Apollo26

From Stardust, To Stardust

STC Tumen ( BH-828) Deep in Ahman Sul territory Everyone but a skeleton crew remained on the bridge, those who were left we dog tired and beat up from the battle. None of the sensors or other electronics were operational, they were hopeless and defenseless. The flashes from the exploding escape pods could be seen from the bridge as the floated through the void, only adding to the despair of the crew. “ What Savages, there is no honor in this place…” one of the bridge officers said quietly, prompting nods from the remainder of the people in the room. The Aradites hunkered down and prepared for the worst as the pirates began to line up on them again. Oddly enough thoughts of rapid decompression and subsequent suffocation was calming compared to the thought of being enslaved for life. Most of the bridge crew would rather be dead then become slaves. “ Sir!, incoming fire coming from port side” another bridge officer said as rocket raced over the bridge and towards the pirates vessel. More fire followed closely behind as the pirates point defenses went wild, trying to destroy the incoming fire. A deep groaning sound could be heard throughout the ship, as something attached itself to the ship and began to move it, violently flipping them around to face backward. The Aradites could now see the battle infant of them, foreign ships moved against the pirate vessel, shielding the remains of the Tumen from further attack as something pulled them farther away from the fierce battle. As if it wasn’t bad enough, another explosion rocked the ship, this time feeling like it came from inside of the Tumen. The aft section of the Aradite vessel was quickly sheared off and floated behind them before what remained of the ship was incased in a green vortex and transported elsewhere. -Hours Later- Upon exiting the warp field Commander Nikal immediately vomited all over the inside of his visor, continuing to vomit in zero g as he tore the helmet from head. “ where are we?” he said after gaging a few more times, looking up at the bridge crew who was equally as disoriented. “ I don’t know, sir” another officer said in a shaky almost scared voice “ But I don’t think we have to wait to long to find out” she said looking out of the forward veiwscreen at what appeared to be a fighter. Suddenly it all made sense to Nikal, either these were friendly entities or they were really destined for a live of slavery. “ Sir….beings are floating up to the aft of the ship, they are armed..” an operator said over the intercom “ We are waiting in ambush, whats your order?” he said before another message was forced though. "Y'all are lucky.. Had we not picked up a distress call a few hours before you warped in, that Pirate ship would've sank you quick. Though, I'm not sure why it didn't just outright destroy your ship. If you'd be so kind as to allow teams aboard your.. well whats left of a ship, they can get your people medical aid and help you depart your ship." A ruse? maybe or were they sincere? It wasn’t like they had much choice in the matter, they either died here or took their chances. “ Greet them, let them take our wounded and accept their hospitality, we will find out what they want” Nikal said over the intercom as he looked around the bridge for a moment. “ Destroy everything, not one scrap of our tech gets into their hands” he said aloud before donning his helmet again to make his way off the ship. Towards the aft of the ship, 24 armed operators waited in ambush as they observed the beings in space suits get closer to the Tumen. As the order to stand down and make contact was given everyone visibly relaxed and emerged two or three at a time. There would be no flare or doors to open, the signal would come from a helmet mounted strobe light, flashing in the distance.

From Stardust, To Stardust

Is it really that easy? Lets run through this process Step one: Find and identify a element. Then you must determine if that element can be used for anything and how you are supposed to extract it. Step two: actually extracting it, the material could be so dense that anything short of some unknown massive force will not wrench it from its vein. Or it could be so brittle that it breaks when touched by the slightest instrument. Now what if you dont have the tools to extract it, do you engage in a possibly expensive R&D campaign to build something that can or do you just forget about it. Step three: transportation. You will need thousands of pounds, kilos....whatever to build anything of value or to add to a stock pile, alot more then what can be carried on one ship. You will need a fleet of dedicated ships just to transport the ore from here to there, not to mention protection ( if your in a hostile sector) and you will need to account for possible losses. Step four: Processing. What if this new element has a high melting point? What if it doesnt have a melting point? What if it requires a sun to melt? What if it cant be shaped or refined or infused? These are all problems that can be solved by costly research of course but after everything you did to get that element here...is it really worth it. In reality its not that easy to find and mine materials, materials arent always on your doorstep and they arent always easy to find.

From Stardust, To Stardust

NAK NAK!!! *waves*

From Stardust, To Stardust

Key, Dark....my response is up...sorry it took so long :)

From Stardust, To Stardust

Taoshe The crew of the Syren quickly piled in the light armored vehicle followed by Valag, closing the door behind him. Velka pounded her fist on the wall twice as the door closed signaling the driver to pull off before the vehicle quickly shot forward. Speed limits were mostly non existent on the empty roads of the capital and the driver made sure take advantage of that fact, pushing the armored vehicle as hard as it can go. For a rather large armored truck the vehicle could really move, pushing 90-120 miles per hour as it whipped around corners. To the Aradites this was normal, speed was a normal part of life on the core worlds but this might be alarming to the other species in the vehicle. Valag looked around the vehicle with a large toothy smile before standing and opening the large top hatch, letting the sun pour into the dark interior. “ This reminds me of when we took this city back from the Kublai family. I was riding in one of these same vehicles going down this same road” he said looking up into the sky. “ It took us three days to take this city, three days of bloody house to house, street to street fighting”. Valag sighed as he looked at the buildings flying by “ It looked a lot different back then, everything was bombed out or on fire. Bodies, destroyed vehicles so much rubble….it was a beautiful sight…..such a glorious victory. Some Aradites go their whole lives without seeing a shred of combat and I never understood why someone wouldn’t want to. When I was younger it was all about the fight, all about combat…I loved it. Now, I see that it was for the moments you dont see every day like having a meal in the remains of a bombed out apartment bloc, or watching a city get pummeled from orbit” he said turning the face the group. “ I am bringing you all here to facilitate war against a nation…..a people…a species, but I also want peace to exist between us. We are all judged by the specters of our past, lets hope it doesn’t sour our relations.” As Valag finished his speech the vehicle came to a smooth stop in front of a large domed building supported by large columns. There was a skeleton guard outside and large black box directly in the center of the open structure. Velka was the first to open the door and jump out of the back of the truck followed by the remained of the Syren’s crew. “ Follow me, what you are about to see will blow your mind” Velka said as she lead the group towards the large black box in the center of the structure. She led the group inside the box and pressed a series of holographic buttons making the door close, bathing the interior of the elevator in darkness. The elevator descended through the ground for a few moments passing lights as it made its way down through the darkness before revealing a large chasm. It would look like an underground city, every inch covered by lights and large skyscraper type buildings. As the elevator stopped at the bottom, the doors slowly opened, revealing a large open room with relics from past conflicts hanging off the walls. There would be another team of admirals and other distinguished officers at the bottom, waiting to greet the new species.

From Stardust, To Stardust

The thought of aradite pirates is frightening

From Stardust, To Stardust

So they are government employees? So employed by the state? These equestrians are looking alot like the Iscandarians.

From Stardust, To Stardust

Aradites are clever people, stealth is the name, ambush is their game.

From Stardust, To Stardust

STC Tumen ( BH-828) Deep in Hau territory LT. Cmdr.Nikal The explosions rocked the ship violently, immediately making hull breach alarms and fires spread around the affected areas. The first effect to be seen was the loss of their torque drive ( Artificial gravity) and their primary lighting system, soon the entire interior of the ship was pitch black. “ Sir, reactor one and two are heavily damaged, I have shut them down and removed the coils.” a voice said over the intercom which miraculously still worked. “ Engineering deck one though three have been breached and open to the vacuum, 10 souls lost sir, two wounded”. Commander Nikal let out a sigh and check in with the rest of his crew, finding similar results. The ship was pock marked and shot to hell, looking more like a piece of swiss cheese then a Septonian combat vessel. Engines were offline or destroyed, Engineering was completely destroyed along with both reactors. Their warp drive and weapons systems were also damaged and not fit for use, the Tumen was dead floating in the vacuum. After a couple seconds the emergency lighting flickered on, starting the two hour battery life each light had. Soon the interior of the ship was bathed in a sinister red hue, as the crew came to their senses. “ 30 dead, 45 wounded in some shape or fashion sir” one of the special operations officers said as he floated up to the bridge. “ Almost the entire ship is depressurized and they punched a hole clean through the ship, I have my corpsmen working on your wounded as we speak.” Nikal thought for a moment before reflexively tapping the star chart button on his command panel before realizing the power was still out. “ shit….” he whispered as he thought of another plan of action, walking around to the rear windows on the bridge to see if he could eye the vessel. With the naked eye it was almost invisible amongst the stars, save for a small black shape that broke the light of the stars in passed over. Letting out a sigh, he calmly walked back to the command chair and produced an old, nearly ancient, spyglass which he quickly extended to its full length. With the added magnification he could easily make out the ship behind them, eyeing the vessel for a few moments before collapsing the spyglass and burying it in his pocket. From the exterior of the ship, the large hole could be seen clearly, along with the bodies and parts of bodies suspended around the Tumen. Metal and other debris littered the area around the ship as the vessel started a slow rotation counter clockwise as it drifted unpowered. Commander Nikal had to assume that they could still see them moving around the ship, but how? Thermal? Very sensitive EM maybe? He really did not have the time to theorize how it worked but he had a plan for how to trick it. “ Everyone, including the dead get to your designated escape pods. Load the dead, take their identification tags and jettison the pods” he said to through the ships intercom “ Everyone still alive and fit for combat, stay behind, seal the compartment and stay still”. The crew passed the messages to the compartments without oxygen as green status lights lit up, confirming that they had received the order. “ The bodies in the escape pods would still be warm, they would show hot in thermals. That should make them think we escaped and left the dead behind. The bodies on our ship would still be warm as well if we were dead, so unless they are using some advanced life scanner, we should look like an abandoned ship”. The pirates scanners would see beings moving around the vessel and collecting around the escape pods before they were jettisoned, followed by an erie stillness. Nothing moved on the Tumen after the escape pods were launched deeper into the vacuum, the handful of signals around the escape pod bays would just be floating there, slowly getting colder and colder.

From Stardust, To Stardust

They are probably going to be pissed, you dont actually expect them to give up do you?