The Jenna Jones flew rapidly into the Vorik system, but upon immediate entrance discovered no sign of the strange ship the captain had been following.

_Query path. identified signature, too much radiation to track, no sign of departure from system. Access Voinian database for Vorik system, tenth hour. Unusual vessels, two. Access position logs for alien vessel 1785: entered system near 478294 as did following vessel, rapid transit to GV-12 beneath upper atmosphere, exact position unknown. Query, Voinian reaction. 26 Cruisers deployed, plan, depth charge planet. MESSAGE INCOMING-Voinian origin, vessel V-73.
_

Quote

This is Admiral Shenlon of the Voinian Navy, you don't have clearance to enter this system. The Voinian Reactive demand you leave. All vessels remaining in unauthorized space will be destroyed.

Execute maneuver 13C, add extra vessel into calculation.

The Arada turns it's course and jumps out of the system. More surprisingly the vessel on the planet's surface beats a hasty retreat as well. The Voinians verify the hypergate and then return to rebuilding the destroyed outpost.

Cloak functional. Contact vessel through secondary sub-universal channels, crossover M1 to standard form within atmospheric radius.

Quote

This is Matt Milhelm, commander of the independent vessel Jenna Jones. I think I need a chat with your captain about causing potential escalations in the war. The diplomatic situation is within tenuous grasp, at best. If you transmit the coordinates of your vessel we can have a polite conversation. You may have noticed, if your sensors are well tuned, that both our vessels have "left" the system. As long as you stay as deep as you are, and I remain cloaked, we can chat about that and other things for a long time.

------------------
Life, Death. What's the difference?

OOC: Sorry I didn't post for so long, but we had the first series of days of nice weather this year that lasted longer than 12 hours, so I had to enjoy them instead of sitting in front my computer. Now that the days become cloudy and rainy again, I'm back.

The Azula was on its way to the galactic east, taking a short trip into the South Tip. There was nothing there, however, so they set course towards the north, straight into Igadzra territory.

“Kre, we have crossed the Igadzra border and are entering the Sumer-system now.” says the crewman on the NAV.
Ta-vora nods.
“Any ships?”
“Two Miranu Couriers, one Freighter, two standard Azdaras.”
“Scan for the Orion's signature.”
“Commencing scan.”
“New ship arriving. Igazra-class, beam configuration.”
“Are you done scanning?”
“I need another five minutes, Kre.”
“Cloak the ship.”
“Ship cloaked. Strange, the Igazra still approaches our position.”
“Mark the ship.”
A red circle appears on the holographic panorama, surrounding the bridge. Blue Karee numbers below it. Once it would enter missile range, the numbers would turn yellow, and they would turn red once it enters turret range.
“They probably detected us before we cloaked and search for us now. Change position.”
The Azula slides sidewards.
“Target entering missile range.”
The Igazra reaches the former position of the Azula and fires a green beam forward. Of course it doesn't hit anything, as there is nothing left.
“They are turning, looks like they gave up.”
But the Igazra doesn't stop turning after 180°. It does not stop until its nose is pointed directly towards the Azula.
“They're approaching us again.”
“What the ataweh! They can see us! Check the cloaking device!”
“The cloaking device is 100% functional.”
“How is that possible? Keep us out of weapon range.”
The crewman on the SCI speaks up.
“Kre, I suppose I know how they found us. They're using a gamma scanner. You know how our cloaking device works, of course. The projector phalanxes on the Azula's wings project a field of negative gravitation around it, that catch any light ray, direct it around and let it go on the direct opposite of its impact point, thus warping the light and other radiation into a streamlined flow around the ship, hiding it from scanners and eyes. However, because gamma rays are richer in energy, they sometimes don't make it around the ship and escape the gravitation field too soon. So a gamma-eye would see a dark spot in our place. That's how they can see us. Quite clever, I must say.”
“And we lost our advantage over them. Can we compensate this?”
“Yes, I suppose when we increase the energy for the emitters, we can enforce the gravitation field so that the gamma rays can't escape any longer. But that way it would become necessary to disable a system instead. Shields, for instance, or weapons.”
“Then use the weapon energy. I don't want to loose the possibility to rebuild the shields while cloaked.”
“Aye, Kre'Merah.”
Two minutes passed, during these two more Igazras arrive in the system.
“Reconfiguration complete, that should do it.”
“Status of the hostiles?”
“They seem confused, Kre. Looks like they lost our trail.”
Ta-vora smiles and nods in appreciation.
“Scan complete. No trace of the Orion.”
“Alright, set a course for the next system.”
Seconds later, the Azula's jump engines power up. There's a bright flash and a thunderclash, and it ceased to exist within the einstein continuum.
We have a lot of systems to cover in our search. How do these Humans say? Like a needle in a pile of hay. And these Igadzra become more dangerous every time. Did they really design this methode of detection for one single ship? We didn't do much any harm to them yet, except disabling one single ship.
Then a another thought occurs in Ta-vora's mind.
Who tells us that the parts of the Orion are still there? If this ship was really as special as Page said, it surely would have attracted the curiosity of the local militias. Ki-jara, what do I take upon me to find you

------------------
The lie is a truth, too. The truth of the one who believes it.

OOC: Maybe we could find Orion in a group of uninhabited systems, like the ones in southern Igadzra Space or above Human Space. Then we wouldn't have to "retrieve" it from some goverment's research lab.

========

"Nice," Larra admitted reluctantly to Demon as she read the message. "Too bad, though. Playing seek and destroy with a couple Voinian ships in this atmosphere would be great fun." Seeing as there was zero visibility in the atmosphere of Vorik, anyone else would have considered it suicide.

"Should we answer," Demon asked, "or run away?"

"Nah, let's answer." Larra leaned back in her seat and opened communication with the cloaked arada."

"This is Larra of the independant ship Kamikaze. I am simply exploring Voinian space, and have not showed any hostility towards Voinian forces. What is my presence affecting?"

------------------
Life is a game, and it's to short to sit on the sidelines.

The Azula made its way through Igadzra space.
Sumer - Feviri - Astin - Ragni - Igadzra - Nujja - Calb - Kacca - Racet - Karra - DSN-6107 - DSN-5589 - DSN-5468.

A bright flash and a thunderclash signal the arrival of the Azula.
“Entering the Siqwe-system, no stellar objects present.”
“Scan for hostiles.”
“One Crescent Warship in the system. According to the transponder, it is a Renegade. They are approaching us.”
“ Tey'sesh! I'm not in the mood for a fight now. Tell them that they better leave us alone, as we have no argument with them.”
“Ayie, Kre.”
A short break.
“What's wrong, don't they answer?”
“They do are you sure you want to hear this?”
“The usual insults?”
“Ayie.”
“Raise shields and bring the weapons online.”
“Shields up, weapons online.”
“Power up the Plaser.”
“Plaser online.”
“Target is firing SADs.”
“Are the jammers online?”
“Ayie, they have no chance of tracking us.”
“Target is launching three Crescent Fighters.”
“Use the Impulse Turrets to destroy them.”
The first Crescent Fighter enters the turret range. Two beams, apparently coming directly out of the Azula's hull hit the attacker and turn it into a small artifical sun that lives only for two seconds before it turns into a rapidly expanding cloud of dimly glowing gass.
A Tempest Missile fired by the Azula hits the second fighter and soon the last one shares the fate of its two companions.
“Main target in Plaser range.”
“Fire!”
The very tip of the Azula has opened, revealing a deadly weapon of Phanteon origin. The tip of the weapon starts glowing green and emitts an extremely focussed plasma beam, not thicker than a human's arm. The beam hits the shields of the Crescent Warship, causes them to overload and then reaches the hull.
More than 5000°C hot, the beam cuts right through the ship's hull like a warm knive through butter, exitting on the other side. While the Azula slightly turns, the beam slices through the entire ship, hitting first the SAD magazine and than the main reactor. The side explosions of the SAD, as well as the exploding reactor causes an atomic fire aboard the Renegade ship, which devours the remains within minutes.
“Target destroyed.”
“The Plaser is the only good thing the Phanteon gave to us. Scan the system for the Orion's signature.”
“I have already detected something. It has the signature but doesn't fit the mass specifications.”
“Approach.”
Two minutes later, the detected object becomes visible on the holographic panorama.
“It is a part of the Orion. Apparently one third. I wonder what happened to the rest.”
“The rest will be scattered around other systems.” Ta-vora sighs before continuing. “Alright, bring it up. Then get us back, we'll search through the rest of Igadzra space. And send a message to the Kamikaze that we found a part of the ship.”
“Ayie, Kre.”
Five minutes later, the Azula again enters hyperspace, with one third of its current mission accomplished.

------------------
The lie is a truth, too. The truth of the one who believes it.

"Greetings Captain. I greatly apologize for my rash actions but the Voinian forces presently outnumber the UE fleet by about ten ships to one, and both sides know it. As you may be able to guess the Voinians are fairly ready to assault the UE with very slight provacation."

------------------
Life, Death. What's the difference?

OOC: This is Larra under my new name

“Let me guess,” Larra said lazily, “they think I’m from the UE.”

“Probably,” Matt answered, “and even if they don’t, they’d might pretend they do as an excuse to attack.”

“Well!” Larra’s tone was suddenly bright and cheery, “All the more reason to finish my business here as soon as possible so I can leave.” She did understand the situation, of course, she just wasn’t about to let it stop her from looking for Page’s ship.

Larra cut the communication just before Demon showed her the message from Ta-vora. “Great!” she exclaimed. “If the rest of the ship is near there, the Azula will find it. But in case it has been blasted across the universe by something, we should still stick to the plan. We'll be done here in a few days if we don't waste any time.”

All the Voinian ships turned as Kamikaze blasted out of the atmosphere of Vorik, heading out towards hyperspace range.

------------------
If all the world's a stage, why'd I get the part of the psycho?

"One of these days I'm going to take proper precautions."
Erase sensor logs of vessel and hyperspace traces. That won't do any good, they will remember. I'll fix that.

Matt draws back away from the console and inserts several more wires into his helmet.

You can patch me onto the Voinian frequency, right? I'm going to rewrite their memories and make her vessel into an interceptor that returned from a patrol and flew out. After I do I need you to execute the emergency intercept plan at the furthest possible point from a hypergate relay system. 12.1 light-years is the distance. Good, draw her into it and we'll chat, I'll be to exhausted to do much so I need you to be prepared to retreat in case she attacks.

Okay you Voinian bastards, let's get to work.
The entire process took only a few seconds in real time, but Matt could feel years, and even decades pass as he modified the memories of the Voinians. He slumps into his chair and his computer launches from the atmosphere, cloaked, and entered hyperspace without detection.

In hyperspace his ship did the work, by finding a gravitational well distinct enough to draw a small object through but a small object is all that was needed. The bomb quickly found an escape and detonated redirecting all hyperspace channels for six seconds, enough to draw the Kamikaze and the Jenna Jones into the system.

Light wave transmission:
"Captain, I truly think we need to discuss your actions. You may or may not find it difficult to leave the system but I recommend we talk in depth, if you insist on continuing through space, and quite possible killing another ten or fifteen billion people, I will aid you enough to protect the fragile 'peace.' You could also attack me, my vessel has no traditional armory and no way to combat any attacks and I am in no condition to fight either. Please stay and we can sort through whatever issues need to be dealt with. Captain Matthew Milhelm of the Jenna Jones out."

------------------
Life, Death. What's the difference?

OOC: Nothing really happens here, just wanted to write something.

A bright flash and a thunderclash announce the arrival of the Azula in another system.
“Entering the Dafi-system.”
A huge swirl dominates the system that is empty except for the sun, which gets dwarfed by all the energetic emissions of the phenomenon.
A bright glowing vortex that consists of all known nuances of blue, swirling around a deep black center. Out of the center, a beam of energy, painfully bright and blue, escapes. This is energy from the other side.
Several large ships are orbiting the phenomenon, apparently observing it.
The Azula cloaks.
“The Nagazuul is still there. And according to the debris around it, it is still impossible to enter it from this side.” the science officer states.
Ta-vora sighs.
“We can see the door, but we can't walk through it. Apparently these Igadzra don't like strangers in their territory. They want to remain isolated. Why would they try to send ships through the Nagazuul?”
“Perhaps they just got too close? Now they built a blockade around it. The ships orbiting it are all warships, except for one science vessel.”
“Keep a save distance between them and us.”
The he turns to the science officer.
“Still no idea how to get through the radiation?”
“No, Kre. The radiation is strong enough to penetrate everything we have. According to my scanner, the radiation around the phenomenon exceeds 3,000 scales. Our shields could take a maximum of 250 scales.”
“What about rift shields?”
“They're nothing but theory. The energy that hits the shield would be absorbed by temporarily formed hyperspace rifts. But we have no idea how these rifts would interact with the Nagazuul. And these rifts can only absorb so much energy. Moreover, we still don't understand the nature of this radiation. So it would be very possible that the shields would not even stop it.”
“But we exited the phenomenon without problems.” one of the crewmembers mentions.
“Because we travelled within the stream of energy that comes from the other side. Apparently it shielded us from the radiation. However, this stream is so fast and powerful that we wouldn't make it through. Like you would try to swim up a waterfall.”
“Kre, shall we search through the system?” another crewmember interrupts.
Ta-vora shakes his head.
“No. If it would be here, we had already noticed it when we exited the Nagazuul. We're done searching through Igadzra space. Set course to the Grooz-system.”
“Ayie, Kre'Merah. Course laid in.”
“Jump.”
The Azula decloaked and again vanished into hyperspace.

------------------
The lie is a truth, too. The truth of the one who believes it.

OOC: Ta-vora, is Nazaguul the thing that got you stuck here?

“Well, he’s persistant,” was all Larra had to say as her ship was violently sucked into another system. She steadied Kamikaze , which was spinning crazily.

“Traditional armory?” Demon asked with a frown. “Does that mean it’s decked out in non-traditional armory? Isn’t that what we should be most worried about?”

Larra laughed. Her ship didn’t have any weapons. Noting her fuel was restored, she flipped off the fuel scoops. The panels on the outside of her Kamikaze retracted, returning it once again to aerodynamic perfection.

Calmly she turned Kamikaze to face the Jenna Jones, and opened communication.

“Fine. We’ll talk. Before you can go on and on about all the reasons for me to leave here, I’ll just tell you that I won’t go. There are a few more systems that I want to visit first. I strongly suggest that any solution you come up with will include me continuing on my way.”

------------------
If all the world's a stage, why'd I get the part of the psycho?

OOC: Yes. The Nagazuul is basically a two-way connection between the EVO and the DS universe. However, any ship trying to enter on the EVO side will be destroyed due to the extreme radiation.

(Karee dictionary:
nag = dead/death
azula = ghost/spirit
Nagazuul = mythologic expression for the portal into the afterworld
Original meaning: “portal into the world of ghosts”
Actual meaning: wormhole)

------------------
The lie is a truth, too. The truth of the one who believes it.

(This message has been edited by Ta-vora (edited 04-02-2004).)

"Once they figured out I wasn't firing back — at either side — they stopped shooting for a bit. Naturally, I was a bit hesitant to step out of the Tank. The Regulars had a small contingent of beleaguered Rickers pinned down behind a ridge.

"Apparently, my landing foiled the charge that the Regulars were preparing to mount, saving the small group of Rickers. Outnumbered at least four to one, they begged me for a ride out of the danger zone. When the Regulars saw me taking the scout party of Rickers onto my ship, they really cut loose with their rifles. I instructed my crew not to return fire."

OOC: And yet again I'm foiled by the spectre of sleep deprivation. Slight chance I'll do some in class tomorrow or something.

------------------
Proud member of
[The Fifth Column](http://<br />
thefifthcolumn.blogspot.co<br />
m).

Respond: Visual

The message is sent with a picture of a man clad in mismatched colors bright enough to confuse scanners, some patches on his clothes are literally glowing in different colors. The interior of his ship is the same way, patched together intentionally with an appearance of chaos and painfully bright.

"Captain, I believe that persistence is a virtue and I may be able to offer help to avoid the Voinians notice. Even with your disregard in Vorik I was able to 'convince' them that all the vessels in the system had immediately left. If you would allow me to accompany you I'm quite sure the Voinians will never even see your vessel along the journey. I would still caution against continuing, but seeing as my vessel would be unable to destroy yours I am willing to compromise.

------------------
Life, Death. What's the difference?

Larra and Demon looked at each other.

"Well, should we go along with it?" she asked.

Demon put on a thoughtful look. "I like his shirt."

"Fine, let's do it."

She put communications forwards to Matt Milhelm's ship.

"I accept your offer to accompany us. Our course is Pokoren, DSN-9418, Avann, Mihol, Pust, Romit, Krraali, Fridion, Niot, and then DSN-7617. After that I plan on continuing to Miranu space by route of Emalghion. Now how can I get out of here?"

OOC: Sorry Paranoid, but I'll be gone until Tuesday.

------------------
If all the world's a stage, why'd I get the part of the psycho?

OOC: A long post again.

The Azula was on her way to the north, searching through every system it passed.
Finally it reached a dense asteroid belt.

“Entering System DSN-2131, no stellar objects present.”
“Scan.”
“Strange there's an unusually high concentration of ships in this system.”
“Are you sure there are no planets or stations in here?”
“Yes but there is a very large asteroid a few lightminutes away.”
“Are we close enough to perform a detailed scan?”
“Yes, Kre. Commencing scan.”
“Kre, two large ships are approaching us. Distance two lightminutes.”
“Mark them and give me a view.”
Two circles appear on the panorama. They are yellow, as the intention of the ships is still unclear.
A colored schematic appears on one of Ta-vora's screens. The ship is sleek and black with blue glowing crystals placed around it.
“Crescent Warships ” he mumbles.
The science officers speaks up:
“Kre, I finished scanning the asteroid and it seems that it has been hollowed completely. It looks like the asteroid is only cover, hiding a base of operations of some kind.”
“Who would place a hidden base this deep within an asteroid belt, far out of any territory?”
“Kre, the approaching ships are powering up their weapons. We have finished comparing their transponder codes to our records. They seem to be a Renegade strand.”
“Raise shields and bring the weapons online.”
“Ayie, Kre.”
One of the “special toys” the Azula featured was a sensor mask that denied other sensors access to its tactical status. For an enemy, it looked like the Azula was shieldless and unarmed.
“Message from one of the approaching ships.”
“Ahoi, target. Power down your engines and prepare to be boarded.”
There was static, then a different voice, coming from the second ship, says in a mocking way:
“You look good within crosshairs.”
“Target the closer ship.”
“Ship targeted. Both ships are lauching three fighters each, standard Crescent type.”
“Aim the Impulse Turrets at the fighters.”
“They open fire.”
“Fire!”
Three blue beams, apparently coming directly out of the Azula's hull, hit the closest of the six attacking fighters, turning it into a rapidly expanding yellow gas cloud.
The second fighter soon meets its companion's fate.
The remaining for fighters fire furiously at the Azula, but their shots just seem to bounce off the shields.
“Fighters retreating. The capital ships are attacking. They fire SADs.”
“Evasive maneuvers. Fire Tempest Missiles.”
A swarm of the sleek but massive missiles leaves a hidden launcher on the Azula's underside, speeding towards the first ship. Each one detonates in the shields with a bright flash, causing a massive shockwave. The Renegades made the mistake to be to close together, so the shockwaves that disabled the first hostile also did massive damage at the second attacker.
“Shields of second ship neutralized.”
“Use the Intervall Cannons.”
Beams of invisible energy left the Azula and indeed pulverized the hostile's armor. Slowly the ship turned, heading towards the asteroid station.
“They're fleeing.”
“Seize fire. When an enemy tries to run, don't prevent him from doing so.”
“Kre, I am sure that there's no part of the Orion in this system.”
“Alright, set course for DSN-6116 and jump.”
Seconds later the Azula again vanished.

“Entering System DSN-6116, no stellar objects present.”
“Scan.”
“I'm detecting a small craft, Arada-class, near a small wreckage. According to my readings, it is a part of the Orion.”
“Finally. What kind of Arada is it?”
“It's a standard trader. They try to salvage the wreck.”
“Hail them.”
“Channel open.”
“Unidentified Arada, this is the Azula. You're about to bring up something that belongs to us. We recommend that you immediately abort your salvage attempt.”
“Yeah, sure. We found it, so it belongs to us! Go away!”
“We have no argument with you, but if you refuse to leave the wreckage to us, we will need to force you to leave.”
“Very funny. According to our scanners, your ship is completely unarmed.”
Ta-vora indicates the communications officer to mute the channel.
“Train the Impulse Cannons onto the asteroid close to the Arada. Fire on my command.”
“Ayie, Kre.”
At his wave, the com officer activates the micros again.
“Arada, you have been warned. Perhaps a small demonstration of our firepower will convince you. Fire.”
Blue beams hit the designated asteroid and shatter it.
“****, alright then! Get the damned wreck!”
The Arada heads away and leaves the system seconds later.
Minutes later, the second part of the Orion lies save within the Azula's cargo holds.
The science officer speaks up again.
“Kre, we have scanned both wrecks and it seems that the Orion was actually shattered into three parts. Considering the first part was located in the far galactic East and the second part in the far galactic North, then the last part should be located in the far galactic West. Somewhere in northern Voinian space.”
“Alright. Send a message to Larra that we found the second part. Tell her the conclusion and that we will make our way down to Voinian space to meet with the Kamikaze.”
“Ayie, Kre.”
Seconds later, the Azula again performs a hyperjump, vanishing from the Einstein continuum.

------------------
The lie is a truth, too. The truth of the one who believes it.

OOC: Just because i havent been replying doesnt mean that i havent been reading and waiting (COUGH COUGH!) for something to happen..

------------------
Valence, Always aiming for the stars...
Then realizing he should have shot the bodyguards first...

Quote

Originally posted by Valence:
**OOC: Just because i havent been replying doesnt mean that i havent been reading and waiting (COUGH COUGH!) for something to happen..

**

Well, the Azula is on its way to Voinian territory. I'll wait for Larra to make the next move, though she won't be back until tomorrow.
Cool picture, btw. Has something of a darkside Yu-gi-oh

------------------
The lie is a truth, too. The truth of the one who believes it.

Quote

Originally posted by Synesthesia:
OOC: Sorry Paranoid, but I'll be gone until Tuesday.

OOC: I was too busy to post anyway.

"What you want out? I thought you would enjoy the scenery, I thought it might remind you of something... Anyway, the bomb I set off merely redirected the hyperspace route into another universe for a fraction of a second and that brought us to a system unreachable by our hyperspace outline, but still in our universe. The only good use for a weapon designed to annihilate entire systems. It isn't too hard to get back, the instability in the rift between the parallels will carry you straight to your original destination if you hyperjump blindly, you just need to trust fate." The visual portrayals eyes glaze for a second before it continues. "You seem to be taking a roundabout approach, touring Voinian space? Never mind. When we emerge in Pokeron be prepared to go wherever you need to be quickly and I'll do my best to keep us from being noticed."

------------------
Life, Death. What's the difference?

(This message has been edited by Paranoid (edited 04-13-2004).)

OOC: Just wanted to write something, though I'm in a bit of a hurry.

The Azula was still on her way towars the galactic west.

The science officer speaks up:
“Kre, I'm detecting an unusual reading. An enormous 5-D shockwave being emitted somewhere within Voinian space.”
“What is the source?”
“I can't specify, the readings are too erratic, but I suppose it came from some kind of weapon.”
“Did I miss something or do the Voinians suddenly have 5D-weapons?”
“Not according to our last scan of their ships. But the energy outbreak was strong enough to reposition an entire star system. However, from this distance I can not tell if the map has changed or not.”
“Alright we'll investigate when we have the time.”
Larra should the near there. Perhaps she knows more about it, if it isn't one of her tricks again on the other side, I don't think something like this is her style

OOC2: The officer detected the 5D-shockwave of your bomb, Paranoid. Everything manipulating the hyperspace fabric creates these shockwaves. And because 5D-impulses have infinite speed (though not infinite range), they could be detected even by the distant Azula.

------------------
The lie is a truth, too. The truth of the one who believes it.

(quote)Originally posted by Ta-vora:
**Well, the Azula is on its way to Voinian territory. I'll wait for Larra to make the next move, though she won't be back until tomorrow.
Cool picture, btw. Has something of a darkside Yu-gi-oh

Larra grinned at Matt's face on her screen. "Move quickly? Are you sure you can keep up with me?" Remind me of somewhere? She wondered silently Is he trying to play mind games with me?

Activating the fuel scoops once again, Larra pushed a couple buttons and jumped without hesitation. She actually did this a lot in places where there were no jump links, just to see where she'd end up. Dangerous, yes, but it was also quite fun.

Ta-vora's message came while Kamikaze was speeding along in hyperspace. Larra stretched out in her chair for awhile, thoughtful. Sitting up, she composed a message.

Kamikaze to Azula:

Good going finding those pieces. The situation here in Voinian space is very unstable, on the brink of war with the humans. I'm stuck traveling with someone who can keep the Voinians from become aware of the fact that I'm here. He merely thinks I am exploring Voinian space for fun, and am too stubborn to leave. In fact, he had to set off some kind of bomb that shook up the hyperspace routes and dragged my ship into an unreachable system to get me to accept his help.

No doubt I will know the location of the third piece before you get here. If you come across Kamikaze , ignore it. When I find the piece I will tell you where it is, but then continue on my way so my companion doesn't figure this out and ask questions. Kami is too small to move the piece out of the system anyway. I'll lose Milhelm in Miranu space and meet you back at the Albatross once you have the piece.

-Larra

==================
Presently, Kamikaze arrived in Pokeron, now at a slower hyperspace speed so the Arada could keep up. Immediately Larra had the computer scan the system, and then jumped out when she found nothing.

By the time she reached the Pust system, Larra was very curious how Matt Milhem was keeping the Voinians from noticing her. When she scanned this system without any sign of her quarry, however, she didn't leave.

Instead she looked around. She knew the Jenna Jones was in the system; she hadn't continued along the route yet. Larra frowned. Her map showed a link to another system, one she had forgotten to include in her route. Kamikaze turned and jumped towards Isled.

Whether or not Matt was surprised or annoyed that Larra had changed the route, he didn't comment. She had a bit of extra time in Isled before he arrived.

A scan revealed an abandoned station and a planet with a dangerous atmosphere. Alone in the system for the moment, Kamikaze shot towards the planet at full speed. Floating in between the station and planet was a piece of the mech, being hid quite like Kamikaze had in Vorik. Larra recognized it, having seen Orion intact, though her sensors could not. Turning, her ship took off back towards the edge of the system like it had been blasted out of a cannon.

The Jenna Jones entered the Isled system to see Kamikaze waiting docilely nearby.

"Sorry!" Larra's voice came over the comm link into Matt's ship. "I forgot about this system, and couldn't help visiting it!"

The two ships turned and left. Once again, Larra waited until she was in hyperspace before sending Ta-vora the piece's location, and how to find it.

Demon was in his little hideout under the floor, and Larra spent the next hour or so trying to guess what his demented little mind could be planning.

------------------
If all the world's a stage, why'd I get the part of the psycho?
**

OOC:
Ta-vora: If you're going to talk about the 5D shock-waves you might want to know that a few posts back three other bombs were used to completely annihilate the human pirate systems simultaneously. Next time I get around to a monologue I'll put a little more about them into it. I'm also using more extra-dimensional power this post to deal with Larra's escapade.

I apologize for the train of thought italics, he and his computer are nearly symbiotic so no difference appears in their thoughts, confusing to read and I'm sorry.
IC:

Keep up with her? What's her capability? Class ten rapid transfer speed, in hyperspace class eleven, your original estimates were right, the design is radically different from any scientific basis in this universe. Class eleven? I just barely managed to get my ship up to class ten in all categories and she's in class eleven, this isn't going to be easy. Follow her and order relays set up in every system we travel through. Done. I wonder why she named her vessel Kamikaze, keep a careful watch on all her power systems. Done.

The Jenna Jones quickly matched speeds with the Kamikaze and fell slightly behind to the right, like a well trained dog, at least until the hyperspace jump.

Report: Exit in twelve seconds, launch sensor deterrents use personal cloak and modulate shields to inter-dimensional expansionary. Done.

The two vessels flew from system to system without Voinian detection until the Kamikaze changed it's route into Isled.

I don't have a relay set up in that system, and the Voinians do, I'm going to attempt maneuver 84. The power is unavailable. Check universe 8472. There is a small rift in Voinian space, draw from there. An expansionary universe? I may be a computer but I don't think messing with a big bang to draw your power is very smart. Either that or start a war with weapons that could turn our universe into a big bang. Done.

The power that flew through the Jones was phenomenal, and impossible to sustain, but by using a direct channel the captain and the computer created a one sided field cloak that shaded the Kamikaze from vision and sensors even while the Jenna Jones was still in hyperspace by tracing the extra-dimensional trace elements that traveled with the strange vessel. Drawing power from another universe isn't always a wise idea, especially if the universe being drawn from was just being born but once the Jones arrived Matt was able to revert to more standard power sources and survive. Then he transmitted a response to the Captain's apology:

"If you'd inform me next time I'd be much obliged, but don't worry about it too much. There isn't a Voinian to be seen, I'm sure they never even noticed."

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Life, Death. What's the difference?

(This message has been edited by Paranoid (edited 04-14-2004).)