Chapter Nine - Tic Tetchy (Part One)
Amongst the jagged realm of malarkey, not many shall remain calm and composed.
Pentravase Third Capital World, 'Lici Dyha-Zarche'
Vice President Private Quarters
Archus GalaxyA small pin of light, nothing more than a narrow gem of shine sequentially increases its luminosity, slowly overpowering the flood of shine emanated by three pillars of light upon the room. Located slightly off spatial loci of the room, the pin of light turn brighter still, pointing to the ceiling and glistening it with titanium radiance before shortly erupting into a thin horizontal bar of luminosity, a few feet above the segment-patterned floor whilst diverting much of its coherent beam previously to the formed bar of soft light. Not far from the newly formed shape of light lies the Vice President, with her eyes trawling the room coupled with a few thin frown on her freckles face. She presses a small button on a discrete remote, before putting it away on a rectangular metal table affixed to the wall of the room.
Shortly after putting the remote away with her left hand, Raila switches her attention to a dark blue-coloured elongated octagon trace a few degrees away from the cold table and subsequently swishes her right hand over the trace a few centimeters away while barely touching it. Her action then accompanied by the once metal-clad appearance innards area of the trace into something silvery reflective which gradient of change ropes down vertically from atop to down, turning it into something resembling a long mirror. While Raila keeps her gaze from the center of the room, the thin bar of light extends itself upwards, into a thin vertical plate of light.
Its announcement of activation is clearly audio cued, with two tuned audio signature beeps that break the near silent hums emitted by numerous girded ventilation ducts in the room before followed with several crackles and the subsequent crystal clear audio,
"..greetings news viewers! I'm your news anchor for today, Jeridan Lewci and this is...Helli Ricil! On today's headlines...Is it true that the Oronoe CGB had just lowered base lending rate of currency to rock bottom four point two percent?, Did the nation famous yet covertly mysterious persona Dr.Helacron shown him or herself on the Retho V's first class resort? Exotic matter explosion in Mossr! Five ships of the Gauis rescue force were reported to be heavily damaged while other two ships statuses are currently unknown!, Rare footage of previously thought just fable, Energy Dragon..."Numerous thin shapes form on the surface of the now silver reflective mirror with the crisp image of Raila projected unto it, only to be in a reversed reflection of her. She touches two small circle shapes that formed on the surface that brings up another interface that ply itself amongst the reflective area. Multitude of uniform designs then expanded into her view upon her action to enlarge the fingerprint of her fingers that engaged the interactive surface.
Raila then unconsciously presses the remote button again, while still having her right hand and her eyes affixed to the interactive surface. With a distinct beep, the previous plastered audio muted for a second before followed by an audio pattern, accompanied by shadows of lights that catch the attention of the corner eyes of Raila,
"....Ultra Definition R-Series. Ultra-Fast....Ultra-Compact...Ultra-Define, Ultra-Realistic and Ultra-Satisfaction. Upgrade now to the new Ultra-Neuro Compo Device SLX R-Series to neuro align stations near you. Limited time offer only, upgrade now and save thirty percent off for.."She hymns a small tune while still having her eyes affixed to the reflective surface. With two swipe of her right hand fingers, Raila selected one formal attire, coloured slate blue with Principality insignias, two arching red coloured fractal arrow heads facing opposite on x-axis specifically which symbols are mostly aligned on the left chest area of the attire. From a small icon when she selected the image of the attire on the reflective surface, it expanded into a larger one and automatically Raila could see her image on the surface that is clad with such attire.
"....hold on, new reports coming in. Officials stationed in Mossr stated that the cleaning process may take more than....ten cycles and the recent exotic matter tank explosion in the sector had hampered the coordinated Gauis cleaning force. The explosion, believed to be triggered by excessive synchrotron radiation emitted from one of the rescue vessels in a effort to scan for survivors on now wrecked Mossr I space station blindsided sensitive sensors on majority of the ships. It's estimated that several billion liters of toxic fluids were released to space around the sector upon the destruction of the orbital Mossr chemical stations though experts said that such fluids would be spread quite thin and be photo-disintegrated by the sector's stars with time which is uncertain. The Gauis Ostrolis however had issued a level three warning for space travelers inside the area, in danger of the toxic fluids propagating in the sector while hoping that the matter will be resolved quickly in...", changes the audio emitted from the loci of the room as her left hand touches the remote on the table again.
Looking somewhat satisfied, Raila turned off the interactive surface with a specific hand gesture on it, watching it slowly melts away to its previous state, a dull and bleak metal-coloured surface. She let out a small sigh as her ears registers the present audio before snapping again at the remote. Her action then quickly followed with a conformity beep and a small audio crackle before turning crystal clear,
"HELLO VIEWERS! On todays match Dead Round, we have the brutal killing machine Android Svat versus the newcomer Theorad! Android Svat is today's favourite with rating of seventy four out of one hundred, closely followed by Theorad at seventy! A little bit of info for you watchers, Android Svat had mashed, cut and grinded in total of thirty two opponents in last season! Oh look at that sweet sexy dual arm chain guns spewing six hundred and eight millimeters of death! The Sentient Droid once worked in Holocurn decided to take a career turn and there we have it, Svat the Brutal TERMINATOR!!!!! As for Theorad, our experts cannot take a guess out of him or it as anyone asking it found his or her head gone in a fraction of a second! This match shall be legendary, the old guard (Svat) clashing with the new blood (Theorad)! Place your bets now..!"Feeling quite abject, Raila holds the remote on her left hand and flexing her neck towards the center of the room before orientating her body to the same direction. Not far from her dull and stale pure white coloured bed, clad with titanium coloured linings, she could see an interactive image between the two axises of her vision, only to press the remote again. The image quickly turn light blue before displaying an another animated image,
"....buy buy buy~! We at Z-Revolution Inc present you the newest model of our grehl series. The all brand new spiffy and spunky Z-INVORATE! This new concoction is guaranteed to give you the best trip to wonderland in the whole Principality or your monies back! Buy now at two hundred thousand HCCs! This ad is sponsored by...""...thank you for the question moderator. Is an Energy Dragon really a creature made of pure energy you ask? Well for forty cycles my life i had dedicated to research them, they are known as being not made purely of energy as most scientists would thought. I and Dr. Sansa here figured out that they feature trace amounts of exotic matter of high quantum aggregate kept artificially in gamma level energy levels. We postulated that upon hureco analysis of the spectra emitted by them. Problem is, they're so rare that i can't even tell whether our footage reveals an actual Energy Dragon or just another random exotic matter comet, but one thing is certain. That thing attacked our camera probe shortly it turned...uhh..its head or some sort towards the camera. We don't know anything mo-" changes the image yet again as she decides to press the remote on her left hand while slowly walking to the image.
The thin image along with its accompanied audio then tattered in a fraction of a second before she presses another button on the remote, pauses it from moving. She could hear a small yet mysterious voice emanating somewhere in the room even though it's adequately lit with three pillars of soft beige light not far from touching her view,
"Well, why don't you use....your NIS device, Rai-, wait. Make that now, Vice President.""For
what business you showed up here? This
is my
private quarters." gazes the Vice President across the room with an increasing hostile intent, flared across her eye irises.
The voice then changes its origin vector, evident with a formation of wedge of disappearance manifesting on the paused image in the center of the room,
"Oh, don't be like that, Vice President. You need....to scale down your hostilities, the bronzes doesn’t really like your....attitude.""You were dead and yet you dare to come disturb me?" brandishes Raila of her malicious stare which is directly pointed to the forming occlusion in front of her.
The announced voice changes its loci while dissolving the transparent wedge occlusion, leaving the thin plate of light fully formed again in the center of the room,
"It's true that i'm dead...thanks to you. Well if you define death with the destruction of a physical body that is...""Stop dragging this nonsense. There must be a reason why you showed up here, even after the grave. I don't like persistent persona, it makes me feel to eliminate them." stings Raila's sentences across the cold atmosphere of the room. She notices someone is indeed inside the room and the thought the person dare to mock her only makes her furious.
For a few seconds, the voice disappeared into thin air before it slowly lightens its presence, directly on the Vice President's left ear,
"I must applaud you, Vice President as your action several cycles ago gave me quite of a freedom.....so now i'm here, to reward your action....Now look at your display unit. I'm quite surprised that you still use that old age display unit...hehehe.""I have my reasons to use that, and you better watch your words." swings Raila's left arm on reflex, only to slash naught more than a block of cold air. Her eyes lashes around with a torrent of a raging ode in order to visually confirm the location of the mysterious voice.
Her head then snaps to the direction to the center of the room after nodding a few radians around, witnessing the thin plate of soft blue light emerges into life and displaying a certain picture,
"...PHS News Update...You're now watching the Urgent News Segment, as hosted by Arasi Saville. *charan~charan~ding* Good day viewers, on today's urgent news, the Senatorial Advocate Circle recently proclaimed that the Vice President, Hisilia Raila had engrossingly risk the lives of one hundred thousand servicemen under the flag of Prima-Navy over what seemed to be an unauthorized force deployment involving top tier detachments of the national navy. The council further stated that she overbounded the mandate given to her as per the Pentravase Constitution with such actions. Numerous political parties, primarily the far-right Yertham political faction commented the Vice President's action as something 'unexpected and disgusting' while other parties remain with mixed feelings. The Second Embassy in Lici-Dyha Kaelo had been reported to be a target of a flash mob that was postulated to be formed from the relatives of the servicemen as told by a source inside the embassy. There are also reports of increasing civil unrest in certain areas of the Principality upon the council declaration, and the citizens that we interviewed seemed to be mostly at unease, as shown in this video...""What the...did you did something?! Answer me!" enrages Raila even more, flavouring her already furious state.
The mysterious voice then quickly changes its axis of manifestation, to the right of Raila before lightly receding away with an eerie tone,
"Oh no, i didn't do anything...Vice President. I'm 'dead', remember? I thought...you would be more..careful than this. You can physically kill a man yet you can't keep...a bunch of cretins quiet? Funny, hehehe.""Vice President! Vice President are you in there?! This is bad!" frantically knocks a voice over the room, offset to the right angle of Raila.
Upon hearing the impetus of knocks over her door, Raila presses a button on the remote on her left hand, dissolving the formed thin mist of light in the center of her room. With coordinated strides, she hastily throw the remote over her bed and moves toward the gun metal coloured dull door. She swishes her right hand once, cracking the door apart from its middle line with three burst of whirring sounds, "What is it, officer? You know i don't like being disturbed during my rest time."
"*pant* Sor..ry Vice President! I'm from the Presidential Office Relations division and our department had just be swamped with calls! More than a hundred thousands of them, and they're all asking about you!" exclaims a stout man, trying to catch his fleeting breath. Even though the long corridors adjacent to the Raila’s room are maintained to a point to make someone without proper attire shiver, she could see the man sweating profusely.
Intrigued of what the man said, Raila voices her curiosity, "What is it now?"
"Vice President...! *pant* Did you see the latest news broadcast?!" lashes the man with increasing state of panic.
Raila leans her head to the left slightly while increasing her confused gaze, "Yes i did, just now. Catch your breath first. Next time use the intercom, so spill it out, whatever urgent thing you wanted to deliver."
"...Vice President, majority of the Lower Assembly wanted to put you into trial, by invoking the Emergency Act Section...20.", calms the pace of breathing of the man while still displaying a sign of torridness.
She took a slight breath before heaving her thoughts forward, manifested by her action of shrugging her shoulders a few degrees upwards, "Under....the Emergency Act?"
"Yes, Vice President! They say you...not only allow an unauthorized usage of assets of Prima-Navy, but also state you plan to cause coup d'etat, starting with hiding the fact that the Elected Leader is missing!" strains the man's voice as he notices that Raila negated his concern away with her action of leaving the room and avoiding eye contact a few seconds later.
Wearing a face glinted with a slight tone of frustration, Raila paces her step over a long corridor, plastered titanium white, "Heh, are they trying to accuse me for something i didn't do? Jumpy bureaucrats."
"But but Vice President! Here is the alleged logs and security footage that they say are true--that you're a national threat!" frantically displays the man a data slate towards Raila.
His vigour managed to catch Raila's attention, evident with her action of stopping from moving forward and taking the data slate from the man with her white-gloved hands, "Really? Strange...the Lower Assembly doesn't have any legal powers...as far as i know."
"I don't know that-but one thing is certain, Vice President! It's not only your neck on the line, they're trying to charge the whole President's Office section, including a low ranked personnel like me for treason!", explains the man with utter grief before extending his hands slowly in order to take the offered data slate again as he notices Raila wanted it to be put away with her hand gestures, "I didn't do anything wrong either! Please, Vice President, you need to punch the allegations away, I have three mouths to feed!"
"I know, officer. I know my implied full responsibilities as a Vice President immediately on the moment when i sit on my chair in an office space given to me." strides Raila again before flexing her head backwards for a brief moment of time, "Give them a heads up, i'm going to discuss with them directly...as soon as plausible."
"Thank you Vice President! Make sure..you win this time!" nearly cries the man while bowing repeatedly to Raila.
Even though he notices that his act is degrading himself and the fact that Raila doesn't even give a sign of appreciation of his action--not even a glance or a bat of an eyelid, he is truly grateful. For now he found another ray of hope for his family, and for his future even though he feels that his pride is hurt badly. For his family, he would do anything, almost anything. Upon hearing a lift's door closing with two distinct mechanical whirrs, he tries to complacent his usual composure again in order to exhibit a sense of professionalism as one of the personnel of the prestigious President's Office.
Unknown System
18 AU to System's Star
Onboard HCL Soros
Milky Way GalaxySoros silently gaze around his ship's command bridge with a scrutinizing look, coupled alongside a tone of skepticism. The thought that he would need to be here, staying relatively motionless with the behemoth Pentravase Super Capital ship with nowhere to go for a specific amount of time had somehow offsetted his usual valour. He's now a Fleet Admiral of the Detachment level yet he was requested to stay here for a long time? This can't be right, voices his pride, though his logic then intervenes with a counter--he will need to stay here since the other ships of his detachment can't arrive here without the presence of the mighty HCL Soros.
Occasionally Soros would curse in his heart, on what deranged person in the Principality made the doctrine that states most of the capital ships are supposed to be jump points, putting them at plausible tactical risk although such move was explained to have some of its benefits which one of them allow the rapid reinforcement of a lone capital ship. Considering a capital ship take substantial resources and time to create, he sees on the justification of the doctrine although now he will need to deal with more problems associated with such doctrine than what he faced two thousands cycles ago--the day where he was once proudly commanding huge steel chunks of death known as capital ships, minus the doctrine.
Feeling at unease, Soros sways his right hand on a blank space near his command chair, calling a small floating interface, “Engineer Thoka, what’s the current status of my ship? The primary AI core states that the previous jump had damaged some of the ship’s systems.”
“Oh? Sorry for the late answer, Admiral Soros. My team had checked the damage and it ain’t extensive. Theoretically the ship is tip top for a few cycles before needing any major repa-” answers the formed interface, alongside with an animated portrait that portray a woman with a silvery body suit.
Upon hearing the answer, Soros increases his skeptical look, “Theoretically you said? I want definite and real answer here, Engineer Thoka. You do know what can or will happen if any of my ship's functions happen to be defective, right?”
“Well admiral, we checked most of the ship and found few broken down subsystems, mainly Helacron Field Stabilizers and non-essential energy conduits in bloc nine, four and seven. In my opinion, those minor subsystems would not impair the performa-” vehemently voices the personnel counter over Soros's question before interrupted with his speech.
Putting two fingers of his right hand over his eyebrows while encumbered in a tone of frustration, Soros shoots up his reply, “Ok ok, just tell me one thing, Engineer Thoka.”
“What is it, admiral?” surprised the personnel, with an intriguing tone.
Soros shrugged lightly before letting a small sigh, clad with a disappointed look, “I need you to provide me a strong reason that my ship will not have a chance to blow up when it’s activating the Socron for next incoming twenty fleets.”
“Wait, what? You’re going to activate the Socron for twenty times?! That's!” sounds the interface with much shock.
“Yes.” nods Soros for a moment before gazing seriously to the formed interface, “Don’t forget, Engineer Thoka. We’re still in a mission and I want my ship in tip top shape, theoretically and realistically.”
Filling the temporal gap of his conversation, a steely tone chimes in, accompanied with several formation of small and discrete interface on Soros's periphery sight area,
“Sorry for the intrusion, Admiral Soros, Protocol N3T had been completed and status all green. Input command.”“Hm? Acquit protocol BY43, record all logs and use com method RT012” sways Soros's left hand on the newly formed light green interface.
The new windows of light then responds with a confirmation cue before dissolving some of the previously formed interfaces,
“Orders confirmed. RT012 link will be activated in seven hundred seconds. All events logged and stored. Input command.”“Err, admiral? Are you really going to activate Socron twenty times?” sounds the first interface again, braided with a tone of uncertainty.
“In a way, I just want my ship here, is in tip top shape theoretically and realistically.” pauses Soros's vision to the interface while his fingers dance on a newly called keyboard interface. He then snaps his view to the personnel's portrait, “You got that, officer? If you happen to make one mistake, remember, it’s not only your job is on the line, Chief Engineer Thoka. Make yourself more useful than a standard AI core, Chief Engineer. Do I make myself clear here?”
“Yes…” nods the portrait before toning in a submissive affirmation, “Roger admiral, I and my team will see what we can do…at least.”
“On the double then, engineer. I expect you to perform splendidly and no more dilly dallying.” reduces Soros's frown by one line before he closes the interface and voices an another command, “System, collect all data and run Protocol Nyielm.”
His order then quickly replied with a confirmation cue,
“Orders confirmed Admiral Soros, beginning protocol.”With his order, the behemoth HCL Soros quickly synchronizes its communication and sensor systems while emitting a specific defensive field to mostly shelter the flurry of energy distribution and electronic activities caused by the warship. Numerous small electronic warfare pods automatically launched with the order of the main AI core of the grand flagship, immediately filling the void left by the defensive signature field and as well scanning for plausible hostile sensors with their passive sensors while readying their electronic countermeasure systems.
The main sensor sections of the HCL Soros automatically tune themselves in order to accommodate the disturbance caused by the defensive signature field and the electronic warfare pods while the main electronic warfare modules of HCL Soros awaken from their sleep and put in standby mode as ordered by the main AI core.The flagship then proceeds to give an order through its advanced quantum tunneling communication section to all of its launched listening posts, which action empties one small exotic matter storage tank inside the large behemoth.
Unknown System
Utility Fleet One Formation
Onboard HCL Vicr
Milky Way Galaxy“Greetings Captain Renec, our passive trachonometry sensors detected that the Multitude was accelerating away but now it’s decelerating its speed and its trajectory tangent had changed than what it’s expected in previous extrapolated data. Passive energy sensors also detected a significant build up of its energy signature in plausible propulsion points. What should we do, Captain? Should we open fire?” flashes a small interface upon Renec's view, before several large interfaces followed suit, “Another report, it seems that the Sultana is indicated to accelerate away from its expected orbit trajectory as well.”
Snapping to his usual colour, Renec's robotic eyes glowed bright green for a fraction of a second, “Thank you for the report, Lieutenant. You said that they’re both moving away from our current fleet position? Are you sure it’s not false data? And no, don't shoot them till we know what they are concisely, and if they pose any threat to us.”
“Roger Captain, shunting weaponry protocols. It’s exactly what the data said, Captain. I had run Ercoh data analysis routines several time and it seems valid, through all those e-interference caused by HCL Thirma defensive systems.” replies the interface, dissolving several interfaces and calling more of newer floating windows of light.
Tracing his gloved hands over a projected map of the current system, Renec zoomed its resolution by a specific hand gesture, “Hmm…Sultana moving away…that can be explained but…why would the big ship…decelerate so suddenly, if it wanted to run away…the ship should go full speed by now…”. Viewing the formed data report, he singles out the icon that represent Multitude, “Did the other ship Captains noticed it just yet?”
The first interface quickly sounds off its reply towards Renec's question, “So far e-traffic yields nothing, Captain though they will soon know about the foreign ships travel trajectories.”
“Keep your intrusions low on head, we don’t want HCL Thirma blow us out if they know what are we doing.” gazes Renec from side to side, observing his surroundings while speaking in a hashed tone, “And continue monitoring the Multitude, it may attempt some fancy tactics. Activate the Helacron Force Projectors too, on the lowest power settings as we don’t want the petty satellite of Multitude or whatever it is sees what we’re trying to do.”
The first interface then quickly quelled its existence into thin mist of light before dissolving completely, “Roger, Captain. Maintaining low level activity and device activation shall be done soon.”
Closing the formed intefaces of light, Renec shoots up a specific command, “System, start up analysis protocol and synchronize data.”
“Orders confirmed, running full analysis. Input additional commands.” hears his ears over an audio cue while witnessing the formation of several interfaces in his view area.
Dancing his fingers over the formed interfaces, Renec plots several lines on the air canvas with the gestures of his fingers, “Link N3T Posts, WIS-23 band. Erase quantum non-localities, apply energy masquerade masks and run protocol till finish.”
“Orders confirmed. Initializing systems and redistributing energy signatures.” responded an audio cue to Renec's order, accompanied with the disappearance of the interfaces called up by Renec except for one small minimized bar of light on his right viewing area.
With Renec's orders confirmed, the AI core of HCL Vicr quickly responds and act to carry out his order in a fraction of a second after it was received. The ship's internal space hummed deep lightly for several seconds that put most personnel over a hedge of curiosity till they believed that it's just an another maintenance protocol. Unknown to a majority of them, several energy circuits of the HCL Vicr tattered themselves in a fraction of a second as the circuits redistributes their energies toward the archaic Helacron Force Projectors, cleverly hidden inside the superstructure of the hull. Numerous minor energy circuits on the warship flared lightly for a moment as well, to cover the brief steep decrease of supplied energy distributed by the main energy circuits.
Unknown System
Utility Fleet One Formation
Onboard HCL Animo
Milky Way Galaxy
“Input command.” flashes an interface towards Kiro's view before it flashes several lines of red coloured letters,
“Command denied, active sensors still synchronizing.”Passing a tone of curiosity, she clicks several times on the cold air with her fingers, touching the floating virtual interfaces, “Run maintenance check five to seven.” At the same time, Kiro presses a small icon floating on her vision's left side, “Engineering, is HCL Animo fully operational?”
“We’re still working on it Captain. All these new parts need tuning and it won’t be optimized properly any time soon, we need a Mythl class with us if we are going to synchronize it faster and efficiently.” tones the icon now a small portrait window with much argent of concern.
“Why so?” nods Kiro backwards before she flexes her eyesight to the right, “System, open recording protocol and log events on J-103 and R-107.”
“The spare parts came from the Gauis Ostrolis and they use different stadial protocol than us although they use somewhat similar base functions, Captain. It gave my team a lot of trouble just to convert their base functions to make it usable and useful enough…” explains the floating portrait before shortly bowing lightly to Kiro, “Well sorry for my rant there, I thought the navy use one uniform stadial protocol for the replacement parts by now, Captain?”
“Mhhm, Prima-Navy is still new, and our fleet represents the effort to form that standard.” sighed Kiro, and delineating a tone of assurance she continued, “Keep on the good work, Engineer and forward your data to the Engineering database of the ship. We can use that data for our next upcoming ships.” Wearing a fake smile clad with a tint of caution, she adds, “Use terminal E-451 and put quad layer encryptions. We don’t want our guests peeking through our ship’s database so easily.”
“Working on it Captain. We will try our best to fix the problem.” nods the portrait and then proceed to carry an inquisitive tone, “Before that, another question though, why do we need such level of security, Captain? I’m sure the foreign ships will take a good time trying to crack our code let alone actually capable of telling the characteristics sequence of our codes.”
A steely tone then abruptly enter the conversation, catching Kiro's attention,
“Update pending, problem areas identified in the report. Input command. Automated fix is in beta phase. Proceed? Y/N.”“Run Jehkov Analysis Program. Specify problems, specify areas. Run program 45CR.” flexes Kiro's sight from the portrait of the personnel into several newly formed interfaces before she pauses a little bit to give a slight attention to the personnel, “We can’t afford to make any mistakes here, Engineer. Our previous show may had told them a bit too much of our military capability and I would like to not risk the detachment cause someone thinks that an additional security protocol is redundant.”
The portrait then quickly silences itself, leaving Kiro quite busy dealing with the matters of HCL Animo electronically, “Oookay, I think I will resume my work now. I will inform you when the synchronization process is done, Captain.”
"Good grief, the top brass said this detachment is the best of the best...but why they failed to see in supplying the correct equipments?" sways Kiro's head in frustation.
One of the personnel in the area, presumably walking across to his station from taking a bio break shows his support towards Kiro, "Oh Captain? Don't worry so much! Rely on us more, Captain! We're all here for a reason, and that reason is to help you!"
"Well...yeah okay. It's just that they throw me to do this kind of job, it's highly stressful since if i did something wrong, all of you will be in dange--nay the whole Principality will." saddens Kiro with a permissive outlook as she snaps her vision towards the personnel.
The personnel lightly sighs before continuing his pace, "We're fully aware of the risks involved the moment we signed up for this mission. If it takes my death to make Principality great, so be it."
A patriot thought Kiro, of his declaration while she continues her line of depression further upon hearing that as her is unsure where her allegiance and morality should stand, for the glory of the Principality or for the basic needs of a human--survival. Serving the national navy more than seven cycles, Kiro had seen the gore and bore of being a servicewoman from a lowly cadet into what she's now. She once piloted a Savor Fighter and was asked to shoot down a ship full of asylum seekers back then in the lawless area of the Principality. Kiro can still remember the colour of blood spreading in space, alongside with charred and bloodied body remains floating in space shortly after she completed the task. Her craft was mysteriously stained with the smell and colour of the blood as well, filling her with much guilt. But she noted, if she wanted to survive in this harsh reality, she will have to ultimately sacrifice something. She chooses her compassion.
Unknown System
Utility Fleet One Formation
Onboard HCL Thirma
Milky Way GalaxySlightly off center of Utility Fleet One's formation, the large HCL Thirma automatically adjusts its orbit around the jovian. Its numerous shield segments occasionally flared up one by one, breaking up small micrometeorites in vicinity of the area and blocking off bolts of transient radiation that are actively spewed by the system's brightly hued star. The other ships in the formation occasionally flared up their thrusters, trying to keep apace of HCL Thirma and the refuge it provides; the large battlecruiser automatically generate a specific gravity field in close proximity that bends most of the plasma torus of the jovian below from negatively affecting the ships. Even though the smaller ships, particularly the military ones are capable of defending themselves from the haphazard of space, having a large ship to do it for them is beneficial, as they have now lesser stress load on their ship systems.
As identified by the battlecruiser's systems automatically, the planet have an unusually large magnetosphere than what is commonly encountered in the Principality thus its action to extend a defensive field in vicinity. Perhaps it's an indication that the planet is truly special and the crux reason why the fleet persistently cling to its orbit rather than doing evasive maneuvers upon noticing the foreign ships? The petty captains of the civilian ships can do naught than observing the situation while in the same time hoping to get out of this matter alive in one piece.
Ethina, the man of power behind the largest ship of the formation quickly realizes the current situation and found his attention smeared with the jovian's unusual characteristics. With much ardent he ordered off several observation protocols to be executed while deciding to get as much data as plausible from the situation. Even though his personality is not the best as he tends to flunk his assigned duties, Ethina still carries a phantasmal air of expertise around him, as if his outer appearance is nothing more than a shell, which hides a sinister self within. After all, he is a recognized Principality Group Captain.
A small red coloured interface jumps in front of the right eye of Ethina,
“Warning, passive sensors bloc three and seven detected that Multitude is changing trajectory.”
“Run Protocol Seve, passive mode.” pushes his right hand fingers on the interface, putting it on positive x-axis from his face.
The interface then changes its colour to light blue, floating amongst other interfaces that circles Ethina in close proximity,
“Orders confirmed. Synchronizing passive sensors and acquiring triangulation solution in sixty seconds.”“Captain, may I ask you a question?” sounds a personnel that stands a few degrees away from Ethina's command chair, amongst the flurry of activities within the ship's bridge. The personnel, clad in Holocurn's tactical uniform bowed his head lightly towards Ethina before fixing his view upon the finish of his sentence.
Briefly catching the glimpse of the personnel, Ethina peered for a fraction of a second toward the personnel, “Yes, what it is, Second Adjutant?”
“It’s Yarhon Charact, Captain Ethina. May I ask you, when are we going back to the Principality space?” eyes the personnel towards Ethina with a piercing gaze.
Noticed of the gaze, Ethina replies with a sharp stare, “Hmm, what makes you ask that, Adjutant Yarhon? I never had seen you before.”
“Sorry for the late introduction, I was drafted from my post on Haloi Patrol Fleet Nine upon general notice given out by the Oronoe Security Services.” bows the personnel again, purposely avoiding eye contact with Ethina.
Ethina sways his head around with a smirk as he laments of what he remembered before, “Oh, that Haloi? Ah, I still remember Haloi…getting drunk…getting chased by those Oronoe ‘privateers’ and damn swell, I was close to getting laid too! Ah, and…that sweet woman a-”
“Er, Captain? I appreciate your nostalgic sentiment, but it would be prudent if you gracefully answer my simple request.” arisen the personnel's head from bowing lightly to Ethina and establishing eye contact yet again.
Ethina sways his head to an interface to the right of his shoulder, “Ah, that little question of yours is it? Hm…”
“Solution acquired and verified. Multitude is classified as Q-Hotbox Seven, confirmed. Bogey speed confirmed. New movement trajectory, confirmed. Trachonometry Phase II suggested that Multitude is moving away from its calculated initial orbital course by the following data.” flashes the interface on the right of Ethina with several animated bars before it automatically moves toward in the front of Ethina with a set of newly formed data tables,
“The bogey is expected to exit the system on current course trajectory in ETA two hundred thousand seconds with current calculated gravi-mag field signature. System detected that Multitude is actively decelerating and exhibiting significant increase of magnetometric flux signature.”Noticing the floating window of light, Ethina clicks several times on it with his fingers, “Run Com Protocol Ervas, triple encryption layer on vectors, tight beam link.”
“Select target.” forms a new interface amidst the clutter of light in front of Ethina.
He then decides to minimize all the open interfaces by clicking their minimize button, “HCL Animo, HCL Vicr. Use phasic wave mode, compensate for e-interference, masquerade signal.”
“Confirmed. Acquiring new wavelength sequence in twenty seconds.” cued one of the small interface before minimizing itself automatically.
Feeling annoyed that he's totally ignored by Ethina, the personnel asks him again while clad with a slight tone of disappointment, “Err Captain? You haven’t answered my question.”
Ethina is so immersed in his current activity, he barely heard the personnel's question and decides to negate the personnel's interest, “Hm? Oh your question is it? Run along, I’m a busy man right now.”
“What about my question, Captain Ethina?” ask the personnel with non-satisfied look.
Ethina let out a small sigh before snapping his view towards the personnel, “Adjutant Yarhon, if you’re nosey enough, why don’t you get that equipment maintenance report done? I’m still waiting for it. If you’re so persistent to get your answer, ask Captain Kiro or something.”
“....” silences the personnel for a few seconds before bowing his head lightly towards Ethina, “Duly…acknowledged, Captain. I shall excuse myself then.”
His sign of respect however is completely ignored by Ethina, leaving the personnel with much chagrin of frustration. Clicking away the air, Ethina flashes an order, "Sensor section, where is that report?!"
"Duly sorry for the delay Captain Ethina. We had detected the return message from Sultana and optimized our Code Three communication algorithms to instantly translate the message to our language albeit a bit of small translation error. It's already logged and recorded, Captain, you just need to open the file and analyze it." forms an interface in front of Ethina as soon as he finished his order, alongside with a small rectangular interface a few distance apart.
He grinned lightly before complimenting the personnel in question and shouting a general statement, "Good work. This is what i expect. Others! Let this be an example! If you're useful, prove it!"
Unknown System
Utility Fleet One Formation
Onboard HCL Animo
Milky Way Galaxy"Incoming transmission. Source, HCL Thirma. Decrypting transmission link in five seconds." forms an interface in front of Kiro, catching her off-guard.
She sighed lightly before eying her surroundings, "Hm...what is it now?"
"Captain Kiro, my ship detected that Multitude and Sultana is currently tracked to move away from our current position. Should i shoot them down? The data should be uploaded to your ship in two seconds from now." forms a portrait of Ethina on Kiro's left area of vision.
"No, don't kill them. Their help are indispensable to us, for now." sways Kiro head from side to side while gesturing her right hand fingers on confirming the data report from HCL Thirma. She tones further with alert while reading the collected data regarding the two new foreign ships, "Shooting them down without even knowing their full extent of capabilities may put us in a severe disadvantage, i mean look at the size of Multitude. They might have an even advanced navy than us."
"Hm...you might be correct on that Captain Kiro, oh and i had informed Captain Renec as well. He should be on...a few seconds from now." agrees Ethina over Kiro's notion.
She sways her fingers over the called up data tables while waiting with full anticipation, "Ok then, i hope we don't lose sights of them."
"Oh and a little info. My ship had received the coded signal from Sultana and it's fully deciphered as well." adds Ethina casually.
She shrugged in disbelief of what she just had heard, "Wait, so you're telling me that you detected and managed to decipher Sultana's message in one go?"
"You shouldn't underestimate my battlecruiser or the ships from Gauis Ostrolis in general, Captain Kiro. Till then, till Captain Renec shows up." fades the grinning image of Ethina from Kiro's view.
A small interface forms as soon Ethina's portrait dissolved from her view, "Captain Kiro. We detected a return message from Sult-"
"I know. Decipher it quickly and forward it to me, officer." cuts Kiro with a frown on her face before the personnel can finish his sentence.
The interface then proceeds to vanish into thin air, "Errr copy that Captain Kiro. We will be working on it."
She silently abates her surprise while analyzing the new data received from HCL Thirma. Kiro could tell that what Ethina said is true; both Multitude and Sultana is currently moving away from her ship, or rather Utility Fleet One. Based on her observation, it seems that the new guests didn't buy the bait presented by the fleet formation as they're evidenced to move away with the data report and she postulated further that, her recent actions may somehow scared the new guests. Are they truly civilian ships? Why do they didn't buy the bait? Numerous questions plays in her mind, as she tries to solve the enigma whilst waiting the audience of Captain Renec. One thing for sure for her that is, if she didn't do something awfully quick, she would lose the sights of the new guests and risk the detachment's reputation over two newly discovered space-faring empires.
Unknown System
Utility Fleet One Formation
Onboard HCL Vicr
Milky Way Galaxy"Captain Renec, sensor section detected a full wave directional electromagnetic radiation in vicinity of the jovian. The radiation is determined to be as some sort of a digital transmission." forms an interface in the front of Renec with a steely audio cue.
He quickly shoots up an order while calling up more interfaces with the gestures of his hands, "Sensor System, prepare passive scan mode QER-1. Extend scan area to 1 cu, eliminate signature disturbance from E-113 Pods."
"Orders confirmed. Incoming encrypted transmission from HCL Thirma, decrypting in ten seconds." disappears the interface within a thin mist of light.
The report that a directional electromagnetic radiation is directed at Utility Fleet One piques Renec's curiosity. It seems that the new guests are capable enough in communication thought Renec as the incoming radiation was shortly analyzed to contain complex electronic patterns. Upon his order, the Gyrgyr class warship slowly extends its sensing rods while flowing with negative energy before it turns neutral. Compensating the disturbance caused by signature decoys released by HCL Thirma, HCL Vicr tunes its sensors automatically in order to catch all of the new directional electromagnetic radiation. The main AI core of the warship rapidly load up new sensing protocols, changing the current settings on its coupled sensor rods to extend their sensing range by simply tuning in to the plasma torus and magnetosphere surrounding the jovian, basically turning the whole plasma torus and the jovian's magnetosphere as a no-cost volumetrically large passive sensor sphere.
Gleefully smiling, Renec furiously click the air around him, analyzing the incoming data as collected by his ship in a form of floating interfaces circling him, "Good...good..valuable data!"
"Captain, do you need our help? We noticed that you had ordered a QER-1 scan order and we would like to warn you that it's not fully perfect." peeks a small portrait not far from Renec's right robotic eye.
Under a fraction of a second, Renec's robotic eyes formed an eerie green trail as he flexes his head, "Ah just in time, officer. I need your team help to decipher the incoming data-it's a brilliant jackpot! Analyze it all, take it all, don't leave even one byte!"
"Err...gladly, Captain. Anything else?" surprised the portrait.
Clenching his fist together, Renec barely can contain his enthusiasm, "Yes! Log it all, record it, do whatever you deem necessary! This is a revolutionary discovery! I expect at least three indepth report of the scan result on my terminal, ASAP!"
"Link established." forms an interface on the left area vision of Renec.
The portrait of Ethina formed a few seconds later, with a disgruntled look, "Captain Renec, what are you doing, rejecting my ship and Captain Kiro's call, hm?"
"I'm pretty busy right now, fresh incoming data!" exclaims Renec in surprise.
Another image formed on the right area of Renec, bearing an image of Kiro, "Captain Renec, i ask for only a fraction of your time. Is it so hard to show a little of courtesy to me, and to Captain Ethina that even consider to include you in our upcoming conversation?"
"What is it?! Make it quick! I want to analyze all these new data!" flinches Renec like an scrupulous man.
A large interface automatically formed in front of Renec, along with audio cue of Ethina, "I'm sure you knew that our new guests are trying to run away do you not? And tell us a little bit about this new data you detected."
"What? Why did HCL Thirma didn't detect all the new raw data?!" asks Renec furiously.
The image of Ethina shrugged lightly, "Well, my ship did detect it but you know the sensors on my ship is not really suited for the task than your ship, Captain Renec. Besides, the sensors' power may frighten our new guests a little bit too much. That could put our fleet in a precarious situation..should they run away from us."
"Oh yeah, you didn't order the tuning process Captain Ethina!" adds Renec before continuing his speech in his usual colour, "Well my ship here detected some sort of directional EM radiation toward our position and i assume all of you noticed the coded message sent by Sultana as well?"
Kiro was the first one to speak, "Well yes. Did you read the message yet?"
"Hold on, oh never mind! We will discuss it now!" sways Renec hands on the right area of his vision, minimizing most of the formed data interfaces.
Wearing a thin mask of grin, Ethina tilts his head lightly to the right, "Well, the message suggest to me that is, Sultana is not ready to run away as what i suspected thereof. It's asking us to not shoot at it and indicated that it's interested in trading. I presume the directional EM radiation was their offer, i suppose but my ship sensors filtered it off."
"Oh that directional EM radiation eh? Wait a second! I'm trying to decipher it-aha! It's a form of a complex digital signal! An audiovisual signal to be precise!" exclaims Renec with surprise as numerous interfaces form on the sides of his vision.
Kiro's portrait lightly stares at Renec, "Wait, wait wait, an audiovisual signal? Are they out of their minds?"
"Well Captain Kiro, you did ask them to show some good faith..and i suppose their offer to trade-along with the audiovi-whatever that is, represent their intention of good faith. What strikes me out is, they moved away from our fleet position almost in sync, as if Multitude and Sultana are in cahoots." explains Ethina with a convincing tone.
Kiro flinches aback over Ethina's reply, "Well...that's understandable on why they move away. I guess they are afraid from being hit with our weapons...so we will need to be more careful than this. Though i can't negate your idea of them being in cahoots, their actions seem suspicious."
"Cahoots? Cahoots oh yes! We're showing a bit too much of our military capability to them! I suggest that we restrict our current activities then!" adds Renec with a nodding tone.
Ethina lightly nods to Renec's suggestion, "Ok then, i'm going to deactivate the E-113 Pods."
"No, don't deactivate them. Randomize their disturbance effect so they cannot recognize the decoys' specific interference signature." cuts Kiro with a tactical tone.
Nodding away, Renec quickly brandishes his idea, "Oh and when HCL Animo is giving a return message, drop down the pods' e-interference too! We could at least cover our warships capability to communicate even when the pods are active so that they believe the interference is troubling us much as it troubles them!"
"Good idea, Captain Renec. A question though, have you deciphered the new EM-whatever that is, coming from Sultana?" sounds Ethina's portrait with an inquisitive tone.
Renec swiftly moves his hands in his vicinity, calling several data tables made of light, "It's a really complex signal, but i think my ship captured all of the signal. Sultana just gave us a new transmission protocol!"
"Oookay. What does it say?" asks Kiro with an interested look.
Ethina then adds to Kiro's statement, "Better yet, Captain Renec, please forward us the completed data in secure tight beam link. The E-113 pods will provide signature cover."
"Working on it! Now if you may, i want to continue to analyze all these new data!" flexes Renec head to his left side.
Kiro portrait however shows a different tone, "No, we need to analyze it now. Any longer and we might lose our chance to keep them in the system."
"Ok then, i will send the data to your ships in a moment, respectively!" agrees Renec over Kiro's statement.
Renec tactfully click several times on the floating data interfaces in his vicinity. With his order, the powerful communication auxiliary processors of HCL Vicr awaken from their slumber, rapidly digesting, reorganizing and reassembling the new data transmission received from Sultana. Under mere ten seconds, the main cores managed to piece together the new format, suited for Principality transmission sequence. A small interface then pops up near Renec which he quickly snaps at the floating button which action sent the translated data to the waiting warships in several tight beamed communication bursts.