"A.K.?"

the little droid beeped a response.

"Utilize the ship's onboard vocal synth as your own, this is going to require some complex commands, ok?"

A.K. whirred and beeped while strange noises came out of the speakers of the ZX-17. It sounded like a child's voice crossed with a dying old man's. It was creepy, to say the least. After a while, the voice began to become a regular tone, but was talking gibberish.

"A.K., intergrate with the language database,"

A strange tone was emmitted, and i took that as an 'Okay'. The voice began to form distinct words, and them formed perfect english, witha robotic synth voice.

"Ready for command:"
"Access Daedalus' main system."
"System accessed. Input?"
"Status"

A.K. beeped for a bit, even though he was intergated with the ship.

"Daedalus system at 90% efficiency. System in hibernation mode. Input?"

I pondered to idea of activating Daedalus in self defence and remove the threat of losing the station. But that would attract attention, attention I didn't want.

"Instruct Daedalus to phase shift into infra-red spectrum."
"Phase shift complete. Invisible to ultra-violet sensors. Input?"
"Lock down the station, allow no man in without the Daedalus codes."
"Lock down complete. Station in defence mode. Input?"

By the time i had finished with Daedalus, i was at the edge of Bretonian space, where a familiar sight caught my eye. Omicron Black 9 had received my message and had picked the one way out of Bretonian space that wasn't locked down. Tau-31.

"Nice of you to join me, Omicron Black 9. Please exscuse the lack of my old ship and designation, blame the Rheinlanders for that. Coming with me?"

I punched in the codes for the Tau-31 gate. A Bretonian Crusader tried to prevent me from doing so.

"Unknown ships, identify yourselves."
"This is Viator Crimson Seven. I need to get to Tau-37, I have injured on thier way to Freeport 10."

For some reason i thought i was exploiting my passenger's unconcious state, but that feeling left me rather quickly.

"Very well, proceed. Omicron Black 9, escort Viator Crimson 7 to Tau-37."

OOC: thats the Daedalus i was thinking of, but that daedalus was a filter program in the Aquinas Node designed to monitor communications...

IC:
Location: The 'Phoenix', Dom'Kavash Starfighter on the edge of bretonian space.
Arania was exhausted, and that feeling showed, rather not in him, but in his Phoenix-Dæmon, sitting beside him. Her feathers drooped, the golden light she put out was duller, and she had trouble keeping her balance on the delicate holo-panel she had adopted as her perch.
Trying to resist the urge to sleep, Arania relentlessly tried to hack into the Dom'Kavash network, trying to find why everyone had turned against each other.
The nomads didnt do it, guard had been increased since the 5 years after they were banished.
A message flashed on the screen:

To all Fighters within Sirius space:
Solar attack on Sirius will commence shortly
Evacuate immediatly
ETA - 2:59:54

The clock started ticking down the ominous message that had come from the Dom'Kavash.
Arania froze, leaving his hack program to work.
The Dom'Kavash was going to attack...
"Prometheus, get me to Tau-37 NOW!" arania screamed "I need to get in contact with our mysterious pilot Viator. Perhaps he can help me contact the Coalition."
The ship lurched as it jumped into the dual-sunned Tau-37 system. Emerging almost on top of Viator's ship.
"Oops" Prometheus said, a sheepish look on his face.
"Viator, i need you help" Arania transmitted, aware all too well of the irony of a wanted criminal wanting help against the very people controlling who pusued him.

OOC: ill explain the bit about the Coalition and the irony on Freeport 10, once we land.

For the millionth time in his life, Waalbeck was breathing heavily and thanking nobody in particular that he was alive. Of course the Order operatives hadn't trusted him and preceeded to destroy him. He managed to kill two of the five and fled back to the base luring the others to annhilation. He had set his ship down about 5 minutes ago but he remained in the cockpit thinking wildly.

Because of this he failed to notice the two shady looking characters walk into the busy docking bays. The climbed onto the wings, one on each and cornered him in the cockpit. Waalbeck opened his eyes in shock. "I'm sorry if we startled you Colonel," said the blond haired one without emotion. "But you really must come with us." They were wearing green vests and yellow jumpsuits with a red stripe down the sides. They were Rheinland Federal agents. The shaven headed one put his foot onto the side of the cockpit rim and without any fuss buzzed Waalbeck with his taser.

Waalbeck opened his eyes. He was in a very richley decorated room. He opened his eyes in shock. There was a plate of some Kusari seafood but what surprised him the most is that there were actual potatoes and lettuce. Once common in antiquity, they were an astonishly expensive delicacy now...rarer then tickets to visit Gaia planetside. He looked around, he was alone in a library filled with old books and neural displays. The meal was obvieously for him so he set upon it ravenously.

As he did a door opened. He looked up with a lettuce leaf partway out of his mouth. It fluttered back down to the plate as Waalbeck realised the seniority of his guest. The Chancellor himself! He stood up to salute him but the Chancellor waved him down. "Sir, it is an honor to meet you....uh many apologies sir i thought the meal was for me sir." The Chancellor smiled. "It is my friend and please, address me as Lucius." Waalbeck slowly sat down. The Chancellor's face became grim. "You may continue with your meal, but I will not beat around the bush, as it is. The underlings of the Sirius have started a resistance to our glorius crusade,"

A massive neural display floated down from the ceiling displaying the faces of several people. They all looked like they had seen a bit of action before. He narrowed his eyes as he glanced upon the generated image of Arania glaring down upon him. The Chancellor continued.
"These are the most dangerous, a list comprised by our operatives in the FFS of the ringleaders. As for the strength of the FFS we are not totally sure. We have got several figures but we will be able to hold on to Kusari at least." Waalbeck finished the meal and pushed away the plate. "So forgive me for guessing at your great plans Sir..euh, Lucius but I belive we are to dig in and defend?" The Chancellor nodded slightly.

Then he opened his draws and pulled out a rank plate.
"This is for you Gunter, you are now the Commander of forces within Kusari to Tau-29." Waalbeck sat back surprised. "The former commander was killed on Kusari....beheaded I belive but you are only facing the Bretonian Navy and a bunch of rag-tag guerillas. You have the Schwarz Kommando and most of the Northern fleet now awaiting your command." Waalbeck accepted the plates and slid them onto his shoulders. He removed the Colonel plates and placed them on the table. The Chancellor picked them up and gazed at them rather strange. "For another deserving Major perhaps? Dismissed."

Waalbeck saluted and walked out towards the doors. The Chancellor called out. Waalbeck turned. "Gunter? Don't try and defect again. If not for my intervention your bloated carcass would be turning slowly in the vacum right now..." He left through a side door leaving Waalbeck stunned.

Three days later he sat chatting to the Admiral of the Battleship Höllentier which was floating quietly with a flotilla of Valkryes and cruisers at the ruins of Nago station. His co-commander in the Tau 23 system had intercepted a very coded and interesting message, untracable apparently.
He excused himself and strode up to the communications centre. The officer in charge took him away to a small proofed room where a single frightened ensign sat. There was a small neural display and a message

To all Fighters within Sirius space:
Solar attack on Sirius will commence shortly
Evacuate immediatly
ETA - 2:59:54

An icy ball materialized in his stomach. He read it several times over again. Without a word he left for the resident Admiral's cabin. He ignored the calls from the ensign and officer. He slammed open the door and got on the private line to the Chancellor.

After he declared an emergency the Chancellor appeared on screen looking very sleepy. "Gunter? Vhat is ze meaning of zis?" Waalbeck swallowed hard. The Chancellor was at odds. Half of the Sirius seemed to be heading to the extreme systems and cruise speeding it as far away as possible as the could. The other half had stayed put obvieously shot with indecision and disbelief.

Waalbeck checked his solar watch. 2:37:28 and counting. The Chancellor slammed his fist on his desk in fury. He looked up, his close cropped iron gray hair all askew. He seemed to struggle to get the words out. "Ztate of emergency! You are now ze commander of ze Northern Fleet! All commanders are giving the free will act passed by the Reichstag in 805. Do with the Northern fleet what you will." Waalbeck was surprised. Contact ze Order! Maybe ze vill know something about zis alien attack." The comm-link faded and it would not come online again. Waalbeck thought hurridly. How did he know it was an alien attack? Was it? He knew Arania had been apparently sighted in the North western systems and contacted his cohort in Tau-23. He had got the message too and handed control over to Waalbeck.

"Full fleet jump to Tau-37, I don't care how we get there just go!" he yelled at the surprised crew.

Over the next few hours the entire Rheinland Northern Fleet gradually built up prescense in the Tau-37 system, completely surrounding Freeport 10. Techicians on the Battleship Höllentier beamed a message from Waalbeck to all channels on Freeport 10 and all ships in the area.


"Arania? I know you're here somewhere...I come in peace. Help me and my fleet for the love of decency. You can't leave us here to be destroyed. I'm sorry, spare my fleet. This equals us all. This whole goddamned system is filling up with refugees. Do with them what you want but at least tell us how we can save ourselves and them."

The system gradually filled up with every kind of ship in the Sirius. As well as the Rheinland Northern Fleet there was also Bretonian personel and even a rogue cruiser. Plus hundreds of private crafts and merchants. Military units all over the Sirius were deserting their posts to get as far away as possible from the Sirius.

Many had overstocked their ships with months of supplies and just flown off to west of Tau-37 into open space. The Battleship Höllentier had emptied it's holds of military craft and was now full of private craft and families were given berth in the cabins deep inside the Höllentier. Ships of all kind flocked to the Höllentier. It was almost like a beacon. There was something comforting in it's massive size and proctection.

Waalbeck refused sleep, waiting for Arania's reply through 3 crew shift changes.
He stood at the very front of the bridge gazing out with that penetrating stare around the Tau-37 and the Freeport, whos Biodomes were full of refugees...
One evil thought lay at the back of Waalbeck's mind, taunting him.

They had escaped 800 years ago from a conflict that had torn their world and system apart and settled down again only to throw a massive conflict again on the innocent masses. Was this a punishment for their sins? Waalbeck wasn't a religious man at all but did hold belief that acts did not go unpunished. He looked slowly around at the huddled masses on his ship, many of them sleeping on classified documents and battle plans. Would man ever learn?
To be Continued



Hasta la victoria siemprè! (Ever onward to victory) - Ernesto Che Guevara



If you tremble indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine. - Ernesto Che Guevara



Edited by - redstarpaddy on 6/28/2004 11:08:00 PM

IC:
There are times where I feel that Fate doesn't care much for me. Then there is the times where a solution is dropped on top of me, literally. From out of nowhere as i proceeded to my old station on the far side of the system, a strange fighter fell on top of me. Out of nowhere, just BAM!

"Proximity Warning. Alter course."
"I already know that, A.K.!"

Now if it were a standard fighter from Sirius, I'd be surprised. But since it had markings similar to the ruins on Toledo, I assumed that it was either Nomad or Dom'Kavash in origin. But the pilot was far from alien. The pilot's 'sidekick' seemed to be on fire, but who was I to talk, I had a sentient droid as a navigator, and an unconcious Caimbridge research assistant in the seat behind me, and I had lost my escort in the Tau-23 system. This guy's alien ship and burning avian were nothing really out of the ordinary. A message came over the comm system.

"Viator, I need your help"

This left me a bit stunned. Obviously I had a bigger role in this than i thought.

"If you want my help, follow me. Freeport 10 isn't secure enough."

I turned for my station and hit the cruise engines. Unlike the Reflex, these charged in seconds, propelling toward my station in lightning speed. Nothing could catch me in this thing I thought. How wrong I was. Within seconds, my new friend had caught up to me.

It didn't take long to reach my station, even though it wasn't visible. Here is where A.K. worked his magic.

"A.K., decloak the station and activate defence systems. Activate Daedalus and power up the turrets. Fire on anything from Rheinland. Unlock Docking port 1, and prepare the envoronmental systems for human life."

After a moment, my station glittered into view. Very few knew what happened to the old Ithica station, most thought it was still in the Badlands of New York. But I had lovingly restored it here in Tau-37, and it was a good home. I flew into the open docking port, and sent a message to the pilot outside.

"As I said, Freeport 10 isn't secure like this place."

When i got inside, alarms were wailing all over the place, which questioned the security. I placed the station in cloak mode and shut down defences. Locking down the station seemed the best thing to do.

OOC:Arania, you gots some 'splainin to do!

Edited by - Viator on 6/28/2004 11:37:05 PM

Location: Station 'Daedalus' Tau-37
There were very few times when Arania was surprised by anything, the discovery of his dæmon was one, this was another.
The station was in the middle of an occupied system, surrounded by millions of people passing and going, and no-one had noticed it, even the Dom'Kavash sensors on his ship hadnt registered the station until it decloaked.
Walking around the large hangar bay of the station, he marvelled in wonder what the station was....
"Arania" spoke Viator "You have some explaining to do"
"Ok" Arania replied, leaning up against the wing of his fighter "how do i put this...? im, um, not from here"
Before viator could reply, Arania had launched into the explanation:
"My name is Commander James Carson, i was the leader of a Coalition scouting party to Sirius 25 years ago. We arrived the same day that the order banished the Nomads from sirius"
He took a breath and continued:
"Most of the crew didnt survive the trip, and only my navigator and I managed to hold on until we reached civilisation. Not Human civilisation either. We landed on a nomad Sleeper ship. They attacked my navigator and took me prisoner, intending to use me as a host. that is, until another group of nomads attacked us. these nomads were a breakaway to the Dom'Kavash. They baelieved that there were other ways to pring peace than to annihilate us."
He rubbed the scar on the back of his neck and continued.
"I met Proteus there, and i offered to protect him if he gave me the full and uninhibited knowledge of sirius. He agreed, and now resides clinging top my spine..."
Arania turned, showing the slight bulge in his flight suit.
"I joined the Order shortly after that, claiming myself to be a Capital Ship engineer. I hepled them design the Seckmet."
"Nothing much happened after that, until recently, everybody seems to have gone nuts. Recently i discovered that the Dom'Kavash HaAVE returned. They never left, in fact. The Nomads ARE the Dom'Kavash"
Letting this sink in, he continued:
"In a manner of speaking, i mean. The Nomads are a genetic creation of the Dom'Kavash designed to Propagate thier species. You see, when a Dom'Kavash dies, he vanishes, wihout a trace. Thats why we couldnt work out why they vanished. They were at war, and they killed almost everyone"
"Leaving the Nomads to 'repair' Sirius during thier absence, the Dom'Kavash left, in a massive 'Exodus' many millions of years ago."
"Now, to put this in perspective, imagine that you were a massivly advanced species, and you left 'caretakers' to look after your homes. Then a flimsy race comes along and, against all odds, wipes them out. You would be slightly put out, wouldnt you?"
"So, they decided to use our own desires against us. Using a massive 'spraycan' if you will, the Dom'Kavash 'sprayed' the entire population of sirius with a potent nero-aplification agent that rmoved the concious mind and made the being operate in a state of sentient instinct"
"Now, naturally the instinct of every uman is to become the 'one on top' so all the military orginisations of Sirius launched a massive offensive against each other, the effects seen only recently"
"The Order attack on rheinland was nomad doing, in order to lure out the leader of the Nomad resistance, Proteus. And it made the people of Sirius scatter in dissarray"
"Then, once the population was significantly disoriented, the Dom'Kavash would come in and finish us off"
"Why didnt they just attack us outright?" Viator asked
"Because th Dom'Kavash are a proud people, who like to make thier point ell made. If they attacked us outright, they wouldnt have amde any point. If they made us fight against each other, they prove that we are unfit to reside here."
"And they have no care for the sanctitiy of creation either. If it was to prove a point, they would blast the entire known universe into oblivion. Just to prove a point"
"the only weakness of the Dom'Kavash is thier arrogance. They believe that they are the greatest living being, we can use that against them. Over thier life, once they believed there technology to be advanced enough, they stopped trying to improve it. as it is, The Coalition, my people, have managed to develop BEYOND thier technological level"
"But, ever though they are more advanced, thier weakness is size, the coalition is far too small to openly attack the Dom'Kavash. My plan is that we attack the Dom'Kavash homeworld, with everything we have. Forcing them to realise we are better. And, by thier own logic, surrendering Sirius over to us. Thier own laws state: 'if thy own flesh, and thy own blood is defeated in combat, thy must surrender, and give the victor what is rightfully his' they follow that like a commandment"
"So, where is the Dom'Kavash homeworld?" Viator asked
"Um, thats the only problem" Arania replied "I dont know"
"Then why are you telling me this?"
"You are the last decendant of my familiy in the Alliance. Long ago, our family split, one half to the Coalition, one half to the Alliance. You are the last decendant of that family in the alliance, and i am the last in the Coalition"
"I searched you out, you i knew i could trust. i need you to help me find the Dom'Kavash homeworld"

OOC: who said the station was called Daedalus?

IC:
Araina's revalations were a shock to my system, let alone the knowledge that he was related to me. The Dom'Kavash were the architects of our doom, and its time we designed a way to escape this Escher style trap. What Arania had said made sense somehow, that the true link between us was that Fate had not let us stand idly by and watch the world go down the tubes. Even our features were somewhat similar, except for the stylish glasses on my face.

Before I could ponder this anymore i heard a scream from the back of my ship. I knew i forgot something. I helped the research assistant out of the ship, with her shaking and pointing at Arania's phoenix.

"I have to ask, What the f*** is THAT thing?" I said to Arania, half yelling.
"That's my phoenix, Araminta. It's my, er, companion. It wont hurt you."
"Okay then, we need to get you (to the girl) to the med bay. Hopefully A.K. has medical knowlege. Arania, go to my ship and get the little droid out of the I/O port."

Arania went over and pulled the cables out of the little droid, noticing the purple glow coming out of its back.

"Is this Nomad technology?" Arania said walking behind me in the corridors.
"The battery is, yes. My late travelling companion developed it."

We had reached the med bay, and by this time the girl had passed out. Again. I laid her down on the table, ad got A.K. from Arania.

"This droid has saved my life before, it's my equivalent of Araminta." I said, plugging A.K. into the surgical unit. A ballet of scanners and diagnostic equipment whirred around the lab girl from Caimbridge. A.K. emiited some beeping.

"What did it say?" Arania questioned.
"Its just shock, easy to treat, nothing serious."

A.K. made some beeping noises.

"Yes, wake her up. you cant treat an unconcious shock patient. Just restrain her."

A.K. beeped again. Leather restraints fastened around her feet and hands. A needle on a robotic arm injected a serum to return her to a concious state. She woke with a start, and began screaming at Araminta.

"Umm, Arania, you may want to do something about Araminta."
"Yeah. Araminta, wait for us outside, okay?"

The bird nodded and flew outside. The lab assistant began to calm down a little.

"Where am I?" she asked, groggily.
"You're on the old Ithica Resarch Station, which is now in the Tau-37 system, and is called Citadel Station. You passed out when I shot a Rheinland Scwartz Kommando trying to rape you. I put you in my ship and brought you here away from the Rheinlanders. Now it seems that they are here in Tau-37 as well."

The girl took this in and started crying.

"Why are you crying?" Arania asked. The girl sniffed back some tears and tried to respond.
"My father was killed on Caimbridge and his Nomad power supply stolen by Rheinlanders."

Arania looked at me with a strange stare.

"Whats your name, kid?" I asked.
"Jennifer Aida. My father worked in the same lab as me."

Finally all the pieces fell into place. Everything made sense. Fate lost one Aida and replaced him with his decesndant. She even had Kenji's weird blue eyes. It almost made some form of sense. I stress the 'almost' part.

In the main control room I looked over toward the Rheinland battleship stationed outside Freeport 10. Jennifer sat talking to Arania about Araminta and how it's flames reflected it's mood. It was somwhat a serene time, strange as it may be, as the Dom'Kavash prepared to invade, and the Rheinland Northen Fleet stood outside our door, there was a calm over us. But i knew that time was of the essence. I wento over to an old control panel, which used to be for the Ithica's research equipment, but I had retrofitted it for my own purposes. Daedalus. I hit some buttons and opened to main Daedalus chamber.

OOC: i still wont tell you

Edited by - Viator on 6/29/2004 1:54:36 AM

Waalbeck gazed out across ice clouds. For several days now they had been hovering, with a large proportion of the Sirius in the Tau-37 system awaiting instructions. From whom he did not know. His scouts had reported Arania leaving with someone and then they had encountered hostile fire. He did not send anymore scouts out. He was sick of death.

A few Outcasts watched with interest from Freeport 10 but then flew off. Waalbeck had a growing feeling this was something bigger then they could, or would ever comprehend. It was a strange time. War had halted and the masses of the Sirius huddled together from protection against the shadows. He knew the Southern Fleet had established a protection ring like theirs and that the Colditz system had been silent for days, for the first time in 50 years. Nothing came in, Nothing came out. He knew that eventually if nothing happened the people would eventually creep back to their homes in space. As for Rheinland, they had a lot to answer for. He assumed the Rheinland forces would be withdrawn into the Colditz system and the few surviving Kusari would start to rebuild their shell of an Empire. As for the captured independant systems such as the Sigmas and Omegas, well they were uncertain. Kusari would be too weak to hold on to the Sigmas so Rheinland would probably keep those, at least temporarily. And the Omegas would be shared or given back.

On the other hand if this solar destruction did happen it would probably result in the destruction of the corrupted people and the Sirius. The few gifted people who were aware of what was going on would survive and flee to start again in a new world, free from prejudice that had divided man so many times before. Hah.

It was all very philosophical and Waalbeck found this very strange. It didn't seem to tie in with reality. It was...in a words totally random. Rheinland defintly seemed like the bad guys in this place. A neo-Coalition? He had often read about the Coalition, composed of mostly Russians and the Asian states as well as the middle east and Africa. Ancient "countries" of antiquity.

Anyways he had his best hackers working on the ship scanning all of the Northern Sirius for any...unusual things. They had started in Tau-37 and cleared that of unusual objects until a technician scrolled back to cross-reference something. There was a little glitch, a tiny bump only centimetres high in one scan. Normally it would've been treated as a Rheinland force under cloak. But Commander Waalbeck had called everything back. He looked at patrol signatures and then comm footage of the route to that area. Nothing had travelled there since a steady flow of Outcasts and some unidentified ships which was not unusual, the system was full of them. But the Outcasts had blockaded the way towards their system. He checked the latest scan. The interference was still there. He paused unsure of what course of action to take. He slowly got up and walked the long route to the bridge--finding Waalbeck in his usual spot.

The Orbital Spa & Cruise rep had been reluctant to hand over the Armored Transport but extra rations changed anyone's mind. Waalbeck was briefing his co-pilot, Rheinland Military ace Kornelius Harmel. "Now you see our ships were attacked, so obvieously they are guarding against Rheinlanders you see? But if they have any decency at all they will be unwilling to attack civillians even if we surprise them by knowing about their base." Harmel nodded. He had heard about Waalbeck's relentlessness and now realised they rumours didn't exaggerate. They flew out and discretly left the floating flotilla of military and civvie craft. After several minutes of calculations the rough position of the mystery base had been worked out. Waalbeck steered the Armored Transport to where he thought he was roughly positioned in front of the base.

"Good day gentlemen. I know you're home so please listen. I do not have any soldiers with me or kommandos and you will probably notice this Armored Transport has been stripped of weapons. I and my co-pilot are only wearing standard flight helmets and combat fatigues. Politically correct clothes are hard to come by on the run. I understand that our position has changed dramatically and that you are now the saviours of the Sirius. Since i have roughly 2500 people to look after and they are mostly civilians are would kindly sugguest that you let me aboard and we can sort out this affair. Scan all you like, there is no ambush and I only wish to talk to you casually and diplomatically. Since the charming little message we all received has caused Sector wide anarchy and chaos perhaps I deserve at least a temporary second chance and an explanation?

Hasta la victoria siemprè! (Ever onward to victory) - Ernesto Che Guevara



If you tremble indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine. - Ernesto Che Guevara

A.K. beeped into life while I was in chamber.

"Transmission? Open a channel."

A.K. beeped a response.

"Good day gentlemen. I know you're home so please listen. I do not have any soldiers with me or kommandos and you will probably notice this Armored Transport has been stripped of weapons. I and my co-pilot are only wearing standard flight helmets and combat fatigues. Politically correct clothes are hard to come by on the run. I understand that our position has changed dramatically and that you are now the saviours of the Sirius. Since i have roughly 2500 people to look after and they are mostly civilians are would kindly sugguest that you let me aboard and we can sort out this affair. Scan all you like, there is no ambush and I only wish to talk to you casually and diplomatically. Since the charming little message we all received has caused Sector wide anarchy and chaos perhaps I deserve at least a temporary second chance and an explanation?"

Rhenlanders. Bah.

"A.K., open Dock 2 and allow them to land. Seal off Dock two via vacuum seal and stand by."

A.K. beeped a response. Outside the station, a small hole appeared out of nowhere with a docking bay inside. The Armoured transport proceeded in and landed.

"Okay, close the door A.K. Seal them in."

The door closed behind the Rheinlanders and a familiar hiss of vacuum sealing was heard. Finally, I could work with Daedalus in peace.

OOC: hey what happened to me lol did i disappear or something bah oh well guess thats what happens when you live on the other side of the world)

I came through the gate alittle late and saw them him take off with anothyer unidentified ship but they were aalready out of comm range so i followed them when suddenly a docking bay door appeared in the middle of nowhere and they went inside i had found a design for a cloaking device in the database unlike other cloaks it emitted no disturbance by which it could be detected. I then detected a apraching armored transport and cloaked so i wouldnt be seen after it docked i activated my anti-cloaking device which disrupted the cloaking field and forced the field to dissipate revealing the station i then proceeded to hail the station.

"Crimson Seven i know your in there and i would preferably like an explanation for your quick and hasty departure from my company otherwise i may have to force a landing which i can do so easily even with your 'defenses' i have more than a few beam weapons you know"

OOC: Araminta can turn invisible, btw. regenerate, shoot fire and sheilding are some other abilities she has... and her flames reflect not only her mood but mine.
Viator, do you have any problem with me interfacing Prometheus with the main computer?

IC:
Arania sat in his bunk, staring at the massive computer he had managed to design after scrounging spare parts from around the station.
Having utilised the Dom'Kavash technology on board his ship he had managed, with great difficulty, to hack into the colony news service.
That was what was only what was on the main screen, prometheus was on the left, monitoring the hacked Rheinland MilNet system. And on the right, was the complete security netowrk of the citadel station.
Having seen viator disappear into a chamber with his little robot, he decided to leave well enough alone, and shut of monitoring to that section, deciding best to leave him in peace.
Turning his attention to the caputred rheinland convoy, he decided to have some fun with them.
He turned off the lights, wathcing in amusement over the rad-cam how they all scurried around trying to find the lights. Laughing more than once when they all ran into each other and toppled over into one big heap.
The spakers crackled to life as an alert popped on the screen : Cloaking System Disrupted, estimated time to re-activation- 30 seconds.

"Crimson Seven i know your in there and i would preferably like an explanation for your quick and hasty departure from my company otherwise i may have to force a landing which i can do so easily even with your 'defenses' i have more than a few beam weapons you know" the speaker crackled.

"Prometheus, open bay three for our new freind, and open the Bulkhead between bays three and two, keep it all vacuum sealed though!"
He began typing on the main console, leaving a message on the CNS:
'This is your last warning, the Dom'Kavash are coming, and are not going to stop at killing us, they will destroy every last remnant of the human civilisation. everyone must flee from any sort of Solar object they can find. Go to Galileo and kepler, hide in the dark matter clouds, go to Magellan, hide in the barrier. run from any star you see'
Ending the massage, he gathered up Araminta and a small Dom'Kavash rifle he had found in his ship, and set off towards the Captured rheinland convoy.
As he neared the door of the bay, Araminta glowed brighter and let off a brilliant shower of red powder, the floated arond Arania like a ball.
"Prometheus, open the door"
The door opened with a hiss, and Arania walked into the bay.
As expected, somebody shot at him, but it wasnt the Rheinlanders, or Dragonborn, it was a corsair.
As the shot impacted, there was a brilliant display of Fire as the shot hit, not Arania, but the sheild around him.
Arania rased his gun and fired a single shot at Hera, hitting herin the stomach, and proceeding through Hera's symbiote and through ber back, finally hitting the wall.
Hera collapsed.
Turning to the shocked Rheinland officers, tossing them a datacube containing his conversation with Viator.
"That should explain everything" he said, and beckoned Dragonborn over to the door.
"Viator is a bit tied up at the moment, dunno when he'll be out." Arania said "There is a med room down he hall, next to that is an empy crew module, im sure youll find it accomidating"
Arania walked off, his last words before dissapeaing back into his cabin: "Prometheus, seal off Bay two, close bay three bulkhead, V-seal"
A hiss was heard as the rheinlanders were sealed in again.

Having got his explanation from arania he headed for the quarters he indicated.
"i'll say it'll do" he said to himself.
It was a full first class suite it even had its own spa but he was more interested in the wet bar and proceeded to pour himself a drink and go over to a sofa and went to sleep.


(OOC: sorry if my switching from 3rd to 1st person and back again is confusing)

Waalbeck looked carefully at the datacube. Harmel just opened and shut his mouth as they were sealed in again. Slowly Waalbeck strode towards the Armored Transport and pushed the datacube in the comm-link foreign object transmitter. "Right now that's going to the Battleship our role in this, appears over." he finished. Harmel scratched his head. "This is very confusing." Waalbeck nodded silently. He decided to check on the fleet. The vid-comm showed it slowly approaching this mysterious base. His eyebrows drew together and he groaned. Damn loyalty. Harmel remianed indifferant. "They got the data thingy yes?" Waalbeck continued to stare at the approaching fleet. "Yup, they did but without their commander they are unsure of what to do." Harmel leaned on the Armored Transport. Waalbeck continued. "It's pretty predictable from here. Either these people eject us out of this base and we go back to the Battleship and have no further role in this or the fleet will try to destory this base." Harmel looked up. "Try? This is a fleet against a base! Even I've taken out bases this big." Waalbeck sighed. "They will inevitably escape I promise you, leaving us and this godforsaken station to be blasted to oblivion. Even if we are ejected, what can we do? I have a feeling we've now taken a back seat to this if you know what I mean." Harmel nodded in silent agreement. "I can tell my grandchildren I spent this crisis locked up in a dock...rather then fighting." he reflected bitterly. Waalbeck rolled his eyes. "Okay Kornelius, what would you do, given the chance?"
Harmel thought for a minute. "Try and save our fleet and the refugees...I don't know what sort of role."

Waalbeck was sitting silently untill a thought came into his head. "Kornelius? What do you suppose drove our 'great' chancellor to war?" Harmel thought. "They say he got really strange in the few months before the war...though I think I like the old Sirius better, even the Kusari...I mean it's not like he had a major grudge against anyone. Besides it was those Order erk-jays who obliterated our base in the Edge, and the Goethe! So much for protected peaceful expansion....." Waalbeck nodded.

Meanwhile the fleet was quietly floating outside the mystery base, encirling it. They had encoutered some problems with lighting but technicians installed a block after some erk-jay intruded into a MilNet code. The bridge had been installed with a type of infa-red visors that allowed a partial view of the base, if not a very shimmery one. Admiral Kassal checked that it was completely encirlced just out of the bases defences and place a naval blockade and quarantine on it. "Nothing comes in or out, do you hear me?" he yelled at the sector commanders. "If they want to pretend nobody's home then we can bombard them with jamming signals and all sorts of tricks." "Are we really sure we want to do that sir? I mean what if they're helping the Sirius?" Major Kaufman nervously said. Admiral Kassal looked down at him. "If they want to be so arrogant as to lock up a distinguished Officer and a ignore a fleet of what happens to be the most powerful navy in the Sirius then they will have to learn won't they Major?"

The Höllentier lowered her massive planetary bombardment cannons to the base's vital points. A senior Technician reported up to the Bridge. "Firewall up and running sir! Total neural lock-down from foreign sorces!" Kassal smiled. "Let them know we are here Wilhem, play around with them for awhile." Major Kaufmann started. "But Sir! They might..they might..might execute Commander Waalbeck!" Kassel remained indifferant. Those two have received our message. Waalbeck and his cohort are completely aware of this. The commander in charge of fighter and interceptor command appeared on screen. Kassel spoke to him. "Nothing is to leave these premises! I don't care if it's a startracker or a Battleship! Destroy it immediatly!" he paused and turned to a communications officer. "Did you send that base the warning on the Blockade? The officer nodded. Kassel continued. "Right they know the rules....And watch out for deceptions and ambushes! They may have alien craft but they will wilt under supreme numbers! That is if they continue their arrogance and try to escape. We are only too happy to let them continue as long as we have our personnel on-board to monitor everything a let us know. Are the boarding parties ready Piotr?"
A scarfaced eye patched man nodded emphatically through a staticky vid-comm. "Three parties of technicians and some Military police" Kassel nodded in approvement. "Any Schwartz Kommando?" he asked off-hand. Piotr replied straight away. "Nein sir! On your direct orders all Schwartz Kommando have been detained and are not allowed out of their quarters on the Höllentier." Kassel nodded again. "Don't want to scare our little secretive freedom fighters. And remember, no violent actions! Nothing that will get you killed or bring our tainted nation in to further disrupute... We want to help these people in any way we can" Piotr nodded and the vid-comm went black. Kaufman asked quietly "Is there not any other way we can tell them we want to help?" Kassel sighed "As Commander Waalbeck will know we have tried to give them the hint but their arrogance says that they can ignore the assistance of a fleet. Besides I am being ordered to provide personal to monitor their activites by these paranoid merchant guilds, the Chancellor and every other paranoid, confused blubbering civilian in this system. Normally I don't take orders from soft civilians but on this occasion I happen to agree with them. I just hope Waalbeck has prepared himself."



Hasta la victoria siemprè! (Ever onward to victory) - Ernesto Che Guevara



If you tremble indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine. - Ernesto Che Guevara

Location: 'Citadel' Station, Tau-37.
"we are surrounded" Prometheus stated.
Arania sat at his computer console, trying desperatley to ovveride the Rheinland firewall.
Two counters were displayed in the corner of the screen:
Dom'Kavash attack: 0:07:10
Coalition Fleet arrival: 0:06:24
"I know that prometheus" Arania said "Have the Nanites finished the DK sheilding gens?"
"Yes" Prometheus replied "But we have a bigger problem."
The main window shifted to chow a camera view of the outside, and the multiple Rheinland boarding ships approaching the station.
"Arm axial EMP cannons" Arania commanded.
The view shifted yet again to show a targeting window.
"Prometheus, take over" Arania said, rising from his seat "Make sure they dont get in"
He left towards bay one.
Checking his watch he noted the time until the coalition arrived:
4:12, 4:11, 4:10.
He would have to hold off the Rheinlanders until then.
Hopping into his Dom'Kavash starfighter, he saw the brilliant spray of EMP and Prometheus disabled the boarding parties with pinpoint accuracy, one by one.
4 Minutes
Launching out of the bay, he went over the last message he had heard over the MilNet hack before the Rheinlanders firewalled him:
"If they want to be so arrogant as to lock up a distinguished Officer and a ignore a fleet of what happens to be the most powerful navy in the Sirius then they will have to learn won't they Major?".
Arania deftly piloted the Phoenix to the barrier of the Dom'Kavash shield he had took the liberty of installing on the base, as if daring them to attack.
One of the gunners seemed to have lost his nerve, and loosed a single tachyon burst at the station.
Arania didnt evern flinch. The particle hit the shield in a dazzling display of blue and green, a white circle spreading outwards around the sheild.
3 Minutes.
In one single, suicidal as it may have been, movement, he hit the trhusters and blasted towards the bridge of the apparent 'command' ship.
Almost immediatley he came under fire, millions upon millions of green streams of light hit his ship, and hit it bloody hard.
He barely made it to the first ship before his sheilds began to fail.
Slipping into the crevice that marked the bridge of the Rheinland ship, he allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief.
2 Minutes.
He aimed the guns of his ship striaght at the window, ignoring the surprised looks on the Höllentier's command crew.
"There is no good, there is no evil" Arania said over the comm channel "There is only hate"
"You couldn't possibly know" he said, his voice breaking "I never, never, felt what love was. I dont know what it feels like. No-one ever loved me"
A tear fell from his eye.
"Space, its a funny thing, so cold, so empty" He said, half crying "Yet we all need to see it for ourselves"
"I will not sit back" He said, a slight tone of anger in his voice "I will not allow ourselves to be torn apart by the whims of an alien species"
1 Minute
"As it is" He half-yelled "I dont see why i should save us"
"It is inevitable that we will eventually turn against each other once again"
30 Seconds
"If this is the overwhelming desire of the human race. Then perhaps the Dom'Kavash were right, maybe we dont deserve Sirius"
20 Seconds
"I was betrayed, that is why i left Sol." Arania sobbed "This was a suicide mission. I hoped that i would die then. To put out the pain in my heart, to ease the torture"
10 Seconds
Arania piloted the ship out of the crevice. Into a clear firing line for the Rheinlanders.
"Hate, that is the only thing you know now, that is the only thing the Dom'Kavash left you with, one emotion. and if all you can feel now is hate, then my efforts have failed"
He powered down his shields, just as the Coalition fleet in its entirety jumped in, more than the entire military force of Sirius put together.
"only united can we fight this common enemy, united we stand, didided we fall. See through the mask the Dom'Kavash has placed over your eyes, see the truth, please..."
In the distance, the speck of light that was the New York system grew brighter, much brighter, before vanishing.
"New York has been destroyed" The Coalition Fleet admiral said over the comm.

"ACH DU LIEBER, MEIN GOTT! IT'S THE COALITION!!!!!" screamed Harmel from the bridge of the Armored Transport. Waalbeck's eyes threatened to pop from their sockets as he saw the huge Coalition capital ships, plastered with red stars and cyrillic writings. It was over every vid-comm in the Sirius. Heavy browed russians dominated the voice channels yelling orders in that crazy language of theirs. Waalbeck gazed in amazement as well as every other soul in the Sirius as they spoke a language other than English. A language noone alive had heard. He gasped in wonder at the other races of the Coalition. This was genuinly amazing.

Admiral Kassel crept gasping and weezing for breath in an escape pod he had launched. There was an evil voice in his mind! He genuinly thought he had gone crazy so he broke open the escape pod seal and cast himself out into the vaccum. His body froze and bloated so that it was unrecognizable. Then it was torn asunder by a green skinned humanoid. The dom'kavash had long mastered telepathy but they had since learnt to transport at least their mental beings into others even millions of light years away. But this took much concentration and 60% of the time the dom'kavash trying to transport himself tore his physical structure apart in the process. So it was not used often. But this time, for better or worse Kossus had succeceded. He had actually expected to die, like the others. In fact it had only been successfully done three times before, ever. Kossus knew his goal. To prevent the interfering humans from locating their homeworld. He floated freely in the vacum without harm but the dom'kavash preferred to fly in ships as it was faster.

He looked for a ship and found a suitable one floating in the vicinity. The Rheinland pilot almost died of shock when the green humanoid switched his atoms to line up with those of the ship's window and floated through it. Though he did die when the dom'kavash's claws slid out and tore open his throat. Mastering this primitive ship was easy. And so was avoiding the weak defences of the offending base. He rammed the ship into a dock but it quickly broke apart. The human materials were strong but he soon had it open enough.

He passed the body of Hera which was now being sucked into the void. "Hera, I thought you said you were the best? Hahahahaha." He detected two human lifeforms in the next dock. Not hosts to anyone. There was a strange prescence on this ship. Not human...not physical or organic...Artificial. He lifted his spindly, yet impossibly strong hands towards the walls. Electrical discharges sprung out like leaky plumbing and they cracked furiously. So...the humans have created a sort of Artificial controller. Okay he thought slowly, let's have a little fun. Then a familiar sour sense crept into his mind. The sense of filth and old. But this wasn't a normal human sense. It was differant somehow. He looked through the layers of steel, wires and metal to see a strangly differant human race approach on the abandoned human system of New York. He absent-mindedly scrambled the electronic impulses controlling things on the base, interrupting the computer and causing it to go into partial shut-down. His mind was on other things. It appeared all the docks had been fully opened as many things in and around the base were getting sucked into the void.

Kossus flocked around the system investigating things and was surprised to see Prometheus. 'Well...If it isn't our little traitor? This shall be fun to watch' he telepathed to Prometheus. It appeared his mind was full of hate and yet sadness...Ah a fight between the controller and the independant. This should be interesting to watch he reflected.

Harmel looked at Waalbeck nervously as the Armored Transport was picked up backwards and started to float down through the docks. Waalbeck looked up. "Hmm...they must of decided to let us go." He grabbed the controls and expertly turned it around and flew out before "they" changed their minds.

They flew out to total chaos. Which is pretty much what had been happening in the Sirius for the past few days. The New York system had been destroyed, the Coalition had returned. Admiral Kassel had apparently "abandoned his post" and there was a crazy alien fighter with what seemed to be a terrible case of schitzophrenia attacking the Höllentier head on. Harmel couldn't handle it all and tranquilized himself. Waalbeck didn't stop him. They had gone from a pretty good set up colony life to this which was like tipping normal life upside down, adding pizza, ice-cream and brussel sprouts, putting it in a cocktail mixer, sending it through a jumphole and skulling what came through on the other side.
But like his drill sargeant at the Wulfsburg military camp had said. "Life's a b****, you just gotta ride her out and take it as it comes."
He landed on the Cruiser Totemkopf and was bombarded with reports and clarification requests as he carried Harmel to the med-bay. Just ride her out he told himself, Just ride her out

Hasta la victoria siemprè! (Ever onward to victory) - Ernesto Che Guevara



If you tremble indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine. - Ernesto Che Guevara