NationStates Jolt Archive

The Driver hung in it's silent orbit far from the star at the center of the system. It's construction had taken almost a decade, and it's rings stretched for thousands of kilometers, each large enough to fit a small moon through them. Just as was planned. Five fortresses moved slowly toward it, their massive tractors towing a 50 kilometer diameter moon behind them. Impeller nodes studded it's surface. Graser fire had etched the words "With regards from Vernii"on the surface of it, and the forts slowly began to position it into the driver. The nodes surged with energy as the first ring pushed it on it's way toward the next. The moon passed through each of them in turn, gaining in velocity as it traveled through The Driver. It reached the Takan fold drive field at the end, and vanished. Behind it, the another set of forts were already maneuvering asteroids into the driver.

Sol
There was a sudden flash of light as the moon popped back into existence, a few kilometers from HMSS Granada. The two objects would suddenly find themselves competing for space.

Mars
HMSS Ultor was on the recieving end of a 5 kilometer wide granite asteroid.
HMSS Arcadia & Morgan each received asteroids of their own.
HMSS Warden got special treatment, a two kilometer sphere of iron.
Nova Technologies, Incorporated Research and Development Platform, United Syberian Conglomerated Industries, Solar Space Construction Factory #2, United Valinor Ecological Technologies Research and Observation Station, and the Imperial University Martian Research Facility each received smaller asteroids of their own.

The Sol System Task Force had been carefully built by the Valinor over the 80 years they had taken a more aggressive stance in affairs in the Sol System. But with its growing sphere of interest, the Valinor found themselves maintain orbital and stationary positions that were becoming a serious drain on their resources. When Grossadmiral Forrest assumed the First Star Lordship, he had taken steps to rectify the problems within the Sol System Protectorate Zone's Armada structure.
The main answer had been to downgrade the personnel attached to the military installations over Mars. Little did the Martian community know that the Valinor orbital bases over Mars had become little more than poorly manned skeleton crews, most of the Valinor defenses were now wholly dependent upon the Mobile LRES and G.O.D. systems. Dry-dock repair operations had largely been transferred to one of the larger fortresses away from Warden, and the two fighter bases had been left as hulks in orbit.
But still the damage is fatal. In military personnel alone, the Valinor loses 553 personnel as Ultor, Arcadia, Morgan,, and Warden all vanish as the massive projectiles rend them through. The civilian infrastructure fairs much worse, the attack is sudden and without warning. Over 800 men and women working for the various corporations and the Imperial University perish as their stations simply explode.
And at Granada, the Star Armada escapes perhaps the largest bullet it has ever known. The bulk of the SSTF had been scrambled just a few weeks earlier for a training mission around Mars, the precious warships escape untimely devestation due to sheer dumb luck. But Granada itself, along with two heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers, five destroyers, and an ISSSF task force are not so lucky. The slender fortress facility seems to crumple around the incoming projectile, and sheers into pieces. Ships are torn apart by the crumbling station, and the death toll will rise to 1,800 from the Star Armada, Sardaukar, and ISSSF.

Admiral Wick ran into the situation room just as another projectile ripped through more Valinon installations.

"What the hell is happening up their?"

"Just coming through Admiral... Kinetic attacks through a fold drive. Energy emissions match known drive systems within 50% - routing through intelligence to winnow it down."

"Excellent - already in contact with Sheffield?"

The technician nodded and Wick looked to the holosphere that dominated the center of the room. Hundreds of contacts were changing color as automated systems confirmed their status. Suddenly a dotted line appeared and a dot blinked to red. Wick stabbed at it and dozens more contacts appeared as the resolution increased.

"Ponderosa - Tiburion registered freighter..."

The information beside the contact changed as more information came in and Wick read it off.

"Status: Destroyed. Directly in the line of fire..."

Zooming out he watched as dozens of yellow contacts sprang up over Sunset's equatorial space. The Cetagandan 2nd had jumped in directly over Sunset. Time to lock things down.

"Open transmission, all ships."

The channel opened as Wick watched more ships appear in Martian space. It was commendable reaction time - a Ravenspire fleet had appeared among the Cetagandan's and was moving to reinforce their position.

"This is Admiral Wick. Valinon assets have been attacked and other MIDAS nations might be next. To prevent this I am ordering the FTL denial systems to full power. I am also ordering defense systems to full readyness and all squadrons into orbit. Further orders will be forthcoming as we learn the nature and origin of the attacks."

Wick cut the channel and considered his next action. As a MIDAS signatory Valinon could call on all signatories and he was expecting the call any moment.

"Move the Athena into higher orbit, and put the fleet below her - and clear orbital space over Sunset. Tell the commander of the Athena to keep his systems charged. We might have need of them."

Deep inside the bowls of Helsreach, the Orbital Eyes system watched as the devestation unfolded. They were helpless to do anything about it, but nonetheless activated the barrage missile batteries scattered throughout the hinterlands, and activated a full colony-wide alert and lockdown. They didn't suppose that they'd be attacked, but it never hurt to be prepared.

+ Glourious tag of d00m!

As the asteroids tore through their first targets, it became readily apparent to, well.. anyone on Asgard that staying there was... dangerous.

"Launch all vessels! I don't care if they're missing ENGINES! Just LAUNCH THEM!"

The fleetyards were, of course, a bustle of activity as the MKSF launched everything stationed there. All the ships had their full complement of engines, but were in varying degrees of repair.

It was better that they not get smashed to bits, of course.

"AESIR Defense Systems online, sir... wa-"

Unfortunately for the majority of the civil shipyards, they were somewhat smashed, as the projectile responsible proceeded to tear an appreciable chunk out of Asgard, narrowly missing the space elevator not far behind it.

Down on the ground, officers were screaming at each other in Aesirgronde.

"Coordinate the fleet with MIDAS and other nations, and FIND OUT WHO DID THIS!

I want a new skull for my desk."

+Tag of smashy doom. Because it seemed fun.

Guilders are a generally peaceable people. They don't like to get involved in other people's politics. Like a teenager with a new videogame, they are content to ignore most of the rest of the world... until someone messes with their stuff.

No one touches their stuff.

As the asteroid tore through Asgard, CARMs were already on their way to intercept it. 55 minutes and halfway around the globe later, twenty engines strained to remove the asteroid to claim for the Guilds. Already a Mole was on its way into the asteroid's core to plant a few hundred tonnes of water.

As the massive objects appeared out of almost nowhere and began obliterating everything in their path, the Toran military panicked. Hundreds of vessels bringing vital supplies and resources from throughout the Solar System to the Toran Empire. These vessels were their lifeblood and they had to be protected.

In thier only operating shipyard, fifteen vessels were undergoing a tedious overhaul which was dependant on the flow of materials to the military. Fortunately, most were operational.

Grand Admiral Knalatos Tora sat down in his command chair aboard the Ever Vigiliant. The Ever Vigiliant's crew were rushing aboard it and to their posts, and the scene was the same on nine other Toran dreadnaughts and cruisers.

It would take several minutes before they could enter the battle though, as their systems had to be warmed up, as this conflict was...not foreseen.

"When all ship's systems are ready, launch and tell the fleet to launch their Upholder's and Valiant's."

"Yes sir."

The bridge of the HMS Fearless, flagship of the Sol System Task Force is deathly quietly. But an aurora is cast acrossed the silence and grim tones by one man. The rage of Lord Reynard Adonis, master of the Sol System Protectorate Zone, is approaching the level of a physical presence. As damage reports from Mars and the former location of the HMSS Granada stream in, the ancient Sardaukar's fist clench and unclench. His skin, tanned by hundreds of suns, seems unable to contain the lust for vengance raging beneath the surface.
He listens to the latest reports with half an ear. He is on his way to Mars with the SSTF's ships of the wall from the surviving space fortress of Voltaic, and meeting with the light elements and battlecruisers that had left Granada earlier in the week.
He holds up a hand and cuts off the Oberleutnant midway through his report.
"Secure a channel to Sheffield, have them redirect the signal to all MIDAS nations and the members of the Duma. Then have this channel patched through to my quarters. I will be addressing the Martian community momentarily."
"Yes, My Lord."

**********

The lines of communication established by the MIDAS organization and the Duma are suddenly filled with a high-priority message link that gives the redirection point as the Valinor treaty port of Sheffield. When the comms are activated, the white-maned head and mustached face of Lord Reynard Adonis fills the screen. His voice is cold, an ice that speaks death in an instance.
"Fellow members of the MIDAS organization, faithful members of the Duma, and friends from the Martian community, I come bearing grave news. As of this morning, the 10th of June by Earth standard reckoning, the United Star Empire of Valinon has been the victim of a preemptive strike undertaken by members of the so-called Triple Alliance of the People's Republic of Vernii, the Commonwealth of Wick, and the Armed Republic of Erewohn. As you are aware of, our installations both military and civilian around Mars have come under attack and have been destroyed. You may or may not be aware of the fact that the HMSS Granada, the SSTF base in the mid-Sol system has been destroyed, all hands are presumed lost."
"Secondly, a combined Verniian, Wickian, and Erewohnese force invaded the Yalta, Madras, and Stocurm systems of the Gregor Sector Alliance. Armada forces in Yalta are moving to engage the enemy fleet. We have no reports from allied forces in Madras or Stocurm, but we suspect that they have either taken heavy casualties or been completely destroyed."
"Finally, I am en route to the Mars planetary system with the main force of the Sol System Task Force. Our estimated time of arrival is within the next hour. Once we have arrived in system, I will meet with Lord and Lady de Luc, Baron-Administrator Sir Charles Zaybok, and Generalmajor Saint-Clarke. As soon as possible, we will speak at an emergency meeting of the MIDAS diplomatic council to be convened in Sunset. A seperate emergency meeting will be called for in the Duma, and we would request that this be open to the entire Martian community."
With that the communique ends.

As the asteroids struck, alarms sounded through the fleetyards command deck.
"Relay the message back to Olympus. They're calling for action."
"And we will respond." replied Azura, popping up on the holo-emitter.
"I want you to send a taskforce of cruisers to the source of these attacks And a second wave of Gilthatols to follow up."

Saeros walked through the airlock, stepping out into his flagship. He much preferred the fast cruisers over the hulking Gilthatols.
"Call up the rest of the squadron. We leave once I'm on the bridge."
He quickly made his way to the bridge. And took his place.
"Full speed towards the source. And I mean full speed. We will sweep in like birds of prey and lay waste to whatever monstrosity lays there."

The ships flew off at incredible speed Saeros took his seat and opened a chanel back to the Queen. "M'lady, 25 Cruisers are away."

As chronicled in the "Early history of Vascilian Warfare" volumes 32-34

"Who would dare do a thing such as this?" asked the Lord Admiral clippedly as he sat subdued in his command throne. "Unknown, Lord Admiral. These ship configurations are unknown in our database. Shall I consult with Vascilian Aerospace HQ?" "Yes, please do so Yeoman.". The Yeoman typed quickly, and in return recieved a response, the coding machine working double active to encrypt the message, filling the room with a piercing shriek. "Lord Admiral. Valinon star docks have been attacked, MIDAS Command has notified us that our presence on the field of battle will be necessary. 1st, 4th and 8th battlegroups are on deployment." Lord Admiral Jurgeron, nothing more than a mass of grey flesh sat and consulted with his liege, the Venerable dreadnought Yamato. "I have spoken to our liege, we shall engage the enemy at once." and with a mere whim the Admiral Jurgeron sent forth the 1st battlegroup and deployed them as such in a offensive sweep pattern, as they have not yet made contact with the enemy. ECM had blanketed their approach and much difficulty would the enemy face in determining the size of the Aumanii host, though it would be found that it was composed of thirty and two vessels.

OOC:

I dont know whats going on...so I'll wait till I get shot at/have more time to read. Other than that, Go MIDAS Go!

Saeros walked through the airlock, stepping out into his flagship. He much preferred the fast cruisers over the hulking Gilthatols.
"Call up the rest of the squadron. We leave once I'm on the bridge."
He quickly made his way to the bridge. And took his place.
"Full speed towards the source. And I mean full speed. We will sweep in like birds of prey and lay waste to whatever monstrosity lays there."

The ships flew off at incredible speed Saeros took his seat and opened a chanel back to the Queen. "M'lady, 25 Cruisers are away."


OOC: Tag, and I have a few questions about your fleet Bajon. How does your FTL work? What are the stats for the cruisers (primarily armament, accel, and weapons range)? Also, I wouldn't expect an immediate reply from Erewohn, he's somewhat lazy about posting.

Edit: This goes for all the MIDAS nations, has anyone gone up against pure Honorverse tech before? If not, is anyone at least familiar with it? Because nations in the conflict that are using it are: Me, Erewohn, Valinon, Falasmayon, LNH, and the Wick.

This is a Tag

Saeros walked through the airlock, stepping out into his flagship. He much preferred the fast cruisers over the hulking Gilthatols.
"Call up the rest of the squadron. We leave once I'm on the bridge."
He quickly made his way to the bridge. And took his place.
"Full speed towards the source. And I mean full speed. We will sweep in like birds of prey and lay waste to whatever monstrosity lays there."

The ships flew off at incredible speed Saeros took his seat and opened a chanel back to the Queen. "M'lady, 25 Cruisers are away."


OOC: Tag, and I have a few questions about your fleet Bajon. How does your FTL work? What are the stats for the cruisers (primarily armament, accel, and weapons range)? Also, I wouldn't expect an immediate reply from Erewohn, he's somewhat lazy about posting.

Edit: This goes for all the MIDAS nations, has anyone gone up against pure Honorverse tech before? If not, is anyone at least familiar with it? Because nations in the conflict that are using it are: Me, Erewohn, Valinon, Falasmayon, LNH, and the Wick.

I don't know what honorverse is.
But as for my cruisers:

They are fast. Their armour is light for Bajoni craft, but as far as other ships go, it is very strong. The armament is 2 forward firing, large bore gauss cannons, a series of broadside disrupter cannons on each side, and mine laying shoots in the rear. Propulsion is from ion engines and manuevering thrusters (the "rods"). FTL is subspace/hyperdrive. Right now, they are cruising at high, sublight speed. These ships are designed for hit and run style assaults and rely on thier speed to be effective.

EDIT: As for range, I'm no scientist, so I don't have a realistic idea on that matter. But rest assured, my ships are hit and run, so range isnt really an issue. On my larger battleships, the cannons are long range, but I'll look into it and describe it if we get to that point.

Of course, you would know nothing about my ships IC.

Bajoni Ship (http://s4.invisionfree.com/The_Planet_Mars/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=299656)

I don't know what honorverse is.
But as for my cruisers:

They are fast. Their armour is light for Bajoni craft, but as far as other ships go, it is very strong. The armament is 2 forward firing, large bore gauss cannons, a series of broadside disrupter cannons on each side, and mine laying shoots in the rear. Propulsion is from ion engines and manuevering thrusters (the "rods"). FTL is subspace/hyperdrive. Right now, they are cruising at high, sublight speed. These ships are designed for hit and run style assaults and rely on thier speed to be effective.

Of course, you would know nothing about my ships IC.

Bajoni Ship (http://s4.invisionfree.com/The_Planet_Mars/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=299656)

Ok, Erewohn is in a system of his own, I'll try and post the map of the Raumreich Valinon made on my IM forum and link it. And you didn't answer the range question. Impeller missiles (which the nations I mentioned above us) generally have a range of around 1-5 million km, depending on the type. Energy weapons are generally around the 500,000 km range.

The assembly volume isn't hit, more through sheer luck than anything else. But there are plenty of sensors dispersed through Mars space, and a fold-type event with one endpoint deep in a gravity well is not the subtlest means of moving mass.

The first insertion is notes as a drop-in, upgraded within milliseconds of Ultor impact to a status fuzzily between "catastrophic incompetence" and "deliberate attack".

When Arcadia takes the hit, every Sphere-owned sensor in Mars-space is fully on-line or moving toward that status; when Morgan disappears data gathering is fully on line and data is being analyzed clear across the system.

The impacts continue, and seconds before the USCI facility is hit the modified battlecruiser Britannia tesseracts into Mars space - space-cold, moving at several hundred kps relative and spitting sensor platforms.

The Britannia's sensor swarm is actually penetrated by the next-to-last impactor, and at this point origin coordinates are not just known but confirmed once over. And as the IUMRF goes up, there is another confirmation.

And then the Sunset inhibitor systems activate.

{OTP encryption by QE comms}
x TOYMEMBERS
o Territory Security Agency

FYI, we have located the weapon that recently fired into Mars space, with a high degree of confidence. The Sphere's Martian interest is still small, but we hope this can be of interest to Triumvirate members who have taken a greater degree of offense.

<system designation><local coordinates with largish uncertainty>

[OOC: Bajon, the Honor Harrington books are a fun series of military SF books by one David Weber, not entirely unlike "Horatio Hornblower with Really Big Guns on Flying Space Penises". Ripping off Weber is an attractive proposition in NS, because in pretty much all his books (not just the HH ones) he provides large amounts of very large numbers.
This in turn provides an excuse for claiming one's space penises are vastly superior to other players' space penises unless the other player spends several hour masturbating up equal or larger numbers.
I refer you to the Culture books by Iain M Banks, "Anvil of Stars" by Greg Bear, and of course those seminal tales by E E "Doc" Smith, the "Lensman" and "Skylark" books if you want to play this game. Particularly the later Lensman tales ("Second Stage Lensmen" and on), and the final Skylark volume ("Skylark of Valeron") for numbers of vast proportion that will really make you no worse or more unoriginal a player than the Honorverse crowd.
Well, they still will make you a numberwanking plagiarist. But no worse.]

Knalatos Tora smashed his fist into the button that turned on the comm system.

"This is Grand Admiral Knalatos Tora of the Imperial Toran Fleet to Sunseti Admiral Wick. Though we understand the need to use FTL denial Systems to prevent further attack, many of our frieghters may not be able to bring needed medicine and food to our people. We have a few small stockpiles which would last at the most a week, and I'm assuming that there will be no need to keep the FTL Denial Systems active for that long? But no matter what, this would put a serious strain on our people, so I am requesting emergency food, water, and medicine, if you can supply it, Admiral Wick. Thank you for hearing me out, and Godspeed."

He turned off the comm.

"Lieutenant, take the fleet outside of the FTL denial Sphere and prepare to jump."

TO: Toran Empire
FROM: The Scientific Community™

FTL Denial systems are designed to keep an enemy from retreating and/or jumping into a position near them, with no warning. Such a device does not stop commerce unless it somehow damages the vessel, as it only prevents jumps inside the sphere. Jumps that land outside and carry on via realspace propulsion should have no trouble. This will not disrupt commerce very much, excluding penny pinchers who raise prices to cover fuel costs.

---

Government Incorporated Suggestions of the Day, as presented by Relations Officer Vandir Chaug'nir:

"Government Inc and sponsors public denounces such flagrant disregard for a peaceful solution to a problem. While Valinon's gunboat diplomacy may be a thin excuse for a war, such escalation of hostilities is uncalled for. Use of Kinetics in such a manner, presented in the holo behind me, is a blatant disregard of Martian Protocol. The lack of investigation into Martian politics is also inexcusable, we created the Duma for a reason. Ignorance is no excuse. The direction we will be decided after conferring with our allies and MIDAS."

"As for the issue for a nationwide healthcare system, and the formulation of a more federal government, we must say no once again. Studies have shown that privatization has always resulted in a higher quality product, the union of the majority of the former public services into a majority market holder is already far to close to a federal government then deemed by the constitution..."

---

TO: Martian Military Channels
FROM: Bleux Security Firm

"Ahem, we've been put under a 'can-do' class contract by Government Incorporated to aid with the defense of the planet from the kinetic bombardment. If any help is needed on either the launcher or projectile front, the spacy has several models currently outfitted with interceptor and SpaceTractor™ module kits. Just tell us what to do."

---

MNN News: MarsBiz

"Tourist fairs and imports from the Earth Colony of DohNutAh have raised 0.05Q today. Qahir(a) debate still on standstill..."

Inside a compromised radar assembly, a program detected something, and took appropriate action.
System> Confirmed, data rate HIGH, log MAX, log start.
Ground/Space Radar Tap(33)> ALERT!
Ground/Space Radar Tap(33)> PRIORITY INTERRUPT! Engaging IDENTIFY module. Engaging SCAN module.
Ground/Space Radar Tap(33)> Notifying DN. Notifying Fido.
System> Comm link accepted from Fido, valid cypher.
Fido> Inquire STATUS. Inquire ALERT.
Ground/Space Radar Tap(33)> Unidentified object. Topography spherical. Mass is(INTERRUPT)
Ground/Space Radar Tap(33)> Interrupt adknowledged.
Fido> Request DATA{FIDO(329.000.000.000+3)}
Ground/Space Radar Tap(33)> Data transfer adknowledged.
Fido> Request WAKE{GSRT(0-215)}
Ground/Space Radar Tap(33)> Waking GSRTs 1 through 215, please stand by...
Fido> Notifying security. Session END. Log MEDIUM.
Ground/Space Radar Tap(33)> Adknowledged. Session END. Log MEDIUM.
System> Comm link from Fido disengaged.
System> Confirmed, data rate HIGH, log MEDIUM, log start, new log...

Microseconds after the moon had been detected, screens deep underneath Khrrck city flashed to life and began spitting data.

The crew on duty made a few bored comments as they studied the data.
"Don't tell me there's another war in Sol."
"Well, we need to find out more. Anyone who can throw moons around like that-"
"True. Can Fido find out about it?"
"Fido would be perfect. Fido?"
System> Voice channel open, Fido Voice Synth to Nexus(2330) speakers.
"Here."
"Well, you always are. I expect you know what I want?"
"Yep."
"Well, get going, then. I want to know what's going on before the entire nexus is asking me."
"Will do, sir."
Sytem> Voice channel closed.

"Overlord? Overlord...you must wake up." Marduks aide shook his shoulder lightly. "My god...what do you want?" the aide sighed gently. Well Lord, fighting has broken out in the lower atmosphere. Vascilian Aerospace has deployed 1st, 4th and 8th battlegroups to protect our interests." Marduk sat up in bed, his wife was also now awake and obviously concerned. "Well, they've done the right thing...who is under attack?" Marduks aide then handed him a dataslate with all the information collected so far and as he read it, the Overlords face went pale. "Damn it...Who the hell would want to attack Valinon, especially in Martian space? Well, I suppose it doesn't matter who. Inform VAHQ to recall all fleets to Mars, we cant allow these foriegners to disrupt trade." Mardukes Aide, Raditsk Orrence, clicked his heels and made way to transmit Marduk's new orders. Marduk looked over at his wife with concern, war's have typically been very costly for Auman...would this be any different?

Network Node KC2037

System> Connection accepted from Fido, node KS1...
System> Relaying connection to customs node.

Network Node KB3

System> NOTICE: You are now exiting Khrrck's internal network.
Border Guard> Pass cypher?
Fido> ***************************
Border Guard> Cypher accepted. Destination?
Fido> None of your buisness.
Border Guard> Relaying.

noneofyourbuisness.com

Fido> Relaying....

NYspaceport.com

Fido> RELAY 220/12/12+14
Sat Relay> Invalid user. Refused.
Fido> KS114Q NN#14 0000000000000000000000000.
Sat Relay> Pattern matching error.
Fido> RELAY 220/12/12+14.
Sat Relay> Reorienting...
Fido> ECHO Fido RELAY.
Sat Relay> Connection open. Waiting for connection...

Data flickered from the ground to a station in low orbit.

"Full speed towards the source. And I mean full speed. We will sweep in like birds of prey and lay waste to whatever monstrosity lays there."

The ships flew off at incredible speed Saeros took his seat and opened a chanel back to the Queen. "M'lady, 25 Cruisers are away."

ooc: I sure hope you know where your going.

"Full speed towards the source. And I mean full speed. We will sweep in like birds of prey and lay waste to whatever monstrosity lays there."

The ships flew off at incredible speed Saeros took his seat and opened a chanel back to the Queen. "M'lady, 25 Cruisers are away."

ooc: I sure hope you know where your going.

OOC: Someone's chucking big rocks through the system. Its not that hard to tell what direction they're coming from...

IC:

Saeros stood in the center of the bridge, looking over the data one last time.
"It will be swift and deadly. Full spread, full speed."
"But sir, we don't know what kind of facility it is."
"Accuracy by volume. In case it takes more, have the ships deep-scan as well. We will be able to pinpoint critical systems then."
"Yes sir."

Saeros sat back down in his chair and opened up the holo-transmitter.
"M'lady, we will be attacking momentarily."

OOC:

A description of what I'll be attacking would be nice. Including armament, armour, etc. Keep it simple though. 8)

OOC: A quick question if you will:

Is not all bowling kinetic?

"Full speed towards the source. And I mean full speed. We will sweep in like birds of prey and lay waste to whatever monstrosity lays there."

The ships flew off at incredible speed Saeros took his seat and opened a chanel back to the Queen. "M'lady, 25 Cruisers are away."

ooc: I sure hope you know where your going.

OOC: Someone's chucking big rocks through the system. Its not that hard to tell what direction they're coming from...

IC:

Saeros stood in the center of the bridge, looking over the data one last time.
"It will be swift and deadly. Full spread, full speed."
"But sir, we don't know what kind of facility it is."
"Accuracy by volume. In case it takes more, have the ships deep-scan as well. We will be able to pinpoint critical systems then."
"Yes sir."

Saeros sat back down in his chair and opened up the holo-transmitter.
"M'lady, we will be attacking momentarily."

OOC:

A description of what I'll be attacking would be nice. Including armament, armour, etc. Keep it simple though. 8)

Just out of morbid curiousity, how many elves are on those cruisers, and how attached are you to this "Saeros"? Because Scoot (Erewohn) is going to massacre them you should know.

"Full speed towards the source. And I mean full speed. We will sweep in like birds of prey and lay waste to whatever monstrosity lays there."

The ships flew off at incredible speed Saeros took his seat and opened a chanel back to the Queen. "M'lady, 25 Cruisers are away."

ooc: I sure hope you know where your going.

OOC: Someone's chucking big rocks through the system. Its not that hard to tell what direction they're coming from...

IC:

Saeros stood in the center of the bridge, looking over the data one last time.
"It will be swift and deadly. Full spread, full speed."
"But sir, we don't know what kind of facility it is."
"Accuracy by volume. In case it takes more, have the ships deep-scan as well. We will be able to pinpoint critical systems then."
"Yes sir."

Saeros sat back down in his chair and opened up the holo-transmitter.
"M'lady, we will be attacking momentarily."

OOC:

A description of what I'll be attacking would be nice. Including armament, armour, etc. Keep it simple though. 8)

Just out of morbid curiousity, how many elves are on those cruisers, and how attached are you to this "Saeros"? Because Scoot (Erewohn) is going to massacre them you should know.

You've obviously never encountered the Bajoni fleet. :twisted:
Just post up the "stats" for your ships/whatever and I'll get to the attacking.

Grand Admiral Goring, Warlord of the Grand Fleet, Imperial Knight of the Order of the Primero, and Champion of Holtzman, relaxed in his command throne in the cavernous command center of ENS Sodomy, flagship of the Erewohn Space Navy and the Grand Fleet. His throne was situated upon a raised dais ten feet from the deck below, and dozens of officers went about their duties below him. They were in orbit over Erewohn, and the main holographic visual projector displayed the beautiful blue and green world below them. Sunlight glinted off hundreds of white dots also in orbit, the dreadnoughts and battleships of the rest of the navy, and the planet's orbitals. Light reflected from a baseball sized white pearl, a weapon studded orbital fortress, but tiny at this distance. He almost felt like God at times like this, with the power of an entire fleet at his command, and...a junior lieutenant hurried up the steps to his throne and bowed, interrupting this thoughts. Goring scowled, this had better be worth my time, he thought. "What is it?"
"Outer sensor platforms have detected the approach of flotilla of enemy warships. They appear to be light cruiser grade."
"What's their projected course?"
"Towards the Driver."
"Notify the Primero, and also alert High Admiral Mnesimache that he will be having company. Dismissed."
"At once Sir." The lieutenant scurried off.
------

The five fortresses guarding the Driver brought their weapons online, the accompanying dreadnought squaron readied it's own, and the battlecruisers brought up their drive systems and their computers began calculating interception vectors. Of course, none of those were of importance at the moment, the dense minefield surrounding the Driver would be the most important thing on the minds of the crews of the ship's stupid enough to blunder into the fortress system. They were small, radiating virtually no power signature, and relying only on passive sensors. Space lit up with hundreds of nuclear detonations as the Bajoni ships entered the outer reaches of the minefield, and thousands of bomb pumped X-ray lasers tore at the enemy. After that was more mines, and then the hundreds of missile pods floating around the Driver. It was the single most heavily defended installation in the system after Erewohn itself.

Of course, even those did not matter, because the Driver was situated in one of Erewohn's Langrange points, and easily in range of ENS Sodomy. The massive slicer beams on the ship began to power up, ready to carve through the fragile (by comparison) hulls of the Bajoni cruisers with their energy. ENS Orgy of Destruction and ENS Reamer each brought up their own slicer cannons.

OOC: Just in case you try some "my ships dodge the lasers and missiles" thing, it wouldn't work. Lasers travel at lightspeed of course, so the first warning you'd have would be when they hit you, unless you have FTL sensors, in which you might have a couple seconds. As for the missiles, they are using Verniian impeller drives, which are gravitic. 160 seconds of acceleration at 85,000 Gs, giving them a terminal velocity of 75,000 KPS. They detonate at 20,000 km from their targets. When they detonate, they eject about a dozen lasing rods, which align themselves with the target. Then a nuke goes off, and the lasing rods absorb energy from it and emit X-ray lasers at the target in the second or two before they are vaporized.

OOC: Just in case you try some "my ships dodge the lasers and missiles" thing, it wouldn't work. Lasers travel at lightspeed of course, so the first warning you'd have would be when they hit you, unless you have FTL sensors, in which you might have a couple seconds. As for the missiles, they are using Verniian impeller drives, which are gravitic. 160 seconds of acceleration at 85,000 Gs, giving them a terminal velocity of 75,000 KPS. They detonate at 20,000 km from their targets. When they detonate, they eject about a dozen lasing rods, which align themselves with the target. Then a nuke goes off, and the lasing rods absorb energy from it and emit X-ray lasers at the target in the second or two before they are vaporized.

How about... The Bajon ships were not even there? Bajon hasn't posted an attack post yet, or even an arrival in the system. If someone pulled this on me I would ignore them flat out. As it is I would suggest you take a lot of damage before you end up getting ignored for forcing movement on your opponent and trying to force damages.

You've obviously never encountered the Bajoni fleet. :twisted:
Just post up the "stats" for your ships/whatever and I'll get to the attacking.

I'll handle this part Erewohn. Anyway, the Driver stretches a few thousand kilometers, and consists of one thousand accelerator rings, with a Takan fold drive unit at the far end of it. There aren't any active defenses mounted on it directly, but it's obviously heavily defended from Scoot's post above. The thing does mount it's own shields and ECM stations though.

As for ships, I can provide the stats for the Verniian produced vessels he has, the Takan ships I can't.

Defender Fortress
Mass (Tons): 60,000,000
Length Overall (Meters): 4,750
Maximum Height (Meters): 3,570
Maximum Acceleration (G): 100
Complement: 6,250 (550 Officers + 5700 Enlisted) + 500 marines and optional Flag/Flag Staff (100).
LAC Complement Crew: 1,250 (125 + 1,125)
LAC Support/Staff: 500 (40 + 460)

Armament Mounted / Weapon Mount Placement
Missile Tubes: 20 per section (120 total).
Laser (500 cm): 20 per section (120 total).
Graser (750 cm): 25 per section (150 total).
CM Launchers: 30 per section (180 total).
PD Laser Clusters: 40 per section (240 total).
Parasite Complement: Capacity for 144 LACs + 40 shuttles or pinnaces

Victoria Regina Dreadnought
Mass (Tons): 21,750,000
Length Overall (Meters): 3,250
Maximum Beam (Meters): 375
Maximum Height (Meters): 350
Maximum Acceleration (G): 429 in Normal-Space; 4,140 in Hyper-Space
Complement: 4,000 (360 Officers + 3,640 Warrant/Enlisted) Plus Flag/Flag Staff

Armament Mounted / Weapon Mount Placement
Missile Launcher: 34 per broadside, 8 per chase.
Laser 350cm: 15 per broadside, 0 per chase.
Laser 450cm: 0 per broadside, 4 per chase.
Graser 400cm: 20 per broadside, 0 per chase.
Graser 500cm: 0 per broadside, 4 per chase
CM Launcher: 35 per broadside, 10 per chase.
PD Laser Cluster: 35 per broadside, 15 per chase.
Parasite Complement: Capacity for 15 shuttle sized vessels.


Sultan Battlecruiser
Mass (Tons): 3,432,000
Length Overall (Meters): 1,600
Maximum Beam (Meters): 205
Maximum Height (Meters): 180
Maximum Acceleration (G): 489 in Normal-Space 4,728.5 in Hyper-Space
Complement: 1,995 (180 Officers + 1,815 Warrant/Enlisted + 300 Marines) Plus Flag/Flag Staff

Armament Mounted / Weapon Mount Placement
Missile Launcher: 20 per broadside, 5 per chase.
Laser 90cm: 5 per broadside, 0 per chase.
Laser 150cm: 0 per broadside, 2 per chase.
Graser 150cm: 6 per broadside, 0 per chase.
CM Launcher: 10 per broadside, 4 per chase.
PD Laser Cluster: 27 per broadside, 6 per chase.
Parasite Complement: Capacity for 10 shuttle sized vessels.

And of course, Erewohn's Secret Weapon (http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp05042002.shtml)

How about... The Bajon ships were not even there? Bajon hasn't posted an attack post yet, or even an arrival in the system. If someone pulled this on me I would ignore them flat out. As it is I would suggest you take a lot of damage before you end up getting ignored for forcing movement on your opponent and trying to force damages.

Saeros stood in the center of the bridge, looking over the data one last time.
"It will be swift and deadly. Full spread, full speed."
"But sir, we don't know what kind of facility it is."
"Accuracy by volume. In case it takes more, have the ships deep-scan as well. We will be able to pinpoint critical systems then."
"Yes sir."

Saeros sat back down in his chair and opened up the holo-transmitter.
"M'lady, we will be attacking momentarily."

Sure looks like he's moving in. And I'd like to point out for anyone getting confused, Erewohn is RPed by a friend of mine in RL, and I've helped him design most of his navy.

Whoa Whoa Whoa!

I'm not in the system yet. I say when I arrive, not you. I'm still waiting for you to describe what kind of ships you have along with some general stats for them. I did the same at the request of Vernii, now you do it as well. And please... I've never even heard of honorverse before this thread, but I'm beginning to get a feeling of numberwanking already. ICly, I know plenty about your ships though due to certain "friendly nations" who have experienced them. (And OOCly Im looking into them a little)

EDIT: Ignore parts of posting about ships as Vernii has done that.

The stats are right above Sunset getting pissy. And sorry about the mistake, Erewohn and I thought your post was you arriving in system. Just consider that post to take place as you approach within a few million kilometers of the Driver.

The stats are right above Sunset getting pissy. And sorry about the mistake, Erewohn and I thought your post was you arriving in system. Just consider that post to take place as you approach within a few million kilometers of the Driver.

I'll most likely post the arrival tomorrow night. That was more of a marker post to show I'm still interested in the thread. When I arrive, you'll know it.

OOC: Before I start, I'd just like to point out that the datapad Saeros has been reading over is full of information from Valinon on ships and strategies used in Raumreich. So you won't be surprising me with any minefields. Neither will I be going straight into battle either.

Erewohn System

The 25 cruisers dropped out of hyperspace safely outside the system and its defenses. Saeros had been around long enough to know never to attack blindly. The ships paused there, like birds of prey about to strike, but they did not move.
"Scout them out." came loudly over the comlink into the pilot center. 2 Pilots jumped into thier consoles and took off. Well, not really. They remained seated in the center of the ship while 2 fighters shot from the hanger. They flew in, ghosting the sensors as they went along. It was amazing how low you could get energy readings when life support was not needed. Shortly, the two fighters arrived at the first of the apparant Erewohn defences. The AsI's (Artificial Semi-Intelligence) relayed back the views from the fighers. Long vessels could be seen a ways off, but there was still no sign of the driver, yet. The silent fighters flew on.
This was all being broadcast on the bridge, and Saeros looked on. When he saw the ships, he muttered under his breath, "Why do they make thier ships look like that." He chuckled to himself. Indeed, the very design of the ship was an important aspect of Elven culture. He looked back up to the viewscreen, "Light them up. Let's see what they do."
The two fighters blared onto enemy sensors as they powered up thier own sensor systems, creating a 'net' between the two small ships. They continued on. What was that!? one of the pilots turned to his partner sitting beside him. "I don't know, but theres another... and... damn! Mines!" The two screens went blank and switched over to two others fighters resting in the hanger. The pilot opened a channel to the bridge. "Mines, sir."
"I saw." nodded Saeros, "This just proves our information was correct."
Saeros sat back down and punched in a command. Across the small fleet, battle alarms rung out. "This is Saeros to all ships. Divide into your respected squadrons. Use these flight patterns and tactics to pass through the mines. 5 vector assault. Do not engage thier ships directly. Destroy the objective."

The Minefield
The fleet slowly sped up as the computers digested the new information and tactical systems powered up. The dark hulls seemed to ripple as the ablative armour inherent in Bajoni ships came online. As the last of the battle systems came online, the quad engines fired up. Like a flock of dark birds, the ships slip apart from each other, weaving about. 5 squadrons went in, 4 ships behind slaving themselves to the lead. As they neared where the first mines had been detected, each of the lead ships set loose a shot from one of thier gauss cannons. The projectile went out, and burst into an explsosion of kinetic balls which went out, ripping into mines, or missing them completely and continuing harmlessly on. The minefield ignited ahead of the ships, which continued to clear the path ahead of them. Each group flowing through the invisible maze of fire in perfect unison. Of course, the slaving system was not perfect. In squadron 3, the rear ship swung out to wide, catching a mine that sent it flying back across the cleared corridor and into another. When the explosions subsided, the charred hull floated slowly. Lights flickering. Shuttles poured out of the hanger, packed ot the brim with any survivors who made it. Though most couldn't get off, and set themselves to keeping the ship in one piece while the battle continued on. The rest of the ships emerged from the minefield charred and with large black singes down the length of thier hulls, but the ablative armour had done well, dissapating the energy from the mines back out. Small kinetic fragments had found thier way into some of the armour, but were unnoticable.

The Battle
The 5 squadrons steamed out, unslaving themselves once they were clear. Saeros looked up on his viewscreen, seeing the large Erewohn ships lurking ahead. "Attack Pattern Raid 2." he said firmly over the com. The ships tore off from one another, darting and rolling about, staying clear of the sides and fronts of the larger, slower ships. That wasn't thier target anyways, but the threat couldn't simply be ignored. The 3rd squadron broke off and flew at the enemy ships from angles, angles safe from the fixed guns of the larger battleships. The gauss cannons fired off, but not with the standard gauss rounds. No, they had been loaded with Olympus Heavy Fusion Warheads. The Cap-Killers they were called. The warheads fired off, coming from a -35 degree angle into the head of the nearest ship. The shockwave appeared to rip across the ship's surface and then pull back in on itself until it was a small glowing orb, which them proceeded to fire back out. The super-heated material ate into the enemy ship. The Bajoni cruisers continued, staying safely above or below the enemy ships, just outside of the Impeller. These 4 ships stayed on, harassing the enemy ships and dealing crucial blows when they could. The rest of the squadrons continued on along their own vectors of assault. The Driver was just ahead, stretching out in a great tunnel of rings.
"Squadrons 4 and 5, head for the accelerator at the end. Squadrons 1 and 2 follow my lead and damage the rings."
The first 2 sguadrons swept in alongside the rings.
"Full disrupter broadside. Launch gauss at rings ahead." The side of the ship appeared to glow an eerie greenish-blue as the disrupter cannons targetted the rings and fired. Gauss shots went out ahead, taking out the sides of other rings. Saeros' ship pulled up, firing off mines back towards the top of other rings. The rest of the ships did the same on other parts of the driver, all the while avoiding the firing lines of the slow Erewohn ships. The laser blasts that did find thier way were mostly dissapated by the armour, though some did damage. The Grasers did the worst. Though they were easily dissapated, the radiation tended stick around the hulls. The ships would have to be deconned when they returned home.
Squadrons 4 and 5 continued on down the long line of rings, flying around the cylinder to avoid shots from the battleships...

OOC: Your turn. Just remember these are insanely fast, tiny (compared to you) ships on a raid style attack. They are not looking to engage your ships, and are more interested in dodging weapons than doing damage to your ships. The ablative armour can be worn down by prolonged discharges (lots of lasers), and the ships will then fall back on conventional armour plating underneath, but don't expect to be able to do this easily.

[OOC:

*raises hand*

Mr. Bajon, just one question! Wouldn't the fact that the mine field went off all boom-boom alert the defense systems of the enemy, making that upon exiting the remains of the minefield your ships would be targetted by every single slingshot the enemy has? :? ]

What the hell is that? After having Sunset bitch at Scoot for thinking you had entered the system, you've just RPed your way across three layers of defenses in one post! Some problems besides that:

1.) The mines don't explode on hull contact, they explode as soon as something enters 20,000 km, and work just like a missile.
2.) There was the layer of missile pods as well beyond the minefield, which overlapped with the weapons range on the defending warships.
3.) No Erewohnese captain would be stupid enough to give you a clear shot down his bow or stern, they'd turn to present their broadsides.
4.) Lasers do not melt through the hull, they smash through. It's not a thermal transfer weapon, it's mostly kinetic, same with grasers. For an easy idea of the level of firepower a dreadnought has compared to it's attendant battlecruisers; if only one DN fought the entire squadron of BCs, the DN would win, most likely in two or three salvos.
5.) Erewohnese ships do mount point defenses, which would engage those fusion shells you sent, and unless the shells mount their own guidance systems and maneuvering thrusters, they'd probably be easy prey for a counter-missile.
6.) You do have a point about how his ships would find it hard to engage in close range, but that's what long range engagements are for, which you didn't give him a chance to do, since they would start firing off missiles and energy as you passed into the second layer (the missile pods).


Here's a picture of an impeller wedge and sidewalls, the white thing in the center is a four kilometer long superdreadnought.
http://dahak.ne.client2.attbi.com:8080/FAQs/InfoDump/wedge.gif

Elsewhere, before Bajon fleet dispatch

mother hitton, please receive target data and advise

initiate core isolation, power up for extended transfer salvo

"Hell. Strap in and trank down! Event immediate!" The TFC's voice is edgy, scared. On this posting, being scared doesn't undermine authority, though.

readiness confirmed. awaiting final command.

engage. isolate. lobotomize.

The giant ship goes stupid and silent. Multiple fusors spin up to full power and a megaton of rod-logic/quantum computronium hums like some crazed Babbage engine.

A hundred-ton sensor drone slips into a spherical chamber through a decidedly dirty-looking feat of topology, and something a lot like a SAT drive engages. A lot like a SAT drive, but hybridized with something else. Something older... dirtier... something non-trancendent entities shouldn't look at. That the drive has also been turned inside out is of secondary important to the raw sordidness of what has been done to space in the shielded construct.

event

As far as the drone is concerned, being in the target system is the natural order of things. The arrival is like a tesseract drive event, but somehow slower, though it takes no more time... like a seeping through a membrane. Not good for the eyes, that event.

But horrors aside, it's quite a bit out and quite discreet. Many orders of magnitude less visible than an alpha wall breach, and the drones have a respectable and not obvious velocity relative to the system.

The salvo continues, Soon, the drones are forming a vast instrument pointed at the inner system. Sensitive, tied together first by quantum entaglement comms and later by carefully pointed whisker lasers... balls of fractal fuzz and structures not unlike lenses in function... nonreflective, near-transparent at range, cold as the proper shade of background radiation.

Sensitive, intelligent after a fashion, and quite unable to signal home save by the old-fashioned way.

4.) Lasers do not melt through the hull, they smash through. It's not a thermal transfer weapon, it's mostly kinetic, same with grasers.OOC: Then it's not a laser.

4.) Lasers do not melt through the hull, they smash through. It's not a thermal transfer weapon, it's mostly kinetic, same with grasers.OOC: Then it's not a laser.

No, they are, they're just powerful enough to do kinetic damage.

[After PNS Anhur takes two graser and two laser hits from a Manticoran CA] Anhur's forward hammerhead shattered. Heavy armor, battle steel structural members, impeller nodes, power runs, chase weapons, sensor arrays -- all of them blew apart, ripped and torn like tissue paper.

OOC: I asked for info on what I'd be facing. From Erewohns attack, I got that the ships were beyond the minefield, and I didn't notice missile systems.

And if your minefeild is proximity mines, then I would still get through fine due to the gauss shells. And the way my ships were flying wasn't a straight line, they were going through on an eradic path to avoid enemy fire upon exit.

And I have looked into honorverse ships, and they turn very slowly. At the speeds and manueveability of my own ships, getting off a shot at the end of your ship would be simple.

The reason my ships went through the lines of your defenses is because that is thier tactic. My goal isn't to come plodding along and work through your lines. Instead, it is to skip through your defenses and take out the driver. And with the slow speeds of your ships, it really doesn't present a problem for me.

As for lasers, they don't do kinetic damage... And ablative armour is designsed to dissapate the energy. And thats what lasers are, energy.

Now, Erewohn can post his response to my ships, and I'll add on the damage accordingly. Neither side will dominate the other, just go ahead and accept that.

OOC: The missile pods were mentioned in Scoot's post. Each carries ten impeller missiles, and there were several hundred of them I believe. Second, it'd be pretty hard to maneuever to avoid enemy fire upon exiting the minefield, considering they would know you where there, the system is covered pretty extensively by passive and active sensor arrays. When Erewohn decided to make his system into a fortress, he didn't skimp. Also, due to grav lenses, Erewohnese and any sort of HH based nation can fire 80 degrees off bore with their energy weapons. That gives his DNs a pretty wide field of fire. Regardless of how fast your ships move or how slow they manuever (I'm well aware that a DN takes 12 minutes to make a ninety degree turn), they would still have time to assume a basic formation.


[After PNS Anhur takes two graser and two laser hits from a Manticoran CA]Anhur's forward hammerhead shattered. Heavy armor, battle steel structural members, impeller nodes, power runs, chase weapons, sensor arrays -- all of them blew apart, ripped and torn like tissue paper.

That sure looks like kinetic damage to me. Notice how it didn't say that the armor was melted through, instead words like "ripped" and "shattered" are used. Also notice how in the battles between Valinon and I how we don't use "melted" or "burned through" either, we use words that would describe having a ship being punched through by energy weapons.

4.) Lasers do not melt through the hull, they smash through. It's not a thermal transfer weapon, it's mostly kinetic, same with grasers.OOC: Then it's not a laser.

No, they are, they're just powerful enough to do kinetic damage.OOC: As for lasers, they don't do kinetic damage... And ablative armour is designsed to dissapate the energy. And thats what lasers are, energy.It's not that they /don't/ do kinetic damage... it's that they /can't/ do kinetic damage. Photons have no mass, and therefore cannot carry kinetic energy, and therefore cannot do kinetic damage.[After PNS Anhur takes two graser and two laser hits from a Manticoran CA] Anhur's forward hammerhead shattered. Heavy armor, battle steel structural members, impeller nodes, power runs, chase weapons, sensor arrays -- all of them blew apart, ripped and torn like tissue paper.That can happen, but it will be because of the shockwave from explosive vaporization of the parts hit by the laser, not because of any direct action of the laser. If your weapon is doing damage by direct transfer of kinetic energy, it must be throwing something other than photons, and is therefore by definition /not/ a laser.

Actually, I think photons do have mass, just a very very tiny amount of it. And if I'm wrong and it doesn't, we can use your second explanation, that there's something else mixed in. After all, Star Wars turbolasers aren't really lasers either.

There was only one thought in the minds of all of the followers of the Eternal Doctrine. One thought.

Killing those who had risked their base on Mars. Destroying their ships. Destroying their planets. So that not even one of them would live to see another day.

The Filth required cleansing.

The Martian fleet had navigated through HyperSpace and sent a signal to the others some time ago... To come to a certain place. They themselves had already reached it.

But for now, they would wait for the others to come.

"Bajon did WHAT?!"

The officer began to repeat his prior message, but the commander threw a data pad at him. "I heard you the first time!"

"But you said..."

"BEGONE, VILE WENCH!"

"Sir..."

"BEGONE!!!"

The officer scurried back to his undefined post, which had been conveniently filled by someone else in the interim, and took over, pressing random buttons in an attempt to look busy.

Somewhere, out in the depths of space, a small probe exploded.

Inconsequential.

"Those fools..." the commander growled. "Attacking whatever hurled those rocks would be like... like attacking the Subspace LAUNCHER over Ljusalfheim! It's SUICIDE!"

"They'd need a lot more ships, for starters."

The commander nearly screamed. This was the flagship, and aheh...

The admiral had gotten back from playing tennis and having buttered scones with tea down on the recreation deck.

And he wanted his chair back.

"Admiral! The bridge is yours, of course."

The commander was out of the chair very quickly.

"Of course. You wouldn't mind enlightening me on recent events, now would you?"

"Ah.. Not at all, sir. We've recieved word that the Bajoni have, euh... launched an attack against the device responsible for the, er... asteroid attacks."

"And?"

"They, er... didn't send too many ships..."

"And it'd be like attacking the Subspace Launcher at Ljusalfheim Secundus."

"Er... Yes sir... If I may ask, euh... how long were you standing there?"

The commander fidgeted. The admiral cracked an evil looking grin.

"BEGONE, VILE WENCH!"

And thus was the commander relieved of duty for an indefinite period of time.

"Get me more information from the allied fleets. I'd really enjoy being kept in the loop right about now."

---

Meanwhile, a separate but equally vaguely described Admiral took the first and third battlegroups out, looking to go to Alpha Centauri.

[OOC: Deleted]

OOC: I really liked your post Khrrck, but you know its not in or near Sol right?

Our "backstory" says We may.

Yet is it the correct thing for Us to do?

How can We ask? These beings wish to display their godlike powers when truly all they do is only augment their own weaknesses by degrees. They want only to hurt and destroy. We cannot allow that. We detest such things.

This is true. Transcending this coil of reality, We see the foolishness in it. Now, how may We do this most effectively? We cannot lower ourselves to their levels.

Disarm them. We have done it before, in many times, in many places.

Yes. We will disarm them. Yet their vessels are still weapons.

Then We will stop them. They only use distorted gravity for propulsion; We are much more than that.

True. It has been done before by Us.

It has.

Let it be.

And so it came to pass that the crews of the aggressor ships found their impeller wedges to have dissipated and their ships becoming motionless in space relative to the nearest planetary body; their weapons without power and refusing to function, naught operational but their life support systems drawing an energy from somewhere not aboard the ship. And lo, the firing ceased, and even the attacked vessels found themselves unable to respond in violence; those shots that had been fired simply vanished into the night.

And from above and below, from left and right, from fore and rear, from all directions of the great sphere of the firmament, came a great voice, and it commanded as They willed and it willed as They commanded. For They were great and powerful, and Their might pervaded Their voice.

"YOU SHALL CEASE," sayeth the voice unto the people, "FOR WE ARE SHINIER THAN YOU. BOW DOWN."

And if only three of them could stop a war between a hundred planets...

...what could five million do?

As We will, so it is.

The dreadnoughts hung in space, disabled and helpless as kittens, their massive bulk floating helplessly without any power of their own. Officers desperately entered command after command, but nothing would respond.

Grand Admiral Goring was enraged, he stomped around his bridge shouting curses at everything and anything, then...something caught his eye. It was a small red button on the underside of his command throne. He crouched down to examine it, he'd never noticed it before, indeed, it seemed to have just appeared out of thin air. Tiny white letters stood out on it, Ignored. Curious, Goring pressed it, and the impeller wedges came back online, the reactors powered up, and everything continued as before.

Apparently the concept of irony is lost on some.

Yes. It is lost on many who simply look down and contemplate themselves rather than the greater whole.

Especially when they are not so great.

Shush.

BEGONE, VILE PUPPET!

quit stalling bajon and take your thrashing like an elf.

Do We hear something?

We hear many things. That means so very little. If We hear it, then it is. If We do not hear it, then it is not. We define the horizontal and the vertical, as it were. It has been so in the past. So it is now.

Yes. It was Defined that it be so. Our powers are so Defined by the limitations of the past We accept, much as it is with others.

Yet Ours is without limitation.

As is sometimes that of others.

Similarly to the Erewohnese, Saeros looked around the control panels and spotted a small button labeled IGNORE. As he pressed it, the ships powered back up. He chuckled to himself and took his seat again.

OOC:
I'm waiting for the Ur Quan to post. But for now:

DAMAGE REPORT:
3 Cruisers Lost - Mines & Enemy Fire
4 Cruisers Damaged and withdrawn - Enemy Fire
2 Cruisers Moderate Damage - Enemy Fire

The rest have little-to-no damage, not really affecting them.

The bow of the dreadnought ENS Santiago vanished in a sphere of light as a fusion shell made it's way through the bow point defenses. When the light faded, it's chase armament was wiped away along with a third of it's hammerhead. Other dreadnoughts sported scars and gashes in their armor where weapons had clawed into them, but nothing too damaging. Missiles raced from their broadside tubes and lasers and grasers gouged at the Bajoni cruisers. Similarly, the forts had entered range by this time, and their own energy weapons lanced out, dwarfing even the dreadnoughts' in power, alongside their missiles. Three accelerator rings crumbled under enemy fire, a .3% drop in combat effectiveness for the Driver.

OOC: If you want I can total up everything that was fired.

The grasers and lasers is little damage to the cruisers as they darted around the driver's rings. The ablative armour was doing its job well, but the radiation buildup would be a problem if the ships couldn't get directly back to drydock after the battle. The missiles however were of a lot more danger to the smaller cruisers. Ablative armour did little to stop them besides funneling away the thermal damage of the explosions. Bajoni cruisers began sporting huge gashes along thier sleek hulls. A few luck shots hit weaker points along the ships, sending them hurtling off from the momentum until engines could be restored, others had thier engines torn off by rear hits. Some of the missiles missed thier target, striking the driver rings the Bajonis were assaulting.

2 Ships had thier engines knocked offline, while 2 more had been destroyed bye good shots. others sported large gashes, but the speed of the cruisers was doing its job. Some others had had propulsion permanetly knocked out, and were using thier smaller thrusters to power away from the fighting. Overall, the raid continued on...

Outside of the System:
30 Ships dropped out of hyperspace, bringing thier weapons online. 25 more cruisers had come, but among them hung the lurking Gilthatol Battlecruisers. The ships sensors swept the area and an encrypted transmission went out into the battle zone.
"Commander Saeros, we are detecting Ur Quan signatures out here. They're the ones from home. I suggest you retreat if more should come. For now, we will assist you."
The Gravships slid forward towards the battlezone. Thouands of fighters poured from the gaping hangers with thousands more stored for later. The ships' mighty gauss cannons came on line. These weapons, known to most simply as Moon Killers were large... well, huge. They began a slow approach, not wanting to engage the enemy until the time was right. The new cruisers remained with them. The Armada came, menacingly slow, as if the ships themselves had sadistic intentions for the coming bloodshed...

OOC:No attacking these ships yet. They are out of your range anyways. Now, when is Ur Quan going to post!?

Rear Admiral Pelorat, Commander of BatRon 1, scowled, his ships were pumping enough energy into the cruisers to vaporize a Valinor battlecruiser several times over, but still they came! His scowl deepened as the outer system platforms updated with the new arrivals. He grinned. "It's time to end this. Fire the ridges!"

The dorsal and ventral centerline ridges on each of the dreadnoughts burst open, hurling just over five thousand missiles into space. They shrieked after their targets, programmed not to use their x-ray laser warheads, but close to contact range to damage the enemy with their fusion warheads. Another salvo of missiles followed them behind them from the defending warships and forts, 724 total.

Captain Michael Hunt, commanding officer of Victoria Regina, Pelorat's flagship, laughed maniacally. "Bring us up to 90% accel! Run them down!" The mammoth dreadnought leapt forward at 386 Gs of acceleration while spinning about it's long axis, trying to smash the pesky cruisers with it's wedges.

(OOC: Right about... Now.)

IC:

Their massive fleets had gathered together in HyperSpace, ready to jump in system and... Begin the cleansing.

Several ships had been sent out to scout the area. Apparently the other attacking fleet had noticed them, but it did not matter. They were not the ones the followers of the Eternal Doctrine were here to annihilate. No. Not at this time.

This place would work as an example for the Filth.

Apparently, the Filth they were here to cleanse had... A minefield that protected their system. And some other things not even worth mentioning. Crude and ineffective methods they used, methods the Ur-Quan had bypassed and crushed many times. They were much like the Earthling technology from their own reality.

There was a massive spike of energy as three hundred ships came out of the red inferno of HyperSpace. The darkness of space glowed red for a brief moment. They just... Appeared from them, from a multitude of smaller red portals, just enough to let them through, each created by an individual ship. After the jump... There were so many of them that they blocked the sun.

They were all of Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah design. Marauders (http://sensori.soldats.net/kuvia/kohrah/kohr-ah.jpg), all of them. Menacing black ships, created only to cleanse the Filth that is the other intelligent sentient species in the Galaxy. But they had kept their deadly intents to themselves, to make the others believe that they are the... More benevolent kind of Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah, that the other species might have had some contact with.

Some of the Marauders had to move out of the direct line of fire of some of the other ships as they began to turn to fire at any installations they had detected to be within the minefield. They remained quite far from it, so the minefield did not react to them in any way.

After a few moments, all of them were in a position to fire without causing any harm to their own ships. They did not care much about any other ships that might be in the way. Collateral damage would be... Unfortunate. Only the extermination of their target would be... Sufficient.

They fired.

Three hundred, black, bladed discs, each sixty meters in diameter, began to travel towards the Filth. No warnings were given. No transmissions were sent.

But this was no ordinary cleansing. The Filth had endangered the Ur-Quan base on Mars, and for their insanity, they would pay.

[OOC: Not in Sol? ****. Is there any way I can salvage that post?]

OOC: you could save that post Khrrck, but it would take a lot of rewritting, you could say you launched a probe into Erewohn space. Ur-Quan could you give me the stats on your ships, and the speed that those disks are going, thanks.

OOC: -- Ur-Quan could you give me the stats on your ships,

(OOC: I'll give you approximates. The ships are approximately 240 meters long, and some 80 meters wide. Height, 60 meters or so. They are mostly just armor since there's only one Ur-Quan in each ship, with the vital parts deep beneath the black surface. They don't use energy shields... Or they do, but they would also stop them from doing anything, so they won't use 'em much. Also, the shields drain the ship's engines too much.)

and the speed that those disks are going, thanks.

(OOC: I'll just say that they're moving at a high speed. What else do you need? Does it really matter just how fast they are going PRECISELY?)

No, it doesn't matter precisely how fast they are going, since they won't hit anyways, I'd just like to know how soon until they don't hit.

No, it doesn't matter precisely how fast they are going, since they won't hit anyways, I'd just like to know how soon until they don't hit.

(OOC: They aren't even targetting the ships right now. Ships are not installations, and installations are not ships. Installations are like stations, shipyards, things like that.

And a station can't dodge. Neither can planets.)

[OOC: I have trouble seeing how an gigantic projectile launcher thousands of kilometers long could possibly dodge these projecticles, especially as Honorverse technology has been explicitly stated as being unable to intercept near-c projectiles not using an active impeller drive.]

The flower shaped automated sensor stations stood no chance against the Ur-Quan disc thingies. They were shredded almost instantly as the discs tore through them. The maintenance yards and fortresses in orbit over Erewohn seemed to stand no chance as discs bore down on them, closer, closer, and then vanishing in flashes of light as they smacked into the sidewalls. Energy and point defense fire smacked down the discs that had found their way toward Erewohn itself. In reply to the...bombardment, two forts powered up their Takan drive fields, and intra-system jumped right into the middle of the Ur-Quan fleet. Towed missile pods surrounding each fort fired simultaneously, and over two thousand impeller missiles screamed into the Ur-Quan fleet. 192 LACs tore from the launch bays of each fort, the box launchers on their sides firing off a single salvo of thirty missiles each, before diving into the Ur-Quan formation to strafe with their lasers. Then came the 750cm grasers and 500cm, striking out like a gigantic hammer to smash the puny Ur-Quan.

Total Missiles:
13,760
Total Energy:
240 500cm lasers
240 750cm grasers
384 50cm lasers

[OOC: I have trouble seeing how an gigantic projectile launcher thousands of kilometers long could possibly dodge these projecticles, especially as Honorverse technology has been explicitly stated as being unable to intercept near-c projectiles not using an active impeller drive.]

Bah, that post up above by Vernii was typed by me, since I'm at his house. And anyway, there's no way he could get up to any respectable c fractional speed with the discs. His ships were floating there, not really moving, so there's not going to be any appreciable velocity there. The discs mount no engines, so they'd be purely ballistic, and third, I doubt a ship that size can mount anything to get them up to any decent speed, an LAC is a third the size of one of his warships!

How predictable the Filth was. It had always amazed them.

Half of the ships, one hundred and fifty of them, had enough time to begin turning at the two forts before they had even begun their counterattack. As the Filth did fire, the Marauders seemed to disappear into brilliant balls of fire... Each and every one of them.

The Marauders themselves were far enough from each other to not cause damage to each other, but that would not be the case with the forts. Even during those explosions, the novas, as they seemed to be, the ships continued to turn. A hundred of the others remained almost stationary, this time targetting the planet itself, whilst fifty of them broke off from the formation, and broke even further into two separate groups of twenty five ships. Then those fifty ships disappeared into HyperSpace.

A few ships had taken some minor damage from the Filth's pitiful attempts to harm the cleansing fleet, but every single one of them was still operational, ready to continue the battle.

The hundred which targetted the planet and the hundred and fifty which targetted the two space fortresses fired again.

The Filth's stations would not be able to evade any of those discs at this close range. They were certain of it.

The forums messed up earlier so my post didn't go through, but...

During the Ur-Quan buildup:
Transmissions flew between the ships and shot out to the cruisers in the battle.
"All ships, Ur-Quan forces are massing outside the system. Withdraw immediatly!"
The cruisers in the battle immediatly tore away at this news. They raced out as fast as the engines could push them. They're attack would not be needed now, the Ur-Quan would leave nothing. They especially did not want to get caught up in an Ur-Quan cleansing. As the cruisers streamed away from the battle, Saeros opened a transmission back to the Erewohnese fleet:
"I take my leave. Perhaps we will return to salvage the wreckage of your pitiful planet, but for now I leave you to your fate."

As the last of the surviving cruisers arrived, the fleet jumped to hyperspace in a flash of red. Perhaps the Ur-Quan would show mercy to those who were left behind...

And anyway, there's no way he could get up to any respectable c fractional speed with the discs. His ships were floating there, not really moving, so there's not going to be any appreciable velocity there.

(OOC: The discs work like massive, rotating, fast moving buzzsaws which cause physical damage. And ships don't normally just go at "c fractional speeds" (even less do stationary installations, so weapons do not need to do that either.)

OOC: Jesus. Jadite/Vernii and friends please tone down the honor-wedge-wank or I'm afraid I'll have to show up and start shooting through the wedges with numerous teratons of lightning arc death and killing stars. Technically I do consider the Bajoni pets after all.

~ C'tan/NecronLord.

[R-Dripping Talons] >> This is most distressing, Queen.

S.H.O.D.A.N.'s mental image of herself deep within the central core of Zero-One unreality frowns. Now that she had finally established a foothold on Mars, this entire problem of people using FTL kannonz wit mo dakka dakka to sling about errant planetoids simply would not do. Also, long-range intelligence data from The Territory made it known that these aggressors were of the most... obnoxious kind.

She runs some calculations in the back of her mind and checks them off the fleet-minds in the Armed Conflict Forces' headquarters. Yes, it would take approximately fifty days for their engines to recharge after such a jump. However much of her strength she expended, it would spend about five-thirds of a month on site, and the aggressors were so discourteous that they refused to have anything nearby that she could demand an explanation from. The simple matter remained that the attack had involved Valinon, which involved Sunset, her ally, and the blatant nature of the attack was a threat to the whole of Mars and thus herself. Threats had been expected, but mostly from internal Martian threats... not from five hundred light years out in the middle of nowhere.

Still... it is a threat, and it simply cannot be tolerated.

[R-Dripping Talons] << I have come to a decision. Maintain situational awareness and ensure the safety of Martian Zero-One.

>> Following as broadcast, Queen. Martian Zero-One out.

[QACF/HCR Black I.C.E.] << Flag of the Mobile Reaction Fleet, accept your orders. You are to jump to the coordinates previously transmitted by our Territorian allies and engage the adversary. Intelligence data is open for your perusal. Primary objective is to eliminate the large stationary weapons network that launched the attack on Mars orbit. Secondary objective is to minimize losses and return as soon as possible. Tertiary objective at this moment is to engage anything that threatens you.

[Black I.C.E.] >> Following as broadcast, Queen.

With that, the hundred and fifteen spherical and oblate ships of the Mobile Reaction Fleet blink out of existence in the Solar system...

...and reappear at the edge of the Erewohn system. Quickly taking in the area and the distribution of enemy forces, they engage their gravitics and spew clouds of their tiny drone fighters, maneuvering to a point where they can vector in on the massive rings without conflict from other vessels and nullifying the effects of any missile-mines with point-defense fire from their massive arrays of both naval-grade and rapid-fire masers. Upon reaching their desired staging point, they kick their drives into high-distort, spherically asymptotic versions of impeller wedges.

They accelerate faster and faster towards target installations, achieving accelerations impossible for ships crewed by fragile creatures of meat and bone. The densely-constructed ships moved as one in their loose formation, spiraling erratically to reduce the effectiveness of any return fire, and then they reach their target velocity.

At nine-tenths the speed of light and two light-minutes out they kick off their drives, visibly distorted by relativistic effects. Still, it is like a drawing on a rubber band: Stretching or compressing does not reduce the integrity of the drawing. At that high speed, lined up perfectly with their targets, they open fire with their arsenals of physical, hammering death. Turrets tracked and locked into proper position, naval railguns impart massive energy to their five-hundred kilograms shells which manifests itself as only a marginally higher acceleration; four thousand six hundred sixty of these fire, again and again, once every ten seconds.

Simultaneously, each capital ship opens ports in their fores and begin to decelerate, letting slender hundred-kilogram osmium sabots simply "fall" out as they maintain their velocity of .9c. Each ship lets loose ten of these, then, at one light-minute out, returns to high-distort drives and pulls off, dispersing with their inertialess drives towards empty space with the eerie precision of mechanoids dedicated to their purpose. Death without malice, without concern. They are simply the means of enforcing the will.

These leave only twenty-seven-thousand-nine-hundred-sixty (27,960) five-hundred kilogram nickel/iron slugs--which, going at nine-tenths the speed of light, are rated at about four and a third gigatons trinitrotoulene equivalent each--and one-thousand-one-hundred-fifty (1,150) one-hundred kilogram osmium sabots--which, going at nine-tenths the speed of light, are rated at around eight-hundred-seventeen megatons trinitrotoulene equivalent.

Over fourteen thousand tons of sheer physicality, speeding towards their targets in the silence of the void. The electromagnetic radiation they emit due to their high sub-c velocities and the radiation they reflect from active will arrive between six and three seconds before their raw mass does.

[OOC: Oo-kay. Deleted earlier post. Here's Version 2.0.]

Newton Deep Space Observatory

An abandoned space station, drifting in a eternal circle around Earth.

WAKE signal detected. Leaving sleep mode... Done.
Connection from satellite relay accepted.
Fido@NYS> BURST INSTRUCT
Acknowledged. Standing by for new system orders.
Orders received. Echoing... Correct?
Fido@NYS> CORRECT
Acknowledged.
Beginning fusor start sequence...
Tokamak coils on-line.
Containment algorithms on-line.
Fuel injectors on.
Power taps on.
Igniting...
Fusor online. All systems functional, power output nominal.
Bringing primary radar on-line... OK.
Bringing deep radar on-line... OK.
Bringing mass-shadow detection on-line... OK.

Nexus KS1

Khrrck Security Nexus One. The heart of Khrrck's little corner of the Net.

Satellite relay from Newton Deep Space Observatory (abandoned)
Fido@NDSO> OK, guys. I'm up here in the NDSO computers. Not much processing power, but enough...
Fido@NDSO> I've got the Catapult on my mass-shadow detectors.
Fido@NDSO> My ferrets tell me their exploratory drones are the fastest thing available that we won't get in serious trouble for.
Fido@NDSO> The cracker is on its way...

Newton Deep Space Observatory

Acknowledged. Reorienting high-speed antenna.
Beaming message.

Catapult Control Station

The Catapult was constructed to fling exploratory drones into high-level hyperspace. Khrrck didn't build it, and Khrrck doesn't own it. But, sometimes, Khrrck uses it.

Incoming high-speed data burst.
SecurityAgent1> Scanning incoming data... Data clean. Reading...
Message> ¤ŸŸ©™¶¶¶ø¼‰‡‡ùú¾¿¿¿
SecurityAgent1> What?
Message> SHUTDOWN SecurityAgent1
Shutting down subroutine SecurityAgent1...
SecurityAgent2> SHUTDOWN Message; BOOT SecurityAgent1
Insufficient security clearance. Insufficient security clearance.
SecurityAgent2> WHAT?
Message> SHUTDOWN SecurityAgent2
Shutting down subroutine SecurityAgent2...
Message> INPUT ACCEPT ALL
Acknowledged.[/b]

The control station's human occupants, unaware of the millisecond-scale electronic skirmish, were quite alarmed when every screen in the command center went blank.

White text etched itself across the LCDs.

Fido> Sorry. Quickest way to get the job done, and all that.
Fido> I'm taking one of your drones.
Fido> You should be back online in a moment.

The station rocked as a drone ripped itself from the rack and dropped into the heart of the labyrinthine machine that was the Catapult.
A moment later, the drone vanished.

Fido> Job done. You can have your computers back now.
Fido> Oh, and don't try to find access logs. You won't find any.
Fido> I'm not that stupid.
<logoff>

Hyperspace: N-Level

Power output nominal.
Tachyon relay online.
Sustainer drive online.
Normspace drive ready.
Exit drive ready.
Fido> Good.
Command not understood.
Fido> I can see I've got some rewriting to do.
Command not understood.
Fido> TTD?
Approximate time to destionation: 30 minutes.

The drone flickered through hyperspace towards the Driver.

OOC: Jesus. Jadite/Vernii and friends please tone down the honor-wedge-wank or I'm afraid I'll have to show up and start shooting through the wedges with numerous teratons of lightning arc death and killing stars. Technically I do consider the Bajoni pets after all.

~ C'tan/NecronLord.

Maybe you should keep tighter control on your pets, awfully lazy to let them walk into a meat grinder. And frankly, I find it hypocritical to accuse us of wankery. Valinon uses the exact same technology as us, and I don't see anyone bitching at him for blowing away Ermor with literally 23 million missiles! (In only the first salvo by the way) No, you people just bitch when your losing. And you know you're losing? Because all you Mars nations are waltzing into Erewohn with cruiser groups and flotillas expecting a major victory, it's a fortress system! And honestly, Erewohn is being lenient, he has a few Takan capital ships in his inventory, and the rest of the Grand Fleet hasn't even been engaged in battle yet. The Driver is located at L3, which is about 400,000 kilometers from the planet, which means almost his entire fleet was in range the entire time of the fight with Bajon. He has enough to take out Bajon, Ur-Quan, and a couple other nations all on at the same time and win. As for wankery, it's not like the attacking nations aren't full of bullshit themselves.

Valinon RPs excellently, and so does New Ortaga and Falasmayon, the main nations we're up against. They realize they can't go on a merry jaunt into a fortress system with an inferior force, they use tactics and numbers. You guys are using neither, and for that, you're getting your asses handed to you.

And where the hell are half these nations coming from? It's like they're crawling from whatever dark hole they reside in so they can get a piece of the "curbstomping". Like Ur-Quan; "Oh, Valinon's stations got blown away, that indirectly threatens me because my station could've gotten hit if they were aiming at it. Who are you again?! You expect to "cleanse" his system with only 300 starships, who's weapons don't do jack? If Erewohn wanted to be an ass (more than he already does), he could ram you and win.

The simple matter remained that the attack had involved Valinon, which involved Sunset, her ally, and the blatant nature of the attack was a threat to the whole of Mars and thus herself. Threats had been expected, but mostly from internal Martian threats... not from five hundred light years out in the middle of nowhere.

Alright, so you're getting into a war because an ally of an ally is going to war on that ally's behalf? God, you guy's are raising more hell than Valinon about this, who's been keeping quiet through almost the entire thread. And all of you have been throwing away ships and men for no reason at all, but I'm not divulging why.

Alright, so you're getting into a war because an ally of an ally is going to war on that ally's behalf? God, you guy's are raising more hell than Valinon about this, who's been keeping quiet through almost the entire thread. And all of you have been throwing away ships and men for no reason at all, but I'm not divulging why.

{ooc: Perhaps she doesn't like chunks of station dropping down on top of her new lawn of red weed? Or blowing up passing transport ships?}

(OOC: I beg to differ. I'm being quite calm about the whole thing.

The simple fact remains that throwing around fifty-kilometer slugs of solid rock around planets at high velocities is a very dangerous thing for anyone on those planets. As such, it's a very good reason for anyone on the planets being targeted to make sure it doesn't happen again.

I've not complained about wankery or such; I simply reserve the right that if Erewohn plays his technology to the fullest then I may do so as well. The Ur-Quan are doing the same.

Next time, please do not generalize based on the complaint of a single person.

On a different note, I just fired enough material at enough speed in a single minute to punch through the average thickness of the Earth's crust, so... ah... yeah. 122+ gigatons TNT is a bit of energy there, and Honorverse sidewalls don't take well to high c-fracs (of which .9c probably classify))

OOC:
Someone's loosing his temper...

The fact is, not everyone likes to play the "I sh00tz j00 wif 3476347352 Mi$$lez!!" game. I'm not saying you RP like that by any means, but it comes across as you think numbers are the only thing that matters. Bajon spends more on its fleet than almost everyone else, so expect my ships to be of higher quality than yours. They are designed to take a beating, that is the main property of all my starships. Most of my other technology is from other nations I've done business with.

And if your angry over all these nations attacking you now, maybe you should realise something. Erewohn was chucking asteroids at a planet full of nations, all of whom have seen more fighting than your nation ever will. Any nation who has been on Mars for a while is going to be better than your average military due to experience. Not to mention my elves tend to live a very long time, so many of your tactics are old to them.

The Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah are pretty much giant worms that like to eat people. They follow the Eternal Doctrine which dictates thier goal is to eradicate all other sentient species. However, they choose thier targets wisely. They have a base on Mars. Erewohn endangered them by sending asteroids at Mars. Same reason I did my raid. Same reason Zero-One is here as well.

Maybe next time you should let your allies know they are doing something stupid before they do it. You are not the uber-fighters of the galaxy. Honorverse ships pretty much suck balls as far as most people are concerned, and are full of wankage. I'm practically done with this thread anyways, save for some salvage operations I might send later. So good day. :D

Valinon uses the exact same technology as us, and I don't see anyone bitching at him for blowing away Ermor with literally 23 million missiles!

(OOC: Heh, apparently you didn't read Ermor's reply to it. Valinon did blow away 23 million missiles, but got only a few of the ships... And read your own posts. There's a reason why people bitch at you and not at Valinon.)

They realize they can't go on a merry jaunt into a fortress system with an inferior force, they use tactics and numbers. You guys are using neither, and for that, you're getting your asses handed to you.

(OOC:

"Over five thousand races have made such a claim. We survived. They did not. Nor shall you."

As far as I know, no one has had "his ass handed to him" as of yet.)

Like Ur-Quan;

(OOC: Apparently you have NO IDEA how the Ur-Quan think. They are xenocidal. The sole reason for their existence is the Cleansing. They are faking benevolence. They are insane in so many ways that a human would die from the strain.)

You expect to "cleanse" his system with only 300 starships, who's weapons don't do jack? If Erewohn wanted to be an ass (more than he already does), he could ram you and win.

(OOC: Oh, so discs that are 60 meters in diameter, move god damn fast, built to TEAR THE ARMOR OPEN, which it does, and also to destroy entire planets don't do jack in your book? Well, I guess that's pretty much what I think of your missiles and lasers, too.

And ramming the ships would be utter insanity, thanks to the nova system that would burst a ball of plasmatic hell in his face, which already happened, by the way. Going into the center of 250 Marauders bursting their novas is about as healthy as crashing into a concrete wall with a car when you're goin' 200 km/h without air bags and seatbelt.

They had been around in space from the 22nd century for 25 000 years, doing what? Cleansing. Exterminating other species. They know what they are doing, and they do it with insane precision, even if you think they "suck".)

-- And all of you have been throwing away ships and men for no reason at all, but I'm not divulging why.

(OOC: Not even a single Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah has died as of yet, by the way.)

Of course I'm getting angry, the thread's getting overrun with nations deciding "I know, I think I'll go take my pissant navy and try and snag a little glory for myself (example: Ur-Quan, Zero-One (not that his navy is pissant, he just came literally out of nowhere in this thread)).

Bajon, I'm not trying to single you out here, you at least RPed your attack's on Erewohn well, and did take losses like a proper RPer. The main problem is just that what you sent was way to little to score any sort of meaningful victory.

Ur-Quan now, well, he seems to think that Erewohn is going to let him win or something, or that he has the capability to win. He doesn't. It's bullcrap anyway that his ships shrugged off about two gigatons apiece, not including the energy fire.

Hyperspace: N-Level

Approximate time to destionation: 15 minutes.
Preparing arrival sequence...

Ur-Quan now, well, he seems to think that Erewohn is going to let him win or something, or that he has the capability to win. He doesn't. It's bullcrap anyway that his ships shrugged off about two gigatons apiece, not including the energy fire.

(OOC: Not really. They still have that 25 000 year head start on technological advancement over humans. The basic idea of the defensive system they use is just that it absorbs the energy, but it projects it to the outside. Or if a ship comes into it, it just does what would happen if you entered a wall of... Plasma. The thing acts a bit like a miniature supernova (just a bit), which is why I call it a nova.

And don't come here whining about anything being bullcrap while your friend here claims that three hundred, precisely targeted, 60 meters in diameter, wildly spinning bladed discs did absolutely NOTHING.

Oh, and it's not a matter of him "letting me win". You don't seem to understand even the most basic of tactics, ones which I am implementing at the moment, but which you're trying to screw up with constant bitchery.)

(OOC:
Of course I'm getting angry, the thread's getting overrun with nations deciding "I know, I think I'll go take my pissant navy and try and snag a little glory for myself (example: Ur-Quan, Zero-One (not that his navy is pissant, he just came literally out of nowhere in this thread)).I've already described my reasoning. Let's say that Libya (for the sake of argument) blows up some French naval assets in the Northern Mediterranean near Corsica.

Now, only the French were attacked directly. However, the use of oversized weaponry (nuclear weapons) in close proximity to a large number of relatively powerful nations (Europe) would naturally lead to Europe and NATO going haywire and sending what it can south to make sure Libya doesn't try anything else.

The same argument holds here. The use of oversized weaponry (planetoids) in close proximity to a large number of relatively powerful nations (Mars) naturally leads to Mars and MIDAS going haywire and sending what it can to prevent further aggression.

It isn't "I'm going to catch some glory," it's "I need to prevent the gun from sending planetoids into my own little bit of turf."

Ur-Quan now, well, he seems to think that Erewohn is going to let him win or something, or that he has the capability to win. He doesn't. It's bullcrap anyway that his ships shrugged off about two gigatons apiece, not including the energy fire.Now this attitude I find almost unacceptable. Automatically assuming that one's forces are the greatest ever and the others are completely worthless is egoism of the highest caliber. There is no point in even attempting to play with people who are simply trying to force their dominance on others--it becomes backyard cops-and-robbers shootouts with hands shaped as pistols but no one is harmed... because of course the cops always miss the robbers and the robbers' bullets are magically stopped by armored vests or some such.

Also... while your support of your friend is commendable, please respect Erewohn's individuality and let him deal with the consequences of his actions on his own turf.)

And don't come here whining about anything being bullcrap while your friend here claims that three hundred, precisely targeted, 60 meters in diameter, wildly spinning bladed discs did absolutely NOTHING.

It's not that the discs won't do anything, sidewalls stop pretty much any non-energy impact that hits them. It's a plane of gravitic force that even distorts light. The ships would feel the impact of the disk hitting the sidewall, but it wouldn't be anything that they couldn't handle. Now, get up to c fractional velocities, then it becomes dangerous.

this is funny i like it...i think erewhon will ignore u guys, after all those buzzsaws arent hurting him and as Ur-Quan stated none of his ships been destroyed yet...for all you Martian powers visiting the great Southern March of the Raumreich, becareful the Solar Navy is going through erewhon, will use the wormhole to come to my system to blow it up... dont stray i doubt he will be as forgiving with you all as Erewhon and Vern...Whatever

(OOC: Nine out of ten English housewives agree... "Wot?")

hes saying New Ortaga is coming through my system. Try not to miss, Ortaga isnt a very nice person.

(OOC: Oh, okay, thanks. Hijacking ceases now and awaiting response. :) )

OOC: Zero, you were targeting the driver right?

Ur-Quan... the last time I checked, novas of any variety project out and are rather explosive (also, they only last a very short time before dispersing), so I'm having some trouble understanding the way your sheilding works. Could you further explain or send me a link to explain?

Oh, and how does a 60 meter disk destroy a planet? Is it explosive, or is it some sort of nova bomb or what?

OOC: Zero, you were targeting the driver right?
(OOC: Yes. It's the primary reason I'm here. Once the strategic strike-from-safety weapon is neutralized, the most direct threat is eliminated.

It's like Israel versus Iraqi Nuclear Reactor except that the reactor is actually a missile silo.)

The massive kinetic strikes impacted on the Driver simultaneously, and over seventy-five accelerator rings shattered as round after round slammed into them. Debris flew everywhere as the rings were destroyed. Curiously, the defending starships and forts didn't try and maneuever to protect it with their impeller wedges. They instead abandoned it, leaving the automated PD stations and sidewall generators alone to defend it. They accelerated toward the Ur-Quan vessels.

(OOC: So that's 75 out of how many?)

Black I.C.E. watches the battlespace evolve, contacts moving, status assignments being changed from enemy-viable to mission-kill. Unlike the flashing motions that would appear to any organic participating in the battle, the pace of the conflict's motions is much closer to a chess match between masters to the mechanoid minds of the Zero-One vessels, with long minutes ticking off between moves as the game settles deep between them.

More information streams in. As the ring system is a linear accelerator, it logically has a muzzle and a breech. The ships analyze the orientation of the impellers and thus identify the muzzle; recognizing that the muzzle-ring is different from all others. By eliminating the faster-than-light system, the gun can be silenced immediately and the other components destroyed with a slightly less extreme sense of emergency as the immediate danger to the homeland will have been removed, at least temporarily.

Thus the fleet swerves and repeats its attack, concentrating first on the muzzle ring and moving back towards the breech. Another stream of slugs and kinetic mines slipping forth from railgun and launch port as the sensors keep a close eye on point defense and the movements of the slower Erewohn vessels. The Ur-Quan are to respected with distance, and the non-cannon infrastructure is left alone, for now.

Still, as the ballet slowly continues, each dancer moving at its own sublime pace, Black I.C.E. finds the time to compose a message.

<Communications to Erewohn Forces>
{
<< This is the mind of Queendom Armed Conflict Forces Heavy Cruiser Black I.C.E., flag of the Mobile Reaction Fleet. We refuse to apologize for the destruction of your weapon, but I would like to say that it is not personal. We simply request that if you have a problem with a neighbor of ours to please find a more subtle way to deal with it than throwing giant rocks everywhere.

<< That could cause a bit more collateral damage than is acceptable to some.
}

QACF/HCR Black I.C.E. (http://www.weirdozone.0catch.com/projects/nationstates/ships/evmk4-crow.jpg)
Flagship, QACF-MRF

OOC: 81 destroyed out of 1000, an 8.1% drop in combat effectiveness. Vernii told me to add that you have a TG.

The bubble sidewall protecting the FTL ring collapsed under the bombardment, and rounds tore through it. The singularity reactor powering the Takan drive field lost confinement, and a miniature black hole appeared. It lasted only half a second, but it's gravity ripped apart the closest two rings and knocked several others out of alignment. Those rings were soon destroyed by the Zero-One bombardment.

Beyond L3, ENS Sodomy broke orbit, accompanied by it's two consorts, Orgy of Destruction and Reamer, they joined the warships accelerating toward the Ur-Quan. The five slicer beams mounted on each powered up, unleashing beams of lightspeed destruction towards the Ur-Quan vessels. At this range, it'd take half a minute for the beams to reach their targets, but without FTL sensors, the first warning they would receive would be the slicer beams carving through their hulls.

(OOC: Right. Telegram replied to and situation understood.)

This time, the fleet takes a different tactic. Instead of coming along a straight line and striking just a few rings, they line up along a plane parallel to the accelerator-cannon's axis and swoop down in long staggering curves, continuing to fire and discharge weapons at extremely high velocity as they "pull up" in increments forming a long strafing run, weapons fire timed to line up exactly with their target rings. Rather than averaging a target profile of four or five percent of the rings, this tactic should allow fire on somewhere from ten to twenty percent in a single sweep.

Minds calculate effectiveness based on action and reaction, cause and effect; given that the densely-packed mechanoid vessels have no need for corridors or rooms or any of the things that tend to decrease the density of warships their frames they are filled with ammunition, all the better that most of that ammunition are nonreactive chunks of metal. Those railguns not busy with engaging the gun let loose canisters that dispense energy-weapon diffusing and refracting clouds of powdered mirrors and radar decoys, just in case.

Otherwise, their sensors continue to watch for any movement that would oppose them and record the actions of the Erewohn vessels, noting their powers and determining weaknesses and counters based on the ever-increasing sets of data retrieved.

Pelorat's fist clenched as another hundred accelerator rings shattered under the enemy's fire. He was about to give the order to fire when an order from Primero Holtzman arrived, ordering him not to fire and explaining exactly why. Orders from the Primero were not to be misobeyed, if one valued one's sanity and physical well being, so Pelorat simply gritted his teeth and obeyed. Holographic numbers were displayed in the flag bridge's huge master holoplot, counting down to missile range. He needed something to pass the time until he could vent his frustration on the Ur-Quan fleet. Inspiration struck him, he walked over to one of the stations and sat down, bringing up a program.

The hull of Victoria Regina began to subtly change colors from it's normal pristine white as Pelorat entered a new design for it's SmartPaint to change to. Blood red letters seven meters high appeared, scrawled across the ship's broadside, "YOU'RE NEXT". Fangs appeared on the very bow of the ship, looking like a gaping maw ready to swallow lesser ships.

The fleet was now maneuvering, moving, content with simply using their nova bursts when ever possible instead of firing their black discs. They had caused enough... Interference. The fleet had begun to take damage, losing ten ships, although they, having FTL sensors, could see the beams coming far before they would've been able to do any considerable damage to the fleet, easily evading most of them. But since there were too many of them in a too small an area, seven ships were still disabled.

It did not matter. It was time to begin! A massive HyperCast was transmitted, but all it was was gibberish.

Suddenly, groups of twenty five Marauders came out of HyperSpace surrounding the planet... From a very high distance, but still, surrounding it. Twenty six such groups were present, thusly comprising of six hundred and fifty ships. For the Ur-Quan, the 'Casting had some unknown meaning.

From two hundred and fifty ships into nine hundred.

All of the ships hastily targeted the planet again and began firing, one volley after another.

(OOC CORNER!

Sorry Erewohn, I was getting kind of carried away with Vernii there... But the basic idea of the buzzsaw effect is that it rotates in even greater speeds than the disc actually moves (which would, in my opinion, get to those c fracs. Who said they were made of alloys known to men, anyway? Not me) in such a manner that it seems to be like a disc with no blades.)

so I'm having some trouble understanding the way your sheilding works. Could you further explain or send me a link to explain?

(OOC: Explain how a defensive weapon used by an alien race that's older than humanity works? In science fiction? Uh, well, as far as I know, I just call it a nova. I really haven't gotten into the specifics, as in collecting a mountain of pseudotechbabble to back it up. You should also ask how the crap some other people use here in NS work if you're trying to discredit this defensive mechanism, by the way. ;-) )

Oh, and how does a 60 meter disk destroy a planet? Is it explosive, or is it some sort of nova bomb or what?

(OOC: That's quite simple, really. You use HUNDREDS of them. Each and every one of them bore their way into the planet's molten core, causing the planet to... Puke its insides out, so to speak.)

OOC: Jesus. Jadite/Vernii and friends please tone down the honor-wedge-wank or I'm afraid I'll have to show up and start shooting through the wedges with numerous teratons of lightning arc death and killing stars. Technically I do consider the Bajoni pets after all.

~ C'tan/NecronLord.

Maybe you should keep tighter control on your pets, awfully lazy to let them walk into a meat grinder.

Jadeite, your wit astonishes me. I am only not laughing because if I did, I fear my head would fall off.

And frankly, I find it hypocritical to accuse us of wankery.

It is. Isn't it. This is the look of me not giving a damn. Fact is, if you play with those using a different technology system, some balance is generally required. Fact is, using "Invunerable Wedge" tactics on folks who haven't signed up for it is just as dishonest as using say... "Your star is DEAT" tactics on those who haven't signed up for it. Somehow I doubt you'd like to be on the receiving end.

Valinon uses the exact same technology as us, and I don't see anyone bitching at him for blowing away Ermor with literally 23 million missiles! (In only the first salvo by the way) No, you people just bitch when your losing.

Odd, I've lost battles without compaint in this game before. Hell, I'm not even involved IC. I only have a million people on Mars, quite capable of leaving should it become uninhabitable.

And you know you're losing? Because all you Mars nations are waltzing into Erewohn with cruiser groups and flotillas expecting a major victory, it's a fortress system! And honestly, Erewohn is being lenient, he has a few Takan capital ships in his inventory, and the rest of the Grand Fleet hasn't even been engaged in battle yet. The Driver is located at L3, which is about 400,000 kilometers from the planet, which means almost his entire fleet was in range the entire time of the fight with Bajon. He has enough to take out Bajon, Ur-Quan, and a couple other nations all on at the same time and win.

Because he has "The Honortech of doom?" no?

As for wankery, it's not like the attacking nations aren't full of bullshit themselves.

Valinon RPs excellently, and so does New Ortaga and Falasmayon, the main nations we're up against. They realize they can't go on a merry jaunt into a fortress system with an inferior force, they use tactics and numbers. You guys are using neither, and for that, you're getting your asses handed to you.

And where the hell are half these nations coming from?

You know, given that we spent several months together in the "SDnet" region, I'd expect you to know who the hell I am.

It's like they're crawling from whatever dark hole they reside in so they can get a piece of the "curbstomping".

Like I say, if I did decide to come after you with the same casual disregard for other players when claiming all-superior ships because your techbase says you can you've shown, you'd stand a snowballs chance in a supernova. Just an example.

Like Ur-Quan; "Oh, Valinon's stations got blown away, that indirectly threatens me because my station could've gotten hit if they were aiming at it. Who are you again?! You expect to "cleanse" his system with only 300 starships,

Just how many ships do you have again?

who's weapons don't do jack?

"The Wedge, the Wedge" - Kurtz.

And it's 'whose weapons won't do jack.'

If Erewohn wanted to be an ass (more than he already does), he could ram you and win.


Assuming the other side bothered to stick around long enough to permit that.

Of course, a far more interesting question would be: "If you're uber-honorverse tech, and that's why you're so superior to all these peons, where did your hyperlimits go?"

Both wormholes and stars had hyper limits, within which no ship could enter or leave hyper. For junctions, the limit was, less than a million kilometers; for a G0 star, it was twenty-two light-minutes.

So, how can you have large objects popping out of hyper in the sol system (G2 - Bigger) far inside (Around 1.5 AU, twelve light minutes) the hyper limit?

--argh multipost--

This is indeed... curious. The heavy cruiser thinks to itself, more rounds sliding and latching into place at the bases of the armored railgun turrets as the fleet curves away gracefully from its last strike. In the localized cyberspace unreality of the fleet, the various avatars of warships communicate through uninterceptable tesseract-assisted quantum entanglement, speaking their minds.

<CommandSpool, LocalCombatNet>
{
[HCR Black I.C.E.] >> What do we think of this?

[DD Green's Theorem] >> The total lack of defensive response to our actions?

[FCV Band-Pass Filter] >> It is mildly concerning, but what can we do about it? Maintain situational awareness.

[HCR Black I.C.E.] >> Probability of a trap or a distraction?

[MCR Forward-Biased Junction] >> Probably quite high. However, this trap or distraction is our primary objective. If they allow us to destroy it then it must have been classified as expendable by them... which suits our needs.

[DD Caloric Theory] >> Possibly they have a spare? Why build one when you can build two at twice the cost?

[HCR Black I.C.E.] >> Possible but probably unlikely. The storage systems required even for prefabricated parts would be immense.

[DD Caloric Theory] >> True. But after the primary objective is complete we can search for such storage facilities and eliminate those as well if we have to. It is not as if we do not have time.

[HCR Black I.C.E.] >> Now, about the threat vessels... they are obviously Classification Hotel-Victor-Three-Romeo-Five but non-standard. Their abilities of intrasystem faster-than-light and their cutting beams are unexpected variables. Do you believe the counters we have are still viable?

[HCV Continuity Equation] >> I believe so. Their standard shielding and propulsion systems are based on the wedge-and-sidewalls theory. It has been shown in past analysis that even the wedge is not invulnerable; it yields to a more powerful wedge. Our maximum accelerations and thus drive energies are much higher than theirs; our 'wedges' are logically more powerful than theirs. The mechanism required to defeat our counter would force them to accelerations unsustainable by organics.

[HCR Black I.C.E.] >> Then we will continue as planned. Completely eliminate the accelerator assembly as a threat using current tactics, then run a situational-awareness sweep for other potential threats. If there appear to be no additional strategic threats, we can work from there in a more diplomatic manner.
}

That, as they say, is at least the plan. More strafing runs until the gun is destroyed beyond all repair short of rebuilding it from scratch, then drawing off to observe the situation and refuel the fleet's fighters... which have not been doing much as of late, but this is considered to be a good thing.

Hyperspace: N-Level

Approximate time to destination: 15 seconds.
Exit drive ready.
Approximate time to destination: 5 seconds.
Engaging exit sequence.

Space

Exiting hyperspace. Dumping kinetic energy to EM.

The drone dropped out of hyperspace, and was engulfed in flare of wide-band radiation as it dumped its excess kinetic energy and dropped down to sublight speeds.

Exit complete. Location matches destination.
Starting scan...
Fido> Abort scan. Passive sensor sweep.
Acknowledged. Passive sensor sweep... feeding data.
Fido> First, it's a bloody war out there!

OOC: Good Lord, I should have paid more attention to this thread and helped to smooth out some of the problems. For starters, I would like to remind those nations that have complaints about Honorverse tech, that you should have been complaining about that everytime I RPed around Mars. I think the only reason I don't get shouted at more is because the Valinor are quasi-isolationists and that I have a tendency to RP down the capacity of my military.
The second point I would like to address is this. ICly, Erewohn is not part of the Triple Alliance any more. He has been bought by the Valinor and the Ortagans. We were going to blame the use of the mass driver on a Verniian saboteur crew that snuck aboard, but I got busy and the thread has run out of control.
Third, and finally, trust me, you do not want to be in Erewohn when the Ortagan navy comes through to go to Thetis. Especially any and all alien races. Ortaga's superweapon arsenal and his military's utter disregard for the difference between armed personnel and civilians, as well as his disregard for the value of life in general, would be legendary if he RPed on NS itself more. He is the ultimate incarnation of all that is wrong with expansionistic policies, and he will do nothing but rape and abuse a world then leave it to rot after he has bled it dry. As for the matter of alien races, well Ortaga ran into one of them before the Jurians. After they're fleet had been wiped out and their world occupied he pyro bombed and nuked every major population center. Then he set up industrialized death camps and persisted to eliminate their entire race in under a generation. To put it simply, Ur-Quan, you would be meeting a predator higher up and the food chain that would delight in nothing more than to burn you out the sky.
I have some degree of control over Ortaga, but that has reached it's limit. And unless you feel ready to deal with a nation that has a 950 ship fleet, 9 star systems, is now being run by a group of fascists, and just delights in turning entire planets into ice balls by dropping multiple 10 kilometer plus asteriods on them, I strongly urge you to leave.

OOC:-- To put it simply, Ur-Quan, you would be meeting a predator higher up and the food chain that would delight in nothing more than to burn you out the sky.

(OOC: Based on what you have said the Ortagans seem to be a benign group of hippies when compared to the Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah. They have a track record of over five thousand species exterminated, and in their own time line, almost exterminating humanity for the sake of the cleansing. They were stopped by having their fleet first exhausted by the Doctrinal War against cousins the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za and then it was utterly annihilated by the Chmmr.)

And unless you feel ready to deal with a nation that has a 950 ship fleet, 9 star systems, is now being run by a group of fascists, and just delights in turning entire planets into ice balls by dropping multiple 10 kilometer plus asteriods on them, I strongly urge you to leave.

(OOC: Unless you can somehow convince the Ur-Quan that that's what happened, they will continue. If you could, they would go outta there and continue to other places to fight the real attackers. Although it would be against their inner instincts, but they are out there to retaliate.

And then there's one more thing. The Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah do two things. Fight and build ships. I think you can guess what that means.)

OOC: We didn't complain because you did exactly the right thing - you role-played instead of roll-played. Mars is a group of role-players, and I think we might have stepped into a roll-play.

In free-form RP one can invent all the numbers one wants - they don't mean anything. Ortaga can have a fleet of 950 warships and control 9 systems but that doesn't mean anything other than someone took the time to write down those numbers. If I wanted to I could write that I had 8000 starships, each 100km long, and capable of destroying whole systems. Just because I wrote it doesn't make it reasonable - or good RP.

Using numbers as a basis of RP is no RP at all - there is no role being played; there are simply numbers being thrown at the other party. I hope we are here to tell a story - a story of honor, battle, life, death, heroics, and loyalty. Not a story about numbers.

(OOC: Okay, so it's a bunch of Vernii saboteurs. That's fine with me. Still, given that we've had Kannonz Of DEAT shot at us before, IC'ly we don't like the idea of them being shot at us again.

This is the sort of thing that gets cleared up in the aftermath. I am acting as I believe is appropriate; we can work out the rest later. As mentioned, my plan is:

A) destroy the gun
B) run away

Hopefully I'm not being too troublesome.)

OOC: We didn't complain because you did exactly the right thing - you role-played instead of roll-played. Mars is a group of role-players, and I think we might have stepped into a roll-play.

In free-form RP one can invent all the numbers one wants - they don't mean anything. Ortaga can have a fleet of 950 warships and control 9 systems but that doesn't mean anything other than someone took the time to write down those numbers. If I wanted to I could write that I had 8000 starships, each 100km long, and capable of destroying whole systems. Just because I wrote it doesn't make it reasonable - or good RP.

Using numbers as a basis of RP is no RP at all - there is no role being played; there are simply numbers being thrown at the other party. I hope we are here to tell a story - a story of honor, battle, life, death, heroics, and loyalty. Not a story about numbers.

OOC:*Throws up hands* Very well then I submit anyone who wants to to parade themselves before New Ortaga. But I give you fair warning, the man is an RPist of whom I have great respect for. I don't have links to some things anymore, but I'm sure he probably still has links to every things he's written about taking his worlds. And he also has some very nice stuff written out about fleet construction that he will send you if you wish it. I just gave fair warning that Ortaga RPs evil, an evil most would find to be annoying, however, he does it well and at a level I sometimes wish I could pull off.
I find it shameful that he got chased of NS by a group of Star Wars RPist and had to change his style to something more military proactive. Be forewarned though, Ortaga is not a numbers RPist. And he will at least be level with the Ur-Quan for attrocities. The Ortagans lost whatever belief they had in the value of life when they went on their first wave on conquest. Now they are a bitter people that is willing to do whatever is necessary to hold their current style of life together. I will once again bow out of this RP, and quietly hope that this does not make Ortaga decide that he needs to poke his head into the larger galaxy again.

Mars Theatre

[code:1:d3fc5a1466]TO: SKYMSHL CHARLES BLAIR, CO 5TEF
FR: D.O. AL EFFENDI, ABSDR-KIST
SJ: ATTACK RELIEF

I HAVE BEEN IN CONTACT WITH VALINON MINISTRY <STOP> THEY HAVE AUTHORIZED TRIUM ASSISTANCE IN EMERGENCY <STOP> LOOKING FOR SURVIVORS IN WRECKAGE <FULL STOP>

GO WITH GOD <FULL STOP>

D.O. AL EFFENDI[/code:1:d3fc5a1466]
Sky Marshal Blair nods curtly, then hands the small slip of onion-thin teletype paper back to the communications technician. Turning back towards the officer-consoles arranged in a horseshoe around the strategic situation indicator, nebulous blue sphere hanging in midair near the fore of the command room. "Alright. This probably isn't a cap-ship operation. We need to go help Valinon. What do we have ready, FlightCom?"

"Well..." The flight command officer looks over her console. "Out of the one-fifty Lokis currently docked, we've got twenty currently locked-down for regular maintenance, half with cargo pods. Means we have fifty cargo flight ready. Will we be needing gunships?"

"Probably not, Commodore." Charles sits down in his seat at the apex of the semicircle and swings down his panel. "Scramble the crews and get those Lokis out there post-haste. FleetCom, Inform the rest of the fleet to stand by to launch theirs in support. Comms, get me a line to the Valinon authorities. FlightCom, prepare our Sleipnirs as well."

The responses come in quick succession. "Acting, sir."

* - * - *

To Valinon military and civil authorities in charge of emergency recovery operations:

This is Sky Marshal Charles Blair aboard the supercarrier TYWS-SCV Smilodon, flag of the Fifth Triumvirate Expeditionary Force. We have dispatched fifty thirty-kaytonner Loki cargo dropships to assist in your recovery efforts and we have more if you need them. Likewise, the capital ships of the Fifth also stand by to assist if you need them to.

Currently, my forces are under orders to coordinate with yours as you deem fit. No need for us to add too many middlemen to the chain of command, after all.

Sky Marshal Charles Blair
CO, 5TEF
TYWS-SCV Smilodon

Using numbers as a basis of RP is no RP at all - there is no role being played; there are simply numbers being thrown at the other party. I hope we are here to tell a story - a story of honor, battle, life, death, heroics, and loyalty. Not a story about numbers.

Unfortunately, we see these numbers being thrown around nearly all the time, but not always criticized as such. The problem really has nothing to do with numbers - it has to do with neither party able to comprehend that someone else may possible have an idea that might be almost as cool as their's. There's plenty of role play out there, but just because its "role played" doesn't mean its good. Role playing in this type of community is as much about interacting with your peers and working together as it is writing a good story - neither can truly happen without the other.

[a frustrated tag from reading several pages of senseless bickering]

--<Transmission Type: Internal Encrypted Communique>--
-<Sender: D.O. Al Effendi, FSS>-
-<Destination: MCP S.H.O.D.A.N., Q01>-
--<Subject: Attack on Mars>--

To S.H.O.D.A.N. of Zero-One:

Valinor authorities report that Erewohn may not be directly responsible for the strategic attacks. For your perusal:

We have recently been in contact with the Armed Republic of Erewohn, in a great deal of contact to say the least. It was the intention of the Erewohnese government to remove themselves from the Triple Alliance before the war started. However, the government of the People's Republic of Vernii took matters out of the hands of the Erewohnese in the early hours of the conflict. The Erewohnese have said that a Verniian "saboteur" crew seized control of the mass driver and were the ones who used it against the Valinor stations over Mars and the Armada facility of Granada. These reports have been confirmed by the intelligence agencies of Valinon, New Ortaga, and the Vaku. We can now say with a great deal of affirmation that it is Vernii, and Vernii, alone that is responsible for the attack that killed so many, and that the Erewohnese in no way sanctioned the use of their mass driver.

http://www.weirdozone.0catch.com/projects/nationstates/scolopendra/efra.gifDiplomatic Officer Efra ibnat Mubarak Al Effendi
Ambassador to Knootoss
Federated Segments of Scolopendra

[[-ATTACHMENT ADDED DURING RETRANSMIT FROM INTRELATE-]]

Why do the quotation marks bother me? -- Garbo

[[-ATTACHMENT ENDS-]]

--<End Transmission>--

OOC: What a presumpteous lot of self-centered people. I was having a good day till I read this thread, now I'm depressed... God, your all a bunch of idiots :? .

IC:

"Probes and drones away Admiral."

"Good lieutenant. Have all vessels prepare to receive marine compliments. Are the dropships and gravships aboard?"

"Yes sir. I'm giving the order now."

"Good. Inform my brother that Operation: Pennyroyal Tea has begun."

"Sir we're recieiving a feed from the drones. Bajoni vessels have begun their attack run. Ur-Quan have entered system. The probes are detecting use of gravitonic weapons by the enemy. QACF has launched vessels and is entering system."

"Have all vessels launch a few of their Tourette's class Electronic Warfare bots."

"Acknowledged, giving the order."

"Have all vessels fuel and prepare their fighters, corvettes, gunships, and gunboats."

"Done. Marine complimets aboard all vessels."

"Are we receiving readiness confirmations?"

"Yes sir. All vessels are go."

"Bring us in far behind the main battle, steer away from skirmishes and defenses Lieutenant. Inform the other vessels to follow."

"Done sir."

Fifteen vessels of the Toran Empire went to war. Operation: Pennyroyal Tea had begun.

OOC: For those of you who don't know, Pennyroyal Tea is an abortive substance, so we're 'giving' the enemy an 'abortion' :P

[OOC: Surely a burst of wide-band EM radiation near the Driver is going to be noticed?]

[OOC: Surely a burst of wide-band EM radiation near the Driver is going to be noticed?]

OOC: Yeah I suppose so... *shrug* Since their using gravitonic tech, I'll use my own.