NationStates Jolt Archive

First Star Lord Grossadmiral Sir Quentin Forrest watches the world of Yalta drift beneath the Star Armada formation being spearheaded by his own flagship, the Athena-class pod super dreadnought HMS Krieger. At the core of the formation, along with the Krieger, are thirty-two of her “sister” ships. Spreading outward from that core is the most massive concentration of ships of the wall outside Alpha Centauri in the history of the Star Armada. Forrest’s deep brown, almost black, eyes sweep across the neatly regimented formations of pod dreadnoughts, regular dreadnoughts, battleships, battlecruisers, carriers, cruisers, and destroyers readying in orbit over Yalta.
The Valinor warships are not alone, not by any measure. A massive Ortagan fleet is arrayed near the Axis/Yalta wormhole terminal, with heavy picket elements stationed in Yaltan orbit as well. Substantial forces from both the nations of Boroglia and Vakutu, Valinon’s other Raumreich allies, are moving to complete their entry into the orbital patterns as well. The entirety of the naval build up is already immense, hundreds of warships from all over the galaxy have joined the Valinor war effort. Valinon’s dominance in the Raumreich has been questioned, and the Valinor are moving to ensure that the mistake of questioning it will soon be rectified.
Forrest turns back to the spartan room behind him. It is an admiral’s play thing, but one even the cool First Star Lord indulges in, a massive room devoted to holographic data access. Off to one side, Forrest’s long-time aide and chief of staff, one Flottenkapitan Virgil Severn stands with the Krieger’s AI avatar, a man dressed like a Japanese samurai.
“Kreg,” Forrest says and the AI looks up.
“Yes, Admiral?”
“Bring up active strategy and tactical planning program 344-Gamma, as of the most recent update in all critical systems.”
The AI bows, and suddenly a massive three-dimensional star field sweeps across the room. Political boundaries, names, indicators of military forces, and more counters fill the field after it loads. The massive field of stars known as the Raumreich Oversector pivots on the central point known as Yalta.
“We have the latest reports from the Stocurm, Kerezin, and Madras systems, sir,” Severn says, stepping up next to Forrest. With a gesture the strange Valinor Perfect zooms in on the trio of systems in the northern Raumreich. They are caught between the key system of Yalta, and the Boroglian home star.
“Bajoni and Boroglian task forces have moved to secure Stocurm and Kerezin. Several picket squadrons are also supporting our Sardaukar operations in the former territory of the Democratic Republic,” Severn gestures to Madras.
“The northern flank is secure then. We won’t have to worry about the Vaterland being threatened easily by attack from a path through the Gregor Sector. What of the Vaku’s preparations to secure their terminal?”
“Done, sir. Lord Admiral nar Hhallas says that the remainder of the Vaku home fleet have secured their end of the terminal. And with the Wickians driven back to Ticonderoga and Thetis, they do not expect another major attack.”
Forrest nods, “Kreg, the southern Raumreich if you please.”
“Of course,” the map changes, zooming in on the eastern border of the Ortagan Hegemony and the vast running war between the Hegemon’s massive military machine and the Wickian Commonwealth.
“Ortagan forces are still moving against Thetis. Strategos Garahou intends to move against New Tyrolia and Klien after the conclusion of the Gregor/Acler front engagement,” the AI says. “Our last reports from Axis show that the Ortagan troop convoy to assist in our Gregor assault are preparing to transition through the wormhole terminal. Admiral Latimer will inform us when they arrive.”
“And what of our allies and Generalfeldmarschall von Richter’s own convoy in Alpha Centauri?”
“High Command communications from Proxima say they are moving for the terminal now. Estimated time of arrival is in seven hours.”
“Good, then the strength for our terrestrial assault will be readied in time for our operational deadline in forty-eight hours,” Forrest says, Severn nods.
“If I may, Admiral?”
“Of course, Virgil.”
“His Majesty’s Special Liaison Service has dispatched four of their own warships to support us. They are convoying with the combat support detachment via Discouri, but I wish to make you aware of a communiqué from Imperial Centre,” Severn hands Forrest a piece of hardcopy bearing the imperial lion crest.
“This is ludicrous,” Forrest mummers. “They will be outside active military operational command? Completely?”
“On the direct edict of His Majesty, sir. The Spartan-class warships being dispatched are to be under the command authority of only His Majesty and the field commander for the Special Liaison Service.”
Forrest is very quite, one hand holding his right elbow, and the right hand cradling his chin with his index finger tapping against his cheekbone.
“By the time this is all said and done, Virgil, the Liaison Service may very well be a greater threat to Valinor military structure than any outside threat ever was. I often fear that the trust of the Crown is misplaced in an organization so secretive, and so far removed from the chain of command.”
“It is a tiresome affair, sir.”
“Get to the bottom of it, Virgil.”
“By that you mean….” the Perfect says, gaze innocent as his eyes shift from vivid blue to opal black.
“Find out what is happening with the Liaison Service. Something occurred in Yetti’s Star, I want to know what. And I want to know what is causing them to consider open military operations. They are willing to sacrifice their beloved secrecy for the moment, and I want to know why.”
“I shall do it,” Virgil says. “However, it will take time.”
“Time we will have,” Forrest says. “This war is already done, the final chapter has been written, the plot just needs to be played out. Already there are 723 warships present in Yalta, this does not included the Ortagans or any of the MIDAS nations. Gregor will be a pitched battle, Virgil, but the victors and the defeated are already clearly illustrated. Before the week is out, Gregor will be an occupied system, the Vaterland will be the unquestioned master of the majority of the Raumreich populace. And in return we have sold the southern Raumreich to the devil, and will throw the Verniians to the dogs.”
“Sir?”
“We are being called up to fight one more war, Virgil. The old veterans of the Outer Dominion Wars, we who established Valinor’s place in the galactic stage for Old Emperor Gustav, are being summoned by his grandson to create a new position. And there are others like us, like Channing. But I long for a simpler time, Virgil, when there was a sharper line between the light and the dark. In the years to come, I think that gray will too often cloud the fate of the Raumreich and the fate of our own country. And I pray that by the time a war under these conditions arrives at our door, I am either dead or retired. This coming battle will be a preview of what is to come, but it will seem like children at play with what can happen.”
“The Hegemony you mean?”
“No, it is not just the Hegemony. Valinon, New Ortaga, the Triple Alliance, the Mars nations, Falasmayon, and the Vaku, we are all being played, but who is playing us I have yet to decide.”

Four LRRSF hospital ships plow through hyperspace, headed towards Gregor in anticipation of the coming battle.

Modified Savuka class freighters, they are quite possibly the best hospital ships in the galaxy. And if history told them anything, they will be needed.

(A subtle *tag*)

((Hmm...this is more than just a little interesting! *tag*))

OOC:

I'll dive in as soon as the battle starts TAG

And in return we have sold the southern Raumreich to the devil

yup that about covers it i'd say....TAG.

One by one, the over five hundred warship of the Five Civilized Nations Tian Min (Heavenly Will) Strike Fleet arrived at edge of the Gregor System, taking up positions far enough away to prevent any accidental attack upon their warships. With assurances from the nation of Sunset of no extermination of the people of Vernii, the Five Civilized Nations commander, Grand Admiral Horatio Gates Nelson, was more than willing to sit this battle out. Already, the Combined Five Civilized Nations Navy had been stretched, as they attempted to retake the break away colonies. So, the Five Civilized Nations warships patiently waited for the fireworks to begin.

Aboard the secondary command ship, Fleet Admiral Li Jun, nominally the commander of the fleet, although the Grand Admiral had overall command, sat patiently in his stateroom, as he read over the reports of the other conflicts that the Five Civilized Nations had become embroiled in. Sighing to himself, the Admiral stood and stretched himself. Cracking his knuckles, Li Jun exited his stateroom and moved towards the bridge, to wait for the inevitable...

OOC: Oh, this shall be exquisite. Yes, most exquisite

.::TAG::.

Soft classical music played in Fleet Admiral Harris's quarters aboard the superdreadnought Empyrean. His day cabin was about ten meters wide, the main room of a suite. The thick carpeting was a rich maroon, and painting of various military heroes from different periods of history hung on the walls. Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and the chamber had a massive viewport set into the exterior bulkhead, taking up almost all of it. He was presently sitting in a comfortable leather chair in front of the viewport, glass of wine in hand, gazing out at his fleet.

A chime sounded at his door. "Enter." The doors slid opened and Harris's Chief of Staff, Captain Walter Neville walked across the cabin to the side of the chair. "Ah, Walter, what news do you bring? Can I interest you in a glass of wine?"
Walter smiled but shook his head. "No thank you, I'm on duty right now anyway. Long range sensors have detected FTL signatures, looks like a small group of ships. They'll reach the FTL inhibitor soon."

"It's probably not an enemy group, if it was it would be in greater numbers."
"Probably. I felt I should inform though anyway."
"What about the 5CN fleet, Captain?"
Neville sighed in disgust. "They are holding station at the edge of the system, I doubt that they will intervene."
"Oh well. Perhaps the Ortagans will blunder into the system near them. That would prove interesting."
"Haha, yes indeed. One can only hope."

"You know Walter, if the Erewohnese hadn't defected, it would have freed up a much larger number of capital ships for a second wave of offenses. We could have turned south toward the Ortagans, or hit the Vaku or Boroglians. It would have been easy, being able to shuttle warships to whatever front required them via the Erewohn and our own wormhole junctions. But no. As it is we don't have the strength to mount any sort of long term offensive and still keep a large enough presence in our own systems. So here we are, waiting for them to come to us. Of course, with the new FTL inhibitor, our enemies will be required to approach from the outskirts of the system, meaning we can manuever inside the system to meet them in combat at our leisure. Conceivably I could choose to fight them fifteen light minutes out, or even within the orbital radius of our moon. Anyway, how is morale in the fleet?"

"It's excellent. Squadron flagships just finished reconfiguring their smartpaint an hour ago."
"They did? Well, lets take a look shall we?

Harris sat down his glass of wine and picked up the viewport control pad. It had a small electronic screen displaying the same view that they saw when they looked out the viewport. Harris touched a finger to the image of a ship on it, and hull mounted projectors brought a gravitic focusing lense into place outside the Admiral's viewport, magnifying the ship.

The spindle shaped white hull of the dreadnought stood out against the black background of space. Hadrian stood out in black and gold lettering on it's bow hammerhead, and underneath it was painted an Iron Cross, ten meters by ten meters in size. "XIV" was painted in gold lettering across the center of the cross, denoting that Hadrian was the flagship of Battle Squadron XIV. Empyrean itself had the same symbol, except the roman numeral was a simple "I", and a massive gold eagle was painted behind Iron Cross, denoting the ship as both flagship of Battle Squadron I and Home Fleet.

"When the Valinor and their allies do come for us, no matter what the outcome, we will make them pay dearly."

The four hospital ships emerge from hyperspace at the Gregor hyper-limit. Not terribly long ago, an LRRSF Q-ship had destroyed an orbital factory in that very system. Albeit, nobody had died, but still.

"Attention Gregor system defense fleet, this is the LRRSF hospital ship regiment 34, we have arrived in the system and will take up position at <insert coordinates here>."

"LRR craft, this is System Traffic Control. Please take up station instead at the coordinates included in your download. Traffic Control out."

The download gives the ships the course to take through the system and ends up at L2, away from the planet's orbital infrastructure, but not so far out as to be isolated from everything.

C.N.S Reliant
Flagship of the Gregorian Flotilla
Commodore Villers Knight Companion of Arduous commanding
High orbit of Vernii

Mark Villers was a hero of the uprising, due to his bravery he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Legion of Merit, and the vaunted Order of Arduous. He fought side my side with Supreme Admiral Vigilance fifty years ago, a bona fide hero, he should have a much higher rank accept for one of his vices the bottle. He sat slouched in his chair behind his desk in his darkened ready room. He never felt so useless before. His home was under attack and his Flotilla was ordered to stay in Gregor, as his brethren fought and died for their home. Only bits of knowledge of the battle were known at this time, what was known was that the fortress ring has been penetrated, the forts themselves shattered and the Solar Navy flooded into the system as Home Fleet desperately tried to stop them. He took a long pull from the bottle of 180 proof Wickian Whisky, it seemed for an instant that the universe was much less cruel as the liquid burned its way down his throat.
“Admiral?” a voice stated over the com system.
“Y- Yes?” he stated.
“Sir the transports group has just sent word that all the refuges have been transited the surface.”
“Good news that” Villers said in a clipped English accent that seemed foreign to his neo-Asian hereditary “At least they shall be safe from Ortagan orbital strikes here on Vernii.”
“Sir, the People's Navy have also sent us updates on the 5CN fleet there has been no change in their deployment.”
“Good, also contact the People’s Navy, tell them our Flotilla we stand with them against any incursion into this system, and we await admiral Harris’ orders, we will do our Full Duty. Also remind him of the greatest of all Wickian Traditions, never go into battle on an stomach, he and his staff are invited to the Reliant for one Third Mess should they choose to accept the invitation”

Gregorian Flotilla
Commonwealth Navy
OIC: Mark Villers RA-R DSC, LM OA, C.N
Combat Strength:
7 DN-RC
4 BC(p)
4 BC
2 CL
4 DD

---

C.N.S Tyrannous Rex
Rally Point Zeta01
Somewhere between Madras and Stocurm

Captain Brooks looked upon the other officers present at the meeting, there was only four others Captains
Ralph Gregett and Vince Don of the light carriers Asp and Adder respectively. Also present was his ships XO Ashley Bennet and the short, and stocky Commander Elas Vantti of commander of the screen. Not present at this meeting was Commodore Perrign who was wounded as the WIckian taskforce fended off Boroglin LAC’s as it withdrew from Stocurm.

“So what’s the status of the Task Force?” his XO answered Brooks
“Sir as you already know Task Force Perrign has merged with Task Force Gregett increasing our combat strength considerably. The flotilla now has a CLAC and tow CVEs at its disposal giving us just under 400 LACs. We also have six BC(p) and a lance of Fraternity BC’s along with a squadron of CAs and 12 DDs. And best of all the fleet tenders have restocked our missile complements.”
“The only question is what to do now? Suggestions?” Brooks asked.
“Sir, shouldn’t we make best speed to Thetis, the Solar Navy is invading our home!” Captain Don pointed out.
“No, we’d never arrive in time to make any difference there.” Stated Vantti “Sir, we need to be deployed where we can make a difference, Gregor.” If there was any other place besides Thetis whose outcome looked more bleak for success it was Gregor, for it seemed the entire galaxy was against the two powers of the so-called Triple Alliance.
“Gregor it is then, Wont lie to you all, NavInt predicts over 2,000 ships we been sent to crush our Allies in Gregor. Tester knows that I wish we could send Home Fleet in its entirety to help them but the Valinor sold our world to the Hegemon to prevent us from doing that. So, we will go and fight side by side with our comrades, for we all know that they would do the same for us” All of the officer present nodded their heads in agreement, the Triple Alliance was not beaten yet…

Northern March Flotilla
Commonwealth Navy
OIC: Sir Kyle Brooks Captain Sr. CN
Combat Strength:
1 CLAC
2 CVE
6 BC(p)
4 BC
8 CA
12 DD

In the furthest reaches of the Gregor system several sleek, predatory vessels appeared in a brief flash of brilliant light. A flotilla of Au-170 frigates, four in all, formed the advance reconnaisance group for Aumanii and MIDAS forces. The vessels worked together in tight formation, blanketting their surroundings in ECM and monitoring movement in the system with a powerful, non-standard sensor package. Stealth being the priority of the flotilla, they never ventured to close to Vernii forces and fled when it seemed like they would be detected. The atmosphere was thick with fear on the cramped bridge of the AuFB Swift, the lead vessel. Its captain, a pudgey drunk by the name of Haarke may not have looked it, but he was a surprisingly competetant commander, knowing to keep an eye out for incoming enemy supply vessels. "Aye...Captain, I have something on sensors approaching quickly. It looks like a prime target." sensor officer, Teneman, reported. "What is it?" barked Haarke, Teneman answered swiftly "According to their communications they are claiming to be an LRR Medical convoy...we could take 'em no problem. Vernii ships are a good light minute or two away." Haarke scratched at the stubble on his chin as he looked at his own ladar display. "Alright, but we're gone as soon as the first salvo is launched...You hear me?" Haarke scanned the bridge and his men let out signs of understanding and acceptance. "Slave the flotilla's guns to our firing systems...prepare a salvo of Anti-Matter Torpedo's as well as the High Energy Cannon', fire on my mark." Haarke glanced at the display, waiting for firing solution's to be worked out, "Mark" called Haarke, lightly. The Cannon' and Torpedo bay's sang as they loosed their payload into the light medical convoy of the LRR. "Ok, engage STL systems immediately, we have all the information we need." "Aye!" replied the crew, more excited now. A bright, violent flash of incandescence enveloped the flotilla as the fled their stalking ground.

OOC:

My ships were creeping around the area outside the FTL inhibitors collecting any information they could. Im assuming the LRR ships came into the system outside...There are flotilla's just like that operating all around the Vernii system now. The swift was in the right place...if the LRR ships were inside the field then I guess it was an impotent long range attack *shrugs*

Lights flicker, sparks fly, and cables dangle from the ceiling and walls. “Damn!” Setties calls from his captain’s chair while slamming on its right arm. “Damn these Ghosts, damn Hudan, and damn this floating piece of shit!”

“Preparing to exit Hyperspace, Captain”

“Good. I want to be in Gregor in time to get this thing running before the attack.” Setties grunts.

“Exiting… now.” A brilliant flash of light is soon replaces with a shining silver fleet, scarred with black burns and raw metallic wounds. “Looks like Vernii prepared to put up quite a fight, sir.”

“And they’d better. If I went through all that trouble to get my ass whooped by a bunch of snooty krauts then I’ll start bombing the damn planet myself. Starky, damage report.”

“Sir, it’d be easier to report what’s in good shape. Although most of the fleet’s ships didn’t even get hit, we’re in trouble. We’ve closed off four decks and engines are at half capacity. We can still launch the fighters, but other than that we’ll have to rely on the other ships to keep us out of harms way.”

“Shields?”

“We can have them back up in about half an hour… but guns are shot. We need a few days in a shipyard to repair this kind of damage.”

“Fine… then how’s the rest of the fleet?”

“We lost two Protectors and a Sader, The Sanchez’s shield are down and it looks like the Darius has lost all comm. systems. Other than that it looks like we’re battle ready.”

“Good. Start repairs immediately on all ships. Starky? Contact Vernii. Ask how we can help.”

"Vernii ground control; this is Silver Fleet. We're here to help."

"Silver Fleet, welcome to Gregor. This is Gregor Defense Command. Be advised that enemy units have been indentified in the outer system."

“Damn, Looks like we’ll have to repair while we fight. Starky, relay that we’re battle ready and are awaiting orders.”

“Yes sir.”

The message is relayed, and Setties takes out his flask and puts it to his lips. He pauses for a moment and pulls it away from his face, staring deeply into it. He takes one deep breath and casts it onto the floor and looks sternly into the display screen before him. “Alright. Listen up.” The men on deck stop and listen to their captain. “Chances are that we are not going to win this battle. Chances are about the same that we’re not going to live this one through. When it gets hairy and they have us on the run I want you to remember one thing. That this isn’t for you, it’s not for me; it’s not for the Prime and if you believe in God it’s not for him. This is for the people down on the planet. This is for the honor of the men and women that fought on New Hope, and most of all; this one is for the Liberation.”

Across the Silver fleet men raised their fists into the air and gave out one glorious, “for the Liberation!”

“Now back to your battle stations. We’ve got a civilization to save.”

Beyond the alpha wall, beyond the last of the planets, beyond even the oort cloud ships appeared in sudden, small flashes of light. These were not warships - though they often had more combat experience than warships. They were explorers and they began to launch satillite after satillite from their torpedo tubes. Before their first active sensor sweeps reached the planets and sensors in the system and long before return sweeps could reach them and return they had already put together a halo of satillites around their positions - a halo that began to spread as more and more were added to it.

"Deployment at 50% sir. Given the current orbital position we are looking at the first sensor returns in about twenty give or take."

Captain Aloise sat back in his chair and took a long look at the system from their position high above the orbital plane. It looked so peaceful - one could hardly imagine that it was to be torn apart soon enough.

"Get me Admiral Dekker - time for a status report."

"Aye - he's ready for it."

----

Dekker chomped down a little bit more on the cigar and grinned at Captain Aloise.

"Excellent - plan's coming along fine then. You get to full deployment and we'll kick over the EDA and start lighting some fires. If you see anyone - anything - you get outta there."

"Aye Admiral."

Dekker flicked off the channel and looked over to the console where his sensor operator was sitting watching the data stream through from the satillites.

"Anything interesting there?"

"Not much - got plenty of visuals though they are a half-hour old. We can use them to narrow down the search radius though."

----

"So you ready?"

"Yeah - I'm ready. You ready?"

"Yeah - you?"

"Yeah."

If androids could give sentients odd looks this one would have, but instead it just filed the odd conversation away for later analysis and continued methodically cleaning and readying personal weapons for distribution to the crew.

Northern March Flotilla transited in normal space only a million Kilometers from the LRR Hospital Ships, it took a quarter of a second for the computers to sense the danger, another quarter to establish firing sequences, another whole second to arm the Missiles, then no less then 200 suicidal Counter missiles leapt from their launchers boring down on the meager amount of torpedoes launched at the hospital ships, the explosions contrasted nicely on the small missiles wedges, only a handful got past the CM's, the Wickians could do nothing about the energy weapon.

"SON of a Vagrant" Brooks swore as he saw the torpedoes detonation "Beat to quarters, Launch the LACs! All ships launch decoys, i want all auxiliary power to the sensors, and a Ping lets see what’s out here." With that the ping was initiated Wickian sensors would pick up anything up to at least 3 light minutes...a challenge to any hiding ships not to mess with them or their allies.

"Comms record this messege for transmission to the LRR convoy" Brooks paused "LRR convoy Do you require escourt to L2?"

ASFr Form, Sub-Space Continuum, En-route To Gregor

Captain Johnston slept soundly, as he always did when in Sub-Space. The ship was deathly quite, as it always was when in Sub-Space. The crew was calm and relaxed, as they always were when in Sub-Space. Essentially, the time spent in Sub-Space was time spent at peace with the Universe. Of course, peace seldom lasts.

Lieutenants Olsin and Ero, second and third respectively, were on the bridge of the Chronos class Freighter and were planning what to do once they were off the bridge.

“I tell you, I know this great place there. The women are…..wow, the drinks are just………whoa, and the prices are………Jesus H. Christ!”

Ero laughed, obviously understanding the ‘hidden’ meaning to Olsin’s rambling.

“Yeah, it’s great. So, here’s what we do. We pop out of Sub-Space, drop off our cargo, and get Cap to give us a few days leave. Then we bring a few of those lovely ladies back to our quarters and….”

He left the rest unsaid.*

“Sounds reasonable. Tell me what you do afterwards. You know, when Cap catches you with a hooker and sends you to Turret duty for the trip home.”

Olsin grinned sheepishly, not quite sure what to say.

“Well, I actually hadn’t thought that far ahead.”

“Of course not. You’re to busy listening to your own captain to pay attention to ours. When we’re out of the Association we obey the laws to the letter. Got that?”

“You know, I out rank you. I should be giving you the orders.”

“Yeah, but who’s gonna make me follow them?”

“I will!”

“Yeah? You and that little slap you call a right hook?”

But he said it with a grin, and the bantering went on for quite a bit longer.

“Okay, let it go for now. We’re about to come out of Sub and we can talk about this later.”

With a flash and a ripple of space the Knossos portal lit up, it’s rotating portions glowing with a soft inner light. Out of the portal shot the Form, heading inwards towards the inhabited parts of the system.

Direct Beam Transmission: Gregor Traffic Control
Transmission Origin: ASFr Form

Attention Gregor Traffic Control, this is the ASFr Form carrying a shipment of Focusing lenses for the Constantine. We are outbound from the Knossos Sub-Space Portal and headed in-system. We request a flight plan, as well as the estimated time until a suitable local craft can be contacted to unload the equipment.

Transmission Closed

“So, like I said, the girls are just……Holy SHIT!”

“Really? A few minutes ago they were just ‘wow’”

“No you idiot! Look at the fucking sensors!”

“Holy SHIT!”

On the sensors was a veritable Armada of combat craft, all poised and ready to obliterate whatever poor souls stumbled upon them.

“Ero, go wake the Captain.”

“Yeah……yeah, I think I’ll do that. Olsin?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t get us killed, man.”

“I’ll try not to.”

Ero swiftly left the bridge, rushing to the Captains quarters in the hopes that he’d know what was going on. Unfortunately, human feet are only so fast and he was barely reaching the Captains door when Olsin, still on the bridge, witnessed an act of true evil.

A group of unidentified ships flitting around the edge of the system, barely even acknowledged by the crew of the Form, suddenly darted inward towards a group of, as far as the crew could determine, hospital ships. However, those hospital ships wouldn’t be helping many others as the darting ships unleashed an onslaught upon them that would be sure to leave them in need of their own care. Then, they were gone.

“What the hell is going on here?”

“Captain! Thank God you’re here! We’re in the middle of a freaking warzone!”

“What the hell are you babbling about?”

“This! Look at this!”

A few clicks of a keyboard and the sensor records, constantly recording, were displayed for all to see. This included the unprovoked attack on the four hospital ships.

“Jesus……any identification on the attackers?”

“No, sir. We think the hospital ships might have belonged to LRR, but we’re not even sure about that. The attackers are completely unknown.”

“What have we gotten ourselves into?”

“I don’t know sir, but I’d rather not sit out here and find out.”

“Good idea. Get us into dock as fast as you can. I want these Lenses off this ship and on the Constantine as soon as possible.”

“Yes, sir.”

OOC: *If you don’t know what he meant then you really shouldn’t be reading this RP.

The ASFr Form docked with shipyards, unloading its cargo and gladly stepping aboard the impressively defended complex.

"Oh, thank the Stars for this shelter! We thought we'd be caught and preyed upon by the fiends out there!"

"Aye, when those bastards attacked that group of hospital ships we thought the Space Fiend himself would be coming for us. Who were those devils anyway?"

The question was addressed to the Vernii serviceman before them, sent to guide them to the Constantine so they could supervise the installation of the newly delivered components.

"Them? They were ships belonging to Auman, an ally of Valinon and New Ortaga, the two nations who seek to impose upon our territory."

"Auman, eh? Well, we'll make sure to remember that name. Wont we, boys?"

The Klonor crew mumbled their affirmatives, their eyes already wide with the thoughts of what they'd do to the nation whose evil they had witnessed.

"Now, let's get on with this. Everybody, load up the Lenses. Now! I want that ship ready for combat within the hour! Got that?"

"Yes, sir!"

With that they began to work, bringing the Constantine up to combat readiness.

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

The Constantine class Juggernaught began to float away from the dock, it's Engines moving itself for the first time.

Direct Beam Transmission: Gregor Traffic Control
Transmission Origin: Associated Systems Juggernaught Constantine

We have cleared the dock and are requesting clearance and travel path to the Knossos Sub-Space Portal. Systems check seems to mark everything okay. We are Out of Here!

Transmission Closed

OOC: For info on the Constantine go here http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=342349

"LRR craft, this is System Traffic Control. Please take up station instead at the coordinates included in your download. Traffic Control out."

The download gives the ships the course to take through the system and ends up at L2, away from the planet's orbital infrastructure, but not so far out as to be isolated from everything.

"Roger that, system control. Moving out."

The Savukas, sleek, fast ships, move gracefully towards the coordinates sent by traffic control. The size of destroyers, they are armed only with point defense nodes. The giant red star of david (since the LRRMFs medical corps was founded by a Jewish officer) painted on the sides of each of the ships can be seen from very far away.

However, aboard each of the ships the sensors begin to pick up bogeys.

"Sir, bogeys closing with us."
"Helm, full speed! Beat to quarters! Beat to quarters!"

PD nodes are fully manned and ready by the time the first torpedos are launched, and a great deal are downed. However, many impact the sides of the ships.

"Yes, WIck flotilla, we need an escort! We are taking fire from enemy ships somewhere to the rear of our current position. We are making for station as fast as we can."

"What the hell," muttered the sensory officer of the lead Five Civilized Nations frigate, a brand-new Excalibur Class Strike Frigate, the CNSS-2298 Perseus was the closest Five Civilized Nations warship to the planet of Gregor. Shaking his head, the sensory officer whirled around and spoke to the vessel's commanding officer. "Sir, I have torpedo and weapons discharges from warships identified as from the nation of Auman... Holy shit, sir... They just fired upon four hospital ships..."

"What the hell!?!"

And with that, it seemed that the Five Civilized Nations would be drawn into the conflict...

With a start, the Perseus and a pair of Meteor Mark XXII Class Assault Frigates fired their fusion sublight drives and proceeded to chase after the Aumanese warships, intent upon retrieving retribution upon the attack on unarmed LRR hospital ships. Their shields and weaponry warmed up, the trio of frigates sped swiftly through space...

"What the hell," muttered the sensory officer of the lead Five Civilized Nations frigate, a brand-new Excalibur Class Strike Frigate, the CNSS-2298 Perseus was the closest Five Civilized Nations warship to the planet of Gregor. Shaking his head, the sensory officer whirled around and spoke to the vessel's commanding officer. "Sir, I have torpedo and weapons discharges from warships identified as from the nation of Auman... Holy shit, sir... They just fired upon four hospital ships..."

"What the hell!?!"

And with that, it seemed that the Five Civilized Nations would be drawn into the conflict...

With a start, the Perseus and a pair of Meteor Mark XXII Class Assault Frigates fired their fusion sublight drives and proceeded to chase after the Aumanese warships, intent upon retrieving retribution upon the attack on unarmed LRR hospital ships. Their shields and weaponry warmed up, the trio of frigates sped swiftly through space...

OCC: Well, not totally unarmed. One of those PD mounts can down a fighter.

(OOC: LRR, my ships don't know that...)

MIDAS-II Fleet Command Relay

"We'll get to the battle eventually. Slight wavefunction collapse 'round Gregor. This is the BRR13-Vagtag signing out."

Orbital Fortress Bastion, Gregor Defense Command

Admiral Thompson strode through a massive set of doors and down a small flight of steps into the fortress' Central Operations Chamber. The massive room was dominated by a gigantic holotank capable of displaying the entire system out to the twenty-five light minute hyper limit imposed by the FTLi system. Planets and moons were represented by small patches of light with their names and other information displayed next to them. Other tiny points of light displayed ships, with magnified holographic views of those dots floating around above the display of the system itself. An officer could bring up a magnified view of anything in the system. The display was truly a work of art, and best of all, it was all in real-time, constantly updated by grav-pulse sensor platforms liberally sprinkled throughout the system, often with overlapping areas of coverage.

"What do we have?" He looked over at the ID on the officer of the watch, Lt. Commander Doyle.

"Sensor platforms have identified small groups of enemy units operating on the outskirts of the system. For the most part they're just picketing the system, watching us, but a group of more brazen ships attacked the LRR convoy coming in. Commonwealth Navy units and 5CN units are attempting to engage them."

"Has Fleet Admiral Harris been informed yet?"

"Not yet Sir."

"I'll go do that then."
---
"Ah. Impudent little fellows then aren't they?"
"Yes Sir. I think we should do something about them, we can't just let them operate out in the open like that."
"I agree, I'll dispatch BatCruRon V to escort the convoy in, and Squadrons II and III to hunt down and destroy a couple of their pickets. Is there anything else?
"No Sir."
"Very well, dismissed."
The two com links were terminated, and ten minutes later the eight Imperious class battlecruisers of Battlecruiser Squadron V were underway, heading out to escort the LRR ships in.

A few minutes after they left orbit, sixteen Sultan class battlecruisers left orbit, heading on a least time course for the hyperlimit. They were patched into the system wide sensor net, being constantly updated with information on enemy units.

They were sleek elliptical vessels with its hull was dotted with a half-dozen PD laser clusters; a single bulge just amidships housed the "revolving" missile launcher. The nose of the ship housed the immense 250cm graser normally found on dreadnaughts. A dragon's teeth were illustrated from this energy weapons mount, It was a deadly vessels for its 20,000 tons the Commonwealth Dragon class LAC. 100 of the Vessels deployed 1 million km to the LRR Convoys aft ready to protect against any future raiders. A division of destroyer moved up and down either flank of the covey. The WIckian force would stay with the LRR until they rendezvous with the People's Navy.

"Transmit this message to Bastion, tell them we are going to patrol the outer system and search for more of these raiders. Also request a download of their sensor data especially of any suspicious anomalies. End. Transmit to the 5CN task force ask them if they wish to coordinate with our flotilla." Brooks stated as his flotilla deployed recon drones to expand their sensor range.

The Wickian request was authorized by Admiral Thompson, and Bastion's sensor officers began the task of tying the Commonwealth Navy warships into the system sensor net.
---
The two squadrons of Sultans reached the hyper limit hours later, and kicked over into the Alpha-layer of hyperspace. Within a few minutes they reappeared on the other side of the system, appearing within seven million kilometers to either side and five million kilometers aft of an Aumanii patrol group. The two squadrons began quickly maneuvering to trap the group between them, and trying to herd it toward the inner system.

Twenty thousand kilometers away from the exit vector of the Sunset, MIDAS, and Knootian fleet the ships of Grossadmiral Forrest's command exit hyperspace, ending their journey from the Yalta system. The thirty-two pod super-dreadnoughts that are the core of Forrest's wall of battle form up in a grid pattern four ships high and eight ships long. The smaller Penrod the Great and Reich-class dreadnoughts and pod dreadnoughts, respectively, form up in protective formations around their larger cousins. They in turn are flanked by the fleet's battleships, and a screen of dozens of cruisers and destroyers. The super-carriers and carriers of the fleet rest toward the rear of the formation, guarded by the strange predatory ships of His Majesty's Special Liaison Service and science vessels. Inside the core fleet's escort patterns, parasite combat support craft and DOS support ships are dispersed to support the warships' own systems.
Finally, the forty-eight Ajax-class battlecruisers of the fleet are ahead of Forrest's main formation behind their own screen of cruiser and destroyer escorts.
Finally, the supplementary forces of the Vaku and the Boroglians hold Forrest's flanks. Their smaller, but no less formidable fleets, stand side by side with their Valinor allies in the war to see who has the right and the might to control the Raumreich.
As waves of DOS drones, Precentor-class drone fighters, LACs, Vaku fighters, and Boroglian fighters scream away from their parent vessels, Quentin Forrest is on the flag bridge of the HMS Krieger listening to the initial reports.
"Confirmation from the BWS Crossbone and the VIS Hvar'kann. They report their commands are assembled and ready for action. Finally confirmation from the HMS Scythe makes all ships ready and accounted for. Total fleet number stands at 761 warships, number confirmed with that of departure from Yalta."
A few minutes later reports reach Forrest of Aumanese actions in Gregor, a cold look crosses the First Star Lord's face. Virgil Severn recognizes it as the look of death to so many people who have angered the Valinor Star Armada's master in years past.
"Get me a channel to the LRR, Five Civilized Nations, Auman, Sunset, Knootoss, and MIDAS fleet commanders. We will make an attempt to work out this idiocy before it spreads."
"Aye, sir."
The actions of the Aumanese ship go against everything the First Star Lord believes in, and he intends to make that known. But an attack against Valinor forces in Gregor by any of these other parties will be decreed as an act of war, and with the current rage in Valinon for anyone to impose themselves in the Raumreich would be at their own dire peril.

The Wickian request was authorized by Admiral Thompson, and Bastion's sensor officers began the task of tying the Commonwealth Navy warships into the system sensor net.
---
The two squadrons of Sultans reached the hyper limit hours later, and kicked over into the Alpha-layer of hyperspace. Within a few minutes they reappeared on the other side of the system, appearing within seven million kilometers to either side and five million kilometers aft of an Aumanii patrol group. The two squadrons began quickly maneuvering to trap the group between them, and trying to herd it toward the inner system.

On the Gregor hyper-limit, more LRRSF ships arrive, combat vessels of the Slowhand class of cruiser (the LRRSF uses the name cruiser because of the multipurpose functions of the ship. While it is a combat vessel, it has extensive science and medical faculties.) Frigates of various models accompany the cruisers, including Jungle, Aqualung, Keith Moon, and Excalibur classes.

"Attention Gregor system control, this is the LRRSF gregor expedition. We have arrived to defend the system and request coordinates to a station, over."

OCC: You can read about the Slowhand here:

http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=341319

No the color scheme in the picture is not the one that's actually on the ship. But it's close!

Reply to Valinon transmission:

The LRRSF stands in support of Vernii, but only in a defensive role. The LRRSF will not take part in any offensive actions against Valinon assets, and you have our solemn word that no attacks against Valinon proper will be made. Valinon trade will be only interfered with should it near LRR establishments, where freighters may be subject to search and temporary seizure, but all vessels that may be seized will be returned with full pay reimbursment for the crew. Valinon sailors continue to be perfectly eligible for LRR medical care.

Also, as you probably know, the LRRSF has many commitments, most unrelated to one another. We ask that you only direct military force against those involved in the Gregor conflict. We will do likewise.

We only ask that the Star Armada please respect these terms and abide by them themselves. We have no interests besides maintaining the soveriegnty of Vernii. If it were the other way around, we would be helping you.

We hope this conflict will come to pass soon and our nations might return to friendship. Best wishes, and may there be as few deaths due to this squabble as possible. We feel awful already.

-Robotic Space Flotilla

.::Open Transmission::.

From: Grand Admiral Horatio Gates Nelson, Commander of the Combined Five Civilized Nations Navy, 1st Lord of Trafalgar
To: First Star Lord Grossadmiral Sir Quentin Forrest

The nation of Auman is in gross violation of intergalactical bylaws. Its treacherous attack against four Lunatic Retard Robots hospital vessels was uncalled for. Unless Auman is dealt with properly, the nation of Five Civilized Nations will have no choice but to consider this an act of war against the Five Civilized Nations.

.::Close Transmission::.

The Imperatrix allowed herself a bit of a smile as subspace churned violently outside the viewport.

Kajali FTL travel was, of course, affected by all sorts of FTL denial fields. However, that didn't mean it stopped working at the slightest hint of one.

All the subspace drives required was the power necessary to overcome the field, and the ships would stay securely in that churning blue realm of subether, instead of being pulled abruptly out of it.

Her reverie about the uselessness of the reported denial field was broken by the chirp of the comm system.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Imperatrix, we estimate that we are within communications range with the MIDAS and allied vessels. Shall we drop into normal space?"

"We shall. I'd like to see the looks on their faces when they see what we've brought with us. It may not be much compared to the whole, but it should be impressive."

The area of space approximately five thousand kilometers port of the fleet of warships that had arrived from Yalta began to crackle and distort, and within a moment, a subspace vortex formed, disgorging the 1st Imperial task force. While not a large fleet by any means, it would likely be quite helpful.

Imperatrix Keral had arrived on the bridge within minutes, before ordering a channel opened between the Kajali supercarrier Soramur Kani, and the Grossadmiral Forrest's ship.

"I apologize if I'm late, however... there were some developments with the Imperium of Kajal that I needed to take care of, if you know what I mean."

And thus did the Imperatrix Lirella Keral, former Duchess of Kajal Mars, make her first "public" appearance since the parliament bombings on Mars.

(OOC: here be a render of the task force/battlegroup. ^_^ http://theros.illuminati-fiction.net/images/battlegroup.jpg)

The LRRSF becomes increasingly alarmed at the arrival of more and more ships of former allies. Captains begin to ask themselves "Can we do this?"

Their problem was with Auman, not any of these other guys. While diplomatically, LRR was supporting Vernii, a peaceful solution increasingly appears to be the only way to get out.

Urgent communiques are sent to all involved parties, which read something like this:

On the eve of battle, the Robotic Space Flotilla asks all parties to reconsider their stance and call a cease-fire for 48 hours. We invite the commanders of all the involved fleets to a conference aboard the Pete Townshend, the expedition flagship. There has been enough death already and it is imperative that we stop further bloodshed before it starts.

Message sent back to the Pete Townshend:

"While I would welcome the chance for a peaceful resolution to the current conflict, I don't hold out any hope that it will occur. I believe that the Valinor, Ortagans, and their allies have mobilized too many starships, worked their militaries up for this conflict, to simply go home."

~Fleet Admiral Harris

Message sent back to the Pete Townshend:

"While I would welcome the chance for a peaceful resolution to the current conflict, I don't hold out any hope that it will occur. I believe that the Valinor, Ortagans, and their allies have mobilized too many starships, worked their militaries up for this conflict, to simply go home."

~Fleet Admiral Harris

A message is transmitted back:

"But we must try. Any chance to resolve this before more of your country's young die or anyone else's must be capitalized upon, for all our sakes."

One of the Venture-C's beyond the oort cloud picked up the radio transmission and sent it back to command via HQ. It's own mission complete and with a flock of hammerheads coming to extend their welcome it headed out-system as fast as it's drives could take it. The message was relayed back through one of the other ships via radio.

----

Message to LRR Pete Townshend:

"We certainly don't have a problem with such a conference. Granted we do not control the actions of Valinon and cannot speak for them, but I can speak for the rest of MIDASII. We will come."

----

"And what do you think of this conference?" Admiral Dekker asked Sky Marshall Fall'tran. The two were discussing the transmission via a closed link between the Ravenspire and Sunset flagships.

"If they are willing, and I have little doubt they are, this could be a first step to ending this thing. However if the Vernii come I would not advise appearing in person - their choices in envoys is lacking."

Dekker laughed at this - the Vernii ambassador's actions were well known throughout the fleet.

"Somehow I doubt they will want a combat android at the table - how about a penguin?"

"Perhaps they will feel insulted. A kitten or a sheep?"

"Hmm - I once met this stone cold b---- from Wazzu. No fear. Faced down an Imperial Marshall. That would be my choice."

Green motes of light appeared suddenly within the Gregor system, behind the Vernii fleet. The massive, gold and silver prow of the super dreadnought FSS Cain cut through the forming wormhole to the Slipstream.

FSS Cain - Citizen-class Dreadnought - Admiral Michaels commanding
Somewhere in the Gregor system

"Report!" screamed Admiral Rachel C. Michaels.
"Shields online and holding. MAC charge at 95%. Main cannon ready, plasma is hot and ready to fire. All systems report ready."
Michaels looked at the widening tear in the quantum filaments of what had been dubbed "realspace". Hundreds of ships, the bulk of the Imperial Feazanthian Space Navy, were slicing their way out of the Slipstream and into the Gregor system.
"Open a channel to the Vernii fleet. Authorization: Michaels Four-Seven-Alpha-Tango."
"Channel open, sir."
"This is Admiral Rachel Michaels of Feazanthian Star Command. How may we be of assistance?"



Feazanthian fleet numbers
3 Citizen-class Heavy Dreadnoughts
5 Bec Corbin-class Dreadnoughts
2 Universe-class Dreadnoughts
14 Hurricane-class Battleships
4 Exodai-class Battleships
1 Ra Calium-class Battleship
2 Archangel-class Battleships
4 Neghvar-class Battleships
4 Salamis-class Cruisers
1 Musai Mk.4 Attack Cruiser
7 Achilles-class Attack Cruisers
7 Concorde-class Heavy Carrier
2 Planetkiller-class Dreadnoughts
5 Bristow-class Dreadnoughts (?)
14 O'Neil-class Battlecruisers
12 Akira-class Battlecruisers
25 Delos-class Battlecruisers
32 Archemedes Cruisers
51 Epee-class Cruisers
86 Wolf-class Light Cruisers
92 Black Falcon-class Destroyers
24 Magnos-class Destroyers
34 Mace-class Destroyers
80 Basil-class Frigates
24 Miserechorde-class Frigates
72 Yaeger-class Frigates
89 Miranda-class Escorts
108 Hornet-class Escorts
102 Nordic-class Escorts
800 Scimitar-class Medium fighters
500 Claymore-class Heavy Fighters
300 Kindjall-class Superiority Fighters
200 Dire Wolf-class Starfighter Suits
400 Aurora Bombers
12 Odin-class Heavy Transports
56 Typhoon-class Medium Transports

"Hmm - I once met this stone cold b---- from Wazzu. No fear. Faced down an Imperial Marshall. That would be my choice."

OOC: Is that my cue? que? queue? If not, ignore the following. And yes, for those wondering, I DO intend to be a linguist....

"You want Hannah? That could prove difficult." Admiral Jane West responded to the Sunsetian's call. "As far as I know, Mrs. Hannah Morrow is still happily retired, on Earth, and Wazzu is going through a bit of a crisis at the moment, on Earth.

"I'll certainly make the effort to get her. It'll just take some time. Perhaps you could get a transport ready for her, and a replacement if for some reason she can't make it?"

******

Ela Rios, the Chief Executive Board Member of Wazzu couldn't believe it. She'd expected the constitutional court of inquiry she was currently ajurned from for a break, but she did not expect Admiral West to rebel. And now the Admiral was on her pocket phone requesting support to call back a retired diplomat?

Ela sighed, "Why the hell not? Go ahead, but have Ms. Wang find her, eh? I'm a bit preoccupied to help the likes of you." At least, she thought, it might stop this war before more die, and 'ole Hanna is at least trustworthy. Black thoughts turned to Wests treachery.

******

Hanna Morrow wasn't on Earth, rather she was just sitting down to a late breakfast in a floating stratosphere habitat when the call came in.

A lack of glandular lack of fear didn't mean a lack of other emotions, and Hanna had left the service because of the stress. She really didn't want to do this. But it wasn't every lifetime that a national leader (in question), a megacorp stockholder (under investigation), and a ranking admiral (making rebellion) on opposite sides all plead for your help in a star system you've never heard of. It has a small sort of...massive, cancerous, over-inflating effect on the ego.

So naturally, Hanna agreed, and found herself shuttled to a forign interstellar transport faster then she could say supercalafra--

******

Outside the Judicial Building, Wazzu Proper

Several dead bodies lay in the street. Included among them, the body of Ela Rios. The burning wreckage of a hovercar lies nearby. It is the first successfull assassination attempt on a person of such high standing in Wazzu ever.

OOC: For the moment, I'd prefer if no more ESUS nations showed up, I need to talk with Valinon about a couple things first.

---Friendly Tag---

HSS Obsidan Blade, Gregor System, People's Republic of Vernii
1600

In a flurry of hyperspace exit signatures, and the closely followed undulating signatures of gravimetric drives and shields the Solar Navy's Third Mobile Operations Fleet arrives from Yalta. Admiral Fitch Latimer steps out onto the Blade's combat bridge from where he will direct the battle and coordinate the Third Mobile Fleet.
In Yalta he left behind the Acler Expeditionary Force preparing to commence the assault on the second system of Vernii, and the marshalled troop convoys of Valinon, Ortaga, Boroglia, and Vaku. All eagerly awaiting the signal from the advanced fleets that the final invasion of Vernii can begin.
Latimer grimaces momentarily, he will serve the Hegemon and the Hegemony until he is dead, but he does not trust the often mysterious Valinor. They are twisted and caught up in their own peculiar brand of power games and intrigues, and all to often the true desires of the Emperor Gustav II remain unknown. This telegram he was ordered to convey to Grossadmiral Forrest only reinforces his suspicions.
The Third Mobile Fleet forms up roughly 1,250 kilometers ahead of the Valinor and Martian war fleets. As Latimer listens to the growing consertation between Valinon and the various neutral powers, he turns to the combat bridge's communications officer.
"Get me a secure channel to the Krieger."
"Yes, Admiral."
After a few minutes the officer nods to Latimer, "Grossadmiral Forrest this is Admiral Fitch Latimer, commanding the Third Mobile Fleet. I have an emergency orders set for your viewing from His Majesty and the High Command of the Valinor. Transmitting now."



First Star Lord Forrest,

You are hereby authorized to persecute the intervening powers in the Raumreich should they move against your command or any of our other allies besides the Aumanese. We will not tolerate their interference, especially those of the Five Civilized Nations, Klonor, and even the LRR.
To this end you are to use the Solar Navy's Third Mobile Fleet full resources, including the singularity weaponry and our own new Thanatos-class warheads should these neutral powers persist in meddling where they do not belong.

Gustav Alderman II

HSS Iron Heart, Acler System, People's Republic of Vernii
1630

Over 125 kilometers from the Acler system's primary, the smaller Acler Expeditionary Force exits hyperpsace and prepares to open the latest front in the growing Raumreich conflict. Vice Admiral Ithaca knows what her mission her is.
The orders from Strategos Garahou specifically limited her operations in Acler to disable any and all orbital or mobile space assets in the Acler system. She was then to hold orbit over Acler until a detachment from the Valinor Sardaukar could arrive to secure the planet itself. Ground attacks were only to be used if terrestrial defenses were employed in an attack against Solar Navy forces.
Ithaca clasp her hands firmly behind her back as the last of her war frigates form up around her Hegemony dreadnought core formation.
"Give me a deep system scan of Acler, I want as firm an estimate on our opposition as I can before we proceed in-system. Deploy the new mass-shadow sensor platforms, and detach monitor flight 4 to investigate deeper in-system to supplement the platform drones."
"Yes, Admiral."

OOC: For the moment, I'd prefer if no more ESUS nations showed up, I need to talk with Valinon about a couple things first.(OOC: 5CN is here under agreement with Sunset...)

On board the AuSB-Espionage:

The Commander of the patrol group, Iti Politaro, had been waiting for an oppurtunity like this one. A chance to meet an enemy force up close and personal...or as personal as two opposing fleets could be. "Please activate the beacon will you Mr.Tolin" Politaro's second nodded and flipped twisted a large, black, pointed knob. As he did that a red light began to blink. "ECM to full, evasive maneuvers. We need to buy some." The patrol group led by Politaro's vessel, the Espionage took cover in a group of debris that they had been shadowing. Moments later a rift in space opened up and seconds afterwords an Aumanii fleet showed itself, targetting the Vernii vessels in pursuit of the Espionage and its comrades.

----

On Board the AUSD-Valhalla:

Lord Admiral Yinsenzi was smiling, not often did an enemy fall so willingly into an obvious trap such as this. "Order all guns and tubes, fire at will. Deploy Hunter Killer drones, full spread." Yinsenzi's second officer gave a brief 'aye' and started yelling orders at the bridge crew, urging them to work faster. Dozens of cannon and Cap-Killer Torpedo's arced towards the Vernii fleet division at medium range, hundreds more light interceptor missiles made way towards the fleet, targetting fighter defenses and incoming fire respectively. "Sir, we have a transmission coming in from the Espionage asking if it may join in the action." Yinsenzi waved a hand at his second, Aldrect. "No, they must return to MIDAS Fleet positions immediately for planning and deployment...they know that." Aldrecht nodded and relayed the Admiral's words. "As soon as I see some results we're out of here...got that Aldrecht?" Aldrecht nodded once more, "Aye"

OOC:

The Attack on the Medical convoy was a plan I had worked out...draw all possible enemies into conflict and engage them, same is said of the attack on the LRR. Triple Alliance and ESUS forces have moved to the edge of the FTLi and beyond it to find these raiders...they are exposed and vulnerable to the predation of the numerically superior Valinon Coalition.

An Aumanii Battlegroup consists of:

6 Hellespontos Class Super Dreadnaught's
1 Hellespontos Class Super Carrier(based on the design of the Super Dreadnaught)
10 Vendetta Class Cruiser's
15 Ortega Class Destroyer's
24 Au-170 Frigates

(OOC: Auman, only 3 frigates are chasing your warships... Over 500 other warships are holding their positions at the outskirts of the system. And if MIDAS attacks ESUS, there will be great political and military reprecussions...)

(OOC: Auman, only 3 frigates are chasing your warships... Over 500 other warships are holding their positions at the outskirts of the system. And if MIDAS attacks ESUS, there will be great political and military reprecussions...)

OOC:

5CN, Vernii 'ambushed' a patrol of Aumanii vessels, Iam responding to that. If you would like to hunt down and attack my vessels in an active warzone, you should expect the same response. LRR threw away its neutrality by sending assistance to Vernii, they became a target when they built weapons for them. (semi-IC)5CN, I suggest you pay attention to the homefront as opposed to sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong.

OOc: Auman, this should really have been cleared with me ICly because Valinon knew LRR was selling weapons to Vernii. However, they sell weapons to us as well, and maintaining neutrality is really all Valinon needs at this point. A few groups of weapons and a few ships are not going to matter in the grand scheme of things.
Ortaga and myself could manage numerical superiority over the remaining members of the Triple Alliance on our own, but the attack on Mars changed my priorities in this war. As for the members of the ESUS....especially one Feazanthia....the Raumreich is not an easy section of space to get to. Most of the nations participating are present because:

1.) The Valinor let them come through the Alpha Centauri end of the wormhole junction

2.) The members of the Triple Alliance "smuggled" them in.

3.) They are already existing established powers in the Raumreich.

The Raumreich Oversector itself is approxiamately 887 light years distant from Alpha Centauri. It's easy access is largely because of the wormhole terminii and the Ortagan warp gate system, otherwise it's hard to get to. That's why Valinon sealing off their wormhole junction to the members of the Triple Alliance were such a big to do.
Now please, take all OOC matters to the OOC thread for this storyline.

Take it to the OOC thread people. (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=339432) Ortaga, I'm guessing the "125 km" in your post is a typo, and that your on the outskirts of the system, since everything else seemed to indicate that.

Colonial Navy Headquarters, Acler System

"Hyper transit! It's far out and pretty faint, I'm guessing it was a large number of ships for us to even detect it."

Captain Phillip's head snapped up in alert. He'd had the watch, and had actually been sort of daydreaming as he sat in the Operation's Room command chair.

"What was that lieutenant?"

"Hyper transit sir, probably multiple starships."

"Damn. Realign sensor platforms Twenty through Twenty-Six to bear on it, we can always move them back to their original locations later."

Further out in the system, powerful (for their size) manuevering thrusters engaged on six sensor platforms, slowly accelerating toward the transit's source.

Admiral Ivan Watson hangs his head. Only two parties even bothered to return the peace conference summons.

"Open a comms link with the Sunset fleet."
"Aye, sir."
"Sunset, we appreciate your willingness to sort this out peacefully very much. Though it appears that nobody else is coming, I for one am determined to try anything we can to stop this. Perhaps we could work something out, for the sake of everyone involved."

Watson was in a severe depression. His entire family had died in the Auman strike, and it appeared as though most of his fleet would die as well. Unlike in other countries, where revenge is paramount, at times of personal loss most LRR citizens tend to get really depressed. And Watson was definately down.

Gone were the days of innocence, where an RSF ship could prowl the depths of space for the sake of science and exploration- they are now on the run.

But according to intelligence gleaned by listening posts, Auman had really messed up, and no longer had any moral leg to stand on.

"Put on the radio."

The Sub-etha radio station that the ship's scanner had found was playing "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" by U2, an oddly appropriate song.

can't believe the news today
Oh, I can't close my eyes and make it go away
How long...
How long must we sing this song?
How long? how long...

'cause tonight...we can be as one
Tonight...

Broken bottles under children's feet
Bodies strewn across the dead end street
But I won't heed the battle call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall

Sunday, bloody sunday
Sunday, bloody sunday
Sunday, bloody sunday (sunday bloody sunday...)
(allright lets go!)

And the battle's just begun
There's many lost, but tell me who has won
The trench is dug within our hearts
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart

Sunday, bloody sunday
Sunday, bloody sunday

How long...
How long must we sing this song?
How long? how long...

'cause tonight...we can be as one
Tonight...
Tonight...

Sunday, bloody sunday (tonight)
Tonight
Sunday, bloody sunday (tonight)
(come get some!)

Wipe the tears from your eyes
Wipe your tears away
Wipe your tears away
I wipe your tears away
(sunday, bloody sunday)
I wipe your blood shot eyes
(sunday, bloody sunday)

Sunday, bloody sunday (sunday, bloody sunday)
Sunday, bloody sunday (sunday, bloody sunday)
(here I come!)

And it's true we are immune
When fact is fiction and tv reality
And today the millions cry
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die

The real battle yet begun (sunday, bloody sunday)
To claim the victory jesus won (sunday, bloody sunday)
On...

Sunday bloody sunday
Sunday bloody sunday...

This brought a simple, age-old question into Watson's head, sometimes ridiculed for silliness but a valid inquiry just the same.

Why can't we all just get along? What brought events to such a climax, what made sane people hate eachother so? This is insanity and I want no part in it.

Support for Vernii independence had earned his country a nuking, and there was currently a race bent on the destruction of his.

"Attention all ships, this is the RSV Pete Townshend. We call again for all parties to reconsider their stances and please come to attend a peace conference aboard our ship, which from hereforth is neutral ground. We cannot continue to participate in this conflict, with so many of our allies on the opposite side. If it were just Auman, we would aid Vernii wholeheartedly, but there are so many friends who we must fight...please, we implore you! Can you not see? Can you not see the animal bloodlust in your minds? You must come to the side of humanity! Think of all the people who will die because of a rivalry between two upper classes! You must come to your senses or else you will have destroyed your very humanity!"

"The Aumanii Government is interested in a quick end to this conflict. We will send a delegation to the...Pete Townshend" the name of the vessel was said with a complete lack of respect, obviously the sender knew of its name-sake. "Please await the arrival of Political Officer Red Koizak. That is all."

~AUSD Switch Back

Finally, thinks Watson. Hopefully some more people will come.

The landing bay on the Townshend is made ready to accomodate arrivals. It is a rather tight fit, with the bay filled to the brim with Super Acolyte Vs, in 10 columns of ten, as well as a pair of David Bowie class mining vessels and a trio of corvettes.

Watson waits on the bridge, while at the landing deck his XO stands with the mechanic robots and engineers waiting to greet the arrivals.

Forrest taps his fingers unconsciously on the armrest of the admiral's chair on the Krieger's flag bridge.
"Contact Lord Admiral nar Hhallas, Vice Admiral Baresto, and Admiral Latimer. Tell them I will acknowledge the LRR offer to conference on behalf of the members of the Greater Raumreich Alliance."
"Aye, sir."
"Then give me a channel to the LRR flagship."
Forrest smooths his uniform as he activates the comm, "Admiral Watson, this is First Star Lord Grossadmiral Sir Quentin Forrest of His Majesty's Star Armada, speaking on behalf of the members of the Greater Raumreich Alliance. We will agree to a cease fire of no more than twenty-four hours, appyling to only the territory of the Gregor system. At this conference we will speak on the matter of recent Aumanii attacks against thevarious neutral powers of this conflict. We will also discuss on limited terms the matter of a resolution to this conflict to ensure the wronged parties of the Gregor Sector at large are granted due compensation and that Vernii is no longer a threat to either the Gregor Sector or the Greater Raumreich."
Forrest cuts the link, "Ready my pinnace with a full escort. Virgil?"
"Yes, Admiral?"
"You are with me, I will need someone to preserve my sanity in this realm of politicans and back-stabbing."
"Of course, sir."

"Roger that, Admiral Forrest," comes the response.

"Good, so Valinon is coming. They're the second major player, besides Vernii. We'll be able to talk sense with them."
"So what are our, so to speak, terms?"
"For Auman, I think that we could agree to end agression between our two nations if their fleet agrees to hand over the commanders of the fleet which bombed our nation to a multinational court for prosecution. We will agree to put our differences behind us and part peacefully.

And as for the Gregor conflict, we will propose the withdrawl of Valinon and allied forces from the Gregor system and the normalization of relations between the two parties in return for a reduction in Vernii offensive military strength until the climate has cooled down sufficently."

The Empyrean, escorted by four Sultans, approaches to within ten million kilometers of the Pete Townshend. Hangar doors swing open on it's ventral bay, and a single VIP pinnace plunged downward from within, then swung back up on an intercept course with the LRR flagship.

"Pete Townshend, this is pinnace Empyrean One, requesting docking clearance."

EDIT: Auman, sorry I forgot to reply to your attack on the BCs earlier, just assume that some of them took light damage and then returned fire, then the temporary cease-fire was announced.

The Empyrean, escorted by four Sultans, approaches to within ten million kilometers of the Pete Townshend. Hangar doors swing open on it's ventral bay, and a single VIP pinnace plunged downward from within, then swung back up on an intercept course with the LRR flagship.

"Pete Townshend, this is pinnace Empyrean One, requesting docking clearance."

EDIT: Auman, sorry I forgot to reply to your attack on the BCs earlier, just assume that some of them took light damage and then returned fire, then the temporary cease-fire was announced.

"Roger that, Empyrean One. You are clear to dock at Auxiliary shuttlecraft bay 1. A microwave guidance beam will guide you in."

The pinnace docked, settling slowly to the floor of the hangar bay. The airlock swung open, and stairs automatically descended to the hangar floor. A bodyguard descended first, followed by Harris, then another bodyguard and Captain Neville.

The pinnace docked, settling slowly to the floor of the hangar bay. The airlock swung open, and stairs automatically descended to the hangar floor. A bodyguard descended first, followed by Harris, then another bodyguard and Captain Neville.

The XO, Captain Ian Sana (of mixed indian/irish descent) is there, along with several of the ship's robot crew, to greet Harris. He salutes the admiral and then extends his hand for a shake.

"Admiral Harris, pleasure to have you aboard. If you follow one of my crew, they will escort you to the bridge."

Master Chief George Dory, a robot, instructs one of the midshipmen to bring Harris up to the bridge. A large table is set up towards the left side of the bridge, with seats enough to accomodate whoever comes. Security is, however, tight. All the bridge crew carry their SMGs slung over their shoulder, and marines armed with plasma rifles are posted throughout the ship.

The Valinor pinnace lands near Harris' own, it seems strange to see two ships bearing the markings of the United Star Empire and the People's Republic so close to one another. The underside egress/ingress ramp of the pinnace descends slowly. First to exit is a single guardsmen, but it is not the typical Sardaukar normally that due an officer of the Star Armada. Instead it is the scarlet and gold uniform of His Majesty's Soverieng Protectors, conveying to Harris the Valinor representative can only be one man--the First Star Lord of the Star Armada.
A handful of heartbeats later, Sir Quentin Forrest exits the pinnace followed by another Protector and with his strange perfect aide and chief of staff, the Perfect Virgil Severn, at his side. Forrest is dressed in the stark white uniform trimmed in the gold and silver braid of the Grossadmiral rank, gold and silver epaulets adorn his shoulders and a pair of lion crest pins ride on his collar. At his side, tied around the simple black belt at his waist, is an ornate saber. It is Noirinon, the Sword of the Stars, and carried by the First Star Lords since the founding of the Second Empire.
Forrest eyes Harris cooly across the distance between their two transports. He nods his head briefly, a simply gesture of respect, but one that speaks volumes.

"Intimidation or presence?"

"That's a lot of interlaced celluloid fiber for intimidation - I'd say go with presence."

----

A single cruiser appeared a short distance away from the Pete Townshend and moments later a single ship shot from the shuttle bay. Aboard was one Political Officer Red Koizak, a one meter Emperor Penguin, and several other envoy's from the MIDAS nations. After recieving clearance from the LRR vessel the shuttle entered the bay with landing lights on. Hovering above the deck the door-ramps swung down and the envoy's emerged.

Waddling forward to the LRR greeting party the penguin spoke - "Greetings."

Glad to see such an unusual costume, Sana greets the Sunset delegate with a broad smile and a quick salute.

"Welcome aboard the Townshend, its a pleasure to have you here. I will join you on the bridge in a moment, please allow midshipman Roberts here to escort you to the bridge."

After the Penguin waddles away, Forrest walks up to Sana, still somewhat giddy. He salutes Forrest and extends his hand for a shake.

"Welcome aboard the Pete Townshend. Its a pleasure to have you here, Admiral. If you would kindly allow midshipman Fredor to escort you to the bridge, I shall join you in a short while."

Harris respectfully nods back to Forrest as they are lead to the meeting room. His Chief of Staff, Captain Walters, looked around with a mild interest, this had been the first time he'd been on an LRR vessel. All four were rather shocked by the presence of a penguin, particularly a talking one.

In the meeting area (actually a portion of the bridge), the table is made of Philippene Mahogany, imported at great expense, and the chairs have been specially designed for high levels of comfort.

Ivan Watson salutes the delegates and then shakes their hand, as he personally seats them.

"If you'll excuse me, we are still waiting for some others."

OCC: If you could all hold off on the peace conference for a few hours, that would be great, because I need to go to bed. I'll pick it up in 15 hours more or so, so if you could assume that whoever arrives is on the bridge and ready, that would mean a lot to me.

Thanks in advance.

OCC: If you could all hold off on the peace conference for a few hours, that would be great, because I need to go to bed. I'll pick it up in 15 hours more or so, so if you could assume that whoever arrives is on the bridge and ready, that would mean a lot to me.

Thanks in advance.

OOC: Ditto.

OOC: I do not know if Ortaga will actually attend or not. If he does, it will not be to negotiate. That's something the Solar Navy simply doesn't do well. But I suppose I'll throw my one affectionately created puppet and other inherited puppet into the mix of all this. Anyone interested in RPing Boroglia?

If Forrest is caught by surprise by the presence of the penguin he does not show it. His face remains impassive, a neutral expression of benign observation and slack mouth is constant. His deep brown eyes move with his hand as he speaks a few words with the MIDAS representatives and takes their hands firmly. When they reach the bridge he nods to Watson.
"Of course, Admiral, take your time. In a due show of respect to the LRR government I will not start the formal time of the twenty-four hour cease-fire until this meeting is called to order. That is if I can be assured of the same from Admiral Harris?"
Forrest eyes his Verniian opposite with the same controlled gaze.

**********

In the hanger, two new shuttles touch down. One appears to have been constructed of blades and sharp angles. It bears the strange claw emblem of the Greater Empire of Vakutu and from it exits a trio vast creatures. Leading them is Lord Admiral Ralgha nar Hhallas. His massive frame, easily close to seven feet in height, is covered in silver body armor draped in deep blood red cloaks coming from the waist and shoulders. His face is feline in nature, and a great mane sweeps back down his armor and on top of his cloak. At his side are a pair of Vaku warriors, roughly the same height as their commander and garbed in more straightforward armor also silver and polished until it reflects and catches the light. They carry massive energy rifles not designed for human hands, nar Hhallas looks at the shuttle that landed near his own.
It is a perfect thing of order and carefully planned lines, a single-person craft preferred by the flag officers of the Boroglian Expansionary Defense Fleet. From it exits one person, Vice Admiral Baresto dressed in a simple cream colored uniform. The Boroglians are notorious for their designs to impose order on the universe, and their whole society reflects what they believe to be that perfect order.
The two greet each other, then wait to be escorted to the bridge.

WIckian music was strange if not enticing. It was a synthesis of classical crescendos which faded in an out of what those on sol would call "Rap", The music which echoed of the bulkheads of the dark quarters was a piano/ saxophone duet that was low and filled with darkness and shadow. It was perfectly fitted to Villers mood.

He stood facings out into the darkness of space observing the brilliant stars that dotted it. Somewhere out there waited the enemy they now were Boroglin's, Vaku, and the Valinon. He wouldn’t enjoy fighting them he held respect for each of these nations navies. However any unit that held loyalty to the damn Hegemon Ansel, he would enjoy sending to a hellish afterlife. The only thing better would be to do the same to the damn puppet master of the hegmon GustavII himself.

Just thinking of that man gave Villers Goosebumps, he took another long pull of whisky, he comm’ed his XO, and left for the meeting.
---

Viller descended from the ramp of the pinnace and moved with his adjunct Lt. Commander Grotz to the meeting room. If one looked at the man closely they would see why he drinks so much. His eyes though bloodshot were eyes that have seen too much war, there were burns and scars over his body that has seen too much battle. He knew the cost of War and it was a billed he and his nation paid even now 350 light years away in Thetis.

He saw the delegates from Boroglia and Vaku, he thoroughly reviewed the battle transmissions of Brooks's passing engagement with the Boroglins in Stocurm. He has also seen what the Vaku's damnable rifles could do to human flesh, hed also seen what pulsar darts and even cold steel can do to their flesh.

'Greetings my neighbors, how are we all doing today, AH Lord Admiral Ralgha nar Hhallas i presume?" Villers definitely knew his enemies especially those he respected so much for thier skill at the trade, for all his drunkenness his eyes turn cold and hard as he stared into nar Hhallas soul itself "I have just received word from one of our refugee vessels from Thetis. The C.N.S Wraith has be lost with all hands, she herself killed 5 Hemony DN a War frigate and over a dozen Ansel Monitors. Admiral Covington lost her life as she folded broken ship into the sun dragging those monitors with her as they attempted a coup de grace. I thought one such of yourself would want to know, she was spec-" his voice finally broke, he took a long pull from a flask he drew from his shirt pocket. What no one ever knew was that Covington was Villers only true love...duty prevented their getting any closer then that.

As his battle group dropped into the Gregor system, Hostlord Rual turned to his Comm officer. “Signal the Ops center. Get us deployment information.”

He glanced at his tactical panel. His force numbered only thirty-six ships, but they were far larger and more powerful than most of the ships arrayed throughout the system. The sheer number of vessels present was astonishing, however. This engagement was going to be interesting.

Tight-beam transmission to Gregor central operations:
This is Hostlord Rual of the Mun‘ji mercenary fleet requesting deployment coordinates.

Admiral Michaels sat back and half-listened to Commander Ado Mortumee's 'flip' music. After joining the ESUS, Michaels had learned that 'flip' music was a descendant of something from the ancient Sol system called 'metal'.

"What is the status of the enemy fleets?" inquired Michaels. It was Mortumee who responded, his four mandibles clicking in irritation.
"Guanyu ships have just entered system, approximately 1200 kilometers from the Andromeda's port bow."
"Hail them," said the admiral, who had just realized she was one of the only humans on the bridge of the Cain. A pair of Sonne drifted past, twittering and chirping as they began taking apart a display screen damaged by the explosive entrance from the Slipstream.

On the Bridge of the Townshend, at the conference table

"So, it appears as though most everyone is here. We are still waiting for Auman, however. Would anyone like a drink?"

"Ice water if you would."

The penguin fixed Watson with his beady black eyes and nodded sharply to the left where the Aumanii envoy sat waiting. While a remarkably bland individual the penguin was suprised that Watson had overlooked Political Officer Koizak entirely.

----

Ms. Morrow had been picked up extremely quickly in fact. The SDF Camp David, Sunset's embassy in terran orbit, had picked her up and then the MIDAS envoys from Mars and Alpha Centauri by way of the wormgate network. Then the whole lot of them had jumped to the Pete Townshend - where the Camp David was now relatively stuck due to the recharge time needed on a jump of such a distance.

Koizak nodded back at his slick feathered comrade. "It seems as though you imagined us Aumanii's to look like monsters. I assure you Comrade, we are just like anyone else here. We want this over with, and as quickly as possible." Mr.Koizak was an imposing man, standing at 6'2" in height with shoulders as broad as an ox, or so it seemed. He ran a hand through his thick black hair after removing a pair of tight leather gloves. "I'll take a shot of Joilique if you serve it. If not, I'll take brandy." Koizak put the gloves in his the front pocket of his jacket, black lined with thick grey stripes upon the flanks, loosening the high collar...Red was dressed for combat, though most of the assembled wouldn't notice. Koizak found the seat assigned to him amongst the MIDAS staffers who had attended, sitting next to the Sunset attendee, with a face of utter seriousness, which was amazing due to the ridiculous contrast of the two, some staffers broke out laughing at the site of it. Koizak leaned towards the Penguin and wispered to it "I'll follow your lead".

OCC: I completely missed it. Sorry, Auman.

IC:

"Oh! Mr. Koizak! I did not notice you there."

The drinks are brought, and Watson, wearing a scraggly beard and his regular uniform (which consists of a pair of grey slacks and a navy-blue jacket) sits down at the remaining open seat. Captain Sana appears on the bridge again, and temporarily takes command of the ship.

"So, I suppose we should get down to buisiness, which is preventing this battle which all our fleets are poised to undertake. I believe that enough people have already died in this war, and there is simply no need for more of your sons and daughters to perish. What I propose, however radical it might seem, is the total withdrawl of all combatting parties from offensive positions and the return to normal relations. In esence- to put the entire thing behind us. There will, of course, be terms. I have formulated a draft, which asks that Valinon and allies withdraw from the Gregor systems, and that Vernii withdraws all military elements from offensive positions. From Auman in particular, we ask that the admirals in charge of the attack on our nation be turned over to a war crimes tribunal. As you can see, the space flotilla is very much intact, and your strike had virtually no tactical effect besides the premature destruction of nearly twenty million innocent civilians by weapons of mass destruction. It is the very least you could do. But returning to the greater conflict, all parties will immediately renormalize trade with eachother, and sign a non-agression pact that will call upon all signatories to act if the pact is broken. Again, I urge you to at least accept the terms dealing with the Gregor conflict, for all our sakes. There is no need for more death and destruction, many more than enough have died already."

Mrs. Morrow didn't know whether to laugh or cry or bang her head in sheer frustration. It was one thing to remember why she got out of the buisness and quite another to experiance it all over again.

But it was not due to indecision that she held her tounge. This discussion, like others of its nature in history, was likely to get ugly before it got better. Wazzu had an almost neutral position in this due to its internal conflict, a sort of multiple personality that made it a wildcard. Morrow was determined to hold onto that until the time was right.

So she sat tight, squeezed a stress ball beneath the table, and prepared herself for the upcomming bickering.

Watson's expression of determination turns to one of despair at the delayed reaction of the attendants to the conference. If this doesn't work, it'll be his head in more ways than one.

"Are you sure you wish to do that?" the penguin whispered back.

"Server - I'd like some herring guts, chilled. Mmmm - nummy."

It then placed it's wingtips together like fingers and contemplated the words of the other envoy's.

Koizak leaned heavily on his arm rest, a smile spread widely across his face. "We agree whole heartedly with you. This war is utterly futile. I believe that if our allies agreed the Aumanii fleet would return to our previous activities at home and put this whole affair behinds us. But on the issue of your little tribunal, I'll have to decline on the behalf of our government. The Lord Admiral was only following orders from our glorious leader Romendacil. If you wanted to to put anyone on trial it would have to be him...and I very much doubt he would appear." Koizak eyed his glass suspiciously before setting it aside. "If it helps, we give our utmost condolences to the families affected by this conflict."

With what might be a short bow, the robotic arm that had been serving the courses dips back into its bay, and seconds later produces chilled herring guts, with a side of krill and a light salty sauce not unlike soy sauce.

Watson is glad that at least the Aumanii delegate agrees with the terms of the conflict, but grows unhappy when he hears the denial of the trial terms.

"In that case, we request that you please erect large billboard signs reading "Our glorious leader, murderer of 20 million innocents" on all major thoroughfares. Believe me, if the tables were turned, LRR would be a smoking ruin. It is really the very least you can do. Twenty million innocent people being killed- if you wanted to engage the flotilla in open battle that's one thing, but killing twenty million people with nothing to do with it, its like letting a serial killer off with a parking ticket. I'm sure you all know what I'm saying here. Condolances won't do very much, since in the overwhelming majority of the deaths, the victims have perished along with their entire family."

HSS Obsidian Blade, Gregor System, People's Republic of Vernii

A shuttle at long last separates from the Obsidian Blade and streaks toward the LRR command ship with an escort of two Ansel class monitors. The shuttle is a simple affair, a mere arrowhead shaped craft with a pair of upset manuvering wings toward the rear and the main gravimetric engine array. It is a testimony to the Hegemony's standardization as its military constantly expands, feeding on the path of conquest and eternal quest for resources that drives so much of the Hegemony's internal and external affairs.

The shuttle sets down in the hanger bay and a single man exits bearing the five concentric circles of a Vice Admiral encircling the crossed broadswords that are the Hegemon's ensignia. His uniform is a deep royal blue trimmed in silver. Admiral Latimer has dispatched his somewhat nervous looking second to the conference, telling him exactly what to convey and how the Hegemon will feel about continued existence of any Verniian war machine. And Antioch Kellert knows his journey here is largely for so. He makes his way to the conference room in time to hear Watson's comments. Kellert looks cooly at the MIDAS allies, but his look at the non-humans, even in the largely human WIckians, is even colder.

"Unacceptable," he says flatly. "Regardless of whatever niceties you deluded fools from Sol may think, Admiral Watson, things work differently in the Raumreich. One too many times we have granted the Verniian's breathing room, and each time they have taken advantage of it by using it to declare unprovoked war on either Valinon, New Ortaga, or our allies. To leave the Verniians with any military capacity above that of a national security force is a hazard to the international community of the Raumreich, and their ability to continue as a sovereign nation is almost just as deadly."

Koizak cleared his throat and said nothing in response to the Ortagan. If the circumstances were different, the foriegner would be tasting his boot heel.

"Unacceptable," he says flatly. "Regardless of whatever niceties you deluded fools from Sol may think, Admiral Watson, things work differently in the Raumreich. One too many times we have granted the Verniian's breathing room, and each time they have taken advantage of it by using it to declare unprovoked war on either Valinon, New Ortaga, or our allies. To leave the Verniians with any military capacity above that of a national security force is a hazard to the international community of the Raumreich, and their ability to continue as a sovereign nation is almost just as deadly."

Watson is shocked. He sits back down and proceeds to bang his head against the table. Sana comes over and convinces him to stop.

"Unacceptable? I'll tell you what's unacceptable! This whole damn state of affairs is unacceptable! You fighitng amongst yourselves...if it was up to me, I would have never gotten involved, but now here we are, with millions of people dead, including my entire family, and many of your crewmen no doubt...why do you feel its not been enough for all of you? This is not a hostile peace- what I am proposing is a totally new agreement, which will put your disputes to rest once and for all!"

Kellert seems unimpressed by Watson's display of bravado, "Have a care, Admiral. We Ortagans know all to well what happens to leave Vernii in existence. They are like the Pentastar Alliance, to leave them even with moderate strength if a fool's errand, for they will bite any gracious hands. The Hegemony has the power to obliterate the miserable Verniian homeworld with a glance, we merely restrain ourselves because the Valinor are still as of yet unwilling to judge the Verniians as wholly unfit to exist in this universe. Luckily, this does not apply everywhere and we can quickly ensure that the other enemies of our Hegemon and the People of the Hegemony do not long live to threaten our livelyhood."

Kellert gives a smile that is sick in its pleasure from his statements, "Even now Admiral Hellings is poised to solve the WIckian problem. Not only are they an enemy of the Hegemony, but they are also an abomination to the human race. And will be dealt with accordingly."

Watson is disgusted. They arrived late at the conference, and had managed to throw a wrench in the works the first word out of the man's mouth. He contemplates ordering the New Ortagan off the ship, but decides against it.

"Alright, so I see we are not getting around the genocidal and inhumane nature of the New Ortagan here, so what do we do now? Cede Vernii in its entirety to them? This is exactly what I was dreading. Admiral Harris, if you decide to get rid of all but a small portion of your fleet, you will have undoubtedly made history. But I do not expect, nor pressure you to do that. Its an unreasonable demand that only I would probably give in to."

"Watch your tongue!" Koizak blurted at the Ortagan. "Show some respect and open your damned ears. There's no point of you coming if you already have your mind made up."

"Which is just as well, the People's Republic will not disarm itself, to do so would be suicide considering that we are surrounded on all sides by enemies, except for Erewohn, and they are no better than Italy in World War I."

"The entire success of this conference hinges on all your willingness to accept that there has been enough killing already. Please, for all our sakes, we must respect eachother's humanity. Now, what I am proposing, I shall restate, is that you all just forget about it. You go to sleep tonight, wake up tommorow and go home. No more war, no more killing. I propose the normalization of relations between all your governments. After all, there's no reason why you can't get along. You just have to put your lust for revenge aside and realize that more death just makes even more death. We will help all you along as much as we can, it will be the flotilla's top priority.

This will allow all you to withdraw with your honor and your lives. You are all honorable and honest individuals, even if you do not always show it. So please, in order that no more of your sons and daughters should perish in this conflict, accept that, at the very least, you are willing to put your differences behind you and work towards the future. Now, you will all be allowed to keep your navies, but must only use them in reactive defense, no pre-emptive striking. In fact, how would you all react to joining in an alliance? It would insure friendship between your respective governments."

Forrest has been silent during the tirade of the Ortagan vice admiral, and Watson. He has leaned back into his chair, one hand covering his mouth and chin, all the time he has studied Harris with a deep gaze.
"No," he says in quiet, firm tone. "No, it has not been enough, Herr Admiral. You simply do not understand the events being played out before you, none of us really do. This is the last march of the men of honor of the Raumreich, our time has ended, a new age is up on us. This age has been orchestrated by one individual, and while I must applaud him at the sametime he frightens me. In the future, Admiral Watson, you would do well to pray and reflect deeply in hopes of finding sanctuary in a deadly age."
Forrest gathers his peaked cap off the table, "Admiral Harris understands this all to well I believe. The age of moderation in the Raumreich is over, and people granted god-like powers no longer are restrained by god-like wisdom. We are in the ages of demagogues and God-Emperors, from it there can be no peace. There can be only satisfaction in battle, and the supremacy of conquest to appease those who hold the reigns of power in the Raumreich."
Forrest sighs, studing the hilt of his blade, "Your efforts are kind, Admiral Watson, if guided by naivete. A naivete that is all to rare in this area of space. Perhaps in another era it would succeed. Now, you arrive far too late."

"We totally understand the position of the Vernii. Signing over their military strength is a completely suicidal action...considering how quickly our forces overran them, they would do best to increase the size of their military. I believe that the original plan is sufficient. If the Ortagans and the Vernii can just be adults about their territorial squabbles, as well is the Valinor and...god knows who. Then there wont be a problem and us Martians wont have to get involved and win your wars for you." Koizak takes a sip of his brandy, his throat parched...the air in the room was dry, stale and smokey. "I dont even understand the reasoning behind all this non-sense anyway, so I think we should start with getting both sides reasons for this war out in the open, so that we may discuss them and come to a compromise. Mr.Kellert, you may start if you wish."

OOC:

The Vernii shouldn't have a problem if everyon just kept their hands to themselves.

"Too...late?"

Watson collapses into his chair. Clearly his efforts were exhausted.

"As much as it frightens me to be saying this, I hope this battle manages to sap all of your fleets and energies. Promise me that this will be the last battle, after this peace.


OCC: Written before Auman's post, so please go over this one and onto Auman's.

In some obscure freighter-type ship he sat and waited, feeling rather dead inside. He had agreed to work for the people of Auman. Even if he didn't seem to have much choice. They claimed that they could restore his body... And that is all he wants.

But still, that didn't stop it all from feeling like he had sold his soul to the Devil. He had steeped so low... Contract killing? Who would've known. From so high ideals to this... But as long as his body is restored, it didn't really matter.

"Your battle ability is dropping due to mental instability."

"Yeah... I know. I just can't believe I would do something like this. It seems so... I'm not a coldblooded murderer, but... I guess you can't always choose."

"What you are doing you are doing out of desperation. Do not take it too hardly. It will only make it even more difficult for you to complete your task."

"Yeah, yeah..."

He was to wait there, in that freighter, with Jehuty offline (mostly anyway, as it was all that kept him alive), for a message from the Aumanii to do what they see fit. And that he would do. Yeah, it's not like he has a choice.

"We totally understand the position of the Vernii. Signing over their military strength is a completely suicidal action...considering how quickly our forces overran them, they would do best to increase the size of their military. I believe that the original plan is sufficient. If the Ortagans and the Vernii can just be adults about their territorial squabbles, as well is the Valinor and...god knows who. Then there wont be a problem and us Martians wont have to get involved and win your wars for you." Koizak takes a sip of his brandy, his throat parched...the air in the room was dry, stale and smokey. "I dont even understand the reasoning behind all this non-sense anyway, so I think we should start with getting both sides reasons for this war out in the open, so that we may discuss them and come to a compromise. Mr.Kellert, you may start if you wish."

OOC:

The Vernii shouldn't have a problem if everyon just kept their hands to themselves.

"Yes! That is it exactly! Thankyou Mr. Koizak. I restate, there is no reason for you to go to battle! If you can somehow channel your battle energies to work this thing out...I know we should have become involved much earlier, your position is as much our fault as anyone's for not stopping it! If I don't get this to work, I am spent. I have simply been worthless and should have died with my family when I had the chance. Mabye its what I am, but you must, please, keep trying. There's no sense in quitting now. As Mr. Koizak said, let's get the reasons for this conflict out in the open.

As for Auman, I think we have reached some degree of understanding, Mr. Koizak. No one, certainly not me for one, wishes to inflict upon you the death and destruction you inflicted upon my country. I shall not heed the battle cry, I shall not seek revenge, for killing only makes more killing. Would you consider this peace between our two countries?"

At that moment, Sana interjects.

"We will remain on station to provide medical care and search and rescue for your crews. While we hope this battle drains you of ships, we hope to be able to save as much of their crews as possible."

Forrest shakes his head, "You do not understand. We do not need MIDAS, your presence here is entertained because the Imperial Diet used its remaining scraps of power to have Gustav II grant their old allies on Mars a chance at retribution for Verniian attacks on Mars. His Majesty would release the MIDAS nations from their commitment in this battle in an instant."
"Although it gauls me," Forrest looks to Kellert, "we have other ways to circumvent the Verniians. This battle was already concluded the moment we entered the system. The players had just not yet been worked out. I am sorry, Admiral Watson, but there can be no peace here. That is not an option. I will dicuss the actions of the Aumanii on behalf of His Majesty, but that is all."

Well, no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. Mrs. Hanna Morrow thought bleakly, I shouldn’t have expected to this time. Time to improvise.

“So let me get this straight Sir Forrest,” she cut in, “your government doesn’t want peace? Then why waste time standing here?”

Forrest shakes his head, "You do not understand. We do not need MIDAS, your presence here is entertained because the Imperial Diet used its remaining scraps of power to have Gustav II grant their old allies on Mars a chance at retribution for Verniian attacks on Mars. His Majesty would release the MIDAS nations from their commitment in this battle in an instant."
"Although it gauls me," Forrest looks to Kellert, "we have other ways to circumvent the Verniians. This battle was already concluded the moment we entered the system. The players had just not yet been worked out. I am sorry, Admiral Watson, but there can be no peace here. That is not an option. I will dicuss the actions of the Aumanii on behalf of His Majesty, but that is all."

"Well, if we cannot have peace," says Watson, "is there a way to cut losses? My government would be extremely grateful to yours if you would release the MIDAS nations from their commitment."

"We are Mrs. Morrow, because this is all I can give the Verniians," Forrest gaze is that of a man seeking a way out of a duty he is sworn to do, but one he will be disguisted with. "Gustav II knows that a greater conflict lies in the future."
Forrest eyes seem to shift in the direction of Kellert for a heartbeat, "But in Alderman thoroughness he will not fight a two-fronted war. Therefore he is eliminating the present enemy so he may prepare for the next war with relative ease. And he will have the Verniians broken regardless of the fashion it takes."
Forrest eyes Harris, Villers, and the MIDAS commanders, "This is not a war of honor as my nation has known in the past, sentients. Behind my own command lies an army of close to two million beings from Valinon, New Ortaga, Vakutu, and Boroglia. They are being led by Generalfeldmarschall von Richter, who earned his alias as the Blood Marshal in the Outer Dominion Wars over a century ago. Gustav II has sent him knowing full well he will subjegate Vernii regardless of the cost of either side."
"I hope that twenty-four hours may buy some of the Verniians moments to send away what they hold most dear. For it is all I can do."

"I believe it would be best if your ships simply left, both sides can take care of themselves. That goes for all other neutral parties, I hear the Five Civilised Nations have parked a considerable Armada inside the FTLi field, they should leave, if things do come to violence we would not want them to be endangered. I believe that, for one, to be reasonable." Koizak polishes off his brandy, slightly disappointed that he couldn't get Joilique, his favourite local liquor.

"Sir Forrest, your straightforwardness is refreshing. But if you are being entirely honest, then I wonder what stops you from doing more. Not that any easy choices remain...they never seem to, do they?"

Mrs. Morrow turns her attention to Watson. "Admiral, I think you don't quite understand the situation. As far as Gustov II is concerned, MIDAS isn't attached at all, it has no commitment here. It's participation is openly tolerated, but quietly desired.

"Gustov's rage is cold, calculating. I'm afraid you've just stepped on a fallen beehive."

OOC: This post is kinda out of phase as like 6 replys occured as i typed it, but the words are no less true.

Villers sat in his seat, he attempted to temper his rage.. he almost did. By Ortagan definition his people were abominations, due to their slavery and genetic manipulations inflicted on them by their overlords. Villers was one hundred-fifty years and looked no older then thirty. There were other manipulations, such as his lack of hair and the stripes of color that rings his skull from eyes to his neck.

“If I may speak sir?” Villers asks of Watson, his voice was a harsh crackle on the edge of failing “I agree with everything you have said to gain our region this peace. The Commonwealth would like nothing better then for this war to be over with. To my chagrin I find myself agreeing that all of you are ‘deluded fools from Sol’. To the LRR I say your vain hope for peace makes you fools but fools with my respect. To the hypocritical Aumanii your ignorance of this region makes you fools. I am not one bit angered by the esteemed delegate from the Hemgomy comments. What else can one expect from those who obey that Hegemon’s decrees. He hates me and mine fore I am an abomination that dares resist his Hegmons subjugation of the entire Raumreich!”

Villers now stared directly into Kellets eyes, his own glowed red with rage (or infra-red vision ) his voice now loud and soild full on pure vehement anger “You are my most despised enemy, you are lower then the grudge found in the filters of a refresher. But you speak the truth I am afraid, these are fools here” indicating the Sol powers “but they are not bastards like you. No this war occurred because of the discovery of your nation’s intention to finalize the subjugation of the Southern March and Thetis. That is why we killed the YSN, to give us the time to unify against you…it failed but we had to try. Erewhon betrayal of our alliance hurt the most he gave your nation the keys to my home, now you intend to rape it of its life and beauty.” The WIckian rose to his feet his voice returned to a rasp “I am hurt in my heart death the murder of innocence has tainted my soul. I am sick of war, it robbed me of the only woman I ever loved, I HATE war but what can we do.” He now looks at Harris “People like us wear this uniform for it is our duty, we risk all we are to protect those we love, it’s our duty, and we pay the price in the death of our very souls. These idiotic cry’s to disarm our navies would be answered only with our murder from Ortagan aggression. You sir know that my navy will stand by yours until we have not even one graser left. We are with you, have no doubts ever of that my friend…” His voice loud once again “You people” Indicating all those besides Harris “Seem to think the only battle being fought ishere the Valinor at to blame for that,” he now stared at Forrest. “our nation’s are not even at war no, Gustav II” He laced his name with venom “Sent his dogs to finish my nation off, as we trade insults, and vain hopes for peace here an epic battle rages in my home between my navy and the Solar Navy, it is a battle to the death, no accord here will change that. I have said my piece hopefully things are perfectly clear now…lose you ignorance or it will be the cause of your death here.” He fell back to his chair his stalwart face sagged into that of a pain who is anguish, his soul tormented my demons, he up-ended his flask until there was nothing left to fill it.

Harris looks caught off guard by Viller's outburst, and then he nods to Forrest. "My thanks Admiral. It will give us time to get a few more transports out of the system. However this battle goes, it's always important to keep civilian casualties to a minimum." Harris looks pointedly at Kellert as he says the last part. "I also agree, Admiral, this isn't a war of honor. It's a war for survival and domination. Although, ironically, all those "sport" wars that our nations have engaged in; the commerce raiding, the border disputes, all of it contributed to the naval race between our nations, and formed a political map similar to pre-World War I Europe. Technically, you could all say that the Raumreich has never left the 19th century politically." Harris looks over at Villers with a sad expression. "It is to my extreme regret that I wasn't able to dispatch many ships to your system's aid, and indeed, you have a point. Any agreement that could reached here wouldn't apply to Thetis in time to end any battle."

“OK, I admit my ignorance. I am not familiar with this volume of space. I doubt there are many, if any Wazzus who are. So I must beg the question, Sir Forrest, or anyone who prefers to answer. Of , New Ortaga, Vakutu, and Boroglia, who stands to gain who’s systems?”

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wazzu
"Sir Forrest, your straightforwardness is refreshing. But if you are being entirely honest, then I wonder what stops you from doing more. Not that any easy choices remain...they never seem to, do they?"

Mrs. Morrow turns her attention to Watson. "Admiral, I think you don't quite understand the situation. As far as Gustov II is concerned, MIDAS isn't attached at all, it has no commitment here. It's participation is openly tolerated, but quietly desired.

"Gustov's rage is cold, calculating. I'm afraid you've just stepped on a fallen beehive."




Forrest smiles, "This was not even the easy choice, Ms. Morrow. The easy choice would have been to sail into the Raumreich and eliminate the Verniians as had been planned. I have already taken the difficult choice."
"No, you see I am a soldier, and I have taken my oath. For 176 years I have served House Alderman and I have served the Star Empire. I will not shun that duty even now, regardless of where it takes me. Although I will regret it later, that duty and that service came before any other in my life, and it always has. I have done all that I can within the bounds that are set by my own code, and I know it is not even enough to scratch the surface."
With that, Forrest sits quietly through Villers impassioned tirade, taking the slights with a calm poise and steady gaze.

“OK, I admit my ignorance. I am not familiar with this volume of space. I doubt there are many, if any Wazzus who are. So I must beg the question, Sir Forrest, or anyone who prefers to answer. Of , New Ortaga, Vakutu, and Boroglia, who stands to gain who’s systems?”


Forrest turns to Virgil Severn, who hands him a small holoprojector. Forrest sets it on the table then activates it, the vast area known as the Raumreich Oversector spirals into being. Far away on a rough diagional from Yalta, the "central" star of the Raumreich, lies Alpha Centauri, over 900 light years distant. Hundreds of lights, representing individual stars appear, and then color.
"The agreement between the powers of the Raumreich is a complex one, Mrs. Morrow, and I am not a politican. So forgive my brevity."
The hologram spirals inward, showing the closely group stars that form the core of the Raumreich proper: the various members of the Gregor Sector Alliance (Yalta, Madras, Stocurm, Pelledrine, Chandara, and Seljuk), the People's Republic of Vernii bordering them to the "east" and "south" (Gregor, Acler, and Klein), farther away above Stocurm Boroglia, the rogue system known as Kerezin, and farther away at an end of the Alpha Centauri wormhole terminus Vakutu, home star of the Vaku.
"Largely the members of the Gregor Sector Alliance have been folded into the Star Empire already. Yalta, Madras, Pelledrine, and Chandara have all sworn fealty to His Majesty and the United Star Empire. Stocurm and Kerezin have been secured by the Ascendancy of Boroglia, along with several nearby unclaimed stars. The Vaku move to seize the Wickian outpost of Ticonderoga and carve out their own sphere of systems. Valinon itself will also occupy the systems of Gregor and Acler, the key systems of Vernii. Morning Star will be an allied state with Valinon. The Ortagan Hegemony has seized Seljuk and will be granted Klein in return for their assistance in the central Raumreich."
The map swirls out showing Archangel, home system of Falasmayon, and farther away the eight worlds currently belonging to the Ortagan Hegemony.
"To the Falasmayon we have granted a large sphere of influence, tens upon tens of systems are filled in deep Falas crimson. And to the Hegemony is the largest sphere of all, the entirety of the Raumreich's Southern March excluding Erewohn and the system known as Morning Star."
A vast area, easily consisting of close to a hundred star systems disappear into Ortagan blue.
"The Hegemony will be the largest in terms of total systems, Valinon will control the largest populations and the most heavily developed centers of the Raumreich, the Falas will be granted their own vast sector, and the Boroglians and the Vaku will receive due compensation for their continuing efforts to assist the Star Empire."

http://s8.invisionfree.com/Raumreich/index.php?showtopic=4

Map of the Raumreich, sorry Ortaga, I was only able to cut out the center sections because of a file limit size on Photobucket.

Watson has a sad look on his face. He looks at each of the delegates in the conference individually.

"Mr. Villers, that is perhaps the kindest appraisal of my country ever. I am most deeply sorry and in your debt that I could not sort this out. Mr. Koizak, it seems the only real thing left to accomplish is an official peace between our nations. As I have said, I wish for no more killing on our behalf. It should never have happened in the first place. So, would you agree to put this sad chapter in both our histories behind us and move foreward? I am sure that most of the other delegates would have made your country a smoking ruin and avenged every last death caused by such a strike on them, but my country is not like that. We do not seek revenge, since we cannot bear that somebody has been killed on our account. Perhaps we value others' lives a little too highly and our own far too little, but please accept peace. The last thing we want is war...war war war that's all that ever happens these days.

Admiral Harris, if you want to evacuate the system we can escort them out, or take them out if we have time to bring in freighters.

I believe that a twenty-four hour cease-fire has been agreed upon by all the parties, and let it be in effect at the conclusion of the conference."

'So again and again we come back to Gustav - the would-be puppet master it seems. The strings seem exposed. How to sever them is the question - and how to retain an ally.'

The penguin fixed Forrest with it's black eyes and pondered a man who was beholding to oath and duty - but not apparently to honor. But perhaps there was something in the man after all...

The snakey political officer, Koizak looked stunned. The Aumanii people weren't evil, just pragmatic in the pursuit of what they thought to be a noble cause, "We never knew...my god..." Koizak, his face flushed with a look of disgust. "I think it would be wise of the MIDAS nations to withdraw from the conflict and do what its mandate set us to do. Defend our 'Martian' allies to the best of our ability. We have done this with great efficiency and I commend my brothers for their vigilance." Koizak glances at Captain Watson and sighs. "I wish we would've known...The impression in high command was that Vernii and any of their associates were Imperialist assassins. I would hope that the LRR will accept our apology and assistance." Koizak sunk down in his chair, and rose a finger into the air. "Don't take my remorse as a sure sign of Aumanii withdrawal...we will stay in the system as long as MIDAS forces are deployed here. And we will fight just as hard if it is required of us."

OOC:

Ok, Im not getting involved in foreign politics ever again...

"Blue is a fine color to represent the rape and subjugation of my people," Villers mutters to himself...

OOC:just waiting for another ortagan post...

"It is hard to cut the puppet-strings of the willing," Forrest says. "There is little will left in Valinon to moderate Alderman imperial power. The Crown Loyalist and even the United Guildsmen in the Congress of Lords that traditionally did this are dying one by one. The Centrist take their place, and they are the young and the proud who dream in gold and splendor of empire. Their bottomless desires feed the Lion Emperor's own, and they will become the basis of his own."
"Now in Valinon, this desire for empire, this quest for glory is impressed in even the youngest of children. In the schools when they learn English the alphabet's fifth letter teaches them: 'E is for Empire, for which we would die.' And Gustav II is intolerably young for an Emperor, he took the throne at thirty in an age when our life expectancy is well into the third century, and when four is not unheard of. With his strange Takan blood as well, the reign of the Lion Emperor may very well be the longest in Valinor history. God only knows where it will lead."

Admiral Harris, if you want to evacuate the system we can escort them out, or take them out if we have time to bring in freighters.

I believe that a twenty-four hour cease-fire has been agreed upon by all the parties, and let it be in effect at the conclusion of the conference.

"Vernii has a population of over 2.5 billion. It'd simply be impractical to evacuate everyone, and there's still the fact that the war would be going on. It's impossible. Not to mention a lot would refuse to even leave their homes.

Anyway, as to the cease-fire, we will respect and abide by it as long as enemy ships stay on the outskirts of the system. Any approach inwards will be dealt with."

"Is there no honor left then? Man entered space to escape just these same circumstances on Earth - brutal wars over resources and living space. Yet you talk of hundreds of systems like they were coins to be hoarded. Not even in Gustav's lifetime will a single nation here have need of more than one or two. His greed seeks to doom millions for no reason - though he is not the only guilty party. The nations of the Raumreich are seperated by hundreds of lightyears and systems and yet you seek each other out with greed in your eyes."

The penguin stood - a silly looking gesture as this made it shorter.

"I for one damn you all as fools - sad fools full of your own self importance. You could be reaping the rewards of trade and fellowship, yet you squander it all in a worthless war that will not reap any benifits for your children, their children, or even their great great grandchildren.

I cannot speak for all of MIDAS - I simply speak for myself. But I can tell you that my body will not fall for your pathetic war. I cannot say how many will follow me, but those that do will have proved themselves greater than all the lords and marshalls of the Raumreich in a single simple act."

Mrs. Morrow stood as well. "I came here at the request of several factions of my government in hopes to end a war that was slipping into Sol. It seems my matrons and patrons ill understood the situation. This war is beyond the ability of Wazzu to fight, and without consent to peace is beyond anyone's ability to negotiate.

"Admiral Harris, I wish your people the best of luck in whatever political arena awaits them. Sir Forrest, I wish your people the best of luck as well...and the people of all the nations represented here. Dark days are ahead."

Morrow bowed low in respect to all and joined the Pinguin in waiting to see who else was leaving. She thanked Sir Forrest for his candor and education on the way out.

While the Kajali task force had, in fact, not sent an envoy, it had also done, well...

Nothing.

The Soramur Kani, and the array of ships around it, had remained five thousand kilometers away from the allied armada, right where it had left FTL transit to begin with.

Imperatrix Keral was, suprisingly, not bored in the least.

She was simply waiting.

And then, her gaze turned from the large holographic array that comprised the battlefield condition monitor, and to a comms officer.

"Upon the conclusion of their little conference, contact the lead MIDAS ship. I'd like to know if we're staying or not."

"Well, I wish I could say it was a pleasure meeting you all, but I would be lying. Mr.Harris, if you survive this, please expect my government to contact yours, we have much to discuss." Koizak followed his comrades out.

While they had left the meeting the shuttle had not left the ship - instead it waited while the MIDAS envoys used it as an impromptu conference room.

"As much as I would love to leave these fools to their petty war we must consider the people under them. Do we simply leave and leave them to their fate? Or do we act to protect them? While I doubt my government would condone such an action there might be others willing to step in and help save them from themselves. Is this something we should even consider?"

Thoughts ran through the penguin's head as it stopped speaking - it was also a warship, the AI core of the Camp David transfered into an advanced robotic body. While not as experienced in the art of war as some of it's fellows it still had it's own depth of knowledge to draw on, and the situation was not as unteniable as it seemed. Was it it's place to suggest such though? A act that could draw out the war for decades but yet save so many...

Villers laughed to himself as he watched the MIDAS powers withdraw from the meeting,
"Never wanted those foreigners to get involved in our matters anyway...he glances at those who remained the gathered masters of the Raumreich and their host from the LRR. "Any other matters we have to discuss before we battle?"

"Well, I hope you all manage to survive this. Nobody deserves any of it. We will remain on station as a neutral party, with the permission of admiral Harris and admiral Forrest, so you can send any wounded sailors to us, or contact us for SAR craft. It is now half past noon, by my clock. The cease-fire will take effect now and last until this time tomorrow."

As the delegates leave the Pete Townshend, Admiral Watson sees them out, then returns to the bridge. "Its in the way that you use it," by Eric Clapton, plays on the Sub-etha radio, and Watson sits back in his chair.

The ship is quitet, except for a soft electrical humming. The ship's PD and shield systems are activated, but no other weapons systems are up. The other 10 cruisers and 300 frigates re-enter hyperspace and go their own way, back to their science and exploration missions, or back to a fleet base. The four slightly damaged hospital ships also remain.

"Prepare a sub-etha link to the Sunset command ship."
"Aye, sir."

OCC: Sub-etha is a bit of Douglas Adams tech, essentially FTL communication. If your ships don't have the system, Sunset, just assume its something they do have, since I'm not terribly familiar with your technologies.

While they had left the meeting the shuttle had not left the ship - instead it waited while the MIDAS envoys used it as an impromptu conference room.

"As much as I would love to leave these fools to their petty war we must consider the people under them. Do we simply leave and leave them to their fate? Or do we act to protect them? While I doubt my government would condone such an action there might be others willing to step in and help save them from themselves. Is this something we should even consider?"

Thoughts ran through the penguin's head as it stopped speaking - it was also a warship, the AI core of the Camp David transfered into an advanced robotic body. While not as experienced in the art of war as some of it's fellows it still had it's own depth of knowledge to draw on, and the situation was not as unteniable as it seemed. Was it it's place to suggest such though? A act that could draw out the war for decades but yet save so many...

"I have as much feeling for the people of all these nations as anyone else, but I am afraid it isn't my position to make policy. Even so, it looks to be beyond my government's ability to do anything anyway.

"Though if someone has a bright idea, I'd make sure to pass it on at the earliest oppertunity."

Channing Ansel watches the events in the conference room through the feed provided by a concealed transmitter in the uniforms of the Sovereign Protectors. As he watches the heavy tones and swirling crescendos of a Valinor score fill the air of Nu-space sim. Other than the vast "screen" filling one end of the sim, the room is an orchestry n performance with Ansel and the others present sitting right in front of the performers and their conductor.

Ansel turns to those gathered behind him, "The Martian nations will become a problem in the future. We will have to deal with them eventually, especially those ridiculous Aumanii. We could dispatch them easily and end their charade of power."

Three Valinor are behind the Ortagan Hegemon. The first is Princess Josephine Alderman, brother of Gustav II, resplendent in a long white, shoulder-less ball gown that pools on the floor around her. Near her is a man dressed in a long black stormcoat wearing a peaked cap his face is gaunt and close-cropped blond hair hidden for the most part. This is Kevin Vacit, son of the illustrious Myrmidon Director, and the heir apparent to the vast secret order that serves House Alderman alone.
Finally, floating in the air above them in a cross-legged posture is Gustav Alderman II. His eyes are half-closed, revealing only the bottom part of the electric blue pupils, and he is dressed in a plain white shirt, black pants, and a simple pair of jack boots. He regards the events in the LRR conference room meditatively over his steepled fingers.
"Yes, Gustav," says Josephine with one of her cold smiles, "let the Hegemon teach these Martians how a true war is fought, in time they will submit that-."
"Be silent the both of you," Gustav II says quietly. "I have said this repeatedly, I will deal with Mars. Forrest's attempt her to cast my hand before them has done nothing other than to make a few scattered parties wary, and that is easy enough to diffuse. Whether they realize it or not, many of the Martians nations are already playing into my hands. The Mangalans continue to make their economic war against the members of the United Guilds, and weaken one of the last centers of resistance to the Throne of the Twin Suns. The Myrmidons are already among the Martians as well, carefully guiding them toward a more pleasing agenda. It will take time, but Mars is a powder keg with enough unstable elements to assure that it will not remain stable for long. Besides, the other MIDAS nations cannot be on their guard all the time. When they slip, I shall be ready."
With that he unfolds his legs and touches the floor. A ripple passes through the chamber and the orchestra and everything else fall in on themselves, transforming into a circle of ruined stones on a vast grass field.
"Quentin Forrest is to be left to his own devices as well," Gustav says turning to face Josephine. "He has another part to play all this in further and neither myself or Hegemon Ansel will look kindly on harm to befall him. Understood?"
Josephine sighs as her image starts to fade away into a fine mist, "Very well, brother."
"Good," Gustav turns to Ansel, and nods. "In time it will become all to apparent."
And then he too is gone.

**********

Forrest nods to Watson, "There is nothing here left to dicuss, there never really was. You have my permission to stay, sir, but be warned, other nations will not be so generous."
Forrest eyes drift to the Ortagan, "You would do well to withdraw to the outer system and seek protection from the other MIDAS vessels."

"As much as I would love to leave these fools to their petty war we must consider the people under them. Do we simply leave and leave them to their fate? Or do we act to protect them? While I doubt my government would condone such an action there might be others willing to step in and help save them from themselves. Is this something we should even consider?"

"I have as much feeling for the people of all these nations as anyone else, but I am afraid it isn't my position to make policy. Even so, it looks to be beyond my government's ability to do anything anyway.

"Though if someone has a bright idea, I'd make sure to pass it on at the earliest oppertunity."

"The Aumanii Armed Forces will fight alongside our comrades till the last...though, I wouldn't exactly call the Valinon that. I would think if Romendacil were here, he would withdraw. Its upto you commander's. Fight or Flight."

The transmission he had been waiting had still not come. Apparently they went for some meeting-sort a while back, but no one seems to be leaving. He knew because ADA had been able to hack into the freighter's systems, and as such, he could see all the information the ship could muster. He had told ADA to filter most of it, though, so he was basically just looking at the ship's sensor readings and listening to transmissions.

"Damn it. Still no message from those people?"

"Negative. They have not sent anything towards this freighter. Mission parameters are still unknown."

"Great. Wonder how long we'll have to wait..."

Dingo growled and scratched his head. So tormenting... So boring, also. Why can't they get it done already? Or will they just abort it? And if the whole mission will be aborted, will the Aumanii play out their part of the bargain anyway?

Who knows...

OOC: All players and viewers in this thread please view my last post in the Battle of Gregor OOC thread.

OOC: All players and viewers in this thread please view my last post in the Battle of Gregor OOC thread.

So...er...gone for the summer are you? Well aren't you something! Oh look at me I'm so important, I'm gone for the summer! All you other guys just hang out while I go to bloody Bremuda!

So...er...gone for the summer are you? Well aren't you something! Oh look at me I'm so important, I'm gone for the summer! All you other guys just hang out while I go to bloody Bremuda!

OOC:

Well, Iam visiting my girlfriend on August 13th-22nd...so I suppose that would be the best *ahems* I do have to butcher those pathetic Ortagans after all *JK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

...though, we all know it will come to it...

C.N.S Tiger Claw
Ardous class Battle Cruiser
Erewohn/Gregor Wormhole
Gregor System

Four ships trasisted into the Gregor System, a Battle Crusier , two light cruisers and a sloop. All four ships show damage, sustained against battle with units of the Solar Navy. Thier hulls pitted with damge sustain from the battle-lasers, even some parts of thier hulls showed distoration from the effects of the detonations of sigularity devies. A hard battle was fought but it was now over.

To Gregor Defense Command/ Gregor Flotilla
Sirs, My command is recently arrived from Thetis we bring news of the campaign. Request a debreifing, there have been unexpected losses.

OOC: For the duration of the said personal emergency....I have permission to assume command of Ortagan forces in Acler and Gregor only. This is to expedite the roleplaying and storyline in this thread since it's garnered the most international recognition. Unfortunately I have only a base understanding of how his tech as a whole works....wonderful....

"One minute remaining in the cease fire agreement," says one of the tactical coordinators on the flag bridge of the Krieger. Grossadmiral Forrest sits silently at his station, hands resting on his chin.
He nods, "Thank you, Leutnant. What word do we have from the MIDAS nations?"
"No confirmation on their intentions as of yet, Admiral. We do have confirmation from Admiral Latimer that the Solar Navy will stand with us even after the cease fire. Also, we have word from Acler. The system has fallen to the Solar Navy expeditionary force into the system. No definite reports on losses of either side."
Forrest turns to Virgil Severn, "And now the great battle of our time is about to begin. Comm, signal to super-dreadnoughts, pod dreadnoughts, and dreadnoughts they are to deploy an intial wave of missile pods and bring impellers online. We will accelerate at 500 gravities to move into the Gregor system and open an engagement with the Verniian home fleet. Deploy the first Mobile DOS wave, and have our DOS support vessels expand our defensive perimeter to encompass the Vaku and Boroglian elements as well as the core Ortagan formation."
"Yes, Admiral."
With that the warships of the Greater Raumreich Alliance being to move in system to engage the Verniian People's Navy. Warships from Valinon, New Ortaga, Boroglia, and the Vaku begin their deadly "march" toward Vernii and the inner system.

Watson watches the last seconds of the Cease-fire tick down from a safe distance away from the battle, along with four hospital ships.

He watches as the LRR-built Vernii and LRR-built Valinon ships (not all, obviously, but mabye 1-10) close in on eachother, and when the clock finally counts down to zero.

OCC: I'll probably lay low until the battle concludes. Then, the Townshend can be used as neutral ground to negotiate a surrender or whatever.

"All squadron flagships have reported in Sir. The fleet is ready." Captain Neville reported to Harris.
"Good, bring our accel up to 350 Gs and take us out to meet them."
So it begins...

The ponderous might of Home Fleet swung out of orbit over Vernii, turning toward the enemy and beginning to accelerate. Missile pods trailed ungainly behind them, and their acceleration was further limited by the extra mass of their launch rails. Ships assumed their place in their squadrons, then slipped into Wall formation, forming an immense rectangle in space. The smaller forms of their escort warships formed into a complex formation aft of the Wall, placing themselves so that they could fire through the gaps between the wedges of their brethren. The fleet swept out past the orbital radius of Vernii's moon, gaining velocity every second, heading directly toward the enemy.

"Any word?"

"None, Imperatrix."

"Hmn. Plot a course to Mars, if you will. We're leaving."

"Euh... of course, Imperatrix."

The Kajali ships, having held their position relative to the Valinor and allied ships, began to move away, towards the safe minimum jump distance.

"Sound jump warning."

"Sounding jump warning, Imperatrix... Stations reporting in."

The klaxon was somewhat annoying, but it did it's job. Within moments, the task force had reported back.

"All ships and stations signal ready to jump."

"You may proceed when ready."

The navigational crew of the Soramur Kani worked efficiently, slaving the computers of the rest of the fleet to theirs, in order to make the jump to subspace as safely as possible.

Outside the ships, multiple small vortexes began to form, one for every vessel, and the 1st Imperial Taskforce disappeared into them, the vortexes closing shortly afterwards.

The words of the penguin were heeded and many left. Not all left by the same way - some raced for the planet and picked up as many as they could that were willing before departing the system. Others simply left for Mars and points beyond. Eventually the few that were left declared their intentions. Some would watch Alpha Centauri - they could not agree with the actions of the Throne but they would honor their agreement to defend their ally. Clearly their aid on the front lines was not needed or truely desired and thus it would not be given. Others would fight.

Thus when the Valinon and New Ortaga fleet made it's way into the Vernii system there were still dozens of ships that flew the MIDAS flag behind them. These ships would not act in conjuction - most of the captains were old war dogs used to fighting pirates on the fringes and operating alone in the night. They would harass and stall, strike and fade, and perhaps bear witness to one of the greatest clashes of the old fleets.

OOC: This is left as an opportunity for those who wish to do some war RP, and for those who wish to do anything else.

CNS Reliant
Gregor System
Capital of the People’s Republic of Vernii
Admiral’s Ready Room


The national colors were centered upon the seal of the Commonwealth Villers wondered if the national colors would change when whatever new provisional government would be established in wake of the holocaust that occurred a week ago on Thetis. A week ago just under a billion Wickians were murdered by the Solar Navy and the Hegemon, but their Invasion was repelled.

Villers read his operational orders one last time before he finished sealing his skin-suit.

It read:

To Admiral Villers COIC Gregorian Flotilla

Admiral I need not waste time by telling you your duty in the situation that will befall your command when the final attack comes. Our government was not at war with the Valinor even though they support the Hegemony. However that government is dead, engage the Solar Navy’s assets in Gregor, and any of those who would help those murderous bastards. Take no quarter from them, we know they will give none to us…Oh and come out of this alive we will need you back home.

Supreme Admiral Strength COIC Home Fleet

Villers shot the computer off and assembled the Pulsar laying on his desk and placed it in the holster strapped to his thigh. He then walked onto his bridge.

“Admiral on the Deck !” someone bellowed as the dozen and a half members of the Flag bridge came to attention, his stared each of them in their eyes and nodded. He saw not defeat in their eyes, or fear against probable death his outgunned command faces in the battle…He saw only Defiance.

“FOR HONOR!” Villers yelled , those gathered responded by yelling "FOR THETIS " completing the oath, the battle cry of the Commonwealth Navy.


Combat Effective Strength of the Gregorian Flotilla:
7 DN-RC
12 BC-P
8 BC
8 CA
4 CL
16 DD
1 SOW

#library tag...#

"Admiral, contacts in sector fourteen, grid nine. Vector puts them on an exit course from the Thetis system, and most of the signatures are being matched with Wickian warships. All show signs of damage."
Forrest looks up from the array of tactical displays as the Verniian fleet closes with that of the Greater Raumreich Alliance.
"Alert Admiral Latimer that there are apparently survivors from the Solar Navy's attack on Thetis. Tell him I recommend he proceed with all due and proper caution. He will most likely be a focus for any Wickian attack. Krieg, contact the DOS support ships, have them deploy according to standard Wickian battle tactics."
"Yes, Admiral."
"Virgil?" Severns steps closer to Forrest.
"Yes, sir?"
"Have a courier dispatched to Acler. We will bring the Solar Navy's detachment to the system here and use it to reinforce our own strength."
"Yes, Admiral."
"Range from Verniian fleet?" Forrest calls up as he glances at more screens.
"Three-point-eight million and closing, sir. We will enter powered missile combat range in twenty-nine minutes."
"Take the fleets acceleration up to 495 gravities."
"Aye, sir."
A few minutes later a courier ship breaks away from the Krieger and makes rapidly to clear the FTLi field. It soon jumps on a course to Acler, to inform the other nearby Ortagan fleet element it is needed.

The 3-D tactical plot on the Pete Townshend is the focus of the bridge crew's attention.

Being the dominant feature of the bridge anyway, its position is designed for maximum viewing.

The valinon, vernii, and WIck fleets (as well as the ships of a few others) are shown on the display, which encompasses all of the gregor system.

"So, this is it, I suppose," says Watson, still reeling from his failure at the conference.

"Range and time to enemy fleet?"
"Three point five million klicks, twenty-six minutes Admiral."
"Orders for Vice Admiral Campbell: Begin message: Detach your battlecruiser squadrons from the main group, lower accel and change course to harass the enemy's port flank after we enter into the engagement. Message ends."

The five battlecruiser squadrons of Home Fleet, a single squadron of Imperious and the rest made up of Sultans, veered away sharply from the wall of Home Fleet's capital ships. They entered onto a new course that would take them around in a arc past the flank of the enemy fleet.

"Orders for all pod ships, begin pod dispersal."

Cargo hatches opened in the aft hammerheads of Battle Squadrons XII, XVIII, XIX, and XX. The lumpy forms of missile pods floated out, were snatched up by tractor beams, and dispersed along the fleet, supplementing the numbers of the towed pods that had been dragged along from orbit.

"Final pod deployment complete, sir. All squadrons report in as having primed the the first wave of missile pods. Standing by for order to engage."
"Thank you," Forrest said with a nod, bringing his command chair closer to the flag bridge's massive tactical holo display.
"Range to target?"
"Two-point-eight million kilometers, Admiral."
"Signal all ships to deploy Precentor drones and prepare to release them to engage on my command."
"Aye, sir."
"Comm, also give the order that we are engaging under firing plan beta-zee-delta light/heavy pattern. Finally further DOS deployment and Precentor deployment is to be done at commanders' discretion."
"Aye, sir."
Forrest inhales deeply, and then nods to Severn. A few minutes later he activates a comm broadcast to all of the Armada's warships, along with those of their Boroglian, Ortagan, and Vaku allies.
"All ships, this is Grossadmiral Forrest, in the name of His Majesty, the Hegemon, the Aristocras, and the Emperor of Vakutu open fire and slip the final blows of this war!"
The allied ships draw themselves together in a final complex broadside presenting formation. The escorting cruisers, destroyers, frigates, monitors, gunships, and fleet escorts belch missiles at the Verniian formation first. The Valinor ships vent their strange internal pod launchers at their enemies as the lighter Vaku and Boroglia compliments join in. All totaled over 355,000 missiles fly toward the Verniian formation, a myriad group of x-ray warheads, fusion warheads, ECMs, Skippers, and more. Next the Valinor, Vaku, and Boroglian dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts open fire with their own missile batteries and pods, sending over 950,000 missiles at their enemies. The massive onslaught screams toward the Verniians and Forrest watch the tactical projection shift in vain to try and handle the amassed storm.
"Give the order to our carriers, release fighters and drones to engage."
"Aye, sir."
Hot on the heels of the missile barrage comes a storm of hundreds of agile Vaku and Boroglian fighters followed by Valinor LACs of varying classes, and all led by the Precentor-class and new Necromancer-class drone interceptors and bombers accelerating at speeds no sentient pilot could ever endure. The plans to establish Valinor predominance in the Raumreich once and for all have come to their final steps.

CNS Reliant
Flagship, Gregorian Flotilla

Villers grunted as he noticed the innumerable mass of blips that represented the initial broadsides of the enemy fleets. Could be worse he supposed the People's Navy would be able to survive such a broadside and also deal out such death. His own command was not, but he would do what he could to help his allies and friends in this fight, and he was damned if he was going to let the Ortagans do to Vernii what they have done to Thetis.

"Comms prepare to record a message for a general transmission to the enemy fleet...Fitch Latimer bastard son of the vagrant Whoremony of Ortaga, officer of a navy which murdered a billion civilians, whose navy was Defeated in Thetis. I Admiral Markus Villers, Son of Derrik Villers, Knight Companion of Arduous, Son of Thetis is calling you out. My fight is not with the Valinor, it is with you and yours, who would you rather fight here the Vernians or the navy that has beaten yours... Come to your death coward!"

"On the chip sir...Transmitting now" a young ensign stated

"Full military power send us straight at the Ortagans!" The WIckian fleet headed straight at the Ortagan fleet at 506 g's.

Harris couldn't help but push back into his seat as the missile count rose. A primal portion of his mind urged him to run, but the soldier of him wouldn't let him listen. "Have BatRons Two through Four retarget on the center Boroglian squadron, Batrons 14 through 16 on the center Vaku squadron. Otherwise target assignments are still the same." Use 'em or lose em. "Fire all missile pods."

Missiles streaked from their broadside launchers, towed missile pods, and dorsal/ventral missile pods. The tally soared up, stopping at 176,120. Far short of the enemy salvo, but instead of being targetted evenly across the fleet, they were concentrated soley upon the Vaku and Boroglian dreadnoughts, a dozen Ortagan dreadnoughts, and all thirty-two Valinor superdreadnoughts. The slicer beams mounted on BatRon I opened fire, six of them tearing across space toward the Boroglian carriers, and the other two concentrating upon an unlucky Boroglian dreadnought.

Counter-missile canisters shot from their launchers right after the missile salvo, screaming suicidally towards their targets. More waves of them shot out behind the first wave, and both counter-missiles and enemy missiles died by the thousands. The survivors of that reached PD laser cluster range even as yet more CMs shot out, and finally the main energy batteries of some of the ships went into action, blazing away desperately at missiles closed to attack range. Space lit up as missiles detonated, ripping at Home Fleet's wall. Individually, the missiles were like mere bee stings to the mammoth ships, but enough bee stings can kill a man. The dreadnoughts Cerberus,Siegfried, and Colossus exploded as damage overwhelmed them, and the Duquesne and Capella were hammered until they were barely capable of moving under their own power. A dozen destroyers, ten light cruisers, and half a dozen heavy cruisers perished as well.

OOC: Well I think the Ortagans would take the bait. If not the Ortagan can smite me later...

"Sir! Admiral Latimer's fleet is breaking formation! They are moving to intercept the Wickian task force."
"Let them make their attack," Forrest says. "Withdraw our DOS support once they move out effective range."
"Multiple contacts from the Phoenix-class dreadnoughts in the Ortagan formation, sir. Registering over 500 ECM warheads, too dense to get a reading on the center."
Forrest looks to Virgil Severn.
"Vortex," they both whisper at once. Forrest can only watch in horror as the Ortagans deploy one of the deadliest weapons mankind has ever known at the newly arrived Wickians.

The agile drones of the Valinor Mobile DOS network reposition themselves to intervene on the fire from the Verniian fleet. Nimble counter-missiles erupt from their pylon mounted launchers as rapid-fire lasers and grasers also turn their energy base wrath on the Verniian attack. Governed by the massive super-dreadnoughts AIs, perhaps the most advanced in the Star Armada, they are the best "weapon" in the Valinor arsenal. The great equalizer between the numerically inferior Star Armada when facing the larger numbers of the People's Navy.
Valinor AIs are always eerie to some extent, even to their own creators. And as the missile barrage descends to them, all the AIs react in the same fashion. They all turn to face the barrage, and a gesture is made, ranging from a simply flick of the hand to a disquietingly human glare of rage. With their own ship-based numbers supplemented by the new DOS support ships carrying additional drones, the AIs begin their own defense.
A halo of explosions and death seems to enshroud Forrest's super-dreadnought core formation. Largely these well-protected ships escape damage, but the HMS Ausloschen and the HMS Furst are not quite as lucky as their sisters. The Ausloschen takes a series of hits to its forward impeller ring and begins to lose acceleration, dropping rapidly to 330 gravities. The Furst loses one of it's invaluable pod deploying rails.
The Boroglian and Vaku ships, being toward the fringes of the Valinor DOS network are not as "invulnerable" as their ally. Two Boroglian carriers are gutted by slicers, the unlucky dreadnought careens away, it's portside largely in ruins. The Crossbone, carrying the flag of the Ascendancy in this battle, has its main comm array damaged. Command passes for the moment to Rear Admiral Sarlin on the Titan, until communications to the flagship are normalized. He brings the dreadnoughts and carriers close together, their shields giving one another mutual cover from the slicer attack.
The Vaku move with a drilled, ferocious efficiency against the Verniian attack. Counter-missiles and wide dispersion lasers carve into space as Lord Admiral nar Hhallas unleashes his own special defense. The space around the Vaku dreadnought formation suddenly fills with shrapnel and sensor-bouncing reflectives, a ploy to throw off or destroy Verniian missiles. To an extent it works, only one dreadnought is lost, with two others being damaged.
And then the response to the Verniian attack comes.
"Do we have confirmation on all Verniian pod warships?" Forrest says, putting aside the damage reports flooding in.
"Yes, Admiral."
"Focus our second attack on all Verniian super-dreadnoughts and dreadnoughts of pod-based weapons designed. Contact Spartan-class warships from the Liaison Service, I want them to engage the Verniian battle squadron employing slicers against the Boroglians. Finally, give the order to the Precentors and the Necromancers at attack pattern Scythe."
"Aye, sir."
The bulk of the allied formation returns fire with around 850,000 missiles set on a course with the core of the Verniian formation. Their escorts draw close, readying themselves for the coming response. Meanwhile, the sleek predatory shapes of the Myrmidon warships move toward BatRon I. The ends of their "rapid-fire" MAC batteries glow with blue-white electrical energy as they prepare to send a volley of MAC shells into the slicer bearing warships of BatRon I. In quick succession the Spartans release three neo-titanium MAC shells each toward their enemy at mass driver speeds (OOC: Vernii you and Ortaga are the ones with the numbers for this sort of thing, fill it in). Twelve of them fly toward the Verniians bathed in blue-white energy left over from their magnetic assisted acceleration.
As the missiles howl toward their targets, the AI driven Precentor and Necromancer drones launch their own attack. The Necromancers close on assault runs with Verniian dreadnoughts, battleships, and battlecruisers, manuvering for "down the throat" shots. Two hundred Thanatos-class fusion warheads are released from the Necromancers, each carrying a 13.5-gigaton warhead. They are guarded by hundreds of suicide Precentors. Regardless of the bath of positioning and insults being sparred between the Solar Navy and the Commonwealth Navy, Forrest continues on with his ruthless, surgical strategy against the Verniians with the tradition of the His Majesty's Armed Forces.

"Minimal effectivess against the Valinor superdreadnoughts Admiral."
"Damn."
Harris leaned forward in his seat, studying the holoplot carefully. "Retarget our slicers on these carriers here." He selected four carriers, assigning two beams per ship. Change Valinor targets to the escorts on the edge of their formation, it'll cut into their point defense capacity a bit, other targets stay the same."

The deck shuddered slightly as the Empyrean kicked another salvo out into space to join the rest, 12,168 in all. The squadrons beams again tore at the Boroglian carriers as fighters launched from the ventral boat bays of each capital ship to intercept the incoming drone fighters. LACs and fighters also launched from their carriers.

The pod dreadnought Hector broke in half as a magazine exploded inside it, and the Rear Admiral Hall's Aurelian took a battering, and began losing acceleration fast. Aurelian's division mate, Tyrant, also suffered light damage.

The MAC rounds smashed into BatRon I. Two clipped the wedge of Indomitable, disintegrating in a shower of energy and debris. Another smashed into the sidewall of Mercuria, bringing a section of it down and allowing another to get through, gouging a chunk out of the ship's thick broadside armor. Two of them smashed deep into Valiant, and the ship rotated to snatch it's wounded side away from the enemy and present it's undamaged broadside.

Energy and PD batteries across Home Fleet exploded into action against the incoming fighters, putting up a wall of energy in their path as the fleet's fighters waited to deal with whatever got through.

The Lance of warships that arrived from Thetis brought Villers ‘ore then news of the battle that was waged in the system , it also brought a thorough analysis of the Solar Navy’s tactics. Withstanding multiple vortex broadsides the WIckian Home Fleet because well acquainted with the Vortex missiles and with the help of Fido and superb PD effort they survived it. While his command was not Home Fleet Villers did know that the Vortex would be in the center of the ECM wall . ONI predicted that their PD would be fifteen to twenty percent more effective then Home Fleets initial counter missile broadsides.

“Helm alter course ninety degrees, and set a 25 degree upward angle. Concentrate countermeasures on the center of the ECM wall. ”
“Alter course ninety degrees, set 25 degree upward angle and concentrate PD on the center of the ECM wall Aye aye sir.” The Wickian Line of battle rotated and “ascended above the Ortagan fleet. If the Ortagan fleet remained as it was the Wickians would be able to easily roll their ships and present their edges to enemy fire extremely quickly.
“Send Rear Admiral Brooks my compliments, he may fire at will.”
---
More then a thousand counter-missiles sped towards the center of the Ortagan missile barrage arranged so that their wedges would cover all but the most small gaps. Twice as many were the MIRV counter missiles that would detach packs of nuclear warheads that would attempt “soft kills” on the flanks of the wave hoping to dissipate the ECM. Villers watched the point defense and ECM officers work furious at their controls. It was the belief of the Commonwealth Navy that even the best computers need a human to add a bit of finesse, and those officers at these stations were chosen for their abnormally high aptitude for data analysis and prediction, making them perfect for setting up the firing solutions for CM's.

The Gregorian Flotilla contained 7 dreadnaughts equipped with the Vernian missile rails, they were able to fire a total of 14,350 missiles at the Solar Navy. After the rails were flushed only 350 missiles could be returned at a rate of one broadside every 19 seconds. However the BC(p) Squadrons hurled 12,000 missiles at the enemy, this rate of fires would remain constant. These capital class missiles were all targeted at the lead ships in the Ortagan’s dreadnaught formations. The other units deployed in a screen around this line of battle concentrated only a thousand missiles at the Solar Navy’s monitors. The

As the Ortagan missile barrage closed with the Wickians space became “Lit” with the detonation of thousands of nuclear bombs hoping for soft kills, the only explosion that would mark a counter-missiles successful interception of the vortex would be the creation of an event horizon.

OOC: Wick, I hope you will forgive me, but I must put your part of this on hold. I have no idea how Ortagan PDs work, or what their effectiveness is. I have sent a TGram to New Ortaga to try and get more information, but if I will or not is anyone's best guess.

"Reports from screen, sir. Thirteen destroyers, seven light cruisers, and four heavy cruisers destroyed. Heavy damage to three other destroyers, a light cruiser, and a battlecruiser."
Forrest raises an eyebrow at the battlecruiser, "Any additional information on the damage to the Thor?"
"Heavy damage to portside batteries and sensors, sir. Caused when the light cruiser Auriel exploded near its flank. Her captain sends his regrets and is trying to reorient to show the Verniians his starboard broadside."
"What word from Lord Admiral nar Hhallas and Rear Admiral Sarlin?"
"Heavy losses to fleet escorts in both fleets, sir. The Lord nar Hhallas says that if his escort class were not destroyed they were reduced to little more than hulks. Reports from the Boroglians are sketchy, apparently additional chain of command confusion still. But a carrier is dropping out of formation, although it seems Sarlin's tactic of massing his dreadnoughts around them saved them from further casaulties."
"Thank God for small miracles. Have Battleship Squadron II and III detach to support the Vaku, send the first squadron to support the Boroglians and supplement their own point defenses."
"Yes, sir."
"I want rapid fire patterns on the same engagement pattern with the Verniians. If we are to win this battle, we must cripple the Verniian wall. After the next salvo, we will ready a grouping of Thanatos-class warheads for the next wave."
"Aye, sir," with that the allied wall once again vents its rage at their Verniian opponents, their massive missile count sent once again toward Verniian super-dreadnoughts and dreadnoughts at the core of the formation. New pods drop away from the pod designs of Forrest's wall as the distance between the two fleets keeps closing.

Two more dreadnoughts, Ad Astra and Sphinx, took a beating and rolled to present their ventral wedges to the enemy, and disengaged from Home Fleet's wall.

"Our Wall is shedding ships far too quickly for my liking." Harris commented to his Chief of Staff. "If I'm to make any headway, we'll need to remove their DOS drones. Fleet orders: reload CM tubes with the scatter torpedoes and proximity warheads. Retarget our slicer beams on the Valinor science ships, I'm betting they have something nasty up their sleeves, otherwise they wouldn't be here."

Beams of energy shot from BatRon I, followed by scatter torpedoes launching in a massive salvo from the counter-missile tubes of the fleet, and escort warships punched out regular missiles with proximity fusion warheads. Ten seconds after the first wave, another salvo of scatter torpedoes fired off, followed by the fleet's missile salvo five seconds after that.

The last shadowtech probe created arrives at the edge of the system and activates its sensors.

They had received the transmission they had been waiting for, at long last. Except the objectives weren't quite what they had agreed on. The war raged on outside, even if rather far away, with their... Employers not taking part in it. No, instead they wanted Jehuty to do something rather unorthodox. Although, even the original plan was such.

"The hell? You sure that's authentic, ADA?"

"Yes. Probability of authenticity is 100%."

"So they want us to engage in battle with those fleets?"

"Yes. The mission objectives are quite simple. 1) Engage all sides. Which one you engage first is irrelevant. 2) Gather data from said battles. 3) Flee from battle when enough data has been gathered."

"Sounds like a suicide mission to me..."

"Actually, we have a good chance to survive. Jehuty is but one Frame, a small one as well, and they have much larger issues to worry about than us."

"... Except this one Frame has weapons capable of downing warships."

"I suggest not using Jehuty's most destructive weapons to keep us uninteresting. Trying to keep out of the way of their largest weaponry is also advisable."

"Well... Yeah, I guess that sounds like a plan."

"Which side shall we engage first?"

"Well, the situation seems kind of uneven, so we'll engage those Valinon people first. Their tech seems better, too, so let's leave the easy part for dessert."

"Confirmed. Showing targets of Valinon and allied forces as hostiles. Excluding any remaining Auman's forces. Jettisoning Jehuty from the freighter..."

The big crate Jehuty was in slid out of the unarmed ship it had been in, and for a moment, it just silently sat there. A lot of text slid through one of the virtual monitors on the HUD, not that Dingo even cared much about it. He was too busy watching the sensor readings.

"Systems checkups complete... Ready for combat operation."

The crate broke open, and Jehuty was finally out. Dingo let out a sigh of relief. Finally, out of that cramped little box...

"Let's go and bash some skulls in!"

Jehuty began to zero shift towards the Valinon fleet, moving with immense speed for something of its size. Wouldn't take long for them to reach it, and engage their fighter craft or something of that sort in battle.

Aboard the AUSD Glorious Martyr

"So, Egret has engaged the enemy?"

"It looks like he is moving to do so Lord."

"Very well, keep an eye on his movements...his battle potential is very important, since the uprising the military has needed equipment like that. We need to know what it will take to bring this frame down."

"Aye Commissar Capellan, your will be done."

"New contacts have confirmed Verniian scatter missiles, accompanied by proximity warheads, Admiral. They are targeted to intercept the DOS."
"Multiple shots in bound against the Magellans!"
"Contact all super-dreadnoughts. All ships are to roll and impose their wedges between slicer shots and the Magellans. We will maintain position to keep those Verniian dreadnoughts from targeting the science vessels. Meanwhile, have all pods flush their EMP missiles at those scatter missiles. Fuse their systems before they even have a chance to separate," Forrest barks, and his command moves to respond.
"Once the first wave is passed contact our DOS support ships. I want thirty-second round fire for eight minutes. Let us thicken our DOS network to its full potential."
"Aye, sir!"
The super-dreadnoughts roll to impose their powerful wedges and save the more vulnerable science vessels from the onslaught. Energy from the slicer cannons crackles across the invisible barrier of the wedges, energy spikes across the super-dreadnoughts. Meanwhile the space around the Valinor fleet becomes an elegant and deadly light show. The crackling blue-white lightening of EMP pulses rips into scatter missile fire patterns, fireballs of new suns erupt as proximity warheads erupt on the fringes of the formation were the DOS network resides.
"Thirty-four percent reduction in DOS network, Admiral!"
"Support deployment ships readying wave, launching now," Forrest grimaces as the new wave of drone satellites shoot away to replace their fallen comrades. The DOS support ships have released their entire compliment of DOS drones into the fray. A new DOS stands were the previous one had taken its beating, one roughly double the strength of its predecessor.
"We cannot risk the Verniians attacking the Magellans any longer. Roll ships back...and execute...execute attack plan Hydra."
The Valinor battle fleet prepares to unleash perhaps the most powerful weapon the Star Armada has brought to Gregor, dwarfing even the capacity of the Solar Array they brought to bear on Gregor so many years ago. From the fleets super-dreadnoughts and dreadnoughts, modular boxes cleverly disguised as DOS launchers detach and fly outward toward the fringes of the core wall formation. Each one is marked with a different ID code, marking EMP missiles, ECM warheads, and traditional X-ray warheads. Aboard the science vessels brought along specifically to coordinate this massive attack, the most advanced AIs in Valinon activate. Even their abilities are just barely enough to coordinate the massive efforts of over 900 separate boxes, and their sensors and communications nets strain with the effort.
"This is the end result, Virgil," Forrest says turning to his long time aide. "This weapon was started when we unleashed the coordinate mine attack against the Dominion of Outer Centauri in the final days of the Outer Dominion Wars. And now it has come full circle, but I would not be surprised if this is the last march of the daring broadside and the visitation of death by impellers. Send the order, Virgil, let this slaughter be complete."
"...Yes, Admiral."
The Hyrda attack boxes release their payloads in an inhuman unison. Tactical displays across the Star Armada, Expansionary Defense Fleet, and Imperial Fleet falter to keep tally as the counter grows, rising and rising. Finally, the counter slows at well over 1.8 million missiles. The first 300,000 spearing the assault are EMPs and ECM warheads, behind them come X-ray warheads, the drained arsenals of Sentinel and Eurytion combined. They expand slowly outward in grooved intervals, but their core targets are the super-dreadnoughts, dreadnoughts, and battleships sitting at the core of the Verniian formation. Lesser priorities are given over to carriers and escorts.
Forrest gives a final nod to the super-dreadnoughts' tactical coordinator, the young man turns to his station.
"Launch Thanatos-class missiles, attack pattern Hyrdra-II now!"
A final series of launches streak away from the Valinor super-dreadnoughts. Four-hundred seventy-one Thanatos-class fusion missiles fly toward the Verniians accompanying the massive salvo already on its way toward the beseiged Verniian home fleet, each one carries a 13.8-gigaton fusion warheads, new suns that will soon be born if they reach their targets.
"Comm?"
"Yes, Admiral?"
"Contact all squadron commanders, tell them they may acquire targets of preference and opportunity and begin rapid-fire attack patterns. Send them my regards, and tell them that the glory of the Vaterland will be sated."
"Aye, sir."
With that the First Star Lord stands and moves to the edge of the massive holoprojection. He watches the wave of death fly toward the Verniian formation as Valinor, Vaku, and Boroglian ships manuver to begin their own attack patterns against whatever survives the onslaught. In an running engagement back toward the fringes of the Gregor system, the Solar Navy and the Commonwealth Navy visit their destruction upon one another as Ortagan and Wickian pursue their vendettas upon one another. One driven by nationalistic fanaticism and xenophobia, the other by desperation and the lust for revenge.
"Sir, new contact in bound. Unknown configuration, appears to be rough equivalents in database to Zeonic combat suits and mobile armored suits employed during the Evangelion Incident from before the Outer Dominion War."
"Detach the cruiser Triumvirate and half a destroyer squadron to deal with this craft. Send a double DOS screen compliment," Forrest says, not even turning away from the display.

Aboard the AUSD Valhalla:

"This is disgusting..." Admiral Yinsenzi paced stiffly about his bridge. "These bastards talk about honour. These scoundrels condemn us, their ally in the heat of battle. These perverts know nothing of combat, the honour of warriors. The respect of fighting men towards one another. Scum!, I hate them more than anything Ive ever known and yet, I must support them. We must put our lives on the line. These fucking bastards!..." Yinsenzi stopped pacing, a look crossed his face, an apiphony coming to his mind. "Of course...of course. I know. Ensign, get me a line to Grahfsberg, Tannelorn. I have a favour to call in..." the comm's technician let out a soft 'aye' and went to work as Yinsenzi stalked off of the bridge to his ready room. As he sat behind his desk he recieved word that a line had been reached and accepted. "Gutentag Herr Schleiffen. I have a job for you, Im sure you will have no problem accepting considering our past...I ask you to bring your men to the field of Honour. Unleash hell upon the Valinor. Make them pay for their arrogance." The Lord Admiral sat there content for the time being. "Ahh, this is good...much better now.

OCC: Woah! Attacking Val? I think the RGF may have to get involved...

"Warning. Odd readings coming from objects launched from hostile ships."

"What? What is it?"

"Probability of objects not being what they seem is 97.1%. I detect explosives. Missiles. Hundreds of thousands of them."

"What?! You serious?! To hell with that...!"

In that instant, Jehuty 0-shifted backwards a few times, causing it to go quite a large distance away from the fleet it had been closing in on. Then Jehuty came to a stop. It was almost as if it was "looking" towards the fleet of Valinon, which it had been going towards anyway. Dingo zoomed the virtual display screen in to the battlefield.

Then the fireworks started. ADA's warning had been a prudent one.

"... That's insane. Who the hell would do something like that?"

"The waste of resources must be extreme, also. The act seems illogical, no matter how high the losses of the enemy might be."

"Yeah..."

A while went past as the bombing continued.

"Hey, looks like it's ending."

"Confirmed. The amount of explosions has diminished greatly. But remain cautious, it is unknown what kind of other secret weapons these two sides might have."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just continue. We'll steer clear of the bigger ships, as planned."

And so, Jehuty began to move towards the fleet of Valinon again. But it did not take long for ADA to say something Dingo didn't really want to hear... The hostiles had seen them.

"Caution. It seems they have noticed us, even if it seemed improbable. Several ships are moving towards us. By the looks of them, one of them is a cruiser. The rest are destroyer class ships."

"Damn! Target the cruiser for me!"

"Done."

Jehuty came to a stop again. The Orbital Frame's posture changed as it seemed to stretch its body, flexing its legs and arms so that it almost seemed to be crouching in space. After a very short while its torso began to glow with a bright, bluish light, and the light only became stronger and stronger. Then, Jehuty straightened its body, brought its right arm up above its head, opened its clenched fist... A ball of blue energy formed there, just above its opened hand...

Then the ball began to grow.

"Enemy is within range of BURST attack."

"Alright, let's see how this'll work on them!"

Jehuty then just simply waved its right arm to the direction of the cruiser. With great speed, the ball of light began to close in on the cruiser.

OOC: Auman, for my own curiousity, when did Valinon ever condemn Aumanii actions? I don't seem to have recalled doing this. In fact, I don't seem to recall going one way or another in anything but with private communiques with the Eldar. Where I put it very plainly we neither support nor condemn Aumanii actions. Also, Auman, I would remind you that Gregor is well over 900 light years away from Sol. Without access to the Valinor end of the wormhole terminus, you might have some difficulty getting there.

"Energy battery firing from unknown contact!" Kapitan zur Sternen Odrick snaps his head up.
"Roll to impose wedge now!" he snaps. The helmsman of the HMS Triumvirate moves with a drilled precision. The cylinder shape of the cruiser rolls to impose its belly wedge between its hull and the oncoming energy burst. The blue energy is breaks against the wedge, pooling across it like water before a rock. Some of the surplus energy rolls across the wedge to the more vulnerable sidewalls. Energy spikes crackle over the sidewall, and for a few moments the sidewalls try struggle to compensate for the surge. But they soon refocus themselves.
"Deploy Precentor drones and have the destroyers move to engage!" Odrick barks.
Twelve agile Precentor-class drones separate from the Triumvirate and move to close with the strange new object that reminds the Valinor of the mobile suits and armor they encountered in earlier conflicts. The Triumvirate's Kirsten format AI coordinates "her" new appendages with ease, and they move rapidly to engage the armored suit with their energy weaponry. Meanwhile, the escorting destroyers take their own tenetive probe at the mobile suit. Their chase missile armaments spiral out eight missiles each per fifteen seconds as their single chase mounted 60-centimeter graser tracks the suit.

ooc Busy today otherwise i would be on this for a while, anyways here is the start of my contribution.

Just outside the Vernii systems Hyperspace inhibitor field, there was a bright flash of light, then minutes later another. The Energies involved in an obvious hyperspace fold were obvious to any sensors in system, but strangely after the second flash, Sensors could pick up nothing at all. It was as if someone somewhere simply wished to take a look at the events unfolding in the doomed system.

Ten minutes later an large object compromised primarily of iron, slipped through the field, seconds after it entered the system it shot forward at .20 the speed of light. The high energy build up of a Urenbeck catapult detected as it screamed towards the planet Vernii.....

Counter-missiles and scatter torpedoes streaked out in massive wave, ripping through the enemy swarm in an orgy of mutual destruction, and PD laser fire was joined by the powerful energy batteries of the capital warships. They weren't going to get all of them of course, not even close.

"Fleet orders: All ships roll now!"

The ships rolled to present their ventral impeller wedges, weapons blazing away until their own wedges blocked off their fields of fire. Missiles slipped in between the gaps in the wedges and detonated, followed by several flashes of Thanatos warheads detonating.

Two battleships, Heroic and Orion vanished in the flare of energy, and another two, Oldenburg and Devastation were hammered badly. Six dreadnoughts joined the list of losses, Jellico, Gorgon, Arcturus, Lutzow, Jovian, and Santiago.

Harris hammered his fists down on the arms of his command chair in fury. He couldn't keep this up, this missile duel could only have one outcome, his own destruction. "Keep formation, adjust course to take us into energy range."

Forrest watches as the allied missile barrage trails off. The Verniian fleet keeps its wedged imposed between the allied fleets and their hulls. Forrest allows himself a small smile.
"Sir," Severns says, "the Verniian fleet is accelerating to close quarters to energy range. Squadron commanders are reporting in that they are being denied targets of opportunity."
Forrest nods, "Range from Verniian home fleet?"
"One-point-seven million kilometers and closing, sir," comes the crisp reply.
"Prepare to deploy Hydra secondary waves one and two. Have the Magellans go ahead and release the boxes. When the Verniians close to the range of 1.6 million kilometers we will release the Hydras under engagement plan 34-7 Alpha geared toward sidewall intervention. Have the rest of the core flag squadron prepare an additional round of Thanatos-class missiles."
"Aye, sir."
Forrest turns his gaze back to the hologram, "Surprise me, Fleet Admiral, surprise me."

The People's Navy had spent a large amount of money and time in seeding the system with an overlapping network of sensor buoys, and as such, the iron projectile was picked up by one. The information on the new contact was dropped into Bastion's computer system, and recieved a boost in priority after it's course was calculated, enough of a priority that the information was actually seen by a human, an officer at that.

"Destroy it."
---
An automated weapons platform in the outer system slowly came to life from it's dormancy. Thrusters powered up and aligned it with it's target. Ten missiles, each with a fifteen megaton yield, slipped from their tubes. A few minutes later, space lit up with yet another of the millions of explosions that had taken place, as the contact was destroyed or knocked off course.
---
"Begin redeploying missile pods. I want as many ships as possible to have a full load before we enter energy range."

Harris leaned back in his chair, studying the battlefield. Ordinarily the wedges would mean that the fleet would have a massive blind spot in it's sensor coverage, but they were being guided by remotely deployed sensor drones and the system's own sensor net. "Have dreadnoughts Hadrian and Romanus shift position out and behind the wall. Get in touch with Bastion, have them fire two of the Harbingers through the gaps, five rounds each for now."

Two of the huge cannons rotated in their place around Vernii, bringing their barrels into aligment with the gaps in Home Fleet's wall. The first two Harbinger warheads shot from them, soon followed by eight more.

"No effect, huh? Guess we'd have to use the Cannon to get past that shield..."

"Multiple smaller targets detected being launched from the cruiser and from the destroyers. Also, incoming missiles from the destroyers."

"Too easy!"

"Concentrating on smaller targets..."

A group of sixteen small, greyish objects formed behind Jehuty as it at the same time was targetting the incoming objects whilst moving backwards rather rapidly, doing some evasive maneuvers as the hostile targets attempted to fire at it.

As the objects began to move, it became obvious that they were small homing missiles. Ones designed to destroy small fighter craft, hostile missiles, LEVs and Orbital Frames, making their maneuverability very great. All of them flew towards the incoming probes, as they were decidedly the largest of problems at that moment.

"All targets locked."

Only moments had passed from the firing of the missiles as yet another weapon was fired. Fifty bluish beams of light came from Jehuty as it fired its homing lasers, with the probes and the missiles as its targets. Those beams that were left without small targets flied towards the destroyers.

The bridge crew on the Townshend watches as the battle unfolds with a sense of failure and depression.

OOC:

http://s4.invisionfree.com/The_Planet_Mars/index.php?showtopic=301

Sure you didn't legally condemn the Aumanii people, so please excuse the Lord Admiral's ignorance. But the thing is...The Aumanii people aren't illiterate, they can read the news. You're going to hear a case from the LRR in one of your institutions...very insulting. You should show solidarity with your allies. Especially proud, blowhards such as these.

Well, you didn't exactly meet the flotilla in battle, you chose to strike a ridiculously soft target instead, so when it comes to honor, well...

OOC:

Take this to the OOC thread please, and everyones definition of Honour is different ;)

Forrest watches as the Verniian formation repositions to reveal several large gaps. He inclines his head, curious as to the nature of Harris' intentions.
"Energy spikes in orbit over Vernii! Two spikes in orbital grids 315 and 319!" Forrest's eyes narrow with understanding.
"Plot a course through those gaps now!"
Two redlines appear on the holoprojection, Forrest's knuckles turn white as he grips the railing around the projection.
"Contact the Herrschaft, the Teufel, and the Shivar'ka have them begin evasive vertical manuvers and get out of the range of that gap. Send a general scramble order to all other units on that course to accelerate at-," a hiss escapes Forrest as the Harbingers fire.
The Herrschaft and the Teufel manuvered quickly enough to escape the deadly shells hurtling toward them. The VIS Shivar'ka almost escapes the attack, but the shell still clips it across its bow and a series of explosions rend the ship's prow. The second Harbinger shell hits the battleship Terminator, and reduces it to an expanding cloud of debris. The heavy cruiser Vvard shares the fate as the Terminator destroys it in its death throws.
"Release the second and third Hydra waves now. Have them accelerate and engage over the Verniian wedge."
"Aye, sir."
Six hundred of the agile Hydra boxes speed away from the Valinor formation. They fly to flank the Verniian formation from in "front" and "behind", seeking to take advantage of the bare bows and sterns of the warships. They rapidly flush their payloads, far less than that of the first wave, but a concentration of more brute force. Four hundred thousand x-ray warheads, covered by only eighty thousand ECM warheads speed into the Verniian flanks.

**********

The Triumvirates's destroyer screen rolls to impose their own wedges between themselves and the oncoming energy onslaught. The Achern moves just a few seconds to slowly and one of the energy beams rends its secondary communications array to shreds. The other destroyers escape unharmed.
The DOS drones screening the cruiser and its destroyer/drone escorts moves rapidly to intercept the sixteen projectiles launched from the mobile suit-esque attacker. In a flurry of Swiftsure-class counter-missiles and the glaring blaze of rapid-fire lasers the sixteen objects are consumed, their numbers paltry to the amount of projecticles the DOS network was designed to counter. But the energy attacks are a different matter. The twelve agile Precentors go into series of spirals, reverse thrusts, and radical turns to try and escape the energy fire. To a point they are successful, when the attack clears eight of the AI governed drones are still active and combat effective.
In response to the loss of the Precentors, six drones seperate from each of the destroyers. The Precentors numbers swell to twenty-four and they manuver rapidly to attack the mobile suit. Each drone opens fire with four fire-linked 15-centimeter lasers, and a single 95-centimeter graser. They fall upon the suit like a pack of ravenous sharks on a freshly blooded fish.

"Hostile targets firing at decoy."

"Great."

"Suggesting to continue ranged combat."

"That's what I intend to do..."

Apparently the homing lasers were somewhat effective on the small things... Let's try it again. I wanna see if these things can adapt to enemy fire.

Jehuty had already 0-shifted into a safe position a while ago, leaving a decoy behind it, which the hostile drones decimated with horrible efficiency. If one looked at the position of the decoy, one could say that Jehuty had really upwards quite a bit whilst at the same time it had moved forwards, thus leaving it in a position not much closer to the hostiles than it was before.

Quickly did Jehuty lock onto its targets, and again were fifty beams of light unleashed upon the enemy, except this time they were solely striking upon the small targets, the drones and the like.

The gaps between the capital ships widens slowly to increase the fields of fire for their trailing escorts. Destroyers and light cruisers spin like dervishes along their long axis, pumping counter-missiles into space as fast as possible. Dreadnoughts at the "top" and "bottom" of the formation rolled slightly to bring their PD defenses to bear on the outskirts of the missile cloud and began ripping chunks out of it.

The battleship Orion lost the forward third of it's hull in a massive explosion, and the dreadnought Manticore hauled out of the line with internal fires blazing, trailing atmosphere and debris like blood. Four more Harbingers began firing through the new two gaps in the wall, firing four shells each.

"Pods have been distributed Sir."
"Concentrate our firepower on the Vaku ships. I want to knock some of their heavy energy combatants out of action before we close to range."

Towed missile pods fired in unison from the wall, followed by the internal missile tubes of the light escort warships. Around thirty thousand missiles total screamed toward the Vaku warships.

ooc ok had issues to deal with. so here i am


The kilometres long scuplted asteroid continued on its path towards the planet. Too fast to stop and too large to totally destroy it fragmented. But that was the original intention all along, with barely 100 metres of surface left remaining it approached with in 1 million kilimoteres of the planet.

At this moment a pre programmed message filtered in to vernii and its allies comm systems. Get out of the way. Is all it said......


ooc ok basically its a big asteroid really hard to blow up moving fast but it isnt aimed at the planet to let you know sorry it took so long to respond but i had some serious issues in the last two days, forgive me on that one :( and if i have to move post pleas tell me lol

EDIT: Nevermind, accidentally posted in this thread.

About the asteroid bomb thingy in the latest post, no way would it get within a million kilometers of Vernii. Missile range is typically around five million kilometers, energy range against shielded targets is typically half a million km.
Since it has no shielding, it's actually within energy range of the orbital fortresses and automated weapons station. And at .2 c, system defenses would definitely have long enough to engage and destroy it.

Anyway, the whole point is rather moot, since the battle isn't even taking place over Vernii. It's about halfway between Vernii and the system hyper limit right now.

ooc lol ok blame auman on that. Either way its headed to HELP Vernii as a distraction...which phase 2 is about to hit shall i post in battle for gregor?

The massive battering ram fell apart under the sustained bombardment of the Vernii forces, glittering pieces of iron ore trailing in the darkness.
Small miniscule pinpoints of light barely detectable flickered in and out, as the 50 ships of the naval troopers moved in to position on the battle front. Moving without the use of engines for any more then manuever they silently and gracefully slid in to position, several million kilometres from the raging battle.

Suddenly the lead ship recieved a comms message, from the direction of jehuty and a massive energy spike was detected as their urenbeck catapults fired them towards the battle.

ooc refer to ooc battle of gregor part if you think you can detect really stealthy ships and tell me. all about the fun and story :D

Although Valinor AIs on anything below a battlecruiser maybe class standardized, they are by no means stupid. The new waves of Precentors recognize the attack as it is employed against them and engage a radical braking manuver. With a flash from Nova Flare boosters adapted from the now decommissioned Longshard-class star interceptor, they dodge behind the forms of the destroyers' interposed impeller wedges. Two Precentors are clipped by the energy fire, one spirals off course, careening into the salvo and is destroyed. The second manages to employ its retro-manuvering thrusters and continue on behind the wedge.
The DOS drones, more agile and numerous than the Precentors disperse, flying outward in all directions. Still many are lost, but the gaps in the network are soon filled as new drones streak away from the destroyers and the Triumvirate to fill out the gaps.
The Precentors reappear from behind the destroyers bulkwark, and accelerate towrad the mobile suit. Hornet-class shatter missiles fly away from their hardpoints, the missiles seperate into fifty smaller missiles rapidly, with each Precentor deploying four Hornet's each.
Meanwhile the destroyers roll, presenting their broadside to their opponent. For twenty-five seconds at five second intervals, they fire sixty-four missiles each at the nuisance that so recently appeared in the Gregor system.

**********

Forrest slams his fist on the arm of his chair over the holoprojection.
"Redeploy the forward sections of the DOS network now! Give emergency firing priority to the forward ranks, save as many of the Vaku ships as possible!"
Flashes of light scatter across the allied formation as the Valinor DOS network tires to redeploy to face the swarm of Verniian missiles. Counters glare in the projection as hundreds upon hundreds of counter-missiles streak away from the DOS, followed by the pulses of rapid-fire laser batteries. The Vaku ships own energy batteries open up, trying to counter the massive missile horde.
The VIS Hvar'kann, flagship of the Vaku in Gregor, is directly in the path of the barrage. A pair of Fralthi-class cruisers accelerate out of formation and throw themselves in front of the Hvar'kann, they never had a change. One splits in half, and the other spirals out of control, it's bridge destroyed. A series of explosion erupts down the third dreadnoughts spine, and a few minutes later it becomes an expanding cloud of gas and shrapnel. Another dreadnought pulls out of formation, retreating behind a screen of Valinor destroyers and light cruisers imposing their impeller wedges to defend the damaged dreadnought.
Forrest's fleet rolls, imposing its broadside to the Verniian fleet. The Valinor missile pods, ship based launchers, Vaku missile clusters, and Boroglian wep tubes spray their own return fire. Ninety-eight thousand missiles fly toward the Vernii formation, targetting the fleets escorts and battlecruisers. The allied formation shift again, the Valinor ships moving forward in the ranks, and the large Athena-class super dreadnoughts imposing their wedges to cover large portions of the Vaku and Boroglian ships.

Jehuty was constantly in move. After the latest firing of the homing lasers, Dingo looked at the data on the HUD. They are adapting, after all.

Damn.

"Numerous missiles have locked onto Jehuty. I suggest using shields."

"... This crap is getting more and more ridiculous. Let's go for one of the destroyers. You think we could 0-shift through its shields?"

"Unknown. More data needed to give a definite answer."

"All we can do is try, then. Shouldn't be fatal if we can't get through, either. Once we're through, we'll slash our way into the damn ship."

"Confirmed. I have scanned the ships, and I shall indicate their engines on the HUD, so you can target them."

And so, Jehuty continued doing evasive maneuvers for the time being. It was because of the pesky little missiles following them and the lasers going past the Orbital Frame. Their aim was starting to get better... Soon it would be time to actually start using shields.

But not for now.

After a few short moments, Jehuty 0-shifted towards one of the destroyers which were showing their broadsides to it in an attempt to penetrate the odd shielding they used. If it would work... They would now know how to slash through to them and destroy those ships. If not... Well, it would call for another tactic.

Space lit up with thousands of flashes of light as counter-missiles rammed into their target missiles, utterly destroying one another from the energy release. Missiles slipped through the gaps in the wall, and four heavy cruisers, eight light cruisers, and fifteen destroyers either perished or were beaten until they were no longer combat effective.

Even as a portion of his fleet vanished from the master holoplot, Harris paid no attention. His eyes were focused on a range counter display. Finally, it ticked down to 500,000 km. "Fleet orders, roll ship. First salvo by squadron, then fire at will." He reached around and snapped his harness closed, to keep himself in his command chair, so he wouldn't be thrown out by the concussion of a proximity hit.

The great dreadnoughts and superdreadnoughts of Home Fleet began to slowly roll back to present their broadsides. Capital ship scale lasers and grasers began firing as soon as their firing arcs were clear, and missiles flashed from their tubes and pods. BatRon I was first, led by Empyrean. BatRon II was next, and each battle squadron fired in turn. Soon the salvos of Home Fleet's fury thundered across space toward the enemy fleet.
---
"It's time."
The detached battlecruiser squadrons of Home Fleet rotated in space, just outside the enemy fleet's missile range. Impeller nodes flared to life as they went to maximum military power, and the fourty ships began their death ride against the enemy fleet, bow missile tubes firing as fast as they could reload.

Aboard the cramped bridge of the HMS Mirage, the helmsman turns around and looks at Fregattenkapitan Jacobs, eyes slightly unsured.
"Sir, we are getting some sort of hyper-space phasing signature trying to pass through our belly wedge. The energy spikes are occuring along the forward end of the wedge. Relative energy spike appears to be that of the smae variation as last known location of the enemy mobile suit."
"Idiot, jumping through an impeller wedge is suicide," Jacobs says in terse tones. "We will give this fool the quick death he wants. Bring our wedge to full power and impose the center sections at the point of the energy spike. If he continues on this mad course we will tear him apart with the gravitation forces of the wedge!"
"Yes, sir."
"Comm, get all data from the energy spike and relevant other data and send them to the others in the screen and the Triumvirate. If he tries this again they'll know what to look for."
"Aye, sir."
With that Jacobs turns to the avatar of the Mirage's Eurytion-class standard AI.
"Redeploy our Precentors around the point of the energy spike. If he drops out of this 'phase shift' we will be ready for him."
"Yes, sir."
"Helm, be ready to roll again on my command."
"Yes, sir."

**********

"Have all our squadrons roll to impose wedges!" Forrest barks as the Verniian ships begin to roll. "Contact the Hvar'kann and the Crossbone, what ships that can are to take cover behind our formations. Once the firt barrage is fired we will give the Verniians a true energy broadside."
"Yes, Admiral."
The heavy capital ships of the allied fleet have slowly merged into a co-operative formation, with Valinor, Vaku, and Boroglian warships scattered throughout to reinforce one anothers individual capabilities. Forrest watches as his own super-dreadnoughts, dreadnoughts, and battleships roll to impose their wedges over roughly seventy-five percent of the allied formation. Storms of energy warp and bend over their impressive protective force, and it warps around them.
A Boroglian dreadnought retreats from the formation, venting atmosphere and ejecta from a devestated portside. Another Vaku dreadnought slows, and seeks shelter behind a Valinor pod dreadnought, its bow a flaming wreck. Two Valinor battleships join the list of casaulties, and a Valinor super-dreadnought looses acceleration as a series of node damages keeps it from maintains optimal acceleration.
"Incoming battlecruiser squadrons! They are targeting the screen."
"Release the screen to engage the battlecruisers," Forrest says. "The Wall shall deal with the rest of the Verniian fleet. On my order all ships are to roll, flush pods, and then enter continuing fire on Verniian dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts as the opportunity presents itself. Mark the order...now!"
The allied formation rolls, and they release their revenge upon the Verniians. The last of the deployed pods flush nearly 80,000 missiles into the enemy formation as the ship-board weaponry opens fire. Heavy and more numerous Vaku and Boroglian energy batteries pound at their Verniian targets as the effiicent gunnery of the Star Armada stabs into the squadrons of super-dreadnoughts.

**********

Chaos reigns for the opening salvo in the Valinor screen. New waves of DOS drones erupt from the cruisers, destroyers, and battlecruisers of the screen as they try to impose wedges into the oncoming firing patterns. Given more time they would have succeeded, but time and the immediate volume of fire are not on their side.
Fifteen destroyers, six light cruisers, four heavy cruisers, and a pair of battlecruisers are lost in the opening missile engagement. The enraged ships of the fleet's screen soon reform and prepare to strike back at the recently appeared battlecruisers squadrons on their own flank.
The Valinor response is impressive, some 65,000 missiles are fired from pod and ship-based launchers. The destroyers, cruisers, and battlecruisers then go to continuous fire, blazing away at the forty Verniian battlecruisers with all the rage their broadsides can manage.

Two dreadnoughts, Ezherzog and Valhalla, vanished in flashes of light as their fusion reactors and magazines exploded. A superdreadnought, Claudius, lost a large part of it's broadside weapons and rotated to shield itself behind it's wedge.

Harris smiled grimly as he noticed the damage estimates floating by the symbol of the damaged Valinor superdreadnought's icon on the holoplot.
"Target our squadrons firepower on it and finish it off. Have BatRons Two through Five prioritize their fire on the Boroglian ships. BatRons Ten through Fifteen upon the Valinor, and Sixteen through Twenty-Two upon the Vaku."

The great energy weapons of dreadnoughts and superdreadnoughts retargetted upon their opponents, and thundered to life again as missiles flashed from their tubes.
---
The battlecruisers poured PD fire into the missile swarm, and then rolled up behind their wedges at the last minute. Bomb pumped X-ray lasers exploded all around them, most expending their fury uselessly into the wedges or being deflected by the sidewalls. Enough, however, penetrated through, and Broadsword, Purity, and Hornet died under the pounding as lasers ripped into them and wisps of atmosphere trailed from Lakota.

The sleek ships rolled back onto their original courses, missiles flashing from their tubes back at the enemy.

The HMS Falke erupts in a self-consuming explosion, and becomes the first casaulty among the super-dreadnoughts of the Star Armada. Another Boroglian dreadnought joins the destroyed, the Vaku formations manage to escape relatively unscathed, nar Hhallas hiding almost all his dreadnoughts behind the safety of Valinor wedges.
Forrest watches the coordination of the Verniian forces.
"It is time to cut the head of the dragon. Do we have a lock on on the Verniian flagship?"
"The Drohung reports heavy damage to starboard launchers, rolling to impose portside!" comes a damage report, Forrest nods.
"Lock on of ship sending out a large about of fleetcom level traffic. Appears to be the Empyrean, a super-dreadnought."
Forrest nods, "To kill such a warrior for such a cause is the greatest crime I will ever commit. Have all of SDRon One and our pod dreadnoughts roll to engage and target that ship. Then open a comm to the Liaison vessels, they may move to engage the core Verniian formation once the Empyrean is destroyed."
The Valinor super-dreadnoughts and pod dreadnoughts roll as one, an impressive wall of neo-titanium and death. They open fire, the fury of their energy batteries and missile launchers open at the command of the Grossadmiral, with eyes of death and vengance for only one ship in the Verniian wall. They fire three rounds of missiles at two-second intervals, sending over 35,000 thousand missiles toward the Empyrean to join in the energy assault. Finally, eighty-six Precentor drones embark on suicide missions, carrying fusion warheads toward the heart of the Verniian formation.

**********

The escorts roll to impose their own wedges, and they easily consume most of the battlecruisers own offensive fire with their larger wall of wedges. However, a trio of destroyers and a light cruisr at the edges of the formation do not survive the missile attacks that find their way around the cracks in the armor.
Strangely the ships do not roll to engage the battlecruiser again, but their motive for doing so becomes readily apparent. A horde of new counters appears from over the Valinor wall, a flurry of Precentor drones and LACs storm toward the Verniian battlecruiser. They open their engagement with slightly less than 12,000 missiles amassed in three separate waves.

Harris blinked in surprise at the massive salvo coming at him. His ship shuddered at energy fire ripped into compartments, "Roll ship now!" he barked at the helmsman. For a few seconds, the confusion surprised the PD crews of the fleet as their computers reworked missile courses, and then took on determination as the fleet retargetted to protect its flagship. Of course, sheer volume of missiles sent at the Empyrean meant that even if only one out of every hundred missiles made it to detonation range, it would take at least three hundred and fifty hits, not counting the fire from the energy weapons.

The horde dwindled in size as hundreds of missiles were destroyed and thousands of counter-missiles raced out to meet them. The remnants of the swarm raced in to detonate as his ship slowly rotated to yank it's vulnerable broadside away. Chunks of debris exploded from it as enery fire ripped into it, and atmosphere vented from a dozen hull breaches. Harris calmly reached over and picked up his helmet, placed it over his head, and sealed it tight. Not that it will matter.
----
Admiral Ganote, from VNS Resplendant, watched in horror as explosions ripped along the hull of Empyrean. The gutted superdreadnought's wedge went down, and then the ship vanished in a massive explosion as its reactors exploded.

I'm in command now, he thought. "Retarget all ships on the Valinor superdreadnoughts. We will not let this butchery go unavenged!"
----
Another battlecruiser, Intolerant, was reduced to a gutted wreck as lasers ripped into it's hull. The remaining thirty-six ships switched their fire over onto the LACs and Precentors.

(OOC: *Idly points at the OOC thread, as apparently Valinon won't do it himself.* Valinon, edit the bit of your post concerning Jehuty. There're NO "Hyperspace-type phasing signatures" involved. NONE what so ever. It's Realspace FTL.)

OOC: For starters there is no such thing as "realspace" FTL. The highest acceleration possible in realspace is relativistic speeds, which are constrained by the speed of light. FTL is not a natural phenomena in realspace and requires some form of phasing, teleportation, alternate dimension, sub-space, warp, et cetera to achieve because it cannot occur naturally in realspace. That is why I have not spoken on this matter.
And I would love to see this mobile suit achieve relativistic speeds and watch it get ripped to rather tiny bits of shrapnel.

"Roll to impose wedges!" Forrest barks as the wreckage of the Empyrean cools. The super-dreadnoughts move rapidly to impose their own wedges, seeking to escape the carnage approaching them. One of Valinon's valuable pod dreadnoughts is destroyed, caught in between the path of the Verniian missile assault and their true target. The super-dreadnought Drohung erupts in flame.
"Attack is continuing on our super-dreadnoughts."
Forrest studies the attack, one driven by rage it seems. The calculated moves of Harris are already beginning to fade.
"Release the Liaison warships and send Lord Admiral nar Hhallas my thanks if he would close to pure energy range with the Verniian home fleet. If they should choose to ignore our allies, let us give our allies the chance to prove them they are not something to be cast aside."
"Yes, Admiral."
The super-dreadnoughts continue to absorb the assault from the Verniian formation, as the Vaku dreadnoughts and cruisers move to engage the Verniians. The Vaku warships unleash their full fury on the forward ranks of Verniian dreadnoughts, seeking to bring their more powerful energy compliment to bear.
At the rear of the allied fleet, the Myrmidon Spartan-class warships drift away from their carrier charges and reorient. Then they begin rapid acceleration, slowing up at 850 gravities. They move to tear into the side of the Verniian formation as their dual-barreled 750-centimeter grasers roll out from under their gunwells and open fire. Agile fighter drones fold out of separate ports, wings unfolding and moving like living creatures. The MAC batteries of the warships begin to glow as they prepare to fire.

**********

OOC: Will edit in LACs and drone action later. Out of time at the moment.

OOC: For starters there is no such thing as "realspace" FTL.

(OOC: For starters, there is no such thing as "impeller wedge", for instance. It sounds about as impossible as like at least half of the stuff you're using. And you didn't see me complaining about them until you chose to go selectively ignoring a part of what the source Jehuty's from says. Jehuty is made of an alien ore that is not fully understood, but still used as much as nuclear power is nowadays.

Or maybe I should ignore most of your offensive and defensive weapons, your shields and whatnot since they are impossible? And five sixths of your fleet, too!)

The highest acceleration possible in realspace is relativistic speeds, which are constrained by the speed of light.

(OOC: Yes, yes, but apparently you have missed my points of how it reaches FTL speed in realspace. In brief: It distorts space and as space starts to repair itself, the Frame is slingshot towards any wanted target.)

FTL is not a natural phenomena in realspace --

(OOC: Distortions in space are not a very natural occurrence. Having hundreds of star systems with a few billion people isn't a very natural occurrence either. :-P

If you are going to reply, reply to the OOC thread, thank you.)

The superdreadnought Mercuria reeled under the assault, and shed it's position in the wall, with flames flickering through the rents and gashes in it's armored hull. The dreadnoughts Terrible and Ferdinand were not as lucky, both exploded with white flashes under the fire of the Vaku assault.

Ganote gritted his teeth as he watched the warships die, "Redesignate the new enemy warships as priority targets, have BatRons Fifteen and Sixteen retarget their fire on the lead Vaku capital ships."

The great energy batteries of Home Fleet paused for a moment as grav lenses were refocused onto their new targets, and then as one, they fired.

Forrest watches as the Verniian fleet throws massive barrages at the Myrmidon and Vaku warships. The bizzare warships of the Myrmidons roll, strange blue energy collecting at three points along the sides of their hulls. Undualting energy fields move to protect their flanks, seeking to hold off the energy torrent. One ship is sliced neatly in half, its shield not fully deployed before the tide of destruction is upon it. Another imposes its shield, only to have it vanish after the barrage passes, patterns of scoring and burning covering its hull. The last two Spartan-class warships survive unscathed and turn their attention back to the Verniian wall at once, launching six MAC rapid-fire rounds at a pair of unfortunate Verniian super-dreadnoughts.
The Vaku dreadnoughts close with their engaging Verniian opponents with an eerie sense of calm, even as one of their number is destroyed and another damaged across its bow. They rage at the two squadrons sent against them, as their screening heavy cruisers move in to bring their own energy weapons to assist in the attack, and their bulk to shield the Vaku dreadnoughts.
Forrest sits on the flag bridge of the Krieger, filled with disbelief. The actions of the Verniian home fleet seeming to be guided by the hands of an inept child next to the skill they had been handle with just minutes earlier.
"Admiral, Lord Admiral nar Hhallas formally requests your assistance, the Hvar'kann has been damaged and he is being forced to withdraw behind a pair of his own dreadnoughts."
"Communicate to the Lord Admiral my thanks and we will intervene at once. The Verniians have made the mistake of leaving the majority of our wall's strength unchallenged. We must take full advantage of this. Have the Crossbone lead the Boroglian dreadnoughts under Lord Admiral nar Hhallas' command with three of our own dreadnought squadrons. The rest of the wall will proceed over the Vaku positions and we will catch the Verniians between our fire. Give permission to SDRon 3 to engage using Juno-class fusion warheads."
Swarming above and below their beseiged Vaku allies the Valinor and the Boroglian dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts are a storm of divine wrath seeking to corner their Verniian enemies. The continual streams of energy from the Boroglian dreadnoughts reach out to carve into the Verniian dreadnoughts side walls and hulls. Their perfectly ordered and regimented formation flanked and led by three squadrons of Valinor dreadnoughts firing in the rhythmic patterns of the Star Armada.
Above the super-dreadnoughts of Forrest's core command descend like the proverbial calvary of old. The lead super-dreadnoughts release eighty-eight Juno-class fusion warheads into the heart of the Verniian formation, each carrying a ten-gigaton sun to the Verniian resistance. They then join the rest of Forrest's wall in unleashing their energy compliments on their targets, with dispersed missile rounds ranging from 950 to 2,400 in number as the deadly ship-killer X-rays are brought to lethal ranges.

bump

Such nice space combat writing!

I guess I'll jump in once the battle is over. You know, I can drag out damaged ships with my recovery cruisers if that's necessary.

Ganote gaped in horror as five more dreadnoughts, Resolute, Procyon, Thor, Venerable, and Rear Admiral Maxwell's Ancona, exploded in a shower of debris and flames. He gripped into the arms of his chair as his flagship lurched under the impact of a MAC round penetrating through the sidewall. He sat there, not even listening to the damage control officer's report. It was over, they'd already taken 20% losses and the Valinor fleet kept coming at them. "All ships, roll to present wedges to the enemy, retreat back to the planetary defense envelope."
---
Ponderous fortresses finished moving into position, forming a loose network between Vernii and the enemy. Six monitors between a dreadnought and superdreadnought in size moved into position to support them.

"Verniian fleet is withdrawing to planetary orbit at maximum acceleration, Admiral. Orbital forts are moving into standard defensive interference network between their fleet's estimated orbital insertion path and our own engagement patterns."
Forrest studies the tactical projections as the Verniian fleet races away from the allied forces back toward Vernii itself. The tell-tale impeller signatures of moving orbital forts filling the inner planetary system.
"Range until we engage orbital fortresses?"
"Two-point three million kilometers until we enter opening engagement range," says Severn at Forrest's side, looking up from his comp-pad. "Damage reports from the rest of the fleet await your convenience on your personal link, sir."
"Thank you, Virgil," Forrest says glancing at the numbers. "Flight Control?"
"Yes, Admiral?"
"Dispatch a courier back to Yalta, dipatch to have Marshal von Richter bring the terrestrial and orbital expeditionary elements of the Reichswehr, Imperial Guard of Vaku, and the Boroglian Protectorate Enforcers to Yalta post-haste. He is to have his mobile operation platforms ready to engage at range when they enter the system. Once entering outside the FTL denial sphere he is to proceed to the fleet's coordinates at navigation point forty-three."
The flight control officer looks up at the mention of the navigation point, still leaving the allied fleet outside the Verniian powered missile envelope, "Yes, Admiral."
"Comm, have the fleet accelerate by squadron at 450 gravities and prepare to enter stable position at navigation point forty-three. All squadrons are to deploy remaining pod compliments and form up in co-operative formation nineteen, with specific additional coverage being given to the damaged elements of Lord Admiral nar Hhallas' command. Recall all engages LAC and drones, they will refuel and rearm at once."
"Yes, Admiral."
With that the allied fleet begins to move ponderously in system, stopping just outside the Verniian powered missile envelope of slightly over two million kilometers. The warships from three different nations form up, dispersing themselves to compliment advantages and protect damaged ships. New sensor signatures explode as new missile pods and various parasite drones are unleashed.
Accelerating away from the fleet at well over 800 gravities, a small courier ship makes for the end of the Verniian FTL denial field. Once it clears the field in rapidly translates across the alpha wall and disappears into the wilds of hyperspace.

"Harbinger Cannons One through Twenty targetted and ready to fire"
"...Pod doors opened, beginning deployment. Sentinel beginning pod dispersal. Protector beginning pod dispersal. Rampart beginning pod dispersal..."
Admiral Thompson gazed intently at the holographic display of the system that dominated Bastion's command center. The massive orbital fortress hung silently over Vernii, between it's world and the enemy. The other twenty-seven fortresses were spaced out in a funnel formation, with Vernii as it's base, and the Defenders making up the rim, pointing toward the enemy.

Thompson silenty cursed Ganote for his failure to prevent this sort of situation from happening, but thankfully, he, not Ganote, was in charge of Gregor Defense Command, and so there wouldn't be any inept decisions made by him, not if he could help it! His gaze shifted to a visual display of the tranquil world below him. It was night on the surface below, thankfully Vernii's sparsely inhabited hemisphere was facing away from the sun, meaning any munitions that made it to the surface would have a smaller chance of causing massive civilian casualties. It also meant that the populace below would have quite an impressive light show in the skies above.

"Target the center squadron of Valinor superdreadnoughts, fire two salvos each."

Each of the twenty Cannons rotated in their new positions and fired. Twenty Harbinger shells were put into space by their powerful accelerators, followed a few seconds later by another wave.

He bit his lip for a moment as he watched the light points of the shells fly across the holoplot, then turned his attention back toward assigning the ships of Home Fleet to positions supporting the forts.

a quiet *bump* in the night?

It's not dead, Valinon's just busy. Anyway, it's not like this thread has a time limit on it.

i just wish valinon was a loser in RL and had no social life at all so all he would ever do is post here to boost his self esteem like us other addicts...but NOO he is too good for that with his whole "life" thing geez if u can belive it!

The 'orrible pig!

Who does he think he is, acting all snobby and the like?

I bet he goes to a private school!

"Grossadmiral!" Forrest's eyes had already widened as the Harbingers opened up.
"Transmit to the Spartans execute Alpha Zulu Browning defense plan now!" Forrest barks at his comm officer, who oves with the speed of pure fear. The two surviving Myrmidon warships move to coordinate their shiedling technoloy with those of the science vessels, beginning to construct a honey-combed network of protective energy. But the Klonor constructed Harbingers move to fast to save all the Valinor super-dreadnoughts. Three simply explode from the first barrage, reduced to little more than splinters of neo-titanium in space. But the second Harbinger wave meets the fully deployed shield, and finds its kenetic energy dissipated along the generated strength of the Myrmidon and Magellan-science vessels.
Forrest's brief moment of surprise passes, and his face returns to that of the cool commander of His Majesty's Kriegsmarine.
"Pod deployment percentage?"
"Eighty-nine percent, Sir."
"Prepare to open fire on my mark, have the rest of Squadron I prepare to fire a full salvo of Thanatos-class fusion warheads targeting the core of the Verniian fortress formation."
"Aye, Sir."
Forrest holds a brief mental count in his head for a few more heartbeats, "Fire."
79,000 missiles leap away from the Valinor formation, their front ranks filled with EW warheads designed to jam the sensors of the Verniian forts and warships. They are followed by a much smaller wave of only a bare 150 missiles, each carrying 15.5-gigatons of fusion powered destruction toward the enemies of the Star Empire.

The interior of the funnel formation exploded in a shower of counter-fire from the fortresses and their attendant warships. Thousands of explosions lit up space, followed by the titanic flares of several gigaton level warheads detonating. When the light faded, a Guardian had vanished from it's place in the formation, and three of it's escorting dreadnoughts had joined it. Two Defenders had sections of hull ripped open to space, and they slowly rotated to protect their vulnerable innards from the enemy.

"Missile pod deployment is not yet complete Sir."
"I don't care, fire what we have anyway!"

Missiles thundered from the pods, fortresses, and warships, a mere 13,240 compared to the Valinor salvo.

The drone satellites of the allied fleet's DOS network respond with their machine precision. Counter-missiles, defense clusters, and rapid-fire lasers are all brought to bear on the oncoming Verniian onslaught. Thousands upon thousands of missiles vanish in aggrevated explosions before the individual warships point defense systems even have to assign them threat identification. But the sheer number of missiles means that the increasingly thinly spread DOS drones cannot contain the full salvo. The surviving missiles rush into the Valinor formation, consuming a destroyer and leaving two battleships heavily damaged. The battleships, and a stricken heavy cruiser, roll out of formation, imposing their wedges between their hulls and the Verniian defenses.
Forrest watches the holo tactical displays, "Have the fleet reprioritize fire to concentrate on the fortress formation, starting on the inside and working our way outward. I want continuous broadsides from all wall ships at fifteen second intervals for the next eight minutes."
"Aye, Sir."
"Signal the Spartan warships, have them concentrate MAC fire on the fortresses showing high levels of tactical communications and comm traffic."
"Aye, Sir."
The fleet rolls agains, this time fire erupts from ship based launchers. Over 18,000 missiles spew forth from the allied warships at fifteen-second intervals, as the last of the fleet based pods are exhauted in the sixth minute the number drops to 16,600. Meanwhile the Mymidon Spartan-class warships begin to prioritize the Verniian fortresses, sending three MAC shells in rapid succession at three minute intervals, trying to further decapitate the Verniian command structure.

Admiral Watson and the crew of the Pete Townshend watch as the final battle moves to the planet Vernii itself. Sensors track every movement in the battle, and anticipate when the Verniian fleet will finally collapse.

Thompson simply glared at the holoplot at missiles streaked in. Counter-batteries opened up, and almost the entirety of the first two waves perished under the wall of energy and counter-missiles the forts and warships put up. Missiles shot back from Home Fleet, and then the third wave smashed inward, claiming the battleships Heroic and Devastator, the dreadnought Archangel, Vice Admiral Hall's Aurelian, and Admiral Ganote's Resplendant.

Thompson gaped in horror as Ganote's flagship was ripped apart under the horde of detonating x-ray laser missiles. Then his attention turned to his own command's fight for survival. The deck shuddered under his feet as hits penetrated through the sidewalls and armor, a very unverving thing on a fortress massing almost one hundred and twenty-one million tons. Bastion's three operable slicer beams clawed back at the Valinor fleet, and a fresh salvo of missile pods shot from their launch tubes, but it was an ultimately futile resistance.

The deck suddenly lurched as if the fortress has been punched by a gigantic fist. Thompson stumbled and regained his footing, looking over at a wall mounted damage schematic. A massive chunk of the fort was simply gone, and the sections all around the hole were coded red.

Two more MAC rounds slammed into Bastion, and the fortress vanished in a massive explosion as it's fusion bottles and magazines let go.
****
Admiral Hirtzel instinctively pushed back into her command chair as Bastion's death throes dominated her viewscreen. She was in command of Home Fleet now with the deaths of both Adm. Thompson and Adm. Ganote. She couldn't keep this up, her fleet was being picked off, and she had never, ever, imagined herself in this sort of desperate position. Olympia vibrated slightly as a laser chewed into it's broadside armor, and she almost yelped. Another fortress, a Defender this time, exploded in a white flash, providing the start she needed. "Fleet orders, fall back to orbit!"

"Verniian fleet is withdrawing to planetary orbit, Sir," Forrest watches the frantic progress of the retreating People's Navy as they make for the safety of Vernii itself. All pretense of military organization is gone, it is the running of the defeated, the final attempt to escape the slaughter.
"Have the fleet maintain current position," Forrest says as he walks around the massive tactical display tank. "Virgil?"
Severns looks up from his comp-pad on the other side of the tank, "Yes, Sir?"
"Have CruRon III detach from our flank and move to probe the enemy's orbital position at their forward and core ranks."
"At once, Admiral."
As the bulk of the Allied fleet slows and enters a position on a rough pattern with the Verniian planetary ecliptic, eight heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, and eight destroyers move away from the fleet, making to pass into Verniian cis-lunar orbit and probe the routed elements of the Peoples Navy. They accelerate slowly, taking time to deploy additional DOS drones, ECM drones, and recon drones as they move to complete the final steps of the annihilation of the People's Navy.

The multi-leveled deck of Lunar Defense Command surged with activity. Major General Havel and his officers prepared their defenses as Vernii's moon slowly swung around in it's orbit like a sentry.

His eyes turned to a holographic display of the planet and the moon's orbit around it. A grey cone emanated from the moon, the edge of it slowly nearing closer and closer to a cluster of red dots representing the enemy.

Havel smiled, soon the People's Army would claim it's first victims. Minutes ticked by, and the closest red dot entered into the grey cone.

"Bring all weapons and defenses online."
***

Theatre shields came up scattered over the surface, thousands of missile tubes cycled into launch readiness, and hundreds of graser batteries began powering up.

The centerpiece of it all though were the two massive hatches that began grinding open, concealing away the muzzle of a half kilometer diameter energy cannon. Not even the most miopic of sensors would be able to miss the massive power surge of dozens of fusion reactors coming online to power the weapon.

"Massive energy signature spike from the moon, Kapitan!" comes the shout across the bridge of the HMS Fogger, the heavy cruiser leading CruRon III in its probing mission. "We are getting graser, missile launchers, and shield signatures confirmed. But there are three individual energy sources we have no definite match up from CIC."
Kapitan zur Sternen Kellerman, master of the Fogger and flag kapitan of the squadron, whirls around and brings up the tactical profile on the moon of Vernii, "Roll to impose wedge!"
"Aye, sir."
A similiar order goes out across the squadron from Kommodore Bernings, minutes later. Along with the order to move on a course heading that will take the squadron on a circular path away from the moon, back toward the end of the Allied formation. The destroyers and light cruisers move to impose their wedges to protect the heavy cruisers at the certain of the formation.

**********

Forrest listens, eyes half-closed as reports flood in from CruRon III. The Verniian lunar base is proving to be a greater threat than he had anticipated. Forrest watches the progress of CruRon III, inwardly knowing their chances of escape, inwardly cursing his own overconfidence.
"I want a full sensor scan of the moon, full active packages from the Magellans as well. Deploy a flight of recon drones as well, set on a high fly-by course of the moon's orbit. Finally, have BatRon I and BatRon II ready a full fusion barrage."
Forrest eyes the progress of CruRon III, and watches the energy spikes on the moon's surface continue to spiral toward their final climax. It is a race, a race which the belleagured scouts of the Allied fleet cannot hope to win.

Targetting confirmations flashed across Command's gunnery stations. Eyes turned to Havel expectantly, and he flashed one last glare at the red dots on the display. "Fire."

A storm of graser fire erupted from the surface, punctuated by hundreds of anti-capital ship missiles flashing from their tubes. The conventional barrage itself paled though against the fury of the main gun.

Energy crackled up the barrel, and then it fired, a massive column of white plasma streaking forth from the surface toward the center of the formation.

Forrest watches as CruRon III is consumed, no other word could do what happened to the ships of the squadron justice. Seven destroyers simple vanish in brilliant fireballs, a trio of light cruisers follows, and a pair of the heavy cruisers shatters--reduced to nothing but mere fragments and shrapnel. The surviving ships are all heavily damaged, an all still facing a continuing swarm of hell. All but one of the heavy cruisers is completely annihilated in the white-hot fire of the main gun, the light cruisers are reduced to blackened hulks, and by some mystery of fate one destroyer survives having only lost its communication array. The broken remnants of the cruiser squadron limp to the safety of the Allied fleets formation.
"Mr. Remerson?" Forrest says, turning to the lead gunnery coordinator.
"Yes, Admiral."
"Reduce that base to rubble, general bombardment. At my order the fleet is released to use Thanatos-class fusion warhead general bombardment pattern seventeen and the Spartan-class warships are ordered to begin bombardment patterns on the moon at their discretion."
"Aye, sir."
The response of the Allied fleet is like the hand of God. 8,000 multiple-gigaton fusion warheads--the least of which is a "mere" four gigatons of yield--are hurled toward the moon of Vernii at nineteen second intervals. The surviving Myrmidon warships reorient themselves and persist to vent their own massive shellfire at the moon, targeting heavily dug in implacements and the cannon that rendered so much of CruRon III to dust.

The moon defense installations had been equipped with hemispherical theatre shields, ranging in size from half a kilometer to several dozen kilometers in radius, and similarly varying in strength. Many of the installations themselves were buried underground, with Defense Command being two kilometers deep, shielded by several layers of ceramacrete, and with half a meter of battle steel coating the surface.

Military planners had built the emplacements with repelling an orbital bombardment in mind, but the amount of force thrown at the moon was simply overpowering. Point defenses ate up hundreds of missiles, and the most powerful of the shields simply shrugged off the first few impacts, but soon collapsed under the bombardment.

Multi-kilometer craters were gouged out by ground bursts, and seismic shockwaves collapsed bunkers and weapons emplacements like eggs. Defense Command was smashed in on itself, Havel and his command crew crushed underneath tons and tons of rock slamming down onto them, and the moon's guns and missile tubes fell silent as each was destroyed in turn.