NationStates Jolt Archive

Admiral Stentin was standing in the fleet command room taking in the view projected by the holoprojector. Besides the busy crew who were making final preparations before launch, the room was filled with the captains that would be going on this assignment. Stentin wasn’t a tall man and he was as bald as a billiard ball.

He was now looking at the double star system that was their objective. There were two planets that were scorched by the unforgiving suns, an asteroid field, an M-class planet and a gigantic gas giant with 13 moons, one of which was covered by a liquid ocean. All these planets were circling the biggest star while as many as 19 distinct asteroid fields were orbiting the smaller one.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the system you see here has been named Castux and it is our objective. As you know our population is continuing to grow and it has been decided that a new colony has to be established. Castux III is the closest M-class planet but it is still 25 lightyears beyond our borders. Luckily the system hasn’t been claimed by anybody we know, not yet. That is why this taskforce has been assembled.

“Our mission is to claim Castux, land the fourth Marine division on Castux III and prepare the system for the colonists. This includes the construction of a trade station and preliminary system defenses. The taskforce will be lead by the Dreadnought and the battleships Odin and Starhammer will accompany her. The standard compliment of warships will accompany them, as will several Mercuries which are carrying the construction crew and material for the trade station and defenses.

“We already have the Grimrise in the system but we don’t want to show our hand until we can defend the system. Any questions?”

“Yes.” Said the captain of the Bijlslag. “Do we know which nations might contest our claim?”

“No, I am afraid we are jumping in blind. We will just have to be ready for anything. If that is everything I suggest you return to your ships. We depart in an hour.”

An hour later
The behemoth that was called the Dreadnought moved into position as did the other ships. They looked tiny in comparison with the large ship, even the battleships. Then they were in position, their warp coils lit up and the ships seemed to elongate into infinity for a moment before they moved faster then the eye could follow.

OOC:
Encyclopedia Wetticus (http://www.esusalliance.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=890)
List of ships:
1 Pluto class frigate already in system
Dreadnought
1 Jupiter B class battleship
1 Jupiter C class battleship
12 Saturn class battlecruisers
24 Mars B class destroyers
60 Monitor class gunboats

The fleet entered the system 3 days later, slowing down to sublight speed just beyond the gas giant. Stentin looked at the neat formation his fleet was in, not one ship was out of position. Grimrise didn't show up on sensors but that was to be expected. "Send the signal to inform Grimrise that we have arrived and tell the Beliskner, Swiftsure and Bijlslag to investigate Castux IV and it's moons. The rest of the fleet will keep on course for Castux III."

"Grimrise acknowledges our message, they have been hiding in the asteroid belt. No activity in the system since she arrived. She has sent us all the data she has collected so far and wishes us good luck. She already has orders for her next assignment."

Admiral Stentin nodded. "Thank captain Green and inform captain Hollander that he can launch the claim buoy. As of now, the Wettic confederacy claims this system!"

Tag for interest.

Bump, come on. Somebody has got to be interested.

Bump, come on. Somebody has got to be interested.

OOC: What do you have in mind for others particapating in this thread?

OOC: Nothing and everything. I will not call in help from the ESUS no matter what happens and people are free to rp as they wish. I only ask that they keep OOC posts to a minimum by being detailed, that they try to post a readable text and no godmodding.

This could end up leading to fullscale war, negotiations or simply a skirmish or something even I haven't thought of. Use your imagination.

Bump.

Bumpage.

Report
Outpost H-7 registered a fleet entering the Castux system. As there are scouts already in the area, we feel it neccessery to inform the appropiate authorities that Snake Eaters has laid claim to this system, and as such this is an enchroachment upon our borders. They should be warned that any more action could be taken as hostile action, and any and all attempts to force us away from the system shall be taken as a declaration of war upon us

To Snake Eaters
No claiming buoys were detected in system. By Wettic law this makes the Castux system unclaimed territory and as such our own actions fall completely within Confederate law.

Note that any attempt to claim said system for your own nation by way of force will fail. We have remained unchallenged for more then a century and if you do not wish us to show you why, we advice you to stay out of our way!

OOC: Yeay, finally someone has posted!

We do not wish to engage in otherwise unneccesery conflict. Therefore we propose that the system come under dual-soverginity, and that citizens from both nations live here, adhereing to their own nations rules

Your proposal would be worth considering if you had more then a hollow claim. As it stands, your words are wind to us. No Deal!

ETA at Castux III for fleet: 3 standard hours

You have no claim to the system either! They are as of yet no claiming bouys in existence in-system. Therefore, the scouting vessels have been ordered to drop a selection of these on the closest Class-M world. They are within 30 standard minutes of the planet, and as such they will lay claim to it for the glory of Snake Eaters

A battered and battleworn light frigate drifted silently into the Castux system, undetetable beyond the asteroid field. The pitiful looking ship slowed to a full stop and surveyed the area in quiet menace.

"We've got two fleets in-system, cap'n." Drogdon looked up from his moniter and shot a glance at his captain, "It looks like a territory dispute."

Captain Brommner furrowed his brow in consternation. "The Snake Eaters and Wetlands.....tough to deal with and powerful adversaries. We are not going to risk confrontation."

"But sir," Lana Louis perked up at her console, "What if there's some money to be made here? A territory dispute between two powerful nations is too big an opportunity to let go to waste."

"Hmmmm," Brommner cast his gaze down in thought. His mercenary company hailed from Omni-Psychotia and had been away from their lush home for quite some time. The innate superiority complex that came with growing up in the Empire quickly got the better of Brommner's senses. "Alright, in the name of Omni-Psychotia and our fearless leader....we will stay. But before we commit to any one side, we must see how this plays out. Mr. Drogdon? Run silent and keep still, we're in for a wait."

Diplomatic message to Snake Eaters:
Under Wettic law, a claim buoy only needs to be in-system. It does not have to reside on a planet. Admiral Stentin has informed us that he has already launched such a buoy 24 hours ago.

On board the Dreadnought
Admiral Stentin was looking at the progress of the fleet when an ensign approached him. "Sir, a message from Foreign affairs. The nation of Snake Eaters has responded to our entry into the Castux system and now claims it for their own. They want to let us know that they believe that a small fleet of Snake Eaters' ships is heading for Castux III. They also ask that we prevent these ships from placing a claiming buoy on the planet. Doing so would improve our negotiation position."

Stentin thought it over for a second. "Inform Foreign Affairs that we have received their message and will act accordingly." He now turned back to the holomap. "Can you give me a reading on the Snake ships?" It took a few moments but then the display showed several contacts racing towards the planet. They would arrive at the planet in 30 minutes, but the fleet couldn't move faster because of the freighters and Dreadnought.

"Tell the Zwaardslag, Defiant and Rapier to get to the planet as fast as they can. They are ordered to prevent the Snake ships from dropping a claiming buoy by any means necessary, but to avoid using their weapons on those ships unless fired upon. And send this message to those Snake ships: This is Admiral Stentin of the Wettic confederacy. Be advised that you are now in Wettic space, please state your intensions. End message."

The three destroyers first increased their own sublight speed to create enough distance between them and the fleet to go to warp. It took them five minutes to do so and even on warp, it would still take them 20 minutes to reach the planet.

On board the Saturn class battlecruiser Beliskner
His ship along with two destroyers had been ordered to stay in the outer system and investigate it and so they had. Captain Elisa Breg had just received word from the admiral about the problems with the Snake Eaters but had been ordered to carry on and keep an eye for any more visitors.

"Beliskner, how much of the asteroid belt has been surveyed?" Like all Wettic navy ships, the Beliskner had an AI that managed many of the ship's systems but also helped in other areas. "Grimrise has surveyed 7% of the local asteroid belt." Breg was surprised by that. "Only 7%? That isn't enough, load 5 scouting drones and launch them towards the asteroid belt."

Five drones quickly left the ship, warp sustainers giving them a push towards the belt so that they would arive faster. Captain Breg would have liked to send one of the destroyers but unfortunatly they didn't have FTL-communications and she couldn't send a lone ship out in a combat zone if it didn't have a way to call for help.

"Cap'n. We have a small Snake Eater fleet inbound for Castux III and the Wettic fleet is moving to intercept." Drogdon raised an eyebrow, "Shall we move in closer and get a better look."

Captain Brommner pondered, "On the one hand we have the Snake Eaters whom we have very little intel on, except that their country produces very hardy and battle-wise warriors. And on the other hand we have the Wettic confederacy whom, while a little too peacful for my tastes, seem to have the rightful claim to the system-"

"We could go in there and claim the place for ourselves." Cyrun, a mass of battle scars of age and experience unparalelled, grinned from the corner of the bridge where he sat in the dark picking his teeth with a combat knife. "Omni-Psychotia could stand to expand the Empire further."

"Are you crazy?" Eri, senior tactical officer, squeeked from his console, "Omni-Psychotia doesn't have NEAR enough forces for open conflict out here. Our entire fleet would be dusted."

Captain Brommner seemed to think a moment, and with his characteristic sneer made his decision.

"Eri is right, we can't risk open conflict. A small Empire of mercenaries is no match for the girth of the forces here. But I have a plan...Lana, set a course for Cantux III and hail the Wettic flagship...It's high time for us to have a conversation."

Telegram from The SE Embassay,delievered by the Ambassador
We have detected no such bouy in-system, and must therefore assume that this is to dissolve in military action. This is not our intial intention, therefore we request that our scout forces are allowed to at the very least survey the planet further, then be allowed to disengage peacefully

Cruiseing slowly through the outer periphery just outside long distance scanning range of the system a small, black, needle like vessel not much longer than a modern day sedan. At first glance it looked like a weapon, the sleek black spike was certianly moving fast enough to be one, leaving a violet ion trail as the thing pulse accelerated its way towards the central star of the system now well within detectable range of just about anyone with rudimentary scanners.

If it was a weapon it was behaving oddly, it avoided the fleets like a plague and continued its trek towards the star suddenly slowing down as three small vernier thrusters stopped it in its tracks. As the sun hit the craft a psudeo purple glow seemed to slide across its oily surface as the veseel began to rotate in place via its secondary thrusters putting its rear to the star before suddenly and without warning the noise of the craft sprung open in a way one would expect an umbrella the individual suport poles extending revealing a decent sized solar sail for such a small craft.

Besides nearly doubling its mass the 'solar umbrella' began to activell scan the surrounding system making it light up like a christmas tree, though those near the asteriod field would notcieably receive the most attention from the probe.

The Salty Dog cruised slowly out of the asteroid field, bound the distant Wettic fleet. Being part of an isolationist empire had it's affect on people. Because of this, the Salty Dog drifted through void with non-chalance and arrogence. The crew did have some reason to be arrogent; Omni-Psychotia produces some of the best mercenaries around.

Captain Brommner let this innate arrogence get to his head.

"Sir," Lana scanned her equipment, "We have incoming probes....Coming from the Wettic fleet."

"Let them scan. We came out to talk right?" Brommner put on his best sarcastic grin, "We come in the name of peace." The Bridge crew chuckled.

"Sir...we're also picking up some strange readings comming from somewhere in the vacinity of the star." Lana stared in puzzlement at her console. "These sensors are fairly new, so I can't quite make out what it is. It's probably a wonder we're detecting it at all."

Brommner sobered quickly, "Is it a ship?"

"No way to tell, sir.....I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Keep an eye on it, but leave it for now. We have more pressing matters." Captain Brommner clasped his hands behind his back, and worried silently.

The Probe felt around itself as it searched the asteriods, the solar sail harnessing photons and litterally allowing it to glide towards the asteroid belt. The Umbrella seemed to focus on some of the larger chunks of dusty rock within the belt as the device began transmitting on an unsecured FTL channel in rather conventional Transitional trianary language ((the equivalent to a three stage or quantum bianary (black, white, and grey in a sense) computer language)) a message to an obfuscated source.

374 items of ideal mass, 15,000 of moderate mass, 36 items unknown. Composition of Ideal resources unknown, proceeding to complete protocal 675-04.

...and with that transmition the solar sail slowly retracted, the long spike regaining its previous sleek form as its thrusters aimed it at a rather large asteriod before fully igniting. Forceing it forward with great acceleration. The black spike cut through the blackness of space a mere blur before impacting and driving its nose deep into the rocks surface.

In the lead Snake Eater ship, Vice-Admiral Warring stared impassively out into the inky blackness of space. Well, for a time anyway. As he turned around, he saw the Class-M planet gliding below his Dauntless class frigate. As he watched, a probe was fired into the atmosphere, and began sending out both an ID code, showing the planet to now be a part of Snake Eaters, and also sending data along a secure link to the workstations of the senior officers.
"Admiral, Sir, numerous enemy ships approaching the planet. All appear to be armed and ready for combat"
He turned to his Tactical officer,"Well, Lt. Raise our shields. We must stay until the probe has gathered as much data as possible. Order the fleet to deply in Defence Pattern Gamma, and ready to repel borders" He gazed impassivley at the hologrid,"God damn it. Space pirates, colonial nutcases, aand to top it all, something we've never seen before. This day just gets better and better"

A small sensor blip sounded, but Lana was busy with other things.

What are we doing here? There probalby won't even be a conflit to profit from. She thought miserably.

Captain Brommner put on his best air of confidence.

"Are we clear of the astroid field? Good, open a channel to the Wettic command ship: Greetings. I am Captain Brommner of the Salty Dog and we are the Fifth Wing of the Omni-Psychotia Mercinary Corporation, OPM for short. We are wondering if you are in need of assistence. We can see that you are having a...problem...of sorts, and we can offer well trained and able bodied support if we can...negotiate some terms. I am awaiting your response, but I will not wait long. Salty Dog out."

Lana closed the channel quickly and sat back, wondering if they would secure the contract with pommpus-assed Brommner doing the talking and if the Wettic confederacy paid well.

The Salty Dog continued on, while behind it a silent threat in the asteroid field went unchecked, and Lana's earlier feelings of trouble were confirmed.

"Bloodly OPM, always out to make an easy buck" thought the XO of the frigate, as they monitored the transmission to the Wettic fleet.

Alone in his cabin aboard the Salty Dog ‘Infiltration Sub-Supervisor (level B – keaten moon facility)’ Talum Kaiide slowly closed the door. Swiftly opening his closet, he reached down and grasped the leather alloy handle of his standard issue, ‘Marx Systems Security briefcase’TM (modified for Omni-Corp use). Unconcerned with anyone finding it because, as with every ‘Marx Systems Security briefcase’TM, it was cloaked. With the ease of a teacher who had shown a thousand young Commercial Agents how to operate their first security case, his practiced fingers sought and found the random pattern generator on the front. Comparing the pattern to its corresponding code stored only in his memory, he tapped the 3 digit code into the still invisible lock mechanism, and the case de-cloaked and popped open.

Grabbing his encrypted communicator he wrote his report and punched in his supervisor’s extension.

PRIORITY E
COMMERCIAL CONFLICT OPPURUTUNITY
PSYCHOTIANS 4 RAPTOR ASSETS
WETTIC DREADNOUGHT IN SYSTEM
UNKNOWN BUYER SNAKE EATERS
PROMOTE CONFLICT ?
end transmission

Minutes later a burst reply appeared on the screen

PRIORITY C
PROMOTE CONFLICT
ENSURE RAPTOR PROMINENCE
PRIORITY A
ARRANGE CONFERENCE DREADNOGHT
TECHNOLOGICAL ASSET TO BE OFFLOADED
INCOMPLETION = TERMINATION
end transmission

Though calmly returning his communicator and case to there customary positions, inside Kaiide fumed. Getting the Psychotians to launch their fighters wouldn’t be hard, hell, as the ship’s Chief Engineer he could practically order them launched himself. But arranging a meeting aboard a Dreadnought, not to mention offloading god knows what in god knows whose case, was going to be well nigh impossible.

Heaving a sigh, Talum barley managed to aquire the cool arrogance his demeanor required to fit in aboard a Psychotian vessel. Dreading more bruises from his friendly though rowdy subordinates in engineering, he went to work, and started to plot. Getting fired was not an option.

For nearly two and a half hours nothing -atleast on the part of the black probe- had happened. Then just as it had suddenlyappeared it began transmiting on the same unsecured channel what sounded very much like a chemistry lecture; absolute density, atomic weight, mass spectographic information, ductility, Electrompolymerization... The random stream of facts from the probe just went on and and on until finally any ship intercepting the message the would notice that the transmission stopped as if the was considering something.

The brief pause was broken and it continued typing this time slowly and the text was bolded

Existance of a rich deposit of Nachtstahl verified, awaiting orders...

The probe itself then shut down as a response was given a simple six digit code streamed from far outside the outer periphery.

Something was coming, slowly, but it was coming...

On board the Dreadnought
'What is this, rush hour at Castux? No activity in three weeks and when we arrive everybody seems to be scrambling to get here.' Admiral Stentin had seen how a small craft had been scanning the system. And Beliskner had just relayed an intercepted message the thing had sent outside the system. Which meant more uninvited guests.

The three destroyers hadn't reached Castux III in time and were facing a situation not covered by his orders. He would have to rely on the competence of captain Yagu to resolve that, Dreadnought was still 2 hours away. He had also sent the battleship Thor along with an escort of 5 battlecruisers, 7 destroyers and 20 gunboats to reinforce captain Breg. They would deal with whoever had sent that probe.

He turned towards the screen on left and after watching the message from the ship that had just emerged from the asteroid belt, gave his response. He didn't have to think about it. "Send this. To Captain Brommner of the Salty Dog. The Wettic navy is not in the business of hiring mercenaries. As of now this has been declared a Confederate combat zone, loss of property or live will not be compensated by the Wettic Confederacy. I suggest you leave, a good day sir. End message." His gaze turned towards the holo-image, showing the three destroyers closing in on the Snake ships.

It would take another 10 minutes before the message relayed by Foreign Affairs would reach those ships.

Onboard the Rapier
Captain Yagu was looking at his tactical display showing several Snake ships, energy readings indicated they had raised shields. His orders were to stop the Snakes from launching any probe or buoy to the planet but his sensor operator had already informed him that they were too late for that.

So now it came down to him. "Stay on course and tell the other ships to polarize their armour but do not raise shields." He was ordered not to start a conflict and he would try not to provoke them. "Send the following message to the Snake ships. This is captain Yagu, commanding the WCS Rapier. We will not fire unless fired upon but you are trespassing in Wettic space. Please state your intentions and time of departure. End message. Tactical, warn me the second that probe comes within firing range of the PBC."

A destroyer didn't have FTL-communications so it had to be sent using old fashioned radio. In the meantime the three destroyers stayed on a course for the planet at .4c but slowing down, seemingly ignoring the ships in their path.

OOC: Snake Eaters, I will need to know a little more about what kind of ships and how many you have there. You can find all the info you need about what my ships can do in the link in the first post.

Tag

Fountain of Holiness entered the system.

~~WARP REPORT~~
SPEED: 150M/H
COORDINATES: 34/42/75
SECTOR: CASTUX BETA
WARPHOLE SEAL: SUCCESSFUL
~~REPORT ENDS~~

Captain Opus sat down in his seat and considered the situation. "Officer! I want a check on our mission parameters."

"Transmission recieved, sir!" Replied the comms officer.

~~MISSION PARAMETERS~~
PRIORITY: LOCATE STANDARD TEMPLATE CONSTRUCT DATA ON CASTUX III
AVOID MILITARY ACTIVITY UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY
LOWER PRIORITY: CALCULATE TITHE LEVEL OF CASTUX III FOR LATER MONITORING AND POTENTIAL COLONISATION
~~TRANSMISSION ENDS~~

"Officer, I would like you to send Lieutenant Grulis to the bridge." Opus said.

Soon after, Grulis entered the ill-lit bridge. "You called, sir!"

"Yes, Grulis. I would like a wing of Thunderhawks sent down to that planet. We WILL find the STC."

OOC: I will be posting stats for all my ships very soon, but wait a while, kk

EDIT: OK, follow this link for ship stats http://www.cs.umanitoba.ca/~djc/evost/dev/ship-classes.html You can ignore stuff like weapons, they all carry phasers and torepedoes, you just need to know basics. Also the lengths are wrong. Add a zero to the end of the lenghts, and you get the idea

For the Dauntless class frigate, the following stats apply:
Class: Dauntless
Classification: Frigate
Length: 5km
Width: 2.5km
Depth: 3km
Hull Construction: Adamantium, Titanium
Gross Mass (tonnes): 800,000
Crew Complement: 10000 regular
Support: 2 Companies of Colonial Marines(600), Division of Rangers (30,000), x20 LightningSword Drophips (30 men in each), x200 Cobra-class Interceptors
Weapons: Quantum Torepedoes, x 40 Phaser Banks, Orbital Cannons, x50 Lascannon emplacements
Defence: Void Shields, Cloaking Device, Ablative Armour
Description: The most common form of large ship seen in the Snake Eaters fleet, it is most commonly used by Vice-Admirals directing their fleets

Bear in mind that my captial ships are huge in comparision to my normal fleets. The Soverign starships are less than 1km in length, and yet my Frigates are 5km. So, you have a number of smaller ships backed up by one big bastard. The fleet only comprises a few small recon shisp though, so it is x5 Constellation class, x10 Yearger class, x1 Dauntless class Frigate

OOC: You call that a frigate? A frigate is usually used to describe a ship that is bigger then a destroyer but smaller then a cruiser. Not something that is bigger then my battleships! I couldn't find anything about the Yearger by the way, but I take it it's a small ship.

Falconia is the last one, I want to be able to keep track of everything which will be hard enough with four.

IC:

Onboard the Dreadnought
'Another ship entering the system! This was getting very complicated.' Admiral Stentin didn't bother to repeat the order, his staff knew he would want to send a message to this latest arrival. "To unidentified vessel. This is Admiral Stentin on board Dreadnought. Be advised that you have now entered a Wettic claimed system that has been declared a Confederate combat zone. For your own safety I suggest you leave the system, loss of property or live will not be compensated by Wetland if you remain nor is your safety guaranteed. End message."

OOC: take into account that the Snake Eater Navy has no destoryers, staships are her equivilant. Also, the crusiers are not much bigger than the Dauntless classes, bout 7.5 km long. The Dauntless is a major step up, but inbetween them, their are other types of ships, such as the corvettes and Monoliths, which are basically transports. Also, I spelt it wrong, its Yeager class, and yes, they are fairly small, but fast and powerful. Anyway, you think that is large. There is one guy I know you proclaims his nation is building an uber-ship that is 20km long! Imagine that

EDIT: OK, if you want, I'll make it a little more realistic to suit your tastes

Brommner's eyes widened in surprise as he listened to the message from the Wettic commander. Stentin's blatant refusal made him one of the few to refuse help from OPM trained forces in such a way. With pride hurt and confusion setting in, the Captain lowered his head in thought.

"Well, now that eveyone in-system with even a passible degree in Millitary Communications 101 knows that we went to Wetland first I guess it's time we got the hell out of here." Lana spoke with obvious disgust for her over-confident ass of a commanding officer.

"Watch your tongue, or you'll spend the flight home strapped to the bulkhead." Brommner growled, "We're staying here. If there is ANY conflict here we WILL make money for it."

Cyrun laughed softly, "And I want to try out those new OmniCorp. fighters we got from The Ornery Bastards."

"We can't profit from a conflict if we aren't hired. We can't be hired because the only person would hire us didn't. Captain, it's time to go home." Eri hated to agree with a pitiful Moriethian like Lana, but she had the only logical solution. Unfortunately, Brommner ignored him like he ignored everyone else. It was tough being on a FifthWing ship, for sure.

Omni-Psychotian pride is a strange thing. They feel themselves superior to all around them. Something that seeped into their culture from the personality of their founder, Lord Psy Peterson. This pride would not let Brommner give up.

"To hell with Wetland...we have confirmation of two other fleets in-system, correct?...open channel to all available sources." Brommner's eyes glittered with a plan, "To all ships now present in the Castux Double System: OPM ship Salty Dog is now open to negotiation of contract. The wise will consider our contribution to the impending...situation. Illustrious Captain
Brommner out."

Lana rolled her eyes. Brommner was going to get them all killed.

Vice-Admiral Warring laughed loudly as the OMP message came through," Foolish Pirates! Do they really think anyone would hire them after the Wettin forces turned them down? Idoits. At least we won't ever have to hire pirates

Four ships slids from the shadows of the outer periphery coming into scanner range they suddenly stopped as realizing there were a few more people here than they expected.

The ships themselves were not all that different from the probe, black, swept back and smoothly profiled as if made from a single sheet of material. The smaller three were almost identicle, each with a dorsal spine that at the time was folded back along the length of the ship along with two other pectoral spines starting at about the mid section of the ship and meeting ogether to form a sort of flash supressor over the rear engines which left a fient violet colored ion trail. Overall the three of them looked remarkably like a squid, or cuddlefish from earth while swimming at high speed. Though these vessels didnt have the spines down because of drag issues, in space ther was no point, but they did contain the ships primary in system power its solar sails.

The center of the three smaller vessels in the lead seemed plain, attractive in its oily skin, sleek in body, and even while stasnding still it appeared to be moving. On both sides of the lead ship sat two vessels of smililar mass but much less attractive, though of similar shape the hull was bespeckled with numerous orfices and 'warts' along its oily skin. The vessels were of aproximately cutter size for the anchrish navy, Smaller than a frigate but much more agile and nearly equivalently armed... but with what? For such an odd race there was question if they were even of hominid build, The fourth and largest vessel was simpley a frame work, with several large engines strapped to it and some sort of an airlock in the center, surrounded by hundreds of small containers it was a resource collector following its probes as they went forward. the probe had never been designed to scout for ships because they rarely encountered them... and even if they did encounter a ship that far away what could they do?...

As the three smaller vessels stopped upon realizing that there were more than just asteriods here the larger vessel behind them slowly came to a stop though seemingly with a lot of required effort. For the moment all of the vessels kept their position as the crews argued as to what to do next.

Onboard Dreadnought
Admiral Stentin had enough of the antics of captain Brommner. Time to simplify the situation. "Tell captain Griswell that captain Brommner has just declared himself hostile to Wettic interests. I want him out of my space, he is authorised to use force."

Onboard the Odin
Captain Griswell had received the message and decided to take his escort with him. He left captain Breg with another battlecruiser and 5 gunboats next to the two destroyers she already had at her disposal to keep an eye on those black ships that had just entered the system.

The fleet went to warp and was on it's way to the lone mercenary ship. Their shields were on and their hull was polarized. Inside the Odin, fighters were prepped for launch as soon as they engaged the mercenaries.

OOC: I am not asking you Snake to decrease the size of the frigate. I was just caught of gaurd and wanted to let you know that the designation frigate might sow confusion among others about the capabilities of the ship.

Salty Dog, Modified Spider Class Frigate
type: light frigate
length: 175 meters
mass: 1 million metric tons
crew: 6 for skeleton crew, 10 normal crew *NOTE* Modified to carry troop compliment of 100
power: Psy Peterson Inc. Void Splitter V.3.45 cold fusion reactor
Engines: 1 light drive, Psy Peterson Inc. Shifter repulsors
Speed: 60.000c/0.6c
duration: 10 months
weapons:
4 Psy Peterson Inc. Boomer Quad Laser Cannons (yeild very slightly stonger than average frigate lasers)
6 missile tubes; 4 with compliment of 20 OmniCorp. Equalizer missiles (each missile has yield of 100 megatons), 2 with compliment of 4 OmniCorp. Agonizer missiles (each missile has yield of 50 megatons, tracking capabilities, and armour peircing tips)
defense: 145 cm of titanium and a Psy Peterson Inc. Six Keeper sheild genorator (shield strength is 1.1 million terajoules)



TheOdin shot through space at attack speed toward the doomed frigate, and finally Brommner was breaking a sweat.

"What the hell? No one will hire us on and now we have to take care of these lunatics." Brommner growled and keyed up his personal control panel for ships weapons. With an ease that came from experience untold, Brommner brought the weapons online.

"Uh, sir...as your tactical officer...I must ask AREYOUCOMPLETELYINSANE!!" Eri flew from his seat and launched at the captain. He was met by Brommner's hand slamming into his throat and gripping him fast.

"Do I smell mutiny, coward? We can take them. Now get back to your post or I'll break your legs so you can't leave it. Clear?"

"Clurg!" Eri gurggled as his windpipe was released. He staggered drunkenly back to his console.

Brommner worked in silence as he aquired targets among the incoming craft. Still too far yet, but their fate would soon be sealed. He smiled to himself as if it were a private joke. Just one more ship to add to the thousands.

A whistle sounded and a com channel opened: "Sir, this is engineering, we need you down here right now. We have some serious problems with the engines."

"What problems?......Hello? Dammit all to hell!" Brommner fummed and stormed to the bridge entrance. He looked at his former first officer, who was still rubbing his neck, with disgust, "Cyrun, you have the bridge."

The Snake fleet held off around the planet, watching as the Wettin engaged the single OMP vessel. From their scans, it was a very one-sided fight. However, they would take the oppurtunity to claim the world below. Lightning Sword Dropships were shuttling the Rangers down, then returning to claim more. Soon, the planet would be a bastion of strength within the system. What with the conflicts elsewhere coming to an end, the 6th Beta Fleet was en-route to the system. Soon, Snake eaters would be overwhelming all in her path

Onboard the Odin
Captain Griswell couldn't believe it. His 2.3 kilometer long battleship was barreling towards the small frigate with weapons hot and they were actually preparing to fight back. Didn't the mercenary captain notice the other Wettic ships around the Odin or the massive armament of the battleship itself?

But this would end now. The fleet dropped out of warp still outside of weapons range. Slowing to .1c, the Odin now launched 50 Hyperion fighters. They were ordered to try and disable the ship and were escorted by 30 FB-1 Bee drones that would hopefully shield the fighters from the first strike of the enemy frigate. If the enemy captain was actually dum enough to try anything.

Onboard the Rapier
He was rapidly loosing this contest. The Snakes had reached the planet before him, hadn't reached on his communications and were now landing troops. Time for plan B, they had entered weapons range. "Inform Berend and Yali that we will try to blow up the claiming drone, tell them to raise shields as soon as we fire and to reverse course as soon as we have fired." Tension rose as the captain waited for confirmation from his peers.

He got it. "Tactical, give me a firing resolution for the claiming drone and prepare to fire. Rapier, raise shields the second you fire. Helm, plot a course back to Dreadnought and put the warpengines on standby." His tactical officer had heard what the captain was planning and had anticipated the order. "I have a resolution, PBC 1 is ready to fire."

The captain didn't waste time. "Execute." The Rapier fired with one of its main particle beam cannons. The green beam lashed out towards the probe, but the ship didn't wait to see the result and reversed course as the shields snapped on. The two other destroyers followed suit and the three ships raced back towards the Wettic fleet at maximum sublight speed.

"Sir, the probe was destroyed by the Wettin ships!" cried Lt. Osterchild, the new tactiacl Officer.
"Damn it, Get the Rangers to create one as soon as they land!"
Warring stormed across the bridge,"Cowardly buggers, firing then retreating! At least the OMP have the guts to stand up to them, even though it is foolhardy."
By this time, the other Snake ships had entered the system. They were accompanined by Admiral Rommel, who would now take control of the operation. This fleet carried two further divisions of Rangers, 18,000 men enough to occupy any planet of this size

Onboard the Dreadnought
The three destroyers met up with the rest of the fleet again. They had finally reached the planet but now they slowed down and raised shields. Admiral Stentin didn't want to start shooting at the Snakes but he couldn't let them occupy the planet either. "Tell the freighters to move away and assign 20 gunboats to protect them. I don't want to loose one if it comes down to a fire fight." Stentin paused. "And inform foreign affairs of the situation."

From the Foreign Affairs office of the Intersystems Confederacy of Wetland to the The Shadowy State of Snake Eaters.

It has come to our attention that you have illegally occupied a rightfully claimed planet of Wetland, after being warned not to do so. The Confederacy has now declared the Castux system a Confederate combat zone.
The use of force is now allowed inside said system, but any attempt to either reinforce this fleet now or to start combat outside the system will be taken as a declaration of war and we will act accordingly.

Sincerely,

Pieter Breughel, secretary of Foreign Affairs.

Onboard the Dreadnought
The three destroyers met up with the rest of the fleet again. They had finally reached the planet but now they slowed down and raised shields. Admiral Stentin didn't want to start shooting at the Snakes but he couldn't let them occupy the planet either. "Tell the freighters to move away and assign 20 gunboats to protect them. I don't want to loose one if it comes down to a fire fight." Stentin paused. "And inform foreign affairs of the situation."

From the Foreign Affairs office of the Intersystems Confederacy of Wetland to the The Shadowy State of Snake Eaters.

It has come to our attention that you have illegally occupied a rightfully claimed planet of Wetland, after being warned not to do so. The Confederacy has now declared the Castux system a Confederate combat zone.
The use of force is now allowed inside said system, but any attempt to either reinforce this fleet now or to start combat outside the system will be taken as a declaration of war and we will act accordingly.

Sincerely,

Pieter Breughel, secretary of Foreign Affairs.


OOC: Just out of interest, is my reinforcements counted as war? They arrived before your press statement

OOC: No, they don't count. As you said, they arrived before the communique and as such they are not considered a declaration of war.

Fountain of Holiness: Emperor Class Battleship

Armour rating: 12
Shield rating: 4
Max Speed: 150km/h
Maximum turn: 45 degrees/hour
Anti-Ordnance Turrets: 5

Armament:
Port Weapons Battery: Range = 600km; Firepower = 6; Fire arc: Left
Starboard Weapons Battery: Range = 600km; Firepower = 6; Fire arc: Right
Dorsal Weapons Battery: Range = 600km; Firepower = 5; Fire arc: Left/Front/Right
Prow Weapons Battery: Range = 600km; Firepower = 6; Fire arc: Left/Front/Right
Port Launch Bays = 4 squadrons
Starboard Launch Bays = 4 squadrons

Thunderhawk Gunships:
Armour rating: 1
Shield rating: 1
Max Speed: 300km/h
Maximum turn: 2160 degrees/hour
Troop Capacity: 20 Marines, 30 Humans
Access: Front Ramp leading to cockpit and troop litters

Armament:
Port Heavy Bolters: Range = 1km; Firepower = 2; Fire arc: Left
Starboard Heavy Bolters: Range = 1km; Firepower = 2; Fire arc: Right
Dorsal Battle Cannon: Range = 10km; Firepower = 4; Fire arc: Left/Front/Right
Prow Lascannons: Range = 1km; Firepower = 3; Fire arc: Left/Front/Right
Port Wing Lascannons: Range = 1km; Firepower = 4; Fire arc: Front/Left/Back
Starboard Wing Lascannons: Range = 1km; Firepower = 4; Fire arc: Front/Right/Back

OOC: No, they don't count. As you said, they arrived before the communique and as such they are not considered a declaration of war.
OOC: Thats good then.I'll post some IC statements later

"He's flipped his lid! We're massively outgunned, but he's going to fight anyway? He'll kill us all!" Eri started to sob quietly as the destroyer scrammbled it's fighters.

Lana was on her feet and gathering the crew around her, Cyrun stared coldly at the images on-screen as she spoke. "Ok, screw Brommner and his pride, we're getting off this boat. We'll take his absence as an opportunity to board the Getaway and get the hell out of this God-forsaken system."

"What about the mercenaries? That's a hundred lives worth of blood on our hands if we just abandon them." Cyrun turned and gazed down on Lana, "We can't leave them to die for nothing.

"The Wettic ship will shoot to disable most likely, they'll be fine. Prisoners of war, but fine." Lana retorted.

Cyrun thought for a moment. Lana was right, Brommner was nuts, but he had trouble leaving an old friend behind. He had fallen far in his career (he didn't get assigned to a FifthWing ship for nothing) but was a good man deep down. He sighed and glanced back at the screen.

"Alright, get as many people as can fit to the Getaway. We're leaving."

Talum switched off the comm channel and tried to fight off the coughing fit caused by the coolant and various other chemicals spewing into the engineering compartment. His subordinates were running everywhere swearing at various pieces of machinery amidst efforts to fix them. There was no real mystery to the engine problem for Kaiide, for when no-one was looking, he had smashed the coolant panel with a hammer.

“Attacking a battleship? Bloody Psychotians and their blazes of glory” he thought to himself. Despite the fact he’d love to see how many of the 50 fighters streaming towards them the 4 Raptor’s could take out before their inevitable destruction, the odds were too great. Besides 2 minute engagements were hardly the way to showcase the Omni-Corp. fighter’s new technologies.

No, even Bromner will have to negotiate now.

And if talks break down, I can have these engines back online in 30 seconds flat, Bromner will take care of that battleship.

"And now to convince a nutcase, he needs to behave like gentlemen."

OOC – wassup? I have no idea what the stats of those fighter’s are. I have no idea how to generate stats for them, and nor do I care to. All I know is that they are a lot better than your everyday fighter. The main technology I’ve made for them is the ability to fire a missile at a target that is being tracked by another fighter. In this way, at any point, any one raptor can call down the hammer of all 4(at the moment) on any one area. I write for a living and I like the story. I love seeing how you all react to what I throw in there. Like my spy on the Dreadnought, I’m interested to see how we can logically get Kaiide aboard you’re dreadnought for his clandestine meeting with unknown agent with unknown technology. Anyway, I haven’t designed anything I have just decided that it kicks ass, if my efforts are un-appreciated I can easily stop. Lemme know. Take it easy.

OOC: That is quite alright Ornery. I suppose, depending on how the clash goes, that your agent could get on board as a prisoner of war. Just keep in mind that every Wettic ship has an AI that keeps an eye on everything and it's qucomp is heavily shielded and protected. Those are security measures put in place in case the Shivans ever boarded the ship.

My fighters are poorly protected and work on the first strike principle and manoeuvrability.

Snake Eaters, you are free to post.

IC: Sergeant Piller was flying in the lead and noticed the launch of the four enemy fighters. They had been ordered to try and disable the ship and had been informed that the target had a strong shield. He assumed it would be up by now and he would have to deal with those enemy fighters.

"Alright, listen up! Alpha, Beta and Delta wing fire your hammer on my mark, then concentrate on taking out the enemy birds. Qappa and Epsilon wing will hang back and concentrate on the frigate." His radio was flooded by pilots confirming his orders.

Each wing was in a separate V-formation and three of these wings of ten ships now activated their anti-ship missile. With a yield of 100 megatons, they flew away straight towards the enemy ship. Two-thirds of them concentrated on the area were the engines seemed to be housed.

These three wings then turned slightly to face the enemy fighters and raced on, straight towards the enemy.

Salty Dog
Brommner listened in silence as Kaiid tried to reason with him. The engines were fried, they were outgunned by a large margin, and the bridge wasn't responding to communication. On top of this, more and more ships were appearing in the Castux system, drawn by the conflict.

"The best course of action at this point, sir, would be to surrender." Kaiid offered. Brommner turned on him like a stuck ocelot.

"You would place the effectiveness of those....barbarians above that of our own? No Omni-Psychotian would do such a thing. You must be from Morieth to think in such cowardly terms." Brommner spat and drew himself closer, "Our engines are dead, eh? We're outgunned, eh? The only course of action is to surrender-" Brommner grasped Kaiid's uniform by both hands and lifted him off the ground with ease, "EH!?!" With that, Brommner promptly flung Kaiid across the room and into a control panel. Kaiid's eyes exploded with stars and a throbbing pain emerged in the center of his back.

"I think the only course of action is simple: Activate self-destruct sequence Brommner 4-20." Kaiid saw something in the captain's eye. It was not the look of a sane man. Perhaps it was the long years on a FifthWing ship and the disgrace that carried with it that caused his mind to snap. Or it could be the inability to accept defeat. Whatever the cause, Brommner had lost his mind, and Kaiid had to do something about it.

Brommner was still staring down at Kaiid when the cheif engineer pressed a small concealed button on the inner right cuff of his uniform. A small dart shot from the clansdine Omni-Corp. Coma Launcher also concealed in said cuff. Brommner grunted and gazed stupidly at the small dart potruding from his chest.

"You traitorous bastard." He managed to mumble as he fell into a deep sleep.

"Not a traitor, you stupid Psychotian fool," Talum Kaiid grinned at the unconscious captain, "A spy."

Outside
A hidden hatch quietly opened on the underside of the mercenary frigate, but nothing seemed to happen.

Quickly, the cloaked corvette sped from the ship, headed for Omni-Psychotian space.

Onboard were an old tired mercenary captain, a communications officer fighting feelings of guilt, and a scared Moriethian tactical officer. No other crew would come abord the escape vessel, prefering fight over flight.

As the ship shot through the void, Lana and Cyrun both felt the shame any Omni-Psychotian would feel leaving their countrymen behind.

Onboard the Dreadnought
The three destroyers met up with the rest of the fleet again. They had finally reached the planet but now they slowed down and raised shields. Admiral Stentin didn't want to start shooting at the Snakes but he couldn't let them occupy the planet either. "Tell the freighters to move away and assign 20 gunboats to protect them. I don't want to loose one if it comes down to a fire fight." Stentin paused. "And inform foreign affairs of the situation."

From the Foreign Affairs office of the Intersystems Confederacy of Wetland to the The Shadowy State of Snake Eaters.

It has come to our attention that you have illegally occupied a rightfully claimed planet of Wetland, after being warned not to do so. The Confederacy has now declared the Castux system a Confederate combat zone.
The use of force is now allowed inside said system, but any attempt to either reinforce this fleet now or to start combat outside the system will be taken as a declaration of war and we will act accordingly.

Sincerely,

Pieter Breughel, secretary of Foreign Affairs.

From: Foreign Secretary Ramon Maschio
To: Foreign Affairs Office, Intersystems Confederacy of Wetland
Re: Castux situation

Despite your lurid claims, Snake Eaters has no intention to retreat from this system. Upon consultation with the Joint Chiefs, I have reached the conclusion that you also do not have any rightful claim to this system. Deep space scanning indicates that you do not have a claiming beacon in system, therefore your claim is nul and void. However, we do recognise that you have declared this area as a conflict zone, and you have my personal assurance that force will not be allowed exterior to this system. Despite the situation, we request that all Snake Eater registered civilian vessels be allowed safe passage through your space, as we are allowing yours the same privelege.

Castux system
Admiral Rommel brought the 6th Beta fleet into position around the system, and gave the other fleet permission to diesenage. With this, all except the frigate turned towards Snake space, and engaged warp drive. They were no longer a threat to anyone.
"Vice-Admiral Williams, this is Admiral Rommel, respond"
"Williams here, Sir!"
"Good job with claiming this planet, Admiral. The Foreign Secretary offers his personal congratulations to you on this matter, and that you and all other crews have been metioned in despatches for your efforts. Give me a situation report"
"Certainley. We have a division of Rangers securing the planet, who are now waiting for reinforcements. The intial claim beacon was destroyed by Wettin fire, but a ground based probe has been established. As we speak, a strongpoint is being manufactured on the planet. Currently, we are not under threat from any force, as the Wettin fleet is currently engaged with an OMP vessel on the outskirts of the system. However, having consulted my tactical officer, it is likely that an attack will soon be launched upon us."
"Excellent! The 6th Beta Fleet will be spread to give maximum covering fire. However, I must inform you that no reinforcements will be arriving anymore. This is the last we could send prior to a declaration of war. Comms end"
As he finshed, he recieved a comunique from Lt. Colonel Matthews, declaring that the two divisions of Rangers were ready to drop in. He pressed the 'CONFIRM' button, and watched as the dropships left his ship, streaking with plumes of fire towards the surface. Soon, we will be in a large fight to the death. May Leviathan protect us all

Onboard the Wettic Dreadnought

Kith wasn’t worried about the loss of the asset. The mercenary ship was a convenient way to offload the package, but hardly necessary. Kith never really worried about anything anymore, as the best commercial operative of his generation, there was not a lot Kith hadn’t seen. “Though this Wettic amour is impressive” he thought to himself. Thinking of the profits to be made by Omni-Corp, (which, due to his honored position he had almost a full half percent share in.) and his coming return to his Island and his Art, he fondly remembered his recent market acquisition.

The Dreadnought computer’s AI was truly top of the line. So advanced it almost “thought” that no one would dare try any low-tech tricks on it. The best part about being the most experienced agent, is that ones Adaptive AI (classified Omni-Tech Gen X technology) driven personal computer had just as much experience as its carrier. After about 15 seconds of advanced algorithms (which amounts to about infinity in computer space) BA-9 (his own name for his computer “Bad Ass 9”) found the perfect ploy. In computer speak it amounted to “Hey, I’m a hacking program designed to check your security response. 1 2 3 go” BA-9 then began hacking random low level programs, at every turn being blocked soundly by the Dreadnought Computer. However, so busy mocking BA did the central AI become, it became an easy matter to take a small sample of the Dreadnought’s hull plating. Now to just bide time till I can get out of here.

Kith knew it couldn’t be long. One didn’t arbitrarily attack OPM vessels without consequence. Though this probably wouldn’t warrant a political response, the 5th wing itself would respond. Old, unreliable, and crazy they might all be, one thing they do have in common, is righteous fury.

Onboard the Salty Dog

“Psychotian vessel to Wettic fleet, this is Kaaide, on behalf of the Salty Dog, I surrender. Engines are in-active, weapons are being taken offline, and raptor’s are returning to parade formation. I humbly request that no further hostile action be taken against this vessel.”
“Psychotian vessel to Wettic fleet, this is Talum Kaaide, on behalf of Omni-Corp, Military Procurement and defence division of the Ornery Bastard State, I send greetings. This strikes me as a wonderful opportunity to talk merchandise. The 4 fighters you see before you are the latest production model available to private concerns. They are equipped with all the latest technologies, and a demonstration can be arranged for you at no cost, presently. As you are no doubt aware, a much shorter, more costly form of demonstration is all too available. The Raptor’s stand ready, I await your reply.”

OOC: I think I need to clarify a few things to prevent confusion.
Ships at Castux IV, the gasgiant, now designated Sentinel
2 Saturn battlecruisers, 2 Mars B destroyers and 5 Monitor gunboats

At the Salty Dog now designated fleet Castor
1 Jupiter B battleship, 4 Saturn battlecruisers, 7 Mars B destroyers and 10 Monitor gunboats

Nearing Castux III and the Snake Eaters Frigate, now designated Fleet Pollux
Dreadnought, 1 Jupiter C battleship, 6 Saturn battlecruisers, 13 Mars B destroyers, 10 gunboats

IC:
Foreign Affairs Office, Wetticus.
The secretary wasn’t please. He had been assured several times that the claiming beacon had been launched by Dreadnought as soon as the Pluto had confirmed that the system was clear. Hours before anybody entered the system but those Snakes were still claiming it wasn’t there. And they seemed to think that their commercial traffic would be in danger by Wetland because of this dispute! Ridiculous! You don’t stop commerce because of something as minor as this, only a full-fledged war would do that.

Onboard Dreadnought, Pollux fleet.
Admiral Stentin watched as the smaller Snake ships around Castux III left, leaving the big one alone. Long-range sensors had already picked up their fleet entering the system. His window of opportunity was now. It was then that he received confirmation that this territorial dispute would have to be resolved through armed conflict and that the Castux system was now a Confederate combat zone.

“Alert the fleet, we are now at combat conditions.” He could soon here the clang of the heavy airlocks sealing of every section of the ship. That way only one section of the ship would depressurize should the enemy manage to brake through all the defenses. “I want Dreadnought with the destroyers assisting her to attack the Snake Eaters frigate, get it away from the planet. While we keep it busy, the Jormungand escorted by the battlecruisers and gunboats to carry out a landing on the planet.” His orders were quickly relayed to the other ships, who then quickly moved to carry out the plan.

The Dreadnought changed it’s heading slightly so that it would directly face the Snake ship. The Wettic destroyers were forming up on both sides of the massive vessel. The other ships gathered around the Jupiter C battleship which moved directly towards the planet, with all the battlecruisers screening the Jormungard from the frigate.

Onboard Jorgumand, Pollux fleet
The battleship was meant for planetary assault and carried 5.000 marines along with the necessary dropships and support vehicles. It also had a railgun for planetary bombardment and he was planning on using all of these things. He would simultaneously launch four Alpha dropships, 10 Beta’s and a Battlecrab while firing a round with the railgun directly at the largest concentration of enemy groundtroops. He hoped that would even the odds.

Onboard Dreadnought, bridge.
Captain Hollander was now facing a ship twice as large as a Wettic battleship. But it was only half as long as his own. His plan was simple, pound the ship to dust by firing everything he had. They had just entered weapons’ range of the Ripper beam, although it would take another 23 seconds before they were in range to use their conventional weaponry.

“Tactical, charge Ripppers 1 to 4 and target enemy frigate.” Massive capacitors that had held the enormous energies the emitters needed, now dumped the energy into them and in seconds the emitters were ready. It would take minutes before the capacitors would be able to recharge the emitters. The four emitters, located in the prongs of the ship now opened up a rip to the antimatter plane.

Four of what looked like glowing beams of light raced towards the Dauntless class frigate. Four rips in the fabric of space itself moving towards their target at a speed greater then that of light. Captain Hollander anxiously awaited the results…

Meanwhile, the AI of the ship was made aware that the armour in section 2-5351P was slightly damaged on the inside. It quickly directed four maintenance drones to repair it and a low priority subroutine was checking sensor data to determine the cause of the loss. The AI had more important things then this to worry about in a combat situation.

Onboard the Odin, Castor fleet
“Psychotian vessel to Wettic fleet, this is Kaaide, on behalf of the Salty Dog, I surrender. Engines are in-active, weapons are being taken offline, and raptor’s are returning to parade formation. I humbly request that no further hostile action be taken against this vessel.” Captain Griswell listened to the message in wonder, what had happened to their captain? Then he received the second message and he realized things had gotten even more complicated yet again.

“This is Griswell to Kaaide, prepare to receive borders. Your ship will be towed away to Castux IV and your crew will be put in custody until this conflict is resolved. After that, you are free to go. They will be held on your ship unless you resist. This is not negotiable.” Underneath the message, he had put a second one. The same way as Kaaide had done.

“The Wettic navy is indeed interested in a replacement for the Hyperion. However, this is not the time nor the place to discuss such matters. You are however free to come onboard so we can discuss the matter face to face.”

Meanwhile, a single dropship left the Odin and headed towards the disabled ship carrying thirty Wettic marines and two Gladiators. Captain Griswell also ordered Odin to scan the fighters more closely and especially to compare the data to any fighter known to be used by pirates. Just in case.

Onboard the Beliskner
Captain Breg had been waiting for the black ships to make a move or an attempt to communicate but nothing had happened. So she took the initiative. “This is Captain Breg to unidentified ships. Please identify yourself and state your intentions.”

OOC: I think I need to clarify a few things to prevent confusion.
Ships at Castux IV, the gasgiant, now designated Sentinel
2 Saturn battlecruisers, 2 Mars B destroyers and 5 Monitor gunboats

At the Salty Dog now designated fleet Castor
1 Jupiter B battleship, 4 Saturn battlecruisers, 7 Mars B destroyers and 10 Monitor gunboats

Nearing Castux III and the Snake Eaters Frigate, now designated Fleet Pollux
Dreadnought, 1 Jupiter C battleship, 6 Saturn battlecruisers, 13 Mars B destroyers, 10 gunboats

IC:
Foreign Affairs Office, Wetticus.
The secretary wasn’t please. He had been assured several times that the claiming beacon had been launched by Dreadnought as soon as the Pluto had confirmed that the system was clear. Hours before anybody entered the system but those Snakes were still claiming it wasn’t there. And they seemed to think that their commercial traffic would be in danger by Wetland because of this dispute! Ridiculous! You don’t stop commerce because of something as minor as this, only a full-fledged war would do that.

Onboard Dreadnought, Pollux fleet.
Admiral Stentin watched as the smaller Snake ships around Castux III left, leaving the big one alone. Long-range sensors had already picked up their fleet entering the system. His window of opportunity was now. It was then that he received confirmation that this territorial dispute would have to be resolved through armed conflict and that the Castux system was now a Confederate combat zone.

“Alert the fleet, we are now at combat conditions.” He could soon here the clang of the heavy airlocks sealing of every section of the ship. That way only one section of the ship would depressurize should the enemy manage to brake through all the defenses. “I want Dreadnought with the destroyers assisting her to attack the Snake Eaters frigate, get it away from the planet. While we keep it busy, the Jormungand escorted by the battlecruisers and gunboats to carry out a landing on the planet.” His orders were quickly relayed to the other ships, who then quickly moved to carry out the plan.

The Dreadnought changed it’s heading slightly so that it would directly face the Snake ship. The Wettic destroyers were forming up on both sides of the massive vessel. The other ships gathered around the Jupiter C battleship which moved directly towards the planet, with all the battlecruisers screening the Jormungard from the frigate.

Onboard Jorgumand, Pollux fleet
The battleship was meant for planetary assault and carried 5.000 marines along with the necessary dropships and support vehicles. It also had a railgun for planetary bombardment and he was planning on using all of these things. He would simultaneously launch four Alpha dropships, 10 Beta’s and a Battlecrab while firing a round with the railgun directly at the largest concentration of enemy groundtroops. He hoped that would even the odds.

Onboard Dreadnought, bridge.
Captain Hollander was now facing a ship twice as large as a Wettic battleship. But it was only half as long as his own. His plan was simple, pound the ship to dust by firing everything he had. They had just entered weapons’ range of the Ripper beam, although it would take another 23 seconds before they were in range to use their conventional weaponry.

“Tactical, charge Ripppers 1 to 4 and target enemy frigate.” Massive capacitors that had held the enormous energies the emitters needed, now dumped the energy into them and in seconds the emitters were ready. It would take minutes before the capacitors would be able to recharge the emitters. The four emitters, located in the prongs of the ship now opened up a rip to the antimatter plane.

Four of what looked like glowing beams of light raced towards the Dauntless class frigate. Four rips in the fabric of space itself moving towards their target at a speed greater then that of light. Captain Hollander anxiously awaited the results…

Meanwhile, the AI of the ship was made aware that the armour in section 2-5351P was slightly damaged on the inside. It quickly directed four maintenance drones to repair it and a low priority subroutine was checking sensor data to determine the cause of the loss. The AI had more important things then this to worry about in a combat situation.

Onboard the Odin, Castor fleet
“Psychotian vessel to Wettic fleet, this is Kaaide, on behalf of the Salty Dog, I surrender. Engines are in-active, weapons are being taken offline, and raptor’s are returning to parade formation. I humbly request that no further hostile action be taken against this vessel.” Captain Griswell listened to the message in wonder, what had happened to their captain? Then he received the second message and he realized things had gotten even more complicated yet again.

“This is Griswell to Kaaide, prepare to receive borders. Your ship will be towed away to Castux IV and your crew will be put in custody until this conflict is resolved. After that, you are free to go. They will be held on your ship unless you resist. This is not negotiable.” Underneath the message, he had put a second one. The same way as Kaaide had done.

“The Wettic navy is indeed interested in a replacement for the Hyperion. However, this is not the time nor the place to discuss such matters. You are however free to come onboard so we can discuss the matter face to face.”

Meanwhile, a single dropship left the Odin and headed towards the disabled ship carrying thirty Wettic marines and two Gladiators. Captain Griswell also ordered Odin to scan the fighters more closely and especially to compare the data to any fighter known to be used by pirates. Just in case.

Onboard the Beliskner
Captain Breg had been waiting for the black ships to make a move or an attempt to communicate but nothing had happened. So she took the initiative. “This is Captain Breg to unidentified ships. Please identify yourself and state your intentions.”

"Sir, they seem to be making for the frigate. I don't know if we are going to reach them in time."
"Agreed. Despatch 10 ships to support the frigate, and make sure they dont come to any harm. We must hold the planet!"

**********************************************************Frigate, Bridge
Sir, we could have a problem.

Pinnicle, Capital City of Omni-Psychotia
Lord Peterson had a very tiring day, everything seemed to be going wrong. It started with simple things; a headache when he woke up, the milk container was empty but still in the fridge; little things. But the little things grew up as the day pressed on; the rebels from the conquered land of Morieth bombed 20 different government buildings in a space of 15 minutes, the pressures from other nations concerning Omni-Psychotia's claim to Morieth were mounting, and, to top it all off, that fool Brommner bungled his way into getting his entire ship confiscated. It had a bad day indeed.

Considering this, it is no wonder why Lord Peterson absent mindedly agreed to allow the entire FifthWing of OPM to take the Portable Appocalypse to that blasted Castux system. He had more important things to worry about than mercenaries.

Onboard FifthWing ship Briney Depths
"Cap'n, we're all ready. Ships are in formation with the Portable Appocalypse at the rear." The tactical officer shot a look at his captain with fury in his eyes, "No one takes one our ships. Not even these Wettic bastards."

Captain MacEnroy returned the gaze with equal fury, "That's right son, no one insults the FifthWing like this and gets away with it. Open a channel to all ships: Today, boys and girls, is a day that will live on in our memories. Today we rescue one of our own from the clutches of foreign scum. We will pound these inferior wretches in classic OPM fashion; take no prisoners, leave none alive, and fight with the pride and glory of our homeland!"

There was a collective roar that rippled through the fleet: "Hail Omni-Psychotia!"

With that, the fleet began to move. It was a good 2 hour grav-jaunt to the area, and in 2 hours all hell would break loose.

1 hour and 55 minutes later, back in Pinnicle
An aid came bursting into Lord Peterson's office with sweat on his brow and a look akin to constipation on his face, "Sir! We have a major problem!"

Lord Peteson was exasperated, "What now? If it's the rebels again, I don't want to here it." He poured a sniffter of brandy and gave it to the aid, then helped himself to the bottle.

The aid was too excited to drink, "Sir, the entire FifthWing left our space and is headed to the Castux system."

Peterson raised an eyebrow, "The ENTIRE FifthWing? I thought they were only sending a detachment to pick up Brommner and his ship."

"No sir, they're not going to pick it up....they're going to take it back....with force." The aid hesitated slighty as he saw his leader's face turn red with anger, but knew he had to tell, "And they....they uh....took the Portable Appocalyse."

Lord Peterson shot up from his desk, anger being replaced by shock, "WHAT!?! If that thing is used even once in the presence of foreign ships the whole galaxy will come down on us! They're going to start a war that we can't win!" Lord Peterson thought for a handfull of seconds, "Alright, send the FirstWing...All of it...and blow those FifthWing pilots right out of the void."

The aid was shocked, "But sir, those are our countrymen! We can't kill our own!"

"We can and we will. The entire Omni-Psychotian populous will be in danger if those fools start a war, so we can't let them. You have your orders, now carry them out."

The aid saluted his Lord, "Yes sir."

OCC: I will be using the statistics for ships as they are at the ESUS website (http://www.esusalliance.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=890). However I will make some changes, which I will note below.
FifthWing Fleet

1 Behemoth Class Flagship (Briney Depths), similar to the Wettic Dreadnought but 2/3 the size
*DIFFERENCES: 50 conventional ship-to-ship laser cannons wich are more powerful with longer range, 125 omni-directional missile launchers with compliment of 20,000 Equalizer missiles and 5,000 Agonizer missiles (specs can be found for these missiles in an earier post), 450 Ion Pulse cannons, and the patented Nuclear Holocaust self-detonation system. All OPM ships are equiped with these weapons, but of course weapon numbers and compliments are same as the ships listed below.*

4 Hades Class Battleships, same as Jupiter Battleships

15 Tonberry Class Destroyers, same as Mars B Destroyer

30 Ifrit Class gunboats, same as Wettic Gunboat

100 Omni-Corp. Raptors (contained within' the ships)

*Further Note: All OPM ships are equiped with Grav-Drives instead of standard warp drives. If you want to know how a Grav-Drive works, watch Event Horizon.*

OOC: Snake Eaters, I need a bit more of a reply here. I will wait with responding to Omni until you do.

Castux III
Lt. Col Jennings, of the 3rd Division SE Rangers, linked his comms to the orbiting frigate. Hving been on the planet for a number of cycles,

OOC: I will be finishing this post later, I am rushed at the moment

OOC - have numerous responses, will write tommorow

Stats for Omni-Corp Raptor

length: 31.24 meters
Mass: 77 metric tons
Power: 1 Psy Peterson Inc. Void Splitter V.3.45f cold fusion reactor
Propulsion: sub-light engines only, thrusters along all axis to allow fighters to spin and face all directions while momentum keeps them moving along a plane
Speed: 0.61c in space, not equipped for atmospheric maneuvers
Duration: 48 hours
Weapons
- 8 reaper class powered phasers
- 4 hard points for anti-fighter missiles with 15 OmniCorp. ‘Collections’ class missiles (yield 30 megatons) in each tube. Missiles fire forward.
OR 2 hard points containing 8 OmniCorp. Equalizer missiles (each missile has yield of 100 megatons)
Crew: 1 pilot, massive AI interface
Defense: 5.2 cm Ablative titanium armour, 2 independently run point defence shields
Cost: 95 million

Special notes and specs – Heavily reliant on Omni-Corp. AI technology, weight and size problems have been negated using inertia compensators which project a field 1 metre outside the structure
Weapons – 8 phasers face angles. Starting at 0 degrees. 45 degrees left/right and up/down on both front and back. Totaling 8. The lasers are operated totally by the ships AI, integrated with all the other raptors in the area (up to 12, or 3 wings), the lasers fire a 1/10th power shot at a target, when a weakness is perceived by this low power shot, that information is forwarded to the other Raptor AI’s in the area. The other raptors act on this information by targeting said weakness with a full power burst. The missiles act on the same principle. The missile launchers function on the same principle. The Raptor’s main computer can target up to 4 targets at once.
Defence – point defence shields are the state of the art defence in the Omni-Tech arsenal. Instead of covering the entire ship in a shell of sorts, each of the Raptor’s 2 shield generators can concentrate the full power of the shields to defend 1/8th of the ship. At any one time, the Raptor’s Hull is ¼ near invulnerable. However, the ¾ that is without shields are vulnerable to well co-coordinated attacks.

Strengths – The Raptor is primarily an anti-fighter fighter. Though with its ability to be equipped with 16 equalizer missiles it cab be a threat to capital ships. It is estimated that that a wing of Raptor’s (4) can eliminate up to 5 times their number in opposing fighters.

Weaknesses – Though the raptor is dangerous to a capital ship, nothing is more dangerous in return to a Raptor. The huge structures and gun-arcs of a capital ship allow it to target more than one quarter of the raptor’s hull. Raptor’s tasked with attacking a capital ship generally drop ordinance, put shields to the rear, turn tail and run. An unsupported wing of Raptor’s can be eliminated quite handily by a single capital ship. Raptor Lasers are totally ineffective against capital ship shield strengths. MUST have a mother ship, not equipped for FTL travel

PRIORITY A Encoded message from Omni-Corp President to Lord Psy –Peterson of the Omni-Psychotian Empire

You know what this is about. You know what Asset is gone. I have no need to tell you of the consequences that will be incurred by both of our peoples if anyone sees it used. What is being done? Do I need to take a hand in this…

Onboard the Salty Dog

Satisfied with the message received from the Wettic commander. Kaaide readied the ship to receive guests. With their Capt. Incapacitated, their bridge crew absent, the 100 or psychotian troops wouldn’t be much of a problem. 5th wing mercenaries need direction, any independently minded among them would have to be found and dealt with before any bright ideas began forming. That little tidbit of info would be given to the Wettic’s at the outset, a show good faith maybe. Kaaide couldn’t be happier. Finally, to at least interact face to face with a race of culture. Preparing his sales pitch, Talum thought to himself, that was worth everything that had happened to him, even if he didn’t manage to make a sale.

OOC – Assume everything involved in the surrender of the ship goes as planned. The Raptor’s can be docked either back in the Dog or on your ship, your security protocols dictate that. My agent is doing nothing out of the ordinary besides making a bit of an ass of himself seeking meaningful conversation. Anyone observant or trained in any diplomatic fashion would notice he’s definitely trying to separate himself from the Psychotians. Remember the AI in the Raptor’s as well as the doomsday device installed in all Psychotian vessels, though not nearly advanced as your ship computers; any overt threat would be noticed. Anything sneaky will probably go unnoticed.

Onboard Satly Dog
The mercenaries where getting restless. A long while ago, every door and hatch leading onto the Living Level had been sealed and encoded. After trying everything they knew, from yelling at them to shooting them, the troops settled and waited for word from the bridge.

"Where the hell is everybody?" said one scruffy looking merc, "We 'aven't 'ad com contact for a bloody hour."

An even scruffier, but dimmer looking merc answered honestly, "Bardo thinks we were forgoten."

The first merc gave Bardo a nod, "And why do ya think that, mate?"

"Bardo does not know, but Bardo is tired and looking to justify this situation." Bardo thought for a moment (a moment of thought for Bardo is quite an effort) and brightened slightly, "Bardo has explosives! Bardo can get Keener to place them safely so the hull doesn't break!" As Bardo spoke, the other mercs gathered around him, suprised he had gotten an idea at all, and across the room a panel slid silently open.

The first merc began a sentence, "I think you meant 'so the hull doen't breach' my frie-"

The security turret behind the silent panel interrupted the conversation and promptly shot a large smoking hole in the center of Bardo's chest. The big brute stared at where his heart and lungs used to be for two or three seconds and then collapsed to the floor.

"Uh, he didn't happen to say where his explosives were, did he?" someone asked, but noone replied

***

In Master Security, Kaiid smiled menacingly as he took his hands off the manual turret control. Hopefully for them, he thought, they're smart enough not to get any more ideas.

After three or four more enterprising leaders were reduced to bloody remains, the mercs stopped talking altogether.

Pinnical, Omni-Psychotia

Messege to President of Omni-Corp. from the desk of Lord Psy Peterson
-The FirstWing is perfectly capable of retrieving our little project from the FifthWing pirates.
-We will have our little project back before it is used.
-Remember, project takes at least three hours to prepare for opperation.
-Will not need help, we have the best mercs within 50 system radius of our own.

-Lord Peterson

(( I appologize for the delay, work had me under a mountain of paperwork))

The three black ships he staid almost quescient as they just sort of watched the chaos of the system unfold. Needless to say they were quite shocked to find anyone here, let alone a such alien vessels. When they recieved the hail the ships were again shocked and now just down right confused. They attempted a response as the language was not something they had ever encountered.

"Siato-weh siros wadaso mekesuka?"

Came a delicate seemingly female voice, it didnt seem angry but then again in someforiegn languages it was hard to tell. It was also some how doubtful that the Beliskner would have any of the Anchrish laguage onfile considering this was the first true encounterthe Anchrish people had, had with any race besides there own.. In a sense this was a litteral first contact.

bumpity bumpity

OOC: Keep in mind there is a time difference of six hours between where I am and the States where one or more of you most likely are. I completely understand how work can swamp you Ankaa, no apologies necessary.

I am still waiting for Snake's response too, I just hope it gets posted here today.

IC:
On board the Salty Dog
Colonel Decker was ready to go and so were his men. The dropship had docked with the frigate and his men knew what to do when the hatch opened up. Their weapons at the ready, the men and women streamed out of the ship covering all angles.

Wearing full combat armour and with their guns at the ready, they looked a bit threatening. They were met by a single guy who was definetly not the captain. After asking him a few questions he found out that their engines were shot and their captain dead after going insane.

And there a hundred mercs in the ship that wouldn't react well to the knowledge that they woudn't get any money today. He now gave his orders to this Kaaide. "Alright, tell your people something but keep them confined. Your ship will be released once this conflict has been settled and we will help you make enough repairs to get yourself home."

Decker now activated his internal radio to let the dropship know the situation. In turn, they told the Odin and they ordered her to come back and that the Odin would dock with the Salty Dog and then tow it to Castux IV.

Decker was informed about the decision and he in turn informed Kaaide. He didn't like the guy. He sounded a bit too much like used hovercar salesman. By now the enemy's fighters had docked with the mercenary ship and the Wettic battleship was almost in position to dock....

Onboard the Beliskner
"Siato-weh siros wadaso mekesuka?" That was the message they got back. Which meant this was a first contact situation. "Beliskner, can you translate this?"

"I have already started translation protocols, but it will take time. The process would be expedited if I had more of the language to work with. The same would most likely apply to their efforts to translate our language."

"I know, I took the course on first-contact you know? Ok, send this message: I am captain Elise Breg, commanding the WCS Beliskner. I regret to inform you that this system is already claimed by us. You can find this claim being broadcast on subspace frequentie 543.2, radio frequentie 234.9 or tachyon frequentie 864.63. End message."

Onboard the central command cutter the Saitos stood a hominid around six feet tall its skin a pale but not sickley shade of white and definably red hair, not reddish orange, but a true crimson shade of red. His (or an assumed male from his body form) face was obscurred by what appeared to be a white porcelin mask not much more than a centimeter thick and with only the slightest nod to any human forms carved on its front, its facemask essentially devoid of features, he and the rest of the crew looked disturbingly like unfinished dolls.

The apparent captain of this vessel the Ankaa man began dictating his ordersto the communications officer, a slimly built brunette female sittign infront of a what looked to be a small sphere infront of a sheet of watter that hung in the air above and in front of her.

"Wekusa hiroti meso jirata 'claim' quata so-iso kell? saito-weh heckur girashi"

"Girashi, kaywa" she responded in a quick respectful tone.

The communications officer typed in the message she had been ordered to send the computer converting it to the only other way they knew how to communicate, by pictures...

On board the Beliskner they would recieve an odd response a short of animated movie showing a needle like probe ram itself into an asteroid. Which had infact happened, the image then highlighted the asteriod it struck and made all the other asteriods visibly disappear as a cartoon hand reached out and grabbed it.

It was short, sweet, and too the point, all they wanted was the asteriod that had their probe in it.

OOC: Sorry guys, bogged down recently

IC: Onboard the battleship, Admiral Rommel paced up and down the large bridge, snatching glances at the holomatrix as he did so,"How long before those Wettin ships can drop troops onto our positions?"

"We estimate 15 minutes Admiral"

"Damn it! If we don't do something to stop these bastards, then we are fucke! Understand me!"

"Yessir, but we cannot do anything. Our Rangers are already planetside, and we only have our Colonial Marines left on board."

Rommel thought about this for a moment, then came to a decision,"OK, heres my plan. We take half of the fleet and make haste to the planet. The remaining half will fight a rearguard defense."

"That may incure heavy losses on our part Sir"

"I am well aware of that, Captain! But sometimes, you have to sacrifice a few for your cause. Everybody in this fleet understands that principle!"

"Yessir!" Capt. Sirius lept to his task, transmitting the new information to all the ships in the fleet:
Alpha Wing to follow Lead. Bravo Wing remain to fight rearguard action. Regroup at target when needed

OOC: You still forgot to tell me what happened to the frigate, Snake.

IC:
Onboard the Beliskner
Captain Breg had watched the pictures these aliens had sent and she thinked she got the message. "Any luck with their language, Beliskner?"

"I estimate it will take another two hours with the current data before I have a working translation matrix."

"Alright, then we will simply return their favour. Send a set of images, the first will depict our ships around Castux IV and give our ships the colour blue. The second will show the system with all the bodies in it coloured blue, except the asteroid they already have a probe on. Colour that one red and do the same to their ships."

"You do realize captain that those colours might hold some cultural significance to them which might lead them to believe that we wish to harm them."

"It's the best we can do on such sort notice, carry out my orders."

"Yes, captain. Message sent."

Onboard the Jormungard
Another ten minutes before we have reached optimal deployement range. The Snake's reinforcements are coming in and Dreadnought has just engaged the Snake frigate.

"Thank you Tac. Alright, launch three wings of fighters to escort us on final approach. The battlecruisers can move a little farther away to get some manoeuvring room once the fighting starts. Deploy the side batteries!"

OOC: Sorry, I'll post the frigate and its support now...

IC: "Sir, hull plating is buckling from the repeated attacks. Hull breaches reported on decks 11-23!"

"Roger that Ensign"

Vice-Admiral Williams looked over the reports flooding in from all sections. Multiple systems were overloading, the shields were almost gone, and the phaser banks were almost dry. The situation loked grim, of that there was no doubt. Out in the blackness of space, small pinpoints of light moved swiftly as the Cobra's engaged enemy fighters. The toll had been terrific, and as more reports flooded in, Williams found himself praying to Leviathan for him and his ship to make it through the day. Bleeding radiation, the mighty friagte listed violently, as another volley of laser fire forced the artifical gravity generators offline. The ship's light winked in and out...

OOC: Snake, the only lasers used on Wettic ships are point-defense weapons used to take out missiles and fighters. But I will go along with it.

Onboard the Dreadnought, bridge
The ship shuddered again as more weapons impacted. Outside, Wettic fighters were clashing with their counterparts using their missiles and plasma weapons. The Wettic fighters weren’t well protected but they were more numerous and two destroyers now moved in to give them close support.

Captain Hollander however was more worried about about his own ship. The primary shield grid was down and secondary was at half strength. The other destroyers were now moving in to lend their support to the attack. They opened up with a volley of missiles. 264 missiles streaked away from the Mars destroyers and raced towards their target.

Meanwhile, the Jorgumand was now on final approach and the railgun round was already loaded into the barrel while the dropships were given a final check before they got permission for launch…..

OOC: Sowri!

"Sir, the frigate is in serious trouble!"

Rommel stared at the tactical display, and gaped at the firepower being brought to bear. This was no disagreement, it was a massacre.

"Order all ships to fire on those cruisers! Blow them out of the sky!"

In the lead starship, a Soverign class, Captain Kei gripped his armrests. Fully half of the fleet was engaged in holding up the Wettin reinforcements. Having checked the readouts, he opened a channel,"Hailing all ships. Target the Dreadnaught, it is severly weak from sustained battle."
Acknoledgements came back from his ships, and they all opened fire. Quantum torepedoes and phaser fire impacted on the weakened shields of the enemy ship, driving them down even further,"Launch all Cobra's, take out those fighters!"

On the surface...
"Major Hermen, sir!"

"Yes, what is it Lt?"

"Sir, we have recieved word that Wettin forces are preapring for ground assualt!"

"Prep all weapons batteries, and deploy the tanks! We must hold this planet until further reinforcements arrive!"

OOC: Calm, it's just a reminder. Not critisism.

IC:
Onboard Dreadnought, the bridge.
While the destroyers were keeping the damaged frigate busy, captain Hollander decided to concentrate on different targets. The Snake's reinforcements had concentrated on him and the cruisers protecting the Jorgamund and it was beginning to pay off. The battlecruiser Freki had suffered a shield malfunction in their primary shield grid and the secondary wasn't holding up under the bombardment.

So far Dreadnought's interceptors were stopping 60% of the enemy's missiles but what remained to hit the shields was enough to bring down the secondary shield grid. They were now down to their last shield emitters and he saw how the enemy launched their fighters but his fighters were still busy fighting the frigate's fighters.

"Tac, launch all our drones and use them to hold of the Snake's fighters. I don't want them to get close enough to get off a shot. Target their lead ship on starboard with Ripper 5 and fire. Plasma cannons and PPB's will be used against the others."

Meanwhile the Jormungard had fired it's railgun round and the dropships and fighters were now flying towards the planet as well. Among the formation was also a strange looking craft that looked like a bug.

The battlecruisers were doing their best to keep the enemy occupied but some enemy fire had managed to hit the battleship and the captain had decided he would go back and guard the freighters. But before he did that he gave the enemy a broadfire with it's massive plasma cannons and he sent the gunboats to get the pressure of the Freki.

That battlecruiser was now venting plasma from where the ship had been hit when the shields momentarily failed and it was now firing erratic. Behind the battleship could be seen how the dropships now entered the atmosphere of the planet, with the fighters already ahead of them.

OOC: Calm, it's just a reminder. Not critisism.

IC:
Onboard Dreadnought, the bridge.
While the destroyers were keeping the damaged frigate busy, captain Hollander decided to concentrate on different targets. The Snake's reinforcements had concentrated on him and the cruisers protecting the Jorgamund and it was beginning to pay off. The battlecruiser Freki had suffered a shield malfunction in their primary shield grid and the secondary wasn't holding up under the bombardment.

So far Dreadnought's interceptors were stopping 60% of the enemy's missiles but what remained to hit the shields was enough to bring down the secondary shield grid. They were now down to their last shield emitters and he saw how the enemy launched their fighters but his fighters were still busy fighting the frigate's fighters.

"Tac, launch all our drones and use them to hold of the Snake's fighters. I don't want them to get close enough to get off a shot. Target their lead ship on starboard with Ripper 5 and fire. Plasma cannons and PPB's will be used against the others."

Meanwhile the Jormungard had fired it's railgun round and the dropships and fighters were now flying towards the planet as well. Among the formation was also a strange looking craft that looked like a bug.

The battlecruisers were doing their best to keep the enemy occupied but some enemy fire had managed to hit the battleship and the captain had decided he would go back and guard the freighters. But before he did that he gave the enemy a broadfire with it's massive plasma cannons and he sent the gunboats to get the pressure of the Freki.

That battlecruiser was now venting plasma from where the ship had been hit when the shields momentarily failed and it was now firing erratic. Behind the battleship could be seen how the dropships now entered the atmosphere of the planet, with the fighters already ahead of them.


OOC: Sorry its been a while, will post soon

The SE ships hit by the enemy fire shook, their vodi shields taking heavy damage. A few began to to vent plasma from their warp nacelles, but this son stopped as enginneres got on the problem. In the battleship, Rommel watched his support fleet take heavy damage, and keep fighting. Brave and noble men and women all. The battleship entered the battle, firing on anything it could target. Although it carried phasers, this ship carried vast firepower. The plasma and ion cannons fired repeatedly, pushing the temperature needles into the red.

Onbard the frigate, things looked dire. Although she was effectively a dead target, the Wettic ships continued to fire on her. Vice-Admiral Williams regained conciousness on the bridge, and saw his crew fighting the fires on that deck. Tactical was awash with damage and casualtie reports.

On the planet, Major Herman watched the first of the Rapier missiles streak off their launchers, to engage the dropships. They might get some, but a large number would survive. All around, the Rangers readied themselves for a fight