(Pharris, come on gr before the time above this post tomorrow!)

'The carrier Negulon has been destroyed.'

Captain Perneas sat, with his head in his hands, in the captain's chair. Tears started welling up in his eyes. Marselles was dead. His carrier destroyed, annihilated by it's explosive end. And what's more, the battle was lost.

Perneas gazed out upon the screens of Tactical, while his officer's and crewmembers screamed at each other, trying to make a difference.

'Coming at you 45 by 45!'
'Fighter escort 3 has been destroyed.'
'Incoming plasma, evasive action.'
'Escort frigate 1 has been destroyed.
'Fighter escort 4 and 5 have been destroyed.'

'Sir?'

Perneas stared at a man who had broken his peaceful silence.

'What?'

'Someone is signalling us.' Perneas got up. Could it be? No. But a speck of intuition told him it was so.

'Turn it on.'

The holovisor flashed into life. Darkk was standing there.

'Greetings darkk.'

'Greetings Captain Perneas. I'd advise that you move out of your current sector. Right now.'

Perneas looked at the tactical screen. 3 Union battlecruisers were finishing off the agressive pincer that had decimated the railgun platforms and left half the fleet in ashes, on the other side of the planet. But it was only a matter of time before the heavier ships made the half-orbit necessary to come in range. At the moment Perneas was being harassed by heavy fighters and corvettes. Even so, he was taking damage.

'Power up the drive, began a fast exit of this planet's orbit.' He said to a navigation officer. 'Signal the survivors of the fleet to follow me.'

'I'm afraid that won't fast enough. Look your window Perneas, 90 degrees to the left of the planet.'

At the moment, the Prometheus was round the dark side of the planet, Perneas having given the order to flee as soon as he saw Lockwood go in with his pincer. Many of the frigates and destroyers disobeyed the prefects order and followed. They were currently the only survivors. Now, with billions upon billions of tons of rock seperating him and his adversary, Perneas had thought himself safe for the time being.

He noticed, on the area of space not filled up by the planet, spatial distortions. They were kind of chaotic, suggesting that someone was make a very tight jump. As if by magic, 3 ships burst out of nothing. 2 heavy destroyers, and what looked like a down-sized battlecruiser.

Without waiting for the inevitable nuclear hailstorm, he gave the signal to jump.

'Engage light drives!'

'What about the survivors?' Asked the stricken officer. Perneas looked at him, realising how he was now the only thing that stood between his loyal escorts and certain, not escapable, not even avoidable, death.

He turned to Darkk.

'I won't leave my ships behind. Get here quickly or don't get here at all.'

'I assure you Perneas, that no quicker method of travel exists than the one I am taking. Dispense with the heroics for the moment, and leave for the outskirts of the system, coordinates 39,3 39,3 Magestic's axis.'

Darkk's picture switched off.

'Do it.' Said Perneas to a nearby stardrive officer.

'Sir, there's a message from the Union cruiser Xerxes.' Someone said breathlessly.

Just then, Perneas noted how the heavy destroyers hadn't fired. Otherwise, Perneas would be knee-deep in neutrons. Well well, that's one thing I haven't seen yet. A humane Union captain.

'Switch it on.'

Someone's image filled the screen. A tall, blonde man wearing the insignia of a Union captain. He began to speak:

'I am Captain Dulles of the Union cruiser Xerxes. I have come to offer you terms of surrender and survival. Should you choose to escape into ether, I will fire upon your escorts and annihilate them. If you surrender, you and your crew will be treated according to the Sander Convention and allowed to return to ESF space. You have one minute to respond.'

'How long till we can escape to light speed?' Captain Perneas whispered to the chief engineer.

'2 seconds.'

Perneas smiled at captain Dulles.

'No thanks.'

'As you wish.' Captain Dulles' hologram switched off.

Just then, nuclear missile ports opened on the heavy destroyers, and Prometheus escaped into lightspeed.

He would make the Union pay for the slaughter of Marselles, and captain Dulles for making his escorts suffer for his mistakes.

(This message has been edited by Count Altair El Alemein (edited 06-20-2001).)

Darkk watched the fight on the monitor as his small fleet sped through the warpship's folded-space conduit. His ship, and its escort, had folded space drive, but the warpship was necissary for maximum speed. Judging by the situation, the ESF needed all the speed Darkk could put on. He hoped his reading was right - if not, he might fail and die. He told himself to calm down, that he was a class A2 reader, 99.99% infalable. There was a fleet on standby, no more than 2 minutes away. He could last that long, no problem. But it would be so much better if he didn't need to.

Darkk's ships exited the swirling maw of the tear in space no more than 300 klicks from the battlecruisers. The carrier engaged its short-range space-folding, and accelerated towards the nearest one, dropping briefly out of lightspeed, seemingly doing nothing, and then accelerated away.

Lockwood smiled as the last orbital platform began to fall into the atmosphere. It was a glorious victory, almost perfect. The only thing missing was the head of the man who killed his son. That would come in a few secon...
"Sir! Aneas is calling! They're being boarded!"
"What? Put them on!"

A transmission window opened on the main screen. As it was a voice-only call, there was no picture. "Admiral!!! They're boarding us! I don't have a clue how they got here, but they're tearing up everything! They're unstoppable!" In the background, screams, gunfire, and antipersonel rockets could be heard, getting louder. "Oh s***, here they YAAHHEEAHH"
TRANSMISSION DISCONECT On the main monitor, the shields of the Aneas went down.

Lockwood looked at his bridge crew. Their eyes were bulging, their jaws were hanging. They were petrified with fear. What had just happened was impossible. These "Vylae" had boarded a ship without even getting near it!! His crew had begun to panic. So was he - he was sweating, his throat was tight. The unknown, the impossible are the most terrifying. He had to calm himself, then his crew.

"Sir! They're coming back for another pass!"
"Open fire with fusion rockets! We've got to take them down!! Helm, point us dead at them."
No response.

Lockwood turned - the navigator and pilot had fainted. He was about to order someone else to take their places when the room exploded in sprays of plasma, bullets, and rockets. Lockwood didn't even have time to dive for the floor as the bridge crew exploded in bursts of gore, red steam, and cinders.

"Please turn around, Admiral Lockwood. We would like to see the look on your face!" said a chorus of high-pitched voices behind him. He turned slowly, hands up. A gaggle of birdlike creatures, holding odd weapons, was standing behind him. Surprisingly, with them were two humans, wearing the same uniform. At least, they might be human - their hair was bright orange, their eyes a shining yellow. "Now, Lockwood, you will order your fleet to surrender." Lockwood sighed - these Vylae had ruined everything. "Ok, I give." He opened a comm channel.

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

Darkk met Perneas in the cargo bay of Darkk's ship. "How the hell did you do that?!?!?" Perneas shouted as he got off the shuttle. "That was impossible!"

"My dear Perneas, nothing is impossible. We have the technology to convert objects to standing energy waves and send them through space, where they are reconstituted. This technology is sufficiently accurate to be used on sentient subjects. The carrier's version is sufficiently powerful to be used through shields. The Union had never encountered teleporters before, and thus was not ready to defend against a boarding party starting well inside the center of the ship."

"That is a dang frightening technology."

"In our neck of the woods, all major groups have it - even our local splinter faction of humans."

"Speaking of humans, what's with her?" Perneas pointed at the odd woman, wearing a Vylae uniform, standing behind Darkk.

"Most humans working with us volanteer for marine duty, due to their superior physical strength. Also, they are one of the few species we know of which can survive the enhancement procedures."

"Enhancement..."

"Yes. It was origionally developed by that splinter faction I mentioned, although we've made many improvements. The orange hair and yellow eyes are a side effect."

"It's too bad Pharris disobeyed orders and ran, I'd love to see him get torn up like your people tore up those other Unionists."

(If you're wondering what the enhancement procedure is, read the M1 terminal on battleroids. The Vylae version of it is done on living people, and involves more nanotech and chemical work, instead of just mechanical/electronic enhancement.)

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

(Excellent! Darkk, please note that the next enemies you're about to fight, the naarad, are all computer-controlled ships except for the dreadnought, which is not making an appearance here, Pharris? There's a naarad fleet waiting outside the system, waiting on your word! Fleet = 3 Carrier Units, 5 Defense Units, 8 Support Units, 12 Assault Units. Naarad Carriers have energy-draining space rods, gravitonic homing pulses, defense units have energy-draining space rods, heavy antimatter, and the naarad version of flak, support units have turreted ion cannons, gravitonics, and assault units have antimatter and union type plasma.)

Captain Perneas sat, rather bored, on top of his captain's chair. Freed from the vertigo of battle, his officers and men cooled down by having cups of coffee or idle chatter. Outside the screen, Magestic 3 could be seen, almost blocked by a huge amount of gravsteel wreckage. Most of done by the Vylae. Now, since the Vylae could beam on board his ship at will, and he back, he merely sat and waited for the word. He might enjoy this.

'Captain? Darkk is ready.'

'Tell him I await his pleasure.'

The man spoke into his comm-link. Perneas felt a queer twisting sensation, as if he was being turned inside out. Then, before he could quantify the feeling, he found himself on Darkk's flagship, standing in a cell.

Darkk nodded at him. In the very pose his son had held, Admiral Lockwood sat. His arms in iron binders, his head lowered but his eyes glinting defiance.

'Let us begin' Said darkk. 'Since you have a number of mind-blocks Admiral Lockwood' Surprise showed on his face. 'I will spend this session searching for the word that will unlock them.'

'What mind block?' He asked, evidently confused.

'The mind-block you have on your mind that prevents you from telling us things!' Perneas shouted furiously.

Lockwood twisted his mouth in a sour-half grin. 'You ESF are the scum of the universe.' He pronounced.

Perneas cooled himself with a supreme effort of will.

This time darkk would be asking the questions. Away from the prisoner's eyes, was a panel that displayed how much response Darkk's questions would be getting. The higher the response, the closer he was getting. Then drugs injected into Gveinne took action that moment, and he ceased all expression in his cold blue eyes.

'What is your name?'

'Admiral Gveinne Lockwood.'

'What is your rank?'

'Admiral of the 3rd Battle group.'

'Who killed your son?'

'That bastard over there!' He said, some signs of emotion creeping in. Perneas recoiled at the huge red spike on his emotional indicator. Whenever the admiral looked at Perneas, that spike appeared. Red for hate.

'Was your son the reason why you went to destroy captain Perneas?' Darkk said.

'No.'

'What was the reason?'

'I was under orders to attack Magestic 3 with the 3rd fleet.'

'Who gave you your orders?'

'Bor Reinz, Councilor-Governor of the Union of Worlds.'

'Why did Bor Reinz choose this moment to attack?'

'I don'...' the prisoner stuttered... 'I donnn'ttt... I do know!'

'You do?' Asked Perneas dubiously.

'I have an idea of why.' Replied Admiral Lockwood.

'Declare your idea to us.' Said Darkk.

'The Naarad ordered him to.'

Perneas leaned over to darkk and whispered 'These are the naarad Dean spoke of!'

Darkk said: 'Before you attacked Magestic 3, why did you send your fleet after captain Perneas?'

'To recover my son.' There was something suspicious here.

'Why was your son running from you?'

'Because' and their was remorse in his eyes, 'He was a traitor! I was ordered to.'

'What were your orders?'

'To prevent Dean from removing his mind-block by capturing him and reconditioning him for service as an Admiral for the 6th fleet.'

Perneas broke in. '6 fleets? I thought there were only 5!'

Gveinne smiled. 'You're wrong. There are 6 now.'

'No Gveinne, there WERE 6 fleets.' Perneas smiled at Lockwood's evident disorientation in time.

'How would Dean have removed his mind-block?' Asked Darkk.

'By going to certain pirates who live on the fringes of ESF space. They could imperfectly remove his mind-block.'

'What did he plan to do after then?' Asked Darkk.

'I do not know, but our intelligence indicated he might try to sell his information to the ESF. We could not afford that.'

'What was he hiding?' The spikes on the emotional indicator were getting higher now, especially the yellow one, which was the key to knowing the crucial word.

'He was not hiding anything. All Union officers who come into contact with the Nnnnnn - ' He skipped over the word as Darkk touched a button. 'always have mind-blocks installed, and are reconditioned. My son' There was a trace of pride in his voice, 'Had an especially strong will, and broke free of his conditioning.'

'Naarad?' Said Darkk, smiling slightly.

Lockwood moved liked he had an electric stun prod shoved in his back. But the mind block stayed.

'Mmm...' Darkk knew he was close. 'Nerad?'

Lockwood received a visible jolt.

'Er Rad?'

Lockwood's drugs kicked in and he sank back against his chair.

'Kerad?'

Lockwood's eyes snapped open, and the spike on the counter shot up.

'I have an idea' whispered Perneas.

'Kuran?' He said. The energy spike on the counter dropped to nil. Lockwood sighed visibly and his bulging eyes relaxed slightly.

'Well done. What made you think it was Kuran?' Asked Darkk.

'The Kuran is a religious book that has been in existence for millenia. The Union has always had a strong atheist base. I guess the Naarad have a sense of humour as well.'

Darkk suddenly froze.

'I think you'd better return to your ship, captain Perneas.'

'Why?' Perneas asked.

'Because we've spotted an incoming fleet of unidentified ships. There is an overwhelming probability these are Naarad ships.'

"What we have here, Mr Pharris, is a very large problem."

"I think I had a similar reaction right about the time that all three battlecruisers stopped in their tracks and we recieved the order to surrender from Admiral Lockswood."

Dulles only nodded in agreement. He paced back and forth anxiously.

"You know as well as I do what must be done."

"We have to reach the admiralty"

"Yes."

Inside a safe in the captains cabin was a computer terminal that allowed for a direct connection to the CINC-UN. first star post-captain Foster Dulles would need to deliver the bad news. Both Pharris and the captain put their keys into the safe and turned them. They then placed their thumbs onto the pads as thousands of infinitely tiny needles pricked their skin, checking their thumbprint and gathering sufficient DNA to determine their identities. Not yet satisfied, the safe took a voiceprint from each before opening the door.

Pharris pulled a chair up to the old style keyboard inside the safe and typed his code to login. The captain did the same, and a simple text window opened. Pharris sat down to type as Dulles dictated his letter.

_

From: USS XERXES CR-489
To: CINC-USF

It is Captain Foster Dulles' great displeasure to report to the Commander-in-Chief that
the Third fleet of the Union Navy has suffered defeat at the hands of ESF and Vylae
forces in low orbit of Majestic 3. The USS Xerxes is currently absent without leave
from her fleet, as all Union ships were ordered to surrender by Admiral Lockswood. I
take full responsability for the actions of this ship and others that joined us in our
retreat. Any failure on the part of these ships to complete their duty has occurred
at my orders, therefore I am to be held accountable for the actions of them and their
crews.

I hope that I shall have the pleasure to remain respectfully yours,
Foster Dulles, Master and Commander, USS Xerxes.

Radar and radio transmission logs follow.

End Transmission.

_

They left the safe open, expecting an answer in a few minutes, but it was almost twenty minutes before they recieved the reply. It was short, direct and to the point.

_

From: CINC-USF
To: USS XERXES CR-489

Xerxes and escorts proceed to attatched coordinates. You are to cooperate with the
orders from the vessels at the rendezvous without fail. Do not question, simply obey.

Coordinates Follow

End Transmission.

_

"Who could we possibly be meeting, there arn't any Union forces out here."
Pharris looked up from the screen at his Captain.

"I don't care who we're meeting. Reinforcements are reinforcements. Give those coordinates to Navigation. I'll be up in a moment."

"Aye Sir"

Pharris left the cabin as Dulles sat down at the encryption machine to reread the message for himself.

The Xerxes dropped out of Ether along with the Andalusa and two light destroyers on the far outskirts of the Majestic system, high above the plane of orbit of the planets. the ships hung there motionless for a moment before the main 3D viewer on the bridge activated without prompt, revealing a large floating scarab. Pharris was speechless for a moment, the shiny mettalic back of the scarab was beautiful, shimmering and dancing in the light. He stood there in awe for what seemed like an eternity before the voice came. Quivering and penetrating, noone on the Bridge could move. They were held by the soothing yet eerily menacing voice.

"Pharris being... Naarad is impressed with your skills. Naarad forces will make way for the greater conquest... It would be wise for Pharris being to destroy the evidence of past failure. Much knowledge may be lost... Pharris being will follow Naarad forces. We will send advice and protection."

The scarab dissapeared and the Naarad ships transmitted FTL nav coordinates to the Union ships, and then jumped towards Majestic 3, barely exceeding lightspeed. The four Union ships immidiately jumped after them, following the waypoints they had been sent.

------------------
NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

(This message has been edited by Captain Pharris (edited 06-20-2001).)

Darkk watched the fleet on the sensors. Why were they going so slowly? Ah well, it didn't matter a bit.

"Warpship 017 here."
"This is Darkk - I'll need that support after all, we've got unknown enemies here. They're the Union's Naarad allies, from what I gather - they seem to be extremely powerful and dangerous. We'll need as many as you can send here - I think these guys might give even terms."
"Just a minute, the Fleet Admiral wants to brief you."

Volvox - again, after all these years.

"Hello, Darkk. It's been awhile. Let's be brief. We have very little information on these, even for my clearance. They're tough, and good. They've got hard shields, and are computer-run drones for the most part - unless you get creative, teleporters and phased beams aren't gonna work. I'm sending in Warpship 017, its escorts, and every ship it can pull in. You're acting Vice Admiral for the duration, so you can order them around. Screw up and you'll be my gofer for the rest of your life, got it?"

Darkk gulped. He thought of all that was on the line - his carrer, his life, his crew's lives, his fleet's lives, the lives of those on the planet, the lives of an uncomfortably large portion of humanity, the military balence of the galaxy. This was not trivial. He wished Volvox could have sent a more experienced commander.

What the heck was he saying!! Get ahold of yourself, Darkk. You've spent almost a decade watching from Volvox's feet. You've fought the Union, which used at least some of the Naarad's technology, more than anyone. You're a class A2 reader, you can read battle movements at 78% accuracy. Nobody except Volvox is better qualified for this.

The bright tear in space opened, and the Warpship plowed through, trailing a hail of escort vessles. The tear stayed open for several minutes while a massive fleet amassed. Darkk hoped it would be enough.

Well, he was in command. Time to do some commanding. "Okay, listen up. I'm in temporary command here, so take these orders seriously. This is an unknown threat, so we'll have to be cautious. Carriers, launch all your fighters and get to the rear - the teleporters aren't very usefull agains these. Covettes and fighters, form a nice, big sphere around the Warpship. Battleships and Dreadnoughts, get inside that sphere. Open a hole in that sphere facing the enemy so that the Warpship's cannons can do some of the job. Destroyers, get rearwards. Okay, look sharp. I've no clue what kind of formation they're going to come at us in, so we've got to be ready for pretty much anything. Fire on targets in groups as standardized wing elements. We've got to take them out efficiently."

Darkk watched the Vylae pilots do as he said as though he was Volvox. The Vylae prided themselves on the professionalism of their species. The enemy had almost got to 5000 klicks. The Warpship announced it had drained its entire range of military vessles.

"Alright people, get ready to get this going. Remeber, try not to leave the Warpship wide open, but give it room to fire too."

Darkk watched the enemy pass the 5000km mark.

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

Captain Perneas stood on the bridge of the ESF Prometheus, watching the approaching Naarad fleet with some confusion and not a little of fear.

He had just sent off a message to Jupiter, illustrating the events of the past few hours. That message would take fairly direct route to Admiral DuPont after it arrived, but any reinforcements would be too late.

The Vylae ships waited. Patiently for the oncoming armada of blue to reach them. Although surely capable of faster-than-light travel, they were cruising, almost at sub-light speeds. Behind them, were the 4 surviving Union ships. The Vylae, and captain Perneas, waiting next to the wreckage of the railgun platform, stolidly kept their trigger fingers steady.

5000 km...

Perneas gulped.

'Incoming!' Screamed someone, which is all the warning Perneas got.

Without so much as a blinck, without even a visible motion of movement, the Naarad fleet had jumped 5000 k and was right in the midst of the vylae fleet, firing and weaving at almost imposible speeds. Without the ability to teleport warriors straight into their ships, the Vylae would have to settle this the old-fashioned way: Blowing your opponent to pieces. Problem was, that was an unlikely future.

Caught off-guard, the cybernetically enhanced Vylae still fought well against the insect-like and distinctly alien -like craft of the Naarad. Within moments of the Naarad arriving, Darkk's sphere was evidently broken up into 2 pieces, with the warpship split in the middle. Slightly slower than the assault units, the Carriers, Defense and Support units arrived a few seconds later. Instantly, the warship caught one of the carrier's with a direct hit from it's main gun. Having come out of warp with it's shields down for a micro-second, that shot pierced it's energy generator. There were muffled cheers as it blew up in a spectatular anti-matter fireball.

Perneas had to turn his attention away from the console, as just then a wing of 6 naarad fighters ducked over the bridge and dropped plasma union-style into the back of the ship, while firing beams of blue energy. Perneas felt the beam hit the viewscreen and slice through him, leaving him with a nasty static shock. The computers however weren't as fortunate. With a crackle and a buzz, they shut-down, leaving the Prometheus effectively dead in space. Perneas could still see the battle from the viewscreen.

The destroyers at the back of Darkk's sphere had recovered for the moment, and were simply squirting missiles into the harassing Assault Units. The assault units themselves, realising the power of the warpship, had formed an unmoving blockade around it, and were firing anti-matter ball after ball into it's weakening shields. Even so, Perneas could see on of the Assault Units catch fire and drift, annihilated in a bright white glow that left his retina imprinted.

At the other side of the battlefield, the battleships, corvettes and fighters fought head-on with the 5 defensive units, who were had formed a protective ring around the support units. With each second, a support units lit a bright flare and sent it pummeling arcwards into one of the battleships. Taking damage, but still whole, the flare lighted up the whole of it's bruised end section. Any ships that tried to burst through to the support units were having their energy taken from them. Not daring the defensive units to a direct fight, they lobbed their own weapons back at them.

The destroyers by this time at forced down 6 of the Assault units, at considerable expenditure of weapons, when one of the officers in the nearly total black of the powerless bridge yelled: 'I think power's coming back!'

The lights flickered on.

'Direct us over to that Carrier their that trying to engage the destroyers, we'll see if we can't help them!'

"Torpedo Cruiser Rift, requesting exit clearance."
"Request recieved, Rift. What is your purpose for exit?"
"I have an exploration mission from Palyos Astromining."
"Clearance granted."

Mag watched as the massive docking bay door opened, letting the light from the Toros System's sun shine in, bright blue. Mag could see Pie's heavy cruiser and cargo ship lifting off to the right.

"Helm, take us out."
"Aye, sir."

The Rift lifted off the docking bay's "floor", and with an impressive amount of fire scorching the wall behind it, left the station. A message came on the screen:

- Incoming Transmission (Channel 56) -
Source: Toros System Mining Station
Subject: Rendezvous
Content: This is Will Davidson. You are to to rendezvous with the rest of your group at the coordinates 5931:8729:3965. After a meeting on board the cruise vessel to get your affairs in order, you will proceed to jumpgate Alpha_348. We will set this jumpgate up to take you to the Bezant System, where you will dock with shipyard station IRW-983m to have any last equipment you might need loaded up. You will then use jumpgate Beta_294 to go to the Ruby System, where you will stock up on some of our ores, so you can show any foreign groups just what we're offering them. The ores will be on the ore haulers, and the blockade runners will remain cargoless, so you will have room for any cargo you will acquire outside of currently known borders. From there, you will use hyperspace drives to explore to the galactic west. Report back in six months.
- Transmission Terminates -

"Helm, go the the coordinates in the transmission. I'm heading down to get the Tailfire warmed up. When you arrive at the rendezvous point, send a message to me, and I'll dock with the cruise vessel."
"Aye, sir. Heading to 5931:8729:3965."

Mag left the bridge, hiding his nervousness. He'd never been on any long trips before, and he didn't know how well he'd end up doing if he was forced into combat with ships of unknown types. And he didn't know how well aliens would react to humans. Or vice versa. This was going to be about the most unusual and unsettling part of his life for some time...

------------------
"Thou shalt not be a loser."
(url="http://"http://www.MSPlugDevelopment.n3.net")www.MSPlugDevelopment.n3.net(/url)
Reviews are appreciated.

Darkk's mind was whirling. The links were projecting the totality of the battle into his imagination, and he was rotating, panning, and zooming it at a pace that would make an organism that evolved on the ground get dizzy, throw up, and faint. The Naarad fighters weren't nearly as fast as his, but better-armed and more durable. They were tearing through his heavier ships, but he had got quite a few worthy kills.

An assault unit moved in closer to the Warpship, and caught a hail of the Warpship's own antimatter - Darkk had little time to think of the irony as he skirted the blast narrowly.
"Warpship! Your only chance is to get in close and use the antimatter pulse array!"
"We know, but this is no fighter sir. We're trying as hard as we can."

Darkk considered. His best tactic - his only tactic - against the Union had been to use teleporters to surprise them from inside. These Naarad ships were drones, and had no crew. He could tell they were sentient, they were really too good to be just pre-programed. If only he could find a weakness in their mode of thinking, or ... figure out a new and better way to use teleporters. Of course!!

Darkk slaped himself with his wing, and turned on his comm headset. "Listen up, marine groups. I need you to teleport inside those shields as soon as they go below half strength and plant charges. It'll be difficult, but you guys aren't paid to lay around. Fleet group, try to just reduce their shields to a little under half, then move on. Let's make this happen fast, we don't want to lose that Warpship."

One of the support units dropped below 50% as a pair of psueadomatter pulses found their way to it. A carrier immediatly superlighted in behind it and unloaded group of marines. They engaged their gravboots and quickly planted shaped-charge limpits, then beamed off.

The timers had been set to 7 seconds, so the support unit detonated almost immediatly. The spectacular explosion clipped a neighboring Naarad ship, brining ITS shields down below the halfway mark, and the troops went to work again.

Darkk looked over the battle-data. The Warpship's shields were failing fast, and it's pulsearray had taken hits and was going to misfire any salvo now. He ordered it to fold out to the heliopause, a few hundred AU away. That ought to be plenty of breathing room. The Warpship's captain detonated 5 wings right (which were already hideously damaged) before leaving, to provide cover. With luck, the Naarad would miss its exit in the confusion. He turned to the fleet listings. So far, he seemed to be winning. Time to kick some exoskeleton. If any of these ships turned out to have crews, he'd have his hands full preventing his men from snacking on the remains of the insectiond Naarad. Ah well, he hadn't won yet. He might well have to run for it if any more aliens showed up.

Darkk immediatly cleared his thoughts. This was no time to get distracted. Time to continue the favorable momentum by every means possible.

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

Perneas moved the Prometheus as fast as he could, trying to weave his away amongst the enormous debris field that now covered all of nearby space. With primitive weapons and no shields to speak of, the naarad drones seemed to be ignoring him for now. That would soon change.

'Are we in range yet?' Asked Perneas to his Targeting officer.

'Almost sir.'

The Warpship, had just escaped the grasp of the Naarad Asssault units, who were confused as to why they were picking up it's power source travelling away from them, when quite evidently it had been destroyed in an explosion. The buzzed around it's wing remains, chattering to each other in AI code. The destroyers who were firing at them, were getting lots of free shots.

'In range,' Said the officer. 'I have begun firing the neutron missiles and railgun at the nearest Assault Unit.'

This was true, as above the viewscreen, the missiles were arcing towards the battlefield, leaving trails of bright red smoke. Then, a deep rumble sounded, and the railgun's kicked in, spurting hot lead at the assault unit. It shimmered slightly as the missiles and rails hit it.

'We have no way of telling how much our weapons are affecting it sir.' Said the officer. 'But the shield does seem to display a lower energy level. I will program the computer to recognise this.'

'Very good.' Said Perneas, half distracted by the brilliant explosions his weapons were making. He had never seen a ship withstand so much fire.

As if a common resolve had been reached, the Assault Units broke off from searching the ruins of the vessel, and started heading, every single one of them, for the Prometheus.

'Uh-oh.' Targeting muttered.

The ships were approaching very quickly. In their previous stationary positions, Perneas had forgotten how fast they were.

'Helm, turn us 180 degrees around, I want this barge away from those ships!'

The ship kicked in with all it's RCS thrusters, and turned around, building up the inertia for acceleration.

But it was too late.

The Naarad ships, caught the Prometheus' engine, when it was facing them, with a direct hit from an anti-matter ball. It exploded in thousand of shards, and the lights on the Prometheus flickered once more.

'We've lost our engines.' Pronounced the chief engineer. Perneas waited for the killing blow, but it did not come.

The ships broke off and started hammering the destroyers, all except one, which stood guard over the broken Light Cruiser. Just then, a carrier jumped very close, and deployed a couple of fighters. The carrier then dragged the Prometheus into it's now freed up docking bay. Perneas now imagined what it would have felt like for Dean Lockwood, being dragged into the Prometheus.

All light was blocked out, as the docking bay doors closed over the Prometheus. Perneas wondered if he had a torch nearby to get. Then fell back as the carrier jumped into lightspeed. It must have been quite a long distance, as it continued for several seconds. Then with a jarring crash, they stopped.

All was silent.

The Pfhor Corvette dropped out into the midst of the battle, rolling to one side to avoid a surge of plasma. Delta hadn't seen the fight until they were in the system, and when he did see it, wouldn't risk flying through it at hyperlight.

"Computer, initiate autotargetting turrets. Target:"

He paused, looking at his displays. Soon he identified the Vylae, who he had at least heard of, and the ships siding with them. He identified them on his console as Team Alpha. He identified the other ships in-system as Team Beta.

"Target: Team Beta."

With that, as particle beams began to lance out from the Corvette's hull, Delta spun into the midst of the battle, still unsure who it was that he was fighting.

------------------
High Commander 8 Lightnings of Tetrik V
Also known as Captain Delta Farron.

Piemur1 was busy handling complaints from the freighter captains. They couldnt understand why he was leaving them with one of his friends. After bickering for a while, he simply replied, "You guys used to respect my decisions, and now look at what you're doing! Oh all right! You guys follow my lead and I'll see if I can make a couple extra deals. Prep cargo holds for ores. Sensors? have you located my cargo pods?"
"Err...sorry sir, perhaps they've been destroyed by the asteroids. Or a lucky shot by a pirate."
"Oh drat! Ok, scrap that anyway...I may need extra maneuverability anyways. Helm, lock on to jumpgate Alpha_348 and feed the waypoint computer the station rendezvous coordinates. So what if we arrive way before the Rift? We will need the time to buy the ores and load up the ships. By then, he will arrive to handle things. Attention cargoships! Make sure to get a full manifest including ore type and concentration! Engineering? Get the hyperdrives ready for a long trip. And see if there are any engine upgrades for our ships. Oh, and see if they are going to provide us with a jumpgate kit for a faster trip home. If not, I will have to buy one. Hope this trip will be profitable! Because I see our funds are going to drop quite a bit before this is over."
"Sir, approaching the jumpgates now."
"Sir! Incoming transmission!"
"On screen."
- Incoming Transmission (Channel 28) -
Source: Toros System Mining Station
Subject: Orders
Your orders were to rendezvous with the rest of the ships. You are violating a direct order and you may be held off the mission. And I won't get into how many bounty hunters will be on your tail when you exit the gate. Get that ship turned around and rendezvous with your specified coordinates! Unless you can explain why you require an early start.
-Transmission Ended-

"Ok, respond with the following message on the same channel:
Subject: RE: Orders
Sir, with all due respect, I am going to the station at the Bezant System to load up my frieghters with ores and that will take some extra time. Mag Steelglass will be handling all of the affairs for me. I will be using my freighters for additional cargo space for the missionm, free of charge, of course. I will also be looking into some possible goods which may be of interest to our possible alien allies. But I would appreciate it if you would be so kind as to equip us with a jumpgate kit in order that we may have a faster trip home that we could locate into a heavy traffic area. This would increase trade to the Toros System Mining Station and would increase profits to you immensely. If you will not provide us with one, I will be more than happy to purchase one which I will transport myself. Of course, the gate's default setting will be set for my home station, in which you will lose a lot of profits to prospective merchants willing to take risks. All damage fees to your cargo ships will be taken care of by my corporation, if you would be so kind as to give me clearance to the jumpgate. Thank you.
-end message, store and transmit. <sigh> You always have to show your money in order to get your way. And send this message to the Rift :
Subject: Unavailable to join
Dear Captain Mag Steelglass of the Rift. I am afraid I wont be able to join you on the cruise ship to handle my affairs. I will be leaving immediatly to the Bezant System to load my frieghters with ores for trade. If you would be so kind as to handle it for me, I would appreciate it greatly. Thank you so very much!
-end message, store and transmit. Any response from the station?"
"Yes sir! We have clearance to the jumpgate...well done sir, if I may say so myself! And yes, they are providing a jumpgate kit...under the condition we handle it ourselves, and if it is damaged or destroyed, we will have to pay for it in full."
"Accept it. Now, Helm, you may enter the jumpgate. Attention cargoships! You may each enter the jumpgates 10 minutes after the one in front is cleared through. Understood?"
The captains of each freighter affirmed.
The SA.SC.Pern-3 entered the jumpgate's swirling maw and gradually seemed to disintegrate from the nose as it entered. In seconds, it was gone...and the frieghters soon followed after on the first day of the adventure...

------------------
"At ----- , bullcrap is our most important product"
-graffiti on the lavatory wall of a major consultancy (from The Wizardry Consulted )

(This message has been edited by Piemur1 (edited 06-21-2001).)

(Note: Please do not rescue me, as I am going on holidays for a week, I will rescue myself at the end of that period.)

Someone found a torch, and handed it to Perneas, who grunted, trying to find the switch. He turned it on. And there was light.

He shone at the viewscreen. Hmm... he was definately in the hold of some kind of vessel. Quite a large one too if it could hold the 5 kilometre long Prometheus. Then the bay doors began to open, and tiny ships flew into the docking bay alongside the Prometheus. They grabbed it with some kind of energy field, and towed the Prometheus out into the stars. Perneas' joy was brief.

Next to the carrier ship, was an awesome creation. Atleast 100 kilometres long, and 30 kilometres wide, it looked like a huge broadsword. On the side facing Perneas, an infinitesimal docking bay opened. Surely they're not going to try to put is in that? He thought.

But they did. As the tugs moved the ship closer to the hole, it actually wasn't so small after all. Now, inside of it, Perneas realised that they had plenty of space to spare.

'I advise all crew members to grab weapons, oxygen canisters and food.' Said Perneas. 'You, and you' He pointed to 2 crew members, 'Run down to the other sections of the ship, and tell everyone to come to the bridge.'

'Righto Sir.'

They ran off into the darkness, carrying lighted matches to guide their way.

For several moments, people talked, exchanged food supplies etc... loading weapons. Perneas sat down in his captain's chair... wondering how aliens treated prisoners of war.

Hissssss...

Perneas sat up. Oh no, he thought. I know that sound! Someone has made a whole and we're losing oxygen! With power, the automatic cleaners on the hull would move off and cover the whole with a thick kind of plasto-plast. But perhaps falling inside the carrier scratched the thick hull sufficiently... If so, then he had to rely on the mercy of the aliens to stop up that hull very very quickly.

The hissing stopped suddenly.

There was a crashing sound. And marching feet started moving towards the bridge.

'Form up behind anything you see.' Perneas whispered. 'Discharge weapons immediately.'

The crew did so.

The marching feet stopped outside the bridge. Perneas did not dare shine his torch in the darkness and find out who it was.

'Humans listen.' Said a voice, using what seemed to be a damaged translator. 'You are our prisoners. You are under our jurisdiction. Follow me if you want to survive. All dissidents will be executed.'

The being walked into the room, well 'walked' didn't quite cover it. It had no legs. What was it's form of transportation, Perneas could only guess. It floated along over the bridge. Other followed.

'Now!' Perneas yelled.

They shot hundreds of bullets at the naarad. Taking it in the stomach, in the legs, in the arms, but such was the strength of their exoskeleton, that they did not bleed or appear injured. Then, with a common accord, shields went up all over the naarad. The bullets, instead of hitting soft flesh, hit a barrier carrying it's kinetic opposite, and rebounded with incredible violence. Perneas ducked behind his chair in order to avoid a hail of bullets from his own crew.

'Stop shooting!' He yelled.

Their were moans and the cries of the injured everywhere.

He stood up and approached the naarad speaker.

'I am captain Perneas.'

It rotated to face him, head lolling around as if trying to fit him into some kind of microscopic picture.

'Captain? Tell your officers to follow me.'

The naarad began moving out of the bridge.

'What about my injured men?'

'They will die.' Came back the cold reply.

Perneas felt he had to make a decision.

'No' He said, feeling immensely foolish.

The Naarad made no comment, but turned around and headed at very fast speed back to the bridge. The others grabbed every single abled officer roughly, and began dragging them out of the ship. One of them tried to grab captain Perneas, but at a signal from the leader, desisted.

And with that, the Naarad began moving out of the ship. Perneas felt duly obliged to follow, but extremely guilty that the men on the floor were in such extreme pain.

He ran after the naarad, matching pace with the 'leader.'

'Excuse me?' He said to it.

No answer.

'What will happen to my injured men?' Perneas asked.

'They wll be cared for, and treated.' Said the Naarad.

Perneas was sure the Naarad was lying. Deciding that he wasn't, he marched in step with it.

Oh my, he then realised. The docking bay is still open! He walked outside of the hole in the ship, and beheld open space. Like no other human had beheld it before. The only thing seperating him from incredible decompression was a bubble's thickness of electromagentic purpose.

The oxygen in the hold smelled unusual, like a planet without a natural atmosphere.

He marched along side the Naarad. Until they stopped at the wall.

The other naarad, began moving the officers into an opening. The other naarad said to Perneas: 'Follow me.'

He followed.

'Where are you taking me?' He asked.

'Reconditioning Lab 392.' Replied the Naarad.

Oh.

'Who are you?'

'Naarad.'

'No, I mean you are you? What's your rank?'

'You appear to be asking me 2 questions' Came back the leaden voice. 'Though they do not make sense, Naarad has been provided with answers.'

They continued walking.

'The first question: Naarad is a collective consciousness, and the term I has no meaning. To the second question: I am your temporary escort. I have no individual rank.'

He came to an elevator.

They got in.

(This message has been edited by Count Altair El Alemein (edited 06-21-2001).)

With the confusion at the initial strike from the Naraad, noone seemed to notice the four Union ships that dropped into Low orbit right near the surrendered Union vessels. They were surrounded by transports and tugs, hauling engineers up and prisoners down to and from the planets surface. The Union ships were all technologically superior to those of the Federation, and the scientists were itching for a chance to get inside the Union ships.

The first thing that the Andalusa did upon leaveing Ether was to open her missile tubes and start firing. However, she did not aim directly at the vessels, she aimed her missiles ahead of them, so that the shockwave knocked the ships out of orbit. The Heavy Battlecruisers felt it first and hit the atmosphere hard. The damaged ships would never have made it out of the system without a struggle, and the four ships were not in any position to stand in a prolongued engagement.

With the Battlecruisers in terminal orbits, the Andalusa forced itself into the middle of the tugs that were carrying the captured corvettes and fighters. When the plasma tubes began venting, the unarmoured tugs quickly disintegrated, and the fighters didn't take many more hits before they too were nothing but wrecked hulks in terminal orbits. The light destroyers paired off on the one transport that had not lost cabin pressure and nudged it into the docking bay on the Xerxes. As the blast doors sealed off the hull, the Xerxes began a deorbit burn to achieve escape velocity. The Two destroyers were close behind, and Captain Harrison only waited around long enough to kick out a few extra nukes to finish off the wreckage. He didn't have to worry about the planet. Several hundred trillion tons of battlecruiser tends to be pretty destructive when it falls onto a planet from orbit.

The four ships quickly Ethered to catch the end of the furious battle that was going on in higher orbit.

------------------
NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

Darkk watched the battle unfold, as though from a great height.
The Naarad had sent a carrier away with Perneas. Though Darkk missed his human friend, he knew what this meant.

He could win.

A second Warpship was en route, as the first one couldn't make another fold now, and would need to be towed home. The Naarad were starting to take losses from his inventive tactic. Humans were more flexable, but Vylae were more analytical. Darkk had seen what had to be done and did it. His duty was completely occupying his mind. He had to keep everything else out.

Darkk's attention turned from the totality of the battle to the support unit he was attacking. It had begun to aim at him. Darkk fired all weapons into it, and it started to drift as the last of its shields gave way, and the phased stream projectors went to work. A destroyer fired an antimatter pulse, and the foe exploded in a brilliant flash. Darkk's mind returned to the totality of the battle.

His fighters and corvettes had almost cleared the area of hostile fighters. The heavier ships could concentrate fully on the heavier enemies - which were now taking massive damage, as more of their shields went below the halfway mark, allowing troopers to teleport in and plant charges. Although few ships exploded under the force of the charges, it generally nocked their shields out of commission completely. His attention returned to his immediate ship.

A Union cruiser, missile destroyer, and 2 light destroyers had knocked the battlecruisers from orbit and was heading this way, light destroyers in the back. This must be Pharris. He could do one service for Perneas... Darkk's ship moved toward them. The cruiser and missle destroyer fired nukes. Darkk's phase beam intersected them en route, detonating them brilliantly but harmlessly. The light destroyers did a hyper-hop behind Darkk, into minimum range. Darkk unloaded with all weapons. The nearer one caught the main brunt of his weapondry and exploded. The further one had begun to loose power and leak innards. A nuke smacked into Darkk's ship, jarring him and doing a significant bit of damage. He'd have to fully allocate the phase stream projector to those nukes. No time to admire the beautiful blue-white shockwave now. He'd watch it later on film.

Suddenly, the cruiser came sweeping in from above, firing its close-range weapons. Darkk countered with psueadomatter and swarm missles, but this other ship was fast enough to dodge the psueadomatter and shoot down most of the swarm missles. Darkk would need the phase beam, but he couldn't take it off the nukes. He knew if he used swarm missles there they'd proximity-fuse them and take out his swarm with the nuke blast, allowing other nukes a shot at hitting him. A very nice trap, he had to admire it, and recall it for later use. He was, however, not going down anywhere near that easy. An Acting Vice Admiral of the Vylae didn't need to fight alone. He ordered a second dreadnought to aide him, and it dropped out right on top of the missle destroyer harassing Darkk. The cruiser and missle destroyer immediatly ran, not daring to face two dreadnoughts at once.

Darkk turned his attention to the larger fight once more. The Naarad had pressed together, and made a short jump away, as though waiting for reinforcements. Darkk looked at the red-brown swirl on the planet growing from the impact points, and knew nothing could be done for it. There were no remaining friendly forces in the area. "Carriers - beam everyone off the planet you can, starting with surviving high officials. We'll send them back, as a token of our friendship!". The carriers did so, until they were full up to capacity. Darkk noticed something big approaching, the Naarad's backup.

Time to leave. Warpship 019 had just arrived, and folded Darkk's fleet out.

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

Perneas' head smashed back against the iron bar. His sweat was streaming down his face, and he mumbled incoherently. Lightning flashed across the nodes in his mind, assessing finding weakness. Finding a crag in his mind to stand on.

He found himself a little baby, playing with toy spaceships, bashing the Union one's, and making mock-battles with his friends
--he found himself with his friends at school be taught about neutrino theory
--he found himself at university teaching physics to a particularly annoying class
--he found himself signing up for ESF service at news of his father's death
--He found himself mourning his father as his coffin was lowered into the ground
--He found himself playing with his father as a baby
--He found himself carrying his first baby with his wife Jane
--He found himself mourning his wife's death via radiation poisoning
--He found himself shaking from his first encounter with a neutron missile
--He found himself teaching physics and neutrinos at Universitry
--He found himself receiving his university degree from the teacher
--He found himself teaching at University
--He found himself receiving his university degree from the teacher
--He found himself teaching at -

He found himself on the floor of a room, with needles strapped to his head. He was shivering with cold. His body had been sending him warning signals for some times about that, but ... where had he been? In his mind, reliving his memories. His brain felt like someone had taken a rather heavy hammer and smashed it's liquid like form.

A figure approached. With his blurred vision, he could only make out a dark figure standing over him.

'Stand up.' It said. A rod extended out of it's hand.

'Whhh-' Began Perneas.

Kzzzz!

He recoiled at the electric shock, and found the strength to stand up. He backed against the wall, as now his vision returning to him, made out an insectoid alien.

'Follow.' It said.

'Wh -hoo are you?' Perneas said shaking badly.

'Follow.' It moved close this time and extended the rod in a threatining gesture.

Perneas got what he meant, and allowed himself to be pushed into the next room. What he saw surprised him.

This must have been out of his dreams. In the corner was a pristine white bathroom. A shower, a bath towels, just like on the ESF Prometheus. In the corner, was a full-sized luxury class holovid, which Earth movies, and historic vid-battles piled next to it. On the table in the middle of the room was various delicacys, even the S'Ban Delicate Crab. He sat down and gouched food, ignoring his coldness, and paying attention only to his hunger. It was then he realised he was covered in sweat.

He went to the shower and then put on some clean cloathes. A voice somehow kept repeating in his mind:

'Your receptive mind deserves such rewards... your receptive mind deserves such rewards..'

Dulles had just recieved his blue pennant. He was now Admiral of the third fleet and the Xerxes was his flagship until the Union finished rebuilding the shattered third fleet with brand new equipment. Not just that, but they had ordered Pharris to quit his post on the Xerxes and report to some distant stageing area at the opposite edge of Union space, so he was now a guest aboard Captain Harrison's USS Andalusa, raceing at maximum Ether for a rendezvous at a stageing area that all rosters reported as being deserted. Pharris did not know what to expect.

------------------
NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

(Typical. I go away for a week, and the whole RPG collapses.)

(well you know how it is on the summer holidays. People are going on vacation. well, this is a bit long because i had a lot of time to think and decided to post it all at one time)

Piemur was in the officer's mess when he got the signal that they have exited the jumpgate. He contacted helm and told him to proceed to dock with the outpost. A few days later, Mag and the other escort ships arrive.
In the meantime, Piemur had ot bargained the station's controller and had his freighters full of very high quality ores at a very minimum of costs. Amazingly enough, the controller kept whimpering every time Piemur mentioned "the mission" and was easy to goad into lowering his price well beyond the norm. In the tech department, the chief engineer, also trained in merchantile ways, bought a high quality hyperdrive upgrade unit that consumed less fuel and added more thrust. Again at a very low price.
The jumpgate kit was preprogrammed and ready to deploy. Piemur didn't have much idea what jumpgates did and how they worked, but realized that in order for it to function properly, he would be expected to maintain it. That meant he had to learn and learn fast. He never realized that when packed, the thing was so small by comparison. When fully deployed and working, the jumpgate was designed to handle huge ships up to 3000 kilotonnes. Well it figured, since massive cargoships were expected to come through and initiate trade. But the dammed thing was so small! It only took roughly the size of one of his fuel pod modules. A small fuel pod module at that. He got it fitted into the small docking bay on the belly of the cruiser.
After all was done and prepared, Piemur and the crews of his fleet had nothing much to do except wait and buy luxury items and several holos. When Mag finally arrived, Piemur was almost all set to go. When the escort ships were fully loaded, they set off. Jumping to one of the most desolate systems on the very edge of explored space, they initiated the hyperdrives and sped off to their possible new friends...
---------
"...of course dear, I'll get the barbeque up and running in just a jiffy." Covered from head to toe in soot and smoking in places, Piemur bent back tot eh barbeque with a will. The children were still playing hide-and-go-seek. A soft breeze blew over the countryside. Their house, finally paid for, seemed perfect. A little picket fence, half-painted (he needed to get it done sometime), surrounded their property of beautiful wildflowers and endless dreams. It seemed so great to be poor! He had squandered all of his father's money gambling (only for fun) and sold the shipyards. A bird chirped nearby. OK, now to get this barbeque started again. He lit the match. He tossed it into the glistening coals smothered in lighter fluid. Suddenly a bright flash of red and and explosive tone blared at him...
Waking up suddenly from waht had been such a blissful dream, he realized the red flashes and explosions were the ship's alarm. Clamboring our of bed and hurriedly dressing, he contacted the bridge.
"Sensors, what is it?"
"5 unidentified hostiles sir! They appeared when we entered this nebula and are blocking us. We have tried to establish contact, but none of our translators can handle their language. Even the other ships done know what they are saying. However, they keep repeating themselves so the gist of it is that we are tresspassing and we need to leave like now. I thing that this is their nebula."
"Is there any way past the nebula?"
"The only way around it safely is along the widest portion. The other ways are blocked by incredibly dense starfields and a couple of neutron stars. And the so called "safe" way is a veritable maze of corrosive gasses. We would have to go by conventional drives and this would put us behind scedule by several months. Not to mention a severe increase of our fuel expenditures. However, the nebula could provide a fuel source, but there is the problem of our guests ahead of us. But going straight through it would keep us on scedule. The nebula's gasses are only slightly corrosive and our shields should hold us through"
"Any idea how large their forces are in it?"
"Scanners can't penetrate far into the nebula, sir."
"Contact Mag and give our report. And open a channel with the Rift."
"Aye sir."
"Mag, as you can see by my report, we are in a sticky situation. What would you suggest we do?"
"Well since we can only see 5 of thier ships, an no data on their capabilities, we don't know how we would fare against them. But that may be the same with them. They don't know what we can do. Our scanners say that there are no torpedo ports, but extremely heavy shielding, from living in the nebula probably. Each of the smaller ships have some kind of dual weapon, unknown strength. The larger ones don't have any visible weapons of any kind. Strange. No turrets, no torpedo ports, no nothing. But a strange interlocking pattern. We'll have to watch those two. They could do anything. Perhaps suicide bombers or something. Like designed to blow huge chunks of itself out to us. I think..."
Just then, the channel with the aliens came on and the seemed angry. Screaming unknown insults, the ships spread out and aggressively approached.
"Hostiles are engaging sir!"
"I can see that well enough myself, thank you very much."
The small ones fired at various ships, including Piemur's and Mag's.
"Shield damage report!"
"Err...none sir...evaluating the beam weapons...heh...ahahaha...they're just normal visible light beams. No infrared...no UV...no superheated plasma...They could fire repeatedly indefinitly and we could just flick them away without a scratch."
Realizing their attack had no effect, the aliens started screaming more obscenities with greater vigor and a small hint of panic. The two large ships faced them and opened up into a large 8 pointed star shape.
"Ready yourselves" Mag cautioned.
The ships started spinning, faster and faster. The aliens watched warily.
"Any energy readings on those ships?"
"None sir."
"Then what are they doing?"
After a short time, the aliens seemed very scared and disappointed, and the ships stopped. Suddenly, the small ships accellerated towards them on a collision course.
"Open fire!" Mag screamed.
The first few volleys hit them square on. Their shields held, but wouldn't hold for long. Piemur could see the shields on one of them starting to buckle. All of a sudden, a gargantuan ship came out of nowhere and planted itself inbetween the attacking aliens and the convoy. Another channel opened and a huge alien came on. It seemed the same species, but was still a log bigger than the ones he had seen earlier. It spoke in a deep menacing voice to the smaller ones. They recoiled, and put their heads down in what seemed to be shame. Then it looked over at the screen and spoke in a courteous voice, words still incomprehensible, but the meaning was clear. They were allowed to continue. It then turned back to the small ones and barked in a universal tone of punishment. Meekly, they turned to the screen, bowed their heads, and mumbled waht seemed to be an apology. Just then, Piemur understood.
"They're kids!"
"Huh?" Mag gaped.
"Look at the big one! I think they were trying to just scare us away, but I think they're not supposed to do that. The big one is probably their parent. They're grounded for a long time I'll bet."
Sure enough, the ships docked with the huge one and the channels clicked off. The giant ships then turned and courteously moved aside for them to pass.
Piemur bowed in turn. The big one nodded at the nice manners. Piemur then turned to the console and brought up the ore manifest. It frowned and shook its head. They didn't need ores. Piemur bowed again and said to helm "Proceed through the nebula." The convoy moved on...unaware that they were discreetly followed, but didn't run into any more ships...they were followed only until they left the nebula...

------------------
"At ----- , bullcrap is our most important product"
-graffiti on the lavatory wall of a major consultancy (from The Wizardry Consulted )

(Very good Piemur, but we have actually stopped this RPG to move on to chapter 2, which is easily accessible on the same board. On a side note, I just scratched my tooth and a bit of it came away with my finger. Very worrying.)

(err...does that mean that this post could go on the other one? its just a continuation? everything that happened here happened there? and does that mean i should repost it on the other one? and where is mag anyway?)

------------------
Captain of the SA.SC.Pern
SA.SC.Pern=Shadowcat Alliance, Star Commander, Home port
Shadowcat Alliance = merchant clan
Star Commander = rank in clan

(This message has been edited by Piemur1 (edited 07-18-2001).)