I can’t get that out of my system :fed014:
Btw, if this was going on in Russian too, who has the advantage? English or Russian is the shorter language?
They should be equal. But they are not… At least so it seems
I meant which language can cram more info into 1945 characters.
Results of the contest!
This contest is very hard to judge, especially for me. Each time I finish reading one of the stories, I have one thought in head - “Why does it stop here? I want to read the full story” 
The judgement was based on the voting of many people, who read all the stories. So, it should be fair!
And thanks everyone for such interesting stories!
1st place. 2 000 Galactic Standards. “The Second Coming” by [DarthDirk_](< base_url >/index.php?/user/240327-darthdirk-/)
At about 0230, it happened. As my wingman and I were doing our final fly-through of the Wastes sector, a rift suddenly opened in front of us. At first we weren’t sure what was to be made of it. Perhaps this was some new warp-drive that the Jerichos had developed.
We slowed to half-speed and approached the rift, to look for any signs of Jericho activity. We were about two clicks out, when suddenly; about twenty or thirty Katana-class fighters came out of the rift. We hailed the intruders to warn them that they were trespassing in Imperial space, and that they needed to turn back immediately or they would be fired upon.
As my wingman was attempting to hail them, I sent a signal to Station Guardian-17, asking for reinforcements. As I was sending the message, I noticed that the fighters were severely damaged, and had a strange, greenish aura emitting from them. It was at this moment, I realized we were not dealing with the Jerichos, but that we were dealing with aliens.
I began to tell my wingman that we needed to retreat back within the range of our dreadnought’s defenses when suddenly, he was completely blown from existence. Not from any of the infected ships, but from something lurking behind the rift. I turned my ship around and activated my overdrive to get away. I looked back to see a massive Defiler class alien vessel emerging from the rift. I ran as fast as I could to get back to the dreadnought and dock.
As I was running, the Defiler unloaded all of its weapons into the dreadnought. The shields held up to the first few waves of the Defiler’s attack, but they didn’t hold up long. As the major calibers fired one last salvo, the dreadnought exploded into thousands of pieces of debris. One of these pieces collided with my ship, crippling my engines, weapons, and life-support. Just before I lost consciousness, I looked back and saw thousands of alien ships, from Scouts to Predators, flooding out of the rift.
2nd place. 1 000 Galactic Standards. “Hunted” by [HiveStar](< base_url >/index.php?/user/247975-hivestar/)
They had to be after the Iridium.
Maru breathed heavily into her respirator. Even that muffled noise seemed loud in the otherwise grave-like stillness of her battered old Styx’s cockpit.
All the screens arrayed around her were black, save for one. Her gloved finger hovered anxiously over the main system activation control.
Seconds passed. They were getting closer.
The only system she’d dared to leave on was her passive scanners; as soon as she’d made it to the achingly meager refuge of a few clustered asteroids, she’d shut off everything else. She cursed those …things, watching the four blips draw nearer, the numbers indicating distance beneath their icons ticking steadily lower.
They’d appeared out of nowhere, leaving warp some distance behind her frigate with a roar that shook her Styx’s heavily armored hull. After that it had been a panicked blur; the din of warnings across every sensor module blaring in her ears as she raced for cover. They were massive and even at a glance, they definitely weren’t human. She felt a shiver run through her, recalling the sickly green glow of their weapons, already powered up. Eager to hunt.
The worst part was that she couldn’t even tell if they’d spotted her. The alien craft hadn’t changed bearing since they’d appeared, but their path drew them nearer with every moment. She gritted her teeth, hoping that her cargo, several bays full of Iridium destined for New Eden, wasn’t drawing the beasts directly to her.
Maru held her breath as the pack of ships advanced. In a moment they’d be close enough to be completely eclipsed by the asteroid until they had passed her.
If they passed her.
The four icons vanished abruptly as they overtook her clump of rocks. She couldn’t tell how long it was taking. Maybe a few seconds before they reappeared on the other side? Time seemed to work in slow motion as she stared fixedly at the sensor display.
Then she heard them roar again.
3rd place. 500 Galactic Standards. “B’nder” by [fasz](< base_url >/index.php?/user/243310-fasz/)
B’nder walked to his old warship with a stern expression. The maintenance just finished with their work, and they pulled back, leaving a steam trail and a faint scent of fresh oil. The veteran stepped up a ladder to reach for the forward railgun. The diagnostics panel told him the gun was in perfect state, parallel electric railing functioning, eezo-conductors finely balanced.
Still, when it counted, the weapon failed him. It should have been a routine execution, just some lowly pirates who wouldn’t dare shoot at the navy. They were ambushed. His nephew was on his first assignment today. He was Jeph’s protector. If the gun hadn’t jammed, he could have finished the attacker before they overloaded Jeph’s shield.
Jeph’s face was scared on the visual comms, as his cockpit was flooded with red light. The old man yelled over the comm, telling his nephew to activate his diffuse shields. That should have given enough time for the shields to reboot, enough time for the others to finish the attackers. Jeph didn’t hear him or just froze, but he reached for the controls too late. The ion beam burned through his left thrusters, and he started drifting to that direction. B’nder tried to maneuver out of the way.
His knuckles turned white as he remembered how hard he pulled the controls to move the sip up.
Stepping down to the ground, he walked to the side, where a huge scratch marked the spot where his nephew crashed into his ship. The repair systems already covered half of the original damage.
His ship was unharmed, so it took the hit with minor jarrings, but Jeph was not so lucky. The emergency systems were just not fast enough when the impact hit his reactor, and the plasma flooded the cockpit. Thankfully the comms turned off before it got ugly, he only saw the ejected pit flaring up for some seconds.
B’nder stood there, head hanging. He started to sob as the nanobots dissolved the last trace of his nephew.
Congrats!
gratz guys!
Results of the contest!
This contest is very hard to judge, especially for me. Each time I finish reading one of the stories, I have one thought in head - “Why does it stop here? I want to read the full story”
<Snip, since the results are in.>
Well, open up a new general RP forum and you guys might get the rest of the stories. :004j:
Hm, never expected that I would win this. But cool cool
Yaay I won something for doing something I enjoyed. And I forgot to give a title. :01515:
:fed003: