Cold Fusion

[DeadlyMiddie]

Insubordination... all that he had done was destroy a pirate when it was firing on civvies, contrary to standing sector orders to disable all pirate vessels, not destroy. Well, he was going to face the music. Julius calmly looked out of the bridge of his ship, ruminating. He barked out orders, "Helmsman! set course for Mimas Base." An hour later, his frigate had docked with the orbital station and he took a shuttle down. He calmly entered the Commandant's office and said, "Captain Julius Thiel, Captain of the UADS Vindication, reporting, sir."

[Archduke Daynel, PhD]

Jupiter to the asteroid field had been smooth sailing. Had taken about 15 minutes or so longer than scheduled, though, because someone hadn't done any basic engine maintenance for the past two weeks. Yes, I'm looking at you, Nadya.
Edmund could sense a little tension among the crew, though. True, AIs are easy to hide, and their cover story was watertight (Nothing to worry about, officer, just carrying gear and spare parts for this gas mining rig, you see, yes feel free to do an inspection), but you don't simply relax when you hear there's a random police inspection in the exact part of the asteroid field you're passing through, even when there's next to no chance of getting caught. And they were already behind schedule, so they couldn't take a way around either (Seriously, Nadya, get your shit together), and the Tengkorak Yang pirates didn't like it when people were late for their agreements. They were shitty barterers, though, so Edmund and his crew should fetch a nice price for the AIs.

Eventually, and inevitably, they were stopped by the police, who made contact. The voice of what sounded like an older male from southern USA came from the radio.
"Right, this is just a routine inspection, please unlock any entrances to your cargo bay and provide your ship documentation and state your business."
The ship's pilot, Edmund's friend Thomas, did as asked; unlocked the cargo bay main hatch and transferred the ship documentation files to the police ship.
"We are just independent traders carrying some gear for a gas mining station on Venus, officer. I'm sure you'll find that everything is in order."
"Well, your papers are fine, I'm still waiting to get a report from my guy in your cargo bay. Now, if I scanned your hard drives, I wouldn't find anything suspicious, would I?"
"Of course not, officer, only the OS files, some streaming programs, a couple movies, and, well, pornography."
"*, huh? Well, you seem like a good bunch, and Steve says your cargo bay's clean, so just tell me where this * of yours is and I don't think I'll have to bother fine-combing the hard drives, eh?"
"That's good to hear, officer."

A couple minutes later they were back on route.

[Error]

>>Target has docked to a small frieghter; IFF indicates Outer Rim Transport vessel.
>>Have target painters and ECM package on standby.
>>If you can work some magic, I am relaying the ship's exact coordinates.

[Luna]

Another quick run. Carrying some important but not extremely precious goods. Nyxia flipped around a butterfly knife as her ship left the acceleration gate of Mercury. It wasn't really the best option should she get in melee range, it was more of a decorative fiddle toy so she could keep her attention on things. Not to say it hadn't been useful, it played a fair part in intimidating would be adversaries and even helped her get a few extra bucks out a cargo run from time to time. Her legs were kicked up onto the control panel, carefully placed so as not to press any buttons. She just sat, twirling the knife around her fingers as Overpass glided through space.

A few minutes later the deceleration alarm came online. Nyxia hooked the knife shut and put it in her pocket, last time she forgot the knife went flying into the panel, cracking a display screen. The ship rumbled and roared as the forward breaks came on. Soon enough Luna came into sight and was approaching rapidly. She grabbed the microphone and dialed in the station that was supposed to be receiving the cores.

"This is Nyxia Kester of the Regulan light freighter Overpass, we have the order of cold fusion cores and are requesting permission to dock."

[Professor Fenway]

Ach, you're good. Stereotypical Russian.
___________________________________________________|Error|
>Laser Communications Established

-Alternate Corruption to Memory, we're detecting some very strange gravitational anomalies in your vicinity.
-We don't know what's causing them; proceed with caution.
-We are currently enroute, 15 minutes.((Alternate is in Realtime communication range))
___________________________________________________________________________________________|Julo|
>Laser Communications Established

-This is Pluto HQ. Orion X-5, we've analyzed your scan and we're sending the results back to you.
-We have no idea what this object is, but it's definitely not naturally occurring. Fortunately for you, there is no face structure on the asteroid.
-Your sensor data also indicates several laser cuts in it's surface. Could you get a chemical sample and bring it to us?
___________________________________________________________________________________________|Vinyl|
Nothing interesting is going on in the asteroid belt by the gate.
___________________________________________________________________________________________|Middie|
The commandant looked up from his metal desk as Julies entered. This part of the station was using rotation for artificial gravity. He gestured to a chair opposite of his desk. "Sit down, captain," he said. Julius took a seat and the commandant looked sternly at him. "You know the standing sector orders-"

"Sir, the pirate was firing on civilian vessels," Julius interjected. "Several ships would be gone had I not intervened." The commandant sighed and stood up.

"I suppose there's no getting through to you this way, then." The commandant pressed a few keys on his computer and the door to his office slid open. A woman walked in as it opened; she was carrying a clipboard and dressed in standard officer clothing. A star was engraved on both of her sleeves. She stopped a few meters from the commandant's desk. "This is Rear Admiral Thrace. She'll be making sure you follow your orders from now on." Julius stood up.

"You pulled out a Rear Admiral just to watch me?"

"This will be her first assignment in 6 months, captain. Dismissed."
_________________________________________________________________________________________|CvN|
"Acknowledged Overpass, you are set on approach for dock seven, vector 280. Please approach with caution, the station is undergoing a new expansion."

[Error]

Alternis pulled out from behind the asteroid, focusing visual sensors (re: telescope) on the freighter.

>>Target has docked with freighter vessel Enduring Profitability.
>>Visual inspection reveals a very shoddy paint job, likely falsified.
>>Scan probes will maintain observation of target. Investigating gravitational anomalies.

Settling into his seat, Alt re-engaged active sensors, focusing them on the nearest anomaly. Running their power bands up to maximum - being unshielded and within a few hundred meters of the sensor emitters would probably be a bit lethal about now - he examined it.

And realized that he had no bloody idea what he was looking at.

[Professor Fenway]

Almost forgot: Ivan, no tractor beams. We don't have that kind of tech.
_______________________________________________________________|Error|
The anomaly pulsed a couple of times, and then flashed with an extreme amount of light. The sensors- and visual scanners- overloaded and shut down to prevent damage, and Alternis shielded his eyes. When the light finally dimmed, he lowered his hand.

In the space of the anomaly was now a large massive ship. Alternis estimated it to be about 300 meters in length. It was quite obviously a warship; even now, turrets were swinging around the area. Several RCS plumes shot off of it as it adjusted it's course. It's design was unlike any other vessel of this size.

The freighter sped off towards the ship, already on top of it, and it docked within moments.

[Shadowcatbot]

The blare of his timer alarm woke Tajer from his sleep, Sitting up in his captains chair he shut it off and looked at the ETA, it showed five minutes left till arrival at the gate.
The normal feeling of weirdness that accompanies slowing down from 1/4th the speed of light to something more maneuverable flowed through the ship, The pilot rotated the ship 180 degrees and began the slowing burn. The rail guns amongst the hip buzzed to life and kept an eye out for any stray large rocks that wouldn't be repelled by the shield as the Light navigated into position for drop off. Radioing to the counstruction manager the ship ID number he called in "This is the cargo ship Frozen Light delivering order 08361-737-93631 aka 12 million cubed meters of titanium plate for your new toy, opening bay doors for delivery CM". The 12 massive doors on the side of the ship raised up as the massive hydrolic pistons pushed them up leaving the cargo bay wide open for removal and transport. The other half of the crew suited up in suits and went to man the various cranes and winches in the bay.

[Error]

"The hell...."

Alternis shook off the surprise. Focusing, he reactivated scanners and illuminated the thing with every sensor spectrum he could.

Taking a moment away from sensors, he began a live sensor and comm feed to the UAD ship. He pinged the newcomer, sending a standard comms handshake.

[Professor Fenway]

__________________________________________________________________________[Shadow]
"Acknowledged Frozen Light, our transports will unload the freight and deliver them to the industries below." About 8 smaller ships began approaching the Frozen Light, prepared to unload the cargo and deliver it to another planetary freighter close by.
___________________________________________________________________________[Error]
The handshake succeeded, briefly. As soon as it connected, a voice talked through the channel.

"You are interfering in matters far beyond your understanding," it squawked. There was a hint of anger in the voice. "Do not interfere again." The channel shut off. The anomaly reappeared on sensors, and a massive flash of light enveloped the bridge. Alternis, briefly blinded, shielded his eyes. When the light subsided, the ship was gone. And so was the anomaly. Not seconds afterwards, the communicator buzzed with an urgent transmission. Alternis activated it.

"What the hell happened Memory?" said the UAD commander from the Alternate Corruption. "We detected a radiation flash and all communications and sensors went dark until now."

[Error]

"That is an excellent question. Bloody big warship appears, tells me to fuck off, the vanishes. Knocked out sensors immediately before arrival and departure. Frickong bright, too."

Glancing at the sensor board, he smiled briefly.

"Scanned the living shit out of it when it was here, though. Relaying data. The target ship, and freighter, docked with this beastie before he bugged off."

Alternis paused, taking a breath.

"Alternate, I think the ship that just left was equipped with a faster than light drive."

[Professor Fenway]

"We'll certainly find the data useful," Alternate Corruption replied. "But in the meantime, you are ordered to report to Mimas for further orders."

"Further orders? What?"

"You're now involved in confidential matters, Memory. Until command declassifies this whole ordeal, you're working with us now."

[Error]

"Fuck sake," Alternis muttered to himself.

"Understood." he transmitted, swinging the nose around and punching the ship towards the acceleration gate.

Bloody military.

[Shadowcatbot]

And then error experiences rocks fall everyone dies from meta gaming as smooth as sandpaper.

Even if the FTL thing is the biggest Chekhovs gun ever.

[Ivan2006]

OOC: replaced tractor beam with forced docking mechanism.
Also, re-reading your comments, I think there has been a misunderstanding on what my "missile tubes" are. You see, other than what you propably think of as missile tubes (essentially torpedo tubes, just with missiles instead of torpedoes), mine are not reloadable. They are essentially an "internal missile rack" in your terms. Think VLS, but in space.