NationStates Jolt Archive

There was a lot of yelling in the transporter room as Naruto promised doom to the idiot who decided to teleport him in the middle of a battle.

"I'magonnakicktheassofthebakawho--"

"Naruto, calm down." Hinata shook her husband.

"--forceforsakenship! Ioughta--"

"NARUTO! If you don't shut up, I'll use my Chakra Scalpel on you!" Hinata yelled, her hands glowing.

"Yes ma'am." Naruto shut up, noticing the dangerous glow on her hands.

"Now if you'll listen, the Fedral Union has teleported us to safety." Hinata said. "Now I don't like it any more than you do, but it seems they have our best interests at heart. At least oblige them. Understood?"

'Yes, dear." Naruto sighed. It's clear who wears the pants in that family!

"As you all know we have initiated an emergency beam out procedure, to save lives, we have many people on board, we cannot risk staying here due to this, we shall send you the coordinates to meet us at, after witch we will depart to said place and you can come pick your leaders, citizens and diplomats up"
The captain of one of the Star Destroyers recieved the note with the coordinates and sighed. "Send this notice to HQ. Let them sort out that mess."

"Yes, sir!" The comms officer sent the notice to HQ and then the ship resumed the fighting.

OOC:
I have decided to accept TFU's beaming of my important people, just in case the station somehow does get more damage than it likes. The Coredian soldiers will remain to repel boarders.

The president sat up in his bed sighing gently he was still some what sore but that would ware off in a few hours, his body was still some what injured, he grinned a bit he looked at his cased and peered around the bay, no one was there, absolutely no one, he stood up barely standing up and limping his body shimmered in the mundane white light, he chuckled and it and opened his case, suddenly the opened case began to gravimetricly energize, the case had groves and places that housed odd red and yellow pieces, in the shape of arm, shoulder, led, helmet, mask hand and feet pieces of a weird amour, Robert took the chest plate out it was large a little bulky and hard to carry in his position it snapped apart its red plating gleaming in the white light brightly, a chest emitter clearly visible it was some sort of beam emitter it was yellow and crystal like, the snapped off amour remarkably attached it self to robert engulfing him in white and blue energy suddenly the other pieces began to snap off and snap back in to place his body was being transformed.

He Growled and grunted heavily as his body connected to the armor cyberneticly and telepathically once more, he smiled a bit grinning as he stood up the light dissipating from his body, he looked around his body covered in a red and yellow amour, he grew a few inches taller than he was before, he looked around the red 3D topographical map and scans of the area fed directly to his brain and eyes his hearing amplified many many times over , his eye sight as well was boosted many times, he smiled in the mask, its eye slits and mouth slit open he breathed a lot better now as his body morphed with the armor he stood there six feet tall, this man machine, this powerful hero looking around his body absorbed in this amour it gleamed gently, it had mega human strength, and brilliance/ technology to boot.
Rob looked around gently scanning, he heard the noise in the transporter room from nearly 10 decks away, he used his now armored glove and hand to tap on his arm suddenly he shimmered out of existence and in to existence right in the middle of the room, this armored hero knight in red and white amour appearing before all the delegates his eyes and scanners panning the area.


he Sighed his voice distorter working very well he started to speak.

"Every one please clam down hehe... its all ok, I apologize for every thing thats happened, you might all not recognize me, my name is .. Robert.. bastidas.. i may look ominous but I assure you I'm here to help.
They call me Iron rider, or Iron man, or steel guy, what ever you want to call me is up to you but I assure you I will make every effort to make sure you guys are safe.

the distorter worked perfectly making the voice deeper and more ominous.

(http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d110/USFU/IM78.jpg)

the primarch frowned and said which ever baka teloported me is gonna have a chainsword shoved up his ass he ran at the iron rider and said by the god emeperor im going to shove my chainswordup your ass

It was not an unusual thing these days, for a member of the Kanuckistani Adventurers' Guild to be near when violence breaks out; something of an inevitability, you might say, for they had alot of members, and many of them went out looking for potentially violent situations.

Most of the time, however, they arrive too late - word taking time to reach them. But this time, someone in the High Guard was passing information from the ESUS Battlenet to the KAG.

Ships, mind you, were still expensive, and a pointless death tended to discourage suicidal adventures, even amongst the seemingly reckless Guildies. But as in any large group, you're liable to find a few fools.

This day there were two.


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


'Forerunners in place. Telemetry looks good - DZ confirmed clear. Oh, hey! Weapons fire.'

'They started without us, it seems. What's their disposition?'

'Resolving now - oh. Oh my, this will be interesting. Patching you in.'

'Thanks, Preggers. Shiny! You feeding this to pay-per-view yet?'

'All the usual sites. Don't worry, you'll get your cut.'

'Pff, thanks, but think we may have forgotten about a little something?'

'Never! I'm ready when you are.'



Twenty Five Million Kilometers from the Mercenary Fleet...



Small, baseball-sized sensor drones, three dozen of them arranged in a globe some two light seconds across. Less than a minute ago they had appeared without warning or fanfare and started scanning surrounding space, focusing first locally and then the distant battle.

Anyone familiar with Kanuckistani jump protocols would know what was to follow, if they had the attention to spare for such things.

'I hope no one was expecting a battleplate,' Captain Natasha Frakson, KAGV Arbalist, mused - an ultra-short range transceiver in her arm relaying the unspoken message from her neural lace to the entanglement node in a bracelet, as the ancient missile cruiser she rode appeared off center within the globe, rolling ECM and PD drones from her half kilometer hull.

'I think they're kinda distracted, Nat' - the KAGV Pregnant Whale, a truly bastardised escort carrier(complete with external dorsal diner, parking lot, and neon sign), appearing a picosecond later a hundred thousand kilometers away from it's companion; this one's captain a distributed sentience, of which the three hundred meter ship was itself an extension - it too rolling drones as fighters manned and unmanned alike were hurriedly prepared for flight.

the gunnship locked on the new coomer and commed them identfiy yourselves or be fired upon this is your onlywarining
the captain snaped

tatical energize nova canon

"Well they've forced my hand prematurly. Most likely the Union's presence simply annoyed them." Doron finished his last sentence just as the nimble craft deftly avoided incoming mercenary fire.

"Fine. Communications, get me a line with Admiral Spoor."

"Operational now m'Lord."

Admiral Spoor's bored expression came into view on a holographic screen. "Can I finally come out of hiding your Highness. It's fairly boring sitting here in Hyperspace while you play diplomat. I applaud your ability to buy my fleet enough time to arrive but it seems your gig is up with the interference of outsiders."

Doron smiled. "My apologies Baroness. Well if you have nothing better to do, there are a few mercenaries that need to see how Star Forces and the Abh Empire feels about mercs."

Red lips pulled back in an evil grin. "Excellent. Entering now."

Around Doron's own Whitestar, the Latopanyu garrison forces disembarked from hyperspace forming a solid barrier between the station and the merc fleet. Leaving the exit back to the Union fleet. "Chief, initiate an inhibitor field. I don't want these mercenaries escaping."

"What about nonessential ships in the area and other diplomats? They could get caught in the cross fire and we could be preventing help from coming into our aid."

The Abh admiral walked up to the railing to look at the holographic tactical display. "Then I guess the politicians better keep their heads down. As far as help, I don't think we need any. They've named the Galactic Federation as their sponsor, thus bringing the good name of the Abh Empire down with it. We'll handle this ourselves and whoever is here to spare a ship. No stop talking and bring our weapons to bare."

"Yes ma'am. Target?"

Spoor tapped a delicate finger on her chin. "Hmmm. Leave the merc main ship in tact. Cripple it, disable it, whatever but I want it intact. As for the rest, destroy them at will. Remember, we don't take mercenary prisoners."

"Yes ma'am."

Wasting no time, an inhibitor field was thrown up to a one light minute diameter. Whitestars formed up on the Abriel's own Whitestar while Admiral Spoor ordered the first barrage of energy weapons into the mercenary fleet. Heavy cannonry followed by missles and kinetic energy weapons at near speeds of light.

"Chief of Staff, I want both missle cruisers ready for a volley in the next go round."

"Programming targets now ma'am."

OOC:
If the station has Sheilds up, would you be able to beam through them?

OOC as it was point out to me some pages back i have that covered

IC
"setting Station main frame to use a one of the communication transmission dishs to jam all know teleportation signals and work out ones we may have missed"said one the lower Tech to the higer rank Tech
"good'said the higer rank Tech

'We really should invest in an FTL transponder,' Nat mused over their private link, reflecting on the fact it would take their lightspeed transponders just over 83 seconds to reach the embattled forces.

'You may have a point. In the mean, why don't you comm them? I'd really rather not draw any more fire than we're about to, even at this range'


To: Unidentified Person Aboard Unidentified Vessel Demanding Our Identification
From: Natasha Frakson, Captain >LINK<[/u]], Kanuckistani Adventurers' Guild Vessel Arbalist, Registry [ID:>LINK<]
Subject: That whole identification thing. Not shooting us would also be good. Also, pie.
Transmission Type: General/Broadcast, FTL
Encoding: Unencrypted, ASCII Text-Only

Salutations;

This is Captain Natasha Frakson of the Kanuckistani Adventurers' Guild Vessel [i]Arbalist. And provided you've no intention of shooting up that station with all the civilians and whatnot, I think we can both safely point out guns in the same direction - that being the buggers trying to poke incandescent holes in said station.

So, uh, who are you?

Oh, and don't shoot the carrier, either - she owes me money.

Transmission End



The two ships, meanwhile, remained where they were, stationary to the conflict and a considerable distance away, continuing to roll drones; a sparse cloud of the small craft forming around their launching vessel.

Admiral Alexi smiled he sat back in his chair rubbing his chin calmly a scar over his face is uniform gleamed in the white utilitarian light of the bridge he shucked slightly and said in an ominous clam voice "those fools, they've incurred the wrath of many nations" he laughed again as he looked at a panel on his leather like chair. "even a Kanuckistani ships are here how wonderful, they will not survive at all, incredibly stupid.." he looked over to his tactical officer twiddling his fingers on his lap and then moved them up to his face, he thought in his head what a marvelous condition this is, showing these fools what it means to enrage nations solely on a silly demand of compliance that they knew they would not get. he said in a silent but ominously commanding voice. "Send a message to allied fleets , tell them to flank from the left and back, we'll attempt to flank from the left and bottom, and top also tell them to keep at long range."

the tactical officer nodded his hands taping on the gleaming metal and holographic panel sending an encoded message. Alexi grinned his blue eyes focusing out in to the fire fight before him his hands to his chin as his fleet began to move ominously, still firing every thing they had , in volley after volley. the dark vastness of space was filled massive amounts of fire coming from the federal fleet.

Alexi noticed the exit of a hyper space jump gate forming, as well as the abh presence he looked over to his tactical officer and said " send 3 frigates 2 destroyers and a cruiser to guard that area, make sure nothing attacks friendlies" he waved his hand in a motion for him to do so, and the officer obeyed, the selected ships maneuvered quickly in to positions. this was turning out to be sweet on the side of the alliance so many major players on the galactic stage attacking this pitiful ragtag mercenary fleet or so Alexi thought. he chuckled slightly his ominous figure shimmering gently in the light.

Alexi thought there where more to these goons than met the eye, in fact he was more than convinced this was the doing of the The Solarin League.

OOC going over the old thread to find what Ri-an posted about the station Shields i found he said its has Dark Matter Shields if thats a help to all

Kai and his retinue flickered into existence upon the Federal Union vessels teleportation pads and stepped off swiftly, barely breaking stride. Far from being annoyed, or even concerned, Kai was instead grinning, grinning as he thought of all that had just transpired.

"I want to utilise your communications facilities in order to establish communications with my vessel and arrange for effective coordination of counter-assault. I demand this by my Chronosian authority as Warmaster and my Inquisitorial authority to speak for he most High, the divine Remiel." Kai chuckled lightly.

"It's most splendid, most perfect...I imagine the Coredians will want to use them after me to coordinate things with their Federation allies, and to hopefully launch an enquiry into this most...Shocking development. It seems that for all their moral whimperings, the GFFA are capable of cunning, and subterfuge, and spite.

I'm almost tempted to admire the simple brutality of it all."

OOC: President Robert Bastidas is on the Space Station. You just enraged half a dozen nations and then some! :D

IC:
Naruto was enraged when the call came in, not to mention the shields of the station flaring from the onslaught. His eyes were beginning to turn red. "So now they want our deaths."

Before Hinata could answer, he commed the Solari mercenaries.



Of course, nothing of the sort was going to happen, so Naruto sent word to the task force hidden just outside the 1/2 lightyear mark to begin the attack and sent secure word to HQ to dispatch the Fifth Fleet posthaste. The reply from HQ came on secure channels:

"Order acknowledged. Not only that, the Battlestar Coredia's battlegroup is on its way to pick you up. The Emperor has a separate mission for you that required its presence."

Naruto smirked. The Coredia's going to give these idiots a headache they'll never forget. I wonder what's the mission.

Two massive Star Destroyers and their escorts jumped into the system and immediately began firing all weapons upon the Solari mercenaries. Blue and green bolts of death rained up the enemy in unrelenting savagery. Missiles of all kinds were thrown at the enemy, from conventional thermonuclear, proton, concussion and antimatter types to Singularity and Shattermissiles (don't forget, they pass through shields, turning 'em to glass and bore into the hull and blow shit up). Tachyon torpedoes (bought from Godular) were employed as well, hopefully to make the mercenary shields useless.

Although they were only nine ships, there was far more to come...

OOC: Whyatica gave me permission to fight his ships.

IC:

Those nine ships suddenly had much more to worry about than aggravated mercenaries. Well, aggravated SOLARI mercenaries. The MINBARI mercenaries on the other hand were a much more reasonable worry. Especially when the Sharlin, and its compatriots, unleashed the full fury of their batteries into the unsuspecting flank of the Coredian ISDs. Energy coruscated and leapt through space, capable of shattering hulls and shields with equal ease, and devouring the lives of the frail beings in their metal coffins. There was little hope that the 2 ISDs would survive in the minds of the Minbari. They KNEW that their ships were capable of destruction on a scale never imagined by the Coredians, the Empire, or even the Miehmish(well known for their excessively large armaments, and tendency to not be afraid to be the first to resort to violence), and that sheer firepower would be what carried the day. They KNEW.

The Solari Mercenaries paused for a moment to observe things. Assuming one defined a "moment" as several fractions of a second so small as to be immeasurable without negative exponents. In any case, 3 things happened, all in very short succession. First and foremost, the Solari warships disappeared, blowing the charge on their jump capacitors, escaping the majority of the enemy fire directed towards their position, and repositioning them outside the enclosing ring of Fedral ships. Secondly, upon their appearance, a Faster Than Light inhibition field snapped into existence, locking an eight light hour radius down, and preventing egress from reality, or a return to it, if such was the desire of someone coming to, say, reinforce the fleets on station. It also handily stopped the use of tactical FTL, and missiles and other weapons based on the concept of an FTL delivery system. Several ships had been scarred, hammered, or even badly battered by the onslaught, but there were minimal real casualties. Killchain and Anti-Tank were both lightly damaged, but Last Stand of Humanity was still terrifyingly operational. Terrifyingly, because it was the only ship that had a solid lead on the vessel that had absconded with their mystery hacker...

Solari ships, nearly 3,000 by this point(counting Gunships), now arrayed outside the Fedral "trap", had the jump on their foes. Missiles roared out again in a tidal bore of fury, seemingly few in number, their multiple warheads would split shortly before impact, and leave Point Defense theoretically overwhelmed at the last moment, in the most critical phase, where the hundreds of low yield(read, megatonnages) AM conversion weapons would be most able to slam into shield and hulls, and immolate their targets with massed fire. MACs failed to fire, or so it seemed. In truth, they were simply cycling their rounds to await the onslaught of missiles they expected in reply to their own barrage. The Balroggan torpedoes, and a rather large percentage of Fedral ordnance, had been handily evaded as they FTLed away, but any return missile fire would come in thick and heavy, and PD might be inadequate to the task of stopping it all. Which was why the Solari had, over time, developed specialist rounds of all stripes for their guns. Now it only remained to be seen who got to taste the hate...

OOC: Total elapsed time as of the end of this post is 45 seconds from the first firing. I'm adopting Balroggas suggestion, and all further posts would be measured in 15 second increments(IE, a single turn is 15 seconds, so combat posts will usually take several turns). I'd appreciate if all involved parties would include a time stamp on their posts, so I can keep up with where everyone thinks their timing is happening.

rogger that kagv vessel this is sephrion imperius gunship the hammer standing down turning weaponry on solri ships

As the FTL Inhibition field kicked into place the Wormhole that The Garbage Men depot used to quickly and efficiently transport stuff from the TGM Headquarters to the depot destabilised and shut itself down.

"There is only one thing I hate, and that is mercenaries... who are not being employed by us." stated the captain of one of The Garbage Men Trashship, one of the three that had up until now just been floating in space, looking as if themselves needed scrapping, energy scans would however reveal this not to be the case infact they'd reveal a hive of information. Alot of it was collecting data, from both sides, analyzing tactics and pouring through intercepted communication traffic. None of which came from the Garbage men.

All three Trash Ships concentrated their targetting on clearing a way to the ship that according to their analysis was the ship that contained the leadership of this mercenary force, as the old saying goes... Chop off the head and Body will fall. Though there was a lot of ships in the way, Over a period of about 30 seconds A total of 60 ultra dense compacted trash balls of 1 cm in diameter volley of fire came from the ships/ Each Ball travelled at a tremendous speed approximately .45 of c and headed towards whatever mercenary ships laid in their path.

"Ah the Sharlins, I have heard of these ships. I believe we shall test our own against them. Destroyer groups 1 and 2 prepare for main level firing."

Sharlins were good ships built by the Minbari, indeed they could handle an ISD easily without much sweat. But ships such as those were a dime a dozen these days in the galactic scale. Victory Destroyers hummed with intensive energy funneling throughout the ship as they built at four main points along the ship until finally climaxing and screaming out towards several Sharlins. Destroyers that were capable of pumping out more energy than a Sharlin, now focused their attention on the Minbarri.

At the same time as the Minbarri fired ont he Coredians and Victory destroyers were returning the favor, Whitestars formed up and pushed towards the Solari gunboats. Black cruisers, mobilized behind bring heavy weapons online, and the awaited time for the missle cruisers had finally arrived. "Targets have been programmed in and they are ready to fire."

It had been merely five seconds after the Victories started their barrage on the Minbarri before Spoor gave the admiral for a full volley. Thousands of missles launched towards the solari fleet diving and dodging in erratic paths that would give any PD system a headache trying to target them.

OOC:
How fast does your FTLi propagate? FTL FTLi has always struck me as kinda silly, ya know?


IC:
Their drone clouds nearing optimal, ECM finally engaged around the pair of KAG warships; a comprehensive interplay jamming, false returns, and emission control, even their very mass shadows squelched to levels easily hidden in the haze.

The first missiles appeared then, streaking forth from velocity-assist launchers as the ships began their evasive random-walk, then another, and another; a half dozen salvos from each vessel, each a little faster than the last, seeded with sensor drones, and forming upon each other a broadly dispersed swarm as they accelerated to a cruising speed of half Cee on reactionless drives, aimed squarely at the distant Solari mercenaries.

Linked by entanglement to their parent craft, their seekers formed a massive sensor array. The ECM drones, jammers, and decoys, deployed in ones and twos by each offencive missile, or by the dozen by the dedicated defence platforms that were a tenth of their number, likewise coordinated, the swarm dissolving into a haze as the ordinance entered into it's own, coordinated, evasive random-walk.

The missiles, not unlike the Solari's own, were principally composed of sub-munitions - independent attack vehicles, or IAVs, crammed into each, delivering both multiple weapons and vastly improved thrust-to-weight ratios during critical terminal attack maneuvers, while the warheadless drive section became a kinetic kill missile.

Unlike the Solari, however, the vast majority of these weapons were Dual-Purpose Laser-Heads, powered by mighty matter-energy direct conversion bombs, boasting an attack range in the low tens of thousands of kilometers, and steered by high-precision, high-speed gyros and some of the best targeting packages in the known universe(owing no small thanks to their placement on the launching starships, rather than single-use missiles; one of the many boons offered by the CTE node each carried).

It should come as an unpleasant surprise when a thousand missiles, multiplied a dozen-fold in IAVs behind the shroud of countermeasures, struck from beyond the range of the best of the enemy's point defence. Or so it was hoped.

And a moment latter, seeing no reason to waste perfectly good kinetic energy, every delivery vehicle, drone, and probe left in the swarm would crash into the enemy fleet. Even the plasmic remnants of the warheads would scour the enemy; the expanding, relativistic, monatomic clouds still dense enough to hazard exposed sensors and other soft systems - if nothing else, any unshielded ship would need a new coat of paint.


Three minutes would pass, however, befor the distant KAG could get their ordinance on target. And by then a half dozen followup salvos would be in space; fighters too, in all likelihood, but that remained to be seen.






To: Local Defenders
From: Natasha Frakson, Captain >LINK<[/u]], Kanuckistani Adventurers' Guild Vessel Arbalist, Registry [ID:>LINK<]
Subject: FTL Inhibitors
Transmission Type: General/Broadcast, FTL
Encoding: Unencrypted, ASCII Text-Only

Just a thought, but some of y'all might want to deploy yer own FTLi - the enemy, [i]presumably, can't jump through their own inhibitor field, but they can still turn it off whenever it's most convenient for then, or least so for us.

Transmission End

the captian of the gunboat snapped harbinger cannons on my mark

The DCFT emergency channels had been lighting up for the better part of the last few hours as calls came in from vascilian as well as Open channels. numerous distress calls had been made. A large enemy task force was now directly threatening a neutral space station, inside neutral territory. For whatever reasons they were doing this, it didnt matter. Neutrality was neutrality, one simply didnt go about extorting and making demands of people in such places. After all without neutral ground, how could warring parties come to make peace. Of course there was a slight problem, the forces arrayed against the defenders had enacted an FTLi field the moment the shooting had begun. This was twenty five seconds ago. Tannelornian logistician-mentats were already finished compiling all available information.

It had taken fifteen seconds for the information to reach them, and another ten for them to determine the enemies FTLi would prevent anything from entering within an estimated one hundred AU. This of course was only through preliminary findings gained from allied vessels on the scene, relaying back to Vascilia-net. In another five seconds recomendations had been passed to send word to the GTFOA task force Valhalla, of the fourth fleet in a nearby star system.


It had taken another ten seconds for the orders to reach Space Marshal Heisengrahf, and another five for them to prepare to jump in to the system. However the extreme FTLi field was covering a massive radius. This radius could not prevent a full power jump, draining the batteries. Of course the fleet itself would still be at least fourty minutes from the battle, it did not mean that they could not help mop up, or at least assist the survivors of the attack.

Five seconds later the Task force, sixteen honour blade frigates, a Divinity fleet carrier, the Unrelenting Pursuit of justice, Two Solarin Battleships, the Riddle of Steel and the Divine Fist. With them was one of the fourth fleets Monitors, the Persecutor. Of course with the ships at the outside limit of any of the FTLi fields, of course not counting the radically long ranged Solarin lmercenary FTLi units, they would likely not be taking part in the distant battle. At least they would get to watch. The ships started to move towards the facility, powering past the outer range of the Solarin league FTLi by draining their jump batteries to hammer their way in to real space. They emerged from the Aether and immediately began announcing their intention to aid the station and to supply relief to any survivors of the ongoing attack. Admittedly they were a long way off. They activated their urenbecht catapults, slipping in to the space time conduits created by the urenbecht drive, travelling towards the battle at near the speed of light.

OOC
Retconned the Balmungs entry as it has caused too much ooc arguing based upon differing play styles and its ability to defeat at least ship based FTLi. My forces will now be there to aid the station, and join up after the battle is done. I will not take part in this combat. However I cannot accept 120 AU for a ship based FTLi, being fourty minutes away still keeps me out of the battle, but seems more reasonable to me.

A portion of the Detachment [minus the fleet Carrier and six honour blades] http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o133/Conan2525/GTFOATaskforce.jpg?t=1172498756

Divinity fleet Carrier and Escorting honour blades
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o133/Conan2525/GTFOAFleetcarrierwHonourbladeescort.jpg?t=1172498993

Monitor:Persecutor with Escorts and High maneuver frames prepared for battle.
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o133/Conan2525/Monitorandhonourbladefrigate.jpg?t=1172499028

As agreed when Count Alfred Mann signed the Constantine Accords on behalf of the Thrashian Empire, the garrison force that was to help in the protection and policing of the Neutral Zone was sent along with the Thrashian representative, Duke Degaar.

Garrison Force
1 Lancer-class Frigate
2 Katana-class Dreadnoughts
200 Naval Stormtroopers
50 Clonetroopers of the 12th Rangers Legion

Those nine ships suddenly had much more to worry about than aggravated mercenaries. Well, aggravated SOLARI mercenaries. The MINBARI mercenaries on the other hand were a much more reasonable worry. Especially when the Sharlin, and its compatriots, unleashed the full fury of their batteries into the unsuspecting flank of the Coredian ISDs. Energy coruscated and leapt through space, capable of shattering hulls and shields with equal ease, and devouring the lives of the frail beings in their metal coffins. There was little hope that the 2 ISDs would survive in the minds of the Minbari. They KNEW that their ships were capable of destruction on a scale never imagined by the Coredians, the Empire, or even the Miehmish(well known for their excessively large armaments, and tendency to not be afraid to be the first to resort to violence), and that sheer firepower would be what carried the day. They KNEW.
What the enemy know or may not know isn't the issue here. What they know is what they see...

Time: 0

"Sir, our shields and hull are taking hits from the enemy's slicer cannons!" A bridge member yelled out. "Strike Cruiser #2 is already destroyed...sir?"

The Captain wasn't a man who thinks quickly. On the contrary, he takes in all the information and spits out a strategy that could help them survive that much longer. The Captain recalled a similar situation with an ally, and decided to take a leaf out of the Woodians' book. "Engineering. Shift reactor power from 70% (normal operating parameters, caught by the battle) to 100%. All of that goes to the shields. Add in all nonessential power."

"Sir, that doubles our shield output." The Chief Engineer reported.

"That's the idea." The Captain nodded. "Do it. Order the Eva to do it as well."

Time: 10 seconds

The reactor began to hum more strongly as vast energies annhiliated hypermatter at a rate best described as ludicrous. The energies were fed into the power supply and transferred into the shields, dimming the countless lights and shutting off those items on the ship that are not important for the overall battle. Where before, the Sharlins were able to penetrate the shields with their beam weaponry, now, the weapons were being deflected and scattered upon impact as if the shields were mirrors. The bleedthrough diminished, scoring only minor, paint-scouring hits on the hull and giving the two Star Destroyers that much longer to survive. Perhaps long enough for the reinforcements to arrive.

Time: 25 seconds

"Now, shift power from thrusters to the turbolasers. That gives them an overall 10% increase in damage output, am I right?"

"Yes, sir, but it also makes the ships slower."

"We'll cope. It seems we're going turtle then. Once the turbolaser power are increased, I want an Alpha Strike."

"Aye, sir!" Engineering once again saved the day, throwing power from the thrusters into the hundred turbolasers. Now, the only thing that are working from the thrusters are maneuvering thrusters, which turned the ships towards the enemy, effectively rigging the ships for Alpha Strike.

Once more, the two Star Destroyers proved to their enemies that power output is not static as the turbolaser cannons grew slightly brighter. For one whole second, they stopped, then when the Captain ordered the Alpha Strike, every single weapon on the two massive ships erupted in one mad display of power, blasting through the Sharlin ranks. Then the weapons ceased for a second and fired another broadside after they recoiled. Broadside after broadside, every single second until the enemy was destroyed or the ships themselves fell.

The escort ships followed suit, but their power output were smaller and thus less damaging and protective. Still, the entire task force showed the enemy the ingenuity of the Coredian Interstellar Defense Force when push comes to shove!

Time: 35 seconds and counting

OOC:
I still have more tricks up my sleeves! :D

The female /humanoid/ had approached another person, a tall /non-kesshii organic/ male in a wrapped in tight, black cloth with a metal symbols of on his chest.

"If you might aid me-," she began.

The man disappeared in a flash of white light.

The /humanoid/ continued standing there, starting at where the man's oculars had been. The scout drone beside her was pouring information into her central cortex. His physical form had ceased to be. The molecules had unwrapped themselves in be sucked...off.

"Did I frighten him?" she inquired. The scout drone sensed no spike in thermal, respiration, or gland production that indicated the physiological stresses of fear. Moreover, while the scout had been unable to initiate a deep gene scan, is anatomy was consistent with that of the non-kesshite organic species human-004, which did not exhibit instantaneous travel abilities.

This information was dumped, brutally into her mind, and it took her several minutes to digest it. She continued looking at where the man had been and then at the scout as it waited for her poorly crafted /humanoid/ brain to function.

Beside where the man had stood was a small table of glass. The man had left a black object there. She gently picked it up. It smelled organic, and felt like thick skin. It was a pouch with little of smashed wood pulp with writing on it. There was also little flat, grey rectangles - electronic components of some sort.

There was also a glass of brown liquid with ice and a small, yellow fruit. She sipped the liquid: pleasantly sweet.

The scout drone had placed its hand on her thigh to steady itself as it stood on its back legs. She sensed its desire to taste, but its system was tightly sealed outside of the ship. It's single, backlit ocular piece swung back and forth, as it tried to crack the taste via chemical analysis. The /bishop/ behind her groaned, a low, deep sound that reverberated in her skull.

"If you want some, open your mouth," she commanded. It lowered it's serpentine body by slithering backwards, then held its wide, jagged jaw open for her. She tipped the liquid from the glass, and it splattered fruit, ice, and all down the /bishop's/ gullet.

One moment, there was nothing, and the next, they existed. Three of them, gargantuan collections of crystalline blades, as mutable in form as they were imposing. Just as one might have thought they had the shape of the vessel pinned down, a blade would vanish here, or emerge from the larger mass there. There was no fanfare, no flash, no brilliant display of spatial distortion to report the arrival of the Slaughterstars as they materialized approximately one and a half light-minutes away from the station in a wedge formation. Energy crackled and danced across the surface of the dreadnoughts, lending credence to the prodigious energy signature each vessel generated, far in excess of what would be expected of any similarly scaled ship.

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

The entire system spread out before her, computers worked feverishly for entire picoseconds as information collected real-time from the Balroggan Kythons saw use in crafting a panoramic display of war as the Solarin fleet worked feverishly to defeat all comers, all so they could enforce some petty edict by some petty lower Galactic Federation official. They had violated the sanctity of neutral ground, threatening Galactic Federation and Extrasolar Union and neutral alike in the pursuit of this goal.

She smiled to herself as she scanned the size of the Solarin Inhibitor field. Very little could ever hope to stop the Probability Drive, and today was just another example for the rule. Still, there would be no tactical jumping today... for either side. She sent the order to initiate the Godulans' own inhibitor field, its initial six light-minute span, shifting size relative to the distance between the two forces, would serve to prevent the Solarins from attempting their own brand of tac-jumping... and also leave them sitting ducks in the battle. Battlefield control was always a tenuous thing, passing from one side to the other literally within a matter of microseconds. Now, technically, neither side had it. The Kanuckistanis had their own up as well, as per recognized standard operating procedures.

SS1, accelerate to cruise speed and then cut thrusters. SS2, vector thrust 45 degrees vertical to relative ecliptic 10 seconds at cruise and then follow parallel course to SS1. SS3, vector thrust 315 degrees vertical to relative ecliptic 10 seconds at cruise and then follow parallel course to SS1. All vessels maintain axial orientation towards objective and only accelerate as necessary to maintain cruise speed. Execute.

She waited for the vessels to begin moving before issuing her second set of commands, counting off but otherwise ignoring the obligatory replies of 'Recognized, coordinates locked in' from each of the Slaughterstars.

All vessels, redirect shield function to emphasize forward cover, keep off-fore shielding minimal unless directed otherwise. Orientation of shielding at time of engagement will be left to Adjutant-General discretion. At termination of acceleration along three-point insertion path, all vessels redirect thruster power towards shields and primary bombardment.

Recognized, ordinance type?

Straight-Arrow. Initial Salvo one-four-zero per. Confirm preparation when complete and await deployment of munitions for my mark. After first deployment reset for secondary salvo until directed otherwise. Execute.

She watched as the primary Slaughterstar and its two partners split up into a vertical line formation directed towards the Solarin fleet, keeping their 'noses' directed straight at the solarin vessels as they moved towards their respective insertion paths. The fight itself seemed to be progressing at a snail's pace, but that was all a matter of perspective. In reality, the orders had taken but a few moments to concoct, send, and act upon. Their minds might have been human, but the processing speeds of those within the Kython Overlink could outstrip nearly any computer known. The Godulans would not have undergone the conversion had it been otherwise.

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

Twenty seconds passed, and the three Slaughterkings terminated acceleration, shunting power to the forward shields and altering their form slightly to increase their forward fields of fire to optimal configuration. As they did so, curious little pods began to materialize along the forward sections of many of the forward blades, energy congregating in their general areas as dots of solid matter materialized within each pod.

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

The confirmation of munitions-prep came from each ship faster than she expected, and was quickly followed by each ship relaying targeting coordinated targeting information, which made her smile to herself again. Eager to impress the head honcho, hmm? Achaedus and Arcturus could get things done, and time would tell about Majestatus, but when General Lear was on the scene, things got themselves done. An admirable thing it was for the subcommanders to seek to anticipate the wishes of their superior, a more admirable thing that they were not seeking to go overboard with it. Getting too far ahead of her would prevent her from being able to anticipate complications.

All vessels, Straight-Arrow salvo zero-one on my order. Execute.

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

As one, the three Slaughterstars unleashed a great shockwave of needle-shaped torpedos towards the Solari vessels, thirty-thousand torpedos in all. Though it would take some time for the torpedos to get to the enemy, and though there was a fleet between the Solarin forces and the Godulan Slaughterstars, such was all taken into the plan and therefore seen as non-factors. Even as the initial salvo terminated, the pods began to well up with more weapons manifesting themselves within. The second salvo was already being readied.

No communication was sent ahead towards the Solarins demanding their surrender. It was recognized that such would be rejected out of hand, as had been proven by the fact that other Galactic Federation officials recognized the supposed contract as bogus, yet here they stayed, intent upon their illegitimate goal. No, this day would see pain, as the Godulans would seek to inflict damage sufficient to render that petty little contract the Solarins had come to enforce completely unprofitable.

OOC: Cruise speed is .3c, though the Dreads can also approach a supercruise of .5c if necessary. Straight-Arrow speed is approximately .8c, and will reach the Solarins in about two minutes. They are coming along a vector that puts the Coredian Fleet between the Godulans and the Solaris, but there's gonna be another thing as the torpedos arrive to account for 'obstacles' in their path.

The Grav Torps faltered momentarily as their targets flickered out of the Locks. The scanners cast about for their targets and found them a short distance away. More than four-dozen singularity tipped projectiles turned as they located their original targets and began to close upon them again. The ebon shrouded maws again began to close upon their chosen prey, ever hungry for anything they could devour. Four of the Torps continued on to their chosen path towards the mercenaries from Whyatica while the rest of the 56 torps adjusted their trajectories to stalk their own prey.

The mass of 52 torpedoes with their shadow encrusted heads closed upon the gunships and their charges tearing apart anything that happened to find themselves too close to the endless maws.


T-Space


The Deity carrier hovered in the violent clouds of energy that composed this area of the dimensional spectrum. The shields kept the purple energies from stripping away the matter composing the hulls and scattering it across the Space Time Continuum. Aboard The Ubek, Admiral R’Semer watched the display showing every ship within a light day in a three dimensional hologram. Each ship was color-coded and labeled with power type, munitions, course, direction, and other important information, Also outlined by a cloud of haze were at least three different FTLi bubbles with the largest by an insane amount was the 8 hour one instituted by the Solarian Mercenaries.

“How the hell can they sustain that bubble and still have energy to maneuver, fire their weapons, and use Shields? I want their ships scanned so thoroughly that you can tell the crew’s DNA. Also, maneuver the Avatars near the target ships and prepare to engage the Improbability Drives.”

“Yes Sir, initiating maneuvers to adjust to the positions enemy fleet took after their initial FTL jump.”

Fifteen seconds later, the Avatars were in position to begin the next phase.

“Admiral, Grav Torps have reacquired targets and are beginning to home in on their targets. Four are continuing onto the Whyatican fleet and the other 52 are diverting to the current Solarian fleet location.”

R’Semer glanced at the tactical display. The blue icons showing CoreWorlds were acting in accord with the Silver from Ahb. They were working together to take on the orange Minbari ships from Whyatica. Yellow marked the Solari fleet sitting off by themselves. Approaching their positions were several violet double images marking the Imperial Fleet. The torpedoes were also marked in their respective colors. Crimson lines marked the heading and facing of each ship and relative status of damages. There were also various gravitational anomalies present but they were probably a result of some form of enemy ECM system.

“Sensors. And clue to what is causing the interference yet?”

“Negative Sir, we haven’t been able to track it down. We are ruling out possible sources.”

“Sir, Avatars moved to new insertion points. Parent vessels ready to begin Stage Two.”

“Send the command.”

“Parental Space Minus Taps established, Control being transferred from Parent to Avatar vessels. Avatar Space Minus Power Taps achieved. Powering up Improbability Drives. All systems show readiness.”

R’Semer watched as the Torp contacts merged with first the blue, and then the yellow contacts. Now would be the time for Insertion.

“Begin Insertion Now.”

On the Holo-Display, the purple double images changed. One of the images became darker while the other remained lightly shaded as each Avatar Vessel left T-Space.

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

More than 130 Avatars suddenly began to channel pure Entropy into the FTLi bubble, supercharging the entire construct with improbability. Chaos Theory began to work overtime as localized manifestations began, usually just blown capacitors or other minor occurrences. “Murphy’s Law” became not only self evident but extremely bothersome to the owners of the TFLi bubble, causing tiny gaps and rifts in coverage to appear. These fluctuations would be all that was needed for the Improbability drives to slip through the FTLi. Over the next few seconds, ships began to transfer into the Space-Time Continuum. In total, over 130 Frigates, Destroyers, Cruisers, and Battleship Avatars appeared within Real Space.


OOC:

That should catch me up to the 45 second mark

Duke Degaar had remained in his offices aboard Constantine Space Station alone, monitoring the event that was unraveling before him. The sudden arrival of an enemy fleet had been surprising enough for the mere fact that the station was a neutral zone; but it was the fact that they were Solari, and mercs at that, that really dug under Degaar's skin. Degaar had graduated 3rd in his class at the Imperial Academy on Anaxes, and was well aware that the allied forces presently located at Constantine would not be entirely enough to defend against this unforeseen attack.

While the battle had started, Degaar had been in communication with Emperor Treize Kushrenada, asking both for help and the authority to act in the name of the Thrashian Empire. Treize, understanding the situation quickly, had given the duke the required permission and had promised swift aid as well.

Degaar rubbed his temples and turned on the com, opening a line to the Thrashian detachment stationed here. "Commodore Tilien, please see to it that the troop transfer is done within the next twenty minutes."

A small holographic image of an imperial officer looked up at the duke. "My lord we have completed the transfer already. The entire battalion is now on the Constantine. Colonel Eichmann in command."

"Good," Degaar said, pleased that the naval stormtroopers had finished their crossing. With them on the station and type of assault the mercs attempted would be met with fierce resistance. Not to mention that the three platoons of 12th Legion Rangers were already preparing traps and other defenses. "See to it that the station is not directly attacked by long range projectiles."

"I will my lord duke."

"You have an open channel waiting as I asked?"

"Yes."

"Good, then I will begin now." Commodore Tilien nodded and motioned to his left, aboard his command Dreadnought. The com officer who stood waiting nodded and began opening a direct com link to all frequencies. Even the most unsophisticated equipment would pick it up. Duke Degaar cleared his throat and pressed the activation button on his desk.

"Attention, leading commander of the Solarian Merc Fleet. Attention. This is Duke Degaar of the Thrashian Empire. I, with full power and authority of the Thrashian Empire, are demanding that you withdraw your fleet from this space post-haste. Failure to comply will be in violation to the laws and treaty signed in the Constantine Accords, thus enacting a state of war between your nation and the nations of the treaty which signed the said Accords. Not only however will it do that...but also you will be inducing the ire of the Galactic Empire, whose two main representatives, myself and the Chronosian lord here, are without doubt united in effort.

As I speak, fleets are now amassing to destroy not only you here...but to also launch attacks upon your home worlds. Knowing how weak the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances is since its, if I'm not mistaken still going on, war with the ESUS alliance, your nation is not in a fit state to face such an onslaught. Therefore I inquire as to the state of mind which would make you bring the vast majority of your surviving fleets here where they only alienate themselves more against a great host of foes.

It is in the interest of a peaceful negotiation that I make this declaration. While I do not wish to destroy you or fight your nation, I will not tarry to carry out the act. Be thus warned. You must see that you have been duped into this brash course of action, even though you announce that you are well paid for this venture. In the end, it will avail you nothing. So, in the hopes that sanity and good will with grip you, I ask you stand down."

coms to ballrogiaan embesy from imperius gunboat flameheart reqeust for an emergancy wormhole to bring forces in to aid with the stations defences

coms to ballrogiaan embesy from imperius gunboat flameheart reqeust for an emergancy wormhole to bring forces in to aid with the stations defences
OOC these a FTLi field up if you missed reading it

ooc just out side the ftli bubble

OOC:

Please note, the signal from Seph is Elsewhere and not at the station. Just making that clear before anyone complains. He is asking my military for assistance to get his defense fleet to the station in time to do something. He has a couple ships there already and wishes to bring in more like everyone else. He is not using the ITH for the transfer as I do not allow any military vessels to use it, not even my own Navy. The ITH is seperate from my nation and has it's own fleets.



IC:


Sigma Tau


“Sir, we have just gotten a request from another nation to use our wormholes to get to another station.”

“Huh? Who is it?”

“The transponder reads it is … um … that’s odd, it reads as Sepiroth. They are requesting aid in reaching something called Constantine.”

“We better pass this onto the Brass. If we say no, and it is important then we would get toasted.”

“Good idea, transferring the request to command.”

A couple minutes later, the Space Minus Transmitter came to life.

“Permission granted. They are also signatories of the Constantine Treaty. Currently the station is under attack by terrorists and pirates. Give them priority treatment.”

“Yes Sir.”

Greetings Sephiroth Fleet, we have received permission to transfer you to the Constantine Station. In a couple seconds a direct wormhole will open in front of your fleet and deposit you as close to the station that the current FTLi will allow. Happy hunting.

The resulting wormhole opened right on schedule and deposited the fleet just outside the FTLi bubbles, after the ten minute transfer time of course.

ten MKXX Firebee Drones unify inside the FTLi bubbles they are programed to do hit and run attacks on the Merc ships with there 30 mm caliber gatling guns

rogger that armagedon and strike fleet alpha on way

OOC: I'm back. I don't think I've quite got everything, but I am assuming Isa or someone at least initiated shield. I am going to assume someone put them up, and take over the station stuff itself, as well as my ships. Lotus knows what's up and will post, soon?

IC: An errant shot got through the ships, and the station defences, and struck solidly on the station core.

This was a real shame too, because that was where the delicatly balanced Tajitu engine was.

The Gravity field of the local area, up to as far as an entire Light year and a half out, shifted towards the station, then it all reversed, and everything was repulsed from the station. It shifted back towards the station. It continued on like this, in a five second cycle.

"For the love of Life stop fighting or you'll kill us all!" A frightened shout came from the station bands. If the engine collpased, it would collapse into two singularities, and the stronger one would destroy the other, and everything else nearby.

OOC Coreworlds said shields of the station flaring from the onslaught in a post so yes they are up and if it fell i had a plan to move the station to safe place

Now that we're all at 45 seconds...

IC:

3 TGM Trashships... 100 Solari Gunships... A lopsided battle in any sense, due to the simple disparity of numbers. Enemy fire cracked against shields and hulls, knocking out more than 20. 80 plowed on, jinking and twisting to avoid any fire they could, while still keeping their course as close to baseline. Another ten fell prey to a Balroggan torpedo, before a PD turret smashed the weapon from existence. A full 63 arrowed in on the three ships, bobbing and weaving like manic insects. At just over a light second range, their guns fired, rippling with a steel rain, cascading shot in greater mass, but lesser volume than the trio of Trashships. Each shell wasn't good for much beyond hacking away at destroyers, but it would hopefully manage to kill one ship in such quantity.

The Sharlin shuddered once, as its shields were wracked with energy. The second shot, however, blasted through the space it had occupied a second ago. It, and its escorts, darted about like overlarge fighters, until the Balroggan torpedoes slammed home several seconds later, annihilating the drive systems of the ships, and leaving them nearly defenseless, other than their shields and guns, which continued to rain fire on the Star Destroyers, for their last few seconds of existence.

The Abh missiles would indeed have rendered any regular PD system mildly upset. On the other hand, when a large number(read, ~2,900) of ships flings several megatons of 00 Buckshot pellets towards it, there really isn't much that's going to make it through, several leakers did manage to pick off a gunship here and there, and one missile gave a quite impressive dent in the armor of Last Stand of Humanity, but casualties were kept to a minimum, for now.

The Grav torpedoes that hadn't annihilated themselves against the Minbari drives arrowed in on the Battleships and Carriers of the mercenary fleet. To their discredit however, they ignored the Gunships swarming all about them, madly dodging, before tossing off a shot from their PD guns, and wiping them from existence. One rather unfortunate destroyer was whinged by a torpedo, and lost the majority of is starboard...well, just most of its starboard, we'll say that. Can't very well include descriptors for "hey, your entire ship is open to vacuum along its entire length on your starboard side", now can you?

The Godulan salvo had been detect almost as soon as it was fired, and by the time it reached a range where it could effectively engage the Solari ships, they'd be long gone, putting the station at their back, and riding out the waves of gravitic motion with applications of their thrusters, as well as watching in amusement as a large part of their unimmolated buckshot went flying towards the Coredian fleet, after having received a bit of a push from the malfunctioning stations drive.

By all means, you may continue to fire upon us, however, you have failed in your tactical objectives. Any ship that does not cease its fire runs the risk of hitting the station on a miss. Do you trust your gunners enough to run that risk? Are your torpedoes so perfect that none will ever lose its target lock and go careening wildly into the void? If you answered "No." to either of those questions, I would advise that you power down your guns, and lower your defenses. Your precipitous assault, in attempting to hack our systems shows that you cannot negotiate in good faith, or be in any way trusted. As such, there will be no more negotiation. There will be absolute surrender. No vessel other than unarmed freighters and escape pods will be allowed to leave the station once you have surrendered. Until then, any vessels attempting to escape the station will be destroyed. This is to ensure your good behavior. Any defenders on the station may cease their nefarious plans, and surrender by removing their weapons and armor, and piling them in a locked hold somewhere. Upon your surrender, we will board the station. Anyone found wearing armor or carrying armament will be assumed to be hostile, and killed on sight. These terms have very little negotiating room in them. Some vessels may believe it safe to fire on us from inside our position. That would be unwise, as we would return fire, once again putting your station at risk. The owner of the station himself has asked you to cease firing. If you comply with his wishes, and surrender as we demand, then continued violence may be avoided. Assuming dishonorable scum such as yourselves can even be trusted this far.

EDIT: Wrong SN. Y'all get the idea.

The captain of the Uniden VIII winced visibly when he heard the announcement from the attacking fleet. His ship was packing eight light twin megaparticle gun mounts for protection from pirates and other common brigands. That meant that the ship most likely didn't qualify as unarmed. Facing the prospect of being captured and held by common sellswords was simply unthinkable.


"Looks like we're going to be in a spot of trouble if we don't get out of here fast. Ready the drives for an emergency jump into hyperspace." commanded the captain.


While the ship had luckily avoided the missile barrage earlier by clipping the blast doors on the way out of her slip, the presence of the FTLis was completely unknown to the crew of the ore freighter. Unfortunately, they were about to find out.


"Emergency jump drive powered up to full."

"Target the Red Hammer gate. Use it as a beacon. This is our only chance, and I don't want to miss the target and end up in deep space."

"I've got a lock on the Red Hammer gate. Awaiting command to jump."

"Jump... Now!"

". . ."

". . ."

"...What happened? Why are we still here?"

"Skipper, I've just picked up several FTL inhibitors active in the area. We're not going anywhere."

"...Oh fuck me. If we don't get out of here fast, we're all going to be gargling mayonaise in some sellsword prison camp for the rest of our lives."

"Now Captain, you're overreacting. It probably won't be anything near that bad. They're probably just going to kill us all on the spot."

"Oh, because that's just so much better..."

"Sir, I'm reading a friendly IFF broadcasting in the area. The computer is saying Aumanii."

"Find the source of the frequency and send them a laser message requesting assistance. Use the usual civilian encryption code."



... -... ...- -.- - .-. - .-- .... -... ... --.- ..-. -..- .--- .-- -.-. -.- --.. .-. -.-- .... / -.-. .-- .--. -.. -..- --. .. -.-. .-.. .- -.-- -.- -.-. --.. -.. .... .. -..- --- ... -. --.. -.- -..- .- - --.. -.-. ..- .-.. .--. .- .-.. .... --- .-.. .. .- .-- --. .--. / -.. --.. .... - -.-. --. .. - .... ...- . --.- -.- ..-. .... .-- .--- ...- --- ..- ..- --.- ... .--. .. ... .-- .... -.. / --.- -..- ..-. -.- -.-- .-. ..- -- .-.. -... -. .-. .- --. --- -.-. .--- .--. .... -..- --.. ...- -.-. .--. .- .-- .--. .--- .--- .... .--. .-.. .. ...- .. .-.. .--- / ..-. .--- --- --.-

T-Space, aboard The Ubek

Admiral Ga’Ton cursed.

“How the hell did all those ships get back to the station so damn quick? They were several light minutes away from it near the TFU fleet before they disappeared? Also figure out how our Avatar ships were inserted so far from their previous locations. I want that information immediately. Continue the attack.”

“But Sir, Ri-an asked for everyone to stop shooting at the station.”

“Isn’t the answer obvious? Order the Avatars to ram those terrorists. They are using the station as their meat shields so we will be afraid to fire at them. Put our ships through their unworthy hulls. Vaporize them from within. Use Alpha Gamma Beta plan.”

“Yes Sir, relaying orders to the Parent Vessels now.”


Real Space

The newly arrived fleet of Avatar ships in one motion turned their heading toward the station and their speed increased to incredible speeds. Their gravimetric drives pushed them past the upper limits of conventional craft and they entered the range of Cfrac weapon speeds. Even at this speed, it would take some time to get there.

As they approached the station, they began to encounter the gravitational waves. Their gravity drives easily negated the effect the ripples had upon the attack craft.



OOC:

I was placed so far away even at this speed it would take a minute to reach you so after 45 seconds I would be half way (figured 15 seconds for reorientation of the ships and then acceleration into attack in the last 30 seconds). At .5C I would only be half way there. Next post I should arrive in the immediate area.

Unfortunate for the mercenary fleet, the Abh had not made the same tactical mistake. When they arrived at in the system, they to placed their backs towards the station to prevent any unwanted shots from getting through as well as preventing the mercenaries from attacking the station head on. Now, they were merely within spitting distance. Which pleased Admiral Spoor to no end. Afterall, she had no intention of letting any of the mercenaries leave unless it was in body bags.

"Interesting proposal they have. Then I suppose we'll do all the fighting from here on out. It matters not to me. I want all Whitestars to take out their lighter escort ships. A single hit from one of their gunships should only prove an annoyance but a thousand can be a problem so stick together. I don't want anyone overwhelmed because they were careless. Destroyer group 3 and 4 are to finish of the Sharlin. The rest of us will attack their heavies. How much longer until the artillery is ready for another volley?"

Cufadiss worked up his station to pull up the ship's status. "Another thrity seconds."

"I see. Well we'll just have to make do until then. All ships, commence second wave of attack."

Whitestars struck out in groups of threes at the gunships in the mercenary fleet. Streams of neon green followed by fire pulse cannons lit up the darkness of space in the second round of attack by the Abh. Forward batteries from destroyers and cruisers ignited into action as they targeted the closest heavy vessels of the mercenaries. They fanned out to almost ten kilometers between each and kept up their attack.

The movement of the Solarin fleet was of course expected, as was their comment. In any hostage situation one could expect at least a token level of threats to pass from the aggressor party, and even a fool would make some attempt to keep something between itself and incoming fire. But the question would rise, why for would the Godulans seek to fire such a massive salvo through a fleet representative of the Coredians, who had long been allies of the Godulans. Why would the Godulans put the Coredians at such a risk? Why would the Godulans even fire when they were so far out?

Already the second salvo had manifested and fired, though the Godulans had been polite enough to alter their orientation ever so slightly to match the Solarin fleet. The third salvo was still manifesting, ready for a launch just before the Slaughterstars would come into primary weapons range. One would suspect that they were still operating as if everything was still going according to plan. For all intents and purposes, the Solarin fleet had dodged out of the way of the Straight Arrows, leaving the Coredians and the Station to face the wrath of the great bombardment while leaving themselves unharmed...

Or so they thought, anyway. It would seem that the Solarins made a significant mistake in their calculations. They operated under the assumption that the bombardment was unguided.

At the distances involved even when moving at C-frac, a change in direction requires little in the way of actual thrust. Even with all the explosions and laser fire, at the distance between the Godulans and the station and all the fleets hovering about it, the whole thing looked akin to a small glittery cloud of activity little bigger than the width of one's thumbnail. Moving away from this 'cloud' would do little to expand it, as one would have to travel quite far in order to do so. So as the Solarin fleet began to move, so too did the Straight Arrows. As one, they altered their trajectories to match the fleeing Solarin fleet, remaining just as locked onto the ships as before and not even breaking their effective stride.

Time yet remained before the Straight Arrows would arrive though, they would come in their due time...

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

General Lear pondered the situation in general, something nagged at her about the nature of the Solarin communications. They seemed assured of themselves even now that multiple fleets were beating down their proverbial door. Even with multiple fleets interspersing themselves between the station and the Solarins, they seemed to be acting as if they still held control...

Curious. Curious indeed.

You are perturbed, General. Do you see something our sensors do not?

Perhaps... we are too far out for our gravitic sensors to be of any use, so I cannot be certain, but do the Solarin communications strike you as 'knowing something we do not'?

They do seem a tad overconfident...

Proceed as directed, but be on the lookout for a kicker. I want our reaction time to be faster than whatever it is these fools have in store.

The Sharlin shuddered once, as its shields were wracked with energy. The second shot, however, blasted through the space it had occupied a second ago. It, and its escorts, darted about like overlarge fighters, until the Balroggan torpedoes slammed home several seconds later, annihilating the drive systems of the ships, and leaving them nearly defenseless, other than their shields and guns, which continued to rain fire on the Star Destroyers, for their last few seconds of existence.
"Captain! Balroggan torpedoes just made the Minbari sitting ducks!"

"Good!" The Captain smiled thinly as the shields flared from the Minbari weapons. "Finish them! Salvo fire!"

Their devastating weapons trained on the doomed Minbari, the Star Destroyers let loose a salvo of their heavy turbolaser cannons, followed up by a slaughter of missile spam to destroy what's left. Once the Minbari was gone, the meager fleet could turn its attention upon the Solari mercenaries and its other allies.

By all means, you may continue to fire upon us, however, you have failed in your tactical objectives. Any ship that does not cease its fire runs the risk of hitting the station on a miss. Do you trust your gunners enough to run that risk? Are your torpedoes so perfect that none will ever lose its target lock and go careening wildly into the void? If you answered "No." to either of those questions, I would advise that you power down your guns, and lower your defenses. Your precipitous assault, in attempting to hack our systems shows that you cannot negotiate in good faith, or be in any way trusted. As such, there will be no more negotiation. There will be absolute surrender. No vessel other than unarmed freighters and escape pods will be allowed to leave the station once you have surrendered. Until then, any vessels attempting to escape the station will be destroyed. This is to ensure your good behavior. Any defenders on the station may cease their nefarious plans, and surrender by removing their weapons and armor, and piling them in a locked hold somewhere. Upon your surrender, we will board the station. Anyone found wearing armor or carrying armament will be assumed to be hostile, and killed on sight. These terms have very little negotiating room in them. Some vessels may believe it safe to fire on us from inside our position. That would be unwise, as we would return fire, once again putting your station at risk. The owner of the station himself has asked you to cease firing. If you comply with his wishes, and surrender as we demand, then continued violence may be avoided. Assuming dishonorable scum such as yourselves can even be trusted this far.
The comments were met by laughter before the reply cut off. Coredians never surrender to stupid mercenaries!

Then, the Godulan weapons zipped and zoomed right through the meager space of the Coredian ships.

"Sir, Godulan weapons firing through our space! Whoa, that was a close one!" The officer exclaimed as a missile scraped the shields and veered off.

"Too close for comfort! Get the Godulans on the line and ask them what the hell are they trying to do, kill us?!"

"With all due respect, what the hell are you doing shooting at us! You could have killed us, for Force's sake!"

Meanwhile, the Battlestar Coredia has picked up Naruto from the 'safety' zone of TFU's space and now is heading on its way, or so says the secure channels of the GFFA. The official expected time to arrival would be around thirty minutes, give or take a few. The anticipation builds for the Coredian ships! The Fifth Fleet will be here half an hour after and the Third Fleet has been seen spinning up for a possible followup mission.

In the meantime, the Coredian ambassador to the Solarin League demanded an audience with the leaders of the League, most notably due to the situation at Constantine.

ooc: count me out from this little, grand adventure here. This entire thread and the purpose of this space port is now nothing more than a lame duck in my eyes.

OOC:Your gonna miss the spectacular end. Oh well, I understand, and if I could I would do the same.

3 TGM Trashships... 100 Solari Gunships... A lopsided battle in any sense, due to the simple disparity of numbers. Enemy fire cracked against shields and hulls, knocking out more than 20. 80 plowed on, jinking and twisting to avoid any fire they could, while still keeping their course as close to baseline. Another ten fell prey to a Balroggan torpedo, before a PD turret smashed the weapon from existence. A full 63 arrowed in on the three ships, bobbing and weaving like manic insects. At just over a light second range, their guns fired, rippling with a steel rain, cascading shot in greater mass, but lesser volume than the trio of Trashships. Each shell wasn't good for much beyond hacking away at destroyers, but it would hopefully manage to kill one ship in such quantity.

As soon as it was evident that the 63 Gunships where going to fire upon the TGM Trashships, A button somewhere on the ships were pressed, a field around each of the ships started to form. The Field was ready and stable in just enough time, to affect the incoming salvo from the Mercenary Gunships.

The Field, normaly used as a sort of tractor beam to feed generic pieces of space debris from around the ship and into their holds in this case, not only slowed the projectiles down but also angled them towards the rear of the ship.

Most of the damage was superficial however one lucky, or unlucky (depending on how you look at it) struck what looked like to be a communications dish. It wasn't it. The field around the ship dissipated with various discharges of energy.

In that A few more hits reigned down on the ship doing significantly more damage, however the Hull Still had not been breached. The Trashship stoped and retreated. It would return to taking long pot shots at the Gunships. While the others continued on, exchanging fire with those that would impede their progress towards the main ship. They were heading towards it but these Gunships made the process slower. Then they would have liked.

the Drones came in fast at one of ship opeing up at max range of they gun
which fired high velocity 30mm rounds

Missiles and drone formations rippled in the gravitational disturbance's wake, powerful drives easily compensating, while slipfields rendered the two KAG vessels all but immune - a legacy of the ancient Shivan Wars.

The multi-lightsecond array of sensor platforms that surrounded the pair did, however, expand, the weak gravitational waves of active GRIDAR scans, normally overlooked, becoming more prominent; still far too weak to actually affect anything, they were in all likelihood now above the detection threshold of the more sensitive gravitic sensors present, assuming they weren't lost against the station's own. Extra wattage and broader array the better to resolve fine detail at extreme range, even through the distortions generated by the damaged station; GRIDAR proving itself a powerful tool.


Sill ninety lightseconds, a full two minutes of flight time, from the Solari, the first KAG salvo was unphased by their relocation; applying their ample reserves of fuel and power to alter course, splitting into large groups under the shroud of ECM and adopting an attack profile that would remove the station from their line of fire - remote guided in realtime via entanglement, every sensor and seeker-head in the swarm forming a massive array, accidentally hitting the station from this approach was all but impossible.

True, the maneuver stole valuable fuel from their drives, but at such ranges as these evasion was expected, and several more could be endured before terminal attack maneuvers would suffer, or warheads would be tapped for neutronium fuel, trading end yield for Delta Vee.

It was a plan of attack that follow up salvos would follow if the Solari remained where they were - each suitably varied, of course, for circumstance and unpredictability - the first of those already fifteen seconds along it's path, losing far less in the correction. Launched in thirty second intervals, fifteen more would see the third swarm in space.



OOC:
When the bad guy has his back to the hostages, shoot him from the side. :)

the thunderous boom of the armagedons railgunbatries opened up a new voice was entering the battle and it was shouting

coms to alied forces this is warmaster tchyco of the space marines i have come

actions began to happen on the station.

First, the entire outer hull of the station disengaged, and slowly drifted away.

Second, approximatly 100 guns came to life. ten of them were trained on the Solari mercs.

Third, and most importantly, the Gravity waves shifted. It increased its power many times over, and began to draw everyone, and everything towards it. Weapons, The outer Hull, even ships. The outerhull slapped back onto the station, and the thing about that outer hull, it existed for no other reason than to serve as armor. However, at the same, clouds of particles began shooting from the station. the station had not fired the guns, but the particle clouds had the same strength as the average particle gun. They drifted towards the solari mercs, and then the guns began firing.

The guns fired 1000 shots from each of its 10 barrels each minute. The ten guns waved accross the Solari formation, leaving no area unfired at.

The station also flooded the Solari mercs communications systems with Fredric Chopin's Funeral March, making it impossible for them to talk to each other, or anyone else, but no

And that was just the station

The three Stargons Din, Farore, and Nayru stretched their wings and yawned. they began to gather in all the backround radioactivity usually present in space. They took flight and could go just as fast as any other ship out here, they flew for the Mercs. They preferred not to use their breath attacks, and usually went for a one on one strike with their Claws, or a bite attack with their Jaws. Claws and Jaws were both powerful.

OOC: And with the permission of the black Lotus Society

IC: The Oni, The Kami and The Emperor Opened their Docking bays and took flight. Each one targeted a Solari ship, and fired a Transphasic Torpedo at it.

Alexi chuckled a little and looked at the screen, the near second miss of Federal ordinance was not to bad FTL sensors had tracked where mercnary ships where heading and weapons fire shifted appropriately, he sat back as he looked out, he saw incoming fire from ships, his blue green eyes peering and focusing out in to the well lit show outside, he looked to his tactical officer and said with a commanding voice "Fire interceptors at those shells"


Suddenly the entire fleet rang out with blue small pulse fire, thousands upon thousands of light spread pulses of energy shot Enemy cfracs out of the sky. fire reverberating again and again through the fleet.

Alexi chuckled, his ships and fleet had suffered minor damage only rebounder's had successfully filtered out most of the fire along with standard shield. he waved his hand fluidly and un caringly, his lips curled up to revile a perfect set of teeth, they gleamed gently in the utilitarian light of the bridge.

the tactical officer nodded, suddenly the fleet increased its fire rate. thousands upon thousands of pulses crackled and screeched through space , beams sliced and diced with colorful cornucopias. missiles guided and spat out they're engines leaving a trail of fiery yellow in there wake. Suddenly thousands of 500 tone anti matter filled shells propelled out of cannons at .80 c, the huge guns crackled as they fired again and again, massive electrical energetic booms reverberated through the ships that fired these massive shells, huge clouds of comment tailed shaped plasma covered these instruments of death, they rushed through space followed by intensive energy fire laid down from all areas. thousands upon thousands of pulses raced forth filling the dark void once more in every intensive fire, millions upon millions of micro rockets torrented from deiced missile ships spamming the entire area with boosted projectiles racing at .50c, white yellowish glows surrounded these lost soul like things, as the federal fleet ominously turned they're engines pushing the ships froward but above and below the enemy fleet , suddenly dedicated SWACS ships began filling the area with billions of fake federal IFF's popping up shimmering in to view where holograms, suddenly the federal fleet became 500 x its normal size. the fire continued.

alexi grinned slightly he slammed his hands on his armrest he would not let these fools go no.. not with out a fight he would take them down if he where to die, he looked with an infuriating look in his eyes to his tactical officer he screamed out with a loud commanding voice, his body shimmering gently in the light.

"Fire every thing we have LEAVE no survivors !"

Suddenly crimson fleet opened up with special weapons disrupted space shimmered out in mass quantities, the crackling energy sound of the distortion balls racing around the ships as they fired them. Fold bombs they where called compressing space and gravity in to a distortion and then letting it loose in a massive explosion that would wreak havoc on enemy ships, hundreds of these raced out followed by streaking pulses and slicing beams crackling energy cannons and whooshing cfracs . Space was never filled with so much ordinance in one area, the federal fleet had now started pumping half its power in to wrecking the new and old Enemy ships. lashing beams of fire widened and thinned lighting up space with there sword like glows. Alexi just stood on the bridge looking out grinning chuckling gently in his head his hands gripped in to a fist his mind racing on how much these fools will pay, his eyes focusing on his ships ominous god like fire power.

"hahahaha" he brust out laughing as his hand moved up and grasping each other twiddling gently, as he laughed softly. "And the lord came down In his pillar of fire to smite all those who had mortally sinned in a pillar of brim stone, he shall smite our enemies today" he said gently

OOC: I'm strapped for time, and I JUST got home from work. We closed at 10. I'll make a short post for the diplomatic issues on my end as a nation, but anything killey-death will have to wait until I can type a line without having to fix most every word.

IC:

The Coredian Ambassador(as well as any others that may have sought such an audience with various leaders) was shown into the Solari Fleet Command Center. A rather unassuming room, it was dominated by a massive holotank, and not much else. When humans are rendered obsolete in the command chain, and AI take over, alot of the extra "Shiney Effect" tends to get tossed out the window. As the ambassadors entered, they would take note of several monitors arrayed about the room, 5 in total, detailing the locations of major fleets and task forces. Included were groups such as Task Force 56, 34, and 77, the impressive Third Fleet, and several Patrol Squadrons. None of this, however, was more than background.

Filling the center of the room was a holotank, built on a scale to rival some small rooms in and of itself, nearly 12 feet on a side, WRATHCHILD's Wolfs Head and Crescent crest dominated the center of the screen, readouts and fleet displays were present, but took a back seat to the sheer imposing brilliance of the 20 foot high icon.

You desired to see me, Ambassador? Perhaps to lay unfounded accusations, or make wild claims concerning our collusion in this travesty at Constantine? Yes Ambassador, I am aware of the actions of Sergei, and those he employs. I am also aware of many things you are not. But that is immaterial. You desired to see me...Ambassador? The chill mechanical voice of WRATHCHILD was unearthly in the extreme, grating like steel rasping across stone, many were unable to stand the sheer unnaturalness of the being with whom they spoke, and chose instead to communicate through those that could. Hopefully for the Coredians they had selected such a hearty soul as their spokesman...

OOC: I'm strapped for time, and I JUST got home from work. We closed at 10. I'll make a short post for the diplomatic issues on my end as a nation, but anything killey-death will have to wait until I can type a line without having to fix most every word.

IC:

The Coredian Ambassador(as well as any others that may have sought such an audience with various leaders) was shown into the Solari Fleet Command Center. A rather unassuming room, it was dominated by a massive holotank, and not much else. When humans are rendered obsolete in the command chain, and AI take over, alot of the extra "Shiney Effect" tends to get tossed out the window. As the ambassadors entered, they would take note of several monitors arrayed about the room, 5 in total, detailing the locations of major fleets and task forces. Included were groups such as Task Force 56, 34, and 77, the impressive Third Fleet, and several Patrol Squadrons. None of this, however, was more than background.

Filling the center of the room was a holotank, built on a scale to rival some small rooms in and of itself, nearly 12 feet on a side, WRATHCHILD's Wolfs Head and Crescent crest dominated the center of the screen, readouts and fleet displays were present, but took a back seat to the sheer imposing brilliance of the 20 foot high icon.

You desired to see me, Ambassador? Perhaps to lay unfounded accusations, or make wild claims concerning our collusion in this travesty at Constantine? Yes Ambassador, I am aware of the actions of Sergei, and those he employs. I am also aware of many things you are not. But that is immaterial. You desired to see me...Ambassador? The chill mechanical voice of WRATHCHILD was unearthly in the extreme, grating like steel rasping across stone, many were unable to stand the sheer unnaturalness of the being with whom they spoke, and chose instead to communicate through those that could. Hopefully for the Coredians they had selected such a hearty soul as their spokesman...
The Ambassador, a man of virtue, swallowed his nervousness and spoke. "I have been charged by my goverment on behalf of the Federation and those of the Neutral Zone of Constantine Station to answer a few questions that has arisen in, as you know, the attack on said station. One such question is the fact that the mercenaries who attacked us has been shown to carry Solari arms and equipment, including warships. It behooves me to ask you to explain how these mercenaries have acquired these items from you."

Since this thread has pretty much died and we've waited for two weeks now for TSL to post more of the fight, I'm declaring this thread Void on all IC interactions having ever taken place here. Further IC actions on or about the Constantine will be ignored. Thisw means all this, never happend, so if you need your troops elsewhere, well then, their free.

I will also try to get this Modlocked.