PROMINENCE: Infinite Warfare [Sci-Fi Roleplay; RP Thread] (Open to all; Registry link in the first post]

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    I shall kick it off, so that I don't waste time talking about it XD


    Lung commander Zhou Zin sat regally in the captain's seat of the UPS Venture, watching coolly as the stars blurred past the pioneer-class ship as it traveled through space. Pressing a button on the left arm-rest of the chair, he pulled up a holographic data-file to review its contents, regarding the reconnaissance report of the G-type planet in 5820 Tagalog, the system the Venture was currently headed to. Three enforcers flew with the ship, for defense purposes, although Zhou doubted they would encounter anything particularly threatening. Even then, the enforcers were built to handle such situations, armed with proton missiles and pulse beams that could punch through the hull of a starship and out the other side. The Venture could not be more secure.


    "Captain Zin, we are picking up strange signals from a main sequence yellow star system about four parsecs from our current position," a Rathor hissed from the bridge. Zhou opened up the view-screen before him and glimpsed the readings as they flashed across the panel, along with a set of coordinates and a mini-display of the system and its surrounding planets. The Lung frowned, looking again at the exploratory file. They were mere minutes from arriving at their destination, but this signal would have to be investigated. Besides, he could not simply contact the tariff fleet and have them deal with it: they were preoccupied with their own mission. "Contact the bridge of Starkiller III," Zhou growled out. A few moments later, an image of a Tyrantor filled the screen. This was Captain Drekovsky, commandeer of Starkiller II, one of the guarding enforcers. Zhou quickly informed him of the unidentified signal, requesting that he and his crew break off from the fleet to investigate. "Intelligence only. I do not wish for any ships to be blasted into space dust on this crowning day for the UPT. Live long, and prosper." With that, Zhou closed communications, and the crew of Starkiller III redirected its course, the allurium warp drives whirring to full power as it left the fleet towards the Orion system.

    "Commander Ashtar," a voice piped up from one of the various terminals around the room. "A ship, heading this direction. Your orders, sir?" Ashtar leaned forward excitedly, a battle? "Move to intercept, have the Abbadon standby for attack. Send the order to ready the Bows for invasion." The ship's engines activated, pulling it from orbit, and a few smaller ships flew from the Apollyon. Theses were the scouts, but Ashtar planned to use them as midpoints for a transmission, he pressed a button on his chair, trying to patch through to the other ship, "This is Commander Ashtar, leader of the Ori Empire. State your race and business or you will be fired upon." He smiled, perhaps he would fire on them just for laughs.


    Did I do good?

    Mordale had killed two of these creatures now... whatever the creatures were, they had slaughtered the miners, so far they hadn't found a single living Dagon, no one had survived their attack. He kept marching on anyway, they'd already cleared out half of the mine, though they expected the creatures could've head out the back, escaping with their lives rather than being found by Mordale's men was a logical choice. They had to reach the back of the mine and search the planet, the creatures would be lost in the desert until they reach their ships, which were guarded, none of them were escaping.


    Haldan had no plans of escaping, on the contrary, he had ordered that they would not retreat, that they would send all of these hostile life forms to the Great Paradise, he was no coward, and he stood by what he believed in. They were being picked off of course, and they moved towards the exit slowly, he stood by his beliefs, and he believed his own life was more valuable than those of the grunts he had brought with him for the attack.

    That wasn't good.
    That was EXCELLENT. Well done!


    "Captain, we are receiving communication attempts," a Tyrantror told Drekovsky. "It's coming from an incoming fleet. No tags, and but their design dictates they are military-class. Your orders, sir?" "Let them patch through, but keep the shields at maximum power, and man the turrets. I have a feeling we may have to fight," Drekovsky stated, pressing a button to complete the transmission loop. "This is Captain Argo Drekovsky of the United Provincials Ship Starkiller III. We are here to investigate signal interference, nothing more. Be warned, though, I do not respond well to threats."

    What should the interference be from? I was think that it must have been made by the Ori since their ships hadn't picked it up, unless you had another idea.



    Ashtar made a face of fake worry to his first mate, "I don't respond well to mysterious ships entering the borders of my empire," he countered. By now, the Abaddon would be breaking through the atmosphere and would be standing by for Ashtar's orders. "If you make any mistakes here," he warned, "you will not make it home." He looked out the window, still too far from the ship to make out anything at all. The radars had picked it up, but he wanted a visual. Seeing the target always helped. "Any signal interference you are receiving only means you have ventured too close to death," he said grimly, wearing a dark smile. "I urge you to return to your fleet."

    That was pretty much what I was getting at (the Ori having caused the signal interference). Well, I better get Starkiller III out of there before Drekovsky does something stupid.


    "Now what did I say about threats?" Drekovsky sniffed, inflicting his own deadly humor into the response. If this soft-fleshed upstart thought he could intimidate a Tyrantror, then he was severely uneducated. Still, Drekovsky preferred not to have his ship's paint scratched, and Zhong's orders were intelligence, not combat. This was all the intelligence he needed.


    "Of course," Drekovsky continued, in a droll, business-like manner, "I do have other important matters to attend, since, after all, today is a rather important occasion, so I think I will leave it at that and return to my fleet. Captain Zhong would be displeased if I was occupied any further. However, I will urge YOU that you keep further signal interference to a minimum. We don't need your chatter jamming up UPT waves. That said, good day to you." And before Ashtar could take offense, Starkiller III had already fired up its warp drive and fled the Orion system back to 5820 Tagalog.


    That was fun to write. Now I better focus on the tariff fleet, so prepare for interaction Bobar.

    "Return to orbit," Ashtar ordered, wondering why the UPT were doing so close to Orion. Maybe he would have to secure a meeting with them instead of his trade partners. The ship lurched slightly as it turned back towards the Ori home planet. "Send orders to keep the Bows at the ready, I suspect ulterior motives." He leaned back in his chair, thinking about something, "What do we know about this UPT?" One of the crewmen sent something to the screen which previously displayed the Ori from the surface, it contained a few small paragraphs and a picture of a planet. "So, not much..." That was understandable, the Ori hadn't ventured out of the constellation in generations, only recently conquering the planets they controlled now. "Do we know who their leader is?" A section of text was highlighted, they were lead by a council of sorts, but the list contained no names. "Can we send a transmission?" A crewman shrugged, "Attempting transmission," he said, sending a transmission towards what was believed to be the coordinates of the UPT home planet. Hopefully, no one would intercept it.

    The Ori transmission reached Tetua without any trouble, although it was not intercepted directly. Tetua's moon, Tenna, had moved into a position in its orbit around the planet so that Tenna Spaceport received the transmission first. Starkiller III had beamed them a message of the encounter to home world a few moments prior to this, however, so those at the station were not as surprised as they would have been. The debate, then, was what to do with it. The sender from whatever fleet this came from obviously wanted an audience with the UPT leader, but that could mean any of the three provincial leaders: Calabin Pierce of the Keplar Federation, Eli Zarkovsky of Arcadia, or Long Zhong of the Xing Dynasty.


    The Rathor on duty who had first intercepted the message was poorly suited for this task, so he took it up to the station master, a bulky, sour-tempered Tyrantror that scowled when he got the message. "Beam it to them all, damn you! Better that than keep this upstart waiting. If that's all, then I suggest you better get it done with!" He was having an important dinner with some first-class businessmen, and he didn't like interruptions. So the transmission ended up being sent to the three world leaders message files, which fortunately they kept around with them no matter what the occasion was. Once more, there was some argument on who would answer, until finally Calabin shut Eli and Long told them politely to shut up, and did it himself. "Hello, mysterious caller. This is Calabin Pierce, CEO of the Keplar Federation and first president of the UPT. Long and Eli are the second and third presidents. I think I know a little about the little encounter Starkiller III had with your fleet, and I assure you, there are no hostile intentions meant. A little chance meeting, is all. I'm assuming that's why you called?"

    The priestess Mathilda had been warned of some strange messages being picked up, a language they could not understand being sent around between various ships... This mission had simply been to search the planet and prepare to cleanse it if they found any life forms of intelligence, but if they needed to draw blood, she would oblige to the need happily, combat was something all Gorvanians loved. She sent out a few dud messages on the frequencies that were picked up by their own scanners, an imitation of the language they'd heard that was quickly put together. It was garbled and filled with quite a bit of static, to hide the fact that the voice speaking was oddly robotic, with little to no emotion in its voice, though it seemed to be a plea of help.


    Mordale's men had cleared the mine, no more of the creatures found... He was creeping down the mine slowly, looking every corner carefully, unaware of the clacking above his head as Gorvanians walked above him, syncing their own movements perfect with that of his men, waiting to strike. They dropped as they went around a corner, one of his men letting out a terrified scream and narrowly dodging the massive creature as it dropped, they opened fire without hesitation, melting exoskeleton hitting the flesh beneath. A soldier was grabbed by one of the creature's chest arms, he could hear the sound of the man's ribs cracking, even from here, his attempted scream of pain nothing but a gurgle. Three of the six creatures dead, he took off with his own men that had stayed on his side, they still numbered nine and there were more of them in the mines, hopefully still alive, and hopefully on their way.

    Ashtar nodded, doubting anyone who knew he was would send one ship to defeat the Ori. "I am Ashtar, leader of the Ori Empire." He didn't really like the creatures calm tone, it was like he wasn't even worried about Ashtar at all. "It is why I called." He thought for a moment, the word CEO ringing in his ears. CEO and President? This guy was powerful and Ashtar liked powerful people. "I was also just looking over the file we have on the UPT and it's basically non-existent, so you must not know what happens to ships who venture too close while I am away in space." He smiled, a wicked smile like usual, "I would rather not have a war on my hands because the captain of one ship got off course."

    "My friend, Lacerta hominum do not simply get 'off course'," Calabin replied, his tone calm and calculative, but he was enjoying the conversation and therefore didn't take offense. "Starkiller III could only have deviated from the Venture colonizer fleet if there were some other object that prompted investigation. In point of fact, I'm reading the report right now, and its closing statement, and I am quoting: "Regrouping with UPS Venture after investigating and confirming signal interference from nearby extraterrestrial communications". Believe me, there was a purpose to the investigation, which has been closed, and no harm done to either side, so you've no cause for concern, unless Captain Drekovsky had consumed one too many yuka drinks and had a hallucination episode, which in any other situation would be likely, except last I checked," and the Keplar CEO smiled. "He wasn't drinking at our commemorative party last night.


    "Now you said you looked at a file for the UPT stating we are 'non-existent'. Frankly, I'm even surprised the file exists, unless you had some drones or scouts or what-not come sniffing around here. Or maybe you bumped into our reconnaissance drones. Hell if I know - I hardly keep track of these things. Business stuff, you know. Contracts to fill, construction to oversee, planets to inhabit - oh, you didn't guess from Starkiller III? We sent three fleets out to occupy some systems approximately thirty-six hours ago. That particular enforcer was part of the Venture fleet, which if I'm not mistaken from our message log two hours ago - ah, I love message logs, don't you? - has finished occupying Gaber. A T-1 planet, nothing special, but the allurium we detected in our OSM scans will do us good. Anything else you need to know?"


    ***


    While Commander Ashter and Calabin were busy conversing, the UPS Treasurer (first-class forward ship of the tariff fleet) picked up the dud messages being transmitted by Mathilda. The signals were quickly traced back to her location, which happened to be where they were heading in the first place. The captain of the Treasurer contacted two of the other tariff ships and one of the enforcer guards and had them go ahead to investigate. Like Captain Drekovsky, he feared a trap.

    Ashtar lost his smile, no one should be expanding this close to the Ori home-system but him. He leaned back in his chair, looking at the Abbadon through the large window ahead of him. The Ori were a military force, despite no one seemingly being aware. "I don't appreciate your empire settling so near mine, how far exactly is this system from Orion?" He looked at the first mate, how could they restrict the traffic to and from the system once they knew, he was thinking a ship yard so they could constantly build a fleet just to be a throne in their supply ships' sides. Perhaps though, they would just invade the system themselves. These UPT seemed more concerned with business deals than their army.

    The high priest of the Holy Gorvanian Empire lay on the ground, barely twitching. Mordale did not hesitate to aim at the hideous beast's head, under the exoskeleton it's skin had the consistency and color of puss, and fire four times, first shooting off the stalks, and then the eyes in its eye sockets. A new priest would have to be chosen through battle, a typical tradition among the Gorvanians, they did not elect leaders or choose them by some holy means, they had them battle to the death. This has nothing to do with Mordale of course, who ordered the mine searched again, and that his men check the ceilings this time, over his communicator he finally received some good news, "Found some..." Static for a moment, "Hiding behind rubble. I repeat, found four live miners hiding behind some rubble."


    Mathilda sat waiting for the foreigners to arrive, she'd sent a message through a relay of scout ships set up in the area, to ensure they had almost infinite range back to the main fleet. She'd called for a group of three dozen Holy Wrath ships, such small things had no official names to divide them up, but of course each pilot had a nick name for their ship. The Gorvanian heading the group of three dozen bulky fighters liked to call his The Iron Fist, because all Gorvanians knew that to rule you needed an iron fist to put down any trouble, and then a soft, gentler hand to deal with the people. Gorvanians had four hands, and three of them were iron fists.

    "Oh, let's see...seven parsecs from your star, give or take? I do believe that's what the report said, but DON'T YOU GO GETTING ANY IDEAS," Calabin snapped, picking up on the implication of the query. "I'll have you know that as business-minded we are, we aren't dumb about military. We've got three destroyers stationed with the Colossus I. I can send one over to Gaber in an instant if you so much as start dropping bombs on our colony. Of course," and the edge dropped away suddenly. Something had just occurred to him, and if his 'client' agreed, then it was sure to be beneficial, aside from monetary profit. "Maybe we can make a deal or two. I'm assuming since you're the man with the guns, and there's trouble, you'd like to be there fast and be done with it. Correct?"


    (Don't worry, Bobar, I haven't forgotten you, but this was rushed and I need to go to bed. G'night!)

    Bombs? Ashtar almost laughed, the Ori were long past bombs. They literally scortched the earth with their laser weaponry. Especially, if the Bow could work properly while mounted on the Lailah. He would be able to focus so much energy that the entire colony, depending on it size, would be a crater and ash. Then, the UPT were talking about something entirely different, and it threw Ashtar off his guard, "I would like to be there fast yes," he said, adopting a confused expression. He looked over at his first mate, then focused back on the transmission, "What are you getting at?"

    Mordale was not only out of the mine, but sitting comfortably in his own private ship, he'd had it brought over after the mine had been cleared of people and equipment, and then detonated just to be safe... It would deal a hit to their economy, but they simply couldn't protect it again from any other threats, and he needed to put what funding he still had at his disposal to tracking down those who attacked his mine. They would be dealt with mercilessly, like they had dealt with the miners, he had no desire to let the creatures live to strike again, of course he first had to find them. Deciding they should be informed he hit a button on his communications display, and spoke clearly, relaying a message to Ashtar, "I'm afraid the mine you heard was in trouble is permanently out of business, Ashtar. A group of alien life forms were discovered on the planet, and after we'd eliminated them and taken all the equipment, we were out of there. Please be advised, these creatures were extremely hostile and had advanced technology, I am sending you a coroner's report of the creatures, so that you know what they are capable of, along with our own analogy of their weaponry. This is Mordale, head of the Dagon Council, and leader of the free planet Morban, signing out. May The Orb shine brightly on your path, and guide you to victory."


    They're all converging around it, the UPT settlers are headed there, the priestess is there, and Jason and Savi are headed there.

    "Oh, something that our engineers have been pushing towards for a while," Calabin said diffidently, rolling an allur absentmindedly between his claws. "Of course you are familiar with the concept of hyperspace - you'd have to be! Starships can use it and get to the places quick enough, I suppose, but in reality you're really only scratching the surface. You're not getting there INSTANTLY, and my good friend, that's where the power lies. The ability to do things instantly.


    "Now what if I told you that we'd recently found a way to - how do I say this simply? - break the limit?" He paused to let that information sink in.