Introduction to: The Gentleman

[The_Gentleman]

Champagne System, Sector 7G.

Captain Jones (aka, The Gentleman, as his crew affectionaltly nicknamed him for his cordial, if brutal treatment of enemies) walked onto the bridge and looked out of the viewscreens, seeing the image of Maine in the distance. He took the sight in - it would be the last time he saw it for a while, he knew - and then turned to his 2iC.

"Everything ready, Mr Harrison?" he asked the commander, who turned and nodded.

"Indeed sir. Reactors at 100%, all systems green, jumpdrive and cloak on standby." his 2iC answered, checking a screen and receiving a confirming nod from the conn.

"Very well. I will address the crew" Jones repiled, taking his seat and opening a ship-wide channel."Attention, this is the Captian. You all know what I had planned for this trip, and what it will mean. Not all of The Council want to see it, but the Gauls are pushing too hard and they'll soon break our lines. Sirius as whole has no idea what the Gallic Navy has in reserve, and they are going to be steamrolled when those ships break out and hit the sector. We need allies out there to push back, so I'm going to do what the Council won't. Anyone here to doesnt wish to come with me, now is your chance. Take your fighter or take a shuttle and go back to Marne. Tell them that I'm insane or whatever you want, there will be no hard feelings"

He left a pause there and looked over to Com. Harrison again, who shook his head. No fighters launched or shuttles requested clearance to leave; it seemed his crew were on his side afer all.

"Very well. Now that you are all intent on staying, I can say that our destination is going to be New York, the heart of the Colonies. We will perform a cloaked jump to arrive near the New York star before announcing our presence, just incase those Libertonians get itchy triggers." He paused and nodded to Harrison again, who nodded to the Nav officer and started the jump countdown. "If we succeed, we will be remembered as heroes. If not, Gallia will win and it wont matter anyway. Now, let us proceed..."

Jones cut the comm off and watched the jump timer on the main viewscreen, counting down from 30 seconds.
He wondered, briefly, how long he could get away with the lie. Getting support from the other nations to resist Gallia was indeed A reason for his actions, but it wasnt his own, personal reason. That was much closer to home, and wouldn't be acceptable to the crew of a Battleship. However, if things worked out and he could achieve his own goal whilst pushing the insane Gauls back, all the better.

"Cloak engaged sir, 15 seconds to jump" Harrison reported, the distintive whine of the cloak field being heard throughout the ship as it's generators reached maximum output.

"Very good, Mr Harrison. Lets hope we can do this peacefully." Jones replied, tightening his grip on the chair. Even after all this time jumps still made him edgy, cloaked jumps doubly so because of the increased risk of an reactor cascade.

The nav officer read off the final countdown as was customary. "Five...four...three...two...one...ju-"

There was a flash of light and the battleship was gone.


The sound of warning alarms and the red emergency lights brought Jones back to consiousness, the hurried foootsteps of crew running around the bridge hammering almost in time with the headache he now had. The captain pulled himself up from the floor and raised his hand to the wetness that was on his head, seeing black on his fingers.

"Harrison, report?" he barked, sitting back in his chair after wiping his fingers on his uniform

"Cascade failure, sir. Cloak generators overloaded and sent the jumpcore out of alignment!" Harrison replied, looking up from the engineering station.

"Have you ejected..?" Jones asked, but was interrupted by the ship shaking as a large explosion impacted the shields

"Yes sir, that was the cloak generator going critical" Harrison responded, turning to look back at the engineering display "Engineering reports the jumpcore is disabaled and they cant repair here, we'll need to dock and take on supplies to get it operational again."

Jones sighed, so much for the element of suprise! "Where are we?" He asked the nav officer, who was frantically running a system scan from his station.

"Not New York, sir! I'm picking up eight planets, two stations...the edge of the Barrier Ice field? Sir, we're in Coronado!" the Nav officer replied, looking confused.

Jones smiled to himself in the half light. Of all places, Coronado? What were the odds? He'd still been thining of a way to get them to the system after visiting Liberty, and now after a simple accident here they were! Sometimes luck really was on their side...

"Very well. Comms, open a channel. The colonials will have picked us up I bet, and will be wondering what the hell we are doing here..."