NationStates Jolt Archive

Lord Gregory led his fleet into the heart of the fighting. The raider group had come out of nowhere and ambushed an Imperial convoy. 3 Ships destroyed, 127 crew lost. The command fleet had luckily been on patrol nearby, and had moved in to save the other 7 vessels, as their escort was among the wreckage.

"Status."

"The raiders are being thrown back, but there seem to be a lot of them sir!"

"Target the lead vessels. They'll be the biggest ships."

The groaning sound of the CMC rocked the ship as the massive cannon deployed. Targeting the largest pirate vessel, there was a burst of purple light as the Chaos Moon Cannon slammed into the largest raider vessel, tearing it in two. Immediatly the other pirates scrambled and began to flee. Imperial fighters began to pursue them. Lord Gregory sat back in his chair and smiled.

"Whats the status now, Commander Drel?"

"Enemy fleeing sir, the CMC is recharging. 10 Minutes before refire option avaliable."

"Good. Plot a course for..."

"My Lord! A message from Earth! The Emperor has issued us new orders!"

"Let me see..."

Imperial Order code 11723

Lord Gregory, You are ordered to locate the pirate stronghold, and eliminate them. They have been preying on Imperial Vessels for months, and they are beginning to damage the economy. I know you will not fail me.

Emperor Daniel Marshall I

"Hmm... Dammit. Helm, prepare to set a pursuit course of the pirates ion trail. First, we have to help these distressed civilians. Get them back to Earth."

OOC: Here's the linky to the OOC Thread. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=561173)

OOC: I'll join, but what do you want me to do?

OOC: I'll join, but what do you want me to do?

OOC: RP as either a pirate group, or you can have some of your own cargo vessels in distress.

OOC: You mind if I join this RP?

OOC: You mind if I join this RP?

OOC: It says Open.

OOC: Link to OOC thread now on 1st post.

Admiral Vyse and the 3rd Armada arrived in the sector, to handle the civilian evacuation.

"Lord Gregory, the Emperor wishes for me to handle this. We'll cover any more raider attacks. You are to follow your orders."

"Very well Admiral. But don't hesitate to call for help if you are in trouble."

"They're only pirates... how tough can they be?"

"You'd be suprised Admiral. Gregory out. Helm, plot a course on the Ion trail and jump to Hyperspace."

"Yes my Lord!"

There was a blue light as the command fleet vanished into hyperspace. Admiral Vyse immediatly lept into action.

"Take security teams to all the civilian vessels. Prepare them for tow. Have the heavy vessels patrol around the fleet until the operation is complete. Deploy a deep-scan probe to check for more hostiles."

A small probe, no larger than a football was deployed from the Flagship. Immediatly it began to emit high frequency scan waves, Monitoring for incomming vessels...

A Greal cargo vessel trading fuel crystals happened to be on the pirates way to their stronghold. The ship had no weapons at all and carried plenty of metal for trading. Captain Gaxer watched the radar screens carefully......

Cap'n Draag of the raider vessel Credit Muncher had his attention drawn.

"Cap'n, Those Imperial vessels are tryin' to follow us!"

"Evade them with an ion dispersion field. Then we can..."

"CAP'N! Swag off the port bow!"

"What type?"

"Unarmed cargo vessel. Should be easy pickin's!"

"And their cargo?"

"Scanning... Looks like a heap of fuel sir!"

"HA! Just what we need. Lay in an intercept course!"

The ship and the raiders around it came about, swarming towards the cargo vessel...

Cap'n Draag of the raider vessel Credit Muncher had his attention drawn.

"Cap'n, Those Imperial vessels are tryin' to follow us!"

"Evade them with an ion dispersion field. Then we can..."

"CAP'N! Swag off the port bow!"

"What type?"

"Unarmed cargo vessel. Should be easy pickin's!"

"And their cargo?"

"Scanning... Looks like a heap of fuel sir!"

"HA! Just what we need. Lay in an intercept course!"

The ship and the raiders around it came about, swarming towards the cargo vessel...

Captain Gaxer was surprised to see ships approaching him fast. I should have chosen a cruiser escort. Now I'm screwed. Gaxer sent S.O.,S out, but what was the point? The nearest Greal naval vessels were hours away. He sent the vessel at full speed away from the unknown vessels.

"Sir, the Ion Trail has faded. They must have masked it."

"DAMN!" Shouted Gregory, slamming his mechanical arm into his chair. "I've never failed before..."

"My Lord! A distress signal! They say pirates are attacking them!"

"Who sent it?"

"A ship that matches Greal frequency!"

"This is the break we needed. Alter course! Max speed to those coordinates!"

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

Cap'n Draag rubbed his hands with glee.

"We have 'em now men! Board her! and take anything not nailed down!"

Message to Greal merchant vessel

Stand down and prepare to be boarded! Comply and we won't have to slaughter ya.

End message

OOC: Ok I'll join.

IC: Thrahms L. Manson was the Admiral of the Harvey Class IV Transporter.
"Status report." he said into the intercom.
"Sir we have an unknown ship coming our way." replied a man
"Can you tell if their hostel or friendly?"
"We are sending radio messages to the ship, we're not getting any reply, and they keep on getting closer and closer." said the engineer.
"Well get our cannons ready, and aim at them."

The now deemed hostel ship approached the cargo ship until it rammed into the ship. a large blue explosion emitted from the cargo vessel. Then a large chain reaction happened all around the ship. The hostel ship then began to blast A65 cannons at the cargo ship. They then boarded the ship and took 323 hostages and all other item of value.

Not too far away from the pirate attack, a small band of Greywatch vessels were making their way through space. Two of them were expeirmental craft, only able to hold a crew of fifty people and possessing some light weapons. They were at 50% cloak making them difficult to target. They were escorting three Greywatch transports that were carrying a variety of goods. Food, meidcal supplies, personal weapons, computers... just to name a few. The escorts had only had one other ship to help them in case something got out of hand, a single Star Shadow. The Star Shadows were special cruisars in the Greywatch fleet capable firing at enemy ships while in cloak though in the process they had to forfeit sheilding. This particular Star Shadow was always in full cloak, it made sure that no one could detect its presence, if someone was stupid enough to tamper with the Greywatch convoy, it would set them straight.

Word of a second attack had reached the Imperial Palace. Bothered by the turn of events, The Emperor summoned Admirals Bellena and Galcian, of the 1st and 2nd armadas respectively.

"Depart with your fleets at once. We have pirates to hunt and kill. They are getting bold, and we must show them Imperial might, lest our access to the stars be crippled. Dissmissed."

With this, the 2 fleets departed. Admiral Bellena took her fleet to rondevouz with Lord Gregory, while Admiral Galcian took off to engage the 2nd pirate group...

On the bridge of the Star Shadow, the captain and her tactical officer were having a small talk about the situation. "Ma'am, we have activity up ahead. Orders?" She looked back at the officer and then at the screen ahead of her which showed the signals of other ships, "Slow us down. Tell the others to do the same. Keep everything else as is, for the moment, keep us invisible. Only the transports and the experimentals should be visible." The comms officer then looked up, "Ma'am, their messages aren't encrypted..." She shook her head, "I don't really want to know the specifics, syphon them and tell me anything important. We don't want to get involved." The comms officer nodded, "Should we contact them?" She shook her head again, "Absolutely not, if they want something let them come to us."

Lord Gregorys fleet dropped out of hyperspace. He could see the comming battle up ahead.

"One ship against a hundred? The cowards..."

"Begging your pardon sir, but isn't that what pirates are?"

"Heh... true. Order them to surrender or be destroyed!"

Meanwhile, a large Kaelan "caravan" of trade ships were going through the system, escorted by tiny groups of space-fighters floating alongside them.
"Wing leader 52 do you read?" Messaged the leader of the escort, sensors sweeping the immediate area of space ahead.
"Positive Escort leader, Trade Convoys are safe, nearest Wil'Cotl is several thousand Rons away, preparing for full-speed ahead and messaging Escorts."
"Negative Wing leader, sensors indicating nearby ships with possible weapon systems superior to our own. Messaging the Kaelis Chevalier to receive orders."
"Roger that sir."

The escort had been given two soldiers to advise the Convoy in case of attack and emergency, but these were no ordinary soldiers, these were the Kaelis Chevalier, the Emperor's elite. To be honest, it was a large honor that few could claim to have to be blessed with the Chevaliers on board a ship, and they were left well enough alone usually, but this particular manner would have to be dealt with quickly and with their permission, so it was with extreme care and respect that it was asked of the two that they say what to do next in light of the recent ships detected...

"I believe that if we do not come to them, they will come to us." Ti'ri muttered, his armored gauntlet running smoothly across his bald head as his other hand tapped away at the metal table he was sitting at.
"We must divert away from them, this trade convoy must get to it's destination as soon as possible, if we divert, we wont get to the planets in time." Said the 10 foot tall form of Aalfus from the back of the room, his hands behind his back.
"Then there is no other option, we must head towards the ships, and hope."

++++++++Relaying Message++++++
+Number 111112654+
=== All ships ===
------You may begin sire-----

Greetings newfound ships, we are a trade convoy of the Kaelan Empire, please state your intent.

OOC: By the way, the Chevaliers look like this (http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Image:Grey1.jpg)

I know, kind of a rip off, but I loved these guys so much, I had to include them somehow!

The Greywatch convoy did nothing but keep moving forward. They had no wish in getting involved in anything and they hoped by just moving along that their feelings would be conveyed. The entire convoy kept moving forward without a word...

"Pirate" wasn't a term the Aletes preferred to apply to themselves, despite the fact that they did occasionally engage in activities other nations might classify as piracy. It wasn't something they did often, preferring mercenary work above all else - after all, why destroy someone's ship and loot their belongings when you could destroy someone's ship, loot their belongings and get paid to do it?

But these semantics were not what were on the mind of Tomahawk O'Brannack, captain of the Crossed Fingers and leader of the wolfpack of a dozen Aletian frigates and picket ships that were hanging immobile and stealthed half a light-minute from the Greali freighter. O'Brannack's wasn't the only Aletian pack in the stellar neighborhood - the powerful interstellar sensor arrays that the Aletians in the Penumbra operated had picked up activity suggesting a shipping corridor or somesuch in this area, and in their natural inquisitiveness the Aletians had come out to sniff around - and while piracy wasn't necessarily what any of them had in mind, nothing was ever ruled out. Sometimes a cargo carrier was just so overloaded that it deserved to have its load lightened a little; only it's best interests were in mind, clearly!

"You were about to say, Captain, before that foot in your mouth dropped out of hyperlight?" If the voice in the Crossed Fingers' command nest had had a face attached to it, it probably would have been impudently deadpan.

Captain O'Brannack had literally been inhaling to give the order for his pack to move in on the action between the pirates and the Greali freighter and round the whole lot of them up when the Imperial fleet had popped in from hyperspace. He glared at the ceiling; not that that was any accurate indication of where his navigational AI Arsinoë was, but it as good a place as any to visualize a disembodied entity.

“Well to hell with all that, then,” he grumbled, turning his eyes back to the collection of holopanels that hovered above his command crèche. “Keep our passive sensors on full. Crew,” he clicked on the pack-wide intercom, “crack open a beer and watch the show. We’ll talk to whoever wins.”

"Sir, the Ion Trail has faded. They must have masked it."

"DAMN!" Shouted Gregory, slamming his mechanical arm into his chair. "I've never failed before..."

"My Lord! A distress signal! They say pirates are attacking them!"

"Who sent it?"

"A ship that matches Greal frequency!"

"This is the break we needed. Alter course! Max speed to those coordinates!"

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

Cap'n Draag rubbed his hands with glee.

"We have 'em now men! Board her! and take anything not nailed down!"

Message to Greal merchant vessel

Stand down and prepare to be boarded! Comply and we won't have to slaughter ya.

End message

Captain Gaxer halted his ship. He didn't want anyone to die today of a stupid mistake.

Just as the Greal ship surrendered, Lord Gregory's fleet dropped out of hyperspace.

"Looks like we caught them in the act again..."

The fleet quickly swung in front of the Greal vessel, one ship extending it's shields around the vessel.

Message to Greal Vessel

We have you now. Do not be afraid. The Imperial fleet will protect you.

Message ends

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

Cap'n Draag was suprised to see the Imperial fleet arrive so quickly.

"I thought I told you to jam their transmissions!"

"I did cap'n! They must be using a subspace frequency we've never encountered before! A message comming in from the Imperial fleet!"

Message to pirate vessel

This is the Imperial Flagship Infinity, command ship of the Imperial Armada. Surrender immediatly or you will all be destroyed. Co-operate and we may spare your lives.

Message ends

"So... Ol' Gregory himself has come after us... Prepare for battle! If I go down, i'm going down fighting!"

Close to Greal freighter and Imperial warships

The hyperjump was a success as the squadron of assault cruiser's and battle carriers emerged from the hyper jump.

"That was a bumpy jump," smiled Kennedy as he came up to look out into space.

"Sir, we got signals of something. It seems some pirate ships are nearby, unknown warships and a transport carrier," stated the operator as the holographic map came online.

"This is the Lynion Flagship Valiant calling unknown warships. We request that you identify yourselves and we also ask if you've seen pirates," came a voice over the intercom.

Cap'n Draag stared in horror as another fleet showed up.

"What is wrong with this universe! Can't a pirate make a living anymore? And what's with..."

Cap'n Draag suddenly had a fiendish plan.

"Patch me through to the newcomming vessels."

To incomming warships

This is Captain Draag of the Peoples alliance. As you can see, Pirates have captured one of our cargo vessels within their shield grid. We would gladly welcome any assistance in freeing our good friends. After all, we would gladly reward you for your trouble...

Message ends

On the bridge of the Star Shadow, the tactical officer began updating the captain on the possible situation. The captain nodded, "So, pirates, eh? Well we need to get out of this area. Immediately." She pressed a button on her seat, "Engineering, if you can, relay more power to the engines." She then looked to comms, "Tell the transports to pick up the pace, tell the same to the other escorts."

OOC: Oh Lynion, please fall for it, it's the only way this thread is gonna get interesting! XD

OOC: I have to wait for Lynion and Greal to reply before I can proceed.

OOC: If you want to have another group confront me in the meantime I won't mind.

"Heh heh. Canny bugger, are we?" O'Brannack smirked as he listened to the pirate transmission that Arsinoë had snatched and copied for him. Like virtually all Aletian AI's, Arsinoë could never resist getting her grubby little digital fingers into any and all types of digital communications that she could, especially if they were meant for someone else's eyes and ears.

"It is a clever lie," purred Chief Engineer, who had returned to his creche in the nest from his last checkup of the Crossed Fingers' systems. "But not one that will hold without a lot of luck."

"I don't feel like busting 'em, do you?" O'Brannack yawned and stretched in his creche, bridging his fingers and cracking his knuckles. The huge Kzin was his only companion on the bridge at the moment, besides the omnipresent Arsinoë.

Chief Engineer twitched his batlike ears in the Kzinti version of a grin. "I would like to see what becomes of this k'zeerkt and his lie. If he can turn these two fleets against each other, he may prove a worthy enemy."

"Or client," O'Brannack reminded his engineer. "I don't really want to turn anyone into glowing molecules unless someone's gonna reimburse me for it. It'd be a bad business model even if we had harvesters with us."

Arsinoë hummed and made giggly noises as she waited for more transmissions to get ahold of.

OOC: Still waiting for an answer here in case I've been forgotten :D

Just as the Greal ship surrendered, Lord Gregory's fleet dropped out of hyperspace.

"Looks like we caught them in the act again..."

The fleet quickly swung in front of the Greal vessel, one ship extending it's shields around the vessel.

Message to Greal Vessel

We have you now. Do not be afraid. The Imperial fleet will protect you.

Message ends

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

Cap'n Draag was suprised to see the Imperial fleet arrive so quickly.

"I thought I told you to jam their transmissions!"

"I did cap'n! They must be using a subspace frequency we've never encountered before! A message comming in from the Imperial fleet!"

Message to pirate vessel

This is the Imperial Flagship Infinity, command ship of the Imperial Armada. Surrender immediatly or you will all be destroyed. Co-operate and we may spare your lives.

Message ends

"So... Ol' Gregory himself has come after us... Prepare for battle! If I go down, i'm going down fighting!"

Captain Gaxer was surprised, the situation was confusing as it was when ships from the Imperial navy appeared. Then, just as Gaxer was predicting there would be battle, two Greal naval cruisers appeared. They had heard the distress call.

OOC: Aw, now the truth's gonna get out...

OOC: I'm giving Lynion one day to reply, and then we'll carry on without him.

'... and that's the last bit of 'cargo' ' Stewert John said. He wasn't looking forward to this trade run. Nothing was wrong with it. It was just dull. The Imperial Navy was a safe journey. No hostile aliens. No Asteroids. No collapsing stars or black holes to escape from. He hoped intergalactic trade would be more... 'exciting'

The Fleet of 3 freighters left the Platform D-37 and headed towards the TIN homeworld. Just as he was about to enter hyperspace, he suddenly noticed on the sensors he had a shadow. A messege bleepedup on the bridges computer

'This is Corvette Ranger 1 and Ranger 2. We are you escort. Rumours of pirate activity have been detected. MSC high command has decided it prudent for you to have this level of escort. We are ready to begin our hyperjump when you are.'

John did not respond. He didn't need to. He flicked a few buttons and the bulk freighter lurched forward into it's hyperspace jump.

OOC: If TIN or another group wishes to ambush these merchants feel free to do so. However, I have decided it will be away from the current battle as that area is already rather congested ;)

"Captain, we got a transmission," reported in the operator.

The admiral looked around as something was going wrong with the transmissions.

"Hello....reporting...damn...our transmission cables are going....low on..." said the captain into the radio.

"What the blazes is going on with the intercom?" demanded the admiral. "Are the holocommunications still running?"

"Yes sir but that only patches through to the other warships," replied the operator as the lights blinked.

Admiral Kennedy looked around as the cruiser suddenly turned to the pilots. The cruiser made a sharp turn as the pilots attempted to turn the cruiser around. Then came a small explosion before the cruiser stopped.

"Damn it!" shouted Kennedy. "report!"

"All engines are down! Every single Lynion cruiser is drifting," replied the engineer.

"Sir we got communications left open but we can send only one message across," stated an operator.

"Send a spirit across. See if it can figure out whats going on!" ordered Kennedy as a power failure went out.

"Sending AI across," came a transmission to the unknown warship. The spirit went through the transmission as it came out of the end of the communications.

It moved around as it stepped out of the transmission codes and appeared on the unidentfiy warship.

"Who are you?" it demanded.

OOC: Spirit is a last resort to talking to a unidentfiy warship. It does what the transmissions are meant to do when they're down so be nice to it please.

Cap'n Draag was confused as the entire approaching fleet was mysteriously disabled. He was even more confused when a strange figure appeared on the deck of his ship.

"Who the heck are you?" He screamed, raising his disruptor.

"I'm sorry," replied the spirit. "I'm Lee Kingston. I'm a second spirit to whoever hosts me which I don't know,"

Lee walks through an operator as he looked out to the Lynion warships regrouping and preparing to do something.

"My commander has sent me to talk to you but it seems you're not what I was told about. Gosh...did you lie or something?" asked Lee as he placed his fingers through an operator's head. "Don't worry about the Lynion squadron, the engines failed on them again,"

Cap'n Draag was even more confused. But he had to keep up the charade.

"Sorry if we seem a little less... conventional that most, but I assure you that we are a peaceful group just trying to get our ship back..."

"Ohh for heaven's sake, put the weapon away, you can't harm a creature that you can't touch," smiled Lee as looked at an operator. He was amazed at the operator and touched its head. His fingers went through into the brain as he went sad before smiling. "This one has something on his mind. Hmmm..."

Lee walked over as a Lynion cruiser was preparing to do something. His eyes darted about as he came over to an open transmission coding.

"If you're a peaceful group, then why are you stating the obvious? Or are you hiding something? You seem to have taken longer than usual to answer me and it isn't because I'm a spirit is it?" smiled Lee as his sword clang against the side of the chair. "Ohh yeah... the sword is my favourite thing so... don't worry about it."

On the bridge of the Star Shadow, the tactical officer began updating the captain on the possible situation. The captain nodded, "So, pirates, eh? Well we need to get out of this area. Immediately." She pressed a button on her seat, "Engineering, if you can, relay more power to the engines." She then looked to comms, "Tell the transports to pick up the pace, tell the same to the other escorts."

A blast from one of the pirate vessels smashed into one of the transports as Cap'n Draag turned to the "Spirit"

"Get the hell off my ship or i'll rip your fleet in two!"

With that Draag turned to his men.

"Call in all our boys. We've got a fight on our hands, and this could result in the biggest booty of our lives!"

Flash after flash rippled the sector as hundreds of Pirate vessels hyperspaced in. On the deck of the Infinity Lord Gregory was taken aback.

"Good lord... they have a huge organisaton... Battlestations! Prepare for combat!"

Message to Greal cruisers

We have your ship under our protection from these pirates. We advise you collect them and escort them from this sector immediatly. A rather large battle is about to begin.

Message ends

"Here we go, now the big dicks are comin' out," O'Brannack said, tapping his console screen as he leaned forward with interest. Chief Engineer rumbled amusement as he watched the same thing on his own screens.

"This is a situation we can start meddling in," the huge furry alien observed.

"I 'spose. But whose side do we approach? Not like we can pick off a juicy take of anything and hope no one notices."

"I would not ally myself with a fleet whose engines fail without warning," Chief Engineer growled flatly. Watching the Lynion fiasco had been of substantial amusement to both of them, but the Kzin engineer was also appalled. "A lame animal makes easy prey," he reflected, twitching his jowls.

"And also makes an interstellar government with a grievance," O'Brannack countered, playing Devil's advocate. "Of course, if their primary drives are normally that dodgy, I guess there's not much to worry about."

A light suddenly came on in Tomahawk's eye. "I think I know exactly what we'll do," he murmured, as he tapped a key to open a transmission to the Infinity.

To the Commander of this warship:
We are called the Aletes, and we have been watching this situation since it began. We see that you have a pirate problem; if you hire us, we will make it go away. If you will confirm this live connection then we can discuss terms of engagement and payment.

Just as the transmission was recieved, Admiral Bellena finally arrived with her fleet.

"Hello darling. Need a hand?"

"Ah yes my darling wife. We seem to have a pirate problem."

Message to the Aletes

Thank you, but your help will not be nessecary. We still outnumber the pirates by some margin. But thank you for the offer.

Message ends

Life in the more civilised sectors of space had driven them further and further out, too many ships responded to calls to help too quickly, but here was an empire that seemed beset by piracy, here a band such as theirs could carve a small kingdom for themselves amongst the diversions around them. Here the Corsair could rule, and relive the old days of glory.

They had waited at rest for an age it felt like to those aboard the ships, Holo-fields altered to mask their very existence, when battle was eventually joined the fields would change to the more traditional scattering of colour and sensor jamming to fool targeting computers, until then they simply watched.

They watched as a Pirate boarded some transport, they watched as the navy showed up, they even watched as more Pirates turned up to try and make a fight of it. They laughed as all this happened, laughed and drank to their coming success. At last they stopped laughing and moved

Fifteen Vessels that suddenly for all intents and purposes seemed to just appear in space. Before shooting off towards the Imperial Navy in a hail of colour and jamming. Six smaller, when compared to the other vessels in the fleet, ships shot ahead of their neighbours. Splitting into two hunting packs these vessels began to fly towards the largest of the Imperial Navies vessels. Even as a communication came from the ‘Flagship’ at the heart of this small Pirate fleet.

‘Greetings to who-ever you are, I am forced to say that it appears to me that your fleet is possibly infiltrated by hmm… what to say oh yes worshippers of the profane and as such we can use, hmm hang on.’ There was a rustling of papers and then the voice came back on ‘Oh forget it, I think I like this region of space, so from now on any vessel entering it will pay me a tribute. Is that clear enough for you. We shall start with a little display.’ As suddenly as it started the communication halted.

Then the hunting packs went to work, each vessel was incredibly manoeuvrable, pulling turns, which for a capital ship seemed impossible. The Pilots flew almost on top of their target vessel, raking it with energy. Each of these vessels could in truth be described as an engine with one gun stuck on the end, a small cockpit with minimal power requirements and pilots with… a love of danger.

In short the gun was never short of power, the engines could be pushed to the maximum and stay that way constantly, and the pilots had reactions speeds humans could only dream of. An Eldar Corsair was a dangerous thing, the ships where designed to go toe to toe with real militaries as well, these where not ships that merely dealt with a few cargo ships these where cap ship-killers.

Due to waiting for a mod, this post got lost so I'll quote to bring it to your attention

'... and that's the last bit of 'cargo' ' Stewert John said. He wasn't looking forward to this trade run. Nothing was wrong with it. It was just dull. The Imperial Navy was a safe journey. No hostile aliens. No Asteroids. No collapsing stars or black holes to escape from. He hoped intergalactic trade would be more... 'exciting'

The Fleet of 3 freighters left the Platform D-37 and headed towards the TIN homeworld. Just as he was about to enter hyperspace, he suddenly noticed on the sensors he had a shadow. A messege bleepedup on the bridges computer

'This is Corvette Ranger 1 and Ranger 2. We are you escort. Rumours of pirate activity have been detected. MSC high command has decided it prudent for you to have this level of escort. We are ready to begin our hyperjump when you are.'

John did not respond. He didn't need to. He flicked a few buttons and the bulk freighter lurched forward into it's hyperspace jump.

OOC: If TIN or another group wishes to ambush these merchants feel free to do so. However, I have decided it will be away from the current battle as that area is already rather congested ;)

A blast from one of the pirate vessels smashed into one of the transports as Cap'n Draag turned to the "Spirit"

"Get the hell off my ship or i'll rip your fleet in two!"

With that Draag turned to his men.

"Call in all our boys. We've got a fight on our hands, and this could result in the biggest booty of our lives!"

Flash after flash rippled the sector as hundreds of Pirate vessels hyperspaced in. On the deck of the Infinity Lord Gregory was taken aback.

"Good lord... they have a huge organisaton... Battlestations! Prepare for combat!"

OOC: Was that supposed to be hitting me?

OOC: Was that supposed to be hitting me?

The cap'n fired a warning shot at you. It means "Hey! Stop!"
ok? It's late now, i'll post again tomorrow.

However, the Greal cruisers sent a message to the Imperial Navy ships that the cargo ships were safely back and if they could help destroy the pirate ships.

The cap'n fired a warning shot at you. It means "Hey! Stop!"
ok? It's late now, i'll post again tomorrow.

OOC: Okay, couldn't tell.
IC:

The transports quickly came to a stop while the Star Shadow prepared for combat. It was still in cloak and if these unknown vessels dared to test them again, the response would be very different. The other half-cloaked vessels stopped and faced the ship that had fired.

BCN Kongo
A rippling pulse of energy announced the arrival of of BCN Kongo, an Evans-Class destroyer measuring nearly 700 meters in length. The ship itself was dotted with pods for weaponry, all of which remained closed and gave no hint as to what sort of guns it carried.

The ship exited its hyperpulse jump and sat motionless at a range of half a million kilometers away. Only the steady output of energy bursts as it took readings on the situation announced that it even noticed what was going on.

"Targets acquired, Captain," Chloë reported in her clipped young woman's voice. "Three cargo vessels and two corvettes, dropping out of hyperlight at .2c, 4.3 light-seconds distant."

"Match vector and close," rumbled Chrraal-Captain, his ears pricking and his fur lifting with predatory excitement. Chrraal-Captain was the leader of another Aletian group in the sector, and unlike Tom O'Brannack, this cat was looking for prey.

His command ship Plains Stalker was a heavy freighter that he had personally retrofitted into a miniature carrier of sorts: the former cargo holds now held 5 attack craft and the necessary accouterments for launching them. In addition, Chrraal-Captain had tacked on 3 whole additional ramjet drives to boost it up to combat speeds, and the normal Aletian plethora of bomb-missiles, lasers and kinetic weaponry. The big Kzin was quite proud of it.

The rest of his flotilla consisted of three frigates of slightly varying size and design, and they were as eager as he was to start picking at what promised to be a rich shipping zone.

"Activate weapons," Chrraal-Captain ordered as his pack gained gradually on the MSC convoy. "All crews to attack craft. Gunners to carry out full active scans and prepare targets on the corvettes, firing upon my order."

He leaned forward in his creche, lips skinning back from fearsome teeth in anticipation of the coming chase. Being plains cats by ancestry, there was little that roused Kzinti more than the thrill of the hunt and the chase, and Chrraal-Captain hoped that this prey would give a good one.

OOC: Mole, what should I call your people? Moleans? Doesn't seem quite right. XD I used MSC for now, but if there's a more accurate term please tell me so I can get it right. :)

"Targets acquired, Captain," Chloë reported in her clipped young woman's voice. "Three cargo vessels and two corvettes, dropping out of hyperlight at .2c, 4.3 light-seconds distant."

"Match vector and close," rumbled Chrraal-Captain, his ears pricking and his fur lifting with predatory excitement. Chrraal-Captain was the leader of another Aletian group in the sector, and unlike Tom O'Brannack, this cat was looking for prey.

His command ship Plains Stalker was a heavy freighter that he had personally retrofitted into a miniature carrier of sorts: the former cargo holds now held 5 attack craft and the necessary accouterments for launching them. In addition, Chrraal-Captain had tacked on 3 whole additional ramjet drives to boost it up to combat speeds, and the normal Aletian plethora of bomb-missiles, lasers and kinetic weaponry. The big Kzin was quite proud of it.

The rest of his flotilla consisted of three frigates of slightly varying size and design, and they were as eager as he was to start picking at what promised to be a rich shipping zone.

"Activate weapons," Chrraal-Captain ordered as his pack gained gradually on the MSC convoy. "All crews to attack craft. Gunners to carry out full active scans and prepare targets on the corvettes, firing upon my order."

He leaned forward in his creche, lips skinning back from fearsome teeth in anticipation of the coming chase. Being plains cats by ancestry, there was little that roused Kzinti more than the thrill of the hunt and the chase, and Chrraal-Captain hoped that this prey would give a good one.

OOC: Mole, what should I call your people? Moleans? Doesn't seem quite right. XD I used MSC for now, but if there's a more accurate term please tell me so I can get it right. :)


OOC: My people are moles. My possessive is mole eg: The Mole Frigate opened fire...

IC: The sensors on board the Corvettes were screaming.

'Sir, we've got incoming hostiles from behind us on an intercept course. They have charged weapons and will be within range in one minute.'

The Captain sighed. He knew he had little chance of surviving now. But he would take as many scumbags as he could with him.

'Signal the convoy to proceed with mission. Signal Ranger 2 to launch starfighters.'

'Aye sir!'

The 3 freighters proceeded towards their next hyperjump point pretty much ignoring the attackers. The corvettes launchd their 2 groups of Hyper fighters. Corvette Ranger 2 and 3 of these fighters charged off towards the smallest frigate with the intention to destroy it.

The remaining fighters waiting for the attackers to arrive.

'Have we established contact with any comm sats?'

'Yes sir. The Imperials may also recieve it'
'Prepare to transmit'


' Mayday! Mayday! This is Corvette Ranger 1 of Mole Convoy 33 alpha! Our convoy is under attack by hostile forces. We are outnumbered and cannot hold out for much longer... This signal will repeat'
'

Admiral Galcian leaned over the comm officer.

"what is it?"

"Admiral, a distress call from a Mole convoy! They say they need help!"

"Lay in an intercept course. We have work to do"

Message to mole vessel

Hold on allies, we're on the way. Start heading towards us!

Message ends

"Summon the rest of the fleet. This game has gone on long enough."

Message to mole vessel

Hold on allies, we're on the way. Start heading towards us!

Message ends



'This is Corvette Ranger 1. Transmission received. We shall do our best to follow your instructions'

OOC: I think You'd best let the Aletes have a few posts to beat me up in before you arrive ;)

OOC: The entire Imperial fleet is about to arrive. over a thousand ships... And there's going to be another suprise... :)

OOC: The entire Imperial fleet is about to arrive. over a thousand ships... And there's going to be another suprise... :)

OOC: Little extreme :p

Planet Arcadia, Imperial Shipyards

Captain Relis was standing on the command deck of the Emperor's new personal flagship. He'd just finished the spaceworthiness trials for the vessel, and was bringing it into dock.

"Captain, I'm getting a message from Earth. Priority one message from the Emperor."

"Patch it through."

To: Admiral Relis

You herd the message right. Effective immediatly, I'm appointing you Admiral of my personal command fleet. You will still take orders from Lord Gregory, but you command my fleet. Deploy the Eternum to the following coordinates. Orders are enclosed. Do not fail me.

Message ends

"Captain?"

"It's Admiral now. Prepare to deploy the fleet. The Emperor wishes to test his new toy."

There was several flashes of light as 301 vessels grouped together and shot into hyperspace.

(OOC: This is gonna be fun. I plan how my RP's go before I start them, 'cos this is all building up for my next RP, which is gonna be huge.)

OOC: Little extreme :p

OOC: As I told you before, the Imperial method of winning a battle is to completely overwhelm their foe.

Message to Imperial ships from transports

<What is the meaning of that shot? We have done nothing wrong! We are only a trade convoy.>

Message End

Message to Imperial ships from transports

<What is the meaning of that shot? We have done nothing wrong! We are only a trade convoy.>

Message End

Message to Greywatch vessels

Surrender ya booty to the Black Corsairs, and we'll let ya live! This is ya only warnin'!

Message Ends

"Oh bullshit!" Yelled the captain, "Tactical, prioritize targets and fire at at. After first shots are fired bring us out of cloak and show these idiots we mean business!" The tactical officer nodded and the ship's weapons quickly charged themselves. Shots were fired at the ships closest to the convoy and then the cloak was dropped, restoring the shields. The captain smiled, "Comms, activate SNC ad contact Greywatch Prime. Tell them to get out here immediately!" The coms officer nodded before typing away on his console. "Message sent ma'am!" The Captain looked back to the holoscreen, "Activate battle mode. It's time to incinerate this trash."

Encrypted Message to Greywatch convoy:

<All of you, hold. Stay near us, if you split off you'll be harder to efend. Experimental ships, try not to get into any firefights, we don't want to lose you. Be prepared to grapple onto our ship if need be. A message has been sent to Greywatch Prime but I doubt reinforcements will get here anytime soon. Make sure all shielding is at full!>

End Message

Ignoring the Imperial vessels for now, Draag turned his black corsairs around and opened fire upon the convoy. Blast after blast of heavy cannon fire resounded from the corsair fleet.

The ship shook as the Greywatch vessels returned fire.

"Shields holdin' captain! But i'm not sure for how long!"

"It don't matter. Prepare to fire the moon cannon!"

"But cap'n! We only stole that last week! We haven't tested it yet!"

"Dammit fire that cannon! It'll put off military resistance!"

A large cannon deployed from the front of the Pirate vessel, aiming towards the convoy. It began to charge with a bright purple light.

(For information on the Moon cannon, please view my factbook. If it hits one of your convoy it will tear the vessel apart. Fortunatly it takes ten minutes to recharge.)

"So you are pirates!" shouted Lee as he drew out his sword. "I knew it from the start there was something odd with you guys. Care to taste my blade?"

"So you are pirates!" shouted Lee as he drew out his sword. "I knew it from the start there was something odd with you guys. Care to taste my blade?"

"Ah shut up!"

Draag took a small device from his waist and tossed it in front of the spirit. It exploded with a blue light.

(OOC: I don't know how you kill these things, but can you please remove the spirit from the vessel. I need Draag to stay alive til later, and the spirit may intefere with that. Ta. :) )

OOC: In that case

The captain sighed, "Move us out of the way of that thing! Aim at the new weapon and fire!" The Star Shadow concentrated all available turrets on the moon cannon and fired simutaniously at the both the ball of energy and the cannon itslef. The Star Shadow itself quickly began to move itself out of sights of the weapon.

Encrypted Message to Greywatch convoy:

<All vessels move! Make sure your not in the way of that thing, we've no idea what it does.>

End Message

Every ship began to move themselves, it forced them to scatter a little but they could always regroup. Making sure that thing wasn't pointing at them was a much bigger deal.

Greywatch Prime:

The message had only been recieved that moment and the Greywatch Council was already deciding what to do. They had different opinions on what to do. One council member felt that the convoy could take care of itself if pirates were the only problem. Two thought that a small force should be sent in to help. The last council member felt that a fleet should be sent in to wipe all the pirates off the map completely. After about ten minutes of back and forth bickering, they decided that a few ships was best, a combination of frigates and cruisars, nothing too big, but a formidable force.

The moon cannon erupted with a lance of purple energy, Vaporising the energy fired at it. It blasted towards the convoy...

There was a second blast, more powerful that wiped out the energy of the Moon cannon, and doubled back into the cannon, destroying it. Lord Gregory had moved his flagship between the convoy and the pirates, and fired the CMC, which is 10 times more powerful.

"Report."

"Weapon recharging. Enemy moon cannon destroyed."

"Well at least now we know what happened to it..."

Message to Imperial Flagship:

<Care to explain what the hell is going on?! Why the hell do pirates have a weapon of that caliber?!>

Message End

Quickly, the Greywatch ships began to regroup. The Star Shadow proceded to guard the transports against this new arrival. Despite what the other ship had done, the situation still didn't look good.

Reply

Our apoligies. We have no idea how they aquired our technology, but rest assured, the matter will be investigated to the best of our ability. I advise that you get your cargo vessels to safety immediatly. We can handle this.

Message ends

Aboard the Corsair ship, alarm bells were ringing, men were running left and right, putting out fires while the fleet continued to fire on both the Greywatch fleet and The Imperial fleet.

"Put those damn fires out! Get to work on repairs! Keep firing!"

The Star Shadow shields were holding but the pirates were a damn nuisance and the captain was pissed. "Prioritize, aim at what looks to be the bridge and fire. Kill the brain the rest of the body follows." Any weapons that could were now concentrating on the aggressor. Unfortunantly the transports were taking in stray fire and began to move without order.

Message to Transports:

<Position yourself on the other side of my ship and use it as a shield. DO not, I repeat, do not break off, you'll make yourselves a bigger target.>

End Message

Message to Star Shadow from Greywatch Reinforcements:

<Captain, where are you, we're trying to get your exact position so we can jump in.>

End Message

The captain looked at the scree, sruveying the damage being dealt to both sides. When the transimssion came in she immediately pointed to her comms officer. The officer nodded and sent the coordinates.

Message to Star Shadow from Greywatch Reinforcements:

<Recieved, we'll be there in a few minutes. Hold out until then.>

End Message

Message to Imperial Flagship:

<It's good to know someone's on our side. We can't move with them firing on us so we're holding here. We have our own reinforcements on their way. Expect them in a few minutes.>

End Message

By now several corsair vessels had manuvered in front of the flagship to protect and block incomming fire. Several were torn apart. But many more kept arriving. Someone was sending these reinforcements... but who?

Options we could pull out or… well. Who wants to live forever?
‘So the humans have a new toy to play with, well then let us show them the problem with toys… destroy it, not the ship the toy itself. I think it time we boarded, I want that toy for myself, well at least long enough to sell it back to them.

At the that the hunting packs changed target moving towards the, by now obvious, command vessel of the Imperial navy, coming as they where from behind they initially targeted the ships engines. In an attempt to immobilise it, but as they reached the ship they hugged it, so close the two ships where almost touching. They shot forwards knocking out, or aiming to at the least point defence turrets, shield generators and then last of all, the main weapon.

All this occurred while the larger vessels turned towards the Naval fleet and now launched small craft seemingly at first Fighters, but something was odd about them, the rears where too big, they contained it seemed Cargo. Even as the ships neared they launched other devices they filled the space they left behind with these objects, hundreds of them Mines of course, set to go after any ship not made of Wraithbone, in other word any ship not their own.

Kionashi Mines are more like small shuttles, or Torpedoes, with enough power to cover most of the surrounding space. As the last of the current load of Mines was deployed Torpedoes now shot from the ships, huge things, with their point defences and even holo-fields. When an Eldar Fleet went to war, nothing was ever done small. The first wave where exactly what they appeared to be, Torpedoes, but following them came a second wave of boarding craft, this group catching up and taking over the first wave launched. After all someone had to open up the landing bays.

OOC: You can't kill the spirit but the sword can be removed.

IC:

Lee vanished out of the blue into the mainframe and disrupted the engines of the ship causing them to overheat. He looked through as he opened up a transmission to the Lynion Warships and jumped into it while leaving one thing behind.

"Have fun with your engines mate!" laughed Lee as he transmitted himself back onto the computers in the Lynion flagship.

Hundreds of point defence lasers now errupted from the Infinity, Tearing into the small attacking vessels, which were nothing more than a nusance to the shield systems, And hundreds of Imperial fighters engaged pursuit.

"No one dents my ship. Destroy these fools."

(OOC: Sorry but I can't let you destroy the Infinity. It's due to be destroyed in the spinoff. I hope you understand. :( Also, I forgot to mention that the Infinity is covered in point-defence lasers. I think it's in the factbook. They're listed as anti-fighter cannons.)

(OOC thread needed here I think)

There was a massive gravity spike detected sveral kilometers away from the battle as Greywatch reinforcements arrived. There were about fifteen ships, but they were nothing to mess with. They all varied, cruisars and frigates that were meant to serve different purposes. Immediately a message was sent:

<To any ship attacking the Greywatch convoy, prepare for swift retribution.>

The ships moved quickly to cover their companions.

With the engines down, the Corsair flagship was helpless. Pirate vessels gathered around it, forming a wall to ensure it's safty. Still more Pirate vessels of varying size were arriving, forming an increasing wall around the Pirate vessel.

"Patch me through to our 'employer'."

The audio receptors cackled to life as the masked voice of their employer came onto the speakers.

"What is it... i'm very busy..."

"My Lord, we are in trouble! We need more ships! Bigger ships!"

"And you are incapable of handling a few transports with several hundred ships? It cost me much to supply those you know..."

"I know that My Lord, but the Imperial Fleet has shown up, and countless others! This sector was much more populated than we were led to believe!"

"The Imperial Fleet? hmm..."

"My Lord?"

"Worry not Draal. You shall carry the day yet. I am redirecting some more of my... employees your way. Out."

"Dammit he'd better come through for us... no paycheck is worth this..."

OOC: Details for ships in the OOC Thread.
IC:

The captain of the Powerbroker looked at the holoscreen and smiled. "Send a message to the council, if this gets any more out of hand, we'll need a Worldslayer... hopefully this won't come to that." The new ships moved forward as quickly as they could and it wasn't long before they were in the center of the action. "Tell all ships to prioritize and open up if they get shot at. If anything hostile comes at us, tear it apart."

The small ships had succeeded in breaching the shields around the CMC, but fortunatly, the CMC had been sealed away once more behind it's bulkhead. (The CMC is sealed away when not in use)

"Damn... those ships are more powerful than they look. Redirect some of the fleet. Send them after those vessels!"

Several Destroyers seperated from the fleet, going after the small powerful vessels, attempting to drive them away before they began to damage the Infinity's weapon systems...

Encrypted Transmission from Powerbroker to Imperial flagship:

<You look to be in a spot of trouble. We've already recieved word about pirates being here, if you need assistance I suggest saying so now.>

End Transmission

Message to Greywatch vessels

Indeed. I'd say we could use some help. These small vessels will tear us apart if we don't drive them away.

Message ends

As they recieved the message the Harbingers began to release fighters, hundreds of them. In just a minute there were already 600 of them flying outwards, targeting the hostiles around the Imperial flagship and firing there shots. They may have been fighters, but they were still powerful, many a time these small ships had destroyed ships much larger than then due to their weapons and numbers. The two other Star Shadows activated cloak and vanished. They were off to find another position that would be suitable. The Rabble Rousers moved out and quickly began firing their multiple turrets at enemy ships. Bright lances of energy lit up the blackness as each shot tore through space.

Emperor's Flagship, en-route to battle

"C'mon! Can't this thing go any faster?"

"Remember Admiral, that by adding mass we sacrifice speed!"

"Dammit... Just get us there fast! The Emperor gave stern orders that we were to test the new Eternum cannon on the Pirate fleet, then report to Earth as soon as possible!"

"Why? Shouldn't we stay and finish off the pirates?"

"The Emperor thinks Gregory can handle the situation. We're just using this as a training run. We fire the cannon and then get out of there!"

"That plan makes no sense. Why not just test it on an asteroid or somthing?"

"Because this is a biological weapon."

The crew fell silent.

"Admiral, those were banned when the Emperor came to power!"

"Yeah, and he wants to keep it secret. Hence why we fire and get out of there before we can be identified."

"But sir..."

"One more word and i'll have you run in for treason. Time to arrival?"

"1 hour sir."

‘Damn too many in the way, okay redirect the borders, we’ll clear a path to that ship!’ Although
They where not exactly designed for this, small engines did allow the Torpedoes both boarding and normal to re-orientate themselves. Usually done to correct a heading with the target vessel now covered by others it was used to alter the target. The first few Torpedoes where simply there to cover the borders who where now aimed for three targets within the first ship. The first Tubes smashed into where it was estimated the bridge lay, drills digging through the hull for a moment the Bridge was allowed to be exposed to the vacuum of space, should the crew within be foolish enough not to take this possibility into account it would make the Corsairs next actions far easier after all.

Then after a few minutes sealant was released closing the vessel off from the vacuum outside and the Torpedoes cracked open. After that two large energy weapons emerged scouring the Bridge with energy enough to keep heads down at the very least, and tear apart anyone foolish enough to stand right in front of the doors that now cracked open.

What emerged from with the Tubes was a strange sight, fully armoured men bearing in front of them shields, from their helmets, which where wide and angular, flew plumes of colour strangely akin to hair dyed in bright colours, reds, blues and greens seemed the most common. The armours where also painted in strange display, no uniform seemed apparent apart from a small sword emblem on each ones left shoulder. In the hand that was not carrying the shield, some bore swords that crackled with energy others pistols.

Each Torpedo carried possibly thirty men, three of whom seemed to be followed by larger weapons that floated above the deck. The same scene was repeated near to the engines although here far more Torpedoes slammed into the ship. Near however to the Landing bays of the vessel the sight was somewhat different. It started the same but whereas once the troops aboard emerged elsewhere they walked out, here they flew out, riding on top of the boards.

If there was any air within this area, they made whooping sounds as they did, some of the men carried spears their swords strapped to their sides, and those that came with the weapons that floated above the ground emerged with them tied on with, of all things links of metal chain.

In space the ships now targeted as many of the escorting craft to the Leviathan as they could, occasionally they would direct beams of energy towards the command ship but more to keep the main gun hidden away than as a serious attack.

OOC: So you're saying your boarding pods went through any shielding, went through the armor and the hull with no problem (you have no idea how much or what kind of armor it is), you encounter no resistance (turrets could shoot boarding craft), and you get to the bridge without anything stopping you (and you stated they were assuming where it was). That's godmodding.

OOC: So you're saying your boarding pods went through any shielding, went through the armor and the hull with no problem (you have no idea how much or what kind of armor it is), you encounter no resistance (turrets could shoot boarding craft), and you get to the bridge without anything stopping you (and you stated they were assuming where it was). That's godmodding.

Fine then the first things to hit would be the actual Torpedoes, I'm assuming some sort of damage to the shields enough to get the next load through. The drilling could take days or it could take minutes, yes I'm assuming some where shot down on route... we fired more than we needed to for that reason.

Your right through more might have been shot down, but I changed my target for ooc reasons, that was why originally I was clearing off point defences. And the things are not easy to hit, they are a swirl of colour and sensor jamming. Every one of them.

Getting through the hull itself, well it could take seconds or minutes or whatever. Once they hit they are there, and arn't going anywhere. They can spend from now till infinity quite happily drilling. Besides whats more interesting fighting off borders or smashing everyone of them on route?

OOC: Interesting isn't my concern if it means god-modding. For every action there is a reaction, meaning the person WILL have the choice to respond to every individual act you do. Chaining them is saying 'I'm taking control of everything you do to make my life easier,' it's BS one way or another.

OOC thread again I guess already posted there in case you missed it

BCN Kongo
The silent, green warship continued to monitor the unfolding events from half a million kilometers away. Flickers and pulses of energy swept the battlefield, gathering useful data on engine power, armor, weaponry, communication and other systems.

‘Incoming!’ The larger vessels of the Kionash lived for such moments as this, waves of fighters where incoming more and more of them, seemingly unconcerned by the Minefield surrounding the Outcasts. So be it, the Corsairs had teeth of their own, while the complement of Fighters from the [I]Iraidens Star[I] the Corsair Flagship had been launched, the Outcasts had other ships that carried their own such craft. The two largest of these began to launch their complements, these where somewhat larger than most fighters, but overall they served the same function. Each was crewed by one pilot and one soul, underneath where slung two star lances, and four missiles. The Missiles themselves would be less useful in a fighter duel that was what the laser cannons where for. They where cap ship killers, and as each of the fighters took to space they fired two of them off.

These where Void-Missiles. Nothing too special about the way they exploded, it was the same as most such things, plasma, and the like. What made them Cap-ship killers was the way they jumped. Flickering from one reality to another from the immaterium to the Material and back again.

Much, much smaller than the weapons launched by the fighter’s parent vessels these of course, were without the Holo-fields and point defences of their parents. What these had was the ability to, once they reached the target appear within the ship, of course they also had the chance of completely bypassing the target and continuing on until auto-destructs took them, or age. They could also get lost within the Immateriam. All this however was an acceptable loss.

Having launched the fighters turned to deal with the bandits on their tails.

As for the ships that had been hugging the flagship and the fighters on their tail. Some where hit and when hit the damage was great, but a lot of the shots simply missed, targeted at the wrong place, Holo-fields snapping into affect, and the Hunters turned powered back to the main fleet, the faster they moved the more effective the Holo-fields becoming. Kionashi ships could appraoch speeds that put most other vessels to shame.

Eventually however they could not out-run energy, and one slowed the damge killing it's engine, the and as it did so it became easier to hit, thus hastening it's death. Eventually there was the soundless death of a ship, as it exploded in light.

Several Imperial cruisers were ripped apart, but they were destroyed doing their job. The Infinity was able to pull back, and was surrounded by several cruisers, ensuring nothing would come near.

"Those things are cutting through us!" Yelled Gregory.

A number of Imperial ships had intensified attack on the powerful vessels, bombarding them with Ion cannon and Heavy Blaster fire. The rest continued to hammer the pirate fleet, while Admiral Bellena's fleet provided cover for them.

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

"Hey what the heck are those things attacking the Imperial fleet?" Asked Cap'n Draag, confused.

"Dunno. They've got no ID signiture that i'd recognise."

"Patch me through to one of them"

Message to Unknown vessels

I can see you like those guys no more than we. What say we pool together our resources eh? Let's take 'em out together!

End message

OOC: I don't mind a little godmodding if it leads to an interesting storyline.

"Sir, we're being scanned." Said the tactical officer on the Powerbroker. The captain turned, "Get one of our foreseers over there, send a Rabble Rouser as backup." The comms officer nodded, "Sent the message sir." The fighters turned to face the enemy fighters and activated all weapons. Each one fired two torpedoes which streaked acorss towards the area, brightening the area. The other Rabble Rousers began firing at every pirate ship they could. The other Foreseers began to pick specific targets and began nailing specfic and individual fighters with their sniper turrets.

The flagship’s throne room currently boasted two thrones, made of a black wood, elaborately carved, each with illuminated setting-sun symbols behind them. The one at the right side of the room was larger and more elaborate, and as the senior courtiers filed in, they were able to see that, upon this occasion, Atum, the Sovereign and so-called, (it was a lie, but he’d have them shot for saying as much, and their own positions depended on reinforcing that lie anyway) Creator God, had adopted a human form. As the supposed embodiment of creative power, Atum’s theology expounded that he embodied male and female traits, and thus, upon occasion, Atum appeared as a slim, young, dark haired, woman. Unlike their own, this host was a product of Atum’s programme of genetic engineering; although she looked human, she had no sapience of her own; her brain instead being entirely structured around different needs. Of course, that did not show, with the spirit of the ‘God’ residing within her, she seemed every bit as alive and intelligent as the Lady Consort seated in the lesser throne; whose simple presence galled the courtiers.

Nonetheless, they were all too wise to object; dozens of guards, in black, beetle like or golden, shining, hawk-helmed armour, were quite sufficient to dissuade them from showing their distaste for the Lord’s ongoing… deviance.

Outside the high, vertical windows of the throne room, the green-gold orb of Terenuthis, shone. It was, of Atum’s domain, the most efficient and productive agricultural world, its harvests never failing to be spectacular; it fed five other worlds. Recently, less than a year ago, its mistress, Renenutet, had disappeared, along with her flagship. It was forbidden to speak the name of the group most of the court thought were responsible. Forbidden to suggest that rebellion might be so easy.

Meriatum, the First Prime of Atum, whose name was reserved throughout the entirety of Atum’s domain, that only he could use that ceremonial name, stepped forwards, slamming the base of a sutekh-headed was-scepter, into the ground thrice, the twinned end of the bronze staff making a loud metallic clunk with every strike, before reaching up with a hand encased in engraved, golden claws, to push a button at the base of his neck, on the collar of the large, articulated helmet he wore. The mask broke into pieces, each folding back on the next, molecular compression slimming them down into a high collar of his armour.

“Make obeisance to Atum!” he snapped, and as one, the court bowed, in the cases of its most senior members, knelt, variously on one or two knees, or kowtowed.

“By the dominion invested in me by Atum, I declare for the records,” several scribes, sitting cross-legged upon low cushioned, began writing upon paper on broad golden desks held across their laps, “this Ceremony of Investiture begun. I name in presiding, Atum, Supreme Sovereign, Creator of the Eldest Gods, The Great He/She, who took His Space in the Place of His Will, Complete One, The Lord of Totality. I name in Witness, the System Lords Thoth, Ptah, Ma’at, Nut, Heru-Mesen, Bastet and Ba’al. Step forward, Relkons, Underlord of Renenutet, Interim Governor of Terenuthis,”

Obligingly, one of the members of the group arose, and stepped forwards, dressed in an elaborate golden cloak and silver armour, a crook and a flail held across his chest.

“Attest yourself unto Atum.”

“I, Relkons, Interim Governor of Terenuthis, hereby affirm that, in my appointment, I have served faithfully, and hereby surrender the charge placed upon me.”

He held the ritual objects out, and two servants took them, upon white pillows. Atum nodded.

“In recognition of thy service I hereby promote thee in my esteem to the rank of Lesser Lord of the Court, and grant thee the estate of Emil-koran upon Karsanah, and its produce free of tithe, and its associated ships, guardians and peoples, in trust,” Atum said, “Further, in recognition of exceptional performance, I grant thee the title Heir of Karsanah, and the use of the Sovereign’s Reserves on Cidri.”

Meriatum nodded, “Let it be so recorded and acknowledged,” he waited as Relkons stepped back into the now-standing crowd, “Step forward Nehebkau, Child of Renenutet.”

He did so, kneeling as Atum rose, smiling slightly. “I hereby invest you as governor of Terenuthis,” she said, “And therefore invest you with lordship of its ships, guardians, and people, subject to the bonds of loyalty and duty. Do you accept this duty?”

“I do.”

“Arise then, and take up the symbols of that office.”

He rose, taking the golden crook and flail, before bowing deeply.

“Let it be so recorded and acknowledged…” Meriatum said, and, pausing for a moment to glance at Atum, added, “I hereby declare this Ceremony of Investiture complete.” He struck the staff against the floor, and reactivated his helmet.

The feast afterwards, in a great connecting room, was really why most of the court had come; and it did not disappoint, and it was there that Atum spoke with Wepwawet, one of the more experienced military commanders present. “I have heard that there is some disorder in a distant region – calling itself ‘The Imperial Navy’” she said, pausing to eat a little spiced Dodo breast, and holding out a hand for a servant to wipe sauce from, “I understand from Thoth that his mistress Nehmetawy is interested in examining their computers, apparently these are much more advanced than ours. Go to your world of Shriash, take some mother-ships, and investigate the possibility of exploiting the situation to acquire computer examples. You may keep anything else you can take…”

Wepwawet, over a glass of finest spring-wine, smiled, “Of course, my Lord.”

'[color=red]OOC: I think You'd best let the Aletes have a few posts to beat me up in before you arrive ;)

OOC: A few posts would be much appreciated. After all, it does take time to marshal 1000 ships, no matter how advanced your communication and FTL is. Let my cat play with his mouse for a bit. ;)

IC: "Corvette and three fighters inbound, vectoring towards Conditional Honesty." Chloë's disembodied voice reported flatly. Chrraal-Captain had almost no patience for the flippancy and playfulness that characterized most Aletian AI's, and had had those characteristics stripped from Chloë's personality core.

"Schadenfreude, move to support. Chairemachia, stay with me. All attack craft, launch immediately and stand by in formation."

The frigate Schadenfreude maneuvered several hundred meters above Conditional Honesty, ready to combine its firepower with its sister-ship, as Plains Stalker and Chairemachia steamed straight ahead after the freighters.

"Point defense online," Conditional Honesty's captain, an Eldren named Amaranth dal Maegil, said crisply as the blips on his sensor screen drew closer. "Kinetics, load birdshot and fire at will."

The kinetic point defense cannons of both frigates spat clouds of ball-bearing-sized lumps of tungsten like relativistic shotguns, straight into the path of the incoming mole fighters. The birdshot analogy was quite apt, as the operating principle of the weapon focused not on individual projectile power, but the fact that the large spread made it difficult for an oncoming enemy to avoid plowing into a cloud of relativistic hurt.

BCN Kongo
In the bridge, buried in the heart of the ship, Commodore Bubble squinted his eyestalks at the monitors spread across one wall. A sensor technician tapped some buttons with its tentacles and squeaked, "Commodore. Seems they're still out there shooting at each other and squabbling. Recieving multiple incoming and outgoing jumps and FTL initiations. We have also gathered fifteen gigabytes of pure data and one point two terrabytes of video and other visuals."

The Commodore nodded. "Hold station and continue to monitor." The Blub Federation would be happy to recieve so much useful data about the tactics and capabilities of these alien species involved in the fight.

The Greywatch ships continued their way to the Blub fleet. Once they were close enough a transmission was put through:

<Unknown fleet, indentify now.>

OOC: Mind you all Greywatch to Greywatch comms are heavily encrypted and use a custom form of communication that's practically undetectable to most other ships.

They where onboard now and advancing The ‘shields’ used by those in corridors or on the Bridge where designed to take shots long enough for the Corsairs to get in close where superior reaction times and agility would make for a bloody time. On the landing decks the fact they where on Grav-boards hurtling forward at great speeds made protection against the initial crew hopefully moot.

On the bridge they didn’t stop to look for Captains or other officers they just charged forwards swords raised covered by the few of them that had Pistols out, Monomolecular shards cut into shape by the pistols fired out at incredible speeds they could fire over 100 rounds a minute and reload in a few seconds, despite this no ammo clips fell around them. The ammo was the clip and vice versa, as it was fired the clip shrunk and a new one was simply slammed in its place.

The goals of each time was simple, the Bridge borders would seize control of internal scanners, and communications. Hopefully cutting the defenders off from each other, even better would be if they could close take over bulkheads and the such, the Engine teams would disable that region, and it being a tactic they Kionashi had used a few times themselves in similar situations, disable if possible the self destruct. Such things where often routed through engines after all, it being the easiest way to commit such an act, barring scuttling charges built over the ship of course.

Those in the landing bay would open them up for reinforcements, allowing them to pore more men onto the ship. Theirs was the most important role, and likely the hardest, it was the landing bay that they expected to find closest to the ship security teams. For it was the place most likely to get boarded after all.

In space fighters died, and capital ships fired point defences, the Eldar however used their speed to cheat. They had no qualms with using the humans for cover letting the far more common swarm of Mon-Keigh Pirates take the kill shots meant for them. It was sneaky, it was dirty and they didn’t care. Aboard the Iraidens Star the Duke snarled unhappily. Then laughed as he read the message from the humans he would if he won through here, clear such scum from his system but for now…


Response to Cap’n Draag

Sure, seems a fair enough idea, follow my lead and clear us some space, I intend to make this system a profitable one for such as us.

End message

Of course despite this, and Holo-fields on occasion a few shots got through. If any could see through the Holo-Fields they would see holes in the larger ships and men swarming around those areas. Wearing helmets and conducting battle-repairs. If they looked closer they would see an odd sight on this front however, none of the men carried any tools rather they stood and sang at the damaged areas, and the holes began to slowly seal over, as the metal grew back into shape. Far from perfect of course it was more a patch than a full repair.

(OOC notes on the using the others as cover it may seem a little weird but they are nimble and fast, but none too tough. So while lots of Pirates are in system that’s what they’ll do. They’ll run when the pirate screen is gone, and more ships will be lost before this over I promise;))

BCN Kongo

The lone, green destroyer sat silent. On the blunt, armored nose of the ship was a large white square with a green blazing sun insignia in it. A flag. The ships approaching and attempting to communicate went unanswered, as the emerald-colored warship hung motionless in space.

On the bridge the sensor tech turned his eyestalks towards the Commodore. Bubble gestured lazily with a tentacle "Ignore them. They don't own space. Let me know if they begin to manuver for attacks. Defenses on standby."

And that was it. The destroyer continued to watch the ongoing activity.

Lord Gregory looked at the screen.

"There my Lord. That's the ship they boarded."

"Patch me into the comm system. Maximum override."

"You're on sir."

"Vessel destruct. Order code Gregory 2218458. Instant destruct. Execute."

With that, the captured cruiser ruptured gel-packs placed strategicly throughout the vessel. It tore itself apart, taking the crew and boarders alike with it.

"...Forgive me."

OOC: Told ya. :eek:

Another message was put through:

<We are aware of your scans. Let it be known that scans of Greywatch ships in a combat zone is a level three military offense and not one that will go unanswered. Identify yourselves now.>

BCN Kongo

"Now they threaten us? You'd think they have more to worry about with the piracy and the incoming FTL signals," the Commodore grumbled.

A comm tech squeaked, "Commodore. We are recieving a hyperpulse closed transmission from BCN Antietam eight sectors counter-coreward. Seems they've intercepted several signals, there may be a very large taskforce inbound."

"Whose?"

"It doesn't say."

The sensor tech again, "Errr Commodore, we may want to answer before these ships do something foolish?"

"Bah. It's none of their business what we are doing here. We can scan whoever we want." He tapped a few buttons on his console and then looked towards the combat stations, "Initiate active defenses and order the marines to standby."

The only hint that anything changed on the green warship was when one armored lump on the hull of the ship opened up and out stretched an antenna array. A moment later, it began to broadcast a jamming signal on multiple frequencies and levels. This would probably serve to force anyone bothering to investigate Kongo to enhance their own sensors to punch through the jammer field.

OOC yowsa that was quicker than I expected on the self-destruct!

The Duke stared at the scene as he watched the vessel he had just gotten his men aboard; explode as the self-destruct went off. For the first time he more than simply snarled he stood, turned and picked up a nearby book. It was ancient, a masterpiece of literature irreplaceable. He had found it on a dead world and spent months translating it, months pouring over the pages; the race that wrote it was long extinct.

For all he knew it was the last copy of the work in existence it had been the pride of his collection, and as his anger overtook him he threw it across the bridge and screamed his hate at the walls. ‘The cowards! The Mon-Keigh scum, they will suffer for this, of that I assure you, I will rip that admirals heart out with my bare hands, I will trade his crew to the Fallen for trinkets and knick knacks.’

Calming suddenly he smiled. ‘So this is how they respond to borders, clear the tubes pull our people back. I want to launch more boarding torpedoes.’ His orders where obeyed and soon more and more Torpedoes where launched. All of them where actually empty, well apart from those which the Duke had stuffed with children’s toys, takings from a less than successful venture. ‘Self destruct when boarded will they!’

"Lord Gregory, sorry to disturb you, but there appears to be a strange comm signal eminating from this sector here... looks like a ship, but... it seems to be masking itself."

"How long has it been there?"

"A while sir, but it hasn't done anything."

"Hmm... if they leave us alone, we leave them alone. Monitor them, but only inform me if they become aggressive. Until then, do not disturb me. I've a battle to run here!"

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

Several Pirate vessels now joined with their new allies and provided support fire. Draag had finally got his ships engines back online and had moved to a defensive position.

"HA HA HA! Now we're talking! We'll make a nice profit from this!"

A number of the Imperial fleets lighter vessels were decimated with this new bombardment. But the Imperial fire had caused heavy damage to many vessels, which were forced to break off.

A transmission was put through to the lead Greywatch ship:

<Sir, contact Prime, we have a problem.>

With that the comms officer aboard the Powerbroker sent a message back to Greywatch Prime. The message contained battle reports, players, and all important incident that had happened so far. With some resentment the council put the word through the military. They were going to send them into battle. Even though the council wished it did not have to come to this, in light of recent events, there was no other choice. A message came back to the Powerbroker who was leading the fleet.
The captain listened as the message was read out by the comms officer. He sighed, "Tell the transports to get very close to us. Time to huddle." It was only going to be a few minutes before things in this area changed.
The other Greywatch ships held their ground in front of the Blub ships.

<If you're too insolent to listen to reason then so be it. Your judgement comes as we speak.>

OOC: You forgot to mask their signitures...

"More torps Incomming sir... They're empty?"

"Then ignore them and continue firing!"

No no I didn't I think I stated earlier they ae protected the same way my ships are via a complex series of jamming and visual illusion;) basically you barely get to see that are torpedoes and not ships before they hit;)

No no I didn't I think I stated earlier they ae protected the same way my ships are via a complex series of jamming and scanners;) basically you barely get to see that are torpedoes and not ships before they hit;)

Arr... give me a minute. :$

BCN Kongo

(You keep saying 'ships'. There's only one.)

The Commodore nodded. "See? They backed down. Maintain battle-readiness and continue to monitor. Note wreck locations, escape pods and battle damage. We may be able to salvage some of this when the fighting dies down. Even a twisted hulk represents thousands of tons of useful materials."

The green warship remained where it was. Watching. Waiting.

Calming suddenly he smiled. ‘So this is how they respond to borders, clear the tubes pull our people back. I want to launch more boarding torpedoes.’ His orders where obeyed and soon more and more Torpedoes where launched. All of them where actually empty, well apart from those which the Duke had stuffed with children’s toys, takings from a less than successful venture. ‘Self destruct when boarded will they!’

"Another ship looks like it's been boarded sir..."

"Give me the comm again. I won't have my ships boarded."

"Sir, signal from the ship! They say the pods are empty!"

"Can't risk it. They may be tricking us. Send out an encrypted password to all other ships. If they are boarded and the pods are empty, order them to send us the encrypted code."

Gregory then turned back to the comm.

"Vessel destruct. Order code Gregory 2218458. Instant destruct. Execute."

Another ship ripped apart, this time needlessly...

(OOC: Better? Feel happy now? :) )

(You keep saying 'ships'. There's only one.)

I said just 'ship'. :)

Encrypted Message to Imperial Flagship:

<Captain. Have you ever been next to a black hole before? If not, power up you shielding and engines because we have some... large reinforcements coming and they're not happy about this situation. They'll most likely be arriving somewhere between five and ten minutes... just so you can be prepared.>

Message End

Encrypted Message to Imperial Flagship:

<Captain. Have you ever been next to a black hole before? If not, power up you shielding and engines because we have some... large reinforcements coming and they're not happy about this situation. They'll most likely be arriving somewhere between five and ten minutes... just so you can be prepared.>

Message End

Reply

Understood. We're ready. Besides, i've been through one.

Message ends

On the bridge of the Powerbroker, the captain was becoming a little nervous. So many enemies, an unknown ship scanning them most likely for military purposes, a trade convoy to protect, and now they had the scariest ships in Greywatch coming to meet them and 'rectify' the situation. Not a good day. They recieved a message stating the reinforcements would be there in 5 minutes.

Eventually the amount of munitions being thrown around would catch up with the Corsairs and it did. They couldn’t hide forever and the damage built up, the Asuryans Wrath started to slow, and in slowing it’s doom was spelt, the slower the ship moved the less effective the Holo-Fields where, the less effective it’s holo-fields where the more it was hit.

The More it was hit, the slower it went, once the ship passed a certain point it was doomed, everything else was just a matter of time. The abandon ship was called, eventually and crew raced to escape pods, before any of them left however they had one last duty to perform. At the core of every Eldar vessel lay the most important part of that ship, the thing that made it more than a piece of metal, or psycho-active plastic to be exact, and more a living thing. The infinity Matrix, the collection of Souls of departed Eldar. They could not be allowed to be lost along with the ship.

Quickly the crew worked, gathering the Souls together in one place, the rest of the ship going dark as they did this. When the last was gathered in the tiniest form they could gather in, that part was ejected into the depths of space, to be picked up by one of the first escape pods to be launched. Scooting off towards a redirected Hunter. As the fastest of the Capital ships it could afford the distraction the most.

As the ship finally died the last few missiles hammering into academic by now, and it took with it’s death the remaining crew still aboard and fully half the fighter complement the Duke finely sighed ‘This battle is over. Recall all ships when the last Kionashi is aboard, we will enter the warp and return to the Webgate. Prepare your souls for the Immaterium.’

The risk of an emergency entrance to the Warp was a great one, it was a mere hours jump to their Webgate, but it was likely they would lose crew in that time to Deamons of the warp. The battle was lost but he would still make good on his promise.

Communication to the Levithian

My oath this day Mon-Keigh is this, when next you see my vessels those you command will share one fate, the fate of the damned. I shall sell you into ruin and torment, your lives the playthings of the masters of Commaragh, they will make art of your pain, and for once I will enjoy it.

end communication

All that remained was for the ships to return.

OOC: A few posts would be much appreciated. After all, it does take time to marshal 1000 ships, no matter how advanced your communication and FTL is. Let my cat play with his mouse for a bit. ;)

IC: "Corvette and three fighters inbound, vectoring towards Conditional Honesty." Chloë's disembodied voice reported flatly. Chrraal-Captain had almost no patience for the flippancy and playfulness that characterized most Aletian AI's, and had had those characteristics stripped from Chloë's personality core.

"Schadenfreude, move to support. Chairemachia, stay with me. All attack craft, launch immediately and stand by in formation."

The frigate Schadenfreude maneuvered several hundred meters above Conditional Honesty, ready to combine its firepower with its sister-ship, as Plains Stalker and Chairemachia steamed straight ahead after the freighters.

"Point defense online," Conditional Honesty's captain, an Eldren named Amaranth dal Maegil, said crisply as the blips on his sensor screen drew closer. "Kinetics, load birdshot and fire at will."

The kinetic point defense cannons of both frigates spat clouds of ball-bearing-sized lumps of tungsten like relativistic shotguns, straight into the path of the incoming mole fighters. The birdshot analogy was quite apt, as the operating principle of the weapon focused not on individual projectile power, but the fact that the large spread made it difficult for an oncoming enemy to avoid plowing into a cloud of relativistic hurt.

The fighters survived the attack, but were forced to abort their attack run.


' Mayday! Mayday! This is Corvette Ranger 1 of Mole Convoy 33 alpha! Our convoy is under attack by hostile forces. We are outnumbered and cannot hold out for much longer... This signal will repeat'

Aboard the Ranger 2 The Captain realised a new plan was needed. 'Alpha squadron. Go after those attack craft. They are the biggest threat at the moment.'

Immediately the 3 fighters targetted 3 different attack craft and launched a proton torpedo at each before closing in on them to attack with turbo lasers. The Ranger 2 stayed back, looking to bear down on any attack craft that dared to advance on freighters


' Mayday! Mayday! This is Corvette Ranger 1 of Mole Convoy 33 alpha! Our convoy is under attack by hostile forces. We are outnumbered and cannot hold out for much longer... This signal will repeat'

The distress call only got two repetitions out before it was smothered in a deluge of jamming static from the Chairemachia.

Unfortunately for the Hyper fighters, the five attack craft were holding a V formation 100 meters under the belly of the Plains Stalker, which meant they were quite squarely in the protective zone of all of the Stalker's and the Chairemachia's point defense. The proton torpedoes were vaporized the instant they came within half a light-second of their intended targets. The attack craft scattered from their formation and launched retaliatory missiles of their own, while the two frigates blazed away at the fighters with birdshot, single projectiles and point defense lasers.

The distress call only got two repetitions out before it was smothered in a deluge of jamming static from the Chairemachia.

Unfortunately for the Hyper fighters, the five attack craft were holding a V formation 100 meters under the belly of the Plains Stalker, which meant they were quite squarely in the protective zone of all of the Stalker's and the Chairemachia's point defense. The proton torpedoes were vaporized the instant they came within half a light-second of their intended targets. The attack craft scattered from their formation and launched retaliatory missiles of their own, while the two frigates blazed away at the fighters with birdshot, single projectiles and point defense lasers.

The Fighters tried to evade, but they were just outnumbered. As the once smooth and sleekly 'carved' metal exploded and atomised in front of them, the Corvettes knew the game was up.

'Ranger 2, follow my lead. Beta flight group, standby for further instructions'

The two corvettes flew up level with each other, then swung about to present the rear of the ships to their attackers. They then matched the speed of the freighters and followed

OOC: Just let me know when my fleet can show up. ;)

"Hey! Wait! Where are ya goin'?" Yelled Cap'n Draag, as his 'supposed' allies fled the field of battle.

"Cap'n, where are these reinforcements we were promised?"

"I don't know, but it's starting to look like we're fucked. But I'm going down fighting! All batteries, concentrate on the Cargo vessels!"

OOC: I'll prolly be gone today sorry, but to kick it off!
IC

Just then, the horror the captain of the Powerbroker had been worried about appeared. More than one hundred kilometers away, two behemoths emerged, each one 38 Km in length. The Greywatch fleet had to immediately bring engines to full just to keep from being pulled into the gravataional disturbance caused by the ships. After dropping out, they waited for a minute and then moved to their companions. Then an open communication:

<Reinforcements have arrived.>

This was it, the Worldslayers were here.

OOC2: These things can't actually destroy worlds single handedly; their just powerful, armored, shielded, decked out monstrousities that are more-or-less unscanable. The reason why they're so hard to scan: Special material the armor and hull is made out of and the vast amount of energy they put out to a scanner is like standing in a well-lit room with night vision goggles.

Chrraal-Captain tapped the master gunnery pod intercom holokey with his index claw. "Conditional Honesty and Schadenfreude laser batteries," his voice grated harshly across the gunnery pods of all four vessels, "acquire targets on aft sections of Corvette One and fire at will. Plains Stalker and Chairemachia, do the same for Corvette Two. Helm, increase speed and close."

Assisted by sensor data fed to their consoles by Chloë, the Aletian gunners painted the engine ports of the mole corvettes and began zapping away with their x-ray lasers, sweeping the beams back and forth across the corvettes' trajectory.

Chrraal-Captain tapped the master gunnery pod intercom holokey with his index claw. "Conditional Honesty and Schadenfreude laser batteries," his voice grated harshly across the gunnery pods of all four vessels, "acquire targets on aft sections of Corvette One and fire at will. Plains Stalker and Chairemachia, do the same for Corvette Two. Helm, increase speed and close."

Assisted by sensor data fed to their consoles by Chloë, the Aletian gunners painted the engine ports of the mole corvettes and began zapping away with their x-ray lasers, sweeping the beams back and forth across the corvettes' trajectory.

Although fighting bravely - Missiles firing and turbo lasers blasting, the corvettes were no match for their enemies. Rapidly, the outdated sheild technology collapsing rapidily. A chain reaction of explosions shortly followed blowing the ships to pieces. There were no survivors.

The 3 fighters still weren't subdued. They targetted the Plains Stalker and fired a volley, between the 3, 12 torpedoes before withdraw for a second torpedo run.

Kongo

Commodore Bubble squinted at his monitors. "Seems even more of them have arrived. Big ones too. They probably expect us to start squawking or to get out of the area."

A weapons technician nodded, tapping some buttons. Another sensor suite came online and the gain was adjusted. "Ah, there. Primary scans were being disrupted. Lets see.." Several information panels popped up on his screen as aspects of the big ships were highlighted. The computers made guesses and estimations about payloads and handling characteristics. "Big but slow and unmanuverable. Computers say a ship over 30,000 meters in length could take nearly an hour to turn. Also, it seems to be made out of some sort of special hull materials. I don't know why they think they can make a ship that big and have it not read on scanners. Space dust alone pockmarks hulls and ruins stealth profiles."

The Commodore smirked, "It's amazing how much you can learn just by watching. Continue to scan and keep the jammers going. If they attack us simply for being here, then we'll reply."

Orders were being given out to different section of the initial Greywatch force. Star Shadows were still in cloak and very good for handling anything unwanted. The Worldslayer actually had two different objectives. One was to handle the pirates, the other to serve as backup and look pretty, essentially telling anyone hostile to piss off. The other towo ships sat in front of the Blub ships and waited, they were already recieving further orders. Not just military, council given orders. Someone who was ballsy enough to think that sitting silent was a good idea when warships involved was a problem. A problem a Worldslayer was very good at dealing with. Despite the size of the ships, they were more than most would ever expect, Greywatch had been using these ships for years and several kinks that one would expect were virtually non-existant. This didn't mean the Worldslayers were perfect, just really useful and heavily modified. Both Worldslayers had to wait about five minutes before they could really do anything and when that time came, they would be ready for action.

Kongo

A few shards of armor and scrap metal from the fight glittered as they passed through Kongo's shielding. The computers determined the bits to be of no threat, and wasted no energy trying to slow them down. The scraps bounced off the hull and wobbled away, soon to be lost to the vastness of space.

The jamming continued, as did the scans. Watching and waiting.

The secondary Worldslayer was ready at this point. It wasn't slow and clumsey like most large ships, it just made everything.... bigger. Bigger turns, bigger manuvers... etc. For this reason, the Greywatch military decided some 'special' had to be put inside every Worldslayer to help it when it needed to move short distances in a short amount of time... a 'blink generator,' or rather, many blink generators. The secondary Worldslayer spent about a minute charging the multiple generators brfore essentially disappearing in a flash of light, only to appear 'over' its own and the Blub ships. The captains of the other ships only smirked as they saw the collosus sitting over them, only about a half of kilometer from touching them.

The reason why they're so hard to scan: Special material the armor and hull is made out of and the vast amount of energy they put out to a scanner is like standing in a well-lit room with night vision goggles.

OOC: That defense wouldn't quite hold up against the Aletian mentality of "Hey, a new sun just appeared on our scanners, let's throw missiles at it!" :p

IC:
Schadenfreude lost a weapons pod to a missile that found its way through its point defense, and each frigate gained a few scorch marks on their hulls from the corvettes' turbolasers, but since their point defenses were all controlled primarily by their respective AI's, little more made it through the gauntlet.

The initial salvo of torpedos, as well, suddenly found itself the center of attention of four frigates' worth of PD, and met the same fate as before. The Stalker's five attack craft left their protected space between the four frigates and sped after the fighters, ready to unleash their payloads of bomb-missiles and conventional missiles as soon as they closed to a decent range.

Plains Stalker, meanwhile, fired a single missile ahead and detonated it off the lead freighter's bow. A video transmission was sent in the missile's wake, showing Chrraal-Captain's fearsome visage.

We have rendered you defenseless. Cut your engines immediately and prepare to recieve our boarding parties.

The transmission suddenly cut to a view of Amaranth dal Maegil's much less intimidating face.

Cooperate with us, and there will be no need to harm any of you. We want your cargo, not your blood, though we will not hesitate to spill it if you give us reason to.

Somehow, the Eldren's pleasant and melodic voice made the warning seem even more chilling.

OOC: That defense wouldn't quite hold up against the Aletian mentality of "Hey, a new sun just appeared on our scanners, let's throw missiles at it!" :p

Schadenfreude

OOC1: That's only for scans; the armor, hull, size, and shielding needs to be taken into account: "Hey look, a barrage of missiles... okay, let's fire back twice as much and mow everything down!"
OOC2: Thankyou for naming your ship after an Avenue Q song. :D

Kongo

Commodore Bubble glanced towards a display showing one of the big ships as it made a jump closer. "Ensign, please make note of the time. Unidentified warship Gamma Six has made a hostile movement into our area. Close note."

"Aye sir!"

"Weapons."

"Sir?"

"Let them know we don't view these moves as friendly. Spool up the defensive buffer."

"Aye sir."

Dozens of ports opened up along the emerald colored ship's length. Stubby quad barrels were revealed on three-axis mounts. The barrels began to fire their payloads. The munitions traveled approximately two kilometers out before exploding in a semi-circle. The charges were filled with a dense metal of the same type Kongo was made of as well as small static pods. All around Kongo, this wall of shrapnel and sensor-degrating materials formed a buffer zone. Effectively, a flak shield designed to dissipate incoming laser fire, or explode munitions before they arrive.

The flak guns fired twice more, thickening the buffer before disappearing behind their armored shields again.

Still, Kongo sat silent. Watching.

OOC: That defense wouldn't quite hold up against the Aletian mentality of "Hey, a new sun just appeared on our scanners, let's throw missiles at it!" :p

IC:
Schadenfreude lost a weapons pod to a missile that found its way through its point defense, and each frigate gained a few scorch marks on their hulls from the corvettes' turbolasers, but since their point defenses were all controlled primarily by their respective AI's, little more made it through the gauntlet.

The initial salvo of torpedos, as well, suddenly found itself the center of attention of four frigates' worth of PD, and met the same fate as before. The Stalker's five attack craft left their protected space between the four frigates and sped after the fighters, ready to unleash their payloads of bomb-missiles and conventional missiles as soon as they closed to a decent range.

Plains Stalker, meanwhile, fired a single missile ahead and detonated it off the lead freighter's bow. A video transmission was sent in the missile's wake, showing Chrraal-Captain's fearsome visage.


The transmission suddenly cut to a view of Amaranth dal Maegil's much less intimidating face.


Somehow, the Eldren's pleasant and melodic voice made the warning seem even more chilling.

The fighters, not really wanting to die, abandoned the convoy. What could they do? They flew away from the scene and started charging there hyperdrives.

We have rendered you defenseless. Cut your engines immediately and prepare to recieve our boarding parties.

Cooperate with us, and there will be no need to harm any of you. We want your cargo, not your blood, though we will not hesitate to spill it if you give us reason to.

The freighters were still a fair distance away from their hyperjump point - But they weren't going to just roll over. They ignored the threat and just kept on moving.

A second missile was fired, not off the freighter's bow, but streaking straight towards the freighter's hull. Blowing the pressure on one of the freighter's decks was deemed an acceptable risk, since it most likely wouldn't affect the cargo; and if the crew were unable to seal off the breached area before their blood vessels exploded, then the boarders would have that much less to worry about.

OOC: It wasn't supposed to be named after the song, but you're welcome anyway. :D

A second missile was fired, not off the freighter's bow, but streaking straight towards the freighter's hull. Blowing the pressure on one of the freighter's decks was deemed an acceptable risk, since it most likely wouldn't affect the cargo; and if the crew were unable to seal off the breached area before their blood vessels exploded, then the boarders would have that much less to worry about.

OOC: It wasn't supposed to be named after the song, but you're welcome anyway. :D

Fortuately, The freighters sheilds were enough to absorb the missile - this time.

The freighters continued with there suicide crawl towards the jump point - undettered by this threat.

The Worldslayer shields took a little of the flak as it came in but nothing that wasn't expected. Worldslayer got put through their paces whenever they did anything. And with good reason.

"So they scan us, we tell them we view it as hostile, and then when we blink they fire? Oh well... I was hoping they'd be smarter..." Said one of the captains of the Worldslayer, a young human female. In the deat beside her was a Leanorian male, he ran his hand through his mane. He was silent and sorrowful before finally speaking, "Put a message through, target their engines with 50 of our antimatter cannons. Also, bring only any railguns and plasma turrets... then fire simutanious shots. Activate any tractor beams close enough and hold them." The head tactical and comms officers nodded. The girl looked over at her companion, "Wait a minute, let's say we give them one last chance, for Greywatch code sake..." The Leanorian shrugged, "Do what you wish but if anything tries to destroy the ship..." The transmission went through:

<You scanned military ships in an active warzone for undefined purposes, one could only assume for use in future attacks on our kind. You were confronted and asked to identify and you rejected both attempts to rectify the situation peacefully. You now have a very important decision to make, either you identify now, or you will be seen as an enemy that must be destroyed in order to preserve the future of my nation.>

Immediately after the message, tractor beams locked in on the ship and the engines were targeted as weapons came online across the 'belly' of the Worldslayer. This would be the final chance, Greywatch had already been through too much crap in the past from other races to let something like this slide.

OOC: Sigh. Please read the post. It's a flak screen, not an actual attack. It's a defensive measure that puts a wall of munitions and shrapnel between Kongo and incoming missiles/lasers.

Repost or edit please?

OOC: Sigh. Please read the post. It's a flak screen, not an actual attack. It's a defensive measure that puts a wall of munitions and shrapnel between Kongo and incoming missiles/lasers.

Repost or edit please?

OOC: ANd you're somehow expecting that NONE of it will hit me? I'll edit but it'll still be seen as an attack.

OOC: It's not moving very fast, Greywatch, it's supposed to be a stationary wall of junk (from what I understand).

OOC: Not fast but still moving. One, there's nothing to slow it down and two, scanning military vessels makes people paranoid. Also, 2km outwards, I'm 500m over you. Unless you mean you fired no flak in the direction of the Worldslayer, it will hit.

OOC: And you're half a kilometer away on a ship bigger than Manhattan island. You shouldn't have any reason to be afraid. :p

OOC: Not fast but still moving. One, there's nothing to slow it down and two, scanning military vessels makes people paranoid. Also, 2km outwards, I'm 500m over you. Unless you mean you fired no flak in the direction of the Worldslayer, it will hit.

OOC: Heck. If you had said you got within even 25k of me, I'd likely have fired. 500m is INSANELY close in space.

*Taps fingers together*

OOC: And you're half a kilometer away on a ship bigger than Manhattan island. You shouldn't have any reason to be afraid. :p

OOC: They're worried about themselves? Hell no, they're worried about the info gathered on their fellow ships.

OOC: Heck. If you had said you got within even 25k of me, I'd likely have fired. 500m is INSANELY close in space.

OOC: Point being, unless you fired all that flak in the opposite direction of the WS, it will hit. Or if you want to edit the 'traveled 2km part' that'll solve this faster.

OOC: Can we save all this OOC discussion for the relevant thread?

Kongo

"Tractor beams? Don't they realize our shielding won't allow for a tractor beam to lock on?" The tractor beam would however, grab masses of the shrapnel floating around. Clusters of the metal and jammer pods were sucked up into the tractors. The tractors being set to attempt to grab a multi-million ton warship, they more than likely would suck in the shrapnel with incredible force.. probably enough to damage the emitters.

Kongo rolled slightly along its axis to hide the engines as the Worldslayer locked on. The rolling of the ship prevented the Worldslayer from trying to blast through any one section of shielding, and spread the damage out.


"Note the time, Ensign. Enemy warship has locked onto us after entering flak buffer."

"Aye sir."

"Helm, Extend range. This ship is too close to use our missiles. Weapons on standby."

Armor shielding slid open, weapons bays and pods exposed now. The 65mm cannons were meant for deploying the buffer and engaging fighters, but at this ultra-close range they would be useful. The quadguns locked onto weapons on Worldslayer and waited.

As Kongo pushed forward, it began a gentle 'dive' to distance itself from the enemy ship. With more distance being opened up, some of the quadguns began to launch a new flak buffer.

OOC: Can we save all this OOC discussion for the relevant thread?

OOC: Agreed, I'll post anything further there

Kongo

"Tractor beams? Don't they realize our shielding won't allow for a tractor beam to lock on?" The tractor beam would however, grab masses of the shrapnel floating around. Clusters of the metal and jammer pods were sucked up into the tractors. The tractors being set to attempt to grab a multi-million ton warship, they more than likely would suck in the shrapnel with incredible force.. probably enough to damage the emitters.

Kongo rolled slightly along its axis to hide the engines as the Worldslayer began to fire. Many of the shots encountered the debris littering the buffer zone between the two ships, while others hit the shield and were either stopped cold or slowed to such a point that the impacts dented and pockmarked Kongo's hull. The rolling of the ship prevented the Worldslayer from trying to blast through any one section of shielding, and spread the damage out.

Worldslayer's plasma seemed to have better luck against the shielding, as the shields were programmed to allow most of it to slip past. The plasma hit the green hull and scorched it, diffusing most of the energy and leaving long patches of melted armor, effectively blunting the attacks and weathering them.

"Note the time, Ensign. Enemy warship has fired upon us after entering flak buffer."

"Aye sir."

"Helm, Extend range. This ship is too close to use our missiles. Weapons are cleared to fire."

Armor shielding slid open, weapons bays and pods exposed now. Streams of glowing tracers poured upwards at Worldslayer from the quadguns. The 65mm cannons were meant for deploying the buffer and engaging fighters, but at this ultra-close range they would be useful. The quadguns focused their firepower, often 10 or more of them firing at individual weapons on Worldslayer to try and knock them out.

As Kongo pushed forward, it began a gentle 'dive' to distance itself from the enemy ship. Large dual-purpose autocannons began to open up. The equivilent of the big guns on blue-water battleships, the huge autocannons pumped their ballistic multi-ton shells towards Worldslayer's belly.

With more distance being opened up, some of the quadguns began to launch a new flak buffer, firing their payloads like shotguns towards the mouths of the Worldslayer's guns.

OOC: Hate to do this... Check OOC thread.

"For the love of..." Amaranth sighed and shut his eyes as the missile broke harmlessly on the freighter's shield. When Kzinti aren't using much too much firepower, they're not using nearly enough!

"Andromache, fire missiles at that freighter until the shields are down, but only enough to crack the hull."

"Aye aye, Herr Captain Sir!"

In contrast to Chloë, who had been altered to suit the more simple and brutal Kzinti battle mentality, Andromache was bubbly and imaginative like most all other Aletian AI's. She, unlike Chloë, did not need the nuances and parameters of her orders dictated to her.

Three dozen missiles streaked from the Conditional Honesty in a group, and one by one began hurling themselves onto the transport's shields.

"Chrraal-Captain," the Eldren said over the pack-wide intercom, "if all four of us close in as much as we can, we can catch these freighters in our combined EM fields and slow them down. If shooting at them will not convince them to halt of their own free will, then we must give them no other choice."

"Urrrr," Chrraal-Captain's purr rumbled over the intercom's static. Amaranth knew that the big Kzin did not like his subordinate captains suggesting better tactics to him, but they were going to lose this catch if they didn't try another tack; Chrraal-Captain realized this as well.

"Do it," came the gruff reply, followed by a click as the connection was cut. Amaranth breathed a sigh of relief, then began issuing the necessary commands.

The attack craft, being faster and more maneuverable over short distances, broke off their pursuit of the fighters and bracketed the freighter group, leisurely dropping missiles onto their shields at short range.

"For the love of..." Amaranth sighed and shut his eyes as the missile broke harmlessly on the freighter's shield. When Kzinti aren't using much too much firepower, they're not using nearly enough!

"Andromache, fire missiles at that freighter until the shields are down, but only enough to crack the hull."

"Aye aye, Herr Captain Sir!"

In contrast to Chloë, who had been altered to suit the more simple and brutal Kzinti battle mentality, Andromache was bubbly and imaginative like most all other Aletian AI's. She, unlike Chloë, did not need the nuances and parameters of her orders dictated to her.

Three dozen missiles streaked from the Conditional Honesty in a group, and one by one began hurling themselves onto the transport's shields.

"Chrraal-Captain," the Eldren said over the pack-wide intercom, "if all four of us close in as much as we can, we can catch these freighters in our combined EM fields and slow them down. If shooting at them will not convince them to halt of their own free will, then we must give them no other choice."

"Urrrr," Chrraal-Captain's purr rumbled over the intercom's static. Amaranth knew that the big Kzin did not like his subordinate captains suggesting better tactics to him, but they were going to lose this catch if they didn't try another tack; Chrraal-Captain realized this as well.

"Do it," came the gruff reply, followed by a click as the connection was cut. Amaranth breathed a sigh of relief, then began issuing the necessary commands.

The attack craft, being faster and more maneuverable over short distances, broke off their pursuit of the fighters and bracketed the freighter group, leisurely dropping missiles onto their shields at short range.

After the 6th missile the sheilds failed. The 7th hit the hull, ripping straight through it. The overall damage was minor so the ship limped along clumsily.

The other two frieghters continued their course despite the missile barrage from the attack craft. The fighters had long since entered hyperspace with their tails between their legs.

"The hull's breached, grab that one!" Amaranth snapped into the intercom. Andromache gave an over-exaggerated cackle as she divided her remaining missiles among the other two freighters, using the same tactic as she had on the first.

The EM field projectors on each frigate hummed as they reached out to the damaged freighter with invisible fingers, meshing it in a net of magnetic field lines and starting to pull steadily against the freighter's forward motion.

Onboard the Payload 3 The command module was chaos. Alarms were flashing, the crew terrified. Suddenly, as the EM field took effect and the ships systems failed, the alarms ceased as did the lights. And life suppport. Although the ship had sufficent air and heat to keep the crew alive for 3 hours, they feared they would not live that long...

Outside, the disabled frieghter gradully slowed under the influence of the frigates. The other two quickly had there sheilds breached and were helpless to resist the fate of their stricken comrade

"We have her, Captain," reported one of Amaranth's techs via intercom. "The field seems to have disabled all of her systems - I guess they didn't shield their electronics - but we'll have her well before the rest of her air runs out."

"Extend field to rein in those other two," the Eldren said, relieved beyond measure that his stratagem had worked.

"Well done, Amaranth-Captain," came Chrraal-Captain's harsh voice on another channel. It was the only acknowledgment of his success he was ever going to get from the Kzin, but he accepted that. "Prepare your boarders and accompany them personally."

"Yes, sir," he said, and switched off. "Lock and load, everybody," he said simply to his own crew as he rose from his creche, stretching the muscles he hadn't used in over 30 Penumbran hours. "Andromache, you have the ship." He took up his two weapon belts from their rack next to his creche and clipped them on, then descended from the command nest into the pod where the rest of his 20 boarders were assembling.

"We are ready for battle," snarled Sergeant, the Kzin in charge of the boarding party, as he raked his claws in front of his face in salute.

Amaranth merely nodded to him as he gave the cue to Andromache to launch the boarding pod.

The 3 freighters drifted onwards gracefully. Disabled. Helpless. Weaponless. They could do nothing but wait. And pray. Pray that the promised Imperial reinforcements would arrive in time.

Admiral Galcian and the 3rd fleet dropped out of hyperspace. With engines at max, they surged towards the battle.

"We miscalculated the jump Admiral. We're two minutes from weapons range."

"Best speed. Power weapons. Ready the moon cannon."

To Pirate vessels

Surrender immediatly or taste the firepower of the 3rd Imperial Armada. More are on the way. Surrender is your only chance for survival. If you refuse to comply, we shall take no prisoners.

Message ends

The fleet blasted towards the battle...

The immediate response the Imperial armada received was a 2-second video transmission of Chrraal-Captain's jaws opened in full battle-scream, which then cut off abruptly.

"Recall all craft and engage panic protocol!" the irate Kzin howled in his native Hero's Tongue, too enraged to use Standard. Fortunately, most of his crew understood the snarling hiss-spitting tongue.

The EM fields, which had been reeling the mole freighters in like fish on a line, suddenly let them go and yanked the attack craft and Amaranth's boarding pod back aboard their respective parent vessels. All four Aletian warships fired a volley of missiles in the Armada's direction - almost five hundred missiles total - and fired a good burst from each of their laser batteries for good measure. Each Aletian captain then pounded their panic button, which opened an emergency spatial rift straight back to the Penumbra and flung their ship through it - but not before, as a parting gift, each stricken mole freighter got a dozen missiles fired at it as well.

A single short transmission to the Imperials followed the first:

Had you not interfered, the lives of these freighters' crews would have been spared. Let their deaths be on your conscience.

OOC: And so ends that little vignette. Let me say for the record that Chrraal-Captain and his people were supposed to embody the Aletes at their darkest and most violent - don't expect nearly so much aggression from them as a general rule.

The 3 freighters were no match for the missiles and were ripped apart. Again leaving no survivors. 8 Ships had been destroyed in under 30 minutes. Not a good day at the office for Moleland today.

"Bastards!"

Final Transmission

You have made a very powerful enemy. You will be hunted down and exterminated. Please find enclosed in this transmission a subspace virus that will hamper your systems all the way home. You will rue this day.

End transmission

"Inform Moleland of what happened here. They may be interested in the hunt as well."

"Well shit..." Said one of the captains of the leading Worldslayer. "Comms, send a message to the transports, tell them to dock now. Tell all other ships to begin heading home. We'll remain here for the moment." Like that that all the other Greywatch ships began to get into position and open PSR rifts out of the area.

And the virus might indeed have hampered their systems, had they still been remotely in the stellar vicinity to receive it. As it was, nothing remained of their presence but the expanding debris clouds of the ships they had destroyed.

----------

Dardanus Riley was a missile gunner on the Sub Rosa, one of O'Brannack's frigates. At the touch of a key, a hundred laser-pumping bomb-missiles would leap from the pods slaved to his console and scream towards their targets at upper hyperkinetic speeds before detonating their fission warheads and using the resulting cloud of radiation to focus high-powered x-ray lasers on up to two dozen different targets per missile in the millisecond before the laser rods were vaporized along with the rest of the missile; it was the kind of destructive power that might go to any man's head if he had it at his fingertips.

But, seeing as how Aletians as a society were perfectly accustomed to throwing kilotons of blam around like marbles, and how a missile system was the least destructive thing a frigate gunner could be put in charge of, the fact that he had the ability to reduce most small moons to glowing balls of radiation went right over his aching head.

"Christ Jesus, can I stop staring at this fucking thing already?" he groaned, tilting his head back as far as he could while strapped into his combat crèche. His immediate companion was far too small to see that way, strapped into its back-to-back crèche as it was, but Dardanus didn’t care. "Surely there’s a bad guy in there somewhere amongst the clusterfucking, can we just figure out who he is so I can shoot something?"

“You want to go out and call attention to yourself in the middle of that?” came the tinny reply through Chester’s translator, as the little Zap pointed with one of its four appendages to the hundreds of ships slugging it out on its console screen. “I’ll tell the Captain, she can give you a nice boost through one of the missile tubes.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Dardanus grumbled, shifting in his creche as best he could. He and his gunmates had been lying more or less immobile since the pack had nosed into the area, almost 78 Penumbran hours earlier, only to be forced to sit still for hours more at the first sign of something interesting and watch. To Dardanus, the Imperials’ brushing aside their offer of assistance and galloping off into the slugfest had been a downright dick move. Most positively inconsiderate! he thought to himself, in the British accent he usually used for some reason when thinking to himself.

“You boys sit tight down there,” Captain dal Sarnlossen interrupted on the intercom, sweet-sounding voice belying the iron in her tone. “I have had my fill of sitting and watching as well, but it only takes one of those stuffed shirts with a jumpy trigger finger to turn us into a puff of particles in the solar wind.” The Eldren mercenary captain sighed. "Seems all we can do is keep watching and wait for something to crop up."

OOC: You know, that is rather unfair. Hitting and running is rather cowardly. You could have at least let me have a shot at them.

OOC: If you had 4 frigates and were suddenly faced with an entire armada, would you do any differently? Besides, hit and run is what pirates do. If you want them to stick around, make them think they have a chance of winning, otherwise they'll just bolt.

By the way, I don't expect my parting shots to do any damage, since you have plenty of space to shoot them down or maneuver out of the way, so you can ignore them.

OOC: Ah whatever. It has no effect on the main story anyway.

Soon, the only ship left was the main Worldslayer. Apparently the fleet had been too busy to notice it, if it got no message in the next few minutes, it would activate PSR and jump back to Greywatch. The transports were already 75% done wiht the docking process so there wasn't too much of a reaosn to hang around.

OOC: If you had 4 frigates and were suddenly faced with an entire armada, would you do any differently? Besides, hit and run is what pirates do. If you want them to stick around, make them think they have a chance of winning, otherwise they'll just bolt.

By the way, I don't expect my parting shots to do any damage, since you have plenty of space to shoot them down or maneuver out of the way, so you can ignore them.

OOC: It's not the hitting and running thats the problem - but the fact you have disappeared without a trace ;)

The star-gate upon Shriash was at the end of a specially dug trench, with stone-clad walls on either side, with guards; ten dedicated gate-guards, from the special unit established by Atum, and dozens of others in elaborate hawk-helms and without them, holding their long staff weapons, and heavy, tripod-mounted guns. Even a few fortified towers were erected, to prevent any but the most determined assault breaching the citadel. Wepwawet stepped out of the rippling portal, confidently ignoring the guns trained upon him, walking along the trench, accompanied by two dozen of his elite guards.

He himself was broad, dark skinned, and tattooed, clad only in a kilt, and a high helm like those of his guards, but more wolf-like than theirs, and silvery white. His guards, fully armoured and armed, wore black helms, doglike, with green tassels and ribbons, their long ears depicting them as jackals.

The trench was part of an elaborate palace upon Shriash, a heavily fortified outpost world. Atum’s domain was mostly within a dense glob of stars moderately distant from the galactic disk – not insurmountable, but it meant there were not direct neighbours. On the other hand, Shriash was within the galaxy itself, and thus a staging point. Its military population was five times its civilian, with a quarter of a million soldiers, and seven mother ships upon the planet, and docks that controlled scores of small hyperspace capable cargo ships – little more than long range shuttles – that could serve for transport for emissaries and spies, many of them upgraded with cloaking devices.

Wepwawet strode down the trench, and up a set of stairs around a corner, protected from direct fire, where ranks of hawk-headed guards saluted. From the courtyard above, he could see further lines of redundant defence, but it was simple to stride through the gatehouse, and into the courtyard of the stargate-fortress, looking down at the settlement below. A landed mothership towered hundreds of meters into the air, taking on new fuel and personnel from a vast black tower, and in the distance, huge, flat sided pyramids dwarfed the settlement that clustered for miles in an overlapping mess of temples, barracks, and palaces.

Although Atum had phrased it ‘your world’ and Wepwawet held the majority of the fleet in orbit, he was not the governor, an honour which was held by High Lady Anuket. He would have to make a brief stop there to explain why he was leaving the system; it was not required, and he could have done it from his ship, but either would not show the fully courteous form, and to do so save in emergency, would slight Anuket, who would in turn do him some petty dishonour. Though Atum had stopped them now, fueds had started over less.

Therefore, he would stop at the palace of the governess, guarded by her own personal guard, which, like Wepwawet’s, differed from the ordinary hawk-helmed Horus Guard of Atum, these, wearing ornate gazelle helms. He paused, gesturing to three of his guards, “To the embarkation tower,” he said, nodding the faux-head of his helmet towards a massive black monolith that towered hundreds of meters into the air over the city, “prepare my ship and two others to leave. And order six tel’tak and three al’kesh embarked per vessel.”

They saluted, and began to run towards the teleportation tower.

When it took so long to get anything done, it was as well to start early.

He had been slighted, worse he had been forced to withdraw taking losses without gain. This alone raised his ire, but to blow your ships before fighting had even begun, it denied him even the chance to gain a prize, even worse through was the fact it led to the pointless death of Kionashi, of his people. That was unforgivable in his eyes; to die in the attempt of taking a prize was one thing, to die so pointlessly, and to lose the Spirit Stones of his people in that manner, his blood boiled.

He had made an oath and he would see it through, but as things stood he was not enough, so he sent out the call, along the web messengers ran, or flew, joining other Corsair bands and carrying the news. Promises where made, and favours called due, and soon a humble Duke had coming to his aid a fleet that even a Shadow Prince could only dream of.

His plan was simple, to engage a fleet directly would not give him what he sought, the enemy destroyed before capture could be achieved. So he would approach the issue from a different angle, f capturing s ship, and by extension it’s crew was impossible he would have that crew surrender to him, and to their fate willingly. He had thought long about the battle, and the number of Mon-Keigh Pirates had been strange, that fleet was too large, even he would not usually keep his entire band in a region hunting down vessels, most of his ships had been present because he had been seeking conquest rather than a prize. That many ships therefore spoke of something staged, something planned, which spoke to him of coming problems.

He thought back on his histories, once long ago, the Kionashi of Tor Yvresse, his home, had paid a group of Pirates on the Planet Mars, to cause trouble on a neighbour, to raid them, and weaken them for the war that the Kionashi planned. It was not so unconceivable that the same was occurring here, that someone was planning to attack this Imperial Navy’s worlds and had hired Pirates to begin the weakening, to probe their defences and drain a few vessels away. If this were the case then they would likely move soon, reveal themselves, and when they did, he would offer them his services for a fee, and join the war.

One did not insult a Corsair the way he had been and not suffer the consequences.

OOC: Now THAT's how you RP!
Draag was growing impatient. There was no sign of the promised reinforcements, his employer had fallen silent, and the Imperial vessels were closing in all around him.

"Dammit!"

"Cap'n! Unidentified signal approaching!"

A short distance from the pirate fleet, a HUGE vessel dropped out of hyperspace. It was the Eternum.

"Sensor mask online Admiral."

"Good. Gregory won't know what we're up to."

"Eternum cannon ready Admiral!"

"Fire on the pirate flagship."

A charge of white energy powered up in the cannon. Aboard the pirate flagship, Draag looked in horror as the ship locked onto him.

"I recognise that ship... YOU BASTARD! YOU BETRA..."

Draag was obliterated by the blast as it completely destroyed all biological matter at a cellular level. The ship was left lifeless, drifting in space.

"A perfect test run. Take us back to Earth. The Emperor will be pleased."

Aboard the Infinity, Gregory slumped in his chair, shocked.

"A bioweapon! It goes against everything I believe in... Did you ID the ship?"

"Negative, my lord. It was masking it's ID, and it's shape matches no known vessel."

The comm officer turned.

"My Lord, the pirate fleet is fleeing!"

"I'm going to take this up with the Emperor. In the meantime, take us back to Earth. We're sheduled for shore leave."

There was a cheer among the crew.

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

"Admiral Yarris? Report."

"Yes my Emperor. The test of the Eternum cannon was a success. No one recognised the ship, and the only one who knew has been silenced."

"Good. What is Lord Gregory's status?"

"He is returning to Earth my Emperor. He suspects nothing."

"I trust this little 'distraction' I set up has allowed you time to purge the files relating to the alternate incident?"

"Yes. Gregory will never learn the truth."

"I am glad I chose you for the job. In the meantime, take command of the Eternum. Take it to the Tydus system and await orders."

"Yes my Emperor. Yarris out."

OOC: It's not the hitting and running thats the problem - but the fact you have disappeared without a trace ;)

OOC: And if Imperial wants to RP that his ships were able to get a glimpse of what was on the other side of the spatial rifts Chrraal and his people opened, and calculate possible destinations based on the astronomical patterns they saw, he's quite perfectly welcome. ;) Or some other way of figuring out where a spatial rift might have led to after it's been closed. That's entirely up to him if he cares enough, and I won't stop him.

The remaining Greywatch ship saw and recorded the weapon as well as the ship that fired it before activating PSR and jumping out of the area. This would have to be looked into later on...

OOC: Ok thats the end of this part. All who took part are invited to the spinoff thread, to which I will post a link here shortly.

Spin off thread is up!

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=561804