NationStates Jolt Archive

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TEEF Frigate - Wandering Muse - Bridge
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The captain of the "Wandering Muse" checked the chronometer for the sixth time in what seemed forever, but was really just the last two hours. He hated these long-haul trade runs. Often they were forced to cross the whole length of some star systems to find the next suitable slipstream point, and that made for long hours of boring monotony. If the Home Office would just allow them to requisition ships with those purchased warp drives, things would go so much more smoothly; but Noooooo, they say antimatter and dilithium are too expensive. Damn middle management. Checking the chrono one more time, Tensan exhaled a deep sigh. What he wouldn't give for some action. Something, anything to relieve the boredom he felt right now.


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Unnamed System
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The convoy was enroute to Telrosian space to deliver a shipment of cargo they had purchased recently. The voyage was expected to take three days, each way. This was the second day of the voyage, and the twelve transports were faring well. Escorting the civvie ships was a small task force of six frigates and one destroyer to act as flagship. Their latest jump took them into a trinary system, and the next slipstream point was a good eight hours away. Even travelling at 40 PSL, the trip seemed to be taking forever.

Black Heart, Raptor 5

The Raptor sat in the cold darkness of space, hidden in an debris field, as it waited for its targets to appear. Inside the raptor was two humans, they were mercenaries from the Black Vulkars, a group of individuals that had originally banded together to fight for profit now there origisation spanned several galxies. The two humans inside the raptor were Corporal Nirahli and flying Officer Subatier so they were pretty low down on the rank structure however they both knew that this mission could make or brake them.
"DRADIS seems clear for the moment and has been so for the past two days, I think I am going to die of bordeom if we have to wait here any longer." Nirahli commented as she opened nibbled on a choclate bar.
"Patience Corporal, we must follow are orders, even if we arn't getting paid for this"
"Sir! Yes! Sir! So what do we do when we detect the convoy again?"
"Simple we send a transmission via the comms becon and wait for the ambush group to kick the convoy escorts ass" Suddenly sevearl sharp tones echoed through the raptors cockipt. "DRADIS contact! It's the convoy, corporal send the message, whislt I war the old bird up" Nirahli nooded fiercly as she typed the three word code into the message console.

To: Black Needle

Convoy Delta Gogogo


Black Vulkars Mercenaries Ship, Pillage and Burn, Ex-TCAF Light Corvette

As soon as the message was recived by the comms officer onboard the Pillage and Burn, it was tansmitted across the ships that were about to begin the ambush. The Light Corvette as the flagship, supported by four Arteims class escorts and fighter support provided by a carrier. A message rang out on all the speakers of the ships.
"Flag to black needle......FTL jump in 5....4....3....2....1....JUMP!"
With that the ships disapered in a blaze of light and re-aperead infront of the trader convoy.

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TEEF Destroyer - Restored Justice - Bridge
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Alarms went off on the small bridge as the Vulkar ships dropped into realspace dead ahead of the convoy. Already the shipmind of the TEEF Destroyer Restored Justice was launching sensor drones fromt he ship's bays, the tiny spheres pushed along by small gravitic drives to capture as broad a sensor angle as possible.
The tactical officer was shunting data into the holotank as it became available. "Captain! Six unknowns just jumped in in front of the convoy! They appear to be in battle formation!"

"Alert the transports to begin ordered retreat! Order the frigates to take up covering positions! Agamemnon, start charging the singularity barriers and starfires!" Nathaniel Bowers, the captain of the Restored Justice sat back in his station, feeling the neural jacks sliding into place at the base of his skull, then suddenly his awareness shifted. Now he was hovering, disembodied, at a point well outside the ship and away from the convoy. His brain was being fed data from the sensor systems of every ship in the small fleet, coordinated by each ship's Digital Entity. Silently he began issuing orders, which were either spoken or displayed by crewmembers' stations.

"Attention unidentified vessels! This is the destroyer Restored Justice, of the TRIAD Enterprises Expiditionary Fleet. State your identity and intentions immediately! If you do not comply within ten seconds we will open fire upon your ships!"


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Local Space - TRIAD Convoy
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As the orders passed down to each ship, the transports began turning on their axis to face away from the imminent confrontation, then plasma thrusters flared to full as gravitics were increased to deal with the sudden accelerations. The six frigates began charging their primary "Starfire" stellar plasma beams. Each was a spinal mount weapon designed to be mounted in cruiser-class turrets, and fired a three to five second duration beam of ultra-dense plasma, equivalent to that found on the surface of most stars. Going from normal condition to battle stations, it would take almost a full minute for a ship to charge it's singularity barriers, making the first moments of combat the most dangerous. Each frigate was charged with covering two of the transports, moving at high speeds to get into position to intercept any incoming fire aimed at the unarmed civvies. Meanwhile the destroyer was moving to the fore of the formation, facing off the unknowns while her weapons and barriers were being prepped.

BVMS Pillage and Burn, Ex-TCAF Light Corvette, CIC

"Flag to all ships, begin manuveres. Escorts are to run interference with the frigates, Narcasist is to launch Vipers and raptors! Target those Frigates, we will deal with the destroyer!" The voice of Colonel Marcus Bartholemew echoed over the ships speakers. The crews of the six ships jumped to follow through with the commands. The battle alarms ringing through the ships, crews maned their guns, pilots manned their vipers and damage control stood ready to respond. Then as soon as the order was given, it all began.

The four Arteims escorts kicked their torches up to full and shot off, closing on the frigates, firing off salvos with their main guns, launching shells across the gap of space towards the TEEF Frigates. The Carrier began launching vipers and raptors which streamed towards the escorting ships. Finnaly the Light Corvette began advancing at full speed, firing all of its main guns towards the TEEF Destroyer.

(OOC: Sorory for the crap post, it was rushed)

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TEEF Destroyer - Restored Justice - Bridge
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Nathaniel watched through drone senses as the unknown ships began moving. Even using the accelerated timeframe of interfaced dataspace, the destroyer's captain had only enough time to issue a handful of orders before the Vulkar ships began to open fire.

"Ascendant Glory, maneuver to fifteen mark thirty-seven. We cant let that fire hit the transports! All frigates, as soon as your barriers charge, try to draw the smaller ships into one on one combat. Double stack your barriers to absorb those cannon shots. We will deal with the fighter craft. Agamemnon, start deploying Sentinels, Wasps, and Leeches!"


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Local Space - TRIAD Convoy
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When one of the frigates began to maneuver out of the way of the incoming first salvo, it suddenly slewed back into covering position over the transports. That first salvo hurt. The outer layers of armor boiled off into clouds of vapor, the explosive shells ripping through lower levels before finally being absorbed by the innermost layers of armor. One of the frigates took an unlucky hit, causing a temporary overload of the plasma grid and interrupting the charge cycle for the starfire beam.

The destroyer was not tied to protecting the transports by absorbing enemy fire, so it was free to power forwards at the oncoming strike craft (Vipers & Raptors) and the LC. On the ventral aft side of the manta-ray ship, numerous vacoules opened and disgorged literal clouds of tiny drone-ships. The defensive Sentinel, it's design purchased from Hiigarans in another universe, was a shield generator on a mobile platform; when multiple Sentinels came into formation, they erected an energy barrier between their alignment beams. The offensive wasp was equipped with a miniature reactor and twin particle bolt cannons of the heavy fighter class. The Leech was another offensive drone, and when used properly was a terrifying weapon; the Leech was smaller than even the Sentinel, and intended to latch onto enemy hulls, cut into atmosphere or energy conduits, and vent whatever they could to space.

Immediately the Sentinels started forming into walls and wedges, their barriers snapping into place as they maneuvered to intercept incoming fire. The Wasps were directed to intercept the incoming Vipers and Raptors, often ganging up on vipers three to five at a time and strafing them with particle bolts. The wily Leeches tried to flank the battle, dodging and weaving to try and get behind the LC and the carrier to latch on and do their jobs.

Even while taking fire from the LC, the larger destroyer was the first to get it's starfires online. The two forward 'horns' of the destroyer opened up to reveal the stellar-plasma emitters. Unlike the frigates' spinal mount weapons, these emitters could direct the beam at any angle that wasn't blocked by a part of the destroyer's own hull. These were also the much faster rate of fire pulse beams, lasting only a half second, but concentrating a similar amount of energy onto a single point.

As the battle was engaged, the destroyer targeted the highest concentrations of energy revealed by sensor data, thought to be engines or reactors, then opened up with it's starfires. EM and thermal sensors would be blinded by the brilliant beams of stellar plasma that lanced out at the Vulkar LC.

((While not the same power level, for a visual reference of what Starfire beams look like, just look up the Ori warships from Stargate SG1. Sentinels and Leeches come from Homeworld: Cataclysm, while Wasps are my own design, but are similar in performance to Thunderbolt Starfuries.))