Meanwhile, back on Darkstar in the Nemesis system....

Kristen walked through an office building. She worked for a large partially Rebel shipbuilding company. As she walked through the hallways, she did not notice the figure silently stalking behind her. Suddenly, the creature leaped and jumped on Kristen. She fell to the floor, turned around, screamed, and then a hand covered her mouth. Then, she blanked out...

Back in the Apollo system...

"Alright Hardslab, activate the scanner!" Sergei ordered.

Hardslab pushed a few buttons, waited a couple seconds, then exclaimed to Sergei. "I see it! Its located right there!" Hardslab said, pointing to a computerized map of Armstrong.

The Rebel Destroyer glided down, through the thin atmosphere, and down into a crater. Hardslab and Sergei got out, and started walking towards a cave.

They crawled through a few tunnles before finally coming into a large cave. Hardsla's flashlight suddenly went dead, and because it was the only one they had with them, the cave was plunged into darkness.

As Hardslab fiddled with the flashlight, he suddenly froze, and then spoke to Sergei. "Is it just me, or is that huge rock glowing red?" he whispered to Sergei.

Sergei and Hardslab stared forward. Ahead of them was a long, huge bolder. It was the size of a fighter. It looked like a rock, but some parts of it glowed red.

All of a sudden Hardslabs flashlight turned on again. He pointed it up at the rock. The rock, wasn't a rock. It was an alien fighter.

Sergei and Hardslab walked up to it. Some parts glowed red. The hull didn't feel like metal. "They use organic hulls," Sergei said.

Hardslab could not find any place where the seeker drones or fusion beam were located. The hull just seemed to have no openings, he couldn't even find the engine, or a door. Finally he pushed on a section of the hull and it gave in, revealing a door.

Sergei, who had been looking at the cockpit, noted to Hardslab. "Whatever they use for the cockpit window I can't see through. Hey! You found the..." he froze, so did Hardslab.

They turned around, and saw at the entrance to the cave two aliens...

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

(This message has been edited by Captain Carnotaur (edited 08-03-2000).)

hardslab instinctively dove through the recently discovered door to the fighter; the others were quick to follow. he noticed that something looked completely out of place as he glanced at markolov scrambling to bring the fighter online, but he pushed it out of his mind and turned to deal with the closing aliens. michael and hardslab both drew the laser blasters they had brought to destroy the ship and fired several times at random before sticking their heads out the door. a blinding play of energy beams danced around the cave, and hardslab found himself thanking the alien scientists for strengthening the hull on the new fighter which shielded him. it took much effort from michael and hardslab before one of the aliens was finally unable to dodge both of their shots, but suddenly the door melted closed.

"got it!" markolov exclaimed as the fighter came to life. he turned the fighter and quickly eliminated the second aggressor. he then said, "remeber, the only ones who can get here are the technologists; the nerds, if you will. you won't have the strength or reactions to hold off any of the others for that long."

hardslab digested this, but remembered that something had seemed terribly out of place in the dim red of the fighter. he turned and realized what he had seen...

"wow, you really did mean it when you said you wanted to talk again!" hardslab joked as he struggled to remove the bindings the aliens had used on kristen. her reply was lost in the muzzle they had given her.

after they cleared the cave, markolov produced two small transmitters and activated them. he then explained the controls to michael and turned to help remove kristen's bindings. just as he finished there was a flash where their destroyer had been. markolov explained that the first transmitter had initiated the destroyer's self-destruct sequence to keep any surviving aliens from capturing it and that the second transmitter produced signals to mimic the emissions of a clipper, plus a coded transmission for any rebels equipped to recieve it which would give them top priority among the rebels. "this fighter can probably survive any fight it could possibly get into," markolov explained, "but i'm not in the mood to get into a firefight with my aides."

when they returned to the secret base it was in an uproar. this was the first time any alien ship had ever been brought back fully functional, and only the third brought back still looking like a ship. michael had a hard time giving it up to the line crew, and finally markolov backed him up by saying "maybe he should fly this, with some modifications, when we make our strike. we could get a whole lot closer to the aliens without having to fight if we were flying one of their ships." the scientists, circling like a pack of dogs ready to tear it apart for the secrets within, reluctantly traded their dreams of testing the fighter for the ability to step inside and look around a little.

the guards at the first security checkpoint tried to stop kristen, but hardslab explained that she had experienced more of the aliens than any other human. the guards looked to markolov, who nodded, then let them pass.

they met bob and riprock in the secure inner sphere of the complex, where markolov began briefing them on the mission basics. "there is a binary system in the sagitta constellation, which is within three hyperspace jumps of the first of the planets dominated by the cerebrus faction. we will jump in here and hide the jump drive behind the stars. the tiamat will have very little knowledge of this area and will expect strikes from that directions. this means we can sneak our way to the front and make some strikes into tiamat territory and they will dismiss it as a large offensive by the cerebrus. after a few strikes there, we will turn and make a massive attack into cerebrus territory. by the time they notice the large amount of attacks they will notice the tiamat buildup of forces as a result of our other attacks, and will probably believe that the tiamat are using new weapons to press into their territory. this will get the two most powerful factions into a full-scale conflict, which will eliminate both of them from the rise to dominance. after this we will fall back and make our way to the edge of centaur territory. there we will try to establish diplomatic relations with them while trying to remain undetected by the other factions. after that, our actions depend solely on the response of the centaur and other factions."

------------------
if tin whistles are made of tin, what's a fog horn made of?

Hardslab then told Riprock what had happened to him and Sergei. After he was finished, Riprock turned to Kristen. "Kristen, what did you see and hear when the aliens had you captive?"

"Well," Kristen began. "Nothing much, or and what they did say I couldn't understand. Also they.....AAHHHHHHHHH!!!" Kristen let out an ear piercing scream, then she collapsed.

Hardslab, Michael, and Riprock rushed forward. Michael, who was the most experienced in medical conditions, checked her heart beat. He then turned to Riprock. "She has an abnormally high heart rate, almost exactly the same as an alien."

Kristen mumbled some words, but they came out in some weird form of english. Michael looked at her, then turned to Riprock.

"I think she's actually an alien in discuise."

Riprocks eyes grew twice as large and filled with terror.

Suddenly Kristen jumped up, a blinding flash of light seemed to emit from her for just a second. Riprock looked back at her, and what he saw, terrified him. She was an alien.

The alien jumped at Riprock. It started to claw at him, but suddenly it was blasted back by a blue bolt of energy. Hardslab and Michael turned to see what had shot the bolt of energy.

It was an alien.

The first alien looked at it, then screamed. "YOU!"

The alien replied. "Remember me?"

"YOU TRAITOR!!! YAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" The alien lept at the other alien, but was blasted back and killed by another bolt of energy from the second alien's cannon.

Hardslab, Michael, and Sergei looked at both aliens, one now dead. "Why did you do that?" Michael asked the second alien.

"Because I don't think your species should be destroyed. My name Revzan. Two decades ago I worked for my government. When they attacked you, I said we should stop. I was exiled to die."

Revzan looked at Riprock. He lay moaning on the floor of the hanger. He was cut in many places, some of them deep. Revzan looked at Hardslab, "We've got to get him to a doctor!"

Soon Riprock was in a medical room on a respirator. Hardslab, Michael, and Sergei were talking to Revzan. "Is Kristen a real person?" Hardslab asked.

"Actually, yes. That person you thought was Kristen was actually an alien discuised as her. I suspect that the real Kristen is still somewhere in the captivity of the aliens."

Meanwhile, millions of lightyears away, deep in heart of Cerebrus faction territory....

Kristen slowly regained consciousness. She saw that she was in a relatively small room. There was a light at the top that shined red light and a door on the other side of the room. All the walls were made up of the same material as the alien ships.

Suddenly, the door opened, and an alien stepped in. "Who are you and where am I?" Kristen moaned, her hands still bound.

"You are located deep within the planet of TGCI-1507, a secret Cerebrus base, or thats how your friends would call it," the alien said in its unusual form of english.

"As for where we are in space, your galaxy is millions of lightyears away. You don't need to know who I am."

And with that, Kristen fell into unconsciousness again....

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

(This message has been edited by Captain Carnotaur (edited 08-03-2000).)

Suddenly, a doctor walked over to Revzan and Hardslab. "Could the two of you come with me?" she said, looking at little nervous at the sight of Revzan.

She led them into another room. "Mr. Riprock has severe wounds to his chest and arms. He has also sustained damaged to his lungs, and has four cracked ribs from when that alien pounced on him. He also has a slight infection in some of his cuts, presumably from the alien. He also has a slightly sprained ankle."

"Will he be okay?" Hardslab asked.

"I'm pretty sure he will, but it'll be a while," the doctor replied.

The doctor then said she had to check on another patient, and Revzan and Hardslab walked back to Michael and Sergei. After they told them what the doctor said, Revzan spoke up. "I believe we will have to be extra cautious. The alien obviously know we're on to them, so I think we'll have to modify Riprocks plan."

Revzan pulled out an alien holo-projector, then hit a button. It then displayed a device. lit looked like an alien cruiser, however shorter, wider, and a few other slight differences. "This is an alien holoprojector. I have one in my ship, a modified corvette. It allows me to make my ship look like most other ships, depending on their size of course. I can easily duplicate these devices, and install them on our ships. So when we attack the Cerebrus, they will see and detect alien ships, not Rebel ships."

"What about the Rebel Dreadnaught, isn't that a little to big to pose as an alien ship?" Sergei asked.

"Hmmmmmmmmm, I'm not quite sure. We could use a cloaking device, but I'm not really sure"....

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

At that moment a voice from behind them spoke up, "Null... S-Space... pockets, get them... on Akio..." All four of them jump and turn to see a badly injured Riprock hobbling in their direction.

Instantly the young doctor seemed to appear out of nowhere and ushered Riprock back to bed giving him a stern reproach all the while. Meanwhile Hardslab turned back to the group and asked, "Do you have any idea what he's talking about?"

"I believe I might," Spoke up Sergei, "You see, a few years ago a project was undertaken to create 'pockets' in space-time where the dimensional fabric is... puckered so to speak. This puts a small area of space outside of the normal fourth dimensional flow of time and allows it to exist in statis until the pocket is restored and the fabric springs back into shape. From what I had heard the project was scraped and considered to be impossible. I would bet what I had heard was intentional misdirection to lead anyone into believeing they were no longer working on itall the while researching it within cloaked fascilities. Still I don't know how a cloaking device would be able to filter out that kind of distortion, but obvioulsy it has."

Michael piped up at that, "Then obviously this device is kept on Akio, that could only be what he meant by that."

"Agreed," Revzan said, "Meaning we must travel to this system at once to pick up this device. I would recommend travelling as inconspicuously as possible, my people will surely be watching this system for activity."

"Yes Revzan, we already have that covered." Bob said as he entered the room, "We've already got a scoutship waiting out in the dock all ready for you to take her out, Hardslab. I'll be going with you in order to clear the device for removal. The range is good so we won't have to stop as it will minimize the chances that we would be discovered. We'll be setting out for Akio in the morning. First thing you will do is report to a Mission Computer and accept the dummy mission to Akio we've supplied. After that you will meet me in the bar and bring me onto the ship. We will leave and head directly for Akio. Upon arrival we will disembark and go to the bar, I'll slip off and arrange to sign out the NP device. It will be loaded into a supply crate shrouded in a miniature cloaking field and will find it's way into the medical supplies we were supposed. At 1434 hrs. UTC you will leave the bar and go to pick up the cargo, I'll meet you there and we will load the crates onto the ship. We will leave immediately and return here. Do you understand?"

"Yes," replied Hardslab, "but one question, why me?"

"Cause you're the best pilot we've got, kid." Bob said with a smile, "Wih you flying we're sure not to lose our precious cargo. You need to be at the Mission Computer at 0714 hrs. tommorow morning, it'd be best to get some sleep now, tomorrow is gonna be hell."

Hardslab nodded and left the group to go find a bunk somewhere. A military officer directed him to the main barracks where he found a small room and climbed into bed. He spent nearly an hour going over all the things that had happened so recently before finally falling asleep to a feeling of apprehension about tomorrows events.

------------------
All things are possible except skiing through a revolving door

Hardslab was suddenly awoken in the morning by Revzan. But when he looked at the alien, he noticed Revzan was black and magenta. "You sick or something?" Hardslab asked the alien.

"My species is always this color in the morning, or whenever we wake up. It goes away quickly."

Hardslab paid a quick visit to the sickbay, where Riprock was still on a respirator.

As Hardslab, Bob (who had just joined them when they visited Riprock), and Revzan walked to the scoutship Hardslab was to use, Revzan informed Hardslab of a modification to the scoutship. "We've installed an alien shield emiter. It should make you about as shielded as a corvette, incase you run into an alien ship. And don't worry, no ship, not even alien, will be able to detect the alien modifications. We'll also be watching you using a large scanner dish located within the base. If you need assistance, we'll go and help you out."

"Won't you arrive to late to help me if you start out from here?" Hardslab asked.

"We've sent several Rebel cruisers and destroyers all along your path. I myself will be in the Guiron system, pretending to be a merchant captain."

As Hardslab and Bob climbed into the cockpit of the scoutship, Revzan called out to them "Good Luck!"

As the scoutship blasted off the planet, Hardslab talked a bit with his new co-pilot, Andy Macler. Andy was a Rebel commando, and we was well trained in hand to hand combat, repairing ships, and he was VERY muscular.

"Okay Hardslab," Andy said as they cleared the atmosphere, "LETS GO!"

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

(This message has been edited by Captain Carnotaur (edited 08-14-2000).)

The scoutship blasted off from the secret Rebel base. Andy set a course for Clotho, where they would land on Clotho Prime and accept the dummy mission. After a few jumps, they were in the Clotho system. As Rebel ships buzzed all over the place, Hardslab set the scoutship down. While Bob and Andy stayed in the scoutship, Hardslab went out and accepted the dummy mission: Go to Akio, pick up 20 tons of medical supplies, and then transport them back to Clotho Prime.

Hardslab's scoutship jumped through the systems leading to Akio. Revzan was right, in every single system there was at least one Rebel cruiser or destroyer there to protect him, which turned out very helpfull in the Pirate infested Darven system.

On arriving in the Akio system, Hardslab noticed the "Razor", a supposedly merchant corvette. Hardslab knew that Revzan was on that ship, making sure Hardslab didn't get into a big problem.

So far nothing had interfered with the plan. After landing on Akio, Hardslab and Bob went towards the spaceport bar, while Andy watched the scoutship, which was designated as the "S.S. Maximum".

When Hardslab and Bob arrived at the spaceport bar, Bob motioned Hardslab to a table at the back of the bar. As they sat down, Bob started to speak. "All right Hardslab, I now want you to stay in this bar until I return. I'm going out to take possestion of the device. Now remember, this mission has gone fine so far, but that might change at any time. See you in about two hours"...

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

Bob was back a lot sooner than Hardslab had expected. He seemed exceptionally red faced and exhausted. "It...It's gone....taken" he wheezed. "the aliens have it... the officeer on guard said that I had already collected the device an hour before, whch can mean only one thing..." Revzan walked up to the table and continued the explanation. "The aliens are onto us. They used the same method to disguise an alien as bob as they did with Kristen. They obviously had a chance to analyze your chemical and biological make-up at somepoint, and then came hear to pick up the device before we could. Obviously, they have something to gain from this device. An alien with this sort of device in their hands... it's too scary to bear thought about it. We have to track down the ship."
Bob began to talk again. He seemed more composed now, after having had a stiff drink. "Luckily, the device would not be compatible with their ships, due to the fact that the drive would siphon off drive plasma and shield energy to create the 'anti-time' bubble. Having examined an alien engine close up, it is completely different to human engines. It does not use drive plasma as in a standard impulse engine, but instead is partly organic, which produces the drive. This means that the aliens would be unable to use the device. However..." he continued "they may be able to find some way of adapting the device. We must recover this device, but I fear the only way of doing this is to create another to get us to the homeworld, or the alien base, quick enough to pervent them using it against us. We still have the lpans and blue prints, lets just hope the boffins here on Akio work fast enough."
Revzan started to speak again. "First, we must find out where they are going... we have to trace their subatomic trail..."

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

Revzan, Bob, and Hardslab walked back to the scoutship, where Andy was extremely surprised to see them, especially Revzan. After Hardslab and Bob briefed Andy on what had happened, Revzan walked away to his corvette, where he would trace the aliens and the device. Hardslab, Andy, and Bob would wait in the scoutship and await Revzans directions. Hardslab watched Revzans corvette on the other side of the spaceport while waiting.

After about 30 minutes, the com system crackled. "Hardslab, Andy, this is Revzan. I've tracked the aliens. They are heading for the Curzon system. We'd better go now or..."

BANG!

The scoutship shuddered violently. Hardslab looked out, and he saw about 8 aliens all rushing towards the scoutship, their guns blazing. Andy grabbed a proton rifle and then shouted at Bob and Hardslab as he ran towards the exit door. "Come on guys! We have to kill those aliens!"

Bob grabbed a laser rifle and a proton gun and ran after Andy. Hardslab picked up a proton gun and followed. When he got out, Andy was near the front of the ship, rapidly firing his proton rifle. One alien lay dead near the scoutship.

Bob was also shooting his proton rifle when suddenly one of the aliens jumped in front of him. Before Bob could fire his proton gun at the alien, the creature wacked the proton rifle out of his hand. Bob raised his laser pistol and fired. He hit the creatures arm, which then jumped on Bob.

Bob threw him off and then punched the alien square in the face, sending him to the ground. It got up again, just to be sent down yet again by a kick from Bob. As the alien hit the ground, Bob grabbed his laser pistol and fired. The alien was instantly dead.

Meanwhile Andy was still shooting when suddenly two aliens jumped in front of him. One knocked the proton rifle out of his hand, just to be sent back 4 feet by a huge punch by the muscular Andy. The other alien charged Andy, and soon the two where in a wrestling match. However after about a minute, the alien finally knocked Andy out, only to be pounced on by Revzan! He had been listening to what Andy said, and then he too saw the aliens. Now he had come to help.

The two aliens struggled, niether one being able to beat the other. As the two creatures wrestled on the concrete ground, the other three aliens surrounded Hardslab.

Hardslab, having his proton gun blasted out of his hands before by an alien, did not know what to do.

Suddenly, all three aliens were startled to hear a loud yell from behind them. "YAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!"

A dark brown haired human jumped on one of the aliens, knocking the wind out of it and sending it to the ground. The man then pointed a proton gun at the creature and fired, killing the alien instantly.

The two other aliens faced the new target, but were suddenly charged by the man. He punched the stomach of one alien, making it hold its stomach in agoney. He then kicked the other alien in the face, making do a backflip and then face him again. The man kicked again, this time hitting the aliens chest. It was propelled backwards, and the man quickly took out his proton gun and killed it. The 8th alien, which had been watching all this, turn to ran, but was cut down by Andy, who was now concious.

Hardslab recovered his proton gun and turned to see both Revzan and Andy wrestling the last alien. Revzan finally stabbed it with a knife Andy had handed him.

"Who, who are you?" Bob asked, startled.

"I'm the REAL Jason Master. A Confed agent pretended to be me and sent Hardslab on a fake mission, which actually turned out to be good. Now quickly, we must head to your secret base."

"Wait a second. First, how do you know that we have a secret base? Second, why do we have to go there so quickly?"

"Well, lets just say I am a very high ranking Rebel operative. And as for getting back to the base, heres the reason, I have reason to suspect that it is in trouble. My partner operative works there, and she sent me a message saying that there was some kind of trouble at the base, the rest was garbled. Now quickly, we must leave."...

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

-Not Part of the Story: Where has "Nighthawk" gone? I liked his posts here.

...Revzan, Bob, Jason Master, Andy, and Hardslab all quickly cleaned up the alien corpes. Jason then said he was going to take his Rebel Destroyer to the secret base, while Revzan would travel in his corvette, and Bob, Hardslab, and Andy would travel in the escape pod.

They all took off quickly, they needed to not only check on the base, but to also stop the aliens.

However, when they reached the Curzon system, there was not a ship in sight. Not even Pirate, Hardslab decided to continue on.

When they got to the secret base, they were astonished. Three rebel destroyers floating in space, heavily damaged and disabled.

The planet on which the base was located appeared to have been bombarded. Revzan could not detect the base.

"Wait a second, I think I'm detecting an energy signature. We'd better investigate," said Revzan over the comlink.

As the three ships landed, Jason was the first off. As he surveyed the area, the others joined him. They had landed right next to the entrance to the base. It was completely collapsed.

"Hey! Look over there!" Andy yelled, pointing to a Rebel Cruiser landed just a little while away.

As the group started to walk towards it, someone else walked out from behind a rock right in front of Hardslab. It was Riprock!

"DASH RIPROCK!" Hardslab yelled.

"Yup, its me," said Riprock. Suddenly Sergei, Bobs co-pilot, and the doctor who had treated Riprock also walked out from behind the rock, along with two scientists.

"What happened?" Bob asked.

"Seven alien cruisers attacked. They destroyed our defense fleet, and then destroyed the base. We are the only survivors," replied Riprock, who was still looking a bit beat up.

"Wheres Michael?" Hardslab asked, worried about his pal.

"Yes, Michael. Well, he..." Riprock started.

"Is right here!" a voice said from behind another rock to the right of Hardslab, and then Michael walked out from behind it. Hardslab sighed in relief.

"Oh, and uh Hardslab, Bob, this is my partner operative," said Jason, and then he pointed to the female doctor.

"The doctor?" Andy said.

"Yup, well, now that we are all here. Lets bring each other up to speed on what has happened."...

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

(This message has been edited by Captain Carnotaur (edited 08-17-2000).)

--sorry, i was waiting until i had a good idea that fit in w/ the rest of it

they headed for the cruiser as they each gave their part of what had happened in the last few days. it ended with markolov, who gave the first good news any of them had heard in a while: he had managed to salvage the plans to several of the key elemants of the strike. "we don't have the time or resources to repair or rebuild the dreadnought, but if we can get to spica they can have a jumpship and two vipers ready soon enough for them to be useful. they also have the first production battleship ready there; it's not a dreadnought but it'll have to do."

when the arrived on spica the scene was one of utter panic. the most they could gather was that they were being followed by an alien cruiser, which was expected to arrive within the hour. markolov led the way, darting through the crowd to find the cloaked construction facilities which housed the battleship. when they reached the ship, markolov gave a holocube and a quick volley of instructions to a nearby technician before preparing the battleship for its first combat.

the first thing the commander of the alien cruiser noticed upon arriving at spica was the one ship there that was larger than his. even a centuries-long breeding program to eliminate fear was powerless against his first sighting of the battleship. he had engaged in combat with human ships before, and he knew that it was only the guns which posed any threat at all. this was why he had never feared human cruisers; this was why he gasped when he saw the battleship. he realized that the tides had turned, that the humans had designed and built a ship specifically to destroy HIM.

his moment of weakness passed almost as quickly as it had come, and he followed his fighters toward the monstrosity hovering before him. suddenly the viewport grew bright as thousands of tiny particles met with his shield, slowly sapping its energy. then his demon scared him even further. through a clear area in the shield he saw a seeker drone destroyed by a small defensive turret. he tried to bring his fusion beam to bear on it, but he doubted he could see well enough to aim it correctly. finally he thought he saw a shot pierce the battleship's shield. it was his last thought.

back on spica the battleship's maintenance crew noted some damage to its defensive armament, but nothing beyond a few hours' repair. the pilots of the strike team relaxed as much as they could, knowing that they would have to leave as soon as the repairs were complete; and that they would probably never return

------------------
if tin whistles are made of tin, what's a fog horn made of?

(This message has been edited by nighthawk (edited 08-25-2000).)

A few hours later....
"OK is everybody ready?" Markolov shouted. "Hardslab you hop in that Viper over there and Bob you get in that one. The rest of you come into the Dreadnought with me."
Why did they chose me to be in the Viper, you ask yourself. (you is refering to Hardslab) Why? I can't live through being annihilated by a cruiser or even an alien fighter. Why?
"You are clear for departure. Good luck captain." The message buoy comms.

You lift off into the atmosphere and you can't believe your eyes. The alien cruisers beam is charging and it is facing you. You wait for the right moment when it releases and you take a hard left. You tell your new co-pilot James the signal to fire a missle at what seems to be the crew deck. Your still turning sharply to the left and you look at the crew deck and it moves! The missle impact did nothing to the ship at all according to the scanner. Then relief comes.
General Markolov and his mighty Dreadnought come from the left. The ship makes you look extreemly small. The wings uncloak off the Dreadnought and fire 4 torpedoes simultaneously 1 after another. Then you see a small beam in front of the ship emerge. The beam grows bigger and releases the energy right into the Alien Cruiser.

"Captain we have multiple Alien fighters after us. Launch Gratavic space mine sir?" James reports to you.
"Wait.............Now!!!"
You hear a small 'chunk' and you see the mine float away. You engage your afterburner and your gone.
"Captain should I detonate it?"
"Now Detonate now!!!"
You feel the shockwave hit your ship and you see 2 of the alien fighters fry up imediatly and the third is nearly disabled.
"Fire missles at the Alien fighter," You yell. BAM Bam Bang Crack one after another hits the alien fighter.
"That's enough. Its gone now," you say to James as the alien fighter blows up.
"Lets go help our friend with the alien cruiser," You say to James.
"We'll go in on the ship and release our other Gratavic space mine while firing protons, missles, and heavy rockets at the ship. You got that James?"
He nods.
"Well then lets do this then." You shout.
You come towards Alien Cruiser and Markolov hails you. "How are you doing down there? You put up an awesome fight against those fighters." BOOM! You hear an explosion in the dreadnought. "How are you hanging in there sir," you ask Markolov. Nobody responds. Just static.
"They must have hit the transiever on the ship." You tell James.
"No sir, the transiever is located deep within the ship. The ship would have had to have been opened up."

Your in shock. How could the crew all just -- die.
You hail Bob. "Bob are you ok"
"No we have hit hard in the engine core and are just floating out here. What's been happening out there?"
"I'll explain it to you later. We have to finish off the cruiser."
You release the bomb and dodge wave after wave of some sort of new alien projectiles. You fire wave after wave of missles, heavy rockets, and proton turrets.
"Detonate the bomb now."
Another shockwave and the alien cruiser fades away! What it faded away! Then you see the bubble around it get smaller and then no more cruiser.
Your in shock again.
It's time to pick up Bob and tell him what happened.

------------------
Your standing in line,
a very big line,
And you have a gun,
a Big Freaking Gun,
Gee now what do you do?

It's not fair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I FINALLY come up with what to write for the story, and I GOT A CRASH! AUUUUUUUUGH! THIS is why you should always write on a word processor, not on the webboard!
I will post soon, then as soon as I rewrite what I had written.
Rrrrrrrr.

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We do not live to work, rather, we work to live.

Entrepreneur: someone who succeeds by breaking the rules
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(url="http://"http://boards.gamers.com/messages/overview.asp?name=jivesboard") Resistance Web Board (/url)

Um, Begemotike? Did you completely just give up on this, or are you still writing? This was getting very interesting.

------------------
YakKa Foob MoG. GRuG
PubbuWuP ZiNk WattooM
GaZoRK. CHuMBLE SpuZz.

(This message has been edited by Lord Gwydion (edited 09-04-2000).)

No! HONEST! I haven't given up writing here, I just got busy with the Resistance string on the EV Banter Brawl board. I agree that it is getting very interesting, and I really want to add on.... again, I will, promise.

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We do not live to work, rather, we work to live.

Entrepreneur: someone who succeeds by breaking the rules
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(url="http://"http://boards.gamers.com/messages/overview.asp?name=jivesboard") Resistance Web Board (/url)

“Bob, my scanners are showing your hull integrity way down. If I try to dock with your airlock, or make a breach, it could come apart on us.”
Ricks voice was flat and focused. He was pushing the the events that had just happened - happened in a matter of nanoseconds - out of his mind, detaching himself from emotions and concentrating entirely on the matter at hand. For now. He knew the pain would come later, whether he liked it or not, the pain of having people he had considered both mentors and friends suddenly vanish from his life forever.
“Do you have an escape pod?”
“Yes.” Bobs voice was staticy, but it was easy to make it out. “I see what your getting at. Goin’ for it now.”
The damaged ship on Hardslab’s viewscreen developed a rupture one one side, and an escape pod burst through, jets flaming. The wisdom of this course became obvious only moments later, as the ship continued disintegrating, like a tissue that gets soaked, and then has pressure applied. There were no explosions, just the slow-motion ripping of seams and crumbling of bulkheads, until only random wreckage was left.
All ships came equipped with equipment to retrieve escape pods, and while some pilots removed it to get rid of the added mass, the Rebellion made it mandatory on all it’s ships. James locked onto the Bobs pod, and let the system take over. Making contact with the pods computer and shutting it down, the Viper locked onto it and dragged it towards the lock located on the bottom of the fighter. Most ships simply docked it with their airlock, but since the Viper, like the Manta, which broke many modern conventions, didn’t technically have an airlock, Rebel engineers created a dock which would drag the pod wherever the ship went. Air could be fed in, in case the pod was already low, as could nutrients. All in all, it was an impressive system, considering the fact that the engineers hadn’t had much to work with.
“Okay,” said Bob, over the intercom, “We need to follow that cruiser, and fast. They obviously used the device to clear out before they ate it. If we catch them again, we can finish them off before they get a chance to analyze that device. If we don’t... well, I don’t want to be around when they start using it, is all.”
“Okay,” said Rick slowly, “I read you on that one. But how do we follow?”
“You got me there.”

- - - - - - Sorry for the short post guys, I’ll try to do better next time.

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We do not live to work, rather, we work to live.

Entrepreneur: someone who succeeds by breaking the rules
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(url="http://"http://boards.gamers.com/messages/overview.asp?name=jivesboard") Resistance Web Board (/url)

"Great! There's nothing we can do, is there?"
“Easy there son,” Bob cautioned. He could hear the taut tone of Hardslabs voice, and was worried the strain would start to cloud his reason. “I just thought of something. The device the Aliens stole doesn’t let them actually go anywhere; they can only hide in another dimension. They’re just hiding, they have to show up again if they want to go anywhere.”
Somewhat to Bob’s surprise, Hardslabs voice came back calm and precise. “But can they regenerate their shields while they’re hiding?”
The events of the past half hour had obviously changed Rick somehow; no longer did he seem confused or unsure of his actions, there was only an intense ferocity there now.
“I couldn’t tell you,” replied Bob, “It’s never been tested that much.”
“But if they can, that means all they have to do is wait and then they can take off. As soon as they come back to our dimension they can jump, and keep jumping until they get to their own system. We don’t have anything that could stop an Alien Cruiser if it wants to run.”
Bob shook his head even though he knew Hardslab couldn’t see the action. “No, because....”
Hardslab finished his sentence for him. He had definitely changed. “.... because their home system is hundreds of jump away, it takes forever to get there. Right, I had forgotten they get beamed here with basically no way back. Well, that still doesn’t help us to much. With the device, that cruiser can run the ultimate geurrilla war. Pop up, do mass damage, and disappear. An Alien cruiser with that ability is to scary to think of.” Hardslab paused momentarily before continuing. “I’m not sure how, but we have to find a way of getting at that cruiser while it’s still in a weakened state.”
Bob sighed. “Either that, or we are in a mess of trouble.”

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We do not live to work, rather, we work to live.

Entrepreneur: someone who succeeds by breaking the rules
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(url="http://"http://boards.gamers.com/messages/overview.asp?name=jivesboard") Resistance Web Board (/url)

In the core of the alien cruiser, in a universe not our own, the Seventh Arm of the Enginereering Corps. of Saint Hrfral, thousands of mindless of mindless drone-workers moved as one, reconfiguring the massive engines of the craft. Iflan, Engineer General Third Class Tenth Ladder, oversaw the retrofitting. It took time, but soon his Engineering Corps. had accumulated enough information about the physics of this strange new universe to retrofit the engines.

The cruiser began to turn, slowly, almost painfully so, the ship turned in the direction of Sol. It began to move forward, and gained momentum until it entered Hyperspace.

The small band of humans didn't even notice.

Days later, in orbit of Sol:

Captain Junius was proud of his Condederate Cruiser, the U.S.S. Manus Celer Dei. He always boasted that since the Great War, no ship had even hit it. This was a lie, but his ship was formidble indeed.

He breifly say a mottled red and black object appear. He rubbed his eyes... he was getting old, he thought... he couldn't have just seen an alien cruiser.... they're all dead, after all.

It appeared again, launched dozens of seeker drones at the U.S.S. Manus Celer Dei, and disappeared as abruptly as before. They all exploded against the ship's armor, reducing it to a melted slag. As explosions enveloped Junius' ship and klaxons howled, he could see countless more seeker drones being launched at Stardock Alpha, and the alien ship flickering in and out. The last thing he saw before oblivion was the Stardock slowly tilting over on its side and falling towards Earth.

Within three hours, the entire Confederate defense force of Sol had fallen, and Earth was in alien hands.

Iflan, Engineer General Third Class Tenth Ladder, was promoted to Engineer General First Class Seventh Ladder for the outstanding victory his engines gave to his kin.

At this point Hardslap, Riprock, Michael, Bob, and the rest of that merry crew were getting sick of waiting for the alien ship to reappear... (to be continued by some one other than me)

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mother earth came to greet me and i shook her

-I hope Nighthawks makes another post, I always liked his bits of the story.

Unfortunately the alien ship did not have enough personnel to capture Earth, and the Confeds had just held back on the aliens. Suddenly swarms of Confed frigates launched from Earth, firing all their weapons.

The alien cruiser could not take the punishment, so it hid again.

Earth had been spared.

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"What! What do you mean Earth was almost conquered!!!!" Riprock yelled. Bob and Hardslab had just told him.

"Yes, apparently the aliens attacked Earth, but the Confeds were somehow able to hold them off. It's back in another dimension," Hardslab replied.

"Any word from Sergei or from Jason Master and his friend?" Riprock asked.

"Yeah, Sergei is on Palshife setting up another base, he thought it was the safest place availible. Jason and his agent, the doctor whose name is actually Nancy Master, are also on Palshife, however Jason said he was going to visit us."

Suddenly the door opened and Jason stepped in. "Fast aren't I?"

"Uh, yeah, very fast," Bob stammered.

"I heard about the alien cruiser and Earth. The Confeds are moving tons more ships there to protect it. I have an idea on getting that alien cruiser," Jason said.

"How?" Bob, Hardslab, and Riprock asked together.

"Visit the alien faction Centaur. We've been monitoring them, and I think we may have an ally in getting that alien cruiser."

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Realch, High Command First Ladder First Arm at in the darkness of his chamber in the alien cruiser. He was gravely disappointed in Iflan. The Engineer General seemed so sure of himself. Realch admitted to himself that Iflan's modifications probably saved the ship, or otherwise it would have been stranded in the other universe the device allowed it to enter, or else it would have left and been destroyed by the humans. But losing Sol had caused the Engineer to snap, leaving him in delusions of conquest and promotion. Why, he thought he was First Ladder! Reluctantly, he signed Iflan's execution order.

He decided that, to console himself, he'd conquer some Independent system, but that would have to wait, for he had to speak with the new Engineer General about mass producing ships fitted with the device. If one ship could nearly conquer Sol, one fleet could bring down the universe!

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mother earth came to greet me and i shook her

(This message has been edited by Constantine MoG (edited 09-17-2000).)