22 - Karma
Journal Entry #2078, J’Poc Signed In.
I failed, it would seem. My little paradise, destroyed by aliens and… that officer. I never even got close to that one, that damned bird thing chased and fought me. I killed her native friend, but she was… tougher than he was.
I know not what to do now, but I have much to think on.
The alien leader held off everything I threw at them during my retreat. Destroyed them all while simultaneously protecting all those beneath her giant wings. Her abilities are extraordinary, if only I could have performed some tests. Abilities like that, if there was a way to replicate them, would sell well I feel.
Perhaps that is something else the officer might know more about. I must wonder, how much contact have my race had with these aliens?
Either way, I’m on my last legs. I need time to figure things out, perhaps I should look up some of my old contacts? If any still live anyway, I’ve killed my fair share. Perhaps I should return to that pitiful savage planet one day, if I can’t have it then why should they? One starship would be more than enough to eliminate all their villages, efficient sensors would prevent any from escaping my grasp and plasma fire.
Never committed genocide before. Perhaps today is a day for new horizons, trying new things. I should also learn more about the aliens, the possibilities are-
…Well then. Seems I have a ship on sensors, at the edge and yet unidentified. But it is there. And… they are on an intercept course. Interesting.
This is most curious, they appeared to be on a heading following that alien ship before spotting me. Friend of their perhaps?
Deep Space, The Interceptor
The Interceptor continued on at full impulse, the full extent of the scout ship’s sensor array monitoring the incoming starships. The lone soul on board the scout was eagerly awaiting for his ship’s systems to identify them, and even more eager to know if they had had any contact with the aliens who just had to go and ruin his perfectly acceptable day.
He was a little aggravated by that particular turn of events.
He made sure his shields were raised, just in case. A scout ship wasn’t ideal in a fight, so he was ready to jump top warp at a moment’s notice if things went pear shaped.
In the meantime, all he had was the absolute and deafening silence of the void known as outer space. Oh how his species had breached the stars and formed such a gem, not that he cared much. He just wanted a small slice of that gem to himself, and to do with it as he pleased. The rest of the sharin could be damned for all he cared. The navy had always been a pain in his flank, chasing him away from what would have been profitable endeavours; their actions had ultimately forced him out of local space and into unknown territories. An abandoned space station was all that remained of his kind in that sector, until that alien starship turned up out of the blue.
Yes, he was a definitely still irritated by that.
J’Poc sighed. He really needed to stop looping his thoughts, what was done was done and there was no use going over it again and again. Not until he could do something about it anyway.
A beeping from his console indicated that the unknown vessels had finally entered a suitable range for identification. Clapping his hooves momentarily, J’Poc sat forward in his seat and examined the readings, his smirk faltering slightly at the results.
“Oh dear.”
The reading were undeniable. Four gaecha warships were on an intercept course. He was more than ready to warp away with that information, but curiosity stayed his hoof for the moment. He waited a while longer, making sure the ships were still a safe distance, but close enough for communications. When that moment had finally arrived, he wasted no time in hailing the ship.
The viewscreen lit up, a scaly elongated face appearing on screen. The gaecha really were repulsive in J’Poc’s eyes, equine shaped but largely reptilian in nature, it was almost as if someone had taken one of his own kind and slapped a bunch of makeup and prosthetics on them.
“Ah, fancy meeting you out here. Whoever you are,” J’Poc opened up the conversation. “Is there anything I can help you fine lizards with?”
“Sharin, this is the warship Hunter. We detect traces of phaser fire on you hull matching a ship we have been hunting.”
“Oh?” J’Poc’s interest was caught. “Round main hull, two big nacelle’s strapped to the back?”
The gaecha’s head tilted. “That description matches.”
J’Poc stood up gleefully. “Then I think we might be able to help each other!”
“Explain.”
“I too have had a run in with these aliens. A bad run in. I assume you wish bodily harm upon them.”
The gaecha captain didn’t answer, but his glare answered the question for J’Poc. J’Poc was practically giddy and this brand new turn of events, here was fate effectively placing a chance at revenge in his hooves. He wasn’t wasting it.
“I’ve got some information on them, and would quite enjoy assisting in their destruction. I’m one sharin in a small scout and no threat to you, or worth killing. But I can be of assistance. You bring your four ships over here, and I can provide that assistance.”
“An acceptable trade, but know we are watching.”
“You are my new best friend, I have no reason to back-stab you.”
The gaecha seemed unconvinced when he disconnected the communications channel, but J’Poc was optimistic.
The sharin sat back in his chair, sighing in contentment. A few button presses brought up a scene on the display, a scene showcasing the large lavender alien he had encountered, her wings and horn displayed proudly. The horn was glowing with power, something J’Poc would have even if it killed him.
It had taken around thirty more minutes, but the four gaecha warships led by the Hunter and J’Poc in the Infiltrator did eventually rendezvous. What followed that was several minutes of more silence, even after J’Poc hailed the lead vessel. He had no doubt the crew were discussing the situation among themselves, and he was nothing if not patient.
Which was why he was pacing around the bridge the entire time. Perfect patience.
Eventually, the viewscreen did return to life as the gaecha answered his calls. With no small sigh of relief, the sharin turned to face them confidently.
“Gentlemen, glad you could join me.”
“You claim to provide assistance in hunting our prey. Prove this.”
“Gladly,” J’Poc answered, moving to one of the consoles on the bridge. “What I am now sending to you is a sneak peek at the data this ship gathered during my encounter with them.”
“We have data of our own.”
“Have you ever met one face to face?”
The silence was telling.
“No?” J’Poc’s smirk grew. “Didn’t think so. And their abilities, you won’t believe it until you see it. These aliens are unlike anything from your empire, or my people’s territory, or any of the other surrounding species.”
“And why do we care? We almost destroyed on our first encounter.”
“But did you?”
The gaecha glared. “Their escape was unexpected.”
“Because of their abilities. It gives them an edge,” J’Poc claimed. “You know too little. As do I. But I still know more than you. And I’ve met them, talked to them. I’m very good at getting others to do what I want, you need me.”
“Is that so?”
“It is,” J’Poc assured. “Destroy them, and let me help you do it.”
The Captain hummed. “That is an agreeable arrangement. We send us your assistance, and we will use that to further goal to destroy that ship.”
“Excellent! In that case, I’ll be coming aboard your vessel for the time being. Make final arrangement, you know how it is.”
“I don’t think so.”
J’Poc blinked, his smirk immediately fading at the gaecha’s mocking tone. “I’m sorry?”
“We’ll be taking your information. And then we will kill you and destroy your ship.”
“W-what? No… NO! Our deal!”
“Our deal was that you provide assistance and we destroy the alien vessel. Your information will provide assistance, and we will use that to destroy the ship.”
“You can’t! You NEED me!”
“Incorrect.”
And like that, communications were cut off.
Panic immediately overcame the sharin, his ship’s sensors instantly registering that the four gaecha ships were charging weapons. Quickly, he jumped over to the help console and had the ship perform a sharp turn before speeding off in the opposite direction.
“Alright, fine. Deal’s off,” J’Poc muttered to himself as he went to activate the warp drive.
“Warning, malfunction in the antimatter injector assembly. Warp core safeguard in effect, warp drive is unavailable at this time.”
J’Poc’s mouth gaped at the words of the ship’s computer. Now of all times, the ship had to break.
The entire structure shook as blue beams of energy began striking against the shields. He set speed to full impulse, initiating automatic evasive manoeuvres as he left the helm. Without warp drive there was nowhere to go, nowhere to run or hide. There was no asteroid field in range of sub-light speeds, no convenient nebula to hide in. If he couldn’t get warp back online he was as good as dead. He could have fired back, but a scout against four warships wasn’t even worth the effort to charge the plasma relays.
He stormed out of the bridge in a hurry, his ship continuing to take fire from the gaecha. Down the hallway he ran before bursting into engineering and facing the warp core. He stood before the main console connected to the core, looking at the readout. Many of those readout were flashing red with warning symbols plastered all over them. He began bypassing systems and rerouting power in an attempt to at least temporarily fix whatever was wrong with the injector assemblies, sparks flying overhead as the ship took a bad hit.
For what seemed like an eternity he slaved away in desperation against a bettered warp core, and finally his efforts were rewarded. Red lights were replaced by green and those warning symbols lessened, albeit a few remained. With a quick cheer he saw that the injector assemblies were at last functioning again to some degree, and warp power was available.
That was when the shields failed.
Sparks flew over all of engineering as the automated warning filled his ears.
“Warning, shields have failed. Hull integrity at 80%”
J’Poc grunted as a fire erupted from one of the nearby consoles, and he couldn’t help but be a little thankful the gaecha needed his ship at least somewhat intact for the time being. Turning from the main console, he began to head back to the doorway that would lead back in the direction of the bridge. Unfortunately, he never made it.
“Alert, unauthorised transports detected. Intruder alert.”
J’Poc spun around in time to see several gaecha materialise in engineering. He went to pull his pistol, but the boarders already had them drawn and thus beat him to the punch. Four blue bolts of energy his him directly in the chest, the energy crackling all over his body as the sharin was quickly vaporised.
The boarders began to move throughout the ship, the outside weapons fire ceasing to be. Quickly and efficiently they accessed the computer mainframe and began downloading everything, even J’Poc’s personal logs. In their search for anything else of use they practically tore the ship apart, no bulkhead was safe from their search. That search lasted several before the gaecha were satisfied that they had everything they wanted from the stricken vessel, proceeding to take it all and transport back to their own ships.
Then, they once more turned their weapons on the Interceptor and fired directly at the warp core. The ship fizzled slightly and then exploded in a fantastic fireball as all the antimatter ignited. Then, without even a glance at the new debris field, the four ships turned around and jumped to warp. Leaving J’Poc a distant and soon to be forgotten memory.
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Great to see this story back and what happened to J'poc couldn't have happened to a nicer being. Karma likes Twilight I think and it does help her out quite a bit.
It's nice to see, that story is back
....as for J’poc......Well
memeyourfriends.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/instant-karma.jpg
He should predict what awaits him but was too proud/arrogant.......
He's lost, Our fun
Couldve been worse, they couldve had to take teh codes from his mind directly because it was faster than cracking encryption etc.
One down, 4 total pain in the petunias on the way. And these guys know to distract and aim for the horn.
Tell me about it.
Oh... I had hoped Twilight would get her hoof on J'Poc...
But ok, the Equestrians will have their hooves full soon.
What, no... Perish the thought!
And now I'm imagining him trying to absorb magic a la Tirec, and blowing up.
Or that, that works too.
Woo hoo!
Good to see that this is alive!
J'Poc was a bit of an idiot in this. Not to say I am not glad he's dead but seem out of character who use his intelligence to escape Twilight. Wouldn't the smart thing be for him to seen them information via probe to escape, getting his revenge and not worrying this would happen. This feel like he got what deserve not for being evil, but for being a idiot and not planning for a double cross. And the worst part is not only he screw Twilight over, but the other means he could still die is after he gives the information over long distance and was about to leave, when the four warship make a small warp jump on top of him and kill him with a barrage of fire a tiny scout couldn't survive from four heavily armed warships.
In that case, we need some Gorn music!
No more need be said.
8157378 He was ready to jump to warp at a moments notice the whole time and his shields were always up. He would have escaped too, a scout could have outrun four warships, if the warp drive hadn't suddenly malfunctioned. Karma's a bitch.
Well, I was going to list the new clichés but it seems you already did that.
8157679
I thought warp speed was determine by technology level and size. For instant an Intrepid class is faster then a Galaxy class for it was more advance but a Soverign class was faster due to being larger and fit a larger Warp Core. So the scout ship would be slower at warp.
Well regradless it seems he let the four warships too close instead of transmitting data outside their weapons range.
It's alive
I misplaced my list of fics to keep an eye on and this is one of a few that i actually remember off the top of my head. Glad to see an update.
(Actually i blew up the pc that had it all written down and i'm stupid so i didn't use favs or anything like that)
When you say that you are not dead, it reminds me of this:
8157378 He probably was thinking that they would double cross him, just not so soon....
what
Never committed genocide before. I believe the words is xenocide
9427023
No, that only necessitates killing one of them, which he has already done. Perhaps combine the two words. I think it would be "xeno-genocide"? MAYBE "Extinctionary Xenocide" or "Total Xenocide" (although that might imply killing all intelligent races other than one's own)...
I could go on brainstorming, but will refrain unless requested to continue.