A recent interview with the Coalition engineer in charge of the Cicero project reveals some interesting information. Firstly, this new design for Coalition use has been finished ahed of schedual, setting the record for corvette-class ship design.

Following is the of the interview of the head Azgaurdian engineer, Zizzet Xillson by, a human news reporter, Ran Dather, which is appearing live on Coalition holostations as you view it.

~Zizzet Xillson and Ran Dather are seated on what appears to be the bridge of a vessle. In the command chair is Zizzet Xillson, and to her right sits Ran Dather. The camera is focused on the young and zealous Ran, who has gone to great lengths to get this interview about such a high-security project.~

Ran Dather:
A fond Hello, Mrs. Xillson. I hear you have recently completed the Design for the new Coalition Vessle, the Cicero. Please, could you tell us a little about it?

~Zizzet smiles enthusiastisly, despite having worked all night on the finishing touches of the design, she manages to appear knowledable and freindly.~

Zizzet Xillson:
Oh, absolutely. As a matter of fact, we have something special planned for you today.

Ran Dather:
Something special?

Zizzet Xillson:
Indeed! The Coalition has decided to use this oppotunity to fill the public in on their technological reformation. You are sitting in a fully operational vessle, and have just received an opportunity to be part of our first testing mission!

~Obviously amazed, and maybe a little bit frightened, Ran Dather's jaw hangs open.~

Ran Dather:
Wow!

~The camera then switches. A full side of the ship is viewable. The design is extremely slick and sleek. It is long and a bright, polished silver. On either side of the Cicero are 'wings'. Any engineer would have recognised the thrusters on the back of either wing, which were about to propel the ship out of its bay. However, they would not have recognised the weapon on the front end of eiether wing.

This weapon is a Super-Ion Diffusal Ray, almost the most prominent innovation of the Cicero. The cannon from which it is fired is mono-directional, silver like the rest of the ship, and is the forward tip of both wings.

The space on these wings is completely used up by the Ion Ray and thrusters, and the wings make up a large portion of the ships total size.~

Zizzet Xillson:
Here we go!

~The ship takes off at an amazing speed, like a bullet fired out of the docking bay into the atmosphere. It angles upward and in a matter of seconds is in space.~

Zizzet Xillson:
Well, Ran, you have just experianced the high-speed three-dimensional thrusters of the Cicero. These thrusters look exactly like regular thrusters, but are truely optimized for maximum effeciancy in all directions, so this ship can, literally, turn on a dime. I, unfortunately, do not have the skill required to fly such a sensative system, and so out ride today will be fully computerized. Bear in mind that, normally, one of the Coalition's top pilots would be sitting in that chair, there, flying the ship with such finesse that only the Coalition can boast.

~Ran, however impressed, never misses an opportunity to ask a interview question, and so he speaks from his chair to the right of Zizzet.~

Ran Dather:
Most impressive, ma'am! Could you tell us a little bit more about the crew of the average Cicero?

Zizzet Xillson:
Certainly! But first, please direct your attension to the viewscreen in front of you, as we make our jump into hyperspace with the specially designed hyper-drive. This hyper-drive makes its own jump calculations at amazing speeds, it takes up a large section of the ship, down and to the back. Let me initiate the program... There! Finished already! Here we go!

~The camera view switches to the viewscreen, and the ship makes a jump into hyper-space. It is now traveling at amazing across the galaxy to the test site.~

Zizzet Xillson:
Now, you wanted to know about the crew of the Cicero? Yes, there are always four people on board every Cicero, each one has their own personal quarters behind us. The Cicero is designed with long missions in mind, in which the crew may be called upon to do a variety of tasks. The key to every Cicero's success is the Crew onboard. The Pilot, Captain, Defense Officer, and Engineer are the four people on each Cicero.

Alot of the work onboard a Cicero, however, is done by Remote Operation Robots. It is the most important duty of the Engineer to maintain and operate these Robots.

Ran Dather:
Remote Operation Robots?

Zizzet Xillson:
Another new design of us Coalition engineers. They are small droids designed to be able to do a variety of tasks.

Ran Dather:
I see... interesting.

Zizzet Xillson:
Well, here we are at our first test. It will be a simulated rescue mission, we'll see what those clever programmers have in store for us.

~The pilot's console flashes a bright yellow three times, the code for a distress signal, and buttons light up, as if a pilot was pushing them.~

Zizzet Xillson:
Ah! Look there! It seems we have received a freindly distress signal. From the looks of it, out pilot has punched in the coordinates and we're almost there now.

~The view switches to a camera mounted atop the Cicero corvette, and an old Coalition vessle can be seen.~

Ran Dather:
Whats that?

Zizzet Xillson:
Thats a couple of old Fighters, probably survivers from some sort of accident (It's only a simulation.) We've come here to rescue them!

To acheive this, It looks like we're going to luanch our little freinds the Yellow Remote Operation Robots to repair the ships' to tow in the fighters.

~Four small droids with yellow tops can now be seen floating toward the two fighters. When they reach the fighters, two droids grab each fighter in their arms. Then, using their personal thrusters, they jet toward the ship. The yellow droids were picked because of their high energy capacity... but for this job, mostly any Colour would do.~

Zizzet Xillson:
Looks like we've saved those fighters! Their pilots would now be led into the guest quarters behind us, if there were actually pilots... but wait, whats this??

~The view, which had returned to the bridge, now switches to a more zoomed out view of the ship's surroundings. Nearby is a planet, large and green-coloured...

A voice sounds, speaking loudly and concisely, said"Hostile detected." and repeated it several times.

...And approaching the planet is a large, lumbering ship.

Zizzet Xillson:
The planet is being attacked! Oh no! Here we go!

~Lights flash wildly at all consoles as the Cicero ship flys around the planet to meet the attacking vessle.

The opposing ship is about three or four, if not more, times the size of the Cicero, and is bristling with weapons of all sorts. Apparently, however, it does not see the Cicero coming.

The Ion guns of the Cicero fire, both scoring direct hits on the ship's hull before it even has its sheilds up. The large ship then powers up its sheild, which had been damaged by the Ion rays, and fires a volley of indistiguishable beams and pulses at the Cicero.

However, the Cicero is smarter, using its 360 degree thrusters, it spins around. It turns and flippes, the huge majority of the weapons not hitting it, and the weak but quickly recharging sheild taking the rest.

The Cicero then flys up to the other ship, again firing its Ions, but this time firing from below at the big ship's main thrusters.

The beams hit and the ship had very visable power problems. No longer able to fight, the ship is rendered totally helpless.~

Ran Dather
Wow! Amazing! Was that real?

~Zizzet laughs.~
Zizzet Xillson:
Absolutely! That was, of course, a very, very old ship. Do you think we would use a good one for this purpose? But I think it gives you a demonstration of the Cicero's style.

~Ran Dather looks at the chrono on the wall, and is obviously suprised. Moving quickly, he adresses the holo-viewing audiance.~

Ran Dather:
Well, thats all we have time for, folks! But thanks for watching this amazing program!

~He was going to say more, but the holo-station changed quickly to commercials.~


Summary:
A sleek corvette roughly 50 meters in length, the body of the Enforcer is small, with just enough room for crew and a few passangers. Each of its "wings", however, home two bits of advanced macheinery: Thrusters, and Ion cannons. The Ion Cannons are high-powered and mono-directional, firing only in the direction that they and the rest of the Corvette are facing. The thrusters, however, are omnidirectional, able to turn the ship any direction, and propell it in any direction.

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Created By

milkshake

Created On

Mar 17 2005 12:44am

Last Updated

Mar 17 2005 12:44am

Version Log

• Mar 17 2005 12:44am