Rhapsody

[Nelle Kozera]

The black Dragoness looked over at the GSA officer on the deck. He looked…excited. As the fighters were locked into, Violet took off her air tight helmet before getting out her pathfinder fighter though she merely sat on the top rung of the ladder that had been rolled over for her to use to exit the craft. “Happy to see some civilized people?” She asked loudly enough for him to hear before jumping down to the floor below, using her wings to slow the decent. It was common for members of the Arianrhod Ormr species to use their wings as the species was still capable for independent flight, though chances for such acts where limited in small ships such as this one. Larger ships had entire sections of the ships designed so they could exercise their wings. Violet O'Riley made her way over to the officer before giving a sharp Salute.

---

“Well along with the increased strength of the new hull, we added a new low power inertial system for increased hull strength, sadly it won’t do much in a battle but it does keep the hull in one piece you make those high speed turns, or slam the engine at full tilt. We have that recorded if you wish to see that.” He said, “Best we keep moving…” The Scientist said…

[macrorufus]

[RR]The GSA Liason officer saluted smartly back, acknowledging the junior pilot, and smiled, leaning close to whisper.
"While I am happy to see more civilised people, the Kaitan folk take offense to slurs. Best to keep that sort of talk to oneself."
The KTN deck crews serviced the fighter craft as the liason officer talked with the pilots.
"We'll be berthing soon, something about a complication on the station. New ship acting suspect, and crews refuse to leave their ships."
The KTN ship slid slowly into berth.

[SA]The A.I. paused to look over the Captain, then shrugged.
"Clearly you have different styles of communication. We will attempt to mimic your form of interaction."
The A.I. paused then spoke again, addressing the Captain.
"We, the GSA do not appreciate being threatened, by your laughable attempts at appearing dangerous to this station and to this nation."
The A.I. sent data to the Trimmar showing briefly both the data on what the station could do to the Trimmar, and what the GSA could do to the Lightfirean race.
"A liason will be granted to your ship, since you refuse to leave it. We'd remind you, that though the GSA has committed genocide before, this data doesn't constitute a threat. That is all."

[SA/RR]The station's A.I flashed onto the berthed Tiandehuo's bridge.
"The pilot Violet O'Riley is requested to act as Liason for the LU-Trimmar, Deck 5 Berth 16. You've been selected to represent the interests of the GSA. Our current situation with this species is one of hostility. They've made threats, these logs will be forwarded to your private comms."
The Station AI forwarded communication logs from the station and Trimmar to O'Riley's personal communicator.
"The station's interests have been affirmed by GSA High Command. They have granted you the right to make a formal declaration of war, if the Captain continues to fail to take responsibility for the actions taken by the Trimmar."
The AI paused and thought about it.
"We don't trust them either, so two Hei Tribe KTs will accompany you with their stealth gear. You must make the Captain of the Trimmar understand how dangerous her refusal to face charges is. The KTs will shadow you all the way. If you are threatened or held hostage, they know what to do."

[CO]The officers nodded and shared glances. It would appear that the Rakai did indeed still hold their enmity for the Dark Core. This was good. It could be used to help cement an alliance. The lead officer coughed.
"We'd like him to see the actual prototype, not just the designs. From you, Xerek, we'd also like some idea if you will become a liason for your race, since open communications between the GSA and Rakai Empire will be appreciated. These kind of relations would lead to a more efficient war against the Dark Core for example."

[AR]As soon as the ship was locked in its berth, the emergency crews fairly swarmed at the ship. Firefighting equipment was deployed on all fires on the external hull, while firefighting teams led the way into the ship, followed by medical teams with collapsible stretchers.
Care was taken to manouvre the SCIONS in the medical bay onto stretchers to be brought back to the station's medical bays. Cutting crews opened up sealed sections to see if crew members needed medical assistance. The process while seemingly hectic and rushed, was a calm and careful affair.
The KTs with Arratra took care to guide him to the correct berth, though held him back.
"Wait. Let crews work."

[BT]The Huo Tribe KT actually smiled at Darien, and nodded.
"Good."
The KT took the card, scanned it, and returned it to the otter.
"Everything is in order. Wait here please."
The KT left Darien, and returned in a moment with Darien's pistol, handing it back to the Captain.
"You're free to go, no charges are accumulated, and your record remains clean."

[Arratra]

"All right," Arratra replied, stopping.
A number of wounded, but still mobile SCIONs followed the medics out.
One male, whose only injury was a gouge in his cheek from a round that had only just hit, even flirted with one of the medics, who was a dragoness.
Shirranna soon emerged and leaned against Arratra's shoulder, visibly exhausted.
"You all right?" Arratra asked.
"Yeah," Shirranna mumbled, "I got all the crying out of the way during the jump here."
As soon as the fires were out and the wounded taken to the infirmary (a number of whom had been hit with a weapon that the SCIONs had never seen before), engineers swarmed the damaged ship.
They were from SDI, much to Arratra's relief; even here in the GSA, he knew his rights, and he had every right to keep unwelcome engineers off his vessel.
"If Dresden is willing to talk," he said to one of the guards, "and has the time in his schedule, he's welcome to call me. He knows my number."
Arratra had indeed given Dresden his number during the "Butterfly Effect" incident. Despite their best efforts, they had been unable to find the missile in time; it had impacted Ra anyway. Who had launched the missile remained a complete mystery; the Dark Core certainly had not launched that missile, as it was clearly not utilising their tech, as far as Arratra could tell.

Arratra had no idea why, but he held Shirranna close, resting his chin on her forehead.

[Samantha Arrow]

"We've committed xenocide too." Sam said, then thought to herself 'and genocide when you were still in diapers' - the Lightfireans wiped out a feline race native to their planet during their own industrial era.

Sam turned to her first officer, "Who's the chief engineer now that we don't have Rikkard?"

"Uhh I believe it's lieutenant Alishad, Mar'."

Sam pressed the comm button on her chair, "Bridge to Alishad."

"Yes mar'?"

"You're my cheif enginneer. I need emergency plans in case things turn worse."

"I don't think there's much I can do... This station has a lot more power than we do."

"We bring an unknown into the equation though. They don't know our species or our technology."

"Well, I suppose I could-"

"Don't talk, we don't know if they can somehow hear us right now. Just get as many plans as you can thought out."

Sam stood up and started to walk from the bridge, but stopped at Saval's station. "Get some of your best men in main battle powered armor. And wake up Sasha."

Sam turned back to the comm officer, "Give them the directions to our meeting room. Lock down every other direction, I don't want them exploring our ship."

Sam remembered something else, "Oh and incase this is just a trap to get us to open the front door for some raid be ready to shoot their personnel with one of the plasma beams." Plasma beam arrays had a large arc of fire, they didn't need to rotate. "It's a pity, but I'd rather Rikkard and that repair team die rather than the whole crew."

She was about to leave when Saval spoke again, "Sam maybe it would be best if you just did what they wanted."

Sam looked at him puzzled, "Saval you're a Wolvend. You're suppost to love conflict."

"Only if it's glorious, we won't last long against such odds."

"What about your peoples rhetoric of 'we may lose the battle but we'll win the war'?"

"Sam, we lost to you... And you know as well as I we can't win the war either."

Sam sighed, "Saval. We've been pushed to the brink of destruction, but then turned it around and completely crushed the attacker. We can do it again. These people are no different to us than the Marlikains were."

"Captain. This is a galatic empire, not a minor one."

"Then the Seeders won't let their creation die."

"That's silly Sam and you know it."

"This whole thing is silly!" Sam barked, "They're considering all out war because we armed ourselves because we detected a battle nearby, and we disarmed when they asked us to. We sent them tactical data yes, but don't they need that information anyway if they're going to work on our ship?"

"I'll be in the meeting room. You stay here Saval. If things get bad fast you'll have to act before I get back." Sam left, not wanting to hear anymore complaints from Saval.

[Nelle Kozera]

“Dear God…” The young Pilot said review the data from her personal implant. “Never have I seen or even interacted with a species with such an ego.” She said. ‘Why? Who the hell did I piss off to get this assignment? Well it could be worse, could be like this fellow right here, suck on this ship with the Crazies.’ She thought to herself for the moment while looking at the engineers taking care of her bird. “Right, I guess I had better get going major.” She said before walking off the deck. She was going over the interactions with the Lightfirean vessel. ‘Oh this is going to be fuuuunnnnnnnnnnnn.’ She thought cyclically as the Air lock depressurized.

Stepping out in the area immediately on the other side of the dock she could see the world below that acted as the gravitational anchor for the massive ship yard. The Windows where several meters thick and made from a transparent nanofiber that acted more like steel than glass. Perfect for such a station, even though when under attack, giant slabs of armor would slide over these sections of the station to protect them. She was also able to see the offending vessel. It was full of unnecessary curves and other design features that set it apart from Galactic Systems Alliance vessels. “Hrr…even looks…” She didn’t finish her sentence as her implants registered two pings. She merely nodded; she knew what it meant before walking off towards Deck 5 Berth 16. She was able to see the repair crews as she walked by noticing the ones from the station because of their uniforms. She guessed that the other was from the vessel in question. She walked by the guards for the moment only sparing them a glance before walking up to the airlock Door. The purple, black, and orange uniform she was wearing was customary of officers in the GSA though it seemed to blend in with her scales making it seem like she was part of the uniform itself. She knocked on the airlock as if it was an old fashion door, even though she knew they where probably watching her on a camera she couldn’t see.

“Lieutenant Violet O’Riley here to act as a Galactic Systems Alliance Liaison to Lightfirean Union vessel Trimmar.” She said still knocking. ‘I swear if I die on this minor nation vessel I’m haunting the bastard that gave this order into the next millennium.’

[Samantha Arrow]

After the Lieutenant was left waiting for about a minute there was a response, "Be sure the other men don't follow, we're not going to open our doors to a raid." It was Sam's voice, "A soldier in powered armor is waiting on the other side of the airlock to lead you to my meeting room - all other paths in the ship are locked off." Sam considered asking for her crew members back, but knew the station probably wanted them as a bargaining tool.

[Brome Teks]

Darien returns to the deck where the Trimmar and the Decorah are berthed. He looks to the security teams around the Trimmar's gate airlock. He sighs and starts towards his own ship.

"Decorah, I am hereby determining the Nine Hells unsafe for shore leave by any of the crew. There's too much stirring up too fast right now. I'm not too keen on staying here. How long is that Resupply going to take?"

"Under normal circumstances," A crewman reports back, "3 days. With the increased security of DALAS 4, 18 days."

Darien sighs and rubs his head. "Great. I'm coming aboard." He enters his ship and makes his way past the airlock cycle and into the ship. He goes for the control deck at the center of the ship, and takes his seat in the command chair.

"Continue the resupply operation as fast as possible. In the meanwhile, I want a full scan of that ship under alert. Give it everything we have, Spectrography, EM resonance, tachyon scans, LADAR, Deep Energy, Everything. Send all relevant information to my and science officer Grysal's consoles."

The ship began to probe the Trimmar, finding all they could while they were immobile. A few minutes later, something interesting came to his console. Scans had shown heavy fluctuations of Deep energy, especially where the Station's fields were shimmering. Darien looks to his science officer. "Did they actually...?"

'Managed to achieve a stable state of Deep Mass in hadron form, specifically baryons? Yes. I had thought you could only do it with mesons, but apparently they found away to get around the neutrality principal of Deep mass and make matter out of particles with a net charge."

"Amazing." Darien said, thinking back to his engineering days. "That sort of armor could play all kinds of hell with inertia and..." He looks to the screen. "I wonder if the Nine hells knows? We should forward this information to them. Open a communication link and compress the scan files."

"Aye sir," The communications officer says.

"Nine Hells Quay master, this is the Starship Decorah. Our scans have found something interesting. The Ship known as the Trimmar has stable baryons of Deep mass, or under GSA physics terms..." he looks over his console. "Dark matter, integrated into their outer hull armor. That could play all hell with most inertial forces. We are forwarding all files and scans about this to you."

[Cobalt3924]

Xerek growled lightly and followed the scientists.

"There isn't much point in asking me. To get a communications link to Ra and the rest of the new Empire: you'll have to go through my father or Terra'Nali: the New High Monarchs."

He paused for a minute before smiling.

"I would like to see this Prototype though..."

[macrorufus]

[SA/RR]The security personnel moved back along the berth so as not to give the impression that they would storm the ship. The Trimmar's Engineers were moved away from the ship to the local detainment centre to await the closure of this situation.
The station A.I. pinged both the Trimmar and Lieutenant O'Riley.
"The guards on the berth have withdrawn."

[CO](Post regarding the prototype will be handled by Reaper).

[BT]The Quay Master sent personal thanks to the Decorah.
"Your assistance is appreciated. We are currently aware of field instabilities, this would help explain it with the Trimmar. Your scans will be forwarded to the science corps."
The Quay Master paused, then nodded to himself.
"Would you like to be moved to another berth? The current First Contact with the Trimmar may not end peacibly, though we have yet to see."

OOC: The Dark Core really did launch the missile).
[AR]The guards shadowing growl and take a step forwards towards Arratra.
"Dark Core launched missile."
The two bicker in their own language for a moment, before straightening and saluting ponderously in their armor. The intel officer from before is back, this time with quite a few guards.
"We'll take the SCIONS into custody. I'm afraid Miss ah... Sheerana was it? will need to come with us. They need to be processed, we can't have Dark Core loyalists aboard station."
The implied threat was that if such loyalists were found amongst the crew, they'd 'disappear.'
The guards moved to take custody of the non-wounded SCIONS, the SCIONS that were wounded were taken away by the medical officers, though their wards would be separated and put under guard.
"Oh! And we'd also like you, Arratra, to make a public statement, to be recorded live. This kind of defection makes for a brilliant morale boost. We'll want you to be denouncing your former government, shake hands with GSA officers, and ask fellow Dark Core servicemen to give up."
The gleam in the Intel Officer's eyes was all too bright.
"This may turn out to be the most damaging weapon we'll have throughout this entire war."

[Samantha Arrow]

After they detected the soldier backed away the door uncloaked and opened. As said, one person in Lightfirean main battle powered armor stood there. She was unarmed, but she did look very menacing, the armor made her look much larger than she actually was and it was painted black, any LEDs glowed red. "Follow." She stated, turning around and walking into the ship - not even turning to see if she was actually following. Not that she had to, she had sensors and could see whether she was following anyway.

[Arratra]

Arratra winced.
"Let me be the first one to say, my SCIONs and I had nothing to do with that missile," he said, before turning to the intelligence officer.
"We're a family," he said, "Not by blood... well, not much blood, anyway." He paused for a second, then continued. "Three SCIONs were killed on the Emperor's orders. We've all got a good reason to hate him... And if any of my crew disagrees, I'll deal with them personally."
"It's Shirranna," the dragoness next to Arratra said, sighing, "I swear, most people mispronounce my name on purpose!"
Arratra typed a quick message into his Omnitool, sending it to all the other SCIONs.
"There," he said, "They all know. If any of them resist... stun them, if you will. I want to question them personally."
He paused for a second, then added.
"And be careful trying to probe their minds using telepaths; a few of us... resist such investigation quite strongly. Don't think it's anything against the GSA," he continued, making sure to clarify, "it's a reflexive action; we can clamp down on it, but it needs to have already started before we can really do so."

[Brome Teks]

Darien considers the offer from the quay master. "Yeah, sure. Can't delay our resupply much more than it already has been, and I don't want us to be around that ship if things get violent. Comm, send a message confirming that we would like a new spot, and that the supplies will need to be moved accordingly."

The communications officer relays the message to the quay master. Darien regards his screen, looking at the signs of the distant battle on tachyon sensors and then at the imminent danger presented by the unfriendly ship right next to them. "Man, we just picked the wrong damn day to run out of gas..."

[Nelle Kozera]

“Joy…” She said to herself following the armored guard, all she had was…well claws. ‘Damn it’ Violet thought to her as they walked. It was a fairly short walk to the room in which they were leading her too it seemed. The Vessel was fairly small compared to GSA vessels. “So I guess this the room then do you want me to just go in, or you going to decon me first so my space germs don’t infect you.” She said with a little more sarcasm than she intended.

------

“This way…..” The Scientist said to the group of assembled officers and Rakai rep. The dragon led them down the dark bay below them, for the moment the lights off. The Nightmare fighter was being held aloft in a low inertia field and some slow air currents. It was painted in red and black. “The Nightmare class fighter…” The Dragon began to speak. “She is mostly engine as you can see, with reinforcement of the structure, plus an weapons power has allowed us to triple the output of your laser weapons.”

[Samantha Arrow]

"Go inside. Mar' Arrow is waiting." Sasha pressed a button on a console near the door, which made it open. Inside Sam was sitting at the head of a long meeting table.

[short]

[Nelle Kozera]

Violet looking in at the Canine, something about the Canine made her want to hurt the female, then she figured it was because of that fact that she had planned to get some sleep right about this time. ‘Oh well’ She thought to herself before walking into the room. It wasn’t something she was entirely happy with, which caused her to reset her wings into a more comfortable position. The reason for this was so that she didn't injure them or herself as she took a seat near the head of the table. She was about a seat away from the captain of the vessel. “Well, I guess I should get this started, but I do have to ask something, and I’ll be frank. What the hell where you thinking when you activated you torpedoes in our dock?” She ask, she was obviously unamused with the information that she had seen.

[macrorufus]

[SA]The forces on the berth hold their position, they don't approach the ship, nor do they pull back further. They appear to be waiting for a conclusion to the liason's talks.

[CO]The ship lay in berth, though the assembled GSA officers stood by, it was clear that some hoped that the Rakrai would try the vessel.

[AR]The Intel officer nodded and repeated his request.
"Like I've said, it will be key for you to make a public denouncement that can be recorded. I stress that this is vital should you wish to prove that you don't retain a former allegiance."
The Intel Officer pointed over to a crew that had assembled with various holo-recording equipment, while the intel officer reached into his pockets and withdrew a sheet of paper.
"If you wouldn't mind reading this denouncement to the holofilmers."

[BT]A tug is assigned to Darien's ship, and moves the ship a couple of berth's down. It isn't much of an improvement, but it offers relatively greater protection should something go wrong.
The station AI appeared to Darien's comms.
"We appologize that it was only a couple of berth's down, however, we believe this is now a safe distance, should something go wrong."

[Samantha Arrow]

Sam answered cooly, "Standard procedure to load torpedoes if there is hostile activity in sensor range. We don't activate shields, guns, or plasma arrays however until a threat is more direct. At any rate, we told the station were were doing it, and we also unloaded them when it was requested."

[Brome Teks]

Darien acknowledges the movement and sends a response to the station AI. "Even a few milliseconds is all our computer needs to throw up the shields, even this distance helps us should they launch torpedoes. On that note, we detected fighting at the edge of the system earlier. Is there any information you're allowed to give us on that?"

[Arratra]

"I don't need a damn written statement," Arratra said, flicking a hand; the statement went flying off into the distance. The move also inadvertently activated the cameras, causing them to record his words.
"The emperor refused to listen to his most valuable operatives, the SCIONS, arguing against war, murdered three of them in cold blood, and intended to do the same to the rest of us. If he had succeeded, I would be the only SCION still alive. We're a family. I fully intend to make that bastard pay for every drop and molecule of my brothers' blood.
"We're the SCION unit," he continued, "The best the Dark Core had. For now we're effectively free agents. But believe me. Every single one of us fully intends to make the Emperor and his lackeys pay for what he's done!"
The SCIONs, still within earshot, let out a loud roar of agreement. So take that written statement of yours, and space it!"
Arratra stopped speaking, breathing hard. Which was when he saw the blinking red lights of the cameras.
"I think you just got your statement," he said after a moment, turning to look at the intelligence officer, "No script needed."

[Cobalt3924]

“Hmm…”

Xerek simply looked at the ship: with an almost disappointed look in his eyes.

“Three questions.”

He turned to the scientists.

“One: How much did this thing cost to build? Two: How many Died testing it? Three: Where are the Keys?”

He smirked and cracked his wings: ready to see how this thing flew. If they knew he was coming: they’d have set up some drone targets for him to practice on.

[Cobalt3924]

(OOC: Please tell me this hasn't died already.)

[macrorufus]

(Appologies, I'll have a response up by the next 24hours. I hadn't realised everyone had posted!)

[Cobalt3924]

(OOC: Someone Post already! I really don't want this to fade.)

[Samantha Arrow]

[Can't really do much myself]

[Nelle Kozera]

"But the question is, why would you load them when you are undergoing repairs. Secondly, you forwarded the data to the station on the damage that they could cause, thats boarderline terrorism, I am frankly surprised he don't blast this little ship apart because of that. The station master must be feeling kind today. In anycase you are not supposed to arm any weapons in the proximity of one of our stations. It would have been bad enough during peace time, but there is an interstellar war going here. They could have blown your ship apart and you would have been at fault in the eyes of brass, and parliament, hell even the public eye. Do you understand how lucky you are?" The Female dragon leaned back in her chair, she wanted nothing more than to beat this canine with a blunt metal rod, but she hid her anger and only gave the Fox a cold stare.

[Jett]

(You...remade Rhapsody? Cool...I think. Haha.)

[Samantha Arrow]

Sam fought the urge to yawn, "We sent you our technical specs in case you needed them for the repairs, our dark matter drive is connected to our weapons... Also it was to show how useful we could be if you needed our ship to help defend against the very threat we detected."

The suit of armor that escorted the girl into the room was standing completely still, one might even think it was actually a robot.

[macrorufus]

(OOC: How odd... I /swear/ I posted this earlier)

[CO]The lead officer grinned and the two other officers with them shared knowing looks.A brief pause went by before the lead officer turned to the scientist.
"I think these questions are best answered by you."
The scientist smiled, then turned to face Xerek.
"We have three answers."
He indicated a data slate on the table.
"Firstly, it costs only about 5% more than your current designs, although this estimate is given to mass production. The individual cost of /this/ prototype was a little more than that. As to your second question, I'm not really sure why that would interest you, but there were no significant fatalities when we produced the vessel, and that's inclusive of the R&D too."
The reptilian scientist then grinned all the broader and pointed at the fighter's cockpit.
"To answer your third question, we've set the vessel to respond to Rakai DNA, you can finesse that security purpose to be specific DNA chains, so you can make them individualised. You'll simply need to register your DNA with the ship. We'd normally have provided target drones too, but we're currently on an alert status. I reckon it'll be a while yet before the station thumbs down the alerts."
He checked his comm link to the station discretely.
"Yes, there's a small incident aboard being resolved, and a potential Dark Core attack, following the skirmish earlier."

[AR]The intel officer's face darkened, and the officer growled.
"In future, you'll be wise to avoid going against the GSA's wishes."
While there hadn't been anything particularly wrong with Arratra's speach, the Intel Officer was angered because Arratra had not followed their script. Their script had been crafted by experts to ensure the maximum 'effect' on both GSA and Dark Core viewers. The Intel man took a while to compose himself.
"Your speach is workable. It'll need much editing. We /can/ manage that."
He started to walk off then stopped.
"People disappear in the GSA. All the time. If you know what I mean."
Intel was dangerous, since they had far reaching power. In the war that was being waged, the GSA had granted their Intelligence Ops a large variety of 'open-ended policies.'

[BT]The station AI paused, then nodded slowly.
"We'll be broadcasting the information soon, in the form of a public news annoucement. What essentially unfolded was a skirmish. The Dark Core fled, with only minor casualties, no actual loss of ships."
The AI grinned at Darien, then winked.
"Naturally, we'll phrase it somewhat differently. Keep that to yourself though eh?"

[SA/RR] While the GSA liason talked aboard the Trimmar, two security personnel took the Lightfirean engineers for processing, this simply meant taking them down to the bottom deck of the station, the 9th level, and having their DNA registered with the station's security AI and being placed in a brig 'until such time as the situation is resolved.'

[Cobalt3924]

"Heh Heh Heh... Perfect." Xerek laughed quite sinisterly. This was music to his ears.

"Then let's get started."

He walked over to the ship and searched for the opening controls to get inside and encode his DNA to it.

"Speaking on behalf of my Platoon: what better way to practice than a Live Fire course against Dark Core scum? I'd be Honored to test this thing out against Real Targets."

It was clear that Xerek was willing to go to any lengths to kill Dark Core ships.

[Arratra]

Arratra shook his head.
"Don't threaten me," he said quietly, "I don't tell lies. I tell the truth."
He turned, then paused, and turned his head.
"The SCIONs are going to need quarters to stay in while we wait for the repairs and upgrades to our ship to be completed," he said, "And I mean something other than a prison cell. That would simply be demeaning."