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A lone escape pod drifts through space.
_Priority 2 distress beacon Elapsed time since ejection: 4:01:45:30 Survivors: 1 Life Readings: Salrilian, Stable
This is Slug. I have been drifting through space for just over 4 days now. I saw it happen. They're dead. All of them.
Elapsed time since ejection: 4:01:49:21
Repeat. This is Slug....._
------------------ _After the Alien wars, our civilisation was left in the stone ages. The core worlds were supposedly decimated, yet I cannot shake the horrible feeling that something has survived. _
-Polaris Confederacy Admiral Canaron, StarLance
"Thanks for your cooperation. I'll just be leaving now," said Mag Steelglass.
"But what about getting our ship back to the oupost so it can be repaired?!?" asked the captain of the Salrillian carrier PSS Prophecy.
"I leave it to you Sals to figure out. Surely a race with superior intellect ough to be able to figure something out. But I REALLY need to leave. So...bye!" said Mag, as he stepped back through the airlock and close it.
He'd just gotten all of the money off of all of the Salrillians on board the Prophecy. He detatched, and set in a course for the Hatares Nebula. Because of its proximity to the outpost he was near, it would only take a couple of hours. Time to go work on his EV3D pilot...
3 and a quarter hours later, he arrived in the Hatares Nebula. His ship immediately picked up the distress signal.
"Hmmm... Slug, of all people, is in a position where I can help him. Why couldn't it have been that beutiful woman from the bar?!?"
He opened the cargo bay doors, and scooped up the escape pod. He set in a course for the next system on the line of jump-links to Sol, and went to hyperspace.
He got his photokinetic beam rifle out, and went down to the cargo hold. He saw Slug there, climbing out of the escape pod.
"Well, I see you managed to get your fleet destroyed..."
------------------ "I can ail what cures you."
Slug, exhasperated and panting at the oxygen atmosphere again, looked up at Mag Steelglass. "It happenned so quickly. The lights dimmed, the door locked, and they cam right onto my bridge."
"Give me a reason to kill you." Mag said with a jab of his rifle.
"Why would you pick me up just to kill me? Was it to watch me die in your rifle's flames? Or did you just change your mind when I drifted into your cargo bay?"
"Shut up."
"Go ahead. Kill me."
"No. I'm a bit short on cash. I think I'll sell you back to your 'fleet'."
A tear formed in the corner of Slug's eye. "What fleet?"
"What?!"
"They came, they finally mutinied. After bundling me into an escape pod and ejecting me into space, the took control of the fleet. They didn't stand a chance after they left the nebula."
"And you saw this."
"Yes. I have nothing to pay you with, no reason for you to let me live, but I need... transportation."
"You're in no position to bargain. I want answers."
"After you give me transportation."
"Where to?"
"I will not tell you at the moment. I will enter the coordinates into the computer."
"No you won't."
"I have nothing to gain by deceiving you."
"Alright, Slug, but if we go an inch into hostile space, I'll kill you."
"Deal. You will not regret this."
"I have a feeling I will." Mag said grimly.
Sundered Angel motions Nerec over to a table.
"Drion Nerec. A pleasure to meet you. I am Sundered Angel." He performs a long, embellished bow of the type not seen on Earth for a hundred years.
"Firstly, I will warn you that by associating yourself with me you place considerable risk on yourself and those around you. The Salrilians have a strong distaste for the Gussahl-Ssessk, and I am the greatest of them all." He gives a thin smile.
"That said, there are a few things I wish to discuss with you. The Divine Galatic Axis is rather a concern of mine, as yours, and it might be a good idea to pool forces. Sargatanus' power grows every day."
------------------ Sundered Angel , The One and Only
Ares Webboard Moderator, and all-around Nice Guy
"Yes, I agree. The war hasn't been officially started but already the Sals have launched several attacks on borderline Phylydion territory. And we have retaliated. The war has been fairly even up until now, but if they launch an all-out attack we will need all our resources to stop them. I do, however, have ten fleets at my disposal that are not bogged down defending the Imperium. They are our wild card. Most of our allies have already backed out of the war, unfortunately. "And I have just received a report. The Nijayias area of space has been completely shattered. Our fleets pushed back the rebels farther and farther, and the battles kept going. Half the planets in the Nijayias Empire are now totally unihabitable from orbital bombardment and the other half are either under our martial law or under the Salrilians'. All Nijaiyas forces have been wiped out, excepting the large fleet that disappeared so long ago. Our control over that space is giving us many extra resources, and we launch raids regularly on the Salrilian portion. "That about sums up the situation, Angel. We must make our plans swiftly before the Sals have another chance to attack."
Slug slithered into the bar, pursued hotly by an angry Mag Steelglass. "Look, Slug, I've taken you to the bar, but you haven't kept up your end of the bargain."
Slug turned to face Mag, face to scarred face, sending a shudder through Mag's spine. "Fine." Slug tossed Mag a commpad. "Here are the coordinates of the wreckage. The Salrilians have prifted off by now."
"This was once your fleet?!" Mag said with a surprised look.
"Yes. The debris is orbiting the Hatares supernovae cluster. You might find something interesting there." Slug gave Mag a wink.
"Tell me more."
Slug took Mag to a dark corner. "Before we we fled into the Hatares, we raided a Gaitori weapons dump. We were expecting the same useless weaponry, but it turns out we stole their only prototypes of the new ThermoKinetic Blaster Cannon. This ship-mounted weapon can turn entire continents into lifeless rocks."
Several alien heads turned towards Slug from various locations in the bar. "Slug you idiot! They can hear us with their ears!"
Slug grinned broadly (causing an old wound on his face to start bleeding again). "Looks like you'll be having some competition getting it."
Several minutes later, a large number of ships left the dock, each screaming to hyperspace as fast as they could. "That'll keep him busy." Slug mumbled to himself as he approached Nerec.
"And to think," came a sharp voice from behind Nerec with a sarcastic tone, "I was sure we were friends."
Drion Nerec and Sundered Angel turned to see none other than the Haruspex himself, clad in all the finery a diety could ask for. Both were stunned: how could he get here without them noticing? And for that matter, why didn't his ship register a docking alert?
Nerec remained silent while he fumbled for words, and Sundered Angel leaned back trying to force back a grin.
"Come now," Sargatanus' tone became unervingly friendly. "Only three years ago, your people were more than happy to assist my forces. And now you claim that we are at war?"
Nerec regained his composure: "Your border patrols have been harassing ours, and you have been massing an enormous for almost two years now. These, when combined with your radical, militaristic expansionism, make a pretty distinct pisture."
"First off," Sargatanus began as he sat down at thier table, "all of my border patrols, the Salrilian ones anyway, have strict orders not to make any hostile actions until an aggressor does. Their Cantharan counterparts (the only other power with a border to you), are under even stricter guidlines from the Order. Now, Phylydions on the other hand, have had a long standing social stigma with the Salrilians and Cantharans, and have all the authorization they need to fire the first shot. When you figure in Phylydions' headstrong beligerence (let's not deny it, Mr. Octicate of the military), it makes for countless international incedents. But I suppose your pilots couldn't possibley shoot down a ship of their percieved enemy for no reason, now could they?"
The Venom and sarcasm from Sargatanus' remark hung so thick that it could almost be tasted. Drion remained silent.
Sargatanus continued: "And we did not start building a massive until you did. For some reason, you saw it necessary to work your shipyards overtime after the Verasi incedent. Knowing full well what your intentions were, we had no choice but to reciprocate."
Drion remained silent, but was becoming visably upset.
"And 'radical, militaristic expansionism'? Since my enduction as Haruspex, the only system we have aquired was Verasi."
"And more than half of Nijayias space!" Drion barked.
Sargatanus remained cool. "Ah. I'm glad you brought that up. Tragedy, really; almost fourty-five billion Nijayias have died in that fiasco. And all of their blood is on your hands, Mr. Octicate. And this may just be my opinion, but your actions in that case were thousands of times worse than anything we within the Divine Galactic Axis have done. Yes, we have set up a protectorate that spans half of Nijayias space, but if we didn't then your navy would have killed them all. We are keeping a race from becoming extinct."
"We were eliminating a large renegade menace that we have reason to believe was under your control!"
Sargatanus leaned back and became quite frank. "Am I the one who gave the ordered to have 131 planets slagged?"
"We were ensuring that the renegade threat was subdued."
"I see. So instead of sending a taskforce to hunt down the renegades, you send the full force of the Imperium to anihilate any concievable hosting spot."
"It's a tactic called assured supression. I'm sure you're familiar with it."
Sargatanus' face became all seriousness. "I am quite familiar with it. But I call what you have done to the Nijayias something very different: genocide. And I doubt there is a soul outside of the Imperium that would argue with me; that includes your alies."
Drion's face was becoming very red. He was reaching his limit for stomaching his anger.
Sargatanus continued his verbal onslaught: "So let's review shall we? Overwhelming evidance and logic suggests that it has been your pilots harassing my borders, you were the first to start building ships in what you jumped to as a 'wartime' scenario, and while I have occupied half of the Nijayias planets, you have visiously slaughtered some 45 billion, when you only needed to kill a few thousand." Sargatanus leaned in towards Drion to further drive in his point. "Who is the aggressor here, Mr. Octicate?"
The Octicate slammed his fist down on the table, nearly cracking it as he stood up. "That is enough!" He bellowed. His mouth was moving so far and so powerfully that his well trimmed beard was unraveling. "I am a Phylydion Octicate, and I will not tolerate this kind of talk from ignorant human, no matter what title you might give yourself! Continue with this disrespectful attitude, and I will not hesitate to have the supreme Octicate pass a declaration of war!"
Sargatanus shook his head and cracked a grin. "Typical Phylydion fatalism. You know, I oftentimes wonder how long you people would last without a common enemy to keep your crosshair off eachother."
The Octicate drew his blade and was about to shout before Sargatanus cut him off. "You really should try to control your anger; it's terrible for your blood pressure."
The Octicates face turned almost red with rage. Very red. Veins were popping out all over his face. But then something happened. This was something else aside from rage. The pressure began to hurt, and the pain was intensifying.
Sargatanus maintained his fixed stare.
Drion Nerec couldn't hold down the pain much longer. His eyes were becoming bloodshot, and his sinus passages were throbing. Then he couln't breath. His toung and throat had swelled to the point where they clogged his windpipe. The pain and pressure mounted to the point were he was on the floor. And then it was released when veins and blood vessels exploded all throughout him. Blood leapt from ebery orafice of his face, and shot from his sinuses and the veins that ruptured on his head and hands. Blood flowed like a firehose from his mouth where his tounge had virtually exploded. His aids stared in astonishment as they rushed to pick him up. He was alive, but in extreme pain.
Sargatanus kept his focused stair, and a smirk came across his lips.
The octicate was hurried off to his ship's medical facility. Some of his Taeskor aids had strongly considered making an attack at Sargatanus directly, but decided against it.
Sargatanus briefly relished in the amusement, then went back to his drink.
(Cicion: don't start a war with this. Have the Supreme Octicate try to move for peace)
------------------ Throughout their history these "unenlightened" beings have continually opposed and fought abuses of power wrought by their own bretheren. We, as the prophets would do well to learn from these Humans. -Final statement of the Salrilian reformist Sirthis shortly before his execution.
(You know, Sarg, you could have gone easy on the "making up what Drion Nerec was like" aspect. If he was actually that hotheaded and that unable to think before he spoke, he would not be an Octicate.)
Nerec walked back into the bar, now more like his usual cool, calm self. "First, allow me to correct you on one point." Sagatanus started to speak, but Nerec cut him off. "Never mind. I certainly do not need you to allow me to. I will in any case. None of the planets we slagged in Nijayias space had a single Nijayias on them. They were all safely evacuated to the outer planets. All planets we bombarded were under complete control of the Phylydion Rebellion, and were significantly fortified. It is the area of Nijayias that YOU control which should be changed. But never mind that now, we're past such discussion. "I do not want a war, and I will give the order to halt our retaliatory strikes-" he cut Sargatanus off again, "if you will pull back your forces to exactly one parsec behind your border. We will do the same." He looked at Angel, and it was clear what his silent message was: "What about Cicion?"
"You realize, of course, that I am being very kind to ignore the slashing remarks you made stating that we always struck first while knowing full well that all evidence was in the contrary, as well as your apparent contempt for me and my entire species."
The Rogue dropped out of hyperspace in the Hatares Nebula, along with a dozen other ships. Most were cruisers, but there were two Gaitori gunships. Mag headed straight towards the debris of the fleet, but one of the gunships started firing at him. He flipped the Rogue over and went head on with the gunship. His protopulse and lepton beam cannons were more than enough to tear the gunship to pieces.
His sensors beeped, and were displaying some sort of beam cannon. The other ships, which were also fighting, forgot about each other and sped towards it. There was a Cantharan schooner in the group, and it was pulling ahead by far. Mag fired three of his fifteen concussion missiles, and it ceased to be a schooner and became several chunks of metal.
Right as the four remaining ships were nearing the weapon, a jumpgate opened, and four Salrillian gunships jumped in. They stealthed, but there was a visible hole in the gas wherev they went. One gunship got on each of the four remaining cruisers' tails. The one behind Mag fired a plasma pulse at him, but he easily dodged it. He spun around, unloaded the remaining 12 concussion missiles, and opened up with the protopulse and lepton beams. He managed to finish it off while taking minor damage.
The other three gunships had been sucessful in destroying the other cruisers, and they came after him. He just kept heading for the beam weapon, dodging thier plasma pulses and photokinetic beam cannon shots, and opened the cargo bay doors. He decellerated very quickly, carefully maneuvered the beam weapon into his cargo bay, and headed off. He hit the superlight boosters, and so did the three gunships. However, their superlight boosters were faster than his, so they were able to catch up to him very quickly. He had a hard time dodging their well-aimed plasma pulses while travelling at such high speeds, and he managed to get far enough from the nebula that activating the hyperspace engine wouldn't ignite any of the explosive gasses, and set in a course for Sol. He was already going faster than light, so he was able to transfer directly into hyperspace...
Slug waltzed up to Drion Nerec and drew his blade. The three Taeskors besides Nerec instintively drew theirs.
"Drion Nerec," Slug held his blade high in the air and dropped it. It clattered on the metal floor. "I beleive you have found your renegade."
(Cicion: I was only trying to stay true to the Ares feel and blur the lines of good and evil. Also, (and I think I'm not alone on this one), the Phylydions are just a little too perfect. What I wrote is merely my assumptions based on my observations of what you've written. I have seen the Phylydions as something like "if the Klingons controled the Roman Empire": proud, strong, stalwart to a fault, and very dignified, yet elitist, militaristic, and very ethnocentric. I thought that by adding some beligerance and wrong-doing to the yet unblemished facade of your Imperium I could add a little more color and interest in the story. And by logic, a military director would have some exagerated Phylydion social characteristics. I thought it would be beneficial to the plot. If you seriously object, I will delete my post. Agreed?)
Sundered Angel has been watching the two, a slow, thin smile spreading across his face. As the two participants pause for a second, he begins to chuckle. Nerec and Sargatanus turn their attention on him, as he begins to laugh. Nerec glowers, Sargatanus looks thoughtful. Sundered Angel finishing laughing, and smiles at them both.
"Pride. Arrogance. Hubris, even. Three words you should both learn, and learn well." He leans forward in his seat.
"You are both looking for an excuse to make war. And when two leaders seek to make war, war will surely happen. As sure as eggs are eggs. You may deny it. I expect both of you will. But take it from someone who knows..." he taps his nose "...I know."
Both Nerec and Sargatanus make moves to speak, but fall silent when SA waves a hand- they both want to know what he has to say.
"I can help. I could broker a lasting peace for your nations, develop a way for them to get along. Of course, that would give me too much power, something that neither of you, Sargatanus especially, would be able to accept. And so it will escalate. Oh, I am sure there will be a few efforts to secure peace. Token gestures. But the end result is the same."
His smile dissapears, and his voice grows cold, distant, hard.
"War will sweep the stars, scattering particles of hate and fear ahead of it. Whole worlds shall cower under the rule of the iron fist, whole races shall feel the breath of destruction. And death, like a rabid beast, shall stalk the souls of all who live in its grasp."
Then he smiles, as both Nerec and Sargatanus stare at him in amazement.
"Poetic, no?" He rises, and begins to walk away, but then stops and turns. "Oh, and I nearly forget. Sargatanus, two things. Firstly, you brushed the glass from a smashed cup on your route to us- very noisy. And secondly- using unfocused power in an attack is inefficient. I'd reccomend using some sort of funnelling object. It really does help."
With another smile, Sundered Angel turns and walks for the door.
((Assuming the whole above doesn't get rewritten. But I don't really think it should.))
(This message has been edited by Sundered Angel (edited 09-17-2000).)
Captain Pharris and several of the officers of the SS Barbarossa watch the proceedings from one of the adjacent booths in the bar. Always on the lookout for a good barfight, but wary of the Taeskor guards following the admirals around. As Sundered Angel walked out, one of the lieutenants broke the silence with a quiet whisper:
"Who the hell is that Sundered Angel guy? Gave me the shivers just listening to him talk"
"whoever he is, he's freaking scary." agreed the XO
"I've heard of him before, He looks human, but I don't believe it. Though, I can't really figure out what else he could be... He seemed to make quite an impression on those two over there... I wouldn't mind talking to them, just to get a little bit of an Idea of what this is all about... Maybe I can even get us a job... Go prep the ship for launch, call the loading teams back from shore leave, give the others four more hours. Call control, and get us clearance to go at 0400. Settle our docking fees. I want to buy one of these guys a drink..."
"Aye aye sir..."
Sad that their shore leave is being brought to a premature end, but excited at the prospect of a new mission, the officers paid and left, already considering the last minute purchases and repairs necessary to make the SS Barbarossa spaceworthy by 0400.
Captain Pharris moved to a spot on the bar closer to Slug, Nerec and Sargatanus, looking for an opporunity to butt in on their conversation...
(I hope it isn't too late to get in on all the action...)
------------------
Slug turned around "Who, may I ask are you?" He demanded as if he was still an Admiral.
"Captain Pharris of the S.S. Barbarossa."
"Barberosa, eh?" Slug said with the slightest hint of fright. "Tough little ship isn't she? I sent eleven frigates after her... never saw them again."
Pharris's Eyebrowes lowered "I lost seven crew members in that fight."
"Never mind, Pharris. I have a proposition for you."
"Go on."
"Eleven-thousand schintarra if you can slip me onto Salril Prime, no questions asked."
" Salril Prime?!! Are you completely nuts?!"
"No questions asked, Pharris," Slug said with a slightly maniacal grin, "Do we have a deal or not?"
Pharris leaned back into his seat. "Well....."
------------------ Little Johnny was a scientist Little Johnny is no more For what he thought was H2O Was really H2SO4 -Grafitti scrawled on Polaris Confederate Headquarters
Well... it sounds risky, Barbarossa could get banged up pretty bad,and repairs are getting expensive these days... make it fifeteen and you have a deal.
"Thirteen, No more, there are plenty of mercinaries who would take this mission for half that." he lied cooly
"Yeah, and they'd all get you killed. Fourteen thousand." retorted the Captain.
"Done."
Captain Pharris shook Slug's Hand.
"the Barbarossa can be ready to go at 0400. I'll arange for your living quarters, and I have to make some last minute preparations. oh and by the way, seeing as we're dropping you off on one of the most heavily defended systems around, I'd like payment in advance, if possible,"
"Sounds reasonable to me, you'll get the money when I board the ship, i'd like to leave as soon as I tie up a few loose ends here at the bar"
"Excellent, Got to Docking bay 19 at 0300 so we can get you settled in. Now if you'll excuse me, I must make some preparations for our mission."
The Captain settles his bar tab and pulls out his communicator: "Yeah, Number one, I need you to find us a cloaking device... I don't know where, Find it! we leave in six hours, and you'll regret not having one where we're going..."
he makes his way out the door.
Slug handed Mag the credit stick, he glanced down at it.
"This is a Salrilian account!" Pharris exclaimed.
"Yes, I was once a fleet commender."
"But you're....."
"An outcast. Yes. But I still have some ties. I can use my old override command codes to get us over the border, but you must slip us past the border patrols. The Salrilians know I'm coming, so some of the ships you come accross will be friendly."
"They better be."
(This message has been edited by Slug (edited 09-17-2000).)
(I agree with you about the Phylydions. They are warlike and arrogant. However, if Nerec truly could not control himself and was some butchering, aggressive brute, as you portrayed him, he would never have become one of the eight most powerful Phylydions in the entire Imperium.)
Nerec laughed. "Quite a fellow, this Sundered Angel. I take it," he said to Sargatanus, "That the discussions have been postponed." Not waiting for a reply, he about-faced and exited the bar with his guards following him.
: :Docking Bay 19, 0245 hours:: A large winch hauls a battered, corroded piece of equipment into the loading hatch of the SS Barbarossa.
Captain Pharris is engaged in stern conversation with his chief engineer and his XO.
"... your certain it will work reliably? I don't want to get caught out near Saril Prime if this thing cops out."
"Don't worry about it, I'll have it patched up and in top spec before we hit the frontier..." the engineer replied confidently
"You mean it isn't even working now??" Captain Pharris looked at his XO "You bought a cloaking device that isn't even operational?"
"It was all the salvage yard had! at least it was cheap, besides, chief can fix it, he can fix anything!" the XO retorted
"I have complete confidence in your abilities Chief, but you're not gonna have much time to put it together... it's 36 hours to the frontier, assuming we don't take any jump gates, how much do you have to do to this thing?" Pharris turned to the Chief.
"Well we can skip attatching the cloak field emitters, and run the field through our shield emitters. Once we attatch the power, I'll start diagnostics and find out what's wrong with it, and how long it'll take to fix. Don't worry about it skip, we'll hack something together. No problem."
"I certainly hope so... How long till we can get underway?"
The XO watched as the cloaking device dissapeared into the ship and the loading hatch closed: "We'll be ready as soon as Slug gets here."
"Good, go start up the engines and get a final headcount. cut the umbilicals. We're going as soon as I come aboard."
Captain Pharris walked over to the personell door of the docking bay just in time to meet Slug. Pharris reached out to shake his hand.
"Good to see you again Slug, welcome to the SS Barbarossa..."
(Would somebody please delet that last post? Thanks.)
"Well, what can you upgrade on her using only Ishiman technology?"
"We have a few newer engines than the ones that are on yours, we recently got one sensor package from a science vessel, we have newer lepton beam cannons, and we've got some armor plating off one of the Ishimans' gunships."
"How much would all of that cost?"
"15,000 credits."
"Its a deal."
"Okay. We'll have her ready for you in a few hours."
"Thanks." Mag left the docking bay, very satisfied. Slug had given him 20,000 credits, so he still had some left. He planned on taking the Rogue out and raiding the Sals again as soon as it was ready.
When it was ready, he checked the new sensor system out. He could see stealth shields in the system he was in, and he could see major ships in nearby systems. He set in a course for Salril and engaged hyperspace.