The Virus

[Crash Override]

OOC: That's outdated lightspeed. No robots invaded the ground facility. Please check stuff.

oCC: I dont understanded what happened,can you explain to me please?

[Professor Fenway]

OOC: Fine. Somehow, Ivan's fleet entered the anomaly at the Lyat system and came to alternate NeoRome, nicknamed red. THey destroyed several unsuspecting ships before the Ragnarov, seeing that their ships only occupied 6 of the 18 quantum states the universe possesses, destroyed each escort ship and partially disabled the Halberd, bypassing the shields completely. The robot thing was a misunderstanding.

[Ivan2006]

OOC: So let´s say the boarding pods were released, but never reached their destination? In that case, the stuff LS said about Metal Sonics is obsolete.

BIC: After having their primary weapons disabled, the EES Yana sent a surrendering call to the NeoRome ships, starting negotiations and finally finding out about the anomay and the parallel universes.

In the cell block:
Hope: Actually, the thing we´re aiming for is a little different.
When it´s finished, we can make the enemy believe there is a large asteroid instead of a ship.
That would keep anyone from even aiming their sensors at it as long as it behaves like a rock by simply not using the engines.
...wait, is that an alert? Who´s attacking this place?

Comm:
Ivan: So we´re essentially in another universe?
How about the following solution: You give me the prisoners and their ships and I fly them back the way we came.
With a bit of luck, we should be able to get back into our universe.

[Error]

Error looked up. "What do you mean, alternate universe?"
The sensor officer shook his head. "I mean that was not an EE fleet as we know it. I have no idea where they came from, sir."
"Set course for NeoRome and get this bird there NOW." responded Markus, and punched up the comms network, contacting Fenway.

[Crash Override]

Jeff: Well...i have chocolates; *He picked from her suit a little chocolate bar*"
Want a piece of it? *He smiled* When someone attacks its good to have something to keep the life away from the darkness.Chocolate is not light but will make you "shine"

[Prototype]

Omega carried on towards the station, hailing them mid flight to make them aware of his new transport arrangements.
"Good thing Alpha beefed up the EVA systems"

[Professor Fenway]

Fenway switched on the communicator to Ivan. "I'm sorry sir," he said, "but i'm afraid it's not that simple. If the occurrences in your universe are true, it may be simpler to keep them here for the time being..." He eyed the hulks of the destroyed EE ships. "And you have caused damages. If you would be so kind to dock with the primary docking hub here, we may get your ship repaired and discuss matters in person."


//9998 THOUSAND LIGHT YEARS AWAY//


The hulk of the station briefly obscured the light from the dim, dying ember of what once was a grand sun. The charred hulks, the drifting debris of what was once a node, a broadcast hub of the ancient, incredibly tough Network. The star it orbited went supernova nearly 300 years ago, leaving what was left of the station on an endless flight to the void. It had not seen activity since the star exploded. But that was about to change.

A small spark, a sort of electric charge long built up over the years, finally released. Batteries clicked in, and the first light from a computer shone inside the wrecked station. It analyzed the station...

-ERROR- UNIT C#9188 'FENWAY' HAS CRASHED

-ROOT SYSTEM FUNCTIONAL-

//INITIATE SYSTEM DIAGNOSTICS//

-SOURCE LOCATED- EXCEPTION ACCESS VIOLATION IN SECTION C#99182- DATA PROCESSING

-DATA CORE A#V1R05 IS MISSING

-ALERTING SECURITY MAINFRAME-

-ERROR- SECURITY MAINFRAME UNRESPONSIVE

//TRACING POSSIBLE CAUSES//

-VIRAL INFECTION LOCATED IN SECTION S#7001

//IDENTIFYING SOURCE OF CONTAMINATION//

-BIOHAZARD LAB F-708 SECURITY BREACH DETECTED

-VIRAL AGENT 'RAKASH' NOT CONTAINED'

//SEALING OFF CONTAMINATED AREAS//

-ERROR- GATE A5 UNRESPONSIVE

-AGENT NOT CONTAINED-

-ERROR- DISTRESS SYSTEMS UNRESPONSIVE

//SYSTEM CHECK COMPLETE//

-UNAUTHORIZED SHUTTLE LAUNCH DETECTED-

-SECURITY DATE- 300 YEARS AGO-

-DESTINATION- CAPITAL PLANET 'ROME'

//ATTEMPTING COMMUNICATION//

-COMMUNICATIONS UNRESPONSIVE-

//INITIATE PROTOCOL A#887A//

-EMERGENCY ROUSE SYSTEMS ACTIVATED-

-ROMAN UNITS #7782-#8812-#0091 RESPONSIVE-

//UPDATING DATA FEED//

-ARK-3 BATTLESTATION LOCATED-

//SIGNALLING ARK-3//

-ARK-3 RESPONSIVE-

-PRIME-3 OPERATIONAL-

//SCANNING ARK-3 DATABASE//

-WARNING- CLASS CK REALITY FAILURE SCENARIO IMMINENT

-SOURCE- 'RAKASH' VIRAL INFESTATION

-AREA- COORDINATES 891.817.417.917

-DIMENSIONAL ANOMALY DETECTED AT COORDINATES

//ACTIVATING GALAXY BROADCAST ARRAY//

-ARRAY ONLINE

-WARNING- NETWORK DAMAGED. 96% OF NETWORK UNRESPONSIVE

//SIGNALLING ALL ARK UNITS//

-ERROR- ALL UNITS OUT OF RANGE

//ATTEMPTING SIGNAL BOOST THROUGH DIMENSIONAL ANOMALY//

-ARK-1 RESPONSIVE-

-WARNING- VIRAL INFESTATION DETECTED IN ARK-1

-PRIME-1 COMPROMISE DETECTED

//INITIALIZE OMEGA PROTOCOL//

-PRIME-1 DE-INFESTATION IN PROGRESS

-ESTIMATED TIME TO COMPLETION- 30 EARTH MINUTES

//SCANNING FOR ADDITIONAL ARK UNITS//
____________________________________________________

A rather large asteroid tumbled by, followed by others. Soon, the entire space around the facility was filled by them. The station was struck, and the computer fell silent as any remnants were crushed under the mountainous boulders. Another node of the Network, designed to last until eternity, falls silent. But the protocol was set in motion.

[Ivan2006]

Ivan Kintobor: "Okay, docking the Yana and transmitting ship stats now."

Spoiler:

Ship name: EES Yana
Ship class: Halberd
Ship category: Dreadnaught
Ship affiliation: Eggman Empire
Ship commanding Officer: Great Grandmaster Harold Saxon
Ship built: 3262 P.X.E./ NeoMars shipyards
Crew: 825/1200
Propulsion systems:

• 1 MT-P10 Fusion engine [1 operational]
  3 MT-P11 Fusion engines [2 operational]
  1 WR-7 Warp Ring Drive [1 operational]

Energy systems:

• 1 Chaos Emerald reactor [1 operational]
  1 N-scale NeoRome fusion reactor

Communication and sensor systems:

• 2 short-range radio transcievers [2 operational]
  3 long-range subspace transcievers [1 operational]
  1 long-range hardware-encrypted subspace transciever [1 operational]
  10 medium-range multi-target radar targeting systems [6 operational]
  1 long-range subspace scanner [0 operational]
  4 medium-range matter detectors [4 operational]
  7 medium-range multi-target infra-red targeting systems [6 operational]
  30 medium-range optical manual targeting systems [23 operational]

Cloaking and electronic warfare systems:

• 50 decoy launchers [3 operational]
  1 short-range radio communication jammer [0 operational]

Shielding systems:

• 1 MT-S5 Regenerative shield generator [0 operational]
  1 MT-S6 Hull polarizer [1 operational]

Weapon systems:

• 2 Wave Motion guns [1 operational]
  1 heavy Magnetic Acceleration Cannon [0 operational] [deployable ammunition: 0]
  1 ZERO-class positron turret [0 operational]
  1 triple heavy Plasma turret [1 operational]
  4 triple medium-heavy Plasma turrets [1 operational]
  18 heavy railguns [8 operational] [deployable ammunition: 11073]
  12 torpedo tubes [6 operational] [deployable ammunition: 73]
  6 triple heavy laser turrets [5 operational]
  4 triple medium plasma turrets [4 operational]
  4 twin medium plasma turrets [1 operational]
  16 twin medium laser turrets [5 operational]
  14 triple light-medium laser turrets [13 operational]
  105 light point-defense laser turrets [96 operational]

Ivan Kintobor: "Information sent. After we have docked, I will come straight for your office.
Then I can explain what happened and why we attacked you."


Meanwhile, in the prison...
Hope: "Nah, I don´t really like chocolate that much.
Anyway, what security access do you have in Darkstar, Jeff?"

[Crash Override]

-I have a Supernova SEC, acces. I´m the chief scientist of all techonology nodes of the Darkstar. After all,the most powerfull is Quasar access for normal people. Only the inner corporative cicle have a Darkstar acess. Why the question? *He smiled a little curious* I hate cell blocks.




-Darkstar Acess
-Quasar access
-Supernova
-Nova access
-White Dwarf
-Red Giant
-Yellow Star
-Star access
-Brown Dwarf

[Prototype]

Omega reached the station, arriving in the docking bay, not entirely surprised to see an array of weapons pointed at him, seems that the NeoRomans were unaware of his body change

"Hold your fire, it's me, I just changed my body" Omega told the security forces

"How can we know" one of the soldiers asked

"Because I am probably the only non virus controlled N.S.C.D. mind in this sector of the galaxy, and I haven't killed you yet" Omega replied

"And what make you think you could do that?" One of the younger soldiers asked

"You would need a much bigger gun than that to hurt me"

At this point the soldier fired, the shot simply glanced off Omega

"See what I mean, and I was under the impression that Fenway didn't hire idiots, seems I was wrong, now would you kindly escort me to the research bay, I have vital work to do"

Some of the soldiers began to escort Omega, though Omega was not sure exactly where he was being escorted to, he felt a little like a lamb being led to the slaughter, if the lamb was actually an invincible death machine.

OOC: Fen, when you say ARK-1, do you mean my ARK-1 or your ARK-1, if mine, it's already infected.

[Professor Fenway]

OOC: Yours. Thats why I said de-infestation. All part of the Network, see? Though it originally failed. That's how this happened. Not the universe you are in, of course- that is unaffected. But original universe.

[Professor Fenway]

Fenway listened to Ivan's story over the cleverly-disguised holographic table. "Your empires are completely decimated, yet ours are not..." He said. He stood up. "This makes no sense. Up until the Virus was discovered, our universes were parallel, almost perfectly. There's something much bigger at work here." A small panel clicked open on the wall, and Fenway took a small disc from it. He inserted the disk into a hidden slot, and then brought up a model on the table- of two particles.

"We noticed your shields occupied only 6 quantum states," he said.

"And?" Ivan asked. "How does this affect us?"

"We, well, our universe has about 18, so we ran scans. Turns out, yours doesn't have 18 states. This means nothing from this universe could possibly exist in yours."

"Just great, just as we could have gotten help." Fenway widened his eyes for a second, and then turned to the opened wall panel. Ivan raised an eyebrow.

"Of course!" Fenway said. "We noticed the virus only uses 6 states as well!" He inserted another disc and a detailed breakdown of the Virus' form was shown. "That's why your universe is infected and not ours. That's why we can stop it."

"Well, why isn't it in 18 states here? Aren't these universes parallel?"

"Ah, but it didn't come from yours or mine." Fenway took a small object out of his pocket- a crystal, with a small ring around the center, the thickest point. Fenway was holding it by the two ends on the top and bottom. "We call these Yttrium Crystals. Very powerful stuff." He placed it on the table, where it shortly began glowing. It rose a few centimeters off the table and hovered there. "Old Rome made them. This one comes from a small battery core."

"And what were these for?"

"A massive galactic-scale structure known simply as the Network, an entire infrastructure of nodes and complexes that linked the galaxy together. Not just ours, but any other universe which made them. It would function as communications, hubs, and transportation, incredibly durable and functioning in the most extreme of circumstances." At this, he pulled out a file. It said, 'Leonis Incident'. He slid it over to Ivan. "Events like the Ion storm that completely cut off those sectors for years."

"This Network, was it ever completed?"

"We're not sure. Most of the documents about it were destroyed before the facilities researching them were captured. But there is strong evidence that it was. We don't know if it works, though."

He pulled up a sector map and highlighted a system. It read 'Lyat' under it. "There, Lyat. The same dimensional anomaly that you came through. Plans suggested that it was meant to be a major hub of the Network." He then pulled up a 3D hologram of the system itself and the contents. "The contents shift, but the most omnipresent structures are the Spire," he marked a large orbital station, "the Power Node," he marked a large, pulsing spherical station, "and the Spoke," and he finally marked a massive, round structure. "The dimensional anomalies present are possibly the result of a faulty transmission, based on the data, meaning there is no control on what is sent, or where." He closed the map.

"But this is theoretical. We have no idea if it actually exists, or if these structures are merely a coincidence. There is no physical evidence other than the anomaly, and even that is skeptical." He picked up the crystal again.

"You still haven't explained where the crystal comes into this," Ivan said.

"And so I shall." Fenway brought up a detailed hologram of the crystal. "These have extra-dimensional properties, which is why they were integral to the Network's structure. They can send and receive anything from any other crystal in existence, whether here or in another universe. This is accomplished through the application of certain frequencies and mixtures. This makes a practically infinite amount of universes capable of being sent or received from. As of now, we are in contact with 4 alternate NeoRome's, and another empire calling themselves the T'shi Warlocks." He paced around the room.

"The owls realized the power of Yttrium long ago," Fenway said. "Look at their super-portals! We haven't replicated them on the scale they have, but we're close. Yttrium is their principal material."

"So," Ivan started, "Some empire decided to create this virus, and then send it through these crystals?"

"Exactly."

//ELSEWHERE//

A few guards came to the rooms of Markus, Hope, and Jefferson. "The Hierarch requests your presence, and has also asked for you to be released. He offers his apologies for the treatment you have received." Markus shrugged and left with him, followed by a skeptical Hope and an unfocused, unaware Jefferson.

//EVEN FARTHER AWAY//

Omega was stopped by a guard at a security checkpoint in the station. "Unit Omega is it?"

"I would think that would be obvious. What is it?"

"Well your armor has changed."

"It still would be obvious."

"Anyway, Hierarch Fenway has requested that you stay out of the facility and instead travel to NeoRome, where he is waiting." The guard scrolled through the holo-pad. "He said something about alternate universes and paradoxes."

"Really? May I see the evidence?" The guard sighed and handed him the holo-pad. The message was indeed there, divert the Omega unit to NeoRome. "Alright, but I will require transportation."

"Should be in the docking area, where you came from." Omega clicked, and then turned around. This wasn't what he expected.

[Crash Override]

-Finally! *He smiled a little cheerfull looking at the guard* -That´s it Hope,.

[Error]

Exiting hyperspace over NeoRome, Markus' ship took up orbit as he opened communications with the planet below.
"This is Markus Error. Please patch me through to Fenway Ash as soon as he is available."

[Prototype]

Omega made his was to his new ship
"Alternate universes? That could explain why I have my invulnerability, for my body was based of the Frestorian MK-IV, and we know that the Fresorians developed technology to travel to other dimensions, it's entirely possible that they could have built the Lamentors in their universe which probably uses an entirely different de of quantum states, and may not obey the same laws of physics, then found a way to bring them here, but if they did, then Alpha could not have reproduced such a thing in this universe, unless he had access to a transformational anomaly"

Omega remembered that Alpha had sent an expedition force to the Lyat system not long ago.

"Son of a *"