Communications or War?

[System Lord Ra]

Grand Admiral Locklyn Eater wandered the exploration ship making sure everything was in place. 25 war jumps in two weeks had exhausted most of the crew but the vast expanses of uncharted space now lay open to the peace minded empire. The war v. the Romans that our allies had drug us into had tired the population and stretched the resources of the 9 system lords.

 

Admiral Locklyn Eater suddenly heard the battle sirens go off. "What??" he wondered. This was suppose to be a simple move to a gas giant to replenish the fuel so recently used. Instead, as the Admiral moved to his control chair and tapped in a quick report to System Lord Ra, darting laser beams were hitting the force shields.

 

Admiral Locklyn Eater check the status screens and confirmed that all was suppose to be peaceful. What could be at this gas giant.

 

The mine racks started disgorging gravitic mines and the battle was on:

 

-------------------------------------------------- DepLoc 7 ------------------------------------------------------------

AUXH Hal Arath Mor (Heavy Auxiliary - 303,000 tons) [integrity: 30,159,000 / 30,159,000] [shields: 124,656,800 /

125,000,000] (Green, Timid)

10 Fuel Shuttle, 90,000 Fuel Tankage, 100 Gravitic Mine Rack, 40 Light Shaker Beam, 150 Mauler Mine Rack

1 Mk III Jump Survey Sensor, 500 Mk IX Force Shield, 100 Mk VI Antimatter Engine, 500 Mk VIII Computer System

1 Nuclear Transwarp Drive, 30,000 Tckon 68

Gravitonic: 105,600, Mines: 1,003,200

Maneuverability: 84.49, Missile Defense: 50.00 %

 

** Battle Damage Assessment Report **

-------------------------------------------------- DepLoc 2 ------------------------------------------------------------

**DESTROYED** [1st] CL Hedgehog (Light Cruiser - 150,000 tons) [integrity: 0 / 115,000] (Green, Valiant)

1,000 Cargo Bay, 3 Fuel Shuttle, 14,000 Fuel Tankage, 39 Light Graser, 1 Mk III Jump Survey Sensor

450 Mk IV Nuclear Engine, 1 Nuclear Transwarp Drive, 250 X-Ray Laser CIDS

Coherent Beam: 446,160

Maneuverability: 6.00, Missile Defense: 63.70 %

[Damiano]

Lord Gabriel waited in his Throne Room.

 

It had been a full day since his Sector Admiral had reported the “Nactaire” incident.

 

The same Admiral was still now sequestered with the 17 System Admirals, trying to determine why a lone light cruiser had seemingly attacked an Alien race known as the Go’ald. Tensions had been high since a Go’ald “Hal Kar Alon” Battleship had been seen prowling the borders of one of the sector provinces, a stiff diplomatic note had been sent to the Go’ald and the Battleship has seemingly withdrawn, but now this has happened....

 

Lord Gabriel’s reverie was interrupted by the soft admittance chime; the Major Domo swept before the throne, and glided to a halt in front of his Emperor, His wings held in the appropriate position of obsequiousness.

 

“My Lord, the Admiral has sent a Psi-Glyph, the inquest is finished, they are ready to report” said the Major Domo.

 

“Very well, activate the Ansible” thought Lord Gabriel.

 

At his telepathic command the Ancient T’ckon communicator breathed into life, swirling motes coalesced into the form of the Sector Admiral as clear as if he was there, instead of halfway across the Empire.

 

“My Lord, we can report that the captain of the Hedgehog CL was to blame, though not through his own volition. His standing orders have not changed since the ‘Faerie’ campaign” The Admiral grimaced at the direct translation of one of the Systems names “We ordered him to Uniform orders when he was sent to suppress the automated PDC in that system and his orders were never rescinded. Why he chose to not engage the ‘Hal Kar Alon’ is not known, maybe the ‘Hal Arath Mor’ Auxiliary presented a reasonable challenge to him, though his ship was 50 cycles out of date for such an action. We have reviewed the naval orders for the rest of the fleets and his appears to be the only mistake in evidence. We have recorded a verdict of mis-adventure” His image faded at Lord Gabriels unspoken command.

 

Relief and anxiety warred in Lord Gabriel’s soul. He mourned the loss of the crew though their spirits would be reborn, but was also glad that the Aliens had suffered no loss of life.

 

“Very well, alert the nearest fleet to raise their readiness state, I will speak to System Lord Ra, and hope that the lone actions of this single cruiser do not provoke a war!”

 

Once more the Ansible awoke...