Taijitu
Forum Meta => Futuristic RP => Archived Role Play Boards => Archive => Roleplay => Topic started by: Latagon on April 30, 2007, 04:11:42 AM
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"Did we loose them?"
"Aye sir, I think we did. The fleet is arriving as we speak."
"What made it out?"
"23 cruisers, 14 Destroyers, 18 Frigates...200 or so colony ships...and um...no. They didn't make it."
"So the orbital stations were evacuated?"
"Yes sir, but none of the life pods are out there."
"Damn. That's nearly 1 million lives lost. Not to mention Jessica..."
"Sir. I'm sorry sir. The Maraudersoft fleet just arrived. Admiral Hale wants to speak with you."
"Put him on comm."
The screen flickers and an image appears of a man, in his late 50s. He is accompanied by two 'Centurions' in VULCAN Mark VI armor. "Captain Hayes. It's good to see your fleet intact. How many survived?"
"We're still counting the ships, but it looks like most of Flair was lost, Hasadon was decimated, Fallathon is gone, Latagon had minimal survivors, and Tiberius is in ruins. As for the living we have maybe a couple million, probably less."
"I see. That's horrible. My fleet caught them off guard and defeated them at Illusion, and nearly all of the 4 billion survivors were able to jump. The 'Oyrioni' should be along any minute. Have you found a good planet to land?"
"Aye sir. This one. It's class M. No civilization seems to be there already, and it seems easily defensible. We'll put sensor buoys around the system, but for once I think we can finally rebuild."
A light flickers on in the back, and a woman no more than 6" tall, looks about the cabin. "We AIs would be happy to help in the rebuilding, but we can't really do much, but provide logistics support." She smiles lightly, but the grimness of the mood settles in again.
"Admiral Hale. How many of the other fleets survived?"
"Captain..." His voice trails off. "It looks like we're all that's left."
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======================================================================================================
Class M Planet. 5th Planet from the star.
"This is it. This is our new home."
"Captain. What shall we call this star?"
"This star is 'Hope'."
"And the planet?"
"'New Latagon.'"
"I see. That's a good name. Our new planet."
"So, Admiral Hale. Did any of LATCOM or LATCOMONI survive?"
"The FORTRESS base was destroyed along with all hands. Most of Illusion's major cities were gone by the time we arrived. We defeated...them...Anyway, sadly we were only able to rescue around 4 Billion of it's 13 Billion people. Harvest was obliterated. Gone. Flow no longer exists. It was glassed by the time we arrived."
"My god. Harvest and Flow? That's over 12 Billion lives lost."
"Well, you had the inner defenses. How did they fare?"
"Not well sir. We rescued most of the Tiberians, around 3 Billion. We arrived late Fallathon, and nothing was left. Hasadon was a different story, and was where we lost 40% of our ships. They disabled the MAC guns, and ended up bombarding the surface. We rescued 600 Million of the citizens. We hit Latagon Prime right as...they...arrived. The Cannons staved off the attack at the beginning, but we were only able to save a few hundred thousand before we were forced to jump." Hayes slowly stops speaking, and a tear drips down his cheek. "They destroyed the transports before they could jump. The transports only had around 2 Million Latagonians in them before...they...got to them. Around 200 transports survived, most of them were not Latagonian. I...Admiral there are 16 Billion people still on Latagon Prime. 16 Billion. I...failed in my defense."
"Hayes. Snap out of it. We all lost people. There was nothing you could have done. There were Millions of...them...attacking us. They knew Latagon Prime was our home planet. They would have sent trillions of ships to attack us. To stave them off for any amount of time takes heroics that I've only ever seen from one person. You, Captain."
"Thank you sir."
"The colonists are arriving now, we should go watch."
"Aye sir."
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======================================================================================================
New Latagon, Hope System, Population: Approx. 4.5 Billion. Fleet Size: Approx 41 Cruisers, 39 Destroyers, 62 Frigates, 1 Titan. Space-stations: None.
The colonist had been working hard, and slowly a world was being built. The first city to be "finished" was New Latagon City, the capital of the New Latagonian Republic. New Latagon developed a distinctly peaceful atmosphere when the first Space Port had been finished. Hundreds of millions of people had lost loved ones, and no one was willing to return to the home they had left behind. 84 Planets were gone, because of the monsters. They. Them. No words described what these things were. The Ancient Caldarians had said that they were the essence of evil, highly advanced, mysterious killing machines. That is, before the Caldari themselves were destroyed by these things. Not since the fateful battle of 'Char' had a Caldarian Ship been seen. The only race to have ever successfully combated a single ship of...theirs...were the Maraudersoft. Their fleet, though, had been destroyed, only to be salavaged nearly 1,000 years later, and put to use by the Latagonians. That fleet and Hayes's fleet were the only two to survive the onslaught of those things. The Caldarians called them, "The Enemy" and feared them beyond anything in the universe. Latagon just called them...them...There was no acounting for these things, and therefore no reason to name them. They were evil and thats all that mattered to Latagon.
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**Deep Space Scout, Marco Class Corvette, DSS-774-A5**
The dark wedge shaped vessel drifted into the system. It soon got a sensor contact. *BEEP* *BEEP* BEEP* "What the?" the sensor operator peered over the console and started typing onto a keypad next to him.
The pilot looked back at him, "What is it Yeti?"
"I don't know. I am getting a strange contact on sensors. I think this system is populated."
"What? The report said that their was no sentient life in this system." stated the pilot.
Yeti looked over the sensor data again, "Well Mak, it is. I am reading multiple contacts and artificial structures on H2 class planet. Looks like we can make contact."
"Do you know who they are?" asked Mak.
"Neg. I am reading similar power signatures to some known species but no known ship design are like these, tho more primitive then the Dominion. I am reading slow sub-lights." said Yeti.
"Deploy a Comm drone to send back to the Dominion. We are going to make contact. Engines online, propulsion systems active. Vortex systems online, just incase we need to make a quick exit."
The ship which was barely visible less then 30 seconds ago became a bright beaming shot in the sky. flying toward the inhabited planets.
~Thanato
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"Admiral Hale! We're reading a slipspace signature at coordinates...Delta Alpha One. Near Planet 7."
"Phfor?"
"No sir..."
"Is it Them?"
"No sir, not...them...either."
"Caldarian?"
"No, this doesn't match any Caldarian signatures either."
"Then who is it?"
"I'm not sure. Shall we level the MAC guns on it? I'm pretty sure that 'The Republic's' guns could take it out."
"No, I'm not risking any of our surviving cruisers. Send in the Frigate...'Gladius'. That's Captain Lou Bower's ship, right?"
"Yes sir."
"He'll scout out the incoming vessel, and report back."
"Aye sir."
'The Gladius' broke away from the group and powered it's MAC gun, ready to defend itself if totally necessary. Bowers met the incoming Comm drone about half way to it's destination, and deployed grapple hooks to catch it in mid flight. It nearly worked, but the Comm drone was too quick and slipped by.
"This is the 'Gladius' to fleet. Incoming. Still unidentified. Recommend defense of New Latagon."
"It's ok Bowers. I'm gonna take my chance that it's not hostile, and let it come to us. They...don't know where we are, and it's little chance that the Phfor have returned after 30 years. My bet, is that this is someone else...Still this could be dangerous. All ships retreat to defense points, and spread out. If this is...them...then I want all ships to be able to run before they reach us."
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A small purple coloured vortex opened up infront of the comm drone, it slipped inside and disappeared, having the vortex close behind it.
The Corvette rocketed toward the inner system. "Shit, Mak they just tryed to grab the drone before it slipped away,"
"Good, at least we know they wont blow everything up. And home port knows what we are doing now."
"Wow, we have been pinged. Looks like they know were we are."
~Thanato
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"That definitely wasn't...them..."
"So then who was it?"
"I don't know, but they left a transmission, right before they left. Our translators, or what's left of them, are working on it."
"I see."
A crack came from the comm station and then a voice could be heard.
"Admiral Hale, this is Captain Kilith, we've found one of the alien ships. Requesting permission to intercept."
"Denied. We don't know of their intentions, we can't afford to lose a ship."
"Sir, if they are hostile, I can be back with a warning before anything could happen. Then we could defend New Latagon."
"You've got me. Permission granted, go for it, but Kilith, if they aren't hostile, then you're our first diplomat."
"Aye sir."
The 'Fury' powered it's engines and moved towards the Dominion corvette.
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OOC: The Corvette Didn't jump away. . . the Communication Probe did because it was beign sent back to the United Terran Dominion to tell them that they are about to make first contact with a new species. So you are sending that ship back to the United Terran Dominion after the probe.
~Thanato
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OOC: Oh. I'll edit it.
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"Mak, we got company. A large vessel is moving to intercept. Want me to broadcast an interstellar 'hello'?" asked Yeti.
"Sure thing, lets let them know we are not hostile. In the meantime I think I will power up the PDLs (OOC: Point defence Lasers). Now lets hope these guys aren't hostile." stated Mak.
The Corvette changed courses and headed toward the alien vessel.
~Thanato
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"Captain, we're receiving a transmission. I think the aliens are saying...'Hello'." He almost laughed.
"I see. Broadcast our hello, and power down the engines."
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"Mak," stated Yeti, "Translators have well translated this language. . . its not from this corner of the Galaxy thats for sure. "
"How did you manage that?" asked Mak.
"Comm traffic in the system, their is a lot of it." he paused for a moment, "Mak they are replying to our message. Its a greeting and a general order of stand down engines."
"Well, I guess we should do what they say, don't want to start an incident here, eh."
"Aye."
Maks hands moved to a lever on the control pannel, she slowely lowered down the lever to the 0 thurst marker. "Ok engines powered down, drifting now. I say could drift at this speed for about an hour before the planets start slowing us down."
"Don't think thats what they meant but what ever," Yeti laughed outloud.
The Corvette would of been 100% invisible if it wasn't for the signal lights along the hull and the sensor marker activated.
~Thanato
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"Captain, they're stopping...well...their engines are shutdown. Their momentum is still carrying them towards New Latagon."
"Would you say that's a good or bad sign?"
"I'd say that it means they're intent on reaching New Latagon, but it looks like they're willing to talk on the way..."
"I see. Thrusters on, lets get in step with them, maybe we could convince them to fall back, before the fleet rips them apart."
"Aye sir. Thrusters engaged."
"Send them a message. 'Alien ship, you are entering space controlled by the Republic of Latagon.'"
"Aye sir, transmitting. Let's see if they give a response...Should we power up the MAC?"
"No...I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. If they were hostile they'd have attacked by now."
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"Mak, they are catching up to us. Wait, incoming transmission, reads 'Alien ship, you are entering space controlled by the Republic of Latagon.' Thought this system was in the outback?"
"It is, actually it was explored just over a decade ago an no one was here." She looked down at the flight pannel, "Yeti, I'm sounding all stop. Launch another Comm drone, I want the Dominion to know about this."
"Aye," Yeti punched some buttons on the key board, drone launched. The small drone flew away from the Corvette, when it reached 100km it disappeared into a vortex.
~Thanato
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"Captain, they're stopping."
"All stop. Bring us along side."
"Aye sir."
"Transmit another message. 'Alien Captain. I wish to speak with you, so that we may work out an agreement between our two ships. We are opening our docking bays, if you can understand this please send a contingent so that we may work out an agreement.'"
"Transmitting sir. I hope you know what you're doing. If they are hostile, we'll all be killed."
"It's ok Marko. I've never seen a ship like that before, but they haven't shown themselves to be hostile yet."
"Captain, might I remind you of the 'Levana'. The Phfor didn't attack, they just boarded. They killed over 600,000 colonists before they were defeated. They're strong, and we don't have any Legionaries on board."
A older looking many looks up from his station. "That's not quite true. No one is supposed to know it, but I think it's time the secret got out. Jason-119 is on board."
The entire bridge crew looks up. Whispers all over flood the Frigate's bridge. "Jason? The hero of Char?" "How the?"
"Well wake him. We may need him. Oh and please power up his VULCAN Mark VII for him."
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A vortex opened up near the edge of the inner system, a large ship emerged from the purple swirl. "Corvette DSS-774-A5, this is UTS Hinder. We are responding to your drones. Over," The large vessel turned on its sub-lights and rocketed towards the Corvette.
~Thanato
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"Sir! There's a new ship inbound. It's quite a bit larger than us. I'm reading multiple weapons on that."
"Power up the MAC. If they are hostile I want to put all three of our shots right into their bridge. I'm gonna take a chance, though, and transmit our hello again. I also want you to send 'The Marathon' a message to come out. A Marathon class Cruiser should be able to hold it's own against these guys."
"Aye sir."
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"Hinder, keep distance from unknown alien craft. They seem peaceful but we don't want to push their buttons." said Yeti aboard the Corvette.
"Copy that Commander," The Captain of the hinder looked toward the Con Officer, "Sound all stop Lieutenant,"
The lieutenant fiddled around with the controls, "All stop sounded, sir." The large UTS Hinder began to slow to a stop.
The Captain walked over to the weapons console. "Ready defence. Just in case."
~Thanato
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A large, Marathon Class Cruiser, comes out of slipspace beside the small Latagonian Frigate.
"What seems to be the problem, 'Fury'?" The captain stops, and looks at the two foreign vessels hovering above the small frigate. "Tactical alert. Bring the MACs to full readiness."
"This is Fury to Marathon, do you read?"
"Aye, this is Marathon. What is your status Fury?"
"Pretty good actually. They seem to be unhostile. For now. We called you in in case something gets ugly, but hopefully nothing will."
"I see. I'm bringing the MACs up to full readiness anyway. In case this is just a Phfor trick."
"Alright."
Captain Kilith paced the bridge. Nothing trains you for the meeting of an alien species. He noted that Latagon didn't have the best luck when it came to aliens. The Caldarians had destroyed three colonies before peace came about, and the Phfor had found Hasadon before they were defeated. They...on the other hand had defeated Latagonian fleets at every turn. Only the captured Maraudersoft ships could stand up to...them.
"Alien ship, I say again, we wish to speak with you. We are peaceful. Please dock a shuttle in our docking bays, so we may conduct diplomacy properly."
Jason walked onto the bridge. Many of the bridge crew began to yell with delight when they saw him. "The hero of Char. Here, in our very own bridge." Jason was used to it. His number was near legendary. He and his two friends had fought of more than 12,000 Zerg, and had saved the Maraudersoft marines trapped on Char. The planet, though, was destroyed days later in a last ditch effort to defeat the Zerg.
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The captain of the Hinder looked out of the window at the alien vessels. "Lets open up a channel," as he looked to the comm officer.
"Aye Captain," replied that officer. "Channel open, don't know if they can read."
"This is Captian Henery Freeson captain of the UTS Hinder, of the United Terran Dominion. The corvette we sent was on a peaceful survey mission when they came across your presence. We aboard the Hinder were ordered to come here to assist the Corvette in-case you are hostile. We do however notice that you have weapons trained on us. This is not a good idea as if you attack us the Dominion will have no choice but to come in here and find out what went wrong. The dominion is a peaceful government, however we currently are engaged in war with an unknown alien species," the channel was paused by the second officer.
"Sir, do you think that is wise telling them about the war?"
"We have to be upfront with our new friends Commander," the channel was resumed, "We are willing to send over a diplomatic mission, with escort of course, if you deactivate offencive weapons. If your scanners are advanced enough then you can tell that only our defencive weapons are online, at the moment. I hope to hear from you soon, Hinder out."
~Thanato
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The bridge crew looked about. The captain of the 'Marathon', looked to each of her crewmen. "This is Commander Jessica Peterson. We have received your transmission. An unknown alien threat you say? Captain Freeson of the UTS Hinder, could you elaborate on that. You see, we of Latagon are also a peaceful Republic, and wish to stay as such."
She then turned to her own crewmen. "Power down the MAC. I don't think they're hostile."
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"The threat is thousands of light years away on the other side of Dominion Space. The threat to you is minimal. The enemy is an aggressive alien species who attacked a crippled dominion warship and caused its destruction. More information other then that is unknown."
"This system was uninhabited during the last survey just over a decade ago. When did you come here, and were is your home star?"
~Thanato
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"Well to be honest, we've been here for the past...four weeks. Our home star was Latagon as was our home planet, you can find them at coordinates, 200x100x500 on this map we're transmitting to you. Neither of these are still controlled by our navy. We lost that planet around 6 weeks ago due to an alien attack on our homeworld. They destroyed all 89 of our planets, and when they arrived at Latagon Prime we defended with all we had left. Only the people that are on this planet survived that onslaught. They and the refugees from Illusion, Hasadon, and a few other well defended planets are now on this planet, which we have deemed New Latagon."
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The Captain looked down at a monitor, "Well Captain that is one hell of a journey. Well over 40,000 light years. Would you mind if you sent a delegation over to the Hinder? You may bring armed guards if you feel the need."
~Thanato
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"We will send a delegation along with two Legionaries. Thank you." Jessica got up, and began to walk towards the door. "I want Jason, and Kelly to accompany myself and Commander Turnow to the 'Hinder'."
"Aye Sir. We'll send the men along now."
The four all got into the small shuttle. It touches down on the 'Hinder' within a minute, and the four people step out.
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The small vessel was towed from the landing deck to the hanger deck. A small detail of Marines and Deckhands stood in at attenchion in two collomns. A man in an officers uniform walked up between the two rows towards the small ship, seconds passed and its hatch opened, its four occupents stepped out onto the deck. With hand extended the officer said, "Welcome aboard the UTS Hinder, pride of Task Force Foxtrot."
~Thanato
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"Thank you. My name is Captain Peterson, and this is Commander Turnow." She says as she points to an older man to her left. "And these," She motions at the two Legionaries, "Are Jason-119 and Kelly-274. They are Legionaries, the elite of our forces. Now, could you take us to your diplomatic area? I'm ready to get down to business."
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((Is this a Starcraft RP??))
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"Yes ma'am. Right this way," The officer lead them out of the hanger, followed by a marching contingent of Marines. They headed towards the central lift, as it was the fastest way to get to the diplomatic area of the ship, were the Captain was waiting.
Meanwhile back on the hanger deck the deck hands were stunned, "They look Terran," said one. "But didn't they say they were from 40,000 light years away?" asked another. "Hmm, well everyone get back to work. Theys Falcons wont fix them selves." ordered a woman in a Chief Warrant Officer Uniform.
OOC: No it is not. . . it is the FUture RP from this RP Board. . .
~Thanato
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"Well Captain Freeson, this is a very nice ship you have here. I'm really quite amazed at it's fire power. Unfortunately as I said before, the fleet we have here is a ragtag group of what's left after our homeworld was destroyed. Fortunately we have found you, a friendly species. I was hopeing that we could form an alliance soon enough. Perhaps you have an idea?"
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The Captain looked at the alien captain. "Well Captain I am not in any way a diplomat. I am a warrior Marine at heart. But i have negotiated before, and from what I hear negotiation and diplomacy are similar. So an alliance is what you want, lets see if we can make this happen." The captain looked down, kind of uncomfortably he then looked back up at the aliens, "What do you have in mind Captain?"
~Thanato
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"A Non-Aggression Pact, maybe a mutual defense pact? What do you think?"
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"Well I am not authorized to work threw these things, as you could understand. I am just an envoy, to make first contact. To say 'hello', you understand? We could have a propper government sanctioned diplomat here in a matter of hours. But just give me your proposals so I can better brief him. What kind of mutual defence pact are you thinking of? Fleet integration? Military personel exchanges? Lets here what you would like."
~Thanato
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"Mutual defense. As in if either of our empires calls for aid, and the other's receives the call, then they will come to the other's defense. Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm no orator."
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"Yes, but a call like that is not for me to make, as I stated earlier. From our scans of the system you do not have a powerful navy. In fact their are more ships of this class of destroyer then all your decent sized ships in this system. So it looks like we will be offering more assistance to you then you would to us. I am fairly sure that the government of the Dominion would offer to you to become a Protectorate of the Dominion. If you would like that of course."
~Thanato
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"We'll avoid that. Of course your scans probably didn't take into account our titan. We stole it from the Caldarians around 30 years ago. That would be the large, Oblong, moon like thing out there. You also probably missed the captured Maraudersoft fleet. Maraudersoft ships may be small, but they're just as powerful as most of our battleships. We can defend ourselves."
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"Actually there were four titan classes built. One for each of four civilizations. The one out there is of the Caldarians, and is the last surviving Titan known to Latagon. Here's a list of the others. They're the big ones."
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2b/Eve_chart.jpg)
"If you see any other Titans, then be wary. They are highly dangerous, and their crews are scared. They may not hesitate to fire. We only captured that one because we disabled it from the inside out, using our Legionaries." She nods to the two in the room.
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The Captain looked over the specs, "Decent size, a tad bit bigger then the Arch Angel. However they are no threat to the dominion, in fact most large vessels aren't. We have a classified weapon which can disable any vessel known."
~Thanato
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OOC: Sorry about the size.
IC:
Well the Titans have a weapon that can do about that...It's a large Omni directional weapon, capable of destroying an entire fleet with one shot. Unfortunately our Titan was captured without that, so we made a few changes. Instead of a large weapon, we put in five Super MACs, that dwarf even the largest of our station borne MACs. Unfortunately losing the Titan means that we don't have a titan anymore. We never had, nor will we have, stations large enough to build them.
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"Hmm, well the fleet in which the Hinder is apart has nearly 450 independent ships in it. and their are 8 fleets in the dominion stellar navy. We have the resources to defend large sectors of space."
~Thanato
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"Ah to the days of glory, when we had thousands of ships ready to defend any planet at a moment's notice. Latagon Prime was defended by over 2,000 ships and 400 stations, before it was over come..."
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"Well, from our sensor readings of your ships, your more powerful ones this single destroyer can take on. You appear to be many years behind us in Technology. But with help from the Dominion we can help you advance that quickly, if your people wish it."
~Thanato
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"Sensor readings can be deceiving my friend. Our Battleships are on patrol right now, but they could hold their own against a destroyer such as yours. This cruiser is well equipped to take on your destroyer as well. We have a battle hardened crew, and have seen many, many battles.
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"Yes, but your technology still seems to be lacking. When compared to ours, this is not a flaw, it just means that the Dominion is just older then your government, before your fall."
~Thanato
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"Well sir, I have to say your offer is tempting, but we are already adapting Maraudersoft technology to our ships. The Maraudersoft are the most most technologically advanced ship builders ever, other than...them..."
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"Never reverse engineer a highly advanced alien vessel with out knowing what you are doing. We have had some bad luck in the past, one involving me personally as I was a Combat Engineer in the Marine Corps before transferring to the Navy after an injury. We were trying to reverse engineer an Alien vessel 20 years ago, were we trying to get advanced weapons for our ground vehicles however it back fired, literally. I had 3rd degree burns on the lower half of my body, luckily medical science in the Dominion is great and I healed up in less then 5 months. So we can supply engineers and scientists to help you in this endeavor."
~Thanato
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"Fortunately Latagonians are specially adept at doing just that. The reason our ships have phase shielding is because of the captured titan. The MAC is 3 times as powerful as it was when first developed, because of advances from captured Caldarian ships. The Maraudersoft ships have been in the navy for 30 years, and while they are still the most advanced ships in the fleet, we have begun to uncover the secrets of the Maraudersoft."
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"Still, we can offer scientific and engineering help."
~Thanato
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"That would be appreciated. Perhaps you could return to the dominion and bring along a diplomatic envoy next time, so we may discus an true alliance between our two worlds?"
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"Well, aye we wern't expecting to find anyone in this system. But yes, I will pass on to the Diplomatic Core to send a vessel out here."
OOC: Took awile lol
~Thanato
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OOC: Sorry about the wait. Totally forgot about this thread.
IC: The shuttle left the Dominion ship and headed back to the 'Marathon'. The Crew was onboard, waiting for Captain Petersons return. She stepped back into the ship and was greeted by 1 Centurion, 3 Legionary IIs, and 1 Legionary I.
"It's good to see you captain. We were getting worried."
"I'm ok. Set a course back to New Latagon. The Dominion were merely curious, but the next alien species we encounter may not be as pleasant. We should continue building out MAC stations, seeing as this is the last planet we have. How soon will the first gun be ready?"
"Three months from now battle cluster A will be finished, comprising of 5 Stations with 2 Super MACs each."
A crackle came onto the subspace radio.
"This is Battle Group Delta Sierra Foxtrot, does anybody read us?"
"Open a channel!"
The radio technician turns a nob and the radio comes on with an audible 'beep'
"Battle Group Delta Sierra Foxtrot, this is the 'Marathon'. Welcome to Rally point Tau."
"'Marathon'? Jesus it's good to hear a Latagonian again. This is the 'Pillar of Autumn' what is your status 'Marathon'?"
"We're fine. We're here with 5 other battle groups including the Etrusican and Republic. Even some of the colony ships made it, and...they...didn't follow."
"Thank god. The 'Pillar of Autumn' and 4 other ships were all that made it out of Flow."
"Any survivors from the planet?"
"No ma'am. We disabled 20 maybe 30 of their ships, but they just outnumbered us. We lost 62 ships before the e-vac ships were ready. Another 19 were destroyed as the E-vac ships went into Slipspace. By the time we followed, they were already on the tail of the e-vacs. They were destroyed before we arrived. We've been making jumps for the past nine weeks now. Rally points Alpha-Sigma are gone. We haven't checked past Tau."
"No others made it. The Rally point Tau group was it."
"Did Latagon Prime hold?"
"No. It was destroyed. We didn't even have time to get the mobile stations under way. Our battle groups were it. We lost over 1700 ships."
"Well, unfortunately four more ships aren't going to help if they come, but it's great to be here. Alive."
"Rest up soldier. New Latagon has been colonized, and your men could use the R&R."
"Yes Ma'am."
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"Captain, intercepted transmission." stated a signal operator.
"Lets hear it," stated the Captain.
......
"Looks like they have some friends, well set course for Arcturus," ordered the Captain.
The Con officer punched in the coordinates into the drive computer. "Course laid in, sir."
"Prep for Jump."..."We jump in 10"..."5, 4, 3, 2, JUMP!" the ship slipped into a vortex right in front of the vessel.
~Thanato
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The ships returned to New Latagon. The Pillar of Autumn was badly damaged and needed repairs. It had lost over 70% of it's outer hull, but the inner hull had survived. Another message came across the sub-space.
"This is battle group Delta Tango Charlie. Is anyone out there? Repeat, this is battle group Delta Tango Charlie. We have casualties. Does anyone read us?"
Captain Peterson looked up. "Delta Tango Charlie? They were the defenders of...Jericho..."
"Ma'am? THESE are the defenders of Jericho?"
"Must be. I thought they had been destroyed. Open a channel."
The Radio technician pressed a few buttons.
"This is 'Marathon' to battle group Delta Tango Charlie. What is your status?"
"Jessica? This is Tom, Tom Johnson. We've got around 100 or so combat ships, around 23 of which are damaged."
"Did any civilians survive? Where are your colony ships?"
"Ma'am? Colony ships? There are none. We won."
The crew looked about in surprise. "They won? How is that possible?"
Captain Peterson spoke again, "Could you repeat that? I thought you said that you won."
"Yes ma'am. We won. Jericho was saved."
"How?"
"We defeated them. We couldn't believe it. After an hour of battle they retreated."
"You're sure?"
"Yes ma'am, we even had twelve stations left after they fled."
"Jericho survived?"
"Yes, that's what I've been saying. We have over 100 ships, we've been searching for survivors. How many other planets survived?"
"None..."
"Oh, my god. I didn't think...oh."
"I don't understand it. Why did Jericho survive when they pressed the attack on every other planet?"
"I don't know ma'am, but we must get back, now that we know that we we're the only planet to survive, they could be back at anytime. I'm sorry. Send my regards to Admiral Hale."
"Good luck Tom."
-
"Jericho survived..."
"Ma'am?"
"It seems, that the only planet they left alive was, oddly enough, the training ground for the Legionaries, and the Centurions. It was the 12th most defended planet in the empire, and one of the most remote. The Legionaries and Centurions are the only ones who've ever been able to kill more than one or two of...them. Why then, did they allow the training ground to survive?"
"That doesn't make any sense, you're right, but I think it's just dumb luck. Their stupidity, and our gain. It also gives us an outpost in that part of the galaxy. They've only ever been documented in that part of the galaxy, from what those dominion guys told us, so hopefully that's as far as they're going.