The Nova (IC Thread, FT, Closed Except to Accepted Players)

[Unified Western States]

OOC: This thread is only for those who are on the approved list, which is posted on the OOC thread. Here is the list again, just so there is no confusion:

The Ularn
The New Federation 1
F799
Northern Rangeria
Vorlon Prime

IC: The WSRS Nova It was the most advanced research ship owned by the UWS government. At 2,000 meters long and with a crew of 1,400 it was larger than the largest UWS Navy dreadnought. But most of its odd form, at large rhombus shaped front with a flat top and huge bulky rear, was taken up by scientific equipment, including its experimental dark particle drive. At its launch ceremony, the ship was hailed as the future of humanity. It had research facilities for dark matter, particle research, medicine, biotechnology, every aspect one could imagine. Its maiden voyage was to visit a large dying star on the edge of the solar system and try to find out more about the beginning of the universe. The ship left on January 6th, 2895. It was supposed to be back on December 21st, 2900. Instead, it vanished. Gone. No sign of it at all. Search teams were sent out to find the ship. But no sign of it was ever found. The crew was declared missing with low chance of recovery and the ship, a two-hundred billion dollar project, was declared MIA as well. And that was the end of it.

Until now. The ship has reappeared, on the out edges of the universe, far from where it should have been. A freighter, stumbling upon it, has gone dark as well. And now a simple Morse code transmission has been broadcasting on a weak frequency across the regional area, the fate of its crew unknown.

The morse message was as follows:

Code: Select all

- .... .. ... / .. ... / .- -. / .- ..- - --- -- .- - . -.. / -.. .. ... - .-. . ... ... / -.-. .- .-.. .-.. .-.-.- / . -. --. .. -. . ... / --- ..-. ..-. .-.. .. -. . .-.-.- / -- .- .--- --- .-. / ... -.-- ... - . -- / -- .- .-.. ..-. ..- -. -.-. - .. --- -. ... .-.-.- / . -. --. .. -. . . .-. / .- ... ... .. ... - .- -. -.-. . / .-. . --.- ..- .. .-. . -.. .-.-.- /

[The New Federation 1]

U.S.S Enterprise, NCC-1701-E, Soveriegn Class Federation Starship

Captain Robin Sinclair, The Human-Bajoran Captain of the Enterprise, sat in her quarters, sat on the edge of her window, that was just wide enough for a humanoid to sit on. Resting her head against the edge of the window she flickered over the page in her book. Even in the High-tech age of Computerised everything, Robin still prefered the good-old-fasioned hardback. The Enterprise was moving at impulse around a nebula, the ship science department taking full advantage of the situation. Robin, meanwhile, was getting some well earned rest. She had stripped off the outer layer of her uniform, leaving her in the Uniform trousers and the long armed Red-Command coloured turtle-neck vest. Enjoying the warmth of her Quaters as she shifted her attention between the Book and the amazing view outside as her ship continued to fly gracefully.

Whilst Robin enjoyed some well earned rest, her Executive Officer; Commander Xeries was on the bridge, although with Science endeavours taking up much of the crews effort this particular evening he had little to do. He had sat himself in the Command chair and was working on filing his reports for the Captain, and then onto Starfleet Command in due time. The Bridge, and indeed the rest of the ships, lighting had been dimmed to show that the SHips current time was one that would occur during nighttime on a Class-M planet, all in all it made for a relaxing working Environent.
Then the Signal Came in.

Bridge to Captain Sinclair
Robin yawned as she put her book down and walked the short distance, bare-footed, across the carpeted floor of her quarters to her desk were she picked her combadge up from her Uniform jacket and activated it.
"Yes Commander" She said tired.
We're recieving a distress call, roughtly four light years away
Robin sighed, the Enterprise seemed to have bad luck with Distress calls, usually a trap or some other problem, but then there were the times when they saved people and that made it worthwhile.
"Roger that, I'm on my way up"

Presently, Robin arrived on the Bridge, walked across it until she reached the command chair and sat down. A Yeoman smartly brought over a cup of strong coffee which RObin quickly drank before sitting back into the comfortable chair.
"Lets hear it"
THIS IS AN AUTOMATED DISTRESS CALL. ENGINES OFFLINE. MAJOR SYSTEM MALFUNCTIONS. ENGINEER ASSISTANCE REQUIRED.
"Yellow alert" Robin ordered "Set a course, Maximum Warp, ETA?"
"Twenty minutes" The Helm officer reported.
"Engage" Robin ordered.

Twenty minutes later, THe Enterprise dropped out of Warp. It's sleek form returning to normal space and continueing to glide along on Full Impulse. As they approached, the Ship was immediatly scanned.
"Richards, Prepare a away team, ten marines, five medical and ten engineers, stand-by to beam over" Robin ordered "Open a channel to the ship, just in case"
"Open Captain".
"This is Captain Robin Sinclair of the Federation Starship Enterprise, if you can hear me please respond, we're sending over an away team to assisst you, repeat, if you can hear me please respond"

[Unified Western States]

Silence. Except for the morse code, the ship did not respond. It could be seen that there were actually two ships there. One was a tiny freighter, miniscule when compared to the massive Nova. It was docked on the Nova's side, like a leech clinging to its victim. As the Federation ship approached, several automated lights on the exterior lit up the side of the hull of the massive ship. Painted in big white letters, it read:

WSRS Nova

The freighter was taking up most of the docking room on the port side, so the Federation ship would have to dock or deploy on the starboard side. As it got closer, another transmission came through. This one wasn't anything decipherable. It was simply static, with what sounded like someone screaming or something in the background. But it only laster for a few seconds before cutting out.

[Northern Rangeria]

The Federation, however, had not been the first ship to arrive to the scene. Hidden underneath the kilometer-long bulk of the Nova, another ship was already busy, masking its presence with the impressive size of the lost UWS ship.

When it came to uncolonized territories or flying outside established trade routes, there always was a great danger involved in sending a distress signal. While it could bring help more swiftly, the use of a distress signal, whether a modern automated beacon or one such quaintily antiquated as the Morse code transmission, it was like a wounded lamb bleeting in the wilderness. Sometimes, wolves found it before the shepherd.

One such wolf took the form of the sleek, black-and-blue vessel now hiding inside Nova's sensor echo. Once a light cruiser by the name of Hopeful in the service of the Principality Far Fleet, this wolf now bore the name Fool's Hope under new management: a crew of deserters, run-aways and other mercenary-minded individuals who had found the idealism and discipline of the Fleet constraining and high-falooting. Jury-rigged from a battle-marooned vessel, commandeered by said ruffians and then upgraded along the way by spoils of war, she had become a shadow hiding in space, preying on unsuspecting cargo vessels and taking jobs as a ship of sell-swords.

These sell-swords were now busy cutting open the cargo bay doors of the Nova, hoping to gain entry. The captain of Fool's Hope was now fool: a deserter from the Fleet Corps, the former Jaeger lieutenant Levi Ahokas knew that they would have a snowball's chance in hell bringing the Nova with them by tractor beams, nor would the UWS pay a finder's fee to a wanted man. So, they had opted instead for a snatch-and-grab operation: get inside, steal as much valuable cargo and equipment as possible, and then get the hell out before the proper authorities - or better-armed privateers - found their way to the source of the distress signal.

"Luk, how are we getting on?" he asked, turning in his commander's chair on the bridge. Decorated with trophies and stolen tech jury-rigged into the consoles, the bridge bore little resemblance to the coolly formal organization of a Principality vessel. Yet, the former warrant officer and now the de facto XO of Fool's Hope, Samuel "Luk" Lukander still carried himself with a soldier's poise, despite his uniform now consisting of a synth-leather brawler's vest and combat fatigues.

"We're almost through", the XO answered calmly. "The boarding party is ready, along with the shuttlecraft. We just need another two minutes to get those gorram bay doors open."

"Then hurry it up, it's only a matter of time before someone hears that signal. We gotta silence it, now", Ahokas muttered. Something was interfering with their scans, and so far they had been unable to tell who was sending the signal. It had to go, though; they needed no company while they were busy robbing the ship empty.

"Doin' our best, boss..."

[The New Federation 1]

USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E, Sovereign Class Starship

It had taken some doing, but the Transporter operator believed he had found a safe position to beam an away team onto the ship. The Twenty Five man away team would beam onto the ship, the heavily armed marines first, followed by the rest of the party. THe ship closed to Transporter range and assumed a position of the Nova's port quarter. The Soveriegn Class ship was of course dwarfed by the Nova. Although, Robin remembered, the Federation hadn't followed the other Galactic powers theory that Bigger was always better.

[Northern Rangeria]

"Shit", cursed the pirate operating the sensor table. "We got a bogie... a capital ship, it seems. Federation, by the looks of it. And they just beamed a party on board, judging by the telemetry readings."

Ahokas cursed and ran to the sensor table. "Have they spotted us?"

"Doesn't seem so, sir. The cloaking device is activated, and we've got magnetic clamps on the Nova's underbelly. We should appear as part of her sensor echo, the cloak keeping the life-signs dimmed."

"This puts us on a busy schedule, though", Luk commented, just before his hand went to his earpiece. "It's the boarding party. They got the cargo bay doors open."

That was indeed true. The lasers had cut open the locks of the cargo bay door, and the pirates operating the two repair drones withdrew, allowing one of the tech guys to slip inside. In the dark, the pressure-suited tech floated to the controls and began a manual override. No biggie, these official types were never too imaginative with door security. Soon, the doors were clanking open, two shuttles filled with twenty pirates and a number of loading droids slipping inside...

[Unified Western States]

The cargo bay was vast, and had gravity took, showing that at least some of the ship had electricity. But the cargo bay was also pitch black. As the pirates filed out of the shuttles, their flashlights illuminated the cargo. There were large black crates, but most of the cargo in this bay consisted of black cylinder. The cylinders were about 4 feet tall and 2 feet in diameter. They had no markings of any type and to the touch, they were cold and hard. The metal was almost iridescent when viewed by the light by the flashlight. There was also an energy of some sort. The hair on the back of all of the pirates necks stood up as they exited their shuttles. It was a weird feeling. the cargo door behind them suddenly began to close, an automated sequence running the doors. The huge cargo doors slip closed, hissing as the room was re-pressurized.

[The New Federation 1]

Nova

The Starfleet Marines spread out quickly, the Tactical lights on the front of their weapons sweeping the area they had beamed into. Behind them, the rest of the away team began to beam in. Everyone was armed with at least a Type-2 Phasers, and those who could were armed with Phaser rifles. THe Marines were also equipped with Photon Grenades in-case they met something big. Major Anderson looked around from the point of the Marine Spearhead.

[Unified Western States]

Nova

The Starfleet Marines spread out quickly, the Tactical lights on the front of their weapons sweeping the area they had beamed into. Behind them, the rest of the away team began to beam in. Everyone was armed with at least a Type-2 Phasers, and those who could were armed with Phaser rifles. THe Marines were also equipped with Photon Grenades in-case they met something big. Major Anderson looked around from the point of the Marine Spearhead.

The marines had beamed into what appeared to be a welcome lobby of some sort. Lights dimly lit the room up. A few wilted potted plants lined the edge, as did some benches. Directly behind them was an airlock where normal transit occurred. The the left and right there were doors with holographic signs reading "To Corridors". Directly ahead of them was a door that read "Elevator to Trams". The floors and ceiling were starch white, very modern and sterile. A few posters were on the walls reading:

"Remember: Your'e the future of humanity"

and

"For a better tomorrow"

were just some of them. But there was no sign anyone had ever been there. No garbage in the cans, nothing.

[Northern Rangeria]

Nova Cargo Bay

"Alright, people, look alive", hissed the leader of the boarding party, a young female ex-Jaeger by the name of Maria Varesh. She was one of the more exotic members of the crew, being a half-breed, a descendant of Principality human and a qurin, a near-human race the Principality had encountered earlier on. Slim, womanly, with golden skin and blazing red hair, she was one of the captain's most common companions - as well as one of his more trusted officers. "Martil, hack into the mainframe and make sure we can get out of here as well. Heikila, Lund, Silfer... secure the doors", she barked her orders.

Meanwhile, one of the pressure-suited pirates was approaching the barrels, scanning them with a small, hand-held device stolen from a cargo vessel. It should reveal the contents of the barrels...

[The New Federation 1]

Nova

The Away team felt un-nerved. There was something at work in this ship, they could feel it, they just didn't know what. The plan was to head for the ships Engine Room and attempt to get the lights back on, it's much harder to be ambushed if the lights are on after all. As the team finished beaming in they spread out. Heading for the corridors, hoping to find more helpful signs.

[Unified Western States]

Nova Cargo Bay

"Alright, people, look alive", hissed the leader of the boarding party, a young female ex-Jaeger by the name of Maria Varesh. She was one of the more exotic members of the crew, being a half-breed, a descendant of Principality human and a qurin, a near-human race the Principality had encountered earlier on. Slim, womanly, with golden skin and blazing red hair, she was one of the captain's most common companions - as well as one of his more trusted officers. "Martil, hack into the mainframe and make sure we can get out of here as well. Heikila, Lund, Silfer... secure the doors", she barked her orders.

Meanwhile, one of the pressure-suited pirates was approaching the barrels, scanning them with a small, hand-held device stolen from a cargo vessel. It should reveal the contents of the barrels...

The scans of the barreled revealed nothing more than some sort of bizarre energy readings. The scanner also went a little loopy as it got close to the barrels.

When the holo-console on the wall was accessed, it showed a screen.

[code]Hello. This is a information terminal. Please enter your query./code]

[Unified Western States]

Nova

The Away team felt un-nerved. There was something at work in this ship, they could feel it, they just didn't know what. The plan was to head for the ships Engine Room and attempt to get the lights back on, it's much harder to be ambushed if the lights are on after all. As the team finished beaming in they spread out. Heading for the corridors, hoping to find more helpful signs.

The doors to the corridors slipped open, revealing dimly lit, long white hallways. The corridor had more doors to the tram system, but at an intersection, the holographic sign floating in the center read:

(Left) Security Station
(Right) Cafeteria
(Straight) Further Transit)

[The New Federation 1]

Nova

Major Anderson made the decision to head for the Security station. They had brought along a few power cells, if they could activate the security systems they could try and figure out the situation. Five marine took up the front, five took up the rear, with everyone else keeping an eye on everywhere else.

[Unified Western States]

The corridor to the security station was the same, starch white as everywhere else. About fifteen feet from the security station door, the lights died. A cold wind swept through, even though there should be no wind at all. An odd presence could be felt in the corridor. It passed and the lights flickered back to dim.

[Northern Rangeria]

Wash Martil, the technical whizkid of Fool's Hope, smiled and shook his head inside his pressuresuit helmet. Computers, always polite, even after all has gone to hell. "Alright, let's see what you are made of", he whispered and pulled out a small device, attaching it to the console terminal. Turning it on, it would start decrypting the ship's firewalls, giving Wash access to the ship's computer and memory cores. First things first: cordon off the other team, making it seem like the doors had been deadbolted by malfunction. Second: turn off the distress signal. Third: secure cargo bay controls. And finally the best as last: cargo manifesto, finding out what was worth stealing.

The pirate studying the barrels grunted and returned to Varesh. "I'm getting some weird readings from those containers. Best we stear clear for them until Wash got the cargo manifesto."

"Thanks for that", Varesh muttered. "Continue with the scans, there's gotta be something here worth taking. Food, meds, omnigel, precious metals."

Meanwhile, three of the pirates can climbed the ladders to the higher level, checking the doors leading out of the cargo bay...

[Unified Western States]

Wash Martil, the technical whizkid of Fool's Hope, smiled and shook his head inside his pressuresuit helmet. Computers, always polite, even after all has gone to hell. "Alright, let's see what you are made of", he whispered and pulled out a small device, attaching it to the console terminal. Turning it on, it would start decrypting the ship's firewalls, giving Wash access to the ship's computer and memory cores. First things first: cordon off the other team, making it seem like the doors had been deadbolted by malfunction. Second: turn off the distress signal. Third: secure cargo bay controls. And finally the best as last: cargo manifesto, finding out what was worth stealing.

The pirate studying the barrels grunted and returned to Varesh. "I'm getting some weird readings from those containers. Best we stear clear for them until Wash got the cargo manifesto."

"Thanks for that", Varesh muttered. "Continue with the scans, there's gotta be something here worth taking. Food, meds, omnigel, precious metals."

Meanwhile, three of the pirates can climbed the ladders to the higher level, checking the doors leading out of the cargo bay...

The computer wasn't that resistant. But that was because it wasn't connected to the mainframe. An error message appeared.

Code: Select all

I'm sorry. The connection to the mainframe has been broken. Please repair the connection, the try again.

The higher levels of the cargo bay had no cylinders, but large black crates. The doors also were odd. It was hard to see in the lack of light, but the flashlights showed that the door had scorch marks on the back, meaning that it had been welded shut from the other side.

[Northern Rangeria]

"Whoa, that ain't good", remarked Lund, one of the more grizzled of the pirates. If the cargo bay had been cordoned off from the outside, there was probably something in here that the crew didn't want getting out. "Ma'am, we have a problem! The doors've been sealed! From the inside!"

"Same thing with the console", remarked Wash. "It's been severed from the mainframe. It's like they were trying to break off this whole compartment from the rest of the ship."

Maria Varesh frowned, her eyes turning to those containers. Could it be...?

"Then we've gotta make our way outta here", she spat out. "Wash, get the cargo bay doors working, pronto. And get me some doorbusters so we can go deeper, now!"

Two of the pirates ran to the cargo bay doors that lead inside, starting to set up the doorbusters. They were in fact small bombs, with containment fields directing the blast at pinpoint locations. A few of them along the door slit, a push of a button, and presto, an open door.

Varesh opened her wrist console, tuning the busters to her signal. Once her team mates were clear, she sent the signal.

[Unified Western States]

The explosion echoed inside the cavernous cargo bay. The doors were blown inwards, and the pirates could now get to the rest of the ship.

[Northern Rangeria]

It was now that the Jaeger training of many of the pirates kicked in. Moving in pairs, they stepped out and secured the corridor, Varesh included. Wash started looking for a console, knowing that time was a factor in making sure that those Federation bozos would not find them out. Five pirates stayed behind, going methodically through the cargo in the cargo bay, now that Wash had made sure they could get out again. In addition, one of them started opening some of the console panels, removing important tidbits, holo projectors, datachips and the like. Those small but important things that were hard to come by when one's name and face was on most police databases in three sectors.

[Unified Western States]

The corridor was different. Stark white, with no markings at all. Almost. In the center of the corridor, burned into the ground with a laser, an image of a cross with a verse from a religious book beneath it. Other than that, the only thing was a holosign that read:

"To Elevator to Main Decks"

[F799]

Having recieved the distress call, while on patrol in a nearby system, Captain Fredrich A. Henn aboard his upgrades 17km super star destroyer, fell out of hyperspace safely inside the Deathly Sting. The crew at the bridge, composed completely of droids, painstakingly designed to look and act like humans, going as far as tohave replicated synthskin, muscles and organs, were all just for show, as the Captain himself could easily control 90% of the massive vessel from his command.

Immediately he noted that there already seemed to be two vessels enggaed on or about the ship. He sighed, space never ceased to amaze him. Not that he wanted to be amazed. While it was his assisgnment to captain the Deathly Sting he much preffered to be safe wtih both feet planted on the ground. All this zipping through the empty void of space was not his cup of tea.
Upon scanning the derelict vessels, Henn was even more ystified. Scans yielded nothing about the ship, even whether there were lifeforms aboard or not.

Noting that starship scrap could bring a hefty price if one knew where to sell it, Henn made the decision to further investigate the odd vessel, whatever oddity was messing with his scanners could carry a high price. His ship's massive shielding should protect it from any oddities the vessel may project in it's weakened state.

Quickly powering up the highly advanced tractor beams aboard his vessel, Henn directed 6 of them to bring the unknown vessel closer to the Deathly Sting. He did not want to put anything outside of this ship any more than he had to. By bringing it in close, individual droids could be launched onto the vessel, and make their way in from there.

Once the Nova was close enough to be overshadowed by the massive Syndicate vessel. ten small droids (battle droids circa SW episode 1, only a bit more advanced AI) were jettisoned from the hangar of the Deathly Sting. Seconds later they landed with the clinks of metal on metal aboad the outer hull of the Nova. With magnatized feet, they easily stood up, each armed with enery cutters, precision explosives and blaster rifles, they were the advanced scout team destined to explore and secure the odd vessel. With other ships in the system, Henn did not want to risk sending over a scrap/secure team until it was safe.

Quickly the droids made their way up the hull towards what could be discerned as the bridge. Here they quickly set to work cutting away pieces of armor and hull in attempts to gain entry to the ship's command. With no shielding powered up their job was going exceptionally easier than it did most times.

[Northern Rangeria]

"Wash. Can you access the mainframe from here?" Varesh asked, her men lighting the corridor with their lamps, aiming into the darkness. Varesh herself leaned over, trying to see what the scorched passage read.

"I'm trying, boss, I'm trying", came Wash's answer as he found another console, and attempted to break into the mainframe again. Time was becoming an issue, and they did not have the luxury of stumbling around in the dark. They needed to find the cargo bays, the armoury and the storage facilities, go through them, take what was most valuable, and get out. Things were getting too hot for comfort...

[Unified Western States]

The passage was marked.

The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
-Psalm 27:1

The mainframe was being difficult.

Code: Select all

The mainframe is currently being access on a single broadcast. Please enter the broadcast access code to access the mainframe at this time.

[Northern Rangeria]

Wash chuckled inside his helmet. "Oooh, a gutsy little thing, aintcha?" he cooed as he began a manual override, trying to bypass the demand for a code. Wash was a sheer prodigy in things like this, his analytic mind having made him one of the most prominent techs in the Far Fleet. Unfortunately for the Fleet, he had also been bored because of the routinues of military life. So when Lt. Ahokas had come to him and offered a chance for high adventure... well, that was like offering uncut heroine to an addict.