Broken Star (FT, Semi-Open)

by **Aatuylva** » Sun Oct 31, 2010 7:14 pm

EDIT: Do not post without TGing please, tags included. (That's what the 'Semi' means >:\ )

[OOC] Hey, you peeps in the Milky Way, Gamma Sector, y'all invited :3 If anyone else wants to join in...better have a good reason for being in Gamma >.>[/OOC]

Gamma Quadrant (Sector I,G)(Subsector 4,5)

The savant had not responded to inquiries for the past twenty minutes. The Warmaster was worried. He is never worried. Tech-thrall Jal'Zukar was busy working on the door to the navigator's alcove. Only the navigator was allowed in during transit through the Everdark..only the navigator could look upon it without going insane. Jal'Zukar was tasked with triggering the failsafes on the alcove, closing the blast doors over the viewports, and opening the airlock. His hands trembled as he disabled the electronics, and pulled one of the hydraulic levers next to the airlock. The sound of heavy metal plates slamming down, reverborating through the rock greeted his ears. He grabbed hold of the next, and twisted it until it faced the airlock, and it opened just enough for him and the others to get through.

Oh no.

The savant, one of the zoomorphic species, from the looks of it, was dead. His head hanging limply as if disconnected from the rest of his body. The very devices that were designed to interface him with the ship during transit were now twisted around his neck and body, wrapped around him from his death throes.

"Get the Warmaster on the comms, we need to-"

Code: Select all: Attention all hands. We are exiting Holostrand Space.

"Goddamn computer! Withou-"

Without the guidance of the navigator, the fleet exited abruptly, without purpose, and without any guidance at all as the ships slaved to the Brosuukyda-class dreadnought dropped out of interdimensional drive...

Although 'drop' isn't the right word for it.

The ships were hurtled, thrown out of the path they were meant for, and violently ejected into a universe they did not belong in. Like a cannon being fired into a small pond, space itself rippled and fought, breaking as the fleet, meant to reinforce a mining outpost near their home, was thrust into this new world, similar to their own, but somehow different.

Jal'Zukar was thrown into the viewports, his head slamming headfirst into one of the reinforcing bulkheads. When he awoke, he barely remembered to put the helmet of his pressure suit on before he heard the blast doors open. He turned, his vision cloudy as the viewports were cleared.
The klaxons and warning lights cast a red glow around the navigator's alcove as he was the first to look into this other space.

And he promptly ran to the airlock, trying to get it open again as a nearby Wraithrider frigate's magazines detonated, sending shrapnel and debris straight for the dreadnought at high speeds. Nothing for the huge asteroid ship to worry about, but with the blast doors up...

"Oh gods, let me in!!"

He started banging on the airlock door. His team had left him there, and the door was..welded closed.
Immanent hull breach.

Oh gods I'm going to die.

He felt the floor shake as part of a railgun turret smashed through the viewports, breaking through the bulkheads.

[OOC]EDIT: Yes this is my FT intro thread :3[/OOC]

by **Terra Empira** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 5:50 pm

FSN Rapid Response Group "Pendulum"
New Hope, Gamma, Milky Way

The newly promoted Captain Ashdown walked down the clean corridors of his new, and shiny, Katana-Class Missile Cruiser, Zodiac. A young Lieutenant following him around like a dog, carrying a tablet and informing him of the various statuses of his ship.

The halls were light and well lite, the walls were a light gray. Crewmen, mostly new recruits straight from the academy, pushed shoulders as they fought to get into their rooms and put their things away. Ashdown smiled at the new crew, his old ship, the Toren, was destroyed by an enemy only a month ago.

He frowned as he approached the CiC door, nearly walking into it. The Lieutenant laughed as she pushed a few buttons on the control panel, informing him that some of the door's motion sensors were not working. The light-hearted captain just smiled as the Lt. fought with the door, finally allowing him to step through.

An officer stood up and spun around, announcing the Captain was on deck. All the officers, totaling about seven, stood up and spun around, saluting. The captain simply nodded and gestured with his hand for them to sit back down, he ran his hand down a command console. The chairs were your standard military leather 'substitute', but were more comfortable then you would think.

His bridge crew was hand picked, all his tactical, communication, scientists, medical, all hand picked by him. He just hoped he was worthy enough to command such a fine vessel... And he was about to find out.

Suddenly, klaxons screamed and the lights dimmed to a red as the main view screen lit up, "Incoming Message - - Priority 1" flashing across it. The captain stumbled into his seat as he yelled for the message to be played.

"This is Rear Admiral Zakora, you are to proceed immediately to the edge of the system and group with FSN RRG Pendulum."

The short message ended quickly, and Ashdown's face was stunned. He hated admirals, not even taking the time to explain what was going on, but he obeyed anyway, and the Zodiac began un-docking with the shipyard.

Ashdown pressed the comm-button on his ear piece as they approached the two Aegir-Class Destroyers that made up the Pendulum Rapid Response Group. "This is Captain Ashdown aboard the Zodiac, orders to attach to Pendulum as support. Sit-Rep, please." He said, walking about his new CiC. A stricter male voice replied. "This is Captain Zeron aboard the lead ship, Horizon. My tactical officer will send you a sit-rep, we are about to jump and investigate some major spacial annomlayes about 200 light-years from here. Spin up your FTL, read the report on route." He said, as two beeps confirmed that had received co-ordances and a report.

Ashdown sat back down, and gestured with his hand. "Spin FTL and jump on the Horizon's mark, set alert to condition two throughout the ship." He said, as he read the report.

About six minutes later, the ships appeared in a flash of light, not far from the Brosuukyda. The ships were defenseless for a moment, as their shields powered back up. It only took seconds for the group to see all the chaos that was happening. The Horizon opened a communication, and sent a message out.

"This is Captain Zeron of the FSN RRG "Pendulum". We see you are in distress, do you require assistance? Please identify yourselves, and make no move to approach us. We are equipped to help if you so need it.

by **Aatuylva** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 7:26 pm

"Warmaster! Incoming transmission!"

Inside the bowels of the massive ship, the systems protested at the unscheduled re-entry into normal space, as EM shields failed, the coilguns didn't power up properly, and half of the decks were without atmosphere. Thankfully, pressure suits were available, so casualties were within acceptable parameters.

The Warmaster ordered the transmission tower to be raised to receive incoming reports and broadcasts. The thrall who spoke was looking back at him, his face pale as he listened into his headphones at the incoming information.

The Tech-Thralls were all looking back at him on his throne. The lights were damaged, so his massive frame was cast in silhouette as he spoke.

"Fleet status."

"But m'lord-"

"Fleet status."

The young thrall, probably no more than 15 cycles, stuttered a bit before speaking.

"Six of our Wraithriders are reporting catastrophic failures on all systems and are ejecting their power cores and magazines. Ten have suffered minor damage and are leaking atmosphere from unsealed decks, another three have had magazine explosions and are lost...the other five are unharmed and battle ready sire. We...we have lost one of our Shtularshi escort destroyers..the other three report minor hull breaches and weapons failures.."

The Warmaster pulled out an old flint lighter, and began to strike it, the sparks illuminating his unnaturally large hands every few seconds, and the thrall began to sweat.

"..both of our Ayuunaghki cruisers report that their weapons are powered up, but their sublight engines have went offline. They estimate repair times to be around twenty minutes, at best."

"...and the Ilvahse?"

"All civilian ships report no damage, weapons online and ready sire. The four AuVieg mining ships are online and ready, and their drones are undamaged. The cargo-haulers have begun..clearing their holds so that we can have room for any extra wounded..."

"..what about the station."

"The mining station did not exit the Everdark m'lord."

"...mark in the records: Mining station Sif'vri is presumed lost, with all hands."

"Yes m'lord."

The Warmaster leaned forward, the red glow of the emergency lighting casting dark shadows across his face as he pulled a cigar from his vest pocket, removed the helmet on his pressure suit, and lit it.
He sat there for several minutes, contemplative as the embers of his cigar blew across the command deck with each heavy sigh.

"I suppose we should answer them, shouldn't we."

Ihenn Vashmiro Mishka Sihden Sifisi Vashiri Vrshyle Rava Revmiha! Oydech afitchn kovnenk.

by **Kyuria** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 6:16 pm

Chapter 1
Into the wild black yonder thar' me lads,...

One ship. One single ship. That was all. It simply glided with little effort.

The name Gurhan was written across her bow, and her weapons told all that needed to be known. A cruiser, more specifcly a long range fast attack type, modified for long range scouting.

On her bow sat a cannon, no larger than the rest of the gray and white ones installed else where. It was yellow though, and it's rotation mechanism had been removed for the sake of fire power. The rest of the ship, painted a deep green, white, and an almost black crimson red, was layed out in a logical fashion. It's broad side was equiped with standard weapons, some painted blue, or normal grey. The other parts had defensive weapons and missile silos. The entire ship had a resemblance to a large halberd, or a side ways christmas tree, which ever floated one's boat.

"Status report?"

"Normal sir"

The ship never deviated or paid any attention to it's surroundings.

"Gaaaaaah!!! I hate border patrol, scouting, and idle time!!! WE NEED SOMETHING BIG TO HAPPEN!!!" the captain slamed his fist down into his computer. The entire bridge only remained silent.

"Helm! Double time it! the more space we cover, the more we get paid, and most importantly; the longer our vacation!!!"

The ship lurched and rocketted faster, deeper into the unknown.

by **Sertian** » Wed Nov 03, 2010 11:12 pm

In High Orbit Over Lairemi

The creature leaned against the chair of her shuttle, her eyes closed while her disproportionately large ears rested against the back of her skull. In her hands rested a PDA, constantly humming with power and reminding her that duties still awaited for her once her vessel tunched down upon the ground, but until then she had a few moments of peaceful quiet.

The uncomfortable chair she rested in dug into her furred backside, reminding her of her old days. The tight confines of a powered armor pressing against her muscular limbs, while the heavy weight of a pulse plasma rifle laid clutched in her arms. The anxiety and adrenaline of a coming battle coursing through her body, while her eyes glanced around the small compartment to find her compatriots nodding to her in understanding.

“Grand Admiral, there’s a message waiting for you from the Emperor, it should be on your personal computer,“ the voice of the pilot came through from the front compartments of the small shuttle, forcing her out of her reflection.

“Thanks… I’ll get right to it,” she flashed the pilot a smile, although his eyes remained focused on the panels and controls around him, orbital reentries, while a standard affair these days, weren’t the type of thing you wanted to take your eyes off of.

She then turned her eyes to the computer in her paws and flicked a thumb over the small device’s screen, causing it to light up and allow her to access the private, secured account… A few more seconds and she pulled up the relevant file, a recent one fresh from the Emperor himself; not just his advisors.

She scanned over it quickly, reading the report taken from one of their communication buoys scattered across this quadrant of the galaxy. An unknown fleet had apparently emerged suddenly into real space, taking massive damage as it did so… Her vulpine eyes scanned over the fuzzy images taken by the buoy’s sensors, revealing the blocky shapes of vessels with a few of them trailing atmosphere behind them.

The fleet was relatively large, a potential threat if they managed to repair their damage… Or a potential ally. Now that their war with their old enemies was over, it was time to turn the Empire’s eyes to the galaxy outside their borders once more. And the first step to that would be gathering information, finding each and every ally that they could use and completely crush every opponent to their expansion.

She flicked her digits over the device’s screen once more, exiting out of the report and bringing up the list of all the ships in the system. Most of them were those returning from the war, slotted for minor repairs and shore leave for their crew. Yet a few were available to ship out, and after a cursory examination she discovered the two best choices; The S.I.V. Wraith and Ender.

She composed her orders and forwarded the report, leaving the ship’s respective commanders to prepare their vessels for duty as her device once more returned to its quiet hum, allowing her to close her eyes once more…

In the vastness of space it was hard to keep track of everything going on, from the drift of interstellar dust to the pulses of cosmic radiation, and it was this principle that the Empire’s Shroud-Class used as its stealth. Hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from the collection of vessels a small frigate, toping out at 80 meters at most, hurtled into standard space from the non-Euclidian space. Its engines were quiet, cool as it drifted slowly alongside the collection of alien vessels.

The vessel’s cold hull not only had the benefit of matching the same temperature as the background of space, but the meta-material it was composed off had the added benefit of warping visible and some other wavelengths of light through it, refracting and giving the vessel a pseudo form of invisibility as it lurked. Silent arrays of passive sensors turned to listen and observe the fleet, attempting to gather information while the Ender continued its journey through non-three-dimensional space to catch up and visibly announce the presence of the Empire.

by **Terra Empira** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 11:07 pm

FSN RRG Pendulum
Unnamed System

The officers in the CiC of the Zodiac were nervous as more and more dots appeared on the radar, and the fact they could see the chaos and explosions as they happened through the large main screen only made things worse.

Captain Ashdown's eyes flickered back and forth as he over viewed all the data that was being brought to him. He pressed a button with his thumb, and all the text that was scrolling across the tablet he was holding stopped, and he turned his head to the communications officer. "There are to many of them, call back to base and get backup." He ordered, and the young female officer activated her headset and started talking.

A double-beep could be heard over the inter-com, signifying that one of the other two Pendulum ships were about to speak, a feature Ashdown hated. He wanted to be able to control who was able to control every aspect of his ship, even the comms. But he listened closely anyway. "This is Captain Zeron of the Horizon, we have received a message for help from the unknown ships. Prepare to receive refugees, clear the sickbay and cargo bay and break out emergency supplies." Said Zeron. Ashdown narrowed his eyes at the ceiling, and raised his eyebrow before replying. "Captain, don't you think we should hold off until reinforcements get here? We know nothing about these people, they could very well be a bunch of pirates just baiting for a chance to get us." Argued Ashdown, annoying the Zeron. "We don't have the time, and you will obey my orders so long as your ship is in my group." He replied, as the two destroyers started moving forward towards the ships.

Ashdown ran his hand through his hair in thought, before finally calling the security chief over and ordering to secure all the corridors, and deadbolt all the civilian sections off the ship, he had no reason to trust the unknown peoples, and he would not.

Each ship could support up to 400 injured and wounded from the ships, although that is not saying they would exactly be comfortable. Each ship would have to lower it's shields for at least five minutes for everyone to be transported out, leaving it vulnerable to attack. If the shields were re-actived in the middle of a transport, anyone being transported would have their atoms blown across space like a pile of dust.

A communication was sent out from the Horizon, trying to mimic the language of the unknown ships, however, the translation would be rough.

"This is Captain Zeron of the Horizon, if you lower your shields we can beam your people out from your ship. You will have to leave your shields down, or your people will be vaporized."

by **Aatuylva** » Sun Nov 07, 2010 2:51 pm

The response unsettled the bridge crew as the mangled translation was finally understood.

"They're using what?"

"Some kind of matter-transmission device."

"Didn't someone on the homeworld try that?"

"Yes. They managed to fuse a recreational vehicle with the side of a stone cliff."

The Warmaster sat, thinking.
It would do no good to have his crew spooked, but his medical bays were already filled with the wounded of his own ship, much less those others...

"Order the fleet to comply."

"But-"

"Now. We'll have time to reconcile their fears later."

"Aye m'lord...sending transmission..."

"Acknowledged Kuunmiru Zeron, EM shields are being lowered on all ships with wounded. For reasons I am sure you can understand, we are also sending personnel to insure their safe-keeping, by your leave of course."

"Sent sir."

"Good. At the slightest hint of powering weapons fire every weapon at the Horizon. If they think they can strike us down when we are wounded then we will take as many of them down with us as we can, starting with the 'good samaritans.'"

"Aye m'lord."

The missile drones began to form a light perimeter around the fleet as the electro-magnetic shielding was powered down on the damaged ships. The five unharmed Wraithriders placed themselves in front of the merchant barges, weapons manually tracking various targets, waiting for the signal to lock-on with targeting computers and open fire...

by **Sertian** » Mon Nov 08, 2010 12:13 am

C.I.C. of the S.I.V. Wraith

“Do we know what’s going on yet?” the commander quarried over to the officers manning the various consuls that fed into the sensors of the ship. Running silent was usually a bland affair, to remain undetected required preventing as many emissions as possible from leaving the ship’s hull; and unfortunately firing up their active sensors, or more powerful passive sensors, would be the equivalent of lighting up a huge fog light on their position or risk compromising the near perfect temperature camouflage the network of heat sinks and emission capture devices afforded.

“We’ve got something, some communications between what seems to be the main faction that prompted our investigation and some do gooders that have arrived on the seen,” one officer currently tasked with the purpose of communications piped up, looking up at the commander as she did so. “They’ve offering to use… ‘transporters’ to beam injured to their ship for medical emergencies. Based on the communication, the reference to transporter technology.”

The commander smirked as his eyes returned to the table laid out in front of him, which was in fact an intricate and large computer. The surface of the table actually being a foot thick slab of electronic crystal, which was used by projectors at the base of the substance to contain a three-dimensional representation of the situation they had managed to piece together. “Transporters are notoriously easy to interfere with, if I’m correct.”

“Yes, sir… Depending on the type of technology of course. Sometimes just a relatively strong magnetic field is needed to render any operations dangerous, or sometimes it takes a bit more…” another officer, manning what seemed to be technical read outs piped up.

“Do you have any guess as to what type of matter transporters they’re using?”

“No clue sir. We can’t really get any detailed information while remaining silent. However, their language and jargon reminds me of the various ‘Federation’ people we’ve come across… But from what I can tell about their ship designs, they’re radically different. Still, anything as precise as deconstructing matter to an atomic level, then rebuilding it on the other end as a string of particles, is bound to be easy to interfere with; hell, interrupting the communication of information alone would effectively kill or prevent them from being recomposed.”

The commander’s smirk deepened into a grin as his hard eyes examined the three-dimensional map of the surrounding space, “Low Officer Sarah, we have a spare fusion core in our cargo bay correct?”

“Y, yes sir. A type 4D fusion core.”

“What are the specifics of the 4D core?”

“Well… It can be loaded with enough stored power and fuel to undergo a few minutes of peak efficiency fusion, but it lacks a radiation shield so it’s dangerous to use until its slotted into our power core…”

“Would the radiation and magnetic field from the un-protected core scramble transporter beams?”

The commander’s words caused the C.I.C. to grow quieter as the officers realized what he was planning. Even if the ships realized what was going on, in the first few seconds of undiluted interference the people in mid-transmission would have their patterns and matter streams scattered and dispersed throughout nearby space; worse yet the highly energetic particles from the generator could be caught up in the matrix, causing delicate errors in the received people that could manifest in terminal illnesses… In effect, he was about to order the death of potential civilians…

However, they bit their remorse and swallowed the guilt they would soon feel. Officers on board a covert operation frigate such as the Wraith knew that one of their primary goals was to seed disinterest and war amongst the various factions in this galaxy to weaken them for their eventual arrival. And every officer on that bridge silently reminded themselves that it was better for a few to die now, than the billions, perhaps trillions that could die in a war with the Empire… Anything that made that process, or assimilation, easier would be worth it.

“For a unified future…” Sarah muttered as she turned her eyes to her commander. “Yes, there’s a high probability that an unprotected fusion core could lead to terminal failure in any matter streams passing within a few hundred meters in even the more hardier transporters. If its more frail… A range of kilometers from the unanticipated magnetic field could cause fatal errors.”

“Excellent,” the commander nodded as a finger tapped the buzzing electronic crystal table. The electrical current from his gloved hand registered to the computer, causing it to bring up an interface that allowed the commander to narrow the tactical map to view in detail what he wanted. “Officer Zedrek, bring us about to the disabled ship here with the repulsors; go slow so that we’re not obvious. I want you to get as close to that ship and hold us against it with our port cargo bay facing towards the good-Samaritan vessels. Keep us quiet, there might be people tending to the ships that could see the blur and non-Phantom components of our hull, but hopefully we’ll have enough time to remain undetected until we do what we want.”

The commander’s eyes then turned away from the map as he pretended to busy himself with composing the orders to the crew responsible for rigging and deploying the fusion core… All the while a bitter taste crept into his mouth. Doing this type of stuff was never easy, but the galaxy would be better for it in the long run.

The ship crept slowly as a few kelvins of temperature difference appeared on their hull. The intricate devices which shaped a magnetic field into a one-dimensional construct and then pointed it towards objects was remarkable in that not only would you have to be the object pointed at to detect it (or be good enough to see the drift of interstellar hydrogen being thrust away by the abrupt and weird magnetic geometry), it also could allow for a ship to silently, quietly, and most importantly, coldly change its course without the need of heat or reflective emitting thrusters, provided that an object was close enough to push or pull off of as a reaction mass. In the case of the Wraith’s system, this came in one of the dead, atmosphere leaking wrecks from the alien fleet; an object which could not only be used to hide behind much of the fleet’s fire power if they were detected, but would also make a small couple dozen meter sized object ‘falling’ away from seem inconspicuous.

As the ship drew closer, it’s risk of being detected grew exponentially by anyone on the wreck’s surface. The phantom was a small ship, no more than eighty meters in length, but it’s hard to miss something of that size when it is nestled just a few meters off of the hull. And, despite the remarkable light bending properties of the meta-material its hull was created from, it was not a perfect camouflage. A blurred effect from the refraction would be the most obvious, displacing and warping the image of stars through it… At least the various unprotected systems; the repulsors and quiet thrusters and sensors remained dark from their painting, making them hard to spot amongst the back drop of space.

The crew that had been assigned to the task moved fast. The ship had just barely nestled close to its dead host before the cargo bay silently opened, revealing the barest trace of illumination on the ten meter or so sized fusion core; featuring sloppy spot wields of metal junk to its surface to try and disguise it as a piece of space junk. A precisely aimed push from the crew sent it on its way, slowly coasting away from the ship and towards its intended destination… While the briefest of short range radio flickered between the ship and the device as the time until it intercepted the two different fleets was determined.

And with the delivery finished, the ship’s repulsors pushed off of the crumbling wreck, drifting slowly as the ruined vessel’s trajectory was altered the barest of millimeters per second to adjust the Phantom’s course.

by **The Coalescence** » Sun Nov 14, 2010 10:44 pm

Lost World Kartank,
Gamma Quadrant

The chamber was colder than ice, not so much as an atom moving within the vacuum sealed chamber. Endless rows of perfectly still bodies sat there, the boots of their armour held down upon the steel grating that was the floor by magnetics. Their helmets and armour glinted as light slowly began to flood the chamber, vents wheezing to life as gases began to cycle into the long cold chamber. They stirred ever so slowly, their motions creaking and groaning as flesh and metal slowly began to regain a semblance of life under heavy armour. Behind them, rising up from holes in the grating they stood upon, were long and thin tendrils that leapt into the air as steam glided off of their slick flesh.

The armour clad beings groaned, roared, and screamed as the tendrils plunged into ports on their backs and began to pump them full of life giving fluids. They stood there, howling as their bodies quivered upon contact with the injections. Muscles and bones that had decayed over millennia swelled and grew back to original size and strength. Eyes long since dried to not but raisins filled with yellow bile and bloated to what they once were. their brains, not but piles of dust within cracking bone casings, coalesced and reformed into grey and white matter as the rest of their bodies shuttered to life after resting in this tomb for so many millennia.

Withdrawing with an audible splat and splash of the yellow fluid the tendrils receded to whence they came, leaving behind a growling army. The armour clad men and women stared out of their helmets at nothing in particular, their minds as empty as a stone’s. Yet slowly that was flooded anew with memories and emotions that were not their own. Martial training of every kind flooded their minds, hate, rage, fear, loss, and patriotism hitching a ride with the skills. Each one grabbed a rifle that lay on the floor at their feet and held it, standing at attention.

“Hail Kaiser! We vow our life to thee, our most gracious lord and the god of war.” Their voices were strong, hearty, and loud. They echoed through the expansive chamber, reverberating at a deafening pitch. Their words did not fall upon deaf ears though, a form lowered into the chamber upon a gargantuan elevator the width of the chamber and long enough to hold five ranks of soldiers.

Standing upon the platform was a lone child, or what could best be described as one, stoic and with his hands carefully folded behind his back. He stood precisely four feet tall and wore a crimson suit buttoned to the left. His skin was noticeably lacking in presence, flesh and muscle pulsing as blood slowly leaked from his neck upon the golden epaulets upon his shoulders. His eyes were metallic, green light pouring in small rays from the artificial irises as they changed size to compensate with the light. A solid titanium plate hid his lack of lips, puss leaking around the metal to drip upon the neck of his suit. His ears likewise were gone, simply metal grates in their place.

“Welcome back, my loyal soldiers,” Kaiser’s voice was at first that of a twelve year old boy, but slowly grew to a cacophony as millions of other voices joined in and spoke alongside the child’s. Each was from a different man, woman, and child, only a small portion once belonging to those collected here. He stepped off from the elevator as the troops fell to their knees and placed their heads upon the grating with a clank.

“Rise,” the soldiers immediately stood at attention once more, “You have long slept, as have I, but now we are reawakened by the Coalescence to serve him as soldiers in another grand cleansing of this sad excuse for a galaxy. Like before we shall muster our forces and fight in his name, and we shall grow and expand an empire that shall once more be forgotten to the sands of time,” He stopped before one of the silent soldiers, looking up into its blank faceplate, “Together we will fight, kill, and die as people of every species should; in the glory and tumult of battle.”

Kaiser’s eyes glanced over his soldiers, “But you all are ancient and we must-” A pulse passed over him, making his brains pulse, both the one in this body and his many others hidden throughout the system and indeed quadrant. He could feel blood flowing, spurting, and gushing hundreds of lightyears away. It was as though his ears had been placed within the beating heart of a giant. The rush was tantalizing and nigh erotic to Kaiser as his fingers twitched in the air where he has unconsciously raised his arms to reach for something, something that felt so familiar yet so alien.

“What is this? Why does this feeling tease me so?” his eyes refocused on the soldier before him, standing as still as before as though nothing had happened, not reacting to the feeling or his commander’s musing, “I must investigate, there is something strange about this dimensional tear. The feeling, it is odd, almost as though my sister was there. No, that would be impossible, she fled the Coalescence to go and play with All Flesh.”

He clicked his gloved fingers, dividing his mind up into sub-routines that controlled the soldiers and operators elsewhere. The first five ranks of soldiers marched forward onto the elevator, Kaiser following after them. The elevator grinded upwards, Kaiser’s mind drifting to the source of the pulse as his avatar fell back onto simple sub-routines he had created so many years ago. The army would grind to life, or at least a semblance of it, while he transferred his consciousness to this alien entity that felt like the sister he had lost so long ago.

The universe flowed by like a river, stars and worlds not but foam upon the waves as he traversed the void. They were there, yet they weren’t, fading to nothing only to leave the glowing stain of sapient life upon the otherwise perfect black velvet of the universe. It was sickening, all this life simply sitting there and not perishing under his will and blade. Yet he let the indignation and rage go, he had a more important things ahead. The rip between dimensions still glowed like a brilliant flame in the otherwise barren abyss that Kaiser’s mind wandered. It was to this flame that he fluttered, like an immaterial moth.

Yet when he arrived the stain of other life was already there, glaring obscenely at him in their peace and security. But the beacon that had attracted him was hardly peaceful, pain and anger boiled within it like sweet honey. He would have licked his lips if had had any at the time, the fading life causing him to shudder and groan with ecstasy as he drew nearer. Yet there was nothing to draw upon, nothing to possess as the initial pulse had informed him, the ships were barren of his kind. He had nearly begun to leave when it throbbed into life, that familiar feeling pumping into his presence like a mother’s embrace. She was here, or at least a piece of her. With a cry of joy he leapt towards that heart that beat as his sister’s, the long lost Celeste.

by **Aatuylva** » Mon Nov 15, 2010 1:03 am

Warmaster Sihda drew a long drag on his cigar as he fiddled with several icons that were appearing on the small command screen integrated into his chair. Power would be restored soon, but the weapons would still be offline...

He was brought out of his concentration by a deep, growling voice, as two crimson eyes came into view from behind him, a large, hulking figure lurking behind his command chair, with a vaguely lupine shape accompanied by a sharp hiss as it moved.

"Grandfather won't be pleased at all."

"Really, Wiaru. Do tell why I should give a damn about something that didn't care to intervene when our navigator died."

The figure hissed again, retreating back into the shadows, the footsteps of the large creature causing everything in the room to shake slightly as it lumbered out, muttering curses in the growling native tongue of it's race.

Damn bitch trying to tell him what to do...

"You know you should be nicer to her. The Battlesister has friends in the temples."

"I don't give a damn who she's friends with, so long as she doesn't question my actions during contact with aliens."

The creature walked up to him, placing her claws around his shoulders, flashing her long, dark fangs.

"Perhaps you should be nicer to me, too."

It looked, at first glance, like a lupine zoomorph with grey on white fur, quite typical really aside from overly large claws on her hands and the presence of two horns on her head, but any who have dealt with certain creatures would immediately recognize the yellowed eyes and the traces of red ichor that constantly seemed to leak from the tip of her nose. Combined with the too-large fangs that also dripped with the liquid, anyone who had seen it would recognize it, even though it was far modified from the baseline.

Fleshling.

"I do as I please on my ship, and you two would do better to remember that, lest I grow bored of you."

"Tss..grumpy today, are we Mishka?"

He merely grunted, blowing smoke as the thralls continued to read out damage reports and estimated repair times, the pressure suit integrated into his armor beginning to make him feel itchy.

Dammit something needs to happen...

"In fact, I would dare sa-"

The creature doubled over in pain, blood and ichor streaming from her mouth as she fell to the ground. A nearby thrall moved to help her, only to be impaled as several appendages tipped with spikes and stingers sprouted from her back and pierced into his chest. Several of the other on duty thralls scrambled for sidearms, one of them screaming into the shipboard radios as his shipmate was torn to pieces and devoured. The Warmaster watched with a mild disinterest, smoking his cigar.

It was almost to cinders now..

Several soldiers wearing gasmasks and heavy coats came onto the bridge from a maintenance tunnel near the large doors, wearing flamethrowers and heavy weapons. They pushed the thralls away and were prepared to kill the fleshling, but Sihda held up a hand.

She screamed as something tore itself out of her, clawing like a demon into open air, leaving her near dead, but alive, on the floor.

It could've been a child.

In another life perhaps.

Like a gruesome animated anatomy dummy, it held no skin, only muscle and bone, and it writhed on the floor in it's own blood. Several of the thralls were already cowering under their consoles, gripping their sidearms like one would their mother, and two had inadvertently added to the mess as they couldn't hold their stomaches. One of the soldiers turned to the Warmaster, tilting his head.

"Sir?"

Sihda waved his hand again.

"It went through all the trouble to get here, I want to know what it wants. Fetch one of the Ryvumaji for Silvia."

"Yessir."

One of the soldiers darted back down the tunnel, climbing up the handholds on the walls.

Sifisian Debris Field

Tech-Thrall Yuhan was having a very, very bad day.
As a Tech-Thrall, he was responsible for helping the Ryvumaj and the Revwhoin in repairing the ships.
Unfortunately, unlike the two higher castes, he did not have any cybernetic enhancements, nor did he have an unusual genetic upbringing...
Only a normal human, albeit one with a more armored space suit than everyone else, but still normal.

He had just finished welding shut several hull breaches when he got directed by his supervisor over his helmet radio to help rivet on some new hull plating to cover one of the more...troubling gaps in the armor. This one caused by a magazine detonation.
Thankfully it didn't cause the rest of it to go up, but it was still a rather large hole where a railgun turret used to be, and all the others had also been jettisoned for fear of being ignited or overloaded.
It took him two shots to even latch onto the bloody ship with the grappler they gave him, and that meant two sets of railgun 'barrels', the metal bars that the current traveled down, were wasted, and would probably be docked from his stipend.
To top it all off, he almost lost his rivet gun to deep space, and had to scramble, while attached only by a thin cable to the ship, in order to keep all the power packs from floating away too. It would've been easier if it were a normal rivet gun, like a pneumatic one, but no, they had to have something strong enough to actually knock the rivets into the armor, and that meant lugging around the extremely heavy bolt-firing abomination that sometimes shot off rounds when he looked at it funny.

He once asked for a utility belt, or one of the fancy magnetic ones the Venri use, but he only got slapped upside the head..so here he was, in space, with a grappler that only has one barrel left before he'll have to radio one of the few still functioning ships to come pick him up, and knowing his luck, they'll overshoot and slam right into him, turning him into so much paste.

He got his grappler ready, because the hole was on the far side of the ship. He unhooked it from the ship and pressed a button on the firing mechanism, causing the cable to be rewound into the machine.
He hated the heavy powerpack that it needed, but it also had larger oxygen reserves than most E.V.A. suits, so that was something.
He made sure to grab his rivet gun, the powerpacks and loaders attached together by a combination of rough cloth, electrical tape, and rubber bands, and he jumped off the ship, outward.

Here comes the fun part...

He fired the airjets for one..two...three seconds to send him 'down'. He watched as the Wraithrider he was patching up slid upward, out of his view, and he fired the railgun upwards, the force of the grappler leaving pushing him further away until he felt the vibrations of it hitting it's target. The bars warped and bent, the heat ruining it until he could find another replacement.
With a sigh, he pressed the button on the mechanism again, and it began to reel it in, pulling him towards the ship.

Lucky bastards get to sit inside powered exoskeletons all day, flying around space like-

His helmet bumped into the side of the ship, but there was still too much line out...

What the hell?

He looked up, using the cords to orient himself so that it was down, and saw...nothing.

Absolutely nothing was in between the ship and him.

And yet he was standing on it.

"The hell is this?"

Then it started to move. He scrambled to reattach the grappler cable to his suit, just in case, and watched in utter horror as the ship he was meant to repair began to drift away, or, rather, he was drifting away with it. He clutched at his rivet gun, making sure it was still there, and slowly brought himself to a sitting position.

"Well. Fuck."

by **The Coalescence** » Mon Nov 15, 2010 6:41 pm

At first it was dark, and warm. It felt pleasant, calming even for the few moments it lasted. Kaiser could feel himself growing, becoming larger and taking shape as his bones crackled and popped into position, then he heard a scream and suddenly he was free from that cage which held him for but a moment. He threw up a stomach full of bile upon the floor, the gore passing through his teeth and stinging upon the bases of his lipless jaws. He stared out at what surrounded him with no eyes, empty sockets passing over all as he twisted his skinless facade of a face about. He could feel the fear clinging to the hearts of the men, the adrenalin flowing through their veins an aphrodisiac to Kaiser as he stood nude before them.

Blood dripped to the ground from his skinless form, no genitalia or other symbols of gender marring his body as his head twisted around with a sickening snap to stare at his fallen mother, “I had hoped to find my sister, not a lost bitch that only carries a trace of my kin,” His voice flowed as it did before, with the power of a billion lost souls flowing behind it yet the innocence of the prime voice under-toning it, “And yet here I stand, so tell why you hold a piece of my lost sister and why I should not drink your spinal fluid as a wine to go with your hearts.”

The Warmaster took another drag on his cigar, and he blew out a ring of smoke as the soldiers lit up their flamethrowers and readied the shotguns they brought with them. He put out his cigar on the armrest, twisting it around, watching the embers die out before he ponderously stood up. He stood around twelve feet tall, and the flickering lights revealed, if only for a moment, odd metallic flashes as his pressure suit melded into the powerful exoskeleton that he had earned through combat from the man who held the position before him. Long cables that were attached to his back began to recede, and a large dome pulled away from his head, revealing a bald skull, devoid of even a single tattoo.

His pressure suit was another oddity, a suit vest built into the outside of it, white, and he pulled another cigar from one of the pockets, and placed it into his mouth, lighting it. He took two steps down, off of his command chair, and several compartments from the floor opened up, and robotic arms rose, carrying parts of an extremely large, garish, white three piece suit, complete with a black-banded white fedora, which he slipped into.

He blew more smoke rings from the cigar, his filed teeth visible as he stood, blanketed in the red emergency lighting, his blue eyes staring down at the child-thing.

"She was a peace offering given to me by your sister... And that is no way to treat a man on his ship, and I'll not answer any more of your damn questions until you greet me with respect."

“Your ship? Your ship? You infringe upon my reality and dare to make claims as preposterous as this? You should be kissing my feet! Begging for mercy and pleading that I do not make you into a flesh puppet!” as he spoke the air began to heat, steam rising from his flesh as the million fold voice raged and spat within his own, “My sister would never give a gift to one so insolent as to not acknowledge the domain of a god! No, your words are as hollow. My sister flensed men and had their nerves stretched out across a field so that the very breeze was a symphony of agony.”

“Let me get a better look at you,” Worms wriggled under his flesh, poking out between muscles to taste at the air before retreating back into his insides. Sickening cracks filled the air as his rib cage tore in half down the middle, spreading open to reveal a great eye that stared up at the Warmaster. The iris changed colour constantly, sticking on a solid puke green after going through all the chromatic colours, “You may think yourself imposing, wearing that armour and standing tall, but I have felled emperors that thought the same and then had my way with their screaming widows. You are not but a footnote and undeserving of my respect, mortal worm.”

Kaiser sniffed the air with the hollow and bleeding slits that served as his nostrils and spun on the spot to look at the fallen fleshling, “A weak child, and of obviously lascivious design. I can smell my sisters beautiful hands all over her weeping flesh. But it is not the same. Something is fundamentally different,” the voices died down, leaving behind only a small boy’s voice, “What have you done little sister? Why do I see your handiwork yet not recognize the trademark? How could you leave me...”

One of the soldiers almost torched the creature, readying his weapon, but again was stayed by Sihda raising his hand. He contemplated the being, smoking his cigar, the embers falling down to the metal plating of the floor. He turned away, looking at the flickering screens that normally would display fleet updates and the status of ship systems, and he let out a heavy sigh.

Such a loss.

He then waved his hand, and the soldiers backed up several paces as one of the Ryvumaj crawled out of the tunnels, this one, like most of them, a unique entity, as their bodies were designed not only for their purposes, but to the wishes of the mind occupying it, and it looked very much like a robotic version of the Terran tarantula, and it scurried across the floor to Sylvia, picking her up gingerly with mechanical arms, placing her on it's back, using several instruments, attempting to stabilize her form before it could take her down into the interior medical bays.

"Your sister had been wounded. She was weak. I know not what realm she visited upon to bring her to such a state, but know this, look into that creature's mind and then look into my eyes and know that I speak truth. I walked, as but a mere human, as I was then, into the heart of her domain, to where she was strongest. I looked into the eyes of the raw physical form of your sister, this one who some claimed could bend entire worlds to her will simply to satisfy her own morbid desires, one who, if you are to be believed, was a goddess whose glory should've flayed me alive and ended me. Yet, here I stand."

He stood, watching, waiting, his cigar burning brightly in the dimly lit command center of the Heart of Madness, and turned, once again, to the man-child of the Coalescence.

Kaiser stood still for a time, the tendrils of his mind reaching into and suckling away at Sylvia’s memory and very being, her creation and purpose open to Kaiser like a tome’s index. To him the probing seemed to last a few decades, the time passing ever so slowly as he relived her life second by tantalizing second, her first waking moments beautiful to him as he gazed through her eyes upon his own sister. It was delicious, filling his mind with delights and torments that teased his every sense as he paraded through her brain. He teased memories out of her she didn’t even know she had, forcing her to recall specific smells and tastes for him so that he might better live in those few moments she has spent with her mother. Then it all ended, his tendrils cut off before he could rip every weakness and potential flaw of these arrogant people from her mind. Internally he battered at her defences, but she was simply not infested enough to allow utter domination. Yet the insights of that moment were clear, the impressions of happiness and joy within the fleshling’s mind blatant to him and disgusting.

He didn’t bother to turn, simply twisting his neck around so that his face looked upon Sidha, “I suppose, then, that you assume you are my equal or that I should respect you for encountering a weakened and near foetal one of my kind. What she was when I knew her is obviously not what she is now. You knew a crippled and broken Celeste, not the great and terrible one that I knew and raised. To compare the one you knew with the one I loved would be to compare an amoeba with a human, the Celeste of the old days was far and beyond the one you knew.”

He waited a moment, turning his body about to set his neck with a clack, “But I am beyond even the Celeste of old. And your refusal to bow down infuriates me,” he licked his lips as that playful child-like voice became deep and decidedly aged, “It is a delicious fury that I savour most delightedly and shall indulge in the future. But this charade must end. I demand satisfaction from you and your kind. Tell me why I shouldn’t bring my fleets here to extinguish your flame before it can grow to a blaze.”

Sihda laughed. It was deep, rich, and echoed across the walls of this sanctum of his creation, and he doused the end of the cigar in his palm, blowing the embers into the air.

"Because you neither have the time nor the resources to fight two battlefleets, otherwise you would already be here, in person, with those fleets, picking through my brain with a fine-toothed comb to understand the universe I came from and how you could use my resources to exploit it. Because neither of us, quite frankly, are up to full strength or we wouldn't be talking to each other in ways other than the flames of war, and, this one is the most important, if you snuff me out, then I'll make sure you never even see my wonderful toys, which I know you'd just love."

He wraps the cigar in a handkerchief, putting it back into his vest pocket, clasping his hands behind his back, grinning.

"Besides, I can't invite you to the fancy dress dinner I have planned if I'm dead."

“I have been feeling every nook and cranny of this ship and its people since before I arrived. I already know what I desire and what is useless, your sciences are of interest to me. They tick and tap through the halls unaware of what a true application of their technology could do, all the glory and slaughter they could fuel if they were given unto a god like myself,” the maggots under Kaiser’s flesh leapt to the surface once more as his ribs snapped back into position, they writhed as they undulated in the air, “You know not what you so absentmindedly use as servitors and labourers. They are wasted.”

Black bile leaked from empty eye sockets, Kaiser not bothering to wipe it away as it trailed down his face and over his yellow teeth to drip into his maw, “As for dinner, I already have one planned,” his mind leaned back to where his true avatar overlooked his armies as they boarded the planetary assault transports in perfect order, “Your petty feasts of unfeeling flesh and plant matter do nothing to satiate me. If you are to offer me a feast, give me one of your cybernetically altered chattel so that I might dine upon knowledge in all its forms.”

“Yet this matters not. For all your hubris and arrogance you at the very least show a semblance of reason. I will grant you your life, and that of those present, if you give me a tithe of blood from the assorted vultures that have come to pick the scraps and entrails left behind from your clumsy arrival. Capture them, bleed them dry and torture them to within an inch of their life, then leave them for me to devour and I will allow you to keep your ego intact. I will grant you my blessing should you do this, and you will be seen as my favoured.”

Kaiser smiled as best a being without lips could, the muscles at the corners of his jaw tensing and turning up ever so slightly, “Should you deny me I will enjoy breaking you and your people, you would make an excellent puppet.”

"It's my ship and I'll do with it as I wish, or I'll dash every ship in this system to the stones and drag every part into the sun, where you'll not savor it. You call yourself a god, then know that I have laughed in the face of gods and I stand here. You want blood? Fine, I shall give it to you. You want one of the Ryvumaji? Take it up with their elder master, one of the three whose powers are bound in service to me. You want a feast worth savouring then do not presume to order me about and I may surprise you with a dining experience worth more than this petty collection of ships here, and we shall dine upon the worlds they hail from in due time."

His mind was elsewhere, hundreds of lightyears away cataloguing his millions strong army as they filed into the warships hidden under the world’s surface, firing engines to life and bringing his beloved navy to life once again, “Do not be so presumptuous as to assume that I care about you any more than you do about an ant that crawls across the floor. You proved you can work with my kind, the fleshling that bore me evidence enough of that, how you react to me will determine whether I squash you like an ant or let you continue to toy around in this galaxy. Now, I must bid you adieu. I have details that must be attended to, and remember that Kaiser is always watching.”

With that the maggots that had so long squirmed under ad throughout his flesh swarmed out and devoured Kaiser, chewing through all that he was in a matter of moments. As they became bloated they shrieked and died, dropping to the deck to leave behind puddles of sizzling puss. All that remained of Kaiser was a pile of quickly coagulating muck, his psychic imprint leaving the moment that the last worm had keeled over and melted away.

He was torn back to his avatar, the sudden change like flicking a switch. He stared at his gloved hands for a moment as he stood in the bridge of his dreadnought, his muscles creaking as he flexed his hand. It was tiring, having to sleep for so long only to wake to a decrepit body and an ancient army. He sighed, wriggling his body into the golden throne that served as his command chair in the dreadnought. Soon enough he would return to that man that held a piece of his sister, abandoning this cold place to ravage the stars once more with his presence. Kaiser held no doubt that he would be devouring them though, the warmaster’s ego rivalled a gas giant in size, and Kaiser delighted himself with vivid imaginings of what he would do as the ship’s engines roared to life and the stars became clear before him.

by **Terra Empira** » Mon Nov 15, 2010 11:53 pm

FSN RRG Pendulum
Sifisian System

Ashdown sat uneasy in his chair, as the Zodiac slowly creeped forward into TransMat range. The two smaller Rockreef Destroyers broke out of formation and dived 'down' and split sideways to take care of as many smaller ships as they could, while the Zodiac, having almost twice the internal volume of the Rockreefs, went forward towards the largest 'command' ship; The "Heart of Madness", as it's transponder would squawk.

The TransMat devices; Scary things they were. The more you would think about it, the bigger a list of things that could go terribly wrong got bigger, and bigger. Although it was advertised as the 'safest and surest' method of transport, there was over a thousand different way you could die using it, be that a quick death, being vaporized entirely, turned into dust as each of your individual atoms are split and scattered across the system, or watching in screeching pain and horror as you materialize without any legs. Nobody thought about it, though.

The man at the tactical station nodded as he reported that the shields on the target ship were, indeed, down. Ashdown rubbed his eyes as he gave the order. "All security teams on full alert, deploy the FMC Marine Groups to secure everything. Have them 'herd' the refugees into the Medical Centre and Cargo Bays." He ordered.

The tactical officer's console lite up green as a manual-selection screen came up, and he authorized the TransMat to begin on command. Ashdown glanced around the CiC before giving the order. "Begin transport."

by **Sertian** » Thu Nov 18, 2010 7:06 pm

The slip floated quietly in space as the repulsors gripped the hull of the much larger ship nearby it, using it as a reactionary mass as the magnetic devices pushed and pulled. The ship would shift an unnoticeable few centimeters per hour off course, yet the much smaller frigate continued to gain speed as it moved towards the back of the fleet. It continued to try and run quietly as time slowly ticked away, letting the inconspicuous block of metal composite that was the Wraith’s spare fusion core floated to its intended destination.

An officer monitoring the sensors noticed the change in course presented by the welfare ships, something the commander was made aware of shortly afterwards by the map that glowed before him. He gave a nod to one of the other women on the C.I.C., guiding her to maneuver one of the devices on the ship’s hull to reach out to that block of metal and ever so subtly guide it into its intended destination. To anyone looking, it would look like it was brushed against by one of the streams of gas venting from the ruptured vessels, or any of a myriad of reasons that might cause a piece of wreckage to shift its course ever so slightly.

The ship gained sufficient speed that in just a few minutes it would cross the ‘wall’ created by the arriving fleet in an attempt to control its space. The small ship glided, still cool and doing its best to look like nothing, to be an unnoticeable agent in what might ignite into a battlefield if all went to plan…

Except, something was off.

The women assigned to monitor and guide the ship through its retreat frowned as she read over the outputs again. For some reason, despite compensating for the mass lost from the abandoned reactor core, the ship was off center. The difference couldn’t be more than a hundred kilograms, and yet it had a noticeable effect on the light ship. The vessel was now drifting a few meters of course, and the difference was only growing as the ship continued on its wrong path.

“Sir, we’ve got a problem…”

“What do you mean we’re off center?” the commander’s eyes furrowed at the women, his solemn gaze staring at her intently while his fingers tapped agitatedly against the crystalline block that held the hologram.

“We’re off center! I tried checking the read outs from the repulsors, but they’re working up to par… Sensor resolution is bad with only our low-heat passives, but its not THIS bad this close! Something’s latched onto the ship sir, slightly off starboard and close to the hull.”

“What are we talking about?” the commander’s eyes seemed to glare even more as he stared at the map beneath him. The mines laid out by these newcomers were seen easily enough, and the small sleak vessel nimbly moved through the field’s holes… Everything else seemed to be easily seen, vented magazines and turrets glowing red hot from the chaotic entry even after this time. Could something else have been lingering amongst the fleet, something which possessed a level of stealth that hadn’t been seen by them yet?

“Run through the information we’ve collected since just before this mass seemed to have latched on to us,” the commander’s voice called out again as he eyed the pair of personal assigned to filter through the myriad of numbers and images that they had collected since their arrival. A few minutes passed as they looked through it, scrutinized the numbers and ran algorithms with the computer to try and speed up their search…

“I’ve got it sir,” a near emotionless, or rather stale voice spoke from the shorter of the two. An alien short of stature and with the slight resemblance to a gecko, the creature’s soft scaled head didn’t even turn to his commander as he pulled up the event in more detail. “A mass roughly two meters in size was detected leaving the surface of the vessel we hid behind. It floated for a while, and the computer disregarded it as another mildly hot piece of wreckage, plotting the debris course to over shoot us…”

“However, as we began to pull away, a brief flash of heat emerged from the figure and then went cold again. Shortly after this the object disappeared… It could have clutched onto our hull, under the horizon of most of our sensors…”

The commander’s face just stood agape at the bit of news, his jaws slowly working into chewing motions as his head spun. In his mind a mental clock had been keeping track of the motion of the reactor, ticking off every second until it ignited with the furry of a tamed star… There wasn’t much longer until their little device would throw a wrench into the relief efforts. And once it did, both fleets would likely try to figure out what was responsible, tracing back the path of the previously unimportant wreckage and likely start to track the anomalies that were just enough to pass underneath most filtering algorithms.

His teeth gritted as he tried to ponder just what it was grabbed to his hull… Some sort of tracking device? But why didn’t the fleet act… Could they have been aware of his ship the moment it approached and only pretended to be unaware, laying a trap to lead the vessel right back to the nation that had deployed it? Or perhaps some sort of silent mine, ready to be detonated the moment something went wrong.

The man finally bit his lip before coming to a conclusion. “Prepare to move into Non-Euclidian space immediately and activate the engines, coast us towards the galactic core along the 3D plane and get us out of here before the Ender arrives. I want a team ready to figure out just what that thing is on our hull before we move in any other direction.”

Hopefully, he thought, if it was any sort of mine or tracking device, it’s connections to the unknown ships would be severed as the vessel moved outside of three-dimensional space…

Slowly the device lurked, waiting as a small clock hidden underneath the layers of scrapped metal welded to it. The device ticking away with every spin of the atoms within its device, drawing closer and closer…

Soon enough the first threshold of the device was reached, and the first stages of the fusion reaction took place. Hydrogen flooded into the main chamber while the stored energy of the reactor was tapped, causing powerful magnetics to spark into life. The hydrogen began to compress, drawing denser while the metal shell began to shudder and whine as it tried to fly apart.

The clock continued to tick, growing hot as the hydrogen did… The poorly welded material shivered, groaned, and finally flew apart in a small cascade of debris as the increasingly strong wings of magnetic force began to spread into the void of space between the two ships. Simultaneously its temperature rose, growing white hot compared to the background of space; easily noticeable.

A few seconds later the count down finally reached zero, shortly before the raw heat and radiation from the now unshielded fusion reaction fried the device. For a brief instant a new star was born as the hydrogen was forced to fuse with itself, spawning out a reaction that produced tremendous heat… Heat that was usually utilized and drawn into power, while deadly radiation was trapped in a layer of thick, circulating fluid… Yet nothing was around to tap the heat, and nothing was left to contain the energy.

And thus in a few moments, an object that was most likely written off as a piece of floating junk, one of thousands left in the fleets arrival, became a beacon of white hot energy for a few moments until the power in its battery was taxed. The magnetic field that had flung itself out so far collapsed and waned, leaving the dense plasma to violently explode outward, taking the reactor with it as it smelted the now radioactive metals into a debris field.

On the other side of the fleet, a small ship no more than eighty meters in length suddenly shifted course along a plane that was not known to this space. If one had the technology to probe and piece together the mass of blurs and refracted light, they would see a strange sight as the ship seemed to fold and collapse upon itself into nothing… Taking the poor tech-thrall with it as it did so.

Broken Star (FT, Semi-Open)

Broken Star (FT, Semi-Open)

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