NationStates Jolt Archive

*Six Hours into the Counterattack*

A tense time within the Ascendancy held Confederacy territories in Milky Way Core space, as the full force of Wave One assaults all across the Alpha Universe superclusters held by the Dark Eternals. As this was all progressing, beyond the sight of most civilizations once more, one part of the act was about to assert itself into full view.

System GT-772.33 was the only system closest to the Shield Wall array, but not under direct Confederacy jurisdiction. However it also was essentially a dead system, nothing lived there. Only four worlds and six broken moons among them, the red giant was entering the last phase before it's long death knell began for the next several million years.

However this also made it all a perfect forward observation post for Ascendancy patrol groups, needed a warning beacon of sorts for the forces and Systems behind the Hikari Shield Wall. With the Wall preventing all (even friendly) incursions into this area of space, the one hundred and thirty-seven Systems were supposed to be secure enough, as long as the Ascendancy didn't cause other wars it didn't need. Obviously GE combined fleet arms could overwhelm the Shield Wall with enough time, so the Sphere didn't give reason for such to occur.

The Dark Eternals were enough of a problem anyway.

One that decided to launch a strange counterstrike of their own, a few hours into the main Counterattack the Sphere Alliance was conducting. Somehow they were able to manage a small suprise. (Small in comparable numbers to the rest of the DE armadas conducting intergalactic war.)

System GT-772.33 ended up being the target from who knows where exactly. What it is remembered, is the size of the battle that came next.

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

System GT-772.33-II, A near devoid M-class world long since geologically dead, all but a pure desert, with broken mountains spotting the surface in areas. It's like the world Dune, but flat dead as dead can get. It's history was long since gone.

The small five ship flotilla from the Sphere territory nearby wasn't as so. A small starbase listening post where forward Comm-Orbs relayed data from light-years around, had only a few hundred personel, mortal, celestial and droid alike. The fleet was only three High-Mobiles, a Cruiser WarShip of the Old Era, and a single Ascendant Crystal Heavy Cruiser.

It wasn't supposed to be much. Any attack against them was to be relayed, and then the post abandoned outright, and emergency Fold anywhere else but that System anyway. They could all regroup in Sphere territory anywhere soon after, and tactical reprisal planned. The Shield was supposed to hold out just long enough to do all of this.

The problem was two fold. Murphy and Fubar both existed in the Sphere military as well. Reminders things can go south fast.

Case in point....

---

"We got a massed reading of a dark type Fold jump in progress....

....all around us!!"

The Sensor-Tech on duty shouted this out, freezing the command deck solid. "Repeat that?" ...the Commander asked.

The answer came all too suddenly, as a steady wave of large numbers of dark clad vessels of all kinds and frightening shapes appeared, too many on 'top' of the starbase, and amongst the tiny flotilla.

"By the light...." ..the Commander whispered... "SEND A BURST CODE!!"

The only thing that told the outside galaxy of what was happening in any detail, was the Comm-Orbs relaying a two second compressed signal burst of all sensor logs for a five minute cycle period.

Nothing came after that, not a soul survived the initial barrage....

The DE had their apparent foothold in the Milky Way Galaxy.

*Confederacy Alliance Space, Milky Way Core Galaxy*

The word from that burst message came fast...

:: ~ Post GT-772.33-II, were uner attack. Huge force, looks like DE.... ~ ::

Admiral Ruri, the closest ranking official to the Council, present after Operation Gluttony finished, for personal affairs, got word of the sudden attack from Primary Command on planet Hikaru. Being on planet Atasmeu in a seperate system at the time, the word took a bit of time to reach her.

As soon as she got wind of it though.. "Set all present forces to counterattack that sytem immediately. We can't let the DE get a foothold in the Virgo Supercluster." ..she spoke into a wrist comm. The Hikari Network did the rest over holo-net.

":: We have three Legions and a Host Command present. But using them will leave the Shield Array without backup ma`am. ::"

"Acknowledged. Contact Fleet Command and inform them we need help from the Wave Reserves. I'll be taking the Nadesico to the Gate, send all forces there, and send the recall signal to all Patrols in this galaxy."

":: Ma'am... ::" Came the voice of the System Defense Commander. Ruri then contacted XO Hori and broke short the leave for the crew.

---

For the next half-hour, it was a race, as tens of thousands of barely recognizable DE vessels with troop crews began to entrench themselves inSystem at GT-772.33, the Sphere raced to recall all it's away assets.

What was sent out over open comm was chilling to note.

:: ~ Alert-One Stage Recall, all Sphere assets are ordered to return immediately. Standard defense protocols are in full effect. ~ ::

With the Comm-Orb array relaying the signal, the order was reached to most of the deployed fleet within another half-hour. All across the Milky Way Galaxy, large numbers of Patrolling Gaian vessels suddenly Fold jump enmasse.

It was a race against time now to launch the counterassault to the DE one.

An hour later, the Nadesico-Yamato arrives via a Fold, but finds a bad suprise.

"DE raid units attacking the forces arriving at the Gate!"

Hori commands back over the comms, superseeding the previous Comm-Tech. "All ships group at point three-six that are present."

"All ships deploy Starburst weapons on Fleet Patter Cannona. As soon as ship arrive at point three-six, attack in force." ...Ruri stabs in quickly. The actions send all arrvied vessels to a point just inside the Gate barrier, while in contact vessels start launching Sunburst torpedoes, causing a series of blinding lights to literally 'burn off' some of the DE raiding forces.

More ships, mainly Treeships and small Warship Patrols in twos and threes, and are ordered into second echelon line behind point three-six.

Some of the ships are caught in the DE attack and are forced to hold on, those that aren't destroyed outright. Many however deploy Exos and Angelics before hand from those that don't make it, and cause their own havoc in the DE clouds of strangely shaped vessels.

These small groups on both sides claw at each other, while the initial Gaian fleet wave grows large enough, eventually advancing back through the Gate Shield and driving off the DE attack in a short ten minute slaughter. (especially once the numbers simply crush the small DE attack.)

Eventually the Gaian Task Group passes five hundred vessels, adhoc and all.

"Orders admiral?" Hori asks, once the fleet number reaches sufficent size.

"It's obvious this attack is meant to distract the main forces from the main objectives of Operation Paladin. We'll have to drive them back somehow with what we have, or hold them in place and call for aid.

Once the main Defense Host for this territory arrives in place, we'll attack in full force. No matter the cost, we have to drive them out before they fully entrench, or we'll have this thorn for the majority of the war."

"Not happening." Hori answers back to the last, a number of other vessel commanders acknowledging the same.

"Very well then. Fold on my mark and other assets at their behest." Ruri commands calmly.

By the time the DE raid is obliterated at the Gate, the word reaches Republic StarFleet Command.

Yurika fumes at the incoming data, only adding to her agitation. "WHERE THE FRACK DID THEY COME FROM!?!? The DE shouldn't be anywhere near the Virgo Supercluster!"

Universe Commander Sandra Hartha, and FACAF Supreme Commander Lord Devilin Stone both shy away for a second from Yurika, watching the multiple Strategic Holo-globes of the progress of Operation Paladin, as literally billions of troops and ships either are actively in Wave One - Phase One to Seven operations parts, in hundreds of galaxies and subsequent star systems and other mass celestial bodies, or are about to leave for Wave Two in less than two hours.

The Holo-Globes are filled with white light points where galaxies are represented, with different colors of yellow dots, indicating strength of the assaults currently in action. Entire interial galaxy threads, entire spans of galaxy arms that are faced towards the 'center' of the universe, or rather, map wise, the Virgo Supercluster, as per Gaian map standards, are showing long, very long strings of yellow dots. The individual galaxies are being handled by seperate world commands on other planets. Later many of the same will handle further Waves in other galaxies, as well as the liberation operations to ensure the campaign is not of one super empire removing another.

Other than the Fourth Great Expansion, with the Corseria and Columbia Superclusters, where massive numbers of political alliances were being enacted to expand the power of the Guardianship to the Superclusters Universal 'Left' of the Archonis Supercluster. The addition of so many new Confederacy Alliance realms would expand the power base of the Sphere for centuries to come for it's more peaceful intentions, after the war. All of the rest of the liberation campaign zones on hundreds of thousands of galaxies would be slowly restored to a more independant state, and then left to their own devices.

In the end, the annihalation of the Dark Eternals as a threat was more important than any territorial gains, to the Sphere.

The attack on GT-772.33/MWCG Sector was however not in ANY of the planning operations, in fact it was a major concern, that it couldn't be explained how the hell the DE got that far inside the Virgo Center Sector.

Yurika was therefore frazzled beyond reason.

"Redirect FACAF and Kushan`athar Droid and Fleet assets from Wave Six to the MWCG Sector. Plug that thing before we have a total mess over there."

Commander Stone pulls up TOE for the Wave. "We can send 8,119th Republic Droid-Mothership Fleet Command, The 11th Royal Battlemech Division to spearhead the 18th Angelic Host and divert the Kappa Fortress to supply until the Seventh Wave instead."

Yurika blinks. "Nice overkill."

"Maybe, but who the heaven knows." Stone retorts bluntly. They all know the DE may flood the Milky Way to force the Gaian hand before the subsequent Waves.

Yurika clenches her hands. "Do it. I want that leak shut."

Commander Hartha turns and begins sending divert orders.

---

Meanwhile the adhoc attack force begins to link Fold drive comptrollers to a single Fold leap into the fire. Ruri grows just as anxious for a battle too chaotic for her tastes.

The Gaians started their own backyard brawl with the small fleet appearing at the edge of GT-772.33, with a large group of DE vessels staring them down almost after arrival.

"Think they're expecting us. Sufficit to say." Hori comments, a split moment before Ruri commands... "Fire at will! Repeat, fire at will!" ..just before the fleet fire's it's wrath at the same coming at 'them'!"

The DE inital screen fires almost at the same moment, and both sides flat out begin stabbing at each other to death. Very little else to it. The problem lies in the fact that it begins rather far out of the system boundry, about halfway to the sparse Oort cloud.

For the moment till reinforcements arrive, the DE simply keep strengthening their position. At the battle itself, half of the present DE forces move to attack the Gaian force. Fighters, Exos and goddesses knows what else are thrown at each other in the first few moments alone.

The battle began to turn ugly after the next series of events started to occur. First the battle at the edge of the system flat out simply gouged at each other, as the DE thought to try and press the advantage with a massed thrust at the bulk of the fight.

Then the Gaians gathered enough for a second adhoc flotilla, and threw it at a seperate edge of the system. The few DE forces there were overwhelmed, and forces a shift in resources, causing a second fight that was keeping the Gaians out of the System.

By now, the DE force had increased by 20,000 vessels inSystem, and the Gaians stood almost even with the enemy.

About an hour into this, the Reserve finally moved, and the 8,119th Republic Droid-Mothership Fleet Command arrived first, at a third point at the edge of the System. The 11th Royal Battlemech Division/18th Angelic Host arrived behind the 8,119th, but was held up when the DE threw that 20,000 force at the third arrival.

At this point, the battle could be easily noticed by nearby sensors for Parsecs around. Both sides used near maximum firepower, while the DE kept sending ships through the mysterious breach inSystem.

However at this point, the initial battle zone was slowly shifting in the Gaian's favor, as Holia weapons ripped into the DE line. Angels and Sphere fighters were like hornets into the DE line, pushing back their enemy counterparts. The losses were terrible, over two-thousand pilots and angels alone already. But the DE were fracturing.

But the cost was only starting to be paid..............

The Angel Exo jinked it's dark red glistened armor hard right, just avoiding a deadly beam, splayed off it's reflective surface. It then tumbles X-axis right and shoves hard forward and slashes it's beam sword through a DE 'blob' fighter, then shoots up along the broken hull of an Ascendant cruiser.

Three DE fighters scream past and kill the jinking Angel before it knows what happened, as they split tri-wide left, and into a tracking Gaian missle spread, killing all three just as quickly.

Off the right a Gaian Omni-LAM breaks off from it's tri flight to avoid a seperate beam strike, and corkscrews upwards as a DE fighter tracks it, getting shot down by a helping, seperate Combat Mecha.

It does not avoid a blast that hits the nearby DE cruiser, and is blinded into a death crash into the same hull.

The cruiser meanwhile gets Heavy Pulse Cannon blasts and thrice more Light Cannons all across it's hull by a charging Gaian Avalon Cruiser WarShip, barely managing to gut it through before carashing head long into it.

Fighters and Mecha keep screaming all around it, Angel Exos and Gaian Mecha dying just as fast as DE ones, same for the Warships.

However it's not simply everything dying all at once. Many of the vessels at the very line of battle simply are too broken by this point to survive, trying to keep each other way from heavier command ships. However the battle here is so chaotic, order to even this objective is losing cohesion.

The combat comms of the fighting and dying are too numerous where one is singled out over others.

One certain High Mobile however merits tragic note.

---

Heavy sparks of a blown conduit flare past her near shattered control station. The hovering apparatus on emergency backup, keeping the Admiral from falling, hardly comfort for the gash across her head from a shard of bulkhead earlier.

The bridge is as much a mess, the entire High-Mobile is a near ruin.

Ruri looks back up from the electric shower as her command is nearly finished.

"S... tatus...."

Hori is rocked in his barely functioning XO holo-seat by another hard hit to the nearly sundered shields. "We've lost about everything. That last shot severed most of our port side conduits. We're venting subspace plasma. Comptroller core is about gone. Hell, everything is about gone.

I recommend we abandon ship."

Ruri actually gasps under her thrown about mane. "Abandon....?"

Another shot blows a gash into the Nadesico-Yamato's Port side again, more damage from a DE foe that is somewhere being just as equally pummeled into oblivion.

Hori stabs back up behind him. "We lost all port weapons. The Core is actually failing."

Ruri grimmaces and looks up. "We have any comms?"

":: Barely.. ::" ...one of the surviving crew says. Ruri clenches the head of her right arm rest. "Acknowledged."

Wordlessly, she understands what has to be done. All of this within an hour. When the DE started focusing fire more than anticipated, all that initially saved the High-Mobile was the crew's skill and Ruri's quick orders.

The DE were however able to wear them all down, as much as the Sphere was able to do likewise. Attrition had a more horrid meaning here. She could imagine how many were dying all across the Alpha Universe. Operation Paladin, despite the overwhelming scope, was broken down to massed battles with this very same result.

People dying, and commanders realizing they were learning lessons too late.

And many dying soon after....

"Ab.... andon..... ship."

Hori and the rest of the living bridge crew stopped their actions, just before another shot busted another near vital mechanisim. The air also began to change in pressure too, as if the obvious wasn't too stark enough.

Ruri, in two hundred years, this ship one of the original, original of the Republic StarFleet vessels made. If Hori was the first love, the Nadesico was the second.

She however knew what came first. "YOU HEARD ME!!"

The crew began to leap out of what seats that still could. Hori did the same and climbed over to Ruri, who was motionless after... "Admiral, that means you too."

"I don't know about that."

Hori was about to query worried, when suddenly...

---

...the stricken High-Mobile, just as the first escape pods jettison, is SLAMMED into by the same dying DE cruiser, all but shearing the rear half of the ship from the fore bow. The raining debri fly at high speed into other ships and fighters nearby, adding to the carnage.

---

...which shows up as a vast wall of flame that bursts through several bridge hatches, killing outright most of the escaping survivors.

The blast throws Hori and Ruri forward across the open deck.

The ship begins imploding from pressure bursts soon after.

---

Command falls to Commander Utara of the Reserve Fleet present. It also means the DE are seemingly gaining ground back.....

Nothing gets the way you want like the blunt direct approach. As the battle at Point One, the code name now for the inital battle area, began to lose control against the Gaian forces, the Gaians got command from Utara for a massed Foundation torpedo strike at the rear of the DE line, with the Folding in of a single cruiser with six torpedoes and an overloaded Zero-Point Core drive unit.

About fifteen seconds after the said vessel arrives at the DE funnel point where the enemy vessels were arriving to join the fight, a massive subspace rift is caused, barely enough away for gravitational waves to affect the Star System itself, (none of that planet out of orbit mess...) but sure enough to sear a large number of DE vessels into the oblivion the Gaians intended.

The flare however is so bright that optical sensory is rendered useless for a few moments. The Point One fight pauses for a bare moment. The fights at Point Two and Three however seem to take the intended course of the overkill strike, as the Gaians send rearward elements of the fleets to pincer nadir and zenith wise, above and below the DE battle lines.

Despite however, the Gaians still haven't broken inSystem yet, and the DE keep moving fresh forces in, at a slow trickle. However the DE don't have much left to send, only 50,000 more approximate.

The situation is at where it was intended.....

The battle played out of particular interest, on the holo-globes of the ones that authored this entire endeavor. One that was relieved her neck would not meet the same fate as many of her staff, when the Dark Lord learned of too many failiures.

Mistress Washu looked back from the barely lit purple, and red dotted globe, barely piercing this unnatural darkness.

"{~ It seems one of the Faithful Council fell. The experiment is a true success. ~}"

Someplace she looked back at the pitch lack of any light, where the darker detail managed to merit terror filled note. None of it moved, and something between breathing and hissing purged out. Washu stiffled her glee outright as a result.

Nearby, Lord Soth kept eye on the progress of the battle. He was the only one that held any sway with words now in this nightmare of places. The deck of the dark mirror of the Eternal Destiny A-SSD was about as melded into the Void as the rest of the small 'guard' fleet.

Like He cared if they could be attacked. Soth didn't care either.

"{{~ It would seem also, the false ascendants, warped and all, are exausted of their reinforcements. *Looking back at the same darkness Washu is.* I would recommend we end the operation. ~}}"

The hiss grumbled for a moment, musing ideas within the choking black pitch.

Washu and Soth (of Washu and Tenchi in the current 'Lightverse', as the Dark Lord insulted it all as...) waited, and didn't speak. Soth didn't worry, rather gave respect.

Washu flat out kept shutted. Of return note...

"{{{{~ Recommendation accepted. No need to give notice to us at all of present.

Let the false slaves rot to their folly. All the better to feed my Entropic mind as it is. ~}}}}"

Washu nodded, but Lord Mulhorand tasked of Soth... "{{{{~ Prepare to depart for the Realm. We have the lynchpin in place to give our mirrors.

Now we must entice the faithful of the True corrupt in this Dimension. The slow and agonizing method comes next. We will leave the Mirrors to their hollow and phyrricness, of what they will call 'victory'. ~}}}}

Soth nodded. "{{~ The Gate will be activated in five hours. When should we prepare for a return trip, advance wise Master. ~}}"

Mulhorand pondered, ignoring Washu's existence once more, for his own experience. Since it took vast energies and a good week of time, to power up a cross dimension Gate, planning was essential each time. being in a non-native Dimension was not easy on his physical form, and until the Day of Night came at last, he could not remain in this wretched Dimension for very long.

Being here two weeks before the known beginning of the offensive into the DE empire by the Mirrors, to 'steer' some DE forces to attack in the Milky Way Galaxy, to divert attention of the Mirrors, at the time most 'rude' to the Mirror's plans. It meant several trips back and forth, weakening the Dark Lord each time.

The return would have to be prolonged this time, so planning for a new trip was not critical, not compared to the data gained here. This was the key to the Dark Ascendancy plan to gut the Mirrors before they could react at all.

Entropic Funnel Gates. A pathetic name for a simple process equal to the Mirror's Fold systems. With meddeling, the process could allow cross Dimensional transport of large forces, to specific points the DA wanted. Enough to crack the Mirrors of their power bases.

More would have to come from enslaved allies in this Dimension. Kinds that felt 'they' were in control, and ones that could even turn on the Dark Lord's forces, when the time was right.

So many plans that needed time and hate to fester properly. The Dark Lord considered, then answered to Lord Soth. "{{{{~ Not for five of our standard years. I need to siphon enough power from the Entropic to garner my needed strength.

It will take much to sew the seed of Destruction, in the end. We need patience to keep afoul. I have spoken. ~}}}}"

Soth nodded and departed, not bothering to note Washu depart as well.

In the pitch, the Dark Lord subsumed away from view of his terror stricken crew, to a place outside of logical existence. Here, for the time that was needed to wait for the Gate to form, he fed...

...so much wide spread death and used energy, feeding the Entropic of this Lightverse Dimension like a raging river into a deep sea.

One he felt no need to halt drinking from, even to drown in it all.

*Ten hours into the Counterattack*

They finally broke through at Point Two, after Point One used the distraction of the foundation weapon strike, and a deft on spot decision my Commander Utara to redeploy the remainder of Point One to Point Two, where the DE were cracking badly already.

After that, the DE forces at former Point One tried to reorient, but by that time the Gaians broke through at two places. Point Three hit at the flank closest to Point Two to exacerbate what looked like a push to link up and the DE overreacted, thinning out the other flank.

Three Foundation weapons and a hard Angelic Exo assault made the DE pay and Point Three broke like a rubble pile in space.

For another hour the Gaians chased after the now disorganized DE elements all the way to the fourth planetary orbit. There the last of the DE reinforcements forced the Gaians to halt the advance, leaving behind a huge trail of broken ships and bodies in space from both sides. The only thing that kept the Gaians from being outnumbered here, was a large number of remaining Foundation weapons gouging holes in the DE lines. This only thinned the DE line out enough to force them to defend a large circular swath of the fourth planetary orbit, along 8/10ths of the orbit line.

The fourth Gas Giant planet held two of the system moons, both airless chuncks of rock, and the Gaians finally sent ground troops to them both.

To say both moons were covered in battle shortly thereafter was an understatement, The two sides for the moment actually managed to cover both moons enough, where the actual battle lines around both moons, matched the at the moment battle line of the two sides, almost to the equal Attitude moon position, and planetary orbit gravity line. Flat out creepy, as it was tragic. The strange 'order' of it all wouldn't last for long however. Both sides went back to the bloody stalemate, as numbers on both sides began to dwindle again.

However this time the DE had nothing left to send. If they broke here, it was over. However the Gaians were lacking reinforcements at the moment as well, as Wave Four was passing now through the remainder of the Alpha Universe invasion zones.

It would be awhile before free forces could come and relieve the Gaians here.

---

Commander Utara was almost beside herself with this very fact as the battle kept screaming across her Unity Class A-SSDs viewports, while the same said A-SSDs superlasers fired to the echo effect of sharp plasma electrons in vast numbers, to her ears.

Somewhere a DE vessel died, outside the A-SSDs range of return fire. Off to the starboard view, a huge glowing Shield Tree was spinning it's active Wings in a swirling pattern that sent more subspace disruption waves at the same enemy. The Wings however were flickering with spent energies, giving a weary look to them.

And the long battle was still beyond far from resolved. Current reports gave a worried picture that DE forces could counter the Sphere assault if they had a chance to gather enough strength. The danger of the Gaian chase assault was coming to the fore, as the DE almost countered and broke the Gaian Point lines. Those Foundation weapons were the salvation of the battle for the Gaians, ones that were in short supply now. There was still more DE present than the weapons, in even a massed strike now, that would cause enough of a hole for the Gaians to break through again.

But that wasn't the only reason she was so jittery.

"Nothing ma`am."

The Commander shot a look behind her, when a Star Captain suddenly reported the results of the SAR operation.

"What the hell do you mean 'nothing'? Ships don't vaporize into nothing, they..."

"Ma`am, we had lots of DE interference from scattered units to our rear. It's making finding the Nadesico near impossible, and we can't even find the IFF box transponder. Nothing means just that at the moment. I'm sorry."

Utara didn't need to reorder to look again, if something was found, she would know. Until then, she had to keep the news away from Admiral Yurika. The last thing Utara wanted, was to distract the Admiral from her duty, at this critical juncture. Even the cold fact that the many outweighed the few in this case, ruled here. At least while operations took up so much resources.

So many others were dying anyway. They all knew the price of Paladin, untold or otherwise.

Utara nodded to the Star Captain, and then looked back at the battle in progress. The hundreds of thousands of twinkling lights of death all across the viewports, close and uber afar, had to come first.

She began to think of a way to outwit the DE one last time....

The air was very thin, hard to breathe. It was suprising to even do that much, her ears were ringing badly, and she didn't feel at all it seemed. She could just barely move, her neck did so up and very very lightly left and right over a vision blotted very darkly by both lack of light, and her own weak state.

One she barely even could think of, thinking at all in the first place. She tried to breathe and didn't find enough oxygen for it. Her ribs felt cold and wet, and she couldn't find strength to move to look.

All her bare movements stopped cold as she realized an arm covered her head, and she weakly noted a form of a familiar person, motionless next to her. there looked like something was protruding, wasn't sure if it was in a back or side. Everything was distorted.

But she knew who it was despite, and tried to call out. Nothing came, breathing failed on her quickly after.

However she heard a female voice she thought her own call out... Hori...? ...done a couple of times. She thought it was her own, or she thought it was her mind doing it.

Either way, strength failed, this time apparently total, as everything slipped away.

...the last survivor, no more.....

--

The two lay there, thankfully never aware they weren't fully human even in form anymore. At least they were together in the end, their hands at least able to mercifully clutch, by chance of fate alone.

They still hold when a shudder thunks somewhere.......

((OC- Hope this has been a good read so far...))

---

Utara held hard onto a nearby console, as a hard blast shuddered the A-SSDs hull, past the shields. She had to hold on harder, cutting her left palm, as a DE cruiser slammed into the same area a moment later.

She had to move her Flag vessel in hard and fast to help plug a small breach in the line, and was paying a harsh price for it. That was the third DE suicide strike in the last two minutes. The desperation was swamping the very void of space outside.

A Leuitenant helped her up, and she wiped her cut hand across her forehead. She was too busy to notice the smear of blood. "Keep pressing forward frackit all!!"

"Ma`am! Signal from Left Echelon."

Utara pulled herself to a comm-console and brought up the waiting signal, reflexively ducking as a DE fighter screams by, before dying from stitched death out of sight a moment later. "Aye?"

":: We.... you look in a mirror ma`am? ::"

Utara just growls back.. "JUST SAY IT!!"

":: Sorry, looks like the DE might be trying to shift forces on us for a strike on our extreme left flank. Looks like the center left is weakened some, where we don't have many A-SSDs nearby. ::"

Utara blinked, and turned back to the Star Captain nearby. "Order deployment of our last Foundation Weapons at the center left, and move vessels from the extreme left. We're blasting a hole and ending this. And FAST, don't argue!!"

No one did, and Utara looked back at Commander Davis, of mention.. "Deploy a screen of mines and IFF bouys to try and confuse them a bit. When we punch through, we punch dead through or we dye to the last trying. Got me?"

":: Acknowledged. ::" ...and the holoscreen snapped off.

Within a minute, the Gaians were moving to act faster than the DE. Who would be fooled first was the question.

What happened next was hard for even hostorians to track easily, considering how much duplicity and sheer luck thrashed about in the span of a few minutes.

First Utara pressed the apparent hole, before considering it all, with a heavy Foundation and Holia concentration strike, at the center left DE line along the point where Utara's vessel was considered near the center along the fourth gravity orbit. The effect was to have an unexpected side effect a moment later, when the Gaians pulled half their forces from the extreme left flank to add to the forces just to either side of the center left sector, all to pour through the hole.

They found what Utara ordered for her side, a screen of mines and false signal probes the DE had dropped to do the exact same thing as the Gaians were doing at that moment. It seemed the Gaians fell into the DE ploy, and forces absent began to show up at the extreme left flank instead.

However the DE miscalculated the Gaian deception of the same vein, and the inital probe hit the mines hard, just as the Gaians pushed through the fake hole the DE had left.

The DE were supposed to push and encircle behind the Gaians, as the Gaians pushed through the hole, supposed to be caught up in DE mines. The DE mines however were obliterated in large swaths at the hole, and the Gaians were able to move through faster, mainly because Utara's ordering of a last massed Foundation weapon strike took out the DE delay tactic faster than the DE could get to the Gaian mine screen. The Gaian mines ended up slowing the DE push just enough for the Gaians to breach the Fourth DE line, and soon after the full Left flank of center broke.

Utara found out the double trap and knew where to end this, and had the forces pushing through to cut HARD left to port, through the gap, and slammed just as severely into the exposed DE rear guard of the DE push.

That broke the battle wide open, and the Gaians began slaughtering DE slave troops enmasse, not halting for any mercy at present. As the term, they went Roman on the DE force on the left flank.

The DE right forces realized this all in time, and began to fall back in disarray, back past the Third orbit, and back to the original portal zone, focused at the second orbit. The Gaians were forced to halt chase as the fight finished at the Fourth line, and reassemble into a reasonable order of battle. This took two hours, due to the absolute confusion of the battle.

By this time, the two sides had suffered grevious casualties, over 60% on the Gaian side killed or 'disabled', while the DE was estimated to have lost over 72%. The outright crushing of the DE left flank attributed to the sudden shift in force numbers left. About 34,000 DE vessels left, while 52,500 approximate remained on the Gaians.

The numbers of actual detail dead was withheld for sanity's sake. The fight wasn't done yet.

The problem was the old Japanese invasion adage of World War II on Terra, how many would be lost to finish it all. And the DE would not give a last to surrender either.

Utara for once, after understanding this at a comm-breifing, had a rare ailment among Gaians.

An ulcer.....

*System OO-P7661.44, GLC-6253 Galaxy, Nitrana Supercluster*

There were so many other battles of the Counterattack War to call upon, besides just one 'measly' battle in the Milky Way Core Galaxy. Case in point, the continuing Wave One invasion of the Lord Excellency's own 12th Angelic Host and Diamond Fleet Legion Group. CAG ilUniverse at the point of over ten million angelic and celestial troops and warships. They were being particularly brutal at this, one of the DE Sector capital worlds, flat out burning the DE completely out of existence, not even giving a moments hesitation for mercy.

Peace would do better a time for mercy. Aleaic saw the lessons of old General Sherman and the buring of Atlanta as a proper case point here. Such usually ended wars faster than the slower methods the Emperor and King usually ordered.

It was also one of the few combat zones where the DE were having a hard arse time garnering Sphere casualties. The King took the First Queen's advice to utilize the same tactics from the Trial of Absorption one hundred and fifty years plus ago, when they had Medi-Ships and other medical vessels amid the attack forces, healing and even teleporting pilots and angels from certain death moments, keeping the Genetic Refrabrication Units not as overtaxed as in other theaters. It also allowed troops to be sent to 'recycled' starfighters and mecha that were repaired in the field, sometimes just after they were destroyed in battle, to return within an hour after, rather than being rezzed a few hours later.

While not a perfect system by far, only 76.3% effective, it meant a huge force could be redeployed effectively with little downtime for fleet reorganization prior to moving on a seperate system. The same for the other Fleet Legions and Hosts.

Aleaic always loved the plain logic of simplicity that Tsunami always provided.

But there was however an unfortunate amount of time even admist massed battle, for the news from a woefully unexpected front. Lady Asashi from Treeship Fleet Command accompanying was the one to inform as she arrived on the furiously busy Command Core.

"Where did you say?" Aleaic replied in shock, Tsunami no less, after Asashi... "Aye. System GT-772.33 outside the MWCG Confederacy Zone. Communications with the area is spotty, we have few details, but..."

Aleaic stabbed to a standing position from a seated one, the holo-infusion orb vanishing from around him, letting go of direct command control of the entire fleet assault for the moment. "What reserves were sent?"

...Aleaic was told. Even Tsunami was shaken. "Are we that stretched to help even one System on the Holy Ground?" ..her words shook out. Aleaic sighed. "Probably. we can't fool ourselves in thinking that even 'we' have limitless forces to call upon for a campaign of this scale. Heck, we have to rely maily on luck of fact for the operational timetable, to presume everything is going well, since communications is slow enough even though the Net."

Asashi comments.. "Most Fronts and Theaters are reporting less than five percent fully pacified and liberated. Only twenty percent is considered fully invaded. Still, it's ahead of our timetables if we can presume."

"And an hour from now, we could lose it all. If we took the worst case scenario. The DE are still formidable enough as it is."

Tsunami chided Al's sudden down play of hope. "And we're just as likely mopping the floor with them, if that entire twenty percent is the supply and command control 'you' kept harping on everyone about."

Aleaic nodded. "And we'll have to keep to that too." ...he walked over to where Ackronus was standing. "TOE of what Reserves are left at all."

A few tapped holo-buttons and A large list of Wave by Wave assets was brought up. By now Wave Five was halfway through the deployment list, and at the moment, the TOE was frozen in place by the timetable. Nothing in the Reserve was available anymore for other duties. Tens of millions of troops and ships were not able to be moved anymore.

However he 'did' note something. "Why hasn't Kappa Fortress deployed? They should be in position by now."

"~ Unknown subspace interference, from a report from the Fortress Commander. ~"

Aleaic investigates this futher, and recognizes the subspace anomoly signature. He keeps it to himself for the moment, and instead notes something else.

He then formulates. "I want the Fortress to attack at this hour. No later, and inform the Commander in MWCG to be ready. If the battle takes more than twenty minutes, she's fired." ..knowing who the MWCG Commander by heart, since he appointed her, and he didn't know she wasn't....

Asashi departed to send orders, while Aleaic turned to Tsui plainly, and then back to the battle at hand.

Again, cold reality came first. Tsunami however didn't care for it still.

The DE at Line Two managed to recover enough to send light raid groups to reorient where the Gaians were regathering as well. Most however were one way trips and patrolling fighters on the Gaian line near the fourth planet, where the moons were still being mopped up. Gaians did the same and didn't fare much better. Not even Comm-orbs and probes were much good.

For a short bit, the two sides guessed each other's numbers and intentions from previous data and the sketchy scouting data coming in.

Commander Utara was getting final reports from her regathered force, when an aide came with an order Padd from Comms, laser Comm-Orb fed from the main territory. Aside from a small action report of a few DE ships attempting to pass through the Shield Wall, to ill effect for them, the battle order from the Excellency himself cut short all other expectations.

"So He knows too. Blast it."

She however looked at the name the order was issued to. It wasn't hers. She shook a good bit for a moment, realizing it was meant for the Admiral.

He doesn't know.... dear goddess.

She slumped a bit, not wanting to be the one to tell any of the Council, one of their own was actually dead. At least, after this long and still no word from Point One area on anything. The DE should have been finally cleansed out, so she should have heard by now.

Not knowing made it all seriously worse.

She however turned and informed the Star Captain. "We have our last marching orders."

A quick salute, prevented her from considering a more suicidal comment added. She had to concentrate, and so she did. She would finish in Ruri's name if nothing 'else'.

"I'll end it all for you ma`am. I won't fail." ..Utara whispered.

She threw herself into her work to drown the pain. The attack would occur in two hours.

The closing act was as cold and calculated as planned, once the Fortress left the subspace interference behind.

One day after the start of the Counterattack War, the Gaians finally moved in a straight forward thrust past the third orbit, and at the second orbit line the DE put up.

Just beforehand, the DE began to be oversimplified, overwhelmed as Kappa Fortress unleashed it's wrath by opening concentric subspace portals all around the DE defense screens, essentially repeating the same tactic that started the whole battle in the first place, as the Gaians literally dumped three Legions and the 10,994th Legion, and reserves from the Royal Black Watch, to swarm the DE in the same period that was demanded by Command.

The Gaians hit the third planet and remaining solid crust moons all at once, while obliterating the last of the DE, literally destroying 30,000 of the 34,000 in less than five minutes. The attack was that brutal. With the remaining 4,000 approximate scattering like chaff in the solar wind.

The Gaian force originally inSystem found little to fight in the end as they arrived, as thrice their number, led by fresh Foundation and Holia weaponry crushed the DE as an effective force. It almost seemed a mockery to Commander Utara, considering this could have been over much sooner, supposedly.

Very cold comfort she thought.

*Combat End of Action - 0914 29 November 3390*

A few DE vessels escaped the final slaughter, as the Gaians finally regained control of System GT-772.33/MWCG Sector, placing only 10,000 vessels on station, and another 15,000 back at the Confederacy territories behind the Shield Wall.

The remaining 100,000 or so were recalled about two hoirs after the battle ended, to Kappa Dimensional Fortress to join the main invasion as per Wave Six schedule. There was still, so much to do across Alpha Universe.

No less as SAR and recovery teams began the long process of rebuilding and recovering the dead ships and bodies amongst the debris of what was essentially a 'small' battle, but one that saw well over 120,000 vessel casualties from both sides, body count was expected to be abhorent eventually. There was no note if any Dark Eternals were among the dead. Nonetheless, this was a bloody fight, for just one fringe system.

It was classic note of what the War was like. Despite all the bluster of liberation, war was still ugly, no matter the scale. With time, like all over battles the Sphere survived, the dead would be recovered.

The problem with all such, was something the dead lost, and was a chance of not getting back...

...memory.

----

Sight slowly returned, from black and lost to one with a green hue to it all. With time, memory of realization of where this was took hold. The time it took to do that was agonizing in length.

Somewhere in there, was wondering where the 'other' was.

Did the other think the same?

----

Yurika finally knew. Utara couldn't hold the truth back now, with the end of combat actions. It tore them both up.

After that, neither could say much at all. Neither their aides nearby, as work continued around them both, on both ends of the universe of note. Such was brought out of numb stupor by an aide entering and handing a Padd to Utara.

Utara noted whether Yurika was hearing or not. "Looks like the last DE units are out of the system here completely. We're tracking their movements.

The Molecular Construction Yard is in place so we can fully......"

Utara stopped as she heard Yurika across the holoscreen slump down. Utara didn't continue.

":: Is this all worth it? Even.... knowing...? ::"

For a person like Lady Yurika to hold herself barely beyond tears is something Utara dares not merit thought. Instead Utara feels about the same.

That all however comes to a HARD stop, as the Star Captain behind Utara recieves a report from SAR units, and almost on top of that, a Med-Tech report of recovery lists.

"MA`AM!! They found them!!"

Both Admiral and Commander LEAPT from their seats, and looked at the Captain. However they learned more than what was wanted, despite knowing both would live in the end. Ruri and Hori were found.

....one alive... one dead.....

---

The only one that won in the end, was no longer in this Dimension.

The battle was over, the war wasn't.