Strauss and Mina had been running on adrenaline for the duration of the battle between Page and Sen and through their time searching for page. They were now weakening physicaly but strengthening mentaly, it threatened to kill them. They both possesed an almost mirror reactive strain of vel-os ancestry which had become more active during the battle, this caused the strain to spread each time a cell divided. Strauss collapsed onto a bed as Mina looked over him in distress, half asleep and weakening. Sensing the situation Page, Larra, and Demon, followed by Kai entered. Page stepped forward and concentrated.

Strauss was in imense pain, he didn't know where he was, all he ould see was flaming red void all around him. A presence was rapidly aproaching, he was able to turn it back, for all he knew it could have done him in.

Page flew backwards against the wall.
"I couldn't get in... I was turned back by a presence, it was his, but it was more powerful then before. Much mre powerful, but i can sense him physicaly weakening. He comes closer to death by the minute.

The pain intensified and the red light became brighter, Strauss couldn't muster even a groan from his mouth which was tightly shut due to the pain. But he felt a presence, seperated from his, it was Mina, he could recognize it even through the pain he was feeling.

Mina felt a pang of pain and a flash of an image of Strauss with an insane look on his face.
"Wait..."
She concentated on Strauss and a smoky image appeared in her subconcios. It was Strauss, surrounded by fire in a deep red abyss. he was writhing with pain.
"What??" larra impatiently exclaimed.
"I can reach Strauss. I may be able to revive him-" She fell against the wall limp.
Strauss sensed Mina's presence even stronger than before. The link between them had come toghether once again. He sensed something different about her energy, she had control of the same thing in her mind that was so plaguing his. They moved toward eachother, both struggling and grasped eachother's hands. In a flah, Strauss found himself surrounded by familiar faces in a warm room, no longer in pain.
"What-"
"Happened?"
Kai looked severely puzzled, but Page and Larra looked on knowingly.

------------------
Hope is an edulgance I don't have time for - matrix

(This message has been edited by Harbringer (edited 11-16-2003).)

OOC: Uhh, I don't think Page is up to any mental activity like that...

Larra didn't say anything for a while, but finally explained to Kai, Strauss, and Mina what she understood to have happened. She let silence reign for awhile, as the others took in what she had said. Finally she spoke again, "All right, Kami's going back to the Albatross at top speed. Lets get Page on her. I assume you two will want to stay on your ships? You can come with me if you want, though," she asked, nodding at Strauss and Mina, who both looked a lot better. She wouldn't have left them if they hadn't.

With a little help from Kai, she got Page out of the Hermes, through the airlock where Kamikaze had connected itself to, across the control room, and through the door at the back, and put him on her bed.

Kai looked around Larra's small room, and nudged some of the junk on the floor with his foot. "Don't you ever clean your room?" he asked.

"Nope," Larra replied almost cheerfully, "It's an organized mess. I know exactly where everything is." The two trouped back into the control room. "Kami or Hermes?" Larra asked Kai.

-----

OOC: I'm going to continue on, whoever is planning to be on Kamikaze , just be there in you're next post. That goes for Harbringer's chars too.

----

Larra sat down at the computer, first turning on the stereo, then carefully choosing the quickest hyperspace route for once, instead of guessing. Kamikaze detached itself from Hermes, sped to the system's edge, and jumped. Larra calmly continued pressing buttons, even though they were in hyperspace, flying at the normal speed for a fighter.

Demon held on tightly to the armrests of his chair. "Don't try this at home," he muttered under his breath.

Finally Larra reached over and pulled a lever. The ship's engines let out a screaming wail that drowned out the music, then quieted as Kamikaze lurched in space, and almost doubled it's speed. "Now that's hyperspace," Larra said happily, getting out of her chair and leaving any startled passengers she had to their nervousness, and Demon to his wisecracks. She wanted a better look at the cracks on Page's arm.

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

A quiet humming and a flashing light indicate Ta-vora that his wristcom is receiving a call.
“Yes?”
“Kre'Merah, the probe just completed the system-wide scan. It was unable to detect any trace of the target.”
“Tamaeh a'Tely!” Ta-vora mutters, “Alright. Anything else?”
“Ayie, we detected a class 7 outbreak of psionic energy.”
“I know, I felt it, too.”
“Do you think it was caused by the target?”
“Impossible. I suppose someone with very strong psionic abilities emitted all of his or her power at once. Did you get a clear reading of the outbreak?”
“Yes. Do you wish an analysis?”
“Try it if you have enough data.”
“Ayie, Kre'Merah.”
Ta-vora ended the connection.
Mysterious. We searched a radius of 10 lightyears around the exit and did not detect anything. Perhaps Thora was right and it was destroyed during the journey. On the other side
And then this strange energy outbreak. I never sensed anything alike before. Who or what is capable of unleashing so much energy?”

OOC: To make this clear: Ta-vora detected the energy unleashed by Page during his “final blow”.

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

The Albatross
A red turncoat traveled toward the albatross and took up a holding pattern just outside sight range. It disgourged a blood-red scoutship which screamed toward the station and pulled a split-6 to reverse course. It was cleared to dock in bay 9. It coasted down to the landing surface, lowered its undercarridges, and set down, he canopy opened and the pilot stood up and jumped to the ground. He was wearing a black trenchcoat and had two rifle type chainguns holstered over his shoulders. He had short black hair with a layer of long white hair on the back of his head. He skulked into the bar and noticed a humanoid creature at the drinks bar hunched over what looked like a watch.
"Greetings, my name is Strauss."
Mina caught up
"This is my spouss, Mina."
She shook his hand.
"Might i ask your name? Sir."

ooc:sense some dejah-vu?
------------------
Hope is an edulgance I don't have time for - matrix

(This message has been edited by Harbringer (edited 11-18-2003).)

Whoops, wrong username caused a double posting.
------------------
(url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3569")Here's a discussion forum for my upcoming plugin Dark Swarm.(/url)
(url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/starlight_dev/.Public/evnminers.sit")EVN: Miners - small TC done within a week.(/url) (5,1 MB)
(url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/starlight_dev/.Public/miners-images.sit")Extension to the plugin above (large shipyard images).(/url) (1,9 MB)

(This message has been edited by Arion (edited 11-20-2003).)

Ta-vora looks up, his ears slightly unfolding, eyeing the two figures approaching him. His eyes narrow when he notices the two rifles on the back of the male.
“Ta-vora of the Ka-nuth.” he says after the female shook his hand. “Is there anything I can do for you?”
His voice still shows a nuance of mistrust, not knowing what to think of the two humans in front of him.

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

Strauss quickly combed through Ta-Vora's emmanant thoughts and sensed a slight suspicion, of course he was familiar with this, although it hadn't occured much here. everyone seemed friendly enough accept for that Frodo character from way back when, and even he appologized for the damage. But nonetheless.
"Yes, i appologize about the weapons."
He threw them to the ground, Mina dropped neumerous wrist blades, a scimitar, two magnums, and a shotgun. Piter, strauss' black cat jumped onto Mina's shoulder and gleefuly recieved a scratch behind the ears.
"Care to share some combat stories while we wait for my comrades, they should be here shortly, and none of us are realy fighting fit, just went through a battle, we have a casualty also, no need to worry."

------------------
Hope is an edulgance I don't have time for - matrix

Maniak decides to start a small riot in the bar.

He gets out his flame thrower, and burns down a side of the bar.

Then, he runs out and gets into his Arada, and flies off. 5 seconds later the bar collapses.

Maniak, in his Arada, jumps off to a faraway portion of the galaxy.

------------------
Maniak hacks like
crazy!

A flash at the edge of the Liat system signified a ship exiting hyperspace, but nothing could be seen save red and blue streaks heading at ridiculously high speed towards Atlantic station. It wasn't until the colored streaks slowed and shortened, and their black background showed itself, that the blue became distinguishable as Kamikaze , stopped short dangerously close the the station. A quick conversation with the dockmaster opened a docking bay, and the little ship backflipped and shot downwards, before smoothly landing in the bay.

Shortly afterward, Larra and Kai entered the bar. Larra did not look happy. Looking up and seeing them, Strauss grinned.
"Hey, what took you so long," he teased, reminding Larra of her comment that Kamikaze was going back to the bar "at top speed."

"The Zidagar need to get social lives, and the Sarnotics need to get their priorities straight."

"What?" Mina asked, wondering why Zidagar social lives effected Larra's speed in hyperspace. And who where the "Sarnotics"?

Kai grimaced. "Don't ask."

It was quite an eventful trip back, to say the least. After being attacked by a Zidara (Larra didn't like Zidagar, but what were they doing in Dislor anyway?), which Kamikaze "shot" down in it's usual method. However something in the phase beam triggered the methods Demon had used to fix the wiring, causing it to blow out, once again disabling the little ship

However, Larra wasn't in the mood to wait for help or try to fix it, so the next thing Kai and Demon knew, they were on the ground as Kamikaze dropped into the landing pad it was suddenly a foot above. Before they could figure out where they were, which was clearly out of the dimension, Larra had disembarked and was yelling at several purple humanoid midgets about fixing her ship. Or, at least that was what Kai and Demon had assumed, considering she was speaking a strange language at the time.

Finally the purple midgets fixed the ship and the hole in the floor (Demon was convinced they put it off just to annoy her). Before they left, one said something to Larra that caused her to grin evilly for the next hour. However, neither Kai nor Demon found out what that was, because Larra insisted on going to the bar immediately, rather than "demonstrating". And there they were.

"Where's Page?" Strauss asked.

"Still sleeping," Larra replied. Lucky Page, he had slept through the entire trip back. "He must have really been tired. Demon's in the ship in case he wakes up. Oh, sorry, I'm being rude." She added remembering the cat-like creature who seemed to be with Strauss and Mina.

"I'm Larra," she said, shaking Ta-vora's hand. "And you are?"

"Ta-vora of the Ka-nuth," he replied, repeating his introduction.

Larra nodded, and seemed thoughtful, almost serious for a moment. She started to say something, which everyone seemed to think would be some intelligent, insightful comment, with some thought behind it.
"Bartender," she called sweetly, "Can you make me a chocolate milkshake?"

Well, at least they could hope.

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

(This message has been edited by Larra (edited 11-19-2003).)

Page's left eye opened up wide, taking in the bright light from the lamp above. He blinked a few times and sat up. He wasnt wearing his shirt for some reasons. he looked down at his feirce Auroran Tattoos, then to the cracks running up his left arm. They had gotten longer, and they now reached past his elbow.
Page grimaced under the extreme pain, and stood, bumping his head on the low hanging light. He grabbed his shirt from ontop of a randomly placed wooden post.
"Remind's me of home," Page said quietly.
"Reminds me of a garbage dump."
Page looked over to the black wolf curled up amidst some of the wreckage in Larra's room.
"Want me to take you to the bar?" Demon asked
Page shook his head, and left the Kamikaze.
Demon trotted after the worn Vell-os champion. Page pushed his hair back and tied the yellow bandanna in his back pocet around his forehead, and let his long black hair fell into his face.
He stepped into the bar and immediately felt the strong presences of Kai, Strauss, Mina, and Larra.
The general emotion among them was joy as they saw him walk in. Page heard a loud beep come from the cat like alien's device.
Ta-vora stared at the small screen, and turned it off after noticing the incoming man's Mental strength was rated at a Ten.
"I am Ta-
"Ta-Vora, yes... i know, the name's Page Hamilton."
Page took a seat next to the feline/human (and probably many other things) hybrid. The alien scanned Page's lanky figure.
"Bottle of the special," Page says, removing the wallet of an unsuspecting tourist.
The bartender set down a cheap bottle of champagne, and Page handed the man the whole wallet.
"Um you're paying me 600,00-
"generous tip," Page interrupted, opening the bottle with his teeth.
"Cheers," He began, "to being alive."

------------------
"WE ARE THE POPES OF THE PYROS!!" "WE ARE THE CRUSADERS OF CAPELLA!!" "THE FRIARS OF FIRE!!" "THE BAPTISTS OF BORAL 1!!!!" "THE CATHOLIC KILLERS OF NEW CALCUTTA!!!!!!" "WE ARE THE GOOD!! no.. no... THE BAD!!! yeah.. thats it.. THE BAD CATHOLICS!!!"

Ta-vora suddenly looked at Page with an expression of recognition in his eyes, his ears unfolding.
“You? How is that possible? I sensed an energy outbreak just a while ago. You were the source, it's impossible to confuse your aura! I never thought anyone could survive something like that. If you'd come from my universe, you'd surely be a Ka-nuth.”
“I thought Ka-nuth would be the name of your race?” Larra asks.
“No, I was born as Karee. The Ka-nuth are group thrown together from many races, forming an elite. Our main duty is to uphold the peace in the galaxy, or at least keep the power balanced.”

OOC: Ta-vora doesn't need a device to recognize the psionic strength of anyone, as he has psionic abilities himself, if not very strong ones. He needs a matrix in order to reinforce them and control them properly.

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

OOC: Interesting...

"I'm not from around here like yourself, so your race might have knowledge of mine. I am a vellos of the Nova Universe."
"But your power far exceeds that of any in this dimension, and possibly that dimension aswell."
Page nodded slightly, bringing down the bottle of champagne, and lit a cigarette. He began to unfold his mass of powerfull weaves and connected to the universe. Ta-vora marveled at Page's mastery of this bizzare Vellosian Practice.
One sword formed in his righ hand and Page began to ascend. Ta-vora felt his power rise and rise, untill Page was at the level he was In the Zachit Station.
The sword had turned from a thin sword with two blades sticking from the back, into a massive single sided blade that must have reached close to 8 feet long. The hand guards seemed to float from the blade.
Page looked at Ta-vora.
He went back to his base state, and disconnected with the universe.
"What do you think?"

------------------
"WE ARE THE POPES OF THE PYROS!!" "WE ARE THE CRUSADERS OF CAPELLA!!" "THE FRIARS OF FIRE!!" "THE BAPTISTS OF BORAL 1!!!!" "THE CATHOLIC KILLERS OF NEW CALCUTTA!!!!!!" "WE ARE THE GOOD!! no.. no... THE BAD!!! yeah.. thats it.. THE BAD CATHOLICS!!!"

strauss pulled a set of earphones from one of the many pockets of his trenchcoat and began listening to ACDC. While Mina after realizing most of the tension was gone pocketed her weapons and left to drop them off at the Inn.

------------------
Hope is an edulgance I don't have time for - matrix

OOC: In Ta-vora's universe, the Vell-os have isolated themselves from the rest of the galaxy.

Quite impressed from Page's show off, Ta-vora answers:
“Impressive. I must admit that I never met a Vell-os before. I only heared stories of their legendary psionic powers but I only partially believed it. You still must be special. So you are even able to create dimensional portals? That's an ability I could use, too, as I'm stranded in this universe.”
“No, I can't travel to other universes wantonly. I was catapulted here by chance. How did you get here?”
“I passed through what we call a Nagazuul. That translates 'portal to the world of ghosts'. But the closest interpretion would be wormhole. But this one was special. We left it at the same coordinates where we entered it, but in an alternative universe. The only problem is that the wormhole was one-way.”
“Didn't your momma tell you to avoid wormholes?” Larra says mockingly, “You never know where they end.”
“I had to pass it. The wormhole was accidentally created by another ship that had samples of a sixdimensional element aboard, called sextagonium. Somehow it reacted with an instable region of space and created this wormhole. The ship was sucked into it and now I'm searching for the ship, the Tova Ayemah. I've been travelling through dozens of systems but never found her. Has any of you seen it? It is sleak with a thicker head and two wide wings with this symbol painted onto them.”
Ta-vora pulls out a piece of paper with a black emblem on it that basically looks like two 'S' standing vertical on each other.

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

Quote

Originally posted by Ta-vora:
now I'm searching for the ship, the Tova Ayemah. I've been travelling through dozens of systems but never found her. Has any of you seen it? It is sleak with a thicker head and two wide wings with this symbol painted onto them.”
Ta-vora pulls out a piece of paper with a black emblem on it that basically looks like two 'S' standing vertical on each other.

Maniak says, "I saw a pirate ship that looked like it, but I destroyed it earlier. Just barely made it out of the wormhole. Good thing I got those speed upgrades, else I'd be a goner!"

Maniak then starts speaking in some language unknown to all the rest of the people:

"00000000010000010000000000101100000000000010011100000000010101010000000001000011000000000011100000000000000101100000000000100001000000000000001100000000000001010000000000010101000 000000000111000000000010101110000000001011101000000000100101000000000001111110000000000001010000000000101110000000000001101100000000000111010000000000011001000000000001001100000000 001011011000000000001100100000000000110100000000000101110000000000000110100000000001011110000000001000010000000000001110000000000001101110000000001000000000000000000001000000000010 010110000000000111101000000000100100100000000010110100000000000001100000000000101010000000000001101000000000000000001000000000100011000000000010011100000000000110101000000000011101 100000000001001000000000000101011000000000101100100000000000001110000000001010000000000000011100100000000010101100000000000001111000000000010100000000000001001010000000000010011000 000000100111100000000000001000000000000000110000000000011111000000000010111110000000000101001000000000101001000000000000010110000000001000111000000000010000000000000000010000000000 000010000000000000101100000000000000111100000000000010001000000000010110100000000000100100000000001011110000000000100100000000000010011000000000000000000000000000100010000000000000 101000000000000010111000000000100010100000000001100010000000000011111000000000001101100000000010100110000000001001101000000000101000100000000001100000000000000100010000000000010101 000000000000010010000000000011000000000000010001100000000001100110000000000111100000000000001110100000000000000110000000000111100000000000000011100000000000011010000000000111011000 000000011110000000000001101000000000000110111000000000000110100000000001101010000000000111100000000000011101100000000000000010000000001010100000000000011011100000000001111000000000 000000011000000000000001000000000000011010000000000011100000000000101011000000000001101010000000000001101000000000011110000000000010001100000000000000001000000000011010100000000001 001000000000000111011000000000001010000000000001111000000000000000111000000000100101100000000001101110000000000110100000000000011110000000000000000110000000000111100000000000011101 100000000000011010000000000000111000000000011110000000000001001000000000001001011000000000011011100000000010101000000000000111100000000000010010000000000000000010000000000000111000 000000011110100000000001101000000000000000010000000000011110000000000001111010000000000110100000000000011110000000000001001000000000001001011000000000000110100000000001001000000000 000111100000000000011101100000000010010110000000000111101000000000100011000000000000101000000000000111100000000000000110100000000010000100000000000100100000000000010101100000000000 011010000000000001100000000000000110000000000001110010000000001000100000000000011110000000000001110100000000001001011000000000011011100000000001111000000000000000001000000000000011 100000000001101000000000000110111000000000011010100000000001111000000000000000111000000000000110100000000001110110000000000111100000000000010111100000000001101110000000000111101000 000000011010000000000000000100000000000111100000000000010010000000000000000010000000000110101000000000010010000000000001010110000000000110101000000000011011100000000000111000000000 001000100000000000011110000000000000000110000000000111100000000000100001000000000000000010000000000101011000000000000110000000000000111000000000000110100000000000100110100000000001 001000000000000111100000000000010111100000000001101110000000000001101000000000011010100000000001111000000000000100100000000000000000100000000001111000000000000111011000000000011011 100000000001101110000000000111100000000000011110100000000001001000000000000010100000000000011110000000000000011010000000000110100000000000001110000000000001111000000000000000011000 000000011110000000000010110100000000000110100000000000011011100000000000001110000000000111100000000000011110100000000010000000000000000111100000000000000001100000000001111000000000 000011100000000000011110100000000000111000000000000110100000000000100110100000000001001000000000000111100000000000000001000000000001101110000000000100100000000000011110000000000000 000010000000000101011000000000010010000000000001111000000000000000001000000000100000000000000001111000000000001001011000000000011011100000000001101010000000000110111000000000001010 000000000001111000000000000000011000000000100110100000000000111000000000000111100000000000010111100000000001101110000000000111100000000000011010000000000001101110000000001010000000 000000010010000000000000101000000000000111100000000000011101100000000000000010000000000111100000000000000001100000000001111000000000001001001000000000010101100000000010101000000000 001000110000000000011011100000000000111000000000000111100000000000000000100000000001010110000000000100100000000000100010000000000001111000000000001001010000000000011010000000000001 111000000000001010100000000000011100100000000001111000000000000000111000000000000110100000000001110010000000000111100000000000010111100000000000011010000000001000010000000000101101 000000000001111000000000001001011000000000011011100000000001101010000000000110111000000000001010000000000001111000000000000100100000000000100101100000000001101110000000000111100000 000000000011100000000000000010000000000110101000000000101010000000000010010110000000000000001000000000000110000000000001101110000000000111100000000000100000000000000000000010000000 000110101000000000101010000000000001101110000000000011100000000000001010000000000001111000000000000001101000000000011010000000000000111000000000000111100000000000010010000000000010 010110000000000110111000000000011110000000000001101010000000000110111000000000011101100000000001001000000000000111100000000000011100100000000000000010000000000101011000000000011110 000000000000011010000000000001100000000000011010100000000001101110000000000001101000000000001110000000000001110010000000000111100000000000101101000000000001101000000000000000001000 00000000001110000000001000100"

He then says, "If you were wondering what I meant, I own a little translator right (url="http://"http://www.wanfried.com/george/stuff/encrypter.html")here(/url). You can use this however you want, so long as you can tell what I'm saying."

Maniak then gets up, and gets into his Arada, and speeds off into the distance.

------------------
Maniak hacks like
crazy!

OOC: What? You saw the ship before the wormhole formed? Quite unlikely, as the ship came through that wormhole.
No time react now, that'll come tomorrow.

(This message has been edited by Ta-vora (edited 11-21-2003).)

OOC: :rolleyes:

Larra studied the emblem. "Nope, never seen it," she replied cheerfully. "Then again, I don't spend much time her - Have you heard of the Codebreakers?" she asked suddenly, interrupting herself.
Ta-vora frowned thoughtfully, but shook his head.
"Didn't think you would have, but I was just curious. They're kind of like your Ka-nuth, from the sounds of them, except the Codebreaker's only concern is dimensional balance. Most aren't warriors, and they're kind of secretive."
"But you've heard of them."
Larra snorted. "I am one. Not high ranking, though."
"Can you dimensional travel?"
"Di-T*? That's how I got here," she replied lazily, sipping her chocolate milkshake.

Without warning, an evilly grinning Demon came from nowhere and jumped up on the table, causing everyone to jump.
"Want some advice?" he asked cheerfully, then continuing without waiting for a response.
"Don't order any Saalian brandy. Seeing as it's most popular, I switched the label with the strongest drink I could find. A Zidagar Blue something, I think. I heard it knocks you out cold."

*Di-T is Larra’s abbreviation for Dimensional Travel(ler).

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

Notes:

Paranoid, I suppose it's lucky that both you and I seem to have little time, as I can't keep up with the post rate of these others.

And no, I won't make up for it with volume...

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

A Web is Woven

Svass

"And the Dur'achi aid is flowing in in full?"

"Correct."

"Excellent," commended the Admiral. "Computer, open a channel to Voina. Direct line to his Majesty the Emperor. Authorization code 331-dremesh-03-ghâran."

(Authorization accepted. Connecting to Imperial Communications Network. Connection complete.)

A Voinian clothed in rich cloaks and capes filled the main viewscreen. There was an incredible aura about him that all who met him could only term an overwhelmingly extant presence. He looked even more powerful than Zathe Voltok, who was currently kneeling in front of the giant image. As was everyone else on the bridge.

"Arise, warriors of the Grand Empire."

All stood.

"Admiral Voltok. What do you have to say."

It wasn't truly a question. More of a command. The presence of the Emperor pervaded his spoken words as well. He was impossible to ignore.

"The 9th Fleet under the command of Commodore Orke reports readiness to commence with the assault. The 5th Fleet, commanded by Commodore Jemke, reports the same. They await your command."

"Let it be done then."

Admiral Voltok bowed his head. "As you will." The termination was cut, and the Admiral turned to face the ensign.

"Set course for Denlon. We've got work to do."

Gualon

"Fire."

"Aye sir."

A hundred spheres of deadly fire rained down on the Hinwar bases that had for long proved so elusive. But no longer. Various status bribes had been effective in buying some informants, and the VID had been able to infiltrate some particularly skilled agents into the Hinwar leadership. It was such intelligence work that had led to the location of the final bases.

The Emperor had authorized the search years ago. He, unlike many of his predecessors, had recognized the potential threat the Hinwar posed.

Thus it was that he had sent Commodores Orke and Jemke to Gualon.

Now the power of Voinian weaponry was felt in full as the deadly orbital bombardment made a brutal example of the insurgents. The body count rose rapidly. Tens of lives lost grew to hundreds, hundreds mounted to thousands, and thousands coalesced in their hundreds. In the span of one hour, half a million Hinwar had died.

Some, to be sure, escaped the initial bombardment. But the Commodores knew that would happen. So it was that they dispatched squadrons of landers, brimming with special forces troops, to root out the rebels from whatever bunkers, caves, or fortifications that had survived.

The Admiral and the Emperor, as well as the Commodores, knew that Gualon was not the only base for the Hinwar. But it was the main one. That they now knew. It had taken much time to trace through all the myriad archived transport records and locate the fifty cargo ships that could be solidly identified as Hinwar rebel ships. Operative smuggling vessels. And once the traffic was mapped, and the rough numbers made, it became instantly clear that Gualon was the heart that called for the stake.

And that stake was the Voinian Imperial Navy's 9th and 5th fleets.

The rebellion might well live on. But it wouldn't have the secret production facilities that were bound to have once existed there, judging from the supplies the Hinwar had smuggled in. It wouldn't have the vast communications network, nor the power base of a somewhat sympathetic semi-subject-slave population. No, the Empire won a great victory at Gualon. Now they needed to solidify on it, and eventually bring their victory back to the frontiers.

------------------
All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.
—J. R. R. Tolkien
(url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/ubb/search.cgi?action=intro&default;=26")The Search Feature(/url)

OOC: Right now I don't know what to think of maniac's post, as s/he said that s/he saw the ship being towed somewhere and then saw the wormhole forming.

Ta-vora looks at the strange wolf-like creature on the table. He had never seen a talking dog before, on the other side, there are stranger things in space.
His thoughts were interrupted when his wristcom beeped.
“Kre'Merah, two security officers just arrived. They demand access to the Azula.”
“Sche vii ka'reea not again. What exactly do they want?”
“They didn't say. But they demand your presence as well.”
“Demand my presence? Do they want to order me?”
“Apparentally. They say if we don't follow their orders, they would attack us with all the weapons of the spaceport.”
“Blaze guns, phhh! Lift off and cloak the ship.”
“Ayie, Kre'Merah.”
“Ta sche ma kae! This is the third time this happened since I'm in UE space. I explained two times that I'm not allowed to let them aboard my ship. They never listen. It looks like they're unable to improve their technologies alone. Do these guys always copy technology from other races?”
“Well, I guess everyone would be curious to see a Ka-nuth ship from the inside.” Strauss says.
“The Azula is not Ka-nuth. She is Karee. The Ka-nuth have ships on their own, but somehow I have never gotten around to purchase one. They're very expensive, you know. Then I got the Azula for a special mission. She's the second prototype and only existing model of the Aschee Nephilaan-class Ghost Ship, the first Karee ship equipped with a cloaking device. And ever since a UE ship saw us fighting against these pirates, they want to take a look at her technology. But as I said, I'm not allowed to look them. The Azula is experimental after all.”

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

the albatross, Atlantic station, liat System
"If this does degrade to combat, me and mina would be glad to help, I can't speak for everyone else though..."
Strauss trailed off, he sensed something far away, something malevolant.

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Hope is an edulgance I don't have time for - matrix