Sensor Data from Shuttle Analyzed
Tholatin Prince Warmonger?
"Today, in a press released by Gor'gon Zoo'ala, it was announced that the sensor data aboard his shuttle, the Intrigue, had been analyzed as much as it could be. As you may remember, Gor'gon Zoo'ala was with Jon Trojan when the Mandal-sat charity fleet under Trojan's command met a horrible and untimely fate. Gor'gon had been aboard to cover the event, a monumental donation of twenty Corillian Corvettes from the Mandal-Sat Starship Brokerage Association to the Tholatin Republic."
The screen shifted from displaying the face of Kent Clark, Anthos News Network's anchorman, to displaying a podium with a holo-display in the background. Off to the left, Gor'gon Zoo'ala could be seen walking up. After clearing his throat, Gor'gon began to speak.
"Hello, and welcome. um ... As you may know, I am Gor'gon Zoo'ala, sole survivor of the Mandal-Sat / Tholatin Incident. um ... We're going to be displaying some sensor data here, and General Bill to my right here will explain what the images mean..."
Gor'gon paused to take a drink from a small glass on the corner of his podium, as if to steady his nerves before he continued.
"We might as well get started. If you will?" said Gor'gon. Turning, he signaled to a tech guy in the back. "Here we have a display of the space around Tholatin, fifteen minutes before the incident. This data came from Jon Trojan's ship, the Argosy. My shuttle pilot grabbed an emergency dump of the Argosy's core as we launched.
"The green dots are the Mandal-Sat craft, the red are Tholatin craft, the ghosted-blue blot is Tholatin. As you can see, the Mandal-Sat craft are quite a distance away from Tholatin. In fact, the Mandal-Sat craft are about four million kilometers from Tholatin. It was at this point we transmitted our craft manifest, cargo manifest, and transmitted this audio message:"
<blockquote><font size="1">"Greetings Tholatin Republic. My name is Captain Jon Trojan, of the courrier ship Argosy. On behalf of the Mandal-Sat Starship Brokerage Assosiation, myself and our people, all of whom desire galactic peace as deeply as yourselves, bring a gift for the people of Tholatin, in their galactic peace effort. Twenty, brand new Correllian-class Corvettes. It is our hope that you will take our gift, we only ask in return that you use them, to end this violent era of conflict once and for all, so that my family and I can . . so that we can live in a world not ruled by blasters and ships, please . . .please . . .all I ask, is that you consider us , we are eagerly await your reply."</font></blockquote>
"Now, we progress five minutes forward. As you can see, the Tholatin fleet has moved slightly. General Bill, could you enumerate on this?"
"Gladly," said Bill, a retired Bith General. He was standing off to the side, out of view from the camera. As the display shifted to him, he began. "If we can zoom in on the Tholatin ships for a moment, yes, there we go, we can see that there has been a massive amount of movement in five minutes. You can't see it here, but a massive power surge was faintly detected on Tholatin - our experts believe this to be the planetary shield initializing. The following audio message was received in response to Jon Trojan's first:"
<blockquote><font size="1"> "Tell me why I should believe you are who you say you are? It has not been long since we fought with TNO. What is to make me believe you are not one of there employees? If you are, realize you will not make it out of here alive. You have mines in front of you, a fleet after that, and then shields and planetary weapons." </font></blockquote>
"Quote a hostile message from an obviously suspicious, and nervous, commander. Not only did he broadcast a warning, but he listed the extent of his planetary defenses - he obviously wants no trouble, and is hoping that any small time governments that may try take advantage of the galactic turmoil will find his planet too difficult to take. If you'll look at the arrangement of the Tholatin fleet, you can see many small dots - those are fighters. What we see right here is the Tholatin fleet mobilizing, five minutes after twenty craft entered the far edge of their system. Very jumpy people. Gor'gon?"
"Thanks Bill. Let's return to the main view. We'll advance sixty-two seconds. At this point the following message was broadcasted from the Argosy:
<blockquote><font size="1"> "Tholatin control, I assure you, we have no hostile intentions. We come before you on behalf of a smalltime courier company who wish nothing more than to usher the end to this conflict that has engulfed the majority of the galaxy. All the necessary information is being sent to you as we speak. All we ask in return, is minimum docking privilages, we have been on a long journey, we are in desperate need of resupply and maintainance . . .please, I beg you, if you turn us away, we may not last a journey back. You can place us under armed escort and bring us in . . .just . . .please, we need you assistance." </font></blockquote>
"Here Jon tries to calm down the jumpy planet commander. The Tholatin fleet continues to mobilize. We'll move forward another forty-seconds, and listen to the reply by none other than Kamon Vondiranach:
<blockquote><font size="1"> "Trojan this is Kamon Vondiranach. You will stand down all shields and weapons and prepare all ships for boarding. Your people will be placed on your ships and you will be allowed assistance from your current location. Anything you need will be provided. The ships will be boarded by TTR troops and everyone will be herded around by these troops to assure no ill-content. Anything that happens will cause trouble for you. Sorry for the inconvience but in our current situation we have no choice." </font></blockquote>
"Bill, do you want to comment on this?"
"Yes, thank you Gor'gon. The President of the Tholatin Republic has at this point in time been notified of the potential danger, and no doubt of the status of his fleet. He has made his way to a broadcasting station, probably the same one that the planetary commander is broadcasting from, and is attempting to soothe Jon. No doubt he chided his planetary commander for his rashness. His demands are harsh - all craft are to be boarded - but most definitely not unexpected. If we could advance to the next frame here, please, thank you, we can see that a group of small craft, about a score, have broken off of the main fleet and are moving toward the Mandal-Sat craft. Gor'gon?"
"Thank you, Bill. Let's advance to the next frame, fifty seconds later. This is the Tholatin fleet we're looking at, you can see the small craft moving away. Let's move forward five seconds. Same image, but, if you look closely, you can see that the red close to the center of the formation is a tad darker - we had an image professional measure it. We'll advance five seconds more now... now you can definitely see it. A series of very, very faint ghosting. They have been highlighted artificially. We'll move forward ten seconds here. As you can see, the computer aboard the Argosy has picked up these blips now, and has highlighted them as a probable hostile weapon. At this point I was on the bridge. A man yelled out something about bogies incoming, Jon asked how many, and someone said that twelve missiles had originated from the Tholatin ships. Someone else said brace for impact. At about the time Jon asked how many, the missiles had crossed almost half the distance, and were gaining even more rapidly. As you can see from this image, the Argosy has determined the contacts to indeed be weapons, and the shields have automatically begun to warm up. Bill?"
Bill continued from where Gor'gon had left off. His military knowledge aided him greatly here, as he began to expound upon the data that he had just spent the last several weeks analyzing with many other men.
"Most computers automatically prepare to go to red alert when a probable hostile action has taken place, like this case where the Argosy detected twelve missiles coming toward them. Preparing to go to red alert includes warming up the shield generators, and preparing to shunt energy to weapons systems. The Argosy never had a chance to do either. Exactly thirty seconds after the blips appeared as ghosts on the Argosy's map, they were correctly identified as a probable cause for concern. The crewmen manning the sensor consoles were warned of the threat. They, in turn, examined the threat - this took about six seconds. Another fifteen seconds were taken up informing the Captain, and doing a double-check of the threat. Twelve seconds after that four missiles connected with the Argosy. Four identical missiles also struck the Argosy's sister ships, seriously breaching the hulls on all three. Hundreds of people died instantly, as each missile impacted upon the unprotected hulls. Hundreds more died subsequent to the explosions, as life support on the Argosy, and in all probability the other two craft as well, has cut out. The computer attempted to initialize magnetic screens, but failed, and dozens, if not scores of people were sucked into the vacuum of space where their blood boiled within seconds. The Mandal-sat craft were ill prepared for such an attack, their shields were down, their weaposn off. The missiles had no trouble cracking the aged hulls of each ship like an egg.
"At this point the computer automatically went to red alert, and tried to power up shields and weapons systems. The shields failed to initialize. Sensors went from passive to full, and automatically narrowed in on the Tholatin fleet. Gor'gon?"
"Thank you, Bill," said Gor'gon. He finished taking a sip from the cup of water before him before continuing. "Immediately after the torpedoes struck, the following message was sent from the Argosy. The voice is that of Jon Trojan.
<blockquote><font size="1"> "Tholatin forces . . . We came before you today today, in peace . . . . . .And you blatantly spit on that peace!! You murder my crew, in cold blood . . .that act will not be forgotten . . . You murdered my Son!!!! I may not live to tell of your treachery, but . . .I will make you pay, for what you bastards have done . . ."</font></blockquote>
"Twenty seconds after this message was transmitted, the Mandal-sat charity fleet received orders to open fire. The Corvette's, manned by less than skeleton crews, and began to aquifer targets. This next message was received shortly thereafter. Because of the damage to the coms dish, the message is very distorted."
<blockquote><font size="1">Mr. Trojan . . . Republic. . . Fleet that fired on you. . .our fleet . . .orders. "</font></blockquote>
Gor'gon continued, "It was at this point that our records of the Argosy's computer end. I exited the Argosy in a shuttle, at Jon's urging, and pulled away from the Mandal-sat task force. Bill, will you take it from here?"
"Certainly, Gor'gon."Bill turned to face the cameras, and continued the report. "Despite being attacked by Tholatin forces, Jon Trojan once again attempted to call a truce. He broadcasted the next message to the Tholatin fleet. As you can see on the sensor image above, which came from Gor'Gon's shuttle, Tholatin shuttles are getting closer to the Mandal-sat group, though they are still quite a distance away.
<blockquote><font size="1">"Tholatin forces . . .we are spinning out of control . . .if you have any mercy, any at all, please, spare us from this slaughter. Spare my crew . . . Prince Kamon. . .please I need your help . . .my bridge is collapsing around me . . .I fear . . .i may not have much. Please, if you are the man of honour I have heard you are . . .you yourself will come to our aide, if not, then let you be sided with the terrorist filth that stagnates this galaxy." </font></blockquote>
"We'll advance the sensor data thrity-seven seconds. As you can see, the Tholatin shuttles, as well as a large battle-cruiser are now very close to the Mandal-sat group. They did a micro-jump, and are now close enough to begin either rescue or attack operations. As the sensor data advances here in real-time, you'll notice that the battle-cruiser moves closer to the Argosy, then begins to hurriedly back away, almost as if they were afraid of the injured craft -- like it was capable of hurting them. The Corvette's are preparing to open fire at this moment. On the side there we can see a shuttle maneuvering up to the Argosy. For almost four minutes nothing happens. The Mandal-sat Corvettes do not open fire, and the Tholatin forces do not move. Then, the shuttle that manouvered up to the Argosy, here... "
Bill pointed to the sensor image behind him, at a very small blip.
"The shuttle comes out of the Argosy here. As you can see in real-time, it's moving rather fast. The entire Tholatin forces also being to move as fast as possible away from the Argosy. Then,"
The screen paused, flickered, and shifted to what appeared to be a still image of grey dots against a starscape.
"This is the live video feed from Gor'gon. You are looking at video captured at the scene. As I begin the film, remember that the timeline has been moved back. You can just bairly see a hint of the Tholatin shuttle flying away from the Argosy
<blockquote><font size="1">Several small dots begin to shift, it is the Tholatin fleet moving away from the Argosy. Seconds pass as the craft move, then, a blinding flash of light illuminates the screen, whiting out the view. A few seconds later the screen begins to fade back to normal. The burning wreckage of the Argosy is visible, for it burns red hot as it streaks in a thousand directions. Almost a minute passes, and then another explosion whites out the screen. Then another, and another, and another, until eight explosions in total have graced the sky with their presence.</font></blockquote>
For a moment Bill and Gor'gon were silent, their heads bowed. Then, Bill cleared his throat.
"At eight-fifty nine PM, Mandal-sat time, no Mandal-sat IFF codes registered on the sensor display of Gor'gon's shuttle the Intrigue. Twenty-three civilian-owned ships, and thousands of civilian men, most of whom were married, were utterly annihilated by Tholatin forces. It is the conclusion of this soldier, and of his compatriots, that this incident was a deliberate and calculated attack. Begun with a long-range missile attack and completed with a high-powered bomb of some sort, this attack was indented to be a quick strike, and was never meant to make it to the holo-networks. Fortunately for us, Gor'gon managed to make it out alive."
With that, Bill and Gor'gon turned and left the stage, leaving the camera's to show only the burning wreckage of the Mandal-sat convoy, flickering on the holo-display.
[edit: Fixed a slew of grammatical errors and an HTML boo-boo]
Tholatin Prince Warmonger?
"Today, in a press released by Gor'gon Zoo'ala, it was announced that the sensor data aboard his shuttle, the Intrigue, had been analyzed as much as it could be. As you may remember, Gor'gon Zoo'ala was with Jon Trojan when the Mandal-sat charity fleet under Trojan's command met a horrible and untimely fate. Gor'gon had been aboard to cover the event, a monumental donation of twenty Corillian Corvettes from the Mandal-Sat Starship Brokerage Association to the Tholatin Republic."
The screen shifted from displaying the face of Kent Clark, Anthos News Network's anchorman, to displaying a podium with a holo-display in the background. Off to the left, Gor'gon Zoo'ala could be seen walking up. After clearing his throat, Gor'gon began to speak.
"Hello, and welcome. um ... As you may know, I am Gor'gon Zoo'ala, sole survivor of the Mandal-Sat / Tholatin Incident. um ... We're going to be displaying some sensor data here, and General Bill to my right here will explain what the images mean..."
Gor'gon paused to take a drink from a small glass on the corner of his podium, as if to steady his nerves before he continued.
"We might as well get started. If you will?" said Gor'gon. Turning, he signaled to a tech guy in the back. "Here we have a display of the space around Tholatin, fifteen minutes before the incident. This data came from Jon Trojan's ship, the Argosy. My shuttle pilot grabbed an emergency dump of the Argosy's core as we launched.
"The green dots are the Mandal-Sat craft, the red are Tholatin craft, the ghosted-blue blot is Tholatin. As you can see, the Mandal-Sat craft are quite a distance away from Tholatin. In fact, the Mandal-Sat craft are about four million kilometers from Tholatin. It was at this point we transmitted our craft manifest, cargo manifest, and transmitted this audio message:"
<blockquote><font size="1">"Greetings Tholatin Republic. My name is Captain Jon Trojan, of the courrier ship Argosy. On behalf of the Mandal-Sat Starship Brokerage Assosiation, myself and our people, all of whom desire galactic peace as deeply as yourselves, bring a gift for the people of Tholatin, in their galactic peace effort. Twenty, brand new Correllian-class Corvettes. It is our hope that you will take our gift, we only ask in return that you use them, to end this violent era of conflict once and for all, so that my family and I can . . so that we can live in a world not ruled by blasters and ships, please . . .please . . .all I ask, is that you consider us , we are eagerly await your reply."</font></blockquote>
"Now, we progress five minutes forward. As you can see, the Tholatin fleet has moved slightly. General Bill, could you enumerate on this?"
"Gladly," said Bill, a retired Bith General. He was standing off to the side, out of view from the camera. As the display shifted to him, he began. "If we can zoom in on the Tholatin ships for a moment, yes, there we go, we can see that there has been a massive amount of movement in five minutes. You can't see it here, but a massive power surge was faintly detected on Tholatin - our experts believe this to be the planetary shield initializing. The following audio message was received in response to Jon Trojan's first:"
<blockquote><font size="1"> "Tell me why I should believe you are who you say you are? It has not been long since we fought with TNO. What is to make me believe you are not one of there employees? If you are, realize you will not make it out of here alive. You have mines in front of you, a fleet after that, and then shields and planetary weapons." </font></blockquote>
"Quote a hostile message from an obviously suspicious, and nervous, commander. Not only did he broadcast a warning, but he listed the extent of his planetary defenses - he obviously wants no trouble, and is hoping that any small time governments that may try take advantage of the galactic turmoil will find his planet too difficult to take. If you'll look at the arrangement of the Tholatin fleet, you can see many small dots - those are fighters. What we see right here is the Tholatin fleet mobilizing, five minutes after twenty craft entered the far edge of their system. Very jumpy people. Gor'gon?"
"Thanks Bill. Let's return to the main view. We'll advance sixty-two seconds. At this point the following message was broadcasted from the Argosy:
<blockquote><font size="1"> "Tholatin control, I assure you, we have no hostile intentions. We come before you on behalf of a smalltime courier company who wish nothing more than to usher the end to this conflict that has engulfed the majority of the galaxy. All the necessary information is being sent to you as we speak. All we ask in return, is minimum docking privilages, we have been on a long journey, we are in desperate need of resupply and maintainance . . .please, I beg you, if you turn us away, we may not last a journey back. You can place us under armed escort and bring us in . . .just . . .please, we need you assistance." </font></blockquote>
"Here Jon tries to calm down the jumpy planet commander. The Tholatin fleet continues to mobilize. We'll move forward another forty-seconds, and listen to the reply by none other than Kamon Vondiranach:
<blockquote><font size="1"> "Trojan this is Kamon Vondiranach. You will stand down all shields and weapons and prepare all ships for boarding. Your people will be placed on your ships and you will be allowed assistance from your current location. Anything you need will be provided. The ships will be boarded by TTR troops and everyone will be herded around by these troops to assure no ill-content. Anything that happens will cause trouble for you. Sorry for the inconvience but in our current situation we have no choice." </font></blockquote>
"Bill, do you want to comment on this?"
"Yes, thank you Gor'gon. The President of the Tholatin Republic has at this point in time been notified of the potential danger, and no doubt of the status of his fleet. He has made his way to a broadcasting station, probably the same one that the planetary commander is broadcasting from, and is attempting to soothe Jon. No doubt he chided his planetary commander for his rashness. His demands are harsh - all craft are to be boarded - but most definitely not unexpected. If we could advance to the next frame here, please, thank you, we can see that a group of small craft, about a score, have broken off of the main fleet and are moving toward the Mandal-Sat craft. Gor'gon?"
"Thank you, Bill. Let's advance to the next frame, fifty seconds later. This is the Tholatin fleet we're looking at, you can see the small craft moving away. Let's move forward five seconds. Same image, but, if you look closely, you can see that the red close to the center of the formation is a tad darker - we had an image professional measure it. We'll advance five seconds more now... now you can definitely see it. A series of very, very faint ghosting. They have been highlighted artificially. We'll move forward ten seconds here. As you can see, the computer aboard the Argosy has picked up these blips now, and has highlighted them as a probable hostile weapon. At this point I was on the bridge. A man yelled out something about bogies incoming, Jon asked how many, and someone said that twelve missiles had originated from the Tholatin ships. Someone else said brace for impact. At about the time Jon asked how many, the missiles had crossed almost half the distance, and were gaining even more rapidly. As you can see from this image, the Argosy has determined the contacts to indeed be weapons, and the shields have automatically begun to warm up. Bill?"
Bill continued from where Gor'gon had left off. His military knowledge aided him greatly here, as he began to expound upon the data that he had just spent the last several weeks analyzing with many other men.
"Most computers automatically prepare to go to red alert when a probable hostile action has taken place, like this case where the Argosy detected twelve missiles coming toward them. Preparing to go to red alert includes warming up the shield generators, and preparing to shunt energy to weapons systems. The Argosy never had a chance to do either. Exactly thirty seconds after the blips appeared as ghosts on the Argosy's map, they were correctly identified as a probable cause for concern. The crewmen manning the sensor consoles were warned of the threat. They, in turn, examined the threat - this took about six seconds. Another fifteen seconds were taken up informing the Captain, and doing a double-check of the threat. Twelve seconds after that four missiles connected with the Argosy. Four identical missiles also struck the Argosy's sister ships, seriously breaching the hulls on all three. Hundreds of people died instantly, as each missile impacted upon the unprotected hulls. Hundreds more died subsequent to the explosions, as life support on the Argosy, and in all probability the other two craft as well, has cut out. The computer attempted to initialize magnetic screens, but failed, and dozens, if not scores of people were sucked into the vacuum of space where their blood boiled within seconds. The Mandal-sat craft were ill prepared for such an attack, their shields were down, their weaposn off. The missiles had no trouble cracking the aged hulls of each ship like an egg.
"At this point the computer automatically went to red alert, and tried to power up shields and weapons systems. The shields failed to initialize. Sensors went from passive to full, and automatically narrowed in on the Tholatin fleet. Gor'gon?"
"Thank you, Bill," said Gor'gon. He finished taking a sip from the cup of water before him before continuing. "Immediately after the torpedoes struck, the following message was sent from the Argosy. The voice is that of Jon Trojan.
<blockquote><font size="1"> "Tholatin forces . . . We came before you today today, in peace . . . . . .And you blatantly spit on that peace!! You murder my crew, in cold blood . . .that act will not be forgotten . . . You murdered my Son!!!! I may not live to tell of your treachery, but . . .I will make you pay, for what you bastards have done . . ."</font></blockquote>
"Twenty seconds after this message was transmitted, the Mandal-sat charity fleet received orders to open fire. The Corvette's, manned by less than skeleton crews, and began to aquifer targets. This next message was received shortly thereafter. Because of the damage to the coms dish, the message is very distorted."
<blockquote><font size="1">Mr. Trojan . . . Republic. . . Fleet that fired on you. . .our fleet . . .orders. "</font></blockquote>
Gor'gon continued, "It was at this point that our records of the Argosy's computer end. I exited the Argosy in a shuttle, at Jon's urging, and pulled away from the Mandal-sat task force. Bill, will you take it from here?"
"Certainly, Gor'gon."Bill turned to face the cameras, and continued the report. "Despite being attacked by Tholatin forces, Jon Trojan once again attempted to call a truce. He broadcasted the next message to the Tholatin fleet. As you can see on the sensor image above, which came from Gor'Gon's shuttle, Tholatin shuttles are getting closer to the Mandal-sat group, though they are still quite a distance away.
<blockquote><font size="1">"Tholatin forces . . .we are spinning out of control . . .if you have any mercy, any at all, please, spare us from this slaughter. Spare my crew . . . Prince Kamon. . .please I need your help . . .my bridge is collapsing around me . . .I fear . . .i may not have much. Please, if you are the man of honour I have heard you are . . .you yourself will come to our aide, if not, then let you be sided with the terrorist filth that stagnates this galaxy." </font></blockquote>
"We'll advance the sensor data thrity-seven seconds. As you can see, the Tholatin shuttles, as well as a large battle-cruiser are now very close to the Mandal-sat group. They did a micro-jump, and are now close enough to begin either rescue or attack operations. As the sensor data advances here in real-time, you'll notice that the battle-cruiser moves closer to the Argosy, then begins to hurriedly back away, almost as if they were afraid of the injured craft -- like it was capable of hurting them. The Corvette's are preparing to open fire at this moment. On the side there we can see a shuttle maneuvering up to the Argosy. For almost four minutes nothing happens. The Mandal-sat Corvettes do not open fire, and the Tholatin forces do not move. Then, the shuttle that manouvered up to the Argosy, here... "
Bill pointed to the sensor image behind him, at a very small blip.
"The shuttle comes out of the Argosy here. As you can see in real-time, it's moving rather fast. The entire Tholatin forces also being to move as fast as possible away from the Argosy. Then,"
The screen paused, flickered, and shifted to what appeared to be a still image of grey dots against a starscape.
"This is the live video feed from Gor'gon. You are looking at video captured at the scene. As I begin the film, remember that the timeline has been moved back. You can just bairly see a hint of the Tholatin shuttle flying away from the Argosy
<blockquote><font size="1">Several small dots begin to shift, it is the Tholatin fleet moving away from the Argosy. Seconds pass as the craft move, then, a blinding flash of light illuminates the screen, whiting out the view. A few seconds later the screen begins to fade back to normal. The burning wreckage of the Argosy is visible, for it burns red hot as it streaks in a thousand directions. Almost a minute passes, and then another explosion whites out the screen. Then another, and another, and another, until eight explosions in total have graced the sky with their presence.</font></blockquote>
For a moment Bill and Gor'gon were silent, their heads bowed. Then, Bill cleared his throat.
"At eight-fifty nine PM, Mandal-sat time, no Mandal-sat IFF codes registered on the sensor display of Gor'gon's shuttle the Intrigue. Twenty-three civilian-owned ships, and thousands of civilian men, most of whom were married, were utterly annihilated by Tholatin forces. It is the conclusion of this soldier, and of his compatriots, that this incident was a deliberate and calculated attack. Begun with a long-range missile attack and completed with a high-powered bomb of some sort, this attack was indented to be a quick strike, and was never meant to make it to the holo-networks. Fortunately for us, Gor'gon managed to make it out alive."
With that, Bill and Gor'gon turned and left the stage, leaving the camera's to show only the burning wreckage of the Mandal-sat convoy, flickering on the holo-display.
[edit: Fixed a slew of grammatical errors and an HTML boo-boo]
