"The noble duke of York,
He had ten thousand men,
He marched them up to the top of the hill..."

Space exploded.
In a remote sector hidden by nebulae, almost completely starless and completely planetless, the Salrilians could hardly be expected to be lying in wait for a UNS scouting party. Green pilots were never expected to fight without their eyes.
But here they were, waiting for their prey as usual. The deadly spider.
Caught.

"Captain?"
The ship hummed on, droning out Lieutenant Trian's voice.
"Captain?"
Louder this time. The Captain started, dropped out of half-sleep and into reality.
"Ah, yes? What is it this time, another freighter?"
"Unfortunately, no. But we might gather ourselves a few credits by bringing this to the UNS..."
"The UNS? I've told you before, we'll have nothing to do with them. Their worlds, their concerns. Our life. Here. They don't give a millo's worth about us, and we don't give one for them."
"We've found one of their patrols, or at least what's left of one."
"What?" For a second at least, Captain Mikoyev lost his calm and cool demeanor. "Er, what's left of one? Was there a battle? UNS technology isn't too high in the scheme of things, but whatever ships they managed to take out..."
"There are no other ships. As far as I can tell, it was a complete slaughter. But there aren't any of the plasma signatures that would indicate capships."
Mikoyev allowed himself a small smile. His plasma tracers had proved their worth again and again. "Then go ahead. Radio in to Solcom. But I'm not staying here another minute longer than I have to. Drag in one of the hull plates with an insignia; we'll meet them somewhere safe."

"A glass of wine, if you would, Captain?"
"No thanks. I don't drink."
"How interesting. You lie too. Now, what other things do you want to tell me that I should be suspicious of?"
"It's not up to the inferior beings to decide."
"A most interesting discussion, I must say. Now..." The Commodore's figure was even more imposing standing up. "I must go."
"Idiot," Mikoyev snapped back. "Dodging the bullet, that's what you're doing. Or you're trying. Just jump out of the way so it can take out what's standing behind you. Do you even know what's behind you? I sure don't, and I saw what was left back at V'tel.
When the Captain stood up, the UNS plate on his lap slid to the floor. It glinted in the light, and the UNS Ares logo blinded Commodore Smith temporarily, until he raised a hand to block the light's flow.
"I'll... look in to it. But if you're wrong..."
"I'm not wrong. Look however long you must, I'm not wrong."
"Then it's until next time?"
"It's goodbye"

(I don't know when (if?) I'll follow that up; I was just really bored )

Fantastic story Pallas, you've just motivated me to write my own!

The Ares chronicles have been quiet for a long time now, if it were up to me, you'd have another karma point

It also looks like I'm pretty much the first person to use HTML.

For the reference of anyone who might want to use it, use the following tags (place between a "<" and a ">":
< hr > - those horizontal rules I used twice to separate the sections:

font - Changes font using these attributes (this text is in these attributes): < font face = "times new roman" size = 2 color = 0000CC < and the text in here is colored %lt; /font >

I don't think I used any others, but to create an interesting border you could do the following:
< table border = 0 cellspacing = 0 cellpadding = 0 >
< tr >
< td > < img src = topleftcorner.gif > < /td >
< td background = top.gif > < /td >
< td > < img src = toprightcorner.gif > < /td >
< /tr >
< tr >
< td background = left.gif > < /td >
< td > TYPE MESSAGE HERE < /td >
< td background = right.gif > < /td >
< /tr >
< tr >
< td > < img src = bottomleftcorner.gif > < /td >
< td background = bottom.gif > < /td >
< td > < img src = bottomrightcorner.gif > < /td >
< /tr >
< /table >

Now, I wonder if that would actually work...

------------------
"Once, just once, I'd like to be able to land somewhere and say, 'Behold, I am the Archangel Gabriel.'"
"I fail to see the humor in that situation, Doctor."
"Naturally. You could hardly claim to be an angel with those pointed ears, Mister Spock. But say you landed someplace with a pitchfork "

Oh yes, the paragraph indents were made by putting
∧nbsp;
Twice before each paragraph

---It's supposed to be a &, just can't put the & there without activating it.

------------------
"Once, just once, I'd like to be able to land somewhere and say, 'Behold, I am the Archangel Gabriel.'"
"I fail to see the humor in that situation, Doctor."
"Naturally. You could hardly claim to be an angel with those pointed ears, Mister Spock. But say you landed someplace with a pitchfork "

(This message has been edited by Pallas Athene (edited 07-31-2001).)

You were bored eh? Does that make this chronicle a one-time treat or are you planning on writing a series? The HTML gives the dialog... for want of a better word, pizaz.

Read the disclaimer at the bottom of the document - and BTW, I'm still bored

------------------
"Once, just once, I'd like to be able to land somewhere and say, 'Behold, I am the Archangel Gabriel.'"
"I fail to see the humor in that situation, Doctor."
"Naturally. You could hardly claim to be an angel with those pointed ears, Mister Spock. But say you landed someplace with a pitchfork "

For about 3 or more hours, I will have 'last post by Count Altair' on the main screen... isn't that good?

Just illustrating the small life I have at present.

Hey, you've only got 408 posts. I'm coming up on 1K

------------------
"Once, just once, I'd like to be able to land somewhere and say, 'Behold, I am the Archangel Gabriel.'"
"I fail to see the humor in that situation, Doctor."
"Naturally. You could hardly claim to be an angel with those pointed ears, Mister Spock. But say you landed someplace with a pitchfork "

409

412

417

...and by 417 I mean 423

dont know

------------------
Peace, Love, and Chicken Grease
I beat the ENTIRE Federation mission string in a Stock Civi Viper
(url="http://"http://evula.com") EVula's Lair(/url)| (url="http://"http://starfleet-ssf.com/index2.html")The SSF(/url) | (url="http://"mailto:jager@evula.net")mailto:jager@evula.net(/url)jager@evula.net

huh?

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