The First Strike [Archive]

Vernii

11-06-2004, 04:41

The space above Vernii was a flurry of activity. Pinnaces carrying flag officers to their ships, cargo shuttles carrying equipment and supplies, and ammunition ships transferring missiles to waiting warships.

The orbital forts began their daily orbit adjustment, and courier boats came and went. The last flight of cargo shuttles was just leaving Empyrean's boat bays as Fleet Admiral Harris's VIP pinnace arrived.

There was only a small side party waiting for him as he had requested. Captain Hallock, CO of the superdreadnought, was waiting for him. Hallock saluted as Harris stepped out of the pinnace. "Welcome aboard Admiral. It's good to see you."

Harris returned the salute, "Indeed. I must admit I've been almost looking forward to this moment."
---
Home Fleet coasted silently in it's orbit over Vernii, but here and there squadrons of ships would pull out of formation, heading for L4.

TF 1.2 accelerated past the assembled warships, strangely led by a something new to the People's Navy, a carrier. It passed through the system, reached the hyper limit, and translated.

TF 1.1 was next, it's departure calculated so that it and 1.2 would reach their target systems simultaneously.

Second Fleet came last, a long procession of Verniian dreadnoughts, superdreadnoughts, and Erewohnian battleships, with a few warships from the Commonwealth Navy mixed in. Harris stood on the flag bridge of Empyrean, watching the huge holoplot set into the center of the room. The superdreadnought was in the center of the formation, and dots in the holoplot began disappearing as the lead ships translated into hyper. Finally came the superdreadnoughts turn, and it too vanished.

Behind the departing warships another wave of courier boats left the system, carrying news and messages to Acler, Klein, Morningstar, Erewohn, and Thetis. Behind them, almost as an afterthought, two sleek yachts entered orbit, Corona and Bucintoro. They carried the families of the President and his Cabinet. They left the system, hopefully carrying their passengers to safety from the coming war.

Muktar

11-06-2004, 04:43

All the crazy people in Muktar suddenly say, as one:
"Oh... s***."
This is going to get ugly...

Skeelzania

11-06-2004, 04:50

[tag]

Vernii

11-06-2004, 05:16

A courier boat flashed into existence at the edge of the Sol system. Stored in it's databanks was a recorded speech by President Calimar, for distribution by the various news networks in the system.

"Citizens and governments of Sol, today the People's Republic of Vernii has begun military operations against the Star Empire of Valinon and the Gregor Sector Alliance. Regardless of appearances to the contrary, this is not an unprovoked assault. Within the last week, the government of Valinon positioned a third of it's Star Armada in the Alliance system of Yalta, within quick striking distance of Vernii and it's protectorate systems. At the same time, rumors of a new Valinor/New Ortaga agreement were substantiated. The buildup in Yalta is the preparation for an assault upon Vernii and the worlds of the Triple Alliance.

The goal of the agreement was not simple trade or territorial concessions, it seeks to occupy our very worlds, to land foreign troops upon our soil. Unlike what they may have thought of us, we will not sit idly by waiting for our slaughter. We are striking first to remove their presence from Yalta, and to end the threat to the Triple Alliance."

Taka

11-06-2004, 05:29

<<tag>>

Vernii

11-06-2004, 06:07

OOC: Forgot to mention, that the post above would take place one day after the courier left, so does this post.

Second Fleet
A chime sounded in Harris's spacious cabin. "Admiral, we'll be entering Yalta in ten minutes."
"Thank you Lieutenant, I'm on my way to the flag bridge." He set down the novel he'd been reading, and began buttoning his uniform. Alarms began to sound through the mammoth ship as it upgraded to Combat Alert, one step below Battle Stations. Second Fleet began it's downward translation from the Zeta grav band to the Beta.
---
Task Force 1.1
"Five minutes Admiral."
"Acknowledged.
Rear Admiral Barker sat tensely in his seat on the command deck of Black Prince. The elderly battleship had been seriously damaged in the Second Battle of Yalta back in the previous war, enough so that it had needed to almost be rebuilt. During the process it was decided to modify it to the Triumphant-A design, gutting most of it's energy armament for missile tubes. The other seven ships in the squadron were also of the same class, including Triumphant and Danton, second ships of the name after their originals were lost at Yalta.
---
Task Force 1.2
"Thirty seconds to Beta translation."
The Hydra class carrier could have been mistaken for a dreadnought by a casual observer. Anyone with experience with warships would note the most obvious difference, instead of broadside energy weapons and missile tubes, it had launch bays. It and it's sister were the largest ships in the taskforce, along with another Commonwealth carrier and a squadron of Erewohnian battleships, plus escorts of course.
---
"Translating to real-space now."
---
OPERATION: TROJAN
Yalta
VNS Mandrake
"Here they come! Hyper translations, looks like the fleet's right on time!"
"Excellent, load missile tubes, open up aft cargo doors, deploy the shuttles and roll pods."
The three Polaris class Q-ships orbited over Yalta, looking and acting like any other freighter on the trade routes.
Cargo doors opened on each, and a cargo shuttle floated from each one. Unlike a normal shuttle, each was unmanned, slaved to the Q-ships' computers. Each also carried a 25 megaton warhead inside, and their inertial compensators had been taken offline. They entered a standard orbital insertion path. The shuttles themselves would probably prove useless, but their launch had disguised the real reason behind the cargo doors opening.

Missile pods ejected from the rear of each Q-ship. They weren't the normal missile pods used by the People's Navy, they had each been coated in a layer of a special material, designed to absorb and scatter incoming sensors pulses. If the battle computers hadn't already known their locations and paths, they would have been hard pressed to find them.
Five waves of pods ejected from each ship, six pods in each wave, ten missiles per pod. They coasted through space until the last wave reached a safe distance a few hundred kilometers away, then they all fired as one. 1,800 missiles erupted from them, toward the nearest enemy targets. Even as they began their flight, another twenty five fired from the broadside missile tubes of each Q-ship, 150 in all. They too had no specific targets, simply streaking toward the nearest enemy warship, Valinor or Yaltan. Hatches opened on the sides, and thirty 250cm lasers smashed into their targets. The first shots of the war had just been fired.

OOC: There's also another four Erewohnian Q-ships each in Yalta, Stocurm, and Madras, but that's for Erewohn to post.

The WIck

11-06-2004, 07:00

Prime Minister Mike Sterns was not a warrior. Little more then fifty years prior to this moment like all Wickians he was a slave, to the Vagrant Overlords. The Rebellion freed his people from that hellish existence. The one thing he would not allow, could not allow would be the reoccupation of Thetis, and a new enslavement of his people. No like any cornered boar the Commonwealth Navy and her allies would charge their enemy, in a fit of rage hoping to do harm to their enemies who wish only to hunt them down.
---
Admiral Vigilance stood off to the side of a display which showed the distribution of forces across the entire Raumreich.
"We have three main goals in this First Strike. The first will be to support the raids the People's Navy and the Erehonesse will be committing in nearly all the systems of the GSA. They have incorporated a lance of our new Valkarie class carriers into the strike on Yalta, along with a flotilla of Fraternity-P class Battle Cruisers and escorts. Smaller detachments of the CN will be used in the raids on Madras and Stocrum. The second goal of the operation will be carried out by Vice Admiral Covington and that is the raid on the Cronos system. She will be hitting the system with enough force to due substantial harm to its defenders at that point she will consolidate her fleet at the new Ticonderoga base on our eastern flank half way between Thetis and Cronos. The final goal will be given into Rear Admiral of the Red Sir Eric Strength hands to complete. As you know sir Valinon has a base in the Yetti Star System, we suspect it is where his telepaths corps is stationed. As you can tell with the occupation of this system we will have a solid left flank, a stalwart to any attack from that direction. With Erewhon to the north and Ticonderoga to the east we will be able to commit more of our forces to any offensive engagement, Thetis will be secure.”
“A sound plan admiral, hopefully we can cripple our enemy for a time with it and also consolidate our own territorial defenses, we were forced into this, it was attack or be attacked, we could not afford to be attacked”.
“The Vernii say the same I just hope we have not awakened the fury of a dragon…
---
At H-Hour, the same time the Vernii Q-Ship strikes were occurring in the GSA, a fleet transitioned from hyperspace at the hyper limit of Cronos. The Wall that formed consisted 4 Super-Dreadnaughts, 16 Dreadnaughts, 12 Battleships, 8 Battle Cruisers and about 40 screening units.
A single message was sent to those military units in the system,
“I am Vice Admiral Lady Dame Covington of the Commonwealth Navy, a state of War exists between the GSA and the Triple Alliance from this day forth. We have come to this system to execute it.” With that the ships begin moving in system at 350 gravities.
---
The same occurred in the Yetti Star system, at the same time, 2 SD, 8 CLAC-BB, 6 BC, with 30 screening units. Except Rear Admiral Strength was a little less diplomatic with his message to the occupants of the system:
An image of a one armed man whose face was a littered with burn scars on its right side gave this message “My name is Strength, you can leave this system or die, I do hope you pick the latter.”

Valinon

11-06-2004, 23:19

Yalta System

The Yaltan space navy and the Star Armada cruiser picket around Yalta itself are caught complete flat-footed. The missiles and the lasers flare against the core naval strength of the YSN, and the Armada picket assigned to the planetary defense effort. Counter-missiles and point defense lasers streak away from the vessels, stabbing at the oncoming horde of missiles coming against them.
DOS drones scatter away from the Valinor ships in range of the Q-ships in vain. The explosions fill the space around the planet moments later as the ships of the two navies perish in a firestorm of missile explosions, reactor overloads, and concentrated damage.
As the dust clears, and damage reports scream into orbital and ground based command centers, a transmission lights across the Nu-space network headed toward Alpha Centauri. To alert the Imperial High Command that the war has begun.

Remaining ships in Yaltan orbit
YSN
8 SDs
4 DNs
12 BCs
9 CAs
4 CLs
13 DDs

Star Armada
4 CAs
2 CLs
1 DD

**********

Admiral Matthew von Heinlien, commander of the newly created Second Fleet of the Star Armada, graps his hands behind his back. He grasps them with such force that they turn pale from lack of blood circulation.
He eyes the chaos in orbit over Yalta, the combined forces in the system are easily close to seventy-five percent. In a matter of minutes, the years of build up to the YSN has been completely butchered, and the Q-ships now are poised to begin hammering away at Yaltan orbital infrastructure.
Von Heinlien turns as a young officer approaches, his eyes sweep over the bridge of the Athena-class SD(P) HMS Herrschaft. The man comes to attention and salutes.
"Admiral, we have multiple ships in bound from hyperspace. They are coming across the alpha wall at the system's hyper limit. We have positive identification from the sensor net that the ships are of mostly Verniian make, some with Erewohnese transponders, and several other ships with Wickian transponders."
Von Heinlien nods, "Thank you, Leutnant. Kapitan Hearths!"
"Yes, sir?"
"I will be retiring to the flag bridge and assume command of the fleet their. In the mean time bring my flagship to full military power and set a course to intercept the inbound enemy fleet. Signal the rest of Second and tell them to enter formation around the Herrschaft and prepare to do the same. Signal to all Athenas and pod carrying ships that they are to roll out initial waves of pods, and have the DOS network online and operational in no less than two minutes."
"Aye, sir."
Von Heinlien sweeps across the super-dreadnought's bridge, he pauses for a moment at the ship's communications station. He looks at the young Matrose working the station.
He draws out a comp-pad and hands a disc from it to the Matrose.
"Sir!" the young sailor says as he accepts the disc.
"Transmit that message to the letter, under encrypt Vermillion."
"....Aye, sir..."the young man looks nervous as the admiral turns away. Vermillion is the highest level of communication possible in the Star Empire's armed forces. He looks at the text. The message is concise:

To: Grossadmiral Sir Quentin Forrest, First Star Lord
From: Admiral Michael von Heinlien, Commanding His Majesty's Second Fleet
Subject: Operations Within the Yalta System and the Gregor Sector Alliance

Sir,

It is my sad duty to inform you that at this time forces of the Triple Alliance have moved to attack Yalta. Details on the enemy force's content and engagement patterns will be attached to this message by the on-duty officer. At this time I am moving to execute the manuvers required of my command and myself under the direction of Operation Deception Point, Blue Conditions. I will await your further commands and instructions upon your arrival.

**********

Four hundred seventy-five light years away in the binary star system of Alpha Centauri, Grossadmiral Forrest sits on the flag bridge of the HMS Krieger, another Athena-class SD(P). He looks up at Kapitan zur Sternen Norton Severn, his long-time aide and chief of staff. He reads the context of the simple message over, then turns to the flag bridge's communication section.
"All ship broadcast. First Fleet Task Force Alpha is to move under full military power to the Alpha Centauri/Yalta system wormhole junction and prepare to cross the alpha wall. Formation is to be under Operation Deception Point, blue conditions. Signal Sanctuary and tell them to alert appropriate command structure and ministries under Operation Deception Point, Orange Conditions. Inform Task Force Beta they are to wait until the wormhole stabilizes and then move to reinforce our position in the Yaltan system."
"Yes, Sir."

**********

As chaos rains over the Yaltan homeworld, the Mobile LRES system moves to acquire its new hostile targets, even as the remaining warships reform to attack the Q-ships. 180 drones of the LRES scramble toward the Q-ships, sending 1440 missiles per minute at the Q-ships, and a fire from their fire-linked pairs of 150-centimeter grazers into the Q-ships. Meanwhile the planet's G.O.D. satellites scramble their DOS screens, and begin to assess engagement patterns on the incoming enemy fleet. Even as von Heinlien's command moves to intercept.

Vernii

12-06-2004, 00:57

Vernii

12-06-2004, 01:20

OOC: Since Erewohn is lazy as hell about posting, I'm going to control his forces for this battle until he posts.

CM canisters streaked from the Q-ships even as another wave of pods ejected and fired, 180 missiles this time. Missile tubes finished reloading and fired, sending another 150 into the survivors of the first salvo. The canisters cleared the sidewalls and broke open, firing off five counter-missiles each. The massive amounts of the counter-missiles being put into space by the seven Q-ships destroyed over half the incoming missiles, and PD laser clusters finished off another about another eighty each. Mandrake was hit by twenty, and the ship shuddered as lasers tore at it's sidewalls. Three laser mounts vanished along with eight missile tubes. Candice suffered worse, losing a sidewall generator and ten tubes. A secondary generator came online to shore up the sidewall. New Orleans fared the best, losing five tubes and a laser. Laser fire shot from them, ripping at the LRES drones as the return graser fire from the drones punched out several more missile tubes and sensors.

The older Vega class Erewohnese ships fared worse, one lost almost it's entire port broadside, another lost a third of it's weapons. The other two suffered moderate damage. Being an older design, they weren't equipped with missile pods, but they could still fight back. Missiles fired from them, 108 in all, aiming for Yalta's orbital infrastructure. Cargo hatches on their ventral surfaces opened, and six LACs launched from each, charging into battle and firing off their box launchers at any opportune targets before closing to energy range with their single lasers.
---
Second Fleet finished it's transition from hyper and formed into wall formation. It was the largest force ever assembled by the People's Navy for an offensive. Ten superdreadnoughts lay at the heart of the wall, surrounded by fourty eight dreadnoughts and sixteen battleships. The six CLACs and sixteen battlecruisers were positioned behind it, and just over a hundred escorts took up screening positions around the capital ships. There was something different about them then before though. Each of the capital ships had a ridge running down the centerline between their fore and aft impeller rings, on both the ventral and dorsal surfaces. Missile pods trailed astern each of the battleships and dreadnoughts.

Harris stepped off the lift onto the flag bridge of his superdreadnought and walked over to his command chair. "Bring our accel up to 350 Gs, set course for Yalta." He looked over at his Chief of Staff, "I want to punch out what's left of the YSN before hitting the terminus. This has been a long time coming."

Madras and Stocurm
Task Forces 1.1 and 1.2 finished their hyper translations. The force at Madras consisted of a two squadrons of Verniian and Erewohnese battleships, two squadrons of battlecruisers, four CN and Verniian carriers, and their escorts. TF 1.2 at Stocurm consisted of a squadron of Erewohnese battleships, another four carriers, another two squadrons of battlecruisers, and their escorts. Each capital ship also sported the same ridges, and missile pods also trailed astern each battleship, CLAC, battlecruiser, and CVE.

As they translated from hyper, the four Erewohnese Q-ships and single Polaris over each world opened fire. Pods rolled, missiles streaked to their targets, and lasers hammered away.

EDIT: Added in a better description with the Q-ships, and made Second Fleet's layout clearer.

The WIck

12-06-2004, 02:08

Rear Admiral Vanessa Defiance sat in here command chair in the flag bridge of the Fraternity class Battle cruiser Griffin. She looked at her tactical officer, he like the rest of the crew were prepared for battle dressed in the formfitting green and blue skin suits of the Commonwealth Navy.
"Ma'am its seems like theirs a lot of confusion in the Yaltan skies. There’s thousand of missiles being thrown about, but it appears that their Wall has formed and is moving to intercept our fleet. I can't be sure of their numbers but i can estimate it to be 12 to 15 of the wall with a dozen BC's and near 25 escorts."
"We know our duty, lets be about it..."
---
Numerous objects departed from the Wickian Wall of battle in Cronos. The RD Drones rapidly made their way to the inner system to gather information on what ever enemy forced waited there. A keen observer would notice something different with the four Super-Dreadnaughts a long ridge ran the length of its hull. Its purpose would be clear soon enough, of course all the ships towed missile pods... 20 for SD, 12 for DN 8 for a BC 4 for a CA/ each pod contain 12 Capital Ship class missiles.

Valinon

12-06-2004, 20:30

Forrest watches as reports move across the Nu-space network, keeping him constantly up-to-date on the size of the enemy fleet arriving into the Yalta system. His own force rapidly approaches the Alpha Centauri side of the wormhole terminus.
"Three minutes until we cross the event horizon, sir!" says the astronavigation officer on the tactical officer. "All ships have reported in with Warshawski sails deployed. Task Force Alpha is ready to proceed through the terminus as planned."
"How long will the terminus be deestablized for?"
"One hour, thirty-six minutes, fifty-two seconds, sir."
"Acceptable. Signal the fleet, inform them we will move to meet up with Admiral von Heinlien's force once we clear the terminus."
"Aye, sir."
With that the ships of Task Force Alpha of the Valinor Fatherland Defense Fleet prepare to move through the wormhole terminus, and give the force commanded by Admiral Harris a most unwelcomed surprise.

**********

A few minutes later the last of Forrest's command completes its journey through the terminus. Sensors across the system scream with the flares from the sails as they begin to redeploy into standard impeller wedges. The elaborate trap laid out by Forrest is about to be sprung.
He takes a deep breath, allowing his head a moment to clear.
"Send the signal to the Mobile LRES and laser mines around the Yalta system. Have them armed and the Ortagan Skipper systems brought online. I want sectors thirty-six, thirty-nine, and forty-two ready to engage the enemy fleet when they try and breech the system perimeter."

Task Force Alpha
8 SD(P)s
4 DN(P)s
24 DNs
24 BCs
6 SCLACs
6 CLACs
45 CAs
78 CLs
82 DDs

**********

Chaos continues to rain over Yalta as the hulks of partially completed ships in the Yaltan shipyards find themselves smote by incoming missiles. They die before having even being "born." Totaled almost 40,000,000 million tons are lost. The planet's G.O.D. satellites find themselves hard press to engage and handle the oncoming enemy fire, at least forty-five percent of the defensive network is destroyed before even firing a shot. The remaining satellites move rapidly to reposition themselves and assist the struggling LRES first response satellites.
Meanwhile, the survivors of the Yaltan Space Navy and the Armada picket try desperately to form up and engage their opponents. Vice Admiral Michael Janviers, finds himself in command of the YSN, with the death of most the YSN's command staff when the super-dreadnought Razor's Kiss was obliterated by the Q-ship strike.
"Enemy fleet coming in-system to engage, sir," says a panicing crewman. "Admiral von Heinlien is moving to intercept from the terminus zone."
"LRES system trying to reform near Lagrange point L5, sir1 AIs are trying to compensate and combine next salvo with the G.O.D. satellites!"
"Incoming LACs from Q-ships! They're attacking our remaining destroyer screen. YNS Vulture has been destroyed, the Othello reports loss of starboard side sidewall generators."
Janviers shakes his head, clearing the slowness from his mind, "Have our wall move to engage those Verniian Q-ships, those are the really enemy! I want firing solutions on those ships now!"
The YSN tries in vain to fight back, knowing that even as it faces its more immediate foe, a far greater one is breathing down its neck.
The combined fire of the surviving LRES and G.O.D. satellites pump 1,855 missiles at the Vega class Q-ships ravaging the orbital yards. Meanwhile the hastily assembled Yaltan wall of battle, under the cover of the surviving Valinor ship's DOS network, moves against the Verniian ships. Their salvo sends 955 missiles into the Q-ship formation, followed by stabs of energy as they close the range between themselves and their enemies.

Remaining ships in Yaltan orbit
YSN
8 SDs
4 DNs
11 BCs
7 CAs
2 CLs
11 DDs

Star Armada
4 CAs
1 CLs
1 DD

Auman

12-06-2004, 23:38

OOC

This is probably not going to end well for Vernii and the gang

Knootoss

13-06-2004, 00:08

#valinon-supporting tag#

And Vernii... you are in bloody KIST with Valinon... one would think economic interests etc would stop you from random attacks on trade partners. *sigh*

Vernii

13-06-2004, 00:24

#valinon-supporting tag#

And Vernii... you are in bloody KIST with Valinon... one would think economic interests etc would stop you from random attacks on trade partners. *sigh*

Hey, it's not a random attack. We've been building up to this for months in a cold war. The thing that finally pulled the trigger was me finding out about the new Valinon/New Ortagan agreement. The ironic thing is that our nations are actually a lot alike, although that's what spawned the conflict (competing territorial and economic interests).

Vernii

13-06-2004, 01:55

The sidewalls on the Erewohnese Q-ships bent and degraded the volley of x-ray lasers that got through, but it was too much. Two of them vanished in flashes of light and debris as damage overloaded their reactors. A third ship lost it's bow in a magazine explosion. Escape pods shot from it as the hulk plunged down towards Yalta. The fourth rolled to interpose it's ventral wedge against incoming fire and pulled out of it's orbit, trying to evade action. The LACs continued their mad rampage through Yalta's orbitals, strafing away with their lasers at whatever targets presented themselves.

Candice found itself hurting, badly. Fourty missiles got past it's point defenses and lasers from them and the YSN hammered into it. Atmosphere streamed from the mangled warship's torn sides, crewmen died as battle steel splinters from the hull screamed through their compartments, and impeller nodes were torn apart. Several more missile tubes were destroyed, and the wounded vessel rolled to present it's wedge to it's tormentors and pulled out of formation, it's surviving broadside and PD lasers firing madly at the swarming LRES drones. Another wave of pods ejected from Mandrake and New Orleans, and their broadside lasers and missile tubes fired back defiantly at the YSN. They took their hits in return, losing most of their starboard broadside weapons, and began to rotate to present their port sides.
---
"Admiral, it appears the Valinor are reinforcing the terminus."
Glowing red dots appeared in the master tactical holoplot.
"So it would seem, increase accel to 375 Gs, keep on course for Yalta. Oh, give the Valinor fleet a single ping, full power, and begin deploying EW drones."

The Empyrean's radar fired off a single powerful "ping" toward the Valinor fleet, an unmistakable challenge to the Valinor admiral. Jamming and ECM systems came online as EW drones began firing from launchers, bringing up their wedges to mimic the emissions of actual warships, doubling the amount of contacts on enemy sensors as ships began slightly altering their courses in conjunction with the EW pods, to further confuse enemy targetting systems.

Valinon

13-06-2004, 22:10

The Yaltan screen for its ships of the wall is rapidly thinning. A destroyer vanishes in an explosion, its missile magazine touched off by an errant Verniian missile. One of the surviving light cruisers, the Cassius careens out of formation, debris trailing from its crippled broadside. It struggles to impose its bottom impeller wedge into the enemy's fire. Several other ships take damage from the Q-ships continued attack.
Vice Admiral Janviers watches as his surviving fleet takes its heaviest loss yet, already stricken dreadnought Ducal Armsman is siloutted by an explosion. When it vanishes, her broadside is a bleeding wreck. A pair of destroyers move rapidly to cover the crippled dreadnought as her acceleration bleeds off.
"Continue engagement!" Janviers shouts. "We must eliminate those Q-ships. Have all super-dreadnoughts form up on the Hammerhead and prepare to deliver a full broadside."
"Sir! Reports from the Valinor picket survivors! They're breaking off to intercept the LACs attacking the orbitals."
"What! No! Tell them to stay in formation, damn it!"
"No reply, sir. Valinor warships accelerating toward yards."
Janviers watches his plot as the surviving Valinor warships streak off in pursuit of the LACs hitting Yalta's orbitals, a destroyer at the front.
"Damn them!" Janviers shouts as 988 missiles fly toward the Q-ships from the YSN warships. Meanwhile, the retargeted LRES manages to release an additional 355 missiles, and its G.O.D. heavier cousins 475.

Surviving Vessels
8 SDs
3 combat effective DNs
10 Battlecruisers
7 CAs
1 CL
10 DDs

OOC: More to come later, must run.

Valinon

14-06-2004, 03:30

Yalta System

Forrest's mouth twitches as the flag bridge's sensor officer tears his headset off. The screech of his instruments pierces the calm of the nerve center of Task Force Alpha.
"Status?" Forrest says quickly.
"We were just pinged, sir. And the enemy fleet just started throwing up EW drones. Our sensors are getting limited."
"What about the feed from the inner system network?"
"Relatively clear, sir. But still at least a forty-five percent improvement in ECM capabilities since the last engagement at Gregor."
"Are the enemy vessels in range of the outer perimeter yet?"
"Yes, Admiral. They are clearing the outer sectors now."
"Perfect," Forrest says. "Comm, give the signal to the outer mines. Set their details to 344-78-Zeta. Time to see how well the Verniians do with our first surprise."
"Aye, sir."
Forrest turns his attentions back to his own displays and the flag bridge's main Nu-space updated holographic displays. Suddenly the area where the Verniian/Wickian fleet is passing fills with green. 475 mines activate, dropping the cloak of stealth they enjoyed with Ortagan designed Skipper systems and open fire. They dump 987 X-ray laser warheads into the enemy formation. Another wave of gold dots comes online, far fewer than the earlier mines. They streak inward toward the Verniian formation, moving rapidly to close with the deploying EW drones. Suddenly 148 5.4-gigaton fusion warhead explosions rip into the Verniian formation. Looking for soft kills on the enemy's EW drones, reconnaissance drones, and vulnerable missile pods.

Madras System

Greater confusion reigns in the Republican Star Navy than that of their Yaltan allies. The RSN had been largely in orbit at the time of the attack. Finishing a series of orbital defense drills when the Q-ships attacked. Cruisers, destroyers, battlecruisers, and even dreadnoughts disappear as the surprise attack rips into warships largely on stand-down. Their crews seeking rest after hard war games under the demanding Fleet Admiral Daniel Coronel.
In short order, close to two-thirds of the RSN's order of battle is eliminated. The remainder, moves rapidly to break orbit and form up to engage the Q-ships.
Fleet Admiral Coronel takes command from the dreadnought Garland, and moves rapidly to form up his wall to engage. Five dreadnoughts and thirteen battlecruisers form the surviving core of the RSN's main order of battle. They are screened by a paltry number of cruisers and destroyers--totaling eight heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and just sixteen destroyers.
Coronel's command spits out a return fire of 913 missiles, as the planet's G.O.D. satellites reposition themselves to engage.

Stocurm System

The Stocur System Defense Force never stood a chance against the assault hurled against it. Before the attack, the SSDF had only consisted of sixteen fully operational battlecruisers, nineteen heavy cruisers, fourteen light cruisers, and twenty-four destroyers. In orbit over Stocur itself were the sixteen battlecruisers, seventeen heavy cruisers, ten light cruisers, and thirteen destroyers. By the time the first Q-ship salvo is finished, only nine battlecruisers remain. They're screening force has been reduced to six heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and two destroyers.
As the battlecruisers move to interpose themselves between the Q-ships and the shipyards--where four nearly completed battlecruisers lie--the ships on the outer system turn to return to Stocur. Only to find themselves square in the sights of Task Force 1.2. The two heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, and eleven destroyers seem paltry next to the massive wave of tonnage bearing down upon them.

Vernii

14-06-2004, 05:04

Yalta
Smoke wafted the bridge of Mandrake as air scrubbers fought to clean it. Commodore Sturden coughed, then looked over at the ship's captain as the next Yaltan salvo appeared on the plots.
"Well Francis, I think this time they got us."
The last Erewohnese Q-ship explodes in a flash of light as it's reactor overloads. Candice soon joined it, and New Orleans broke in half as a magazine exploded. Mandrake completed it's roll to port as missiles dashed in on it, and locked it's lasers onto a Yaltan battlecruiser, trying to take the ship with it as it died. A few seconds later, Mandrake's forward magazine exploded, shredding the bow third of it's hull open to space. It's reactors shut down to avoid overload, and the ship began to tumble from orbit as escape pods spilled from it.
---
Point defense computers automatically began launching CM canisters as the missile signatures appeared on the plots. The canisters burst open after passing through the "gunports" in the sidewalls, and five counter-missiles shot from each. Half the incoming missiles got through the wave of counter-missiles, and several hundred more died as they entered the range of the PD lasers. Twenty from the first wave got through, and several destroyers took light damage. Fifteen fusion warheads got through, and several dozen EW drones and towed missile pods disappeared.

Return missile fire shot from the Second Fleet's screening units at the mines as the destroyers and cruisers opened fire. Second Fleet continued on toward Yalta. A second wave of EW drones fired from the Verniian warships to replace the ones that had been lost.
"Bring every ECM system we have online, now!" Harris ordered.
---
Madras
"Form up into formation, bring accel up to 390 Gs." Rear Admiral Barker ordered. The Q-ship's missiles were showing up on gravitics, and he smiled as yet another salvo of missiles fired from the Q-ships.

Ten to twenty hits were scored on each Q-ship, inflicting light to moderate damage. Laser fire shot from them, targetted at the orbitals above Madras.
---
Stocurm
"Enemy contacts! Range: 850,000 klicks. CIC identifies them as a pair of CAs, lance of CLs, and almost a dozen tin cans."
Rear Admiral Deville smiled, "Send the order to fire."
The battlecruises and battleships hauled around to present their broadsides to the unforunate Stocur vessels. 568 missiles shot from their tubes. The impeller missiles screamed through space towards their targets.

Another wave of pods ejected from the Polaris, and missiles spat from the broadside tubes of all five ships. They concentrated upon the surviving Stocur escorts.

Valinon

14-06-2004, 16:01

Yalta System

Janviers watches as one of his surviving battlecruisers suddenly vents atmosphere from its starboard broadside. He clenches his fist and rams it against his leg. Losses cannot be tolerated, even at the current acceleration of the incoming Armada main force, they cannot reinforce Yalta in time.
"Form up the ship near Lagrange point five! We'll take the battle to the enemy as soon as we are in formation. What word do we have from the Armada vessels?"
"Grossadmiral Forrest says that he will continue minefield engagement. He recommends that you try and break orbit and elude engagement with the enemy. Further recommends moving at full speed on nav point 5556-A, swing around and prepare to rendezvous with this forces."
"Forrest.....," Janviers voice trails off for a moment. The name of Valinon's best naval commander strikes something inside of him. "No, I will not do it. Inform Grossadmiral Forrest I am going to offer engagement to the enemy. I will hold the engagement for a minimum of three salvos, then break to meet off with him."
"Aye, sir."
The surviving forces of the Yaltan Space Navy form up, their missiles, lasers, and grasers and being brought to bear as the Triple Alliance fleet bearing on them closes into firing range.

**********

Forrest's eyes grow cold, "The fool," he mummers. "They will be destroyed if he engages the Verniians now."
He looks away from the displays, "Activate the second wave of mines! Signal to Admiral von Heinlien. Tell him he is to cut his acceleration to 455 gravities until we overtake him and combine forces. Time until interception?"
"At current speeds the enemy fleet will enter our missile envelope in thirty-two minutes."
"Start rolling the first wave of pods at sixteen minutes until they enter the envelope."
"Aye, sir."
As the Valinor warships continue to move toward the assaulting Verniian/Wickian fleet, the second wave of mines activates. This time 976 laser warhead mines, 113 nuclear equipped mines, and ninety EMP mines come on line. The displays are suddenly filled with a swarm of green that rapidly doubles, triples, and then quadruples. 1234 x-ray warheads streak into the enemy formation, followed by 212 EMP missiles, and 347 nuclear warheads. The space around the enemy fleet soon fills with the explosions of fire and counter-fire.

Madras System

Coronel watches as his sensors alert him to the arrival of the larger fleet bearing down on his homeworld.
"Activate the G.O.D. network, and what has been deployed of the LRES. Have our lunar stations scramble their LAC groups. Then bring the fleet about, we will move at full speed to engage the enemy force coming in. I want an interception at Lagrange point three now!"
Coronel's command spits a parting salvo of 945 missiles before moving to disengage from orbit and move against the oncoming enemy fleet. Meanwhile the first waves of Madras' 855 LACs begin to rise from the system's lunar installations. They move to close engagement range with the Q-ships as the G.O.D. and LRES systems spat a formidable barrage of 996 missiles at the Q-ships attacking the vulnerable orbitals.

Stocurm System

The Stocur crusiers are caught almost completely unprepared. They suddenly fine themselves with an enemy with an almost perfect up-the-kilt shot as they reoriented to accelerate toward Stocur. One of the heavy cruisers explodes, followed by two of the light cruisers, and all but four of the destroyers. The remaining form up and seek to impose the belly bands of their impellers toward the enemy as they try to slunk away in-system.

**********

The Stocur screen takes heavy losses, finding itself deprives of all its light cruisers, reduced to one destroyer, and with two of its six heavy cruisers crippled. The Stocur push on with a futile attack born of desperation. 655 missiles flail at the Q-ships, as the battlecruisers move to enter an energy engagement with the Q-ships.

Five Civilized Nations

14-06-2004, 16:11

#tagged...

Vernii

15-06-2004, 02:03

Yalta
CM canisters again shot into the cloud of enemy missiles, ripping suicidally through them with their impeller wedges. PD laser fire shot from Second Fleet's screen, joined by PD fire from the Wall. Here and there a dreadnought or battleship would add in it's main battery to the counter fire, sweeping their grasers through the missile cloud.

A destroyer pulled out of formation, atmosphere bleeding from it's sides after one of it's sidewalls went down and three missiles punched unopposed into it's side. Two other destroyers took light to moderate damage.

Dozens of EW drones were disabled after the EMP mines detonated, and then several nuclear missiles made it past the fleet's point defense fire. More drones died, followed by several more missile pods.
"Signal BatRon Twelve, have them replace lost missile pods.
"Admiral, the Yaltan fleet is in range."
"Present broadsides to the enemy, fire."
Every ship in the Wall of Second Fleet wheeled around to present their broadsides the Yaltan fleet. Missile fire spat from the broadside launchers of the dreadnoughts and superdreadnoughts, followed by the missile pods launched by the dreadnoughts of Battle Squadron II. The two squadrons of Wickian BC(P)s each added in a salvo of missile pods as well. The missiles raced on, and then came something Vice Admiral Janvier wouldn't have been expecting. A single Takan-designed slicer beam on the broadside of each dreadnought opened fire. Each of the powerful energy weapons was targetted upon a Yaltan superdreadnought, and since they were lightspeed weapons, the beams would arrive first, before the missile salvo.

Weapons fired:
3,650 missiles
10 slicer beams

Madras
X-ray lasers from the missiles slammed into the Q-ships. They each fired off another missile salvo into their attackers, then turned their wedges toward the enemy, pulling up to avoid action.

Stocurm
"Ha, you're not getting away that easily." Deville muttered to himself as a barely perceptible vibration passed through the bridge. The carrier mounted no broadside weapons, but it did mount a heavy chase armament. Missile fire continued to streak from the task force into the fleeing Stocur ships, followed by stray shots of laser fire from it's screen.

One of the Erewohnese Q-ships rolled to present it's wedge to the Stocur battlecruisers as a third of it's starboard broadside was wiped away. The others took their hits and returned fire.

New Ortaga

15-06-2004, 17:13

Whisper Palace, Silesia, Roum Major, Roum System, Hegemony of New Ortaga

Channing Ansel sits alone in his office, the rhythmic beat of his antique grandfather clock the only other presence in the room. He pours over the reports from his Strategos, Admiral Cima Garahou, and his Polemarch, the cold and efficient Jordan Galt.

The United Star Empire of Valinon has been attacked, a precision strike along its extend “border” with Vernii in the form of its satellites in the Gregor Sector Alliance. On the very eve of when the Valinor and the Ortagans were about to formalize their new alliance.

Ansel leans back in his chair and steeples his fingers. There is a decision to be made. The Hegemony is still unstable, dangerously so. It is burdened with the debts of the now dead aristocracy and the corrupted reign of the Corrin family during the Grand Duchy. His own reforms are just now taking their first steps to making the Hegemony self-sufficient again, and his own place of power cannot be assured completely with out the assistance of the Valinor—already contributing invaluable monetary assets to the bloated budgets and fragile economy of the Hegemony.

He gathers up the reports on their data crystals and sweeps them into a carrying case, then summons his aide, Valorie de Lommand. She enters his office moments later.

“Yes, Hegemon?”

“Contact the other members of the Council, I wish to meet with them in forty-five minutes.”

She nods, and backs out the door.

Whisper Palace, Silesia, Roum Major, Roum System, Hegemony of New Ortaga
Forty-six minutes later

Ansel sits before the “Interim” Governing Council of the Hegemony of New Ortaga. The Council consists of 7 Coordinators, although two of them receive special titles to reflect their slightly elevated standing in the Council. The other members of the Council are: Okati Kagoshima, Coordinator of the Treasury; Nathan Hawkes, Coordinator of the Exterior; Cynthia Ransom, Coordinator of the Interior; Crueyda Vandoran, Coordinator of Communication, and Allison Wolfe, Coordinator of Foreign Affairs. The other two members of the Council control the military and the united security and intelligence services of the Hegemony—Strategos Cima Garahou and Polemarch Jordan Galt.

“By now you have all read the reports of the attack on the Valinor by the members of the Triple Alliance. And by now you all know full well what our agreement with the Valinor was to be, even before the Verniians decided to accelerate this time schedule. Allison has been in contact with Princess Josephine to assure the final details of our agreement have been worked out. Allison, if you would?”
“Thank you, sir,” she says and looks at the other members of the Council.

“The Valinor are committed to repulsing the Verniian military from the members of the Gregor Sector Alliance, as well as from the Cronos system. Princess Josephine has said that her brother will guarantee us our carte blanche agreement as long as we confine ourselves to the operational sphere dictated in the terms of our treaty. Currently, we are more than welcome to take any operations we see fit to disrupt or more preferably destroy the continuity of the Triple Alliance. After that confirmation, I have met discreetly with several other parties and have negotiated the use of several reinforcement points for our military usage.”

She turns to Garahou, “I trust you received that information.”

“I did,” says the former admiral.

“Then I am finished, Hegemon.”

“Thank you, Allison. Cima, are our operational plans in place?”

“Yes, sir. I have our forces in Seljuk and Axis ready to scramble at a moment’s notice. Also, Admiral Hellings is ready with the Riven Expeditionary Fleet, and with your permission I would like to give him the clear to begin operations within the Triple Alliance.”

“Done,” Ansel says.

“What about a declaration of war?” says Crueyda Vandoran, the ice colored eyes of the Hegemony’s propaganda wizard holds the Hegemon in her gaze.

“There won’t be one. I will be addressing the populace at the time Admiral Hellings is entering the Thetis system, though. I trust you can attend to those details?”

“Of course.”

“Good. Now, Jordan, do we have any actions we should know about from the members of the Alliance. Besides the Erewohnese?”

“Not anything of major note,” says the Polemarch, hands calmly folded in his lap. “Although we have reports from our agents in Gregor that the members of several Cabinet level officials, including the President, have fled from Vernii. They’re believed to be seeking refuge outside the Raumreich, most likely Sol or one of the systems near the Alpha Centauri side of the Valinor Wormhole Junction.”

“I want them found, Jordan. And then I want them brought here. We can give them as a gift to Emperor Gustav when we do get them. Place a bounty on their heads…,” Ansel turns to face Kagoshima.

“14 million solaris for each sounds reasonable in my opinion.”

“Very well then, start with 14 million. Alive, Jordan, alive. At least the President’s family.”

Galt nods.

“Then this meeting is concluded,” Ansel picks up his materials. “However, I would like to speak with you for a moment Crueyda.”

HSS Phoenix, Seljuk System, Operational Center for Solar Navy Eastern Operation Zone
3 hours later

Admiral Hellings smoothes his uniform once again, listening to the hum of background activity from the bridge of one of the newest ships in the Solar Navy. He turns away from the view of the finally assembled Riven Expeditionary Fleet, and moves toward the rear of the bridge. The young captain of the Phoenix comes to attention.

“I will be on the combat bridge if you need me, Captain Tiol. The fleet will depart at no later than 0800.”

“Yes, Admiral.”

Hellings sweeps into the lift, and enters the location sequence to get him to the combat bridge buried in the bowels of the first ship in the new Phoenix class dreadnoughts. He activates the watch function on his tel-link.

“0745,” says the mechanical voice.

At 0748 Hellings steps into the subdued atmosphere of the ship’s combat bridge, designed to be the nerve center for the entire fleet. Two dozen crewmen sit at their stations, coordinating with the rest of the Riven Fleet’s 228 warships and the massive super-battleship Behemoth.

“Commander Ikuga, are we ready for the translation?”

“Yes, Admiral. All ships are on course for the Erewohn system.”

Hellings nods and moves to the combat bridge’s massive holotank, watching as his fleet accelerates to break orbit with Seljuk’s major planet: Seljuk II. He watches as one of the orbital fortresses releases a series of drop-pods, most likely delivering troops from Alpha Wing to deal with a brief flare up by the planet’s native populace. Like the others in the past ten months since the Hegemony annexed Seljuk, it will be dealt with in short order.

“Coming up on course correction for final translation point to Erewohn.”

“All according to plan, all according to plan,” Helling’s whispers to himself. A series of counters appear on the display of Seljuk II as a series of bomb runs is completed and the fighters return to their orbital bases. Before long, rebellion on Seljuk II will be nothing but a fading memory. Just like it was for the people of New Edo, and before them the people of Juria, and before that the separatists in Immolan. Nothing can for long forestall the progress of the Hegemony, or its will to expand.

Knootoss

15-06-2004, 17:20

Emergency negotiations between Valinon and the Vernii in The Hague, Earth (http://s7.invisionfree.com/KIST/index.php?showtopic=50)

((Anyone involved who can get something there can participate, methinks.))

Ermor

16-06-2004, 00:16

Valinon

16-06-2004, 00:46

Yalta System

Janviers eyes widen as the count of new sensor contacts levels off.
"Holy mother of God," he breathes. He watches as the swarm of missiles sweeps in.
"Fire broaside now! All ships are to open fire at once! Roll to present dorsal wedges! Roll no-!"
Janviers is thrown from his feet as one of the Takan lances slams into his flagship. The Yaltan warships try to escape the wave of carnage bearing down on them, but it is too little too late. The super-dreadnoughts are sent reeling from the Takan weaponry, six of the SDs are reduced to nothing more than clouds of debris, of the surviving two one vents atmosphere and shrapnel constantly, its impeller signature erratic. The dreadnoughts try and protect their larger brethern, but can barely protect themselves. Three of the dreadnoughts are destroyed, one has its starboard broadside ripped open, it rolls to impose its belly wedge and limp toward the incoming Valinor forces. The lighter ships of the surviving Yaltan Space Navy fair even worse, two battlecruisers, one lucky heavy cruiser, and two light cruisers remain combat effective.
The surviving warships spit out a defiant last barrage of only 113 missles, then they roll to impose their belly wedges and move toward the Valinor forces bound in-system. There is no longer any command, or unity, merely desperate survivors trying to escape the deadly wall.
As the Yaltans retreat, new fire comes from the rings of broken and shattered orbital facilities. The surviving ships of the Armada picket stationed over Yalta sally forth from the mopping up of the Q-ship based LACs. One-hundred ninety-seven missiles storm from their combined broadsides as their DOS drones form up. They roll imposing the top of their wedges and moving to circle around Yalta's moon. The surviving destroyer and one of the surviving light cruisers roll again, keeping their broadsides open long enough to send twelve additional missiles toward the forward ships of the Verniian formation.

Madras

The G.O.D. system satellites move to reposition themselves, seeking new angles to engage the Q-ships. A few close the range quickly, and send a combined total of 83 missiles at the Q-ships broadsides. They then move to close into energy range and engage with their own grasers.
Meanwhile Coronel forms his command up, preparing to unleash a broadside into the oncoming Verniian formation as soon as they enter range.

Stocurm

A Stocur battlecruiser erupts, and the surviving destroy slips behind the formation, wedges failing. The remaining battlecruisers, screened by the surviving four heavy cruisers press in against the Q-ships. They fire 344 missiles as they move to energy range and begin to fire into the Q-ships with their grasers and lasers.

**********

The outer system picket is almost obliterated. The surviving heavy cruiser breaks in half, its aft impeller band sending the broken section careening wildly in system as the shattered forward decks are reduced to a blacken hulk. By some minor miracle, both light cruisers manage to survive the torrent of missiles thrown against them, the same cannot be said of their surviving destroyer escorts. One destroyer survives relatively unharmed, while the other survivor remains little more than a bleeding wreck still vaguely under power. Escape pods streak away from it as a series of explosions eat way at its after decks and its remaining acceleration begins to rapidly trail off.

Valinon

16-06-2004, 01:31

A thought. A flashback.

"... Destroy them. Murder them. Bring them to the Ashen Empire."

Those were her words. The Lich Queen had ordered him to attack. Ordered him, Etimmu, to take this window of opportunity presented by the Vernii. Their... Scouts had indicated that what they thought was the main defensive fleet of Valinon's homeworld was not present within their home system anymore.

Even if the planet was not defenseless, this was as close to the fact as they would ever get. This would be, by far, the best time for the attack. Etimmu knew it, but he still did not like it. Why attack some nation based on the hate of others? There still were plenty of others to conquer within the star system the living called Sol.

He whispered a command. All those around him complied, almost as if their free will had been ripped out of them.

Fifty unarmed ships just suddenly appeared in the darkness of space. Fifty ships, black, with no signs of life to speak of, no air circulating within their cold interiors. One who has never seen them might think them to be ancient relics, wreckages of some long lost ships. The oddest thing about them was that they would be identified as Taraskovyan and Der Angstian ships. Civilian ships.

They came out of the Underworld as close as they could to Proxima Centauri (OOC: As far as I know, this is what you call a planet within the system of Alpha Centauri. Correct me if I am wrong). As close as they could, as coming too close to a planet - or any other mass of matter - they have never visited directly might lead into... Unfortunate accidents.

(OOC EDIT: And because of some people... One, to be precise, asked me to place this link (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=133816) here, so here (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=133816) it is.

OOC: A few matters I wish to address with you, Ermor, that way you can be fully abreast of the situation. For starters, there is a large portion of the Armada deployed to Yalta, but by no means have the Valinor stripped the Fatherland Defense Fleet. Secondly, your entering the system broadcasting signals from nations that have had chilly relations with Valinon at best, and in some cases outright hostile. Tarasovkyan and Der Angstian don't enter Alpha Centauri unless they have a damned good reason to, and there is no appreciable level of trading between the three of us. In fact, traffic from these nations would be official, not civilian, mostly diplomatic couriers. So I hope your ships are ready to receive heave to orders from a pair of destroyers at the very least.
Third and finally, even if I had stripped the Fatherland Fleet to the bone, the orbital defenses over Proxima were designed to throw back an outright invasion, and have done so before. I will RP this as such, there will be no quarter given, regardless of who you are registered with. And if you do not take orders to heave to then I want you to be prepared for when you have a 9.7-gigaton fusion warhead plugged into the middle of your formation. An IC response will be constructed after you respond to this.
In the mean time though, an interesting post. Enjoyable, if annoyingly blinded at some points. You should have taken the bad relations between Valinon and the Sisgardian nations into account.

Tarasovka

16-06-2004, 01:39

Tarasovkyan and Der Angstian don't enter Alpha Centauri unless they have a damned good reason to, and there is no appreciable level of trading between the three of us. In fact, traffic from these nations would be official, not civilian, mostly diplomatic couriers.

[OOC:

1. Tarasovka / Taraskovyan

2. I am allowed to have diplomatic courriers? http://67.18.37.14/html/emoticons/blink.gif
I don't even have an Embassy in there.

3. Go, Ermor! http://67.18.37.14/67/47/emo/BlueFlagRocket.gif ]

Ermor

16-06-2004, 01:44

OOC: -- but by no means have the Valinor stripped the Fatherland Defense Fleet.

(OOC: Thought as much, but this is the only chance they'll get in the near future, I'd guess. You don't usually go off with even parts of your defense fleet now do you?)

Secondly, -- in some cases outright hostile. Tarasovkyan and Der Angstian don't enter Alpha Centauri unless they have a damned good reason to -- So I hope your ships are ready to receive heave to orders from a pair of destroyers at the very least.

(OOC: I know that. That is why I'm doing this. Ermor got its first space capable ships from ships crashing down, which happened to be Der Angstian. Those had... Now undead cores, which still hate Valinon. Same thing with the Taraskovyan station they got. So, they have a nice number of Valinon-hating undead, which made them interested in it.)

Third and finally, even if I had stripped the Fatherland Fleet to the bone, the orbital defenses over Proxima were designed to throw back an outright invasion, and have done so before.

(OOC: That is why there are fifty ships instead of five. The undead have extreme resiliance to cold and whatnot. If their ships are destroyed, they'll float around and will still be capable of doing stuff. They're hoping to get at least one ship through. That'd be more than enough.)

And if you do not take orders to heave to then I won't you to be prepared for when you have a 9.7 gigaton fusion warhead plugged into the middle of your formation. An IC response will be constructed after you respond to this.

(OOC: Well, they'd respond by casting spells to their ships to make them more resilient to attempts to puncture them, but that's pretty much it. They're not really moving in a formation, it'll just seem like a loose group of shitty ships - which it basically also is. ;-) )

In the mean time though, an interesting post. Enjoyable, if annoyingly blinded at some points. You should have taken the bad relations between Valinon and the Sisgardian nations into account.

(OOC: I did, kind of, and that's part of the fun. Why would you not think they're Sisgardian? And there's still a small surprise out there, if things start going to hell on my part.)

Valinon

16-06-2004, 02:03

Valinon

16-06-2004, 02:10

OOC: Taraskovyan couriers would be allowed into the systems same as any courier. You don't have to have an embassy to be able to send a registered message ship, that has always been standard Valinor policy. As for you, Ermor, very well. I've been waiting to try out some new singularity missiles I bought from New Ortaga, and I've never gotten to use as much of the Valinor nuclear arsenal as I would like to. *cracks knuckles*

Second Star Lord Grossadmiral Sir Daniel Trisdant looks at the holo displays showing the Alpha Centauri system in the main orbital control center of Sanctuary, the nerve center of the entire Star Armada. He coughs when fifty counters bearing the transponder codes of Taraskovyan and Der Angstian drop out of hyperspace between the orbits of Proxima Centauri and Pholus.
"Incoming unscheduled merchant group!" says one of the on-duty control officers.
"Preparing to give orders to heave to and stand by to inspection."
Trisdant recovers, the oldest of all the Armada Star Lords knows that this cannot be a good sign. Not with the war in the Raumreich raging just next door.
He turns and grabs the nearest staff officer, a young Fregattenkapitan.
"Have the orbital defenses retarget to track that group at once! This could easily be a Verniian Q-ship group, or the Sisgardians could be joining the Alliance in this war. I want the whole network operational and tracking those ships. Signal to the MAC platforms and the Bane emplacements as well. Everything is to be focused on that group until they stand down, or heave to for inspection and give a damned good reason why they are here."
"Taraskovyan and Der Angstian merchantmen, this is Sanctuary Orbital Aerospace Control. You are hereby ordered to cut acceleration at once and give a reason for your presence in this system. Once you cut your engines you will stand down and prepare to receive boarders. Failure to comply with these instructions will result in the immediate engagement of Protoccol Seventy-three and you will be fired upon."
The communications officer continues to repeat his message, even as the Valinor orbital defenses around Proxima come to bear. Fourteen Magnetic Accelerator Cannons (MACs) are brought rapidly to bear, followed by forty-fore Bane-class long-range nuclear engagement platforms. Next the host of weapons satellites directed by Valinor AIs in orbit and on the ground come to bear, consisting of over 400 Global Orbital Defense (G.O.D) system satellites, over 600 Mobile LRES satellites, and fiinally over 4,000,000 actively deployed Mobile DOS anti-missile/anti-light craft drones. LACs and Precentor-class drone fighters scramble from carriers in orbit and lunar bases. Meanwhile, a cruiser squadron, screened by two destroyer squadrons moves toward the oncoming ships, their own DOS drone waves streaking out of their hull-attached launchers.

Vernii

16-06-2004, 02:23

Ermor

16-06-2004, 02:30

Ermor

16-06-2004, 02:30

Etimmu grinned. Thousands of years of existence and this is where he had gotten to. To be threatened by the living in a distant place like this.

"Ignore them."

The group did not reply. They only continued to accelerate and the group loosened even further to avoid collateral damage. They continued to close in as quickly as they could to the planet.

But the ships also physically changed as they went further. Their coloring seemed to change. Suddenly, the black ships had begun to gleam with a golden glow.

...And you, my friends... Be ready.

Valinon

16-06-2004, 02:42

Alpha Centauri

"No response, sir!" says the communication controller to Trisdant.
"Give the signal, open fire," Trisdant says.
"Aye, sir!"
Trisdant knows full well what he has done. It has been close to a century since the full brunt of Proxima's orbital defenses were brought to bear on any enemy, and in that century weapons designs and munitions have progressed at the fastest Valinon has ever known. And then they did not have the DOS weaponry.
Trisdant turns, "And ready the special payloads on wep sates 445-449. If need be will use the Ortagan sin-warheads."
"....Yes, sir."
Trisdant clutches the railing at the main system display. He watches as the screen fills with new counters. The LRES and GOD satellites fire their payloads first, a tremendous horde of over twenty-three million x-ray warhead missiles races toward the convoy approaching the four-point-five million kilometer mark from the outermost moon of Proxima, Eurytion. The Bane-class comes next, sending 87 9.7-gigaton fusion warheads toward their enemies. And finally, come the MACs, 14 massive neo-titanium/titanium slugs driven by super-conductor magnets hurling their projectiles at the force of 667 km/s send their fists at the freighters.
The first explosions come as the MAC rounds arrive before any of the missiles. Then feed from even Valinor sensor satellites is disrupted as the x-ray salvo and the fusion warheads forge a new sun on the doorstep of the Empire of the Twin Suns. Energy feedback counters rise as the solar furry rips across the system.
"Prepare a second salvo," says Trisdant. "Along with one of the sin-warheads. If these ships survive, we'll see how well they do with an event horizon!"

Ermor

16-06-2004, 03:21

Etimmu watched as the enemy fired. Maybe they should have sent a hundred ships instead...

Six ships were damaged by the MACs. Four lost their engines but continued to move towards the planet, one got away with minor bruising, its hull was punctured in the process, and the last one was cut to half. The undead abandoned the ship that had been cut, and the Wights began firing at the incoming missiles, whilst the few Dusk Elders attempted to disintegrate some of them. The priests tried to float towards the surviving ships.

No one expected this to be a lossless fight, not even the Lich Queen herself. The continuing firing from the almost two thousand Wights was able to damage some of the incoming missiles, causing them to explode prematurely. Whilst the Wights and the priests were burnt to nothingness, the fleet itself was saved.

Although the spell they had cast up front would have helped much. Instead of being burned in the first volley, all damage caused by the bombardment was kinetic. The disabled ships were compressed badly and some ten others were hurled in random directions with some damage caused to their hulls. The others were, thanks to the loose "formation" they had, far enough from the explosion to be noticiably damaged, and continued to move towards the planet with accelerating speed.

Just a little longer...

The WIck

16-06-2004, 03:22

Thetis System
Planet Thetis (Capital of the Commonwealth0
Prime Minister's House
Arduous City

"How sure are we of this Intel?" Prime Minister Sterns grumbled as he laid the data pad on the hard oak desk.
"Its concrete sir, The Solar Fleet is going to enter Thetis through the Erewhon -Thetis termini." Admiral of the Green Vigilance said.
'Damn them all to hell, both of the Erewhon and the Ortagans. If they didn't betray the Alliance we could have ambushed the Ortagans in Erewhon the odds would have been better..." the PM said.
"I agree whole heartedly sir, yet do not discount the fleet sir, make no mistake this battle will be bloody, there will be no quarter asked or given but we can do that fleet harm...Sir, I suggest we begin to evacuate as many civilians as we can, first to Ticonderoga then to refugee points we planned."
"Yes of course general...I will remain on Thetis until the end if it comes to that.” Sterns said his voice icy.
"NO, sir you can't do that, the government must survive this attack, it can be established in exile...' The PM cut the admiral off,
"Daniel, you will be up their fighting in the cold vacuum of space with our sons and daughters fighting, that is your place. Mine is my people here we can not evacuate them all, I will not leave them to the Ortagan occupation alone. Evacuate as much of the parliament as possible though they will carry on in my place."
"I understand sir,' Vigilance rose from his seat "I wear the Vagrants ID tattoos, my back bear the jagged scars of an electro-whip, Thetis shall not be enslaved by another power so long as I have a beating heart."

"I remember to my friend. Well I will leave you to execute your duty, Dismissed, and may the Tester protect you." As the admiral went to attention and left the room Sterns had an eerie feeling his old friends vow would be fulfilled.

Sunset

16-06-2004, 05:31

'One could almost call it motley...'

Admiral Wick, SDF officer and the nation's representative on the MIDAS Flag Command, looked over the fleet spread in front of him. He was actually on the ground watching the fleet through one of the visual receptors on a satillite - he wouldn't be going along. Instead he would be in the deep Peace Dome.

'Too old eh?' Running his hand through his hair he considered the man who would command the SDF fleet elements. 'My hair is still mostly brown. Grey hair replacing brown - what's the world coming to?'

His thoughts returned to the fleet in front of him and he considered his previous thought. The familiar saucer and nacelle shape of SDF starships and Knootoss explorers mixed with the saucers and ovoids of ArAreBeen MercFor warships. These orbited alongside the harsh lines of Auman cruisers and destroyers, the silvery darts of the Ravenspire spacy, and the hulking monolith of an Eniqcir dreadnought. There were also several Wazzu destroyers and monitors, and a small fleet of Pilon bio-ships and of course the dreadnoughts and battlecruisers of the Valinon navy.

These last would be staying; watching Mars along with covering fleets from other allied nations. Anyone attempting to take advantage of their absence would find themselves under the guns of fleets from twice as many nations.

'Time to go - except for me.'

Wick opened a channel to his replacement, Field Admiral Decker. Decker was on the bridge of his ship finalizing plans for securing Alpha Centauri when the channel opened.

"...and let's put the Auman fleet at the edges. They love getting right into it - let's give em the chance."

Taking a quick pull on the stub of a cigar Decker looked up and grinned at Wick.

"Come to wish us off Admiral? Or wish you were coming?"

Wick tried to laugh, but couldn't quite stop wishing he was sitting in that chair.

"Yes - Fleet Admiral Trisdant sends word that a small group of disguided warships has attacked Proxima. He's handling it but he would like you and the Fleet there as soon as possible."

"Early action eh?" Decker took another puff and left the cigar clamped in his teeth. "I picked up another thing from Colonel Kardman - 'Let's kick the tires and light the fires.' Or something like that. Helm - send the go signal to the rest of the fleet." He looked back at Wick with a big grin on his face. "See you later Admiral."

Wick switched back to the satillite view and watched the fleet disappear. There was the familiar flash of Yut terrasect drives, the odd colored distortions of ArAreBeen non-euclidean drives, and the simple fade of the Ravenspire spacy. With less than five lightyears seperating Sol from Alpha Centauri they were likely already there. Then the FTL denial field came back up and Wick switched off the feed. Letting out a sigh and wishing for younger days he returned to his plans.

----

The MIDAS fleet arrived in-system in a rush of hundreds of warships. Mars was not the only rally point - more SDF warships along with a pair of massive Therian worldships appeared shortly after the main fleet appeared. The whole fleet began to move inward under the protection of a double layer of SDF and Ravenspire FTL denial fields. Monitors around the fleet were fixed on long range imagery of the battle between the Proxima defenses and the interloping fleet.

Kajal

16-06-2004, 08:58

"The MIDAS fleet's just headed outsystem, sir."

"Ahah. Have a message relayed to our friends in Sunset. Tell them... Tell them that we'll be joining their forces shortly."

"Ah.. yes Admiral. Message away."

The Admiral shifted in his chair, as the projection of near-Mars space and it's occupants rotated slowly.

"Battlegroups 7, 9, and 12 will remain here at Mars, each being of appreciable size... We'll head to the limit of the FTL denial fields with the first and third battlegroups."

While the Kajal Mars fleet wasn't quite as large as any particular tyrant would have liked, it wasn't exactly that small, either. The bulk of it now was on par with Imperial designs, mostly due to the fact that about half of it was built in Imperial Kajal. The three battlegroups remaining at Mars were the three currently active, and comprised a signifigant portion of the fleet, while groups one and three numbered in total no more then 75 vessels, nearly all of them the latest designs from Kajal.

"How are those new engines looking?" The Admiral inquired, looking towards the engineering officer.

"Excellent, sir. We'll be able to jump as soon as we clear the anti-FTL field... We should get there in a few minutes, but it'll take a bit longer on the way back unless we let the banks recharge."

"It's only about five light years. Even the slowest freighter I've ever heard of can make that in about twenty minutes."

And so the two groups moved to leave the field, picking up speed that they would retain upon exiting subspace at the destination.

Knootoss

16-06-2004, 16:39

-------------------------------------------------------
Alpha Centauri –
KDF Hr. Ms. Tromp – Knootian flagship
-------------------------------------------------------

Along with the MIDAS fleet came a group of saucer and nacelle ships strikingly similar to the Sunset vessels. An initial sensor sweep of the pattern would indeed seem to confirm that these vessels were of Sunset origin. However the bright golden sundisk that decorated the outer hull of the sunset vessels had been replaced with a rather dull purple/white/green pattern of the flag of the DDR and the Knootian Defence Force. Transponders also gave off a different signal – a somewhat higher pitched bleep along with the electronic signals that identified the vessels as belonging to someone from earth – not Mars.

“Admiral – we have arrived in system … all vessels reporting green … the De Ruyter is still suffering from engine problems – going to red alert and scanning for hostiles.”

An alarm wailed three times on the bridge of the Knootian flagship KDF Tromp before the sound was replaced with red panels flashing lights on and off on the walls. The Shiva class vessel (http://www.pacifier.com/~cziller/shiva.html) was still new and shiny and had a somewhat… untouched appearance. It was a rather small vessel compared to most other capital ships in the diverse fleet and with a crew of only 355 it was rather less well-staffed then even the older (http://www.pacifier.com/~cziller/cohort2.html) and newer (http://www.pacifier.com/~cziller/cohort3.html) Cohorts but its technology was well ahead of the rest of the Knootian fleet.

Admiral Wessels was the man spoken to – a seriously-looking bearded ban with bright blue eyes sitting next to the captain in the centre of the bridge. With a confident voice re replied. “Excellent. Lieutenant , relay with the Sunset command ship. ((Unless someone else is taking overall command)) Tell the fleet escort vessels to take up positions around the bigger vessels as ordered. The Barentz and the Tasman are to take up positions in the outer picket ring and take a good look. The explorers (http://www.pacifier.com/~cziller/ventureb.html)
should see a little more with their upgraded sensors.”

Following this command two of the capital ships smoothly moved away from the other Knootian vessels in graceful turns to the upper-left and lower-right of the fleet respectively as the fleet escorts changed their positions accordingly.

“They may not be much good at combat but maybe they can scan the enemy into submission.”, the admiral grimly considered, “Lets just hope these Auman ships are as good as Decker thinks they are.”

The admiral was worried – right now Valinon and the Vernii were still in emergency negotiations in The Hague (http://s7.invisionfree.com/KIST/index.php?showtopic=50&st=0&#last) and he had gotten strict orders from the minister himself not to engage Vernii vessels unless fired upon first. It was a position that was rather difficult to maintain as the rest of the MIDAS fleet did not have this considerations. At any rate it was a temporary problem – either negotiations would succeed and he would not need to fire or negotiations would fail…

He shrugged off the thought and watched the map of Alpha Centauri fill with coloured dots.

imported_Eniqcir

16-06-2004, 18:59

The E.S.S. Shem, flanked by three much smaller Ospreys, silently retracted its three huge petal-like solar collector arrays, holding them tight against the hull in preparation for the potential battle ahead.

Captain Réaltaín reclined in the zero-g bridge at the ship's axis. It's not everyday that you get to smackdown somebody other than the Comms officer for something other than sleeping in late.

The Heatsinks were all frozen solid. The FELs were primed. The shields were up.* The Warfuries and Starfires were all primed for launch.

Well, time to go kick some alien butt. With a flick of his fingers, Réaltaín gave the order to depart. Casimir capacitors discharged, dumping a ring of negmat into the space around the kilometer-long Phoenix cruiser/carrier's midsection, launching it into the Centauri trinary system on the 5-D wave of a van der Broeck bubble, closely followed by the three Ospreys.

[*Big Freakin Hunks of Metal that cover over sensitive equipment and windows. Not ST-esque shields. Magnetic and electrostatic shields can be assumed to be active at all times.]

Ermor

16-06-2004, 19:58

(OOC: I would like to note that the ships are still identifying themselves as Der Angstian and Taraskovyan civilian freighters, not as some alien ships.)

IC:

Suddenly, a huge armada came into the system. But it was far away, especially considering how close the undead were to the planet to begin with. Etimmu was displeased, but he was quite certain that they were too late to make a difference at this point.

We might have to change tactic. But... I doubt those we acquired our technology from could do it...

Etimmu turned to face the spectral Dusk Elders that were in the ship, just waiting there for his commands.

"Soon... Soon your services shall be required. Be ready."

The beings nodded to him.

Knootoss

18-06-2004, 21:06

((*prods Sunset and Valinon* Do we shoot now?))

Valinon

18-06-2004, 21:17

"Grossadmiral! Incoming ships, transponder readings coming in now!"
Trisdant inhales quickly, watching as the invasion fleet bearing down on the Proxima Centauri planetary system draws closer.
"Who is it?" he breathes quietly as the tactical readouts fill with new dots, for the moment red as hostiles. Then the dots go green.
"It's the MIDAS fleet, sir! Along with Knootian and Kajali forces!"
"Thank God," Trisdant says. "Prepare a full tactical debriefing for them on the current situation and send it to the MIDAS flagship, most likely a Ravenspire vessel."
"Aye, sir."
Trisdant turns back to the pressing situation at hand, "How long before the invaders cross cis-lunar orbit?"
"Unidentified irregular warships are roughly 2.3 million kilometers from cis-lunar defense zone. Engagement is continuing from our planetary defenses, but the majority of the enemy fleet remains entact."
"How many civilian ships do we have in a 1.8 million kilometer sphere around the enemy ships?"
The controllers turn back to their stations, consulting traffic patterns and the orbital control AIs.
"Nine, sir."
"Any foreign national registered ships?"
"No, sir."
Trisdant rubs his temples, "......All for the Fatherland....."
His eyes reopen and they are filled with determination, "Have all ships that can fall back outside of a new 1.8 million kilometer quarantine zone from the enemy vessels within the next nine minutes, standard reckoning. Contact the MIDAS vessels and tell them to do the same. It's time to bring this charade to an end. Guns?"
"Aye, sir?"
"Deploy one of the new sin-warheads from Ortaga. Finish these bastards now!"
"Aye, sir!"
As missiles continue to streak away from the Valinor active defenses, three modified G.O.D. satellites move into a high orbit, and rapidly accelerate for cis-lunar space. From the lead satellite, a massive missile is released, easily the size of a small gunship. It is a strange missile, made of an odd crystalline material, and a seamless silver, it's makers were obviously not Valinor. The missile streaks away from the satellite, accelerating at an equivalent rate of 950 gravities, its limited AI brings up its ECM and active defenses. And it moves toward the "center" of the enemy loose formation.
The missile reaches its formation, and unleashes a force that is the most primal in all of creation, an example of the Ortagan mastery of total war and terror strikes. A massive energy pulse races out from hte missile as the crystalline matrix separates from the rest of it. The energy glows a sickly green and races out 340,000 kilometers in every direction before dissipating. Then the reaction is started, and the quantum singularity reactor inside the matrix begins to break down.
A rift in space time begins to form, a small piece of what a full black hole would be but none the less. Its effect on the surrounding area is near immediate, Valinor warships and a few unlucky freighters are caught in the growing gravitational storm and pulled toward a newly forged event horizon. The weapon is indiscriminate, like so many weapons designed by the ruthless, expansionistic Ortagans, but none can say it is ineffective.
Trisdant watches a new counter on the tactical screens, counting downard from forty-nine seconds. He feels beads of sweat slide off his brow, and he hopes that this time will be a success and that the singularity reaction will shut down after the alotted time and the Ortagan "Virtrio" system will seal the singularity and discontinue the reaction. He prays silently that this will not be a "failed system check" and result in Alpha Centauri ending like system X344-A Alpha, where the Virtrio system did not contain its singularity and the reaction ran out of control.
And above all else, he prays that one sin-warhead is enough.

Ermor

18-06-2004, 21:24

((*prods Sunset and Valinon* Do we shoot now?))

(OOC: Considering that my ships should be pretty damn close to the planet already since they came out of the Underworld as close to it as they could without taking the risk of "appearing" inside the planet and/or the things that surround the said planet, I bet the only one capable of shooting at them should be Valinon, with the optimum firing range and all. But he's being pretty quiet.)

Sunset

18-06-2004, 21:30

OOC: I think we will stay away from the black hole...

Ermor

18-06-2004, 22:12

Etimmu looked at the enemy. What were they up to now? First, the living attempted to fry them. Did not work too well. But what was it that they are doing now? Something ominous was afoot...

The living were going further away from them... It would not have taken a genious to realize that where they were was not the place someone would want to be right now.

At that moment Etimmu knew that they would have to resort to magic. Let the Dusk Elders handle the situation. He turned to those Dusk Elders who stood behind him again.

"Begin."

"Yes, Wraith Lord, we shall..."

The Dusk Elders left for their chambers, from which they would cast their spells. The order had begun to spread throughout the ships the moment Etimmu had uttered it.

The problem with the spell that they were to use is that you cannot control your location too well with it. It was the only method of instant... Teleportation they know of. Not even the spell called "teleport" was 100% instantanious, not to mention the fact that it requires gems to augment it.

Suddenly, the ships disappeared, only to appear in random places around the area. Some found themselves much closer to the planet. Some found themselves almost where they had begun. Some found themselves far off course. But still, nineteen ships were in the speeding game. Etimmu was in one of the ships that were still closing in.

He saw the massive missile explode in the distance through the external cameras on the ship he was on, but luckily, it was all so distant. All he could feel was... Relief. They were still on course. Apparently eighteen other ships had come into the same general direction as the ship he was in, but they now had an even greater distance between each other individual ships. It would now be even harder to simply target them all with a massive set of weaponry.

Ten ships had "blinked" directly within the dangerzone and were ripped apart within seconds. Nothing survived from those ships. They were simply consumed by the black hole.

Six other ships had come back in completely wrong places. Instead of sticking around, they just disappeared in a dark flash of light, much like the ten others had after the earlier explosion. (OOC: Even if I did not mention it before, that's what they did.)

Still on course... Just a little longer...

(OOC: But you should identify them as Der Angstian and Taraskovyan freighters, which they... On the most basic level, are. But I guess them turning golden and other things that might be a bit amiss might make you a bit suspicious... ;-) )

Valinon

18-06-2004, 23:27

OOC: I shall respond to this thread ICly in a bit, but here is the deal. I think that every nation on nation states gets the chance to be a royal pain at least once OOCly, and lay down some rules. I'm thinking now is the time to use my time on that to one extent.
For starters, some time ago I laid down the rule with Valinon I wouldn't RP with fantasy nations, except with a handful I liked for their good character evolution (Underaloz, Rave Shentavo). Later I repealed that thinking I had been far to harsh after having some exchanges with some other fantasy nations. To some extent I believe I have been proven I was wrong to take this course again.
Here's the deal. I have had this war dropped on me with very little OOC or IC warning that it was coming, so I am already somewhat stymied over that particular element of this RP. Second, the Martian attack and other things (cough, Ortaga deciding he's not going to back down come hell or highwater, cough) have given me a headache. Therefore, I have very little time to entertain much in the way of annoyances, as I have already had to drop several RPs I was enjoying to keep up with this war. So, quite frankly, Ermor, you have caught me when I am not in the mood or position to entertain the Sisgardian disease I have endured since I entered the Knootian Shadow War purely to save an ally. I think I can say, for once, I was the only one in that war without some form of ulterior motive or attempt to grab some sort of gain from a prostrated Knootoss.
So, I will not be allowing a landing on Proxima Centauri under any circumstances. If that means I have to drag out some stuff I'd only written up to amuse me then so be it, but by God I will design super-weapons until every ship is gone. And if not, I will get Ortaga to do it for me since he seems to have a limitless supply of ideas to deal out death in bulk lots. You are more than welcome to try this war RP again later, but for now I have the whole Raumreich situation to deal with for the foreseeable future, because even if I win this war I am going to be dealing with a growing Ortagan headache and an occupied empire for sometime.
Based on this you can choose to RP out and have all your ships die and I be faced with the annoying, yet ultimately achievable, battle to get all the undead corpses out of orbit from Proxima. Or you can stop right now, slap an ignore on me, hate my guts indefinitely, et cetera. Whichever decision you come to means decidely little to me, and I will deal with the consequences of either to the best of my abilities.

Tarasovka

19-06-2004, 00:08

So, quite frankly, Ermor, you have caught me when I am not in the mood or position to entertain the Sisgardian disease I have endured since I entered the Knootian Shadow War purely to save an ally.

[OOC: Yo! We Sisgardian folks have nothing to do with the thing! It's even a totally different player :?
All we did was to enable the player to access new RP horizons with his nation. ]

Ermor

19-06-2004, 00:43

OOC: -- Or you can stop right now, slap an ignore on me, hate my guts indefinitely, et cetera. --

(OOC: No need to start ignoring anyone. Why should I hate you, since you didn't even whine at all? You just said how things are. I would hate you if you had whined and bitched about every single thing I did. And how could I ignore you anyway, since many of my spacedy people hate your guts anyway? ;-)

I say we retcon the whole thing. This. Never. Happened. But mark my words, at some point, I'll try it again! Although I guess I won't have a golden opportunity like this one in the near future.)

Valinon

19-06-2004, 01:52

OOC: Well I thank you very much. I don't know if I can ever convey how much I appreciate this. And trust me, an opportunity will most likely present itself. After this war the Valinor will most likely be having to worry for sometime about occupational commitments and governments. Our military may find itself spread thin for a good portion of the future. And I will also have to worry about a stronger Ortaga, which is by no means a good thing.
It is unfortunate that so many of the space farer nations hate Valinon. *Shrugs* But cest la vie, it is how I RP them, and how I intend to RP them for the foreseeable future. So I suppose they shall just have to continue in their loathing.

The WIck

19-06-2004, 03:48

Well i dont hate you Val evem though u made a pact with Ortaga to occupy the southern raumreich and my world, even though you paid Erewhon off to betray my peoeple by opening his wormhole to said ortagan invasion fleet...but i dont hate you, cheer up its FRIDAY after all!

Lunatic Retard Robots

19-06-2004, 04:29

OCC:

This still open?

If so, I would like to send a small detachment (4 or 5 battlecruisers, 15 or so light cruisers, 100 or so frigates) to help the Mars fleet. We've always liked Sunset.

Army Group Archangel

19-06-2004, 11:02

So, quite frankly, Ermor, you have caught me when I am not in the mood or position to entertain the Sisgardian disease I have endured since I entered the Knootian Shadow War purely to save an ally.

Incidentally, how Ermor got mine (And subsequently, Tarasovkian, NYNJ, and Kajali ships):

1. Ermor players starts Undead nation

2. Weird irc discussion about UNDEAD IN SPAAAAAAAACE

3. I'm silly enough to crash an entire merchant fleet in Ermor, to make said UNDEAD IN SPAAAAAAACE possible.

4. A whole bunch of nations does comparable stuff.

Nobody even thought of, say, you, or of abusing Ermor for their own goals.

However, due to some weird stuff Ermor explained to me, it has some sort of IC reason to go up against you (I will leave it to Ermor to explain it).

So, your, err... conspiracy theory is stupid (tm)

~ DA with his newst puppet of a puppet

Knootoss

19-06-2004, 11:31

OOC: quite. :roll: Anyways... to move this thing on ICly

KDF Barentz
The scanners on the venture-B class swept the Alpha Centauri system and quickly reported back to the main bridge.

“The system is secure – no hostile vessels detected.”, confirmed an officer standing in the back of the bridge dryly. Seconds later, he added ”The Tasman has come to the same conclusion.

The captain, a woman with long black hair gave an appreciative nod and breathed a small sign of relief. She turned to a boy in the same green uniform sitting in the front. “Communications, please apprise the Ravenspire command vessel of our situation and request further instructions. Recommend that the fleet moves to yellow alert.” – or whatever the hell the others call it, she added in her thoughts.

Valinon

19-06-2004, 15:12

Alpha Centauri

Second Star Lord Grossadmiral Sir Daniel Trisdant, oldest member of the Admiralty of His Majesty's Star Armada, stands in the main aerospace control center of the Proxima Centauri system deep within the bowels of the massive central sections of HMSS Sanctuary. He watches the holographic system map, showing Proxima Centauri and its two surviving moons of Eurytion and Sentinel. The space around Proxima is filled with a swarm of indicator icons, detailing civilian ships in traffic patterns, warships on guard, and the planet's formidable defense network.
Suddenly a flurry of new contacts fills one of the hyperspace exit vectors commonly used by Martian based traffic.
"Incoming new contacts at 2.8 million kilometers from cis-lunar outer defense perimeter!" says one of the controllers. "Beginning transponder query and purpose query."
Trisdant holds his breaht, with Valinon now locked in a war in the Raumreich and the attack on Mars being a very, very fresh memory the entirety of the Star Armada is on highest alert. And to allow an attack here, at the doorstep to the Fatherland would send the armed forces of His Majesty and the entirety of the Valinor populace into a rage the likes of which has not been seen since the Outer Dominion Wars.
"Querying with outer navigation control drones," a tension fills the control centers air, as they wait for the response. "It's the MIDAS fleet! With Knootoss, Kajal, and other supporting elements!"
"Thank God," Trisdant breathes. He turns away from the projection as the new arrival indicators blink to green, and approaches the Oberleutnant that is the on-duty chief of the aerospace control's communication section.
"Inform the MIDAS fleet's flagship that I will be coming over momentarily to meet with him. In the meantime, send them an approach pattern to put them in mid-cis lunar orbit. And have the HMS Dresden held in orbit until I can secure a pinnace over to it. I will be using them to meet up with the MIDAS fleet."
"Aye, sir."
Trisdant turns to leave the control center for one of Sanctuary's many hangers and take a pinnace over to the awaiting heavy cruiser currently attached as one of the Fatherland Defense Fleet's remaining cruiser squadrons.

OOC: Will be posting about the battles in Yalta, Madras, and Stocurm soon.

Valinon

19-06-2004, 16:54

Yalta

Harris couldn't help but wince at the disembowlment of Yalta's remaining wall. The deck of the bridge shuddered slightly as his flagship fired off another salvo of missiles. Missile fire rippled from the fleet, some chasing down the fleeing YSN ships, others targetting the GOD satellites and LRES drones. A single destroyer that had already been hurt by the mines vanished in a magazine explosion as a lucky missile made it through the fleet's PD network. Pinnaces launched from two of it's squadron mates to pick up escape pods.

Harris glared at the two red light dots Valinor escorts as they fired off another small salvo. A mass of green dots represented Second Fleet, and two blue spheres surrounded that mass. There was a darker blue sphere, smaller and not even half the size of the lighter blue sphere it was set inside of. The dark blue represented energy range, the light blue represented powered missile range. They were currently outside energy range, but inside missile range, well, all standard energy weapons anway.
"Retarget our slicer beam onto that light cruiser." he pointed at the fleeing Valinor CL, "Have the rest of BatRon 1 and BatDiv 53 target their slicers onto the G.O.D. Platforms."

Madras
Two of the Q-ships took hits from the missiles, and lasers fired from them as the G.O.D. satellites moved into their own energy range. They increased their acceleration, trying to get away from the planet.

Stocurm
The task force fired another volley into the surviving Stocur warships.
"Get search and rescue pinnaces out there to pick up those escape pods, we aren't going to abandon anyone to die out here." Dying alone, stranded in deep space without any chance of rescue, was one of a spacer's worst nightmares, and Deville wasn't about to leave anyone to that fate.
---
Another salvo of missiles smashed into the Q-ships, and one of the Erewohnese ships rolled to present it's wedge and climbed out of formation, atmosphere and debris trailing from it. Another volley of missiles shot from the other four, followed by streaks of battlecruiser and battleship strength lasers.

Yalta System

Explosions fill the space over Yalta as the G.O.D. satellites take heavier and heavier casaulties, although equipped with impeller wedges and their own PD defenses they are still a far cry from full warships. The G.O.D. satellite continue to skirmish with the Triple Alliance fleet, even though it has been reduced to twenty-seven percent of its full operational levels. The satellites accelerate away from the planet, closing to energy range as they fire a final closing salvo of 357 x-ray warhead missiles.
The LRES satellites fair much worse, having no impellers to protect them, and only limited Mobile DOS drone support they are largely wiped out. Litter fills the orbit of Yalta as the final layer of orbital defenses are peeled away. The evidence of the attack's severity is already very apparent in the form of broken warship hulls, gutted yard facilities, and the remains of hundreds of drone "corpses".
Meanwhile, the vastily outgunned Armada picket still fights against the fleet assaulting Yalta, even as it pulls to slingshot around the planet's moon and meet up with the rapidly approaching forces of Forrest's command. The light cruiser is suddenly illuminated by a fireball, and then consumed by it. When the flash clears, a broken and charred wreck is all that remains of a Valinor warship. As if on cue, the remainder of the picket force rolls over in perfect unison and fires its parting salvo of 145 missiles. They then impose their belly wedges and move to full acceleration, a few of the heavy cruisers disappear behind the planet's moon.

**********

Forrest watches as the engagement over Yalta is turned into a mere mopping up operation for the People's Navy and its allies. His eyes are cold as he watches the active tactical engagement displays.
"Form up the fleet to absorb Admiral von Heinlien's command. Then takes us on bearing 19-33 Gamma. We will heard the Verniians toward the Axis terminal, then split off two battlecruiser squadrons and we will pin them to Yalta. Give the order for all SD(P)s, DN(P)s, and all other pod carrying ships to roll the first wave of pods. How long before we enter missile range with the enemy fleet?"
"Nineteen minutes, fifty-seven seconds, sir."
"Good. Signal to the Magellan vessels, we'll strip the Verniians of their ECM and pod advantages once we enter missile range."
"Yes, sir."

Madras

The G.O.D satellites form up and move to harry the Q-ships attempt to disengage all the way out of orbit, they launch a salvo of 888 missiles as they move to bring their grasers to bear on the irregular warships of the Verniian and Erewohnese navies.
Meanwhile, Coronel's command forms up on the approach vector to the homeworld of the Democratic Republic. His own battlecruisers and dreadnoughts roll of pods and hold them under their impellers or tractored close to them.

Stocurm

One of the surviving Stocur battlecruisers bow sections erupts. Escape pods fly away from the ship toward the planet below. Another battlecruiser moves out of formation, it's impeller signature fluctuating and it moves toward the rear of the formation. The engagement over Stocur is rapidly becoming a fight of deseparation. And the surviving battlecruisers fling themselves with panic against their stronger armed opponents, trying to out muscle their opponents with close-range energy engagements.

Vernii

19-06-2004, 19:56

Yalta

Another missile salvo raced from the fleet at the remaining G.O.D. platforms, as energy beams lanced out to finish the job, just as another destroyer was wiped away by enemy missiles. Harris studied the holoplot as the Valinor cruisers slipped around the moon to safety. "Begin deceleration, I want to open up the time to missile range. Have BatRon 12, BatDiv 53, and the Commonwealth BCs begin rolling pods and distributing them to the other warships. I want the lead Valinor superdreadnoughts targetted with our slicers, but don't fire yet, we'll wait until the first salvos. Also, launch a spread of sensor drones, and a few recon drones, I want to get a look at their fleet."

The sensor drones streaked away from Second Fleet, arcing about to try and get good positions for a view of the battlefield. Recon drones flung themselves at the Valinor fleet, trying to get a peek at the enemy warships before being destroyed.

Madras
One of the Erewohnese ships was crippled as lasers smashed through it's hull, and the others shuddered as lighter hits ripped at them. A return salvo of missiles was fired from the surviving internal launchers in each ship, and another spread of pods ejected from the Polaris. Lasers fired from them at the G.O.D. platforms as they turned to engage, realizing that they wouldn't get away without a far bloodier fight.

Stocurm
Each of the Erewohnese Q-ships were of the older Vega class, and so only mounted battlecruiser strength lasers. The Verniian Polaris class however, while it mounted no grasers, had battleship strength lasers. They pressed to meet the Stocur battlecruisers, as another wave of missiles streaked from them.

Deville's task force finished picking up survivors, and continued it's ponderous advance toward Stocurm.

New Ortaga

19-06-2004, 20:51

HSS Obsidian Blade, Axis System Wormhole Terminus Zone, Axis System, Hegemony of New Ortaga

Admiral Fitch Latimer nods his head to tactical coordinator on the bridge of the Hegemony class dreadnought.

“Signal to the other squadrons, inform them to begin final acceleration for the terminus.”

“Yes, Admiral.”

A nervous looking man in the blue and silver uniform of the Solar Navy, bearing the rank pips of a vice admiral looks nervously at Latimer.

“What of Commodore Bresbane’s destroyer squadron, Sir. They still have not arrived from Immolan to join our formation.”

“The Strategos gave me an order to have all ships under way by 0900, Mr. Kellert, I intend to do just that. Bresbane can deal with his tardiness and ineptitude on someone else’s time besides my own.”

“….Yes, Admiral.”

“All ships preparing for final acceleration, terminus is clear and we have the green light from Solomon control.”

Latimer listens to the rest of the reports from the other commands of his fleet with half-hearted interest. This will most certainly not be a move the Verniians and their allies were expecting. And with the Thetis system on the verge of finding itself under attack, well the noose would be closing on the Triple Alliance very quickly.

“Vice Admiral Kellert?”

“Yes, Admiral?”

“You are to return to the Thunder’s Child and take command of your squadron before we reach the translation point. Your debriefing has been….enlightening,” the way Latimer says the word inflects that the vice admiral’s reports were anything but.

Kellert salutes and then turns to leave the bridge, Latimer waits for him to go before turning back to the navigation officer.

“Time until we reach translation point?”

“Seventeen minutes, Admiral.”

“Excellent,” he beckons his flag captain, Samir Janis, to come forward.
“Admiral?”

“Make all batteries at the ready and I want our gravimetric shields up before we make the translation to Yalta. I will remove myself to the combat bridge and take tactical control of the fleet from there. You are to ensure that my flag vessel survives this engagement.”

“It will be done, Admiral.”

Latimer raises his arm in the extended fist salute of the New Order as he prepares to leave the bridge.

“In the name of the Hegemon!”

“In the name of the Hegemon!” comes the chorused reply from the bridge crew. Latimer departs the bridge.

Yalta System, Grand Duchy of Yalta, Gregor Sector Alliance
23 minutes later

A sudden flurry of activity fills the sensors scattered around the Axis/Yalta wormhole terminal. The energy signatures the new arrivals present are a strange, yet familiar, one to the Valinor, Yaltan, and Verniian sensors present. The pulsating fluctuations of an Ortagan gravimetric drive and shielding systems are not easily forgotten by anyone in the Raumreich.

Slowly, the cluster of readings begin to disperse, forming into carefully constructed v-shaped patterns as they begin to depart the immediate vicinity of the terminus. The madness of new contacts grows distinct, becoming 24 Hegemony class dreadnoughts, 20 Roum class war frigates, 24 Solace class gunships, and 48 Ansel class monitors.

The small, agile monitors rapidly streak away from their slower moving cousins. They are perhaps the most advanced ships fielded by the Solar Navy. They move in erratic, reforming patterns as they accelerate in-system, appearing on tactical displays to have more in common with a group of piranhas closing in for the kill, rather than a group of ships.

Vernii

20-06-2004, 01:44

Lunatic Retard Robots

20-06-2004, 04:26

OCC:

This still open?

If so, I would like to send a small detachment (4 or 5 battlecruisers, 15 or so light cruisers, 100 or so frigates) to help the Mars fleet. We've always liked Sunset.

Mabye even large fleet elements. If Vernii wants to strike the rear and capture an old, about-to-be-dismantled shipyard station or launch a series of attacks on LRRN listening posts (which would no doubt be supplying Valinon with intelligence) feel free. Seems like a creative use for your Q-ships.

Vernii

21-06-2004, 01:28

OOC:
Mabye even large fleet elements. If Vernii wants to strike the rear and capture an old, about-to-be-dismantled shipyard station or launch a series of attacks on LRRN listening posts (which would no doubt be supplying Valinon with intelligence) feel free. Seems like a creative use for your Q-ships.

If any of my Q-ships survive the opening battles, sure, I'm fine with the idea.

Valinon

21-06-2004, 03:48

Harris's fist clenched as Second Fleet's gravitic sensors noticed the incoming Ortagan craft. They were already outnumbered by the Valinor warships in the system, but even with that Harris had been willing to meet them in battle. Now the odds had tilted further against him, and that was too much. "Recalculate course, we're abandoning the system."

Second Fleet began a course shift, to use Yalta to slingshot around back onto a parallel of their path into the system.

"Damn them. Damn them and the Hegemon." Even through his anger though, Harris knew that almost all of Second Fleet would reach the hyper limit intact, after destroying almost the entire Yaltan Navy, and crippling it's military infrastructure. Even though, Harris still wanted to hit the Valinor where it hurt, to wreck the terminus and wipe out their detachment, but that would have to be saved for another day.

Yalta

"Incoming contacts from the Axis/Yalta terminus, sir!" says the long-range tactical sensor officer. "Confirmed Ortagan fleet, flagship registers as the Obsidian Blade. Multiple small contacts accelerating away from main screen to engage Triple Alliance fleet in orbit."
Forrest glares at the new arrivals, the Ortagans, even when they are allies, are a most unwelcomed surprise.
"Any change in the enemy fleet?"
"Yes, sir. They appear to be trying to vector around the planet and break off the engagement."
"Damn the Ortagans!" Forrest hisses under his breath. Only Severn seems to have heard his low curse against the erstwhile allies of the Valinor.
"Can we intercept?"
"Forward destroyer flanks will enter missile range in eight minutes. They will be able to engage the Verniian rearguard before they make it around the planet and into its shadow."
"Signal the remnants of the orbital defense network, and the lunar bases. They are to flush all launchers and scramble all surviving LAC squadrons. If they are going to make them run, we might as well make them bleed while they run. Redeploy the fleet for screen engagement formation and prepare to cut acceleration. We will rendezvous with the Ortagan fleet and resecure the Yaltan defense perimeter."
"Aye, sir."
Forrest returns his cold gaze to the tactical displays. He watches as the remaining orbital defense satellites launch 607 missiles at the Verniians, then move to energy range. Meanwhile, the previously silent launchers on Yalta's moon fire at the Verniian fleet, sending up a wave of 3,445 missiles from launchers in range of the fleet. The first sensor contacts of the rapidly scrambling LAC squadrons come out. As the wave of defensive missiles exhaust themselves, 809 Yaltan LACs rise from their lunar based hangers and move against the Verniian fleet.

Valinon

21-06-2004, 04:02

Vernii

21-06-2004, 04:45

Three destroyers joined the casualty list as damage swamped them. A heavy cruiser desperately rolled to present it's wedge as it trailed atmosphere and debris, and the dreadnought Audacious became the first of Second Fleet's Wall to take damage, losing a fourth of it's port broadside, with it's squadron mate Glory taking about an equal amount of damage.

"Are they suicidal? They can't possibly achieve anything worthwhile then the complete destruction of their defenses, in exchange for only slightly delaying us. Destroy them, and I want that moon gone, prepare for kinetic bombardment."

"Admiral, there are several cities on Yalta's moon."

"Damnit! Cancel kinetics, we'll do a nuke bombardment. Make sure not to hit any of those cities though, I'm not about to give the Valinor a public relations victory. Flush the towed pods, they're slowing us down."

The towed pods behind the warships fired, and a horde of thousands of missiles descended upon the rising LACs and down onto the moon.

Valinon

22-06-2004, 02:06

Valinon

22-06-2004, 02:10

Lunatic Retard Robots

22-06-2004, 04:48

Vernii

22-06-2004, 07:34

It's fine with me.

Valinon

22-06-2004, 20:07

OOC: Well, it seems the thread is back, minus my post. Cest la vie.

Major General Ivar Numerov, commander of the Yaltan Orbital Guard, watches as the missiles from the Verniian fleet scream down toward the military installations and he-," his damning of the Verniians is cut off in seconds, as a quartet of nuclear warheads reduce the YOG main tactical coordination and command facility to a ruin.
The story is repeated across the surface of Yalta's single natural satellite. Hundreds of fixed missile launchers, lunar based energy batteries, LAC hangers, communication facilities, and tactical com-con facilities are obliterated in the blink of any eye. The destruction of the YOG infrastructure is for all intents and purposes complete, a few surviving missile emplacements send up a wave of 188 missiles before their erradication is complete.

**********

Captain Lydia Undru, acting commander of the surviving LAC squadrons, watches as the Verniian fleet rolls and prepares to fire. Her eyes widen as she realizes all to well what is coming toward her beleguered LACs and the lunar bases. She rushes to the LACs comm station and opens an all squad channel broadcast.
"All ships! All ships! This is Captain Undru! Fire all missiles at once! I repeat, full missile barrage now!"
Undru's rushed command buys the Yaltan LACs part of a salvo. But before all the LACs can complete their attack runs, the Verniian tidal wave is upon them. In a blink of an eye, almost all the Yaltan LACs are reduced to expanded clouds of debris. The survivors are good only to limp back toward the moon or toward Yalta itself, several more merely hang inert in space. The only sign of the Yaltan sacrifice are a bare 558 missiles flying toward the Verniian formation, a paltry sacrifice to the dogs of war.

**********

Forrest clenches his fists as he watches the destruction of the remaining Yaltan defenses. The brief storm of anger tha passes over his face quickly passes, and the cold, emotionless expression familiar to so many Valinor fleet commanders returns. He sits back at his station and his eyes follow the Verniian fleet's course out-system.
"Virgil?" Forrest says, turning to his long-time aide.
"Yes, Sir?"
"Sir!" says the comm officer, Forrest looks up. "Sir, we have several emergency broadcasts from the Yaltan civilian installations on the moon. Several are endanger of contamination from the Verniian nuclear strikes."
Forrest looks at the display, "Inform the Yaltan administrators we will make for orbit at full speed and begin evacuation procedures as soon as we make orbit. Meanwhile, have BatCru Ron II break off and make for the moon at full speed. They are to ready all available pinnances, shuttles, and transports to assist with the evacuation."
"Aye, sir."
Forrest turns back to Severn, "Virgil, contact all garrison commanders and embassies on Yalta. Tell them we are moving into Operation Daybreak as soon as we enter orbit. We cannot risk Yalta being a continued security risk. And although I am loathed to implement one of former Director Ziegler's plans, it seems that at this point it would be very prudent, if not necessary to continue a war effort."
"It will be done, Sir."

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The First Strike