NationStates Jolt Archive

The night air was cool, and the black void above was free oddly free of clouds and showed innumerable stars.

Maximillian Vitriol looked out from the roof at the low office building a few hundred meters away, where the lights still burned, as they did every night. He thought of the people in that building, and smiled menacingly.

He turned to his companion, and nodded. The man nodded back and opened the long case he carried with him on this night. He began putting something to gether form parts in the case.

As the man constructed whatever he carried with him, Maximillian turned again towards the building, and thought about how long he had waited for this day. 10 years of waiting. 10 years of being a govenment taboo, were about to end. He would bring down the system that held his people in oppression. The false democracy of the High Dominion would soon be torn asunder under his boot, and he would install a real government in its place. This was the first stroke of the sword.

His companion finished, and as he turned for confirmation from maximillian, a long tube, with a shoulder mount could be seen in his hands. Maximillian nodded... and the sword fell.

******
The hurried cabinet metitng took place in the dead of night. the Chancellor and his closest advisors talked hurriedly about a tradegy which they had barely learned of. Several men were missing. Suddenly, an aide rushed in and said that the first pictures were coming acros the wire. They turned on the vid-screen.

The picture showed a newscaster behind his desk.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Fox Murray, for INS news. This night, a tragedy for all the High Dominion has occured. At 12:23 am local time, The govenment office building of the Ammar province in th high Dominion of Falasmayon was blown up. It was not an accident. The building and all its occupants were murdered by an Impeller drive missile fired that night by people who can only be terrorists.

The local government officials,and the Adminstrator of the Interior, the Environment, and Foreign Relations, were also killed as they were in meetings with the local governor.

We have unique footage of the incident for you. there was a remote camera pointed at the building at the moment of its explosion, and it shows the building up to the moment of its explosion.

The screen switches to a ground level camera angle, showing a clear starry night and a low building with the lights still burning. Suddenly, a misile flies into the viewscreen, the gravity distortion of its impeller drive, blurring stars as it passes in front of them. The missile flies into one of the lit windows and the building erupts in a fireball, the camera dies.

The view switches again to other shots of the ruins of the building, of people being led away by medical workers, of firefighter attempting to put out the blaze. The entire left half of the building is gone, and the rest is a burning wreck.

"Shut it off Jerry."orders Chancellor Beauchamp. When the picture dies away, he turns to his cabinet members minus three. "how long until this gets out to the other systems?"

"INS courier boats are leaving this hour." responded Media Adjutant Stevens.

"Was this the Ortagans?" demanded Beauchamp.

"We don't know sir," began his military affairs administrator. "But our instincts say otherwise. I believe it was the terrorist organization, the Falasmayon Democratic Movement. They have been behind several small level attack recently, and this might be the culminaton of their efforts."

"Alright, inform our Ambassadors and tell our foreign contacts. we don't want them to think that we're hiding this. But don't say a word to the Ortagans, they'll use this to their advantage. As for the FDM, I want them removed. I've tolerated them long enough, they know perfectly weel the laws, and they've decided to break them. god only knows what this country would be like if they were running it! i want a plan drawn up."

"Alright, now to other matters. As you know Dorian, Slundas, and Xers, were killed in the attack. So I'm appointing their Assistant Administrator to their positions until we can get an actual appointment going. I'll want full reports from each of your offices, on the repercussion of this attack on your particular departments, and recommendations for action." he smiled wearily, "Feel free to help yourselves to the coffee, were all going to need it tonight."

OOC: Ah, another user of Honor Harrington universe technology. Its good to see more of us popping up around 'ere.

OOC: Tag for IC purposes. Will make a post later, most likely Dame Katherine Mourncreek will wish to meet with Chancellor Beauchamp soon to find out first hand what is going on. And also reveal some information Ortaga has said I could when this thing started.

Whisper Palace, Silesia

New Ortaga was dying, before his very eyes, even here in Silesia. Wind tears through the thin shirt and leisure pants Poul Corrin, Second of the Name, is wearing as he stands on one of the balconies of the Whisper Palace. Roum has long since slid behind the horizon, leaving the city of Silesia to darken and then brightened as the city once known as the Jewel of Proxima came to life.

But the heyday of the Grand Duchy, of New Ortaga itself, was centuries past. Stolen during the chaos of the Colonial Wars that raped the former strongest of all the Proximan nations of most of its empire and further corrupted and eroded by the mismanagement of an entire generation of fossilized minds and defeatists like his uncle.

“And may God condemn you to hell,” Poul says at the thought of Raphael Corrin. He stares with defiance into the black night sky.

But even the Archduke can elude the fact that rot still eats at New Ortaga. Unrest seeps from the Colonies into Roum itself, and the economy is ever more shaky and erratic as the expense of three wars ended in defeat gouges at New Ortaga. And all that Poul though he and Gihren Zabi and Channing Ansel could do to stave the tide has been less than a pinprick.

Zabi’s beloved Special Intelligence Service has been a bane since it was created, and Ansel is no longer an ally but a foe that must be watched. The surge in the populace to abolish or begin to eat away further at the power of the Corrins and the aristocracy comes from the very core of the populace that supports Ansel’s coalition government and the vast COMPNOR network that has risen up around the Prime Minister fills Poul with dread.

We are posed on the edge of a knife, Poul remembers Zabi’s words earlier, and if we stray here it is quite likely the mob will finishes us both, Your Grace. We need a distraction, something to buy ourselves time until we can eat away at Ansel’s personality cult. And I believe I have it….

“Let us hope you have it, Gihren,” Poul whispers to himself. “Let us hope you do indeed.”

For now there is an opportunity, and it seems that Gihren Zabi’s shadow war in the Archangel system has at long last paid off. After hundreds of millions of solaris spent and innumerous resources funneled through various corporations and foundations the “insurgents” have at long last made their move.

He looks at the display before him, the place for his signature glowing on the screen. He signs in a quick scribble, and turns to go back inside out of the wind. And thus Operation Odessa, the greatest act of defiance of parliamentary precedence in New Ortaga, is set in motion.

A Baoa Qu, Axis System, Three Days Later

The Axis system, the ultimate symbol of Ortagan military power and prowess, is a star system that exists for a single purpose—to feed the Ortagan war machine’s many needs. Four rocky, dense, Mercury-like worlds are mined eternally near the G6’s primary’s fiery inner regions. The fifth world, the only one blessed with being “habitable,” although its erratic orbit and distance means its polar icecaps are vast and it is one of the hardest training grounds known in the Raumreich Oversector, serves as the “capital” of the system and the largest terrestrial command center of the Ortagan military outside of Roum itself. But the crowning achievement of the Axis system are the vast shipyards of the outer system.

Two massive asteroid bases, A Baoa Qu and Solomon, safeguard a network of fused together planetoids and dock slips. And currently all three of the Ortagan assault fleets and one of the garrison fleets are marshaled at the yards.

Grand Admiral Aiguille Delaz stands in the central command center of A Baoa Qu, looking into the hologram tank at the readying ships. 834 ships are being readied, the largest force assembled since New Ortaga launched its original wave of conquest nearly 300 years ago. It is an incomparable force to many other fleets, but at the heart of the shipyards is the single ship without which Operation Odessa becomes far harder to perform.

Delaz calls up the view of that ship, and reads the letters that are being painted on—OSNS Journeyman. He turns around and the young officer standing behind him snaps to attention.

“Contact Vice Admiral Gato, tell him I will be returning to the Gwaden.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

http://www.dyarstraights.com/msgundam/SOLOMON.JPG
Solomon

http://www.dyarstraights.com/msgundam/ABAOAQU.JPG
A Baoa Qu

http://www.tp2b.de/earth_alliance/earth_explorer_tech.jpg
OSNS Journeyman

To: Chancellor Beauchamp
From: Dame Katherine Mourncreek
Type: Priority Flash Diplomatic Communication
Encryption: Scarlet-37 Full Emergency MFA Protocol

Chancellor Beauchamp,

Greetings in haste. I have recently seen the news of the attack in the Ammar province and I have relevant information that must be discussed with you in person as soon as possible.
I also hope that your Cabinet, especially the administrators of military affairs, intelligence, and the acting administrator of the interior can attend. The situation you know face is more dire than I think you are aware of, and at the expressed request of His Majesty I am to share with you all the information we have managed to garner in the last few months.
But the details must wait to later, and I feel this type of exchange must be done away from even the slightest possibility of prying eyes and ears.

Yours with regards,
Katherine Mourncreek
His Majesty's Ambassador to the High Dominion of Falasmayon

To: Baroness Mourncreek
From: High Chancellor Beauchamp
Transmission Priority: Alpha 1
Encryption Code: D-M-000p

Baroness Mourncreek,

We will meet with you tonight, at the Valinor Embassy.

Eternal Thanks,
High Cancellor Beauchamp

End Transmission

*****
That night an unmarked groundcar moved to the Imperial Embassy of the Valinon. Three men got out and went inside to find the Baroness.

Inside the marble and onyx splendor of the main entry hall of the Valinor embassy, with is towering turrets and golden light fixtures, a woman stands near the door.
She is dressed in a dress of gray, woven with lighter shades of blue into an ornate pattern of lines and geometric shapes. Her hair is done in an ornate and formal style of that of the Court of Emperor Gustav I, and only the few pieces of jewelry she carries give any indication to her rank. This is Dame Katherine Mourncreek, perhaps one of the best diplomats the Valinor have ever produced, and undisputedly one of its best politicans as one of the rare independent peers of the partisan Congress of Lords.
She is waiting with two others, one a woman wearing the full charcoal and black uniform of the Sardaukar. Her rank insiginia marks her as a full Oberst (colonel), but there is a distinction to her besides her gender in the still male dominated Sardaukar. An odd unit insignia rides on her right arm, a stylized Alderman lion wearing a helmet very close to that of the old Roman Centurions. Finally her face is obviously of Hispanic descent, marking her as one of the Harding Beach Island refugees that fled to Valinon years ago.
The last member of the Valinor party is a man in the black on black uniform of the Ministry of External State Security. The insignia on his collar marks him as a Oberfuehrer (high colonel). He is of non-descript build, but his face is shallow, drawn, and bears a grayish tint. Recessed eyes watch with a flinty wariness as the others approach. In a sense he looks like a corpse barely warmed over from its grave.
Dame Mourncreek moves toward the men as the Sardaukar at the doors secure them.
"Gentlemen, it is a pleasure to see you all. Allow me a moment to introduce my fellows. This is Oberst Corazon Santiago, of His Majesty's Sardaukar, and this is Oberfuehrer Zoliotov, of the Ministry of External State Security. Now, before we continue, I would request that we move to a more secure conference room."
She waves toward the antiquated looking elevator style entrance off to one side of the sweeping descending stair case of the hall. Although, with the Valinor it is often best to take with a grain of salt the old adage that appearance are misleading.

http://www.scifi.com/dune/images/cst_wens.jpg
Dame Katherine Mourncreek

http://www.firaxis.com/smac/images/santiagor.jpg
Oberst Corazon Santiago

"Thank you Dame Mourncreek, and yes that might be advisable." responds Beauchamp. He motins to the two men accompanying him.
"Dame Mourcreek, Oberst Santiago, Oberfuhrer Zoliotov.This is my Security Director Delmar Vorru." He indicates a tall man with a black goatee and eyes, which are barely noticeable as cybernetic. "Administrator Sal Dlarit, was detained in meeting, so High Fleet Marshal Solar Marcharius is here for the military aspect of things." Beauchamp indicates a man in the black and gold uniform of the High Fleet with the Eagle of a Fleet Marshal on his shoulders.

As they cross to the doors and descend the staircase. Beauchamp begins, "I have a feeling Baroness, that the Star Empire is poised to once again increase the deblt owed to it by my nation, and I once again thank you, although it seems from the look in your eyes that I should perhaps hold my thanks until I have heard your informaiton, and then see if I still wish to give it."

"That might be a wise recourse, High Chancellor," Mourncreek says, as a waiting Sardaukar opens the heavy door after they have descended for several levels. She leads the small party in to the conference room. A plain black table is surrounded by twelve chairs, and the center is dominated by a Valinor Nu-Space holographic projector.
"Please, High Chancellor, Administrator, High Fleet Marshal, be seated," she gestures to the empty chairs and then takes her own next to Beauchamp. Santiago and Zoliotov take places on the opposite side from the Falas representatives.
"Some refreshments are being prepared, but for now I thought it best if we went directly to business. And at least here we can be assured that it is relatively safe even with some of the problems we have been having as of late. To put it simply, High Chancellor, the events that are occuring now in Falasmayon and in the recent months are not isolated. They are part of a far larger scheme, and one that is not strictly internal. His Majesty has been having the situation watched closely for months, but even with that priority the ESS was not able to see clearly where the chain of events was leading until now. Oberfuhrer, if you please?"
"Of course, My Lady," says the ESS man, his voice rasping like ancient paper. "High Chancellor, Administrator Dlarit, by know you have no doubt confirmed that the attack in Ammar province was perpetuated by the FDM group. But I wish to elaborate on that a little."
He pulls out his comp-pad, "For sometime know the ESS has been tracing where the FDM has been getting its sudden rush of resources, especially when some of it came through on Valinor frieghters. In the end we have tracked these resources back to two organizations one is the Barton Foundation and the other is the Zeonic Corporation. Out of hand I would doubt either of those names would be familiar, I know they weren't to myself until recently."
"The Barton Foundation is led by Andreis Barton, better known as Baron Alphard of the Grand Duchy of New Ortaga. He is closely tied to Gihren Zabi and the current faction controlling the Ortagan House of Lords. Basically the considerable financial resources of the Barton Foundation have been used since Zabi came to power to feed various pet projects and operations of the First Speaker. As for the Zeonic Corporation, it is a hollow illusion that really is nothing more than the new Ortagan Special Intelligence Service given form. It's used to channel weaponry, equipment, and transportation to various factions that Zabi has deemed useful in his plans."
Zoliotov looks up, and then brings up a remote and activates the holoprojector, a map appears and zooms into the area showing Axis, Yalta, Immolan, and Archangel.
"That's one part of the information we have, High Chancellor. The other is this. Recently the Ortagan Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eight fleets were all recalled to Axis. The Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh fleets are the only surviving mobile assault fleets of the Solar Navy, and until now were stationed at Roum, Gadsen, and Saint Ives respectively. The Eighth fleet is a garrison force that for the past eighty years has been operating in the New Edo System. A convoy of ours passing through Axis on its way to Yalta brought us these images."
The projection changes to that of a massive shipyard facility, most of its docking slips lay filled with a vast horde of Ortagan ships. However, off from the yards four groups of ships can be seen performing operations and what look to be miniature war games.
"Pay particular interest to the orbital view of the fifth planet as our ships moved toward the junction with the Yaltan system."
The view changes, even at the maximum magnification it is clear the picture was from maximum range. The sequence begins to move. A storm of smaller objects suddenly fly away from four ships in orbit, Zoliotov freezes the image, and repeats it.
"Those are most likely Ortagan orbital drop transports, and as you can see that is a live fire drill for an invasion force."
Zoliotov cuts the projector off, "I don't think the conclusions are hard to draw, and that brings you to our final piece of information. Recently our operations officer have noticed a seventy-five percent increase in the activites of the Ortagan Intelligence Directorate and Special Intelligence Service in Archangel over the last one and a half months. They are even breaking into operational security on some of our own ambassadorial missions in the other cities of Falasmayon and are blatantly harassing any other intelligence types. Gentlemen, it has become quite obvious that the Ortagan's don't want even us to see what is going on in Archangel, and that they are trying to find out what exactly we do know."
Zoliotov stops, looking from Beauchamp, to Dlarit, and then to Mourncreek.

Vorru leaned back slightly in her. "We had known of the increase on Ortagan Intelligence activity, but our analysts decided it was part of the ongoing buildup before the inevitable invasion. Now it seems that the inevitable is upon us. As for the FDM, we had allowed them to have considerable leeway in the past. The involvement of Ortaga at least answers a few question. We had allowed the FDM the leeway because they are basically a bunch of academics, we figured that they would require a significnat impetus to actually do anything, and we were unaware that anyone outside of Falasmayon even knew of their existence before the terrorism started. They were something of a state pariah, and..." suddenly she stiffens and her pupils dialate until her eyes are black orbs.

At the same time a runner barges in and races to the High Chancellor with a datapad. He mumbles an apology and something about this being incredibly important then thrusts the pad into Beauchamp's hands.

The High Chancellor's face pales and his eyes widen as he reads the pad. He curses visibly under his breath, then takes a deep breath and begins writing on the datapad. After a few moments he thrusts the pad back at the runner and the the aide leaves.

Vorru's eyes return to almos their normal size, and she looks at Beauchamp.

"Before you say it, no." he says. "This embassy is probably one of the safest place on the planet right now, and we need to hear the rest of this."
He turns to the others. "I'm sorry about that Baroness, but it seems the FDM have once again decided to make a move. An hour ago, Military Administrator DLarit was murdered, by an assailant as he went to his favorite corner cafe for some coffee and a short break from his frantic work. The murderer was killed in the attack, but so was Sal. It was the work of the FDM, likely as part of the Ortagan plan to cripple our military power. His Assistant Administrator willbe taking over his duties within the hour." he turns to Marcharius. "Solar, I'm placing you in final command of all space naval forces. You don't need approval from the new Administrator to do something, he'll be too inexperienced, and I'll make sure that he knows he is to defer to your judgement."

"Vorru, make sure that none of the cabinet or their asistants go anywhere anymore without an escort, period. I will not have this happening again." he turns to the Valinor. "Thank you all, this can mean only one thing, Ortaga is going to move soon, and that knowledge will be eternally useful. If you can tell us anything else, it would be greatly appreciated."

"There is a few more things," Zoliotov says eying Vorru and then Santiago.
"For starters Ortagan intelligence doctrine calls for a central figure acting as the coordinator and overall operations commander when they take an interest in exploiting a national grassroots movement for their own purposes."
A chilling little smile plays across the ESS man's lips, "Allow me to offer you that man."
He ejects a data disk from his comp-pad and hands it to Vorru, then reactivates the holoprojector. A man appears, obviously caught while not being aware he was being recorded.
"This is man is an Ortagan intelligence operative noted for his attempts to sow discontent in the New Edo home system and in a failed Ortagan attempt to create unrest in Taka. His real name is Wormstrom, although he has many other alias. Right now he acts primarily under the cover of an Ortagan nationalist, a scholar actually, here at the expense of the Barton Foundation. That disk contains all relevant information we have on Mr. Wormstrom, including three other alias he uses one of which is that of a Falas national, his primary centers of operation, a network of supply caches and bank accounts set up via the Barton Foundation and the Zeonic Corporation, and finally his favored locations and places of resident."
Zoliotov's smile is even colder when he finishes, "I think you can put that information to considerable good use."
Santiago nods as Zoliotov finishes, "The other piece of information is this, Sir."
Her accent is clipped with a slight lilting tone, but obviously brusque with military throughness.
"Eight months ago when a unit of His Majesty's Centurion Mobile Corps was out on a routine long-range survival and training mission, we encountered an Ortagan unit on a world we believed to be unused. Apparently the Ortagan's where under the same assumption as well. From what my field commander was able to gather, the force was a Ortagan assault troop wing, or at least part of one, operating under the supervision of Rear Admiral Ginias Saharin. Initially we took no real interest to them, until their unit callsign was discovered. They are called Epsilon Wing."
She looks, obviously for a reaction that does not come, "The only problem is there is no Epsilon Wing on the Ortagan order of battle, not even when their army was far larger than it is now. And the Sardaukar Operational Intelligence Office had never heard of the Ortagans marshalling sufficient troops to form a whole new assault wing. That led us to even greater scrutiny of this force out on manuvers. The result was this," she brings up a holoprojection.
It shows a neatly organized camp, with troops marshalling, the view skips into static then returns from a different vantage point, closer to the marshalled troops. A man wearing a great coat bearing the symbol of the Ortagan Solar Navy walks in front of their ranks with several other commanders. The view zooms in on the soldiers and officers assembled. And it takes sometime before the reaction sets in.
The faces of the soldiers and their unit commanders are all the same. Santiago cuts the view.
"I believe that is obvious where the Ortagan research and development funding has been going as of late."
She looks to Mourncreek, who turns to Beauchamp.
"Regardless of how it may seem, High Chancellor, the situation is not quite as dire as it seems. There is almost an all out civil war between the aristocracy and the House of Commons under Ansel right now on the Ortagan home front. Plus it seems that Archduke Poul is not going to ask the Commons for a declaration of war against you, meaning he will violate close to half a century of parliamentary precedent and further aggrevate the situation between the two Houses of the Ortagan parliament. If this war drags out, or if things turn against the Ortagans, it is most likely that Ansel will have the grounds to start an all out revolt against the Corrins and the House of Lords. Although with the position of several military commanders unclear, Zabi's control of most of Ortaga's intelligence services, and the fanaticism of Ansel's own COMPNOR movement a civil war inside Ortaga will be a bloody affair."
She takes a deep breath, "Which brings us to the last matter His Majesty wished me to raise with you, Chancellor Beauchamp. War with the Ortagans is inevitable for your nation at this point, whether you or even Ansel want it or not. And although it is doubtful Zabi and Corrin can hold on forever, it is not a question of if they can conquer Archangel, but a question of when and how for long. Therefore His Majesty would like to take this time to make the offer of allowing you to seek refuge in Valinon until such time that the Ortagans are driven out of Archangel, or that a less predatory government is installed in Ortaga itself. I want to make it clear His Majesty means no insult by this proposal, but he feels that it would be a great blow to the possibility of resistance against the Ortagans if you yourself were killed or imprisoned during the coming war."

Beauchamp smiled a sad smile and shook his head. " Baroness, please extend my warmest thanks to the Emperor, but I cannot leave. My place is here with my people, and fate is tied to theirs. I can no more leave them than Rowald could leave his people in their time of need.

"As for Mr. Wormstrum. He will be swiftly dealt with, along with the rest of these terrorists."

Marcharius adressed himself to Santiago. "The thing which seems to bother me most is this apparent clone army of Ortaga. I don't suppose we know how many they have, or how quickly they can be replaced, so in terms of the battle itself it wont make mush difference except to insure that our people don't accidentally shoot our own people." he grins in spite of himself at the image. " Still, The High Dominion has almost 100 million available reservists with about 40 million of them available for the army, So I think that we can at least match his numbers, as long as we can challenge him in space, he wont be able to bring much of his fleet support to bear on the ground war, that should give us a better chance."

Beauchamp stood to go, and his fellows stood also. "Baroness Mourncreek, Oberst Santiago, Oberfuhrer Zoliotov, I cannot thank you enough for what you have told us here tonight . I know that none of us hold any illusions as to what the likely eventual outcome of this will allbe, but you have given me and my advisers much to think on, and even more to act on, and I thank you. We will make this painful for Ortaga, I swear it."

The three exit after finishing goodbyes.

OSNS Gwaden’s Bridge

Grand Admiral Auguille Delaz allows his eyes to sweep over the bridge of his flagship. An eerie calm pervades the environment, with only the sound of hushed conversation and equipment going through final preparations breaking the silence. Delaz’s gaze then moves on toward the white dwarf secondary of the trinary star system “north” of Archangel and the home territory of Falasmayon.

He can see 8 other Corrin class battleships silhouetted by the sun, along with 9 Illuminati class battleships, and a host of smaller craft swarming to readiness. But off to one side of the Gwaden the massive Journeyman cruises peacefully with the rest of the Fifth Fleet of the Ortagan Solar Navy.

It has been two weeks since the departure of the Fifth Fleet from Axis, and its course to reach its destination has been long and round a bout. But now, Operation Odessa is mere hours from commencing.

Delaz turns to Captain Arnold King standing behind him.

“Captain, I shall be moving to the combat bridge with my tactical staff. You have the bridge of the Gwaden.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

With that Delaz turns, and as the bridge lift doors close he sees King take the captain’s station.

OSNS Gwaden’s Combat Bridge

Delaz calmly takes his station as the tactical staff forming the crew of the combat bridge remains at ridged attention. The Grand Admiral of the Solar Navy calmly takes his seat at the rotating command chair over the massive holotank of the battleship.

“At ease,” he says. Then he brings up the holotank, which shows the Fifth Fleet moving under power toward the final leg that will bring them to their translation point.

“What word from Axis?”

“Admirals Garahou and Hellings are awaiting the signal for the Journeyman activation, Grand Admiral. General Kellanry’s assault ships and convoy also are at the ready and are moving to break orbit from Konpei and move at full speed toward the Wanderer.”

Delaz nods, and turns his attention back to the counter indicating how long before the fleet begins its hyper translation. He nods with calm satisfaction.

“Send a courier to Axis. Use the Yaltan junction, have General Parnel send a message back to Roum saying that Operation Odessa will commence on schedule.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

Archangel System, Two Hours Later, Between the orbit of Gabriel and the sunward side of The Memorial

A series of brilliances of white light rend the blackness of space to shreds for eight minutes. And when the light retreats a grim new foe has arrived in the Archangel system. The Fifth Fleet of the Ortagan Solar Navy has at long last initiated the first stage in the carefully crafted Operation Odessa.

24 battleships, 36 battle cruisers, 48 assault cruisers, 36 strike cruisers, 60 destroyers, 4 escort carriers form up in battle formation, and the waves upon waves of Spectre and Warbird fighters begin to streak away from their mother ships. But dominating the core of the Fifth Fleet’s formation is a massive, skeletal 8 kilometer long starship.

Delaz watches as his fleet moves to full readiness, then turns to his staff.

“Signal the Journeyman! She is to begin deployment and open the wormhole! How long before it is stabilized completely for the Sixth and Seventh fleets?”

“12.8 minutes, Grand Admiral,” says one officer.

“Signal the rest of the fleet. I want 2 destroyer squadrons and 1 squadron of Eagles to begin setting an outside perimeter 800 kilometers from our main sphere deployment around the Journeyman. Also designate the Junipers’ fighters as our primary recon and mobile interception forces.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

Delaz turns his gaze back to the displays, and watch as the Journeyman begins to broadcast a massive energy signature worthy of at least two squadrons of Corrin battleships.

OSNS Gwaden’s Bridge

Grand Admiral Auguille Delaz allows his eyes to sweep over the bridge of his flagship. An eerie calm pervades the environment, with only the sound of hushed conversation and equipment going through final preparations breaking the silence. Delaz’s gaze then moves on toward the white dwarf secondary of the trinary star system “north” of Archangel and the home territory of Falasmayon.

He can see 8 other Corrin class battleships silhouetted by the sun, along with 9 Illuminati class battleships, and a host of smaller craft swarming to readiness. But off to one side of the Gwaden the massive Journeyman cruises peacefully with the rest of the Fifth Fleet of the Ortagan Solar Navy.

It has been two weeks since the departure of the Fifth Fleet from Axis, and its course to reach its destination has been long and round a bout. But now, Operation Odessa is mere hours from commencing.

Delaz turns to Captain Arnold King standing behind him.

“Captain, I shall be moving to the combat bridge with my tactical staff. You have the bridge of the Gwaden.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

With that Delaz turns, and as the bridge lift doors close he sees King take the captain’s station.

OSNS Gwaden’s Combat Bridge

Delaz calmly takes his station as the tactical staff forming the crew of the combat bridge remains at ridged attention. The Grand Admiral of the Solar Navy calmly takes his seat at the rotating command chair over the massive holotank of the battleship.

“At ease,” he says. Then he brings up the holotank, which shows the Fifth Fleet moving under power toward the final leg that will bring them to their translation point.

“What word from Axis?”

“Admirals Garahou and Hellings are awaiting the signal for the Journeyman activation, Grand Admiral. General Kellanry’s assault ships and convoy also are at the ready and are moving to break orbit from Konpei and move at full speed toward the Wanderer.”

Delaz nods, and turns his attention back to the counter indicating how long before the fleet begins its hyper translation. He nods with calm satisfaction.

“Send a courier to Axis. Use the Yaltan junction, have General Parnel send a message back to Roum saying that Operation Odessa will commence on schedule.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

Archangel System, Two Hours Later, Between the orbit of Gabriel and the sunward side of The Memorial

A series of brilliances of white light rend the blackness of space to shreds for eight minutes. And when the light retreats a grim new foe has arrived in the Archangel system. The Fifth Fleet of the Ortagan Solar Navy has at long last initiated the first stage in the carefully crafted Operation Odessa.

24 battleships, 36 battle cruisers, 48 assault cruisers, 36 strike cruisers, 60 destroyers, 4 escort carriers form up in battle formation, and the waves upon waves of Spectre and Warbird fighters begin to streak away from their mother ships. But dominating the core of the Fifth Fleet’s formation is a massive, skeletal 8 kilometer long starship.

Delaz watches as his fleet moves to full readiness, then turns to his staff.

“Signal the Journeyman! She is to begin deployment and open the wormhole! How long before it is stabilized completely for the Sixth and Seventh fleets?”

“12.8 minutes, Grand Admiral,” says one officer.

“Signal the rest of the fleet. I want 2 destroyer squadrons and 1 squadron of Eagles to begin setting an outside perimeter 800 kilometers from our main sphere deployment around the Journeyman. Also designate the Junipers’ fighters as our primary recon and mobile interception forces.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

Delaz turns his gaze back to the displays, and watch as the Journeyman begins to broadcast a massive energy signature worthy of at least two squadrons of Corrin battleships.

1 week before

Beauchamp sat in his office, when his secretary announced that High Fleet Marshal Solar Marcharius was here.

"It's good to see you Solar." said Beauchamp giving his friend a warm handshake. "I sincerely hope you have some good news, or at least something positive, I could use it right now."

"Actually." said Marcharius as he smiled and took a seat. "I believe I do, We've got 2nd Fleet completely recalled to back up Home Fleet, so we've got just about the best chance we can in terms of space. I've also recalled most of 1st Fleet, but it's what I plan to do with the rest of it that will interest you most. I have a question, what is and has been the key to Ortagan military power, and by extension their apparent stability. Axis...."


By the time Marcharius was finished Beauchamp was indeed smiling, and a document had been signed.

******

Present

The chime of the imcoming massage was quiet, but 40 years of naval service had made Solar Marcharius a light sleeper. He bolted awake and pressed the acceptance key. "This is Marcharius." he said brushing the hair from his eyes. He looked at the screen, and any last vestiges of sleep burned away with the bleak look on the face of his station XO.

"Sir, we have a hostile hyper-footprint. CIC is still refining its data, but it looks like about 20 battleships, numerous smaller ships, and one really big ship. They're all Ortagan sir."

The last sentence brings it all in the clear. Marcharius looks at his chrono. The ships time is set to Falas City Local time, and its about 1 hour before sunrise at the capital city.

"Alright Maria," Solar began with the conviction of a man with whom the inevitable has finally caught up. "Activate SitPlan Bastion, I'll be on the command deck in 15 minutes."

He slogged out of bed, and went for his uniform... it was time.

15 minutes later

Marcharius arrived at the command deck of the Space Fortress Macragge the heart of naval operations for the entire High Fleet.

"Talk to me, Maria, how are we doing?" asked Marcharius as he hit the bridge.

"They haven't gone anywhere yet, but the big one, is putting out some crazy emission, acting like a jump gate is forming.

"Hmm looks like the Intel was right. What about Bastion?"

"First Stage is active. The courier boat went into hyper 2 minutes ago, the chancellor has been notified, and the staff have their orders. Patrol;s have been pulled back to a safe distance, and civilian traffic is busy running for the hills."

"Good, then get this underway."

Marcharius keyed a code into the holotank, and the face of High Chancellor Beauchamp appeared. Beauchamp started the conversation. "Is it what i think it is Solar?"

"Yes sir, It looks like the finale. Bastion is in place and stage 1 is complete. We're as ready as we'll ever be." answered the Admiral.

"Alright, then. Solar, you ar ein final command of the fleet, do what you need to do, and dont worry about my approval if the situation needs immediate action, we'll square away, when this is over, wherever we see eachother next. Godspeed my friend." Beauchamp's face was replaced by the five petals of the Falasmayon flag.

Marcharius was silent for a moment, but only a moment, he had a job to do. "Alright people, lets be about it."

******
Impeller drives warmed to life, and ships readied for battle in space,as across the planet itself, army personnel began to be notified, awakened and prepared for battle.

_________________________________________

Ok here's the rundown Ortaga. I need to know where you came out of hyper in relation to the plane of the system and the planets. the Saturnian Gas giant and Falasmayon itself are on one side of the star, while The Memorial is on the other. when you tell me where you are in relation to the planets and stuff, I can give you a rundown on good sensor data. As it is I'll give you the info anyway and you can decide what you might fairly pick up.

HOME FLEET (reinforced)
32 Dreadnoughts
8 LAC Carriers
18 Battlecruisers
24 Hvy. Cruisers
24 Light Cruisers
56 Destroyers

(about 3,000 planetary based LAC's)

FIRST FLEET
16 Dreadnoughts
4 LAC Carriers
10 Battlecruisers
10 Hvy. Cruisers
10 Light Cruisers
24 Destroyers

SECOND FLEET

16 Dreadnoughts
2 LAC Carriers
8 Battlecruisers
16 Hvy. Cruisers
16 Light Cruisers
32 Destroyers

You do get sensor readings indicating one large ship group at Falasmayon itself, and another ship group at Gabriel(gas giant). Sensors are cluttered however by the mass of civilian traffic desperately leaving the system.

OSNS Gwaden’s Combat Bridge

“Admiral Garahou and Admiral Hellings have successfully made the translation through the Journeyman’s warp conduit, Grand Admiral. Admiral De Lome’s ships are making their final wave now.”

Delaz studies the massive holotank closely. His own 5th fleet and the 6th and 7th fleets under Garahou and Hellings form the mainstay of the Ortagan naval assault force to Archangel. De Lome’s 8th fleet is an occupational unit designed to hold the system after primary centers and forces of resistance have been dealt with.

“Inform Admiral De Lome that I want his fleet to secure a perimeter of 200 kilometers around the Journeyman and prepare themselves for the arrival of General Kellanry’s transport convoy.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

“Meanwhile contact Admiral Garahou and Admiral Hellings, the 6th and 7th fleets are to form up with my own ships in the new Arc Hammer Formation. And how clear are we on these sensor readings, Lieutenant?”

“After final analysis, Grand Admiral, we believe the bulk of the Falas High Fleet is concentrated at Falasmayon and Gabriel. The rest appears to be merchant, civilian, or foreign ships present in the system.”

Delaz nods, “Then once the force is in formation have the joint helm coordination set a course for Falasmayon. We will dispose of the “High Fleet’s” and then finish off the reserve task force around Gabriel. Also, give the order to all Corrin and Illuminati flight control divisions in the 5th, 6th, and 7th to scramble all Spectre and Warbird squadrons.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

Delaz changes the display, moving it to where it shows a more in depth helmsman’s view. The three primary assault fleets are merging into his new formation, a radical shift from the past orders of battle mandated by the pre-Colonial Wars Solar Navy. In total there are 834 warships in the Ortagan order of battle for the Archangel system, now the 624 ships of the 5th, 6th, and 7th fleets are moving to launch the greatest offensive in recent Ortagan history.

But the formation is a dramatic shift from the traditional “battle lines” of the old Solar Navy war fleets. Now the Corrins form up in a massive forward facing formation, the “phalanx” has 12 ship high rows and consists of 6 rows. The Illuminati class battlecruisers come next, forming 9 rows of their own 12 ships high in between the Corrin rows. Next the Dragon strike cruisers come, filling out the capital ships formation with their anti-missile coverage. The 12 Eagle assault cruiser squadrons and 15 Mirage destroyer squadrons form up in their v-pattern formations in front of the main phalanx as the Juniper escort carriers retreat to the rear.

As the 1,512 fighter squadrons scramble from the massive bays of the Corrins and Iluminatis, the full size of the Ortagan invasion force begins to sink in.

Delaz watches his masterful force with a swelling pride and turns away from the display for one moment, “Commander, give the order to scramble and attack to our fighter, Eagle, and Mirage squadrons. I want them to probe the fleet over Archangel before we enter engagement range.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral,” the massive wave of Ortagan fast assault cruisers, destroyers, and thousands upon thousands of fighters moves as a swarm toward the Falas formation.

Hall of Commons, Silesia, New Ortaga, Roum System

The unthinkable has happened, and the rage and tension in the emergency session of the House of Commons makes that readily apparent. In almost 400 years no Archduke of the Corrin name has dared use the almost faded power to declare war in the name of “defense of the Greater Realm” without first conferencing with the Commons. But that precedent has now been broken, and the wraith it has awakened in the Conservative Federation dominated House of Commons is palatable.

Prime Minister Channing Ansel, master of the Conservative Federation, COMPNOR, and the coalition Government between the Federation, the United Industrialists’ Party, the Protectorate Obligation Party, and the New Nationalists restrains the gnawing urge to openly gnash his teeth. Even the pale remnants of the “Opposition” have rallied behind the Government at this stage.

Suddenly Nadia Kerensky, leader of the surviving Laborers’ Party since the untimely demise of Donald King, rises serenely during the bickering between Okati Kagoshima, leader of the United Industrialists’, and one of the few remaining Reformers’ Alliance MPs.

Ansel gestures toward Marina Junius, his Minister of Finance and second in the coalition Government, currently acting as Chairwoman of the Commons while he takes a momentary reprieve rather than commit open homicide in the Commons. Junius nods.

“The Chair recognizes Representative Kerensky!” she shouts, banging the gavel and silencing Kagoshima and the Reformer. Kagoshima returns to the seat reserved for him as Minister of Commerce at the Government’s Cabinet table dominating the center high-standing podium of the Hall.

“Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, Prime Minister,” Kerensky says. “Let us be blunt, there is rioting in Silesia and almost all of the other major cities of New Ortaga against Archduke Poul Corrin II blatant disregard for parliamentary precedent. We have the support of the people, and it is time we used that. We must act before the Whisper Palace and Earl Wayridge act to suppress this common outrage by removing one of the instruments they may employ against the people of the Grand Duchy! I therefore motion that the Military Police units of New Ortaga be put under the formally authority of Prime Minister Ansel operating under his capacity as Chairman of the Select Committee of the Committee for the Preservation of the New Order! If the Archduke wishes to suppress the people let him call out his own military and do so!”

Ansel suppresses his moment expression of surprise, but a gawking caugh comes from Junius, and from even the controlled Marion Talbott, leader of the surviving United Progressive Coalition. This highlights just how desperate things are getting in the Commons, shadows are everywhere and the omnipresent hands of Gihren Zabi and his Special Intelligent Service are reaching farther and deeper. Even the Government MPs are no longer entirely safe. Ansel motions that he will take the podium from Junius, she nods and takes her own place as he stands.

“A motion has been made to place the Military Police of New Ortaga under the jurisdiction of the COMPNOR organization instead of the Ministry of the Interior. Does this motion have a second?”

Ansel looks at the readouts that show several dozen seconds from Government and even some Opposition MPs.

“This motion has a second, seeing this as such we will now move into voting procedure on this motion. All those in favor…..”

Fifteen minutes later the Military Police units of New Ortaga have a new master in the form of Channing Ansel and Coordinator Allistair D’Orville of CompForce.

Silesia, New Ortaga, Roum System

Riots have raged across the Ortagan capital city for 9 days, and for 9 days the Military Police have made no active move to respond to the growing tide of dissidents marching under the banners of COMPNOR, the Opposition, and even some under the leadership of the more liberal House of Lords members.

But now a response at last comes from the so far silent Whisper Palace. An emergency transmission cuts across all channels, replacing their programming with an image of Archduke Poul Corrin II.

“Citizens of New Ortaga!” he says in an authoritative tone. “For the past week dissidents have raged across our cities and openly defied the will of this government. Today, that ends. As of this day the entirety of the Grand Duchy, in the forms of the home states and the various colonial dependents, are placed under a status of emergency and subject to the full strictures of martial law. Forces of the Solar Navy and Army are being mobilized to put down this insurrection and reestablish order across the realm.”
With that the transmission is over, and less than an hour later new reports begin. Heavily armed soldiers bearing the emblems of the Intelligence Directorate and the Special Intelligence Service appear on the steps of Landing Parliamentary Hall, meeting place of House of Lords, and begin to ruthlessly fire into the mob protesting the war against Falasmayon. The Swordmaster of the Illuminati respond with similar action against protesters near the Whisper Palace, and shortly after reports flow in of Elite and Atlas Guard troops suppressing rioters in New Milan, New Alexandria, and other major Ortagan cities in the north and northeast portions of the home world of the Grand Duchy.

But it is noted that response from other regions on New Ortaga itself, and in Roum, and in the Colonies come slowly and even when they come half-heartedly as if the commanders of the Army and the Navy are beginning to doubt the word of their sworn lord, the Archduke of the Corrins.

OOC: A few things first, are you ships in a "wall" formation, like a wall that is 12 ships high and 6 across and 1 deep, or is it more of a cube?

IC: Marcharius studied the holotank before him. The white dwarf of Archangel burned at the right of the display, but the picture was centered elsewhere. Instead, the holo showed a massive group of angry red icons blazing inward toward Falasmayon while a slightly smaller group of icons followed more slowly.

"Marshal, we've got the data from CIC. They're calling the closer group, O-2, mostly fighters, destroyers, and assault cruisers, too lcose for a defintie read, but at least 10 squadrons of the bigger ships, 1500 squadrons of the fighters. Other group is O-1 and its the battleships battlecruisers and strike cruisers, over 70 battleships."

"Alright people, let's get to work. Time and course?" began Marcharius.

"Assuming a zero/zero intercept with the planet and current acceleration, O-2 will reach turnover and have to deaccellerate in 1 hour. O-1 will reach turnover in 2 hours."

"Contact Admiral Dorn tell him to execute "Bastion beta-2. Admiral Sarnow is to execute Bastion-1." Marcharius turned to look at the holoplot, Admiral Demir's Fleet should be coming in right about..."

FLASH

Raw hyperspace energy bled from the Warshawski sails of the ships of third fleet lighting up the sensors of everything more observant than a weather ballon, as they tore a hole back into realspace 13 million klicks behind the Journeyman, on a direct line for a least-time course form Axis.

The ships coasted forward for a minute while their Impeller drives reconfigured from sails to wedges, and then began powering in-system, directly for the Journeyman.

On the bridge of the DN Hope

Fleet Admiral Mariah Demir, shook of the lingerinf nausea of the high-speed realspace translation that allowed her ships to come out of hyper just over 5,000km/sec. Her ships begna steadily accelerating. She smiled as she thought of the last 20 minutes. Her ships had been at ready status for the better part of a week, waiting for the courier boat, which would tell them that the Ortagan fleet had finally arrived. When that ship had come, so had she. The courier boat had continued its mission, running onward to tell the tale to others, but theirs was a different mission.

"All ships." began the Admiral over her fleet com. "prepare to execute firing plans, take positions for engagement."

Her ships spread took their positions. The dreadnoughts, forming the characteristic "wall of battle" in a 4x4 arrangement with the battlecruiser froming at the front and rear of the wall. The cruisers and destroyers took suuporting positions in a carefully planned web of defensive fire to cover the capital ships. The LAC Carriers Launched their LAC's and then moved to clear the battlefield, having lent their 200 LAC's to the defensive and offensive screen. The entire formation was just over 200 km across.

At roughly the same time. The Fleet around Gabriel broke orbit, and began powering towards the Ortagan battlegroup at full speed. supported by the nearly 1,000 LAC's of Gabriel Planetary Defense.

Home Fleet also began to move, splitting into two groups centered around to seperate walls dreadnoughts 16 ships strong. Home fleet's battlecruisers and escorts split evenly to cover each wall, and the two groups power forward, aiming to pass on either side of the enemy ships represented only by red icons and the designation O-2. 3000, LAC's powered towards the incoming ships at the same time as their larger cousins. The final note in the orchestra came, in the form of hidden tactical data in the myriad of electronic sensors and signals flying across space. The formation's of the Battlecruisers began to get somewhat "fuzzy" like what might happen in jamming, it was as if, the spaces between the ships began to fill up.

Falasmayon and Ortaga forces raced head on, in what would sonn be one of the definging battles in the histories of two nations.

*OOC: More of a "wall" because there only one ship deep. Also, I will respond to the Axis move in the next post.*

OSNS Gwaden's Combat Bridge

Delaz watches as the Falas fleets seperate and try to pincer him between them. He turns away from the tank.

"Signal the Eagles and the Mirages, they are to assume engagement plan Rohirrim and use firing plan Zee-Zee-Delta to engage both Falas fleets. Also, signal the rest of the Corrins, Illuminati, and Dragons to cut acceleration to zero and prepare for engagement plan Juxtapose."

"Grand Admiral! New Falas fleet completing retranslation on an interception coure with the Journeyman."

Delaz seems tense for a moment, this was not something that was entirely unanticipated, but he had not expected a move like this quite this soon.

"Have General Kellarny move his convoy through the Journeyman at once from Axis. Tell Admiral De Lome he is to break the link with the Wanderer once the assault ships are through and move to join our formation."

"Yes, Grand Admiral."

Delaz has pause for a few moments, "And contact Rear Admiral Saharin, he is to prepare the Behemoth for retranslation and hold awaiting my orders."

"Yes, Grand Admiral."

Delaz turns to watch as the advance fast attack elements of his force move to make the first strike of this war. The sensor readings the warships had managed to garner before the electronic countermeasures began to dull readings meant one thing--the Falas missile pods were farther along than the ID had expected.

But then the forward ranks of the quickly accelerating Eagles, Mirages, and fighters sheer off into two seperate groups headed toward the approaching Falas fleets. Next the two new groups formations erupt in new holograms as 1600 missiles, 800 from each group, send their first assault. But less than 6 kilometers from their launch, the missile disappear from scanners, or most of them do. And the erratic pattern of sensor readings continues off and on, but with one clear destination.

1600 of the latest Skipper missiles of the Solar Navy have been launched. The missiles carry two major components, first the infamous stealth systems of their class and second a 78 gigaton proximity engagement fusion warhead. The Skippers have been programmed to identify the masses the new "deployments" the sensors latched onto before the electronic noise from the Falas fleet, and also to move toward the heart of the Falas formations with a deadly, relentless stalk across space.

OSNS Behemoth's Main Bridge, Outer Archangel System

Rear Admiral Ginias Saharin loathes his own creation he now stands in, loathes it with a fiery passion that few others even guess at. The massive []Behemoth[/i] is the end result of Project Rukh, willed into existence be Archduke Poul II. Saharin sees the ship as a waste of resources, a massive weapon designed for a time where it is more vulnerable than useful. But in the end he had no choice.

Although soon Corrin, Zabi, and that fool Delaz might soon realize the err of their creation Saharin thinks.

He clasps his hands at the small of his back as he turns at the approaching footsteps of a young bridge officer.

"Rear Admiral, Grand Admiral Delaz wants the Behemoth prepared for translation at once."

Saharin nods slowly, "Make it so then."

"It seems that the Grand Admiral has met an unanticipated factor in his plans," says Glas standing with Saharin, the "defected" Valinor Perfect says continuing to look at the stars.

"Most likely," Saharin says, "now let us hope Delaz is as stupid as he seems to be."

"Indeed," Glas says. "Yes, indeed."

Bridge of HDFS Falas

Admiral Gearman's Tac. officer started suddenly. "Missile launch detected!, they'r..." she fell suddenly silent in confusion. "Sir, the missiles dropped off the scopes a few seconds after launch They... No wait, sporadic contacts, flickering in and out of detection, all along the flight path of the missiles."

The Admiral nodded, with a silent curse. "Skippers. That's the only missile that can do that. Give me a rough ETA Julien as soon as you have enough data."

A few moments pass in silence as the sensors, plot the appearance of the missiles to figure speed. "I've got it sir. I'm reading approximately, 214 seconds until range for laser-heads. Although, with the stealth tech. on those birds, they might be using nuke 'heads, and hoping that they can get the missiles within nuke range."

"Alright. Flush the pods with a full broadside., and bring the escorts in as close as possible, still allowing room to roll, se we tighten up the defensive net" ordered Carolyn Gearman.

The pods which the new MarsII-classBattlecruiser(P)'s had been steadily laying down for a minute, fired. Along with the full missile broadside of both fleet groups. 2500 pod and ship launched missiles, joined 8000 LAC fired missiles, bearing down upon the O-2 group of the ortagan assault. (The one with the cruisers and fighters)

Approximately, 17 seconds passed before the fire was repeated again, this time without the pod missiles. Then the tactical officers of the fleet turned their attention to the Skippers still bearing down on them.

Thousands of countermissiles raced outward attempting to intercept the heavily stealthed Ortagan weapons. The tac officers, had had 2 full minutes to refine their data on the incoming birds, but even with that time the incredible stealth technology of the originally Valinor missiles, was difficult to overcome, and only so much could be done, yet it was something.

At half, again that range, Point-defense lasers began spearing the darkness of the void with needles of coherent light, in last-ditch attempts to stop the missiles before they detonated. The PD lasers were designed to intercept missiles armed with laser warheads, which could destroy a ship at 50,000km, but these missiles were armed with old-fashioned nuclear warheads, whose sun-powered fury of fusion energy was completely useless at anything except insanely close ranges. Even the incredibly powerful gigaton warheads of the Skippers were nothing but oversized sparklers, at much more than 50 kilometers. All of which meant that the crews and computers manning the Point-defenses had 50,000 kilometers more distance in which to stop the Ortagan birds, than they usually would have had. That coupled with the radically exponential increases in RADAR and LIDAR sensitivity at such ranges made it much less likely that even the famed Skipper stealth system could get into the required distance from a modern warship for an effective nuclear attack.

(I'm gonna leave out damage stuff until you can post how many missiles are destroyed)

******
From the Flag-bridge of Hope Admiral Demir watched the Ortagan fleet fire its wave of Skippers and realized what they were as soon as Gearman had.

In the last 4 minutes Demir's 2nd Fleet had closed the range to Journeyman by 3 million kilometers and they continued steadily accelerating as they aimed for their fighting flyby.

I think it's about time we started making them worry more about their gate home. Most of their fleet may already be here, but I'm making damn sure that they aren't leaving in a hurry. she thought with finality. "Darien, I think it's time we started doing more than putting our foot on the accelerator. Begin firing when ready."

"Yes ma'am." replied her Chief of staff eagerly.

A few seconds later 900 ship launched missiles, and 800 LAC launched missiles began racing inward all targeting the Journeyman. New waves began launching every 18 seconds, all targeting the warpgate ship.

(There is one important thing to remember. The reason that I mention LAC missiles and Ship missiles separately, is that LAC missiles are significantly smaller, and weaker. In fact, they are weak enough that their laser heads cannot penetrate the shielding of anything larger than a battlecruiser, so your battleships are almost invulnerable to those missiles.)

*OOC: For further reference, the Skipper missiles are my invention originally, Valinon's is a "spoof off" from the original Ortagan Skipper missile designed about a century ago. And as for the missiles destroyed I think you would have nailed around half of each salvo, or a little bit better. Sound fair?

OSN Mobile Assault Task Forces Alpha and Beta

The Orion Point Defense systems of the Eagles and Mirages respond as the massive barrage closes down on them. Beams of golden light cut through the darkness of space, running in long continuos swaths from the batteries of the fast ships. The LAC missiles are hit the hardest, taking almost 86% casaulties from the Orion defenses, and most of them waste themselves on the near battlecruiser level gravimetric shields of the Eagles.

The fighters are a different story, many of the agile craft perish in explosions near their formations and totaled 14 squadrons of fighters are killed by LAC missiles that acquire them. Three Mirages are also swamped by the LAC missiles and are turned into wreckage. Two Eagles take damage from the missiles.

But then the true battle begins as the agile Eagles and Mirages enter radical manuvers and gravity crash courses designed to give their Orion systems and gravimetric shields the best paths from which to counteract the X-ray warheads. 1600 of the missiles are destroyed or have their damaged absorbed by the gravimetric shields, but the remaining 900 prove much more difficult. 10 Eagles are destroyed outright when their shielding is overloaded and thin armor penetrated, 19 Mirages perish as well along with another 4 squadrons of fighters. 8 other Eagles are damaged, one with its gravimetric drives failing, and 4 Mirages also are damaged.

OSNS Gwaden's Combat Bridge

Delaz watches as havoc consumes his mobile assault groups, and drums his fingers out of habit on his chair as he lets his eyes bore into the holotank.

"Task Forces Alpha and Beta are to close to close range energy combat range with the Falas fleets. I want those pod ships put out of action!"

"Yes, Grand Admiral!"

Delaz also watches as the attack on the Journeyman.

"Coordinate with the rest of the flag squadron, prepare a mass driver salvo at 45 seconds intervals to have that fleet lose some of its volume."

"Yes, Grand Admiral."

The two mobile assault task forces give a sudden boost as the Eagles and Mirages engage their ion particle engines, soon range between then and the Falas fleets begins to drop closer and closer to a 1000 klicks, then lower. And then the barrage begins, The Eagles fire is by far the deadliest, as they attack with battleship grade ion cannons and the almost as strong Twin Particle arrays, golden energy rakes into the Falas pod dreadnoughts and battlecruisers sidewalls as the Ortagan ships close for the final kill. The smaller Mirages move in vast swarms to try and swallow the Falas cruisers and destroyers whole while the fighters move to dog fight with the LACs.

Meanwhile the central file of Delaz's formation begins to move strangely. 36 heavy mass driver target the fleet attempting to bare down on the Journeyman, and targeting data is refined quickly. The first salvo erupts from the twelve core Corrin's of the combined assault fleets, speeding toward the heart of the Falas formation a t roughly .78 the speed of light. The vast projectiles hurtle inward followed 45 seconds later by a second barrage and 45 seconds after that by a third barrage, and then the mass drivers hang silent.

OSNS Malik's Combat Bridge

Admiral Gerard De Lome, commander of the Eighth Fleet of the Solar Navy watches as the 800 missiles fly toward the invaluable Journeyman.

"Inform General Kellarny he is to bring his assault fleet through at once. Then tell the Journeyman to begin emergency link break procedures and prepare for a crash translation to hyperspace to exit at point Zee-Zee-Nine."

"Yes, Admiral."

"And inform the other Corrins that we will assume formation Arc Shield around the Journeyman, and extend our shields to maximum sphere effect."

"Yes, Admiral."

De Lome watches as the missiles streak in, the 8th Fleet's Dragon strike cruisers move rapidly to reinforce the attacked area of the Journeyman's protective sphere. A swath of Archer missiles race toward the 900 missiles, as the Corrins move to form a wall of gravimetric shielding around the vulnerable Journeyman.

The LAC missiles waste themselves on the stronger shields of the Ortagan battleships, as the gravimetric systems laugh the blows off as if they were mere particles of dust.

But the ship missiles are no so easily dissuaded. 600 of their number are killed by the Dragons defense sphere, but 300 scream through the primary perimeter around the Journeyman.

The Corrins and nearby Illuminatis bring their own defenses online, ruthlessely dispatching 185 of the other missiles, but the rest fly in. 2 Corrins and an Illuminati rupture in an explosion as the surviving missiles hit them instead of the warpgate ship. As they turn into expanding debris, the main assault force launches its mass driver attack, and the progression of 84 ships compromising General Kellarny's troop assault fleet begin their arrival and begin to move rapidlyaway from the Journeyman and toward Delaz's main battle force.

Eight troop transports are hit by fire from the Falas attack, but the Journeyman at long last begins to disengage the wormhole.

De Lome watches as 2 more Illuminati's join the destroyed, and damage has already begin to take its toll on 2 other Corrins. Plus 9 Eagles and 10 Dragons have been casaulties.

"Prepare the fleet to move!" he shouts. "Form up on the convoy once the Journeyman has translated to hyper!"

Dame Katherine Mourncreek watches as the battle for Archangel before her very eyes. She has been in the embassy's information center since the arrival of the Ortagan invasion fleet. The HMS Quickmatch, a Sagittarius-class destroyer in orbit around Falasmayon, had been linked directly to the embassy through one of the new Nu-space transceiver/receiver units.
She turns away as the first salvos are exchanged, looking at Corazon Santiago, standing at rigid attention looking into the projection.
"Oberst, you know what His Majesty wanted done should the High Chancellor refuse to accept his offer."
"Yes, Your Grace. I have already dispatched Oberleutnant Agraff and three squads of my best soldiers to the Falas capital building. Rest assured they will insure that the building remains secure and in Falas hands for as long as possible."
"And they know what happens if they are endanger of being captured?"
"Yes, Your Grace, they have very specific orders of what to do in that situation."
Mourncreek nods soberly, "Very good, Oberst, now there is one more matter I want you to take care of."
"And that is, Your Grace?"
"Prepare the embassy staff for evacuation, Corazon, we will not be able to stay here for much longer. And the light cruiser Swiftsure will be arriving in two more days to over see the final evaucation of Valinor personnel and nationals from the Archangel system."
"Yes, Your Grace. I will have the embassy secure and preparations made for emergency orbital transfers at once."
"Thank you, Corazon," Mourncreek says, watching as the Falas fire their broadsides. "I only wish there had been some way to stop this altogether."

OOC: OK fine by me, and sorry about the Skippers, I'd only ever heard of Valinor Skippers. I'm also going to start posting reamining ship number every few posts and giving firing summaries at the ends of the posts, I've found that it makes it a whole lot easier to figure out how much of what it going where, and it gives us the other person a single reference point on the post, instead of having to hunt around on a bunch of different posts, and cross reference ship numbers with numbers of weapons and stuff.

IC: Over 800 Skippers were destroyed in the maelstrom of lasers and missiles, but that still left almost another 800 missiles which reached range and exploded. Sheer solar energy blew outward, from each missile as they began detonating. In some cases the sheer number of the explosion worked against the assault. Scores of missiles wasted themselves as their nuclear furnaces railed impotently against the impenetrable belly and dorsal bands of the impeller drives. But there were plenty left over. White-hot plasma washed across sidewalls, stressing their capacity to breaking point. Still worse, some 20 missiles detonated in front of or behind ships, where no sidewall protected them. EMP and raw energy washed over the formation turning them into nothing but blind spots on tactical radars for a few moments.

When the wash of EMP subsided and the fury was spent. 5 Destroyers, 7 Cruisers, and 3 Battlecruisers, have been wiped from space, or reduced to life-pod bleeding wrecks. 2 Dreadnoughts 7 destroyers, and 2 more light cruisers have been mauled on one broadside, and sever more destroyers, are showing signs of engine trouble, as their acceleration drops off. The LAC's have fared better than expected. Their forward sidewall, prevented the deadly down-the-throat shots which claimed may of their larger fellows, and their greater spread aided them. Only 100 have been destroyed or critically damaged.

Admiral Gearman, watched the missile fire blast into the ortagan ranks, as he rown damage reports filtered into her Flag-bridge. At least we gave as good as we got. Of course, that won't do at all, given our disparity in numbers. she thought grimly.

The Ortagan ships began accelerating, obviously to get to energy range, and orders began going out to the Falasmayon defenders.

Full broadsides began spitting out from the ships. Missile's were joined by laser and grazer fire, when the ortagan ships closed to 500,000km. The LAC's took their opportunity, the one thing they were designed for was to tangle at close range with enemy light elements, and they ruthlessly did just that. over two and a half thousand dreadnought strength grazers, speared through space at light-speed to lance at cruisers and destroyers.

In the last 100,000km of the Ortagan approach, PD Laser clusters began adding theirt tiny read pencil beams to the fray, after all fighters were as targetable as missiles.

The LAC's ignored the fire of the fighters to continue blasting their horrendously over-powered beams into the ortagan warships, trusting in their point defenses, and shielding to keep the attacking fighter at bay. The lighter craft became whirling dervishes, as they spun on their central axis, attempting to interpose their impeller bands between themselves and the laser fire, then suddenly completing a rotation to fire a broadside and them fall safely behind the impeller bands again.

Casualties were more spread out this time. A destoyer's mag-bottle went, and she died in a nuclear fireball, that took several of the nearby fighters with her. Here and there other ships suffered the same fate. A dreadnought lost her sidewalls, and couldn't get them back up fast enough, and became an air bleeding wreck. Two battlecruisers fell in rapid succession, as lucky missile shots to their tails, hit something vital, and theit accelration by half, dropping them out of the formation leaving them easy prey for cleanup. Even more were damaged.

Yet the ship gave back. Almost 4000 grazers and lasers fired back at the ortagans from the falas warships, and 1,000 missile launchers turned their attention once again towards their enemy. Over 2,500 grazers did the same from the LAC's boring into the heart of the ortagan formations, and the Falas ships had been firing for 499,000 kilometers longer than the ortagans had.

Then as suddenly as the ships had reached eachother, their mutual acceleration had carried them outside the engagement envelope, and the guns fell silent as damage reports and control flowed across both fleets.

Home Fleet (combat effective)

25 Dreadnoughts-DN's
8 Battlecruisers-BC's
16 Hvy. Cruisers-CA's
14 Light Cruisers-CL's
30 Destroyers-DD's
1,800 LAC's

******
Demir watched her missiles lance out at the Journeyman but had no time to see their effect. Her tac. officer could give her barely 5 secods of warning before the shells began hitting.

The first slavo effectively took them by suprise, since they were so far outside energy range. The smaller ships screening for the dreadnoughts took most of the fire, as several destroyers and light cruisers simple crumpled into wrecks, as the rounds overpowered their sidewalls, and dented and crushed them into shapes vaguely reminiscent of crumpled paper balls.

"All ships fire slavos and roll ship!" came the order form the Hope.

Over 1500 missiles fired again, and then the falas ships rolled to intepose their wedges. Some of the ships were'nt fast enough and fell prey to the second round of shells. But that second barrage allowed the tactical officers to figure the reload rate and time their ships rolls to compensate. A second flight of 1500 missiles flew towards the Journeyman and its escorts, and then as the third barrage of ortagan warhead lace doutward the ships of 2nd fllet completed their rolls, and ever shell of the last barrage fell meaningless against the impeller bands, hoplessly destroyed and mangled, by gravity forces measured in the million of gravities.

2nd Fleet (combat effective)

16 DN's
8 BC's
12 CA's
11 CL's
25 DD's

*OOC: You, Valinor, and Taka with your damnable summaries. I think personally it tempts someone from reading the entire post and therefore disrupts the full enjoyment of the depth of a RP, but that seems to be a battle I am losing. Very, well I shall make lists..... :x*

OSNS Gwaden's Combat Bridge

Dleaz watches his holotank with growing contention as Alpha and Beta task forces move at close range engagement with the Falas main attack fleet. The Eagles do well against the Falas LACs, their pinprick fire doing little against the gravimetric shields, but the concentrated fire of the capital ships, especially the dreadnoughts, do far more damage. The Mirages break off to cover the Eagles flank and tear into the LAC groups to disperse their masses.

The Ortagan fighters try take full advantage of the LACs unprotected stern ends and use their superior mobility and destroyer/cruiser grade energy weapons to take as many of the LACs with them as possible. But there weaker shields and far weaker armor put them at the mercy of the dispersion of damage from larger weaponry, even their own comrades fire.

Delaz watches as the Falas remain firm in the face of the rush assault on the part of his faster attack groups and grimaces.

"Alpha and Beta's Eagles are to deploy energy mines waves at 10 second intervals as they move away from enemy fleet. All further attack runs are to be broken off, both groups are to return to the primary formation."

"Yes, Grand Admiral."

"Order full acceleration of the Corrins, Illuminati, and Dragons we will enter into primary energy range of the Falas fleet and begin to engage with full bow fire patterns. Also, I want the fleet ready to execute Kabitiz 1 on my command."

"Yes, Grand Admiral."

As the lighter elements retreat back toward the main invasion fleet's "wall", the Eagles linger for a few minutes. They seed the course of the two Falas fleets with energy mines, X and Gamma ray pumped "super" warheads with stealth systems almost as good as those of the Skipper missiles in the direct line path of their enemies.

As the lighter ships retreat, the massive "wall" of Corrins, Illimunatis, and Dragons begin to rapidly accelerate. Before long they are within 655,000 kilometers of the Falas fleets, and then the barrage starts.

The heaviest fire from the Corrins and Illuminatis ion cannon turrets stab into the heart of the Falas formation, focusing on the dreadnoughts. Next come the battle lasers, their continually focused beams carving into the remaining battlecruisers of the Falas homefleet with an errant dispatch. The heavy pulse cannons concentrate their fire on the targets of the ion cannons, supporting their own stronger fire. The remaining energy weapons of the ships are held in reserve.

Delaz face grows colder as he watches the Falas fleet moving toward the Journeyman irregardless of his barrage.

"Contact Saharin! He is to translate behind the Falas fleet threatening the Journeyman and obliterate them from the universe!"

List of destroyed
4 Eagle Squadrons destroyed
9 Mirage Squadrons destroyed
45 ships damaged
450 fighter squadrons destroyed

OSNS Malik's Combat Bridge

De Lome watches as one of the 8th fleets Junipers is destroyed by the focused missile fire from the Falas fleet, followed by an Illuminati, and several other warships. His formation grows ragged, but his command holds the line of defense valiantly.

"Admiral! Journeyman has broken off link with the Wanderer and is preparing for translation to hyperspace."

"Good, now prepare the fleet-," De Lome stops in horror as a Corrin erupts in a sudden explosion. The shield wall shatters for a moment in the thick of a renewed barrage, and two other Corrins move with all haste to fill the gap their dead sister has left. But do not make it in time.

20 missiles fly toward the Journeyman and her outclassed defenses cannot hope to deter them all. 9 crash toward her in the end, and erupt against the massive ship's side. Explosions tear at the ship, and a debris cloud appears. De Lome's jaw is slack for several seconds before he regains composure.

"Damage report from the Journeyman!"

"Journeyman reports loss of primary reactors 7 & 6, along with second reactor 3, and gravimetric focusing rings 14-23 are also non-responsive. Captain Deloqure says he will begin emergency crash translation course, undetermined retranslation point."

De Lome swallows hard, and prays the Journeyman doesn't launch itself into the center of the battle with its crash translation.

"Make ready the fleet to engage approaching enemy group, assume-."

"Massive retranslation signature behind enemy fleet, Admiral! My God, it's huge, energy spikes are nearly off the scal-," silence consumes the combat bridge. A massive shape lies before the eyes of the 8th Fleet's command structure, dwarfing even the Journeyman in size. And then it begins its attack.

[u]List of destroyed[/i]
2 Junipers
3 Illuminatis
1 Corrin
9 Eagles
10 Dragons
12 Mirages

OSNS Behemoth's Bridge

Ginias Saharin bites back the urge to gnash his teeth as the "super battleship" exits hyperspace. He glares at the Falas fleet, the look of one who has found an unfortunate target for so much pent up malice and loathing.

The Behemoth is easily over 4 kilometers from one end of its four points to other, and is bristling with offensive weaponry. It carries 25 heavy ion cannons, 50 ion cannons, 78 battle-lasers, 95 heavy pulse batteries, 155 light pulse batteries, and 45 Archer missile launchers. Not to mention the massive Riven proto-energy cannon sitting at its heart.

Saharin turns on one heel, hands clasped so hard behind his back the pain is even stabbing through his hate-filled brain.

"Open fire, all batteries!"

The Behemoth obeys its loathing masters command. It belches a wave of fire several squadrons of Corrin battleships would envy to its greeniest shades. The heavy ion cannons, easily twice the power of the ion cannons mounted aboard a Corrin gouge at the Falas dreadnoughts, followed by their lesser brothers. Battle-lasers carve at their opponents, angry beams slicing into their opponents as the far lighter pulse batteries jab into destroyers and cruisers. The massive energy onslaught is followed by 2500 fusion missiles.

Saharin may loathe his creation, but it performs its intended function well--a terror weapon, onscale with the ancient Titans of Earth mythology. And it begins to accelerate toward the Falas fleet, closing the 525,000 kilometer distance at a startling pace.

Saharin moves to his own command station at last, and activates the Behemoth's intra-ship comm, the face of Colonel Dachau, one of his top lieutenants appears.

"Rear Admiral!"

"Ready the Controllers, Andrew, we will be scrambling our fighter squadrons in three minutes."

"Yes, Rear Admiral!"

Saharin folds his hands together in front of his face and begins to brood. Stored in the super battleship's remaining space are 95 squadrons of modified Spectres. None carry a pilot, instead their cockpit controls are slaved to the carefully bred Controllers located in the bowels of the ship. The destruction of the automated Eagles during the Adamite Wars gave barely a pause to the plans of Zabi and the Archduke, instead they ordered that all fighters on the Behemoth be equipped with the remote Zedra system and be used to support the battleships point defense and counter-missile systems. The now dubbed "walking dead" squadrons begin to spill forth from the Behemoth's holds.

"We cannot continue this mass warfare indefinately," Saharin mummers to Glas. "Soon, soon it will become our own nightmare when it is turned upon us."

"50,000 tears cried for the lost souls of the lost wars, and still no one hears their cries," Glas replies cryptically.

Saharin turns with arched eyebrows at his old friend, and the Valinor Perfect smiles as his iris change colors.

"You do not read enough of your own fatherland's literature, Ginias," Glas retorts. "And apparently your Archduke and Gihren Zabi don't either. At least you are all equal in your blindness, and let it hopes it stays that way until it is too late for them to forestall their own fall."

http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/w/libra.jpg
OSNS Behemoth

OOC: Hehe, david warned me that you didn’t like summaries, I only use them because I like having numbers to look at when figuring out how much damage an attack does. By the way, I think I wasn't very clear on the LAC's. Their missiles are weaker than capital ship missiles, but their grazer is the size of a dreadnought grazer, and is so large that the LAC is effectively built around it. So LAC energy attacks are just as powerful as the dreadnoughts beams. One more thing, I had planned on doing this before I read your post, so I'm not cheating.

"Admiral, the Ortagan light elements are moving to reform with the battleships." relayed the tac officer.

"Bring the fleet groups about 60 degrees, we shall reform Home Fleet, and meet them together." ordered Gearman.

The ships of Home Fleet, which had been split into two groups, changed course to reform. Incidentally and unbeknownst to the Falas fleet, taking both groups out of the path of the newly laid mines.

When the fleets has reformed, they executed another course change to pass "over" the ortagan fleet relative to their previous position.

As the two fleets "walls" closed the falasmayon ships began opening with missile barrages, two barrages were fired before both fleets hit energy range, and began opening up with their full broadsides.

Once again, thousands of grazer and laser beams, from the capital ships, tore at their ortagan counterparts, while the dreadnought strength grazers of the LAC's tore at the Ortagan cruisers and destroyers. Many scores of missiles continued to spout form the launchers of the High Dominion ships, and stream in at the ortagan vessels.

Of course, there were still more ortagan ships than falasmayon ones, Even if the largest ortagan vessel was only a battleship.

Ships whirled in spirals as they attempted to keep their wedges between the incoming fire and fire their own weapons. The battlecruisers bore the brunt of the assault, nearly everyone was destroyed outright, or turned in a meaningless air-bleeding wreck. A dreadnought lost its containment bottle on one of its fusion reactors, and died in a spectacular, that killed al of its 5000 man crew. Two were battered into barely useful, hulks and lifepods poured from them like water. As the two fleets left each others engagement envelope, fire died down from the capital ships as one by one they turned their attention to their own damage. The remaining 1400 LAC’s however, ruthlessly pressed the attack, following obliquely at the ortagan ships to keep their wedges towards the formations, until a swoop across the ortagan’s flightpath, to bring the grazers to bear and fire, before reching the otherside and once again interposing the wedge.

Remaining fleet

24 DN’s
2 BC’s
8 CA’s
10 CL’s
24 DD’s
1200 LAC’s


“The hyperfootprint of the Behemoth entering the system, lit up the sensors of Admiral Demir’s Fleet like a christmas tree.

“New ships coming in at 600, they’re directly behind us ma’am. The thing in the center, is no ship Admiral. Computer’s are showing a star shape with 4 points. I don’t know what it is, maybe some kind of station.”

“Well whatever it is get us out from between them helm, 70 degree course shift relative up.” responded Mariah Demir.

The Falasmayon fleet angled “up” relative to its last heading, so that one could no longer trace straight line between the three ship groups.

“Keep firing on the ship near the Journeyman we’ll deal with the new comers later.”

Grazer, laser, and missile fire continued to pour from the falasmayon ships at the Corrins and Illuminatis guarding the Journeyman. When the Behemoth’s ships fired, the wisdom of the Admiral last maneuver became abundantly clear. By moving out of the straight line, the falasmayon ships were able to keep a broadside towards the Journeyman, while forcing the other ortagan vessels to fire at an angle that kept the fleets impeller wedges between them and harm. The energy fire splattered harmlessly against the impenetrable bands, the missiles however, were able to move out of a direct line, and go for sidewalls. Point-Defenses destroyed many, others got through however, and 2 H. Cruisers fell.

OSNS Gwaden’s Combat Bridge

Delaz watches as the fleets reform into one combat entity, and steer clear of the mines.

“It appears the Falas sensors may be more advanced than we thought, or they may have deployed some sort of system network.”

He turns toward the communication area, “Prepare to execute attack plan zee-zee-delta, nine. Inform Admiral Garahou and Admiral Hellings they are to act as they see fit to engage after the first barrage.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

Delaz looks at the pressing LACs with a vehemence, “And tell Alpha and Beta they are to execute the Joutheri Maneuver and hit those LACs before they approach our main line.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

“It’s time we showed the Falas that we do not have to fight on equal terms with them, and show them that they will be crushed.”

The Dragons of the main fleet perform superbly, dealing with the massive wave after wave of missiles just as well as the Falas ship-mounted systems do. But they’re fire is not enough, and missiles still slip through the formation into the Corrins and Illuminatis.

Even as they take damage, the fleet moves to respond. Suddenly the fleet seems to split into three separate groups and moves to encircle the Falas fleet before them. But as they divide, 250 new missiles appear. Most of the wave consists of the best ECM platforms available to the Solar Navy, and at the formation sets missiles that are very close to being ships unto themselves. 59 Shadow Hand singularity warhead missiles fly under the deep cover of their hundreds of escorting ECM warheads, straight toward the center of the Falas formation.

But even as the three part attack continues in the form of energy and missile fire, the Alpha and Beta groups of Eagles and Mirages respond to the LAC craft harassing their rearguard area. The whole mass of light ships seems to become an inverted wave, turning literally upside down to place themselves behind the vast bulk of LACs and then fire with the full fury of their twin particle arrays and ion cannons, and by deploying 950 energy mines into the weak flanks of their opponents.

Destroyed
5 Corrins
4 Illuminatis
15 Dragons
7 Eagles
5 Mirages

OSNS Behemoth’s Bridge

“Rear Admiral Saharin! New orders from Grand Admiral Delaz, he wants an all out attack on the Falas fleet threatening the Journeyman.”

Saharin stiffens, “An all out attack….”

He whispers, and turns to Glas, the Perfect returns the gaze, eyes slightly wider than normal.

“Very well, prepare to fire the main cannon. Target the core dreadnoughts of the Falas formation and prepare for a 8 minute long sustained energy burst.”

“Yes, Rear Admiral.”

Saharin returns his gaze to the view, even as it begins to opaque. Several more missiles impact the Journeyman, and several more of De Lome’s warships die trying to defend it. The Behemoth’s other batteries rage at their enemies, impotence seeming to scream across space. But then a bright blinding beam of white-gold light erupts from the central terminus of the Behemoth, it stabs through the Falas formation encompassing everything in its pass, and raging like a tidal flood over the impellers and missiles.

“Journeyman preparing for translation, Rear Admiral. However, they report…they report that the wormhole focus and stabilization system has been damaged and rendered inoperable until repairs can be performed. Grand Admiral Delaz has ordered that they return to Axis and effect repairs with all expediency.”

“Not like it serves a purpose anymore,” Saharin growls as the beam finally falls silent and the energy stops being a continuous font.

“Prepare for another burst in 5 minutes, let us see what’s left of the fleet when the damaged estimates are tallied.”

Destroyed
1 Corrin
2 Illuminatis
8 Dragons
7 Eagles
19 Mirages

OSNS Gwaden’s Combat Bridge

Delaz watches as the fleets reform into one combat entity, and steer clear of the mines.

“It appears the Falas sensors may be more advanced than we thought, or they may have deployed some sort of system network.”

He turns toward the communication area, “Prepare to execute attack plan zee-zee-delta, nine. Inform Admiral Garahou and Admiral Hellings they are to act as they see fit to engage after the first barrage.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

Delaz looks at the pressing LACs with a vehemence, “And tell Alpha and Beta they are to execute the Joutheri Maneuver and hit those LACs before they approach our main line.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

“It’s time we showed the Falas that we do not have to fight on equal terms with them, and show them that they will be crushed.”

The Dragons of the main fleet perform superbly, dealing with the massive wave after wave of missiles just as well as the Falas ship-mounted systems do. But they’re fire is not enough, and missiles still slip through the formation into the Corrins and Illuminatis.

Even as they take damage, the fleet moves to respond. Suddenly the fleet seems to split into three separate groups and moves to encircle the Falas fleet before them. But as they divide, 250 new missiles appear. Most of the wave consists of the best ECM platforms available to the Solar Navy, and at the formation sets missiles that are very close to being ships unto themselves. 59 Shadow Hand singularity warhead missiles fly under the deep cover of their hundreds of escorting ECM warheads, straight toward the center of the Falas formation.

But even as the three part attack continues in the form of energy and missile fire, the Alpha and Beta groups of Eagles and Mirages respond to the LAC craft harassing their rearguard area. The whole mass of light ships seems to become an inverted wave, turning literally upside down to place themselves behind the vast bulk of LACs and then fire with the full fury of their twin particle arrays and ion cannons, and by deploying 950 energy mines into the weak flanks of their opponents.

Destroyed
5 Corrins
4 Illuminatis
15 Dragons
7 Eagles
5 Mirages

OSNS Behemoth’s Bridge

“Rear Admiral Saharin! New orders from Grand Admiral Delaz, he wants an all out attack on the Falas fleet threatening the Journeyman.”

Saharin stiffens, “An all out attack….”

He whispers, and turns to Glas, the Perfect returns the gaze, eyes slightly wider than normal.

“Very well, prepare to fire the main cannon. Target the core dreadnoughts of the Falas formation and prepare for a 8 minute long sustained energy burst.”

“Yes, Rear Admiral.”

Saharin returns his gaze to the view, even as it begins to opaque. Several more missiles impact the Journeyman, and several more of De Lome’s warships die trying to defend it. The Behemoth’s other batteries rage at their enemies, impotence seeming to scream across space. But then a bright blinding beam of white-gold light erupts from the central terminus of the Behemoth, it stabs through the Falas formation encompassing everything in its pass, and raging like a tidal flood over the impellers and missiles.

“Journeyman preparing for translation, Rear Admiral. However, they report…they report that the wormhole focus and stabilization system has been damaged and rendered inoperable until repairs can be performed. Grand Admiral Delaz has ordered that they return to Axis and effect repairs with all expediency.”

“Not like it serves a purpose anymore,” Saharin growls as the beam finally falls silent and the energy stops being a continuous font.

“Prepare for another burst in 5 minutes, let us see what’s left of the fleet when the damaged estimates are tallied.”

Destroyed
1 Corrin
2 Illuminatis
8 Dragons
7 Eagles
19 Mirages

OOC: Hehe, well I figured it would come down to this eventually anyway.

IC: The LAC's turned their attention to the attacking Mirages and Eagles. THe small agile craft became twisting blurs of impellers and sidewalls, as they struggled to defend against the onslought and fight back. Grazer beams blew past ion bursts and particle beams, as the ships duelled. Main weaponry blsted at the Ortagan ships as countermissiles and PD lasers, tore at the mines as they are deployed. Explosion of ships and mines light up space, and the LAC's turn to keep their wedges between them and the exploding mines, while firing on the ortagan ships. just under 900 remain.

The dreadnought and their supports, spread out as the massive ECM signature confuses and bewilders sensors. Knowing that nothing good, would be protected by that much ECM, the ships furiously drop decoys, and throw counter-misssle and lasers at the approaching hoard. All the while their broadsides contontinue to assault the Ortagan Battleships and Battlecruisers with misisles and grazer, still strong despite their losses.

Against such a monumental amount of electronic interference, little could be done. Missiles, were taken off track, and smashed into nothing but the empty space of a decoy. Other's skewed wildly off course. In the end even the superior Falas ECM could do little, and 45 singularities burst into existence amidst the High Dominion ships.

What happened next was predictable, and as unavoidable as it was terrible. Ships tore apart and wrenched into nothingness. space contorted and ran like water, destroying dreadnoughts, cruisers, and destroyers in a fury of destruction. When the holocaust was over, A single dreadnought had survived completely intact through some quirk of the gravity distortions. The Battlecruisers and half of the remaining cruisers were gone also. 12 destroyers remained. Admiral Gearman's Flagship Falas was amongst the swirl of atoms and debris. Not a single soul from the destroyed ships survived.

Home Fleet survivors
1 DN
6 CA's
3 CL's
12 DD's

******
"My god..." exclamied Admiral Demir, as the singularities began erupting in the midst of the pride fleet of her homeland. Stunned silence fella cross the flag-bridge as the scene played out and the eventual damages ran across the displays. "29 Dreadnoughts destroyed in a single salvo."

"May the winds of the suns, be ever at their back." intoned the Sarah, the chief of staff, in the line of the ancient burial litany of High Dominion spacers.

"Admiral." interrupted a tac. officer. "We're getting energy spikes from that station behind us. 20 million joules and rising. Something's powering up."

"Hit it, now! All ships target that station. I want it gone." ordered Demir.

As the Behemoth's deadly cannon powered up for its blast, wave after wave of missiles poured from the broadsides of 3rd Fleet, as energy beams turned the space between the fleet and its attack into a corridor of golden light.

The beam fired. It carved a swath through Demir's command, as the horrendously huge energy levels, washed over the impellers, and destroyed sidewalls like tissue paper. Four Dreadnoughts were vaporized, along with 2 Battlecruisers, and 5 cruisers. Their hulls peeling like paint in the sun. Once again none survived from the damaged ships.

As damage reports flowed into the CIC of Hope Demir was already giving orders. The fleet spread apart radically increasing the distance between the ships, while still pouring fire at the Behemoth as they prepared for it's next barrage.

[u]2nd Fleet[u]
11 DN's
2 BC's
10 CA's
8 CL's
22 DD's
300 LAC's

OSNS Gwaden’s Combat Bridge

Delaz nods with grim satisfaction as his attack reduces the vaunted Falas home fleet into a bleeding and broken ruin.

“Inform Admiral Garahou and Admiral Hellings they are to move in and finish off the remaining ships of enemy home fleet. Orders still stand that there are to be no prisoners taken.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

“And inform the Fifth Fleet they are to break off and reform on the Gwaden and our Corrin core formation. I want the Fifth Fleet on an interception course with the fleet skirmishing with the Behemoth.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

As the Sixth and Seventh fleets move in like vultures on a wounded beasts, the Fifth Fleet along with Delaz’s flagship move rapidly to engage the Falas Second Fleet. As they approach, they launch a wave of 800 fusion missiles at the Falas fleet, and the Eagles and Mirages start to move ahead to enter the fray.

[b]OSNS Behemoth’s Bridge[/i]

“They’re learning at least,” Saharin says as the Falas ships scatter.

“Indeed,” Glas says.

Saharin turns, and a brief series of shudders rack the Behemoth as the attack from the Falas fleet comes.

“Damage report?”

“Gravimetric sector 38 has been overloaded, four missiles manage to get through and knock out sensor stat 402. Projection routine is being rerouted and shields are stabilized.”

“Good. I want a 10 minute firing sequence on the main cannon. Use it to box them in to the firing patterns of the heavy ion cannons and battle-lasers. They cannot dodge all this fire.”

“Yes, Rear Admiral.”

“And tell Admiral De Lome to press his own force against their flank, we’ll surround them from all sides.”

The Behemoth’s main cannon stabs through space again, trying to force the Falas ships to expose their vulnerable bows, sterns, and broadsides to the constant stream of fire from the massive “super battleships” energy weapons. On the opposite side of the fleet, Admiral De Lome’s surviving Eighth Fleet moves to engage, its Corrins and Illuminatis berating the Falas ships with increased energy and 450 fusion missiles as they close the final stretch.

OSNS Gwaden’s Combat Bridge

Delaz nods with grim satisfaction as his attack reduces the vaunted Falas home fleet into a bleeding and broken ruin.

“Inform Admiral Garahou and Admiral Hellings they are to move in and finish off the remaining ships of enemy home fleet. Orders still stand that there are to be no prisoners taken.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

“And inform the Fifth Fleet they are to break off and reform on the Gwaden and our Corrin core formation. I want the Fifth Fleet on an interception course with the fleet skirmishing with the Behemoth.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

As the Sixth and Seventh fleets move in like vultures on a wounded beasts, the Fifth Fleet along with Delaz’s flagship move rapidly to engage the Falas Second Fleet. As they approach, they launch a wave of 800 fusion missiles at the Falas fleet, and the Eagles and Mirages start to move ahead to enter the fray.

[b]OSNS Behemoth’s Bridge[/i]

“They’re learning at least,” Saharin says as the Falas ships scatter.

“Indeed,” Glas says.

Saharin turns, and a brief series of shudders rack the Behemoth as the attack from the Falas fleet comes.

“Damage report?”

“Gravimetric sector 38 has been overloaded, four missiles manage to get through and knock out sensor stat 402. Projection routine is being rerouted and shields are stabilized.”

“Good. I want a 10 minute firing sequence on the main cannon. Use it to box them in to the firing patterns of the heavy ion cannons and battle-lasers. They cannot dodge all this fire.”

“Yes, Rear Admiral.”

“And tell Admiral De Lome to press his own force against their flank, we’ll surround them from all sides.”

The Behemoth’s main cannon stabs through space again, trying to force the Falas ships to expose their vulnerable bows, sterns, and broadsides to the constant stream of fire from the massive “super battleships” energy weapons. On the opposite side of the fleet, Admiral De Lome’s surviving Eighth Fleet moves to engage, its Corrins and Illuminatis berating the Falas ships with increased energy and 450 fusion missiles as they close the final stretch.

Wow, sorry that I took so long with this post, I've had a bunch of personal issues to work out so I'm sorry about the delay Aaron. Anyway's...

OOC: Hey. I think that I'm not picturing the battlefield the same way that you are, can you give me the positions of the flet's as you are invisioning them? I picture the Behemoth as farthest from the planet, then my 3rd Fleet. After that comes the Journeyman fleet, then the rapidly approaching Battleships, with the battleships and the journeyman fleet approaching 3rd fleet from 90 degree angles.
Oh yes, and now a quote..."Captain, he is inexperienced, his plans indicate...2 dimensional thinking." -Captain Spock, commenting on Kahn's starship piloting in Star Trek 2 "The Wrath of Kahn".

IC: Commodore Sails of CruRon4 hauled himself to his feet and back into his command chair aboard the flag-bridge of the Heavy Cruiser Madrigal. He was the only surviving flag officer of Home Fleet. 6 admiral and commodores had been killed when their ships were engulfed in the deadly gravity fields of the singularities, that the Ortagans had brutally unleashed upon their enemies.

"Commander, get what's left of Home Fleet, organized now! We will reform into defensive pattern Beta-2 and make for Admiral, Sarnow's 3rd Fleet. We can't affect the battle in our current strength." he ordered to his bedraggled command staff, as the orders began to fly.

The cruisers and destroyers which remained of Home Fleet formed a defensive screen, along with the surviving LAC's, around the single remaining dreadnought. The ships charted a course towards the approaching, but still hours off, 3rd Fleet, and powered to full acceleration, spewing missiles, at the ortagan vessels as the powered away from them.

******
Admiral Demir recieved the commodores message, as to his intention to join 3rd Fleet, and sadly agreed, 3rd Fleet would likely be the last defense of the system, when it came down to the end, and Sarnow would need all the help he could get.

The massive beam of the Behemoth lanced space to the left of 3rd Fleet. The missiles of the Corrins were completely ineffective, being old-style nuclear warheads they stood no chance at all against modern point-defense systems, every last one was destroyed, before it reached its detonation range of a few hundred kilometers.

As the Corrins closed in attempting to back 3rd Fleet up against the wall of energy spewing from the Behemoth, Admiral Demir could not believe that the Ortagan admiral was actually trying to pull it off.
"I don't believe it, how could the Ortagan's have reached such a pinaccle of conquest with such incompetent commanders!? Lieutenant Mornon, order a fleet-wide 90 degree "nose-up" maneuver, and proceed on new heading 90.0.0 degrees." she ordered.

As one, 3rd fleet turned to put their ship's noses straight up relative to the system plane, and powered forward, easily gettiing out from between the energy beam and the approaching Ortagan vessels. The ships continued to spew thousands of missiles at the Behemoth, but as they rose their open aft impeller aspects, began to enter energy line of sight. just as the ships reached the danger point, They span turned once again become "level" relative to the system plane, and pointed their wedges once again at the remaining ships of the Journeyman's escort, to continue to pour thousands of blasts of Laser, Grazer, and missile fire at the [/i]Behemoth[/i]. The energy cannons of Saharin's "Super-Battleship." penetrate sidewalls in several places causing damage alarms to scream in protest, but no ships died.

OSNS Gwaden’s Combat Bridge

As the Gwaden makes its final set of course corrections to bring itself dead onto the now inverted Falas warships, Delaz allows himself a small smile. The 6th and 7th fleets continue their sparring with the few survivors of the once-impressive Home Fleet of Falasmayon. The attacks from the embattled survivors is laughable, and the larger fleets are focusing most of their attack on eliminating the single surviving dreadnought.

But on the other front, the Falas commander as behaved exactly as Delaz knew he would and fallen into his illusion perfectly.

“Detach all our Eagles and Mirages, instruct Admiral De Lome to do the same. They are to execute assault pattern Grider. Have the rest of the fleet form up and go to max acceleration with full barrage at targets of opportunity.”

“Yes, Grand Admiral.”

The attack from the Falas fleet continues to pound against the Behemoth as the full scope of Delaz’s maneuver comes into play. Suddenly all the Eagles and Mirages of the 5th and 8th fleets streak away in double-burst acceleration thrusts. They break off moving rapidly above and below the Falas formation, and prepare for a slaughter.

The massive cones of fast attack ships spiral like a swarm of hornets or an oncoming wave of scything cavalry. The two groups are joined by the Corrins’ storm of fighters and seconds later begin to descend and ascend from opposite ends flying to meet at the center of the Falas formation. They now unleash a hail of fire from their energy batteries, followed by several waves of energy mines, and missiles into the unprotected aft and fore quarters of the Falas impeller driven warships.

As they move from the polar ends of the Falas formation, the 5th and 8th fleets spread out, hammering at the thin profiles of the Falas ships with all they have and matching ascent speeds. Meanwhile the massive Behemoth completes the real encirclement pattern Delaz had envisioned.

OSNS Behemoth’s Bridge

Ginias Saharin watches with detached interest as the Falas fleet hammers at the massive gravimetric shield of the Behemoth.

“Cut all power from the main cannon and redirect it to increase the power of the forward shields in sections A, D, F, and G.”

“Yes, Rear Admiral.”

“And reconfigure firing patterns on our battle-lasers and pulse cannons to deal with the missiles. Set for continuous beam fire and leave the ships to the heavy ion and ion cannons. Finally, give the fighters orders to scramble and intercept missiles at will.”

“Yes, Rear Admiral.”

Saharin watches as the firing patterns of the Behemoth change and continous angry slashes of golden light carve into the swarm of