It’s all ready, a technician told Teldin. It had taken almost the whole of the day, even though it had just been a matter of modifying an existing virus, but the new virus was now ready. Unknown to all but Thenos and the and the research group, the Temple of Communion network of the Collective was about to become Teldin’s guinea pig.

            Right, Teldin said, I say we get this done so we can all go get a drink.

            A small cheer rose at the offer of free drinks, and the team got to work. The psychics took their seats and integrated their minds with the psychic circuitry of the deep-space transmitter. The technicians fiddled with control panels in order to find the wavelength that the Rebirth Temple was communicating on. Once they had done this, they found the psychic wavelength used to encode and decode the transmissions. As the display on Teldin’s monitor changed, he gave an order.

            Alright, it’s time for the psychic stage. You found the wavelength?

            Yeah, we’re waiting for the virus to be uploaded, came the reply. Teldin gave another order, and the virus was uploaded into the transmitter array. The psychics used the hacked psychic wavelength to embed the virus in the next outgoing transmission. The virus would hitch a ride on this transmission to the nearest communications centre, and would then infect the system there; playing whatever was attached to the virus. It would then force the psychic coding to change to the wavelength that matched it and transmit itself to all linked communications systems and repeat the process. It would take military-grade Advent fail-safes to catch the virus before it did too much harm, which would protect Thenos’ fleet, but the Temples were civilian structures, so they wouldn’t have that kind of equipment. Attached to the virus was a message informing the affected Temple crews that there had been a technical fault and that the Temple should contact the Rebirth comms division once normal service resumed. This way, Teldin would know if the virus had worked after about two hours, when the virus would delete itself, allowing normal communications. Happy with his work, Teldin sat back in his chair.

            Good work everyone, he said, now let’s get those drinks we were talking about.

(off Lore) I take it some one is getting a little tired of waiting? Sorry, life has been a bit complicated.

(DS Lore)

    Lord Ryat sat up in bed suddenly. Sweat poured off him and he was breathing heavy, plus pain raged through his head to the point he couldn't see. Immediately he reached over to his side table and felt for the drawer.
    "Ryat dear are you okay?" Usyma asked alarmed.
    "Yeah, just thirsty thats all," he said as he groped through his drawer. He pulled out some Ultra Morph which slipped through his fingers and onto the floor.
    "Thirsty?!" she exclaimed, "You were screaming at the top of your lungs. What are you doing over there."
    "Nothing," he said as he continued his search for the drop meds, "my head hurts a little, probably from recent events, so I'm taking something for the pain. I most likely had a bad dream from the same events. You know sometimes that happens to me." Usyma turned the lights on looked over at what he was grabbing for and picked it up.
    "Ryat, what's wrong?" she asked quietly.
    "Nothing," he replied, "just a little headache."
    "A little headache?" she said, "Ryat, I have seen you have your arm that was broken being put back together without any pain drugs and now I find you scrambling around in the dark for Ultra Morph. Ryat what is going on!"
    "Just give me the Ultra Morph please and I will tell you," he sighed. She handed him the medicine and he injected into his arm. Soon, the pain faded and his vision returned. The pain had been intense, similar to what he had felt when his grandfather had to shut him down when he set off the psi storm when finding his wife dead.
    "I think it was a psychic whiplash or something," he said, "like I was dragged into someones conversation that slammed out."
    "Do you remember anything? she asked.
    "Something about Prophets of Nine or Nine Prophets or something like that," Ryat said, "then Lord Pirate, but after that it gets all hazy and garbbled."
    "Can't you use your abilities to trail it back to its source and find out more?" Usyma asked.
    "I don't know," he sighed, "I don't use my abilities that often, plus I got only the barest training from my grandfather so I have no idea if its even possible."
    "Ever think about getting more training from somewhere?" she said as she sat down next to him.
    "First of all, no, the Advent abilities must die with me," he said, "Second, where would I find someone besides an Advent to train me."
    "Well you said that these abilities are genetically encode to be predominate so they will always be passed on to any and all children," she explained, "that means any children you have will have these abilities. Surely you thought of that."
    Ryat got out of bed and walked over to the viewport. He looked out of it sadly.
    "Yes, I've thought of that," he responded, "and I'm working on something to solve it." Usyma got a look of dread on her face.
    "The Theta Project," she said quietly, "developing a virus that rewrites the genetic code of the Advent to remove their abilities." A look of anger crosses her face. "You had better not use our kids as guinea pigs."
    "Of course not," he said quietly, "but they will get the first offical dose to remove that curse. Then I will spread it out amoungst as many Advent worlds as possible and wipe them out."
    "So you would destroy an entire civilization just for your revenge," she said sadly. Ryat turned around quickly.
    "They are trying to destroy us last I looked!" he shouted, "They destroyed my world and others! Stole my family and others! They can burn in HELL!, if there is one, for all I care! BUT! THEY! MUST! BE! DESTROYED!"
    "That they must be stopped I agree," Usyma said quietly, her eyes turning cold. "But wholesale destruction is not right. Ever."
    "They can't be reasoned with," he answered. "They only know destruction. They will not respond to any form of diplomacy."
    "Then I suggest you look into this Advent splinter group known as the Collective," she said in cold angry tones, "They seem willing to talk." With that she got off the bed, grabbed a series of reports on Ryat's desk and threw them at his feet. Then she stormed out of the bedroom.
    Ryat looked at the door that closed behind her, his head still throbbing even with the Ultra Morph. He then sighed and picked up the intel reports she had thrown at his feet and began to look through them. Upon seeing the name Thenos, his headache began to surge. He moved on. When a picture of Thenos came on the last page his head began to whirl. Ryat collasped on to the bedroom floor with a silent scream on his face as his mind fell into a internal psychic storm.

[Long time coming for some, sorry. Here the first part of what Ive been working on...]

(DS/Lore)

Twirling the gun on the table. "Seems like overkill to me. But we know better right now than to make a big deal of something like this." Carbon said.

Braken paused as he nodded his head. " Even among soliders there is a pecking order and politics." Bending over the small holoprojector. Fiddleing with the controls.

"Your nervous...why?" Carbon said sitting straighter in the chair. Giving Braken a puzzled look. "You look like you need a drink..."

"Im fine." Braken's tone stiff. "Ok, well...its just this whole damn thing sir. Here we are sitting here in non -Ue_ space. With pirates, Advent, even the Gor'ram Vasari are here! We're fight ourselfs, their fighting their selfs, no one knows what in the bloody Ji'na hell is going on. And were sittting here. Babysitting." Braken belted out in frustration. Now pacing around the room.

"And then what about Panatrias,Agra,Manardana?" Braken continued as he walked back up the the table, picked up holodisk reports. " Over half the Divisions are out of command..." throwing down a report, "we're losing planets left and right..." throwing down a couple more reports.

Carbon interjected, "So...what should we do? Run back to where? Defend what? Braken, its out of our hands." Carbon held his hands high in the air. " We lost control along time ago." said Carbon as he now shook his head. Standing up and putting his pistol back in its holster, he walked over to the window putting one hand on the Plexi-plastic. " Its deja-vu almost." Carbon gave out a chuckle. "In over our head..."

Braken still visiable upset set down the few remaining reports. Straightend his uniform. "Im just send this back to Draak." He gather a few disk and papers and head out the room.

Carbon stood there for a few moments. Looked back at the table. Sighed, then walked back to the area he had been sitting. Grab his helmut, clip it to his belt. Walked out of the room. Thinking to himself as the door opened, ' If Braken only knew half of it.'

----

The elevator hissed open, and Carbon stepped out and squesed himself around an ammo rack being loaded onto the elevator. Seems the hanger bay was busy as a squad was being preped for a patrol. Walking along the bay, he reached the a small hatch located a ways down the wall. Twisting the lock till the door popped open. The hatch hissed slightly. Carbon walked in to a dim light room. He turned around and shut the door. Turning back around he uncliped his helmut and put it on. Walked up a set of stairs and climb in a cockpit.

Flipping a few switches the cockput hummed as HUD's started to light up. The cockpit hatch closed and sealed. The cockpit slowly lit up, Carbon looked over at the side of the bottom console. Hand his finger over some photos stuck to the console. He gave a small smile then refocused back to the HUD's as the final startup checklist were complete.

----

"ATTENTION ON DECK!" the Bridge Officers shouted. Most of the crew, sprawed about the bridge from the idleness of the past week, all snapped attention some spilling drinks and such on the floor. Carbon walked straight to the command chair, "You get me Xenon and Gold." pointing to a Com tech. "Bring the Event around bering 338." he snapped at the Helsman. "Reforme the fleet...Brak Form 7." Carbon continued to give orders out, as the crew began to work on the growing list of commands.

Braken was down in Engineering-Gun Rack 4 talking with a crew chief. When the change in inertia caught his attention. He excused himself as he walk to the nearest com, to a hail the bridge as to way the ship was going somewhere. Before he could reach the com, the intercom beep and rang out, " Superior Halogen Braken to the Bridge. To the bridge now." Carbon's voice echo slighty as the com cut off. Making his way to the bridge. Looks like things were in motion for something...

[Thought i'd join in on this fantastic thread, really enjoyed reading what everyone has posted, awsome stuff. I figure I would port over the bios and story I had written under the Advents during Steel Command little by little with some updating. ]

(Personal/ Entering DS)

"Cat And Mouse"

-----------------------------

    Aikawa Setsuna was born into royalty, groomed to become leader of his home world Meiji. His home world had been under a long period of peace and prosperity. The Setsuna family ruled not only the planet of Meiji, they also ruled two neighboring planets for several generations. Taking the reigns as leader of the trio of planets at the age of 22 when his father died from illness and injuries sustained years prior. His mother too would pass shortly afterwards leaving him alone in the world to rule over billions of people.
   
    With the help of political officials still loyal to the family, he was able to become a gifted leader and a brilliant tactician. It was at the age of 25 that his leadership were put into play during an uprising attempt by officials who wanted to overthrow him. His enemies managed to mass a large fleet of ships from the sister planets and advanced on the homeworld. It was here he would command his first fleet, outnumbered he crafted a clever plan luring his enemies to do battle within a asteroid cluster. His smaller and more agile fleet swiftly crushed the larger cruisers, making tactical and crippling strikes to the enemy fleet. While the battle was over, political turmoil and betrayal continued to grow among his empire to break his control over the other planets under his rule.

    Eventually his enemies would take control over its two other sister planets in the empire, declaring war against the home world. By this time, many years had passed and Setsuna had just recently gotten married to a lovely woman name Miyuki. She was a child of famous scholarly parents who created many great works of literature. She was the highlight of his life among the constant threat of attacks and countless loss of life among his dwindling fleet. Peace talks began shortly after but it was a ruse to deliver a devastating blow to destroy Setsuna from within.

    It was the winter season on his home world when he received word that a enemy fleet was attacking his home world. Quickly and without hesitation he rallied his fleet and charged towards the enemy. There was no way he could have known of the cowardly and evil plot the enemy would put into play. The enemy fleet had hired a mercenary group to attack the capital city where his wife resided. They had begun to drop tactical bombs onto it causing mass destruction, the real target? His wife. By the time he had realized what was going, he would retreat to his capital city to only find it in ruins and his beloved assasinated.

    The capital city had been struck by multiple bombing runs and as he rushed towards his capital building, it was nothing but flaming rubble. Reaching his palace, all he found were dead bodies riddled with bullets. He realized this was the work of professional mercenaries hired by his enemies to penetrate the capital city defences and his elite guards. Reaching his family room he had found her, facedown in a pool of blood, his heart sank and his mind was filled with nothing but sorrow. Taking her into his arms he carried her out of the partially destroyed palace. Standing at the gate to the palace over looking the capital city in ruins, his heart was filled with rage and his mind thinking nothing but of revenge. He would pledge to get all those that were involved in the attack.

    Gathering every able ship into a fleet, he set off tracking the enemy fleet that had attacked his home world. It didn’t take long to find his enemies and with blind fury he unleashed hell upon the planets destroying everything in sight leaving no one alive. Leading a devastating campaign he had destroyed almost all of his enemies that had plotted against him but at the cost of his own fleet. He was down to just his capital ship when he finally tracked down the mercenary group responsible for the death of his wife. The mercenary capital ship, while suprisingly advance for its class managed to deal enough damage to disable Setsuna's capital ship but still took a beating in return resulting in a stalemate. It quickly made a swift escape with Setsuna unable to pursue due to his drives disabled during the fight.

    Setsuna eventually returned home a shell of a man. His eyes were now cold and silent, all of his emotions having left him leaving behind an empty shell wondering why all of this had come upon him. It was then the Advent had arrived and gave him a second chance. He had no idea who or what the Illumina were but they were willing to help rebuild his home world and provide him with the means to find the mercenaries that had escaped. He was sure they had secret agendas but he was in no condition to oppose them so he decided to accept his fate and allowed the Illumina to land in his home world. He was surprised when the Empress had come to offer him salvation and a promise that he would be reunited with his wife again. He was at first skeptical but it was either her presence or her inspiring words of unity or the fact that it was possible that he could be reunited with Miyuki again, she had reawakened the soul within him. He would be tasked with convincing the populous of his planets to joining the Advents and their cause to spread the light.

    His steadfast dedication and unwavering belief in the unity would allow him to quickly become one of the highest ranked members of the among the Advents in the Illumina faction. By age 40, he had been battle hardened and fought in many engagements and had come out alive regardless of the situation. His new fleet, the "Unity's Sorrow" were retro-fitted with advent technology making his fleet one of many valuable tactical forces utilized by the Advent. Several occasions he had come across the mercenary group he had hunted but continued to elude him despite all of his efforts. During a recent recon mission, the "Unity's Sorrow" was passing by a dead solar system with a red giant when it intercepted a radio transmission from the very same mercenary group.

    "Commander, we have detected a transmission from the far side of the red giant...It appears to be from the "Odessa." Bringing up the image of the ship before Setsuna, the communication adept continued to scan the area.

    Clenching his fist, "Found you again you little rat...your not going to escape me this time" He said with a smirk looking at the image of the ship on his screen, the emblem of a fox on the side of the ship now burned into his mind. "Command all ships to engage the enemy immediately!" Setsuna commanded.

    "Yes commander, all orders have been transmitted...all ships are now to engage target" The communication adept didnt use the ships comm relay but like most advent ships, all communications are passed telepathiclly.

    As the ships closed in on the "Odessa" the mercenaries realized they had been detected. Firing up their drives they quickly headed towards the edge of the system avoiding a volley of fire from the fleet in pursuit. "You wont escape easily this time..." said Setsuna, he had placed several ships just along the edge of the system as a precaution. Catching the "Odessa" off guard they ended up taking several rounds of plasma fire. Their shields flickered but managed to hold just barely, kicking their engines in reverse they made an about face flying straight towards the red giant.

    "Commander, the ship is heading towards the sun" said the comm adept. Setsuna leaning back in his seat wondering what they were planning. "Fools, where do they plan to escape..."

    Just then, the mercenary ship engaged a strange drive that began to create a distortion in the chromosphere of the red giant. That distortion quickly expanded and a tear would appear leading into the sun itself. This was not a hole into the center of the sun, this was a unconventional way of opening an artificial wormhole.

    "It seems the enemy has opened an artificial worm hole through the sun itself....all readings indicate the worm hole is highly unstable...its destination is unknown, shall we continue to pursue the target?" The comm adept relaying the disturbing data from the fluctuating worm hole.

    "Will the fleet be able to traverse the worm hole safely?" said Setsuna as he examined all the data, weighing his options not wanting to let the enemy escape again. "We should be safe, our shields should be able to withstand the massive gravitational fluctuations within the worm hole" replied the adept in charge of ship defenses.

    Watching his enemy slip into the worm hole, Setsuna gave the order for all of his ships to follow and enter the worm hole as well. The "Unity's Sorrow" consists of a small contingency of Diciple, Illuminator, Crusader, Guardian and Aeria ships along with 2 Halcyon Carriers, 2 Rapture Battlecruisers, 1 Progenitor Mothership and the flagship of the fleet "Miyuki" a Radiance Battleship. As soon as the order was given, his fleet moved into the worm hole and continued in pursuit of the "Odessa" unknown where they will end up on the other side.

(NO LONGER NEEDED, SEE EDIT FOR OP)

Very good.. Can't wait for what you have in store for us....Bison....

Hooray, an other Advent writer! Welcome to the "writer's corner." Hmm... maybe I should have put that differently...

System functionality restored

Visuals back online

Scylla’s optics sparked into life. Performing a systems check, Scylla deduced that it had been repeatedly exposed to electromagnetic pulses, but had now been allowed to come back online. Scylla checked its surroundings. It was in an alcove, with its limbs clamped to the rear wall. In the opening of the alcove was a shimmering glow which was probably a force-field. Someone didn’t want Scylla moving about. Beyond the force-field was a vast chamber, with the only break to the monotonous metal being what appeared to be a row of mirrors near the top of one wall. A quick check of the infrared section of the spectrum told Scylla that the mirrors were actually one-way windows, and that several humans were behind them. Finally, there were a set of huge doors at the opposite end of the chamber. Suddenly, a voice rang out through a speaker.

“Scylla,” it said, “can you hear me? Nod if so.”

Scylla did so, instantly beginning to scan its databanks for the identity of the owner of the voice.

“Good. We have a challenge for you. Nod if you still understand.”

Scylla nodded again as it found a match for the voice. To Scylla’s surprise, it was someone important. Halogen Iron.

“You will know that you were created through the ETC project, and that there was another successful cyborg formed from it. However, you aren’t the only cyborg that’s gone rogue. Delta, known to most as Xenon, is now an enemy of the –UE_. Now, with the latest version of the ETC cyborgs no longer in the fold, we have developed a solution. I present to you: Epsilon.”

The doors at the end of the chamber slid open. Through the doorway stepped Epsilon. It was large, almost 14 feet tall, twice the size of Scylla. Its bodily proportions were also inhuman, with huge hands and arms, short, thick legs and a small head sunken into the large torso.

“It doesn’t really follow in the vein of you and Xenon, as it lacks free will. It simply responds to binary commands that we transmit to it, but can find creative solutions. However, we felt that it gave a sense of completeness to name it in the same way as you and Xenon. After all, it is made to eliminate all of the other models in its line. Now, this is where you come in. Fight Epsilon. If Epsilon wins, it’s proven itself superior to you in combat, and therefore will be superior to Xenon in combat. However, if you win, you will be welcomed back into the –UE_ and will be given the task of bringing down Xenon yourself. What do you say? Nod if you accept my little offer.”

Scylla nodded, and the clamps around its arms and legs opened while the force-field faded.

“That’s good, because you’d have had to fight each other anyway.”

Scylla stepped out of the alcove and faced its opponent. It analysed the enemy’s structure. All unknown compounds, with no obvious weak points. Without warning, Epsilon charged. Scylla rushed forwards to meet its opponent, dodging to the right as Epsilon took a swing with one of its fists. Scylla dashed round behind the monstrosity and extended one of its forearm-mounted blades. It stabbed at the back of the opponent’s knee, making contact with the delicate innards of Epsilon’s body. However, Epsilon’s torso rotated on its waist, striking Scylla a massive blow. Scylla arced through the air and hit the wall, falling back to the ground. Damage reports indicated that Scylla’s armour was holding, but had been heavily dented. The force behind that blow must have been incredible if it had been enough to dent armour that could take a tank round and stay firm. Scylla stood, ready for round two. Facing its opponent once more, Scylla saw Epsilon reach down, as if to pick something up. Suddenly, the other cyborg vanished, then appeared right in front of Scylla, scooping it up in one massive hand and clenching its fist. Teleportation? Could the cyborg have a miniaturised phase drive? Was that even possible? Epsilon squeezed with its fist, but if it thought it could crack Scylla’s armour, it was wrong. It had also made the mistake of leaving Scylla’s arms free, so Scylla lashed out and plunge a blade into the connection between Epsilon’s hand and arm. Epsilon reacted by throwing Scylla upwards, then vanishing again, appearing just above where it had been before and bringing its fist down on Scylla, smashing the smaller cyborg down into the floor. Once the fist was raised, Scylla saw that it was lying in a freshly-made dent in the solid metal plating of the floor. Damage reports indicated that the armour had been breached and that the waist articulation was badly damaged. Scylla had no time to react as it was picked up again, this time in both of Epsilon’s hands. One hand, clamped around Scylla’s lower half, pulled against the other, and with a grinding noise, Scylla lost all of his body below the waist. Error reports streamed in as Epsilons hurled Scylla’s legs away, then attempted to do the same with Scylla’s actual body. Scylla managed to grab on to Epsilon’s arm, though, and quickly made a move, swinging itself forwards and towards Epsilon’s head. Scylla plunged its two blades into Epsilon’s optics. Epsilon managed to bring its hand to its head and grab Scylla, now throwing it across the room. Scylla landed, and began to drag itself across to the blinded Epsilon, which was staggering around drunkenly. Scylla drew closer, when all of a sudden an EMP surged through the chamber. Scylla’s brain once again disconnected from its robotic body as the systems shut down.

“I can’t believe that it was a draw!” Iron shouted, “how am I supposed to go and tell High Command that the goddamn robots had a bloody stalemate? Do you think that's going to make me a Paragon?”

“Don’t worry Superior Halogen, we’ll repair and re-equip the cyborgs and try again,” a worried scientist informed the Paragon.

“Yes, just hurry up,” shouted Iron, "get the cyborgs fighting again. Don’t fail me. Remember, in Experimental Division, you don’t exist, so nobody will ever know if you disappear.”

“Yes sir,” the scientist said as Iron stalked out, “let’s get a clean-up squad ready. We should get this over with as quickly as possible.”

(Personal Story/Outer Rim, Beyond Advent Colonies and Trader Space. Not yet in DS)

This is a re-post, it is now the 6th of September and Summer classes are over, but i am starting fall classes. I have been thinking a lot about writing, and how it might be interesting to bring something different to my writing. Many stories are concerned with a character more than a story, which means that both the author and the audience are reluctant to let go of a character that has been created, regardless of the story.

In creating Tier, i had much the same issues, it was hard to let her go because i had invested so much effort into her. Readers to when they invest a lot of time in reading a character, any character, are reluctant to let them go.

I recently came across several things that sort of threw a different angle at me about this. One was a new game for pc coming out called 'Heavy Rain" where the game world is treated less like a fictional story, or a recurring character, and puts 'story' up front, regardless of what happens to the individual characters. This felt more 'real world', and very very interesting because of that. Another was of course the film 'Inception', where multiple layers crossed and recrossed each other as the story unfolded. I have been stunned by this movie and love the fact that it makes the audience think as each layer is exposed. Then there is a trailer for another game for pc called 'TERA'. In the trailer of course the heroes battle a band of evil villans,    But unlike most games that play like this, or at least for the trailer, because i am not sure it is this way in game, although i would love it if it was, most of the heroes die. You see them fall in battle and the agony of them failing. It is not something you see in a game every day, and for that reason also, it was extremely fascinating.

What all of this is leading to is of course my idea to tell a story, not just with one character that may get hurt, but never fails, but rather the opposite. To tell a story, where what happens, happens. I will be using a dice roller program to determine what actions succeed and which actions fail, and if they fail what the repercussions are for the characters, who lives, who dies, what planets or stations or ships survive and which do not. In this way the story is true to chance and to an element that usually exists here in the real world, but not often in fiction (at least with re-occurring characters) or in games. As a story teller then, i don't have to try and trick the reader into thinking 'oh the hero is in danger' and then figuring a way out. Because in this way of telling a story, there may not be a way out.

I think it will make the story and or stories more interesting, giving them a quality that is often skirted or ignored in regular games and fiction. I am very excited, because it gives me a way to tell a story without scaring other players that my character is omnipotent, but it still allows for all those excesses of chance and circumstance to be told. 

Anyway, here is hoping it is worth reading! 

Sincerely,

-Teal

September 6, 2010

Outer edge of Galan system

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Would you mind if i jump in?    I have been an amateur writer for some time and really enjoy not only the stories but the rpging. 

This is a personal story.

(Distant Stars / Soylent Green Edition)

    The comm stations resume normal operations and deep space is once again being monitored.  The ships that were down for repairs have all been released from their docking clamps and are now under their own power.  Once their crews get word, they return to their duty stations and head to the star to wait for further instructions.  The broadcast center over Finley 1 reports to Tim about priority one traffic.
    "Sir, we're receiving traces of a distrss signal." the station commander reports.
    "From who?" Tim asks.
    "Unknown sir, we don't recognize the signal's base coding."
    "Where's the signal originating from?"
    "Russundova Nebula."
    Tim thinks for a second before answering, "Thank you commander, I'll take over from here.  Keep monitoring it, and advise me of any changes."
    "Yes, sir." the commander says before cutting the link.
    Tim sits back in his chair for a minute before contacting Roesh. "We have a problem."
    "What's that?" Roesh asks.
    "Unknown distress signal in the Russundova Nebula."
    "How is that our problem?"
    "You would pass on a potential customer?"
    "Hah! Yeah, I guess not."
    "My caps are all back on full duty, but I'm leary of a trap."
    "I guess it is pretty close to Mercevia.  The only way to go is in force.  We have starbases running point defense here, they can handle everything we've encountered so far."
    "So you want to go?"
    "Of course, Timmy.  I'll get Todd, you call Casey, meet at the star in ten."
    "I'll be there."
    Within ten minutes all four meet up on the bridge of the RFT Foe Hammer. Instructions are passed on to the fleet and to Henry.  A minute later the scouts jump from the system leaving the rest of the fleet to wait for formation before making their jump.  The scouts arrive in Russundova and begin scanning.  Right away they pick up the distress signal near the periphery of the system.  In standard practice, they split up and head off in different directions to gain as much intel as quickly as possible.  When the main fleet jumps into the system, Tim starts asking for updates.
    "Sir, Victory Scout reporting. We're the closest to the signal but it's not actually in the system, you'll have to head our way and exit the gravity well under main engine power to get to it."
    Tim answers, "So the signal is comming from empty space?  Not from an anamoly or anything we can get to it quickly?"
    "No sir." Victory Scout replies. "Quickest route in is where we are now."
    "It's like off roading in space." Todd comments.
    "Yeah, remember a few years back when we were being chased by that Vasari clan?" Roesh asks.
    "Oh yeah.  We jumped in behind that refinery ship, turned around and drove out of the well.  I wonder how long they chased that ship before realizing it wasn't us..." Todd continues.
    "Guys...  Focus." Casey interrupts.
    Roesh and todd look at each other for a second then shrug.  The fleet rendezvous with Victory scout, and the other three meet there as well after scanning the system and giving the all clear.  They exit the well and head into the void of space in the direction of the signal.  Some time after losing sight of the asteroid they used as a way point they arrive at the remnants of a fleet they'll later call "Unity's Sorrow".
    Todd sits at a sensor station and runs a few special programs he designed himself. "Hmmm.  They're Advent...  Ouch, they're not doing too good.  All of their power plants are shot, shield power is fluctuating, and their hulls just reek of radiation.  On the plus side, they're drifting...  Straight to a plasma storm but as long as shielding is restored it shouldn't be any problem."
    "Advent huh? You sensing anything Casey?" Tim asks.
    "They're still alive.  Some of them are dreaming.  Others...  I don't know.  None are up and about." she answers.
    Tim sends a fleetwide message, "Marines, you're going in, secure all stations, wear your radiation protection.  Radio back when we're in control and we'll see about restoring power.  Captain McCurtain, Captain Taylor, stabilize their shields please."
    The Dunovs move from ship to ship using their shield restore abilities on them giving the shields a fighting chance at whatever they were doing before.  Marine landing craft stream out of every ship and dock with the Advent ships.  Once critical stations were secured, Todd, Roesh, Casey, and countless other engineers headed over to designated ships.  Roesh and Casey headed to what they believed to be the bridge of the flagship, the one sending the distress call, Todd headed over to the Rapture venting plasma to stop the leak.  The marines not securing the bridges and engine rooms and other critical locations begin moving the bodies around.  The dead are taken to hangar bays or cargo bays or any other largly open space, while the others are tagged for various levels of care and their positions are logged.  Ship doctors start making their rounds starting with the most critical and working their way out from there.  Casey does what she can on the bridge to kill the alarms and bring up ship logs so they can figure out what has happened.  Over time, engineers on each ship report successes in restoring functionality to the power systems and restoration automatic controls in life support.  Anything better then that would require an Advent crew.  Once power become's reliable, shields and propulsion systems become the next priorities.
    "How long until they drift into that plasma storm?" Tim asks some of the bridge officers.
    "Days, sir." comes the reply.
    "We'll give them one day to snap back to attention.  After that, we place a call to Thenos and get him to send out some spare crews.  We should have all of the critical systems up and running again by then."
    "Aye, sir." Captain Powley says before turning to his first mate and ordering him to note the time.

OC(out of character)

Just want to say before my post to teal. That was some of the most descriptive story I've read in the fan submissions of Sins. Welcome to all the new guys...Bison... 

(Personal/DS)

"Drake to Captain Lan, to the bridge please." Captain Lan was in the mess hall when message came down, "Lan here, what's going on?" "Captain, you need to see this."

 Captain's log supplemental: 

After traveling  for  the last month, getting away the natural jamming of the of the black hole, our sensor traffic data from various probes has increased with the exception of those nearest "Bamntuh," our sensor web in the region has detected unknown signals which may mean an unknown intelligence in the area, Science Off. Seles is already trying to figure the bearing, which the signals may be coming from. When I stepped on to the bridge and saw the view screen, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

 "Report," quipped the captain. Seles spoke, "Large planet, breathable air, lots of ruins, radiation levels very high, probes indicate the resource asteroids are depleted," and before Seles can finished, the captain said, "orbital bombardment.”

"Yes sir," said Seles. On the view screen where large cities used to be were just long scars carved into the planet. "Probes also indicate ship debris as well sir."

"Helm, bring us close to some debris so we can bring aboard for analysis," "aye sir,” came Cameron’s' response.

"Seles  how long ago," Seles was running scans and as the information came on her screen, she turns to the captain and says, "Eight hundred to twelve hundred years sir."

(NO LONGER NEEDED, SEE EDIT FOR OP)