(NY SJELLUND, does anyone get the joke/dedication here?)

The Obish were on the run again. News had arrived less than an hour ago of the Audemedons' imminent arrival. But as before, this was planned. In less than another half of an hour, the fleet was centered around the jumpgate. All civilians had been evacuated. All previous casualties had been replaced, as well as well as the addition 8 Gunships. Gradually, slowly, the Obish fleet was becoming an armada. But sooner or later the Audemedons would realize their predicament, and send a fleet large enough to obliterate them. Right now there was only opportunity to increase their numbers.

(5 TR, 12 GS, 21 ES, 2 BA) The Obish units had been organized together to maximize efficiency. The gunships each escorted a transport, the other 7 each commanding a point ( Ntk'eron ) with 3 escorts.

Gvelar gire ytara...

The Obish fleet packed itself up, and left, departing to its next target, Kvesar.

-=o=- -=o=- -=o=- -=o=- -=o=- -=o=-

(2.3 Terran days later)

The Ishiman Heavy Cruiser sat in the system, scanning, rescanning for any lifesigns in the area. Not only were there no Obish lifesigns, there were no human lifesigns either. Nothing... An Ishiman scouting party shuttled down to scan the remains of the human outpost. The scanning device was brought out, and again the area was scanned. Human traces were found, and suddenly a blue wave appeared across the monitor. The party looked up. Inscribed on the wall was a simple message. Kvesar.

------------------
-Pallas Athene of Dysian Beta, Obish Consensus Representative
-Nieru Dast, {M}ilitia Aeriane
-Danae Vernius
"Cheaters don't really win, and winners don't really cheat. Unless you're talking politics." -Durandal

(This message has been edited by Pallas Athene (edited 01-24-2001).)

(Beamed down? TRICORDERS!? What is this, Star Trek? :rolleyes:)

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

(I think that you should probably change it to they went down in a shuttle and set up a scanning device on a tripod...)

(Slug agrees)

Levt woke from his week-long sleep, boardering nearly on comatose at one point. He had mad it back to UNS space, or whatever it was that was now the long string of Human refugees that, only with the protection of Gaitor, managed to survive the Salrilian onslaught. Levt made it, but not unhurt. He had lost his left arm, shattered four ribs, and had an eyepatch stapled to his head. But that was not what had hurt him the most.

Amidst the many battles the Chimaera had fought in during the year of hell, his first officer and wife, Samantha Levt, had died. Yet inside, Jerry felt unlike he ever had before.

The door slid open and the Admiral waled in. Levt's face brightened at the chance to share the dreams- or visions- he had experienced. "So... Gerald... You wanted to see me?"

"Yes Admiral. It's about the fate of humanity." The Admiral's brow furrowed. "I don't know where to start..."

"Start wherever you will, Jerry. We have plenty of time."

"We were deep in Audemedon space when we came upon a massive nebula. Taking the opportunity to hide in it for temporary repairs and much needed rest, we detected a rift.

"I was sleeping when I had a vision. As if someone at the other end of that rift was reaching out to me. Each night, that... person would reveal more and more to me. The Chimaera was fully patched up, but I ordered us to stay there so I could continue talking to this man.

"He told me his race was also in danger of being overrun by hostile aliens. They built a machine and destroyed the aliens, but they had waited too long and his race was all but knocked to the stone age.

"He said he would show me how to build his machine.... and he did. The Salrilians are trying to exterminate us to prevent fulfilling this prophecy of theirs. If we build this machine, we will fullfill the prophecy and exterminate them! Then we can exterminate the Cantharans! Then Axis and Gaitor-"

"Nobody would stand for those atrocities, Gerald!"

"We'll exterminate them too! Humanity will rise to it's rightful place in the galactic order- the only niche!"

The Admiral was horrified. "You're mad! It's some Audemedon trick on the mind!"

"Alexi didn't think so." Levt looked at him, a glimmer of pure insanity in his eye....

------------------
"I think I have discovered the problem with humans. It is not entirely stupidity, as I once thought. It is their pigheaded and baseless philosophy: "If it isn't me, then it's opinions, feelings, and life do not matter, and it was meant to serve me." They also have this ability for creating excuses that are pointless, but they get others to believe it. A few examples: "It's only some savages. It's only five acres of rain forest. It's only one semi-truck. It's only fifty gallons of toxic waste..." After this realization, I marvelled at how humans, and the rest of the planet, have survived for so very long."
- Me

(This message has been edited by Slug (edited 01-24-2001).)

Coasting slowly and cautiously in at four knots, the USS Caveat covered the distance in just under three hours. She was a tremendous vessel, one of the largest in the world, but she was also amongst one of the quietest. She was very near now, Sonar was still hearing the groaning of twisted metal collapseing under the intense pressure. Somewhere, three hundred feet below the keel of the USS Caveat lay the crushed body of an unknown submarine. Sackler was cautious. Whoever had made this kill was probably still in the area, and the Caveat could be next. The caveat was now running dead silent. The only noise she made came from her nuclear reactor, which had been powered down to its lowest setting, so that not even the tiny hum of the muffled coolant pumps would get through four hulls and twenty inches of rubber soundproof insulation that separated the crew from the sea. With the work that had been done on her since her adoption by the UNS Resistance, the USS Caveat was almost undetectable when she ran silent.

"Conn, Sonar. Reacquired sonar contact sierra 3. Bearing 042."
The sonar operator was whispering into the intercom, as leaned back in his chair, so he could look through the sonar room door, and see his captain on the bridge.

"What's she up to?"

"She just turned, I think she started the screw up to get coasting again."

"Got a better Idea who they are?"

"I only got a glimpse at her, but she's a single-scew. Judgeing by how fast she got going, she's small. Small and quick."

Sackler looked back at his XO,

"Mako is an Oskar-2, isn't she? Doesn't fit the bill as a small attack sub. It's Vengeance or nothing. What do you think, sonar?"

"Could be, wanna try the gertrude?"

"Think she's listening?"

"One way to find out..."

------------------
Faris eck Vaenar Maletena-Wizr, Trey'ish of the Ishiman reestablishment comittee.
"I don't think I'm alone when I say that I'd like to see more and more planets fall under the ruthless domination of our solar system."

The EAM came out of the printer, and a buzzer went off. The XO and the radioman opened the locked case with their keys, and the XO tore the page out of the printer and closed the door, taking his key. He read it, then passed it to the Captain, who read it too. Sackler looked up at his dive officer.

"Take us to periscope depth, make your cruise speed five knots, make heading five knots and await further instructions. Drop a marker on this spot, we'll be back to see this wreck in a few hours."

As the Dive officer relayed the orders, Captain sackler found the Trey'eck and led him to the rear of the sub. Aft of the reactor Housings and the large engines, generators and turbines, in the cramped space below the aft torpedoe room, five SEAL troopers were playing cards.

"Hey boys, I need a favor, fast."

They looked up expectantly, perhaps it was an assault on an ocean platform, or even better, an assault on an occupied seaside town, maybe an extraction, something, anything better than sitting in the hold of a Sub for six weeks.

"What's up, boss?"

"I need you to get this guy ready for a dynamic sea-to-air pickup ASAP. High speed."

They looked slightly dissapointed as he pointed to Myrk. Even Myrk seemed slightly surprised at the statement.

"Sea to Air extraction? Me?"

"Yep, just got it over the wire. we're sending you up in one hour. You're getting a dustoff, along with a large ammount of highly important data if I can gather it in time. Don't worry, these guys'll get you set up. I need to go."

And with that, the Captain was running back towards the command and control center. One of the huge Seals patted the Trey'eck on the back heartily.

"Don't worry about it, a shallow water blow and go is nothing. All you gotta do is sit back for the ride. Come on, I'll get you outfitted."

The Trey'eck couldn't help but feel nervous despite the man's casual tone, he seemed like he would use the same casual manner to describe a violent encounter with an angered Gaath.

--------

fourty five minutes later, Myrk didn't feel much better. Five hundred feet of high grade polymer tethering attatched him to a large, heavy package. He was packed into the large airlock with one of the SEALs, who was also breathing from a scuba tank. The man adjusted the complicated, bulky harness that secured him to the tether.

"There you are, mate. Right as rain. Now, we wait for the word."

He didn't seem the least bit concerned with the Water that was rapidly filling the chamber.

--------

Sackler looked at the chart. They were as close as they were going to get.

He flicked a dial on his intercom, and simply said "Now"

He waited for several lights to turn red than green, then ordered the ship turned south.

"Finalize targeting solutions for missiles 1-15. Open the outer doors and standbye for launch. Sonar, say when."

Even though he knew they wern't nuclear missiles, he still felt anxious lifting the plastic safety cover on the big red button.

---------

It hadn't seemed so straightforward to Myrk. He heard the "Now" clearly enough, but after that, things went off. The outer door opened, and he saw the SEAL toss the heavy package out the door and pull a cord. There was a loud noise as the small package swelled tremendously, and rocketed upwards out of view. Myrk saw the large coil of tether rapidly reeling out. He felt a strong arm haul him out of the airlock into the open. He found himself standing on the deck of the sub. The SEAL was ginning around his regulator, he gave Myrk a thumbs up, and suddenly he was gone, falling down into the darkness. Or so it seemed until Myrk plopped out on the surface of Pacific Ocean. He floated calmly, Ishimans were very comfortable swimming. A thousand feet up, attatched to him by a long cord, A baloon floated lazily in the sky. Myrk lay back and floated aprehensively.

------------------
Faris eck Vaenar Maletena-Wizr, Trey'ish of the Ishiman reestablishment comittee.
"I don't think I'm alone when I say that I'd like to see more and more planets fall under the ruthless domination of our solar system."

Suddenly, Myrk felt a strong tug. The cable jerked to an angle and Myrk felt himself flying through the air at great speed. He looked up and saw a Cantharan schooner had hooked the cable onto itself. "Oh, great," he thought, "I'm going to be the Cantharan's hostage now."

The cable was winched up, and he entered the ship. "Greetings, friend. Sorry about the shock, but I needed a fast hull. Welcome aboard the DEF Outrun , my name's William Darkk, and I'll be your pilot today. Despite appearances, safety is my main concern. Strap into a seat, there's gonna be some shaking in a second."

Myrk quickly grabbed a seat and belted himself in. As soon as he had secured the harness, Darkk pushed a switch. All of a sudden, Myrk felt himself pushed back in his seat by 7 times his weight. "What is this?"
"Sorry, but we've got to avoid being hit, the Auds have noticed me now." As if to confirm his statement, a bright purple beam stabbed the air to their left.
"What kind of craft is this?" Myrk could see the mach numbers climbing rather dramatically.
"Cantharan schooner, rigged with an experamental antimatter rocket. We're currently at 1/64th power."
"ANTIMATTER ROCKET??? Even the Cantharans and Gaitori banned those for safety reasons! I want off!"
"The only way off is 2 miles down. Don't worry, my sister's a better engineer than them, it'll work OK."

The schooner made a very rapid crossing of the Americas and the Atlantic, arriving over Europe. "Here's where we make a break for it!" Darkk shouted. High overhead, a large bulk freighter initiated superlight and headed straight toward Earth. As it neared the atmosphere, it broke apart into tiny chunks. These shot into the atmosphere at absurd speeds, creating columns of fire in the skys over Europe, confusing sensors and making it impossible to locate anything in the air.

The Outrun shot upwards. As they began to leave the atmosphere, Darkk charged the superlight. "Warning, use of superlight in an atmosphere is extremely hazardous." the ship's computer chimed. "Darkk, what are you doing?!?!?" Myrk screamed. "Get ready for a little jolt."

The ship entered superlight, shaking like it was in a blender. All around, trails of fire extended through the air. Myrk's teeth were rattling, his bones were rattling, if he had had fillings they would have fallen out. The ship cleared the atmosphere just ahead of some planetary defense missles. "We're not out of this yet. I don't have the reserves to continue to the jumpstream start at superlight, we'll have to go on the rocket and run the guantlet."

Darkk stopped the superlight and kicked the antimatter engine up to full. The auds in orbit were unable to pursue, but the ones leaving the planet tried. Darkk was weaving constantly, swarms of ASB beams and insaa pulses flying about him. The auds were persistant, if nothing else. A carrier attempted to block Darkk's escape pysically, but he noticed its shields were down, turned the ship around, ignited the drive, and used the energetic photons to cut a hole through it. Myrk was screaming at this point.

Darkk dodged through a maze of tazer fire, unable to even see them due to the speed of the ship, dodging them primarily through the ship's own instability. The drive had gotten them to 0.05c, and the auds could not intercept or pursue. Jumpgate in 30 minutes, with nothing that could get between them and it.

Suddenly, the jumpgate opened. A massive orange bulk, 3.8km long, came through it. Darkk had heard stories from battle hardened mercenaries about the Audemedon Battleships. They were said to fire missles at a greater rate than the UNS Carriers of old could fire magnetos, and to be able to focus a tazer at twice the range of the Aud Carrier. Darkk had never met anyone who had seen them personally, and he reflected why: anyone who did was dead.

The auds seem intelegent today, Darkk reflected. The Battleship wasn't moving, and was physically blocking the gate. Darkk's trick with the carrier would stop unshielded ships, but not shielded ones that had them up. Darkk didn't have weapons, and the other gates were being surrounded. He would have to dislodge the massive monstrosity. He would have to do it fast. He dodged the swarm of missles emanating from the front end of the ship, and reflected that this at least had not been exagerated. Darkk swung under it, with the missles still following, plowing through his photon trail with their shields, and tazers lashing at him furiously.

Darkk hit the "overload" button, and dumped EXTRA antimatter and matter into the reactor, making it redline for a second but putting him well ahead of the missles. He managed to get the ship between him and the missles, and they rammed into it. It began to drift slightly. Darkk opened the jumpgate and shot through at full power, scraping his shield against the Battleship's, but making it through. Myrk had fainted.

Several hours later, aboard the stolen superfreighter Escapade , Darkk's current base, Myrk woke up.
"I told you it would be OK," Darkk teased, "You'd think the boss would have given you more training in courage. But it's OK, we're safe now."
"Thank you very much, privateer Darkk."
"Ah, you recognised the UNS operative insignia I've pinned on. I'm afraid we can't take you back to Ishiman territory for quite some time, but you'll be quite safe here."

------------------
Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

(This message has been edited by Fleet Admiral Darkk (edited 01-26-2001).)

(UNS HEADQUARTERS, ISHIMA SYSTEM)

As Captain Mordos was exiting the building, he spoke into his wrist pad. "Admiral Carter didn't stick as exactly to the agreement as I'd planned. Go to plan B."

His second in command was listening with his earpiece. "Aye, sir." He turned on the ship's comm, and spoke to the crew. "Plan A failed. Go to plan B. Be near the airlock, with weapons ready, in ten minutes."

Ten minutes later...

"Everybody ready?" asked the captain.

"Aye, sir!"

"Good. Go." he pointed to the building.

The crew ran out of the ship, and shot the guards. They proceeded to storm the building, rounding up Admiral Carter, and shooting the freed prisoners. They brought Carter to the heavy destroyer, where Captain Mordos was waiting.

"What is the meaning of this?!?" asked Admiral Carter in a very angry voice.

"Just a few thousand credits. Take him to the holding cell, and get us out of here."

The admiral was taken onto the ship, and it rocketed for the skies.

---------------------
(CARRIBEAN, EARTH, SOL)

The fighters turned on their scanners, and found the base. They docked in their specified port, and the pilots climbed out. A human met them. "Welcome to Alpha. Captain Sackler asked me to meet you, and get things arranged. Come this way, please."

---------------------
(SIMLAB CLUSTER 239583, ZEUS SYSTEM)

Mag walked quietly down the dark hall, looking for some sort of computer to hack into. He'd stolen a long range photokinetic beam rifle from a guard that wasn't paying attention.

An orange beam passed by his shoulder. He spun around, and ducked into a corner. He had found that shooting around corners while using infrared vision worked very well for gunfights. He began firing like mad, and the Salrillians soon withdrawed. Mag was gonna get killed one of these days if he didn't find a map...

------------------
"I think I have discovered the problem with humans. It is not entirely stupidity, as I once thought. It is their pigheaded and baseless philosophy: "If it isn't me, then it's opinions, feelings, and life do not matter, and it was meant to serve me." They also have this ability for creating excuses that are pointless, but they get others to believe it. A few examples: "It's only some savages. It's only five acres of rain forest. It's only one semi-truck. It's only fifty gallons of toxic waste..." After this realization, I marvelled at how humans, and the rest of the planet, have survived for so very long."
- Me

The Salrillian ambassador nodded it's insectlike head towards Spamo.
"You have many thankss for appearing here. Hopefully you will not doubt our benign intentionss?" More spittle dripped as the thing spoke.

"We shall have to see how I judge your intentions." Spamo replied.

"Your visit was so brief. We had barely enough time to show you our main population centers. Come, contact your Ishiman friendss and we can give you a more complete tour of ou... your planet."

"No, I have business to attend to. We shall be in communication Sleerushka. Good bye."
Good riddance

Spamo strode up the gangplank into the executive shuttle. It rose up and out of the atmosphere towards the waiting Salrillian carrier, that was to convey him to the rendevous point with the UNS fleets.

"Sskilled aren't we Sspann? Not so clever as you might think."

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

The jumpgate at Ishima bustled with activity as ships flew in and out, going
on various errands about the galaxy. One such ship that entered the Ishima
system was one of the brand new UNS Heavy Destroyers. Designed to replace
the aged class of HVD's, this one was built with Ishiman aid. The UNS
Rosemary was one of them.

"Ishiman Traffic control, this is the UNS Rosemary. I'm requesting an officer's shuttle for the Admiral here. He's got some news for the Trey'sh."

"Roger Rosemary. A shuttle has been dispatched."

A short while later, Admiral Spann strode into Maletena Wizr's office.
"Spann! You're back already?"

"Your Trey'eck has successfully been extracted from Earth. He's en route to Ishima as we speak."

Wizr's eyes lit up. "The mission was successful?"

"Quite well. I had a mercenary captain I know pull him out. They used an old Cantharan vessel, so I'm quite sure that the Salrillians won't know who stole him for a short while."

Wizr nodded. Then he smiled as a few thoughts entered his head. "I suppose we can use that time to put a bit more pressure on the Salrillians."

Spamo nodded his agreement. "I can keep him in hiding as long as you'd like. Of course, communication won't be cut off, but if he doesn't need to be back in action anytime soon..."

"Yes, I think that will do well. I do relish the idea of belittling the Salrillians." Wizr smiled and sat back in his chair. "Things are starting to turn our way I think."

Spamo took a seat in Wizr's office. "Care for some tea?" he asked, as he ordered some from Wizr's assistant.

"Yes, thank you."

"The assault fleet to retake Earth is nearly complete, as far as I hear from your engineers. I've never seen the UNS so well equipped." Spamo said as he sipped at his tea. "I can almost smell the clean, fresh air of a liberated Earth."

"I'm sure you can. Now there's just the excuse for war that we have to make."

Spamo nodded. "I've got that taken care of."

-------------------
(Somewhere, Ishiman space)

Colonel Jacobson stood on the bridge of the UNS Hyperion. The Ishiman captain of the ship sat behind him in the command chair. "Are the ships evacuated?"

"Yes sir. All ships are reporting readiness."

Eight captured Salrillian vessels hung in space, their autopilots programmed with complex navigational commands. Nearby, four large, defenseless, and quite crewless frieghters sat.

"Execute the operation."

As the Hyperion watched, the Eight Salrillian vessels swooped at the now fleeing freighters, who beamed distress signals, prerecorded by the crews, and intercepted and jammed by the Hyperion. A few minutes later, the four frieghters were floating debris, and the Eight Salrillian vessels superlighted away. They would self-destruct a great distance away, their corridors packed with explosives as to leave no traces save for the occasional free radical.

"Mission accomplished."
A jumpgate opened and the Hyperion left.

(Terribly sorry about the delay. It's been a hectic week(end).)

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

(This message has been edited by El Spamo (edited 01-27-2001).)

(This message has been edited by El Spamo (edited 01-30-2001).)

(26 hours doesn't count as "a few"... )

------------------
"I think I have discovered the problem with humans. It is not entirely stupidity, as I once thought. It is their pigheaded and baseless philosophy: "If it isn't me, then it's opinions, feelings, and life do not matter, and it was meant to serve me." They also have this ability for creating excuses that are pointless, but they get others to believe it. A few examples: "It's only some savages. It's only five acres of rain forest. It's only one semi-truck. It's only fifty gallons of toxic waste..." After this realization, I marvelled at how humans, and the rest of the planet, have survived for so very long."
- Me

Quote

Originally posted by Talon Karrde:
**(Slug, that sounds a LOT like Starcraft: Brood Wars to me)
**

Slug is in the habit of taking stuff from other places and putting them in the RPG with a few tweaks. He should do more of his origional stuff, though; that stuff's great.

------------------
"I think I have discovered the problem with humans. It is not entirely stupidity, as I once thought. It is their pigheaded and baseless philosophy: "If it isn't me, then it's opinions, feelings, and life do not matter, and it was meant to serve me." They also have this ability for creating excuses that are pointless, but they get others to believe it. A few examples: "It's only some savages. It's only five acres of rain forest. It's only one semi-truck. It's only fifty gallons of toxic waste..." After this realization, I marvelled at how humans, and the rest of the planet, have survived for so very long."
- Me

He didn't say who's at the end of the rift

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

(KVESAR)

On the run, again.

The Audemedons had finally decided to come in force. The long wait had been a clue, but the fleet had begun filing out only slowly after that. There was no indication of an attack, no indication of any knowledge of the Obiards existence.

Until a cone of orange fire erupted from the jumpgate.

The 7 nearby Escorts and the Battleship Th'riha'n immediately started for the jumpgate to rejoin their comrades in the Delta Pavonis system. But the Audemedons had attacked in numbers too great to be avoided. Two of the Escorts remaining had actually made it to the jumpgate. Two of the halves of the Battleship had as well - salvageable, but never to be the fighting craft she once was. The doors had, fortunately, sealed of the majority of the ship from the gaping hole left by Trazer fire, but even without casualties, it was a devastating loss.

Four escorts had gone E'tlaq'sa* to save what they had.

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

(DELTA PAVONIS)

It was a poor facility the Obiards had come to. But it was neccessary. The continual advances before had brought them closer and closer to Audemedon space- and that could no longer be tolerated.

Nothing but escorts could be produced.

But the Th'esare had completed the reverse engineering of the Audemedon holgram device-allowing it to be put to use on the Escorts. For the first 8 hours, each of the current escorts was brought up to date. And for the remaining 40 they had alloted for the system, another 8 would be built. Hopefully it would be enough.

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

Can we steer towards the conquest of Earth now? We can spend maybe 20 posts getting there, then close it off as a cliffhanger with the fleets assembled. Then we wait for Slug to create the next chapter with the battle.

*Kamikaze, essentially

------------------
-Pallas Athene of Dysian Beta, Obish Consensus Representative
-Nieru Dast, {M}ilitia Aeriane
-Danae Vernius
"Cheaters don't really win, and winners don't really cheat. Unless you're talking politics." -Durandal

(Pharris wanted to end this chapter himself, and have me start the next chapter.)

------------------
Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

(I want to get the conquest done; I want to go back to my Ob-Ka subplot...)

(AXIS MAJOR AREA)

The solitary Audemedon cruiser flew slowly through space. It was a good thing that Audemedons were not fully sentient, for any normal being would have found this patrol run incredibly boring.

A capsule floated nearby. Nobody could say how it had gotten there; not yet, anyway. It was about forty centimetres long, and twelve wide. It was made of a strange material that seemed to glow, and, if analyzed, was a little stronger than titanium.

The object drifted leisurely into the sensor range of the cruiser.

The cruiser considered it, and had seen nothing like it before. If it had seen nothing like it, he should report it to his masters, and the Salrillians, who would surely wish to study it. The cruiser altered course to make a pickup. As a tractor beam locked on, beams of energy lanced out from the capsule, obliterating the cruiser.

(Don't worry, this is to do with my character, not the main plot.)

------------------
Subcommander g'Var "8 Lightnings" Krai'un

Second in command of the Escort Starbeam.
“Imagine if you will, you’re standing on a grade of finely processed salt in a salt factory. Now, there is a very large rusty blade flying towards you at a very high speed. Imagine now, the feeling you will have as you fall into that salt after you are run through with that blade.” -Marathon Infinity, Terminal 0, Page 2, You Think You’re Big Time, You’re Gonna Die Big Time, Vidmaster’s Challenge Edition.

(Been a LONG time since my last post)

It had been a fairly uneventful week for Talon Karrde. The Wild Karrde was currently undergoing repairs in the hangar of the 4-mile long Eleejeetian Gateship. In the past week him and his squadron had ambushed a pair of Salrillian convoys. The Eleejeetian fleet had so far fared pretty well, having lost only 2 dozen ships since the war began. The Wild Karrde now had 26 kills to it's credit, the last one having been an Audemedon carrier that managed to slice off the port nacelle of the Wild Karrde with it's trazer beam before succumbing to it's onas pulse gun. He shuffled with distaste through the paperwork on his desk. Some things never change, do they? He thought back to the time when Earth had been free, when...

(2 HOURS LATER)

Commander!
Karrde woke up, embarrassed of having dozed off.
Commander, I have a message for you! The young ensign addressing him handed him the message.
Karrde read the contents of the datapad.
Are you sure?!
He stared at the Datapad, incredously. The Ensign nodded.
Dismissed! The Ensign gave a smart salute and walked out of the office.
Karrde stared at the Battle plan, hope rising in his soul...

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

The Eleejeetian Gateship engaged it's engines and sped towards it's target, the far away system of Thasero...

- - - - -
(slug)

(guys, aside from the names (coincidence) I see no similarities between that and Brood War)

Jerry Levt smiled smugly. In the weeks following his discussion with the Admiral, he had taken a large number of troops and ships and abandoned the main fleet, last seen heading for Gaitor...

------------------
--Talon_Karrde, MoC, 61:4--
Visit (url="http://"http://www.planetarion.com")www.planetarion.com(/url) and sign up for some real gaming experience!

(This message has been edited by Slug (edited 01-29-2001).)

(SIMLAB CLUSTER 239583, ZEUS SYSTEM)

The heavy destroyer docked with the simlab, and Captain Mordos stepped out through the airlock, where he was greeted by several Salrillians in a dark, humid room.

"I've brought the package you requested," said Mordos, and he waved one of his hands back into the airlock. Three of his crew members carried a battered and beaten Admiral Carter into the simlab.

"Good work, Captain Mordos. Give him to us, and we'll give you your payment once we have him secured in his cell."

"Very well. Waited this long, why not a few more minutes. Give to them," the captain said, turning to the crew members that were holding Admiral Carter. They obeyed, and the Salrillians carried the admiral through a door.

"We'll be back in a few minutes," one of the Salrillians said as the door was closing.

Captain Mordos waited with his crew assembled to recieve his payment. He was anxious. What could be taking them so long?

As if in response to his question, a bright green gas began coming out of the overhead vents. The world began swirling, and the floor came up at him. Everything faded to black.

The gas was sucked back into the vents, and pure air entered the room. The Salrillians came in again, and began dragging the crew members off to various cells.

"Foolish humans," one of them thought.

Then a Salrillian voice came over the intercom, "Tech teams, begin removing the weapons from the heavy destroyer."

---------------------
(TWO HOURS LATER, SAME LOCATION)

Mag walked into the room. He was still using his infrared, and he saw a heavy destroyer outside. The odd thing was, though, that it had no weapons. It would still do better for escape than the transport. He cut away at the airlock, and was soon inside. The infrared showed him the bridge, and he made his way to it. Once there, he quickly hacked his way into the piloting controls. Mag would have to get out of the system very quickly...

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"I think I have discovered the problem with humans. It is not entirely stupidity, as I once thought. It is their pigheaded and baseless philosophy: "If it isn't me, then it's opinions, feelings, and life do not matter, and it was meant to serve me." They also have this ability for creating excuses that are pointless, but they get others to believe it. A few examples: "It's only some savages. It's only five acres of rain forest. It's only one semi-truck. It's only fifty gallons of toxic waste..." After this realization, I marvelled at how humans, and the rest of the planet, have survived for so very long."
- Me

(Spammo, Myrk needs to stay in "Independant" hands for the Trey'sh's plans to work)

Seventeen Hours in the hotseat. The Trey'sh finally sat down in one of the circle of consoled that surrounded the speaker's platform, facing outwards and upwards into the Tremendous dome of the Ishiman legislature space platform. As he started to relax, he was excited and hopeful. There were murmurs throughout the hall, and through all of his speech. This was in a chamber that was supposed to run in complete silence. He had reached them, and if his plan went through as he hoped, victory would be assured.

The Trey'sh didn't have that long, it was barely an hour's recess for his team, and he had many things to do before he would be ready to go up and speak again. He immediately checked his messages and found what he wanted.

A message from the Trey'sh of the Foreign Relations commitee. He had his ace. Now it was almost unneccessary, but he went to the questions anyway. He put on his headphones, pulled the mic to his mouth, and joined in the discussion. Around him were twelve experienced Trey, a part of the Reestablishment Committee's representation on the round-the-clock Ishiman legislature sessions.

As some other comittee took the stage for a brief announcement, the twelve Trey and the Trey'sh together were racing to answer nearly six hundred questions that hadn't been adressed during Wizr's speech. As the recess came to a close, the Trey'sh of Foreign relations arrived and stood on the speaker's platform.

"Greetings. Not three hours ago, I was in meeting with the Ambassador of Salril. I was questioning him about the return of Ishiman Personell in the occupied territory in question. He was very negative. As you can see in the transcripts, he repeatedly ignored and avoided the issue. You all know about Salril's abhorrent personal rights and prisoner treatment records. The few prisoners that have ever been recovered return with stories of torture, vivisection, live-experimentation, psycho-invasive interrogation and worse. Needless to say, I was insistent on the matter, however, as I put more pressure on the Ambassador, he reversed his earlier testimony in which he had stated that the Prophets of Salril were holding the staff to the suggestion that the UNS Resistance and the Stellar Protectorate had recaptured him. This is absolutely absurd. The UNS resistance has reported that they do not have the Trey'eck, and the Protectorate certainly doesn't have him. The onyl conclusion we can draw is that the Salrillian Prophets are attempting to cover up their interrogation of the Trey'eck Myrk of the reestablishment committee..."

He paused to see how the crowd would react. Wizr was hiding the feeling of victory that flooded his body. He could see it in their faces. Torturing Ishiman diplomats would not fly with the Legislature. The Trey'sh of foreign affairs kept speaking, but it was hardly necessary, he didn't need to see the rest of the proceedings. He got up to get some rest, he was exhausted.

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When he awoke he found the day's mail on his bedside. An electronic document on an encrypted pad. Only the most secure documents came in this fomat. On the front was a note from one of his top Trey saying. He sat up excitedly as it scanned his thumbprint, then his acess code. It flashed "accepted" across the screen, and he saw the actual document. He couldn't help jumping up as he read the first lines that ran under the Stellar Protectorate Seal.

"DECLARATION OF WAR:
Grievances against the Prophets of Salril by the Ishiman Stellar Protectorate
In Legislature: 674278

Earth would be freed...

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Faris eck Vaenar Maletena-Wizr, Trey'ish of the Ishiman reestablishment comittee.
"I don't think I'm alone when I say that I'd like to see more and more planets fall under the ruthless domination of our solar system."