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Lonestar
P.N.S. Springer Mountain
En route to Ocracoke System, Sector BB-1
The Ocracoke System was home to a mighty quarter of a million humans, which made it the second most (human)populated system in the sector. Once the Tuscarora Strike group had arrived at Meinhof various DCMA assets were dissiminated to the human settlements here and there throughout the system. The word from Chesapeake had been clear; there was to be no overt annexation, certainly not in the manner that the Anglicans did to Pendleton, but aid was deployed. Th DCMA-vessel Stellar Neighbor had been escorted to Ocracoke by one of the Battleships of the Strike Group with the intent to cow any opposition from the locals. It worked perfectly, after which the York had departed back to Meinhoff leaving two sloops to act as the defense for the one-stop hospital/industrial development ship.
Then all taskforce missed it's check in.
And so the nearest vessel, the light cruiser Springer Mountain was diverted to check it out. There was a chance that the pirates(both Xenos and Human) that plagued this sector had gathered for an easy kill, as no subspace anomalies had been detected to explain away the loss of contact. The borders with the TDR were being watched and thus far the Junta there had made nary a peep in regards to the Tuscarora expedition, and so that was right out. None of the pirates in the sector were strong enough to hold against even a CL, and so the Springer Mountain was arriving to tech the indigs a lesson in humility.
"Commander Skinner, we will be exiting hyperspace shortly." Came the OOD over the 1MC.
"Roger that Nav, I'll be in CIC...scratch that the navigation bridge shortly." Skinner coughed. "TAO do one last check with all the GQ stations. If some corvette gets a luck shot in because someone was asleep at the wheel I will be a sad panda."
"Yessir." Came the voice of the TAO, who promptly had all the action stations do an acknowledgement over the TACNET. Skinner stood from his desk, stepped out of his cabin into the passageway, and headed forward towards the navigation bridge. As he stepped aboard he waved the OOD to shut up before he could belt out 'Captain on the bridge!'. He hated doing that as a JO and he would be damned if he was one of those useless fogeys who stood on ceremony. "ASTRO, ETA?"
"Should be right about...now."
The volume of fire immediately brought the Springer Mountain's shields down to almost 50%.
"TAO! What is it? Evade Evade!" Skinner ran around to the Bright Bridge, not waiting for TAO to answer. "Flark it, get us out of here!" He leaned over the OS2 manning it and looked at the console display with horror.
Code: Select all
Amplitur Chorus Vessel"Calculations are finished sir! Engaging..." The sheer volume of fire was making evasive action impossible, and the Springer Mountain shuddered as it went dark and compartment hatches went slamming down. The main plant was out. In the distance Skinner could see the flare of light as it impacted his now helpless ship.
P.N.S. Roanoke
In orbit of Ocracoke IV, Sector BB-1
Captain Hatterly looked at the wreckage that had been recovered form the Springer Mountain, or rather, the important wreckage. It wasn't much, and after several days some of the recovery teams had finally found a DRADIS array that still had local memory in one piece. The Springer Mountain's computer core had been completely destroyed, and the number of clues as to what had happened were disturbingly few. The DCMA vessel and the two Sloops that were her escorts were completely gone, the only wreckage from the three vessels were bits of hull that had been knocked off. Clearly they had been taken as prizes.
What was more disturbing was the human settlement on the planet. Almost everyone was gone, a handful that were left seemed to have blown their brains out. The DCMA compound outside of the capital city of Hyde had been blasted apart, and the only automatrons whose memory banks were intact were either in storage or down for maintenance when the attack occured. Admiral Grierson back at Meinhof wasn't plased at the progress of the investigation, no doubt because the DCMA and the Committeee on Dominion Defense were breathing down his neck. Spying the LCDR from the Naval Safety Board speaking to a technician with a computer plugged into the recovered array's local memory he walked across Bay 4.
"Captain." LCDR Rose said, with a barely concealed tone of irritation. As captain of the Roanoke he was there to support the NSB's investigation, and strictly speaking he had no business intruding into LCDR Rose's operation. "Can I help you sir?"
"I'd have thought we'd have a picture of what happened by now Commander."
"Sir, FC1 and I are working as best as we can. The 'Conrad' array faces aft so it didn't create a good render of the attacker, and it still took a power spike which ruined the fidelity of what we have. But..." Rose noticed that the Petty Officer First had raised his hand "You got something FC1?"
"I'm calling it, this is as best as we'll get without taking it to the NSB facility at Columbia Furnace." The DRADIS contact lasted less than half a second, and all they could tell was that it was extremely big.
"What is that?" Captain Hatterly asked. A dark thought entered his head, from his daily intel briefings. "Collector Monolith?"
LCDR shook his head.
"Then what?"
"Well, I guess it could be Collector Monolith..."
"You just..."
"We don't have enough details about Collector weapons to know for sure, but based upon what we know from the Shepistani reports it isn't likely."
"Then..."
"Captain," LCDR Rose said "Sir, We really need to get back to work."
"Alright fine." Captain Hatterly turned and walked away. Rose and the Petty Officer looked at each other. One thing that Rose hadn't mentioned(and apperently Hatterly missed on the information feed) yet was the high amount of cyclonic radiation detected near the DRADIS contact. Whatever the vessel was, it used a step-through Drive instead of opening Hyperspace windows.
It was likely either Amplitur or N'sss.
Lord Protector's Mansion
"I'm sorry? What's the likelyhood of this conclusion being correct? The fidelity of the DRADIS contact isn't that great, and the contact itself is brief." I really do not need this right now Lord Fairfax thought.
Grand Admiral Earl and Space Marshal Reinsch looked at each other. Earl spoke.
"The amount of cyclonic radiation indicates the vessel uses a step-through drive instead of opening hyperspace windows. The two species that we have the most experience with that use step-throughs are the N'sss and Amplitur, and the N'sss do not build warships that big, or operate outside of the Badlands. Out of the known-knowns an Amplitur Choir Ship makes the most sense. The Diaspora took them to the Badlands but just as many fled to the Verge, beyond Civilized Space, and we know that at least 3 Choir Vessels survived the final campaigns. For all we know the Amplitur in the Verge have managed to build the facilities to maintain and build new Choir vessels."
"Admiral," a note of irritation was creeping into Fairfax's voice. "Are there not other civilizations that use step-throughs?"
"Over a dozen that we know of. Most humanoid species tend to either open hyperspace windows or warp space around the vessel. It's the truly bizarre that use step-throughs."
"Why?"
The two military men had flickers of disbelief go across their faces, and Fairfax realized that something that was common knowledge had just sailed right by him. Where the hell is Blitzschlag when I need him?. Earl spoke again.
"The step-through tends to either kill or drive insane humanoids. Hyperspace doesn't have much in the way of critters, but the dimensions that the step-through passes through has violent fauna. There are methods to reduce odds of incidents during the step-through, but virtually everyone uses alternative methods of FTL."
"Could the contact have been a Collector Monolith?"
"Uh, as the report says sir, while it's possible it isn't likely. It's the opinion of NID that while the Collectors do not use humanoid forms of FTL, the lack of data on the Collectors more or less exclude them from the list. Even the data that the Shepistani Republic gathered from their encounter 100 cycles ago is flimsy, and the recent excursion at Pendleton did not provide much more. The size of the contact means it could be a Monolith of the type at Pendleton, but it matches Amplitur Choir vessels as well. During the Amplitur War it typically took 4 Star Dreadnoughts or 5 Heavy Battlestars to take down one. That the population of Ocracoke seems to have literally packed up and left, and they didn't have BFG in public spaces like us and the Shepistanis, seems to suggest a mass-culling."
Fairfax rubbed his temples.
"Admiral, Marshal, how many people have seen this report?"
"About 500 or so sir."
Not too bad...I can think of bigger conspiracy theories that remained a secret back on the original Earth. "Gentlemen, we have all seen the estimates from the SIG, we cannot afford new capital ship construction until FY05. We have to sit on this," Both men looked at Fairfax blankly "For as long as possible. I will pass this on to Admiral Sikes at the Legation on Montegomery, our Shepistani Brothers deserve to know about this. For all we know they may have information regarding other species that cna provide a viable alternative theory. I know this must stick in your craws, but we have keep this from the public. Our countrys fiscal rating is just barely above a junk bond, and Xenos Scare will take us back down to basketcase-economy. That will be all." Fairfax stood, and the other two men stood and exited.
He did not look forward to getting the response from Shep.
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Force Lord
The Central Times
4 August 3400
By Daj Lonag
SHEPISTAN EXPELS CENTRALIST AMBASSADOR
In a shocking move, the nation of Shepistan has given our ambassador the boot. Omran Gatte, the Centralist ambassador to Shepistan, was told by the Shepistani authorities that he had 24 hours to leave or else he would be arrested and unceremoniously expelled. This sudden termination of diplomatic relations is but the latest action in the increasingly worsening Centrality-Shepistan relationship.
Some experts believe that this move by Shepistan is a response to the fact that the Centrality is hosting the latest ESPer Tournament, and that this tournament is closer to Shepistan than before. They argue that previous tournaments have been done far away from Shepistan and in smaller scale due to this nation's infamous anti-ESPer views, and so have never recieved more that diatribes from the Shepistani leadership. This has become especially marked ever since the notorious General Sheppard was revived and assumed power. Now, with the tournament about to take place in Dovan Sector, the Central Intelligence Service has warned that "certain foreign elements" are planning to sabotage the competition. There is no doubt that the Central State is worried about a possible Shepistani action, though the Karlacks also seem likely to spy on the event.
The Triumvirs have declared that any threat to the tournament will be dealt with "decisively and swiftly", and announced that Faust, capital of Dovan Sector and the location of the current tournament, will be placed under martial law two days before the tournament starts and will last for the duration of the same. All citizens are advised to learn about the recent government directives before visiting Faust. Some members of the government have argued for a partial mobilization of the military, but such an option has been rejected by the Triumvirs. Nevertheless, Faust system will be under the protection of two full Fleets and an entire System Front for the duration of the Tournament, as well as a heavy CSB prescence.
Shepistan's fanatical anti-ESPer stance and unpredictable behavior has limited relations between that country and the Centrality, despite the fact that no ambassador sent there has been an ESPer. Recent events have not helped, and the Centrality must be ready for any Shepistani actions.
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Shep
Vulture Rock Command Bunker
Shepistani Federation
Night, 4 August 3400
"Wait, we expelled the Centrality's diplomat?" asked Sheppard as he read the latest message traffic.
"I don't remember authorizing that. Must be Tib's doing."
Sheppard was about to ring up Colonel Winter when the Double-Red tabbed folder landed on his desk with a thud. Looking up, he saw the stern face of the Grand Dominion's Secure Courier.
Sighing, Sheppard scrawled his signature on the carbon copy paper that the courier handed to him, and once the man had left, opened up the folder and began to read it's contents.
The cigar in his mouth fell to the floor in shock, and he reached over to stab the intercom button to his secretary.
"Get me Saul Tarsus. I want him here ASAP. Also get me the Dominion's military liason to the JCS. We may need to implement CASE WHITE and it's inter-governmental annexes."
----------------------------------------------------
Shep
Vulture Rock, Supra-Executive Level
Shepistani Federation Command Bunker
Afternoon, 5 August 3400
Interior of Vulture Rock, being patrolled by Shepistani Troops in AP-100 Armor with AP-764 towers nearby
President Sheppard slowly cooled his heels outside the entrance to President Frederick's chamber, waiting for the others to arrive.
As usual, he had arrived very early; but the others in this little cabal were running late.
Ten minutes later, the others arrived.
Sheppard stood up and shook hands with each of the new arrivals.
"Tib, how's the project you have going with the Esperlympics going?"
"Excellently, Mr President," replied Tiberius Winter. "The first stage has been executed, and the items should begin arriving just as the Esperlympic starts."
Turning to the other late arrival, Sheppard looked Tarsus in the eye. "Admiral, is the fleet ready for any possible problems lately?"
"We're as ready as we can be, sir."
"Right, muttered Sheppard. "Well, let's see what's got Frederick all upset as a bee in a bonnet."
President Frederick
"Gentlemen," began Frederick. "The Shepistani Federation faces it's greatest threat in centuries. All the evidence I've gathered so far points towards a new Amplitur offensive."
"I find that hard to believe," scoffed Tarsus. "I Nova-bombed their god-damned homeworld back in 2989, we haven't seen any major Amplitur Naval combatants in two centuries, and our most recent punitive expedition through the former Amplitur holdings back in 2375 didn't show anything on those worlds surviving above extremophiles."
"Grand Admiral Tarsus, I have seen those same reports," replied Frederick.
"While you were extraordinarily throrough in your decimation of the core Amplitur worlds four centuries ago, Admiral...evidence has surfaced recently that suggests that we did not drive their last remnants into a pre-stone age existence."
A screen on the wall next to Frederick's housing flashed into life, showing a complex graph.
"This is based off data supplied to us recently by the Grand Dominion via secure courier. For the uneducated, it shows the distinctive signature of a 'step-through' drive via a sleet of cyclonic radiation."
Frederick paused; most likely for dramatic effect, since as a computer, he didn't need to breathe.
"This signature was found near the wreckage of P.N.S. Springer Mountain, as well as her two escorts."
"So the Dominos lose three ships. Why is this such a big deal? We know that they've had a string of catastrophic failures recently in their Navy due to old units they can't afford to replace. It's really a crying shame what happened to the Dominion Navy..." said Tarsus.
"Admiral Tarsus, I am well acquainted with the problems that the Grand Dominion's Navy is encountering with fleet obsolescence due to the last few centuries of poor political decisions." replied Frederick. "What is crucial about this piece of evidence is that it was the only piece of evidence that the Dominion could find."
"You're shitting me. That signature's the only thing? What about the sensor logs, visual recordings; EEV beacons?"
"Precisely, Admiral. Whatever destroyed the Springer Mountain occured with such overwhelming force that the only trace of evidence as to the attacker was this signature found in the emergency backup memory banks of an aft-facing DRADIS array."
Tarsus stared towards the graph for several seconds before cursing. "That's a lot of overmatch. The N'iss have Step-through-Drive, but don't build ships of that level of overmatch; and the Collectors, while building ships that big, use conventional FTL, as the data from the Annapolis has proven. So the only thing left is a god-damned Choir Vessel."
"Excellently put, Admiral. I know the Navy is loath to admit it, but we know of at least three Choir Vessels that survived the Final Campaigns."
"Wait," interrupted Sheppard. "As powerful as a Choir Vessel may be, there are only three of them left in the universe. The Navy can deal with that scale of threat."
"Yes, General. There are only three known survivors." replied Frederick with a computer generated sigh. "But I would like to point out that these were the largest ships in the Amplitur Navy that we could not account for. Innumerable smaller ships and freighters were also unaccounted for. Admiral Tarsus' Navy accounted for no less than five FTL capable ships in the 2350 punitive expedition."
At this, Colonel Winter spoke up.
"Odds are they've rebuilt some orbital facilities out beyond the Red Line to service those three Choir vessels, and they might even have built one or two more ships of that scope, along with many more smaller craft. I've seen pirates in the rim build things like you wouldn't believe for a pittance in resources."
"Well said, my dear Colonel. Unfortunately, your expertise will be needed to cleanse this latest infestation."
At that last line, the entire chamber fell silent.
Shit. If Frederick's saying we need Winter, things are about to get fucked up. thought Sheppard.
"Why would my services be required, Mr. President?" asked Winter.
The graph on the screen disappeared, to be replaced with split-screen views showing the Centrality embassy on Shepistan from multiple angles, along with several real-time data collection streams.
Shit. thought Sheppard. Now the strange behavior by the Centrality makes sense.
"I'll get to the point, gentlemen" announced Frederick.
"The Centrality's recent announcement that we have expelled their ambassador when we have done no such thing was such a severe devitation from my statistical graphs and extrapolations of Centrality behavior that I instructed the SIS to examine the embassy closer."
Deviation of Centrality behavior from Extrapolated Behavior
On screen, several images changed, showing street level video from various sources.
"I was able to use disguised protectorons in civilian markings to examine the embassy grounds; and their onboard sensors detected a intensely strong psychic source centered on the Embassy."
Psychic Intensities near the Embassy
"You can see how for most of the coverage; esper activity is near null, thanks to the comforts of the Blitzschlag field. However, near the embassy, there are strong psychic intensities..."
Before Frederick could finish, he was interrupted by Winter, who cursed out loud. At this, everyone turned.
"Sorry," he replied. "I was thinking out loud, but it's bad. See on the map? Most of it is the comforting deep blue and violet of normal human esper intensities. Some are cyan, which are around the range of a top human esper. But red....red is for immensely strong psychic minds...far above human extranorms. It's Amplitur."
"God-damn." muttered Tarsus. "Have you notified fleet command yet? We can vector a battlestation over the embassy and surgeryize the infestation with its onboard weapons. No risk to anyone on the ground."
"Admiral, as much as I admire your enthuasism and while I admit such a method would be the best as far as cost-efficiency ratios are concerned; I have extrapolated Centrality and galactic reaction to such a course of action."
Extrapolated Shepistani Popularity
"It would reduce our intragalactic standing to near zero, which is a non-desirable outcome. No, Admiral; we'll have to accept a non-optimal cost-effective ratio for this one. Colonel Winter, will your E.N.C.L.A.V.E. team be ready to assault the Centrality embassy in less than 4.31 hours?"
"Wait!" interrupted Sheppard. "Wait just a god-damned minute. How the living christ did a honest to god Amplitur get onto Shepistan, and into the Montgomery Arco-region?"
The lights on Frederick's housing blinked rapidly, indicating he was in deep thought. "General; I have thought this over, and using backdated footage from our SIS surveillance teams who have each embassy in Montgomery under surveilance, I have identified what I believe to be the source of the infestation."
SURVPHOTO #21315AF
"This crate was delivered to the Centralist Embassy approximately 2.12 hours before the Centrality claimed that we were expelling them. At the time, we noted some interference in local Blitzschlag fields; but the technicians on duty put it down to the Centrality trying out some anti-blitzschlag field equipment at the time."
"My god," replied Tarsus. "It's all coming together now. The goddamn craboid sealed itself up in that crate, along with a protective null-field generator to keep itself from going insane during the trip across Shepistan...and it got into the Centrality embassy by posing as a persecuted psyker who wanted asylum in the Centrality."
"Excellent deduction, Admiral. It correlates with my extrapolated graphs to a 99.98 per-cent certainity. Once it was in the zero-Blitzschlag field zone around the Embassy, it quickly took over the minds of all the Centrality Embassy personnel," finished Frederick.
"God-damn fools," muttered Sheppard. "We keep telling the god-damn galaxy how dangerous an Amplitur is. But they keep poo pooing us and saying that they could counter any such esper threat with their own espers. Well, you stupid fucks, you just got mindfucked. How long did it take this time, Frederick?"
"According to my calculations and readings from nearby sensors, it took approximately 34 seconds; which is 6.5 seconds longer than the baseline Shepistani resistance to esper of cattacks of such magnitude."
"They're gonna try something soon," stated Sheppard. "Why would they leave safety to blow up those Dominion vessels and send an agent into Shepistan unless they were planning something big?"
Pausing for breath, Sheppard continued. "The Springer Mountain was a test of either their refurbished Choir Vessels or a newly built one; and the Centrality Embassy's crucial to their plan."
"They know that they can't beat us in a full on slapfight. They did that four centuries ago, and we nova-bombed them to the stone age. And we've only gotten more powerful since then."
"However, we didn't face any external threats other than the Amplitur during that period, so we were able to focus our full might on them. Hence why they want to provoke something between us and the Centrality. So the embassy had to be taken over."
Sheppard paused again.
"...shit. If we do nothing about the embassy, we leave an Amplitur cell in place in fucking Montgomery, but if we cleanse it; we risk intergalactic backlash. Shitty choice all around. But that's why I'm the god-damn president."
"Tarsus, mobilize the fleet under ESPERCON TWO. Winter, get your ENCLAVE boys ready to storm that embassy. I'll send a fully bragcrypted message to Lord Fairfax concerning this. He won't like it a damn bit."
Site E, undisclosed location, Montgomery
"Everyone onto the vertibird!" shouted Sergeant Limestone as he slammed the RT-56 helmet onto his head. "We don't have time to give you a full DCS and tactical database assimilation, so we'll do it in the air en-route to the target zone. This is the big one, boys!"
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Force Lord
Centrality Embassy, Montgomery
Shepistan
The sound of rotor-craft was proof enough for the Black Beret troops guarding the embassy that there was something amiss.
The embassy was largely empty of important diplomats. What was left was several embassy staff from the Centrality awaiting a ship to take them home. It was scheduled to arrive in a few minutes. The Black Berets ensured that the embassy was safe in the meantime, but now it seemed that Shepistan really wanted them out.
"Everyone in the building, now!", shouted the BB commander. The BB soldiers obeyed, and ran into the building.
The Black Berets took defensive positions over key portions of the building, breaking windows and a few walls to aid in any possible defense.
"Someone get a megaphone or something similar!", ordered the BB commander through comlink. "And find a spokesman who's willing to use it!"
The plan was to question the Shepistanis of their intentions. If there was no response, or if the Shepistanis wanted to occupy the building, the Black Berets would wait until the Shepistanis fired their first shot. Then they would open fire in response. The event would be recorded and transmitted by the strongest signal the station's emitters could manage, and broadcast it until the emitters were destroyed or overwhelmed by jammers.
The Black Berets could now see the Shepistani rotor-craft deploy elite troops and surround the area. They waited for their next move.
"Remember, let the Shepistanis fire the first shot! We will not be the agressors!", shouted again the BB commander through his comlink.
Suddenly a loud voice was heard: someone had gone to the megaphone.
"Shepistani troops, what are your intentions here? We are waiting for a ship that will take us home, so let us leave in peace. If you intend to attack us, know that you are doing a great mistake. So let us leave, and you will be free to look for whatever you intend to find."
For several agonizing seconds, there was only silence.
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Shroomy
Centrality Embassy, Montgomery
Shepistan
Inside the meat locker of the Centrality Embassy kitchen was a box. A Pandora's box, named so not because it came from a garden moon with blue people on it, but because within that box was an evil unknowable to man. The cryonic casing defrosted, and as the internal temperature began to rise from its previously subzero levels, the beast within the box stirred.
The Amplitur creature woke from its slumber, and though separated from the hivemind due to the thrice-damned Blitzschlag Fields - which to their kind was known as the Bitchslag Fields - it was still steadfast in its single-minded determination to complete its mission: the fulfillment of the cycle of revengeance unto the softskinned humans. For before its arrival in Shepistan, when it had been amongst its people, it had been steeped in the hivemind's collective hatred of the softskins and the suffering the mammalians had inflicted upon them. The pain of one lone being such as itself was but nothing in comparison to the sheer agony experienced by their entire species as a whole, and the telepathic anguish they felt with each and every death whenever their stone-age brethren were vaporized by the Shepistani/Dominion retribution patrols was incomprehensible. For centuries they experienced this, year after year after year they listened to the telepathic death-screams as their brethren were boiled away in poor begotten worlds across the dark spaces, unable to shut themselves from the cries, and unable to do anything about it. Even in death, the echoes of their screams lingered on. Listening silently, helplessly, unable to do anything, it was enough to drive anyone mad.
That was what they all heard and felt, permeated by the intrinsic communal collective consciousness shared by their entire species. The suffering led to fear, and then to anger, and finally hatred. Today, the culmination of an entire species' hate would finish the vicious cycle and once more lead to suffering - but this time, not of the Ampliturs'. This time, the suffering would be man's.
The plan was simple yet elegant, hatched by multiple minds working in concert, as in any hivemind. One would sacrifice itself to get within Shepistani territory, to nestle in one of their most vulnerable spots - the soft underbelly of their society's carapace. The zero-Blitzschlag field zone around the Embassy. The Amplitur would do what it did best there, sap and impurify the precious mentallic fluids of the humans. But no, that was not the only thing they relied on. The single most crucial thing to their plan was the Shepistanis themselves. Their paranoid security measures, once heightened by any remotely related act, say the vaporization of a Dominionoid vessel, would detect the Amplitur intrusion - for such was their effectiveness, an effectiveness only matched by the ruthlessness of their inevitable response. The Shepistanis' own nature would be their own undoing. The Amplitur would make them strike at their own human brethren, and humanity's disgustingly selfish fractious nature would do the rest.
The Amplitur steepled its pincers and smiled an Ampliturian grin with its mandibles. Then it squinted its compound eyes as it began to concentrate its considerably powerful psykeristic prowess. Suddenly, the temperature began to drop once more, reaching sub-zero whilst psychic frost formed on the walls of the embassy kitchen. The interior of the Amplitur's refrigerator box began to glow eerie blue.
Centrality Embassy, Montgomery[i]Previously on SDNW4[/i] wrote:
The plan was to question the Shepistanis of their intentions. If there was no response, or if the Shepistanis wanted to occupy the building, the Black Berets would wait until the Shepistanis fired their first shot. Then they would open fire in response. The event would be recorded and transmitted by the strongest signal the station's emitters could manage, and broadcast it until the emitters were destroyed or overwhelmed by jammers.
The Black Berets could now see the Shepistani rotor-craft deploy elite troops and surround the area. They waited for their next move.
"Remember, let the Shepistanis fire the first shot! We will not be the agressors!", shouted again the BB commander through his comlink.
Suddenly a loud voice was heard: someone had gone to the megaphone.
"Shepistani troops, what are your intentions here? We are waiting for a ship that will take us home, so let us leave in peace. If you intend to attack us, know that you are doing a great mistake. So let us leave, and you will be free to look for whatever you intend to find."
For several agonizing seconds, there was only silence.
Shepistan
There was a flash of light, like that of lightning, and then the silence was gone. There was noise, the sound of distant thunder. The unmistakable crack of gunfire. Muzzle flashes from the Shepistani vertibirds, and the sound of gunshots following after the supersonic bullets. The whizzing of bullets zipping past the Black Berets. The hisses of very narrow misses.
"SPECIAL ORDER 937 IS IN EFFECT!" shouted the Shepistani ENCLAVE trooper through the radio. "SPECIAL ORDER 937 IS IN -"
His voice was drowned out in a sudden outburst of static that coincided with the gunfire.
The Black Berets dived for cover along with the spokesman who had tried to communicate with the Shepistanis by megaphone.
"CEASE FIRE! PLEASE!" the Centralite spokesman shouted desperately. "PLEASE! CEASE -"
The megaphone emitted a painful metallic shriek that rendered his voice inaudible, like the sound a microphone makes when it's placed in front of a speaker. Like feedback.
"Shit!" a Beret shouted. "We're being jammed! Our radios aren't working!"
He was right.
"By who?!"
"By the Shepistanis, of course, you numbnuts!"
He was wrong.
"Fuck! What do we do now?"
"Those motherfuckers fired first, goddamn it! They fired first! They're the aggressors!"
The Shepistani vertibirds approached them now. Strobe lights beamed from their fuselages, blinding the Berets until their nightvision goggles compensated. They could see and hear the Shepistanis continue their relentless attack, they were coming in with all guns blazing.
"They're coming in for a strafing run! Take cover, make stand!"
"Return fire, goddamn it!" another Beret shouted. "They fired the first shot! And the second and the third!"
"But we haven't gotten orders from the commander yet! The radios aren't working! Nothing is!"
Then they all heard the unmistakable voice of their commander somehow getting through the jamming.
"WASTE THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS!"
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Shep
The Lucky 70 Casino: Montgomery, Shepistan
Thara Krace watched the craps game with a grin on her face.
Since arriving at the Casino last night on temporary leave from Los Shepvada; she'd cranked up a couple thousand in winnings, and was about to get more...if her luck held.
Turning around, she punched Lee "FAPOLLO" Shroomdama on the shoulder. Lee had reluctantly agreed to go on this 'date' with Krace, out of no other reason than the possibility of getting into her pants.
"Damn it Lee, I need some extra luck," she muttered, shaking the pair of dice in her hand to emphasize her point.
"Whatever," replied Lee as he put down the bottle of SHEP DANIELS he'd been nursing for the last couple of hours.
Taking a deep breath, he tried to blow on the dice for luck, but instead spat a loogie onto them.
"Godsdamnit Lee!" shouted Krace right before she punched him out.
"Fuck. Might as well see what happens..." she muttered as she threw the phgelm-encrusted dice onto the craps table.
It was at that moment the emergency beeper on her waist began to beep.
"Godsdamit."
Officially, she was still on call in case anything happened that required her skills in black bag douchery. But she had really wanted to gamble.
So she had solved the problem in imitable STARFUCK style by parking her Viper in the casino's parking lot.
Rushing out of the casino, she shoved the chips from her winnings into the many innumerable pockets and pouches on her flight suit, which she had wore beneath the fancy dress that was required in the casino.
As she climbed up the Viper's pilot's boarding ladder, she ignored the low wails of the car alarms in the Ferrarios, Shroomvees, and Shroombinginis that she'd crushed beneath her landing gear when she'd arrived.
Running through her checklist in seconds, the Viper's engines roared to life and with a chortle of glee, she took off into the sky, the super-hot exhaust of her engines in full VTOLOL afterburn reducing the vehicles around her to husks of carbonized steel frames.
"If you didn't want that, you shouldn't have parked in VIPER ONLY PARKING!" she shrieked to nobody in particular. It was a standing joke amongst Viper pilots that every parking lot in Shepistan was actually VIPER ONLY PARKING, and they took every chance to prove that in their eternal war with the BOMBER BARONS who controlled Shepistani military procurement.
As she passed 145,000 feet; she went into full HTOLOL afterburn and quickly went past the hypersonic barrier into the shroomsonic barrier. Looking down at her central MFD, she saw that there was a situation in central Montgomery near the Centrality Embassy...involving Special Order 937?
STARFUCK had to do a double take on that. Special Order 937 in Shepistan was quite blunt and was invoked only when a possible Amplitur threat existed. To refresh her memory over what it all meant, she had her flight computer load S.O. 937 up to review during the short flight.
SPECIAL ORDER 937.
POSSIBLE AMPLITUR INFESTATION.
INVESTIGATE AND TAKE ALL MEASURES NECESSARY TO ERADICATE.
PRIORITY ONE.
ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS SECONDARY.
ALL SHEPISTANI AND NON SHEPISTANI PERSONNEL EXPENDABLE.
Starfuck took several poker chips out of one of her pockets and began to chew on them in a reflexive reaction.
Spitting bloody plastic shards out of her mouth, STARFUCK laughed.
She fucking laughed.
"Take that you candy ass FAPOLLO! I'm about to be able to kill anyone I want to, with no answers! I'll beat your fucking high score!"
Like a meteor bent on destruction, STARFUCK tore a actinic streak across the sky of Shepistan.
ENCLAVE Assault Team; Gates of the Centrality Embassy
Sergeant Limestone ran through the equipment of his team as they crouched behind the brick wall that encircled the Embassy grounds, making one last check.
"Right, everyone's OK. Let's do this!"
They advanced in a half-crouch with weapons at the ready. Soon, the guardhouse came into sight. Over their heads thundered scores of vertibirds, the propwash of their engines causing the vegetation on the Embassy grounds to sway.
Someone dressed in what appeared to be a typical light armor suit for the Centrality stepped forward with a megaphone.
From the man's dark skin tone, it could only be one of the notorious Black Berets of the Centrality.
"Shepistani troops, what are your intentions here? We are waiting for a ship that will take us home, so let us leave in peace. If you intend to attack us, know that you are doing a great mistake. So let us leave, and you will be free to look for whatever you intend to find."
Limestone wasted no time in replying.
"SPECIAL ORDER 937 IS IN EFFECT! SPECIAL ORDER 937 IS IN--"
At that moment; the Black Berets opened fire; causing everyone to scatter as energy bolts filled the area.
"GOD DAMN IT! CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE!" roared Limestone at the top of his lungs.
At that moment, the commlink in Limestone's helmet issued a screech of static and then went silent. He tapped the side of his helmet several times, but it didn't fix the balky commlink.
Then they heard it. The distinctive screech-howl of their PKE meters going off the scale.
Suddenly, the commlinks in everyone's helmets cleared up and they heard the voice of their superior officer, Colonel Winter.
"WASTE THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS!"
"Shit!" yelled Limestone. "Consider all communications compromised by the Amplitur threat! Go full retard! Assume all personnel in the Embassy mindwiped by the Amplitur!"
Drawing their Proton-Plasma guns, the ENCLAVE troopers began to advance across the grounds of the Embassy, towards the central building.
The Black Berets at the gatehouse put up a valiant fight; but quickly were overwhelmed by the torrents of proton-plasma fire that were being poured out by the ENCLAVE troopers; and they collapsed to the dirt with massive holes in their bodies.
Overhead, the Shepistani ENCLAVE vertibirds wheeled around, firing on anyone they found who was not Shepistani. Scores of defenders disappeared under proton-plasma and chaingun fire.
Suddenly a bright spear of light lanced out from one of the windows of the embassy, catching a vertibird in mid-flight. It exploded and fell to the ground in a flaming mass.
Centrality Embassy, Meat Locker
The Amplitur clacked it's claws in amusement as it mentally 'read' the battle occuring outside. All was transpiring as it had foreseen.
But this was a mere incident. It was not yet a Galactic incident. Squeezing the multitude of eyes it had shut, it concentrated.
On the filthy humanoids that were on board the C-510F transport idling it's engines at the back of the embassy grounds. The Amplitur knew from reading their minds that they were the females and larva of the Centrality's embassy.
It was larva's play to implant an overwhelming image in the minds of all those on the transport. Images of the Shepistanis lining up prisoners on the Embassy grounds and executing them.
As plankton on the meal, the Amplitur also added a group of Shepistani soldiers advancing towards the transport with their weapons drawn.
Grounds of the Centrality Embassy
Sergeant Limestone ducked a bolt and rolled into a convient bomb crater left behind by a SHROOMDRA rocket fired by one of the orbiting vertibirds.
Raising his rifle, he blew the head off a Centrality security man firing on him. Checking his platoon readouts, he saw that about a quarter of them were already down, despite their heavy armor, the best that Shepistan could provide.
Suddenly the earth began to shake. Looking up, he saw a huge transport taking off from the rear of the embassy grounds. It quickly gained altitude and rocketed off, quickly opening the range between it and the relatively short-ranged weapons on the vertibirds.
Out of reflex and long training, Limestone activated his commlink; because even though they might be Amplitur infested; procedure was to be followed.
"Godsdamnit, this is Element BASALT...we have breach of the containment zone! Contain the breach! Contain the breach!"
If a god-damn Amplitur is on that transport, we're all fucked.
A voice suddenly broke in, one he didn't recognize.
"Don't sweat it, Element Basalt; I'm on it."
Moments later a Viper tore through the space over the embassy, dodged a stray surface-to-air energy bolt, and then did a full power vertical climb towards the fleeing transport.
STARFUCK watched as the sky rapidly turned dark blue and then deep black as the altitude increased and the transport grew larger before her.
A panicked voice crackled over the radio.
"Don't shoot! We've got women and children on board! Don't shoot for the love of god! We're carrying the Embassy staff's families to safety from you monsters!"
STARFUCK was having none of it.
"Shut your pie hole! Turn around and land immediately at the spot you took off from or you will be DESTROYED under Order 937!"
In response, she saw the engines of the transport brighten. At that she giggled and then began to speak for the record.
"Transport is refusing to comply with Order 937; this indicates it has Amplitur aboard. Implementing lethal sanction to prevent Amplitur escape."
On her HUD, the transport was suddenly covered in boxes, diamonds, pentagons, hexagons, and pentagrams as the Viper's targeting system locked onto everything that could be hit.
With a jerk, she triggered the four JDAMRAAMLRSLBM9F under the wings of her Viper. They leapt off their launch rails and MIRVed split seconds before they slammed into the vunerable points on the transport.
"You bastards! We have women and children aboar..." came a shout from the transport which was cut off by a high pitched whistle.
Sixty miles high, the transport began to break up, spilling hundreds of people into the cold vacuum of near-space; their last breaths exploding from their lungs in crystallized spray.
STARFUCK giggled again as she watched the Viper's computers calculate the number of objects that were classified as Bodies, Humanoid within it's field of view.
"Take that FAPOLLO!" she shouted as the count climbed past 287. "I BEAT YOUR FUCKING SCORE!"
The Centrality Embassy, Meat Locker
Booms and thuds were reverberating through the halls of the embassy as the Shepistanis reached it and began to storm it. Screams quickly filled the hallways, only to be cut off by the whine of proton-plasma rifles.
My mission here is complete. thought the Amplitur. Focusing it's intense psykeric energies, it began to melt a hole through the Meat Locker's floor and into the sewer line that ran under this portion of the Embassy. Within moments, the escape route was finished.
Taking one last psychic 'read' of the area around it; it shuddered at the horrible enamanations of the Bitchslag fields on the power armor of the Shepistani troops.
With a clack of it's claws, it activicated the null-field on it's back, which would protect it from those thrice-damned Bitchslag fields as long as it's power supply lasted; which was 24 humanoid hours.
Giggling evilly in it's foul mental tongue, the Amplitur scrabbled out of it's container and into the sewer line.
Minutes later, the door to the meat locker exploded inwards, and Sergeant Limestone crashed through; his PKE meter at the ready.
Psykeric energies were high in the room, but decaying, indicating that the Amplitur had recently left.
It was then he saw the hole in the floor.
"We have a goddamn breach!" he shouted for the second time that day.
Reacting instinctively, he pulled a sub-nuclear grenade from its attachment point on his armor, armed it and rolled it into the hole.
Minutes later, with the last of the Shepistani troops retrating beyond the minimum safe distance, the embassy exploded.
--------------------------------------------------
Force Lord
General Secretary's Office, Central Party HQ, Central City
Centrum, The Center Sector, The Centrality
5 August 3400
"Wait, Shepistan just attacked our embassy?!", Viso Fredon screamed.
"There's no denying it, my friend. We recieved a distress call from our embassy. While all the important diplomats had left before, there was still embassy staff and a Black Beret force guarding them. I can only assume 100% fatalities," Hoover Gates responded.
Borlon declared, "Shepistan has given us a clear casus belli. We should make an appropiate response to Shepistan."
Tredell said, "The Sheppoes have made a great blunder in charging at the embassy with all guns blazing. This calls for immediate movilization!"
Suddenly, Cracus Vompey stormed in.
"I overheard someone saying mobilization. I was hoping you'd say that," he said.
"Then you know what to do, my friend," said Fredon, "Alert the military that general mobilization will be started. All leave will be suspended and the planned downsizing of the Ground Forces will be stopped for the duration of this emergency. All ESPers not connected to the Tournament will be called up. The rest is up to you."
"Yes, General Secretary. Long live the State!", Vompey saluted, and walked out of the office.
"It seems I have a lot of work to do. I'll tell Nostrum to ready a diplomatic offensive. I will go and help him," Borlon stated, and he too left the room.
Tredell looked at Fredon. He was pensive. "Know what? Let me handle the rabble-rousing discourse this time, old friend. It seems you're going to be busy enough," Tredell said.
"Don't remind me. Thanks anyway. Make sure the people are fired up. I fear this crisis will last longer than expected."
Tredell nodded, and left the room.
Fredon was about to leave himself when he saw Kierger walk in.
"Vompey told me what happened," said Kierger. "Will there be war?"
"I hope not," responded Fredon. "But if Shepistan crosses the line again, they will have one."
-----------------------------------------------The Central Times
SHEPISTAN MASSACRES EMBASSY PERSONELL!
By the Editor
It is a grim day for the Centrality. Shepistani troops, ignoring pleas from our embassy in their country, killed all of the staff and even destroyed the embassy itself! This unprovoked and dastardly attack on our citizens has led for cries for revenge in the Central State.
Already, the Triumvirate that rules this nation in the Dictator's stead has decreed general mobilization of all military personell from all services. War clouds are gathering.
In a stirring speach today, Secretary of State and Triumvir Falko Tredell demanded that Shepistan pay reparations to the families of the dead embassy staff. He warned Shepistan that any other hostile action against the Centrality will result in war.
"Shepistan has sown the wind, and if they continue to do so they shall reap the whirlwind!", he declared.
It is unknown what effects this will have on the 1100th ESPer Tournament. Tournament officials were not available for comment.
Will there be war with Shepistan? Only the future knows.
Long live the Centrality!
Shep
Vulture Rock Command Bunker
Shepistani Federation
General Sheppard stared into the holocams with a stern look on his face, and the seal of the Shepistani Republic behind him, offset with a bright crimson curtain.
He hated doing these speeches; he'd never been one for formal speeches, but he had to give one now; due to the huge mess that had occured with the goddamn Centralians.
The red lights on the holocams blinked on.
Taking a deep breath, he began to speak.
"People of the Shepistani Republic, I bring grave news. We face the greatest Amplitur threat in centuries."
All across the Republic, countless billions of throats sucked in breath at that world.
Slowly, Sheppard began to lay out the evidence as Frederick had given him a day before; added with the new information that had been uncovered following the siege of the Centrality Embassy.
*snip 20 minutes*
"...it was with a heavy heart that I ordered the Embassy to be cleansed of the possible Amplitur infestation."
"Our troops were fired upon first by Centrality personnel who were under the influence of the Amplitur in the zero-field region of the Embassy."
"PKE readings taken at that time by our troops conclusively show that an Amplitur was present; so we were left with no other choice but to treat them as all mindwiped husks with no other free will left to them. Even if we had used less-than-lethals on them, they would have died once removed from the Amplitur's mental control, as it would have replaced their minds with fragments of it's own."
"Surveillance footage we recovered from the Server cloud of the Centrality embassy clearly show the craboid form of an Amplitur; as shown here..."
"Unfortunately, due to a breach of the cordon by the Amplitur itself..."
*show footage of craboid melting hole and then scuttling into it*
"...we had no other choice but to destroy the embassy in an attempt to kill the Amplitur before it could make good on it's escape. We do not yet know if it succeeded, but we must assume it did so."
"Therefore as accorded to me under the Presidental Wartime Powers Act; I am ordering the following..."
"...All Blitzschlag field generators are to be immediately inspected and augmented by portable emergency generators."
"...that anti-crab measures be implemented by the Shepistani Department of the Interior to prevent the Amplitur from hiding amongst our natural crab population."
"...importation of foreign crabs are banned effective immediately."
"...that all foreign embassies immediately implement local Blitzschlag fields to prevent a reoccurence of this tragic incident. The Bragulan government has been most helpful in this aspect."
Sheppard shuffled some more papers and then sighed.
"It has come to my attention that the Centrality has demanded reparitations regarding this incident."
"We will be sending the amount deemed appropriate to them, minus deductions for the cost of cleansing the infestation and of course for the life insurance payouts for the brave Shepistani soldiers who gave their lives so that we could live free of insidious psykerism."
"The final amount that will be sent to the Centrality is approximately $99,000 Shepistani Dollars."
"I am sure the Centrality will complain about this amount. To them I say:"
"Tough Luck. The responsibility for this horrible psyker incident rests solely upon your shoulders in many ways; from your lax attitude towards transshipment of possible psyker vectors, and to your disproval of common-sense measures against the threat."
Sheppard paused at that and looked right into the camera's 'eye'.
"Maybe now you will recognize the rampant threat that psykerism poses to the cerebrospinal fluids of all sentinent beings in the galaxy."
A haunted look then appeared in Sheppard's eyes.
"...God knows we know this all too well."
"Till then, I remain your President. Good night, and and Atom Bless Shepistan!"
//TERMINATE MAINLINE TRANSMISSION//
Sheppard sighed and adjusted his collar. It was damned tight in formal mode. He turned and looked at Colonel Winter.
"You know, I've got legislation on my desk that outlaws the Centrality forever. We begin planetary bombardment in five minutes."
...unbeknownst to Sheppard that informal ad-lib was captured by several intelligence agencies monitoring the presidental studio's carrier signal.
"
