NationStates Jolt Archive

*Stocurm system*

The tension aboard Ravager's bridge was almost palpable, and Captain Mitsuki grinned in the dim red combat lighting. His tiny destroyer had translated from hyper into the system over a week ago, and had been crawling toward Stocurm, using only their initial velocity from the translation. Every non-essential system had been taken offline, even the lights were dimmer than normal. The master holoplot on the bridge even flickered every now and then. Every thing had been done to minimize the chances of detection.

"Coming up on 1.5 million klicks now Sir," the executive officer, Lt. Commander Kusanagi reported.
"Begin starboard rotation."
Manuevering thrusters on the hull flickered to life and the ship began to present its port broadside toward Stocurm.

Mitsuki watched the plot as CIC began sorting through the emission and gravitic signatures over the planet, and began displaying probable military vessels, three light cruisers, two probably heavy cruisers, and about half a dozen lighter warships. He looked over at his missile officer, who was already plotting out missile flight paths. "Load port tubes."

Seven sleek missiles, each carrying a 25 megaton fusion warhead were guided onto their launch rails by automated loaders. "Warheads armed, flight plans locked into guidance computers. Ready to fire Sir."
Mitsuki looked down once more at the holoplot, "Good lieutenant, you may fire."

Missile tube doors opened and the internal mass drivers hurled each one into space at 750 km/sec, the missiles coasted toward the targets, not activating their impellers like normal, and only using their maneuvering thrusters for course corrections. They were targetted upon the trio of light cruisers. "Missile detonations in 30 minutes."

"Roll to present starboard broadside, load tubes."
Thirty seconds later another seven fusion missiles were put into space, this time targetted upon the lighter warships in orbit over Stocurm. Ravager continued silently along it's course, heading for the edge of the system.

OOC: For readers, this attack was discussed on AIM, and is valid. The missiles are programmed to activate their impeller drives only if detected with active sensors or if PD defences open fire. Otherwise they wait to 500 km before lighting their drives.

Kapitan zur Sternen Torin, of His Majesty's Star Armada, stands aboard the bridge of the HMS Wayfarer, a Capricorn-class light cruiser. The Star Armada still maintains a light screening element in Stocurm, three CLs are considered more than enough with the Stocurm defense forces of two CAs, two frigates, and four DDs.
Torin nods to her steward as he brings her a cup of caffine. Her exec, Fregattenkapitan Stilman approaches behind the steward. Torin takes a sip of the coffee then turns to Stilman.
"Yes, Michael?" she says.
"Ma'am, we have had fourteen unusual sensor readings in sector thrity-two."
"Oh? Anything specific?"
"No, Ma'am. Official it has been ruled as a sensor ghost."
"Then what is the problem?"
"Fourteen ghosts at once is a little unusual is all," says Stilman. "I would like to dispatch a flight of Longshards at your authority to investigate. Even since the end of the war with Vernii, piracy is still a problem in Stocurm. We could be seeing a group setting up to make a run on the incoming merchantmen."
Torin nods.
"Very well. Give the order, Longshard Flight 1-A is to scramble immediately to investigate sector thirty-two."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Torin turns back to the view of the stars, looking out across the Stocurm system. She can see one of the Stocur "home built" CAs coming into view around the planet's horizon line. She sighs. Stocur Station has become a joke among the trio of planets the Valinor help defend against future Verniian agression. It's distance from Gregor means that the larger bases at Madras and Yalta would fall under attack before it, and Torin has allowed a certain amount of laxity to slip into her small command.
She turns to return to her own station, before returning to her quarters.

************

Three of the Wayfarer's six Longshard-class interceptors race away from their parent ship. After clearing the passive defense perimeter, the pilots ignite their Nova Flare boosters, quadrupling their acceleration to its upmost maximum and flying rapidly toward sector thirty-two of the Stocurm system defense grid.

*Tag, I sense something interesting.*

Go ahead and type up your next post Valinon. The destroyer would pick up the fighters on passives, and that's it. It can't send any signals to the missiles or else it'd give itself away, so the missiles are just going to continue on their merry way toward the warships, unless they get detected by active sensors, then they'd activate their drives.

Michael Stilman stands on the Wayfarer bridge, watching as the tactical display at the captain's station shows the three Longshards flying closer to the source of the sensor ghosts. Within the next eight minutes, the sleek fighters should be able to tell if these ghosts are more substantial than they seem.
He watches the counter slowly descend as the Longshards close.

*********

Leutnant Brigod prepares to focus his sensors.
"So what exactly is going on out here, Bossman?" comes the smooth voice of Flight Officer Talivo as she flies on his right wing.
"Some sensor ghosts on the Wayfarer's scopes. Someone on the con is getting to damn jumpy. Probably no more than just a systems error, or some fault in the RD netlinks."
"Figures, at least we're not the ones paying for the batteries for this."
Brigod smiles, "True. Bring up sensor packages and move to do a focus scan."
The trio of Longshards brings their modified sensor packages up to full strength as they approach the area where the ghosts were detected. The Longshards assigned to the Wayfarer all have the advanced sensor suite, as they are mostly stationed aboard the CL as recon and patrol craft.
Brigod's eyes narrow at the reports from his sensors. There is a definite ping of some sort 800 klicks below him at forty-seven degrees.
"Talivo are you picking that up?" he says over the comm.
"At forty-seven degrees?"
"Yes."
"Yes, some sort of return. Ardo is still out on the final ruling," she says referring to the Longshard's 'dumb' AI. "But I think we have some sort of ship out there."
"There are no approach patterns logged in with the Stocurm Central Orbital Control," says Brigod's other wingman.
"Well that leaves us one option. Talivo, your with me. Jerdin, contact the Wayfarer tell them we have an unidentified object on our scopes. Tell them that right now I am considering it highly possible that the object is a ship of some sort, most likely a pirate or privateer vessel."
"Yes, sir."
"Talivo, let's go in for a closer look."
Brigod touches of his boosters, followed by Talivo.

********

Torin puts down the antiquated book she was pouring over as the comm's alert signal fills her day cabin. She brings up the audio only.
"This is the Kapitan."
"Kapitan, it's Stilman. Longshards have reported back in with an unidentified object that they are ruling as a ship for the moment. Request permission to move to investigate."
Torin nibbles her lip for a moment.
"There are no Stocur forces in that sector?"
"None, Ma'am."
Torin pauses for a few moments.
"You have permission, Michael. Have Mr. Valderstein set us on a course with our new visitor at three-fourths engine power. Bring up active sensors and I want our shields online as well. I will be on the bridge momentarily."
"Aye, Ma'am."
Torin rises from her chair, laying her book on her desk and moving to return to the Wayfarer's bridge.

"Looks like they suspect something Sir." The bridge crew watched the holoplot as the Valinor fighters swept toward the missiles.

"Damn. Load tubes again, this time switch to laser-head missiles."
Captain Mitsuki glared at the holoplot, hating the red icons of the Valinor fighters, silently willing them with his mind to go active, and trigger the missile's impeller drives.
"I want a missile targeted on them, the rest upon our original targets. Fire upon my order."

"Is there a problem Captain?"

Mitsuki looked up, then slowly turned around to face Commissioner Markham, his employer's "representative". Markham was of average height and weight, had short brown hair, and wore a pair of gold framed glasses. More importantly, he wore the green and black uniform of Vernii's Internal Security. He had argued strenously against Markham's presence for this mission, but his employers had finally told him that either Markham went along to supervise, or he wasn't getting paid. Visions of explosive decompressions filled Mitsuki's mind as he stared at Markham. "No, there is no problem Commissioner."

"Are you sure? Because it looks to me like your about to give away our position. That wouldn't be the smartest move I would think. Perhaps we should wait and see what happens before doing anything too rash."

"Yes Commissioner." Mitsuki turned back to the plot, his eyes cold with hate.

Brigod listens to the orders from the Wayfarer as he and Talivo move rapidly toward the resolving sensor signature.
"Well it's definately not a ghost," says Talivo.
"That's for sure," Brigod manipulates his controls. "Go to full active systems now. It's time to give this guy a buzz flight. Move to achieve target lock and prepare to hold steady until I transmit a heave to order."
"Yes, Bossman."
Brigod brings his Longshard up to full battle status, and begins to manuver to achieve a target lock on the unidentified craft. Ardo is ruling it as a destroyer equivalent now. Brigod opens an all channels broadcast.
"Unidentified vessel this is Leutnant Brigod of His Majesty's Star Armada. You are order to power down and prepare to receive an inspection team. I repeat this is a heave to order. If you do not comply you will be disable and your ship will be taken into custody for further investigation."

**********

Torin sweeps onto the Wayfarer's bridge as Brigod issues his heave to order.
"What do we have, Michael?"
"A destroyer equivalent of apparently unknown origins. It bares some resemblance to a Verniian vessel, but there are some noticeable differences."
"Verniian....," Torin looks at her displays.
"Helm, bring us up to full speed and prepare for immediate interception course. Guns, I want a target on that ships engine block."
"What of the DOS network?" says Stilman quietly.
Torin shakes her head quickly, "I want the speed, Michael. The DOS will slow us down at this point. And if that is a Verniian vessel trying to sneak into Stocurm I want them redhanded. Signal the Star Shield and the Black Rider as well. I want them to prepare to break orbit and move on intercept with us."

The fourteen fusion missiles instantly activated their impeller drives as soon as they were pinged. Seven hurtled toward the light cruisers, and the other seven continued along toward the light warships.

"Sir, they picked us up on actives, but we got their locations as well."
Mitsuki listened to the Valinor demands and then ignored them. The holoplot beeped as CIC updated it with the new emissions from the light cruisers.

"I want firing solutions on those three cruisers. Bring point defences online and destroy those fighters. Retarget all missiles at the nearest cruiser. Fire."

Energy fired lanced out as the eight PD lasers on the ship's side opened up on the fighters, they were joined by seven laser-head missiles, all concentrated on a single light cruiser, which instantly began accelerating at 85,000 Gs upon being hurled from their tubes.

OOC: At a range of 1.5 million km and accel of 85,000 Gs, flight time for all 21 missiles is 60 seconds. Terminal velocity of 50,000 km/sec when their drives give out at the end of the run, although since your ships are closing, flight time would be a few seconds shorter, and there will be enough power left for final maneuvering

I think I will, jump in on this in a light fashion in a bit, theres not much justification for involvement right now, but considering how good this is going to ben ahd the fact that I'm Valinons naeighbor, and one of their closest allies, There might be a merchant group heading for the system, with a cruiser and a destroyer or two for an escort.

And oh yes...do I sense an Honor Harrington, aficiando, in Vernii?

Brigod never knows what knows what kills him, a trio of PD lasers stab through his Longshard at close range, turning it into nothing more than an expanding cloud of debris. Jerdin dodges the first round of laser fire, only to have his engine blocks hit, sending him spiraling out of control.
Talivo fares much better, managing to dodge the fire and breaking off her attack run. She does an invert loop and uses the Nova Flare Booster to send her Longshard out of the immediate range of the destroyer's lasers.
She rapidly opens a comm channel, "Wayfarer Flight Control, this is Longshard Flight 1-A 2! We are under attack! I repeat under attack! 1-A leader is dead and 1-A 3 is incapicitated! I request immediate permission to engage!"
But then Talivo stares in horror at her sensor read outs. The Wayfarer has not deployed the DOS network, and her shields are reading below full capacity. And now seven missiles streak in toward the unprepared light cruiser. Talivo curses the laxity of the Stocur station command staff, and snares her Longshard back around, moving to start an attack run on the destroyer.

**********

"Kapitan multiple missiles in bound from unidentifed ship!"
Torin swears.
"Identify new arrival as Alpha 1. I want a firing solution with our bow batteries as soon as possible! Vag," she turns to the ship's AI, its avatar looking very much like and Old Earth railway tramp, "can you engage the missiles?"
"Yes, but I cannot account from all of them at this close range, Kapitan."
Torin clenches her teeth, "Guns, prepare for continous missile battery fire on my mar-."
Torin is cut off as three laser head missiles detonate near the Wayfarer's hull. The CL rocks as the stillettos of x-rays gouge into it, its radiation shielding not holding back the full fury.
Torin slams open an in ship comm link, "DCC, damage report!"
"Missle Pod 2 has been destroyed along with three pulse cannons and 2 rapid-fire lasers. Pulse Turret 3 has taken damage to its firing control, and we are trying to reroute through the network. Also three DOS drone launch tubes are heavily damaged."
There comes a sharp intake of breath from the DCC.
"Ma'am, the bow energy shield projector is fluctuating, the power compensators must have been fired completely or have been damaged to the point of failure. Currently holding at forty-three precent of normal levels, but unless I cut the bow projector off, it could spiral out and overload the whole system."
"Cut it out then. Compensate with the stern projector and keep our broadside shields up. Don't " Torin cuts the link. "Helm, bring us on a new course at 143 degrees. Show them our broadside! Guns, I want a target resolution now, give them everything we have!"

The fusion missiles race in toward the Wayfarer, and the temporarily blinded AI sees them all too late. Three fusion missiles fly toward the Wayfarer, two fly into the CLs ravaged bow decks, and the last flies into the broadside. Kapitan zur Sternen Torin, her command staff, and the Wayfarer are consumed in a massive fireball minutes later, one that dies soon after in the void of space.
The last CL to leave orbit erupts, its forward sections almost completely vaporized while it still tries to break orbit. The surviving stern section begins to fall back toward Stocur. The final Valinor ship sees the missiles coming toward it, its point defenses manage to kill one, but the other hits it on its underside, tearing into its hanger bay and destroying its Number 3 pulse turret instantly. It slows and moves to interpose its undamaged portside toward its attacker.
The lighter Stocur ships fare just as bad as their unprepared Valinor counterparts. Of the four destroyers, two are vaporized in an instant, another snaps in half, and the last one loses it's bridge. One of the frigates loses its bow almost completely, its front quarters reduced to cooling, twisted wreckage. A explosion eclipses the last Stocur frigate, and for a moment it appears unharmed, until it begins to drift off at an odd angle, revealing that the starboard side is almost completely eaten away by the explosion.
The two remaining Stocur heavy cruisers in orbit around the planet become a flare of activity as active sensor arrays and point defenses are brought to full readiness, but the two ships make no move to break orbit, instead rapidly moving to protect the central Stocur orbital yards and seemingly paralyzed by the destruction of the majority of their other ships.

**********

Talivo takes her Longshard on a direct intercept course, spiraling through the PD fire and readying her fighter. The Longshard's Ardo AI coordinates the fighter's firing control and the long extended beep of a confirmed missile lock breaks the silence in the cockpit.
"Here's your receipt," she says savagely, sending a quartet of heavy rockets sailing toward the destroyer.

Cheers erupted on the bridge of Ravager, although it's missile defence officers didn't join in, as they were busy with the incoming rockets. PD lasers engaged them, shooting down three of them. The fighter's close launch range limited their effectiveness however, and the fourth streaked in and detonated against the hull.
"Gravitic One is down sir, three casualties."

"Hm, well, a light price to pay for what we have accomplished today." Captain Mitsuki opened a shipwide intercom, "My valiant crew, today we have all but totally destroyed the Stocurm Sytem Navy. You have made me proud and honored to be your captain. I expect our employers will also be quite thrilled with our accomplishments." He gazed over at Markham with his last comment.

Mitsuki turned to his officers, "Deploy two EW drones to cover our escape, and take us out of the sytem, full accel."

OOC: Falasmayon, a good moment for your convoy to enter the system would be right after the destroyer enters hyper. And yeah, I've based my nation's government on Haven, but without the crappy economy, nationalized R&D, and crappy education system. I'm also definitely not a welfare state.

Vizeadmiral Damien Udolf, commander of the Star Armada task force stationed in what has been dubbed the Gregor Sector looks out to the planet below him. It has been two day time since the Wayfarer, Torin's CL command, and the light elements of the Stocur navy met with their unfortunate end. Udlof has brought the battlecruiser HMS Artemis, the two battleships HMS Victory and HMS Stalwart, the carrier Alexandria, six heavy cruisers, and eight destroyers with him to the embattled Stocurm system.
He has listen carefully to the debrief of Flight Matrose Talivo, and now stands with Kapitan zur Sternen Feldmann, his flag captain.
"Command laxity," he says, distaste in his voice. "That is the cause of all this. I should have recalled Torin months ago. Now we have lost a CL group, and the Stocur are paralyzed with the fear of a new attacker that can destroy their entire navy in one attack."
"It is a very...difficult situation, Sir."
"Difficult is putting it mildly, Jordan. What can be salvaged from the wreckage?"
"The Black Rider can be repaired, although it will take eight months at the least. As for the Stocur forces, only a destroyer and a frigate could even be considered marginally repairable."
Udolf draws out a cigar, and lights it.
"You have dispatched the courier to Alpha Centauri?"
"Yes, Sir."
Udolf nods, and the first wisps of smoke rise around his head.
"Send another courier back to Madras, and then on to Yalta. I want a full sensor net deployed in all three systems at once."
"Yes, Sir."
"Only one nation in this sector could have done this, Jordan. It might not have been a frontline Verniian warship, or even a Verniian hand that pulled the trigger, but by God this thing reeks of their handywork, and I will not be caught unprepared again. I want all stations in Madras, Yalta, and Stocurm on full alert," Udolf puts the cigar back in his mouth and turns back to the windows. He watches as the broken form of the CL Black Rider is drug toward the Stocur shipyards.

**********

Four days after the attack Grossadmiral Sir Quentin Forrest, First Star Lord of His Majesty's Star Armada, looks at the massive tactical projection of the galaxy before him and zooms in on the Gregor Sector. Kapitan zur Sternen Severn stands behind Forrest.
"We can't risk a conventional war with Vernii without pretense," says Forrest, a bitter note in his voice. "However, it seems that they are willing to pursue an unconventional war with us."
"It seems like you have a plan, Sir."
"Yes, I do, Isaac, indeed I do," Forrest gives a tight smile. "You have contacted Lord Alexei Mironenko?"
"Yes, Sir."
"And?"
"He has accepted your invitation to dinner at 0700 this evening."
"Good, it is time that the ISSSF earned its keep in something other than commerce running."
"What do you intend, Sir?"
"I intend to meet the Verniians on their own terms, Isaac. Let us see how well they do fighting an undeclared war with us. Especially when we use highly unconventional servicemen."

**********

Later that night Alexei Mironenko, son of Baron Andrei Mironenko and Director of the Inter-Solar System Security Force, downs a third glass of strong Syberian vodka. He half-closes his eyes as the liquor burns its way toward his stomach. He doesn't even give half an ear to the concerto booming through his quarters at the ISSSF command center on Eurytion.
"Damn you, Forrest," he says to the empty room.
Ever since regaining the First Star Lordship, the Grossadmiral has been insufferable. He has performed his own, incredibly thorough house cleaning destroying the pro-Guild Admiralty his father managed to install after placing Grossadmiral von Schmidert in the First Lordship, and now he has basically taken an entire ISSSF task group to use in an undeclared with against the Verniians.
Alexei cannot deny Forrest's tactical or strategical brillance, in fact he probably is the great naval strategist the Armada has seen in over two centuries, but still he is growing far too powerful, far too successful, and far too popular for even the Mironenkos to resist. And that is a very dangerous thing.
Mironenko pours another glass of vodka and summons his personal adjutant.
"Yes, Director?"
"When is the Shinjo due to return?"
"It will arrive in Eurytion orbit in," the adjutant looks at his comp-pad, "a day, Director."
"Tell Fleet Captain Idoshi that I wish to speak with him immediately when he returns to port."
"Yes, Director."

*Acler Sytem*

The destroyer Tethys swept along the outer edge of the system at a leisurely pace. Lieutenant Patterson relaxed in the bridge command chair as he sat through yet another boring watch. "Hyper transit! Its a close one, about five million klicks ahead."

Patterson considered calling the captain to the bridge, but decided against it, he didn't like to be bugged over every routine thing. "Send them the standard challenge."

A few seconds later, the newcomer flashed back its transponder code, KSN Asashi, a destroyer that had become somewhat familiar in the past few weeks as it routinely visiting the system.

Patterson smirked at the "Kerezin Space Navy" header. I suppose if they still want to call themselves that, its fine, but it's not going to bring back anything. It's not like it was even much of a navy even when their government still existed. They might as well go ahead and call themselves privateers. "Inform Acler TCS of their flight plan."
***
Acler had once been a sleepy little system in terms of visiting traffic, but that was before Commodore Banton's cruiser group came visiting. The Verniian government had rapidly built up the systems infrastructure, like asteroid smelters, orbital warehouses, even a Defender class fortress in orbit over the capital. Mitsuki watched the holoplot as it displayed the mess of impeller signatures throughout the system, everything from mining craft and freighters, patrol ships, and a couple squadrons of battleships in orbit over Acler. "Transmit our battle report to the governor, use the priority number he provided for us. Then take us to our rendezvous with Akagi."

Fleet Captain Idoshi watches his tactical projections carefully as his small "task force" forms up after the jump. They have arrived in the dark, empty void that hangs between solar systems. To be precise, somewhere between the stars known as Yalta and Acler.
The ISSSF might not be the regular Star Armada, but with the united power of the majority of the Valinor banking federates, shipping cartels, ship manufacturers, and various conglomerates it is a formidable force of mid and light ships, with several heavy elements. Most of the ships are also staffed with the citizens of the former Dominion of Outer Centauri, the same people who rose up to overthrow their feudal "lords" and "daimyos." Idoshi was one of the resistance leaders during the Outer Dominion Wars, and he was noted for his success in raids against Dominion supply lines. He has no doubt that Grossadmiral Forrest knew of this when selecting him.
Plus the prizes the Star Armada is offering him and his command are quite lucrative, fifteen percent from any ships captures and thrity-two percent from captured cargo.
"Query for reports," Idoshi says. His comm officer nods and turns to his disply. Idoshi selects the channel for his own com headset.
"Inchon reporting as order."
"Golden Hind at the ready."
"Peridoc arrived and green."
Idoshi nods, all three of his frigates have arrived.
"Perrywinkle at the ready."
"Kyuden Toshi at the ready."
"Sunset acknowledging."
"Eregron acknowledging."
Idoshi nods again as his destroyers acknowledge. He waits for the clearance from his last ship.
"Wainwright reporting as arrived."
Idoshi watches as the massive carrier jumps in last, along with six nameless corvettes.
Idoshi turns to his comm officer.
"Signal to all captains. I will receive them for dinner at 17:30 to discuss deployments and operation sectors."
"Yes, Sir!"

The Shinjo (http://claw.solsector.net/ships/tigersclaw.gif)

The Inchon (http://wolfsshipyard.mystarship.com/Drawings/Earth/Hyperion_Assault.gif)

The Golden Hind and the Peridoc (http://wolfsshipyard.mystarship.com/Drawings/Earth/Hyperion_Missile.gif)

The Wainwright (http://www.wolfsshipyard.mystarship.com/Drawings/Earth/Olympus.gif)

Perrywinkle & Eregron (http://www.wolfsshipyard.mystarship.com/Drawings/Earth/Oracle.gif)

Kyuden Toshi & Sunset (http://wolfsshipyard.mystarship.com/Drawings/Earth/Sagitarius.gif)

Sigmus Spaceworks Corvette (http://claw.solsector.net/18.html)

USIC Corvette (http://claw.solsector.net/ships/venture.gif)

Two days later, Asashi reactivated it's impeller drives. It moved out of the system at 500 Gs, and then vanished into hyper. Mitsuki opened up his orders from the system governor, read them, and then opened up a shipwide com.

"My valiant crew, today we leave for Madras, where we will prowl the outer edges of the system and snag unsuspecting merchies. Meanwhile our brothers on Akagi will be raiding Stocurm once again, rubbing salt in the grievous wounds we inflicted. Then our ships will rendezous in Pelledrine, and cut a swath through that system."

Two hours after Asashi left the system, the "liner" Akagi did the same.

Proxima floats lazily below HMSS Sanctuary the vast, pulsating heart of the Star Armada. Shipyard construction slips and dry dock berths spread out ina never-ending maze of metal and lights. At the center of the complex is the massive core of Sanctuary, what started out as a orbital fortification turned into the hub of an entire empire's navy.
Grossadmiral Forrest looks away from Proxima outward across the fuzy blue and white horizon of the planet. He sees other orbital installations as well, the numerous orbital Golan defense platforms of the Ortagans, the Falas orbital space fortress of Maccragge, and the orbiting Takan ships holding their own defensive line.
Forrest's gaze settles on Maccragge, his mind finishing the plan that has already been formulating in his mind since he received the comm message from the Palace early in the morning. Emperor Rowald has given him permission to pursue any means necessary outside of an outright attack against further "unknown" agressions in the Gregor Sector.
Forrest turns to Severn, the Perfect turns toward him, eyes shifting color again.
"Isaac, have the comm send a Magenta level flash priority to Kommodore Gerodic at Pholus. He is to prepare CruRon 10 for departure at once and leave the system for Madras no later than the day after tomorrow, standard reckoning."
"Yes, Sir."
"If I am needed send a message through Reynaud if it is urgent, but I would prefer not to be disturbed. I need to dictate and invitation to High Lord Marcharius, I wish to confer with him on the matter of possible Falas involvement in the Gregor sector."
"Yes, sir," Severn clicks his heels, salutes and then leaves. Forrest looks at the skeletal frame of one of the new Ares II-class dreadnoughts that have just been commissioned by BuShips. He watches the flares and activities of construction before turning and boarding a lift to take him back to his quarters.

**********

Priority Flash Message
To: High Lord-Admiral Solar Marcharius, Maccragge
From: First Star Lord Grossadmiral Sir Quentin Forrest, His Majesty's Star Armada
Encryption: Scarlet Level, Priority 3
Type: Flash Broadcast, NuSpace Network, Proxima Centauri, Sanctuary Org Stmp

Lord-Admiral Marcharius,

It would be a pleasure if you would join me for dinner tonight onboard the HMS Gustav Alderman at 17:30. I have some matters I wish to discuss both informally and formally with you on the matter of recent actions in the Gregor sector and to consult with you on the matter of the state of the Falas High Fleet.
Please respond at the soonest possible convenience.

Yours with regards, etc.
Sir Quentin Forrest

**********

Over orbit around Pholus, second world of the Alpha Centauri solar system. Crusier Squadron 10 prepares for departure. The squadron is headed by the HMS Dunkirk, a Virgo-class heavy cruiser. CruRon Ten as a whole consists of six CAs, eight CLs, ten DDs, and a moderate gunship screening element.
On the bridge of the Dunkirk, Kommodore Andrew Gerodic rereads his orders from Sanctuary."

Priority Flash Message
To: Kommodore Andrew Gerodic, Commanding CruRon Ten
From: Kapitan zur Sternen Isaac Severn For First Star Lord Grossadmiral Sir Quentin Forrest
Encryption: Magenta Level, Priority 1
Type: Flash Broadcast, NuSpace Network, Proxima Centauri, Sanctuary Org Stmp
Subject: Deployment Issues to Gregor Sector

Kommodore Gerodic,

Due to recent actions in the Gregor sector of the Star Armada command structure, you are hereby ordered to prepare Cruiser Squadron Ten to depart from Pholus and make way with all haste to the Madras system. You are expected to depart no later than 08:00 17 3, 1,010 NIC.
Your staff intelligence officer will debrief you with the latest reports from OAI after the arrival at this message. Once you arrive in Madras, establish contact with Vizeadmiral Udolf and Kapitan zur Sternen Beridof, station commander of Madras, as soon as possible.

Solar Marcharius, Supreme Commander of the High Fleet, watched the Sperdreadnought HMS Gustav Alderman grow in the pinnace's viewscreens. The superdred. was the pride of the Valinon space fleet, and the flagship of Gossadmiral Forrest.

Marcharius wondered why Forrest wanted to see him. Of course, he had met with Forrest on several occasions before, and given the close allied status of their two nations, it wasn't unusual to meet for dinner, but for the life of him Marcharius couldn't figure out what the Grossadmiral wanted to talk to him about. Unless of course it was the situation i nthe Gregorian sector. there had been rumors coming out of there for a few days now, nut the Valinor had kept a tight lid on things. in any case he would see soon.

The pinnace docked, with the Alderman, and the boarding tube extended. As Marcharius swam the length of the tube and arrived at the other end, bsuns pipes twittered, and Grossadmiral Forrest of the Star Armada approached.

Forrest clasps Marcharius' hand after walking down the center of the rank and file Matrose and Sardaukar assembled as a side part for the High Lord-Admiral's arrival.
"Solar," he says fraternally, "it is a pleasure to see you again. But I shall not keep you waiting after all I did promise you dinner did I not?"
Forrest leads Marcharius toward the lifts and they are soon ascending toward Forrest's quarters in the upper decks of the dreadnought.

**********

The meal had been simple fair, but well prepared and exquisite to taste. Salads were followed by a entree of steak and burgundy mushrooms with a vegetable medley. Forrest's Chief Sterward John Edwards sets two cups of strong, dark Valinor Earl Grey tea before Forrest and Marcharius.
"I regret that this dinner could not be under completely happy circumstances, Solar, but I fear that I can procrastinate no longer. No doubt you are aware of the situation in the Gregor sector near our border with the Verniians. We lost a CL group stationed in the Stocurm system to along with a vast portion of the Stocur defense fleet to what OAI is calling a "foreign backed" raiding group. And "foreign backed" raiding group in the Gregor sector means backed by the People's Republic of Vernii. I have been told by His Majesty, along with Duke Sterling, that we cannot risk open war against the Vernii without pretense, but I wish to pursue them in this undeclared war."
Forrest takes a sip of tea, "I have already taken an initial step by sending a special irregular task force from the ISSSF to respond in kind to the raids on the Stocurm system. But I would like to make a rather large request of you as well. I would be personally indebted to you if the High Fleet could undertake it's own commerce protection operations in the Gregor sector with considerable....more vigor than normal."
Forrest smiles thinly and his eyes flash, "Of course Vizeadmiral Udolf and the various local defense forces will politely look the other way while you take 'necessary and proper' actions against these 'pirates.' And I realize that the tensions between Falas City and Silesia have become very pointed as of late, but I have no other options less to turn to, Solar. The Takans proved in the last war with Vernii that their actions may be somewhat...extreme, and the Ortagans are too busy playing their own internal political games and machinations. And I think it high time that the we worked more closely with your own forces than we have in the past. Something I am ashamed my predecessor did not do, but I feel that has been...rectified."
Forrest sits the empty cup down, "So, do you think it possible that you would be able to have a force detour to the Gregor sector for a few months? I could even detail some of our own resupply and repair ships maintain them if necesssary. Plus I have a feeling there are some OAI files on some movements of a certain nations star navy you would find very, very useful."

Marcharius considered for a moment. "What you ask of the High Fleet, is somewhat irregular, especially with what amounts to open war brewing, with New Ortaga. However, i think we can definitely aid you. Falasmayon, has always been in debt to the Star Empire, we owe much of our successful beginning 70 years ago, to your aid. We would be disrespectful to not give assistance when we can. interesting'y this will also allow us to test a new generation of commerce protector that R&D has had in development.

We have modified several of the Emeperor-class dreadnoughts to serve as Q-ships. They were originally slated to assault Ortagan targets, but I think we could place a squadron into the Gregor Sector in order to get a feel for their capabilites. I can have 5 of the ships en route in 3 weeks. Additionally, we would be more than happy to increase our commerce protection runs, we could also extend Escort Frigate protection to Valinor merchant traffic. It has been discovered that we ended up producing almost 50 more Escort Frigates than our current escort need entail, so we would be happy to let them escort your ships, which would free up cruiser squadrons for... shall we say... more active roles.

As for the offer of aid, in... future conflicts, it would seem that you have made us an offrer that cannot be refused. Anything you feel free to do would be of great help, and would place us further in the debt of the Empire, and the Armada. Thank you for the dinner Quentin, it was excellent, and I am glad that we could be of help."

Marcharius shook Forrests hand and returned to his pinnace, and Macragge.

*****
3 weeks later 5 ships that looked like mid-sized merchant freighters, powered out of their docks and made for the hyperlimit. Along with them traveled a frigate squadron of 10 ships. they were all bound for the Fleet station Commenor in the Gregor Sector.

Aboard his flagship Shroud Commodore Elias Norrington watched the progress of the squadron. His ship was an Emperor-class B dreadnought, one of three Emperor-B's in the group. The other two ships were Emperor A-class vessels.

norrington contemplated his orders. He would proced to Commenor and from there disperse his ships to travel through the systems of the sector in a circuit, hoping ot attract whoever these raiders were. Each ship would have two Frigate escorts, since it wouldn't do to scare the raiders away with too much apparent force. Of course, they'd figure it our quick enough.

The ships translated to hyperspace, and caught the grav-wave to Commenor

Q-ships

Emperor A-class: Shroud, Myst, Illusion
Emperor B-class: Veil, Fog

Look here for stats on the Q-ships and the Escort Frigates (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=115270&highlight=)

The blue-white jump space exit points rend space apart in the Madras system. From the two distortions, CruRon Ten exits.
Kommodore Gerodic watches as his squadron forms up rapidly, the light cruisers moving to flank the six heavy cruisers on either side, and then comes the destroyers and gunships forming the screening element.
"Contact Madras Orbital Control," he says turning to his comm officer.
"Aye, sir," the comm officer turns back to his station.
"Madras Control, this is the HMS Dunkirk leading CruRon Ten. We request an orbital pattern clearance. We also carry new orders from Sanctuary in regards to the Gregor Sector situation."
"Dunkirk, this is Madras Control," comes a reply with the planet's native accent. "You are cleared for orbital pattern 33-A-12, near ODF-2. Kapitan zur Sternen Beridof also wishes to meet with Kommodore Gerodic as soon as possible to review the new orders."
"Understood, Control," the comm officer turns to Gerodic.
"1800, I will have a shuttle sent at 1800."
The comm officer nods, "The Kommodore will receive Kapitan Beridof at 1800 aboard the Dunkirk. A shuttle will be dispatched."
"Roger, Dunkirk. You are cleared for orbital pattern. Welcome to Madras."

**********

At the edges of the Madras system, an exit point appears. The MMMS deQusent exits jump space and begins to make its way in-system.
Captain Andstron, master of the massive bulf freighter is more than a little nervous. He has just returned from Alpha Centauri, carrying a hull full of goods from Valinon, and had, until now, been part of a convoy of Yaltan ships under the protection of a trio of Star Armada frigates. But being from Madras, the deQusent broke off from the convoy. And now the rumors of increased raiding activity along the borders of Alliance space seem more and more real.
"Lay in a course for home, Daniel," Andstron says to his helmsman.
"Aye, Captain."
Andstron nods vaguely and continues to focus on his sensor display feeds like a man possessed. He can see the tell-tell flares of activity near his homeworld, and the system patrol craft gruops plying the system. He also sees a massive group of engine signatures pulling for Madras, but the freighters sensors are not of the grade that allows them to make a distinction at this range.
"At least there's no one near us," he mummers to himself, and prays that it stays that way until he reaches home.

Captain Yu Law of the Q-ship, Myst sat onboard his bridge and considered. After reaching Commenor Station, the ships of the squadron had broken out to cover their assigned routes through the Gregor Sector.
Myst was due to reach the translation point for the Madras Sytem in 10 minutes. Law had no indea what would be waiting for him o the otherside of the hyperwall, but with a disguised Emperor A-class Deadnought at his command, he felt sure that he could deal with any thing the Verniians had put together to face him.

The counter to translation spun downward.

OOC: This is to the Madran freighter.

"Ravager" crept silently through space near the edge of the Madran system hyper limit.

"Hyper translation! Almost dead ahead, range....3 million klicks. Looks like a merchie."

Mitsuki walked over to the lieutenant's station and leaned over to study the display. "Any indicator they've spotted us?"

"No Sir. Assuming they have civilian grade sensors, then they won't see us for a while yet."

"Good. Sound General Quarters. Helm, bring us onto a zero-intercept course with the freighter. Max accel."
***After closing to 2.4 million km (8 light seconds)***
"Unidentified freighter, cut your accel and prepare to be boarded. Comply with our instructions and no one will be harmed. Any hostile act will be met with force. Do no scream for help, do not abandon ship. Again, comply and no one will be harmed."

Andstron feels a bead of sweat slick down his cheek and down the open collar of his tunic. He turns to the man standing of to the right of his station.
"Your recommendations, Chu-i," Andstron says, struggling with the unfamiliar word. The man behind him remains at his seemingly permanent state of attention. His deep, black-brown almondine eyes seem dark and emotionless. The blue drag tatoo spiraling onto his cheek the only thing breaking his severe countenance. His cool gaze breaks away from the display showing the incoming raider.
"Drop speed to one-fourth normal acceleration, continue course in-system. Prepare the 'modifications.' I will ready my men," his voice is cold and as impersonal as his face. Andstron represses a shudder, and wonders if it was such a wise thing to hire a ISSSF mercenary group. The Dommies (former Dominion citizens) are strange, too strange. And their religion is as cold and as deadly as the worlds that spawned them.
Andstron turns to his crew, "You heard the Chu-i."
The nervous crewmen begin to perform their duties.
Chu-i Kai Shysudi turns away as the deQusent's few added weapons are prepared. He activates the comm on his collar.
"Ready hold number thirty-seven and twenty-two for detonation," he says in the Dominion hybrid of Japanese and Korean. "The Star Armada left specific orders that those sensor net drones are not to fall into any other hands."
"Hai, Chu-i," comes the brief reply.
Shysudi activates the comm to his three squads, and continues in Japanese, "Ready yourselves to repel borders. The path of the laylines has yet again revealed itself to our eyes, and the path we must take is clear. Tameni Okami!"
"Tameni Okami!" comes the chorus of replies, for the sake of the Emperor. The cry of all the former Resolute members who fought against the feudalistic Clans for the salvation Emperor Gustav and the Valinor promised if they rose against their masters.

"They dropped their accel Sir, but haven't cut it completely," the ship's tactical officer reported.

"Show them we're serious."
One of the destroyer's bow missile tubes flashed as it hurled a fusion missile into space. The missile's impellers came online and it hurtled toward the freighter. As the missile reached 10,000 km it pulled up dramatically and detonated at a safe range. A single transmission was sent. "You just used up your warning shot. Comply with our instructions."

"Get the boarding pinnaces ready," Mitsuki ordered the ship's marine CO.

Shysudi glares at the explosion. He turns to Andstron, who is sweating very visibly.
"Calm yourself, Captain," he says, cold as a glacier. "Begin reducing our acceleration, take us to three-eights and proceed downward by thirds. Captain, I recommend you launch the EMPs in three minutes and use them as a screen for your nuclear mine."
Andstron nods, he turns to his "tactical" officer.
"Bring up the mine control," he takes a shaky breath. "Prepare the EMPs for the first launch cycle, followed by our nuke set for proximity detonation."
Shysudi turns away, "Are the holds prepared?"
"We are working, Chu-i. We need more time."
"You have five minutes."
"Hai, Chu-i."
Shysudi turns back and watches as the freighters remaining acceleration begins to rapidly decrease. The tactical officer looks up, and a strange echo fills the freighter.
"EMPs away!" he looks at his station, a few more minutes past. "Nuclear mine away."
Shysudi nods. He looks at the visuals and tactical projections. And his eyes blink as the blue-white lightening of the EMP driven explosions rip outward behind the freighter outward toward the destroyer, blinding sensors to the other deadly projectile continuing toward the destroyer mostly on a ballistic course.

"What the?!"
Mitsuki turned in his seat at his sensor officer's startled exclamation. "What happened?" he demanded.

"Looks like they used some sort of EMP weapon sir, sensor effectiveness temporarily reduced by 50%."

"Rotate to present our other side then you idiot, and I want you..." he turned to his tactical officer, "to put a laser through that merchant as punishment for that little trick."

Radar and lidar came online as the destroyer rotated and brought it's single 25cm broadside laser online. The sensor officer's jaw dropped as the incoming rocket suddenly appeared on his screen, and computer overrides reacted before he did. PD lasers swung toward it and targetted, and the rocket vanished as they fired.

Mitsuki glared harshly at his sensor officer. "Fortunately our computers aren't incompetent, and your performance evaluation may be a little "harsh", lieutenant." He turned again to face his tactical officer. "What are you waiting for?! Fire!"

The 25cm laser fired into the forward section of the freighter.

Shysudi grips Andstron's chair as the freighter bucks under the laser's attack. The shields of the freighter are no match for such weaponry at this range, if at any range. Hull warps and twists and a gouge appears across the ship's bow. Atmosphere vents along with goods from the freighter's upper holds. Shysudi looks at Andstron to find the captain unconcious in his chair, his head bleeding from a gash where he hit against his station.
"Idiot," he mummers under his breath. "Cut acceleration!" he says coldly to the dazed looking helmsman. He activates his comm.
"Ready all squads! Prepare yourselves for borders!"
The freighter's engines completely shut down, and onboard the three squads of ISSSF mercenaries prepares themselves for the attack they know is coming.

"Direct hit, they're bleeding air sir. Looks like we hit a cargo bay from the amount of it," the tactical officer reported.

"Damnit! Argh, launch the boarding pinnace." Mitsuki sat down in his command chair, trying hard not to notice the faint smirk that had appeared on Commissioner Markham's face.

The boat bay doors opened and the boarding pinnace floated out. It matched course with the freighter and slowly closed. It held position ten meters from the hull as a cutting laser burned through the hull. The airlock opened, and an armored marine fired a burst from his pulser rifle into the breach. After that, a line was launched from the pinnace and the first team of ten men floated over into the freighter.

Shysudi stands on the bridge and listens as his forward men report the breech. But on a ship as vast as the deQusent he can trade space for time.
"Are the holds ready?" he says on the comm.
"Thirty-seven is prepared, Chu-i, and twenty-two will be ready momentarily."
Shysudi looks at the schematic, "Send your men from thirty-seven to rendezvous with my command at corridor centac forty-two. They will have to pass that way if they wish to reach anything but the holds with foodstuffs in them, and to reach the bridge. Bring up the Reavers from the Morgue, and ready yourselves for engagement under operational plan six."
Shysudi allows his eyes to sweep the bridge once more, the crewmen look stunned, shocked, or held in disbelief. Shysudi represses the urge to blow them all to the vacuum.
"Seal off the bridge as soon as I leave. Monitor the situation via the security net, and do nothing save sound emergency general quarters."
"Yes, uh, sir," says Andstron's exec. Shysudi sweeps off the bridge, pausing for only a moment to collect the long cylinder package that had been locked down near the bridge's entry way.

"All clear." The second team moved into the breach, followed by a third. "Let's see, command should be forward, engineering toward the rear. Team 3, you take engineering, 1 and 2 will take the bridge." ordered Captain Cheng, Asashi's Marine CO.

The groups split up. Each marine wore a suit of light power armor, except the officers, who wore medium grade armor, and all were equipped with a flechette grenade, and pulser sidearm. One marine in each team had a flechette rifle, while the rest carried pulser rifles. Each group was led by two "scouts" who walked ten feet ahead of the main body.


OOC: Let's do the fight for engineering first.

foreget that whole post Vernii, sorry. :cry:

OOC: Falamayson, did you get the telegram I sent you? And how long until your ship enters the limits of it's weapon range?

Yeah, i got the telegramn, but only after I had written the post. sorry. just disregard all of it, and I'll come back in after your finished with the Asashi and do the capture on the second raid attempt. Sorry again about the screw up.

Er, you didn't have to deat it. It could be just have been that they were too far away to intervene in a reasonable amount of time.

In the main engineering division, panic insues. None of the ISSSF mercenaries are here to provide support, and most of the crew from engineering seems more focused on trying to get to the better defended forward sections of the ship, rather than try to hold the rear sections of the freighter.
But Lieutenant Commander Jombrian, chief engineer of the deQusent, will not give up her post so easily. She knows that the pirates will be bearing down on the Quinne's engineering and command facilities as soon as possible, and she's not going to make it easy.
"Seal the bulkheads and blast doors!" she shouts to the on duty staff, and turns to face the other eighteen stragglers who came to find sanctuary in engineering.
She gestures to the small weapons locker, "You know what's coming ladies and gentlemen, make every shot count. We will buy sometime at least since our vaunted security forces seem to have cut us adrift."
Her second begins to equip the non-duty personnel, Jombrian herself takes a sidearm and looks at the blast doors cycling shut.
"You three," she says to three DC specialists, "use the extra struts from the storage sections, I want those doors reinforced."
"Yes, Ma'am."

**********

Two squads of Shysudi's men are ready at corridor centac forty-two. The breech has left the boarders with relatively few options, and in order to reach the bridge from their current position they will have to pass through Shysudi's strong point.
Barricades are being made out of all available materials to block off the attackers way of movement, and Shysudi watches the progress with the same cold detachment from when he was on the bridge. He allows his hand to wander to the katana at his side. Swordsmanship may not be as prevalent as it once was, but the swords from the old Dominion territories have torn asunder the common assumptions about armoured close combat before. He hears the reavers on their counter-grav rings being moved up the corridor from the deQusent's minute Morgue. All of the pieces will soon be in place, and he will take as many of these raiders with him as possible.

The marines march up to the engineering blast door, which of course don't open. The squad commander thumps his metal fist on the door twice, then yells "Open up this door immediately and we won't kill anyone. This offer runs out when we get these doors open ourselves, and that's inevitable." He turns to his second in command, "Take two men and go and get the HE charges from the pinnace."

Jomtrain watches as her hastily assembled group arc-welds additional reinforcements to the blast doors. She checks the Impaler clip in her gun for the fifth time, and watches with a mild detachment as the pirates make their demand and move into positions outside Engineering Central.
"Do they think we're stupid enough to not see that being dead is often infinately more preferable to being 'prisoners' to pirates," she growls and turns on her heel.
"Jame!" she says to her second, a man standing over the terminals looks up.
"Yes, Ma'am?"
"Get those wipes done, I want as much as the control protoccols and data files gone as possible. Try to lock out as many of the systems as possible, let's not make their prize quite as worthwhile as they think it will be!"

The marines returned, carrying boxes of explosives. They pull out one and attach it to the bulkhead. A timer was pressed, "Clear!" shouted one of the marines, and the group took cover as the first explosive went off with a thump. As soon as a the smoke cleared the marines were already beginning to place the second.

"Jamie?" Jomtrain looks at her second as the first explosion tears at the blast door.
"Another blast like that, Ma'am, maybe two at the most and they'll be through."
Jomtrain swallows, "Get those computers and systems 'fixed' for our friends. The rest of you, get to your positions!"
The small force armed with side arms and a few Impaler and old shredder rifles positions itself with finality against the hastily erected barricades and strong points around the beseiged blast door, awaiting the inevitable.

The second explosive goes off, and then a third smaller one. A small hole was punched through the door, and the squad commander walked up to it. He reached down and pulled a flechette grenade from his belt, and dropped it through. He turned back to his men, "After that goes off I want you to keep working, tear down the entire door."

The flechette gernade causes havoc on the opposite side of the thick blast door. Jomtrain and the others barely have enough time to dive for the cover of their hastily erected barricades.
Five are not so lucky, reduced to butchered and bleeding flesh by the flying metal. Another man screams like a damned soul as a piece of shrapnel impales through the thin barricade and pins him to it through his shoulder.
Jomtrain looks at a man that can't hardly be out of his teams, gripping his arc-welding torch in a white-knuckled grip.
"Patch it!" she shouts across the screams, and throws a piece of reinforcement toward him. The young man grabs it, an scuttles toward the small hole in the blast door. Blue fire and light erupts a few minutes later as he struggles to patch the hole that was punched through the door.

"You should have surrendered. Your time is up!" the squad commander shouts after hearing the screams. The marines again set up another explosive charge, and set the timer for five seconds. They take cover.
5...4...3...2...1...

The explosive goes off.

"Hit the floor!" Jomtrain bellows, the young man she sent toward the door runs for the safety of one of the barricades again, and dives over four feet to reach it.
Then the small world of the engineering center explodes. The massive blast door buckles and splits, leaving a gaping hull in the center. To its credit, the whole door has not collapsed, but if what is left could be called a door anymore is not really a point worth arguing.
Jomtrain and the others shake off their disorientation rapidly.
"Fire! Fire!" she shouts. A sporadic hail of deadly Impaler gauss rounds and fletchette shredder rounds fills the air, gradually growing more in volume as more and more of the engineering crew shakes off their disorientation.

Two marines are hit, one in the left arm by a ricochet, and the other is caught in the stomach by a flechette. The squad medic rushes over to treat both. Another marine unhooks a flechette grenade from his belt and hurls it into the engineering compartment as he and another marine open fire with their pulser rifles. A third marine brings his flechette gun up and opens fire.

The fletchette gernade detonates, sending waves of shrapnel against the hastily erected barricades. Men and women scream , confusion is sowed, and Jomtrain buckles and falls behind the barricade she was standing at. Jamie Stuart runs toward her in a half crouch, abandoning his place supervising the ravaging of the freighter's computer systems.
He reaches her side, and sees instantly that it is too late. A gurgle fills her throat as her hands try vainly to stop a river of blood spilling from her mid abdomen.
"Sss-r..da," she says, eyes focusing on him for not even a heartbeat before the glaze over permanently. He quietly closes her eyes, and looks at the chaos around him. Eight more of the desperate defenders lay dead, more wounded, and others crouch with fear behind their barricades, only a few return fire. He looks toward the techs slaving at the computers, one looks up, and flashes a thumbs up.
Jamie nods, and pulls out his comm link, and activates the engineering comm link.
"Surrender!" he shouts and it echoes over the loudspeaker system. "Surrender! We surrender!"

"Cease fire."

The marines spread out into engineering, two of them move the techs away from the computer consoles. The squad medic moves about administering painkillers to the wounded. "Alright, I want everyone to lay down on the floor with their hands on the back of their head. Stay that way until we say otherwise."

Several marines begin inspecting the various machinery in the compartment, looking for signs of sabotage. One sits down at the computers and tries to run a status check on the engines. "Uh...sir, we have a problem here. None of the computers seem to be working."

The squad leader curses, "Alright, who's in charge here?!"

Jamie Stuart stands stiffly to his feet, and takes a moment to straighten his blood stained jumpsuit.
"I am," he says calmly. "Or at least the acting one by the chain of command, and since the death of Lieutenant Commander Jomtrain."

The squad leader stomps over to Stuart and grabs him by the collar of his uniform. "Whatever the hell your people did, I want you to fix it immediately!"

Stuart smiles, "Even my best would find that impossible. We were very, very through in our systems' purge. And also one of the more...creative technicians in my section unleashed some interesting virus strains into the engineering network. You might eventually get control of this ship, whoever the hell you are, but your not going to use Commander Jomtrain's or my own sections to do it."
"And frankly, you can rot in the lowest pit of hell for the next eternity for all I care. I have no doubt that you will face far more opposition than we were able to put up here, considering how poorly equipped we were."

OOC: Everything would be fairly scramble, but you might be able to pull up a few basic things--ie cargo manifest, crew records, and also contracts with the ISSSF. Finally the damage is limited to the engineering networks and systems, and localized to the central control facilities. Take the bridge or the engine room and you should be able to bypass alot of the damage.

The squad leader loses his temper and shoves Stuart to the floor. He pulls his wrist comlink to the pinnace up to his mouth, "Inform the ship we need a few computer techboys over here. These retards wiped the engineering computers, and I need them to see what's salvageable." He closes the comlink and turns to face the rest of his squad. "You five stay here and watch these guys, if anyone tries anything funny, kill them." He points to two other men, "You guys come with me, we're going to go reinforce the squads heading for the bridge."
**
The other twenty marines are in three lines moving down the hallway, with two marines three meters ahead of the group. Those two marines make a turn onto the hallway in which the mercenaries are located.

Shysudi nods to his three snipers with their long-rifle, custom made Impaler rifles. Two brief snarled whispers fill the air for half a heartbeat, and two four inch long gauss dart rounds fly toward the necks of the forward marines.
Shysudi turns to his reaver units, "Make ready to fire."
"Hai, Chu-i."

The two marines go down in a spray of blood. Captain Cheng glared as their bodies slumped to the floor in front of him. "Flechette guns to the front," he ordered, "Ready grenades."

Two marines carrying flechette rifles moved down the hallway to the corner. One stood while the other crouched, and both blankly fired a couple spreads around the corner. They then retreated back to the group, and another marine came up the corner with a grenade, he threw it, and then backed off as well.

Shysudi whirls around as the tell-tale clinking of metal on metal permeates the hall over the sound of gun fire. He turns to see what four other of his men do--a gernade just behind the barricade. One of the men grabs it and hurls it over the barricade, the rest dive to the floor, and the corridor erupts in flame. At the end of the attack, four of the ISSSF mercenaries lay dead. Shysudi looks grimly down the hall, and turns to his reaver units.
"Open fire."
A high-pitched thrumming whine fills the air as the reavers fire, filling the halls with barbed shredder rounds at the rate of seventy-five rounds per minute.

The marine who threw the grenade is caught in the lower left arm by one of the flechettes richocheting. He moves to the back of the group and applies a wound patch to it. Cheng watches the flechette fire chew into the bulkhead. He suddenly had an idea and pointed to two marines, "Go back to engineering and collect all the remaining explosive charges, also, see if you can cut off what's left of the blast doors."

Pelledrine System

The eight planets of the Pelledrine system never saw all that much inter-system traffic. There was only one habitable world, Sumeria, and it's economy was based on farming and light asteroid mining, so there wasn't much of value in the system. There were a couple monthly ore haulers that visited, and several freighters that would pick up loads of food, but that was about it....until now.

"Hyper translation complete sir." Akagi's astrogator announced.

"Good, bring us up to 450 Gs accel, take us in system. Sensors, what's out there?" Akagi's commanding officer, Captain Yoshimo, asked.

"Not much sir, a couple dozen mining craft and mining stations." the sensor officer reported.

"Well, no one ever said raiding was guaranteed to be profitable. I'm going to my cabin, alert me immediately if anything comes up."

Captain Manhorn saty lazily in his command chair aboard FNS Illusion. He was being sent to Pelledrine, on his circuit of the systems of the region. The pirates might be waiting for him at Sumeria, but he doubted it. The planet was backwater farming planet whose only worthwile export was a mediocre (in his opinion) apple deriative.

"Sarah," he said to his XO, "I'm headed to my quarters, you have the bridge."

"Aye sir, I have the bridge." she responded.

A bit too uptight, that one. thought Manhorn to himself, as the the lift doors closed. Of course, she might be persuaded to loosen up a bit, after I've introduced her to my world famous massages. Manhorn grinned at the thoughts in his mind.
They had 5 days in Pelledrine, and MAnhorn always preferred the direct approach.

*****
The Emperor A-class Dreadnought Illusion and her two Escort Frigates blasted back into realspace, in a flare of Warshawki energy, which lit up the system like a beacon.

"Hyper transit! Looks like a big one, I'm guessing a merchie with two escorts. Hehe, they're coming in all happy and dumb. Better get the captain up here."

About 15 minutes later Captain Yoshimo entered the bridge and took his seat. "What have we got?"

"Looks like a midsized bulk freighter with two escorts, probably Valinor destroyers."

Hm, a rather large escort for a single freighter, probably carrying a valuable cargo. Of course, the escorts do have teeth, so this will require some subtlety. Yoshimo thought. "Time to missile range?"

"Ten hours."

"Take non-essential systems offline until we radiate the same power output as a liner. Keep us on our heading."

"What have we got Lieutenant?" asked Commander Sarah Minneret, as tactical finally came back online.

"It's standard stuff commander, the only thing near us, is something that CIC is placing as a freighter. The accel and the gravitic signature matches up. We don't have an Ident yet, but were querying now." said the lieutenand manning the tac station.

"Fine, keep me posted." responded the XO.

The Akagi's transponder identifies it as the liner Utopia, operated by the Kerezin based company Sunfire Star Lines.

"I've got the perfect idea!" Yoshima yelled out, attracting some confused stares from his bridge officers. "Round up all the female personnel on the ship, and bring me the ship's tailor!"


OOC: We can skip forward nine hours if you want.

Several hours later:

"Captain, I have a message from the Utopia." said the officer at the comm station.

"The what?" said Manhorn, looking slightly confused, until the cogs click in to place in his head. "Ah yes, well lets see it."

"You may want to take this on your personal screen,Captain." says the Ensign, with a look some where between horror and amusement, on his face.

"Alright then, put it through."

The screen comes to life, and the image of...

A cute asian girl wearing a white lowcut uniform is on the screen. Behind her in the background is a large group of bikini clad asian women playing volleyball.

"Hey there Captain. I'm Usagi Mitake, Senior Recreational Officer of the Utopia. We travel from system to system, serving as a temporary leisure center for citizens of the planets we visit. Of course, these country boys are always so boring, so you can imagine how excited we were to find three other starships visiting, spacers are always so exciting and adventurous." Behind her one of the girls is tackled to the ground by two companions, who proceed to tickle her. Usagi ignores the commotion behind her, "We'll be staying in system for the next two weeks, and we'll have plenty of free time available, if your crews want to come and play. Of course, our invitation extends to you and your officers first, how about coming over for dinner and a bit of R&R later?"

Captain Manhorn, just sat in his chair staring at the screen for a minute in pure disbelief.

"Ensign, send a reply back." he began. "Your courtesy is much appreciated Utopia. I must consider. There are several factors which need to be taken into account. It may be possible to make arrangements. However, The details should be worked out in person, I would be honored to accept your dinner invitation."

****
An hour later-

"Captain, Need I remind you, that this is highly irregular! An officer of the High Fleet does not usually go to dinner on an unfamiliar ship, especially one as... questionable as the Utopia." fumed Sarah she had been trying to get her Captain to see reason for almost half an hour, but he didn't seem interested in thinking with the head on top of his shoulders.

"Your concern is duly noted Sarah." he replied, as he straightened his uniform before the pinnace." However, we have scanned the ship several times, and she checks out, and under the circumstances I feel that this is a valid action to take."

"Sir, I am only thinking of your reputaiton and that of this ship. And as for our scans they have been underpowered, and I would dare to say that you have been ordering them to be so on..."

"That's quite enough Commander." interjected Manhorn with sudden anger "You may log your objections, but I am the captain of this ship, and I, Lieutenant Dammers, and Lt. Commander Gordona are going to dinner. The ship is yours until I return." With that he stepped into the docking tube and swam to the pinnace.

You may be Captain now, but I swear that won't remain that way for long. thought Sarah as the pinnace left the boat bay. Once the Admiralty finds out about this, your through! I don't care what your political connections are, there's no way they'll let this slide. she proceeded to the bridge.

As the pinnace was guided into the liner's boat bay, Captain Yoshimo (now wearing a white civilian uniform), and Usagi stand in the bay waiting for Captain Manhorn and his party.

In accordance with the misison prameters, the pinnace used by Captain Manhorn, was a standard civilian design, and his uniform was simple civilian garb. The pinnace locked with the docking clamps, and the personnel tube extended.

Manhorn, Dammers, and Gordona, swam the tube, and hit the decking at the end. Manhorn turned to Yoshimo, and Usagi, and waited to be introduced, and welcomed.

******

Back aboard the Illusion. Minneret was giving orders, she didn't trust that ship. She had never heard of the equivalent, of a traveling space brothel, and she didn't think they existed. A call had already been placed to Kerezin Central, to see if they had anything like this, and the response should be arriving in aobut 5 minutes.

As for the Utpoia. We'll see whats really going on with her! she thought with a mix of trepidation and glee. "Lieutenant Marin, I want a full sensor sweep of that vessel, full power, I don't care if we fry every electroninc circuit in that flying can, I want to know what it is."

OOC: I'll type up an IC post tomorrow, but Kerezin Central? If you're referring to the planet from which my privateers are from, it doesn't have a unified government, and it's in the Verniian sphere of influence. And actually, the "Utopia" was a liner originally, although it did have a different name. It was modified for use as a privateer later in it's service life.

OOC: I actually meant whatever organization it is that, co-ordinates space activity for Pellenir. since I couldn't call the planet of origin. I knew that the ship was a converted liner, so My scan will reflect that, although there has to be some kind of modification that i could pick up as at least being something odd, even if I can't tell exactly what it is. A higher energy signature or something.

The marine who threw the grenade is caught in the lower left arm by one of the flechettes richocheting. He moves to the back of the group and applies a wound patch to it. Cheng watches the flechette fire chew into the bulkhead. He suddenly had an idea and pointed to two marines, "Go back to engineering and collect all the remaining explosive charges, also, see if you can cut off what's left of the blast doors."

Shysudi watches as the grenadier falls back. He grimaces. No matter what he does the outcome will be the same. It is in the Laylines, this is a battle that cannot be won, a final test to him.
He activates the link, "Detonate the holds, we cannot allow those sensor probes to fall into these hands."
"Hai, Chu-i."
Shysudi turns back to his men, "Squad A prepare to advance. Dishido!"
"Hai, Chu-i," a young man with a RPGL steps forward.
"Smoke screen, standard scatter fire pattern down that hall."
The young man nods, brings his weapon up and sends three smoke gernades down the hall. They explode, filling the air with a deep, perpetual gray fog.
"Advance, two to two, scatter fire down the corridor too make them keep their heads covered. And lock helmets, we will be in vacuum soon enough."
Shysudi pulls his own helmet on and moves with Squad A toward the Verniian lines. Scattered fire rips through the expanding graydom as the ISSSF mercenaries advance. Meanwhile, two vast plumes erupt from the freighter as the charges in two holds are detonated. Debris and a few bodies fly out into space, and a rush of vacuum starts to swell through the freighter. The block between the bridge and the main crew quarters, where Shysudi has taken his men now finds itself loosing atmosphere as the sabotaged blast doors fail to close.

Pelledrine

Communications with Sumeria's Trade Bureau reveal that the ship has never visited the system before, but then again, they don't get much traffic. Scans reveal that the liner is a Gregor Shipyard's Atlas class Fast Passenger Liner, but mounts a few more missile tubes and slightly heavier shielding then the usual. It also has slightly larger boat bays then normal.

"Captain Manhorn I presume? I am Captain Yoshimo, and this is Lt. Mitake." Yoshimo steps forward and shakes Manhorn's hand, then smiles. "Our cooks will have dinner ready shortly, shall we retire to the officers' private dining chamber?"

Madras

Cheng opens up a comlink to the pinnace as the freighter shudders. "What's hjappened?" he demanded.

"I don't know Sir, apparently they blew a couple of the cargo holds, the freighter is leaking atmosphere at a pretty good rate."

The fire from the Valinor mercenaries hits one marine, punching through his armored space suit in several places. The marine dies before he hits the floor. Five marines returned fire into the smoke cloud, and a flechette grenade went bouncing across the deck into it. Cheng grimaced. "We're pulling out. This ship is no longer worth the trouble." He commed the engineering squad. "Pull back to the pinnace immediately."

The twenty man squad began to retreat back down the corridor, the five marines now in the rear retreated at a slower pace, spraying the corridor with pulser fire to discourage pursuit.

Manhorn smiled inside, Usagi was even better in person. "Gladly Captain lead the way, us freighter captains and crews don't get much in the way of diversion out on our long runs. I do happen to have one question, are you associated with the Resi Corporation? I know that they operate ships such as yours, but i had no idea that they're might be a few independants out here."

"No, we are not associated with the Resi Corp. To be honest, Sunfire Starlines was losing revenue, and so someone on the Board of Directors thought up this idea. It's been profitable so far, but it will probably be a while before the company's financials start to rise again. What brings you to this system Captain?"

Madras

Cheng opens up a comlink to the pinnace as the freighter shudders. "What's hjappened?" he demanded.

"I don't know Sir, apparently they blew a couple of the cargo holds, the freighter is leaking atmosphere at a pretty good rate."

The fire from the Valinor mercenaries hits one marine, punching through his armored space suit in several places. The marine dies before he hits the floor. Five marines returned fire into the smoke cloud, and a flechette grenade went bouncing across the deck into it. Cheng grimaced. "We're pulling out. This ship is no longer worth the trouble." He commed the engineering squad. "Pull back to the pinnace immediately."

The twenty man squad began to retreat back down the corridor, the five marines now in the rear retreated at a slower pace, spraying the corridor with pulser fire to discourage pursuit.

Shysudi listens as the fire begins to recede, another of his men goes down from the fire of the retreating marine's rear guard. He glares out the smokescreen.
"Ready Squad B for pursuit and bring up the reavers," he says into his comm, then turns back to Squad A. "Prepare to pursue, we will force these pirates of the ship. I want at least three alive."
"Hai, Chu-i," says Shysudi's second.
Return fire from the advancing ISSSF mercenaries soon returns the fire of the retreating marines.

The two groups of marines continued to retreat, finally linking back up in the corridor they first boarded. Of the three marines covering the main group's retreat, one was wounded as an Impaler round caught in him the arm. The other two unhooked their flechette grenades from their belts, and hurled them down the corridor. The trio turned and ran to meet up with the squads.

OOC: Ooh, interesting question

IC: Manhorn considers telling the man for a moment, but fortunately he's still smart enough to think about mission goals.

"Were hauling a load of heavy machinery down to the planet. It's mostly farming stuff. Worth a whole hell of a lot though."

For a moment it appears that Yoshimo's eyes glitter, but only for a brief moment. "I was curious as to why a single freighter would be escorted by such heavy firepower, but now my curiousity is satisfied. I do believe dinner is ready," he says, "If you will follow me."

The group enters a dining chamber decorated in traditional Japanese style, although it has elements of Chinese styles mixed in. Dinner consists of Egg Won Ton, sushi, and a stir fry. Usagi winks at Manhorn several times during the meal, and blushes whenever their eyese meet.

"You know Captain you have a beautiful ship, and it is crewed by even more beautiful women." he looks at Usagi as he says the last part. "So, I propose to you a toast." he stands. "To the utopia, May she always live up to her name, and bring a small slice of utopia wherever she visits."

"Why thank you Captain, I do try and run a tight ship. Perhaps you and your officers would like to stay for a bit as guests?"

"Well not for more than a few hours, at most." Manhorn says, with a bit of a sly look in his eyes.

Onboard the Illusion Commander Minneret stared thoughtfully at her repeater plot. there was nothing apparently wrong with that ship! It was a passenger liner, and it appeared that it would stay that way despite her best efforts to pove to the contrary. It did have a larger than usual boat bay, but it was still way beyond anything a pirate would use, and she figured that any Verniians would be using at least a cruiser, not a partiall revamped passenger liner. Still she couldn't shake a feeling... so she waited, and watched to se eof her suspicions would become something more.

The two groups of marines continued to retreat, finally linking back up in the corridor they first boarded. Of the three marines covering the main group's retreat, one was wounded as an Impaler round caught in him the arm. The other two unhooked their flechette grenades from their belts, and hurled them down the corridor. The trio turned and ran to meet up with the squads.

Shysudi's advance rank of four men are consumed by the flechette storm as the gernades explode. One is decapitated, and his blood sprays into the corridor; another one falls with a shard through his gut as he falls to his knees; a hoarse cry fills the comm as another collapses, his leg sheared off slighlty below the knee; but surprisingly the last of the four survives, miraculously unharmed.
The Chu-i surveys the surviving number of the ISSSF mercenaries, and then turns to the schematic of the ship. It shows the pirates have almost reached their boarding point. He comms the bridge.
"Seal off corridor fourteen, deck ten now and vent the atmosphere. And bring our engines back up to full power at once. Set a course for the inner Madras system and send out a distress call at once. Thirty-three alpha!"
"Yes....sir," says the nervous crewman working the comm.

The reunified boarding party made its way slowly through the venting debris and atmosphere to the hull breach. By twos and threes they began floating back across the gap between the freighter and the pinnace. After they had all cycled through the airlock, the pinnace turned about and began to head back to the destroyer.

Captain Mitsuki watched the master holoplot as the freighter began to accelerate madly for the safety of the inner system.
"Captain, the merchie is sqawking a distress signal."
Mitsuki sighed, then stared for a few seconds at the light code representing the fleeing ship.
"Open fire."

The Asashi's single broadside mounted 90cm laser fired upon the freighter, sweeping across it from bow to stern, again and again and again.

The stricken freighter's weaker shields buckle under the concentrated energy fire, it smaller reactors not able to generate the power necessary to keep full integrity from a military vessel. Hull plating warps and buckles, and in more than one case simple runs like so much water. Atmosphere and debris from the freighter's outlying cargo bays spew forth into the vacuum.
The probing fire even rips through to the freighter's central area bearing crew quarters, engneering stations, and the ship's Valinor manufactured matter/antimatter reactor. An errant laser stabs through the reactor's control room, where desperate engineering survivors work fervently to try and switch operations to the less volatile fusion reactors. But their efforts are ultimately made futile by the uncaring goddess that is Lady Fate.
The graser rips the control room apart, and proceeds to burrow through to the reactor itself. And an inevitable, deadly reaction is started deep within the bows of the freighter. A pulse of energy burst from the ship, and the internal compensators, electronics, and most of the crew still on board are quickyl erradicated and rended useless. The pulse moves to overtake the escaping boarding shuttle, as the second pulse erupts followed only seconds later by a fiery death as the Dequesnt perishes in the rageful hands of a hyper-catalistic matter/antimatter reaction.

Madras
The shockwave tosses the pinnace like a life raft in a storm. Electronics are fried, impeller drive is disabled, and it drifts aimlessly.

"Target destroyed Captain. Our pinnace appears to be crippled and adrift."
"Deploy a SAR pinnace to pick them up."

A few minutes later the search and rescue vessel docked with the disabled pinnace, and its passengers and crew began transferring into it. After the SAR pinnace had docked, destroyer turned its broadside laser onto the drifting one, and it vanishes in a flash of light.
"Take us out of the system, we are returning to Acler."

Pelledrine

Usagi winks at Manhorn, "Perhaps we could retire to my cabin for a few drinks?" She looks at Yoshimo, who nods in permission.

"With pleasure my lady. I trust my two companions can similarly...accounted for?" He joins her, without so much as a look at the others.

"Myes, they will be suitably entertained." She stands up and leads Manhorn out of the room and down the hall. Behind her, the "waiter" enters the dining room carrying a covered platter. He places it down before Yoshimo and lifts the cover, revealing a 5mm automatic pulser.

Yoshimo calmly picks up the pulser as the waiter draws his own and levels it at the Falasmayon officers. "Remain sitting where you are gentlemen, I won't kill you if you don't give me a reason to pull the trigger. In the meantime, don't try anything stupid and just relax." Another waiter enters the room, Yoshimo notices him, "Please bring us all another round of drinks."

Inside Usagi's room, Usagi closes the door and kisses Manhorn on the cheek, then begins unbuttoning his uniform. She suddenly stops, then winks mischeviously. "I forgot the drinks, I'll go back and get some. Wait here...." She pushes him down on the bed, blows a kiss, and leaves.

The stunned officers start to yell but then think the better of it, and try to sit quietly, silently cursing their captain for thinking with the head the head bertween his legs rather than the one on his shoulders.

Manhorn falls back willingly, with a look of "don't take too long on his face."

OOC: man this guys an idiot!

OOC: Yeah, but its not my fault he's an idiot.

"As I said gentlemen, just relax and enjoy your drinks. Ah, Usagi, you return to me, haha." Usagi enters the room grinning. "I need a couple drinks, and put a roofie in one," she says to the waiter.

A few minutes later, Usagi returned to the cabin. She paused at the door to unbutton the top of her uniform, then took a deep breath and stepped through the door with a smile.

"And I return! Now where were we?" She hands Manhorn one of the drinks, then takes a sip of her own before sitting down on the bed.

"Hmm, where indeed. " He takes a signifficantly larger pull on his own drink, and moves closer to her.

OOC: how long does the drug take?

OOC: Just a few minutes.

Usagi finishes unbuttoning her uniform jacket, then leans in to kiss him.
Only a few minutes girl, you can keep him distracted until then, hell, you might even get a promotion, she thought to herself.

He kises her. However, Manhorn is starting to feel a bit silly so he downs the rest of his drink in one gulp, with a flourish. He turn to Usagi, but all he see's is a woozy outline, with a smirk, then darkness. He was out before he hit the deck.

*****
Minerret paced a bit more, it was about time for the Captain to be returning, if they didn't get a notice soon, then she would know that something was up. ALthough knowing the Captain it was fully concieveable that he woudl jsut decide to stay for longer than planned.

"Idiot." Usagi mumbles as Manhorn hits the floor. She buttoned up her jacket and went to summon the ship's marines.
***

"Take us to General Quarters, Ms. Mitake."
"Yes Sir." Usagi replied with a smile, and the sound of klaxons filled the ship.

Manhorn awoke, looking about he found himself laying on a table, stripped down to his underwear. His hands were handcuffed to a pipe above his head, and legs were tied apart. A ball gag had been stuffed into his mouth. The most worrisome part was that a table next to him had various dentist tools, surgeons equipment, and even technicians' tools layed out on it. Three women stood nearby, all smiling at him. One was carrying a camera, and zoomed in on his face.

A visual transmission was sent from the viewpoint of the camera to the Illusion. An accompanying audio file carried Yoshimo's voice. "Crew and officers of the Illusion, as you can see, your captain has become an extended visitor to my ship, along with his companions."

The "Utopia's" fire control began targetting the Illusion and its escorts. Hatches were opened and the ship's grasers were trained out as it's missile tubes were loaded. Yoshimo continued, "You are instructed to immediately surrender. Shut down your engines and any active sensors. Your escorts are also instructed to shut down all non-essential systems immediately. Failure to comply will result in the very unfortunate slow and painful mutilation of Captain Manhorn here, followed by his officers after that. You will comply immediately, or my assistants here will begin their work." As if to prove the point, a graser shot was fired across the bow of the Illusion, and one of the women picked up a scalpel, trailing it lighly down Manhorn's chest.

"Shit!" cursed Sarah as the Grazer shot blasted over the bow. "Damn him! Bring up the sidewalls. LAC's Launch now!"

The escorts peeled off to the sides and brought targeting to bear on the liner. Hidden ports slid back on what had apparently been cargo bays streams of LAC's, almost 100 of them poured from the sides of the ship, as the sidewalls came up.

Reply Transmission
Visual-Audio
Sarah Minneret-Commander FNS Illusion

Captain Yoshimo, you will free Captain Manhorn, and the other officers on board your ship. We far out gun you, and if any of those men are harmed in any way, then you and your ship will be summarily atomized You will heave to and prepare to be boarded, any resistance will be met in kind. You have 1 minute to begin complying.

"Oh shit!" Yoshimo loudly swore as the mass of impeller signatures appeared on the bridge holoplot, and the "freighter's" emissions rose sharply. He listened to Minneret's transmission, then slammed a fist down on his chair's armrest. Send reply transmission, audio only.

"Begin transmission: This is Captain Yoshimo. I must refuse your demands, and would like to point out that we do have Captain Manhorn and several of your officers in our custody, and firing upon us would have the unfortunate side effect of killing them." He paused to study a visual display of the Illusion., "Anyway, I'm sure you'd "atomize" us anyway even if we did surrender. You know, I think you're bluffing. You can't be mounting a very heavy broadside armament in that hull of yours with all those LAC hatches, which means any sort of engagement between our ships is going to be nasty. Now, are you sure you want to risk it?

Minneret spend a split second considering the answer and replies.

"Ha! Are you really willing to throw your life and those of your crew away, for the sake of assuring that you take three men down with you. I assure you captain, I do not place the lives of three men above the lives of the several thousand aboard this ship, and as for your assessment of the combat situation, if you are so confident in your abilities, then stop talking and start shooting! However, if you are a reasonable man, then perhaps you should see reason, and surrender. If you do that now none of your people will be harmed. If you insist in being belligerent then I cannot continue to make the same guarantee, especially when the misisles start flying. Your choice Captain."

"Captain Winters," said Minneret addressing the LAC wing commander, "Let's add a bit of meaning to that."

"Yes, ma'am." she replied, and 72 grazer targeting systems lit up the Utopia.

"I somehow doubt that you would honestly let us go, and surrending means we would probably be hung eventually, but fighting guarantees massive casualties on both our ships...which is why I have a proposition.

Allow my ship to exit the system, and I will release Captain Manhorn and his fellow officers unharmed. We can work out the details after you tell me whether or not you are interested."

Minneret considers this for longer. so leaves the channel closed for he orders.

"Lieutenant Fraaken, tell the frigates to get n close and be ready to interpose their wedges between us and the pirate, and reopen the channel."

"Channel open ma'am."

"This is the Illusion. We cannot allow you to leave this system, unless it is in our custody. You are guilty of attempted piracy under interstellar law, in addition some of the people on you ship are guilty of coercion and the use of the the threat of torture on the captain of a sovereign vessel. no matter what you cannot be allow to simply leave here. you have one last chance to be reasonable, and surrender. If you do not do so. If you make any attempt to run or attack you will be disabled and forcibly capture, there is no bargaining, Captain, you choose, now. Death or capture at you own hands, or a chance at life. It is up to you."

The frigates begin moving to place themselves in position to block the line of fire to illusion, but do not roll to interpose their wedges.

"So you're choosing to fight then Commander? To throw away the lives of your countrymen needlessly? I offer you a chance for this to end without bloodshed, and you choose to sacrifice their lives? Just know that you won't only lose the men onboard this ship. Outgunned as my ship might be, it has heavy enough firepower to shred your LACs."

"You will not assuage your pitiful exscuse for a conscience with blatant lies, Captain. You have instigated this situation, and I have offered [/i]you[/i] the chance to end it bloodlessly, and with the chance for fairness. Any lives lost today are on your head, assuming that it's still with you when this is all over. This is your final chance to recieve the mercy of the High Fleet. How many of your people are you willing got get killed today,Captain? How many of them are willing to die, just so that you can say you died in a suicidal and pointless assault? How many Captain, because I can assure you, I and my people have a duty to insure that those like you are not allowed to murder and destroy at will. That lends us a certain, purpose, that a greed-fed mercenary like yourself can never understand. Are you ready to die today Captain? If not, then see reason and stand down. You have about 30 seconds. Illusion out."

Yoshimo sat back in his chair and pondered. Surrending went against every survival instinct a pirate or privateer had, since they faced trial for their crimes, but then again, having at least 72 grasers pointing at your ship guaranteed that if anyone was alive to be captured, they would soon be joining the rest of the crew. His own sense of honor cried out against surrendering, but his responsibility to his crew countered that.

"Fire off an energy salvo, from our opposite broadside." He caught Lieutenant Mitake's confused expression before she turned to input the commands, "For the honor of the flag, lieutenant." he explained.

The ship's six 50 centimeter grasers fired as one, energy streaking outward directly away from the Falas ships.

"Illusion, we surrender. My crew will begin transferring to the ship's pinnaces and shuttles."

He opened a shipwide com, "All hands, destroy any sensitive documents immediately. Wipe the ship's computers and then physically destroy them. Set scuttling charges for five minutes after the pinnaces launch."

The broadside fired by the liner almost induces Minneret to order the assault, but Yoshimo's message stopped her.

"Thank you Captain, for seeing reason, and for realizing the value of your own life and those of your crew. Please insure that Captain Manhorn and the others are onboard the first pinnace to dock. You will not regret this decision, Captain. I personally guarantee it on the honor of the fleet.Illusion out."

Sarah visibly lossened as the com channel shut off. "That went rather well, all things considered. Captain Winters, you may bring back you squadrons after all the pinnaces have docked. Make sure they stay clear of that liner, they'll likely scuttle it.

"Lieutenant Mattingly, get Major Isen on the com, and have him join me at the boatbay with a few squads of marines. Tell him we have visitors."

Minneret got up from the command chair, and went for the lift, "Barrinder, you have the com, until I return."

Obersturmbannfuehrer Bryant Chamberlain, of the Ministry of External State Security, watches as the gate to the Valinor embassy closes behind his air car. He adjusts the volume on the sound system as the first overtures of Carmen begin to make their introduction yet another time to his ears. It will be good to take a few moments to clear his head for the first time in several months, and he has found a perfect little cafe in Cardona's western sectors.
He moves to take the air car into the higher "lanes" of traffic and make his way as quickly as possible to the cafe. True he may need a brief break, but the operations of the ESS in Vernii cannot go long unattended.

**********

A little less than a half hour later, Chamberlain moves away from the service counter of the cafe. A strong smelling, large mug of black coffee sends steam into the air as he moves toward a table inside. He pauses for a moment, his left hand hovering a few inches with his comp-pad above the table. He regards the vacant outside tables with intrigued eyes and moves toward them instead.
He takes a seat at one nestled in a corner with the building and the "fence" of the cafe along two sides and the rest open area. From here he can see the door of the cafe, as well as most the street traffic. He slides into the chair with a sigh of relief. Sets his coffee down, and accesses his comp-pad's latest files from UVNN's Daily 'Faxes in Brief.

Pelledrine

The first pinnace to dock does carry Captain Manhorn and his officers. As the rest dock, the crew begin to file out one by one through the airlocks to be taken into custody. Behind them, back on the liner, Yoshimo activates the timer on the scuttling charges for ten minutes. He heads back to his cabin, pours himself a glass of wine and drinks it. He pulls out a picture of his family and stares at it one last time, then sticks a pulser in his mouth and pulls the trigger.

A few minutes later, explosions consume the ship, leaving a twisted and broken hulk.

Cardona

"Target spotted Citizen Lieutenant."
"Is Team One in position?"
"Affirmative."
"They are authorized to take out the target."

A black van rolls around the corner, it slows to a stop about ten feet from Chamberlain. A side door opens, and two men wearing ski masks and black jumpsuits open fire with submachine guns. Five seconds after the first bullet is fired, the door slams shut and the van speeds off, merging into the mess of traffic in the megacity.

Minneret watched the pirates being taken into custody, and led to their holding cabins where they would bec onfined to quarters for the rest of the voyage home. She had sent Captain Manhorn to the sickbay, even though he obviously hadn't been seriously injured (fortuantely for the pirates), since he was still faint from whatever they had drugged him with. The doc had orders to let him sleep it off rather than force him up early.

Sarah went back to the command deck, satisfied that the prisoners weere being satisfactorily treated. She had had no idea what had happened to Captain Yoshimo until that Usagi girl, had told her that he had not accompanied them. Minneret could understand that sot of. Now however, she had an after action report to write,... and it was not going to be positive about the actions of one Captain Johnathan Manhorn.

Director Jack Ziegler slams a open hand on his large, black and white marble desk as he finishes the report. Rage and damnation fill his dark eyes, and the very air around him seems to smolder.
"Get out," the ancient spymaster growls at the young Unterscharfuehrer who had brought him the report. The man retreats quickly, leaving Ziegler alone with Oberstgruppenfuehrer Danic Kelanis, the overall commander of intelligence operations in the Gregor Sector.
"This cannot be tolerated, Danic," Ziegler says in a low and deadly voice. His hand clenching into a fist on top of the desk. "We must send a message to these Verniians, especially there overconfident Internal Security agency. They will learn that they will not strike my men with impunity, and I will make this message as direct to IntSec's core as possible."
"Of course, Director," Kelanis says, experience has taught him to let Ziegler have his way at moments like these.
"You will select another Obersturmbannfuehrer to take Chamberlain's place. But I will be dispatching Loki to handle the matter of delivering our response to IntSec with a set of orders directly from myself."
Kelanis seems to stiffen at the mention of the name, "Yes, Director. I will alert Chamberlain's replacement of Loki's status at once. Rest assured we will assist...the mission in any way possible."
Ziegler makes a dismissive wave, and Kelanis makes his own rapid retreat from the dark, spartan office of the Director of the Ministry of External State Security.

**********

Nine days later a shuttle touches down at the Valinor embassy in Cardona. The first man to descend the ramp is dressed in the severe, midnight black uniform of an ESS Obersturmbannfuehrer, he salutes Lord Jared Janecek, His Majesty's Ambassador to the People's Republic of Vernii, and they exchange a few words.
But then another figure descends the ramp. His uniform cannot be seen, as he is wearing a long, ESS issue great coat. But unlike most of the standard issue formal garb, the coat has no insignia. In fact the only thing breaking the black monotony is an armband with a strange eye and gold sigil emblem. A peaked cap popular by the Valinor armed services and intelligence agencies alike, along with a turned up collar shields most of his face. He approaches the two other men, and a silence rapidly fills the air.
The newest arrival removes his hat, revealing a head encased in a black helmet. It appears seamless, and unchanging except for two areas of glistening silver. One forms a "mouth" like area that takes up most of the chin, while the other encircles the area over the right eye. He nods to the ambassador and the other ESS man, then replaces the cap and moves toward the embassy's main building.

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Armband emblem

Secretar Palmer Stevens, Director of Internal Security, had a loving family of a wife, a son and a daughter, and a dog. He went to church every Sunday, and never drank any alchohol but wine, one glass at dinner. He enjoyed the opera and considered himself a cultured person.

He could also sign a dozen execution orders a day and sleep peacefully at night, although he never took any personal enjoyment in it. He believed that Vernii's society was a disorganized mess, and that InSec was the broom and dustpan to tidy that society, and if individuals like the CLU got in the way, well, they got what they deserved.

Today though, he did take a personal pleasure as he read the latest report delivered to him. One of his elimination squads had bagged themselves a Valinor Obersturmbannfuehrer, equivalent to a Lt. Colonel. Perhaps this might make the damned ESS start to rethink their activities on Vernii, when their personnel start being shipped home in coffins. But anyway, I'm going to be late for the opera, he thought. He punched the intercom to his secretary, "Rosie, have my car prepared. I'm leaving."
****
Stevens walked through the lobby of the Tower, nodding as the two guards at the main entrance stiffened and saluted. He walked down the stairs to his car, a black Nissan Altima imported from Earth. His driver opened the rear door, and he got in. The driver then got in, and as he merged into traffic, two InSec vehicles took up escort positions in front and behind it.

Twenty minutes later, he took his seat in a corner balcony on the second floor of the Cardona Opera House.

Across the opera house, at an opposite second floor balcony, Stevens notices something. A pair of Sardaukar sweep out onto the balcony first, and they methodically scrutinize it, and then one turns back behind the balcony's curtains. A few minutes later he returns, followed by Lord Jared Janecek, His Majesty's Ambassador to Vernii, and his wife Lady Sonja Janecek. The two quietly accept the seats pulled back from the rail by the pair of Sardaukar.
But then two more figures emerge. One is Obersturmbannfuehrer Michael Nontcalm, he takes a seat offered him by Lord Janecek. But the other, wears a ESS great coat with no insignia, save for an armband with a symbol that cannot quite be made out. He takes up a place close to the edge of the curtains and his head seems to move across the opera house. But his face remains hidden by his peaked cap and high collar.
As he continues to probe into the crowd and balconies, Janecek leans over toward Nontcalm.
"Appearances are everything, Obersturmbannfuehrer, and here we can show Secretary Stevens that neither the ESS nor the Valinor at large are so easily disturbed or cowed."
"Yes, My Lord," says Nontcalm, and he allows his eyes to wander toward the stage, but then takes one glance back at the Nightwatchman behind him. Loki's gaze is fixed across the opera house, his head no longer moving. Nontcalm moves to follow the "gaze" and finds himself staring into the balcony where Stevens resides. A few minutes later he breaks his gaze, but Loki studies the IntSec director with even more avid interest.

I wonder what the hell they think they are looking at. Stevens returns the Valinor group's gaze defiantly. What a bunch of neobarbs, pretending to be civilized, oh! That's their ambassador over there, I suppose I can give him a bit more credit than their average citizen.

Stevens chuckled to himself slightly, then relaxed a bit in his seat as the lights dimmed and the orchestra began tuning itself. The spotlight came on and the stage curtain ascended, revealing the set of a European town from the 16th or 17th century.

As the final notes fade into the distances of the opera house, Lord Janecek moves to stand. He offers his arm to his wife.
"Come, my dear, it is time we returned to the embassy."
Sonja places the gilded opera glasses into their case and hands it to one of the Sardaukar who makes it disappear into one of the many utility pouches on his belt.
"I suppose it is rather late. Mr. Nontcalm, it was a pleasure that you could join us this evening," she says offering him her hand.
Nontcalm bows and accepts the hand and brushes his lips against it, "The pleasure was entirely mine, My Lady. I look forward to joining you and Lord Janecek again."
"Perhaps you will," Katherine says, her eyes leave Nontcalm and sweep to the other ESS man bearing the Nightwatch's insignia. He merely touches the brim of his peaked cap in return.
"Yes, perhaps...." her voice drifts off. "Ah, well let us be off, Jared."
She slides her arm through her husbands and the small party moves to the stairs and begins to descend. They are followed closely by the ESS men and the two Sardaukar. At the bottom of the stairs they are joined by an additional pair of Sardaukar.
Janecek is carefully guiding his wife as they descend the stairs, making sure that the path they take back to the awaiting air car will cross the path Secretary Stevens will take to return to his own air car.

Stevens walked down the staircase, trailed by his bodyguards. One of his bodyguards stiffened behind him, and he turned to see what the guard had noticed. Ah, well if it isn't Lord Janacek. I'm surprised his security let him out of the embassy.

Lord Janecek turns and sees Stevens descending the stair, he comes to a stop. The hand holding his walking cane shifts, and the cane ends up hooked on his wrist. Lady Janecek remains at her husband's side, and the Sardaukar stiffen and begin to scrutinize their Verniian doppelgangers. The ESS man in the Obersturmbannfuehrer uniform looks on with mild disinterest at Stevens and his bodyguards, but the second figure in the ESS great coat cocks his head. His face still remains in the leeway of his cap and turned up collar, but the direction gives little wonder as to who he is looking at.
"Ah, Secretary Stevens," Lord Janecek says, "I trust you enjoyed the performance?"
The Valinor ambassador smiles benignly at the IntSec Secretary.

"Ah, greetings Lord Janacek. I did indeed enjoy the performance. I trust you did as well?" Steven's bodyguards look rather unhappy with the situation, it goes against their training to allow armed people within reach of the Secretary, especially foreign soldiers. Stevens, oblivious (or perhaps purposely ignoring) to their expressions, returns the smile.

"It was acceptable," Janecek says. "I was always a bit more partial to Der Erzengel," he says. "The Archangel" is a noted Valinor opera of intrigue and murder in the halls of the First Empire, and is noted more for its overtly complex plotline, rather than its crowd appeal.
"But to each his own," Janecek says with ease. "In the meantime, Secretary, it is late and I feel the need to retire. Give my regards to your own for me."
A vague, strange smile seems to be on the verge of playing across the Valinor ambassador's face, but it is hidden as the cane is taken back into his hand and he turns to move to exit. The Sardaukar follow suit, but the taller of the ESS men with the odd armband lingers for a few heartbeats longer, then he quickly bows with his head, touches the brim of his hat, and moves to follow the rest of the Valinor party toward their awaiting air car.

"Goodnight." Stevens watched the Valinor party leave, then a few seconds later followed them out the main doors into the cool night air of Cardona. He walked down the stairs, climbing into his black car after the chaffeur opened the door, and was joined by two bodyguards. The rest of the bodyguards got into a second car, and followed behind the first as the convoy wove through the streets of the city toward Steven's mansion in one of the suburbs.
**
His car pulled up into the driveway of the white Italian style mansion. Stevens got out, followed by the two bodyguards as the driver parked the car in mansion's garage. One of the guards opened the door into the mansion, and Stevens nodded politely as he stepped through.

A few minutes later, he joined his wife in bed and fell asleep.

Loki crouches in a strange folded leg position in the branches of one of the trees lining the exclusive neighborhood. He moves his eyes and the zoom function in the opticals of his mask retreat back into normal. He knows roughly where the perimeter patrols are and their time pattern circuits. Now it is time for the final preparations.
He checks the systems of the advanced "danger" suit issued to him by the ESS. The suit is a strange one, an odd algamation of Scorpion Clan and Valinor technology. He adjusts several pieces of equipment on the chest "plate" of the suit, its strange engravings and patterns showing a degree of personality on the otherwise standard appearing suit. With that he tugs the strang ovid cylinder pack of his back.
He depresses a small inset key on the side of the pack and two thin, matte black paitned wings snap into place with a distinctive "shing" sound. He then returns the pack to his back and careful connects the jack from it into the input port in his helmet.
One final check is made of the two long sheaths at opposite sides of his belt, along with several other pounches, and the black holo recording projector attached to one side.
With that he makes a final series of quick motion and the packs micro-thruster and Strager "hover" systems activate. He moves toward Stevens' house just over 100 meters from the ground with gentle swaying motions and turned to one side to give the lowest possible profile to any visual sensors guarding the house. Then he brings the energy and thermal stealthing systems "borrowed" from the Ortagans on as he moves to make his final approach from the left-side rear of the house.

Cardona Air Traffic Control

"That's funny."
"What is?"
"There was a small blip over the Lake District. It disappeared before I could query it's traffic computer."
"Hmm, well...have the police divert a police aircar over the district, just to check. It's probably just an unauthorized aircar."

Steven's Mansion
None of the sentries patrolling the outer wall notice Loki float by overhead, since it's dark and he's high up, not to mention really quiet.

Loki touches down roughly seventeen feet from the house's right wing. By the blueprint given to him at the embassy, the family living quarters should be on the second floor. He moves and activates the timer function on his danger suit's chronometer. He has roughly seven minutes before the next sentry patrol, and he whittles that down in his head to a pesstimistic five.
Running toward the wall in a fleet-footed darting motion, he detaches a series of climbing incisors and begins to slide them onto his fingertips and palms. Once he reaches the wall he clicks the heels of his boots together in a regulated pattern three times and a like, but larger, version of the incisors slide out of the boots.
As he scales the wall, moving in slow, measured movements he curses the light that streams down from the half-crescent shape of Vernii's soul moon. He presses himself as flat as possible against the house's blockwork and moves with renewed vigor as the chrono counts upward of three minutes. He looks toward his goal of the houses triangled roof over one of its portiers, and into the shaded pools of night that offer him sanctuary from the sentries.

One of the sentries making his rounds paused in his tracks as he thought he heard something. He looked around slowly, scanning the dark grounds with his nightvision goggles. He shrugged, adjusted the pulser rifle slung over his shoulder, and continued on his patrol.
***
Cardona Police Aircar Number 132 drifted lazily above the bright skyscrapers of the city. The aircar's com beeped as it received it's new orders and displayed them on its screen. "Hey Ted, just got a call to check up on a probable unauthorized vehicle over Lake District."

"Probable?"

"Heh, yeah, sometimes I think those stupid 'trollers wouldn't know a goose from a car even with a Mark I eyeball."

CPA-132 turned toward the outlying Lake District, and brought it's speed up to 192 KPH.

The Nightwatch assassin follows the patrolman as he continues along his routine worn route. Then he turns back to his work. Giving a scrutinizing glance to his climbing claws, and judging them to still be in shape necessary to perform his duties, he begins to move yet again. The chrono continues its glowing watch, ticking off the seconds until the guard returns again. Loki pauses near one of the mansion's massive windows, and with the odd "scree" of metal leaving stone, one hand leaves its securement and the assassin stays crouched against the wall cat-like, supported by one arm and two legs.
The fingers of his free hand splay outward, forming a broad circle, and a second set of blades extends outward near the bottom of his hand. The metal tinkles like falling water against the window's glass and a rasping sound slides through the air as his hand begins to rotate with unnatural straightness of movement. The hand comples its near circle, leaving a section of glass near the window's latch a detached circle. In a flicking movement, the disc of glass flies off into the night, its strange reflection playing for a moment with the moon light. Loki meanwhile, reaches for the inside latch to begin his entrance into his target's home.

The room opened up into a large study. A mahogany desk sat up against the window, positioned so someone sitting at it could look out. Other pieces of furniture cluttered the room, and a huge book case lined one wall. The room was dark and unoccupied, with a single door leading out.

Loki kneels against the study/office's door and listens with care to the other sounds coming through it. After a few moments he feels assured that there is not a guard posted, and moves to open the door slowly.
As he turns the handle, he access the mansion's blueprints and plays them across his vision. After a moment's consultation he is ready to move. First will come the bedrooms of Steven's children, to show the Secretary that none of his family will be exempt from Director Ziegler's touch. Then he will deliver Ziegler's "message" to Steven personally. The door handle stops, its catch now full retracted. Loki prepares to send it back and slide into the hall in a crouch below the line of sight.

A guard was posted outside the door of each bedroom, two guards in the case of Steven's bedroom. His children slept soundly in their beds, watched over by passive security systems. A small camera was mounted in the corner of the hallway near the ceiling. It's data feed was transmitted to a main security station under the mansion.
---
CPA-132 cruised over the suburb. It's sensors picked up the images of sentries patrolling various estates, and nothing else. Satisfied, it made a slow turn and flew out of the district.