[IC] Void of the Stars II: Return to the Stars [Sci-Fi] [Always Accepting]

[Keyguyperson]

Lakfakalle Freighter
"Oh, so you;re pirates and druglords, eh? Well, I'm sure that you are well versed int he operation of business." Said the soldier "And I'm pretty sure that it counts as bad business when you blow up your profit. Now, if you actually care about this convoy, then you obviously never learned of its cargo. We are carrying cattle and seeds to the planet Shuroh, nothing more! The only reason it is escorted is because those happen to be important to us due to the fact that Shuroh is a frozen world that is still undergoing oceanic agricultural development. Yes, oceanic. There is nothing here that can be grown or raised on land, or even in warm water. It can only be used on a world with cold water. I somehow doubt that a faction that seems to be made up primarily or entirely of one species would have any planets like that. To be honest, this entire attack has been a waste of time on your part, unless you want our crappy little freighter fleet for your own arsenal. It would be cheaper to build a new starship than refit these vessels. Of course, blowing them up will earn you no profit, targets painted on your backs, and will kill thousands. All for nothing. If that is what you want, then you will be labeled as mentally unstable and killed off for the safety of others."

Meanwhile, the whole collection of fighting ships was falling back towards Lakfakalle due to basic orbital dynamics, as the freighters had already been on their way down, waiting to reach the lowest point of their orbit to light up their engines again. Apparently unknown to the Pirates, the defense platforms of Lakfakalle would be in effective range within the hour. Their power had only been seen a few times before, but all Children of Lakfakalle knew the legends of the antiproton flame that consumed entire fleets.

[null123]

Space near distressed Lakfalle ship
Admiral Steelclaws turned to the comms console currently opened with the AIF.
"I'm redirecting one of my carriers to carry your ship to the nearest planet of ours. I would go with but I have business to attend here." spoke Admiral Steelclaws
One of the Carriers split of from the fleet, nearing the Lakfalle ship. The bottom opened up, revealing a set of doors, awaiting the ship to dock. Admiral Steelclaws turned to the View-screen on the Dreadnought, opening up the vid channel with the other ships. They seemed a bit aggressive, hopefully however they liked peace just as much as they did.

[TehAlphaGamer]

Space

The soldier laughed, his cackle filled with both disbelief and malice. "Is it, now? Our scanning equipment detected spices, not a bunch of useless livestock and seeds."

His twisted grin contorted into a sneer and his brow furrowed. A blazing fire burned in his glossy black Sazkarjhian eyes. His thumb wrapped around and stuck through the circular pin, motioning to pull it out. "Then, that also means..." he started, "It's not a valuable asset, and thus not a valuable loss."

He chuckled. "So what if you'll sic some ships on us? Sylve is everywhere! Systems all around the universe have been dominated by our economic control. And once this detonator sets off, it'll send a signal to all those aboard our ships to abandon and purge all data. So, yes, even if you were able to reach our ships, they'd be completely destroyed and untraceable. So we blow up this miserable pile of scrap and the animals you have on board it. So you have a loss for the frozen wasteland you try to settle. It won't be worth it."

He jerked his hand and removed the pin, a counter inside of the device began a crescendo beeping.

"Count your prayers, fool."

[darkwolf687]

The Collective fleet merely transmitted an all clear message to the new contact that had been endangered now it seemed the situation had been resolved. The Overseer activated the video link to the other ships and paused for a moment before laughing aloud upon seeing the horse like creature.
"A mauris ludus, xenos. Et nunc ostendam vobis ipsos" He said, as he awaited what he assumed to be a joke to be removed from the screen and replaced with a sentient

[null123]

New Contact
Steelclaws felt the chip in his head compute the language, giving him its meaning. He began to spoke, feeling the chip change his words to that of the new contact's language.
"Hoc est venatus. De formis es? Tripodes sentientium maxime videntur esse, ut probe novimus, nos autem quattuor."

[Keyguyperson]

Lakfakalle Freighter
"I may perish with the rest of the crew here, but you will die as well. Not just you, the suicide bomber. I mean you as in the crew of your ship. Do you have no knowledge of our defense network? According to the myths, it is as ancient as the Abh themselves, forged to vigilantly protect Lakfakalle until the stars go out and the universe is torn apart atom by atom. Its more powerful than anything we've seen before. Energy shielding, antimatter weaponry, lasers, all it needs is power. Want to know something? We are the Children of Lakfakalle, and Children of Lakfakalle never give up! We will stop at nothing to stop you, no matter how much it takes!"
After he finished speaking, he fired a single shot into the soldier and made a run for it, knowing he would likely be gunned down.

Far from the fighting on the vessels, a message was broadcast into Lakfakalle orbit to give orders to the defense platforms. It was an order to fire, the first in fifty thousand years. Being self-maintained by nanobots, they were fully operational. Orange streams launched out of them, masses of antiproton particles built to fight the great starships of the ancient era. The skies of Lakfakalle were illuminated by these streams, their combined light equaling that of the very sun that the plant orbited. The streams got closer and closer to the alien ships, and along with them a message broadcast on a loop, to be sure any escape pods would pick it up.
"If we see you in our skies again, the rest of you will meet the same fate as those on this mission."

Exo-Kalle Contact
"Thank you, we are in your debt. I request a personal meeting with some of your people. Scientists, philosophers, whoever leads you. Of course, in the event that those leaders are carefully guarded and I cannot speak with them due to religious beliefs or purely practical reasons, I will not push for a meeting. Again, I thank you for your gracious assistance." He turned the camera to cover the whole bridge, showing the rest of the crew floating about. Noticing his intent, they all bowed in their respective traditional ways.
"I should probably mention that this is First Contact for us, you've likely met other species before though. Beginning spatial translation."
The crippled starship thrusted towards the Equestrian carrier using RCS thrusters, surprisingly able to dock. Fairlan had his suspicions about this species, perhaps they had been close to or maybe even a part of the great ancient empire the myths call the 'Aif'. Nobody knew what the word meant, but they were powerful enough to leave behind the great defense grid of Lakfakalle, so they must have been extremely powerful. In fact, maybe this wreck was from a ship operated by the Aif. HE shook it off for the final transmission to the alien vessel before the jump to FTL speeds.
"Docking clamps engaged, radiation shielding plates relocated to protect the bridge and emergency passenger compartment. We're ready for FTL."
He also decided to send a message to the other group, apologize for the change in plans.
"Captain Miklan here, I apologize for the sudden change, but we will be leaving with the other fleet for repairs over one of their planets. I am sending you the coordinates of our homeworld in relation to pulsars and their frequencies measured in planck time units. Pay us a visit if you wish, we'll open the shield for you."

[darkwolf687]

Contact

There was a dull glow in the ring inside the Overseers eyes, and then it faded off. A moment later, he began to speak in English, almost as though he had known the language his whole life. Granted, there were minor pronunciation mistakes, but it was almost as though he had an unnatural grasp of the alien language
"I think you mean bipods. And you lack grasping ability, how did you construct your technology?" He inquired as he tapped a few commands on his holoterminal, bringing up an AI next to him. The hologram was the simple image of a female Triarian, and she smiled at the Overseer before talking to him
"Est aliquid?" Her voice was smooth and ethereal and contained a pleased tone. Clearly she was happy to be of use again.
"Mensa hac specie Archivi. Invenimus Equestrians." The Overseer said to it, and the hologram nodded quickly
"Tuo arbitratu" She said before vanishing. and the Overseer turned his head back towards the view screen
"What do you call yourselves?"

[null123]

Contact
"Not all the species within the Empire lack the ability to grasp things." said Steelclaws, lifting one of his claws up, and pointing it at the Triarians. Steelclaws spoke up once again "For those without this however, we have special devices that fit over there legs that allow them to lift thing, or if there a unicorn they can use magic to levitate objects. As for what we call ourselves we are the Equestrians."

[Coga19000]

"We would really appreciate such a meeting. However, as this is going to be our own first manned Quantum Represion for quite some milleniums, it may take us a while to participate.
Also, we are sorry for the fact that our drone automatically interconnected to your radar department because of hacking technology influenced by old technology of yours, but we noticed some other radiation signatures in the area, not belonging to allies of yours. If you permit such actions, we will try to also send some prototype attack forces along with our diplomacy fleet. Be advised, though, that they are not tested in live-fire action, which means that they may not assist you by a great amount."
Serohimean was really happy of his bluff: the drome had no such equipment (though such technoogy progressed very rapidly), but this would cause more respect towards their kind. For a second, something flashed on his mind: after so many millenia, they had a contact with a race so ancient, most scientists of the day dismissed the information as mythology. The couple of comms expertswho first got the signal were now rushed to the hospital; one of them split his muscle from sheer anxiety, for Ripenoes' sake! And not only was he not surprised, but he identified the fleet and the foreign language in matter of seconds, responded in ancient Greek -a language that he knew in too low of a level to communicate with so smoothly- and even bluffed to the face of the aliens!
How the f*ck this happened? he thought for a while, scratching his implant node on his back -he had lost one when he was younger, in risk of his life. After a while, though, he decided it was not important at the moment, and prepared to open the comms and inform the Capitol, when a young assistant rushed through the door, almost knocking it off its electromagnetic field.
"Sir, sir, there's a problem! A big problem!"
Serohiean sighed, for he knew that this assistant did not really have a good reputation on Korimenoa. "Look, Diremonteis (another guy who did not knew how important his descendants were), we're in a seriously grave situation right here. If it's about the facility's buffet again, I swear to Ripenois I will punch your head back to Rochetin" -a phrase that did not really make sense to his mind, as he didn't know what Rochetin was, but at the same time a phrase that made the whole universe grin.
"No, sir, it is really important."
Serohimean now was intriqued. "What is it?" he asked, a bit more placidly this time.
"The President just materialised on the garden."

[darkwolf687]

duck55223 said
"Not all the species within the Empire lack the ability to grasp things." said Steelclaws, lifting one of his claws up, and pointing it at the Triarians. Steelclaws spoke up once again "For those without this however, we have special devices that fit over there legs that allow them to lift thing, or if there a unicorn they can use magic to levitate objects. As for what we call ourselves we are the Equestrians."

"We are the Collective, for we are many" The Overseer stated, so that the Equestrian would know his name. He paused before speaking "Then there are forms that are ill adapted for construction. This generally halt's evolution into sentience. I pity several of your Empirss races due to their evolutionary cycle. Of course, I am certain there is a logical environmental reason, but it does seem odd prima facie. And I pity your mind for thinking magic exists" There was a small smirk from one of the two ape like warriors in the background

[null123]

Contact
As the Triarian said that several objects within view of the screens of both ships were lifted off the ground, in a field of blue. A small fire appeared in midair, with no fuel source, and sat burning right in front of the Triarian's eyes, in his ship.
"Magic can be used for much more beyond this little demonstration, but I would not question it's existence to use again." said Steelclaws.

[darkwolf687]

Contact

The Overseer's face hardened, and he held out his hand and closed it around the flame, dousing it.
"There are rules regarding ship breaches." The Overseer stated, his eyes began to glow a dull orange. A whisper, growing louder until it became a yell, inside Steelclaws head, along with an uncomfortable feeling as if someone had invaded his personal space... followed by a disorientating tearing of thoughts, as though an internet connection had low bandwidth and the image was lagging, so were his thoughts. Disjointed and lagging. A mindfray. You would do well to follow them! . Almost as soon as it began, it halted, and his eyes returned to normal. "Does the Steelclaw understand?" The Overseer's gave remained hard and unforgiving, and it was clear he had perceived the use of magic inside his ship as either a breach of protocol or an attack from the way he spoke

[null123]

Contact
This time the message seemed to come from a female voice, and almost sounded like it was computer generated.
"A official meeting has been arranged, coordinates have been designated on this map, from there you will be led to the meeting site. Please limit the amount of ships you send."

Repair Dock A1-B, Char
A captain approached Miklan
"Your ships is almost fully repaired. The Princesses, the leaders of the Equestrian Empire, are preparing to leave our homeworld to meeting with your species in a more official meeting. If you have coordinates of where you would like to meet we will need them."

[Keyguyperson]

Repair Dock A1-B, Char
Fairlan looked over at the Equestrian, such a strange creature, but somehow familiar. It didn't make sense, but he felt as if he had seen their species before. At least it wasn't the kind of familiar that makes you feel like you're about to be killed, in fact, it made him feel completely safe.
"Thank you so much, my home system is easy to find, it'll be the most isolated system in this entire sector. Forty light years from another star, the myths say that's ten times the distance from Old Terra to its closest star. Lakfakalle is the fifth planet from Kalle, my system's star. Finding it is easy, getting to the ground isn't. We can't use one of your ships, they don't have the right equipment to break through the Great Barrier. We'll need to take the Starfire, it has the correctly modulated laser to break the Great Barrier and allow us to land. Of course, you will certainly want to dock one of your own vessels to the Starfire for the journey, as its designed for bipeds and tripeds. Besides that problem, the Starfire's quarters are tiny and the beds don't have mattresses."

Starship Construction
The construction of the LIV Challenger has been completed! The original interplanetary hull has undergone extreme modifications, with the four defense platforms stabbed into the hull, creating two cone-shaped protrusions on the very front and very back of the vessel. The warp ring has been redesigned to double as an artificial gravity ring, so the bridge and crew quarters are located right next to the very device that allows the starship to travel faster than light. The central hull has become a weapons platform as well as the fuel storage, and of course the sublight propulsion systems. It is estimated that this new class of starship (Traveler-Class) is capable of defeating the entire interplanetary fleet of the LCF. However, only 125 of these vessels could ever be built unless another former Aif world is found and colonized, and operating so many starships equipped with warp drive would be completely impossible unless an entire planet was dedicated to producing fuel. As such, the Challenger and the other in construction will be the only Traveler-Class vessels produced in the foreseeable future.

LIV Challenger
The LIV Challenger has begun its shakedown cruise from Lakfakalle to Terra, then to Shuroh. All interplanetary transit will be handled by the warp drive, which will be set to half the speed of light for each jump. Afterwards, the ship will return to Lakfakalle, refuel, and sent out to deliver multiple colony pods to a habitable planet 42 light years from the Kalle System. This planet wasn't picked for habitability, simply because its the only thing in range of a ship carrying colony pods that wouldn't bankrupt the entire Federation if colonized. With any luck, it will actually be habitable.

Children of the Phoenix Contact
"You may bring military forces if you wish, but once you are close enough to Lakfakalle the defense platforms will be more than capable of destroying any threats to your people. We were recently attacked by pirates, in fact, right now we are awaiting news of the outcome of the battle. However, it is almost certain that the pirate vessel was destroyed, no craft could possibly survive colliding with a hundred antiproton streams. We look forward to meeting with you."

[null123]

Repair Dock A1-B Char
Before the Equestrian Captain could speak again the engines of the Starfire roared to life
"The Princesses are almost here, they have a shuttle capable of docking with your ship. Just get back on and await for our signal[/b]

[Keyguyperson]

Repair Dock A1-B Char
"Understood, hopefully you don't have any problems with our FTL technology. It folds space around the ship, in some of our species it can be somewhat sickening. Luckily, it appears our species share the right biological traits, so our space sickness pills should work fine if anyone wants them."
Fairlan walked through the docking tube onto the Starfire, and after a few minutes the gravity ring began to turn as the plasma engines warmed up. The docking port on the ship opened, allowing the Equestrian shuttle to dock.

[TehAlphaGamer]

TO: CAPTAIN JARGALO'YUM, SYLVE ILLICIT SUBSTANCE DISTRIBUTION DIRECTOR
FROM: STRATEGIC ANALYSIS STATION KA49190105812934 (ENCRYPT) STATIONED AT REDACTED
SUBJECT: ABH CARGO RAID REPORT
DETAILS:
Mission flow ground to a halt when units realized that the Abh freighters that were besieged were not carrying spices like we thought. Reports from scanning ships indicated that it was livestock and seeds, which were being carried most likely to an Abh colony. Situation intensified when freighters and the Sylve raiding party entered Lakfakalle's orbit. At the sudden, communication with Team Kappa was lost, and upon examination most of the freighter group was destroyed. The violence of the explosion and the later detection of radioactive material determined that someone, most likely one of our own soldiers, used a small nuclear detonator to preserve the encryption of Sylve. As per the Arkin Protocol, all data was purged and the ships were self-destructed, escape shuttles entered hyperspace roughly thirty-nine hours ago and are to return to REDACTED Station soon.
MISSION STATUS: Failure. Regroup at REDACTED Station to debrief.

[null123]

Lakfalle Meeting
A small shuttle descended from near two carriers. It docked with the Lakfalle vessel, and for added protection, it seemed to be protecting it's own shield across the Lakfalle ship and shuttle, despite being to small to have a shield generator.
"This is High Archmage Duck de Steelhorn. We are fully prepped and ready for departure."

[darkwolf687]

Contact

"Meeting pending. This one detects no issues to discuss, may the Steelclaw state a reason for the meeting, on which attendance can be decided." Overseer said as his head began to glow. The patrol group, save for the Umbrae Intentus, moved towards the ancient craft, and began to tether it with someform of tractor beam. A few moments later, there was a 'cut' in space and the patrol group, along with the ancient craft, all vanished from sight, the cut sealing its self behind them, as the black of space consumed the strange hole. The Overseer nodded to a bridge officer and turned his head back to the view screen, awaiting a response. He tapped a few commands and ensured the engines were ready to transfer to the secondary universe

[TacticalGarbageMan]

Exploration Fleet

The exploration fleet consisting of three corvettes, two frigates, and a destroyer, all under the command of Admiral Tormak, left the Thorum solar system in search of anything interesting outside the region that they've lived in for so very long.

"Admiral, radar suggests that there is somethin' 'interesting' directly ahead of us." said the chief petty officer.
"Let's go and have a look for ourselves." said Admiral Tomek.