Once More, With Feeling

[Vinyl]

If it wasn't for the lack of basic techs like standardized AI and specialized equipment, we could totally boost our output to something like a dozen a week.

[Ivan2006]

The new naval academy and shipyards on Macai have been completed and are expected to double ship production and crew training from now on.

The Sawfish has completed its trials and has been assigned to the Macai defense fleet. Plans are to assign two area defense cruisers to each carrier.
Also, two Valia-class Battleships have been completed and assigned to the Perimeter Security Force and the Offensive Fleet respectively.
The last Frigate of the Nunerth defense fleet as well as the first two serial-produced Egriea Strike Craft -assigned to the fast response fleet- have been completed.

[meta]The ME has completed developüment for psionic tractor beams, which are offered secretly to Hexalan for their mining operations and are being prepared to be installed on Macaian search-and-rescue ships.
Design for Psionic energy weapons is being finalized. It is yet unknown what effects weapons like this will have, but the following things are possible: Most likely, persons near the impact will be struck with psionic shock, with effects ranging from brief disorientation to unconciousness depending on the proximity and constitution of the target, making it a solid choice for ground attack weaponry.
Also, it is thought to be capable of partially ignoring current hard light and plasma shields, making a sufficiently strong version viable against ships due to lack of accurate data on foreign shields, this can not properly be determined.
Psionic engines are being prototyped.[/meta]

[Archduke Daynel, PhD]

Research on artificial gravity has been completed, and it is being added to all Federation ships, both military and civilian.
The shipyards on Technoma have been set to produce military ships for the protection and expansion of the Federation, and more shipyards are to be constructed in orbit around other planets.

[Error]

@Dayn... a-grav has been around for decades, now, unless the TTI dellberately got rid of it.

[Shadowcatbot]

Plebs, Have a species that excells in lack of gravity. And also causes nightmares in small children.

[Vinyl]

@Error we only know what you tell us. Tbh, I was pretty confident antigrav wasn't around either.

[Error]

2193, post Strigiforme-Terran war. I figured it was obvious that most of the sci-fi basics (shields of a sort, a-grav, warp/whatever drives, sorta-kinda energy weapons) were all around already.

[Ivan2006]

guess most of us counted artificial gravity somewhere between actually useful shields and active stealth in terms of how advanced it would be

[Archduke Daynel, PhD]

@Dayn... a-grav has been around for decades, now, unless the TTI dellberately got rid of it.

Dammit, why did no one inform me of that? Since we barely even have non-ring-based FTL and interplanetary communications I assumed we didn't have artificial gravity, which I feel like is a quite high-tech thing indeed.

[Error]

Clan Surel has sent a diplomat - Staff Commander Grigori Surel - to Hexalan.

[Meta] He is bringing designs for 150mm and 270mm HV railguns as a gesture of goodwill to the Hexalani. [/meta]

[Vinyl]

The diplomat has been welcomed and granted an audience with the Admiralty. After delivering the designs, the Staff Commander eventually managed to engage in conversation regarding Hexalan's relationship with Hexalan Corp. After a lengthy discussion on why the Hexalani continued to follow the will of the Corporation despite the fact they evidently need not. The Admiralty realized they knew not why they did continue to follow the Corporation's will, why they, despite knowing full well that if they continued to obey the Corporation, Hexalan would be in ruins. After Grigori had left, they continued to discuss the best course of action. At great lengths they discussed, until settling upon a wondrous resolution. They gave word to the ME as to what would ensue.

---

Later that night, during a meeting of the seniority of the Hexalan Corporation and the various owned companies in the Pleth-based HQ, the elite guards burst into the room.
"Sirs, we need to get you out of here!" Not questioning their guard, the executives fled to the shuttle waiting on the nearby landing pad. Once aboard and in the air, they began to demand the reason for the interruption. They were met with the doors sealing.

The shuttle soared across Hexalan City, flanked by a very sizable contingent of gunships and fightercraft, slowing down as they approached the penitentiary. As they traveled to the site of their life sentences, the Hexalan government had disbanded the Hexalan Corporation and nationalized its assets. The Hexalani were now free, in a way. They no longer need concern themselves with elimination of others nor the protection of the wealth of few.

Hexalan was no longer a military intent on 'unification of all' to secure markets and assets for Hexalan Corp, they were no longer mere tools to be used with the intent of evil.

[Professor Fenway]

Gordon Alieon peered out the window towards the massive structure below. He was presiding on the control structure of Vishnu, conducting the very first full-scale firing outside of tests. It would be a momentous occasion. A nearby DRADIS map showed the hundreds of ships crowded around the mechanism, some Novan, some Hexalan. Virtually all of the empires friendly to NeoRome were there. Unbeknownst to him, some Strigiforme eyes were watching as well, from a distance. The hidden turrets of Vishnu were active and swiveling inside their casings, scanning for any threats to the massive structure.

Below Vishnu the planet broiled and roared. Tervius Prime was, at best guess, a volcanic hellhole. No probe-even shielded ones-had ever survived entering its poisoned atmosphere. No images of the surface had ever come out, but the very nature of the planet indicated it was extremely rich in rare metals. Titanium, platinum, iron. It was an ideal candidate for firing.

He dialed up a few mechanisms and spoke into the station's intercom. "Beginning graviton calibration," he said. "Prepare for primary firing sequence." He switched to a broadcast channel. "All ships, steer clear of the installation. Firing beam in 5 minutes." The room began buzzing with more activity as the various systems were spooled.

"Activate gravity anchors," he said into the intercom.

"Anchors locked," replied a scientist. A light on the console turned green.

"Cycle the splicing beams."

"Splicing beams spinning."

"Systems check?" A pause.

"All systems green, Gordon." He switched a few more dials. Outside, the massive barrel forming the majority of the mechanism began slowly rotating. It picked up speed and began arcing with power. Gordon switched to the broadcast channel.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you are witnessing a historic moment. The very first Planet Cracker, which will spell out a new age for us. A new age for all of us." He paused. "Firing."

The barrel pulsed blue. Four prongs detached from the main section and folded onto the barrel, and as they connected the barrel began glowing a bright blue. Four blue beams shot out from the prongs for a minute before deactivating. And then the main mechanism activated. A much larger beam, pulsing and somewhat translucent, shot down to the planet from where the station hovered. Minutes passed, it continued pulsing.

"We have connection," said a scientist behind him. "Lifting chunk up now."

"Anchors holding steady," said another. "Emitter running at 80% capacity, plenty of buffer space available."

After several more minutes, the atmosphere directly below them began to roil. Soon a massive chunk of rock broke through the thick clouds, trailing streams of molten metal as it was lifted into space by the beam. The control room erupted into cheering, but Gordon held up his hand. The room fell silent. "We're not done yet," Gordon said. "Get the rock secured." After a few more minutes, the rock was within the sphere of anti-gravity emitted by Vishnu, nullifying the planet's gravity on it. The rock was stopped and secured through several smaller emitters, nowhere near in power to the main emitter.

Once the main emitter shut off, the room once again burst into cheers. Gordon didn't stop them this time; he merely activated the broadcast channel. "We have secured the rock. Vishnu is fully operational. Today is a grand day for us all."

[Error]

'Quite a show.' Commander Mathias muttered to his XO.

Lifting the handset, he punched up a connection to the NeoRoman commander. Mister Alieon. My congragulations on your successful test.'

The XO turned to Flight Ops. 'Launch two Raptors for the homeworld. Have them take a copy of the demonstration tapes and sensor logs.'

- - -
'Ten Rounds Rapid, Raptor zero-one-niner. Free and clear. Jumping for home.' the pilot pushed the levers forward; the black-and-tan spacescape was replaced by the smear of blue white light that was Interspace.

'Time to destination?'

'One hour.' The EWO reported. 'Got your deck of cards?'

[Professor Fenway]

"Sir, something's wrong with the chunk we brought up." Gordon turned around towards the voice; behind him, the console was registering power fluctuations and energy spikes.

"Wrong?" he raised an eyebrow.

"It's too pure. There is no way this concentration of metals is natural." Gordon stepped down from the console and they left the control room. They turned left in the hallway and followed it down to the mining chamber, where smaller chunks were broken off and processed. Gordon scanned his hand on the door leading into it and they entered it. "We're seeing more than 98% pure titanium in some of the samples, more than is physically possible in such a climate."

"This can't be right." They walked up to the catwalk overlooking this particular piece, suspended in the middle. A laser was currently engaged and cutting it in half; the chunk had cooled long ago. He watched for a minute until it was split and pulled apart. In the center of one half was the unmistakable imprint of a metal plate. "What the hell?" he said. "How deep is this chunk?"

"This chunk came from the deepest part of the segment we extracted."

"How the hell?" He stared at it more. Moments later, the alarms went off.


-NeoRoman Battlecruiser Unceasing, 3rd Fleet Battalion-
-Low orbit over Tervius Prime-

The captain pushed an officer out of his way as he swiftly walked to the holographic DRADIS sensor map. Unceasing was outlined just over the planet below, relatively close to Vishnu. Both were in green. And something was marked on the edge of the planet's atmosphere, something massive.

"What have we got?" he asked.

"Unknown sir," replied the sensor operator. "Something massive is disrupting the planet's atmosphere, directly below Vishnu. It keeps rising. Volcanic activity has been ruled out."

"Are we within visual range?"

"5 minutes sir."

"Helm, set an intercept course. Have the fleet follow us in arrowhead formation. Prime weapons and prepare for any situation." He walked to the primary command console and typed in a few commands. "Condition red. Potential hostile contact. All personnel to ready stations."

[Error]

'DRADIS contact! Large unknown. Bearing zero-two-three, declination zero-six-niner. Range two thirteen.' the deck officer called out.

Mathias' eyes refocused on the DRADIS readout. 'Helm, out our bow on... whatever that is. Standby to launch alert and standby squadrons.' nodding to his XO, he lifted the handset. 'Action stations. Action stations. Set Condition Alpha throughout the ship.'

Replacing the handset, he watched the displays as the ship swung about, nose-on to the planet.

'Commander. Spectrometers, and radioanalyzers, are getting nada. Too much interference. Refocusing main telescope array, but it'll probably give us squat for a few minutes. Too much dust and cloud cover between us and the unknown.'

Captain Grange nodded. 'Flight ops. Launch alert fighters, vector CAP to hold station off the bow. Launch a Raptor patrol to higher orbit, tell them to record everything.'