- Saturday,
September 04, 1999 at 14:58:40 (MDT)
Cicilia flinched, having seen the intel tapes of the Blue Pea, but
reassumed her composure, telling herself that a prominent member of House
Woodlouse who worshipped her might not be a bad thing...
- Saturday,
September 04, 1999 at 15:06:47 (MDT)
Captain's Log, stardate 230659.42 The VDF Crucible, together with
its sister ships the VDF Bunsen Burner and VDF Spatula, have finished a
preliminary scan of the planet. Of interest is the heavy presence of Imperial
structures both on the surface and in orbit. The planetary surface shows
evidence of having suffered massive orbital bombardment, and is currently
dotted with Imperial shield generators and garrisons. We suspect that the
Empire has spread to this sector and had invaded the planet. Odd.. Upon
attempting to hail the Imperials at their standard official channels, we
were greeted not by the planetary governor, or even the garrison commander,
but the comm crew of an orbiting Interdictor. Again, we are told to proceed
to 'Hell', yet no coordinates or navigation instructions were forwarded.
On the planet's surface, surrounded by many thousands of Imperial troops,
is the landed Klingon Bird of Prey. In orbit next to the Admiral's vessel
is a Romulan Warbird. What is going on here? I have instructed the Spatula
to land a shuttle with a security detachment to the surface, in order to
investigate the BoP. The heavy Imperial presence may make things difficult.
The Admiral's tactical advisor has issued a warning that, at the present
dispersal of forces in the system, we are at a severe disadvantage, and
to proceed with utmost caution. Captain Vorgen, VDF Crucible.
Vulcan
Defense Force
- Saturday,
September 04, 1999 at 16:25:26 (MDT)
...As his ship comes into real space, the sensors note the unusual
amount of other ships nearby, and the computer takes precautionary measures,
Active camoflage, the hull displaying exactly what would be seen if the
ship were not there. Secondly Darva is alerted to similar Lurkerspace traces
on a nearby ship. Darva instructs his computer to follow the Far Star,
cautiously careful not to be seen, and returns to studying the logs. The
third thing the ship is to roll and plunge, throwing the few Zerg lurkers
that are still trying to burrow into the hull in various random directions...
Darva
(Lurker Extrodinaire)
- Saturday,
September 04, 1999 at 16:41:51 (MDT)
*meanwhile, in Empire space* Recieving incoming transmission: Maker_of_The_Dead
- Admiral Stukov speaking - "Greetings Captain Alexei. We have received
a message from one of our outlying relays that may be of relevance to that
border incursion and unprovoked attack by the Vulcans. The message is unsigned,
but is encoded in an older Imperial standard. We have verified the information
with our hyperdrive equiped probe droids, and it is accurate. I am hereby
assigning your ship, the Obsidian Claw, to lead a retaliatory strike against
the Vulcan homeworld. A measured response is called for. Even with the
sheer arrogance and decietfulness employed by the Vulcans in their attack
against the border patrol, it would be wise not to completely obliterate
them. They may yet realize and drop their stupid ways, and join the Empire
as citizens. Assigned to you will be 1298th Strike Fleet under Captain
Andropov. Good hunting."
Leroy
- Saturday,
September 04, 1999 at 17:37:02 (MDT)
*Onboard the VDC Crucible* 'ding!'.. "Greetings, my name is S'Khol.
I am the assigned interrogator. We apologize for this breach in privacy,
but this is a serious incident. Many lives were lost." Elisia looks at
the Vulcan in the doorway.. "So, we sit down and talk? Or do you inject
funny chemicals into me first? Or do I get tortured?" S'Khol pauses for
a moment, digesting this. "No.. None of that will be necessary. Just a
simple mind-meld"...
Vulcan
Defense Force
- Sunday,
September 05, 1999 at 00:21:30 (MDT)
Little foot: �Sir, the Vulcan ships are now orbiting Earth and seem
to be just sitting there.� Duker: � Good, it is time we used our secret
weapon. Charge the Gnome gun and open a channel to the gnome universe and
send the following message, �this is Commander Duker of the USS Instigator;
I have a job for you. I need you to make a high explosive bomb, but small
in size. After I receive the confirmation from you that it is ready, I
will open the portal inside a Vulcan ships. I am sending you the scans
of the ship to you, and I want the bomb placed somewhere near the engine
room. Payment will be after job is completed. Duker out.� Little foot:
�Message sent sir.� About ten pass before they receive the message that
they have accepted the mission and are ready with the bomb. {The gnomes
have a stockpile of almost everything imaginable. Refer to the Archives
for a description of the gun.} Duker: �Excellent, decloak the ship and
activate the gun.� Onboard the Vulcan flagship, a small portal about two
and a half feet in height opens in a bright blue electric oval. Six gnomes
walk out of the portal and quickly find the first shadowed wall they see
and scurry right to it, and the portal closes just enough so it can�t be
seen. One of the gnomes, Snikky, pulls out a device that projects a map
of the ship that was given to them by Duker. Snikky: �Okweareinthecargoholdroomtwofloorsupfromtheengineroom.
Weneedtogotothisroomtoplantthebomb. Let�sgo. The gnomes, whom are extremely
fast at everything they do, find an air duct in the ship and quickly open
it up and run inside. In about two minutes time, the gnomes have traveled
down two decks and are already in the room that the bomb needs to be placed.
The gnomes scurry to a corner that has a lot of containers crowding it
and start to put the bomb together. The pieces click together with ease
and once the last piece is attached the bomb creates a very faint hum.
The gnomes, satisfied with their work, enter in the same air duct and run
back to the cargo hold. Once inside the cargo hold, Snikky orders the other
five gnomes back into the portal. Snikky then pulls out a small device
with a single red button on it and presses it. Once he hears an explosion,
Snikky jumps into the portal and seals it. Even from behind the sun, Duker
sees a giant explosion as the Vulcan ship is destroyed. Satisfied with
the gnomes accomplishment, Duker sends a message back to the gnomes telling
them in two hours he will send them the replicator they asked for, and
then Duker orders the Instigator back to cloak since power was fully restored.
Duker: �He he he, suckers.�
Duker
- Sunday,
September 05, 1999 at 00:24:12 (MDT)
Anyone for fried Vulcan.
Duker
- Sunday,
September 05, 1999 at 00:27:47 (MDT)
Duker: *still smiling over the destruction of the Vulcan ship* "Ensign
Little foot, take us away from the sun and put us orbiting around one of
Jupiters moons and stay cloaked." "Yes Sir."
Duker
- Sunday,
September 05, 1999 at 00:30:59 (MDT)
15 feet under the sand of a no-name beach on a no-name island in
the middle of the Pacific, there is a large glass jug. Made from crudely
fused sand, the jug contained a single bowling ball sized chunk of what
appeared to be glassy black volcanic rock. Into this container was poured
several gallons of stolen gasoline, and minerals extracted with heartbreaking
effort from the sand and seawater. Slowly, the rock dissolved. Rough 'hand-made'
fiberoptic cables lead up to the surface like a thousand fine threads,
ending in tiny glass pebbles dotting over a hundred square feet of beachfront.
Primitive photoelectric cells buried in the jug's walls turned the sunlight
into a tiny trickle of power. Offshore, under the waves, rages an epic
battle. Crabs and starfish, octopi and innumerable fish species are at
war with the strange invaders of their ecosystem. With their deeply ingrained
programming against harming living organisms, the glass spiders were losing,
and losing bad. Already, they had to abandon half the little paddle-wheel
powerplants extracting energy from the waves. Resembling the transparent
organisms at the bottom of the food chain is another big disadvantage.
Relying exclusively now on subsurface tunnels, the glass spiders ferry
minerals extracted from the saltwater to the miniature refinery set up
under the beach. Underwater, next to a large barnacle encrusted boulder:
*knock, knock* 'whose there?' 'Open the door!!!!' A phony clam opens its
mouth, and a glass spider, festooned with tiny bits of seaweed, rushes
inside, followed by a squid's tentacle. Scrabbling in blind panic, both
the camouflaged spider and the doorkeeper rush down a tunnel, through another
door, then slams it shut. The tentacle slams into it.. pounds on the obstacle
a few more times.. then begins probing around the short 6-inch long finger-diameter
tunnel. "We lost #1.3x10^8 and #1.41x10^8, but the Brain Coral extractor
is now back online." said the returned glass spider, now shedding its seaweed
cammo. "Before getting torn apart, #1.3x10^8 reported Shark Skeleton powerplant
to be invaded by sand crabs. #1.41x10^8's last report was that Anemone
Ridge mineral storage dump has been broken into by moray eels." "Well done
#1.22x10^8, I see you lost 3 of your legs. Report to the glass shop for
repairs and recharge." The sole surviving chrome spider, cut off from spidernet
when it's spidercomm-bearing companion was crunched and devoured by a seagull,
ponders the situation. Headquarters Boulder, at the edge of the surf, is
secure. However, disconnected from spidernet and hence without access to
the great database, it had been reduced to a Robinson Crusoe And Spider
Friday existence. With only a tiny fraction of the technological database
and extremely poor resources, it had to make-do with what was available.
The remains of the dropship itself, inert quicksilver, had to be laboriously
gathered and bottled for future use. Their first powerplant, a literal
photoelectric glass tree, was shattered into a million slivers by the frequent
typhoons. A small glass submarine crewed by a hundred glass spiders was
also swept out to sea and devoured by a shark. 'Life' was hard.. The theft
of an empty fuel can was a great boon to their efforts. Metal was unspeakably
valuable. Soon, if the commando spiders were successful at stealing the
small walkman carried by the human female Sive, they could complete the
emergency transmitter built into a coconut at the top of a tree and signal
spidernet for help...
Zapper
<Great Battles In Tiny
Places>
- Sunday,
September 05, 1999 at 05:20:39 (MDT)