NationStates Jolt Archive

Deneb System, Outer Planet Patrol

The Colossus glided through the open space, the sensors periodically strobing the surrounding area. Occassionally, the Massometer would turn on, but the only readings were the nearby gas giants.

13:00 Watch Change

The 13 replacement crew members, fresh from uniterrupted sleep, walk onto the bridge, giving a few irritating smiles to the worn out and exhausted crew from the last Watch.

"Lieutenant, status report and sensor readings, please."

"Yes, sir. We have detected no unauthorized vessels, or sensor ghosts. The Massometer has detected no cloaked ships. Here are the sensor readouts if you would like confirmation. Basically, we've been bored out of our minds."

"Very well. You are dismissed. Have a nice sleep. See you back here in 3 hours" (he can't help but laugh at the grimace that crosses the lieutenants face upon hearing this.)

"Thank you, sir. Farewell."

With that the lieutenant, and his subordinates, marched out and to the bliss of actually being able to do something.

13:47

"Ensign, time for another Massometer sweep. Aft end this time."

"Yes, sir. No readings."

"Very well. Keep it on for another 5 minutes. Then we'll begin an ergometer sweep."

"Yes, sir."

3.89837390473947838 minutes later.......

"SIR! We have Massometer contact! I am reading a cloaked vessel 3 km. off the starboard hull!"

"Hell! Begin standard contact procedures, then blow the hell out of it!"

"Yes, sir!"

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OOC: Okay, this is gonna be a majorly off balance combat. I'm looking for the ship the Colossus just found to be some kind of new patrol craft or something similar, a relatively small craft that relies more on speed than pure firepower. Something like one of my Fenris class Cruisers, or a Deimos class Corvette, or the new Prometheus class Interception Cruiser. So, it's gonna be a fight between the massive Colossus and the much smaller other ship.

If you'd like to RP the other vessel, please TG me. I'll see if you can get in.

For stats on my ships, or if you'd like to purchase any, feel free to visit my ship stores

http://www2.freepichosting.com/Images/134012/0.jpg (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=108847)
http://www.bateshome.com/jordan/kwsig.jpg? (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=88389)
http://www.bateshome.com/jordan/ksig8.jpg (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=94716)
http://hometown.aol.com/jbk405/images/ksig4.jpeg (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=59081)

BUMP

Doesn't anybody want to be blown up by the Colossus? :wink:

whatever, no problem

double post!

triple post.

If you'd like to RP the other vessel, please TG me. I'll see if you can get in.

OOC: (See above)

I know 3. km is insanely small. Hell, the Colossus itself is over 6 km. long

Oh, and being in my capital system illegally would probably be considered illegal. Eh, who cares? More of an excuse for me to blow the ***** out of you :twisted:

And we have a ship to be killed! Sorry, Falasmayon, but you should have followed the rules

Terra Alliance, welcome to the RP where you get blown up!

Deneb System, The High Guard LR Surveillance Ship Athena

13:48 Hours

The large entry doors on the bridge of the High Guard Surveillance Ship Athena opened and a tall slender woman entered. As she walked through the bridge the Lancer staff sergeant called out the usual "Captain on Deck!" that was announced whenever Juliet Johnson steped on her
bridge.

The entire command deck staff turned to salute, but Juliet ended that with a curse wave.

"Report!"

A stout officer turned to face the captain from his station along the wall, "We have closed within 3 kilometers of the target and we are collecting a massive amount of data, weapons, propulsion, and sensors, which we have managed to evade thus far, the stealth tech seems to be doing its job."

Juliet grined, "Very well, continue with...."

Just then she was cut off by an orchestra of sirens, and the bridge lights darkened to a navy blue, red warning lights blinked all over the bridge.

The Artifical Intelligence of the Athena blinked on one of the front viewscreens, "They've seen us!"

Juliet cursed, she knew how territorial the Klonor were from reports from other LRS missions that had tested their borders. She feared that there was little chance of this encounter being resolved without a fire fight.

"BATTLE STATIONS!", she turned to face her comm officer, "Launch a courier, give him all of the data we've collected thus far and tell him to go to slipstream and give it to the first Commonwealth ship he encounters, if we go down that data is NOT going with us."

Juliets commands triggered another set of alarms, and she turned to face her first officer. "Bring the Point Defence Lasers online, load defensive missiles into tubes 1 and 2, anti-ship missiles in tubes 3 and 4 and power the AP cannons up, we'll show that beast what Commonwealth technology can do."

When she was sure no one else was listening, she added "And maybe we can get out of here alive at the same time..."

OOC: Nice post

IC:

"Sir, they are not responding to hails! We're detecting a small object launched. It's heading out-system!"

"Do not let that thing get away! I want it dead, or so close it'll take a doctor to tell the difference!"

"Yes, sir! Valkyrie interceptors launched. They are en route to the target (that'd be the courier)"

"Good. Now, do we have a sensor reading on the ship we encountered?"

"Minor data. We haven't encountered them before, but it looks like a scout craft. I'd say it's some kind of new spy ship."

"Well, let's play a game of 'Eye Spy.' Lieutenant, 'Eye spy a ship that should be dead already!'"

"Yes, sir. Weaponry, charge the Heavy Beams. I want them and the Laser Turrets slaved to one fire control system. Helm, give me a 90 degree turn."

"Moving. We should complete the turn in 37 seconds."

"Excellent. Once the turn's complete, blow them to hell!"

OOC: This turn should put the Colossus pointed straight at you. Then we get several large Booms when it blows you up :twisted:

Within seconds the calm on the command deck had turned into a malestrom of activity, people shouting orders to other stations, alarms and klaxons, chaos was reigning.

The sensor station yelled over the noise, "Captain, we have detected fighter launches from that ship, they are going after our courier."

Juliet cursed again, she couldn't very well defend the Athena and the courier at the same time, but she quickly came to the realization that the Athena was as good as dead, they had to buy the courier as much time as possible to reach a slip point. They could not die in vain.

"Athena! Launch all 24 of our Janus light attack drones, get them to cover the courier, ram those damn fighters if you have to, just protect that ship!"

She was beginning to lose her composure, she had to control herself.

"Helm, ninety degrees to port, full speed. I want a diversionary attack run, all four Anti Proton cannons, Point Defense Lasers fire for effect. Hold missiles in the tubes, we'll need those later.

The Athena TAC offcier nodded that the attack run was programmed and ready to execute on Juliets command.

She took a moment to think about what happened if they failed, and the conseqences were so horrible that she just as quickly pushed them out of her head.

"Exceute!"


OOC: Thanks, first time RP'ing on NS, and I may end up going boom, but you're gonna have to work for it. 8)

The Valkyrie Interceptors, moving at speeds nearly unmatched by any other fighter craft, reach the courier and begin their attack (hey, is the courier a robotic drone, or a small manned ship?), Disruptor's spearing into the engines as the Avenger Cannons rip into the hull. Abruptly, one of the Valkyrie's explodes, taken unaware's by the Janus light attack drones.

"Attention Colossus, this is Wing Leader Person, we are under attack! One ship lost, the rest endangered. Enemy is numerous small robotic things. Not detecting any life forms aboard."

"Roger that Pearson. Continue the attack, we are sending support."

With that a wing of Medusa Bombers drop out of the Colossus's fighter bay, heading forward with their laser turrets powering up

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"Rotation complete, sir. We are aimed directly at the enemy vessel. 10 Beam Cannons and 39 Laser Turrets have targeting solutions."

"Excellent. Have they been slaved to the same gunnery control?"

"Yes, sir."

"Okay, target the center of that ship. Fire all weapons. Blast that thing in half!"

Suddenly, before the massive ship could fire, the Athena sped forward, its Anti Proton cannons and Point Defense Lasers slashing forward at the shields.

"We have enemy fire! Contact on the bow shields!"

"Damage report!"

"Damage is negligible. Most of the weaponry seems to be defensive lasers, no threat."

"Very well. Open fire!"

With that, the weapon's capable of blasting a hole through a moon unleash their destructive energy, the Beams slicing into the sides of the ship as the Laser Turrets blast into it's shields.

"Helm, Plot Evasive!"

The pilot of the Athena was quick, manging to get partially out of the main line of fire, but the beam cannons of the Colossus were quicker, slicing the Athena's slipstream FTL outrunners straight off the main hull. The entire ship shuddered as the laser turrets hit home, some of the shots were diverted by the countermeasure generators, but it wasn't enough. The Athena would not last much longer. Most of the ship was exposed to vaccum, the entire port side completely gone.

A bloodied Captain Juliet Johnson took stock of her bridge, it was in literal shambles, blown out panels sparking, wires hanging overhead, most of her bridge crew dead. She was about to make the hardest decision of her soon to be over career, and life for that matter.

"Athena, put me on the general comm"

"You're on Captain"

She picked herself up and straightened her unifrom, even though no one could see it anyway.

"All crew, abandon ship, I repeat all crew, abandon ship, thats an order."

Within a minute all surviving crew had made it to slippods and lauched themselves into space. Out of a crew of 150, 12 Pods carrying only 24 crewmembers made it.

The Captain walked back to her post to the right of the bridge, and looked to her TAC officer, the only soul left besides her on the ship.

"That means you too Lieutenant."

The officer only stared back at her, unflinching, she knew he would never leave, he was too proud and honourable to run away from his CO.

Juliet walked towards the pilots chair in the middle of the bridge and removed the dead crewman from it, sitting down and strapping in.

"Tactical, whats the status of our weapons?"

The stoic officer looked down at his panel then back at Juliet.

"We lost our AP Cannons, PDL's, 2 of our missile tubes and most of our light attack drones have been dispatched by the enemy fighters, we still however have our last 2 missile tubes and 12 Oracle Heavy Attack Drones."

"...and the courier is in trouble, without more assistance it's a goner..."

His head lowered, "...and our engines are gone..."

Juliet nodded in understanding, "Get those damn defensive missles out of those tubes, I want two tubes with Anti-Ship missiles in them, and target one at that big bastards command centre and the other at their fighter launch bay, I want to cause as much damage as possible and launch our last 12 drones, give those fighters another surprise."

The TAC officer silently acknowledged the order and launched the Oracle drones to hunt down the Valkyrie's and the Medusa's, and waited for Juliet's execute command for missile launch.

She quietly reflected on her life, the mistakes, she made, everything that brought her to this point. "...aw screw it all..." she muttered to herself.

"Execute!"

The ship shuddered in protest as the last weapons she would ever fire exited her tubes, streaking towards the Colossus.

Juliets eyes lowered down to the deck, and she waited for the inevitable reprisal that would come from the Colossus'es weapons.

OOC: The Courier is a manned ship, one needs a organic pilot to fly the slipstream, its built for 100% speed, no weapons to speak of.

OOC: Are you sure? I remember some episodes of Andromeda (that is where you get the tech from, right?) which had Andromeda pilot the ship through Slipstream by herself.

IC:

Wing Leader Pearson, smiling as the last of the attack drones vanishes into smoke under his guns, turns his attention back to the sensor screen.

"That's the last of them. We are clear of hostiles, resume the assault. Disruptors only."

A chorus of acknowledgements come back, the interceptors moving forward to disable to engines.

"Sir! We have new sensor contacts! Coming in from the enemy ship! They'll be on us in seconds!"

"Perfect. Lieutenant Harris, unroll the welcome mat."

At that moment the Pegasus Stealth Fighters, holding position between the Colossus and the courier ship, launch into action. With little fanfare they drop in behind the final 12 drones, opening fire into the rear of the drones.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Sensors, damage report on the enemy ship!"

"We are reading massive damage and atmosphere venting. I'm also reading life pods being jettisoned. They're beaten."

"Excellent. Move us forward and prepare a marine detatchment. Let's see what we've caught."

"Yes, sir. Wait, we're reading something.... we have incoming! I'm reading incoming anti-ship missiles!"

"Targets?"

"Right here! There's also an additional missile homing in on the docking bay."

"No problem. Fire control, bring the Flak Guns online. Target the incoming missiles and blow them out of the sky!"

Juliet sat on her bridge with her eyes clinched shut, waiting for the final blow, which still had yet to arrive.

"What the hell are they waiting for, why dont they finish us?!?"

The TAC officer said but one word, "Capture."

Juliet swore, there was no way in hell they were getting their hands on the Athena, the ship still contained sensor, stealth and AI technology which was most likely more advanced than anything the Klonor had. Argosy regs stipulated that if a ship is in danger of capture, that it must be destroyed.

She turned to the TAC station, "Will you know what we have to do..."

He nodded in silent agreement, and Juliet began to speak.

"Athena, this Captain Johnson, Lexic-Blue 3011, authorize self destruct sequence, 60 second countdown."

The Athena responded with a sequence of beeps, "Secondary authorization required."

The TAC officer straightened behind his post, "Athena, this is Lieutenant William Young, Red-Break, 719, confirm self-destruct, 60 second countdown."

The Athena responded with another sequence of beeps, "AP Core overload in process, 60 seconds until detonation."

And with that, Juilet and William sat at their posts in silence, and waited for the inevitable.
_____________________________________________________________

"God Damn!"

Ensign Manuel Pierce, Courier pilot first class, was having a hell of a time trying to evade these fighters. They were draining his engine power, making escape almost impossible, but they didn't give out medals or promotions for giving up, that was for sure. He was going to press on as long as his little craft could move, less than a minute to the slip point.

On his sensor display he saw the Oracle Attack Drones giving the Valkyries one for, but that something he couldn't see was picking them off from behind, "Chickenshits." He muttered to himself.

For one second, he imagined it, great fleets of Commonwealth Glorious Heritage Crusiers, DSA's, with their Nova Bombs, laying waste to this system. He told himself that one way or another, they would pay for what they had done to the Athena, one way or another.... and that thought was concluded with a disruptor impact to his aft quarter.

"Come on baby just a little longer..."

OOC: That was the season finale, when her crew was murdered, and she wandered the slipstream "lost" for 13 months, she had to guess her way back. AI's arent very good FTL pilots. 8)

DP

Mind if I come in and get blown up?

Hyperspacing into the Deneb system from wherever it came from is the LRRMSV Lohn Lennon, an old Abe Lincoln class battlecruiser, converted into a freighter. LRR's relations with Klonor had always been good, and this was just a routine trade mission. The Klonor shipbuilders would probably enjoy the titanium they had for them.

"Helm, take us out of hyperspace."
"Roger that. Doesn't look like we're in danger of hitting anything. The Colossus is a safe distance away."
"Ok, bring us out of hyperspace."

The freighter drops out of hyperspace, in view of the colossus, but also in view of a smaller shape. It takes the bridge crew several seconds to realize exactly what it is, but then, all mayhem occurs.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!! Ship, dead ahead!"
"EVASIVE MANOUVERS!!!!!!!!!"

The freighter pulls a hard vertical, but still hits the small craft. It bounces off the freighter's elastic hull armor, and the John Lennon moves to track it. Why it did not show up on the sensors, they have no idea.

"What a wierd ship! They had no radio transponder, no sub-etha transponder.....geesh. They were almost begging to get hit!"

OOC: LRR, stay out of this

Hattia, I guess you could

IC:

Wing Leader Pearson, sensing that his prey was about to escape, realised it was better to destroy it than to let it escape.

"All ships, open fire! Take it down, now!"

Following his own orders he arms his Hornet Swarm Missiles, taking careful aim at the courier.

The targeting reticle slowly blinks, working for a target lock. Then, it steadies.

Pearson grins

See you in hell!

He fires.....

Ensign Pierce's HUD light up like a christmas tree, he had been locked on, and with his engines depleted to this extent there was little chance of escape from the onrushing salvo of missiles. They would destroy his ship, and the crucial data he was ferrying. He had but mere seconds.

Just at that moment he saw what was left of the Athena go up in large explosion on his sensor screen, the blue and white tinge told him that she had overloaded her AP cores, she had activated her self destruct, just as the protocol instructed.

He looked down at his control console, on the far left hand side there was a red button with a flip up cover. When depressed it would instantly channel all of the ships power into the comm array, and transmit whatever data he was carrying back to Commonwealth space through slipstream space in all directions, like ripples in a pond.

It would take days or weeks for the signal to get through without a courier, and the data would most likely be corrupted beyond comprehension when it was recieved, but they would know from the signal code that the Athena was destroyed.

Ensign Pierce's last act was pressing the red button, and then all he saw was white as the hornet missile swarm tore his ship to shreads.

OOC: Are you going to leave the escape pods to their own devices, or are they fair game?

OOC: They'll be swept up. After a "polite" questioning they'll be sent back to you or sent to prison, depending on what the government finds out

IC:

"Sir, ships destroyed! We have massive core overloads on the bigger ship, probably a self destruct. The smaller ship was overtaken by the fighters, the Hornets tore it to pieces. It got off some kind of transmission first, but it was undirected. Pobably wont even be heard by anybody."

"Good news. I'll need damage reports and casualty estimates from all crew commanders. Also, dispatch an Argos transport, let's scoop those escape pods up. We might learn something."

The ship slowly settled back into it's normal routine, crew rotating and the minor damage being repaired. Slowly, an Argos left the docking bay and began to collect the escape pods

The ship is somewhere around the size of a Carrack class cruiser or a Correlian (sp?) Corvette from Star Wars.

The HNS Red Lance arrived out of hyperspace, "Hmm, this doesn't seem like the right place." The Lance had just retreated from a battle over Stromata. Captain Lebedev glanced at the radar. "That is a damn big ship, evasive manuevers! We need some time before our hyperspace engines recharge!"

The fast and agile ship began performing evasive manuevers...

OOC: Pretty sure a Carrack class Light Cruiser is quite a bit bigger than a Corellian Corvette. But who cares?

Oh, I'd need some kind of reason to start shooting. Normally I'd hail you first, and if you had a reason for being there I'd leave you alone (actually, I'd most likely threaten you and throw you out of the system, but I wouldn't attack right away)

"...hey.... Hey! Sir! I see something! Aw damn look at that..."

Chief Engineer Samuel Eisen looked out the porthole in the escape pod to look at what one of his engine crew had discovered, and saw a large black, and rather ugly vessel picking up the escape pods launched by the Athena.

"Well, at least we won't suffocate in this heap", the crewman said with a hint of excitement.

Eisen looked over to his subordinate.

"I wouldn't jump up and down for joy yet, they are more likely going to question us, interrogate us, torture us, and then kill us as opposed to actually helping us."

"Do you think the Commonwealth is coming, the Long Ascention, is she going to come?"

Eisen shook his head

"If they intend to torture us and extract information, then kill us, then no the Ascention won't make it here in time. If we are simply held prisoner, on the other hand, we may have a chance."

Eisen looked out the porthole and gazed at the massive 6 kilometer long ship.

"But I doubt the Ascention could take that giant on her own, she'd need a whole HCBG to do that, and when we left her she was short a good couple dozen DSA's and Frigate's for that, and they dont know about that big SOB to begin with..."

Eisen felt the pod lurch as the Argo latched on to it and brought it in toe, towards the giant ship which had made deli meat out of the Athena.

"Time to put your game face on, now this is gonna be rough, remember, name, rank, and serial number only kid...."

You sure about those sizes, I thought the Carrack was pretty small...

Would activating my weapons and not responding to hails be enough?

OOC: LRR, stay out of this

Hattia, I guess you could

IC:

Wing Leader Pearson, sensing that his prey was about to escape, realised it was better to destroy it than to let it escape.

"All ships, open fire! Take it down, now!"

Following his own orders he arms his Hornet Swarm Missiles, taking careful aim at the courier.

The targeting reticle slowly blinks, working for a target lock. Then, it steadies.

Pearson grins

See you in hell!

He fires.....

OCC: I was trying to create a reason why the self destruct wouldn't work..... :roll:

OOC: Well if you wanted to do that, maybe shoulda told me first. :wink:

OOC: Well if you wanted to do that, maybe shoulda told me first. :wink:

OCC: Ah well. I guess I'll stay out of this.

OOC: I appreciate your help, it just didn't fit with what I was going for

Hattia, the Carrack is pretty small, but the Corellian Corvette is even smaller. Modern day Comparison: Star Destroyer is an 18 wheeler truck, a Carrack is an SUV or pickup, and the Corellian Corvette is a sports car

Regarding the weapons, that would probably get me to target and launch some fighters, as well as alert the home command, but not an all out attack. How about there's some kind of fire control malfunction when you arrive in system and you shoot at the Colossus by accident?

IC:

"Lieutenant, status report?"

"Nothing much going on, sir. The Argos shuttle has picked up the last of the life pods and is bringing them aboard now. Interrogation of the crew members should start pretty soon."

"Excellent. Let me know the second we learn something. I want to know who the hell these people are."

"Yes, sir!"

The Captian stood at the bridge, the ship shuddered, "What the hell was that?" The weapons officer read some text off of his console. "The anti-ship missiles have fired! I didn't order anything!" Lebedev sighed, "Bring up the cameras near all of the consoles on the ship, pictures of 5 areas popped up in front of him, one showed a shifty looking man messing with the console. "Err, a spy, send the marines down there and shoot him, he may have done us all in!"

Chief Engineer Eisen heard the screams, and they haunted him like demons in his listless sleep, his friends, comrades in arms, in pain, screaming for mercy. He awoke with a start, finding himself in a small locked cell, alone.

Eisen had heard the interrogations from his cell, and from what he could tell, the Klonor interrogators had developed a habit of pushing the captured crew beyond their pain thresholds and causing them to either go into shock or pass out. He would hear their screams reach a high pitch, then suddenly go silent, luckily for them, in way.

They'd take them away, probably to their medical bay to keep them from dying, and then they'd toss them back in this hell hole for another round with those sadists. He found it hard to believe that any civilized culture could treat captured personell in such a barbaric manner, such a thing could never happen in the Commonwealth, to the best of his knowledge anyway.

So far he believed that no one "crucial" had cracked. They had probably managed to break a few of the Athena's less experienced, newer crew.

But the ones with the important information such as force strengths, fleet positions, weapons tech, officers like himself, had been given special training to prolong survival in this kind of situation. But he knew that even with the best training, every single person would eventually break under torture, it was just a matter of time.

Suddenly the door to his cell opened, and two uniformed armed guards entered, and suddenly cracked him in the face with the butt of their weapons, knocking him out cold.

The guards then picked Eisen up by his arms and dragged him out of his cell, it was his turn to face the music.

The two guards dumped Eisen on the ground, leaving him in an undignified lump as they leave. As they leave the push a button on the door frame, causing the vents around the room to open and emit a rather foul smelling gas.

Soon, Eisen begins to stir. First a twitch or two of his arms, then full body jerks. He's finally able to sit up, glanceing around the rather plush and luxurious room. Once he's finally able to stand the security operators, monitoring him through the camera's stationed around the room, signal the bridge.

"Sir, the prsoner is awake."

"I'll be there in 5 minutes."

With little fanfare or announcement the main doors open and in walks the captain of the Colossus. Frowning a bit at the remnants of vile gas still in the room he walks over to the oversized chair at the head of the room, gesturing for Eisen to join him.

"I don't condone what our interrogators do here. I've always thought it to be a barbaric ritual, inefficient at plucking any useful information and often worthy of inspiring reprisals from other nations. However, certain circumstances do require extreme responses. We will not tolerate piracy in our territory, we will not abide by attacks on our ships. We are civilised men, but we will not stand for this. Now, tell us who you are and we might be able to come to some agreement."

<Tags cause Klonor is so fun to read and Terra is'nt far behind>

Yay! I'm fun to read!

The Colossus continued to glide through space, it's shuttles and repair crews having cleared the surrounding ares of the debris of the Athena. The periodic sensor sweeps and Massometer readeings were running constantly now, the crew didn't want to take any chance of another ship getting so close to them.

"Sir, the Ergometers are flashing! We have hyper-atomic activity!"

"Where is it? Target a sensor relay, let's see what's out there."

"It's pretty small. I'd say some sort of Light Cruiser. It might be a Carrack, but the distance is to great to be sure."

"Move us closer. The Captain doesn't want anymore surprises."

Suddenly, the anti-ship missiles impacted against the Colossus forward shields

"We have impact! It is confirmed, missile impact! Who the hell are these guys?"

"I don't know, and we wont find out. Charge the Heavy Beams. Move us forward and blow it out of the sky."

double post

Eisen looked wearilly at the Captain of the "Colossus" as he called it, an apt name, for such a monstrosety, he thought. He took in his surroundings, very luxurious for an interrogation cell.

This wasn't what he expected, maybe they were toying with his mind, playing games with him. That was often a technique used to break prisoners. However the Captain seemed like a fair man, he thought it wise not to push his patience, for his life and the lives of the other 23 surviving crew were in his hands.

He thought out his response to the Captain's inital inquiry, "Who we are", thats a relatively simple piece of non-classifed information, he was inclined to respond with an acceptable answer.

"I am Lt. Commander Samuel Eisen..." he trailed off, and decided to keep his post to himself for now. "...of the Commwealth Long Range Surveillance ship Athena."

The Captain slightly frowned, maybe he was expecting something else, he had referred to the crew as "pirates", piracy was something he knew little of, for there were no pirates back home. And pirates were something they definatly were not.

"And the ships and crew of the Argosy do not commit acts of piracy, we are..." once again he hesitated, he wanted to use a word with a positive bend on it, explorers would sound much better than intelligence gatherers. "...explorers, we never wanted our presence to be known to any vessels, civilian or military, the confrontation with your ship was never supposed to happen."

He pondered the Captain's facial features, trying to gage what his response would be. But he had a completely neutral gaze, this guy was good. He wondered whether the situation would improve or decay when the Argosy sent search ships, IF they sent search ships...

"The Commonwealth? Well, don't you criminal organizations have high and mighty names for yourself now-a-days. Listen, the Deneb system has been claimed by Klonor for over 200 years. This is our home. If you were 'explorers' then you damn well should have known that!"

The Captain is beginning to seem a bit angered

"Your pathetic little ship was illegally trespassing in our territory, refused to respond to hails, and attempted to broadcast who the hell knows what when we stopped your courier. You're explorers you say? Well then, you are the worst *****ing group of explorers I've ever seen."

His anger suddenly seems to evaporate, replaced by his usual calm demeanor

"You're not fooling anyone, and you know it. Now, let's start over. What the hell were you doing here?"

double post

"I think we got it's attention! Put all energy into the engines, I doubt even with fully charged shields we could take a hit from it." The bridge doors opened and 2 marines carried the spy in, The captain drew his pistol and shot the man in the face, the man's body collapsed onto the deck, He turned back around to the viewport, "How long until the hyperspace engines are charged?" "15 to 20 minutes sir!" The captain sighed and sat down in his chair.

http://www.furryconflict.com/tech/technopedia/imperial/starfleet/carrack.jpg

Eisen recoiled at the Captains loss of composure, he seemed volitile, dangerous, he knew for sure now that it was definately in his best intrest not to push him. But he couldn't let him have the wrong idea about his government, for if he believed the Commonwealth to be a rag tag group of pirates, then he was in for a nasty surprise at his expense...

"We are not a criminal organization, we are a cluster of systems organized under a constitutional monarchy."

The Captain also acted as if his civilization was at the center of the galaxy or something, besides, literally, the Commonwealth was closer in that direction than the Klonor were, but best not to bring up that point, he thought.

"This is our first explatory mission in this direction of space, although we believe our ancestors migrated from this region of space millenia ago, we have thought they left for a reason, we have not returned, until now, we have no interest in your system beyond superficial curiosity. Our courier was simply designed to carry all of our ships logs in case of vessel destruction." A small white lie, the courier was actually ferrying tactical data, but he didn't think the Captain would question it.

"And the reason he did not fare well on this mission was because we did not expect to engage a ship that was sixty times our size, we are... we were, a very able crew."

He didn't add that they also wanted to know what capabilities their galactic neighbours had, best to also not bring up that point.

The Captains derogratory comments about the Athena also rubbed Eisen the wrong way, she was a living AI, he had been her engineer and her friend for years. They knew each other like any two friends knew each other. Wrong move buddy. Eisen was beginning to lose his temper this time around.

"Oh, and that 'Pathetic Little Ship' as you so called her was the Athena, and she was alive, you bastards crippled her and forced her destruction! She may not have been powerful, but she does have a number of bigger sisters and brothers whom you do NOT want to meet!"

At this point Eisen thought it wise to lower his voice, he needn't tell the Captain about Athena's family, he would meet them in time.

OOC: Oooh, I think the captain hit a nerve

IC:

"What, this was a government authorized mission? You're a survey ship? Well then, I hope you know you have just commited an act of war. Territorial breaches and attacks on government ships are not taken lightly."

Stopping for a bit he reaches into a slot in the wall, removing a steaming cup of Syrup of which he takes a deep drink

"Ah, love that Syrup (No, this has no connection with the book in any way, I just like the name). Now, you say you have only a 'superficial curiosity' in Deneb, and that you were only sending out your ships logs. If that's so, why did you not respond to our hails? Why were you cloaked? Why did you attack our ships? Your actions were not exploratory in any way, they are pre-emtive invasion tactics."

A few more sips (No captain ever berets a beaten and captured enemy unless severely intoxicated)

"So, we once again find ourself back at the beginning. Tell me what the hell you were doing here, or those 'bigger sisters and brothers' will soon find themselves at the wrong end of a Beam Cannon. You have commited acts of war. Thanks to you, the first contact our nations had was a spy mission and damaged hull plates. Unless you start to talk now you're going to wish those 'bigger brothers' of yours had never been built."

Eisen shifted unfortably in his chair, the Captain did have a point, this First Contact did go poorly, but the Athena was never authorized to make contact in the first place, they were unprepared.

"Standard procedure dictates that a certain amount of information be gathered before contact is made with any unknown organizations, my government does not simply fly around the galaxy announcing itself to everyone they encounter, we have found that a low profile approach is best."

Eisen wasn't sure he could explain the pre-emptive attack, he wasn't on the bridge when the decision was made, but he was sure Captain Johnson had a good reason for doing what she did, maybe she knew something he did not. Maybe they had armed their weapons and locked onto the Athena?

"As for the conduct of the bridge crew that is something I cannot speak for, I wasn't there, but I am sure they had their reasons."

Eisen leaned in closer to the Captain.

"But I suggest we both take a less aggressive stance to whats going on here, or many people may die..."

_____________________________________________________________

Planet Caldoria, Commonwealth Argosy Command

Vice Admiral Pearcy Bishop walked on the corridor to his office, inside was a very irrate Prime Minister, to whom he had to explain the loss of the Athena, and what they were going to do about it.

The Prime Minister had demanded a search, and Bishop was inclined to agree, they couldnt abandon the survivors, if any existed. But he was worried about what else the PM had requested. He demanded the Long Ascention take on the mission, and although she was the fleet flagship, he was hesitant to send her on such a dangerous mission without minimal backup at least, but the PM demanded she go alone. Did he know something he didn't?

Bishop along with most of the military staff disagreed, so they had decided to put two DSA's and several GDF's on "training status", they would accompany the Long Ascention on the search. He would not have a repeat of what happened to the Athena, not on his watch.

"'Had their reasons?' I'll tell you what their reasons were, we found them! You want to read our sensor logs? We saw you. That was it. You attacked, and you forced us to destroy your ship. You want to be angry at someone for making your beloved ship blow up, blame your captain!"

His cup, drained of its contents, automatically refilled from the wall slot

"Now, here's what's going to happen. You're going to contact your government, and you will tell them exactly what we tell you to. You will explain how your ship was in our territory, illegally, how it refused to respond to our hails, and how it fired upon us without provocation. Then, once they have confirmed their horrendous actions, we will begin negotiations for transferring you back to them. But, remember this: If your fleet wants to start something, we have one of the best defensive systems in the Milky Way galaxy. If 'many people may die', we will strive to make them as many of your people as we can. We do not respond well to threats."

He then gets up and walks out of the room, signalling the two guards to come back in and "persuade" the engineer to follow them to the communications room.

Eisen realized that his coversation with the Captain was over and now the ball was in his court. The guards had put the business ends of their weapons in his side and ordered him to move, he thought it wise to comply.

He didn't know what method of communication the Klonor used, but for the Commonwealth, FTL communication was unreliable at best, useless at worst, slipstream signals were notorious for signal degradation. Though he believed the FTL Comm wouldnt need to be used. The Athena's courier would be far overdue at this point, and some kind of search party would need to be sent.

He just hoped it wasn't another scout, the Klonor would simply destroy that just as they had the Athena. He hoped for the Ascention.

Eisen continued walking with the guards, whiles his mind idled it occured ti him just how large this ship was.

Under his breath he muttered, "God how long did it take to build this thing."

_____________________________________________________________

Slipstream Space, on course for the Deneb System.

The Captain of the Long Ascention, Captain Connor Sampson, stood at his post to the right of the bridge. He was a tall man, standing at six foot, 4 inches, and filled out his uniform very well.

"Status of our "Traning Fleet", Mr. Quentin?" He called to one of the sensor posts to the side of the bridge.

The young enlisted crew member answered quickly, "The DSA, the Wrath of Hades is to our aft port, the GDF's, the Pride of Caldoria, Pride of New Earth, and Pride of Terra Prime, are all lined up aft of the Hades sir."

Captain Sampson nodded, "Once we exit slipstream, task the Caldoria and Terra Prime to move to the front of the group, scanners at full power. The New Earth will cover our rear."

COMMONWEALTH SEARCH PARTY

http://server5.uploadit.org/files/saturn656-XMCSlip.JPG
The Long Ascention, XMC Heavy Cruiser, Fleet Flagship

http://server5.uploadit.org/files/saturn656-DSA1.JPG
The Wrath of Hades, Deepspace Standoff Attack Ship

http://server5.uploadit.org/files/saturn656-GDF.JPG
The Pride of Caldoria, Pride of New Earth, and Pride of Terra Prime, Group Defence Frigates

OOC: Yeah, it took about 20 years to build the Colossus. It is a damn good ship. Better than anything you could make :wink:

And are you going for an actual full scale invasion? If so..... :twisted:

IC:

(Actually, I've really got nothing to do right now. There's been no new things happening)

Eisen arrives at the comm room and is shoved inside. He is then given directions on how to direct the Sub-Space beam. (I presume your ships and stations, where he would send this message, can receive regualr radio signals, right?)

Eisen was forced into a seat by the guards, and given a crash course on the basic operation of the comm equipment. He was fascinated by the concept of reliable FTL communication, but was also surprised at the primitiveness of the basic technology under it all, simple radio waves.

He knew the comm systems of Commonwealth vessels typically communicate through tight beam laser comms, but they should be able to pick this up, if they are listening.

What was he going to say? It would have to be something that made the Klonor look good, and him look very bad for sure, or they'd probably cut off his data stream and lay a beating to him. He was pondering what to say when he heard several alarms ring throughout the room, he wasn't sure, but when those kind of alarms sounded, something wasn't good, for the Klonor anyway.

____________________________________________________________

COMMONWEALTH SEARCH GROUP, IN SLIPSTREAM

Captain Sampson looked to his helmsman, "Ok, this is where the Athena's pion trail ends in slipspace. Bring us out of slipstream."

"Aye, sir." responded the young woman piloting the 1.3 kilometer long Glorious Heritage Crusier.

With that a large electrical disturbance appeared in Deneb space, something akin to a large omnidirectional lighting storm. Emerging from the disturbance was the Long Ascention, followed by her escorts. Two of which passed ahead of her to form a defensive screen and scanning grid for the flagship, one which fell behind. One remained to her aft starboard, looking somewhat like a shark lurking in the shadow of a whale.

They began their scans, and found rather easily the six kilometer monster in their paths.

OOC: No invasion, if I wanted to do that, I'd have brought a helluva lot more ships, someone once said the most efficent negotiations occur at gunpoint. 8)

OOC: Remember, the Captain told him what to say.

You will explain how your ship was in our territory, illegally, how it refused to respond to our hails, and how it fired upon us without provocation.

IC:

"Oh, what now? Come on, this is getting irritating. What little fly do we have have to swat now?"

"Sir, I'm reading 5 flies approaching from multiple angles. Size: 100 meters Plus. These flies are on hormones, sir."

"Oh, shut up. Sound the Tactical Alert. Send a message to Fleet Comm, notify them of unauthorized craft entering the system. Tell them to scramble the 2'nd fleet and have them stand by."

"Message sent, sir."

"Okay, open a channel."

"This is the captain of the GDJ Colossus, Commander of the 1'st Klonor Fleet. Identify yourself at once, or we shall be forced to open fire."

"My God Sir, look at the size of that thing!!" the Ascentions first officer exclaimed

Sampson was a little more composed than his XO was, "Well the bigger they are, the harder they fall, what else have the GDF's picked up from their sensor sweeps?"

The XO looked down at his panel, "We have debris, amount is consistant with the LRS Athena, minus 18 to 32 escape pods."

Sampson nodded, "So there are survivors, and I'm guessing they are most likely on that, thing, out there."

The comm officer called out, "Captain, we have a hail from that ship, its identifing itself as the Colossus of the 1st Klonor fleet, they are demanding to know who we are and what our intentions are, should we respond?"

The Captain pondered his response for a moment, it was a safe bet that it was this ship that scragged the Athena, so he would have to pick his words carefully...

"Comm, open a channel."

"Channel open, sir. "

"This is Captain Sampson of the Long Ascention, Flagship of the Argosy Fleet, and leader of this search group. We were searching for a missing vessel, one which we have found the remains of..." he paused "...what are your intentions if I may inquire?"

The comm officer looked to Sampson and raised two of his fingers and mouthed the word "friendly", a sign that they were recieving another comm feed from that ship, and that it was from a Commonwealth officer.

Sampson motioned to the panel in front of him, and the comm feed was transfered to his station, the lines of text scrolling across the screen, giving him the play-by-play of the incident. He found it hard to believe that this was from a friendly source, for everything in it made the Athena to be the aggressor.

A 97 meter scout a threatening aggressor against that? Sampson found it hard to believe Captain Johnson would be so foolish as to go toe to toe with that, but he decided that he would play this game, for now.

"Our intentions? Our intentions are to protect the people and borders of the Klonor Empire. Whose borders, by the way, you have just violated! Regarding your 'lost vessel', it has been destroyed. They were in our territory illegally, deliberately cloaked, and refused to respond to our hails. When we contacted them they launched a courier out of the system, when we moved to intercept they attacked! We were forced to destroy them."

He turns to the side, acknowledging the signal from the Comm operator. The 2'nd fleet was standing by.

"We have numerous survivors onboard. Once you explain your ships precense here, as well as the reason for the Athena's precense, we can begin negotiations for there return. But, you must leave Klonor space, at once. We will not tolerate any more incursions into our territory."

Sampson stood at his post, not showing any emotion, it was perfectly possible that Athena had wandered into claimed territory. Her mission was in a sector of previously unexplored space, although this was not the first time an LRS had seen a Klonor ship, it was the first time one was detected.

"Well if there were any territorial infringements they were unintentional, this is a previously unexplored region of space, we were unaware of any claims to it, and the Athena's mission was one of exploration and survey, this was simply the sector she was assigned to collect data on."

Sampson understood the tactic Johnson used, she felt her ship was close to destruction, and launched the courier and used her vessel as a decoy while the courier made its escape, a brave yet futile act obviously.

"And once we have come to an agreement on the survivors, the Commonwealth will gladly steer clear of this region of space, but until we have those survivors back on our decks, we cannot leave."

"There are signal buoys stationed around the entire perimeter of the system (That cost so many trillions that I didn't introduce a new ship in my store for like a month). How could the Athena have missed them? Also, our posession of this system is known to all nations we have encountered, I don't see how it's pssoible for you to have not met any of them. Frankly, there's no way in hell you couldn't know we were here."

He makes a half turn to the side, as if being spoken to by someone out of the range of the camera, and makes a series of rather complex hand gestures.

Have the two Orion's stationed in the 2'nd fleet jump to Sub-Space, I want them to come out right behind these new ships. No mistakes.

"We lost many good pilots thanks to your ship. We will now need to replace their ships, their equipment, and spend a fortune training new pilots. Also, there's the fact that you can't replace a human being. Men are dead thanks to your ship! If, and when, you come clean with the Athena's mission we will begin negotiations. Not a moment sooner. Now, you will leave Klonor space at once."

As if to reinforce his statement there is the customary blue flash and a pair of Orion class Destroyers speed out of Sub-Space, appearing directly behind the Long Ascention.

"I don't like to make threats, and I don't like combat. But your actions have been inexcusable. Now, you will leave, or we will make you leave. Have I made myself clear?"

Sampson listened to the Captain over the comm, he found the man insolent and not very "open" to negotiations. This was tiring, very much so and from the tone of the Captain, he didn't hold out much hope for the return of the captured crew, it was within his power to declare them "acceptable losses" and although he hated to do it, sometimes tough choices had to be made.

"Sir we have two large ships coming out of FTL to our aft, it's a trap!!!!" the Ascention's sensor operator yelled.

Sampson then listened to the Captains demand, and he had, had enough, they would leave, but they would make their departure one for the history books. Sampson wasn't given command of the fleet flagship lightly, he was one of the Commonwealths most accomplished tacticians.

"Very well Captain, we will depart, but I would like you to know that I have found our discussion to be... very counter-productive." With that he cut the comm.

"Tactical, load all 40 missile tubes, PM-6LII Strategic Star Arrow multiple independent kill vehicle (MIKV) variant, instruct the Wrath of Hades to do the same, all 180 missile tubes with the MIKV variant."

Sampson walked down from his console to the centre of the bridge.

"Hail the GDF frigates, tell them to power their slipstream drives up and tell them to rush that 6 kilometer beast, X-Ray lasers at full 500 megawatt capacity, between the 3 frigates they should be able to fire 6 seprate cannons at the Colossus, and the second after they discharge, tell them to slip the hell outta here and head for home."

The TAC officer listened at the Captain continued his escape plan.

"And us, the Ascention and the Hades with head out of system pointed straight at those two smaller vessels behind us, then between the Ascention and the Hades we'll let those 220 MIKV's fly, they'll be too busy shooting them down to worry about us, they'll be lucky if they'll be able to patch up all those holes."

Sampson gazed the view screen in front of him.

"As soon as we fire, we'll slip out, and hopefully a disgrace like this will never occur again, and this system will be declared off limits for a very long time."

The TAC officer called down to Sampson, "Sir, the GDF's report ready for the charge, and we've already begun our turns towards the two smaller ships."

Sampson nodded, they may have won this one, but he planned to make victory taste rather bitter.

"Alright, let's bring it."

OOC: The "smaller" ships are still each over 2 km. in length :twisted:

IC:

"Sir, they're not leaving. At least, not directly. I'm reading massive power buildups and ship rotations."

"They always have to do it the hard way. Do we even know what the hell happened out here? Seriously, we're about to start a war over something that isn't clear to either side."

That'd be Admiral Petrarch, commander of the GDD Galatea, who was sitting on the bridge of the first Orion.

"Directions?"

"The frigates are heading at the Colossus and charging energy weapons. It's shields should be able to handle them with no problem. The other two are coming at us. Looks like they're gonna drive up the middle."

"Dandy. Well, let's just see what we can do about this. Contact the Bastion, tell them to slave their Beam fire control to us. Charge the Beam Cannons. Then, slave our Laser Turret control to their fire control. We're going to fire at the Ascention with all 10 Beams, 5 at different angles. That should be enough to drain their shields. The Bastion will fire at that other ship with all 48 Laser Turrets, the different angles should again help to drain the shields. Transmit the instructions now."

"They are confirming, sir."

"Excellent. We fire as soon as they do, if we move first we're the agressors."

"Yes, sir."

"Now, what's the Colossus up to? I hope that idiot isn't screwing everything up (as can probably be surmised, Admiral Petrarch doesn't have much respect for the commander of the Colossus)"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"SIR! The ships are not complying! We are reading massive energy buildups and attack postures!"

"These pathetic fools. Seriously, what the hell do they think they're gonna do?"

"I don't know, but we're getting shot at!"

"Status on the enmy weapons!"

"We're reading..... wait, this can't be right. What, are these guys retarded or something? We're reading 6 Laser Beams at (slight chuckle) 500 megawatts each."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, sir. They actually look like X-Ray lasers. Hell, these things aren't even draining the shields. Did they actually expect this to do anything?"

"Well, maybe they left an Asshole at the controls. Ever see that movie? That was a funn move."

"Yes, sir. It was hilarious. Now, what shall we do about the bad people shootingat us?"

"Eh, what? Oh, right. Rotate the ship, target the front ship. Full Beam Cannon bombardment. Fire the Laser Turrets at the second, and blow the third out of the sky with the Missile Launchers. That should do it."

"Firing, sir."

"Excellent. (small chuckle) 500 megawatt lasers. What a joke!"

Sampson sat and he watched the 3 GDF's drive straight for the Colossus, firing as they went. Sampson was no fool, he knew damage inflicted would be minimal, but inflicting damage wasn't the objective, diverting their attention was.

"Sir we are ready to dump our payload, 220 MIKV's, which we will spilt into four seprate warheads before impact, 110 MIKV warheads per ship"

Sampson grinned, the Athena only had 4 tubes, but between the Ascention and the Hades he had 220 tubes, he wondered if they'd be surprised.

"Tactical, advise the GDF group to divert their cannon power back to their slipstream core's, we are leaving, oh, and fire all missiles if you please."

And with that 220 MIKV Anti-Ship missiles bolted out of the tubes of the Ascention and the Hades, heading straight for the two Orion class destroyers.

"Thats it, power up the drives and get ready to slip out."

The TAC officer heard a beep on his console and looked to Captain Sampson.

"Sir, the GDF's are under attack!"

The frigates were small, manuverable vessels, and they fared better against the beam cannons than the Athena did, but the Pride of Terra Prime was unfortunate enough to have caught a beam head on, and the centre of the ship was holed out, destroying it. New Earth caught a broadside, crippling its slipstream drive and leaving it unable to slip out. New Earth readied it cannons for another firing salvo, and loaded anti-ship missiles into its 40 ELS tubes.

The Caldoria fared the best, catching indirect hits to noncrucial systems, and managed to slip out, leaving New Earth to face the Colossus alone.

OOC: I'm not getting involved, just taking a look. So no one jump down my throat for intruding on a private RP. And 500 megawatts is fairly pathetic, Klonor is right. Star Wars turbolasers (about midline space tech lasers) are in the terajoule range. And X-ray lasers aren't likely to do much more than cause unsightly discolorations on the hull and maybe cause some officer's hairline to start receding.

IC: Onboard the GANS Mercutio, a cloaked scout ship, Captain Hammes commanding. (If you recall Klonor I told you why your detection methods wouldn't work on my cloaking technology.)

"Sir, we are entering the Deneb system. Reverting to realspace."

"What is the situation, sensors?"

"Sir, the Colossus is several kilometers away, engaged in battle with some smaller ships."

"Just as intelligence in Terra indicated."

"Not exactly Sir, these aren't all Terra ships."

"Indeed? Well, for now we will merely watch. Even allies aren't welcome in Deneb uninvited."

"Sir! Incoming missiles! I'm reading 200+ incoming projectiles!"

"Range?"

"Several hundred km, but that's shrinking pretty damn quickly."

"Okay, were you with me at Ross128?"

"No, sir. But I read about it."

"That might work. Do you know anything about Flak Projectiles?"

"A little, but what.... Oh! The Energy Wall, sir?"

"Good man. Fire!"

With that the 12 Flak Cannons synch in and fire, aiming up and down, left and right, filling space with energy and small bits of metal. Slowly, with such massive firings, a wall begins to form in front of the Orion's. So many shots filling space are impossible to miss, and the missiles slam into them.

Of course, some still get through. With a brief ripple along the hulls of the ships they impact, some breaking through and impacting upon the hull.

"Damage report!"

"We have breaches on Deck 13, 28, and 19-23. The Bastion fared better, no hull breaches. However, Laser Turret 27 is out of commission."

"Okay. Get the breaches patched. WHat's the Colossus up to?"

"One enemy down, one escaped, the last (brief sigh) the last is about to get itself blown from here to Gamma Draconis."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Status on the enemy?"

"Sir, one target has been neutralised! The second has managed to proceed to FTL, he's escaped. However, the third is still present and readying another attack."

"Don't give it the chance. Status on the Harbinger Cannon?"

"Armed and ready, sir."

"Excellent. Target, and fire :twisted: "

OOC: Hey, does anybody else see a possible ongoing confrontation here?

Ooh, bitter enemys locked in an endless war! Sounds fun!....except for, you know, the soldiers.

Sampson cursed as the saw a virtual wall of energy appeared in front of the two destroyers.

"Go, go, go!!", he called, even though he knew his chants would not help at all.

Majority of the missiles were downed by flak, but they had managed to breach the hull integrity of one of the vessels, good enough.

Now they put the second part of their plan in action, the Ascention and the Hades veered away from the least damaged destroyer, placing them out of the line of fire of the more capable vessel. The Ascention also stayed on the outside of the Hades, since the latter vessel had more capable armour.

The Orion fired its main beam cannon at the Hades, whose shields almost instantly adapted to place the majority of their shield power at places where enemy fire impacted. Any energy that got through was distributed over the entrie hull of the ship by the cold plasma armour. The DSA was designed to be the toughest nut to crack in the Commonwealth, and she lived up to every expectation.

However, the Ascention did draw some fire, as the Hades was only half her length and could only provide so much cover. A beam cannon clipped the flag ship in a few places, the vessel fared slightly worse than the Hades as she lacked the cold plasma armour. Her hull was breached in several places, but the bulkheads in the surrounding sections closed to contain the air loss.

"Sir, we've reached the slippoint, ready to engage slipdrives."

Sampson realized that while they may have been on the losing side of this fight, they gained valuable tactical data, he was sure this was not the last time Klonor and Commonwealth ships would meet on the field of battle.

"Helmsman, engage!"

And with that the Ascention and the Hades left Klonor space, little did they know that the fallout of this battle would be larger than they had anticipated.

OOC: There, my ships are out of Deneb, and yes I could see this scrap going on for a while. 8)

OOC: Hey, what about that last ship the Colossus was blowing up? I want details!

Would you like to make a thread continuing this, or do you wanna let it just die here?

The Pride of New Earth, now the only Commonwealth ship left in the Deneb system, alone and crippled, had decided to fight until the end. The frigate's 40 ELS missile tubes were fully loaded out with PM-6 Anti-Ship missiles and once the directional thrusters had pointed the New Earth in a suitable position to fire she did so almost immediatly, and 40 small points of light began their trek in the area of space between New Earth and the Colossus.

Captains of the Argosy often think alike, and like the Athena when she was crippled, the New Earth also began to launch escape pods, at a rate of about 1 or 2 per second. While the ship was being evacuated, the Captain decided to put the Anti-Proton cannons to use one last time, and the three turreted weapons began to fire their lime-green energy bursts at the mega-ship, hoping to cause at least some damage before the next beam turret salvo came.

OCC: Sorry I thought you blew up/wrote this ship out, this is your thread you can end it whenever you want, personally I could do this forever. :twisted:

OOC: I was referring more to the 'ongoing confrontaton' that I mentioned. That thing will probably evolve beyond this thread, and I was wondering if we'd actually start it or just have this battle be it.

And I already shot a Harbinger Warhead at the New Earth. There's not much more for the Colossus to do :twisted:

IC: The New Earth is unceremonaly vaporized into a whif of smoke.

OCC: Well I'm game for anything, I'd be a helluva hard fight for me, but I'm hiding a couple of good cards in my hand. If you want to start a war that might be interesting.

OOC: Yay! Vaporization! Woo Hoo! Assorted cheese type products!

A war might be interesting. It's been so long since I've had a good one. I'm at school right now and can't write a quality post, I'll start the thread as soon as I get home. (should be around 3-3:30 pm EST)