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A new thread for TROM's sequel, Return of the Dai Warriors (or ROTDW).   At the beginning of TROMs sequel the heroes are split into two groups.One group consists of Shiro, Hercules, Lee, Lamia and The Great Skull aboard his ship who, having made a last minute dimensional escape jump at the end of TROM, find themselves in the Great Skull's home world in the same time period as when the Great Skull first left.The other group consists of Prof. Hagen, Emma Steel and PPA in a heavily damaged X-Bomber limping back to Earth in order to warn EDF of the reemergence of the Imperial Master.Each group isn't sure of what has become of the other after the sound beating they took at the end of TROM, but they are re-united halfway through the story on Earth with the remainder of the tale involving a huge battle between the Alliance and EDF with the aid of some steam assisted allies.  Vanessa's reply:After watching Brian Cox's most excellent TV series about the Wonders of the Universe, I've had an idea about how the folk living on the Great Skull's planet could harness the fuel to run their steam powered world. IIRC, Brian alluded to a Supernova event (imploding star) giving rise to a Nebula which contains many different compounds and elements, including many carbon-based complex molecules. In other words, stuff that could, with a little artistic licence, be construed as being convertible to a carbon-based fuel...Not a million miles away from coal are we?   So, not wishing to put any spoilers out here, I was thinking of introducing the Great Skull's world as a planet existing on the edges of a Nebula similar to the Orion (not to be confused with "our" Captain Orion!) Nebula. With fleets of sailing ships a-la Skull-like (from the canon), that trawl this nebula for elemental particles to build their ships, and complex carbon molecules to fuel them. Maybe with the use of vast "Trawler nets" of fine spun rare-element threads. these would make a spectacular sight for Shiro and friends as they approached the Great Skull's world. With the nets glistening as if spun from Gold.A world full of beautiful elegant metal machines, like the Victorians made using Brass. The colourful metals of Copper and Gold could abound on this world, to give great visuals of a Steampunk glory-era.I'm just warning up here   Whadya think?

I think that would be absolutely amazing!I've got an incentive to finish TROM now so I can start on my part of Dai Warriors. I'll make a Dai Warrior thread shortly with a basic plot, although at the moment it's much more straightforward than TROM and you really have free rein to do what you want as long as they get back to Earth with a few ships in tow. Vanessa's reply:OK Cool I'll post some more ideas for these opening chapters on the new thread when it's ready. In the meantime, I've been thinking about the communications systems on the Great Skull's homeworld...By the way, this world needs a name, do you have one yet?Anyways, communications...Thanks to FZeroOne's online photoalbum showing lots of old WWII encoding/encryption machines, I've had some thoughts about this for the Great Skull's world (GSW?). I think it might be fun to have a communication system that's almost so antiquated, that it sneaks under the Alliance's radar, and allows the Great Skull's battle fleet to communicate without the Alliance finding out.I'm thinking initially of describing a great hall on the GSW, that is filled with a huge mechanical computer, complete with a myriad of shiny brass gears whirring away, set in jewelled escapements. Very much like Charles Babbage's Inference Engine, only more advanced and much bigger. This is able, through the use of an encoder disc and a form of analogue transmission signal, to communicate to all the various ships in the GSW and the Nebula. Each of the ships has an identical disc, and a smaller version of the inference engine, to decode and receive/transmit messages. The medium used could be akin to a kind of morse code. This would remain indecipherable to the Alliance, and allow the Great Skull and his fleet to help Shiro and friends to final victory.The smaller mechanical communication computers aboard each ship could be powered by clockwork, and be thus immune to any modern jamming and eavesdropping techniques that the Alliance would use. Needless to say, the captain of each ship would do anything in his/her powers to prevent any of the discs being captured by the Alliance, cue some suitable heroics on the odd occasion Maybe the X-Bomber could be given such a device when they are all re-united on Earth before the final battle?Just imagine what PPA would make of it Need to think of some suitable Steampunk weapons that are able to be effective against The Alliance next...

That sounds really cool!It reminds me of the new Battlestar Galactica pilot where Adama's Galactica is purposefully decked out with antiquated computer systems that aren't connected to a network in any way which saves it from a giant system hack from the Cylons.I like your idea of 'the path not taken' here, where the antiquated technology is actually on some levels superior, especially against the alliance which has a tendency to assimilate and counterattack other technologies (this is certainly one of the main themes in TROM). Maybe your proposed tech could be immune to these effects, as well as the other benefits you mention regarding stealth radar and communications via analogue systems.Yeah, the X-Bomber is an absolute wreck when it reaches Earth, so maybe an engineer from the GSW (yeah, need to think of a name here) could have a tinker with X-Bomber. As a plot device, you'd probably want to make the discs uber rare, so that X-Bomber becomes the only earth based ship to benefit from their unique properties. I guess the engineer's ship could be cannibalized and stripped of its disc to give the X-Bomber a new lease of life. I can just imagine the engineer and PPA squabbling as they fly into battle.

Here's a basic outline for Return of the Dai Warriors:The whole of TROM takes place in the first month of 3001. By the end, The Imperial Master is reborn in the dark rock of the lost world of the ancients. The Great Skull disappears with Shiro, Lee, Hercules and Lamia in tow. The damaged X-Bomber (Prof. Hagen, Emma Steel and PPA) flees the planet and sets off back to Earth to warn everyone of The Imperial Master's return. Makara is given the task of hunting the X-Bomber down.The first act of ROTDW picks up the action a few days after the events of TROM.The first act covers a period of 3 months and consists of 3 simultaneous plots:The Imperial build-up - 2-3 chaptersX-Bomber's journey back to earth - 6 chaptersThe Great Skull World - as many chapters as Vanessa is willing and happy to write.   We can edit the order that the chapters appear and hop between each storyline.Chapter 1  will show the commencement of the Imperial Master's military build-up.The lost planet of the ancients - a mixture of rock and thalian technology is slowly being forged into a giant alliance flagship.The Imperial Master is back on Gelma, where the remainder of the rogue alliance battle ships have returned. He sends them on missions to nearby systems in order to reclaim once conquered worlds for their resources. Meanwhile, Makara continues her search for the X-Bomber.I'll maybe go back to the Thalian Zone for 1 or 2 more chapters during act 1, to show the Alliance's progress.The X-Bomber chapters revolve around Makara's pursuit of them and their need to get back to earth to warn Star Fleet Command.If it's ok with Crash I was going to have them meet up with Rain and her prototype fighter (which will eventually become the wing blade) during their adventures trying to get back to Earth.The Great Skull world chapters are being written by Vanessa. The only main plot points that need to be addressed are that Hercules retrieved the Dai-X power core (the cricket ball sized alien heart of the Dai-X) before it was destroyed at the end of TROM and has it stored on his person. Lamia is back in human form although her powers are returning to her slowly. They need to find allies and a way back to their dimension in the Star Fleet universe.The crew of X-Bomber eventually get back to earth a few weeks before the Great Skull's fleet. They find out that General Kyle had given the responsibility of rebuilding Z-Project to Number 1 and so they have a shiny new Dai-Z and Z-Cruiser waiting for them. Professor Hagen recommends that Emma Steel be the pilot of the Dai-Z. Prof. Hagen then starts work on the Dai-Z's teleportation weapon systems and a special combining mode for the Dai-Z and Z-Cruiser. The poor X-Bomber is deemed too far gone and is put into storage.The beginning of Act 2 will see the return of The Great Skull Fleet to Earth. This act will see a radical plan formulated to preempt The Imperial Master and send a massive battle group into the Thalian Zone.The sleeker Dai-X Mk3 is constructed by Prof. Hagen and Lamia who mind links with Subaro and through telepathic and telekinetic means rebuilds a powerful new Dai Warrior using Hercules' power-core, the old shell of the Mk 1 and various other materials in the construction facility. Rain's starfighter is also converted at this point and becomes Crash's wing blade, the all  new 4th component part of the Dai-X as featured in his game.There might also be an engineer character who steam punks the thought-to-be obsolete X-Bomber.That's the basics of Act 1 and 2. Act 3 is a large battle in the Thalian Zone. At the moment this is who is flying what in that battle for the good guys:Shiro, Lee, Herc, Rain - Dai-X Mk3The Great Skull, Lamia - The Great Skull's ShipEmma Steel - Dai-ZProf. Hagen - Z-CruiserGSW Engineer, PPA - Steam punk X-Bomber+ A fleet of GSW ships and a massive armada of old and new EDF Star Fleet vessels.The actual battle needs to be sketched out in more detail, but it does culminate in a battle between The Imperial Master and The Great Skull.

This is all getting seriously exciting!Never thought I'd get a part to play in such a cool epic   I'm not familiar with the New Battlestar Gallactica, being well and truly in "Slot 3", (see other corresponding thread for that) I am familiar with the old one though   But using the "benefits" of ancient tech is really a core value of Steampunk. And I love musing about it.I think it's a great idea for the old Steampunk GSW tech to be incompatible with Thalian tech. It'd be really funny to think of some ancient clockwork mechanism being incorporated into marauding Alliance machines of war, only for it to have a detrimental effect on the Thalian machinery, and be quickly expelled   That'd be an amusing vignette to appear in ROTDW.Anyway, maybe you could contrive that when the GSW fleet arrive on earth, great difficulties are experienced in communications between the ancient fleet and the Earth-based ships including EDF and the modern hi-tech Star Fleet vessels. Alongside this, either an accident or a surprise Alliance attack could damage one of the GSW fleet as it travels to earth. Then someone (maybe Subaro, as he has a soft spot for it) could suggest that the old X-Bomber might act as the go-between to allow the modern earth fleet to communicate with the GSW fleet.So parts of the damaged GSW ship, along with the sole-surviving engineer on board (who valiantly protected the encoder disc from the proposed Alliance attack) could essentially jury-rig X-Bomber back to life with Steampunk tech.I think your idea about giving X-Bomber a new lease of Steampunk-life is just too good to miss The special clockwork encoding/decoding machine and it's secret disc could be fitted into X-Bomber, and a disgruntled PPA could use it to relay messages to and from the GSW fleet and EDF/Star Fleet. All the while bickering with the GSW engineer (who desperately needs a name). Maybe eventually PPA might grow to like his new "old-fashioned" colleague?I will start drafting out "my" chapters then. Although, as it's your fic Shane, you'll be able to amend/approve/change them to your liking if you feel the need to. And you won't offend me if you want to make big changes, as long as they fit in with your fic and you are happy with them, that'd suit me fine   I've noted the basic plot threads you'll need me to preserve. It'll be a challenge for me to write about Shiro, Lee, Herc and Lamia, as I've not tackled them before.Also it's intriguing to note that you've got Lamia back in human form as well? I wonder what has happened to Captain Halley? I also wonder how long it'll take for Lamia to regain her powers?It will be interesting to see which worlds the "new" Alliance fleet return to, to re-establish their control and seek new resources to plunder. I wonder if they'll return to Princess Keeli's Planet? (I called it Planet Deay in TRA), or even to any of the worlds mentioned in TRA, like Athena, Esper or Thalide?Anyways, LOTS of food for thought there. I'd best get writing...

Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing how all of this pans out. It could be a very valuable team effort, as I certainly don't think I would be able to write the Great Skull World (Name coming soon, honest) chapters to the same level as yourself. Your initial ideas already sound fantastic!I like your idea of maybe having the Steam punk X-Bomber as the communications hub allowing the EDF and Great Skull fleet to communicate and coordinate battle tactics against the Imperial alliance who would be unable to electronically detect the Great Skull ships.You really will have free rein to write what you want. We might want to edit a few things as we go, as each story might positively influence the other, but it should be groovy. I guess you could gradually build up Lamia's powers during your chapters so that she will be able to rebuild the Dai-X when she gets back to Earth. It's only subtle things like that, that are necessary and maybe some more emotional woes for Shiro.Now that I've completed the Introductory chapters of TROM. I might get my pencil and pen out again one night this week and doodle a steam punk X-Bomber. It's gotta be done!

I like the idea of X-bomber getting asteampunk overhaul I guess this will fit in nicely with my story.I've been thinking about this alot but if i was to make the story up would either yourself or vanessa like to flesh it out a bit more.my writting isn't exactly the best.

I think you're doing yourself a bit of a disservice there as I'm actually pretty impressed with your style of writing. Were you maybe thinking in the sense of your sequels? Like building the basic plot yourself and then have others write a few chapters here and there. I'd certainly help out with a chapter or two of Great Skull action if you want.

I agree with Shane!Zordon, you must not put yourself down. Look at the comments you've received about your stories, they are all good I like your writing style, it's different to my own, and Shane's is different again, but no-one is better or worse than anyone else. We all have a great enthusiasm for our subject matter, and that's what counts the most.Star Fleet lives on in all our stories!I'm game for writing the odd chapter for you as well. Like I'm doing for ROTDW.Although Shane is far too complimentary about my Steampunk writing abilities I've noted the hints about Lamia's powers and Shiro's emtional ups and downs, no probs there Shane I'm really looking forward to seeing your visual realisation of X-bomber in Steampunk mode

Greetings!I've been giving some serious thought to some possible weapons that the GSW fleet and their Steampunk Sailing Ships could use against the might of the Imperial Alliance. Obviously, these would need to be rather powerful to have any chance of inflicting damage on Imperial Ships with their advanced tech.So, I propose three main forms of weaponry. But please feel free anyone else to add your own ideas, as the more the merrier.1) Neutron Star Matter particle-tipped shells.Following on from my post in the TROM discussion thread about such "Dark Matter" being used by the Great Skull for interdimensional travel; QUOTEI propose to locate the GSW world on the edge of a Nebula. It goes without saying that to form a Nebula filled with elements for the GSW inhabitants to "trawl", then a Red Giant Star in it's death throes must have collapsed in on itself and exploded, thus creating the Nebula. But also, a Neutron Star is formed (if my fuzzy old memory serves me correct) in the centre of the Nebula. This has had it's core compressed until the density reached is near 100%, and close to that of a Dark Star (black hole). Such high density matter has a huge gravitational power, and it is thought that this can have the ability to "bend" the very fabric of Space-Time.So, as you can see, the GSW is close to a possible source of a great power.Now if the Great Skull was able to obtain such a piece of "Dark Matter", then maybe he was also able to deposit some of this on the GSW, maybe in a temple of some sort?The GSW people could embed tiny amounts of this matter into projectile shells, thus giving the shells far more power to inflict damage on whatever they hit.I propose for these shells to be fired from long-barrelled cannons using high-pressure superheated steam. Each ship could have a couple of these cannons and a supply of special shells on board.2) Blue Crystal lasers.Maybe more fantasy than Sci-fi, but I'm thinking of a unique blue crystal-like mineral that has deposits on the GSW, which the inhabitants mine to obtain. As each ship contains electrical generating apparatus powered by steam, then electric light could be created, which when shone through the crystal, forms a powerful beam causing metal to crystallise and crack.3) "Clockwork" torpedoes.More for my own entertainment here, but maybe this could be the Steampunk version of SF's Laser Torpedoes. A large cigar-shaped projectile, with it's own small steam-generating plant onboard, to provide propulsion via simple exhaust. A clockwork mechanism could be employed to guide and correct the torpedo's path towards it's initial target. The Torpedoes could be simply packed with high explosive, maybe...?Anyway, those are my initial ideas.What do you think people