Well, I wouldn't call what I was doing in those months really, umm, "busy" but I didn't write nonetheless. By the way, if I did any abbreviated words in my last chapter sorry because I wrote it while half having a convo on windows live messenger. So I had to kinda switch between:
1 sup bro, noding much
to
2 Zurich was a very large man, who seemed like he could floor a Parinid no problem.
Sector 44 (last updated 26th of July 2008)
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Syndrome
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Instantly several single-word thoughts came into Tate's mind such as Khaak, Xenon, danger, evil followed by "Have they seen me, have the others seen this, am I going to die?" What Tate saw was a massive circular object with the diameter of fifty shipyards. It was a gigantic moon shaped object with towers of different sizes jutting out all over its surface. Tate could only imagine what it was used for. The surface was about twenty eight km from his pegasus. He wasn't close enough to get good readings from his scanners but he could see that it was full of energy surging through it.
At twenty four km he could see a little more data. To Tate's surprise, he discovered that the whole sphere was actually hollow, with extreme heat and plasma building up inside it. "Holy Terra," mouthed Tate. Around the sphere there was a hive of activity. Tate counted a total of forty one large ships the size of a M1 around six or seven km from the surface just flying at an idle pace. About twelve hundred fighters were in close proximity to the sphere as well. "Even the Khaak don't have these kinds of setups," thought Tate. His ship flew on for a few minutes until Tate realised he would have to change his course in order not to fly head first into the sphere. This was a problem as the cloaking devices on board only allowed the ship to turn very slowly. If the ship turned more than 0.2 degrees per second, a visible ripple would be seen in space. "Damn," thought Tate, "How am I going to get out of this one."
The ship computer showed that to successfully clear the path of the sphere by three metres, he would have to make one sudden turn of 3.4 degrees, and then turn at the maximum rate of 0.2 degrees per second. Unfortunately, the aliens would see the ship for half a second. "If I die now, I hope these aliens go with me!" Immediately after he made the turn, every alien ship in range shot right at the ripple, missing the pegasus by metres. One thing that caught Tate's half-open eyes, though, was a long white beam weapon coming from a small tower on the sphere's surface. The beam was like a laser tower weapon but with a lot further range. In seconds there were alien ships swarming around where they had seen Tate's ship. It was then that Tate got a really close look at one of the alien ships. One of them came flying right past his ship. Melissa had said that the ships that attacked her were half-cloaked, like the ones that attacked the Herra. But the one that just shot past Tate's ship was not cloaked one bit, and didn't just look like a metal shard. On the contrary, it had wings and its design was quite streamlined, probably for interplanetary travel. "So these ships must only cloak when in battle," thought Tate.
After that all went as planned and the pegasus just cleared the sphere by a few metres. In another forty five minutes his job was all done, and he had scans of a lot more than he had expected. His ship's hard drive was almost full. "Forty four thousand three hundred and twenty three terabytes out of forty five thousand terabytes used," said the ship computer.
Tate cleared the gate to be met by his three companions waiting on the other side. "Did you guys see what I did?"
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Instantly several single-word thoughts came into Tate's mind such as Khaak, Xenon, danger, evil followed by "Have they seen me, have the others seen this, am I going to die?" What Tate saw was a massive circular object with the diameter of fifty shipyards. It was a gigantic moon shaped object with towers of different sizes jutting out all over its surface. Tate could only imagine what it was used for. The surface was about twenty eight km from his pegasus. He wasn't close enough to get good readings from his scanners but he could see that it was full of energy surging through it.
At twenty four km he could see a little more data. To Tate's surprise, he discovered that the whole sphere was actually hollow, with extreme heat and plasma building up inside it. "Holy Terra," mouthed Tate. Around the sphere there was a hive of activity. Tate counted a total of forty one large ships the size of a M1 around six or seven km from the surface just flying at an idle pace. About twelve hundred fighters were in close proximity to the sphere as well. "Even the Khaak don't have these kinds of setups," thought Tate. His ship flew on for a few minutes until Tate realised he would have to change his course in order not to fly head first into the sphere. This was a problem as the cloaking devices on board only allowed the ship to turn very slowly. If the ship turned more than 0.2 degrees per second, a visible ripple would be seen in space. "Damn," thought Tate, "How am I going to get out of this one."
The ship computer showed that to successfully clear the path of the sphere by three metres, he would have to make one sudden turn of 3.4 degrees, and then turn at the maximum rate of 0.2 degrees per second. Unfortunately, the aliens would see the ship for half a second. "If I die now, I hope these aliens go with me!" Immediately after he made the turn, every alien ship in range shot right at the ripple, missing the pegasus by metres. One thing that caught Tate's half-open eyes, though, was a long white beam weapon coming from a small tower on the sphere's surface. The beam was like a laser tower weapon but with a lot further range. In seconds there were alien ships swarming around where they had seen Tate's ship. It was then that Tate got a really close look at one of the alien ships. One of them came flying right past his ship. Melissa had said that the ships that attacked her were half-cloaked, like the ones that attacked the Herra. But the one that just shot past Tate's ship was not cloaked one bit, and didn't just look like a metal shard. On the contrary, it had wings and its design was quite streamlined, probably for interplanetary travel. "So these ships must only cloak when in battle," thought Tate.
After that all went as planned and the pegasus just cleared the sphere by a few metres. In another forty five minutes his job was all done, and he had scans of a lot more than he had expected. His ship's hard drive was almost full. "Forty four thousand three hundred and twenty three terabytes out of forty five thousand terabytes used," said the ship computer.
Tate cleared the gate to be met by his three companions waiting on the other side. "Did you guys see what I did?"
Last edited by Syndrome on Mon, 11. Jun 07, 01:49, edited 2 times in total.
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Syndrome
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“Holy – ” exclaimed Jason after Tate had told the whole story of his trip into the unknown.
“That’s it. The whole story,” said Tate, feeling quite proud of himself.
“We should study this information back on the Herra,” said Vanessa in her usual, dead-serious tone. “If what you say is true, we are going to have to find a weakness or we’re toast.”
“Did you just make an attempt at being humorous?” asked Jason who had known Vanessa for a while.
“Umm, no.”
“We have quite a moment on our hands,” said Jason.
“Forget family moments,” said Melissa. “We’re almost back to the Herra. I’ll see you soon. Over and out.”
Back on the Herra, Tate met the others in the Tactical observation room. “Did anyone else actually get much other information other than mapping the sector?” Head shakes were echoed by all three.
“So let’s start by looking at that sphere then shall we,” said Melissa.
“The energy readings I got from it were off the charts.”
A holographic image popped up showing the amount of energy with light. “Whoa it’s blinding in the centre,” said Jason.
“Three hundred million terrajules to be exact,” said Tate.
“That kind of energy would’ve had to have been built up and stored over a long period of time. And how could that energy be stored in something that small?” said Melissa.
“Small?” asked Tate.
“Well, small in comparison. If it breached the explosive power would be enough to completely obliterate all the known sectors hundreds of times over; assuming the gates survived.”
“That’s too powerful to be true. I mean, what would the use it for? Powering their ships and stations for a million years?”
“What about their weapons?” asked Vanessa.
“That beam weapon that came from the sphere had a massive range. And the weapons that I saw coming from the smaller ships looked like Pulsed Beam Emitters, just a lot more, err, imposing.”
“From the readings that long ranged beam weapon could have wiped out the shields on a Phoenix in one and a half minutes,” said Jason, “With sustained fire of course.”
“If we’re going to fight these aliens,” said Melissa, “We have to keep well away from that sphere.”
*************************************************************************************************
“Holy – ” exclaimed Jason after Tate had told the whole story of his trip into the unknown.
“That’s it. The whole story,” said Tate, feeling quite proud of himself.
“We should study this information back on the Herra,” said Vanessa in her usual, dead-serious tone. “If what you say is true, we are going to have to find a weakness or we’re toast.”
“Did you just make an attempt at being humorous?” asked Jason who had known Vanessa for a while.
“Umm, no.”
“We have quite a moment on our hands,” said Jason.
“Forget family moments,” said Melissa. “We’re almost back to the Herra. I’ll see you soon. Over and out.”
Back on the Herra, Tate met the others in the Tactical observation room. “Did anyone else actually get much other information other than mapping the sector?” Head shakes were echoed by all three.
“So let’s start by looking at that sphere then shall we,” said Melissa.
“The energy readings I got from it were off the charts.”
A holographic image popped up showing the amount of energy with light. “Whoa it’s blinding in the centre,” said Jason.
“Three hundred million terrajules to be exact,” said Tate.
“That kind of energy would’ve had to have been built up and stored over a long period of time. And how could that energy be stored in something that small?” said Melissa.
“Small?” asked Tate.
“Well, small in comparison. If it breached the explosive power would be enough to completely obliterate all the known sectors hundreds of times over; assuming the gates survived.”
“That’s too powerful to be true. I mean, what would the use it for? Powering their ships and stations for a million years?”
“What about their weapons?” asked Vanessa.
“That beam weapon that came from the sphere had a massive range. And the weapons that I saw coming from the smaller ships looked like Pulsed Beam Emitters, just a lot more, err, imposing.”
“From the readings that long ranged beam weapon could have wiped out the shields on a Phoenix in one and a half minutes,” said Jason, “With sustained fire of course.”
“If we’re going to fight these aliens,” said Melissa, “We have to keep well away from that sphere.”
Last edited by Syndrome on Mon, 11. Jun 07, 01:53, edited 2 times in total.
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Syndrome
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The time had come. The full invasion of the unknown sector was just about to start. Melissa had been put in her own Eclipse and was part of a battle group of seventeen M1s; twenty eight M2s, eight hundred M3+s, one thousand three hundred M3s, seven hundred M4s, and three hundred M5s. All of these ships were made up from all the races. Even the Xenon had a small battle group that had recognized the threat.
“Too all battleships. This is Admiral Forge. All ships Jump in. Repeat, all ships jump in to the unknown sector.”
They entered the other side of the gate and the enemy ships instantly swarmed like hornets. They had slightly less numbers but their superior weapons made up for that.
Two fighters flanked Melissa’s Eclipse letting off two light missiles as they went past. Her turrets dealt with them and then started attacking the two fighters. She made a one-eighty turn and faced the fighters head on. She let off a few rounds of HEPT fire and quickly strafed to avoid both collision and the shots fired at her. One of the fighters was disabled and the other still with shields at fifty percent. Some quick turning and bolts of plasma dealt with that threat.
On to the next enemy which was a small cruiser, similar to an M6. Melissa fired half her laser energy and swiftly flanked the cruiser, taking a few hits she went past. The turrets made further impact on the shields while she turned around to begin her second approach. Strafing all the way, Melissa managed to break down the cruiser’s shields and bore into its hull. After a few hits she hit the reactor. Needless to say there was nothing left to do after that.
The big ships had seemingly been going well with one loss to three defeats of the enemy capital ships. Their capital weapons did have a weakness. Despite the enhanced speed and agility of their ships and weapons, they didn’t have much of a range to their weapons, giving the friendly capital ships a “blind point” for a while.
After a few hours the friendly fleet seemed to be getting the upper hand; that is until the Khaak showed up.
Suddenly, out of nothing came a collection of fifty Khaak M2s, nothing else. The main enemy’s attention suddenly shifted, moving all their ships to the Khaak. It was soon showed why as, to the friendly fleet’s horror, the Khaak were bombarding one part of the surface of the sphere. They were trying to break it open and they had made a big hole in just a few seconds. The weapons of the aliens appeared to have no effect on the Khaak.
“All remaining ships, jump out! Repeat, jump out!” yelled Admiral Forge in to the comm. But it was too late, before the jump drive countdown could even finish, a hole had been bored in to the sphere. Melissa found herself screaming as a massive white cloud engulfed everything.
“Hellooo,” said a distant voice. “Are you ok?”
To Melissa’s relief, it all was just a dream.
********************************************************************************************************
The time had come. The full invasion of the unknown sector was just about to start. Melissa had been put in her own Eclipse and was part of a battle group of seventeen M1s; twenty eight M2s, eight hundred M3+s, one thousand three hundred M3s, seven hundred M4s, and three hundred M5s. All of these ships were made up from all the races. Even the Xenon had a small battle group that had recognized the threat.
“Too all battleships. This is Admiral Forge. All ships Jump in. Repeat, all ships jump in to the unknown sector.”
They entered the other side of the gate and the enemy ships instantly swarmed like hornets. They had slightly less numbers but their superior weapons made up for that.
Two fighters flanked Melissa’s Eclipse letting off two light missiles as they went past. Her turrets dealt with them and then started attacking the two fighters. She made a one-eighty turn and faced the fighters head on. She let off a few rounds of HEPT fire and quickly strafed to avoid both collision and the shots fired at her. One of the fighters was disabled and the other still with shields at fifty percent. Some quick turning and bolts of plasma dealt with that threat.
On to the next enemy which was a small cruiser, similar to an M6. Melissa fired half her laser energy and swiftly flanked the cruiser, taking a few hits she went past. The turrets made further impact on the shields while she turned around to begin her second approach. Strafing all the way, Melissa managed to break down the cruiser’s shields and bore into its hull. After a few hits she hit the reactor. Needless to say there was nothing left to do after that.
The big ships had seemingly been going well with one loss to three defeats of the enemy capital ships. Their capital weapons did have a weakness. Despite the enhanced speed and agility of their ships and weapons, they didn’t have much of a range to their weapons, giving the friendly capital ships a “blind point” for a while.
After a few hours the friendly fleet seemed to be getting the upper hand; that is until the Khaak showed up.
Suddenly, out of nothing came a collection of fifty Khaak M2s, nothing else. The main enemy’s attention suddenly shifted, moving all their ships to the Khaak. It was soon showed why as, to the friendly fleet’s horror, the Khaak were bombarding one part of the surface of the sphere. They were trying to break it open and they had made a big hole in just a few seconds. The weapons of the aliens appeared to have no effect on the Khaak.
“All remaining ships, jump out! Repeat, jump out!” yelled Admiral Forge in to the comm. But it was too late, before the jump drive countdown could even finish, a hole had been bored in to the sphere. Melissa found herself screaming as a massive white cloud engulfed everything.
“Hellooo,” said a distant voice. “Are you ok?”
To Melissa’s relief, it all was just a dream.
Last edited by Syndrome on Mon, 11. Jun 07, 02:16, edited 2 times in total.
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Syndrome
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revised
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The increasing threat of these new ships was creating a lot of anxiety around the Argon high officials, let alone the universe as a whole. It seemed that only two alternatives remained. Either surrender to the race and give in to their superior power; or bring a massive fleet of all the races to destroy the immediate threat. People were becoming scared from stories of a new race with a weapon that could wipe out the inhabited universe with ease.
The race had started to initiate small scout groups from their home sector out into friendly space. The patrols had been told not to attack them unless prompted, but rather to observe and scan their ships for data. The militaries of the five main races were scared of a retaliation for the unprompted destruction of their ships. So far one patrol had gone all the way from Omicron Lyrae to PNTI headquarters.
As respects the communication between the races of this possible threat, the Boron had, as usual, responded politely to the Argon and had been completely cooperative. The Split had respected the information but had made no further contact. The Paranid had been very neutral but rumour was they were undergoing a lot more testing of their cloaking devices. And the Teladi seemed to be quite worried, but didn’t really back their words up with actions.
Despite negative responses from the Split and Paranid, all the races agreed to form a joint battle fleet, should the need arise.
The Xenon had been seen trying to sneak in to Sector 44, supposedly to investigate. At first they had been shot down, but it was decided to let them see for themselves this great threat.
“We have to wipe out this race!” demanded Senator Qein. “Who knows what they could do with that giant sphere.” High officials of the Argon and Boron secret services and governments had gathered together to discuss the new race in detail. Melissa, Tate and Vanessa had been included at the briefing.
“Now senator,” said Queen Atreus of the Boron, “They might be willing to negotiate.”
“You have no proof! Trillions of people around the Universe are living in fear of this new race, and you’re thinking we can negotiate!?”
“Calm down Jack,” said the Argon president. “Atreus may have a point. Imagine if we could communicate and share technology. Imagine the benefits.”
“Oh I am so very confident that they will want to share their technology with us, a race whom they could destroy many times over. Especially since they have Khaak in their genes.”
“May I point out that in all this we have actually been able to communicate with a living Khaak,” said Admiral Forge. “We have probably made a certain amount of peace with them, now that we have told their representative the real story.”
“It’s madness. One minute the Khaak almost blow up a planet, and now you think they’ve made peace. I am very doubtful. I – ”
“That’s it for now,” said the president. “We will resume this briefing at oh nine hundred hours tomorrow. Conference adjourned.”
People started to stand up and move out of the briefing room.
Senator Jack Qein walked back to his quarters in a few minutes. He walked through the automated door and locked it behind him. The light’s automatically turned on but a reflex action made his hand jolt to the switch to turn it off. “Argh! This human light is painful,” said Qein to himself. “And this voice dimmer is so uncomfortable.”
He reached into his throat and pulled out a large mechanism that had been in his vocal cords for the last few hours. His voice would now be extremely deep and god-like. His communicator beeped for a call.
“Yes my lord.”
“How did you go Trsor?”
“Very well. These aliens are so moral. They even have a saying called ‘all for one and one for all’.”
“Good work. I promise you will soon be rewarded richly when you return.”
“Thank you my lord.”
“Soon we will take over these five races that have stolen our space for hundreds of years. I will especially enjoy destroying the Khaak.”
“That will be satisfying.”
“Yes; very.”
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The increasing threat of these new ships was creating a lot of anxiety around the Argon high officials, let alone the universe as a whole. It seemed that only two alternatives remained. Either surrender to the race and give in to their superior power; or bring a massive fleet of all the races to destroy the immediate threat. People were becoming scared from stories of a new race with a weapon that could wipe out the inhabited universe with ease.
The race had started to initiate small scout groups from their home sector out into friendly space. The patrols had been told not to attack them unless prompted, but rather to observe and scan their ships for data. The militaries of the five main races were scared of a retaliation for the unprompted destruction of their ships. So far one patrol had gone all the way from Omicron Lyrae to PNTI headquarters.
As respects the communication between the races of this possible threat, the Boron had, as usual, responded politely to the Argon and had been completely cooperative. The Split had respected the information but had made no further contact. The Paranid had been very neutral but rumour was they were undergoing a lot more testing of their cloaking devices. And the Teladi seemed to be quite worried, but didn’t really back their words up with actions.
Despite negative responses from the Split and Paranid, all the races agreed to form a joint battle fleet, should the need arise.
The Xenon had been seen trying to sneak in to Sector 44, supposedly to investigate. At first they had been shot down, but it was decided to let them see for themselves this great threat.
“We have to wipe out this race!” demanded Senator Qein. “Who knows what they could do with that giant sphere.” High officials of the Argon and Boron secret services and governments had gathered together to discuss the new race in detail. Melissa, Tate and Vanessa had been included at the briefing.
“Now senator,” said Queen Atreus of the Boron, “They might be willing to negotiate.”
“You have no proof! Trillions of people around the Universe are living in fear of this new race, and you’re thinking we can negotiate!?”
“Calm down Jack,” said the Argon president. “Atreus may have a point. Imagine if we could communicate and share technology. Imagine the benefits.”
“Oh I am so very confident that they will want to share their technology with us, a race whom they could destroy many times over. Especially since they have Khaak in their genes.”
“May I point out that in all this we have actually been able to communicate with a living Khaak,” said Admiral Forge. “We have probably made a certain amount of peace with them, now that we have told their representative the real story.”
“It’s madness. One minute the Khaak almost blow up a planet, and now you think they’ve made peace. I am very doubtful. I – ”
“That’s it for now,” said the president. “We will resume this briefing at oh nine hundred hours tomorrow. Conference adjourned.”
People started to stand up and move out of the briefing room.
Senator Jack Qein walked back to his quarters in a few minutes. He walked through the automated door and locked it behind him. The light’s automatically turned on but a reflex action made his hand jolt to the switch to turn it off. “Argh! This human light is painful,” said Qein to himself. “And this voice dimmer is so uncomfortable.”
He reached into his throat and pulled out a large mechanism that had been in his vocal cords for the last few hours. His voice would now be extremely deep and god-like. His communicator beeped for a call.
“Yes my lord.”
“How did you go Trsor?”
“Very well. These aliens are so moral. They even have a saying called ‘all for one and one for all’.”
“Good work. I promise you will soon be rewarded richly when you return.”
“Thank you my lord.”
“Soon we will take over these five races that have stolen our space for hundreds of years. I will especially enjoy destroying the Khaak.”
“That will be satisfying.”
“Yes; very.”
Last edited by Syndrome on Mon, 11. Jun 07, 02:21, edited 3 times in total.
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Syndrome
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revised
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“Tate had just started his shift as head tactical officer on the Herra. He was studying some of the data collected from their scouting trip into Sector 44 when an alert sounded from one of the monitors. “Alert, unauthorized communications,” said the ship computer.
“Uh – identify,” said a surprised Tate.
“Unable to comply. Security access required.”
“Damn. Stupid security,” thought Tate. “Security pass ferret delta forty four.”
“Please wait…pass accepted. Security lock ferret delta forty four lifted. Attempting to identify unauthorized communication. Scan is being blocked, attempting to divert signal. Failed. Retry through different channel. Failed.” Whoever was doing this was pretty well set up to hide himself. Tate needed an idea and almost instantly one popped up in his mind.
“Computer, review all security cameras and show all infringements or abnormalities.” He hated having to talk using such complicated words to a computer that, in comparison, knew nothing.
“Command accepted. Reviewing. Finished task. Four infringements found, one abnormality.”
“Show abnormality on screen.” Tate couldn’t believe his eyes. Senator Qein was talking a language unrecognizable to Tate, who had a degree in multilanguage. What’s more, his voice really did sound like the Herra’s engines. “Whoa. And I thought I’d never find someone with a deeper voice than Jason’s. Computer, open a channel to the head of security.”
“Command accepted. Channel pending.”
In a few moments, Jason’s head appeared on the screen.
“Jason? I didn’t know you were head of security.”
“Oh hi Tate. Yeah well I – ”
“No time for that. I need a squad of marines right outside Senator Qein’s door immediately, but only armed with pistols on the stun setting. I want him alive.”
“You want to capture the Senator?”
“I’ll explain later. Just get them. You come too.”
“Alright then, I’ll – ”
“See you there.”
And with that, Tate grabbed his pistol and ran to the nearest turbolift.
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Jason was leading a squad of a dozen men to the senator’s quarters. Walking at a brisk pace, they arrived within a few minutes. They met Tate on the outside of the door to the Senator’s quarters.
“I don’t think this is the real Jack Qein, but just in case, set your blasters to the stun setting,” ordered Tate. “Ok, shoot the door down; we want the element of surprise.”
Five marines positioned themselves about 2 meters behind the door and aimed their blasters at the edges. They fired and the door collapsed with a louder-than-normal sound. Instead of falling strait back, though, two hands grabbed it from behind and flung it back with extreme force, knocking unconscious the two marines closest to the door.
“Hello,” said the senator. “I suppose if I was as weak and unprotected as you I would be worried. But I am not human, and you are going to suffer the same fate as poor Senator Qein.”
“Who are you?”
“The threat you pose must be destroyed. You will have no questions answered.”
“Fire!” And with Tate’s order miniature pulsed photons sent the alien flying back seven meters into the metal wall of his quarters. Several seconds of uneasy silence followed. The alien lay still, slumped on the wall.
“He should be dead,” said Tate, “But I’m not so sure.”
“I think we can – ” A long dart embedded itself in Jason’s abdomen. While he fell to the ground, three more darts hit the marines before Tate managed to shoot the alien’s right arm from which the darts were coming.
“Fire again.” This time Tate didn’t need to tell the remaining marines to set their pistols to the kill setting. They dived into the room and took cover behind furniture while the alien recovered. The shots had revealed several cyborg implants under the alien’s skin, most of which were weapons.
The following fight was a sniper fight in which the alien had picked off all but one of the marines, leaving only him and Tate. Tate saw the alien taking aim at the last marine. He decided to go for broke, diving out of his hiding place and letting off a charged photon bolt, followed by rapid fire, leaving the alien supposedly dead. Tate’s blaster battery had been exhausted, but out of instinct he left it pointing at the alien, his hands trembling, ready to pull the trigger again. The remaining marine slowly got up and joined Tate.
Cyborg combat support system online. Reviewing status. 91 percent damaged. Situation critical. Organic host status…73.5 percent damaged. Reviewing options. Priority: escape hostile environment. 97.42 percent chance of escape. Cyborg action: take over control of organic host and return to host’s base.
Tate was calling in medics when the alien miraculously returned to life and smashed the window with its bare hands. The alien jumped out through the large hole while Tate and the marine dived to grab hold of something. Four marine bodies got sucked out the hole before the automatic force field kicked in. Tate, still full of adrenalin examined the situation around him.
Only himself and the marine were the last standing. Around him lay eight bodies. Two were out cold, slumped underneath what was left of the door; and the other six had been hit by darts. After examining each one’s pulse he found that only four were still alive, one of them being Jason.
In all they had come with fourteen men, yet only eight remained.
The medics had just arrived at the scene, crowded around the six unconscious bodies.
“What was in those darts?” asked Tate to one of the medics.
“It looks like some sort of nanobot poison, where the nano-machines attack the organism’s cells from the inside. Unfortunately it had a worse effect on some of your men than others. We’re injecting the survivors with a substance that will destroy the nanobots, but they have taken some pretty bad damage already. It might take them a while to recover after this. You know, considering, the two that got knocked out cold at the start were actually pretty lucky.”
“How are their head wounds?”
“They’ll survive but they might have some headaches for the next few months.”
“Ok then. Thanks for the info.”
Vanessa and Melissa just walked in. “What the baka happened here?”
*************************************************************
“That was quite an encounter,” said Melissa.
They three of them were at the cafeteria, and Tate had just finished telling them what happened. Tate needed a hit so he ordered a fifth glass of real Argon Whisky, available only to senior crew members. Needless to say, his voice was starting to slur.
Tate’s comm. beeped.
“Sir, we found the Senator’s body. It was in a closet on the shipyard.”
Tate was trying hard to focus on his small screen. He managed a few groggy words. “Uh, who’s this?”
Vanessa snatched it off him, but Tate didn’t mind. He was just happy that the waiter had brought his next shot of whisky. “Sorry but the senior tactical officer is not in a condition to talk right now.”
“Ok then. We found the same type of dart in the Senator’s body. Other than that, nothing. Just a body that has been dead for about a week.”
“Ok then. Thank you for the information.”
“This isn’t right,” said Melissa.
“Not much is these days.”
“No I mean the alien.”
“What about it?”
“Well, if you were a highly advanced cyborg do you think you would use darts as a weapon when you could use something more conventional like photon blasters or electric pulse mini-cannons?”
“You have a valid point. What are you suggesting?”
“I don’t know, but I want to have another look at the bodies of the marines that got hit with the darts.”
Tate was now quite visibly drunk.
“Tate, go to bed before the captain sees you like this,” said Melissa in a big-sisterish tone.
“Sure thing mum,” he replied and walked off in a zig-zag to the nearest door.”
“How did he ever become head Tactical officer?”
“Don’t know. Dad says he was quite a talent when he met him; but that “talent” is yet to display itself to me.”
“He did put up quite a fight against the alien.”
“So maybe he should be in the defence section instead.”
*************************************************************
They were at the Herra’s temporary morgue, located right at the back of the ship, near the outside of the hull. But instead of a room full of doctors and forensic analysts, it looked more like it had been hit by a Gamma Photon Pulse Cannon. The medical equipment was all over the floor, and where the bodies should have been, there was nothing. At the end of the room was a hole in window with a diameter of four meters. The outside vacuum was held only by the emergency force field.
“How did this happen?” said Melissa.
“Let’s look at the security camera recordings.”
They walked over to the nearest useable terminal and looked up the camera logs. They rewound it until they noticed what went wrong. Everything was normal with the morgue personal all doing their jobs. Some were studying the dart wounds on the marines’ bodies. Then, the impossible happened. All the marines’ eyes opened simultaneously.
“Sir, what’s happening?” said one of the personal.
“Engage limb restraints! Seal off the entrance!”
Thick metal bars quickly sealed around the marines’ arms and legs.
“Sir, something is overriding the restraint system. An unknown source.”
The restraints suddenly flew off, and the resurrected bodies got up and walked towards the window. One of the medics tried to shoot the marines with a pistol, but the photon bolt only impeded their path slightly, and they didn’t stop. The one closest to the window struck it with lightning speed, making a large hole. The window started collapsing under the force and became wider, and wider, until everything and everyone had been sucked out, including the revived marines; then the force field kicked in, quite a bit later than it should’ve.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” said Vanessa.
“And how could they just come back to life?” She pulled out her communicator and called the acting tactical officer.
“Hello,” said the man on the other end.
“I need a short range scan of the area around the Herra.”
“May I ask what for?”
“No time, I – ”
Vanessa interrupted. “Don’t ask question’s just do it.”
“Yes ma’am. Running scan. Anything in particular you want to look for?”
“Living bodies floating in space.”
“Uh, ok then. Whoa. I’ve got four of them crawling along the surface of the ship.”
“Where are they headed?”
“The docking bay.”
“Get as many marines as you can down there, but make sure they have full body armour. Out.”
*************************************************************
Cyborg assistance online. Analysing situation. Location: outside unknown enemy ship. Nearest friendly object: 13.4 meters. 3 others present. Communicating. Communication complete. Resolve: move position to unknown enemy ship’s docking bay.
They were moving slowly along the Herra’s hull. Slowly but surely, they were making their way to the docking bay. They would now be classified as “aliens”. They were no longer human. Rather, their bodies had been remade from the inside. Little original organic material was left internally. Their brain was now mostly electronic. They had a personality but they now lived for the hive, obeying orders from their superiors whose ultimate goal was to take over the universe. Their physical capabilities had been hugely enhanced. Their muscles were now mostly machines and weapons were sitting under their skin, waiting to be revealed if need be. Their voice was mechanical, and would sound imposing to any lesser being.
They were just outside the docking bay, ready to jump in and terrorize any being who became an obstacle to their goal. They all crawled in unnoticed, at least for the time being. They fell to the floor, suddenly hit by the artificial gravity. They made a hole in one of the blast doors, the only thing in between them and the internal docking bay. They swiftly ran in, only to be confronted by innumerable armoured soldiers. Everything else was silent in the colossal room; the faintest pin-drop could be heard. Vanessa herself took a step towards the four aliens who were about twenty meters away. “Fire!”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Tate had just started his shift as head tactical officer on the Herra. He was studying some of the data collected from their scouting trip into Sector 44 when an alert sounded from one of the monitors. “Alert, unauthorized communications,” said the ship computer.
“Uh – identify,” said a surprised Tate.
“Unable to comply. Security access required.”
“Damn. Stupid security,” thought Tate. “Security pass ferret delta forty four.”
“Please wait…pass accepted. Security lock ferret delta forty four lifted. Attempting to identify unauthorized communication. Scan is being blocked, attempting to divert signal. Failed. Retry through different channel. Failed.” Whoever was doing this was pretty well set up to hide himself. Tate needed an idea and almost instantly one popped up in his mind.
“Computer, review all security cameras and show all infringements or abnormalities.” He hated having to talk using such complicated words to a computer that, in comparison, knew nothing.
“Command accepted. Reviewing. Finished task. Four infringements found, one abnormality.”
“Show abnormality on screen.” Tate couldn’t believe his eyes. Senator Qein was talking a language unrecognizable to Tate, who had a degree in multilanguage. What’s more, his voice really did sound like the Herra’s engines. “Whoa. And I thought I’d never find someone with a deeper voice than Jason’s. Computer, open a channel to the head of security.”
“Command accepted. Channel pending.”
In a few moments, Jason’s head appeared on the screen.
“Jason? I didn’t know you were head of security.”
“Oh hi Tate. Yeah well I – ”
“No time for that. I need a squad of marines right outside Senator Qein’s door immediately, but only armed with pistols on the stun setting. I want him alive.”
“You want to capture the Senator?”
“I’ll explain later. Just get them. You come too.”
“Alright then, I’ll – ”
“See you there.”
And with that, Tate grabbed his pistol and ran to the nearest turbolift.
*************************************************************
Jason was leading a squad of a dozen men to the senator’s quarters. Walking at a brisk pace, they arrived within a few minutes. They met Tate on the outside of the door to the Senator’s quarters.
“I don’t think this is the real Jack Qein, but just in case, set your blasters to the stun setting,” ordered Tate. “Ok, shoot the door down; we want the element of surprise.”
Five marines positioned themselves about 2 meters behind the door and aimed their blasters at the edges. They fired and the door collapsed with a louder-than-normal sound. Instead of falling strait back, though, two hands grabbed it from behind and flung it back with extreme force, knocking unconscious the two marines closest to the door.
“Hello,” said the senator. “I suppose if I was as weak and unprotected as you I would be worried. But I am not human, and you are going to suffer the same fate as poor Senator Qein.”
“Who are you?”
“The threat you pose must be destroyed. You will have no questions answered.”
“Fire!” And with Tate’s order miniature pulsed photons sent the alien flying back seven meters into the metal wall of his quarters. Several seconds of uneasy silence followed. The alien lay still, slumped on the wall.
“He should be dead,” said Tate, “But I’m not so sure.”
“I think we can – ” A long dart embedded itself in Jason’s abdomen. While he fell to the ground, three more darts hit the marines before Tate managed to shoot the alien’s right arm from which the darts were coming.
“Fire again.” This time Tate didn’t need to tell the remaining marines to set their pistols to the kill setting. They dived into the room and took cover behind furniture while the alien recovered. The shots had revealed several cyborg implants under the alien’s skin, most of which were weapons.
The following fight was a sniper fight in which the alien had picked off all but one of the marines, leaving only him and Tate. Tate saw the alien taking aim at the last marine. He decided to go for broke, diving out of his hiding place and letting off a charged photon bolt, followed by rapid fire, leaving the alien supposedly dead. Tate’s blaster battery had been exhausted, but out of instinct he left it pointing at the alien, his hands trembling, ready to pull the trigger again. The remaining marine slowly got up and joined Tate.
Cyborg combat support system online. Reviewing status. 91 percent damaged. Situation critical. Organic host status…73.5 percent damaged. Reviewing options. Priority: escape hostile environment. 97.42 percent chance of escape. Cyborg action: take over control of organic host and return to host’s base.
Tate was calling in medics when the alien miraculously returned to life and smashed the window with its bare hands. The alien jumped out through the large hole while Tate and the marine dived to grab hold of something. Four marine bodies got sucked out the hole before the automatic force field kicked in. Tate, still full of adrenalin examined the situation around him.
Only himself and the marine were the last standing. Around him lay eight bodies. Two were out cold, slumped underneath what was left of the door; and the other six had been hit by darts. After examining each one’s pulse he found that only four were still alive, one of them being Jason.
In all they had come with fourteen men, yet only eight remained.
The medics had just arrived at the scene, crowded around the six unconscious bodies.
“What was in those darts?” asked Tate to one of the medics.
“It looks like some sort of nanobot poison, where the nano-machines attack the organism’s cells from the inside. Unfortunately it had a worse effect on some of your men than others. We’re injecting the survivors with a substance that will destroy the nanobots, but they have taken some pretty bad damage already. It might take them a while to recover after this. You know, considering, the two that got knocked out cold at the start were actually pretty lucky.”
“How are their head wounds?”
“They’ll survive but they might have some headaches for the next few months.”
“Ok then. Thanks for the info.”
Vanessa and Melissa just walked in. “What the baka happened here?”
*************************************************************
“That was quite an encounter,” said Melissa.
They three of them were at the cafeteria, and Tate had just finished telling them what happened. Tate needed a hit so he ordered a fifth glass of real Argon Whisky, available only to senior crew members. Needless to say, his voice was starting to slur.
Tate’s comm. beeped.
“Sir, we found the Senator’s body. It was in a closet on the shipyard.”
Tate was trying hard to focus on his small screen. He managed a few groggy words. “Uh, who’s this?”
Vanessa snatched it off him, but Tate didn’t mind. He was just happy that the waiter had brought his next shot of whisky. “Sorry but the senior tactical officer is not in a condition to talk right now.”
“Ok then. We found the same type of dart in the Senator’s body. Other than that, nothing. Just a body that has been dead for about a week.”
“Ok then. Thank you for the information.”
“This isn’t right,” said Melissa.
“Not much is these days.”
“No I mean the alien.”
“What about it?”
“Well, if you were a highly advanced cyborg do you think you would use darts as a weapon when you could use something more conventional like photon blasters or electric pulse mini-cannons?”
“You have a valid point. What are you suggesting?”
“I don’t know, but I want to have another look at the bodies of the marines that got hit with the darts.”
Tate was now quite visibly drunk.
“Tate, go to bed before the captain sees you like this,” said Melissa in a big-sisterish tone.
“Sure thing mum,” he replied and walked off in a zig-zag to the nearest door.”
“How did he ever become head Tactical officer?”
“Don’t know. Dad says he was quite a talent when he met him; but that “talent” is yet to display itself to me.”
“He did put up quite a fight against the alien.”
“So maybe he should be in the defence section instead.”
*************************************************************
They were at the Herra’s temporary morgue, located right at the back of the ship, near the outside of the hull. But instead of a room full of doctors and forensic analysts, it looked more like it had been hit by a Gamma Photon Pulse Cannon. The medical equipment was all over the floor, and where the bodies should have been, there was nothing. At the end of the room was a hole in window with a diameter of four meters. The outside vacuum was held only by the emergency force field.
“How did this happen?” said Melissa.
“Let’s look at the security camera recordings.”
They walked over to the nearest useable terminal and looked up the camera logs. They rewound it until they noticed what went wrong. Everything was normal with the morgue personal all doing their jobs. Some were studying the dart wounds on the marines’ bodies. Then, the impossible happened. All the marines’ eyes opened simultaneously.
“Sir, what’s happening?” said one of the personal.
“Engage limb restraints! Seal off the entrance!”
Thick metal bars quickly sealed around the marines’ arms and legs.
“Sir, something is overriding the restraint system. An unknown source.”
The restraints suddenly flew off, and the resurrected bodies got up and walked towards the window. One of the medics tried to shoot the marines with a pistol, but the photon bolt only impeded their path slightly, and they didn’t stop. The one closest to the window struck it with lightning speed, making a large hole. The window started collapsing under the force and became wider, and wider, until everything and everyone had been sucked out, including the revived marines; then the force field kicked in, quite a bit later than it should’ve.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” said Vanessa.
“And how could they just come back to life?” She pulled out her communicator and called the acting tactical officer.
“Hello,” said the man on the other end.
“I need a short range scan of the area around the Herra.”
“May I ask what for?”
“No time, I – ”
Vanessa interrupted. “Don’t ask question’s just do it.”
“Yes ma’am. Running scan. Anything in particular you want to look for?”
“Living bodies floating in space.”
“Uh, ok then. Whoa. I’ve got four of them crawling along the surface of the ship.”
“Where are they headed?”
“The docking bay.”
“Get as many marines as you can down there, but make sure they have full body armour. Out.”
*************************************************************
Cyborg assistance online. Analysing situation. Location: outside unknown enemy ship. Nearest friendly object: 13.4 meters. 3 others present. Communicating. Communication complete. Resolve: move position to unknown enemy ship’s docking bay.
They were moving slowly along the Herra’s hull. Slowly but surely, they were making their way to the docking bay. They would now be classified as “aliens”. They were no longer human. Rather, their bodies had been remade from the inside. Little original organic material was left internally. Their brain was now mostly electronic. They had a personality but they now lived for the hive, obeying orders from their superiors whose ultimate goal was to take over the universe. Their physical capabilities had been hugely enhanced. Their muscles were now mostly machines and weapons were sitting under their skin, waiting to be revealed if need be. Their voice was mechanical, and would sound imposing to any lesser being.
They were just outside the docking bay, ready to jump in and terrorize any being who became an obstacle to their goal. They all crawled in unnoticed, at least for the time being. They fell to the floor, suddenly hit by the artificial gravity. They made a hole in one of the blast doors, the only thing in between them and the internal docking bay. They swiftly ran in, only to be confronted by innumerable armoured soldiers. Everything else was silent in the colossal room; the faintest pin-drop could be heard. Vanessa herself took a step towards the four aliens who were about twenty meters away. “Fire!”
Last edited by Syndrome on Mon, 11. Jun 07, 10:13, edited 3 times in total.
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RavenIII
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jackhanna88
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Syndrome
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On the bridge, Captain Jacob Forge sat in his chair, overseeing all that was going on. He had screens showing what was taking place in the docking bay, and admittedly half the bridge crew was watching it in anticipation. There were about thirty marines, with full body armour. Every few minutes a few more would come into the colossal hanger bay. They had formed a blockade to the blast doors that led to the rest of the ship. Other than the soldiers the hanger was fairly empty. There were ten Novas, four Busters and eight Discos. All ships except the Discos were behind the blockade.
“Sir,” said one of the bridge crew. “One of our Discos is asking for permission to land. He was on a customs patrol of the sector but he should’ve been back two hours ago. Should we let him dock?”
“What is the position of the aliens outside the ship?”
“They are four hundred meters away from the entrance. At their current pace they’ll reach it in about six minutes.”
“Ok, give him docking permission, but tell him to be quick.”
“Yes sir.” He hailed the Disco. “Customs patrol four six – . What’s wrong with your camera? Why can’t I see you?”
“I had an encounter with an N. I destroyed it but it's knocked out some of my communications array. I only have audio.”
“Affirmative. You have docking permission but do it manually. You have to be quick.”
“Why might that be?”
“You’ll see when you get to the hanger. Out.”
************************************************************************
Trsor made a sinister chuckle. He was the one in the Disco. ‘These aliens are so gullible,’ he thought. He opened a channel to the four aliens on the surface of the Herra through his cyborg neural net. “Greetings from the overlord himself. You have been placed in my command. Go ahead into the alien vessel as planned, but you will never make it on your own. They know you are coming. They are prepared. They have also given me docking permission. I will give you aid. Here is what you will do once you are inside the ship...”
************************************************************************
The disco floated slowly into the bay, parking on one of the ground docks near the human perimeter. The pilot didn’t get out, though, and Vanessa decided to walk over.
“Pilot, get out of your ship. This area is soon going to be a battle zone.” She couldn’t see through the tinted cockpit but the pilot responded through his ship’s outside speakers.
“I need to make some repairs, I won’t be long.”
“No. I’m afraid you’ll have to – ” A loud bang was heard through the blast door leading to the pressure chamber and then outside the ship. Vanessa quickly ran to her position, rifle raised. Suddenly the four cyborgs came through a newly made hole in the blast doors. Vanessa stepped forward. “Fire!” she ordered. Countless photon bolts shot towards the aliens. But then, the supposedly friendly Disco instantly fired its boosters and darted forwards to shield the cyborgs. Its shields glistened as it was hit by miniature photons. Then the Disco started randomly shooting its lasers inside the hangar bay with devastating effects. The docking racks collapsed as the support pillars disintegrated. Inside the seventy meter high hangar bay was a massive chain reaction. The more docking racks fell on top of one another, the harder the next one would come down. Meanwhile, the aliens ran to the nearest ships, which happened to be M5s.
“Retreat!” yelled Vanessa. “I repeat, all personal evacuate the bay!”
The marines started running to the exit behind them, the more unlucky ones getting debris on top of them, and it was still forty meters away. The aliens jumped in their newly hijacked ships, and started up the engines. The Disco that was already in the air turned around and shot some rapid fire at the blast doors leading to space. With no shielding, the impulse rays easily burned through like there was nothing there. Crates, bodies, debris, everything was sucked towards the hole. The five Discos sped through just in time before the emergency force field kicked in.
The Herra had been crippled from the inside. A bruised and battered Vanessa slowly picked herself up off the floor, examining the situation around her. Other soldiers were running around, attending to injured marines and also themselves. The docking bay was a mess. It would take a week of rebuilding.
Emergency crews started to fill up the bay, bringing in salvage vehicles to try and free those trapped underneath the rubble. Most were relatively unharmed, but there were one or two with serious injuries. One soldier had the bone in his leg crushed by a piece of falling metal. Another needed emergency head and brain surgery after a minute shard of shrapnel had penetrated his brain. Another still had been in a semi-vacuum for a few seconds, before being was transported back into the ship, and was suffering from various internal problems.
There was no doubting it, one of the Argon Navy’s most important vessels had been crippled. It was a sad sight. On the outside it looked like a disabled ship with a hole in it. On the inside it was a lot worse. Most of the few ships that were parked in the bay were damaged to the point of no return. It just went to show, without shields in space, you’re dead.
Tate had just ran in. “Now you tell me what the baka happened here? One minute I’m sleeping in bed, half drunk, and the next…” he trailed off, shaking his head in disbelief.
************************************************************************
Argon patrol group 369 was flying idle around the sector. It was made up of various M5s. One Disco, two Harrier Raiders, one Octopus and one Scorpion vanguard. Captain Forge knew the importance of using various different ship types in his patrols, especially when it came to M5s. You never know when you might need a Scorpion’s speed, a Harrier’s dog fighting ability, or a Disco’s all roundedness.
They were just approaching the shipyard, facing it from the side and looking forward at the massive capital ship docks. Captain Forge made a direct communication to them.
“Patrol group three six nine, you are being approached by five enemy M5 Discoverers. I’m updating your nav systems now. Seek and destroy. Forge out.”
“You heard him boys and girls,” said Seth, the group leader, from his Harrier Raider. “Let’s get ‘em.”
The Discos came shooting past at the lightning speed that they were capable of. They split up and flew in between the shipyard’s cargo canisters, where they couldn’t easily be hit.
“Fire boosters! Pick your target and chase it down.” Seth chose the Disco closest to him and met it on the other side of the ‘tunnel’. Seth was a naturally aggressive man. “You’re mine!” he said on a closed channel directly to his target. Little did he know about the piloting capabilities of Trsor. Seth just couldn’t get a lock on him.
They were now a quarter the way of the shipyard’s length. Trsor did a quick barrel-roll, followed by a thruster killing dive strait down and up underneath a docked Mammoth. “Baka,” cursed Seth as he narrowly missed one of the Mammoth’s turrets.
He met it again on the other side, and let off a stream of particle rapid fire, aiming for the engines. Trsor managed to avoid all but one of the shots, which brought his shields down to sixty percent. Seth was about to say, ‘take that’, when he saw one of his wingmen get his ship sliced in two as it collided with a communications array. Weaving in and out of a shipyard was just as dangerous as gate racing in Aguilar’s Belt.
They were now half way through the shipyard, and the chase wore on four to five.
This now freed up one of the enemy discos who decided to start taking pot shots at Seth. “Jo,” he called over the comm, “We’re outnumbered now, we’ve got to help each other.”
“Right.”
“So get this piece of baka off my tail!”
Jo changed his course and swiftly fragged the unexpecting Disco. Applause came from his wingmen. Seth now changed his course back to his original target. He decided to keep it on its toes with a couple of Mosquitoes. Trsor viewed this as combat practice, and started flying strait towards the closest docking tower. At the last moment he turned and sent the missiles strait into a wall.
Trsor then decided to show off a few tricks of his own. He dropped a crate, just out of the blue. A second later as Seth passed it, it detonated, sending him on a collision course with one of the shipyard’s defence turrets!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the bridge, Captain Jacob Forge sat in his chair, overseeing all that was going on. He had screens showing what was taking place in the docking bay, and admittedly half the bridge crew was watching it in anticipation. There were about thirty marines, with full body armour. Every few minutes a few more would come into the colossal hanger bay. They had formed a blockade to the blast doors that led to the rest of the ship. Other than the soldiers the hanger was fairly empty. There were ten Novas, four Busters and eight Discos. All ships except the Discos were behind the blockade.
“Sir,” said one of the bridge crew. “One of our Discos is asking for permission to land. He was on a customs patrol of the sector but he should’ve been back two hours ago. Should we let him dock?”
“What is the position of the aliens outside the ship?”
“They are four hundred meters away from the entrance. At their current pace they’ll reach it in about six minutes.”
“Ok, give him docking permission, but tell him to be quick.”
“Yes sir.” He hailed the Disco. “Customs patrol four six – . What’s wrong with your camera? Why can’t I see you?”
“I had an encounter with an N. I destroyed it but it's knocked out some of my communications array. I only have audio.”
“Affirmative. You have docking permission but do it manually. You have to be quick.”
“Why might that be?”
“You’ll see when you get to the hanger. Out.”
************************************************************************
Trsor made a sinister chuckle. He was the one in the Disco. ‘These aliens are so gullible,’ he thought. He opened a channel to the four aliens on the surface of the Herra through his cyborg neural net. “Greetings from the overlord himself. You have been placed in my command. Go ahead into the alien vessel as planned, but you will never make it on your own. They know you are coming. They are prepared. They have also given me docking permission. I will give you aid. Here is what you will do once you are inside the ship...”
************************************************************************
The disco floated slowly into the bay, parking on one of the ground docks near the human perimeter. The pilot didn’t get out, though, and Vanessa decided to walk over.
“Pilot, get out of your ship. This area is soon going to be a battle zone.” She couldn’t see through the tinted cockpit but the pilot responded through his ship’s outside speakers.
“I need to make some repairs, I won’t be long.”
“No. I’m afraid you’ll have to – ” A loud bang was heard through the blast door leading to the pressure chamber and then outside the ship. Vanessa quickly ran to her position, rifle raised. Suddenly the four cyborgs came through a newly made hole in the blast doors. Vanessa stepped forward. “Fire!” she ordered. Countless photon bolts shot towards the aliens. But then, the supposedly friendly Disco instantly fired its boosters and darted forwards to shield the cyborgs. Its shields glistened as it was hit by miniature photons. Then the Disco started randomly shooting its lasers inside the hangar bay with devastating effects. The docking racks collapsed as the support pillars disintegrated. Inside the seventy meter high hangar bay was a massive chain reaction. The more docking racks fell on top of one another, the harder the next one would come down. Meanwhile, the aliens ran to the nearest ships, which happened to be M5s.
“Retreat!” yelled Vanessa. “I repeat, all personal evacuate the bay!”
The marines started running to the exit behind them, the more unlucky ones getting debris on top of them, and it was still forty meters away. The aliens jumped in their newly hijacked ships, and started up the engines. The Disco that was already in the air turned around and shot some rapid fire at the blast doors leading to space. With no shielding, the impulse rays easily burned through like there was nothing there. Crates, bodies, debris, everything was sucked towards the hole. The five Discos sped through just in time before the emergency force field kicked in.
The Herra had been crippled from the inside. A bruised and battered Vanessa slowly picked herself up off the floor, examining the situation around her. Other soldiers were running around, attending to injured marines and also themselves. The docking bay was a mess. It would take a week of rebuilding.
Emergency crews started to fill up the bay, bringing in salvage vehicles to try and free those trapped underneath the rubble. Most were relatively unharmed, but there were one or two with serious injuries. One soldier had the bone in his leg crushed by a piece of falling metal. Another needed emergency head and brain surgery after a minute shard of shrapnel had penetrated his brain. Another still had been in a semi-vacuum for a few seconds, before being was transported back into the ship, and was suffering from various internal problems.
There was no doubting it, one of the Argon Navy’s most important vessels had been crippled. It was a sad sight. On the outside it looked like a disabled ship with a hole in it. On the inside it was a lot worse. Most of the few ships that were parked in the bay were damaged to the point of no return. It just went to show, without shields in space, you’re dead.
Tate had just ran in. “Now you tell me what the baka happened here? One minute I’m sleeping in bed, half drunk, and the next…” he trailed off, shaking his head in disbelief.
************************************************************************
Argon patrol group 369 was flying idle around the sector. It was made up of various M5s. One Disco, two Harrier Raiders, one Octopus and one Scorpion vanguard. Captain Forge knew the importance of using various different ship types in his patrols, especially when it came to M5s. You never know when you might need a Scorpion’s speed, a Harrier’s dog fighting ability, or a Disco’s all roundedness.
They were just approaching the shipyard, facing it from the side and looking forward at the massive capital ship docks. Captain Forge made a direct communication to them.
“Patrol group three six nine, you are being approached by five enemy M5 Discoverers. I’m updating your nav systems now. Seek and destroy. Forge out.”
“You heard him boys and girls,” said Seth, the group leader, from his Harrier Raider. “Let’s get ‘em.”
The Discos came shooting past at the lightning speed that they were capable of. They split up and flew in between the shipyard’s cargo canisters, where they couldn’t easily be hit.
“Fire boosters! Pick your target and chase it down.” Seth chose the Disco closest to him and met it on the other side of the ‘tunnel’. Seth was a naturally aggressive man. “You’re mine!” he said on a closed channel directly to his target. Little did he know about the piloting capabilities of Trsor. Seth just couldn’t get a lock on him.
They were now a quarter the way of the shipyard’s length. Trsor did a quick barrel-roll, followed by a thruster killing dive strait down and up underneath a docked Mammoth. “Baka,” cursed Seth as he narrowly missed one of the Mammoth’s turrets.
He met it again on the other side, and let off a stream of particle rapid fire, aiming for the engines. Trsor managed to avoid all but one of the shots, which brought his shields down to sixty percent. Seth was about to say, ‘take that’, when he saw one of his wingmen get his ship sliced in two as it collided with a communications array. Weaving in and out of a shipyard was just as dangerous as gate racing in Aguilar’s Belt.
They were now half way through the shipyard, and the chase wore on four to five.
This now freed up one of the enemy discos who decided to start taking pot shots at Seth. “Jo,” he called over the comm, “We’re outnumbered now, we’ve got to help each other.”
“Right.”
“So get this piece of baka off my tail!”
Jo changed his course and swiftly fragged the unexpecting Disco. Applause came from his wingmen. Seth now changed his course back to his original target. He decided to keep it on its toes with a couple of Mosquitoes. Trsor viewed this as combat practice, and started flying strait towards the closest docking tower. At the last moment he turned and sent the missiles strait into a wall.
Trsor then decided to show off a few tricks of his own. He dropped a crate, just out of the blue. A second later as Seth passed it, it detonated, sending him on a collision course with one of the shipyard’s defence turrets!
Last edited by Syndrome on Mon, 11. Jun 07, 10:25, edited 1 time in total.
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jackhanna88
- Posts: 616
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Syndrome
- Posts: 1642
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revised
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In the corner of his eye, Jo saw Seth’s ship get propelled towards the turret. He pulled hard on the stick to turn and face the turret and let off as much fire as his Disco’s lasers would allow. The turret got ripped to shreds and Seth’s ship narrowly missed what would’ve been its last collision.
Seth controlled his Harrier and readjusted his course back in pursuit of his target. “Jo, thanks pal.”
“Buy me a drink later.”
Seth’s temper was now rising. He slightly relaxed his tenseness by bringing Trsor’s shields back down to forty percent. “Yeah!” said Seth as he watched another one of his wingmen eject as his burning ship narrowly missed Seth and collided into the shipyard.
The superior fighting skills and reaction times of the aliens were paying off, in the form of patrol group three six nine! They were now three quarters the way through the shipyard and things weren’t going well. Trsor decided to wreak havoc on his way, setting the outside of an M6 alight as it was being tanked with rastar oil by shooting the refuelling tubes. He then blasted a hole in the actual centre ‘tunnel’ of the shipyard and guided his ship in. Seth followed closely behind. It was a much more confined space, with offshoots going one way or the other. Trsor and Seth had to slow their ships down to about sixty m/s. Their surroundings were a manufacturing super complex, with the occasional human worker standing down below. Trsor took a turn into a left tunnel, and then pulled up into another offshoot. Seth was finding it hard to get a clear shot on his target. If he missed he would hit the inside of the shipyard, possibly even killing someone. Trsor was a smart pilot, a lot smarter than Seth was prepared for. Seth didn’t know who was flying the ship, but whoever it was, they sure were full of ideas.
They were nearing the end of the shipyard, and the tunnel that they were flying through suddenly came to a dead end. Trsor was taking a very destructive approach, and it was no different with what was in front of him now. He would just keep shooting until he found a way out. He aimed his lasers to the ceiling above, fired a mosquito and flew out. Seth didn’t see the dead end ahead, Trsor’s ship was blocking his view; so when he saw his target suddenly fly out, he was taken by surprise. He had to come to a complete stop and then fire his boosters to keep up with Trsor. His fighter group was now down to only him and Jo, who had been trying to get three Disco’s off his tail.
“Seth! Where were you? Help me get these ships off my back.”
“Sure thing.”
Seth abandoned his target and assisted Jo. He remembered the Argon Military Pilot’s Guide to Combat, section four, subsection six, paragraph two: “When outnumbered, fly aggressively and protect each other.” They were now dog fighting around the shipyard’s cargo canisters at the other end. If it wasn’t for those cavities, Jo would be dead right now. Seth swiftly turned and faced the nearest Disco, who hadn’t picked up that he was there. “Eat this!” he yelled as his alpha particle accelerator cannon engulfed the engines. It went spiralling down towards one of the massive cargo holds and smashed in to its shields with a spectacular fire works display. “Yes,” muttered Seth under his breath.
Trsor had stopped his ship and was watching the battle from about one kilometre away. He wanted to study his enemies’ fighting skills. These particular pilots were quite talented. It was a shame that they were going to end up like their wingmen in a few minutes.
Jo was barrel-rolling to try and dodge some shots. He pulled up and tried to hit his target in the small moment of opportunity that he had. He had brought its shields down to 40%. A couple of PAC shots from Seth started to damage the hull. Jo then got a lock on it and let off three Mosquitoes. The first one blew off its right wing, the second blasted its engines, and the third hit the cockpit.
Seth brought his ship around and fired his last Mosquito. It took the alien’s shields down to 20%. Jo then turned to face it and the duo shot together. The Disco exploded in a perfectly clean explosion, leaving hardly any debris.
Then, Trsor started his engines. “You know, it’s a real shame I have to kill such good pilots,” he said over the comm.
“What the,” said Seth before hit ship started getting hit. 80, 50, 30, 10 0% his shields went down like a knife cut through an Argnu meat steak. “Argh! My shields.” Seth’s ship was exposed, and Trsor took advantage of it. Seth started to run but Trsor tracked him down. He let off a missile, followed by beta IRE fire. The Mosquito destroyed Seth’s engines, and the IREs blew off both his wings. His ship was spiralling and the next few hits took off his front. All that was left was a cracked and battered cockpit which went flying towards the surface of the shipyard, bounced off it a few times, and then got pulled back towards the surface by the slight gravitational force that the colossal station had. Sparks went off in all directions as metal scraped metal. Eventually, it came to a stop.
Seth was not in good shape, he had broken so many bones he could hardly move. He thanked the makers that Trsor thought he was dead. His cockpit was cracked, leaking air. He would only last a few hours if no one gave him help. Out of his window he could see Jo getting attacked. He was a bit more prepared than Seth was but already his shields were down to 20%. He took a few more hits, his wing blew off, his engines, and then everything was engulfed in the explosion. “NO!” yelled Seth but he couldn’t do anything about it. A friend that he had known for years had just died. Death. Seth had never really contemplated that. When he joined the Navy he always knew it was there, but never really thought it would happen to him, or one of his close friends.
Trsor was pleased with himself. He had lost four ships, but he had also gained four kills. It was the way of his race, if you lose more than you win, you go back for more. He speedily flew through the gate, back to the protection of his own kind. He was sure he would get a reward for this.
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In the corner of his eye, Jo saw Seth’s ship get propelled towards the turret. He pulled hard on the stick to turn and face the turret and let off as much fire as his Disco’s lasers would allow. The turret got ripped to shreds and Seth’s ship narrowly missed what would’ve been its last collision.
Seth controlled his Harrier and readjusted his course back in pursuit of his target. “Jo, thanks pal.”
“Buy me a drink later.”
Seth’s temper was now rising. He slightly relaxed his tenseness by bringing Trsor’s shields back down to forty percent. “Yeah!” said Seth as he watched another one of his wingmen eject as his burning ship narrowly missed Seth and collided into the shipyard.
The superior fighting skills and reaction times of the aliens were paying off, in the form of patrol group three six nine! They were now three quarters the way through the shipyard and things weren’t going well. Trsor decided to wreak havoc on his way, setting the outside of an M6 alight as it was being tanked with rastar oil by shooting the refuelling tubes. He then blasted a hole in the actual centre ‘tunnel’ of the shipyard and guided his ship in. Seth followed closely behind. It was a much more confined space, with offshoots going one way or the other. Trsor and Seth had to slow their ships down to about sixty m/s. Their surroundings were a manufacturing super complex, with the occasional human worker standing down below. Trsor took a turn into a left tunnel, and then pulled up into another offshoot. Seth was finding it hard to get a clear shot on his target. If he missed he would hit the inside of the shipyard, possibly even killing someone. Trsor was a smart pilot, a lot smarter than Seth was prepared for. Seth didn’t know who was flying the ship, but whoever it was, they sure were full of ideas.
They were nearing the end of the shipyard, and the tunnel that they were flying through suddenly came to a dead end. Trsor was taking a very destructive approach, and it was no different with what was in front of him now. He would just keep shooting until he found a way out. He aimed his lasers to the ceiling above, fired a mosquito and flew out. Seth didn’t see the dead end ahead, Trsor’s ship was blocking his view; so when he saw his target suddenly fly out, he was taken by surprise. He had to come to a complete stop and then fire his boosters to keep up with Trsor. His fighter group was now down to only him and Jo, who had been trying to get three Disco’s off his tail.
“Seth! Where were you? Help me get these ships off my back.”
“Sure thing.”
Seth abandoned his target and assisted Jo. He remembered the Argon Military Pilot’s Guide to Combat, section four, subsection six, paragraph two: “When outnumbered, fly aggressively and protect each other.” They were now dog fighting around the shipyard’s cargo canisters at the other end. If it wasn’t for those cavities, Jo would be dead right now. Seth swiftly turned and faced the nearest Disco, who hadn’t picked up that he was there. “Eat this!” he yelled as his alpha particle accelerator cannon engulfed the engines. It went spiralling down towards one of the massive cargo holds and smashed in to its shields with a spectacular fire works display. “Yes,” muttered Seth under his breath.
Trsor had stopped his ship and was watching the battle from about one kilometre away. He wanted to study his enemies’ fighting skills. These particular pilots were quite talented. It was a shame that they were going to end up like their wingmen in a few minutes.
Jo was barrel-rolling to try and dodge some shots. He pulled up and tried to hit his target in the small moment of opportunity that he had. He had brought its shields down to 40%. A couple of PAC shots from Seth started to damage the hull. Jo then got a lock on it and let off three Mosquitoes. The first one blew off its right wing, the second blasted its engines, and the third hit the cockpit.
Seth brought his ship around and fired his last Mosquito. It took the alien’s shields down to 20%. Jo then turned to face it and the duo shot together. The Disco exploded in a perfectly clean explosion, leaving hardly any debris.
Then, Trsor started his engines. “You know, it’s a real shame I have to kill such good pilots,” he said over the comm.
“What the,” said Seth before hit ship started getting hit. 80, 50, 30, 10 0% his shields went down like a knife cut through an Argnu meat steak. “Argh! My shields.” Seth’s ship was exposed, and Trsor took advantage of it. Seth started to run but Trsor tracked him down. He let off a missile, followed by beta IRE fire. The Mosquito destroyed Seth’s engines, and the IREs blew off both his wings. His ship was spiralling and the next few hits took off his front. All that was left was a cracked and battered cockpit which went flying towards the surface of the shipyard, bounced off it a few times, and then got pulled back towards the surface by the slight gravitational force that the colossal station had. Sparks went off in all directions as metal scraped metal. Eventually, it came to a stop.
Seth was not in good shape, he had broken so many bones he could hardly move. He thanked the makers that Trsor thought he was dead. His cockpit was cracked, leaking air. He would only last a few hours if no one gave him help. Out of his window he could see Jo getting attacked. He was a bit more prepared than Seth was but already his shields were down to 20%. He took a few more hits, his wing blew off, his engines, and then everything was engulfed in the explosion. “NO!” yelled Seth but he couldn’t do anything about it. A friend that he had known for years had just died. Death. Seth had never really contemplated that. When he joined the Navy he always knew it was there, but never really thought it would happen to him, or one of his close friends.
Trsor was pleased with himself. He had lost four ships, but he had also gained four kills. It was the way of his race, if you lose more than you win, you go back for more. He speedily flew through the gate, back to the protection of his own kind. He was sure he would get a reward for this.
Last edited by Syndrome on Mon, 11. Jun 07, 10:37, edited 1 time in total.
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Syndrome
- Posts: 1642
- Joined: Fri, 22. Jul 05, 04:58
revised
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Seth’s crippled arm managed to push the comm button. “This is patrol 369.1. If anyone can hear this, I need help. I only have half a ship, and I’m too hurt to get into my suit.”
He looked in despair at half a communications array that was supposed to be sitting on his wing. Instead it was lying on the surface of the shipyard a few meters away. Everything was fried. Even the life support system didn’t work. What oxygen he had left was what was in his tanks now.
He heard a slight ‘bang’ underneath his ship. Something seemed to be crawling up the side, towards the cockpit. Seth was starting to get delusional with all the pain. Hyperthermia prevented him from screaming as the unknown creature approached him. Suddenly, it appeared. A large helmet, a couple of arms, a torso, and two legs. Seth was relieved beyond words.
Seth gulped, “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s me.”
Seth was trying hard to focus. He was starting to pass out but he managed to stay with it for a bit longer. “Is…it…you?”
“What do you mean, ‘is it you’? Of coarse it’s me. Hang on, don’t tell me you thought I died in that explosion.”
“You did…but….how? Wait! No I’m just hallucinating. You just died so I’m trying to cope by making false visuals.”
“Err, okay.”
Seth felt like he had been hit with a sense of reality. He suddenly got a tiny bit of hope. He tried to tell himself ‘no’ but it didn’t work. “Jo! It really is you! How?”
“I thought I’d lost you for good there. Well, all I can say is boy am I glad I installed those twin exit eject doors and boosters. I ejected long before my ship blew. I propelled myself behind my ship from that guy’s view, so I had plenty of time to take cover.”
Seth tried to lunge out in happiness, but an excruciating feeling all over his body involuntarily stopped him. He just smiled instead.
************************************************************************
Melissa was approaching the shipyard in a Disco. She was surprised at what she saw. The ‘yard needed a major repair. It was like an M5 strike force had come and attacked the place. From a distance it looked fine but when she got closer she could see a turret had been blown off, a half melted Centaur had space suits swarming around it, a hole had been blasted in the side of the tunnel structure that went through the length of the ‘yard; a little further along and another hole had been blasted, this one looked like it had been shot from the inside; and right at the end a cargo canister with crates spilling out of it had repair crews around it.
She docked in section B, as opposed to the manufacturing section. She grabbed her essentials and waited to be transported aboard. She got transported to a corridor on the outside of the ‘yard, with a window facing the docked ships. As she walked through the structure, a few medics came through in the opposite direction, pushing a hoverbed with a patient on it. She stopped one of the medics. “What happened to him?”
“Didn’t you see that dogfight? He was one of the victims.”
“I just arrived here. What happened?”
“Listen, I’ve got to get back to my – ”
“That’s ok. Where are you going?”
“To the medical centre.”
“I’m going there to. So tell me what happened.”
The medic related all that he had seen from the start of the chase to the finish.
“Oh, ok. Thanks.”
They were now just outside one of the medical centre’s entrances. Melissa let the medics with the hoverbed go in first, with herself closely behind. She watched as the small convoy of medics disappeared down the next hallway. She was in ward 3D, she had to get to ward 5B, in other words, the morgue.
She found her destination within minutes, and walked over to Doctor Holfe. “Doctor, how did your studies go?”
“Quite well. I have to say, if you hadn’t told me of this ‘rebuilding’ technique that the nanobots have then some of us might not be here right now. I saw the security footage from your ship.”
“Frightening, to say the least.”
“We believe that the rebuilding process didn’t kick in for a long time because the senator had a cold at the time.”
“Err, a cold?”
“Yes. You see, long after the immune system’s antibodies died, the virus was battling with the robotic cells, viewing it as part of the immune system.”
“Oh.”
“It eventually got wiped out and the nanobots’ started building and reproducing from there. So that is why it took more than a week.”
“Where is the body now?”
“We gave it back to the Qein family. Don’t worry, we destroyed all the nanobots beforehand. There was simply nothing more we could learn from it.”
“Ok then. Give me a run down on the info you collected.”
“Right. Follow me.”
The doctor led Melissa down a couple of corridors through to ward 0a. It didn’t contain any patients though, just people sitting around screens and studying data.
“This is where we store and analyse all our data,” said the doctor. He pressed a few buttons and some diagrams came up on the screen. “Take a seat.”
Melissa did so.
“Now, this is a basic diagram of the microscopic machines we found.” He pointed to a long, oval shaped structure with a hole in the front and a small propeller at the back. “They use that propeller to get around the blood stream. When they’re not in a liquid they use miniature legs that retract out of their body.” He pressed a button and six small legs came out, three on each side.
“Interesting,” said Melissa in awe. “What about that hole in the front?”
“That’s their infrared sensors. Mainly it just helps them to get around, but the small laser can be used as a weapon against other cells.”
“Right. So tell me about how they rebuild the body.”
“Well, that is their most interesting part. See, these aliens start by decomposing x organ. They can then use the resources gathered to reproduce themselves with ease. Next, a preset amount of them pile up in one spot, joining themselves together to make one big semi-organic organ, muscle, or whatever else they’re replacing.”
“Wow.”
“And the amazing thing is the speed in which they can do all of this to the entire body. You saw how quickly it affected those marines.”
“Very dangerous. Are you working on a vaccine yet?”
“Yes but it could take some time. The internal machinery of these nanobots is very complicated.”
Melissa started to stand up. “Ok doctor, thank you for that information and good luck with the vaccine.”
She said goodbye and took her leave. She was half way back to her ship when her comm beeped. It was Captain Forge. “Melissa, are you finished with the doctor?”
“Yes sir. He gave me a run-down on what happened to the marines. I’m on my way back now.”
“No need, the Herra has already docked with the ‘yard. Come to the briefing room. It’s time to resume the meeting.”
“Oh, I forgot about that. I’ll be there sir.”
“Good, just keep in mind that we’ve now invited the Split, Teladi and Paranid to the meeting. The Teladi turned up and the Split are on their way, but I don’t know where the Paranid are. If they come they’ll probably bring Xaar himself. He’d be the only one with an excuse to talk with ‘lowerlifes’. Forge out.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seth’s crippled arm managed to push the comm button. “This is patrol 369.1. If anyone can hear this, I need help. I only have half a ship, and I’m too hurt to get into my suit.”
He looked in despair at half a communications array that was supposed to be sitting on his wing. Instead it was lying on the surface of the shipyard a few meters away. Everything was fried. Even the life support system didn’t work. What oxygen he had left was what was in his tanks now.
He heard a slight ‘bang’ underneath his ship. Something seemed to be crawling up the side, towards the cockpit. Seth was starting to get delusional with all the pain. Hyperthermia prevented him from screaming as the unknown creature approached him. Suddenly, it appeared. A large helmet, a couple of arms, a torso, and two legs. Seth was relieved beyond words.
Seth gulped, “Hello?”
“Hey, it’s me.”
Seth was trying hard to focus. He was starting to pass out but he managed to stay with it for a bit longer. “Is…it…you?”
“What do you mean, ‘is it you’? Of coarse it’s me. Hang on, don’t tell me you thought I died in that explosion.”
“You did…but….how? Wait! No I’m just hallucinating. You just died so I’m trying to cope by making false visuals.”
“Err, okay.”
Seth felt like he had been hit with a sense of reality. He suddenly got a tiny bit of hope. He tried to tell himself ‘no’ but it didn’t work. “Jo! It really is you! How?”
“I thought I’d lost you for good there. Well, all I can say is boy am I glad I installed those twin exit eject doors and boosters. I ejected long before my ship blew. I propelled myself behind my ship from that guy’s view, so I had plenty of time to take cover.”
Seth tried to lunge out in happiness, but an excruciating feeling all over his body involuntarily stopped him. He just smiled instead.
************************************************************************
Melissa was approaching the shipyard in a Disco. She was surprised at what she saw. The ‘yard needed a major repair. It was like an M5 strike force had come and attacked the place. From a distance it looked fine but when she got closer she could see a turret had been blown off, a half melted Centaur had space suits swarming around it, a hole had been blasted in the side of the tunnel structure that went through the length of the ‘yard; a little further along and another hole had been blasted, this one looked like it had been shot from the inside; and right at the end a cargo canister with crates spilling out of it had repair crews around it.
She docked in section B, as opposed to the manufacturing section. She grabbed her essentials and waited to be transported aboard. She got transported to a corridor on the outside of the ‘yard, with a window facing the docked ships. As she walked through the structure, a few medics came through in the opposite direction, pushing a hoverbed with a patient on it. She stopped one of the medics. “What happened to him?”
“Didn’t you see that dogfight? He was one of the victims.”
“I just arrived here. What happened?”
“Listen, I’ve got to get back to my – ”
“That’s ok. Where are you going?”
“To the medical centre.”
“I’m going there to. So tell me what happened.”
The medic related all that he had seen from the start of the chase to the finish.
“Oh, ok. Thanks.”
They were now just outside one of the medical centre’s entrances. Melissa let the medics with the hoverbed go in first, with herself closely behind. She watched as the small convoy of medics disappeared down the next hallway. She was in ward 3D, she had to get to ward 5B, in other words, the morgue.
She found her destination within minutes, and walked over to Doctor Holfe. “Doctor, how did your studies go?”
“Quite well. I have to say, if you hadn’t told me of this ‘rebuilding’ technique that the nanobots have then some of us might not be here right now. I saw the security footage from your ship.”
“Frightening, to say the least.”
“We believe that the rebuilding process didn’t kick in for a long time because the senator had a cold at the time.”
“Err, a cold?”
“Yes. You see, long after the immune system’s antibodies died, the virus was battling with the robotic cells, viewing it as part of the immune system.”
“Oh.”
“It eventually got wiped out and the nanobots’ started building and reproducing from there. So that is why it took more than a week.”
“Where is the body now?”
“We gave it back to the Qein family. Don’t worry, we destroyed all the nanobots beforehand. There was simply nothing more we could learn from it.”
“Ok then. Give me a run down on the info you collected.”
“Right. Follow me.”
The doctor led Melissa down a couple of corridors through to ward 0a. It didn’t contain any patients though, just people sitting around screens and studying data.
“This is where we store and analyse all our data,” said the doctor. He pressed a few buttons and some diagrams came up on the screen. “Take a seat.”
Melissa did so.
“Now, this is a basic diagram of the microscopic machines we found.” He pointed to a long, oval shaped structure with a hole in the front and a small propeller at the back. “They use that propeller to get around the blood stream. When they’re not in a liquid they use miniature legs that retract out of their body.” He pressed a button and six small legs came out, three on each side.
“Interesting,” said Melissa in awe. “What about that hole in the front?”
“That’s their infrared sensors. Mainly it just helps them to get around, but the small laser can be used as a weapon against other cells.”
“Right. So tell me about how they rebuild the body.”
“Well, that is their most interesting part. See, these aliens start by decomposing x organ. They can then use the resources gathered to reproduce themselves with ease. Next, a preset amount of them pile up in one spot, joining themselves together to make one big semi-organic organ, muscle, or whatever else they’re replacing.”
“Wow.”
“And the amazing thing is the speed in which they can do all of this to the entire body. You saw how quickly it affected those marines.”
“Very dangerous. Are you working on a vaccine yet?”
“Yes but it could take some time. The internal machinery of these nanobots is very complicated.”
Melissa started to stand up. “Ok doctor, thank you for that information and good luck with the vaccine.”
She said goodbye and took her leave. She was half way back to her ship when her comm beeped. It was Captain Forge. “Melissa, are you finished with the doctor?”
“Yes sir. He gave me a run-down on what happened to the marines. I’m on my way back now.”
“No need, the Herra has already docked with the ‘yard. Come to the briefing room. It’s time to resume the meeting.”
“Oh, I forgot about that. I’ll be there sir.”
“Good, just keep in mind that we’ve now invited the Split, Teladi and Paranid to the meeting. The Teladi turned up and the Split are on their way, but I don’t know where the Paranid are. If they come they’ll probably bring Xaar himself. He’d be the only one with an excuse to talk with ‘lowerlifes’. Forge out.”
Last edited by Syndrome on Mon, 11. Jun 07, 10:48, edited 1 time in total.
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jackhanna88
- Posts: 616
- Joined: Tue, 1. Aug 06, 17:06
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Syndrome
- Posts: 1642
- Joined: Fri, 22. Jul 05, 04:58
Y'know, come to think of it, it's not my vocabulary that's the problem, it's just my brainjackhanna88 wrote:I wouldn't describe you as having a limited vocabulary, it certainly doesn't show. These stories are incredibly descriptive, I find it extremely easy to visualise whatever's happening.
Not only that but it's a very cool plot.
Keep it up, mate!
Usually I eventually get the word I'm after, it's just the time in between that's the hard part. I'm startin' to lose my memory already 
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jackhanna88
- Posts: 616
- Joined: Tue, 1. Aug 06, 17:06
What was it we were talking about again?Syndrome wrote:Y'know, come to think of it, it's not my vocabulary that's the problem, it's just my brainjackhanna88 wrote:I wouldn't describe you as having a limited vocabulary, it certainly doesn't show. These stories are incredibly descriptive, I find it extremely easy to visualise whatever's happening.
Not only that but it's a very cool plot.
Keep it up, mate!
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Syndrome
- Posts: 1642
- Joined: Fri, 22. Jul 05, 04:58
revised
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There was only one way to describe the room that presented itself before Melissa’s eyes – big. It reminded her of a small sports ground from Argon Prime. There were hundreds of people at the meeting now, almost double those who had been attending the previous briefing. The room was set out with about fifty or so high officials sitting before a long table about sixty meters long. Some chairs had to be redone to meet the extremely short Teladi. Other chairs that looked like cow milking set-ups were reserved for the Paranid, should they come. Around the table there were about five hundred seats, set up in the way a sports ground would be. Most of these seats were taken, with still a few arriving late.
Things had started to quieten down and Jacob Forge was about to start the meeting when four massive figures came through the door behind him. At about two and a half meters, they had to duck under the small-in-comparison doorway. Their three eyes was the biggest attention-drawer. It had everyone staring up. They approached Admiral Forge. He extended a hand with a business-like smile.
“Welcome Xaar. We hope you – ”
They just walked strait past him to their seats without hardly a glance. Forge raised his eyebrows and gave a half teeth smile. He turned around, sat down, and whispered something to the man sitting next to him. The other man shrugged his shoulders and said a few words back.
The huge chairs didn’t do the four Paranid justice. They were slightly small and with their heavy clothing they were quite visibly starting to buckle slightly. Jacob shuddered at the thought of Xaar falling backwards, picking himself in a fit of rage, and – . He put the thought out of his mind. As soon as Xaar had sat down, Jacob began to say something but was cut off by Xaar’s very dry but still trying-to-be-friendly, “Greetings.” Before Xaar or his associates could say anything else Jacob raised his voice in order to cut off any further comments from his Paranid friends and said, “Let us stand for a minute of silence as we remember the death of Senator Jack Qein.”
The Split family leaders started to hit themselves in various areas in a sort of war dance. Xaar motioned to his associates and started a harmonic moan. The Teladi profit ministers took the opportunity to do some small task on their handheld. And the Boron just plain started crying. The room was far from silent. It was a once in a lifetime display of how all the races responded to death all at once.
The Admiral’s ears were ringing as one of the Paranid was sitting in close proximity. He managed to start the meeting off though with as few shaken-up words. “The meeting is now in session for two hours. I – ”
The Split family leader for Rhy immediately started off the discussion with a loud outburst. “This race is no match for Split! We will take them even if other races refuse to help powerful Split.”
And that was in general how the Split acted in the following two hours. The meeting, though, was moderately productive. Tate made a few words, Melissa likewise, but the other two friends chose to sit it out. In Jason’s case, he had just come back from being shot by a dart and having doctors franticly try to eliminate hostile nanobots that were trying to replace his vital organs with pieces of metal! Hence, he wasn’t feeling the best. Vanessa, on the other hand, was running on empty. She would’ve dropped asleep for days if it wasn’t for the stims that she was taking. She had been working flat out for the past few days. The hanger bay incident didn’t do her any good either.
And so in the end Jacob was pleased with how the briefing had gone. Not exactly smooth but not bad nonetheless.
Before the attacks had started, Jacob was going to put on a get-together for his crew. He would hire stand-in staff for a night while his crew enjoyed themselves. Most of them had been there for over five years, and they had gone through a lot. Probably the most outstanding was their effort in the Battle Of Omicron Lyrae. Single handedly the Herra, along with its fifty two assorted fighters, had destroyed two Khaak Destroyers and seventy odd fighters. It had come at a cost though. Twenty fighters were lost, one pilot for each fighter. These events were still quite fresh in the crew’s minds, and rightly so. It all happened only six months or so ago.
But alas, Jacob was sure that it would be impossible, at least before his ship was disabled. Now that it was completely disabled and required almost no crew, he though he just might have an opportunity.
************************************************************************
Melissa, Jason, Jacob, Tate and Vanessa were making their way down a single corridor of the shipyard.
“Hey dad,” said Vanessa, “How’d you like the Paranid’s ‘death chant’?”
“It was, err, intriguing.”
“You mean painful,” said Jason.
“I can only imagine how that would’ve come across on your hearing aid,” said Vanessa with a mock shudder.
“I’m not that old yet.”
“Oh sorry, I forgot. Time gets away from me sometimes.”
“Sir,” said Melissa. “How – ”
“Melissa! Please stop calling me sir. I’ve known you for long enough now. You know, one day we might be fighting side by side and just because you were taking too long saying ‘sir’ before you were telling me to eject out of my ship so as not to get sliced to pieces by a Kyon Emitter, I might die.”
“Ok then…Jake,” said Melissa with an ironic smile. “Will the Nemesis ever see combat again? I haven’t had a chance to catch up with what’s happening with my ship.”
“It should be ready very soon. It is currently at a secondary repair dock in Power Circle. We jumped it there in a TL.”
“Oh.”
“Is there something wrong?”
“No, it’s nothing. It’s just ever since I was transferred to that ship as captain I’ve never been so far away from it.”
“Well,” said Tate, “If it makes you feel any better, scientists estimate that Power Circle and Omicron Lyrae are actually quite close in the scheme of things. Four light years away compared to the neighbouring sector Circle Of Labour which they think is sixteen light years away.”
Melissa acknowledged with a short lived half-smile, although she was visibly distressed, she appreciated Tate’s comment.
Eventually all members of the little convoy had gone to their quarters except Tate and Vanessa (their quarters were opposite each other). Vanessa looked uneasy, as if she wanted to say something. She took a hold of herself right as they arrived at their quarters. With the two standing side by side outside the door, she viewed this as a perfect opportunity. “Um, Tate.”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“You know dad’s going to organise a crew night out soon.”
“Really? He said something about that but I thought he was going to call it off. You know with all the attacks and stuff.”
“Well he’s reconsidering it now that the Herra’s immobilized for a while.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’ll make sure.”
“Sweet,” said Tate, a smile building on his face as he imagined a night out.
“Anyway, I was wondering if, well, you might want to come with me.”
“Oh you mean like a – ”
“You know what I mean.”
Tate’s smile grew bigger as he began to understand. “You haven’t done this before have you.”
“Don’t make it hard for me.”
“Sure then,” said Tate in a warmer tone. “Just make sure the Captain does get it organised.”
The pair then split into their separate rooms, and Vanessa felt like she had accomplished her goal for the day.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There was only one way to describe the room that presented itself before Melissa’s eyes – big. It reminded her of a small sports ground from Argon Prime. There were hundreds of people at the meeting now, almost double those who had been attending the previous briefing. The room was set out with about fifty or so high officials sitting before a long table about sixty meters long. Some chairs had to be redone to meet the extremely short Teladi. Other chairs that looked like cow milking set-ups were reserved for the Paranid, should they come. Around the table there were about five hundred seats, set up in the way a sports ground would be. Most of these seats were taken, with still a few arriving late.
Things had started to quieten down and Jacob Forge was about to start the meeting when four massive figures came through the door behind him. At about two and a half meters, they had to duck under the small-in-comparison doorway. Their three eyes was the biggest attention-drawer. It had everyone staring up. They approached Admiral Forge. He extended a hand with a business-like smile.
“Welcome Xaar. We hope you – ”
They just walked strait past him to their seats without hardly a glance. Forge raised his eyebrows and gave a half teeth smile. He turned around, sat down, and whispered something to the man sitting next to him. The other man shrugged his shoulders and said a few words back.
The huge chairs didn’t do the four Paranid justice. They were slightly small and with their heavy clothing they were quite visibly starting to buckle slightly. Jacob shuddered at the thought of Xaar falling backwards, picking himself in a fit of rage, and – . He put the thought out of his mind. As soon as Xaar had sat down, Jacob began to say something but was cut off by Xaar’s very dry but still trying-to-be-friendly, “Greetings.” Before Xaar or his associates could say anything else Jacob raised his voice in order to cut off any further comments from his Paranid friends and said, “Let us stand for a minute of silence as we remember the death of Senator Jack Qein.”
The Split family leaders started to hit themselves in various areas in a sort of war dance. Xaar motioned to his associates and started a harmonic moan. The Teladi profit ministers took the opportunity to do some small task on their handheld. And the Boron just plain started crying. The room was far from silent. It was a once in a lifetime display of how all the races responded to death all at once.
The Admiral’s ears were ringing as one of the Paranid was sitting in close proximity. He managed to start the meeting off though with as few shaken-up words. “The meeting is now in session for two hours. I – ”
The Split family leader for Rhy immediately started off the discussion with a loud outburst. “This race is no match for Split! We will take them even if other races refuse to help powerful Split.”
And that was in general how the Split acted in the following two hours. The meeting, though, was moderately productive. Tate made a few words, Melissa likewise, but the other two friends chose to sit it out. In Jason’s case, he had just come back from being shot by a dart and having doctors franticly try to eliminate hostile nanobots that were trying to replace his vital organs with pieces of metal! Hence, he wasn’t feeling the best. Vanessa, on the other hand, was running on empty. She would’ve dropped asleep for days if it wasn’t for the stims that she was taking. She had been working flat out for the past few days. The hanger bay incident didn’t do her any good either.
And so in the end Jacob was pleased with how the briefing had gone. Not exactly smooth but not bad nonetheless.
Before the attacks had started, Jacob was going to put on a get-together for his crew. He would hire stand-in staff for a night while his crew enjoyed themselves. Most of them had been there for over five years, and they had gone through a lot. Probably the most outstanding was their effort in the Battle Of Omicron Lyrae. Single handedly the Herra, along with its fifty two assorted fighters, had destroyed two Khaak Destroyers and seventy odd fighters. It had come at a cost though. Twenty fighters were lost, one pilot for each fighter. These events were still quite fresh in the crew’s minds, and rightly so. It all happened only six months or so ago.
But alas, Jacob was sure that it would be impossible, at least before his ship was disabled. Now that it was completely disabled and required almost no crew, he though he just might have an opportunity.
************************************************************************
Melissa, Jason, Jacob, Tate and Vanessa were making their way down a single corridor of the shipyard.
“Hey dad,” said Vanessa, “How’d you like the Paranid’s ‘death chant’?”
“It was, err, intriguing.”
“You mean painful,” said Jason.
“I can only imagine how that would’ve come across on your hearing aid,” said Vanessa with a mock shudder.
“I’m not that old yet.”
“Oh sorry, I forgot. Time gets away from me sometimes.”
“Sir,” said Melissa. “How – ”
“Melissa! Please stop calling me sir. I’ve known you for long enough now. You know, one day we might be fighting side by side and just because you were taking too long saying ‘sir’ before you were telling me to eject out of my ship so as not to get sliced to pieces by a Kyon Emitter, I might die.”
“Ok then…Jake,” said Melissa with an ironic smile. “Will the Nemesis ever see combat again? I haven’t had a chance to catch up with what’s happening with my ship.”
“It should be ready very soon. It is currently at a secondary repair dock in Power Circle. We jumped it there in a TL.”
“Oh.”
“Is there something wrong?”
“No, it’s nothing. It’s just ever since I was transferred to that ship as captain I’ve never been so far away from it.”
“Well,” said Tate, “If it makes you feel any better, scientists estimate that Power Circle and Omicron Lyrae are actually quite close in the scheme of things. Four light years away compared to the neighbouring sector Circle Of Labour which they think is sixteen light years away.”
Melissa acknowledged with a short lived half-smile, although she was visibly distressed, she appreciated Tate’s comment.
Eventually all members of the little convoy had gone to their quarters except Tate and Vanessa (their quarters were opposite each other). Vanessa looked uneasy, as if she wanted to say something. She took a hold of herself right as they arrived at their quarters. With the two standing side by side outside the door, she viewed this as a perfect opportunity. “Um, Tate.”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“You know dad’s going to organise a crew night out soon.”
“Really? He said something about that but I thought he was going to call it off. You know with all the attacks and stuff.”
“Well he’s reconsidering it now that the Herra’s immobilized for a while.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’ll make sure.”
“Sweet,” said Tate, a smile building on his face as he imagined a night out.
“Anyway, I was wondering if, well, you might want to come with me.”
“Oh you mean like a – ”
“You know what I mean.”
Tate’s smile grew bigger as he began to understand. “You haven’t done this before have you.”
“Don’t make it hard for me.”
“Sure then,” said Tate in a warmer tone. “Just make sure the Captain does get it organised.”
The pair then split into their separate rooms, and Vanessa felt like she had accomplished her goal for the day.
Last edited by Syndrome on Mon, 11. Jun 07, 10:58, edited 1 time in total.