NationStates Jolt Archive

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I am sorry... you may have stumbled on what was once "Esamopia" our first (failed) attempt at a space ship.

We had paranoid security technicians, who made sure it was booby-trapped before escaping... Although the energy systems are likely not responding, we ask that you proceed with extreme caution.

As for claiming the vessel, although we do not like the fact that you are taking her, we are aware of the International rules regarding salvaging derelict vessels, and have no intention in interfering!

We don't believe anyone has claimed anything, as yet.

However, in accordance with procedure, we are dispatching a rescue/analysis ship in order to positively identify the vessel and to offer assistance to any survivors there may be -- though preliminary scans indicate the chance of that is very low.

We are intrigued by the encryption, and work on deciphering the message continues.

Charlton Black
Scientific Research Council

:Tag for intel. And Raem, it appears that we are, technically, for now, on the same side. Go figure.:

The signal is picked up almost instanly by moniter stations positioned on the edges of Sol. At Gammack Base HQ in earth orbit, the encoded signal is recongnized as the automated distress beacon of the INV Incontestable, an old Hyperion heavy cruiser long thought lost. It was the automated beacon that continued its silent vigil; the beacon that ran on a pair of independant fusion batteries; the beacon that activated after a catastrophic hull breach or total loss of compression. Fleet assets were sent almost immediatly to recover the hulk, two Nova dreadnaughts and four Hyperions, along with two Lancer type construction haulers.

The code, however, is only partly recognizable. The first part is clearly the automated beacon, but it was supposed to loop three times before a silence. It looped once, then a bizzare set of code and gibberish was heard, before the silence and loop repatition. The codifiers back at Gammack were puzzeled to say the least, as even they did not know how to overwrite the heavily encrypted auto-beacon.

The ships dropped out of hyperspace in front and above the hulk, their weapons online, unsure as to what to expect. With the Lancers moving to secure the hulk quickly, the Flag Captain of the small fleet was wary, and ordered no one to go aboard untill the ship was secured at Gammack. No one knew what was going to happen next.

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"We've got trouble, sir." The message was not conveyed by voice, of course, but as a HUD, having been narrowcast from one Ravenspiric exosuit to another.

"I see it." Lance Norgard frowned privately; a number of signatures had just dropped out of a hyperdimensional space. Not for the first time, he wished the Selene were large enough to power a spacelocking array; this was the second such surprise he'd had to deal with, during his career. "Has there been any contact?"

"Negative. They're moving to secure the hulk."

"Salvage, then." And not pirates, we hope.

"Should we fold out, sir?"

He shook his head. "Impossible. It'd take too much time to power up for fold, and it'd look suspicious. You'd better hail them. But beam a report to Ariel Base. Actually, scratch that. Ariel, Callisto, and Deimos. Any progress on that encryption?"

"It seems to be in some derivative of ancient Quenya. Or a related elvish tongue."

"Can you translate it?"

The tech shook his head. "Not immediately. It'll take time... and preferably a decent library, which we can't access if we're keeping comms quiet."

"Ah. Somehow, I thought as much." Lance took a deep breath. "Transmit."

-=-=-=-=-=-

Broadcast from the Ravenspire science ship Selene to vessels identified as Indiastani -- unencrypted

Greetings. We are a rescue/analysis operation currently investigating this derelict. Please clarify your mission and intentions.

Lance Norgard

-=-=-=-=-=-

Transmission from the Ravenspire science ship Selene to Ariel Base, Callisto Base, and Kuraboshi Megacolony-Deimos -- low-security encryption

Have encountered possible mission hazard at coordinates <X,Y,Z,t>. Involves military vessels of Indiastani origin. Initiating contact. Keep an eye on us?

Lance Norgard

Flag-Captain Barret was suprised to see anyone else had moved to invesitgate the wreck, 'My wreck,' he thought. His scanners couldn't pick up any identifiable craft, so he believed that they must be fairly small and under a blackout. Wary, he had his fighter cover spread out, while the capital ships provided cover for the haulers.

"This is Flag-Captain Barret of the INV Justice, we ask that you identify yourselves and your origin. As is planely clear, this vessel is of Indiastan make, identicle in design to the cruisers under my command. We are preparing to secure the wreck and bring it home for investigation. Is that a problem?"

OOC: #tag. Is the language an Eldar dialect? or a version of Quenya?

Oh, and Raem, have an IC gift. (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1645462#1645462)

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((Curses, not mainstream enough for the Deceiver to understand immediately :(

Oh well, I trust in your ability to work evil on UI.))

ooc: Edited, due to sheer stupidity, when i forgot WHAT kind of ships i use <.<

---

ic:

Ships detected.

The one hundred meter long destroyer Bless the child flies through the darkness of space, detecting various events. It`s returning from a tactical maneuver in the outer sol system.

56 minutes from current position, seven degrees north- west.

No change in course, the inactive pilots and other crewmembers are informed.

Two Indiastani vessels, one being unable to fulfill basic functions. Several vessels of unknown configuration.

The complete crew, 75 men and women, all of them pilots running the semi- organic body of the ship and it`s internal vessels, are now awake.

Mission priority: Medium.

Submission priority: Medium- high.

A final decision is made.

Changing course...

FG Barret was unnerved. More ships kept appearing on his scope, and the other Captains were concerened. The Lancer's had latched onto the hulk, but it still was not secure. He hoped no one wanted it that badly, as he was slowly becoming outnumbered.

"I say again, this is Flag-Captain Barret of the INV Justice to all vessels, we again request that you depart. This is an internal matter, and none of your concern. Please withdraw to 10,000 kilometers and stand by.'

Flag-Captain Barret was suprised to see anyone else had moved to invesitgate the wreck, 'My wreck,' he thought. His scanners couldn't pick up any identifiable craft, so he believed that they must be fairly small and under a blackout. Wary, he had his fighter cover spread out, while the capital ships provided cover for the haulers.

"This is Flag-Captain Barret of the INV Justice, we ask that you identify yourselves and your origin. As is planely clear, this vessel is of Indiastan make, identicle in design to the cruisers under my command. We are preparing to secure the wreck and bring it home for investigation. Is that a problem?"

The Selene was indeed relatively small, having been designed for science and rescue missions rather than for trade, exploration, or battle. Its elongated body, matte-black in color, is difficult to pick out visually against the darkness of space, but not hard to keep an eye on once you know it's there; it's floating near a breached portion of hull, many systems powered-down while a portion of its crew is outside the vessel.

"This is Captain Lance Norgard of the Selene, registered out of Ravenspire. We detected the vessel's transmission and approached on a rescue mission, as per our standard protocol. We will proceed to withdraw, but it will take time to gather our equipment and transfer our men back to the Selene."

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"Captain! Scans have just found that there is actually a concentration of life aboard the hulk. In a small pocket of atmosphere, here," the Comm officer says pointing to a schematic of the Incontestable. "It seems pretty dense. And not human."

"What in the seven hells... Ready an assault team, full pressure suits, maximum weapons loadout. This can't be good. Tell the Lancer crews to lock that ship up and not let anyone aboard. And lets hope that those Ravenspire bastards get out alright."

The deceiver watched as the translation module flashed a final sequence of glyphs below the dark eldar runes. The machine assembled them into several categories, running them as a three dimensional image. It showed tall, thin, armoured figures boarding a ship, a flurry of tiny splinters being fired from their weapons. Humans could be seen occasionally returning fire, more often simply collapsing in agony when the splinters hit them. One of the raiders carried a large spiked weapon, which a set of flashing necrontyr glyphs indicated was an eldar 'dark lance.'

The raider fired into a clump of resisters, his body language showing an evil glee as the bolt of blackness incinerated them. The warriors stepped closer to the humans, hacking with bladed weapon attachments. Some of the defenders died, some lived on long enough for the eldar to secure them. They didn't know it yet, but they were the unlucky ones.

Several naked humans could be seen, their hands chained above their heads. Armoured figures of tall, lithe humanoids, their armour dark and glossy were moving among them, short monomolecular blades gleaming.

In the background could be seen the metal walls of a starship. On one flat table several weapons could be seen, laid aside for what was to come. One of the dark armoured figures held a long, curved knife up, so that it was clearly on view. Then it set about lacerating one of the human victim's skin.

She let out a terrible howl of pain as the Dark Eldar set about her. Moments later the others did likewise to their prisoners, a cacophany of agony filled the recording as the fallen skillfully damaged the 'mon-keigh.'

When it was done, the humans were still left hanging there, several dead, one or two still alive. The dark eldar recovered their weapons and left the recorder's capture zone. The female human who had been the first victim stared forward, "Help us. Please help us." she gasped in english. A set of dark eldar runes and their translation in necrontyr, added by the computer, flashed in front of her face and the message darkened.

"Interesting" he thought, "If my suspisions are correct those are Indiastanis, the humans who tried to defy me at the talisman. It is good to see the Archon tormenting them..."

The same holopic is soon decyphered by the techies back at Gammack HQ, and as the Admirality is shown it, they all visably relax half way through, despite the greusome nature of the vid's content. After it is over, they chat amongst themselves. The vid had also been sent to the Governor-General himself, and he had replied stating he wanted a responce. The vid-coference was short.

"It's little more then a forgery sir, those damn twisted alien Eldar bastards up to their old tricks. While our ship was destroyed by some unknown force, we are sure that this transmission is likely little more then an Eldar plot to claim responsablity."

"How can you be sure Admiral?"

"Simple sir. Did you see floating blood body parts? Anyone using mag-boots? Did you see the torture implement being strapped to the table? No, and neither did I."

"I'm sorry Admiral, but please remind me why those little details matter."

"Our ships operate in zero gravity. The video is false."

The TIE Patrol shot by.

"Nothing but an old wreck. nothing worth fighting for."

"Confirmed. leave the fools to it and come home."

The TIE's shot home.

One minute until arrival. Alpha pilots to plug-in.

Then, the Bless the child arrived.

'What a mess' the pilot thought... 'I wonder why a single wreckage causes that much attention...'

Finally, the ship arrived, and changed speed and course to hold position 30000km from the wreckage, left side.

"This is the DASS Bless the child. We see there seems to be a problem? We offer our help in case the ressources already here are not sufficient enough...

Barret was pleased that someone bothered to ask before just wandering in and trying to take his wreck. He was pleased enough to actually be polite in his responce.

"This is the INV Justice to the DASS Bless the Child. Thanks for the offer, but we've got things under control. Six capital ships to escort a pair of haulers? I think we're fine. Thanks anyway."

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The pilot needed some time to translate the message, or, rather, to get a clue what it could be, as the translation itselve wasn`t exactly... possible, but finally, it was done.

That doesn`t look good...

However, assuming the Indiastani forces could handle the problem themselve, it begun to accelerate again, slowly gaining movement...

A telepathic cry, everyone within 6km from the ship, and every teep within 12km from the ship could hear it, emerged, and then it`s graceful, yet somehow tender shape moved foreward...

[ooc: The 'tender' is to be taken serious... it has a metallo-organic hull, and that thing is anything but hard... or, in other words, it has the worst armour in the galaxy]

"How can you be sure Admiral?"

"Simple sir. Did you see floating blood body parts? Anyone using mag-boots? Did you see the torture implement being strapped to the table? No, and neither did I."

"I'm sorry Admiral, but please remind me why those little details matter."

"Our ships operate in zero gravity. The video is false."

OOC: You could have told me that on IRC y'know. Anyway no-one said the second scene was set aboard your ship. 8)

The six-man team hadn't found anything, but had been on guard since they stepped aboard. They had all donned full pressure combat suits, large bulky suits that contained internal life support systems, a fusion battery for a power source, integrated weaponry, and a plasteel/ceremite shell. They carry medium sized rifles; special variations on the standard PPG rifle. This version drops the normal underslung grenade launcher in favour of a short range flame thrower. The power packs are also not present, replaced instead with short, thick cables feeding into the suit's arm. They don't advance very quickly, as the soles of their boots are lined with a magnet, so that they could walk normally in zero-g. The suit and gun lights shine out into the darkness, providing a good degree of illumination, but far from total. It was going to very dark indeed.

In the depths of space the tombship Reaper of Light acellerated toward the hulk, drawn by the opportunity to strike down the insolent Indiastanis who dared to dream of owning the weapon of the Old Ones. As it did so, more necron ships joined it.

Deep in the bays of the necron starship, hordes of necrons awoke, preparing to harvest the upstarts who had defied their master. They took positions beside airlocks - the ship was normally pressurised with argon, but if prisoners were to be taken oxygen or other gases could be added - portals and more limited forms of transport.

In the sepulcure of the tombship the Deceiver prepared himself for a small slice of the delicacy known as revenge. When the ship went faster than light it was guarded by three scythe class cruisers - Apocalypse Belle, Living Night and Ashen Vigilance - the Shroud class light cruiser Dead Air and half a dozen Jackal class escorts.

-=-=-=-=-=-

The ships transited back to sublight speed several light seconds from the hulk and began scanning. They detected several ships, six of which matched Indiastani configurations. In the sepulcure, the deceiver's lips twisted into a hungry smile.

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The point man blinked, and in that split second he thought he saw a swift shadow whip accross his view. He turned to where it went, but found his PPG rifle and gun light had gone dead; the power cables had been slashed. Flipping a switch on the top of the gun, he ordered a stop of the squad. They fanned out, guns ready. Just then, Another, larger whisp, and the bullet-proof glass of the pointman's helmet is crushed inwards. While he is unhurt, the glass ceases to be airtight, and slowly the air is leeched out of his suit, with the oxygen recycling system unable to keep up. Distraught, he does the only thing he can. He lets out a silenced cry of defiance, and proceedes to fire his flamer in a wide arc in front of him, watching the burning promethium splatter everywhere as it is held up by the lack of gravity. After letting out a good yell, he orders his squad back, and to use the torches to keep the shadow at bay. They never see him again.

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As the rest of the team crawled up the ladder into the airlock on the shuttle, the last team member called up and asked for the payload. Thanks to zero-g, the large heavy crate floated down to him effortlessly, and he easily popped the top. He placed the heavy bomb down on the deck, and flipped a switch, before closing the box again and clamping it to the deck. He then proceeded up the airlock, to fasten themselves in aboard their box of a shuttle. The took off, and returned to the Justice while the two haulers released their grip and let the wreck free. Shortly afterwards, the detonation was seen, as the present they left aboard the Incontestable vaporized the middle of the ship, leaving little more the the smashed engines and prow of the mighty vessal to float off into oblivion.

The necron fleet began efforts to jam all communications of the Indiastani ships ((Up to you how effective it is)) and they acellerated toward the Indiastani ships, microjumping to one quarter of a light second away. When they were within forty five thousand kilometers of the nearest Novas, the tombship and its scythes would begin attacking the large rear engine blocks with their gauss whips, the rest of the fleet would open up at thirty thousand.

Such a plan was uninspired, unoriginal and unambitious. In the preperation areas of the ships, thousands of necrons prepared for the inevitable boarding actions that would follow.

Boarding the Novas was regarded as a waste of time, a thousand troops would well buy time for the crew to destroy the ship before they could be subdued. However, the smaller Hyperions and miscellaneous haulers were the real targets here, and, in the fleet's - both the ships and their passengers - opinion far less dangerous - ripe for picking.

OOC: geez C'tan, do i have to correct everything? :p The novas can carry troops, but they usually don't. The Hyperions are only a little bit smaller anyway, and there are n Cottons. Fleet tenders don't go into warzones. And if you were thinking of my corvettes, there are none of them either. Just two Novas, and four Hyperions. Mmmkay?

OOC: geez C'tan, do i have to correct everything? :p The novas can carry troops, but they usually don't.

And the necrons know this how? They're not actively scanning your ships. Somehow I imagine you would object far more strenuously if they knew exactly how many people were aboard each ship.

The Hyperions are only a little bit smaller anyway, and there are n Cottons. Fleet tenders don't go into warzones.
They do, they don't deliberately go into battle but they most certainly go into warzones.
And if you were thinking of my corvettes, there are none of them either. Just two Novas, and four Hyperions. Mmmkay?

You called them haulers. Whatever they are -even if they're civillian ships - are also targets.

ooc: right, the Lancers. Forgot about them. Anyway, lets get this show rolling.

ic: Barret's jaw almost dropped as the massive ships basicly appeared on top of them, with the lead ship shredding his topside engines and vaporizing the Constitution. His ships responded as fast as they could, their pulse cannons firing back as fast as they could, but they were totally out-matched. The Goa was the next to die, as the sickly green lightning hit her reactors, blowing her in half. The fighters seemed to be the only ones really able to hit the Tombship, as they skimmed its surface, straing it, firing at whatever weak point they thought might exsist. In less then four minutes, two of the Hyperion's had been destroyed, his Nova crippled, and the other three ships had been badly damaged. The two construction haulers had long since dissappeared.

---

Aboard the dreadnought Liberator, Second Lt. Jackman was now in charge, as a direct hit had annihilated the primary bridge. The damage report said that the mid-port weapons had lost power, there we multiple hull breaches in the forward sections and they couldn't stop venting atmosphere, reactors two and three were damaged, and the entire starboard weapons grid had overloaded. All he had left were his engines.

"All power to the engines, and Helm, give me your best speed."

The few PDG guns and main cannons that could still fire went silent, as the engine cluster powered up, furiously firing ions out into the void. She's slow to move at first, but the momentum she is building cannot be stopped...

Target 2 effecting a collision course with this vessel.

In the sepulcure of the Tombship the Deceiver looked up at the display indicating the enemy course. He held his hand over a panel and sent a string of instructions to the ship.

Come to new heading, collision course with Target 2 Plus 10 degrees on the Y axis. When the enemy is within 1,000 Km engage drives at maximum tactical acelleration. Bring Target 4 to maximum targeting priority.

The great ship turned, waiting for the moment when an evasive manouver could be effected, if the manouver failed, then the ship could potentially suffer damage. If it suceeded, then the Liberator would be carried haplessly past by its momentum. As it did so, the Tombship and it's three escorting harvest ships brought all weapons to bear on the Liberator.

Gold Squad, based off of the Liberator, saw the desperate action their mothership was taking. After several strafing runs had proven their light pulse cannons to do little more then scratch the Tombship's paint, their squad leader broke into all comms channels and ordered Plan B into action.

"All squads, listen up. The Const and Goa are down, and the Justice is dead in the water. Time's running out. Go to Plan B."

Plan B... the last, desperate manouver that the fighter squadrons could pull. Each Starfury carried eight Fusion Missiles, normally used for long-range bombardment of stationary targets. However, they could be fired at ships, though they would need to be launched from a short range to be effective. The main problem with this was that the range needed was so short that an unskilled pilot might get caught in the blast. Hence, it was used as a last, desperate act.

----

Gold and Green Squads had formed up quickly behind the Tombship, and switched off their guns in order to give more power to the engines. Pulling close to seven g's, they tore past the ship, releasing a hail of nuclear death upon the rear pyramid of the behmoth, before tearing off after the other, smaller, Necrontyr ships.

The concentrated nuclear fury of hundreds ((I assume)) of fusion missiles battered the rear face of the pyramid and the engine blocks. At this range, they would need to be blind to miss...

When the blinding white blasts cleared, the back of the pyramid was dark, pockmarked with craters. One by one, the engines stopped glowing. The metal on the pyramid began to flow back over its wounds, but the damage was too great and unexpected.

The starfurys may have prevented the ship taking evasive action, but they would not escape unpunished. From deep within the ship, stored power began to surge through distribution nodes climbing to the surface...

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The little flicker vanishes; indeed, all of the stars in the area vanish, as if obscured by a template of blackness. Three fields of mobile darkness begin moving, their engines unseen within the swathes of inky void. They are fast, faster than the tombship or the mon-keigh vessels, and they offer no warning or signal to their prey.

OOC: NB, the max speed of most necron ships exceeds that of eldar ships, though the manouverability doesn't.

The Bless the Child had left the place of action quite some time ago... already accelerated to ~3000km/s, it headed towards the inner sol system, when the sensor readings informed the pilot of what happened.

Watching the Indiastani force dying, it was clear that a single destroyer wasn`t able to help them in any way, so returning was not an option...

Accelerating further, the Bless the child begun recording the entire event, while at the same time activating the buoy at it`s back, sending out massive particle waves, forcing the space around the Bless the child to follow chaotic patterns...

Slowly, she escaped the place, heading for Pluto...

((OOC: Visual recording perhaps, but bear in mind there's a lot of jamming on most of the communications frequencies.))

The tombship was making efforts to repair its drive systems, but as the Dreadnought closed with it, it became clear that it would not be repaired in time. Instincts long programmed into it took over, and it braced for impact, the living metal armour changing, inexplicably, to form a much stronger defence. The nascent star-pulse died, and the ship fired its lightning arcs at the incoming dreadnought.

The reaper class harvest ships darted forward to destroy the nova, meanwhile, the squardron of Jackal class escorts, persued by the valiant Starfury pilots, increased their engines to flanking speed and prepared to board the Justice.

ooc: Considering that i left some time ago, DEFINITELY NOT visual recordings, i`m WAY to far away ;) And yes, i know it`s jammed, i imagine some sort of scattered... stuff... from which you can imagine what happened, not very detailed, though... i mainly depend on passive gravscan systems, although THEIR images are more than rough... impossible to get details.

ooc: Considering that i left some time ago, DEFINITELY NOT visual recordings, i`m WAY to far away ;) And yes, i know it`s jammed, i imagine some sort of scattered... stuff... from which you can imagine what happened, not very detailed, though... i mainly depend on passive gravscan systems, although THEIR images are more than rough... impossible to get details.

OOC: They're called telescopes. :P

IC (Dammit!): The fleet took note of the Dark Eldar ships, but they were classified as non-hostile, allies in fact, and no action was taken.

The Reapers, being the next largest ships, were the primary target for the remainder of the fighters. Only 34 of the original 96 fighters remain, but each of them still carry half of their nuclear ordinance, and the desperate pilots push their engines to the makimum to get in range of the speedy Necrontyr.

The Liberator would not be stopped, not by having chunks torn off her hull, nor by having her engines disabled, nor by having her entire interior laid open to space. Even though she ceased to be guided, she could not be stopped.

Aboard the Justice, which was now blindly firing into the void, F-C Barret couted down...

"500 kilometers... 400... 300... 200... 100..."

The Liberator smashed down on the top of the massive Tombship, plowing into her with all the force of her bulk, momentum, and the fusion missiles stored in her damaged prow. The characteristic prow of the Nova buckled and was crushed into the opposing hull, as the slashed midsection ground itself into oblivion. It was about then that the stored missile were finally ignited, ripping a hole in the Necrontyr hull. Split seconds later, the four main reactors where hit, adding a smaller ball of nuclear fire to the conflageration. Just like that, however, the explosions were snuffed out, and all that remained of the Liberator was an expanding cloud of debris, and most of the remains of her engine cluster. Silence fell upon the field of battle momentarily, before more pulse bolts, lightning arcs, dark lances, and fusion missiles were exchanged in the ever more confusing melee.

Power distrubution grid re-assembling.

The Deceiver watched the ship diagnostics come back online. The enemy had plowed into the ship, which was now tumbling wildly and uncontrolled. The atmosphere aboard the ship had been bled out into the void, not that it mattered to the occupants. The systems aboard the ship were still trying to re-route themselves around the vast rent in the crescent.

The Deciever left, as the order to abandon ship appeared into the mind of ever necron aboard the ship, as well as his own. He walked through unlit, graviationally lacking and airless corridors. He entered a chamber filled with necron warriors and immortals, which he passed through, entering the portal to the nearest reaper.

The Tombship seemed to emboss for a moment before dissapearing, and the fleet turned to destroy the remaining enemy ships.

Meanwhile the Jackals surrounded the crippled INV Justice. Inside their bays, companies of necrons prepared themselves. With last weapons diagnostics, they activated their portals, and stepped through to the Indiastani ship. ((Yes, this has been checked with Indiastan))

Actvivating their built in traction systems, they stepped down to the deck plates of the ship, to complete their mission of capturing as many of the Indiastanis alive as possible.

Meanwhile the Reapers prepared to introduce the - immensely irritating, yet valiant and recklessly brave - Star-Furys to Star Pulses. It was, in the Deceiver's opinion, a true shame that those humans would have to die, courage was always a useful trait.

Barret and his crew were not suspecting a boarding action, and couldn't really prepare. They locked down the ship as best they could, but few were able to make it to the armour for rifles, flak vests, and mag boots. So, having little more then their pistols, they still put up stiff resistance where they could.
In the process, however, most of them were slaughtered.

---

Twelve minutes. The Lancer's had cut and drifted clear in half that time, and had made the call for reinforcements. It took four minutes for a battle group to form up and jump out. Two of the new Nova-X's, four regular Nova's, seven more Hyperions, and ten Olympus corvettes. Two minutes later, then were about to jump back into real space around the suposed engagement. What tehy found was a massacre.

---

The Justice was pretty much lost, with only Barret and the command staff holed up in the bridge, and pockets of resistance elsewhere. The heavy cruiser Hangman was badly damaged, and losing atmosphere and power quickly, while the Protector still had weapons and engines, but was taking a beating. They wouldn't have lasted much longer.

---

F-C Weaving, aboard the Nova-X Hornet, gave the order to fire at will as they came into range. Pulse, particle, plasma, and rail shot jumped the gap rather quickly.

The necrons stalked the corridors of the INV Justice relentlessly, killing when they had to, tagging and teleporting back to special doorless chambers aboard the Jackals when they could. Outside the control centre, several immortals traded fire with Barret and his staff, meanwhile, several meters away, a squadron of wraiths prepared to pass through the walls.

The Dead Air was the first one to detect the new fleet, all 23 of them. It came about, and informed the rest of the fleet, and the dark eldar ships. As the Dead Air banked a railgun shot missed it by mere inches.

The squadron of Scythes made another attack run against the INV Protector, lashing it with gauss whips and lightning arcs, before coming about to face the new enemy.

There was no choice left. While the bridge crew were being slaughtered, Barret sat in his chair, his life flashing before his eyes. Slowly, he reached for his control console, and punched in the authorization code.

---

As the reinforcements closed, the fighters and corvettes in the van, they were helpless to watch the critical reactor overload annihilate the Justice, taking most of her crew with her. This just made Captain Weaving all the more pissed off, as he knew Barret persoanlly. This, combined with seeing the few remaining original fighters, prompted him to geive the orders to train fusion missiles on the Tombship, and any other vessels slow enough to hit. He wanted to obliterate them...

((Hang on, when was Raem deleted?))

There was no choice left. While the bridge crew were being slaughtered, Barret sat in his chair, his life flashing before his eyes. Slowly, he reached for his control console, and punched in the authorization code.
As they prepared to take the bridge the necrons rapidly faded away, retrieved by their parent ships which had scanned a critical reactor buildup. Nevertheless, they had retrieved some prisoners from the crew.
---

As the reinforcements closed, the fighters and corvettes in the van, they were helpless to watch the critical reactor overload annihilate the Justice, taking most of her crew with her. This just made Captain Weaving all the more pissed off, as he knew Barret persoanlly. This, combined with seeing the few remaining original fighters, prompted him to geive the orders to train fusion missiles on the Tombship, and any other vessels slow enough to hit. He wanted to obliterate them...

OOC: The tombship's gone. Mission killed, and fled. Another one is enroute, ETA under a few minutes though.

Roania, Raem was deleted yesterday.

Would anyone mind if I took over controlling the DE ships?

[ooc: yeah, I mind, as you've already got a massive tech edge on me. Raem only had an like a single cruiser, so we can just assume it went away.]

Weaving sighed. So far their fire had been mostly ineffective, and as the last of the original ships, the Protector, blew her reactor, Weaving gave the general order to disengage, knowing this was gonig nowhere. The two new Nova-X's came about first, and began giving covering fire with their rear batteries for the rest of the fleet as they prepared to make the jump to hyperspace. The corvettes and fighters were the last to pull back, bringing up the rear. They hoped that the Necron's would not give chace...

The necron fleet watched the enemy withdraw, and finally left, content with their victory, somewhat phyrric though it was...

The prisoners would pay dearly for that.