NationStates Jolt Archive

The Republic of Saint Rynald is a colony planet settled several decades ago by religious extremists who wanted to create "a perfect Christian society". When they first arrived on their new world, they almost immediatly fell into fighting amoungst themselves over petty differences in opinion over matters of religion.
Over the next decades, most of the populace was lost, and that which remained declined almost into barbarism, before one faction managed to unite the entire planet under their rule, mostly by killing almost everyone who disagreed with them.
Now, this psychotic religious dictatorship has made progress towards high technology - it has launched its first Space Navy vessel.

Saint Lorenz Space Dock
The crowd that had gathered to watch the launch of the first ship of the Saint Rynald fleet. Most of the assembled government officials wore the severe black clothes of the priest hood - the only governmental office that could be held by someone who wasn't a member of the priesthood was that of Lord Commander, the highest military post. The rest of the military was also secular, by their standards, but this, their first military space craft, would carry eighteen chaplins for its crew of ninety.
Finally, after many speeches had been made, Arch-Bishop Thomas gave the order to begin the shake-down flight - it would be inteteresting, how the neighboring systems would react... after all, few of them would be happy to see a theocracy arming itself with anything approaching their technology.

[Class 9 StarShip Detected]:system 135.324566.234.092
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[Database Empty. No Match]

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135.324566.234.092

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['Saint Rynald' found: Nation Name]
[Reclassify: 'Saint Rynald' Starship]
[Result: Notify Fleet Command]



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"Sir, some neighbors of ours have launched a Starship."

"Follow standard procedure"

"Yes, sir."
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On the fringe of the space monitored by Saint Rynald, a lone ship appeared, steathed to all kinds of detection. It even appeared as a solid black oval, almost invisible against the black of space. It proceded to move closer to the planet on conventional engines. It's mission: find out about the new Spacefaring nation and decide: Friend or Foe

OOC: I'm using generic tech of my own creation. 40kers, SWers and so on are all welcome.

The Blessed Fist

The Blessed Fist, the first Space Navy vessel of the Saint Rynald Navy, is a small, in-system, ship with a crew of 108, counting chaplins.

Power Source: Twin fission reactors, solid work albeit primitive.

Armour: Light, neo-chobham four inches thick.

Shields: Pretty basic, rather light - eight generators of a local design - each is very weak, but no single lucky shot can disable the shields.

Drive: This vessel has no FTL drive (no warp drive, no Hyper-Space drive, no Jump drive, however you put it). In-system, it is capable of respectable speeds, such as could run down a merchant vessel, but also such as could easilly be out-run by any military grade drive available to a fully technological society.

Active Defenses: The Blessed Fist is equipped with ten Point Defense lasers, twenty close range auto-cannons, and two batteries of counter-missiles. All of these defenses are controlled by computers, and so are slightly more vulnerable to EW measures than crewed weapons would be.
Additionally, this ship carries a very basic EW system, such that is about 10% as effective as the EW units used by most other fleets.

Offensive Weapons:

- Primary Rail Gun: The Primary Rail Gun is an unusual weapon - it is a direct fire weapon that uses magnetic coils to accelerate a heavy slug (depleted uranium, as often as not) to very high speeds. Since Force = Mass * Acceleration, this can be quite deadly. Unfortunatly, the Primary Rail Gun is prone to computer errors, and takes several minutes to reload. (Crew of ten)

- Particle Beams: This type of ship has four particle beam projectors, all of which operate on turrets - two can fire front-left-rear, the other two can fire front-right-rear. Each of these turrets fires a 1' High Energy Particle Beam - which is great for smashing asteroids and so on, but is rather ineffective except at close ranges against shielded enemies, since the Particle Beam losses power over range. (Crew of four for each, 16 in all)

- Missiles: The primary armament of the Blessed Fist is its missiles. The Blessed Fist has eight launchers that can fire left-front-right, and one launcher that can fire left-rear-right. (Four men a launcher, 36 in all)

(62 men serve the weapons. Of the remaining 28, eight function as a command team, while the other twenty maintain and operate the shield and engines.)

Saint Rynald maintains some activity in their own system - they have four orbiting factories, which serve the other orbital stations and the asteroid miners. Other than that, they have one Orbital Weapons Platform, which was originally designed to fire missiles at the surface, but has been reconfigured to provide some orbital defense, plus the Saint Lorenz Space Docks, a recent project of a government that longs to expand.
Further out, there are only a few navigational beacons, and the asteroid miners, who search out resource rich asteroids. The average asteroid miner has a crew of four, and no mining vessel has female crew members.
In the asteroids themselves, there is a small space station that exists to provide emergency repairs to the asteroid miners. This station has a crew of twenty, and possesses one missile launcher and four Particle Beams. it doesn't have shields, though...

OOC: How about picking up one of the asteroid miners?

The Blessed Fist was doing well in its flight, having already conducted some excercises, everything from Point Defense practice against drones launched by the Orbital Weapons Platform to a simulated recuse mission for an asteroid miner.
Now, they were about to fire their Rail Gun for the first time - it was such a fine day for the Republic...
The target was a useless asteroid, already emptied of resources. The projectile they would be firing was a one ton needle made of depleted uranium. They fired.
The asteroid exploded - it had just been hit with a multi-megaton kinetic strike, and that was something to be seen...
Their excercises complete, the Blessed Fist began to head back towards the planet - all without seeing a sign of the stealthed ship that had entered their system.

A Lone Genite Red Star Dropped out of slipstream; having been ordered to start exploring systems to gather resources for the great purge as ordered by Zaruel god of strength and might, and Bardiel god of blood and pain, the purging flames would soon sweep across the cosmos. The black and red bio-armoured craft began to scan the system for life and resources when they detected the new spacecraft.

"Report" Captain Aynaka Krishna ordered; a second later a man in a crisp blood red Genite uniform replied

"Ship detected, Primitive by Genite standards, not even contact worthy…" he said wondering how the new ship would take the presence of a Red star in there system

The emergency sirens wailed as the unidentified vessel dropped out of slipstream. All throughout the ship, crew men who had been relaxing in a state of blissful happiness at the thought of their great success in the Shake-Down flight, now ran to their battle stations, donning space armour (space suits designed for use in a ship in a battle - steel chest plates and so on on a normal suit).
Emergenct compartmental doors slammed shut, sealing the various portions of the ship against hull breaches. Weapons and shields powered up, the power plant was brought up to full power, the Primary Rail Gun and the various missile tubes were loaded... all in all, the Blessed Fist made ready for battle.
On its command deck, Lord Captain Rynaldi Theisman lept from his command chair, and called out orders:
"For God and Saint Rynald, we go to see what new peoples have come into our system!" with that, the Blessed Fist made ready for contact with a new world...

- All shields etc. have been powered up aboard the Saint Rynald vessel, and it is now actively scanning the new vessel, while moving to just outside of twice the range of its missiles.

Lord Commander Theodorik Mikialov, commander of the entire Saint Rynald fleet, for what it was worth, had a horrible headache. Just after they had launched the Blessed Fist for its shake-down flight, an unidentified vessel had come out of slipstream right in the middle of the system that he was supposed to defend.
As such, he had sent the Blessed Fist to investigate, but still... he just didn't feel good about leaving the planet so lightly guarded. With a sigh, he spoke, giving an order:
"I want all Particle Beams brought on-line as soon as possible - get the missile tubes loaded and preped, shields up and all that," he paused, taking a deep breath, then continued in a louder tone: "and in the name of God, blessed be His mercy, get them ready now if not sooner!!!" the command deck instantly became a hive of activity as communications officers started sending messages, and officers in command of the weapons brought them on line.
The Orbital Weapons Platform wasn't as well armed and protected as the Blessed Fist was, but it wouldn't go down without a fight... if it came to that.
Sitting back in his Command Chair, Lord Commander Theodorik Mikialov sent a comm down to the surface, as a secondar thought - mobilize the Army to defend the key population centers. It wouldn't do much if the unidentified ship attacked - men on the ground, with small arms and a few crew-served weapons wouldn't be able to do a thing against a ship in orbit, but... if the unidentified vessel - he couldn't call it an enemy, could he? - wanted to take the industrial sites intact, then they could give the invaders a bit of trouble.

(OOC: Of course, in spite of all these preparations for hostilities, the Saint Rynald colonists would like to have peace - they're just overcautious).

Kaptain Jacob Henry sighed as another ship entered the system and put the new nation on its guard.

"Comms, get me information on the national owners of both ships."

"Yes sir. Saint Rynald preliminary information is in. Population of under 10 million. Religiously based. Current regime staged a violent coup to take power. We are already within their radio and satalite networks. Appear to be undetected."

"And the newcomer?"

"In our databases on routing planet scan. Genites ship. Also population of under 10 million. Seems rashly violent. higher tech then the locals, but still not equal to its counterpart in Fleet."

"Well, we dont want potention allies to get their asses handed to them the first time they step out their front door. Unstealth and move twords both ships. Arm weapons in case things get ugly."

"Yes sir."

For the first time, the NMSS Resplendant became revealed as the Destroyer it was. Weapons were armed and the 100 fighters the ship carried were loaded up and ready to launch.


This is North Mack Star Ship Resplendant. We mean no harm to either of you... yet. Both of you stand down or we will be forced to take action.

The command deck of the Blessed Fist was silent, as every single man on board stared at the new icon on the sensor display. Its smooth design had none of the obvious menace that was shown in the other unknown ship, the red-and-black ship that oozed menace.
Yet... still, it was amazing. It had slipped into their sensor range, avoided their best sensors so easily... it was obviously the more dangerous of the two, in spite of its lack of obvious weapon sites.
When it sent its comm message, everyone looked to Lord Captain Rynaldi Theisman. He seemed at a loss for words - if the other systems had such advanced technology, what hope did his little homeworld stand?
Still, he somehow found the strength of will to make a response:
"Tell the North Mack Star Ship Resplendant that we have no hostile intentions. As a show of good faith, we will power down our Particle Beams and missiles. We will not be taken without a fight, though, if they want to take us. Therefore, we will keep shields and Primary Rail Gun online. Furthermore, our Orbital Weapons Platform will maintain full alert, and the troop movements on the surface will continue." he paused, gesturing for his orders to be carried out, then continued, "also tell them that we are a God fearing people who mean them no harm." with a shudder, he whispered to himself,
"And I doubt somehow that we could hurt them even if we tried."

Saint Rynald City
The men of the 101st Planetary Defense Militia were moving to assume their assigned positions. They knew that their petty little guns would be no threat to something in orbit, but they still deployed.
After all, someone needed to maintain order... already, the more extreme sects were calling for Crusade, saying that the new arrivals were servants of the corrupt secularists or the hated heretics... it wasn't pretty.
Still, order was being maintained, no small part due to the constant threat of bombardment from the Orbital Weapons Platform. Most of them remembered the way it felt to be on the ground, recieving heavy missile fire from orbit, their petty theocracies had died under such bombardments, but still... they were just waiting for an opertunity to strike.

The Red Star began to scan the asteroid field for any resources that could be harvested the results came back a moment later; "heavy deposits of Iron, titanium and carbon, could be a nice mine" he said.

"Ma'am, the native ship is powering weapons and defensive systems" reported one of the tactical officers. Anyaka thought for a moment and looked over to the man on her right, "Any threat?" she asked.

"Reading low end particle lasers, missiles and a kinetic weapon, they could fire till there reactors went try and not damage us, no threat ma'am" the same man replied.

Anyaka nodded; "Hector, give me a report on them"

The large muscle strapped, dark skinned chiselled image of Hector appeared in a brief flash of holographic light as he stood beside Anyaka's command chair.

"Analysing media and planetary transmissions", he said, his deep voice sounding somewhat like that of a spectral lion talking to his pathetic shade of a son; "Primitive, Religious Zealots, believes 'Christianity' is the one true religion and all others are fake. There is only one 'god' in there eyes, one creator of the universe, we should wipe them out now and lay waste to there world while they're still primitive, do the galaxy a favour", Hector reported, you could tell he was a warship AI.

"it would take this ship quite some time to purge that world, mark it down for future eradication and ignore them" she ordered.

"By your command" Came Hectors reply as they continued to scan for resources in the asteroids nearby

"Ma'am we've just received a Trans mission from a de-cloaked ship, they order us to power down" he chuckled

"Power down? I wasn't aware we powered up?" Anyaka responded.

"We havn't" he said.

"Local ship has stood down.. to an extent..."

"To what extent?"

"well, initial scans show it is using a fission drive. Even with that taken into account, they're still drawing way too much power for my liking. Scans also show weak sheilds still up."

"Good enough. Even at full power I doubt that they could harm us. What about the Genites ship?"

"Well, they haven't stood down."

"Why not? I would have thought are transmission was very clear."

"Well sir, they haven't stood down because they never stood up. We never gave them the chance."

The Kaptain chuckled. "Well, thats one way to do it I guess. Sent another message."


This is a blanket broadcast to ALL ships in the sector. Saint Rynald is temporarily under the protection of The Terran Empire of North Mack. Both the Rynald ship and the Genites ship will be receiving a shuttle very soon. Any attempts damage or destroy either shuttle will be considered an act of war. And trust me, we've been doing this kind of thing since your ancestors were figguring out that fire is hot. You won't win a war.

Anyaka laughed slightly at the message, these were certainly forceful; "Since we discovered fire huh?" she almost broke down into tears of laughter but gathered herself.

"Mr Zenka, Full about, crazy Ivan" she ordered. She felt the slight pull in her stomach as the artificial gravity took a moment to adjust to the rapid one hundred and eighty degree turn which only a ship equipped with the most advanced gravimentric engines could accomplish. Once the ship came to a stop again the red and black hulled vessel's bow now pointed directly at the recently de-cloaked ship.

Anyaka ordered a wideband broadcast to both ships.


"We are the Genites; we have travelled the stars for 10,000 years while your civilisation was still 'bumbling' with grunts and moans for a language we were travelling the stars. It was only because of a decree by one of our gods we succumb to isolationism, now by decree two other of our gods that time is over and our people once more return to the stars. We have no hostile intent here; in fact we did not even deem their vessel worth the time of powering up our defensive systems though we were almost attacked unprovoked. Although this vessel alone is capable of laying waste to there fleet and indeed world if we truly wished it we have ships capable of purging all life from there planet with fighting efficiency. Do not underestimate us, as for your shuttles, they will be accepted but any party will be escorted at all times by a squad of Lancers"


With the message sent Anyaka sat back in her command chair; "Prep the Shrike fighters just in case we need them" she ordered.

"By your command", came the reply.

Anyaka knew that mentioning of 'gods' in the company of religious zealots was all around a bad idea but quite frankly she didn't care, if they were stupid enough to start something she would finish it.

OOC: I'm working on a fact book, Lancers are basically our best and brightest soldiers armed with force lances. we have Crusaders whom are the grunts, Saviors who are the special forces and Lancers are the elite.

"their god's decree, huh? Man, the nuts you get up here. What was with that turn though?"

"Gravity Drives sir. We have seem some before but they generally prove unreliably near a large gravatational feild such as a planet or a star. That turn though makes me think that theirs might be advanced enough to overcome that. Or at least minimalise it."

"Hmm... might make a nice gift to the Emperor. See if you can arrange a trade. What has Rynald's got?"

"Asteroids indicate heavy deposits of titanium. Almost enough to construct a full Fist of Ships."

"Hm... very well. Dispatch the shuttles. I want the one headed to Genites to have a full Marine Team along with it. Heavy combat gear. They are to have their weapons unloaded though."

"Yes sir. And the Rynald team?"

"Just 4 Marines. Regular gear."

"Yes, sir."

The Kaptain chuckled. "The things that happen when two like minded forces meet. 'bumbling'. hehe. I like these guys."

OoC: Numerical Data:

A Fist: 10,000 Starchips. Usually 3000 Frigates, 2000 Cruisers, 1500 Destroyers, 1000 Battlecruisers, 1000 Dreadnaughts, 500 Transport Ships

Marine Team: 20 Marines. Usually 12 Riflemen (Standard XR22 Shredder Rifle), 4 Grenadiers (XR12 RPG's and XR65 Rocket Launchers), 3 Heavy Riflemen (XR16 H.M.G.) 1 Commander (XR44 Sniper Rifle)

Heavy Combat Gear Marine Team: 2 Riflemen, 4 Heavy Riflemen, 6 PlasLite Riflemen (XR23 PlasLite Rifle), 7 Grenadiers, 1 Commander

All weapons listed in parentheses are viewable on my site (link is in my sig)

"Sir there is a new nation building ships."
"What type of weapons?"
"Primitive."
"Well then send a fleet with 1 of our Executor class SSDs and a fleet of SD and heavy cruisers as a show of force and find more about them."
"Yes sir we shall send the 3rd fleet."
The 3rd fleet jumped from toops orbit and entered the Saint Rynald system.

OCC:
3rd fleet stats:
1 Executor class SSD (commanded by Admiral Moffin
5 Imperial I SD
3 Endurance class fleet carriers
24 Hapes Nova class heavy cruisers
total 31 ships

Lord Captain Rynaldi Theisman wasn't happy. He pulled at the tightly starched collar of his black uniform jacket, wishing that some other captain would have had the chance to be in command of this first contact mission.
The small craft bay was barely big enough to fit the North Mack shuttle in it - the Saint Rynald Navy didn't use fighters, and so this vessel only carried two small shuttles - with room for a third.
As the shuttle flew in, all he could think about was how... how alien it looked. The technological advances that his people would have to make before they could build something like that... the thought was almost as staggering as the implications of this contact were.
Still, he managed to steady himself, whispering a prayer:
"Our father who 'art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on all the earths as 'tis in heaven..." he trailed off as the shuttle opened its hatch, swallowed, and stepped forward, saying,
"Greetings to you, friends, in the name of The One True God and his Most Blessed Saint Rynald, I welcome you aboard my ship." with that, he gave a slight bow, and stepped back.

The rest of the greeting party consisted of all 18 of the chaplins assigned to the Blessed Fist, along with ten Weapons Crew, pulled from the four Particle Beam turrets, now standing slightly nervously in black-and-silver dress uniforms, armed with boarding weapons - matt black high-powered shot-guns, designed for close-in work.

The plotting room aboard the Orbital Weapons Platform went into chaos for the third time that day as a massive fleet of 31 ships jumped into the Saint Rynald system.
It was enough that the earlier ships had made obvious their technological superiority, but still... these new ships seemed at least as high quality, and there were so many of them...
Alarms went off all throughout the OWP as the command staff was made aware of the new arrivals.

Anyaka nodded to her executive officer "Mr Aida, I want a Lancer team to meet our guests, full armour, full weapons load, Mr Staffhofen, you have the bridge" she said getting out of her command chair and exiting the bridge hector walking along side her.

She never even made it to the shuttle bay when the communicator attached to her uniforms wrist beeped; pressing down the 'go' button she listened to her XO talk about the arrival of several Alpha tech class cruisers and destroyers (Alpha tech is SW tech). It didn't surprise her; the technology was common and used by many races throughout the cosmos, quick and dirty but it got you from A to B.

Granted against a fleet of Red Stars or Revenant destroyers; Star destroyers and their larger brethren were smouldering wrecks waiting to happen. There weapons were slow and the ships couldn't move very fast, a single red star could go toe to toe with ships 3-4 times her size with ease, in short she was not intimidated.

She reached the shuttle bay; the Red star wasn't very big at only 497 meters in length the ship could accommodate around 6 Shrike slip fighters and one or two shuttles at he maximum it would be a tight fit for the visiting shuttle. Anyaka waited flanked by at least 10 Lancers on either side of her in full combat gear, force lances holstered at their sides the shuttle should arrive soon, she moved a hand to push a lock of her wavey red hair behind her ear.

The Kaptain watched the shuttle reach the Rynald ship, and the other one approach the Genites ship.

Then he watched as a small group of ships entered scanner range.

"Damnit. Why cant anything ever stay simple. Status on the new ships?"

"Seems to be mostly Heavy Cruisers. Could be dangerous."

"Very Well, call in the backup."

The Comms officer sent a message to the backup fleet lying in wait just outside of the system.

Fleet

12 Pulsar Class Frigates
4 Lancer Class Cruisers
8 Poland Class Destroyers
1600 Lightning Class Fighters

new total: 25 Large Ships: 1700 Fighters
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"Greetings to you, friends, in the name of The One True God and his Most Blessed Saint Rynald, I welcome you aboard my ship."

High Sergeant Jacob Gerald shook the hand of the man in front of him.

"Greetings to you also. I am High Sergeant Gerald of the Imperial Army. We mean you and your men no harm, as we stated earlier. In fact, if you are interested, I am even authorised to sign Treaties and Trade contracts."

The 4 Marines stepped out of the shuttle and stood at rest behind the Sergeant.

"Please, ignore them. Just standard procedure." Jacob's earpiece beeped.

31 incoming ships. Backup fleet called in.

"Hm.. seems we have company. I think it would be best if we left this area. It is after all, pretty close to the hull."

Things were getting rather crowded in this system; with the North Mack calling in there fleet to counter the Alpha-tech task force that had jumped in from FTL. Her XO had been keeping her up to date via the wrist Comm unit and Hector the ships AI Avatar had also been informing her of developments since he was plugged directly into the ships systems. The Lancers were dressed in full combat armour, a black underlayer bullet resistant mesh; with Red plates over the shoulders chest, elbows, knee's back, shins, thigh's and around the neck a pair of red gauntlets were also included as well as a blood red helmet.

Anyaka watched as the shuttle made a good landing in the Genite shuttle bay; it was several moments before the shuttle opened; "Welcome to the Wrath of Hector" she said in greeting. "Its getting pretty crowded out here" her voice was warm and seemingly friendly but she was still a Genite and as such was looking for any weakness in her potential advisory; if there was none then there may yet be hope for them. Everyone was calling in their reinforcements but Anyaka was certain that if hostilities broke out her ship could hold its own, they just had to pick a side.

(OOC: Anyaka is about 5ft 9, Red hair, wavy just off her shoulders with green eyes, standard line uniform is a blood red tunic with Genite insignia and black trousers (pants if your American))

The captain nodded, and gestured for the new arrivals to follow him through a huge armoured air-lock, into the ship proper. The Chaplains followed, two or three nervously clutching at their rosaries, and the guard detail with their matt-black and oh-so obsolete combat shot-guns at rest. Having seen the North Mack shuttle was one thing - they had little to compare to the shuttle. However, when it came to the small arms and the Marine battle-armour... there, they felt their inferiority most painfully.
As the party made their way through the air-lock, the general design of the ship was made more obvious - on almost every wall section that didn't feature a control pannel, an air-duct or some other such thing, there was a mural of some sort. Most depicted haloed saints weilding swords and guns to smite cowering heretics, that or angels singing a blessng chorus as armies marched... all throughout the vessel, there was a constant element of militant christianity, as though these men with their obsolete technology were the Crusader knights of ancient earth transported forward into the present era with no change in ideology.
The captain seemed to notice the attention that was payed to the murals, and so began a commentary:
"That there is Saint Theresa the Martyr, calling upon the atomic missiles of the Orbital Weapons Platform to purge the heretic city she was held hostage in... that was eighty years back, during the Peninsula Crusade, when the Secularists of the Peninsula Republic fell before the clensing fires of The One True God..." he trailed off, gesturing to another one:
"That one is a copy of an older one that is on one of the walls of New Saint Peters in New Rome - it shows Christ speaking to Saint Rynald, telling him to found a new, Christian, world here..." he seemed to be at a loss for further words at that point, and remained silent until they had reached a conference room, which looked to also double as the living quarters for some senior officer. An unmade cott occupied one corner, a book shelf full of old-style paper books another, while the center was dominated by a huge wooden table. All in all, it looked luxurious compared to most of what they had seen of Saint Rynald's technology, but it was pitiful by anyone elses standards.
With a hiss of consternation, the captain rushed over and smoothed the bed, giving them all a look of consternation, before gesturing for them to sit at the table.
While he did so, the armed crew members, all but two, left the room, likely to return to their duty stations. However, the chaplains remained behind.
As they sat and prepared to talk, the captain spoke:
"I am Lord Captain Rynaldi Theisman, second ranked officer of the Saint Rynald Space Navy. In the name of The One True God and His Favored Saint, I welcome you to the Republic of Saint Rynald." as he finished, he took a wooden box from one of the chaplains who had been standing behind him. Opening it, he drew out of it a large, rather ornate silver crucifix, presenting it to the North Mack delegations head with the words:
"I present this gift to you as a Christian greeting... this was given to me by our leader, to be given as a gift on the off chance that we encountered a new world." he held out the box and the crucifix, a look of worried curiosity on his face.

The Orbital Weapons Platform was tense all the time now, since the new ships had started poping out of hyper or slipstream with such alarming regularity.
It was with almost routine terror that the Officer of The Scanners gave a new announcement:
"Incoming fleet - identified as North Mack, 25 Capital Ships." the crowd of chaplains and senior officers that clustered around the sensor display shuddered almost as one - it was terrifying to see that much fire-power arrive in your system, even if the stellar nation that owned it wasn't actively hostile... yet.
A priest began to whisper a prayer, the New Our Father, and soon the entire Command Deck had joined him. It wasn't a good sign, when God allowed such things to happen...

The Alaskan merchant ship Trinity made a slight navigational error and entered the Saint Rynald system. The cause was later determined to be vodka.

"Sir, I am detecting a large number of warships in the system. Seems like a new nation made contact, and everyone sent people to meet them."
"Well, we're not equipped to check out the situation. Send a message to Nome - and Bering, while you're at it - and get us back on our trade route."

Light tracked fighting vehicles rolled down the Avenue of The Saint, taking up position around the Grand Cathedral, while Planetary Defense Militia units in full combat gear fast-marched through the streets.
There hadn't been any riots yet, but a curfew had been imposed except in emergencies, and a militia soldier had already accidentally shot an innocent man.
It wasn't that they weren't used to riots - far from it, such things were almost common. It was just that now, for the first time, the men in charge of maintaining order were as nervous as the rioters generally were.

Corporal William Freidman of the 101st Planetary Defense Militia was nervous - they all were. He checked his weapon - a good quality weapon, one of the new Crusader pattern automatics, a 10mm high-velocity rifle that had a 180 round magazine, with all its components made of ultra-light synthetics. It weighed about thirty pounds, light for its fire power. Most of the men in the 101st still carried the old-style weapons though - lower quality, lower magazine size, the Templar pattern assault rifle wasn't worth a damn. Still, it was the most readily available weapon type.
He was scared - his unit was deployed in the Peninsula, and so faced resentful locals who still remembered when they had been "free", and hadn't had to obey the commands of The Church and its Bishops. Still, there hadn't been any incidents in his area - although they were saying that a man had been shot back up north.
There had been little things, though - "Death to Fascist Fanatics" scrawled onto a wall in the middle of the night, "Liberty From All Trynats" and so forth - Corpoal William Freidman couldn't understand it, though - sure, eighty years ago they had been "free", if the freedom to worship their False Gods and damn themselves could be called freedom, but... they still resented the occupiers, with their guns. All in all, it wasn't fun, to be here in the Peninsula...

The sensor room on the Orbital Weapons Platform was abuzz with terrified whispers, which reached a new hight as yet another new ship arrived. However, no sooner had this new ship arrived than it vanished once more into the ether - it seemed that yet another new nation was set to become involved...

The space station in the asteroid belt was practically buzzing with alarms as the Saint Rynald Space Navy crew that had been sent out there to man its guns (four Particle Beams and a missile launcher) prepared.
Everyone on board the station new that if it came to a shooting war, they stood no chance of survival at all - they had just enough offensive weaponry to be considered a threat, but no shields, and so would likely be smashed by whatever decided it wanted the asteroid mines.
Still, they found the courage to act as their training demanded - they made ready for a fight, if there was to be one. The missile launcher was loaded, the Particle Beams were powered up. It all seemed so pointless, but still, it was done.

- The asteroid belt space station has powered up its weapons, loaded its missiles and so on, and basically prepared for possible conflict - it appears that whoever was in charge of sending out the alerts didn't send one there until now... (which might be one of the disadvantages of a totalitarian state...)

Grand Cathedral, Saint Rynald City
Four thousand voices raised in prayer echoed through the archaic stone of the Grand Cathedral. Lord Planetary Arch-Bishop Alexander Rocci sat at his desk in the tunnels beneath the cathedral, and listened to the service as the Bishop of Saint Rynald City conducted the service.
It wasn't easy being the supreme religious and secular authority on a planet with almost ten million people. Currently, he was taking time from worrying about the new arrivals to look over a list of heretics who had been discovered by the Republican Inquisition. The list was short - after eighty years of purges and witch hunts, it would have to be. Most of the heretics had been caught by now - although, no doubt, some still hid, having mastered deception to such a degree as would result in their never being caught.
Still, there were those names... he looked at the list: six followers of a proscribed sect within The Church - they would recieve lengthy prison sentances, where they might learn the error of their ways through years of back-breaking physical labor.
The other two were more difficult cases. One was a young man who had been caught in the Penninsula, writing "Down with The Church" on a wall. He would be hung... it was with a far heavier heart that the Arch-Bishop signed that order.
The last was one of the worst sort of cases - an honest-to-God witch. Of course, she hadn't confessed yet, but still... he signed off for the Republican Inquisition to conduct torture to extract a confession. It wouldn't do to let witch craft go unpunished. Sighing, he took a drink from his water glass, then made a note to go and see the poor girl. It was so sad, when one was turned to evil at only fifteen.

OCC: sorry for taking so long.

IC:

On board the Death(named for the 4th horseman) Admiral Moffin stood on the bridge and sent the following message to the other ships and the new nation:


"We mean no harm. We always have a large fleet when doing diplomatic missions.Now lets get down to business.We are willing to make and install hyperdrives on all of your ships and even build ships for you.

"Now all we have to do is wait for a reply."

Lord Commander Theodorik Mikialov listened to the new message from the recently arrived 1010102 fleet, and couldn't help but frown. Turning to his communications officer, he said:
"All right, send this message to them: 1010102 fleet, you mean us no harm? That is good. As for your offer of installing hyperdrives on our ship and building us more, we have to ask - what's the catch? We will not be taken advantage of, reguardless of how 'primitive' our technology is compared to yours." sighing in useless frustration, he continued, "End message, send and all that." with those words, he stood, and made his way to the coffee machine. Considering recent events, it would be a long time until he could sleep again.

One thousand soldiers of the Saint Rynald Planetary Defense Militia marched through the streets of Saint Rynald City in almost-perfect lock-step. They looked almost inhuman with their heavy mirrored blast visors and coal-scuttle helmets, and the crowds that watched them march did not cheer.
Their black uniforms, with the black-cross-on-red-field of the Saint Rynald military on their shoulders, only added to the impression they gave of inhumanity... of course, when here or there one or another tripped or broke step for a moment, that impression was lost.

- The Saint Rynald Planetary Defense Militia has fully mobilized, calling up for service all available personel.

OOC:

I'll make and IC post as soon as North Mack replies..I have plans *grins evily*

"I present this gift to you as a Christian greeting... this was given to me by our leader, to be given as a gift on the off chance that we encountered a new world." the Lord Captain held out the box and the crucifix, a look of worried curiosity on his face.

The Sergeant took the box and crucifix. "We accept this gift, although I regret we have nothing to give you in return..." He thought for a few seconds. "Take this." He withdrew a small oval made of polished black steel. he squezed it gently and a small hologram of a tall man dressed in red and black appeared over it. The man was waving and smiling. "This is a hologram of our current Emperor. Emperor Kevin Leele the Third. Every soldier of the Imperial Army carries one. I know it is not much, but it is all I can offer at the time being."

---------------------------------

to 1010102 fleet
This is North Mack Fleet 124.63.26A. Please Identify yourself and your intentions. This Planet is currently under the protection of The Terran Empire of North Mack. Any hostile action taken against it will be considered a hostile action against us.

---------------------------------

The shuttle opened its Hatch and Mid Sergeant Lauren Lenotowski stepped down the hatch.

"Welcome to the Wrath of Hector. Its getting pretty crowded out here"
An average height woman red hair wearing a blood red and black uniform stood in front of the shuttle. She was standing in front of soldiers in black and red combat gear. Obviously the 'Lancers' mentioned earlier.

Lauren stepped foreward, hand extended. The Imperial Marines filed out behind her. Weapons ready but unloaded. "I am Mid Sergeant Lenotowski of the Imperial Marines. You are...?"

"I am Mid Sergeant Lenotowski of the Imperial Marines. You are...?"

"Captain Anyaka Krishna" she replied shaking the woman hands; Hector was stood beside her hands clasped behind his back; "Captain, I require your attention" he said in his deep sounding voice.

"What is it Hector?" Anyaka replied looking at him directly; "you can tell me in front of our friends here" she added

"Captain; I took the liberty of breaking there government and military computer systems; it wasn't too difficult given there primitive protection algorithms; I was wrong" Hector admitted.

"Hector you're never wrong" Anyaka added.

"Perhaps; but I overestimated them, I referred to them as primitive, they are below that, they are almost barbaric; any who decent from the theocratic rule are regularly executed regardless of age or severity of the crime. Those whom are deemed with exceptional abilities or 'magic' are deemed witches and either burnt or crucified publicly but only after excruciating torture" Hector replied his voice toned with obvious disdain.

A moment later he pulled up a holographic video file that showed the whole process in all its despicable glory a girl as young as 15 being tortured and told to confess to the 'one true god'. The image changed showing the public executions of witches and 'heretics' in the most painful manner imaginable, the image changed again showing the use of nuclear weapons on the civilian populous whom tried to force a popular uprising.

"Further more, any member of society which are deemed homosexuals are sent to 're-education' centre; where they are torture until they 'repent their sinful ways' if they do not, again they are executed" Hector noted.

"I miscalculated when I recommend purging their world; their culture should be eradicated and purged with flame" he nodded. It was quite Clear that the Lancers and Anyaka was somewhat shocked at this information; how there new 'friends' would take it remained to be seen.

The Captain looked at the hologram with imense interest - from his amazed staring, it was obvious that he had never seen one before, something that made the primitive technology of the Saint Rynald people all the more obvious. He took the little device, and carefully examined it, then gave them a smile, and told them,
"Thank you! This is a most impressive device! I am amazed at how such things must be so common in your society! You say every soldier has one? Well, none of us have seen such a thing before! Your gift is most magnificent!" with those words, he beamed at them, looking almost childlike... in his amazed words, in his childlike surprise, his amazed joy at the new, they saw a basically decent, basically nice guy... who happened to serve a regime that regularly ordered hundreds killed for such "crimes" as witch craft and heresy... it was a sad reminder of how "nice" people could serve tyranical, evil, regimes.
Still, reform might be possible...

The Republican Inquisition occupied the lowest levels of the bomb-proof corridors that snaked underneath Saint Rynald City. Their cells were a miserable affair, designed by sadistic minds to be a sort of man-made hell. There were ten cells to a block, as well as a torture chamber and a guard room. All of the cells were linked to the torture chamber so that whatever happened there could be heard throughout the other cells.
The cells themselves are of a clever design - they are always kept below freezing, the walls are of perpetually wet, dripping concrete that cracks and molders in the icy, moist air. The floor is a metal grid over a drop, beneat which is an open sewer - there is no solid floor, so that laying down is painful, and the smell... well, most prisoners are thankful for the cold where the smell is concerned.
The prisoners are fed little, and interrogated often. When they are interrogated, the process that is used draws quite a bit from the Maleus Maleficado, the witch-hunters manual written by the archaic english king James the 1st.
Most prisoners confess within a few days - few hold out for more than a week. Still, at any given time, there are some 100 souls in the prison of the Republican Inquisition.

OOC: Is this thread open to first time FT RPers?

To Saint Rynald
From Admiral Moffin

If you do not stop these barbaric practices of torture for being gay or practicing witch craft(yes it is real in the FT community) I will have to end any diplomatic relations and maybe use millitary force.You have been warned.



Admiral Moffin

OOC: Is this thread open to first time FT RPers?

OCC: its open to anyone.

To Saint Rynald
From Admiral Moffin

If you do not stop these barbaric practices of torture for being gay or practicing witch craft(yes it is real in the FT community) I will have to end any diplomatic relations and maybe use millitary force.You have been warned.


Admiral Moffin


OOC: my little Hologram was on our ship...you wouldn't have seen it only North Mack, but you could always crack there computers yourself if you so wished..Geintes arn't that big on privicy, hey we're evil *grin*

OOC: my little Hologram was on our ship...you wouldn't have seen it only North Mack, but you could always crack there computers yourself if you so wished..Geintes arn't that big on privicy, hey we're evil *grin*

OCC: ever heard of monitoring their communications and hacking thier computers? thats how i found out about Saint Rynald's crimes.

OCC: ever heard of monitoring their communications and hacking thier computers? thats how i found out about Saint Rynald's crimes.

OOC: Yup same way we did, a little RP of finding out would be nice though, sorry if I kinda jumped on you there, it just looked like you were seeing it from our hologram too.

OOC: I might join in tomorrow, when I get some time.

The Mid Sergeant looked uncomftorable when Hector revealed the information of the torture and executions.

We ourselves hacked their networks... surley the Kaptain knows about the severity of this... but then why has he said nothing...

"Torture and execution? Nuclear strikes against civilians?" She hesitated. "Well, um... it's their land... um... they can do what they want... I guess..."

-------------------------------------------------
(this is to 1010102)

Attention Unidentified fleet. Your failure to respond to the earlier transmission can only be seen as an act of aggression. Further failere will be seen as an act of war.

-------------------------------------------------
The High Sergeant bowed to the Captain. "I am pleased it could be such a great gift. Such things are commonplace in our nation. Which actually, brings me to why I was sent here. My nation wants to open trade with yours. YOu will receive protection from the more advanced empires, (since it is usually empires that rule space), at least until you can stand on your own. You will also receive advanced technology, such as hologram projectors, weapons and armor, and some of our lesser Fleet tech. In return, we want permission to set up a mining base on some of your asteroids. THose asteroids are Titanium rich, captain. If you could hold onto them, you would be a very rich nation, from the mining rights alone.

What say you captain?"

The captain looked surprised, asking,
"Raw materials for this? I would be glad to accept, but I don't know about my government. I will have to check with the Planetary Arch-Bishop." he hesitated for a moment, then continued,
"Provisionally though, we would be glad to accept, especially the protection part. After all, our system seems to be turning into Saint Agatha Station, what with all the new arrivals!" at that, he stood up, made a step back, and whispered a few words with one of the chaplains. The man nodded, then left the room, returning soon after with a sheaf of papers and pens.
The captain took the papers and pens, and sat down again, explaining,
"You see, it's too easy to break into a computer's security system, to change something that only exists in electronic format. So, all the really important things on our planet are done with pen and paper - at least initially." at that point, the negotiations began.

[Class 9 StarShip Detected]:system 135.324566.234.092
{Searching}
{Search Complete}
-Expand Results

[Database Empty. No Match]
[Adding to StarTech DB]
135.324566.234.092

{Searching Hull}
{Search Complete}
-Expand Results

['Saint Rynald' found: Nation Name]
[Reclassify: 'Saint Rynald' Starship]
[Result: deploy a battle group of 12 star destroyers to engage this ship]
t12 ships enter transwarp

The cell was cold, although the light of dawn was just begining to reach through the narrow grated slits in the concrete wall. This cell was on the surface, not deep in the tunnels with the holding cells. Here, prisoners were held for the night before they were schedualed to die.
The sun was beautiful - ironic, as it was the last time he would see it... the sun rose over the courtyard, where the gallows had been erected, where a squad of Republican Inquisition soldiers was already building up a pile of dry wood...
The prisoner felt tears in his eyes - he didn't want to die... but they hadn't given him a choice. He didn't resist as they led him out to the gallows, didn't resist as they put the noose around his neck and read from the archaic scroll - apparently, he was beyond salvation...
He didn't resist. It would all be over soon...

ic the 12 ships formed up red one to all ship raise sheilds begin aproache towards enemy vese; and fire phasers

The Kaptain blinked as the bridge began flashing red as the tactical lighting kicked in.

"Sir! 12 Incoming! They are firing wepons!"

"What? Broadcast the standard message and engage!"

"Yes sir!"

This is North Mack Fleet 124.63.26A. Please Identify yourself and your intentions. This Planet is currently under the protection of The Terran Empire of North Mack. Any hostile action taken against it will be considered a hostile action against us.

"Launching fighters!"

Space suddenly became a lot more crowded as all 1700 fighters launched from the Fleet and scremed towords the incoming ships.

"Shields are up! All ships engaging"

A barage of missiles, rail cannon, and lasers flew twords the 12 incoming ships. The fighters added their own lasers and rail cannon to this barage as they came into range.

------------------------------------------

The High Sergeant breifly touched his earpiece, then lowered his hand. The marines behind him visibly tensed as they, too, received the news of the incoming ships.

"I hate to interrupt our little meeting, captain, but 12 Hostile ships have just entered your space. They are firing upon your ship. Our fleet is countering their fire. Hopefully."

the shields flashed
coms to north mack fleet we are here for thier ship prevent our mision from being completed and we we will fire up on you to they each launched 200 hell viper drone fighters each

"Sir, enemy ships just launched upwards of 2000 fighters. Their sheilds took the hit from the first salvo. They say that their entire mission is to destroy the Saint Rynald ship."

"Well, we're not going to let that happen. Surround the Rynald ship. have half the fleet target the enemy fighters to assist ours. Tell the other half to concentrate all fire on the lead ship."

"Yes sir."

coms to all ships cloak and retreat to warp 9 we must get reefcfements

"Hostile ships retreating."

"Why?"

"Probabilities indicate 86% to get reinforcments, 12% to attempt an attack from another angle, 2% to repair their fighters and attempt another attack."

"Reinforcements? That would be bad. Comm the home system and ask for a Claw of ships."


OoC: A Claw: 200 ships. Usually 1 Dreadnaught, 4 battlecruisers, 5 carriers, 40 destroyers, 50 destroyers, 70 cruisers, 30 frigates

188 star destroyers formed up with 12 ship battle group the 200 ship fleet exiteed transwarp and decloked 100 of them sped towards the north mack fleet the other 100 recloaked and headed toward sthe hotile ship

"Oh... shit. We're gonna need more that a claw..."

"Yes sir. calling in more reinforcements."

the small, 25 ship fleet circled the Rynald ship as the massive fleet came. the 200 ship reinforcment shifted in and headed towords the first fleet. The call for heavy reinforcments went out, and would hopefully come in time.

Commander Blake Preston of the Upper Weston Interstellar Navy was jolted as the Dauntless transitioned back into normal space, and into a war zone.

The bridge erupted in a frenzy of alrams and red lights.
At Sensor Control, Lt. Palmer barked, "Sir, we have multiple ships of varying types fighting all over the system."

"What the hell is going on here? Get me a channel to everybody in system."

"This is Commander Balke Preston of the Upper Weston Interstellar Naval destroyer Dauntless. We are on a peaceful patrol mission and mean no one any harm, however we will defend ourselves if attacked."
Preston turned to the comm chief, "Get Command on the horn and tell them about this mess."


OOC: I'll post more on the Dauntless when I get time.

Shock gave way to anger at the response from the North Mack marine; "How can you justify that?" Anyaka burst out with almost a growl; "Genites had a strict code of honour; In Genite society the gods are worshiped willingly, the gods walked among us; we need not doubt there existence or torture the populous into worship…"

However before Anyaka could continue her rant warning klaxons erupted all over the Genite ships as the corridors and rooms like were all bathed in crimson as the ship went to red alert. The voice of her XO sounding all over the ships intercom and Lancers and crew alike started to hurriedly prepare the ship for combat.

"General Quarters, General quarters, all hands to battle stations, All hands to battle stations, this is not a drill repeat this is NOT a drill"

"Hector, what the frak is going on?" Anyaka commanded.

"Unknown ships dropped out of FTL and opened fire; no warning, no mercy our friends here retaliated; the entire system has turned into a war zone", Hector replied.

"Technology of the intruders?" she asked.

"Alpha tech augmented with more advanced technology" Hector replied

Anyaka hated Alpha tech empires, she turned to there new guests; "Sorry; you're free to leave if you wish, however I can't guarantee your safety if you choose to do so; if you choose to remain make yourself useful and obey my orders" she said before departing for the bridge.

As she walked through the corridors Hector followed; "Get me a line to command now" she ordered and a holographic screen appeared in front of her moving as she walked.

"Anazai go", replied the muscled man in standard Genite uniform.

"Sir, this has turned into a shit storm; I need some reinforcements", Anyaka was short and too the point like most Genites.

"Done" was Anazai's only reply before the screen blinked out of existence

She reached the bridge and sat down in her command chair; a new holographic view screen dropped down from the ceiling showing the battle outside in more detail as light danced back and forth.

the Mid Sergeant and her crew followed Anyaka through the ship. all the way to the bridge.

"We wish to help. where do you need us. We are all able to do basic weapons repair and general maitenance."

--------------------------------

"This is Commander Balke Preston of the Upper Weston Interstellar Naval destroyer Dauntless. We are on a peaceful patrol mission and mean no one any harm, however we will defend ourselves if attacked."

Commander Balke Preston. This is Kaptain Jacob Henry of the NMSS Resplendant. If you want to stay alive, I highly reccomend leaving this area. THe forces we are engaged against have attacked us and the ship we are protecting with no warning whatsoever. I would not be surprised if they were to target you and your crew as well.

The now almost equal fleets engaged in a flurry of laser, missile, and rail fire. The North Mack reinforcments quickly joined the originals in a bubble around the Rynald ship. Fighters launched from the 5 carriers, which in addition to the 1700 fighters from the original fleet now made 51700 fighters swarming the hostiles.

"Alright; Repair and maintenance is mostly done by the ships AI and auto repair systems; we could do with your soldiers to reinforce our Lancers in case we get boarded", Anyaka said.

The two sides were evenly matched now; as much as she hated the despicable crimes the Saint Rynald's had committed; she hated Alpha tech users more so priorities dictated she back up the North Mack fleet in eliminating them.

"Let's bare our teeth, Engage stealth" Anyaka ordered; "Mr Zenka, full ahead"

"Aye, Aye" replied the tactical officer and helm officers replied in unison; as the Red Stars weapons were brought to full power. The entire ship seemed to hum quietly as the stealth generator engaged while not a true cloak it did make the ship hard to target and scan; the ship accelerated to 0.25c in a matter of seconds the artificial gravity compensating for the inertia. The Red Star performed quick a one eight to bare on a star destroyer and fired its quantum discharge cannon; the Exawatt rated yellow beam lancing across space aimed at the bow of the ship. This was quickly followed by rapid firing light neutron cannons in succession alternating between barrels to keep up a constant rate of fire, of course light in Genite terms was 100,000TW per beam.

This constant hail was followed by the fusion pulse guns, the wonderfully pretty purple bursts of light strafed along the bow; each equal to an 11megaton nuclear bomb; the Red Star broke off its attack and changed vector. Using its agility to dance around enemy fire and strafe along the underside of the Star destroyer from front to back with its fusion pulse cannons and neutron cannons; only firing its quantum discharge cannon at critical areas.

Reinforcements should be arriving soon

the Mid Sergeant stared in awe at the amazing power of the Red Star weapons.

"Amazing... the sheer power..."

-----------------------------------

The Kaptain watched the battle unfold. The addition of the Red Star ship more than pushed the battle in their favor. As he watched, an aide walked up and saluted.

"Sir. Preparations for Liberation is complete."

"Really? The ships are already in place?"

"Yes, sir."

"Excelent. Take control of the Rynald satalite, radio, and television feeds."

"On it... done sir."

"Excelent. Broadcast me."

Down in Saint Rynald, every television in the entire nation flickered as the North Mack hacking programs seized control of the airwaves and rerouted the picture to the Kaptain of the Resplendant

"Greetings people of Rynald. I am Kaptain Jacob Henry of the NMSS Resplendant which is currently in orbit above your nation. I have an announcement. Your current regime has ruled you out of fear. Fear of torture and death, and nuclear fire raining down from above. Despite their evil and destructive ways, your government is relativley naieve in the ways of the space-faring nations.
Rule number one of Star-travel: Never trust anyone.
The regime that rules you is over. It will shortly be destroyed. Starting with the orbital platform which has threatened you all for so long."

The picture changed to an exterior view of the Orbital Platform. Out of empty space appeared three large ships, positioned in a triangular pattern around the station.

"Today, the fear ends. Operation Liberation is go."

The ships opened fire on the opbital platform, missiles, lasers, and rail cannon firing at point blank into the platform. The view again changed to the Kaptain.

"North Mack infantry will shortly be landing within your nation. I say, assist them. Throw off the chains of your oppresive government. Fight with our soldiers, and be free from fear forever."

-----------------------------------

The ships around the Rynald starship broadcast a encrypted, tight beam message to the Sephrioth ships.

We will no longer protect the Rynald ship and its occupants. We will let you destroy it. However, we have men aboard. Please let us evacuate the soldiers before you open fire on the Rynald ship.

------------------------------------

"Operation Liberation is go."

The High Sergeant breifly touched his earpiece, then stood up quickly.

"Captain, I am pleases with the progress we have made. However, I must tell you one thing before this deal is closed.

North Mack does not deal with torturers."

THe High Sergeant and the 4 men behind him quickly brought up their guns and fired shotgun blasts into the nearest Rynald soldiers / priests / diplomats. They fired until everyone in the room except themselves was dead.

Then they closed their visors, loaded fresh clips into their rifles, opened the door, and headed for their shuttle.

----------------------------------
"Operation Liberation is go."

The drop pods streaked away from the Troop Landers that had been disquised as Destroyers.

From the ground, streaks of light began to appear as the pods entered the atmosphers and streaked towords the ground.

Less then 15 minutes after the Kaptains message, over 2 million North Mack Imperial Marines had landed on the surface of Rynald.

The Genite forces dropped out of slipstream; six Overlord class war cruisers this sight alone was terrifying to behold. Gut the night mare kept getting worse as they were joined by two Rage of God class Deep stand off vessels and eight Revenant class heavy destroyers flanked by about fifty Red stars

"Captain Krishna, this is Task force Agosy one, we are yours to command" the battle group leader greeted over the Comm; "all gun ports open"

'The Heavens burned, the Stars cried out. And under the ashes of infinity, Hope, scarred and bleeding, Breathed it's last.'

And Hope for the unidentified fleet just died; if they were lucky they would pick up the brief energy spike as the onslaught began. A hailstorm, a blizzard of heavy and medium neutron beams rated between 400,000TW and an Exowatt, fusion beams, fusion pulses, 200-300mm "God Rod" Mass driver cannons, multi exowatt Quantum discharge guns and light neutron pulse beams erupted forth on the enemy fleet like a volcano laying waste to a small island and anything it its path.

This punishing baptism of fire was complemented as thousands of missiles flew from there launchers targeting smaller ships, squadrons of 8-10 Red Starts broke fleet formation and started to attack Star destroyers dancing around there fire and laying crippling firepower on them in critical areas. Genite ships could obliterate star destroyers with frightening efficiency; as a matter of fact Genite ships were very, VERY good star ship killers in general.

The full might of the Genite military had not be brought to bare on anyone in 700 years; it had been a thing to fear and now it had returned, the terror once more stalked the stars. The last time the full might was used civilisations were burnt to noting but dust. Beams weapon raked across enemy ships; others were set to pierce and breach shields and crack hulls exposing them to the void; PDL's picked off enemy fighters like flies and more missiles were launched, the onslaught never stopping for a moment.

The Weak shall perish, Civilisations shall fall, worlds will burn and rivers will run with blood the blood of our enemies.

Shrike slip fighters were scrambled from launch bays carrying with them Genite honour and pride, resistance in this case was indeed futile as the onslaught continued with all the subtlety of a category five hurricane Genite weapons fire ripping through the enemy ranks. Shrike fighters danced around the small and agile craft almost as nimble as a Red Star there 40mm pulse cannons and missiles just as much a match for there counterpart TIE fighters

"Heaven burns, the stars are falling, as the enemy draws nigh, sound the call, solders and lancers yell out "GENITES" our battle cry. Face the foe and never waver, summon fire from the sky, A Million Stars, Scattered over the endless night, bound by blood and honour, hold the line until the light, hold the line against the night"

Anyaka looked over to the North Mack liaison briefly "Get on the Comm system; tell them to wedge the enemy fleet between your people and us. If that other fleet of star destroyers are on our side too tell them to take the third flank. Crossfire on all sides, we'll carpet bomb space if we have to" Anyaka said turning her attention back to the fight the very thought of Alpha tech users helping leaving a sour taste in her mouth.

She had obviously not yet been informed about the North Mack regime change but then she likely wouldn't have too much trouble with it

"This is Mid Sergeant Lauren. The Genites fleet advised that you take a flanking position across from them and fire into the sides of the emeny fleet"

"Copy Mid Sergeant. Moving fleet to comply."

Most of the fleet moved to flank the Sephrioth fleet, still firing, but only at targets such as weapons and engines. Meant to cripple, not destroy. A few ships remained encircled around the Rynald ship, both to guard against the Sephrioth fleet from destroying it with the soldiers aboard, and to keep the Rynald ship from moving.

"Well diplomoacy has failed lets get out of here."

The fleet jumped back to 1010102ian space.

OoC: nice way out.

Preston watched the proceedings on the Tac Viewer in CIC with interest.

"Analysis, Mr. Charles if you will."

Lt. Charles, the ranking ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) officer on board began his report.

"Numerous ships from 3 distinct factions. They appear to mostly use extremely powerful energy weapons. We could proable hold our own in one on one combat, but we are badly outnumbered."

Preston thought for a moment, "All right then, let's allow this folks to settle their grievances alone."

With that the Dauntless activated it's Quincy-Blaine Drive and jumped back to Upper Weston territory.

OoC: waiting for Rynald to post

OOC: Actually, TVs etc. are restricted - your average citizen wouldn't have one.

Orbital Weapons Platform
The sensor tech looked up, terror clear upon his face. He opened his mouth, crying out,
"Oh God no -" and then, the weak shields failed, the Orbital Weapons Platform exploded, and all involved were reduced to so many loose atoms.

Onboard the Blessed Fist
The two guards with the high-powered combat shot-guns were the first to die. They didn't get a chance to raise their weapons, let alone fire... the others in the room died quickly enough, managing nothing more than a few terrified screams before they fell... as the boarding team fled the room, they heard alarms going off all throughout the ship, as the crew grabbed up weapons and tried to fight back.
Dozens of crew-men died as they fired their obsolete weapons at the fleeing boarders, but more came. It was almost funny - by the time they had reached the hangar, they had taken the ship - the entire crew had come out to fight them and had died. North Mack casualties are unknown.

On the Surface
The sensor room was packed, full of men who jostled for space, staring at the displays. Then, suddenly, the techs, all most as one, let out soft yelps - they quickly had some coded message sent off... and then went back to staring at the screen, where they watched the drop-ships of the North Mack invasion fleet falling towards the surface, supported by missiles... including one headed straight for their position. Somehow, the mere fact that the tunnels in which this instilation was placed were rated as "bomb-proof" didn't makie them feel they'd survive.

Landing Zone Alpha
Most of the 102nd Planetary Defense Militia was dead before the invaders hit the ground. The survivors got to discover just how obsolete their weapons were. In fact, the average soldiers automatic rifle was almost totally useless - the only cassualties that were inflicted at the landing zone were inflicted by the cannons of their few surviving support vehicles. It was close enough that, one on one, their tanks might have actually been able to fight the invaders infantry... but it wasn't one on one. Worse, word said it was just as bad across the planet.

the star destroyers opened fire on the blessed first 100 photon torpedoes each were fired

coms to saint rynald forces surrender now or we WIll destroy you
coms to north mack ships we claim this battle we will assit you in wiping them out

Here is a list of the key sites for the Saint Rynald government and military:

- The Grand Cathedral: Located in Saint Rynald City, this giant cathedral covers a full half of a square mile. It's the largest cathedral on the planet, and so is one of the key land marks of the planet.
Status: Currently held by the Saint Rynald Planetary Defense Militia

- Government Hill: Home of the administrative sections of the planetary governmnet, Government Hill is, well, a hill in Saint Rynald city, on top of which is built a huge complex of government buildings. In terms of architectural style, think lots of stained glass and sculpture. However, most of the building is actually underground, in "bomb-proof" tunnels left over from the last war.
Status: Currently held by the Saint Rynald Planetary Defense Militia

- Orbital Weapons Platform: Located in, well, orbit, the Orbital Weapons Platform was the primary center of the Saint Rynald Space Navy - which actually isn't as impressive as it sounds.
Status: Destroyed by North Mack

- The Hall of The Republic: Located in Saint Rynald City, The Hall of The Republic is the mansion where the Planetary Arch-Bishop lives, as well as a bureaucratic center.
Status: Currently held by the Saint Rynald Planetary Defense Militia

- Inquisition Hall: Located in Saint Rynald City, this is the HQ building and administrative center of the Republican Inquisition. As well as being their HQ, it is also a prison, an armoury and a training center.
Status: Currently held by the Inquisitorial Legion (10,000 "elite" soldiers, the only professional land war unit - the rest of the "army" is made up of the Planetary Defense Militia, where only the commissioned officers actually fight as their job).

- Saint Sebastian City: This city is one of the primary population centers (after Saint Rynald City). It's the site of some heavy industry (steel making, power-generation, etc.), which makes it valuable, but it is also located right in the middle of everything - it's "Strategically Located".
Status: Currently held by the Saint Rynald Planetary Defense Militia.

- Planetary Defense Militia HQ: A huge bunker complex, this was the biggest single military site on the planet - it also featured a huge scanner complex... all of which made it a perfect target for the initial bombardment.
Status: Destroyed by North Mack.

- Landing Zone Alpha: Located in the suburbs of Saint Sebastian City, this was one of the best landing sites.
Status: Held by North Mack marines (although their landers are taking light AA fire).

- Land Zone Beta: Located in the northern industrial area of Saint Rynald City, near the meat-packing sector, this site was one of those chosen as good sites for landings.
Status: Well secured by North Mack marines, who have pushed all the way to within a city block of Government Hill.

Please note that tons of other landing zones exist, but these are the most "strategically located" ones.

OOC: North Mack - sorry if I annoyed you with Landing Zones Alpha and Beta...

While the North Mack forces may be limited themselves to weapons and engines content to disable the enemy ships; the Genite Fleet was not so forgiving. As the yellow energy beams continue to pound the enemy fleet laying waste to anything in their path; even ships that had been disabled by North Mack forces crippled and helpless were targeted for destruction. The Genites would settle for nothing less than the complete eradication of every Alpha tech star destroyer in the system; the immensely powerful energy weapons continued there bombardment as thousands upon thousands of missiles and 'god rods' were launched to complement the attack from the capital ships. Red stars and slip fighters swarmed about agilely dancing around the enemy ships fire and laying down there own crippling strikes.

It was as if the God of death, Azarial himself had possessed the Genites and unleashed them as the harbingers of doom; the enemy fleet would soon fall against such punishment. As more ships were sent for to begin the great purge no longer would the strong be oppressed by the weak. The strong, the heretics and witches would soon rise up and throw off there chains in fire and blood; the blood of those whom had oppressed them for so long

Militiaman Herbert Franklin was tired, hungry, thirsty and scared. It had been hours since the initial landings, and things weren't looking good. In his sector alone, hundreds of Planetary Defense Militia men were already dead, dozens of the armoured fighting vehicles were burning wreaks, and he doubted they'd done much more than annoy the enemy in return.
Partially, it was a lack of heavy weapons - every man had his rifle, a few grenades and a knife or bayonet... every platoon of fifty was supposed to have ten RPG launchers and five other heavy weapons. Most platoons were lucky to have one RPG launcher, and other than a few mortars he kept hearing about, there didn't seem to be any other heavy weapons at all... it seemed to him that the entire deployment of the Planetary Defense Militia had been botched... for example, they hadn't been resupplied yet, and so none of them had eaten in almost two days...
Still, with what he had been hearing was being done to militia men who surrendered wasn't pretty, so surrender didn't seem to be an option. If he was to die, he would die with a gun in his hands, firing it at the enemy, however futiley he might be doing that... not like he had heard they had found the bodies of those who had surrendered, all mangled and bloody, horribly impaled... it was scary, and so he would fight 'till the end.

- The government has been distributing propaganda about how POWs taken by North Mack are being tortured and killed - how are the POWs being treated?
- The Planetary Defense Militia is underequipped, but they are quite brave, for what it is worth, and are semi-good fighters - plus, they had experience in several wars, so at least a few of them are veterans - albeit veterans who have never fought someone with the tech advantage North Mack enjoys before...

ooc gentite ignored due to t the fact we are working with north mack
ic ten sephrim drops ships soared down out of each star destroyer each containing 50 cerverus wardriods to ladthey headed to landing site alpha

ooc gentite ignored due to t the fact we are working with north mack
ic ten sephrim drops ships soared down out of each star destroyer each containing 50 cerverus wardriods to ladthey headed to landing site alpha

ooc: - no ones told us that yet IC..as soon as North Mack tells us we'll stop firing...or you tell us

OoC: Rynald landing zones are ok.

IC: The shuttle exited the Rynald hanger with barley a scratch on it. of the 7 men to enter the ship, the 5 Marines and the 2 Pilots, only one had been hit. Private Ishabin had been wounded by a lucky shot through the visor. The visor had deflected the bullet enough that Ishabin had lost an ear, but would be fine once he reached the medical bay. As the shuttle left the hanger, the explosives the marines had placed along corridors as they evacuated detonated, taking out well over half the ship.

-------------------------------------------

This is a broadcast to all Genite ships. Cease firing on Sephrioth ships as soon as possible. Sephrioth has agreed to assist with battles against the Rynald forces. Repeat, please cease firing on all Sephrioth ships.

-------------------------------------------

Landing Zone Beta
The Marines had done a very good job of puching through the enemy positions with very little casualties. However, with the amount of soldiers in heavily fortified positions, it would take a bit more power to push them out. As the Marines set up temporary bases at Landing Zones Alpha and Beta, the first shuttle of AV-25 Robert Heavy Tanks and AV-24 Geneva Light Tanks (equal amounts of Main Cannons and Missile Turrets) landed at Landing Zone Bata.

OoC:Prisoners of war are given 2 catagories.

Local Militia - Soldiers who only serve Rynald out of fear of nuclear death. They are being given the option to assist the Marines. otherwise they are sent to a POW camp outside LZ-A.

Zealots - Soldiers who are hardcore Rynald troops. shipped up to a Troop Transport being used as a high security POW camp. (Geosynchronous Orbit over LZ-B)

Genite ships received the cease fire message and the guns went silent on all ships the devastation was quiet apparent and satisfying an image as the Genite ships once again took up fleet formation. Except for a single Red star which came to meet the Wrath of Hector. One of the Overlord ships picked up the mining platform and headed towards it; the huge 1700meter flying fish like design gliding through space gun ports open and bristling over its entire body.

"Surrender or die" was the only message sent to the mining platform, Genites were always short and to the point; the rest of the fleet took up orbit around the planet; while two Victories Crucible class ship dropped out of slip stream escorted by eight Red Stars. As soon as the DSC's (Drop ship carrier) took up orbit it started to deploy over one hundred Orbital drop ships per DSC. Each containing a platoon of Lancers in full Exo-armour and supported by ED209 and CAIN Warbots; the Drop ships themselves would serve as Hover tanks one they had deployed their cargo. Armed with God Rod cannons and a light Neutron beam turret with there 'ass-loads' of armour made them effective close support craft.

Soon over 14,400 Lancers, Crusaders and Saviours, and 100 Warbots would be on the planet to help liberate the strong from the weak whom had ruled through fear; there chains would be broken and they would be free. The drop ships were heading towards the prisoner's complex marked up by their HUD's as "Inquisition HQ" to liberate the poor souls held there.

(OOC: How much damage would chucking a 300mm Tungsten Rod mass driver at that Cathedral of yours do?)

The Tanks had finally landed, and the Marines readied for another assault. Although the Rynald soldiers posed no real threat by them selves, the occasional Marine squad took a hit from a tank, or an enemy soldier landed a lucky shot with an RPG. of the 2 million soldiers who had landed on the surface, a grand total of 312 had died.

The Marines charged foreward twords the enemy positions, guns and RPG blazing. Many Marines fired one handed, while hanging off the Tanks as they advanced. It was over quickly, with half of Government Hill destroyed, and the other half secured.

The Marines made ready to advance into the depths of the hill.

ED209 Warbot, Onlne...
Directive one: Protect Civilians..
Directive two: Liberate Prisoners...
Directive three: Eliminate Saint Rynalds Soldiers with Extreme prejudice...

-Begin operation-


The Drop ships seemed to hover for a moment as they acquired there targets; the Red circles appearing briefly in the gunners visor; a moment later the 25mm 3 barrel Tungsten rod Vulcan came to life and started strafing enemy positions. The underside light neutron Turrets fired at more entrenched positions outside. Laying down cover for the first drops; Platoons of 40 soldiers started to disembarked from drop ships supported by 209's.the 12ft Warbots arm mounted laser Vulcan's came Ablaze spewing thousands of orange bolts at enemy positions; Crusaders laying down fire with more slower plasma bolts.

"GENITES!" they yelled as the Lancers in full exo armour pushed forward; Force lances extended and shooting laser blast rounds from the end of the pike.

CAIN Warbots started to disembark these more nimble destroyers stared to open fire with there medium plasma cannons doing massive amounts of destruction; of course when all the prisoners were liberated this entire facility would be scored from orbit as a symbol to the people

the cerberus disembarked
cerberus wardriods online

Directive one: terminate all non north mack and Genites and sephrion life withe extremee predujucice
operation final fury engaged

500 cerberus wardriods stormed on to goverment hill disruptor riffles firing

OOC: One of those? The cathedral has its own shield, which is up, and about as tough as the one on the Blessed Fist was, but that wasn't much. Likely, it would be destroyed. However, one quick point - currently, it's packed full of terrified, praying, civilians. Need I say bad PR?

In Saint Rynald City, the fighting was fierce, as the Planetary Defense Militia fought the invaders with courage and honor... and a distinct lack of common sense.
However, tens of thousands have already surrendered to the North Mack troops, while tens of thousands more are already dead. Aside from a few nasty incidents where enemy wounded were left to "surrender", and then blow themselves up with the bombs they had been left with, there wasn't much going on worth commenting on.

With the Genites attack on Inquisition Hall, the fighting was horrendous - ten thousand Inquisition Legion soldiers all fought to the death from dug-in defensive positions, along with eight thousand Inquisitorial cadets. All died, although they fought well. Eight hundred "witches", four hundred "heretics" (which includes non-accepted christian sects and Jews as well as the more inventive "demon worshipers".)

As for the mining platform, it responded by firing its missile launcher, getting off one high-velocity missile before being destroyed. That missile was a ten-megaton super-nuke, and was fired at the closest Genite ship.

ooc respond to my attack im going after the city
im in a state of total war woth you

ic the droids wer firing on the shield

Government Hill had never been meant for defense. It was a cluster of huge, imposing buildings, sure, but it wasn't a fort. Its perimiter wall, built to look like a defensive rampart, crimbled under the lightest of attacks, stained glass windows, filled with portraits of saints with bloody swords, shattered like the glass they were.
Still, the defenders fought well. All order had collapsed when Planetary Defense Militia HQ was nuked - still, they fought on. They fought on without food when entire warehouses filled with rations sat ignored two blocks away, fought on without artillery when entire artillery units sat idle within range of their enemies... they fought, bled, and fell back... and it was brutal, sure, but also amazing, because they died almost willingly, eager to fight for their God...
Whenever they could, they fought from cover, firing RPGs with carful precision, their useless rifles ignored. Still other times, they packed their jackets with grenades, and came out to surrender, or were wounded and left with a bomb, then told to call out for aid. Eight hundred men willingly commited suicide trying to hurt the North Mack and Genite invaders. Still, there was still some sanity - over eighty thousand surrendered to one or the other, North Mack or Genite.
The civilians were either hiding in their homes or praying in their churches, depending on their faith. Cynical men suggested that most of the supporters of the current regime would be wiped out if the churches were bombed.

When the Genite soldiers stormed the Inquisitorial HQ building,they found horrors and nightmares alike in terrible numbers.
While they stormed through the collapsing outer defenses, a few of the Inquisitors went through the cells, one by one, using their sidearms to shoot the prisoners, one by one. Over 1,000 prisoners died, although almost 1,200 were saved.

the wardriods fought on taking no prisioers they were detrimend to uterly destroy saint rnalyld
ooc aim for the wardriods backs shoot the signal booster packs

(OOC: ED209's can't go up stairs; which is its main weakness; but the CAINS are very agile; and Genites care not for PR, we wanted to 'purge' your world)

Genites took some casualties in the fighting; Crusaders mostly, being the main ground troops 500 of them died in the fighting, the much better armed and trained Lancers and Saviours suffered no casualties, two or three 209's suffered light damage with CAINS taking no damage because of there extra agility. As they secured the complex the true nightmares of the Saint Rynald regime was revealed; corpses littered rooms and hallways where they had been shot and walls were decorated a fine red splatter. Children as young as 8 whom had been deemed witch's were killed; boys, girls, men women of all ages old and young scars and wounds of unspeakable torture although over 1200 were saved the loss of so many saddened the Genite lancers.

"This is 501st to North Mack forces, Clear the cathedral of Civi's were taking it down from orbit" he said into the wrist comm. on his Exo armour. As little girl 5 years old clung to his leg as he patted her head through the armoured hand being extra careful not to hurt her.

In space

The War cruiser rumbled slightly being hit by the 11megaton nuke on the dorsal fin disabled one of the engines and put a small hole in the hull and left a scotch along one of the sides. Nothing the auto repair couldn't handle given that the shields took the brunt of the explosion

"This is 501st to North Mack forces, Clear the cathedral of Civi's were taking it down from orbit"

"Copy that 501st. Moving into Cathedral now. We expect to have it cleared within the hour."

The tanks charged the Cathedral, firing at any Enemy positions that were not near the civillians. The Marines took care of the rest. In just over a half hour, all Enemies had been cleared from the cathedral. only 12 North Mack casualties had been reported, and of thouse only 2 fatal. The Marines began moving the civillians out of the cathedral, with force if needed. The evacuation took longer than expected. For people who had been opressed by their government, they seemed really devoted. The evacuation took another hour.

"7th Infantry to Genites 501st. Cathedral is cleared of civs. Repeat, cathedral is cleared. You are clear for orbital bombardment."

--------------------------------------

While the 7th was clearing out the cathedral, the 12th, 45th, and 103rd were pushing into the depths of Government Hill. The arrival of the 8th Heavy Infantry had reduced casualties - as few as there were - even more.

OoC: Heavy Infantry wear armor that beats a modern day tank. They are armed with the XR-19 Portable Minigun

The Lancers used the time to do a thorough search of the Inquisitorial HQ to at least give the prisoners that had been murdered a dignified death; turning the bodies face up so there spirits could ascend to the gods least they never be trapped in this place of horrors. Once sufficient time had been given for them to ascend the lancers began zipping up the body bags still face up in case there were any stragglers Genites were very specific in the death rituals. Some of them would never be identified and most of the children were orphans after their parents had also been captured, tortured and killed.

"Colonel, we've completely secured the building" one of the lancers said with a salute.

"Good, Good" he said with the little girl holding onto his shoulder and supported by his arm; "Something wrong Leftenant?" he asked.

"No sir" the Lancer Saluted and departed.

Genite soldiers had found the record rooms; where the Inquisition kept meticulously detailed accounts of the brutal interrogations they conducted. Most were paper based others were computer based these were all shipped out on drop ship to be secured; once they were done they would let the people themselves tear this place down.

"7th Infantry to Genites 501st. Cathedral is cleared of civs. Repeat, cathedral is cleared. You are clear for orbital bombardment."

The Colonel pressed his wrist Comm unit to reply; "Roger that, stand clear boys and enjoy the show" he said into the unit.

Pressing a button to change to another channel he spoke into the unit again; "This is 501st to nest, calling down fire on position alpha, epsilon, kilo nine, two, seven, Charlie" he said.

"Roger that 501, Fire en-route", came the female voice.

A moment later in space one of the Overlord War cruisers turned towards the planet; 6 220mm Tungsten God Rods were fired towards the Cathedral at 0.998c, increasing there acceleration due to the planets gravity a orange and red glowing stream of light trailing behind it as it got hot on re-entry. A moment later each slams into the Cathedral complex with the kinetic force of a 25kt nuke.

The Planetary Arch-Bishop knelt in his private chapel beneath the Cathedral, praying for God to protect His world... he knew that the Planetary Defense Militia was fighting a lossing battle, but he couldn't bear the thought of this, God's world, deflied by the infidel.
Whispering the words of a prayer, he held up a golden chalice, one of the first communion vessels manufactured after the settlement of Saint Rynald.
As alarms wailed, he drank from it, taking communion one last time, whispering faint, pleading, prayers. He looked up at the altar, asked God to protect him, and then...
And then, an orbital strike with the force of a 25 kilo-tonne atomic bomb struck the Cathedral, destroying it and the Planetary Arch-Bishop without a single trace.

The Avenue of Saint Rynald was full of fleeing soldiers, many weeping, their weapons discarded. Civilians cowered, weeping, mewling like animals. Children stumbled along, dragging charred dolls behind...
When the bomb went off, it not only destroyed the Cathedral of Saint Rynald - it also leveled everything around it.
North Mack troops were right behind them, advancing quickly... they had all seen the propaganda sheets, had all seen the fate that the government told them waited if they were captured by the invaders... and so they ran.
When they reached the river, they found themselves trapped - the bridge had been destroyed by orbital bombardment. The militia men fought their way to the front of the line, sometimes using their weapons against the civilians in their desperate desire to flee. Then, the jumped into the river - thousands drowned, but others made it across.
As the North Mack troops advanced, panic spread - none of the fleeing refugees wanted to be caught. Mothers drowned their children so that they would not be taken, before leaping into the river themselves.
In the end, tens of thousands died... thousands more made it across, and thousands of others were captured by the advancing North Mack forces, and were suprised when they weren't tortured.

The entire hill shook from the force of the kinetic strike.

"Holy shit. What the hell was that?"

"Orbital strike. Dont worry. Just keep moving."

The Heavy Infantry had by now secured over half the underground complex. Corpses littered the ground behind them. Prisoners were constantly being moved through the ranks of advancing soldiers to the surface, where they were transported to POW camps. The enemy bittery fought to the end, sacraficing themselves while causing almost no damage. the Marines didn't understand why. They, after all, hadn't seen the propoganda the Rynaldians had.

…And if we do not survive, then speak well of us; tell them we died like Genite Lancers, with our face to the fire

The Genite Orbital strike had completely obliterated the Grand cathedral leaving only a smoking ruin behind; collateral damage was light; Genite weapons were accurate and they had only fired enough to destroy the Cathedral and any shields it might have had. Genite soldiers started to bring out the body bags of prisoners that were murdered before they could rescue them; Saint Rynalds fallen were also brought out and there bodies treated with respect. Genite soldiers were courteous and friendly to civilians in the area. They were setting up aid camps for medical care of freed prisoners careful to keep them away from the populous in case they decided to attack them, the last thing these people needed was to be attacked after surviving such horror.

Genite Crusaders walked around, there Plasma discharge rifles slung over their shoulders, holding onto the grip with one hand generally trying to make the civilians feel at ease and that they really were here to help. Setting up other medical centres and refugee camps for any civilians wounded in the fighting to be treated by Genite doctors would be good PR, dismantling an evil regime is easy; putting a better one in its place is much harder. Especially when people were scared they'd be having a government just as bad as the one currently being taken apart around them.

The Honoured dead of the Genites were also sent up on the drop ships where they would be taken home for proper burial at home.

In one of the administration rooms several men stood around the large wooden desk; a map of the area laid out showing all noteworthy positions. "We should take the Hall of the Republic; its not far from here; we could grab it fairly easily with little loss of life" one of the men said pointing to the red mark.

"Do it" he said and the Genite Soldiers began push forward to take the hall once again supported by 209's and CAIN Warbots, though many including the colonel stayed behind to keep there new make shift 'base' secure

OoC: I got tired of looking back a page to see which sites were key.

- The Grand Cathedral: Located in Saint Rynald City, this giant cathedral covers a full half of a square mile. It's the largest cathedral on the planet, and so is one of the key land marks of the planet.
Status: Destroyed by Genites

- Government Hill: Home of the administrative sections of the planetary governmnet, Government Hill is, well, a hill in Saint Rynald city, on top of which is built a huge complex of government buildings. In terms of architectural style, think lots of stained glass and sculpture. However, most of the building is actually underground, in "bomb-proof" tunnels left over from the last war.
Status: Currently held by North Mack

- Orbital Weapons Platform: Located in, well, orbit, the Orbital Weapons Platform was the primary center of the Saint Rynald Space Navy - which actually isn't as impressive as it sounds.
Status: Destroyed by North Mack

- The Hall of The Republic: Located in Saint Rynald City, The Hall of The Republic is the mansion where the Planetary Arch-Bishop lives, as well as a bureaucratic center.
Status: Currently held by Genites

- Inquisition Hall: Located in Saint Rynald City, this is the HQ building and administrative center of the Republican Inquisition. As well as being their HQ, it is also a prison, an armoury and a training center.
Status: Currently Held by Genites

- Saint Sebastian City: This city is one of the primary population centers (after Saint Rynald City). It's the site of some heavy industry (steel making, power-generation, etc.), which makes it valuable, but it is also located right in the middle of everything - it's "Strategically Located".
Status: Currently under attack by North Mack.

- Planetary Defense Militia HQ: A huge bunker complex, this was the biggest single military site on the planet - it also featured a huge scanner complex... all of which made it a perfect target for the initial bombardment.
Status: Destroyed by North Mack.

- Landing Zone Alpha: Located in the suburbs of Saint Sebastian City, this was one of the best landing sites.
Status: Currently held by North Mack.

- Land Zone Beta: Located in the northern industrial area of Saint Rynald City, near the meat-packing sector, this site was one of those chosen as good sites for landings.
Status: Currently Held by North Mack.

As the last resistance in Saint Rynald City was being assaulted, preperations were made for a second, massive assault on Saint Sebastian City. Halftracks and APCs were loaded up with troops and spare ammo. Tanks headed off ahead of the infantry to clear the major resistance.

The ultimate Imperial Army weapon had finally landed. Over 1000 GS-16 Harper Gunships flew towords the city. Armed with Missiles, Guided Rockets, and Heavy Machine Guns, plus the ability to paradrop 4 troops each, the Harpers woud ensure that all the Marines made it into the city.

The gunships streaked through the air, firing a wave of rockets at any and all defensive positions at the city limits. As the gunships flew over the city, they dropped all 4000 Heavy Infantry at various strategis locations, including government centers, military bases, and other key areas.

The second assault had begun

OoC: GS-16 Harper Gunship pic:
http://www.oldcrowmodels.co.uk/25mm/raven/ravenl.gif
my pride and joy. it is painted in the 'Concrete Jungle Cammo' pattern

The last few hours were the worst. When the fighting got deep under the buildings, it was tunnel fighting where the enemy had had years to set booby traps, knew the tunnels quite well and was prepared to die by the thousands to get even one of the North Mack soldiers. Still, they never even stood a chance.
In the end, out of thirty thousand Planetary Defense Militia soldiers and fifty thousand conscripted civilians (yes, I know they couldn't be fed or anything, but they could physically fit in there, and that's what matters), less than one hundred were taken prisoner.
When they had had a chance to look at the propaganda on file in the captured computed networks, the North Mack soldiers understood all too well why that was the case.
It was horrible stuff - impalings, crucifixtions... realy nasty stuff, basically. The main point of it was basically that it would be a better idea to die than to let yourself be captured by the invaders - North Mack or the Genites, although the men shown carrying out the atrocities were depicted as wearing North Mack uniforms and armour. See here what you get when you have a brutally oppressive governments propaganda machine working with photo-shop (actually, more like a much more advanced version of that sort of program...).

Twenty five thousand Planetary Defense Militia men were dug in there, with heavy weapons, armour and supplies... they were ready for a fight and prepared to die for the cause.
They had all seen the propaganda... they knew what was coming...
In the end, after less than an hour of fighting, they were literally all dead - they fought literally to the last with RPGs and small arms against Genite Lancers.
Still, for all their desperate courage, The Hall of The Republic fell right on schedual.

The 209's blitzed the Hall of the republic; there laser Vulcan's spewing orange pulses of energy and chewing though enemy forces at the hall; CAIN units provided support fire for the 209's with heavy plasma cannons to take out entrenched positions.

Crusaders charged against the oncoming fire; pulses and bursts of orange light coming from their discharge rifles. "GENITES!" they yelled pushing forward supported by Saviours and Lancers in Exo-armour; 200 Crusaders died and more than 250 were wounded in the fighting; several 209's took RPG hits turning them into guard towers more than mobile Warbots even though they still excelled as a stationary guard post.

When it was over, less than an hour later the enemy militiamen were all dead. They had fought like men and died well with honour and pride to the last. Never surrendering and never retreating, they would weep, and pray and throw themselves into the very face of death never running out of courage; they were magnificent.

And the Genites took notice; the militiamen died like lancers; with their face to the fire. While the government may be corrupt and tyrannical these militiamen had heart.

"Sir, Hall of republic is secure" one of the Lancers said into his wrist comm. "We've taken some casualties sir, they fought and died well" he added.

"Sweep the buildings for any government officials; take them alive if possible, dead if necessary" came the reply from the Colonels voice.

"Yes Sir" replied the lancer as his men began to sweep for people in the buildings; others taking care of the dead and wounded while 209's and CAINS secured the area.

"Sir. Government HIll is secured. we lost 204 men. 546 more wounded."

"How many prisoners?"

"Less then 100. they fought to the death. And we know why."

"Why?"

"We found propaganda the enemy had been distributing. Lets just say they took what they did in that Inquisition HQ of theirs and replaced themselves with our soldiers.

OoC: will post more later.

Saint Sebastian City was falling. That much was obvious. The defenders were fighting as best they could, but they never stood a chance...
Lord General Thomas Uller looked out over the city he was supposed to defend, looked out from his window at a waste-land of wreakage and ruin. His men fought like heroes, but they just never stood a chance... it was hopeless... still, they would fight on.

Saint Sebastian City was fighting. The Planetary Defense Militia held with tenacity rarely seen... it was a horror.
The Saint Rynald defenders were retreating down the main processional ways, fleeing deeper into the city... from third and forth floor windows, they fired RPGs at the oncoming North Mack soldiers, from behind hastily-built barricades they fired ineffectively... it was a horror - they knew that they couldn't win, but they went on fighting none the less.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Beneath the city, in the deep sewers, men crawled, dragging a black crate behind them. They wore the black uniforms with red shoulder patches of the Saint Rynald military, but rather than the black crosses on the red shoulder patches, they had only a black line, a slash across the shield.
These men were elite soldiers of the Inquisitorial Legion, and they were not afraid to die if in doing so they could hurt North Mack and the Genites, who had invaded their homeworld... they were prepared to die, and they knew that they would - after all, they carried with them a forty mega-tonne atomic bomb...

OOC: Named after the guy in the bible who brought down the Philistine temple onto his head after he was beaten, taking a bunch of the enemy with him...

All throughout the planet of Saint Rynald, soldiers of the Inquisition Legion planted black crates in the depths of the largest cities, then moved to guard them, knowing as they did that they would die... but, by then they didn't care - after all, what use was life if the God you had served all your life has ceased to aid you, has allowed His state to fail? So, they prepare...

OOC: You can assume some of this is noticed - after all, the radiation signatures would show through...

"Sir, I've got something weird showing up all across the country. Some kind of radiation, although I've never seen anything like it."

The officer on duty looked over the lieutenants shoulder at the passive scan of Saint Rynald.

"Hmm... you're right, that's extremely odd... some kind of nuclear reactor?"

"No sir. Signatures too small. almost like its capable of a reaction but is currently dormant..." Suddenly a thought occured to the Lieutenant. Before they had developed KE weapons, before the great migration, when North Mack was still on the planet of its birth, there had been a weapon. It was in the history books, when durring the unjust war. On old weapon, obsolete in North Mack when casimir bombs could cause so much more damage with no radiation. "Sir... could they be... atomic bombs?"

The OD blinked, then paled. "Suicide charges. The bastards are going to take otu their own cities to get us."

the OD ran out of the room, into his office. Picking up the phone, he dialed a single number.

-------------------------------------------

All across Saint Rynald, every North Mack soldier in a city with a radiation signature began to retreat. ALthough this would seem like a victory to the Rynald soldiers, it was really a defeat.

A defeat, because two hours after the last soldier had passed the city limits, a single, fully loaded shuttle landed at LZ-Alpha.

that shuttle was loaded with the most expensive cargo in the entire Empire.

The Black Corps.

each soldier was armed with enough weaponry to take out an entire division of tanks.
each soldier cost as much as 2000 battlecruisers
each soldier had been trained since birth in the art of destruction

and onboard that shuttle, each soldier had 999 comrades.

Rynald had scared the Empire with its devotion. And the Empire didn't like being scared.

Captain Grifonberg was on the Command Bridge of one of the Rage of God class Deep stand off attack ships when its sensors started whaling having picked up the radiological alerts from the planet below. Almost a second later the entire fleet went nuts as Saint Rynalds lit up like a radiological Christmas tree "This is nest to all Genite ground forces, Hold position! Repeat hold position" the fleet announced.

"This is 501 Lancers to nest, what's the big deal nest?" the Colonel replied

"We have nukes in theatre, repeat nukes in theatre" the Comm officer replied.

"Damn" came the reply before the channel was closed.

On the ground, Genite soldiers stopped any advance they were taking and secured their sites that had been previously taken; this provided and interesting situation; the Warbots could in theory storm the enemy positions; and Lancers could operate in all environments thanks to there sealed Exo armour. However the problem remained of millions of Civilian casualties if they detonated those nukes.

The Tyrannical fanatics would doom their own population rather than loose power

Quickly and noiselessly, Black Corps soldiers entered the sewers of all the cities with nuclear devices under them. They were not only silent, but due to the massive amount of advanced weapons and armor they got, each armor set was equipped with a special chameleon skin. The armor changed with the movement of the soldiers, making them almost impossible to see in the dim light of the sewer.

The first team of Black Corps soldiers came into view of their target.

"Red Twelve to Base. Target in sight."

"Roger Red Twelve, you may move in when ready."

The soldiers sighted the enemy through the neuro-links of their rifles, and prepared to attack.

"Red Twelve to team... move in on my mark... 3... 2... 1... now!"

the rifles fired without a muzzle flash, and without a noise. The positions of the Black Corps soldiers remained hidden.

The news of the withdrawl had been greeted with hopeful skepticism, but the soldiers in the sewers had been told to remain there. Still, they were getting bored - it wasn't like there was that much to do... just gasp for breath in the stinking sewers...
The Inquisition Legion soldiers wore light body armour, designed to protect against mere small arms... they carried heavier rifles, high velocity semi-automatic beasts that could actually hurt a regular North Mack soldier - the only problem was that there were so few of them, as they had been designed as anti-tank rifles...
Sergeant Robert McCune knelt in the sewer, and felt sick. He didn't like it here, and he wished he could be anywhere else... he had two children, and he worried about them... he was so deep in thought that he didn't notice anything until his head exploded.
The fighting was brief but brutal - as their allies died, the remaining soldiers made a run for the bomb, firing their rifles wildly, blasting fist-sized holes multiple meters deep into the concrete of the sewers. The invisible commandos cut them down with relative ease, burning through balistic plate, atomizing flesh... it was almost too easy, like shooting unarmed, paniced children.

- The Saint Sebastian bomb has been neutralized.

The soldiers beneath Saint Rynald City were more alert, and more disciplined. They fought like heroes, and died like dogs, blasted apart... it was, once again, too easy - good men died without much of a chance to resist, experienced soldiers died like green conscripts... it was a slaughter, and it was one that made clear the futility of the Saint Rynald resistance... and its dedication. Not one soldier surrendered.

Lord Inquisitor Rynaldo Osterling knelt before the altar in the bunker that had become the command center of the remaining defenders of Saint Rynald. He was afraid, and he knew what was happening... he just didn't know why.
To him, it seemed obvious - God had deserted them. The only question was, why? He struggled with that question, and could not find an answer. It wasn't as if they had not built cathedrals, had not purged the heretic without mercy... still, he had yet one weapon with which to fight the God-less. Their armies might withdraw, but he still could get the rear-most units... with a whispered prayer begging for forgiveness, he gave the order, over the communication channel, for Operation Sampson to begin. Then, upon his knees, he drew out his sidearm. It would only hurt for a moment, he reassured himself. It would all be over soon...

- Lord Inquisitor Rynaldo Osterling has ordered the remaining Sampson sites to activate - this will catch only the last few elements of the retreating North Mack units, but he seems to find that little gain enough to be worth the losses that are to come... after that, he commited suicide, leaving the defenders disorganized and un-lead once more.

They had acted too late. Most of the sites had already been neutralized, and those that hadn't been had already had the North Mack soldiers there withdraw... still, Operation Sampson was impressive in one reguard: almost four million civilians died as the bombs went off. That was four Saint Rynald people for every forteen... still, it could have been worse...

- The remaining Sampson sites detonated, killing four million civilians and an unknown but very low number of North Mack and Genite soldiers.

"Sir, we neutralised most of the nuclear bombs, but they blew the rest before we could reach them. we dont know the number of civillian casualties, but we estimate between three and seven million. We also lost 2000 soldiers still retreating, and 104 Black Corps soldiers."

The commander of the invasion, Mid General George Stevenson, paled. "One... Hundred... and Four... Lei Guntar*... the Emperor will be furious..." the General hung his head. "This was supposed to be easy. How were we supposed to know they still used nuclear weaponry. Its so old, archaic... how were we supposed to know..."

----------------------------

After the explosions, Soldiers were sent back into all the cities. In the ones that had been destroyed, soldiers were sent in (the suits are radiation sheilded) to asses the number of civillian dead. In all cities under North Mack control, reconstruction began. Buildings were repaired, roads fixed, and at every intersection, soldiers stood guard, to prevent any Rynald guerillas from killing any more soldiers of civillians.






*Lei Guntar: Old Mack. translates into 'Holy F*ck' but to a higher level.

"HOLY F…" Was about the only thing one of the Crusaders got out before the massive gust of wind and noise from the blast almost deafened him and threw him about like a rag doll. The same was repeated numerous times killing hundreds and wounding over 500 with broken bones and cuts from impact injuries. The Lancers fared better pressurising their armour and activating the Grav boots. Overall the casualties were light; having completely pulled back to the two sites they had secured and fortified them though 2/3rds of the Warbot force had been disabled from the EMP

The mushroom clouds in the distance were quite impressive and intimidating against the sky; a backdrop of orange and red, like it was on fire. The moment of silence passed "GET YOUR NBC GEAR ON! START ISSUING MEDS", one of the Lancers yelled over the comm system as Crusaders and lancers started to break out the emergency hostile environment suits. Genites stopped using nuclear weaponry eons ago in favour or anti-matter weapons but they were still very familiar with them

Genite soldiers began to sweep through the city issuing anti-radiation medication to civilians; they would likely have to take them for a long time unless they moved out of the hot zone; funds had been allocated to start building hospitals and schools and community centres and other projects. They would rebuild Saint Rynalds

The Colonel personally injected the anti radiation medications into the little five year old girls arm; "there you go sweetie" he said.

"Thank you daddy!" she said hugging him, still in his Exo armour, thought his helmet was open

"Daddy?" he paused; "I suppose I am, what's your name?" he said hoisting the little girl up.

"Victoria" she said with a bright smile her dark hair coming down to just below her ears

"Well Hello their Victoria, my daughter" he said smiling; "Do you want to for a ride on a space ship?" he asked.

"YES!" she said excitedly as he put his helmet visor down and activated the NBC systems to go outside; boarding one of the frequent shuttles and heading for a ship in orbit. Command was given to Major Ryan.

(OOC: yeah I know, warm and fuzzy in the middle of a nuclear holocaust)

Four million was the closest guess anyone had to the number of civilians who had perished. However, with the destruction of their leadership, this disasterous atrocity also marked the end of any open resistance - most of the Planetary Defense Militia was destroyed, including their entire command structure, the religious and secular government was a charred ruin, and so... it seems that the invasion is over - there are four million dead, but this is peace...

The Planetary Defense Militia men came out of the bunker with their hands in the air. Their uniforms were tattered and torn, their hair was matted with blood and filth, their skin turned black with blood and soot... they looked tired, hungry and grim, and came towards the North Mack soldiers with exhausted, miserable looks upon their faces.
As the North Mack soldiers took them prisoner, one of them spoke:
"We fought, you know... whatever you say about us when this is all over, remember this - we fought, and we never stood a chance, but..." he trailed off as a tear ran down his face, collecting soot and filth on its way, then continued,
"... but, we fought none the less."

Most of the infastructure of the planet is a messy ruin, millions are dead, and the government lays in ruin... the question that remains to be answered, as the remaining pockets of resistance lay down their arms and surrender is - what will be done with this world?

The gunship flew over Saint Rynald city, over the buildings that had been destroyed, over the burnt out shells of tanks, over supply trains heading into the city. It flew directly to Government Hill. It landed fifty feet from one of the few surviving buildings on the hill.

Mid General George Stevenson climbed out and headed into the building.

It had been a little over four days since the Dying Breath, as the North Mack soldiers were now calling it, and already signs of reconstruction were evident. New buildings were going up, roads repaired, and people were seen on the streets again.

Stevenson was here for a Peace / Reconstruction conference with the Genites leader, as well as the highest member of Rynaldian govenrnment who had not been categorized as a Zealot.

Hopefully, this would be the first step towords an whole, unafraid Rynald.

OoC: anyone else? hello? anyone home?

(OOC: Sorry. my computer network died, thus I had no internets. IC post in a bit; I don't want to make a short 2 line post)

Really? Same thing happened to me...

The ambush wasn't as well layed out as it could have been. Still, it was a suprise. Eight men with Crusader pattern autmoatic rifles, two with RPG launchers... they fired wildly at a North Mack patrol, screaming obsceneties and prayers as they attacked. All ten of these men were killed in the resultant fighting - all of them died attacking the North Mack patrol... North Mack cassualties are unknown at this time.

The mass was being held in latin, a language that had been archaic when mankind was still confined to a single star system. The priest wore robes that might have been white at some time or other, but now were a dirty grey, scorched in places from some fire or something.
He and the eighty civilians who had dared show their faces all knelt before the slagged ruins of the Planetary Cathedral, the Cathedral of Saint Rynald, moaning and praying to their God. It had been mere weeks since the disastrous days of fighting had ended, but they came to pray... they wept, many of them, seeing the vague outline of the cathedral that was all that remained after the kinetic strike. The sight was strangely moving - the terrified faithful, praying in the streets of their conquered capital, to a God who had allowed their world to fall...

The prisoners were a miserable lot - when one looked closely at them, one noted the subtle flaws in their bodies which modern medical science could have cured with relative ease - here and there, men with golden fillings, scattered about, men with glasses... they were almost shocking, those little reminders of how primitive this world had been...
Yet, they hadn't let that primitiveness stand in their way when it came to mastering torture, and so these men stood here, clutching rosaries, whispering prayers, these former greats, who had been Inquisitors and Lord Inquisitors, who had tortured "heretics" in the name of their God...

The Large muscled Genite solider; entered the briefing room; the long grey table was centre with several screen displays embedded in it; around the room were depiction of the one they called Christ and several Crucifixes on the walls; the large tinted windows looked out to the city below.

Major Ryan; was like All Genites in peak physical condition; in fact you'd be hard pressed to find a single Genite who wasn't at his physical best. Ryan's muscles were bulging under his lancer armour; which was more like the type several of the North Mack soldiers had seen earlier than the full Exo armour worn by most people outside. Two Crusaders stood either side of the door to ensure his safety from any Saint Rynald representatives after all this was still a hot zone, quite literally as well as figuratively

Genite ships had brought in heavy construction gear and materials to help build a new city outside of the radiation zone for people to eventually move to. However it would take over a year to even get the groundwork in. turned out the former prisoners were excellent workers and had volunteered to help build the new city which was yet to be named. So until then everyone in saint Rynalds would have to take anti-radiation medications, which were provided by the Genites freely.

Ryan sat down in one of the big grey chairs and waited for the other two representatives.

(OOC: yup, Router power supply died on us; had to get it replaced today)

Hundreds of tonnes of rubble and slagged stone and metal were being moved by the workers - they labored without ceasing, with the same grim determination they had once displayed when they had tried to fight Genite or North Mack soldiers with obsolete automatic solid-shot weapons. It was sort of sad, watching them work - they wept quite oftenly, as they carried the rubble away.
When bodies, or bits of bodies, were found in the ruins, they were piled aside, to be thrown into a mass grave outside of the city, as cremation was against the religious laws of the church of Saint Rynald. They worked, and they wept, and slowly, their cities were restored, the rubble and slag removed.

OOC: Weird - but, my power went down from a lightning strike...

As the Mid General sat down at the conference table, one of his guards leaned towords him.

"Sir. there was just an attack on a routine patrol. Ten hostiles were killed. Two casualties on our side, but both are expected to recover quickly"

The Mid General sighed. Turning back to the table, he said "Hello everyone, sorry I'm late. I hope it didn't delay anything."

There have been three suicide bombings, two targeted against Genite units, one against North Mack. In terms of civilian cassualties, nine Saint Rynald civilians were killed, and around forty were wounded.

Major progress is being made at rebuilding Saint Rynald, in spite of the continuing resistance from radical elements loyal to the old regime. Much of the displaced population already has housing built for it, albeit temporary housing, and production for the whole planet is already higher than it was before the war, as primitive technology is replaced by first rate, cutting edge, tech.
All in all, things are going well.

In spite of major progress, there is still some resistance - for example, snipers are firing at patrols as they make their way through the maze-like alleys of the old city sections, and bombs are being left along the roads... however, no major resistance, on the scale of the inititial mass-attacks, remains... or so it seems.

OOC: Hello, is anyone there?

Chaos Lord Yarrin Blood-Drinker, who had once, long ago, in another life, been Yarrin of Corinth, a soldier of the Emperor. Now, though, he served a new master, and that master demanded blood - much blood.
As such, it was his duty to feed that master, to pour out blood, as much blood as he could find, to feed the daemon lords and the blessed god Khorne. Grinning evily, he stared into the display - the fleet had been hunting for worlds to raid, and they had found a fine new target...
Chuckling darkly in as fine a mood as a Chaos Lord of Khorne could be in, he turned to his lieutenant, and spoke:
"It looks as though the Warp was kind to us - we find a new world to raid! In the name of Khorne, let us fight, fight and die!" throwing back his head in the wild abandon that characterised the worshipers of the blood god, yarrin Blood-Drinker shrieked out: "Blood For the Blood God!" the bridge crew replied, calling out in foul exhaultation:
"Skulls for the Skull Throne!" Many would die, maybe even the fleet, but that didn't matter - Khorne had led them here for a reason, and so it would be here that they would conquer, here that they would die, if need be... after all, for a warrior of Khorne, was not death a victory, in and of itself?

As the ships of the fleet came out of warp space, the wonderful shrieks of the alarms sounded, as the five cruisers of this little raiding force began to launch landing craft, sending thousands of blood-mad cultists down towards the surface, to wreak massive destruction and die in the name of their god. it was a good day to make such sacrifices as would please the Blood God...

OOC: Not quite what I had in mind, but still...

The new arrivals were the worst. Their horrid craft shrieked like demons as they made their descent through the atmosphere, tearing in at far too sharp approach vectors.
Throughout the cities, the civilian survivors paniced, screaming and fleeing, unable to comprehend how their God was allowing their world to be invaded once again. Uncomprehending, the poor, terrified, citizens of Saint Rynald could only stare in horror at the oncoming tide of evil...

OOC: North Mack, Genites, what're you up to when this is going on?

sirens wailed as the new ships came in.

"Hostiles incoming. they have launched landing ships!"

"Issue Battle Stations. notify forces on the ground."


-------------------------------------------------------

North Mack soldiers, equipped in their newly issued CA3 armor (located at my storefront) moved to defensive bunkers and trenches along the city limits. Others moved civillians into underground areas intended to protect them in case of a invasion. Even more patrolled the streets looking for civilians with combat experience. anyone who could fight was given a rifle and moved to protect the evacuating civillians. Gunships headed towords the incoming landing ships.

"Target in range..."

"ENGAGE!!"

The drop ships of the raiders of the Khornate Tribes are of an interesting design - mostly, they are built to hold armoured infantry, tons of armoured infantry, ready to die horribly for their god... however, they also have "drop hatches", which they use to deploy "Drop Troops", who deploy with jet packs, and act as rapid-deployment shock troops.
The Drop Troops jump jets aren't just for deployment - once they're down on the ground, they can move from place to place with relative ease, making "impossible" leaps with the assisstance of their jump packs.

As for the normal soldier, he's either, in extreme cases, a bezerk cultist, wearing bloody robes and carrying some sort of small arm, a few grenades and a nasty close-combat weapon, or, for the Regular units, he's an armoured soldier, who isn't afraid to die...
The armour that they wear is rather heavy, but powered, so they can move fairly well in it. Additionally, it gives them major strength boosts - something like ten times their normal strength. For weapons, they carry wicked close-combat weapons, plus giant guns, which fire ultra-high velocity armour-piercing shells (about 1.2 caliber...) that are packed full of high explosive. In short, for such massive weapons, they need their super armour. (These weapons are reffered to as bolt-guns, and can be fired either semi-automatically or fully automatically...)
Other than that, there isn't much to go into, except, oh yeah, that The Khornate Tribes summon weird things from the Warp that they call daemons... (ha-ha...)

The five cruisers of the Khornate Tribes raiding force launched their drop ships, packing each one full of cultists and Chaos Space Marines. Mostly, they concentrated on getting as many men down onto the surface as they could, leaving the heavy armour for later shipment in most cases.
As they deployed their landing forces, the ships also launched something else: Locust class fighters, light, expendable, these little beasts flew straight into the North Mack fleet in huge numbers, firing their drives at maximum thrust, not caring that it left too little room for manuevering...
As the North Mack fleet watched in shock, The Khornate Tribes opened the engagement by launching eight hundred "terminally guided" kamikazi fighters, that flew in, trying to ram the North Mack ships, firing their las-cannons all the way.
The ships themselves joined the fighting, launching dozens torpedos, and firing their immense energy weapons, the huge Lance arrays, designed to punch clear through a light ships shields, and smash the ship itself to atoms. So titanic were these massive energy weapons, that each cruiser had only three emiter arrays, each powered by its own plasma reactor, each firing with so much force that they could only fire once every ten seconds, as it took that long for a plasma reactor to build up a new charge for the lances.
Fifteen lance shots, all fired in less than eight seconds, targeting three North Mack ships with five lance blasts each.

The Drop Troops lept into the void as the drop ship cleared the outer atmosphere and began to level off. Hundreds of these warriors came flying in, like some sort of obscene seeds from the bloated pods of the drop ships.
Meanwhile, North Mack ground fire began to take its toll - here and there a drop ship was blasted apart by the defiant fire of the startled but prepared defenders, but there seemed to always be more...
On board a certain drop ship, identical to all the others save for its communications array, Chaos Lord Yarrin Blood-Drinker stood in his unholy armour, flexing the mechanical muscles that bled with the sheer power of Khorne, proof of the favor he found with his god. Smilling at the thought of the slaughter he was to inflict on some poor world, he turned to his sorceror, a small, shriveled psyker, and spoke in a grimly pleased whisper:
"Release the daemons." at that, the crippled sorceror nodded, his twisted mutant features moving unnaturally, drool running down his mishapen face, over teeth that were all but tusks and lips that could not lock. Shrieking with inhuman agony, the sorceror began the ritual...

On The Surface
Reality itself seemed to shrink in on itself, seemed to distort, as gateways opened in the streets of Saint Rynald, in the ruined, slagged, remains of the Planetary Cathedral, and worst of all, amidst the terrified herds of civilians, packed tightly into underground bunkers.
From these gates, grim figures, colored the red of blood, wickedly fanged and clawed, came forth, gibbering things from the Warp, things that any sane man knew could not exist, but that did, spawned into the real world by the psionic powers of the Khornate band...

(OOC: Note: these "daemons" aren't very effective - they're basically nasty, cruel and big rabid animals, with sharp claws and plenty of teeth... however, against troops who are at all disciplined, they aren't that effective - after all, how much damage can teeth do to battle armour? Civlians, on the other hand... they're in a bit of danger...

The Drop Troops lept into the void as the drop ship cleared the outer atmosphere and began to level off. Hundreds of these warriors came flying in, like some sort of obscene seeds from the bloated pods of the drop ships.
Meanwhile, North Mack ground fire began to take its toll - here and there a drop ship was blasted apart by the defiant fire of the startled but prepared defenders, but there seemed to always be more...
On board a certain drop ship, identical to all the others save for its communications array, Chaos Lord Yarrin Blood-Drinker stood in his unholy armour, flexing the mechanical muscles that bled with the sheer power of Khorne, proof of the favor he found with his god. Smilling at the thought of the slaughter he was to inflict on some poor world, he turned to his sorceror, a small, shriveled psyker, and spoke in a grimly pleased whisper:
"Release the daemons." at that, the crippled sorceror nodded, his twisted mutant features moving unnaturally, drool running down his mishapen face, over teeth that were all but tusks and lips that could not lock. Shrieking with inhuman agony, the sorceror began the ritual...

On The Surface
Reality itself seemed to shrink in on itself, seemed to distort, as gateways opened in the streets of Saint Rynald, in the ruined, slagged, remains of the Planetary Cathedral, and worst of all, amidst the terrified herds of civilians, packed tightly into underground bunkers.
From these gates, grim figures, colored the red of blood, wickedly fanged and clawed, came forth, gibbering things from the Warp, things that any sane man knew could not exist, but that did, spawned into the real world by the psionic powers of the Khornate band...

(OOC: Note: these "daemons" aren't very effective - they're basically nasty, cruel and big rabid animals, with sharp claws and plenty of teeth... however, against troops who are at all disciplined, they aren't that effective - after all, how much damage can teeth do to battle armour? Civlians, on the other hand... they're in a bit of danger...)

The drop ships hurtled down towards the ground, trailing smoke behind from random fires that had broken out where ground fire had found its mark. Men in red and black armour lept from the flyers as they came in over the streets of Saint Rynald City, lept firing their bolt-guns, some to land on their feet, others to be flung aside like rag dolls, to smash into walls or piles of rubble, there to lay unmoving.
As the drop-ships flew in, North Mack troops at the other end of the street fired at them, trying to take down the targets... one of the huge slow moving flyers was hit, and it flew apart, bits of white-hot metal flying threw the air at high speeds, smashing cultist skulls in, severing limbs in almost comedic horror...
Yet, the other two put down, at least long enough for hundreds of cultists in blood-dyed robes to leap from them, waving axes, halberds, swords and assorted rifles and pistols. The cultist mob charged forward in a tide of red stained white, falling in their hundreds as the black and red armoured soldiers of the Khornate Tribes followed up on their advance, with even a few Chaos Space Marines, those genetically altered super-men, in the rear, shouting unholy battle cries, calling for blood and skulls for Khorne their god.

OOC: sorry my router died AGAIN ¬_¬ *kicks it into submission*

Space
Sensors on the Genite fleet lit up like a Christmas tree as the five cruisers dropped in from 'warp space' Genites were familiar with the technology; knew how devastating it truly was. These ships bared the mark of Chaos, which meant they needed to be stopped here and stopped now before they tainted this world.

"Five contacts, baring 2 7 9 break 4 5 1" the tactical officer aboard the Wrath of hector reported; as the bridge was once again bathed in crimson red; Irony it seemed was not on there side; defending a world they had not so long ago liberated. Genite honour prevented them from leaving; a call for reinforcements was sent; an entire strike group would be on its way but for the moment the North Mack forces and the Genites small fleet was the last and best hope for this world. The five of the six overlord class ships each picked an enemy cruiser to target; there full and might salvo of over eighty-four 5 Exawatt rated heavy neutron cannons per ship fired. The mighty yellow greenish beams of death lanced across space lasting for 7.2 seconds before fading, a massive salvo of 3000+ Exawatt death followed by another, followed by another. Low yield anti matter missiles; were targeted at the broadside of the enemy cruisers the missiles spewing from their housings towards the enemy cruisers rolling and dodging to avoid enemy fire.

Three Revenant class heavy destroyers came about to where the bow of the ship was each pointed at a separate capital ship; three balls of yellow light danced around the pylons briefly then suddenly three beams each shooting from a pylon coverged onto the bow of each ship. A much bigger quantum discharge beam rated at 360 Exawatt each; the entire reactor output of the entire ship was fired at the enemy ships in three distinct greenish beams; at three distinct targets. Leaving barely enough for life support, shields and the gravity generators; three more Revenants came broadside to cover the three that had fired while they waited a minute for the reactor levels to return to normal. Three standard neutron and quantum discharge guns firing while 40mm Pulse cannons Point defence turrets started to open up on fighters. Rage of God class ships unleashed a hailstorm of thousands of missiles while Red stars agilely danced around enemy fire scoring hits with they're own guns where they could targeting the rear and broadside of the chaos tainted ships as Shrike slip fighters began to launch

Ground
"Chaos troops on the ground!" Came the shrieked cry from a solider

Civilians were hurried into underground bunkers as Genite troops took up fortified positions in what had become there temporary bases of operations the Genite soldiers waited patiently for the battle to come to them and knowing chaos it soon would. "Genites to North Mack; they're chaos, leave no trace of them!"

The civilians huddled in simple, numb, terror as the very earth shook from the fighting that occured above them. Some clutched at rosaries, others whispered prayers... still others curled up on the floor and wept. As the blasts struck overhead, dust came down from the ceiling, and it seemed that they might all be burried alive...
Then, gates into what seemed the very real hell of their religion, opened into the bunker - a veritable horde of demonic monstrosities poured out, and then the dieing began, as lives were claimed for the thirst of the blood god.

The landing craft shrieked in over the warren of alley-ways that was Saint Rynald City, deploying hordes of frenzied cultists and black-and-red armoured soldiers... the few Saint Rynald civilians who hadn't run for the bunkers as soon as the alarm was sounded were hunted down like animals - terrified children were pulled out from their hiding places under their beds, to be hacked to pieces by the cruel off-world invaders...
There was some resistance, though - men who only recently had fired at North Mack patrols now martyred themselves against the Khornate raiders, each killing dozens of cultists before falling. It was a horror, as though hell itself had opened up its gates upon the surface of Saint Rynald.

Chaos Lord Yarrin Blood-Drinker laughed a maniacle laugh that seemed to be exactly taken from the list of the things that defined the stereotype of a Khorne worshiper. He laughed as the petty Saint Rynald resistance fighters died around him, laughed as bloody body parts were hurled down into the street from the high windows and roofs where the few survivors hid. It was a good day, it was a good war. Khorne would be pleased - perhaps here he had found his death-worth, where he would fight until he fell... mind wandering through visions of glorious slaughter, the Chaos Lord laughed once more.

The Genite attack was brutal in its unexpected ferocity. No sooner had the might of the lance arrays and the Locust fighters expended itself upon the North Mack fleet with unknown results than a new enemy came to face them. Emaciated slaves, mewling like tortured animals, traversed massive las-cannon arrays, lance turrets turned amidst the clicks and whirrs of the traversing mechanisms...
All throughout the fleet, preperations were made for war. Heavy vacuum-proof blast doors slammed shut, void shields came up in a sickening crackle of daemonically charged electricity, point-defense systems came alive, seeking targets...
The Genite assault smashed such things aside with power rarely seen even amidst fleet engagements. Two of the Khornate ships died instantly, even their daemonic shields no match for the awesome fire power of the Genite fleet, but the other three survived - survived to launch some 300 more Locust fighters, which sent themselves flying straight in towards the Genite fleet...
The Genite missiles met a veritable hail of point-defense fire - almost eighty percent were stopped by the ferrocious waves of counter-missiles, las-cannon blasts and a hail of bolter fire... the twenty percent that got through, though, was plenty, when the energy weapons were added into the equation.

Still, three cruisers returned fire - nine lance blasts struck the Genite ships with titanic power rarely seen... dozens of torpedos added to this return fire, as did literaly thousands of rockets and las-cannon blasts from the already-damaged weapons batteries.
Amoungst all this fire power was something that anyone who has ever faced a Khornate fleet has learned to fear - boarding torpedos, packed full of suicidal warriors, each eager to kill and die...

On the surface, the slaughter went well, as hundreds perished in the horror of those first few moments. Still, such losses were petty when compared to the final goal of the raiding force of the Khornate Tribes. That goal was spoken of by their Lord, Chaos Lord Yarrin Blood-Drinker, as he stood atop a bunt-out wreak, one of the tanks that North Mack had destroyed in the initial fighting, and spoke to his horde:
"Brothers! Khorne's eyes are upon us! We have been granted a sacred mission! We have found a battle too great to win, but we have a goal to accomplish before we fall in battle as all true warriors of Khorne do - we must kill a million of these petty Saint Rynald civilians! One million souls for Khorne! One million skulls for his throne! The blood of one million innocents shall be upon our weapons as we go to meet our god!" raising a fist into the air, he cried out:
"We shall fulfill the creed: Blood For The Blood God!!!" he shouted as the horde assembled around him made their reply, thundering and loud:
"Skulls For The Throne of Khorne!!!" as they finished their chant, more drop ships came hurtling down from the burning sky, some blasted away before they could reach the ground, but still, each death served Khorne... and also, each man to reach the surface was another man to kill the million that their god demanded...

The Genites officers swelled with pride as they obliterated two of the fire cruisers in the first volley The chaos fleet returned fire; this was of course expected they knew they couldn't take out a chaos fleet in the fire volley as much as they had hoped otherwise. The lancer beams smashed into one of the Rage of god class ships severing several of the pylons clean off punching clear through the shields; the Red stars easily evaded the beams being far more agile. As the fifty of them started to divide there fire between the remaining three ships; the other two overlords came to bare on the remaining ships there previous targets been destroyed they started a fresh onslaught against the enemy ships; while the other ships continued theirs.

Point defence lasers came alive and started to pick off torpedoes, fighters and missiles; the two rage of god class ships though one was damaged unleashed a full broadside of missiles switching to defensive engagement as they launched at incoming missiles, fighters and boarding craft. Cutting off enemy reinforcements here was an important task

(OOC: sorry for the short post; I just woke up)

[Tag]

All right, you need to kill one million civilians? Here's how many you've killed so far, rounded to the nearest hundred:
3,100
(This includes almost every un-sheltered civilian in Saint Rynald City and Saint Sabastian City - from now on, other than in some isolated farming or minig towns, you're going to have to storm North Mack or Genite defended bunkers.)

The circle had been painted onto the street with the blood of the slaughtered civilians. As the sorceror, crippled and foul in filthy black robes, whispered and lisped his way through the ritual, the skulls placed at ritual points around the circle seemed to glow with a hellish red light, as though some foul flame burned within each one...
Around the circle, at the eight points of the eight pointed star that stretched forth from the circle, eight cultists cried out in simultaneous agony as eight soldiers in their red and black armour cruely drove their blades into the lungs of the sacrificial victims.
As that ritual was done, the entire symbol seemed to glow with the same hellish red light, and as the assembled cultists and soldiers watched, a bright light, unholy in its simple existence, came down from the heavens to strike the center of the ritual diagram.
When the light faded and the assembled horde dared look up, they saw ten warriors in massive red armour, armour that seemed to really qualify them as tanks, not soldiers... these warriors stepped out of the circle, looked towards the burning sky line of Saint Rynald City, and cried out as one:
"Onwards for Khorne!!!" with that, the horde moved once more.

- All across the planet, the Khornate tribes are summoning down from their fleet with teleportation rituals, the elite of their force: the Terminators, mighty armoured warriors who know no fear, each of whom is the match for a light tank. (There are about 400 of them on the surface now...)

As the long-range duel with torpedos and energy weapons continued, the Locust fighters reached their targets, some were blasted apart by point-defense fire, but others managed to make it through, firing their las-cannons all the way to the impact...
Meanwhile, boarding torpedos began slamming home on both North Mack and Genite ships, burning their way through the hull, filling whatever compartment they had just penetrated with deadly chemical vapors (think mustard gas...), then deploying dozens of suicidal Khornate soldiers in heavy armour, plus dozens more crazed cultists, wearing only a gas-mask for protection against the gas... or the threat of a hull-breach that would depresurize their compartment...
Dozens of cultists died as their ancient, poorly maintained, gas masks failed, but there were always more... always more.

From out of the darkness, a small, tube-like ship waits and watches. Unknown, this ship, to any others in the galaxy. By pure chance, it has stumbled upon this war-torn world. Ships from multiple civilizations have engaged one another and fire rips through the dark of space.

Using the cover of confusion, the tiny ship uses its' advanced sensor array to study the fleets, scanning, ripping the secrets of their designs from them. Using powerful communication systems, the ship relays the information onward.

The design is utterly alien. It appears to be a tube with concaved ends, black, yet with lines of blue energy patterned across its' surface.

It watches.

In Space
"Holy shit!" The admiral yelled as three ships dissapeared off the tactical display. They weren't destroyed, they simply dissapeared.

"What the hell was that?"
"High Yelid energy weapon. all three ships simply decintigrated!"
"Sir! Damage to area--" "Kamakazies incom--" "Launching fight--"
The yells on the bridge became blurred as the battle raged on. North Mack ships were destroyed by the sheer force of the Khorn fleet. They seemed to have no fear, and no tactical sense. Their stratagy was simply. Throw ships at the enemy. If that fails, throw some more ships.

Fighters screamed out of the carriers to engage the enemy kamakazies, trying to stop them from reaching the main ships.


On The Ground
The fighting had moved into the streets, basically house to house combat. Although North Mack had alot of soldiers on the ground, it seemed they didnt have enough. All the reconstruction that had gone on in the past few weeks seemed to have been for naught as Buildings burned and collapsed.

Tanks moved through the streets, blasting death into the masses of Khorn soldiers. All the gunships were destroyed, having been targeted first. The tanks seemed to be holding their own, until they came up against the Terminators.

Entire infantry brigades lay pinned down by a single Khorn soldier as they waited for their Armor Support. Although they themselves were heavily armed and armored, even the CA3 couldnt block a hit from a 1.2 calibur bolt. And the largest round used by the Imperial Army amounted to a .90 calibur.

All in all, things had definatly gone downhill from the easy battle against the Rynald infantry, who now fought for their lives alongside the Imperials

The spectator watched the suicidal movements of the Khornate fleet as it launched itself upon the North Mack fleet. Explosions lit the sky about the planet as ship after ship detonated, engulfing all hands in fiery death. Every action was swiftly relayed back to its' primary fleet as its' sensors took note of every tactical movement, the structural integrity of each ship and the information each ship contained.

Through the chaos that engulfed the scene before it, the sensors of the ship violated the ships before it, stealing information from their computer systems.

So far, this much progress has been made towards the goal of one million civilian deaths:
10,200 (rounded to nearest hundred).

The Saint Rynald soldiers fought with honor, courage and dedication unmatched by any other faction. They fought with weapons that they knew were all but useless, but they fought none the less - they were fighting for their home world now, even more so than they had been against the North Mack invaders.
The Saint Rynald soldiers refused to surrender, refused to give ground, and died in their thousands because of that.
Still, here and there they had their successes - snipers picked off cultists, who lacked real armour, and their combat engineer units made good use of their skills with booby traps. Mines, collapsing bridges and so on were all used extensively, some even with "live bait" of poorly equipped suicide squads, left to die so that they might take some of the invaders with them.

In Space
The three surviving cruisers of the Khornate fleet launched their remaining 150 Locust pattern fighters, deploying these as a screen against enemy fighters, all the while continuing the use of their Lance arrays, torpedos, boarding torpedos, rockets and las-cannon.
As the fire intensified, another of the Khornate ships died, but that was cold comfort to the soldiers on the ground - all this time, hundreds of drop-ships were falling towards the ground, each bearing an entire load of blood-mad cultists and assault troops.

Boarding Action
Many hundreds of boarding torpedos were launched, and many hundreds were shot out of space by point-defense. Still, some got through... and when they did, things got interesting...
The cultists charged out of the boarding torpedo, several falling as their gas-masks failed to protect them from the deadly chemical agents their craft had just pumped into the Genite vessel they had just hit. Behind them, moving forward as the front rank was mowed down, came the real soldiers - these wore all red armour, to mark the special favor they were in with Khorne, and they carried terrifying weapons - chain blade swords or chain blade axes, power swords, all varieties of wicked blades, mono-molecular edged halberds... they charged out of their boarding craft, and spread the death and destruction that was the trade-mark of Khorne to this enemy vessel, hoping that in their deaths they might make more damage to the enemy possible.

The Surface
Terminators in bright armour charged forward, firing their bolters wildly, smashing without thought any who dared oppose them. Behind them, advancing rapidly and with little concern for their safety came the regular soldiers and the elite Chaos Space Marines, while hordes of cultists came in from every direction, many hacking at each other in the name of glorious Khorne.
Overhead came wave after wave of drop ships, each of which dropped its load of warriors off, then, rather than flying back up for another load, they flew off to suicidally assault Genite or North Mack positions, firing their single dual las-cannon turret as they came in at high speed, either for kamikazi runs or for quick turns and new attack runs...
All of the drop-ships ended up in flames, though, as the Khornate warriors very effectively burned their boats, making good on their vow to conque or die.

Space
Soldiers on every North Mack ships sealed their suits as the boarding torpedos flooded the ships with gas. The Crewsmen fought the boarders with everything they had, from specially designed shotguns meant to repel boarders, to arcweilders thrown at the enemy, to random objects that became clubs and spears.


On The Ground
Imperial Soldiers fell back to fortified positions to protect themselves from the suicidal dropships. AA fire filled the air with explosions and smoke, while tanks did the same to the ground. Defensice positions became centered on the civillian bunkers, who the Khorn horde seemed hellbent on destroying. They attacked without fear, without a plan, without any kind of rational thought. They just attacked.

Artillery positioned in untargeted areas began pounding entire city blocks to rubble to stop the Khorn advances. Streets were destroyed as buildings fell on top of them.

North Mack Casualty Figures
27,018

It appeared the battle reached a climax as the Khornate fleet withered and fired its' deadly cargo into the North Mack ships. For the last several hours the ship had been relaying information and violating the computers of the enemy vessels. Even now the fighting patterns of these vessels, the schematics of the ships were being analyzed. Translation of the North Mack language was deemed at a stage where first contact could be made with this fleet, this race that was involved in a war across several fronts.

The small ship began hailing the command ship of the North Mack fleet even as further information was passed on.

"Sir. Boarders are being repelled in almost all ships. We have launched shuttles to assist the four ships that didn't do so well in repelling."

"Good. How many ships have we lost."

"Um... thirty two ships total. An additional seven are heavily damaged and will require assistance to shift anywhere"

"Excelent. We seem to have come out of it ok..."

"Sir, an unknown ship just hailed us, in Old Mack."

"What? well... answer it... I guess..."

*A strange voice rings out clearly across the Northern Mack bridge.*

S'lethiss sney vre'Tiss ekph Ko'lashok.... *Translations begin with a delay and drown out the strange language. The translation is somewhat rough.*

On behalf of the Ko'lashok, me am initiating primary contact.

Me have been monitoring you exchange with you enemy and are intrigued by you strong. Me wish to meet you people upon you completion of you battle with the Khornate forces with a potential of establishment relations.

*The translation ended and the voice seemed to await the commanders reply.*

The admiral whistled softly.

"You know your in the Imperial Fleet when a race that somehow knows an ancient language contacts you about establishing contact as soon as you're done battling a fleet of cultists who summon giant rabid dogs."

"What was that sir?"

"Nothing. Send a reply."

"We would be honored to meet with you as soon as the battle is done. We hope that will be soon"

"Sent sir."

"Good. now lets get this battle done with."

Venvriss listened to the translation and stretched languidly. With an idle flick of her tail, he unwound herself from her current position and slithered into the elevation chamber. Blue light bathed her from all directions within the elevating compartment. Her stomach churned momentarily as the compartment began its' descent to her quarters, soon she would investigate these beasts and determine their worth.

She mused. Afterward, perhaps the fleet that called itself Genite... Who knew?

In space
The Genite ships picked off Torpedoes and Missiles with point defence guns; but several got through; a Revenant class ship was heavily damaged along with 8 Red Stars. But the adaptive shields meant that now the enemy's weapons were 75% less effective than their opening volleys. Genite energy weapons continued to rain death upon the Chaos ships; another ship was obliterated. The entire fleet was now focused on destroying the last remaining ship thousands of missiles were launched along with the onslaught of energy weapons raking over the hull.

Boarding action

"Enemy Boarding parties inbound!" Yelled a Lancer captain "CHAOS ON THE SHIP" he said as the ships AI Gainer shut down heavy blast doors in multiple sections and vented them of atmosphere and the gas. Internal defences activated showing boarding parties with hundreds of light and heavy plasma bursts. To quash them before they started. Lancers were deployed on the corridors ready for fire fights should they break through the blast doors.

Surface

Genite Entrenched positions opened fire as Chaos soldiers tried to storm them; a blizzard of orange light spewed towards them like a hail of plasma and Laser fire as fully repaired 209's and CAIN Units began firing laser and plasma weapons. Drop ships that were still on the surface took to the air and started to open fire with light Neutron guns and 20mm God Rod cannons against the heavier units as missiles flew from the undersides at multiple targets leaving smoke trails behind…

OOC:
Genite Casualties: -
1 Revenant Class HEAVY Damaged
2 Overlords light to moderate damage
1 Rage of God Class Heavy damaged
1 Overlord (being boarded)
12 Red stars destroyed
60-100 Shrike slip-fighters destroyed

Venriss donned her armour. A familiar ring resounded in the vaults of her mind, causing her to respond with a pulse of thought. From that same place, a voice rang out.

"Mistress, the Khornate fleet has been eradicated by the Genite fleet. Having carried out research and analyzing tactical data, it would appear that Genite forces are the most powerful with technology most similar to our own. They clearly make use of anti-matter weaponry, which in turn suggests the utilization of anti-matter energy sources to power their ships. Furthermore, they rely heavily upon energy weapons."

A subconscious ring of acknowledgement was released and she replied, "Excellent work. Hail their command ship, I wish to speak with them, also."

Her thought pulsed outward and the reply rang through her mind. "As you will, Mistress."

Flickers of her subordinates actions swam infront of her before she severed the link and slithered upon her divan. With a mental pulse, a viewing platform arose from the ground before her while transmitting nodes descended to view her various angles. Blue armour clad her torso and arms with black and silver trim, seemingly smoothe and delicate. Concentrating, she caused her hood to arise and flush blue as a sign of her strength. Gently she swayed atop her serpentine body.


The alien ship began to hail the Genite command vessel.

The second to last Khornate ship in orbit was blasted apart by the enemy fire power, even as it managed a final, super-powered, lance volley at the nearest damaged Genite ship.
With only one ship left in orbit, the last of the Khornate fleet, knowing that it would quickly be doomed, did... something. The entire ship began accelerating towards the planet, spewing forth landing craft, Locust pattern fighters and drop pods as it did, apparently abandoning the vessel. However, as the ship was struck repeatedly, as its shields failed and entire sections caught fire from venting atmosphere, it became obvious that the gun crews were remaining behind - the one surviving lance array fired, one super-powerful shot designed to slice through meter upon meter of battle steel and terra-watts of energy shielding... that beam fired, overcharged to a suicidal extent, with all the energy of the remaining plasma reactors funneled into it. With that energy, the beam couldn't be maintained for long - a few seconds after it began emitting, the turret blew itself appart from overload. However, with this last suicidal act, as the last Khornate cruiser came apart, they revealed the full extent of their madness.
Rather than futiley throw that blast at another North Mack or Genite ship, they fired it directly at a small farming community on the surface, one that lacked any real strategic value, or any real defenses, but that had one thing they wanted - civilians, civilians to kill...

As the last Khornate cruiser came apart in the atmosphere, the situation on the ground was getting desperate. Chaos Lord Yarrin Blood-Drinker grinned at the sight of so many scattered corpses, the remnants of a brave, defiant and ultimatly pointless last-stand on the part of a group of Saint Rynald militia men. These heathen fought well, for men who knew not the wonders of the blood god, and he felt actual sorrow at the thought that he could not bring an army to finish them, to offer up all their souls to Khorne, god of war and blood. Still, he was proceding admirably with his present task, that of offering one million civilian souls to his god.
With the ships destroyed, there was no way off the planet, but that had never been part of the plan anyway. Still, those ships had served their purpose, smashing away at the enemy fleets in orbit, keeping them off-balance and allowing for the landing of some of the fleet's soldiery... they had only landed about one-third of their total strength, but that was still an impressive amount.
In service to the blood god, one carried many warriors for such assaults, and so there was a good chance that he would accomplish his goal even with only one third of the total.
As he watched, the last of the drop ships to escape the anti-orbit fire from the North Mack and Genite positions came down, and soldiers, Space Marines and cultists lept from their vast holds. It was a stirring sight, one fit for the battle-hymns of Khorne... mentaly, he made a note that if he survived this fight, he would have commissioned a mighty tapestry of this event, one commemerating this campaign, where chaos was introduced to a virgin world. It was a mighty accomplishment, that... Khorne would be proud, might even choose his skull for a part of the mighty skull throne...

(OOC: Bump from page 9)

The lightning-like lance blasts tore into the surface of the planet, scorching an innocent farming community out of existence... and claiming another 20,000 innocents for the Blood god.

- Kill Counter: 73,400 (rounded to the nearest hundred).

All across Saint Rynald, the few surviving soldiers of the Saint Rynald Planetary Defense Militia fought courageous, valiant and doomed last-stand battles, defying the enemy with their deaths, refusing to surrender, refusing to accept the defeat that was inevitable, considering the massive technological disparity that existed between their weapons and those of the Khornate invaders. Still, even with such courage and dedication, defeat loomed as the North Mack and Genite units fought their own battles.
When the Khornate fleet in orbit was finally defeated, there was a return to hope amoungst the defenders, a return to believing that victory might possibly occur, but such hope was short lived - the Khornate bezerkers, bloody and terrible, strangled any confidence that their opponents might feel.

The last drop ships made their suicide runs, firing las-cannons into North Mack and Genite troop formations, then ramming other targets, turning the huge fuel reserves they still had, enough to reach orbit once more, into giant fire-bombs.
Meanwhile, hordes of cultists, fresh blood staining their white robes with dark stains of old blood, charged into battle, wielding huge blades and an almost insanely wide variety of fire arms and laser weapons. They threw their lives away with total disdain for sanity, for rational tactics, sacrificing thousands to storm dug in positions so that they could get to grips with the defenders. They seemed obsesed with close combat, sacrificing good firing positions for an oppertunity to assault the enemy, and so they died in huge numbers. The only problem was that there seemed to be an infinite number of them...
As for the soldiers, terrifying in their red-and-black armour, they fought with cold passion-less skill when they needed to, but somehow also reaching into that primal place where only Khorne worshipers dared reach so that they could rage like mad gods, tearing and rending and killing so that they seemed insane...
And then there were the Chaos Space Marines, genetically engineered super soldiers to start with, now blessed with the sacred rage and strength of the worshipers of that mad god, Khorne. They were terrors enough for mortal men, but there was more than just Chaos Space Marines...
There were Terminators, massive beyond humanity, twisted and vile, dark and evil, born, built, bred and forged for death and destruction. Wherever they went, they slaughtered their enemies, wherever they fought, they fought with imense and impresive skill and strength, using to great effect their heavy bolters, flame throwers, power weapons and missile launchers. Each one of them was like a walking tank, and they were horrifying...
And then, of course, there were the daemons. These beasts would appear from nowhere, to rend and tear and bite and kill for the mad god that dreamed them into existence. Most were simply in the form of large dogs, massive and red, bloody and vile, armed with only sharp teeth and razor claws, but others, now others were taking to the field, mostly as shock-troops deployed behind the lines to rend and tear at supply staff in ambush attacks. These walked as men do, but were hooved and horned, and carried in their massive clawed hands great axes forged of daemonic bronze, mighty weapons from mere apearence, but unable to cut steel... even when wielded by a daemonically strong arm. Still, they were terrifying enemies.

The prisoners were a ragged lot, pulled from the press of wailing civilians before the daemons were allowed to feed. They struggled, or prayed to their God, or wept silently and waited for the end they knew would soon come.
A pit had been dug into the earth, forty feet deep at its lowest point, sixty feet in diameter. Inside of the pit was a metal altar, a relic of the old wars, when tens of thousands had been sacrificed to Khorne atop its bulk... as now some poor slaves would be.
The wretched slaves were led forward, one by one, to the mad priest of the blood god, twisted of form, who held in his hand a power axe, blessed by his god, that seemed perpetually to drip blood and gore, as though it had just been fed from some victim... as it was about to feed.
The slaves were thrown into the pit, all at once, and a voice cried out -
"Kill them all!!!" with that, the slaughter began, and ended all too soon... as he held up his bloody axe into the air, he called out the Khornate battle cry:
"Blood for the Blood god! Skulls for the Skull Throne!" many answered the call, shrieking and mewling, wailing and screaming, the entire world seemed to call out... and Khorne looked down on that sacrifice, and he found it to be... acceptable. More would have to die if he would act for this petty force, this petty Chaos Lord Yarrin Blood-Drinker.

Daemons howled as warp-spawned winds tore them forth into the real world, draging them out to fight the enemies of Khorne, to kill for that bloody god. This time however, the mutant sorceror was proving his worth - this time, after long, bloody, rituals, after hundreds of cultists had been sacrificed, these new daemons were being summoned to an unexpected place - the corridors of the North Mack fleet in orbit...

Following more ferocious fighting, the civilian death toll has risen:
101,000 civilians dead (rounded to the nearest 100)

"Enemies in the corridors! Counter Boarding!!"

Crewsmen rushed back to what they had thought were safe corridors as beasts suddenly appeared from nowhere. They again fought off the enemy, for though they were terrifiying, they lacked the strength to harm the crewsmen, even in their out of date armor.


The Bridge
"The last Khorn ship has been destroyed, although they are somehow teleporting monsters into our ships from the surface. We don't know how, but they don't seem to pose a real threat."

"Good. See when hte new arrival from earlier wanted to meet, and move all remaining ships to assist the ground troops with P.O.B. 's"

"Yes, Admiral."

The Genites watched the chaos soldier keep coming, throwing themselves into the path of there fire not even caring if they were dying anymore it was both beautiful and scary that they were so dedicated to there god they would just meaninglessly throw there lives away. Though Genites were taking casualties the Chaos legions were taking more as the Genites were in a defended positions it was then the suicide drop ships started to drop out of the sky some were shot down but others crashed into positions causing large explosions and killing hundreds.

"Crap on a stick!" one of the Lancers yelled still firing; the crusaders were dropping like flies to shit but the saviours had a lot more training and the lancers were the best; more troops were being sent down from ships in orbit now that the enemy fleet had been neutralised and boarding parties were contained…

On the bridge they were being hailed in all the confusion the hail had been ignored until now a reply was sent "This is the Genite fleet; who are you?" was the only response, short and bunt.

"This is the Genite fleet; who are you?"

The holographics failed to begin. Primitive race, she thought. For all their weaponry, they do not even engage in holographic discussion.

"We are the Ko'lashok, this is the ship Xasst'f'tor. We have been viewing this battle for some time and it is clear to us that you are a people worth making contact with. Should you wish it, we would talk further about your intentions for this system upon your completion of your current campaign."

Whether they could view the holographic or not, she did not know, but the communication was relayed as she spoke, transmitting her image along with it.

"Sir, we are receiving a holographic signal with the audio, should we turn on the holographic Comm system?" the communications officer said looking up from his console.

"Indeed, lets get a look at them" the Genite commander said even though Anyaka was still in charge of this task group they had hailed his ship so he decided to proceed. Waiting for the hologram to appear from the other ship a hologram of Captain Santos was also sent to the ship. The large dark haired muscled man wore the standard; Genite Crimson red leather tunic

"Our intentions are our own; we see no reason to share our plans with you, after all we've only just met and chaos soldiers are still fighting on his ship even though we are repelling them, trust is earned not given freely" he said.

What appeared on holographics was a humanoid creature, hairless, with a slight blue tinge to their otherwise white skin. About the head was a cobra-like hood that was flushed with blue. From time to time, as the person spoke, a bifurcated tongue would be visible. Ornate blue armour encased their body, seemingly quite bulky, with a silver and black trim.

"We acknowledge your reservations of informing us of your intentions. There has been a translation error on the word 'trust'. If you prefer it, we can wait until you have completed your battle before conversing further, Genite representative."

The blood of thousands, hundreds of thousands, stained the world of Saint Rynald. Hundreds of thousands of cultists had already given their lives, along with tens of thousands of standard soldiers and around 100 Chaos Space Marines... and, unbelievably, three of the so-called unkillable Terminators, shot to pieces by the filthy heretics who dared defy the will of Khorne.
Still, things were progressing quite well - hundreds of thousands had died, and hundreds of thousands more would soon die, and Khorne himself would soon roar in pleasure at the slaughter of the innocents... their blood would win favor for those who collected it, and that, in the end, was the best reason to seek such slaughter as they could. Khorne would drink well these next few nights, before the heathens put them down from the orbital high ground, as they invariably would...

The latest civilian death toll is:
120,700

The paniced crowd of terrified civilians ran screaming as the massive horde of Chaos worshipping cultists and soldiers came charging up behind them.
One member of the fleeing group suddenly turned around, desperation in his eyes, and held up a crucifix. With the holy symbol in hand, he faced the blood-mad mob of Chaos worshippers, crying out,
"Back, foul demons of hell! In the name of God, I am not afraid of you! God will destroy you! I banish you, foul demons! You cannot stand before the light of God!" he continued to rant for a few moments as the Khornate horde stopped in its tracks, amazed at this one man who stood facing them, a little wooden object in his hands, acting as if he seriously expected it to protect him.
Then, one of the soldiers stepped forward, and swung his wickedly bladed halberd, hacking down the man who had stood before them with the cross held out.
The look on his face was one of shocked surprise, as though he couldn't understand how the blade had battered aside the mystical shield of his God's protection.

The new latest civilian death toll is 150,100. The Khornate Tribes are doing well at killing the innocents they need to slaughter...

OOC: Are any of you still out there?

The latest confirmed counts put the death toll at 210,500 civilians dead. This also puts The Khornate Tribes more than one fifth of the way to their goal of one million dead...

OOC: I'm here :) sorry..thinking up a big post ^^ I don't like making short posts

Chaos Lord Yarrin Blood-Drinker glorried in death as he cut his way through the packed mass of his own armies cultists, so great was his lust for blood, his thirst for battle...
He was forcing his way through the press, towards Genite positions on the hill just ahead, his mighty rune-axe dripping with the blood of so many slaughtered souls... he would soon feed his axe upon the souls of the proud Genite warriors, and that would be pleasing to his god...

OOC: Yeah, Saint Rynald, I'm still here...

"Damnit Corporal! Get your head down!"

Corporal Mike Trapper ducked down as rounds whizzed over his head. They had been pinned down near a Genite hill for over ten hours nowm waiting for their armor to come and releive them. They were down to their last rounds, and only a single rocket remained.

Trapper peeked up over the sandbag wall at the horde rushing hte Genites hill. In the center of the horde was a large man, obviously important, weilding a huge axe covered in blood.

Well, we're gonna die anyway, might as well take someone important with us

The corporal took the rocket launcher, sighed carefully on the axe weilding maniac, and pulled the trigger.

Chaos Lord Yarrin Blood-Drinker cried out to his god in frustration as he saw the missile flying in towards him. He knew at that moment that he would die, and that Khorne would look at him as one who had failed in a sacred mission, who had allowed mere personal glory and blood lust to drag him away from his proper task.
The missile hit.
White hot agony tore through him, but he kept moving, drawing on super-human reserves of strength to keep his ruined body moving towards the enemy, using every bit of what had once been the sacred strength of a Space Marine to keep running when the missile had torn a hole clear through his torse, through the power armour and out again.
He made it all the way to the men who had killed him, and stood before them as they quaked in terror... he raised his axe arm with his last bit of energy... and then, he fell forward, strength and will spent.
As he lay there, he managed one last task - with inhuman strength, strength beyond that of even a Space Marine, he took his axe, and, while screeming the name of his god to the uncaring heavens, he made a final offering to Khorne - he hacked his own head off.
It flew through the air at the head of a fountain of blood, and as they saw it, his men seemed to stop for a moment, in awe at the strength of their lord. Then they charged once more, fire and faith clear in their eyes - there was now one single word on all their lips as they came forward to kill:
"Khorne!" they charged, firing wildly or forgetting how to fire, until they reached the enemy lines, leaping over heaped-up piles of their own dead to get to grips with the enemy, continuing to fight in a mad blood-lust even with wounds that should have felled any normal man.

The Genites Lancers fired; there power cells almost dead the orange plasma bursts fired; they were using the heavy pulses designed for amour penetration but fired slower than the normal burst the 209's and CAIN Warbots fired; "NO SURENDER!" they yelled. As the fired and fought with everything they had; the crusaders had been all but massacred they'd even managed to take out a few lancers.

"GENITES!" they yelled in a thunderous battle cry "HOLD THE LINE!" they were determined to make there last stand count and make the Chaos soldiers fight for every inch the Genites were efficient killers.

it was as if on cue the Gun ships and drop ships came over the Horizon; "This is Viper Leader to all Vipers squadrons, Call in and confirm"

"Viper 1, Confirmed!"

"Viper 2, Confirmed!"

"Viper 3, Confirmed!"

"Viper 4, Confirmed!"

"Viper 5, Confirmed!"

"Viper leader, begin operations, weapons free"

The Genite Phoenix gun ship squadrons opened fire missiles flew from there hard points at multiple targets as they began there strafing runs; unguided rockets fired in rapid succession at Chaos positions lighting them up like Christmas trees.

The sight before them was something that most soldiers's thought they would only see when they died; the ground burned, the streets burned, men and equipment burned the very AIR burned. It was hell on earth.

"All Missile ordinance used, switching to close support role" Viper Leader said. As the Gunships changed tactics there cannons coming to life, with tungsten god rod cannons firing 20mm Anti armour rounds, Mini guns firing at infantry positions and neutron beam guns targeting the enemies heavy armour as re-informants were dropped to the surface…

Genite command ship

"Sir Chaos soldiers are being contained" a young officer reported

"Good" he said before replying to the message sent earlier.

"I'm Captain Boris Lichenkov, and I was rude my apologise; as for our intentions here we intended to liberate the planet from Chaos, restore a more liberal government, build a new city for the residents to move to out of radiation zones and help them to technologically advance, we do not wish to see them enslaved merely liberated from there weak and intolerant regime"

OOC: there we go..I think I covered everything..

The latest death toll is:

- 250,700 innocents killed. It looks like The Khornate Tribes will fail in its goal... after all, soon enough the North Mack and Genite fleets will annihilate them from orbit...

The man-made firestorms tore the Khornate army apart, tossing Terminators like children's toys, smashing super-human Chaos Space Marines and transforming ordinary soldiers and cultists into so much ash.
In the space of a few moments, the vast majority of the chaos ground forces were destroyed.
As the last of the first wave flew on past, the last of the lesser Chaos Lords let out a scream of rage and frustration. Their goal, to smash aside all opposition and claim a million souls for their god, had failed. Still, they had one last card to play...

Chaos Lord Ektmann Skull-Crusher felt the sacrificial blade cut into his flesh, and he wailed to the skies in sacred rage, flailing and struggling upon the rough stone slab that he had been bolted to. It had once been the altar slab of a temple to the Saint Rynald god - that made the ritual even more potent. The blade sliced his flesh, and his blood flowed...
The priest with the knife cried out to Khorne in unholy ecstasy, wailing in pleasure to match the Chaos Lord's cries of pain. As the blood flowed, lesser priests daubed unholy symbols with it upon the slab, preparing the ritual. Soon enough, it would be done, and Chaos would have its victory...
Until then, the few thousand surviving warriors of the raiding force fought to buy the last few hours they would need...

The bloody lump of flesh that had once been a man, a Space Marine, a Chaos Lord and champion of Khorne, thrashed wildly, foaming bloodily at the mouth, crying out to the uncaring skies with a mouth that lacked a tongue, as the sacrificial knife made the last cut, and ended his life, sending his tormented soul straight to Khorne with a single request: Create for your warriors a warp-beacon, such as would draw daemons and chaos worshipers to that petty world of Saint Rynald, such as would inspire sorcerors to foul magics and kings to terror.
The ritual was finished, and as it was, then and only then, did the last few hundred warriors of the Khornate Tribes allow themselves to be overrun.

The terrified, shell-shocked survivors draged themselves from their bunkers to stare in mute horror at the vitrified ruins of their world. The massive battles that had been fought so recently had not only smashed most of the new construction, but most of the remaining old buildings too. It seems as though so much damage has been done... will Saint Rynald ever recover? Or will it slide back into an isolationist stance, shocked into terrified meekness by the awesome forces that came down on it, like a sledge hammer on a soup cracker, when its people dared reach for the stars.

Across the thin barrier that seperates reality from the nightmare existance of The Warp, something stirred. Ships were gathering, ships that reeked of hate and death, the foul stench of Khorne. The thing that watched looked upon those ships, as they gathered to launch a great raid into the material universe, and it smilled.

OOC: Guys - are you gonna do anything for the reconstruction, or can I assume that you're bugging out? What's the story?

OoC: Sorry, Ive been busy latley.

IC: It was fairley calm up in orbit now. apart from the occasional demon popping into the corridors, one could almost get a whole nights sleep. Which is exactly what Sensor Officer Larsen was doing when alarms rang out through his cabin.

"What...?" He sat up from his bed, rubbing sleep out of his eyes when he recognized the alarm. The Sensor Failure alarm.

He jumped out of bed and ran into the corridors, heading for the bridge. The sensors should NEVER fail. Ever. Never. Never Ever. He ran past crewsmen in nothing but his military issue boxers, not even noticing them as he ran. He reached his console on the bridge, and ran a quick look across the sensors.

Oh, my god...

"SIR!! ADMIRAL!!"

The Admiral turned to face him. "What is it Lar... LARSEN! Why are you in your BOXERS?!"

Larsen didn't even notice the question. "Sir, something big just happened. Something HUGE. And it killed out sensors."

Larsen looked back the the consone. It was dark. The dark of being unpowered. Small whisps of smoke rose from it.


It had been fried.

The thing on the other side of the barrier smilled, or at least came as close to that human emotion as such a being as it was could.
The warp-storm it had summoned had served its purpose, blasting psychic energy through the material universe, frying electronics and causing the occasional psychicly sensative human's head to explode.
Soon the armies of Chaos would invade from their hiding place in the warp, and soon Khorne would be fed...

The message had been brief and straight-forward. The followers of the depraved Blood God had sent them an invitation. Of course the Thousand Sons would be glad to aid them, the prospect of engaging in an uneasy alliance too tantalising to miss. Of Arhiman's Cabal, there was one Great Sorcerer Lord who most loved diplomacy...
---
Neth Quash'y-Tzeendhaos turned his avian head to look at his lieutenant, who towered over his comrades, his Terminator Armor putting his hight at greater than three meters.
"Leth Chamon, ready the fleet for departure."
"Right away, my Lord."
---
The Tzeentchan Fleet slid easily through Warpspace, emerging very near to their Khornate brothers. The monotheistic fools on the planet below would pay for their ignorance.

OOC: sorry been busy too

IC:
The Genite Strike group dropped in from the slipstream; it was the first time in 700 years an entire strike force had been mobilised to join the ships already in the Saint Rynald system as they took up orbit most everything was quiet now. Reconstruction had once again begun in earnest with Genite ships starting to construct orbital facilities for the Saint Rynald using Genite construction technology rebuilding was progressing well

"Yes Sir" Captain Anyaka replied over the Comm system

"Is that wise to help them build new ships sir?" she asked

"Captain, we dismantled there entire defence force; opened them up to a galaxy that now knows they exist; its only right that we make sure they can defend themselves. Co-ordinate the effort with North Mack we won't give them our most advanced technology but we'll give them enough to live on then we ca…." The transmission went dead ad turned into garbled static

"What just happened?"

"I don't know; every things just gone nuts, its like we were just hit with a massive EMP' it'll take us 3 minutes to rebuild" the technician replied

The terrified survivors of the original populace of Saint Rynald had learned to look to the skies with terror, not hope or longing, so they merely wept in sheer hopeless shock as the skies burst into life once more... and then found their way to secure shelters, where the North Mack and Genite troops would, hopefully, protect them.

Dozens of ships of the same variety that had so recently rained destruction down upon the unsuspecting heads of the populace of Saint Rynald now lept forth from The Warp, joining their Tzeenchan brothers as they swept down towards the North Mack and Genite fleets, firing wildly, launching drop-pods and drop-ships towards the surface as soon as it was possible to do so. Millions would die, and the blood god would be fed, for Khorne demanded such sacrifices, and Khorne needed to be fed...

On the surface:
As their erstwhile allies attacked with true Khornate abandon, the fleets of Tzeentch becan firing their drop pods into key points of major cities. As they opened, the souls trapped inside the Thousand Sons' armor obeyed their training, laying down a withering layer of fire as they formed a wall from behind which the sorcerers worked their foul magics. They sent Doombolts flying into the fray, and summoned foul daemons from the warp. Screamers floated serenly over the landscape, their ray-like bodies seeming to swim through the air as they swept past opposition, stinging and biting as they went. Flamers and horrors formed mad packs, leaping about as the unearthly rainbow of flames they emmited seared through any who opposed them. The sorcery of the Chaos Marines who still posessed bodies bolstered the reckless Khornate berzerkers, and formed protective sheilds around their casters.

<Munchkin refrence>
In SPACE!:
</Munchkin refrence>
The eight great Desolators launched their Swiftdeath Fighters, which harried the ships of North Mack, and their Doomfire bombers, which executed bombing runs against targets on the surface as well as command bridges of the North Mack fleet. The lone Hellfire Posessed Daemonship launched its warp-missiles at the Genites. A Gross of Infidels, Idolators, and Iconoclasts sped about, lending support wherever they were needed most. The Planet Killer remained hidden in a warp pocket, too valuable and rare a resource to commit this early in the battle.

[OOC: If anyone needs clarification on the nature of these well-known 40K troops and vessels, let me know.]

The Admiral watched as ships poured out of some kind of wormhole, flooding the sensors. explosions lit up the darkness of space, as many ships died in the first barage.

"Why can't things just end. This was supposed to be a simple mission" he sighed. Looking at the TacMap, he took count of his remaining ships.

"Comms, call in reinforcments. Lots of reinforcments"

Terror is everywhere on the surface - what else could there be? Saint Rynaldian civilians hid in cramped bunkers, fingering their rosaries and praying for survival... or that it will all be over soon...

The ships of The Khornate Tribes were built for deadly raiding. They flew straight into the North Mack fleet, firing wildly with all sorts of weapons the whole time... and they also fired drop pods out at the planet... and sent drop ships down too...
Their Locust fighters were being put to good use as well - more and more flew in to kamikazi against the Genite or North Mack fleets, but others flew down to act as air support for the landing forces, or acted as defense for the fleet itself. It appears that they are learning from the mistakes of the last invasion.
They still need to sacrifice a million souls, after all... now it's only a matter of time until they reach that goal, or so it would seem from their present forces...

The Sorcerers of Tzeentch on the planet's surface are aiding in the foul ritual of the Khornate Forces, their affinity for magic causing the casualties from the last attempt to be wreched from the afterlife, their deaths renewed, their agonies un-ending.
[OOC: The old casualties will now count against the Million, so the Khornate forces won't have to start over again]

OOC: Thanks for the assist!

The first wave of reinforcments consisted of mostly destroyers, as Fleet Command had sent ships that were already crewed and ready, meaning mostly border guards and ships on regular patrols.

They entered the battlefield to a sight of explosions and weapon fire as the original ships attempted to hold off the onslaught of both new and old enemy forces.


On the ground
Soldiers on the ground had little time to even notice the reinforcments from above, as they were fighting to hold what little ground they had left. in some places they fought in quickly dug foxholes and three feet deep trenches, but mostly they fought from windows, out of sewers, and anywhere else they could find cover. One Heavy Squad was reported to be driving an Ice Cream truck around assisting where they were needed.

All in all, it looked grim for the Imperial Marines

The Khornate Tribes would not be stopped by mere cassualties - they surged forward, their cultists dieing by the thousands, by the tens of thousands, while their soldiers, sleek and deadly in black-and-red armour, bolters at the ready, stormed in behind, supported here and there by a super-human Chaos Space Marine or even a Chaos Terminator... it was like a mighty river, rushing towards the North Mack forces.
Here and there, the sheer bone-headed, no-tactics, stupidity of the Khornate horde allowed the North Mack defenders to make impressive little victories - more than once, hundreds of soldiers, thousands of cultists and dozens of vile, treacherous, Chaos Space Marines, had been led charging to their doom by some single squad they saw, that led them into a suicidal charge into a trap.
Tactically, almost every zone is showing a favorable kill ratio - it seems that a horde this large, with so many hundreds of thousands of cultists and soldiers, becomes blood-mad to an alarming degree - there have been little battles between cultist packs as they strive to serve their god, the great and powerful Khorne.
Still, when there are so many enemies, with more coming all the time, it seems that even their no-tactics-but-scream-and-charge stupidity might not be enough to win the day for North Mack...

OOC: North Mack, this is your excuse to RP a massive one-sided slaughter - enjoy...

The surviving citizens of Saint Rynald are basically hiding in their bunkers, praying their rosaries, and waiting for the end to come - after all, these have to be The End Times, don't they? All they need to know now is, where is the Second Coming, to balance out the whole load of Anti-Christ they've been getting...

OOC: Sorry been BUSY lately; hope I'm not too late

IC
The Genite Task force shook violently at the torpedo impact; breaches occurred on multiple ships as the atmospheres was vented to space; not a very good death. Explosions shook through the fleet as Red Stars were incinerated; the heavier ships suffered lighter damage with only 2 heavy destroyers being crippled point defence lasers picked off torpedoes.

"What in the gods name was that?!" the commander yelled.

"Massive torpedoes strike sir, systems are coming back online; multiple contacts!" the fleet ensign said from the sensor station.

"Baring 5, 2, 9, on attack vector, I have a firing solution"

"Cook 'em! All batteries" the captain yelled out.

The large fish like Overlord destroyer opened fire as 84 Yellowish green beams shot across space towards enemy ships as red Stars broke formation the remaining ones anyway and opened fire.

"How many of those anti-death star missile do we have on board?" the captain asked.

"Sir; we have 5 Nova bombs, and two "Rosy" type III FTL Missiles with Extra high yield anti-proton warheads with enough anti-matter to take out 35% of a death star each" replied a young man at tactical

"Ok; lock and load, they should take out a nice chunk of that fleet" he said.

"Sir, North Mack forces are engaged, they could be caught in the blast, plus this close to the planet the blast wave could shower the surface" the tactical officer replied.

"Damn it" the captain replied; "Ok, warn north Mack on a secured channel; tell them they need to lead the Chaos forces away from the planet; then get the hell out of there so we can use our big weapons. How long until reinforcements arrive?" the captain ordered

"Sir, they should be exiting slip stream any second" the ensign replied.

"Good, tell them to HAUL ass we're engaged and 2/3rds of our ships are damaged or disabled, tell our shrike fighters to provide a wall of cover fire; and get the capital ships to start carpet bombing space with missiles"


North Mack Fleet this is Genite command ship Obsidian, Ms Anyaka's ship took a hit in that last attack and is heavily damaged her communications are down so I'm in charge until we know if she's alive. We need you to lead the enemy away from the planet and corral their ships into a large cluster if you can; then get out of the way so we can hit them with something we save for a Death Star, when Rosy blows everyone knows

If you can do that we can put an end to this engagement quickly and focus on securing the planet, the Chaos forces must have put a beacon on this world they can't be allowed to get a foothold or it will spread like a plague; they have to be stopped here or everyone planet side will die


On the Ground
On the Ground the crap just kept coming; Genite Lancers were amongst the best soldiers in the 3 galaxies but they were tired and they were hungry but they still fought hard; heavy emplacements had been erected; fox holes dug and heavy trenches in a circle around the main base of operations; there were three lines each higher in elevation than the previous.

The first was the crusader line; then the saviours then the lancers; plasma mortars and artillery positions had been set up with 209's and CAINS giving suppression fire; and Gun ships giving close air support the best way to describe it was hell on earth.

"Sir; all civilians are in bunkers operated by either us or North Mack"

"Good, Tell are troops weapons free; if it moves and its not allied kill or ours it until it stops moving" the major ordered. the by now familer Zing of plasma and laser bolts started once more as the force of Khorn charged.

North Mack Fleet this is Genite command ship Obsidian, Ms Anyaka's ship took a hit in that last attack and is heavily damaged her communications are down so I'm in charge until we know if she's alive. We need you to lead the enemy away from the planet and corral their ships into a large cluster if you can; then get out of the way so we can hit them with something we save for a Death Star, when Rosy blows everyone knows

If you can do that we can put an end to this engagement quickly and focus on securing the planet, the Chaos forces must have put a beacon on this world they can't be allowed to get a foothold or it will spread like a plague; they have to be stopped here or everyone planet side will die


We got it Obsidain. Attempting to move the engagement.

With the new reinforcments, consisting of Batttlecruisers and Dreadnoughts, the Fleet finally had enough power to fight back instead of just playing turtle.

"Move all our ships to the planet side. Launch an all out attack. We want those ships driven away from the planet. From the sounds of it, the Genites are goung to use something on the PK scale, possible a II or III."

"Yes sir. Orders sent."

The ships changed positions as quickly as possible. They then launched an all out assault, firing missiles, rail cannon, lasers, and any other armamant onboard the ships. the wave of munitions shot towords the enemy fleet.

Hopefully they would move back from the planet and give Genites their shot.

"Sir the North Mack forces have begun their offensive push" said a blonde haired young man.

"Ok; how many of our heavy ships are still fighting capable?" the captain asked.

"3 Overlords including us, the Alexander and the Agripa, 2 Revenants, 1 Rage of Gods, and around twenty Red stars are still fighting capable; all our other ships are crippled or destroyed; we also have around 300 fighters currently engaged" the report came in from the ships AI.

"Ok; Tell the Alexander and the Agripa to prepare their Rosy Missiles they carry two each; I want to hit in a circle formation around the borders of the enemy fleet with one in the centre; creating a cascaded death field as the blasts overlap inwards. For now concentrate heavy beam weapons on the larger ships and missile salvos and lighter beam weapons on the smaller ships and broadsides of the enemy; that’s where they're weak" the captain ordered


Meanwhile Carriers and assault ships continued to launch orbital drop ships and gun ships towards the planet to reinforce north Mack and Genite positions with heavy armour starting to be mobilised. Predator Tanks, Stalker Infantry support vehicles, Apollo APCS, Sledge Hammer MRLS', Titan rapid response armoured vehicles and Punisher Mobile Artillery started to push forward an offensive against the force of Khorn

The whistle and bang and ping, of plasma rounds, laser fire, shells and missiles filled the city and echoed over the buildings, windows shattered from the shock waves from artillery fire, missiles rained down over the city against Chaos positions.

"We need to find the beacon!" one of the Lancer commanders said weapons fire whizzing past him; "if we can destroy the beacon and stop another being made then they won't be able to teleport forces to the surface from orbit or remotely from the warp" he said.

"Sir what about that Red Pillar of light near the centre of the city?" a soldier said.

"That’s it! We need to push towards that; we need to completely obliterate the beacon; levelling the building isn't enough; use anti matter charges on it" the major said.

"Ok! By your command sir"

With that said; the push towards the beacon began.

[OOC: I'm going to be gone untill wed/thurs, so I give the Khornate tribes permission to control my forces untill then.
@ The Khornate Tribes:
If you make them do anything 'un-Tzeentchy', I'll fimd you, and kill you while you're sleeping!:p ]

"Genite forces have begun to push towords what is beleived to be the site the enemy is using to teleport troops to the surface." the 2nd Captain said. "If we can take it out, we should be able to hold our positions until they run out of troops."

"Issue an all troop order." the general replied. "Move towords the teleport site and engage enemy forces. Work with Genites forces whenever possible. If we can stop them now, we might just be able to take back this planet."

"Yes sir. Anything else?"

"How much armor do we have left?"

"Um..." The 2Cap looked over a datasheet in his hand. "We only have 21 operating tanks, all Roberts. We do however have over 900 Mendell artillery units left in dug in positions."

"Order all artillery in range to begin firing on the teleport site. When we receive a message from Genites forces saying they're approaching the site, resume previous fire missions."

"Yes general."

[OOC:I'm back
@North Mack:
where do you get the idea that we have made landfall in only one location?

the fleets of Tzeentch becan firing their drop pods into key points of major cities.
also, only the daemons and terminators arrive by "teleportation", normal troops are deployed in drop pods.]

OoC: the daemons and terminators are the real threat. once they have stopped being teleported in, then my troops will have a much better chance of survival. And since my fleet is now between yours and the planet, it will be very hard for you to get drop ships to the surface, meaning if my troops hold out long enough, they win.

The Khornate Tribes had never endured so terribly massive a battle... yet, mad with the scent of blood as they were, they merely renewed their efforts and threw themselves at the Genite and North Mack units with beserk frenzy. Most of their ships concentrated on the opposing fleets, firing Lances, torpedoes and boarding torpedoes with reckless abandon.
Drop pods began to fly in towards the surface, as did heavier Drop Ships, but it seemed likely that few would make it to the surface. Still, Khornate beserkers had never cared much about cassualties, and so they fought on. The Locust pattern fighters of the fleet were being tasked with two different roles - one was to fly in towards the enemý fleet at high speeds, not bothering to decelerate, firing their las-cannons all the way in, then ramming the enemy ships, turning the fighters and their fission power cores into terminally guided atomic missiles, while their second role was "ground support" - they would fly down, expend their missiles, fire their las-cannons with typical Khornate lack of concern for accuracy, then ram enemy troop concentrations, inflicting as much damage as orbital torpedo strikes... it seemed as though Khorne's madness had come to the fleet of the Khornate Tribes.

The attack continued on the Teleportation area, and it seemed it would soon be a sucess. However, in other cities, the NM soldiers were faced with an onslaught of suicidal enemies. Their soldiers charges into machine gun fire, and even as they were cut down in the thousands, tens of thousands more pushed foreward past their dead comrades. Their ships would crash into large troop concentrations, destroying key defensive positions, and artillery bases. In space, the Fleet kept pouring fire into the enemy flanks, yet still they fought on. It seemed the enemy wouldn't stop fighting until there was no one left to fight.


On the bridge of the NMSS Goering, Flagship

"Admiral, even with the amount of damage that us and Genites are pouring into the enemy ships, they keep fighting. If they don't retreat, there may be none of us left."

The Admiral thought for a second, and deemed it time.

"Weapons, load and arm the Heavies."

"Sir?" The weapons officer was shaken. The Heavies had only been tested in two locations before, and deemed too dangerous for war use, except in emergencies. "Are you sure?"

"I am sure. If we fail here, our ground troops have no chance. I will not let that happen. I will not lose this planet. Load the Heavies, notify Genites, then abandon ship"

"Yes... Admiral."


Attention Genites ships. Retreat from current positions immediatley. Repeat, leave your current positions immediatley. Failure to do so will endanger your ships and your crews.

The weapons were loaded, and hthe klaxon sounded. "ABANDON SHIP. ALL CREWMEN TO SHUTTLES. ABANDON SHIP"

The Admiral locked all controls to his consol, and charted the course.



OoC: The Heavies are High Yeild weapons tested twice. They seemed like the ideal war weapon, until it was realized that the blast radius of the missile was greater then the range. they were originally designed for Planetary Bombardment, meant to destroy all life on a planet with only 3 or 4 missiles.

The psykers in their cages spasmed and shrieked as the needles and intravenous drips fed them potions designed to enhance their facility with the warp magic. Something was awry, and so the Chaos Lord in command of the fleet had ordered, with some reluctance, that the psykers be used.
As they began to horribly die, one by one, from bone-breaking spasms, terrible seizures, sudden twisting mutations and massive hemoraging, the few who were strong enough to endure cried out a warning: the enemy had a God Weapon, and were prepared to use it.
The Chaos Lord wept at that, wailing and smashing the walls of his command bridge as he faced the truth of his fate - already many of the little red dots on the map display had blinked out, but those had been good deaths, honorable ones in battle. Death from a God Weapon was not such a death - you died unable to fight back, and so... it was the sort of death that was feared, for souls so dispatched could never join the blood god as the fallen warriors did.
Shrieking in uncontrolled rage, the commanding Chaos Lord sent one order to all the ships remaining in his fleet - target the planet, full ramming speed - go to Khorne before the God Weapon destroyed their souls.
With that, the entire remaining fleet of the Khornate Tribes set ramming courses for the planet bellow, firing atomic torpedoes as they made their way in, intending to use their ships as massive bombs, in the hope of killing enough innocents to sate their blood-mad god.

OOC: My fleet is preparing to kamikazi against Saint Rynald - they're ignoring you and the Genites for now.

The admiral stared at his screen. The enemy was... going to hit the planet?!

at times like these, it seemed their was only one thing to say. "Oh... shit."
He looked at the screen again. Many of the NM and Genites ships were within the blast radius.

"Shit, shit shit. Attention all Fleet vessels! Shift to emergency coordinates now! You have ten seconds, and then i will detonate the Heavies! Repeat, TEN SECONDS!! Genites, I hope to god your sheilds can take this. Its been an honor to fight alongside you."

The Admiral looked at the screen one last time. most of the NM ships had shifted to the emergency coordinates, and the Genites ships were heading away at full speed. If he delayed any longer, the blast would damage the planet too.

Finally, the Admiral closed his eyes and flipped the detonate switch.


---On the ground---
The fighting was horrible. Bodies covered the ground everywhere you looked. The Soldiers no longer needed cover, they jsut piled up some more bodies insead of sandbags.

Then a brilliant, blinding flash lit up the sky. even fron the other side of the planet, a glow could be seen across the horizon. The battle slowed, then stopped as everyone looked up into the sky...


...for about 2 seconds, then the slaughtering began again. There was no time for awe in this kind of war.

Time for a moment seemed to stop; there was no sound, there was only silence like a scene from a old movie. The Blast was brighter and more intense than the power of a thousand suns; the swirling mass of fire and energy danced around the void of space engulfing everything in its range.

"Fortify Rear Shields; Keep firing Aft Batteries!" the Captain ordered the Genite ships still fighting were lucky they had heavy density shields and over 40,000 plates of fortified bio-armour to protect them from the storm. "Signal the North Mack, Fire in the hole!" he added

"Aft Batteries, Launch the Rosy units, Pattern Delta!" the commander ordered.

There were several brief flashes from the rear torpedo batteries of several of the Overlord ships, 6 flashes to be accurate as the torpedoes were fired at FTL speeds. Then from nowhere in a circle pattern around the enemy fleet multiple Anti-matter explosions occurred. Each enough to take out 75% of a Death Star that was in fact there designed purpose but they served well in strategic fleet weapons in either a first strike or last resort situation, PDL interception was unlikely, survival damn nigh impossible combined with the North Mack Attack.

On the Ground

The Genite forces now supported by heavy armour in the form of Predator Tanks, Stalker and Hunter IFV's, Apollo APC's and Titan fast attack units quickly advanced on the enemy beacon; Artillery fire from Punisher Units rained down over the battlefield decimating enemy troop concentrations along side Sledgehammer Missiles. Genite Soldiers started to advance in full Exo-gear.

"Wolf Pack, you lay down cover while our squad lays the charges, Get on the horn and tell the NM Marines that we're going to be using Anti matter charges" the Leader of the 201st Armoured Cavalry Division shouted over the din of explosions and weapons fire.

The squad infiltrated the beacon and laid the charged on the alter; setting the detonator with enough time to get clear. "Package has been delivered repeat package has been delivered" the solider yelled into his radio as he ran.

The Genite forces pulled back to a safe distance as the charges went off causing an explosion that turned the entire building into a smoking crater and damaged several buildings around it. The beacon had been destroyed at least for now. "Ok Take some Heavy armour and give some support fire for the NM Marines; there armours been all but wiped out; ours is fresh and ready to fight. I want Titans, Predators, Hunters and Stalkers rolling now! I want to give them close air support with our Gun ships too; they've taken heavy casualties so we could destroy this beacon lets not make it in vain" the Commander yelled his orders - "if we die today, we die like Genites! With our face to the fire!"

OOC: Sorry to barge in, I just love paying my respects in Space FT threads such as this.


12 Light-Minutes from Saint Rynald system primary

The fabric of space broke apart as the formation of one hundred and seventy-six vessels translated back to normal space, their Warsawski sails bleeding transit energy in a blue lightshow of crackling lightning.

The stupendous Superdreadnoughts and Dreadnoughts of the force crept behind the protective envelope of their smaller cousins, Cruisers and Destroyers responsible for advance screening of the two Battlesquadrons.

"Well, that was almost pleasant." Admiral Sir Lucien Cortez groaned as the waves of nausea created by the crash translation began to fade.

"Yes Admiral. Sorry about that." His flag captain replied.

"It doesnt matter now Captain, have the Fab seven start on replacing those nodes asap." Cortez said while checking the first incoming tidbits of data from the CIC from the screens attached to his command chair.

It had been the worst kind of incident to happen for a fleet in hyper. Two of the ships in Vice Admiral Danislav's squadron had reported critical alpha node malfunction in the middle of the trip. As a ship recquired all of its alpha nodes to generate a warsawski sails, there had been no choice than to drop out of hyper and expedite repairs.

Despite the War having ended two years ago, things in the Freehold were still a mess and the Navy was constantly under stress to maintain integrity and order within the worlds the Freehold had claimed as its own. The Imperium's Remnant did not make that task easier.

The two Battlesquadrons had been en-route to suppress an escalating situation in one of the systems the Imperium's remnant had been allowed to retain. But now it seemed that the mission would have to wait.

"Admiral? We're picking up a whole hell of a lot of ships." The flag captain reported as the sensors re-configured to n-space settings and long-range gravitic sensors swept the system.

"What?" Cortez gazed at his own screens and the data started pouring in.

"There is no record of this system being inhabited, much less posessing this much punching power." Cortez mused as he glared at the data.

"Not all colonization attempts are logged, and we dont have all of them in the database anyway." Cortez's Tactical Advisor said from behind him, re-checking the figures from CIC.

"This doesnt make any goddamn sense." A sensor rating uttered as she observed the data.

Cortez concurred. The sensors were providing details now, and they had been in-system long enough for lightspeed communications from the single inhabited planet to start reaching them. The messages were old, but they gave a clue as to what was happening.

Apparently, several different parties were involved and heavy fighting was in effect both in space and on the surface of the planet. From what could be gathered, there was an invasion of the planet going on from space.

"Umm.." Cortez murmured while rubbing his chin.

"This really is none of our business." The Tactical Advisor spoke silently behind him and Cortez was inclined to agree.

"While I share your sentiments, and we certainly are in a hurry. We'll have to be here for a while, several days perhaps. We have to make sure that we wont get stabbed to the back in the mean time." Cortez finally said.

"Order the fleet to battle stations, take us in-system on a reciprocial course to the ecliptic. RoE Bravo will be in effect." Cortez ordered and his Tactical Advisor was none too happy to hear it.

RoE Bravo authorized any captain to open fire even pre-emptively if there was a good reason to suspect they were going to be attacked upon. It was early to give the order, it would take a while to reach zero-zero intercept with the planet. But, as they knew very little about the range of the warships hanging there in space, it was better to be cautious than die.

"How long until missile range?" Cortez asked.

"Twenty-three minutes to extreme-missile range of the main group of contacts." The Tactical Advisor replied while consulting the data in the massive holotank in the middle of the bridge.

Maximum missile range was hardly the best optimum range. At the rate of acceleration and velocity, the missiles would upon launch in twenty-three minutes from that point have a range of roughly one-hundred and seventy million kilometers. However, they would have scant seconds of time left in their drives before burnout when they finally reached terminal attack range.

Suddenly, there was a sound of someone spilling his guts to the decksole. Cortez turned to look at the communications rating and transferred the video feed he had been receiving to his own screens.

All his strength prevented him from throwing up as well. It was some sort of video signal from the streets of a city, a city overrun with creatures from his worst nightmares. What the hell was this...

Suddenly, there was a blinding flash near the planet and for a few hundreths of a second, the sensors fought to re-establish themselves as the sudden surge of energy blinded them.

"Wow... talk about overkill. It seems that the enemy in orbit has been taken care of. Move us within geo-synchronous orbit, and if those two other fleets try anything, blast them out of space." Cortez mused as the sensors told the setting had changed. However, the fighting on the ground was still heavy.

"Order General O'Neal to prepare his troops for immediate deployment." He continued as he watched the fleet closing in on the planet in the holo-tank.

As the debris cleared, the remaining ships of the Fleet began blinking back into orbit as they shifted back from the emergency coordinates. Debris were everywhere, both friend and foe.

Acting Admiral Jeff Cirone stood at the head of the bridge, reveiwing what was left of the Fleet.

"Move into range for Precision Planetary Bombardment. And I want reports on battle readiness for all sh--"

"Sir!" The sensor officer inturupted.

Cirone turned. "What is it now?!"

"New ships detected at extreme range. Unknown design. All we can tell at this range is that if their not friendly, we're screwed."

"Oh... c'mon! Five minutes in command!" he sighed "Very well. send a message."


Unidentified fleet .This is Acting Admiral Cirone of the North Mack Imperial Fleet. This planet and the

Sparks showered Jeff as one of the overhead system servers overloaded.

Shit! Shit! Oh, damn. Ahem. This planet and the space surrounding it is protected by the Terran Empire. Any threats to us or our allies will be considered an act of war.



OoC: I am always amazed at how well you guys RP. I am stuck in my rut of poor RPness and I cant seem to get out. I bow to all your guys posts, against my measly 610

"Admiral, we have a message from one of the parties involved in this mess." The communications rating reported dispassionately.

"Put it on my screen." Cortez said and the text message appeared on one of the screens protruding from his command chair.

It was short and to the point and Cortez quickly searched the database for the nation claiming to be the protector of this area of space. His efforts provided fruit, however the data entry for the nation in question was far too light for his liking.

"Umm." He murmured as he thought it over. While it was official foreign policy of the Freehold to not intervene in the affairs of other nations unless provoked, in a system this near to the borders of the Freehold, unstability would pose an unwarranted risk in the near future.

"Comms, message to this North Mack flagship."

Message header: fwdlrta157/d
Message origination: HMS Protector Benjamin
Message destination: Contact ID AZ835

- Message Begins -

This is Admiral Lucien Cortez of the Freehold Navy Vessel
Protector Benjamin in command of the twenty-second
and twenty-fifth Battlesquadrons of the Freehold Navy. We
are here out of coincidence, however our military policy
dictates that we are authorized to suppress escalating
conflicts near our borders. As such, I would formally request
an explanation of the situation here.

- Message Ends -

"On the chip" The comms rating told him as the message was recorded and ready to be sent.

"Ok, send it."

All the while the fleet crept closer to the planet of Saint Rynald, accelerating at a constant 15.2 kps^2. Altough translation back from hyperspace reduced a vessel's velocity to barely 0.5% of lightspeed, the fleet was now upto nearly 30,000 kilometers per second.

"Have the fighters remain ready in a screening formation." Cortez said after doing the math of how long it would take them to reach the planet.

All the while the heavully stealthed reconnaissance drones kept a close eye on the planet and the ships clustering around it, gathering all the data they could and relaying it back to their masters.

As the diplomatic messages began flying back and forth between Noth Mack and the new arrivals, Neth Qhaysh'y-Tzeendhaos ordered his fleet back out from the warpspace in which they had hid when the 'Heavies' were launched. Although some casualties had been suffered (not all of the ships made the jump in time), the majority (73%) of the fleet remained intact.


Surface-like-locations
---
As the North Mack troops closed in on the main teleport homer, suddenly they realized they no longer heared any enemies. Even the daemons that plauged them so greatly were nowhere to be seen...
[OOC:@North Mack: my e-mail is vishamon@gmail.com. If you like adding additional narrative elements to RPs at the expense of some of our sovereignty, hit me up.]

Cirone listened to the message.

"Send this reply."

We detected a newly interstellar nation some weeks ago. When we arrived on a first contact mission, we found that the government in power kept its populace in check by fear, using an orbital nuclear platform. Our allies, Genites, and us, freed the people from their opressors, and were in the process of stabelising the economy and government, when these... creatures arrived. They attacked without warning, killing many of our ground troops in the first wave. We have been attempting to hold the planet ever since.



-----Near the Teleporter-----
The sergeant raised his fist silently, and the squad moved foreward in a staggard line. No enemies were visible, but that didn't mean they weren't there. As they reached the building where the teleporter was, the sergeant stood up.

"What the hell? Where are the bastards?"

Admiral Cortez listened to the reply message dispassionately. However at the moment when the North Mackian officer stated that they had violently overthrown the (by all rights) legal government of the Saint Rynald planet, Cortez started to ponder.

For all he knew, the current skirmish here was the result of two spacefaring nations interfering in the first steps of a fledgling planet reaching to space itself.

The fact, or claim for a better choice of words, that the previous Government had been a dictatorship was beside the point. The issue that bothered Cortez was the fact that these two vastly more powerfull nations had actively interfered using military force in the development of a youngling planet.

How a government governed its people was its own business and the Freehold neither cared nor condoned attempts of forcefully changing the political infrastructure of a planet. The problem was made worse by the fact that this current incident had ignited this close to the Freehold.

It took him a full minute to consider his reply, but when he finally decided, his mind was made.

"Send this"



I would like to hear your justification for interfering
in the domestic policies of such a young nation while
using overwhelming military power to accomplish that
interferance. You claim that the Government you
deposed was a dictatorship oppressing the people on
the planet is your claim only.

For the sake of suspending disbelief, I intend to see to
it, that the population of the planet are given the right
to express their own opinions of your actions and their
previous government to my fleet. If their statements
strongly accept your actions, then Im prepared to let
you continue governing this system. However, if their
opinions do not accept your presence here, this will
become a formal matter of ,protecting the independence
of a young nation, for the Freehold.



"On the chip Admiral."

"Very well, send it."

There was no telling how these Genites and North Mack forces would respond. The possibility existed that they would rather initiate a pre-emptive strike than be willing to go on any further with the current negotiations. For their sakes, Cortez hoped they would react sensibly.

"Have the third and seventh squadrons start rolling pods, heavy patterns. If the North Mack forces want to fight, I want to take their fighting ability as fast as possible." Cortez ordered.

Heavy pod patterns were in preparation for any initial missile exchange. Each Superdreadnought, Dreadnought and Battle Cruiser capable of carrying missile pods would roll a total of fifteen pods. As the two battlesquadrons had a total of sixty-eight SD's DN's and BC's, the total number of pods would number in over a thousand. With ten missiles to each pod, combined with the internal launchers of the capital ships in the fleet, that would give them an opening salvo strength of roughly 14,000 Mk.12 Capital Missiles.

Neither were those missiles small. As the most major part of the Freehold Navy's fleet doctrine was missile engagement at several light-minute ranges, those missiles had to carry the necessary Electronic Warfare, Firepower and Drive Endurance to make the fighting practical.

A Mk.12 was the latest iteration of the Capital Missile. Massing 95 tons each, they carried extensive amounts of Electronic Warfare systems and Penetration Aids. The warhead itself contributed a significant amount to the mass. Four Mk.89 Nuclear Warheads with variable yields upto 150 megatons each were the main part of the warhead. However, they were not contact nukes, instead they simply acted as a source of power for the lasing rods that would upon the warhead's detonation generate twenty cohesive beams of coherent x-ray lasers.

First time when a Navy that had no experience with the weapon , came against it, would be surprised to say the least for the missiles had a stand-off terminal attack range of twenty-thousand kilometers. In other words, they only had to reach a distance of twenty kilo-klicks from their target to inflict damage.

Some might have called the concept primitive. However, that same primitive concept had proved itself extremely effective even against the Fourth Imperium that had come so near of annihilating Clairmont. Raw power meant more than tricks.

Cortez stopped his musings and waited for the reply from the North Mack Admiral.

OOC: Ah, a David Weber fan - so much cooler than Star Wars.

The majority of the Khornate Tribes fleet, some hundred odd Cruisers and Destroyers, plus a good dozen Heavy Transports, each packed full of an average of 10,000 soldiers. It was the worst loss that these followers of the blood god had suffered in the entire history of their service to the god of strife... it was... too horrific to wrap the mind about.
The Chaos Lord and his flag ship, however, managed to survive, along with a few others. As they neared the planet, the burning, atmosphere venting hulks that had once been their war ships maintained some fire, all the while launching as many Drop Pods and Drop Ships as they could... and making use of their Teleporters.
These new ships were an interesting occurence - perhaps they would test their crews... smiling, revealing teeth filed into points, the Chaos Lord ordered his Tech-Priest slaves to target a few teams of Chaos Space Marines on the larger of the new ships - in fact, that would be where he himself would go - Chaos Lord Gerax Blood Drinker would die soon enough, but he planned to make sure that a few more of the damned heathen went to the blood god from his axe before he went there himself...

The populace of Saint Rynald had been through three planetary scale invasions in the last year... most of its cities had been reduced to so much smoking rubble, most of its (admitedly outdated) industrial base had been smashed, and three of the four powers to invade it so far had made it a point to destroy or desecrate their religious sites. All in all, it wasn't a good year for the planet.
Considering that it had been a little colony founded by Christian religious fundamentalists, it was hardly suprising that cries were going out that these were the End Times.
Many of the former members of the Most Holy Inquisition were either arrested or dead, but some were in hiding, and those men were starting to gather their own little force, made up of fanatics and men who had done such terrible things under the past regime that any fair trial would have them hang. Such men went into the dessert... where they waited for the right moment to strike, going through stockpiles of weapons, explosives and ammunition that their paranoid government had laid aside for just such an event... although none doubted that just so terrible a series of events had never been considered.

Teleportation was not a technology the Freehold wasnt aware of. The risk of teleported teams conducting boarding operations during battle had been a distressing thought and thus something had been done to reduce the risk of such sudden attacks.

The same Electronic Warfare that worked against detection systems, also worked on targeting systems. A guided weapon without some sort of targeting system pointing it the way to a real target was useless, the same applied to teleportation technology.

Jamming systems filled the ether of space with electronic wailing and confusing signals. Decoys made the enemy believe that there was a Superdreadnought in the place of an EW drone. Passive stealth technologies reduced the amount of revealing emissions. And finally, the protective defense screens layered together with oval shaped sidewalls protected each vessel from threats that would use alternate dimensions of space to bypass said defenses.

No EW was perfect however, and despite everything some targeting systems would without a doubt establish a lock despite them. No passive defense was foolproof either, sidewall bubbles had tiny gaps where each generator generated its own part of the overall screen. Defense screens on the other hand could not possibly cover every dimension through which an attacker could come through.

As it was, some very few of the boarding teams reached aboard some of the stupendous Superdreadnoughts of the two battlesquadrons, there they met the marines of each ship, ready to face boarding attempts.

The blood crazed enemy Space Marines had the disadvantage of foreign terrain and lesser numbers on their side. Lunacy went to greath depths to reduce a person's fear, but it also counteracted his common sense.

As the boarding teams started moving about their new surroundings, they ran into the prepared defenses of shipboard marines.

Each Superdreadnought carried a full battalion of marines. Some of those were manning the weapons in the case of central fire control getting severed as a result of battle damage. Each Superdreadnought also had enough Battle Armor to equip two heavy companies. In the case of boarding operations, those Battle Armored troops were freed from the fear of running out of power during combat and they marines were happy to use their full assault configurations to their best advantage.

Tri-barrels spat 10mm tungsten darts at velocities exceeding 3000 meters per second. They were fully capable of cutting through light armoured vechiles or warship bulkheads like a hyper velocity band saw. Plasma carbines and cannons released bolts of superheated plasma at immense velocities. Grenade launchers and pulse rifles each contributed their part to the carnage.

"Frame twenty-six aft secured."

"Frame thirty-seven port secured."

"Frame fifteen junction L, numerous enemies encountered. Flanking in progress."

The reports filtered through to the Command bridge of HMS Protector Benjamin. They were coming from one of Admiral Danislav's vessels, the flagship having succesfully fended off teleportation attempts.

"CIC reports confidence is high they have identified the vessels doing this."
Admiral Cortez's tactical officer sounded off as dots of angry red in the holotank were circled and marked.

"Continue closing with the planet. Have Admiral Chandler's squadron target those hostiles. She may use her full missile capabilities." Cortez said, without waver in his voice.

A noticeable shift occurred in the formation of green dots in the holotank. One subforce was arraying in the left flank of the main body and new small clusters of contacts started appearing on their wake as they began rolling their missile pods.

Not soon after, a tsunami of friendly missile contacts flashed on the screen as the ten Superdreadnoughts and five Battlecruisers belched fire alongside their missile pods, producing an impressive opening salvo of 2,500 capital missiles.

A good portion of that salvo were dedicated EW birds, hell-bent on confusing the enemy defensive fire control and protecting the real attack missiles among the swarm.

Against such a small number of hostiles, it might have seemed overkill. However, Admiral Chandler was a firm believer in the wisdom of "Better not to err in the side of caution."

The Genite Ships took hold of them selves; they had thrown some of their biggest weapons at the enemy. The yellow energy beams once again started to fire as hundreds of heavy neutron batteries started firing at the chaos Legions again.

"Why won't you just die!" he said

Many ships had been damaged, most were out of Missile and Torpedo ordinance, 75% of the fighters had been destroyed. What Chaos lacked in military strategy they made up for in sheer lunacy while there actually attacks didn't cause much harm to a Genite ship the suicide attacks had taken there toll on the Genite fleet.

It was at that moment a full Genite two full Battle groups dropped out of slipstream into the system; over 100 Overlord Cruisers, 30 Revenants, 15 Rage of God Class, 15 Carriers and assault ships and 150 Red Stars in battle group formation. Slip fighters swarmed out of the launch bays like locusts. It was the most beautiful sight any Genite had seen in a long time.

The ships wasted no time in opening fire on the chaos fleets; thousands of anti-matter missiles spewed from launchers towards the chaos fleet along with more torpedoes and thousands of multi Exawatt rated energy beams. Toe ships started to pull crippled Genite ships to safety while others made it under there own power into slipstream for repair. The Genite Fighters and Red Stars also provided support and cover screens for the North Mack ships to regroup.

Over 500 000 lancers alone with supporting armour were getting ready to deploy to hot spots; on the planets surface

Out of some 1,000 odd Chaos Space Marines, 881 miss Teleported, which led to their having a very few seconds in which to curse as they reappeared in the middle of space, after which their power armour failed and they became very expensive bits of floating debris.
The other 119, however, managed to teleport onto the enemy ships, where they quickly demonstrated why the warriors of Khorne were feared during boarding actions - screaming mad men in power armour wildly firing from the hip weapons which would be crew served in any unarmoured unit tended to be enough to ruin anyones day.
Still, most of the boarders died fairly quickly - they weren't interested in survival, merely in killing as many as they could before they died. Such states of mind do not make for high quality tactics, but tactics were almost unnecessary - most of the boarders had prepared for the insertion by bringing along large ammounts of explosives, which they then used seemingly at random - wherever they appeared, they set charges on anything that looked even vaguely important.
After the boarders had been defeated, when the bodies were checked, it was found that all but one had fought to the death, and he had been knocked unconcious from one of his own bombs. Interestingly enough, this prisoner was none other than the commander of the entire enemy fleet - the Chaos Lord Gerax Blood Drinker, who had decided to die as his god demanded by leading the teleporting boarding action... and who had failed in doing so.

On the ground, in spite of there being more than 200,000 still active Khornate soldiers, it would be safe to say that it's all over barring the screaming - due to the suicidal tendencies of the pilots of their fighter craft, North Mack and its allies have almost total air supperiority, while the remaining units of the Khornate ground forces continue to act with traditional Khornate tactics - namely find the enemy, then run straight at them trying to get stuck in where glory can be earned in close combat.
While such tactics worked against the civilians they were used to raiding, and even the occassional heavily outnumbered military unit they hit on some back-water colony they raided, against well equipped and experienced troops, those tactics were a recipe for a disaster - in one case there was a report of a single company of North Mack soldiers destroying a Division size force of cultists... when those cultists decided that it would be a good idea to try to run across nearly four kilometers of open ground, up hill, to try to get into close combat with the dug-in defenders. Such tactics cause one to question the sanity of the Khornate commanders... of course, sanity isn't high on the list of entry requirements for a fanatic military organization that is more a group of pirates and worships a god in whose holy book it is written "The blood god cares not whose blood is shed, so long as blood is shed."
Victory seems certain, as the remaining Khornate ships do something that they have never done before: break off an attack run to flee into Warp space.
As they go, a single message is broadcast on all channels:
"We'll be back."

As the last of the would-be boarders were slaughtered, Cortez began to inspect the damage.

Warships of Freehold design were heavully compartmentalized to reduce the spread of battle damage. They were also very heavully built. Battle Steel alloys far stronger than contemporary steel or titanium was the primary material for bulkheads and the inner hull.

As such, most of the damage from the charges brought aboard by the attackers was local and in none of the cases critical. Two of Admiral Danislav's Superdreadnoughts had been damaged. As the marines defending those ships had clustered around the vital areas of the two ships, the Khornate boarders had mostly managed to destroy secondary systems. Cutting some weapons off from central fire control, knocking out sensor array feeds from the CIC and destroying some of the missile launchers. Overall, not a bad performance at all for a badly outnumbered enemy.

All but one of the boarders had been slain. The marines aboard the HMS Jansyk had nearly blown the head of the sole survivor off before their company commander had realized that they had caught an important prey.

Stripped of his weapons, the prisoner was dragged by Battle Armoured Marines to the ships brig.

"My Lord"
"What is it Leth Chamon?"
"My lord, it would seem that the depraved followers of the Blood God have fled."
"Are you certain, Leth Chamon?"
"Yes my lord, as strange as it may be, the Khornate wariors seem to be retreating..."
"This is unprecidented! We must record it in our tactical log for this century, as I doubt that the planet od archives contains an instance of such an occourance. How goes the assault on the Genite fleet?"
"Well, my lord. They seem to have depleted their amunition stockpiles, and are now firing apon us with whaat amount to giant lascannons."
"I see. We must then recall all our fighters and bombers, as they are all that is vulnerable to such arms. Also, have we identified their command ship?"
"Yes, my lord."
"Order the Planetkiller out of warpspace. Notify Leth Azyr that he has a target."
Leth Chamon smiled beneath his ornate helm, his terminator armor augmenting the anticipatorial trembling of his massive body. "Immediately, my lord."

[OOC:
@Genites:
I just read the thread refrenced in your sig, and I have one thing to say: What a duche! I can't belive that he threatened to go crying to the moderators, after a moderator already posted taking your side. What a joke! And he made fun of your post count! Big whup! I started a Sign-up thread for an RP I had an idea for when my post count was only 18, and so many people were intrested that I had to start telling people there wasn't room left just three days after the planning began. All of this before I had made even one IC post! Yeesh!]

"Admiral... they're... still here. Some of the enemy ships are retreating, but the enemy fleet... it... survived!"

"WHAT!? But... the heavy..."

"They must have done the same thing we did. Left the battlefeild, then returnd when the blast had dissapated."

"DAMNIT!! No matter what we do... they survive. They're like a goddamn plague!"

"Sir, the battle seems to have... quieted down, relativley. The new fleet commander wants to hear from the citizens of Rynald about our and genites ousting of the previous government."

"Hm... do we have the footage of the 'interrogation' they had of that little girl that we ourselves saw?"

"Yes admiral."

"Then get me a direct link to the new commander, and prepare to send the video."


"Admiral Cortez, you expressed earlier that you wanted to hear
directly from the citizens of Rynald, correct? I am afraid that
will be easy, since every single citizen is currently in a bunker
guarded by our soldiers, as they fight for their lives on the
surface, I cannot comply with that request at the current time.

However, for your veiwing pleasure, I have this tape, which both
we and our allies in this, Genites, have seen. This is why we removed
their government of fear."

He nods off screen. "Run it"

A video played of a young girl, almost naked, with a black hood over
her head. The video played as first she was interrogated, then tortured,
then slowly killed, because of a crime she had supposedly commit.
The crime: speaking against the government.

The screen returned to the admiral, who looked rather green.
"That, Admiral," he said quietly "is why we are here, fighting for our lives."

The video footage was...disgusting to say the least. Cortez had experience with fundemantalist lunatics and religious nuts but this...

Nevertheless, things were not always as simple as they might seem to be. A foreign government could go to great lengths to justify taking over some other nation and lying or falsification of evidence most certainly had a hand to play in such a maneuver.

The North Mack admiral however presented a valid point, before the situation was stabilized, it would be..."difficult" to say the least to hear the citizens of Saint Rynald. As such, the only valid course of action was to stabilize the conflict and then proceed with the interview of Saint Rynald's citizens.



Im certain Admiral, that you understand my situation.
It is not unheard of, or even far-fetched for a nation
to forge evidence and lie in order to justify their actions
which might otherwise be extremely questionable. Im
not accusing you of forging evidence or lying, but I
have the full intention of interviewing the citizens of
Saint Rynald when the present crisis is over.

In order to hasten the stabilization of this system, my
force shall lend its hand in neutralizing the current
attackers.

The entire bridge cheered as they heard the news. They were getting help!

The Admiral grinned and turned to the comms officer. "Send two messages. the first to Admiral Cortez, the second to the Genites fleet."

Thank you, Admiral. We understand your scepticism. After all, with our last emporer, we may indeed have gone to such lengths as you spoke of. As soon as the situation is stabelised, we can arrange a meeting with any civillians you could want.

Attention Genites Fleet. The new fleet has agreed to help us subdue the enemies. Our TacNet is suffering in these conditions, so I beleive it would be best if you looked over the situation and found the best place for them.

Cortez smiled briefly after reading the reply message transcript, the course of actions that needed to be taken was set.

"General order to both battlesquadrons, initiate engagement formation able-baker. Target the enemy vessels attacking the Genite and North Mackian ships." Cortez ordered loudly and clearly.

As the Admirals under Cortez's command received their orders, the stupendous ships of the wall of both battlesquadrons re-targeted their missile pods and presented their broadsides for a missile engagement.

A massive wall of friendly missile icons appeared on the flag bridge's holotank, their targets circled in red.

bump...

In The Warp, the battered remains of the fleet of the Khornate Tribes licked its wounds, making what repairs they could, and preparing for a final attack... for which they would be reinforced. After all, it wouldn't do for them to die too easily.

OOC: I'm assuming that you're going to question him? Here's what they look like:

The prisoner, like most of the boarders, had been obviously genetically engineered. The average height for one of their number was around eight feet, and it looked as though they had been mechanically altered as well - their armour was connected to their body with tubes and wiring, as though it was somehow part of them.
Within a broad design, almost every suit of armour was unique. All were covered in personallized decorations, runes and skull designs, and many featured grisly trophies from previous battles - the prisoner, for example, had a child's skull on his belt...

The captured enemy combatant was being held in one of the massive Superdreadnought's brigs. Altough the soldiers sheer size and armour had indicated significant strength, warship bulkheads had been designed to withstand anything short of massive direct firepower, and brigs were reinforced.

Corporal Henderson watched the enemy soldier in disgust. The "trophies" the thing had apparently taken great pains to acquire were revolting enough to bring bile to his throat. But he held it at bay, and kept his tri-barrel aimed at the giant.

However impressive, if such was the right word for this enemy, the invader' strength might be, Henderson wore battle armour. The suit increased his height from his normal 187cm to over 220. It also magnified his physical capabilities to great degree, increased strength and speed were traits that every piece of Battle Armour gave their wearers.

To himself, Henderson could admit that he wanted the prisoner to make a stupid move that would force the Corporal to splatter the disgusting piece of scum to the wall.

Almost as soon as the Khornate Tribes war ships had fled into the Warp, huge numbers of armed Saint Rynaldians began to boil out of the hills. At first it seemed like they intended to attack North Mack and the Genites... but, instead they ignored North Mack and the Genites, and began to attack the Chaos-worshippers instead.
Over the radio came this message:

"This is Lord Inquisitor Rynaldi Miller. I represent the Guerilla Army of Saint Rynald, and I would like to propose something - we help you fight the invaders, and you forgive us for the actions we commited under the previous regime. We could still hurt you if you refuse, and all we are asking for are our lives and freedom. In return, once this is over, we will turn over our weapons and weapon stockpiles. What do you say to that?"

The prisoner opened one blood-shot eye, and saw the soldier facing him, tri-barrel at the ready. He smilled, showing teeth filed into fangs. Grinning like some semi-human savage, he spoke:
"Well, it looks as if Chaos Lord Gerax Blood-Drinker is not going to join his god just yet, does it? Still, I have no worries - I am not some novice, to be killed without a death to his name - I have led the armies of my god into battle, and have shed oceans of blood in the name of my god, Khorne, lord of blood, master of the skull throne. Ask what questions you will - I might answer - they might amuse me." he chuckled, flexing beneath heavy armour, testing his range of movement. It seemed as if he found nothing wrong with his situation as a prisoner - he seemed more amused than daunted.

He watched the giant awake from his slumber and instinctively his hand stiffened around the heavy weapon he wielded and every nerve was ready to act if the command from the brain came to squeeze the trigger.

The soldier, Gerax apparently he was named, uttered a whole slew of garble. Gods and blood seemed to be the cornerstone of this brute's mindset. Not surprising, Henderson thought, he seemed to like killing people. No, he seemed to love spilling blood.

The corporal bit back down the bile rising in his throat again and hefted the massive weapon he carried.

"A 'Lord' eh? Looks like we caught a big fish. Sorry to disappoint you, but Im not the one who will be asking the questions. I might be your executioner though if you indulge me and do something stupid. Then we can see if your 'God' will protect you from this." Henderson patted the tri-barrel lovingly and his smile was ugly.

As Henderson completed his threat, the prisoner actually laughed, responding:
"Ha! I would like that! After all, the blood god cares not whose blood is shed, so long as blood is shed! Shoot me - by killing me, you honor my god!" he seemed quite amused that he should be threatened with death, but still made no move - it looked as though for all his boasts, he did not wish to die just yet.

The fleet made its repairs as reinforcements arrived - mostly these new ships were either cruisers, light cruisers or escort vessels, but a few were heavier - there were a few battleships, and those would normally have stunned any viewer with their size, but one vessel drew all eyes away from the others - it was massive, spherical, obviously designed without a thought for planetary entry, or of gravity or aesthetics, for that matter.
Its every detail seemed the antithesis of what a typical human would have chosen, and were it not for the fact that it seemed to manuver with a will, one could be excused from wondering if it was even a construct at all.

In Space

"DAMNIT!!! WHY DON'T YOU BASTARDS DIE!!!" The Admiral screamed at the TacNet showed enemy ships returning to the battlefield.

"JUST DIE AND LEAVE US ALONE!!"

"Admiral? I think you should look at this..." the sensors officer said, slowly,

"What?" The admiral walked over the the sensor console. "What am I looking at?"

"The gigantic, massive enemy ship that looks like a small moon."

The admiral looked at the sensor blip. "Thats a ship? oh, crap. Computer, probabilities."

The computer answered in the voice that most computers do. "Probabilities indicate 78% planetkiller, 10% Capital Ship, 8% Colony Ship, 4% Small moon with engines attatched."

"Planetkiller, shit!"

On the ground
"This is Lord Inquisitor Rynaldi Miller. I represent the Guerilla Army of Saint Rynald, and I would like to propose something - we help you fight the invaders, and you forgive us for the actions we commited under the previous regime. We could still hurt you if you refuse, and all we are asking for are our lives and freedom. In return, once this is over, we will turn over our weapons and weapon stockpiles. What do you say to that?"


Attention Guerilla Army. A massive, planetkiller has been detected
in orbit above your planet. Although it is most likley that we will
not be able to evacuate every single citizen of your nation, we will
attempt to evacuate as many as we can. You have two choices.

Choice one: Help defend our shuttles as they evacuate your civillians,
then board when the civillians are clear. You will be forgiven your crimes
and treated as refugees in our home system, as long as you never take
up arms against North Mack or Genites again.

Choice two: Stay and continue to fight the enemy until the planet is
destroyed. You will also be forgiven your crimes in this way, except
this way ends with you being dead.

You have one hour to make your choice. Evacuations begin in two hours.

OCC: this is still going on?

OOC: On planet killers. If anyone insists on bringing these to the table, I will have no alternative other than to bring Combat Planetoids to the game to balance out planetkilling über weapons. Or hyperspace missiles, whichever suits the situation better.

OOC: I think we can agree that deathstars, planetkillers and so on are to FT NS play as nuclear weapons are to MT NS - scary weapons that you don't want to bust out when ever you feel like it. Anyway, my "super ship" hasn't "de-warped" just yet...

OOC: There are levels of FT and though year 2500 tech can be called FT, it is extremely doubtfull planetkillers could be developed by that that time. Anyways, you can bring the PK in if you want. But in order to maintain a certain balance of power, I'll have to counteract it.