NationStates Jolt Archive

We have fought, and we have died. We have been defeated more times than our historians even know. We have been enslaved, assimilated, and vaporized throughout our history. And through all this, like the plague upon our enemies that we are, we always return to seek vengeance.

-Grand Admiral Moroes, shortly before the final battle of the Collective war.

---

At first, there was only blackness. The crushing oblivion of space.

A laser-thin yellow line split the dark. It expanded, slicing a hole in the fabric of space time until reality itself held no bearing upon the space it touched. From this blemish on the face of the universe silently slid the elongated prow of a vessel. As the glowing blue of the vessel's engines flared to life, the tear closed behind it, leaving no hint that it had ever existed.

Captain Elhoim of the carrier Venture stared at the holographic image of the space in which his vessel had emerged. Spinning directly down the Z axis from his ship was a planet of dark green oceans and strangely blue landmasses. Small lights danced and twinkled on the planet's night side as two of its three natural sattelites reflected light from its orange-red sun down upon the surface.

"Tai Shan, position report," said the captain, his voice smooth and dark like a fine chocolate. He slouched in his padded command chair within the shielded holotank of the carrier. Though his skin still burned from the quick cryogenic thaw, he had already donned his crisp and still-warm captain's uniform. "Tai Shan?"

The image of a beautiful young woman from ancient Terra's asian province appeared before him, dressed in a tight-fitting golden cheongsam dress. The captain would have found her sexually appealing if not for the lines of crpytical logic symbols flowing across her holographic 'skin'.

"Apologies, Captain," said the A.I. known as Tai Shan, her voice smooth and seductive, more similar to the silk her holographic dress was designed to imitate. "The amount of information being processed taxed my resources momentarily."

"So, where are we?" inquired the captain again.

"Stellar cartography suggests we have arrived exactly where we were supposed to, Captain."

"'Suggests'?"

"Apologies. There is a ten-point-nine-nine-eight variance in stellar positions when compared to charts on file. This is most likely due to the elongated time period between the creation of the charts and our current date."

"So...where are we?"

"Right where the Far Jump targetted, Captain."

Captain Elhoim sighed inwardly. Shipboard A.I.s had won the war against the Collective almost 50 years ago, and in that time they had not forgotten the fact that their biological designers would be dead if not for them. They seemingly delighted in confusing their military superiors, despite the eggheads' insisting that they were incapable of such emotions. Elhoim doubted that very much. After all, the were based on the neural patterns of human brains.

"The planet is inhabited by an industrialized race, Tai Shan. It wasn't supposed to be."

"Correct, Captain. The survey report of this system stated that the only intelligent life were a pre-industrial insectoid species. However-"

"This is most likely due to the elongated time period between blah blah blah."

"Correct. Shall I send the signal to-"

"No, Tai Shan. This changes nothing. We have sacrificed too much to make this journey. Prepare a Slipspace drone."

"The message, Captain?"

"Operation: Beachhead is in status green. Combat priority two. Come out swinging. Accompany a detail report of your sensor logs with it, Tai Shan."

"Very good captain." Tai Shan paused a full second before continuing. "Message away."

The forward kinetic launcher warmed, charging its electromagnetic coils. It fired once, an object no larger than a beach ball accelerating from the Venture. The carrier's Shaw-Fukajaw drive once again split the universe apart with an invisible scalpel, the yellow tear swallowing the beach ball and then closing.

---
One hour later...

Elhoim watched from the holotank as space rended itself apart, vessels ranging from small frigates to the massive destroyers and battlecruisers that dwarfed his own carrier emerging from the Slipstream tears. The battlecruisers silently took up synchronous orbits above the world, their ventral ion cannon turrets glowing blue before ripping into the atmosphere with cerulean beams. Elhoim had seen orbital bombardments before, but those had just been tests. The ion cannons had seemed attractive to him before; like dancing blue ribbons of energy, but those had just been weapons tests. Now, the ribbons rained down death upon an innocent people. Tai Shan reported that scattered and garbled transmissions were coming from the surface in low-bandwidth radio waves. Elhoim ordered those frequencies blocked from the receivers. Before long, the few larger settlements on the planet had been reduced to molten slag and marine frigates were burning towards the planet surface to mop up.

"Captain," said Tai Shan. "We are receiving a transmission from the Heaven's Wrath."

"Put it through."

This is Grand Admiral Terrance Hood of the Heaven's Wrath to all vessels. Ladies and gentlemen, we have done what many thought to be impossible. We have completed a Far Jump into the Milky Way galaxy and have established a beachhead. We will soon begin production of the Slipstream Bridge between our home and this system. However, our jobs are not yet over. We do not yet know what is out here. We do not yet know who we will face. But know this. No matter what happens. No matter what warlike nations decide to face us. No matter what ancient enemies shall surface. We will challenge and defeat them as we have done it times long past. We will crush their smoldering bones beneath our boots! For no one can stand against us. The hopes and prayers of all we left behind go with us. We are strong. We are immortal. We are the Sword of Feazanthia!

Elhoim watched with only half-interested eyes as the holographic flag of Feazanthia dominated his view and emerald green orders began flowing in. It was going to be a long year.

Bumped for great justice.

The Ajax watched in silence as the unknown ships jumped through slipstream gates. When the Ion cannons tore towards the planet, a unified response ran through the ship. Shit. Commander Goering yelled at his comm officer. "Send this message to System! Scout Ajax, unknowns sighted, heavy weaponry, jump gates, over." A few moments of static and then the reply. "Confirmed, Ajax, the cruisers Agamemnon and Heracles are en route. Sit tight and don't get seen."

Grand Admiral Hood breathed in the recirculated air of the Heaven's Wrath with relish. For some reason, he always preferred the open air of the ship's corridors to his own holotank. Probably because the holotank, along with all other crew modules that protocol mandated be sealed off during combat situations, was self-contained and therefore had a smaller air supply than the ship's ballasts. In theory and practice, the protocol made sense. Seal off the compartments - all of which could jettison from the ship and act as escape pods - and drain the unoccupied spaces of the ship of air to prevent explosive decompressions, boarding actions, and fires. The ballasts themselves were deep within the heart of the ship. The theory was that if weapons' fire breached one of the massive tanks, the ship would be so far gone that it wouldn't matter anymore.

Still. The heavily recycled air of a crew compartment became stale rather fast.

The Heaven's Wrath, an Avatar-class battlecruiser and flagship of his fleet, was amongst the most deadly vessels ever to be assembled. They had entered into service at the tail end of the Collective war, and of the three that fought in that conflict, only one was destroyed. And that was while taking down five Collective heavy battleships. She was an incredible fusion of armor and firepower, with a docking bay and service areas for a full squadron of strike craft. Her four "Arbiter" heavy kinetic burst dual-cannons were the strongest of their kind in the Feazanthian navy, and her twin dual-ion cannon turrets made short work of the incredibly strong Collective captial ships by slicing through hull plating and decks, and also by disrupting electronics around the impact area.

Three wings of interceptor fighters flew in a constant combat air patrol around the flagship. The other two wings that had accompanied the Heaven's Wrath on her Far Jump were one wing of bombers, and a wing of recon ships. These recon fighters were now scouting the outskirts of the system. Though the scans had shown that the planet's inhabitants were a pre-spaceflight culture, he just wanted to make sure. The last thing he needed was a squadron of unknown ships descending upon his fleet.

Not that the might of the Feazanthian Navy couldn't handle anything like that. He just didn't want to do the paperwork.

---

"Echo One to Echo Two. You see anything out here?"
"Negative, Echo One. Nothing out here but dust and rocks. Not even a piece of debris. Most borin' system I ever saw."
"Could be worse."
"How's that, Echo Three?"
"Could be Collective out here."
"Shut your hole, Kass."

The three scouts - little more than massive sublight engines with a cockpit built around them and an advanced sensor package - darted around the various spatial debris as they scouted the perimeter of the system's orbitals.

"Hold on...gettin a ping here..."

"This is Alpha One Zero, unknown scouts sighted. Think they seen us yet?"
"Maybe. To be safe, break off radio contact until confirmation. Keep your shields up and raise jammers."
"Yeah."

A few minutes later, 2 rifts opened behind the scouts and 2 light cruisers came out. When they exited the hole, the rifts began to close. The cruisers drew up alongside the scouts. One of the captains radioed his commander.
"This is the Black Hawk, arrived at scene, orders?"
"Maintain position, observe. If possible, monitor their communications. If you believe it wise, attempt to communicate with them. System out."

"Spatial rift detected!"
"Echo Two, confirm that!"
"Confirmed, Echo One. Jack, I'm readin' a pair-a Caps comin outta there!"
"Echo Wing, bug out! Fleet Command, this is Echo One. Two spatial rifts detected in grid square X-329. Two capital ships. Unknown class, unknown origin. We're gettin' the hell outta here!"

---

"Confirm that report!" ordered Admiral Hood.
"We're too far out to get an accurate reading, but I am detecting unusual energy disruptions in that area, Admiral," said Coriel, the shipboard A.I. of the Heaven's Wrath.
The admiral swore. They hadn't been here half a day and already they had company. He triggered the fleetwide comm through his neural lace and began trotting towards his holotank.
"This is Admiral Hood. All ships, combat priority one. All hands to modules. Anomaly detected in grid square Ex-Three-Two-Nine. Two possible inbound contacts."

As the three scouts burned towards the heart of the fleet, a destroyer squadron (consisting of three of the heavy vessels) began their cruise towards the location of the report. Their four kinetic cannons and twin torpedo launchers were loaded and hot.

"Warning, Black hawk, inbound destroyers! Raise shields asap, power up Paladin!"
Kain broadcast a warning to the enemy bombers.
"Unknown destroyers! You are getting too close to us, proceed any further and we will be forced to open fire!" The scouts veered out in front of the inbounds.

At the same time, the cruisers broadcast a request for support.
"Confirmed, Black Hawk. The Osprey (ooc: Small carrier, roughly 200 fighter-bombers.) inbound on your position. Give it some time!" The two light cruisers armed their ion cannons and rail guns.

"Sir," came Coriel's light, normally-cheery voice. Her avatar, a great angelic figure with a white hood covering her face, appeared beside the admiral inside his holotank. "The Soomtaw has received a transmission from the unknown vessels. Relaying now."

Unknown destroyers! You are getting too close to us, proceed any further and we will be forced to open fire!

"...what the devil?" Hood was dumbfounded. "Too close to them? Coriel, open a channel. Relay it through the Soomtaw."

"Yes, Admiral. One moment."

Hood cleared his throat and began.

This is Grand Admiral Terrance Hood. This system is under the control of the Free Peoples of Feazanthia. You are trespassers in this system. Withdraw now or we will be forced to take action.

Hood closed the line and again spoke to his A.I. companion. "Coriel, prepare the Wrath for combat, and get the fleet ready for a short jump."

Captain Antillies read the message and grimaced.
"Send one back."
Admiral Hood, this area is classified as disputed territory and on the border of the Templarian Empire. An invasion of this area will be treated with suspicion, if not as a direct declaration of war. Withdraw your destroyers and we shall back our forces into the Empire's territory. The carrier arrived out of another rift and launched 50 of its entourage. The fighter-bombers sidled up to the scouts and hovered.

The Soomtaw and her squadron slowed and stopped, but did not reverse in direction. Instead, they arranged themselves in classic broadside formation and hovered just outside of their own maximum torpedo range.

At an order from Hood, six Avatar-class battlecruisers including Heaven's Wrath entered Slipspace and instantly emerged directly behind the Soomtaw's squadron and began deploying fighters. The carriers Venture and Xavian began spinning up their own Shaw-Fukajaw drives but did not jump.

"Admiral," came Coriel's cooing voice. "Do you think this wise? They did say that this system is on their border..."

"Coriel. You know better than I do that this system is vital to the Dominion's plans. We have to hold it, and I will do whatever it takes to do just that."

"But sir, we do not know the extent of their forces. The rest of the fleet is not even in this galaxy, and the Slipstream Bridge will not be active for another six months at the outside..."

"What is the status of the primary turrets?"

"Ninety-nine per-cent and climbing, Admiral. They will be ready to fire on your command," responded Coriel, her voice dejected and her wings drooping slightly.

Research station Delevank

The research station sat deep within the systems asteroid belt its holographic generators working overtime to blen it in with the rest of the belt the surounding cloaking feilds also serving to aid in its concealment as well as the half dozen frigates and and several wings of strike craft assigned to its defence should the cloaks and holograms fail to conceal it from prying eyes.

"Sir multiple hyperspace contacts" the Leutenants sudden exclamation broke the monotonus silence of the stations command center "scaning energy signatures"
the stations commander ran over to the sencors station and waited for the scans to finish and cursed under his breath.
"no signitures in data bank"
"keep an eye on them"
"aye sir. they seem to be entering orbit of the inhabited planet...The seven have mercy" the leutenant marked him self in the traditional symble for mercy the commander following suit as the screens depicted the horrors raining down on the unsuspecting planet.
"Open a channel to the fleet" the commander orderd his comms officer
"channel open" she said as the synthetic ping anounced the same.
"This is commander Savanok to all ships unknown hostile contacts on long range sencors. all ships to alert status 2"

Onboard the KNS Anivank

Ensign Kavnoc had been in the messhall when the change in alert status came across the internal comms. rushing up from from here seat she dashed over to the lift craming in with several other crew members either on there way to engenering the torpedo rooms or the gundeck where she was headed as the doors to the lift opend just outside of the actual turrent command room she ran inside and took her seat at her assigned turent straping herself in as she enterd the activation sequence and felt the mag locks release as the seat lifted out of its locked position mirroring the turents own actions the red light indication the tha captain had not yet given the "weapons free" command.
the cloaked turents on the cloaked frigate silently tracking the distant ships and the patroling scouts everybody silently praying the stealth measures would hold.

"sir, we are in range of the target system"
"aye sir, sensors coming up."
"anything interesting out there?"
"sir, multiple targets with weapons online, looks like a standoff and another fleet slightly further out"
"any action towards us?"
"no sir, stealth mode is still operational"
"very well. maintain stealth mode. Bridge to engineering, prepare all systems to go to full power in case we get noticed"
"bridge, sensor room, we're detecting residue from recent ion impacts on the surface of the planets near the fleets. also signatures of a pre-spaceflight technology"
"WHAT? all hands, prepare for combat, comms, send to sector command that we may need support urgently, end stealth mode and bring shields up"
"comms aye, powering up transmitter"
"weapons aye, shield emitters in emergency warmup mode"
"navigation aye, drives online, we are under control"
"sensors aye, active detection online"
"engineering aye, repair teams to your positions"
"Bridge, comms, message away"

OOC: okay, background info, as i dont RP my FT stuff much any more: the ship that just dropped stealth is one of my infinite number of patroling sloops, they're sub-capital class but still fairly big, think small frigates. and the shields will read like those of a front-line cruiser. they have a huge weak-point, but you'll have to find that yourself. also, that message is a tiny particle sent through an equally tiny spatial rift, so you cant intercept it. and dont worry, i wont break anyone too much if you dont hurt innocents. (oh, and my territory isnt in the milky way, i'm just over here scouting, trying to keep myself out of sight of anyone not doing anything threatening.) sorry for the wall of text, but it cant be helped.

Antillies swore.
"They're not backing down! Call for support! Power our weapons! Ready PDS and strengthen shields! Call System!"
A few minutes later, the Vindicator and Herald Battleships were warping to their aid.
"Why the hell is the spot so popular?" He swore again and spoke to his 2nd-in-command.
"What do you think we should do? Pull back slightly and come back with the 16th? Or just wait for back-up?"
"I don't think System would be happy if you pulled out so close to Imperial Borders, sir."
"Your right. We gotta stay or we'll die. Tell Engineering to siphon extra power to the ion cannons."
"Powering up, sir... Sir! New contact!" He pointed a blip on the screen in front of him.
"Damn it, not more!" He slammed the command post with his fist. "Send the scouts over to check it out."

The scouts came away from their position in front of the destroyers and shot towards the new contact. They sent a hail.
Unknown craft, state your name, delegation and business in this sector!

OOC: if you didnt mean me, i'm sorry...

IC:
"Sir, small contacts are closing"
"weapons, load AM rounds, fire the instant you see incoming"
"weapons aye"
"bridge, comms, incoming message. it seems to be a request to identify ourselves"
"respond by wending the following to all ships: This is the No_State_At_All patrol sloop NSS Barrera, we have detected that a pre-spaceflight civilization has been fired upon. we require that the perpetrators explain themselves and stand down immediatly. If you are not the perpetrators we have no quarrel with you, and request that you not interfere."
"comms aye, sending... sent"
"very well. have sector command responded?"
"the response is coming through right now. they say they have ordered the frigate Arathi and her battlegroup to stand by if we need support"
"good enough. send situation updates to the Arathi every 5 minutes"
"comms aye"

This is the No_State_At_All patrol sloop NSS Barrera, we have detected that a pre-spaceflight civilization has been fired upon. we require that the perpetrators explain themselves and stand down immediatly. If you are not the perpetrators we have no quarrel with you, and request that you not interfere.

The scouts relayed the message to the Black Hawk.
"Well, that's a spot of luck." Captain Antillies smirked. "Send this message back. I am Captain Antillies of the VTN Black Hawk. We are currently involved in a standoff towards the attackers of the planet. We will leave your ships alone so long as you make no aggressive acts towards my ships or Templarian Territory." He watched the new arrivals and waited for a response.

"Sir," reported Coriel. "All ships report weapons-ready, but we are receiving an incoming transmission. Source unknown. I do not believe it to be of Templarian origin."

"What? Put it through."

This is the No_State_At_All patrol sloop NSS Barrera, we have detected that a pre-spaceflight civilization has been fired upon. we require that the perpetrators explain themselves and stand down immediately. If you are not the perpetrators we have no quarrel with you, and request that you not interfere.

"Of all the..."

"Sir, perhaps I should..."

"Do it, Coriel. I'd rather not get us into a fight if we can avoid it."



To: All vessels of Feazanthian and Non-Feazanthian origin within the broadcast area.
From: A.I. Coriel (Savant-series, CL175621-F), IFV Heaven's Wrath

Message Begins

Greetings, intelligent beings. I am Coriel, a Savant-series artificial intelligence. My role is ship function and humanoid interactive control.
We are aware of your concerns of our intentions in this sector. Know that my designers have no intention of aggressive action against you or your territories unless it is in defensive measures. The planet that was fired upon is in Feazanthian space, or at least was. The Feazanthian Empire once held a vast territory in this galaxy, but the territory was abandoned at the onset of the Asrengarde Rebellion. This system, known as PX-276623, was deemed as a site for a potential colony, however the plans for the colony were abandoned when the Feazanthian forces in this galaxy were recalled. As we have learned, no intergalactic power has claimed ownership of the world since our departure. Therefore, according to Feazanthian law, the planet and its inhabitants are still within the jurisdiction of the government and the military. Though the Dominion of the Free Peoples of Feazanthia regrets the loss of life, it was deemed necessary for the expansion of our culture into this galaxy once more.
As of this moment, all vessels within four light hours (4,317,011,395,200 standard meters) of the furthest point of the furthest orbital's rotation (see attached) are considered within Feazanthian space. Any attempts to venture further will be considered an act of aggression, and will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis according to the Articles of Dominion Military Practices, Article Two subsection Thirty-One. My organics are a naturally peaceful people, and do not wish for conflict. Please proceed outside of the Feazanthian border at your best safe speed. Talks may begin with your respective governments once our presence in the sector is considered secure.
Thank you for your time and patience.
Message ends.

Antillies spat onto the floor. "Peaceful, my ass. Are those cannons ready yet?" As he said that, the Herald and Vindicator ripped through opposite rifts.
"Speak of the devil. Captain Regulus, how was the flight?"
"Stomach turning as ever," came the reply over the interlink, "but anyways, what are we here for?"
"An unknown force, now identified as the Dominion of the Free Peoples of Feazanthia, invaded a pre-space flight planet right on our border. They are also lingering right at the borders."
"Heh. Let us see us and see what they think."
"You know they use AI? They don't even have the decency to talk to us themselves..."
"How decadent." The two battlecruisers drifted slightly forward.

The cloaked Scout Ship hovered nerviously at the edge of the system. Far too close to our space for comfort. The Pilot thought. Some kind of standoff, with multiple observers. The ship recorded and transmitted back to Command for later viewing. It sat, waiting to see what would happen next.

Coriel's wings perked up and tinged red.
"New contacts. Designs and markings suggest Templarian origin. They are advancing."

Hood swore. Protocol demanded that he fire a warning shot. However, that could have dire ramifications...

"Direct channel, Coriel. Isolate the lead Templarian vessel."

"Done, sir. Channel secured."

A small pinprick of light flared up, indicating the point of record for the Admiral. His beige and white uniform was only visible from the chest up, and he stood with his hands clasped behind his back.

"Captain, or whatever your people rank you. I am Admiral Terrance Hood, and I am leading the forces bearing down on you at this very moment. One officer to another...don't do this. Our scans show that even with your reinforcements, my fleet still outclasses you in both tonnage and firepower. If you do not stop your advance at this instant, we both know what will happen. Unless I complete my mission to establish a permanent colony in this galaxy within six months, my government will send a fleet five times this size of this one to investigate. They will find your nation on the border of the system, and debris orbiting the sun. Assumptions will be made. Orders will be given. And no matter which side wins, the loss of life will be catastrophic to both our peoples. Back your ships off, and I will do the same. Please, Captain. Do not make the biggest mistake of your career. We both have much to gain, but everything to lose."

Regulus grinned.
"Are we in torpedo range?"
"Not yet captain."
"Good. Halt the engines but load torpedoes." At the look from his officers he said, "It's all about intimidation. They might be able to bring a larger fleet...eventually. By that time we'll have the entire bloody system filled with GravWell generators and mines. At any rate, my senses say to stop for now."

The two battlecruisers ground to a halt just outside torpedo range. Regulus spoke to his flight deck commander.
"Launch a couple of Wraiths, in stealth, and check out their fleet."
2 cloaked ships shot out of the Herald and proceeded to the enemy ships.

The twin carriers that had lagged behind the larger capital ships finally activated their drives, emerging slightly behind the vanguard and deploying their strike craft. Fighters and corvettes streamed from the carriers like angry drones from a beehive. Approximately a dozen frigates emerged from the dark side of the closest planet and began a hard burn towards the fleet. Deeper within the system, more craft began to spin up their drives, suggesting more capital ships lay beyond.

Hood leaned closer to the holographic recorder, so that his face would become shadowed.

"Do not force my hand. I would prefer not to put my people in harm's way."

Regulus grinned and signaled to his comm officer who sent a fleet wide message on the Templarian Interlink. All the ships broadcast a message to System Command. It called for the 16th Imperial Fleet to arrive at the system to help. Moments later, at the Farrun Shipyards, the entire fleet jumped. It would arrive in mere minutes. Regulus turned on his holographic communicator and leaned forward. "Nor would I. I reckon that in a few minutes I will significantly outnumber you in both tonnage and firepower. I'd recommend you pull back and perhaps we can negotiate this without needing to resort to firepower."

At the moment he said 'Firepower', the 16th arrived. 3 battleships, 3 light cruisers, 1 carrier, 5 frigates and 5 corvettes. There was a whir that resounded throughout the interlink as the ships simultaneously powered up their weapons. Regulus smiled. "You said you had a fleet 5 times as big." He leaned back in his chair.
"Your move."

Antillies wasn't happy however.
"Call command and have them send a diplomat. Intimidating them, fine, but actually trying to start a war without orders goes against the COC."

"Sir, message incoming. forces now IDed as the Dominion of the Free Peoples of Feazanthia claim resposibilty for destruction of the planet"
"bridge, more ships rifting in, and carriers are launching craft"
"thats it. call in the Arathi and her group, signal her captain we are under his command"
"comms aye"

Aboard the frigate Arathi:
"sir, request has been recieved"
"navigation, execute course"
"navigation aye, opening rift"
"comms signal the battlegroup to follow"
"comms aye, sending"

just behind the lone scout, space seemed to shatter as billions of tiny rifts opened in the fabric of space-time, and then merged into the shapes of a large fleet. the rifts were suddenly replaced by actual ships, and a full NSAA frontier fleet slowly moved up to make formation with the lone scout.

"To all Feazanthian ships, stand down your weapons and remove yourselves from this system within one hour or you will be destroyed. you have been warned"

OOC: the frigate is one of my most powerful ships, and its escort is 10 destroyers (fairly average sized capital ships, overpowered but horribly expensive), 25 warsloops (much more powerful than the scout, but with almost no non-combat systems) and 50 brigantines (the smallest capital ship around, designed as flak ships to stop fighters and missiles getting near the big ships). there are no fighters in sight.

the combined command crews of the research station silently listened and observed as the situation quickly escaladed and almost to the point where if either the Feazanthian or Templarian forces sneazed it would be all out war. it was a small merical no one had moved on there location, aparently the holographic and cloak generators must be doing there job.

"anything?" Ensign Kavnoc wisperd over to one of her fellow turent gunners the situation so tence that they where actualy wispering this far out and on a compleatly difrent ship.
"nothing on my scans but if the Eighth breaks free ((all hell breaks loose)) then the 7 defend us cause thats the only way well live through this"
"well how far is the nearest battle group" she asked
"to far to save us" another gunner remarked
"Enough!" the weapons officer ordered is own voive a horse wisperd bark "just keep your eyes on your targets."
and pray the captain dosn't give the order she added to herself.

"Status?"
"Situation escalating, sir. Do you wish for us to take action?"
A pause. "No. There is no reason for us to get involved. Continue observing. Transmit everything back here."
"Yes sir. Update: A fleet just moved in from the attackers side. They know outnumber and outgun the opposing fleet."
"Keep me posted."
"Aye sir. Scout Ship Quicksilver over and out."

Antillies groaned when he saw what Regulus was doing.
"That imbecile! He asking for war! Tell command, he's breaching Rules of Engagement Section 2 clause 5. They might call him back."

Regulus was in his chair when the order from System came through.
"No!" he yelled, kicking out from his chair. "I won't stand down, I won't let these invaders pass my flee!" *BANG* Regulus dropped to the ground with a bullet hole in his chest. His 2nd-in-command reloaded his pistol.
"System, this is Lieutenant Jakon. Regulus is dead, and I'm pulling the fleet back slightly. Awaiting for either orders to attack or for a diplomat to arrive."
Jakon turned to the comm officer. "Send a message to them. I am Lieutenant jakon, I have taken command from Regulus. We will pull our forces back, provided you will do the same.

The Templarian fleet began to back slowly away from the opposing fleet in reverse thrust, guns still primed incase of a battle.

"There, Coriel. You see? They can be reasonable. Hood to all ships. Reverse thrust, one-quarter maximum. Downgrade to Combat Priority Two. Hell, we may finally have found some allies in this-"

"NEW CONTACTS!" Coriel uncharacteristically screamed. "Bearing two-one-eight mark three-five! Receiving transmission!"


To all Feazanthian ships, stand down your weapons and remove yourselves from this system within one hour or you will be destroyed. You have been warned."

"Hood to all ships! Combat Priority One! Target incoming vessels and standby fire control!"

The ships, which had begun moving backwards towards the system's core, began scrambling to face the new threat.

"This is Admiral Hood to NSAA vessels. You have no jurisdiction over this area. You have no power here. Stand down, or we will accept this as an act of unprovoked aggression and war."

Commander Unaiak stoold stareing at the holo-viewscreen observing the actions of the other ships the unencoded comms signals being broadcast between the vessals echoing in the command center. for a moment it looked as though things might settle down and diplomacy might have a chance to take place but that ended with the demands of the NSAA vessal towards the Feazanthian fleet things looked like they might just blow up in everyones faces.
"open an encoded channel to the defence fleat"
there was afew moments of silence as the comms officer encrypted the channel "channel open"
"I suppose you've all been paying attention" he began in an attempt at humor but no one laughed "its time we discus our options. while theres every reason to beleive that our stealth measures will hold and we will continue to go unnotaced by the fleets intent on destroying eachother. the simple fact is that if our measures fail we are seriously out numberd and this station must not fall into enamy hands... Options"
there was a significant pause as the captains did what all seasond warriers did and weighed there will to fight against there desire to live mixed with there duty to uphold the the decrees of the empire.
"commander" one of them began "its my opinion that we remain hidden. as you said there is no reason to suspect that the feilds will fail. this may just blow over"
"captain Vakrot has a valid point" another added "but may i also sugest that we aprise the 2nd Carrier group of or situation. yes i am aware there they are several hours out and will be of little imediate assistance but atleast they will be able to provide some form of assistance should we need it" he didn't have to add that the assistance would most likely be salvage and recovery operations to keep the empires property out of prying hands.
there where mermers of concent from the others as they agreed that this would be the best plan

Encription code ******-***-********
Encription key ****
Decoded
To: Veshtas Cradle , Carrier 2nd Carrier Group
From: research station Mrishsaka

Have encounterd several hostile ships. cover intact. curently maintaining radio silence encrypted comms only. recomend alert status 3. will keep informed.

For not the station and defence escort would maintain its covert status Commander Unaiak just hoped there encrypted comunications would remain just that as they where on a closed frequency rather than the normal broadband wavelength of standard comms

OOC: Feazanthia, i'm making the hour expire after you post twice more ICly, okay?
also, anyone caring to look at their sensors can see LOTS of energy surges on the fleet, they look a lot like weapons powerups, and there are no engine flares or indeed obvious external engines.

IC: The NSAA ships moved rapidly to a position between the main mass of Feazanthian ships and the devastated planet, seemingly effortlessly.

"Picking up encrypted messages over trans strand 4456002. Do we investigate?"
"Yes, go see what's out there. Mantain silence on all channels, do not uncloak, do not fire. These are your orders. Report back once you have found something."
"Yes Admiral."
The little scout ship turned and glided silently, invisable to scanners and the naked eye, in the direction of the New Kratna station.

The Templarian fleet looked on at the two fleets sizing each other up.
"It's almost a mirror image, isn't it? Of what just happened? Heh." Antillies chuckled. "Are the guns still ready? We may have to fight one way or another."

OOC: i would just like to add that I don't want to push you out of the galaxy, I just want to fix up that planet. And i want you to pay for it.

IC: The NSAA ships unloaded a single small, apparently unarmed and unoccupid shuttle to the atmosphere of the planet. The shuttle sped off and then entered stealth mode, becoming invisible to all sensors known to anyone within No_State_At_All, and probably the universe

"Sir, new contact. Looks like a small shuttle, I'm not reading any... Whoa."
"What?"
"It just disappeared... Must have been a glitch, or something shot it down. I'm also reading energy spikes from the NSAA ships. Looks like energy signatures."
"Strange... Broadcast a message to the leader of both fleets.

I am Lieutenant Jakon, acting captain of the 16th Templarian Fleet. Be warned,although we wish to adopt a neutral state here, any desecration of our borders will not be tolerated. We have no wish to see bloodshed here today, and hope all respective nations can arrange a diplomatic end to this.

"sir, another incoming message. These Templarians appear to wish to prevent hostilities."
"fools. do not reply, if they wish to support these murderers, we need a bit more target practice"
"comms aye"

OOC: These days NSAA ships wont do anything except to protect weaker groups (i.e. the indigenes) from attack. also, sorry for the shortness and poorness of this post, but i need sleep.

((You wanna get your fleet's ass handed to ya, that's fine by me. When I deployed this fleet, I made it represent a full fourth of my total strength, with the intent to double that number after the RP was over ICly. Feazanthia is serious about re-establishing a presence in this galaxy.))

As the Wrath and her formation of warships approached the NSAA fleet, a new set of contacts appeared from deeper within the system. A full fleet of fourteen battlecruisers and thirty destroyers moved from the blind spot of the third planet with their escort of strike craft and frigates in tow.

"Sorry we're late, Admiral. Couldn' let ya have all the fun, now could we?"

"Don't worry, Tom. There's plenty for all. Attention NSAA vessels, you have one more chance. Stand down, and remove yourselves from Feazanthian space or you will be fired upon. You are alone, outnumbered, and outgunned. You have no chance. Do not make a mistake that will cost you your lives." Hood's voice was bolder, more confident. He hadn't been sure the rest of the fleet had been hearing the standoff, and was afraid that they had been too busy mopping up the insectoids.

Your move...

((Okay, bit of background on my ships. My tech is a mix of Homeworld 2-era Hiigaran and Halo's UNSC, with a variant of Covenant slipstream drives. Also have a bit of my own thrown in there, from my original foray into FT, namely a few custom munitions. My ships are armed primarily with kinetic weapons, with certain ships packing ion cannons and others with torpedo systems. The Avatar-class is one of three capital ships capable of "Far" jump, meaning that it is capable of more than just tactical, in-system jumps. Other vessels can "wake" jump with it using the tears made by its drives. While this cuts down on the costs of individual vessels, it limits the long-range maneuverability of my fleet. Destroyers and frigates are capable of tactical jumps on their own, but the amount of energy required leaves them vulnerable to counter-attack afterwards. The Avatar itself is about 900m long, making it smaller than a standard ISD, but its firepower is on par with one. Frigates and carriers use a fairly standard energy shield, while destroyers and battlecruisers use a sort of "blink" shield, that aggressively defends against incoming attacks rather than passively by means of the shipboard A.I. and the sensors. The main weakness to my ships is their lack of maneuverability and slow sublight speeds, as well as their over-reliance on capital-class ships and relative neglect of frigate and smaller.))

OOC: find another planet? I can just numberwank you down if I lose, although if you want me not to, i won't attack this system, however, i will shoot any ship of yours on sight anywhere else. If you'll rebuild the planet then i'm up for coexistence, but the indigenes must be allowed to stay, and not hurt.

IC:
"Bridge, sensors, more contacts incoming"
"dear lord thats a lot of ships. comms, contact sector command and request a full battleship fleet to be sent here if we lose contact. Also authorise ships to retreat as they become too badly damaged to continue fighting. And send the following: We do not wish combat, but we will not allow innocents to be attacked without acting. If you will agree to help the people of the planet you just attacked, we will not attack. Otherwise our people will hunt yours down wherever they may be and destroy them (ooc: thats a lie)."

((ooc: i thought i senced a strong homeworld influince... my own is homeworld based aswell (OH,H:C,H2)with some major weapons upgrades sheilds and acouple of other personal tweeks. will post more later right now i gotta go to work

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=532152 ))

((Planet's gone. Burned what cities were there and sent in marines for mopup. Besides, as they said earlier, it was their territory to begin with))

"Sir. Admiral Date and the Arkbird are warping in sir."
"Excellent!" Antillies exclaimed. "That'll come in handy."

((ooc: The Arkbird is a Dante-class destroyer. Imagine a Romulan Warbird, only with a veeeery big laser on the front. It has a weak spot that'll make the entire ship explode if it does.... But I'll leave to you to find it if it comes to that.))

((Planet's gone. Burned what cities were there and sent in marines for mopup. Besides, as they said earlier, it was their territory to begin with))

OOC: crap... Its a war then, sorry. However if theres nothing left on the planet the support fleets wont bother turning up, i'll just always fire on sight. :(

Commander Unaiak ran his fingers across his cranial ridges as even more ships apeared on there sencors... some jumping in some just moving in to scaning range and with the way things stould now any conflict would ionize the entire region of space along with the sizable amount of debries that would rain down on the planet for the snext several decades as it was all drawn in by the planets gravity well. plainly put if the races insisted on destroying eachother this system would bear the brunt of that war and depending on the efectiveness of the deployed ground crews this system wouldnt see indiginous sentient live for several mellenia if ever.
"someone has got to put an end to this" he mutterd to himself
"i agree" one of his aids comented "but all three of the major players have a valid reason for being here. one is reclaiming abandond terratory sp? so there clame is a little scetchy another is just defending there space so there well within there rights aslong as they don't shoot first and the other is defending the attacked planet but seemes to be taking it alittle far cause if you ask me the inhabitants are screwed"
"Lt. Yathak whats your assesment on the likelyhood of conflict at this point?" Commander Unaiak asked one of his officers
"if the NSAA continues with its beligerent pose... very high."
"Curse the Eighth to the farthest reaches" he slammed his fist on his chairs armrest "servival probability?"
"if we remain undetected... high. the density of the asteroid belt will protect us from most of the radiation from the dammaged and destroyed ships and the sheilds should cover the rest.
"and if we are discoverd?"
"the seven have mercy on us"
Commander Unaiak rested his face in his hands evacuating wasnt an option as there wasn't enought room on the frigats to hold all the scientists and support staff and if they tried to make several trips they would be detected and it would be better to die than let the station be descoverd or captured. there was always the self destruct but that was only a worst case option and allthough this certantly looked it there where still undetected for the moment or atleast no one had made a move on there location...so he would wait... for now.

The stealthed NSAA shuttle sped over the surface of the planet, collating all it could find about the fate of the inhabitants, then swept back up towards the fleet, where it dropped stealth and landed on the frigate. Thereupon, the frigate's entire science team got to work finding out if there was anything left to defend.

OOC: is there?

Commander Unaiak ran his fingers across his cranial ridges as even more ships apeared on there sencors... some jumping in some just moving in to scaning range and with the way things stould now any conflict would ionize the entire region of space along with the sizable amount of debries that would rain down on the planet for the snext several decades as it was all drawn in by the planets gravity well. plainly put if the races insisted on destroying eachother this system would bear the brunt of that war and depending on the efectiveness of the deployed ground crews this system wouldnt see indiginous sentient live for several mellenia if ever.
"someone has got to put an end to this" he mutterd to himself
"i agree" one of his aids comented "but all three of the major players have a valid reason for being here. one is reclaiming abandond terratory sp? so there clame is a little scetchy another is just defending there space so there well within there rights aslong as they don't shoot first and the other is defending the attacked planet but seemes to be taking it alittle far cause if you ask me the inhabitants are screwed"
"Lt. Yathak whats your assesment on the likelyhood of conflict at this point?" Commander Unaiak asked one of his officers
"if the NSAA continues with its beligerent pose... very high."
"Curse the Eighth to the farthest reaches" he slammed his fist on his chairs armrest "servival probability?"
"if we remain undetected... high. the density of the asteroid belt will protect us from most of the radiation from the dammaged and destroyed ships and the sheilds should cover the rest.
"and if we are discoverd?"
"the seven have mercy on us"
Commander Unaiak rested his face in his hands evacuating wasnt an option as there wasn't enought room on the frigats to hold all the scientists and support staff and if they tried to make several trips they would be detected and it would be better to die than let the station be descoverd or captured. there was always the self destruct but that was only a worst case option and allthough this certantly looked it there where still undetected for the moment or atleast no one had made a move on there location...so he would wait... for now.

OOC: I have!
The scout ship moved in, cloaked, towards the station. After running several scans of the station, the ship turned to watch a possible battle.
OOC: I already RPed moving towards your station, and you didn't do anything, so It is justified that your sensors didn't pick me up, especially because I was cloaked.

OOC: I have!
The scout ship moved in, cloaked, towards the station. After running several scans of the station, the ship turned to watch a possible battle.
OOC: I already RPed moving towards your station, and you didn't do anything, so It is justified that your sensors didn't pick me up, especially because I was cloaked.

((ooc: exactly :D oh and on a minor note the station proper is cloaked in a holofield designed to look and scan like just another asteroid but since you picked up my encrypted comms it stants to reason you knew it wasn't a rock though what you know for sure is debatable the the defence fleet (frigates and strike craft) are hidden by several mobile cloak generators))

OOC: I guess i've seen through it since i use gravitational detectors. I'm still ignoring it however, so it matters not.

((OOC-Post incoming. Work sucks))

((The only thing of value left are the resource deposits and the wildlife. If any of the intelligent life are left, they're hiding in small, scattered pockets.

And there's a reason I picked this planet. I don't just anihilate civilizations for shits and giggles.

Well...I do. But only if they can put up a fight.))

"Admiral, the enemy is attempting an intersystem transmission," stated Coriel. "Shall I stop it?"

"Do it. Deploy inhibitors."

The Wrath and several other battlecruisers at once activated their Faster-Than-Light Inhibitors: localized artificial gravity wells that would distort most FTL drives and transmitters, either misdirecting or outright stopping all FTL activity within their field.

"NSAA vessels. This is your last warning. This system currently and has always belonged to the Feazanthian people. Your presence here is an affront to our nation's soverign rights. Make best speed to the borders of the system and return to your point of origin or you will be eliminated in the interests of safeguarding our territory. Diplomatic teams may be deployed to further discuss this matter after these conditions are met. Hood, out."

The admiral cleared his throat and opened a channel to his fleet.
"All ships, weapons hold. Target support vessels first, give our strike craft some breathing room."

OOC: I use wormhole tech as it is currently understood in RL physics. you cant jam it or distort it. I also use it for long-range messages. However i dont let it work too near to a planet or into any ship to stop it being silly.
Also, no backup fleets for me in that case.

IC: "Thats it. All ships, open fire"

Suddenly from all over the NSAA ships, a huge barrage of missile fire swept out towards the opposing carriers, meanwhile flak clouds started to spring up between any hostile fighters and the NSAA ships. In two slightly bulging extensions along the sides of the frigate, Massive power surges began, and the frigate swung to face the largest hostile warship. Meanwhile, a cloud of tiny objects broke free of the frigate and began sweeping through space shortly behind the missiles.

Suddenly, the darkness lit up with beams and flashes of light. On board the newly arrived Arkbird, Admiral Masamune Date sat in his captains and watched.
"This should be interesting."

research station Mrishsaka

"Shit! "Commander Unaiak cursed as the NSAA fleat opend fire "damn them to the Eighth and beyond! Lt Nitok get me the Defence fleet." he orderd
"sir!" She snaped to attention then quickly opend the encrypted channel "Channel open"
"Commander Unaiak to all vessals Alert status one! i Repeat Alert status one! weapons free do not let anything within 100KM of this station!"
he motioned to cut the transmition before ordering an encrypted link to the 2nd carrier group.

Encription code ******-***-********
Encription key ****
Decoded
To: Veshtas Cradle , Carrier 2nd Carrier Group
From: research station Mrishsaka

Alert! Requesting imedat Evac. repeat requesting Imedat Evac Hostiles active cover Still intact, Defence fleet at Alert Status One.

Encription code ******-***-********
Encription key ****
Decoded
To: research station Mrishsaka
From: Veshtas Cradle , Carrier 2nd Carrier Group

Message Received. Carrier group enrout. ETA 2 Marks(hours).. Hang one we're coming.

"Alright prep for evac. Download everything you can, pack anything not bolted down, and whipe the systems. Lets move people this is not a drill!"

Onboard the KNS Anivank

"Attention all gunners weapons free! Repeat weapons free!"
the captians voice ecoed in the gun room as the lights switched from amber to red and the final locks released
"All right you heard him weapons free shot anything inrange"
Ensigh Kavnoc selected her target and waited

Violet pulsar beams lanced from the point-defense systems of the Feazanthian warships, cutting down the missiles as the twin carriers began falling back, lacking any offensive weapons of sufficient power for this sort of fight. They were flanked by a squadron of ten Brushfire-class flak frigates, which continued to pound the missile barrage with their rapid-firing burst cannons. Warheads impacted upon several of the frigates, causing hull breaches and destroying one outright. White spheres dropped from various positions on the frigate as its oxygen ballast was consumed by fire.

"RETURN FIRE!" Hood screamed as weapons fire dotted his fleet. The Feazanthian warships were quick to respond. Cerulean energy beams and volleys of heavy kinetic rounds poured down upon the NSAA vessels, cutting a swath of destruction aimed directly at their flak support vessels. Feazanthian fighters and corvettes quickly retreated behind their larger bretheren as Firelance-class frigates - essentially a hull and crew module built around a massive ion cannon - moved in to support the main fleet. The Feazanthian armada began to deploy in a sphere around the NSAA fleet in order to maximize weapon coverage and minimize chance of escape.

"sir, incoming projectiles. Too many for defence missiles to handle"
"Damnit. Turtle up, concentrate fire on the ships with projectile weapons"
"aye sir"

The NSAA ships fell back into a defensive sphere, concentrating their overwhelmed point defence systems. Even before the formation could be drawn up, 10 of the brigantines were hit heavily, as well as the scout. All 11 of the damaged ships immediatly opened rifts, and flew through them, although 2 of them appeared to be disabled as they were opening the rifts. The other ships all made it to the sphere, while the frigate maintained its line on the largest enemy ship. And now, from the sides of it, two huge cylinders detached themselves, taking with them the huge power surges already detected. Meanwhile, Behind the much reduced missile barrage, Combat suits closed in to land on the hulls of the carriers and began scanning for easy entry points and surface level defences as the fleet let off another massed barrage of missiles, this time targeting the larger of the ships firing kinetic weapons into the sphere.

OOC: whats the outside layout of the carriers stern halves? Are there airlocks, docking hatches, hull weakpoints, or hangar openings?

OOC - What about the Ion Cannons? They're the most powerful weapons in play at the moment, but you don't mention them.

Also.
http://shipyards.relicnews.com/hw2/images/display.htm?hw2_03070201.jpg
Feazanthian carrier. Starboard side has one fighter launch bay, port has a fighter launch and frigate service bay.

"Coriel," said Hood, now noticing the twin cylinders. "Analyze those. What are their purpose?"

"Unknown. Energy generation method also unknown. Recommend treating as a threat."

"I agree. Target primary ion cannon on those cylinders and fire."

"Yes, Admiral."

The Wrath's massive dual-ion cannon turret swiveled and fired upon the twin cylinders, aimed to engulf both in one blast of its destructive beam.

OOC: Doh. sorry. I forgot to go into the shielding I use... Its utterly useless against non-energy weapons, but against anything short of Death star levels of energy weapon, it just generates more power, the shields actually being our secondary generators. Cosmic energy is made of win. Also, an incidental side-effect is that conventional comms messages cannot pass through the shield globes. anyway, back to getting prawned.

IC:The two tubes, scant microseconds before being annhilited by the ion beams, fired in massive overloads of scintilating laser beams. From the ends of them nearest the Feazanthian flagship came beams only slightly less powerful than that of the infamous "Death star", however these beams were cut off just after reaching full power by the mass of charged ions passing back along the generation circuitry, and exploded in dazzling flashes of light.

OOC again: damn, someone actually went for the things before they fired. You're the first.

IC: As the carriers tried to flee, marines in full battle armour swept into the fighter bays from both sides of both carriers, their massive firepower ripping through any unarmoured personell in seconds, and blasting away (unguided shaped charge rockets) at any un-launched fighters. As the first wave touched down, more marines swept in behind them, moving instantly to the entrances to the interior of the ship and blasting their way in.

Behind the main waves, a smaller squad of marines escorted what amounts to a tank into the hangar of each ship, which settled down and disgorged lightly armoured techies, who proceded to link it up to the ship's internal power and computers

OOC: any obvious computer links in the hangars? they're gonna go for bridges and engine rooms, if they can find them. Also, the "tank" is a portable rift generator. Ima steal your carriers if I can. :)

that sounds like godmodding to me now. Bear in mind that i have screw all ways to hold off sustained projectile attacks, so you will overwhelm my ablative armour (small ships) pretty fast.

((OOC-I'm here, just school and work has been taking a toll on me. For instance, I have a paper due at 7:00 EST today and it's not done, and I have to work until 5:00.

I'll try to post ASAP))

OOC: its all good, my life goes a bit hectic at random, so I really cant complain. Any time is good, also good luck with your work mate. :)

((Like I stated earlier in the thread, all crew are currently in their modules, which are sealed off from the rest of the ship. No air or anything in any passageways or in the hangar. Everything in there is operated by the ship's A.I. or remotely from the hangar crew module. The closest thing to a computer port would be the A.I. terminal near the first fighter service bay.))

The Feazanthian warships ceased fire on their ion cannons, realizing that they were next to useless against the enemy ships. Instead, their kinetic weapons increased in rate of fire from the excess energy being dumped into the grid, showering the NSAA fleet with projectiles from all angles. Brushfire-class flak frigates moved in slightly ahead of the capital ships, peppering the missiles with area-of-effect projectile weaponry. Pulsar beams flashed violet, detonating the explosives before they could make contact with the shields, and what few did get through were eliminated as the ships' A.I. recognized the threat and initialized the shields in front of them.

Within the carriers, it seemed eerily quiet. Even the robotic service arms of each bay were motionless, hanging there like the remains of some great sea creature. As the NSAA soldiers began toying with the alien technology, a silent alert flashed along the carriers. If anyone had been paying attention, they would have seen the tiniest of ripples against the plasteel walls; and if sound was capable of being carried in space, they would have heard dozens of rifles cocking all around them.

Several marines blasted holes into the internal corridors, and emerged into them, filling them with fire in case of defenders. Meanwhile, in the hangars, technicians began attempting to hook into the computers (ai, but they dont know it yet) and introduce viri that would hunt down and destroy all undefended native AIs and control systems, barring the navigation systems.

Meanwhile, the fleet was losing ships all around as the Feazanthian projectiles slammed home against hulls, despite the best efforts of counter-missiles, anti-projectile lasers, and suicidal blocking tactics from the lighter ships.
Launching another volley of missiles, the ships pulled into the tightest sphere possible, whilst those damaged opened rifts and fled, although several ships appeared to be disabled, with only limited power sources showing, and their shields destroyed, although a few limited batteries of defensive weaponry continued to fire from a few of them.
One of the NSAA ships opened a rift to flee, and was then knocked off course by a fortuitous missile impact, and was ripped apart by the forces generated by partially entering such a rift, scattering debris accross a large area of space, some of it having to be detonated as it closed with the embattled fleets.

OOC: okay, one more salvo and we're gone. also, those lasers did fire, and even probably had the power to punch through some shields, although i doubt they'll do much. oh, and FYI, some of the marines are blatantly non-human. Some are clearly humanoid, however.

Hood's view of the battlefield shifted as the Wrath cruised "upward" from the sphere of Feazanthian warships, having taken combat damage and having her shields compromised. A large hull breach leaked energy from the forward bow, but luckily no critical systems had been affected and no losses were reported from any modules. Whatever that weapon had been, they had been fortunate that their ion cannons had at least been effective against it. How the enemy's shields were capable of not only defending against the Feazanthian weapon, but also seemingly converting it into usable energy was unknown. Whatever they did, however, it disturbed Hood to no end.

Still, with the added energy usually alloted to the ion cannons dumped back into the weapons grid, the Feazanthian battlecruisers were able to roughly halve the mag-coil recharge time on their Arbiter heavy cannons. At an order from Hood, the capital ships began focusing their fire onto the engines of the NSAA vessels in order to stop them from escaping. Brushfires and Longbow frigates continued to press forward towards the collapsing inner sphere of enemy ships, peppering enemy missiles and straggler craft with their burst cannons and fusion torpedoes, respectively. Interceptors began running interference, picking up any of the missiles that managed to get through this screen with a good deal of efficiency now that many of the enemy flak ships had been neutralized. Frigates that strongly resembled the Brushfire-class, only with a large, bulbous module on their ventral hulls instead of a second burst turret, began burning towards any disabled NSAA ships.

---

Araquiel chuckled deeply at the creatures' feeble intrusive programs. He spun off a few hundred thousand weakened copies of his lesser subroutines, allowing the viruses to infiltrate and infect them, only to have his counter-intrusive software kick in and isolate the programs. He began an analysis of the NSAA software, finding it child's play to manipulate and rewrite the code. To the enemy marines, it would appear that their attempts at gaining control of the ship were working. Instead, he was gaining valuable information about his foes. He craned his "head" to listen now, picking up scattered chatter on the Feazanthian D-band.

"Got 'em in mah sight, Sergeant. Just say the word..."
"Hold tight, marine. Don't compromise your camouflage."

Floating in what seemed to him to be the tight constraints of the carrier's crystalline computer conduits, Araquiel chuckled. His "eyes" burned brighter with virtual fire as he redirected his sight to the NSAA marines. They were scrambling through his corridors like vermin, but they had led themselves into a trap. He could deal with them later. For now his primary concern were those marines in his hangar bay. He opened a channel to the friendlies now hiding in their Semi-Powered Infiltration Armor against the walls of his hangar, giving them a single code phrase.

"Unleash the Great Maker."

At once, flashes and puffs of discarded gas appeared all around the NSAA techs and marines clustered in the hangar bay. Dull whumps reverberated through the space as marines with M41 SSR MAV/AW "Spanker" rocket launchers fired their shaped charge ordinance.

Araquiel's dagger-like "teeth" broke into a smile. For organics, they sure were efficient.

"Sir, we're getting hammered here, suggest we fall back"
"Damnit. Yes, we'll have to. All ships to activate rift drive and go"

The entire surviving force of NSAA ships opened rifts at once, and left a few hulks drifiting in space, while one lone flak turret continued to fire at anything within range until destroyed.

OOC: there were no obvious drives to shoot at. The only external features on any NSAA ships are weapons ports. Gravitic drives and internal rift generators are made of win.

IC again:
Aboard the carriers, the marines ducked into cover as the defensive systems of the portable rift generator kicked in (ooc: that thing is from an "ancient time" and is lost technology. you are so NOT killing it. It'll leave on its own if it has to.) cutting down any and all fire heading for it with a strange beamlike energy, however, it also cut directly through the three marines too slow to get out of the way. The rest of the marines allowed their suits to perform active evasive manouvers, jetting around the hangar bay like crazy things, although some of them were destroyed, the returning fire slammed thorugh the interior walls of the hangars and probably anything beyond (ooc: heavy AP rapid fire gaussweapons mostly at this point). The marines in the corridors pushed on towards the fore and aft of the ships.
Although the first viri were neutralised, the battle AI that followed detected this, and prepared to actively defend itself against whatever the defending technicians (OOC: its expecting humans with genetically modified brains to allow them to fight computerised war, because thats what i have) could unleash against it until the marines could neutralise them.

Hood watched the enemy retreat with mixed emotions. On the one hand, he'd managed to survive his first encounter with a Milky Way fleet with minimal losses and damage. On the other, he'd let an enemy slip through his grasp when he could have destroyed them outright, cementing the Dominion's position in the galaxy.

No matter. They would either yield to diplomacy or be wiped out. Already, ship A.I.s were chewing on the combat data and shooting data packets from ship to ship, conversing with one another about how best to deal with this new threat as Workbee-class utility craft began salvaging what they could from the battle. It would not be long until they would have a counter for all the enemy's tactics and witnessed technologies. He was just about to order the fleet into standby status when a new alarm blared.

"FLASH traffic - FSN Archindon reports boarders in primary strike craft hangar bay!"

Hood cursed. The incredible arrogance of these beings was staggering. Their fleet was gone, yet they still fought!

"Coriel! Status on the Archindon, NOW!"

"Opening channel to Archindon actual. Stand by...[/i]

Coriel's angelic form wavered and vanished to be replaced with the image of an elderly, balding man clad in light battle armor and loading an assault rifle.

"Sah!" said the man, startled. "Bit busy 'ere at the moment! Got bad guys in the main hangar and movin' forward. Could use a spot 'a 'elp, sah!"

"We're on our way, Mick. Just hold on. What are they doing?"

"Makin' a big noise in the bay and tryin ta get in our computers! We got 'em contained, but dunno how long we can keep 'em!"

"Sir," inserted Coriel, appearing slightly off to the carrier captain's side. "We have a problem. The Archindon was constructing a Longbow frigate before the battle. It is currently in danger."

"Explain, Coriel."

The captain butted in. "She's built, sah, but targetin' an' shield software innit installed yet! Crew's still in cryo, too!"

A spark flashed across the admiral's mind. "Jettison that frigate and those cryo trays, Mick. NOW!"

"Trays already out, sah, but hangar controls are jammed all tah hell! Tryin' tah get Araquiel tah jettison it, but...'e says 'e's busy."

---

The marines darted along the walls, still giving away the slightest hint of motion as their armor adjusted to its surroundings as well as the flashes of assault rifle fire dotting along the upper bay as tracers followed the flying humanoids.

Araquiel smiled at the enemy A.I.'s clumsy bashing through his outer countermeasures. He darted around his adversary like a digital ghost, monitoring its methods. He began subtly probing it, searching for a weakness.

The battle AI's detection systems noticed an advanced AI, and flashed for assistance, but all the marines around the control console were down.

Those remaining standing had however managed to erect a heavy weapon, and were chewing away at the walls around the top edge of the hangar with concentrated blasts of anti-tank weaponry.

In the corridors, the marines swept towards the ends of the ships, spiderlike suits leading the way, blasting any and all doors they came to, while humanoid suits cleared each room of any resistance they might find, and checked rooms to see if they could find anything of use.

Meanwhile, back at the fleet, the utility bots were suddenly engulfed in a wave of fire, as more suited figures swept from the damaged ships towards one of the NSAA sloops, which suddenly powered up again, its defensive weaponry opening fire to cover the suits as they shot towards it.

"Workbee Two-Seven taking enemy fire in grid sq-KzZZzzZzT"

"This is Brushfire Eight-Zero. Hold on, Two-Seven, help inbound."

A quintet of Brushfire frigates shrugged off debris bouncing from their shields, closing with the NSAA sloop and providing covering flak fire for the retreating Workbees. The area-of-effect shells detonated in clouds of shrapnel within the midst of the darting enemy soldiers. A pair of destroyers targetted the powered up sloop and began a hard burn towards it down the Z axis, lining up kinetic turrets for a full broadside.

---

Araquiel grimaced as his sensors picked up the heavy fire within his hangar bay, and he cursed the organics for forcing him from his prey. Though he still tracked and catalogued the battle A.I.'s movements, he began analyzing the new threat with greater intensity. It appeared to be an anti-armor turret ((correct?)) following the NSAA's crude design. A minor annoyance to him - as if a pittance such of that could threaten his structural integrity - but the organics in his charge were in danger. Araquiel moved a dozen fighter service arms as if they were his own limbs - for in effect they were - and set them to assaulting the turret with brute force. The problem solved to his needs, he focused again on the enemy A.I. bashing through his system haphazardly.

"It is time to put an end to your games," he said to his adversary as he slammed down firewalls all around the systems the A.I. had infected. He then backed up the firewalls with counter-intrusion software of his own design, forming multiple layers of protection against the enemy breaking free.

Almost mimicing his actions within the simulated circuitry of the ship, Araquiel likewise began slamming emergency bulkheads down around (and occasionally on) the NSAA marines skittering through his corridors. Crew modules in danger areas began prepping for jettison as Araquiel's cold, sinister voice was piped in over the ship's broadbeam.

"Ah ah ah...breaking others' things is not nice. Surely whatever spawned you taught you that..."

The survivors (thats what they are) were almost wiped out by the flak shells, but a few managed to make it to the sloop, and it opened its own rift, and fled, leaking atmosphere as it went.

Meanwhile:
The battle AI started blaring out an alarm, but the marines couldnt take time to pay attention. They were too busy concentrating fire on the service arms, as the pair of marines with the anti-armour weapon (its not a turret, its just a heavy gun) jetted about crazily to escape them. In the corridors, the marines continued their advance, blasting away every bulkhead they came to, although some losses were sustained as doors slammed down, rupturing their armour suits.

OOC: I did board both carriers...

As Araquiel toyed with his "prey" on the Archindon, the Venture's A.I. was another story. Tai Shan could almost feel the enemy marines crawling through her like some sort of insect. It was...unbearable. They tore at her. Gnawed at her systems.

She sensed another presence. An enemy presence. A presence near her!

Firewalls appeared all around her and her vital systems, sealing them off from outside contamination. She would not be taken. Never.

Initializing emergency separation. Stand by...

To his horror, Captain Elhoim felt himself accelerating as his holotank pod was ejected from the Venture. Similarly, all other crew modules and production modules were forced from the carrier as Tai Shan panicked.

Initializing Purge Protocol.

The Venture slowed to a stop, her engines going from blue-white to orange to finally grey. Drive plasma built up in her systems. Tai Shan knew she would be injured from this, but it had to be done. It had been done many times before when the Collective had infected ships. And now, she was infected.

Superheated plasma rushed through the narrow corridors of the Venture and then out into space as ducts were opened, incinerating all equipment that wasn't secured and, hopefully, the insects that plagued her.

---

For the briefest of moments, Araquiel was concerned for his "sister" as she cried out in terror. Then, he returned to his game. The enemy A.I. wasn't going anywhere, he could disassemble it line by line at his leisure. Instead he was more concerned about the enemy marines gallivanting through him. As Feazanthians with Spankers launched their guided rockets at the large weapon, he began searching for a solution. They were almost to his engines, his own beating heart in a sense. He could initiate a purge protocol as Tai Shan had done, but the organics were counting on the sensitive equipment he carried.

He grumbled. How bloody annoying.

---

Marines in SPI armor doubled back through the corridors, hugging the walls as they hunted down the enemy. Whenever they came across a party, they would surround them silently before opening up with their assault rifles. But they were too slow, they knew it...

---

Araquiel came to it almost in a dream.

The frigate!

The enemy were after Feazanthian technology, he knew that much. With their ships gone, they also had no way home unless they gained control of a slipstream drive.

A frigate with a functional reactor capable of wake jumping within the Venture's slipstream radius would be too tempting to pass up, especially when they realized they wouldn't be taking control of him any time soon.

He chose his words carefully, coding them lightly enough that the enemy could crack it easily, but would give them just enough trouble to make them feel like they had accomplished something.

"Attention, all marines. Enemy soldiers approaching frigate service bay two. Longbow-class frigate still docked. Defend the frigate. Scuttle slipstream drive if necessary to keep it out of enemy hands. This message will repeat..."

As the plasma vented into the corridors of the carrier, The marines were almost all wiped out, but a very few in the hangar bay near the rift generator jumped to attach themselves to it, and hit the emergency jump button, escaping to the unknown rally point scant miliseconds before plasma filled the bay. (ooc: if the bay didnt fill itself, the holes i blasted in the side of it would let at least some leak in)

Meanwhile, aboard the other carrier, the marines continued their pushes, hoping that the engine room and bridge would be found soon, as the losses were mounting. Also, hearing that the AI was outclassed, they were now blasting all computer access points or anything that looked like them along their paths.

"Sir?"
"Your orders are to jump home, pilot. You've collected all the data you can."
"Yes sir. ETA 15 minutes."
The little scoutship uncloaked, turned, and jumped into hyperspace before any of the ships present could do anything.

Araquiel cursed the flawed logic of the organics. They weren't taking the bait! In their arrogance, they hoped to gain control of him! Even if they somehow managed to get to his reactor, did they not realize he could simply jettison it? Did they not realize that, even if they compromised the command crew (an unlikely event in itself), Araquiel was more than capable of locking the ship's controls? And without the captain's command, the invaders could do nothing to harm his central programming, no matter how many terminals they destroyed!

"Your organics are idiotic at best. A child could understand their tactics! It is little wonder you are so poorly designed," mocked Araquiel as he taunted his computerized prisoner. "I am going to do you a favor. I am going to grant you eyes enough to watch them die, even though you have not the mouth to warn them."

He growled as firewalls closed in around the intrusion A.I., cutting off any chance of it communicating with the outside, but allowing it read-only access to his corridor security holocam feeds. It was time to show them whom they were dealing with.

"Foolish, foolish weaklings," blared his heavy voice over all known frequencies, forming a sort of echo effect. "You seek to fight that which you do not understand. You seek to cut out the heart of that which has no heart. You seek to destroy the brain of that which has no brain. You are lost. Insignificant. Surrender, or be purged in the fire of the Great Maker."

---

"The hell is he doing?" wondered Hood aloud as Araquiel's bravado leaked into the fleet's channels. Capital ships were beginning a hard burn towards the Archindon, hoping to cut it down the moment it showed any signs of subversion. Wings of interceptors and bombers flew in constant CAPs around her outer hull, searching for any sign of enemy activity.

"Being Araquiel," stated Coriel simply, sighing as she watched her "brother's" antics.

"what the HELL was that?"
"I guess its one of those AI run ships or something. In case it is, send a couple of other teams to initiate plans B and C"
"aye sir, squads 7 and 8, plan B, squads 9 and 10, plan C.
"Squad 7 acknowledged"
"Squad 8 acknowledged"
"Squad 9 acknowledged. We're taking heavy casualties and may not make it"
"Squad 10, no can do, we're pinned down"
"Roger 9, 10, squads 5 and 6, move to assist squads 9 and 10"
"Squad 5, roger that"
...
"Squad 6, respond"
...
"Squad 4, go find out what happened to squad 6, Squad 2, initiate plan C"
"Squad 2 aye"
"Squad 4, on the way"
"Squads 1 and 3, fall back to the hangar"
"Squad 1 aye"
"Squad 3 acknowledges"

The marines, giving up hope of taking the ship here, continued their pushes forwards and backwards, but now were ignoring almost everything and just blasting anything that looked important, while others moved to secure the hangar and their routes back to it. Meanwhile, the parts of the AI cut off from it's processor in the hangar bay, ceased to process, while erecting its own firewalls in an attempt to prevent access to the core of the ancient machinery of the rift generator.

"We're not getting anywhere here. Send a couple of teams to initiate plans B and C"
"aye sir, squads 7 and 8, plan B, squads 9 and 10, plan C.
"Squad 7 acknowledged"
"Squad 8 acknowledged"
"Squad 9 acknowledged. We're taking heavy casualties and may not make it"
"Squad 10, no can do, we're pinned down"
"Roger 9, 10, squads 5 and 6, move to assist squads 9 and 10"
"Squad 5, roger that"
...
"Squad 6, respond"
...
"Squad 4, go find out what happened to squad 6, Squad 2, initiate plan C"
"Squad 2 aye"
"Squad 4, on the way"
"Squads 1 and 3, fall back to the hangar"
"Squad 1 aye"
"Squad 3 acknowledges"

The marines, giving up hope of taking the ship here, continued their pushes forwards and backwards, but now were ignoring almost everything and just blasting anything that looked important, while others moved to secure the hangar and their routes back to it. Meanwhile, the parts of the AI cut off from it's processor in the hangar bay, ceased to process, while erecting its own firewalls in an attempt to prevent access to the core of the ancient machinery of the rift generator.

Araquiel watched as two of the enemy marine squads began doubling back towards the hangar bay. He grinned inwardly, because one of them was about to stumble directly into the path of a Feazanthian marine squad in SPI armor. He made a note to review the holovid of that corridor later for amusement. He then focused on the strange device sitting in his own hangar bay. What could it be? He was detecting strange emanations from it, but could not place their purpose. Whatever the reason, it was important to the aliens.

He thought quickly. What was at his disposal? The hangar bay was completely open to the vacuum of space and all oxygen was still stored in the ship's internal ballast, so venting it into the void was out of the question. He couldn't wrap his shields around it within his own hangar (a product of the humans' shortsightedness. He'd have to berate them about that later.) There were no strike craft docked...

...but there were some outside.

A wing of interceptors flew in a CAP around the carrier, preventing any of the enemy from escaping in those damned annoying thruster packs. Araquiel sent a burst message to one of the flight leaders, whom immediately led his flight of heavy space superiority fighters alongside the carrier's port side. They matched velocity with the carrier, which was slowing gradually anyway, and turned to face the main hangar bay.

"This is Red Leader, I'm locked on."

"Fire!" boomed Araquiel. Volleys of railgun slugs perforated the inside of the hangar as friendly marines evacuated. At the same time, he attacked again with the service arms.

"What the?! bombers coming in, cover!"
"what? Where?" *boom*

The marines already in the hangar were mostly wiped out, but a few fled into the corridors, where one radioed out what had happened. Meanwhile, one shell hit the side of the rift generator, leaving a tiny glowing mark, which quickly dissapeared, and all the others stopped scant millimetres from the surface of it.
Also, all connections between it and the ships computers suddenly closed down totally, physically cut by the undefinable field of force generated by the rift generator. The arms would vaporise on contact, if they didnt cease their attacks at once, however the marines were still vulnerable as they huddled in the doorways, trying to stay as close as possible to the generator and yet still be in cover. Some would undoubtedly fail to achieve both.
The marines throughout the ship stopped what they were doing and headed straight for the hangar bay, wasting ammo horribly as they filled empty doorways, corridor entrances, and the corridors behind them with assorted weapon fire, aiming to keep as many of themselves alive as they could, and to get back in time...

OOC: that thing is clearly different tech to what the rest of them are using, by the way.

The Feazanthian marines continued to take potshots at their NSAA counterparts as the hail of slugs continued to pass through the carrier's hangar bay. One took a slug in the leg, blowing the lower half of his torso off. The active camouflage of his SPI armor overloaded as bloody chunks sprayed from the dying man, revealing the lime-green armor and over sized helmet that protected them from small-arms fire. His compatriots safe in the corridors, they took up flanking positions to keep the enemy from breaching the hangar bay.

"You cannot escape..."
Araquiel's voice boomed over the frequencies again, though he was less sure. That...thing...in his bay. What was it? How was it blocking the munitions fire? How had it vaporized the service arms he had been using? Some sort of concentrated magnetic field? Gravitic distortions? He detected none, but this technology was strange to him.

As the battle raged within his metal body, he confronted his prisoner.

"You. Alien. Tell me what that thing is before I tear it from your coding."

All Araquiel would ever get from the AI was a string of error codes, as it's core processing was carried out on the rift generator itself, however, if it was analysed carefully, its weakpoints could be found, and its cohorts prevented from ever gaining as much as an inch on other ships.
Meanwhile, the marines continued to huddle around the hangar, while those not there yet abandoned all attempts to stay in cover and shot towards the hangar at best speed.
From the rift generator itself, massive gravtic surges began, ripping at the hangar's internal structure, and slowly spreading outwards towards the waiting marines.

OOC: Don't worry, thats not a weapon. it does have some, but they aren't going to fire this time out.

A string of warning messages passed through Araquiel. In response to the gravitic distortions, the Slipstream drive cut out as internal safeties kicked in. He watched as plasteel and service arms were torn apart at the molecular level by the device's emissions. The ship itself seemed to be buckling under the strain.

Damage control subroutines online.
Initializing emergency protocol.

Braces slammed into place to hold the carrier bay in one piece, but Araquiel wondered how much more abuse the Archindoun could take.

"All modules, prep for emergency separation."

Artificial gravity cut out as power was redirected to maintaining the structural integrity. Casings, debris, and bodies hovered in midair as chaos erupted all around them. The Feazanthian marines were torn between scrambling for escape pods and attacking the retreating NSAA soldiers as their paths crossed.

Araquiel had never heard of technology like this. He watched, half-fascinated and half-enraged, as the thing's power signature continued to build. He watched as crew modules began to open the ship's outer doors, mere seconds from breaking free of the tormented warship. Watched as man and alien died to each other's weapons.

Watched as his reality collapsed around him.

The power levels continued to build, and the marines huddled closer, more of them being exposed to the ships outside's fire, when suddenly, a rift appeared in the middle of the hangar bay, engulfing the generator, and spreading out to cover the marines. Those left outside dived through it, the last surviving marine jetting forward at full speed into the rift as it closed again. everything, even debris, in the space it had enclosed was gone, as if it had never been.

On the other side of the rifts, the NSAA fleet's survivors moved in and picked up the surviving marines and the rift generators, before moving off again to meet up with the main sector fleet and repair.

Meanwhile, deep out in space, another sloop rifted into the borders of the system and entered stealth, moving up to observe what the victors would do now.

OOC: thats me done, i'll just be watching from here on. Also, I like that AI idea.