NationStates Jolt Archive

This is the combat ring for the Flagship Contest.

http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=10496683#post10496683

I want the contestants to post their arrival before the fighting starts.

Arc Impulse slipped through the system with a certain grace, its Urenbeck catapult propelling it at speeds of 25% the speed of light. Suddenly it slowed..it seemed to stretch for a moment as it came in to view. The kilometer long battleship was bristling with weaponry..overpowered and extremely deadly she prowled towards the marker bouy, that would signify the ship was in position.

She launched her squadrons of morgenraetes, 50 in all of the high maneuver frames dashed out of the launch bay, fanning out ahead of her . They formed an honour guard for her, tiny in comparison, dozens of shining stars to mark her entry to the field.

OOC: Whoops. Link to this kinda got lost in the derailment of the main thread. Sorry for the wait.

IC: With an utter lack of fanfare, Joseph doored into the arena. His twelve kilometer bulk jetted playfully about the arena for a moment, then sank into ready position next to its marker buoy. Hundreds of thousands of launch tubes oriented themselves, prepared to launch their payloads as soon as the match started...

The Arc Impulse noted the newcomer by rolling 90 degrees in salute.
Her kilometer long frame glowed brightly as her phased armour was activated.
All reactors went online at that moment..and if anyone had been viewing her on electromagnetic sensors, she would have appeared as bright as a blue star at that moment. The Morgenreates ahead of her moved in, completely unafraid of the opposition they faced, after all they were the victors of the hellesponto's wars. They had faced odds beyond all reason and had allowed the then fledgeling tannelornian navy to come out on top against the super powers of the day.

She turned now, approaching maximum combat range..her heading shifted to an interception angle, crossing the massive ships T. Arc Impulse was faster then her, better armoured..and had the firepower of a ship many many times its size.

First looks can mean many things, a first look at the 1 km tannelornian war ship, dwarfed by the vessel it faced would lead many to one conclusion. However Tannelornian ships were either dreadnoughts, or carriers. And this is the exact kind of big game she was designed to hunt.

--QUETZAL Node Online
--Initializing Tripartite Sequence at 13:24:01:00001
--QUETZAL Convo started
--ID has joined the Convo
--EGO has joined the Convo
--SUPER has joined the Convo

SUPER: Oh dear, I think it's charging us.

ID: No, really? Would you mind getting out of my way while I kill it?

SUPER: Do we really have to? I find it's much simpler to just talk things out...

ID: ...

EGO: ...

ID: ...

EGO: ...

SUPER: Fine, be that way.

--ID has left the conversation
--SUPER has left the conversation
--EGO has left the conversation
--Tripartite Sequence Ended at 13:24:01:000010000001
--QUETZAL NODE DEACTIVATED


__________________________


If a ship could grin, Joseph was damn near slitting his own throat. With a burst of activity, the missile and fighter drums began to rotate at high speeds, launching a full broadside at the Tannelorn vessel. Over ten million purple-glowing Super SCCAM torpedoes, each carrying an anti-capital warhead, accelerated towards their target at maximum velocity, aiming for drives, weapon systems, bridges. Another two million pitch black tubes, their KK fields glowing amethyst, maneuvered towards the enemy Morgenreates, indistinguishable from the SCCAMs except by their nearly indistinguishable size. Once in range, these tubes, Paris II drones all, would open fire, enough fire power to annihilate a small moon, all focused on the Morgenreates.

Behind the concealing wall of amethyst drive fields, Joseph waited for a infinitesmal moment, then, for a picosecond there was a slash across the fabric of reality and Joseph-

-Was behind the Arc Impulse, a full thirty light seconds. His FTL inhibitors slammed on, grav wells and reality buffers running at full strength. The barrels rolled again, releasing another swarm of SCCAMs and fighters, their raw mass alone outweighting the Arc Impulse. The enemy capital ship was now under attack from two sides, the rapidly closing SCCAMs and drones acting in concert, unerringly guided by QUETZAL to encircle the Tannelorn flagship.

Arc Impulse noted the enemies attacks with disinterest. She continued on her course as the missiles came nearer and nearer to her. The ship seemed to "see" everything as it happened, her sensors flared to full power..creating a blindingly powerful sea of particles flooding in from the aether. Tannelorian FTL was not inhibited by the physics of FTLi. It was based entirely on esoteric concepts and technologies, barely understood by their creators.

The Arc Impulse levelled her turreted Loengren, and fired the massively powerful gamma ray laser. At 32 petajoules over 10 seconds..she was more then capable of slicing a moon in half. And Josef was far too large to dodge more then a few seconds of the lance. The rows of smaller 3 petawatt X ray lasers aimed at Josef, firing in together. X rays and Gamma rays did not like to be stopped. Especially when they acted in concert with the finest laser focusing technology available..the spoils of war, wrenched from the occupied Tor Yvresse craftworld, blood payment for the unreasonable aggression of the Eldar.

At 93% efficiency the ludicrously powerful beam weapons would retain their deadly edge over extreme distances. As the missiles and drones neared Arc Impulse she unleashed flights of sky sweeper defense systems, 3 gigaton atomic charges mounted on high maneuver missiles. While the blasts would do little harm to a Star ship, they would however reap unholy havoc on the lesser systems. The Tannelornian neutron sensors too, did their dirty work. Using harnessed dimensional energies they had an adverse effect on artificial intelligence systems. The Tannelornians did not suffer from such ill effects.
They used Human computers, genetically bred and enhanced to such a degree as to rival the best computer technologies available.

The Morgenraete III's followed suit, switching to high maneuver mode and unleashing torrents of missiles, the first to launch were the miniaturised sky sweeper rounds, then Xaser tipped mirv anti fighter war heads. Morgenraetes were far beyond simple drones..they moved in at full combat speed. Over 10% the speed of light. Their inertial dampeners and anti gravity units enabled them to survive maneuvers that would turn a drone in to a shotgun blast of floating particles, endlessly spreading throughout the cosmos.

If their was one advantage Arc Impulse had, it was speed..and maneuverability. As the remaining missiles and drones in the volley were about to hit, she activated her Urenbeck catapult, changing her heading as she rocketed towards the T of the Josef, the most vulnerable axis of any vessel, at over 35% the speed of light.

Sensing the power output of the current online systems, the ships captain,
Helmut Yannef, a distant cousin of the Praetor..knew that the vessel couldnt pull that stunt again. And he was sure they were not aware of the fact that the FTLi, currently drawing a massive amount of power from ships systems, were as useful against a tannelornian ship, as a large rock against an MBT...

ooc a note. Not all of my technology is rooted in normal science. Dimensional physics, a new branch of quantam physics..very Esoteric is where i get alot of my tech from. Namely at this point armour, sensors and jump drive. Which is immune to FTLi, Urenbeck catapult is not the Dreamdrive. The sensors double as ecm, and only work with humans using them.

--QUETZAL Node Online
--Initializing Tripartite Sequence at 13:24:11:00001
--QUETZAL Convo started
--ID has joined the Convo
--EGO has joined the Convo
--SUPER has joined the Convo

ID: I don't believe it. They're trying to use EMP and similar systems to take out our SCCAMs and drones.

SUPER: Will that work?

ID: Of course not. They're pure shielded quantum nodes, nothing's going to happen to them. That and trying to outmaneuver drones is an excercise in futility. Hell, they've got micro FTL drives on them, they can go faster, and even if the Tannelorn inertial dampeners are better, we can survive a thousand times as many G's as one of those meatbags.

SEGO: Good. Carry on, then.

--ID has left the conversation
--SUPER has left the conversation
--EGO has left the conversation
--Tripartite Sequence Ended at 13:24:11:000010000001
--QUETZAL NODE DEACTIVATED

Joseph watched as the enemy ship approached. Blinking its FTLi, the vessel launched another barrage of SCCAMs and drones and micro-doored again, the enemy laser passing harmlessly through the location Joseph had previously occupied. The SCCAMs maneuvered towards the enemy ship, but this time they carried a suprise. A full ten percent of the torpedoes carried not just an antimatter charge, but a holtzmann generator. Positioning themselves in the path of the x-ray laser, they were to die intentionally, sacrificing themselves to overload the Holtzmann field. In return, the esoteric reaction would cause a pseudonuclear explosion originating in the mechanisms of the laser itself.

Ten lightseconds away from the rear of the Arc Impulse, Joseph doored back into reality. Firing a fourth salvo of torpedoes and drones, Joseph let loose with a full spread of MAC rounds, enough power to rend a planet asunder. Meanwhile, all but the few SCCAMs and drones unfortunate to meet with a direct nuclear blast to their side continued to move at full speed towards their target, flak devoured by the singularities mounted on their noses. The drones outnumbered their targets by over four thousand to one, they would not fail.

ooc lasers fire in bolts, the bolt is ten light seconds, it wont go back in to the weapon, and its not ECM, it lowers the IQ on AI. will post more tommorow work now haha.

OOC: Right, reducing QUETZAL's IQ... just isn't going to work. He's running on the biggest computer in the universe, with literally zero system lag. Reducing his IQ is like siphoning water out of the ocean. As for the laser firing bolts, I know. That's just how a Holtzmann field works. Laser can have fired for only a picosecond, it still nukes the laser.

ooc however my technology is blatantly superior, as is my wank. And Quetzal being quantam computer. Is left behind when you move. Plus Hetzman's fields dont work against me..because i use phased armour..and have more wank. Also you are seriously godmodding buddy. My ecm will suck that Quantam computer straight in to the Aether..they have done it before to a planetary Quantam system. And those drones...at 2 million..might..just might..equal the raetes. You have way too many. And it doesnt matter if they are FTL. Because you cant shoot ant ftl at the same time. Godmodding is not allowed. NSWiki's on goobergunch. Go read them. And did you RP quetzal..and more then just ok its done? You werent on before joltuk, you cant claim you lost it.

The armsmen noted a slight static build up in the X ray laser systems. Foolishly the enemy drone systems had attempted to block the Gamma and Z ray laser systems, but to no avail. Such titanic forces as these are not to be stopped by mere manipulation of fields. The massive beams kept moving through space, unstopped by the minor presence of millions of drones.

Arc impulse turned, registering several missile hits, after all a few of them did manage to make it through her defenses. However all they achieved was to leave the impression of a pockmarked surface, slight craters in the aether enhanced armour systems.

For all their tenacity, the drones..were simply unable to effectively attack the morgenraets, as they whirled and moved in a dizzying array of death. The smaller drones had never before faced weapons as finely tuned and powerful. The massive gigaton blasts from the missiles carving huge holes in the enemy lines.

The crew of the Josef had thought an easy mark. This unnassuming, rather smallish dreadnought didnt seem to stand much of a chance. Until the crew realised that the people of Tannelorn had been crafting star ships since before Otagia had even existed..and had never stopped improving them. Miniaturization, enhanced power systems, esoteric energies. If the Josed was ever going to stand a chance against her. She had to stand and try to fight. Most of the missiles were becoming inert when they came to close to the output of the Aether sensors, and the drones could not help but become sluggish, and slow when the morgenraetes were near.

The People of Otagia had never before seen such a ship. So much more efficient, and powerful then they had first imagined when she arrived at the stage. She turned her X ray lasers on Josef and moved in much closer, levelling blast after blast of deadly energies. Each laser was over a pettajoule, each one could fire 20 times in a minute, and they were trained upon the massive bulk of Josef. She could not escape..Arc impulse moved in closer, her PBS shields covering her fore as she readied her massive phased plasma batteries, and Loengren cannon for the kill.

ooc seriously no more jumping..unless you want your ship to blow up because you dont have the power for it. Godmodding is not tolerated. I will fight fair. But the moment you pulled 2 million "uber" drones out of your hat..then jumped like a DB character. You started to god mod. Now you can come to the conclusion after this..that its time to actually develop your technology. And not just use it, consider that you built, then used the prototype. This can be advantageous for all of you that never developed your stuff. If you want to get taken seriously, follow the rules.

The drones and missiles, relatively unaffected by the Tannelorn demp, slammed home, impacting shields and armor, detonating their antimatter warheads in massive blasts of light. Drones dogged the Raetes, their superior maneuverability and speed letting them evade much of the enemy fire, with most of the hits merely devoured by the singularities of their KK drives, returning fire in a massive web of masers, frying shields, scorching armor and boiling flesh. The drones hounding the Arc Impulse surrounded it, presenting it with a solid wall of hungry singularities as they bombarded it unceasingly with bursts of energy. The only holes in the web of all-devouring amethyst light came when SCCAMs burst through the net to slash at the Arc Impulse in their suicide runs.

Joseph watched calmy from outside the net, sensor feeds from the hordes of drones providing him with a 360 degree view of the battle. Pulling away from the approaching flagship, Joseph blinked yet again, appearing behind the Arc Impulse, firing off a salvo from its banks of railguns, the massive eight meter MACs launching their shells at nearly the speed of light from only a few lightseconds away. There would be no time for the Arc Impulse to dodge the shells, whose massive seventy three kilotonne bulks would smash through shields, armor and engines alike, leaving massive gaps for the next wave of ten million nearly point blank SCCAMs to thrust into the interior of the enemy vessel.

Don't forget to reply before disqualification occurrs

OOC: Was just about to do that myself...

Tannelorn last replied on March 07.

A week has passed so his ship is disqualified. I would have taken care of this earlier but between work and being sick....