Friday, November 25, 2011

Cybernetic: Tenebrae Lucem pt. 2

The white coated man broke the silence first, "Hello Captain Navarro." He considered Navarro, "You are the captain right?"
"That I am. Nice to meet you face to face Technical Loire." He said, recognizing the voice of the station's leader, "Your welcome is a bit too formal for my taste though." He said, nodding toward the twenty men with a bead on him.
"Please forgive me sir, it has just been so long since we made contact with the homeworld that we can't be reasonably sure of your intentions." Technical Loire said with sincerity, "Your men may accompany you and you will be allowed to keep your firearms, but just be warned that we will not hesitate to toss you out an airlock should any trouble be caused by you or your crew. Now please follow me, we'll talk in more comfortable quarters."
Captain Navarro nodded and complied, falling into step behind the Technical. He took the time to become better acquainted with his surroundings, many narrow catwalks crisscrossed throughout the structure. The station itself was cigar-shaped and built to be orientated vertically. Maybe three men could stand shoulder to shoulder at a time on the catwalks he could see.
There wasn't too many people around either, a few more men and women in the same uniforms as the soldiers or security walked dutifully toward unknown destinations, a smaller number of them were dressed in what appeared to be civilian outfits, yet occasionally one would order a guard authoritatively.
The weapons the guards used were also of an unknown design, though they were reminiscent of the lightning guns that engineers would handle in the close confines of a starship, but much smaller.

They finally arrived in a sterile looking silver-white room with a few chairs and a long table. Technical Loire motioned for Captain Navarro to take a seat, his five security guards filed in behind him and stood at attention against the wall. The Technical's men did the same the opposite of them.

"So captain, I'm sure you have questions for me. Ask away." He said with a smile that had no warmth
"What exactly is the Umbran Technocracy? A pirate operation with delusions of grandeur?"
Loire laughed "No no! Three full worlds make up our nation. This station is merely a listening post to monitor the actions of the new Imperial Government."
"Three worlds in this system?" Navarro balked, "How?"
Loire seemed pleased at his guest's incredulity, he was definitely enjoying this big reveal, "With whatever we could. The United Nations sent out this expedition a long time ago, our terraforming equipment malfunctioned and we were lost beneath the thick atmosphere of Umbra. It would be decades before we regained the ability to communicate with anything above the clouds."
Captain Navarro folded his arms and did his best to process this information quickly,
a lost colony, he thought.
"Now captain, if you could please answer a question for me?" Loire began, "Just what exactly is your infant empire hoping to gain from us?"
Navarro wasn't at all sure of what the Empress was hoping to accomplish here...or if this assignment was even from the Empress; for all he knew it was from the Cid.
He chose to remain silent.
"Ah, you really can't say. I understand, national security and all that." Loire got up and pushed his chair back in, "Well regardless of the reasons, we really can't trust you to go back to your employers with the location of the Technocracy." Navarro's blood ran cold, "I'm sorry captain but your men will be needing to relinquish their weaponry now."

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Cybernetic: Tenebrae Lucem pt. 1

The Crescendo drifted lazily into SC-3386-2, the light of the system's yellow star twinkled prettily in the distance as the vessel pushed toward its goal.
Captain Lyle Nevarro scanned the monitors in front of him detailing the ship's position to 3386-2's sun and fourteen planetary bodies, powerful communications signals were being emitted somewhere in this system and the Empire hired him to investigate.

Captain Nevarro was young for a commander of a starship; he used to be a Magnus Security Inc. Fighter Pilot before he was able to save up enough to purchase a freighter. After a decent run ferrying goods for various companies, he finally was able to acquire a Corporate Frigate and hire out his ship's services to those businesses who needed protection. Wartime was good for guy's wallet so long as he fought hard enough to survive.
When he was approached by the Empire to investigate an anomaly in an outlying star system he first scoffed at the idea of scouting out some new region of space, figuring something like that was better left to automated probes, but in the end the money was very adequate and getting in good with the Empress wasn't a bad idea either.

Captain Nevarro continued to peruse the holoscreen in front of him as information from planetary scans were processed. When his communications officer informed him that they had just been pinged and that they were being hailed, Nevarro raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Who is it?"
"Unknown serial code and designation. Should I patch it through?"
Captain Nevarro scratched his chin, "Yes. Audio only."
The Comm Officer nodded and the distinct static of active communications was Nevarro's cue to speak,
"This is the Corporate Frigate MEV Crescendo in service to the Empire of Terra. I am Captain Lyle Nevarro."
There was a beat of silence before a response, "I am Technical Hamilton Loire, Chief of Waystation Alpha-Zero." It sounded like an older man, one who was used to being in a position of authority, "I serve the Umbran Technocracy" he stated proudly, "System Patrol Vessels have been dispatched and ordered to bring you to dock here. We'll have plenty to discuss."
Captain Nevarro was not impressed, "If I refuse?"
"Then they will be ordered to fire on your ship." Technical Loire stated matter-of-factly.
"...Very well. Send docking coordinates." Nevarro slumped in resignation. He may have a warship, but he was in an unknown system with no support and he doubted that the Empire would be too pleased if he instigated an altercation with a bunch of unknowns in the middle of nowhere.

Ten starships showed up from out of the black. They were sleek and angular, silvery with dark blue and black insignias proudly displayed on their prows. They were frigates, but smaller than his by half. They also had a certain grace that Imperial ships lacked and if they had any weapons they weren't easily visible.

Waystation Alpha-Zero was not an incredibly impressive sight to behold for a space station, but it was intriguing for its location. It hung motionless out in the middle of nowhere, Captain Nevarro thought that stations could only be built safely in orbit of celestial bodies due to the incredible energy required to keep such a large body in one spot without natural gravitational forces to help anchor the structure. The Crescendo docked with Alpha-Zero with little issue and the captain selected a security detail to accompany him to his meeting with his captors.
Lyle Nevarro was not big on taking unnecessary risks, he survived everything from the Genociders, right on through to the Corporate Rebellions. Like hell he planned on getting killed on some errand.

The airlock hissed as the pressure regulated and the air of the ship mixed with the station. The door opened and the captain, with his five-man security squad, stepped out of the belly of his vessel right into twenty soldiers with firearms pointed directly at them and a stone-faced old man dressed in white.