(Hehehe. I hope those bulkheads are made of Neutron-Star matter slug. :))

The bio-specimen finished it's meal, and planted her eggs... they grew quickly in the fresh corpses of the brave crewmen... even in death, they provided a medium for the one last hope of wrecking the starlance...

The creatures grew...

"Damn. Is that thing immobilized?" asked one of the crewmen, who was clearing out the cell.

"Yeah, that thing ain't goin' nowhere." The specimen was held in a small container that ws surrounded by force-fields and armor-grade metal. It was quite a bit bigger now.

"Thank god. Look what it did to those damn fool troops. Ripped 'em up good."

He kicked one of the corpses. The two crewmen began to dispose of the bodies.

"Hey, this one's moving."

The chest rose and fell.

"Maybe he's not dead..."

Then the chest expanded, tightend, and burst apart, spraying the crewman with gore.
"Goddamit! What the hell!?"

Then four more of the corpses burst apart, showering the room with a bloody spray.
"Eaagh! What is this? Goddamn corpses bursting apart li..."

And both crewmen's throats were torn out.

8 new creatures bent to feed. Soon, they were done and looked as a group at the walls of the room...

"What in the name of the.." was all the crewman in the adjacent room was able to get out as all 8 of the creatures burst through the wall, and consumed him.

They were on the move... and multiplying. There was another queen.
----------------

"Helm, bring her to 198 mark 43. Open fire."

The Mariposa flew low and slow over the ravaged hinder portions of the Starlance. Her turrents fired again and again into the hull of the Starlance, but even the holed portions were resilient to the effects of the fire. The Mariposa's missiles were long since depleted.

"Lieutenant, what's our fleet strength?"

"96% sir. The Gaitori inflicted minimal losses, and the Starlance's point-defense weapons were largely neutralized by the disruptor blasts."

"Regroup the fleet. We'll try one last push to put her out of action."

The fleets regrouped behind the Starlance, the Gaitori only a shattered few ships that ran with their tails between their legs. Only the Starlance remained.

All the ships that were still combat capable made a furious pass against the Starlance. Hundreds of Thousands of pulse weapons, lasers, PK beams and ordinance of every kind lanced into the after portion of the Starlance. One of the great engines went dark as fire melted it's nozzles and fried its circuitry. The Starlance slowed.

--------------------
A lurch went through the ship as power drained. Lights dimmed then brightend again as backup power systems came online.

Darvonsal quickly punched up a status report on his terminal.
The Starlance was down to 25% manuverability. Hyperspace drives were temporarily offline. Backups slow to respond. Darvonsal was not happy.

Pharris interrupted him. "What do you mean the Audemedons?"

He turned back to Pharris. "They're the solution to taking over this dimension. They have the technology and potential to broach the fabric between universes and bring in hundreds of Starlance-class Dreadnoughts."

Again, the terminal beeped at Darvonsal.

"What is it?"

"Sir, we've got a bio-containment situation on deck 89. Bio fields have been activated, but I don't know if we've gotten them all trapped."

"Purge that deck."
"Yes sir, I'm initiatin... we've got reports on decks 90, 91, 87, 85, and 72 of biological agents. Beginning quaran... the reports have stopped. All decks are reporting no sign of agents..."

"Seal off the decks. We can run without travel between decks."

Darvonsal turned back to Pharris. "Very impressive. I haven't encountered such a creature. It'll make an interesting weapon once we've put humanity on top here."

Pharris glared at Darvonsal.

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

Meanwhile, the alien contagion was spreading throughout the Starlance.

------------------
Ne Cede Malis Sed Contra Audientor Ito

(The crew members would never be so careless in disposing of the bodies. They arranged Pharris' assault team to be eaten by the creature, but let's just assume the critter somehow escaped and continue the story)

The Audemedons had now become quite active, but instead of attacking as Audemedons do (coordination, swarms, increadibly complex manouveres), their ships each acted independently romping around and destroying everything, except for the StarLance and the other Audemedon ships. While the smaller ships scattered, spreading an expanding ripple of surprise and destruction throughout the combined atack armadas, their capital ships clumped closely together.

On board the Vengeance , Slug was worried. Things had taken a turn for the worse and now the two most destructive forces in the galaxy, the StarLance and the Audemedons, were both committed to purging the life from this galaxy!

Slug sighed a defeated sigh. "Order all units to withdraw from the StarLance before the Audemedons cut them off. Regroup and move in to engage those carriers at point-blank range!"

"Sir we won't survive long that close!"

"We'll last a whole lot longer than we will against the StarLance -- and we may even take a few of them with us!"

------------------
Those who make up the rules, do not play the game. We, however, do.
-Imperial Captain Alexi Darvonsal
StarLance

Pharris Landed hard on the floor of the boarding pod. He jumped up and tried to tackle the guards, but the hatch sealed right behind them. He heard the Hydraulics powering up, and jumped into a harness as the boosters fired and the pod rocketed away from the Starlance. After several seconds, the engines cut out, leaving the pod spinning off through space. Pharris released the harness and floated to the controls. They had been smashed beyond repair. Out the windows, Pharris saw the battle raging on all around the pod. It wouldn't be long before something started taking pot shots.

He tried the radio one last time, then gave up. He ripped open the lockers, and pulled out a pile of lightweight pressure suits. He grabbed a "Large" and tore off the heavy duty shrink-wrap seal. He pulled it on and zipped it up, sealing the helmet on. He adjusted the atmospheric pressure on the wrist pad, and pressurised the suit. He opened the weapons locker, grabbed one of the few Pistols that were left, shoving several magazines into his pockets.

He turned the handle near the hatchway, dumping cabin pressure. when the light turned green, he pushed open the door and looked outside. Despite the speed at which he was going, the Starlance still loomed over him. It was over three miles away, but Pharris could almost reach out and touch it. He took a deep breath and pushed off with his feet. He watched the pod slowly drift away from him. There was almost no sensation of the tremendous speed he was travelling at. Except for the occaisional Ship or Missile or Laser bolt, there was no way to tell how fast he was travelling. It didn't matter anyway. He turned himslef towards the Starlance, and fired the emergency Manouvering unit on the suit. The weak thruster slowly brought him to a stop, and began pushing him back towards the Dreadnought.

Pharris tried his radio once more, but the Suit only had a short range radio, and an Emergency beacon. Neither would be picked up in this mess. He switched to the emergency channel, but it was already full of distress calls from hundreds of alien ships. He turned it off, and used his thrusters to guide himself gently to a halt on the surface of the Starlance. He walked slowly along the surface, his boots havng trouble gripping the ships armor. He saw his goal, about four hundred feet away, a huge crater from some Missile or another.

The crater had barely penetrated the outer armor. It was over fifty feet across, and more than seventy feet deep, Pharris could barely count the layers of armor plate. He pulled himself to the bottom of the hole, and felt the semi-liquid self sealing armor that automatically flooded and closed any breach in the hull. This was only one layer, but there was a gap between the outermost layer and the next. Pharris waded through the thick goo, finally manageing to pull himself out on the inside. Plastered with muck, he felt the ships gravity kick in, and he fell twenty feet from the outermost hull to the inner. He slid down along the slick, curved surface until he managed to catch a handrail on one of the carpenter's walkways for the damage control crews. He rolled on to the catwalk, and looked around. He was on the starboard side of the Starlance, sitting inside a huge open space. A maze of structural supports and maintenance lifts criss crossed the huge open space. He could see robotic arms on rails moving up and down, inspecting the fissures in the outer hull, providing minor repairs if necessary. One arm probed the spot where he had just entered, sprayed on some extra sealant, smoothed it over, burned it dry with a laser, and moved on down its track.

Pharris got up and pulled out his pistol. He checked the magazine, and began moving down the catwalk, looking for an acess port to the inner compartments. Every Hundred yards or so, he passed through an airlock in a pressure sealed bulkhead. It was amazing, the ship could literally isolate and stop a leak anywhere in a matter of minutes, without having to deploy engineering response teams. He passed huge hull breaches, big enough to fly the Barbarossa through, that had been sealed almost completely by the automated systems. He kept moving until he reached a hatch on the inner hull. He opened it, sealed it behind him, and walked down the corridor. He reached a nother hatch, but it was locked down. The screen flashing the message: :::Biological Agent Quarantine, Movement between sectors and Decks has been restricted to Alpha level security acess points only:::

Pharris started laughing. Spamo's beasts had escaped! There was still a chance at destrroying this thing! suddenly Pharris stopped laugning. He pulled out his pistol, and looked around the corridor very, very carefully.

Commander 8 Lightnings was getting worried. Shifting his ship's position 30 degrees to port and blasting a Gaitori cruiser, he contemplated the situation.
He activated the comm. "8 LightningForce, scramble. Something is seriously wrong with the Audemedons. Lightnings, split up and strike at the Aud capital ships. Escorts, try to break up some of the cruisers; and Endurance and Eagle, aim for the gunships."
His force split up and he headed straight for a nearby Carrier. Opening up with his recently installed Onas Pulse guns along with Javelin rockets and missiles, he headed straight in, just as it took a blast from one of Slug's T-Bolt Rods. He swung away just before hitting the explosion, wanting to conserve his small ship's shields.

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

"Anything that can be achieved using magic can be achieved using technology." -Salrillian Illegal Publicist ekt-Herna in his last message to the Salrillian public.

Lightning 1 broke away. 8 Lightnings had a thought...
Wasn't it based on disruptor technology? They'd get one shot, and one shot only, but it was worth a try...
"Lightning Squadron, form up. Full power to engines; Destination: StarLance.
The fighters formed up into a circle with Lightning 1 in the centre. They approached the StarLance quickly. 8 watched the numbers count down on the digital display.
"Squad, all stop. Prepare Lightning Cannon."
Nobody knew why the Lightning Cannon worked. Nobody knew HOW it worked. But it seemed to the few scientists who had examined it that it was based roughly on disruptor technology.
The seven Lightnings in the outer edge of the circle became charged with energy. They took on a visible blue glow.
"Lightning 1 to Endurance. Prepare for pickup."
The energy was poured into Lightning 1, which became almost invisible behind the incandescent blue glow.
The massive bolt of energy was released into the StarLance...

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

"Anything that can be achieved using magic can be achieved using technology." -Salrillian Illegal Publicist ekt-Herna in his last message to the Salrillian public.

(Hope this is okay with you guys. If so, you write the next bit. If not, delete it.)

(Nice tweaking of a famous quote, Slug.)

The Phylydia and main heavy assault force had battered and battered the Starlance, but they were progressing too slowly to ignore the Audemedon fleet. "Disengage the Starlance. Helm, turn us around and plunge us straight into the Audemedon fleet. Tell the main assault force to accompany us. Order our squadrons to take spearhead duty. All other fleets, continue to harrass the Starlance."
"Aye, sir!" After one more salvo, the Phylydia's massive engines turned her towards the Auds, then propelled her towards them at maximum speed. The Kiojea force spread out around her like a cloak, and twelve squadrons of fightercraft shot out in front.
"This is Jackal Leader. Move on that carrier at 30, 40, 12." Jackal Squadron peeled off and engaged an Audemedon carrier that had strayed away from its group. The fighters strafed her and hit her with torps and missles, and not a single one was destroyed. The Jackals then moved on into the fleet, letting the Kiojeas finish the carrier off. A quartet of them fired, and the Aud ship was impaled and spouted plasma before exploding.
The Jackals went into the fleet. "Three, there's one on your tail."
"I see him." Jackal three decelerated to almost a complete stop, and the Aud fighter shot ahead. Three fired and took the fighter down.
"This is Lead. New group approaching the Conqueror. I'll take the leader." Jackal Leader swung up towards a group of fighters pestering a Kiojea, and took one out with a few bursts from his spurt-flare cannon.
The Kiojeas and Phylydia plunged into the Audemedon fleet with all guns blazing.

------------------
-Traek Cicion of the Taeskor
"Never tell me the odds!"
-Han Solo
"Then we'll do it real quiet-like."

(This message has been edited by Taeskor Cicion (edited 11-04-2000).)

Darkk observed the battle from afar, for StormBreaker wouldn't charge up in time for another crack at the starlance. Still, he had options.

" This is Darkk to 45th Gunship Squadron."

"We read you Darkk, go ahead."

"Send 5 ships with the special system to these coordinates." Darkk sent the coordinates of the battle system.

"Sir, I thought you didn't want anyone to know about the soliton moors..."

"Stopping the StarLance takes priority. Those can hold him still if placed right, and unless he figures out how to turn while moored, that chronokinetic beam won't work, and solitons, having no charge, are invulerable to disruptors. Oh, and answer NO hails, and allow NO computer connections, until you've left the system. Those are new gunships, only Pharris and his men would recognise them, and they're sworn to secrecy."

"We might win after all," thought Darkk.

------------------
Me: You ******* IDIOTS!! That planet was INHABITED!!!
Them: Ooops
Me: Let's resume this disscussion near airlock 13.
(immediatly following the first disrupter missle test)

Slug's impressive armada had been reduced to but three struggling fleets. Darkk's squadrons of prototype gunships had been exterminated, and The Phylydia and the Phylydia II were now fit for scrapping. The Audemedons continued their ruthless strikes with a savagery unseen from them in over two hundred years. Slowly, very slowly, the Combined attack armadas were being driven back!

The Vengeance was taking quite a beating, it's outer and inner hulls scarred beyond belief. Three Audemedon carriers strafed Slug's command ship, pounding it with their violet death. A helm exploded, a Salrilian officer was sent flying accross the room. Slug moved to take over his helm. In response, a bolt of trans-spacial energy surged out, paralyzing one of the Audemedon Attackers. "Take us out of here behind the front lines. Order the Visigoth II and the Marxx to replace our battle position."

Engineering responded. "Sir, it must have been that last blast. Our propulsions systems are offlone."

The communications officer chimed in "We just lost the Marxx sir. The April Fool and the Torn Fold are taking heavy damage."

"Re-route gunship wings Gamma and Beta Minor to reinforce the lines."

"We have no gunship wings!"

"Why wasn't I told? Were they killed that quickly?!" Slug was worried. No wonder his nonexistant gunship lines were yet to finish their advance. He was about to order another fleet merger when something caughht his eye.

That Audemedon Carrier was glowing! A bluish glow that penetrated the blackness of space, that seemed to somehow ripple throughout the sector. Several Audemedon Carriers - no wait - all of them were emitting some kind of spacial folding energy that permeated throughout the sector.

"Science station- what the hell are those carriers doing?"

"They've entered a tetragonal formation.... forming some kind of dimensional inversion... very high frequency."

Slug's brow furrowed in thought. Then his face lost all expression in terror. "Give me the frequency reading that formed the interdimensional wormhole that brought the StarLance here."

A holochart popped up.

"Now--give me the frequencies the Audemedons are trying to stabilize."

Hundreds of completely diferent charts popped up. None of them matched each other or the first chart. Slug gaped. "Well, Darvonsal's not bringing in anything from his universe, but--" He looked at the charts, each was slightly different in any odd way. "--He's trying to form wormholes from other universes."

"Sir, what could be in those other dimensions that Darvonsal wants in this dimension?"

"Ships. Lots of really big ships." Slug answered with a puzzled expression. "Destroy those carriers NOW before they succeed!" He screamed.

"Sir, it's too late." Slug watched as hundreds of Massive wormholes formed where the Audemedon Carriers were. The Carriers, having fully depleted their power supplies, drifted as nothing more than empty shells in space in between the overlapping wormholes.

"Shďt"

------------------
Those who make up the rules, do not play the game. We, however, do.
-Imperial Captain Alexi Darvonsal
StarLance

(No- a) disruption guns have no effect, since there's nothing to hit, you don't have disruption guns)

(This message has been edited by Slug (edited 11-04-2000).)

(trust me -- you can't close the wormholes but this plot twist is not going where you think it's going....

(This message has been edited by Slug (edited 11-04-2000).)

(Guys, email me before continuing this battle)

------------------
Those who make up the rules, do not play the game. We, however, do.
-Imperial Captain Alexi Darvonsal
StarLance

"Damage Control, Talk to me!"

The chief engineer's face appeared on the XO's intercom. He was wearing his pressure suit, the intercom camera mounted on top of the helmet was focused on his face. He was sweating, hard. He looked at the camera for a moment, then at something that was going on around him, then back at the camera.

"We have another pressure leak. This time it's across three bulkheads. We've sealed off this section, and we're trying to weld a patch over it now. but it's not sealing. If we take another hit, we may lose pressure altogether."

The ship shuddered again, the XO watched as the chief engineer's face flashed white. He saw the background tumble then stop as the cheif's head swung around lazily in his helmet

"Holy ****! CHIEF!!"

on the screen, his eyes opened. He looked around frantically, then back at the camera

"X, Get everyone in their suits. NOW! We lose pressure in two minutes! -Give me the rivet gun. Hold the damn thing in place. no, line it up with the seam! There"

The engineer grunted with exertion as he leaned into the rivet gun. The comlink clicked off, but the XO was already on the PA.

"All hands! Pressure loss in two minutes! Repeat, Cabin pressure loss in two minutes! Suits on, boys!"

The sirens sounded, and the XO put his helmet on and pressurised his suit.

Most of the crew wore pressure suits during combat engagements, espescially gun crews and damage response teams, but the violent decompression of most of the ship would put a lot of extra strain on the ship's frame.

As the pressure in half the ship slowly dropped to zero, The XO could feel, more than hear the ship groan as it settled.

"Damage, What did we just lose!?"

"Sectors 2-9 on decks three and four! sector 7 on decks five and six. We have a slow leak on some of the interior bulkheads, but she's steady for now!"

"Good, report anything else, Engineering, how are those reactors?"

"Alpha and Bravo are hovering at 70%. Charlie is dead, and Delta is at 50%. Hyperlight is doing fine, but we have major damage to the primary engine Nozzles, and we're useing almost all of our redundant manouvering thrusters."

"****..."

"You're telling me, X"

Finally, he turned his attention back to the battle. Helm and Tactical were talking back and forth, fighting the ship as hard as they could, but it was doing more harm than good. They were used to fighting the Barbarossa, and they were shaking this ship apart flying it like her.

"What's our status, Tac?"

"Our compression cannons are running out of Ammunition. Gun crews are running them at fifty percent compression to conserve ammo. Missiles are long gone, and the reactors can't keep up with our rate of fire on the forward Energy weapons. We'll be in big trouble if we don't back down a bit soon."

"Don't get us killed Tac. We're not being paid enough to die."

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

Captain Pharris tuned his radio to the Command frequency(usually reserved for talk between Fleet commanders) and tried again.

"This is Captain Pharris, repeat, Captain Pharris. All combined armada ships, please resond."

He heard a crackle in his earpeice, and Spammo's voice came through

"Pha@^#! You're ali&@^%$-cky son of a (& *%&@ the **** are you?"

"I'm on the Starlance, Undetected apparantly. Your bio agent seems to have escaped, but I think that they have it isolated. I'm gonna try and open up more sections of the ship by diabling the security force fields. I could use a dustoff pretty soon though, this thing is taking a beating.

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

(The Phylydia is NOT fit for scrap. In fact, it's barely taken any damage at all! The Phylydia II is pretty badly hulled, though.)

Their initial attack had ripped the Audemedon advance fleets apart, but now their numbers started to grow. The fleets attacking the Starlance were almost entirely gone.
"Sir, recieving a report. The Phylydia II reached Dominus safely and is now undergoing repairs. Absolute minimun repair time is two months."
"Not as bad as I thought. Pull back a little, and order our other fleets to disengage the Starlance and escort us and the main assault force to Slug's fleet."
"Aye, sir!"

------------------
-Traek Cicion of the Taeskor
"Never tell me the odds!"
-Han Solo
"Then we'll do it real quiet-like."

The wormholes continued to mature, the Audemedon fleets now closely guarding them like a mother over a brood. No ship could get within a kilometer of the wormholes without being torn to shreds. Fortunately the Audemedons were focusing all their energy in guarding the StarLance and the Waormholes, giving the combined armadas time to regroup and restrategise.

All the captains and Fleet Admirals met in the cargo bay of the Vengeance , the only large part of the ship that was not under vacuum repair.

Slug slithered up and down in front of the line.
" _Our first priority is to distract the Audemedons. We will fire a steady long-range barrage at their ships. Cicion and Drion Nerec's ships are to make a sweep in front of the initial defense lines. See if you can get those 'bots to follow you. If the Audemedons decide to attack us, follow the Phylydions, or evade the fire they will leave a gap in their formation. If they don't they will be killed where they stand. The Ishiman Heavy Cruiseer Squadron will fly past and engage the second line of defenders around the StarLance. My fleet and the others will engage the StarLance at point-blank range.

The time for action must be now. The StarLance's hull has fully regenerated and it's shields are starting to fold back over it's wounds like human flesh does. It's engines have been irrepairably damaged. It's maneuvering on thrusters alone so it's maximum speed it can achieve is mach 4. We can chase it down.

By learning the hard way, we have discovered the StarLance's shields are most vulnerable when shifting frequencies to compensate for disruptor blasts. We have tricked out the Ishiman Gateship for one more blast; we donated the power cores of several of our crippled carriers. It's multispacial displacement systems have also been tricked out, and now can throw out one superblast. This blast can knock an asteroid belt several sectors away, but it needs time to charge, and it will only charge on my mark.

That is all_"

------------------
Those who make up the rules, do not play the game. We, however, do.
-Imperial Captain Alexi Darvonsal
StarLance

(This message has been edited by Slug (edited 11-04-2000).)

(Sorry, Slug, but Mach speeds mean nothing in space.)
Lightning 1 spins off into space, its engines useless after the huge burst on the StarLance. The small Endurance grabs it in a tractor beam and docks, transferring 8 Lightnings to the cockpit. He sits down and looks at the state of the battle.
This is not good...

Four of his Escorts were down, and the Eagle was taking heavy damage. Lightnings 1, 4 and 6 were disabled and floating in space.

Oh well, we'll fight to the death. he thought.
He set a course for the StarLance, engaging the stealth shield.

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

"Anything that can be achieved using magic can be achieved using technology." -Salrillian Illegal Publicist ekt-Herna in his last message to the Salrillian public.

"Sir! The wormholes are channeling increadible amounts of energy! There must be something huge coming through them!"

Slug blinked in a daze. "Center the screen on the StarLance."

There was static. Nothing but interference. "Sir the energy patters are jamming our sensors!"

"Compensate!"

"Aye sir."

"On screen." The static lessened. Everything on the bridge fell dead silent. In the center was the blackened and charred StarLance surrounded by a ring of Audemedon ships. But alongside that StarLance.... "My god...."

The Audemedon ships exploded violently as they self destructed. Apparently Darvonsal didn't need them any more. The dimensional transfer was completed, and a fleet of Dreadnoughts (each from a different dimension) began to approach the StarLance....

(url="http://"http://www.geocities.com/slug1337/disruptedStarLancefleet.jpeg")(image)(/url)

------------------
Those who make up the rules, do not play the game. We, however, do.
-Imperial Captain Alexi Darvonsal
StarLance

Unaware of the new arrivals, Pharris continued making his way through the long corridors of the Starlance. He was thoroughly lost by now. but there were damage control teams wearing pressure suits and firefighting gear running back and forth through the hallways, stopping every hundred feet or so to clear the security force fields. Pharris had been following them, they were too busy too notice him. They turned a corner, opened a large blast door, and Pharris saw what they were running for.

There was a missile in the ship. an unexploded antimatter-fusion missile had somehow penetrated both layers of the hull, and was lying in a Missile Turret's ammunition storeroom. Pharris stopped cold, staring at the cavernous chamber full to the brim with hundreds of missiles on neat racks and pulleys, ready to be hauled up to reload the turret. He watched blankly as the engineering team opened up their toolkits and began working. As the blast door closed behind them, he turned and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction.

He was working his way towards the middle of the ship. Because it had been locked down, acess between decks, and through sections was only available within the innermost sections, inside the third pressure hull. He finally one of the heavy blast doors that allowed acess to the innermost security zones. He tried to hit the switch, but it only brought up a screen with a security guard's face on it.

"What do you w-YOU! Sound the Alarm!! Pharris is on board!"

The door began to open, and Pharris turned to run again.

Several shots wailed after him as he turned a corner, and ran headlong into a force field.

dazed and singed, he got up and turned around shooting two guards as they turned the corner. He grabbed one of their rifles, several grenades and ran back towards the inner hull. Security teams were coming from both sides, but Pharris managed to squeeze through the doors, just as they closed, trapping the pursuing team outside. He rolled a grenade across the floor, and opened a doorway to one of the transit tubes. The Network of tubes provided a rapid means of personell movement within the Huge ship. He sat down in one of the personell pods and activated it. It dropped into the tunnel and began to speed along the rails towards the front of the ship. Suddenly the cart stopped. Pharris recognised a familiar voice.

"Well, I can't say I'm glad to see you back on board, but no matter, I think you will have a fine time in one of the quarantined sections of the ship. Goodbye Captain Pharris."

as the screen turned blank, the pod lifted out of the tube, and the doors opened. The computer said calmly, in a woman's voice:

"You are now entering a quarantined section of the TSS Starlance. Personell may only leave this section by way of Biohazard Checkpoint 18 with express permission from Captain Darvonal. All personell attempting to leave by other exits will be terminated. Have a nice day."

Pharris didn't blink.

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

In the first eleven minutes of chaotic fighting, Slug's entire fleet was annihilated as the dreadnought fleet sent out a continuous timed rain of disruptor fire. Only the Vengeance remained, crippled. The Dreadnoughts ignored it and focused on the ships that weren't empty hulls.

The shields were gone. The weapons were offline. Most sections of the ship were exposed to space from being sliced into like a tin can. The systems were down and the crew was dead. Only a single Admiral remained alive aboard the ship.
A single
dying
Admiral.

The attack armadas had been almost totally obliterated, it was now just a mop-up job for the StarLance fleet. The StarLance itself began turning towards the Vengeance , it's forward ChronoKinetic Arrays began to emit a brilliant yellow glow.

Slug's glowing eyes met Darvonsal's glare from accross hundreds of kilometers of space. The ChronoKinetic Cannon fired.

------------------
Those who make up the rules, do not play the game. We, however, do.
-Imperial Captain Alexi Darvonsal
StarLance

And then the universe went black. Or so it looked to Slug at least. To everyone else who could watch, a large delta/stingray shaped vessel wedged itself between the carrier it dwarfed, and the beam that would have finished it. A sparking yellow glow enveloped the massive ship as its shields absorbed the blast; only new Salrilian Tetrashields are able to do that. At the same time, the remaining Audemedon ships began to act erratically as their command lines were being shifted and reconfigured. Below the massive stingray-like ship were the swirling blue-green ebbs of a jumpgate almost everyone had been too busy to notice, from which poured a cloud of mixed Salrilian, Cantharan, Gaitori, and more Audemedon ships.

Spammo looked at the screaming sensors in utter confusion, as did Cicion and the other fleet commanders. Slug mustered the strength and coherencey to catch an incoming transmisison. On the screen flickered a familiar human with long silver hair anda long black coat, poised on a bridge. "I'm not letting you get away that easily, Slug." He said sith a smirk.

The com lines suddenly opened up to the entire fleet. "Follow the orders given to you." was all that was said, and battle plans were innundating the consoles of nearly all the command ships.

-----

"Never thought I'd be so glad to see him." Spammo remarked.

"Sir, these patterns don't make any sense! They aren't any more than random piloting!"

"Right now, anything would help. Just follow them for now; I think Nosferatu here has a plan."

-----

Cicion couldn't help but throw his head back and laugh in relief. According to the Phylydia's sensors, Sargatanus had brought with him the 1st through 5th Salrilian fleets, 3rd through 9th Cantharan fleets, the entire 2nd Gaitori Armada, and a legion of Audemedon heavy assult warships.

"He always did know how to make an entrance." Cicion muttered to himself.

"I'm sorry, my lord Taeskor?" Asked the ensign.

Cicion glared at him. "What did I tell you about calling me that?"

"I apologize, sir. Orders?"

Follow those battle patterns. I think I see what he has in mind.

-----

"What's going on?" Darvonsal asked his crew pensively.

"I'm not sure, sir." Replied an ensign. "Sensors indicate that 3,463 ships have entered the system."

"Mosquitos to be swated. I meant why did that ship not disintegrate? What are its shields?"

"I'm not sure, but it looks like they use a similar principal to ablative shielding, and they are at 79%"

"Do any of those other ships have them?"

"Only the ones of similar design, of which there are only twenty."

Darvonsal grinned to himself. "Childsplay."

-----

The fleet, now being coordinated by Sargatanus, coalesced and frothed like a massive amoeba. The battle plans that flashed across each screen seemd more and more to be randomness, but the pilots and commanders obeyed them nonetheless. Strangely, orders were being given to fire weapons to nowhere for no appearent reason, ships were told to move in an odd manner and fortify shields in one particular area, and empty fuel and cargo pods were to be strategically dropped. Anxiety rose with the baffled commanders, but they still obeyed orders. Sargatanus came on a broadcast, with the sword drawn: "All ships, follow your assigned battle plans. Prepare maximum thrust on my mark. Hold..."

The fleet of dreadnoughts was not sitting idle by while their opponants reorginized. They let loose another rain of disruptor fire and began to lurch forward.

"Hold..." The hundreds of green beams raced for the fleet, which continued its seemingly random plot.

"Hold..." His voice was beginning to fill with anticipation as the disruptor shots entered the fleet. And now the plan came to sight. The disroptor shots began to split, bounce and ricochet off weapon shockwaves, shrenthened shields, and disposed stroage pods. Some shots were absorbed, but most of them bounced like clockwork from thei obsticles.

"Hold..." He was about ready. Every ship began to turn to their assigned direction, and the disruptor beams still caused to sphere of ships to glow. Occasionally, a pilot would miss his mark or order and pay a price, but for the most part the plan was functioning perfectly. Then it happened.

"Now!" Sargatanus shouted on the screen, thrusting down the sword in traditional military fasion. The timing had been perfect: each disruptor shot that hadn't been absorbed by a storage pod or careless pilot was reflected back towards the cluster of dreadnoughts. At the same time the sphere of ships surged like a jellyfish to surround the StarLance and its clones, with another surge of capital ship filing out of the center of the group, including the Vindictive, Phylydia, Barabosa, numerouse carriers, G'Sal battle cruisers, Keojia (sp?) class cruisers, and verious other escorts.

The disruptor barage hit the Dreadnought fleet like a sledgehammer. Though the StarLance itself weathered the attack, some of its clones had damaged shields, or lost them completely and had their hulls marred. These were clearly not up to par with the StarLance.

Within minutes, the Dreadnoughts were surrounded and had no choice but to spread themselves in every direction, neglecting the line of ships going full speed at their center. At the front of the assult were the Vindictive and Phylydia flying side by side; something neither commander would have thought possible. Sargatanus came over the screen to his neighbor: "Cicion, have your escorts take all the shots they can at our surrounding ships. We and our primary ships will go full force towards the StarLance and unload everything we have. Clear?"

"As a crystal. Kiojea group Vixen into formation Gamma-5. Keep us clear. Tac, arm all weapons, and prepare to fire."

So many weapons were firing that the view looked like something an archaic groupd from Earths past would have called psychadelic. The enveloping shroud of a fleet began to close in on the dreadnoughts. Though not as strong as their parent ship, the StarLance clones were still formidable foes. The ensuing explosions from ships and weapons turned almost all of the space within to a glowing blob of energy and debris.

Cicion watched as one of the dreadnoughts crumpled and shrank into almost nothingness in a briliant blue flash. The spacial distortion that followed tugged at his ship. "What was that?"

"We have developed a weapon that can compress space to the point where anything in it is crunched into a singularity."

"You're using a weapon like that in this region of space!? You could rip this sector to shreds!"

"We have more important things to worry about. The StarLance in only 4600km ahead. When we get there, we split up. You attack the top, I will attack its belly. Our escorts will surround and attack every target of opportunity."

"Roger. All units, prepare to engage."

-----

Darvonsal had been gritting his teeth for almost ten minutes now. How could a Human be so foolish? He thought. Pity. He will have to learn as well.

"Tactical, prepare to fire another chronokinetic charge at that traitorious human admiral." Darvonsal barked.

"Sir, we're picking up numerous spacial distortions. Firing would make this region of space even more unstable."

Darvonsal glared at the ensign and replied coldly: "What did I just say?"

The ensign sighed. "Yes, sir." And pushed in the order.

-----

"It's your call, Sarg." Cicion crackled over the radio. "We've got full weapons charge and are nearing nominal range."

"Excelent. Preparing for primary cannon fire and death blossom, powering up focused singularity projector-"

He was cut off by the glowing forn end of the StarLance.

"All units split and attack at full speed! Fire the projector at that beam!"

A blur ran through space at the same time the chronokinetic cannon fired. The two beams met in a blinding flash that sent the surrounding space rippling like river rapids.

Cicion came on the radio again, in an aggrevated state. "What the hell did you do!? Are you out of your mind!?"

"Just do your job and attack that ship!"

The line of ships split and enveloped the StarLance. Escorts swarmed around it, ate away at its shields and attracted the defenses. The Phylydia lumbered over, flare bolt cannons and compression cannons blazing away leaving scarring and pockmarks on the StarLance's hull. The Vindictive flew just under, narrowly avoiding a disruptor blast and spacial eddies. Using the full power of the shields, the Death Blossom forced its way through the Starlance's shields, and a bright spray of antimatter plasma carreened at hyperspace speeds into the dreadnoughts belly, carving a straight gash through the armor.

A Salrilian crewman turned around. "Your Eminance, that attack used all the weapons power we will have for some time. We will not be able to do another attack for several minutes."

"We've made our mark, anyway. Just keep us moving and start attacking the rest of the dreadnoughts when ready.

The rest of the fleet was not having near as much luck. Though the other StarLance's were cheap replicas, they were still proving to be a difficult task, even for over 5,000 ships. The battle raged and showed no sign of giving way to either side.

------------------
Throughout their history these "unenlightened" beings have continually opposed and fought abuses of power wrought by their own bretheren. We, as the prophets would do well to learn from these Humans.
-Final statement of the Salrilian reformist Sirthis shortly before his execution.

(This message has been edited by Sargatanus (edited 11-06-2000).)