat AI, and had instructed my pilots in driving it into unknown scenarios where it couldn't function well. I ordered my missle frigates to pound the aud fleet, and with fleet tenders supporting, managed to keep the auds away, as they were "afraid" to close in, as they didn't know missle frigates then and assumed they were HVD's, which are even more powerful at close range.

After I had whittled down the smaller ships, I closed in, using the point defence turrets, eject jammers, and gravatic pulses to take out the big, slow ships. The knowledge of aud battle rules allowed me to destroy 7/10 of their entire navy with a gateship and its escorts!

After that, I was much exalted, and was allowed many privleges (including not kneeling before the Emporer, an undreamed of honor for a simple soldier).

I have served under 2 Emporers since then (I have a extrodinarily rare gene that makes me live much longer than the average Nijayias), and have served them well.

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Commander-in-Chief of the Nijayias Interstellar Navy.

Ok, I'm not sure I like this thread, but I'm working on an ares RPG, so I may as well get into it with as little info as I have.

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Unlike all you Spacemen, I didn't go out on the Apollo. I was born on Earth some time into the Cantharan Occupation. Let me tell you, life on good old Terra was pretty rough. The Cantharans, as I'm told, orbitally bombed the hell out of major population centers, and we were left with ruins and gutters and sewers to live in. Let me tell you, that's not a good life, not even compared the the military.

So, when the crew of the Ares showed up and told us that the Cantharans were beaten, we were pretty happy. Unfortunately, the Ishimans pulled support when they saw that UNS had beaten the Cantharans. We were left to fend for ourselves, with a basically damage and crippled fleet, and almost no one to man it. Oh, sure, the Ishimans were open to trade and diplomacy, they just weren't going to babysit anymore. That didn't seem like too much of a problem, until the cleanup effort started.

It started small, with rebuilding projects, and the founding of new cities, like Freedom, and New Hope. Well, those went fine, and I understand that these cities have become quite populated. I don't get back to Earth much anymore... But back to the story. The troubles really started when the UNS decided to clean up Sol and reinstate the space program. They didn't really know what they were doing, when I look back on it.

You remember all the asteroids they pumped into the system to flush out the gateship? Well, we already had a belt before that. Unfortunately, the asteroids in the Mars-Jupiter belt aren't as volitile, so we couldn't use them. Anyway, when the time came to flush out the asteroids, rather than use actual gunships and stuff, most of which were in repair and museums, or had been scrapped, the UNS (which had since dropped resistance from its name,) just put whatever weapons they could salvage onto transports and sent them up with volunteers. Now, the money was good, and I fancied my odds of meeting someone who had been on the crew of the Apollo so I could ask them about stuff, so I signed up.

I was assigned to a ship, and my unit was one of the last in the effort to be launched. Well, most of the pilots and navigators they had set up didn't know what they were doing since they'd been living in sewers for the last 40 years. I had had some practice on simulators, but I still wasn't qualified, so they made me a gunner. Anyways, a good share of the weapons and ships went to waste because the pilots had this habit of not knowing what they were doing and trying to pull stunts. We lost damn near 1/3 of the ships.

That wasn't the most of our worries. I told you about the belt between mars and jupiter? Well, there had been a cantharan fleet hiding there for a few months, since the defeat of the gateship. They'd been stranded, and had packed it in for the long haul. Well, when they saw this massive fleet of incompetent humans, in TRANSPORTS of all things, they couldn't resist.

Mind you, afterwards the UNS officials said that it was a relatively small fleet, and that if they'd had gunships they could have dealt with it. But they didn't. And to us, who'd been on Earth, and been imprisoned and lived in fear of these guys without really seeing them in action, it was a kick in the pants.

Luckily, I was on a ship with a UNS Apollo crewman at the helm, and another manning the guns. A few Apollo crewman had turned up in fact, because they weren't able to get government jobs like the officers on the Apollo, and had signed up for cleanup to hold them over. They knew what they were doing.

Transports aren't superlight capable ships. But these guys did their best with what they had. OUr captain moved us further into the belt to increase chances of the Cantharans crashing into stuff. Luckily, a good bunch of them did; they lost a couple of cruisers, and a gunship. However, the battle that followed was a massacare. We lost damn near everyone. In the end though, the Ares pilots managed to evade Cantharan sensors, and lead them into a trap.

The humans still had an abandoned space station in orbit. A couple of transports occupied it and worked on getting the communications gear working. The rest of us hid in the belt, and waited. When the engineering teams were done, we recieved a transmission, and held possition.

Just then the station let off a warning to Earth. They were too smart to encrypt it though, so the Cantharans assumed that the station was still manned by the people they though they'd gotten rid of those many years ago. They were drawn, and were suprised when all the rest of the transports moved in from behind, destroying their carrier in one fell swoop. By then, the UNS had its act together, and had authorized the launch of a couple of gunships, who subsequently destroyed the remainder of the fleet.

Well, the hazard pay from that mission was enough to retire on then and there. But we eventually got the belt cleared out, and mining stations established in the REAL belt. But I didn't retire. After the rush of that battle, I knew what I wanted to do. I used my pay to buy a transport, and I set up a small shipping company. Eventually, I had enough cash stored up to start up a mercenary company. Since then, I've been patrolling border space on commision for the UNS.
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That was fun.

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In the next world war,
In a jack-knifed Juggernaut,
I am born again.

I was an orphan at 12. My Father was killed when our liner crashed. My mother was seriously injured, and died on the lifeboat six hours later. When the rescue team dropped me off at the starport, I had nothing, so I sighned on to the privateer gunboat, SS Barbarrossa, and left that week. I served for fifeteen years aboard the Barbarossa, learning everything there was to know about running and flying a ship. I was promoted to lieutenant, and I was selected as the Chief Helmsman of the Barbarossa.
While the Barbarossa was a crack ship, we had a hard time. It was a peaceful time, and work was scarce for a powerful Frigate like Barbarossa. We did odd jobs, bounty hunting, blocade duty, even some cargo runs, enough to pay for fuel and supplies, but not the kind of riches we were after.
It wasn't for quite some time that we got our lucky break. We had recieved a letter of marque from the Lycinian government. They were battling the Farpoint Mining Corporation for control of a very valuable set of asteroids. The letter of marque was an open hunting liscence for our ship. We were given the right to destroy any Farpoint Vessel, and we were allowed 90% of all good plundered. We set out with high spirits, as it was well known that the Mining Guild had already established a lage operation, and that a large convoy was heading back to the core systems of the mining guild, carrying a King's ransom in valuable minerals.
We followed the captains hunch, and spent a few months scouring a backwater route, when we ran headlong int the convoy. We had expected an escort fleet, but not like the one we found guarding the convoy. There were four carriers, lightly armed, but each carrying a formidable fleet of thirty fighters, covering the carriers were a pair of destroyers, six cruisers spread along the length of the convoy, and the Dreadnought FMC Invincible, one of the most fearsome ships in the Farpoint Naval Wing. We had the jump on them. The slow, but lightly armed carriers had nestled themselves deep within the convoy of freighters, hoping to draw protection from our reluctance to damage their precious cargo. The cruisers were widely dispersed along the length of the convoy, while the two destroyers and the Dreadnought had taken point position.
We immidiately decided to take advantage of their weak position. we engaged the hyperlight drive, and sped to the end of the convoy, taking the cruisers there by surprise. We worked our way up the convoy quickly, taking the light cruisers before they had a chance to rally their forces and gang up on us. With the cruisers down, we prepared for the real fight. The first of the enemy fighters were clearing the mass of freighters, and they were easily repelled by our turrets. Unfortunately the bulk of the fighters was beginning to reach us, and we wre forced to flee. We hyperlighted to the lead, and engaged the Destroyers at close range, were our short ranged Uranium Slug Cannons were more effective then their heavy, long ranged missles. As the first of the destroyers began to come to piece, the dreadnought began to close in. We sent a final salvo of shells into the second destroyer, knocking out it's primary power, sending it tumbling head over heals away.
So far we had suffered relatively little damage, our shields had held off the Cruiser's plasma shells easily, and the Destroyer's short range turrets were meant to take out fighters, not capital ships. The Invincible, however, was a force to be reckoned with. However, it's size, and limited amnouverability was a great disadvantage. We made a first pass, and targeting the main bridge, managed to knock out it's Primary Sensor Array. As we pulled out of our pass, we launched a salvo of missles, and fired the afterburner to get us clear of its deadly missle turrets. With our shields holding steady at 77% damage, we reversed our course, Fired the burner, and attacked the ship from the rear. Invincible's shields couldn't stop our Slugs very well, and the tore through the Dreadnoughts engines, mangling the whole rear quarter of the ship. As we sped past, one fo the fuel cells in the engines of the Dreadnought ignited. It vaporised the enginge, and took a good portion of the ship with it. We were knocked out of control,and the missles that were tailing Us all slammed into our helpless, tumbling ship. I managed to regain control, and I was engaging the hyperlight engines when the primary reactor took a hit, and the computer automatically ejected the reactor. I used the emergency power, and used all available power to engage the hyperlight drive, putting 9 million kilometers between me and the Dreadnought.
The Bridge was in Chaos. Control panels were fried and smoldering, The main lights were out, and in the flashing red glow, I could see bodies lying on the deck. The captain was dead, along with half the bridge crew. As one of the highest ranking officers on the bridge at the moment, I set everyone back at their positions, and assumed command. Our gunboat was coming to pieces. we had almost no emergency power, and we had jetissoned our rockets, to prevent a crippling explosion. However, the Invincible was in worse shape. Our Reactor exploding had fried most of it's sensors, as well as destroyed it's shield generators. It was running visual sensors only. At our current range, light from us would take thirty seconds to reach Invincible, and since they had no other sensors, I decided to use this to my advantage. I engaged the hyperlight drive for the final time, shredding my hyperlight engines in the process. The Dreadnought however, had no idea that we had moved yet, as the light that left our ship had not yet reached it. We took them completely off guard when we came out of hyperspace right on top of them, and emptied our plasma cannons onto their unshielded hull. As we pulled away, The sublight fighters that were racing to catch up with us got an amazing view of their dreadnought comeing to pieces. The convoy surrendered without firing a shot, and I called for a Lycinian Jump ship to take us home. You should have seen the look on the Lysonian Prelate's face when he saw the ship that took Seventy Billion credits worth of ore from the Mining Guild(90% of it was mine, too). Of course, I was offered a position of power in the Lycinian Navy, but I declined, what would my crew do without me?

Yours Truly,

Captain M.J. Pharris,
SS. Barbarossa

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(This message has been edited by Captain Pharris (edited 02-01-2000).)

I'd like to tell you about the toughest fight I have even been in.
<asside - you will be in this situation in the plug>

It was during my time as Rear Admiral. I was assigned to testing duty on a new HVD type, and had a station factory in intersteller space where the Sals wouldn't look for us. We had built a few prototypes, and had pitted them in remote-controlled battles with captured Sal designs. About the 150th day of testing, we got a signal of a large ship approching -- gateship catagory.

I ordered the remote controled HVDs to assume picket posts along its inbound vector. It came out as an immense black dreadnaught. It had 3 massive missle ports and 2 huge forward-facing guns. The identisponder reported it as the Pol____ A__i___ Dreadnaught Wr____ (blanks were added by the computer to indicate corrupted characters), over the TCP/IP protocol, which we keep around in case we meet Humans. The scary thing was that the scanners indicated its technology was incomprehensable -- completely different methedology -- so we couldn't tell what most things on it were, and the fact that no life forms were found -- niether silicon or carbon based, not even a bacterium.

It immediatly opened fire on the HVDs. The first one died from a single hit from one of its large missles, believed to be pure antimatter. The next one died from a stream of missles eminating from a circular missle port that could evidently spin the missle 360•. The remaining 4 were ripped apart by some kind of blue energy field emmited from the 2 huge guns.

While this was going on, I had used my battleship to tow the station away at superlight (about as fast as the battleship in normal space) to a safe distance. After the ghost ship was finished massicaring the prototypes, it left. I immediatly sent in a report to the Emporer and the High Admiral of the time. They mentioned that there was a history of ghost ships matching the description in the quadrant (quarter sector). I was advised that it rarely visits the same are twice so I should continue my tests there.

I never did hear anything about that ghost ship again...

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Commander-in-Chief of the Nijayias Interstellar Navy.

It was in early January in the year 2000. I sat in front of my computer, played Ares over the internet under the name Aithon, quit, and took a ****. "Ahh," I said. "That felt good."

JEsus, folks! This is <b>incredible</b>! Hey, less talkin' and more playin'! This is BS.

This post has been edited by Aithon : 12 November 2006 - 01:31 PM

Hell, this is fun! That's why we play Ares, isn't it?

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Commander-in-Chief of the Nijayias Interstellar Navy.

Well, I may as well restate the post that inspired this thread.

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Well I'm not Salrilian, but I am currently in charge of a large portion of their fleet. I'll explain: you remember those humans in the simlabs (level 11)? Well, I was in a similar situation about 4.3 Earth years before this whole human/Isiman fiasco. The reason is that compared to Salrilians (or any species except Cantharan for that matter) humans have amazing dexterity, high spontaneity, intense curiosity, and geometric tactical thinking (which is FAR superior to Cantharan as you well know) which made them of great interest and value to the Sals. The only problems are that by and large, humans tend to be quite stubborn and are very delicate physically.

So the Sals did some experiments:

First was good old genetic engineering to see just what these humans were truly capable of. After concluding the genetic experiments is was decided that they were still lacking physically.

Then came the Audemedon bionics. Although perfectly compatible with the body, the implatns/augmentations did not communicate well at all with the nervous system. Thus the brain would have to be slightly altered.

Finally after five years of research, a device was invented that served as both a biological/Q-digital translater, and a quantum processor (the same system type used in the Oracular Net). Thus the Salrilians had perfected the human (or come very close to it). The quantum processor had the unexpected yet delightful result of allowing the human to work out nearly every solution to a problem in 10^-12 seconds. This, plus the humans superb natural piloting and tactical abilities made them the ultimate pilot/battle commander.

Unfortunately, the perfect human was ridiculously expensive and the project was abandoned having only produced four units. One was destroyed in an Ishiman hit-and-run on a battle station, two are missing and presumed destroyed, and then there's me.

Well the slugs, being hard pressed for a good fleet Admiral of their own kind, appointed me, insisting that if I don't spread their enlightenment far enough, it is only a temporary position. And after seeing the atrocities commited to countless pre-stellar species, I plan to bring their downfall in the hardest-hitting, most humiliating way possible. But until then, I might as well have some fun.

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BTW Newt, New Hope? Most of my memories before my conversion were erased and/or scrambled, but I do know that I was born on Earth during the Cantharan occupation. I think I lived in a ruined city called Broken Hope, whose entire population was taken for testing. During the first brief Human-Cantharan war it was the capitol of the UNS; I don't know what the name of it was then, but after the Order defeated the UNS the name was changed to Broken Hope. Is New Hope a rebuild of this city, or a completely new one?

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"They're everywhere!"- hapless victim #203948

(This message has been edited by Admiral Sargatanus (edited 02-02-2000).)

Oh, why not. This looks fun...
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I'm a human, but I don't remember Earth. I was born on the Ares , a bit before we encountered the Ishmians. I remeber playing a game called "TIE Fighter" on an entertainment computer and excelling at it. I don't know how, but when the Ishmians pulled the first datd dump from the Ares 's computer banks, they found out about me. I was recruited into the Navy by both the Human captian of the Ares and by the captian of the Ishmian vessel we first encountered. I've been fighting the Carthanians ever since.

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=/= Jim Stephens =/=
(url="http://"mailto:stryker@hotline.com")mailto:stryker@hotline.com(/url)stryker@hotline.com

Ten years after the Ishiman/Cantharan conflict, as the Salrilians were rebuilding their empire, they ordered that a new subdivision of Audemedons were to be constructed. They would be far more intelligent and more adaptable to change. The prototype was built, but was proclaimed too expensive to mass produce. They realized, however, that if the prototype were fully completed, it alone could greatly help them. It was left in the Audemedon labs to finish. Meanwhile, an extremely powerful alien race, the Phylydion, had taken an interest in the Salrilians' work. They, from afar, studied the prototype and realized that the Audemedons could pose a threat to them if the Salrilian scientists made it fully operational. They decided to insert a plant into the ranks of the Audemedon. Using a sophisticated neuron-beaming technology, they inseted the mind of a Phylydion into the inert prototype. The prototype came was completed, but instead of the Audemedon mind it was intened to have, the Phylydion mind was in control. Neither the Salrilians nor Audemedons could tell the difference. The prototype gained great power with its incredible strategic and tactical skill. It soon earned the great rank of High Commander, roughly equivalent to a Grand Admiral. While doing this, the prototype secretly severed the Audemedons' control linkage from the Salrilians, giving the Phylydion empire the direct comtrol of the Audemedons if ever they wished to have it. I am that prototype.

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Commander Cicion, commander of Audemedon 6th fleet

"Never tell me the odds!"
-Han Solo

The next interstellar ship after the UNS Apollo 2200 was sent off the next year. It was the UNS Rouge, their first interstellar military ship. It was basically a modified space shuttle. It had an escort of one modified F-22 and one modified VTOL, the newest aircraft in existance. The UNS Rouge was sent to explore, and report back in a few years (crew time). It used a much faster form of interstellar travel, that only took one year to use. Our first stop was the Ishima System. The Ishiman were just past the contemporary age, and liked the UNS Rouge's design. It became the oldest design for the Ishiman Heavy Cruiser. As we ran around the galaxy, the Ishiman Heavy Cruiser design became more and more developed. When the UNS Apollo 2200 arrived at Ishima, the UNS Rouge was a standard Ishiman Heavy Cruiser, and was used in the missions where there was one. Eventually, the Elejeetians modified it into the Modified Cruiser. I am the commander, and it's basically my ship. The F-22 and the VTOL are elsewhere in the galaxy, doing odd jobs, etc. The UNS Rouge has been further modified with newly developed (or captured) technology, and now is as tough as an Obish Escort Cruiser, has Audemedon Missiles, is as fast and maneuverable as an Elejeetian Cruiser, and the Long Range Photokinetic Beam Cannons have the same ability as the Newo Beam Cannon. I basically own and fly the best ship in the galaxy.

I was born on the backwater world of Levo. I was in the Confed navy back when the Great War erupted. When it was over, I was awarded the medal of valor service, for I confronted a Voratee fleet in a Manta. And survived. Later on I purchased an Argosy freighter. Then the Voratee returned. I was took aghast when I saw them for the first time in over a decade. They destroyed my Argosy, luckily I had an escape pod. My escape pod crashed on a nearly uninhabited world, New Washington, I believe. There I found a junkyard, and schematics for a nonexistent ship ( (url="http://"http://www.blackrockmac.com/ajm/images/soyuz.jpg")http://www.blackrock...mages/soyuz.jpg(/url) .) I spent the next five years building it. A decade later, I was exploring the Serpens nebula. There, I found a fleet of Confed ships and a wormhole. I went in, suddenly I was overwhelmed by a Salrilian fleet. There was a nerarby Ademedon system, I jumped there, only to witness a joint Ishmian-Human-Audemedon-Elegeetean-Obish fleet against a Cantharan-Salrilian-Gaitori fleet. I managed to eliminate a few Gaitori ships, but I had to crash-land because my engines were about to explode. When the battle was over, the Ishmians invited me to Ishmia, and now I'm a crew member of the Ares.

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(url="http://"http://www.blackrockmac.com/ajm/sig.html")~AM~(/url)

"Je deteste Wyndoze!"
-Me.

Join #dragonmac on SorceryNet!

I was born in gor'Asb, a badland city on the homeworld. The oracular network predicted my spawning, and before I had fully matured as a Salrilian can get, I was taken from my home, my friends, my life to a deep cavern 2 1/2 miles underground the capital sity of Salril.
The next 30 years I spent in training, honing my starship and espionage skills to perfection.
Then, when the Audemedon Radical Axis revolted during the age of Siraricas, my espionage skills were put to the test. My infiltration of the databanks was successfull, and I managed to purge the memory banks, totally erasing the Radical Axis Mainfraim of it's leadership subrouines.
Since then, I have been orchestrating cyber-terror upon the unenlightened ones' World Nets; I was the one who disabled the orbital defences of Centauri Alpha Prime, allowing the system to be overrun.

-Slug (Salrilian Spy, just don't tell anyone!)

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"In accepting the inevitable, one finds peace. In denying it, one finds hope."
-Last words of Admiral Williams before the fall of Earth.

Any new people? Updates on characters, etc?

I love this thread!

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*** Lightning never strikes the same place twice. But on occasions...eight times... ***

(This message has been edited by 8 Lightnings (edited 11-03-2000).)

I'm supposed to be a Gaitori Commander. I did some fighting in the Ringworld thingie, and I'm doing some fighting int the Starlance thingie.

Oh, and it's pronounced "guy boot"