NationStates Jolt Archive

(OOC thread is here (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=13530228&posted=1#post13530228).)

The rickety old starport groaned with the weight the crews were putting on it. More and more of those bloody Earther ships had been turning up on the throughput register lately, and nobody knew why. Rumour was they were mobilising to take out the pirates rampaging throughout Colonial space, but those in the know doubted it. As far as they were concerned, United Earth would never do something upstanding like that.

A fresh distraction popped onto the starport control screens - a rusty, dusty old spherical medium-level freighter. A quick discussion was exchanged in New Solar Chinese, and the freighter juddered up to a docking tube ungracefully on three functioning drives out of its five-drive cluster.

Inside the airlock chamber, a twenty-two-year-old squared his shoulders. James Jackson was a native of the Colonial Federation of New Sol, and had many good reasons to hate United Earth.

One of them, his principal one, really, was that, when he was a child, his mother and father had been killed by a United Earth trooper who seemed to have been of the view that human beings were meat animals - as evidenced by the rather grisly "disposal of the remains" afterwards. Shortly after, the trooper had gotten a medal for "disposing of two dangerous rebels" and been backslapped by all of the United Earth news services.

Jackson had collected a hundred followers behind the banner of Novosolic independence, but it simply wasn't enough. A hundred people versus an army of fifty thousand were odds he really didn't want to take.

So he'd bought a century-and-a-half-old freighter, named it the Glorious Flame, plonked himself and a couple of his motley crew onboard, and come up to the rather disreputable old orbiting traders' haven to pick up some more members for his fighting force. There had been a heart-stopping moment when the controller's eyes had narrowed, but the man had in the end shown no sign of recognition, and allowed the Glorious Flame to dock.

The airlock opened, and he was zapped a couple of times by the needlessly painful sensors. Finally, the airlock's inner door opened, and Jackson hauled himself out into the zero-g docking ring. White-suited traders and goods vendors of all descriptions floated about like delinquent snowflakes.

Deep Space
11:54am Military time
Deep Space Recon/Exploration group Nova
ZNS Triblade

The cold depth of space were quiet, almost to quiet all things considered. When one was in a quiet area of space there was only two possibilities either its uninhabited or a trap was waiting for you. For the crew of the ZNS Triblade a Triton class patrol ship and her sister ship the Triedge deep space was all they usually saw. To small to fight the ships are used for deep space patrols and light anti-pirate operations. Currently they were mapping grid 3065-7B it had a star system which they had to investigate. The two ships spun up there FTL drives and jumped away from there location. When they reappeared, they were inside the system "Scanning now" one crewmen said "Humanoid life detected, outer edges and interior planetary areas" the same one quickly said soon after.

The captain of the Triblade looked over "Alright lets go say hello, bring us to a central body in the outer area" he ordered. They scanned to find a location to make contact, they found one, a small port facility from what it seemed, so they set a course. Once they got close they would begin first contact.

Earth had traveled a long way since the democracy rush of the 20th and 21st centuries. Since then empires had fallen, good men had ended up dead, race wars had extinguished entire cultures, and now the Earth Authority ruled from its capital on the green planet - the city of Osaka, in the Pacific East administrative region. The Osaka of 21st century Japan was considerably different from the one of modern times in 2797 - across the Sea of Japan from the Sino-Industrial Wastelands (the former remnants of China), Osaka was a massive, sprawling city of overcrowding and pollution, yet its downtown and built-up segments were some of the most awe-inspiring points of the planet.

Earth's biggest feature was in orbit, where six "processing stations" siphoned citizens and military in and out from access to the planet, effectively keeping out undesirables - anyone from the crippled and disabled to political enemies and unruly citizens, along with the more violent types - while keeping in Earth's core of citizens. It was a system that worked, and help maintain the always-important order. Order was key - it had held since the Authority's commission in 2562 after the Fusion Wars of the 26th century. Stability was desirable.

The military arm of United Earth was a big chunk of the standard government budget from the Authority, and it deserved such merit and backing. With 200 spacefaring vessels of different size and class to defend its territory, over 52,000 ground soldiers and several thousand armored units for ground warfare, and a dedicated logistics and command structure that was unparralleled, United Earth had a strong military branch.

It was a neccessary faction, as the colonial "arm" of UE had expanded as well - a little too much for the Authority's like. The Colonial Federation of New Sol was lightly bound to the Earth-clan, but too light for the interests of those back in the inner few systems - primarily Alpha Centauri and the Sol System planets themselves. The CFNS, however, expanded out to more lawless regions, where law was generally focused in whoever had the most guts and the biggest guns. Somewhat of a modern frontier, the colonial areas were getting a little too independent for the eyes of the Authority - and a campaign was being scheduled soon to bring them in.

United Earth had a goal and a plan - to increase and maintain stability over localized humanity - which they knew they could and would execute. It was only time, and their own fragments would never be able to stop them.

The ever-present UEarther guards were floating around the docking ring. Jackson imagined they were watching the discreetly-spaced arrivals of himself and his crew warily, although of course one couldn't tell through the bubble helmets needed in such an environment.

Jackson produced his identity chip, which was immediately snatched away by a guard and run through a reader. During the minute the card was reading, Jackson looked around, noting the decor. Some parts of the station were actually patched together with corrugated iron. Jackson winced.

Finally, the card ran through, and Jackson took the resulting receipt, boosting himself through the airlock into the central ten-leveled habitation sphere. Not having come up before, he was taken by surprise by the spinning interior of the habitat, and fell ungracefully onto the ground.

Getting up, he unfastened his thin ship's-suit and stuck it into a locker, dialing in a twenty-four digit hexadecimal code to lock the thing. He'd never been here before, but the same locker codes were recognised all over Federal space.

A Novosolar station constable floated down to him, gloomily taking his receipt and running it through the computer files. The bureaucracy never seemed to end.

The loud humming click of an airlock inner door opening at the other side of the really-quite-spacious docking level caught Jackson's attention. He turned to see a dot - which, with a bit of retinal-implant zoom, resolved into Olivia Robinson, the revolution's second. An attractive 21-year-old woman with implausibly shiny jet-black hair and piercing green eyes, she was the obvious choice for chief recruiter.

Jackson felt a twinge of satisfaction at the fact that she'd taken his instruction to stay dispersed from the rest of the crew.

The two ships made there way slowly at sublight speeds towards the port, within minutes they entered within visual range of the station. It was brought up on a small monitor for the captain "Thing looks old, also looks beat" he commented upon seeing it "Alright take us is slowly, distance to communications range?" the captain ordered "About five minutes sir" someone responded "Alright they should be picking us up soon any way, keep a cool head people" he then said.

The Altairan science vessle Se Intripe(the intrepid) Came out of hyperspace near the broken port. It was small compared to most vessels seeing as Altairans space program was young.(the only reason this ship had a hyper drive was because the schematics were come by through 'questionable' means) But it did not slow. The obsolete ion engines continued to push it forward until it impacted into the East side of the station.

(OOC: Please get out of my thread, Altairan. *fires ignore cannon* And next time, SIGN UP IN THE OOC THREAD. SB, the "untagged ship" is you.)

Jackson's earphone beeped in a rising stream, finally rising up to the painfully high, then switching off. He frowned - this indicated an untagged ship inbound to the station. Probably a pirate.

Strolling across the clanging metal floor, carefully not looking at Olivia, Jackson hopped up onto the interdeck ladder, and within twenty seconds was standing on the somewhat threadbare carpeted floor of Deck One. Lighting sconces around the walls emitted a soothing, cream-coloured light. In the middle of the room was a C-shaped desk, and behind it a lift tube to Deck Two.

The C-shaped desk happened to be the reception desk for Hotel Deck Two, a moderately nice three-and-a-half-star establishment. It was this desk Jackson strode over to, making three single-room bookings for false names ('Lars Svaalquist' for himself, with the bookings being made in a flawless Swedish accent). Keycards were handed over, and Jackson was soon in his room, working on a coded dispatch to his assistant, a young man located at what was laughingly called the revolution's headquarters.

His pocketcom started playing the Futurama theme, so he fished it out and smiled fondly at the caller ID. Olivia Aileen Robinson. Tapping the 'PICK UP CALL' square on screen, he hooked the pocketcom into the room speakers.

"Chief, we've got a guy wants to work with us. Goes by the name of Vladimir Lenin - yes, I read my history, no need to be exasperated - and wants to supply us with weaponry for our nefarious purposes. This call is encrypted. Don't reply."

The Triblades sister ship was quick to follow in behind to enter there sensor range. Close behind and close together the two ships stayed in formation and continued on course to the station, still not in communications range for another two minutes they waited and hoped that who they were about to meet would be friendly. The two captains then began to talk "Well whats your plan?" the captain of the Triedge asked "We will go in alone for any face to face talks, I want your ship back here to monitor the situation in case any thing happens" the captain of the Triblade said "Roger that" the other said before cutting the line off. The captain of the Triblade then turned around "diplomatic protection team assembled in three, main airlock" he ordered. Basically that was the captains order to assemble three security personal to accompany him to be on the safe side.

(OOC: Spit, the station is owned by United Earth, so technically diplomacy falls under Amazon's jurisdiction. All I get to do is watch you be gradually more and more disgusted by his tactics. Looks like it's going to be a while before you fall in with the Revolution :p)

The cheeping was getting more insistent in his earpiece. Jackson decided to plug the earpiece into his pocketcom, and dialed up Olivia's number. After about fifteen seconds of ringing, Olivia's face appeared on the screen.

"Hi Chief, putting you through to Vladimir now."

The camera wobbled slightly as Olivia passed it over to the arms dealer, who turned out to be a handsome blond Caucasian man, seemingly in his late thirties. He started speaking New Solar English comfortably, with a slight British accent.

"Hello, Mr Jackson. I understand you want some armaments for this... Revolution of yours."

"Yes, Mr Lenin. I do want some armaments for this Revolution of mine. Two weapons and ten thousand clips should suffice initially."

After a quick and obviously fake mental calculation, Lenin replied, "That will cost you five million United credits, Mr Jackson."

"Ah ha ha, I think not. Your referrer told me it would be one million Federation dollars."

"Ah, yes, well, my referrer was obviously wrong then."

"I think not. Remember the old law - namely Federation Code Title 22, Section Thirteen? 'One must fulfil a business-related promise, even if it was made by someone else on one's behalf'?"

"You're hardly likely to be running to the police, are you, Mr Jackson?"

"Granted, but neither are you. Plus, I have fifteen armed guards onboard my freighter." Of course, he didn't, but Lenin probably wouldn't take the chance.

Lenin seethed for a minute, then grudgingly agreed to the new price. It was under cost, of course, but Jackson knew the referrer. And of course, he'd made "the old law" up. Who'd be stupid enough to put one of those in?

OOC: gives me a chance to get angry with the UE and make me turn to helping the rebels :P

"Are we gonna talk?"

Graig Schleitzel was the commandant of Station TX120P, something that really shouldn't have been in business anymore - the only reason it was was that it was so far out from the central systems that it was deemed "unworthy" of repairs. A perfect place for the UE to deal with "undesirables" in a manner that would support the Authority's whims.

"Talk about what?" Despite his name, Schleitzel was definately not of German ancestry. If anything, he was almost Hispanic.

"About me." The man facing Schleitzel was twice the commandant's size, a burly brute of a human, light-skinned and brown-haired. His name was Domingo Chavez, and Schleitzel had had plenty of contact with him over the past month.

"Oh, you wanna talk about that." Chavez's dealings with Schleitzel hadn't exactly been under the Authority charter...rather, Chavez wasn't even a member of United Earth. He was, for all intents and purposes, a pirate.

"Yeah, I do." The burly man had been born in the Mid-American control region of Earth, in the city of Tlaxcala. Maybe an Earth native, but the man was clearly a spacer.

"A'ight, so let's talk." Business time.

Chavez had parked his "battle corvette" at the station's Ring 2 several hours before but had only now sought out Schleitzel to talk. The man took his time, for sure.

"Look," Chavez said slowly. "I'm pissed off about all this talk in this part about trying to put down pirates. You and I and every space slug knows that we're doing your dirty shit. You don't like these colonists. We don't like 'em either. Therefore, we're working together. We're holding up our end of the bargain. You gonna hold up yours?"

"Yes, of course," Schleitzel said quickly, "It's just that-"

"I already know you got in the shipments of torpedoes this week. And I know that you didn't give them to me promptly for finishing off the settlement on Akuze with the freethinking guys who were trying to demonstrate the democratic shit, and I covered it up by making evidence saying hammerhead worms finished off the colony. I not only did your dirty work, I also did your part of it for you. I should be asking for you to kiss my fucking foot, but no, I just want my end of the bargain."

"Naturally," Schleitzel responded, eyes glancing up to Chavez's two charcoal orbs, "I'll just make the transfer requests shortly-"

"I damn well hope so, Shlick. I need some more ammo."

Chavez left, his muscles pulsing with each step. Schleitzel hated the man, but it was UE policy to make favorable deals with pirates these days. Chavez had some firepower, indeed, but he didn't know just how much he'd be betrayed once the UE was done with him...once he was done with the colonists out here.

* * * * *

The ping of an inbound, unknown vessel pissed off Scott Marquandt, who had been just chilling in his communications officer room. It had been all good until two ships had just randomly arrived and decided...Hey! Let's check out the shitty space station!

Marquandt hated it out here. The man was 24, a graduate from the Global University of Kratos (a planet in the Alpha Centauri system) in policy and diplomacy. So where had the Authority sent him? To the shithole of the galaxy - way out here to a system whose name he'd forgotten. Great deals. And now some starship guys who weren't the usual freebooting pirates or occasional passing patrol decided they wanted to make a stop by. What the heck did they want out of him this time?

Sighing loudly to no one in the room besides himself and titanium walls, Marquandt started the normal procedures. Punching several buttons, he extended a docking port for the lead ship - he wasn't going to extend two. They could send a team from one ship and have the other just sit tight. With the alert going out to security, Marquandt watched out his room's glass front panes as several large, dumb-looking security guys in black-and-yellow uniforms marched over towards the airlock, toting scary-looking guns around with them that would probaly end up making a lot of mess inefficiently. The guns out here were designed to scare and generally were old-school, not the newest tech wonders of the central systems.

With that, Marquandt sighed again and leaned back in his chair...what a boring life out here.

"Looks like there already letting us dock captain" the XO of the Triblade said to the captain "Well lets not keep them waiting, take us in, you have the bridge XO" he ordered before leaving the bridge of the tiny ship to go to the airlock. He floated down the hallways turning several corners. Eventually making it to the airlock where four crew members were waiting. One handed him a holo projector, the small pen sized device was used for communications and other small tasks.

The captain found it strange that a station who had never seen a ship like theres before would just open a docking port Or perhaps some one just got lazy? he thought to him self. The voice of the computer came on "Docking commencing please stand by" it was a vary passive but calming voice. This voice was used because it relaxed people and was the one the members of the military voted to use. After a short wait they finally could continue on "docking complete, you may now disembark" the computers voice then said.

The door opened and the captain and his escorts stepped forward, not expected a greeting of course, they defiantly looked like outsiders. The captain had a black uniform with a dark red trim, typical for ships crew. He also had the rank pins of a captain in the ZAFT forces pinned to his collar and shoulders. The three with him also wore the same uniform but less ranks. Ranging from petty officer to a lieutenant they all walked with the captain. Side arms concealed there job was to look after the captain and protect him.

They were clearly military but for the people on the station the question was 'what military exactly?'. One of the captains escorts looked around "What a junk heap, it would take a entire engineer battalion months to get a place like this ship shape" the others let out a small chuckle at the comment "Let's find some one in change here" the captain said to them. The door to the ship closed and they began to walk off.

Jackson tuned the lenses of his newly acquired dataglasses into the docking ring security cameras and avidly watched the unidentifieds strolling along. Pirates, perhaps? Although they were rather wealthy-looking for that.

His musings were interrupted by a beep in his ear, then Olivia's eternally calm voice coming onto the line.

"Chief, direct your attention to camera fifty-three."

Jackson toggled the camera switch for a couple of seconds, casually deactivating the ones he trailed through, coming to a camera with '53' marked in digital notation in the upper-left of the display.

The objects of Olivia's attention were immediately obvious - a number of United Earth government grunts doing their best impression of moderately fast thought processes as they marched across the deck, indiscriminately clearing a path through the daily crowd.

"S'not the worst bit of news, Chief - they're Schleitzel's. You know, our old friend, Graig Schleitzel?"

"No, I don't-- oh shit. That Graig Schleitzel? Akuze's hammerhead-worm guy?"

"Yes, that Graig Schleitzel. Lenin's scampered, but he'll be in touch. Thing is, Chief, with Schleitzel's mob on the station, our job's gonna be a whole lot harder, you get what I mean?"

"Yes, 'Liv, I get what you mean. Tell Iris to prep the five-drive and refabricate the Alcubierre pipe, get Nolan to replace the nose laser's battery, and move that shipment of weapons into the hold ASAP."

"I think I got it. Jim, be careful. You don't want to fuck up the Revolution now. And, hey, I actually care whether you're alive or dead, y'know?"

"Thanks, 'Liv. Have a good evening."

Jackson signed out sombrely. Despite his many faults, Schleitzel wasn't known for being careless (although, mused part of his mind, it could simply be because he's not known, full stop), so things had just gone up an order of difficulty.

The ZAFT men were confronted fairly quickly by an armed detachment - 12 guardsmen aboard the station in their yellow uniforms, accompanied by a lightly-built diplomatic sort of man. Just another grunt, however.

"Your ship is not registered for contact today..." the man began to the ZAFT men. "I will need you to fill out this form of contact."

With that, the man passed over two sheets of documentation. Both essentially would reveal exactly where and from whom the ZAFT men were...the UE would get their information on newcomers, belligerent, friendly, or delightfully in the middle.

* * * * *

Chavez was getting bored. The torpedo shipment still hadn't come in. It was pissing him off. His corvette, the Bloodrunner, had vaporized a transport on its way here with a salvo of plasma torpedoes - and it needed more of the superheated projectiles to continue the reign of terror Chavez's band (one of the smaller groups of pirates, admittedly) had been inflicting in the recent few weeks. It had been a good run so far. However, Schleitzel's inefficiency and penchant for wasting time was running on Chavez's nerves.

The man stood up aboard the bridge of Bloodrunner, hoisting a large repeating coilgun rifle as he was at it. It could throw out 600 slugs a minute with the puncturing power to blow holes through the station's superstructure - and coated in a light plasma sheath, even personal shielding units were no match for the power of Chavez's custom weapon.

"Let's go," the burly pirate grunted to a few of his men standing around. "I'm gonna get some shit of of Schlick. This is pissing me off."

"Vary well, I apologize for being unannounced" the captain said pulling a pen from his pocket, he found a spot to sit down and began filling all the required fields out. He had seen a lot more paper before so this was just light reading in comparison. Once finished he put his pen away, he was surprised the form did not ask for genetic type but he didn't bother making mention of it since it was not needed. He then got up walked back over to the men that confronted them and handed over the papers "Typical bureaucracy eh? well I guess we can't avoid it even when we are away from home" the captain commented.

About twenty-five minutes after going to sleep, Jackson was woken by an urgent beeping from his pocketcom. Same caller as all the other times: Olivia Aileen Robinson.

"Chief, 's me. Me and Iris, we picked up a suss trace in the station's vicinity. Ran a scan on it, and it's the Bloodrunner."

"...what? Bloodrunner?" Jackson yawned, still drowsy.

"Wake the hell up! Yes, the Bloodrunner. It's Domingo Chavez's ride."

"Wait, the guy hanging around Akasha or Akuze or whatever the hell it was just before the hammerhead worms started ripping the protestors apart?"

"Yeah, that guy. We know Schleitzel was in the vicinity too. I mean, the Revolutionaries' theory has always been that somebody, probably Schleitzel, aggroed the 'heads and they started takin' it out on the colonists. Looks like somethin' deeper. I'm starting to get kinda paranoid."

"Yeah, Liv, I know the theory... and the feeling. Right, that's it, Station TX120P needs to be in our hands by a week from now. We'll lock down the comms centre tomorrow, then progress through and secure the facilities. With that and a bit of luck, we can gun down Chavez with the heavier turrets around twelve days from now. Schleitzel stays intacto, 'kay?"

"Chief, this is kinda insane - we've still only got around two hundred troops."

"I got it worked out, I think. We bring the groundside hundred up on sympathising passenger ships, then we get them to gather a few hours before we start taking over. With Vlad's weapon shipment, we should have more than enough ammo and weapons for two hundred. We brute-force our way through the station security and bang, TX one-twenty P is under our control."

"I think I got it. Like I said before, be careful."

"Can do. Over and out."

(bump)

(OOC: Apologies, I'll get to a post once I finish up a bit of work)

OOC Disclaimer: If you aren't a fan of rated-R language, you may want to close your eyes on this post. Just trying to get a feel for the pirates.


IC:

Chavez's face mirrored anger and irritation. A long scowl crossed his mouth, both thick black eyebrows burrowed into his medium-brown Latino face. He was...angry. And Schleitzel was doing a good job pissing him off - so much that he was now proceeding to get in the face of a group of security of the station just as the diplomatic corps was dealing with the ZAFT forces.

"Thank you for your cooperation," the diplomat said to the ZAFT men in a nasily bureaucratic voice, "you may now move about any civilian-allowed sectors of this station at your leisure."

The man's introduction to the station was overwhelmed slightly by Chavez's cussing out of the three station security personal. The security may have been official UE members, but Chavez outnumbered them 5-3 with considerably bigger men.

"So you tell your fucker boss to get the fuck out here and see me himself, damnit!" Chavez exploded on the lead security guard. "I'm fucking sick of this damn waiting game you expect me to play! I risk my ass 24/7 for your stupid politicians on Earth and you expect me to play your stupid government games! I'm fucking sick of it!"

Chavez didn't exactly care who was hearing the conversation - he was just letting loose a fury of emotions at the security guards who maintained a remarkable calm during the tirade.

"How the hell do you expect to get any shitty help at all if you can't fucking help the people who actually, you know, do your jobs for you?" Chavez roared on, his voice carrying through the ring promenade. "Jesus Christ. There's only so much I can do. You want me to do everything? Go get fucking Xanadou Chang, if you want to do everything. I don't have that much shit, unless you get me what I fucking ask for. I come cheap for you fuckers, yet I still get left on my ass in the dark. Gee, thanks. I feel hot shit about that."

Chavez's mention of Xanadou Chang was a reference to the best pirate around. Chang was notorious, despite the fact he had never been seen - in fact, it wasn't even known if Chang, the "Shadow Agent," even existed as a single entity, or what his/her/it gender or race or age or height or anything was. Chang did, however, have a force that could meet and successfully parlay an Authority battlefleet and was responsible for more raids and massacres of colonists and other pirates out in these parts than all other pirates combined.

"Sir, Schleitzel can see you in an hour, have patience," the lead security guard pleaded. He was trying. Just trying.

"An hour? I just talked with the asshole three hours ago, and I'm still waiting, despite the fact I know you have my shit! You go and get that pussy and tell him I want my fair share now!"

Chavez stormed off towards one of the Promenade's bars with his men as the security guards, muttering to each other about the pirate's flamboyent temper, walked off back towards Schleitzel's personal office. Outbreaks like that weren't rare, but Domingo Chavez was a regular around these parts and tended to have some of the biggest flareups.

"Charming station" the captain commented to his men "We will probably see each other again, being from across the galaxy diplomacy with new people is key when showing up on there door step" he said to the station diplomat. He then made a hand signal to his men to start moving "Well lets see what this place has to offer, maybe the food would be worth trying" he commented as they walked "Hopefully this is peaceful, I'd hate to end up in the middle of a bar brawl, or a war" one of the men said "You and me both Ensign" the captain replied as they made there way around.

The day after

The Futurama theme whistled tinnily, and a bleary-eyed Jackson pulled out his pocketcom for the third time in twenty-four hours. Same caller tag.

Without preamble, "Chief, Chavez is in."

"In that case, the operation is being rescheduled. We have fifty-three troops. Create a diversion on the docking ring at noon today, then lock down the comms centre. The hundred-fifty extras will be station guards."

"You sure 'bout this now?"

"Yes, I am. We can't afford to risk more pirate activity round here - that'll just alert Earth all the faster. So we lock down comms, lock down command, lock down Chavez. Simple."

---

Noon

A non-descript woman stepped out of a non-descript spaceship. Then she screamed and doubled over.

Eleven people immediately seemed to rush to see if she was hurt. In reality, the woman was Iris, crewmember on the Glorious Flame. The eleven people were loyal Revolutionaries creating the distraction they'd promised to Jackson.

Over on one of the staff decks, Jackson was marching along with a quickly and scarcely trained squad of guards behind him. In front of him lay the door to the comms centre. The two UE grunts were dispatched with unconsciousness-inducing stuzer pulses, and one of the Revolutionary guards, a young computer enthusiast, began to hack the door.

A few minutes later, the hacking was done. Surveillance had been rerouted and cameras run on loops, so the two sleeping grunts appeared to be standing attentively in their usual places. With all the electronic witnesses removed, the Revolutionaries simply forced the doors open.

Jackson moved in, raised his carbine, and swept it round the console-filled room. The scope identified each of the staff in turn, until Jackson came to a name he found interesting: SCOTT MARQUANDT.

The man could be either a friend or an enemy of the Revolution; he was a university graduate, which would make him a valuable asset among the Revolution's students and absent-minded intellectuals, but might also imbue him with a dangerous self-confidence. Best to leave that particular issue for later.

Instead, addressing the comm-center staff, Jackson said kindly but firmly, "There's no chance you could lock this place down for me, is there?"

OOC: day after eh? fun

It had been almost a full day since the ZAFT ships had arrived at the small station. In the short time they had been there, they sampled local food and checked out the local culture on the station. Of course this would be in no comparison to there home world but it was a small sample of it. Currently the captain was on his ship, security measures where strange to say the least on this station. Then just after noon sensor readings from within the station caught his eye in the control area of the station "Wonder whats going on there?" he wondered to himself.

"So you gimme 'dat shit? Ya? What language should I speak?"

"It's being transferred now. Hold on."

The meeting between Schleitzel and Chavez had gone slightly better than Chavez's confrontation with the three security guards, but not all that much better. Really, it had been the pirate getting his way as he had also instructed some of his troops to disembark his corvette...in case he had needed to make his presence a little more felt for the UE superior of the station. It hadn't been neccessary, but now odd looks were going back and forth between security squads and roving patrols of pirates. A little dicey was an adequate description of the station's current level of heat.

"Better be. I do your work and I don't get - not just paid, which you still need to do - but even properly supplied. Jesus."

Chavez stormed out of Schleitzel's office with an even worse attitude, if at all possible.


* * * * *


"Ok, what the hell is going on?"

Iris's scene had attracted not just the Loyalists, but a full platoon of security guards and a half-dozen pirates. Public scenes were common, but they generally weren't accompanied by a whole hustle of people crowding around to see what was going on.

"Break it up, people, break it up..." the security guards tried to disperse the mass. Stupid scenes like this were just that - stupid. Dumb civilians should be just kicked off the station.


* * * * *


"Lock down the station...it would depend on what the situation was, sir," one of the comms controllers, a pretty girl of about 26, said in a bored voice. The job wasn't exactly great...and neither was the boss. Some pissed-off dude coming in with a gun wasn't surprising, either - it happened a lot these days. Probaly another pirate who Schleitzel had pissed off. "Mr. Schleitzel would have to transfer the access codes to our stations as well."

Jackson sighed and keyed his pocketcom.

"Olivia, where you at?"

"Me and my seventeen, we're a couple of doors away from the good Mister Schleitzel's office. The floor is clanging, sounds like someone just came out. Accessing the cameras now... Holy shit, it's Chavez. Do we get him?"

"Yeah, go ahead. He's probably not paranoid to bring twenty bodyguards, but stay paranoid just in case."

Jackson hit another key. This one was the wordless attack signal for Iris' team. He knew within a few seconds a stuzer pulse would wash through the bay from the Flame's airlock, knocking out everyone except Iris' team, who were wearing specially designed grounded and shielded clothes. Then, so the plan went, the team would make their way to Schleitzel's abode and capture him.

(OOC: AB, I'm aiming to have Chavez walk right into the clutches of Olivia's team. That alright with you?)

The captain walked onto the bridge "Alright whats going on?" he asked as we walked towards the middle of the bridge. The 3D holographic display changed from a layout of the ship to a layout of the station. Red dots filled the layout showing people inside the station. Then based on the information they had they separated the layout into civilian and non-civilian sections. Then a blip on the screen "Energy pulse from one of the ships!" a man shouted "Raise shields" the captained yelled. With a push of a button the shields went off the protect the crew from the energy pulse that would hit there ship. When it passed they dropped the shields, however they dropped it to soon and crew members in the outer sections of the ship where knocked out.

"Report!" the captain shouted "Energy pulse swept the station detecting vary little movement, it seems that most people on the station were knocked out....." the man paused getting data from the ship "Sir it seems crew members on the outer areas of the ship were knocked out as well"

"Idiot! you dropped the shields to soon, no matter put the appropriate medical compound into the air on those decks and get our people up again" he ordered. The bridge crew scrambled as they attempted to get control of the unfolding situation. They released a medical compound which would wake the members of the crew who were knocked out within a few minutes. The captain was now annoyed "Assemble a security group I want five men full battle gear ready to move into the station and investigate, MOVE!" he yelled out. The crew yet again scrambled to carry out the orders as five random crew members were signaled to mount up and meet at the airlock.

OOC: this will open up a moment for me to meet the rebels and for them to get me on there side

OOC: Sounds good to me, Kost...do keep in mind that Chavez won't be the most friendly/cooperative person as it happens, though.

IC:

"The fuck?"

The lights flickered a second on the two upper tiers of the station command deck. Both were shielded against electromagnetic weaponry and destabilizing pulses, so minor effects were the only things noticed. The other decks of the station, however, reserved no such defenses.

"Schleitz!" Chavez stuck his head back in the station operator's office again. "The fuck was that?"

"Some sort of a wave pulse," Schleitzel said, checking computer data. "I'm not picking up enough active life signs, too many passive ones on the lower decks. Malfunctioning life support, maybe. I'll get command engineering on it."

"Or worse, maybe," Chavez grunted to himself. He clicked in a new round into his repeater, activating a personal defense barrier around his body armor - a sort of personal shield, if you will. "You do whatever the fuck you do, Schleitz, I'm gonna go investigate."

Chavez's five pirates were a match for the thirty remaining security guards on the top two levels - probaly more than a match - so he decided to go with his guns rather than contracting the help of the others around. Probaly would take less time and he could get stuff done - wasting time wasn't his best suit.

"Bloodrunner, what's going on?" Chavez quickly commed to his corvette.

"About the station or not?"

"Both."

"Boss, some sort of energy signature moved through the station. Not sure where it came from, but there's bigger problems. Two ships just stuck out of slipspace - they're Authority frigates. I don't know what the fuck they want, but if trouble starts, they're more likely to blow the whole station up than sit around and ask questions."

Chavez paused for a minute with that one. UE had starships that could throw around a lot of firepower - more than enough to rape his raider corvette in a few volleys. Better to get the hell out of town - after all, the UE had a tenuous relationship with the Colony-region pirates, and a moody captain with a twitchy trigger finger could always pull some shinanigans.

"Alright, get the ship ready for departure fast. I'll try to make my way down."

Chavez wasn't liking this at all. Something goes up with the station and then two Earth warships show up? There was something up.

At the armory the five men were already assembled "Alright people listen up we just suspicious activity on the station, mount up light battle armour, i'm in command" the one man told the other four. They all went to armour lockers and grabbed light battle armour and suited up. While not think and armed with built in weapons every where the light battle armour gave needed protection for recon and low risk missions. The team leader then opened the weapons storage locker and handed a R-131 Automatic Energy Rifle to each one, before grabbing a R-152 Heavy Energy Rifle for him self, the standard commander's rifle. The team leader then loaded the weapon "Alright, lets go kick some ass" he said locking the lockers and leaving the room with the others close behind.

It was a short walk to the airlock from the armoury so they were quick to get in position "Standard D formation people on my mark" the team leader said as they all got in position. They all got in position, two on the left side of the door, 3 on the right. The commander started a count down with his hand, three, two, one, he then clenched his fist and one of them opened the door, the commander threw a flash bang grenade in the door way. It went of and they stormed in "Go, go, go!" the team leader yelled as they moved into the station.

As the door slid open, exposing the darkness-cloaked team to a painful amount of light, Olivia unholstered a long-barrelled Vektor Z533 revolver and jammed it into the interloper's temple, then kicked his legs out from under him and knelt on his back, jamming the powerful pistol into his upper occipital. Three slender maser tubes and thirteen Vektor 9mm police pistols reinforced the implied threat. She pulled out her pocketcom, and, given that they were no longer alone, decided to address Jackson by his agreed callsign.

"Red King, this is Queen of Hearts. We have Alice One," with a slight grin at the rather humiliating callsign they'd assigned Chavez.

---

"...We have Alice One," the pocketcom crackled.

"Good work, Hearts. Red King out."

Station spadar images began scrolling onto Jackson's screen. Two UEA frigates had just jumped in.

Looking to the comms centre staff, he said, "You may be getting those codes soon. Just a few minutes longer. With luck, we'll all avoid being disassembled into our component atoms."

(OOC: Sorry about low post quality, posting from school)

The pirates trying to make a run from the station rounded the corner to find Chavez in a bit of a sticky situation - not exactly the best thing. As such, the pirates had a couple options. They could surrender with their leader now in custody of some random people; likely cooks. They could stand here and shoot. Or, the most reasonable of the three - deprive whoever these people were of their prize, set them off balance, and create a disturbance by doing what was the easiest to quickly create havoc - throw a contact plasma grenade right into the mix.

They went with option number three, though ended up going with two plasma grenades. They didn't aim directly at Chavez - which they should have done - but hurled the contact bombs directly at two of the unknown assailants, each explosive capable of creating a roiling inferno in the hallway that would for sure kill the one contacted if none other in the blinding blaze that would come. With reactions pumping, all five pirates rolled back behind the two corners of the bisecting hallway, a flurry of explosive needles coming from one of the pirate's needler. The five took cover, hurling a flare into the hallway and turning away as the device let off a flash of intense light.

"Sir up there" one yelled to the team leader "I hear it to, lets move people!" he ordered. The ran through the empty hall ways where people lay motionless to get to the upper more secure floors. They took access tunnels in order to avoid being spotted until they got to the right floor "Scans show nothing on the other side" one said "Then lets move quietly" the leader told them with a whisper. the man on point opened the door and they slowly walked through "Every one knocked out is kinda handy, wouldn't you say?" one whispered "yeah it is" another said "cut the chatter both of you we are coming up on there position" the leader told them.

They came up on the current hot spot where the fighting was going on "Personal shields online people, don't jump out there they will only protect you for so long these aint the heavy battle armours" he said before signaling them to get on either side of the entrance. He cleared his voice to see if he could settle it without pulling a trigger "Attention every one inside, by order of ZAFT drop your weapons and stand down!" he shouted in "This is your only warning"

OOC: of course this should end with me helping the rebels

The ZAFT members were immediately met with the resounding call of three launcher-driven explosive contact grenades and about a hundred tiny, irradiating spikes from repeater weapons. The pirates weren't in any mood to tolerate interlopers, and as the security detail of the station was busy falling back towards Schleitzel's office, they were preparing to go to the death to kill whatever wanted to pass by and stop them from breaking out before the United Earth detail showed up and made everyone regret it.

After all, they didn't want to have trouble, they wanted to make it.

Olivia had had the good fortune to be looking at the back of Chavez's head when the flare went off. Most of the rest of the squad weren't so lucky.

She looked up just in time to see Chavez's mates disappearing behind a wall, and cursed loudly.

"Fire!"

She wondered if that had been the pirates, then realised it was her. Her ears were still ringing from the plasma grenade blasts, which had wiped out their electronics and two of their squad members.

Moving forward, she put her knee into the back of Chavez's head, keeping him down, while she put down her revolver and started firing two idly discarded Vektors at the pirates. The three revolutionaries who weren't blind or dead followed her lead, with one picking up one of the maser rifles and firing it across the edge of the pirates' wall.

Keying her pocketcom headset, she yelled, "Red King, this is Queen of Hearts! Team Bravo under fire, requesting support!"

* * *

As it happened, that fire support eventuated quite quickly. Iris' team of revolutionaries - twelve people, including Iris, with some of the better-quality weaponry that Lenin had supplied - had come in about thirty seconds after the pirates. Vektor R994 assault rifles rained HEIAD ammunition upon Chavez's people, and the muzzle flashes lit the corridor to almost the brightness of a New Solar day.

The team was not surprised that they were fired upon, no one ever dropped the weapons. The team jumped away from the door to avoid any thrown explosives coming there way. When explosives did go off they took action, the team leader signaled for a high explosive fragmentation grenade, a team member with the proper attachment loaded one put his gun around the corner and fired sending the grenade flying into the room. The team leader then signaled them to begin to move around so the left that entry way and went to find a new one.

OOC: FYI peeps, I'm gonna be gone from late today 'till morning Sunday. I'm not gonna be able to post before Sunday, so go ahead and flesh out other aspects of what's going on.

IC:

Two of the pirates went down cold, one from the ZAFT grenade while another was hit with a maser round. In response, the three living pirates hurled spike grenades - stick-shaped explosive projectiles that erupted with a blast of piercing metal spikes upon core detonation. Each also was lined with metal barbs around the outside of the grenade casing, allowing the grenades to hook and stick to surfaces they contacted - walls, furniture, people - anything, virtually.

An electronics jammer quickly followed the grenades, a small device that exploded with a hot burst of non-threatening light and electricity. It wasn't designed to harm sentients or organics, but to disrupt electronic signatures - tricorders, radar, advanced and heavy weaponry, and the like. The pirates were attempting to bring the fight back to their level, where they could easily win a muscle battle.

A hail of needles followed up third as the three pirates remaining stayed behind cover, throwing up a rain of the small metal slivers that moved quicker than bullets at the enemy.

"Damnit they just keep throwing them at us" one said as the dived away but unable to get away from what was essentially a EMP grenade. It went off disabling there personal shields and most of there equipment, there weapons on the other hand had EM shielding to keep them working, that was the only thing they had going for them now. The team leader got the team away from any door ways to take cover "Do we have any drones?" he asked "No, we didn't bring any with us" a female team member told him "Damnit, we need a way to get at them" then he noticed a over head vent that might go into the room. He pointed to one of his men "Poke your head in there and see if we can send a explosive down there" he ordered.

The man was boosted up by two others and popped it open to have a look. He looked around the shaft continued on and then turned up perhaps near the middle of the room. He looked down "Looks clear to somewhere in that room" he said "Load a rocket, fire it and then launch a grenade in the hole the rocket makes, then lets pull back"

"Roger that" he said pulling a small rocket and loading it into the launcher. Then he hopped into the vent, took aim and fired the small rocket. He took cover as it spiraled into the end of the shaft to open a hole into the room. He loaded a grenade then launched it into that hole. He then jumped down "Its done, lets go" he said as he hit the ground. They then booked it to pull back to a more defensive position near the far side of the station.

(Necromantic booming-unresponsive-multidimensional-phrequency for teh attention of AB)

OOC: Woops, my b. Lost this thread.

IC:

The ZAFT crew had a good plan with one noticeable flaw - it was fairly easy to figure out what was going on when a rocket spontaneously exploded from above in a wide corridor. The three remaining pirates dove away from the landing zone of the grenade, hitting about fifteen feet away, when on of them had a stroke of brilliance. He fired an explosive towards the bouncing grenade as he dove, propelling the ZAFT weapon towards the end of the corridor - having the added effect of shunting the blast towards the far wall.

As the ZAFT personnel fled from the scene, the colonist force was still around. Several more spike grenades flew from the corridor intersection, the three pirates still more than ready to keep fighting despite ammunition starting to get a little low.

Shots hissed over Olivia's head as she stared wildly around, looking for a target. She located one and fired, then switched to his compatriot as he fell.

Holstering the Vektor, she grabbed one of the antiquated maser tubes and began to put beams into the pirate crew. The weapon energy indicator ticked steadily lower and lower, but the thing still packed a punch.

On her scanner display, a glowing webbed contact lens, she could see a trajectory display. Glorious Flame was circling the station at an extremely high speed, attempting to avoid a couple of Authority frigates. The guard escort she'd hired for the protection of the old freighter was having trouble keeping up with the spherical spaceship's mad looping.

Finally, her spare hand found a discarded fragmentation grenade. She pulled the pin out with her teeth and hurled it at the man she assumed to be the sole remaining pirate, then ducked, pushing Chavez over slightly and using him as a contingency shield. Worst came to worst, he wasn't all that essential a hostage.

Luckily, the grenade exploded without throwing off too much shrapnel. Signalling one of her squadmates to help her with Chavez, she popped a coded follow order to the rest of the group and set off at a lumbering run, free hand jamming a gun into the man's head.

---

Jackson had the output from Olivia's scanner on his own. He watched in dismay as bullets and maser bolts screamed through the corridor, experiencing a mild flash of relief as the camera turned away from the pirates and began moving at a slow run.

Iris' com channel greenlighted on his scanner, with the revolutionary's voice immediately crackling into his ear.

"Jim, we're virtually able to knock on the door of Schleitzel's office from where we are. Not reading any lifesigns, apart from the good man himself... would you like us to make our introductions?"

Jackson sighed. This revolution business could be quite stressful at times. After what seemed like an eternity, he sighed again and made his choice.

"Go ahead. Liv's got Alice One, so Schleitzel might be a useful addition to the collection."

He could faintly hear a multitonal, quickly cycling beeping sound in the background as the computer insecurity expert on Iris' team spoofed the door. Finally, it whooshed open, and the sound of Iris yelling "Freeze!" blasted into his ear, making him wince.

(OOC: Your move, AB - SB, you might want to regroup)

"Pull back! pull back! all units regroup at point delta two seven, split and take different routes there" the team leader yelled over the comm line. They were scared from the last grenade attack that happened as they left. Now they where heading for a cargo bay to regroup and assess the situation before them. the team leader took a direct route with gun at the ready while the others took less direct access shafts to get to the rendezvous point.

Two of the pirates were hit quickly by beam weapons, the third jumping behind a wall just as one of the energy lances shot through his former position. He let out a quick breath as he reloaded his needler, glancing past the wall for targets. Spinning around, he let loose a flurry of scarlet needles past the door towards the enemy - only to recieve a flying grenade right to the stomach. The burly pirate looked down at it as he continued to hold down the trigger, blinking as the grenade exploded. A hot, searing sensation in his gut preceded the darkness that quickly enveloped his vision.


* * * * *


Schleitzel was a bit of an insecure man, and when he had heard of fighting going on in the station, he had taken neccessary precautions - that being hiding himself behind his metal desk with a plasma pistol. He was a weak man at best - exactly why he had been placed out on such a spot like this, rather than being closer in to the inner colonies, or at Alpha Centauri or Sol itself.

His sentry drone, however, was anything but meek and mild. Rather than cowering like a baby monkey behind a desk in the fetal position, it stood brazenly confronting the interloping colonists as they broke down the door via a hacker, its four weapons arms lowered directly at the fighters. It was rather a shame that Schleitzel had forgotten to convert the drone's weapons from their unconscious-inducing stun mode to a proper kill setting, but stun was still able to take care of those in the way and dispose of them, if only temporarily...and those with minor health conditions could find themselves on the way to strokes and heart attacks with the right hit.

The sentry drone was not anything imposing, however - standing a mere one meter tall and braced upon four sharp metal leg units, it looked closer to an upright dog than a beast of war. However, the drone was lethal beyond its looks - close contact would invoke not only an electrified body lattice that would blast 25,000 volts of electricity through anything contacting it, but the drone's personal dart weaponry - extremely short-ranged, but very capable against those who preferred melee combat - had the power to punch through medium body armor and inflict a fast-acting nerve toxin that could kill within 6 seconds.

As soon as Iris came through the door, the drone swung to the side, leaping off of its leg joints - surprisingly agile for its metal construction. The automated unit immediately let fly a hail of harlequin bolts from its weapon ports, a swirling cataclysm of energy flying forth to meet the intruders.


* * * * *


The Authority frigates had entered range, and the hailing messages sent forth by each had been met with only static. It was time to get serious, and the captains of each were getting annoyed and impatient. While one ship was circling about the station like mad, seemingly a gnat against the pebble that was the station, another ship sat stationed and apparently powered down, secured to a docking hook. It would be a good example to shoot against to make a statement...ignoring UE hails was not a good idea.

Both targeted the ship, locking fore-mounted mass weapons on its unshielded hull points. The reactor itself was targeted for a quick fix - to blow apart the ship in spectacular fashion and make sure limited ammunition was needed to complete the dirty work of the UE. On the signal, both frigates locked in their opening slugs, hit the trigger, and let loose fire.

Both fore-mounted capital-grade coilguns sizzled as heavy slugs darted from the barrel of each frigate, both slugs jumping at .94c at the vessel. The result was near-instantaneous with the distances now being fairly close - a yellow flower blossomed from the docked corvette's hull, flowing into space before dissipating and leaving a gaping crater in the target's body - as if some spatial god had reached out and scooped a handful of hull from the ship's body. The interior was wide exposed with the shields never having protected it, leaving the work almost complete.

The lead frigate loaded up a heavy plasma torpedo, the explosive weapon capable of ripping the guts out of a corvette like the target with a roiling cloud of exploding plasma upon contact. The weapon fired from a missile tube, the cerulean projectile streaming towards the corvette with a trail of energy flying behind it. The weapon slammed into the exposed interior of the ship, sending a billowing flare of plasma into its open corridors and halls.

The reactor immediately went up. A massive blast of light shot through the corvette, irradiating space with a hot explosion of energy and matter. The engines to the rear of the vessel blasted off with propelling force, the midsection splitting as the fore broke up into several pieces. The corvette shuddered horrifyingly as it met its final moments as a component vessel before breaking into numerous chunks of barely distinguishable sections.

The Authority frigates had made a statement...and waited for a response.


OOC: That was Chavez's corvette, nothing of your guys's, just for the info.

"Some one tell me what the hell is going on!?" the captain yelled across the bridge of the ship "unknown warships and Green Alpha Ten, there firing on a ship!" a crew member quickly reported from sensor data. The captain had a angry grin on his face as he put his hand on his chin to think "Hmmm I don't know what the hell is going on but as long as we don't shoot them they shouldn't shoot us, I hope, tell the team on the station to move quickly" he then ordered "Right away sir!" came the rapid response.

On board the station

The team's leader was first to make it to the cargo bay, the doors were jammed though so he had to think how to get in "To blow the door or to not blow the door?" he thought to him self. He then figured he better not cause needless damage to the station. He then began to hot wire the door open before long it opened and then he entered the room and took cover to wait for the others.

"Awesome!"

Jackson let a grin spread across his face as he watched Chavez' corvette dissipate into its component atoms. That would really annoy the guy.

* * *

Iris managed, by a fluke of luck, to be on the fringe of the blast. All but two of her squad weren't so lucky, though. Colonists collapsed to the floor all around, and Iris, who was sliding across the deck, ducked even lower to avoid a bolt flying over her head.

Aiming her maser rifle at the sentry drone, she squeezed off a shot, turned, and dimly saw sparks fly out of the corner of her eye, then threw an EMP grenade over her shoulder. Keeping low, she scrambled around the desk to aim her maser carbine at Schleitzel, knowing the machine couldn't fire at her without risking the other.

With horror, she saw one of the older colonists go into convulsions, writhing and jerking across the floor as the stun blast took hold. She vaguely remembered the middle-aged man had a neural condition, and turned to glare furiously at Schleitzel, gripping her gun so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

OOC: K, kinda a shit post here b/c I'm kinda stuck in place...once we wrap up here (which we've about done) I'll get detailing more of the UE space, and conditions back on Earth as well.

IC:

The sentry drone wasn't a top-line model, and it showed. The shot didn't do much to the drove's armor cowling, but the EMP grenade - something that an Authority warbot could've shrugged off - wreaked absolute havoc on the drone. The electric discharge ripped apart the external sensor nodes and comm lines that specked the automaton's external systems, the head spinning twice before rocketing off with a plume of flame behind it. The body convulsed, as if in a stroke, before collapsing to the ground, a hot, smoking metal carapace.

"Don't shoot!" pleaded Schleitzel. He was a coward, and couldn't fight at all - that was what pirates and droids were for. "I give up!"


* * * * *


The lack of responses was really starting to irritate the commanders of the Authority frigates, and they were preparing to make more examples - obviously there was something wrong with whoever was in control of the station...maybe a rebel. Examples were something made frequently in the Authority, whether from prison camps to the concentration centers designed for the poor to the growth zones designed for harnessing the future soldiers of tomorrow, where the weak were weeded out as children and brutally killed to strengthen the others.

Here, it would really only be an example of fun to rip apart the station and everything in local space, but that was how things went some times. Both frigates loaded in spatial charges - high-explosive energy proximity torpedoes - and waited. Just a little bit longer...

"Detecting weapons being ready to deploy from unknown contacts sir, judging by sensor data there some sort of charge possible aimed at us or the station" a crew member reported. The captained grinned "Damn, alright lets not get caught with our pants around our legs, raise shields, put weapons to stand by and recall the station team"

"Right away sir!"

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

By now the team members had all met up in the cargo bay and were awaiting further orders "Alpha one this is Triblade come in over" the team heard over the communications line "This is Alpha one go ahead"

"Priority one set for your team to get back here ASAP we got unknown ships preparing to open fire on the station from the looks of things"

"Roger that Triblade, moving out now" the team leader responded signaling with his hands to the other members of his team. They then began to take the fastest damn route possible back to the airlock that the ship was docked at which was the main route.

"You really don't want me to end your pitiful life, do you? Very well. But my fellow crew-members have a betting pool on when you'll start wishing you'd taken the easy way out. I've got ten credits on you cracking in the first ten minutes, and my bookie tells me it's a certainty."

Iris grinned savagely. Pulling out old movie lines could be useful sometimes; Schleitzel certainly looked scared enough, and she was in no mood to go easy on him. Securing his hands behind his back, she directed two of her colonists to guard him, then went about putting the other groaningly reawakening colonists to use.

The medic immediately made her way over to the formerly convulsing man and began to inject him with stabilisers from her wristpak. Finally, she shook her head in agitation and encased him in one of the ever-popular portable stasis fields that people sometimes carried around.

Finally, the young hacker was reawakened and directed to Schleitzel's deskcomp. He began to type commands, slowly at first, then faster.

* * *

Jackson read out, to the comm centre at large, the codes that scrolled onto his wristpak screen. While he waited for action to be taken, he wearily watched casualty figures tally up, and cursed softly and poisonously at the news that Maris, the older colonist, had been made a casualty by the neuro-effect.

Olivia's team wearily trudged in, bringing with them an insensate Chavez. The young rebel herself roughly propped the pirate up against the wall, his hand secured to a structural beam, then turned to Jackson and saluted tiredly.

Chavez groggily opened an eye, glancing out of the slit - not wide enough to attract attention, but enough to give him a sense of vision - to see Schleitzel whimpering and standing there. Chavez knew right off the bat that they had been taken in by the insurgents - that didn't take a genius - but Schletizel's lack of resistance was...something else entirely. So much for being an officer in the UE military...but then again, that was probaly why he had ended up out here.

Schleitzel sniffled pitifully as a captive, disgusting Chavez. He may not have been much of a use after all in doing the dirty work of the Authority, who was probaly going to end up blowing up the station anyway. While he was in no better situation, Chavez was resistant to the end. He had once been a captive of the Authority Underground...technically an "illegal" subsidiary of the intelligence networks of the UE government. Working as a forced laborer was not the best of positions...and Chavez had taken his licks to get to where he was now.

As Olivia smartly saluted, Chavez got his bearings a bit, collecting the saliva that was wallowing in his mouth into a tighter ball. He aimed directly at her exposed cheek, time slowing down million-dollar-man-style as he fired a perfect sphere of spit directly at Olivia as she stood there.


* * * * *


The United Earth frigates were getting bored. The one ship had been circling around the station like a hornet on steroids, even after the last one had been blown to component atoms. Apparently the message hadn't exactly been recieved...and it was time to finish what had been come for.

Shields charged up, energy fields surrounding each frigate as both brought foreward torpedo tubes to bear on the station. The hunk of metal may have been old, but it wasn't weak - it would take some time to rip apart.

The first salvo went out - spatial charges, torpedos that exploded with a fiery burst of aquamarine plasma as a proximity weapon. They were deadly, but more so to fighters - it was essentially a last warning that would also dissipate the weak shield grid of the station and open it up to gun blasts and contact torpedos in doing more direct damage. Things were getting serious.

OOC: I be guessing those be rounds going at my other ship

The shields of the Triedge were up when the rounds went off but since it was only a small scout ship designed more for anti-pirating they did a number. The ship rocked hard and knocked many off there feet including the captain "Report!" the captain yelled as he got back up. a Crew member scrambled up to his console "Shields absorbed a large amount of the blast, i'd say one more and there gone"

"Shit contact the Triblade, tell them if we stay here any longer were as good as dead"

"Aye sir"

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

Meanwhile the team made it back to the air lock and quickly got back on the ship "Bridge, we are back, you can undock now" the team leader said over the ships communications system. On the bridge the captain was now angry, they had just committed a act of war against ZAFT by firing on one of there ships.

"Detach docking arms, fire up main engines, and transfer all weapons power from the PDL's to the main gun" The captain ordered with a stern, angry voice.

"But sir, we only will have one shot with it, and it will drain the power and leave half our PDL's off line for a while"

"Just do it! if you want to die be my guest but i'm not, and get me the Triedge on the line"

"Channel open"

"Captain, since they have committed a act of war, we will fight, your orders are to get back to Military command and bring reinforcements, we will hold them"

"alright, don't die on me, i'd be a laughing stock to not have a sister ship any more" the captain of the Triedge joked before firing up its FTL drive and disappearing to get help which was at least a day away.

Meanwhile the Triblade had now broken off from the station and had all power diverted to the main cannon for one good clean shot. The ships only single barrel cannon then took aim at one of the UE frigates. The captained grinned at what he was about to do "Fire, then set PDL's to automatic" he ordered. Then the single main gun opened fired with a loud deafening energy blast that drained a large amount of energy from the ship.

The Glorious Flame twirled and weaved in its insanely fast flight path, trying to attract the torpedoes, but to no avail. Distant explosions lit up the hull, and sensor screens blinked red as the bridge crew groaned in dismay.

The spherical ship's equatorial ring of twelve cannons slid out of their ports on their aiming spheres, and six of them twisted to focus on the Authority frigates. Thick green bolts flew from their barrels towards the Authority ships. While the Flame may have been an old model, its succession of owners had made sure to keep it well-beweaponed, which was one of the reasons the rebels had purchased it. Polar missile bays slid open, readying the ship's two high-explosive devices for launch.

* * *

Olivia felt a glob of wetness strike her cheek. Without hesitation, she turned to stare at Chavez. Time for some fun. She unholstered her revolver and aimed it with a (deliberately) shaking hand at Chavez. The rest of the crew were well-schooled in her 'psychotic' routine, so didn't do anything.

"Tell me, you little shit, do you really want to fucking die? Really? Because I got your way out right fucking here."

She let her finger appear to tighten on the trigger, and heard a dramatic gasp behind her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Jackson wearing the deadpan face he wore in situations like this one.

The two frigates diverted course, splitting up to arc around the station and strike with a broadside. Both directed shield banks forward to meet the attacks of the defending vessels, energy running from the internal fusion reactors to the defense grid. The smaller scout ship opened fire with a shot weapon at the frigate banking to the left, but it was only a scout ship - the frigate, though not of the same size or mass as the massive dreadnoughts that patrolled the Sol System, was still far larger than any anti-pirating vessel.

The shot ringed against the shield bank, yellow energy spitting from the directed shot - shield energy partially depleted from the direct hit to fore. It wasn't a critical hit, and the shield banks were still holding, if also now straining to recharge back to nominal levels. Aiming a forward arc at the ZAFT vessel, the vessel loaded in four homing torpedos and charged forward plasma weapons. A salvo of elongated cerulean plasma lances zipped from the six forward cannons of the frigate at the ZAFT ship, four violet torpedos packed with plasma energy following behind.

The second vessel took the brunt of the rebel's attack, with minimal damage to its shield grid - it hadn't been a particularly difficult blow. Green energy blotches splashed off the shield grid as PD beam lasers came online to intercept mass weapons the rebels decided to throw out. Abandoning the proximity attack on the station, the ship diverted attention to the rebel vessel entirely. Rather than launching homing torpedos at the much quicker vessel, however, the ship opened up with a salvo of exploding mass weapons to launch a hail of energy-coated spines at the rebel ship. They weren't the most potent, but they would virtually assure hits with the number of weapons exhumed from a single missile - as well as accumulating into serious threats if enough struck the desired target.


* * * * *


Schleitzel looked as though he was about to crap himself, but Chavez had experienced worse than a pistol in his face, despite the administrator's worried gestures and growing dark spot on the front of his crotch area.

"Come on, shoot the shit outta me," Chavez smirked. "You know I got what you need, ya' little bitch. Shoot me. Come on. Pull your fucking trigger and blow my brains out."

Chavez probaly did know more about these regions than did Schleitzel, though he was probaly overestimating his worth with the statement. In truth, Olivia probaly could have killed him and wouldn't have lost particularly much in information - but either alternative was viable.

"Incoming, distance 700" the crew member at the sensor station shouted out to the bridge. The captain had started a battle he probably couldn't win "Intercept with PDL's!" the captain yelled out. What Point defense batteries they had online still after the power drain were already working in full force set to auto tracking. As soon as the torpedoes came close they were intercepted, on the other hand the cannon shots could not, instead it was up to out maneuvering the larger ship to not get hit. The ship banked to the right at a downward angle. Two shots went over the ship, another under, with as much power as possible to the shields three cannon shots impacted. The shields took the first two before dropping, the third hit dead center ripping a hole into the outer hull "Hull breach! emergency bulkheads closing sir, another hit like that and were done for" came a shout "Damnit I know, is the FTL still working?" the captain asked "Yes it is sir, ready when ever you are, but one more hit and we might loose it"

"Another hit and were done for any way"

Olivia glared at the supine pirate, spun her weapon by the trigger guard, and holstered it. In reality, she felt nothing more than a slight sense of regret. Most pirates she'd known would be against the far wall, pants soaked, by now. Chavez was a notch up from the usual, obviously.

Jackson returned to his usual neutral expression, having been able to roughly gauge Chavez' temperament. He let his finger rest on a rather nasty-looking spiked dagger prominently displayed sticking out of one of his belt pouches, then put his hands behind his back and interlaced his fingers.

* * *

The Flame managed to avoid most of the missiles' submunitions, but a number of stray spines struck the drive tube. Liquid nitrogen debris sprayed out from the ragged holes as the crew desperately attempted to shut down the engine.

On the bridge, one of the crewmembers fell against the weapons console in the confusion, accidentally hitting the universal fire control. The equatorial cannons all turned to point straight out from the ship's body, making it look like an unwieldy, mutated starfish. In unison, they sprayed out a glowing energy nimbus on a flat plane - a deadly blade whose edge was rapidly spreading across the heavens. The station wasn't in its path, but a number of other objects were.

OOC: does that include me or no?

(OOC: Your choice. Ideally, it would hit AB. :p)

OOC: I'll get out of the way to be safe since I'm almost a dead ship, need to give some background to


"Incoming!" a crewmen shouted as a blast from a ship came in at them and the other ships. The captain slammed his fist down "Jump now damnit!" he yelled out across the ship "YES SIR!" a officer said slamming down on the jump button. The ship then disappeared before the weapons impacted. The ship reappeared far outside the system inside a asteroid belt for safety "Damage reports, get repair teams on it now" the captain yelled out "Critical damage to the mid sections of the ship, casualties reported" a officer said reading off incoming reports.


Empyion
Coordinator Home world, PLANT Capital
Office of Admiral Athrun Zala

The admiral clicked his pen as a junior officer entered his officer. It was a large room used as the office for him and five other admirals. On the opposite end from the door there was a large glass window covering the entire wall letting the light into the room. The junior officer walked up to the admirals desk and salute "Sir, You've been requested to meet the other command staff in the main hall, General Aker said it is important"

"That man thinks every thing is important, alright I'll be there, when is it?"

"Right now admiral"

"Leave to them to call me at last minute" he said getting up from his chair "Your dismissed" he said walking past the junior officer and leaving the room. He walked through the many halls of the building until he reached the main hall where the command staff was waiting for him "What's all this about?" he asked "Ah Admiral its about time you joined us" another admiral said

"Well admiral maybe if some one started telling me things ahead of time, i'd know!" Zala snapped.

"Calm down, DSSD picked up a transmission from one of our deep space scouts, it's a code orange situation, first contact was going as planned but something happened and they were fired upon, her sister ship stayed behind to cover her escape" General Aker said going over what they knew so far, DSSD (Deep Space Surveylence Department) had many satellites and probes out in deep space to catch communications from ZAFT ships.

"Admiral's, General's, I request permission to deploy the TYPE's on this matter" one of the new hot shot admirals asked them all "No one, has ever requested there deployment" Zala said.

"They need to be proven, we didn't spend those funds on a biological mobile suit for nothing, I request a entire battalion be ready to ship out, along with the 101st independent battle group, I'll personally command them"

"Vary well Admiral, prepare your self to leave, once they Triedge returns to give a full report we will send you out, we also need to inform the battalion leader of one of the TYPE battalions" Zala said after taking a silent vote on whether to agree with the young admiral or not.

Chavez chuckled with a dirty smile as Olivia pulled off. He refrained from saying anything further - there'd be plenty of time for that later - but he knew he'd scored an easy victory there. Obviously they weren't going to kill him; he'd been around the block too much for that to work - but apparently Schleitzel hadn't, given the size of the puddle positioned directly below his pants and between his legs.

It was still a sticky situation, but Chavez knew how to cool things down to his level.


* * * * *


The energy wave missed the station and the pursuing vessel on the rebel ship, but the frigate attacking the ZAFT scout ship was t-boned by the expanding weapon. The shield system held momentarily before giving out with a flashing snap and the rear end of the wave made direct contact with the hull itself. Metal was incinerated as the energy blasted apart the mass of the hull and armor plate, ripping into the frigate's side.

Mass twisted and crumpled as fire plumed out from the frigate's side. The ship certainly wasn't dead, but it was limping as it trotted off on its relatively unharmed engine boosters, the entire port side littered with debris, floating corpses, and other detrius.

The still functional frigate cut loose with the plasma cannons, raining down blasts of violet superheated mass at the scoutship not in any pattern of accuracy but instead going for an attack of numbers to eventually score a hit.

Empyion
ZAFT forces base Talon

Talon base, one of the largest military installations on the planet handling large amounts of military traffic going to and from the surface, it was also home to one of ZAFT's greatest weapons, The TYPE. There official on paper name was TYPE but they had there own name for them selves, as organic mobile suits by ZAFT definition that could also operate in space and by freak accident it was also found they could survive without a head. The name the gave them selfs was the Celestial Knight's, because of this they were all put into there own corp named the Celestial Knight Corp. A military unit made up of living creatures just a bit taller then the standard ZAFT mobile suit, but a hell of a lot stronger. In test's it showed one of them could out preform a mobile suit 7 to 1.

The CK Corps had there own entire area of the base to them selves with there own command structure and there leader reported to only the higher ups in ZAFT. A military jeep pulled up to the gate separating the section of the base it was in from the CK corps area. The base was separated into seven large compounds separated by gates but travel between them was still easy. The truck entered the compound and stopped and a officer stepped out, he was of high rank within ZAFT, a person who could present orders to the CK Corps. He began walking forward when from the sky a shadow was cast over the area, then there was a loud thud and the officer was thrown off his feet. When he got back to his feet and looked up right in front of him was a CK, looking at him with its large red eyes. With a demonic like voice the CK said "What brings you here?"

"Orders from command" the officer replied

"Orders? from who? what are the orders?" the CK said

"Signed personally by Admiral Zala, Admiral Mkcinly, and General Aker, as for the orders, your to gather a battalion of your people and report to the galactic gate to meet up with the fleet, your heading for war" The officer said answering the question.

"Excellent, we shall be ready, where will we take the gate to?"

"Carver Six, there you will be picked up by the fleet and move from there"

"Vary well, thank you" the Ck said before turning around and walking away, the thing was pure red, its armor was natural but as hard as warship armor, it weapons were powered by bio-electrical energy. The thing was on its own a new species, and if the officer had not been the regular officer who gave the CK updates then he probably would of feared for his life.

The Flame, having deactivated its drive tube, activated its emergency backup engines. They could push it along at a reasonable pace, but nothing like as fast as the illegally-enhanced main tube.

Still, the speed was sufficient for the crew's purposes. The Flame vibrated violently as it sped towards the Earther frigate, and one of the two missiles shot from its forward pole, shattering the seeming calm of space as it arrowed down towards the functional frigate.

Half the cannons focused themselves upon the limping frigate, maintaining a light bombardment that was calculated to not harm the Earth ship but to keep them from doing anything other than fending off the bolts.

Finally, the ship spun on the imaginary line drawn from pole to pole, cannons still perfectly focused, and launched its other missile at the functional Authority ship. More illegally-acquired missiles were being hauled up from the cargo bays, but it would take some time to load them.

bump

Empyion
ZAFT forces base Talon

A large number of CK's began leaving there sector of the base to head for the Galactic Gate. An entire battalion walked forth past the many who had never seen so many CK's at once. They walked down a large road to were there was a building. The building was a odd shape compared to most structures but there was a reason for that. It was the galactic gate, the gate was one of a massive network connecting all the systems ZAFT had control over. The entire network was easy to run and if a planet was taken over that housed a galactic gate ZAFT could easily just break the link to it.

The CK's walked to the structure and assembled around it "Destination Carver Six, please stand by" came a voice from a operator over the loud speaker. The structure began to hum, it got louder and louder until there was a flash of light and discharges of electricity. The CK's were gone from Empyion and would emerge else were ready for war.

A single missile wasn't a major concern for a UE frigate...or any UE ship, for that matter, especially seeing as there was slight time before it impacted. In that space, frontal PD weapons came online - missile and laser PD - to quickly target and bracket the missile as it came in. As the warhead streaked in, an antimatter missile fired forth, straight trajectory directly at the enemy missile. Contact was guarenteed - the missile exploded three meters from the face of the enemy warhead, the matter-antimatter reaction annihilating a fraction of space as both warheads disintegrated.

The other one came in after that, the missile assigned to it going slightly haywire and jumping off course. No worry - the PD lasers activated with the other missile hit by its countermeasure, quickly bracketing the second enemy warhead and spitting out several green energy lances. Two were direct hits, ridding that problem. A flurry of plasma bursts targeted the rebel ship, looking to punch holes in the hull.

The damaged frigate pulled off a little bit as shields struggled to repair themselves under harrassment from the enemy light barrage. The vessel responded by turning to its side with intact hull, willing to accept slight damage to functional ablative hull armor rather than take deeper wounds to already existing lesions.

The components of the equatorial cannon ring slid back into their place, depleted. Fortunately, the main drive tube was back on line, patched up with solid-looking chewing gum and other trusty components.

Five gravities slammed the remaining crew of the ship back onto their acceleration couches as the drive tube shot out a massive tongue of blue flame. Everything looked good, if presently excruciatingly painful. Unfortunately, the ship would be de-fanged for at least the next ten minutes -- the missile-loaders had been warned of the acceleration hazard, and had duly made their respective ways to their acceleration couches after stowing the missiles.

The massive burn pushed the ship away from the dead zone, allowing it to narrowly scrape past the plasma blasts. Things rattled around, but the ship still made its way away from the no-fly sphere.

Then their fortunes changed. A brown streak flashed into the engagement area, deployed a constellation of painfully bright lights, then flashed away again, pulling in towards the station in a fast accelerating curve.

- - -

Jackson grinned. Salvation had come, as arranged - a couple of sympathetic trader captains had agreed to deploy the munitions with which he'd supplied them. Immediately he finished processing that thought, there was a bright flash from outside the station, and all the electronics inside went down. Including lights. Luckily, the mechanical oxygen system was still working.

- - -

The Flame suffered lesser losses, but most of its systems had been reinforced for that very eventuality. They had nothing beyond basic data on the Authority frigates, though, and so couldn't guess what the twelve electromag bombs would do to them.

Carver VI
ZAFT Forces Niagara Base

The galactic gate began to hum and spark before discharging large amounts of energy. The humming got louder before there was a flash of light for a split second. The CK's were now on Carver VI where they would await the Triedge and the fleet to arrive. The men on the ground were shocked and didn't know what they were seeing, now one outside of the core system had ever seen a CK before, only heard about them. One pilot looked up at them "Red devils" he said referring to the two eyes that were colored red and well as there armor and skin which was red. The CK's had to get them selfs over to the space port and await a transport to take them to the fleet. Wings sprouted from there back, almost insect like in there own way, the wings were at least. They then leaped from the ground flying off towards the military space port.

(( Wandering the forum, he BUMPs into this thread ))

OOC: My bad guys...I keep missing this thread. Still pushing on though...quitters never win, and I'm not quitting on this thread.

IC:

The equitorial weapon of the ship slammed into the attacking frigate, blasting into its frontal shield arc - inflicting damage, but shields were, after all, the toughest defensive component of a UE warship. The shields held, if not also weakened by the blast - down to 38% efficiency, something that needed to be rectified if the Authority wanted to get rid of this pest. As such, with shields up the EMP bombs hit the shield array, further bringing it down - lowered to 14% efficiency. A few more hits and the thing would be down.

The limping frigate, with shields down, took a much harder blow. The EMP blast snaked across the electronics systems of the ship as it was caught in the destabilizing blast, ion trails bursting across the ship hull. With a flash of light, the ship was effectively caught in a temporary disabling field of electronic distortion - it would take it a rough ten to twenty minutes to resuscitate the electronics of the ship.

The pursuing frigate opened fire again, plasma bolts shooting out to mask a volley of five antimatter torpedoes, blasting on and homing in on the particle trail of the rebel ship.

OOC: no worries been kinda slow lately any way

Carver VI
Niagara Space Port

The CK's arrived at the military section of the space port. The could be seen from miles around. People in the civilian terminals looked on at the CK's, many had only heard of them but to see one many people screamed with glee seeing something with such a reputation as a CK. Fact was the Celestial Knights were the most well known military unit by the civilian population, not for there battlefield record but simply for what they are, fully biological mobile weapons.

The reload of the missiles finished, and new targeting systems whined as they came online. Now a chain of missiles could be fired from each pole, the limit being the end of the ship's missile supply.

Nimbly dodging the plasma bolts, the pilot fired the main engine tube, which had been repaired just before the massive acceleration burn. Ducking around the gigantic sphere of the station, the ship flipped around for a deceleration burn, flying straight towards the auto-tracking antimatter torpedoes. And under them.

It was an old tactic - whatever the time period, most missiles were programmed to self-destruct if they couldn't hit their target. The ship flying under the missiles would force them to execute a number of commands to make the complex 180 degree turn back. By the time they did, the ship would hopefully have flashed out on a short FTL jump.

* * *

Inside the station, things were getting interesting. After being buzzed by one of the recon teams, Jackson had made his way down a few decks, delegating centre authority to Olivia.

A dark door awaited him. It was matt-black, with slim blue streaks of light sliding across it every few seconds. Approaching the door, Jackson cautiously tapped it, only to have a red spiderweb expand out from his finger on what he now saw was a large fine-detail touch screen.

Moving confidently past him, the team's hacker applied an EMP spoofer to the door. The screen hashed into bright incomprehensibility, and the door opened. Inside was a large, well-lit and clean bubble room, which defied the eye by exploiting a clever optical illusion making the walls appear to be at an indefinite distance.

In the middle sat a black console, sharply detailed graphics sliding across its top screen surface. Jackson, beginning to get the hang of these systems, approached it and tapped a likely-looking gold arrow icon. A surprising event occurred.

Instead of some mundane occurrence on the screen, Jackson's dataglasses reported an inflow request. Accepting it, he watched with interest as the screen appeared to separate from the console surface and tilt to ninety degrees, facing him. Icons flew out from it and created an immersive data environment that seemed to surround him.

He now saw that the display - which he'd thought was a system monitor - was actually the feed from the station's sensor suite. Dots were clustered in some places around the spherical station's equator, indicating docks. One dot, tagged SO-001, was flying around the station and appeared to be being pursued by two more dots, tagged A-01 and A-02. Judicious manipulation of virtual objects gave Jackson another holographic display, this one a full-3D feed of the chase, with trajectory traces flicking on and off as the computer recalculated the objects' positions.

"Interesting. This must be some kind of emergency command centre. Looks like it's never been used," Jackson said to nobody in particular.

Scrutinising a row of 3D icons at waist level, he stuck his finger through a virtual circle, crooked the finger, and moved his hand up to eye level. The row of icons came with it, as he'd expected. They appeared to be sensors and weaponry control.

After a few more virtual manipulations, the trajectory screen had gone back to its 2D console-top display. The row of control icons remained, though. Spinning them to a crazy angle, he picked one at random - a bullet shape. Another model of the station flicked up before him, this one tagging available turrets and other weaponry and turning over control to him. Activating one at random, he watched a simulated 3D bolt fly away from the station.

* * *

It was all too real for the Flame's crew, though. They narrowly avoided being taken out by a powerful bolt from the cannon turret Jackson had unwittingly keyed. A comm channel was duly opened, and the young rebel leader immediately grasped the situation. Cannon bolts began to be placed with deadly accuracy as Jackson turned the station's offensive power on the Authority frigates.

OOC: bump?

My thoughts exactly.

OOC: not to much I can post about for now

Niagara Garrison

Every thing was care free for the time being among the local ZAFT forces. Several battalions from all over PLANT controlled territory had begun arriving via the galactic gate network. The planet was basically the assembling point for all forces heading out. Once the commanding officers for the operation arrive they would inspect the troops and then move out.

OOC: My b, I hit NS less and less these days...life movin' fast.

IC:

The limping frigate was struck with the barrage, the weapons of the station slamming into the armor plate of the vessel. The shields resurrected briefly - a flare of white and red light blasting into space as the re-energizing defense field contacted the plasma bolts flying from the station - but failed just as quickly, the armor once again vulnerable and spewing molten chunks of metal to cool rapidly in the frozen depths of space.

The capable frigate was still functional despite its shield banks being on their last legs. Ignoring the rebel ship, it immediately focused an entire broadside of torpedo weaponry on the station, a dozen antimatter torpedos matching with responding plasma fire as the ship jinked. It succeeded the attack by diverting shields to the rear and quickly veering to create a smaller profle, the first barrage of station fire impacting the rear shield and knocking it out with a flare.

Jackson double-tapped the universal fire-track icon - at least, that was what he assumed it to be. At the same time, missiles shot from the Flame's poles and arrowed in towards the still capable frigate.

Immediately, the station's cannons went to auto and began to track the capable frigate, firing storms of green bolts at it. The unused cannons were tasked to remove the crippled ship's engines, at which point a pulse emitter would be used to pull it into a free docking bay.

As for the missiles - these ones being a newer model than the last salvo - they continued to blast in at a furiously fast rate towards the capable ship.

Niagara Garrison

As the waves crashed into the beaches near the base and dark clouds began appearing over the horizon the Galactic gate fired up again. This time it wasn't a large battalion, just a civilian bus, and a small military jeep. In the jeep was one General Aker, selected as commander of ground operations for the operation ahead. The general was to inspect the troops before Admiral Mckinly and his fleet arrived. The general also had personal business to take care of before the inspection. Then admiral was not to arrive for a day or so and a hurricane was approaching the main land. Like every one else he would help the civilian population prepare and get every thing ready for the possible after effects.