RE: [JMC_Blue_Dwarf] Earthbound

Who:- Amber, Space Corps. Command staff
Where:- Space Corps R&D department, New York City
When:- November 13th 2107
 
 
"Well Lt?" asked the admiral, as he stepped into the computer laboratory which had housed Amber Keats for the better part of a fortnight.
The pilot looked up from her console, the dim glow of it's screen reflecting off her face, making the days on end of working without sleep painfully obvious.
"I'm about done" she replied crankily. "I'll report my findings in the morning"
"You'll report them immediatly Lt."
"Sir, with respect, I've not slept in days, working non-stop at your command....I.."
"I appreciate what you've done for me Keats, but the information stored in that computer cannot wait. If what we believe is true, then it is of vital importance. You will present your findings to the senior staff in 10 minutes, conference room 3."
Amber scowled visibly and glnaced down at her monitor. "...aye sir..."
The admiral turned and left.
 
Ten minutes later, Amber found herself in a conference room with the 12 most senior members of the Space Corp, each of them immacualtely dressed in their crisp, clean uniforms. Amber looked down at herself, she hadn't left the computer lab in 3 days, and as such hadn't had the opportunity for a shower, or a change of clothes. Her uniform shirt hung loosely around her waist, half tucked-in, half out, a large stain from the take-away curry her assistant had brought her the night before emblazoned the front of her trousers and she odour of cheap vending-machine coffee hung around her, yet, even here with the most important people within the company that employed her she felt no sense of inferiority, no intimidation. These people had given her little respect, so she had reciprocated even less. These guys might be where the buck stops, but at least her immediate boss, Jay didn't treat her like crap.
"What have you found lt?" The admiral who had addressed her earlier spoke, without so much as a "Good morning" or "Good afternoon" or whatever the hell time of day it was. Sod it, Amber didn't even know the names of the people around the desk, none had bothered to introduce themselves.
 
"Well...sir.." she put a little extra emphasis on the "sir" just to make it clear she didn't feel he deserved such a title.
"I can confirm that it's DEFINTELY a hymenopteran vessell that crashed in the English Channel just under a month ago"
"Yes Lt, of that we were aware" snapped one of the admirals, whose name Amber didn't know.
"With respect" Amber replied, though had she been truthful she'd not have used the word "respect" "That was one of the things I was asked to confirm...I wouldn't be doing the job you brought me here for if I neglected that part."
"Just get to the point Keats, were you able to translate their database?"
"Every terra-byte."
"And have you found any reference to what happened?"
"Yes...as we feared, the Hymenoptera had been planning an invasion of the Sol system, Earth, and all the colonies. They had enough force to do it too, and were only a few days away from making contact."
"But..."
"But..something...stopped them, the ship we captured had been trying to escape after a handful of unidentifed craft showed up, out of nowhere and destroyed of disabled more than three quarters of the entire Hymie' armada"
"What could have done such a thing?!" another admiral splurted out. "The Hymenoptera are by far the most dangerous, most powerful enemy we have ever faced!"
"That doesn't appear to be the case anymore sir...this, I'll say alien, as we don't yet know what they are, took out nearly an entire invasion force without losing a single ship. Just, zipped in, bosh, zipped out without so much as buying them breakfast in the morning..."
"So what do we know about this, alien?"
"Absolutley nothing, other than what they managed to pick up from a few exterior scans of their ships."
"Nothing?"
"No sir, accordingto the readouts, the ships scanned as having no lifesigns aboard, the bug's assumed that this was an error in the data and discarded it. All we know is what these ships looked like, but I warn you it's blurry..."
Amber tapped a key on her laptop and an image appeared on the wall panel behind her a grey blob, emerging from what looked like an explosion in the centre of the Hymenopteran flagship.
"That tells us nothing!" snapped the first Admiral "Are you sure theres nothing else?"
"Absolutley nothing" Amber replied "Though, if I may, why the big concern, they just saved our hides from the 'bugs. It looks like we've found a new ally.."
"If only that were the case Lt. You see, one of our warships responded to a distress call from an alien cargo vessel last month, both ships were decimated by an 'unidentified alien'. Like the Hymenoptera, they onl got a partial exterior scan...I think you'll find the image interesting.."
The admiral clicked a button on his laptop, and the image on the screen was joined by a second one. The image was almost identical.
"Gentleman" said the Admiral "I fear we ought to recall all deep-space vessels....."
"Sir, if I may...." Amber asked "what was the name of the Corp's vessell that was destoyed by the aliens?"
"The SCV Minnesota."
 
*************
 
Who:- Jay, Jayne, Harris, Security team
Where;- The Phoenix
When:- Two weeks ago
 
The Phoenix slowly flew around the hulk of the Space Corps vessell, as Jay laid in a course around the cargo vessell aboard which Captain Calvert was currently leading a salvage mission, and back to the Blue Dwarf.
"I can't believe noone survived..." Harris said solemnly. "What could have done this?"
"I don't know..." Jay said "Noone we want to cross swords with, that's for sure."
"Do you think it was the same people, who took out the freighter?" Jayne asked
"Probably.." said Chris. "Let's just hope their on the other side of the galaxy by now..."
Jay opened a channel to the Blue Dwarf "BD this is Phoenix, we've searched the derelict no trace of survivors, feel ship should be retrieved by a salvage vessell for return to Earth, to give it's souls a proper burial, can you send a message to Space Corp HQ, tell them need a tug ship to bring in the SCV Minnesota...."
 
 
<to be continued>
 
 
   
 

-----Original Message-----From: JMC_Blue_Dwarf@yahoogroups.com [mailto:JMC_Blue_Dwarf@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Rebecca TordoffSent: 29 October 2007 13:57To: Blue DwarfSubject: [JMC_Blue_Dwarf] Earthbound

Who: AmberWhere: The Vespidae,When: A few days ago~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"This is the JMC Vessel Vespidae requesting permission for take-off." Amber barked into the comms unit. Th Vespidae had been radically changed since it first appeared on the 'Dwarf. Numerous JMC control had been installed, hand-shake devices and IFOF that meant the small Hymenopterran fighter craft wasn't instantly destroyed on sight by the guns lining the Blue Dwarfs hull. The cock-pit looked different than it used to, with the smooth chitin like black controls, their coloured glass-like controls contrasting sharply to the JMC issue gun metal gray panels, diodes and lights flashing intermittently when the Big Blue One made contact with the ships systems. "Vespidae you are clear to launch. Have a nice trip to Earth." The operator said across the air waves.Amber punched the throttle and the small fighter craft flew out of the shuttle bay doors and out into the blackness of space. she chittered to the craft in Hymenopterran, ordering it on a course to Earth and engaging the auto-defence systems, arming the acid guns and the Gatling lasers in the pincers of the small craft. She engaged the autopilot and kicked back, putting her feet up on one of the consoles. She hated the Space Corps right now, she needed to be with Rufus, the poor boy would be going mad with grief down in his lab. she saw who he would be thinking, trying to make the Clone device work, trying everything in his power to do it. She sighed, she knew it was hopeless, Rufus had the brains but she knew in her heart that Tara, her mother was dead. She screwed up her face at the thought, forcing the tears that threatened to spill back down into her chest again and glared at the blackness out of the view screen. After a few hours of flying, Amber got up and paced around the soft midsection of the ship, as near as she could tell, it had been used to hold small larvae that evolved on the planet to be taken over. It was like a holding section or hatchery, it could hold half a dozen humans at quite cramped quarters. She continued further back and down a set of recently installed stairs into the room that held a bunk. Again, more JMC technology had sprung up and the place was quite odd now a strange hybrid ship that wasn't wholly Hymenopterran, but would never be JMC either. Amber sat down on the bunk and wondered if maybe the reason she was wanted on Earth was because of this ship. That they wanted to study it and find out the weaknesses of the bugs. She scowled at the thought, no Space Corps toff was going to take this ship off her. She began to drift off to sleep and as she did she dreamt of the moment the Hymenopterran jabbed the small balck spike into her neck that changed her. Made her, one of them. Ever since then and after it had been removed she could understand them, their language. Jay had no such problems, but even without the telepathic like, she could still understand the murderous bugs. The dream flicked between her on 'The Thorax' Jay's command ship when he was possessed by the Hymenopterrans and the scenes leading up to her decent into madness and evil. She woke up in a cold sweat as the report of a gun fired in her mind and pierced Captain Alota's body. "Damn... Bad dreams." Amber said briefly checking the clock and walked back up to the cockpit. She would be approaching Earth now, she'd been asleep for over a day, served her right really for not sleeping for the last few days. Kicking the smeg out of Vampire Babes from Mars in the AR suite for days on end would do that to you. "his is the JMC Vessel Vespidae requesting permission for landing at New York." Amber said, contacting the Earth orbital communications.<Tag Andy>OOC - Sorry its taken so long, and is so bad, but I'm really short on time.    :'(