NationStates Jolt Archive

The vessels of the Imperium were shadows drifting through the dark void of space. Aboard the cries of the damned souls of bloodthirsty monsters could be heard resounding. Only a few Wardens were aboard for they were all that was necessary. They were known as the Wardens of the Lost. Members of the Blood Angels, Flesh Tearers, and Space Wolves flew in formations under cloak. Their Legion masters had decided that their tactics would be to shock them. To slaughter mindlessly. These vessels were loaded with the dreaded Life-eater bombs and companies of damned Marines.

Two of those dark ships slowly drifted into the system of Niss their cloaks allowing them to slip through the enemy defenses with ease. They would not open fire on the planets nor would they just sit idly by. At once the ships doing a pass by unleashed a storm of Drop Pods over two hundred falling to the planet in a cascade of tears. For tears they were. Many would be destroyed by planetary defenses but many more would make it to the surface. Such were the inevitabilities that all Marines accepted. The pods fell to cities and towns full of civilians. Unleashing the mighty forces of the Death Company of the Blood Angels. Unleashing chainswords and bolters they rended apart all who came into their path not caring for what the populace would beg for. They were pure berserkers good for only one thing......to bring terror and death. In space the mighty ships which had bore them disappeared without a trace becoming a silent wind of death.

OOC: sorry, this has to be short.

Back at the Fortress Monestary
"What about that planet?" Nathaniel asked as he pointed towards a Bluish-greyish landmass. "According to the map, It has the largest weapon and mech dump closest to Terra. If we could take it out, than the seige on Terra, would be severly weakened.

Nathaniel pointed to another planet.

"From there, we would attack this one, and leap-frog from planet to planet. The Republic would have to transfer units from it's seige, to defending their worlds. All we need is enough space marines to do the job.

OOC Republic system information (http://z10.invisionfree.com/Republic_Forum/index.php?showtopic=1350)

IC
Mercer nodded to Nathaniel and said, "Yes you are right to say this the majority of the forces used by the Republic are currently engaged in conflict over Aquaria last transmissions said they were attempting to assail the mighty fortress citadel of Greconum. Luckily our intelligence was prepared for such a strike even though we did not expect the Republic to be the assailants. However our strike force will not be large enough to strike that target out openly. Instead we must soften up such a large and hard target."

He pointed to a far off sector of space saying, "Here is where our strike will be launched from." I currently have ships poised to attack across their space. Numbering a total of two hundred ships many of which are outfitted with some of the Dratherian technology to give them advanced shielding and maneuver capabilities. They are also outfitted with A.I. technology. My enhancements give them the agility of eldar vessels so they will have a terribly difficult time overtaking them. We will use their strength to our advantage. We will attack multiple targets at once across the Republic. These vessels I have placed all carry Exterminautus in the form of the Life-Eater warheads. We have already deployed Death Companies across the Niss system from there we will assail the Sarian, Helvetii, Solus, Chaonia, and finally the Oglevawn systems simultaneously. As I presented I was warned of this attack a year ago by a time traveler so I had time to prepare some things on some distant Forge Worlds but not much time unfortunately." Mercer turned to Nathaniel and said, "We will need a significant force from your people to battle there. We must strike Talean with deadly efficiency. We will offer them peace throughout our assault but should they refuse we shall burn them as heretics."

He looked Nathaniel in the eyes and said, "All though you cannot join glorious battle on Aquaria with your brothers Kivpa you, and myself shall lead a glorious crusade to rend them apart at their center. Besides I have some new technology for you to equip to your starships. Although I must warn you it would be considered Xenos/Abhuman technology by the Imperium."

Nathaniel smiled. "No worries, we have our experience with forbidden items, know I will deploy 60,000 of my marines to Aquaria, Lord Commander Traetos will have no problem leading them. As for me... I'll join you know."

Nathaniel turned towards Taetos.

"Traetos, use the the Hell-stalkers.... and make sure our enemies have chance to surrender before any... killing happens."

Traetos bowed and left with the soul rippers.
He had a legion to command.

Mercer turned to Nathaniel and said, "Very well now let us begin planning our coordinated strikes. We must draw a significant task force to fight this enemy with. We could always virus bomb their homeworlds and leave nothing left alive however that will be a last resort. We must not necessarily make them fall or even comply but to draw their forces away from Aquaria to put them on the defensive would be a good alternative."

Walking around the lectern he said, "We don't have a surplus of forces for this mission but at least one thousand vessels from the Dratherians are being used for this main assault. We have two Legions of Space Marines being dedicated to the land assault. And finally we will request aid from other allies in this assault. In the other task forces we are using Blood Angels and Flesh Tearers Death Companies and Space Wolf Wulfen Companies. Otherwise we will be using virus bombs on select worlds this will cause a necessary urgency with their force deployment. After all why would they let valuable worlds fall to our forces."

Pulling up technical specs he said, "Fold Cannons, enhanced shield emitters, and cloaking technology are all being equipped to your vessels. Also we will be issuing out newer MIDAS Ordnance to your vessels think of a clean nuclear weapon of sorts. Eventually I was hoping to modify all the Imperium's fleets with these weapons however this is wartime and we don't have the most favorable conditions. Is there anything else you could use?"

OOC: Drath, bypassing all of Niss's defences in an instant (especially considering that it's a core system, being part of the Taledonia province, and thus is heavily defended) is rather godmodding. I'll probably take this defence up, but Niss isn't going to be slipped by so easily. Especially with the Republic at war.

If it was a smaller outer system, like Loriiea (the system of my Republic puppet), it might be different, but a scant two hundred drop-pods, even assuming you managed to cloak all the way up to orbit, are going to be shot out of the sky rather quickly.

OOC Just like you guys did to a core world of mine huh? And I was already mobilized for war. By the way I will only accept one of ur nation's in the RP and uve already made ur puppet largely known

OOC: Firstly, the Realm of Hyperspatial Travel is not, and since its secession from the Republic, has not been a friend to the Republic. If a nation participates in the defense of the Republic, it will be my Republic puppet only.

As my sig says, I play as Loriiea, my Republic puppet, with this account as well.

Secondly, we didn't magically slip past your defenses. We sent an utterly overwhelming number of ships drafted from nations who total over five or six times your size. There is as much power in the Republic's attack as you could muster in your entire spaceborne navy. Admittedly, Tal was a dick at several points, but most everyone else told him to pull his head in.

We at no point bypassed your entire defensive fleet, sensors relays, FTLi, and every other defensive measure on the list without taking casualties.

You can't pull the "lolguns you guyz did it!", because we didn't. I'll admit the Republic has had its problems with RP protocol in this war, but certainly not on the scale of your first post.

EDIT: Dude, get on MSN. It's easier to chat there.

OOC Ok well please remove the OOC posts because I would prefer this to be an IC thread I will create and OOC thread here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=13305565).

IC
In Republic space taskforces each numbering thirty-five ships strong lay in cloak waiting for the countdown to reach zero so they could begin thier operations although manpower wasn't large all that was necessary was that the vessels be able to operate in their pre-designated role.

Elsewhere the fleets of the Imperial Navy, the Raven Guard, and the Hunters of Darkness formed up in space above Salvorus. The two thousand strong fleet was ready to fight an intense battle in Talean. They would jump space to a pre-designated sector which intelligence had shown was empty of starships hopefully the distraction created by the six pronged attack would give them the time necessary to enact their plan.

Niss. One of the core Taledonian systems, and, as such, a vital world of the Republic. Like so many Republic worlds, it was well-defended. Unlike many of the outer worlds, which could be taken with ease, Niss had been on high alert ever since the war had begun. That was not to say, though, that mistakes were not made. On the selfsame day Dratherian ships entered the system, cloaked, Taledonian ships were undertaking an exercise, under full cloak.

The Taledonian ships left, and were expected back in eighteen hours. A small margin of error, perhaps, meant that they had failing systems, or had forgotten to supply properly. No matter. Defenses were lowered, shipyards made ready to repair and refuel.

It was a mistake that would lose commanders their positions. A mistake that would cost lives, and a mistake that, above all, showed that war had truly come to the Republic. As the drop-pods descended from the sky, klaxons sounded, and defensive lasers fired, time and time again, scything the enemy from the skies they attempted to pass through.

For over five hundred ships contributed to the defense of Niss, and, of course, the vast majority of those were in orbit. Five hundred capital ships, one of the mighty Velox Defendo, crewed in part by Loriieans, some Taledonians, and the occasional Neo-Roman, whirred to life, shocked by the thought that they had been taken unaware.

Guns of all description fired, yet the larger weaponry could not be used. The planet was not yet prepared, and to fire the true weaponry of the capital ships would to be risk the destruction of unprotected cities on the surface. Most anti-air weaponry was not yet engaged, and so, despite five hundred capital ships firing at the drop-pods, a full fifty made it down to the surface.

As drop-pods hurtled into the ground, the First Taledonian Legion, already prepared for battle at the capital of Niss, formed up, preparing to enter skimmers, grav-tanks, and all manner of war-machines. Though they had been expecting a call to the war abroad, it seemed they would have to fight here.


And, in far-off Dratheria, Callis Yalltar received the information. Niss was under attack. Under his administration. A disaster, to say the very least. He would risk much, if the Dratherians could dig in, and were not swept off the face of the world immediately. He swore.

"Tell Germanicus to take command of my fleet. I will take the Fourth Velox Imperia to Taledon. I will ensure that the defense of the Republic cannot be compromised."

The drops pods smashed through the cobblestones of the roads, making anyone in the area cringe. As usual, this would most likely mean a small tax hike to pay for the repairs, especially since there would be less people to pay it with those damnable soldiers emerging and firing at the innocent civilians. Civilians of the Republic, no less, which is most probably the worst mistake anyone could make...apart from stiking their head in Remiel de Draken's mouth of course...

The nearby patrol of praetorians formed up ranks, and while they were but six, they would be able to hold out until the local legion and the rest of the praetorian force in the city could muster to aid them. Activating the energy plating to the ancient shields they carried, they formed an undermaned testudo, interlocking their sheilds and point to the enemy with their spears, which shot forth burning plasma in the direction of the enemy. But of course, these men, while well trained and able to defend themselves, were still but a police force....

(OOC: I'll play the praetorians, they're always fun.)

Over two hundred marines had landed successfully and as the Death Company closed the distance with the praetorians their awesome might would be shown as only a few fell to the lances the force thirty men strong unleashed haills of bolter rounds as they swung chainsword at any in their way.

In space the fleet which had been such a silent sentinel trying to destroy the drop pods would be surprised. The taskforce decloaked and zipped in at unseen speeds for such heavy warships Nova Cannons, Lances, and hundreds of torpedoes crossed the gap in space. A mere thrity-five ships but they were advanced enough to cause quite a headache to local forces. Elsewhere similar taskforces decloaked and began their assaults on the Sarian, Helvetii, Solus, Chaonia, and the Oglevawn systems. Worlds in the Solus sytem were virus bombed as ships engaged the local defenses. Elsewhere similar assaults on tactical forces and worlds were being carried out. The fleets were mostly automated but they were not without finesse engaging in skirmish fighting and hit and run tactics.

Talean

For awhile, there was nothing. No bombs, no death, no projectiles whizzing around.
There was no destruction, no shrapnel, not one ounce of loss.
There was absolutely nothing.
Children played, couples smiled, and elderly folks talked about the Good Ol'day's.

Jennifer Larson looked to her boyfriend and smiled. She had just gotten pregnant, and celebrations for her good luck, were going to be held that night.

10 year old Chuck Gersham and his gang roamed around the ruins of an abandoned construction site. They claimed a war had happened, and the ruins were their fortress.
Never taken, never attacked.

Private Tirius sighed a breath of relief. He had been spared the death sentence of joining the attack on Terra, and instead sat on a bench marvelling at the sunset.

And Rickie "Sisiekiel" Jones, sitting on the grass of a park, strumming a guitar and singing
(So passes another life, another grain of sand)

Birds sang,
(The wind of god, takes the soul's hand)

And the bushes rustled, all was peaceful.
(Imagine your... conciousness, living in har-
And then the comets arrived.

Lord Commander Traetos scanned the area, with his auspex looking keenly at the greenish-glow of the screen.
Around him, the battle brothers of the Soul Hunters fought with the Republic, taking positions in any cover they could find.

Traetos knew that this was but stage one, of the attack. Stage two would involve Dratherian reinforcements, and Soul Hunter heavy weapons.

For know, all they needed to do was secure a beach-head, which was no problem considering their numbers,
as The Soul Hunters had landed with a force of 10,000 Marines, 500 of which were lost as they claimed their objectives.

Surrounding Traetos, were the Hellstalker terminators, each covered with overlapping terminator armor, and armed with Assault cannon's and Las-Cannons.

"Brother Traetos, rumbled one of the Hellstalker's "When will we attack the city, the warrior spirit's in our bodies cannot contain ourselves."

"All in good time." Murmered Traetos, not even looking up from the Auspex.

According to the device, the majority of the Republic's unit's were in the city, the main objective of the attack force.

Getting in was the hard part, and Traetos had the challenge of finding it out.

"Incoming!" barked a Hellstalker, and a Drop Pod nearby burst into flames.

The explosion snapped Traetos out of his trance-like state, and confided with The Hellstalkers, showing them a pict-map.

"We will do a pincer movement," commanded Traetos "The Hellstalker's and squads 1-20, will attack from the front, while Assault squads
30-40 will assault the sides. Covering fire will be given by our devestators. IS THAT CLEAR!

The hellstalkers nodded, and marched towards battle.

Traetos put on his helmet, and ran to join them.

Blood would be spilled that night, and the republic would know what it meant to oppose the Soul Hunters

OOC: Goddamn. I am sick and fucking tired of this godmodding shit. Here's what's gonna happen. Either you stop, or you leave. I don't mind Dratheria having allies - it's only fair, after all, but godmoddy allies.. No. So. You accept this loss for being a godmodding sonovabitch who obviously can't read the argument in its entirety between Drath and myself, or you delete your post and try again.

IC: Or, at least, that what would have happened, had the Republic not had overeight thousand (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13309632&postcount=4) capital ships in-system. This force was more than enough to wipe out a few puny comets. The Dunerian force was annihilated to a man, the Republic, now on high alert, was scarcely bothered at all.

On Talean, the news buzzed with the fact that an attack had been tried on Talean itself! Senators were in good cheer after the destruction of the enemy force, and they toasted to the Consul's foresight and health. The enemy were as stupid as they had originally thought, it seemed. With a sacrifice of over 10,000 men, as well as the ships used to carry them, a victory had been won at no cost.

In the Senate, glasses clinked together, and Callis himself toasted the health of the Republic, and her grand fleets. For such a victory, his popularity would rise, immensely. It was a good result for all involved, apart from the unfortunate Dunerians.

Trierarch Marcus Coriolanus was the local commander of the understrength fleet orbiting Chaonia. Even being understrength, Coriolanus had 273 capital ships under his command, plus their supporting fighters, carriers, and destroyer and gunship escorts. He was on duty on the bridge of his command cruiser Immitior, a Neo-Roman Mars-class 8-kilometer-long battlecarrier, when the contacts appeared on his holoscreen.

"35 contacts moving rapidly in-system," one of his techs reported from her console. "They are cloaked, but they appear on our gravity well scans."

"Put the fleet on full alert," Coriolanus ordered immediately. The Republic was at war with a wily and dangerous foe, and he would take no chances when it came to defending Neo-Roma's satellite system. "Fire when they are within range, and alert ground forces on the surface as well as Regional Command on Nova-Roma."

"Esto, domine."

"Domine, several of the Chaonian tribes are starting to contact us," another tech spoke up. "They wish to know who the trespassers are, and how many we plan to let through to the planet surface for them?"

Coriolanus sighed. The Chaonians, although they kept to themselves within the trackless jungles of Chaonia's three continents, had full access to the intelligence and system scans performed by their Neo-Roman allies. It was their nature to expect their space-faring brothers in arms to reserve them a piece of the action. "Tell them we don't plan on letting any of them through," he replied. "But they have full rights to any that make it through anyway." It was the compromise that was always understood, but still had to be confirmed.

The Dratherian task force entered the range of the Immitior's primary railcannon, a 2-kilometer-long weapon projecting from the vessel's understructure fully capable of shattering energy shields and turning heavy capital ships into swiss cheese. The Immitior trembled despite the heavy recoil dampeners that were built into the weapon, as the railcannon's targeting AIs locked onto the foremost Dratherian craft's gravity well signature and triangulated the exact necessary trajectory to put a slug straight through the incoming cruiser. The remaining 272 Republican capital ships, alerted to their enemy's presence before they could be surprised, mobilized and unleashed all their available firepower on the advancing Dratherian task force, which had had the tables turned on it rather swiftly.

----------

"An incoming transmission from the Chaonian Fleet Commander, domine," Lucius Aemilianus Pugnax's aide, Marcellus, announced. The youth poked his head through the doorway to Pugnax's office, where the old Neo-Roman Aedile sat reviewing the situation across the Republic on the holoscreen rising from his desk.

"Niss, Sarian, Helvetii, Solus, Talean, Oglevawn, and now Chaonia," the former admiral mused. "And all in such small pinprick attacks. What's their angle?" He shook his head as if to clear it. "Bring all Praetorian fleets up to full alert and deploy them to the inner systems," he ordered. Real-time data from the Republic's vast military intelligence network began flowing onto his holoscreen; everything from the Chaonian sensor arrays, everything that Coriolanus was using, he now watched on his own screen. "The situation seems to be in hand for the moment," he observed. "But prepare half of the Neo-Roman defense fleet to jump to Coriolanus' aid if needed." Marcellus saluted and ducked out.

Pugnax sat back in his chair, resting his elbows on the arms and bridging his fingers right underneath his nose. What the Dratherians hoped to accomplish was not yet clear; as tough as Dratherian capital ships were, a mere 35 couldn't hope to triumph over even a minor undermanned system like Chaonia. And the failed attack on Talean had been a disaster. If this was the Dratherians' counterstroke, it had gotten off to an inauspicious beginning.

OOC: Tag because I'm no fan of IoM nations. .-.

The Republic fleets would be caught unawares as the mission had changed mid transit a few ships detonated as enemy firepower overcame them but the enemy couldn't deny their purpose as their Warp drives overloaded creating massive warpspace/realspace detonations sending rippling waves throughout the system. Their enhanced engines ensuring their speed to get to their targets while their shielding saved many of them to complete their mission. The massive aurora of colors would be seen in every system attacked as massive destructive forces were released on those around them. The true sinister purpose of these task forces was soon to be realized. Even as the detonations would happen the dread forces of Chaos would surely try to tear their way free into the Materium to wreak devastation and take human hosts.

"Warp distortions, sir."

Link. Now.

Words were of no real use to the Travellians - thought was much quicker, and, with thought, they could communicate thousands of ideas in the time it would take to slowly enunciate one. A single superfortress sat in Talean, and it had experience dealing with Chaos. Thousands of years of racial memory, distilled into a single potent Realm-mind, gave them all the knowledge they would ever need.

Of course, Domestikos. Link is established.

Good. Alithia, S'velen, our FTLi is having trouble closing the warp rifts. Whilst they were certainly reduced in size by our FTLi, they're not designed to deal with catastrophic Warp explosions. I want that rectified. Secondly, we'll use our own imposition fields to remove the abomination. If the rest of the Republic has no method of destroying the Warp rifts, we will do it ourselves. Set a course to the rift.

Domestikos Karelen, commander of the Victorian Architecture, smiled. His ship had no AI. He was, from a certain perspective, the AI. Jacked into the ship itself, with nerves hardwired for speed, it was easy enough to do certain things.

He blinked out of reality momentarily, reappearing just before the Warp. Daemons sped out towards him, but they were of no moment. Gravity, exerted far from the ship, crushed them as though they were bugs.

With titanic effort, burning antimatter as though it were nothing, he reached out a 'hand', and closed the rift. Or rather, a field spread out, slowly but surely repairing the breaks in reality the Dratherians had caused. He disconnected from the ship.

"Hah! Honestly, who do they think we are? Children to be frightened by Chaos?"

Karelen laughed.

Send a message to the remaining defensive systems. Do you have the capacity to close these Warp.. distortions? We are capable of dealing with them, but would rather not exert ourselves if it's not really necessary.

The superfortress turned, and disappeared. Until they got a response, it seemed, they were on cleanup duty.

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