Ben Zwycky

Well, I'm putting words in people's mouths again, but it doesn't seem like there's any other option. I left it as late as I could. [rp]war plus 4 days 6 hours 40 minutes "So you see the situation, sir." concluded Commander Zwycky. "Indeed I do, Commander," agreed Fleet Commander Ristar, who then took charge of the situation; "Commander Zwycky and myself will go to Mercury along with half of SCID HQ's forces, since Mercury is largely undefended; Alun and the second Task Force will return to Pluto, where he will be assisted by Gazer1, and everyone else will remain here in case this is just a ploy to get us to split up. Deploy probes in each zone and as soon as you detect an invading Vesperon fleet, let us know and if possible how many, and we will assist you. EarthCom won't like taking orders from us, but I'm sure they'll see it's necessary. Once in your regions, heavily mine the fluxfield if you have time." Everyone carried out their orders, apprehensive of the battle ahead.[rp] Defenses as ready as they will be. Hope I'm not out of line. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

I've been having the same sort of trouble. Damned 'flu makes me sound like Barry White. I don't mind mind hanging around with Chavik for a while- it's sort of an original conspirators reunion party ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Come on everybody! Why so shy all of a sudden? I don't have the command authority to order people to different areas, so you're either going to have to speak up or I'll have to put words in people's mouths again, which I don't want to do. I'll also have to just assume who's around. At the moment we have: Ristar Badgerius Tringad and the ISS 2nd Task Force me plus as yet unknown defenders. I'm throwing this wide open- old hands, newbies, you have a choice of places to be, you don't have to think of a reason for being there, you could just be in the wrong (or right) place at the wrong (or right) time. If it sounds like I'm getting desperate, then maybe I am but really I don't want this story to just fade away, and it'll be much more fun with lots of people involved. I'd better calm down now. Think nebulae, think clouds, think... ahh, that's better ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins) [This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 10-08-1999).]

[rp]Chief Medical Officer's Personal Log Countdown T-19 hours 25 minutes Well, those goons should have been dropping like flies for a good ten minutes now, but there should be a few more of them where it'll kick in sometime in the next five. I'm not sure how many of the remaining 16 have been taken out. I have to admit, I've gone and got myself a bit lost in these tunnels now. I'm not even sure which deck I'm on. There was a big gun battle above me somewhere just now, so I'm not on deck 1, and probably not on 2 either. I'll try this way, there doesn't seem to be much noise that way. ********************************* Countdown T - 19 hours 18 minutes Somehow I've ended up in the Shuttle Bay. As soon as clumsily I popped the hatch it fell of the end of the service tube and clattered to the floor. I swore silently and started to back down the tunnel, when I heard someone call out "who's that?" I recognised McKendrick's voice and replied, "it's me, McKendrick, the doc." "Doc! Am I glad to see you! What's going on? Where's Neena?" I crawled out of the hatch, dragging the medkit behind me. (I couldn't get through the small hatchway with it on my back.) "Could you give me a hand with this?" "Sure, doc." As he came into view he looked in a bad way. Very pale and disorientated, and looking like he was ready to spew all down my uniform. "Whoa, you look terrible! Didn't you get treated? Oh, of course- you were hiding. Man, I'm sorry about that." I hurredly got out one of the portable diagnosers and single hyposprays. I checked that the infection was all it was. It was. Then I checked that I had the right stuff in the hypospray before giving it to him. "You should be almost back to normal in about 5 minutes." "Thanks, doc. I hope they don't attack before then." "Well, in the meantime I have something to supplement our defenses." I got out the miniature cameras and portable anaesthetic ejectors Neena's systems engineer had put in my expanded medkit. Note to self-thank that guy enormously! I put the cameras in the service tubes and one facing each way down the corridor (a thin t-piece slid under the door), so we could tell what was coming. I had a remote control for each of the anaesthetic ejectors in the service tubes, so we had some defenses in those two directions. Ideally, I would have liked a third ejector to put outside the door, but I didn't. I didn't fancy the idea of leaving the shuttle bay to install it anyway, and we had all this firepower too, so it should be OK. Well, all we can do now is wait and see if Neena can get here. We're going to need every bit of help we can get. T- 19 hours 13 minutes[/rp] I hope I'm not out of line there at all. Welcome to fortress (kinda) Shuttle Bay ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Hey Blades, according to Foss' post time-indexed just before the refit,(PS part 2) neither the diplomat nor his daughter were on the Chikuma. quote: She caught a shuttle back to Galcom HQ where her father was staying. I went back to my folks in Scotland. I mean, Commander Stone would never have let a diplomat aboard on a classified/ renegade mission, would he? Just a minor thing. Great work on Mallone, Stone and Neena though. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

I hope I'm not rushing too far ahead of the timeline with this. I could always edit it if requested. [rp]Chief Medical Officer's Log Countdown T-19 hours 45 minutes Well, it seems they've come for me earlier than I expected. It's still ten minutes before the first of the tranquillisers kicks in Two black-clad marines came into medibay with their rifles at the ready. I put on my best diplomatic face. "Good evening gentlemen. I don't believe I've seen you in here before. Are you here for treatment for the infection? The symptoms must be quite distressing by now," I said, reaching for a hypospray with a ten minute delay on the sedative. "No, doc. That's not why we're here," replied one very pale-looking marine, "We have orders to arrest all the command staff." "But I don't have command authority. I'm just a doctor, and I have patients to look after here. Couldn't you just confine me here, and let me do my work? I could show you how to treat your comrades, if you want. You just put the hypospray to the patient's neck like this and press these two buttons. The nausea clears in about five minutes, but the dizziness takes a little longer." The pale-looking marine seemed tempted for a moment at the thought of being rid of that damned infection, but then corrected himself. He had a job to do. "Thanks, doc, but no. We've gotta take you in." "Oh, well, sleep tight." Instantly the entire medibay was flooded with anaesthetic gas. Holding my breath, I ducked and darted behind one of the beds where my breathing apparatus was. They were already on the floor by the time I got behind the bed. I put my breathing apparatus on, then went over to the hypospray rack and picked up a couple of my preparations. I put enough sedative in both of them to knock out an angry bull for a couple of hours. I left the medical droids managing the current patients, picked up my 'expanded' medikit and sidearm and left the medibay via a service hatch. I crawled down the service tube, changing direction a few times until I was far enough away from the medibay to be very difficult to find. I then called Neena; "I'm sleeping tight. Where shall I wake up?" Countdown T - 19 hours 41 minutes [/rp] Well, that's another two down for a good while. Doctor on the rampage! Program 'sleep tight' is running all the time now, so if anyone goes into the medibay it'll reflood with anaesthetic gas, knocking you out for a good hour if you have no breathing apparatus. The system is well stocked up on anaesthetic. Of course, only Neena and her group know this, and how to deactivate it, plus anyone she has told, of course. BTW, could some people join Eternal Diligence, please? come on! You know you want to All you really have to do for now is say where you are and what you're doing, and it'll grow from there. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

DOH! misread the appendix. I've edited my post. On the other hand it could be a bluff to make us withdraw so they can capture the rest of Empirian space, but that seems unlikely. Anyway, nice twist! Anybody want to join the thread? this is your big chance! be in Mercury or Pluto, or be a defender around Centris. It'd be nice to know how many ships we have to play with before we decide where to put them. BTW Alun, what's happened to the ISS website? Commlink's died, and I can't get the Members Listing to load. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins) [This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 10-07-1999).]

Even though I don't have to post, I enjoy it so much Hey, this is getting good! [rp]Chief Medical Officer's Personal Log Countdown T- 19 hours 48 minutes While they were encamped in the medibay, I had one of Neena's system engineers help me install a defence mechanism of sorts into the medibay. I hope I don't have to use it, but it's reassuring to know that its there if they decide to come for me. It seems the infection has combined with another minor infection Ailsa had and severely slowed down her natural healing process, which I hadn't anticipated. Well, that's what you get for doing a rush job. She's not been doing too well, but she's over the worst of it, unless we lose. If we lose, then we're all dead. I don't doubt that now. Commander Stone's death at the hands of Mallone was a shock, but it was predictable. That man's psychological profile must make for very frightening reading. There are quite a number of Mallone's men who we haven't been able to give the time-release tranquiliser. However, this means that they are still infected, and however tough and determined they are, and even if it's not been totally effective it's sure to slow them down a little bit. The lack of access to the ship's systems is a worry, though. We seem to be locked on to some target or other, with no way to break off. It worries me that we may end up having to destroy the ship. With no access to launch protocols or transporters, that could mean mass suicide. Lizzy, if you ever get to hear this message, I love you and would give anything to be with you right now, but we can't let this madman murder billions of innocent people. If that means sacrificing ourselves, then so be it. I for one know that if I die trying, it will be with a clear conscience. End log[/rp] ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins) Hey, I hadn't read Gallion's post when I did mine. Makes my main concern look a bit out of touch, but nevermind. [This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 10-06-1999).]

Blades, is that time index referring to my bit, or something else you have planned? Give me a mail at my University adress. (I'll get it quicker.) ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Mission plus 23 days 18 hours 53 minutes As more and more people started to come in to medibay reporting the same kinds of symptoms, Graham Rawlitt, one of the junior medics reported, "sir, it looks like we have an epidemic." "We can't have- the ship's biohazard sensors would have picked it up. Steve, check the biohazard console." Steve Conley, one of the CMO's 'trusted few' went over to the panel and reported, "doesn't show anything." "Are you sure it's working?" Replied Graham "Yeah, wait- whoa, it's switched off! Computer, reactivate biohazard detection system" "System reactivated." Every section of the computer-generated model of the ship switched instantaneously from green to red. Alarms went off all over the ship. "S&%*! We have a major biohazard alert! Every section contaminated!" "OK, everybody, we have to assume everyone's infected. Steve, Keith, Tony and myself will work on identifying and combating the organism. The rest of you prepare room for patients and establish a quarantine section around us. Looks like we'll have to get everyone on the ship through here. Mike Proctor is in charge out here" A small area of the medibay was sealed off around Martin and his chief medical staff. Martin turned to his fellow conspirators, and said, "gentlemen, let's make this look good. Steve, you get the dual hyposprays ready. Keith and Tony, prepare the 'extra treatment'. Computer, isolate the organism, analyse and compare with all known current diseases and biological weapons." "No matches found." "Widen search. Include historical databases, going back 300 years." "No matches found." "That should be the limit of Mallone's medics' database. Good." "Include database going back 900 years." "Partial match found." "Display." "Organism closely resembles non-lethal weapon developed by chinese military scientists in early 22nd century, never used because new government disapproved of non-lethal methods." "We've got Commander Stone wanting to speak to you." "OK, patch him through." "What the hell is going on? We've got people throwing up all over the place and medical alarms going off everywhere." "We've got a major biohazard alert, sir. All sections of the ship affected. It wasn't picked up by the ship's biosensor network, because it was down, probably since all the medibay's computers went haywire just before we were boarded. I'd guess it was brought on by one of the intruders." "So why haven't people been affected before now?" "The organism appears to have a long incubation period, it just lies dormant for a number of hours before any symptoms appear. We have to assume that everyone is infected, or shortly will be." "I see. Have you made any progress in finding a treatment?" "We have successfully identified the organism as a mutation or modification of a very ancient biological weapon that was never actually put into service. We should be able to develop an effective treatment within the hour. Once we do, we will require everyone on board ship to report to Medibay for treatment, with no exceptions." "That's good news. I will give the order when you notify me."[/rp] ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

[rp] Mission plus 23 days 15 hours 30 minutes "Matches found." "Display full list." "No, too common, too fragile, too lethal, too- no, wait, that'll do- severe nausea, dizziness, but no long-term harmful effects, 60 minute incubation time, and they won't have heard of it. Display DNA profile. Right, I could change that to make it more infectious, and that to make it difficult to treat without knowing the organism precisely." ****************** Mission plus 23 days 17 hours 40 minutes "Synthesis Complete." "Deactivate shipwide biohazard alarm, but mask authorisation and enable reactivation without command codes." "Acknowledged, deactivated." Martin paused. What he was about to do would either get him a medal, or a courtmartial. He prayed silently, 'If I'm wrong, Lizzy, please forgive me.' "Release organism." "Released." 'In about an hour, people will start to call in sick. I hope Neena has had enough time.'[/rp] I'll put up the next bit tommorrow, so if people want to call in sick or anything, feel free. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Don't worry about it. I've probably made it worse with this post. Maybe I've got this wrong, Badgerius, but it seems right. [rp]war plus 4 days 6 hours 35 minutes "Idiot!" shouted the Svoboda's navigation officer in frustration, loud enough to get the instant attention of everyone on the bridge. "I'm such an idiot!" "What do you mean, Chris?" asked Ben "How could I have missed that? Oh, it's fluxfield 5 in tramis. That's why they were so keen to capture it, and why they didn't seem to go on any further." "Sorry, Chris, you've lost me. What about fluxfield 5?" "Well, one of the places it leads to is supernova 1. Ring any bells?" "Supernova 1, supernova 1ÔǪ that's where fluxfields 2 & 3 go. They can get right round us into Mercury or Pluto." "Exactly. Normally I'd say they'd be taking a hell of a risk doing that, but the Vesperons have done enormous amounts of research into fluxfields. One of their main griefs with Galcom has been about them wanting to annex Procyon in order to redirect one of the exits from the fluxfield in Ramis there. So I'd be a fool to think they haven't found some way to avoid ending up at black holes 2 or 3. If they can do that then they would probably choose to enter Mercury, because that puts two jumpgates in between us and them, but if they can't then they'll most likely go to Pluto, because they only have to dodge one black hole that way. Either way we're in big trouble." "Those brilliant b&*#@%┬ú$. We've been suckered good and proper. Who have we got in Mercury and Pluto?"[/rp] Well, everybody, if I've got this right, this is your chance to get involved. Anyone wanting to be in Mars or Pluto? Join the fun! If I'm wrong, I'm very sorry, and I've probably messed things up completely, but this post can always be deleted. It does seem to fit together very well, though, although it puts us all well into the stinky stuff. BTW, have we got an absolute date sorted for this i.e. what date was war plus 0? Or are we going to sort that out later? I mean relative to Gamma Omega etc. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins) [This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 10-07-1999).]

Hey Chavik, you didn't pot a time index on any of your posts. Not to worry. I've rewritten this one a bit to fit in with your last one. [rp]Chief Medical Officers Private Log Mission plus 23 days 11 hours 30 minutes Well, things are getting stranger and stranger around here. We got McKendrick in earlier, and he was in a bad way. He collapsed in medibay, repeatedly mumbling something like 'gotta tell them about this'. He had a severe chemical imbalance in his brain, and a few memory neurones seemed to have been damaged in some way. We struggled to stabilise him because of this strange droid he had in tow which seemed to decide that it should be taking care of him. We eventually got things sorted out and I got to take a well-earned break. A couple of hours later, he managed to get out of bed and get out of the Medibay on his own. I had to know what the hell was so important that would risk discharging himself from medibay when it was clear that we didn't want him to leave. I opened a private channel to him and asked "Hey, McKendrick. I think we need to review your condition." "Not now, doc. I've got things to do." "I could examine you where you are. This is important. I think I've worked out the problem, but I need to run a couple of tests." He chose his words carefully, in case the channel wasn't so private. He hoped he wasn't being too subtle. "After my shift, doc, OK?" "May I remind you that I outrank everyone on this ship on health issues. Now do I have to pull rank on you?" "Alright, I'll be in Cargo Bay 1 in 5 minutes." "Right. I'll meet you there." I walked down to cargo bay 1, with medkit in hand. "Over here, doc." I got out my portable brain scanner and began to examine him, but at the same time I quietly told him, "I'm not really here to review your condition. I want to ask you about what's going on here." He looked back at me puzzled. "What do you mean?" "You're found out something damned important to risk your own life trying to tell someone about it. You discharged yourself from medibay when it was clear that we hadn't finished treating you, and while you were going in and out of consciousness you kept mumbling 'gotta tell them about this'." "I didn't know what I was saying. And I felt fine, so I got up. I'm a busy man." "I know that Mallone killed our only prisoner and three of our marines, and that there is something seriously wrong with our mission. I'm going to work it out eventually, but I'll work it out a lot quicker if you tell me what you know." That changed his attitude. He said "OK, doc, you gotta see this, but you gotta tell no-one." "I can do that. You never heard of doctor-patient confidentiality?" He then got the droid which was still following him everywhere he went to play back the flight recorder he'd "borrowed", and told me about his encounter with one of Mallone's goons. So, it looks like we're carrying some sort of weapon of mass destruction, much more powerful than our biggest OTS, and we're planning to launch it at the gammulans. Since we've been killing prisoners and fighting Galcom ships, either a large number of Galcom ships have gone renegade, or this is not sanctioned by Galcom. What I'm thinking about now is against all my training. I think Neena has a point, and I think it's about time for her bimonthly check-up.[/rp] The conspiracy grows. I hope that wasn't out of line Blades, I've got an idea I'd like to run past you. I'll give you a mail soon. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Grr, I just had a post nearly ready and I can't do it now. I was just about to interact with your post and then you got away! Nice posts, though. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Has anyone mailed you yet, Alun? I thought Badgerius would, since this is his story. My site is now on the webring! Cheers muchly (I noticed there's no ID 23 site, though, strangely enough.) Also, I can't seem to access the members listing on the ISS homepage http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arena/9206/iss That's still where it's supposed to be, isn't it? [rp]War plus 1 day 8 hours 55 minutes You had to admire the skill of the Galcom interceptor pilots in Treas that day. They were outnumbered by about 5 to 1 by admittedly less manouverable ships, but with the lightstars all armed with lethal ralix missiles, the odds were stacked well against them. "Another one incoming! That makes three!" announced Smiler "Why can't they tell that to our friend back there?" groaned Poltergeist. Another splash on IC3's shields confirmed the continued presence of the stardrone tailing them. Poltergeist continued to weave and dive as much as he could, using all the cover he could, pieces of debris, small asteroids, other ships, remaining elusive and difficult to see, which is how he got the name poltergeist. (Since Operation Peace Run he had proved to be the best pilot they had during the intensive training week, and so he and Smiler had changed places.) He kept switching between the four targets to keep a constant eye on where they were, his mind on full overdrive. At last seeing an opportunity, and going for it in a split second, he headed straight for two of the ralixes at full afterburn. He played a deadly game of chicken for a couple of seconds, taking a few hits to his aft shields in the meantime. At the last possible moment, when it seemed that those missiles were going to scream right into his visor, he rolled and dived sharply, just avoiding their proximity range. The stardrone behind them did not, and the two missiles slammed into its midsection, smashing it to pieces before the pilot knew what had happened. In the moment of euphoria, they both forgot about the third ralix with their name on it. For once Smiler lost his permanent grin, and switched IC 3's targeting computer to the third ralix "Incoming!" he shouted. Poltergeist saw the missile and its pretty trail closing fast, he engaged afterburner, span and climbed, but only enough to lessen the impact of the detonating warhead, which shook the little ship violently. "Shield integrity breach- damage," gently reported the IC's main computer." "Our shield generator is down to 50% performance, and the tacscope is out, but we're otherwise OK." "Now I'm angry! Nearest enemy target!" Poltergeist was now totally focussed on his next attack, and IC 3 swung round to the nearest lightstar, which had another as its wingman. Not that that did it much good. He attacked them head on, and a well placed burst of laser fire took out the lead man in a shower of red hot molten armour, and the volley continued naturally on to the second, hitting and detonating a ralix just as it was being launched, which did lightstar number 2 no good at all. As it tumbled from the explosion, Poltergeist finished him off with another short burst and then reassessed his situation. IC's 1 & 4 had managed to avoid anything more serious than a few scratches, but IC 2 Wasn't fairing so well. They had lost their shields completely, and their lasers and life support were looking significantly worse for wear. The Svoboda was coping quite well, was using its afterburners an awful lot and had inflicted serious damage to one of the nightstars, and as far as you could tell from the outside, the Shogun was doing just as well. Then in came the shuttles with their leeches. Flying in at over 1500 kph with leeches in tow, they lined up an intercept course with the slower-moving nightstars. When they judged that they were close enough to make it difficult for the nightstars to avoid a collision, they activated their shields, releasing the mines and engaged afterburners, and dived or climbed sharply out of the way. They took a few laser hits in the process, testing the capacity of their armour, especially while their shields were down, but they both made it through. Although the PTA systems of the nightstars picked up the rapidly approaching leeches, and attempted to take them out, the pilot of the nightstar received no inbound warning because they didn't have any sort of targeting lock. The leeches came in too quickly for the PTA system to be able to destroy them so they slammed into their targets, inflicting massive damage, indeed mortal damage to the nightstar attacking the Shogun. Its reactor breached and it tore itself and a number of its support ships apart, and probably did some damage to the Shogun in the process, but it didn't appear to be too significant, since the Shogun then joined the Svoboda in finishing off the second Nightstar. A vagrant missile from the Shogun made a huge hole in the nightstar where its bridge had been and it was then adrift in space. Had those two nightstars been the only enemy ships in that region, they would have hung around to mop up the remaining fighters. However, they were started to get some unwanted attention from the other vesperon ships in the region, and would soon be in deep trouble again. "I've got an open line to Fleet Commander Ristar", announced Karen, correctly anticipating Ben's next action. "Thanks, Karen. Sir, I believe that a tactical withdrawal to Centris is in order." "Indeed, Commander. I will ask Commander Tringad and the Tactical Support Arm to reinforce us there. All defenders, this region is lost. You are ordered to fall back to Centris and make our main stand there." Ben turned to his Tactical Officer. "Steve, recall the shuttles and IC's 2 & 3. Get IC's 1 & 4 to escort them in, and then escort us to Centris." "Gotcha." "Shuttle 1, where are you?" "I'm currently in Pluto region with drone 1 on board and drone 2 in tow." "OK, we're heading for Centris, so you can come back and dock with us there." "Roger." The Svoboda and Shogun covered the other defenders as they retreated through the jumpgate, the Shogun at the same time laying a small IFF-selective minefield in front of it, then they both went through, under a shower of laser fire.[/rp] Sorry to take big decisions for everybody and put words in your mouth, Jeehun, but nothing much seems to be happening. Alun, here's your way in. I hope no-one's emailed you with something completely contradictory to this or something. Anyway, later, ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Sorry I haven't been posting for a while, been busy and stuff [rp]Chief Medical Officer's Log mission plus 22 days 16 hours 20 minutes It's been a very hard day. Medibay's computers all shut down at once just as we went into red alert, then the battle started raging, and the casualties started coming in. We were working more than overtime, constantly having to improvise with low-tech treatments, even reverting to sterile air circulation for burns and even splints for broken limbs. Eventually some systems engineers got down and after an awful lot of headscratching and tinkering they manage to get some systems up and running again, but by that time we'd already lost 6 or 7 patients who we could have coped with easily otherwise. We just didn't have the equipment to maintain them, and the cloning bays all went down, so we couldn't regenerate lost limbs. It was a nightmare. And to top it off, two of my combat medics got shot BY OUR OWN GUYS because they were treating the intruders by mistake and so were mistaken for enemy medics. I mean, you don't shoot enemy medics anyway. Hal Davison didn't make it, but Jayce Allen survived, because the systems engineers just managed to get a couple of the intensive care cubicles on-line in time. He's leading a charmed life, but I couldn't say the same for this ship. I get one of the 'renegade' Galcom troops brought in, then when the fighting died down some of our marines come in and whip him off to the brig before he's even conscious! We'd managed to stabilise him, and he was basically OK, but then barely half an hour later I hear he's been killed trying to escape, after getting past the forcefield, killing three of our fully-armed marines and wounding Captain Mallone. I find that very difficult to believe given the condition he was in when he left here. Something is severely wrong here. In all, 21 dead and 38 wounded, with 10 of those deaths preventable, and a lot of those injuries putting people out of action for a lot longer than normal because of the equipment failures. On top of that murder, and potential mutiny. I'm telling you, this mission is cursed! End Log ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Sorry I didn't say what mine means, this thread was really old when I got back from my summer holidays, so I missed the question. Svoboda is simply the czech word for freedom, and it's a really cool, flowing and distincive-sounding word, and also enables me to do my ship's logo. www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda/Svobadge2.jpg I named it that before I knew there were other ship's called freedom. (That reminds me, I should probably redo the logos in my main computer sometime, but I probably won't, knowing me.) ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

[rp] mission plus 21 days 18 hours 30 minutes I've been trying to share medical history databases with the medics who came aboard with the new crewmembers, but they haven't been very helpful. I eventually managed to talk them round by asking who will treat their men if they get injured, and how are we supposed to treat them properly without their medical histories. I downloaded theirs and uploaded ours, so that we can work together and ease the load on each other. We should be able to work together- after all, we're on the same team. mission + 22 days 12 hours 43 minutes Well, we're on battle stations. Looks like all this secrecy and sneaking around hasn't done us much good. Right, emergency readiness drill. Medics on station, combat medics on patrol, medical history and treatment database online. Hang on, computer, activate medical history database. Activate database! Stupid thing. That's going to make things tricky. Oh, well, computer, activate emergency treatment cubicles. Computer? Oh, dear. Er, Mr Spencer? [rp] ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

You don't know me, but wow, it is an honour to be the first to reply to a thread you've started. I hope you're not to disappointed with what we've done with this forum while you've been away. Things have been slowing down here recently, because lots of comanders have been going back to university/college and also there is the advent of 2.08RC9 and final. That is a great start, and I for one (and probably a great deal of others) eagerly await the next part. Welcome back, sir! ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Hey, how about a velvet assault strike pack mission for 3030? 'Your mission is to infiltrate the ground facility and capture a diplomatically sensitive terrorist leader', or something. Sorry about the mistake in my previous post. I've corrected the numbers of ships left in the fleet, that's all. I would have posted this yesterday, but my ISP decided to be unfriendly. [rp] war plus 1 day 8 hours 21 minutes Flash. A great flock of Sunflash cruisers appeared in the viewscreen, some being lightly peppered with laser fire by the few remaining crabs in the hastily-laid minefield. The shattered remains of three or four fo them were being slowly drawn back to the wormhole entrance. Weaving in and out around them, the Svoboda prepared to engage the enemy. "Let's have a look at the Nightstars! Mr Briggs, have any of the Nightstars kept back many of their fighters?" "Well, the P'ilek's Perscan shows 12 pilots still on board." "Got the P'ilek. Well, erm, it seems to me that it's flying on a straight heading lined up to the star, so I'd say it's relying heavily on its solar reactor," reported Steve. "Making it very unmanouverable. Assign it as the only priority threat. Make sure that the PTA will concentrate all it's fire on it and at 100%; but first go for a deceleration spread of 6 leeches at it from full afterburn. Stay cloaked, PTA off for now. Go get it." The fleet of sunflashes seemed to flow by like a rushing stream as the Svoboda entered its jump anomaly and came out just over 7 clicks behind the P'ilek. "Full afterburn, ready the leeches." The Svoboda's velocity indicator climbed sharply to read well over 1200 km/s by the time the first leech was launched. Five were launched in quick succession as the Svoboda's retro rockets were fired. The Svoboda slowed to about 200km/s before turning to the left and accelerating again to draw alongside the doomed vessel before activating its PTA system for a full-on broadside. This drained it's shields sufficiently to enable the first couple of leeches to reduce it's shields to zero and the third arriving in quick succession smashed into it's exposed rear, detonating right into the already heavily damaged reactor cooling system, and sending a massive shockwave into the reactor core itself, which ruptured and tore the ship apart plus the two lightstars it was in the process of launching. "PTA Off!" "Aye, sir- recloaking." "Next Target" "The T'ikor hasn't launched many of its ships, but it's flanked by 4 Sunflashes." "Designate as FATAL target. 4 Vagrants. Load all interceptors with 6 Vagrants and 4 Questors. Let the PTA choose it's own targets, attack the T'ikor with IOD. Ready Shuttles 3 & 4" "Shuttles?" "They're going to go and pick up those two leeches we wasted." "T'ikor is jumping to the Tramis jumpgate" "Jump there ahead of them." The distance to target reading slowed its increase, then reduced at increasing speed then started to increase again as the Svoboda's more efficient hyperdrive enabled it to reach it's destination a good five seconds before it's adversary. "Arc round to get a good run at them." The Svoboda engaged afterburners and swept round in a large circle before lining up with the middle of the five jump anomalies just before the T'ikor appeared out of it. The FATAL system launched its minions almost immediately and they swept forward, leaving a pretty trail behind them that glistened in the starlight (and the laser fire). "Weapons on! Fire! Launch Interceptors and shuttles!" The Svoboda's Ion Disruptor Array fired again and again, it's glowing spheres of energy overtaking the Vagrants on the way to the T'ikor, arriving just in time to weaken it's shields enough for the Vagrants to punch through in three different places, doing massively greater damage than its armor could hope to protect it from, and it erupted in a great ball of plasma and debris, taking out a couple of the Sunflashes around it and weakening the others' shields. The interceptors, in combination with the PTA made short work of the remaining Sunflashes, and the Shuttles went on their way to pick up their deadly cargo. "Incoming message from Commander Badgerius" "Fellow defenders, the Vesperons have sneaked past us and captured Aleri station. They have also placed a class 14 minefield aruond the jumpgate from Tramis to Centris. We will be falling back to Cronus, as we have sustained significant damage. Good luck, my brothers." "This is serious. How are our friends doing?" "The Shogun is having a bit of trouble with a couple of nightstars" Steve reported. That was an understatement. The Shogun appeared to be swarming with lightstars and stardrones, and it's shields were being steadily worn down. "Let's go give Jeehun a hand." war plus 1 day 8 hours 50 minutes[/rp] I've got University stuff happening now, so my posts won't be as regular (either that or not as long) as before, but I will try my utmost to not let this story fade. Maybe that's why people haven't been posting as much. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Come on everyone! Join the fun! This thread has so many possibilities for mayhem and multi-author type stuff. I'll be posting something soon, but I'd really like to know who's around first. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Cheers, Badgerius, the IBÔäó is my personal favourite. I've edited my last post to include an illustration of its effectiveness. Thanks for the email, and the comments about my site. I'll link it in. I think I put a couple of links in to pages I haven't written yet, like Velvet Strike chapter 5, to save me the bother of modifying them later. If there are any others, let me know by email. There's a bit more to my site than that (if you go up a directory you can find out about my dogs, if you want! ) I think its part of the webring now, eh, Alun? I haven't heard back from you on that one. Heads up, gents! Here's where we need you to all get stuck in. This is the response that Badgerius gave me. [rp]The Group Commander bowed his head in submission. "Let me communicate with Ti'Donk, my second in command." "Which Vessel?" "The P'ilek" "Hail them." When the Vesperon's face appeared, he appeared surprised. "Group Leader! Where are you? We're not reading a ship at the source of transmission. Why are you not on the flagship?" A'Shar smiled sadly. "I have been captured. The terrans have disabled several of our carriers. The odds of our success are dimished." Ti'Donk's face was that of cold rage. "What are your orders, Group Leader?" A'Shar looked solemn. "First disable the minefield to Empirian space." "It is done, Group Leader." A cold smile formed in A'Shar's face. The expression was that of a tiger who has been captured by its prey. "Attack plan B. Much Success." Like a school of piranhas, the Vesperon fleet moved as a single entity towards the wormhole, leaving the disabled ships in it's wake. "End transmission! After them! Briggs! have you got 5 targets?" "I've got 5, but one of them won't be as easy as the rest of them." "We don't have time to be picky. The velvet gloves are off. Lethal Strike." In the Svoboda's transporter room, the kappa team plus the backups had been hurriedly rearming. Sidearms down, rifles up. Launcher grenades set to alternate 10 second delay and proximity perscan fuses. "This is your choice, Group Commander. This is on your head. Why?" "Because we have been held back by your pathetic civilisations for too long. We are the superior race, and we will crush you." This he said with total conviction, echoing the manifesto that had guided so many "invincible" civilisations and empires to their destruction. "We'll see. Go." The pairs were beamed to their 5 target destinations ready for their deadly task. "Can we lock our IFF device to only scramble the Galcom signal independent of other IFF's?" "I think so- yep." "Do it. Right, set our mines to activate 5 seconds after launch, and get ready to launch a deceleration spread at the wormhole, then move away quickly." "OK, ready. Wait a minute. Mines? With all those ships their PTA's will rip them to shreds in- oh, I get it!" "Wait 'til our guys are all back." On deck 3 of five different nightstars, a pair of marines appeared out of glowing blue spheres within line of sight to the reactor cooling system. 4 pairs were unopposed, launched 6 grenades each at the cooling system as fast as they could, then activated their recall transponders before the first delayed-action grenades went off. In using a mixture of delayed action and proximity perscan fuses, they would prevent someone near the cooling system from just batting the grenades away from it, and would make repairs to the cooling system very difficult and dangerous later on if the damage to the cooling system didn't destroy the ship. On the P'ilek, however, things did not go so well. Since the short burst access to Perscan, a marine had patrolled to somewhere reasonably close and with a direct line of sight to the beam-in point, which gave him just under a 2 second headstart on Stuart Drelson and Joost van Weig, and mowed them down with a rapid fire burst from behind, slicing through them at knee level, the line of fire rising up Stuart's back at the end, the last energy blast shredding the left side of his neck. In complete agony, Joost aimed his rifle blindly behind him and fired off two grenades, so that at least one of them would be a proximity fuse. They bounced along the corridor towards their attacker before the proximity grenade burst, removing the current threat. In a huge effort of will power, Joost brought his rifle back round to aim at the cooling system, and fired off four grenades before dropping his rifle, reaching over to Stuart and activating both their medical evac transponders. On the five targetted Nightstars, the grenades went off, causing heavy damage to their reactor cooling systems. In four of them, the damage was irrepairable, and in three of those, the force of the explosions was partly channeled into the reactor core itself, causing it to breach in a spectacular show of light, force and debris. Three Sunflashes and an MRT-15 between the H'itel and G'ur├ík suffered the same fate- their sheilds were taken down to zero by the shockwave from the H'itel, and their hulls were torn open by a combination of the shockwave from the G'ur├ík and pieces of the hulls of both ships. A couple more Sunflashes and another MRT-15 were lost by being thrown into each other and colliding a number of times since they were all trying to cram into the wormhole. The P'ilek survived the ordeal, but it's cooling system was badly damaged and it's capacity to fight severely reduced, but it headed on to the wormhole partly out of pride to be taking the fight to the terrans, partly out of fear of what would happen to them if they hung around any longer. "All personnell retrieved, but one marine killed and one with 18% LF." "Launch mines!" Ben said vengefully. The Svoboda headed for the wormhole at high speed, then started to slow steadily, but quickly, launching mines at half second intervals, so they would be far enough apart to avoid setting each other off and would also arrive at the wormhole at different times. "Let's hope they're more concerned with their invasion than with dealing with us." commented Simon. "We've lost cloak!" "Get us out of here!" "Afterburners on!" The Svoboda turned sharply as it accelerated and its cloaking field restabilised. Since their IFF was still vesperon, and they weren't actually targetting anyone with guns or missiles, they were ignored by the threat-detecting algorythms. A few ships turned to fire at them, but then quickly returned to their original course. Meanwhile the mines caused a frenzy of PTA fire. The problem with the PTA system is it doesn't bother to check whether there is anything in between the turret it is controlling and the target it is firing at also, mines are treated at the very highest priority. As a result, even though the crabs themselves only got off a couple of shots each before being destroyed, and the leeches were destroyed long before reaching any ships, most of the ships on the mines' side of the fleet were raked with PTA fire, finishing off another five Sunflashes, two MRT-15's and a Nightstar. "OK, make a priority one long-range transmission to Commander Ristar." "Commander, I hope this arrives in time to be of help. We have taken out a large number of vessels, but a large number remain and are heading for you. 7 Nighstars, 35 Sunflashes and 25 MRT-15 troop transports. The P'ilek is in command, but its reactor is damaged. I will be following them in to assist you." "Message sent." "Sir, the transporters are heating up very quickly now, faster than I predicted. We've only got a couple more minutes out of them." "Shut them down, Paul, and deactivate the IFF device. It looks like we're going to have to fight the old-fashioned way from now on. Doug, I want every able marine on patrol duty, except for 5 in the brig and 5 in the brig expansion. Simon, aim to take us through the wormhole ten seconds after the last ship. We don't want to get caught in the destruction caused by our minefield on the other side." 'If there is one,' thought Ben as the Svoboda banked round to the wormhole entrance.[/rp] Whoo! That turned out longer than I thought it would These threads have been pretty quiet the last few days. Probably everyone playing RC9 instead. Don't blame you. Of course, you realise that everything I've done in my last few posts is classified and none of you know what happened. So don't tell anyone, all right? . Oh, Badgerius, I hope I haven't messed up your next post with this. I would be a tad embarrassed ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins) [This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 10-14-1999).]

[rp]Chief Medical Officers' Log mission plus 21 days 13 hours 42 minutes Allen is coming along very well. He stabilised a guy who had a very tricky injury. He was shot at close range with a rifle on ful power, but luckily it only made a hole in him through the right hand side of his ribcage, tearing a lung, but mostly just damaging muscle. Normally a rifle blast would seal off the blood vessels it breaks, but in this case the edge of the hole was very close to the long thoracic vein, and part of its wall was burnt and weakened and subsequently broke off when he fell. He was initally convulsing as a reaction to the blood filling his right lung. The other blast which shattered part of his shoulder blade and collar bone was not so serious, but a lot more painful. Jayce correctly identified the most threatening injury and administered effective first aid, making the subsequent medical team's job much easier. The guy will live, and is well on the way to a full recovery. I'm certain that I have enough to satisfy the review board now. Maybe they will listen to me a bit earlier next time I speak up for someone. Beaurocrats. Well, they were doing their job and I was doing mine, and to their credit, they listened, and everything is turning out pretty well. Pretty soon I'll tell him the second part of my argument with the review board, and get him to start teaching the other medics the useful stuff he learned at the marine corps. Everything on the ship isn't turning out too well right now, though. The atmosphere is pretty tense, and I've had a number of people in here from minor scuffles among the crew. I've even heard rumours that Neena wants me to examine Commander Stone for mental illness, but I don't want to get involved in that sort of ship's politics. Commander Stone certainly seems to be under a great deal of stress and have a great weight on his mind, but he seems to be coping well and shows no major signs of mental instability. I have no medical reason to relieve him of duty. Someone had better find a way to relieve some of this tension soon, or we'll whittle down the crew too much to be able to do whatever it is we're supposed to be doing. End Log [/rp] ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

[rp] The explosions that decimated the G'olúl's computer systems and transporter were so aligned as to be undetectable from the outside. Not even an external light flickered. Back in their quarters, Briggs and Elworthy were trying not to laugh their heads off. "That should stop them figuring out what's happening for a while, bwarrgh!!" "Briggs, get into their perscan; Elworthy, get the original ventriloquist simulation back up." "Right, ermm- done; Their tactical officer is in the officer's quarters, and there are a couple more marines on patrol than before, one near the bridge and another near the computers on deck 2, but otherwise no major problems." "OK, open a channel, Karen." "Got them." "Greetings, Group Leader B'Hoth. We shall have to take the same precautions as before." "Understood, L'utríel. When you're ready." "OK, Joost, you're going after the tactical officer." "He's in the officer's quarters cabin #3," added Briggs. Ben continued, "Matti, you'll have to be beamed in after Joost on your own, and probably need to deal with the patrolling marine. You take a backup marine with you." They both nodded, and Matti chose his new partner. "Henry and Jason, you OK for the same again?" "Yeah, you don't get tired running in these combat suits. They do nearly all the work for you." "OK, go." ----------------------------- war plus 1 day 8 hours 7 minutes fore corridor of Deck 2, Nightstar Carrier K'udál Matti Eriksen and Jacob Kiptano appeared before the Computers and made a strange pair. The kenyan at 7'3" was by far the tallest crewmember, while Matti at 5'6" was one of the smallest. Despite this, they had always been good friends and worked well together. Matti was just fitting the cover, when the marine they'd been warned about came round the corner. Jacob hit him with a couple of transponder bullets, but inbetween being hit by the bullets and being beamed off the ship, he managed to get off a short burst from his rifle, hitting Matti just above the hip and getting through the armour of his combat suit. He gave a small cry of pain, then fell on his back and activated his medical emergency transponder (it was on the other end of the recall transponder). He was then beamed directly to the Svoboda's Medibay, where he was seen to immediately. The others set about their tasks, and performed them well, taking a couple more prisoners this time. The element of surprise was still very much on their side. ------------------- war plus 1 day 8 hours 7 minutes 30 seconds The weapons discharge set off an alarm in operations. Running past, Jason and Henry overheard this conversation: *Crash* *Thud* *Crash* *Thud* "K'itrak!" (Snake intestines!) "H'otrit G'ajekeb!" (Ground-throwing systems engineer!) "Urrgh! Urrgh!" (Urrgh! Urrgh!) *Clang* *Clang* *Crash* *Thud* "To'truged F'uploki B'itrúblek Ghí!" (Open, you dog's stomach acid door!) It loses something in the translation ----------------- war plus 1 day 8 hours 8 minutes "I'm Okay," Matti flapped, "just a minor wound. Dang fool me tried to dive out of the way, jumped straight into a wall and went nowhere." Ben was alerted to the medical extraction. "What's happened, Linda?" "It's Matti. He got hit but it's minor. The combat suit took most of the blast. We should have him patched up in a couple of minutes, but he'll probably need another combat suit." "Thanks, Linda. David, have you any candidates for our next hit?" "Plenty. I've got into eight different perscans. The K'epík looks particularly sleepy. Mind you, so do quite a few others." "Right. The K'epík it'll be, then. How many prisoners do we have, Doug?" "Eighteen, Ben." "That's too many for just two ships, but at least they're totally out of commission, they're the two command ships and we haven't raised the alarm yet. Now we try to do the same to as many nightstars as we can. OK, next target is the K'epík, I'm told the chief engineer and a couple of bridge crew are in their quarters, which should make things simpler. Start using the Mark I B's for the less important doorways, like operations and troop quarters, and try to avoid confrontations- we haven't got limitless space for prisoners." They got on, going more for speed than artistic impression, (ie not bothering with leaving blockades outside the target rooms etc.), with Doug doing a fine job in welcoming their new guests to the wonders of the Svoboda's brig. "Good evening! Please drop your weapons to the floor and move back." Due to his imposing frame, he was pretty persuasive on his own, but with a large squad of marines with laser rifles all aimed at their heads as well, few chose to disagree with him. A couple of not-so-bright marines lifted their guns towards the squad only to be cut down pretty visciously. One was instantly killed, another lost an arm, but was beamed to the medibay in time to be stabilised. war plus 1 day 8 hours 13 minutes 30 seconds. classified tactical report. Ships disabled G'olúl, K'udál, K'epík, T'ítor, R'inal, H'úrk; all comms computers, weapons computers, main computers and transporters at least 90% damaged, bridge isolated, engineering isolated and power shut down to defensive and comms systems. Prisoners Taken: both Group Leaders, 4 Commanders, 6 Tactical Officers, 5 Comms Officers, 4 Navigation Officers, 5 Chief Engineers, 8 Marines (1 killed, 1 seriously wounded in Medibay) Total in brig: 31. 30 of these currently being escorted to Brig expansion in Personnel Quarters 1 Stores: 530 bullets, 28 launcher attachments (plus 2 damaged) 15 Mark I's, 30 Mark I B's, 5 Mark II's, 15 Mark II B's, 20 armoured covers (apart from ones on Mark II's). Casualties: Matti Eriksen- recovered Jacob Kiptano- in Medibay LF=78% FF=16% Graham Trein - in Medibay LF=86% FF=7% cover story still intact. end report war plus 1 day 8 hours 20 minutes0 They had used up half the time they expected to get out of the transporters. Paul had taken a couple of units off the power to the engines as a precaution, otherwise they were getting within 10 units of their total reactor output at peak demand. This was slightly better than Paul had anticipated, but as the transporter power grid heated up, the rate of decrease in efficiency would get faster and faster until they would be forced to shut it down. They had only a couple of spaces left in the brig, and had taken out eleven Nightstars without blowing their cover, and with only the loss of two enemy marines, and injuring two others, who were recovering in the Medibay, along with 3 members of kappa team. Ben decided it was time to have a talk with S'Lin A'Shar. "Group Leader A'Shar, we have disabled a large proportion of your carriers, and have made every effort to avoid loss of life. Those ships are utterly defenseless and would be destroyed in a space battle. If we had wanted to, we could have destroyed those ships or at least killed a great many of your crew, and we still could if we wanted to. We don't want to do that. We are your allies! There is no need for this war. You are only making us both more vulnerable to our mutual enemies. I assure you that this fleet is nowhere near strong enough to defeat Galcom. It will be wiped out. By sending it in, you will be condemning all your crews and troops to death. If you were to tell them to turn back, then a great disaster could be avoided, but if you don't, then I assure you that we will start destroying your ships and the blood of their crewmembers will be on your head, Group Leader, yours. I am giving you a choice right now between peace and war, between life and death. Choose life, I implore you."[/rp] I will let you decide, Badgerius, how he reacts and what he says to his fleet. The URL for Eternal Diligence (not completely up to date) is http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda/Eternal.htm If you don't like what I've done then say so and I'll take it off again. Currently, you can't get to it from any link in my website. Oh, and apologies to any genuine czechs (or vesperons) for any mistakes I've made in their languages. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins) [This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 09-09-99).]

Sorry this is so late. I didn't know how busy Saturday would be, and I had lots to do today, then my dad had to use the computer when I finally got some free time, and rant, rant etc. Here we go with the big one:- [rp]"We're off," Jon told the transporter operators, "you know the drill. Beam the brig targets in pairs to start with, to make sure there's a free pair of pads as much as possible, but if in doubt, beam them over. Everyone remember to close to within 40 metres before firing. Go." The members of kappa team made a strange sight, in their nondescript combat suits with reflective visors, some with big titanium plates strapped on their backs, some also carrying them in their hands. Others with a sidearm in both hands, like robotic versions of the outlaws depicted in many a twenty-second century holovid, seemingly missing only the stetson to complete the image. As the ten jump anomalies were forming, and the five pairs of marines were dispatched to their different locations, the available power indicator dropped to just above 5 units before rising back to 35 when the transport was complete. Ben noticed that the ship's lights dimmed slightly. "Hey, is our solar reactor aligned?" "Whoops, sorry. Pitching to align solar panels with Tau Ceti." "No, forget that. This is going to be too much hassle later on. Paul, shut off the solar reactor." "But the transporters are going to get less efficient as they heat up." "Then reduce the power use of the engines as required, and after that the shields, but don't take the shields below 3. After that, maybe navigation, as a last resort. How much more equipment can you make in the next 20 minutes? I mean, that's the most time we can reasonably expect to get." "Well, I've only got 10 systems engineers free, and they're spread across all the different pieces of equipment. Three, maybe four more launchers, another 5 cartridges of transponder bullets, 5 more mark I's, 3 more mark II's, maybe 10-15 more Mark II's to Mark II B's." "How much have we got of each?" "40 launchers, 650 bullets, 30 Mark I's, 30 Mark II's and 40 Mark II B's" "That's enough launchers and bullets. Focus on producing more Mark I's, then convert them to Mark I B's first, since that's quick, then convert them to Mark II B's. I'll send Nicola and the flight engineers down to help you. They'll be able to speed up the more menial tasks, so you can concentrate on those shield generators. Work as fast as you can." "Don't rush me! They might not work if I don't do it right." "I don't have time to argue with you now. They don't have to be perfect. Mr Elworthy, how convincing can your next message be?" "Very, if we turn everything up to optimum. It won't be synchronised, though; it'll take about 10-15 seconds to create." "That's fine, here's what I want him to say..." ---------------------------------- war plus 1 day 8 hours 5 minutes 30 seconds fore corridor of deck 1, Nightstar Carrier G'ol├║l. Two glowing spheres appeared out of nothing between the two entrances to the bridge, and Jan Beranek and Mirek Novotny came out of them, both with instant blockade mark II B's on their backs. They walked to the doors, then took off their blockades, leaning them against the corridor walls. They then drew their sidearms, nodded to each other and entered the bridge. -------------------------- war plus 1 day 8 hours 5 minutes 30 seconds mid corridor of deck 1, Nightstar carrier G'ol├║l Henry and Jason Shaw appeared just outside Operations. Jason had both his sidearms drawn, had a cylindrical bag over his shoulder, and looked up and down the corridor. Henry was carrying one instant blockade mark IIB on his back and one in his hands, which he slammed over the entrance to operations, chuckling to himself as he activated it's shield generator and closed the cover, remembering the holovid presentation Simon Richardson had made for them, introducing them to this wonderful device... "Enemy marines getting you down? Turning up in the most awkward places? Just when your infiltration was going so well?" (picture of Galcom commander sitting in his command chair nodding sadly, then looking up in glad surprise)"Well, don't worry, for just 9999 Galcreds you can get the 'Instant Blockade!Ôäó' (picture of doorway shaped titanium plate with suction seal along three sides of one face and small handles on the other, on a slowly rotating platform in front of a sparkly background) "Made from top quality titanium and guaranteed to withstand at least 3 minutes of constant laser fire, the Instant Blockade!Ôäó can be fitted easily by just one marine. It's easy! Just slam it over the doorway of your choice, and the suction seals will hold it in place until the OmnigluÔäó in the bottom of the seal sets. Yes, that's right, OmnigluÔäó- the miracle adhesive that sets as strong as titanium in just 5 seconds! So within 5 seconds of installation no-one's getting through there in a hurry!" "The Instant Blockade!Ôäó comes in a variety of shapes and sizes to fit every kind of doorway you can come across, double doors, standard doors, even hatches and airlocks!" "Don't delay! With every 10 purchases you get a free Space Marine action figure (while stocks last!)" "Instant Blockade! is a product of Paul Rand Prototype Projects Incorporated." That was the mark I. the Mark II had an inbuilt shield generator with an armoured cover piece to glue over it in a similar way after you switched it on. (it activated about 5 seconds after you switched it on), and the B corresponded to two extra blocks of titanium which stuck out from the main plate and had suction seals and omniglu on the ends, which stuck to the two halves of the door and prevented it from opening. (The shield generated also protected the door.) ... "no-one's getting through there in a hurry! huhuh!" the two of them then proceded round to the transporter room, Jason taking the instant blockade off Henry's back on the way, Henry drawing his sidearms. --------------------------- war plus 1 day 8 hours 5 minutes 30 seconds. aft corridor of deck 1, Nightstar carrier G'ol├║l Fred Hurgis and Graham Trein appeared outside the troop quarters, Fred with a blockade on his back and Graham with one on his back and one in his hands, which he slammed over the doorway to Troop quarters 1, before they moved on to Troop quarters 2 and personnel quarters 2, where the off-duty engineers were. ------------------------------------------------- war plus 1 day 8 hours 5 minutes 30 seconds fore corridor of deck 2, Nightstar Carrier G'ol├║l Matti Eriksen and Joost van Weig appeared just beside the weapons, tactical and logistix computers. Neither had a blockade, but Matti had a cylindrical bag just like Jason. Out of it Matti took a couple of grenades and an armoured cover just like from one of the mark II's. They checked around, then Matti primed the grenades (which had ninety second fuses), placed them in the cover, then fixed the cover to the side of the G'ol├║l's weapons computer, in a place that wasn't easy to spot. They then activated their return transponders and were beamed back to the Svoboda's transporter room. ------------------------------- war plus 1 day 8 hours 5 minutes 30 seconds mid corridor of deck 3, Nightstar Carrier G'ol├║l Jon Tulloch and Paul Yester appeared just outside the engineering section, Jon with a blockade IIB on his back and sidearms drawn, and Paul with a larger version of the mark IIB on his back and a smaller version of the mark II in his hands, but with the shield generator on the same side as the seal. They entered the main hatch, being well-practised at moving through doorways quickly and easily with blockades on their backs. Jon raised his sidearm and fired, the laser energy being absorbed and converted by the launcher attachment which catapulted out a relatively low-velocity projectile. This bullet hit the chief engineer on the chest exactly where the trajectory-predicting laser sight had indicated and stuck there, held to his uniform by its soft glue tip. The tiny perscan circuit inside detected that the bullet was now connected to a person and activated it's transporter beacon. He had expected to be thrown back by the force of the blast, but just had enough time to look puzzled before he was beamed directly into the Svoboda's brig, where 13 marines, plus Doug McIlroy were waiting for them. Jon waved his sidearms, shouting, "Drop everything and get out of here! Go! Go!" and ushered them all out of the second exit, as Paul closed the main hatch, lined up the edge of his larger blockade against its doorway, flexed his knees, then pushed back to slam it into place. "Next time, you do the main hatch." "Why do you think I wanted to be leader?" smiled Jon as he put his blockade in place. "Right, let's shut this baby down." "OK, shutting down power to launch control, weapons systems, IOD, turrets and comms." "OK, last blockade, then we can get out of here!" Paul switched on the shield generator and anti-tampering device of his smaller blockade and fixed it over the power control panel. Clearly written in Large letters in the Vesperon Language were the words 'WARNING. This panel has been booby-trapped. Any tampering with this panel will set off an explosive charge beneath it.' "That ought to discourage them for a while." Jon and Paul activated their return transponders and were beamed back to the Svoboda's transporter room. ------------------------------------------- war plus 1 day 8 hours 5 minutes 50 seconds Bridge of Nightstar Carrier G'ol├║l Jan and Mirek went through the doors at the same time, looked around the bridge and saluted the commander with sidearms in hand. But instead of lowering their hands, they aimed and fired at different bridge officers using both sidearms, and hit everyone with a transponder bullet within a couple of seconds. A few "what the?"'s (or however far they got) later, they were all in the Svoboda's brig. A few bullets missed their intended target, and hit chairs or walls or floor, and the perscan circuit in these bullets detected that they were attached to something that wasn't a person, and they activated the small incendiary device in the bullet, which melted all the electronics inside along with the casing, preventing any important secrets being learned from the strays. When the bridge was cleared, they went back out the doors to pick up their blockades. When Mirek's doors opened, he saw a Vesperon Marine on patrol, looking puzzledly at the blockade. Mirek saluted him with the sidearm in his right hand (he had put the one in his left back in its holster) and then indicated the blockade with his left. The marine looked closer, fascinated, and Mirek Shot him in the leg with a transponder bullet. He looked down to see what had happened, just before he was beamed away. Jan and Mirek then reentered the bridge, shut the doors and fitted their blockades, just before the comms computer blew. They switched the weapons and PTA off, then Jan turned to Mirek, lifted his visor and happily said, "Pocinal jsi si dobre. Vitej v skupine!"(You did your job well. Welcome to the team!)and they did a high five, before activating their return transponders. ------------------------------------------- war plus 1 day 8 hours 6 minutes mid corridor of deck 1, outside transporter room of Nightstar Carrier G'ol├║l Henry opened the door of the transporter room, shot the single operator inside with a transponder bullet, then reached into Jason's bag for some long-delay grenades. He took out four 60-second delay grenades, threw two onto the transporter pads, and two under the control console, then Jason slammed on the blockade and Henry took Jason's bag and hurried off as Jason switched on the shield generator and attached the cover. Henry took out two 20-second delay grenades and an armoured cover, armed the grenades and fitted the cover just as his brother overtook him and took the bag. Henry drew his sidearms and followed at a comfortable run. They weren't in serious danger of being caught, since all but a single marine was left on this deck of the ship who wasn't stuck behind a blockade, and the few free systems engineers were going to find it pretty tough to free them without access to engineering or the supervision of their chief engineer. They both arrived at the main computer about tan seconds after the comms computer blew, and attached a couple of twenty-second delay grenades to the main computer before activating their recall transponders. ------------------------------------ war plus 1 day 8 hours 6 minutes 20 seconds The comms traffic from the G'ol├║l suddenly stopped, then S'Lin A'Shar appeared on the main comms screen of each and every Vesperon vessel in the fleet, and said, "Maintain position and maintain complete radio silence until further notice. That is an order. Group Leader B'Hor L'Hith, P'r├║l F'en will advise you of the situation." It was an unusual order, but fitted the circumstances. Something seriously bad had happened. Maybe they were all being watched? [/rp] sorry, lads, but I'm going to have to stop it there for the night. I'm getting very tired, and I didn't realise how long this would have to be. I'll finish the second part of this post tomorrow, I hope. I hope you think it was worth all the hype I gave it. Badgerius, I'm planning on putting the whole of Eternal diligence in the Library of my ship's website, if you don't mind. I'll give you your due credit for it, but I want to put it in, because my ship's part in it flows so well from my first story. I'll probably have a URL for you to look at tomorrow if you want. (I've done some nice logos for it, but haven't uploaded them yet.) ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)