NationStates Jolt Archive

"Closing with target. All ships, prepare to go dark."

The Explorer-class command ship Trail Seeker slid from the sliver of space-time linking this universe with the microcosm that was the Slipstream. Around the gargantuan command vessel sprang the elements of the Seeker's battlegroup. Battlecruisers and destroyers took up defensive positions around the Explorer as frigate squadrons began taking observational posts through the system.

"Target nebula in sight. No sign of hostiles. Resourcer team Gamma, prepare to deploy."

Twelve Wastas-class resourcers, utility craft specifically designed for the harvesting of volatile substances, began moving towards the outer gas shell of the Serentist nebula. They deployed their long, tendril-like worker arms from their top half. Wisps of gas, followed by a steady stream, began flowing into the arms. The carrier Caalshto moved in ahead of the Trail Seeker as the worker pods began to fill and the half-egg shaped craft began returning to their designated drop-off points.

"All ships report running dark, Jak'sa. No sign of Serentist activity. Remaining on high alert."

The Dominion had demanded that this source of fuel be exploited. Jak'sa Soban just hoped the Serentists didn't notice if their beloved nebula grew just a bit smaller.

OOC: Do you have an Order of Battle? The outpost would detect most of your ships, and allow me to throw together a realistic fleet. Until then, my fleet details remain vague.

The Incandescent Nebula: Borderlands

She rotated ever-so-slightly, hidden just within the last reaches of the Incandescent Nebula. Nothing appeared to alive, but appearances were deceiving. Observatory Outpost Three-Five-One was watching the newcomers, watching them busy themselves with the forbidden fruit. Little worker-bees pierced the cloud, then returned to the hive moments later. Three-Five-One was angry.

*****

Fleet Designation Point one: The Serene System

"Commander Solenia, it has been confirmed. The unholy are back"

Commander Solenia had hoped that this scenario would not happen. He knew however, that it would. And he had been preparing.

"Coordinate movement through the SILYBS Network towards Observatory Outpost Three-Five-One. Continue sub-space communications with the station"

The Sub-Commander nodded, and looked out over his Defence Staff. They needed no-word, no directions: They knew what they had to do. Within minutes, the proud heads of the ISF Lyonesse and Alexandria took point with the emergency fleet, accompanied by scores of Destroyers and Frigate Battlegroups. Combined, they surrounded the Battlecarrier, the ISF Black Thorn, and waited.

"Captain Herra, this is SILYBS Command. You are clear to jump. Good luck, fleet."

And with that, the fleet disappeared into perfect Hyperspace windows. Designation: Observatory Outpost Three-Five-One. The jump would not take long.

OOC: BUMP. And still waiting for your ORBAT, Fea!

The Incandescent Nebula: Borderlands

Amidst the unpredictable electro-static charges of the clouds of the borderlands, a series of perfect Hyperspace windows formed. The Incandescent Fleet had arrived.

"Fleet, this is Captain Herra of the ISF Alexandria. Report"

Herra viewed the large glass panel in front of him, which was practically over-flowing with tactical data. His attention quickly turned to the ships at his disposal:

One 'Azure'-Class BattleCarrier - 'ISF Black Thorn'
Two 'Carthage'-Class Heavy Battle Cruisers - 'ISF Lyonesse', 'ISF Alexandria'
Five 'Chaos'-Class Destroyers
Five 'Infiltrator'-Class Marine Frigates
Fifteen 'Warrior'-Class Assault Frigates
Eleven 'Firestorm'-Class Heavy Missile Frigates
Eleven 'Firefly'-Class Ion Cannon Frigates
Thirty 'Orca'-Class Pulsar Gunships
Thirty 'Lancer'-Class Tactical Fighter-Bombers
Fifty 'Retribution'-Class Superiority Fighters
Ten 'Falcon'-Class Advanced Scout Fighters

"Sub-Commander, dispatch Falcons to the mining operation and the enemy battle-group immediately; Keep them out of sight. With any luck, they wont have detected our jump, the Nebula's too dense here"

Herra once-more turned his attention to the screen, occasionally flickering his eyes across its surface, swapping and reviewing information. In a matter of minutes, the scout's data would be available for analysis. And sure enough, it was. Everything was ready.

"Initiate Phase:One. Begin the attack"

*******

The scouts were immediately recalled, for the following onslaught could prove hostile towards their delicate sensor array. Another hyperspace window opened in-front of the Alexandria, except this time no-ship made a movement towards it. Instead, a series of smaller shapes could be seen exiting the Firestorm, Chaos and Carthage vessels. bound for the window before them. A total of Thirty-seven thermonuclear torpedoes were on an intercept coarse through hyperspace.
The fleet then sprang into action, moving forward towards the edge of the Nebula itself. The carrier, surrounded in a protective shield by her ships, began unloading her compliment of fighter-vessels. The Battle Cruisers soon followed-suit. Twenty Pulsar Gunships and a further Twenty Superiority Fighters were immediately dispatched for the mining operation, which was now well-established. Meanwhile, the Cruisers took point as the fleet, minus the Carrier and her fighters, began to move forward to engage the enemy.

Then a hyperspace window opened among the enemies ranks. Within seconds of exiting, each thermonuclear missile detonated. Accuracy was an issue, even with the short-jump, unmanned craft's maneuverability in hyperspace was severely limited, leaving some missiles far from their targets. The sheer intensity of the explosions made up for this, followed by the electro-magnetic fallout left in their wake. Any electronic systems in the extremities of the enemy ships would suffer.

The Serenitist battle-group became visible, the bows of the Lyonesse and Alexandria breaking the final clouds of the nebula. They were moving fast, and they did not lack in intent.

OOC- Azure-class? That's a new one on me. Is that a standard HGN carrier?

ORBAT is a standard half-strength task force, save for the Explorer.

1 Explorer-class Command Vessel - IFV Trail Seeker
1 Prophet-class Carrier - IFV Caalshto
3 Avatar-class Battlecruiser - IFV Ascendant Justice; Endgame; Grave Covenant
9 Revelation-class Destroyer
15 Brushfire-class Assault Frigate (3 squadrons)
15 Longbow-class Torpedo Frigate (3 squadrons)
15 Firelance-class DEW Frigate (3 squadrons)
30 Tempest-class Corvette (2 squadrons)
30 Savior-class Corvette (2 squadrons)
50 Acolyte-class Space Superiority Fighter (2 squadrons)
50 Hammer-class Fighter-Bomber (2 squadrons)

---
Alarms blared through the the Trail Seeker as the thermonuclear warheads went off all around it, vaporizing several of the comparatively fragile mining craft. As the five-and-a-half-kilometer command ship's SENTINEL system flared and faded, dissipating the force of the blast, the ship's weapons came back online. The IFV Endgame and IFV Ascendant Justice moved towards the nebula and the emerging Serentist task force with primary ion cannons engaged.

"Siege capacitors at fifty per-cent and climbing. All secondary cannons charged and locked on," reported the Seeker's A.I. "Caalshto suffering EMP feedback, tactical net at eighty per-cent. Strike Craft autolaunch set."

The Trail Seeker's medium railguns opened up, slugs of white-hot metal speeding towards the Serentist fleet as the nearest Longbow squadron began a hard burn down the Z axis and opened their torpedo tubes. Acolytes and Hammers swarmed from the massive underbelly of the Trail Seeker, buzzing like angry wasps as their larger cousins drew the enemy fire away long enough for them to do their part.

Attention, Serentist force. You have attacked Dominion vessels without provocation and without warning. Withdraw immediately or be eliminated.

OOC: The Azure is the primary Battle-Carrier of the Incandescent Fleet, still working on armaments in the Encyclopedia however. Will update all fleet statistics in more detail tonight.

The Incandescent Nebula: Borderlands

"We need reinforcements, NOW!"

Captain Herra, like the rest of his crew, were firmly strapped in, operating the ship from their optical terminals. His terminal in particular felt it completely necessarily to constantly remind him that they were outnumbered by 33%. The remainder of the First Fleet had already been sent for, although the rest of the colonies armada would take time to arrive at the front line. The battle however, was well underway.

The enemy torpedoes were easily intercepted by the various Pulsar Defence Systems of the fleet. As for the kinetic munitions, the POLAR shielding was having only a limited success. Several hull breaches had already been reported on a couple of frigates. The Destroyers and Battle-Cruisers; equipped with the OMNI shields remained unscathed by the archaic weaponry, sadly however, they were the only ships large enough to house such technology. The leading Cruiser, the Alexandria, took the enemy ion cannon assault in her bow, although limited by the sheer magnetic forces still being exerted by the POLAR shields, she was nevertheless shaken enough to warrant a change in tactics. This left the Hyperspace Inhibitors of the Battle-Cruisers and Destroyers completely offline, with all available power being diverted to shields and weaponry. The Capital-ships of the Incandescent Fleet themselves followed the Alexandria veer off-course, aiming to avoid the brunt of the armada before them. Instead they retreated slightly, maneuvering instead to offer covering fire to the fighter-squadrons scrambled.

Thirty Superiority Fighters immediately emerged from behind the capital-ships, heading straight for the enemy bombers, while the remaining ten Pulsar Gunships engaged the enemy fighter squadrons, hugging in-close to the bellies of the Serenitist Fleet. The Ion-cannon and Assault frigates opened-fire first, hitting any enemy fighter out of sheer luck while buying time for the torpedo frigates to load the correct munitions. The sheer volume of enemy strike-craft moving towards them offered some luck to the haphazard Ion-Cannon beams despite their complete inaccuracy. As the Serenitist fighters finally made contact with the enemy bombers, all eleven Torpedo Frigates, Fifteen Assault frigates and the Capital-ships opened fire, launching anti-fighter 'Splinter' Torpedoes from every tube available. The lack of range of these torpedoes did not matter, as each one weaved their way towards targets that were already dangerously close to the Serenitist Fleet. One by one, the countless torpedoes split up into four separate missiles, each-one deadly to any strike-craft they hunted.
Meanwhile the heavier ships in the fleet held defensive positions outside the nebula, guns trained on the enemy capital-ships, waiting for them to come into range. For the moment, they remained safe, obscured by the cloud of strike-craft and missiles cluttering the space before-them.

Inside the Holy Nebula itself, the compliment of twenty Superiority fighters and twenty more Pulsar Gunships made contact with the miners still on duty. The surprise attack had left them little-chance to escape, and soon their delicate hulls were exposed to the Serenitist fire as they were chased out of the Nebula.

Captain Herra viewed his terminal with an expressionless stare. It read the following:

-Enemy Resource Operation Routed
-Enemy Strike-Craft Engaged
-All Shipwide Defences on Full Power
-Enemy Capital-ships Out of Range/Line of Fire Obstructed

Herra was satisfied. He returned his attention to coordinating the weaponry of he heavier-ships towards the destruction of the enemy fighters. Previously, the scouts had an ID lock on the 'Feazanthian' Fleet through design similarities and radio-chatter. They had been warned before; The enemy transmission was ignored completely.
Outnumbered or Not, Victory Will be Ours.

Bandits on my tail! They're locked on!
Sig two, evade! I say again, evade!
Where the bloody hell is the capital support?! We're gettin' chewed up out here!

This is Silent Awakening on intercept vector one one oh point five plus three, engaging short jump...

Six Revelation-class destroyers emerged from Slipstream rifts between the swarming fighter craft and the torpedo-launching capital ships, hovering in the void for a scant few seconds before opening up with their railcannon fire. The Trail Seeker loomed over them, the long cylindrical structure mounted on her port hull beginning to glow red.

"Seige capacitors at eight per-cent and rising. Establishing soft lock."

The Trail Seeker's A.I. redirected a squadron of Saviors to cover the Acolytes, taking note at the enemy's tactics. Their own corvettes were exceedingly similar to the Savior, even down to its pulsed ion cannon, yet the enemy seemed to use them in an anti-fighter role. He filed this away for later as a matter of curiosity. The two wings of Acolytes were now executing a 180 degree trajectory variation, using their momentum to keep ahead of the enemy corvettes while bringing their guns and missile batteries to bare. White puffs of smoke and red ion trails marked the launch of multiple AGM-24 Banshee missiles from the maneuvering pods of the Acolyte SSFs. The A.I. grinned inwardly.

Ascendant Justice and Endgame, lock primary batteries on leading vessel. Target weapons and engine subsystems. All ships, weapons free. Fire at will. The order was largely redundant, as nearly every vessel was already opening up. The remaining three destroyers were accelerating in a hard burn towards the Serentist fleet's underside, mere moments away from railgun range. The Grave Covenant was emerging from Slipstream off the enemy's port side. Bombers were using the confusion to swoop in and target key subsystems, being covered by autocannon suppression fire from the Acolytes and Tempest corvettes. This wouldn't take long.

((Bumped))