Ravaer growled at the Tribunal, but Ashak just grinned. "And what of it? I will not deny that I am a Prylak, and I will not deny that I will always be a Prylak at heart. Yes, I can cooperate and help you, but I am a Prylak. And anyway, I am not the one who made these demands; it was Lythrawn. If you have a problem with them, ask him. I have only limited information.

"As for collapsing the black hole, Lythrawn is completely against it. He wants all the bases in Andromeda, or at least most of them. He thinks it will be a waste if we just destroy it all, especially when he himself is greatly limited in resources and manpower."

------------------
If at first you don't succeed...Hit it harder! - Me
--------------
Millennium. Its coming, prepare for it.
Coming to the (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiaSW.com/games/ev/chronicles.html")EV Chronicles(/url).

The Odine nodded to herself, and looked to the judicator.

"It is obvious that these Prylak are only in this for their own gain of power. We will have nothing further to do with them," the judicator declared, "except in the field of battle should the situation arise. Ashak, return to your master and say unto him that the Tribunal view you as soulless dogs, and should we meet again it shall not be on good terms. Go unto your master, your nomadic arrogant master, who views himself as so important that he believes he is even worth to be here, in this conference, and say to him what I have said to you."

"And I say this to all others present - allow the Prylak not The Pocket, for it is a tool of our destruction, and when you are ready to collapse Andromeda, inform us and we will be there."

The judicator stood, indicated to the other Tribunal, and with a respectful nod to only the Sijak, left the conference room.

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

Meanwhile, the Tribunal were preparing their navy. New colony ships had been built to support the now larger Tribunal population, and an impressive number of new warships and carriers had been built. The Tribunal's most impressive vessel, the Aequitas Preliator, was now with new speed upgrades from the Sijak one of the most powerful fighters in all three galaxies, easily outclassing the Ghost.

With the recent Galactica attack on Confederate and Skraine colonies in Eta Cassiopea, the Tribunal knew that Galactica was moving towards total domination, and as warfare was not something they delighted in, they had come to the conclusion that they must leave Eta Cassiopea.

With the Milky Way already under Galactica sway, and Ross being the home of the Raiek Prylak and Haorn, the Tribunal's plans had turned towards Andromeda. They would indeed help Galactica and the Haorn in an invasion of Andromeda - but their agenda was somewhat different.

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-Lyat Esponer Corsair

(This message has been edited by SilverDragon (edited 05-25-2002).)

As the Tribunal delegate left the room, Ashak called out to him, but did not move his head. "What must we do, judicator, to prove ourselves to you? I thought this was going to be a conference of cooperation, but obviously someone is a little more demanding and undiplomatic than we thought. We may be souless dogs, judicator, but at least we don't come here with the threat of blowing everyone up." Ashak grinned evily then turned to face the other leaders. "If we were not to control The Pocket, we would have to be assured that it would be placed in the hands of someone that we can actually trust..." He glared at Redchigh and Espona. "I suggest the Sijak be given command of it. They're the only people that Lythrawn firmly trusts at the moment."

------------------
If at first you don't succeed...Hit it harder! - Me
--------------
Millennium. Its coming, prepare for it.
Coming to the (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiaSW.com/games/ev/chronicles.html")EV Chronicles(/url).

Upon hearing the heated exchange between the Judicator and Ashak, Espona looked to Ashak. "The plant of distrust is a thing not easily uprooted, Ashak. Obviously this might be harder than originally expected." His eyes narrowed. "But why give the Pocket to anyone? As the Judicator said, its only use is a tactical one. One might think the owner of such a place was planning something."

Battleship Group 1: 5 posts
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"He said no! Now we have to use the damn pigeons!"

(This message has been edited by Espona (edited 05-27-2002).)

BattleDoctor, who had remained silent during the debate, leaned forward and began to speak loudly. "Know that I fully support the proposal of the Tribunal and will pledge the complete support of the Galactica Imperium in any endeavour to collapse the galaxy of Andromeda and rid us forever of the Prylak who reside there." He then leaned back into his large chair and awaited the response of the other delegates.

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You can stab and shoot and spit
But they won't be fixing it

Red listened intently..
"Of course you're right, there's no need for a wormhole. We just never knew there was a warpgate.We need to make an agreement right now.. Set aside all hostilities and war plans, and concentrate on the Prylak... And not hold ANY strategic information from one another, not hold a single detail, no matter how insignificant it may seem. It'll take the navies of each and every one of our govts to take the Prylak...

I recommend, that when we do strike, we create a diversion by attacking the homeworld, then attacking the device countering the wormhole after ships are pulled from the system...."

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"And as the Darkness descends, do you follow the light, or embrace the darkness?"
~Diane Kinsman
(little known philosopher, early 21st century)

Espona merely stepped forward, nodded, and said, "Agreed. Let it be known that the Haorn pldege their support as well, and every able-bodied warrior will assist in the collapsing of the Andromedan Prylak." He moved back against the wall. "To your suggestion, REDchigh, how do we know that would not spread our forces thin? And would not an attack on the homeworld be met with naught but the fiercest of counterattacks? Seeing as a diversion might be a waste of fleet resources, I suggest simply moving straight in, and cause as much damage as possible. Possibly even capture the whole place.

Battleship group 1: 4 posts
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"He said no! Now we have to use the damn pigeons!"

(This message has been edited by Espona (edited 05-26-2002).)

(This message has been edited by Espona (edited 05-26-2002).)

(This message has been edited by Espona (edited 05-27-2002).)

BattleDoctor leaned back in his chair and said, "I would recommend a direct attack on whatever device is keeping the galaxy from collapsing. It would minimize losses while making it easier to accomplish our goal. However, once we destroy the device, would not our forces be pulled into the black hole as well? How would be be able to get our ships out of Andromeda once it has collapsed?"

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You can stab and shoot and spit
But they won't be fixing it

Red turned to Espona first..
"My dear Haorn, You are right! That is but the first step in my plan. An attack on the homeworld would be met by a massive counterattack, true. But where would our ships be? Their homeworld. They would not attack us while we had navies over their homeworld, because they would be giving the planet to us! They will pull forces to match ours, that includes pulling forces from the Black hole device. So, What in their mind is a massive counter, would actually play right into our hands!"
Red turned to Battledoctor, with a coldness in his voice..
"It would be suicide if we just struck one place. Their hyperdrives are faster than ours. We strike one place, they'll move all availible ships to counter us. From our ancient calculations, they could have as many as 5 starfortresses left. Their galaxy has enough firepower to wipe out any fleet we send if it's poorly planned. For the plan to work, we must create a diversion, even though the diversion fleet would be crushed by the defence fleets, or even in the case of a homeworld victory, by the black hole.
Galactica's specialty is gravity emitters. I would think that the device countering the black hole is specifically tuned to the exact gravity by the collapsed star... a strong influx would likely cause it to fail. While a fleet is attacking the homeworld, a ship, possibly cloaked, could fire a gravity emitter stronger than anything you currently have, could, possibly, cause the device to overload or fail...."

Red turned to the Prylak present.. "It would help if you tell us everything you know about Andromeda and this device... especially the defences of the systems, and incursion warning mechanisms..."

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"And as the Darkness descends, do you follow the light, or embrace the darkness?"
~Diane Kinsman
(little known philosopher, early 21st century)

"You speak the truth, Red." responded BattleDoctor. "I see now that a single attack would be suicide. However, we would need to send more than just one ship to the place where the device is... I am certain the Prylak can see through even the Tribunal's cloaking devices. It will also take time to build a gravity emitter large enough to do what you describe."

------------------
You can stab and shoot and spit
But they won't be fixing it

Redchigh listened intently, and looked around the room... The age was apparent. Even though this room was cleaned up, he was one of the first ones to check the building out, and the dust was thick as anything.
He suddenly had an idea.

When battledoctor finished, he looked up, his eyes glistening.
"Cloaks are difficult to build, and even harder to enhance. The Tribunal's cloaks took decades to build, what could we do to improve them in a matter of months?"
Red waited for the answer, but no one spoke.
"We can't improve it in the time period we have available. We could, however, by researching the sensors and radars on our representatives of Lythrawn and some old Raiek technology, develop a scrambler. Although easily visible to the eye, we could probably develop something to hide ships strictly from Prylak sensors, or just increase interference to make sensor readings impossible... With a black hole that close, they are probably used to interference, so they wouldn't be suspicous of some interference, right?"

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"And as the Darkness descends, do you follow the light, or embrace the darkness?"
~Diane Kinsman
(little known philosopher, early 21st century)

Espona spoke up. "Do we possibly know of any way to control where the ships will enter the system? We could increase our chances of sucess by moving the jump in point close to the black hole controller."

Battleship Group 1:3 posts
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"He said no! Now we have to use the damn pigeons!"

(This message has been edited by Espona (edited 06-20-2002).)

"Wormholes are the only way I know of..."
Red thought about how well this meeting appeared to be progressing... maybe he underestimated the Haorn after all...

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"And as the Darkness descends, do you follow the light, or embrace the darkness?"
~Diane Kinsman
(little known philosopher, early 21st century)

"Galactica is already well versed in scrambler technology." said BattleDoctor. "We know how to make quite effective interference for our warships. Perhaps with a bit of tweaking it could be used in the attack on the Prylak.

"In addition to that, our Hyperspace Carriers have the ability to remain stationary and maneuver in hyperspace. Though the engines are expensive and require massive fuel supplies even to keep a ship the mass of a Hyperspace Carrier in hyperspace like this, it could also be of use to us."

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You can stab and shoot and spit
But they won't be fixing it

Ashak sat silently, in deep thought, before speaking. "I think it would be best to try and develop some kind of scrambling technology, and just to full-proof the system, paint the ships that will be using it all black to minimize detection by sight alone. Lythrawn's scientists will be willing to help as much as they can.

"However, before the wormhole is collapsed, would it be possible for Lythrawns forces to loot as many planets as they could? Lythrawn is desperately low on much-needed supplies, and he could greatly use any captured resources, ships, or technology that we might find."

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

The Challenge: Duel of the Behemoths

Lythrawn rushed onto the bridge of the Dark Wyvern , the only dreadnought in his fleet, and definitely the most powerful. In fact, the dreadnought alone could possibly take on all the rest of Lythrawn's fleet and win single-handedly.

"All hands to battlestations! All soldiers and assault troopers be on your guard! Shields to maximum! Charge weapons! Com, open a hailing frequency to the Ionathur," Lythrawn ordered menacingly. "Ionathur, this is Lythrawn, I am ready to face you."

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If at first you don't succeed...Hit it harder! - Me
--------------
Millennium. Its coming, prepare for it.
Coming to the (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiaSW.com/games/ev/chronicles.html")EV Chronicles(/url).

"There's no real way to postpone when the galaxy will collapse, for we won't be able to fight the whole galaxy no matter how strong we are. Our only hope is to destroy the galaxy before the whole navy is sent. I'm sure I speak in behalf of everyone when I say that Lythrawn can command the decoy fleet... I'm sure that he could make some gains, while helping our plan as well."

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"And as the Darkness descends, do you follow the light, or embrace the darkness?"
~Diane Kinsman
(little known philosopher, early 21st century)

BattleDoctor began to speak. "I would me more than willing to let Lythrawn take that position, but I will not place any Galactica forces under the command of Lythrawn or any of his cohorts. Any Galactica forces used in the attack on Andromeda will be accountable to no commander from a government other than the Raiek Dominion or the Galactica Imperium."

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You can stab and shoot and spit
But they won't be fixing it

Red smiles and turns to battledoctor.
"Well you should be pleased to know, I'm volunteering myself to personally command a fleet... my entire space navy and whatever assistance anyone can spare, to fight alongside Lythrawn at the Andromedan core. I find it suiting for the Raiek to have a major hand in the Prylak's downfall."
Red cleared his throat as his face turned away from the crowd... A solemn expression easily visible.

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"And as the Darkness descends, do you follow the light, or embrace the darkness?"
~Diane Kinsman
(little known philosopher, early 21st century)

BattleDoctor smiled and said, "Though I would like nothing more than to be at the head of the Galactica fleet when the Prylak meet their demise, I fear I am too old to attempt such a thing. However, High Admiral Fera, my most senior and experienced commander, will personally be leading the Galactica fleet into battle. I volunteer the Galactica forces to lead the push to destroy the device keeping Andromeda from collapsing."

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You can stab and shoot and spit
But they won't be fixing it

"I fear that your forces alone would barely be able to do it... you will need other help." Red looks at the other delegates... especially the Haorn...

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"And as the Darkness descends, do you follow the light, or embrace the darkness?"
~Diane Kinsman
(little known philosopher, early 21st century)