Ambrosia Software Web Board: Try Again - Ambrosia Software Web Board

Ok, so my Marathon RPG bombed, but there's no reason not to try again! I'm using EVERY plugin to make this new RPG

These are the rules:

a) You keep the same character through the entire RPG.
You can't get yourself killed, or kill anyone else's character.
c) You're only allowed 1 ship to start off, it can be any from default Ares to your own plug.
d) No way can you wish yourself 10000 hvds or 1000000 credits.
e) The only way you can get more ships is by capturing them. Again, the rule of (d) applies here.

*********

The empty blackness of space stretches on forever, interrupted only by the stars, twinkling. Ever twinkling. As the camera pans down, a small Union of Worlds transport is flying at top speed toward a stargate, followed tightly by an ESF light cruiser. As the shots from the cruiser rain down on the transport, sparks flash and spin across the void. Compared to the cruiser, the transport is a mere moat on the screen... this is accentuated by the huge cruiser's size as the camera pans inwards. Suddenly the engine of the Transport is ripped out by a lucky shot, and it begins to slow down...(aren't I imaginative)

******

'Captain, the enemy ship is slowing down, we must have hit her engines.'

Captain Perneas looks down his nose at the officer. Just then a blinding flash illuminates the command deck. The transport rolls over, spilling fire from it's belly.

'Damn fools,' he mutters. 'If you lose that ship, I promise you'll be sorry.'

The officer's at the command consoles make moves to counter the destruction of the transport. Now moving much faster, the cruiser overshoots and blocks the path between the transport and the stargate. Someone on board the transport must still have access to the controls, for it rotates to face the side of the cruiser and crashes into it. The cruiser absorbs the impact, but buckles slightly. Then, as if collapsing from that one final effort, the transport loses all navigation, and drifts.

Then, as by a common signal, airlocks on the ESF Prometheus open, spitting tiny tugs. They rush over to the bewildered vessel and drag it into the considerable docking bay on the bigger ship. It eventually moves inside the magnetic field, and collapses onto the huge hanger with an ear-thumping *thud*. Troops run over to it, and it can be seen a larger escort follows. The troops at the forefront assemble a cutter, and start slicing open the airlock...

As the final preparations for opening it are completed, captain Perneas stands with a detachment of EVAT troopers, ready to go in after the first wave. The door collapses with a thud. Troops rush in firing, but after the smoke clears, all is still.

*******

Captain Perneas glances about impatiently. In front of him the prison officer is seated at a desk, questioning the Union ship's crew. They formed quite a queue, almost 50. In the distance, more of them were coming in, after going through the last stages of the weapons search. After the enquiry, they would move off and be sent down into the detention area. There's no honour in this, thought Perneas. No glory. What did it matter? 1 transport. A lot of bad that would do if left to the enemy. The voice of the inquisitor drummed on...

'Your name?'

'Dean Lockswood.' Replied the dishevelled man.

'Your rank?'

'Captain of the Union vessel, Fel Roar.'

The inquisitor looked up. Before he was out of his seat, Perneas had moved to the desk.

'Come with me.'

Regaining some of his haughtiness, the man followed the captain, along the ship. The inquisitor went on with his duty.

***

'I hope you realise this is a very small victory, my ESF captain. How do you know, that even now, reinforcements are rushing to save my ship?'

Perneas leaned back on his chair, and rubbed his chin.

'I don't. But I would stake my entire reputation that they aren't.'

The man, Dean Lockwood, sneered.

'Oh yes? Well your reputation won't be worth much soon. They might even be lenient if you let us go.'

'Traitor's recognise traitors the more readily.'

Only the cast-platinum binders prevented the man from jumping out of his seat and hitting Perneas at that rejoinder.

'I suggest you cooperate with our enquiries. In a few days, I will be ending my patrol run, and going back to Fortuna. I'm ever so intrigued why a lone transport would be wandering in the middle of nowhere. Why, it was pure luck that let us detect you. Were you part of a convoy? Or something else?'

'You'll get nothing from me.'

Perneas stood up.

'That's what I was afraid of.'

[This message has been edited by Count Altair El Alemein (edited 06-02-2001).]

Intresting…… do only plugs that are already released count, or all plugs?
I'd like to join, but your rules don't seem to cover quite everything I think they should. No superships, correct? Darkk would come in with some high-end Jjaro ship…

I would NOT!!
That's SO beneath me.
I'd stay up all night working on a test of Dankin's Series, and use a fully loaded Simga Fellowship Gateship.
Actually, the graphics for that would take some time, so I'd bring a Miend Gateship instead. It'd still kick an uncomfortable amount of rear.

Or, I could just bring a Vylae Warpship...
<evilgrin>

------------------
Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

f) No superships, no starlances... in other words, if you're ship can beat 6 audemedon cruisers at once, then don't captain it.

It covers any large plug that isn't out, or one that is. May I suggest : Blackseas, Marathon Inv, Earth Quest/SETR, WOTF, WITV and I"m sure there are more...

We return again to the cruiser, drifting lonesomely through space. Without anything, no planets and a few stars, it might be difficult to calculate whether the cruiser was moving at all. Only the faint smear on it's outline was any indication that it was going faster than light.
It was running.

'Calculated distance to Fortuna, 1 hour, 42 minutes, 32 seconds.'

Captain Perneas frantically screams at the man: 'Yes well that's nice but will WE GET THERE IN TIME?'

'Calculated distance for fleet to reach ftl jamming distance... 2400 seconds, give or take a few minutes.'

'Give or take a few - give me that!'

Perneas grabs the ftl input device from his trembling officer. He looks at it threateningly.

'40 minutes.' He says flatly. '40.'

****

They had come out of etheric space just a few a kilometres out of weapons the ESF Prometheus.

'What the heck is that?'

Captain Perneas stood up from his position at the head of the kilometre long mess-hall. Alarm bells rang, and the lights all over the room changed to a light yellow. The crew stood up hurriedly, then remembering it was not their watch, sat down again. Perneas did not.

'Could someone inform - Whoa!'

The ship accelerated into ether, many of the crew's plates fell on the floor, a lucky few catching theirs. Perneas fell back against his chair. A few of the Union officers who were allowed at the captain's dinner table smiled savagely, especially Dean Lockswood.

Perneas spared no time for this. Grabbing a steak from the plate he hurried down to the elevator. Exiting it, he found the command deck in uproar, officers screaming to engineers, engineers screaming to crew, and crew screaming at the officers.

Perneas grabbed an officer by the collar.

'You will salute in my presence, boy.'

The officer's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

'Yes sir, sorry sir.'

'Do the grace to explain to me, why we just jumped into ether?'

Atlast, the crew noticed captain Perneas. A noticable hush went up.

'Sir,' said an engineer. 'The ship automatically jumped into ether. I think it was a program instituted by the late captain of this vessel. The only way to stop it, is to have a captain or officer shut it off manually. None of the officers want to do this.'

'And why is that?'

The officer next to Perneas saluted. 'Sir, we're being trailed by a Union fleet.'

Perneas stared.

'Just look out the window, sir.'

The captain did so.

*****

'40 minutes.'

'39 actually sir.'

Perneas glanced around at his crew. They had achieved their old order now that their being trailed by a Union fleet had become an obvious fact. The problem was that they expected to make it to Fortuna in time.

'Don't tell anyone about this? I will make a public broadcast.'

'Yes sir.'

Perneas grabbed a signal band from his desk. Despite the heavy comm-jamming that went up when the Union vessel came, it should work inside the ship.

'Contact me if anything changes.'

In that case I'll take an Obish Enhanced Escort (I'll get around to rendering it someday, but I can scan the schematics in any case)

[You don't need me to tell what's ok and what's not, my rules are just for those who are already unwieldy. Is it just me, or has the whole board gone nuts, because all you're doing is talking about being in this RPG. Why don't you without further ado go in it? In case there are any confusions about what kind of universe we're in here, what with all the plugs I've included, let me help. In the centre is Sol, controlled by the ESF. To the left of Sol is a splinter faction (the UEC: Black Ses) and to the right all the splinter factions of WITV (8). At the top is the Union of Worlds, where my starmap ends, but there is still all the races off SETR up there. Down some, we come to WOTF's Sol Empire, and to the right of that, The triplanetary confed, In the spaces I haven't mentioned, are the default ares races... Down below that (this is a very high map) are all the Inv races. Sorry about taking Earth/Sol, but this is my RPG. Feel free to add or describe this in greater detail.]

***

The cruiser, the ESF Prometheus, was one of the most powerful classes of vessels in the ESF navy, though not equal to any Union ship of similar size. Being a light cruiser, it comes equipped with stardrives, a mystery device only 1 metre in diameter. The power of the engines/reactor, determines the speed, or 'Ether' of the vessel. This is why the transport never comes with a reactor, and neither does the destroyer. But even Prometheus' reactor, fast though it was, does not generate power equal to the incredible capacity of the Union Battlcruise.

'1 minute until it's in range, sir.' Said the chief engineer. Captain Perneas could see the chronometer well, and didn't need the engineer's comments. After all, he was standing 3 feet from it.

The officers and a few crew members lounged on the command deck, playing holocards or even smoking. Captain Perneas disliked smokers intensely, but in these circumstances it was possibly the best thing. He felt the elevator open behind him.

'Well?' He said without turning around. Nothing.

'I said WELL!!??' Suddenly turning and screaming at the lieutenant-captain. The man dropped his facts sheet and turned white.

Perneas walked over and picked it up with disgust. Then moved over till his nose was almost touching the command deck's main window. It looked out onto space, and the huge Union battlecruiser, now so large it filled half the screen.

'Do you have anything to say about this desultory report?' Now he turned and addressed the unmoving lieutenant-captain, Jace Es.

'We ran many test-simulations. It seems the battlecruiser kills us in each one, even with the most optimistic forcast. Times varied between 5 seconds to 10 minutes. This was made disregarding the rest of the Union ships trailing the battlecruiser. Including them, it was about 7 minutes maximum. In no simulation did we destroy the battlecruiser, or manage to injure it's ether jammer. In one though, we destroyed it's plasma tubes and ruptured the hull.'

Perneas did not interrupt him once. His attention was so fixed upon the timer.

5...

A man played cards threw his into the stack and looked up.

4...

The engineer started moving over to the timer.

3...

The lieutenant-officer walked around captain Perneas and looked at the timer.

2...

A crewmember looked away.

1...

The officer at targeting started sweating.

0...

Someone coughed.

-1...

Captain Perneas stared in disbelief, then comprehension.

-2...

The lieutenant officer tugged at the chief engineer's arm.

-3...

'Do you know why they're not jamming us?'

-4...

The engineer looked around.

-5...

'Yes.'

*Crash*

The jamming device, activated almost 300 metres away from the Prometheus, threw it completely out of ether in a second. 4 seconds longer than it usually took. The crew, not bracing themselves for the impact, were thrown against the wall. Perneas could see he had cut his hand. The lieutenant officer picked himself up.

'There's goes our leftling support beam.' Muttered the chief engineer. He was almost calm itself, compared to the other officers.

'Don't fire!' Yelled Perneas, as the targeting officer readied the machine turrets. 'They want to talk!'

'How can you be so sure?' Asked an officer.

The visi-screen flashed to life.

'This is Gveinne Lockwood. I wish to bargain for the life of my son.'

Alright, I'll have an Enhanced Frigate from 'Ishiman Quest'.

Name: I.S.S. Defiant
Type: Mod. E/S Fg.
Engine Mods: Higher top speed. Slower Turn, because of added weapon/engine space.
Weapon Mods: 1 of the 133 mm (not sure about this one, the bigass one anyway) cannon. Bigger missile magazine.
Other mods: ECM Jammers, ECM Counterjammers.

[got to go to bed]

------------------
This Vid is a bit like my beast; extremely long, and best enjoyed with a mouthful of nuts.
-Ali G.

Done, but I'm not sure that a frigate, however enhanced, could hold a fusion rocket (it's actually about 5 metres wide, and the frigate is only about 3 metres wide, not to mention the huge amount of space holding the rockets would take. If it was built by the Sol Federation, it's initials would be S.D.F... alright you can have the rocket..) Pallas, you can have the Obish Escort, and please start writing! Actually, if it's at all convenient, could someone come and help captain Perneas..

****

The entire crew was in shock.

Captain Perneas, was not less so, nor even the impeturbable chief engineer. He had expected them to arrange terms of surrender, or even to gloat. His amazing fortune was.. amazing.

'I repeat this is - '

'Yes... I am captain Perneas, commander of the vessel Prometheus.'

The Union captain looked him up and down as if scrutinising something he had found on his boot.

'Good. I wish to bargain for the life of my son.'

Something struck surprise in captain Perneas, but he couldn't think what. It was something about the...

'How do you wish to bargain?'

Again, the Unionist surveyed the captain in that insulting manner of his.

'How about this? If you send my son and the crew of the Fel Roar over to this ship, we will refrain from tearing you to pieces.'

The chief engineer leaned over to captain Perneas.

'He's got a point.'

Captain Perneas smiled.

'Tear us to pieces first.'

The Union captain screwed up his eyes.

'I... don't... think... you realise what your getting into here.'

Oh my... Captain Perneas realised where he had seen the face before.

The Ishiman Corvette, a prototype model, is designed to be faster, stronger, and more manuverable than it's predescesor the Ishiman heavy cruiser. It's equiped with nearly twice the firepower and strength. Athena has personally named her ship the Raven. The ship has a crew of five, two on the deck with me, the Captain, and three in the enginering room.

------------------
No one gets what they wish for,
They get what they work for.

Testing Sequence 1: Combat maneuvers
The Prototype swooped and slided, quickly evaded the projectiles fired at it.

Testing Sequence 2: Cloaking
It winked out of sight, and the projectiles became untargeted, firing at vacuum

Testing Sequence 3: Weaponry
The Enhanced Escort accelerated to hyperdrive, and winked out of sight. The Obish technicians stared in wonder at the "unplanned" event that had occured in their "flawless" planning...

On the bridge, Khela (keh-hay-LAH) surveyed his new ship, the Svesa (seh-vay-SAH).

[Sorry if I'm a stickler for pronunciation]

------------------
What others can travel so far into so many universes yet remain so deeply rooted in their own?
[url="http://"http://marathon.invasion.tripod.com"]M:Inv[/url] and the [url="http://"http://pub61.ezboard.com/bmarathoninvasion"]M:Inv Webboards[/url]

[This message has been edited by Pallas Athene (edited 06-07-2001).]

Okay, I know that this is a dumb question, but what race is the "Union" and Captain Perneas?

------------------
No one gets what they wish for,
They get what they work for.

[I'll take a Vylae Dreadnought, which will lose to the Aud cruisers]

"I'm afraid that you'll have to tear each other to pieces elsewhere. This space is territory of the Vylae Trading Consortium, protected under treaty. I believe if you look about 12° to the Galactic West, you will see our outpost." said a silky, high voice.
A humanoid avian in a neat blue and grey uniform had appeared on the screen. "I am Sector Admiral Darkk, and I order you to leave immediatly, without firing on each other until you clear my territory."

"Stay out of this, Vylae. We do outnumber you, you know." replied Gveinne Lockwood.

"Heh, I'm afraid you fail to realize that our ship is quite a good one. You're flying nice, big targets. We can fly circles around you."

"This is Captain Perneas. I'd be more than willing to back you up if he attacks, Darkk."

"Somehow that's hardly surpising. I don't think I need help, though.
Gveinne Lockwood, I request you not violate the treaty once more before I forcibly remove you."



------------------
Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

{Athena, if you don't know what race captain Perneas is or the ESF/Union then you need to do some revision with Earth Quest. Thanks darkk!}

****

Captain Perneas could not believe his good fortune. One moment he was staring down the barrel of a very nasty demise, and now he was not. Through some divine luck, a fellow captain had appeared. Though appearing alien in form, Perneas was willing to fight with anyone at a time like this.

Gveinne Lockwood's image crackled momentarily.

'I don't know by what insanity you planned this Perneas, but your colleague nor you frighten me. I promise you, not one glimmer of mercy will I show you should he be so unwise to attack me.'

Perneas smiled.

'Fair's fair.'

Gveinne Lockwood's image stirred again as he looked at something else on his enormous pristine command deck. Perneas could faintly hear a voice saying 'violation of trade practices and interstellar law.'

Gveinne frowned, and then appeared to argue angrily with the birdlike creature on the visi-screen. Then turned around and stared straight at Perneas. Despite being several kilometres away, Perneas felt his stare prickle the hairs on his neck.

In a introspective tone, Lockwood announced: 'If there is any difference between animals and men, it cannot be mental. If offer you survival. I will not extend my offer again.'

Perneas turned to his lieutenant-captain, who was arguing frantically with the men in Tactical.

'Have they worked something out yet?' Perneas whispered.

Silently, he was handed a piece of plasto-paper.

'You have 5 seconds to respond...' The Union captain now seemed childish in his pertinence.

'These figures look good.' Perneas whispered.

'They understand english quite well.'

Perneas looked over his loyal crew. They were all looking at him, as the Union captain's voice droned on. Officers, engineers, men. His men. He had a duty to them, but above all to the Earth-Sol Federation, and it's sacrosanct capital. In the corner of the room, away from the Union captain, was 'Fleet Admiral Darrk's' impatient picture.

'Let's do it.'

[Darkk, I don't know what a Vylae 'nought does, so you'll have to write the fight scene. My ship has heavy turreted machineguns, rapid fire neutron missiles and a railgun.]

"Gveinne, this is your final warning. In 10 seconds you will fire your engines and leave, or I will MAKE you leave." Darkk's featheres ruffled, making him expand in size, the Vylae gesture indicating a threat.

"I will not take orders from you. No bird will stop me from taking back my son."

"10...
9...
8...
7...
6...
5...
4...
3...
2...
1...
Time's up!"

Darkk's ship lept forward with a burst of acceleration astonishing for a ship its size. Banks of missles on the body of the ship begin to fire bursts of small missles, while a glow began to emit from the notch in the nose, as well as the spikes on the nose's tip.

Gveinne's ship had begun firing its plasma tubes, but most of the shots were hitting the missles. Darkk's ship hit out with a bright yellow beam with green side-lobes. The beam struck the shields and made them resonate.
Inside the ship all heck broke loose. The beam was a phased beam, and the shields started to resonate destructively, sending bolts of electicity surging through the ship, making vital systems malfunction.
The ship began to spin out of control.
Then a large blue-green pulse emitted from the notch, and slammed into the ship. The impact
knocked the Union Battlecruiser back slightly, and exagerated its control failure.
At that time, fighters from the rest of the fleet had begun to approach. Darkk Targeted them with swarm missles while continuing to pound away on the large ship with his psueadomatter pulses and phased beam. The swarm missles knocked down the plasma shots, while the occasional missles that didn't hit a plasma shot knicked away at their health, and made them swerve.

Darkk was monitering the battle through his mind-jack, a standard Vylae control interface. Vylae had evolved from species that prefered to fly, and could still fly as well as they could walk. Thus, they could fly their spaceships by almost shear instinct, making them some of the best pilots in the universe. Darkk's thoughts instantly were transmitted to his ship, which did as he asked seamlessly, as though it were part of his body.

A quick analysis indicated attempting to defeat the entire enemy force was hopeless. There were too many. The outpost, however, would be able to handle the fleet if the Battlecruiser were disabled or destroyed. Darkk would then be able to flee at superlight and call for reinforcements, which could arrive in about 10 minutes. He was puzzled by Lockwood's references to his son, and wanted to find out what that was about. Once he called for reinforcments, he could escort Perneas to his destination, which seemed to be Fortuna - provided Perneas or his government would pay a fee. Vylae would work for free when Vylar (Vylae home star) froze over. The Battlecruiser could not hit Darkk with its most powerful weapons as long as it could not turn propperly, so if Darkk could hold off the fighters a little longer, he could weather the machine gun fire and put the enemy out of comission. Perneas was helping as well as he could, but wasn't making enough headway against the fighters - he'd never stand a chance against the Battlecruiser alone.

Darkk raked the turrets on the Battlecruiser with phased beam fire, causing them to misfire. The shields were collapsing. A final pseuadomatter shot sent the enemy ship spiraling out of control leaking fire from some minor hull breaches. Darkk's monitor indicated it would not explode, but that the main power core appeared to be permenantly offline and would need a starbase overhaul or a complete swapout.

"Perneas! You're heading for Fortuna, right? Let's make a run for it, the station can handle things from here! I'll escort you, if you could make it worth the company's time..."

------------------
Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

[Thanks Darkk! Just a reminder, anyone can participate]

****

The ship rolled and buckled as the etheric device pulled power out of the fusion reactor at the heart of the ESF prometheus. Perneas grabbed the side of his chair and sat on it hurriedly, others less fortunate stood around, holding anything. Control panels, outjutting hand-bars, even dents in the floor. The Chief engineer had told Perneas that 'exiting a system while an etheric disrupter is on, is almost impossible.' When Perneas had said that the enemy BC was now spilling oxygen, the Engineer shook his head. 'It's not enough.' 'The device's signal disupted still exists.' It was Perneas that shook his head this time. 'We have no choice. I can't save my ship from firepower of that magnitude.' Now they were about to jump, he was not so sure.

****

Perneas turned to his lieutenant-captain, who was arguing frantically with the men in Tactical.

'Have they worked something out yet?' Perneas whispered.

Silently, he was handed a piece of plasto-paper.

'You have 5 seconds to respond...' The Union captain now seemed childish in his pertinence.

****

'It's going to jump any minutes now sir!'

Perneas lay back in his seat, and muttered a prayer. The enemy Union ships came closer... at this range they might be able to bust the fusion reactor.

'How're we doing?'

'Not bad sir!'

****

'Let's do it.' Said captain Perneas. 'It's better to die than become prisoners.'

The 'Vylae' on the screen looked at Perneas.

'Technically possible I suppose.' He said.

Perneas looked over at Targeting, realising he had not countermanded the order to begin battle.

"You want to live for ever?' He screamed at them. 'Shoot the bastards!'


'Yes sir!'

****

Perneas could feel the gravitational pull of the opening movements of the generator push him back into the chair with violence. The engineer had to grasp the panel he was reading in order to steady himself.

'60% power!' He struggled to shout over the rumbling engines.

'It might not be able to break through.' The Chief engineer looked over at his subordinate who had spoken.

'Yes it will.' He said simply. No one had the heart to argue.

****

The beginning moments of the battle will stay with captain Perneas for the rest of his life.

'They're going to blow you to pieces you silly bird!' He screamed at the alien admiral.

'No they're not.' It said calmly.

'Look here, that huge thing on the ship? That's a fusion cannon launcher, it creates a thermonuclear reaction inside a dimensional rip! You're ship will be torn to pieces even if it doesn't hit you!'

'We are aware of this.'

Perneas spared a glance for targ.

'Look, go with me on this one, it's not worth dieing to get a few more shots in.'

Someone tugged at his sleeve.

'Oh my - They're powering it up!'

Suddenly the Vylae Dreadnought sprang into life. As if a hive of bees inhabited the vast ship, thousands of tiny missiles shot out of it's foward sockets. The fusion rocket levelled at the enemy ship, and the battlecruiser's plasma let loose in a terrifying hailstorm. What surprised Perneas, was that the drones were intercepting the plasma! Lights sprang up over the ship, and a huge electric beam intersected the space, and cut the power to the fusion rocket.

Perneas sighed. A cheer went up on the bridge.

*****

'90% sir.'

'Those ships are in firing range.' Said the officer cautiously. 'They aren't even trying to shoot us. They're just maneouvring.'

'No, remember? Lockwood is with us. They could destroy us here and now, but if they do, then Gveinne's son is dead.' Said Perneas, then as an afterthought.

'I wouldn't let any offspring of mine get in the way of victory.'

'95% sir.'

****

The alien appeared once again on the bridge.

"Perneas! You're heading for Fortuna, right? Let's make a run for it, the station can handle things from here! I'll escort you, if you could make it worth the company's time..."

The alien vanished.

'Sir, the alien ship's jumped into hyperspace.'

'What?' The officer's announcement shook the chief engineer out of his reverie. 'Impossible'

'Look for yourself.'

Perneas cleared his throat, 'Begin the preparation to jump.'

****

'100% sir.'

Perneas experienced an insane amount of gravitation pull for that one instant when his molecules were transferred into their tachyonic opposites. He coughed.

'The alien ship is alongside.'

'Very good, the Union won't dare follow us now.'

****

[This message has been edited by Count Altair El Alemein (edited 06-10-2001).]

The shuttle kicked in its afterburner, and shot forward over the asteroid. Another one followed suit, and tagged the forward shuttle with a plasma charge shot. The ionization from the plasma sent the shuttle spinning out of control for a bit before regaining its movement.

"All right, we can do this," muttered Mag under his breath. "How are we, Rob?" he asked. The thin man behind him quickly ran a check of the computers.
"Looks like we're all ri-". Everybody was crushed into their seats as Mag roared off after the shuttle that had just hit him.

As he neared the other Phoenix, it used its afterburner as well to pull further ahead. Mag fired a quick burst, but his shots missed and hit a nearby asteroid. The two shuttles dodged around the asteroids until they neared a buoy. They quickly whipped around it, and headed for the next, both using their afterburners from time to time. Soon, they neared the next shuttle up the line. It had a few zerbilites feeding off it, and wasn't able to hold them off on its own. Mag and the shuttle near him both slowed to a halt and begin firing on the zerbilites. Their plasma charge cannons' swivel mounts allowed for very high accuracy, and the four zerbilites were soon all killed.

The three shuttles shot ahead, quickly forming into a line, with Mag in the middle. A plasma charge shot from the shuttle behind sent him spinning, but he quickly rejoined the race after checking with Rob to make sure his systems were functioning. By now, the group of shuttles had gotten ahead of him, and one of the ones that had previously been behind him was right along side. The shuttle branched off to the right to dodge two asteroids that were about to collide, but Mag kicked the afterburners in, instead, and headed straight for them.

"Ah, ****!" Mag said as he neared the asteroids. There was no way he could make it through before they hit. He switched all available power to engines and shields, and kept the afterburner fully activated. A string of curses came out of Mag's mouth as he neared the two colliding asteroids. Finally, he was between them. Time slowed to an excruciatingly slow crawl. He was passing ahead of them, and they hadn't collided yet. Further forward, further, and now the cockpit was ahead of the asteroids. He would be all right. Then, a loud screeching, crunching noise filled the cockpit, and the shuttle jerked to a stop as the asteriods collided on its engines, and then drifted along after the asteroids bounced away. The computers and controls all shut off, with no power supplying them.

"How badly damaged do you think we are, judging from what you can see from here?"

"Well, we're leaking fuel, we're powerless, and our engines are a crumpled mess," said Katie Marrin, the other mechanic. "Rob, I think we'd better get our suits on and check this thing from the outside. You realize, Mag, that this probably won't be a very cheap repair job."

After Katie and Rob had left, Mag turned to Sam, who was sitting next to him. "Well, can we get the Rift in here?"
"One moment." Sam pulled out his computer pad and worked at it for a bit. "Sorry, Mag, this part of the course is closed to all non-racing ships until it's over. We'll just have to sit tight."
"Bah. Let's tune into the race to be ready to call the Rift in and to pass our time." Mag and Sam began watching an overview of where each racer was on the course and listening to the announcers over the computer pad, and Mag began pushing his thoughts of the repair costs from his mind and began enjoying watching the race. Some of the maneuvers being used were quite good...

------------------
"Thou shalt not be a loser."
[url="http://"http://www.MSPlugDevelopment.n3.net"]www.MSPlugDevelopment.n3.net[/url]
Reviews are appreciated.

[This message has been edited by Mag Steelglass (edited 06-10-2001).]

A racer mag? I can say it's an interesting idea.

*******

The air in the room smelled stale, and the walls and floor were a metallic grey. Captain Perneas sat on a metal chair, at the far end of an eliptic table. Other people sat around him, questioning him, probing him. At the head of the table sat Admiral DuPont, captain Perneas commanding officer. He sat, silent, while the other officers wrangled about captain Perneas' tale.

'So you're saying the alien fired first?' Asked captain Feedlebork.

'Yes sir, that is indeed what I am saying.' Answered captain Perneas.

'Well', said Feedlebork, leaning back on his chair. 'I think we're dealing with a hostile species.'

Perneas made no reply. A raising of an eyebrow was seen on the Admiral's head. He leaned forward, the questions stopped suddenly.

'I understand that the alien is demanding payment. Is this your doing captain Perneas?'

'No sir. The ali - ' The admiral cut him off.

'You know what Perneas? I'm almost tempted to believe you.'

Perneas tried to conceive a hurt expression.

'If there's anyway - '

'Silence you idiot.' The admiral was visibly angry. 'We are Jupiter command, I run jupiter command. We have not, will not, ever hire mercenaries to do our job for us. And if by so chance I did hire mercenaries then I WOULD PAY THEM, ACCORDING ' He was leaning over the desk now, and his face was swollen, 'TO MY OWN TERMS DO YOU UNDERSTAND CAPTAIN PERNEAS?'

'Y- yes sir.'

The Admiral sat down. There was a visible relaxing of officers. DuPont started sifting through a few reports on his desk, then began quietly as if nothing had happened: 'Well captain. We do it appears have recovered your vessels entire memory core for downloading.'

'Wh - what? You said we lost it in th - '

DuPont smiled. 'I never said we lost the datacore, I said we lost 'it', in regards to the temporary computer systems. The extraction of the datacore went along smoothly, and we have everything now.'

'So you can confirm my story - '

'No captain Perneas, no! I will not confirm it, or deny it, neither will you.' He sipped his coffee. 'No one in this room in fact will confirm it or deny it. This story shall remain just as it is now, a story.' He paused dramatically, 'I'm putting the proceedings of these events under a class 9 seal.'

In the silence that followed, you could have heard a pin drop. A couple of captains unconsciously flinched from the inevitable possibility laid out before them.

'That's right gentlemen' he continued. 'Of course, if these aliens become more widespread among us, I may take further steps to conceal them, or even abolish the seal entirely. The public does not need this in their lives.'

A captain raised his hand.

'Yes?'

'What about Neptune command? They should be dealing with this.'

The admiral smiled again.

'No one like to be beaten to the chase. If admiral Murda requests these files, then she shall have them. Let's see how long we can keep this in the darkk eh?' There was scattered laughter.

'Dismissed.'

The captains rose and began walking out of the room, Perneas with them. Just as he was exiting the conference hall, admiral Dupont grabbed his arm.

'Sir?'

'Captain Perneas' he growled, 'You have cost the ESF more than 100 million credits worth of armokur. I won't forget it.'

There was a tense moment for a few seconds as their eyes met. Then DuPont walked out.

Perneas breathed a sigh of relief.

****

'Welcome back captain!' The lieutenant said briskly. 'I see everything went well?'

They walked up the shuttle into captain Perneas' ship, floating above Europa, one of Jupiter's moon. As they walked, Perneas muttered fiercely.

'No lieutenant, everything did not go well.'

They moved up past the various windows that frequented the huge light cruiser. Perneas could see Jupiter from here, indeed there was no way he could not. It covered the window like a giant fluorescent light bulb, or ball of gas. Spinning and swirling ever so slowly. When he was younger, Perneas would sometimes take his fiancee, now dead, to watch the movements of the red spot in the middle. Still it swirled now, as it had swirled then. It had been much better in those days, when he was young, and still had the prospect of a great career. Of course, he did still have one now, but the fire had gone out of him. He was a glowing ember now. The only reason he even joined the federal fleet in the first place was because his parents had, and his parent's parent's. Killed trying to defend Magestic 3 from a Union border raid...

'Open the door captain.' The lieutenants's voice shook him out of his reverie. He clumsily reached for his card, and slid it through the ship's lock. It opened the door, and he walked on to the bridge.

'At ease people.' He moved over to the Comm panel, and switched all the cameras in the room off.

'Contact darkk using that code he gave us.'

Perneas sat down.

'Ahh darkk, nice to see you again.'

The avian's hologram nodded curtly.

'Listen, I might not be able to pay you for this, are you still willing to do something for me?'

'Money is not the only currency we Vylae value. Many times have we worked for pure knowledge or the pursuit of power.'

'Good. Dean Lockwood is being transferred to the Frontline colony prison of Nevkeis 59.'

' - I think the Union will try to bring him back.'

****

Darkk acklowledged, nodding slowly.
"We will come, I suppose. This war of yours is quite interesting, and we owe the Union some payback for some depredations they made a while back. Also, might I add that your negotiating technique could use some improvement, and that you could display a little more backbone?"

"Whaa?? How could you know know how my meeting went..."

"Calm yourself. We are some of the greatest traders living. Over the centuries, we have developed an art of determining another individual's emotional state through unconcious mannerisms, facial tics, that sort of thing. It has reached a point of development where it, when combined with some minor deductive reasoning, can almost convince an observer we are telepathic."

"Still, you haven't had time to study us..."

"Ah, but we have. A different group of humans, quite far away. We didn't have many to study, but a very nice range of them. They were on the run from a group of alien slavers, so we took them in. They bred, and now you can occasionally find them among our crews. We are not so foolish as to insist on our crews being pure Vylae - if we trust another species, they can join us."

"I see."

"In any case, it appears your high command looks unfavorably upon us. I suppose trade treaties are out of the question." Darkk made a small fluttering motion. Perneas supposed it was laughter. "Therefore, I'll try to stay out of sight."

------------------
Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

[I think I built that meeting with Perneas a little out of character.]

*****

The blackness of space presents an interesting backdrop to the desert planet of Nevkeis 3. 2 ships hovered above the blackness, a huge long ship, not unlike the ancient men-of-war a thousand years ago, and another, far more... different one. As the stars's twinkled and the planets moved their slow 30 year rotation schedule up another hour, the ships kept their peace.

'I'm telling you, the Union of World's is coming to destroy you!' Perneas was yelling at the hologram of the prison's commandant. A thin lean man with whispy grey hair. Bemused.

'Is that so now? I'm sorry, but without official permission from Admiral Naccali, no officer may be moved according to the Prison Act clause 39. Please go away.'

'You don't deserve to live.' Perneas switched off the camera.

'It's no good, they won't listen.' He said to the Vylae. 'And I can't attack the prison facility. Unless you have a very fast stardrive, neither can you.'

The Vylae considered the problem briefly, then said.

'We have no choice but to let the Union take Dean Lockwood back.'

'Yes. I wonder what could be so valuable? I know it isn't any affection the Union feels for him. Remember how he ordered his carrier's to fire on us?'

The Vylae nodded.

'Evidently, he has information of use.' It said.

'So one would think. But I can tell you, we humans are experts at torturing ourselves for information. In a prison colony like Nevkeis 59, no one could survive the pain for as long as he has.'

'Perhaps he has a mind block?' Said Darkk.

'A what?'

'A mind block. In some cases, it is possible to set up a subconscious block to accessing parts of the brain. It is conceivable that this man, Dean Lockwood, has a mind block, preventing himself from consciously giving information.'

'Could he still access it?' Asked the captain, his interest piqued.

'With the Vylae yes, but I'm not sure with your kind. If Vylae have ever needed to put a mind-block on a human, and it would be a rare circumstance indeed, the results were not documented for my computer banks. I could access the Vylae Network, but then your superiors would detect my transmission on the super-lightwave channels.'

'Yes, but could you mo - ' Perneas never finished that sentence. As if out of nowhere, atleast a dozen huge ESF cruisers appeared over Nevkeis, almost next to the Vylae Warship. Even with it's engine powered down, at that range, the enemies could easily detect the warship. But the cruisers were on his side weren't they?'

He turned to communications.

'Get me hooked up with that light cruiser at the front will you?'

'Sir.' The man proceeded to tap in his instructions. Suddenly he frowned.

'They're not responding.'

'What?'

'The light cruiser's aren't responding.'

Perneas moved over to the comm board. In red flashing letters was 'Signal Refuted.'

He paused.

'The sons of - Darkk!'

'yes?'

'Get out of there now! It's the Union!'

As the Vylae warship powered up, 2 things happened at once. First of all, a shuttle blasted off from the prison facility, and atleast 5 of the light cruisers began firing on the vylae warship. Though with energy shielding and those missiles, it could still get hurt.

'Darkk, hold on a second...'

'What?' Darkk's skin was slightly off-colour, and Perneas could only imagine the amount of firepower the light cruiser's were pouring into it.

'You're stardrive is more accurate than mine? Could you jump into range of that transport and capture it?'

The Vylae looked away momentarily. Suddenly the ship jumped a few light-seconds into range of the prison facility. Without the means to make an accurate jump at this range, the light cruisers disengaged from their effort and concentrated all firepower on captain Perneas.

'Pull out of here now!'

As the light cruiser jumped out of the system, Perneas could faintly see the Vylae warship picking up the transport that was holding Dean Lockwood.

Mag and his crew were having dinner in the cruise vessel's dining hall, waiting for the awards ceremonies to begin. Outside the window, Mag could see a tractor tug hauling his phoenix over to the Rift, his torpedo cruiser that had been donated to him by the warlord clan Bloodlust after he had helped defend one of their systems from pirates. The entire back end of the shuttle was bent out of shape, and one of the cargo doors was hanging ajar, with a few small tools drifting out from time to time. They weren't much, compared to the prices he'd have to pay to get it fully repaired.

The lights dimmed, and a spotlight came on over the stage, following a representative of Palyos Astromining, the company that had been sponsoring the recent events. The awards were for the race, the dog fights, and the capture the flag game. Mag had only been in the race, and hadn't even completed that. He soon got wrapped up in his own thoughts, thinking about the crash, the other maneuvers he'd seen that he might want to learn, and the price of the repairs.


He snapped back into reality when red lights came on and a siren went off. The commander of the mining station in this system came over the speakers, as the presenter of the awards got muted out. "All people and vessels in system, we are detecting several pirate vessels. Repeat, detecting several pirate vessels. We suggest you scramble or evacuate now. Our own defense ships will be ready in half an hour, but you are on your own until then." People began yelling, and soon there was pandemonium, as everybody ran. Some ran for cover, others ran for their ships, and some ran to the windows to watch the pirate attack.

------------------------
Mag Steelglass opened the door, and walked onto the bridge. Most of the bridge crew was already there, working hard to track the progress of the pirates or to make sure the ship was running smoothly. "Engineering, let's get powered up and ready to head out!"
"Aye, sir, beginning pre-flight check." Came Rob's voice over the intercom. "Sensors?"
"Check," said Kathleen, busily scanning the system map.
"Communications?"
"Everything's working fine," said Sam.
"Propulsion?"
"Engines are warming up, pre-flight test are go." A technician in engineering.
"Power?"
"Check." Another technician.
"Weapons?"
"Online," said the droid at the weapons station.
"Shields?"
"Shield generators operating at 100%. Cloaking device stable." The ship's AI computer.
"FTL and navigation?"
"Check," said Rob from the navigation console.
"Okay, check list is complete. We're ready to roll, Captain."
"Kathleen, where are the pirates, and what're they flying?"
"They're all over the system, but most of them seem to be around the mining station, harassing the miners. A few of them are going for the jumpgates and civilian vessels. Most of the pirate ships are fighters, but there seem to be a few gunboats, as well. "
"All right, let's head on over to the station, under cloak."
"Aye, sir." The ship accelerated, and began cruising at top speed for the station, and faded out of sight. The station was not far away from where the ships had been gathered around the cruise vessel for the awards, and so the trip did not take more than a couple minutes. The Rift was pretty small as far as cruisers went, and was able to easily maneuver about the asteroids. Soon, Mag could see the fighting going on, with the pirates weaving about the asteroids to catch the astrominers as they tried to flee. A few ore haulers were shooting back, but were only able to harass the pirates.
"How soon until they're in torpedo range?"
"Thirty seconds, sir, assuming they do not exit the area," the large droid said. "It will be forty-five seconds until the torpedoes will be accurate enough to be considered efficient."
"Very good. Fire when they're efficient, then. And try to hit those Avengers, they'll give us the most trouble."
"Aye, sir."
Forty-five seconds later, the Rift decloaked, and a salvo of five torpedoes left the ship, and each homed in on a different Avenger. Avengers were fighters created by Flametongue, Inc., and were by far the most powerful fighters on the market. Three of the torpedoes hit their targets, as only two Avengers managed to react in time. Soon, a group of six Avengers had formed up, and was heading for the Rift.
"Be ready to open fire on them. Don't bother with the torps until they're at point blank range, they're ready to avoid them, now. Helm, be ready to dodge some rockets."
"Aye sir."
The Avengers neared, and soon each had fired off two concussion rockets, which were basically unguided versions of the very common concussion missiles. The rockets came in, and the torpedo cruiser's point defense weapons opened fire, destroying eight of the twelve. The other four detonated on the side of the midsection.
"Armor at the point of impact has taken minor damage, and is still holding. Just so long as they don't hit us too much more at the same point, we'll be fine."
"Acknowlaged, engineering." Soon, the fighters had gotten within range of the heavy plasma charge weapons, and "Bug", the spider-like droid serving as weapons officer, opened fire. Four of the Avengers were destroyed instantly, the other two dodged about futilely for a while before being destroyed.
Kathleen spoke. "Sir, several Eluders are decloaking all around us and opening fire." The small fighters sped around the ship, firing on it with their ion turrets. The ion effects were minimal, and didn't effect the ship much. Bug managed to destroy three of them before the other four cloaked and sped off into the asteroids.
On the viewscreen, Mag saw five Quantums heading for them. Quantums, like Avengers, were created by Flametongue, Inc.. However, they were bombers, and were meant for destroying larger vessels, such as torpedo cruisers. Each of them dropped a torpedo, and each torpedo began homing for the Rift.
"Fire back at them, they can't dodge well." Five torpedoes streaked out of the torpedo cruiser, and, unlike with the Avengers, each found their targets. Without the tracking systems on the Quantums providing data, the torpedoes stopped homing, and the Rift managed to pull out of their way by that time.
"What's our status on shields?"
"Shields have regenerated back up to 87%," said the ships computer.
"Um, sir?" Kathleen said. "We... we have a problem. A pair of Stalkers just decloaked. They'll be getting near here in a very short time." Stalkers were battleships that had extensive anti-fighter ionizing weaponry and cloaking devices. Although they were designed to handle fighters, two of them could rip a torpedo cruiser to pieces in a matter of seconds.
"This is going to get interesting," Mag muttered. "Head for the nearest one."

------------------
"Thou shalt not be a loser."
[url="http://"http://www.MSPlugDevelopment.n3.net"]www.MSPlugDevelopment.n3.net[/url]
Reviews are appreciated.

[This message has been edited by Mag Steelglass (edited 06-15-2001).]

Dean Lockwood sat on the metallic colour chair. Around his arms and legs were tapelike starps as strong as the toughest steel. Around his head were a tapestry of thin needles, poking into his brain. Captain Perneas sat down in a chair opposite his victim. Between them was only a table. They were totally alone.

'What is your name?' Asked captain Perneas.

'Dean Brian Lockwood.' The man replied.

'How old are you?' Captain Perneas asked, mildly interested in the answer.

'23.' Said the dribbling man.

'Do you drink?' Said the dark haired captain.

'No.' Said the fair haired ex captain.

'What is your intelligence quotient?'

'196 unaided. 256 aided.' Some more ooze dribbled down his chin.

'Hmmm...' Then, deceptively casual-like; 'Why do you have a mind-block?'

The man said nothing. The engines on the ship buzzed in the background. Some spittle dropped onto the floor. Dean Lockwood leant forward over the table.

'Ilkkrazchonnnono - '

'Stop!' Captain Perneas said for the 13th time.

Dean Lockwood stopped trying to speak.

'What is your name?' Asked captain Perneas.

'Dean Brian Lockwood.'

'How old are you?'

'23 and a half.' Captain Perneas made a note on his electro-pad.

He looked up, and stared at Dean.

'Am I stupid?' He asked.

'Only in the way you do not know what is coming.' Interesting development here, thought the captain.

'How stupid is my sense of what is coming?'

'In the immediate future you are as smart as any of us, but you rush towards your approaching death wi- thout fe-ar.' Dean croaked out of the back of his throat.

'What is fear to you?'

'Fear is the kn-owledge tha-t on-e wi-ll c-an be kill-ed.' He managed.

'What is my approaching end?' Perneas whispered.

'Your deat-h is not pr-edictable. Y-ou may die of a ma-lfunction, o-f a batt-le, of a trait-or, who am I to s-eeeeeee.....' He trailed off. Perneas waited.

'But you will di-eeeeee by th-ee hand....'

'What hand? What are you talking about?'

'The h-and of t-he nnnnnn' He was trying to say something, but couldn't force it between his lips.

'The non? The naa?'

'The naarad. The agents of the naarad. At the hands of the agents of the naarad.' He finished triumphantly.

Perneas stared at him. Suddenly, Dean Lockwood slumped in his seat. The life signs dropped. A dull squeal rang out.

'Sir?' A man was at the doorway.

'Officer, inform mr Darkk I will be meeting with him soon. I wish to speak with his leaders.'

Piemur has just jumped into the mining station to trade advanced ship parts for raw materials when his ship was hit from behind.
"Sensors! What in blazes is happening out there?" he roared. "Seems like the station is under attack by some unknown force...accessing station logs...they think its pirates...and yes, they are attacking the mining shuttles and looting them. Prepare to engage sir?"
"Of course you idiot! Can't you see they're attacking us? We have probably 5 million credits worth of cargo they could use for funding more pirate raids. We definitly dont want to lose half of our profits, do we?"
Within minutes, the entire ship was under full battle alert status and already many gnner stations were firing at enemy ships, being alerted by the rocking of the ship. "Cargo ship #2 is under attack by some of the more advanced fighters, and a Sharpie is occaisionally targeting it with missiles."
"Retreat! Retreat!"
"We can't sir! The jumpgates are far away, and we'd have to get out of the asteroid field before going to hyperspace if we don't want to thoroughly smash ourselves several times in rapid succession."
"Mayday! Mayday! This is the Captain of the heavy cruiser SA.SC.Pern-3. Our merchant fleet is under attack and require assistance! Please respond!"

[This message has been edited by Piemur1 (edited 06-18-2001).]

Darkk reguarded Perneas silently.
"Hmm. I'm beginning to improve my readings of you. The captive is dead. I knew I should have handled this."

"How did you know?"

"No human, however depraved, is devoid entirely of superego. To be so is to be de-souled. You are not de-souled. The guilt shows most clearly in the lower lip, on the left side of the face."

"I don't feel..."

"Of course not. You humans lack the subtlety of conciousness to detect unconscious and subconscious feelings. In any case, we have some information for you. The report on the 'depredations' I spoke of earlier has been released. The Union disabled one of our science ships, and kidnaped Dr. Brill, one of our best xenoneurologists. She origionally developed the technique of mind-blocking a human. After delivering my report, I've been assigned to look into this mess. You have become most usefull to us."

Perneas was disconcerted by Darkk's tone. "So, this means the Union can do mind-blocks at will, eh?"

"Not really. Specialized equipment is required, which as far as we know can only be manufactured on Vylae science ships. The one they disabled destroyed its databanks and nano-fabs upon being boarded, per standard precedure. Ergo the Union is limited to what it stole. A further shame you did not let me do the interrogation, Brill might have added a reverse block as well."

"Reverse block?"

"It responds to a certain code phrase. Whenever this is said, the person will immediatly give out the contents of the reverse block."

"I'm more perceptive than you might think. You're worried about something."

"Well, I guess I can trust you a little. The designer of our energy shell cannon, Dr. Eylla, was also kidnapped."

"Energy shell cannon?"

"It is a weapon of great power, rarely used. We must keep it out of the hands of fools, enemies, and the unstable."

"No, I mean details about it."

"I will tell you that when I need to."

------------------
Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

"So what's the news, sir?"

Captain Mark Pharris, Executive officer of the Union Cruiser USS Xerxes, stood next to his Captain by the radio console on the bridge. Captain Foster Dulles was busy reading the coded dispatch from CINC-SUNSFLT. He paused and looked at his XO.

"Mr Pharris, it would seem that our days of border patrol are over. I am to appoint a new Commodore to this battle group, and we are to take the Andalusa and join Admiral Lockswood in the third fleet. Apparantly the ESF has gotten out of his control despite the new flagship they gave him. But that is of no concequence, because we are abandoning this worthless border post. Frontline combat! Just think about the opportunities for salvage and plunder! We shall make our fortune yet! Come, tonight we dine with the fleet! Call the Captains together, and have the purser bring out some of that fine port we have been saving!"

"Yes Sir!"

The old Captain walked to his chair and unhooked his mic from its cradle. He clicked it on as he adressed the ship. Pharris tapped the radioman on his shoulder.

"Jackson, hail the other ships in the squadron, tell them the captains are all invited to dine with the Commodore. Formal attire, please."

"Aye aye, sir."

Jackson smiled, knowing that good news for the ship was good news for the crew. Two fifths of all prizes was theirs, and for a man living on sailor's wages, the bonus for a good capture was tremendous. He begain composeing the message while Pharris left the bridge, taking the lift down to the mess hall to speak with the purser about preparations for the banquet.

------------------
NEW NAME FOR THE DREADNOUGHT
The Hard-Boiled Egg
Why?
Because she cant be beaten!

[Pharris, I'm ecstatic you've decided to become a Union captain! Perhaps we can get this war on the road ]

Darkk waited a few seconds, then his hologram disappeared.

'Connection terminated.' Said the Comm officer.

Perneas looked at him for a second. Then walked down the bridge until he came to the chief engineer, staring dreamily out into space.

'Ruminating?' Perneas smiled frostily.

'Sir?' The man reached for his coffee cup in an almost self-defensive reaction, then remembered it was empty.

'Did you see any of that?' Asked Perneas in a concerned tone, and pointed at the spot where Darkk was. 'He was talking about Union ships being equipped with some new kind of weapon. Energy shells or something. ESF vessels have been equipped with energy shelled cannons haven't they?'

'No sir.' The engineer looked at him frankly. 'Sir, an energy shell requires a magnetic bottle with a ratio of atleast 2 times the controlling factor of matter inside the sphere. You're thinking of staticly charge railguns, which exhibit congruent properties yet - ' He was cut off by Perneas.

'So an energy cannon is a railgun which fires bottles of pure energy?'

'Essentially sir yes, but you're watering down the terms enormously.'

'Ahh...' Perneas looked at the engineer's coffee cup. 'Go and get 2 coffee cups, you'll have to explain it to me further.'

****

'Captain Perneas if I'm not mistaken?' Said a female voice seated nearest the door.

'Yes madam.'

Admiral Murda regarded him with a neutral expression. So did the others. Admiral DuPont, Admiral Naccali, the Corporate Advisor, several commodores, and the President of the ESF himself, Molex Reeves.

Molex was first to break the silence.

'Well have a seat captain, don't be shy. I understand you have brought with you some valuable information concerning our current crisis.'

He smiled.

Captain Perneas took a seat next to Admiral Murda. In the centre of the room, a holographic projector rose. Captain Perneas handed the Admiral a disk, and Murda inserted it in the projector.

'Any specific point captain?' She asked.

'The whole thing, right from the start.'

She pushed the button, and a dull image rose out of the blackness as the lights dimmed in synchronised fashion.

'This has all my communications between myself and the alien known as Darkk, and the battle at Nevkeis, and the interrogation of the prisoner.'

'Shut up.' Said Admiral DuPont. Perneas could tell he was in bad spirits.

Darkk appeared on the viewscreen.

"I'm afraid that you'll have to tear each other to pieces elsewhere. This space is territory of the Vylae Trading Consortium, protected under treaty. I believe if you look about 12° to the Galactic West, you will see our outpost."

*******

'Well well well.' Said the President in a magnanimous tone of voice. 'I didn't know a lot more than I thought I knew about my Admiral's operations. That encounter of yours was beautifully planned Admiral DuPont.'

Admiral DuPont smiled graciously.

Perneas felt compelled to make a reply.

'What do you mean planned?'

DuPont chuckled. 'Really captain, you don't expect it was some vulgar accident? Of course it was planned.'

Everyone looked slightly amused, except the President.

'Now now Admiral, you're not giving enough credit to captain Perneas. If that transmission was any judge, he knew nothing about the whole thing.' He said.

Admiral DuPont recoiled from this criticism, and cast a baleful glare at Perneas.

'Atleast it didn't cost us anything' Said the corporate advisor. 'I almost had to adjust my budget for that first encounter.'

Admiral Murda leant forward and took the film out of the holo-viewer, frozen as it was on Darkk's final expression.

'Pity the prisoner died, but I don't suppose you could have made sure your copy of the film was entirely accurate if you hadn't been the interviewer.' Said Admiral Murda.

'What? I though you told me to arrange that because you didn't trust him!' Said Perneas, in a furious tone.

'Calm down captain, there as no other way.'

'For enough money I'm not so sure.' Interjected Naccali. 'Atleast we know what kind of species we're dealing with, greedy and intelligent.'

'Are you saying that's bad Thanatos? Atleast we live by the same standards, and they seem far more orderful and directed.' Replied Molex Reeves. 'I would like to set up a consulate with them, but I don't suppose we have anything they would want to buy, and we couldn't afford anything they had.' Laughter.

'Can we move on to more important matters please?' Asked Admiral DuPont in an icy tone of voice.

'Course Admiral.' Said Molex. He scanned his list.

'3rd item for today is about armokur stockpiles, but since we have the captain here, I would like to skip to item number 7 and 8 respectively. Item 7, is a technological comparison of our technology and the Union's. Admiral Murda, if you please?'

She nodded, and stood up holding a remote control, turning to one of the walls, she flicked a switch, and it unveiled a huge 2-D viewer screen. All members rotated their chairs.

'As you know, the Union's technology is superior to ours, as they have stronger armour, heavier weapons and more advanced stardrives. Recently their advantages have become so great, that we will be forced to battle whether we like it or not. The source of their technological expertise is not known, but not all of it can come from pirate raids on other species.'

The viewer clicked onto a shaky picture of what could be likened to an upright beetle.

'This is the only picture of a Naarad we have, otherwise I could tell you more about their biological systems. The position they hold over Union society us relatively difficult to judge, but they seem to be assisting the Union for reasons unknown.'

The picture moved over to a picture of a major Union shipyard, with ships in production, and 2 strange blue ones docked nearby.

'So that was what Dean was talking about.' Muttered Thanatos Naccali.

Admiral Murda paused.

'When you're ready?'

'My apologies.' Said Naccali.

'This is a picture of 2 naarad warships, and they are quite different from our own. If you look closely' She magnified the image. 'You can see their weapons are very similar - ' The picture slided into 2, this time of a Union corvette top-side ' - to the Union, but slightly more powerful, which gives us reasons to suggest they aren't giving away their best tricks till last.'

'Excuse me Admiral,' Said Molex Reeves. 'How could you tell if they're more powerful than the Union ones, if we've never fought Naarad ships?'

Admiral Murda looked at Admiral DuPont for a long second.

'President?' Said Admiral DuPont. 'We have fought naarad ships, but only once.'

'Why wasn't I told?' Asked Molex angrily. 'Admiral Naccali did you know of this?'

Admiral Naccali shook his head.

'You weren't told, because the information was... very disturbing and unreliable.' Said Admiral Murda.

'Bull****.' Said Molex, now extremely angry. 'It is your duty to tell me EVERYTHING! If you don't, then you give me reason to doubt the competence of your service to the ESF.'

'I'm sorry sir, I will replay it after this.' Said Murda.

'There isn't much point.' DuPont muttered. 'We get slaughtered.'

'This is out of place.' Said Molex waving his arms about, 'Continue Murda.'

'Well, basically the Union uses 2 main weapons that are very different from ours. Plasma weapons, which are reasonably widespread, and Fusion Rockets, which are isolated on the Union Battlecruisers.'

The picture split into 5 different ships.

'The fighter shown on the left uses machineguns, and is just like our fighter, but extremely strong due to their gravsteel construction.'

'Sorry Admiral, how much stronger?' Asked Naccali.

'7 and a half times stronger.' Said Murda.

DuPont rolled his eyes.

'It also has a one-time plasma discharge. The next ship is the corvette, practically a larger fighter. It uses the same weapons as the fighter, but also has a plasma launcher, and a large charge of plasma. The heavy destroyer, ' She continued; 'has guided nuclear missiles, but the payload suffers due to it's extensive guidance system. The next is the escort carrier, with advanced neutron missiles and carries 2 fighters, and next is the battlecruiser.' She paused for breath.

'The battlecruiser has 3 times as many plasma outlets, turreted machineguns, and a fusion rocket. It is capable of defeating any ESF ship one-on-one.'

She flicked the picture off, and sat down.

'Interesting admiral, but how does that help us?' Asked Denarj Nefalk, corporate advisor.

'I'm just giving you an idea of their strengths' She replied. 'Union ships are on average much much stronger because of their gravsteel, but suffer very much from it's extreme inertia. They have to use fusion engines just to move forward, and the fighter performs like a slug compared to ours.'

'What's next on the list?' Said Admiral DuPont.

'Umm...' The president scrolled down. 'Union ships have been amassing at our border, under the command of...' He paused. 'Well that's an interesting coincidence!'

'What sir?' Asked Perneas eagerly.

'Admiral Gveinne Lockwood. Of the 3rd fleet.' He laughed, 'What good spies you have Murda!'

She gazed at him solemnly.

'This is no time to joke Reeves. That fleet alone has enough firepower to blast Earth to pieces.'

Everyone sat silently contemplating this for a moment.

'Captain Perneas...' Said DuPont; 'You're presence here as been most helpful, and you may now leave for the border world of Magestic 3. We will be keeping the disk, and once again thanks. If you encounter Darkk again, please don't enlist his help. If the Union attacks, though, you have a blank cheque as far as hiring Vylae warships is concerned.'

Captain Perneas rose and bowed to the assembly, who nodded at him.

Then left the room.