Young Writers Society

Notes:



Plot:

YWS is mobilizing yet again, this time to deal with the threat of the Utopians.

The Utopians are a civilization which has all the qualities of a Utopia. Everyone has employment, food, shelter, health care, and transportation provided for free. Taxes are non-existent, but everyone is doing pretty good. To pay for this, the Utopians have made extensive use of their fleets. These fleets have supported Utopia by aggressively conquering their neighbors. Once their riches have been liberated, the Utopians impose heavy taxes on the lands and people they conquer, which pays for the Utopian Dream.

After centuries of doing this, the Utopian Government has become quite large indeed, the vast majority of it is composed of bureaucracy. Since there is no pressure to improve efficiency; money is spent indiscriminately. Huge amounts are spent on their fleets, which are vital to maintaining order on the increasing amounts of increasingly dissatisfied occupations.

Now, the Utopians are coming for YWS Station. A small fleet was destroyed in an earlier engagement, but the battle was but a skirmish compared to the vast Utopian Armada. YWS is outnumbered and needs every pilot it can get.

YWS Station
Moderator Quarters
Grif

The alarm went off and Grif woke up. It took him a few moments to recognize his surroundings, he was used to sleeping on the SPEW Gryphon III. And there he would be sleeping, if it weren't for the fact that his ship was being upgraded. His fifth blue star meant he could refit the Gryphon to include multiple squadrons aboard his ship. The process required modifying the already complicated ship. It could be done by machines easily enough, but it would be done faster without humans around. It was a good thing, they didn't have to worry about health and safety if there was no one to accidentally cut in half with a laser welder.

The room was actually quite comfortable; despite it's unkempt nature. Papers covered the entire area. He wasn't even sure why there was paper, it just seemed to appear from nowhere. A small closet, bedroom, and shower was present. Rank definitely had it's privileges. He made his way to the shower and turned on the water. As hot water poured down, he slowly began to become conscious.

"Ms. Adelaide, what is the current status of the SPEW Gryphon III?" Grif asked groggily. A sweet voice came from over the intercom. Adelaide was the artificial intelligence that operated with Grif, and consequently most of YWS.

"All major modifications have been completed; the SPEW Gryphon III has been moved out of the dock and is being resupplied as we speak. The resupply should be finished within an hour," Adelaide replied.

"Any word on the squadron that is being assigned to us?"

"Nothing. The YWS members have been training hard in flying, I believe Nate intends to give us the worst pilots."

"Not a big surprise; he knows the tools SPEW has to remedy bad pilots. Let me know if that situation changes. What about the big picture?"

"We've deployed some deep probes to begin scanning for the Utopians. Judging from our first encounter, a lot of the ships are manufactured in te same manner. We should be getting some reliable data within a day or two. Local scanners haven't detected any Utopian activity," Adelaide responded.'

"With any luck, they'll take much longer to organize a counter-attack. Still, they may try to send some cloaked scouts ahead. When's my next appointment?" Grif asked.

"Nate will meet you on the Caldwell after your ship has been cleared from the SPEW Dock, in two hours."

"Thank you Adelaide," Grif said, shutting the water off.

YWS Station
Servant's Quarters
Cam

The alarm buzz reverberated through the entire room, waking me as well as the other ship maintenance crew. I straightened up quickly, my eyes squinting and ears moaning at the onslaught upon my senses. It took a second to let the blaring red light dim, and for the measly iron walls of the room to come into focus. I groaned and placed my head back onto the grimy single mattress that was my bed. As with every other waking in this little hovel separated from the rest of the station, my status showed it's ugly mug. I was but one of many of the poor maintenance crew on the large YWS station, not even worthy of Sparrow Class.

Exactly eleven other boys around my age, fourteen, shared the similar accommodation. Most were still mumbling in bed, though a few of the spry ones were already half way into their uniforms. Showers were only available on Wednesdays and Sundays, in order to conserve water aboard the ship. The rest of the time our morning preparations consisted of pulling on the grey overalls emblazoned with the YWS logo.

After changing into my dirty version of the outfit I got up and moved with the rest of my fellow maintenance workers to the steel doors that led to the hull of the YWS Station. As we passed in, a thin-lipped woman with a ruler-straight posture would hand us rags and a bucket of water or a welding kit.

"Maintenance Workers from Form 34 have been assigned to the SPEW Grphyon for clean up and battle preparation. Those with rags shall focus on cleansing the engines for faster mobility and those of you with welding equipment shall be installing new laser cartridges for combat"

I stared grimly at the welding equipment I held in my hands. Laser cartridges were particularly toxic, and it was dangerous to be welding them. Then the steel doors opened with a phish and we jogged out. I never failed to notice how most of the population of YWS turned away at the sight of us, afraid to even meet the eye of someone of a lower social class. It wasn't as if we chose to wake up every morning in tick-infested beds and work so we had a place to live.

After about five minutes of jogging we reached the hangar were the SPEW Gryphon sat majestically. Congregated around it were several pilots, none of which seemed to be above Dragon Class. I set to work almost immediately, locating the fearsome weapons and setting about removing the used up laser cartridges.

I noticed one of the pilots from Hawk Class was eyeing me funny, almost as if she.... recognized me. Then it hit me.

"Emily?" I asked in a stupor. How unlikely that my childhood friend was aboard the same space station as I?

"Cam? Is that you?' She asked incredulously.

"Yah, duh" I said with the mischievous smile we so often had once shared.

She rolled her eyes and grinned. "We need to talk sometime, it's been so long! Oh that reminds me, call me Puzzler, it's my nickname now"

"Puzzler" I said, enunciating each syllable in the traditional testing of new names "Suits you, you were always all mixed up"

YWS Station
SPEW Shipyards
Grif

Grif arrived at the shipyard and immediately headed for the Control Room. Security was tight, he had to make his way past several checkpoints before he arrived. The SPEW Shipyards were the most advanced on YWS. The reason for this was known only to a few members of SPEW. Grif was a regular at the yard because his ships had routinely been damaged or destroyed. It made him one of their best customers.

"Grif!" a voice called out behind him. Grif turned to see Duskglimmer, the administrator of the SPEW Shipyards.

"Dusky! How are you?"

"I've been super busy. The YWS Shipyards have been maxed out on their production, so they've asked us to take up the slack. We've been upgrading the YWS fleet; some of these ships haven't been upgraded in five months! It's embarrassing! Speaking of which, you'll be wanting to hear what we've done to your ship," she said, with a grin. She made a gesture and a holographic screen appeared, displaying the relevant stats.

Ship: SPEW Gryphon III
Classification: Light Carrier
Length: 500 m
Width: 200 m
Height: 100 m
Reactors: 5 Cuddle Bear! Mk XVII.
Propulsion: 8 Particle Thrusters, 1 Jump Drive, 1 Warp Drive
Weapons: Customizable
Shields: Snuggle Blanket! Mk XX
Armor: Cute Piggy! Mk IXX
Fighters: 24
Sensors: Omni-sensor array.
Additional Systems: Transporter, Tier 2 replicators, Optical Camoflauge, and a McGuffin.

"I see we still haven't changed the names that Snoink gave," Grif said with a grin. The grin evaporated immediately as he finished the last line.

"A McGuffin?" Grif asked. Dusky nodded.

"We don't know what the Utopians have stored for you out there. The McGuffin is the only way to make sure that you can adapt to them fast enough."

"They're way too dangerous, what kind of safeguards do we have on them?"

"We can't place restrictions on the McGuffin, you of all people should know that. The best we can do is limit the number of people who can access it. We've placed it in a special chamber that's been keyed to you. We've programmed the chamber to recognize when the McGuffin is about to be captured, so that it can take the appropriate action. Worse case scenario is that it activates it's failsafe device and blows your ship apart."

"I don't like traveling with things that can blow my ship apart. It's not safe."

"Neither is flying into a Utopian Armada."

"You've got a point."

"I'm personally proud of the transporter system. We've linked the transporter system with the fighters. If the pilot is about to get killed, the transporter automatically transports them back onto the ship. It should reduce the casualty rate significantly."

"I suppose the tier two replicators are for replacing the fighters that get blown up."

"Correct, as well as replacing any ship munitions you fire."

"Will five cuddle bears be enough?"

"If it were any other ship, I would say no, but since Adelaide will be there, I think she can optimize the performance of the reactors to give you what you need where you need it. She knows all the systems."

"Any other new features?"

"The only other thing I can think of is that we've adapted the ship wide stereo system to automatically play appropriate theme music depending on the circumstances."

"Sounds annoying." Grif said with a sigh. It was bad enough that he had to share the ship with pilots; but now he had to deal with annoying theme music. "Thanks Dusky, I'll try to bring her back in one piece this time."

"When has that ever happened?" Dusky muttered.

YWS Station
SPEW Gryphon III
Grif

Grif walked onto the bridge. Things were silent; none of the monitors were active at all. Grif enjoyed the brief moment of peace for a couple minutes, then he activated the neural implant.

There was no way to describe what happened next, it could not compare with anything in the human experience. In a second, he had been fully integrated with the ship. He had access to every sense the Gryphon had, every byte of information that was coming in. There was no way to comprehend it all at once; but he could focus in on particular things. He thought of the pilots and immediately knew that they were on board, their names, profiles, and the ships they flew.

Next, he thought of the ship. The ship's vital information came up, but Grif quickly brought up the navigational aspects. The ship was still docked, but a thought began the undocking process. Even as he did this, he felt a presence approach.

"Adelaide." She had no physical form as she flowed through the system, but she did so with grace. She made several small changes.

"Usually you let me take the ship out," Adelaide said.

"I knew you would be busy with preparing things for YWS," Grif replied.

"Speaking of which, your meeting with Nate has been canceled. He was going to use you for defense, but Meshugenah persuaded him to release us to her task force."

"Task force?" Grif asked. Immediately the relevant information popped into his brain. "Interesting."

If you're just reading this for fun, feel free to say hi or chat about what's going on. Out of character posts are welcome.

Hey ya'll. Might be joining- not sure. I've got a busy schedule here.

ScarlettFire helped me write part of this.

name: Idraax
Place: Methos

The triple moons were just beginning to rise when tiny speeding dots zoomed across the sky. Idraax dived as one of them nearly ran into her.

"Watch it!" she yelled, the ship didn't even slow down. She remembered when Methos didn't have the sounds of engines roaring through its atmosphere every morning. "I should stick to the ocean," she grumbled, "that way I won't run into any ships." The writers had space ships, not water ships. She would be safe in the water.

Lately the station had been noisier than usual. Bright flashes of light came from it, making Sidrat, the current highest moon in orbit, glow a deep purple.

"What are they doing up there?" Vanadis, another arrinak lietania, asked curiously.

Idraax flicked a fin, her way of shrugging, and swam closer to the surface of the water. "Looks like they're preparing for something." Vanadis nodded and they slipped below the surface.

The clear water enabled them to see Tuna swimming towards them. Idraax waved at him.

"Hey Crouching."

Tuna swam around them, flicking a fin in greeting. "How's it going?"

"I nearly got run over," Idraax grumbled. "We shouldn't swim in the sky for a while. The..." she turned to Vanadis. "What did they call it again?"

"YWS," she replied with a sigh.

"Right, YWS. They're up to something again! Can't they just stay out of our sky?" Vandadis and Tuna ficked their fins at her.

"We don't know," they chorused. Idraax rolled her eyes and swam towards the shore. A figure was waving at her from the beach.

"Draax!" the figure shouted. "Draax!"

"Scar!" Idraax swam out of the water, shaking the droplets from her scales. She swam around Scar happily. "What are you doing here?"

Scar grinned, shrugging her shoulders and gesturing at the space station. "I've got to head up there. They need the fighter pilots." She turned as Idraax swam round behind her. "What about you?"

"Trying not to get run over," Idraax replied, flicking her fins. "Not as easy as it looks."

Scar chuckled. "I see," was all she said. Idraax swam around her again as Scar glanced towards the space station.

"Why do they need pilots? Are they preparing for a war of some kind?" Methos was a small, somewhat, isolated planet in the Yll system. Until the YWS station had been built, no one had really paid any attention to it.

She shrugged. "Something to do with an invasion or something." Scar titled her head to one side. "Well, that's all I've been told so far."

"Do you want help? It's getting boring on Methos now."

Scar shifted her stance a little. "Could you pilot a fighter?"

"I've never tried. I can help you with communications though. You remember the lezvagitakan? The planet wide communication system built a couple of years back?"

Scar blinked at her. "Erm....maybe?" Idraax just stared at her. "Okay, fine. No, I don't remember it."

Idraax shrugged. "You've seen the small, crystals embedded in trees, rocks and buildings?"

Scar blinked again. "Oohhh," she said, "that's what those are!"

Idraax nodded. "Yep! I helped build it!"

"Awesome, Draax!" Scar flashed the fish a grin. "So, are you going to come help out? With the communications?"

"Sure! I want to get away from home for a while!" She swam around Scar some more. "Er...how do we get up there?"

Scar seemed to consider this for a moment, before she smirked. "Silly fish," she chided. "There's a ship waiting for me just up the beach a little." Scar gestured to the small freighter craft sitting half-way up the beach.

Congrats to Camulaeus and his promotion. He can now pilot the Sparrow Class Basic fighter.

Jen yawned, her eyelids feeling uncommonly heavy. Her head fell, then bounced back up, a sleep deprived brain fought vivaciously against the effects of fatigue. She had spent to whole day scouting the vast empty waste land that was space only to come back to face a giant pile of info-files and a gig of hologram lectures. She had made a bet with Scar,a fellow Hawk Class pilot, reach Dragon class by the 5th of may or face utter humiliation. She groaned at the prospect of having her head dumped into a toilet or even worse... Be assigned to cleaning duties for the rest of the month. Her eyes fell, head hitting the E pad with a thump. A hologram of SPEW Gryphon III projected it's self on the small pad screen, arrows pointing to it's various weaponry, right though her head.

She was so tired, so so very tired. She eyes closed shut and she feel back into a deep sleep.

She awoke to the sound of a loud voice droning about the Utopian Dream issuing from her E Pad. She lifted her head, thankfully the library was empty but that didn't save her from embarrassment, she had been asleep long enough for someone to pin something rude on her back. She lifted her self of the seat, feeling a little better. For her utility belt she grabbed a little pep me up pill swallowing it dry. She felt the vitamin tingle running down her spine, it would keep her running for another hour or two at least. She checked the time on her organizer, using her finger to run though her daily time table. It seems like she as needed in the hanger, some lucky duffer got a promotion and apparently it was her duty to show him his new sparrow class fighter. Joy, she thought, her brain swimming in sarcasm.

She found the the young fellow talking to a fellow Hawk class in the loading dock. She waited behind, yawning continuously. Lucky duck, no one wanted to be a servant on the YWS station. He finished talking walking back towards the ships rather impressive weapon artillery, no doubt to fix them.

" Hey! You Cam?"
He looked at her, he was probably on fourteen a good age to start fighter pilot training. " Yes?" he said quietly. She smiled admiring his resolve, most YWS peons where afraid to talk to anyone above their status.

" Orders have come from high office, Your ripe for a promotion so welcome to the ranks Sparrow Class fighter!"

" What are you being serious? Wow"

" You are to follow me immediately to Training where you will receive your first briefing," she said smiling, the look on his face was worth more than any promotion.

I dug up some old pictures that Adam made, let me know if you want to use some of these.

topic16297.html

Yay! Those will be helpful! Now we know what Methos looks like from space. XD

YWS Station
SPEW Gryphon
Grif

"Understood Solass, Grif out," Grif said, before turning to Adelaide.

"Do we have all our pilots aboard?"

"The last ones just arrived."

"In that case, let's break clear of the fleet and engage the warp drive," Grif said. Various thruster ports along the hull of the Gryphon opened up and rotated as the Gryphon maneuvered around the fleet. It had been a long time since there had been so many ships mobilized. Many of them were being repaired and rearmed as the Gryphon flew past them. The Gryphon was briefly covered in shadow as they passed behind the Caldwell Super Carrier. Meshugenah's ship, the Solass, loomed on the edge of the fleet, the SPEW battle carrier was the largest in the fleet. The Gryphon maneuvered below it.

"Engaging warp drive," Adelaide said. The star lines blurred and the SPEW Gryphon entered hyperspace.

"All right, time to give them our mission orders," Grif said. He accessed the PA system and spoke.

"Attention crew of the SPEW Gryphon, this is Grif speaking. We've been instructed to participate in Operation Peep Show. In conjunction with several other ships, we will be placing deep space sensor arrays to monitor the incoming Utopian Fleet. Intel has detected some movement in that sector, but nothing conclusive. Our job is to install the sensor arrays and protect them from attack. The YWS fleet will be deploying to protect the installations after we have secured the area.

Our primary opposition in this campaign are forces belonging to the Utopians. Their ships are not as powerful as ours, but they outnumber us. The battles ahead of us will tell us which is better: superior firepower or superior numbers. While en-route, you will receive subliminal training on how to use your fighters. There is no subliminal training for teamwork though. That is something you must develop on your own. Check on your fighters and your teammates and I'll check on your progress later. Grif out."

I've changed it so that if you get five yellow stars, then you can get to pilot a Gundam-like thingy.

Hyperspace
SPEW Gryphon
Grif

Thirty minutes were left until the Gryphon arrived. After a couple minor scuffles the crew had settled in.

"Grif, there's a problem," Adelaide said. Two minutes later, Grif was in the crew quarters. Several protest signs surrounded Flemzo. His flight-suit had been tie-dyed.

"Flemzo, what are you doing?"

"I am protesting the war with the Utopians. We should impose economic sanctions and use peaceful methods, not a battle fleet."

"YWS has no economic ties with the Utopians, so sanctions are impossible. Any civilization that comes into contact with the Utopians is immediately attacked, and is pillaged ruthlessly, so they will not negotiate, even if we should send ambassadors. War then is the only option," Grif said logically.

"War is never an option and I refuse to be a part of it."

"Whether you wish it or not, you are a part of it. Or would you prefer to be a slave to the Utopians?"

"I would rather live a slave than die," Flemzo said.

"Slaves die too," Grif pointed out.

"I won't fight. You can't make me," Flemzo said.

"Presumably you wish to be a conscientious objector?" Grif asked.

"Yes."

"Then you want nothing to do with this war?"

"Yes."

"And by extension this warship?"

"Yes?" Flemzo looked confused now.

"In that case, you will have no further use for your fighter. That will stay on the Gryphon. I will have make arrangements for you to return to YWS, after our mission is complete."

Deep Space
SPEW Gryphon
Grif

The Gryphon dropped out of hyperspace.

"The area is clear," Adelaide said.

"Go ahead and begin deploying the sensor arrays," Grif said. The sensor arrays would allow them to detect ships in both normal and hyperspace. A special Hyperspace distorter could then drop the hostile ship into normal space; where it could be taken out. It would prevent the Utopians from getting a straight shot at YWS Station. Once the hyperspace distorter was activated though, the Gryphon would only be able to use it's jump drive to escape.

"We're getting information from the arrays," Adelaide said. The vast amounts of data began coming in. First detecting the Gryphon, other YWS ships, and then...

"Looks like we've found the Utopians," Grif said.

"They seem to be attacking a number of systems in this area. The Anzati system is under attack from a single carrier group. Termalius is also under attack by a single carrier group, and the Duralians are under attack by five carrier groups."

"Sounds like quite the party. Any sign that they've detected us?"

"None."

"Very well. Signal the Solass and confirm mission success."

"Solass is jumping to our position. We're to hold position until they arrive."

"They must want to do a personnel transfer," Grif said. Half an hour later, the Solass appeared.

"The Solass is hailing us. I'm patching it through," Adelaide said.

"Grif here," Grif said.

"Hey Grif. I've come up with a plan. We're calling it Operation Yankee Doodle Dandy. I'm transferring Isha's Pirate Squadron over to your ship. Sending mission information now."

"Got it. Is it possible for us to give you Flemzo? We need to send him back to YWS Station," Grif said.

"That's a negative. We're not going to be seeing YWS Station any time soon. Check your orders for more details. Isha's Pirates are heading over now."

"Standing by to receive them," Grif said. The channel closed.

"Isha's Pirates?" Adelaide asked. Grif merely shrugged.