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Hidden 10 yrs ago Post by Queen Raidne
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The Tower
He sat aloft a grandiose throne, shimmering in glass, gold and silver, the back of which extended upwards beyond the limitations of a human’s sight. The throne towered over the great hall and the assembled throng. He cut a striking figure, radiant in silver armour, a golden lion’s head for a shoulder plate and an open faced helmet that was surrounded by floating shards of glimmering steel that made up its mane. He looked out upon the assembled gods. They, his Kin, the masters of all.

Slowly he rose, scepter in hand and the great emperor of the Kin. Xeuss strode forwards, with each step a plate from the base of the throne flying forth and placing itself beneath his foot. Behind him, the glimmering opalescent drapery that flanked the throne pulled itself after him, almost as if it were attached via hooks or wires in a train that seemed to be never ending. There were no wires, nor hooks. The clothing simply followed where he went like an omnipotent cape.

Finally, after stepping a hundred paces he turned to his people, the Kin, who stood resplendent beneath him. Each bore regalia as befitting their station as rulers of many galaxies. Floating halos illuminated the heads of some, others wore armour like his own that bore striking resemblance to many fantastical creatures from a number of worlds and yet others bore little more than scraps of silks or ribbons that floated and moved according to breezes that did not exist.

“Behold!” Xeuss cried gesturing towards the center of the hall and an amorphous white substance flowed in from a number of recessed niches and coalesced into a gigantic orb. The image of the planet was forming and within a moment became a steel world, one shrouded in clouds. “Behold Coruscant! This will be the third time we have conquered this world! I imagine even now, he who calls himself Emperor, to be feeling some disturbance in the paltry power they call ‘The Force’.”
There were a number of wry chuckles at this.

“Prepare the Tower!” he cried, “We add anew another galaxy to our domain, to this nexus which is our palace. Kine against Kine! Inform the Kith it is time! Engage the World Engines! Send forth our forces!”

In the space above Coruscant all was quiet. The Empire had not seen an attack inside of the core worlds in some time by those irksome rebels. Then came a shimmering. Those upon the world of Coruscant’s upper levels looked up into the sky and spied something so massive that they could make it out with their naked eyes, what appeared to be a white line against the black. Up in space, the pearlescent tower materialized out of nothing. It was a massive cylinder some thousands of kilometers tall and easily a thousand kilometers wide.

The defense grid began to power and the planetary shield glimmered into existence even as the Tower began to launch ships. Ships from a thousand worlds emerged, in every shape and fashion. Vessels from the Federation, the Klingon Empire, the Romulans, Liberty, Kusari, the Citadel, a dozen other worlds, and even those belonging to a different Great Galactic Empire, powered their engines and descended towards the shining jewel of this galaxy.

Energy blasts streaked across the black as did solid ferrous slugs. The planetary shield and defensive systems, without preamble failed and shut themselves down. This was, after all, the third time the Kin had taken Coruscant and they had become exceedingly efficient at it.

Dagobah:
Fog crept through the darkness, enveloping the swampy world. Lizard-like amphibians croaked; far-off avians warbled. Something roared in the night. In a small, primitive hut lit merrily, a squat green creature ate rootleaf stew in peace. Yoda, Jedi Master, was contemplating the training he had planned for his last apprentice. Dagobah was silent without warning. The Force was chaotic; more chaotic than usual. The level of the disturbance was great enough to overpower the cave filled with the Dark Side that Yoda sheltered near.

Echoes of something strange, something unexpected and exotic wailed at Yoda. He sat down, cleared his mind, and concentrated. Ripples in the force - even for events so obviously big as this - didn’t last long, and he had to be patient, absorbing all of the ripple’s facets before it faded.

Coruscant:
Six Golan II Space Defense stations, seven Imperial-I class Star Destroyers, a host of fighter wings (both ground- and space-based), and countless lightly-armed civilian shipyards, orbital factories, and solar mirrors surround Coruscant. Traffic to and from the capitol is dense; the planet survives entirely on trade.

Without warning, a massive cylinder appears in the middle of this, and disgorges thousands of ships. The Coruscant Defense Fleet; the Golan II’s - all fall like so much paper lit on fire. The shields of the planet buckle and fall instantly under the massive assault. Millions die. Shuttles and small ships stream out of the system, desperately trying to escape the onslaught.


Yoda frowned. Disturbing, this turn of events was. Seek Obi-Wan and re-confer, he must.

As he began to make preparations to leave the planet, Yoda felt another disturbance in the force. Something alien, something exotic, but something with a glimmer of hope.

Tatooine:
Without warning, a bright blue ball of energy flashed in and out of existence, leaving behind a long, pointy spire-shaped ship. Seconds later, it was followed by flashes, bangs, explosions, and simple quiet appearances as more ships came into being from nothing.
Hidden 10 yrs ago Post by Sep
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The Columbia moved out of the Scorpio shipyards. "This is Columbia Actual we're away."Columbia Actual, all reports are green. Happy hunting."" Lorne looked around to the CIC full of people at their stations, some of their faces he knew well. However there were new faces among them. Rooks straight out of War College io Caprica. People who had never seen action outside of simulation. However he was confident that they would manage to pull through in the end. After all their very survival depended on it and if he could not depend on his officers and his crew, there was no-one he could depend upon. He turned to his XO, a man he had only known for four years however he had quickly learned to trust and heavily depended upon. "Give me ship wide." A horn blew throughout the ship, letting everyone at their stations pause to listen to a message from the commander. He picked up the phone from off its hook and raised the microphone to his mouth.

"This is the Commander. Word has reached the admiralty about a world outside of the Colonies being used as a Cylon testing site. Several colonial refugee convoys have been lost in nearby space without even being able to let off a distress beacon. We will jump into a polar orbit above the planet and rendezvous with the Galactica and the Atlantia. Recon reports there are three enemy baystars in orbit, Galactica and the Columbia will move on a full frontal attack while the Atlantia will move in behind. I have faith in our ability to take on this mission, we're trained for this and we're ready after our time in drydock. Acton stations, prepare for combat jump." He put the phone down as the alarm began to ring through the ship. He turned to Phillips and nodded, as he then picked up the comms.

"All stations report in for combat jump, Navigation-""Go.""-Tactical-""Go.""-Combat-""Go.""-Damage Control-""Go.""-Medical-""Go""-Marine Teams-""Go.""-Viper Wings-""Go.""-Gunnery teams-""Go." Phillips turned back to Lorne. "- Ship reports ready to jump, sir.""Good, start the clock." There was a hum that shrunk as a navigation officer began counting down "Jumping in 5,4,3,2, Jump."

Usually a jump was instant, and it felt instant. Or rather you didn't really notice any passing in time you only really noticed a flashed and felt as if you had your intestines turned inside out as space was folded and you disappeared from one place and then instantly re-appeared in another. Though this time, for reasons beyond comprehension it didn't. With a wave of blue light in the ship they found themselves in orbit above a strange desert world.

The ship shuddered as the lights flicked due to power disruptions, on the damage control board behind him he cast a glance and saw several red light. Decompression alerts. "Status?" The tactical officer was walking between stations writing on a clipboard and talking as he went. The screens on the DRADIS console finally stabilized stating that the FTL was offline. "Multiple contacts on DRADIS none of them bearing Colonial Transponders or transponders that we recognize, we have several hull breaches near engineering and reports indicate FTL is offline." He gripped his fist on the edge of the table as he looked at DRADIS, they were surrounded and with FTL offline they were vulnerable.

"Engines all ahead full, bring us out of this mix. Bring all batteries to full power and launch vipers, get me an eye on those ships." There was the brief change in inertia as the engines at the rear of the Battlestar began pushing it away from the planet and into a further orbit, out from the other ships.
Pheonix sat in his Viper as he was thrown back into his seat as the catapult threw him out of the battlestar. Twenty vipers in his flight, eighty vipers in all launched and likely there would be another eighty not far behind them. "Red flight, form in. Counter clockwise turn around the Columbia, we're escorting her out of here-" He cast a glance at the planet and noticed that it was a desert, the briefing said ice. "This is Pheonix requesting a line with Columbia Actual." A couple of minutes later the harsh voice of the commander came online. "This is Actual.""Commander, we're not at the designated co-ordinates. The planetary body is a desert not an ice world, and these ships. I've never seen ships of these configurations.""Copy that, weapons hold. Continue circling the Columbia and keep an eye on possible hostiles.""Yes sir." The line clicked as the Commander went off the line. "All right boys and girls, weapons hold. Keep formation and keep an eye out on those other ships. Something weird is going on and we don't know [/i]what.[/i]"

And to think, he was supposed to be on frakking leave.
Lorne looked at Phillips. "Get on Damage control. I'm going to find out what is going on here." He looked around the rest of CIC. "Stand down to condition two." With that he moved over to his tactical officer. "What have you got for me Lieutenant Sanders?""Well sir, our navigational computer can't pin point our position. Astrometics don't recognize any of the local star constellations, frankly sir. We don't have a clue where we are.""How is this possible? " The young lieutenant, who had been the source of many answers just looked at him. "I have no clue sir. I verified the co-ordinates and watched them being input and preliminary reports indicate nothing is wrong with the system.""I would disagree Lieutenant.""I know sir, but at this moment I simply don't have any answers for you.""Keep on it."

Lorne moved back to the main table where he could keep an eye on DRADIS and these other ships.
Phillips walked over to the Damage control panel. "Captain, report." A female Captain stood and pointed at some of the red lights. "We've got a hull breach from sections 63-69 along the outer edges off the hull and are venting into space, no sign of fires. The problem is we have a coolant leek from the FTL drives."

Phillips looked at the damage control panel. "Get two DC teams. One to seal the breach with temporary materials and a second to escort engineers down to seal the leak. We need that system prepared in case we need to get out of here.""Copy that.""Right, get too it." He turned to see the commander returning to the main station and moved back over to him, standing beside him he spoke in a hushed tone. "What the frak is going on?"I don't know, navigation has no idea where we are. The planet isn't where we're supposed to be and we don't recognize any of the ships out there." Phillips looked back at the screen, over thirty contacts. "By the Gods, if they all turn on us we won't stand a chance.""That is just what I was thinking which is why we're sitting on the defensive right now.""We can't jump, you know that. If we have no data on the local systems we can't risk jumping until we have a good navigational chart and it could take hours.""I know that, so I'm going to send a squawk ident and challenge. See what we get.""Thats a risky move, they might not take too kindly to the challenge.""I know, lets just hope that the fact we are offering the challenge makes us look big and imposing."

They both looked up at the DRADIS. "How long until the FTL is online?""DC teams are on their way, but the hull breach is going to slow them down a bit. I'm having them seal the breach closest to the leak so that should be able to speed them up a bit but it could be a good half an hour before we can make a small jump.""Have astronomical and navigation get working on co-ordinates for a nearby system so that we are able to jump if need be.""Yessir." With that Phillips walked over to the tactical station as he moved around closer to communications. "Johnson, on all frequency perform a Squawk ident and challenge to all unidentified vessels.""Yes sir." As he walked away he could hear the Petty Officer. "Attention unidentified vessels this is the Battlestar Columbia. Identify yourselves or we will be forced to take hostile action. I repeat, this is the Battlestar Columbia. Identify yourselves or we will be forced to take hostile action."

Lorne sighed, at least they had just came back from a resupply and repair, a full Viper compliment was always handy in these situations. With Eighty out and 160 more in waiting if this was some kind of trap they wouldn't go down easily.
Several Minutes Ago

"Everyone okay?""Yes Chief." There was a minor change in the air as the Launch tubes opened back up. "All right lets move, move move! Get these Vipers in the tubes-" That was one thing that always got him. Despite the racks and the hydrolic platforms that moved the Vipers all around the Hanger deck into the dark recesses of the flight pod they still had to manually push Vipers into the Launch tube. In a way it was safer however it always seemed a bit inconvenient, however there was the bonus that it kept people on their feet. He himself moved behind a Viper as it was lowered onto the main hanger deck floor and then helped push it into the hanger, moving below the landing gear he clipped it onto the hydraulic pulley that would bring it up to speed to fire it out into Space if need be. Then he moved back out as the door was sealed behind him and the chamber was opened to space. He looked around briefly at the hanger deck as everyone else checked the seals on the launch tubes.

"All right people, don't go patting yourself on the backs yet. The CAG wants all his birds ready. Move it, move it, move it!" Once again the hanger deck was a hustle and bustle of activity.
Once in the spacesuit Petty Officer First Class Simmons closed the Hatch behind him and walked past everyone else to the Hatch that would take them into the damaged engineering sections, luckily it was one of the sections that rarely had people in it so they hadn't lost anyone. However some people in the surrounding areas had been injured. "All right, hard seal. Let's go." He spun open the bulkhead on front of him and lead the team in. Despite the fact that they were in space suits he noticed the slightest dip in temperature as all the heat from this section had been vented out into space. He lead them down the corridor, his boots magnetically keeping him on the floor as he noticed a crack in the sealing and looked up through it, the crack appeared to go up several decks and got thicker as it did. This was the hull breach.

He clicked on his radio before speaking. "All right. Harvey, Parcey and Regent you three get to work patching up this hole. We'll continue up and see about blocking the coolant leak." With that three stayed behind and he and two others continued on wards until they reached a large pipe with a crack in it, now and then a droplet of a thick blue liquid would leak out and move towards the breach. "All right, it doesn't look too bad. Once we've sealed it we'll just need to pressurize the system which shouldn't take more of an hour." He moved his hand back for the welding kit. "Lets get started."
Hidden 10 yrs ago Post by Sundered Echo
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In the empty space far above the harsh sands of Tatooine, a shimmering point of energy appeared, hanging in space. Slowly, lazily, the point expanded in two directions to create a line. When the line reached the correct length it expanded, again in two directions, forming a translucent square of energy in space. It flickered between cool blue and vibrant golden-yellow, and for a moment simply hung in space. When the moment passed the square of energy began to move, tracing the path of a perfect rectangular prism through space. Quickly extending from the trailing edge of the plane of energy, as though it were always there and the energy were simply revealing its presence, first an array of sensor spines, then the blunt prow of a ship. In a short time, an entire ship had been deposited by the flickering pane of energy, and when it was clear of the ships stern it repeated the process that had brought it into existence, only in reverse, winking out of existence as suddenly and inexplicably as it had been created.

The scene on the ships bridge as it exited Hyperspace was chaotic. The moment the Hyperspace Core shut off the entire ship shook violently for a few seconds, the effects of coming out of Hyperspace too close to the planet's gravity well. Crewmen were thrown across the bridge, lights flickered as power was disrupted and in the middle of it all, the aging Captain Saalen Mannaan fought valiantly to remain standing - a battle he lost. When the shaking subsided, Saalen unceremoniously picked himself up and dusted down his uniform before surveying his bridge. The bridge crew were slowly picking themselves up, some far slower than others. Saalen tapped the communicator on his lapel, a small device in the shape of the Angel Moon insignia of the Hiigaran fleet “Medical team to the Bridge.” He said quickly. No doubt the medical teams would be needed everywhere right now, but much of the ship could operate without crew as long as the bridge could co-ordinate it. It was paramount his Bridge crew be in the best possible condition to deal with whatever threat they were facing. As people scrambled back to their stations, at least those that weren’t too injured to do so, he spoke again, his voice firm and commanding. “Report. Sensors, Damage control. Tell me where we are and what condition we’re in.”

As his officers worked, he strode to the large window that made up the front the bridge. The view was wrong. All wrong. Gone were the vibrant colours of space, and the massive silhouette of the Progenitor Hyperspace gate the ship had been studying. Instead, he was faced with a plane of blackness filled with tiny points of light - the kind of view one only saw if they looked to the edge of the galaxy. On the edge of the view, far below the ship, the pale sands of a desert planet could be seen. It was not a planet Saalen had ever seen.

“Sir” The voice of his damage control officer broke his reverie, a young dark-skinned man from Kiith Paktu. “Minor structural damage to all systems consistent with forced exit from Hyperspace. The Hyperspace Core is offline and the wake jump module reports major damage.” He paused for a moment, evidently listening to more damage reports coming in from other sections of the ship. The sensor officer, a Manaani woman whose voice never seemed to take on any real emotion, a character trait apparently required in Fleet Intelligence officers, capitalised on the moment. “Captain, the ship has dropped out of hyperspace in a completely unknown part of the galaxy. None of the stars match any constellations on record and the planet beneath us is not on record. We are not detecting the other ships in the flotilla, but we are not detecting any wreckage either. We are detecting three other large structures nearby. Two of them appear to be Mothership class vessels of unknown origin.” The moment she stopped talking the damage control officer continued his report. “Sir the primary and secondary manufacturing plants have suffered heavy damage. They are both offline, damage control teams are working to ascertain the extent of the damage. Tertiary facilities reporting that they’ll be active again in a few minutes. The frigate berth has suffered severe damage but the fighter launch bay is reporting readiness. Corvette Launch bay estimates fifteen minutes for readiness. Recovery bays are also undamaged, and report readiness. Hyperspace Core should be online again in thirty minutes.” Saalen simply nodded at his officers reports. The ship was in a bad way. As a carrier, the Tor-Selim was meant to support a fleet, largely through the use of its many bays and manufacturing plants, but with the majority of those out of action, there would be very little fleet supporting going on. Saalen just considered himself lucky to still have sensors and a way to launch the fighter compliment. That and apparently no hostiles bearing down on them.

Saalen turned away from the window and looked over his bridge as he began to issue orders. Just because the ships primary functionality was crippled didn’t mean she was helpless. “I want all strike craft on stand by for launch -” Saalen was cut off as the voice of Fleet Intelligence once again rang out. “One of the Mothership class vessels has begun to move away from us. It appears to be launching fighter craft.” A curse escaped Saalen’s lips as he turned to look at the large spherical holographic projection in the center of the bridge. He leant against the guardrail - the projection spanned two decks, extending into the CIC below them where the majority of the Fleet Intelligence officers worked to keep its projection up to date and relevant. He could hear the noise of their frantic discussion below. The holographic projection showed the fll area that the ships sensors covered, though could be easily manipulated to show parts of it in detail. Saalen zoomed the projection in on the Mothership as it moved away. It was an odd shape, presently coloured yellow within the projection. It had a myriad of yellow dots flying around it in formation, seemingly a defensive formation. “Launch interceptors, assume a defensive formation.” Saalen said, knowing that the order would be heard by the right crewman.

Almost immediately a the order was acknowledged, Fleet Intelligence made yet another announcement. “We’re receiving a signal. It appears to be coming from the active Mothership class vessel.” Moments passed before CIC determined that it was an audio transmission and played it over the bridge speakers. It sounded strangely similar to one of the dialects used by a member race of the Vaygr. Saalen couldn’t place what was being said, but he gathered that it was probably a request for identification. A broadcast like that was close to the top of his own priorities after all. He tapped his communicator again and looked over at the comms officer. When the officer nodded Saalen began to speak. “This is the Hiigaran vessel Tor-Selim. We are peaceful explorers and do not seek conflict, but we will respond in kind if attacked.” First contact was not really Saalen’s specialty, but Ariel, his first officer and diplomat, had not yet arrived on the bridge. He looked at the comms officer again and gave additional orders. “I want that message translated into the nearest dialect we have to the incoming transmission and sent back on the same frequency.”

Almost the moment after he finished, Ariel Manaan finally arrived on the bridge. She looked worse for the wear, battered and bruised, a small cut above one eye that had been hastily patched, probably by the med team in the halls outside the bridge. It was evident she had hastily thrown her uniform on and was still fastening the last few buttons even as she rushed onto the bridge. As was standard practice, the reports and status of the ship had been relayed to her already by fleet intelligence the better to ensure efficiency in command. “You have the bridge Ariel.” He said as he began to leave. “Kira, get to the bridge immediately. I want answers.” He said into his communicator as he strode off his bridge into the ship's corridors. He had no doubt that he poking and prodding of the hyperspace gate had somehow caused all this and he needed to know how to get back to where they were.
Kira S’jet was in fact already on the way to the ships bridge when the order came through. Not to talk to the Captain though. He was bright enough for his job, but like all military men in command positions, he was always asking questions of scientists about things he wouldn’t understand anyway. She was simply on her way to the CIC, to make use of the efficient data analysis and interrogate some of the sensor specialists. As she rounded the corner to the bridge, she very nearly collided with the captain, who had apparently decided he had no faith in her and come to seek her out. If it were anyone else she might’ve simply kept going and ignored them, but the captain would just follow her if she did that. Instead she gave him a withering glare and waited for his inevitable inane questions. “What happened Kira?” He asked. She didn’t really know the specifics of it herself yet but she still had an answer for him. “You dropped us out of hyperspace next a planet.” The response was instant and defensive as she expected. “I didn’t- Dammit, Never mind. Whatever it is you’ve done has dropped us in the middle of an unknown fleet of very large ships. I need you to come and translate their languages so we live long enough to start assigning the blame.” Kira sighed. Surely he could find someone else to do such mundane work. Of course she was smart enough, but there were better things to do than translation. Like analysing the data from the hyperspace journey, or scanning the area to find any possible leftover anomalies from the unusual jump. “Find someone else. You have plenty of qualified S’jet in Fleet Intelligence for that. I’m going to do what I came here to do. Study Hyperspace.” She tried to push past the captain and continue to the CIC, but the captain caught her by the arm and turned her to face him. “The man responsible for that just got taken out of there on a stretcher. Now if you want to live long enough to study hyperspace, you’ll translate the languages of the people pointing guns at us.” Kira pulled away from him the moment his grip loosened, her unhappiness evident on her face. “Don’t touch me.” Was all she said before storming off to the CIC, already starting to think in terms of language.
Hidden 10 yrs ago Post by Queen Raidne
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OOC: You have no idea how much fun this was to write.
~o~0~o~

||Upper Earth Orbit_

"Comrade Commander," the leytenant said. "The Premier wishes to speak with you." The bridge of the Romanova was filled with blinking lights, dials, the green glow of phosphorous radar screens, oscilloscopes, thousands of switches, and wires going everywhere. Beams intersected the space at odd angles, forcing the bridge crew to duck constantly. The rare full-color computer graced the presence of a few stations. Crammed into the space, at the very center, was the pinnacle of Soviet command-and-control technology: a dual-screened, two-planar live-updating display of local space around the Romanova. Radar, visual feeds, and magnetoferrous sensors all integrated their data into this display. The miniature Romanova was marked with LED's, indicating the readiness and damage levels of various systems. In a suspiciously neat and tidy corner of the bridge, a circular two-way viewscreen the size of a small television had activated, broadcasting the ailing face of Premier Romanov. It was to this screen that Kapitan Venera Romanova walked to.

"Ah, Comrade Commander," the Premier said. "It is good to see you again. How fitting that as one Romanov lies ill, another spreads peace and love to the stars!" Lying ill was certainly correct. Rumor had it that although Romanov had personally written a letter recommending an illustrious commander (the very same that was instrumental in winning the Third Great War) to succeed him, an upstart general by the name of Krukov was edging his way toward the position. Venera couldn't help but be concerned for her position should either manage to become Premier. Especially Krukov. Something bothered her about him and his close ally, Cherdenko.

"This is your five-year mission: Explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and introduce them to the communist ideals of peace and love!" Romanov paused, somehow still managing to pose dramatically even while in bed. "Comrade Kapitan," he said, sitting up, speaking more quietly. "Who knows what the Soviet Union will have achieved when you get back. I expect great things from you. Good luck."

The transmission ended before a fit of coughing began. Venera reflected on the Premier's words with relief. Despite her distant relation to Romanov, he was still taking care of his own. Five years would be enough time for the political situation to resolve itself, and when she came back as a hero to the Soviet people, her position would remain secured. All she had to do was become a hero to the Soviet people. She grabbed the ship-wide.

"This is Commander Romanova. The Premier himself has just wished us luck on our journey." She paused for cheers around the ship. "Comrade Zelinsky, please set the chronosphere for extrasolar orbit."

Several hundred meters away, in the engineering spaces, Dr. Gregor Zelinsky began the process of setting the chronosphere's coordinates, flipping switches and punching numbers into keypads. The chronosphere was captured technology from the Allied forces of the Third Great War. While Gregor was the expert on the technology, even he wasn't sure how the device actually worked. As nearly as he could tell, it created a bore-hole through space, enveloping the target and dumping it out the other side. Even if the Allied schematics weren't precisely clear or helpful, the basic operation of the device was simple - just enter the range and bearing of your target, and again for where you want your target to go. "The chronosphere is set for extrasolar orbit," Zelinsky said to his viewscreen.

"D'vai!" Kapitan Venera said, ordering the ship to engage.

Despite his certainty, Dr. Zelinsky paused over the large red "Engage" button. This would be the first time the device was ever activated by Soviet hands, and this was on a scale much larger than what the Allies had ever intended. Bracing himself, he pushed it.

The chronosphere activated much in the way Einstein and Tesla had designed it to: using a massive amount of energy, the device created the mass-equivalent of a black hole. Then the device ripped a small hole in space-time at the origin, curved the rip around the not-black hole, and flung it to its distant target. The space-time distortion around the not-black hole was such that to any and all outside observers, the entire process took a femtosecond. Therein lay the genius of the device: while creating the mass equivalent of a black hole for any length of time was impossible, creating one that lasted for a femtosecond was feasible.

Einstein, however, had modified his plans for the device when he realized that Soviet victory was inevitable. His sabotage locked out any possibility of temporal-displacement, and prevented the device from being used on anything other than itself. Dr. Zelinsky, clueless, had targeted the origin on the mass-center of the Romanova, not the chronosphere. That is why, an instant later, the N1-B Romanova reappeared in another universe entirely.

||Tatooine Orbit_

A spherical cage of blue-white energy tore its way into existence, neatly deposited the Romanova, and disappeared. There would have been spectacular sound effects, if this wasn't space. Immediate warning klaxons sounded all over the ship. The XO, Kapitan Yevgeniy Utkin, ran off to obtain damage reports.

"Put Zelinsky on screen," Venera ordered.
"Comrade Commander!" Dr. Zelinsky shouted into the engineering viewscreen. Sparks flew in the background as an engineering spaceman ran for a fire extinguisher.
"Dr. Zelinsky, where are we? What happened?"
"We appear to have travelled much farther than intended-"
"Good! Clearly our superior Soviet engineering has improved the second-rate Allied technology!"
"Yes, yes, but we've gone beyond known space. There are no familiar constellations here, anywhere!" An enormous fuse exploded in the background. Another spaceman ran to extinguish yet more fires with a fire extinguisher.
"Then reset the chronosphere. Take us back!"
"No! No! We cannot do that until we have determined what went wrong! The instabilities in the space-time could cause a chrono vortex, ripping apart anything in its path!"

Yevgeniy returned, giving Venera a crisp salute. "Comrade Commander, damage control teams report structural damage in the ionizeable materials pipes. We've cut power to the primary tesla coil, however-" A distant thud marked the sudden tear of a hole in the side of the ship, which began venting unionized plasma gas. "...the ducts are expected to burst from the buildup of pressure." A spaceman handed Kapitan Utkin a clipboard. "According to new reports, the unionized plasma has severely burned and melted the force field generator. Repairs could take a while."

"See to it that they're completed quickly! We cannot remain defenseless!" Venera turned back to the Leytenant managing the viewscreen. "Leytenant, inform Kapitan-leytenant Volkov that he is to take a flak of Cosmonauts on a recon mission around the hull. Report all potential hostiles as well as external damage."
"Da, Comrade Commander," the Leytenant said.
"Radar contacts! Bearing 090, 173, 251, close range!"
"Incoming radio traffic!"
"On bridge speaker." A curious mix of what sounded like Greek played over the speaker. It was followed by another transmission, this time in some form of Arabic, probably. Venera weighed her options. On the one hand, she still had sublight drives, missiles, and sentry autocannons. On the other, intelligent aliens would likely have more, and be equipped to help. Damn it all.
"Broadcast a class 3 pre-recorded distress signal," she ordered. They were in over their heads. "You there, spaceman!" she pointed to a random spaceman.
"Da!" he said standing upright from his console and giving a crisp salute.
"Find someone who knows Greek and someone who knows Arabic. Get them to report to the bridge immediately."
"Da, Comrade Commander!" the spaceman said, before disappearing down the hatch.

||Exterior, CCCP N1-B Romanova_

"Flak One, away! We shall flak them up!" Leytenant-kapitan Volkov shoved off from the airlock. He was followed by a flak of 75 Cosmonauts. "Maneuvering thrusters, engage!"

Cosmonauts, strapped into maneuvering packs, armed with laser rifles, spread out in a small cloud around the ship. Directed maser transmissions guided the flak into a neat formation around the ship, studiously keeping away from the highly-radioactive fission fragment rockets. The suits were, of course, rated to withstand such radiation, but even Volkov wasn't that crazy. The scene was strange. Several large alien vessels hovered nearby. Two of them had fighter wings spread out in defensive formations. The planet below was entirely desert, and Volkov could just make out small glints of distant spacecraft travelling to and from the planet.

The fighters concerned him marginally. "Flak One, initiate maneuver patter alpha." The pattern was modeled after the flight patterns of gnats on a warm summer day - constant, seemingly random movement within a general cloud.
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((Sorry Raidne, it was quite long and I needed the Commander for Echo :P))
BS-14 Battlestar Columbia

Things had picked up on the CIC as one of the other DRADIS contacts launched some form of fighter escort, nothing near the number of Vipers they had available however it was still something to be concerned about. Lorne looked over as people busied themselves around the comm station. “Status?””Sir, we’ve got two incoming messages from two of the unknowns bearing 234 carom 428 and bearing 379 bearing 221. One of them appears to be in an older dialect of Tauron while we’re still having trouble hearing the other language.””Have someone from Tauron report to CIC and translate the message as best they can, put the unknown language on speaker. See if we can’t make some sense of it.”

A communication came on over the speakers filling the CIC, he looked at Phillips. It was distorted heavily obviously due to the difference in communication tech however there was an underlying pattern to it. “Tactical, clear up that communication. Get rid of the voice.””Sir.” It took several minutes until both a Tauron speaker came into CIC offering a salute as the message came back over the speakers, without the voice. He turned to Phillips. “Take charge of responding to the ship speaking in Tauron.””Aye sir.” He himself listened to the broadcast. There was a definite pattern to it. “Launch the SAR bird, give it an escort of two Vipers. Tell them to approach the ship and leave it 100m away from the vessel. Beacon light contact, have the Raptor take a surveillance packet.””Aye sir.” He clasped two hands onto his table as he listened to the pilots over the speaker.
“This is Raptor 279er we’re away.””Copy that 279er, good luck out there Hotshot.” The Raptor pulled away, as two DRADIS contacts approached to escort them out. A female voice crackled over the speakers. “Hotshot, this is Red. Me and Bonzo have your back.””Copy that Red, its nice to have you join the party.””Roger that. Standard wedge formation.””Yes sir.” He turned around, back to face his ECO. A young female lieutenant who had replaced his last ECO on the last resupply run after his was killed in a battle against the cylons.

“What’re you picking up?””A lot of strange looking ships. I don’t think its a fleet the ships deviate too much, most of them are cutting a path around the Columbia. The one we’re heading towards appears to be an old looking rocket.””All right, picking up anything?””Its venting something into space, its engines are emitting radiation so are obviously nuclear.””Copy that. Red, Bonzo. Hold back we’re going to try contact by signal light, wait. Are those, people floating outside the hull?”
Lorne checked the screens as photos came in. “By the Gods-” He managed to catch himself before he went on any further. “Communications, inform Hotshot to identify ourselves via signal light, request ident and then offer assistance if necessary.””Copy that sir.” He listened as his orders were relayed and continued to look at the images up on the screen as they came in, images of the different ships however he kept bringing himself back to the one where people were streaming around the rocket, like fighters. That was definitely something new.
Hotshot turned as Echo spoke. “Columbia wants us to inform them who we are before asking for ident and then offering assistance via signal light.””Copy that Echo, using the signal light.” He flicked several switches making sure weapons weren’t armed as he switched over to signal light, flashing it in succession to relay the message, which only took a couple of minutes. Once the message was sent he paused for two minutes before repeating it.

He did this a couple of times before simply sitting looking at the men hovering outside of the ship. “Lets hope they understood that.”

||N1-B Romanova_

Leytenant-kapitan Volkov soon settled into the familiar routine, drilled into him so many times that it was instinctive. His mind wandered. He was bored but had to stay alert. One wrong maneuver and he’d crash into another member of his flak. Then someone else would crash into them, and one horrible chain reaction later…. Volkov smiled at the familiar memories of training, of the first time they’d ever attempted this.

“Unidentified craft approaching, two darts and a box,” came the maser. Volkov relayed the maser to the next cosmonaut in the chain and to the Romanova itself. Orders came back on his next pass near the airlock: “Weapons hold; attempt communications.” For once, the familiar routine wouldn’t last for the dull hours of drilling or watch.

As the three craft approached, the flight patterns of the flak altered. Fewer Cosmonauts spent time on the far side of the hull, more spent time close to the alien ships. On one of his passes, Volkov noticed the Romanova’s auto sentry cannons swivelling to train themselves on the alien ships. The commander may have ordered a weapons hold, but that didn’t mean that they should show themselves as weak. Volkov rounded the monolithic primary tesla coil and masered new orders: “Aim at nearby darts and box, weapons hold.” As the orders propogated from cosmonaut to cosmonaut, the flak gradually assumed a new formation. Now, as cosmonauts streamed passed the Vipers and the Raptor, their laser rifles were aimed at the ships.

A maser came to Volkov: “Box is broadcasting signal lamp.” Volkov absorbed this information. They weren’t attacking, which was almost disappointing. But Volkov didn’t have a signal lamp. An idea occurred to him. He spent most of his flight pattern facing the target designated “Box”, watching the pattern of flashes. It repeated after a few minutes, and he was certain that he’d gotten it right.
Leytenant-kapitan Volkov gave the flak new orders: “Commence rapid 5-second maneuvers. Formations as follows: shield, eye, shield, pattern alpha, shield, shield…” and continued on, repeating the pattern of flashes that Box had given them. He then went on to the standard Soviet signal light alphabet, and attempted to convey “ROMANOVA REQUEST HELP PLASMA LEAK”. After repeating that twice, Volkov proceeded to do the craziest thing he’d ever done. He stopped all his relative motion, directly in front of Box. He waited a few moments to make sure that they saw him, and then chucked his laser rifle into space.

He made a beckoning motion to Box and then jetted toward the Romanova’s large unionized plasma leak. They had to understand that.

BSG-14 Battlestar Columbia

“Columbia, Hotshot. They’re performing some kind of… synchronized formation. They appear to acknowledge us. There appears to be some kind of leak on the outer edge of their hull, they appear to need help fixing it. Please advise.” Lorne looked at the table as the message crackled through the speakers. “Launch a Raptor with DC teams 3-4 in EVA gear. Have them go seal the breach and then report back.” He looked back to the rest of the room.

“All engines full stop. Turn us about, port facing the ship where our people will be working.””Full stop, aye sir.” The ship began to turn slowly in space, furthest away from the planet now its port side facing the planet. A great big lumbering beast, lying in weight. “Have Hotshot declare that we’re sending over teams to try and close the breaches along their hull. Launch the rest of Blue Squadron and have them escort the Raptors over there. Any sign of hostile intent and they’re to get the engineers back here and open fire.””Aye sir.””Tactical, keep me apprised.”
Hotshot finished relaying the message as the other Raptors arrived, Blue Squadron held position behind the Raptors as the Raptor doors opened and the DC teams came out, sporting welding gear between them and small maneuvering packs. They waited, while they had a Viper Squadron sitting waiting behind them they didn’t want to be the ones to just fly up to possible hostiles who were all holding weapons. They waited for a signal that they were free to move forward.

---
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Space, the "Final Frontier"; What a joke. The Kin had proven that to be false. They had never imagined they would find an opponent more implacable than the Borg, none more insidious than the Romulans or more powerful than the Olympians of Pollux IV.. They had come with glad tidings and promises of benevolent intent. The first clue had been when they encountered a Federation vessel confirmed destroyed three years prior, those aboard having no clue how they had survived. They'd simply ignored that clue and other signs. To explain away the returned ship they had clung to the idea of providence, temporal and spatial anomalies or Q-like intervention. How wrong they'd been. Then the president of the Federation himself began declaring a repurposing, a new focus on militaristic build-up to help our newfound friends and "kin" from their enemies, an enemy they claimed was much worse than the Borg. They'd lost the war without a single photon torpedo being fired.

Admiral Clancy dwelled upon this. All this and more. At least- At least in the end he had done something. He was not indolent nor craven. He had set events into motion, provided a slim chance, a desperate gamble. He'd been prepared for the price, steeled himself against the inevitable. They were coming, the Kith were taking the entire building that his residence resided within. He caressed the a hard covered book, "The Hero of Scotland", by Walter Scott and was reminded of William Wallace who had given over everything to his cause and died for his beliefs.

He couldn't let the Kith take him. They would tear apart his mind, steal the truth from his very neurons and punish his people as a result. No, in order for his government to disavow his actions he had to act. He lifted his phaser, planted it against his chest and fired, dissolving into a glowing plasmic blob of unbound molecules and then into nothing.
The U.S.S. Jonathon Archer floated inside a steel cavern the likes of which she'd never seen. It wasn't just voluminous. A Federation space dock was that. This was immense. The Archer was also just one of a hundred vessels, a motley collection of Klingon, Romulan, Federation, Gorn, Orion and all manner of vessels from every corner of the conquered Alpha Quadrant. Even the Dominion had been brought to heel despite the Gem'Hadar's attempts to blockade the wormhole. They had all fallen before the forces of the Tower.

"Easy now," Captain Eustace Harcourt ordered, "We're drifting. Maneuvering Thrusters to station keeping,"

"Two minutes to the recursive shift," the ops officer added as the navigations officer made the requested changes.

Only two minutes, two minutes until all hell broke loose and the Tower, like a firecracker would explode outwards with the force of what must have been dozens of fleets.

The Archer was a Nebula class frigate, a multi-role vessel only slightly smaller than the great Galaxy class explorer. Reminiscent of the Miranda class vessel that preceded it the Archer was more compact, almost squat, the engine nacelles hunkered down beneath the ship's saucer section and flanking the engineering section. What truly set her apart, however, was the support struts that supported a modular system capable of mounting additional weapons, more powerful sensors, cargo or in the Archer's case a legion of Star Fleet marines, their weapons, support vehicles and various equipment. She was a beautiful vessel, made more interesting by the simple fact that "U.S.S. Yorktown" was blazed upon the saucer section.

"Sir," the ops officer stated, "I'm getting a transmission from the Farragut. They're hailing the Yorktown."

"Which," Captain Harcourt mused, "is unfortunate since the real Yorktown is probably just getting underway after we disabled her engines and comm systems."

That had been two days ago. They had taken the Yorktown unawares upon the order of Admiral Clancy, taken it's place and name in the attack on the next recursion. Considering Admiral Clancy's part in the affair it had been nearly impossible for Captain Harcourt to refuse. They'd taken out the Yorktown's communications, then engines and assumed it's place and now that ruse was due to be discovered by a simple captain wanting to make small talk in dawn before the storm.

"Prefix code for the Farragut. Prepare to order her console to target torpedoes and phasers on allied vessels, engines and weapons systems only." Harcourt ordered, presenting two fingers from his fist, “On this signal.”

The bridge was uncharacteristically silent, as if those aboard were too frightened to breath. He’d have preferred a simple lie. Something about him being in the ready room or otherwise unavailable but what captain would step out to the head at such a moment? An entire minute passed, the captain silently counting the seconds. This was going to be difficult. He’d hoped to be clear of the Tower before anyone had realized what was happening.

“Thirty seconds to recursion,” the Ops officer informed him.

“Accept transmission.”

The viewscreen ahead resolved into the image of another captain, an Andorian with blue skin, white hair and two small antennae atop his head. His face beheld open astonishment for he had been expecting to see the captain of the Yorktown, presumably a long time friend. Instead he got Harcourt.

“What is going on here? Where is Captain Arneson?”

“I’m sorry. Captain Arneson is unable to come to the bridge at the moment. I would ask you to keep quiet about what you’ve discovered but believe me, the Kin wouldn’t understand. I apologize for this Captain.”

A moment’s thought and the Andorian captain turned towards his crew, already giving an order to protect his ship.

“Shields!”

Harcourt smiled, two fingers unfurling even as the captain called for his defenses to be brought up.

“Truly captain. I’m saving your life and the lives of your crew.”

Harcourt watched as one of the Andorian Captain’s tactical officer’s eyes suddenly opened wide. Her fingers danced across the arching terminal before her and confirmed what she was bearing witness to. It wasn’t possible. I simply couldn’t be.

“Sir! We are locking phasers and torpedoes on friendly vessels!” she called out at nearly the same moment as the Archer’s Ops officer called out, “Recursion!”

Then everything went to hell. The Farragut, one of the older Excelsior class vessels, commissioned a half century prior, didn't possess the power of the newer vessels but that was in their favour. They were looking for a distraction, not to eliminate their own comrades. That was going to be the most difficult part of this, the Kin didn't fight their own battles. They forced others to do so for them. Every blow against their empire was a blow against the innocents they oppressed.

Phasers and torpedoes lit the cavernous hangar even as the tremendous hatchway opened onto a brave new galaxy. They energy striking several other ships. Shields flared and, since the attacks were distributed amongst several ships, they absorbed nearly all of the assault. The radio chatter, however, was what Captain Harcourt was waiting for. Every captain was suddenly wheeling, delivering orders to trace the source of the assault or demanding answers of the Farragut. Communications were effectively jammed and Harcourt decided to see to it that they remained so.

"Release communications buoy," he ordered, listening to the Andorian captain attempting to shout over the numerous inquiries that it wasn't his fault, "Do not launch. Fill it with random noise from the music archives and take us out at maximum maneuvering thrusters until we're clear of the fray and then go to half impulse. This won't fool them for long."

The Archer moved outwards at speed, clearing the hangar. Already there was battle brewing. The first ships out of the tower firing upon the defense satellites and ships defending the iron clad world below. As they began to turn away from that world Harcourt bore witness to a vessel in the form of a bird of prey, its lines more harsh and angular than a Romulan’s. It fired, shuddering as the mass driver that was nearly the entire length of the ship launched a solid slug the size of a coffin with enough speed to flatten a small town which struck the defense satellite and reduced it nothing more than twisted scraps of metal. Another ship, what was called a Star Destroyer was firing upon its likeness and yet another, one reading USAF Prometheus was launching small craft with forward swept wings. There were so many different and interesting starships in every imaginable shape from pyramids to spheres and everything between.

“Sir,” the Tactical officer stated, “I am receiving communications. It is the Kith sir. They are demanding all ships fire upon this vessel with orders to pursue.”

“That’s it everyone. The ruse is over. Full impulse. Let’s get clear of this gravity well.”

The ship was rocked, energy beams and ballistic projectiles peppering the shields as it danced away. A dozen ships were in pursuit, some faster than others. Captain Harcourt called for evasive maneuvers but the more one evaded, the slower one was to escape. It was a delicate balance. The shields were going down fast, unable to deal with the pelting the pursuing ships were handing out. The fighters weren’t much of a concern against the starship’s shields but the other capitol ships were eating away at the structural integrity of the energy screens rapidly.

“We’re almost free and clear,” Harcourt stated, “Prepare the main deflect-“

The front half of the bridge sheared away and Captain Harcourt peered out into empty space. There was a rush of air, a snap of cold like someone stepping into a freezer for but a moment, and he was propelled off his feet, across the bridge and out into the vestiges of empty space. Tumbling erratically he looked upon his vessel, noting that it was odd, as if it were spinning around him instead of it being him that was spinning. Idly he noted he was not alone. Two or three other crewmen had been ejected along with him.

Then came the pain. His blood began to boil, began seeping from his tear ducts and occluded his vision. The shock incurred by suddenly finding himself overboard had caused his to forget what he was facing. Luckily, he remembered, it would be quick. Bubbles in his blood were probably already heading towards his brain.

He was blacking out when he saw the hyperspace corridor open and his starship escape into it. It was a phenomenon they’d used sensors upon and managed to simulate after much testing. It had worked exactly as it was supposed to. He had that much at least. He’d succeeded in seeing his ship safe. It would be up to others to see the mission to its conclusion.
The Archer arrived in an outer orbit over Tatooine. It was almost derelict, a miracle that it had even managed to arrive at all. It tumbled aimlessly. Power was so low that self-repair systems were non-functional. Plasma leaked out of multiple scorched breeches in the hull and electricity arced across the ship’s surface. Inside crewmen and women struggled to even get from one portion of the ship to another.
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S’jet Exploration Carrier Tor-Selim

Ariel Manaan was in her element. The situation was chaotic, the ship was somewhere completely unknown, and they were surrounded by people on strange ships never before seen by Hiigaran eyes. Before this, she had almost been getting bored of her assignment. Idling in front of a Hyperspace gate for weeks was not her idea of fun, though apparently the scientists enjoyed it. This though, this was everything she had hoped for on an exploration mission. Aliens that were not enemies of Hiigara. That she could turn into allies.

They had not yet received a response from the ships that had sent a signal, but that was a blessing anyway, as it gave them time to work out a translation program. The silence was hardly boring for her though, as the beginning of another exchange seemed to be going on between the signalling ship and another, spire like vessel. No signals were being sent that they could intercept, but the lack of shooting or offensive manoeuvres was quite telling.

As she watched, the many small contacts around the spire-ship seemed to suddenly take on a completely different motion, no longer moving randomly, but moving in careful and precise formation. She only saw the beginnings of the shape before she was interrupted by Kira’s voice, which had taken on a tone that oozed condescension and impatience. “I’ve finished your translator Captain. Can I go and do some real work now?” The question was asked sarcastically of course, and she was already descending the stairwell to the CIC at the back of the bridge. “Thank you Kira.” Saalen replied, evidently making an effort to keep his voice level. Ariel had to stop herself from smiling at the whole exchange. Kira’s self-righteous and superior behaviour always seemed ridiculous and amusing to her. The captain probably wouldn’t appreciate her bursting out laughing though, given he was usually on the receiving end.

Just as she looked back to the hologlobe, however, another signal came through, immediately being relayed over the bridges speakers.
BS-14 Battlestar Columbia

Phillips turned quickly to glance as Lorne took charge of the SAR op, whatever going on it was probably a hellova more interesting that he was doing, but he’d do his job. Just as he was about to ask where the Tauron was an Ensign came into the CIC to the comm station and offered a salute. “Ensign Dunny reporting for duty.””All right son.” He handed over a headset that was connected to the comms system. “This message has played a couple of times from one of those unidentified ships out there. It bears resemblance to Caprican and the older Tauron Dialect, we need you to translate it.””Yessir.”

Phillips watched as the Ensigns face screwed up slightly obviously trying to understand what was being said. He watched as the tape finished playing and gave him a second to process it. “Well, what does it say?””They’re something called… Hiigarans and they called their ship the Tor-Selim. They say they’re explorers and something about peace.””Well thats a lot of fraking good, what are Hiigarans? What does Tor-Selim mean?””I don’t know sir, they don’t translate.””All right, send the following message. We are the Battlestar Columbia of the Colonial fleet. We will not fire unless fired upon however we do request our present coordinates as we appear to have jumped into uncharted space. Message ends.” The ensign nodded and then relayed the message. He waited listening to the faint static on his headset waiting for the response.
S’jet Exploration Carrier Tor-Selim

The message coming over the speakers held in a few places as the translation software worked, but it wasn’t long before Kira S’jets genius was once again proved. Once translated it told Ariel a number of things. These strangers evidently weren’t from this sector of space either, and their ship class was ‘battlestar.’ Ariel had never heard of it before, but if it was some kind of combat capable mothership, they definitely wanted it to remain friendly. The message sounded like it came from a military man, but it also sounded like they were open to peace. That was good.

Ariel continued watching the situation around the spire ship develop as she thought it was interesting, and she admired the skill of the spires pilots. A sudden, terrifying thought occurred to her. What if they were Khadeshi? no, that was ridiculous. If they were, the Tor-Selim would probably already be so much space dust, and despite the slight similarity in some areas, there were too many differences for it to be likely. Shaking that disturbing line of thought, she looked over at the comms officer to begin another transmission. When he indicated readiness, she began to speak, hoping that the translation program would not distort her message. “Battlestar Columbia, this is Hiigaran exploration carrier Tor-Selim. We appear to be just as foreign to this space as you, and cannot provide coordinates or charts. We intend no hostilities to anyone, and would prefer peaceful collaboration to combat.” With the message away, she looked back at the holo globe and awaited a response.
BS-14 Battlestar Columbia

“Sir, incoming transmission.” He listened to it as it came through, and was surprised when it came through in pure Caprican. He nodded at the Ensign. “Return to your post.” The man saluted- “Sir.” before walking out of CIC. Phillips took off his headset and handed it back to the officer before walking back to the main central station in the CIC opposite the commander. “Sir, the first vessel to contact us is now transmitting in Caprican. They must either have found a way to translate it. They say they’re strangers here too.”

Lorne noticed that Phillips didn’t mention it, either these guys were playing them or they had some serious computer tech on board, he didn’t like where that could go with the possibility of the Cylons. However the voice while slightly distorted had still sounded human, or at least humanoid in nature. The Cylons themselves looked like walking chrome toasters and sounded nothing like a real person. He picked up the headset before speaking. “Put me through.””Aye sir.” The Comm officer flicked the relevant switches as he attached the line between the commanders phone piece and the transmitter. “You’re on sir.”

“This is Commander Tyrell Lorne of the Battlestar Columbia. I would like you to inform me how your ship ended up here and whatever it did that brought my ship here. This ship should be engaged in a crucial battle against hostile forces however instead I am currently stuck here trying to fix hull breaches and my FTL engine. If this is some kind of Cylon trap spare me the monologue and get it over with.”
S’jet Exploration Carrier Tor-Selim

The response that came through was not quite what Ariel had hoped for. The man in charge of this ship, as she assumed the man calling himself commander was, was quite blunt and seemed to be expecting some kind of trap. Accusing the Tor-Selim of bringing them all through was not a particularly diplomatic move either, but she wouldn’t allow herself to be insulted by it. In the background she heard Captain Saalen co-ordinating damage control, and in particular noticed when reports that the corvette launch bay was cleared and ready. Unfortunately they didn’t have the secondary manufacturing facilities online yet though, which meant she couldn’t conduct this negotiation from a diplomatic corvette. Still, a pulsar corvette might suffice. “Keep me connected.” She said as she walked off the bridge and started heading for the hangar.

“Commander Tyrell Lorne” She began as she walked. “We did not cause whatever event has placed our ships where they are. Our ship and its escorts were studying a Hyperspace gate not linked to the Eye of Aarran when we were pulled into Hyperspace. The drive was deactivated by the local gravity well and our ship sustained damage to a number of systems. I assure you if this is a trap, we did not set it. We don’t even know what a Cylon is. As a gesture of good faith, I am willing to board your ship via a Corvette and negotiate face to face.”
BS-14 Battlestar Columbia

He didn’t like the idea of bringing people on his ship. Though in the situation, it was probably the only way that he could stall long enough to get the FTL engines online. He put down the mouth piece. “XO.””Sir””Send two squads of marines down to the port hanger deck. Have the bow section cleared of crew and have the Marines ready and waiting.””Yes sir.””Once that is done, take charge of the operations repairing the vessel that released the distress call.””Yes sir.””You have the con.” He picked up the comm piece and spoke into it. “I’ll send a flight wing over to escort you into the hanger. Manual landings only, the pad for you to land on will be lit up and you will then be lowered onto the hanger deck. Any hostile actions and you’ll be fired upon.” With that he put down the speaker piece and left the CIC.

Once he left two marines turned to tail him, as they always did tailing him everywhere. He moved to the cart that would move him from one part of the gigantic ship to another and stepped on it. The wind blowing right into his face as he stood on the platform. This was a hell of a fraking day, find themselves above an uncharted planet with uncharted ships and someone starts spouting about hyperspace gates? The first thing he did when he stepped off was move to the nearest phone, connecting himself to engineering. “This is the Commander, what is the status on the FTL drive.””We’ve managed to seal the leak sir, however we still need to re-pressurize the system. It shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes.””You’ve got ten.””Yes sir.” He threw the phone back on the hook and continued.

First bit of good news all day.
“This is Turbo, acknowledge orders. Fly to nearby ship and escort envoy. Red wing, you’re on me.” A group of five Vipers turned sharply off heading towards the ship where the envoy was supposedly coming from, as they approached they stopped without getting too close. There was no telling how these guys would react to a low pass over the hull or even circling them. So instead they just hovered in space.

“Tor-Selim this is Captain Anders, Callsign Turbo. I’m here to escort your envoy over to the Columbia. How copy?”
S’jet Exploration Carrier Tor-Selim

The commander of this ship certainly liked to threaten firing on people. Ariel thought as she acknowledged the response. She was just approaching the pulsar corvette when Saalen’s voice came over the comm. “The Hyperspace Core is online. We need only recall the fighters and we can leave, find somewhere with resources we can use to repair the worst of damage. Are you still sure you want to go through with this?” She could understand the desire to take the ship away from potential threats, but it was also her job to make threats into assets. She still held out hope for this ‘Battlestar.’ “Yes Captain I’m sure. I believe we’d be better off finding out what happened with allies rather than alone.” As the airlock to the corvettes interior opened she noticed the angular, utilitarian form of Hiigaran powered armour already within, and a weathered, dark skinned face staring down at her from under the helmets visor. The captain's voice came through again in response. “Alright, but I’m sending Jakuur with you. He’ll keep you safe.” A weary smile crept onto her face as she replied. The Captain certainly cared for his crew. “Yes, they’re already here.” She stepped into the vessels cramped interior and made her way to the front of the vessel, climbing into the form fitting pilots chair.

Once the ship was ready, it was detached from the massive cradle apparatus that held it in place in the hangar and transferred to the cavernous space of the carriers central bay. Ariel could see numerous spots on the roof of the bay where crews of men and women in eva suits were pulling away bent and broken material, and many more areas that had yet to feel the ministrations of the damage control teams. It was a very direct reminder of the damage the manufacturing facilities had taken, and she hated to see such a vital part of her ship in such a state. As quickly as she had noticed it however, her ship was whisked away to the corvette launch bay. She activated the engines and let the automated launch control guide the ship down the narrow, brightly lit corridor, taking control only as the ship cleared the bay edges. It was good to fly again, it had been too long.

Outside the ship, a respectful distance away, the promised escort was waiting. Ariel approached the ships, taking note of their design. They were diminutive vessels, smaller even than a Vaygr scout craft, but Ariel knew that that generally meant a ship was manoeuvrable. “This is Commander Ariel Manaan, callsign Diirvaas One. Acknowledging escort. Lead the way Turbo.”
BS-14 Battlestar Columbia

“Well, that’s interesting.””What were your orders Turbo? I didn’t catch that.””Fall in behind and stick with your wing, I’ll lead the way.” He pulled on the stick, performing a 180 spin till he was facing completely the other way in a couple of seconds before kicking in the main engines however he kept the power low, having no idea how fast the larger ship was. He always thought a Raptor was a school bus but this was even bigger, and it had a great big cannon on the top. “Columbia this is Turbo. Just to give you a forewarning this ride has what appears to be a large cannon atop of it. Its also a fat ass bird, however so far it hasn’t made any threatening moves. Please advise.””Copy that Turbo, continue on your current heading. We’ll have heavy weapons shipped down to the marines in the hanger bay.”Affirmative.”

“Diirvaas one. Follow us in, we’ll lead you in.” They were half way back when a green window opened in space, out of nowhere. “Break, Break Break!” He pulled up on the Yoke and kicked in the engines as he did a quick flip and then flew back over the more sluggish ship from the alien vessel. DRADIS beeped, indicating a new contact. He had long ago adjusted the settings due to the amount of traffic so that meant that this was close. “New Contact, bearing 451 carom 129. Right behind us where the window was.” He flipped his nose again only to see what was barely left off a ship falling through space, venting atmosphere as lights flickered and he saw a couple of bodies fall out into space. “Columbia, this is Turbo. New contact is heavily damaged, please advise.””Bring your contact in, then we’ll sort out this new problem. We’re stretching ourselves thin as it is. We’ll sort out this new problem soon.” Turbo continued on the heading he was on before as he looked at what could only be described as a derelict. Gods be with them. was the only thing he could think as he looked at the chaos of the broken ship. He pulled back into formation as the approached the landing bay.

“Viper wing, I have you on scope. You have priority clearance to bring our guest in.””Copy that Columbia.” He turned his head to barely see the ship he was escorting. “Diirvaas one. Manual landings only, we’re going to pass through the bay and rejoin the CAP. When we pass underneath slow and use maneuvering thrusters to land in the central strip. You’ll need EVA suits to pass through unless your Airlock is compatible with ours. The commander will meet you up there.” This of course had all already been relayed to the Commander who was standing waiting at the other side of the airlock.
S’jet Exploration Carrier Tor-Selim

Things seemed to be going well for her mission until some kind of Hyperspace portal opened right on top of them. Despite its size, the Corvette she was piloting was remarkably manoeuvrable, not quite as nimble as the smaller craft of her escort, but enough to pull away and avoid damage. The ship that came through was in bad shape, trailing atmosphere and debris. Ariels first instinct was to help, but that would all be up to Captain Saalen now. She simply kept following the escort, doing her best to shut the plight of the crippled ship out of her mind.

“Acknowledged Turbo. It’s been a pleasure.” She said in reply to his approach instructions. It was unusual to have to land manually, Hiigaran ship all used automatic docking control on the final approach except when damage prevented it. Still, Ariel had trained for it, even if it wasn’t standard practice. When her escort passed by, she followed them in, keeping the ships speed at a minimum. The bay of the alien ship was cavernous, even more so than that of the Tor-Selim, and from its profile it seemed to have two of them. That certainly explained the enormous fighter compliment it had launched, a formation to rival any Vaygr strike force. She deployed the Corvettes planetary landing gear, something not used in Hiigaran hangars where the berths held ships perfectly. She came down as slowly as she could, having shut off the primary engines in case the superhot plasma they spewed out damage the deck of their gracious hosts. A loud thud marked contact with the hangar deck, the ships stabilisers only barely compensating as flight systems shut down and the ship settled. As the airlock settled against the flat surface of the corvette, Ariel climbed out of the pilots chair and made her way to the airlock. With luck, this was the beginning of a wonderful new alliance for the Hiigaran people.
Hidden 10 yrs ago Post by mattmanganon
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Imperium space:

"Incoming Vox... Priority secundis." said one of the Vox-controllers on the bridge. Admiral Lafray swiveled around in his chair and nodded.

"Priority wide-band Vox, attention to all vessels in the area, this is Escort Ultria we have come under attack from Chaos forces and require reinforcements." the voice said. The admiral pressed a button on the side of his seat. "All hands, prepare for battle. We are answering a distress call from a vessel under attack." he said, then pointed to one of the other control crew "Prepare for Warp travel." he said. The bridge exploded in activity, vox-chatter being heard over the noise of buttons and orders being passed down. A door opened at the back, and out of it stepped the Inquisitor, Viqtor Remly, and Aminah.

"Admiral, I told you to hold position here whilst the sensors sweep the sector for reported Thousand Son activity." The admiral looked up at the Inquisitor.

"My Lord, when I accepted this assignment, I did so under the condition that, when it comes to this vessel, I was in command."

"That does not give you the right to overturn the Inquisitors order." replied Aminah.

"I would never dream of overturning your order, My Lord. I was merely following up on those orders, the assailants are Chaos, they may be the Thousand Sons that we have been looking for." The Admiral and Inquisitor stared each other in the eye, before finally, the Inquisitor simply looked out the front viewscreen.

"Very well then." As he looked out, the view of the endless blank nothingness that was space shuddered and ripped, before opening to see the chaotic energies of the Warp.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-Down in the Hold-

The familiar sound of thudding as a Terminator walked into the large hold. he was approached by an Iron Priest. "Lord Azuriah..." the Iron Priest said as he looked up at Kurn. The Chapter Master looked back.

"How is he?" he asked. The Iron Priest shook his head, they then walked through to see the large Wraithlord.

"He hasn't said a thing that wasn't an asking for death." Kurn looked at him.

"Leave us." said the Azuriah. The Iron priest nodded before walking away. The Azuriah walked towards the Wraithlord, travelling up the lift to a small crossbar that went in front of its face, the Terminator then sat down and lay his Force-staff in front of him. "Good day, brother." he said.

"B..." the Alien machine moved its head slightly. "Kurn... Have you come to end my suffering?"

"No." Kurn replied, taking a flask of cider from a compartment on his belt. Opening it, he held it up. The machine sniffed.

"Fangberry cider... Just like mother used to brew." it said, Kurn let out a laugh.

"As much as I dispise those witches, I must admit that retaining your senses is amazing..." He took a long drink from it, before belching loudly. "It was mothers. Father sent it to me as a present. I suppose that our belching contests are... no longer possible." The Wraithlord moved violently in its restraints, attempting to break free.

"DO NOT TOY WITH ME!" It yelled, Kurn put the flask down and stared at it.

"I would never toy with you. I however, made a promise, not to allow you to die whilst you were in my care."

"MY VERY EXISTANCE IS HERESY! WHY DO YOU CONTINUE TO ALLOW ME TO LIVE AS A LIE WHEN YOU CAN END MY SUFFERING!!!" Kurn didn't flinch as the alien warmachine attempted to break free.

"You live, because of my Honour. I swore you would not die, by killing you, I would bring great dishonour upon myself, upon you, and upon the entire Imperium."

"HONOUR!?!? YOU HONOUR AN AGREEMENT MADE WITH XENOS FILTH!?!?!" Kurn took another swig of the Cider.

"Because we are better than they are... How can we claim to be the only beings worthy of living in this universe, when we are just as bad as they?" he asked. "I keep my promise, because I am better than them, better than all of them. To kill you would prove that I am no better than those heretical, lying witches." The Wraithlord stopped struggling.

"Or... Is it because you cannot accept the idea of killing your own brother, when he is a loyal son of the Emperor... Is it honour? Or Weakness?" Kurn dropped his head and thought. "

"All hands, prepare for battle. We are answering a distress call from a vessel under attack." the Vox-casters blared. Kurn was up on his feet instantly. "I don't suppose you wish to fight alongside us?"

"The moment I am released is the moment I die." replied the Wraithlord. A few seconds later, the familiar rocking of the ship being enveloped by the Warp. Then the ship began shaking violently. This wasn't unusual... But what was was a sudden whisper throughout the ship.

"So... The Emperors finest answer the call... Amusing..." The voice said. At that point a warpfire appeared in the hold, out of which, stepped a Bloodletter with black and white markings all across his body. However, it was immediately felled by a shot from the Psycannon mounted on Kurns arm. He then grabbed the force staff and vaulted from the scaffolding and running to the Vox point.

"ALL HANDS, CHAOS DAEMONS ARE ABOARD, PREPARE TO REPEL!!!" He roared. All across the ship, the Bloodletters and Imperium forces were engaging. Running into the corridor, Kurn heard a familiar sound, getting louder.

"AND DID THOSE FEET IN ANCIENT TIMES!!! WALK UPON FENRIS' MOUNTAINS WHITE!!!" The unmistakable sound of a Dreadnought singing the praises of the Emperor. Rounding the corner was the large Contemptor, his Corzius drenched in blood. Their eyes met. "HERESY IS ALL AROUND US, APOSTLE!!! WE MUST CLEANSE IT!!!" he then fired his Autocannons wildly down the corridor at an approaching horde of the monsters.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-The Crew Quarters-

Across the Crew Quarters, the Guard and Marines were holding their own against the onslaught, a trio of Guardsman, 2 with Lasguns, the other with a Flamer, were stood as a triangle around a Devastator Marine with a Heavy Bolter and were holding an intersection in the corridor. Flames beating back the onslaught of heretical monsters, lasers beating back the others, and high calibur explosive bolts dealing with the stragglers. As a Champion among them charged down the corridor. The Devastator set his sights on the monster, but was cut off as, without warning, an Ogryn charged out of another corridor and smashed the monster into the wall, the Ogryn grabbed its horns and began pulling, there was a bloodcurdling shriek as the monster was ripped in half, the Ogryn, weilding a pair of modified Krak Missile launchers, set its sights on a bloodcrusher that was charging. a pair of krak missiles flew over the quartets heads and the Bloodcrusher was nothing but a smear of blood and soot.

Although, they were the lucky ones, elsewhere, an Assault Marine fell as his chest was pierced by 5 Bloodletter blades, his chainswords dropping from his hands, The Bloodletters began trying to tear into his armour, but they were shocked to see a pair of women sliding across the floor, sliding beneath the monsters legs to the side of the Marine and each grabbing one of his fallen Chainswords, before standing up. They flourished their blades, an Evicerator in one hand and a Chainsword held, shoto-style in the other. They then charged towards another rabble, leading to an open storage area, where a Soulgrinder had made its way in. They smiled at each other before charging at a group of Furies that were about to swarm them, jumping up, they used the daemons as stepping stones up to the Soul-grinders chest before each imbedding the chainswords in his chest, then swinging around with their Evicerators and decapetating it, showering them in blood, they reveled in it, they were doing The Emperors work and it felt better than any of the depraved acts they had sworn against. They then dropped down as the Furies swung around for another pass, Mary threw her Evicerator to Yoheved and summoned her Psyker powers, a ball of energy appearing in her hand, she then threw her hands out and an arc of lightning flew out, jumping from one of them to the other, frying their little brains, as Yoheved charged a Herald-type creature she had never seen before, jumping, she spun her body around like a hurricane of death.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-The Bridge-

All across the ship, fighting had broken out. "What the hell is happening, where are our Void Shields?" roared Lafrey.

"They are fully operational." replied one of the crewmen. "I can't explain it." outside in the Warp, a bolt of lightning lanced out and struck the ship. Rocking it. "Massive damage to all systems." said the crewman.

"Hmmm..." the voice from nothingness said. "I believe I have another place for you..." Everyone was suddenly thrown against the wall as the ship was sent spinning out of control.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-Several Hours later-

The ship had only been out of control for a few minutes, but it had taken several hours for some sort of order to be restored on the ship. The command staff was gathered in the war room. "I have never seen Bloodletters like these." said Siegfried. "Black and white... The odd thing was that, when they were trapped and unable to get to us, they started killing each other." he said. "I knew that they were chaotic, but this is completely new behavior." He then saw Viqtor and Aminah staring at each other. "Why do I get the feeling that the Inquisition is withholding information in their usual fashion?" he muttered.

"BASTARDS!!!" yelled a voice. "I'LL RIP HIM APART WITH MY BARE FUCKING HANDS!!!" Lemanicus strode into the room. "THAT ENERGY BOLT!!! IT GOT KRAKATOA!!!" Kurn grabbed his shoulders.

"Calm down..." He said. "We know about the Warhound... You've been drinking... Turn your liver back on, we need you sober."

"I DON'T WANT TO BE SOBER!!! I'VE FAILED THE OMNISIAH!!!" Kurn then punched him to the floor, but he was back up quickly.

"Alright..." said Lemanicus. "Where are we?"

"About to re-enter normal space." said Kurn. "But first... Inquisitor." he said, turning to Viqtor. "Tell me everything you know about these bloodletters."

"That is need-to-know." replied Viqtor. Kurn slowly approached him, towering above the Inquisitor.

"I believe we need to know..." he said, slowly. Viqtor looked him up and down.

"Fine... That was Malal..." he said, Aminah tugged his sleeve as though to ask him to stop, but Viqtor brushed her off. "Malal is a Chaos God."

"I've never heard of him." said Lemanicus.

"Of course you haven't... He is one of the more powerful Chaos Gods... The embodiment of Anarchy. A being of such anarchistic intent that he started rebelling against the other Chaos Gods... Our information says that he employs black and white daemons. This would most certainly seem to be his attack. Although, why we didn't destroy us outright is... puzzling." said Viqtor. Suddenly the ship shook as it exited to normal space.

"Lord Wolfstalon, will you please report to the bridge." said the voice of Lafray over the Vox caster. Kurn looked around.

"Lemanicus, damage control, get us working at full power again." he said. "Inquisitor, if you and your men can sweep the ship for anything we might have missed... Your assassins survived, I trust."

"The Temple trains us well." said the voice of the Ophias as he appeared out of no-where. Kurn nodded before heading out.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-The Bridge-

Kurn walked onto the bridge and looked around, it seemed to be mostly undamaged. "What's the status?"

"We've lost the Artillery Lance's and half of our weapon batteries." replied the Admiral. "But... That's not why I called you here." he said. The Galaxy map came up on the large monitor.

"So, where are we?" he asked. The Admiral looked around, looking rather frightened and confused.

"We... Aren't..." he said. "The Cartographers don't recognize any of these stars. The computer can't make heads nor tails of it." Kurn looked at the monitor, then at the large, desert planet bellow.

"Wh..."

"Wherever we were thrown... It wasn't in our galaxy." said the Admiral. Kurn's heart seemed to sink... What the hell were they supposed to do now? If they weren't able to get to their galaxy... What the hell were they going to do? What if they had been thrown to the Tyranids galaxy? What if they were actually in the Eye of Terror? What if...

"Send a distress vox... Accept any and all assistance offered, even if it is Xenos... We need to figure out where the hell we are and how we can get home."

"My Lord, are you sure-"

"We accept assistance from the Eldar when it comes to the Necrons, the Tau when it comes to the Tyranids or Orks, and unless we can find a human ship here, we will have to accept Xenos assistance now." he slowly walked away... He needed guidance...
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hidden 10 yrs ago Post by Maxxorlord
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On the Ark’s Bridge

Ultra Magnus ,” Ratchet practically screamed over the rest of the noise on the bridge, “Contact with the space bridge in two minutes!”

Autobot engineers worked furiously at their consoles coordinating anti-boarding routines with the soldiers, supervising ship repairs, and giving damage reports to Ultra Magnus.”Sir! Deck three is still overrun with Decepticons. Ironhide and his team are trying to hold the line, but they need reinforcements immediately!” “Deck five is secure! The Lightning Strike Coalition Force has finished mopping up!” “Our boys are winning on deck one!” Ultra Magnus took in all the information that was being fed to him and began to process it. Yet, he was distracted. Optimus was still outside, and there were only two minutes left. Ultra Magnus didn’t want to consider the chance of Prime surviving that vortex outside of the ship. With that in mind, Ultra Magnus strode across the bridge towards an open console. He typed in a few commands on the holographic interface before contacting Optimus.”Optimus, this is Ultra Magnus. We’re two minutes away from that vortex. Finish Megatron off and get inside or you’re done for!”

An explosion suddenly rocked the bridge.”What was that?!” Ultra Magnus boomed, turning away from the console towards the engineers and Ratchet.”Someone’s trying to break into the bridge!” One of the engineers yelled back.”Defensive pattern Delta-nine-B!” Ultra Magnus ordered, his left arm transforming into his Path Blaster. He flicked a switch labeled “Gambler” off, before turning the weapon towards the doorway in front of him. The engineers armed themselves with Neutron Assault Rifles and took cover. Ratchet stumbled behind his console and equipped his Energon Battle Pistol.

Only moments after everyone was in position, the door exploded open and a squad of Vehicons charged inside, lasers flying wildly.”Return fire!” Ultra Magnus ordered, ducking out of cover and taking off a Decepticon’s head with one shot. The other Autobots joined in, and a firefight started on the bridge.

On the top of the Ark

“This ends now, Megatron .” Optimus Prime growled, gripping the hilt of his sword with both of his massive hands. Prime brought the blade up over his head, preparing to strike the final blow on Megatron, who was incapacitated on the ground before Optimus.”This ends when I say it ends!” Megatron roars, drawing his own blade and blocking Prime’s attack, before kicking off of Optimus’s legs and rolling into a standing position.”This universe isn’t big enough for the both of us!” Optimus yells, charging Megatron.”You’re a fool if you think you can beat me, data clerk. The two Cybertronians crossed blades for but a moment, before the vortex threw them both off their feet. The sound of metal being torn asunder brought Prime to his senses.”The vortex is tearing this ship apart! We must-“Optimus was interrupted by a metal fist hitting his faceplate.”You will die with me, Prime!” The pair of sentient machines were taken from the Ark and pulled into the vortex.

On the Ark’s Bridge

“Optimus!” Ratchet cried out, watching in despair as his friend entered the vortex.”Brace yourselves!” Ultra Magnus called out over the communications system, grabbing hold of a nearby wall. Both the Ark and the Nemesis were dragged into the vortex, and a great blinding flash entered the bridge. It only lasted a nanosecond, though. When Ultra Magnus looked out of the viewport on the bridge, he found himself extremely puzzled.”Report!” He called out quickly, trying to confirm what his optics already confirmed.”The Nemesis, sir- It’s disappeared off radar.” One of the engineers forced himself to say.”I’m tracking multiple unidentified spacecraft!” A female officer called out from her station.”There’s something wrong with the navigation computer, sir. It says we’re in uncharted space.” Ultra Magnus let a gasp escape his lips.”That’s impossible. Teletraan-1 scanned the charts. I watched it happen.”

Ultra Magnus opened the ship’s comm. Channel. He was greeted by a wave of panicked voices.”Calm down, all of you! Continue repairs, I’ll deal with this anomaly personally. I want our guns armed and ready. Ratchet, give me a full scan of the unidentified craft. Check the records from the Golden Age of Exploration. Perceptor! Are these ships using any sort of communications we can track?” Magnus handed out orders quickly and efficiently.”Uhm, yes, our systems are compatible with all ships present. I’ll just need to make some minor adjustments to work with such crude technology.” Perceptor answered hastily.”Good. Monitor their channels, and calibrate our translators to their language.”

“This is Jetfire to Ultra Magnus! Come in, Ultra Magnus!” “Go ahead, Jetfire.” “One of the Aerialbots spotted Optimus. He’s at these coordinates: 45’ 120’ 20’. I request permission to retrieve him. Have Ratchet on hand, though. He looks pretty banged up.” Ultra Magnus moved swiftly over to a viewport and looked in the direction Jetfire mentioned. Sure enough, there was someone out there.”Permission granted. Air Raid, take your squad and escort Jetfire. Fire only if fired upon.” “You got it, sir.”

Seven Cybertronian fighter craft left the portside hangar, and moved towards Prime. When they reached him, Jetfire launched his tow cables and began pulling the bot back towards the Ark. The other Seekers took up flight patterns around Jetfire and Optimus, guns pointed towards the closest craft.”Ultra Magnus, sir. Launch tube-6 has been activated without your authorization.” One of the engineers on the bridge informed the acting captain.”Who did it?” Ultra Magnus practically growled in frustration. “Silverbolt, sir.” “Get me comms with Silverbolt, now!” A moment later, Ultra Magnus had contacted Silverbolt.”Where are you going, Silverbolt?” There wasn’t a moments pause before Silverbolt answered. ”There’s a craft directly ahead of us, forty-five degrees down. It looks trashed, but scanners say there are signs of organic life on board. They need help.” Silverbolt’s jet moved quickly towards the starship, searching for the nearest airlock.”Return to the Ark immediately! They could be hostile.” Ultra Magnus said.”You don’t know that, sir. The longer we wait the less time they have to live.” Silverbolt argued.”Gah. Ironhide, scan that ship’s life support system. I want Cosmos’s interior to be modified to allow for that crew’s survival.”

“Ultra Magnus, I have successfully adapted our translators. We should be able to understand them. Keep in mind, however, that translation will not be perfect, and many of our words will not appear in their langua-““I understand, Perceptor. Thank you. Ratchet, I want to send a message out. Open channel.” Ratchet’s fingers moved with surgical precision across the console.”Channels are open. The translators will send out copies of your speech in a variety of languages, three of which are attempts at translating into the languages of the locals present.”

Ultra Magnus cleared his voice chip, to deter any static.”I am Ultra Magnus of Cybertron, acting captain of the Ark. We are not hostile, I repeat, we come in peace. Our scans have concluded that the majority of vessels in this area are heavily damaged, and I am willing to offer assistance. All I ask in return is updated star charts for this cluster and we’ll be on our way.” Ultra Magnus was a bit nervous as he finished and waited for a reply. He wasn't a diplomat like Optimus. But the message had to be sent. Hopefully the responses would be friendly.

Hopefully being the keyword.
Hidden 10 yrs ago Post by mattmanganon
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mattmanganon Your friendly neighbourhood tyranical dicator

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-Bridge of the Culling-

Morray sat with his head burried in his hands, his dreams of dying on this bridge as it spiraled out of control as a burning hulk, into the Planet of the Sorcerers was all but over. "Sir, we are receiving... Something..." said the Vox controller. "It's not a Vox... But it is some form of audio communication, pressing several buttons, the audio came up over as an incomprehensible sound of scraping metal, as soon as the metal stopped, it played it back in Terran.

”I am Ultra Magnus of Cybertron, acting captain of the Ark. We are not hostile, I repeat, we come in peace. Our scans have concluded that the majority of vessels in this area are heavily damaged, and I am willing to offer assistance. All I ask in return is updated star charts for this cluster and we’ll be on our way.”

He listened to it carefully. "The Azuriah has given his orders, send them Imperius priority vox. Ark... This is Admiral Lafrau Morray of His Holiness' Battleship, Culling of Prospero... We cannot provide any starcharts of the local area, but we are in need of assistance at this time. Any assistance you could render would be..." he swallowed hard as he was forced to play nice, when he would much prefer to simply blast these Xeno's out of the sky. "Appreciated..."
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

-Monestary-

Most of the fires had been put out as well as the last of the fighting. Lemanicus and his Techpriests were looking over the remains of the Titan. "Shhhhh..." coo'd one of the Techpriests. "Sleep, spirit, we shall heal your body as you slumber." Lemanicus, on the other hand, was working with a Dreadnought at a pair of Cranes, trying to haul it back onto its feet, as it was currently lay on its side. There was a rumble as it finally was hauled onto its feet, one of the Volcano Cannons was on the other side of the room, and the few ligaments that were keeping the head on gave way, smashing onto the ground.

"BASTARDS!!! LOOK WHAT THAT MANIAC DID!" Lemanicus seethed. "That's it, we're gonnae put you back together, and you're gonna shove that Volcano Cannon up his arse." he said as he walked towards the leg of it.

"I will not cease from metal fight;
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Holy Terra,
In the Fenris' white and pleasant land." As the Dreadnought Chaplain finished, so did the Techpriests, wiping the blood off of him. Zequial walked over to the Titan and looked down at Lemanicus. "It will work again..." the Dreadnought said. "The Emperor has given you those hands to use."
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

-Medical Bay-

As the Wolf Priests ran around, administering medicine where it was needed, Kurn arrived. "We need to talk..." he said to the Terminator Wolf Priest. Moving into another room, Kurn got down on a knee and bowed to him. "Please, Father, give me guidance..."
Hidden 10 yrs ago Post by darkwolf687
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Bridge, Shade of Tyranny

Luka Loramai watched the view screens as his fleet glided forwards through the black of space, arranging themselves into formation in order to jump to the Human World of Reach. The Covenant had uncovered it's location only recently using a strange artifact from Sigma Octanus IV, and now that they had it's location they were all to willing to get a shot at reach and cripple what was left of Humanities military. The fleet moved into position, and then opened up the slipspace portal, a purple vortex. They entered it and Luka shut off the viewscreen, turning to the others on the bridge
"Today, brothers, we shall strike a blow at the beating heart of the human forces!" He declared, to a cheer from the other bridge officers "The world i..." He was cut off mid speech by a jolt as the entire ship seemed to lurch. One of the grunts on the bridge jumped away from his console as it exploded into blue
"By the rings!" One of the Elites declared as he watched the terminal report damage to sections. Luka dashed over, reading off the damage report. The gods must be displeased, their ship was being tossed all over the place, it's energy projectors receiving damage, it's troop bays being torn apart. He pulled down the view screen again and watched as part of the ship was quite literally torn off, and one of the fins flew past and then... everything seemed to return to normal
"Disengage the drive! Quickly!" He ordered, and the navigations officer nodded and rapidly smashed several buttons. They dropped out of slip space and back into normal space... and were staring at a desert planet with two suns. Luka frowned, they must have been tossed off course, this was not how the planet had been described, nor were the other vessels here
"Where are we?" Fal asked as he approached the navigation officer, who tapped several keys in, then frowned and tried again. The terminal beeped in response and changed colour, but nothing else happened. The Officer turned his head to Fal
"I don't know, brother... we do not appear to be in any known galactic cluster..." He said slowly, almost in disbelief. But Luka was seeing bigger problems as he watched the view screens. There were other ships. Was this some kind of human experiment, had they brought the Shade of Tyranny here deliberately... no, that was far beyond their technology. Were these ships even human? Why didn't match any known patterns. He proceeded across the bridge to the Luminary, as Ripa entered the bridge to investigate. Fal frowned as he watched Luka
"What are you doing, Fleetmaster?"
"The Luminary marks all humans as artefacts due to a design imperfection" He stated. In truth, it was a design perfection rather than an imperfection, but neither Luka nor any of the Elites knew of this. He activated it and stared at it, watching as the glyphs popped up. One... then two, then dozens, then hundreds.
"Humans..." Ripa said slowly as the Glyphs appeared across several of the ships. So what was on the others?
"We must destroy them!" Fal said, watching the glyphs appear and clenching his fists
"No. They might be able to get us out of this, we can always exterminate them afterwards. Send out a communications signal, establish contact with all vessels"

Tatooine Orbit

The purple ship appeared, slowly drifting forwards through the black of space. It's shields raised to prevent the venting of atmosphere from one of it's hanger bays, that had been torn open during the transfer. It transmitted a single message to the other ships
"This is Fleet Master Luka Loramai of the CCS Battlecruiser Shade of Tyranny to all nearby ships. We have sustained damage in an unknown accident, we request knowledge on our position and on resource locations for repairs."
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Sep Lord of All Creation

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||N1-B Romanova_

Kapitan Utkin tore off the computer printout, reading the latest news from the damage assessment and control efforts. Kapitan-leytenant Volkov had managed to secure help from several unidentified spacecraft, and with luck, engineering would have the spare plasma duct to patch the breach. The force field generator, meanwhile, was in considerably worse condition. The gas from the plasma duct had flooded the compartment, effectively preventing movement further aft toward the munitions stores until it could be vented. As Utkin turned from the small computing station jammed into the side of the passageway, several spacemen running to the bridge nearly bowled him over.

Ambling after them onto the bridge, he caught the tail end of a hurried conversation between the radio operator and one of the hapless spacemen that had almost knocked him over.

“Da, this is Greek like my father spoke! I can translate,” one said. “Except some parts are garbled. Shouldn’t be a problem, though.”

It sounded like Utkin’s damage reports could wait.

Commander Venera glanced over the scrawled translation, struggling to make out the poor handwriting. Apparently the ship - the Columbia - had been requesting ID and… something about lemons. She frowned and considered whether or not to institute a mandatory handwriting seminar. The second page of the transmissions was one half of a conversation between the Columbia and another ship. Commander Venera was certain that Volkov could use the young spaceman. Before he went, however, she responded to the alien ship’s request.

“Transmit message to Columbia in Greek: Thank you for your assistance. This is the N1-B Romanova of the glorious Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.”

||Exterior, N1-B Romanova_

Volkov received another maser. Command had finally gotten its act together and they could speak alien now. It was a little late. 10 cosmonauts were already hauling out a large sheet of scrap metal to patch the hole in the plasma duct. Volkov waved the boxy alien vessel closer in, indicating the plasma gas billowing into space. Though the pressure had decreased, the gas was still powerful enough to prevent any practical number of cosmonauts from holding the plate against the hull so it could be welded.

“Volkov to aliens: use Box to hold patch down on duct, we weld edges at same time.” He waited patiently for command to translate and retransmit the message to the alien ship. Meanwhile, he got on with signalling the ship with his gloves, indicating what he wanted.

BS-14 Battlestar Columbia

“Columbia, Hotshot. They’re waving us in and on the wireless they’ve requested we approach in order to use the Raptor to hold down a patch. Please advise.””This is Columbia Actual, do it. They’re the only guys out here that have anything recognizable. They’ve also just thanked us for the help and identified themselves. We don’t know who they are but we’ll find out. Continue your mission.””Aye sir.” He looked back at Echo. “You ready to kiss this ugly fraker?””I’ve dated worse.””I’m sure you have, yet you always say no to the Chief.””Shut up.””Yes sir.” He moved the Raptor in, throttling up the tiniest but. As they got closer the engineers from Columbia took hold of the metal plating form these other people and moved it below the Raptor.

The Raptor then lowered its miniature airlock and sealed itself onto the metal plate so it didn’t need to actually push down upon with the underside of the hull and risk deshaping it. The engineers navigated themselves closer to the Raptor and hooked themselves on, waving the others out of the way. Once they had moved the Raptor navigated itself, just showing how maneuverable it was for a flying box until the patch covered the breach.

“This is Hotshot, we’ve matched the ships roll. You’re good to go.” With that he watched as the engineers streamed from the side of the ship down to the patch. Some of them welded along the seam while others moved out to the thin cracks that weren’t covered placing a patch on them, then going over the welds with more patches to ensure it was air tight. The task in all barely took ten minutes before the engineers gave the thumbs up and the other two Raptors approached to pick them up.
Ten minutes earlier, Columbia CIC

The message came through and Phillips turned. “Get that Ensign back up here, looks like his job isn’t done afterall.” Luckily the Raptors were relaying the transmission so it wasn’t just a bunch of garbled static. “Send a text transmission, see if they understand this any better and hopefully we’ll understand theres. This is Columbia Actual, we are a Battlestar off the Colonial fleet supposed to be deployed in vital combat operations against a Cylon Force. Do you have local star charts that can help us pinpoint our current location. Message ends.”

He watched as the new DRADIS contact continued to drift without power. There was nothing he could do about that now. “Have a message run down to the Commander, inform him a new contact has turned up and is heavily damaged-””DRADIS Contact! Bearing 198 carom 335.””Gods damnit what is it now?” It was getting irritating now, even with the fact that he had told people not to bother mentioning it unless it appeared quite close to the ship it was happening with too much off a regularity. “Unknown designation, no transponder. We’re picking up a distress beacon… unknown origin.” This was just becoming annoying now.

“Communications””Sir.””Squawk ident and challenge, standard procedure.””Aye sir.”
He turned back to look at the DRADIS board as he listened to the comm officer. “Unidentified vessel this is the Battlestar Columbia. Identify yourself or we will be forced to take hostile action. Repeat, this is the Battlestar Columbia. Identify yourself or we will be forced to take hostile action.”

||N1-B Romanova_

“New radar contact R5, bearing 054, medium range. Moving away,” the radarman reported. Venera waited for the visual report from Volkov’s flak while studying the central screens. Sensors had the contact as saucer-shaped, drifting downward relative to the Romanova. “Magnetoferrous sensors indicate debris drifting from R5,” reported magenetoman.
Another spaceman handed her a printout. The primary leak in the plasma ducting had been repaired. Then yet another spaceman came up with yet another damned printed report. She hoped to Lenin that it wasn’t more pointless paperwork.

Earlier, Several Decks Below:

Spaceman Aleksei Kepinski had trained for years to sit at his station. He was a veteran of several early spaceflights, and now was proud to be aboard the Romanova at all. He had to be - otherwise his duty as ‘Senior Officer in Charge of Faxes’ would depress him to the point of leaping out the nearest airlock. So, while the entire ship was busy doing… something, he was sitting in sublevel 5, staring at a fax machine that had never once gone off. If rumor was to believed, it wouldn’t go off again; they were in a different galaxy altogether, and the chronosphere was severed in half, drifting in four directions while they were surrounded by psychic aliens that could mind-control half the ship. Aleksei wasn’t sure how much stock to put into those rumors.

An alarm started blaring (again). Aleksei was alert, worried about the possibility of another plasma leak. Or maybe the aliens had managed to turn some of the crew traitor. No, this was a shorter alarm. More like a howl, really. And there was whirring - could it be?

Present, Bridge:

“Contact M1, very large vessel, close-range. Magnetoferrous sensor is off the grid!” the magnetoman reported.
“Radar confirms M1, bearing 300.”

“Fax for you, Comrade Commander,” Aleksei said, saluting sharply and handing Venera the fax. Venera blinked. The whole bridge, in fact, seemed eerily quiet for a moment. She took the fax and mumbled a dismissal. The spaceman seemed to be hanging around still.

Of all things, the fax was in plain cyrillic. Sure, the conjugations were off, but otherwise it was remarkably understandable.

“This are Columbia Actual, we am one Battlestar off the Colonial fleet supposed to have being deployed in vital combat operations against one Cylon Force. Do you has local star charts that can help us pinpoint our current location?”

The bridge was silent. And they were staring at her. “Comrade faxman, I have a message for you to send,” Venera said. Aleksei did an appropriately surprised about-face in the hatch. Venera wrote the message in neat rows of carefully-formed letters, signing it with a flourish:

“Regret to inform Columbia that we are in an unknown galaxy after a chronosphere malfunction. Observations of local space do not match available star charts.”

As she stood up to hand it to Aleksei, she glared at the bridge crew. “Comrades! There is much work to be done, yes? So let’s get back to it!”

BS-14 Battlestar Columbia

Lieutenant Seelir pulled a sheet out of the printer beside the tactical station, gave it a skim read before taking it over to the XO who stood at the helm. “Sir, they’ve replied. They appear to also be stranded here without knowing why there are here and have no star charts available to us.” Phillips swore under his breath, that was exactly what they needed. More mysteries and more ships turning up out of the blue. “Do we have any idea what has happened ourselves yet?””No sir, no solid ideas yet.””Do we have FTL?””Yes sir, they’ve just finished fixing the system and its fully repressurized, Astrometrics is busy mapping star charts so we can get a jump solution.””Excellent, put the space between the binary star system and the one after that into our FTL computer. That will give us some nice empty space to plan our next move should we need to jump. Relay the word to the commander as well.”

“Once Hotshot has refuelled his bird I want him prepped for another SAR mission, tell Orange Squadron to stay out and join the CAP until he off loads his engineers. Then send him out after the ship that appears to be freefalling.””Sir.””Comms””Ready.””Send off a message to the Romanova alerting them to our current diplomatic meeting with the vessel known as the Tor-Selim. Get the Commanders stance on the possibility of taking a delegate from the Romanova as well. I don’t like it but the more of us who are strangers and band together the more likely it is that we will find a way to get back to where we need to be. Lets hope it won’t be too frakking late either.”

He placed his hand over his eyes, rubbing back and forth as he thought for a moment before lowering his hand again. He didn’t like this, not one bit. There wasn’t an entire alien encounter in the history of the Twelve Colonies and here he was surrounded by the bastards, and the Commander was meeting with one down in the hangar bay. They weren’t meant for this, they were a Battlestar built for war and here they were having to play the good diplomats to find a way back to the battle, that is if they got back and there was still a battle or even a war to fight.

“While we’re playing the make friends game send a message to the Romanova and see if she has FTL capabilities back online. We wouldn’t want to leave some of the few allies behind if it comes to a fight.””Sir.” He looked at the comm station as the officer went about his work. At least contacts had stopped appearing out of the blue in the middle of their formation. There appeared to be a pattern, those who appeared to be somewhat native were entering from the edge of the planets gravity while those who were dragged here appeared in the middle of their little formation. Of course none of the locals were answering their hails, otherwise they could have been out of here by now. No, naturally the only ones to answer them were people in the same frakking situation.

A couple of minutes later the runner came back. “Report Private.””Sir, the Commander said that it would be acceptable for a delegate from the Romanova to come aboard.””All right then. Comms.””Sir?””Update the message to our friends over on the Romanova. Tell them if they are willing we will send over a Raptor for a delegation.”

||N1-B Romanova_

“Kapitan Utkin!” Venera shouted. He appeared. “You’d said the major repairs are nearly completed?” She was smiling madly.
“Da, comrade Commander, but-” her Executive Officer said.
“Good. You are to report to the airlock and suit up. Kapitan-leytenant Volkov will accompany you to the Columbia.” Utkin had been one of the people with objections to the Cosmonaut program. Venera knew this, and more to the point, so did Volkov. So she would politely declined the option of a ride over, knowing that Volkov was more than capable of navigating a few kilometers in space while dragging Utkin along.

“Comrade faxman, new message to the Columbia: ‘We will accompany your craft to the Columbia and attend the conference. Our representatives will meet you by our airlock.’”

Meanwhile, another contact showed up.

BS-14 Battlestar Columbia

“DRADIS Contact-””For the love of Gods Mr.Seelir you can stop that. Only inform of new contacts if we get a transponder we recognize or if they take action against us.””Yes sir.””Comms.””Sir?””Follow standard procedure for new Contact. Squawk Ident and Challenge.””Aye sir.” He briefly heard the now common thing for the Comm officer to say on the bridge. “Have Blue Squadron swing back around, scrub the SAR mission-” He had been watching the DRADIS and contacts from the newest ship were moving towards it, obviously planning to do what he was going to do. “-Have Hotshot tank up like everyone else but keep him ready in the hanger bay. Have Marines standing ready in the portside landing bay to take our guests to the ward room.””Yes sir.” This day was just getting busier and busier.
Turbo pulled up on the yoke and back on the throttle as his craft turned. As soon as he had righted himself and re-orientated he kicked on the thrusters. “All right Blue, let’s go do some more escort work.” They flew close over the body of the Columbia, he could almost wave at the gun crews. As he swung down past the flight pod he saw a couple of contacts from the newest ship dragging something however it wasn’t coming towards them so he paid it no attention, however he pointed his Viper at it for a second so that someone could pick it up later from the inflight camera.

Once he corrected himself he kicked back on the thrusters and looped himself and his squadron around the Romanova, showing off slightly. As they linked up with the… well. It would usually be a transport however it was just two people with Jetpacks. He kept on front of them, as his squadron formed up around them. He wouldn’t trust doing something like that anyway, even the engineers who worked in Zero-G had lines attached to a Raptor. He didn’t even bother with the Radio, he had been told that these people wouldn’t understand so he didn’t waste the time. How people were going to communicate with them wasn’t his problem.

Arriving at the Port-Landing bay he lead them in before rejoining the CAP. People in EVA suits were standing on the deck, waving the jetpack users over to the airlock that wasn’t attached to or obscured by the giant hunk of junk from the other ship.
Volkov took it nice and slow, keeping a good distance between himself and the nimble darts from the Columbia. Utkin still, somehow, found a way to slow him down. The senior officer was constantly adjusting his heading by increasingly smaller amounts. He had the “mid-walk jitters”, and was probably afraid of missing their target. All he was doing was wasting fuel while increasing the random motion of his course.

It wasn’t just that Utkin didn’t want to spend time with the man whom he’d nearly gotten reassigned, nor that he would be doing it while fulfilling the role of pencil-pusher, but it was the fact that he had to first do it while falling from one speck to another speck while hanging above a planet. Utkin felt like he was going to burn up at any second, the whole way there.

So when the two finally did arrive on the Columbia’s hangar deck, neither of them looked at each other. Volkov stared straight ahead, chest out, (new) laser rifle politely pointing at the deck (for now). Utkin smiled and greeted the alien delegation. They were actually quite human, to his disappointment. He pulled out a notepad and pencil from a pouch on the space suit so they could actually understand one another, and got on with the buisiness of greetings and figuring out where they actually needed to be. And where they could store their bulky suits. And where Volkov’s weapon was to be securely stored. The list went on.
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Hiigaran Pulsar Corvette Diirvaas One

There was the briefest of delays as the airlock system on the Corvette ascertained whether the seal was complete or not, during which Ariel wondered if she should’ve preemptively put on an EVA suit for this. Her worries about delaying were quickly cast aside as the light on the airlock went green, signifying a solid connection. Before she opened it, she turned to Jakuur and his men to give them instructions. This was hardly a normal situation for them and she wanted to avoid any mishaps. “In all likelihood, there will be men with guns waiting on the other side of that door, probably pointing them at us. We did just arrive in an armed ship after all. I need you to keep your weapons down. We’re here for peace, and threats of violence will not help.” Jakuur silently nodded at her orders, though she could see in his eyes that it went against his nature.

With that, she turned to the airlock and began the sequence that would allow her onto the other ship, stepping through as each door opened. The door to the other ship, once revealed, was unusually primitive. She hadn’t expected to see a manual bulkhead from a race with such elegant fighter craft, but there it was. When it eventually swung open, the man on the other side looked remarkably… normal. Aside from skin somewhat paler than she was used to seeing from non-spacefaring Kiiths, he looked like any other Hiigaran or Taiidan person. Part of her that had been hoping for some kind of fantastic and exotic creature was disappointed, but the more logical side of her saw the advantage she’d have. Someone with the face of a Hiigaran would be far easier to read than an exotic creature.

When she had passed through the second airlock and into the alien ship, she was once again surprised by how apparently primitive the technology was. It was amazing they could build such a large vessel and not develop more advanced technology in the process, as the Hiigarans had when they built the first Mothership. Still, she didn’t comment on it. She instead looked for the one with the fanciest uniform, stepped forward and introduced herself. “Commander Ariel Manaan.” She said, the angel-moon badge on her lapel repeating it for her in the language of this ship.

BS-14 Battlestar Columbia

The whole double chat was going to be disconcerting. At least he didn’t have to worry about a translator. Lorne nodded to the marine standing behind the hatch who then closed it and sealed it. The airlock buzzing as it pressurized. “Commander Tyrell Lorne. Colonial fleet, welcome aboard the Battlestar Columbia.” He hid his surprise at seeing them being Human, that was an unexpected variation. However the things behind her concerned him more. They didn’t look entirely human, they looked robotic and that was the only concern to him.

The marines were still aiming their weapons at them. “With respect Commander, have your marines remove their helmets. I want to ensure there are heads under there and not circuitry. If they are human we can continue if not these negotiations are over” A private ran up behind him and spoke into his ear. The FTL engines were back online and another ship had appeared heavily damaged, Phillips was preparing a SAR which was exactly what he should be doing and things were going well with the other ship the Romanova and the Colonel was wanting to know how he felt on taking a delegation from the vessel. He voiced his affirmative before turning back to the current diplomat aboard his ship.
Ariel listened to the mans speech as it was translated into her ear by her comms equipment. He seemed awfully distrustful of robotics. She could somewhat understand as some of the artificial intelligences they had encountered in the past proved truly formidable enemies. Perhaps these people had unwittingly encountered a Keeper at some point? She turned to Jakuur and spoke. “Do as the man says, take off your helmets.” Jakuur hesitated for a moment, looking around at the many armed and armoured men around them, evidently with suspicion, before reaching up and removing his armoured helmet, his fellow marines following suit.

A thousand questions burned in her throat as she looked around the low tech ship and at the people that crewed it, but she fought them down in favour of establishing some form of working alliance. “In light of current circumstances, that is to say that neither of us know how we got here or where here is, I propose we pool our resources to find some answers. My ship has a number of scientific facilities, but we seem to have lost our escort.” She spoke clearly to ensure the translator picked everything up properly, but with the unknown intent of these people was also careful to avoid mentioning that the Tor-Selim was currently largely crippled.
The marines lowered their weapons when it was obvious that these other people were in fact people. “Well thats useful. We’re a battlestar, we’re built for combat. Fully armed as we were set to go to a crucial battle with the Cylons.” He looked at the marines. “We don’t have the facilities to find out how we got here or rather why. If you can help us find out how to get us back I’d be willing to form some form of an agreement. We’re currently in communications with another vessel nearby who apparently also has no idea why they are here. We’ve managed to repair their vessels they might also be able to help our situation.”

He thought for a minute. “If yours isn’t a combat vessel, you may give permission for your ships Commander to take up position behind ours. I’ll have CIC relay emergency jump coordinates to you if things go rough here. I don’t know how exactly your FTL engines work though I assume you will need precise co-ordinates anyway. It isn’t a long jump, into Empty space a couple of systems along until we can get a better astrometrical read on our nearby star system.” He stepped to the side and indicated for her to walk with him. “We’ll head to the Ward room. It is better suited to these kind of discussions than the corridor is, however do you have any questions before you proceed?”
Ariel smiled at the suddenly more friendly demeanour of her hosts. It was a good feeling to make a new ally. “That is a good idea. If you will just permit me to relay our progress to my captain while we remain close to my ship, then we will go.” She tapped the Angel moon insignia, reconfiguring it from translation back to short range comms, sending a signal to the nearby corvette and from there to the Tor-Selim. What she said now would not be translated for the others, a precaution she felt necessary while she gave authenticity codes. She also spoke much more quickly than before to ensure they wouldn’t pick up any stray words. “Commander Ariel to Tor-Selim. Authorisation code: Bentus Repentant. The people of this ship seem friendly and have the same short term goals as us. They have offered to shelter our ship behind theirs. I believe we should take up the offer. Ariel out.” Re-activating the translator, she looked back at Commander Tyrell. “My ship should be moving into position now.”

With that the group started walking, and on the way Ariel began to ask some of her questions. “The language you speak is similar to a dialect used by the Vaygr. Were you part of the Vaygr empire at any point?”
As they approached the train that would move them around the ship he stopped and pick up a phone. “Combat, this is the Commander.” He paused for a second as someone answered on the other side. “Alert the XO that one of the unknown vessels will be maneuvering to our side to protect itself. This move is authorized.” He put down the phone without so much as a response. “I have no idea what the Vaygr are or what it sounds like. I speak Caprican, I’m personally from Caprica city but my crew is composed of members from all of the Twelve Colonies. I don’t think contact has ever been made with anyone outside of the Twelve Colonies before however we are further out than I think anyone has ever been, well passed the red line.” He lifted the security railing on the train that ran the length of the ship. Stepping onto it and indicating for everyone else to do so.

“I warn you, for people on their first time on this thing it often helps to hold on. There won’t really be a chance to talk once we get going either.” Without further ado he pressed the button indicating what bulkhead he wanted it to stop at, as it shot off down the tunnel. He envied the marines who were still fit enough to just balance themselves to compensate for the speed up. He himself in his age had to hold on slightly until they sped up. The cart eventually slowed down and came to a stop and he stepped off. Sorting out his uniforms collar as he did so and walked off. He looked back at the delegates. “Just this way now.” He turned a couple of corridors before opening a door, inside were three tables constructing the outline of a rectangle, where the fourth was supposed to be there was a slightly raised podium. He turned to the marines.

“Stand Watch.””Yessir.” He then moved in and dragged one of the seats around to the inside of the shape, so that when Ariel sat down they would be sitting more or less face to face.
Ariel stepped onto the tram with slight trepidation, taking hold of the indicated bar to steady herself. When it sped up, her hair tugged at its binds and some of it whipped across her face with the air flow. She could see the various marines all standing without support, but she was thankful she was holding on, the acceleration had been somewhat unexpected. When the tram stopped, she quickly pulled her hair out of her face and began to re-tie it while she followed Commander Tyrell. His story seemed strange, not false, but odd. Everyone had heard of the Vaygr war, even in the furthest reaches of the galaxy. The Vaygr had swept across the stars in an unstoppable wave of might until they were finally stopped above Hiigara.

When she was seated and looking at him she spoke again. “So, Commander Tyrell, you don’t know of the Vaygr war? The Sajuuk-Khar? The Eye of Aarran? The Taiidan Empire? What about the Bentusi or the Galactic Council?” Many of these things were reasonably common knowledge across the galaxy, no matter which race you were from. If he truly did not know of any of them, she would have to consider the possibility that this ship was extragalactic. Kira was just going to love this.
He poured himself a glass of water, the Ward Room had been hurriedly prepared but still had water. Offering it then to his guest. “Commander Lorne, actually Commander Manaan.” He took a sip off his water before continuing. “I have absolutely no idea what any of these are. I come from the Twelve Colonies. Caprica, Tauron, Picon, Aerilon, Aquaria, Canceron, Geminon, Leonis, Libran, Sagittaron, Scorpia and Virgon. We’ve never had contact of anyone outside of these colonies. Only the Cylons have ventured further outside of the Red Line simply so that we wouldn’t go after them.”

He took another sip from his glass. “No-one has ever reported anything like this happening from an FTL jump before, and no ship has ever disappeared simply from doing a jump unless it was a blind jump and our system isn’t faulty we checked it as one of the first things we did as we came through. My main question is, that if we are to make a deal to pool resources until we can find out what has happened my ships purpose is pretty clear. It’s all in the name. I need to know what your ship is capable off. I don’t need military secrets I just need the basics.
“Commander Ariel, actually Commander Lorne.” She said with a smile. “Manaan is the name of my Kiith. Over a third of the crew on the Tor-Selim are also part of Kiith Manaan and so share the name. There are only a few major Kiiths in modern times, my ships crew is made of Manaan, S’jet and Soban for the most part. Everyone within a Kiith is related somehow, with varying degrees of closeness, and most people are related to other Kiiths somehow, some to the degree that they can choose which to belong too. But I wont bore you with the complexities of Hiigaran social structure.” While she certainly enjoyed talking about such things she doubted this military man would care beyond the most basic concept. “I’m afraid I’ve never heard of your worlds, nor do I know what a Cylon is.” She was about to launch into the capabilities of the Tor-Selim when there was a sudden loud thud on the door behind her, nearly making her jump out of the seat.
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V’Lar stood in the midst of the wreckage of the Archer’s bridge with the apathetic air only a Vulcan could maintain. She stared out at into empty space through the ten foot gap in the bridge’s hull, the lavender energy shield holding in the atmosphere glimmering faintly, plasma bursting in small blooms around the edges of the torn Duranium-Tritium composite hull.

The first officer, Fabian Cortez, an American of Columbian decent, meanwhile, was looking at the science station’s controls. The ship was a wreck. They had barely survived their escape from the tower. The antimatter reactor was down as were the fusion reactors. They were effectively running off of batteries. Communications, sensors, warp drive, transporters, replicators and shields were down. Weapons may as well have been as they didn’t have enough power to do much of anything. Unfortunately, damage control systems were inoperable. Without power to the replicator and transporter systems they couldn’t beam out the broken components and transport in replacements. Everything had to be done by hand.

Their chief engineer, an Edoan named Apex, was working on cobbling together power from the shuttles and connecting the main computer to the shuttles that possessed transporters and replicator systems. They weren’t as powerful but could help repair critical systems that were exposed to space.

“There are ships in near orbit,”, V’Lar observed, starting out the hole in the hull, “Perhaps we should request aid.”

“I rather suspect,” Fabian answered, looking at the displays before them and considering where best to concentrate their efforts of restoring the ship, “that there should be little doubt to anyone out there that we might need help.”

There was something to Fabian’s voice, a hardness. He was filled with anger. He was frustrated and upset and there was nothing he could do to relieve himself of these emotions at the moment. He put his hand through the mess of curls atop his head and then back down the closely shaved sides. He was also feeling some degree of anger towards these ships that V’Lar had mentioned. If they didn’t want to help they could simply go to hell.

“You presume that all cultures follow your Federation code of morals,” V’Lar countered, “Warrior cultures like the Klingon would not interfere in a test of survival unless invited to do so.”

There was a long drawn out silence. Fabian clenched and unclenched his fist.

“Perhaps you are right,” Fabian finally agreed, “Maybe we can get a shuttle ready. At the very least we can use its sensors to do a limited reconnaissance and to make contact.”

“Unfortunately, there is no reaching either of the shuttle bays from here.”

“Blast!” Fabian cursed, then tapped his communications badge which, fortunately, was one thing that mostly worked, “Cortez to Covenry. I need a shuttle mission. Reconnoiter and make contact with nearby vessels.”
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Emperor Palpatine, the Emperor of the Great Galactic Empire looked over that tactical displays while sitting astride his throne. He had the appearance of one frail but he was strong where it mattered. The force buoyed him, kept him strong and protected him against the ravages of time. Hate had kept him strong, his giddy glee at being the most powerful being in the cosmos kept him young.

Now, without any warning, without preamble, he lofty position had been taken from him. He silently bore witness to the invasion of his Galactic Empire- his Empire. Rage possessed him, moved him in ways that he hadn't felt in almost two decades. For far too long he had been complacent. For too long he had nothing with which to vent his rage. Already he felt a century younger.

"So... my new mysterious adversaries. You would take that which is mine?" the Emperor cackled, "You shall have to fight for it."

The old man cackled, his raspy voice expressing not anguish but glee. Already the dark side of the force was feeding him visions of a galaxy on fire, of untold wanton death and destruction the likes of which it had never before seen not in any of the wars since the dawn of the Great Galactic Empire or even the Republic's twenty five thousand year rule.

Gesturing to his red robed guardsmen the old man brought himself to his feet in one swift movement and hefted a small cylindrical rod. HIs lightsaber, he had not wielded it since that night when the Jedi came for him in the High Chancellor's chambers.

"Ready my ship," Palpatine rasped, still mirthful as he strode across a cold grey steel bridge without railings that spanned a shaft so deep the bottom could not be seen, "Coruscant is lost but no matter. I am the Galactic Empire. This world is but a bauble."
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Tea, biscuits, and transporters. That was all the senior staff of the USS Iphigenia was worried about, instead of more pressing concerns such as their patrol assignment. The ship was in orbit of a large M class planet, having rendezvoused with the USS Magicienne a day prior. On paper, the exchange between the two ships was for supplies, but with both ships just out of Spacedock only a week prior, an informed officer knew that the meeting was likely for some other frivolous reason; after all, the Magicienne was Admiral Key’s flagship, and Key was a well-known friend of Captain Livingstone. The rendezvous did, however, provide the unique opportunity to work out some of the kinks from the ship’s recent refit. As it was now, they were preparing to receive members of Admiral Key’s staff for afternoon tea.

But within the next hour, no crumpets would be served, and no transporters would be fixed.

Tate Noelle was on the bridge of the Iphigenia, keeping the captain’s seat warm while he had his chat with the admiral aboard his shiny new starship. She smiled to herself at the image of the contrasting vessels on the viewscreen; one of Starfleet’s oldest, cobbling repairs together even after a refit, and one of its newest, pulled alongside together. The image wasn’t dissimilar to early 20th century newspaper comparisons of fleets. For her, the most pressing concern was getting transporters back online. It was a downright embarrassment for the entire crew when the captain had to be shuttled over to meet the admiral, and Tate would not be caught dead having the transporters still down when Key and his staff were to to come aboard.

“Commander, we’ve just received a subspace message from Starfleet headquarters. It’s for the captain.”

Tate looked up from her tablet. Any message received at this point was certainly unusual. In a sporting mood, she joked back to the communications officer. “It’s probably Starfleet calling to cancel teatime. Hail the Magicienne and tell them Captain Livingstone has a message from Starfleet.”

The middle-aged communications officer raised his eyebrow, shaking his head. “Commander, they’re hailing us.

“Onscreen.”

The image of the Magicienne in orbit above the M class planet switched to the bridge of the Sovereign-class vessel. The Admiral and Livingstone were in view alongside the rest of the bridge crew. Almost immediately, the admiral began to speak, pithy and to-the-point as usual.

“At 1300 hours, Starfleet received a distress signal from Ceylon IV, a Federation Science outpost. They’ve detected a large spatial anomaly near the Ceylon star that threatens to disrupt the system. The nearest vessels are to investigate –Proceed to the Ceylon system immediately. We are sending over the data we know. As your transporters are offline, Livingstone will remain on my ship. Magicienne, out.”

As soon as the transmission ended, the USS Magicienne jumped into warp, leaving a bemused bridge crew to prepare to leave orbit. Tate shook her head. She had met the man several times, and found him overly abrasive, especially so for a man that was fairly familiar with the senior officers. It took a bit of an effort to stop herself from commenting on the man on the bridge as she tapped her combadge to speak with the ship’s chief engineer Yuri Khamitov down in Engineering.

“Yuri, what’s our status on the warp drive?”

The response came back in Yuri’s usual heavy Russian accent. “All ready to go, commander. Warp drive diagnostics are complete and indicate no problems.”
“Great,” replied Tate, before turning to the helmsman. “Plot a course for the Ceylon system at high warp.”

--

The chaos started the moment they dropped out of warp. Within seconds, the ship sheared towards the massive spatial anomaly, tumbling towards the phenomenon like a children’s plaything. Aboard the Iphigenia, the ship’s computerized klaxon bells blared as it entered a red alert state. The ship’s officers scrambled to take control of the situation.

“Shields up! Get us about and take us out at full warp!” yelled Tate Noelle, as she clung to bridge railing, struggling to maintain her balance. “I want a full sensor sweep on that anomaly. I need data on that, ASAP.”

“Commander Noelle, warp drives are offline.” Nephenee Harper’s hands glided over her console as she scrolled over the sensor readings with a calm expression that betrayed the situation. “The anomaly appears to be some sort of phenomenon sharing similar characteristics to a supermassive black hole, but it is incredibly small and stable for the amount of force that it’s exerting. I would say it would be a highly unusual variant of a singularity had it not appeared in the middle of the Ceylon system. At this rate, the system would be consumed in 3.5 hours. Even if we had warp drive at full operational capacity, escape is probably impossible.”

Tate stifled herself from muttering a long string of expletives.

“I do have a suggestion, however,” continued the science officer, “The rapid energy extraction of the zero-point vacuum quantum torpedoes may destabilize the anomaly enough to allow for an escape vector under full impulse. I honestly have no clue what would happen should it fail, however. We may risk the entire star system--“

There was no other option available to them. The only other alternative was to do nothing, which would result in the destruction of the system and the ship, regardless. They probably couldn’t count on external aid either; evidence pointed to the Magicienne being sucked in, and the Hood was still five minutes away at high warp.

“There’s no other choice. Do it. Load torpedo bays and fire on my mark,” said Tate, doing her best to address the tactical officer as she returned to her seat.

The ship continued to lurch towards the unknown phenomenon.

“Fire.”

For the second time, all hell broke loose as two heavily damaged Federation vessels appeared in unknown space.
Hidden 10 yrs ago Post by darkwolf687
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"Fleetmaster, the engineers are working on repairing our ship now. I shall watch the terminal for reports on their status now"
"I assume they will require parts?" Luka inquired as he turned his head towards the Major
"Of course, brother." The Major replied, not taking the time to look as he read from the terminal. Luka gave a long, drawn out sigh
"Scan the planet below, there may be an undefended location with scrap" Luka ordered, turning his head towards another Major, who tapped a few commands into the terminal and watched it intently, before reporting
"There is a large object, reminiscent of the human war machine known as a mammoth. It appears to be undefended and lack and proper offensive weaponry... There are several of them, brother. I am sending the location of the one that is furthest away from a major town now." Luka watched as the information appeared, and he chuckled
"Prepare a Special Operations strike team. I want that scrap"

The phantom flew down towards the desert planet, the darkness of night concealing its descent. The night wouldn't last long on this world, they assumed, due to its multiple suns and the angles and other technical issues. It hovered above the strange sand crawler and dropped down a Lance, three Spec Ops Sangheili and four Spec ops grunts. They crossed its top, moving to the waypoint set. The Spec Ops Major peered inside the tube. It appeared to lead straight into the Sand Crawler, presumably used to take object on board. One by one the members of the Lance climbed into the tube on the side of the ship and slid down.
It dropped them amongst a pile of broken robots in what could be assumed as a cargo hold. The Lance engaged their active camouflage and began to move through the broken scraps, out of sight.
"I have movement beyond 25" One of the Elites whispered, and the others formed up near him, the lance taking position on either side of the corridor. A strange little create in a robe, with black skin and glowing yellow eyes, began to pass them by. The Special Operations major dashed forwards, the Jawa turning his head towards the noise and hearing the footsteps approaching, but seeing nothing. Then he felt a spike of pain in his head, and fell to the floor dead as the Majors knee cracked the little creatures skull. They moved through the ship, slaughtering the Jawa's as they went. Finally, one of the Spec Ops minors lowered the exit ramped, and reported in to the Shade of Torment.
"Brother, the Aliens are dead and we have secured their resources, send down the Phantoms for resource extraction." The Minor reported, before hearing a strange shot and his shields flared up, he dived into cover and peered out "Under fire!"
"Hold your ground brother, reinforcements are coming" The Majors voice came over comms. The Minor leant out and scanned the desert, engaging his active camp and watching as four odd people dressed in cloth and rags charged across the desert, two firing weapons wildly at the Sand Crawler. The Elite moved back towards cover, letting off a burst of plasma, before rolling into cover. The shots caught one of the two Sand People carrying a blaster in the chest, and burnt through his clothes before melting his skin as he fell to the desert floor with a cry. They continued to charge and then several purple, crystalline spikes flew towards them, finding their mark on the other blaster-armed sand person. A few moments later there was a purple explosion and what was left of the Sand Persons body flew off to the side. The final two had an odd close combat weapon, a sort of short staff. They charged up the ramp as the major engaged his energy sword and charged forwards, a plasma rifle in one hand and an energy sword in the other. He fired four shots from his plasma rifle, of which two found there mark and the third Sand Person fell to the floor as his skin melted away. The findal sand person charged forwards and swung his weapon towards the Majors head. The Major brought up his energy sword to block the attack, and the super heated plasma of the blade cut through the aliens weapon. The sand person was not discouraged, however, and continued to fight using his split weapon in both hands. He plunged forwards, attempting to stab the blade deep into the Elite, but it hit the majors shield and merely made him stumble. The Sand Person pushed on, but the Major recovered and swung his plasma rifle, a nasty crack resounding as it collided with the Sand Persons chest and knocked him to the floor. The Elite advanced, bringing his energy sword up into the air before plunging it down into the Sand Persons back.
As the tusken raider breathed his last, the phantoms arrived outside to collective the scrap, and brutes came out to load it aboard.
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[b]||Battlestar Columbia, Interior_/[b]
Kapitan Utkin kept waiting for the familiar atmosphere of a starship to surround him: wires and piping everywhere, beams lancing across the passageways at odd intervals, and systems both vital and nearly-useless crammed wherever there was space. It never came. These corridors were spacious and well-architectured. They were practically empty. He could tell that it was making Volkov uncomfortable, too. Neither realized the size of the ship until they got to the rail transport station. It stretched on for ages. Utkin was surprised at the lack of foresight demonstrated throughout the rest of the ship, however; the cart had no windscreen, and it was almost hard to breathe, the cart was moving so fast.

Eventually they arrived at an airtight door nearly indistinguishable from the rest, save for the sign that read “Ward Room” and two armed guards outside. The door opened when one knocked on it with a loud thud.

Volkov felt less ridiculous now. He had been, of course, ordered into dress uniform, but at least the Soviet officer’s dress space uniform (which was nearly identical to the naval uniform, in fact) was an intelligent black and white. Nothing like the ridiculous blue and green thing that one of the aliens was wearing. Though he supposed the blue uniform of the Columbia wouldn’t be terrible. At least they didn’t have to deal with keeping white gloves clean. Then again, they may not be in dress uniform. He sighed; this would likely take a while.

Utkin said, “On behalf of the glorious Soviet Union, I greet you. I am Kapitan Utkin, the Executive Officer of the Romanova. This is Kapitan-leytenant Volkov, commander of our Cosmonaut forces.” Utkin elbowed Volkov, handing him the pad of paper and pen. “Volkov,” he muttered, “please write that down so they can understand us.”
The new arrival, apparently another new alien that looked Hiigaran, though dressed in an incredibly severe uniform, marched into the room and started speaking in a language she hadn’t heard before, and wasn’t translated by her communicator. Never a S’jet around when you needed one. She eyed the alien with a certain amount of distrust, weighing up whether or not to continue her previous line of speech about the capabilities of the Tor-Selim. It was a risk, but in the interests of trust she decided she would. After the appropriate introductions of course. She assumed that was what the newcomers had done at any rate. Looking up at them now with her diplomats smile, she spoke, letting the translator continue functioning in case they understood the ‘Caprican’ language it currently seemed to be working with. “I am Commander Ariel Manaan, representing the Hiigaran exploration ship Tor-Selim.”
Lorne took the piece of paper, reading the message and nodded. He spoke out of courtesy as he wrote down his message, as well as that from the Tor-Selim delegate. “I am Commander Tyrell Lorne of the Colonial fleet. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintances. Please-” He indicated to the chairs in the room. “Take a seat.” He moved himself slightly so that they would all occupy one of the many tables. With the need of translation and writing on paper it wasn’t practical to have them all split up. He continued writing what he was saying however the fact that he sat down and indicated to seats he probably didn’t have to include the request. He copied down Commander Ariels message.

“We were discussing the possibilities of a treaty between our vessels until we find a way to return to our respective planets. As an offer of good Faith your vessel is free to use the cover of the Columbias hull as a shield if you wish to navigate into position. However Commander Ariel was about to tell us the capabilities of her ship.” He finished writing this down then slid it over to the two newcomers, he would have to remember to bring an aid to the next meeting so he didn’t have to do all the writing himself.
Volkov turned to Utkin with a surprised look on his face. How Utkin managed to remain emotionless when the new aliens spoke what was obviously some form of Arabic actually impressed him. “I can understand new aliens, sir. My family had good friend from the Third Great War - he was a desolator, stationed in Middle East.”

Utkin reached over from his seat and picked up the new piece of paper from the Columbia delegation. “Inform the… Hiigarians know we can understand them, and continue translating. And writing.” He faced the tables at large.

“We appreciate the offer, Commander, and we vow to protect your vessels should hostile action be undertaken against them. We may be a peaceful mission, but our ship has bite. Please, continue.” Volkov started speaking Arabic while finishing the written cyrillic, and then handed the message to Commander Lorne.
Ariel was very surprised when one of the newcomers started speaking thickly accented Hiigaran. Well at least she found that out before using any codes in front of them and assuming they wouldn’t know. Regardless, everyone seemed to have good intentions, so she pressed on. “The Tor-Selim is a Hiigaran carrier, and is designed to function as the core of any Hiigaran battlegroup. It possesses the sensors and communications to facilitate command and control for an entire fleet over the course of the entire deployment. It carries a modest compliment of smaller craft in internal bays. Those internal bays are also equipped for the rapid repair and rearm of any Hiigaran craft in combat. It is not heavily armed or armoured though, and is best kept back from battle where it can best make use of its resourcing and construction facilities. Fully one third of the ship is devoted to construction bays, and with sufficient raw materials fighter squadrons and even frigates can be assembled and launched within the time most skirmishes will last. A portion of the ship is also devoted to storage and refinement of resources, which onboard resource collector ships can gather from asteroids, dust clouds and nebula. In a battlegroup, those collectors would also fulfil repair function for the Tor-Selim or accompanying capital ships. In order to transport any ships that cannot dock or Hyperspace on their own, we have a Hyperspace Wake Jump module that allows nearby ships to be carried along with the ship through Hyperspace. That is one of the most damaged modules of the ship right now though, so I cannot offer to take your ships in hyperspace if your own drives are damaged. As I mentioned to Commander Tyrell before, the ship is currently equipped with advanced research modules and a third of the crew are Kiith S’jet. Finally, we have a large Cryostasis vault for extra crew to man ships constructed in the field.” Ariel took a breath as she finished, it was a lengthy description. Hiigaran carriers were quite the marvel of technology after all.

She looked expectantly at the newcomers, hoping they’d follow suite and give a run down of their ships capabilities next.
Lorne listened to the description, glad that he no longer had to worry about writing it down. “The Columbia is one of twelve Battlestars currently in service-” It was annoying that he had to still write down his own comments however. “-she’s a Battle Carrier. Fully capable of constructing her own ammunition for combat she-” he noticed how Ariel had not given a gender specific pronoun in regards to the Tor Selim, however he simply guessed that they did not see the sense of identity that each ship seemed to have.

“-has a compliment of 240 Vipers, fighters, split into 12 squadrons with two acting as reserve. We also have 20 Raptors which are multi-purpose for Recon, Electronic Countermeasures, Combat and transport for DC teams and Marines. Despite her carrier role she has a thick hull with interchangeable armour plating designed for taking ordnance from cannons or missiles. She has just over 50 main cannon batteries, can deploy a flak barrier, has six regular missile silos and six designed for nuclear ordnance capable of leveling any enemy force on the surface of a planet. Our main advantage is that she is jump capable, as soon as we have the co-ordinates of an enemy attack we can be there instantly to deploy and counterattack.” Once he finished writing this down he slid it over to the Romanovas crew members to allow them to deal with it, and to go next.
Utkin read the lengthy (and somewhat hastily scrawled) message. He was very glad that he didn’t have to write anything down. Volkov, when Utkin glanced at him, had a look of steel. Clearly the man didn’t want to write anything down, either. Such were the privileges of rank.

“The Romanova is the latest Soviet spacecraft, tasked with a five year mission of exploration and friendship. She is armed with nine celestially-modified tesla coils of short to medium range, one primary coil of medium to long range, nine 23mm autocannons for point defense, and has six silos capable of nuclear or conventional missile launch. We also carry a full complement of 300 cosmonaut forces and have a temporary force field that is nigh-impenetrable. The Romanova also has the repatriated capitalist chronosphere technology, granting us the ability to teleport the Romanova and surrounding space to a new location. This is the technology that allowed us to arrive in this galaxy. As well, we have magnetron technology graciously gifted by the traitor Yuri in his pathetic surrender. The magnetron is capable of lifting car-sized objects from low orbit into space, though it can, of course, be used on objects of much greater mass when they are already in orbit.” He paused for a moment.

“Rest assured, of course, that we would never use our great firepower unless a dire need should arise. We are on a mission of peace and brotherly love, after all.”
Ariel couldn’t help but be impressed by the descriptions of the other ships. They sounded like significant forces on the field of battle, though of course they didn’t seem designed to operate alone as Hiigaran ships were. She didn’t quite understand some of the events the crew of the Romanova were talking about, though she assumed they were significant. The fact she was unaware of the events both of these aliens had described only served to further prove her theory that they were from other galaxies. She didn’t think it would be a good idea to bring that up yet though, not until she’d checked with Kira.

There were more pressing matters for the moment. “Now that we know what our capabilities are, what course of action should we take? For full repairs my ship needs to locate an asteroid field and harvest it for resources, but there seem to be more ships getting dumped out into space here that we could possibly ally with. I would personally prefer to leave here with as many allies as possible, but we should make decisions as a fleet now.” The success thus far had made Ariel quite optimistic that more of these strange ships would be allies, but there was still potential for a Khadesh scenario. She truly hoped that wouldn’t happen.
“The nature of our mission is to lay the groundwork for alliances. I cannot create an official alliance without the approval of the Premier. I do have, however, the power to make declarations of friendship and working alliances. I think it is in the best interests of the great Soviet Union to declare friends as many cultures as I am able,” Utkin said. Volkov, writing the whole thing down and translating into Arabic, suspected that Utkin was being long-winded on purpose. All he had had to do was say ‘Yes, I agree,’ not write a propaganda leaflet.

“If we do decide to make allies, then we should transmit the decision on as many frequencies as we can, explaining our intention,” Utkin finished.
Allies, more and more allies? This was just turning plain old weird. He didn’t mind working with people who he knew would be beneficial in the terms of these… Hiigarans and the Romanova became their allies out of distress. The more allies he had the more he had to work with, the more complicated things got. This was a warship gods damnit not a freaking diplomatic vessel. “I will go by the majority-” God he hated saying that as a military man. “-However I will say now, meetings like this should be compulsory when a new ship joins our little band so that they aren’t just lying through their teeth. I also wanted it noted here and now, that while I not accept networked computers. AI programs or robotics of any kind aboard my ship. Those are my ground rules. I am however willing to facilitate as the largest ship with the most deck space for the meet and greets.”

That was the best solution anyway, he did have the most room and that way he could keep an eye on it himself.
Ariel nodded at the consensus, happy that they were taking the diplomatic route. She wasn’t sure about using this ship as the hub for meetings and such, the commander seemed like he had some strong views on certain things, but on the other hand keeping the meeting point here meant any issues would be seen before they caused trouble. And he was right in saying this ship had the most space. The Tor-Selim may have had a few luxuries the Columbia didn’t, but it was also packed full - every bit of available space taken by some sort of system.

“Alright, it is decided then. We will seek out more allies from among the other ships.” She was finally getting to put her diplomatic education into use. “Without trying to sound arrogant, I suggest I be the one to negotiate. I have training for first contact and diplomacy as well as the most advanced translation technology. If I could have access to communications, I could begin contacting the other ships immediately.” She hoped it wasn’t too pretentious a situation, but it was obvious the others didn’t have any sort of training for diplomacy. She was the obvious choice, and there was no point wasting time, and potentially making the situation worse if others made mistakes in their own communications.
Lorne nodded his head, ever so slightly. “I was about to suggest so myself. I’m a military man not a negotiator. I am okay with you leading the negotiations for as long as you keep myself and the Romanova up to date with any terms of a treaty. I’d also like to be present during first contact. However if you agree to these terms, the Romanova agrees to these terms and your Commander also agrees then I will set you up with Officers Quarters and get you up to speed with our communication system.” He finished writing this down and slid it over to the delegates from the Romanova. It was up to them now.
After the Romanova delegation agreed, before stating they had to return to their ship. Lorne lead the other delegate, Ariel. Too CIC. He turned to her before he went in, “Your marines will have to remain outside.” With that he nodded to the marine at the other side of the glass door who opened it and he then walked in. There was the usual chatter that filled the room as everyone went about their stations.
Hidden 10 yrs ago Post by Maxxorlord
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On the Ark’s Bridge

“Sir,” Ratchet called to Ultra Magnus from his station, “we’ve received a return signal. I don’t recognize the hardware, but I believe I’ve cleared most of the static.” He informed his superior.”Play it for me.” Ultra Magnus ordered, pacing across the front of the bridge.

Ark... This is Admiral Lafrau Morray of His Holiness' Battleship, Culling of Prospero... We cannot provide any starcharts of the local area, but we are in need of assistance at this time. Any assistance you could render would be..." There was a short pause in the transmission, “Appreciated..."

Ultra Magnus grunted after listening to the messages three or four times. He considered letting the ship fend for itself, due to its inability or unwillingness to provide star charts. Optimus wouldn’t want that, though. He’d sooner give them his own spark than leave them alone. “Jetfire, this is Ultra Magnus. Come in Jetfire.”

In the Med Bay of the Ark

To describe the Med Bay as overcrowded would be an understatement. There were wounded Autobots everywhere. Literally. Every single med station was taken by the most critical cases, and the less serious were propped up against crates or lying down on the floor. There weren’t nearly enough medics to go around, so the medical staff had recruited a number of troopers to assist them. Optimus Prime was located in the center of the Med Bay, where the most advanced surgery equipment was placed. There were three full time medical officers crowded around the table, and a number of enlisted troopers helping them. Jetfire stepped away from Optimus, raising a finger to his head.”This is Jetfire. What do you need, sir?” Jetfire’s accented voice came back over the bridge’s communications systems.”I need you to take a few of your tech savvy Aerialbots and head over to the Culling of Prospero. I’ll have it marked on your HU-“Jetfire interrupted Ultra Magnus, much to the acting captain’s dislike.

“With all due respect, sir, I’m needed here. With Ratchet on the bridge and not here, I’m heading up the medical team. We need Ratchet down here, sir, if you’re going to assign me to repairing a foreign vessel.”

Ultra Magnus’s faceplate contorted in frustration.”Fine. Send Voltage up to the bridge to take his place organizing the repairs.”

“Thank you, sir.” Jetfire cut off the line with Ultra Magnus.”Volts get to the bridge! Captain needs you. Nuts, Bolts, where are you two?” Jetfire calls over the sounds of the Med Bay. A pair of Seekers with identical chassis comes dashing from a crowd of medics.”You’re coming with me.” The three Seekers pushed their way out of the Med Bay and into the hallway crowded with Autobots looking for their wounded comrades.

On the Ark’s Bridge
“This is Ultra Magnus to Admiral... L- Lafrau Morray..?” How was he expected to pronounce that name? “I’m sending three of my best engineers over to the Culling of Prospero. They will do their best to assist you in repairing your vessel. I will also be coming with them, for the purposes of establishing first contact with your race. I trust that is acceptable?”

After Ratchet translated the message and sent it to the Culling of Prospero, he stood and left the bridge with great haste.

Ultra Magnus heaved out a sigh.”Keep tabs on the other ships and their transmissions, will you?” With that, the acting captain left the bridge.”Jetfire. Bring your tow cables…I’m coming with you.”

Space

A trio of Cybertronian fighter craft shot out from one of the Ark’s various launch tubes. The ships pulled up alongside each other, and turned back towards the launch tube, firing off their tow cables inside. They pulled back, dragging out what appeared to be a ground transport of some sort, to any on lookers. The ships turned again, and flew towards the Culling of Prospero. They drew around to the rear of the ship, and waited for some sort of bay doors to open for them. Once they were inside, they would transform out of their alternative forms…
Hidden 10 yrs ago Post by mattmanganon
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-The Bridge-

Admiral Morray sat in his chair, lamenting the whole situation. Xeno's were going to board his vessel and attempt to repair it, he couldn't imagine how the Priests were going to take this. "Open the hangar doors..." he said, rubbing his head.

***

-The Hangar-

After the hangar pressurized and the recipients boarded, they were greeted by the sight of the Hangar... It looked less like a military facility and more like a shrine. On the ceiling, they would see a beautifully painted mural of a Wolf with a Vulture in its jaws, blood dripping from it. The door opened and the crew came back in, the Techpriests running over to inspect the new vessels and the Inquisitors retinue walking towards them. If they looked hard enough, they might have seen 3 shimmering outlines moving beside the Inquisitors retinue. He stood and prepared for the ships to open some form of ramp to allow the occupants to exit. He was instead shocked to see them transform, break apart and reconstitute themselves in humanoid forms, most of the staff went for their weapons. "NECRONS!!!" yelled a guardsman as he slammed the Emergency button next to the door. Immediately, the rooms bright lights went Red as people scrambled for the big guns. The Inquisitor quickly sized up the situation and pressed a button on his gauntlet, the lights turning back. His Servo-Skull flew up and produced a hologram of him.

"STAND DOWN!!!" it boomed. Everyone stopped as the Inquisitor ordered, they knew that they would probably be executed if they didn't. Aminah leaned in to him, her Inferno Pistol pointed at them.

"Sir, are you sure that's wise?" she whispered.

"If they were Necrons, then they would have simply destroyed the ship from the outside, when was the last time you heard a Necron talk?" He replied. "And they have no Necron markings."

"You are saying we should trust these Xeno's?" she whispered again.

"I am saying we shouldn't start shooting when our ship isn't ready for a fight." he replied. Aminah holstered her pistol and the rest of the Hangar seemed to go back to normal. At that point, several more Iron Priests burst in, headed by Lemanicus.

"WHERE'S-" he then saw the Transforming robots. "By the allfathers beard..." he said. The Inquisitor looked up at the robots.

"Alien creatures... I am Inquisitor Viqtor Remly, of the Immortal God Emperor's Ordo Malleus. We thank you for your assistance. I apologize for the alarm my men have caused... You resemble an enemy of our species, one bent on the destruction of all life. We were merely startled." He had dealt with Xeno's before and was curious about this technology they possessed. "Can we... Meet with whomever is piloting that vehicle?" he asked. "Or, are you interned in that vessel?" he asked.

****

-The Medical Bay-

The medical bay was abuzz with activity as the Wolf Lord entered. Kurn looked around, seeing his brothers layed out on medical tables, nearby, Morican was treating a Space Marine that was laid out on the table. Kurn walked towards him and got down on one knee, bowing to him. "Forgive me, Father, but I require your council." Morican finished applying a salve before turning back to Kurn.

"Do not ask forgiveness when none is required." replied the priest. "I have heard that we are not in our galaxy anymore... And you come to me for council? I must say I am flattered by your confidence, but I question your logic." They moved away from the bustle of the medical bay. "I am afraid that my guidance in this matter can only be spiritual. I'm not much of an astrophysicist."

"Spiritual guidance is what I require the most." he said as they continued to walk, blood being cleaned off the walls by the cleanup crews.

****

The Lord General and his men had been sweeping the ship for straggling Daemons, the only ones they had found were dead, either riddled with bullets or cut to pieces by their own allies. He had gone back to the War Room and was looking over the data that their scanners were picking up about the planet bellow. Sparse clusters of settlements... With human lifesigns... This was most purplexing. Purhaps they weren't the only humans to be transported here. The Lord General looked over to Grumm in the corner. "Ogryn, why are you not with the Azuriah?" he asked. The Ogryn looked back at the General and waited for his miniscule brain to tell him what to answer.

"Boss said... Said..." he looked as though he was straining to think. "Wanted to be alone..." he struggled out.

"Alright, follow me then. We are going down to the planet." The Ogryn saluted and walked to stand beside the Lord General, whom was half his size. "There are few I look up to, Ogryn, but with you I suppose I have little choice in the matter." he chuckled. Grumm let out a big belly laugh, he didn't get the joke, but he had learned to laugh when others did so. Unfortunately, as much as his kind could be taught, the greatest minds in the Imperium had failed to teach them the importance of dental hygiene, so the faint smell of rotting meat filled the room whenever he laughed. Siegfried waved his hand in front of his face as his smile turned to a disgusted frown as he walked away.

He grabbed a Vox phone off of the wall and pressed a series of buttons. "Flight Control, this is Lord General Siegfried Wallace, I want a Thunderhawk and a pair of Valkyries prepped and ready for flight, I am taking a small detachment down to the surface to investigate the reports of Human life. Have a pair of Chimera's loaded onto the Valkyries. and have a squad of Scout Sentinels loaded into the Thunderhawk." he ordered, he then hung up before pressing in a few more numbers. "Quartermaster, have a detachment of our men loaded for Desert warfare and have a detachment of Fang Riders ready for deployment on the surface." he then looked up at Grumm. "And have Plorgans Mournfang loaded as well." he sighed. This was going to be a fast moving operation and Ogryns were claustrophobic, there was no way he was going to get into the confined space of a Chimera without ripping it apart in an attempt to escape.

Heading down to Hangar 4, they watched as the monsterous Thunderhawk was loaded with the Sentinels. Several Guardsmen with Hunting Lances, astride wolves passed them slowly and headed to the ship. Then there was a loud grown as the giant Mornfang was brought towards the ship. It was easily taller than the General and almost taller than Grumm. The Ogryn grabbed its head and cradled it with love. Ogryns loved battle, but they loved their beasts as much. It's monsterous jaws opened and the General honestly feared for his life, before it's long, leathery tongue ran up the Ogryns face. I suppose they make a good pair. the General thought as they began walking to the Ship.

In a matter of minutes, the trio of deployment craft headed for the planet bellow.
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