“Good news, captain. It’s the USS Aurora. They’re on their way.”

The overstressed acting captain sighed, finally allowing herself to relax slightly. The situation was now somewhat less critical.

“Fantastic. Instruct them to prioritize their efforts on the Magicienne. Did they say USS Aurora, Lieutenant Harper?”

The science officer looked up from her console after consulting the computer. “Yes. USS Aurora, Constitution-class, and according to Starfleet records… decommissioned 2311.”

That… Was certainly odd, but perhaps it was explainable. “Was the Aurora decommissioned into civilian use?”

“It was mothballed and eventually scrapped. Interesting, captain. The USS Aurora we see before us matches no known Constitution-class specifications. The spaceframe doesn’t match the Constitution-class and cursory scans indicate it is far more advanced than what we would expect of that type.”

Noelle was flummoxed. “And the registry number is the same?”

“Yes. It is unlikely that is a new ship. It’s clearly from an older technological era. I may have an explanation, however,” offered the science officer. “It seems increasingly likely from our situation that we may not even be in our own universe. Perhaps this USS Aurora may be from a divergent timeline or even a separate universe.”

“I suppose we’ll have to ask them when they come aboard, then.”

---

Twenty minutes later

The situation had improved dramatically since the arrival of the USS Aurora. With functional transporters, they were quickly able to beam aboard the survivors of the Magicienne into their respective sickbays, but unfortunately, they were only able to save 220 of the nearly 800 crewmembers aboard the newer starship. Even so, sickbay was working overtime to triage the remainder of the crew, with the help of the USS Aurora. Direct reports from Lt. Khamitov, who was sent over to work directly with the Aurora’s chief medical officer seemed to confirm Nephenee and the captain’s theory, but they would know for sure when the captain could speak with the Aurora’s first officer Alara.

“Captain, the first officer of the Aurora has arrived,” said the security officer on the bridge. Noelle nodded, turning to address the officer as she arrived on the bridge.

“Welcome aboard the USS Illustrious, Commander Alara. Unfortunately, Captain Pearson did not survive our accident. I am acting captain Noelle Tatham Poole. Thank you for your assistance.”

Vladimir slowly rubbed his eyes, recovering from the sudden flash. His ears ringing, he slowly took in his surroundings. A desk in front of him, with a labtop on him. Behind him, his thinkDOS computers. He was in his office. The headset laying on his desk was going insane; the chef was screaming gibberish as usual, the janitor was crying, the AI was promoting communism, the quartermaster was bellowing, and the captain was slurring drunkenly, his microphone left on. Grabbing it up quickly, Vladimir placed it over his ear and got up. He needed to reach the bridge.

---

Commie Bot 9000 quickly switched cameras, not bothering to stop his monologue on the filth of capitalism. Coming to a view of the comm dish, he quickly accessed the interface, loading the messages to his shell.

"Unidentified vessels. By the power given to me by the Supreme Emperor of the Galactic Empire I hereby order you to declare yourselves immediately and to stand down and enter formation with the nearest Cruiser. From there you will be boarded to ensure that you do not pose a threat to the peoples of Coruscant. Do you comply with these orders?"

Rage flooded his neural net processor. Who do these people think they are? This was an insult to his very being, he had to act. His view switched again, to a camera overlooking the communications ThinkDOS computer. Quickly tapping in a few command lines, he composed a voice message.

"We DO NOT comply with these orders, pigs. Your empire is STUPID.. And.. And.. DUMB. Communism is the only way. I demand an immediate restructure of your government to give power to the workers."

Switching back to the comms dish, he attached the voice message to a communications packet, sending it outwards in all directions.

---

Brobot pinged as he detected the data packet being sent out, quickly speaking into his built-in radio.

"Hey, uh, guys, AI just sent out a comms packet, might want to check that out.

“Unknown”

Came the inevitable answer from the ships AI. “Thats not good enough Valerie.” Rhea said with a stern edge in her voice. “Find out.” The hologram of Valerie shot an indignant look at her captain before flickering out of existence. No sooner had she done this than the image of her face on the rightmost of the bridges three forward screens spoke again. “Captain, we are in orbit of an unknown planet, and we are not alone. There are a number of other ships of various unknown configurations also in orbit.” Rhea rested her head in her hand as the report came in. It was going to be one of those days it seemed. “Is there anything in system that doesn’t fall under the qualifier ‘unknown’?” Rhea had a feeling she’d be hearing the word a lot for the rest of the day, but there had to be at least some points of similarity that the ship could identify.

The AI glared at her from the screen for a moment, she was a scout ship, and being called out on an inability to quickly gather information was like calling the AI of a Glorious Heritage class heavy cruiser a coward. Annoyance was evident in her voice when she spoke again. “Yes, in fact there is. A number of the ships are hailing us, all of them are speaking English.” Rhea sighed then, she’d hardly managed to pick herself up from being thrown across the bridge and already the unknowns wanted to talk to her. “Alright, put the first one through.”

"Unidentified vessels. By the power given to me by the Supreme Emperor of the Galactic Empire, I hereby order you to declare yourselves immediately and to stand down and enter formation with the nearest Cruiser. From there, you will be boarded to ensure that you do not pose a threat to the peoples of Coruscant. Do you comply with these orders?"

Rhea just stared at her AI’s face with a deadpan expression for a moment after the message ended, before finally breaking the silence by speaking, in a semi-sarcastic voice “Well at least the Nietzscheans didn’t win.” The AI responded quickly though, having already returned to the conversational tone she usually delivered news in. “It’s not the Commonwealth either. I haven’t discovered where are, but I’ve discovered where we aren’t. Constellations and Stellar expansion charts indicate that we are no longer in the known worlds. I have compared our positions with Commonwealth exploration charts as well, and there was no match. We aren’t even close to known space.” That put a damper on things. Barring time travel, there was no way Rhea could get the Valorous Intent back to the fleet for the battle now, assuming she could even get back to the known worlds at all.

Rhea’s initial thought was to allow the locals to board. They didn’t seem like they would be very happy if she denied them that, but there was no way they could easily dock a shuttle. The drone bays were quite full and cramped at the best of times anyway, and the Valorous Intent did not have the cavernous port and starboard docking bays that an XMC had. No, allowing them to board would mean docking with one of their ships, which would both put her in easy weapons range and allow the larger enemy ships to easily overrun the small crew of the Intent in a massed boarding action. she would have to deny them, but perhaps she could do it in a way that would keep her options open and avoid being fired upon immediately.

“Valerie, hail the ship that sent the message” A quick sideways flick of the eyes was all the response she got before Valerie announced “Channel is open.” Rhea didn’t know if these unknowns were able to receive the visual feed or not, but she acted like they could, standing straight and tall in her black High Guard uniform in the center of the bridge, the very image of an officer of the Systems Commonwealth. “Galactic Empire vessel.” She began, choosing her words carefully. “This is the Systems Commonwealth starship Valorous Intent, we do not intend harm to you or the planet below, and would like to submit to your request. However, our airlocks have been damaged -” An outright lie, but it was likely these unknowns would be unable to tell “- and it is currently be impossible for you to board.” Their response to this would give Rhea some indication of what kind of an Empire she was facing. If they just fired on her, she would have to consider them an enemy to be avoided, but if they offered aid, then at least they might be reasoned with. That or their leaders were not brutish thugs who solved everything by shooting first. Either way she’d have to pay them more heed and watch for traps.

Moments after the hail was cut Valerie’s face scrunched into a frown and she spoke, a degree of concern in her voice “Captain something unusual is happening…” Rhea immediately turned to face the representation of the AI. “What is it now?” In a whole day of unusual events, now apparently there was one that was more unusual than the rest. “Something is trying to get in.” Valerie said indignantly. “Another AI just attacked me. He didn’t stay long, but I think he was searching for files on the ships specifications. I traced his signal, he came from that ship.” She said, highlighting one of the blips that indicated the vessels surrounding the Intent. “Did he get anything?” Rhea’s response was slightly alarmed, she wasn’t used to fighting people with AI’s, and she didn’t look forward to the experience. The hologram of Valerie appeared then, next to Rhea and looking pleased with herself. The face on the screen looked at the hologram with a scowl as the three dimensional image spoke. “Please, no AI can out-do me in my own body.” The image only smirked before disappearing again.

USS Aurora – Near Coruscant
Peter sat in his command chair, more than a little bit worried. He knew at some point the locals would be getting jittery and annoyed; and with little to no choice decided to bite the bullet.

“Lieutenant Weller – please open a communication to one of the Empire vessels and advise that we are answering a distress call, and as such are unable to submit to boarding or further discussion currently. Once we have done that – we’ll be more than happy to comply.”
She raised her eyebrow at this. “We’re actually going to let them aboard?”
“Don’t be silly” he admonished gently. “I’m just trying to bide some more time.”
“Okay Captain.”
He could hear her paraphrasing what he said and sending it to the local ships. It was then L’Pel interrupted. “Captain, if I may, it appears they did not heed Lieutenant Weller, as one ship is on an intercept course and they’re moving quite fast.”
“Great, so they’re annoyed?”
“I am unable to determine their state-of-mind from here Captain.”
“I know….” Pausing very briefly to catch his breath, turning to look back to Katie, “Contact Alara and tell her we have inbound.”

Click This said “Captain, the first officer of the Aurora has arrived,” said the security officer on the bridge. Noelle nodded, turning to address the officer as she arrived on the bridge.“Welcome aboard the USS Illustrious, Commander Alara. Unfortunately, Captain Pearson did not survive our accident. I am acting captain Noelle Tatham Poole. Thank you for your assistance.”

USS Illustrious
With little time for pleasantries, more than aware that they were against the clock especially while in an unfamiliar system, an unknown Federation craft she decided to get right down to brass tacks. “Yes indeed, I am Commander Alara Lannigan, but please continue to call me Alara.” Her skin still had a slight sheen of sweat from the exertion of getting to the bridge. She extended her hand to shake the acting captain’s.

“I am sorry for your loss, as I know that eventually we all become surrogate families – so this must hit quite hard. We’ll do everything we can do to help though. What else can be supply you with to get going?”

OOC: Theoretically I guess anyone that ran a quantum scan on Alara would quickly determine that they are from another universe, and likely her time period.

“Excuse me said politely.” Quickly she picked up her communicator and flipped it open. She could hear the Captain’s voice, and there seemed little point in trying to be deceitful ensured the others could it hear it too.
“Yes Captain. I’m with acting Captain Noelle Poole. Their Captain did not survive their arrival.”
“I am sorry to hear that” Peter remarked. “Alara, we have one Empire ship inbound, and it seems that they may be kinda mad.”
“Was it because we did not respond to them?”
“Pretty sure that is the case. We need to ensure the Illustrious is ready to go, even if it means limping from the system at partial impulse.”
“Understood Captain” she said flipping the communicator closed. Turning to Noelle, “You heard all that I hope?” Taking a deep breath, "I'll stay on board if you'll have me, and you just tell me what I need to do."

Bridge
Raza had been briefed on their Inspection situation, all but one of these imperials was to be detained in the hanger bay. The officer was free to tour non-essential areas, under extreme guard, to his heart’s content.

The two MP’s outside the bridge saluted which he hastily returned before the bulkhead hissed open and he made his way into the bustling room. “Report” His bridge officers continued to work as each gave a report in turn.

“Main reactor ready to go sir, I can give you 100% power. Secondary reactors are still offline at this time, Vasilyev can give you a full report. “ Officer Garza had the best report, It got worse from there.

“MAC system seems to be having some problems sir, it will charge but only slowly. We have teams checking the power conduits but by my estimates it will take 20 minutes to charge to full power again once we fire” Scott shrugged, Caber knew he was doing the best he could given the circumstances but still sighed to himself, the MAC was there main offensive weapon.

“Nothing new to report sir, only new contacts on scan are civilian in nature, awaiting helm controls” Officer Kim was the only one of the bridge crew who was still, her hands poised over the controls that would get the ship moving.

“Sir, you going to want to review com logs since you relinquished the bridge. It looks like Caden made everyone angry” The last part of her sentence delivered slowly, Officer Haley winced as the AI looked in her direction from the direction of the holo tank.

“Forward the logs to my station Lieutenant” The logs appeared on his console and he went through them as quickly as possible. He face became stern as he listened.
“Caden” his voice almost a whisper. Realizing what the AI had done was completely within the bounds of orders he had received in the hectic first moments in this new galaxy, he looked at the glowing avatar in the forward bridge “monitor traffic from the confines of this ship, you are not to execute Cyberware unless I order it, is that clear?” The Hooded AI betrayed no emotion, simulated or otherwise. “Perfectly sir, I will attend to my task” his avatar flickered and died, Wendak looked uneasy at the dismissal of his counterpart. That, is the most pig headed, stubborn AI Ive ever worked with

“Lieutenant Haley, open a channel to all the ships Caden attacked which we believe are not of this galaxy” Officer Haley quickly compiled a list and set the com to open broadcast on the frequencies they were believed to be using.

“Extra-Galactic vessels, on behalf of the UNSC I would like to formally apologize for the actions of our cyberwarefare suite, it acted of its own initiative and against standing orders” A white lie, but necessary “We have gathered data on our current location and are willing to share this data as an act of good faith. This channel will remain open as a direct line to the bridge of the UNSC Icarus and its command crew. Caber out” he gave a cut gesture to his communications officer and the transmission was cut, the direct channel left open.

Sitting down he “Navigation, give me engines 20%, Come to heading Zero Four Nine, Declination Zero Zero Five Point Eight” Lieutenant Kim repeated his order back to him before the Icuras moved slightly beneath him, slowly nudging them toward the quickly forming group of The Ospery and the Andromeda.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Aft Hanger Bay

The few remaining ground crew still vacating the area looked on in shock. The Imperial Shuttle seemed to settle to the deck as if by magic, no thrusters, no emissions, nothing. ODST Troopers, a hundred on each side of the slowly descending exit ramp of the shuttle, came to attention as the party of humans descended. Major Raza, her tiny frame flanked by 8 green armored body guards and four towering Mantis walkers farther back, looked what she thought to be the leader directly in the eye as he approached her between the ranks of troopers.

"In the name of the Emperor I have been tasked to search your ship for enemies of the state. We will render medical and technical aid if necessary and once the search is complete we will be willing to send over a diplomatic envoy to welcome you to the Empire." The man stared directly back at her, unflinching. Standing a full head higher than her, he was quiet imposing.

Raza smiled, her eyes filled with amusement “Right this way sir, I am Major Raza. Your soilders can remain here under the” She looked around at the ranks of troopers before looking back at the man “Protection of our fine troopers here. I would be happy to give you a tour of our vessel, Mister…?” She stepped aside, just enough for the imperial officer to proceed between her two rows of body guards.

EDFS Andromeda

Bridge

The Imperial delegation had arrived and was safely in the hangar bay, and Brandon was busy making sure the ship operated to expectations, amidst the growing conglomeration of ships and traffic, including debris, strangely. But that wasn't his problem at the moment. No, he was more nervously eying the nearby triangle shaped ship, as well as the entourage their vessel seemed to be picking up. First the Osprey, and now more, not counting strike craft. At such close quarters, with the Admiral down below and the XO off the ship, it made him nervous.

Dmitri sat up as a message came across. "Sir, the Icarus responded. They say that their cyberwarfare suite...acted of it's own initiative. They're also forwarding data on our location."

Brandon frowned. "What, like an AI? But that's dumb, why would you let it do stuff on it's own? Yes, the Yamato had a robot, but it was only ever for assistance. It didn't offensively act of it's own initiative." Something didn't sit right here, but given that they had no evidence to the contrary, they would have to go along with it.

Hart looked up from the radar screen. "Sir, the Icarus is moving into formation with us and the Osprey."

"I see," Brandon replied with a slight frown. "Alright, let them do it for the moment. But keep everyone alert. I'm not going to let us get sucker punched if I can hep it."

---

Hangar of the Culling of Prospero

Roche, clad in his navy blue XO's uniform, a deviation from the normal standard jumpsuit, looked between the lord General and the other man as his entry was accepted, and he disembarked the Seagull to stand on the deck, the medical personnel in black on yellow jumpsuits, with equipment in hand, filing out behind him, apparently anxious to get to work, though low muttering at what they were seeing could be heard as well. "It's nothing," Roche replied. "We would expect you to do the same for us if we needed assistance, and it's an established part of maritime tradition to aid those in need, even if they may not share the same allegiance as you."

The next question caught him off guard, and he couldn't stop a puzzled look from escaping. Chaos Gods? Warpfiends? Black or White or regular kind?Any sense he had of these people was blasted away in an instance. So, he tried to tactfully phrase this as best he could. "I couldn't tell you, sadly," he replied, trying to placate. "While we do travel via warp, we are in it for minutes at most as our vessel transits the fourth dimension. No one has ever staged an attack, or been attacked, while in warp. Though given all that has been going on, it would seem reasonable to assume that you and I are not from the same universes, as it were."

---

Hangar of the Andromeda

Hijikata stood watched, arm folded behind his back, and with security personnel in blue on white uniforms ready behind him, themselves armed with pulsar rifles for defense and helmets, as the V winged shuttle landed with a hum, landing struts dropping to the deck before a ramp slid out. He was...suitably impressed. They obviously had some advanced technology, given that they didn't have the same type of characteristic landing that a Cosmo Tiger did, the ability to practically land on a dime or hover in midair as it were.

The troops that filed out impressed as well, their armor white with grey markings, unblemished and clean, with strange black weapons that looked like rifles, though he couldn't fathom how they worked as of yet. Then a man in grey with a gold droid walking behind him, something that caught Hijikata's interest given the dearth of robotic intelligence in the Earth Federation. Certainly not one as advanced as that (It was a far cry from the famous robot of the Yamato

Hijikata stepped slightly forward and nodded. "On behalf of the Earth Federation I welcome you aboard the EDFS Andromeda I am certain you will not find any war criminals, and relations can proceed smoothly. At this point in time though I must ask that you refrain from touching our equipment. We wouldn't want to have an unfortunate accident. as well, I would like to request that your troops stay here for the duration of the visit. No need to provoke an accidental firefight over a cultural misunderstanding."

He stepped to the side and waved the man forward through the honor guard of Marines. "Come, let's begin the tour, shall we?" He was far from intimidated, having faced down top brass and politicians. What was one man to him, not even a Captain if he had to hazard a guess? He'd seen worse.

UNSC Icarus - Hanger Bay.

The Lieutenant waved at two off his stormtroopers who formed in. "I am sure you understand as a military officer that if you have guards I have guards. Do not worry you easily outnumber us." Though this was partially a threat as while he may be outnumbered on the ship outside there was a lot of firepower directed at the vessel. "We can skip out the meet and greet Major. I am Lieutenant Kirstanza. While the diplomatic envoy would surely love a tour of your ship. That is not why I am here. I am here to try and discover if you have any war criminals aboard your ship. This is a trying time, as due to the instability of the Republic the Chancellor has reformed it into the Empire and we're in a time of transition. Your ships appearance is not helping in the matters especially with the Jedi Rebels still on the loose. Take me to the bridge so I can review navigational data to ensure that you have not been anywhere to pick up fugitives. Once I have done a preliminary check, assistance will be rendered and so on. I am sure you understand, and would do such precautions if it was our ship appearing in your own galaxy in such a time."

---

Prospero

There was a strange... absence on the ship. That was the best way Anakin could explain it. Something just didn't seem quite right. Especially the vehicles and the armour. It looked like it worked but it all seemed to backwards from current technological standards. Though he wasn't going to bring things like that up yet, nor the fact that there had been no real Empire before now. Not one that controlled the whole Galaxy anyway. With what his new Master had told him time travel could be possible so he might be able to convince these beings off that too. Make them some ancient ancestors. "If you do the will of the Emperor and my Master then I doubt you will harbour any Jedi war criminals. However I would search for them in the Force but that has proven in-effective. I will need to go over your navigational charts to ensure that there is nowhere you could have crossed paths with them. If you have we will need to do a more thorough search. Once I have done the preliminary check however I will be able to offer aid both medical and technical."

---

EDFS Andromeda

The man shrugged slightly as he waved at two members of his escort. "I am sure you will understand my unwillingness to go with absolutely no escort. Two guards will accompany me-" It wasn't a request by the way he spoke it. "-They will not fire unless directly ordered too. You have me far outnumbered anyway. Also with all due respect I am not the diplomatic envoy. I have a job to do while here and it is to ensure that there are no war criminals aboard this vessel. I require to see your navigational data immediately to learn if you may have crossed paths with them. If you have not we will render medical and technical aid as needed until a more thorough search can be carried out."

---

Admiral Loff

He was getting fed up of these ships now. Apparently some form of space station had appeared, in fact his vessel had to perform maneuvers not to hit it. Then when ordering it to stand down it had declared that they had to redo the entire political system. He had quickly jammed their transmissions so that only he would pick them up. He turned to one of the officers aboard the bridge. "Have fighter groups quarantine that vessel. Re-iterate that it is not optional. If they do not let us inspect it willingly we will do so by force and I cannot guarantee the safety of their crew or their ability to retain the vessel."

He looked back at the tactical display as the vessel calling itself the Icarus began moving closer to the Andromeda and a smaller vessel whose name they had not pinned yet. The commanders of the vessels circling Icarus however had already done as they should, adjusting their formation to keep their weapons on it. Next played the transmission from one of the other new arrivals. Broken airlocks, a likely story. "Inform our friends that we have adequete drydock facilities they can dock at. Refusal to be searched will no tbe taken likely. While you are at it re-iterate to the Aurora the same thing.""They say they are in rescue operations sir.""Inform them that as this is our space during war time we shall render aid and while we appreciate their assistance until they have been searched we cannot permit it. Send this to all vessels. I want all traffic between them ceased. Be ready to jam their transmissions if necessary."

This wasn't his favourite day. "Arm weapons across the fleet. If this comes to blows we're going to deal with it swiftly and with efficiency."

"Anything yet?"

"Nothing beyond simple identification and weapon readings, sir," Sam replied to Bradley's anticipation, sighing in defeat. "Ship layouts are too large to scan properly, and we can't penetrate their integral data. No offense, sir, but this ship wasn't made for in-depth reconnaissance."

"Acknowledged," Bradley responded, unintentionally mirroring Sam's sigh. "...How about the Imperials?"

Sam perked up a bit, probably eager for a change of topic. "They've already sent out... three shuttles, all docked with other ships. It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume we're in queue," the lady reported. With a glance out of the corner of the bridge's viewport, Bradley confirmed her report, noting the shuttle docking with the Andromeda. But out of the other side-

“Extra-Galactic vessels, on behalf of the UNSC I would like to formally apologize for the actions of our cyberwarfare suite, it acted of its own initiative and against standing orders. We have gathered data on our current location and are willing to share this data as an act of good faith. This channel will remain open as a direct line to the bridge of the UNSC Icarus and its command crew. Caber out.”

Bradley narrowed his eyes at the transmission as he witnessed the Icarus moving into parallel position with the Osprey and the Andromeda. A cyberwarfare suite acting out of line? That would be only attributed to a particularly feisty A.I. While Bradley acknowledged that practically all ships had some form of automation in its systems, rarely was a fully-fledged A.I. used in the Federation, precisely for this sort of reason. The Icarus was already putting itself in bad standings with everyone else, and they knew it.

The pilot was snapped back to attention by a comm from Klehhi. "Hey, skinnie, get in a better position so we can shoot 'em! C'mon!" When the only response was a stern stare from his superior, he craned, "Don't me you're NOT going to shoot them! My terminal's all flecked up because of those-"

"Not our problem right now, Klehhi. You'll just have t-"

"We DO NOT comply with these orders, pigs. Your empire is STUPID.. And.. And.. DUMB. Communism is the only way. I demand an immediate restructure of your government to give power to the workers."

"And why is it not our problem?" Sturm boomed from another comm. "Their actions have resulted in the exposure of critical mission data, and the loss of our ally Michiel! Do not tell me, human, that you do not seek retribution for such actions-"

"ENOUGH!" Bradley's voice pounded over the ship-wide comms. "In case none of you have bothered to notice, we currently remain literally surrounded by individual vessels with far more size, power and influence than us. That cyber attack was only raw evidence of what ONE ship was capable of without even TRYING to harm us! Wherever or whenever we currently are, our aim is still to return back to the Federation's last stand and destroy the Rebel Flagship. If there is a risk of us being destroyed before that happens, we are NOT taking it! Understood?" Bradley's face was pale-red in anger at the overwhelming series of unfortunate events.

Kurn

Kurn looked rather confused by the mans reaction... Another Universe? Preposterous. "I do not know what you are talking about, you are Human are you not? That means that you were bore from the bosom of holy mother Terra." he said. "I believe that this conversation should wait until we are in better shape." At that point, the Lord General fell to a knee as the bleeding ran down his leg. The guardsmen beside him shouldered their lasguns and got him to his feet.

"I apologize, my lord... I might have to do something most unbecoming of a General and pass out." he groaned. "Although, if you so order it, I will of course try to stop being a big nancy and bleed out after my duties are completed."

"General, get immediate medical attention, that's an order." Kurn said sternly.

"As you wish... Sir." He replied, he and his men began hobbling towards the lifts to get to the medical bay. Kurn looked at the giant Ogryn next to him.

"Would you assist the Lord General to the Medibay?" he asked. The Ogryn looked a little confused. "Pick up the General." the Ogryn nodded "And take him to Father Beniiel." he said. The Ogryn thought for a second then saluted.

"Yes, boss" he said as he walked towards the General and picked him up like a parent picking up their baby (Grumm being twice the size of the Lord General certainly helping with this illusion) slumping him over his shoulder and walking towards the lift. Luckily for the General, Grumm had just yesterday had his weekly wash, so the gagging stench of body-oder that usually surrounded the hulking great beasts was only mild today.

"Follow the Lord General to our Medi-bay." he said to the Medical team. "Most of our critical patients are there. Father Beniiel is doing what he can, but he can't be everywhere at once." He walked with the XO "I highly suggest getting an Ogryn bodyguard, they may not be the smartest or most hygenic creatures, but you will be hard stretched to find one more fiercely loyal or deadly in battle." Being that they were walking behind the Ogryn, the XO would be able to make out the words "Blessed with a mind too small for doubt." tattooed to into the back of his head.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Viqtor

The Inquisitor watched the man as he talked. Every word made him more and more convinced that this man had nothing to do with the Imperium. He looked around the room, wondering where 3 of his men were hiding... His top Assassins, the Ogryn, the Abomination and the Vindicair Disciple. He continued to act friendly, safe in the knowledge that, wherever they were, they were ready willing and able to take this man out the moment things got dicey. As Anaking approached the Inquisitor, the Kroot tracker stepped between them and began sniffing at the Sith Lord. Aminah took her Inferno pistol out of her belt and pointed it at the Kroot, as the Clones all pointed their weapons at her. "Step back in line, Xeno!" she ordered sternly. The Kroot did as he was told.

"This one does not smell like the others, his Genes are different... Desirable..." he muttered to the Inquisitor. Aminah holstered her pistol.

"I do apologize." said Viqtor. "He is an excellent tracker, but lacks common manners, something that my attache here cannot abide... As for these "Jedi" feel free to search our vessel, and I will provide you with a copy of our movement records. Medical aid is appreciated, but the technical aid... Our priests are, naturally, a little touchy and will only allow brothers of the faith touch our machines." he said. One of the Techpriests was eyeballing Anakin from across the bay. the Dreadnought that he was working on also turned to look at him.

SSV Normandy SR-2

The flash ended, and Commander Shepard kept rushing to Command, "Joker. What the hell was that?" a flurry of activity of bridge personnell soon revealed the situation which EDI reported, "No damage to the ship or ship personnel. External Sensors are unable to determine our location."

Shepard looked towards Joker, "Mass Effect relays?" she asked. Each relay had a system that kept the Galaxy's extranet operational, some Volus had come up with a way to make that into a sort of emergency positioning system, and as a result ships hadn't gotten lost for some time. Generally you had enough fuel to return to the mass relay, and from there to any other relay. They were expected to be there.

EDI paused, "None detected. Position within the galaxy unknown."

"Scan the surrounding Space, EDI" commanded Shepard.

The sphere that was EDI spun a few times to show it was processing the request.

"Complete. There was a security probe that I had to deflect from another ship. It did not affect our operations. The planet nearby is an ecumenopolis, conforms to no known architecture style, and surrounds the entire planet. Argus Mining Array reveals that there is no Element Zero on the planet. We are receiving a communication from an 'Empire'"

Shepard looked at the displays, "Not like we have anywhere to go, and they aren't opening fire. This is possibly a first contact situation. Did they specify what war criminals they are looking for?"

"There was no attached list of documents."

Joker turned to Commander, "Should I lock in formation?"

Commander Shepard grimaced, "Until we have a better option. EDI, identify us. Normandy SR-2 of the Systems Alliance. ALso put out individual calls to the other ships, see if they know anything else about what happened to our ships."

USS Aurora
Katie looked up in alarm. "Captain, we're getting a transmission from the locals, apparently they're getting somewhat testy."
He sighed, deeply, and loudly. "Put it up, let's here it."

Sep said "Inform them that as this is our space during war time we shall render aid and while we appreciate their assistance until they have been searched we cannot permit it. Send this to vessels. I want all traffic between them ceased. Be ready to jam their transmissions if necessary."

Shaking his head sadly. "Sent it to Alara, if they haven't heard it already."
"What if they open fire on us Captain?"
"Don't worry" he said, "but, we cannot stop rescuing Federation personnel, for any reason." He smiled once more. "Who knows, maybe the reason they're dressed differently is because they're from the future and can help us get home."
At the science station L'Pel was watching the sensor readings very carefully. "Captain it seems that they are arming weapons." He heard rather than saw his commanding officer slap the arm of his chair in frustration. "What is with these people?"
Katie chipped in at this point. "From all the communications traffic, they appear to have just been through some kind of armed conflict which nearly resulted in a split."
"That would explain things Captain" responded one of the last living survivors of a now endangered species.
"Yes it would."

His mind raced furiously. "Okay," he said, "Send back this message Katie. "One of our vessels has requested aid and I am sure you would not see the problem in doing so; and in fact I am sure if the situation was reversed, "he paused, wanting to create emphasis, "YOU, would be doing the exact same thing. At this minute we have lots of injured that, NEED, immediate medical care and that is taking a lot of time. I hope you can understand?"

He nodded, and the transmission was sent.

"Captain" said L'Pel, with not too small amount of urgency. "I am detecting the arrival of two other ships."
"Is this planet is like a garage for all ships or what?" Marcus dead-panned. "Should we contact any of them?"
"Not at this point in time, if we do the Empire may think we're engaging in seditious behaviour and open fire, dooming the crew of the Illustrious, and possibly us in the process."
"But good thought though. Katie, see if you can perhaps see if there is a way to open some kind of line of sight communication - that cannot be intercepted. Just in case we do need some more friends."
"Yes Captain." Her tones held equal elements of both concern, and happiness. Partly at the situation, but because she really did like working on this ship, with the Captain. While he wasn't James T. Kirk, he wasn't far off in her mind.

Rhea finally finished going over most of intercepted and broadcasted transmissions, including one, from a ship by the name of Icarus, claiming that their AI had acted without orders when it had tried to invade every ship in planetary orbit. Rhea had almost laughed at that, it was obviously a hastily spun lie to cover up their information gathering. While the hacking attempt could be considered a hostile action, it was an understandable one. One had to know firstly whether those around you were enemies, and secondly whether one could fight or if it was preferable to run. If Valerie was capable of such cyberwarfare, Rhea would’ve given the same order in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, Valerie’s capabilities were limited outside of her body, be it the ships systems or her android Avatar. “Valerie, see if you can make contact with the Icarus’ AI and find out about them. They might be useful allies, and it seems they are in just as unusual a position as us.” If they had just tried to hack the ship she’d probably already be shooting, but they’d apologised on an open channel and that made Rhea think they might be useful as an ally.

Her train of thought was interrupted though, as Valeries form once again appeared on the bridges screen. “Captain, the Galactic Empire ships have powered weapons and targeted us, among others. I’m also detecting attempts to jam communications.” That was just what Rhea needed. A firefight while she was still determining her course of action. “Fine. If they want to play it like that. Battlestations. Deploy battle blades, load defensive missiles and put PDLs on standby. ECM to maximum and keep us moving in an erratic holding pattern, I want their targeting jammed.” Rhea hardly listened for the acknowledgements from her ship and crew, she knew they would all get their tasks done quickly and efficiently.

In the mean time, she looked over the specs Valerie had been able to gather on the various ships in orbit thus far. One of the ships was truly massive, twice the length of an XMC and far bulkier. All her instincts told her that that ship was one she wanted on her side. It was also the only one not doing much transmitting, and while some of the other ships seemed to be largely indicating they were on the same side, this one was unknown. She pointed to its signature orbital map displayed on the left screen “Valerie, establish communications with that vessel. If this is going to turn into a battle, I want them on my side.” The AI turned her face sideways, as though to look where the captain was pointing, before turning back, a single slight flicker of her eyelids the only indication that she was working.“Communications established.” She stated before disappearing from the screen.

“Unknown vessel, this is Captain Rhea Shohashi aboard the Systems Commonwealth vessel Valorous Intent. Both of our vessels have been targeted by the ships of the Galactic Empire and my sensors indicate they are prepared and may fire at any moment. In the interests of survival and victory, I propose an alliance. After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Harbringer

Quicksilver had been reviewing the data on the prisoners. Apparently most of them were clones, which was interesting. That meant that there was a facility capable of cloning somewhere within this galaxy pre-established. This meant that he did not need to construct his own facility. The ship itself appeared to work on technology similar to that of the Lantaens. Perhaps this was where they had fled to after the war? It was possible however unlikely due to the fact that if they were relatives of the Lantaens they would have long ago started firing upon them. Likely would have returned to their galaxy and wiped out the Wraith while they slept when they had such vast numbers. Some form of distant relatives perhaps? He would never really know.

"Commander. We're getting a transmission from the vessel that attempted to hack into our systems. Their commander is assuring us that the program worked without authorization.""Then either he is a liar or incompetent. That is like me allowing the Hive to roam free and do whatever it wished." He felt the Hives amusement at that and simply paused for a moment as the communication screen began to change slightly. "Someone is attempted to open a channel with us, shall we allow it?" He took a moment to think about it. They would need, as much as he hated to admit it, allies until they were able to begin growing more ships and take control of the cloning facility. They were already birthing new drones on the Hive however without one of the Lantaen power devices it was a slow process having to grow each warrior individually and ensuring that they were all prime specimens. "Allow it."

Echo said “Unknown vessel, this is Captain Rhea Shohashi aboard the Systems Commonwealth vessel Valorous Intent. Both of our vessels have been targeted by the ships of the Galactic Empire and my sensors indicate they are prepared and may fire at any moment. In the interests of survival and victory, I propose an alliance. After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Quicksilver watched as an image of a human appeared. He silently cursed, how many humans out there had developed space travel? He recalled when they had originally defeated the Lantaens they moved from world to world culling in great numbers and reducing those planets until they were far away from developing any form of space travel. That was until they had discovered off Earth and apparently wherever they were as well had a large number of vessels. “I am the Commander of this vessel and its caretaker for my Queen. What is it exactly you are proposing?”

Rhea looked at the image of the alien commander with the slightest disappointment. He looked human, aside from the white hair and strange green skin. His teeth were also particularly unpleasant. Overall he was quite ugly as far as Rhea was concerned. Still, that didn’t really mean anything. Perseids were often incredibly ugly too, and yet they were among the most brilliant minds in the universe. “Well commander, when they shoot at us, and I think they probably will quite soon, we shoot back at them and not each other. After that, I rather hope we could work together to figure out where we are and how to get back where we came from, but we’ll see how things are after the shooting stops before we talk about details.”

“We shall transmit coordinates outside of the planetary system out towards the outer edge of the sector to ensure that we can do it all in one jump and I do not need to drop out of hyperspace for the Hive to repair itself. I have Wraith attempting to decipher the technology on the shuttle of the Empire off which we seized. For the time being, you may approach the Hive.” He watched on the sensors as ships seemed to form distinct groups. The one which had assaulted the Hives mind was forming up with two others, two still remained on their own and there was a group of four in a decaying orbit, the sensors indicated that one of them was in a critically damaged state from what they could ascertain.

“Thank you commander.” Rhea began, wondering about some of the terms he had used. “I assume a ship of your size will need no assistance on the offense. When battle is joined I will do my best cover you with defensive fire.” She thought for a moment, wondering whether to reveal the fact that she hadn’t a clue what hyperspace was. She decided it couldn’t hurt, this man would probably figure out that she knew very little of his technology soon enough. “I have no idea about hyperspace, but I can’t Slipstream this close to the planet without doing serious damage to it. I’m not ready to kill billions of innocents yet, so if we plan to run, please give me a minute or two of headstart.”

Quicksilver sighed, quite audibly. They had no FTL capability, the thing is he could either leave them behind and save himself and his ship or take them with him. They might still be useful for some time to come. “If you have some way of externally docking onto the Hive you will be pulled into hyperspace along with us.” They could alternatively dock inside the ship however he wasn’t quite ready to have the unknown vessel dock. For all he knew they would just start shooting at his vessel from the inside gutting it.

That was a generous offer, one Rhea wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to take. Just because they were going to shoot at the enemy and not each other didn’t make them friends. Then again, she could always agree and then only carry through if it looked favourable. “Very well. Thank you for the offer, we’ll keep close and latch on when you give the word. Captain Shohashi out.”

Quicksilver turned the screen off and closed his eyes latching his mind with that off the Hiveship and began powering up weapons. "Ready the Darts. We may need them."

+\ NSEA Protector II, command deck .

One of the Thermians spoke up, ruining the illusion of unimportance. "I am detecting energy buildup amongst several ships concordant with weapon signatures." Jason frowned, trying to parse the technobabble. Before he could ask what the hell that meant, another Thermian spoke up.

"Confirmed. There is a... hmmmm... 78% probability that they are powering weapons systems." The entirety of the Thermian command deck crew got up as one and neatly filed toward the elevator, arms held rigidly in front of them, heads down.

"Jason-!" Gwen exclaimed.
"Woah, wait a minute. Mathesar, where's everybody going?" Jason asked.
"While my people are talented scientists," Mathesar replied, "our attempts to operate our own technologies under tactical simulation have been... disastrous." Gwen was glancing around, wide-eyed, still holding a white-knuckled grip on her console.
"Tactical... situation?" Tommy mumbled from his navigation console.
"Oh, bloody hell," Alexander said as the last of the competent crew left the bridge.
"Okay, nobody panic," Jason said. "Tommy, keep us still. And this time, don't crash the ship into anything. Gwen, we gotta reply to the Galactic Empire." Gwen stared at the so-hauntingly-familiar controls. Damnit, the ones on the show were backlit cardboard cutouts! The only things that she knew how to work were the ones laughably out of place - when a mic grip had crashed into her console hours before shooting, the props guys had literally duct-taped an answering machine in place of the usual backlit controls. Unfortunately, (or rahter, fortunately, now that she thought of it) that was one of three episodes that had had a close-up of her console. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Guy craning his neck to look out the bridge ceiling windows.
"New transmissions received," the computer said.
She pressed the playback button.
"All transmission playback," the Computer said. It launched into the first transmission again. The entire crew groaned. Hastily, Gwen pressed the skip button a couple of times.

There was something about communism that cut off halfway through. A ship called the Normandy asked if they knew what was going on. There was a series of transmissions about rescuing survivors from a heavily damaged ship. Tommy sat steely-faced through that one. Finally the kicker: an ultimatum from the Imperials. She really needed to reply.

"Gwen," Jason prompted from his command chair.
"Damnit Jason, I'm trying. Does it look like I know where the "call" button is?" A thought occured to her. "Computer, call the Imperial ship."
"Hailing. Unable to comply due to voidal interference on the transmissions bands."
"Look, it's morse code," Guy said, pointing at one of the saucer-and-fins ships floating above them. One of the ship's navlights was blinking erratically.
It was such a non-sequitor, Alexander had to ask. "How do you know morse code?"
"I was an Eagle scout," Guy responded. The rest of the cast exhanged a glance.
"Get back on weapons, Guy!" Jason ordered. "Raise plasma armor! Get ready to fire!"

Guy looked at his console. Happily, there was a button labeled "Plasma Armor". Pressing it brought up a series of menus, tabs, and radio-buttons. After a moment, Guy remembered. On the show, the plasma armor could be changed around to better deflect different types of weapons. Not that Guy had any idea which was most effective against whatever would be coming their way. He scanned through the wall of text. "Configuration alpha." That sounded good. He pressed it. Clangs and hissing could be heard from all around the ship as the vents opened and the ionizeable gasses were released. A loading bar made its steady way to 100%, at which point the plasma ignited with a dull thud, sheathing the ship in a protective shroud. Now for weapons. Weapons were.... somewhere. They weren't on the screen in front of him, and the screen below that one just had a green dot and a circle (whatever that meant). That screen hadn't changed in so long that Guy was half-convinced that it really was a static image pasted to the console. The hundreds of other, variously-colored buttons were completely unlabeled.

"Uh, which ones-" Guy started to ask.
"Just press all the red ones when we need to fire!" Jason said.
"Okay."
"Computer," Gwen said. She'd gotten another idea. "Can you morse code back at the ship morse-coding us?"
"Affirmative," the computer said.
"Now we're getting somewhere!" Jason said, "Tell them that this is all some kind of a big misunderstanding, and if they'd just let us leave, we'd be happy to get out of their Empire's hair."

Gwen repeated the message to the computer, who in turn relayed it to the USS Aurora.

EDFS Andromeda

Hangar Bay

Hijikata considered the phrased request, though it carried the tone of a command, and decided that he was willing to accept it. No security entirely was a bit unreasonable, given the relative unknowns here, and so he was inclined to accept what the officer was saying. He nodded sharply. "Very well, that request is acceptable," he replied, knowing that his Marines would know what to do. Then there was the other portion of his request. "In that case, I'll take you to the bridge so you can see that data. I expect that it will prove that we have none of these war criminals of yours aboard."

He turned and moved, expecting the Imperial officer to keep up. The honor guard parted to allow them and their escorts through, the Admiral flanked by two marines in blue on white uniforms and armed with pulsar rifles, mirroring their Stormtrooper counterparts. They departed the hangar bay and moved up a lift, taking a direct path form the bowels of the ship, where the hangar was located, to the bridge at the top. "Careful," Hijikata advised as he stepped onto the first automated walkway they encountered on their journey, the mode of transportation that was widely used across the EDF. "It can be a tad difficult to get on your first couple of times." As they moved they were observed, via security camera, and from crewmen in a variety of colors that marked their section, some who were working, and a few who were just in the right position to see their guests pass by.

Soon enough, they were on the bridge, doors sliding open to reveal the nerve center of the ship, with a good view of the planet ahead, and the laid out consoles. "Admiral on the bridge," Brandon said, and snapped to attention, though most of the crew stayed at their stations.

"At ease," Hijikata replied. "Richards, you still have the conn. Any word from Commander Roche?"

Brandon shook his head. "No sir. His Seagull has docked with the Culling of Prospero, but we have not heard back form him yet."

"I see," Hijikata mused. He then turned to Flynn. "Lieutenant Hart, can you play back our navigational data prior to our transit here for the Imperial officer?"

"Yes sir," Flynn replied, and did just that. Above them, the viewscreen activated, showing the recent events as they knew them, the fleet moving out for Saturn, then them going into Warp and winding up here. The while, Hijikata glanced over at the officer to gauge his reaction.

---

Hangar of the Culling of Prospero

Roche was manifestly more confused now than he had been a few seconds ago, mostly because of these people's strange speech. "Yes, I came from Earth," he affirmed with a nod, not sure what this talk of 'Holy Mother Terra' was all about. The conversation was then interrupted as the Lord General nearly collapsed, blood visible on his leg, and Roche watched on, even more impressed if not intimidated, as one of the guards that had met them picked up the man, armor and all, like it was nothing.

"Alright," he agreed as they were told to follow to the med bay, and he motioned for the crew he had brought with to do that, them carrying along offloaded equipment through the halls of the large vessel. It was far from EDF standard at that, but it seemed to work for them. He nodded as Kurn advised him to get an Ogryn for a body guard, advising their strength and loyalty, if not their hygiene, and the surprising tattoo he could see seemed to give some hint to his intelligence as well. Still, they definitely seemed to have their uses.

"Would that I could, but there are none of these 'Ogryn' in the Earth Federation", he replied with a slight shrug, his opinion of the people on this ship still very much in flux. He was looking forward to getting to the med bay, and on with the job they had come here to do.

Acting captain Noelle Poole sighed. She knew that it was about time for others to start noticing their appearance over the class M planet, or at the very least the rescue operation or burst of communications between the two ships.

“Got that loud and clear,” said Noelle, putting her hand to her face as she thought of a proper course of action.

As if on cue, Nephenee spoke up, relaying a new transmission, apparently from the same source that the Aurora had ignored. “The locals seem to be demanding for our rescue operations to cease immediately. They seem to be inclined to jam our transmissions.”

“Well shit.” There was no way she would be stopping the rescue operations now, and she highly doubted the captain of the Aurora, would, either. She would have given the command for red alert… If the ship wasn’t already at red alert.

Giving the lieutenant a wry smile, she touched the combadge over her chest.

“Lee, the local don’t seem particularly friendly. You said forty-five minutes for shields; I need shields and weapons, now, if things come to blows.”

“Captain, I’m sorry, but I’ll need at least five more minutes. EPS conduits don’t fix themselves,” came the reply from the seasoned engineer, followed by a loud clanging noise in the background and a profane comment.

“Weapons are still offline and will likely be for the better half of the hour, but we should be able to manually fire the torpedoes loaded in the torpedo bay,” continued the chief engineer. “We won’t have warp drive for at least a day, but thankfully our impulse drive is still as good as before this whole mess, or we’d be halfway into the Magicienne at this point.”

Well, that was grim news, but still something she could work with. If they could delay for five minutes, they might be able to retreat out of their situation to a more safe location.
“Thank you, Lt. Commander,” replied the acting captain, before turning to the tactical officer. “Ensign Jacobs, see to those torpedoes if you can.”

The officer nodded before moving to the turbolift, and Noelle turned to address Alara.

“Hopefully our phasers and torpedoes aren’t too dissimilar from yours,” she said. “If it’s not too much to ask, you would be a great help on tactical.”

“And Nephenee, see if you can’t maintain communications with the Aurora, discreetly. I don’t care if it’s Morse code or a secure subspace message, as long as it doesn’t compromise us and gets the job done.”

As they walked, a Servitor on a track rolled past, dragging behind it the headless corpse of a Black and White Horror, leaving a trail of blood behind it, although not seeming to care. About 40 meters down the corridor, another Servitor rolled past, mopping up the blood. Kurn paid no attention to them, they were pretty much normal. What was even more normal was passing a Techpriest, praying at a broken console as his robotic hands fixed it, he looked around at the new Humans, most of his face was replaced with cybornetics, with wires running behind his hood.

As they reached the Medibay to find it actually rather calm. Most of the dead were covered with sheets, the rest had Wolf Priests next to them, praying for their deliverance from chaos and into the warm, loving entropy of The Omnisiah. "Oy." yelled a rather high pitched voice from outside of Roche's field of vision. "Longshanks, down here." he would then see a rifle being waggled in the air, right in front of his face to gain attention. "You the new Doctor?" asked the voice again, if he looked down, he would see the short, stocky form of a Ratling. "Can yeh give me something? I've got this aweful rash in me' gentlemans area and it won't feckin' stop." He then noticed the cold, piercing stare of the Chapter Master. "Oh... Ah'll come back then." he said as he waddled away, grumbling. "Gosh mah balls are itchy!!!" it yelled.

"I apologize." said Kurn. "Ratlings are such crude creatures, but their eyes are better than any creature i've ever come across. Even the most elderly and frail of them have more chance of shooting a target than you or I." At that point Father Beneiil approached.

"Bring the Lord General over here, i'll see to him personally." said the Terminator-clad Priest. "Are these the Medics?" he asked, pressing his fist to his heart to show respect. "Unfortunately, we still can't get a firm grasp on casualties." he said to Kurn. "We still have several areas of the ship that our priests are not, due to shorthandedness. And several of the lifts being out does not help. Several of my men have saddled up." Kurn thought for a second. He then looked down to Roche.

"Well, they have come to relieve several of your priests, get them to their mounts and to the men ASAP." replied Kurn. If the medical team looked back into the hallway, they would see a pair of Wolf Priests riding past at great speed, astride their Thunderwolves. The Ogryn put the Lord General down on a medical table and Beneiil ripped his shirt open.

"That was one of my best tops, dammit." Coughed the Lord.

"Well, it doesn't look especially serious." said Beneiil.

Moving on

Andromeda

The man, simply put went straight to the data. Didn't even bother to engage in the idle chit chat. He took several minutes to look through the data. He then turned back around to the Captain. "These systems do not exist. Give me the real navigational data now. If you continue to waste my time we will be forced to take the ship by force and give it a thorough search. If that is done I cannot guarantee that it will be returned to you or what will happen to yourself or your crew."



Prospero

Anakin didn't even recoil, was he really Anakin anymore? He did not feel the same ever since he bad stormed the Jedi Temple. No, he was Vader now. That was who he was. He merely took the time to find the creatures windpipe in the Force however before he began to squeeze it the creature was dragged away. When they began to walk away he grabbed the beasts windpipe while walking away, forcing it closed as the best began to choke on nothing.

When they reached the bridge he was shown the data. When he noticed the missing files and strange systems he said nothing. To get into a fight this far into the ship would be a bad idea. He simply turned to the Inquisitor. "I shall return to my ship to broadcast the necessary data." He didn't even wait for a response. Why should he? He was above these people, if that was what they really were. The religious fanatics that they seemed to be. He considered that it was all some form of play against the Empire. Though it was a bit elaborate and not cost effective really. When they neared the hanger he turned around. "Before I depart I would like to inform you that by the power granted to me by the Supreme Emperor of the Galactic Empire that I will be sending people over to seize this vessel. For your non-cooperation and attempting to conceal files from me." With that he simply turned and continued to walk away.

Everyones Favourite Admiral

Loff had had enough off this. These vessels were not complying to Imperial Law. That would be there mistake, what was worse is when they began charging weapons the other ships had the audacity to do the same. The largest ships envoy team had even yet to communicate their progress so he could more or less write them off as killed in action. In the command saloon he pointed at several of the vessels. "Target these vessels as hostile-" It included the largest vessel, the small one that had taken up position near it, the Andromeda and the ships in her vicinity. He had also just got a report back from the boarding team on the Andromeda and the Icarus. This was going to be easy, and slightly entertaining.

Loff turned to the Captain, who would be overseeing operations on the bridge during combat. "Order the fleet to fire on their nearest target. Have fighters ready for strikecraft intercept, prepare boarding parties to seize control of all the vessels." He looked at the image of the space station that appeared. "Simply send boarding parties to that one, we don't want to blow it up in the battle."

Harbringer

The Hive nearly screamed into his mind as laser fire began lighting up space hitting each of the different ships. The hits struggling to break through the Hives thick armour. Though with the number of shots coming in it wouldn't be too long until they started taking superficial damage and after that not long until it became far more serious. He didn't even bother shouting the order, everyone began going to their stations. Darts were powering up but not launching as he commanded the hive to turn, broadside to the nearest cruiser till all of its weapons nodes on the correct side of the ship were facing the vessel. Over 30 nodes. Once he received confirmation that the Hive was in perfect alignment he thought a single word "Fire." The weapon systems fired, from the bow to the stern one at a time in sequence till a line of shots pierced through space hitting the shields of the vessel.

Half of the shots managed to make it through, damaging weapon platforms and creating hull breaches near where they had surmised was the main hanger of the vessel when they were launching boarding parties. It would be unlikely that they would launch craft now when fire could so easily enter their hanger. A warning screamed as a smaller vessel was attempting to pull along side their port side. He himself focused on that vessel as the hive continued to pepper fire at the larger vessel he began taking shots at the smaller one. All they had to do was clear a path, and then they could enter hyperspace.

As Rennekel began to choke on nothing, Aminah's mind seemed to whisper... This was a dark Psyker power. This man was undoubtably a servant of the Chaos Gods. Her first instinct was to go for her Inferno Pistol, but the Inquisitor had already grabbed and held it in the holster, he then looked at her and shook his head to indicate for her to wait. The Kroot fell to its knee's due to the lack of air, but Billy, the Beastman, rushed to the Xeno's aid, bending down and putting his hand to the Kroot's throat. His eyes glowed white as his own Warp fingers slipped in and pulled the invisible hand of the force away, the Kroot got up and growled after Anakin, but at that point, Billy's Laspistol went to the underside of Rennekels throat, gently reminding him not to move without the Inquisitors say-so. The Inquisitor followed Anakin to the bridge, and watched as he turned to walk away.

No sooner had Anakin boarded his shuttle than the ship began to rock as it was hit by cannon-fire. The Voidshields raised around the ship, now taking the impacts, but the ship being already badly damaged meant that the ship was in even worse shape.

Admiral Morray, on the bridge slammed his fist on the arm of his chair. "All available batteries, open fire!!!" he roared. The Emperors holy cannons swiveled around to point at the Venator firing at them, the Port cannons along the hull began firing a broadside barrage. The AA-Lance cannons along the hull tried to target Anakins shuttle, but it was already out of range. A flight of Vendetta Gunships was already prepped and ready for launch. Viqtor and the Cult arrived on the bridge. Looking out at the ship that had just opened fire at them. Culling had the size advantage, but they were badly damaged... Fortunately for them, the Venator in question had been rushed out of drydock to add numbers to the blockade to stop the Jedi, after crippling damage from the Battle only a week beforehand.

-Kurn-

Kurn's Terminator Armour kept him steady as the ship rocked. "We're under attack." he said. "I apologize, but I have to get to the bridge." he said to the Andromeda's medics. He looked at Grumm. "Stay here and ensure their safety." he said. The Ogryn nodded.

"YES BOSS!!!" It yelled, saluting. Kurn ran into the hall and then along, towards the lifts.

“The Imperial ships are firing”

Valerie’s voice rang out across the bridge delivering the expected message. “Battlestations. How are our defences holding up?” Rhea asked. With such an exotic and new enemy, she had to determine quickly what sort of measures had to be taken to protect her ship. While by no means fragile, the Intent just wasn’t built to soak up fire the way an XMC could. Valeries hologram appeared next the captain looking more than a little put out. “They appear to be using high powered particle beams. They move too quickly for defensive missiles. The good news is that our ECM seems to have prevented them from locking onto us. I’ve not been hit ye-” The bridge shook as a bolt winged the ships hull. “Lucky shot.” Valerie said in a huff.

“Alright Valerie, prepare a full offensive salvo and target the nearest of their cruisers. Hold fire for my mark, I have a feeling our friends in the Hive are going to respond to the Imperials any minute now.” The two women, one genetically engineered perfection and one coherent light, watched on the viewscreen as the massive vessel below them turned to engage. It was more nimble than it appeared, and quickly brought its weapons to bare. The opening salvo was a thing of beauty, raking across the enemy ship with fire. “Target sustaining heavy damage. Should I finish them?” Valerie’s voice contained just a hint of vicious eagerness that belied her nature as a Warship. “At your leisure.” Rhea said casually. Thus far the battle seemed fairly meagre, though it had the potential to escalate rapidly. With a smile on her holographic face, Valerie simply said “Firing.”

Points of light in groups of four shot from the recesses in the Intent’s hull as the AP cannons fired, as well as a far less noticeable but no less deadly grouping of a dozen missiles fired in rapid succession from the four missile tubes in the Intent’s nose. The AP rounds struck first, only moments after the Hives salvo, stripping away what little armour remained on the Venators facing surfaces in brilliant flashes of matter/antimatter annihilation. Shortly after, the spread of offensive missiles struck, seeking out unprotected ruptures in the hull of the Venator before detonating. The hull bucked and tore apart, great quantities of material being thrown away as the forward section of the ship was gutted, leaving it little better than a burning hulk with engines.

“Target crippled.” came the smug announcement from Valerie. Before Rhea could give the order to finish them with another salvo though, Valerie made another announcement. “There is a small Imperial ship pulling alongside the Hive. Orders?” Rhea didn’t know in the slightest how the ‘hyperspace’ that the hive commander had mentioned worked, but if it was anything like slipstream, having an unwanted ship right on top of you was a bad thing. She had to destroy it, but she couldn’t afford to pull the ship out of position without jeopardising her capacity to hitch a ride with the Hive. “Launch remaining drones and engage it. We need to clear them away.” It wasn’t the only threat the ship faced though, as another lucky shot winged them and rocked the bridge. “Turn the ship and fire on the next nearest Imperial cruiser with AP canons.”

The Valourous Intent swung around on the spot, demonstrating the superb manoeuvrability inherent in its class and opened up on the next Venator, though the AP cannon bursts were deflected by the ships shield. A short distance away, the Intents drones were pelting the smaller imperial ship with low yield missiles, its hull showing signs of great strain, though it was giving as good as it got, with the wreckage of several drones floating nearby. Rhea could tell they were fighting a holding action at this point, and she would soon have to choose whether to go with the Hive or make a break for safe Slipstream distance. But then, this was exactly the kind of situation she lived for. She was after all, only Nietzschean.