NationStates Jolt Archive

broadcast>HYPER DISENGAGE IN
broadcast>3
broadcast>2
broadcast>1
broadcast>DISENGAGED. LOCATION: OUTER RIM OF SYSTEM K27BBN2

Cerenkov light flared. It flared because the destroyer AFS 3 "Medusa" had just exceeded local lightspeed in the process of exiting hyperspace. A pair of smaller, echoing flashes briefly lit up space behind it: the AFS 7 "Golden Mole" and the AFS 9 "Jackhammer".

Mareka:COMM> All right boys, looks like we've hit the jackpot. I see two mining installations here, and I'm reading zilch on atmosphere. Looks like automateds. Which means free ore, and maybe free metal.

Mareka:COMM> Go for it, Fido.

Fido:COMM> Roger roger. Beaming in now.

Fido, AI and hacker, arrived in the installations' communication systems and took control in seconds. The refineries' automated hyperspace beacons were shut down, and the drones were reprogrammed to deliver the refined ore to the Augmented ships.

Mareka:COMM> Good job. We'll hang around until we have a full hold. Should take a week or so.

The Patriarch Emperor, Furion Miniah, woke for the morning in his palace in Beasida, on the Planet Higar IV. It was a typical morning as he got up and walked towards his balcony and opened it. Fresh air poured in as Miniah looked out onto the great Crystal Fields poking themselves out of the vast forests that covered the planet. He sighed, another uneventful day in his immortal life.

Miniah enjoyed a small breakfast looking out on the Jewel of the Imperium, Beasida. He watched the Imperial Guard march in formation, watched closely by cadets from off-world. The Higaran sun was just above the Gedois Mountains in the distance, and reflected off of the Congressional Pyramid in Ecliptia City, Capitol of the Coalition. He sat there for some time before leaving to shower for the day.

After about 10 minutes the Patriarch Emperor walked out of his room, and down the hall to the Situation Room for his morning briefing. He entered the room and motion for everyone to remain sitting, as he walked to his seat at the oval, stone table. He received the standard brief, with no excitement in it what so ever.

He sighed after an hour of reports, until young officer ran into the room, stating that 5 minutes ago the Dron Mining Corporation reported that one of it's frontier mining stations' Subspace beacon went offline. Miniah looked up, and was releived- Finally some excitement. The Second Sebecean Democratic Imperium, kept its hands off the corporate world, except for the mining. 95% of the Systems that the Imperium had claims in were uninhabited mining stations. These systems created a large buffer sphere around the populated worlds, and the Imperium did not hesitate to send a warship to ensure the security of the mine and the Coalition.


In orbit over Higar IV, a Phalanx Modular Attack Frigate, the SIS Parker, sat ready to head out for its 6 month Patrol duty in the Kerason System when it received orders to jump to the ID-ITG-11 System, to investigate a down Subspace beacon. The ships crew preped for a combat insertion, and the ship moved around into combat formation, and in a small flash, it was gone.

About a few seconds later, it reappeared inorbit around another, this time barren, planet. Three ships were infront of the Parker, and the Parker fired three shots infront of each ship and sent out a transmition.

This is the Sebecean Imperial Vessal Parker. You are illegally in Sebecean Space. If you do not leave now, we will be forced to open fire.

----
The Imperium refers primarily to the military while the Coalition is the Congress and civilian government. The both have equal power.

All modular vessals are the newest and most advanced ships in the fleet. Although some older ships may be more powerful than the Phalanx class, the Phalanx can still hold off a force many time greater than it for awhile.

Mareka:COMM> Oh, shit.

Shields around the destroyer slammed into life as its niling d-sink came on line. Beneath the shimmering envelope, weapons powered up.

Mareka:COMM> Listen up people, we've been spotted. Pull back and let Medusa handle this.

This is the Medusa. If you open fire now, we will be forced to destroy you. We're borrowing these collectors for a few days. After that we'll be done. Are a few hundred tons of resources worth an entire destroyer? I advise you stay back and let us finish.

The ship was warm with the worries of the crew. The Captian, Kai Jennet, watched as his crew prepared for action. He had never actually commanded during combat, but for this first time he was the calmest one on the ship. He looked at the message sent, he figured they wouldn't budge to a ship that was outnumbered. The Captian checked everything once more and gave the order to deploy the Satellite Guns, and 8 spheres moved out from the ship, and were charged by a blue arch of power from the Parker. The Fighter Drone bay opened releasing 20 Defensive Drones. Energy-Sinks opened to receive the charge of the enemy weapons, and the ship had completed it Full-Combat Transformation.

No return message was sent, It was clear these ones were going to stay. Blue bolts erupted from the Satellite Guns, and from the the ship itself. It targeted the Medusa, with missiles and torpedos. The Parker quickly sent out a Subspace Comm to Imperial Fleet HQ and requested the assembly of a full Sebecean Command Carrier Entourage or a Sebecean Dreadnought Battlegroup.

The Medusa rocked as its shields absorbed the blast.

Mareka:COMM> Damage report!

"No damage, sir. A bit of a load on the shield, though."

Mareka:COMM> Seperate gun modules? What the hell were they thinking? There's no way they can get full shield coverage on those. Lock the disruptors. We'll take them out one by one. And call for backup- I'm sure they are too.

The Medusa's axial guns yowled through the electromagnetic spectrum as they charged from the ship's d-sink reserves. For the first shot, the charge was a half-petawatt each.

Just under a gigaton of screaming electrical death ripped into the shields of the first two weapon satellites. A fusilliade of high-speed depleted uranium followed the wave of energy, intended to destroy any part of satellite that was left intact.

The energy from the guns arched over the gun and shot over to the main body of the ship making two of the 20 Energy-Sinks glow white. The guns, however, could not survive the uranium bolts, and were lost in the emptiness of space.

Charged by pure-energy (about 10% of energy energy weps cannot be collected) from the enemy, energy arches charged the other guns and hull mounted turrets, and they fired at full strength untill the energy-sinks began to cool down.

The Captian, sat down on his bridge watching the screens. He watched the movements of the enemy ships, and looked down at a flashing light on his console. A message from HQ, he opened it and decrypted it to find the words, "The night wolves are in the shadows.", he began grinning like a kid in a candy shop.

"Continue all guns against the Medusa, reverse thrust.", ordered the Captian.

Mareka:COMM> Well, that did a damn lot of good. Coilguns, continue taking out the satellites- holy shit, look at that barrage. Mags online!

Magnetic fields came to invisible attention around the Medusa. The charged-particle bolts were easily bounced away, while the pure energy weapons were soaked up by the traditional shield underneath. It was all at a cost of energy, though, and on the bridge Mareka was watching the d-sink's reserves drop faster than he'd like.

Mareka:COMM> Axials to conduit mode. Maximum total drain fifty petawatt-hours. Keep firing until they're dead. We'll just overload them.

The axial guns groaned again as the superconductor cables that fed them opened up full bore. Waves of energy hammered out towards the Parker, unloading at two petawatts -- almost two gigatons -- per second. A second and third barrage of DU slugs swept across the enemy satellite guns.

The Parker's satellites were hit hard, some were destroyed others limped their way back to the main hull. The ships main weapons continued to fire for a bit long, until the captian ordered them to stop. The ship jumped out.

A minute after the Parker disappeared, another, newer variant of the Phalanx decloaked and presented itself to the enemies. Another ship decloaked, and another. Nine more Phalanxi decloaked and a Vultura Command Carrier, and another Carrier. 14 of the newest ships appeared before the enemy, and surrounded them.

HAIL
This is the Sebecean Hunting Pack 23, the ships you face are more advanced than the one you just fought. Challenge us at your own peril.

TRIED TO GIVE YOU WARNING
~~~~~~
[TOLD YOU THE ANSWER LOUD AND CLEAR]
~~~~~~
BUT EVERYONE IGNORED ME
~~~~~~
[YOU ONLY HEAR WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR]
~~~~~~
DON'T COMPLAIN IF YOU GET SUCKED IN
~~~~~~
[IT GOES THIS WAY EVERY TIME I TRY]
~~~~~~
TIME TO NOTIFY YOUR NEXT OF KIN
~~~~~~
[NOW IT'S YOUR TURN TO FALL AND DIE]

The Medusa and its fleet vanished in a burst of exotic radiation and heavy metal music. A few seconds later, it appeared again, half the solar-system away. Ships began to drop in behind it.

WANNA PLAY?
[THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO GO AWAY]
IF YOU STAY
[IT'S GONNA BE A BAD DAY TODAY]

The Admiral in charge, looked at the system map. "So they wanna play, well we hunt..." he said, as the fleet vanished into the darkness of space, only to hunt the criminals.

On the edges of the system, a large Command Carrier Entourage was seen steaming into the system at full speed. On the other side, a large Dreadnought Battlegroup was also seen entering the system. The Imperium was here in force, keeping to a core value: He who challenges the strength of the Imperium will be met, and sent to the grave.

Deep in the outer boundries of the system, a large object sat their, slowly moving toward the system. It watched, calculated, and it waited to pounce... it was a ship of fear.

The fleet had exited some distance away from the primary asteroid belt, orbiting the third of five planets in the system.

Correction. The fleet, minus two ships, had exited orbiting said planet. The missing ships, the Jackhammer and the Knox, was a good five light-years away, in deep space.

As the dreadnaught approached, one of the meager fleet's ships vanished.

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

The G-Force, once a racing corvette, now the Augmented fleet's sole hyperspatial warfare vehicle, appeared beside the dreadnaught, meters from its hull. A split second later, it vanished.

The dreadnaught vanished too, as the G-Force's vastly oversized hyperdrive sucked it along with the tiny corvette.

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

The two ships emerged alongside the Jackhammer and the Knox. Immediately, hyperspace jamming fields and communications jammers came on around it as the G-Force scurried away from its hull.

Power down your weapons and surrender your ship now. Otherwise we will be forced to disable and board you.

The Dreadnought did not answer the hail, and turn its guns to broad side the enemy ships. The Dreadnought at 3.7 miles long, was a large foe, and a harder one to board with its 2,000 Orbital Marines onboard.

The massive guns turned and fired upon the enemies. The yellowish Megabolts would certianly give the pirates a bad day.

The other ships in the system jumped away, and a shadow lurked in the distance.

[OOC: Oops! That's not the Knox, that's the Ironclad. Sorry. A little name confusion.]

The three-kilometer flagship of the Augmented fleet left the system in yet another blinding blue flash.

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

The Ironclad's shield lasted moments under the whithering barrage. Almost a quarter of the guns underneath were twisted and made useless as the bolts slagged deep holes in their armor plate.

Then it replied in kind.

The 63 working turrets on the port side of the warship each unloaded a ten-megaton thermonuclear nuclear warhead into the side of the dreadnaught.

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

As the glare-white thermonuclear flashes temporarily overloaded every sensor that observed them, the First's Blessing, flagship of the Augmented fleet, dropped from hyperspace above the captive dreadnaught.

The Dreadnought took a serious hit from the enemy nukes. Most of the radiation was kept out by plating, but most of that plating was compromised. Heat Sinks and half of the ship turrets were down. Three of the four ships engine pods were were offline; she was a sitting duck. However the turrets that were still active moved and fired at the bottom of the enemy. They fired aiming at engines and weapons, and fired for about 30 seconds, when the stopped. 10 ship to ship harpoons were launched and hit the enemy, and the hauling lines soon began reeling the enemy in when the dreadnought's command tower hit the bottom of the enemy, engineering crews began to cut into the hull of the enemy, under what appeared to be a matinance tunnel near the engine room, Orbital Marines in the newest combat suits were ready for entry.

"They're boarding us? Wow, they're making it easy today. Jackhammer, come up on the other side and take it from that end too."

Armored Augmented soldiers rushed towards the engineering corridor. The boarding marines were in for the suprise of their lives.

*****

Meanwhile, the Jackhammer lit its entire complement of engines and rammed into the side of the dreadnaught. Its nose punched deep through the enemy armor, opened, and began disgorging warriors.

The Orbital Marines cut through and tossed a few grenades into the shaft, clearing it. They them entered the manhole, their digital screen overlay displayed their squads positions and the com was filled with the booming voice of the squad commander. They quickly exited the manhole, and into a hallway, where enemy fire began hitting them. The shots hit the armor and was focused to the micro-ESM (energy sink manifold), they reached cover before to many shots could hit them and cause them and cause the sink to blow. They fired back with their rifles and their arm weapons. They began to release the collected energy from the ESMs.

Bridge: The bridge was in disarray. A few lights were out and everyone was cut. The Orbital Marine Colonel (the XO) reported that the teams had bored and that their package was moving. The ship suddenly jolted, panic hit the ship, but the ship came to order. The XO read the new situation, and Insurgency Teams too possition around the breach. Breach doors closed, the battle had begun; It looked as if they Dreadnought crew would no make it, but it would be a glorious defeat and rally for a full Battle Contingent, and not a few rusty, automated freighters that carry a signature of a contingent*.

*It is typical to give an appearance of brute force with one combat ship in a fleet of fakes.

"How fun. Energy absorbers. Time for some old-fashioned kickass, folks."

The firing stopped.

The corridor appeared empty.

Silence.

Whirr. A screaming whistle through the air.

A railgun slug, blue-white with heat, ninety-millimeter, and moving at over five thousand meters per second, punched through the wall the marines had taken cover behind and slammed into the squad commander's helmet.

Silence again.

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

The counterboarding operation on the far side of the dreadnaught was another buisness altogether.

A single armored, hexapodal warrior dived into the breached corridor with a whirr of servos.

The incursion groups each received a good old flashbang RPG in their midst. When the flash cleared, there were six warriors in the tunnel, and the air was full of railgun slugs.

It was now clear, the crew would not live and the ship was beyond salvagable. They needed a glorious defeat.

Crew members grabbed weapons from the armory and headed to the combat zone. They fought and died with the honor and bravery expected from the Sebecean Imperial Military. There weapons were not weak however, and the enemies would suffer losses aswell. The crew members had light armor, and it was quickly torn up by slugs. The crew went to there deaths, the captian soon joined them. Very soon only the XO and Orbital Marines were left. They had fortified the reactor room, with Automates (turrets) and a Particle Magnetic Force Wall. This was the Sebecean Allamo.

A shadow lurked closer, it was only visible if one looked at a small irregular spot so fine, most sensors could not pick it up.

The automated turrets guarding the reactor room saw nothing coming along the corridor. The particle wall took no enemy fire.

Not suprising, given that there were no enemies in the corridor.

Instead...

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

KRZZZT!

-which only begins to describe the deafening, mind-blowing noise that the unfortunate crew in the room was subjected to, combining the worst parts of "fingernails on a blackboard" and "power chord".

In other words, the Augs came in through the wall. Pure chaos ensued.

The Marines were not startled, there wrist blades extended out two feet, and the Carbon/Dyrtium Alloy would slice through just about anything. The did not use their weapons, but charged and brought the fight to hand-to-hand. They would take down as many as they could.

In a shadow near the hulk of three large ships, a smaller one about half a mile long, cloaked. On board, a mind existed within the ship. His body was merged with the ships electronics. He was fast and new, He was the first of a new line of attack ships, Aerahur Class. The ship had compartments for crew, but had none. It move closer. The XO on the Dreadnought, yelled out on coms, "TEAR THIS SHIP APART"

A reply from the ship, in a ghostly voice, "Command Confirmed". The ship decloaked and was a blue, gray, and black. From it's nose, a single beam shot, hit the dreadnought's main core section. The Dreanought began to explode, and pushed the enemies off of it. The Aerahur remained where it was, and waited.

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