Spaceships!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

The small, heavily armoured, drone flustered outside the door of the Auran Throne Room/Chamber/Pool. The amabssador had been gone for hours. Had he been eaten? Would he need to train up a new one?
The door creaked open slowly, the Ambassador waved cheerily and wave goodbye to his Imperial Highness. He had got away with it again!
The door slammed shut, and the Ambassador handed back a sheaf of old fashioned paper notes to the drone (The Aurans hated drones, foreign data pads, anything they had not invented themselves, best not upset them) and it impatiantly bustled. "Did you discuss the Yanpalo incursion?"
"I.."
"Did you mention they sent an alpha strike of bombers? Fair wrecked our visual sensors."


The drone buzzed round the slightly bemused Ambassador at headheight.
"Which was overtaken by fighters, they ripped apart our local screens?"
"If..."


It was showing some aggitation,nervousness even. An unsual state for a droid to get into.
"Our spy satillites then picked up a wave of six corvettes entering! Do you understand how serious an intrussion that is?"
"Yes but..."


It fixed the Ambassador's gaze, hovering and flitting slightly, like a child trying not to peak at birthday presents.
"I do hope you were able to dicuss the technical merits of their ship designs, as oh dear, we need their help on this one?"
"Um..."


It thumbedflicked at high speed through the Ambassadors notes, scanning each page at high resolution, typical, nothing written down! How do these pathetic humans ever cope without AI assistance?
"I know the Yanpalo have a thing about the value of six, but this is a real show of arrogence from them."
"Wha..."


How dare he not take notes! He did not have the synaptic boosts to mem-cord all the details.
"Corvettes, followed by those nasty frigates. How did we ever deserve an opponent like this?"
"If you woul..."


Oh human memories, so unorganised and cluttered, I'll have to scan him later as he recharges!
"Those frigates never travel on their own, always with the big stuff, you put that across, yes?"
"Yes, bu..."


The drone looked distraught, the pace of it's fussing increased.
"Oh I wish we had more allies like the Aurans, they know what to do, don't they?"
"I sai..."


Punching a manipultor at a file picture (taken from an Auran camera feed),
"To have two destroyers in system, that means they are serious. You did discuss their anti-missile capabilities that those things pack?"
"Will yo..."


It looked at another print, a good angle on the newly emerged destroyers. If the Aurans ever found we have tapped ther feeds...
"I know our fleet call them 'Angmar's Helmets; I wonder that the Auran's call them?"
"Really, you..."


It flicked through the file again. It did not need to, it knew every pixal and fold down to a micron level and knew which pages had been looked at, handled and hopefully discussed. It could probably estimate time on each page to a picosecond by sweat residues and decay due to exposure to the Auran atmosphere. Most sheets were relatively untouched, strange?
"I am glad our intelligence tapped their security feeds, that new cruiser design is a real worry. You showed but did not say where we got it from, right?"
"Of cour..."


While the stress of this situation was definitley showing on the drone,who was not on his 17th lap of the antichamber, the Ambassador looked bored.
"Our analysts reckon their firepower is just short of one of our battleships. Did you get the Auran version of their statistical anayalsis."
"I woul..."


The drone was now hovering almost touching the Ambassador's face, like a C20th drill sergent in the face of a raw recruit.
"Two of those in any sytem is horrendous! Now, what did they say about the battlecruisers?"
"I haven't..."


"We haven't seen anything bigger have we? Have they?"
"How woul..."


The door to the state chamber silently slid open behind the flustered drone.
"You know, your lack of answers really is agrivating, Human thought processes are so slow!"
"Oi..."


A long red, pearlescent tenticle drifted unseen under the drone, hugging the floor, despite the drones enhanced sensor suits, in it's stress it did not compute what was happening.
"That many ships in one system, you know what that means?"


The tenticle wrapped round the drone with the speed of movement that would make a striking cobra give up and search out a zimmer frame. It smashed the drone into the wall, the floor, twice against the ceiling, and then the other wall until bits had crumpled off the droid and scattered across the now cracked examples of finest trans-marble the Ambassador had ever seen. As the tenticle shook the last droid metallic and bio-residue off itself and slid back into the throne room, one huge, unblinking, eye looked out.
"Typical," the Emperor intoned in the Ambassador's mind, "I only wanted to know if you humans had any good recipies for roasting these Yanpole after we destroyed and captured them! Oh, and tell his successor that, yes, we know about their breaches in our satillite systems because we let them, and no, they can't keep doing it!"

The Ambassador smiled...

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Impressive

[Techno II]

Very spiffy ! 

Cheers - Phil.

[fred.]

Great fleet - and great write up, has echos of Iain M Banks

[Big Insect]

Great fleet - and great write up, has echos of Iain M Banks

That was wat I wuz gunna say!

My favourite Banks book (& bit) is that very first space battle in Excession - the one that takes a long chapter to read but actually takes place in nano-seconds of computer time.

And what is there not to like/dislike about the Affronters as a species!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

I just love the chapter (I think its in Look To Windward) where it's just two ships discussing ship names.
He wrote it to annoy his fans!

[Spartan]

Nice 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Alarms sounded...
*THUNK*
It still sounded...
The Ambassador picked it up and threw it against the wall, pulling the sheet over his ears. A muffled tinkling sound suggested a new alarm was needed, but it could still be heard!
The pillow went over his ears next, accompanied by vocabulary that would certainly have seen him disbarred from most organisations bars across the galaxy.
A cold, metal hand gripped his leg and unceremoniously dumped him on the floor, only breaking his fall at the last second with an anti-grav field.
"Get up!" the droid, a replacement he assumed, for the one smashed by the Emperor... How long ago?
"How long was I out for?" He asked the new shell as he tried to stand. It had upgraded armour, and had shown it had inbuilt shield generators, he suspected the mind was the same as his prious 'minder' though.
"2.5 standard."
"WHAT!" 2.5 was a long nap, not a night's recovery, what was going on!
"His Imperial Highness is requesting a meeting."
"At this hour? Can't it wait until morning? Find me some appropriate clothes if we have to go there, I hardly think a sheet is suitable." The Ambassador moved towards the bathroom facities, maybe a warm shower would wake him in a more civil manner?
"No, his Imperial Majesty has demanded a meeting here, now!" The droid blocked his way, gesturing behind him.
"Here, now? That breaks every tennant of diplomatic law. He can't enter our soerign space without formal invertation and then that has to be cleared by..."
He never finished that particular sentence, as he felt himself being turned by a strong, slimey, tentacle. Galactic diplomatic law was now completely out the window. He spun (several times, it was a lot of force) and when he stopped, propping himself against the table, he was facing the huge, purple and black, unblinking right eye within an armoured tac-shell that could only belong to the Emperor itself.
"Your Imperial Majesty, this is certainly a surprise..."
"Cut the pleasentries Ambassador, I need your individual xenobiologist knowledge and specialisms, right now!" The Emperor's voice echoed in his mind, despite it being telepathic, it sounded worried. This was a state he had never geard a senior Auran be in before.
"Your Majesty, what brings you here at this hour?"
"It is simple, tell me everything about theTigerians, and another thing, are all humans this pinnk all over?" The sheet had long disappreared, the droid was approaching with a bundle of clothes, mostly mismatched and he suspected from out of the laundry hopper, he grabbed a pair of coveralls, wrinkled hi snose at the smell, not his obviously, and hopped in, heading towards the sofa on one foot, as he attempted to cover... anything!
"Tigerians, well, therein lies a tale."
"I do not have time for a long history lesson, I need to know how to deal with them."
"Well, I am sure all the information is accessible on our databanks, which I have no doubt you have already hacked as the room temperature and humidity is much higher than I would normally have it, why don't you just access them instead of interuppting sleep and breaching our soverign space." The droid demanded, depositing the rest of the clothing on a chair. There was a blur, and a metal tipped tentacle retracted from the now smoking remains of the droid's carapace, it sparked and powered downwards onto the floor.
The Ambassador shook his head, sat down, moved a sock, and sat again.
"As you are no doubt aware, I served on as a junior diplomat for three of your cycles with the embassy at Tigeria. It was a fraught and awkward time, Tigerians have no love for Humans at all. Tigers and other large felines were one of the first waves of 'Uplifting' where we humans brought several sentiant creatures up to Human IQ levels."
"Not a great leap forwards then." A slight chuckle for the Emperor showed he was relaxing.
"However, the Tigerians, who were solitary creatures before their uplift, were an issue. Instead of relishing their new found intellect, that quickly declared that they could not co-exist with such vengeful and muderous creatures that only hunt for pleasure and have attacked and destroyed too many of their species. So, they gathered their resources and left the humans to it as they could not trust them."
"Oh, they left you. Unusual, elephants, ursines and gorillas all stayed and peacefully co-habit in human space."
"They set up on their own in three sytsems, off Orion, at the systems of Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. Their they peacefully trade with the galaxy, or wage war if the mood suits them or someone had resources they need. They love to asset strip enemies. The Hegenomy works simply by force strongest wins, Their ships are painted in the exact same stripes as their owners, and Tigerians stay in the same ship, be it fighter or battleship, until they pass it on to a descendent and they move into a larger vessal. Why do you need to know all this Emperor?"
"Because Admiral Craonopod snapped open the Tigerian Ambassador to see whether the stripes run all the way through, and we think they might be a little upset with us!"
"Why?"
"They said they were coming to tea..."

New spaceships, from Studio Bergstrom, Tigerians. Really like these sculpts.

J'Guairre have shared technology with the Tigerians, including their useful troop transports.


Or gunboats as they will be used for


Three corvettes


On approach


Zoooom


Couple of Tigerian destroyer escorts


Fast movers


A J'Guairre light destroyer, this one is known as 'Shere Khan'!


Can't think why...


Just looks cool


Tigerian Light Carrier




Side view to show bays


With fighters deployed - Top: Interceptors to the front, J'airre Bombers and then heavy fighters. Underneath two fighters and a J'airre bomber


A fleet arrives


Top view


A few Brigade Miniatures add ons
A brigade tanker painted in Tigerian colours




A Brigade tramp freighter and tankers I painted at the same time.




Random colours, but I think they worked!




Not really speeding away, but speed is relative in space.


And Brigade satellites for A Billion Suns

[toxicpixie]

Love those, especially the carrier!

Also the cargo boats, cracking.

[Ithoriel]

You're just doing this to remind me I have a box full of spaceships that need to be painted, aren't you, Will? :-)

Lovely job on those. Like the tiger stripes.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Good stuff

[Techno II]

Lovely job on those. Like the tiger stripes.

Same here ! 

Cheers - Phil.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

The ambassador pored over new intel scans, as a droid hovered a little too low and close over his shoulder.
"A further breach of the Auren. Do we inform His Imperial Highness?" it chirped.
"What, that he might need a large cooking pan for dinner tonight?"
"There are four of them, that's a lot to contend with."
"Better tell him to get the extra large pan out!"



A pair of Yanpalo frigates






Destroyers




At full burn

[sunjester]

Very nice job, Will.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

"Another breach, think Yenpalo are reinforcing after the fight wth the McAndrew corporation?" The droid enquired.
"It will take them to five of all minor classes in the region." The Ambassador looked up from his data pad.
"Not the sixes they so favour." The droid flustered.
"Check back down their flight path, check for debris?"
"Plenty their, no wonder they are short handed."
"All second line assests, a drstroyer, a frigate and  four corvettes, plus extra fighters and bombers."


"No extra heavies?" The Ambassador looked back down and flicked a page.


"Monitors say not." The droid drifted off for a glass of something for the Ambassador


"Why thank you."


"Well, we can watch them getting trashed later then."


"Might need a debris field marker on the galactic charts soon then."