Ben Zwycky

I thought Lynx had some good points. Also, if the ship was destroyed and all hands lost, and the only bit of evidence to say what really happened Andergum found, how was Galcom supposed to know what really happened? They assumed, that the ships had been attacked unprovoked by the Gammulans, which was a reasonable assumption, but wrong, as it turned out. Hardly anything malevolently evil about that. Lynx may have been a bit harsh in his wording, but he had some good points. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Are you all on the edge of your seats, yet? Has anyone heard from Sebastian (Vauban) recently? I hope he's OK, wherever he is and whatever he's doing. I miss him. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Sure, Alun, but you'd better be quick about it, or do one of those spread-across-multiple-time-index-posts (SAMTIP- sounds a bit like a warhead or something, don't you think? ). BTW, Ristar, you (or I) should probably have told everyone in Treas not to wait 5 minutes for me and prepare the defences when we decided I was going in. On we go; [rp]Three, two... Ben winced as they entered the swirling vortex. Flash. Nothing. No explosions, no laser fire. "All stop. Where are the mines?" "There are about 30-40 leeches all around us, intermingled with about the same number of crabs, but they're ignoring us." A leech mine drifted gently across the bridgeviewer, about 50 metres in front of the Svoboda's nose. "Hoohohohoow," Ben half-sighed, half-laughed in relief, then gathered himself. "Right, let's get to it. What have we got?" "Well, ermm, there are 23 Nightstars, 45 Sunflashes, and 29 MRT-15 Troop Carriers. Whoa." reported Steve Culper. "We're being hailed by a Sunflash on patrol near the jumpgate,"reported Karen, "can they see us?" "No they can't. They could see the flash of something coming through the wormhole, and now they can't see anything, so they've assumed, correctly, that it was a cloaked vessel of some kind. Mr Elworthy, is the ventriloquist ready?" "Yes, sir! On-line." The holographic image generated from the comm logs of the dead vesperon commander stirred into life on Chris Elworthy's data screen, ready to be synchronised to the words Commander Zwycky spoke, after it translated them into the official Vesperon Military language and transmitted them in a near perfect simulation of the dead man's voice. This process introduced an overall delay of slightly less than a tenth of a second, which was hardly noticeable, unless you were really looking for it. Some interference was added to both the image and the voice signal, and the signal itself was deliberately weakened to mask any minor faults there might be, but mostly to augment their cover story. "Let's hear the hail, then." "Cloaked vessel. This is the K'Pórl. Please identify yourself." "This is P'rúl F'en of the L'utríel. We have highly important tactical information. Who is in command here?" "The L'utríel? We had reports that you were destroyed." "We got into a battle and our comms system was heavily damaged. As a result, we have been unable to make long-distance transmissions." The commander seemed to pause for a few seconds, as if verifying their story. "This is where we see how good Jade Dragon's info was," commented Chris. "Acknowledged, L'utríel. Group Leader S'Lin A'Shar is in the Nightstar nearest to Tulon Station, and Group Leader B'Hor L'Hith is in the Nightstar 500 km from the planet. You probably want to see S'Lin A'Shar." "Thank you, K'Pórl. Your assistance has been noted in your record." "That should make them feel good about themselves for a while." In the Vesperon military structure, a good word from the commander of an intelligence vessel was very helpful to your career prospects, and a bad one was not to be desired. "Have you got those two ships locked in?" "Yes, sir, assigned as priority targets. "Right, head for S'Lin A'Shar's ship. Let's meet the boss." "Hyperdrive activated." The spherical jump anomaly formed in front of them just before they were catapulted into it. Ben watched the hyperdrive charge indicator drop slowly as the stars seemed to rush by. "Emerging from hyperspace." On the bridgeviewer the planet Arima, a battle-scarred Tulon station and a mighty flotilla of Vesperon capital ships exploded out from a point in the distance at seemingly impossible speed, before halting abruptly in their actual positions. This phemonemon never ceased to strike him, even now. "Mr Elworthy, have you got into their perscan?" "Yep, it's a surprisingly low-priority system on most ships but we're just going in for short bursts to minimise the risk of detection. We've got a couple of marines patrolling on each deck, and one near their bridge, but the vast majority are either in their quarters or in operations. All other target systems are clear." "Excellent. OK, everybody, it's a Nightstar, so you know what to do. Jon, just get the chief engineer, then clear everyone out of engineering before you shut it down. We may have to do this lots of times." The members of kappa team acknowledged their orders. Jon Tulloch went through the final checklist. "Blockades!" "Check!" "Launchers!" "Check!" "Low power setting!" "Check!" "Vesperon IFF's!" "Check!" "Extraction transponders!" "Check!" "We're ready here, sir." "Activate the ventriloquist, and record his transmissions. Hail them." "This is Group Leader S'Lin A'Shar of the G'olúl. Who is this?" "This is P'rúl F'en of the L'utríel, Group Leader. Reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated, but because of damage to our comms system, we have been unable to transmit securely or over long-distances." "I am glad to hear of the resilience of our vessels and crew." He readily accepted their story, partly out of fear of the intelligence arm of the Vesperon Military, and partly due to his pride and conviction that his race was superior to all others. "We have important tactical information. Can we beam aboard your vessel?" "Certainly. We would welcome the visit of returning heroes." "Because of the extreme sensitivity of this information, we will be beaming and advance guard over to ensure nothing happens to it." His manner changed. These sorts of measures were only taken when the information to be transfered would have a major impact on the course of a conflict, or on the chain of command should it get out. Because this conversation had been taking place on an open channel, all the ships in the Vesperon fleet could overhear it. They all made the same conclusion. Something big was up. Something bad. "Of course. We shall expect you shortly." The channel was closed. "Mr Elworthy, was that enough?" "Yes, sir! More than enough." "Jon, you are go for Velvet Shutdown." S'Lin A'Shar was about to get the shock of his life. War plus 1 day 8 hours 5 minutes [/rp] Also BTW Ristar, could you edit your post and take out some of the asterisks in the line above war plus 1 day 4 hours, please? it's messing up the page format a bit. Sorry to be picky. ------------------ 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 09-01-99).]

Sorry this is late. You guys move so fast! [rp] Mission plus 20 days 21 hours 10 Minutes Autopsy Report Subject: Angela DeGuerre Systems Engineer Class 2 Approximate time of death: mission plus 20 days 18 hours 10 minutes The subject had multiple internal injuries, broken ribs, internal haemorraging, fractured skull and a broken neck. However, the victim showed very few signs of having put up a struggle, no tissue under the fingernails, tears in her clothing or signs of overexertion or wounds on her arms, which seemed very unlikely given the severity of the beating she was given, so after performing several non-standard tests, which is why this report is late, it was found that she had a remarkably high level of natural human endorfins in her body. These levels were high enough to induce a paralysingly strong sensation of pleasure. A concentration of endorfins were found in the tissue surrounding the external carotid artery just below the jawbone, indicating a hypospray of human endorfins, which would have gone straight to her brain. This is a lot less obvious than a needlemark, and doesn't require as much accuracy on the part of the attacker, and high levels of endorfins would have been missed under a normal autopsy. Judging from these facts, and from the blood spatter analysis, I was able to reconstruct the events, approximately; Miss DeGuerre was standing (or possibly bending over) looking at the engine of IC-3, when her attacker sneaked up behind her, probably placed one hand on her forehead to pull her head back, then delivered the hypospray with the other, inducing an almost instantaneous ecstatic condition, in which she was unable to defend herself or feel any pain as he grabbed the back of her neck then repeatedly smashed her head into the rim of the exhaust port, first breaking her neck at the fifth vertebra, then moving his grip up to the back of her head and continuing, fracturing her skull twice. Her attacker then let her fall to the floor, where he repeatedly kicked her in the stomach, chest and head, causing massive internal injuries, breaking 12 ribs, her nose, her left cheekbone and her jaw. She was instantly killed by the first injury. This guy was probably trying to make this look like a frenzied crime of passion. He is very well equipped, knew what he was doing, and is not to be confronted. End report. [/rp] I think that's enough for my Dr. Quincy moment. Sorry if I'm at all out of line with anything, there Blades. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Ristar, I already had the program to do the simulation, it was one of the 'little surprises' that Chris Elworthy picked up when I sent him back to his old friends in the hacker caste. I just needed the comms logs. Sorry if I wasn't very clear about that in my email and posts. Anyway, on with the show [rp] War plus 1 day 6 hours 23 min "Welcome aboard, Dr Yani. This is my chief engineer Paul Rand, and my Research Engineer Nicola Dreyfus, who I think you briefly met over the commlink. If you wouldn't mind, I would prefer you to start work as soon as possible. We don't know how much time we have." "That's understandable. As soon as you're ready." The three of them got to work, and Dr Yani explained the basic principles behind the device as they were installing it. Paul commented, "commander Zwycky was very interested in your device. He was wondering whether it could be reengineered to work on marines." "There are a number of factors that would make that very difficult." "Oh, I don't know," replied Nicola, "I can think of a few ways it can be effectively miniaturised. Your primary problem can't really be that no cooling systems can keep up with the heat produced, is it? It's only a selective scrambler, after all. It seems to me that the real problem would be that cooling systems are either not controllable enough, and may damage the equipment by cooling it too much, or they introduce too much physical noise and interfere with the operation of the system, because the circuitry is very sensitive, isn't it?" "Looks to me like you'd probably get a bit of static buildup as well there." added Paul. "We did, actually- that's what this line is for." "Sorry! Didn't spot that. Silly me." "I'm impressed, Nicola." "Well, we can either research into new cooling technologies, or try to come up with a more robust set of electronics without losing too much surface area to cool. I'd be happy to work on both of these areas with you. We might well run into other problems, but it'd be fun. I hardly get anything really exciting to do round here. I mean the only bit of research I got to do this last month was develop a couple of adhesives for the velvet strike equipment. That was fun, though, took me back to my first degree at university. Anyway, what do you say?" "I'd love to, if it's possible." "I think we'll find a way to work together somehow." "Err, ladies? I think this is going to take an awful lot of time, don't you? This is one thing we don't have right now. The device is fine for the purpose it was designed for. We don't need the IFF signal for more than an hour. Not really for much more than ten minutes if everything goes smoothly. The reason why Ben wanted it for the marines was because when they come back to the ship they're going to set off our automatic intruder alert. The solution to this is simple. We give our marines the Vesperon marine IFF code permanently, you gave us that along with the ship IFF, and we can do that in ten minutes, and then tell Perscan to ignore intruder alerts in the brig, the Medibay and the transporter room. Those places are going to be full of our guys and if there's a real intruder alert they can raise the alarm the old fashioned way- by reporting it." An engineer's solution. War plus 1 day 7 hours 45 minutes "Transmission from fleet commander Ristar." "Good, that was quick- let's hope it's good news." "Commander, you're in luck. The vesperon ship L'utríel was destroyed by us not 3 hours ago, and judging from the sudden drop in it's external comms traffic halfway through the battle, it's comms system was either destroyed or heavily damaged, meaning that the Vesperons probably don't know for certain what happened to them. We have some intercepted comms logs as requested, both in encrypted and decrypted forms. I hope that is satisafctory." "You have one highly satisfied customer, sir. I will be recommending the Order of Jade Dragon to my friends for all their intelligence needs. I believe that Dr Yani can return to you now, she has been very helpful and encouraging." "Thank you, commander." Ristar then turned to one side, "beam Dr Yani back." a few seconds later, "good." Turning his attention back to the comms channel, "Well, I think that's everything. Good luck, commander. Do us proud." "I will do my best. This one's for DeSylva." "Indeed. For Gareth." Ben made another general broadcast on the commanders-only secure channel "Defenders in Treas. Ignore my previous broadcast. Ready the defences for this region and engage any Vesperon forces at will. I am beaming over 15 leeches and 15 crabs to the Shogun; Use them wisely." War plus 1 day 7 hours 55 minutes "General crew alert! Prepare for Velvet Shutdown!" Two minutes later, they were ready. Kappa team was in the transporter room, together with all the Velvet strike equipment, a significant proportion of the ship's armoury and 10 systems engineers, 5 to handle the transporters and five to handle the Velvet strike equipment, and also there were 6 backup marines there. 13 Marines were in the brig, with rifles at the ready, 4 in the guest quarters, 5 standing guard in the medibay, and Briggs and Elworthy were at the system infiltration console, with an open communication channel to commander Zwycky. All weapons, launch control and chargers, and the tractor beam and cloning module were shut down, leaving more than enough power to do what they were going to do. "Why do we need the IFF signal? I mean, we're going to be cloaked, aren't we?" asked Karen. Chris Samson explained."Some mines, especially the most expensive ones have been known to burn through cloaking fields at very close range, especially if there's any tiny flaw in the cloaking device. We've checked and double checked every system, but it's better to be safe than sorry, and the IFF signal will be useful for the second part of the plan." She was much more than a good Navigation Officer, and would make commander someday, that was for sure. Maybe one of the things holding her back from that was her tendency to be massively overcritical of herself in the reports she filed. Ben was almost glad of that, because it stopped him losing a very valuable officer. "Let's go." They headed towards the entrance to the wormhole. Ben Zwycky thought to himself , 'those mines had better be programmed to not attack their own IFF's.' Five clicks, four...[/rp] Ooh! the tension ------------------ 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 08-31-99).] [This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 09-03-99).]

[rp] War plus 1 day 6 hours 10 minutes "Sir, we have an incoming message from fleet commander Ristar." "Put it on the secure channel." "Greetings, Commander Zwycky. I believe we have something that may help you. Dr Yani will soon be coming aboard your vessel with a device we have developed. It should give you a Vesperon IFF signal when the need arises." "Aha! That will be very useful indeed, sir. While we're on the subject, I think I may have something that may be able to complete the illusion. It's something one of my crew managed to obtain from the hacker caste." Ben then outlined one of Chris Elworthy's 'little surprises'. A program he called 'The Ventriloquist'. "You see what I mean, sir? Could you help us with the information we need?" "Yes indeed, commander. I'll see what I can do." "Thank you sir." Ben sat back in his command chair, and thought to himself, 'Well, this could be even sneakier than I thought!' [/rp] I think you know what I'm talking about, Jeehun. ------------------ 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 08-28-99).] [This message has been edited by Ben Zwycky (edited 08-29-99).]

It's me, Tac. Sorry I haven't posted here for a while. I've been working on my postings for Eternal Diligence, and I've had a couple of very busy days. Anyway, RP ON Chief Medical Officer Martin Summers' Personal Log Mission + 17 days 6 hours 40 minutes Just had a very good chat with Jayce Allen. He's a nice enough bloke, but he seemed really uneasy, maybe quite lonely or something. We got chatting about all sorts of things, and he got more and more relaxed, but also upset, then he really opened up and started telling me all sorts of things about his past and the deficiencies of his training. I seem to have that effect on a lot of people, maybe because I don't like to hide behind my rank, and I see people as people, however I come across them. This is quite a bonus in my profession. Natural bedside manner they called it on my psychological profile. Not that I pay much attention to them. Anyway, it seemed like this had been weighing on his mind for quite a long time. He was feeling really guilty about it, but I see it as something really positive, that he was able to admit to that. I've known a few doctors who had all the qualifications but didn't really know what they were doing, and tried to cover it up and get to the top by bossing people around and claiming responsibility for better doctor's work. Some of them even managed to do this successfully for quite a while, and put their patients at extreme risk. Others I know admitted their limitations, but got help and were able to become much better medics. Still others were able to combine their medical training with their other skills which they had been ashamed of for some reason. Their thoughts go along the lines 'I'm not as good as those blokes at this, so I'm useless.' Which is complete rubbish. Everyone has a different job to do, and a different space to fill. It would be a very boring world if everyone had to do the same job! This guy has got other skills. Good skills. He just hasn't had them recognised. Obviously I have to report his lack of training to the review board, but I'm damned if I'm not going to argue his case as well. I'll try to get this sorted as quickly as possible. I can't imagine how nervous he'll be until I can get this dealt with. Mission + 19 days 6 hours 42 minutes I finally managed to get the review board to convene. Talk about a sea of red tape! It went well, they accepted my arguments, because I don't ask them for many favours. They'll let me know within an hour. Mission + 19 days 8 hours 2 minutes They finally gave me their decision. I can keep him on, and they acknowledged that his marine training would make him useful as a field medic, but something needs to be done about his medical training. I put him on team 4. I'll have him on search duty with Hal Davison. He should be able to show him a thing or two, and take him under his wing. If I can get some spare time, I'll give him some tutoring. I'll have to get this to him as quick as I can. The suspense must be killing him! A lot of the guys on the ship seem to be going nuts over this new systems engineer. Hoffman or something. Sure, she's beautiful and probably very nice as well, but no-one could ever compare to my Lizzy back home. [/rp] What's comms officer Reynolds' first name? I can always correct it later. I've assumed its Jenny (and that its a she)[rp] Meanwhile, Jenny Reynolds has managed to get herself some food poisoning. Seems she sneaked some empirian chocolate into her quarters, but hasn't been storing it properly, and it's cultured some bacteria. I've warned her about this before, but she does love that chocolate. Just doing some tests; I hope that's all it is. Just before I'm going to get the results, I get called into a special meeting- officers only. Coming out, I just can't believe it- SC, dead. I had so much respect for that guy, everybody did, he built Galcom. He made it what it is today. Those Gams are going to pay for this. Sure, it's going to mean lots of casualties, lots of work for me and my gang. I love life, and I hate to see lives wasted, but there has to be justice for this- even if I have to fight them myself! [/rp] ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Report away, sir! Hope you like it Any intel and/or tactical suggestions would be greatly appreciated, sir! ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

I honestly had no idea that DeSylva was leaving when I wrote my last two posts. Here we go [rp] War minus 3 hours "Incoming secure message from Fleet Commander DeSylva" announced Karen Hilliard. Ben Zwycky went straight to his quarters and switched on his secure communications unit "Identifying...Identity confirmed. Commander Zwycky you have an incoming secure call from Fleet Commander DeSylva" The now famous features of Fleet Commander DeSylva materialised in front of him. "Greetings, Commander Zwycky." "Good Morning, sir. To what do I owe this honour?" "Commander, we have a situation. The Vesperons are massing a fleet in Arima, having just overwhelmed Tulon Station and captured the planet as well. It seems likely that they are going to invade Empirian space and probably then invade us as well, since their forces vastly outnumber those of the Empirians." "So Operation Peace Run did not achieve anything, then." Ben's thoughts began to turn to all that happened. 'All those lives wasted! And for what?' Commander DeSylva noticed the tone of his voice and the expression on his face. "Commander! That is in the past, and you can't do anything about it. The Svoboda performed admirably, and did what was required of her in extreme circumstances. She has a new task now. I am ordering you to the treas system to watch for any Vesperon ships breaking the mutual nonagression pact. You are authorised to implement Velvet Strike on any of those vessels. Maybe you will be able to convince them that we're not their enemy. I'm certain that even if you can't do that you'll be able to reduce their capacity to fight. You will make a big difference either way. Go out and give them something to remember me by." "You're leaving, sir?" asked Ben with genuine amazement and disappointment. "There will come a time, Commander, when you will realise that Galcom isn't all there is to life. There are some things which I've been trying to put off for a long time, and I realise that I can't do that anymore. I have to go and deal with them now, and then there are other things that I need to do and explore." "Will you be coming back, sir?" "I honestly don't know." "What's going to happen to us?" "Commander Ristar will take over as fleet commander. He is a fine officer, and worthy of the post. I know that you will all serve under him with the same honour that you have served under me. Go out there and do us proud." The image of Desylva quickly shrank to a point of light which then just as quickly grew into the Galcom logo, spinning slowly. Ben just sat there for a few seconds in total shock, before shaking himself out of it and getting on with the job in hand. He shut off the communications terminal then left for the bridge. "Recall the crew from ISS station as soon as possible. Let's load up on Iridium. We may need to be invisible for a long time. Put 500 units in the transporter room and Fill shuttles 1 & 2, and ATV's 1-3 and half-fill shuttle three. Use the rest of the space for Vagrants, Questors and perseuses. We might well need some extra hyperdynes and warriors, too, so 30 of each in shuttle 4. Fill weapon bay 1 with crabs and leeches except for 10 hyperdynes and 10 warriors. That should be enough mines. Let's launch as soon as we can, and the shuttles can catch us up if they can't fill up before us. Refill the iridium tanks from the transporter storage first. I want to clear that as soon as possible. Cloak as we reach the wormhole to Alpha Centauri. Launch a long-range probe before we cloak and send it to Treas. I want everyone on ultra tight rotaion. We'll need to be at our sharpest, people. Let's get to it." Ultra sharp rotation meant that as soon as any crewmember was above 10% fatigue factor, they were ordered to rest, so that when a general crew alert was sounded, everyone would be able to do their duty to the best of their ability. The shuttles filled and docked without problems, and only one of them had to fill again and was able to catch up to the Svoboda before she left Pluto. Her image shimmered and faded in front of the swirling vortex of wormhole 1, the ship's lights being the last to disappear, before her profile was only a memory to all observers. "Retrieving data" ------------------------------------------------ War minus 2 hours 25 minutes Treas. The memories of this place haunt all of us on this ship. Even the new guys are nervous because we are. It has seen many a battle over the years, and will do again. Hopefully we won't have so many casualties this time. Is that too much to ask? ----------------------------------------------- War plus 0 hours 1 minute So, it was official. It was war. Our mission was the same- to convince the Vesperons that we weren't their enemies or to severely disrupt their capability to invade us- but it would now be much easier to identify our enemy. "Listen up, crew. We are now authorised to implement Velvet Strike against any Vesperon ship. They have attacked a Galcom Vessel and we are at war. Continue with Ultra sharp rotation. You must stay properly rested, and near to your velvet strike posts." Ben then called up the commanders of the other Galcom defenders in the region, using the secure commanders only channel. "Greetings, Commanders, on this dark day. This is the GCV Svoboda, currently cloaked and aiming to stay that way. I am authorised to give you this message. We would greatly appreciate it if you could give us any information you obtain or have obtained about the Vesperon fleet that may be entering this system soon. We would especially appreciate a warning as to their imminent arrival, and information as to which ship seems to be coordinating their manouvers, but when the fleet arrives, please do not engage them. Fall back, mine the exits, but be ready to return here if called. Give us five minutes. We are going to do something that may well convince the Vesperons not to go through with this invasion. If it does not have this effect, then it will significantly weaken a number of their ships, and we will all fight with all our strength. If any of you can remain cloaked with us for long periods and can provide room for many prisoners, that will be appreciated. We have 37 leeches and 38 crabs on board should you want them." ----------------------------------------------- War plus 5 hours "Any unidentified contacts or minor anomalies in the region?" "No, sir." "How much cloak do we have left?" "Just under 4 hours, sir." "OK, send Shuttles 1 & 2 down to the planet to mine for iridium. Tell them to dump any minerals that aren't iridium and put all the iridium in a cargo pod that we can beam up from the surface every so often. Can we do that, Paul, without overheating the power grid?" "Yes, we can, as long as we're quick, and we rest it for twice at least twice as long as we use it." "OK, then. Shuttle 1 stay down on the planet and oversee the drones. Shuttle 2, come back as soon as you've deployed, but, both of you, if any invading ships turn up while you're deployed, head back to Sol and report. Let's get round the far side of the planet so as to be out of radar range from the wormhole while we do all these launches and retrievals" "Got it." As the shuttles were launched, the seemingly empty space around the Svoboda rippled like a village pond suddenly disturbed by a jumping fish, and the outline of the Svoboda became visible for a few seconds, until the cloaking field reestabilised. There was a similar effect when Shuttle 2 returned. They would be able to stay invisible for a very long time now.[/rp] So who else is in Treas, then? I hope you don't mind my broadcast. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Cheers muchly, Badgerius! I just need DeSylva to inform me about the situation and send me in to Treas as a precaution before the Vesperons invade, say at war minus 3 hours or something, and everything will be set. I don't like putting words in the mouth of other characters, but I will if need be. Maybe I gave too much away in my last post, but then again I don't think many people will have worked out exactly what I'm going to be doing, if any have. Hopefully I won't disappoint you all, or detract from this fine storyline. I'm really hyping this up, aren't I? I agree, well done Blades. It's an honour to have you in the ISS, and it's good to see another englishman establishing himself so well in the roleplay community. You do queen and country proud. See you out there, ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Nice post Blades You been reading your little sisters diary or something? You're in trouble now, David! Forget Gammulans, you've got a TEENAGE GIRL on your six, and a high ranking disapproving dad as well, no doubt RP ON Medical Officer's Log Mision +19 hours 59 minutes Just recieved a guy in, and he sure stank. He was very lucky to be alive, though I'm not sure you can call someone lucky who was found drowning in half-treated sewage. Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up, I'm pretty sure that he'll have lost his appetite for a while. He also had a number of fractures and severe bruising of the brain, but he should make a full recovery, unless we lose life support in here. I've managed to release a few of the casualties, but more keep coming in, and the field medics are already working virtually non-stop all over the ship. A couple of them have come in as casualties, having been hit by flying cargo pods. It had better not get much worse, or we're going to run out of people to fly this thing. End Log RP OFF ------------------ 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 08-22-99).]

Personally, I don't like the idea of restricted posting, sounds a bit elitist to me. I like the idea of having a page in a prominent position saying 'read this before posting in the Roleplay Forum' which outlines the rules of roleplay and some hints for newbies, which we can refer people back to if they seem to be not understanding the way things work. I suspect there are a number of potentially quality authors around who may be put off by having to be invited in. That's just what I think, so consider it as such. Bye, ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

RP ON Medical Officer's Log Mission + 0 days 19 hours 54 minutes Wow, things have been moving fast. Not half an hour ago everything was normal. Then things started getting tense, then very busy, then the ship started to tremble every so often, and the casualties started to come in. First a couple with lacerations, minor fractures, then a few more with minor injuries, then the trembles started getting bigger. There was a big explosion about 200 metres up the corridor from us. That's bad news, because that's right next to main life support. Started getting major burns victims from that one. More explosions. A couple of minutes later four guys get dragged up from the engine room with radiation burns. This is not good. "Why weren't these men transported directly to medibay?" "They need the power for other systems." "Allen! Davison! Get all these men into isolation and treat them for radiation poisoning. Are there any more coming?" "Another two, just behind us." "Davison, see to them." Then came the awful sound of the ships hull sounding like it was going to buckle under some massive strain. It kept on groaning and groaning, and we heard bits of armour tearing and shearing off the ship. It was scary, let me tell you. Thank God for inertial damping Some of the greener medics started to panic, and I couldn't really blame them, but I still had to be harsh with them to keep focussed on their jobs. There'll have to be more coming in from that. What on earth have we got ourselves into? End Log RP OFF ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

I would like to say a big thank you to you Badgerius for providing the ideal situation for introducing Velvet strike operations (mentioned in my first thread and discussed with and approved by Desylva). It's even better than the situation I had thought up myself. [rp]It had been a good week's training. Ben Zwycky's respect for Fleet Commander Desylva had doubled at his reaction to Ben's new tactics and prototype equipment, mostly only ideas at the time. Not only had he approved them, but personally oversaw obtaining the right materials and supplies, and even suggested some adaptions and improvements that could be made. He also assisted in finding quality engineers to replace all those lost during the devastating events of Operation Peace Run. [/rp] aka Introducing Ben Zwycky [rp] This was a man with foresight, flexibility and wisdom, he well deserved his position as head of the ISS fleet, and that was where he was needed. Ben hoped that they would never have to find anyone to replace him. His thoughts returned to his crew, and what he had put them through these past seven days. He switched to the internal comms system, and made a shipwide announcement. "This is the commander speaking. What you've all been put through this week may have seemed very harsh, but I assure you, it will be worth it. I think you all realise that what we have been training for will save lives. Probably many lives. Probably even some lives you might not think are worth saving, but every life is valuable. I know that this week has been especially tough for you new guys, having to adjust to a new ship as well as a tough training regime and on top of that all this completely new training. Believe it or not, it's been tough on all of us. I'm very proud of the way you've all reacted and coped with the workload. You new guys may still feel that you're still outsiders and 'not part of the team' yet, but let me assure you that to me you are a very valuable and integral part of this crew, and I have no doubt that without the contribution you are making and will make to the running of this ship, we would not be able to implement Velvet Operations. If these words don't convince you how valuable you are to me, then maybe this will- When we get back to ISS Station, you can all have a drink on me!" That got a cheer that was heard throughout the ship. "Paul, how's our inventory?" "We've got 40 Mark I instant blockades and 20 Mark II's; 30 launcher attachments and 500 transponder bullets in cartridges of 10." "Good. Keep working on converting some of those Mark I's to Mark II's. Those bullets- does that include all the ones we used in training?" "Nope, these are all ready to use. I've got some guys working on those Mark I's. We should have another 5 Mark II's in about half an hour." "And the transporter enhancement?" "Well, it all works fine, we've got five pairs of transporter pads working independantly, but all the extra equipment means it uses an awful lot more power and it'll overload the power grid if we use it for more than half an hour at a time. Even then, you'll have to let it cool for an hour." "That's OK- we'll just have to be quick, then. Is the brig expanded?" "Yes, we've turned the guest quarters into a serviceable brig, so we should have room for another 30 or so. Again, it uses a bit of power. I doubt we'll be able to have our weapons on-line at the same time as doing Velvet stuff." "That's fine. We wouldn't want to be attracting any attention anyway. Good work. Mr Elworthy, I haven't had a chance to officially welcome you back! What did you manage to find?" "Thank you sir. Those credits you gave me came in really handy. I've got a nice little upgrade to the Infiltration Console, and a few little surprises." "Sounds good. Has Briggs briefed you fully?" "Yes he has, sir. We should be able to do our part." It had been a good week's preparation and training. They would be ready to implement Velvet Strike at almost a moment's notice. Little did they know how soon that would be. [/rp] Thought I'd tease you all a bit, and give you fair warning. All will be revealed in good time. I hope you won't be disappointed. Badgerius, if you really need to know exactly what I intend before allowing it, then give me an email and I'll try to reply quickly. I don't wan't to be guilty of hijacking your thread. ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Is that roster correct, now. I'll be the Medical Officer, if that's not taken, and it's OK with you. You guys move so fast, it's really hard to keep up! But it's good reading! ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Cool! My ship should be around, but I'm not sure where it'll be. Desylva, you got me any patrol orders? ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

This is getting good! Sign me up! RP ON Personal Log Entry Marine #17 Charlie Wilson Mission plus 2 hours 36 minutes Deck 3 mid corridor I was on patrol duty when these klaxons went off and everything started to go mad. When I heard the word Gammulans shouted a couple of times, I knew that this wasn't a good situation to be in. A couple of jump anomalies had appeared just down the corridor from me, so I rolled a grenade at them before anything appeared, and set my rifle to rapid fire. I ducked round a corner in the corridor and looked round again after the blast wave had passed. I didn't need the rifle. I wasn't sure how many Gams came through those anomalies, and I wasn't going to hang around to work it out, but none of them would be making any more trouble. I heard screams down near engineering. I went to investigate, accessing perscan. I got the exact location of one Gammulan and one of our guys. I headed for the main hatch, but something on the floor caught my eye. Proximity mine. That was going to make things tricky. I rechecked perscan then gauged up the ricochet shot. I worked it out, set my rifle grenades to a two second delay and fired two off the opposite wall of the corridor, aiming to place one each side of him. They went where I aimed and detonated, then I blasted the mine and backed off. I think I got him. RP OFF Sorry Gallion, but I couldn't resist temptation either. Maybe you survived it, or you can be someone else. It would be a fitting end for a warrior, though, I should think. Bye for now, ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

So, are you wanting this thread to become multiplayer, because these are pretty major events you're talking about here. I mean, how far ahead do you have this planned? Just my 2 credits, ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Hi everybody, I'm back! Cheers Sebastian. That means a lot coming from you. I've edited part seven, because I'd forgotten about a plot point I'd meant to put in. It's probably a bit long now. Anyway, I'll try to keep it up, but maybe I've set myself a pretty high standard to live up to now. I especially doubt that I'll be able to live up to my character in genuine multiplayer. So, what have I missed? Some of those screenshots look mighty fine . I'd love to take part in a multiple author story, and it looks like I might be just in time. See you out there, ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Ehud, David Foss is the one who wrote the vast majority of this story- he should get most of the credit for it. Sebastian, great to see you back, man! I'm still praying for you, as are some of my friends. Those last three posts of yours are quality pieces- your best so far. Keep it up! ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Well, here it is, what you've all been waiting for, maybe. Part seven: [rp]On the Sub-deck by the turboshaft crouched Marines Stuart Drelson, Mirek Novotny, Matti Eriksen and Jacob Kiptano, Stuart and Mirek lying prone with their sniper rifles aimed down the corridor at the doorway to the shuttle launch bay, where most of the intruders still were. A few of them had tried to break out, and their bodies were lying in the corridor. Matti was discussing the situation with Doug; "Well, 5 of them won't be --thering us anymore, and we've got ab--- 15-20 of them pinned down in the shuttle lau--- -ay, but I'm not sure how much longer we can hold them. We need s--- -ore guys down here, quickly!" "All right, I'm s---ing some guys down. Try to keep them on th- --- deck." "What do you think we're doing?" "Target the remaining stormcarriers and launch three Vagrants at each!" "Away, sir. Stormcarrier 3 is launching shuttles, and number 1 is entering hyperspace. Stormcarrier 3 has been destroyed, sir." "Keep moving and firing at those fighters! How are we doing?" "There are 25, no 23 fighters left- I think two of them just collided- but only a couple of them are still after the probes; there's only two of those left, but there's still about 7 or 8 leeches at each exit. We've only got 5 leeches and 8, no 7 crabs left; they're starting to self-destruct. Interceptors 1 and 2 have depleted their missiles, but are only lightly damaged, IC3 has damaged weapons pods, lasers, life support and shields and IC4 has lost comms but seems to be otherwise OK. Shuttles 3 and 4 have lost tractor beams and have damaged shields, engines and life support." "We can't recall them now- we've got intruders there. Paul, is that probe ready?" "Yes, sir- and ready to lau---." "Does it include a warning about the mines?" "It does." "Right. Launch eight probes, same as before. Try and launch some more crabs and leeches, but focus more on those fighters directly. We've got lots of Perseuses and Questors- use them!" "Yes, sir!" Replied Simon enthusiastically, "Some..." "My God, no!!" screamed Karen, as the message came in automatically from one of the probes- 'Terran Tourist LRT-15 entering Treas System'. Ben switched to the TACOPS computer and zoomed in just in time to see it silently finish it's tumble from leech to leech, being pummelled by crabs, the final impact shattering it's top arm, before erupting in a savage sphere of flame. It managed to launch a shuttle, but straight into another leech, and it didn't stand a chance. There was no SOS call, no screams for help and no survivors. The bridge crew froze for a moment, then carried on with their tasks, but the Battlecruiser kept on drifting forward. A few splashes on the shields were followed by an explosion and a weak tremor was felt through the ship. "Shield Integrity breach. Hull Integrity Breach. Damage." "Hull is Damaged. Shuttle Launch Bay is damaged." Down on the Sub Deck, Matti watched down the corridor as his reinforcements arrived by turboshaft, and a couple of the Sla'ti marines had managed to dive to the floor behind their fallen comrades' bodies and set up sniping positions of their own. Just as they stated to get a few shots off, a deckplate below them was blown up off the floor, throwing the ones standing in the doorway back into the shuttle launch bay, and opening a large section of the floor to empty space. The corpses in the corridor, together with the snipers were sucked into the void before the Guadran field restabilised. Even 300 metres down the corridor, Matti heard the faint rush of air. 'They won't thank their friends for that one, ' he thought as his fellow marines took up their positions. 'We should be able to hold them for a while now.' The Battlecruiser still wasn't changing course. Ben switched off TACOPS and looked at Karen. Tears were streaming down her face as she sat with her head bowed, sobbing quietly. "Simon, take back flight control. Steve, go back to tactical. Take the PTA down to 10%, and try and discourage some of those fighters. "Intruders on Deck 1!" Announced Chris, "aft corridor!" "How many?" "Seven." "Where are the rest of them?" "There are 14 in the Shuttle Launch Bay and that's it." "Good. They obviously haven't figured out where Mr Ko-Kul is. Doug, did you get all that?" "Yup, seven in the aft c--ridor of deck 1. I'm on it." "How's auxiliary life support?" "--most up to green condition." "Right. Shut it off, and transfer those guys to the engine and cloaking device. We don't want to give those intruders any help, now do we? How's the reactor?" "Up to 63 units, sir." "Excellent! Keep it up!" Kappa team's Henry and Jason Shaw were doing what they did best- sneaking around behind a group of five of the intruders on Deck 1. They had become known as the Silent Strike Twins, and they (or the rumours about them) would have you believe that they could sneak up on a Valkerie Assassin with hearing enhancements, but that was probably an exaggeration. They were very good, though, and also the two best shots on the ship. Their communicators were connected to their headsets, so that no-one else could hear them, they walked in soft shoes and body armour rather than a combat suit, which gave them no strength enhancement, didn't give them quite as much protection and slightly restricted their movement; but also didn't make any noise. Henry signalled to Jason by holding up two fingers, then taking them behind his back, indicating that they would take out the two guys at the back, then he tapped the back of his neck twice, indicating they would fire two shots each at that part of their body. Jason acknowledged with a nod. Henry then held up three fingers with his left hand (they were both holding sidearms in their right hands), then two, then one, then a clenched fistand they silently looked round the corner, aimed, fired two shots and withdrew immediately. Two down. The attack was silent, deadly and fast. It was unsettling, confusing, and most importantly distracting. Then it was Doug's turn, who wasn't really one for subtlety. At 6'10" and nearly 400 pounds of pure muscle, he was stronger than most people in a combat suit. He was also still surprisingly fast from his days as a second row for the 1st Orbitals rugby team. It had been said that Doug shouldn't wear a combat suit, because it would only slow him down, but that wasn't true. It made him a truly terrifying enemy. One thing he was not, however, was quiet. Seizing his moment, he sprang out of operations, snapped the neck of the nearest marine with his left hand, shot the one next to him at point blank range in the face with the other, then batted the third into oblivion with his right hand still holding the sidearm. The blow just about took the intruder's head off, snapping his neck like a twig and throwing him a good 6 or seven metres down the corridor. Doug then shot him as well, just to make sure. Three more down. "Commander, five do--, two got past us. Th-- -ust be going down th- -eft hand corridor." "Good work, Doug, we should be able to handle them, but I'd prefer some better odds than that. Get some guys here as soon as you can, and deal with the others on the Sub-deck." "Will do. Jon, you in position?" "We've reached Engin---ing, sir, ready." "Right. Matti, we need lots -- -oise outside the shuttle launch bay." "Ok, sir, we'll have to ch--- the range. Jacob, Will and Dave: set your grenades to three second, four second and five second delay and fire them down the corridor. Mirek, tell us where they burst relative to the doorway." The grenades were launched, and bounced down the corridor, detonating in turn. "The first burst about 30 metres short of the doorway, the next about 20 metres past, and the last about 10 metres further." "Okay, everybody, set your delay to 3 and a half seconds. Ready, sir." "Start distracting! You're free to start as soo- -- the explosions start, Jon." "Roger." Interceptor 3 was struggling. It couldn't launch missiles, it's lasers were weakened and its shields were performing about half as well as they should. "At least our engines still work great," offered Showcase. "That's great, but I still can't shake this guy! Find me the nearest leech!" snarled Carrion. "OK, I got one at 1 and a half clicks." "Lovely! Let's hope he's watching us too carefully!" Engaging the afterburners, Carrion rolled and dived the interceptor until he was flying directly at the leech. He weaved around a little to try and make it not too obvious what he was doing, then he flew straight for a second, feigned a dive and then climbed sharply. The Vandal was a little bit later on the turn, thrown ever so slightly by the dummy. This was enough to send him right into the proximity radius of the leech, and his end was spectacular, if brief. "Yeah! give me another!" shouted Carrion. Showcase selected the nearest target, an interdictor, just in time to see it being finished off by the Svoboda's IOD. "Woohoo! things are starting to look up! Next!" "Karen, it's OK, just face forward and lift your chair up high out of the way. Steve, Simon, stick to your posts and face forward, you'll be all right. Chris, we need a crossfire on the right hand door. I'll go high right, you go low left." When the first intruder rushed into the bridge, he wasn't expecting any resistance, and he was stopped dead in his tracks by two shots to the chest and another to the side of his head. This made the second intruder think again and opt for cover. Ten seconds and four laser blasts later the Silent Strike Twins had struck again. Deck 1 was clear. When he heard the explosions below him, Jon Tulloch, with Paul Rand's help, lifted up a section of deckplate on the floor of engineering and started to cut through the ceiling of the Shuttle Launch Bay directly above Shuttle 2. The cutting equipment was pretty quiet, but it was best to not take any risks. When the small circular hole had been removed, Jon, Steve Trulby, Michael Sedgley and Jaromír Hašek all pointed their rifles down through the gap, roughly at right angles to each other. They each fired three grenades in quick succession, moving round slightly with each launch, so as to spread them round evenly. They then immediately dived away from the hole and flattened themselves to the floor, covering their ears. The intruders who realised what was happening ran out the door but were either blown apart by the grenades bursting in the corridor or were cut down my Stuart and Mirek. When they came seconds later, the explosions were very loud and shook the ship. A column of flame shot up through the hole in the ceiling and scorched the roof of Engineering. Several alarms were set off throughout the ship. "Hull integrity breach. Damage." "Oh dear. That didn't look too good," mused Smiler as he flashed by, "We'd better give them a hand, eh, Poltergeist?" Another burst of fire pummelled into their target and another S-fighter contributed to the debris field. "We've got a matter splatter! Where now?" "Shuttle 2 has been destroyed. ATV's 1-4 are damaged. Mining Drones 3 & 4 have been destroyed. Mining Dones 1 & 2 are damaged. Shuttle Launch Bay is damaged. Engineering is damaged. Hull is damaged." "Well, at least th--- are no m--- intruders!" chirped Doug. "Some of the fighters have returned to Stormcarrier 1, which is leaving the system." "That's excellent news! How many fighters are still around?" "Six, no five now, wait- looks like they're getting out too!" There were cheers which gradually came from all sections of the ship as the news spread. "OK, switch Auxiliary Life Support back on, and let's get repairing! How are we for spare parts?" "Well, w- --st half the stuff in ---go bay 1, but we should be able to get everything important up and running." "Excellent. Can we recall the shuttles?" "Well, from w--- I can see, we should be able to --- both shuttles in after we've shifted s--- of this debris." "OK, every non-medic with an LF more than 80 and an FF less than 20 is assisting the repairs apart from 10 marines on patrol duty, Steve and Simon who stay where they are, and Karen and Chris. Karen, it's OK, you can come down now, it's over." He gave her a big hug and told her, "it's alright, you did well." He then looked up at Chris and said, "go back to the officer's quarters with her and give her a big mug of hot chocolate. I think she needs to talk some things through." Chris put her arm round Karen and led her away, still extremely upset. As he left the bridge, Ben turned Back to Steve and Simon; "If anything happens, you know how to reach me. I'll see what I can do on Deck 3." The repairs progressed, the support ships returned. Those who needed help or rest got it, those who didn't got on with what they could. When the cloaking system and engine were repaired, the mines blocking their exits had long-since self destructed and they carried on to Eridani without further incident. The fact that the Sla'ti had tried so hard to prevent Mr Ko-Kul from making the meeting really helped to forge a trust between the two parties, but as to whether any meaningful agreement was reached, only history would tell. Ben had a lot to think about as he sat in his quarters. He had failed to protect his crew. How would he tell someone that their son had betrayed and murdered so many of his colleagues? How could he have been such a bad judge of character for so long? He delayed making his report until Linda had done a full autopsy of his body, hoping to find some cause that might explain why Gavin suddenly seemed to have gone mad. "Anything?" "No trace of drugs, no implants, no visible brain damage or unusual injuries of any kind, but it's hard to say that for certain because of the laser blasts he took. Nothing I could present before an inquiry. But something didn't seem right, and I realised why when I checked his medical records." "What did you find?" "When Gavin was a child, he broke his leg quite badly, and since there weren't any advanced technology hospitals in his area back then, it wasn't treated perfectly and didn't heal perfectly. As a result, his right humerus had a very slight kink in it. Nothing was done about it later, because it didn't affect his mobility in any noticeable way." "I remember now. He tried to use it as an excuse to get out of extra drills. What about it?" "It's not there." "You mean he made it all up?" "No, it was there when Gavin had his bimonthly check-up three weeks ago." "So how could that happen?" "It can't. That wasn't Gavin Hawkes. It was a clone." "Whoa. Are you sure?" "Absolutely. The mark where he was cut by a mugger on Gazer1 wasn't there either. Even though we repaired the wound, it should have still been discoloured for a couple of days, but it wasn't. This means-" "That he must have been replaced on Centris itself," interrupted Ben. He thought to himself for a second, then thought aloud "How can we protect ourselves from this happening again?" "I've had the same thoughts myself. We could put an extra identity implant directly into a minor bone, say in the little finger, and scan that every time someone returns to the ship." "Sound's good. I'll get Briggs to make some that are difficult to copy or tamper with. Work with him." "Will do." "Oh, and you have my permission to slap me if I ever complain about having a check-up, or it taking too long." "Could you make that an official notice? And extend it to all my staff?" "OK, but only you can slap me. We have to keep some sense of order round here, you know." She smiled that broad smile that had overwhelmed him all those years ago. He smiled back, and without realising it, let out a small sigh. "Well, I've still got lots to do, so see you later; good work today." "Thanks. Bye, Ben." His thoughts returned to his dead crewmembers, then Mary's departing words rang in his ears again. He had done his best, and he was going to make sure that it wouldn't happen again, as far as he could. He was determined to fight feling sorry for himself. It never did him any good. Later that evening, there was a knock on the door of Ben's quarters. It was Chris. "I just thought you'd like to know, both Karen's brothers were killed by raiders on a tourist ship in Nevuela. What happened today brought back a lot of painful memories for her that she hadn't properly dealt with." "I thought it had to be something like that. Well, we've got a reasonably long rest now- there are still lots of repairs to be done, and this is a good opportunity to get the Velvet Strike projects finished. If she needs more time, she can take as long as she likes to get back into things; we can cover for her. You're a really good friend to her, you know." "She's a really good friend to me." After that, Ben called up Doug; "That was a good job today, Doug." "Thanks. We really showed them intruders, didn't we?" "Yeah, we did. I heard some pretty scary things about you from Henry and Jason. I don't want to think about how scary you must have been on the rugby field." Doug smiled. "Everyone on the other side kept trying to avoid me. Odd that. I liked that virus." "So did I, but Steve tells me once word gets out about it, which it will now, we won't be able to use it again." "Shame." "Yeah, so I'm going to send Steve back to his old friends for a while to train up on what's new in the hacker business." "I'll miss him, he's a nice bloke, but it'll be worth it, I suppose." "It will. Well done Doug. Good night." "Night, Ben."[/rp] Well, that's it for this story. I've got a few little surprises ready in case certain situations arise in future stories that involve me, which I hope I'll be able to use sometime, but maybe I won't. I hope people have enjoyed it, if there's anything you think I missed out, or should have put in, or any way I you feel I could have done things better, please let me know. Like I said, I'm pretty new to all this, and I'd like to learn. If people want to find out more about the Svoboda, you can visit it's website at http://www.watson-jones.swinternet.co.uk/Svoboda. It's not complete yet, but it should give you some background and stuff. Anyway, I'm going away again for 2 weeks tomorrow, so I won't be able to respond to any of your comments until after then. Thanks for reading it, it's been a lot of fun. Bye, ------------------ 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 08-15-99).]

Mine's a quote from the 15th century czech reformer Jan Hus. "Nakonec Pravda vitezi"(in the end the truth wins) ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Good start, there. I'm not sure if anyone will object to you using a different design of ship, even if it is an 'oldie'. So are all the officer's stations on the bridge, then? in the Galactan, the chief engineer, Combat Officer, Medical and Research Officers all have non-bridge stations. Anyway, I like it. Keep it up! ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)

Well, it looks like I won't be finishing this off before I go, (unless something unusual happens tomorrow morning), so there'll be a bit of a delay before you all know how this turns out. (I suppose you could probably all have a good guess, though, if you want .) In case you're reading this, DeSylva, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the command chairs and the virus, I just thought of them for the last post, but I don't suppose they're TOO far-fetched considering what we'd already discussed .

It does sound cool, and also that it could get very complicated. I'd really like to be part of it, but I'm going to be going away soon for about 5 weeks without internet access, although I'll be back for a week in the middle of that time (At the moment I'm hurrying to finish off my story before I go, and get my website presentable (if not complete). Anyway, there'll be no timeline conflicts with my story, since it'll only occupy two and a half days in total, and has a flexible starting point (but after the Gam invasion). If you want to involve me in it, then I authorise Desylva to play my part until I get back, since he knows about my currently classified tactics and equipment . Good luck with it, TTFN ------------------ Commander Ben Zwycky GCV Svoboda ISS Fleet "Nakonec pravda vitezi" (in the end the truth wins)