NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: This is a continuation of the Shivian Return thread, this concerns Jordaxia & ESUS and the Shivans & allies. Please don't post here if you haven't joined in on the thread:

http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=385855

Tags and comments are welcome but OOC banter is not.

Note to Jordaxia: I got the info off Imperial Brits, so apologies if it's slightly incorrect, if so i'm happy to correct myself :)

IC:

Shadow Battlecrabs shrieked into the red murky depths of hyperspace (well off the usual hyperspace beacon routes) as they began to near their destination's co-ordinates. It was co-ordinates slightly off the beacon systems on the various Jordaxian trade/supply routes to the Ort cloud.

The Shadow vessels would lurk in the area just off the beacon system, when small or isolated Jordaxian military units or any supply/trade ships came through hyperspace or the bordering area of normal space the Shadows would strike without a scrap of mercy.

The idea was to disrupt Jordaxian supplies of air and water and force them into committing lots of ships against the seemingly random attacks by an unknown enemy. Thus stretching their military to the full, for a possible strike by Shivan and their allies upon Jordaxia itself as the start of their war of revenge with the ESUS.

Such seemingly random attacks would occur in all sectors where known trade routes, Jordaxian or not intersected or came close to their space. Nobody would escape the precision of the Shadow assaults, they would either serve the Shadows with Keepers attached to their bodies, become enslaved by the Shadows or die before them.

The Shadows failed to remeber that the first Shadows had been to this dimension a thousand years before and their presence may have been remebered in writings of the races involved.

This was the prelude to the black and terrible storm that was coming...

Tag; is it ok if I post in?

~Tag

I think you already posted Chronosia ;)

Tag

OOC: Please wait until Jordaxia replies, but this more about my raids of Jordaxian space atm. You can do similar but they aren't going to be really connected with mine, you can always go after another one of ESUS in a similar way. Talk to Balrogga or TST (or any active ESUS) about it in a TG or something, i'm sure you can organise something. :)

Bump for Jordaxia's post.

Tag

A TG would have been cool, but no matter, I found seen it anyways. Pure luck, more than anything, mind. You'll forgive me if my replies don't ooze liquid gold, I have two other threads that I need to fight as well, and if I spend my usual time on replies... It'll never get done. I noticed that you were referring to B5 like hyperspace. Unfortunately, my ships have never used it. They tend to use bog standard SW hyperdrive, which is different, as I'm sure you're aware. But since it would be stupid to let a thing like that stop us, I'll allow you to magic up any FTLi you didn't bring along.

IC:

Another convoy approached the Empire, another twelve ships. The Soylent Green was the head of this particular convoy, another haul of water heading back to Pluto for distribution. This particular route was quite well known for its pirate attacks, being far deeper within the Oort cloud than most others. The missile minefield extended out quite far here, waiting for cocky pilots to chase the convoys for too long. It was quite a successful tactic. The field would lie dormant until an attacking force was right inside, then activate at once, swarming the enemy ships.


The view on board would have been.... bland. Rocks. And space. The sun was so distant it was nothing more than another star, slightly brighter than the others. Still, they were zipping along nicely in hyperspace, and the last leg of the journey was always good to lift spirits. Even if it did bring the usual pirate gangs looking for easy pickings. But then, that's why the pay was good.

With little more to do, the autopilot simply guided them along the route cleared through the asteroids at superluminal speeds.

Taggage with a reminder all trade ships would have to be intercepted in Sol with two fleets minutes away as no-one currently knows the location of The Seven Systems.

OOC: Before you attack, read my factbook. You're pretty much limited to attacking me in Sol, and I always keep a small fleet there.

Taggage with a reminder all trade ships would have to be intercepted in Sol with two fleets minutes away as no-one currently knows the location of The Seven Systems.

OOC: Yeah, thats why I said most TST :D Remeber, however Shadow vessels are quite powerful, but they do have the same weaknesses as the ones from B5 and plus one more I decided to incorporate shown in the Hunt for the Chaos Emeralds thread.

Jordaxia, sorry forgot the TG thus my apologies to you, i'd assumed you'd seen the Shivan thread and wouldn't mind fighting from it. Anyway, I doubt it really matters as regards engines since the Shadow tech allows them to phase in and out of hyperspace without the usual obvious portal making it look like FTLi. I'm sure we can use both without too much problem, we just have to say they allow one to travel at the same sort of speed to anywhere.

Oh, don't worry about post quality it's just nice to play a decent RP rather than one that ends in mass OOC shouting and ignores. Mine won't be liquid gold either :)

IC:

Six Shadow Battlecrabs with two Vampire Scout Cruisers stalked the convoy in real space from the depths of hyperspace. The old ships were much feared throughout their own dimension, but they were hardly known in this one apart from that little incursion by the original Shadows a thousand years ago.

They could feel the electronic throbbing pulses eminating from their mind's eye from the Organic Quantum Computer on Z'ha'dum named 'The Eye', they were watching their prey most tenatively. The unspoken order to attack filled their minds with a mind piercing screech they activated the Shadow Jump Engines phasing them back into real space.

They came like avenging angels at full velocity heading towards the convoy, the Spitfire Fighters sped out from the pores of the huge battlecrabs, it was like being attacked by a horde of blacker than black spiders with only genocide on their minds.

Purple Death Ray (OOC: Thats what it's refered to by B5 tech nobody else has a name for them :P) beams from the Vampires and Battlecrabs cut up through space heading towards the convoys ships. Anti-matter based Quantum cannons from the Spitfire fighters spat out their lethal cargo in bursts at the same ships.

The Shadows had arrived...

TAG
And might I ask what B5 is?

OOC: Babylon 5.

OOC:

Attention Merchant Guilds


Since my nation is 30% active Psi (and 5 million Ta'Nar), we might have to figure out if we can pick up on the telepathic communications of your ships and pilots. The communications back home are another thing we might have to figure out.

You might be able to pisk up the Communications between my Psi also. Fair is fair.

My normal Psi would conform to the B5 scale but the Ta'Nar would not. Pure Psi Entities would blow away the P1-P12 scale without trying.

OOC: Just so everyone knows, I'm going to be launching my Graviton Destroyer in this thread later. It'll be accompanied by a group of transports just in case something goes wrong. Nothing will, but that will be a perfect time to attack it and start warring with me.

OOC:

Attention Merchant Guilds


Since my nation is 30% active Psi (and 5 million Ta'Nar), we might have to figure out if we can pick up on the telepathic communications of your ships and pilots. The communications back home are another thing we might have to figure out.

You might be able to pisk up the Communications between my Psi also. Fair is fair.

My normal Psi would conform to the B5 scale but the Ta'Nar would not. Pure Psi Entities would blow away the P1-P12 scale without trying.

OOC:

Thats fine, as you know PSI abilities are the Shadow's weakness but I don't mind you using them. I would rather without Tele-kinesis in Space (but your welcome to use it in other areas) etc but you can stop meh ships using PSI. I do ask that you don't know this right away however and you just find out by accident. :)

I will be picking up some PSI Comms (if I am close to the signal other I can't), fair is fair. You can pick up my own, which are a kind of PSI/Usual Signal hybrid, question is can you decipher my language :).

Ta'Nar are fine, so we are looking a Lyta Alexander type Telepathic bombs are we?

Thats fine, DLE go ahead.

*waits for Jordaxia to get round the Technical problems*

OOC:

Agreed, I will not use Telekinesis in Space as you requested. I will also not use the Psi as a weapon until I discover the weakness In Character. That is more than reasonable. If you wish to discuss more with me feel free to TG me.

As far as the Ta'Nar goes, they evolved a couple thousand years ago to the point where they no longer needed their bodies to exist. They have a "body" of thought energy. There are only 5 - 10 million of them (the starting population a new nation possesses) in this galaxy. The rest are somewhere else...

I really don't know how they would compare to Lyta. I will not get too carried away except in acts of desparation and I will attempt to contact you either through TG or IM to coordinate these events.

I think the language barrier might be fine for starters, since our races have never met. Through interaction we can learn each others languages, if we have enough time.

OOC: Yep thats grand. The only reason I wasn't wanting T-K in space was because it would make it a little too easy for you. :)

But yeah, i've got to find out your weaknesses IC as well, which is the fair way to do it.

So effectively they're energy beings? Interesting... I've been working on creation of an energy being Codenamed 'Kane' IC for a while now, perhaps this might speed along the research.

Well my IM is: GINRUMI1@hotmail.com

Yeah, pre-arrange this kind of stuff is good.

I look forward to this. Feel free to start a convoy post.

There must be one Fortress of Light to stand against the Darkness.

((Glorified Tag to see what the PseudoShadows are up to.))

There must be one Fortress of Light to stand against the Darkness.

((Glorified Tag to see what the PseudoShadows are up to.))

OOC: Lol, well Second Shadows in my timeline. You can always come through from the same dimension to fight with ESUS against the Darkness.

On the ancient seat of the Vorlons, debate raged. Kosh Ulkesh's faction, who in English would be called the militarists, called for an immediate strike. The chaos in the galaxy was growing with every passing year, and these - impersonators, who pretended to be their ancient but honoured, in an odd way, rivals - were attacking younger races. Though the Shadows of their era could be trusted to share their good intentions - at heart, to use the cliché, all Vorlons and Shadows wished only to help the younger races - they could not be trust to have the same good intent.

There was no desire to win the Great Debate with these shadows. No desire to see them concede, and reform. There was only anger. They had never been, and still were not, prepared to kill the messenger, simply eliminate the message. But they did not regard these interlopers as anything but a tainted young race.

Each point raised was countered by the militarists, each piece of dissention quashed. At last there was unity. The Vorlons would aid the Young Races in destroying this menace. And this time, they would not hold back from annihilating their foes. An expeditionary force would be assembled, and dispatched. Sensors and probes had detected the darkness plaguing the Jordaxians, and soon the bringers of Light and Order would lend what aid they could.

The surprise attack caught the convoy completely off guard. As the purple beams raked the front of the supply convoys, several of the ships were cut clean in half, water from the holds flooding out into space, vapourised instantly by the beam as it continued through the ship. The bridges of the rear two convoys detatched from the main hull in a plume of gas, and sped off in the direction of the vast minefield, off the course of the safe route through the asteroid belt. The remaining four ships angled their masers and returned fire on the vast, alien vessel, invisible beams of energy clawing at the surface of the 'crabs. Hummingbird missiles flew from side compartments of the ships as part of an automated defense, immediately splitting into four smaller missiles, flying at the fighters. The Thermokinetic foam on the hull of the remaining freighters was close to being completely burned out, however. Antimatter weapons incinerated the foam before it could absorb most of the force, and the inner hull of the freighters was becoming a melted mesh ot titanium and iron, trapping crews from their escape pods, and burning them alive in the molten liquid. The screams from the engineering section of one ship could be heard through the comms of every ship in the convoy, a repulsive cacophany of terror and despair, cutting out when what was left of the roof screamed its surrender and collapsed on their heads.

Aboard the remains of the Soylent green a small sensor buoy began to hum to life, and sped away into the darkness towards the PMC, with its short video recording of the attack, and the mysterious alien ships involved.

OOC: Can I attack in this thread? or launch another thread where I specifically attack you? I want to get more involved with this Shivan plot.

OOC: Remeber the Vorlons are going to have to open their own dimensional gate to get to the Galaxy, to aid the ESUS.

Please note this is with Jordaxia's permission.

IC:

The shiny black Battlecrabs stalked through the wreakage of what had been the leading ships of the convoy, some completely ripped in half by the purple beams nicknamed the 'Death Rays'. The Spitfire fighters swarmed through the wreckage

They fired their beams in long bursts towards the remaining elements of the convoy screaming their dark mental scream all the while. If anybody had heard it would sound as if a being was trapped inside a life not it's own and was in constant tortueous agony in a truely twisted and dark manner.

The Spitfire fighters arched round and sped towards the convoy elements just as the Battlecrabs began the streaming fire of their weapons, they unleashed their own volley of anti-matter fire from their appendages.

The four damaged ships had been shocked originally by the speed and ferocity of the assault on them, they now began to answer back with their Masers targeting the Battlecrabs and their Hummingbird missiles targeting the smaller Spitfire Fighters.

The Masers seemed to have little impact on the huge battlecrabs, although if one had looked closely it would have said;

'you're lucky I didn't bring my real gun'

The Hummingbird missiles on the other hand managed to shred one of the hand like Spitfire Fighters and send another crashing into one of the abandoned transports causing a large blossoming fireball as the atmosphere mixed with space and combusted.

Soon however all the remaining ships were overcome being literally sliced and diced by the much larger and more powerful ships, they were facing, even the escape pods had been chased down and destroyed by the Spitfire Fighters.

The Destruction wrought was total and once the ships were satisfied with the entirity of the destruction, they faded back into the depths of hyperspace with a mental scream.

OOC: Can I attack in this thread? or launch another thread where I specifically attack you? I want to get more involved with this Shivan plot.

OOC: Go ahead, Chron.

Space rent itself asunder as the ships of the Imperium; vast and black, slid like shadows from the burning void of the empyrean. Countless tomb ships slithered from the Immaterium, wreathed in shadows, the interiors cold and dead and effervescent with plague; dark ships loyal to Lucian and to their Emperor.

The ships moved through the abyss; encroaching on the supply lines; as the great weapons of Chaos crackled into bloody life.
"Behold...." Lucian hissed from the bridge. "Death has come, and it is legion..."

The freighters cruised along in Space Plus. They have been on route to the Nihal system to deliver supplies to the research teams investigating the ruins found by The Farseeker years ago. Two small colonies grew up to support the researchers.

The lead ship, The Crone carried computer equipment for the colony. Her sister ships carried food and livestock. The colony needed them to get their economy self sufficient.

“Captain, we are nearing the system. The computer estimates Crossover in 30 seconds.”

“Good, warn the crew and hold on to something. This might be kind of rough. The two stars emit a discordant field that makes Crossover bumpy.”

“Yes Captain.”

The Crone and her three sisters drop from Space Plus back into Real Space near the edge of the system slightly above plane. Ahead of them lay the Oort Cloud and beyond, the twin glittering jewels marking the center of the system.

OOC: Remeber the Vorlons are going to have to open their own dimensional gate to get to the Galaxy, to aid the ESUS.


Is this in the Milky Way? If not, then Vorlon Prime won't be involved, going Beyond the Rim is, while not by any means beyond their abilities, something they're not ready for culturally.

OOC: This is in the Milky Way. I'm only a little less than 2000 lightyears from Earth and I'm close enough to reach where the Shivans are within a few days (using the leapfroggin technique, of course).

Oh, see my thread for the stats on the graviton destroyer. It was built with the mentality of it taking on entire fleets alone. Of course, only my allies would know that or when it is being launched.

IC:

The Gormtahya, the largest ship in the DLE fleet, glittered strangely in the night, the robots that built it now far removed. Inside the ship the crew rushed around, activating systems and preparing for launch. Going with them were several civilian ships, personel and supply transports, just in case something went wrong. But, nothing was expected to go wrong.

Captain Ferlet, recently promoted to being in charge of the test run, smiled. As soon as the crew signalled they were ready, he signalled for the ship to be taken out. The first few jumps, easily taking the ship out of the Dead Zone and into mapped space, made him smile even wider. Despite the multitude of worries, due mainly to the size of the ship, nothing had gone wrong. Perfect. Or, at least, so he thought.

"Sir, there seems to be something strange on sensors..." Leutent Ver said.

OOC: Now would be a perfect time to attack.

#Tag# For ESUS smackdown.

Is this in the Milky Way? If not, then Vorlon Prime won't be involved, going Beyond the Rim is, while not by any means beyond their abilities, something they're not ready for culturally.

OOC: Read the Shivan Thread. The Shadows thus therefore the Vorlons are coming from another Dimension. It's just interesting to have it this way, but I think Vorlon Prime got it right in some far as (Diet) Kosh is something of a hardliner and thus you tend to think other Vorlons would have thought the same. It's just a matter of perspective really.

OOC: I'm a little short on time atm so apologies if this is rather sketchy at times.

IC:

A Shadow Raiding party, one of the many black tentacles of the Millenia old Darkness, which were spreading out like the plague to the corners of known space bring with them slavery, chaos, death and pain, in the cause of Perfection through Evolution through Total War.

One of the more advance parties of ships, a standard size combat unit of 6 Battlecrabs and a Vampire Scout Cruiser were heading parallel to Balroggan territory looking for vunerable ESUS targets especially convoys of supplies and lone warships.

Suddenly their advanced sensory arrays began picking up a new scent in hyperspace, Dimensional leakage... this indicated either another portal was nearby or somebody or something was using very advanced dimensional engines. This was immediatly communicated back to the Eye through a transmitter and power relay brought through the Dimensional gate in order to allow the Eye to control the Shadows forces in this dimension as well as in Beta Dimension.

The orders recieved from the Eye were simple:

Search and Destroy

The ships changed course and slid gracefully towards the nearest Balroggian system, this was a calculated gamble as to where the Dimensional Leakage might be going to/coming from. If it wasn't the Shadows could still assault and burn the System provoking a military response from the Balroggians, who would blame others for the attack, since they would not know who or what the Shadows were.

40 minutes later

The Battlecrabs sensed an increase in the dimensional leakage, it was a stench now not just a feint smell, from this they also determined the location of the dimensional rift. The Nihal System, they had gambled correctly, with a load mental scream of centuries of pain and suffering the ships phased into normal space. Their hugely powerful lasers screeching out from their great maws towards the ships, which reaked of dimensional leakage

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

Another Shadow Raiding Party phased into real space about 10 kilometres from the huge lone craft.

The 6 sheer black spidery like craft, with the scout cruiser and their Taloned hand look a like fighters swarmed towards the ship at incrediable speed given their relative size each one was at least a kilometre across some twice or even three times that. They stank of millenia of death and slavery, these were ships unlike anything the crew had ever seen before and were a symbol of the new power rising in the Galaxy.

OOC: aww, meh. My entrance was ignored

OOC: aww, meh. My entrance was ignored

OOC: Well, you could have written a little more about where you were appearing.

I wasn't sure whether DLE was refering to your or my ships, he didn't say.

The Chronosian fleet moved through the gulf; encroaching slowly on a trade lane; their targets according to the Shivans they now allied with. They came slowly from the north; and were now lightseconds away from their goal.
Weapons flared in the dark; the shields rose and the Chronosian ships paused for a moment; allowing Lucian time to survey the dark void of space.

"Here we wait; for now. Maintain radio silence; let us see where our prey will come from."

"Aye lord"

"Should anyone question us; we shall maintain rsilence as long as nessecary; if not; we are simply a Chronosian assault fleet; bound for Home; who were sent off course by Warp Storms."

"Yes Sir. But all systems shall be kept ready; we await your wisdom, and the words of the Dark Gods."

"Indeed; Papa Nurgle shall be kind to us this day; now go servitor; make ready."

OOC: I was refering to whoever attacks my ships.

The Crone and her three sisters slowly begin to pass over the Oort Cloud, bypassing the thicker parts for safety's sake. Thet are following their course leading to the main Research Vessel orbiting around one of the inner planets.

The four ships remain blissfully unaware of the impending danger...


OOC:

Sorry so short. Just wanted to let you know I saw your post and they are following their origional course because they do not know of your presence.

OOC: No problem. I can't do very much, since I did say I had just shot at you :)

IC:

As they phased into real space, the Battlecrabs screeched the mental scream that accompanied all their attacks, it was after all their trademark.

The Battlecrabs fired their great weapons from their maws, the purple beams arched up towards the ships.

The Spitfire Fighters loosed their steams of anti-matter at the unsuspecting craft and the Vampire cut up it's own laser.

Chaos had arrived...

OOC:

Sorry, I missed you shooting at them for some reason. Stupin life making thoughts cluttered...

Get the shuttle if you want.



IC:

The four cargo vessels slid silently above the majority of the Oort Cloud. Suddenly from below several ship lept out at them. Purple beams lanced out at them, completely knocking out their repulser fields. Several of the small chunks of space debris now was able to begin pelting the ships.

That was the least of their worries.

A barrage of antimatter cannons lanced the four vessels, destroying everything in their paths, The laser of the Vampire struck the Caplis Projector of one of the ships, removing it from the ship entirely. The vessel now drifted helpless, for about three seconds. A purple beam struck it and vaporized the defenseless craft.

The other ships tried to take evasive maneuvers but seeing as freighters are not known for their maneuverability, it was futile. The crews aboard the ships tried to fire the two lasers mounted on their tops and bottoms. One of the lasers lanced out and struck the unsheilded hull of one of the invaders, to be ignored completely. Their lasers were ineffective against the hulls of the Shadows.

One of the ships tried to send a distress call as another of the purple beams cut a hole completely through the ship. The antimatter cannons quickly took care of the other two ships. A lone shuttle managed to take off from one of the ships before it's destruction. It tried to flee in-system, completely in vain.

OOC: Somebodies watched B5 and remebers how the Shadow attacks happen. I applaud you, Sir. :D

IC:

The Shadow vessels glided through the wreckage. One of the Battlecrabs followed the Shuttle, easily catching up with it despite it's bizarre and desperate evasive attempts. A lighter purple wide beam echoed out from the Shadow vessels hull, it pulled the helpless craft closer and closer, had there been a microphone in the shuttle, you would have heard the sheer screams coming from it's crew members.

When it finally reached the vessels organic hull, the ship was enveloped in Black almost fluidic material holding it in place, tigher than most heavy duty clamps could.

The Shadow raiding party scanned the wreckage one more time, before phasing back into hyperspace. They would take their prisoners back for Interrogation and possible servitude to the Shadows and the cause of Chaos and Evolution.

Unfortunately, the Shadows had failed to notice the fact that the ships had got a communication before they had been destroyed utterly. The remains would be found soon enough.

OOC: I'll do the Interrogation later.

Nihal Starbase:


Alarm indicators began flashing as displays came to life. The holo display showed the outer edge of the system. Several blinking points were showing in the outer Oort Cloud.

“Commander, we have multiple events in Sector 9. There are about six dimensional events. They appear to be hyper-spatial in origins. Within a time period of 60 seconds there have been both emergence and departures. We have a scheduled cargo transport that should be in the area but they cannot be detected. There was a brief contact with them but the signal was cut off.”

“What ships do we have in the immediate area?”

“There is a Vengeance that can be there within 30 seconds.”

“Send her in but keep the rest of the Homefleet in readiness.”

“Yes sir.”



Thirty seconds later:


The Mourning Star emerged from T-Space. The destroyer immediately dispatched its fighters and assumed a defensive position. Several probes launched and began scanning the area.

“Captain, there is a large debris field. The energy readings indicate the use of high energy and antimatter weapons. We cannot detect the presence of the intruders within Real Space. We are beginning scans in other dimensions. The data shows the debris were the freighters. They have been destroyed.”

“How is the perimeter?”

“The patrols report no bogeys. They are beginning to scan the Oort Cloud.”

“Keep me informed.”

“Yes Sir”




OOC:


System Resources from the web site:

2 Desolator Class Battleship
6 Enforcer Class Battleship
4 Intruder Class Carrier
10 Peacekeeper Class Cruiser
2 Shadow Class Destroyer
8 Vengeance Class Destroyer
2 Idolator Class Frigate
12 Torpedo Class Frigate
3 Research Vessel
30 Motherships (mining vessel)
1 Starbase
1 Shipyards

IC:

The ease at which the convoy had been destroyed and some unusual annomalies on the Battlecrab's sensor logs had convinced the Shadow forces and the Eye, which controlled them that a full scale assault on the Nihal System might be affected. However, they needed some data on Balroggian Military vessels and their abilities, thus four of the 6 Battlecrab vessels stayed on in the vicinity of the wreckage relative to hyperspace to await the small exploration, which was sure to come after such an attack.

The vessels did not have long to wait a Destroyer soon came out T-space filling the area and leaking into hyperspace Dimensional Wastage. The Shadows were growing to know that smell well by now.

The vessels waited till the Balroggian Military Vessel was in the middle of the area of destruction, and since they had jumped into this area before. They had pre-pointed geographical data as to exact co-ordinates of where to jump to.

The jump points formed almost on top of the Balroggian vessel should have been although invisible to the human eye these were none the less obvious to instruments.

Two Battlecrabs came out of the two jumpoints, their Spitfire fighters swarming besides them, the two others remained behind as support if they were needed. Then the purple beams spat out with the mind numbing scream that accompanied all Shadow attacks...

“Captain, I am picking up disturbances in Hyperspace. It appears there is movement there.”

“Concentrate the scans in Hyperspace. I want to know what is there.”

“Yes sir… Captain! We have gravity wells forming almost right on top of us. They are resolving into Hyper-spatial Jump Points.”

“Evasive action! Shields at full! Ready weapons!”


Everywhere on The Mourning Star alarms sounded and crew rushed to their posts. The guns came to life and tried to acquire targets.

The jump points formed just outside the Shields. Their Spitfires swarmed out attacking the destroyer. The weapons struck the shields and were very effectively negated. The two Battlecrabs truck out with their purple beams. The beams struck the shields. At the point of impact, colors rippled out as the energy of the beams were deflected into T-Space. A small amount of energy trickled through to be absorbed by the ships armor.

The score of fighters swarmed from below, targeting the Spitfires. Laser canons and the pulsar cannons fired at the enemy.

Aboard The Mourning Star several of the Ta’Nar looked towards where the enemy ships were outside the hull, as if they heard something…

If the Battlecrabs had had facial features they would have been in abject horror, nothing in the thousands of years of history of the Shadows, had hits ever been deflected so easily. However the Shadows would not be so easily fooled by the apparent sign of strength from the Balroggian vessel, the Battlecrabs began directing their fire as far as was possible towards the same points again and again. They also launched a small number of energy mines at the Balroggian ship, which when they got within sufficent distance would explode buffeting the ship with raw energy.

The Spitfire Fighters nimbly broke formation, dodging, ducking and rolling around the forest of light laser beams and pulse weapons, the Balroggian targeting systems were effectively targeting where they should be however, after the first few hits on the small Black fighters they began to adapt their weaving patterns to dodge the anticipated positions by a method of almost random turns, it decreased the a mount of anti-matter pulses, they could fire but hell it would keep them intact longer. However, despite this six of their number had dissolved in a flurry of black tissue by direct impacts by several beams at once.

The Battlecrabs screeching call for assistance reached through hyperspace to their brother and sister waiting to aid them. With a screech these two ships formed their own jump points to close on the ship from the other side with their fighters as well. Once all ships were safely through jump point de-stablisers were activated, this ship would not use it's Dimensional engines to get out of here and nor would any ship be able to come in using such engines for the prescribed range around the four spidery ships.

OOC: Say about 30 kilometres around the attack zone or something.

“Captain, there are two more ships appearing. They are concentrating fire on one point of our shields.”

“Fluctuate the dimensional harmonics to keep the shields from weakening. Get the fighter squadrons to concentrate upon theirs. Fire the main lasers at the enemy vessels. I want them to feel it. Contact Control and inform them of the ambush.”

“Yes Sir.

The Proteus Fighters swarmed the Spitfire Attack Craft. Lasers danced between both sides, only to be dodged by the other craft. The fighter pilots used their Neurolinks to control the fighters as if they were extensions of their own bodies. Three fighters disappeared in clouds of plasma as the invaders made lucky shots. Several of the alien’s shots struck the bio-reflective armor to be reflected away. The armor essentially turned a near hit into a miss.

“Dammit! This is our home, not theirs. We will drive them back. All we have to do is hold out until reinforcements arrive.”

“Captain, they have initiated some sort of inhibitor. They are trying to keep help from jumping in.”

“Two can play that game. Set up our JPI and initiate it immediately.”

“Yes Sir”

A bulkhead door opened and an emitter was extended. A Jump Point Inhibitor began to form, trapping the alien Battlecrabs within the immediate area.

Captain, I am getting some bizarre energy readings. It appears the two JPI are reacting to each other. There are wild surges of dimensional energies. A rift is forming and….



Nihal Command:


“Commander! We are picking up a massive dimensional event where The Mourning Star was fighting. I have no idea what is happening.”

“Find out and get more ships there.”

“I am trying Sir. We have two battleships and three destroyers arriving in 40 seconds. The event just terminated. We are picking up no trace of any ship in the vicinity. The ships are gone.”




Near the Oort Cloud:


Five ships bristling with weapons Emerge from T-Space into empty Real Space. They are alone.

“Dammit! I want a complete sensor scan of all possible routes.”

“Yes Sir.”


The tactical officer carefully studied the display for several seconds while the sensors were gathering their data.

“The attack appears to have originated in Hyperspace. There are signatures of ten vessels emerging and six departing. There is also a strange reading the computer cannot decipher. It must be some sort of weapon signature. The debris field shows there are traces of Duralloy but there are not any traces of The Morningstar. The wreckage came from the missing cargo vessels.”

“Open a gateway to Hyperspace and launch probes. I want to know where they went.”

The tactical officer activated several controls via his Neurolink and a large energy vortex formed in front of the ship. Several objects were launched from the vessels. The probes entered the vortex and reached their positions. They began to relay the sensor information back to the bridge.

“Captain, we have a possible vector of their route.”

“Show me.”

The officer sent the required commands and the holo display came to life. It showed the section of Hyperspace with a course plotted through it. The course went deep into Hyperspace, obviously an attempt to throw off any chances of tracing them.

“Contact the System Commander.”

“Yes sir, private link established.”

“Commander, Captain Hamilton here. We tracked the raiders to Hyperspace. We have a course but we need to assemble a small strike force. I want to send a battleship and two destroyers after them. A carrier would just get in the way. We need speed and firepower. I have the ships here but I want a hand picked crew for them.”

“You want what?” The commander was livid. “How dare you tell me what you want like I am your lackey. Return back to headquarters so I can personally throw you in the brig.”

“Commander, you will do as I request and you will do it with utmost speed. I want the three ships outfitted with entire crews of Ta’Nar, and I want it immediately.”

The captain looked at the Commander through the vid feed. Captain Hamilton’s eyes turned completely black, as if there were nothing but shadow where his eyes used to be.

I want to assemble a Ta’Nar strike team. Don’t cause any more delays, Commander. I am uploading a list of all Ta’Nar members in the system I wish to be on those ships. They will be here within 30 minutes or you will be replaced. Have I made myself clear?”

“Um…Yes Sir!”

“Good Commander. Captain Hamilton, out.”

The Captain closed the Vid link and smiled to himself. He liked to pull rank on the normals, especially when they were full of themselves like the Commander.



45 minutes later


Several ships arrived and crew was swiftly transferred. The three ships glided through the Hyparspace Gate and it closed behind them. Aboard the bridge of The Revenge, Captain Hamilton sat in his chair deep in thought. Every crewmember’s eyes were “glowing” in black shadow, being naturally boosted by Hyperspace.

“It is time the hunters become the hunted.”

The three ships swiftly followed the wave distortions caused by the engines of the Battlecrabs.

“Use the Displacement Cloak and set it at about 5000 meters in front of our lead ship. If they try to ambush us then they will be attacking empty hyperspace. Keep us on full alert. I want the fighters ready to lauinch at a moment's notice.”

OOC: No more time today, will post tomorrow.

Also, need to re-read the story again...

OOC:

OK, no problem. Please note I had to edit the end of my last post to make it sound better. It bothered me all night at work so I had to fix it as soon as I got home.

OOC: I swear I replied to that post. And that lead to the other thread.

Talk to you over MSN about it, Bal.

The three war vessels streaked through Hyperspace, following the gravitational disturbances left by the drives of their quarry.

“Distance to the enemy”

“They appear to be a 1000 Kilometers ahead.”

“Do they show any sign of detecting our presence?”

“No sir. They have not altered their course.”

“Any sign of an ambush?”

“No sir, the readings have not changed and there are not any disturbances in Hyperspace.”

“Order the destroyers to flank them and we will strike from three directions. Check fire patterns so none of our ships are in the target paths. Launch all fighters after the initial volley. I want the ships disabled and prisoners taken so we can find out who they are.”

“Yes Sir, message sent.”

“Execute my orders, now”

The two destroyers peeled off to either side and swung around to get ahead of the target area. The battleship swiftly followed the source of the readings.

“We are approaching the strike zone.”

“Ready the fighters for launch. Open the Comm. I will give them one chance to surrender. That is more than they probably gave our ships.”

“Yes Sir, Comm open.”

“Attention vessels, this is Captain Hamilton of the battleship, The Revenge. We have traced your drive signatures from an attack upon our territory. You are to surrender by coming to a full halt and dropping your shields. If you are not the ones who attacked our ships, you will be released. Your compliance should be immediate or we will assume you to be hostile and take the appropriate actions. This is your only warning. You have 30 seconds to comply.”

“Message sent, sir. There is not reaction from them so far.”

“Wait the full 30 seconds.”

“Yes Sir.”

The chronometer ticked off the seconds as he watched it through his Neurolink. The tactical officer was bust studying the reading from the sensors.

“Sir, it appears they are slowing down. The readings show their speed is reducing and it should be at zero in a few seconds.”

“Order all ships to converge upon their location. Hold fire. I don’t want a mess. Keep the fighters on the launchers.”

“Yes Sir. Their location is approximately 50 Km ahead of us.”

“Order Displacer Cloaks dropped. I want them to see what is approaching. If they are innocent, they will not try anything. If they are guilty, they will know they are surrounded.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Sir, I am getting something strange on Visual.”

“Let me see.”

Hamilton accessed his Neurolink. The image he saw was a long wedge shaped object tapered at both ends. It appeared to be constructed of some dark material.

“What the hell is that?”

“I don’t know, Sir. It appears to be biological but it is putting out the gravitational disturbance of several drives. It is way too small to be a ship.”

“Dammit! We have been chasing a decoy. Get someone to collect the probe or whatever it is and turn us around. We need to get back to the Jump Gate immedia…”

Suddenly the probe exploded. The explosion sent shockwaves rippling through Hyperspace.

“Evasive actions!”

The crew aboard all three ships tried to get their ships turned but they were too close. The shockwave washed over them and threw the ships back. On the Revenge, several crewmembers were tossed about as the inertial dampeners were overcome by the concussion. Several structures buckled from the force. Hamilton crawled to a console and pulled himself to his feet. He rushed over to where some of his crew lay while shouting orders.

“Damage report!”

“There is structural damage to the starboard. The launch tubes have been damaged. We cannot launch fighters from that side until we can do repairs. There are several people down across the ship but it is mostly contusions and scrapes. The other two ships report similar damage. The object is completely vaporized.”

“Damn! I should have thought of that. They took us by surprise again. Contact the other ships and have them follow us back to the Hyperspace gate. There is nothing here for us to do.”