NationStates Jolt Archive

Y4 86STA

DUNCBOROUGH OET 1422 HOURS 6TH JUI

SIR BRUNEL E KINGSTON OAI SCP

YOU ARE URGENTLY NEEDED AT OGT BUILDING NO 3 ASAP STOP PRIVATE PLANE TICKETS FROM GOLFORD MILITARY AIRBASE TO DBI AIRPORT ARRANGED USE TO GET HERE BY 1600 HOURS STOP BRING NOTES ON BRUNIUM COMPOUNDS DO NOT COME WITHOUT THEM STOP THIS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANY OTHER ARRANGEMENT STOP COME NOW STOP

GODSPEED

MAJOR GENERAL F GADD

* * *

Brunel was angry, to say the least. He was just preparing for a major scientific conference when he had been sent for, nay, ordered to come to the nation's capital just so some star gazing idiots could interrogate him on the properties of Brunium! Granted, it was not named after him for no reason - he had discovered it. But still, could they not order some notes from the nearby library? The very thought made him angry - and the defining sound of the plane's jet engine didn't make it any more standable.

"We're just beginning to land now, Mr Kingston."

"Already?! We've barely been flying for half an hour! And learn some respect, I earned my title!"

"I apologise, SIR Kingston. Anyway, these planes go much faster than the prop ones."

"I'm not stupid! What am I going to do for an hour, hmm?"

"Your meant to be at the building by four o'clock, not the airport"

The pilot was beginning to tire of this pretentious scientist. The sooner he was rid of him the better.

"What?! How am I going to get there, eh? Are you going to land me there in this plane?!"

"Not quite. My friend will take you in a helicopter, sir?"

"A what?"

Something clicked inside the pilot's head. He couldn't take any more of this man. He turned the communicator off and left the engines to drown out the man's ranting.

* * *

A helicopter was a strange sight to the denizens of Duncborough. A jet plane was alien enough, but a normal plane with the propeller in the wrong place was even stranger. And yet, alien sights would soon be plentiful supply in the capital of the Albionic Imperium. Albion was the most powerful state of the planet of Gatan - an empire that covered a third of the land surface of the planet. The most powerful army, navy and airforce were Albionic. A quarter of the world's population lived under the gaze of the King. Ninety percent of the most important scientists of the past fifty years had been recorded as denizens of the empire.

Albion had done something no Terran nation-state had done - it had achieved full hegemony over the planet. Most other states were miles behind, still firing single shot rifles and relying on the cavalry as the mobile element of an army. They were stuck in the 1900s. Albion, on the other hand, was in the late fifties. Its scientists had developed jet engines, nuclear fission and helicopters. And one of these scientists was the elderly Sir Brunel Emmanuel Kingston - the first man to isolate and discover Brunium - otherwise known as Boron.

And here he was, walking through the forbidden corridors of the Office of Extra Gatanistic Studies - the national astrobiologist association.

"Your about to see something amazing, Sir Kingston. I must admit, I was very sceptical of this association myself, but, well, I'll let you see for yourself..."

"You've ripped me from my tight schedule just to show me something?!"

"Yes. But this really is something amazing."

Brunel was being led by an elderly gentleman in a lab coat into a pod of sorts, and proceeded to close the door. He pointed toward two white hazmat suits.

"I am afraid you must put this on before you enter the surgery room, Sir Kingston."

Brunel sighed, and began to enter the suit, while asking "Is this really necessary?"

"It is if you want to enter. It's drier than a desert in there. And there's Ammonia floating about."

Brunel didn't bother asking why. He had asked enough questions today. The two men finished getting into the suits, and entered the room.

First thing that came to mind was that it was all white. The second thing was that there was a black thing in the middle of it. And it was this thing that Brunel was meant to see.

It was an alien. A real one. Its body was unequally decomposed, with large sections gone, and others untouched. The hide was a dark brown, the chunks of it missing in place showing dry, murky yellow flesh. From what he could see, the muscles were massive.

"What the hell..."

"That, my friend, is what we like to call an Abigosaur."

Brunel gave the old man a sincere glance.

"A Steal Lizard?"

"Some farmer in Iveshire shot the poor thing on his farm. It was trying to steal one of his cows, probably was going to run off with the thing."

"Why?"

"Don't ask."

Brunel took another look at the creature.

"You said there was a lot of Ammonia about?"

"Yes."

"It doesn't seem to have decomposed enough to warrant these suits."

"Oh, no, it's not the Ammonia we're worried about, it's the lack of water. You see, this thing here had Ammonia running through it's veins"

"What?!"

"That's not it. You see, Sir Brunel, this is not a carbon organism. It is a Brunium organism."

That left Brunel speechless. He continued to prod the creature, trying to learn as much as he could about it. He was told that oxygen was practically non-existant in the creature, and that it came in some sealed suit. It was all so fascinating.

He didn't notice what was going on outside. Not until it was far too late.

* * *

Helicopters and jet planes were bad enough. The two combined were even worse.

There were two of them at first. Black things travelling at breakneck speed above Duncborough caught the eyes of most people. They ignored all messages sent to them, instead flying above the city, stopping at times to drop strange flares.

They had been warned five times now. The order to fire was given.

The first shell was thrown. It travelled high and fast, seeming to be on the course to a direct hit. It missed. So did number two. And number three. Not even the flak could make a difference. It was almost as if the mysterious planes knew exactly where the shells would go and could manuver out of the range in time. The fire was futile, but it did nought but increase.

Next came the fighter planes. Unloading full supplies of bullets seemed to do nothing. Yet they too persisted. Heavier planes were sent, until the sky was awash with planes, both jet and propeller.

Nothing seemed to do the trick. The black planes just went about their work regardless of the swarm attacking them. But the war had already been won. The flares had been dropped. The lights above the clouds had appeared.

This wasn't an invasion. This was a victory.

* * *

Four hours on, Duncborough looked much different. Gapping craters dotted the city. Car and Tram alike lay in twisted and strange positions. The sad skeletons of what once may have been people lay all over. The destruction of Duncborough carried a message across the planet...

'Surrender or face extinction...'

Many did. Many didn't. But no matter how many state of the art tanks were thrown at the invader's tanks, both small and massive, the technology paled in comparison to the alien's, and the humans werevanquished

The aliens invaded for three reasons - one, they needed a slave race that could work on planets that contained one of the most deadly substances known to them - water. The aliens would die if they came into contact with it. That was a simple matter of fact.

Two, the planet provided a base from which strikes could be further made into this sector of space

And three. The Naasha Imperium had its eyes on this little planet. Naasha would have to see what would happen if its eyes got too big for its stomach. In full view of the Naashans, humans were killed as an example.

And yet, it was Hefonfian eyes that had got too big for its stomach...

* * *

To the Naashan Imperium

Let it be known that further foray into Hefonfian Claimed Opes will not be tolerated. We have stressed repeatedly that all systems west of the Vexillum Star are propriety of the Hefonfian Opaeske Company and in turn the state of Hefonfia. Your blatant disregard for our rights have cost you the Gens system, now to be referred to as the Léaokdae system, and in turn the planets of Gatan and Harro - the latter of which will be terraformed to suit the needs of a Hefonfian population. The Ammonia Fields of the great cloud will be cultivated for this purpose. The remaining populace of Gatan will be used as a slave race.

Do not do anything foolish. Any further foray will result in more systems being confiscated.

Tannoros, capital of the Karat System

"Damned Xenos!"

Marshal Jenson cursed as he read the message, forwarded to him by the Imperial Palace back on the homeworld. The planet from which the Imperium was governed was officially known as Naasha, but that had become a broader term for all of the systems under Imperial control and as such the capital now tended to be referred to simply as the 'homeworld'.

Marshal Jenson was the commander of the Imperial forces in the closest system to Gens, the Karat group of planets. The message had been forwarded to him by his boss, Grand Marshal Tennos, commander of the Home sector, a thinly veiled hint. Although the Imperium was well aware of the human civilization on Gatan, they had been content to let it be, the planet was under the de-facto protection of the Imperium and this was more convenient than going through the rigours of assimilating the whole planet and bringing them up to speed.

Although not officially responsible for the security of Gatan, Jenson was left with no doubts about whose responsibility this whole mess had become. The nature of the Imperium tended to end up with situations like this, a system commander having to deal with both his own system and the conquest of an adjacent one. Oh well, better to start requisitioning the necessary ground forces now, he decided. The Hefonfian aliens had crossed a line and must now be taught a stern lesson in the Emperor's might.

Imperial Cruiser Vengeance, Karat System

Lights flickered slightly as the capital ship shuddered into life, her crew of servitors being awakened from their cryo-sleep in order to serve the Imperium once again. The ship's AI notified them of their tasks in order to prepare the vessel to receive her battle crew, who spent the years in between deployments on the planets surface. Amongst the arrivals would be Admiral Jarral, commander of the Imperial Navy in Karat and the man coordinating the recapture of the space around the Gens system.

Around it, the AI could feel pulses of sentience from the other vessels of the Karat fleet, each came with a subtle hint of recognition as the ships became reacquainted after their time spent dormant. While still mostly unaware of their missions, the vessels shared a common goal, projecting the Emperor's Will wherever they went.

Diplomatic Message
Transmit: Hefonfian Sector space via signals relay station 001-01 Naasha.
Forwarded: Karat system relay station 001-02
TO: The Xenos collectively termed Hefonfian.
FROM: Grand Marshal Tennos of the Naashan Imperium

Let it be known that the unlawful invasion and occupation of the Gens system by your foul 'species' will not be tolerated. If you leave the area now then our righteous and just vengeance may be moderated, if you fail to comply then you will burn in the fire of the Emperor's flamers.

***

Military Transport Star Hawk-1, Karat System

The large troop ship squatted uncomfortably in a low orbit over Karat, firing her thrusters occasionally to counter the action of the world's gravity which would like nothing more than to pull the space vessel to ground. Below them, breaking the atmosphere in brilliant red flames were the next wave of landing craft, bringing with them yet more space-sick Imperial Guard infantry of the 5th Karat Regiment.

The Star Hawk-1 and other ships like her had been doing this for days, taking on the men and supplies needed to mount a counter-invasion of Gatan. The poor Guardsmen who were being blasted through the atmosphere at bone-rattling speeds made up the majority of the force, about ten thousand strong. Also taking part in the invasion if all went to plan would be the black tanks of the elite 3rd Naashan Armoured Regiment and possibly one of the last few Space Marine chapters left in the Imperium.

Rumours were flying amongst the pilots and Guardsmen about this last component of the force, a Space Marine was a rare sight in the Imperium these days and little could occur that would recall the chapter barges from their relentless prowling around the unexplored space on the fringes of the Empire, looking for lost human civilisations or new menaces with which to do battle.

"Dear God, I'm still alive!"

The EG compound had been mostly reduced to rubble. The nearest bombardment blast had been about a hundred yards away - more than enough to pulverise the buildings.

And yet, Brunel was still alive. Unharmed...

He forced himself off his feet, surprised at how unmarked he was. Strangely, the white suit he had wore hung at his heels, as if his trousers were down. He glanced around to see if there was any explaination.

There was one. Sat next to him was the old man from before. Dead.

"My...God..."

He shook the suit off his ankles and scanned his surroundings once more. The roof was still above him in this part, but he could see light coming through holes in the ceiling. A pile ran up to it

He took another glance at the blooded body next to him before he left.

'Thanks for getting me to safety...'

He staggered across the cracked floor, not daring to look at what he was standing on. He found himself on hands and knees by the time the light coming out from the hole was within his reaches. With a final breath, he heaved and pulled himself out of the building.

It was sunset, with few clouds in the sky, and silhouetted against the sun were dozens of plumes of smoke. Vast swathes of the city had been flattened, decimated by a bombardment from above. And in the middle of it all, far away from any body of water, there was a new building.

The speed at which the foundations had gone up was staggering to Brunel. A large area of the city had been ploughed to make room for the structure. At this stage, Brunel could not tell what it was - but he could see that there was a commotion surrounding it. Small constructs were dotted around - cannons and tents, the former pointed up at the sky...

A low bang was heard, as one of the cannons fired, a small blue light heading toward the sky - a test shot.

Brunel stared for what seemed like hours. The small squads of black figures doing their rounds, the cranes working at breakneck speed, the buildings slowly but steadily growing in the Twilight...

...the low groan of alarms, the scrambling of docked planes that begun to hover upwards at breakneck speed, the encroaching darkness covering the farthest objects...

* * *

War was coming to the system. The system laid host to a pantheon of different ships of different shapes and sizes, all drifting in space, all sounding their alarms as action stations were called.

The Naashans had been sighted. Spaceship reinforcements were enroute from the Home systems, but they would be a while - for now, the local forces would have to deal with a force likely larger than themselves.

Imperial Battlecruiser Emperor's Vengeance, Karat System

The ship shuddered slightly as the thrusters engaged seemingly of their own accord, the great vessel gently edging out of the gravity field of Tannoros and away from the planet. It was a while before the ship's AI deigned to say anything to Admiral Deron, he could almost hear the tutting of Inquisitor Horrs behind him by the time the gruff male voice of the flagship justified itself to him.

"Message from forward scouts; the warp area is clear and hostile naval forces do not outnumber our own. Suggest we initiate warp travel now."

One of the servitors on the deck below Deron's elevated position gave a thumbs up to him, the crew were ready for transit. Even further up in the dome of the vessel, surrounded by armoured glass, waited the Astropath who would guide them to his destination. The Admiral turned to his guest, whose expression was guarded, hard to read.

"Apologies Inquisitor, the Machine Spirit is strong on this vessel. Would you like to do the honours?"

"I will indeed."

Inquisitor Horrs, who was journeying with the Imperial Fleet under the directive of the Emperor himself, stepped to the edge of the rail and raised his arms to gather the attentions of the decks below.

"We go now in the service of the Emperor and we will give thanks that he has seen fit to give us the task, nay, the pleasure of destroying the filthy Xenos fleet. Our actions on the field of battle will place thousands of the Emperor's soldiers on the planet of Garat, so that it can be freed from the claws of the filthy alien and brought under the protection of the Emperor. Let no man shirk from his duty, let each look to his brothers and honour them in their hour of triumph. Let the crew to warp stations and give praise to the Emperor!"

Above him, the Astropath viewed the bright white projection on the glass in front of him, overlaid with the cold darkness of space. The projection became a swirling vortex, the warp calling out to him, seeking to swallow his mind whole were he to leave it unguarded for just a moment. Denying the urge to surrender his will, the Astropath focused on the warp in his mind, bringing it into being directly in front of the massive battlecruiser. With a click of satisfaction in his mind, he knew the portal had stabilised, linking with the ship's AI he began to let the ship drift toward the portal.

Faster and faster it sped toward the vortex of white on the blackness of space, at the last second the thrusters themselves fired to push the ship into the warp under its own power, and then it was gone. The scene was echoed across the system and over Karat, where the Star Hawk-1 led her sister transports into the warp. In a few moments there were no traces that there had ever been an Imperial war fleet hanging over the system.

***

The ship felt something bang against its shields for a second, one of those terrible creatures that inhabited the warp. A flicker of fear entered the Astropath's mind, exposed as he was in the glass dome protruding from the ship. He struggled to regain control of himself, focusing hard on the beacon that shined through the warp from the temple of the Machine God back on the homeworld, he felt it dim slightly as they moved further and further away. He felt his grasp on their course begin to slip slightly, his faith in the Emperor's guidance quailing before the expanse of chaos on all sides of them.

Then they were through, back in normal space again and the Servitors were racing to slow the ship manually in the moments before the AI could untangle itself from the Astropath. Visibly shaken, the man clung to the rail of his platform high up in the ship, ashen faced and feeling the eyes of the Inquisitor upon him.

"Warp jump successful, shields are returning to normal. Commencing scan of the area, we have arrived in the Gens system."

Through the glass dome of the flagship, Admiral Deron could see the other vessels of the fleet emerging from the warp, quickly slowing their pace to match that of the flag. He counted them back in nervously, as was the tradition amongst all Admirals leading a warp jump. The fourteen cruisers that made up the Imperial war fleet were the first to emerge, the experienced Astropaths having guided their vessels through with relative ease.

The transports began arriving shortly afterwards, usually in twos and threes were Astropaths had clung to each other as they hurtled through the warp. Such a tactic was common and aided navigation greatly, but warships would never attempt it for the risk of accidental collision. He counted fourteen transports, checking their transponders off on the screen in front of him, only one more left to come.

There was always a late one, an Astropath who held his ship at a slower speed for whatever reason or a ship that had suffered the attentions of a warp beast, but it was no reassurance when you were waiting for one, Deron reflected. Eventually it appeared, seemingly from nowhere and flying at a tremendous speed, behind the Star Hawk-1 could be seen a great white tentacle, lashing at the back of the fleeing vessel before being withdrawn back into the warp from which it came.

"Praise to the Emperor..." beside him Inquisitor Horrs offered a brief prayer, it was unclear whether it was for them or the last transport. "It looks like we are all here then Admiral, best to prepare the crews for battle I should think..."

ORBAT:
Battlecruiser Emperor's Vengeance (flagship)
14 Cruisers
15 Troop Transporters.
2 Scout frigates (already in system)

The machines were preparing for war. Across the inhabited planets of Hie system and Sie system, the hives buzzed with manufacturing.

In the centre of this hubbub, on the world of Hie 3, the controller thought. The controller was the first and only machine with conciousness. A machine who could work at 100 exaFlOps without even turning on full coolant. A quantumn machine.

As of now, it was furiously pouring through maps, preprogrammed tactics and tactics it had learnt. It went through the census register, still flickering as machines were built across the system.

The worst part of the plan was the warp route they would have to take. While they had established the warp gates between Hie and Sie, they could not hope to do such a thing in this case. They would have to follow the stellar lanes, and hope they would not be noticed.

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

As the dawn broke over the planet, the machines on all the worlds rose to battle. A fleet of 120 ships took off, the backdrop of stars shimmering as the massive electromagnetic drives lifted them into space. Each ship was filled, where there was space, with the machines of all castes: there were the lowest caste of Scuttlers, little insectoid robots that attacked in swarms, stripping creatures to the bone then breaking that down for transport to the resource collectors. Above them were the Drones, floating 4-armed machines, designed especially for destroying life with electrolasers and sharp talons.

Finally, in every 20th ship was a Subordinate: not as poweful as the Controller, they relayed its orders and used their own power to control their group of ships.

They flew across the star systems at accelerations lethal to humans, before engaging their warp systems as they passed into the warp lane. A flash as a small opening to a universe of light was opened, before they disappeared, leaving the systems calm.

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

The machines went itno standby as they acclerating to maximum potential, protected by the warp shield around them. If it collapsed, the energy would likely as not destroy them all. Lckily, they still had communications from the warp satellites that had been built, allowing instant communication across the two systems, and across the warp. These would be useful for their control in the attack. They just had to rely on the enemy not realising what they were.

Brunel woke to the sound of the distinctive crack of nearby rifles. The sun illuminated the massive construct to the west, which had grown since the night before - but it was the nearby gunfire that commanded Brunel's attention.

He pulled himself to his feet, and ignoring his fitness, he started to quickly climb a nearby knoll of debris that led into a nearby building.

The crack continued, now accompanied by the faint thump of mortal fire nearby still. Brunel heaved himself to the first floor of a devastated building, and crawled to one of the windows as a new sound entered his ears.

This one was a strange one. It sounded faintly like a normal sub machine gun - but it had a certain something that Brunel could not put his finger on. He saw a group of men, half dressed in soldiers attire, half in civilian, furiously firing mortar and rifle. Whatever they were firing at, however, it soon returned the favour. Blue bullets began to head toward the resistance, each one sending dust and masonry high. A man was hit in full view of Brunel, the bullet hurtling through a piece of mangled furniture, and emerging through his chest in a red cloud.

"Ackerman's down! Damn it, when the hell are Hartley and his lad going to get there?!"

Brunel reared his head to look toward the direction of fire. All he could see was a long main street, with a collection black figures disturbed by short blue lights.

"Think I see him sir! TANK'S COMING!"

The men got down, and curled up into balls as Brunel heard a large bang from the black figures.

The next five minutes would seem like hours in the minds of the men. A massive blue explosion seemed to shake the very earth, hitting a bank of debris and spraying it all over the men.

Brunel began to feel the building wobble at the explosion. The building was unstable, but risking life and limb, he stayed there, captivated by the skirmish unfolding in front of him. The way the men seemed to emerge from their makeshift shells amazed him - and yet there was no more sound. Even as the men began to fire again. Then he noticed the ringing.

He was deaf. Whether permanently or temporarily, he did not know, but the mere situation sent him into a state of panic. He began to shout, praying for some sound to come out...

The soldiers didn't notice him over the gun fire. They were half-deaf themselves.

"SIR, I CAN SEE HARTLEY!"

"YOU WHAT?"

"HARTLEY IS HERE!"

* * *

Hartley couldn't stop the anger taking over. The adrenilin pumping through his veins, he rushed forward toward the tank, his son letting rip with the rocket launcher toward the soldiers. In a flash, he was beside the tank, and slid a bag beneath it, sprinting away as the soldiers began to turn their guns toward him.

With a large boom, the tank was lifted into the air several feet, thrown into a nearby building, which then collapsed on the nearby alien troops and the tank itself.

Hartley felt pride and satisfaction well up inside him. But something was missing. It itched at his hands, urging him to go further, telling him that he was not finished. He grabbed his elephant rifle, and sallied forth to satisfy this urge...

* * *

Some of the soldiers began to run toward the buried tank, attempting to congratulate him on his epic victory.

"BLOODY WELL DONE, HARTLEY!"

Hartley ignored these - he simply began to scan the rubble for something. Something important...

"I MUST SAY, YOUR SON IS BRAVER THAN MANY PEOPLE I KNOW!"

He spotted something black, and began to investigate...

"HARTLEY? HARTLEY!"

"For Elda..."

He pointed his rifle in the face of one of the aliens, and heard the trigger creek as it was pulled...

He saw the fire emerge from the cannon, and for a moment was in a state of virtual Nirvana...

"I SAY HARTLEY, WHAT ARE YOU UP TO..."

The bullet penetrated the visor of the alien, and out came a fountain of alien blood. Straight into Hartley's face.

Had it been human, there would have been less problems. But this blood burned. Badly.

The soldiers began to run to the man as he collapsed onto the floor, screaming as acid burnt his face. His son ran to his attention, dropping all his weapons, and began to nurse his father.

The men tried their best to nurse Hartley - but pouring water on the man seemed to make it worse. Towels did nought but rub in the blood more, inflaming the burns. Hartley writhed in pain for quarter of an hour, before suddenly stopping.

Hartley was dead.

* * *

Under the debris, the communicator of the Hefonfian force still worked, in it's alien tongue...

"Warning, Naashan forces spotted approaching system, leave resistance to regroup at fort Plaókh. Repeat, enemy forces spotted."

"Preafoskt, come in, we need gunnery crew for the battlecruiser Haengjwkítae, now. They've got five more cruisers than us, and a battlecruiser to match our own - repeat, we need officers now."

"Too late, vessel for ship has left, we now need crew for the planetary defences - I don't care how many damned apes you've got on you, we need crews now!"

(OOC: Feel free to engage my ships now. They'll be a couple of stationary gun platforms in space as well, about five, I'd say.)

Emperor's Vengeance, Gens System

"Scan complete, ten enemy capital ships and five orbital defense stations detected."

The AI paused after relaying its message, seemingly waiting for orders for once. Damn thing probably realises it will lose if it charges the enemy singlehanded, admiral Deron mused. The face of his flag captain appeared on the terminal before him, the man was only about thirty metres away on the lower deck but the clamour of preparation made communication at that range impossible.

"All hands are at battle stations, sir," captain Sanders reported, "the cruisers have all signalled they are awaiting orders."

"Form up on the flag, line abreast formation and continue toward the enemy! We will make the Emperor proud of the glorious slaughter we create in his name!"

In response to the admiral's orders the warships of the fleet took station in a line on either side of the battlecruiser, accelerating ahead of the transports and toward the Hefonfian foe. Launching from the vessels were squadrons of smaller ships, Space Hawk bombers and Arrow fighters which formed a skirmish line ahead of the capital ships as they advanced.

The plan of battle was simple, the capital ships would engage the enemy with their forward mounted lascannon arrays while closing to range, attempting to draw the enemy away from the planet and any orbital defenses. While not the most devastating weapon, lascannons were useful in overloading shields if enough could be brought to bear at a time. Once in proper range the Imperial Cruisers would turn to broadside and hit the enemy with their batteries of kinetic and explosive projectiles. Meanwhile, the smaller fighter craft would fend off their counterparts while the Space Hawks attacked the enemy capital vessels from closer in. If the foe were not drawn away from their orbital defense platforms then the bombers would be going after these instead.

They so far hadn't been detected. Within a few minutes, they would jump back into the normal universe, away from the massive undulating waves of energy that broke all around their ships.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.....

In the normal universe, there was a massive white flash as 120 ships, all in a
3D arrowhead formation, came out of the warp. They put down the glistening warp shields, and power roared into their EM drives as they moved into the system. From their judgement, they had arrived off target by 11AU, luckily not as bad as some jumps...

They were attacking from above the orbital plane of their target: a world lit by blue pinpricks as a war took place. That should be enough of a distraction for them to attack and wash away the planet. Hopefully they would not have many problems with the orbital defences one of the races had been seen to have started attacking.

Emperor's Vengeance, Gens System

"Warp anomaly detected! Unknown fleet entering the system."

Deron cursed as the AI passed on the latest warning, fortunately while they were still out of range of the enemy positions. Below him the Servitors were scrambling to readjust the plane of the vessel so that the lascannon arrays mounted on the upper section of the bow could be trained on the new arrivals if they advanced.

"Reverse thrusters and slow us as much as possible. Order the transports to close up formation and get into our weapons range as soon as possible."

The terminal in front of him lit up as he manipulated it, displaying the faces of his two scout captains aboard their frigates.

"Captains! Remain cloaked and investigate the new arrivals, we will hold off our attack until we know their intentions."

***

Heretic's Demise, Battle Barge of the Blood Sword chapter

The massive battle barge, equal in size to an Imperial battlecruiser and with similar amounts of firepower, entered the fringes of the Gens system from the other side. While not possessing anywhere near the cloaking technology found aboard the scout frigates, the ship had been able to avoid detection thus far by virtue of its slow approach and unlikely vector inbound from the Hefonfian border.

The space marine vessel had been on patrol in that sector before Garat had been occupied by the alien menace and now used her sublight drives to approach the enemy positions from behind. While by no means able to win the impending naval battle by itself, the Heretic's Demise was perfectly positioned to fall upon the flanks of an engaged foe, provided she remained undetected.

[OOC: Imperial cloaking technologies as mentioned in the above post are fairly rudimentary, they cannot conceal fast moving vessels or stand up to close scrutiny. They are built to withstand the two normal ways of detecting vessels, thermal imaging and visual recognition. They do this by channeling heat to the rear of the vessel and dissipating it as evenly as possible as well as projecting a black 'cloak' onto the surface of the vessel so that it can be camouflaged against the stars.]

The machines quickly scanned at a distance the ships currently surrounding their target. It seemed that the enemy had considerable firepower, enough to destroy their ships at range. They would have to rely on their other tactics for victory.

Putting their thrusters in full reverse, the ships slowed down to a near halt. However, in front of them, the sensors were blotted out by a swarm of Scuttlers. Coming from only 10 of the ships, the swarm of 120 000 robotic bugs, each 60mm long with a massive array of tiny claws, pincers and other tools, surround a fuel-cell core and EM drive. Propelled by their inertia, they were travelling at a speed of 35km/s. 5 minutes till the swarm, which had now spread out considerably, hit the ships. In the meantime, the enemy had a harsh electronic message in their range of vibrational detection.

"To the vessels of space about to come under attack: we warn you of your impending doom and enquire if you wish to accept an offer. We will cut off the attack if you let us freely take this system. Otherwise, we will terminate your existance. You have 531 seconds to reply."

[OOC: Are you attacking both my and Weccanfield's fleets?]

Emperor's Vengeance

"The vessels appear to be robotic in nature, they've launched a kind of swarm attack in your direction, thousands of autonomous attack vehicles by the looks of it. We're going to stay cloaked and watch the battle from here."

Deron nodded at the image of the scout captain on the console and closed the window. Beside him the Inquisitor was reviewing the message from the enemy, he had taken immediate charge of the communique, and now the admiral saw him delete it.

"They should know better than to ask our surrender," Horrs explained, "for there can be no peace while the enemies of the Emperor still draw breath."

The admiral nodded and called to the servitors below him.

"Men! This new foe seeks to overwhelm us by the weight of their bizzare swarm, we cannot allow them to close with us. We will instead purge them from afar in the flames of the Emperor's judgement!"

Around him he felt the ship began to tremble as it was again realigned on its axis so that it was broadside on to the robotic swarm. Around him the other ships of the fleet were doing the same, bringing their heavy batteries to bear on the foe while the transport vessels moved into relative safety behind the line.

"Load kinetic-explosive ammunition!"

These shells would hurtle through space until their onboard sensors or the launching ships computers told them they were in proximity with a target. Once there, they would detonate, the shrapnel and explosive power of the blast destroying any lightly armoured vessels nearby and hopefully scattering anything not immediately obliterated. In this way the weapon was almost perfect for use against the incoming swarm, to disperse the cloud of robotic entities so as not to overload the close in defences when they arrived.

"In the name of the Emperor, fire!"

(I'm attacking you both, yes.)

A quick process shot through the quantumn computer of the Controller as it relayed signals back and forth across the warp to the attacking fleet.

>>>COMPLIANCE = NEGATIVE
>>>RESULT = COMPLETE DESTRUCTION
>>>INBOUND FIRE = KINETIC MUNITIONS
>>>ADDITIONAL NOTES = HAZARDOUS TO SWARM ATTACK
>>>ACTION - OPTION A = ABANDON ATTACK
>>>OPTION B = CONTINUE ATTACK
>>>OPTION C = ATTACK WITH OTHER SHIPS
>>>COURSE SELECTED = C
>>>AWATING RESULTS . . .

The swarm began to be hit by the fire, and undulated as it tried to avoid the projectiles. Of the 122 784 in the swarm, exactly 11 621 were destroyed by the projectiles as the shrapnel ripped them apart or put them irrecoverably off course.

The rest, after being given the completed threat scan, began to bear towards the largest ships they could. Within seconds on hitting the ship's energy fields, they began to drain energy directly from it, releasing it in the form of heat around them. They had landed on 8 ships that were the largest and nearest, and each with an internal energy load of 20kW/s, could drain a large amount of electricity from the hull. It was now up to the ships what they could do, before the scuttlers completely drained the shield's energy and got through on fully charged batteries to the main hull, where they would have to be scraped off.
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Similtaneously, 15 of the ships moved forward towards the battle about to commence, with plasma weaponry banks ready. If the scuttlers failed, each could fire 25 plasma bolts a minute without overloading the system, each guided to its target by an undulating magnetic field already building up across the gulfs of space between the enemy and the machines.

One of the ships had a Marshall in it. It did not charge its weapon banks, but instead began to hack into the battle-network of the imperial ships that posed the largest threat.

>>>SEARCH SIGNAL NETWORK
>>>SIGNAL ENCRYPTION KEY COPIED AND DECRYPTED
>>>SEARCH HUB COMPUTER
>>>COMPUTER FOUND
>>>ESTABLISHING CONTACT...
>>>PREPARING TO UPLOAD REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM...

The space around the four targeted Imperial ships was covered in the small robots, blocking portions of the cruisers Tannoros, Human Spirit, Imperial Majesty and Justice from view. The shields began to strain under the draining power of the robotic swarm, the host ships unable to do anything about it, trapped within their shields as they were.

The immobile robots did make excellent targets now, the remaining unaffected cruisers swinging around to once again blast the swarms with kinetic explosive munitions. This time the shells detonated well away from the ships themselves, the explosive force and shrapnel not a major hazard to the large capital ships provided they did not impact directly on their surface. In this way the swarms would be removed from their targeted vessels, blown away off the surface of the shields by anti-fighter weaponry.

One cruiser, Human Spirit, found itself suddenly without power as the shields were completely overloaded however. It would fall to the Arrow fighters as well as the automated repair vessels orbiting the ship to clear the parasitic robots from the outside of the cruiser, until this could be completed the ship would be without power apart from emergency life support.

It was into this void that the enemy software attack arrived, it had been blunted by the firewalls of the other ships, comfortably secure in rejecting all but Imperial communications, but the computers of the Human Spirit were at the most vulnerable phase of all when the uplink found them, system reboot. Once full power was restored to the vessel, the occupants would have a nasty surprise.

As the enemy advanced, it fell to the Emperor's Vengeance and Karat to slow their attack. The two warships found their lascannon arrays directed straight at the robotic foe as their main batteries cleared the swarm from their sister ships. The flashes of lasers, coloured light blue by the focusing equipment in the bow of each ship, soon lit up the space between the two fleets as the two Imperial capital vessels sought to buy time for the other ships to prepare for battle.

It was also the turn of the Star Hawk bombers, seven squadrons of eight ships each, to sally forth from the protection of the fleet. These would hit the leading enemy ships with long range plasma bolts of their own, not as large or as plentiful of those of the enemy but enough to disrupt their fire perhaps.

The machines saw the turn of events as the tactics began to show their weaknesses.

>>>INBOUND ATTACK CRAFT
>>>THREAT = HIGH
>>>COURSE OF ACTION = HEAVY FIREPOWER

The ships, once detecting the bombers, let rip with the plasma batteries. At the same time, the ships found themselves ready for a defence.
The machine ships on the front line began to fire their plasma batteries while launching from the sides more scuttlers, to repair damage quickly and to block incoming plasma bolts as a "meat shield", so to speak. Magnetic field lines shot across the scanners as the ships launched volleys of plasma-bolts at the enemy bombers to stop them, either by system overload or by melting a hole through them.
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Meanwhile, the scuttlers that had overloaded an enemy ship shield system swarmed onto the hull, where they began to use small plasma-welders, infared lasers and sharp limbs to cut into the metal.

On the ships where they hadn't had much effect, and were being shot down by enemy fire, the decision was reached by mass for a second tactic.

Each began to drain energy at a rate of 800kW/s, much too high for the internal batteries. Within seconds, the internal energy storage units began to glow and crack as the massive levels of electrons reached critical levels.
Each one exploded in a bright cloud of energy, showering the nearby ships with electrons and tiny pieces of plasmafied shrapnel.

With their own plasma torpedoes being blocked by the enemy and return fire inbound, the Star Hawk bombers of the Imperial Karat Fleet quickly withdrew. The bolts of plasma weren't particularly effective against the relatively small and agile strike craft but still downed two before the bombers were clear, the balls of energy overcoming the shields and hulls of the craft instantaneously upon impact.

The Emperor's Vengeance and Karat now had their lascannons aligned and began firing alternating bursts of energy through the gulf of space between the fleets. The range was long, dissipating the power of the weapons a little, but they could serve to deter whatever AI was controlling the enemy vessels.

The bursting robots of the swarm that had previously engulfed three cruisers came as something as a relief to the captains, the areas around them were well cleared already by the kinetic explosive shells of friendly cruisers and only one Arrow fighter clearing robots off the Human Spirit was unfortunate enough to take a shrapnel hit, destroying the craft.

Around the stricken cruiser itself, the swarm robots were being removed at a good rate now. The combined attentions of fighters, repair craft and the returning bombers were seeing off the bizzare enemy attack. A few robots did make it through the outer hull, generally in hidden places such as below the bow and around the hangar doors. In these areas they tripped the layer of sensors below the armour, signalling a priority for their removal before they breached the pressurised hull beneath.

The lascannon fire hit the shields of the large craft, the energy disappated across them. For now, the shields were holding at a steady energy dispersion level, but if they continued to fire at a closer range, there might be problems.

The insect swarm on the Human Spirit continued to consume the hull wherever they could, so that all 7431 still on the ship had to be removed before they were safe. A very hard task...

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The large spaceships began a list of their aarmoury for the enxt course of action.

>>>OPTIONS...
>>>PLASMA BANKS
>>>SOLID PROJECTILE TUBES
>>>EMP
>>>PURE-FUSION PROJECTILE CANNON
>>>BOARDING ACTION
>>>SWARM ACTION
>>>OPTION 1 + 2 + 4 SELECTED
>>>PREPARING FIRE SEQUENCES...

The ships got a lock on the enemies, using the magnetic field-lines of the plasma banks that were beginning to fire on the enemy fleet. Once certain of a lock, 25 small torpedoes, each with a solid tungsten warhead, were launched at speeds of 90km/s from the tubes by magnetic coils.

With the ships near the back, a seperate coilgun was used to fire 4 Pure-fusion warheads at the enemy vessels, each having a charge of about 100Mt. Enough to do at least moderate damage.

((Tagged for good reading. Keep it up, guys.;)))

[OOC: Thanks for the compliment, hopefully we'll keep it up!]

With the shields around the Human Spirit depleted and the swarms around the other vessels successfully dispersed, the remaining twelve cruisers of the Imperial fleet could finally move into the battle line to engage the main enemy threat. As the ships swung around to bring their broadsides to bear on the robotic foe they were met by a hail of kinetic torpedoes that hammered into their shields. The already drained shields of the cruiser Tannoros were overwhelmed by the last of the enemy torpedoes, although the rest of the fleet managed to avoid a critical overload.

Imperial Cruiser Tannoros, Gens System

Captain Sarah Newall stared out of the glass shielding that surrounded the dome of the cruiser, smaller than that of the command vessel but still impressive. Behind the battle line she could see the Human Spirit listing slightly as it lost power, beginning to be affected by the gravitational pull of the planet Harro, which was the closest to the fleet's current location. The swarm robots still climbed across the surface of the stricken warship, targeted precisely by the cutting lasers carried by repair vessels and strike craft alike for miscellaneous tasks such as these. The majority were rather harmless, deterred by the thick hull and the difficulty posed by working in the vacuum, but a few seemed to be making dangerous progress in sheltered areas of the ship. These could cause problems later if the vessel had to take a low orbit or undergo warp travel, but would likely not cripple the ship in the ling run.

She felt her own ship shudder slightly as a torpedo smacked into the shields, even as they reconfigured to defend the exposed broadside. Glancing down to her crew, she gave the signal for the batteries to load anti-capital munitions. These tended to include plasma and electronic pulse weaponry to overload shields, mixed in with heavy kinetic rods and explosive ordinance to take advantage of any temporary gaps exposed in the enemy shields.

The bridge rocked suddenly, the lights fading for a few seconds before returning to their previous brightness. Outside, she saw the faint shimmer of the energy shield protecting the ship dissapear. A shout from the shielding technician confirmed her fears, the main defence of the vessel was down. Still, now was not the time for fear or hesitancy, now was the time to carry out the Emperor's Will and destroy the enemy. With that in mind she opened the command window in the terminal in front of her and issued her orders.

"Point defence weaponry to standby, we'll be relying on shooting down inbound kinetic weapons until the shields recharge. Now, take aim with the Emperor's blessing and... fire!"

The main batteries of the Tannoros belched out their munitions simultaneously, closely followed by the weapons of its sister ships. With guns running the length of the sides of the cruisers, this was no small barrage they enemy had to reckon with.

A moment after they had fired, the pulse munitions arrived, detonating along the line of battle. The flashes were immense, the crew fortunately protected from blinding by the shielded glass of the bridge. It was also possible to discern the flashes along the length of individual vessels as shields flared up to deal with the incoming blast, each ship managing to see off the explosion, until it reached Tannoros that was.

The warhead had detonated a little way away fortunately, so the blast waves that rocked the ship did not cause severe structural damage at least. What they did do was knock the vessel out of alignment and compromise the steering thrusters, leaving the cruiser spinning for a time until the servitors could begin to stabilise it.

The machines detected the incoming barrage, and the results were instantly relayed to the Marshalls.

>>>INBOUND PROJECTILES
>>>TYPE = PLASMA BOLT+EMP+KINETIC MUNITIONS
>>>DEFENCE MEANS = INCREASE SHIELD POWER ALONG FIRING EDGE
>>>CONCENTRATE FIRE ON SINGLE VESSELS
>>>DEPLOY MAINTENANCE SWARMS
>>>STANDBY FOR BOARDING ACTIONS

There were flashs from the ships as the magnetic fields shields were deployed, re-routing the kinetic and plasma munitions off course as they hit the curved field. The hulls also began to flicker as the repair drones scuttled out to perform repairs.

The 15 frontline ships were now joined by an extra 30 as they made their way towards the enemy fleet at a rate of over 12000 km/s, with the engine structures beginning to glow orange as heat was disappated from them, the power for them draining directly off the onboard magnetic mirrors.

With an estimated arrival time of 80 seconds before they were within safe boarding range, the ships had increased shield strengths while changing projectiles to kinetic munitions.
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Damage-wise, the frontline ships began to suffer from the heavy fire directed at them, while the supporting ships far behind drifted slowly towards the enemy fleet, the sides flashing as they fired off their plasma banks.

5 of the ships lost shield power when the proximity EMP weapons detonated, and were only saved from catastrophic damage by the hull armour and the scurrying drones that fixed gaping holes that opened up in the hull. Being uncrewed, as it were, no catastrophic pressure loss occured and any damage from entering projectiles was negated by the many internal structures they went through, before the damage and projectile were removed and processed by the incessant swarm.

However, one of the ships took a plasma bolt straight through the reactor. As the massive magnetic fields, similiar in strength to that of a small star, began to fail, the plasma inside expanded while fuel loss began a cataclysmic chain fusion reaction as the helium, then carbon, then oxygen fused to iron. A superdense core formed, and the failed magnetic fields caused the outer layers of gas to expand uncontrollably.

The ship collapsed inwards in the area, the view distorting from the gravity lensing from the super-dense core. Suddenly, the entire molten mass exploded in a minature supernova, sending pieces of ship flying in all directions as well as plasma, leaving a single throbbing point that began to draw the debris slowly back towards it.

A piece of the ship's engine smashed into an adjacent ship, mangled as it hit the magnetic field and was then thrown off to the side as a wrecked piece of metal.

But now, the ships were almost ready to board. The kinetic boarding torps, each filled with hundreds of scuttlers or tens of guardians, were readied in the magnetic firing bays, while the final battle information was uploaded across the system.

(OOC: Whoa, a lot's happened since I've been gone. Fluid-Time time.)

Loading Communication Logs..........

Communication Logs opened Successfully.

Playing Logs:

Hgwke. Bridge [open]: All ships, stand down but remain alert, enemy has engaged unknown force. Use time effectively.

[Fwd Array-1] Soahnk CC: Haengjwkítae, who are this new force?

AF-651: Ships don't have many readings. Little heat, little anything, in fact.

Hgwke Bridge [open]: No idea. Appear to be lifeless vessels, Soahnk, may be robot vessels.

[Fwd Array-1] Soahnk CC: Maintain distance. Do not fire weapons at new entrants. Also, reinforcements will take time - approx. 1 stnd hour for Soahnk force, longer for other forces, over.

Stvg Bridge: Haengjwkítae, we've just recieved a message from the force, forwarding now:

[Fwd: Stvg Comm.] ????? ???: To the vessels of space about to come under attack: we warn you of your impending doom and enquire if you wish to accept an offer. We will cut off the attack if you let us freely take this system. Otherwise, we will terminate your existance. You have 531 seconds to reply.

[Fwd Array-1] Soahnk CC: All forces, engage new forces now. Ignore message, out.

Stvg Bridge: We've got problems, Haengjwkítae. 12000 bugs headed our way. Recommend bombardment with shrapnel enabled on shells.

Hgwke Bridge: Negative, stand ground, let enemies engage each other.

Cýkððua CC: Engage all enemies, out.

Stvg Bridge: Cýkððua just ordered an attack itself, what do we do?

Hgwke Bridge: Stall. All ships, bombard 2nd enemy force, send bomber wings to each of the forces flank, over.

Stvg Bridge: Very well.

Closing Communication Log........

* * *

The guns of the fleet began to fire upon the newest force, with mostly shrapnel ammunition being shot, but with significant autocannon and HE ammunition being fired.

Over by the orbital defence stations, where the bombers had waited, bomber planes escorted by interceptors began to fly, in two main squadrons to flank each of the groups.

Hefonfian ships are not known for their shields, or their cloaking devices. They are known for their hulls. Constructed mainly out of Rhenium diboride the hulls were able to withstand heavy damage - and deal it as well, with the heavy missiles and rail guns the ships carried. Also carried was the heavy pulse machine guns the Hefonfian military was so fond of. These were meant to flank the enemy from afar, using cloak, camouflage and distance to remain unopposed.

Whether they would stay unnoticed was something else.

(OOC: Sorry to Godmod ever so slightly, but to try and take off where Alf attacked us would confuse the thread to no end.)

>>>NEW TARGETS AQUIRED
>>>AQUIRING INFORMATION. . . . .
>>>SHIELD POWER = LOW
>>>HULL STRENGTH = HIGH
>>>WEAPONRY TYPE = KINETIC
>>>COURSE OF ACTION = PLASMA BANK FIRE
>>>ATTACK CRAFT RESPONSE = DRONE ATTACK


The new enemy ships were locked onto by the magnetic fields of those ships that weren't engaging the enemy, and a group of 25 ships broke off to face the newcomers. The inbound bombers were detected before the kinetic munitions, and were plotted onto the systems of new machines now just emerging. Guardians.

128 of them launched from the ships, and using magnetic acceleration on the end magnetic wave of plasma projectiles, hurtled forwards. Each one was about 1.5 metres across and 2 metres long, tapering to a rounded point such as one might sea on some molluscs. However, the end facing the inbound small fighters and bombers were of much more worry: a pair of infared lasers were hidden amongst 12 large arms, each ending in a group of four claws. These glowed oddly, due to their refinement down to a single molecule on the edge, resulting in the ability to cut through many thigns like they were butter.

They began firing their lasers at the enemy craft, the invisible infared beams travelling at the speed of light to reach the targets that then began to melt.

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In the meantime the 25 ships began to accelerate rapidly, the inertia-reducing drives and lack of organic life allowing the ships to reach high speeds ridiculously quickly. They planned on a boarding action, with shields powered up fully on the front and the side weaponry banks angled to their extreme to allow for attacks upon the enemy with bolts of plasma.

Similtaneously, kinetic torpedos travelling at 90km/s were let loose, followed by slower moving torpedos. The slower ones were filled with scuttlers, and on impact with the enemy ships, which soon would begin to suffer shieldwise under the withering bombardment of plasma blots and kinetic munitions, would burst open to allow the scuttlers to get to work on small areas: small enough to let through any guardians so they could wreak havoc inside, ripping enemy soldiers to shreds in the confined space.