STGOD2 Main Story thread

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-11-08 12:41am

phongn wrote:"Hrm. You up for a job? We'll pay good - we need to stop a pirate and free an associate of ours. We'll give 33% up front, 66% after we free her, her ship and sell the rest of our loot. If you join, we'll also give you contacts to an old thief: he likes rippin' you off but he has kit nobody else has.

"Oh yeah, word of warning: there's a group called the Black Alliance. Thugs, pirates, criminals, that sort of people. They sell high-quality kit, but they put tracking gear on it. We found that out the hard way and only escaped because he had bigger fish to fry. If you buy stuff from them, strip it the fuck down first."

"Thanks for the warning," Johan replied. "Now, I'm currently for hire, so I'm pretty sure we could work out the details. In person, mainly because this isn't a secure channel. Just one last thing... these rifles, are they intended for humanoid use, or are they shipmounted?"

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-11-08 12:52am

"Sir, we have an Aquarian shuttle attempting to make a break. I'm not sure but I think there's a shifter aboard."

Von Bek didn't hesitate for a second.

"Obliterate her."

* * *

A capital grade energy battery immediately targeted the shuttle and fired. The beam meant to destroy capital ships hit the shuttle. It was destroyed so much as it was ereased from existance.

* * *

Inquisitor Harken stood on the bridge of the Rampage observing the winding down of the action.

"Let's get out of here Captain, and make sure your mean sweep the shuttle comnpletely. Anything out of the ordinary and I want the shuttle jettisoned, understood?"

"Completely, my lord."

* * *

HDMS Rampage broke away from the destroyed station and made her jump into hyperspace promptly.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-11-08 01:07am

"The rifles are for humanoid use, though on the heavy side. They were designed for youma infantry. Fully automatic fire, thousand-round powercells, even a small grenade mass driver, 40mm. Vibrobayonet attachment, too. You might find it heavy, but these are some of the finest rifles of the era. That's why we're charging a kilocred rather than a tenth that amount.

"As for meeting in person ... ah, yes. there she is."

The man on the holotank looked rather surprised at the enormous ship that just exited hyperspace on top of them. Its docking bays were certainly large enough to dock his corvette and the escort carrier.

"It's a Levithian-class transport. The Lucky Trader. Don't even think with messing with that thing, she has enough guns to go mano-y-mano with a heavy cruiser. Real ones. She's slow at sublight, but she's got a fast stardrive and excellent sensors. Screw her captain over and you're as good as dead. He's honorable, though. Our contact lives onboard the ship."

"Lives onboard?"

"Yeah. Lucky Trader is a mobile trading station, if you haven't noticed. She flies a regular patrol route, this is once such stop. She'll be here for a week or so then she'll jump off. Pirates don't bug her because she's too good for business - that, and the last time a Black Alliance cruiser tried taking her on, well - that cruiser didn't come home.

"So dock with her, the fees are minimal. I'll come aboard your ship and we can ... make a deal."

<OOC: If you want to work the deal, that's fine>

Lucky Trader
Levithian-class Armed Supertransport
Sigma Yards, Proxima Centauri, United Terran Republic
First ship launched 75 AGW

Length: 55km.
Armament: 1 KDY 'v-150 Defender' Planetary Ion Cannon (ball mount forward), 16 NR Twin VHTL, four rings of four spaced evenly. 64 SKS Single Medium Ethercannon (DP), 8x8 ring configuration. 144 Type VII NOFR Phaser Strips (CIWS). 4 Ion Beam Arrays.
16 Twin Rail CERBERUS plasma-splash (e.g. Hellhound) antiship missile launchers. 2 EMP Torpedo tubes.
Parasites: 144 A-Wing Reconnaisance/Light Fighters, 72 Starfury-class Medium Fighters, 48 Thunderhawk-class Heavy Fighters. Numerous shuttles of all types.

RMS Archon
Ghost-class Escort Carrier
Tranquility Yards, Tranquility, Star Kingdom of Serenity
First Ship Launched: -56 AGW

Length: 250 meters
Armament: 1 SKS Single Medium Ethercannon (DP), 4 SGE Point-Defense Turbolasers (CIWS), 3 BA Ion Beam Arrays, 2 RHE Beam-Turbolasers, 8 CEC/Incom Twin Rifle Turrets.
3 Photon Torpedo Tubes
Parasites: Various light shuttles.

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2003-11-08 01:10am

"Captain Tyderius, our shuttle has just been vaporized"
"were there xenos on board?"

"We did full continuous checks of the ship, no xenomorph got within 50 meters of that vessell... And the Rampage is gone from our scopes."

"Oh hell, Get us back to the outpost, sent a transmission, tell them to be on their toes. The Rampage could have just been leaing, or it could be up to something. I dont trust them as far as I can throw that ship of theirs."

"Yes sir"

And with a bright flash of light the massive Teuthis class disapeared

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2003-11-08 07:12am

Station XT 10-23

Before the Throstle disappeared from the system, they observed the destruction of the station.
"That's why we should never trust religious fanatics," he told his XO. "Those Azegarts are dangerous..." He went silent for a second. "Everything's ready?"
"Yes, the shuttle's been secured. They should survive the jump quite well."
"Then you're green to go."
The XO activated the Kornienko Drive, and the ship just vanished from the system, without a spectacular flash, or something like this. The screens went blank.
"Jump time for XFB-53?"
"Just under two weeks subjective time."
I just hope they'll won't kill each other in the shuttle...

Orianna system, Fleet base XFB-53
Just as the ship has disappeared, it appeared mere femto seconds after the XO had activated the drive, without spectacular effects, in the Orianna system. Of course, the crew had two weeks of subjective travel on their backs.
As soon as they arrived, a cloud of fighters engulfed them. The shuttle was disembarked, and EVA suits began to swarm over every square centimeter of the shuttle. TheThrostle was put under the same scrutiny, and inside, scores of technicians controlled every bolt, down to the recycling systems and drive tubes. The control took nearly one standard day, and it was considered clean. But for good measurement, both the empty shuttle and its equally empty mother ship were flooded with torrents of deadly radiations ranging from gammy rays to gravitonic distortions.

"Ambassador, we're sorry for the delay of this one day here in the system," the Deputy Director said to the Krytos ambassador, "and transport back to your homeworld has already been arranged." For the first time since the desaster at the station, he smiled.
"And the biosphere construction is well underway. In just under 3 months, we'll be delivering."

Avalon Prime, Stuart Plaza

She looked down and let her thought get lost for a moment in the swirling streams of gas 2 kilometers below her feet. This time of the year, the city was floating near the Heisenfeld Streams, one of the most beautiful jet streams in the Corporation.
CEO Gladstone turned her attention back onto the holo of Deputy Director Tormat. "Thank you for your report," she smiled. "And my compliments to captain Trellis. When you are out of quarantine, we would like to send you as ambassador to the Krytos empire, you seem to have done good deals there." She winked the holo out, and turned towards her advisors across the vast obsidian table. "Can anyone tell me how this clusterfuck happened?" Her irrate temper spiked yet again, and some of the mi nor advisors flinched for a second."
"Yes, it must be the Aquarians. But Hamme will report soon back from the Aquarian station, so we'll know."
"And those Azegarts?"
"It is our opinion that they are dangerous," her senior advisor for foreign politics spoke. "To us, to the galaxy, even to themselves. We should not dabble with them."
She fell silent for a moment, and looked back down below in the orange and red swirls of gas.
"Ok. And now about those pirates..."

Outside Avalon system

"There they are!" Captain Hargis voice shot out. He was already in a bad mood. He waited ways to long, over 2 hours for his contact to arrive.
The other ship called, and he accepted.
"Briar, where the fuck have you been?"
"The controls are getting tougher. The CEO has a bad day again..."
"You've got the weapons?"
"Yes, I ha-" His voice cut off. "Sir!", his sensor officer cried out. "Look!"

A heavy cruiser has translated. It was under only one lightsecond away.
"Prepare for ju-"
He couldn't complete the sentence. The main batteries of the heavy cruiser vaped them before that. Only expanding plasma remained of two out-of-luck pirates.

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2003-11-08 03:12pm

Next on the agenda HsRes 404, the military has requested funding to design and construct a new Battlecruiser to be called the Architeuthis Dux. The design will be similar to our Teuthis class vessel.

Arguments drag on...

And I yield the balance of my time...

All in favor... YEA

All Opposed... Nay

Final count 600-400 in favor of the resolution.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-11-08 03:29pm

{Valeth System, Near orbit Valeth IV}

HDMS Rampage hurtled back into realspace, minus on shuttle. Her daggerish profile hurtled deeper into the system headed towards the massive orbital works surround the fourth planet of the Valeth system. In fact she passed her birth place, Valeth Orbital works, busy as ever.

* * *

"Captain Von Bek, please ready a shuttle for the surface. I wish to report in as soon as possible. The High Lords will want an immediate report on this."

"Yes, my lord. And I'll download the sensor records to you as well."

"Very good, thank you."

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2003-11-08 03:34pm

Military computers moaned in the background, adapted for aquatic functioning, the sound from their components carred better underwater, almost like a whale song.

Mlitary enginers poured over data and finally came up with a weapons configuration they liked. They had nicknamed it the "Death Flower" configuration.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2003-11-08 03:34pm

Scout fleet capship

"So captain, tell me what's going on in the wider universe?" asked Admiral Bathory, seeking only amusement.

"Not a whole lot concerning us, sir. Aliens fighting aliens, mostly." replied Captain Waffle, over the brim of his pad.

"Anything from our Aquarian friends? Their tentacle massages are some of the best i've ever experienced!"

"Er, nothing direct to us, no sir," reported Waffle.

"Meh then. How are those fundie neighbours of ours doing?"

"So far they seem to be avoiding our space, all seems well."

"Great. I'm off to the hyper-tantra room.Tell me if we get any emergency hails."

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-11-08 05:24pm

{Trading Station XP-421, System XP-42-(UH)}

The young intelligence operative slid into the booth aside from his contact. The man across from him was wearing a battered jacket that might once have been some sort of merchant marine uniform. It didn't matter much, the data the man had was all important.

Azegart Intelligence had been quietly letting it be known that they were seeking advanced technology, particular technology with less than constructive applications. Naturally it had all been run through a careful series of cut outs since they people they were looking for were not exactly operating within the confines of the law. So far all that had been turned up were small time finds and bogus leads. But this one promised to be very different indeed.

"Cap'n." the young intel man greeted his contact.

The outlaw captain mumbled something resembling a greeting before getting down to business.

"Got the money?"

"As you wished. " the young intell officer slid a data slate across the table. "Waiting in the station's bank."

"Excellent." the captain looked at the slate and slid a portable memory unit across the table.

"So we have a deal then. Remember captain, we paid for you confidentiality."

The pysker dipped into his contacts mind. It was a simple mind, driven by overwhelming greed and fear. He would keep his mouth shut, he feared the people he sold the information too much.

* * *

On board the Intel cutter they opened the memory unit. Once they did they found out they definitely got what they paid for. Everything was as the slaver captain had said. A whole world, ripe for the taking. It was abandoned or dead but covered by sprawling high tech ghost metropolis and ringed by massive orbital works. A prize indeed.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2003-11-08 05:59pm

Avalon Prime, Fleet Central
"This is getting outrageous!" Fleet President Miller slammed the report on his desk. "4 attacks on patrols. This week alone! That's those damned outworlders. We should have never opened us to those other nations..."
"Paul, I think you're overreacting," Fleet Admiral Taywern interjected. "It was only a matter of time. And when that scout ship discovered us it-"
"We should've blown it out of space, for Depth's sake."
"And risk a war with other people just out of spite? Hardly."
"Oh well," he sighed. "But we have to do something about those pirates. We think there's a pirate base in the outskirts of system CC-DA32. I let you handle that. Find them, and...convince them to rethink their life planning."
The two man talked for a few more minutes, then Fleet Admiral Taywern left, and gated to his ship.

System CC-DA32

"This is patrol boat PB-756 to unidentified vessel. Heave to and prepare to be boarded."
Lieutenant Shickles looked at the scans from the ship. It was definitely not Stuartian. No shipbuilder in his right mind would build something as unaerodynamical as this. WOuld get blown up the minute they enter deep atmosphere back home.
"Not reacting, sir," his sensor officer observed.
"Ready weapons and prep-"
Alarm klaxons whailed, as suddenly 5 missiles parted from the 'unidentified ship'.
"Countermeassures!" he shouted. But it was too late. Not that the patrol boat did have any chance in the first place. The poor lieutenant was totally out of his depth. A reason why he'd been shunted off to patol duty instead of the Naval Arm.
The missiles impacted on the shields. They were too weak for those oversized monster warheads put in those birds. The ship managed to get out an emergency signal before it died in a brilliant flash of an exploding power core.

***

"You idiot!" the old man snapped. "Killing a patrol boat, so near to our base! What if they managed to get a signal out?"
"Bah!" The young boy spat on the floor. "They never had afucking chance. I don't know why you fear those Stuart fools. We've managed to evade them without problems so far!"
His old superior wanted to beat him into submission, but his thought burst under the hammering alarm of incoming hostile ships.
"What the hell?" he looked at the sensor screen...and his blood froze. No! It can't be! Not here!
The young boy-captain looked puzzled at the screen. "What's going on?"
"You called them fools? Now be lucky if you live to tell the tale!"

A voice suddenly came through the com system. A cold, exprssionless voice.
"This is Fleet Admiral Taywern from the Stuart Corporation Shareholder Security Service Naval Arm. We will end your activities here. You have ten seconds to surrender."

"Surrender!" the old man screamed. "Do it!"
The young captain sprinted to the weapons section. "Not me! I won't go to prison. They'll have to kill me first!"
The laser cut right through his head, but it was too late. Even as the body fall to ground, his head slammed into the button, and the puny energy weapons opened fire on the SNAS Avalon.

***

From the former moon remained nothing more than a glowing plasma cloud.
"Such a pity," Taywern observed dryly. "Charles, plot a course for Hope. We're late for the Fleet maneuvre."

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-11-08 08:55pm

phongn wrote:"So dock with her, the fees are minimal. I'll come aboard your ship and we can ... make a deal."

Several hours later, the two ships had docked aboard the behemoth trading vessel. Ragle met RMS Archon's captain outside his own corvette, and quickly checked her for weapons before letting her aboard.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the bounty hunter said as he sat down across a table from the Archon's captain. "I'm Johan Ragle."

"Captain Elissa Bane," the other replied. "A pleasure to meet you, I'm sure."

Ragle nodded. "We may as well get down to business. I'm willing to buy ten rifles, as well as two crates of grenades. I can pay in precious metals."

Bane did some quick math in her head. "That'll be about thirty thousand, then."

"Not a problem, I'll have the payment delivered to your ship whenever you're ready then. Now, can you give me any more details on this 'friend' of yours who was captured?"

Thirdfain · Post by **Thirdfain** » 2003-11-08 09:04pm

Attention Planetary, System, and National Governments!

Commerce fees got you down? Looking for a solution to your long-distance industrial transport problems? Having trouble arranging for out-system transport?

We have the answer for you!

Aegean Hypertech (tm) Jumpgates- simple devices, which allow cheap and easy transport of sublight craft at superlight speeds!

Why buy a Aegean Jumpgate?
-
Aegean jumpgates are cheap and easy to maintain. They allow cheap, non-FTL craft to travel from point A to point B in record time!

The uses are myriad!

Industrial: The Liberty Manufacturing Cartel uses a series of Aegean jumpgates between their assorted asteroid mining facilities and their primary processing base to move massive amounts of material in their low-cost sublight freighters, at superlight speeds.

Civilian: Families from across the Three Suns can purchase a low-cost systemship, and visit the beatiful city-garden world of Desjardins, all for the cost of a single jumpgate fee, thanks to the system of Aegean jumpgates throughout the Commonwealth!

Aegean Hypertech corporation will manufacture, ship, and assemble your new Jumpgates at low cost, to ANY point in the known galaxy!

Interested? reach us on the Galactic Datanet at: gdn.aegeanhyper.com.sun

Or send your envoy to:
Building 3506
Port Arthur
Jacob's Landing
Liberty Province
Three Suns Commonwealth
Orion Spiral Arm

Aegean HyperTech- Bringing the Galaxy Closer Together!

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2003-11-08 09:13pm

Waffle:"Sir?"

Bathory: "Yes? ...ooooh, right there, that feels good....mmmmm what is it?"

Waffle: "We just got an advert...someone stole our species name!"

Bathory: "It's a common enough name, the ancient terran hellenists had it, dontcha know? Oh, and i don't care."

Waffle: "Well, just thought i'd tell you, not got much to do here."

Bathory: "Well don't in future, unlike it's the end of the world or something."

Waffle: <sigh> "Aye sir"

Waffle puts starts flicking channels on the main viewscreen, then settles on a porn channel for a few seconds and resumes flicking.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-11-08 09:23pm

[ooc: In response to the Aegean Hypertech ads]

<dramatic music>

<flyby clip of the truely massive Sonoma-class>

"Are you in need of a navy, but don't want to invest in creating and testing new designs from scratch?"

<various clips of railguns and turbolasers being fired>

"Do you want to be at the cutting edge of galactic military technology?"

<clip of the Guardian Block 2A CIWS in action>

"Do you want the most accurate and reliable active missile defense system available?"

<clip of MLMS missiles being launched in rapid succession>

"Well, look no further than the Corporate Sector for all your military hardware needs. From the massive orbital shipyards of Quaynar Industries to the weapons factories of Hirsch Defense Systems, the Corporate Sector is one of the leading exporters of ships and arms in the galaxy."

<wide-angle view of the Deneb shipyards>

"The Corporate Sector. Producing quality arms for over three thousand years. You can't go wrong with us."

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-11-08 09:31pm

"Not a problem, I'll have the payment delivered to your ship whenever you're ready then. Now, can you give me any more details on this 'friend' of yours who was captured?"

"We found an old Star Kingdom colony on some moon. We managed to grab an armory pod full of stuff in stasis. That ethercannon we nearly shot your ship with, all those rifles, the grenades. We grabbed what random stuff we found elsewhere until our holds were full - we're selling that right now. Of course, it isn't worth that much, but might keep my crew from mutiny.

"Anyways, one of my men's contacts discovered a female, sentient Kzinti trader. Yeah, sounded like BS, too, but it looked like a hard sell. And by hard sale, I mean everything. We would have made a small fortune off that, maybe enough to buy a bigger ship. An Assault Frigate would've been nice ... anyways. We went to the rendezvous point and prepared to dock when a Black Alliance frigate jumped us. They tracked us via those sensor trojans I told'ya about.

"So that frigate managed to disable the kitty's Star Galleon, transported it into its hold --"

"A frigate? Carrying a Star Galleon?" Ragle was clearly surprised. Even prewar frigates weren't that big. Hell, no frigate period was that big.

"Black Alliance shipwrights make them huge. Enormous. They aren't that powerful for their weight class, all told, but still dangerous. They have these weird teleporters that can grab whole ships. Nobody knows how they got it working.

"So we're spending about half our loot here - our theif associate's currently on this trading post - and then we're going after that pirate. We'll free the Cat, her ship and then get payment. Hopefully. Cats are supposed to be honorable, so we're hedging on that. There's no way we can sell even a tenth of these weapons otherwise. "

The two discussed issues for several more hours before going out to inspect RMS Archon. Sparks were flying everywhere as droids and men were bolting on new weaponry. Some astromechs were using their thrusters - it was currently a zero-gee zone - to maneuver around. It looked very chaotic, but the techs knew their business.

"Looks like everything's delivered on schedule. Those two turbolaser-beams, off an Old Republic SPHA-T. Not so good against shields, but they carve armor like a lightsabre through cowsbutter. Those lattices are for the ion arrays, you can see the rifle-turret mounts for point-defense. A rip-off, but we can't afford real quadlasers at the moment. We put huge heatsinks to cool off the guns and a grenade feed on them, hopefully they won't jam. "

"Rifles against fighters? Sound desperate." Ragle wasn't too impressed, really. He'd seen much better equipment before - like on his own ship.

"The etheric shock effects should break some stuff - they're crappy, outdated pirate fighters, not top-of-the-line fleet interceptors. They'll work just fine against missiles, too.

"Anyways. We've got a few others onboard this little rescue mission already." Bane waved over a few other men and women looking at her ship.

"Captain Ami Aino. She's got a Corellian Gunship completely refitted with ion arrays and quadlasers. One of the better mercs you can hire" The short woman had blue-tinted black hair and a rather serious air around her. Her own ship was loading up some sort of missile, though Ragle couldn't tell what they were. "Cerberus plasma-splash missiles. The sensors flip open like a flower in flight. Very lethal, incredibly expensive. I doubt I'll be using them on this mission, you've seen the spec on an Unrelenting." Yea, that girl was all business.

"Captain Neils Bohrmann. He's got an Action VII, six turbolasers on her and a bellyfull of bloodthristy infantry. Overboosted engines, you've never seen a freighter move so fast. He's buying some rifles off me and'll be joining it." His freighter looked rather weatherbeaten with scorch marks all over her. "She doesn't look like much, but she'll hold. Her armor's four times as thick as normal, her engines eight times as powerful and shields thrice as strong. She'll hold." Ragle wasn't so sure.

"Finally, this kid over here owns that Porsche Valkyrie. Pirate-mod, Class IX. Name's Kate Andews." The kid looked fresh out of secondary school; bright pink hair went down to her waist. "My ship's got six - yeah, six - Chysler HEMI 8000 ion drives and a bunch of boosts. Even the exhaust zone is clean. " That was clearly apparent. The thermocoat on her was spotless, too. The only things that marred it was the slightly dimmer stenciling. "There's a rear gatling railgun to chase off enemy fighters that try to catch up or missiles; a couple of MiniStormfires - quarter the firepower, third the size, sucky, yeah, but I can't fit a full one it - for point-defense. Two ion arrays and a single plasma gun for the attack. Oh, yeah, and a 20-shot proton torpedo launcher. She's fast." Yeah, the kid looked confident, but the ship almost screamed "Daddy's Money!"

"Anyways, Ragle. You in? You see the team. We've got an escort carrier with more sensors than you can think of for commanding the op. We've got a gunship for the heavy firepower we need, a boarding freighter to free our Cat and a fast runner to run interference. We won't destroy the frigate if we can avoid it - it'd take too much time. We get in, we get out, we get paid. "

Raxmei · Post by **Raxmei** » 2003-11-08 09:38pm

Thirdfain wrote: Interested? reach us on the Galactic Datanet at: gdn.aegeanhyper.com.sun

Or send your envoy to:
Building 3506
Port Arthur
Jacob's Landing
Liberty Province
Three Suns Commonwealth
Orion Spiral Arm

Aegean HyperTech- Bringing the Galaxy Closer Together!

ATTN: Aegean Hypertech

It has come to our attention that you have broadcasted advertisements for a "jumpgate" system promising "travel from point A to point B in record time!" The Warp Gate system used by the Church of Nyfitsa is effectively instantaneous. Supply evidence that your jumpgate system is faster or face charges of false advertisement.

Thank you for your cooperation,
Nyfitsar Ministry of Transportation

(edit, OOC: Yuck. I just noticed I forgot to put a propulsion tech section in my OOB, so my gate system is only mentioned obliquely there (this oversight has since been rectified). The only direct mention I made of it was in the diplomacy thread, which you might not have read. I don't blame you for not knowing about it.)

Thirdfain · Post by **Thirdfain** » 2003-11-08 09:55pm

ATTN: Aegean Hypertech

It has come to our attention that you have broadcasted advertisements for a "jumpgate" system promising "travel from point A to point B in record time!" The Warp Gate system used by the Church of Nyfitsa is effectively instantaneous. Supply evidence that your jumpgate system is faster or face charges of false advertisement.

Thank you for your cooperation,
Nyfitsar Ministry of Transportation

ATTN: Nysfitsar Ministry of Transportation

Evidence of that sort is unnecessary. All that is necessary is that Aegean Hypertech jumpgates allow objects to move from point A to B in record time.

Documentation, both paper and visual, can be demonstrated that in over 300 tests of TSC-manufactured jumpgates in last year's jumpgate exhibition on Desjardins, Aegean devices broke all of the previous year's records.

Our client's advertisement merely claimed that it was a recordbreaker- Which is true enough. It has not, on the other hand, ever broken the Galactic record, nor did it claim to.

Reports indicate that your own system is more expensive, both in energy and money, than the Aegean brand jumpgate system, besides.

-
Keffler, Arnaud, and Associates (Desjardins)
in the name of-
Aegean HyperTech Corporation

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-11-08 10:06pm

phongn wrote:"Anyways, Ragle. You in? You see the team. We've got an escort carrier with more sensors than you can think of for commanding the op. We've got a gunship for the heavy firepower we need, a boarding freighter to free our Cat and a fast runner to run interference. We won't destroy the frigate if we can avoid it - it'd take too much time. We get in, we get out, we get paid. "

The bounty hunter nodded. "You can count me in, on one condition. I don't do long-term contracts. So I won't mind staying for the duration of the mission, and maybe a little longer if you have more work for me, but otherwise I'd be on my own way afterwards."

"That'll be fine with us," Elissa replied. "And yes, we probably will have more work for you afterwards. Now about your Marauder, you will be using it for this operation, I presume?"

"Yes." Ragle glanced over at the repair operation. "I have it mostly slave-rigged, and it's crewed by a number of old Romulan Terminators, but I could use some extra staff on hand. Do you have any skilled fighter pilots, by the way? You've probably seen my two H-wings. I could use a wingman."

"We might be able to arrange that. I'll have to talk to my crew, but I'm sure that any of my pilots will be eager to get their hands on a milspec H-wing." Elissa looked thoughtful. "What modifications do your ships have?"

Ragle considered the question for a minute. "Both H-wings had their ion cannons upgraded from standard," he replied. "They can take down a CR-90's shields in one shot, but it takes forever for them to charge to max power. As for the Lurker of the Shadows, I've done a number of upgrades on her over the years. Full-rig slave circuits, automation all over the place. You saw the stock turbos, but I have a number of concealed weapons as well. I fitted a few O'Farrell phaser strips for point-defense, and the forward hangar holds a anti-ship missile battery. Hyperdrive's tweaked to hell, too, and it's got pretty good sensors."

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-11-08 10:23pm

Date calculation. Crazy & I just worked out some numbers based on hazy memories. The date is currently 300 After Great War (AGW), or 4500 After [Terran] Diaspora (AD) or 6500 Common Era (CE).

If the mods have an issue with the dates, we can work things out.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-11-08 10:36pm

"Good, excellent even. All that firepower will help, though you might want to invest in some more CIWS and perhaps an ion dissipator. The universe is not as it was before the Great War, Ragle. Times change. Your ship and big guns are still sound, but you will want to fix up the small stuff. You seem to have plenty of capital to spend.

"We leave tomorrow at 1730 ship time. That'll give you a good 36 hours to add onto your ship. As before, you can get virtually anything common here, and even stuff not so common. As for our thief friend, here's the passphrase." Bane slid a small datachip to Ragle. "And that's it. "

The next day, all of the captains met onboard Ragle's old corvette. Presumably it was clean, being in stasis for all this time; he was no more or less trustworthy than the rest of the cutthroats and looters that made up this party. "Alright. We've got a track on that frigate. Their stardrive is slow and they won't be close to Cat space so soon." On the holoplot the hyperbolic course of the enemy vessel could be seen with a small, 'pinging' dot showing present position. By modern standards, it was rather crawling. "This is our intercept point." On the map, a new blue dot was shown, and it zoomed in onto a rather empty zone of space. "Okay. Ragle, Aino, Bohrmann, position yourselves ... here and precalcluate a microjump here." Three new colored lines appeared. "Andrews and I are going to execute a bonehead maneuver here."

"A bonehead maneuver?! That's rather risky!"

"Yep. It'll also force them out of FTL from the space-time disturbances. Meanwhile, your sensors can't help but pick it up. Microjump in, then. Andrews and I will be on a evasive warp maneuver to clear the shockfront and then head back in. If we time this right - which we should - we'll be positioned to the starboard of the frigate. Ragle, Aino and I will knock down her shield in that sextant. Andrews, the H-Wings and whatever shuttles we send out will run interference while Bohrmann docks with the vessel here --" A hexagon showed up on the view of the frigate "-- and the rest of us continue fucking around with the ship. Knock out communications, engines, sensors, guns, whatever you see. But be careful - don't let yourself be displaced inside.

"Once in, Bohrmann's marines will attempt to free the prisoners and activate the Star Galleon. Others will attempt to displace her out. Once that's good, we make a fast run for it. Multiple evasion courses, people, then he hit our rendezvous. If something happens, we'll work it out on-the-fly.

"Good?" Everybody nodded. "Good. Meet you at the intercept point."

Three days later, all of the ships were waiting for the Unrelenting when their sensor buoys picked up the frigate coming in. The Bonehead Maneuver was executed, the ships began either their microjump or evasive warp maneuver ... and their target entered realspace.

The loosely allied five ships moved in, guns blazing.

<OOC: Ball's in your court, Nitram.>

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2003-11-08 11:31pm

(OOC: Jeez, bringing enough guns to the table?)

The Unjust had hit the Bonehead's energy wake hard, and was tumbling through Realspace. While it fought for control, it's Fields lit up as different sextants were pummeled. "We've got zero Grid traction!" Yelled navigation. "The energy burst screwed the damn thing up! The I Saw It First is gonna really hate this.."

"Shut up and get the sublights on!" Screamed the Captain. Easily larger than a quintet of ISD's back to back, the Unjust Desserts's huge sublight drives fired, trying to regain control as it was pummeled. The chain-railguns that made up her defensive grid were already spinning up to maximum rate of fire, trying to fend off attackers.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" The woman in charge of the ship screamed as enemy fire poured in. The attackers had adapted well to the tumbling that had opened the battle, and were focusing fire on one sextant now. It would fall in seconds. She glanced up at her long range scanners.. The massive Long Haul she had summoned wouldn't be here in time to prevent that section from dropping. At least they don't have Displacers, she thought to herself. "Target that transport with Hellfire's!"

The heavy missiles of the frigate raced out, stabbing at the craft already preparing to board the massive craft. The warheads homed in on the oversized engines, knocking enough chunks out to delay. Delay, delay. The only hope as the massive fleet tender and the reinforcements she had were still minutes away.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-11-08 11:57pm

SirNitram wrote:(OOC: Jeez, bringing enough guns to the table?)

Dude! I'm attacking a full-fledged naval frigate with a corvette, a gunship, a fast raider, an escort carrier without fighters and a fast but highly underarmed freighter! I need as many guns as I can get. Even with Jedi Ragle the odds are against me!

The heavy missiles of the frigate raced out, stabbing at the craft already preparing to board the massive craft. The warheads homed in on the oversized engines, knocking enough chunks out to delay. Delay, delay. The only hope as the massive fleet tender and the reinforcements she had were still minutes away.

The sensor crews on the escort carrier picked up the hyperspace disturbances coming in. "Oh shit. Fleet, this is Archon. We've got a fleet tender coming in a quarter hour - I think the Bonehead slowed her down some, she's not riding the shockwave well. One-five minutes! If we're not gone by the time that tender's here we're fucked!"

"Roger that." Captain Andrews was at once scared out of her mind and having the time of her life. Her fast little ship was flittering in and out, dodging ion beams and incoming missiles while trying not to get smacked by the hail of iron. The Stormfire wasn't designed to take on assault raiders, but she was taking no chances. She skimmed the hull and idly watched as the enormous frigate's field in her sextant failed. Here we go, Kate thought. Her afterburner lit up, the giant HEMI engines straining to the max, as she started shooting up the engines. Proton torpedos, plasma fire and ion beams lashed out at one of the six engine pods. H-Wings followed her in, first using ion cannon to knock out comm pods and then raking the ship with blasterfire. Absolutely insane.

Meanwhile, Aino's gunship was systematically peppering the ship with concentrated ion beam fire. It was eerily professional the way she was going at it, but she couldn't last forever. Aino might have single-layer hypershields, but they were rapidly depleting even as huge sections of the Unjust Desserts turned dark. "Fleet, this is Aino. I'll pulling out to dissipate and recharge before I <bzzt-WHAM!> get disabled. Ten minutes!" The gunship was trailing smoke in some areas now and was scortched from localised shield burn-through.

The marine freighter Anthony Daniels finally got in and sliced her way through with an internal breaching-turbolaser. Men poured through, wielding submachine guns and rifles, clearing out areas with grenades. But they only had fifteen minutes to secure the Tiger's Claw, get the Cat out and make a run for it. Not good timing at all. They weren't expecting that tender - intel said she was supposed to be alone!

As for Captain Bane ... "Weaps, now we get our vengeance. Unmask the beam cannon and ethercannon! "

The captain of the Unjust Desserts turned ashen faced as her sensors showed three guns popping out of stealthed retracting mounts. Those beam cannons could carve up heavy armor; that ethercannon would cause untold internal damage in her exterior sections. And her ion cannons were getting more and more disabled by that damned Valkyrie and those two H-Wings....those H-Wings who were flying like maniacs. Damage control lights started lighting up on the board as two of her enormous engines began executing emergency shutdown.

Ragle, of course, was carefully standing off, keeping up a steady stream of turbolaser fire and generally acting as a damage sink. Having that many plasma missiles heading towards him was highly ... disturbing, though, even with all his upgrades.

"Fleet, this is Archon. Revise estimate! FIVE MINUTES to go, not ten! FIVE! The tender compensated for the shockfront! Marines, status!"

"<bzzt--splash--bzzt>We're close to the cat. We're trying to boot up the ship, but those pirates took so much off the computer is screaming about missing hardware and modules and ... noodles? . I dunno if we can get to the displacer control panel, so think or something to get us the fuck out!"

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-11-09 12:58am

{Azegart Naval HQ, Valeth III}

Admiral Spencer Antanov stood at attention before the high ranking officer in the Azegart Navy, Lord-Admiral Gustav. To his right stood a Lord Inqisitor of the Intellgence branch.

"Admiral Antanov, this breifing is to stay absolutely confidential. Not a word is to be spread that doesn't need to be to perform your duty. Is that clear?"

"Crystal clear, sir."

"Good, you are to take HDMS Ravisher and HMDS Rampage along with 2 squadrons of Eagle destroyers and escort seven divisions of the Fifth Grand Legion to secure a planet."

"Secure a planet sir?"

The Inquisitor moved forward and spoke for the first time.

"Yes, Admiral, you are to secure a planet. More specifically a dead world to the galatic southwest of our borders. It has come to our attention because it appears to be the remains of a very tech civilization. Sadly, we don't have much more information than a system scan."

A hologram popped up showing the system. It was the usual planetary system, a few gas giants, some rocky planets, and one situated in the habitable zone. Letting the Admiral take it in for a little both the senior officers waited.

"Fascinating, I presume you mean this inhabitated world and it's moon?"

"Yes admiral, that is the target. You are to secure it as much as you can from space then send in the groundpounders." The Inqisitor zoomed in on the planet.

"Here is all we know about it specifically."

* * *

{Valeth III High Orbit - Two Days Later}

One battleship, a battlecruiser and 20 destroyers left high orbit with nine heavy lift troopships trailing in their wake. Once they were clear of the planet's influence they jumped into hyperspace and began their trek.

Raxmei · Post by **Raxmei** » 2003-11-09 01:57am

"Yes, I know about their security. You will get us through. Aroostook is not Valeth." Vicar Apostolic Velzarr Tarn knew the Krytosian man-things were stalling for money. His companion, Deacon Sikle Throllacz waited patiently at the side of the room cleaning his melta pistol.

The human sighed. "Remote or not, it is still an Azegarte planet. Security there is always ... difficult. Even for us humans." By 'us humans' he referred also to his prospective customers. Velzarr and Sikle were both psychically disguised as humans. "I'll need the money in advance, and no guarantees you'll make it."

"You will have it, and a bonus. If you do get us through, you can expect some repeat business. It is so terribly hard to find reliable business partners these days."

The human smiled. Doing this run even once was very profitable. A steady gig, now that could lead places. "It's been a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Bergstrom."