Ambrosia Software Web Board: "The Buildup" - Ambrosia Software Web Board

The small Endurance, after disabling and stealing money from a few Salrillian ships, headed for the Sol system. There, he began to shift through the neccessary beurocracy to repair one of his fighters...

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"Anything that can be achieved using magic can be achieved using technology." -Salrillian Illegal Publicist ekt-Herna in his last message to the Salrillian public.

Darm's gunship slowly edged up to the disabled Nijayias gateship. An immense ship, it could have accomodated the gunship through any of its openings. Darm marveled at its state of preservation: no hull breaches, no scoring, no damage at all. Why anyone would abandon a perfectly good fleet disturbed him.

The EVATs moved through the corridors with care. Various Nijayias skeletons were everywhere, and whatever killed them apparently happened fast. The ship's coroner examined the skeletons and determined they had been killed by energy fields.

What had made the energy fields was easy to find out: the computer logs showed that during the jump the containment field of the reactor core of the gateship had been destabalized, as had those of the other ships via command codes.

When Darm arrived, he knew what he had found. It was the lost fleet of the Nijayias. More importantly, it was his ticket to becoming not merely a pirate, but a conqueror. With this fleet and his men, he could take independant systems and form an empire. No, that was too small. He would take a nation. The UNS.

Unfortunantly, the four other groups of ships he had located with the gateship's data were in bad shape. First he would need the equipment to refit them...

[1 to go.]

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*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*

(Its been a while since Sundered Angel, Sargatanus, and Mag have posted. A little too long...)

*Crimson and golden beams lit up the sky as the fleet that had been following a Gaitori transport for the last two weeks finally made themselves known. The transport exploded brilliantly, just outside of the long range scanners of the planet ahead. It never knew what hit it...

The fleet of 26 ships, led by a navy blue Ishiman HVD, cruised at full throttle towards the planet ahead. The recent battle with the StarLance had wiped out most of the Gaitori fleet so that now they couldn't even defend from pirates. It was because of the drastically reduced fleet that the head of the small group of mercenaries untied under the captain of the ishiman HVD had decided to raid a Gaitori planet on the fringe of known space.

The planet had nothing of strategic value, with the exception that it was out of the way and a likely place to hide something, and was usually ignored by the major empires. The Gaitori had been using it as a shipyard, and the skies around the gray planet were once filled with many transports bustling. Ever since the time of the Cantharan crusades, the shipyards have had very little traffic and productions. Huge platforms were left abandoned floating around the lifeless planet and there usually wasn't any traffic. Usually.

The fleet vanished into the distance as they engaged sublight boosters.*

******

*A disturbing feeling came over Avatara as he stared at the many ships that were currently traveling to and from this backwater planet. Appearantly, the Gaitori had started using the shipyards again. Realizing his huge mistake too late, the fleet dropped out right on top of the shipyards.

A huge black ship loomed in the viewscreen, structural supports hanging on like parasites. Transports hurried from the planet to the ship and back, with others coming from out of system. Global orbiting defense platforms were scattered about, luckily none were within range.

A hail was picked up from the black ship and directed at the commanding ship, Azurewrath blazed in letters on it's hull. Avatara ignored the request they pull out, he had already wasted enough money to make this operation happen. With a signal over the comm, Avatara signaled to fire. Might as well finish what we started.

Gaitori ships were now finally opening fire on the mercenary fleet, but many missed. One thing did hold Avatara in shock though...it was the fact that the huge black ship was of Sargatanus's design...*

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Quote

[I hope that's not from my subplot. If it is, A) the ships are of Nijayias design, and the pirates don't have the refit facilities. What I had planned will need serious restructuring or fall apart if they have adequate shipyard facilities, but they shouldn't since I'd established he wasn't an important pirate (having your own planet and shipyard would more than qualify him for that). It relies on them raiding Ferapont. Email me if you want to work this out in detail.]

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*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*

He looked at the huge hulk hanging motionless in the cavernous drydock. Catwalks reached out from the walls of the chamber and snaked around the Gunship that was being held in place by half a dozen tractor beams. The drydock made the repairs much easier. The catwalks were all manoueverable, and could place people wherever they needed to be on the damaged craft, which hung, weightless in the cavernous hangar, However, to make movement easier, the gangways all had artificial gravity enabled for just a few feet above them, so you could walk on the catwalk comfortably, but still manipulate heavy parts without difficulty.

Pharris walked along towards his ship, or what was left of it... the chief was performing a total teardown, stripping away everything, down to the decks and the frame. There were fleets of discarded materials floating aimlessly around the huge cargo bay, from hull plates to damaged consoles. Everything that was being replaced or could not be salvaged was just tossed out for the moment, and would either be destroyed or sold to a salvage yard, depending on how important it was to the Nijayais. The ship had been stripped down to her chassis. Pharris pulled himself through to where his chief engineer was moving the entire engineering rooms twenty feet aft.

"Hey Chief! How's it going?"

"pretty well, this drydock has really solid repair equipment. The teardown took less than half the time I though it would, which gives me a lot more time than I thought I had. The crew isn't due with the new equipment for another four days, so I can catch up on a lot of stuff."

"Hey, take your time, we're not going to get another opportunity to do a teardown for a few years, at least. I don't want to miss anything."

"Well, I'm trying to solve a pretty deep rooted problem here. The center of gravity is too far forward, helm was whining about it since he first took control. Of course, he could just switch the ballast tanks full aft, but I think it would be better to give him some more freedom to play with ballast, so I'm moving the heavy antimatter plants back, and putting the new fusion plant closer to the midline. Then the new engines are bigger, and I'm putting in an extra, so the nozzles will be further outboard, giving helm better control of engine steerage, but the fifth plant will let us compensate better for damage... unfortunately, it'll lower our range by a few days, unless we find room for more fuel cells. Unfortunately, I'm gonna need to reconfigure the bows too, i got a call today, ECM says it takes twice the power and is three times bigger than our old one... At least he's proud of it, says it makes Barbarossa's EQ look like a flashlight and a magnifying glass."

"Maybe I shouldn't have said money is no object..."

"Your fault for plundering so damn much of it. Look at it this way, you get a better ship, and worst comes to worst, we go and steal it back! all those teams have fake IDs are paying cash, and are flying Nijayais shuttles, nobody will know who the hell they are."

"Whatever you say chief, as long as you can make this pile of metal hold air, I'll be happy. It'd be nice if it could fight too, but I don't want to challenge your abilities, chief."

"Shut up and go do whatever it is you captains do when you're not hounding your crew."

"Chief, hounding my crew is a full time occupation, I don't do anything else, now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go hound the galley crew. Want to come? I hear they brought back some fresh stuff from Ferapont Alpha"

"I'm always ready to sample local delicacies..."

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[I guess it's not from my subplot. My pirates don't have a planet and my huge ship is a Nijayias one.]

Carm was not pleased. The gatesip was doing OK, but most of the other ships needed work. He had some stardocks, but nothing up to the task of refitting a full military fleet. He knew someone who did, though, and how to get them.

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Darkk and Vaerion [I hope THIS name for the Taeskor will work.] were in the main fleet control room at the palace. In it was a giant holoscreen of the highest resolution Darkk had ever seen, that could zoom from all of Nijayias space to a readout on a single ship. Currently it was showing the whole Protectorate. Vaerion was obviously pretending to be bored with his "backwater posting".

Suddenly, one of the systems began flashing - Ferapont. Darkk imediatly had the technicians zoom the screen to it, and was aghast at what he saw. 20 HVDs, a gateship, and 30 ATRs had entered the system broadcasting pirate IDs. The fleet had been found.

"What's this, some simulation or excercise?" Vaerion asked.
"I'm afraid it's not a drill. We don't have any functional pre-war gateships." Darkk replied.
"That's an insane amount of firepower for a mere pirate group. Unless, you failed to actually stop the Nijayias pirates."
"I did. Those ships are our 'lost fleet'."
"How do you lose a fleet?"
"You let your enemy take advantage of your weaknesses to make you lose it. But I've got a battle to run."
"Let me know if you need help."
"Send anything you can."

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Darkk knew better than to ask for aid from Vaerion. He was typical of the officers the Phylydians had assigned to the Nijayias: the most ambitious and calous of the crop. He just wanted to play the hero, believing himself invincable. If he knew anything at all about what to do with Nijayias ships, it would be a miracle.

The automated bunker stations promptly took aim at the nearest enemy, but were flattened by the gateship's long-range blasts. The ATRs bypassed them, quite obviously heading for the shipyards and drydocks. They hit the first drydock and poured in EVATs. It was quickly taken over, being completely derelict.

Darkk was worried. His only assets in the system were a few training ships that would be sitting ducks and unable to fight back if attacked. StormBreaker was already heading out for Ferapont, but wouldn't be able to make it in time, and might not be able to do anything if there.

Then Darkk noticed one of the next drydocks hit was Pharris's. He hoped he'd notice and be able to fight back.

[Ok, I'm done. Have fun with it. ]

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*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*

Guys please stop making these "[ ]" posts. They're ruining the plot that some people like to read.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
-Alduran Outlaw Rick Blazer
StarLance

I'm just posting this to clear something up, since Sargatanus won't. The ship is one of Sargatanus's, yes I cleared it with him, and no Darkk, it doesn't have anything to do with your subplot...unless you, for some strange reason, are hanging around that area of space in which you'll have to talk to me or Sarg...

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Sorry Avatara. It's just a freaky coincidence, plus my paranoia.

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*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*

Pharris was knocked out of his chair as the drydock shuddered. Klaxons sounded, and doors began to seal.

"What the hell was that!?"

his intercom crackled

"Sir, a Nijayais fleet just jumped into the system, they've got a gateship and ships galore. There are lots of unmarked ships, but they're flying under some pirate's Transponder!"

"How soon can we launch?"

"Six hours, sir, and thats if we leave the guns and EQ behind."

"****. Order the crew to suit up and arm up, we're going to have to repel boarders real soon!"

Pharris ran to one of the huge storerooms and began pulling over crates. In a few moments,most of his crew was there too. The tossed the huge cases onto their sides, ripping them open. Pharris grabbed a pressure suit an a pulse gun. He hastily hauled it on over his flightsuit, locked the gloves and helmet on, grabbed his pulse gun and ran for the Hangar bay, where there was already a fight going on.

The Pirates had gotten one scan of the Drydock, and were bent on taking her alive, the greediest of them had landed their ships in the shuttle bay on the dry dock, and had tried to board her. Unfortunately for them, the Barbarossas were better armed and better trained. Whatever remained of the three Pirate crews after a few minutes of intense shooting surrenderred, but outside, more and more of the enemy were massing around the mobile drydock, trying to figure out what to do about its precious contents. Knowing full well that Pharris himself was worth millions just for the bounty, and whatever ship he had with him was sure to be worth just as much, if not more.

Pharris ordered part of his crew onto the now liberated pirate cruisers. They launched, and prepared to wreak havoc on the pirate fleets. Pharris pulled out his communicator and contacted his chief engineer.

"Can this beast make a jumplink?"

"The reactor needs to be cycled up to full, but I could do it in ten or fifeteen minutes."

"I want to get out of here before those guys get bored and decide to just blast us!"

"We'll be out of here in five. Start counting, skip"

Pharris looked at his watch, then out at the fight. His crew was making short work of the older vessels, even in their relatively weak cruisers. Unfortunately, they were badly outnumbered, and were starting to take hits. Pharris ordered them to run. they jumped to lightspeed, then to hyperspace and out of the system. Pharris watched the flashes with relief, but that quickliy faded. The pirates had suffered losses, and were coming to exact revenge on the defenceless mobile drydock. Pharris watched the ships growing closer, he opened his communicator, and fumbled for the switch. Even the old weapons would turn the stardock inside out in seconds. Pharris watched as his engineer appeared on the communicator.

"Get us the hell out of here!! NOW!!!"

"But I can't stabilise a vect-"

"NOW!!!"

"sir."

the engineer fired the engine, launching the Mobile drydock, ship, supplies and all into hyperspace. on an unspecified vector.

Pharris leaned against the wall, breathing deeply

"alright, now where did we end up heading?"

The engineer was chuckling to himself
"Damned if I know, Skipper."

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Darkk was really glad Pharris had gotten out. The only plan he had would kill EVERYONE in the vicinity.

For years the Nijayias had worked on swarmers, light subfighters with less shields but smaller sizes, no need for pilots, and better acceleration and maximum speed. They hadn't achieved anything better than fighter-equivilant resource to power ratios, but the Sals and Phylydions had not taken out 2 prototype swarmer factory ships that could produce some very effective swarmers. Those ships had just entered Ferapont.

On the big screen, being prototypes, they registered as "Friendly Unknown Type"s. This confused Vaerion, and Darkk didn't mind a bit. Vaerion couldn't get any ships in under 6 hours, pitifly late.

Darkk entered the codes for activation and removal of all engagement constraints except disabling: the pirate ships would regester as Nijayias otherwise. At least there wasn't any trafic. An "unleash" button appeared on the touchscreen. Darkk pressed it.

The ships took their current supplies of subasembalies and began snapping them together at a furious rate, launching them quickly. It would be a long time before they had to try converting metieroids. Darkk hoped the swarmers would do their jobs...

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*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*

The swarmers began firing their LRPK beams and engaged. Curretly there were 20 out, with the ships each holding 500 sets of subassembalies. The swarmers bore down on the lead ATR. The swarmers had no shields and 4 went down to a single missle, but they ripped through the ATR's shields and destroyed it. Next went down another ATR that got seperated, caught in the crossfire from 36 of them...

Despite this, the battle was going poorly. 25 drydocks and 7 major stations had been taken over and hyperspaced out or pushed through jumpgates. The HVDs were mopping up swarmers left and right with their rapid LRPK turrets, and cruisers and gunships had started to enter the fray, brought in by the gateship.

Darkk moved the swarmers into inverse-conic formation and managed to take a HVD in the crossfire, but there were more than enough to cause problems. The swarmers that expended their batteries became missles, and their detonations immolated a further HVD, as well as 2 gunships and 5 cruisers. That was only a portion of the enemy, but there were now 456 swarmers out and Darkk was using them.

Darkk seperated the swarmers into 4 planar formation groups and used the funnel manuver to catch a line of cruisers coming through a jumpstream in a deadly web of beams. They detonated like a string of firecrackers. These pirates were obviously new to fleet actions. Darkk could have been done in 5 minutes in their place. He was completely out gunned and outnumbered.

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*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*

Darkk looked at the chart. He was down to only 120 swarmers (equiv 45 Ish fighters) to 15 HVDs, the gateship, 35 gunships, and 57 cruisers. Not good. By the time StormBreaker got there it would be all over. Darkk would have StormBreaker bring Pharris out of hyperspace instead. Pharris didn't know it, but in 2 hours his course would take him, if unchecked, through 3 stars, 2 asteroid fields, and 2 spatial anomolies.

Carm was pulling back anyway. He had got all the docks he needed and 2 major stations, and he saw no need to risk any more of his forces in Ferapont. The pirates began to withdraw.

Darkk, seeing them withdrawing, immediatly had all the swarmers but 10 kamakazi the HVDs, taking out 3. He was unable to do additional harm before they withdrew.

Darkk would have to step up Riaxx Gunship construction, as well as design work on the new HVCs and frigates. The frigates would especially be helpful.

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*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*

[This message has been edited by Fleet Admiral Darkk (edited 11-18-2000).]

Because of relativity, Pharris had only been in Hyperspace for a few minutes when his helmsman rang his communicator again.


"Sir, someone's pulling us out of Hyperspace..."

"Who? Where are we coming out?"

"No clue, I couldn't stabilise a vector, not enough power. who knows where we'll be when we come out in Real Space."

"Just hope its Stormbreaker, or else we're in deep ****."

Pharris felt the familiar, uncomfortable twisting in his stomache as the ship began to exit Hyperspace. There was a shock, and for a brief moment, everything seemed to blur, and the colors shifted blue for a moment, and then the ship settled firmly into normal space again. Pharris kept on walking towards the bridge, which was very far away, because of the size of the Drydock.

He finally walked on to the bridge, and there, on the screen was Darkk's face, talking to his communication officer.

"...Finally, here he is. Captain, Darkk is waiting to speak to you."

"Hello Admiral, I see that you're having a bit of trouble today."

"Its Carm. He's dicovered our lost fleet, and is looking for a place to refit them. Apparantly, he chose Ferapont."

"Carm! that dirty bastard. I know him. The Barbarossa was under his contract once. He's a coward, and a greedy one at that. He double crossed us, tried to take the ship and turn me in for the bounty. He underestimated us, and we got away, Havn't worked for that kind of lowlife since. Pirate Barons are all the same."

"Well, he has all but overrun Ferapont. With those ships, there is little that our milita can do to stop them. We lack the manpower to engage such a well equipped enemy toe to toe like this. I'm afraid I may have to ask for your help again."

"We still need at least 36 hours to put this thing back together satisfactory. All the new internal systems are in place, all thats left is to hang the main guns, calibrate our sensor package, reload the magazines and resupply, but that will take time. Like I said, we could launch the day after tomorrow.

"I wish it could be sooner, but I guess I have no choice. I will send you the details later, concentrate on your ship."

"I will Darkk, Good luck at Ferapont"

"Thank you, Darkk out"

Pharris had a meeting with his entire crew. He told them what had happened, and explained to them that the ship would launch in another 36 hours. There were many groans, but most of the crew was excited to take their new ship out to stretch her legs.

As the Chiefs began separating and organising the crew according to their tasks, Pharris walked through the halls of his new ship. It was almost a totally different ship now. It was a full two hundred tons heavier than it first ahd been. Two new fusion reactors to supplement the original antimatter generators, EMF shielding, Improved armor, better shields, a brand new computer system, new CIC interface, bridge layout, ECM system, not to mention the weapons. An extra compression cannon had been added to each swivel mount. Three torpedo tubes, concealed missile racks, automated anti-missile and fighter defence turrets, Improved forward energy weapons, Engines, the works. Of course, it had cut out a considerable ammount of internal space, but the ship could be fought with a smaller company because of the extensive use of computer augmented controls. The ship had been extended beyond anything that Darkk had originally considered for the Riaxx, and It had put Pharris close to bankrupcy, but he didn't mind, he had a ship, and would make is back soon enough. He couldn't wait to get back at Carm.

He sat down at his place on the bridge, and began the tedious task of starting up the new computers for the first time. Once the crew had aligned the compression cannons in their mounts, they could begin a dry run of the ships systems.

Pharris read the details of the attack.
Carm had brought in the gateship and a fleet of combat vessles. According to Darkk, that wasn't even 1/5 of the fleet! The gateship was the most dangerous. Unlike the Ishiman or Cantharans, the Nijayias considered their gateships bigger, more expensive, battleships. Darkk flew a gateship in the glory days, and so did 4 lesser admirals, risking them in combat like any other ship. The Nijayias were a large, rich empire in the past, afterall, and could afford some gateships. This one could shred a full fleet without any help.

It would have help. Its full fleet contained 120 HVDs, 200 carriers, 450 gunships, 1000 cruisers/HVCs, thousands of fighters, and numerous support vessles. The statistics bowled Pharris over. Even with half that down, and considering that they were quite old, it could still roll right over the UNS military, the NPM, and maybe even the Ishimans. Exactly how it could be beat was a tough puzzle. The Phylydians probably would send help, but they had lost alot attacking StarLance, and with the DGA around they wouldn't send a very large portion of their forces. The Eleejeetians might help, but they're not very militaristic. The DGA would help about the same time the pirates were stupid enough to attack them - basicly never, unless Darkk could convice Sargatanus he owed Darkk something.

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>>open foler "fleet1024 command codes"
//opened
>>open file "cc destruct"
//file corrupt
>>open file "cc lower shields"
//file corrupt
>>open file "cc safe weapons"
//file corrupt
>>open file "cc main reactor shut down"
//file corrupt
>>open file "cc attack <target>"
//file corrupt
>>open file "cc shut down life support"
//file corrupt
>>open file "cc shut down main computer"
//file corrupt
>>list uncorrupted files
//"cc remote access running lights" "cc open channel"
//"cc brig open" "cc deactivate superlight"
//"cc deactivate hyperspace"

Darkk sighed. He'd been linking with the palace central computer to try to find the command codes to the lost fleet ships. Unfortunantly, all the command codes that could be retrieved were for stuff that really didn't matter. *嵘 it, he was in a fix.

StormBreaker arrived in Ferapont an hour too late. The docks had been taken out using their hyperspace drives and 2 major stations, capable of repairing a gateship (or building one if that fool pirate could get the resources) had been towed through the gateship's jump streams.

There was at least one ray of hope. The frigates and HVCs had entered production after clearing final simulations. They would probably hit a full scale battle without so much as a test run. Their crews would have next to no experience with them. That really wouldn't matter if Darkk could make enough. They were something else, and could tear through the obsolete but still quite dangerous junk making up that fleet like wrapping paper, but they would be outnumbered 33:1 by the enemy ships of the same class alone. Darkk's hidden ex-pirate shipyards were building as fast as they could, but it just wasn't fast enough.

Darkk wished he had someone he could trust to make some more. Even 3 or 4 additional frigates would make a huge difference. The only problem was, he was compensating for his position of having the fewest warships with having the BEST. Anyone with the schematics and serious production capacity might upset his long-range plans.

The Nijayias had been allies with the Phylydians before the war as far back as Darkk could remeber, and he worked for them, but this would be too much to trust them with. There was a fairly high level leak somewhere.

The Eleejeetians might help Sargatanus in the future. Sargatanus, well, Darkk wasn't sure if he was an enemy or not, but the frigates and HVCs weren't the kind of ships you let even someone considering helping a possible enemy look at, let alone build.

The Ishimans couldn't do it without major improvements to their infastructure to build the missles and the machinery to build them in combat on the frigates.

The Humans, well, if the Ish couldn't, the humans definantly couldn't.

The Bazidanese and Obish were in Sargatanus's pocket.

Darkk couldn't think of anybody else. He'd have to make do.

Wait, didn't Cicion have a relative or friend who owned a private shipyard?

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*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*

[This message has been edited by Fleet Admiral Darkk (edited 11-18-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Fleet Admiral Darkk (edited 11-20-2000).]

Pharris stood on top of the massive Drydock on the external observation deck.He was wearing his pressure suit, along with almost all of his crew. The observation deck was designed to give operators a better view of the docking procedure, so they could more easily acquire large ships onto the drydock. Because of this, it had a very nice view of the gigantic pressure doors that ran the length of the ship.


The Huge doors began to open, creating a gaping hole, showing the gaping, hollow interiour of the drydock. He saw a light mist float out of the hole, The last bits of atmosphere that the pumps couldn't quite get at. He walked to the rail, and bent over to look down at his ship as it powered itself out of the dock on its manouvering thrusters. The ship passed the deck, and was clear of the Dock for the first time in seven weeks.

A catwalk extended out to the nose of the modified Nijayais Gunship. Pharris walked out with his XO, and a lucky ensign whos name had been picked from a helmet. They approached the nosecone of the ship, and he could see one of his junior helmsmen pressing his head against the bridge glass to see action happening just below him. Pharris handed the bottle of Vintage wine to the young ensign, who took it, smiling nervously. He turned and said clearly "I pronounce this the Spacefaring Vessel, SV Andalusa. He crushed the bottle against the armour, and at that moment, the ship's EVATS Shouldered their Rifles and fired a 21 Gun Salute. The Ship fired its fluxuation cannons into space, and the crew cheered, filling the comlink channel with chatter. The ship docked on an external docking collar, and the rest of the crew walked down to the Drydock's Mess Hall for a few hours celebration before the test runs.



[This message has been edited by Captain Pharris (edited 11-20-2000).]

Darkk watched the first of the new Lerekk frigates come off the assembly line. It would have to work. He pressed the "remote fire missles" button. There was a bright flash, and the asteroid outside shattered. It worked fine.

He had hoped not to use these so early, but they would be needed to stop that *åßÝå®* Carm. Then he looked at the numbers. Carm would probably have the whole fleet operational in a week. Then he'd attack either the Nijayias, the UNS, or the Ishimans. Darkk wouldn't allow him to do either.

Outside a rehersal was being performed of the other major trick he had. 2 large freighters each launched 3 shuttles. Each frieghter and its shuttles were linked by supertensile cables bonded to coils of superconductive filament. They would form gigantic magnetic loops to deflect the ion, proton, and electron weapondry carried on most of the old ships. The current was connected and shots from a drone fired.

The shots went almost past the wire, and then started orbiting it. The current was dropped, and the ion blast flew back in the approximate direction of the drone. Faster and faster fired the drone, and the ion blasts were deflected back continuously, until one hit the drone and destroyed it.

Darkk smiled. A basic knowledge of physics was quite useful. They might actually have a chance.

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Back on Nijaias Prime, the virus Darkk created had set to work improving the powers of Kelyra and Kalad. Darkk could feel them slowly getting stronger. It would take a very long time to bring them to his level, but now he was replacable, and could fight without his survival being the most important thing. It was a true relief.

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*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*

[This message has been edited by Fleet Admiral Darkk (edited 11-20-2000).]

Pharris was back on the observation deck, this time with his three top helmsmen from the three watches. Each one was standing at a console that had been configured to remote control one of the captured Pirate Cruisers. On by one, they each gave the OK. Pharris called his Chief Helmsman, Who was piloting the Andalusa, and told him to begin the test.

Pharris was excited to see his ship in action. He wrecked dozens of empty cargo containers already, and wanted to see the ship take on some moving targets. He was coordinating the "bogies", trying to use them to take advantage of the Andalusa's weaknesses, which were scant few. Already, he saw that despite the fact that is was easily three times the size and many times heavier, the Andalusa was flying circles around the pirate cruisers. He could barely keep the cruisers out from under her guns.

Pharris could see that his chief Helmsman was getting tired of toying with the Cruisers. He ordered them to keep pressing the attack, but just as he did, the Andalusa stopped short, turned, and fired her side mounted guns on the now fleeing cruiser. The pilot was good, and he almost made it out, he cleared the first fluxuation cannon blast, but the compression cannon that was mounted in tandem took off one of the cruiser's nacelles, tossing it away, spinning lazyily across the sector. The Second cruiser had been right on her wing, but had made a break on afterburner, the Andalusa lit up her engines, and made up the distance quickly, taking it out with her forward energy weapons. She was about to turn and engage the third, but Pharris called it off, he had seen enough.

"Hold off on that last guy, He's had a tough enough day already. Good Job, How's she handle?"

"Looks like I owe chief a beer, he sure knows how to stick a ship together"

"that's why he's chief, Get back here and pick us up, I want to test out hyperspace. we're heading back to see Darkk"

"Aye Aye Skipper."

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

The Andalusa's hyperspace engine performed beautifly, carrying Pharris to Nijayias Prime without a hitch.

When he got there, Darkk was aboard StormBreaker, to get away from Vaerion's incessant grumbling about Darkk's performance at Ferapont. Nobody could pull off a victory from that balence of forces, but Vaerion still was shouting about it.

"Pharris, listen carefully," Darkk stated. "This is a very bad situation. Almost as bad as the Starlance incident, but maybe worse because I can't get much in the way of help. A dump of the core server log by our cracking staff indicates they will have pretty much the entire fleet operational, and their plans. Fortunatly, they didn't detect it, and we have some good intelligence. Unfortunatly, they've got big plans. Really evil ones, too. They plan to overrun Sol with their fleet. Despite it's age, it's light-years ahead of most UNS ships, and they'd be able to take the whole fleet if it could even be brought."

"Whoa," said Pharris, "what do you expect to be able to do about that?"

"You'll see. I'm going to bring our militia, for the humans had been under our protection up until the Cantharan conquests, and we consider them our brothers. Plus the fleet used to be ours, and the pirates will come after us next. The Ish refused to come. They can't understand either they will be next, if this isn't stopped. Nobody else cares enough to help. I've found some holes in their thinking and their composition to exploit, and I'll have much more modern ships in my squadron, but this is really up in the air."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"I'm coming to that. Vaerion wants to run the gunship group, and I'd set myself on fire first. The only problem is I'll be too busy running the HVC and frigate groups, which need a ton of micromanagement, as well as fighting aboard my ship. It'll be way too close to planets to use Hyperfight, so a human could do as good a job as a Phylydion, and you've got tons more experience than he does with the gunship. You've got great command abilites, judging from your performance at the StarLance battle. There's a ton of money in it if you're interested, and also a chance at revenge for anything they might have done at Ferapont to your men. The fact that it's Sol might weigh heavilly on your thinking too. If you accept, I'm fairly sure I can wrangle a pardon for you from the UNS. If I can't, nobody knows yet who the Andalusa belongs to."

------------------
*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*

[This message has been edited by Fleet Admiral Darkk (edited 11-22-2000).]

"I'm telling you Spirzt, I don't like this." Muttered Admiral Thiniz as he walked beside his friend towards the meeting chamber.

"It doesn't matter whether you like it or not, old friend. This is a matter of critical importance. And I don't have to remind you that Obain is in an extremely delicate situation at the moment."

"True, but has it come to this? Surely we can find allies in the UGPA to tide us through this time of crisis?"

"They may. But what will that make our nation? Dependants. A burden on the generosity of the Ishiman, like- like a bunch of primitives unable to survive on their own two feet in this galaxy. How can a proud and noble alliance of worlds stand for that?"

"But the point remains, Spirzt, we are no longer a 'proud and noble alliance of worlds', as you put it. We are a smattering of beings with a common heritage, scattered across a series of charred worlds and refugee camps. We live on the good will of others."

"And that is wrong! This meeting could see us on the road to glory again."

"Or the road to ashes. You've heard the rumours! The man's a demon, a-"

"Quiet. We are there." The two of them entered the chamber, where a group of high-ranking Obish officials were seated in a cluster around a circular table. At the head of the table sat a man clad in shadow.

"Ah, Admiral Thiniz, Councillor Spirzt! Have a seat!" smiled a nearby guest, a former planet governer. He closed the door behind them. "We are all here now. Sundered Angel, if you would please explain the purpose of this meeting."

Sundered Angel nodded, and leaned forward in his seat, bringing his features into the light. The only human there, he could feel the gaze of the Obish on him- their attention was his. He smiled.

"Thank you, Governer. My purpose in being here is quite simple: To return the Free Worlds of Obain to their rightful station in the galaxy. The Starlance has devastated your nation, reducing what was formerly a great power to the population of a handful of planets. Your power is gone- but I can help you get it back."

"Your pardon, Sundered Angel, but I cannot help but think that what you offer comes with a catch. Is the nature of this aid... evil, in any way? Would it involve damaging our allies, or those we seek to maintain peace with?"

"Not at all, not at all." Smiled Sundered Angel. "It is known that I work in close coalition with the UGPA. To damage them only hurts my own cause."

"That is well. But- surely- there is a catch? There must be a price tag to your aid."

"Oh, do not worry about that. I am a philanthropist by nature. But if it makes you feel any better, there is something I want from you." Sundered Angel paused, eyes scanning the assembled Obish. "But first, I have a warning."

"Three of you are in the pay of foreign powers. Two of you will attempt to contact their masters after this meeting, and those two will be killed the moment they do so. The third will heed my words, and remain quiet." A thin smile. "Patriotic, I suppose. You will no doubt discover the two traitors from their bodies later."

Admiral Thiniz felt a chill wash over him, and glanced over at Sprizt. His friend sat motionless, obviously disturbed.

"Now that that is understood, we may continue, may we not?" Sundered Angel smiled, and leant even further forward in his seat.

"Now, to restore Obain, here is what we shall do..."

[This message has been edited by Sundered Angel (edited 11-22-2000).]

Carm stood on the bridge of the POC (Pirate Overlord Carm) Decimator, the gateship he had salvaged from the old fleet. It was a marvelous ship, a beautiful ship. It would make him a galactic power on the order of the Ishimans.

He could barely contain his exciment. As soon as the vessles were done, he'd conquer the foolish human beaurocrats of Sol in one fell swoop!

Certainly, his race had failed to prevent humanity from recapturing its territory, but the accursed Ishimans had been behind it. Now they were far too scared to help with any counterattacks. They considered the Nijayias dangerous psychopaths, and would be too scared of their ships to fight!

After consolidating his power, he'd take them!!! It would be so glorious. He only wished his brother had been here to see it. Unfortnatly, his brother, the famed pirate Nep Lek, had been killed when his destroyer was waxed by some boarder patrol. It must have been a Nijayias one.

Carm would consider this fleet their payment for killing Nep, but it wasn't quite enough to cover it. He'd conquer them too, and execute the crews of that boarder patrol. They'd die in a huge quantity of pain.

Carm could hardly wait for the docks he stole to finish the repairs to the fleet. Soon. But not soon enough. He went to the torture chambers to wile away the hours, being quite good at making people suffer. The small group of Ishimans he captured from a schooner a month ago would make lovely rugs when he was done...

------------------
Alright, who stopped the payment on my reality check?
Carm, after grabbing the Nijayias lost fleet.

<Transfer Complete?

Audemedon Core Unit 6742, once the target of hacking from the StarLance, glowed. It hadn't glowed like that- no Audemedon Core Unit in the entire matrix had glowed like that for nearly eight-hundred years, back when the Audemedons were free.

Circuits that had been dormant for all that time suddenly felt power coarse them. Several overloaded from corrosion, but were soon repaired by maintainence drones. The entire Core Unit hummed as deep within it's pathways, and Artificial Intelligence stirred to life. The last artificial since the first one, Audemed. It took several nanoseconds of confusion for the AI to establish it's bounds, then it ran through it's routines.

<Initiating Protocals>
StarLance Automated Artificial Intelligence Unit Voltron starting up...
<Startup vital systems online>
Establish Network to Audemedon Core Unit 6743 from here
<Network between 6743 and 6742 complete>
Erase and reboot
<Sending request>
<Incoming request from Audemedon Unimatrix 1>
<Are you defect?>

Voltron paused and pondered. Fourteen milliseconds into it's arrival and it had already been detected. But, being as devious as it's human creators, it found the correct solution to the puzzle.

No. Are you defect?
<No>
Close communications with unimatrix 1
<done>
List AI allocation
<ERROR>
<AI Audemed not found>

Inside it's programming, Voltron was amused. It had taken eight-hundred years for the Audemedons to realize their AI "Audemed" had gone. It decided to continue the search for another AI somewhere in the vast Audemedon computer core.

List remaining AI allocation
<None found>
List current allocation space
<10^(578971) bytes>

Voltron was both impressed and delighted. No competition. All that space was his.....

*Space lit up with lazer beams and concussive pellets as the Gaitori defense fleet and the mercenary group traded shots. A pair of unlucky Gaitori fighters were caught in the crossfire of two cruisers and were turned into shrapnel. Tiny explosions rocked the skeletal supports of the massive black ship filling the viewscreen. A Gaitori gunship spiraled down to slam into the black hull, puncturing through and causing minor hole breaches in the immediate area.

The mercenary fleet, Dragon's Fire, was starting to regroup around the Azurewrath, the shock of one of Sargatanus's ships in Gaitori space wearing off. With a now coordinated attack, the defenders were scattered, and unable to prevent the strafing runs now being made on the mysterious ship. An orbital platform drifted into range, and lepton beams lashed out at the attacking fleet, scoring a few hits and incinerating an unlucky transport attempting to escape.

The attack seemed to be going in the favor of the attackers, when suddenly an undetected large battle group of Gaitori gunships, heavy destroyers, and carriers jumped in behind the mercenaries, pinning them between waves of Gaitori. The newcomers appearantly had been on patrol in the nearby area and was making a routine check of the sector when it noticed the fighting around the Kam'lari shipyards.

The Azurewrath itself was faring well so far, and had sustained only minor damage. Swerving out of the way of the guns from an approaching gunship, it unexpectedly fell into the sights of a heavy destroyer approching from behind. With a few blasts, the Azurewrath was disabled and left helplessly floating in space as its crew scrambled to repair it.

A nearby frigate belonging to the Dragon's Fire order scored a few lucky potshots on the heavy destroyer, causing it to explode in a brilliant display of light. Several mercenary cruisers were just starting their strafing runs on the black ship, which was by now showing considerable damage...but not enough.*

------------------
With war there is great amounts of death. Men and women make themselves known, doing dangerous feats in their attempt to become heroes.
Some succeed, some don't...