Lore/info dump coming soon including ship classification info, alien species info, and possible crew bios.

Drifting somewhere in deep space…

Coordinates Unknown…

Date Unknown…

“Warning, Warning, Imminent collision Detected. Booting AI... “

Loading...

Error.

Re-attempting boot sequence

Error.

Re-attempting boot sequence

Error.

Activating Failsafe 42

Loading backup AI system

Loading...

Complete.

"This is the AI Ghost, activating Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) and engaging in evasive maneuvers."

"Evasive maneuvers successful, Beginning deep scan on Main AI unit..."

“Scan complete. Damage is repairable but unable to run ship while running repairs…”

“Running checks on Bridge tech; hologram capabilities, Quantum Mechanical Computer (QMC), Quantum Communication Array (QCA), View screens, and DJ booth, all functional”

“Hrmmmm, awakening the command crew is the most viable option; I wonder why the main shipboard AI failed. Oh well, better check on the status of the pods…”

...

...

...

Ssshhiittt.

“This is not good.”

“Awakening command crew to give report”

Time since last log ... unknown

Time since last report ... unknown

Current Interstellar Date ... Unknown

"This is gonna be one shitty-ass report"

“Thawing out command crew. Success.”

“Command crew pods draining.”

"Greetings command crew, this is Ghost. We have a bit of a situation on the bridge."

"Requesting Defense captain Wolfe, Assault captain Scarr, QCA Officer Bryan, and First mate Frank on command deck ASAP."

10 Minutes Later

Ghost appears on the holotable, turns to the men and says, “Good. You guys are here. We have a situation,"

"What-the-hell did you wake us up for Ghost? And where is Luna?" Bryan says to Ghost.

"Check that. An even better question is where the hell is the Captain?" retorts Frank.

Ghost looks at the assembled crewmembers and said; "Well, that’s the problem. I don't know where the captain is, and Luna was somehow damaged."

"..." Wolfe

"Dun-dun-duuun" Bryan

"..." Scarr

Frank grumbles; "Please be fucking with me Ghost. I haven’t even had any coffee I don't need to deal with this just yet."

Ghost looks at the crew, "That is why I woke you guys from Hibernation; I was hoping you might know what happened. Anyways, I have to give you my report on the situation. Captain Bonaventure is missing, and I was unable to find any sign of him on the ship after doing a thorough search. This leads me to the next issue, of the main shipboard AI Luna. Most of the damage was done to her operating systems and short-term memory banks, which means I have no information as to what happened to the captain before the memory shortage. However the failsafe programs were still running, which is how I was able to be booted up fast enough to redirect the ship. I also have some even better news. It was failsafe 42 which means we almost hit a stray Asteroid."

"Like that would have done anything to this ship" Scoffs Scarr.

Ghost responds; "Be that as it may, for some reason the ship’s scanners are picking up some sort of small vessel, and due to the estimated speed, it is presumably an Aphrodite class headed this way, with an Ares class Heavy destroyer not far behind"

"Isn't it common for an envoy to have an escort?" Frank asks.

Ghost continues. "Yes, however the Aphrodite is traveling too close to that asteroid for comfort and the Ares seems to be searching for something"

"HAHAHAHA who in their right mind would try to shoot down an Envoys ship? Everyone knows that they are primarily used for diplomatic missions, anyone who would do so..." Bryan trails off.

"Is either trying to start a war, take a diplomat hostage, or kill somebody" Frank finishes.

Wolfe states; "But aggression against an envoy is an unforgivable offense under the Spiral Arm Treaty"

Frank turns to Wolfe and says; "How do we know that the Ares is aggressive, and who knows how long we have been under. Ghost plainly told us the short term banks were corrupted, also how do we know that it is pursuing the Aphrodite?"

Ghost interrupts any further questioning by saying to Frank; "Both ships are closing in, requesting orders from First Mate Frank Vergil in accordance to ships regulations due to the captain being missing."

"Brew me some coffee for starters, then awaken the rest of the crew, fire up the scanning ECM and ready the ship for combat. If it is only a single Ares go to combat level 3. Wolfe, I need you to ready yourself for combat along with Scarr. No Nanosuits; - Hard Light armor only. Bryan, man the Communication circuit, ready the system to open up lines to both ships"

"Aye, Aye" the three others respond.

"Yo, Frank. What should we have the ship’s name be when I call them, for safeties sake?" Bryan queries.

Frank turns to Bryan and tells him; "Go with Faunastar for this one, we haven’t used it in a while"

"Not since that scrap with the Alfar Dominion off of Orion" Bryan

Frank sighs, and starts rubbing his temples while saying; “Please don’t remind me of that incident, you know how much I hated dealing with those freaks"

"Hahahaaha" Bryan starts laughing maniacally at his friends’ discomfort.

5 minutes later

"Hey Frank that Ares is still not responding to our hails" Bryan

"Then fuck them, we gave them 3 chances. Each time they broke the circuit connection. Try the envoy instead. Maybe they have some actual manners" Frank

___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___

Henry POV

We were 17 days out from the Dradarian Empire's capitol of Sindar, Having left in the middle of the night in order to save the life of the Theriocephian Princess, Samantha Therioceph. Well, on second thought it wasn’t that dramatic of an exit, we were already packed and ready to go. The third princess of the Theriocephian kingdom was sent to Sindar as an envoy of peace, since she has very little power being the third princess. She was merely a pawn to her father, the king of Therioceph. The Emperor of Dradar knew this and barely paid any attention to her. This is where all of our troubles began.

While we were there the Crown Prince of the Dradar, Justinian Machiavelli, took a fancy to the princess. Normally one would say good for her, however the crown prince is a low life degenerate who tortures women for his own amusement. There was not a chance that I, a member of the royal guard, who watched over her from her birth and was forsworn to her service, would allow such a fate to befall my princess. Two months past and it seemed like the prince had finally stopped his advances when I uncovered a plot in which the Crown Prince planned to kidnap and forcefully wed the princess so, in secret, after being cast aside by our own kingdom as nothing more than a literal sacrificial pawn, we decided to flee Dradar. We headed towards the outer systems where we could take refuge amongst the Taoists Oligarchy, who always took a neutral stance.

Besides, some people owe me favors there and could keep us protected for a time until we will be safe at home. Anyways, now we are fleeing in our Aphrodite-class cruiser the Neuri from what was once multiple destroyers, and is now only one, the prince's personal Ares-class heavy destroyer Imoogi.

Thank the founders that we were able to find that stray asteroid before the other destroyers did, three Apollo’s, and two Ares have been wiped out. All because our scanners were of a better quality and our ship had the edge on maneuverability, but now we have the worst and most persistent of the lot. A Machiavellians’ personal ship. This is where shit is going to get hairy. Wait, the hell is that?

"Comm. - Sergeant, open the line, where are we being contacted from? It is not the Ares is it?"

"No Cap'n Henry" the Comm.-Sgt replies.

"Can you get a fix on where the signal is coming from?"

"We are working on it Cap'n but we can't seem to trace it or scan it," the Comm.-Sgt frantically says.

"Mr. Henry, it would not hurt us if we were to answer the communication circuit, would it?” the princess asks.

"Princess what are you doing on the bridge? It is not safe here! What if something were to happen and you were to get injured?”

"Mr. Henry, nothing will hurt me as much as to be captured by that rapscallion of a prince!!! Besides, with you here, who would dare hurt me on

my ship?" Samantha points out.

"Very well princess, as you wish. However I must insist that you return to your quarters"

Samantha turns to me and says; "Very well, Mr. H, I will be awaiting for information about this invisible vessel"

I dutifully reply, "As you command, my lady"

Thank the founders, she scared me shitless. Bloody royalty and their stealth skills! Soundless walking my ass, I did not even notice her presence until she spoke. I am sure if she were to put her mind to it, then not even that prince and all of his men would be able to catch her. Thankfully, she is sensitive to the crews’ pride as her guards and rarely flaunts her abilities; but when she does, it is to keep us on our toes.

"Let us hope this ship is a possible ally and not an enemy, Sgt, answer the Comm. Circuit. Let see what this invisible ship desires"

"Unidentified Vessel this is the Theriocephian kingdom's Aphrodite class envoy cruiser Neuri, what is your intent in hailing us, and where is your ship?" Comm.-Sgt

"Oh, Thank god you finally answered, I was getting bored to tears. Anyways, this is the Hermes class Faunastar, unaffiliated; we are wondering what are you doing with an Ares-class cruiser trailing you? Also if you were to look up to the top left of your physical viewport you would see our ships signal lights" Bryan

"You did not answer our question, Faunastar; we wanted to know what your intent is” Comm.-Sgt

"Our intent is merely curiosity, that asteroid almost hit us and then we scanned two ships approaching right in its wake" Bryan

"Give us a moment to verify something" Comm.-Sgt

"Roger, dodger" Bryan

The Comm.-Sgt turns to me and asks; "What do you think Cap'n?"

"I don’t think they are enemies if that is what you were asking, the man they had on the comm.‘s looked Theriocephian"

Moreover, just because the king is not appreciative of his family doesn’t mean that the public isn't. Even if they are unaffiliated, there should still be some vestiges of patriotism in them.

"It won’t hurt to at least ask for help first Comm.-Sgt, before we try to pull the royalty card"

"Aye Cap'n, hailing them on the comm. circuit" Comm.-Sgt

"Faunastar, this is Neuri; we are being trailed by that ship with ill will and are requesting assistance. Over" Comm.-Sgt

"Really man, Friggin Really? First you make us wait a few minutes before you answered the comm., then you didn't even say please. It is normally polite mannerism to say please and thank you while asking someone to stick their necks out for you" Bryan

"....." Comm.-Sgt

"....." Henry

I realized that we are fucked. I managed to piss-off the only other ship for Light-years, I am going to die. The princess is probably going to die, hell that ship will probably be thrown in order to remove any and all witnesses. This is not my day...

"This is the third Princess of the Theriocephian Kingdom. Requesting aid and protection from the Faunastar under the interstellar code of Bushido. Oh, and also, Pretty please?"

"Oy, Missy you're pretty good. Even if you are not a princess, you have the look and behavior of one. No offense but our shipboard AI is down so we have no way of verifying what you said" Bryan

"I understand, but if you would please help us, and I will explain the details later" Samantha replies.

"Very well, Ma'am, this is the acting Cap’n of the Faunastar. We will assist you. However if we find out you are lying, then you and your crew will regret it" Frank

"Understood, Cap'n, and thank you," the Princess says.

"I am not the Cap’n; I am the acting Cap’n and prepare to be pulled into our ship’s cargo and docking bay. ETA 5 minutes" Frank

"Thank you sir, and we will see you then" Samantha

"Comm.-Sgt, cut the line, I will retire to my quarters until we have docked. Let’s hope that this explorer-class can outrun a destroyer" Samantha

"Aye, Miss" Comm.-Sgt

I turn to the princess and ask; "What makes you think we can trust them Ma’ Lady?"

The princess glances at me, and then back at our ships sensor arrays before saying "His reaction seemed genuine when we mentioned bushido. Besides, didn’t you notice how much avian he had in him? I doubt that he would have turned down royalty of his own kind"

"Be that as it is, he claimed to be unaffiliated," I say

"Which means they won’t side with the Dradarians over us"

"How do you know that he was not lying about his affiliation or even the type of their ship? I have never seen cloaking tech like that before"

"You can call it women’s intuition. Besides, if their tech is that good, it is all the more reason we need to get them onto our side as opposed to the alternative"

"I wonder what they meant by AI though; could it have been one with the truth seer skill?"

"We will find out in due course, but now, I must prepare myself to meet these men"

As she walks off the deck, I cannot help but think, thank the founders that this did not go worse. Nevertheless, what the heck was the princess thinking? What good will a single explorer class be able to do for us? I guess we will have to wait for the docking to find out.

*___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___*___

"Frank, this is Ghost, the crew is awake from hibernation and is assuming battle stations for combat. Status Level 3"

Frank turns to the ships communication array, presses some buttons, and then says; "Good, Wolfe and Scarr, what is your sit-rep?"

"This is Wolfe; we are ready and are on standby in the cargo bay"

"Good. We should be picking up a princess in a few"

"Aye, aye" Wolfe + Scarr

Ghost appears on the holotable, looks at frank and then asks; "First mate, are you sure it is a good idea to piss of an Ares-class first thing after awakening from hibernation?"

"Whether it is or isn’t, we will soon find out"

“I was not talking to you Bryan; it is the First mates’ call”

Frank ignores the two of them, walks over to the Comm. Array and says; "All hands prepare to welcome aboard a self-proclaimed princess and her retinue"

"Ghost, as soon as we get them on board get, us out of here, and as far away as possible. Then you can begin repairs on Luna"

"Aye Aye. Also, I would like to request to awaken AI Fragment Solomon so that he may assist me with the repairs on the memory banks as I repair Luna's core OS"

Frank turns back to Ghost and says; "Wait until we manage to get to a relatively safe distance first, and also what is the ships status at the moment?"

"The ship’s hull integrity is at 97%. There is just some slight battering on the outer armor, and most of the major weapons linked to Luna are going to be down until we get her back online"

Frank questions; "What weapons are available, which weapons are down, and how does the Bridge tech look?"

"All manual weapons including the Main Turrets, Rocket pods, Plasma Cannons, Smaller Rail Guns, Laser Interceptors, Grappling Hooks, and Torpedo Bays, are operational, with Luna down we won’t be able to use the BFWG, Tesla cannons, Main Rail Guns, Particle Disruptors, SSWG, Beamer, and the Rocky Road. Also without her we won’t be able to make a jump since she is the only one with proper access to the required processing power on the ships main QMC capable of calculating where we are with the galaxial coordinates and making a decent jump."

Frank then continues his questioning; "What of the Stealth Field Generator, the Repulser Fields, Hard-Light Shields, Energy Fields, Radiation Converters, Plasma Generators, Anti Matter Reactors and Dark Matter Drives?"

Ghost takes a moment to check, then states "All other systems are fully functioning Stealth fields were automatically activated upon scanning the approaching ships as part of the ECM's"

Frank turns and starts walking off the bridge while turning his head back and saying; "Good. I will head down to the Docking bay in order to assist in welcoming the princess, Bryan, you take the Bridge, please make sure we don’t crash"

"Aye, Aye skipper, and also, dibs"

Franks stops walking, turns to Bryan and says with an incredulous voice; "What??"

"I call first crack on wooing the princess, so, dibs"

"You can’t call dibs’ on a girl"

"I just did"

"You're fucked-up"

"I know, but a dude has got to try"

Ghost interrupts the two and says; "Look ladies, this isn’t an ice cream social, besides you know the rule, no wooing her unless she is interested"

"Haggghhh. Do I have to?"

"YES" Ghost & Frank say in unison

"Besides she looks to be like some sort of cat-lady" Ghost

"You mean like a puma?" Frank

"We will see" Bryan

Frank turns and starts walking off the bridge again saying; "Ya know what, I don’t have time to waste with this I am going down to meet her. You

can sit here and argue with the AI about it" Frank

"Whatever ya say Frank" Bryan

Once frank is out of earshot, Bryan turns to Ghost and says; "So what do you think of her, ghost?"

"Please don’t talk to me; I have to start readying the ship’s defensive measures"

"Sigghhh. Whatever you say"

"Why did you say sigh out loud? You know what? Forget it I have stuff to do"

As they both go back to work Bryan starts mumbling to himself, "Hrmm, I wonder what cup size she is??"

Scarr + Wolfe @ Armory

"So, we get to meet a princess" Scarr

"Yep" Wolfe

"Didn’t you have a princess for a girlfriend once?"

"Yep"

"Wasn't her name Miranda?"

"Nope"

Scarr continues his questioning; "What was it then?"

Wolfe growls and says; "Ya know man, I would prefer to not remember that cheating whore if you don’t mind"

"OOOhhhhh, so it was that one.... Sorry I forgot about it"

"Ya know what? How about we play the quiet game while we armor up?"

"Sounds good to me"

"..." Wolfe

"..." Scarr

"..." Wolfe

"..." Scarr

"..." Wolfe

"..." Scarr

"..." Wolfe

"..." Scarr

"..." Wolfe

Scarr turns to Wolfe and asks; "So what is the armor form you are going to use with the hard light armor?"

Wolfe snaps and says; "Don’t fucking talk to me, I have had no freaking caffeine in who knows in how long and am still really damn grouchy after waking up"

"So, Abyssal?"

"Hrrgggghhh. Yes, I am going with the fucking abyssal"

"Cool. I am going Norse for now, till I recalibrate my suit"

"..." Wolfe

Scarr+ Wolfe @ docking bay

Wolfe turns to Scarr and says; "Ya know what? How about we play the quiet game till Frank gets here?"

"Sounds good to me" Scarr replied

"..." Scarr

"..." Wolfe

"..." Scarr

"..." Wolfe

"..." Scarr

"..." Wolfe

"..." Scarr

"..." Wolfe

Scarr looks at Wolfe and says; "So, Dibs on the princess"

"NO. You can’t call freaking dibs on a girl"

"Yes you can, and I just did"

"That is wrong on some many different levels"

"So, quite game again?"

"Yep"

"Starting?"

"Right bloody now" Wolfe growled.

"..." Scarr

"..." Wolfe

"..." Scarr

"..." Wolfe

"..." Scarr

"..." Wolfe

"..." Scarr

"..." Wolfe

"Regardless, Dibs"

"..." Wolfe

Wolfe turns to him and says; "No, you know the rules. Only if she is interested"

"Grhagh. Must I really??"

"Yes, besides, I imagine if we are going by Dibs, Bryan probably already would have called her."

"True that man. Shit. Well, I guess we will see if she is interested later"

"Yep" Wolfe

Frank walks into the Bay and says "Oy, you two fag bags man-up they will be here in less than a minute activate your Hard-Light armor suits, and ready your weapons. We have to make a show of force to make sure that we are not to be trifled with"

“That is going to be hard with only 3 dudes,” Wolfe points out.

"Shouldn’t we have had the defense crew here in nanotech in order to make a true show of force?" Scarr says.

Frank turns to Scarr and says; "Two reasons why we didn’t;

1. We don’t want to scare them to death with a squad of 7-foot tall lycanthropes wearing powered nanotech covered in hard light

2. Those guys smell like wet dog after coming out of hibernation, and need to shower before anything else" Frank

"True that" Scarr & Wolfe

"Oh yeah, Scarr, by the way, Bryan already called dibs"

"......." Scarr

Wolfe visually looking relieved says; "Finally, thanks Frank for shutting him up about that. It was annoying as hell."

“At least tell me what sort of person she is” Scarr

“She looks kind of like a puma” Frank

“Hrmmm” Scarr

"Oh and once she is aboard, Wolfe, you can head over to the cafeteria there is some fresh coffee waiting" Frank

"Thank you Jesus"

"No Prob"

"Here they come"