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

Nine hooded Salrilian figures slid from their corners into a ring in the center of the darkly-lit cathedral-like room. They wore black cloaks, allowing only their slightly glowing eyes to peek through.

"The Prophicies have come true."
"Indeed. After all the milleniae, the Dark have risen again."
"They shall destroy us all."
"Elejee claims to have destroyed the Dark."
"The fools."
"Nothing can contain the Dark once it has risen."
"They may have risen, yet they have not fully fulfilled the prophecy."
"They have not yet resurrected the great leader."
"They should not be allowed to."
"How? Many great leaders have fallen over the past milleniae."
"But we have terminated them. They may not be resurrected."
"Save one."
"He did not die as one would imagine."
"Indeed. We need to take action."
"We should close the rift in the Hatares Sector."

They spoke as one voice, their descision reached.
"Agreed."

Drion Nerec had been up for nearly two days doing both an expository on the Order of The Golden Dawn and "protocol" for the upcoming Arliacian intervention. Not that he would have been able to sleep anyway; that attempted assassination shook him to the bone. In all his years he had many attempted assassinations on him and had been able to shake them off in a matter of minutes but this recent one had done spmething to him. For the first time since he was a child he had been genuinely terrified. Why? He was the Phylydion Military Octicate - he isn't supposed to feel anything like that.

Too much distraction. His ind needed a break. He rubbed the soreness from his eyes and leaned back into one of the most relaxing moments he felt all week; he had been leaning over his work for countles hours and a break was well deserved.

BUZZ!!!

Appearently the break would be short-lived.

"What is it?" Nerec groaned.

A humbled voice came over the speaker: "Forgive my interruption, your reverence, but General Nistás requests your presence at the Plaza immediately."

Nerec hated Nistás with a passion. He saw him as a young brown-nosing upstart with no drive but his lust for power. He had tried more than once to secure the position of Military Octicate, but was still fecesiously polite and obediant toward Nerec.

"Nistás can go **** himself" is what Nerec would normally have replied, but since Nistás was heading up investigation on the Golden Dawn it was probably important. "Inform him that I will be there shortly" he barked.

"Yes, sir."

Nerec used all the strength he could muster to drag himself out of the chair and crept toward the sink. The mirror said everything. Drion Nerec has one of those faces that never seems to age. Equally, his personality has always had a seemingly eternal youth. But he was aging nonetheless. Andthe mirror showed this. The plethora of strees and insomnia were making his face show his true age. And furthermore, he felt old. His hair had greyed many decades ago, but was now begining to turn white. Outwardly, and to Phylydion culture, this was a sign of honour and dignity, which indeed Nerec had earned. But to himself it was another step on his ever shortening road to obselescence.

Once again he was letting his thoughts get to him. He washed up and prepared to meet with Nistás.

----------

Sargatanus had been in the same position in the same large dark room for nearly a day. Any normal homonid would have been in utter agony if they stayed in the pseudo-yogic pose for any more than a few minutes. But between the initial Salrilian augmentation and several "revisions" the Verasi artifact had made to his design. Sargatanus had been altered to the point where he was human (and organic) only in appearence. This pose was his latest demonstration to himself. It was different, it was better, and it was beyond the capacity of a normal human. It proved his advancement from the "primative" form and his superiority over it. He relished in every moment of it. Yet he would be sick and indifferent to it by tommarow; it wouldn't be new then. He would be less than perfect to attempt to humor himself with it a second time.

All the time he had been processing the information on the Golden Dawn via his direct link with the Oracular Net. All the circumstances and evidence seemed to paint a clear picture that it was a disguise for Phylydion covert action. He also had a plan in motion, and it would make the Imperium pay dearly.

The doors opened and flooded the room with light and a slender Cantharan figure seemed to hover into the room. Sargatanus returned to a standing position and descended the stair to greet it.

"Your eminance, we are ready to proceed to the second phase." Cal Sev said with his ideosyncratic slight bow.

Sargatanus simply grinned. "I trust it is time for my communication then?" He said rhetorically.

Cal Sev nodded. "We suspect that they are just now begining to realize the peril they are about to put themselves in. Now would be the most opportune time."

"Very well. Oh, and arrange a 'proposition' for the Elejeetians in the near future."

----------

PRIORITY ONE COMMUNIQUÉ
From: Sargatanus, Salrilian Haruspex, Divine Galactic Axis Premier
To: Phylydion High Octicate

You clearly have not thought out your actions. You are jeopardizing not only your fleets being sent to Arliac, but the very peace and stability of the galaxy itself. We have reason to believe that the Order of the Golden Dawn is little more than a well hidden group of terrorists and have no means of obtaining the artifact on Verasi. But I doubt this will sway you. So I propose this: Instead of a conflict with potentially galaxy-wide reprecussions, we discuss the matter with the Arliacian Nation in person. You will find diplomacy a much more suitable recourse than military intervention.

------------------
Throughout their history these "unenlightened" beings have continually opposed and fought abuses of power wrought by their own bretheren. We, as the prophets would do well to learn from these Humans.
-Final statement of the Salrilian reformist Sirthis shortly before his execution.

REPLY: To Haruspex Sargatanus of the DGA
From Drion Nerec, Military Octicate and honored member of the High Octicon

We will of course grant your request. Much thinking and arguing will undoubtedly be necessary before this issue is resolved. Simply name a date and we will arrange a meeting.


Traek Cicion stood before an assembled group of fifty Pure Taeskors. They were all in perfect formation, faces up, eyes locked, completely still and silent, not one swish of a blue cape. The group was standing in a small room deep under Dominus soil. Cicion spoke clearly to them. "Two months ago, Octicate Nerec ordered me to assemble a group of Pure Taeskors who met the following specefications: Top eyesight, top hearing, top strength, top agility, top intelligence, top courage, and most important of all, those who have shown some skill in Impact Kinetics. I am going to train you in this ancient art, and those of you who show the most skill after I do will join a new corps- the Pure Taeskor Rangers. We will be the new elite arm of the High Octicon, and we will be the first strike on any new enemy discovered that we would rather not fight conventionally. We will combat the new threat of these odd 'Shadow Creatures' and may be assigned to infiltrate the DGA. Perhaps twenty-five or thirty of you will make it. If you do, you will earn a red cape and even more respect than you possessed previously. Good luck to all of you."

------------------
-Traek Cicion of the Taeskor
"Never tell me the odds!"
-Han Solo
"Then we'll do it real quiet-like."

Alice entered the Lifarla and immediatly noticed something was wrong. The first concious clue was that every last person aboard had a lepton rifle strapped to their back. That they acted like it wasn't unusual for naval personel to cary heavy rifles around was the second clue. There didn't seem to be any reason. That was the third clue.

"Where will my team have their quarters?" she asked the captain, Kharadd.
"In the left-area officer's block. We have spare quarters for passengers there." he replied.
"All right. Where's the equipment?"
"Cargo hold 2."

In cargo hold 2 was a shock. All the most modern equipment an archeology team could ask for was there. That wasn't a shock in and of itself, for the military had a much bigger budget than a university. The big shock was the large, lead-lined empty crates and the radiation suits. It appeared this was a "superweapon retreval" mission.

But that in and of itself was contradictory. No known rumors (and she had heard them all) indicated any good weapondry was developed or used by the 1st Nijayias Empire. In fact, they had a remarkably small and poorly-equiped military for an empire of their size and duration.

An officer entered. "We're about to leave for the Thingle system at maximum omnispace. Suggest your hit your quarters and strap in."
"Thanks."

This assignment was seeming funnier everytime she turned. Now she was commited.
"What the ******* **** does Darkk want with old has-been millitary tech?" she thought as she walked to her quarters.

------------------
*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*

"Scans in."

"Nav, find us a vector. Helm, get us out."

The Andalusa was in hyperspace before the fighters could get within visual range, leaving the wreckage of two cruisers and a gunship behind, along with a heavy jamming pod.

"That was pretty clean. ECM, how'd we do? They scanned us, but not much could have gotten through the jamming, and those fighters were way too far out to get a good look at us."

"Good, what about the shipyards?"

"Nothing is missing. It matches the UNS report. I don't know about ships in the field, but everything that's supposed to be there is there. Nothing Unusual"

"Just like every other one we've visited. Damn..."

"Maybe no news is good news. I don't think that the Axis is behind the Golden Dawn anyway, I mean the golden dawn nuked Slug's statue, why would the Sals do stuff like that?"

"They didn't like Slug anyway, he was exiled, remember? It wouldn't be the first or the last time they ****ed themselves over to trick somebody."

"Are you nuts? It was the Auspexes who banished him. If they hadn't told people he was dead, half the Navy would have left to find him. You should listen to the Sal's Talk Shows more often. There is huge public outcry, Admirals had pledged their fleets to the effort to avenge the desecration of the monument. Not that they really have done anything yet, but the will is there."

"Then where the hell did they get a Battleship? You can't build those just anywhere. News would be all over the underground"

"You managed to keep this thing quiet pretty easily."

"Yeah, but we had government aid. You can hardly build a fighter in private shipyards without word getting around, and you want me to believe that a private shipyard someplace built a Battlecruiser and nobody leaked!? Get out of here."

"Well if they don't have government aid, then they must have to have their own shipyards in orbit somewhere."

"There are definitely places to hide that kind of equipment, and if its the Golden dawn owned and operated, then those fanatics probably know how to keep quiet."

Pharris sighed. He was tired. In the past four days they had been in and out of hyperspace more than a hundred times, checking on every known and suspected Cantharaan and Salrillian shipyards, dropping in just inside of sensor range, scanning, and jumping out. It was tedious and tiring, as well as risky, more then once they had dropped in on patrols of cruisers, and had to fight their way out. He slumped back down in his chair.

"Nav, find the nearest civilian port. We need a friendly mailbox."

He walked back to his cabin, and began to type out his report for the President.


[This message has been edited by Captain Pharris (edited 12-12-2000).]

"We have encountered a problem."
"Two problems."
"The Phylydions have encountered the Dark."
"It was inevitable."
"They are confused. They percieve The Dark not nearly as the threat they should be percieved."
"The Dark will attack one of the Phylydion Colony Worlds in forty-nine hours."
"Elejee was most cooperative in denying the existance of The Dark."

"Second matter: all attempts to close the linking rift in the Hatares sector have failed."
"The Dark have infested the nebula and are making their move."
"They shall resurrect the great one. It is also inevitable."
"There is the possibility The Dark might succeed against Dominus and the others."
"Shall we intervene this time?"
"It is too late for that now. The Dark shall ravage all who oppose them."

"We shall let the galaxy meet it's fate."

The young woman spun in the air, landed perfectly on her feet and swung her fist around with great force. Her fist struck nothing but air. The target drone, ten feet away, was knocked into the air and dented. It fell, deactivated. "Excellent, Krialu. Next up!" The training was progressing, and Traek hoped it would be finished in time.

------------------
-Traek Cicion of the Taeskor
"Never tell me the odds!"
-Han Solo
"Then we'll do it real quiet-like."

Salrilians were smart, and there was no denying it. They wouldn't fall for the same trick twice.

But they might fall for a modified version of the trick.

The Lightning lay in disputed space. The very space between Sol and Ishima that was so worried about that even jumpstreams were being restricted.

As the Salrilian gunship moved towards it, it... crackled. The Salrilians, however, didn't notice. As their weapons fire sped towards it, it vanished completely, phasing out.

The Salrilians were very confused as the smaller Endurance destealthed about three kilometres away, firing up to full speed.

Onas pulses and some form of blue beam filled the sky momentarily, then the gunship fell silent.

Endurance flew towards it, and lowered it's shields for docking. But Salrilians were smart.

Not one, but two carriers dropped in, flashing T-bolt rods at the Endurance.

The small fighter took the full force of one such blast, and was sent reeling through space.

An urgent distress call rang out, unheard. Magno pulses sped towards the Khada fighter, knocking out it's now-raised shields. More T-bolt rods flashed, and 8 Lightnings, in the cockpit released the controls. And then everything went white...

Went white...
Went white...
Went white...

------------------
8 Lightnings
Fleet: Lightning 1, Surge, Eagle, (once Endurance), Voltare, Alecto, Magaera, Tisiphone
"CRUISER DESTROYED. 91 remaining" -Ares, Chapter 9, Hand Over Fist

[This message has been edited by 8 Lightnings (edited 12-13-2000).]

Went white...
Went white...

The fighter I sit in now is not the Endurance. And I am no longer in the same system as before.

Something is wrong. I cannot feel as I could before. I look down at my arm, and the metal is gone. I am confused.

In some ways I feel good, to be whole again, fully human. In some ways, I am sad to have lost the many advantages I once had. Now the question comes to me, What do I do now?

I check the starmap. I am in a system near Sol. I am flying an Archangel fighter. And as I look at my reflection in the monitor, I see that I am no longer myself. The face is wrong. New. Something I have never seen before.

I look at the registration. I am flying the Alecto. So at least I still fly an 8 LightningForce ship.

But I have not nearly enough fuel to return to Tetrik V. So I decide to move on to Earth, and see what I can do from there.

The man who was once known as 8 Lightnings powers up the engines, and moves on to Earth, contemplating what just happened.

------------------
The Fury

"If I had a rocket launcher, I'd make somebody pay. And my fighter now has a rocket launcher."

[This message has been edited by The Fury (edited 12-13-2000).]

The Endurance drops out of hyperspace in the Tetrik V system. 8 Lightnings sits in the pilot seat. The ship lands on Tetrik V, and the people await their commander as he leaves the fighter. He walks over to his quarters and sits inside.

Noone notices as three extra eyes appear on his forehead, then vanish again. He smiles.

Earth has changed since the Ares left. Even since it returned.

Nevertheless, getting fuel was a relatively minor task, and soon, speeding through a jumpstream, the man who was once 8 Lightnings awaited his arrival on Tetrik V.

The jumpgate in the Tetrik system flashed, and the Alecto dropped in. The small ship quickly landed on Tetrik V, and to the man's moderate surprise, five armed men approached him.

He had been prepared for this, however.

He climbed over the side of the fighter, and walked towards the men.

"Stop there!" A commanding voice called.

The man looked over at the source of the voice, to see...
himself...

"Who are you?" the man queried.

"High Commander 8 Lightnings. And you?" answered the man who looked like he was supposed to look like.

This was too strange. "The same..." he replied.

"Did you think you could just fly in here and perform any sabotage you wished?" the man who looked like 8 Lightnings asked.

The men looked around. Their commander didn't usually act like this.

"Get out!" he cried. "Imposter! Saboteur! I can feel you!"

Then the commander spoke again, more thoughtfully. "No, don't, actually. That's one of my fighters. We have a few probe pods. Take one of them instead."

The man who had once been 8 replied, "No." He wouldn't take one of those. It was suicide.

"Fire!" called the man who looked like him.

At that point, the man through a flashbang on the ground, blinding the men. He fired a P-K pistol at the 'commander', knowing that it wouldn't kill him anyway.

He then jumped over the edge of the fighter into the cockpit and got out. He hit the jumpgate before they could stop him.

No longer was he 8 Lightnings. He named himself after his fighter, and his fighter after him.

He was the Fury...

------------------
The Fury

"If I had a rocket launcher, I'd make somebody pay. And my fighter has a rocket launcher."

8 Lightnings walked into his quarters again. Once he had assured himself that none were watching, his hand glowed yellow, then went black.

The symbol of the Eclipse.

The symbol enscribed on the Endurance.

------------------
8 Lightnings
Fleet: Lightning 1, Surge, Eagle, Endurance, Voltare, Magaera, Tisiphone
"CRUISER DESTROYED. 91 remaining" -Ares, chapter 9, Hand Over Fist

[This message has been edited by 8 Lightnings (edited 12-13-2000).]

On a secret DGA outpost, a Vindicative class battleship slipped back into dock. Its Commander arrived on the bridge of the station and received a greeting from the supine Salrilian there.

"How'd the shakedown voyage go?"

"Excellent. The vessel performed admirably."

"Such is only to be expected, under the enlightened rule of our Haruspex."

"Indeed. We were blessed on our journey. My report is already at your fingertips. May I take my leave now?"

"Certainly."

The Salrilian Commander slithered away to his quarters. Once inside, he couldn't repress a hiss of pleasure. Enlightened Haruspex indeed! He knew the truth. The full truth. He had seen the true leader. And so, when his task had come, taking time from his ship's maiden voyage to destroy a small convoy had been nothing. A mere ripple on the surface of a rising tide that would soon engulf the galaxy...

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

It was a small colony world, with a grand name. Physa- "People's Courage". The name was fit for a great world, the homeworld even, a place from which the Phylydion empire could draw marvels of technology, society, and military. But it was not. It was only only a small border world, covered in farmland and forest, with an occasional sea or mountain range for variety. A grainbasket, an agricultural world with a population of only a few hundred million people. Physa. An ironic name for what would become of it.

The Dark had come. Their means of conveyance remained unknown, their methods showing no strategy recognisable to their prey. The Dark swept over the world, with hardly a whisper of battle. Terror engulfed Physa- the people's courage. And, with hardly a murmur of conflict, an entire world was lost.

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

A world of horrors. A nightmare unleashed in daytime. Evil beyond the worst dreams of a psychopath unleashed in reality. Death, everywhere. Terror. Neverending terror.

Through it all, a young boy fled. The Dark were everywhere, their cloud of fear stifling the populace into submission as they stalked the town. One followed the child at an easy lope, drinking deeply of his fear as it prepared for the kill.

Suddenly, the Phylydion child stopped, a dark figure looming above him. He cowered, and the Dark approached the figure, silence rippling with each step. The stranger looked at it, and nodded. Then it pulled the boy into it, golden light flaring. And the pursuer died.

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

A lone fighter orbited Physa, a glimpse into the cockpit showing a peeved Sundered Angel. He looked down on the world with undisguised annoyance. But who could be there for him to diguise it from? The enigmatic figure told his frustrations only to empty space, a world where sound would not travel, words lost into the void.

"You never cease to amaze me, you know. Throwing this and that at me, as if you could end my plans. This is only an annoyance, a little delay. Though it is one I really could do without. I have enough on my hands as things are, keeping the Divine Galactic Axis from wiping out the Phylydions, and now something new comes- The Dark, I believe they call them now."

He looked down on the planet, and fancied he could feel it pulse with pure malevolance. He shook his head, staring at the planet, and the empty void it hung in.

"They have no place in my plans, I am afraid. And that which has no place in my plans... has no place at all..."

[This message has been edited by Sundered Angel (edited 12-15-2000).]

The gunfire never ceased. Terror and death spred everywhere as the Phylydions engeged in major trench warfare against the Dark. A losing war. One phylydion popped up above the trench and fires multiple rounds from his assault rifle. The Dark lept on him and he fell dead. Rockets exploded, killing merely a few of the Nightmare Creatures.

Farlr, the Phlylydion commander, looked at the clouds, at his air support against the Dark. Through the mist, hovering mere kilometers above the planet's surface, hung the hulking Phylydia II. It remained silent, however, as another troop checkpoint was overrun by the swarm. Onboard, Drion Nerec watched the horror unfold.

"Look at these.... creatures...." He said to the Elejeetian tied to the stool behind him. "You claim they play a vital role in maintaining the order of the universe, yet they bring such savage destruction."

The bloody and beaten Elejeetian rasped. "They are the predators in the ecosystem of the space-time continuim."

"We have an awful hard time fighting them," Nerec said, nearly hypnotized by the battle secne far below."

"Of course you do. The Dark are made of pure energy."

"Is that why you and Salril both deny the existance of these creatures?! You cover up every last thread of evidence that they exist."

"We must let the swarms run their course."

"They have also run their course on yourplanets, yet you all cover up any trace of destruction. Denial only feeds the monster, Mr. Elejeetian."

"The Phylydions were foolish from the start, Nerec. The Darkness returns every three milleniaeto restore galactic order."

"But back then the Phylydions were in the stone age. Is that how The Dark intend to return us?"

The Elejeetian prisoner grunted.

Nerec Grinned ust as the communications officer silenced the frantic calls for air support from the colony. The Commanding officer walked into the room "Sir, the colony base will be overrun in a matter of minutes-- should we intervene?"

"Take us out of orbit, Mr. Nuion. We've seen enough."

Drion Nerec puffed his Cigar. And with that, the Phylydia II turned and began it's ascent into space as the last whisps of resistanceon the colony below were wiped out. An eery silence befell the planet...

[This message has been edited by Slug (edited 12-13-2000).]

The Phylydion rebel was in his cell, rolled up in a ball. He had given Garrion the information he required, and it had already been transmitted to Dominus and the High Command. Garrion pondered over the decision he had to make. Finally, he curled his slender hand into a fist and brought it down onto the desk he was sitting at. "Set course for the Rijak asteroid belt." The battlecruisers lined up and engaged their engines, heading for an area of space exactly one and a half parsecs from Salrilian space.

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

Traek Cicion was in his quarters on Dominus. He lifted a fiery crimson cape out of a box and attached it to his uniform. His blue cape went into the box, and the box was placed in his closet. He walked out the door and into a lift tube. The tube whisked him down to a large chamber where twenty six men and women stood in identical capes. "Congratulations," said Traek shortly. "Now we must begin."

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

Five soldiers crouched behind a barricade made in the entrance to the power core of the small military garrison on the beseiged border colony. They fired spurts of fire from their burst rifles, taking down a few of the dark beings. But more kept coming, and killing, and growing. One soldier went down as one of them extended a black tendril to his skin. The others shot the tendril and it withdrew.
The creatures advanced and two more soldiers died. The remaining two fell back, firing and firing and firing. Eventually, their rifles were exhausted, and they threw them at the dark creatures, who seemed to freeze the rifles when they contacted them. The two soldiers drew their knives and activated them. Shrouds of energy enveloped the knives as they were turned on. One soldier bellowed and charged into the enemy formation, hacking and slashing until he was dropped. The last soldier smiled, saluted, and brought his fist down on a control on the main touchpad.
As the Phylydia II was leaving orbit, Nerec looked out the viewport and saw a massive, blossoming explosion on the main landmass of the planet. He shook his head and sighed. He then stood up, faced the colony and saluted the lost soldiers. Gritting his teeth, he said, "The colony is gone. Hold us here, and prepare for maximum orbital bombardment."
"Aye, sir!"

------------------
-Traek Cicion of the Taeskor
"Never tell me the odds!"
-Han Solo
"Then we'll do it real quiet-like."

[This message has been edited by Taeskor Cicion (edited 12-13-2000).]

The Lifarla zoomed through omnispace. It was a fast ship, having room for a large drive and a lot of fuel. It was currently at maximum cruising speed, but had been rigged for running at up to maximum emergency speed. Alice didn't like that. The Nijayias had no reason she knew of to hurry. Whatever they were looking for had to be of incalcuable military value. The only problem with that theory is that nobody, not even the deluded, drunk rumor-mongers in the spaceport bars, credited the first empire with anything significant in terms of military tech.

Kharadd had given her the detailed breifing. After "the area is ready" she and her team would dig up a square km until they found the symbol in the picture he had given her on ANYTHING. The strange part was that, as soon as they found it, they were to immediatly run 20 meters away from it. If "nothing unusual happened", they would tell Kharadd. Otherwise, they were to seek another one.

Alice didn't like any of this. It didn't make any sense, but once again she'd been caught up in some kind of crazy adventure. The students would need to be watched carefully, as soldiers carrying unusual quantities of weapons is an automatic danger sign. There shouldn't be anyone on the planet to shoot at, all reports list it as uninhabited. The fact that a major warship was providing the transport indicated that they would probably be shot at.

The shear quantity of the military force assigned indicated the massive danger. She'd have to stop being so foolish. Next time... if there was a next time!

------------------
*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*

Mr. President.

Enclosed is the full report of our surveilance of the known Salrillian and Cantharaan Shipyards that were on your lists, along with numerical counts, the raw scan data, and our analysis of it. It seems that if the Salrillians are masterminding this, they are doing A VERY good job of it. Although we didn't scout Salril Prime, I doubt a large, Vindicative class ship would make it through such a heavily populated area without one of my sources leaking it to me.

The Cantharan starbases have not produced anything other than standard Cantharan hardware in months. Although we have not checked any Gaitori facilities, I do not know of any that any of them are capable of produceing an advanced battlecruiser like a Vindicative. I believe that we have eliminated the DGA as a prime suspect for the attacks, however, it is still not clear where a small terrorist group could find the manpower and resources necessary to construct such a ship while remaining undercover.

I am afraid that we are missing an important piece of this puzzle. If the Golden Dawn is actually being run by the DGA, then we must have overlooked a starbase somewhere, and we should be scouting Nebulae and other anomalies that would hide such a secret facility. If the Golden Dawn is working on its own, then we should be scouting the strandless sectors and the regions at the edge of government controlled space.

There is a third possibility as well. The assault on the Ishiman convoy could simply have been an attack by the DGA, useing the Golden Dawn as a cover. Of course, this would be an act of war, and the UNS would have reason to question the DGA representatives. Unfortunately, the Salrillian Ambassador was recalled just a few weeks ago, and it may be difficult to reestablish conflict. Once again, this is the most unlikely scenario, as the Golden Dawn bombed Salril Prime, and the DGA wouldn't do something so drastic simply as an excuse to withdraw an ambassador.

Without the critical piece that seems to hang just outside our grasp, I can only offer these scenarios as my conclusion. I have decided that further investigation at this time would be risky, as the shipyards are on alert, despite our best attempts at stealth. The Andalusa will keep a low profile for the next few days. However, if you wish to contact us, please use the enclosed Cipher Pads. Each one is single use, and will only work with the duplicate disks we have aboard the Andalusa. As long as the pads are used only once, the code is unbreakable. Please contact me if you need my services again.

Captain Mark Pharris,
Master and Commander,
SV Andalusa.


President Wade paged through the attached documents, skipping the Data, reading the analysis. He tossed it down on his desk and leaned back in his chair, thinking...

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

95309 moved the singularity from in front of the ship to behind it, bringing it to a stop very quickly. 6655321 floated out of the isolation container, and floated to the galley. It pierced the container and squeezed the Lithium into its body. Thus refreshed, it read its orders off of the magnetic strip.

"6655321: Arrive 8872(milky way). Search for and Destroy 980334(another ship from its galaxy)"

"how dull, espescially for its first assignment." it was not very amused. "No matter" it thought. "I shall be home before the next moon(roughly 10,000 earth years). Then they will give me my bonus and a more engageing assignment."

It projected a slightly smaller singularity ahead of it, and rocketed off in search of 980334

>>The primitive creatures of the galaxy attack with no provocation. I shall make short work of their archaeic transport devices. They hinder me in my task.

95309 projected a tremendous gravity well that pulled the six gaitori cruisers into eachother, at which point they fused into a large clump of metal that proceeded to explode violently as the singularity dissapated.

6655321's lamp flashed in amusement.

>> How marvelously their ships disintegrate. They must cary many combustibles and oxidizers on board. Now to find 980344. 980344 is devlish in his fighting.

Garrion Retoe studied the viewscreen. Somewhere in the field ahead of them lay a large military complex of the ancient Phylydion rebellion that was almost extinct. A faint glimmer appeared in between two asteroids, then vanished. "Did you see that?" He asked the sensor operator.
"Yes, sir."
"Magnify that area six times." A red square appeared around the area on the screen and enlarged it. Sure enough, a small satellite was orbiting an asteroid there. "We're near. Communications, notify the fleet and tell the Avenger to take out that satellite." The comm officer nodded and spoke into his headset. In moments, one ship left the formation and fired on the satellite, which was torn to shreds by a light salvo.
"Sir, detecting ships approching. Four or five of them, class unknown. I also now detect a large power source near them activating. It's got to be the station's shields powering up."
"Move in, trident formation."
"Aye, sir." The ships approached in three rows. One kept going straight ahead, one veered left, and one veered right, forming a V. "Enemy ships in visual, sir. They're old-type destroyers and picket ships. Nothing overly threatening."
"Tell all ships to fire when at optimum range."
"Sir." One of the rebel ships fired a pair of capsule missiles at the leading Kiojea. The missiles hit its forward shields, doing some damage. The other rebels also fired salvos, some hitting. The Kiojeas returned fire, and two rebel picket ships were blasted apart. Another compressed projectile passed just feet from an enemy ship's hull, and the hull was pulled after it, tearing a hole in the ship that was quickly sealed by emergency bulkhead doors. The fleets exchanged fire a few more times, crippling one of the Kiojeas and destroying all but one of the rebel ships.
"Don't waste your compression guns on him. Take him out with flare turrets." The flare bolt turrets of the flagship rotated and fired several salvos which tore up and down the remaining rebel ship. It hung dead in space. "Proceed." The battlegroup proceeded to the station, one staying behind to guard the crippled ship.
"Sir, station has powerful defenses but very light shielding. I suggest we board it."
"I agree. Prepare a boarding team."

The ships fired on the station to attract the attention of its defense turrets and three small transports slipped through. The transports attached to the hull of the station and cut through it. Twenty Taeskor Commandos entered from each one of them and in seconds grouped together. After taking out initial internal defense troops, they split up. One for the control center, one for engineering, and one for the docking bay.

The barrage destroyer exited omnispace in the abandoned system.
First instruction: go to 7 of 3??
Kharadd immediatly scanned the sytstem. The 3rd planet had 10 moons, so the ship went to number 7.
Second instruction: play the first part of the message.
Kharadd sent the short sequence of tones. From the planet emanated another series. This was the request for the intruder to provide conformation, for the first sequence was simply telling them that we knew they were there.
Third instruction: burn your way in. The system, once it determined we didn't know the confirmation, wouldn't let us escape with the knowledge something was there.

Darkk had spent a great deal of energy probing the racial memories of the Nijayias network of minds for even this. It wasn't enough, they still would have to face a test of firepower. Darkk hoped his men were up to it. The Lenkk would have gone instead, but it still needed repairs after the second battle of Sol.

Back in Thingle, swarms of ancient crusiers poured out of the asteroid belt and the third planet, a gas giant. The Lifarla readied itself for the test...

------------------
*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*

Meanwhile, a solitary fighter shot towards Cicion Station, in search of Sundered Angel. Surely he would recognize him...

Somehow...

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The Fury

"If I had a rocket launcher, I'd make somebody pay. And my fighter has a rocket launcher."

The first ships were of course the fastest and lightest.
When they had been designed, a photokinetic cannon would have been considered a superweapon. The tacyon cannons managed to clean out the first wave of attackers without wasting flack ammo.

Those, however, were only the fighters from the closest area. The remainder was massing for a giant surge that would be tough to beat back. They weren't shielded, and the UNS had better weapons at the time of the Cantharan invasion, but there were certainly a lot of them. If it came to ramming, they would win easily. Kharadd hoped that wasn't in their programming.

The ships waded in firing, wasting ammo. This part of the programming was easy to interpret: the drones started firing the instant the enemy does, and back then the effective ranges were much lower.

As the massive wave of ships closed, the flack turrets began to work, filling the sky with deadly projectiles that downed multiple ships with their spread. The multimissles carved into the enemy, but ammo was limited for all but the tacyon turrets, and the enemy was not.

The wreckaged had increased to the point that the flimsy automations were taking damage from that alone. The Lifarla's shields hadn't taken much in the way of damage, and were holding at 67%. The final wave of attackers was closing, though: concussive asteroids with built in rocket engines. Kharadd didn't have any idea how the rocket engines had been attached. He didn't care. The flack turrets destroyed the first 5 but ran out of ammo. The second five were taken out with multimissles.

The last 3 closed. The Lifarla was out of ammo, and a hit from those would be fatal. The tacyon turrets fired hard, and took out 2. The last one almost hit when Kharadd did an "Omnispace Stand" which is essentially engaging and disengaging the Omnispace drive at maximum power so fast that it wouldn't provide propulsive force. The resultant shockwave detonated the asteroid, but wrecked the Lifarla's FTL systems.

The sensors chief had located the central command nexus for the defense forces: dead center on a large, barren plain on the third planet. The planet had an oxygen atmosphere, so it was time to go dig up some special help...

------------------
*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 Phylidia 2 retrofired, once more dropping into the outer atmosphere. Several Missile ports opened, and another salvo of Antimatter missiles sped down towards the planet's surface. The Phylidia continued firing the high compression, jacketed projectiles into the atmosphere. Pharris saw streaks as they burned through the atmosphere, bringing up clouds of dust and debris that soared miles high. Even through the choking black clouds, several blinding flashed could be seen on the surface as the antimatter missiles detonated on the surface. Cloaked, a hundred thousand kilometers away, the Andalusa slowed into orbit. Pharris looked from his screen to the planet outside the windows. He could see the flashes from here.

"What could possibly make them do that to one of their own colonies?" Pharris mused aloud.

his helmsman looked forward, past him, at the tiny blacked sphere.

"I can't possibly imagine. There was no rebellion, no wars, nothing. They didn't even try and evacuate... maybe it was a disease?"

"I've never seen a virus worth wrecking a planet for."

the bell rang, and as the officer of the third watch came on the bridge, Pharris relayed the instructions for the next eight hour crew shift;

"Stay out until the Phylidia leaves orbit. Then drop down to LO, and start surface scans. I want to know what happened. I'll be back on for the first watch. Goodnight Lieutenant."

Pharris lay on his bunk, unable to shake the image of the Phylidia II ravaging the poor hapless planet. He couldn't help but shudder at the thought of something that could drive the Phylidions to that extreme action.


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

Once again, Sundered Angel sat in Cicion's Bar, darkened again. As usual, he was thinking. Everything was fine- the Phylydions and Salrilians discussing peace terms once more, the world The Dark had taken was already being bombarded into an ice age, and everything was ticking over nicely. Now why was he worried?

Letting his mind wander backwards in time, he mulled over the last few years. The last few seconds of his long existence. They had been successful... so why was he worried?

He searched back through his memories of the past few weeks, and paused. There was something... only a day or so ago, a blink in his eye, no more. A brief area where he could not remember.

Sundered Angel continued to sit there, mind spanning the happenings of the past and the possibilities of the future.

------------------
Sundered Angel,
The One and Only
Ares Webboard Moderator, and all-around Nice Guy