Peter nodded, and went back inside the Seydlitz.

-----

"However...if you hit just this spot here, on a normal Zidara, you can pull those PCLs offline and just wail on the armor 'till it's dead. Seems they discovered that weakness and pulled that off." Yeager said.

"Concentrated fire on the engines, blast the side thrusters, wail on their asses." Hermann said.

Peter came in, and shook his head. "No, there's going to be the fighters and other Zidaras closing in. If, just if, we can get some cover by an Igadzra Arada or an FLF Lazira or something, we can triple-gang one Zidara at a time."

"So, let me guess, two Helians, one Turncoat per Zidara, eh?"

Peter nodded. "I'll take on one Zidara with cover from two Impact-Alphas."

Yeager shook his head. "That's stupid, Pete. You'd get shredded before you could get in range."

"Assuming I take him from in front. However, you're still thinking somewhat 2-dimensionally. I can take him from below, from above and from the rear with no problems at all."

(- Kelmaon, Emalgha Territory -)

Tahal was silent for a long moment, his eyes fixed on Pael. He very nodded very slowly. When showed the body of the message from the Miranu in their broadly understood language, he rested one long, delicate finger over the Miran word for “Zidagar”.

“The Zidagar,” Tahal muttered with distaste. “The wolf: one of the lesser ones. I do not understand why they would attack the Miranu.” He fell silent then, thinking. This Kelmaon must be closer to Miranu territory than we are. They must also be a trade partner with the Miranu, to have learnt of this so quickly. It is quite possible that only the Azdgari in Raigar will learn of the Zidagar attack before I...

Tahal stood then. His tail, which had been curled up when he sat, straightened and made one short whip motion, as if signalling Tahal’s impatience. “Other Kelmaon. I must return through the Construct, to send a message. I will then return to this Kelmaon.” To make clear his last words, he touched the ground with the same delicate finger, crouching down to do so. Azhaurai had made a good choice with Tahal - he was proving even better at communicating with the Emalgha than Azhaurai had, his body language quite clear and telling when he wished.

Before Pael could respond, Tahal held up one finger. “Listen. Sit and listen carefully.” He pointed to a nearby chair. “Understand... What you can.”

Easily comprehending the request, but clearly unsure of his abilities to understand extended prose from Tahal, Pael complied. Tahal sat once more, and began to speak in Common Azdgari.

“Azdgari. Igadzra. Zidagar.” He began, emphasising each word and pointing his finger at three separate points on a table. He looked up to make sure Pael understood, and continued. “War,” he said then simply. “Emalgha and Voinians, is Azdgari and Igadzra, is Igadzra and Zidagar, is Zidagar and Azdgari.”

“We know Miranu - merchants, ne’azha.” For a moment Pael could not understand the last word, before realising it was simply translated as “not deadly”. Pael understood that it probably wasn’t a real word in Common Azdgari, but merely Tahal’s way of explaining to someone with such a limited understanding.

Tahal continued then, his words becoming more and more difficult to fully decipher. “The Zidagar attack on the Miranu is important. Azdgari in Raigar,” - His fingers sketched a map on the table whenever he mentioned a faction, and when he said Raigar he pointed to some distant place at the other side of Miranu space from wherever he pointed when talking of the Strands - “Will learn of this. I must tell Azdgari from other places. Where are we?”

Pael clearly understood admirably, and pointed on the table to a side of the Miranu away from Raigar entirely, and far from the Strands. It was, however, not all that far from Miranu space, which Tahal was surprised to learn.

“Voinians?” he inquired.

Pael pointed again at first, but then sketched out a large territory. Tahal’s eyes widened - it was a very large territory indeed, even as an estimate.

“Anyone else?”

Pael then sketched out an area next to the Voinians, and said “Humans. United Earth. Our friends, Voinians’ enemy.”

Tahal thought about this for a moment. There are factions nearby that we never knew about, likely with technology very different to ours. How might these factions be useful to us? These other two... The Voinians and the Humans, they are larger than the Emalgha. There is more to be gained, but also more risk.

“The Azdgari may help you fight the Voinians, Pael of the Emalgha,” Tahal said then after a moment. He pointed to Human space. “But tell them nothing. Nothing. Do you understand?”

Pael nodded, but seemed confused by this request.

“I return to my Kelmaon, and send a message to my Azdgari. Raigar’s Azdgari will fight Zidagar in Miranu space. Zidagar will fall. I will return here immediately to continue talking with the Emalgha, another will be sent later.”

“Will you come with me to my Kelmaon so I may send the message?”

As he waited for Pael’s reply, Tahal was thinking about the implications of what he had learnt. The brief fight with these Voinians had taught him that they were slow and clumsy, but there was something else - the Voinian starship from which they had disembarked had been very odd indeed, and had apparently had very poor shielding but some strange sort of armoured hull which had withstood an incredible amount of damage. In the Crescent, that sort of armour would be virtually inpenetrable, and Tahal was half afraid and half excited. If the lesser ones gained such armour they would be unstoppable - but if the Azdgari were to gain it...

The conclusion he was starting to come to was that if the Azdgari sold the Emalgha to the Voinians, they may just gain the advantage they needed to win the Strand War once and for all.

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

(- A meeting chamber, Morin, Chak -)

The others hadn’t turned up. Azhaurai’s absence was something they had all gotten used to by now and Chyi-Azhar had already said that there would be words once he returned, but none of the others had turned up. Apparently Runar and Chyi-Azhar had gone aside sometime this morning because they had “something to discuss”, but nobody knew where Ka-ruul was. The best guess was that he was enjoying himself in the Myrihas Wastelands, or spending his time off with some azdhara - if he could stand the sight of them after grudgingly having to spend time with Isa as per Chyi-Azhar’s instructions.

Zosen felt uncomfortable. Every day since the Battle of Elder, Chyi-Azhar had made it clear that all members of his squadron were to meet two hours after Morin’s dawn in this meeting chamber to discuss strategy, before pairing off and training. In about a week, Chyi-Azhar was holding a mock battle, with each of his squadron members in turn to attempt to outperform his Kohatsa in a simulated battle. It was an important event for the squadron and they were supposed to be training for it.

The lack of training for it wasn’t the main reason Zosen felt uncomfortable, though. In the large, semi-spherical room where he sat, his tail curled, there was another there. The only other member of the squadron to arrive - Isa. She had been there before him, just as she had been there before anyone every single time, it seemed. She sat up against a wall and had said nothing since Zosen had entered, glancing his way only once. They had waited now for twenty minutes, and Zosen wasn’t sure whether or not to break the silence. He knew that if Chyi-Azhar was unable to show up, he would expect the others to train without him.

Zosen was dressed in a plain grey uniform, appropriate for whatever training Chyi-Azhar might ask them to undergo - several times now the training had been purely physical and had not even involved their Azdaras. Isa was dressed in a similar fashion but, surprisingly, in white. White was a colour the Azdgari wore very rarely for clothing, and yet Isa always wore pure white, a sharp contrast to her perfectly black hair, relatively short compared to Zosen’s, which was already below his shoulder.

He was finding it difficult to sit around with nothing to do without glancing at her, and was starting to feel that she must have noticed by now. He still couldn’t understand whether he resented her or felt sympathy for her. She was an azdhara , and this was not her place. He kept trying to tell himself what he knew the others believed, what must be true.

“Why have you not left?” she asked. He flinched out of surprise, and felt embarrassed for his instinctive reaction. He hadn’t expected her to speak - she’d seemed in another world entirely ever since he arrived.

“Naha-... Chyi-Azhar will show up eventually. Or Ka-ruul will,” Zosen replied as calmly as he could achieve. “’til then there’s nothing to do but wait here.”

Isa didn’t seem at all impressed by his reply. She shifted then, so she was leaning with her back to the wall rather than her side, and peered at him. “Ka’ won’t show, he doesn’t think much of having an “ azdhara whore” assigned to him, even after I saved his life. Chyi’ and Runar went off an hour ago to talk, they won’t be coming.”

Zosen blinked. “You knew they weren’t coming? Why didn’t you tell me earlier? ...Why are you even still here?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Waiting for you to suggest we race. I heard you almost beat Chyi’ a while ago...”

“I’m not racing with a-...” He stopped speaking. With an azdhara whore? Do you even believe that? “Why are you here, Isa?” He asked instead, his voice level. He wasn’t sure why he’d asked. Because he was curious - because he’d been curious ever since hearing that Hyaishi had assigned Isa to Chyi-Azhar’s squadron. He wasn’t really expecting an answer, though. She hadn’t given Runar an answer to the very same question some weeks ago.

“I can fly Azdaras, and Chyi’ trains well,” Isa replied simply, sounding surprisingly honest and open about it. “Hyaishi is an Arada pilot, and he wanted someone skilled to train me. Ten minutes reading through the Index tells you there’s no-one better than Chyi’.”

“But why-...”

“Why an azdhara? ” Isa retorted. She stretched. “Well, why ever not?”

Why ever not? Most Azdgari could spend all day answering exactly why not, but Zosen... couldn’t. He was only nineteen and had not yet been fully educated in Azdgari history. He had far too many unanswered questions.

When Isa realised Zosen wasn’t going to reply, she spoke once more. “Zosen, can you beat me in a race?” The question was surprisingly phrased - an Azdgari would have challenged him directly, not asked him if he was capable.

Zosen nodded. “Probably. Where do you want to race?”

“How about the same course on the Myrihas that nearly killed you a few weeks back?”

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

Zosen’s Ranira’kyin had performed several manoeuvres across Chaka IV since returning from the Battle of Elder, and others before that under Chyi-Azhar’s new squadron, but the return to Chaka IV’s choked yellow-dust landscape seemed more meaningful this time. For the first time since the time he had lost the Raniras and nearly died, he would fly the Daravizhal , the infamous course through the length of the Myrihas that had claimed more lives than any other in the Crescent. Before the accident some weeks ago he had raced the Daravizhal a dozen times, and in reality, the conditions today were nowhere near as bad as they had been, but Zosen was frightened.

The Ranira’kyin floated in high orbit above Chaka IV, its hypersensors surveying the beginning of the course - five hundred kilometres of territory with little in the way of obstacles before entering a maze half that length that spiralled underground for many kilometres. Once out of that nightmarish setting, the first tenth of the course was over. From there, it only became worse.

The interesting difference this time was that the _Ranira’kyin(i/) was powered by the Impulse drive, the revolutionary new system of propulsion that had rendered even the Daravizhal if not easy, then far more managable. All in all, he shouldn’t be worried, but he still was.

The Astarsi hovered below his Azdara, surprisingly close. There weren’t really any established rules on how close Azdaras would tend to go, although it had become such common practice to usually stay at least a kilometre apart due to dispersal rockets, and at least forty metres in squadrons, that the extreme proximity of the Astarsi worried Zosen slightly more. His hypersensors weren’t even reading a metre in the distance between.

“Can you do this, Zosen?” Isa asked over a comm. line. He was once again surprised at how she phrased her questions - very odd. At this stage, taunting would be far more expected.

He was about to reply when he realised he wasn’t entirely sure what to say. An uncomfortable moment passed. “Let’s start on the next minute,” he said finally.

Seven more seconds of waiting, and one minute passed to another. Impulse drive already powered up, the drive quickly created a singularity which Zosen spun around his ship until it was almost directly below his Azdara. The Astarsi and the Ranira’kyin both descended quickly, Zosen shifted his singularity to move slightly to the right before continuing his ship’s descent. Almost forgetting, he flipped on the altitude warning system, already calibrated to the rules of Daravizhal. If he began to fly too far from land, it would warn him quickly and he could return before losing the race. He also switched on the race-map, switched off his hypersensors, and grudgingly, lowered his shields entirely once he had entered into the lower atmosphere.

The race was on.

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

(- Groned -)

As Charhin’s Arada re-entered realspace in Groned after a long journey from Morin, sensor reports quickly noted a number of militia fighters in the system, and a reasonable amount of trade. It seemed Groned was doing quite well for itself these days, which was always good to hear. For decades they had been bothered by Neslaut, but some time ago the Igadzra had intervened, Charhin had heard.

He was aware that this was probably going to be his least successful stop, but Hyaishi had asked him to contact every Strandless colony, and since it was necessary to travel through Groned to reach the others, Charhin had figured he might as well try. His pipe and book were in the back of the Arada now, and he had doffed his hat before taking the pilot’s seat.

About two hours before he had arrived, Hyaishi’s message would’ve been received. Charhin had supplied Hyaishi with the contact details for who he thought was in charge of various Strandless colonies, but it was always quite difficult to tell. In the case of Groned’s colony, it was interesting. Apparently, Groned had been occupied, and recently, and as of now the planet was under control by a pseudo-democratic government that was fairly young. It was highly likely that they would resist any attempts at negotiation from anyone, as they had too much to deal with on their own world at the moment. Furthermore, it appeared that the Igadzra had liberated it recently by a combination of force and fear. For that more than anything, Groned would not listen.

Almost immediately after entering Groned, Charhin received confirmation of his thoughts. Several Laziras in the system read as being Igadzran in origin, and a message was sent to his Arada almost immediately.

“We are not interested in your lies. Leave us alone.”

Charhin quickly responded on a far more cheerful note.

“Headin’ out to Hindros and beyond anyway. I’ll be comin’ back this way later. Hope you’re not fussed or anythin’. This is the only system a poor trader like me can go through to reach some of my friends in the South Tip, and I’m sure you wouldn’t want to call such restrictions on ‘yer space. Would no doubt ruin ‘yer reputation and incite certain folk to get angry. Quite damagin’ on ‘yer economy, I’d think. Amongst other things.”

The message was simple and clear. A few minutes later, it was responded to.

“Non-military ships are always welcome to pass through Groned, but Azdgari military vessels will be turned back. Any attempts to land exiles on our world will be responded to with force.”

Charhin grinned and replied.

“Ain’t hardly gonna’ happen anymore. The Azdgari aren’t doin’ that anymore, so I’ve heard. Keep safe anyway, ain’t a good idea t’ get caught up in the Strand War these days. Folks say things are about to get nasty.”

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

(- In hyperspace to Duios... -)

Charhin had known that Groned wasn’t going to go well, but at least he had found out that non-military ships wouldn’t be stopped. Although any sort of peace treaty with Groned wasn’t going to happen, at least moving onwards would be possible. The next stop was Duios, and again, this was key. If Duios refused entirely, he would have to turn back to Azdgari space. One system at a time - if Duios allowed him through, he could attempt to talk with Tibidat and Unobot’s governments. Hrinix, Bakoom and Akrayhek followed. There was no point talking to Feviry’s governments, as Charhin knew that they were under the control of the Igadzra. With force and fear, the Igadzra had gained much influence in the South Tip already... But it was soon to end.

He didn’t entirely like what Hyaishi planned, but he had to admit, it was genius. And while there certainly was a hidden intention behind what he was doing, Charhin had realised that his childhood friend entirely meant to keep his promises. The Strandless would no longer be exiles, the azdharai would be freed...

Of course, that did leave one more promise, but they both knew it was an impossible one, and Charhin had accepted that long ago.

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

(- Duios -)

Upon entering the system, Charhin had been invited to land on Hindros’ main dock and meet with a group of Strandless who would take him to a meeting room where, apparently, a Zidagar Strandless would await him. The process had taken a few hours in the end, as the Hindrosians had understandably wanted to perform routine (or perhaps more than routine) scans of Charhin’s ship to ensure there was no trickery taking place. Charhin had readily agreed to completely power down his Arada to satisfy the Hindrosians that he was no threat. All that time, however, he knew that if his ship had contained one or more hypercubes, they would’ve been undetected. Hypercubes released no energy signatures and simply appeared to be small boxes - easily hidden.

Eventually, Charhin stood face to face with a Zidagar who claimed to be of some importance on Hindros. What Charhin had quickly realised was that Tibidat and Hindros now appeared to be inter-connected, although Hindros still retained enough independence to see him personally, which was encouraging.

Charhin was shown a seat and the two sat opposite each other across a table, half-Azdgari facing half-Zidagar.

“I am pleased that you did not arrive here with an Azdgari warband at your back demanding audience, but pray tell, what is your business here?” the Zidagar asked bluntly. He was certainly forthright, and Charhin respected that.

“I’m sure you’ve heard a little about me from the message you received earlier,” Charhin began his explanation, “in that I am in some ways as much Strandless as you are. I’ve spent many years in the South Tip and, from my appearance alone... you can tell I hardly consider myself Azdgari anymore. The truth of it is, I’m here as an intermediary between the Azdgari and the Strandless.”

“Evidently. But if you are not Azdgari, why do you represent them?”

“Friendship,” Charhin shrugged. “In one form or another, friendship is what the Azdgari are founded upon, which I’d guess is hard for anyone non-Azdgari to understand. Friendship, respect, rivalry, masters and subordinates, mentors and students... In my case, I’m here between I’m childhood friends with he who is closest to becoming the Master of the Azdgari. He and I made promises to each other in the past, and whereas I fear I abandoned some of mine, it seems he intends to keep his.”

The Zidagar raised an eyebrow at the surprising response for a diplomat, while Charhin opened his case, which had of course been inspected beforehand, and passed him a document.

“Herein is Hyaishi’s statement to all Strandless. I assure you, there is no trickery here. The Azdgari are changing.”

_To those who were wronged,

From this day forth, it is the Azdgari’s intention to cease all hostility with you. Our criminals, and unfortunates of the Index, will no longer be exiled to your lands. Those amongst you of Azdgari descent may request asylum in our space, and return as respected Azdgari. The mentality of “Strandless inferiority” will come to an end and the Azdgari will officially respect your worlds as foreign territories, a respect that to date has only been given to the Miranu.

While our potential as allies is severely limited by the Igadzra presence, the Azdgari wish for peace and mutual respect between us. While the Strand War seems unlikely to ever end, here at least, some wrong can be made right.

-Hyaishi of the Azdgari_

Below Hyaishi’s name were signatures, the Zidagar saw. As he flipped through several pages, he realised the signatures continued over dozens of pages.

“How many names are here?” the Zidagar asked curiously.

“Over four thousand. We would have collected more, but Hyaishi felt it was imperative to come soon. The support within out people is great, I assure you,” Charhin responded coolly. The only lie that I’ll tell today.

“This is all very interesting - indeed, it is completely unheard of, but... What exactly do the Azdgari expect out of this? Let us be candid for a moment. What do you want out of this?”

Charhin shrugged. “This isn’t about our material profit. A state of trade between us is impossible, as the Igadzra would discover it and attack you, no doubt. Groned is only lucky that its trade with the Igadzra will not result in murder on our behalf.”

“You imply that the Strandless worlds would do best to trade with the Igadzra, then?” the Zidagar asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I can’t make promises. For decades the Strandless have stayed away from the affairs of the Raven, Wolf and Bear, and on the whole it seems that this is the best stance for you. All I’m here to say is that the Raven at least is willing to put aside its petty differences.”

Charhin’s way of speaking of the Azdgari surprised the Zidagar then. For as long as anyone could remember, the Azdgari had referred to the Zidagar as the Wolf - their word in Common Azdgari for a very similar animal native to Azdgar, at least - and the Igadzra as the Bear. There was also a literary pun in the Azdgari’s name for themselves in Common Azdgari and a bird very similar to the Earth raven, which had earnt the connection there. Referring to all three in one sentence as the Raven, Wolf and Bear was uncommon however. The Strandless and Miranu both referred to the three as they referred to themselves - respectively Azdgari, Zidagar and Igadzra.

The Zidagar appeared to be considering this. “The Hindrosians will not turn the Azdgari away if that is all they offer. We are gladdened by your honesty, and in truth, how you arrived here is fitting with your story. As you may know, the Igadzra approached the Tibidatans not long ago, with a fleet at their backs. Not only was it threatening to our people, but had either the Zidagar or Azdgari learnt of this...”

“The Azdgari do know,” Charhin replied. “From me anyway - Hyaishi knows. Of course, we can’t have people allying with our enemies, but Hyaishi and I were both confident that Tibidat did not do any such thing. Unfortunately, I happen to have recently confirmed rumours that Ursla and Nimor, in Feviry...”

“It is true,” the Zidagar replied. “I have also heard such news. But know that we will not allow your military ships to pass through our space. If you attempt such a thing, you will be forcing your way through and we will make that known to the Igadzra when they question us about it.”

“Indeed. However, would the passage of non-military ships through your space - not marked as Azdgari - be reasonable?”

There was some short discussion about this, an agreement finally reached. Charhin was not disappointed. At first, he had wanted to know why they wished such non-military ships to pass through Strandless space, but they had been satisfied with the explanation of exploration and contact with the other Strandless. In the process, Charhin had promised to reveal something else, and as that discussion was settled, the time was upon him.

“There is one other matter I must discuss...” Charhin began. Not the most important to us, but... We could use at least one of these worlds agreeing... “Firstly, we are willing to gift to the Hindrosians our advanced shield technology. This is a gift, and nothing more. We understand that the Hindrosians are peaceful and I respect that, but there is always use for advanced shield technology, in other places than combat. And should it come to it...”

“You will expect something in return, I’m sure?”

“Of sorts. The shield technology is yours regardless. However... one last deal we are asking to make with you. We can supply you with a communications device, which you can use to communicate with us or anyone else at a faster pace than modern hyper-communication devices. We ask you use this to tell us of passing Igadzra flee-”

The Zidagar shook his head outright. “No. We will not become involved in the Strand War. There is no discussion.”

Charhin nodded respectfully, having expected such a response. He reached into his case and pulled out a small plastic box, within which was a data chip. He placed it on the table and closed the case. “Schematics for advanced shield technology, including our superior shield regenerative abilities and, more recently, Level 4 phase shielding.” The designs included everything except overload regeneration, which could not be gifted to the Strandless without it becoming obvious to anyone in a combat situation with them that it was the same shielding the Azdgari used. “Overall, you can expect an increase in shield capacity in the region of 30%, and in shield regeneration in the region of 50%. You’ll be able to make more stable shields and probably smaller systems as well, with some work. Use it as you wish. Throw it away if you don’t care. This is a gift, and we expect nothing in return.”

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

(- In hyperspace to Tibidat... -)

In a few more hours, Charhin would arrive in Tibidat, prepared to make the same statements he had made to the Hindrosians. This time, he was intending to try harder to convince the Tibidatians to accept the communication deal. With the location of Tibidat, only Hrinix’s information was more valuable to the Azdgari.

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

R &D

Level 5 Phase Shielding (Upgrade)
5/7 days.

Kyhaani Shipyards
1/18 days.

Subdimensional Research, Stage Two: Subspace-Interface Nexus
9/10 days.

Azdgari Raider Outfitting (3/3, complete 04/02/05.)
Azdara Hyperdrive Refit (3/3, complete 01/02/05.)
Phase Stealth Field (9/9, complete 28/02/05.)
Impulse-1 Refit (2/2, complete 26/02/05.)
Phase-Arada Refit (2/2, complete 24/02/05.)
Graviton Impulse Drive (Model: I-1) (8/8, complete 24/02/05.)
Subdimensional Research, Stage One: Hypercube Project (12/12, complete 23/02/05.)
Azdgari Hyperdrive (5/5, complete 16/02/05.)
Level 4 Phase Shielding (7/7, complete 18/02/05.)

Azdgari Raider Outfitting is effectively stalled until the end of the Zidagar invasion, i.e. it’s completed, but won’t appear until after the invasion. Kyhaani Shipyards will be explained in the OOC thread soon, but are also effectively stalled until the end of the Zidagar invasion -- i.e. I won’t post about them beginning construction until after the Zidagar are driven off.

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

Azdgari Fleet

Fleet: 4275 Azdaras, 765 Azdgari Aradas, 150 Azdgari Warships, 596 Freight Aradas, 15 Hypercubes(9 full), 10 Phase-Aradas.
In limbo: 280 Azdaras, 40 Azdgari Aradas, 4 Hypercubes.
Production: 280 Azdaras, 40 Azdgari Aradas, 4 Hypercubes.

Molar: 1039 Azdaras, 239 Azdgari Aradas, 80 Azdgari Warships. Inc. the Kisande.
Tollb: 1839 Azdaras, 239 Azdgari Aradas. Inc. the Tzi(9 full hypercubes). Inc. the Tzi.
Chak: 1222 Azdaras, 239 Azdgari Aradas, 70 Azdgari Warships, 10 Phase-Aradas(6 hypercubes). Inc. the (i)Kohatsa, Triada, Ranira’kyin, Kirandas, Astarsi, Zaarisha._
Raigar: 115 Azdaras, 48 Azdgari Aradas.

60 Azdaras are said to be involved in scanning and patrolling.

Patrolling... DSN-2298, DSN-6107, DSN-5468, Siqwe, DSN-5553, DSN-9041, Novish, Racet, Karra, Funit, Reban, Kacca, Calb, Elridi, DSN-2143, DSN-1273, Dafi, Emnin, Dirach, Lontri, Toi, Plate, Kade, Tinar, Meagh, Azdgari, Leka, Kelmaon, Marafey, DSN-682, DSN-2189, DSN-8204, Elder, Mordus.

Scanning... Qerid, Fluron, Plogok, Terapin, Mark, Nujja, Norhis, Motif.

This post has been edited by SilverDragon : 05 March 2005 - 03:23 PM

Leaving Feviry, the FLF 'fleet' and the Mercinary Task Fleet arrived in Threefrog--and were met by a mess. Worried that the Zidigar might breach the weakened frontier civilians evacuated in droves, non-military vessels made panic-ing attempts to leave, but many were cot off by others more frantic than they. The comparitively small military detatchment the Igadzra had deployed in-system tryed their best to keep the panic subdued but continued to have trouble maintaining order...If Threefrog was to come under siege it would have to be better organized to have even the whisper of a prayer of survival. Ersadit would have to wait; Threefrog was in more desperate need of assistance. Patching into the comm network Iagraz began to state his intentions.

"This is Policing Commander Iagraz, on assignment. I need to talk to the local executor; if we're going to make a stand angainst the Zidigar it is going to be here--I expect full well that the system will be prepared by that time. High Command has already informed me of the situation, now we need to improve on it. Can we be of assistance?"

---
Ship Production:
2 Laziras (Production Acceleration Now in Effect)
---
Fleet Status:

12 Crescent Fighters: Standing By
4 Aradas: Standing By
10 Laziras (standard): (8 in Threefrog)
2 Miranu Couriers: (in Threefrog)
---
Research:

Hyperquartz Research (Phase 1):
Find a way to cheaply produce refined hyperquartz refraction crystals, research retooling them into power-cells, conduits, and capactiors.
ETA: 2 days

This post has been edited by ~vIsitor~ : 05 March 2005 - 12:19 PM

Kelmaon

Pael waited a few moments, translating the last few words. Well, what he could make of the last few words. He slowly attempted a response; Common Azdgari was far easier to understand than it was to speak.

"Yes. You at my Kelmaon. You and I go at your Kelmaon." He thought for a moment, but didn't say anything. So, the Azdgari, and Igadzra, and the Zidagar are all fighting eachother. They all have an equal amount of space, and much therefore be equally matched. So, the question is, why are they fighting?

"Yes. You and I go today." Pael grabbed his backpack, which he had packed a few days before, and motioned for Tahal to follow. They began the short walk from Tahal's temporary home to the Construct.

-----

"Anything new?" Pael was now speaking in Voinian to the lead computer engineer, Tyran.

"Not really. We've discovered that directly before and after the teleport is complete, a low level energy sweeps through the Construct. It seems to only destroy things small than a grain of sand, I guess to keep the place clean for travellers. If the door is jammed open, or there's anything larger than a grain of sand in there in the same location as a traveller on the other side, the device won't activate." Pael looked at Tyran for a moment.

"I'm sorry, I meant, anything useful?"

"Oh. No. Well, yes; we replaced a few gears, and we think that it will fix the repetition problem some people have when they go through." Pael nodded as Tyran looked at Tahal.

"Hey, your friend there's looking pretty restless." Pael turned to see Tahal whiping his tail about. Pael spoke in Common Azdgari.

"We go today." Pael looked at Tyran, and walked inside. Tahal followed. A voice came over the loudspeaker in Voinian.

"Everyone ready? Activating Construct." Pael turned to Tahal.

"You will enjoy to listen past at... of, past of Voinians and Emalgha-gha-"

-----
Kelmaon

"-ns?" Tahal shrugged noncommittally. Pael mentally cursed Tyran as he went on to tell Tahal some facts about the Voinians and Emalghans in skewered Common Azdgari.

----------
Research and Development

Hyperspace Telescope: ETA: 4 Days (Wednesday, March 9th)

In the small regional spaceport of Huron, a single man in a United Earth Commander’s uniform looked around carefully before walking into the spaceport bar. His contact at the far end of the room gave the signal, so Mark Jones walked to that particular table and sat down.
“Look, we need to talk.” The contact said this nervously while looking around the room.
“Do we?”
“Indeed. I’ve recieved word from our glorious leader that the time has come to bring peace and liberty to this planet once and for all.”
Mark nodded and stood up.
The contact sat back and pounded his fist against the table.
“For the people!”
------
The Senate was in an uproar. Exactly seven hours ago, a report had arrived stating that an extremely large force of troops, supposedly “poorly-trained freighter crewmembers”, had landed on Huron and demanded that the regional authorities surrender. When they refused and called for help from their defense fleet, the fleet announced that it was joining the rebels. With such a superior force in front of them, the governor was forced to surrender. The planet now called itself the capital of the Huron Republic, a government with the mission of “saving humanity from United Earth”. There was only one course left...
-----
Zachary Corridon, having returned to Avann after the fleet did not respond to his communications, but similarly did not attack, recieved a message stating that Huron had fallen to some type of rebel force and that he would be required at Sol immediately. Sighing, he looked around the bridge.
“It looks like we won’t be getting that annual vacation after all.”

-----Huron Rebellion Fleet And Construction*----
Liberty Force
10 U.E. Carriers
30 U.E. Destroyers
50 U.E. Fighters
400 Freight-Couriers
5 Scoutships

• No new ships will be built unless the Rebellion takes a U.E. planet capable of building ships.

------United Earth Fleet and Construction
219 Carriers
881 Destroyers
1,135 U.E. Fighters
300 Freight Couriers
95 Scoutships
550 mines
Per Day: 4 Carriers, 23 Destroyers, 30 Fighters
Earth: 4 Carriers, 10 Destroyers, 20 Fighters (All work will be temporarily done on building mines for the nearby systems; an average of 50 mines a day is built)
New Taranto: 2 Carriers, 13 Destroyers, 20 Fighters
Paaren: 3 Carriers, 10 Destroyers, 10 Fighters

United Earth Force Locations:

Voina Liberation Front
83 Carriers
340 Destroyers
565 Fighters

Location: Sol

Defense Fleets:

Verril Fleet
30 U.E. Carriers
82 U.E. Destroyers
130 U.E. Fighters <150>
(Twenty of the U.E. Fighters are patrolling Yandros and the surrounding systems, and, like Carnotaur’s old Patrol Interceptors, will stay where they can jump and only take scans of the enemy fleets)
Centauri Fleet
30 U.E. Carriers
75 U.E. Destroyers
62 U.E. Fighters

Eltor/Sol Defensive Fleet
76 U.E. Carriers
384 U.E. Destroyers
420 U.E. Fighters

Sol Defenses:
Earth Station (six blaze turrets, three hunter missile launchers, fifty hunter missiles, 1200/1200 protection; pre-equipped with above stuff)

Centauri Defenses:
Centauri Station (six blaze turrets, three hunter missile launchers, fifty hunter missiles, 1200/1200 protection; pre-equipped with above stuff)
550 space mines

---PROJECTS---

Predator Missile. This missile is effectively a cross between the needle missile and hunter missile; it is small and uses a simplified (and, although slightly inferior in the realm of targetting things, is harder to jam) version of the Needle Missile’s guidance systems, but it packs a punch much more similar to that of the Hunter missile. It functions as an effective cross of both...
Stats: 50% of the damage of the Hunter Missile, 95% of the speed of the Needle Missile, 1 ton, and a firing rate that is the same as that of the Needle Missile. 20-ton launchers.

All ships mounting Hunters or Mini-Hunters will have them replaced by Predators with twice as much ammo (naturally). Railguns on the existing United Earth warships will be decreased by one each to sport one and two Predator launchers respectively.
ETA: Five days.

Swordfish GP-1 Fighter-Bomber
Shields: 200
Armor: 75
Speed: 290
Accel: 625
Manuever: 150 deg/sec
Fuel: 4 jumps
Shield Recharge: 2.68 points per second
Cargo: 1 tons
Space: 3 tons
MaxGuns/Turrets: 5/0
Mass: 14 tons
Length: 8 meters
Crew: 1
Special: none
Weapons:
4 Blaze Cannons
1 Space Mine Launcher + 2 Space Mines
1 Predator Launcher + 6 Predators
ETA: Seven days; subject to moderation. All U.E. Carriers will mount three of these fighters instead of five U.E. Fighters.

Jumpgate research. This project, upon completion, will enable humanity, with special modules or ships, to create subspace tunnels that allow instant travel between place to place. Gateships can select certain locations, but only ones that are already on the official map. A mapped system must be under or have been under the control of humanity, an ally, or simply uninhabited. In addition, gateships require a massive amount of power. There are many other pieces of information that haven’t been generated yet that will hopefully be created during the development of this technology. ETA: Four days.

U.E. Corvette modification for the U.E. Destroyer. Protection is brought down by 15%, but the speed is brought up to 220. ETA: Finished. (Fusion Reactor not counted into total.)

Fusion Reactor. Will increase general turning and engine power (acceleration and top speed) by 1 and 50 for all ships and projectile weapons. It will also increase production in grain factories. (Although that isn’t relevant to the story.) ETA: Finished.

Note: In tech, I’m going by date, rather than by night.

(- Kelmaon, the Crescent -)

As Pael and Tahal walked out of the Construct back onto Kelmaon, Tahal quickly realised that this desolate, abandoned Kelmaon was the one he had always known. The Emalgha creature walking beside him was speaking in a ruined, unsure form of Common Azdgari. Impressive how much he’s learnt in such a short time, I suppose.

Tahal realised then that there was one thing different about the Kelmaon he had always known - dozens of aliens like Pael were here now, apparently archeologists examining the site, noting down the symbols and talking in low, hushed tones in a language whose individual sounds Tahal could barely even distinguish.

“Years hundred ago Voinians... Voinians... make so we no do what want do?”

“Enslaved,” Tahal offered. It helped that he was fluently bilingual - he spoke Common Azdgari and Miran both quite easily and could switch. While almost all Azdgari knew Miran as a secondary language only about a tenth could say they knew it as well as Common. It was still difficult trying to communicate with the alien but he was managing.

“Yes... enslaved.” Pael spoke the word several more times quietly, as if commiting it to memory. “After many years hundred later, we made free ourselves. Since then, we war.”

Tahal nodded, seemingly paying little attention as they walked across the choked landscape of Kelmaon. He was relieved to see his Azdara still on the land nearby. He did continue to listen to Pael as they made their way to Tahal’s Azdara, although the Azdgari silenced him with one hand as he climbed aboard his vessel, powering up its drive and hypercomm, and quickly sent off a message to his fellows.

Once he was done, he climbed back out of the Azdara to find Pael staring at it in wonder. “Azdara,” Tahal said simply. Pael nodded and smiled, obviously impressed by the extremely advanced vessel.

From what Tahal had managed to learn of the Emalgha, they had been enslaved by the Voinians many centuries ago, and had fought for their freedom. They continued to survive against a far superior foe, despite being massively outnumbered. Lately, they had discovered the United Earth, and formed an alliance of desperation with them against the Voinians. Their courage in fending the Voinians off Kelmaon - a ground attack they did not seem unused to - was admirable, but they clearly were unskilled. Tahal himself had shot down at least thirty of these Voinians, while the Emalgha defenders on the whole had struggled against the poorly equipped and foolish enemies that attacked them.

Tahal sat down amongst the rubble, motioning for Pael to do the same. He had brought a large datapad with him, a notepad-shaped computer with a holographic display, and he rested it on his lap, looking at Pael and wondering how to go about this so that Pael would understand. Motioning for Pael to wait a moment, Tahal went at the datapad for a few minutes, until eventually, he had produced on the display a scene depicting an Azdgari warband.

“Azdgari,” he said by means of explanation. “Us.” He pointed out and named the Azdara, the Arada, and the Azdgari warship. He then brought up displays of Igadzra and Zidagar fleets, naming them according to their names in Common, meaning Wolf and Bear. He gave them their true names then - Igadzra and Zidagar, though somewhat grudgingly.

He then tried to explain things that had happened over the last century and a half -- the near destruction of the Azdgari, their return under Dakun-isei to prominence, and lately, of the Zidagar’s power. He explained that the Azdgari had spend the last decade mostly apathetic and not acting, and how the Igadzra had returned to power and now, they were looking straight in the eye of a flashpoint. He also explained that the Zidagar’s attack on the Miranu represented a betrayal of a semi-alliance, and that something was happening that he didn’t entirely understand but that would no doubt change the Crescent forever.

Pael listened attentatively, and Tahal was careful to state things simply. They worked together, and using pictures from the datapad, after about an hour, managed to clarify things.

“How did this start?” Pael asked then, and when Tahal looked confused, Pael’s face expressed embarrassment, as he clearly thought he’d said the wrong word.

“No. Good question,” Tahal responded.

There was silence then. He wanted to answer it, but he didn’t know. He didn’t have the slightest idea at all.

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

R &D

Level 5 Phase Shielding (Upgrade)
6/7 days

Kyhaani Shipyards
2/18 days

SIN Refit
0/2 days

Subdimensional Research, Stage Two: Subspace-Interface Nexus (10/10, complete 06/03/05.)
Azdgari Raider Outfitting (3/3, complete 04/02/05.)
Azdara Hyperdrive Refit (3/3, complete 01/02/05.)
Phase Stealth Field (9/9, complete 28/02/05.)
Impulse-1 Refit (2/2, complete 26/02/05.)
Phase-Arada Refit (2/2, complete 24/02/05.)
Graviton Impulse Drive (Model: I-1) (8/8, complete 24/02/05.)
Subdimensional Research, Stage One: Hypercube Project (12/12, complete 23/02/05.)
Azdgari Hyperdrive (5/5, complete 16/02/05.)
Level 4 Phase Shielding (7/7, complete 18/02/05.)

SIN refit - subspace-interface nexuses built in every Azdgari ship, and also built on planets for communication purposes.

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

Azdgari Fleet

Fleet: 4275 Azdaras, 765 Azdgari Aradas, 150 Azdgari Warships, 596 Freight Aradas, 15 Hypercubes(9 full), 10 Phase-Aradas.
In limbo: 420 Azdaras, 60 Azdgari Aradas, 6 Hypercubes.
Production: 140 Azdaras, 20 Azdgari Aradas, 2 Hypercubes.

Molar: 1039 Azdaras, 239 Azdgari Aradas, 80 Azdgari Warships. Inc. the Kisande.
Tollb: 1839 Azdaras, 239 Azdgari Aradas. Inc. the Tzi(9 full hypercubes). Inc. the Tzi.
Chak: 1222 Azdaras, 239 Azdgari Aradas, 70 Azdgari Warships, 10 Phase-Aradas(6 hypercubes). Inc. the Kohatsa, Triada, Ranira’kyin, Kirandas, Astarsi, Zaarisha.
Raigar: 115 Azdaras, 48 Azdgari Aradas.

60 Azdaras are said to be involved in scanning and patrolling.

Patrolling... DSN-2298, DSN-6107, DSN-5468, Siqwe, DSN-5553, DSN-9041, Novish, Racet, Karra, Funit, Reban, Kacca, Calb, Elridi, DSN-2143, DSN-1273, Dafi, Emnin, Dirach, Lontri, Toi, Plate, Kade, Tinar, Meagh, Azdgari, Leka, Kelmaon, Marafey, DSN-682, DSN-2189, DSN-8204, Elder, Mordus.

Scanning... Qerid, Fluron, Plogok, Terapin, Mark, Nujja, Norhis, Motif.

This post has been edited by SilverDragon : 07 March 2005 - 11:15 AM

Crescent Kelmaon

Pael sat in the silence, thinking. There was something bigger going on here... Someone of such caliber in battle had to be of a decent rank, and even he didn't know. Pael looked at the sky.

"We go Azdgari?" Tahal shook he head.

"Then we go my Kelmaon."

"Yes. There is nothing left for me to do here." They walked back into the tunnel. Pael motioned for Tahal to stop.

"What message speak?"

"I told my government that the Miranu are under attack." Pael nodded.

"Wait small time." Tahal sat down, deep in thought, as Pael conversed with the archaeologists in Voinian.

"What have you found?" The lead archaeologist pointed to a few things on the wall.

"There's a lot more here than there is on our Kelmaon, probably because of all the damned Voinians bombing runs back home. There's something strange though; in all 3 languages on this wall, the word meaning Kelmaon is written the same."

"Interesting. Anything else?"

"Yeah, the Construct was mainly used for trading purposes between these two planets, and possibly others. We're learning most of our stuff from the computers, I'm not sure why they wrote things on the walls."

"Well... keep up the good work."

"Thank you. Oh, and Tyran sent a message through the Construct saying he turned up the pilot light enough to send messages through the Construct." Pael raised a furry eyebrow.

"Thank you. We'll be going now." With that, he turned and nodded to Tahal, who walked steadily into the Construct. Pael followed, and typed in a few things on the wall. As the door closed and the inner ring slid into place, he thought contently that he w-w-.

-----
West Kelmaon

-as getting the hang of this.

They hadn't taken three steps before Tyran rushed in.

"Pael! There's something you need to see!" Pael nodded at Tahal and spoke in Common Azdgari.

"You go home. I be home in time." Tahal nodded and left. Tyran grabbed Pael.

"You'll be so amazed!" He pressed a button on the consol, activating loudspeakers outside. "Attention. No one activate the Construct until I come back. That is all." With that, he rushed to the center of the device and rapped on the floor. Slowly, an access hatch slid open and a small platform rose.

"After you, Pael."

-----

It had been 15 minutes since Pael had stepped onto the elevator, and it hadn't gotten any brighter in the bowels of the planet. Tyran, however, hadn't stopped talking.

"- and, you see, I was looking at the files on the computer, and, well, you know, I couldn't actually read them but I got the translator to look at it-" Pael sighed.

"What. Did. You. Find?"

"This." The elevator lowered into a huge clearing. HUGE. The chamber had to be miles across. Far below them, there was a reddish light. Pael noticed that the air around the chamber fluctuated slightly, meaning they must be behind a shield. He had a feeling that if they weren't, it would suddenly be very, very hot. There were hundreds of pipes going deeper into the abyss.

"Pael, I'd like you to meet the power source of the Construct."

"... My altimeter's flashing error." Tyran just grinned.

----------
Research and Development

Hyperspace Telescope: ETA: 3 Days (Wednesday, March 9th)

New Tech
Absorbing Armor: ETA: Unknown, requires approval.

This post has been edited by grunadulater : 06 March 2005 - 01:30 PM

Gruth spaceport, Tibidat:

The crowded bay was an easy place for anyone to fit in. No two of the Strandless pilots looked alike and none of them took any overt notice of Charhin as he walked out of his ship and through the hanger, he had been assured that his ship was safe but the place felt seedy enough that he worried a little bit, regardless.

The rest of the complex was hardly different than the hanger had been. While there was quite a bit of idle conversation, most people were just going about their business. Charhin hadn’t gotten any official message from the government but he had gotten a third-party message about some unexplained “mission” and he’d been told to meet a “contact” in the bar. It was a good assumption that this was either a trap or the meeting. It wasn’t unusual for the governments in the South Tip to be a little bit paranoid, it was necessary if the leader wanted to survive. Tibidat, however, had a reputation for nearly extreme paranoia, even among the other Strandless but they still weren’t likely to kill a representative of a Strand. They had far too much to lose.

Charhin looked perfectly careless as he walked into the spaceport bar. He was curious as to whom he’d be meeting in a low-class trader’s bar, but not unduly worried. He’d just hardly sat down when a little kid came up behind him. “Hey, mister! I got the perfect deal for you! It’s xactly what you need, someone to talk to about all your problems.”

“I’m not interested, kid.”

“Oh, you should be. The best deal you’ll ever get.” The kid slid up into a chair that was much too big for him and slid a photo across the table. Charhin looked down and saw his ship.

“Where’d you get this?”

“Zid! You’re dense! Just follow me.” The kid jumped out of her chair and walked through the crowded bar. The Azdgari emissary guessed that this kid was probably going to bring him to someone he needed to see.

The kid quickly maneuvered the passageways in the spaceport complex and in a few minutes, they were out through a maintenance exit. The kid didn’t stop there, he walked down the streets for a few minutes before coming to a pod, she pressed a button on the window and it opened. “Get in.”

After they were in the pod the kid loosened up a little bit. “Sorry bud, but I got paid to get you here quiet. This train was put here special for us so it ain’t bugged by anyone who shouldn’t hear. You’ll be going to one of the bigger complexes. Someone else’ll meet you at the door and I’ll get my pay.” She looked out the window and nearly did a double-take. “Damn! These things are quick. We’re there already. C’mon again.” She opened the door and walked along again, obviously expecting Charhin to follow her.

The door she entered was fairly secluded and opened into a small hallway with a heavyset female Igadzra standing in the passage. “Thank you for your effort Kharis. Here’s your pay.” She held out some hard credits to the kid but Kharis waved her hand.

“You can do better than that. That relay was faster than anything else I’ve ridden.”

The Igadzra paused and rummaged through a sack at her side. “Here’s an extra fifty. A hundred credits is more than enough.” This time Kharis greedily snatched the cash from Igadzra’s hand and ran back out to the pod. “As for you sir, you should probably follow me for a while so we can talk.” Charhin was getting a little tired of this pointless walking, but he followed anyway. He was here to deliver a message and act as a diplomat.

After a few thousand more meters of winding passageways, the Igadzra opened another door and stepped into a small conference room. “I’m sorry. My name is Kitra, and you are Charhin. You’ve come to talk as a representative for the Azdgari. Go ahead.”

“There isn’t all that much to explain, it’s all right here.” He handed Kitra a document. “This is the statement of possibly the most powerful Azdgari about his relationship with the Strandless.”

_To those who were wronged,

From this day forth, it is the Azdgari’s intention to cease all hostility with you. Our criminals, and unfortunates of the Index, will no longer be exiled to your lands. Those amongst you of Azdgari descent may request asylum in our space, and return as respected Azdgari. The mentality of “Strandless inferiority” will come to an end and the Azdgari will officially respect your worlds as foreign territories, a respect that to date has only been given to the Miranu.

While our potential as allies is severely limited by the Igadzra presence, the Azdgari wish for peace and mutual respect between us. While the Strand War seems unlikely to ever end, here at least, some wrong can be made right.

-Hyaishi of the Azdgari_

Kitra quickly glanced over the document and the attached signatures. It wasn’t hard to see that there was at least some support for this movement. “Thousands of signatures, more than I expected. It is good, but we must move again.” She got up and walked through another door obviously expecting Charhin to follow, which he did. She continued to walk for a few minutes through various doors and hallways that were all strangely abandoned. “Here. Go in.”

The door didn’t look any different from the rest, but he almost felt unease as he walked up to it. When Charhin walked inside he gasped slightly and looked onward in awe. “So it is true ” Right in front of him was a black giant, one of the nearly mythical creatures that the Strands met when the expanded back out after they’d recovered from the worst of the losses.

“Excellent, thank you Kitra for the visitor. Why don’t you both have a seat?” He stood up and walked over to a wall before pulling out two chairs for his guests. Kitra stood stoically next to the door and ignored the chair that the creature had offered but Charhin deemed it polite to sit down anyway. “Good, good, would either of you like something to drink? I have a wide variety, even a new batch of stuff from the Northern aliens, it doesn’t have much strength but the flavor is very unusual.” He looked at his guests but neither showed much interest so he kept going. “Ah, in that case we should do introductions for the sake of the emissary. “I’m Gręthul Urvön. You may have noticed that I’m not very typical, but that’s a long story. Would you like to hear it? No? My boss over there is Kitra.” Kitra growled slightly at the obvious reintroduction, but Urvön just kept on talking. “I understand that politics is very difficult to discuss between regions, normally it’s a very good starter. Anything you want to talk about.”

“We should really get down to business, it’s kind of important. I gave Kitra some documents that you should probably see ”

“No, I’ve already read them, but thanks for the offer. It’s very nice of Hyaashi to be so generous. I really didn’t expect it from him. A true reformer, evidently.”

“Yes, he’s brought the Raven far. There is plenty more support than you’ll find on that document. The support within our people is very great.”

“Excellent, the Azdgari didn’t underestimate me as badly as I’d thought. You’re a very good liar, I couldn’t even tell from your face. Too bad the facts are against you. The Raven may well change some of it’s ways but her people won’t change for many more years."

OOC: Making up for lost time

During this time, production has consisted of Turncoats, Hellions, Helians, and Needle Kraits in the same ratios as were used earlier. However, without having to abide by the old quality-limiting agreement that had been signed with the Augorkians to prevent wars between the Freeport ship-crafters and the Augorkian scrap factories, the ships could be outfitted more thoroughly, to better realize their full potential. All Turncoats have been built to Type Two (ship resource ID 171) specifications, the enhanced form that successful renegades usually upgraded to, though the old Blaze turrets were replaced in favor of the new, deadly MacGun turrets. Though it was still not as good a hull as the Type Three Turncoat class used by the Nadir and Turncoat Trisha, the Type Two does not share the Type One’s inefficiency and obsolescence.   
  
The Hellions have also been built with the new weapons, though the configuration has remained the same. The Helians have replaced their Blaze cannons with swivel MacGuns, but most noteably of all, the cargo hold has been stuffed with a Krait rack, though the necessary enlargement lost half of the ship’s free weapons space as well. Needle Kraits have also been built with Swivel MacGuns in place of their Blaze cannons. As part of the upgrade project, existing ships have been upgraded to the new specs.   
  
Freeport:  
+11 Turncoats  
+11 Hellions  
+11 Helians  
+88 Kraits  
  
Research: Old  
-Hellion: Done  
-MacGun: Done. Fixed, swiveling, and two-gun turret mountings are all available.   
-Develop a basic understanding of Crescent technology, so that specific systems can be researched later: Done  
  
Projects/Research: New  
-Crescent Technology: Shields: 2/5 Days  
-Freeport Station Refit: This adds a second pair of rings, vertically oriented instead of horizontally, to the station, with a complete second set of factories. This project also equips the station with a heavy-duty shield generator, hull reinforcement, and a defense network of six MacGun turrets, one at the end of each axis. Six needle launchers are also present, mounted on turrets both for added targeting control, and for utility in the event that it is necessary to fire them without guidance. 2/7 Days.   
  
  
~~~Freeport~~~  
  
Kid Travis, Renegade scientist and inventor, was depressed. More than depressed: he was terrified. He would have to face the captains today, to let them know that their new weapon wasn’t going to work.  
  
Captain O’Grady’s secretary had told Travis that the captain was down in the main hangar bay, looking over the wreckage from the battle. This made Travis even more frightened, as he knew for a fact that O’Grady’s turncoat had been cut nearly to ribbons during the battle. The _Terra’s Dark Foe_ and ten other Turncoats had been taken out of commission, but by moving undamaged ships in front of the disabled one, only one was in a state where its salvage value was questionable: O’Grady’s. When the other Turncoats had all been disabled or fallen back, he had held the tiny gap in the minefield alone for nearly an hour before a stray mine took out the enemy flagship, sending them into a general retreat, where more of their ships wandered into the minefield in the chaos. The other Turncoats would be flyable again shortly.   
  
Coming into the main hangar bay, Travis found his worst fears confirmed. Amidst the turncoats under repair and the remains of the alien ships which had been destroyed, the _Terra_ sat, with a deep incision along the top of it butterflying the ship like a shrimp. O’Grady was staring at it intently.  
  
Then something happened that took the scientist’s breath away. A glowing, shimmering sphere descended from the ceiling into the ship. Travis knew at once that this strange device had to be the power core from an alien ship. Slowly, the mechanical arms in the hangar’s ceiling fit it into place.  
  
“What the f**k now?” shouted a voice from inside the ship.  
  
“Hook it up, dumbf**k!” came the reply from someone outside of it.  
  
“How? There ain’t no motherf**king outlet to plug the keelcable into!”  
  
“Well it’s gotta attach somewhere.”  
  
“The entire thing’s smooth and flat, like some kind of giant pearl.”  
  
“So what do the aliens do?”  
  
“No f**king clue. It was just sitting there in the hull.”  
  
“What the f**k?”  
  
“This s**t is so far beyond us, I mean, really. Can’t even tell what the f**k half of it is.”  
  
“Well the Boss needs us to make it work. So we gotta figure it out.”  
  
While the two workers argued about what to do, Travis’s attention was drawn elsewhere. On a heavy, riveted metal bench, one of the alien weapons was in a disassembled state. Some of the parts, which looked like crystals, membranous gel sacs, and cubical electronic chips, were beyond his comprehension, but at the front, he saw something that he thought he knew: a shimmering, multicolored ring, with an energy field filling the hole that had to be the phase calibrator, which maintained bolt cohesion. All he had to do to solve the problem of the energy not adhering to the shells of his weapon was control the frequency of the energy, eliminating negative interference; this would also increase the power somewhat.  
  
Returning to his lab, he saw his weapon lying on his workbench, and noted how much less elegant than the alien gun it was; the opened MacGun was a tangle of generators, motors, ammo feeds, and over all, wires, many of which were stuck to one another with chewing gum so that they wouldn’t go all over the place. Amidst the mess, Travis spied an empty bottle of Saalian brandy, its blue glass standing out amongst the muted, clinical coloration that the weak yellow lights provided to the lab. The scientist snatched up the empty bottle, walked over to the main particle exciter, and crushed the bottle into it. Then he gathered everything together with more wire ties and chewing gum, wrapped it all in a layer of duct tape, closed it up, and hit the button that activated the crane to take the weapon to the test range.   
  
Almost running to the range, Travis connected the weapon to the range’s power supply and connected the ammo belts to a box of ammo that he had almost forgotten in his excitement. Then he walked behind the protective transparasteel, pulled the lever to open the test range to space for safety, withdrew the remote control from his pocket, toggled the fire modes to “Penetration, Full Auto,” crossed his fingers, and pressed the red button.  
  
The screaming noise of the weapon was so intense that even behind the transparasteel, Travis was sufficiently startled to dive out the door from the testing room. An instant later the noise stopped, as the tiny ammo box went dry. Cautiously, Travis unwrapped himself from the foetal position that he had assumed and walked back into the testing room.  
  
A red alarm light was blinking. Downrange, the MacGun had completely vaporized the metal-plate target that it had been aiming at and all of the other targets, and all of the downrange equipment of the test range, which the MacGun shells had locked onto, blowing large holes in the sides of the range, through which air escaped, red with fires from the wires that once led to the destroyed equipment. Outside of the test range, a Krait was radioing frantically about a “white glowing blast” that had done serious damage to his ship’s shields.   
  
Staring at the destroyed test range, Travis suddenly had to use all of his willpower to resist the urge to run naked through the station in triumph.   
  
~~~In the Hangar, a few hours later~~~  
  
“Try it now.”  
  
Upon hearing those words, the man inside the _Terra_ did something, and all of the lights on the ship suddenly turned on very bright, and then exploded.  
  
“We got it! We had power!”  
  
“They must be operating on a higher normal level of current than we are.”  
  
A few minutes of tinkering later, they had the ship’s systems adjusted to the higher levels of power. The renegade outside of the ship went to report their progress to its owner.  
  
“Well, we ain’t got a f**king clue how it works, but it does. Whadda we do now?”  
  
O’Grady gestured to the systems of a Crescent Warship, lying on the floor near the crushed hull that once held them, and then to his ship.  
  
“I want that in there.”  
  
The mechanic glanced at the pile of mysterious alien technology, and then at the Turncoat.   
  
“Ummm okay?” he replied doubtfully as O’Grady walked off.   
  
Travis caught him on the way out the door. “The new weapon, Boss it’s ready!”  
  
“The new weapon?” asked O’Grady, searching for the memory of the other man’s face, “Oh yes, the hybrid projectile-energy weapon. It was an interesting theoretical study about possible other ways that primitive space weaponry could have developed, as I recall. How did it come out?”  
  
“Boss, I designed the MacGun to be a practical weapon. The technology may be primitive, but the execution is fully modern, apex-level for the basic cannon, and the combination is unique.”  
  
“Really? Well now did you take it to the test range?”  
  
“Yeah!”  
  
“How big a dent did it make in the target?”  
  
“It destroyed the target. And all of the other targets and the range equipment and damaged a Krait, too.”  
  
O’Grady tilted his head. “Really?”  
  
“I’m talking about an entirely new scale of effectiveness, compared with a Blaze cannon. My MacGun has a much faster fire rate, more damage, and target-tracking shells, with different settings for maximum effectiveness against shields or armor.”  
  
“Impressive. How much does it cost?”  
  
“Not so much more than a Blaze cannon. My gun has a better ratio of effectiveness to cost than the Blaze cannon.”  
  
“Wow. Can it be mass-produced?”  
  
“I think so.”  
  
“And you’re on the standard Freeport research contract?”  
  
“Yeah. That’s how I got the funding ”  
  
“Excellent. All your work now belongs to us, by the way. Thanks for helping the cause.”  
  
“Wait how much do I make from this? That contract specifies payment for appropriated research ”  
  
“Yes, it does. But although it specifies amount of payment, it doesn’t specify type of payment. Congratulations on your upgraded lab and gear, and your new technical library. I suggest that if you wish to remain on Freeport, you utilize the space, or else we will have to start reclaiming space per efficiency codes, and we’ll start with your quarters, resulting in your eviction from the station per the anti-homelessness laws.”  
  
“What? You can’t do this to me!”  
  
“I just did.”  
  
“The UE will arrest me, and there’s a bounty on my head across the Independent worlds from a nuclear experiment I tried a few years ago. One learning experience, and they won’t let me back but yeah, I’d be screwed if you kicked me out!”  
  
“So work. Perhaps someday, if your work continues to pay off, you could even earn a seat with the Captains.”  
  
“Me? A Captain? Really?” asked Travis, some of the anger leaving his face, eyes starting to glaze over. “You’re not kidding?”  
  
“This is Freeport. Anyone can rise to the top, with effort, ambition, and above all, ability.”  
  
“And murder. I’m a scientist, not a killer ”  
  
“Funny, your record seems to disagree with you on that point.”  
  
“Only three people, and all in self defense!”  
  
“The first is the hardest. You’ll do what you have to, Kid. You’ve got brains and a will to use them.”  
  
Travis wasn’t quite sure what to say. “Errr thanks, Boss.”  
  
“The weapon.” O’Grady reminded him.”  
  
“I’ll have it craned to the factories this evening.”  
  
“Good. I want you down there, to supervise its inclusion on the new vessels.”  
  
“I’ll be there.”  
  
~~~The Nadir: Garbage Disposal~~~  
  
The wide catwalk over the compressor smelled to high h3ll.  
  
There were three men taking Ian to his death, one holding each of his arms, and the third behind, with a machine pistol. Ian struggled, but his captors were larger and stronger than he, and held him fast. They twisted his arms, bringing him to his knees. The one with the machine pistol spoke with a crazed giggle.  
  
“Hahaha lil’ old me, offin’ a gen-yew-ine Cap’n of Freeport. Who’d’a thunk it?”  
  
Ian looked around frantically, grasping for ideas. He heard the renegade behind him snap a magazine into the grip of the machine pistol.   
  
“Hold ‘im still. I wanna do this nice and pretty-like.”  
  
The renegades on either side of him twisted his arms more, tightening their grips as they did so. Ian found himself unable even to wiggle in the kneeling position that he had been forced into. Desperately, he tried to escape, but when he moved his body even the slightest bit, the armlocks of his captors stopped him. His legs were trapped beneath him, and without use of his shoulders, he could not move his head enough to bite. There was a high-pitched whine from behind him as the machine pistol’s gyros spun up.   
  
“Last words, motherf**ker?” asked the gunman.  
  
“Yes, now would be a good time for you to say them,” replied Ian. He rolled backwards, throwing off the men on either side of him, and kicked upwards at the machine pistol, disarming the gunman. The two holders were trying to get up as Ian threw his legs around to the ground, bringing him to his feet, one of which landed atop one of the gunman’s. Ian spun around as the gunman hopped backwards from the pain in his crushed foot, and caught the machine pistol as it returned to the level. The gunman’s eyes went wide for a second and then were gone as Ian shot his face into a bloody pulp. One of the two holders dove for his waist, trying to tackle him, but Ian dropped him in his tracks with a kick to the head, and then shot him. The last of the three rushed him from behind, but Ian quickly pivoted in a circle, causing his attacker to go past him. Ian shot him over the railing with a burst to the back of the head.   
  
Ian quickly checked the two bodies on the catwalk, finding six magazines of ammunition for the machine pistol, the ID cards of both men, a heavy blaze pistol, which he had to cut from the fabric that had ensnared it when its owner, the second man to die, tried to draw it, and four powerpacks. He took all of these items, and then pushed the bodies under the bottom railing into the compressor.   
  
Ian headed off the catwalk. He had memorized the layout of the parts of the ship that he had seen, and thus headed straight for the lab. He had to destroy the Nadir’s weapon, whatever that might mean to him personally.   
  
~~~The Nadir: Captain’s Private Mess~~~  
  
“M’dear Edwards! It’s so nice ta’ see ya’ again. And who is this beautiful creature?”  
  
“I’m the one who he took on to kill you.”  
  
“I see you’ve had even less success teaching manners to her, old man.”   
  
Edwards shrugged. “She’s her own person.”  
  
“Should I remove her before we eat?”  
  
“That won’t be necessary.”  
  
“If ya say so. Do be seated.”  
  
Edwards pulled out a chair for Trisha before seating himself. The Nadir took a seat across from them.   
  
”So yer’ still trying to hunt me down, I see. Well, I’m honored by the attention, but I’ll have to ask you ta’ stop.”  
  
“You know I can’t do that. You brought this upon yourself when you killed Thorne and Graf. You will never have peace from the Captains of Freeport.”  
  
“I don’t need peace. It’s just that I’d prefer not to hafta’ kill all of ya’.”  
  
“You may have several Turncoats, but we have more. We could turn your fleet to so much space dust the moment you engaged us in battle.”  
  
“I won’t have to, though. Let’s just say that my scientists have been inspired as of late, and that they have given me a weapons system that makes your fleet irrelevant. And since, as you said, there can be no peace with the Captains, I am left with making an offer to you personally, and while this may sound somewhat cliché, it’s something I’ve always wanted to say: Join me, or die.”  
  
“I guess you leave me no choice, then,” said Edwards. “What do you want me to do?”  
  
“You can’t be serious!” blurted Trisha. Edwards turned to her.  
  
“If he’s telling the truth, we have no other choice. Better that we join with him and have our cause of fair treatment for the subjects of Earth live, than die and have our cause be lost forever.”  
  
“And if he is lying?”  
  
“I am fairly certain that he is telling the truth.”  
  
“How?”  
  
“Ian disappeared. If the Iothans had gotten him, it would have been all over the news a great celebration, I daresay. If he had been free, he would have met with us in orbit. If our friend here killed him straight out, we’d have his head on the table as additional persuasion. No I know you, Nadir. You took Ian onboard so that you could show off your new weapons system, and are probably killing him even as we speak.”  
  
The Nadir applauded. “Bravo, ole’ chap. Ya’ always were a keen ‘un. So, whaddya’ say?”  
  
“What do you want me to do?” Trisha gave him a look, but said nothing.  
  
“Pick an independent or renegade stellar, first of all.”  
  
“Freeport,” Edwards said without hesitation.  
  
“Excellent. If you work well with me n’ me people, it’s yours. In exchange, I want you to work with my techs to refit my fleet’s Krait fighters into something a bit more effective.”  
  
“I can give you better than UE Fighter equivalency. More than enough to give you a 3:1 or even a 4:1 kill ratio against stock Kraits. You’ll still have better than 1:1 against Freeport’s Kraits.” Edwards did not know of the new weapon now sported by the Kraits, though.”  
  
“Excellent. More than enough to take true sovereignty over the independent worlds.”  
  
“If you should choose to do so without using your new weapon.” Edwards made a note to himself that the weapon was either very expensive or a device of mass destruction or both.  
  
“Exactly.”  
  
Trisha stood up from her seat, which fell down behind her. “I can’t believe you!” she shouted at Edwards. The Nadir suddenly had a neutron pistol in his hand, as if out of nowhere, and fired. She fell backwards over the chair, then stumbled back to her feet, skin becoming more pale than usual as she looked at both men. “I can’t believe you ” she repeated. Then she fell to her knees, and finally face-forward on top of the chair, not breathing. Edwards got up and checked her. She was dead.  
  
“You killed her,” said Edwards, pulling a cloak of indifference over the loathing in his voice.  
  
“Yea. Now it’s just you n’ me just like old times, Needle. Tha’ way things was meant to be.” The Nadir turned and activated a concealed communications unit. “Activate the hyperdrive we return to base.”  
  
The blue forms of the Nadir’s fleet each turned around in a circle, blurred for a second, then streaked off into the distance before disappearing.   
  
~~~Iothe, a few days later~~  
  
Fifteen Turncoats dropped out of hyperspace, launching Kraits immediately. In response, the Iothan militia launched everything they had, over a hundred Kraits and many Helians. The militian Kraits powered towards the Renegade ones, without much difficulty because the Turncoats were not firing Needle missiles. When they were almost within Blaze range, the renegade fighters opened fire with MacGuns.  
  
Colonel Shyarna Keith of the Iothan militia had never seen anything like the slaughter that resulted. Set to dispersal mode, the MacGun shells tore off the shields of the Iothan ships in instants, firing from slightly off-alignment so that their targets couldn’t return fire.  
  
The renegade Kraits focused their fire on the ships surrounding the Iothan wing leader, creating a dead zone of fire and shrapnel around him. As they predicted, he panicked.  
  
“All units, fall back, fall back! Regroup!”  
  
“Nooooooooo!” screamed Shyarna, but it was too late. The Iothan Kraits fell into a general retreat back towards the planet and the Helians. As they began to retreat, the Renegades dropped some sort of strange pod from their ships, which didn’t seem to do any damage to the Iothan ships, much to their relief. Then the Renegades pursued, their Kraits firing needles that caught the Iothan ships in the back, destroying them in droves without any more losses on the Renegade side. The wing leader was among those killed.  
  
Shyarna knew that she had to take charge. “All units, this is Colonel Keith. I’m taking command of the fleet. All Helians, advance to meet the enemy; fire needle missiles; Kraits, break to the sides to give ‘em a clear line of fire.”  
  
The Kraits broke off, and the Helians moved up into the gap and began firing. The Kraits dodged many missiles, but several more of them were destroyed. Then the Renegade fighters charged the Helians at full speed, taking out many of them before the Iothan Kraits could close back in on the Helians.   
  
In close combat, the tracking shells of the MacGun were deadly. The Iothan kraits had to be extremely careful with firing their inaccurate blaze cannons, but with their shells cued to IFF, the Renegade guns could be fired at maximum rate. Shyarna immediately saw what was happening.  
  
“We have to spread out! Odd-numbered units, retreat; evens, engage the enemy so that the odds can spread out. Once the odds are dispersed, evens spread out, odds, fire needles at the pursuers!”  
  
The Iothans obeyed orders with discipline, and they succeeded in protecting some of their dispersing forces. More often, however, the vastly superior Renegade ships cut through the guarding units to shoot the backs of the retreating ones.   
  
When the Iothan ships were spread out, the battle was a little more even, but not by much. Matching up with the enemy in open space, the Iothan ships could fight, but the Renegade ships could simply outfight them. Shyarna saw a pair of Renegade Kraits veering to engage her 3-ship group.   
  
“Break, break, break!” she screamed over the comm. The Kraits on either side of her veered off to their sides and downward, and she engaged her lift thrusters, so that the renegades would go in between them. That was, at least, how it was supposed to work. The Renegade kraits all pulled upwards, tilting to the outward sides, so that their swivel guns could get locks on the two side Iothans, which they did, and which they exploited to devastating effect. Shyarna saw the two of them, both piloted by individuals she knew well, disintegrate into clouds of red-glowing space dust. With sudden clarity, as if in slow motion, she saw the targeting beams attached to the enemy swivel guns converge on her ship. Instinctively, she hit the lift thrusters, getting just outside of the tracking angle of the shells; then she hit the engines.   
  
Meanwhile, the Renegade Turncoats had advanced to turret range. The Iothans had nothing to match the power of the triple turrets sported by the enemy capital ships, and suffered for it, though not so much, because Shyarna ordered them to keep their distance from the Turncoats. This formed an open space, through which a previously unseen mass of Kraits (which had been hidden in the mass of interference created by the capsules released by the Renegade ships) rushed. They began to attack military and government targets, using only needle missiles to minimize collateral damage.   
  
Shyarna knew that the Iothan forces were defeated. If they turned to help the planet, which was their job, after all, they would be massacred. She began to open the channel to tell her wing-mates to surrender, but she never got the chance: one of the Renegades pursuing her tagged her Krait with a quick succession of missiles, and it erupted into flame, which soon went out as the ship’s oxygen was depleted, leaving only a crisped, dead hulk.  
  
As it was, several militia Kraits attempted to come to the aid of the ground forces, but were quickly destroyed. Tom Hex, a Helian captain, took command of the Iothan forces.  
  
“All units, this is Captain Hex. Target your missiles on this vector!” Tom’s plan was to make a corridor in the Renegade Kraits, fly through it with the Iothan Kraits, and come around through the interference and flank the Renegades. It would have worked, too, if not for the fact that the Renegades, anticipating the manoever, had dropped their Hellions into the interference cloud. The Iothan Kraits were easy prey for the turreted launchers of the Renegade ships.   
  
With their Krait support depleted, the Iothan helians were easy prey. Only a few of them remained when Tom Hex, on behalf of the Iothan people, signaled the surrender.  
  
On board the Turncoat _Hell Whale’s Wail_ , Jargon Jo received the surrender and checked her watch. The rest of the Renegade forces would conquer Hatuli in about   
  
_Stupid small hands_. Jo cursed her slowly diminishing vision.  
  
five minutes. There would be nothing that anybody could do about it.   
  
Jo smiled.  
  
~~~New Chicago~~~  
  
“Listen closely, because I am only going to say this once. I am an employee of Stellar Corp.’s Special Projects division. Several days ago, on the day that our former director, Albert Matar, retired, the director’s office had a visitor, who I have reason to believe is the renegade Proxima Presley. From what I’ve been able to gather, Presley was, and perhaps still is, on New Chicago for the purposes of obtaining the services of the Council of Twelve, on whom I am sure you have copious but largely inaccurate files, based on your continued failure to track down its members. Do with this intelligence as you will.” The anonymous, voice-distorted, trace-protected caller deactivated the comm link to New Chicago Police’s Detective Jack Raven, one of the few officers on the planetoid not on the Stellar Corp. payroll.   


This post has been edited by **Wing-of-no-Wing** : 06 March 2005 - 11:30 PM 

"Iagraz, Yeager, Everest, Marshall and I are coming with you to inform the Igadzra of our strategy. Hopefully they'll have enough ships for our plan..." Peter said through a comm. link to Iagraz's Lazira.

-----

"We STILL haven't uncovered one damned weakness." Hermann half-yelled, half-protested.

"How 'bout knocking out the engines and try to find a spot that'll pull the PCLs offline?"

"Pure chance."

(- Tibidat -)

As Alanar Charhin allowed himself to be led by Kitra through a long and complex series of abandoned hallways, he began to wonder as to the nature of the command structure on this world, and how secure it really was. It was highly uncommon to meet an official diplomat this way, bordering on the downright rude (not that it really bothered Charhin in particular). The child Kharis had been of Zidagar origin, he believed, although were it not for the remnants of the Zidagar dialect on his tongue, and his curse, Charhin might not have noticed. The similarities between the Zidagar and Azdgari in particular could only truly be appreciated on a world like Tibidat, he had realised some years ago.

It was odd enough to be greeted by a child, but the Igadzra was unexpected. An odd choice for a representative , he had thought. Large and well built, as well as well armed, she would have been better placed on a battlefront. Charhin had wondered if she was a test of sorts - everyone knew that the Azdgari held the least respect for the bear, and had little respect for the feminine. Although that was something of a misconception in itself - the Azdgari didn’t view the females of any other species as being below them, but rather considered the females of their own species to not be truly of their species, and therefore deserved the same lack of respect as was owed to anyone else.

If she was a test, though, she was a cleverly thought out one, and on very little notice. A bear, a female, and built for exactly the sort of heavy combat that the Azdgari frowned upon due to its lack of finesse and accuracy. Also, while most likely not intentional, forms of respect such as the Miran word for “sir” were often disapproved of by most Azdgari... Charhin began to realise why Hyaishi had sent him in particular. Only he was in any position to make contact with the Strandless without finding dozens of reasons to become offended.

Eventually the Igadzra stopped, after what seemed like five minutes of walking down abandoned hallways. Charhin had done the best he could to memorise the path and thought he could make his way back to his ship if necessary. If this area didn’t have protection against communication devices - he wouldn’t be the least surprised if it did - he could also get his Arada here without leaving. He was always the cautious one now... His past had made him so.

“Here. Go in,” the Igadzra said then, as they stopped at one particular door. Charhin was struck by a sudden feeling of insecurity with the situation. He was standing, unarmed, next to a heavily armed and imposing Igadzra, surrounded by an apparently abandoned setting, and being asked to walk through a door to somewhere he didn’t know. It brought back a memory, and not a good one. Of another life.

Without questioning the request, though, Charhin opened the door and with apparent calm, walked into the room. He was taken offguard immediately when he realised the nature of its occupant - easily twice his height, covered in black fur, the lifeform was something Charhin had only heard rumours of, a species that had evolved on Tibidat specifically, over many generations, but that now was barely ever seen. So it’s true...

If the Tibidatians are testing me, then everything up until now has been perfect. The Zidagar child, the Igadzran warrior, and now... This.

“Excellent, thank you Kitra for the visitor. Why don’t you both have a seat?” the Strandless spoke in a surprisingly intelligible Miran dialect common to these parts. He stood up then, his frightening height becoming evident in one smooth motion, and walked over to a nearby wall, pulling out two chairs. Charhin’s nerves calmed down as his brief nostalgia from moments ago faded and he realised that this unusual Strandless was not an immediate threat to him. Without thinking, he took a seat, not particularly caring that the Igadzra named Kitra chose to stand. Most Azdgari would’ve either remained standing, or felt the need to sit on the floor cross-legged, but Charhin wasn’t about to pass down a comfortable chair. He had completely forgotten to furnish his Arada.

“Good, good... would either of you like something to drink? I have a wide variety, even a new batch of stuff from the Northern aliens, it doesn’t have much strength but the flavour is very unusual.” Charhin would’ve given anything for a shot of tirasa to calm his nerves, or anything else strong, but he chose to decline.

The Strandless continued. “Ah, in that case we should do introductions for the sake of the emissary. I’m Gręthul Urvön. You may have noticed that I’m not very typical, but that’s a long story. Would you like to hear it? No? My boss over there is Kitra. I understand that politics is very difficult to discuss between regions, normally it’s a very good starter. Anything you want to talk about?”

Charhin blinked at Urvön’s apparent habit of extended, run-on sentences and rhetorical questions. Twice he had meant to speak but both times had closed his mouth and allowed the giant to continue. “The name’s Alanar Charhin,” he offered then, “and as you know I’m here on the part of Zavhranal Rokii Hyaishi of the Azdgari. As for myself, I’m...” He glanced at his own unusual attire, in sharp greens and blues. “...Somewhat unusual myself.” He offered a carefree smile then.

Urvön simply nodded, and Charhin felt Kitra’s presence behind him. He continued. “We should really get down to business, if you don’t mind. I gave Kitra some documents that you may want to see-...”

“No, I’ve already read them, but thanks for the offer. It’s very nice of Hyaashi to be so generous. I really didn’t expect it from him. A true reformer, evidently.”

Charhin felt like laughing. Nobody pronounces Hyaishi’s name correctly the first time. Everyone seems to believe it’s only three syllables... Also interestingly, it proved that there was a definite link between Groned and Tibidat - a strong one, for Tibidat to have gained access to such high level information from Groned’s external affairs branches in less than two hours. Charhin was carefully noting every single thing down. This was in part because Hyaishi had asked Charhin to find out what he could of rumours of recent unifications within the Strandless, and also partly just habit.

“This last decade has changed much,” Charhin replied simply. Not even legends amongst the Azdgari, not even the rare Masters of the Azdgari, had ever been referred to as reformers. Such was a word for bureaucracy and did not begin to recognise Azdgari society. Charhin may have spent years enjoying the life of a Strandless, and years before that enjoying another life, but he still held a certain ideological pride in the Azdgari. Oh, existing within them was by no means easy if you weren’t keen on the occasional senseless murder and plenty of competitive spirit, but at least their society was honest. “The support within our people is significant.”

“Excellent...” Urvön murmured, and Charhin quickly picked up from his unusual expressions that he was hardly comfortable with Charhin yet. Kitra’s presence still lay behind him, hovering. “The Azdgari didn’t underestimate me as badly as I’d thought. You’re a very good liar, I couldn’t even tell from your face. Too bad the facts are against you. The Raven may well change some of its ways but her people won’t change for many more years.”

Charhin couldn’t help but laugh then, leaning back in his seat, feeling more at ease now. He was worried that there was a real problem, and was extremely relieved that it was just this - ever since walking through the door with Kitra at his back, certain senses had been awoken that had him thinking in a completely different way. He was himself again now.

“You’re mistaken, Urvön. There are surely younger first generation Azdgari on Tibidat, no? Not one Azdgari exile has been sent to any Strandless world in eleven years, although one two years ago was scheduled. Hyaishi moved to abandon it and won over enough support in the Assembly to cause the first mass cancellation of exiling since the Azdgari’s near destruction thirteen decades ago. I myself was shocked at this, but it is the truth. In a society as fluid and formless as the Azdgari, you’d be surprised on what can change.”

He felt it better not to mention that the cancellation had been narrowly won, and had gained Hyaishi enemies. Most notably, Arakhas had made it his quest from that day to ruin Hyaishi, and while the two of them - de facto master of the Council of War and de facto master of the Council of Law - had never directly conflicted since, there was no doubt that once Hyaishi attempted to pass new Law regarding azdharas...

Charhin really wasn’t sure how Hyaishi expected to do that, but that was besides the point.

“You disappoint me, Charhin,” Urvön said after a moment. “Do you expect the Strandless to believe that this-” he motioned to the document, “-has the support of the Azdgari people?”

He shrugged then. Charhin had spent the majority of his life trying to convince people of things that they would not be ready to accept. “Have your confederates in Groned sent you the shield technology already?” he asked lightly. “Likely, you know everything I’m going to say here today already, no?”

Urvön fell silent briefly, but then answered, surprisingly. “Not the designs yet, no. But I do know what you intend to say.”

Charhin chuckled softly to himself, not in an offensive way to the giant he faced. “Never come to diplomacy without a hidden card up your sleeve... I’m afraid I can’t say I offer one. You’ve seen the statement from Hyaishi. No doubt you’ve also heard of him - hard to live in the Crescent these days without hearing of the likes of the Zidagar’s Samael Deran, the Igadzra’s X’el, and the Azdgari’s Hyaishi. You might also realise that four thousand Azdgari is impressive for a society of three hundred thousand apathetic anarchists. And that’s what Hyaishi was able to gather on Morin in two days before he sent me.”

There was a pause. “That’s almost half the population of Morin, by the way.” He opened his case and placed an identical chip on the table to the one he’d offered the Zidagar on Hindros. “Save you the time. This is no small gift. The shield technology herein is extremely advanced. Have your engineers give it a look and you’ll see what I mean. The Azdgari wouldn’t be making a gift of this unless they were serious about this proposal, and as your former Azdgari might already be aware, it’s impossible to arrange for any exchange of Azdgari technology without going directly through the Councils of Law and Science.”

Nor was he going to mention that the council members in the Council of Science had been more than happy to agree to doing Hyaishi a favour after his funding had caused the development of Vakhys’ new theories, and the victory in the Council of Law had been dubious and frighteningly close. As a result of it, there was apparently to be an “investigation” of Hyaishi by influential members of the Council of Law scheduled for whenever they could be bothered. Hyaishi was walking very thin ice. Apparently Arakhas was on an extended vacation.

“Perhaps that is so, but the question remains, why would the Azdgari so willingly wish to surrender centuries of ideology and their long-standing hatred of the... Strandless...? If there is such support amongst the Azdgari, then anyone of intelligence realises that the question to ask is what are the Azdgari planning?”

Smart, Charhin thought to himself. He’s definitely not naďve. An uncomforting grunt of approval came from behind him, and Charhin realised that he was still being watched, guarded.

“You’re absolutely right,” Charhin replied candidly, his features smooth and unworried. He had asked this question of Hyaishi too. “Politics, even of the Azdgari sort, revolve around benefits. Great acts of kindness are rarely made without purpose. Better to make amends to the mistakes of the past and gain what friends you can, in this age. Everything is pointing towards a flashpoint amongst the Strands, and now more than ever the Azdgari need to make their stance clear. The Azdgari of today don’t hate those they call the Strandless - so why continue to be their enemies? You’ve already heard of the proposal for the Hindrosians to spy on the Igadzra, of course. That’s part of it. Furthermore, it’s to our benefit if the Strandless are well equipped enough to fend off renegades. Saves us doing it.”

“In reality, it boils down to this though. There isn’t the call for exiles anymore - amongst common opinion and amongst the figures, if you care to look at them... There isn’t the hatred anymore, at least amongst our people. Now is the best time on so many levels for us to come to you and ask for an end to it. And I’m speaking honestly, Urvön. The Azdgari will never go to the Igadzra or the Zidagar for peace, but they are tired of the mess with yourself and your fellows. And hardly even know the cause of it anymore. Such are the mistakes of the past.”

Charhin paused then, wondering if he making any progress at all. The last thing Hyaishi had said before he had left...

”Tibidat and Kayia are growing in power and influence. Make your case there the strongest. If we are to bring about an understanding between us, we must succeed here. If we fail, there is no chance, and perhaps never will be.”

“What d’ you say, Urvön?”

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

R &D

Arada Drive Enhancement
0/3 days

Kyhaani Shipyards
3/18 days

SIN Refit
1/2 days

Level 5 Phase Shielding (7/7, complete 07/03/05.)
Subspace-Interface Nexus (10/10, complete 06/03/05.)
Azdgari Raider Outfitting (3/3, complete 04/02/05.)
Azdara Hyperdrive Refit (3/3, complete 01/02/05.)
Phase Stealth Field (9/9, complete 28/02/05.)
Impulse-1 Refit (2/2, complete 26/02/05.)
Phase-Arada Refit (2/2, complete 24/02/05.)
Graviton Impulse Drive (8/8, complete 24/02/05.)
Hypercube Project (12/12, complete 23/02/05.)
Level 4 Phase Shielding (7/7, complete 18/02/05.)
Azdgari Hyperdrive (5/5, complete 16/02/05.)

Arada Engine Enhancement is using the remaining weapon space (the Raider outfitting still left surplus space, as it took out the dispersal rocket launchers and such) to provide the Arada with a more powerful drive system, increasing its maximum speed by 20%.

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

Azdgari Fleet

Fleet: 4275 Azdaras, 765 Azdgari Aradas, 150 Azdgari Warships, 596 Freight Aradas, 15 Hypercubes(9 full), 10 Phase-Aradas.
In limbo: 560 Azdaras, 80 Azdgari Aradas, 8 Hypercubes.
Production: 140 Azdaras, 20 Azdgari Aradas, 2 Hypercubes.

Molar: 1039 Azdaras, 239 Azdgari Aradas, 80 Azdgari Warships. Inc. the Kisande.
Tollb: 1839 Azdaras, 239 Azdgari Aradas. Inc. the Tzi(9 full hypercubes). Inc. the Tzi.
Chak: 1222 Azdaras, 239 Azdgari Aradas, 70 Azdgari Warships, 10 Phase-Aradas(6 hypercubes). Inc. the Kohatsa, Triada, Ranira’kyin, Kirandas, Astarsi, Zaarisha.
Raigar: 115 Azdaras, 48 Azdgari Aradas.

60 Azdaras are said to be involved in scanning and patrolling.

Patrolling... DSN-2298, DSN-6107, DSN-5468, Siqwe, DSN-5553, DSN-9041, Novish, Racet, Karra, Funit, Reban, Kacca, Calb, Elridi, DSN-2143, DSN-1273, Dafi, Emnin, Dirach, Lontri, Toi, Plate, Kade, Tinar, Meagh, Azdgari, Leka, Kelmaon, Marafey, DSN-682, DSN-2189, DSN-8204, Elder, Mordus.

Scanning... Qerid, Fluron, Plogok, Terapin, Mark, Nujja, Norhis, Motif.

This post has been edited by SilverDragon : 07 March 2005 - 05:03 PM

Threefrog
----
Planetside Iagraz, Greg, Peter, and Yeager discussed battle tactics.

"We will be facing a far superior foe, and for victory, which must be attained, we will have to go to extreme tactics." Iagraz Pauses "We must out-wit our enemy."

"And how do you propose to do so?"

"Central Command has authorized our access to the primary weapons cache on-planet, mayhaps even a few frieght laziras for the duration of the battle. The Zidigar will not expect the Laziras to be heavily armed, we must push advantage that home." Activating a holo-display at the middle of the room Iagraz pauses then starts talking again "We will upfit the Laziras with the old SAE's left in the cache--peter will take the heavy artillery and point defense systems. Appearing to be evacuee ships our Laziras will be pretending to flee when the Zidigar arrive, Peter escorting us as if we were defenseless. Doing so will make us largely ignored, save for some missles and perhaps some fighters--when the time comes we can use that against them by launching a suprise attack, and subsequently blowing our cover. The few orbital defense platforms the Igadzra do have here cannot be wasted defending a planet that no-one is on--we will tow them to the southern quadrant and fill in a gap in our defenses. The Igadzra warfleet will hold the north, and our coalition fleet will hold the east. When the Zidigar come we will wait until they engage then spring our final trap; we'll call our remaining forces in Feviry to our aid, and they will cut off the Zidigar's escape route through the east side. Whilst spread thin we will be able to slowly whittle down our attacker's defenses until they untimately fall."

"What above and below the battlefield? Can't they escape there?"

"No. The orbitational pull of Threefrog's star is very strong, even with inirtial dampners their engines don't have the power to reach the upper and lower hyperspace zones. They'll be trapped."

"Impressive. You've given this allot of thought."

"A half-breed doesn't maintain a ten-year millitary record for nothing young human, I've got allot of experience in system defense with virtually nothing."

"I see...I'm sorry if I offended you."

"Not at all, just keep in mind that I know what I'm doing."

"What about the Zidaras? How are we supposed to fight something like that? We don't think that our old strategies will be quite as effective as they used to be..."

"Even with the changes the Zidaras are still vaunerable to an overload in their Phazed Beamer. Sufficient phase fire to the nose or a power surge from the engines should do the trick."

"And where will the civillians be?"

"Our couriers will be taking them to Notil. Only a handful of military personel will remain planetbound."

"And the aformentioned weapons cache?"

"What we need will be delivered to us, the rest will be transfered off-planed via secure transport as required by proceedure."

"Anything else?"

"Only that we need to get ready to kick purple @$$."

"Amen to that."

Feviry
----
Razel and Kjole bussily assign the technicians to their work, a daunting task to say the least.

"Everyone in place?"

"Yep."

"Finally, now I can get back to my old, outdated lab and to my project."

"Yeah, you do that."

"Hi-ho, hi-ho, its off to kill the MTC I go! With flash-phase nades and razorblades hi-ho hi-ho hi-ho hi-ho!"

"sigh I have GOT to get Kjole good mental help."

Comm beeps

"Hello? Iagraz? Hmm...you want me to prep the rest of the fleet eh? Anything to smite Zid I guess...Allright, tell me how the battle turns out!" Razel reminces for awile "Maybe if I upgraded the facilities after Kjole is done.........."

---
Ship Production:
2 Laziras (Production Acceleration Now in Effect)
---
Fleet Status:

12 Crescent Fighters: Standing By, preped for launch
4 Aradas: Standing By, preped for launch
12 Laziras (Varied): (8 in Threefrog)
2 Miranu Couriers: (Evacuating Laspin civilians to Notil)
---
Research:

Hyperquartz Research (Phase 1):
Find a way to cheaply produce refined hyperquartz refraction crystals, research retooling them into power-cells, conduits, and capactiors.
ETA: 1 day

Histiri Station was a ghost station.

Colonel Drunal moved cautiously down the dead hallways of Histiri Station. The wan emergency lighting made no difference in the silent blackness of the hallway. The hallway that looked exactly like the last hallway, and exactly like the one before that.

The lights on his suit and the suits of the rest of his command squad cut the darkness like a knife, but their illumination was mere rods of light in a sea of dark, and the cold, stark whiteness of their contrast in the gloom was not enough to stave off the shadows lurking at the corners of his vision. Scans of the station showed there to be no life aboard. However, even though he consciously knew that the only people here were his Marine Raiders, he could not silence the beast of his subconscious from haunting his perceptions.

Instinctually, he knew there was something here. That he couldn't find it bothered him.

The station's reactors had been shut-down when the Renegades left. The station's shields had fed from the trickle of power that had been kept in the auxiliary reserve, but micro-meteors and other debris had brought shields and power both to critical levels. Indeed, the emergency lights drained power even lower, extremely slowly, but with certainty.

That was why Drunal was leading his squad down here. There was something online down here that was drawing power. Power that was necessary for restarting the reactors. If he didn't get whatever device that was down here shut off, they'd need to spend a lot more time repriming the systems and powering the station back up since a complete loss of power would mean a complete shutdown of all systems rather than them just running in stand-by. As it was, it would take a while to bring the station back up to full operational power, between the deterioration it had suffered after the Renegades left and the disrepair it had fallen into while under their control.

Lieutenant Fent sent him a ping over their secure comm. Drunal slowed down.

"What is it?" he whispered.

"Ahead ten meters, on the left. I can't get a read inside the room, they've got some EM scrambling up," replied Fent. As he spoke he sent sensor data over to Drunal which was overlaid on his HUD.

"Alright. Everyone stay sharp. We don't know what surprises the Renegades might've left down here." There was no confirmation of his orders from his team; his squad was elite, and they knew what they were about.

They crept forwards, and Drunal checked through his suit's readouts. He knew it would be alright, but he had to make sure. Ammo, good. Power, good. Air pressure, good. Everything, good. Still, something felt wrong about this place. An inexplicable feeling of incorrectness floated through the air of the station. Even though his Marines were on their own canned air, you could still feel it with every breath, every step, every movement that brought you closer to some scene where the Renegades had performed some horrible act of debauchery.

They arrived at the door to the room which held the object of their inquest. The lettering on the bulkhead above had been burned off, rubbed away, and otherwise removed, and there was a good amount of damage from phase weaponry around the door and in the corridor across from the door. Blood stained the floor, and there was even some fragments of bone left here and there. Obviously there'd been a fire-fight of some sort here in the past.

Drunal motioned for someone to bring forward some shaped explosives so they could open the hatch with the least amount of fuss as possible.

<-> <->

I don't have time to finish this post, and it's largely very crappy. Basically, this post covers events from a while back to now; I haven't posted since February 20th or so, so I've got a lot to type and not enough time to type it.

--I took control of Histiri Station as of February 21st.
--I found a mad doctor on Histiri Station. She's crazy like my other characters.
--It took me four days to reactivate Histiri Station and bring it into fighting prime(21 to 25)
--All of Histiri Station's production has been put towards producing copy of the station in the DSN-8075. Production will take 8 days. Project started 25. Ended 4.
--Histiri Station has been renamed Charrar
--The DSN-8075 station has been named Challar
--As a correction to my last post, my Nuclear Refit should have put 25 1kt missiles and left 0 tons of free space. This project finished on the 23rd.
--My 100 kt nuclear missiles were done being researched as of the 22nd.
--My shipcount has jumped massively, from my last post, but over time the changes would have been small. I now have:
*120 South Tip Warships
*5 South Tip warships(Sans atomic)
*75 Aradas
*240 South Tip Fighters
--I know I'm miscounting, but I intentionally made sure to miscount so I've got less than I should since I think I miscounted earlier and gave myself more than I should.
--The ships I sent north to Paranoid were moved by him to some random system for combat practice with his troops, but not before lead captain spoke to a representative. A sort of loose alliance has been formed. We will be roleplaying this alliance closer.
--I have assigned 40 STWs to Charrar, 40 to Challar, and 40 to Akrayhek. I have also assigned 80 STFs to both Charrar and Challar. The 75 Aradas have been maintained in Akrayhek.
--I produced a total of 24 100kt nuclear pursuit missiles as projects. I could have produced more by filling up all available researches, but I threw random breaks in there and such. I produce these missiles at 2 per day as a research. I warn you now a ship will be lucky to survive getting hit by one of these missiles. These are being stored in a radiologically secure armory on South Tip Station.

I hope to have an actual post sometime in the near future. In the meantime this crap standin is all I have the time for.

Crescent Kelmaon

Along with a large team, Tyran had managed to begin excavation on the site of the Construct on the Crescent Kelmaon. Very luckily, this Construct was only buried under a few meters of light clay and dirt, and could be unburied with a few days of hard labor, something the miners of Kelmaon were quite used to.

This Construct had an access panal very similar to the one on West Kelmaon, but it didn't go down nearly as far. Tyran sent a full report back to Pael.

"Peal-

It seems that this Construst doesn't have to draw on as much power as the one in our Kelmaon. I suspect, from reading records in the computer, that this one is only a intragalactic device, while the other one... well, I'm not going to jump to conclusions just yet. I'll be back in a few days."

-----
West Kelmaon

Pael entered Tahals temporary dwelling carrying a container and grinning.

"Good. Good eat." A wonderful scent, the Paels nose anyway, drifted up from the container. "Gift from Rays. Rays... diplomat Emalghan. He make good food. Not very good diplomat..." Setting the container down on a table, Paels facial fur, substancially less furry than the rest of him (Emalghans get furrier as you go down, very hairy feet), seemed content. He gazed at Tahal, who was looking doubtfully at the food, but gave Pael a friendly signal anyway. He even seemed not to smell as terrible...

"Anything you are in need of?"

"No, thank you Pael. I've not finished reading these documents your people have helpfully... translated that describe more of your history." They stood there for a moment.

"You may leave." Pael nodded and walked out. He licked his jowls at the thought of Rays having extra. For a moment, he recalled Tahals direct order not to tell the Humans of the Azdgari. He'd have to tell Rays next time he saw him... in a few minutes.

All people working on the Construct project have also been told not to tell the Humans, or anyone in fact, about the Azdgari.

----------
Research and Development

Hyperspace Telescope: ETA: 2 Days (Wednesday, March 9th)

Absorbing Armor: ETA: 7 Days (Monday, March 14th)

The past, Research Center, Tibidat:

“Ah, Commander, excellent.” The female Azdgari’s face looked contorted and vicious when she smiled, it was quite unnerving. “We have a few very interesting things to show you.”

“Yes! Look at this.” The young Miranu pointed toward the screen at a bunch of incomprehensible numbers. “Isn’t it amazing! It could revolutionize everything about the Galaxy! Think of the possibilities, no more overcrowded planets like this dump, an easy way to approach suns well beyond the normal safe limit. Think of the exploration possibilities! It’s wonderful!”

Once again as soon as he’d met with Lœthe and the azdhara, Grűthner had disappeared. Unfortunately he was the only person that would probably be able to explain whatever “this” was to him. “What is it?”

“Oh Well it operates on the Fradell principle of hyperspacial travel, but the intrinsic difficulties are avoided because of the magnet. The ”

“Just a summary for a layman please; I’m sorry but this really isn’t my field of expertise and I haven’t been briefed.”

Lœthe usually looked frail to him, but while she was explaining something she seemed unhealthily energetic. “Umm okay! It’s simple, really. In theory, we can make an incredibly cheap ship that is bigger than some stations! It could even use hyperspace! It really would be a station, though; it wouldn’t need anything from anyone. It’s power could be drawn easily from anywhere. It would mine better than anything else around and the scientific possibilities are limitless. Something that big moving through hyperspace has never been done before! Never! There’s no evidence anywhere, not even in the old times! It could transport hundreds of thousands of people, a one vessel colony ship, it would be comfortable and spacious and have adjustable gravity! It ”

The Azdgari woman evidently decided that the Miranu had explained enough. “Lou, you’re making assumptions. The proofs that it will work are only mathematical. We still need to produce a prototype and this good man will help us. Why don’t you get all the papers in order while I talk to him for a moment.” She smiled patronizingly at the Miranu, but Lœthe didn’t seem to notice. She just went to her papers as the Azdgari dragged Urvön away.

“I’m sure you see the tactical value in this. And the girl is right, there are unexplored issues that could be even more beneficial. She and I just have one condition.”

“What?”

“We want to be aboard the prototype. I want the entire lab moved on and I want the prototype built immediately and as quickly as possible. All the important pieces are already built and ready for assembly. All you need to do is create a big metal shell to attach them to.”

“That’s more than one condition.”

“She and I had one condition; I had another. Get to work ‘Commander.’”

Capital Complex, Tibidat:

Urvön glanced around the room; the Azdgari’s terms were much less harsh than the Igadzra had been. However, he wasn’t about to get involved in a war for nothing. “Your proposal is interesting, but accepting any agreement with a Strand would be very dangerous for my position.” The black creature paused and lifted his mug from the table; he looked at it for a minute and then began to talk again. “You see, the Strands have done a very good job oppressing us for as long as we have been down here. Hatred that has been ingrained anywhere from decades to millennia is very hard to distill. I very much doubt that you have anything that could change the minds of these people.”

Fleet Status

Daily production:
45 Crescent Fighters
6 Aradas

Total fleet:
7 Crescent Warships
21 Laziras
142 Aradas
800 Fighters

Tibidat:
7 Crescent Warships
21 Laziras
100 Aradas
440 Fighters.

Duois:
Tibidat fleet:
12 Aradas
60 Fighters

Duois fleet:
3 Laziras
15 Aradas
60 Fighters

Patrols:
Orders to avoid confrontation and to not use modified new technology under any circumstances.

Nifal:
250 Fighters
30 Aradas
1 Station

DSN-8075:
10 Fighters

DSN-5468:
10 Fighters

Malago:
10 Fighters

DSN-9041:
10 Fighters

Funit:
10 Fighters

Racet:
10 Fighters

Novish:
10 Fighters

The gas was nothing special, no. It was simply several random chemicals that created a sickly shade of green...but this odd fog filled up the atmosphere of New Rome.

An old fisherman walked on the wooden bridge that led to his small airship, the Marvel , anticipating the feel of the fish that would feed his family for the day. As he entered the craft, he thought back to the legendary flying shark, and hoped that he would catch one that day. Grocery stores opened, drunkards entered their favourite bars, and children all over the planet began to prepare for school.

Little did anyone know what would happen that day.

---

The bridge of the H.R.S. Hardcore felt strange to Commander Repond, as he sat down in the unyielding metal command chair that came standard onboard all Carrier craft. He had travelled many places to get things ready for this moment, and now it had arrived. The weapon systems, he noticed, were notably different from what he was used to. They listed out the status of the fighters onboard, as well as the usual weapon preparation patterns and missile count, a feature that, as a former Turncoat captain, he was not particularly used to. Probably because he rarely had any fighters to check on, he thought, dryly. Engineers passed by his chair, carrying out their bridge duties while the weapon crews aligned their guns and the fighter pilots made their final configurations.

The fleet flew higher over the horizon.

---

United Earth fighter pilots scattered to their fighters like ants in a hill, with the single goal of reaching their fighters. The poor light made this a rather difficult task, or would have, for anyone except the veteran defenders. The cry of “Enemy vessels spotted, all pilots to their ships” had been issued merely seconds ago, although, to Roland Porlin, it seemed as an eternity. He struggled through the almost acidic smoke, coughing as crimson energy beams crashed through the ceiling. He reached his fighter, and entered its comforting chasis. As his hands reached the familiar controls, a warning came out over the intercom.
“The enemy bombardment has destroyed our emergency defense systems. Watch out for incoming fire, pilots; we’re not sure how much longer the hangar bay doors will be secure. We might have a cave-in on our hands soon.”
Roland powered up his powerful, his INVINCIBLE fighter and began to fly upwards. The hangar doors collapsed under the fire, and a thick green fog descended into the bay, no longer hindered by the enviromental systems placed in the bay to prevent such a thing from happening. Roland sped upwards in his sleek fighter, turning and twisting to dodge blaze fire...but the bombardment proved too thick. Roland saw the blaze shot snap off his right wing, and he attempted to keep his vessel in control, but the blaze fire decimated all of his remaining defenses. His fighter spun out of control, another casualty of the Talii campaign.

---

Zachary Corridon sat in his deluxe command chair, waiting intensely for the unbearably long hyperspace trip to end. He looked up at the estimated hyperspace time left. Only three hours to go.

-----Huron Rebellion Fleet And Construction*----
Liberty Force
10 U.E. Carriers
30 U.E. Destroyers
50 U.E. Fighters
400 Freight-Couriers
5 Scoutships
Location: Talii

• No new ships will be built unless the Rebellion takes a U.E. planet capable of building ships.

------United Earth Fleet and Construction
231 Carriers
950 Destroyers
1,135 U.E. Fighters
300 Freight Couriers
95 Scoutships
700 mines
Per Day: 5 Carriers, 23 Destroyers, 30 Fighters
Earth: 4 Carriers, 10 Destroyers, 20 Fighters (All work will be temporarily done on building mines for the nearby systems; an average of 50 mines a day is built)
New Taranto: 2 Carriers, 13 Destroyers, 20 Fighters
Paaren: 3 Carriers, 10 Destroyers, 10 Fighters

United Earth Force Locations:

Voina Liberation Front
98 Carriers
409 Destroyers
655 Fighters

Location: Mestor/En-route to Talii for story purposes

Defense Fleets:

Verril Fleet
30 U.E. Carriers
82 U.E. Destroyers
130 U.E. Fighters <150>
(Twenty of the U.E. Fighters are patrolling Yandros and the surrounding systems, and, like Carnotaur’s old Patrol Interceptors, will stay where they can jump and only take scans of the enemy fleets)
Centauri Fleet
30 U.E. Carriers
75 U.E. Destroyers
62 U.E. Fighters

Eltor/Sol Defensive Fleet
76 U.E. Carriers
384 U.E. Destroyers
420 U.E. Fighters

Sol Defenses:
Earth Station (six blaze turrets, three hunter missile launchers, fifty hunter missiles, 1200/1200 protection; pre-equipped with above stuff)

Centauri Defenses:
Centauri Station (six blaze turrets, three hunter missile launchers, fifty hunter missiles, 1200/1200 protection; pre-equipped with above stuff)
700 space mines

---PROJECTS---

Predator Missile. This missile is effectively a cross between the needle missile and hunter missile; it is small and uses a simplified (and, although slightly inferior in the realm of targetting things, is harder to jam) version of the Needle Missile’s guidance systems, but it packs a punch much more similar to that of the Hunter missile. It functions as an effective cross of both...
Stats: 50% of the damage of the Hunter Missile, 95% of the speed of the Needle Missile, 1 ton, and a firing rate that is the same as that of the Needle Missile. 20-ton launchers.

All ships mounting Hunters or Mini-Hunters will have them replaced by Predators with twice as much ammo (naturally). Railguns on the existing United Earth warships will be decreased by one each to sport one and two Predator launchers respectively.
ETA: Two days.

Swordfish GP-1 Fighter-Bomber
Shields: 200
Armor: 75
Speed: 290
Accel: 625
Manuever: 150 deg/sec
Fuel: 4 jumps
Shield Recharge: 2.68 points per second
Cargo: 1 tons
Space: 3 tons
MaxGuns/Turrets: 5/0
Mass: 14 tons
Length: 8 meters
Crew: 1
Special: none
Weapons:
4 Blaze Cannons
1 Space Mine Launcher + 2 Space Mines
1 Predator Launcher + 6 Predators
ETA: Four days; subject to moderation. All U.E. Carriers will mount three of these fighters instead of five U.E. Fighters.

Jumpgate research. This project, upon completion, will enable humanity, with special modules or ships, to create subspace tunnels that allow instant travel between place to place. Gateships can select certain locations, but only ones that are already on the official map. A mapped system must be under or have been under the control of humanity, an ally, or simply uninhabited. In addition, gateships require a massive amount of power. There are many other pieces of information that haven’t been generated yet that will hopefully be created during the development of this technology. ETA: One day.

(- Capital Complex, Tibidat -)

Charhin made a soft, non-commital noise, as if thinking. He studied Urvön for a moment then, the alien giant waiting for a response from him. He had made a very good point, Charhin knew that, and it was one of the problems with Hyaishi’s scenario which bothered Charhin the most. If Hyaishi really was a... visionary, as the Zidagar on Hindros had said... then he was one with vision and no eye for details, except on the battlefield. On the long journey here, Charhin had spent many nights wondering how, ultimately, the Strandless could be expected to put aside their understandable hatred of the Azdgari. Furthermore, how could the rest of the Azdgari be expect to ever give up their distaste for the Strandless?

Over the seven day journey here, Charhin had thought of only two conclusions, and neither were suitable. The one he was about to say, however, was the only way.

“You’re right,” he admitted to Urvön with a slight shrug. “Which is why Hyaishi sent me, to tell the Strandless that we consider it to be over. This doesn’t have to be a deal at all, Urvön, but simply a message. If it takes the next generation of Strandless and Azdgari to put aside the remnants of centuries of hatred, then so be it. Two generations? Longer? What does it even matter? ...One day, we will forgive and forget. Today I’m telling you that the Azdgari are interested in beginning the long and arduous jourey, which will no doubt be wrought with mistrust, but that’s how it’s going to be no matter what.”

Charhin frowned then. That came out far to melodramatic. I sound like an accursed Zidagar.

“If all you are interested in is to tell us that the Azdgari wish to end hostilities against us, then what of this?” Urvön indicated the chip Charhin had placed on the table between them. “And furthermore, what of your request that we spy on the Igadzra for you?”

“The shield technology is a fairly low risk gift from the Azdgari,” Charhin replied honestly. “It changes little in the balance of power, as we already have more powerful shielding than this. Hyaishi hopes that be giving it to your kind he will not only demonstrate that he’s serious about this, but also that it will increase your ability to defend yourselves. And as that increases, renegade threats decrease and, perhaps one day, those who have left the Strands will be on a level with us. Once that happens, you need no longer fear anyone.”

“A noble gift, if it is truly meant so.”

“The Azdgari will be understandably offended were you to lend such technology to any others, as we cannot risk it falling into the hands of the Bear,” Charhin explained. “But in truth, the gift is just that. It’s the best for the Azdgari even if we didn’t have your best interests in mind. And it’s for the best for you even if you don’t believe we have your best interests in mind. If your worlds are more secure we can be guaranteed that you won’t establish any desperate deals with the Bear, and you can also deal with the renegades far more effectively than we can afford to, given the recent heightened military activity of the Bear these past weeks.”

“And I assume that this military activity is behind your reason for asking us to spy on the Igadzra for you?” Urvön questioned, clearly not convinced. He would not become involved in the Strand War and it still seemed like that was what Hyaishi wanted.

“Astute,” Charhin commented. “In the past few months, the Bear has seized two of our outposts and I’ve heard rumours that they launched an offensive against the Wolf as well. With recent leaps in their technology, it seems they are bent on overturning the Strand War once and for all. If it wasn’t for Hyaishi, I’m not sure we’d even still be here.”

That was the simple truth. When Charhin had left the Azdgari so many years ago, their most prominent Council of War members were incompetent except for one - Morin Kyakara Sai-Varitair, a veteran who had flown with Kyhaan. He was still around, apparently, and provided Hyaishi with not only friendship but also priceless advice. Thanks to the likes of Sai-Varitair and Hyaishi, the Bear had suffered two defeats rather than two victories, but Charhin personally was still worried.

“We are already aware,” Urvön replied. “We are aware of far more than you realise. The Zidagar have launched a massive attack against the Miranu. Were you aware of that?”

Charhin blinked, stunned beyond words. It can’t be possible... why would the Wolf choose to make such a suicidal move? Especially now, when it was so strong... more Zidaras than either the Raven or the Bear could stand to defeat. Why would they strike the Miranu? Unless...

He couldn’t believe what was going on, but the words came unbidden from his lips. “Tell me more.”

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

(- Kelmaon, Emalgha Space -)

Tahal had been wondering for some time what to do. The Emalgha were interesting - although their food as hardly appetising - but this wasn’t his place. He had no idea whatsoever what was going on, but he knew one thing. The Miranu have been attacked by the Zidagar. He knew the instinct he felt was flawed, but over the last few hours it had gnawed at his defences. We must strike the Zidagar, but the-...

For most Azdgari to have learnt how to speak Miran spoke wonders of the respect the Azdgari truly had for them. It was not widely known - the Miranu believed the Azdgari were far more hostile to them than they actually were, and so it had been for a long time. However, after fighting side by side with the Zachit against renegades many times, a respect had arisen in many Azdgari hearts and minds for the little Miranu.

Besides, fighting the Wolf was as good in one place as any other.

He had hardly realised he had made up his mind until he had left the quarters the Emalgha had provided for him and was making his way back to the Construct. He had no idea where Pael was, but he would not be stopped. There was a battle to fight in Miranu space, and he fully intended to be there for it. First, he needed his Azdara...

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

R &D

Arada Drive Enhancement
2/3 days

Kyhaani Shipyards (1/6 operational)
5/18 days

SIN Refit (2/2, complete 08/03/05.)
Level 5 Phase Shielding (7/7, complete 07/03/05.)
Subspace-Interface Nexus (10/10, complete 06/03/05.)
Azdgari Raider Outfitting (3/3, complete 04/02/05.)
Azdara Hyperdrive Refit (3/3, complete 01/02/05.)
Phase Stealth Field (9/9, complete 28/02/05.)
Impulse-1 Refit (2/2, complete 26/02/05.)
Phase-Arada Refit (2/2, complete 24/02/05.)
Graviton Impulse Drive (8/8, complete 24/02/05.)
Hypercube Project (12/12, complete 23/02/05.)
Level 4 Phase Shielding (7/7, complete 18/02/05.)
Azdgari Hyperdrive (5/5, complete 16/02/05.)

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

Azdgari Fleet

Fleet: 4275 Azdaras, 765 Azdgari Aradas, 150 Azdgari Warships, 596 Freight Aradas, 15 Hypercubes(9 full), 10 Phase-Aradas.
In limbo: 880 Azdaras, 130 Azdgari Aradas, 12 Hypercubes.
Production: 160 Azdaras, 25 Azdgari Aradas, 2 Hypercubes.

Molar: 1039 Azdaras, 239 Azdgari Aradas, 80 Azdgari Warships. Inc. the Kisande.
Tollb: 1839 Azdaras, 239 Azdgari Aradas. Inc. the Tzi (9 hypercubes).
Chak: 1222 Azdaras, 239 Azdgari Aradas, 70 Azdgari Warships, 10 Phase-Aradas(6 hypercubes). Inc. the Kohatsa, Triada, Ranira’kyin, Kirandas, Astarsi, Zaarisha.
Raigar: 115 Azdaras, 48 Azdgari Aradas.

60 Azdaras are said to be involved in scanning and patrolling.

Patrolling... DSN-2298, DSN-6107, DSN-5468, Siqwe, DSN-5553, DSN-9041, Novish, Racet, Karra, Funit, Reban, Kacca, Calb, Elridi, DSN-2143, DSN-1273, Dafi, Emnin, Dirach, Lontri, Toi, Plate, Kade, Tinar, Meagh, Azdgari, Leka, Kelmaon, Marafey, DSN-682, DSN-2189, DSN-8204, Elder, Mordus, Muid.

Scanning... Qerid, Fluron, Plogok, Terapin, Mark, Nujja, Norhis, Motif.

This post has been edited by SilverDragon : 10 March 2005 - 12:05 PM

West Kelmaon

Tyran, who'd returned back to the Emalghans Kelmaon, noticed Tahal walking steadily to the Construct. Of course, since he had no real training in Common Azdgari, he called for a translator. There were none present for a few minutes, so he'd have to make due with his extremely limited vocabulary.

"Tahal. Pael?"

"Not with me. I'm going through the Construct. You will activate it, and then you get out of the way." Tyran was a lot a loss of words, mostly because he didn't understand any of what Tahal had said. At that moment, a translator came running from behind the Construct.

"Was working on the computer, Tyran, what do you need?"

"What did he say?" The translator looked at Tahal, who repeated in less words what he'd just said. The translator did his job, and waited for Tyrans response.

"Why is it that you have need of returning, Tahal?

"Because my race needs me. There is a communications link between the Construct, correct?"

"Yes."

"When I return to your Kelmaon, I will tell you to open the hanger doors rather than the access door. You will comply."

"Yes, sir, but you-" The translator was cut off in mid sentence as Tahal walked into the construct. An engineer that had been working there got a single look from the Azdgari, and then hurriedly ran out. The doors hissed shut, and the klaxon sounded once.

Fortunately for Tahal, the lightly burried Construct on the other Kelmaon had been uncovered just that morning.

-----

Less than five minutes later, the Construct sounded, and Tyran opened the doors. He wondered for a moment what woul-

A ship like nothing he'd ever seen powered up in seconds inside the massive Construct. With a nearly silent humm, the green, winged ship slid gracefully out of the massive doors. Interplanetary thrusters caused a small sonic boom, as the ship, along with the alien, disappeared over the horizon.

-----

Pael was enjoying this day. The Hyperspace Telescope, which had been built on Kelmaon, was working perfectly. Director Bosch, who'd come to view the activation of the machine, had been explaining complex and baffling things about the Telescopes technology to Pael when the Azdara flew like lightning overhead, the boom that was following slightly behind kicking up dust. Boschs mouth dropped open.

"What the hell was that?" Pael couldn't hold it back. He grinned a face that could've lit a room.

"That, my friend, was an Azdgari."

-----

A few hours later, Pael was still looking at the telescope. After seeing that Tahal had left everything as it was in his makeshift home, and eating the large amount of leftovers, he had returned at Bosches urging to come use the Telescope. The Emalghans sat in comfortable chairs as the Telescope warmed up. Of course, this was merely an addition; the auditorium was not needed for the Telescope to function, just to show masses what it could do.

For the first and only time, the Telescope went through its startup sequence and then filled the upper portion of the stadium with light. The light quickly resolved into an area of space, including all systems 4 jumps away from Kelmaon. Bosch nodded, the proceeded to type into a consol. He selected the system of Emalghion, and waited as the imagine resolved into a full scale picture of the entire system. 5 seconds later, an extremely bright light burned through the entire hologram. Bosch frowned, and typed a few more keys. The light, which had been the energy representation of the sun, dimmed, as did the planet and its two moons. He typed some keys again, and small white blips grew brighter. Every 5 seconds, the picture updated and the blips moved slightly. They were ships.

Bosch looked quickly at the upper systems, but wasn't disappointed when the device couldn't penetrate the nebula. He was, however, quite interested in the few Miranu systems he could view.

At last, he moved down the the Voinian systems, he grinned. He could see their fleets. He could see their defenses.

He could see victory.

----------
Research and Development

Hyperspace Telescope: ETA: DONE (Wednesday, March 9th)
(More telescopes may be built as projects now)

Absorbing Armor: ETA: 5 Days (Monday, March 14th)

New Constrution
Shipsyards in Avalon:
Will be able to make up to 2 Carriers, 6 Warships, 15 Fighters, 20 Attack Drones, 15 Rocket Drones, and 15 Explosive drones a day.
ETA: 10 days (Wednesday, March 16th)

New Construction
Hyperspace Telescope: ETA: 5 Days (Monday, March 14th)

This post has been edited by grunadulater : 09 March 2005 - 07:16 PM

Capital Complex, Tibidat:

Urvön lifted his empty glass and stared into it for a few moments before turning back towards Charhin. “We normally have pretty good relations with Miranu traders. They come down pretty often and we almost always have a couple in the spaceport. A few fractions of a turn ago dozens of Miranu vessels were trapped in our space as the Zidagar closed their borders. The traders in the Wolf’s space were given an ultimatum and told to depart immediately. They weren’t equipped to fight so they left as soon as they could, through any direction.” He looked back at his cup. “They kept pretty quiet about it, which is pretty typical for Miranu.”

Urvön stood up and walked across the room, when he started speaking again his back was towards his guest. “The pilots that were left traveled up through the Northern alien’s space. They’d apparently established good enough relationships with them that trade vessels weren’t hurt.” He picked something off the shelf and walked back towards his guest. “A few days ago a single courier came back down with a rumor that the Zidagar had attacked the Miranu. No one believed him, so he showed them this.”

He passed Charhin a large copy of the Miranu Network News page. The headline read “Massive Zidagar Force Invades Blaga, Himgro, Zimla and even Zachit!” The article gave only a minimal amount of detail and it was obviously rushed into production and the Zidigar ECMs made it impossible for the Miranu press to accurately gauge enemy numbers.

“That convinced us pretty quickly, and we promised him a large sum to come back with more information. He won’t arrive back for about a week at best, but there might be others that arrive first. Are you sure you wouldn’t like a drink?”

“Do you have any tirasa?”

“Ah, yes.” He walked over to another shelf and reached back. “The price has been increasing, with the loss of trade and all, but I have quite a bit stockpiled. My predecessor loved the stuff, and he only procured the best.” Urvön slid off the top and poured a glass of the thick blue liquid. “Here you are.”

“Thank you.” Charhin leaned back in his comfortable chair and sipped carefully at his wine. Urvön did the same after he poured himself a small glass. He knew his tolerance probably didn’t quite match Charhin’s and he couldn’t afford to be at a diplomatic disadvantage.

After a few minutes of sipping in silence, Urvön decided it might be a good time to get a little issue off his mind. “It isn’t like the ‘Wolf’ to attack without more danger and promise of glory. The ‘Raven’ and the ‘Bear’ have beaten themselves into the ground enough that even that would make it too easy. I’m willing to bet that the Zidagar launched a fairly effective three-pronged assault against all their enemies. It makes the Zidagar kind of sense, more glor is more danger, but it isn’t a smart move. If they manage to dismember the Azdgari and Igadzra systems all is fine. If they fail in any one spot their forces will be stretched so thin that an enemy could break through if it had any forces left. I wonder how the battle went?”

Fleet Status

Production:
45 Fighters
6 Aradas
1 Station (Clarino)

Daily Production:
40 Fighters
6 Aradas

Total fleet:
7 Crescent Warships
21 Laziras
142 Aradas
800 Fighters

Tibidat:
7 Crescent Warships
21 Laziras
106 Aradas
400 Fighters.

Duois:
Tibidatian fleet:
12 Aradas
60 Fighters

Duois fleet:
3 Laziras
15 Aradas
60 Fighters

Patrols:
Orders to avoid confrontation and to not use modified new technology under any circumstances.

DSN-5553:
95 Fighters
Station Clarino

Nifal:
265 Fighters
30 Aradas
Station Chalumeau

DSN-8075:
10 Fighters

DSN-5468:
10 Fighters

Malago:
10 Fighters

DSN-9041:
10 Fighters

Funit:
10 Fighters

Racet:
10 Fighters

Novish:
10 Fighters

This post has been edited by Paranoid : 09 March 2005 - 11:47 PM

Battle of Molar

After the massacre that had opened the battle Samael Deran had thought that perhaps their long years of sloth had made the Azdgari more adept at leisure than War. From the fight that the tattered remnants of the system’s defenders were putting up now, however, he could see differently. If they fight like this for the rest of the campaign, he thought, we’ll have our work cut out for us.

A squadron of Azdaras attempted to make an strafing run on the Zi'etara, but as it closed a larger squad of Zidagar fighters intercepted and drove the Azdgari away before they could get in range. Using focused phase fire they were able to take out just one of the annoying little attack craft, and another with their missiles. That was how much of the battle was going at the moment. Staying mostly in the loose formation they had began the battle in, the Zidagar were chasing down whatever Aradas they could bring in missile range, but the new Azdgari stealth fields were making this a tedious and time consuming task. The only consolation was that it had become increasingly difficult for the Azdgari to concentrate enough firepower to destroy a Zidara. As fast as their fighters were, it was still possible to react when they massed in significant numbers, and the new Plasma Rockets were proving very effective at driving away or even destroying Azdaras. With Zidagar Aradas in the center of the formation and able to go wherever they were needed this was even more true.

By now, however, there was no question as to the eventual outcome. Almost half of the entire Azdgari force had been destroyed in a hail of Dart missiles as some fool commander had vastly underestimated the scope of the foe he was up against. The remaining Azdgari, on the other hand, were making their defeat anything but piecemeal. Of the eighty Warships that had originally defended the system, only one remained, and the other Azdgari ranks were vastly thinned. That one Warship, with only a few Azdara squadrons and a handful of Aradas as escort, was inflicting more damage than the other seventy combined.

Moving at full speed, the Azdgari formation was tearing through Zidagar ships in their paths with vengeance for their fallen comrades in their hearts. For a brief moment, the Paladins watched in reverence as they gazed into the warrior spirit of their enemy. Like a great beast shaking off so many vermin predators the last remaining Azdgari Warship broke free from the Zidagar formation, only to come crashing back into the fray. Her shields shuddering under the blows of dozens of Javelin missiles, and plasma rockets, she came straight towards the Zi'etara and unleashed a full barrage from her phase turrets. General Deran griped the sides of his command chair as the Azdgari ship continued firing, then griped harder as his helmsman spun them into a hard evasive maneuver that brought them in behind the enemy warship. The Zi'etara's phased beamer tore into the rear of the Azdgari Warship, then veered away after an Arada that had drawn their fire. Already heavilly damaged, the Warship had finally met it's end. The lone Azdgari was surrounded by the rest of the Zidagar fleet, and with phased beam and plasma missile fire hitting it from every direction it's shields could no longer withstand the force of the attacks. Emptying it's last reserves of power into it's weapons, the crippled Warship lashed out at a damaged Zidara, and together they were engulfed in flames.

As the vapor cloud of the destroyed Warships dissipated, it was clear that the battle here was all but over. The last of the smaller Azdgari ships were either being chased down and destroyed, or jumping out of the system. As bravely as the Azdgari had fought today, the Battle of Molar would be remembered by both sides as a rout, and the Zidagar victory undoubted.

Paladin Battlegroup Alpha
348 Zidaras (72 Destroyed)
98 Zidagar Aradas (12 Destroyed)
515 Zidagar Figters (85 Destroyed)
720 Zidagar Fighters (120 Destroyed)

Battle of Ersadt

Another barrage of missiles streaked into the Igadzra formation as they assumed their spread formation. With the increased effectiveness of their PDS coverage only a few missiles got through, managing to destroy only two Igaras. Seeing this, Major Vehn Dorja ordered his ships to stop firing and prepare to close in and finish the Igadzra. Preliminary scans indicated that their ships were equipped with what looked to be a completely new weapons loadout, and from the strange nature of the torpedoes the Igadzra were now using there was no telling what those could be. He would have to be cautious in dealing with these new challenges.

The Zidagar fleet accelerated to full speed towards the Igadzra formation, but Major Dorja had no intention of following through with such a reckless attack. He was a bit surprised, however, when the Igadzra opened up on his fleet with some sort of beam weapon at twice their former primary range. Ordering his ships to retreat somewhat to recharge their shields, he considered his options. These new weapons made fighting the Igadzra considerably more complicated, but some of the same rules would still hold true. It was suicide to engage them at completely close quarters where his ships would be caught between the full fury of multiple Igazras. He'd have to put himself at that risk to a certain extent if he wanted to make use of his phased beamers though.

The strategy that he would employ depended greatly on the superior speed and agility of the Zidagar fleet. With their recent enhancements to engine technology the Zidara was faster than even the new Igara fielded by their enemy, and this gave them a distinct advantage. With his fleet restored to it's full protective strength they again threw themselves at the Igadzra formation, this time firing full spreads of Javelin missiles at Igaras as they closed. Particle beams lashed out at the oncoming Zidagar ships, but their destructive power was limited as the Zidaras who fell under 50% shielding fell behind less damaged ships for protection. Fighters and Aradas were also careful to remain shielded by the more hardy Zidaras.

As the Zidagar closed, the Igadzra fleet coalesced into a spherical formation in order to support each other in close combat. Salvoes of Javelin missiles also continued to destroy Igaras with increasing effectiveness as the closing Zidagar ships gave PDS less time to intercept missiles. The Zidagar fleet closed further, until they were in Dart range, then began to launch a truly horrendous number of missiles at the Igadzra. At the same time, they were caught by surprise as they were met with a hail of unguided torpedoes from the Igadzra formation, several Zidaras were destroyed, but not before the Zidagar had launched their reply. Following closely behind the Darts was a full volley of plasma rockets, which exploded with devastating effect. Using what leeway they had between themselves and the Igadzra fleet, further unguided torpedoes could be somewhat avoided, but the main focus was putting the finishing move on their manuever. Within moments the Zidagar were among the Igadzra like a pack of ravenous predators.

Attacking on multiple vectors, the Zidagar focused a terrible number of Dart missiles on any nearby Igaras, and even maganged to take down a few Igazras with focused Javelin fire, throughout all this rockets were used to hit any cluster of Igadzra. Still taking the brunt of the assault, the Zidaras were now being latched onto by some kind of repulsing beam, but as they put full power into their engines to escape, they had fulfilled their goal. From behind their larger protectors, the true strength of the Zidagar fleet emerged mostly unscathed. Nearly four hundred fighters and aradas unleashed the full fury of their missile payloads and phased beam fire on the lumbering Igazras. Within moments more than a dozen of the great ships were in flaming ruins, and the Zidagar were retreating back out of the Igadzras range under the full evasive power of their newly enhanced engines. The Igadzra fleet had been dealt a horrifying blow, and the Zidagar would soon be prepared to repeat it.

Paladin Battlegroup Beta
74 Zidaras (26 Destroyed)
44 Zidagar Aradas (11 Destroyed)
108 Zidagar Fighters Mk. 1 (27 Destroyed)
154 Zidagar Fighters Mk. 2 (46 Destroyed)

Igadzra 2nd Armada
27 Igazras (23 Destroyed)
74 Igaras (58 Destroyed)