NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC:
This is a part of the AoN versus ESUS war thread by Gronde. It details the fihgting and skirmished between shadow Tech and Al-Imvadjah. OOC thread (for the whole war) is here (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=366060).
IC:
The flight of RSD fighters was on a recon mission into deep space. They were looking for targets for Al-Imvadjah's recently activated Dark Fleet to strike in the war agianst ESUS and the AoN. They approached a cluster of small asteriod surrounding a single large one, about the size of Earth's moon, though egg-shaped. There was no obvious activity, but experience had taught Al-Imvad fighter crews to be cautious when approaching asteriod fields and clusters.

The fighters and their loadouts
27 Mallads with 8 AAMs, 1 long-range FTL pod, 1 extra fuel pod, and 1 bunkerbusting bomb
9 Mallards with 8 AAMs, 1 lr-FTL pod, 1 extra fuel pod, and 2 recon/tracking devices
12 Seagulls with 8 AAMs, 1 lr-FTL pod, and 1 extra fuel pod.

That's 48 fighters, or four squadrens. The Mallards are divided evenly into 3 squadrens, the Seagulls are seperate.

Obscurus Outpost, Shadow Tech Rim Space

+Gravitic signatures detected+
++Cross referencing with ergo, mass, heat, and particle flooding sensors++
+++Unidentified vessels detected+++Unknown Species 6923 similarity+++
+Defense grid activated, sending Ident codes to Ghosts+

+Sending message code 453320961 to unknown vessels+
"Attention unknown vessels, you are in violation of Shadow Tech rim space and have been deemed a threat. Power down weapons and communications or you will be destroyed."

The space around the asteroid came alive. Though the main asteroid itself was completely unarmed, almost all of the smaller asteroids hosted a series of defensive emplacements. Each of the somewhat round objects began to disform as the long railgun barrels began to protrude from their surfaces. Twenty Ghost Maker class heavy fighters also faded into truespace, immediately powering up their electron flux whips for fighter on fighter combat. In a matter of minutes the enemy fighters would either be prisoners of Shadow Tech or dead, hopefully.

The flight leader heard the message and quickly called up a list of viable target nations on a MFD. He looked and saw Shadow Tech on the "Attack" list. He opeden a private comm channel to his fighters:

"Okay guys, these are viable targets and you know what to do. Take the fighters first, then we'll be able to hit the base."

The fighters broke up into pairs, and accelerated toward the enemy fighters. As they approached the weapons officers locked AAMs onto targets.

Obscurus Outpost, Shadow Tech Rim Space

+Enagagement eminent. Raise defense shields+
++Contacting Prime via live feed++

Ten of the fighters faded out of truespace as quickly as they had come. The others however, formed up in two groups of five and began to take longrange potshots with their heavy neutron beams. The defensive emplacements were well out of range for now, but nevertheless the asteroid's energy shields were raised.

OOC: I fixed the whole fighter boarding thing.

"Seagulls and Blue squadren, take the enemy fighters,"said the flight commander as his pilot began manuevering the fighter to avoid the incoming fire. "Wait until you can't miss to launch those missiles. Everybody else use the busters to hit those rg emplacements."

The fighters broke off into two groups, following his orders. The squadren of Seagulls and 12 of the Mallards went after the enemy fighters, outnumbering them greatly. One of the Seagulls was hit by enemy fire and exploded. The rest got within range and loosed a single AAM each.

Obscurus Outpost, Shadow Tech Rim Space

The ten fighters each loosed a few Neutron beam shots before attempting to phase out of truespace to avoid the incoming missiles. Nine made it safely out but the tenth was in the process of phaseing when an AAM impacted the fighter, shattering its Hyperspace Tap. The resulting mass of the fighter was splintered through both truespace and not, destroying another two fighters which thought themselves to be in relative safety.

In the meantime the ten fighters that had dissapeared earlier re-entered truespace near the asteroid and began accelerating towards the second group of enemies.

+Open Fire+
The numerous railgun emplacements began lobing their large shells into the enemy formations, though without much accuracy due to the range.

OOC: oops, I thought I'd replied to this already :p
IC
The Neutron beams caused minor damage to four of the attacking Mallards, protected by their heavy armor. However a fifth was destroyed by a direct hit to the cockpit. The fighters turned away from where the enemies had been and followed the first group towards the asteroids.

The first group had reached the Shadow Tech gun emplacements and begun bombing them, with only slight flak damage from the exploding shells. The heavy bunker busters were dropped with extreme accuracy, due entirely to the skill of the crews.

Some the Mallards had launched fire-and-forget AAMs at the enemy fighters that appeared at the asteroid as they moved into their bombing runs. A total of 6 were launched.

The sluggish railgun emplacements were doing little but distract the enemy fighters right as the first bunker buster bit off part of the main base. PDF lasers were now spreading the skies with thin laser fire in an effort to give the GhostMakers more time to dispatch the fighters.

The group of GhostMakers near the asteroid field picked off 4 of the AAMs, sacrificeing one of their own to take the brunt of the other two. They activated their Electron Flux Whips for close fighter-on-fighter combat and loosed a few Neutron beams.

The other 7 fighters reentered truespace near the asteroid as well and formed up to try and shield the base itself.

Half the mallards (12 fighters) finished their bombing runs and moved to attack the enemy fighters again, launching more AAMs, lighting up their targets with powerful radar. The Point Defense Lasers were a minor annoyanec to the Mallards, who continued fighting, though they did try to avoid the heavier concentrations of fire.

Shortly after the group broke off, the rest of the fighters arrived at the asteroid. Those Mallards that still had bombs continued seeking out targets while the Seagulls and the rest of the Mallards moved to engage the enemy fighters.

BUMP
and IC:
As the enemy continued to return fire, the commander decided to call for reinforcements.
"This is the Fifth Recon group, we are encountering heavy resistance at our current position. Requesting reinforcement, additional anti-fighter support needed"

Just then a flak shell from the ground fire burst dangerously close to his fighter.
"Goddamn it Alex, keep away from those railguns- get me a clean shot at the enemy fighters," He scolded his pilot.

After seeing two Mallards taken out by Flak and a third by the fighters, he opened another channel:
"Try to get a tracking bug on the enemy. We'll find out where they came from and hit 'em back. We might not make it out of here alive,so we'll just have to do the best we can."

Obscurus Outpost, Shadow Tech Rim Space

Bombs poured into the asteroid, seeming to do no damage until a stray bomb somehow penetrated the hangar, setting off the Antimatter containment field. The resulting explosion splintered thousands of asteroid shards across the expanse of space, destroying all but 2 of the reamining Ghost Makers. The Ghost Makers quickly made their escape deeper into Shadow Tech space, were battlegroups were already forming to meet the new threat.

The fighter group ws destroyed by the explosion, but the request for reinforcements had been sent out, and Admiral Gordon's strike fleet was gearing up for an invasion of Shadow Tech space.

Meanwhile, additional patrols of fighters, frigates, and Nighthawks were being dispatched to perform additional reconniasance in the area.

OOC: You'll find distant antimatter signatures growing higher in intensity as you go deeper into my space.

OOC: Thanks, that helps.
IC
Nighthawk 0113 was pushing deeper into what had been identified as Shadowtech territory, it had detected distand antimatter readings and was following them to their source. The size of the readings suggested a production facility or a major starbase. It was carrying a standard loadout of torpedos, but instead of mines, it had sensor pods and reconiassance devices.

The captain radioed back to HQ, telling them of the readings and what direction they appeared to be coming from.

OOC: Sorry, I've been busy...
IC:
Nighthawk 0113 had continued to follow the trace antimatter readings, when it stumbled upon what appeared to be a large settlement. Though unable to get a good idea of what exactly was there, the captain made a couple logical assumptions. Deep in Shadow Tech space, it was marked for later investigation. Investigation in this case meaning invasion. The Nighthawk captain sent the following message back to headquarters:
ST sttlmt found nr current Loc. Reccomend immdte strike - no apparent defenses.