hey evryone i no most stories hav like 20 min. long posts of their stories, i was wondering, does anyone mind that im doing short posts, or would you guys prefer longer ones?

this length is actually pretty good.

 kool

yeah I like the shorter format. It means you can update more lol.

Good stuff so far

ha yeah thats wat i was going for

Chapter 2, part 1
The Exodus Fleet

The Vasari

Phase space - 10,000 years ago, 15th month of Krashnak

    "All right Vasari, listen up."
    Vorg's voice boomed out of every speaker on the ship. Heads turned as the voice went on.
    "I know that for the former crew of the Kortul, things were not...ideal...this past year. And for our new crew members, uprooting your lives and chasing after the stars might not have been on your agenda. So right now I will explain my reason for the flight to Okarion and now our flight to Baski, our neighboring star."
    The captain hadn't looked up. Of course they were going to the next solar system, after phasing out at Rax, the star connected to Okarion by the phase lanes. The extra time to open the phase hole, let alone the purplish color of the hole itself, left no doubt of any other possible destination. The only troubling thing was, Baski lay in an unconquered sector, far past the frontier lines. Why was the Admiral Commander taking them to a system that contained no Vasari planets?
    "As I explain, I want to stress that I will allow absolutely no hysteria aboard my ship, is that clear? I want no trouble, and believe me, this news is extremely...horrendous."
    The captain snorted under his breath. The Admiral Commander had not been born for public speaking. This should be amusing.
    "For my crew in the command center with me, I would direct your attention to the map I am bringing up on the main screen. All crew stationed otherwise, please listen closely."
    The screen came online, displaying many of the planets along the inner core of the Empire. The captain caught his breath, staring disbelievingly at the map. No, this wasn't happening, this cannot be!
    "What I am displaying here is a map of our inner sectors. As you can see, most have stopped broadcasting, meaning we have lost those planets."
    The captain hissed disbelievingly as the map zoomed to the inner home worlds. The Vasari home world, their precious Vasar, was as silent as the rest! This couldn't be true!
    "The infection started here, in the heart of our Empire. First one fell silent, then another, then they all were gone. Now as I zoom out, you can clearly see that our Empire is no more. Not one planet deeper than the frontier lines sends out a signal."
    Vorg spoke in a flat voice, a dead voice, a voice resigned to the inevitable.
    A cry went up around the command center as, even as they watched, two frontier planets flickered and darkened.
    "My friends!" And now Vorg was shouting. "My friends, we have a decision to make! Do we wait for this unknown catastrophe to reach us? Do we sit idly by while we become no more? NO! We are the last of the Vasari! The hope of the Empire-that-is-no-more! I say we run! We live! I say we keep running throughout the galaxies, conquering a planet here or there, replenishing our supplies, building up a fleet, and then we leave the planet, never to return! And we do so with each planet we find! We must never let this enemy destroy all that if left of the ancient Vasari race! As of this moment, all of you belong to the ancient blood of the Vasari elders, as we are the eldest of the Vasari! We are the only Vasari! And we will bring back the Vasari Empire!"
    Cheers echoed back from out of the speakers. The Vasari were quickly getting over their shock. They had no time to mourn; they were the start of a new era in Vasari history. The Exodus Fleet had work to do.
    The captain had just stood there in shock as Vorg had outlined the fall of the Empire, and the start of the Exodus flight. Now, as the Admiral Commander's speech died down, he blinked, still not comprehending. The Empire...finished? How could...and he was planning to kill the one man who knew of this? What if one of his assassinations had succeeded? What if there had been no Exodus flight? If they had stayed at Okarion, or tried to reconnect with the Dark Fleet? The unknown enemy would have wiped out the last fragile threads of the Vasari bloodline. No, the captain mentally shook his head, no, he had almost made a horrible mistake. A terrible, horrible, horrible mistake. Letting his anger gain control of him, when he had never realized that they really needed this man, this Admiral Commander. Without his knowledge of the different warships the Vasari had no chance of rebuilding their lost empire. It was time for the captain to pay proper respect to his superior officer. Vorg was, after all, all that the Vasari had left.
    Vorg looked up as the captain came awkwardly forward, looking extremely troubled. He opened his mouth to speak, but Vorg cut him off.
    "Enough, Captain. You were blinded, but now you see the light. We must all stick together in this time of hardship."
    The captain nodded, staring at the floor, unable to reach the Admiral Commander's eyes. The he turned and went back to his desk. Vorg smiled to himself as the ship rumbled and the lights streaming past the ship ended, and the bright red glare of Baski shone through the command center's tinted viewpoints. The Vasari Empire may have ended, but by hell, the Exodus Fleet would bring it back!

very, very short part.

hey is anyone reading this or am i pretty alone out here?

if ur reading leave a comment cause im getting a little discouraged from posting more...

people are reading it - they are just not posting

Chapter 2, part 2
Colonizable Planet Discovered

The Trader Emergency Coalition

Introduction
(from the Sins of a Solar Empire manual)

    The history of the TEC began more than 1,000 years ago during the foundation of the Trade Order by economically driven settlers. Established on strict principles of economics and codes of behavior, the Trader Worlds quickly began to expand - making the Trade Order an industrial and commercial juggernaut. However, outside of the Trader's core principles, each member world maintained its own interests, form of government, economic systems and culture. It was during this early period of the Trade Order that something unique took place which would later reshape the galaxy. During a routine expedition to recruit new trading partners, emissaries from the Order landed on a dry, desert world orbiting a red giant. Here they discovered a colony of people practicing the most heinous forms of scientific and social deviancy, breaking the covenants of the Trade Order. When the emissaries returned, their news sent shock waves throughout the Trader worlds and the response was swift - exile. For the first time in history the Trade Order forced their will upon a sovereign world, banding together and forcibly removing their twisted cousins from Trader space forever...and forgotten.
    Over the next thousand years the Trade Order went on in relative peace and prosperity - a golden age of mankind. War became a thing read about only in history books and seen in holo-vids. The occasional rare dispute was settled in Trader-sanctioned courts and merchant fleets filled the phase lanes with goods.
    The Trade Order's golden age came to an abrupt end a decade later with the arrival of the Vasari Empire. With no defenses, the Vasari swept the Order's ships aside with ease, and within only a few short months defeat seemed like a real possibility. In a last ditch effort to turn the tide, the Trade Order sanctioned the creation of the Trader Emergency Coalition to combat the alien threat. The TEC quickly learned to marshal the vast industrial resources of the Trader worlds towards military production and used their new war engine to keep the Vasari at bay. Unfortunately for the TEC, an ancient enemy has just returned to open a two-front war against them.

1,000 years ago, outside Trader-controlled space

    Lieutenant Harrison leaned back in his chair, smoking one of his favorite cigars. The air sanitizer by his desk immediately caught the smoke and cycled it through its filter, eradicating any smell that might irritate the other officers on the bridge of his Protev colony frigate, bound for Lusitania, the "jewel of the eastern rim," as the colonists called it. And not many disagreed. The new frontier planets in the outer rim were too new to be anything near a jewel, and the other eastern planets in the inner sector just didn't compare. The problem was, Lusitania was not yet part of the new Trade Order, and the Order was eager to grab this "jewel." And rightly so. More than half of the eastern sector's inner rim trade went through Lusitania. And so it was up to Harrison and his team of diplomats to convert the leaders of the planet to the Order. Harrison smiled to himself as he let out another puff of his cigar. History would remember his name as the man who connected the east to the west.
    The only problem, thought Harrison to himself, crossing and then uncrossing his legs which were propped up on his desk, was that the star-blighted trip was so starstruck long! Trader scientists had not yet found a way through phase space from one point of space directly to another, so for now all interplanetary travel depended on the phase lanes. Oh, they were useful, right enough. Trips that once took eighty years now only took several months or a year at most, but still, it was an entire year. Harrison had been on this tub for roughly six months now, and he was raring to be off. Perhaps fate answered his prayer. Perhaps fate doomed his life.
    The little Protev shuttered as it left phase space and the gravitational pull of the planet's gravity well took hold of it. Harrison, muttering crossly, put out his cigar and turned his attention to the rest of the bridge.
    "Are the engines online?" He called out to no one in particular.
    "All three just came in green, sir," a warrant officer answered back. "We have 98% engine power."
    "Well what a surprise, it raised a percentage since the last planet. Take it over to the other edge of the well and initiate phase travel."
    "Yes sir," the warrant officer replied, smiling in sympathy for his superior officer.
    That done, Harrison was just about to light another cigar when the warrant officer spoke again.
    "Just a minute sir..."
    "What is it?" Harrison demanded crossly.
    "Sir...is the Order aware that this planet is colonized?"
    Harrison shuffled some e-documents around before finding the one about this planet.
    "Planet X-4, uninhabited and uncolonized. Scheduled colonization in 4 years." Harrison looked up. "Are you telling me this planet is colonized?"
    The warrant officer nodded. "Yes sir, preliminary scans are showing massive amounts of electrical energy in several key areas on the planet. Should I do a full scan?"
    "Immediately!" cried Harrison, his heart thumping. What a pleasant extra bonus! Besides being named as the man who brought Lusitania into the modern world, he would also be known for having discovered a previously unheard of civilization!
    "Put the Protev in geosynchronous orbit around planet X-4 until we have a more detailed report," Harrison ordered.
    No one replied, but Harrison could feel the ship turning as the planet's surface came into view. Harrison gasped in spite of himself. Displayed across the planet's surface were various large metallic blobs. From this height, these were massive cities the size of countries. Whoever built these cities were years ahead of the Trade Order. Harrison felt excitement creeping up his neck. What had he found here?
    Then Harrison's brain exploded.
    At least, that's what it felt like. A mind numbing shockwave of sound burst inside Harrison's head, and he fell to the ground screaming. If he was paying attention to anyone at all, he would have noticed the rest of the bridge had followed suit. The Protev lurched as its engineers clutched their pounding heads, pleading with the stars that they take them quickly and end the pain. Then as quickly as it had come, the pain stopped. Harrison gasped on the ground. Around him, the rest of the bridge crew imitated him. Throughout the rest of the ship men and women collected themselves, murmuring quietly. Did you feel it too? What just happened? What was that?
    For the officers in the bridge, however, they had not long to think. Suddenly an officer in the back of the bridge shouted out, "Hey, Lieutenant! Someone's trying to gain access to our radio transmission!"
    The bridge crowded around the communications officer, hardly even parting when Harrison demanded them to move. Pushing and shoving his way through the crowd, Harrison made his way to the communications officer. The officer turned to Harrison, the mike in his hand. Next to the speaker, a yellow light was blinking steadily. Harrison looked at the planet they were orbiting, thinking of the mind attack his ship had just suffered from. It could obviously be nothing else, not if the entire ship had collapsed at the exact same moment. Hesitantly, Harrison pushed the transmit button. Static buzzed through the speaker. Harrison looked questioningly at the communications officer, but he shrugged his shoulders. As was the Trader custom, none of them would talk until the caller had first spoken. Suddenly from in between the static Harrison thought he heard a voice. He looked over at the communications officer, but the man was already on it. He fiddled with several buttons until the static receded and Harrison could hear the voice more clearly.
    "Hababwieifkiekeefmaeufn gagkjamgnag...." It was utter garbage.
    Harrison looked helplessly at the men around him. How were they supposed to communicate when he couldn't even understand their language! Had they been lost by humankind for so long that they developed their own language? Had he in fact discovered not a lost branch of humans, but alien life forms? The thought made Harrison almost drop the speaker. In all the thousands of years of space travel, never had the Traders come across an alien species. The voice dropped off to a muted whisper, but then grew louder again, and in amazement Harrison realized he could understand the words.
    "This is Portugal Lee Gibbings calling to unidentified spacecraft orbiting our planet. Please explain your presence. This is Portugal Lee Gibbings calling to unidentified spacecraft orbiting our planet. Please explain your presence---"
    Harrison hit the talk button.
    "Hello, hello!" He shouted into the receiver.
    The voice on the other end stopped.
    "This is Lieutenant Harrison, Junior Grade," Harrison continued, "I am captain of this Protev colony frigate. Who am I speaking to?"
    "I am Portugal Lee Gibbings, Harrison," the voice responded immediately, "what are you doing with a colony frigate around our planet?"
    "Why, we didn't know this planet was inhabited at all! In fact, we were on our way to another planet entirely! We picked you up on our scanners by accident."
    The voice was silent for a while.
    "Very well," it responded eventually, "Lieutenant Harrison, you have permission to land on our planet if you desire it, or you have free travel to the edge of the gravity well. Either way, two small ships will be escorting you. They should be arriving now."
    True to its word, two moving objects blinked onto the motion scanner.
    Harrison barely took time to think. "Yes, we'd like to land for a bit, if you don't mind."
    "Not at all, Lieutenant Harrison, please follow the blue spacecraft."
    Harrison waved frantically at the four pilots, who ran to their seats and revved the Protev's engines. The other officers on the bridge trickled to their seats now that the conversation was over.
    Harrison watched as the Protev was guided down onto an enclosed landing platform on the edge of the city. The blue ships on either side of the Protev erected a shield so that the Protev could enter the planet's gravity. It would not have survived the landing otherwise; its transport shuttles were the ones that actually flew down to the planet when a Protev colonized it. Harrison tried to get a glimpse of the city while the Protev landed, but they went down too fast and Harrison couldn't make anything out. The Protev was settled on a thick metal platform in the desert ground, which suddenly began descending, carrying the Protev with it.
    We're going underground, though Harrison in a daze.
    At last the platform stopped with a sudden jerk, and the blue ships dropped their shield and flew up the long tunnel that now lay above the Protev. Harrison radioed the marines stationed near the rear of the ship, and with an honor guard of marines he stepped off the Protev onto the metallic floor of the underground structure made by the unknown inhabitants of planet X-4.
    "Welcome," said a voice Harrison recognized.
    Harrison looked up to see a tall human-looking figure walking towards him, arm extended. It was the voice from the ship, it was Portugal Lee Gibbings.
    Portugal looked like a normal human male, albeit a tall one, but there were still several things off about him. For one, his skin was dry and flaky, and many lines were etched across the old face, yet from Portugal's voice Harrison would have guessed that the man was in his late thirties. And he glided across the room as if his feet hovered slightly off the ground. Which made Harrison quickly check to make sure they weren't. No, Portugal was simply very agile on his feet.
    Harrison was unsettled, but then again, he was trained as a diplomat before becoming captain of a Protev frigate. He shook hands with the man, smiling.
    "What may I call your people?" Harrison asked. Always the first words out of a diplomat's mouth. It was traditional.
    Portugal smiled. "You may call us the Family. I believe in your language that means a group of several beings related to each other by birth?"
    Harrison nodded.
    "Well then, family is what you may call us. Welcome to the Family, Lieutenant Harrison."

i leaving for vacation on Wed, so idn when ill be able to keep posting. if i dont get anything out before wed, expect the next one near the second week of jan.

Chapter 2, part 3
The Family

The Trader Emergency Coalition

1,000 years ago, outside Trader-controlled space

    "...new civilization!" Harrison finished breathlessly.
    There was a long pause on the other end of the line.
    "Are you sure about this, Lieutenant?" The voice on the other end said uncertainly.
    "I'm under their planet as we speak!" cried Harrison triumphantly.
    "Under?"
    "We picked them up on readings of the planet as we were on our way to Lusitania," Harrison said, insistent on telling his story. "At first we thought we were under attack, but the inhabitants were just figuring out how to contact us via our radio."
    "They hacked the Order's transmissions?!?"
    "Once we began communicating with them, they allowed us to land on their planet. The ship was taken on some sort of elevator system down below the crust, to minimize the chances of disease from both of us. The ones we talk to our very careful about sanitation."
    "Lieutenant, I'm going to have to inform the Council of this...you understand."
    "Of course. I'll wait for them on this line. Once I hang up, you'd never find it again."
    "Lieutenant, I think you underestimate the power of the Order's long-range communication structures."
    "Major, you underestimate the power of the Family."
    "...I'll tell the Council of your situation. You'll wait on this line?"
    "I will."
    The transmission stalled in a persistent foghorn noise as Harrison was put on hold.
    "Did your call go well?" Portugal Lee Gibbings stepped forward in that smooth, graceful dance all the Family seemed to possess. Harrison envied them of that.
    "Well enough. I have to wait for our Order's Council to be notified, and they will come back to this line. May I?"
    "Of course. Take as much time as you need."
    Portugal said this in a perfectly polite manner, but the corners of his mouth twitched. Harrison locked onto that, and wondered. What is it about needing to wait for the Council to be notified that irritates this man? Then Harrison laughed at himself. Man? Yet there was nothing else to call him. Man it would have to be.
    "You know," said Portugal, pulling a seat towards him from the conference table in the middle of the chamber, "we are not too different, you and I."
    "How do you mean?" Asked Harrison curiously, taking a chair for himself.
    "It has not gone unnoticed among the Family, Lieutenant Harrison, that you and your people are frightened by us. It is very unnecessary. How different are our species, really?"
    Harrison thought about that. "Well I've only been here several hours..."
    "Give me your first impressions."
    "I wouldn't want to insult you by saying something wrong in my observations."
    "I insist. Go ahead, Lieutenant Harrison."
    "Well for starters, you are all about the same height. I'd say a foot taller than the average human. All of your faces are extremely lined as well, like the oldest of our race. But your voices sound as youthful as a man in his mid-thirties. And you walk as gracefully as a swan. Tell me, if I may ask, are all your race's faces lined like yours?"
    "Yes."
    "Even the very young? How about newborns?"
    Not the young. There is an...initiation ceremony to become an adult in the Family. When they come out of the ceremony, their face is lined."
    "That's very interesting. Could you tell me more about this ceremony?"
    Portugal made a gesture as if to wave away the question. "Tell me more, if you can, about the device you contacted your people with. How does it work?"
    "What?" Asked Harrison, startled. "This is your device!"
    "We built this upon the arrival of your ship. We copied diagrams of its construction, yet we have not studied it."
    "How did you get diagrams of a deep-space telephone?"
    Portugal evaded this question as well. "Telephone? The Family had such devices, a long time ago. A historic artifact. This does not look like those telephones, however."
    "Well this is a deep-space telephone. It is something like an ansible that we once used on our ships. Do you know what an ansible is? It allows instantaneous communication from any point in the universe."
    "Yes, we too once had them on our ships."
    "We miniaturized it into a portable device."
    "This is very bulky for a portable device."
    "Our ship was destined for a planet very far from normal commercial lanes. In deep-space, where our orbital communication structures are few, more equipment is needed to establish an instantaneous connection. This one can be carried by four men."
    "That's very interesting."
    "Thank you," said Harrison, smiling at the compliment. This was standard diplomatic jabber. Say a little this, a little that, compliment each other, but nothing of real substance is discussed. But underneath this simple conversation was a more subtle one. Portugal Lee Gibbings was deflecting all questions concerning details about the Family, and what pressing Harrison for information about the Trade Order. Although the Family member was doing all this very politely, Harrison couldn't help feeling slightly alarmed.
    "Come now," said Portugal, laughing, "you are getting frightened again! It shows on your face. Have we not just discussed how similar our races are? What else is there to fear from us?"
    We didn't discuss your race at all, Harrison thought. We talked only of the Trade Order. Nothing you have said confirms that our races are similar.
    The foghorn sound of a transmission on hold disappeared, and Harrison rose from his chair hurriedly. "This must be my council. If I may excuse myself?"
    Portugal waved a hand at him. "Of course you may answer. I will wait outside for you."
    He rose and glided over to a section of the wall that hissed open at the touch of his finger. The door hissed shut behind him, and Harrison answered his phone.
    "This is Lieutenant Harrison, Junior Grade."
    "Lieutenant Harrison? This is Councilman Whitejack, head of the Trade Order Council."
    Harrison gulped. Whitejack had a notorious reputation for being a hard-ass.
    "I hear you have discovered a colonized planet in the Kahnia system?"
    Harrison nodded, knowing that the councilman couldn't see him. "Yes, councilman, that is correct. They call themselves the Family. Or at least, that is what they tell us to call them, and they use no other name within our hearing."
    "You sound as if you don't trust them."
    "They've asked a lot of questions about the Order, councilman, and won't answer any questions about themselves. It makes me uneasy."
    "You haven't offended them, I hope?"
    "No councilman. They can tell we are hesitant around them, but they do not take offense."
    "Thank the stars for that. So they are not hostile?"
    "They do not appear so, councilman."
    "Right, your uneasiness. Have you offered them membership to the Trade Order?"
    "Have I...what?"
    "I take that as a no. Do so immediately."
    "But...councilman...why?"
    "Because the Council has deemed it acceptable."
    "Councilman I really don't think--"
    "I really don't care. Ask them. And you better damn well make sure that you ask them politely. With all appropriate eclat. Do you understand me?"
    "I don't--"
    "Think long and hard about your next few words, Lieutenant. I am not in a good mood."
    "I...I will ask them."
    "You damn well better."
    The transmission ended with a click, and the room's door opened with a hiss. Harrison turned around in surprise as Portugal glided back into the room.
    "Were you listening to this conversation?" Harrison demanded.
    Portugal looked amused. "Certainly not, Lieutenant Harrison. We merely detected that the transmission had been terminated. Have I given offense?"
    "No, of course not," Harrison said, embarrassed. It is I who have given offense. "If you may excuse me, again, I need to confer with my people."
    "Certainly," said Portugal, smiling.
    Harrison turned and headed for the door. As it was hissing shut, he thought he heard Portugal say, "But our answer will be no."
    Harrison stopped and stared back at the door. Had he heard correctly? Or had the door's hiss changed Portugal's words into what he wanted him to say? No, his mind was just playing tricks on him. He just wanted so badly for the Family to admit to being hostile to the Trade Order that his mind had conjured up the sentence for him. He needed to sleep.
    "Cause there'll be a star damned invitational ceremony tomorrow," Harrison muttered to himself.
    Back in the conference room, Portugal's eyes blazed with power as he heard the words and smiled.

note: eclat is pronounced with an accent over the "e". however, an accented "e" comes up as a zero, so the accent had to be trashed for this post.

Damn... freaky! Nicely done dude.

ah theres a problem...there was something messed up with my computer and all the stuff i had on this story disappeared

so now we'll never know the ending...

Thats a joke right? DAMN  Thats sad dude.