Raid on Valinon
Yuugi stood at the bridge of the Artemis, the Carrier Diana to his left and the battle cruiser Luna to his right. all three of them had been recently refited wth dual folding engines, perfect for the hit and run raids that was to provide him with the materials he needed for his war. The bridge hummed, and he ordered the fold, all three ships droping into foldspace, reappearing instantly. Only the change of views offered any indication that anything had changed, that and the cracking radio demanding they identify themselves. . . no matter, the first wave of interceptors had slipped away from the Diana. They tore thrugh the asteroid belt towards the Valinon mine, peppering it with laser fire, targeting exposed coms equipment and the clsoing mechanism on the door.
Look, in the sky...It's a bird, a plane, an idiot NOOB!
Valinon...
Is that a nation in the game, or a place in Middle Earth? It seems like the latter, but I'm probably wrong...
OOC: No, Jimathon. This is an RP between me and Taka, Yuugi is a rogue Admiral of the Takan Fleet. I will vouch for him.
Valinon...
Is that a nation in the game, or a place in Middle Earth? It seems like the latter, but I'm probably wrong...
The nation whose rouges are fighting the GA.
I doubt it, probably a puppet, why would your random person attack Valinion, and stop looking at me, it is NOT my puppet, if you want I can ask a game or Forum mod to check
OOC: No, Jimathon. This is an RP between me and Taka, Yuugi is a rogue Admiral of the Takan Fleet. I will vouch for him.
Oh, sorry, force of habit. Bye. *shrinks away*
its my puppet, rouge pirate admiral and all, trust me it has a purpous, setting the stage for something rather large.
The detection probes that constantly monitor the Alpha Centauri system send messages screaming through the Star Armada command chains. Instantly alerts are transmitted to the Admirality head quarters at Sanctuary in orbit around Proxima, to the Outer System Rim Patrol Force headquarters in the Prometheus Centauri orbital city of Draco, and finally to the sector OSRPF forces.
Meanwhile a desperate transmission from the mine breaks through, "This is Senior Foreman Deran of the United Prometheus Mining Corporation resource satellite KO-337! We are under attack by forces matching the description of Takan warships! We request immediate assistance from any OSRPF patrols in the area! Our defensive fighter squadrons have been launches and we activated our mine field! Capture of KO-337 is likely! Request immediate assistance!"
Three squadrons of old Drakon-class space-superiority fighters issue forth from the mine's hanger, closely followed by six gunships.
Deran is panicing, "Call for evacuation of non-essential personnel, ready security forces!"
Then the old mine foreman has a thought, "Wait! Recoordinate the rail-gun! Set it to target the ships! Load it with the titanium ingots!" the massive rail-gun used to send processed ingots on a trajectory toward the refineries on the other side of the Belt near Prometheus Centauri.
"Fire!" screams Deran, and six ingot projectiles twice the size of the gunships fly toward the Diana.
******
Commodore Otto von Hienlien sits in the Admiral's Chair aboard the battleships HMS Andromeda command ship of the OSRPF units in the sector.
"All ships have reported in, the HMS Tiger Claw and the HMS Minotaur are on their way."
Hielien looks at his tactical displays, then turns to the ship's AI, its hologram looks like the Old Earth astronomer Galileo.
"Galileo, bring reactor engine output to 110%, it is time to catch this pirating bastard."
"Yes, Commodore."
Hielien turns to his bridge crew, "Shields up, weapons online, bring the fleet to red alert, sound battle stations and general quarters. I want a Sardaukar boarding party ready on the secondary flight deck as well."
"Yes, sir."
"Deploy all fighters. I want the Claw and the Minotaur to do the same. We will catch them in a pincer move. ETA until intercept!"
"At current engine output, ten minutes," says the AI.
"Bring reactor input to 112% then."
"Eight minutes, Commodore."
"What word from Draco and Sanctuary?"
"Admiral Horatio is sorting from Draco with the battlecruiser group under the Caesar. Estimated ETA is 20 minutes, if they go directly through the Eastern Reef."
"Which, Horation will," Hielien mummbles.
"The High Command is readying the dreadnought Sovereign to make an intra-system jump with its task force on this side of the Belt. ETA would be forty-five minutes," says the tactical officer.
"Take us in, Helm! Guns, give me a target and prepare to give them hell!"
OOC: Some numbers
Outer System Rim Patrol Force currently available:
1 battleship: HMS Andromeda
2 carriers: HMS Minotaur and HMS Tiger Claw
4 heavy cruisers: HMS Grendel, Chronicle, Knight, and Fearless
8 light cruisers
8 destroyers
3 frigates
12 gunships
The Diana shuddered with each impact, the giant ingots glancing off of her shields. Aboard fire crew franticly swarmed into action, as the power overload caused on of her three shield generators to crackle and burst into flames. The massive ship moves as if nothing had happened, letting loose a missile volley at a gunship which had strayed too close, and turret gunners picking off fighters as they came through the field of debris. Her massive hangers opened once more, belching a black cloud of still more interceptors, which moved to skirmish the enemy.
Yuugi watched the holo field with anticipation, the defence fleet could not be far away, no, they had to be closing in even now. He thumbed the holograph, flipping the view from the battle to the surrounding space, his eyes scanning it for incoming enemy units. . . nothing yet, but he knew they could not be far away.
"order the first wave to land and enter the complex, take as many prisoners as you can, and grab any documents of value. . . leave any thing thats not easily transportable behind."
Orders came in, and the commander of the first wing acknowledged it with deathly grimness. The job was about to get really messy. The first thirty interceptors moved into the hanger, peppering the inside with laser fire, before setting down within. The remainder of the wing kept watch outside the hanger, occasionaly one breaking off to skirmish a figher or gunship.
Thirty pilots lept from thier craft, assault rifles gleaming in the harsh light. Each in an armored space suit, they split into three teams, the first to find the control room, the second to secure prisoners, and the third to plant explosive charges on the reactors.
OOC: what we've got in play
1 battleship Artemis
1 Carrier Diana
1 Battle Cruiser Luna
50 interceptors shielding fighters and gunships
20 interceptors guarding hanger
30 intercetpors grounded in hanger
30 troops in structure
availible forces
5 gunship
20 bombers
50 fighters
50 interceptors
15 destroyers *fold*
10 frigates *fold*
5 light cruisers *fold*
OOC: Garrr, the Forum's ate my post.
Foreman Deran watches as the railgun fire of the mining station appears to have no visible effect on the Diana. And then watches as a gunship and four fighters are lost to fire from the Takan warship.
"Incoming craft!" shouts a technician.
"Borders," whispers Deran.
"Seal the operation center, mining tunnels, an reactor cores off. Scramble all security personnel, tell them to be ready to repel borders. And get those shuttles off of the bay! I want them to hide in the asteriod field!"
"Shuttles are lifting off."
Deran looks grimly at the oncoming fighters, "Activate the EMP mines."
"But-that is our last line of defense!" shouts another technician.
"This is the last line!" bellows Deran. "Have the mines load our sensor image on the fighters. And where is the OSRPF!"
"The sector force has been scrambled, the Andromeda is moving to engage."
"It will be too late."
*******
"Commodore, we are in engagement range."
Hielien looks at his tactical display, "Lock our weapons on to the Diana. I want all forward batteries and missile tubes to fire!"
"Yes, sir!"
"What is the status of the Minotaur and the Tiger Claw?"
"Captain Loren and the Tiger Claw are moving to engage the lead Takan ship. The Minotaur is launching its fighters and preparing to move with us against the Diana."
"Have them redirect some of their fire at the Luna."
"Sir, the KO-337 just activated their EMP mines."
"Thn the railgun was the Foreman's only hidden weapon. Read the Sardaukar, I want the Diana, but not until we've given it the punishment it deserves."
The Andromeda fires her forward batteries and the 3 frigates and two light cruisers moving with her do the same. A salvo of energy, carbon-buster missiles designed to break carbon-to-carbon bonds, and deadly radiation missiles fly toward the Diana
Takian high command had recieved the reports of the activly, but ignored it, willing to allow the Valinion fleet to do the job for them.
Music played in the background, a concerto for French Horn in e minor, very hauntingly beautiful, and very out of place aboard the helm of the Diana.
"SIR!! Incoming contacts, they have hit threat range and we are detecting energy powerups, possible missile contacts inbound mark oh oh five nine."
The radar opperators voice rang out, but seemed to have no effect on the captian, who stood silent. A few seconds passed, before his voice rang out, a klaxon bell against the gentle music. "have the interceptors change dirrection and shoot down those missiles, turn half of the front AA turrets to target them, and for Gods sake, get those sheilds up to full power." He thought for a moment more before adding "and move us down to point six oh nine, get some of the larger asteriods between us and those missiles, I want just our guns pointing towards them."
The behmoth ship lumbered into possition, her guns already firing, and Yuugi, sitting on the bridge of the Artemis smiled, ordering the full batteries of the Artemis and Luna concentrated on the Tiger Claw. Railgunshots, Lance barrages, and the heavy lasers opend fire on the incroaching vessel.
***
The teams stood ready to breach the entrace, the heavy doors having been cut through. The charge was placed, and detoanted, sending the door flying through the hallway, a makeshift, but effective projectile against any preparing an ambush. Tightly and with militry dicipline, they entered the inner mine, weapons firing short bursts at any who were foolish enough to get in the way, but attemping to kill as few as possible. . . at least in the initial raid. A few spikes, fired from outdated impaler rifles defelected off of the armored carapace of the soldiers, being met with a volley of return fire aimed at the legs. . . those that fell were quickly scooped off and taken to the interceptors, loaded into the cargo area, which, while uncomfortable, at least had an atmospher.
Near aboard the Chronicle one of the heavy cruisers escorting the Tiger Claw Captain Prichard sees the oncoming fire. Despite the best efforts of the point defense systems and anti-enemy fire systems guided by the AIs, a large salvo is still headed for the Claw.
"Bring us in front of the Tiger Claw, prepare to unload all heavy ordance at the Diana," says Prichard gravely.
"Yes, sir."
"For the Fatherland," whispers Prichard. His ship moves to block the oncoming Takan onslaught. Meanwhile, all the batteries of the Chronicle blaze away at the Diana, sending missiles, heavy rockets, and energy flying forward. Then the Takan onslaught is upon the Valinon heavy cruiser. The railgun ammo and heavy lasers blazing into the side of the ship. It shield buckle, overloading, and exhausting themselves. Point defense systems are unable to stop the full onslaught. A series of explosions gash the Chronicle, the flaring lights dim. The Chronicle is left crippled, atmosphere and debris leaking outward, several engines failing, and it drifts slowly off to one side. But the angry fire from all the other Valinon ships eagerly make up for its mortal blows.
Then comes an unexpected surprise, one of the stricken mine gunships decides to blaze one last time. Careening toward the Diana it strikes amid ship, and then its reactor core overloads. A new sun lights the space on the Diana's starboardside. And the enranged hornets of fighter squadrons at last enter into close combat with the Takan fleet.
******
Aboard the HMS Caesar, Rear Admiral Horatio, commander of the OSRPF watches as his ships begin to move toward the final legs of the Belt.
"Bring us on a direct course heading with KO-337."
"Yes, Admiral."
"Engage as soon as we enter maximum firing range."
"Yes, Admiral."
"Order all fighters scramble, and have the gunships move with them to engage."
OOC: OSRPF Main Group
5 battlecruisers
4 battleships
3 carriers
8 heavy cruisers
8 light cruisers
12 destroyers
24 gunships
A long line of security personnel waits for the Takan borders to overcome the few trying to defend the hanger bay itself. A few of these are equipped with Impaler rifles, but most have only the old shredder rifles. They hear the Takan soldiers coming, many begin to pray to the Virgin Mary, others merely begin to sweat.
"FIRE!" screams their commander. They turn around and look over the barricades of crates and spare parts. The air is filled with Impaler spikes and with the deep penetrating uranium fletchettes from the shredder rifles. The oncoming rush of metal descends on the Takan forces, like the locust against Egypt.
The Diana moved, AA turrets blazing at the incoming gunship, its missiles and shells exploding in a flaming trail behind it as it rammed kamakazi like into the side, exploding and sending a flaming jet of superheated plasma through the decks on the starboard side. The fireball had only just died down as the remainder of the ordinance struck her other side. Her shields stood dramaticly, taking the blows and sending bright sparks across her outerhull as the final generator blewout, allowing the ramainder of the volley to crash against her armor. most of the shots seared into the titanium alloy, pitting it deeply, though a few of the missiles tore through the armor outright, stopping only at that polymertitanium skinunderneath, twisting it, but not breaching it.
The Luna continued to hold course, leveling a second barage at the same target, and loading a volley of torpedos, while the Artemis swung around and opened with its portside railgun batteries, its plasma lances swiveling to target the Knight, as its sublight engines engaged to move it along the field, giving them a moving target. Slowy the Artemis opens fire with its weapons batteries at the Minotaur, and its Lances at the Knight.
*****
Several shuttles attempting escape were rounded up by interceptors, the comunication was simple "you will dock on the Diana, or you will be shot down and left for dead in deep space".
*****
the entrace went as planned, and the young soldier swept through the hail of shots with his assault rifle blazing. He noticed a rather odd looking weapon that is mind vaugly recognized as a shredder, but took no real notice of it. The shredder fired at him, the slugs for the most part penetrating into his armor but stopping far short of vital areas, but a few of them tore deeply into the unarmored joints of his suit, ripping into him and dropping him with a scream of pain and a rappidly growing pool of blood. The wingleader cursed, and pulled a concusion grenade from his pack, tossing the explosive down the hallway. HE ducked out of the way, rifle down and ready to storm in as soon as it detonated.
The Tiger Claw and the rest of her group fare far better than the older Chronicle. Their stronger shields and armour serving them much better, and then their return fire is redoubled as they launch another all out attack against the assaulting Luna.
Meanwhile the fighters from the Tiger Claw and the Minotaur tear into the Takan rebels, engaging their enemy counterparts. The Longshard interceptors make excellent use of their fast speeds and manuverablity, using the latest generation of Valinon Hornet missile designed to engage fighters, and then detonate into a horde of mini-missile designed to cause en masse damage to their targeted fighters. Under the cover of the Longshards, the Javelin medium bombers and the Goliath heavy bombers make a pass at the as yet unscated Luna, letting lose a flurry of heavy rockets, heavy bombs, carbon-busters, and EMP limpets designed to disable surface and weapons systems.
But one of the fighters' origins, the old Minotaur, is not up to the task of fully surviving the onslaught of the Artmeis. THe old carrier started life as a private escort carrier in the service of a corporate security force, and was nationalized during the Outer Dominion Wars given a sham of a update with only marginal stronger shields and some added armour plating. Ever since the end of the Outer Dominion Wars, the Minotaur has been gradually shuffled down the Star Armada command chain, and eventually reached here. And how the old stalwart mule finds itself looking down a barrage that could cripple a destroyer in one swoop. The shields of the Minotaur fail along its bow, then the lances and fire overwhelm the desperate point defenses final assault, and blast the old ship head on. Titanium and neo titanium fuse, decks breech, and the Minotaur emerges looking as if her bow was cruelly gnawed off by some great demon of myth.
The Knight fares far better, her point defenses a shields saving her from any major damage, and she presses on blazing away at her targets. The pitched battle continues as the OSRPF elements under the Andromeda continue to pound away relentlessly at their Takan adversaries.
******
OOC: I might the shuttles still in the hanger, so I get to save these!
One of the Takan fighters is consumed in a blast from a full sized laser cannon of a Valinon warship. New arrivals boil out of the asteriod belt, baring not the insignia of the Star Armada, but of the security forces of the United Prometheus Mining Corporation. The new arrivals are older models, but not as old as the forces encountered at the mine, of mainline Star Armada warships. They include one light cruiser spearheading the group, two frigates, and a quartet of gunships escorted by four squadrons of Drakon-class space superiority fighters.
Aboard the light cruiser Profiteer, Commander Jacobs of the UPM Corporation Security Force watches as his small fleet blazes away at the Takan pirates.
"Give them no quarter," he says. "Burn them all to hell and back. Tell our shuttles to head for our ships."
******
A young Valinon security officer sees the rolling concussion gernade, he knows he has only seconds, quickly he scoops the gernade up and flings it back toward the Takan soldiers.
The commander shouts over the headset, "Fall back. We have a man coming down the chute with a fletchette launcher. At least they seem to have some effect."
The young security officer looks around, many of his fellows lie dead even with the deadly effect of the old shredder rifles. Now they begin to fall back toward the lift chutes around the turn of the hall. Then a new security man emerges, carrying what looks like a short, stumpy, bazooka with a quartet of launch ports. He waits until the majority of the security men have fled behind him, and then lets loose with all for fletchette canisters, sending them flying toward the Takans to detonate a storm of depleted uranium spikes, and long metal shards.
The Luna dove to avoid as much of the fire as possible, the shots slamming into her shields as she fell, causing it to flare up briefly before dying and taking the final few shots against her armor. Bloodied but not out she fired anouther barage on her decent, lances swiveling to fire with them. The Artemis moved foward, weapons blazing at the fleet, and its AA guns firing against the incoming ordinance. Like angry flies buzzing around a massive and stoic ox, she lit up the black sky with incandecant waves of turret and missile fire, her sheilds flashing at the impacts as missiles and battery fire glanced off of her behemoth side. The Diana was in peril though, unmoving, and shields down it took its blows, but turned its only armarment, a lone lance cannon, to fire at the Security fleet fast approaching. Its hanger doors opened, swallowing up captured shuttles and returning interceptors, and its drop doors opened to releace the last wave of its craft, the gunship, bombers, and fighters, which swarmed like a hoard of black biting flys towards the incoming security fleet, plasma torpedos glistening in the firefight.
*****
A young pirate pilot didn't even think twice as he saw the grenade rolling towards his crew. He jumped on it, smothering the blast with his body and being knocked cold by the resulting concussive blast delivered to his armored gut. The remainder of the team took possitions out of the way of the incoming shrapnel, firing between his shots and being carful not to expose thier weak joint areas.
"fack. . ." the comander swore "no good, they've got it too well guarded for a straight assualt, give me one of those plasma charges"
anouther pilot threw the shatchel containing the charges to him, and he set the pressure sensor, tossing it as hard as he could towards the retreating securty forces.
Commander Jacobs looks at the oncoming swarm of Takan raiders.
"My God," he whispers, then regains compsure. "It is time to see what these scows can really do. Have the frigates and Drakons move forward and form a skirmish line, I want those fighters held away from the Profiteer for as long as possible. Mr. Abastein!" he shouts at his second.
"Yes, Commander?"
"Bring us around and present our starboard to the Taka cruiser! Then give her a broadside, full load!"
"Yes, Sir!"
"Let us give her a kiss she shall not soon forget."
******
Wing Commander Justinus receives his orders from the frigate.
He activates his unit comm for the two squadrons under his command, "Alright, time to max the throttles boys. Let us teach these Takans what we think of such whore-spawn."
He hits a button in his cockpit and the cramped space is filled with the frantic, brassy jazz tunes of the Seatbelt's song Too Good Too Bad. He watches the frigates engines flare to life, and their weapons designed to engage pirate raiders and fighters fill the sky with godlike lightening. The light cruiser swings around, then sends her own volley down the throat of the Diana.
"Beautiful," he murmers half to the music and half to the eerie quiet dance of space combat. Then he is among the chaos.
******
Captain Perot stands rigid at the end of the command catawalk of the [i]Tiger Claw[i]. He turns on his heel to face the entire bridge.
"Have all ships ready a volley of carbon-busters and missiles. I want a full volley straight at the Diana. Then after a twenty second delay fire with the Knight a full salvo of radiation missiles."
"Yes, Captain."
"I want our bombers and interceptors to run at the gash in the Diana's portside."
"Squadrons reformer."
"Good."
Perot watches as the fire from his carrier and her escorts flies forward. Then counts his heartbeats until the radiation waves are let loose leave the carrier and her last heavy cruiser.
"Burn in hell," he says glaring at the Diana.
******
Commodore von Hielien watches as the UPM Corp. security forces and the Tiger Claw pound away ruthlessly at the Diana. The Minotaur is limping desperately behind her enraged escorts, who blaze away at the attacking Luna. He looks at the as yet unchallenged Artemis.
"Helm!"
"Yes, Commodore."
"Bring us on a 180 degree rotation to face down the Artemis. At all ahead full. I want all bow and starboard weapons at the ready. Have the rest of the force head with us. When we get to 1,000 km. I want a full round-about to bring our starboard to face the Artemis and we will give her a proper Valinon welcoming."
"Yes, Commodore."
von Hielien watches as his ships shift course and then begin to send wave after wave of fire at the Artemis that they are rapidly steaming toward.
******
The two squads left to hold a desperate regard line falter under the explosion of the fusion gernades. The few that survive the explosion in the dead center of their lines begin a running retreat toward the lifts through which most of the security forces have departed to the levels upward of the hanger. The Takans can see the determined security men have taken a toll themselves in the forms of bodies formally hidden behind crates and spare equipment that formed barracades.
Meanwhile above in the operations center Foreman Deran watches the intense match between the desperate security men and the Takan armored warriors.
"Activate all auto-defense weaponary in corridor 13-48. If the Takans advance, we will make them pay."
The bombers wheel, followed by the fighter escorts, and head towards the line of Frigates and the light cruiser, each breaking off and beging its attack run, torpedo already armed and calculating its course. they closed just outside of AA range and began the run, misiles loaded, flying through a cloud of AA fire and missles, thankful for the protection the jaming pods were providing, meager as it was. several of the fighters were torn apart as they used their ships to side track incoming fire, peices of them raining across space.
***
The gunship and her heavy fighter escorts tore through the fire of the security forces, letting lose a cloud of plasma torpedoes, railgun rounds, and laser fire against the targets that presented themselves. The gunship aimed dirrectly towards the lead ship, its escort butchered by the AA fire, it armed its plasma torpedoes, firing a volley from the top of its hull, the five silver bolts streaking to thier target mear feet above, even as the AA fire caught up with it, tearing the gunship to shreds and sending its mangled remains spinning through space, atmospher leaking rapidly, till it smashed against a nearby asteroid, detonating in a pinprick of light.
***
The luna, unperturbed by the volly of fire from the security force turned its attnetion back to the Tigers claw, firing yet anouther volly from its side batteries into it, as if infurriated by its refusal to simply die. The spinal lance batteries locked on, adding weight to the ordinace, and aboard the screaming and yelling of the captian could be hear through the entire command deck.
"WHY WON'T YOU DIE!?!" he bellowed at it, glaring at a nearby ordinance officer. "YOU, FULL FUSION SALVO IN THREE SECONDS OR I'LL HAVE YOUR BALLS NAILED TO MY BUNK DOOR WITH YOU STILL ATTACHED!!"
cooly, having become long innured to the captians threats he thumbed the coms switch. "full fusion salvo in mark three. . . two. . . one. . . fire." he watched as five fusion torpedoes, roughly seven times the size of the plama torpedoes, shot from thier tubes. a few seconds passed, and the engines ignighted, sending them rushing towards the tiger's claw. This would give them somthing new to worry about.
***
The Diana attempted to swerve off of course, but the carbon buster missiles traced its moves, slamming against the hull. At first, nothign seemed to happen, save an almost indecernable black mist now coming from the pock marked titanium polymer armor underskin of the great carrier. Blast doors slammed shut around the ship as the radiation missiles came in, but did little good as they burst near the surface, sending deadly radiation against the ships sides. where the titanium polymer armor was still intact, nothing happened, the radiation bounced off as the ship's armor was designed to do, but in the areas affected by the carbon bombs, the radiation punched through the now carbonsheild less sections, the protection they provided having evaporated with the fine dust. In an instant, thirty crewmen unfortunate enought to not have been able to escape from behind blast doors recieved six hundered times the lethal dose, thier skin melting from thier bodies instantly. ten others recived a lethal dose, dropping dead in an instant, and twenty more at the first impact exploded, as the radiation superheated the bones, flesh and muscle, leaving a fine red mist in parts of it.
Limping baddly the captain gave the retreet order to all ships, who launced ordinace and began to retunr to thier mother.
***
The Arteimis flew on, like a God of carnage amoung the battlefield. Its spinal lance batteries opening fire at any convinent target, and its side batteries annihilating anything foolish enough to get in its way. Yuugi smiled at the turning figure of the Andromeda presented a firing face to her. "turn the ship to return a broadside salvo, I want that ship turned into scrap. . ."
***
The teams within the mine received the retreat signal, and with a flurry of curses, gatehred what prisoners they could. Charges were placed along the walls of the hanger, possitioned to give maximum fire against the weakest parts, and bring the hanger down on top of itself. . . if they couldn't destroy it, they would cripple it at least. The timers were set with 3 minutes on the, enough th reach the ship under the best of conditions, and reach minium safe distance under the worse. Just ot be on the safe side, he set the tamper charge, determined to give anyone attempitng to defuse it a rather nasty and rather fatal surprise. They gathered up what wounded they could, and stashed them on thier interceptors, setting the Auto pilot before returning to their ships and moving towards the limping Diana.
Commander Jacobs listens to the reports, fighters are dying, already a squadron and a half are gone. He watches as the bow of one of the frigates vanishes in a fiery explosion.
"Sir! Incoming gunship!"
"Point defenses! Refocus all weaponary! Pre-," it is too late, the deadly fire from the gunship attack flies forward. Point defenses scramble in vain, but too much get through. Jacobs bridge is rocked by the explosion, he looks at the damage reports, and sees red screaming back him all along the starboard side.
"Engines!" he shouts as the crew works to put out minor fires and activate secondary systems.
"Operable."
"Weapons!"
"80 percent of all weapons on starboard side heavily damaged, shields retaining strength at 25%! Sensors on starboard side obliterated!"
"Mr. Abastein!"
"Yes, Commander," says the second, blood flowing freely from a gash across his cheek from an exploded viewscreen.
"Bring us about! Take us down their throats! All weapons fire, I want us on a dead course! Let us send them to meet their beloved ancestors!"
"Yes, Sir!"
"Have the frigate move to intercept the fighters leaving the mine! They are to save who they can!"
******
Justinus gets his orders, he is now commander of all remaing fighters, roughly numbering around 18, plus the surviving frigate. He vectors away with the frigate toward the mine. He watches as the Profiteer sets its final course.
"Godspeed," he mutters, and he watches the light cruiser send a blast of fury and anguish at its opponent.
******
"New contacts postively identified as fusion missiles!" comes the yelled warning fron tactical.
Captain Perot spins around, his eyes flaring wide for a moment.
"Have all ships ready an EMP missile barrage at once! Lock on to all fusion missile contacts! Fire immediately! Once they have detonated commence evasive manuvers take us on a 18 hard to port!"
The EMPs streak away like meteors in a show from the Tiger Claw and her escorts, wave after wave locking on to the oncoming projecticles of death hurled at the Claw and her force.
******
Commodore von Hielien watches as his force and the Andromeda do a rotation that would do the Academy proud. Then blaze away at the Artemis with a broadside armament.
"Ready the Skipper missiles," he orders. Bought from New Ortaga at a heft price, these new missiles feature the Ortagan sensor stealth device, the next best thing to outright cloaking. Only a fighter with visual contact could kill it. They fly toward their target at random patterns, dropping their cloak for 1 second out of every 30 to do a breif sensor reading, then cloaking again. The Andromeda launches twenty of these missiles at her oncoming opponent, while her frigate and light cruiser escorts ruthlessly hammer away with their own weaponry.
Hielien swallows hard, the eight year old Andromeda cannot hope to withstand the full assault, unless.
"Redirect all bow and stern sheild energy to the starboard side, have the Lillian and the Acren have their point defenses move to cover our own!"
"Yes, Commodore!"
"Let us see who will blink first, Captain."
******
Admiral Horatio sees the fire now from his flagship.
"Five minutes until we have optimal firing range on the Luna and the [/i] Diana!"
"Good. Ready all batteries, we will hit them hard before they can fold."
******
Aboard ravaged K0-337, Foreman Deran watches the Takans begin to retreat. He watches them plant devices in the hanger.
"Hold all security personnel back! They are going to blow the hanger! Seal it off! Seal it off! Seal the emergency bay doors, and seal the hanger blast doors, we will lock them in their own tomb!" Meanwhile, the auto-defenses activate spraying the corridor and part of the hanger with fire. The massive doors of the corridor and the hanger begin to close.
"fack fack Fack FACK!!" the wing commander yelled, grabbing what men he could and throwing them into their interceptors. "Blast that door, I don't want it to close even one more inch" he bellowed, three interceptors swinging into motion and firing missiles against any and all exposed equipment attached to closing the door, hoping to slow it at least, before the wing burst off at full speed, shooting out the slowly closing doors. The wing Commander shot out last, scraping the tail end of his craft against it, spinning wildly for a few seconds, but regaining control shortly afterwards. He sighed, of the thirty men that had entered, only twenty were riding home, and of those, seven were knocked cold, or slowly bleeding to death as thier autopilot set a corse for the Diana. No matter, soon they would be safe.
His meditation was broken by the massive hull of a light cruiser crashing through the field, weapons blazing. He thumbed his missiles and guned the engines, praying that he would make the nearly impossible stunt. his prayers were cut short as his ship slammed into the already scared hull of the cruiser, shortly after his missiles had struck. the other Interceptors gunned thier engines, flying at top speed towards safety and towards home, followed by clouds of fire.
****
Onboard the Diana the captain watched grimmly, hangers ready to accept returning ships. . . it would take five minutes to be ready to fold, and he fully intended to be away before the rest of the armada could arrive. silently he cursed at Yuugi's arrogance and recklessness at attacking the Valinion home system, and hoped that whatever he was planning was worht the massive lose of life. Never the less, the majestic carrier swung her single lance baterie to offer what she could to cover the retreat of the smaller craft.
****
The Luna continued her onslaught against anything foolish enough to get within her firing range, sending salvo after salvo against the Tiger's Claw and her escorts. Even as shots raked her surface and her fold generators prepared for a hasty retreat, she moved as if the war would never end, and she, a goddess of battle, reveled in its glorious slaughter.
****
The Artemis swung full around, her fold generators already prepared to send it trhough space to its haven, a perfect escape. She opened fire with a full salvo towards the Andromeda, and was preparing a second as the first pings of the missiles reported into the gunners.
"sir, barage of missiles coming in!"
"well shoot them down" Yuugi barked impatinetly
"negative sir, its like. . . they aren't there and then they are. . . "
"son of a bitch, did you learn nothing in training? Fine, calculate most likely corce and fill that part of the sky with fire."
The officer complied, tracing trajectory, calculating velocity and speed, and then fired a wide spread of shots at the incoming missiles.
Knootoss
06-10-2003, 08:12
and... a big allied #tag#
Captain Perot watches as one of the light cruisers escorting the Tiger Claw explodes under a concentrated volley from the Luna, which is rapidly moving away from the [i]Claw as she and her escorts move evasively to get out of the path of the fusion missiles, most of which are now dead from EMP missiles, and the rest of which are having EMP missiles tracking them.
"Captain, we are out of maximum danger range from the fusion missiles. Their inert courses will take them into the asteriod fields."
"Good, prepare to-," Perot stops, the crippled Minotaur roars across his view, placing itself and a large portion of its escorts between the Claw and the Luna obviosuly trying to interdict the ships escape route.
"What is that fool doing," but Perot knows there is nothing he can do as he watches the carrier open fire with all of its limited weaponry remaining to it and its escorts.
"Suicide," he mummers.
******
"Four Skippers have been destroyed, Commodore."
"Prepare another volley on a different course pattern, also have all ships reconcentrate fire on the Artemis' weak points near the engine cores."
"Yes, Commodore," von Hielien watches as the Andromeda and her frigate and light cruiser escorts fire another volley of missiles and energy fly toward the Artemis. Then a massive wave streaks in from the left of the Andromeda.
"What!" then von Hielien sees it, the battlecruiser squadron under Rear Admiral Horatio coming from Prometheus has finally arrived. The far larger battle group now steams in toward the Artemis, guns blazing. Another substantial amount of fire is headed for the Luna.
"Thank God!" von Hielien breathes. "Fully volley now, directly at the Artemis! Quickly before they can fold!"
******
Deran watches the fighters escape. Then sees the security cameras consumed by fire, he knows that below him the hanger bay of the mine and probably many of the surrounding rooms have been turned into charred rubble.
"Inform the security forces to stand down. Lock down the hanger bay vacuum doors and immediate affected corridors."
"Yes, Foreman," Deran knows that the UPM Corp. will not be happy, and that the infamous "Mining Tsar" Andrei Mironenko will be raising problems in the Congress of Lords for some time to come.
The Luna soared through the fire storm as if it wre not there, her armor shrugging off blows that would ahve crippled or destroyed a weaker vessle. . . her guns fired one final time before a barage from the incoming Battlecruiser force took her side by surprise. Struck by two sides she listed dangerously, shots tearing through her armro at long last and sending a stream of cargo, ammunition, flaming plasma and unlucky crewmembers spraying out like life blood. She turned violently as the Minotaur roared foward. Her thrusters engaged to full, she kicked into it, slamming her nose deep into the already damaged hulk of the Minotaur. Her fold generators engaged, tearing both ships away, two grapplers locked in mortal combat.
* * * * *
The last of the ships had entered the minimum distance, and under heavy fire, some of it scoring crippling hits on the engine clusters and slamming munitions through the hanger doors, tearing gaping holes in the rows of aircraft, the Diana folded away, praying that she could survive long enough to get to port, wounded as she was.
* * * * *
Alone and out numbered the Artemus refused to surrender till she had taken a kill of the Andromeda.
"open a channel to that ship, and ready a full broadside, aim everything you ahve at the bridge and its weak points, I want taht turned into a flaming hulk before we leave."
The comms channel crackled to life, and with the shields flashing at impacts behind him Yuugi reguarded the commander coldly.
"well fought, a Military man would offer you a chance to surrender now. . . *he singnaled to prepare to fire, the entirety of teh 3rd-10th reactors being diverted to the side facing the Andromeda, the lances being targeted by the best gunners Yuugi could steal* But you will note, commander, I'm not a military man any longer. . . good bye"
He dropped his hand, the batteries hummed for a brief second before firing with such force that the ship literaly rocked, its massive bulk being thrown off balance before the inertial dampers could catch it and put it back on course. He watched the brief few seconds before the volley would hit, holding his breath, and not even noticing as the shields dropped under teh fire of the incoming battle cruiser fleet. . . oblivious to the damage reports streaming in. . . so long as teh hull held together he did not care, his entire attention on the bridge and command decks of the Andromeda.
The Minotaur is a lost cause as soon as the Luna collides with her. The thin armour and weak shields cannot sustain her defense, the old stalwart carrier is sliced into nearly half, her crippled bow drifting away, and explosions dotting the surface. Her enraged escorts try vainly to deal fatal blows in the seconds remaining before the Luna can follow the Diana into the fold.
******
Commodore von Hielien had taken the comm personally, he dials up the Artemis.
"Then prepare to die like any common dog!" he turns to his bridge crew.
"Full barrage! Unload all ordance! Have all ships concentrate their fire on the Artemis!" von Hielien watches as the Andromeda, the Tiger Claw, and all of his remaing forces move to strike out at the Artemis. Admiral Horatio's battlecruisers and their fleet rapidly move to do the same. Then von Hielien sees the Taka vessel fire so hard it is pushed back across space. He sees the streams of energy.
"Reinforce the shields!" he screams and the crew rushes to do it. Then the blast hits the Valinon shield barriers, the reinforced layers go down, three failing almost in a heartbeat, the clinging to life then waxing again as new energy comes into their projectors. But still von Hielien sees systems go red on his tactical boards.
"Damage reports!"
"Shield projectors 3 & 4 are gone, sir. Temporary energy overload in bow and stern sections, rerouting power to bypass damaged systems."
"Redirect additional energy to the shields on starboard! Then prepare another fully barrage!"
"fold" Yuugi said turning away from the battle at hand, his eyes burning with anger. His face was siloeted against red flashes as blasts continued to score hits against him. . . he turned suddenly "Launce a full fusion torpedo barrage at the Andromeda, I want that ship to be atomoized." The fold generators kicked in as his orders range out, and the ship dissipated into a cloud of coollant from the failed attempt to stop the fold. Thirty silver bolts shot out from it, Torpedos that had managed to escape the fold draft of the Artemis, now streaked towards the Andromeda, intent on securing Yuugi's kill.
"Commodore! Incoming fusion missile volley!"
"No!" shouts von Hielien. "Fire all EMP missiles! Have the Magellan deploy its EMP system! All ships target those missiles!"
Heilein watches as his own ships and the battlecruiser squadron unload EMP missiles at the fusion missiles.
"Too many," comes a horse cry.
"Evasive action! Take evasive action!" then a horrible noise racks the Andromeda.
"Reactor core 1,2, and 3 in critical overload, shutting down. Reactor 4 is showing signs of following suit!"
"Abandon ship! All hands! Full data dump now then head for the 'pods!" von Hielien watches as the crew scrambles, he sees several life pods break away and fly erradicately for the cover of other ships.
"Sir! Incoming!" von Hielien sees a missile heading dead for the crippled Andromeda.
"No," he whispers. Then a frigate comes roaring into view, taking the missile amidship. A blinding fireball erupts in the vacuum, the frigate is pulverized.
"Data dump done," comes a quiet voice. "Missiles still inbound, although moving unguided."
"Get off," von Hielien growls. He turns to head for the pods. He turns once more to look over the bridge of his stricken vessel.
"With God as my witness," he mummers, "I will have your head, Yuugi, and I shall have my dogs desecrate it!" von Hielien's command would largely live, and no major Valinon casaulties would be further inflicted by the desperate fusion attack. But the Andromeda was left almost as a hulk in space, as the Valinon Star Armada evaded the Takan attempt at a death blow.
"sir, we've got the complete transcription of the battle"
"good, analyze it and the pirates tactics, see what we can use, and begin implimenting it into our training protocal."
"what about the Valinion tactics sir? shouldn't we. . . "
"we aren't at war with Valinon, and hopefully never will be. . ." The admiral shook his head, this had been the first real test of Takian ships, and though they were old, it had provided more useful information than a hundred thousand projections. Quickly he fed it into the computer system, watching as ADAM started the task of compiling it out into its component parts, breaking the elaborate dance into a series of simple moves, calculations and projections. He lay his hand against the tube containing the brain of ADAM and shook his head, it had taken him quite a while to get used to using a sentient computer system, much less one that had once been in a mortal body. . . but that was long burried in black books that had never officialy existed. . . reminence of the project that started with teh One, and would end with his rebirth. No matter, stardata began to pour out, and he read through it, losing himself to his thoughts, and his data.
At Sanctuary in orbit over Proxima, Admiral of the Red Sir Verge Nicodemus, First Lord of the Admirality, watches the data dump from the battle with the rogue forces of Captain Yuugi. He looks at the six other Admirals of the Red surrounding him.
"Consider all this information carefully, dismissed," they all leave, except for one.
"Yes, Lady Conlan," the head of the R&D since Luther Davion went rogue still analyzes the deadly dance repeating itself.
"Let us be thankful, Verge, that we will never fight with them."
Verge goes back to his notes, "We would win, but it would only be because of our alliances and because we could hope to marshal more resources due to the Five Worlds."
"Perhaps."
"It would be close," he mummers, "so very close."