An Extinction Event

Deep within the Hive capital

The population and military councils sat before the Hive Queen. The two councils debated furiously on the most pressing matter in the Hive, expansion. The Hive was overpopulated. There were more Ahlgren than food and consequently many were starving. While another species may not care so much for another being, the bonds between Ahlgren were strong because of the telepathy between them. When so many were starving the pains would be sent through telepathy to the Princesses who would be receiving this distress like spam mail. And when the Princesses were starving, her peers would know well about the matter. The Hive had simply waited too long.

The Two councils continued their debate with occasional interruptions by the Hive Queen on the matter. But it was obvious who was going to win the debate. And despite the military council being so unwilling to bring together an armada, it was going to be done.

The target had already been selected. A large system controlled by a human-like species at the edge of the Hive. The Kotalians, as they referred to themselves as, had not achieved FTL travel. As such, they had extensive terraforming done within their system. It was prime grounds for an invasion. The only difference with this invasion and earlier ones would be one simple thing: The Hive was now known interstellarly. Before their run in with the Centaurans, they destroyed many species in pursuit of more land. Now though, the atrocities would be exposed to the galactic community, and they would most likely be unhappy with it. But, it did not matter. With a population of more than a trillion and growing at an ever increasing rate, it was inevitable.

PDF Sensor Monitoring Chamber, Port Garland

The sensor officers in charge of the newly created Hive Monitoring Command watched a large number of dots move about the Hive territories, jumping through the slipspace. Shortly after the Hive was discovered, the PDF deemed them a significant enough threat to warrant a group of sensors reserved solely for monitoring them. Though up to now they had not really done anything but get a good idea of the Hive infrastructure, they had noticed that an extremely significant number of Hive military ships beginning to maneuver to do... something, they had no clue what. As a result they alerted the sensor commander, who in turn alerted Commander Aaron, who finally alerted Brother Lal. He orders them to focus sensor efforts on the border area and begins to order a few scouts to report on the state of affairs in the area just outside the Hive sphere of influence.

The Burninite High Council, having previously condemned the Hive early on in its unprovoked attack on the Alpha Centauri, has also been monitoring the activities of the Hive via sensor.

Quick telegrams are sent to the Centauri government to ask for a quick rundown of what happened when the Hive attacked them. Telegrams are being prepared for the Hive, it says, and the Burninites need more information to determine the level of threat that this civilization may pose to themselves.

Also, the Burninites would like to discern the motive of these attacks.

Brother Lal forwards some military reports on the Hive attack, though he does not attach the reports on the response. In addition, he notes what intelligence they already have concerning the capabilities and previous actions of the Hive that suggest that it is a major potential threat for the stability and safety of the galaxy at large. He finally notes that the Hive seemed to want to take over and populate Alpha Centauri if they did not manage to persuade the Planetary Governate to get peace.

The Burninites inquire of the governate also regarding how the Hive attack on their planet was dissuaded and whether or not they have any information on the Hive's motives and social structure.

They include a reminder of the fact that they condemned the attack on the Centauri immediately as it happened, and that depending on the information that they can gather, they would be amenable to a military coalition against the invasive Hive. They include these things mostly to give the governate an incentive to honestly provide information.

Brother Lal states that he did not wish to fight the war in the first place but had little choice. In any case, he explains that his envoy Talent Zhang spoke to the leader of the Hive fleet after they managed to translate their communications and convinced the leader to make peace. As for the information, he provided information that explained how the Hive was made of twenty-three systems with over a trillion population, and that the larger the population grew the faster it would grow as well. He also explained of the Hive's large military of 100 billion of their soldier caste, and that so far they seemed to mostly want more territory and resources to support their population.

Finally, he states that such a coalition would be welcome.

(ENCRYPTED)
TO: Brother Lal
FROM: Jenova Incinerator

I'd like to meet with you face to face to discuss the specifics of the terms, goals, and strategies of our proposed military coalition. Once we come to an agreement, we can immediately go into action, assuming you would like to prevent the destruction of whosoever the Hive is currently mobilizing against as well.

Sincerely,
Jenova Incinerator

(OOC: Delt, just so you know, all our posts so far probably take like ten minutes of RP time. So you shouldn't go just yet )

OOC: Alright well the Hive ships as of this post are in the slipspace heading toward their destination in the Averature System. Your sensors could probably detect the sudden loss of mass where all the Hive ships had been. If your sensors are really good they may be able to detect the appearance of energy in the Averature System, although I'd think that the time when you'd notice the energy would be only about a day or two before slipspace opens and the Hive fleet arrives.

And now that you posted in the middle of my post, let me add this in: all of your posts happened before the fleet even left, and you guys can do some more posts seeing the fleet leave and then wonder where it went since it would take about a week to get where they are going and you would probably not be able to see the energy until just a couple days before. So that 5 or 6 days where you cant detect the Hive ships or the slipspace energy ought to make for some good RP.

---

Averature System, home of the Kotalians

The Kotalians had been noticing strange energy levels in the outer reaches of their system. It had captured the curiousity of some of their greatest minds. They had never witnessed an event like it. Scanners from all over their many colonies in the system monitored the energy. While the scientists were intrigued by the energy, their government and military were not as thrilled. They did not understand what it was and the military feared it may be a sign of aliens. Even if it wasn't aliens, the kotalian military knew it would need to get involved with whatever was going on.

Within a couple of hours the Kotalians had sent a greater portion of their small space fleet to stay within firing range of the energy. Meanwhile they kept their general population from knowing. If word got out about what was happening there would be mass chaos.

Hive Fleet, mid slipspace

The Polemarch for the fleet had been chosen. It was not the same one that had lead a smaller fleet against Centauri, but this Princess had actually served as Polemarch to a previous invasion a couple decades before the first contact.

The ETA for the fleet was to be in 4 days, 6 hours, and 43 minutes. At that point the fleet would come out of the slipspace to greet the aliens with their MACs. It was not totally known how strong the Kotalian military was, only that they were small and not as advanced as the Hive. It could be a much different story when invading the larger colonies, however, as human-like species are known to be good at waging war in atmousphere. Such was seen several centuries before when another human-like species was invaded and resulted in one of the bloodiest wars for the Hive. This would hopefully be avoided given that the Hive would be attacking with 3 times the number of ships which attacked Centauri with a greater portion being carriers. In total there would be an invasion force of more than a million.

"This is Sensor Command," Thorgood's commlink responds.

"Did you get them?"

"We're forwarding you the data now."

There is a pause before Thorgood continues. "We should hopefully be able to calculate their destination from here."

He begins running lists of planets in the exact direction that the aliens took off, all the way through to the end of the galaxy in that direction. He limits his search by scanning for planets with similar geological and biophysical makeups to the Alpha Centauri. There are only a few matches along those lines; frankly, it's surprising that there was even more than 2.

Cloaked ships are dispatched to all three, to see if life is present at the destination planets...

(OOC: For the rest, gotta wait for Sela. Our FTL is instantaneous though.)

The Rheans are independently running their own scans. Ever vigilant due to the threats of the Sith, which has made them slightly paranoid about interstellar threats, they note the mass of hive ships amassing and leaving. They send messages towards the others to see if they've noticed, too.

[Encrypted]

To: Jenova Incinerator
From: Brother Pravin Lal

I am amenable to the idea of meeting face to face to discuss these matters. If you would like to meet with me at Port Garland, I shall depart to meet with you immediately to discuss these urgent matters along with Commander Aaron.

Respectfully,
Brother Pravin Lal

Jenova teleports in from a cloaked starship in orbit.

"Greetings," she says, inclining her head as though respectfully greeting an equal. "We have weighty matters to discuss. I have a few ideas, if you are OK with starting right away, as we are not sure how much time we may have."

Brother Lal reciprocates, and Commander Aaron offers a salute. Then, with a nod, Brother Lal says, "Yes, I'd be happy to begin this discussion immediately, given the urgency of the situation."

Jenova nods, and sits down in one of the available chairs.

"So let us begin with goals, then. I think that our goal should be the removal of the Hive as a threat to civilized planets. In terms of means, I think we should try speaking to them, seeing if we can offer them an agreement whereby they agree not to invade and terraform worlds with sentient life, but if not, to eliminate their strike force."

Lal nods, and says, "I find that agreeable in terms of our goals. If they do not back down from using military force to acquire this new territory, wherever it may be, we must act quickly to destroy their force. However, I believe that if and when we find their target we must dispatch our own fleets immediately as to show that we are willing to exercise force against them. I do not feel that simply talking to them without doing so would accomplish as much. Finally, of course, we must protect sapientkind whenever it is in our power to do so."

(OOC: Nothing approaching 6 hours would have passed yet panpan )

Jenova nods in agreement. "We would consent to provide the Hive with reasonable resources or whatever after we discern motive for invasion, if they have a good one, to help them meet their needs, if indeed they have legitimate ones. Maybe we can help them limit their population growth or whatever.

"Are you prepared to immediately send a fleet to the likliest location of their attack? I believe we have determined it."

Lal nods, and says, "Yes, it would be better to work with them to obtain what they need in a non-violent manner as opposed to being warmongers that are no better than them. As for our fleet, well, Commander Aaron can talk to you about that."

Commander Aaron then clears his throat, and says, "I do believe that we can immediately send a fleet to their most likely attack location, though we would prefer to stay in a nearby system until the Hive fleet actually arrives, as not to cause panic in the local population. Since your nation has more advanced cloaking technology, I believe it prudent that your nation station your ships in-system as opposed to ours. The distance between ourselves and the system should be negligible, anyways. As to how much firepower we can send, I believe the UNS Odysseus, the UNS Charybdis, and an assortment of carriers, cruisers, and frigates can be spared. I shall be boarding the Odysseus immediately if there is nothing else that requires me."

Jenova nods. "I would also like to set a limit; our military alliance remains in effect only so long as it is used defensively against the Hive. It does not take effect if one of us attempts an attack on the hive. Do you also find this agreeable?"

Jenova has already written a reply to the Rheans; she tells them exactly the terms of the coalition as has just been discussed. She pulls up the results of the search by Thorgood's people -- there was only one planet populated by sentient beings on the route taken by the Hive forces. She relays the location of the planet to Brother Lal.

She then signals to Thorgood to ready the Burninite fleet.

Lal nods, and says, "I find that agreeable. The invasion of the Hive, in any case, would be too difficult for even all of the civilized galaxy's forces combined to even contemplate."

Commander Aaron then salutes, and leaves, with the coordinates already relayed to the fleet and with it quickly assembling and preparing to depart.

OOC: EDITED

IC:
"This is a meeting of the Triumvirate, Triumvir Marcus Flaven speaking. Under the powers of the Necessary Classification Act, this meeting is classified and shall be recorded for the archives of the Dominion only, priority one. Level 10 clearance shall be necessary to access the proceedings of this meeting." Marcus sat discontent at the meeting, no doubt over the recent events and ongoing trouble due to the Ninth Tribe. His colleagues seemed equally as discontent, eager to start the meeting and hardly allowing him anytime to get the usual measure in before they began.

"It seems our estimates of the Governate's handling of the Hive was precise" said Flavian Sabinu with a smirk. "We've just received a report from our long-range senor array just on the edge of Hive space. It recorded a sizable distortion in space, equivalent what happens when their ships launch past light speed. I for one, have always believe that this creatures would be a problem and that we would pay for the Governate's indecisiveness. Now it seems that may prove the case as the distortion was large and our analysts believe that it could have only been caused by a large number of their ships"

"Do we know where they are headed or what their intent might be at all?" Alexandria Gentianus questioned.

"No" said Flavian, "our array can only monitor the distortions made by their ships, we can't actually follow their movements. The best we could do is scan the area from the center point of where the probe is located and hope to eventually scan ships. However, the array's capabilities are small in reference to that quadrant of space."

"So then it is safe to say that they could be headed anywhere" said Alexandria. "We ourselves could be their target and we have little in the way of knowing if this is true."

"While plausible" Flavian commented, "it is unlikely Triumvir Gentianus as we have no reason to believe the Hive knows of our existence."

"Nevertheless" Alexandria continued, " They are a plague in this galaxy and should be elimated as soon as is possible it seems." Flavian nodded at her comments.

"Then we are in agreement" said Marcus Flaven confidently. "Sadly, our fleet is still in its infancy and we have only a handful of warships. For now all we can do is simply monitor the situation as best as is possible through what information the Governate will give us. However, Triumvir Sabinus I want our ships completely armed nevertheless. The Dominion may have to strike in the best interest of the entire galaxy."

They consider the terms acceptable and offer a pair of Star Destroyers for the effort.

Jenova sends a message both the Rheans and the Centauri that they will be sending Thorgood over cloaked in The Spotlight to see if the locals need to be communicated with, and the rest of the fleet will go cloaked close by if needed. Representatives from any nation in the coalition are invited aboard the cloaked vessel, but Jenova thinks it best that they send only cloaked vessels, so if the locals aren't QUITE as advanced as us, but have radar or somesuch, they won't detect the ship.

They offer to merely park in a nearby system and await their signal.

The Centauri fleet stays with the Rhean fleet as well and Talent Zhang is sent into the Spotlight as the Centauri representative.