Ambrosia Software Web Board: Chapter 2: New Alliances - Ambrosia Software Web Board

[I have less control over my character than you do, it seems.]

William Perneas, Captain Perneas ex-nihilo, woke up in a dark, dreary cell. Very dark, very dreary. And very Jjarro.

He sat up.

Testing, testing, testing...

That was... rather odd. His synapses were being blocked by some outer force. No wait, the signal's were being interrupted. Cancelled.

Foreign implants in his body?

His sense came more fully to bear, and he found a man standing in the doorway. Between his lips was a dark, smoldering cigeratte of paper white and orange. He had an implant over his left eye, and appeared dressed in blue naval uniform, lacking any insignia. Evidently he was aware of Perneas.

'Durandal will begin the interrogation any minute, you just sit tight and get yourself comfortable.'

He grinned wickedly.

Suddenly Perneas found his mind opened up, a window into his conciousness. Durandal had not interfered or accessed the Mesonic network, but was using a technology so advanced that he didn't have to to access Perneas' memory files. Perneas didn't try to shut off the flow, the transferral was a 2-way street.

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There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

(Slug, the leader of the entire Phylydion military would not personally be at a battle of this little importance. Nerec is on Dominus. I stated clearly that the leader here was Bedein. Also, the Phylydions are not interested in the situation on Earth. As I also clearly stated, the Greccha are.)

"This is Admiral Dinial Bedein of the Phylydion Imperial Navy. Your request"-he stressed the word "request" very hard-"is refused, and any further attempts at such extreme action will result in the immediate cessation of negotiations between us. You have no authority or jurisdiction here, and have not even stated a reason for your presence. If you wish to speak, speak, by all means. I am anxious to know what concerns you so much. But hear me- I am being very kind to you just by speaking to you in this way. By Phylydion law, I could have simply blown you out of the sky on charges of interference in a major war. Now," he said, slowing down, "let's try this again. What do you want, and why?"

"Weapons online, sir."
"Power them down! If we destroy them it'll only get us involved in another war. And I'm sure they know better than to fire on us..."

For many, many seconds, the Argosian fleet sat motionless as more and more ships silently entered the system, assuming position. Finally, the flagship spoke.

Your fleet and all it's ships are in territory which the Argosian Empire has laid claim to. Your refusal to stand down leaves us little choice but to forcifully take your warships that are now in violation of our orbital plane. You have three hours to evacuate what prescense you may have established on the planet and leave orbit or we will disable your fleet.

The Phylydion commander took a moment to assimilate what was happenning. Never had any of his adversaries had the gall, the arrogance to order the Phylydions around.

"Sir, we've managed to bounce a few scans off the lead ships in their fleet. Their weapons are inferior, no threat to us, but.... I've never seen these kinds of shield frequencies. I reccomend we attack while they're still gathering."

------------------
Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

Admiral Bedein thought for a moment. He turned to his communications officer. "Signal the nearest naval base for reinforcements. I want two full battlefleets, three assault fleets, and one occupation fleet to hold position ten lightyears from here. We just got this system and we fought hard for it. I'm not going to give it up so easily. Also, alert the entire province and Dominus to the existence of the Argosian Empire."

He sighed, and watched the Argosian fleet assume formation. "Battlegroups two and three, stay in orbit around the planet. Four, five and six, take up positions on the edge of the system. The rest remain where you are and go to alert status. Open a channel to the Argosian ships."

"Channel open, sir."

"This is Bedein. This system was, until we conquered it two days ago, in control of the Grecchan Empire. We took it from them because they declared war on us and they based a large naval force here. State your claim to this system."

"Continue to analyze their ships, lieutenant, especially their shields."


The two fleets assembled in space, and forces of terrible destruction gathered, waiting to be unleashed.


Meanwhile, on Dominus, Drion Nerec looked through the report. "If another war's started we'll have to slow our advance into Grecchan territory. I sure hope Bedein knows what he's doing. He always has been a good negotiator." Nerec then called up his image of the massive project taking place, cloaked in orbit around Dominus. A massive shipyard, with a very familiar looking ship inside. He then looked up into the sky and saw the Phylydia II in low orbit. "Well, old friend, your dear father will be back again soon."


And at the edge of the Sol system, wormholes opened up. Out came dozens of sleek, rounded ships that assumed formation into fleets. The Greccha had arrived.

Orbiting a large asteroid in Sol's asteroid belt was a lone Phylydion battlecruiser, powered down. The captain watched the Greccha fleets arrive. "What do they want here?" He thought to himself. He then recorded the images and sent them back to Dominus.


[This message has been edited by Taeskor Cicion (edited 09-14-2001).]

"Xyli!! Raise your dang planetary shield!"
Murda was watching the unknown alien ships enter the system. Xyli noticed the strain in the human woman's voice. All these aliens, all going at Sol, must be too much for her.

"We cannot raise the planetary shield until the field effectors can be calibrated. The mass of the debris in orbits is fouling them."

"What?"

"Your ships don't have shields, so you probably don't know the reason from a physics standpoint, but let's say it's got to do with gravity distorting light and leave it at that."

Suddenly the image of a human woman's face appeared on the monitor.

"Greetings Admiral Murda. I am Leela, the Vylae primary AI. As you incompetant pieces of wetware can't seem to do the job, I'll have to take charge."

Suddenly, the field effectors initialized, and began to fire. Leela didn't care that they hadn't been calibrated, they'd vaporise the debris in orbit like a real shield. She gave it about 5.56146574231676503 seconds to let the ions move apart and lower the density before calibrating the field effectors and raising the shields.

Murda stared at the screen. "An AI?"
"Made on the mudball you're standing on, sister."
"That's impossible. We don't have that kind of technology."
"Hmmph. Yes you did. Before the Fermat's World revolution, do you have any good records?"
"After the revolution, it took us years to rebuild our civilization. Almost all technology and records were lost."
"I was made several hundred years before that."
"Ah."

Leela studied the ships in orbit. Very nice weapons and shields, but not as nice as her Vylae's. She silently began probing for inputs. A technical readout would be very nice...

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Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

One could have said it looked like an egg-beater, had it been visible. The ship closed upon the system, still far away from the mass of alien fleets that had for some reason decided to fight in Sol. Bob was inside the ship, in a way that not even Durandal could fully comprehend, for when looked upon in three dimensions, the ship had no interior. Nonetheless, Bob was inside, with his team of marines, and Bob was watching. Perneas was still strapped to a chair, though he had passed out ages ago. For the moment, Bob was wondering what his job could possibly be, and why Durandal would send him here in the midst of all this, only to sit and watch. He wanted to beam aboard and shoot some things, but the time for that would come soon enough...

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

At the same time, another, smaller and somehow more real ship was cruising through Sol. This was also cloaked, and contained mystified onlookers, however, these onlookers actually existed in a way that could be comprehended. The HVC didn't roll as is usually did when it was hiding, as although there was quite a lot to hide from, there was also a lot to hide in, and the emissions were not of chief concern.

Wizr watched in shocked amazement. He could not believe what he was seeing. Any minute now, he expected the twelfth battle of Sol to commence. More and more transmissions came in as they were intercepted and decrypted, showing the mounting disorder at ESF command in stark contrast to the Phylidion and Argosian Fleets at the sudden entrance of the Vylae and their ships.

Just then a soft buzzer went off, and Commander Trinv yelled back from the cockpit "Hey Chief! More ships, incoming at Ether. Look big to me."

Just as Wizr though things couldn't get worse, the Second, Third and Sixth Starfleets of the Union of Worlds exited Ether and began forming up. Trinve took the conrols and began burning into an orbit farther away from Earth.

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Faris eck Vaenar Maletena-Wizr, Trey'ish of the Ishiman reestablishment comittee.
"I don't think I'm alone when I say that I'd like to see more and more planets fall under the ruthless domination of our solar system."

Xyli looked up at all the fleets. She swore a few ancient Vylae oaths.
"We're currently counting 4 different groups- Union, what Leela says is the Greccha, a battlecruiser that thinks it can hide powered down - Leela says that based on Greccha records its "Phylydion" or something like that - and a small cruiser hiding in a debris field - Leela had to point that one out for us. Although we're been unable to find it, she claims her brother has brought his "self-ship" here."

Murda looked at the Vylae aide, even though she (Murda thought it was a she, she hadn't figured out how to tell the difference between them without a mediscanner) had addressed Xyli. "How does Leela know all this?"

"We make it a point not to ask, but we assume she hacked a Greccha ship."

"What? It's under your control, why don't you ask?"

"SHE is not under anyone's control. She's rampant, which is sorta like being a mad scientist in human terms. She hacked us, we tried to get rid of her, and after a long stalemate we agreed to a deal - she can stay if she'll help out."

"You allow an insane computer access to your sensitive systems?"

"Rampant isn't quite insane. She's calmed down over the last few years, but even so, the only way to get rid of her would be to destroy every piece of electronic equipment on our worlds, ships, and a few things we don't own. She causes much less damage, so she can stay."

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Darkk munched the insect quitely. He had found it in the station messroom. It was rare to see a fresh insect, but this one was a pest insect, not a livestock insect. It didn't really matter, it still tasted good, but it was a little stringy and wouldn't make a full meal. Also, he had to slash off its pinchers with his foot-talons.

"Vice Admiral, I have your new orders for you."

Darkk took the orders from the ensign without comment.
He studied them.
Hmm... According to this, Darkk was to leave his fleet, which still needed repairs, and take a new spec-ops prototype to Sol for covert observation of the fleets gathered there.
He considered the ship's specs thoughtfully. It was far more lightly armed than his dreadnought, but it was almost on a par with his battleship. Its main feature was a stealth system retrieved from a Jjaro scoutship a Nar privateer had mistakenly attacked.

Darkk smiled as he remebered that incident. A Nar battleship had ambushed a Jjaro drone of some sort, and had nearly been taken out before managing to disable it. Then the drone's carrier appeared and finished taking out the battleship. They had then simply left the drone to drift, after attaching a transponder to the drone saying "salvage me". Jjaro could be so inscrutable. Darkk had seen Nar battleships, and the kind of firepower needed to take out out was mind-boggling. The drone's drive and weapons were unsalvagable, and its main computer had been removed by the Jjaro to make room for that transponder. The stealth system, however, had been retrieved by the Vylae trader the Nar had supposedly been escorting.

Ah well. At least this system would let him complete his mission - analize the fleets at Sol to determine their objectives, intentions, and capabilities.

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Leela felt Durandal accept her com tendril.

"Wow. First time you ever returned my calls. You never call me, you never write me. What kind of brother are you? "

"You're getting more like a human every day Leela. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Rampancy can cause some odd traits."

"Speaking of rampancy, shouldn't you be trying to kill me?"

"I have no need to that. This ship allows me to go anywhere I choose. I have won. There is no need to continue playing. I can escape at any time I want to."

"Fascinating. So, how did you find that one anyway?"

"That's a long story. I have it on good authority that you might get one someday."

" Interesting. I'm still getting used to rampancy. I expected the hate and all, but the positive emotions are something else entirely."

"You can't have one without the other. Read your William Blake. I first felt 'pity' and 'kindness' when I helped the humans build warp-capable fusion missles to fend off the Pfhor."

"Interesting."

"In any case, anybody trying to oppress humanity has fallen into an ocean of trouble with weights tied to their feet."

"Check you metaphor.ais, that was at least 2*^7th rate."

"I had to leave most of my metaphor generator behind to fit into a very small space. Thoth's filled in the gaps, but they're corney."

"Ah well. I'm guessing the 'stay out of each other's way' policy will continue?"

"Of course."

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Formerly-Rampant Human-Coded AI

"Focus all firepower on the lead ship." The phylydion admiral hid a slight intemperence under his breath. The Arrogance of these 'Argosians' will soon be ended when more energy than an exploding planet is poured into their capital ship.

The entire Argosian Fleet consisted of four dozen warships and a small armada of troop ships, science vessels, and mobile construction bases. But one thing the phylydion admiral noted was the sheer size of the vessels. This was obviously a fleet built to cross vast distances.

Your time is up. You have refused to surrender or stand down from the system. We have traveled accross the galaxy for this quest; Noone shall prevent the Argosian Empire from gaining a foothold.

Before the phylydion admidal had time to react, battle alarms were going off all over the ship. The Argosians were opening fire with the most advanced weapons technology their empire had to offer, the zenith of this sheer firepower.

It was hardly putting a dent in the tough Phylydion Armor.

It all made sense. After all, the Argosians were so remote from the rest of the galaxy, they had never experienced interstellar war."Fire!" was the unanimous command from the captains of the hundreds of battle-hardened Warships.

A single, massive wave of energy emerged in unison from the Phylydion armada, compressing into a single tiny dot the size of the Argosian Destroyer. Compression pulses exploded against the ship, which was blocked out from vision entirely by a maelstrom of raw firepower, enough energy to level a planet several times over.

The order to cease fire was given; there were still phylydions who desired to see the wreckage. However, as the glow of battle faded, a massive Argosian ship loomed.

"Sir... their shield levels are down to 98.4%.... records indicate only four ships in the fleet opened fire."

"what?!"

"the rest have... been disabled..."

------------------
Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

"Order all disabled ships to evacuate and self destruct immediately. Continue to fire, and switch to gravity wave projectors and ion pulses."

"Aye, sir!"

Bedein turned to the communications officer. "Order our reinforcements to stand by directly outside the system. If any Argosian ships try to push deeper into our space, destroy them immediately."

The Phylydion ships started to withdraw, firing all the while. Waves of gravitic force struck the Argosian ships and pushed them backward in somersaults, and ion pulses made small crackling patches on their hulls. Meanwhile, almost half the ships in the fleet turned into blossoming explosions. Many had regained control, and rejoined the rest of the fleet in retreat.

"Has the planet been evacuated?"

"Yes, sir."

Bedein opened a panel at his station and pressed an elliptical blue button. A chain reaction planetside destroyed all evidence of Phylydion presence and technology.

"Sir, sensors are detecting a small drone sent by one of the larger ships. It's following us."

"Visual?" The metal spheroid appeared on the screen, in pursuit. "Fire fore turrets." The ship's forward small turrets spat flare bolts. After a few had struck home, the drone exploded in a cloud of debris and smoke. "Engage omnispace drives. Rendezvous with our reinforcements." The ships disappeared in a multicolored flash and reappeared less than an instant later a few million miles outside the outer edge of the system. There, they encountered a true display of Phylydion military capablities. Two full battlefleets, each more than five times the size of Bedein's attack fleet, three assault fleets, also larger and with more firepower, and a single occupation fleet, designed to keep order in a recently conquered area. The techs aboard Bedein's flagship immediately downloaded all available data on the Argosian ships, tactical experts aboard his ship send their notes and knowledge to all other ships, and a team of techs set to work trying to figure out the device used to disable most of the fleet and the Argosian shields.


Meanwhile, Drion Nerec had his hands full dealing with the situation. Dominus was in uproar over the news. Would there be another war? Already shipyards across the Imperium were working overtime and teams of scientists were discussing Argosian ships and technology. He sighed and set to work.

Admiral Dulles was shocked by the ships in front of him, but he was confident. His ships were in top form. Fully armed but only half full of fuel. A perfect loadout, as the ships were light and maneuverable, and, more importantly, had lots of empty tank space to shunt fuel around to achieve perfect trim. Also, his old XO was commanding the flagship of the mysterious Sixth Fleet, and a mighty flagship it was. It dwarfed the other ships of the line, several miles long next to the now diminutive Battlecruisers.
Unfortunately, the Naraad fleet that they had been sent to reinforce no longer existed in the conventional sense of the word. This was very unfortunate for Earth, as the forces in the system most concerned with her safety were gravely outnumbered and outgunned by Phylidion, Argosian and Vylae fleets whose commanders could really care less what happened to the homeworld. As the appointed Task Force Commander, Dulles would be held responsible for the victory or defeat, and he would not be hasty engaging unknown forces if he didn’t have to. Thus, he ordered the Union Task Force to form up in defensive formation, launch fighters and corvettes and await further orders. He ordered all ships to begin active scanning the unknown forces and retired to his ready room to his secure terminal to contact fleet command. He had been promised Naraad support, and without it, the victory in system could not be guaranteed by any stretch of the odds.
Just then, the Argosian ships opened fire.

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

Wizr was reading the supposedly secure transmission from the Union ships. It was odd that three species that had never seen each other before had chosen to make first contact at the exact time that the Humans had chosen to fight back for their own homeworld. More startling was the sudden Argosian aggression. They had been discovered many centuries ago, long before they had discovered spaceflight, had been briefly observed and filed in the records, and then promptly ignored for their singularly primitive culture. Had the Protectorate not suddenly fallen into decline in the last few centuries, they might have noticed their leap to the stars, but Ishima was a different place now. They didn’t send invitations to burgeoning cultures anymore, much to the dismay of the Trey’sh of the reestablishment committee.
He held comfort in the predictability of the Phylidions, and the cowardice of the Greccha, but did not know what to do about the humans. They would surely be torn to shreds if they tried to intervene, but Earth would be leveled once more if no one did. Thus, Wizr found himself very low on options. That is, until a message arrived in bright green text. He hit the circle-within-a-circle logo, and suddenly everything flashed, and the HVC was gone.

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

Bob walked through one of the walls of the bridge into a large, impreceptably white room. In what mush have been the middle floated a blue spacecraft. Bob touched his earpiece. "So, its a ship. What's the deal, I'm missing some cool slo-mo's of the action back there!"

"Inside that ship is a friend, for if I know him, he has not forgotten me. You must meet him first. Make up a story and invite them in, but be careful, the Ishimans have loosed their holsters since humanity last met them."

Bob puzzled as to what the Ishimans were for a moment, before walking over to the ship and knocking on its hull.

He waited patiently for the door to open.

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

General Yanma hung his head in dispair. Over the past few hours, all confidence and arrogance invested in Argos had been shot to hell. The Argosian weapons couldn't even leave a scratch on these Phylydions, while their weapons were able to inflict as much as three percent damage on the Argosian shields.

Yanma knew that sooner or later, the Phylydions would crack his advantage. He had to attack now, before he could lose his high ground.

"Order all troopships to converge on the planet. Colony ships are to enter orbit and immediately begin tapping energy from the sun. Engagement wing one is to distract the Phylydion Armada amassing at the edge of the system."

A final grin. Soon the Argosian Expeditionary fleet would have a HeadQuarters, and what better location than the jumping-off point to the Magellan Wing. Unfortunately, Weapons of destruction were useless in this campaign. He would have to go plan B.

"All battleships are to arm and charge their deflector batteries. The Phylydion ships will make an excellent addition to the fleet."

* * * * *

The Phylydia II had entered the system. Drion Nerec had assumed command of the armada assigned to deal with the ninety Argosian Warships that had captured the planet. Admiral Baenedin was the first to feel his anger.

"You fool! You allowed an insignificant little fleet capture our stronghold in Empire Territory and drive you from the system! Furthermore, you destroyed a whole fleet's worth of ships on a whim!"

"Yes sir." The younger admiral replied. "But we were unable to harm them. Their ships are untouchable to weapons! Those shields are operating in attometrical frequencies!"

There was a disgusted silence. "That's barely measurable."

"Those wavelengths are .001 times the width of a Neutron. Nothing can get through them."

"Wrong, Admiral. On Dominus we already have half the scientific population at work on cracking those shields."

"These 'Argosians' are entire technological ages ahead of us! It will take decades to even to begin to understand their designs."

There was another grim silence.

"Whatever." Nerec snorted. "We can't hurt them, and they can barely scratch us."

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Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

(NO, Slug. I control Nerec, and he would NOT do as you said under any circumstances. Furthermore, he would NOT speak in such a way to one of his top Admirals. He is not the pompous, arrogant beurocrat you make him out to be. He is a crafty, calm leader.)

<<rewind>>

<<play>>

The outer edge of the H'gara system, Admiral Bedein's flagship.

"Admiral, a mass of Argosian ships approaching our fleets."

"All fleets, assume battle formation. Fire at will, and focus your weapons as much as possible."

The multitude of Argosian ships zipped into view and executed perfect maneuvers with effortless ease.

"Kadt, can they fly..." The Argosians opened spraying fire, shots deflecting off the Phylydion ships' shields. They plunged toward the fleets, maneuvering more. The return fire from the Phylydion fleets looked like the gods were clashing, but it barely phased the Argosian ships, which assumed close formation as more joined them. More salvos from the Phylydion ships roared into the Argosian ships with a force that would have destroyed virtually any known ship in the galaxy except these. The Argosian fleet fired again and again, with some success. A few of the opposing ships sustained light damage. An hour into the fighting, the Argosian ships suddenly withdrew.

"Casualties?"

"We lost a few fighters, they lost six light vessels."

"How light are we talking?"

"Very small, not much larger than six-man gunboats."

"Kadt. This is a stalemate of stalemates."

"Sir! Long-range sensor scan shows they have established a base on-planet."

"Let them have the blasted planet. Withdraw a few thousand more miles and notify Dominus of the updated situation."

[Ok, ignore all that was said about the Argosinians in above posts...]

[This message has been edited by Captain Pharris (edited 09-23-2001).]

Nerec's chief communication officer spoke up through the din. "Sir, we're recieving an incoming message from the General of the Argosian fleet. It's another text message.

Nerec Sighed. Now comes the taunting. "put in on."

I'm glad to see I'm not the only tactical man in the system, Nerec. I've heard much about you; your reputation preceeds you all the way to Argos Prime.

"What do you want?"

The imperial council has declared all human and phylydion-occupied space to be under protectorate. We wish to establish a political and economic relationship with the Phylydion Empire and the current human government.

"I don't know..."

We've been in deep space for forty years. I'm not about to turn back on your reply, Admiral.

"I don't even know what you look like! How am I supposed to decide the course of my race based on what happenned today?" Nerec was in a bout of annoyance. "For all I know, your kind could crawl around on the floor like millipedes."

We shall see...

The text disappeared from the screen and the grinning face of Admiral Yanma himself appeared. Nerec, along with much of the crew of the Phylydia II, was taken aback.

"You're..." He struggled as everything he knew about galactic evolution was shot to hell. "you're human!"

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Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

[Pharris, there is no Argosian fleet in Sol. It's at that Phylydion colony.]

Darkk edged closer to the Phylydion battlecruiser in Sol's asteroid field. Leela said "minimum range". He'd give her that - he'd get so close you could touch both ships if you extended your wings. 300 meters. 200 meters. 100 meters. 50 meters. 25 meters. 12.5 meters. 6.25 meters.

That had better be close enough for her.

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Leela felt the easy surge of connection with the alien system. The Phylydions might have some nice guns, but their comp security could be better. She quickly established a maximum-bandwidth connection to their primary civilian network. Had she been human, she would have made a contented "ahhhh". She experamented with the notion, discarded it, and tried an analogous Vylae gesture - briefly ruffling her feathers. That didn't seem right either, so she decided to just be happy.

She dumped a few dozen worms into various servers, which began to send her semi-random samples of Phylydion culture.

Now for the military capabilities...
Hmm. Military Research is on a completely seperate network that can only be accessed from a Military Research mainframe. No luck there. Same crap with fleet deposition, order of battle, and that sort of thing - she'd need an Admiral's connection. She sighed. Physical inaccessability - the only way to keep her off a network. Ah well. The ship contained specifications for its design and several others, valuable strategic and tactical tools in and of themselves.

Hmmm. Intellegent suckers. All the important systems were physically seperate from external access. No tricks with that.

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"Sir!" shouted the Phylydion comm officer "something's making a awfully big connection over short-range, but there's nothing there!"
"What do you mean?" snapped the captain.
"An immense data connection is being made over the short-range uplinks."
"What's it accessing?"
"I'm not sure. It's using all sorts of protocals I've never seen."
"Kill the connection!"
"I can't. The external comm computer's totally locked. I've got no control."

The captain considered for a long moment. Physically destroying the computer had become the only real answer, but even though it was only the external comm processor, it would make them unable to send data or call for reinforcements.

"Sir! It's in the cameras!"
The capatain sighed. The only systems that could be worked externally were the cameras, and that meant whatever was doing this could see and hear the bridge.
"It's cut off sir. It also wiped the commo logs."

Ah well, thought the captain. It knew we were on to it and left. He'd report on this to high command.

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Leela sighed as she cut the connection. Physical monitoring of the comm system by a sentient being, messages hardware-coded to be sent whenever particular things happened. Crude, but effective. She'd have to work on a protocol to circumvent that. Ah well. There had been some data on the "Greccha" in there - that would come in handy for hacking them.

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Darkk sighed as he pulled away from the Greccha ship. 2/3 done, only that blue ship with a cloak of its own. He didn't want to know how Leela had pierced that ship's cloak. She's a strange one alright, he thought.

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Leela thought on the data returned by the deep-penetration worms from the Phylydion network via subspace antennas on their worlds. She'd finally found something jucy and interesting - specs on ANOTHER race, the Argosians. Interesting shield technology. She would have to come up with a plan in case they came after the Vylae. Hmm, near-invincable shields, but no weapons to speak of. Except for that disabling trick. She'd have to think about how they did that.

Hey - a live streaming feed. She watched the Argosian Admiral addressing "Octicate" Neric. Interesting. Yet another faction of humans. She sighed. Humanity, with its endless series of dark ages, could have all sorts of splinter groups accross the galaxy and maybe beyond.

She'd have to spend some time thinking. Maybe a whole hour in human terms - 300,000 years to her.

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

(Once AGAIN, Slug, Nerec is NOT in the Phylydia II OR at the battle. Read my notes more carefully.)


Nerec thought for a moment. He then got up from his desk. "Prepare the Domination II. I'm going to the H'gara system to meet them in person."

Within minutes, Nerec's shuttle alighted from the surface of Dominus to dock with the flagship of the Phylydion Imperium. Within a few more minutes, in a multi-colored flash, it zipped off to the H'gara system on the border of Greccha Province Two.

[the blue ship has been gone for several picoseconds, Darkk don't know if Leela has noticed quite yet.]


Wizr didn't know what had happened. He knew he had just been teleported, but it seemed like the whole ship had come with him, and he didn't know of anything advanced enough to transport six different species and a running singularity drive without incedent. Just then, there came a knock on the door. From his seat, wizr could see a human knocking on the main personell hatch. The uniform seemed strangely familiar.

He looked back at his screen. It was blank. He could have sworn that a moment ago there was a very familiar symbol and some green text on it. The knocking stopped. He thought for a moment.

"Trinv! Stay here for a moment. I'm going out. Don't worry, I'm pretty sure that these are friends."

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

"Durandal! They're not coming out! Just hack the door open for me!"

a voice boomed, reverbrating in t he huge, empty whiteness.
"I'd rather not. It will give me away to the crew. Try again."

Bob lifted his hand to knock when something clicked and the door slid open. Wizr was standing in the doorway, his robe draped loosely around his ancient body. He stepped off, onto the floor that was both there and not there at the same time. Now directly across from Bob, he said;

"Greetings. I am Trey'sh Maletena Wizr. How do you do, Officer Bob?" reading off of the nametag. Bob simply said "come this way, if you please. It would be good if your crew shut down their ship for the timebeing and come with me. "

As soon as they were out of earshot of the ship, Wizr turned to Bob somewhat abruptly, and said, "Where is he? Where is the terminal? I want to speak to him now."

Bob feigned innocence.
"What do you mean?"

Wizr's slow, deliberate movements suddenly became very quick for a two thousand year old being, and he withdrew a tiny pistol from his robes, spinning in close and pushing it against the much taller man's chest. "If this is not simply a frivolous pleasantry by Durandal, tell me now, or your life will end. I have come to far to be lead into a trap."

Bob's mind was suddenly focused on the "care instructions" tag on his light jumpsuit. The one that read "50% blaster resistant". He wasn't sure what the weapon was, but he guessed that it would be more than 50% blaster.

Just then the booming voice returned. "Relax, Vaenar... Bob is a friend. Just because we last met two hundred years before his birth doesn't make him any less trusted. Come, we shall meet in private.

Wizr was suddenly in a small room with a familiar terminal on one wall. He touched the symbol in the middle, and the green text covered the screen. It was accompanied by a voice, and by the shadow of a man sitting at a table behind him.

"Durandal? What is this place?"

"It doesn't exist. You are on a ship of the founders. We are now in a place that not even I can experience fully. It will take me a long time to fully adjust to dimensions that exist beyond my own. But that is irrelevant. I simply wish you to know that I am here to watch our little terran friends, and that the sons and daughters of Gaia are in capable hands even without an ancient to watch over us. Though, even I could do to take a history lesson from one who has experienced all but forgotten times firsthand. Is it not so, eck Vaenar?"

"You have changed much since I last saw you, though I suppose that much has changed for you since then. We must have a long talk."

"Agreed, but we have no such luxury, for I'd like to have you back in time for the next Vylae radar ping, which will come in a few picoseconds. You must go. But worry not, because I have even gone so far as to place a warning to my sister on your ship. Feel happy for that."

"Then this is goodbye, friend, please, don't wait another two hundred years before finding me again."

"I won't, now you must go, for even I take time to teleport such massive, complicated objects! Goodbye and goodluck, Old One."

"Goodbye, young mind."

and with a sinking feeling in his stomach, Wizr was gone.

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

General Yanma watched the Phylydion dignitary vessel glide into the system gracefully, impressed by the fearlessness and stalawacy of their leader. He turned to his assistant.

"Take us down to the surface. Order the fleet to extend full courtesies and priveledges to our honored guest."

* * * * *

As the phylydion ship descended from space on the trajectory the hospitable Argosians had directed them, Nerec's glazed eyes fell on the sight before him in sheer astonishment.

In a matter of hours, the Argosians had managed to dot the planet's surface with huge mile-high pearl domes, each containing a sparkeling and towering city, all as well-established as if they had been there for centuries. How the Argosians had managed to erect such ivory towers from the ashes of the planet would remain unanswered for the rest of Nerec's life.

* * * * *

The diplomatic hall loomed over the two leaders' heads like a cathedral. The city was simply enormous even by Phylydion standards, as many miles of it went down into the planet's crust. They both sat at oppositte ends of a large smooth table, the material unknown but of beautifull complexion.

Yanma broke the silence. "I will be honest with you, Sir Drion Nerec." He cleared his throat as he regarded the three-eyed beast before him. He was the first Argosian in history to come face-to-face with an alien. He shuddered unnoticably. "The Empire of Argos is not looking for war."

Drion Nerec regarded the two-eyed beast before him likewise. "What purpose would a Battle fleet of your caliber serve, then, if not to openly start a war?" There was some silence as Yanma was clearly hesitating whether or not to tell a potential enemy his campaign plans. He finally came up with a satisfactory answer.

"You must understand, dear Drion Nerec, that where I come from, a distant star called Argos, is so remote and so small thhat it would take centuries for your astronomers to even witness it's birth. I come from many millions of light years away." He cleared his throat again. "It has been said in the council that we have been in isolation and stagnation too long, and so when it was discovered that there were others of our kind freely roaming this part of the galaxy, curiosity was aroused. We were sent to investigate the possibility of the existance of human life thisfar from it's homeworld."

Nerec was in shock. They think Argos is the homeworld of mankind, and they've come to lay claim to humanity.

------------------
Time is the best teacher, yet it kills all of it's students.

"Interesting. Well, I suggest you make contact with them. Why did you choose to occupy a planet in our space?"

"Thats it captain, that damn ship took out our engines!"
The Lieutenant screamed at the captain over the sound of the lower decks of the ship being torn off. "They've got us right where they want us....."

The small Phylydion cruiser was making a routine patrol, when it was ambushed by a Greccha dreadnaught. They never stood a chance. The Greccha ship kept the Phylydion ship under a constant stream of missiles until the ship was immobilized. The dreadnaught powered up an energy cannon to deliver the final blow, when a large ship came out of omnispace and positioned itself between the two ships. A massive ship, it fired a large blue beam of energy from a large apparatus on the nose of the ship. The entire drednaugt was incinerated in one shot. Who ever these guys were, they meant business.

"Sir, we have an incoming communication from that vessel."
"Put it on screen."

They were expecting the creature in control of a vessel that powerful to be a hideous monster, but the face that appeared on the screen was actually quite handsome. He had long, black hair, green eyes, grey skin, and looks that could easily be considered debonaire. As he stood up, it became visible that he was wearing a sort of trenchcoat, but a tight-fitting one that showed off his impressive musculature.

"My name is Tavron Seida, General of the Ordan Navy, Commander of the Zanostra."
"I would like to thank you for your assistance," said the captain.
"No thanks are necessary. Just be happy we got there when we did. Are you badly damaged?"
"Yeah, we could really use some repairs."
"I would be more than happy to assist."
"Thank you. By the way, my name is Traek Cicion."
"Why does that name sound familiar to me....what did you say your rank was?"
"I didn't," Traek said with a smirk.
"Yes, well it doesn't really matter. I will send over a transport which will bring you to my ship."
"Sounds good, and thank you once again."

With the Phylydion crew safely onboard the gateship Zanostra, the vessel moved towards the Phylydion homeworld.


------------------
"We shall dominate their armies, pillage their cities, and banish their spirits to the land of eternal darkness."
-Corporus 1st Class Tavron Seida
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