The Crossfire 1.82 Cronicles

The Crossfire 1.82 Cronicles

by Dracir

A few months ago a Rheinland explorer found a new Jumpgate to a hidden system in Omicron Alpha. When they entered this system the first time they were shocked. It was the main reason for the rising Nomad activities in the whole Sirius sector. Containing one planet and over 20 Jumpgates to Nomad systems, Liberty systems, Borderworld systems and many unknown systems it’s a major threat for all houses. Rheinland, Liberty, Kusari and Bretonia decided to send their fleets to get this system under their control.

But the nomads were already waiting for them… hundreds of ships got destroyed and the whole Kusari fleet is still missing after they were chasing a Nomad battleship.

But finally it was a victory and the Nomads had to leave. Because of this massive fight above the planet it is now called Crossfire. A few weeks after this important victory the houses decided to colonize the unknown systems. But because of the Outcast in the neighbourhood these stations and planets are under permanent attack.

Incoming transmission:

This is Fleet Admiral Yamoto. The Kusari Fleet is under attack… I repeat, the Kusari Fleet is under attack. We need help???@2#?=… a giant Nomad fleet is ???ä##… the position of the Jumpgate is in sector B6 in the #,:§!???Lair System. All pilots who can hear my transmission please help us…

Decryption of the coordinates:

Coordinates:
Nomads Lair
Sector B6
Nomad jumpgate to Death Valley

As this information the flagship of the order, which patrolled just in the X-3043 system, reached, squadrons were sent immediately to help the Kusari. There one found about a desolate Nomad’s city the wreck of a rheinland gunboat and could rescue a Disk which contains maybe important information.
	Even with reinforcements coming to Death valley the Kusari are not able to destroy the Nomad armada… the fights already last several weeks now
	One brought the found Disk to the security forces on the planet Crossfire. Now there resident scientists analyze the files.

Meanwhile in the Nephele System a new Sleepership was found which looks the same way the old alliance sleeperships looked like. Scientists entered the wreck to explore it and to have a look at the ship database. “Russian language?!?!… it’s a coalition ship”

This ship has a coalition origin.. but what is it doing here? It is already a few hundred years old and it seems like it got attacked. Maybe the database is showing more information and maybe some guys in the new systems have heard some rumours.

Personal Log Jack Blinch:

On earth I have found a database containing a hidden starmap with plans showing where the coalition build up a colony before the nomads attacked earth. I’m not crazy enough to go there but I’m damn sure these information ist worth a lot. I have destroyed the mainframe so nobody else will be able to get this information.
I’m going to sell it for the best price. To make sure that nobody will find the map I have cut it into 3 pieces. Each piece is showing just one part of the location.

In spite of all efforts it was not to be taken possibly from these recordings something what could help in it to find a way to the earth. It is as puzzling from which colony of the coalition the speech is. Of search party of the order looked on different space stations and planets in the Sirius Sector for the parts of the star map, however without success.

Nevertheless, there is also good news. Some agents of the order, who are active in the bretonian space, discovered during a patrol in the hyperion system a Warp Anomaly recently. According to thorough investigation could be confirmed that it leads in the Sol system. Scouts were already sent to check the system on possible Nomad activities.

	Arrived in Sol, we found out that the system is completely abandoned. No signs of terran activity, Nomads were likewise sighted not.
The order established in the orbit of Mars a headquarter and leads from there the recolonization of the earth and the other investigation of the Sol system.
	A way to our old home, the earth, has been found again but there is no life anymore. The colonies are destroyed, earth is empty and everything looks like the nomads have something to do with it. The houses try to recolonize the Sol system now and find out what has been going on. Maybe the databases of the old science centers on Earth can tell us more about the history of Sol and where the missing coalition fleet is.

This is CNN, the Crossfire News Network
Today there was an explosion which destroyed the mainframe of the planetary science center. Rumours telling that a middle aged man was running out of the building 2 minutes before.

Statement of governour Cole:
“Today an explosion destroyed the mainframe of the science center… all researches about the possible location of the coalition fleet was stored there. The security cameras recorded that a man left the building just a few minutes before it got destroyed.

Report:
When we came here the Earth was dead. No man alive.
Seems like the Nomads have found this place and destroyed the Mars colony and the Saturn stations… even the coalition colonies are waste grounds now.

We don’t know how they did it, but here on earth all humans got killed. The cities and the infrastructure have no damage… it’s just weird. It seems like the Nomads destroyed the defence before they started an invasion on the ground.

We scanned the whole System, but we didn’t find any nomad ships. It seems like the main fleet left this system a few years ago. The Nomads reprogrammed some of the old Coalition carriers to protect this system until they would come back.
A few of these carriers are still out there.

End of report
____________________________________________________________________
There is a rumour that the Nomads just left this system to attack us. Somehow they must got the information where the old Alliance went to 800 years ago.

We wonder where the Coalition is now. Since we came here we have seen no Coalition activities in here.
Very mysterious…

I heard some high ranked navy officers discussing about what was going on here.
One of them said something about a database which contains information about the time when the Nomads arrived here.
It was about 200 years go when the first Nomad battlegroup entered the Sol system.
The coalition tried to fight them back, but they failed. The Nomad fleet destroyed all the colonies and stations until they reached the Earth defence line.

The Coalition was defeated.

But a few hundred years ago they constructed three Sleeperships which never were used, because it was too risky. These ships were the only chance to safe a few lifes now. So they decided to launch them… the CNS Moscow, the CNS Minsk and the CNS Stalin.

	After the discovery of a dimensional rift in area 4C of the Sol system, heavy battleships of the homeworld of the order in Omikron Minor were ordered here to guard this “gate”. One supposes that, it leads in a distant galaxy and which could lie there the origin of the Nomads and their creators, the Dom’Kavash. Scouts were sent by the rift to explore the other side.
	How to expect, the nomads were very present here. The Nomad’s city located here was protected even even better, as the city in the Omikron major system. The order decided to withdraw into neighbouring systems, because a fight against the Nomads is unpromising for the time being. The Coalition also seems to be here somewhere, because jump gates were found here whose design resembles those from Sol.
	In the neighbouring system Mandar we found in sector 6F the wreck of a rheinland battleship, her presence here is a riddle. Maybe the black box, which we could rescue from the wreck, gives explanation about that.

Captains log
Jason Brennigan

It’s been 54 years now since the battle of Crossfire. The loss of the Dyson Sphere and the destruction of X-3043’s main planet was a heavy strike back for the Nomads. However the Nomad fleet ist able to hold control of several important systems such as Death Valley and Freeport 7, which was called this way to honour the victims that died on the first nomad attack. Even after the Houses of Sirius united to fight the nomad threat we had heavy losses on our side and I have lost many good friends and comrades in the last years. I wish I could turn back time and correct some mistakes.

Wishes… stupid wishes of an old man.

Hey I should be glad that I got the chance to see our old home, the Earth, instead of dreaming about how my life might have been if we would have never been attacked by the Nomads. Most likely I wouldn’t have joined the navy then. Well it’s right what people say about time… it makes us different from what we wanted to be. It has lead me to this place, it made me Captain of that old rusty Rheinland Battleship.
Well OK I can imagine worse places

At least it seems like the war with the Coalition seems to be over. The leaders of the Houses of Sirius have agreed to cease fire with the Coalition. To me it seems like the Coalition can’t stand the heavy Nomad attacks any longer After 800 years they can’t fight with us and the Nomads as once I wonder how they survived all the time. For that they have my respect.

Even if I will never trust those Coalition guys I think it is better to forget about the past until the Nomad threat has gone. I just hope for us that they wont stab in our backs if they get a chance. One thing is sure, I will keep my eyes open if a Coalition fighter is near.

The Fleet Command ordered us, the Rheinland cruiser Victory and the Rheinland battleship Pride of Berlin to the Gladius system to investigate the loss of a small liner transporting our diplomats to the Coalition.

From what we know they have managed to pass the Nomad systems and were on their way straight to the Coalition HQ. Last contact with them was here in Gladius. I wouldn’t wonder if a Coalition fighter has shoot them down but my oppinion ist not important. That’s why we are here and risk our lives. But who am I that I doubt my orders. Sometimes I think we are not more worth than a piece if scrap metal or a…

“beep”
“Captain we have reached your position and we are receiving unknown transmissions.”
Coalition or Nomads?
“No Sir! The transmissions have no known signature.”
“What do you mean with no known signature?” Who else could be able to do those transmissions if not the Coalition or the Nomads?”
“I have never seen something like this before.”
“OK I’ll come. Set a course to Gladius sector E5, we will meet the Victory there.”
“beep”

It seems that our “Phantom” is close.
Let’s see if it’s human or not.

Captains log
EOF

How it show recording from the captain, there were another two other ships. We will check in the Gladius system the last known coordinates of the Victory.

	The Victory was likewise destroyed, possibly by the same unknown source.

Captains log
Jürgen Berngruber

We have lost the contact to captain Brennigan. He wanted to meet us here, said something about unknown transmission, but now we are waiting here for hours without any contacts. Brennigan should have arrived here hours ago. I wish I would know where to search for them, all we have are weird coordinates that don’t make any sense. TX-45, X-76 and KT40TRWVT-33.

It seems like some kind of old military code. Brennigan always was a friend of those old military codes that were used during the war between Alliance and Coalition. Maybe he encrypted these coordinates to protect something or someone. God I hate those wargames.

Best would be to search for the next Coalition station and try to get help there. Maybe somebody there knows what kind of code this might be and maybe some of the high ranked officers in the bars have heard some rumours.

I’ve heard that in Sol the Coalitions does offer reputation hacks so it’s possible to enter their stations and pass their territory unharmed.

“Alarm, unknown ships approaching”
“What?!?!”

Captains log
EOF

In the north of the Gladius system we discovered a jumpgate that leads in the Coalition space. There we found the remains of the other both sleeperships.
Therefore the riddle is solved like the coalition reached here.

CNS Moscow, Sleepership of Coalition
	This Sleepership carried over 100.000 coalition civilists to this new system.
CNS Minsk, Sleepership of Coalition
	This Sleepership carried the most important militaries and scientists to this new system.
	On the Gorlowka Carrier we inserted an stopover to fill our stocks and repair our ships. And to find out what the found codes signify.

Wow, that is a very old code. I have not seen something like that since my time on the academy when I studied military history. I don’t remember the full meaning of that but “TX-45” means “F”.

The meaning of “X-76” is 7. Where did you get that from?

“KT40TRWVT-33”?
I remember that I have heard some guys on Murmansk know much about such kinds of code fragments. You should ask there.

Yes, I know what “KT40TRWVT-33” does mean. But why should I tell you about that? Whoa… be careful with that gun. Well ok, the code means nothing else than “Gurm”. I wonder why this is important for you.

TX-45, X-76 and KT40TRWVT-33.
Sector F7, Gurm System

At the coordinates, we found another warp anomaly.
Nearby a warning buoy was appropriate, which contains a message.

This is Corporal Adam Miller.
Who ever does find this message, the Rheinland cruiser Victory was under attack by unknown ships. The Victory has been destroyed and most of us are dead. Captain Brennigan gave a last order to collect more information about this new threat and report what find out to the governments of Sirius. Only three of us are left and we will follow captain Brennigans last order. We will head deep into enemy territory to collect as many information as possible.

God may protect us.

In system Mitra, sector 6F, we found the wreck of the first scout.

Wtf, that is a suicide mission.
Walter is my name, Hans Walter. To who ever finds this message I will not get out there alive. Tell my wife that I love her. I should have never volunteered for this mission, now I pay the prize. Not far from here is a giant gate. I have never seen something like that before. We stand no change… we stand no chance.

The next scout was likewise destroyed. System Ptah, sector 5E

This is Corporal Lehmann of the Rheinland Cruiser Victory. I was able to a giant satellite right before it was activated. I linked my systems with a panel on the hull and received a stream of data. Pictures, thousands of pictures. Places I have never seen before. One did contain a star cluster and in the background there was a field of planetary fragments. This seems to be important, browsing through the scans now I see much more of those. Oh my god. That can’t be. That is the Utopia system.
Rheinland has a military base there.

After a long and dangerous journey by the Dom’Kavash space we found the last scout.

Major Lorne Franklin, Victory Cruiser.
I’m probably the last survivor, all others are dead. I soon will run out of fuel. My engines got hit by a green plasma weapon. I don’t even know where the gunfire came from. Using my thrusters was my only chance to flee, but now I am stuck here. One hour ago I received a transmission from those aliens. It appears to be a standard data package for one of their new satellites. Maybe it is their way to program those giant stations. The transmission was encrypted, but I was able to translate a few words. “Utopia” and “Stone”. I wish I would have enough time to find out the meaning of this.

By means of the long range communicators we sent a message to the order and reported about our knowledge. A battleship of the order is already on the move, to bring us out from this system. Furthermore we discovered here a functional hypergate of the Dom’Kavash. Nevertheless it would be suicide to be tried to transit, because it disposes of a strong defence.

Scanning …
Metallic structure found…
This gate is a high energy producing structure similar to the already known Jumpgate technology. The energy produced by this gate is enough to travel even between galaxies.

Danger!
Extreme heavy defence detected.

In sector 2D of the Utopia system we discovered the fragment field, thanks to the information of scouts from the Altair Sector.
Scans prove that inside a jumphole is.

“Radiation ascertained.”

On the other side was not far remotely an observation command module, by which from this system is examined.

Attention Pilot:
The Gas Miners Guild needs your help. Our Scans of this system have lead to the results that the Ancients hold the key to the Hyperspace technology that is currently used by the Dom’Kavash to invade the Altair systems. We have been working for some time to build an own Hypergate in Omega 3. The problem is that there is some data missing and these Ancient drones show hyperspace signatures which let us think that they were build to jump to distant systems. However, we need that information, now. Kill three Ancient fighters, you have to be very close to them to collect the data, then head to the Omega 3 system. You will find one of our hidden Research Stations there.

Homeworld of the Ancients

3500 years ago Planet Devra was home of a race similar to us humans. The civilisation, which we meanwhile call Ancients, reached high technological standards, long before they decided to expand into the deeps of space. It did not take long for them to use the resources of the nearby planets and to build giant space stations around their homeworld. Still this race was not prepared for the Nomads. The first ships trying to leave this system were very soon attacked and giant fleet made sure that the Ancient homeworld had to fail. Surprisingly the space stations were left intact. Until today these stations automatically do their job like thousands of years ago, protected by AI drones.

Impressive, you made it. These information are very valueable for us. Now we can complete the hypergate sequences. If you are want you can go through the gate now. But be aware that we don’t know what behind it. You might even get stuck on the other side and have to find another way out, so it would be good if you check your equipment first before you travel to the other side. We already have sent an expedition fleet through the gate, but they have not returned. Maybe you will have more luck. If you find the other pilots, bring them back.

An overpowering sight. It is strange only that in this system no activity is noticeable. The hypergates cover her energy directly from a huge black hole, an attempt to use them seems not to be possible however.

Black hole
Unlike the small black holes that a spread over the galaxy, this one has giant dimensions and an even bigger hunger for matter. Navigation data shows that this must be one of the inne core black holes in the middle of our galaxy.
It looks like three alien structures use it as energy source.

Dom’Kavash Energy Relais station
This Relais station seems to collect energy from the black hole. Its size and technology exceeds everything the human culture has created. Eventhough the scans show a Dom’Kavash energy signature from the inside, the interferences prevent detailed scans. It is unknown if this station is populated or how it does work. We are not even sure if there are docking bays that could grant access to this masterpiece of technology. The entire station is surrounded by massive energy fields which prevent any close oberservations.

Galactic Hypergate
The Galactic Hypergate gets his energy directly from a black hole to create a massive hyperspace rift leading to distant galaxies. Eventhough this Hypergate was designed to keep the gateway open due to the constant energy output of the blackhole, it is not possible to travel through the galaxies without adjustment of the energy flow between the gate and its energy relais station. Unfortunately the Dom’Kavash lost the hypergate control to other alien races from other galaxies.

The Dom’Kavash seem to use other jumpgates within the core systems, than those who are known to us.

These jumpgate do not seem to have an external powersource, they take their energy right from the jumptunnel. Power generators probably would not be able to deliver enough energy for travels between the mass rich Inner Core systems.

On our journey by the internal Core systems we found out that still other races are here, which have presumably reached by the hypergates in this galaxy.

Dom’Nepesh

Dom’Nepesh are mysterious creatures which live in a galaxy not far away from ours. It seems like they started the war against the Dom’Kavash thousands of years ago.

Savage

The Savage were a high-tech civilisation, long before the Dom’Nepesh started a thousands of years raging war with them. Eventhough souvereign on technological level the Savage lost the war. Today their only reason to survive as race is to fight for the Dom’Nepesh.

Dom’Razak

The Dom’Razak are known to be a peaceful race, but the influence of the other races corrupted their peaceful mind. Now they are at war with the Dom’Kavash.

Warrior

The best name our scientists could give to this race was “Warrior” since that is exactly what they are. The Dom’Razak is a civilization that was build by two races. While the Dom’Razak are traders and scientists, the “Warriors” due to their nature very soon took over the role of the military. Eventhough both races have their origin on the same planet, they developed into totally different directions.
But together they are strong.

Dom’Setek

The Dom’Setek are a race from a distant galaxy which invaded the Dom’Kavash space thousands of years ago.

Sentinel

Like Nomads the Sentinels are slaves. They have been created to serve their masters and fight for them. Dom’Setek designed the first Sentinels after they noticed the worth of the Nomads for the Dom’Kavash empire.

Then finally, it came to the first contact with the Dom’Kavash, or Kavash, as they are called today.

We are the Kavash.
We ruled over this galaxy for more than 70.000 years, but our empire nearly collapsed. Our race was young when we started to spread over this part of the universe. Young and blinded. Not many races, which we have met in the early years of the empire,, did survive the following wars. The very few which did became part of the empire. Soon after just 2.000 years we ruled over this galaxy and in our blinded arrogance we now used the name Dom’Kavash, Dominator Kavash. It took us another 10.000 years to realize our mistakes. We, the empire were alone. Our race reached a technological level far beyond your imagination, the entire galaxy was ours, but there were no more tasks for us. No battles to fight, no war to win, no place we did not yet control.

Our new fate was to give back something to the worlds we once have conquered.
The seed of life was spread over many worlds and other planets already did contain primitive life forms that got influenced by our presence.
But we Kavash are not free of mistakes, we did many. So it did happen that we also tried to reach other galaxies. It took 4.000 years to develop a technology to open the hyperspace to other galaxies.

There was no powersource strong enough to keep open such a gateway except one. So we used one of the black holes close to the galaxy core. We have build three galactic gates and opened them. From all our mistakes this was the biggest one.

When we tried to reach the other galaxies we expected primitive cultures, maybe even a few civilizations. But our expectations were wrong. We could not know that we are not the only galactic empire. Our first contacts with the others were peaceful, at least for the first few hundred years. But the situation started to become complicated when we, the Kavash decided not to share our hyperspace technology with the other empires. It is hard to say if this was a mistake or not.

It took not long that war was declared on us and giant fleets came through the galactic hypergates into our galaxy. Every ship, every Kavash able to fight was ordered back to our homeworld to join our fleet. Our plan was to destroy the Galactic gates and finally close them. But we failed.
We, the Kavash reached the gates under heavy losses. We destroyed the hyperspace technology inside the gates, because the gates themselve were nearly indestructable as they were build to resist even the gravimetrical anomalies of the black hole. The gates remained open. The hyperspace gateways took their energy directly from the black hole and we were not able to disrupt this energy stream. Our fleet had to retreat.

Many of the systems close to the core were overrun by our enemies. We, the Kavash could not fight everywhere and we could not allow that these intruders get hands on the hyperspace technology. Our decision was to abandon colonies in the outer regions of the galaxy and to destroy all hypergates leading there. We limited the war to stay close to the core, far away from our “children”. That was the prize we had to pay for our arrogance.

We could not expect that the war would raging for so long, we could not expect that your race would travel to space that soon. You have met the guards of our old colonies, the Nomads and you have survived them. Your race appears to be very interesting and strong, but full of conflicts. You appear to be like the Kavash 70.000 years ago.

Our empire will fall soon. The last defence lines have been reached by the enemy forces. The first time in our history we ask for help.
Fight with us or this galaxy will fall.