Discovering Sondara Prime, Onias Delta, and their fleets...

[VlPER]

Year: 800

In the thick gaseous nebula in between Dromuun Kass and Etti IV, two ships appeared into a "new and uncharted" system. A couple seconds after arriving, there were cheers through the bridge crews of both vessels. They had made it. Rumors and stories had abounded about this nebula. Always whispered, always hinted at. The veritable bermuda triangle of space had been the final destination of many a ship. And no explanation has ever been found why ships go in, but never come out.

The Captain of the Reliant soon called his men to order. "Ok boys. Let's get to work. Time to make history." Scans began immediately, and it wasn't long till one of the crew men called out. "Captain! We're reading a....distress beacon..." The man working the sensors looked back to the captain in surprise as they all awaited new orders.

"Ice, you getting the same thing we are?" Said the Captain, over the comm to the next ship.

[member="Ice"]

 

[Ice]

"Confirm that Reliant. Emergency beacon closer to the interior of the solar system. You still want to investigate?" Ice leaned back in his seat and waited for the response. For the most part, he thought all the stories about this area were just that. Stories. But now with this signal....maybe some of those stories were correct after all.

Ice knew what he was doing though. His sole purpose for being here was to be able to confirm or deny these stories. He wasn't here to scout, explore, or discover. He was here to make sure what happened to the Reliant was actually documented. So if it suddenly went "missing". The idea was, he could get back and bring help. Or least get word out that something funny was indeed going on here.

And in Ice's mind. Something was indeed funny about this situation. They are in an area of space that is supposed to be unexplored. Sure ships have been disappearing in this nebula for years. But there are a few systems here.Though ships could have gotten lost anywhere. But now in this particular system, a random ship, apparently dormant, blaring out its distress signal. And yet there is noting else around. Why would a ship even expect help in this nebula if something did go wrong?

Something was off. He could feel it, but couldn't put his finger on it.

[member="VlPER"]

 

[VlPER]

The Captain's excited voice could hardly be contained. "Well of course. We're here her to explore and hopefully bring this system to the light of the rest of the galaxy. Besides, depending on how long she's been here. There might still be survivors. You hold position on the outskirts of the system though, and keep an eye on us like we planned. Be ready to come to our aid if we need it though. We don't want to just be another ship that disappeared."

As the comm cut out, the Reliant powered up its subspace engines and moved deeper into the solar system toward the distress beacon. "Steady as she goes helm. Sensors, keep a sharp eye out there for anything unusual. And I mean ANYTHING unusual. We don't know what's out here."

*******************************************************​

​

Much deeper into the system, in the area most like to refer to as the habitable zone, a holo suddenly appeared. "Onias! Have you received the alert!?"

The person on the other end, let out an annoyed sigh. "Yes Sondara, I received the alert."

"Well! What is being done about it? We need to have that ship destroyed immediately!" Came the nervous, almost panicked reply from Sondara.

"Sondara!" Replied Onias sternly. "Calm yourself. You know a single ship can't threaten us. You have an entire fleet protecting your planet. I have two fleets protecting mine. And the patrol fleet is preparing to micro jump in on the ships location as soon as it gets a little closer to that beacon."

"Yes...but...what if it escapes?!" Sondara protested.

Onias raised an eyebrow in growing annoyance. It really was interesting that even though they were essentially twins. They could still be so different at times. "You mean like the last doze or so ships that have stumbled across us and gotten away? Oh wait! That's right. They didn't get away."

Sondara suddenly looked annoyed as well. "There is no need to be sarcastic. I'm just making sure everything is ok. Perhaps we should start looking into trying to reconnect with our people on Voss? These "occurances" are happening more and more frequently."

"No!" Came the quick and unrelenting reply. "Your teams haven't found the cure yet to the Gulag plague. We can't risk contamination here until we have that cure in hand!"

Sondara sighed in a yeilding manner. "You're right. We'll keep trying. Let me know how things go with the ship."

Onias gave a small but respectful bow to Sondara. "I always do."

[member="Ice"]

 

[Ice]

Ice shook his head as he watched the other vessel move farther into the system. "I'm not a superstitious man...but I think there is something terribly wrong here. I don't know why." He grumbled more to himself than anyone else. His voice suddenly raised. "Helmsmen, bring us about! Navigation! Plot us a course out of here and have the hyperdrive ready to jump on my mark. Sensors! Keep a sharp eye on the Reliant. And record all your findings."

Ice knew he was supposed to jump in and help the Reliant. But his gut was telling him something was wrong. And he never ignored his instinct. He did once, many years before. It almost landed him into a marriage. A story for another time. The point was, he never ignored it since. What Ice didn't know, was that he was force sensitive. And what he referred to as his "gut" or "instinct", was actually his natural affinity for the force and the helpful warnings that it gave him.

Once he started listening to it, he became known for how lucky he was in getting out of sticky situations. And again, his instincts were screaming to make a run for it. So he prepared too. But to honor his contract, he'd stay behind long enough to do what he was contracted for...mostly.

[member="VlPER"]

 

[VlPER]

The Reliant continued on, and eventually found its way to the beacon. A signal emanating from a long cigar shaped cargo ship from the looks of it. "Sensors! Any life signs on board?"

"No, captain." Came the quick reply from his sensor operator. "Not a thing."

"What about the rest of the area. Anything interesting?" Replied the captain in a suddenly concerned manner.

"No s---...wait..." A confused look appeared on the sensor operators face. "Sir...I think I have detected signs of a space station on the planet closer to the sun."

The captain shot up out of his chair. "What!? That's impossible! Show me, on screen!" The man began to look over the data when an even more horrifying scene unfolded.


Dropping out of a micro hyperspace jump, an entire armada suddenly appeared all around the scout vessel. The Reliant comm system was suddenly pinged an incoming transmission. The stunned Captain gave a nod and the transmission was put through. Before him stood a droid. "Unidentified freighter. You have entered restricted space and will stand down and prepare to be boarded or be destroyed. Will you stand down?"

"Who are you?" Came the only reply the captain could think of.

"Will you stand down or not?" Was the demanding retort from the droid.

The Captain's mind raced, but he couldn't think of a way out of this. He simply nodded and the transmission was cut. As it went dead, he looked to his crew. "Transmit our findings to Ice immediately. He won't be able to scan what we have in the interior from his position on the outskirts. And send a copy of that transmission to him as well. Do it now!"

The crew with renewed purpose, quickly did what they could to get what little data they had acquired to Ice. Hopefully he'd be able to come back with help. At least, that was they only hope they had.

[member="Ice"]

 

[Ice]

Ice looked on in disbelief. The fleet just appeared out of nowhere. Had they really been there the whole time? Or was it just extremely bad luck on timing? Those questions would not be answered. Not now anyway. Not for Ice. His communications officer sounded off an incoming communique. Pulling it up. Ice was able to see what sensor readings the Reliant had been able to get further into the system.

Ice didn't immediately believe what he was seeing. How could any of this be? If these sensor readings were right. There was a major civilization living here. A civilization with enough ships to take over several nearby systems with ease. "My god...if I'm not just seeing things. They have a shipyard hear to rival Kuat Drive Yards...and a fleet to match it. Or multiple fleets..."

"Captain! Look!" Came the cry of one of his officers.

Ice snapped his attention to the screen as nearly the entire fleet which had surrounded the Reliant, opened fire on the ship. The ship was almost vaporized in an instant. It was then several ships broke off formation and turned toward Ice and his ship.

"Looks like they picked up the transmission. Helmsmen, activate the hyperdrive and get us out of here!"

The crew had snapped back into focus on their tasks, and a mere couple seconds later. The ship jumped into hyperspace and away from the system.

[member="VlPER"]

 

[VlPER]

"Commander!" Came the robotic voice. "Another ship on the edge of the system has been detected. We think it's the ship the first one was transmitting to."

The droid commander pushed a few buttons on his command console. And with that, a couple cruisers and four frigates broke formation and prepared to make a micro jump to the edge of the system and intercept the second interloper.

It didn't take long for the droids to enter in all the calculations. Them being so much faster than any biological crew. However, when they came out of their micro jump. Ice and his crew and already fled.

The report soon came back to fleet droid commander. "Target lost. Jumped to hyperspace before we could intercept." The droid had no notion of emotion. But still, even it knew this was bad news. Pressing a few more buttons. The report was then forwarded to Onias' computer....

[member="Ice"]