NationStates Jolt Archive

OoC: Hmm... 4 ooc posts since i left? thats terrible!


uh crap. make it 5.

When he had recieved the North Mack message about the planet killer, this man took less than a minute to come to a decision, which was:
"We will fight for our world. We are soldiers of God, and with Him on our side, we cannot lose, no matter if we live or die. Take as many civilians with you as you can, save their lives. We will remain behind to the last, fighting so that no one might say that the warriors of God fled from the field when faced with an enemy so obviously favored of Satan. We will fight, we will fight for our world." with that, his response ended.

OOC: Cool! An end to the OOC only posts!

The reformed fleet waited in the warp, while warlords and Chaos Lords argued and pondered... or at least grumbled and fought, as the followers of the blood god are wont to do.
None of them liked the conclusion that seemed to face them, but they finally accepted it when a certain Chaos Lord explained:
"If we don't leave, we won't have much of a fleet, alright? Anyway, don't think of it as retreating - think of it as advancing in a new direction in order to meet new challenges..." their minds made up, the various ship lords made their agreement known... and the battered remains of the Khornate fleet fled through the Warp, off to find a little colony world to massacre, to appease their god and erase the dishonor of flight from a battle.

[OOC: why didn't my planetkiller raise the same reaction? We may never know...]

In space
The Yellowish energy beams continued to scream across space laying into the enemy ships along with heavy missile ordinance the punishing array of weapons continued to flow until the enemy ships turned and ran.

"They're running sir!" one of the officers spoke jubilantly a sigh of relief going through the fleet.

"Ok; I want a full damage report and fleet status report on my desk, yesterday!" the captain ordered and waited; "and Get some more support on the ground" he added.

On the ground
A Wall of Titan fast attack armoured vehicles closely followed by Predator tanks and infantry pushed forward weapons ablaze as plasma and laser cannon rounds fired in zings at the chaos positions. Causing explosions as more artillery and rocket fired rained down like a firestorm.

The message from the Saint Rynald cam in loud over the command Radio; it had been the Genite troops who had liberated the prison facility and had seen first hand the damage done to people who did not "follow the way of god" as it were.

OOC: Krow: Yeah a douch indeed

OOC: Aren't you going to interrogate him, or something?

OOC: Sorry, I've been a bit busy. To answer your question, interrogation of Prisoners of War and intelligence gathering is the job of my Office of Naval Intelligence, during combat or active operations, prisoners arent really interrogated, but I can make an exception to make this a bit more interesting.

IC:

The door to the brig opened and Commander Alex Tremaine stepped through it. Corporal Henderson braced to attention at the sight of the executive officer of his ship and saluted, Tremaine returning the salute crisply.

"Has our prisoner said anything?" He asked while looking at the brute locked in the cell.

"Yes sir. Something about gods and blood, sorry sir I wasnt really listening to that carbage." Henderson replied.

Tremaine frowned. Technically, it would be ONI's job to interrogate prisoners of war, but it might take a while before they could deliver this maniac to the spooks for questioning. He walked to the door of the cell and gazed at Lord Gerax.

"My name is Alex Tremaine, executive officer of this ship. Looks like you will be our guest for a while and since we have you, we might as well ask you some questions. Firstly, your fleet retreated from this system, are they coming back and if they are, what kind of numbers can we expect?" He asked dispassionately. He doubted that the maniac on the other side of the cell door would actually answer the question truthfully but asking never cost anything.

The prisoner grinned, showing teeth filed into fangs that cut into the gums, and spoke once more:
"When the warriors of Khorne attack, they strike with the force of a legion. The forces you faced before were just a scouting force - the losses they suffered were not irreplacable. Soon, they shall return, and when they do... when they do, you will face the true might of the blood god's followers unleashed." he hesitated for a moment, then added:
"Right now, I would expect that my followers are striking at some unguarded colony, to take slaves for the sacrifices that must be made to convince the blood god of the rightness of our cause. To face such enemies as you and your allies..." he hesitated once again, seemingly lost in thought, before continuing, "... they would need tens of thousands to sacrifice. It would be like it was in the time before the Great Revolt, when my warriors made ready for the attack on the Emperor's palace by sacking the hives of Sulest - what a slaughter we wrought, as we cut our way through the massed ranks of the hiver militia! On that first field of battle, it is said that my warriors slew one hundred thousand of their enemies, before the weak followers of the false god fled in terror, back to their hives where we burned them out..." he closed his eyes, seemingly lost in a pleasant memory, before continuing:
"My followers will return within two weeks, on that you have my word... the word of Gerax Blood-Drinker, who took the skull of the Sulestian Governor from the ruins of his hive. They will return." he grinned once more, seeming to enjoy the thought that soon battle would be joined once again, then asked:
"Any other questions?"

Tremaine listened at the Chaos Lord raving on. He was no ONI spook, he didnt have their skills of separating the important tidbits of information from the rest of the carbage a prisoner uttered. But some of the points the prisoner said were too obvious not to notice.

The enemy would return in greater numbers, significantly so if this maniac was to be believed. Which, unfortunately, was a question still left unanswered. Then the brute continued, raving on about slaughtering tens of thousands. It might have flinched someone else, it most certainly had no such effect on Alex Tremaine. He had been on the bridge of HMS Fearless when the Expeditionary Fleet had attacked Planet Endicot during the Imperium War all those years ago, and what the Chaos Lord told him paled in comparison. Perhaps it would be wise to point this out, it might loosen the tongue of the prisoner more.

"You say you slaughtered a hundred thousand troops? Most interesting. Corporal," Tremaine said, turning towards Henderson.

"Yes sir?" The man said, expecting the question.

"Can you recall what kind of kill counts did the ground troops achieve during the invasion of Endicot?" Tremaine asked with a tight smile on his face. He did not enjoy killing people, but gloating about their higher kill counts might actually sway this maniac to tell more.

"Well sir, as you are aware nobody ever got a clear figure. But accounting the Imperial Third, Fifth, and Eleventh Invasion armies as well as their local planetary defense forces, the total kill count ,for only our Fleet Strike Fifth and Sixth armies along with the ten Marine Divisions participating in that part of the battle, was somewhere around two million. Ofcourse, there was the air support." The Corporal replied crisply.

"And the total kill count for the entire invasion was around thirty-two million." Tremaine supplied in addition while turning to face the prisoner once more.

"So 'Lord' Gerax, please spare me of your gloating of how many you have killed. We have done our fair share of that." He said icily, watching how the warrior might respond.

The Chaos Lord actually looked impressed by this latest revelation, responding:
"By the blood god! You are warriors! Do you serve the blood god with your feats of slaughter? Or... are you like those foolish ones who fight but claim to not enjoy it, who kill but do not drink the blood, and in so doing dishonor the blood god?" he actually looked interested as he asked this, leaning forward, intent on his interogators response.

The poorly equipped Rynaldi guerillas fought with more than enough dedication and fervor to make up for their lack of equipment. Hundreds of their number died, but they still fought on - in some cases members of their units would enter battle armed only with knives or clubs, but rather than cower and hide, they screamed the traditional battle cries of the Saint Rynald military... and charged into close combat with the cultist hordes. Reports indicate that they even seem able to match the fury of the blood gods devotees...

OOC: Fanatics who make modern day Christian fundamentalists look well adjusted versus Khornate cultists, basically.

On the surface of Saint Rynald, there now remain fewer than one thousand Khornate Tribes soldiers who have not been killed or captured. These men are forming a last stand position in the ruins of Saint Rynald City, around the desecrated remains of the Planetary Cathedral, and appear intent on fighting to the end...

The raid had gone well. A minor farming colony had been found, and raided, and the blood of the colonists had been enough to appease the blood god... and to entice him to lend them further support... in the form of both more warriors, drawn to their fleet by tales of bloodshed and destruction, but also in the form of his own little beasts, the daemons of Khorne, who would fight alongside his warriors when the time came... they would soon return, and in far greater numbers than they had before...

Tremaine observed Lord Gerax closely as the prisoner made it apparent that he was impressed. It sickened the Commander to be talking to this scum, and actually impressing him with the tales of horrible carnage he had told him.

"We do not serve anyone else but ourselves when doing our killing. How our warriors feel about it is their business, but we do not kill for the express purpose of just killing."


The fleet was now drawing near to Saint Rynald, and the prepared divisions of marines aboard the ships prepared to disembark and land on the planet below them and make sure that the fighting would end, either the easy way or the hard way.

The prisoner snorted, seemingly disgusted with that answer. He spoke, quietly this time, as though imparting some fact of great importance:
"That's what you say. You don't know the truth. All killing serves Khorne... every life taken with shot or shell, with blade or laser, strengthens the blood god. That's why he will win in the end, and devour the souls of the lesser gods - he cannot be beaten." that said, his voice returned to normal, and he continued:
"As for the differences between the number of dead from our raid on Sulest and your Imperium War... all the killing that we did on Sulest we accomplished with two battalions of my warriors and their ships in orbit - two thousand warriors like me, under my command, killed one hundred thousand of them... and lost just under twelve hundred in return. How many did you have when you killed your thirty two million? Do not talk to me of slaughter, false warrior - I was there during the Great Revolt, I have seen worlds die, I have seen billions die... I have slain warriors in personal combat - I am Chaos Lord Gerax Blood Drinker, and I have earned that name - I drank the blood and ate the flesh of the Sorceror Lord Schrichnik of the false god Tzeench, then took his sword as my own. Know that, know that and fear, little human, for I have faced enemies that would make you pray to whatever god you hold holy, that would make you weep and cower and beg for mercy... and I have killed them." with that he was silent, his silence daring his interogators to make reply.

His gambit had failed, perhaps it would have been better to simply agree that they did serve this 'Blood God'. But that would have been too much for Tremaine, this maniac was hard to impress and now it seemed that the Commander atleast wouldnt be getting much out of him. However there was one man aboard the ship who could claim to have reached even higher than Gerax and Tremaine reached for his comm and opened the channel.

"This is the XO, could you send Lieutenant Chinran over to brig four right away." He said quietly.

This was his last ace in the hole, altough it wasnt exactly the most pleasant idea to think of Lieutenant Kenneth Chinran, Special Warfare in such a way. They waited in silence for a couple of minutes before the door to the brig compartment opened, and a man appearing to be roughly thirty walked in.

He wasnt build like a tank, instead his frame was well muscled but obviously built for speed and finesse. On the outside he might look completely harmless, but when anyone looked into his eyes, they would see the ghosts that haunted Kenneth Chinran every day.

"Lieutenant." Tremaine nodded respectfully to the man.

"Commander. You wanted me here?" Chinran murmured softly.

"Yes Lieutenant. I would like you to personally tell our prisoner about your feats during Operation Thunderstorm." The Commander said very very silently.

Chinran's expression changed only a tiny bit, but inside the request that the XO had made burned like fire. He and all of his thirteen colleagues who had survived through that hell wanted to forget about it, forever if at all possible.

"Sir, under the Official Secrets act..." He started and Tremaine's hand snapped up to stop him.

"Under article thirteen and sixty, this matter can be disclosed if recquired to be disclosed in order to gain new information." Tremaine countered and now Chinran looked uneasy.

But he nodded in silent acknowledgement and walked closer to the cell door of Lord Gerax.

"So, I hear you boast a lot about how many you have killed. I wish I could be impressed, I heard what you said from watching the camera feed from here. I would like to tell you a little story, a story about two hundred of my fellow Operatives who many years ago embarked on a covert operation on an enemy inhabited world." He started and watched the prisoner.

"Our nation and the enemy's were not at war yet at the time, however our High Command saw that war was a very distinct possibility and we were sent to act as a failsafe."

"Well, the war came and the enemy tried to invade two of our star systems while our fleet was stretched thin on other operations. And they werent too worried about collateral damage and civilian casualties, so we were given the order to proceed." Chinran continued and now paused for a while, gathering strength to describe the horror of what he had done.

"Our mission wasnt just to cripple the enemy's capital planet, our mission was to so completely take away their fighting morale that they would have to surrender. In roughly a week, the actions of my two hundred men lead to the deaths of over eight billion people. Sure, only about two hundred million of those were directly killed by us, the rest just died as result of the consequences of our actions. " The Lieutenant's voice was bitter and harsh as he described the horror that would haunt him to the day he died. Men, women and children had died during that Operation, died in their millions and it was all a result of an Operation he had planned.

"So Lord Gerax, shall we finally put and end to this foolish boasting and talk about something that matters?" Chinran said, his eyes frozen as he stared the Chaos Lord.

The people of Saint Rynald seem eager to reclaim their world - many have left their secure bomb shelters to attack the remaining Khornate Tribes invaders, using whatever weapons happen to be available - including their bare hands if need be, at least in some cases.
It seems as though they are not as cowed as had been thought...

The prisoner actually seemed to be at a loss for words when the lieutenant was done speaking. He hesitated for a moment, then whispered:
"The blood god be praised... were you in his service, you would command armies and fleets such as would make worlds tremble. The followers of the blood god would swarm about you... I would give you my loyalty. You have killed a world, a world of billions of people... not more than a few dozen followers of the blood god, myself unfortunately not included in that most select of brotherhoods, can say that they have done that." he seemed to regain some confidence as he added:
"Still, you do not serve the blood god, and therefore he will not bless you as he has blessed me. Soon my fleet will return... and soon you will all die." that said, he seemed self confident once more, and ceased to speak for the moment.

Chinran snorted at Lord Gerax's added dismissal. The man had been impressed, he had been IMPRESSED of the amount of death Lieutenant Kenneth Chinran had spread. That simple fact told all he needed to know about the prisoners mental health.

It was time to try another tactic, one that sickened him but something he had to try nonetheless.

"Lord Gerax, there is no point in your fleet returning. If your forces wish to come back, they will be annihilated. Believe me when I say that Admiral Cortez, the CO of our Task Force, has the authority to call upon the entire Third fleet to this system if necessary."

"It does not truly matter if I serve the Blood God or dont Lord Gerax. Does it matter for him why or for what reasons people kill each other? Does it not suffice that blood is spilled? I decree myself more than worthy of questioning one of the Blood Gods servants such as yourself and you will co-operate with us fully, or face the consequences." Chinran finished, holding a small pause while he allowed what he had told to sink in to Lord Gerax.

"And finally, we can do this the painfull way. Believe me Lord Gerax, I can make you feel pain. Pain unlike you have never felt before. Pain that will cause you to beg for a quick death." He said silently, his voice cold as frozen helium and filled with menace.

The prisoner seemed... interested. He spoke with a voice that contained enough malice and hate to poison an ocean, asking:
"Do you think I am afraid of pain? Or that my warriors are afraid of death? We have all sworn an oath to seek a glorious death in battle - and so we will. All of us are sworn to die in service to the blood god... and so we have no fear of death. Ask me a question, and I might answer - you fools, so full of the disgusting weakness of all peaceful peoples amuse me... even if some of you would be better suited to fight alongside the legions of Khorne." that said, he quieted, and seemed to wait for the true interogation to begin.

The fleet was assembled and underway. The mightiest collection of ships ever fielded by the tribes was preparing to visit death and destruction upon some poor world... and the galaxy would tremble in fear before they were done, for they were the warriors of Khorne, and they would not be denied victory a second time...

The Khornate fleet exited The Warp at the very periphery of the system, coming in towards the center in a massed battle formation, light skirmisher craft towards the front, then a battle line of Cruisers, Battleships and so on, centered around a massive but slow moving craft of size such as was rarely seen...
It seems that the forces of the tribes are not so easily convinced to withdraw as it had at first appeared.

OOC: The giant ship isn't a planet killer - it's a Battlemoon, the largest mobile star ship built by my nation, the flag ship of all their fleets.

As for numbers: (translations provided into similar ship classes from David Webers' Honorverse - which is where Clairmont seems to have gotten the ideas for his navy from)

- Aprox. 2,500 eight man Chaos Fast Attack Craft (small ships, armed with one pair of ship killing torpedoes each, meant to rush in, deploy the torpedoes, then act as truly terminally guided missiles themselves - other than their torpedoes, they each are armed only with a set of 16 fire-linked las-cannons).

- Aprox. 850 light ships with crews under 100, of various classes and designs, most of which are roughly equivelent in fire power and surviveability to a ship of the Destroyer class.

- Aprox. 500 ships of the Cruiser class - this class is heavier than Clairmont ships classed as Cruisers - more like Battlecruisers or even light Battleships.

- Aprox. 150 ships of the Battleship class - about equivilent to Clairmont Dreadnoughts.

- One Battlemoon, a giant war ship far heavier than any single Superdreadnought ever built.

- Aprox. 1,000 freighters converted into either troop ships or suicide ramming ships... or even both, depending on the situation that develops.

- In total, these ships carry over five million ground troops, of which most are cultists.

- All ships of the Khornate Tribes carry Locust fighters - two man short range craft armed with anti-fighter las-cannons and some missiles for some (but not much) anti-capital ship capability - in all there are likely some 22,000 such craft.


(This fleet represents the majority of the entire Khornate Tribes fleet - about 85% to be exact).

OOC: Hello? Anybody there?

OOC: Sorry, been busy.

The holotank lighted up with a horde of new signals as the enemy fleet broke off from warp and returned to normal space. Their icons burned crisply and clearly on the holographic representation as the CIC of the command ship filtered the raw data from the sensors and sent it back to the bridge.

Admiral Lucien Cortez frowned as he saw the numbers. The actual number of enemies was pretty much hammered down by now, but CIC was still figuring out the exact mass of each contact which would give an idea as to their size.

There were over fifteen hundred enemy ships out there and that massive bastard ship that outmassed even Cortez's own [i]Illuminati[/b] by a hefty margin. The outset of the coming battle didnt seem positive.

"Comms, spin up the hypercom. I want a priority Case Omega call sent to Ragnar." Cortez said to the communications officer.

Case Omega was message code used when there was a significant chance of the Freehold coming under attack or a situation in a system near to the Freehold that recquired immediate resolution via military involvement.

Ragnar was the closest fleet station to Saint Rynald and thus it would be sending the appropriate forces. The last download Cortez had received from the admiralty told that the 11th and 13th fleets were stationed at Ragnar. Since the station was so close, the reinforcements could reach Saint Rynald in less than a day, if they left right away.

"Case Omega sent Admiral." The Commo officer reported as the hypercom sent the short burst message to Ragnar System.

The Prisoner

As the mighty Khornate fleet arrived in the system, the prisoner seemed to sense their arrival. Without warning he screamed:
"Khorne!!!", then appeared to go into seizures, dieing almost instantly.

The Fleet

As the Clairmont force made its calculations, the Khornate fleet began an attack run - the Khornate ships advanced as fast as they could - each ship was heading into the battle as quickly as it could, ignoring any attempt at a formation. It looked like it would be bloody...

"Signal all pod-laying vessels, order them to start releasing pods at maximum rate until they have rolled seventy-five percent of their capacity." Cortez said calmly while the fleet pulled away from the Khornate fleet attempting to overtake.

"Aye sir." The communications officer said as calmly as she could as well.

Everyone on the bridge knew what the Admirals order meant. The fleet would be throwing away three-quarters of its depletable ordnance in a single salvo, an act that would severely reduce its capability to return fire in a prolonged engagement. It would also quarantee one hell of an opening salvo.

"Sir, thirty-percent of the birds in that salvo will be out of shipboard control, we just dont have the telemetry links." The gunnery officer said.

"Thank you guns, Im well aware of that." Cortez replied a bit more coolly than he had intended.


As the fleet continued its withdrawal, a massive cloud of small pods was now emerging in its wake. Hundreds, thousands of the small pods drifted in space, maintaining their lock on the incoming enemy fleet via their attitude thrusters.

Nearly a third of them would be out of shipboard control, which essentially meant that the missiles would upon activation seek out the nearest enemy combatant above small-craft classes. Which however was not a problem when the target environment was as rich as it was.

The Khornate fleet continued its advance, heading straight for the Clairmont fleet. By this time, the heavier units were trailing significantly behind the lighter skirmisher units - it looked like they were all simply heading in towards the Clairmont fleet as fast as they can and with as much speed as they can manage.
As the forward Khornate units neared, they began to fire their Lance batteries and their other energy weapons - they fired long before they were in range, but seemed to be making a point rather than seeking to do actual damage. Their missile batteries held their fire, though - it looks as though at least those crews aren't going beserk...

OOC: Hello? Clairmont - are you still here?

OOC: Yea, I just check these boards less often these days.

IC:

As the Khornate fleet drew closer, its burning crimson icons on the holotank finally reached the edge of the green cone extending from the icon representing the released missile pods.

"Commence firing." Admiral Cortez ordered crisply.

The weapons officer lifted the plastic cover and pressed the button that initiated the pre-programmed firing sequence.

Nearly as one over twenty-five thousand missile pods belched fire, releasing an enormous tidal wave of capital missiles that sought out their targets hungrily once released from their restraints.

30% of those missiles had to seek targets with their far less capable onboard targeting systems, but targets they found. Some acquired freighters, some locked on to the bright burning beacon of the enemy battlemoon and surged forward.

"There goes nothing." Cortez muttered as he watched the missile salvo begin accelerating towards the incoming Khornate fleet.

Impressive as it was, that single salvo had severely crippled Cortez's capability to return fire in a prolonged missile engagement and against an enemy force of such massive numbers, only a sufficiently large salvo could cause enough damage to hamper their capability to fight to any usefull degree.

While Cortez doubted that those nearly quarter of a million missiles could actually destroy the enemy entirely, he hoped that it would cause them to rethink their approach and withdraw to regroup. The more optimistic outcome ofcourse was that the Khornate fleet would take sufficient casualties for Cortez to defeat them with the munitions he had left and with his fleets energy batteries.

He cleared his head from such thoughts and concentrated on observing the salvo bearing closer to the enemy.

The first, massive, salvo of missiles tore into the Khornate fleet, many penetrating their rather ineffective Point-Defense systems, to smash against the Khornate ships shielding.
It was brutal - over the course of that bombardment, over 500 light ships, 100 Cruisers and 47 Battleships were destroyed by that salvo, along with hundreds of light craft. It was most impressive, most impressive indeed... but the Khornate fleet, clustered around the Battlemoon, kept coming in towards the waiting fleet...

Cortez's face tightened as the CIC forwarded the estimated damage to the enemy to the holotank.

Their light and heavy elements had taken proportionally the most damage. Their medium elements however had lost only about fifth of their strength. And while there were most certainly severely damaged ships in the enemy fleet after that salvo, they still came on, without even a hint of hesitation.

"Well.. looks like they are more committed than we thought." Cortez's executive officer muttered next to him.

Cortez was about to reply when the communications officer spoke in elated tones.

"Priority one hypercom message from Ragnar, they inform that Admiral Friedricks left the system four hours ago and is on his way with the Eleventh fleet along with elements of the Twenty-fourth carrier battlegroup."

While good news, that would still mean that Cortez and his task force would have to hold on for another ten hours, a prospect which seemed unlikely in the face of such a massive enemy.

"Allright, have astrogation plot a course that will take us to the outer system and behind a moon or a planet." He ordered vaguely, knowing that the astrogator would know what he wanted to do.


It was a long shot, but he hoped that if the Khornate fleet thought that it wouldnt be worth the effort to pursue a retreating enemy, Cortez could pull behind a moon or a planet in the Saint Rynald system and wait for Admiral Friedricks to arrive.

The Khornate fleet continued in towards the system center, its formation falling to pieces as it came in towards the planet. As the Clairmont fleet broke off, the Khornate fleet approached Saint Rynald unopposed... and paused only long enough to deploy the transports, landing millions of soldiers on the blasted remains of Saint Rynald.
The rest of the fleet continued after the retreating fleet, firing their missiles fairly innaccuratly in response to the massive barrage they had suffered. Things were looking bad for the Saint Rynald system - there would be a lot of slaughter before peace might be restored once more... if it ever was...

It seemed that the enemy had been as intent on attacking the planet as Cortez had gambled. Only a small portion of the main enemy fleet was now pursuing the Clairmontian battlesquadrons, taking inaccurate and insufficient pot-shots after their retreating prey.

"Initiate missile-gamma. If they pursue us past point baker, have the LAC's and Strike Craft launch and take the enemy under fire from its flanks." Cortez said.

Missile-gamma was essentially a fireplan where a fleet unit would discharge its missile ordnance at a low rate-of-fire to preserve munitions. Cortez hoped that seeing their enemy biting back while still retreating, the Khornate ships behind him would turn back and join their companions at the planet of Saint Rynald.

But if they did not do that in another hour, they wouldnt do it at all and Cortez couldnt allow the enemy to see that he wouldnt be leaving the system entirely. If they pursued him past point-baker, he would have to take them out. He wagered on the basis of the data from CIC and the battle data gathered during the engagements that he could take his pursuers on and win, but there was a high likelyhood of severe casualties.

The populace of Saint Rynald stared up at its skies, and watched as the drop-ships of the third invasion this year fell upon their already largely flatened cities and their already largely scorched rural areas. The single most common thought amoung the locals was:
"Oh God, not again!" Still, even as the civilians made their way back into the hardened shelters, the last few remaining fighters of the Rynaldi Defense Forces and the Guerilla Army of Saint Rynald prepared to fight and die in defense of their world. This world was theirs - no enemy would take that away from them.

The Khornate fleet is continuing its persuit of the Clairmontese fleet, apparently intent on as much destruction as they can achieve.
Most of the heavy units didn't stop when they reached Saint Rynald - they simply fired off volleys of bombardment missiles (multi-megatonne standard nukes), then continued in their persuit of the enemy... although, it's becoming obvious that the Khornate ships are slower than their counterparts... however, they seem quite persistant...

OOC: The nuclear bombardment is being aimed mainly at surface-based military targets. The cultists enjoy slaughtering civilians too much to target urban areas...

"Crap" The single exclamation from Cortez's flag captain voiced the Admirals own thoughts quite accurately.

CIC had now determined that apparently only the transports had broken off from the main Khornate fleet. Their full combat strength was still after the two Clairmontian Battlesquadrons, and that changed Cortez's calculations significantly.

Altough he hadnt used his small-craft strength yet, he was certain that he could not survive an engagement with a hostile force of such size.

But, he also did not have to commit to action. He had a higher base velocity than the Khornates and he could maintain separation to them, keeping the advantage as the enemy ships seemed to have quite lacking missile capabilities. If he could just...

"Plot a new course, straight for the hyperlimit. I want us past the alpha wall as soon as possible." He said calmly.

"Aye sir, straight for the hyperlimit." The Captain of his flagship repeated his orders.

The tactic was risky, and extremely difficult to pull off. Essentially, he intended to leap-frog between hyper and n-space, hopefully keeping the Khornates after him and away from the planet long enough for Admiral Friedricks to arrive.

Since he could travel far faster in hyper than in n-space, he could, in theory, keep the range open between him and his enemy by breaking back to hyper and relocating every time the Khornates came too close for comfort. IF the bloodcrazed maniacs that were chasing him, continued pursuing him even after that, he could keep them off the planet and within a position most advantageous for the Clairmontians for the time it took Friedricks to arrive.

In Space

The Khornate fleet continued its mad persuit, making no effort to break off, firing salvos from their missile batteries and energy weapons, even when the latter were far beyond their maximum effective range... and so on. It seems as though they are incapable of tactics - they merely persue as fast as they can, with no further thoughts.

On The Ground

Millions of new Khornate soldiers were now on the ground, pouring out of their drop zones, slaughtering any they found. It seemed as though hell itself had come to the planet of Saint Rynald.

"Admiral? We are approaching the hyperlimit." The crisply delivered notification came from Captain Winslow as the timer hit ticked down to thirty minutes to the fleets designated exit point.

The Admiral gazed up from his own datascreens at his Flag Captain and nodded.
"Very well, sound action stations aboard all fleet vessels."

The Action Stations notification soon started to scream aboard all ships of the formation and aboard Cortez's flagship.

Action stations, action stations. Repeat, action stations. This is not a drill.

Friedricks grunted in approval at the haste and execution of the order. All personnel manned their own duty posts smoothly and efficiently. Now, the Admiral just hoped that the same smoothness of execution and efficiency would remain when the fleet engaged the enemy. i

The minutes ticked past slowly as the fleet approached its translation point, as the moment came, Admiral Friedricks gave the order.

"Drop out from hyper."

****

Nearly as one, over eight hundred ships translated from the ethereal realm of hyperspace to the star speckled darkness of n-space. Comprised out of five battlesquadrons, the fleet had 170 Ships of the Wall along with 380 Cruisers and finally the screening element. But as Admiral Friedricks' command was a full fleet, it also had something heavier.

A division of three Victory-class Supermonitors was the heart of the fleet. Each of the Supermonitors represented the second incarnation of the first Supermonitors that had been designed and built two decades before the Great War. Each of them massed over seven times more than the largest Clairmontian Superdreadnought and carried far more weaponry. Designed as flagships and the heaviest hitters in the Wall of Battle, they represented the full know-how of the Clairmontian Space Development Industry.

****

Admiral Cortez sighed in relief as CIC forwarded the data of Friedricks's arrival to the flag bridge. The odds had evened significantly now, and the chances of the Khornates getting repelled had increased greatly.

Altough the huge enemy battlemoon still outmassed even the Clairmontian Supermonitors, they might now have the firepower to hammer even the huge construct to dust. As an added bonus, if Cortez recalled correctly, the 11th fleets Supermonitors were equipped with the new fortress busters. Designed to destroy even heavy asteroid fortresses with one to two hits, they packed a massive amount of firepower.

Ofcourse, the huge missiles were far too slow and large to be of any practical use in a ship-to-ship missile action, but against the massive enemy ships they might just be the trick that would help save the Saint Rynald system.

On The Ground

On the planet's surface, massive hordes of cultists, backed up by some elite Chaos Space Marines and some armour, are moving to attack the major urban centers. If these urban centers fall, there will be a good chance that no survivors will be left by the time the planet is liberated once more...

In Space

The Khornate fleet is continuing its massive attack - the entire Khornate fleet is heading straight for the Clairmontese fleet. That includes the transports - they've deployed the troops in their holds, and are now heading straight for the fleet, where they appear intent on dieing gloriously in battle.

(OOC: Basically, expect my entire fleet to head straight at your entire fleet, firing all it's got the whole while, with the whole point being to deploy teleporting Chaos Space Marine teams and cultist teams on boarding torpedoes onto your ships).

There would be no tactics. This was head-on brutal slugfest and the one to dish out the most pain would walk out alive. The two fleets were in direct intercept course with each other.

Admiral Joachim Friedricks gazed out into the depths of the main holotank with deep consentration, trying constantly to refine the fire plans and tactics against his incoming enemy.

"Prepare to execute Lambda-One on my mark." He said as the Khornate fleet entered missile range from his now combined forces.

"Fire!" He ordered simply as the preparations for the opening fire plan were laid out.

Nearly a million capital missiles lashed out from the Fleet, arranged in neat formations and in places, clustered around larger missile icons. The larger icons represented the massive anti-fortress missiles fired by the supermonitors. Each of them massed over four hundred tons. The weapon was a three-stage penetrator. Upon entering its terminal attack range, the missile would detonate three different warheads in sequence.

The first warhead was a simple fission bomb, fueling two x-ray lasing rods. The warhead would first launch its booster rocket to take it away from the main missile body, and then detonate. The bomb-pumped x-ray lasers would then hopefully disable or atleast weaken locally any energy shield defenses in the target. The second warhead was a simple depleted uranium bar with an attached drive that would carry it forward for the single second it would require to hit the target. The second warhead's purpose was to penetrate or weaken armor locally in the target from the path of the main missile. The final warhead, and the main missile was a simple 500 megaton thermonuclear bomb with a tungsten deep penetrator head. The third warhead would simply plunge through the gaps or weaknesses created by the first two warheads to hopefully strike at the internals of the enemy target.

Around the fortress busters were swarms of Jammer, Decoy and Dazzler warheads which sought to confuse any enemy point-defense and force them to ignore the large missile in the middle of the pack.

The massive wave of missiles worked itself forward against the Khornate fleet whilst behind them, the full force of the Clairmontian Strike Crafts was launching from their carriers and arranging into formations.

There would be no tactics. There could be no tactics. The Locust class fighters of the Khornate fleet swarmed in front of the massed wall of oncoming ships, then dove in, firing their las-cannons against capital missiles and Strike Craft with equal madness. Individually, the Locusts were no match for any decent opposition... but there were a lot of them. A whole lot of them.
Behind them came the Khornate fleet, its own missiles sailing in towards their targets in the slow motion that inter-stellar warfare demanded. This would be a brutal battle, a ferocious battle... that much anyone could see at a glance.
The first wave of Clairmontese missiles struck home, ripping through Khornate point-defense and counter-missile barrages... dozens of Cruisers and even a single Battleship were lost to that first barrage, as the Khornate fleet sent its tens of thousands of missiles in towards the enemy fleet...

The oncoming horde of enemy small craft swept against the missiles first and their opposing strike craft afterwards.

Against the missiles, the enemy fighters fared badly. They only had a mere instant of time to engage the Clairmontian missiles before the wall of fire would already have passed their engagement envelope. Some few Khornate small-craft did succeed in being on the path of a 200 ton capital missile travelling at the better part of .28c, the results of such collisions were in all cases ultimately fatal for both the missile and the fighter.

As the Khornate fighters passed the cloud of missiles, they ran into the coherent and well organized attack squadrons of Clairmontian strike craft.

The fighter squadrons accepted the challenge posed to them by the Khornates with confidence. They assailed the incoming enemy small craft with nuclear tipped dog-fighting missiles and onboard guns. Attacking in pairs, the Clairmontian strike craft engaged the enemy fighters with cruel precision and cold logic, picking them apart from where they were the weakest.


As the Khornate attack missiles roared towards their targets, they inevitably entered the effective point-defense envelope of Admiral Friedricks' fleet.

Hundreds, thousands of counter-missiles lashed out towards the incoming enemy missiles. Having been designed with missile combat as high priority, each of the Clairmontian ships could put out a massive amount of point-defense fire. As such, the first wave of Khornate missiles numbered too few to penetrate the datalinked and effective point-defense capabilities of Friedricks' fleet.

Even as the Khornate missiles dove through defense fire, the massive fortress buster missiles were closing on the enemy battlemoon. Their escorting capital missiles were mostly gone, sacrificed while clearing a road for their charges. Some of the fortress busters had been succesfully intercepted, but twenty of them remained and would reach their target soon.

The last few survivors of the Rynaldi Defense Forces and the Guerilla Army of Saint Rynald are dug in around the bunker complexes in which the last few hundred thousand survivors huddle. Millions of Rynaldis have perished so far during this invasion, and the planet itself has been brutally devestated. Nothing remains of the original Rynaldi cities, save for deep bunkers left over from the last of the Sect Wars.
The only site being defended other than the bunkers housing the remnants of the civilian populace is the site upon which the Cathedral of Saint Rynald once stood. That site once fell to the savage enemy - never again... that has been the vow of the remaining resistance forces left on the ground...

Even as the full force of the Khornate fleet concentrated itself against the full might of Admiral Joachim Friedricks' fleet, the stealthed heavy assault troop transports of the Fleet Strike 15th, 16th and 19th Army Groups approached the planet of Saint Rynald.

"Alright! Check and secure your weapons! Drop in five minutes!" Master Sergeant Ashton Cady bellowed over the deck as the marines of Bravo Company, 712th Battalion, 107th Marine Division, attached to Fleet Strike 15th, hustled over the deck, carrying their equipment to the awaiting Assault Shuttles and preparing for a rough ride.

Cady grunted in approval as he watched his Marines go about doing their jobs. They looked like they had a purpose, and they were determined, trained and equipped to deal with the battle they would face. There was the occasional greenhorn, fresh out of Ft. Wyvern Marine School. Their inexperience could be detected a mile away by any veteran, but the rest of the Company mostly was helpfull in schooling the newbies of the many things they did not learn at Wyvern or in Basic.

Cady cleared his head, and picked up the Battle Armor helmet from its rack. He attached it with the delicate precision of the servomotor powered arms that followed his movements precisely. As the helmet attached, it sealed the piece of powered armour airtight and began initializing the combat routines in preparation for the coming battle.


Five minutes, twenty seconds later, an enormous swarm of Assault Shuttles descended to the atmosphere of Saint Rynald. Their heavully armoured hides glowed as the heat caused by the friction of re-entry began to build up. The armour held against the heat with impunity, designed to take heavy anti-air fire and survive, the Assault Shuttles sneered at the nuisance. They dove further, unrelenting deep into the planets atmosphere, and towards the remaining Saint Rynald strongholds.

As the shuttles descended further, they began seeking targets.

LIDAR and Radar found targets, and the weapons control station of each Assault Shuttle displayed those targets for their operators to see. The men and women controlling the weapons of the shuttles engaged automated target designation and locking routines, and in mere moments, dozens, hundreds of targets had been locked on.

At an altitude of thirty-five kilometers, most of the shuttles' direct fire weaponry would be ineffective and inaccurate. However, the vessels also carried a wide selection of disposable ordnance, and now they began flushing that ordnance in waves of destruction.

First went out the heavy payload missiles carried by the shuttles beneath their wings. The missiles accelerated in a steep angle towards the ground and once they reached the altitude of 5000 meters, their nose cones broke apart and seven independant delivery vechiles were discarded. Each of the delivery vechiles was a heavy anti-tank missile that locked on to the nearest unclaimed enemy heavy vechile and engaged terminal attack maneuvers. With both their kinetic energy penetrator heads and explosive payload, they were guaranteed to outright annihilate any main battle tank and at the very least, heavully damage even super heavy vechiles.

The second wave of fire went down in the form of smart-bombs. Each of the bombs had both inertial and datalink guidance capabilities, which sufficed since the bombs would disperse twenty smaller bomblets in a pre-programmed deployment pattern. The smart bombs had been targeted mainly on concentrations of enemy infantry around the Saint Rynald strongholds.

To finish off the delivery of death, the shuttles fired off their sprint-mode attack missiles. Only barely guided, the missiles accelerated extremely fast, relying on speed to reach their targets. Each of the missiles was tipped with enough Compound 9 atomic catalyst explosive to equal a 1 kiloton nuclear warhead.

As the fireworks descended down on the Khornate troops, the shuttle swarm continued its descent.

In Space

The Khornate fleet continued its headlong mad rush to close with the opposing fleet, disreguarding any and all tactical concerns in favor of simply closing more quickly... their missiles and energy weapons have begun firing, mostly ineffectively, but some of the attacks they are madly launching seem to be getting through...

In The Air

The Locust fighters of the Khornate fleet are conducting interception attempts on the incoming assault shuttles, but they're at a disadvantage - their weaponry is lighter, and they're outnumbered easily three to one... still, no one ever said beserkers were filled with self-preservation...

On The Ground

As they swarmed over the ruined remains of the cities of Saint Rynald, the enemy ordinence caught them unprepared - thousands of cultists, hundreds of Khornate soldiers and dozens of Chaos Space Marines were killed during the bombardment.
Needless to say this did not break the morale of the remaining attackers - they are continuing their mad charges in to attack the remaining pockets of resistance, intent on a massive slaughter of the surviving Rynaldi civilians...

HMS Minotaur simply vanished as some of the enemy missiles finally managed to break through the tight point-defense of the fleet. The Heavy Cruiser detonated in a blinding flash, turning its three million ton hull into so much space dust.

She wasnt the only one to go down, all over the fleet the Khornate fire was breaking through and wreaking damage. But these ships had been designed to stand up to prolonged combat with megaton range nuclear weapons and energy beams of unbelievable power. Their hardiness made the Khornates work for every kill they achieved.

But even as they died, Admiral Friedricks knew that death was being wrought on the Khornate fleet as well as thousands upon thousands of pinpricks of nuclear light blinked into existence in the midst of the enemy formation.

The range had dropped significantly since the beginning of the engagement, and it was now inevitable that the Clairmontian fleet would enter energy weapon range of the Khornates. It was simply a matter of time, and then the real slaughter would begin, on both sides.

His contemplation of the energy engagement about to come came to a halt as the first of the fortress busters struck home against the Khornate Battlemoon.

****

Battle armored troopers jumped off from their assault shuttles as they began combat dropping their loads on the ground while the shuttles that had already dropped their troops circled above the landing zone, trading fire with the Khornate fighters.

Comparatively, the assault shuttles were far more heavully armed. But they were also far less agile than their opponents. The pilots of the shuttles did their best to make up for their lack of agility with the sheer amount of firepower they had. Each shuttle carried a standard load of air/space combat missiles designed for engaging small craft. In two's, threes and fours, the missiles went out, seeking for their targets.

Some of the shuttles hadnt been lucky enough to reach the ground safely, torn apart by packs of enemy fighters swarming them, and overwhelming even the massive armour and weaponry of an assault shuttle by sheer numbers.

While half of the shuttle contignent kept the Khornate fighters busy, the others turned upon the Khornate ground forces, providing close-air-support for the Fleet Strike troops that were beginning to maneuver into the flanks of the enemy.

****

"Move it! Move it! This aint a goddamn game show kids!" Master Sergeant Cady yelled over the platoon command net while the Lieutenant was busy with providing vectors of advance and assigned areas of responsibility to each squad of the platoon. Behind and surrounding Cady's platoon, the other elements of the Fleet Strike forces dropped to the planet, went about with the same routines.

It appeared to Cady that no one had ever taught the Khornates the importance of proper tactical maneuvering. The maniacs simply seemed to rush forwards in hordes, ignoring casualties and common sense in order to grab a piece of their enemy.

Movement orders appeared on Cady's HUD. He grunted in approval. Despite the Lieutenants lack of experience, Cady had a good feeling about the kid. The pre-battle briefing the Lt had given could have come out of a Special Warfare instructor if one didnt know better.

Now, the only thing that remained was to defeat the numerically superior Khornate ground troops and stay alive.

In Space

The inferior gunnery of the Khornate ships meant that fewer of their shots connected, but the beserk Khornate gunners are firing off as many missiles and Lance blasts as they can, almost making up for accuracy in weight of fire.
Several Cruisers, and a few Battleships have been destroyed, but nothing decisive so far...

On The Ground

Initial resistence has proven light - mostly it took the form of of a few crazed cultists armed with small arms and a very few heavy weapons. Some true soldiers are backing up the cultists, but they're few and far between. Their bolters are proving to be more of a threat to the Clairmontese marines than the cultists weapons have proven to be.
Still, little real opposition is being faced so far - sure, a few Locust fighters attacked the assault shuttles, their las-cannons slicing in to destroy what they could... but only a few, and most of those that attacked never got a second chance to attack.

[ooc: Go Khornate, go! You may not be my favorite of all the allied factions, but an allied faction you are, none the less! Show these miserable humans the true power of Chaos!]

Another Superdreadnought detonated in a dreadful display of pyrotechnics as its overwhelmed bulk absorbed one hit too much and gave up under the enormous stress. But even as she died, another moved to take its place, maintaining tight cohesion in the central formation of the Clairmontian force.

The lumbering Supermonitors had switched to rapid fire on their fortress busters, each firing two per minute and running through their available magazines of the special munitions at an atrocious rate.

The Khornates had passed into the effective energy weapon envelope of the Clairmontians. Usually, that range would have been half a million kilometers against a target with gravity- and or electromagnetic defense screens, but against the Khornates more traditional defenses, the beams would maintain cohesion at ranges three times higher. Hundreds, thousands of batteries of Gamma-ray Lasers and Hellbores opened up, sending volley after massive volley of fusion bolts and coherent high-energy beams at their foes.

****

Specialist Nelms had time to transmit a gurgle before the bolter round took his head off. Altough the combat armor of the Clairmontian Marines protected the troopers against many light arms at longer ranges, the large rocket propelled explosive rounds of the bolters penetrated through it as if it was tissue paper.

The high caliber rounds were proving to be a significant threat even against the extremely durable Battle Armor of the heavy assault troops and many platoon leaders watched their troopers' icons turning red as bolter rounds chewed them to bits.

The enemies toting the heavy weapons also became priority targets on every soldiers HUD. Targeting vectors and fields of fire adjusted as the more capable and dangerous enemy soldiers were prioritized by the Combat Intelligence aiding every Company in executing the mission.

As the main force pushed forward, clearing the landing zone, the assault shuttles returned. They brought down the heavy armour and artillery of the Fleet Strike and soon the Clairmontian ground forces were able to call upon indirect fire support on the Khornates.