Fwurg

[Shadow of War]

Shadow of War dropped out of hyperspace just outside sector 14 -2. While the Teprogrenaians hadn't said he needed an escort he thought it was a good idea not to just jump into the middle of their home system unannounced.

Teprogrenaian control, this is Shadow of War. Requesting permission to enter the sector and hyperspace exit vector.

[Teprogrenaian Consensus]

Shortly after Shadow of War hailed the Teprogrenaian Space Control Centre, a ship exited hyperspace. It bore the markings of a pilot boat and Shadow of War his sensors could notice that the ship came from Comurimedan



"This is pilot boat the Ingredi. Shadow of War, welcome to Teprogrenaian Space. We will be your guide. Since you are a cyborg, is it correct that you lack a bridge? If so, then we will guide you via holonet otherwise we request permission to transfer a pilot guide to your bridge.

Please deactivate all offensive weapon systems during your stay in Teprogrenaian territory.

The space weather forecast is the sun is calm and there are no reports of abnormal space activities. Dhiahamara's sky is clear as well so we expect you to have a pleasant stay."

[Shadow of War]

"That's correct, Ingredi, I have no bridge. But might I suggest just sending me coordinates and flight route, in my experience the method you suggest is slow and impractical.

My weapons are offline."

Shadow wondered if weather had anything to do in Teprogrenaian culture, as their senator had also spoken about it. Furthermore the words of the Ingredi suggested their home star was unstable, he decided to offer his help.

"Ingredi, planetary weather is of no concern to me. If your home star is experiencing extreme solar storms I can make a few high resolution scans of it's interior if your government would allow me to."

[Teprogrenaian Consensus]

"To be clear, you have to shut down all offensive weapon systems, this include hacking systems, guiding systems and other non-direct weapons meant for offensive actions as well, not only your immediate weapons."

After the Ingredi had confirmed that the Shadow of War indeed had deactivated all offensive weapon systems, the Ingredi continued "Affirmative, we will escort you to your designated landing spot on Dhiahamara and will keep an open link. We are sending the haperspace jump solutions now. "

The Ingredi warmed up its hyperdrive ready to jump just after Shadow of War. Shadow of War could scan a power build-up in the Ingredi from its hyperdrive before he jumped himself.

During the small time in hyperspace the captain of the Ingredi said: "Believe me, when it is rain season on Dhiahamara, you don't want to land. You wouldn't be the first to sustain heavy damage from the continuous lightning strikes. You might feel large, but for a 1 500 km wide hurricane, you are but a fly.

Except from the expectable solar flares from time to time, our sun is stable and calm. It is a white main sequence star, might it be of your interest. You are free to make scans of the sun for personal interest. We wont need them."

((OOC: Though I am no space travel expert, I believe that activities as solar flares or 'nearby' exploding stars could worsen your days as space traveller. So just like you got weather forecasts for normal ships in the see, I imagine there are space weather forecasts.))

[Shadow of War]

Shadow jumped into hyperspace shortly after the coordinates had been sent, ignoring the error in their pronunciation of the word 'hyperspace' shortly before their jump.

"If my shields couldn't handle a little lightning they wouldn't be of much use now, would they. I flew through the storms on Kollium once, I doubt I have to explain to you that storms on a gas giant are a thousand times worse than storms on any rocky planet.

I doubt a hurricane would effect me, if my mass wouldn't be enough my anti-turbulance systems would. That is unless Dhiahamara has hurricanes that reach hypersonic velocities, which I highly doubt considering it has life which would be practically impossible with a feature like that."

((OOC: I happen to know a thing or two about that. A solar flare large enough to reach earth is a phenomenon not a regularity. With star wars technology I dare to say that the only way a solar flare can ruin your day is if you fly through one. Radiation? yes that will reach the planet, the loop of energy? not likely.

As for exploding stars, that would be considered worthy of a Union Central News article, if it happens inside or close (about one sector) to Union territory. And if your close enough not to be able to get away in time, I'm going to ask this: How did you fail to notice that gainormous ball of light, heat and radiation next to you?

The only reason stars explode on a regular basis is because there are so many of them there probably isn't a word for the amount.

You are right there probably is a space weather forecast but I think that would mostly notifications that meteors are passing through. Assuming the stars in the systems we use are about halfway through their fuel (like our own sun) that would still mean millions to billions of years (depending on the type of star) before it becomes unstable enough to produce problems. I would love to discuss astronomy with you but lets do that IC if you want to.))

[Teprogrenaian Consensus]

"I have no doubts in the strength of your shields. I have never heard of Kollium, so I can't say anything about that. The storms on our gas giant, Vestibulure does indeed have high wind velocities, but not that much static discharge."

A moment later, they dropped out of hyperpsace near Dhiahamara. The sky of the entire planet was completely clear, Shadow of War could not spot a single cloud.

In orbit around Dhiahamara was The Cradle, it probably was the biggest artificial construct Shadow of War has ever seen in his entire life. One wing to the other had a maximum span of 900 kilometre and its total hight was about 500 kilometre. It was clear that although The Cradle was able to sustain life, it was far from finished. Whole parts were still under construction.

"Take a good look out of the window big boy, that is The Cradle. There are people who lived their entire life on the ship and never have seen all of it."

When they travelled closer, Shadow of War could spot giant turbo laser cannons aimed at him, large enough to blow him to smithereens with a couple of shots. But when they flew further he could see that the cannons actually were inactive and not moving. They just appeared aiming at him while they flew closer. Over the entire body of the artificial moon where cannons of various sizes under construction. The Teprogrena were clearly making preparations for the upcoming conflict with the Mandalorians.

"We of the Consensus have prepared an island for during your stay at Dhiahamara. I am transmitting the coordinates and the approach vector now.

You can land at one side of the Island, don't mind the vegetation there, it is not protected. But please watch out for the control towers. There are four of them, one at every corner of the old landing strip. There is an area covered with pavement so you can stand comfortably without having to clean your landing gear."

Approach vector was a large word for the actual path Shadow of War had to take. The island lied remote in the Ocean of the planet and there was very little activity in the area. He only had to wait for a public transport ship to pass after which he had all the time and space to land.

"Shadow of War, this is Vasitara Island ground control. You are clear to land." The island was relative small, only five times as long as Shadow of War himself. Next to the landing strip was indeed a large area covered with pavement large enough for him to land. The heat it absorbed from the sun made the air wrinkling and gave the whole newly created landing area a watery look. The other part of the island had several buildings and had the feeling of some sort of vacation area.

Once the Shadow of War was landed the Ingredi took contact for the last time of the day: "Our task, the task of the Ingredi, is done. We will be flying back to Comurimedan as there are other ships waiting for us. We wish you a pleasant stay."

((OOC: I haven't started the conversations yet to give you the option to respond on the different aspects :). Once we start the actual conversations, I will open two new threads as well for the other interested parties. Doing them parallel will speed up things a lot.))

[Shadow of War]

"Roger that ground control. Beginning final approach."

Shadow made a wide passover, then turned around as he transferred to walker mode. The loud deep roar of his engines could be heard over the entire island and well out into the ocean.

The noise faded after he touched down on the pavement.

"Roger that, Ingredi. Thanks for the escort, have a nice day."

As he said goodbye to the Ingredi, Shadow started to reposition his legs so he could lower himself. After about an hour he was done, though his hull was still 400 metres of the ground.

He waited till someone arrived.

((OOC: Fine by me.))

[Danar Sylvia]

Shadow of War didn't had to wait long. Actually Danar Sylvia was already there to welcome him. The moment he set foot on the ground, she walked out the control tower closest to the landing site of Shadow of War. She was accompanied by 4 other teprogrena, two full cyborgs, one danar with clear cybernetic implants and a danar with no visual cybernetic implants visible.

The group walked towards a large hover plateau where a droid flew the plateau closer to Shadow of War so they could talk more comfortably. The plateau was easily big enough to fit 20 persons comfortably.

"Avé Shadow of War," Sylvia spoke, both over the commlink and in normal voice, where the voice was enhanced by speakers which Shadow of War could not spot at at the moment, "and welcome to Dhiahamara. I am Danar Sylvia and I will be your host during your stay.

It is a pleasure for us, the teprogrenaian people, to be able to meet such an impressive cyborg, and we hope you feel the same. We were wondering if you mind if we record the talks you have with us. This for the people who are not able to be here."

[Shadow of War]

"Greetings, Danar Sylvia," It sounded like Shadow's voice originated only a few metres in front of the teprogrenaians, out of thin air. "the pleasure is all mine. please, you needn't use a commlink or an amplifier."

"I don't mind being recorded as long as the recording is stopped when I ask for it. This is for my personal privacy."

[Danar Sylvia]

"Naturally, we will respect your privacy.

When visitors are behaving too intrusive, you only have to say and we of the organisation will have them kindly removed. Though we do not believe something will happen. There are a lot of people eager to meet you so they are unlikely to do something to loose this once in a lifetime opportunity. In fact, the hotels on the island are fully booked, and there are lists of people who like to come here if a place might come free.

By the way, your audio sensors and speakers are amazing. You must be very proud of the advanced systems."

[Shadow of War]

"Thank you, I didn't think it would be a problem. I just would prefer it if a private conversation remains private."

"I do take pride in my hull, though technically I don't have audio sensors or speakers on my exterior. My anti-turbulence systems allow me to detect and create air movements which I can also use to detect and create sound waves."

[Danar Sylvia]

"Incredible.

Such technologies must be really expensive. Did your government subsides your body or are you such a successful businessman that you were able to fund the project yourself?"

A small camera crew came out of the building, ready to make recordings which they could use for show for other people within the Consensus. They did not interfere with the meeting self though.

[Danar Sylvia]

((OOC: As you probably have seen, I have created two new threads with new interviews. I was thinking of doing a thread with the camera crew who want to make a documentary, but I though that to be less interesting. This does not mean that there is no documentary, just that we don't play it ;).

Meeting with the jedi Trigiel.

Meeting with some of the many thousands of common people who wanted to see Shadow of War.))

[Shadow of War]

"I funded my hull myself for the most part. The rest I got from mutually beneficial deals with certain manufacturers.

I was a very successful business man before I became a Traveller and I still am. Though most of my estate can be used by other Travellers as well.

Miss Sylvia, could you tell me something about you form of government? The things I heard and read up until now are a bit unclear to me."

[Danar Sylvia]

"You must be the richest man of your world. I cannot imagine a single individual of my world rich enough to single handedly buy a destroyer classed star ship." Sylvia said.

Then she continued: "Our government? Well, in short we work with a Consensus system. The opinion of every individual is taken into account with large decisions. Because this works not efficient any more with 3 billion people, we of the Consensus divided our faction in many subgroups. Every individual is member of a group, a Consult. First within such a Consult, existing around the 20 to 50 people, a consensus is reached. Then chosen spokesmen of all these Consults join in a new Consult to discuss the opinions of the people they represent. When they have reached consensus, a spokesmen of this Consult is chosen to join in a new Consult, again and again till every individual is represented. I for example am a representative in the highest political Consult. Senator Danar Tassar is our, the highest political consult, representative to discuss our opinion in the Union senate.

When a decision is important and we of the Consensus have the time to discuss, the opinion of the lowest Consults is asked again to check if they still agree with the decision. If this is no longer the case we need to re-discuss the situation till everybody does agree.

When there is no time for long discussions, the consensus reached in the last Consult are taken as the final decision.

Your government system recently changed isn't it? I have to say we of the Consensus were a little surprised you didn't want to abort your trip, especially now the Mandalorians are at your doorstep as well."

[Shadow of War]

"Certainly the price of an individual ship isn't that high in the Teprogrenaian Consensus? If I where a regular starship I would be designated as a heavy cruiser not a destroyer."

"Keep in mind I trade in high detail starcharts, I doubt I have to tell you the prices those sell for. I also beta test various advanced technologies. Such deal get me a lot of hardware for free."

"I attended the meeting after the triad boards where removed and I have to say I am pleased with how it turned out. My presence back home would change little. I have confidence in the Colonial Navy."

[Danar Sylvia]

"As a cruiser?!" Sylvia said a bit louder than intended, "then how large must your destroyers be? I know that the destroyers of the Union and the Consensus are between one and two kilometres. Only the flag ship of the Daryans, the Star of Darya, is comparable in size with your body as far I know, and even that ship is no longer than 15 kilometres.

Our, the Consensus, cruisers will just a few hundred metres long.

Sure, there are teprogrena who can buy their own ships, but these are seldom larger than a cruiser. I mean a few hundred metres. Any ship larger is often to expensive and property of a Consult or company."

[Shadow of War]

"I'm sorry but I'm afraid you have your ship size classes mixed up." Shadow said, finally concluding that Danar Sylvia wasn't trying to insult him intentionally.

"Cruisers are larger than destroyers, which are larger than frigates. Or to be more precise heavier as ship class is based on the vessels weight, though role is also a factor."

"The two kilometre long vessels you are referring to are all cruisers, at least according to the ACA. I believe some factions also count carriers and something they call battle-cruisers and battleships as capital ships. But the ACA counts those as cruisers or heavy cruisers."

"Of course there are probably a few factions that have their own designation system but it all boils down to the same."

"The smallest cruiser ever built by the Astrians was the Minotaur-class, which was about 857 metres in length. A tough little ship that was, three metres of armour plating, two heavy magnetic accelerator cannons and 60 firefly missile-pods. I can still remember watching the news coverage of the first one to be launched some 60 years ago."

((OOC: I don't know if you got your ship classes wrong on purpose for roleplaying or by mistake but just in case: here.))

[Chriz]

((OOC: sorry for invading your thread but I keep it at a OOC post. It seems that Elmer and me (and maybe more of us) are using these definitions:
Capital Ships on Wookieepedia. I see you are using the naval system. We might need to have an OOC discussion topic about this to clarify things for all players.))

[Danar Sylvia]

((OOC: There is no right or wrong ship classes system. if you use the Dutch system, you get something whole different entirely (everything is a frigate type, and every ship has their own class). I used the Wookieepedia system, but you, dragonmaster352, have a different culture on a different planet millions of light years away, apparently you use the American naval system. I see no reason to make this insignificant detail an OOC discussion.))

"Don't tell me how to classify ships," Sylvia said a little snappy, "It seems that you use a different naming scheme and system to classify ships, but that doesn't mean that I'm wrong. Within the Consensus, the weight of a ship is of no concern for its class. As you might agree on, an asteroid with only an engine does hardly classify as a warship, though it still has a length and heavy mass.

We of the Consensus still wonder though, if you are a heavy cruiser, are there larger classes, like super-heavy cruiser, or are the Astrian war ships even larger. Because you are the largest ship in the Galaxy as far I know."

[Shadow of War]

((OOC: I thought star wars used the same method as the rest of the world. And the dutch navy does have other ship classes than frigates, as frigate is a size class. The dutch system is simmilar to the US system as is most of the rest of the world. The names of a ship class are like the model name on a car. size class is more like the chassis type (example: stationwagon, convertable, etc.)))

"There is no reason to get angry, Miss Sylvia." Shadow said in a calm manner. "An asteroid with an engine isn't a ship, it's an asteroid with an engine. I doubt I have to tell you asteroids can be enormous, even compared to me. Also if two ships are the same size but one of them has double the armour, weapon systems and power core, it would clearly be heavier. The size of a ship tells very little about the amount of damage it can do or take."

"But I suppose these are just things our respective cultures view differently. There are no larger ship classes than heavy cruisers, at least not yet. When ships that size start to become more common there will probably be a class added for that. Though I think that will take a few decades at the very least."

[Danar Sylvia]

"But that still does not entirely answer the question of us, the Consensus. If you don't know, or can't answer, just say so instead of beating around the bush."

[Shadow of War]

"All I can say is that modern ACN cruisers are roughly between 2000 and 3500 metres in length and can weigh anywhere between 75 and 250 million tons." Shadow told Sylvia something that was considered common knowledge as this was information that anyone could find on the holonet.

"And now I would like to change the subject. I came here to learn about the Teprogrenaian culture, not to be interrogated about Colonial Military assets."

[Danar Sylvia]

"So you are the largest ship of your world. Shadow of War, you don't have to be so modest about these kind of things. I am sure you have a lot of influence." Sylvia said reassuring. She wasn't really here to interrogate Shadow of War as well."

"But very well, what do you like to talk about? Teprogrenaian Culture is a little large subject. Is there anything in particular you like to learn about?"

((OOC: I like to say that the sizes of your ships are not common knowledge. Your military page only displays 'classified', so I know nothing of your fleet. If I have information, you may consider it espionage.))

[Shadow of War]

"I would like to know a few things about your cybernetics, I heard you don't have artificial lungs, cardiac pumps or cortical implants. And that past a certain amount of cybernetics you can't have children any more. Is this true? And if yes why is this?"

((OOC: There is a difference between the holonet and the wiki. Also any ship can detect the size of another ship so why keep it a secret. The classified part is the amount of ships in that fleet. I'm not going to think up every detail about something that is considered "common knowledge" and put it on the wiki.))