17th Parallel Bar - The Gehenna Incidents

[Manus Celer Dei]

Thread posting Rules:

1. No post containing the actions of any other member

2. No destroying the bar

3. No character superpowers (I'll decide what is and is not a superpower)

4. If the previous post has broken any of the rules, ignore its entire contents.

 

Back history:

Since the development of the ZTT drive in 2675, mankind has spread through a small portion of the galaxy, colonising almost 400 star systems. As is usual in human history, conflicts between nations over resources and ideologies escalates into war and then dies down, waiting for the next conflict. The Station Reaches, located in the Tau Ceti system are a leftover from one such conflict. Designed as forward detection posts to locate incoming warfleets and warn the defending forces of their arrival (ZTT drives cannot function near a gravity well), they were scrapped when the Cetan economy could no longer support them and it became apparent that they were never going to be used. Today, the reaches fill a variety of functions, the ones nearer the two inhabited worlds mostly have been converted into microgee manufacturing centres, producing high-tech consumables at a much higher standard than the few remaining robotic factories on the surface. Those further from the planetary markets, such as the curiously named "17th Parallel" station, serve primarily as refuelling and resupply bases for the extensive asteroid mining operations in the system, with several of the larger stations also acting as ore refineries. There are still several stations which were abandonded that are inactive to this day, many of these have already been stripped of any materials of any worth but prospectors can still find a few items which may have some small value if sold on.

 

The current political climate among the human worlds is one of rising tension, the three largest nations; The Terran League, The Ithkul Imperium and The kingdom of Exis vie constantly for supremacy doing everything short of declaring open war in order to gain an advantage over the other two. Industrial espionage and sponsored piracy are the norm in the frontier systems and it is a hard trader indeed that manages to survive in these regions without serious firepower.

 

Nations of Humanity:

 

The Terran League - Centred on Earth, the League is the oldest Nation in existance and is also the wealthiest. The secure core world trade routes provide massive benefits to a largely decadent and arrogant culture. The massive manufacturing capacity and research facilities of the Sol system alone are greater than that of any 8 other systems, and it is primarily here where the Leagues advantage lies. The League has several nominally independant systems under its direct control and its political influence among the outer rim colonies is staggering. Earth, being of course the Human homeworld, demands, and largly recieves, a great deal of respect from much of the human population.

 

The Ithkul Imperium - The most overtly agressive of the great nations, Ithkul power is largely based on its massive space navy, and the fear this generates in the independant worlds bordering its space. The Imperium is, despite rumours to the contrary, a very humane dictatorship, with a perplexingly high standard of living for a nation that devotes such little effort in its economic activity. Several recent advances in asteroid mining techniques and space-surface tranist technology have gained the Ithkul a distinct advantage in colonising new systems.

 

The Kingdom of Exis - Religiously devout Exis is basically a massive police state. While its cons!@#$%^&*ution guarantees its citizens varied and plentiful freedoms, citizens exercising those freedoms have an alarming tendency to disappear or suffer fatal accidents. Exis is the largest of the great nations, directly controlling more than 50 star systems, but it is also the most insular. Almost no trade goes through any Exis controlled space, only a few exotic luxuries and high-tech devices which support the lifestyle of the Aristocracy. That being said, the prices the aristocrats are willing to pay for such goods is enormous and the profits very handsome, if you're willing to ignore the means by which they were obtained.

 

The Kanatis Alliance - A small group of 6 systems located at the frontier between Ithkul and League space, the Kanatis Alliance has had to be extremely resourceful in order to prevent being absorbed by either of the two great nations. With the highest general level of technology and education in human space, the Alliance is ruled not by a central government, but by all its citizens, who determine policy via neural implants, with appointed subsections of the population electing to specialise in the administration of certain enterprises. such as transportation or defence. Apart from the citizenry of the Alliance, the other strata of the Alliance population are the Soldiers. Soldiers of the Alliance are not considered human by the rest of the galaxy (and rightly so, their genetic structure is more than 20% artificial), grown in exowombs and maturing in only 5 years, the Alliance soldier is genetically and cybernetically enhanced for combat. It is these soldiers that provide both its main source of defence (although citizens acting in the capacity of soldiers are not uncommon) and its main source of income (mostly through mercenary work for one of the great nations). Soldiers consider themselves completely expendable next to that of non-soldier citizens and are willing to go to great lengths to ensure their safety.

 

The Independant Worlds - These worlds are many and varied, more on these as they come up.

[Manus Celer Dei]

The bar on the 17th Parallel Station is a dimly lit but well run establishment modelled on the Irish pubs of old Earth, authentic wood was imported for its interior construction at great expense from Tau Ceti VI.

 

Run by a former Alliance soldier-citizen Richard Arbury and his Avienne wife Jenneke (the Avienne are the descendants of human colonists who altered their genetic structure to grow wings for their low gravity world of Pi Caneri III), the bar is considered the hub of the station and it is here that the fortunes of this isolated mining and refuelling facility are dictated. The station maintains a very liberal view of the Tau Ceti laws under which it is meant to operate and therefore remains a strongpoint for the black market, which dominates the station economy, but is just small enough to not warrant any action by Cetan police or military forces.

 

 

Edit* I are good no at england

[Manus Celer Dei]

Richard relaxes back into his couch at the far end of the bar and continues his conversation with the black marketeer while his wife, behind the bar, updates the bars accounts via her neural implant

[Aileron]

[OOC-I think I'll start where I left off, with a new plot]

 

In a dark run-down warehouse on the outskirts of 17th parallel station, a few people waited in anticipation. Over the past month, they had converted the warehouse into a makeshift laboratory, and now were awaiting the element of their experiments. Suddenly, a transport ship landed. The port hatched open, and a crewman leaned out, only saying "We got them!"

 

Minutes later, they were all standing around a central table. On it was stolen bionanobots from a lab in Tau Ceti IV. After programming the bots from a pre-fabricated disk, one member went over to a refrigeration device. Inside was a human brain, perfectly preserved. He took out the brain, and carried it over to the table, and set it among the bionanobots. The bots swarmed around the brain, and soon absorbed it. The m!@#$%^&* suddenly started moving. Then a voice came over the loudspeaker.

 

"No, you fool! That will blow up the reactor! - oh where am I?"

"Ailius?" the lab director said, "I am Dr. Farson. You have been dead for four years, and have been ressurrected in the form of this nanobot mass"

"You ressurected me as this - blob?"

"We programed the bots to respond to your thoughts. It should not be difficult to assume a humanoid shape."

 

Indeed, the blob was aleady partway there. Ailius spent a minute in deep concentration, and the blob gradually took the shap of a human. Ailius was back.

[Guest Guest]

Landing roughly on the surface of the 17th station, Alexander Harper turned and surveyed the damage done to his transport Leviathan MK.II when it was attacked by a small group of small fighters, that looked like someone had screwed around with the standard weasel fighter and made a rather annoying ship ( ). Setting the security lock he began walking towards the closest building in sight.

 

Harper was a pilot in the Ithkul's Merchant navy, having retired from the vast fighter aspect of it after a failed incursion on Terran space. now he traded exotic goods to the Exis, but earning only small commissions, due to the regulations in place by the Ithkul.

 

Entering the tavern, Harper searched for a table on his own and began thinking about how to patch up his ship.

 

Coming out of his reverie minutes later, he gets up to order a stiff drink, before once more losing himself in thought.

 

 

OOC: need more people like roach to keep this kinda thing going. and i need to find something to do

[Guest Guest]

Sorry, that was me

Arianax/Feit!

[Manus Celer Dei]

Manus, after finishing with the back marketeer, sends an encrypted message to his wife via neural implant, who relays the message to the Avienne emb!@#$%^&*y on Tau Ceti VI.

 

Shortly afterwards, a freighter leaves the main starport facility orbiting the world with an armed Cetan military escort. As the ship reaches hyperspace distance, the Cetan ships return to port and the freighter disappears, no hyperspace wake was detected.

 

 

 

-Additional historical/technical notes-

 

The Neural Implant is a small device embedded into the host brain. Implants, designed initially by a Terran firm just prior to the development of interstellar travel, have been primarily used as a communications tool historically, and despite their expense, are incredibly popular among the technical strata of most societies (with the noted exception of the kingdom of Exis). Alliance implants are the currently most advanced versions available, all Alliance Citizens and Soldiers are fitted with these upon reaching maturity, and they are able to be purchased by non-alliance purchasers with only a few of the functions removed. These particular implants have expanded in their uses since their development, and now a standard implant will have many of the following functions:

 

Enables IR (Infra Red) and UV (Ultra Violet) Vision

ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) Detector and Scrambler

Communications Net Interfaces

Air Pressure Motion Scanner (ranges vary between 5 and 50 metres)

Autonomous Response Control (eg. Disable host pain responses)

Internal and/or External Medical Scan

Weapons Interface

EMP Shield (only low yield EMP currently available -Alliance Soldiers only-)

Targeting Laser (external mounting)

 

 

Other functions exist, but many are classified by the developers and only available to national security forces

[Arianax]

Finally reaching a conclusion, Harper stood back up and paid for his drinks, winking at the barmaid as he did so. Leaving the establishment he headed back to his Leviathan transport.

 

He had long thought the Leviathan a -*BAD WORD*-bersome ship, but it was the best for large shipments across the empires, this did not help his ego however, and he still thought whatever piloting talent he had was wasted on the giant hulk.

 

Harper planned to dock the ship in an a nearby warehouse or stockroom, the place looked desolate enough, so all that was necessary was to find a nearby building. There, hidden from any pirates that may seek his mixed cargo of tropical fruits and foods from the Ithkul's most tropical planets, Harper would be able to make any repairs he felt neccessary to return her to space-worthyness. His cargo made a fair price in the Exis empire, but Harper rarely saw this profit, as debted as he was, with payments being made on this blasted ship, and the loan he had to take out to pay off the fine sentenced on him after an Ithkul tribunal on unruly conduct in the fleet.

 

Applying more thrust he silently loomed over the rocky ground around him.

 

OOC: was that a bit long ?

[Aileron]

OOC - actually that was pretty short.

 

For the previous few hours, Ailius and the SE discussed their newest plot. Suddenly, the walls of the warehouse were rattling. The SE commandoes scattered around the room began to get nervous.

 

"INCOMING"

"How did they find us so quickly?"

"Calm down" said Ailius, "anyone got radar equipment on you?"

"Hold on, sir." The voice come from a loudspeaker from the Wyvern-class corvette that was with them. "Scans reveal a single Leviathon, a beat up one too. 200 degrees 700 ticks."

"Whew, can you get the transponder?"

"Yeah, the ship is registered to a Alexander Harper, an Ithkul merchant with a bad history."

"Hmm...this could work to our advantage, but I'll need a good disguise."

"Sir, the bionanobots should enable you to take the shapes of other humans, altough they will never fool a med scan."

 

Ailius then changed shape into a middle aged scared individual. Two commandoes also hid their SE uniforms under trenchcoats. Each got in a Warbird and followed the Leviathon. Ailius pmed Harper.

 

"Alexander Harper? My name is Vaxmillion Sanders. I need to make a -shipment- in the near future. If you would do this favor for me, I would pay you 1,000,000 galactic credits plus expenses. If you are interested, I will be landing on the mese 1000 ticks to our southeast."

 

With that, Ail and his lackeys landed on the mesa, awaiting Harper's answer.

[Manus Celer Dei]

Jenneke moves from behind the bar and moves towards her husband in a sedate manner, her wings flapping slightly giving the impression of her gliding across the floor. As she approaches and places one wing across Manus' shoulder he looks up at her and smiles from the table.

 

"Is everything to your satisfaction Radeck?" she intones in a buisnesslike voice, "certainly madam, I am most pleased with the services the Independant Mercenaries Guild have provided, and I shall relay my satisfaction to my superiors when I return to Centauri. I expect we shall retain your services in the future." Jenneke frowns, "perhaps we can come to an agreement". Jenneke sends to Manus Look into this, there aren't that many organisations that could afford our services for any kind of long term operation. If these people feel the need to send anonymous agents to protect their iden!@#$%^&*y from us, perhaps they are not quite so honest in their reasons for hiring us. Perhaps someone is trying to set up a competing guild

 

 

At the shipyards adjoining the spaceport orbiting Kanatis Beta, a small team of engineers finish the last drydock tests of the Alliances newest warship, the KAS Marathon. It is reported spaceworthy and crew (all Soldiers) begin boarding and loading provisions.

 

 

 

OOC: I will put any Neural Interface Transmissions in italics from now on.

*edit also, when I refer to Soldiers (capitalised), this indicates genetically enhanced exowomb-grown personell rather than purestrain humans acting in that capacity. (purestrain human soldiers will still have extensive cybernetic enhancement - my character is one of these)

 

Also I will be, from time to time, posting additional notes/histories such as in my earlier post. If you want any more info (such as if your PC heads into Exis space and wants a background) I'll be happy to post any such as I have. I'm at the moment (in between classes and study time) working on a resource file with histories and technical data, which will adapt to the story as it pans out in this thread. I may use this as a background for the next bar thread, which will (hopefully) have a higher population base than this one so far.

[Guest Arianax]

Harper received the message with intrest, 1M creds was a lot of money for a transport shipment. This had to be slightly crooked, but then, for 1M, Harper was prepared to be a bit crooked, he could buy his way outta a little trouble for that. Plus it would mean his Ragnorok: XIC could be taken out of the impound.

 

The prospect of no more transports, long boring journeys requiring little to no pilot intervention, sounded attractive. Harper grounded the craft facing the mesa, there seemed to be a congregation of men, with an older man clearly being the senior. Harper loaded up his auto-pilots weapon config and set it to standby, if these people turned out to be pilots, at least he could give some resistance.

 

Although only fitted with one weapon tube, the shear velocity of any munitions fire from the ship, packed a considerable punch, Harper hoped that the damage incurred wouldn't make the ship a little trigger happy.

 

-*BAD WORD*-ing up an oldfashioned pistol, and shoving it in the back of his belt, Harper disembarked. He wore the rough blue of the merchant fleet, stained with mud and dirt, in obvious direpair, his jacket opened to reveal a white training vest, his old dog tags dangled over this. His hair was wavy and mostly black, however age and stress were beginning to set in, and his hair had patches of white and grey around the temples.

 

Finally Harper reached the Mesa.

 

'I'm Lt.Cmdr Alexander Harper, Ithkul Merchant Navy, ex Fighter Fleet'

 

Holding his hand out to the elder, he awaited recognition.

 

OOC: Sorry, problem logging in : P

[Aileron]

The man who called himself Sanders shook Harper's hand in reply.

 

"Well, met. To say it again, I am Vaxmillion Sanders, though I must ask for both our sakes that you 'forget' you met me. I have a bit of a problem. I have a little 'shipment' travelling from Ithkul to Terran space. Unfortunately, authorities do not like shipment of this product, and my last pilot on the Ithkul/Kanatis leg met a very bad end.

 

I will not tell you the nature of the shipment. Its probably better off for you - if you do get caught, you can honestly say that you didn't know. I will tell you that you would get in a lot of trouble if you got caught by both the Ithkul and Kanatis police.

 

We do not have a proper storage facility for our product on the pickup planet. After you finish your current job, contact Sythe (no, that's not her real name) in 17th parallel bar. You can identify her by her pick scarf. The codeword is "wild zebra". When she hears that from you, she will tell you where to pick the shipment up, and get our agents to prepare it for you. It will be one large metal crate and two guards (just in case).

 

Upon pickup, you will be given the coords for the dropoff, as well as 500,000 credits. Upon dropping it off, you will receive the other 500,000.

 

Do you have any questions?"

[Manus Celer Dei]

Once the crew of the Marathon finished loading the vessel, it was joined immediately joined by her sister ship, the KAS Teh Uber. These ships then headed out on a jump course for Tau Ceti.

 

 

-Technical note-

 

Alliance starships, with warships in particular, use a number of radically different technologies which separates them from standard ZTT driven ships. Since the development of the ZTT (Zero Time Transit) drives, starships have been powered by ever more increasingly efficient m!@#$%^&* reaction furnaces. These in turn run all a ships systems, from life support to the Plasma Induction !@#$%^&*emblies (system drives). Alliance vessels, however, use far more efficient Neutrino Fusion Reactors, which for their size, are roughly 4 times as powerful. These more adavanced reactors, only available currently to the Alliance, have their drawbacks, and there is an effective upper limit to their size, as they become increasingly more complex as they become larger. To mitigate this, the larger Alliance warships often utilise multiple reactors to power all of their systems. This has the added bonus of providing a level of redundancy if one or more reactors become damaged in a firefight. Somme Class Cruisers, of which the KAS Marathon and Teh Uber belong, carry 6 seperate reactors to provide a level of power almost twice that of comparable Ithkul or Terran warships. This does not go unnoticed by their respective Intelligence agencies and both governments are concerned with what all that extra power may be needed for.

 

Statistics for Somme Class Cruisers

Top Sublight Acceleration: 0.014C/hour (C being the speed of light)

M!@#$%^&*: 17800 metric tonnes

Shielding: 97050

Cargo Capacity: 400 metric tonnes

Crew: 134

Subsystem AI Controllers: 1 (2 for command ships)

Weapons:

- 1x *classified* (spinal mount)

- 12x Heavy Neutrino Fusion Bolt Turrets (dual)

- 4x Storm Turrets (single)

- 6x Barrage Missile Turrets

- 6x Light Neutrino Fusion Bolt Turrets (quad)

- 2x Heavy EMP Torpedo Launchers (spinal mount)

- up to 6 Sedan Class Interceptors (Alliance variant Javelins)

Additional systems:

- Stealth Field (extends stealth to all ships within a small radius)

- Reinforced Antiwarp

- X-Enhanced Radar

- High Level ECM scrambler

- High Drain Gravitic Distortion Field

[Guest Arianax]

Harper thought carefully, he didnt want to screw up a chance at 1M creds just because he asked some wrong questions. Making up his mind, he looked up.

 

' I think that sounds ok, I'll save my detailed questions for this Sythe, nice meeting ya'

 

Giving the !@#$%^&*embly a nod, Harper wheeled around and headed back to his ship, why anyone would want to employ his pitiful ship on what sounded an Important transport, he couldnt figure out.

 

Arriving at his ship, he struck out towards the bar, easily visible on his thermals, his mind half on flying, he began wondering what he would ask this contact. Harper had dealt with some shady characters in the past, but most of them were too proud of their work to be truly secretive of it, but these guys seemed slightly more professional than his previous engagements. His mind stuck on something that was said, Ithkul or Kanatis police catching him, normally he would have only expected border controls to scan his ship.

 

And so Harper had his first question as he disembarked his ship and headed towards the bar. Glancing back at his smoking ship, and again realizing the damage it had incurred, he made a mental note for question 2 as well.

 

He proceeded into the bar and sat down at the same table as last time, and rested his eyes.

[Aileron]

Ailius and his goons traveled back to his warehouse. He felt discomfort leaveing a part of an SE operation to a freelancer, particularly an Ithkul one. However, his own forces would bring all sorts of attention.

 

He got out of the -*BAD WORD*-pit and morphed into his natural form. On the table was another small sample of nanobots. In some computers in the corner, SE programmers were busy creating programs that would eventually be fed into the bots. They were almost complete with that leg of the project.

 

"Alright, sir, what will be our primary target?"

"I'm thinking the KAS Marathon."

"Why them? This weapon could destroy an entire Ithkul planet. Why waste them on a Kanatis cruiser?"

"Because if we play our cards right, we can destroy the entire Ithkul empire."

"Well, we are going to need a way to realease the bots on board. With their Neutrino Fusion Reactors, their security should be looking out for spies."

"Would I suggest going after the Marathon if I didn't have one?"

[Guest Arianax]

Waking from his slumber, Harper retrieved his interface pad, a fairly old model, but Harper could not afford the more modern neural interfaces. Checking the time, Harper scowled around the bar, he couldn't see anyone that fit the lines of his contact, but then again, the lighting in the ins!@#$%^&*ute was definately sub-par, providing many darkened corners.

 

Harper got up and ordered another drink, and settled back in his chair, returning to his interface, he began to run the self repair systems, and was confronted with a list of neccessary components, however it was a shorter list than he had anticipated.

 

His single weapon tube, packing a heavy EMP bomb system, was running low on energy, but that was not high on his priorities. He could work without reinstating the deep-space autopilot, as with a cargo as precious as he was going to be carrying, he could afford to look out for the odd planet or two. The only things really needed were some alloys for repairs on his Reaction engines, some fuel of any description, which he could refine to suit his ships needs. With flying capabilities returned, Harper would feel better, but would still have to take the gamble of flying with low defense and weapon capabilities.

 

He wrote down his list of requirments, and resumed his wait.

 

OOC: The Reaction engine works along the lines of some space shuttles engines nowadays and some technology in the JET project. It propels the ship by firing the single particles of the fuel out of the engine at huge velocity, using the fuel to maximum efficiency. Whilst not matching the speeds of Fusion reactors, it is still a very effective sub light speed of transport. Harpers ship uses a reaction engine in conjuction with an older fusion engine (prehaps a descendant of the JET) which further increases its output.

 

Am i allowed to do those ? ---^

[Aileron]

A light transport landed at the station. A woman wearing a pink scarf exited the ship and went into the bar. Just afterwards, a professional high-speed repair crew helped themselves to Harpers ship. With militaristic discipline, they quickly repaired all non-cosmetic componants of the ship, filled it up with the most effective fuel, and even added heated and vibrating leather seats in the -*BAD WORD*-pit.

 

OOC- These people are all npcs, so you can roleplay them a little to make it easier for yourself. You can make up the pickup and dropoff points, just the first must be in Ithkul territory and the dropoff in Kanatis.

 

Back at the warehouse, suddenly alarms started buzzing. The voice monitering the Wyvern's radar spoke over the overhead.

 

"Sir, long range scans pick up a Kanatis patrol coming near here."

"Alright everyone, move out!"

 

The SE were used to this routine, and it took only a couple minutes to load everything onto their ship. The corvette screamed out of the warehouse, escorted by the three weasels. They were long gone before the Kanatis got close. However, they did not go far. On the other side of the gravity well, 17th Parallel had a sister station, albeit an abandoned one. In the very core of this station was an SE base, hidden from the galaxy by a shield of garbage. Using a secret tunnel, they travelled to the center, and reset up their operation. Here, they were close to the center of the galaxy, yet hidden from even the most powerfull scans.

[Manus Celer Dei]

OOC: The Reaction engine works along the lines of some space shuttles engines nowadays and some technology in the JET project. It propels the ship by firing the single particles of the fuel out of the engine at huge velocity, using the fuel to maximum efficiency. Whilst not matching the speeds of Fusion reactors, it is still a very effective sub light speed of transport.  Harpers ship uses a reaction engine in conjuction with an older fusion engine (prehaps a descendant of the JET) which further increases its output.

 

Am i allowed to do those ? ---^

Yes.

 

After Radeck leaves the bar, Manus places one of his agents on a 'trace' to find out who Radeck is currently working for. As this happens he recieves a neural transmission from Kanatis Fleet Intelligence: Greetings, this is a relayed message from Durandal. I'm the AI currently active on our newest ship, the KAS Marathon. I'm just sending this message to say hi and that I hope I never have to deal with you meatbags at all. Keeping that in mind, I'm on my way to a rendezous with the Kanatis Fury on the outskirts of the Tau Ceti system, where they have a small cargo freighter waiting under their stealth field. Please watch for any suspicious activity at known points of departure, we have an intelligence source that informs us that the kingdom of Exis is about to engage in a wide scale military operation of unknown target. We have not been able so far to determine any warship buildup in any of their main staging areas so keep a look out.

 

Manus then turns to his wife, who recieved the same message, she nods and leaves the table. Manus gets up and leaves, heading to their apartment three levels down.

 

As he walks down towards the elevators at the end of the hall, he sends a general area transmission to all the IMG !@#$%^&*ets on the station Okay I've had a tipoff that something big may be about to happen soon, we have a cruiser detachment coming to pick up the cargo we collected last month and I don't want it jeopardised. Everyone is now set to alert level 4.

 

As the IMG intelligence operatives move into place, the small combat team that IMG keeps on the station immediately head to the IMG armoury on the station reactor level.

[Guest Arianax]

Harper left the bar, the meeting with the pink scarved woman had gone well, and, as she had said, he could see repairs finishing on his ship, smiling, he paced towards it.

 

'Howdy fella's, you all done here?'

 

the workers nodded !@#$%^&*ent, Harper spoke again.

 

'Which two of you lucky fellas are coming with me?'

 

When two burly soldiers had stepped forward, Harper got onto the the ship. Tearing open the envolope he had been given with the pickup and dropoffs. reading what was written twice, Harper made a quick calculation.

 

'Well, Ithkul space, it looks like im going home early.' he murmered to himself

 

Taking off the grav-locks Harper kicked the ship forward, with a huge jolt. It seemed his engine had been tinkered with a little. Switching his seat to vibrate, he began the journey to Ithkul.

[Aileron]

Ailius was only a few moments in the command room of the hidden SE base, when a technician called to him.

 

"Sir, we just intercepted a Kanatis neural link transmission. It seems our target is moving to the Tau Ceti system."

"-*BAD WORD*-!"

 

This movement was way too soon. Here the target was coming within his grasp, and Ailius hadn't the weapon he needed yet. Fortunately, his scientists had completed the research and programming aspect. Ailius went down to the laboratory. The centerpiece of the room consisted of a large sealed gl!@#$%^&* container. Inside was a small group of Ithkul captives from various sources.

 

"Sir, we have finished the programming of the bionanobots that we have. Take a look at this."

 

One of the prisoners was seperated from the others by a 3 inch thick steel wall. The demented SE scientist proceeded to pump a small sample of bionanobots in a valve near him. The prisoner panicked and screamed as his flesh melted off his bones, until it formed a yellow pile of dust on the floor.

 

"When the bionanobots come in contact with living cells, they reconfigure the proteins to form more copies of themselves. Now that there is no living matter in the first container, they will eat away the steel wall untill the get to the others."

 

As he said this, the SE onlookers could see the wall corroding in seconds. It did not take long for a sizeable whole to appear. Soon, the bionanobots melted the other prisoners in the same way, though one prisoner seemed immune to the effect.

 

"We could not get the bots to be better than 90% effective. Some subjects seem to be immune to the effect. Fortunately, we came up with an alternative approach."

 

The yellow dust that filled the container then condensed into a large liquid mass which soon took the shape of a large squidlike creature, which quickly straggled to poor screaming prisoner.

 

"The size and shape of the creature formed varies on the situation. Now, the only way to stop these things is with ultrasonic vibrations. They are also programmed to follow any commands we send them, and to become more subservant as they evolve. We also programmed them to highjack computer systems, including AIs for starships. If we get enough of them, we might even be able to take over the Marathon like you want."

 

"There's no time, the Marathon is moving here now, and I have only just arranged the transport of more bots."

 

"Well, we only have whats in this container. This is only enough to take over a small cargo freighter."

 

"Then that's what we will do. The bots create more of their kind with every object they infest. If we infest a small ship, we will get enough bots to infest the Marathon."

 

Soon afterwards, Ailius departed the base in a specially made Spider. The burst and portal systems were scrapped to put in the bionanobot deployment system. He headed for the Kanatis Fury.

[Guest Guest]

Soon afterwards, Ailius departed the base in a specially made Spider.  The burst and portal systems were scrapped to put in the bionanobot deployment system.  He headed for the Kanatis Fury.

OOC: just to clarify, the Kanatis Fury is a Leyte Gulf class Carrier, the cargo ship referred to is sitting close by. The freighter is stealthed due the the field area effect.

 

I take it your spider has xradar too?

[Manus Celer Dei]

That was me.

[Aileron]

[OOC-Don't need X-Radar.

 

BTW, there aren't many people in this topic. Perhaps we should advertise in the Lounge Section of the general forums - might bring players to 17th parallel besides.]

 

Ailius lurked just outside the Carrier's radar range patiently. Soon, his patience paid off. A single Javelin was running a scouting patrol from the carrier. Ail stalked the Javelin, following it on its patrol route until it turned back to the carrier. Then he struck.

 

He started with an EMP bomb, which disabled the ship's communications. The Jav started turning around, but Ail quickly fired the nanobot deployment system, solidly striking the Jav on the port side. Nanobots swarmed over the hull of the ship, and in a few moments, the ship, pilot and all was infested by the nanobots. Ail fed a few commands to the ship, and then flew away.

 

The Jav then continued back to the Kanatis Fury. It was a routine docking run, until the docked jav opened its hatch and released bionanobot gas inside the docking bay. The nanobots continued to infest the crew, then the bay itself, then the computer, then the life support, until the entire ship finally fell to their influence.

 

The freighter soon realised that something was wrong with the carrier, and began to flee. It was however to late. The carrier temporarily deactivated her stealth field, and deployed infested weasels which caught up to the freighter as if she were standing still. By this time, the bots already knew how to infest a ship, so this attempt was a lot easier. After the freighter fell, the Kanatis Fury reactiveated her stealth field. The two ships then resumed usual communcations with the Kanatis fleet - and waited in ambush for the incoming Marathon.

[Arianax]

Harper awoke, he could see their destination up ahead. Guiding the ship in closer Harper preformed a textbook landing, and jumped out of the ship. Pacing towards the group of rogues in front of him.

 

'I'm Lt. Cmdr. Harper, here for the pickup'

 

'Very good Mr. Harper, it is already being loaded' Harper spun around, and saw, this was indeed true.

 

'you work fast' Harper muttered. 'well so do I'

 

Thinking this was a classy enough exit, Harper spun on his heel, and walked back to the ship, seing the crates of this unknown substance, being loaded on. Jumping back into the -*BAD WORD*-pit, he readied himself for flight to...Kanatis space, that's right.

 

OOC: those things are full of bionanobots right? -sorry i thought I'd already made this post, apparently not.

[Aileron]

[OOC-no - STOLEN bionanobots BTW, they aren't programed yet, so if they get loose, nothing will happen. Really though, you could have put whatever you want in the box, because I didn't specify before.]

 

The Marathon exited Z - space to a grim suprise. The ship before them was indeed the Kanatis Fury, but it was hard to recognize as even a starship as the bionanobots made huge modifications to the hull. There was a lot of commotion on the bridge of the Marathon.

 

"Holy, what is that thing?"

"Sir, scan reveal it as the Kanatis Fury."

"Are you sure?"

"Several of her systems have gone under severe transformation for an unknown reason, but she IS the Kanatis Fury."

"Okay, set up a comm link...Kanatis Fury, this is the Marathon, what is your status?"

 

The Kanatis Fury answered by deploying her fighter fleet. The Marathon answered by firing all of her conventional weapons. The infested fighter fleet was obliterated, and only got a chance to get a handfull of shots at the Marathon.

 

Now, the Marathon was alert of the Kanatis Fury's intent. She brought about her secret weapon. [OOC- I dunno what it is, but I assume it can destroy the Kanatis Fury in a single shot at a great consumption of power.] The generators strained under the massive power output. A massive light shot out of the Marathon, and blasted the Kanatis Fury to dust.

 

However, victory eluded the Marathon. As the Kanatis Fury was destroyed, her cloaking field went down, revealing that the cargo freighter was only about a thousand feet away and closing fast, preparing to ram the Marathon. All remaining power aboard the Marathon was diverted to the shields, but that wouldn't be enough. Her crew braced for impact. The freighter powered through her shields, but broke apart, spreading itself in a million pieces all over the Marathon's hull, but causing no real damage. The Marathon's Captain sent a nueral link out to everyone.

 

"This is the Marathon calling Defcon 2. We have just been attacked by the Kanatis Fury and the freighter she was protecting! Both ships appear to have been commodored and modified in means unknown to us. What the -*BAD WORD*-? Arrggh!!!"

 

The bionanobot infested pieces of the freighter has seeped their way through the hull, and had begun infesting the ship and her crew. The gas was not enough, and the fight had to carried from compartment to compartment between the crew and bionanobot-spawned creatures. However, the Marathon eventually did fall. The infested AI gave one last message over the nueral link.

 

"All humans must die! Glory to the Gehenna!!!"

 

With that, the Marathon activated her Z-space drive, destination unknown.