NationStates Jolt Archive

In the Imperial palace

A briefing of foreign and domestic situations for Das Sketch, and general overall council of strategy. Commander Gendo Ikari, chief of intelligence, starts it off with a nod from the leader, Das Sketch.

Ikari: As you all know, the war on Melkor has left us in a perilous situation, Of all the space assests fielded, nearly a third had been destroyed. The failed assualt on the WorldDisc has angered many powerful nations. The threat of hostilities is imminent. Although the Angelans has withdrawn from known space, it is a certainty that they will be back. It is assumed that they are currently conducting repairs on the WorldDisc. Records of the battle show a significant amount of debris left behind after the WorldDisc warped away. Intellgience predicts that the WorldDisc will be fully recovered within 20 cycles. The chances of an Angelan led retalitory strike following the recovery are almost guaranteed. Sources say that the Angelans will be out for blood. I suggest that we take measures to prepare for such an eventuality.

Ikari turns to Fleet Admiral Andrey Kalinin, Commander of the Seraphim Fleet, gesturing for him to continue the breif.

Kalinin: As of the present moment, the fleet assets that we do have at our disposal are the commandship Avatar, 34 star destroyers, 3 carriers, 10 troop transports, 86 frigates, 6 orbital shipyards, and 2 mobile shipyards. The Justice and 6 star destroyers are scheduled to be completed within 5 cycles. I have taken the liberty of altering the records to show that the seven ships about to be completed will not be done for another 15 cycles. The less the enemy thinks we have, the easier it is to suprise them. I have also given out orders to the mobile shipyards to quietly hide in systems not belonging to us. Right now they are valuable assets that can be better protected outside our territory.
The greatest threat to us right now is the combined fleets of the Trium. Together they have multiple fleets that far out number ours by at least fifteen to one. In short, we do not stand a chance. Luckily, upon review of strategies and general policies of the Trium members, it is not the space battle that will matter. Because of their heavy investment into space assets, and their general policy of peaceful negotiation, their ground troops are less overwhelming. There is a strong probability that they will restrain from using heavy orbital bombardment on strategic targets, due to their reluctance to injure the civilian population. That means that they will have to engage in an oputright invasion via ground forces. Here, we still maintain our full military strength, numbering 5 million ground troops, 1 million armored units, and 10 thousand aircraft. And these are just our active military members, we are capable of calling up another 10 million in reserve troops if nessessary. With the advantages of fortified defensive postions, barring any major orbital bombardment, we stand a good chance of repulsing any attempts at a large scale ground assualt.
Bear in mind, that this assumption is based on the fact that the enemy will be unwilling to kill civilians. There is a strong chance that our attack on the WorldDisc may result in a demand for blood. Do not be mistaken, the Angelans will be out for blood.

Kalinin, done with his part of the brief, takes a seat and drinks a sip of water. As he glanced briefly at Das Sketch, whom he carefully avoided eye contact with up until now, he saw a baleful eye piercing into his soul. Quickly he turned away. Sir Roger Smith, minister of foreign affairs begins to speak.

Smith: Although we have yet to actually break off our "Friendship Treaty", as mentioned earlier, it is safe to assume that it no longer exists. Before the war, several Trium members had official liasons attached to our foreign relations deparment. As of right now, they are under house arrest. With your permission I would like to arrange for an exchange of diplomatic personnel with those Trium members.

Smith pauses, looking at Das Sketch, waiting for a response. After a moment of silence, he answers.

Das Sketch: Until further notice, there is to be no contact with any of the Trium members. Continue.

Smith: Yes my Lord. Because of the treacherous nature of our attack, we cannot expect an overwhelming support from allies. There are very few nations willing to risk the wrath of the Trium. Those who are, are currently licking their own wounds from the war. I recommend seeking out sympathetic nations not previously associated to us in order to establish a larger base of support. To be frank, we need all the help we can get.

Although clearly finished, his posture indicates they he desires an answer for the unasked question. Das Sketch gestures for him to sit down.

Das Sketch: You may find other nations like us, but screen them carefully, for they may fall on us as easily as they would help us.

To the final presenter, Baron Frederick von Strauss, minister of internal affairs -

Das Sketch: And what do you have for us?

von Strauss: Resistance movements have been unsually quiet since the war, I suspect that the leaders may be in communication with outsiders. The general populace does not know about the war, nor do they have an inkling of our broken treaty. News of our involvement may cause a problem should it be prematurely released. I recommend that a public announcement be made. Appropriate materials have already been set aside for your approval.

von Strauss sets down a folder of papers, which Das Sketch ignores, gesturing for him to continue.

von Strauss: Because of the sensitive nature of the situation, I think it would be prudent to keep the scheduled sector sweeps as routine as possible. No need to inflame the populace at this time. However, in order to prevent the resistance from taking advantage in the lull in security, I suggest that we round up all the known mambers right now. This isn't the time to run long term operations, we need all our internal problems put to rest for the time being. This action will grant us a short respite and allow us to concentrate on the matter at hand.

With that, von Strauss concludes his presentation. Das Sketch stands and addresses the entire board.

Das Sketch: Very well, I want to be kept up to date on all proceedings. Carry out your preparations.

With a sweep of his dark cape, Das Sketch exits the room. The other four people however, remain seated.

Smith: What do you think our chances are Andrey?

Kalinin: We don't stand a chance in space and the odds are only slightly better on the ground. I would make sure to be ready for all eventualities.

von Strauss: But you said that...

Kalinin: I said what he wanted to hear. I told Lord Darcia that it would be unwise to prevoke the Trium, but he did so anyways. And now, he still believes that we stand a chance. Tens of thousands of men I sent to their deaths, and for what? Someone else's cause. I'll be damned if....

Ikari: Be careful what say fleet admiral, the loss of our greatest tactician would be a blow to our defense. I suggest that you begin the preparations of your forces.

Kalinin: For the people of the Imperium, I will give my all.

A few days later...........

***Public Sevice Announcement***

Attention citizens of Sketch

We have been betrayed! Our supposed allies, the Triumverate of Yut, have violated our Friendship Treaty!

In an unprovoked attack on our vessels, they slaughtered tens of thousands of our brave soldiers.

{A video of star destroyers being fired upon is played, the footage shows no signs of return fire}
{Sound recording of Senior commander's surrender is played}

Even after our valiant commander pleaded for mercy and surrendered, these savages continued to pound our ships. In a brave attempt to escape, three ships managed to escape, the rest were destroyed. We mourn the loss of these brave soldiers, our sons, and we will remeber there names for the day when we will bring justice to those who betrayed us.

Hear now, enemies of Sketch! We will not stand for such treachery! We will give in to your imperialist demands! We will not tolerate your slaughter of innocence! Your crimes will not go unpunished! There will be a reckoning!

Citizens of Sketch! I implore you! Seek out the traitors to our great nation. They are the cancer which will eat us from within. If the Trium is the beast from without, the traitors are the disease from within. We must rid ourselves of their evil scheming ways! They seek to destroy the foundations of peace and order which we worked so hard to create. We cannot allow this! Without order there is chaos and anarchy! And with chaos there is death and destruction! The very existence of Sketch is being threatened, we must defend it!

{cut to patriotic music}

[A great roar is heard as crowds beggin to spontaneously cheer]

***End Public Service Announcement***

======================================================

Meanwhile, during the announcement....

The police forces of all the major cities are mobilized. Black unmarked vehicles are seen everywhere, imposing G-men direct armies of law enforcement agents to known resistance sites. Firefights erupt all around the major resistance centers. Smaller groups are overwhelmed and easily captured. A few cases of isolated holdouts are dealt with extreme force. The Amry is called in to take care of those not in public view.

By the end of the day, all major resistance cells are completely wiped out. Leaving only a handful cell members to collect the remaining pieces.

===================================================

[OOC]Only IC comments, and keep them to a minimum if your not directly involved. Ie. If your not in the Trium or your not allied to me, then you're not directly involved. OOC comments can be TGed to me. If you wish to become involved, TG me or a Trium member.

Deep beneath the Europan surface, the subMainframe flickers to life, its long-inactive processors come online, and the construct/minds enhabiting the vast subeuropannean chamber come to life as well.

[Internal={Angelic Skies}] The Mainframe of Angelus requires us! We are to begin sequencing as ordered.

Great engines grind to life, and the massive GF Battledrone (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/gfbattledrone.html) biofacilities begin their slow process leading up to full production.

[Internal={Angelic Skies}] We are to be limited to the Ground. Work well, and We can go to the stars to join Our bretheren! We were created for an event such as this, and We shall not fail in Our task!

The Mainframe begins to work, sending electronic feelers out to detect onramps into Sketchan systems, finding less-than-secure pathways to begin its slow infestation of the Sketchan computer networks.

###BEGIN TRANSMISSION###
~>Route: Automata X14 - Angelic Skies Mainframe - Angelus
:
{We are begining. Expect production of the GF Battledrones to begin at}
{optimum rates in 3 days. Sketchen systems infiltration has already begun}
{and estimated to be complete in 1 day.}
{We are ready.}
:
~>Route closed
###END TRANSMISSION###

---
Automata X14
Speaker of Angelic Skies

###BEGIN TRANSMISSION###
~>Route: Automata X1 - Angelus Mainframe - Angelic Skies
:
{Well done. When you have achieved system infiltration, delay system interaction}
{until the command is given.}
:
~>Route closed
###END TRANSMISSION###

---
http://www.silentrequiem.net/littlexan.jpg (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus)
Automata X1
First Among Equals


http://www.silentrequiem.net/triumvirate/images/trium_insig.gif (http://www.silentrequiem.net/triumvirate/)
Membership: Triumvirate of Yut, DeusExHumanaConsortium

Elsewhere, another meeting is taking place in a very secure location:

Intel Officer 1:"....So, as you can see, the ships are clearly Sketchian."

Wounded-but-not-out Sky Marshal Starwind: "Obviously, I WAS there."

IntOf1: "Sorry Sir." He clicks a button bringing up a list of names, numbers, locations etc. "As you can see here, " The page zooms on a list of 10 names, "We still have 10 diplomats in Sketch. All methods of contact have failed, and Sketch isn't responding to any attempts at communication."

Sky Marshal Knives: "Probable Situations?"

IntOf2: "Well, there are reports of increased police activity, and apparently they are dealing with anti-government forces." *Switch to Sketchian broadcast*

Maica: "So their blaming this on us. Clever, altough not perfect."

IntOf1: "It looks like we've got them scared."

Knives: "Which means?"

IntOf1: "That either they have killed are diplomats and don't want us to know for fear of getting us angry..."

Starwind: "They already did that."

IntOf1: "Or, they're holding our diplomats as possible bargaining cards.

Maica: "Course of action."

TacOf: "For the diplomat situation, we continue diplomatic pressure. If that's not working, we move to a extraction operation. Preferably covert. We could sneak Spec. Ops. into Sketchian space and conduct an In-Out Op to gather our people."

Maica: "What about the WorldDisc attack?"

"TacOf: "We're coordinating with the rest of the Trium on that one."

Maica: "Very well"

---The meeting continues.

Shortly following the public service announcement (basically the same time as the sweeepeer squads)

***Military wide announcement***

From: Fleet Commander Andrey Kalinin
To: Sketchen armed forces

Subj: Force level change alert

Msg: All military bases are now to raise their force level to Orange. All civilians are to be removed from all military installations and a lock down initiated. All troops are to be called back from leave and restricted to on base movement. Base commanders are to prepare their troops for wartime setting.

***End Message***

The Justice and her 6 star destroyers escorts, scheduled to be completed in 20 cycles, are quietly guided out of the mobile shipyard. A minimal amount of ceremony was given, namely the christianing of the ship and the smashing of the bottle, to keep things as quiet as possible.

Once clear of the shipyard, the ships initiate their first warp sequence. Their destination is known only to the priveldged few. Within an 20 minutes, the ships disappear, blinking out of existence as if they were never there.

Onboard the mobile shipyard, the news of military lock down spread like wildfire. Heated argumnets arise as civilian contractors are told that they will not be able to go home, over even contact their loved ones.

The shipyard itself calculates for a jump to a nearby neubula, hoping to find refuge in the swirling gases within.

Omicron Blu (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/images/wingblu.jpg) stands lightly on the floor of the massive dojo within the Organic Sector on the WorldDisc. Five GF Battledrones, (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/gfbattledrone.html) and two GF Battledrone Elite (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/gfbattledrone2.html) stand before her, their weapons held tightly in their spiked fists.

She looks at them, and they raise their weapons. We begin training now. Take what you learn here and spread the knowledge among your bretheren. Soon, my children, you will go to war.

She steps forward and the drones spread out around her. The standards are carrying long sawblades, while the twin Elites carry longswords that hum softly in the air before them.

Blu nods, and two of the standards rush in, one attacking high, while the other attacking low with a vicious legswipe with the deadly sawblade. Blu lifts her spear and blocks the higher attack while neatly jumping over the lower one. She lashes out hard with her left leg, connecting squarely in the chest of the first Standard to get close, easily crushing his chest. She slams her spear down hard and leaps away, flicking the butt of the spear up to catch the other standard hard in the chin, shattering his jaw.

She lands and lashes out with the sharpened tip of her spear, slicing neatly through the abdomen of another standard, cutting it completely in half.

She smiles and looks at the four drones before her.

Come to me, my children...

At the Megalith Station

Fleet Commander Andrey Kalinin addresses the fleet gathered at Megaltih Station.

Kalinin: My brothers in arms, hear me, for the coming battles shall determine the fate of our great nation. Our enemies, the Triumverate of Yut are powerful. Our allies, weak and non-existent. We can no longer depend on others to aide us. We must stand alone in our crusade. We must face the onslaught with strength and courage. Our will must never falter. We are the first line of defense for the Imperium. If we fall, our enemies will overrun us, and feed upon our lands. We must not let that happen.
For the Glory of the Emporer!

{Spontaneous cheering}

{A significant increase can be seen in troop moral as preparations continue}

[OOC]Shame on me for posting this at such an ungodly hour. I need to go to sleep now. I will develop this further in the morning.

Omicron Blu (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/images/wingblu.jpg) floats alone above a sea of moving bodies. Thousands of battledrones fill the arena beneath her, all practicing the deadly moves that would grant them the victory.

The standards were almost hordelike in their mentality, their tactics more of an overwhelming tide. In stark contrast was the cold and precise movements of the Elite. Theirs was a structured advanced, deadly in its accuracy, chilling to watch the line upon line of blank faceplates.

Yes... The Sketchens would pay...

"You all know what is expected of you. I don't believe a one of us is going into this with eyes closed, but all the same, know this," he said, fixing them each in turn with a steely gaze.

"Going forward you have chosen to give up your humanity. You are giving up the lives you've had for the opportunity to become living, breathing, killing machines. Should anyone now at this point wish to back out, you are free to leave."

He scanned the small crowd, eyes hard. One woman at the back stood shakily, her eyes darting between him and the rest of the group eyeing her coldly.

Nodding to her, he gestures to the door. She shoots him a pitifully grateful smile and turns to go.

She never sees it coming. He draws his gun and in one smooth movement, draws a bead on the back of her head, and pulls the triger.

A loud report ... a sickening sound, and a splash of ichor ...

"Now then," he says to the rest, "It's time for our transformations. See you on the flip side, boys and girls."

One by one, they make their way to the myriad Angelan surgical centers.

The doctors know their work, and waste no time in sedating and remaking their patients in the new image proscribed for them.

Flesh and bone are removed and changed .. manipulated into the proper forms, and fitted for their new functions. Bones are hardened with plating, nanotechnology is applied via skin grafts to increase its hardness, weapons in the form of pulselasers are built into hands, and muscles are replaced with strong cabling. New joints are created, replaced with servos, and to the heart has is added a small device that allows it to pump faster and harder without rupturing. Accelerated healing measures are employed, there being no time for the more traditional approach.

And from the various med bays across the WorldDisc emerge the new forces, anxious and eager to begin their training.

He comes back to his senses as the doctor brings him out of his stupor. The by now comforting presence of the mainframe seems that much closer ... the connections more smoothly accessed.

Feels so damnably ... different. Strong. Goddamn, would you look at that? He flexes and twists, gaining new feeling and understanding in his fluid movements.

He scanned his fellow operatives, nodding in satisfaction. It's done then. And now ... now we fight.

ooc: Operatives "donated" by an anonymous nation to travel along with Strike Force Alpha. They are human, but with a very mechanical change in their appearance. Their eyes were replaced with high-powered lenses designed to see almost the full EM spectrum, in normal light, their eyes are backlit to allow vision, giving their eyes a bright glow.

A Locutus-like implant grows from the sides of their heads, with the borg redlaser attachment to allow for pinpoint accuracy in firing, and their skin has a pasty metallic sheen to it.

ooc:

Strike Force Alpha

The Semblance of Reason (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/reason.html), (1) Fallen (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/fallen.html), (2) Raptors (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/raptor.html), (2) Revnants (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/revenant.html), (2) Alliances. (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/alliance.html), and (4) BHL-44 (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/bhl44.html) cargo carriers, retrofitted for personel transport.

Each ship has been heavily modified for stealth and speed. The armament has all been upgraded to the new Cybiotic-Trillenium compound, lighter and harder than standard armor. They all have gotten a matte-black paint job, the paint a radar-reflecting paint of a metallic nature.

Each ship has also been equipped with a high-density electromagnetic field generator, to even further fück with detection sensors.

The ships have also had heavy gause cannon batteries placed onto their hulls for in-atmospheric fighting, as well as heavy chain cannons for the same purpose.

The new Sx-series construct/minds have all been programmed with every possible combat maneuver, and everything Angelus has ever known about Sketch has been placed in their databanks, as well as extensively-detailed maps of Sketchen holdings.

Troop breakdown: The BHLs are carrying the troops. (3) of the BHLs are filled with 4,000 "donated" Mechanized Humans each, as well as 2,890 Angelan Battlejeeps (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/images/battlejeep.jpg).

The final BHL is filled ith 2,500 GF Battledrones (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/gfbattledrone.html) and 2,500 GF Battledrone Elite (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/gfbattledrone2.html)

These forces will be deployed in the event that a station is taken over, or smaller Sketchan cities on Europa are attacked.

Omicron Blu (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/images/wingblu.jpg) will be leading the ground forces herself in her Combat Avatar.

(OOC: Tag for later post.)

A convoy of black SUVs travel down a long stretch of road leading through a forest. After an hour or so, the forest gives way to a large clearing, and an opulent mansion.

The estate belongs to an obscure noble who goes by the name of Lord Okum. Unbeknownst to the general populace, the lord of this estate has been dead for several years now, purged during the changing of the guard when Lord Darcia took over as Das Sketch. The estate now belongs to the intelligence agency, used to fund black ops not officially sanctioned by the government.

Groups of armed men can be seen walking patrols around the masion and through the forest. Although their clothes do not bear any resembelance to military uniforms, it is clear that the are indeed Sketchen military forces.If one had a sharp enough pair of eyes, they would notice random patches of lawn matted down as if something heavy was on them.

That would indicate the presence of AS suits (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=56805&highlight=) in the area. A quick count of patches would indicate 4 pairs of "feet" in the front lawn alone. That would mean at least one quad of AS units were present. The chances are that there will be 2 more squads patroling the forest.

The SUVs pull up to the house and the doormen come to open the doors. A group of ruffled looking passengers disembark from the vehicles, looks of bewilderment crossing their faces as they breathe in the fresh air and take in they surroundings. Obviously they were expecting something quite different. They are ushered into the mansion where the butler leads them into the main audience chamber. Here, Sir Roger Smith (minister of foreign affairs) addresses them.

Smith: I have arranged for your stay in this mansion. I figured that it would be much more pleasent than our processing centers in the capital. Cooperate with the people here and you shall be treated well. This was the best I could do for you.

Smith departs the room, sparking an outbreak of murmuring from the diplomats. Commander Ikari (chief of intelligence) enters the room, prompting them to become silent once more.

Ikari: I owed Smith a favor, so I'm doing this for him, not out of the kindness of my heart. {He smirks at that comment} You will be treated well here, the servants will see to that. However, any attempts to escape will be dealt with harshly. Any attempts to subvert the servants will not be tolerated. Any attempts to communicate with the outside world is prohibited. In short, you are to stay here and be happy about it. Those who wish to violate these ground rules will be sent to the processing center, {Ikari grins} and Smith won't be able to ensure your well being anymore.

Ikari gestures towards the butler waiting patiently by the door. As the butler enters, Ikari disappears from the room.

Butler: Now if I may show you gentlemen to your rooms......

<bump for now, real post later>

ooc:Waiting for things to finish up here:

http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=61981&highlight=

Deep under Europa, the biofacilities have come completly online, and the production of the GF Battledrones (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/gfbattledrone.html) commences. The horrible drones start stepping out of the Vats like undead warriors rising from the graves, their steel-encased visages terrible to behold. They line up in deepening ranks, their steel-shod feet clicking a terrible cadance on the stone floor.

On another front, the subMainframe strengthens its connections with the Sketchan computer systems, bypassing the outlying security measures, and sinking deep within the network systems. Data floods through the Angelan subMainframe, granting even deeper access to the more sensative systems.

Finally, the subMainframe is completely immersed in the Sketchan systems, and the malfunctions begin.

{
targetAttack={Sewage System, Sector 21.b}
# Target Aquired
loadProgram="21kkel.015"
# Program Loaded. Commencing attack.

ooc: The system attack is basically going to stop the sewage systems from working in sector 21.b No forced runoffs, nothing huge and disgusting, just people will not be able to flush their toilets, or the septic tanks will overflow, or something.

Six fleets gathered at Ceres... plus there was the pending Sixteenth Fleet, to be launched within the week. That would give Menelmacar over two hundred ships with which to mercilessly pound the Sketchan fools who had dared attempt to strike at a station home to so many Menelmacari. Never had so many fleets, so many ships, been massed to be pointed at a single target, never in the 32000-year history of Menelmacar. The sheer firepower that would be martialled could, theoretically, wipe the entire Sol system clean of life - and Sketch would be the recipient of its tender loving care.

Maneuvers were underway. Training. Thorons flew against one another, as did capital ships. The void was filled with the green beams of practice weaponry, striking savagely at shields, tearing at hulls, while the computer core of the massive asteroid base recorded hits and remotely shut down ship systems accordingly to reflect damage. Dogfights of fighters filled the rest of the sky as pilots duelled to hone their skills. Individually the Menelmacari capital ships were superior to anything the Sketchans could field, on a one-on-one basis. The Thorons and their sister craft superior to any TIE. And it was these superior Elven craft against which they honed their skills now, as well as against holographic representations of Sketchan ships, designed to be more capable than the real thing. They would be ready.

On the asteroid base itself, the ground troops were drilling for combat. Vast interior target ranges filled huge parts of the Menelmacari portion of an asteroid seven hundred miles in diameter, by far the largest to orbit distant Sol. Tanks rolled across hologen landscapes, practice weaponry tearing apart simulated targets. Soldiers drilled with their weaponry - monomolecular longswords and long-range plasma rifles. Mornahossë drilled constantly in their unearthly, and truly frightening, skills. The clashing of blades and the searing screams of plasma bolts filled the endless corridors of the asteroid colony.

Menelmacar had been to war before, oh yes. But never before had any been foolish enough to strike directly at so many Menelmacari. So... this was personal.

http://www.weirdozone.0catch.com/projects/nationstates/sirithil/sirithilnosfeanor.gifLady Sirithil nos Fëanor
Elentári of the Eternal Noldorin Empire of Menelmacar
High Queen and Lady Protector of Elvenkind
"We can't go around supporting the Goodness of All Things. We might be mistaken for Menelmacar."
~Education Minister Lobon, Kn-Yan
Clicky-clicky! We Love The Iraqi Information Minister (www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com)
Int'l Orgs: Triumvirate of Yut (ToY), World Business Organization (WBO), South Atlantic Treaty Organization (SATO), Space Exploration and Alien Contact Treaty Organization (SEACTO), Ur Trade Pact (UTP), Interstellar Hanseatic League (IHL), World Technological Entity (WTE), Coalition Against Elf Abuse (CAEA)

ooc: I recieved a TG from Sketch saying that his comp has gone down and he is hoping to be back by Wednesday.

Of all the skylines on Titan, it was certainly possible that Khenala had the most impressive of all, if not the most visible. Huge buildings extended high over the capital city, Khenala Prime, seeming to touch the sky with their very presence. All integrated and connected together by a series of intricate tunnels beneath the sprawling metropolis, it was indeed an impressive sight to behold.

And it was from high within these Spires that Andrew Seal observed the City below, sprawling in its size below him. The slight opening and closing of the door behind him signifies the entrance of a person, yet he does not turn. He knows who has entered, and why.

"It is done."

Three words, spoken quietly, mean so much. But Seal himself could see with his own eyes that it truly was "done", as several large Sakkran transport ships landed in the distant ground-based Spaceport, easily visible from his high vantage point in the City.

Elsewhere, his troops were training like never before. The only fighting his people had ever done were in numerous Civil Wars of the fractious Khenalian states before being united under one Government by two prominent Khenalian families. But even with the long period of time since their last true battles, the now united Armies of Khenala were always training for when they would be needed.

For they would be needed.

And they would be needed soon.

He turned from his window, facing his brother. "The Council awaits." And with that he departed, ready to face his people, and address their cries for Sketchan blood over their treacherous attack.

http://members.aol.com/FumetsuGolf/andrew_ns.jpg
Prime Minister Andrew Seal
Empire of Khenala

Deep underground, the subMainframe continues its silent attack on the Sketchan systems. Slowly, it begins to absorb system after system, letting them come under its complete control.

On the surface, things do not change, not the slightest glitch to show that the systems are no longer under control of the technicians that continue to work long hours in the control centres.

The subMainframe follows every one of their orders, patching the commands through to the individual systems that are now under its control. And then, another glitch, another systems failure. On the colder sections of Europa, power to the heating mechanisms fail or become increasingly sporadic, dropping the citizens their into a frostbitten chill.

And still the biofacilities continue to churn out the biomechanical monsters...

(up!)

[OOC] Just so you all know why I haven't been posting on these threads. My hard drive has been fried, soooooooo, I don't have any of the RPs that I have prepared for this. I do not intend to continue this until I fix my computer, which may be quite a while. I'm replacing the Mobo, CPU, HD, and case...its gonna cost me some green that I don't have right now. So until I can guarantee myself a computer to work with, everything involving me will have to go on hold. Carry on.

[OOC] Just so you all know why I haven't been posting on these threads. My hard drive has been fried, soooooooo, I don't have any of the RPs that I have prepared for this. I do not intend to continue this until I fix my computer, which may be quite a while. I'm replacing the Mobo, CPU, HD, and case...its gonna cost me some green that I don't have right now. So until I can guarantee myself a computer to work with, everything involving me will have to go on hold. Carry on.

((OOC: Sorry to hear, hope you come back soon.))

[OOC]

OK people, I got some good news.....I may be up within a week or 2. I just got a shipment of a bunch of random :shock: computer parts to work with. So I should well on my towards rebuilding my dead machine. Unfortunately.....my hard drive is still in the mail, if not still on back order... :? Mind you, when I get my computer up and running, my priorities would be focused on getting back my prefered settings, and d/ling p0rn :wink: j/k But, just as a heads up, I will be back for good soon.

[OOC]
Even better news, I have received all the parts for my comp, and have rebuilt my comp. Now if only I can get it to run properly :? I hope to be up and running in time to begin full scale RP by this weekend.

ooc:

w00t! *cracks her knuckles*

*up*

They slid from the shadow of the Moon, silver darts drifting through the dust and gas of the void, parting the obscuring microparticles as they came free of the pitted, bombarded satelite that hid the teeming planet of Earth.

Sleek craft, whose silver form represented as much a work of art than a vessel whose life was spent, and ultimatley ended in the freezing depths of space.

A rarity in open space once more quietly whispered to the Universe its existance,

The Kaenei would leave their homeworld once more-

Angelus would go to war, and they would not see out the conflict unaided.




**************


Kalenia woke with a start, her mind struggling to counciousness as her body bolted upright. Without a thought she brought a hand to her forehead, and felt the clammy feel of sweat coat her furrowed brow.

Swinging her feet over the bed, she slowly climbed to her feet, brushing her hair back behind her ears and away from her irritated face. Groping along the wall, she located the illumination controls and crudely slapped them until they gave into her request.

Stumbling slightly in the harsh light that bathed her, Kalenia moved to her small desk. Her attention was quickly absorbed as she caught sight of her last journal entry, the leather bound book still open at the page she had written in only yesterday evening.....

We go now, for more honourable reasons can be said, and for more selfish whims than we would rather forget. For we go to honour and assist our beloved Angelus.

We go now not becuase they need us, but becuase we are able to assist. That should be reason enough.

But we go for reasons selfish also. We have lost a great number of our people. Kaeneians lost when the vile forces of Sketch did attack the most Holy WorldDisc.

Kalenia continued reading, turning a page slowly.

And those Serpants did claw, and snatch at the gates of heaven. But though they sneered and bestenched the holy doorway they could gain no entry to it. But they did so burn the gates, so never again could they be closed with the resolute assuredness they once claimed.

She took a moment to think as she finished reading the quote. She remembered it well, it had been written in scripture as the explenation of the attack on the WorldDisc, she had known many of her friends who had forced themselves to memorise it for instant recital. Casting her eyes down she continued on-

Earth is but a receding spot in the void once more. We set course for the Jovian system, for WayStation Zero-One-One. Beloved Angelus will transport us, and we shall descend with the rightious fury that the Serpents of Sketch do require to send them under the sun baked rocks they were spawned from, and not allowed to return for one thousand years and a day.

Reading her fill, Kalenia turned her attentions to readying herself for her shift. Taking a few moments to properly hygienate herself, she donned her service overalls, and turned to exit the door.

She stopped, turning towards the viewport as the door obiedently opened.

Focusing on what she could see was the distant shine of Europa, she whispered-

"We will be there for you."

# The Kaenians have arrived at waystation-011.
> Excellent. Their assistance brings Us great joy. To fight alongside the Remnants
> of the Gaelistis Gens is an honor.
# The Emperor would have been proud. We whisper prayers to Him, to the
# Elders... And They respond with Glittering Spires, and Liquid Fire.
> The Vengange wraught by Our hands will be final. The sacrilige will not go
> unpunished.

~*~

The black metal cogs of the Waystation (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/vuurkai.jpg) began to spin, their internal gravitics coming online to present the Kaenians a gravitiy similar to their own.

Spidercarriers crawl all over the interior, preparing it as best they can for their guests, decorating it in the austere beauty that marked the ancient Caelistis Gens, modifying it to fit the more modern Kaenian taste.

Citizen Tiolle looked nervously across the vast entryway towards the massive holoimage of the Emperor standing in the center of the entryway looking towards the lock leading to the docking ports. The Emperor's gaze was cool and dispassionate, while at the same time, inviting and warm.

She nods and adjusts her uniform a bit before once more turning towards the door and waits.

ooc:

Apparently the MelkWank is being retconned, which means all of this is completely meaningless.

Sketch did not attack the WorldDisc, and the WorldDisc did not leave Triumvirate space.

While I am leaning towards agreeing with the Retcon, I will take opinions.

ooc:

Apparently the MelkWank is being retconned, which means all of this is completely meaningless.

Sketch did not attack the WorldDisc, and the WorldDisc did not leave Triumvirate space.

While I am leaning towards agreeing with the Retcon, I will take opinions.

Much as my opinion means nothing, that's the first I'd heard of retconning the entire thing. Who's discussing it? People on both sides, or merely the attackers?

ooc:

Apparently the MelkWank is being retconned, which means all of this is completely meaningless.

Sketch did not attack the WorldDisc, and the WorldDisc did not leave Triumvirate space.

While I am leaning towards agreeing with the Retcon, I will take opinions.



OOC: Hmm, thats not so good.... :?

ooc:

Apparently the MelkWank is being retconned, which means all of this is completely meaningless.

Sketch did not attack the WorldDisc, and the WorldDisc did not leave Triumvirate space.

While I am leaning towards agreeing with the Retcon, I will take opinions.

OOC: A lot of RP around the Sketchian attack has been set in play already. It would suck to reverse all that.

Plus, this has the potential to be a very kickass RP, it would also be a shame to give it up.

Much as my opinion means nothing, that's the first I'd heard of retconning the entire thing. Who's discussing it? People on both sides, or merely the attackers?

ooc: I was shown a short log from an IRC discussion envolving Melkor and D'ron, speaking with Omz and Oglethorpia. (Imnsvale was also a part of the discussion, but was a part of neither side) From the way that it read, it was Melk's idea to retcon.

Personally, I would rather the melkwank did not happen, as it would put Angelus in much higher standing with the Triumvirate. However, it would completely whipe a rather large chunk of RP from existance.

[16:57] * Alkanphel retcons the war. "Fucking assholes"
[16:58] * El_Presidente has quit IRC (Quit: )
[16:58] <omz_dinner> They probably misundersttod, even if you posted
[16:58] <omz_dinner> *stood
[16:58] <Imnsvale> retcons?
[16:58] * omz_dinner is now known as omz
[16:58] <Imnsvale> Was ist das?
[16:58] <Oglethorpia> Ja
[16:58] <PresidentD`ron> To pretend it never happened.
[16:58] <Alkanphel> retroactively converted
[16:59] <Alkanphel> basically, these people are being world class cunts to me OOC, thus I have no desire to RP with them
[16:59] <Imnsvale> I see...
[16:59] <PresidentD`ron> Damn it man, I was getting ready to smoke the New Genoan first and second fleets...
[16:59] <Oglethorpia> Ich hiesse James (woohoo, simple German sentence!)
[16:59] <Alkanphel> I was getting ready to smoke the whole country

ooc:

Idea. We could play the Sketchan War out to its completion, with the knowledge that none of it truely exists, and then retcon it when it is finished.

That way, we would get the pleasure out of the roleplay, but not have to worry about it affecting anything else in the current timeline.

OOC: I was of the understanding that Melkor here was referring to the New Genoan war, which happened after the big Melkor war. Howerver, I hesitate to put words in anyone's mouth here.

OOC: No, the only major things being retconned are the attack on New Genoa & much of the old Morgoth Raises His Guns thread.

OOC: No, the only major things being retconned are the attack on New Genoa & much of the old Morgoth Raises His Guns thread.

OOC: I think that was what I said in regards to NG. :) And you are correct in the "Morgoth raises his guns" thread since the following Melkor war occurred after that - with all of its related threads.

OOC: No, the only major things being retconned are the attack on New Genoa & much of the old Morgoth Raises His Guns thread.

OOC: I think that was what I said in regards to NG. :) And you are correct in the "Morgoth raises his guns" thread since the following Melkor war occurred after that - with all of its related threads.

OOC: In my not so humble opinion, trying to roll back events would be a bad. This war has had far-ranging consequences, and one can conveniently forget about some things (like the endless bitching) while keeping the general storylines moving.

If the war is so bad, one can just assume it petered out after the thread died.

*in gravely falsetto*

Teen NS'r Squad!

Robot Country!

Spacewanker!

Evil-Dude!

The Ugly One!

...

The Ugly One: "Let's have a war and look SO GOOD!"

Evil-Dude: "Ai'ght."

Robot Country: "Ai'ght."

Spacewanker: "Do we have to?" *whack* "Ai'ght."
...

RETCONNED!

Spacewanker: "Ow, my plotline!"

IT'S OVER!

http://www.homestarrunner.com/seriouslysm.jpg

--Hearty Aerospace Pirate Cap'n Scolo

OOC: Sketch has time for this but not our charter :x

The Keanei Flagship Angel slowly eased her way towards the towering form of Waystation Zero-One-One, her arrowed hull slowly passing over the midsection of the immense station.

Slowly, her engines gave her the last push needed to come into contact with the docking clamps, and they swung downwards. Taking hold just aft of her command bridge.

From the smaller fleet craft that observed the procedure, some bemusement evident at the courtship of the station, slowly enticing the greaceful craft closer, and closer until eventually she enters its embrace, ending only once the clamps free her and she is cast adrift once more.

Surely, yet at a far slower pace the docking ports of the station are taken up as various other craft complete their connections.

The Keanei had completed the first step of their journey, which would end only when the final enemy soldier fell, only when his uniform displayed the brutal gore of the rightous fury the Keanei set out to release.



***************


Citizen Frohimer slowly rose from his Command throne, his eyes casting over the now empty command bridge that sat atop the perfectly arrowed hull of the Starship Angel

He crossed over to the NavCom station, taking a few moments to quieten the console.

He was lost in thought when the upper lift doors slid open, and he was joined by Kalina.


"Engineering is secure Captain. Guardian squads have begun transferring over into the Waystation." she began softly.

"Good, ensure they are made up to date with the latest stratagems we will be employing in the Jovian system before they return, we will not have time in the red mist of battle to alter plans set before."

Nodding she turned to leave, hesitating.

"You are expected on the Station Captain."

Frohimer nodded, sighing- "Thank you Kalina, go ahead without me, I wish to make sure Angel is ready for what awaits her."


The young women nodded, exiting the Bridge.

Captain Frohimer, supreme commander of the Kaenian 1st Fleet, lay a hand atop the console in front of him, whispering quietly as though the craft lived, and breathed as he did-

"We go into battle now my beloved, we shall be set apon by foul serpents whose only wish is to see you break in two, but we will not falter in word or deed. We are chosen to protect our Angels, and even as our Guardians fly into the hellzone of Europa, we will not cease fighting here, in the void until every last enemy of our Angels are eliminated."




From deep within the bowels of the flagship Angel, a rumble, seperate and discontent from normal shipboard operations reverated.

Frohimer smiled-

The ship understood.

Rising, he exited. Heading across the linkbridge and into the station himself.

4 hours ago

The Imperial Dominion of Melkor Unchained

No, I'm not going to retcon the war. whoever said I was was full of hot air.

So on with the show, eh?

So on with the show, eh?

ooc: Notice that we continued on after the discusssion.

And I admitted that I was either fed false information or I misunderstood it.

Farhira Tiolle bowed in greeting to the Kaenian contingent, the datafeed in her mind endlessly supplying names and rank to her as she passes through the ritual touching of palms. It was good to see her Terran bretheren, but the tension of the moment unfortunately negated the joy.

"May the Angels watch over us, Citizens. We-"

Her speach was cut short by a tremendous roar. Across the huge landing area, another transport was unloading its cargo to be readied for the attack on Sketch. Four ferocious-looking Razorbacks (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/images/razorback.jpg) are being led from the transport hatch by two massive Guardian Units (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/guardian.html), thick leashes of adamantite and steel are clipped to heavy adamantite rings imbedded in the Trillinic armor of the new Fallen warriors.

Throughout the organic population of the WorldDisc, there were dark whisperings concerning these horrid creations. Some said that they were the new hosts of the organic dead. Nothing went to waste on the WorldDisc, not even the bodies and minds of the deceased...

Forhimer cast a glance towards the far end of the loading bay as he exchanged greetings with Farhira. Allowing a small shudder to pass through his being as a roar screamed over him, filling his soul with dread.

The beings defied rationality, great limbs of hardened chitin, fused with blades of death that would slice the very atoms of oxygen apart in the air. Heavy plates of armour bolted directly to the flesh of these monsters as they bellowed and lamented their bloodlust.

Tearing his eye from the scene the Captain moved onwards, watching as the proud regiments of the Keanian Guardians formed lined up within the bay, their supreme commanders checking over their munitions, and debating the finer points of warfare, all aware that Europa awaited their resolve and loyalty.




Frohimer entered the command centre, exchanging pleasentries with the sentry stationed outside. His eyes glanced towards his honourable companion, who examined a tactical display.

"It is good to see you once more my friend, if only we gathered in times more favourable. I have answered the call with the First Keanian homefleet, and the finest ship of our line, the Angel herself will see us into battle. There are no finer soldiers here in all the Socialist States. A thousand warheros, apon a thousand legends of battle fill our dropcraft and cruisers. Now, let us finalise our plans, and make best for the Serpents on the moon the designate Europa suffer a fate worse than thousand centuries of hell itself."





Onboard the Angel, she stirred.


Level one system verification>>>>>>>

Verified, All Systems Operable.>>>

Shipboard power levels Sixty four percent capacity.>>>

Matter/Anti-Matter Reaction Assembly at fifty one percent output maximum>>>

Increasing Output to sixty percent.

Minor Power fluctuation, deck eleven section fourteen delta.>>>

Fluctuation corrected.

Bring quantum computational processors online>>>

Processors initialising.





On the bridge of the Angel, one sole monitor flickered to life, its static filled display filtering out to form a myriad of pulsing lights.

And through the VoxSpeakers that were fitted throughout the massive vessel, one voice rang through, devoid of the earlier mechanical speak that had heralded the activation of the quantum processors.


"I am ready."

Triolle smiled slightly and motioned towards a seat. "Citizen, the situation is definitely in Our favor, though I seriously doubt that defeating Sketch on their home turf is going to be easy." Shee waves her hand through a status field and a hologram of Europa fades into view.

"The Sketchan military is pretty well entrenched on Europa, and the Sketchan space forces are numerous and concentrated around Europa in a rather dense defense grid." She motions again, and a cloud of ships and orbital defense stations appear.

"We are not expecting the space war to be all that difficult, but the problem will be on the ground."

At this point, the door slides open, and a beautiful winged creature (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/images/wingblu.jpg) glides through into the room. She glides over to the command console, and Triolle bows in respect. "Citizen Forhimer, this is Automata-Designate, Omicron Blu, Speaker of the Dominion of Angelus."

Good afternoon, Citizen. It is a pleasure to be working with the Kaenians again. You do not remember it, but the House of the Emperor's Son was quite irreplacable in assisting Our departure.

She nods to him, and then focuses on the plan. Agreed, the difficulty will lie in removing the Sketchan power from the surface. However, We have an ace in the hole. Several years ago, before Sketch moved to Europa, Angelus maintained a colony there with the Seraphim Fleet.

Her head inclines towards the hologram, and deep within Europa, several crimson lines and a massive crimson installation comes into being.

The Seraphim errantly sold it to Sketch, but Our subMainframe was still in place deep beneath the surface of Europa. Recently, We reactived him, and he has begun mass-producing our biomechanical groundforces. Unfortunately, the only things his facility is capable of making are the low-end standard GF automatas, but he has been able to produce a rather sizable amount of them.

She nods again, and this time the image clears to be replaced by a gridworked sphere, with the Angelic Skies installation still in place. Another motion, and the image also is overlaid with a dense gridwork of blue interconnecting lines.

This is the Sketchan computer network. Angelic Skies has been able to heavily infiltrate and control a vast majority of it, but the Military control systems are proving to be quite a challenge. So far, all of the non-military systems are under Angelic control, but that may not be enough.

She nods to Tiolle, and the Kaenian continues. "So far, the plan is to ring Sketch in. We will begin a systematic dismantling of the outer Sketchan provinces, focusing mainly on search-and-destroy missions, while slowly forcing Sketch to return everything to a near-Europa orbit. Once all of his eggs are in one place, Strike Force Alpha is going to begin deep cuts into Sketchan space, landing on Europa for quick and decisive attacks on specific targets."

She clears the hologram and looks at Frohimer. "The purpose in delaying the main attack is purely for anti-morale benefit. We wish to crush the spirits of Sketch before We crush the Sketchan military. We will reduce their populace to nothing, and then We will own them."

[OOC]

OOC: Sketch has time for this but not our charter :x

Well, if you paid attention, you would notice that I haven't even had the time to post on my own RP thread............ :?

So I take it that this is not retconned (whatever that means.....)? My, my, I never knew my small, insignificant, almost un-noticable contribution to the Melkor War would have such an impact on the NS universe. Apparently, I am now public enemy #1, the scourage of all sentients, the betrayer of all that is holy, the serpentine demon of......etc, etc :twisted:

Ok, enough of the self-congratulatory remarks, down to business. This RP is going to proceed rather slowly until we hit the weekend, so I suggest plenty of background stuff in the interim. Stuff like what has been posted earlier. I would like to know if any of the ToY is still interested in RPing the hostage rescue situation as seen here (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=62619&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0) halfway down the page. I believe Berseker and/or Khenala was interested in this one. As for the fighting..........I'm not interested in long, drawn out space battles. From what I have witnessed in other threads do not impress me. People are simply unabl to handle space as of yet. Therefore, space fighting will be kept to a minimum. We are gonna have a good 'ol fashioned ground war here boys and girls. My un-ending supply of sacrificial humans vs. freaky-living-dead-automaton-thingies, snooty elves, and whatever other inferior races you can toss at me :P I'd like to leave this RP open to any good RPers who have a decent reason to get involved. However, they will have to announce sides and what not before this shindig kicks off. Good RPers, mind you. I might not be able to spot the bad apple, but I'm sure the rest here would be able to. If there are any objections to what I have posted here, please let me know and we can discuss it.

OOC: Well, I'd like to participate in my way later on. Sketch already knows what I intend- not really direct intervention, but more an incident, as an aside to the main action, hopefully leading on to something eventually. I'd be considered on his (Sketch's.) side, I suppose.

[OOC]
I'm gonna take this opportunity to show off some of my newer ideas.


As the Angelan feelers infriltrate the Sketchan civilian network, very little resistance would be met. The civilian network is a public access network, open to all subjects of Sketch. As such, no critical subsystems are routed though those networks. The non essential public sector would be slighty more secure, to prevent resistence groups from gaining access to the propaganda network. Sub systems dedicated to the needs of the general populace, such as sewage, public lighting, apartment bloc security, even the local constabulary would be easily compromised. Governmental networks carry an upper middle level security. Due to the isolationist nature of the government and the complete docility of the populace, security of nearly all public sectors are behind the times and succeptible more advanced hacking techniques. A few exceptions to this would be the upper echelons of the governments, due the the intrinsic militaristic nature of the rulers, and, oddly enough, the prison systems.

The Sketch government maintains a large prison system to take care of all non-compliant subjects, and as such, prison complexes can be found all over Sketch. The Sketch prison system carries a suprisingly high level of security, rivaling that of standard military battle encrytion. Attempts to break into this sytem have been deftly turned aside by what appears to be a sophisticated AI. Attempts at rationalizing with the "AI" for access have been ignored. This is a passive system, merely shunting aside all attempts to break in, with no counter attacks. Further invetigation of these prison complexes would reveal several interesting tidbits of information. Each prison complex posesses a dedicated powerplant, one that is far larger than nessesssary to power such a facility. While building specs are normally avaiable for most of Sketch's buildings, none could be found of the complexes. A search of street maps and civil engineering surveys will also reveal a consistent lack of information regarding said complexes and the surrounding area. Coincidentally, in all cases, there is never a main base less than 0.5 standard km away. If one were able to plant a spy satellite in orbit above to observe the surrounding area, they would find that the anti-air coverage is significantly higher in here than in other areas. Heat emmissions inconsistencies would be only one of the many puzzling aspects of these facilities. Observations over a long period of time would show that this "prison" never receives food supplies, prisoners never leave, there are never any riots, in fact, a total lack of any activity would be noticed. It is as if there were no prisoners there to begin with.

The Sketchan military networks are obviously the most secure of all the networks. In fact, as far as outside hacking is concerned, they are inpenetrable. That is, if access is attempted through conventional means. Accessing the military network via civilian networks will always result in failure. Why? Becasue the civilian access point to the military network
does not exist. The attached military network is simple a [i]shadow network, comprised of multiple dummy systems designed to emmulate an actual network. Atempts to access the network will result in failure everytime, simple because there is nothing to access. Codes are hardwired in to produce a access denial response to any querry - several layers of security and protocal, designed to be hacked, complete the effect. The clever use of bad roots, false returns, and access denials create the image of a powerful encryption network, which in turn entices would be hackers to delve deeper in fruitless efforts to "break in."

The true military networks are completely isolated from all other networks, not even using lines in the same physical vicinity as the others. In actuality, the computer networks are not computers at all. Herin lies the significance of the prison systems. The prisons are actually the main core of the enitre military network. That is not to say that there are not actually prisoners being detained, because there are, a countless number of them. New, innovative
advances in technology has allowed scientists to create a neural network computer composed of the brains of the prisoner population. Thats right, their brains. Prisoners are kept in a state of suspended animation, and their brains directly linked into a central control node. There, a master brain commands the entire power of the neural network. With such processing power, calculations that would daunt the most powerful super computer could be easily solved. With a consious master control, a level of conciousness is acheived which far surpasses any so-called "AI" (computer based). Information is encrypted and authenticated at an unbreakable level (or nearly so) using entire brain patterns as the encryption factor. This power comes at no small cost however. The organic brains can only handle so much load at full capacity. The resulting effect is the total and complete destruction of the mind after a prolonged use. Once the mind becomes corrupted, the body is discarded and replaced like an old compter core. As such, the prison sytem is always accepting "new guests." The use of a "master brain" allows for a controllable central intelligence to govern the linked minds. And for easy replacement. To maintain secure lines of communications and data transfers between the mainframe and the base, communication cables are buried far beneath the surface. The cables are closely monitered by realtime seismic sensors at both ends of the cable and the cables themselves are continuously alternated for data transfers.

In order to prevent infriltration via low echlon units, all military communications are encrypted and verified via brainwave patterns. Each service personnel has a unique organic body, and thus a unique brainwave pattern. This sytem allows for a nearly 100% accuracy in indentification (no system is perfect) and communications security.

This network is used throughout the Sketchan forces. All communications are shunted from the field to the base and back again. Which explains the extreme proliferation of these "prisons" all over Sketch. These networks usually consist of less than a hundred units being used at once, with a few hundred more held in que to fill in once one fails. Spacefaring vessels use a more compact version of this system, carrying only the surgically removed brain and a smaller scale neural network consisting of only a couple dozen (depending on the size of the vessel) with an even smaller reserve.

[OOC]
So was that evil and malicious enough for you all? I got that idea from one of the new Star Trek series and a book I read somewhere.....don't remeber the title though..... BTW, that was all super secret, etc, etc, information. Please don't presume to "discover" the true nature of my prisons.

[OOC]
I just posted some military force stats, eg. what units my forces consist of. Go here (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1617496#1617496) to check it out.

ooc:

Nice stuff. And no, I am not even going to get into the semantic arguement envolved with your security systems. I never was going to even touch your military stuff as per our agreement, and I honestly never even thought of touching the Prisons.

ic:


Omicron Blu (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/images/wingblu.jpg) floats as a silent observer above the arena. She watches the ongoing confrontation with interest, her brilliant human eyes open and gazing almost straight down.

On the lightly-packed sand of the arena floor, two massive Whiplashes (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/images/whiplash.jpg) face off against four of the GF Elite (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/gfbattledrone2.html) in open combat. The heavy lasers on the Whiplashes have been disabled, and the Elites are using heavy sawblades and shockclubs

The two Whiplashes stand back to back as the four other Elites circle slowly around them, their limited sentience searching for some weakness in the other's defenses.

At last, one of the Elites makes its move, coming in with a low swipe with its sawblade, its shockclub lifting in an attempt to fend off any coming attacks.

The closest Whiplash moves instantly to block, one of its bladed forelimbs cutting down to block the inrushing blade. The pincher of another reaches out with lightning speed to cut deeply into the shockclub, ripping it completely from the Elite's hand. At the same moment, the long tail that gives the Whiplash its name, cuts cleanly upwards between the Whip's legs, stabbing deeply into the Elite's stomach.

The Elite is knocked backwards, a jumble of circuitry and organic icor spilling from its torn gut.

The rest of the battle is lightning-quick, with only one of the Whiplashes even getting nicked by an apparent miscalculation in an overhead block. The offending Elite drops from its high jump, and is instantly torn to shreds by the enraged Whiplash.

Blu smiles darkly to herself, a deep sense of pride welling up within her. [Internal] Yes... My pretties will do very well, methinks.

James Seal strode confidently into the Prime Minister's office, a circular room with clear windows overlooking the metropolis of Khenala Prime.

"Brother, I come with urgent news."

Prime Minister Andrew Seal looked up at his brother's entrance. Had it been any other person, he may have been somewhat annoyed at the abruptness of the address, but his brother was different. As Special Advisor to the Prime Minister, it was arguably the most important job in the Empire, second only to that of the Prime Minister himself. He organized all of the information for the Prime Minister, and all cabinet-level Ministers reported to him. He decided what information needed to be handled by the Prime Minister, himself, and what information could be delegated to someone else.

This, James Seal decided, needed to go straight to the top.

"Things are coming to a head with the Sketchan situation. The time for action has come." He tossed a data pad onto his brothers desk, and stood quietly in front of it, arms clasped behind his back.

Andrew picked up the data pad and quietly read for a few moments. "Indeed. Is the fleet ready?"

"Yes."

Andrew nodded. "And the troops?"

"They have been organized and ready for deployment since after the attack."

"Very well. Send our forces to meet the Angelans at Waystation 0-1-1." He stood from his desk, straightening his tunic. "I will prepare our people for war."

-----

"Admiral, we have received communication from KDF Command."

Gabriel Zell looked up from his readiness report on the command deck of the KDS Champion's Hope. "Go ahead, Lieutenant. What is the word?"

"Our orders are to proceed with Operation: Archangel's Wrath and proceed to the designated coordinates."

"Very well." He stood from his Command Chair, glancing to his communications officer. "Relay our orders to the rest of the fleet. Finalize preparation for departure. Send acknowledgement to KDF Command and inform them we depart within the hour."

The Lieutenant nodded.

"Attention all hands, this is Admiral Zell. We are preparing to embark on a path we have all forseen for quite some time. The rage that boils within you at the attack on our bretheren in Angelus will finally be answered. Steel yourselves for the journey that lies ahead, for it will be challenging."

With those words, the Khenalian Fleet set course for Waystation 011, readying themselves for the fight ahead.

# Enemy non-detection grid stablized. Angelic Skies is doing an admirable
# job in keeping Waystation 011's location secret.
> Excellent. Tell Him to continue the good work. Further developments?
# The Sketchan military is finally beginning to move, the Kaenians have arrived
# at W-011, and the Khenalans are enroute. We have not yet heard from the
# other Triumvirate nations save Menelmacar.
> And We assume Sirithil will move at Her own discretion?
# Affirmative.
> Probability that She will interfere with Our plans?
# 20.766%
> We do not accept that number. Omicron Blu will contact her.
# Acceptable.

###BEGIN TRANSMISSION###
~>Route: Automata Omicron Blu - Angelus Mainframe - Sirithil
:
{We wish to know the status of your fleets, and any present plans of action}
{from your end. We do not wish our plans to clash, and though We wish}
{you to conform with Ours, We are willing to listen to alternatives.}
{Specifics of Our plan are being sent along with this transmission.}
:
~>Route closed
###END TRANSMISSION###

---
http://www.silentrequiem.net/evilblu.jpg (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus)
Automata Omicron Blu
Speaker of the Dominion

Membership: Triumvirate of Yut, Ur Trade Pact, Deus Ex Humana Consortium

<UP!>
[OOC]
Meh, not you specifically Angelus, for whoever is watching/participating in general. I've found that people are pretty bad at knowing what they can and can't use as far as IC knowledge goes. So I help them out some :wink:

***Intel analyst report***

The following intelligence indicate a 97% chance that Sketch is being targeted for hostilities. Menelmacari forces have been engaging in battle exercises for the past few cycles.
Angelean, Khenalan, and other ToY forces have been quiet durning this time, maintaining a relatively low military presence.
No effort has been made to recover ToY reps in Sketch.
The Sketchan involvement in the WorldDisc's defilement demands retribution.
Extra national fronts have been unsuccessful at finding information regarding the ToY's military status.Analysis concludes that there is an 88.6% chance that a strike will occur within the next two cylces. The posssibility increases to 93.1% of a strike within the next ten cycles. Intelligence recommends that steps be taken to prepare for immenent hostilities with superior forces.

***End report***

So...is there a list of exactly who I'm facing? I know about Angelus Menelmacar Khenala Kaenei Berserker?Who else? Not that this isn't frightening in of itself, but I expected more :wink:

ooc:

Though you will probably not be fighting the totality of the Triumvirate forces, I would say that most of them will at least have a hand in supply.

As for Kaenei, I will personally vouch for the player ('tis Europa Brittania), and Kaenei and Angelus have backstory that extends WAAAAAYYYY back.

(the nation belonged to my roommate, he quit, and gave it to EB at my behest. Kaenei and Angelus are quite intertwined, but aeo couldn't commit time to it...)

angel

IC: Unbeknownst to even close allies in the Triumvirate, a bastardized Loki dropship slipped into Sketchian space. It's hull looking like a diseased creature more than it's original design, covered in a variety of blisters, domes, antenna and other protusions at odd angles. She was as invisible as a vessel could be. Slowly drifting into a high orbit around the moon, she extended a few antennas and sensors, scanning for areas of radar coverage (if they exist), areas with little population, and military movements, along with scanning for any possible emergency comms. from the delegates.

OOC: The ship is equiped with a standard suite of radar defeating technology, active camo, along with passive sensor suites (which are currently engaged). Pretty much invisible to most means of detection, except for those attributes it cannot mask, such as its gravitic signature. (Everything produces gravity) If you have the ability to accurately detect gravtiy fields, you'd prolly notice it. If you don't have this ability before this RP (no pulling new stuff outta nowhere), then you won't see it till later.
This is secret info of course....And I'm off to class.

OOC: The ship is equiped with a standard suite of radar defeating technology, active camo, along with passive sensor suites (which are currently engaged). Pretty much invisible to most means of detection, except for those attributes it cannot mask, such as its gravitic signature. (Everything produces gravity) If you have the ability to accurately detect gravtiy fields, you'd prolly notice it. If you don't have this ability before this RP (no pulling new stuff outta nowhere), then you won't see it till later.
This is secret info of course....And I'm off to class.

Well, I had wanted to unviel a whole new set of technology that was based off the manipulation of "graviton particles", but I guess it'll have to wait till we conclude this. Since I already spilled the beans, I'll give a brief run down of what this is. Basically, I discover the previously un-quantified variable know as gravity. I then use new knowledge to produce tchnology based on the manipultaion and creation of cravity fields. The applications of said technology will span everything from repulsor tech (antigrav) to FTL to graviton weapons to gravity field sensors (ie. stuff that would detect the ship). But, alas, you beat me to the punch so I will hold off until later. This is gonna set back research for a couple of decades......... :?

I see that you haven't forgotten about the delgates. I'm sure you'll figure some inventive way of finding out where they are. Unfortunately the delegates are in a state of lockdown, but, most mansions don't normally have base camps in their front lawn :wink:

ooc: Picking some random deeper-space installation. If this is not cool, just ignore. (Just starting things up a bit).

ic:

In the cold silence of space, a single Sketchan station floats serenely against the panoramic backdrop of the solar system. The sun blazes brilliantly behind the station, and the planetary bodies glow like glittering stars in an infinite field of diamonds.

Then, reality ripples slightly, and five massive ships suddenly slip into view. Two Excelsiors (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/excelsior.html) and three Fallen (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/fallen.html) slide into realspace, their gracefull bulks swinging on a tight axis as their retrojets fire to slow their inertia.

Then, without any warning, and only moments of preperation, the ships open fire on the station.

~*~

In a near-Europa orbit, another cosmic distortion ripples faintly through the time/space singularity, and Strike Force Alpha slips back into reality.

# Target acquired. Focus on military orbital station 28, on vector [VECTOR].
# Ordinance and firepower only, no ground attacking.
> Acknowledged.

The Semblance of Reason (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/reason.html) dips into a steep dive, leading the way as it pierces the outer magnetic fields, dropping with incredible speed into a near-europa orbit. The ships of the SFA rocket forwards, their target selected and coming into range.

Suddenly, they open fire, sending waves of flaming death towards the station.

ooc:

The attack on the deep space station will continue until the station is heavily damaged, or until reinforcements show up.

The attack on the Europan station will be one, maybe two passes with full salvos, and then the SFA will jump out.

OOC: The ship is equiped with a standard suite of radar defeating technology, active camo, along with passive sensor suites (which are currently engaged). Pretty much invisible to most means of detection, except for those attributes it cannot mask, such as its gravitic signature. (Everything produces gravity) If you have the ability to accurately detect gravtiy fields, you'd prolly notice it. If you don't have this ability before this RP (no pulling new stuff outta nowhere), then you won't see it till later.
This is secret info of course....And I'm off to class.

Well, I had wanted to unviel a whole new set of technology that was based off the manipulation of "graviton particles", but I guess it'll have to wait till we conclude this. Since I already spilled the beans, I'll give a brief run down of what this is. Basically, I discover the previously un-quantified variable know as gravity. I then use new knowledge to produce tchnology based on the manipultaion and creation of cravity fields. The applications of said technology will span everything from repulsor tech (antigrav) to FTL to graviton weapons to gravity field sensors (ie. stuff that would detect the ship). But, alas, you beat me to the punch so I will hold off until later. This is gonna set back research for a couple of decades......... :?

I see that you haven't forgotten about the delgates. I'm sure you'll figure some inventive way of finding out where they are. Unfortunately the delegates are in a state of lockdown, but, most mansions don't normally have base camps in their front lawn :wink:
You can unviel it if you want. I was mainly refering to people who would go "Oh well my Uber Detectors of Doom can detect gravity (even though I never devoloped them too...). Besides, iif such new tech of yours spotted me, the brass would most likely be skeptical of it. THat's how it is alot of times, always skeptical.

...To class now..

[OOC]
oy vey............you should know by now that I don't ignore anything unless everyone else is doing it too. But please don't run too far with the preliminary attacks until near the end of the week. A few here and there is fine, it lets me start gearing up with the "knowledge" that hostilites have officially begun.


Battle klaxxons sound as enormous concentrations of boson particles are detected near the station.

[i]Commander! Sensors show massive waveform distortions orgininating from Sector 6. The masses are materializing now. They appear to be..............Angelean.

A wave of fear passes over the commander's face, not now, we're not ready...., thought the commander as he braced for the inevitable salvo of death.

Moments later, in the dim lighting of failing power, the commander gives the order to send out a full spectrum distress signal. High command must know about this! Keep an open channel for all re-inforcements.

===========

[OOC]
Unfortunately, I don't have any space stations orbiting Europa, only part of my fleet. And I don't think we want to start the fleet battle yet.

And now to class, quick!

[OOC]
Unfortunately, I don't have any space stations orbiting Europa, only part of my fleet. And I don't think we want to start the fleet battle yet.

And now to class, quick!

ooc:

Was not sure. Then consider that an attack on a minor surface installation.

The Angelic ships continue their relentless barriage of the Sketchen station. Pulse after pulse of brilliant laserfire sparkle in the disturbed silence of space.

# Communications from the station have been sent to the Sketchen
# central command. We were unable to block them, but We were able to intercept
# enough to understand it was a plea for assistance.
> Acknowledged. Continue firing as long as possible, but break of engagement
> when the Sketchen reinforcements arrive.

Frohimer nodded as Delegate Blue explained the tactical plans in greater detail. He nodded as he absorbed the information, constantly seeking a way to perfect or improve apon the already formidable military prowess of the Angelans.



"A sound plan my Lady." He concurred, My Guardians stand ready, as they have been since the moment of their mobilisation to aid you. However A considerable time has lapsed since our forces last fought together. I am sure also you have developed more advanced techniques and weaponry that we will undoubtdly be unfamiliar with. I propose a series of training exercises if you would be so willing. They can only hone our skills further."

Whilst he spoke images flashed through the Captains mind. The beasts whose very existance seemed suffused with death and pain returned to his mind. The monsters he had seen shackled inside the loading bays, roaring their monstrous torment for all to hear and indeed cower before.



Standing, Frohimer crossed to the viewport that adorned the wall. Within the coldness of the void he could see the underside of the Angel as she sat silently locked with the structure.

For a second a frown creased the forehead of the Keanian, he had felt something. Not so much a vision or premonition, he lacked the belief of such directly, but a stirring.

An ominious feeling that did not bode well.


Frohimer shook himself back to reality, turning back to face Blue: "Several Triumph Class Escorts stand ready to make all speed to Europa, should your first attack wave require assitance."


Pulling a small DataPad from his belt, he brings up an inventory.

"The Keanian fleet currently stands at four hundred thirty seven vessels my Lady. Supply and repair vessels stand at an additional twenty four, but have yet to leave Earth orbit. The Angel shall lead out our finest battlecruisers which form the 1st KeaniaGuard. She will lead ten battlegroups of fifty vessels each, giving us greater tactical manueveability."

Handing over the pad to the Automata, he adds-

"Orbital Batteries have been manufactured, to intensify any Orbital strikes. Freeing up our captial ships to engage other targets. DropShip Manufacture has increased by seventy four percent, and all Guardian squads now have Orbit-to-Surface transports. They are yours to command at will."

Dropping his head in respect, he sat once more.

Appearing on the far side of Europa, away from the main body of the Sketchan fleet and Sketch Prime (main population center), the Angelan forces target a lone early warning outpost. The suprised Sketchan fleet, caught unawares by the sudden attack, crambled to mount a counter offensive. Four Star Destroyers and six battlecruisers peel off from geosync orbit to fend off the aggressors.While they wait for re-inforcements, a handful of extra-orbital defense cannons (http://www.well-of-souls.com/homeworld/hws/hw2/images/concept_turret07.jpg) mount a valient attempt to deter the hostile aggressors.

================

While the taskforce breaks away from the main defense fleet, a message is received from the assualted deep space research station. We are under attack from Angelean forces! We require immediate assistance! I repeat. We are under attack from (etc, etc, repeat) Fleet Admiral Kalinin furrows his brow, What are they up to? Do they intend for me to rush off to save the day? Knowing that he can't just leave the station to be destroyed, Kalinin orders two taskgroups to set course for the station (same composition as above), to salvage the situation. He then connects to ground command - The Angelan offensive has begun. Raise force protection level to Red. Engage planetary shields and prepare for assualt. With that message, similar commands are relayed throughout the Imperium. Fleets are called back from foward deployment and assigned to protect system assests.

===============

[OOC]
A quick blurb between classes
Planetary shields - think Hoth, they only cover the main population centers and other areas of interests.

The SFA weaves a remarkable pattern through the vain attempts of the Sketchen defense, but even so, several of the ships sustain minor damage, including a blackened rear-hull on board the Semblance of Reason.

Blu smiles confidently to herself as she pilots the Reason safely through the defensive fire. Her "hands" tingle with the warmth from the Reason's heavy cannon fire, her "fists" uncurling as the weapon systems go offline.

The SFA was only there to do a deep penetration strafing run. For now, that would be enough.

~*~

Citizen, with the Sketchen shields up, the orbital bombardments will be largely unable to deal out the pinpoint damage which We require. The vast majority of this war will be fought on the ground, and not from space.

Blu motions, and several points on the globe sparkle to red life. These will be our preleminary insertion points. We would like you to place down here, and here, riding along with the main Angelic front.

She looks back at Forhimer. Any questions?

The Khenalian fleet, fifteen capital ships strong, and supported by a myriad of other vessels, slowly approached Waystation 011, running "low-power" and "communications-silent" with every radar countermeasure in place to ensure their movements were not being traced, and stopping several times to conduct thurough scans of the area to make sure they werent being followed.

The greeting sent was not elaborate, merely a text message, a simple request for the Khenalian Admiral to meet with a counterpart on behalf of the Angelans.

Hanging silently in the depths of space, the Khenalians awaited a reply.

###BEGIN TRANSMISSION###
~>Route: Automata X1 - Angelus Mainframe - Khenelan Fleet
:
{We are gladdened to see you. Approach on vector 229 to port 12. Upon}
{disembarkation, you will be lead to the Command Center, where the Kaenian}
{representative is already in council with myself.}
:
~>Route closed
###END TRANSMISSION###

---
http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/images/littleblu2.jpg (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus)
Automata Omicron Blu
Speaker of the Dominion

[OOC]
Presuming that the attack on the deep space research station is still in progress...........doing a little time manip here most likely :?


A flash of boson particles announce the imminent arrival of the Sketchan taskforce. With a shimmering flash, a score of ships appear in realspace, ready to engage the aggressing Angelan fleet. In perfect battle formation, the ships vector in to relieve the besieged station.

[i]Commander! Re-inforcements have arrived!
About damn time! Everyone, begin evactuation of the station.

A renewed flurry of purpose manifests itself on the beleaguered station, as all hands proceed to their escape pods and await rescue. Having received a message from the station commander of the direness of the situation, the commander of the taskforce decides to directly engage the Angelan forces to cover for the retrieval operation. As the main body of the taskforce angles towards the Angelan ships, a star destroyer and two battlecuisers peel off to collect the stranded personnel.

=================

Back on the far side of Europa, the small group of ships dispatched to investigate the Angelan penetration arrive on site. Only to find a smoking ruin of what used to be an early warning station for the blind side of Europa. Upon hearing the report, Fleet Admiral Kalinin sends a dispatch off to the rest of the Guardian fleet. We cannot risk another attack circumventing our defenses like that, something needs to be done.......(musing) Send for my senior fleet comanders, we need to prepare for the next assualt. Tell me when they arrive, I'll be in my stateroom.

[OOC]
I assumed that you left already from Europa.

ooc:

It all works out perfectly. The SFA will not fight openly yet, merely doing hit and run for now.

Same with deep space.

~*~

ic:

# Sketchen fleet incomming.
> Acknowledged. Break off attack and Jump.
# Preparing for Jump.

The Angelic ships move for one more strafing run, heavy cannon blazing as their internal systems make the final warmups for the Jump.

Within moments, the Angelic ships are gone, without even so much as a parting shot at the Sketchen fleet.

The force commander lets loose a sigh of relief. Despite the superior numbers, the Angelan ships would have been trouble. A group of technicians are sent aboard the now defunct station to ensure that a complete sercurity lockdown was properly initiated. Computer cores aboard the station are removed and taken to the ships for safe keeping. The rest of the station's systems were shut down and disabled. The safety protocals were removed from the main reactor systems to prevent re-initiation, violently. Care was taken to set hidden "suprises" for future unauthorized visitors. As the techs left the station and boarded the fleet craft, several probes are fired out into the surrounding space. Careful watch would be kept on the station at all times, despite the lack of Sketchan military presence. With the final preparations complete, the taskforce prepares to return to Europa.

[OOC]
Oy Vey! It is maaaad late, what the hell am I doin? I'm going to sleep NOW!

ooc: If your probes were able to pick up on the ultra-low ion emissions from it, they would locate a rather small deep/localspace probe (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/probe.html) watching the station.

IC:
# Sketchen pullout of target station complete.
> Acknowledged. Proceed with attacks on the next target.[/b]

Apparently picked at random, a slightly larger station was chosen for the next attack, and once again three Excelsiors and 15 Raptors appeared in realspace. They take only the barest moment to calibrate their targeting sequences, and a deadly barrage commences.

The ships have appeared in a triangular formation, each point made up of a single Excelsior with five escort Raptors, arrayed about the station. The triangle rotates slowly, each ship maintaining an exact distance from the station and each other.

They make no attempt to draw near to the station, merely content to pummel it from afar.

[OOC]
Perhaps you could run a simultaneous, multi-pronged attack on several stations at once. This one at a time deal will get a little tedious after a while. Hit a few outer planets or something. Refer to Mindset's map for locations of my system holdings.

And now I have to prepare for a German midterm, so I'll respond IC later.

This one at a time deal will get a little tedious after a while.

ooc:

I am only intending to do two attacks for space, and two attacks for ground to give the understanding that these are hit-and-run. As the attacks intensify, more and more important targets are chosen, at random, with multiple targets attacked at once.

I am trying to give the impression that this is slowly building, but I understand what you mean about tedium.

Sorry about that. Good luck on your test.

Frohimer shook his head as he placed the Datapad to the floor.

"There are no questions My Lady." He added resolutley.

Standing, he crossed, stopping a respectable distance away. His eyes widened and he fixed a passionate stare on the Angelic representative.

"I assure you honourable designate, we will fight with you until our bodies fall to the earth lifeless, cold and no longer fit for this world. With particle cannons, sharp blades and our bare hands we will fight with you. Until the last Keanian on Europa can fight no more and take not one more breath we will fight with you. Just as it has been in the distant past, when greatness was lost and a light extinguished from this galaxy like candle snuffed out in a breeze, we will fight once more- together. Though time has conspired to erode us, so we may be lost amongst the gibbering fools of the Universe we will remain strong and perform our duties till the heavens themselves have grown dark, and all is truly lost."

Taking a moment to compose himself, the Captain bowed his head.

"Forgive me Lady, I must restrain my passions more adherently in your presence."

Directing his eyes once more through the observation window, he fixed his stare apon the distant star that was the giant Jupiter.

And a small, insignificant rock by known by the ignorant name of Europa.

A world that would soon see steel, fire, blood and slaughter


Frohimer shivered.

He felt as though he would never again leave that world.

.........a world that would soon see steel, fire, blood and slaughter.........

Whoa :shock: Someone's out for blood............eek

Official player sentiment: Bring it on!!!

Frohimer shivered.

He felt as though he would never again leave that world.

Blu smiles softly at the words coming from her comrade. My dear Frohimer... It has indeed been a long time since last Our peoples fought alongside each other. You cannot possibly remember Our last joint effort like We do, but it was not one that is Our most glorious.

She motions towards a nearby seat.

The Traitor Garramond had finally sealed his own doom, but with it, all of the Caelistis Gens. True combat had broken out all over the Imperial Planet, and in the capital of Hegira, the fighting had become a bloodbath.

She shakes her head, her eyes closed, her self in a different place.

The Traitor had successfully rused the Family into believing that they were attending a celebration in their honor, a post-wedding celebration. They all attended, completely unaware of what was to happen, completely unaware of what The Traitor had done, and completely unarmed.

You see, ever since Garramond had become insinuated into the House Caelistis, he had begun to sow seeds of dissent among the Emperial houses. Little white lies told in confidence became sources of great distrust, and his own private army of propagandists papering the Empire with their own spin on things, driving the people to begin to no longer view the Emperor with the love they once did.

And so, everything came to a head that night. Garramond had wed into the Imperial Family, having married the Emperor's elder sister Amaranth. In doing so, He had insinuated himself into the highest ranks of the Imperial Household, surpassing even your First Citizen in political power.

On that night, Garramond wished to make an announcement that would be important for every Caelistis, and so they all arrived. Xanone was there, as Grand Admiral of the Imperial Navy, as was Aeolis and Kilthanis, and the rest of the Imperial Family, including the Emperor Himself, Christopher Caelistis.

They were all unarmed, and when the Garramond forces entered the Hall, it was a slaughter. Xanone stood by the Emperor, fallen in battle, convinced that not only would he fall beside his beloved ruler, but order strikes from heaven that would rain down the Emperor's mighty vengance upon those that had decieved Him.

But Christopher would have none of that. He bade Xanone to instead save His only Son, your First Citizen, so that the memory of the Imperial House would not diminish. He also gave one last order before Xanone left him, and that was to leave, depart human space, to seek out the emptiness between the stars, and there find the Dream. And so, with his mechanical heart heavy with dread, Xanone left the side of his beloved Emperor, sought Aeolis out, and pulled him and Kilthanis from the Hall.

Outside, the members of the House Fallen had assembled, and were about to rush into the Imperial Palace in order to save their leader, Aeolis. Seeing him being carried out by Xanone solidified their growing love for the Automata, forever unifying what would become two wholly seperate nations. They fought like demons, all the way to the spaceport, and without them, Xanone, Aeolis, Angelus, and Kaenei might not have been. Many of them fell that night, the night that would be later remembered as The Massacre.

The fighting at the spaceport was even more furious, and the Fallen were in danger of truely falling, until Xanone's Automata bretheren, the first of the Guardian Units, appeared and assisted in their salvation. Many times many fell that day, but there was also birthed the concept of two wholly new nations.

Blu pauses in her narrative, her brilliant eyes opening to look upon Frohimer.

So, you see, Our nations are enexorably bound to each other. We are bretheren, in many senses of the word, the Kaenians and the Angels. Within Us lies the fading remnants of the true power of the old Caelistis Gens.

[OOC]
And how long exactly has this story line been in the works? Quite impressing sounding to say the least.

And how long exactly has this story line been in the works? Quite impressing sounding to say the least.

ooc:

Almost as long as I have been online. Christopher Caelistis is an actual person, so is Garramond, Amaranth, and the entirety of the Caelistis Family.

There has been a continual storyline going for a long time, and when Chris, aeo, and I started playing NS, we transcribed the storyline and made a branch to be backstory for them.

The Communications Officer replies. "Acknowledged, proceeding to port 12, vector 229."

Following the Angelan directions, the Khenalian fleet soon docked with Waystation 011.

Zell steps off of his ship into the Waystation, straightening his tunic, and approaches the nearest Automata he sees. "Pardon me, I am here to meet with Automata Omicron Blu. May I please be directed to her?"

He has come alone, leaving his crew to ready the finalize any preparations before the great battle to come.

Automata R1124 waits silently for the Khenalan delegation to arrive, and is mildy surprised to see only one representative disembark from the ship.

He hurredly approaches the Khenalan delegate and politely apologizes to N244.

Right this way, sir. R1124 points with his forelimb and skitters off in the direction of the gravlifts. He quickly escorts Zell through the winding passageways, finally leading him to the Command Center.

As they enter, Blu turns to them, a soft smile on her blue-tinged lips. Ahh, my esteemed collegue from Khenala. Welcome to Waystation 011

Zell touches his forehead with the tips of his index and middle fingers, bowing slightly, a studious person would point out that this is a Khenalian greeting, one connotating deep respect for the other individual.

"Speaker, it is a great pleasure to meet you. I bring the greetings of my nation, and of our Prime Minister, Andrew Seal." He smiles softly. "I believe we have some business to discuss."

She responds to his bow with a slight one of her own, her right hand lifted palm-outwards, middle fingers together, index and pinky spread apart, her left hand over her heart.

Yes. Zell, this is Citizen Frohimer, of the United Socialist States of Kaenei. The Kaenians will be working rather closely with us in the ground invasion, as well as provide spacial support.

Now, here is what we have so far...

She proceeds to outline the plan exactly as she had to Frohimer, adding nor detracting anything.

So far, We have successfully destroyed several minimal targets on Europa, as well as successfully disabled several deep-space Sketchen interests. We plan that by the end of the week We will have located and destroyed all or most of the Sketchen deep=space installations. We want all of the Sketchen fleet here, not gallavanting off somewhere.

So, We will destroy everything they need to protect.

She switches the holomoniter off. Any questions?

[OOC]
Oh yeah.........more attacks on space stations, haven't even responded yet....... :oops: I'm gonna post a general fleet response, assuming that these attacks have been getting more frequent.


With the typical shimmering flash of space vessels reverting back into real space, the rest of the [i]Guardian fleet appears over Europa. Like an eagle spreading its wings to shield its nest, the fleet assumes a defensive battle grid over Sketch Prime. In the midst of the mighty vessels rests the mighty commandship Guardian, flagship of the aptly named fleet.

***
Fleet numbers

1 Commandship - Guardian
60 Star Destroyers
132 Battlecruisers

Planetary assualt troops and vehicles have been redeployed onto the surface. Only a fifth of the normal troop contigent remains aboard to repel boarders.
***

*During a meeting with his senior officers*

Kalinin: I have gathered you here to explain our curent situation. The Angelans have been nipping at our heels for several time units now. Hitting bases at the edges of our space. Several bold attacks have been launched deep within our territory as well, including the one here not long ago. *He glances sharply at a sub-commander sitting at the other end of the table. The man shies away from his gaze.* We cannot allow them to dictate the flow of battle. As such, we will go on the offensive. I will take the Seraphim fleet and search for these Angelan ships. Rear Admiral Graf will be in command of the Sketchan defense fleet during my absence.

*more meeting stuff follows*

===========

To make long short....
[OOC]
Seraphim fleet takes off, leaves the Guardian fleet to protect Europa, and proceeds to do the minute man act, running of to respond to every distress call put out by assualted Sketchan holdings.

===========

On the ground, General Redwing of the Sketchan ground forces makes his own preparations. Going over the battle plans for obvious invasion to come, she mumbles deragotaory comments about the fleet overhead - [i]Those fleet admirals, in their pretty suits, sitting in their expensive toys, sipping tea.........bah! They don't know the meaning of battle. Many found this sentiment to be not entirely unfounded given her remarkable history. As one of the few women in the Sketchan military high command, she commanded with an iron fist and demanded absolute obediance. Those who knew her referred to her as the Blood Queen, for everywhere she went, there was sure to be blood.

She attained her current rank through the most brutal means - by executing her commanding officer. During one of the many battles waged by Sketch, Redwing's commanding officer made yet another mistake in a series of blunders during an invasion campaign, allowing enemy troops to push back the Sketchan lines to near day one status. The campaign was well on its way towards becoming an utter rout, until Redwing took over. Citing the battle Codex, Redwing declared that the commanding officer had failed to perform his duties. In times of war, when an officer fails to perform, they are executed. After desposing of the officer, Redwing then proceeded to execute the entire planning staff, and re-instated a new command staff. Once the coup was completed, she then directed her attention to salvaging the situation. And salvage she did. Rallying the troops, she led a counter assualt which completely broke the opposing army. Not only was ground recovered, but it was made, for she had penetrated deep within the heartland of the enemy, forcing a capitualation within a matter of days. Her use of brilliant battle plans and ultimately successful tatics shielded her from repraisals upon her return to Sketch Prime. There, she was recognized by the reigning Das Sketch and given a field promotion to General, thus making her the first ever Sketchan female to hold that rank. Ever since that day, her performance has always been the best of all the field commanders, her battles never failing to end with the complete annihilation of enemy forces.

*Basic battle plans w/ background*

The planetary shields are maintained by seven separate generators. One of the generators is located within the city of Sketch Prime itself. The rest are located thoughout the area in roughly concentric circles spreading outwards from Sketch Prime. Each generator is responsible for a specific section of the sky. There is a slight over lap of shields, but not enough to cover should one go down. There are four generators in the outer ring, thus maing them the closest to the edge of the shield layer. The Northen most one being physically closest to the edge. At each outer shield will be two corps of MI troops (~half a mil units), along with a corps of armor and AS(~ 50K units each). The rest of the forces will be spread throughout the land as a ready response force, incase a particular area is overrun (~ 4 corps MI, 2 corps AS, 4 corps armor).

Orbital defense cannons dot the land, with high concentrations in the areas surrounding anything of military value. While a protective shell is useful in of itself, it is far better to have some offensive punch. With that in mind, the cannons are slaved to their respective generators, allowing them to shoot "through" the shields. A system of "flickering" allows the cannons to syncronize their shots to pass though the layer by dropping the shields for the few microns of a second it takes for the lance of death to travel spaceward. This is only done when absolutely nesessary or when orbital bombardment is not a great concern.

The hostile environment of the iceball that is known as Europa has several home advantages. To the North, a great kilometers wide chasm know as the "Great Divide" running from the Northwest to East separates the Northern cap from the rest of Sketchan territory. Bridges connect the two sides and the majority of routes travel over the narrowest part of the chasm, which is only a kilometer wide. Due to the strategic nature of that particular junction, half of the ready forces are stationed in and around that area. To the South is the Frozen sea of Thorn. The area appears to be no less solid than anything else, but geothermic activity keep the "water" from freezing, and as such, sometimes instabilities in the terrain amnifest themselves at the most inopportune times. To the West is an area referred to affectionately by military generals as the "Killing Plains." A vast stretch of artic wasteland, stretching for hundreds of kilometers in all directions, where the only cover is nothing. Any approach from this vector would be immediately detectable, not to mention in dire straights, as the area is saturated with mines and automated defenses. Sketch Prime, the main population center of Europa and central control authority of the empire is situated on solid rock. The Icy surface has been boiled away to make room for a sprawling megatropolis. This area has been completely terraformed, to the point of having an artifical environment - including plants and animals. Sketch Prime occupies a few hundred square kilometers of terraformed land, wich gradually fades into the icy hell which is Europa.

[OOC]
Whew, that took quite awhile to type out. Maybe if I get ambitious I'll make a map or something. I was facing the reality of the what Europa was in RL and decided that there was no reasonable way that it could be completely terraformed.

Military numbers are used with a 2% population standing force operating at 55% avg battle efficiency.

ooc:

The attacks become more and more frequent, and the Angelic ships continue their practice of not engaging the Seraphim fleet in any way.

Though, I am curious. Since the Seraphim fleet was BUILT by Angelus, each one of those ships would have a Construct/Mind built into them. Unless Sketch completely rebuilt the Seraphim fleet after Sephirus errantly sold it to you... *sighs* We certaintly roleplayed it out, and it is standard practice for all Angelic-made ships to have them, and the ship systems would not work without them... What to do?

ooc:

The attacks become more and more frequent, and the Angelic ships continue their practice of not engaging the Seraphim fleet in any way.

Though, I am curious. Since the Seraphim fleet was BUILT by Angelus, each one of those ships would have a Construct/Mind built into them. Unless Sketch completely rebuilt the Seraphim fleet after Sephirus errantly sold it to you... *sighs* We certaintly roleplayed it out, and it is standard practice for all Angelic-made ships to have them, and the ship systems would not work without them... What to do?

From my understanding, I was informed after my pricey purchase, that my fleet was a slag heap orbiting Europa. I ended up RPing the reconstruction of the entire fleet. I decided that since I "bought" the Seraphim fleet, I "bought" the rights to the name. So yeah......ain't nothing Angelan there, try again :wink:

Brief IC before a night out with the guys

Realizing the utter fruitlessness of playing tag with the Angelan ships, Admiral Kalinin devised a new strategy. Choosing an extensive, yet untouched shipyard deep within the Hades cluster, Kalinin settles the fleet in wait for the inevitable Angelan attack. Several dozen ships are designated to continue the rapid response to maintain the appearance of gallavanting across the galaxy. Several Intertictor cruisers are placed around the perimeter to prevent any jump incursions into the shipyard itself (standard gravity well tech, generally accepted as affecting any type of FLT travel from my understanding, barring the few exceptions like jump gates).

*fleet numbers are as follows*
one command ship - [i]Avatar
92 Star Destroyers; 14 designated as ready response, can be considered not present
163 battle cruisers; 45 designated as ready response, same as above
18 Interdictor cruisers; not normally included in the battle roster, is considered a "support" ship

==============

During this time, ships from across the Sketchan domain continue to arrive on station at Europa, adding to the already formidable force there.

[OOC]
Should there be a problem with numbers, we can discuss it off thread. Drop me a TG if the case should ever arise. Now off to have a night of fun and mayhem!

[b]ooc:[b]

No problem with the Seraphim fleet stuff. I was just curious as to that. If the ships had not been slagged, I would have probably come up with a way to let you keep 'em.

As for numbers, no problems there. *shrug*

The Angelic fleet that would attack the shipyard would see the ships, and jump out before any serious envolvement happen. I will RP it out, just not right now.

She switches the holomoniter off. Any questions?

Zell pondered Blu's words carefully. "I have only one. I will be blunt. I am positive that the Sketchan force will outnumber us, possibly greatly. What we lack in quantity we make up for in quality, but I am quite positive we will be at a disadvantage. What are we looking at, in terms of numbers, for the Sketchan fleet?"

What are we looking at, in terms of numbers, for the Sketchan fleet?"

The Sketchens will outnumber us only on the ground. The combined Angelus/Kaenei/Khenala forces will easily outnumber them in space. The Sketchen fleet, as far as We can tell are as follows.

one command ship - Avatar
92 Star Destroyers; 14 designated as ready response
163 battle cruisers; 45 designated as ready response,
18 Interdictor cruisers; not normally a battle cruiser, is considered a "support" ship

She pauses for a moment, and then continues.

We are going to be commiting Armadas 02 and 04, as well as the Dream of the Archailect battlegroup. The Angelus fleets are here.

She waves her hand, and the holoscreen reveals a two-dimensional image revealing the text details of the Angelic Fleets.


Armada 02

Motherships: (74) Excelsiors, and (92) Fallen
Cruisers/Gunships: (86) Alliances, (210) Falchions, (411) Raptors, (194) Revnants, and (282) Gallants
Fighters: Standard for the MotherShips

Armada 04

Motherships: (71) Excelsiors, and [38] Fallen
Cruisers/Gunships: (144) Alliances, (215) Falchions, (317) Raptors, (155) Revnants, and (229) Gallants
Fighters: Standard for the MotherShips

The Dream of the Archailect Flagship Group

1 Excelsior, 15 Raptors, 15 Revnants, 10 Falchion IIs

Most of these ships will be engaged in deep space attacks, leaving about half of Armada 04, as well as the Archailect battlegroup and Strike Force Alpha to engage the Sketchen fleets at Europa. The other fleets can be brought in, if the need requires it, but the other Angelic Armadas will not leave Titan space. Furthermore, the WorldDisc will be moved from Titan space to an undisclosed location outside of the Solar System for the duration of the attack on Sketch.

She waits a moment, and continues.

Angelus is also sending in ground forces as follows

The Angelic ground force attack is split into four waves, each touching down at specific points. Note, this does not include the SFA.

Battle Wave 01
Groundforce Battledrones: 18,275
Groundforce Battledrone Elites: 9,125
Guardian Units: 4,750
Fallen Razorbacks: 2,500
Fallen Whiplashes: 2,500

Battle Wave 02
Groundforce Battledrones: 18,000
Groundforce Battledrone Elites: 9,225
Guardian Units: 4,650
Fallen Razorbacks: 2,500
Fallen Whiplashes: 2,500

Battle Wave 03
Groundforce Battledrones: 18,400
Groundforce Battledrone Elites: 9,000
Guardian Units: 4,325
Fallen Razorbacks: 2,500
Fallen Whiplashes: 2,500

Battle Wave 04
Groundforce Battledrones: 18,000
Groundforce Battledrone Elites: 9,250
Guardian Units: 4,175
Fallen Razorbacks: 2,500
Fallen Whiplashes: 2,500

We are also expecting heavy assistance from Our Europan installation, Angelic Skies. They shall be sending up thousands of GF Battledrones into the Sketchen cities. They will not be of any tactical advantage against the Sketchen military, but they are projected to have a disasterous effect on the Sketchen civilian and paramilitary organizations operating in the Sketchen population centres.

Angelic Skies
Groundforce Battledrones: 975,450

Also, We have Strike Force Alpha already operating in and around Europa.


The Semblance of Reason (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/reason.html), (1) Fallen (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/fallen.html), (2) Raptors (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/raptor.html), (2) Revnants (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/revenant.html), (2) Alliances. (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/alliance.html), and (4) BHL-44 (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/bhl44.html) cargo carriers, retrofitted for personel transport.

Each ship has been heavily modified for stealth and speed. The armament has all been upgraded to the new Cybiotic-Trillenium compound, lighter and harder than standard armor. They all have gotten a matte-black paint job, the paint a radar-reflecting paint of a metallic nature.

Each ship has also been equipped with a high-density electromagnetic field generator, to even further mess with detection sensors.

The ships have also had heavy gause cannon batteries placed onto their hulls for in-atmospheric fighting, as well as heavy chain cannons for the same purpose.

The new Sx-series construct/minds have all been programmed with every possible combat maneuver, and everything Angelus has ever known about Sketch has been placed in their databanks, as well as extensively-detailed maps of Sketchen holdings.

Troop breakdown: The BHLs are carrying the troops. (3) of the BHLs are filled with 4,000 "donated" Mechanized Humans each, as well as 2,890 Angelic Battlejeeps (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/images/battlejeep.jpg).

The final BHL is filled ith 2,500 GF Battledrones (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/gfbattledrone.html) and 2,500 GF Battledrone Elite (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/gfbattledrone2.html)

Omicron Blu (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/images/wingblu.jpg) will be leading the ground forces herself in her Combat Avatar.

At this point, a hitherto unseen doorway opens, and two winged creatures float outwards, their eyes burning with dark purpose.

We will also be joining in leadership on the ground. The first figure (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/combatxanone.jpg) states.

No, I/We will not allow My/Our children to enter combat without Me/Us. the second figure (http://www.silentrequiem.net/angelus/combatmainframe.jpg) adds.

Zell glances at the two Angelan avatars that enter the room, and is extremely gladdened that he is on their side.

"Thank you, Speaker, for allaying some of my concerns. I have a force of about 250,000 forces to be spread out over three waves. A quarter of our forces are outfitted with modified Sakkran Powered Armor units. I will have to gather our complete breakdown of regiments and forward them once I return to my ship. Do we have any intelligence on the readiness factor of Sketchan ground forces? No doubt by now they are aware that something is...amiss."

(OOC: Sorry, but I've been busy. We're assuming I've been there the entire time.)

Sky Marshal Hayes takes a hand from her ear. "I've just been informed the TYCS is willing to send in the First Expeditionary Force and First Combined Fleet. That gives you ninety-six more capital ships to play with. They would've sent more, but since the defection of Xaosis, we need to be cautious with our resources.

"I can give you more specific information if you need it."

[OOC]
Whoa, and Scolo himself shows up, we got all the players now (or nearly so)

Angelus: You forget that the Seraphim fleet is still busy playing tag with your random strikes. The "only" defenses currently at Europa is the Guardian fleet. Of course the Seraphim fleet will be making an appearance once it becomes apparent that your ships are intending to pitch a tent and start a fire.

btw, nice pics, although the second one is not quite PG-13, :wink:

Not quite sure what else I should be posting.....my troops are already psyched and ready to kill some freaks n' geeks (elves and AI :wink: ) Unless there are a few more follow thoughs to be had, the ball's in your court now. I'll be in around noonish to start posting with zeal. NROTC owns me for the first 12 hours of the day..................sigh. Now to bed.

In the Command center, Blu bows in respect to the Mainframe and Xanone.

Distinguished guests, may I present to you the Triumvirate head of Angelus. The Mainframe, Xanone, and Myself. Only rarely have We been together in physical form like this, and never before outside of the safety of the WorldDisc. This is truely a momentous occasion.

The Mainframe turns Her head to cast Her piercing gaze over the assembled ambassadors, Her beautiful face impassive, unemotional. Finally, after a minute of total silence, she slightly inclines Her head.

We are honored to be fighting alongside such an impressive gathering of friends. Unfortunately, it has been dire circumstances that has brought us all together, and hopefully, when this has all blown over, we can do so again under better times?

~*~

Far away, an Angelic strike force [Same as before. Three Excelsiors, fifteen Raptors.] turns its focus on a distant shipyards, dropping back into realspace far from their intended target.

# The shipyards have been turned into an ambush. Sketchen ships are
# already here.
> We assumed that the Sketchen people would attain a certain level of understanding
> concerning the attacks. Proceed with contact, but break such after two of their
> ships have been destroyed, or one of Ours is in danger of such.
# Acknowledged. Proceeding with attack.

The Angelic ships glide in like angels of death, their forward batteries opening up as soon as the Sketchen forces are within range, brilliant beams lancing forward through the darkness of space towards the enemy.

~*~

On the dark side of Europa, Angelic Skies attempts a massive shutdown of all sectors within a small Sketchen town. It barrages the central computer systems of the city with millions of deep-thrust attacks, attempting to shut everything down.

At the same moment, the SFA lances down towards the surface, coming from the east towards the city in a medium-distance spread formation. The powerful cannons on the ships open fire, laying down a field of cover as the ground forces drop from the opening hatches.

Thousands of GF Drones lead the attack in V-shaped formation, the inner vertex are bunched a hard squad of GF elite, with slightly thinner bands running back to form an interior V. Within that are the mecha-humans, some riding in the fast battlejeeps, others running easily alongside. Out beyond the V-formation are several hundred more fast-moving jeeps begining speedy hit-and-run attacks on whatever spots of Sketchen resistance they can find.

Just behind the second V-vertex, a dark winged figure floats above her forces, her body ringed about with several highly-reflective discs floating amidst her heavy gravitic shielding. At her direction, the GFs are set loose, and they burst forward in a terrifyingly silent charge.

In the President's Office on Mars...

"The attack has begun Mr. President. You wanted to be informed." Admiral Filbeck had just walked in. President Villanova was reading the morning intelligence briefing, feet on the desk. "Thanks. Time to lend some support. Send orders to these SBG's, have them deploy in support of the attack force for now. Once we have more information we can deploy more as needed. Which means bring the fleet to alert status." Villanova passed a datapad across the desk. Admiral Filbeck flipped through the list. "SBG 0? I would assume this means you are ordering the '0' to take part as well." "Yes - Major Dean always wants more time in the field, let's give it to him."

Around Mars
The 15 SBG's listed broke orbit and went to warp. First up, then over, then down. They would arrive at the rally point then deploy with the Titan forces.

NROTC owns me for the first 12 hours of the day..................sigh. Now to bed.
You're in the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corp?

Aboard Scolomorph, battleship-flag of the First Titan Expeditionary Force, Sky Marshal Hayes waited. Sitting at her console, burnished steel dully polished from years of use, she steepled her fingers and stared at the spherical holographic projection that took up most of the forward third of the command room buried deep within the battleship's two-kilometer hull.

Waiting always was the worst part.

Flag General Liebermann, actual commander of Scolomorph and Hayes' executive, stood slightly behind her and to the left, waiting in his own way. "What is the strategy?"

"We follow the Angelan's lead." The sky marshal smirks slightly, looking decidedly unhappy. "If I were running this, I'd send some cap-ship killer Lokis and aerospace fighters on the inactive ships in reserve and assault the rapid-response forces like there's no tomorrow. Actually, start the assault on the reserves first in a series of hit-and-fades. Pearl Harbor them as much as possible before bringing in the heavy guns."

"You did discuss this with the Angelans, right?"

"I'm not sure how it sunk in." Hayes smirks, then looks up. "FleetCom, what's the status of our fleets?"

"All ready at Event Condition Zero," the fleet communications officer calls over her shoulder, "battle-stations all around. All Lokis and Sleipnirs have been outfitted with gunship pods, all aerospace fighters scrambled. Peregrin fighters are dedicated to defense, Vespa bombers set into assault squadrons with Peregrin escort.

"Let's see... screen shows four battleships, two supercarriers, three heavy carriers, five escort carriers, five heavy cruisers, eight medium cruisers, eighteen point-defense frigates, four attack frigates, and twenty-six destroyers ready to roll on the capship side. Three-thousand eight-hundred sixteen aerospace fighters, one-thousand five-hundred twenty-four being Vespas, the rest are Peregrins. Four-hundred fifty-three dropships, one-hundred thirteen being Sleipnirs and the rest Lokis; ten percent are dedicated to heavy cap-ship killer pods, twenty percent dedicated to light cap-ship killer pods, fifty percent are set to standard gunship pods. The rest are dedicated to cargo, just in case."

General Liebermann whistles lowly. "What's in reserves?"

The sky marshal leans back in her chair. "We are the reserves. The other fleets are tasked, and on their toes with Xaosis suddenly deciding to fall rather violently off the fence. We're worried about possible strikes by Melkor and friends."

"Well, that's good to know. What's our strategy for the upcoming fight?"

"Fluid. Right now I'm thinking oblique lightning strafing runs with the carriers providing long-range support fire; no stand-up fighting at the moment. Standard tactics against star destroyers, target shield generators then pop the bridge. Engage at thousand klicks range; for some reason their turbolasers need one to practically see the enemy. Failing that, flank and drop big guns down those engine bells."

"Ahhh. And we test everything we've been practicing out when we're told to?"

"Exactly. This is primarily an Angelan vengeance op, but we're here to show that the Triumvirate doesn't take too kindly to strikes in Saturnian Space."

[OOC]
Ok, several things before I can post a few more IC responses.

Angelus, where are you attacking on Europa? Ie, North, South, East, West? I posted a pretty detailed (I think) geographical description, with clearly noted obstacles. And considering that Europa is an iceball, the likely hood of a "town" being anywhere near where you land is slim to none, in fact, make that none. Don't forget....planetary shields, gotta land outside of them before you can come in. They only cover a hemisphere section centered on Sketch Prime. Expansive, not not extremely so.

Scolo, I hestitate to state this now since I never clearly worded it when I posted the original stats. But your tatics for dealing with "Star Destroyers" is based on the absurd assumption that those thingies mounted on the bridge are in fact "shield generators". 1) it makes no sense to have such a critical system exposed like that, 2) assuming that the shield created is of a uniform shape, there is a lot of wasted coverage from such a mount position, 3) If they were shield generators, it is quite ridiculous that they would be so weak and under portected. Having said thus, I would have to insist that those globes are sensor globes, wich makes much more sense. 1) They are afforded an unobstructed line of sight of the enitre upper superstructure, 2) there is a similar dome on the underside which is understood to be a full sensor suite, 3) By virtue of being sensors, they cannot be heavily armored or they wouldn't be effective.

I just needed to get that out of the way. Other than that, I ph33r your killer pods. How do they work?

Berserker, yes I am. They pay for my college and I owe them my eternal soul. W00t for NROTC!


The [i]Seraphim fleet lurches to life as the Angelan ships come bearing down. Engines flare as lumbering vessels move into engagement positions. From deep within the defensive perimeter, the commandship Avatar orchestrates the entire battle. Swarms of fighters pour out of the bellies of the Star Destroyers like hornets from a nest. The nimbler battlecruisers jockey for position as orders are given for an all out concentrated attack. Realizing that the trio of Excelsiors pose the greatest threat to the shipyard and the fleet, Admiral Kalinin orders that the StarDestroyers engage them one at a time enmasse. The battlecruisers are ordered to run rear guard action and take of the raptors. Specific battle strategies demanded nothing less than eight battlecruisers per Raptor. The Star Destroyers, although clearly outmatched on terms of sheer size and fire power continue to cruise towards the Excelsiors like filings drawn to a magnet. Within moments, the chosenExcelsior would find itself swamp by a multitude of Star Destroyers (more than 20).

Heavy blasts rock the Sketchan fleet as the opposing fleets prepare to clash in an all out brawl. Although deadly, the scattered fire did little relative damage to the combat effectiveness of the Star Destroyer formation.

The battlecruisers, although slower, maneuver around the Raptors, using superior numbers to their advantage. Soon the Angelan Raptors would find themselves literally cornered in space.

The looming hull of the commandship Avatar oversees the ensuing battle, giving out commands like a puppet master pulling strings.

ooc:

I posted the attack on the outlying city with the assumption that there .were. outlying cities not clustered next to Sketch Prime. Unless all of the population of Sketch is situated in that single node, the attack run is not intended to go over any of the places mentioned.

If so, then consider the attack to be on a slightly larger research instellation of somesort. Also, if you are following the StarWars book on planetary shielding, the easiest way to get rid of planetary shielding is to attack from the ground. So, if the SFA comes in low, skimming the ground to come to their closest point of entry, they couldn't come in under the shielding, but get close enough to drop peeps off at a place where they could do some damage.

ic:

# The Violet Burning is in danger of forward weapons array malfunction,
# with an increased probability of internal combustion. Suggest immanent departure.
> Agreed. Focus the two unengaged force nodes on that point to break it free
> and leave. The Main objective is complete.
# Acknowledged.

The other two Excelsiors with their Raptor escorts converge quickly on the single point, attempting to come up behind the main Sketchen attack group. The fighters and battledrones swarm free of their holds, engaging their Sketchen counterparts with incredible speed.

Like many things, the Angels fought like cornered devils, and yet, every attack and counter had a measured feel to it, the mechanical precision of a race born to operate in space, born to pilot the killing machines they enhabit.

They slowly work to free at least the Excelsior from the Sketchen grasp, several raptors and the trapped Violet Burning taking heavy damage from the fully engaged Sketchen fleets. Angelic fighters take the brunt of the damage as they make lightning strike strafing runs on the much larger cruisers.

Suddenly, the Excelsiors and raptors open hitherto unused hatches, and thousands of tiny battledrones escape into the airless void of space. Each moving in complex rotating patterns, the swarm of tiny killing droids focus on one of the nearby star destroyers.

Frohimer rose to his feet, swallowing hard as he went over events forthcoming once more.

Around him the bridge of the Angel buzzed as the Keanian fleet slowly closed in on Europa.

"Now leaving Jovian orbit Captain." announced the fair haired women manning Navigation.


Frohimer nodded, replying- "Very well, announce battlestations and bring us in on an identical vector to current Angelan military activity. Prepare all weapons and administer the targetting blessings."

Sighing, he lowered himself once more into his command throne. Beneath the hullplating of the floor he made out the unmistakable thrum of the engines as they surged, and the Angel almost undetectably lurched forward.




Interstellar dust lazily drifted out of the way as the centuries-old Keanian Flagship threw herself forward. Leading the line like a general would a battle detachment she cut through the cold void, a myriad of other battlecruisers and carriers filling out behind her massive form.




****************************




Deep within the bowels of the Angel Guardian L'Rana closed her eyes as the hiss of the hermetically sealed helmet unit filled her being. With a soft blip, the H.U.D. Unit flickered to life, displaying her fragile lifesigns

Slowly she flexed the silver mesh of her gloves, feeling the artifically cooled synthskin against her own.

Slowly she looked around the silent chamber. She was the last of her squad still yet to report for dropstations, yet she hesitated.

Not becuase she was unsure of the actions of the Keanei, indeed she had awaited this chance since she was old enough to fire a catapult.


The military had always been the way for L'Rana's family. Since the distant past, when endevours were told accross the known galaxy of how the mighty Callistas Glens ruled with the benevolance of a thousand races combined, there had been a calling to defend here people that her family had never shirked.

She had fought amongst the fierce jungle-mountains of Jurista, battling against foul rebels and the insidious plant life itself.

She had fought on the ichor stained beaches of Morgorth with nothing but her bare hands and passion burning within her eyes.



No, she knew that her course her, to land on Europa and battle until the last of her cells necrotised was just.

She was afraid.


L'Rana Kentais, of the Novis Militara and Guardian Extemis, feared.

She was unused to the emotion, and it was something she had experienced in seldom occurence.

But as she gazed out from the tinted helmet, looking through the port that allowed her a view of the imminent dropzone, the icy cool finger of terror slowly tapped her shoulder....




*******************************







Captain Frohimer waited, his eyes firmly fixed on the Navigator as he waited for the signal he anticipated.

His fingers drummed slowly, a four bar beat, unrepressed and un-ending.

Still he waited.



"Europa-Orbit in eleven minutes. Multiple Sketchan signals detected, closing fast at four-seven-four mark nine. estimated time till interception four point seven terran minutes."

Frohimer said nothing.




*******************************



The Entry hatch of Dropship R-771 slammed shut with a resounding metallic thud, the maglock slamming down and securing the door.

Arranged in lines of ten Guardians remained silent, their heads bowed.

Through the middle of the craft, another figure walked. He wore full battle armour and was armed, however around his neck hung a pendant, marked with the symbol of Angelus itself.

"And whence your feet touch alien ground, you will not leap from it afraid. And whence your eyes sight alien enemies, you shall not turn in disgust. And whence your weapon is aimed, you shall not feel remorse, nor pity but a steady and unrepenting aim."

L'Rana felt a tear trickle down her cheek as the Guardian-Chaplain continued-

"And when one of your own, whom serves the Angels through his finest abilities falls, unable or unwilling to spend another moment on this plain, you will not pause to remember his ending, but spur yourself on to avenge his ending. For it is only with the success of our aims will the loss of our own be not in vain by word or deed."


***********************************





"Interception in twenty seconds."

Frohimer pinched the bridge of his nose, but said nothing.

"They have achieved a weapons lock." Added the gentle voice of the Angel herself.

"Time to orbit?" the Captain asked.

"two minutes." Answered the Navigator.

"Sketchan craft will intercept our position in nine point four seconds."

Frohimer stood sharply, bringing his hand to the side of his throne.

"Hard to Starboard, fire all weapons!"





The Angel rolled deceptivley quickly, her weaponry spitting photoflourescent death through the void as her monstrous size passed closer still to the Jovian ice world. Great plumes of plasmatic energy erupted from the swivelling cannons. Screaming through space with only the aim of destruction and damage. Great flashes lit up sorrounding space as some of the Plasma detonated prematurely, or came into contact with micrometeors.

And as she fought onwards, her weapons glowing almost white hot as they struggled to maintain the high rate of fire requested, nay demanded of them ventral exit hatches slowly opened. From these hatches powerful columns of lights burst forth, lighting great corridors of white light diagonally through space.


********************************





"All weapons firing Captain." announced Officer Khartafa.

"Ready the Dropships." Ordered Frohimer.


The Keanians would descend to the Ice world, and purify it with their holy fire.

The SBG's dropped out of warp above the cloud of ships that was the First Expeditionary. Admiral Eddings had been selected to lead the SDF forces in this battle, and he opened a channel to Sky Marshal Hayes.

"Sky Marshall Hayes, its good to meet you. Fleet Admiral Eddings at your service. President Villanova has ordered me to support the assault on Europa, when it happens. Before then I'd like to meet and compare our battle plans and avaliable forces."

The fleet fielded was top of the line - 15 Judgement Class Carriers, 30 Cohort-III Cruisers, and another 30 Cohort-II Cruisers. They had come out of warp in a large web - 1 SBG in the center with the other 14 radiating out. Alert and ready for trouble they were training their heavy forward batteries on different portions of the sky.

If so, then consider the attack to be on a slightly larger research instellation of somesort. Also, if you are following the StarWars book on planetary shielding, the easiest way to get rid of planetary shielding is to attack from the ground. So, if the SFA comes in low, skimming the ground to come to their closest point of entry, they couldn't come in under the shielding, but get close enough to drop peeps off at a place where they could do some damage.

[OOC]
Angelus - Yes, yes. I don't have a problem with your entry really, just the fact that I don't know what theater you're in (refer to geographical detail from earlier). I was assuming that you guys are going to hit from multiple points; hence the wide spread deployment. But if not, you guys may soon face an enmasse ground war, which although is much easier to keep track of, is less fun. Not to mention a very bad idea numbers wise :wink: As far as cities go, I'll make it more clear, there are no cities until after you get past the first set of shield generators. Civilization is kept fairly close to Sketch Prime.

Kaenei - :shock: Amazing post. FYI Angelus is not at Europa currently, but off galavanting somewhere else. But.........you would be there anyways, and the main invasion has been long delayed anyways. A few "time-warped" posts should fix this :wink: Also, knowing that you intend to land, I would place your entrance somewhere near the far side of Europa away from the Guardian fleet (make an addenum if you want it to be otherwise). That would give you the least amount of distance and resistance for your dropships to have to travel to get past the shields and to the surface. I also would like to know where you dropped in accordance to my geographical data.

Both - Trust me, there is a good reason as to where you dropped your troops. So please tell me, or I will decide for you.

I hate OOC commenting...........


Angelan Battledrones and Sketchan fighters dance around the lumbering behemoths in a deadly duet. Blows from heavy weapons rock ships on both sides. Several battlecruisers and a star destroyer are forced to pull away as their systems begin to redline. The star destroyers, ignoring the danger of head to head engagement, move in to slice the Angelan formation in half. The battle continues to rage fiercely as even more star destroyers stream in for engagement.

The commandship [i]Avatar, overseer of the fleet, notices a subtle change in Angelan ship movement. Quickly calculating the possibilities, Avatar hastily issues out orders to counter this new threat. The Star Destroyers furthest away from the beleagured Excelsior continue to fire upon it; but really with no more than a passing shot, as they struggle against inertia to face the incoming flank. Total star destroyers in the immediate area: 36, battlecruisers: 87, interdictor cruisers: 4

Suddenly, without warning, the sensor screens; already showing a multitude of contacts, are overwhelmed with a ridiculous number of unknown contacts swarming arcoss space. The coms of several pilots go silent as they are caught within the unexpected tide of death. A star destroyer, already perilously close to the Excelsior, is swamped with uncountable numbers of the miniscule drones. The targeting systems, designed for engagements with far larger ships make a vain attempt to track the killing droids. Weapon systems and sensor suites are quickly dispatched as the star destroyer is stung over and over again. A desperate call goes out for additional fighter coverage, but to no avail. The fighters are already neck to neck with their Angelan counterparts, unable to break off, least they face swift destruction. Within moments, the guns of the Star Destroyer falls silent, as lights on several decks flicker and go out. If the barrage continues, the ship will soon be dead in space.

==============

Having already received reports of which appeared to be a significant Angelan assualt in the Hades cluster, the Guardian fleet is caught unprepared as the Keanian fleet bursts onto the scene. The main Keanian fleet arrived near the unprotected far side of Europa, minutes away from engagement with any Sketchan fleet forces. Sections of the Guardian fleet closest to the Keanians thrust forward at full power and begin firing at extreme ranges in hopes of distracting them. The faster, nimbler fighters scream in to engage the Keanians. Extra orbital cannons on the ground throw up a withering hail of fire, intent at casuing as much wide spread damage as possible. The detection of dropships descending to the surface of Europa, sets off a rapid series of communications. General Redwing gives a small smile as she sends units out to find and destroy the invaders. Soon we shall feast on the blood of Keanians.

=================

In the outlying cities, strange disturbances are witnessed by the people who live within. With an abrupt suddeness, Sections of city shut down for no explanation. Entire sectors are plunged into darkness as lights, signs, and other electrical equipment inexplicable shut down. The citizenry mumur quietly about the disturbance in their normal everyday lives, fearing the evil omen of irregularity. In order to crush any civil backlash, the police force and garrisoned troops move swiftly to lock down all sectors. Vehicles with mounted loudspeakers patrol the streets broadcasting for the citizenry to remain indoors until order is restored. The majority of the peoples blindly comply, wishing only or things to return to normal, while others seizing the moment, are dealt with violently.

=================

Far away from Sketchan civilization, the Angelan ground forces advance on and assualt yet another outpost. This time a relay station. Nearby Sketchan units, noticing the halt in communications from the Europan nightside mobilize to investigate.

"Sky Marshall Hayes, its good to meet you. Fleet Admiral Eddings at your service. Right to business. Long range sensors tell me the Angelan forces are heavily engaged, and I would propose we lighten their burden."

[OOC]
Are you engaging at the shipyard, or are you re-inforcing the not-yet-posted Angelan fleet assualt on Europa?

The space battle is not currently over Europa.Realizing the utter fruitlessness of playing tag with the Angelan ships, Admiral Kalinin devised a new strategy. Choosing an extensive, yet untouched shipyard deep within the Hades cluster, Kalinin settles the fleet in wait for the inevitable Angelan attack. Several dozen ships are designated to continue the rapid response to maintain the appearance of gallavanting across the galaxy. Several Intertictor cruisers are placed around the perimeter to prevent any jump incursions into the shipyard itself (standard gravity well tech, generally accepted as affecting any type of FLT travel from my understanding, barring the few exceptions like jump gates). Please inform Angelus that you are eager to start the fight above Europa, so he can "arrive", thus validating your arrivals.

OOC: Heh - the not-yet-happening assault. Editted appropriately.

The Sketchan fleet is occupied battling Angelan forces on the opposite lunar approach. They are unable to draw a signiifcant amount of vessels to intercept us. Recommendations as follows to begin mass DropLandings as soon as possible. Suggest Preliminary Orbital Firing.

Frohimer nodded as the Angel spoke, her serene voice casting a calming influence over his battle hardened soul. Moving from his desk, he took a look through the viewport of his private office- the cool blue hues of Europa giving way to the almost invisible dot of green representing terreformed earth.

Frohimer looked away, the Jovian moon had lain undisturbed for generations, modelled to new functions only gracefully. Each race who posessed the will and ability merely adding to the Ice world's perfection. But his heart sank to see the great damage wrought to her surface by the Sketchans.

Massive ice fields, stretching through the planets surface were now pockmarked with suppresion mines, and invasion countermeasures. Great sprawling refineries raped Europa of all her assets, feeding it into the production of yet more death.

Frohimer would stand no more.

"It remains only now to decide a landing venue." He spoke aloud, reclining on the small couch set against the wall of his Chamber.

The Angel's voice filled his mind once more, as usual calm and objective.


We have many options, each with their own risks and hazards. To the north of Europa lies what the Sketchans term "The great divide." seperates the northern cap from Sketchan territory. This would present us with an ideal spearhead to push through into enemy occupied zones, however the only way to transport the vast amount of our forces through the divide is via heavily defended and extremely claustraphobic crossings. Statistical analysis indicates a sixty four percent chance of sufficient Keanian forces surviving an attack via this method.

A second option is via a western approach. Sketchan forces term this in their barbarically fascinating tongue the "Killing Fields." It is a standard Forsuth class Ice field, including the nominal features of low cover and unobscured visibility. In addition Sketchan forces have mined the region thoroughly and in order to circumvent this a larger-than-standard deployment would be required.

Fourthly, a direct assualt on Sketchan Prime itself. The base of all central enemy actions, and the site of many planetary shield generators a successful attack would see enemy resistance effectivley cut by up to fifty three point five percent, and also allow access to heavy industry and centrally located power generation facilities. However it would require a sustained and drawn out campaign. Stasticial Analysis indicates a casualty rate of up to eighty percent. Significant loss of non-Sketchan Military personnel could be up to fifty percent.

Frohimer frowned as the Angel paused.

"I seriously hope there is but another option my friend, I do not believe those previously explained can be in our best interests."

There is Captain, as always I have chosen one method that according to thorough analysis and....my feelings, I believe would be our best option."

Frohimer nodded; "Go ahead."


To the south lies the Sketchan "Sea Of Thorn." An intense Geothermal effect warms the sub-surface ice sufficiently to melt it. Meaning that although visual inspections and light crust scans indicate it to be completely solid, it is in fact geographically unstable, and as such presents a hazard to any forces attempting to cross.

Nodding, the Captain took a sip of tea.

However, we inherently have an advantage utilising this land. Anti-Gravitic Vessels will not apply to the intense Geographical problems this region experiences, as such heavy artillery and of course, troop transports can safely negotiate the thinner Ice sheet. Meaning we can be sure of a higher percentage of heavy support surviving the crossing. Our Guardian squads are more than versed with arctic warfare, and being supported by a standard detachment of Anti-Gravitic Tanks should enable them to clear us a path through Sketchan resistance.


Frohimer took in the information, before rising to his feet.

"This seems our best chance......distribute this information through the fleet, and make the changes needed to the NaviCom. We shall head through the Sea of Ice, and when we emerge from the other side resplendid shall our retirbution be."

The SBG's dropped out of warp above the cloud of ships that was the First Expeditionary. Admiral Eddings had been selected to lead the SDF forces in this battle, and he opened a channel to Sky Marshal Hayes.

"Sky Marshall Hayes, its good to meet you. Fleet Admiral Eddings at your service. President Villanova has ordered me to support the assault on Europa, when it happens. Before then I'd like to meet and compare our battle plans and avaliable forces."
"Outstanding." Sky Marshal Hayes grins at the new friendlies on the strategic indicator board. "FleetCom, hack us into Angelan command and control as well as those Sunset vessels, I have an idea. Use maximum encryption."

"Acting, ma'am."

[code:1:ef56e2be20]<INTERNAL FLEET COMMUNICATIONS, QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT>
<SCOLOMORPH -> ALL ALLIED COMMAND VESSELS>
<ENCRYPTION LEVEL ZULU>

HELLO ALL HAYES HERE <STOP> I HAVE AN IDEA THAT MIGHT HELP <STOP> TYCS AND SUNSET FORCES ARE OUTNUMBERED <STOP> STAND-UP FIGHTING WOULD BE A BAD IDEA <STOP> I SUGGEST A HIGH C-FRACTION STRAFING RUN ON CURRENTLY INACTIVE VESSELS <STOP> OBLIQUE STRIKE THROUGH THEIR FORMATIONS, FIRING ALL BATTERIES <STOP> ENGAGEMENT TIME SHOULD BE ABOUT .5 SECOND, ENGAGEMENT RANGE 100 KILOMETERS, GIVING US THE ADVANTAGE <STOP> VECTOR IS TO RUN PAST THEIR FLANK AND TOWARDS THE ANGELAN THRUST <STOP> THEN ORBIT AROUND AT HIGH V TO THEIR REAR ON GRAVITICS AND REPEAT FROM A DIFFERENT VECTOR <STOP> AT BEST THEY CAN TRY AND FOLLOW US AND RUN UP AGAINST ANGELUS WHERE WE FLANK THEM AND PUT SHOTS UP THOSE INEFFICIENT THRUST CONES OF THEIRS <STOP> AT BEST THEY TRY TO COVER ALL DIRECTIONS, THUS WEAKENING THEIR FIRE CONCENTRATION <FULL STOP>

HIT AND FADE IS THE ORDER OF THE DAY <STOP> NEEDLE THEM ENOUGH SO THEY CANNOT IGNORE US BUT KEEP ON THE MOVE SO THEY CANNOT CONCENTRATE FIRE <STOP> USE EUROPA FOR COVER LOOSE FORMATIONS AND COUNTERMEASURES TO SPOOF THEIR FIRE COMPUTERS <FULL STOP>

ALL COMMUNICATIONS MUST BE ON HIGHEST ENCRYPT QE TO AVOID INTERCEPT <STOP> SOUND LIKE A PLAN <FULL STOP>

SKYMSHL HAYES
TYWS-BB SCOLOMORPH
1TEF[/code:1:ef56e2be20]
"Just wondering, ma'am," the FleetCom officer scratched her head, "why the concentration on the orbital assets?"

"Aerospace superiority must be achieved first. If we control the skies, we deny the enemy any chance to utilize its advantages. Seeing how we're outnumbered on the ground, we have to maximize our advantage--aerospace power--and once we vape the Sketchian fleets, then we can bombard and deploy at leisure. Stationary surface-to-orbit defense platforms are easily targetable, and massive Europa-wide shield networks are weak at the generators and interface points. Concentrate the power of our entire fleet and their shields will flicker, next salvo takes out a few generators... shield coverage is lost. We can't do that if we have to worry about capital ships everywhere."

(OOC: Worked out with Sunset)

[code:1:4ad735e57a]<INTERNAL FLEET COMMUNICATIONS, QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT>
<SCOLOMORPH -> ALL ALLIED COMMAND VESSELS>
<ENCRYPTION LEVEL ZULU>

ATTENTION TO ORDERS <FULL STOP>

1. DEPLOYMENT <FULL STOP>

A. TYCS FORCES ARE TO SPLIT UP INTO SQUADRONS FOR A TOTAL OF SIX SQUADRONS FOUR FROM 1TEF AND THREE FROM 1TCF <STOP> ASSAULT FRIGATES OF 1TCF WILL COALESCE INTO THE FIRST AND SECOND SQUADRONS OF THE 1TCF <STOP> CARRIERS WILL FORM LONG-RANGE ASSAULT UNITS THAT WILL ORBIT THE SCENE FIRING AT EXTREME RANGE <FULL STOP>

B. SUNSET FORCES WILL DEDICATE CARRIERS TO LONG-RANGE ASSAULT WORKING WITH TYCS FORCES. THE SIXTY CRUISERS WILL FORM SQUADRONS OF TEN SHIPS EACH FOR A TOTAL OF SIX SQUADRONS AND STAND BY WITH THE SIX TYCS SQUADRONS <FULL STOP>

2. ACTION <FULL STOP>

A. THE TWELVE ASSEMBLED SQUADRONS WILL MOVE TO READY STATIONS [ENCLOSED] AND BEGIN STRIKE RUNS AT POINT SIX C FRACTION ON CHAOTIC TIMETABLE INTERVALS FROM NEAR RANDOM VECTORS <STOP> EACH SQUADRON OF TEN SHIPS WILL CONCENTRATE THEIR FIREPOWER ON A SINGLE VESSEL FOLLOWING STANDARD STAR DESTROYER ENGAGEMENT ORDERS <STOP> OPEN FIRE AT SHORT RANGE WITH FORWARD ARCS <STOP> BROADSIDES DURING THE PASS <STOP> AFT WEAPONS ON THE FADE <STOP> MINIMUM ENGAGEMENT RANGE IS 100 TO 200 KILOMETERS DEPENDING ON PASS <STOP> ALL PASSES WILL AVOID PLANE OF ENEMY FORMATIONS <STOP> AVOID THEIR COMBINED FIRE ARCS <FULL STOP>

B. THE CARRIERS WILL SUPPORT THE ACTION BY FIRING THEIR BATTERIES AT EXTREME RANGE BETWEEN PASSES BY THE STRIKE SQUADRONS <STOP> THEY WILL ORBIT THE BATTLE AT MEDIUM C FRACTION OF POINT FOUR C TO AVOID FLANKING MANEUVERS AND TO MAINTAIN PROTECTIVE COVER <STOP> THEY WILL MAINTAIN A NEAR CHAOTIC Z AXIS TRANSLATION WITH RELATION TO PLANE OF BATTLE TO ADD TO EVASIVE MEASURES <STOP> PREPROGRAMMING WILL ASSIST IN FIRE CONTROL <STOP> BOMBARDMENT GROUP WILL CONCENTRATE ON A SQUADRON BASIS ATTACKING CLOSE FORMATIONS <FULL STOP>

C. ALL VESSELS WILL USE COUNTERMEASURES AND ELECTRONIC WARFARE SUITES TO JAM ENEMY SENSOR FREQUENCIES <STOP> ECM IS TO BE SWITCHED TO ECCM MODE DURING HIT PHASE FOR TARGETING PURPOSES BUT WILL BE IMMEDIATELY SWITCHED BACK TO ECM MODE DURING FADE PHASE <STOP> FIGHTERS WILL ASSIST BY DROPPING KINETIC WEAPONRY DURING PASSES WITH THEIR ATTENDANT SQUADRONS <STOP> DROPSHIPS WILL ASSIST WITH EXTENDED RANGE BOMBARDMENT IF NAVAL WEAPON EQUIPPED OR WITH ASSAULT BARRAGE FIRE IF NOT <FULL STOP>

3. DURATION OF ORDERS <FULL STOP>

ORDERS WILL BE VALID UNTIL COUNTERMANDED AS THE TACTICAL SITUATION REQUIRES OR ALL ENEMY VESSELS ARE RENDERED INOPERABLE <STOP> WE ARE NOT HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS <STOP> MISSION KILL IS ACCEPTABLE <STOP> UTTER ANNIHILATION IS PREFERABLE <FULL STOP>

4. ATTENTION TO DETAIL <FULL STOP>

REMEMBER STANDARD STAR DESTROYER ENGAGEMENT TACTICS <STOP> PRIMARY TARGETS ARE SHIELD GENERATORS AND SENSOR DOMES <STOP> BRIDGE <STOP> ENGINE BELLS <STOP> IN THAT ORDER <STOP> AVOID FIRING ARCS [VECTORS] AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF WEAK AFT FIRE ARCS WHENEVER POSSIBLE <STOP> FIGHTERS MAY BE USED AS SUICIDE MINES <STOP> MAINTAIN LOOSE FORMATION AND EVADE TO PREVENT SUCH USAGE <FULL STOP>

5. TIME TO ACT <FULL STOP>

WE WILL ACT UPON ANGELAN ORDERS <FULL STOP>

VICTORY WILL BE OURS <FULL STOP>

SKYMSHL HAYES
TYWS-BB SCOLOMORPH
1TEF[/code:1:4ad735e57a]

(OOC: The 'chaotic timetables' and 'random directions' are there for a reason. Scheduled, orderly attacks form a normality that the enemy can acclimate to, just like artillery schedules in WWI. Randomness provides no normality for the enemy to adapt to and maximizes fear. It's basic psychology, found in any decent introductory college-level psychology textbook. Check for electrified Skinner boxes with random times inbetween shocks.

The high-speed runs are to make turret tracking of the defenders well-nigh impossible, having to cover degrees per nanosecond. Being on the attack and having the initiative, we can lock our turrets wherever they will need to be when we pass and fire them at the appropriate moment via computer-controlled fire solutions. Missiles are unconcerned with fire-arcs, so we can pickle those at range and let them maneuver as need be.

The reasons behind fire concentration are generally obvious.

As for Star Wars design philosophy, it rarely makes sense. My tech manual says the dorsal pods are shield generator domes and the ventral dome is the solar ionization reactor shield. Still, even if they -are- sensors, they're still big, fragile, and important. Take 'em out and blind the ship.

Don't even get me started on Star Wars engagement ranges...

Anyhoo, the capship killer pods come in two flavors, heavy and light. The light pod carries all the anti-fighter weapons of the standard gunship pod plus a ventral centerline capital-grade heavy naval particle projection cannon in return for a great deal of cargo space. The heavy ditches the forward antifighter weapons for another HNPPC. Lokis can carry one pod, Sleipnirs can carry four. I use Aerotech 2 to keep my stats consistent.)

<<Trans::Blusummers::Hayes::TYCSforces>>
ZULU ENCRYPTION
Message recieved and acknowledged. We are launching a detail of E-Dub Lokis to assist in the electronic warfare action. Random clear frequency key is [key]. This will allow us to maintain comms on rotating random frequencies that are cleared of interference at random intervals. Other than that, the First TCF is formed and ready. Bluesummers out.
<<EndTrans>>

The detail of electronic warfare Lokis launch from the Ragnarok, immediatley firing up their 10,000 tons worth of jamming equipment. Every electromagnetic band is instantly flooded with overwhelming noise, so powerful that many recievers would be fried by the sheer energy ouput of the Lokis. TYCS forces comms remain uneffected.

http://okcac.freeyellow.com/bluesummers1.jpg
Sky Marshal Bluesummers
First Titan Combined Fleet
Ordinance Enabled Karmic Hegemony of Karmabaijan
Triumvirate of Yut
Titan
=================================

"Jump complete Ma'am. 30 Scorpion Fast Attack Figates, 15 Aspidoclone SuperCarriers, and 15 Sclonomorf SuperBattleships reporting in. Ferret handlers report all systems go."

"Excellent. Comms, get me Sky Marshall Hayes of the Scolomorph.

"Channel ready Ma'am"

<<Trans::Ropponmatsu::Hayes>>
ZULU
SM Hayes, CA Ropponmatsu of the KSPA. I have [ships] available for your use. PG vonKarma sends his best wishes of a swift victory.
<<TransEnd>>

http://okcac.freeyellow.com/Ropponmatsu.jpg
Command Agent Ropponmatsu
Commander, First of the First Scorpions
Karmabaijani Special Projects Agency Fleet
Ordinance Enabled Karmic Hegemony of Karmabaijan
Triumvirate of Yut
Titan

OOC: The 15 battleships and 15 supercarriers are...speshul..heheh.

ooc: My intense apologies for not posting sooner, but all sorts of hell has broken loose here. Personal relationships have a major factor in everything... so let's just say that my personal life is chaotic (to say the least) Everything is calming down to a degree, so my postings should be frequent again from now on

# The Kaenians and Sunset have already begun the orbital assault,
# right on schedule.
> Excellent. Time to bring in the cavalry. How is the situation at the Shipyards?
# Uncertain. The fighting is intense, and We have apparently been able to
# effectively blind one of the Sketchen heavy cruisers.
> Excellent. Strategy change. We have recieved information from Our Scolopendran
> allies. The Angelic fleets will assist in this endeavour, and We have decided
> that the force engaging at the shipyards need to maintain their combat to keep
> the Sketchen forces there. Full engagement, keep Sketch there even at sacrifice.
# Acknowledged. GroundForce deployment?
> Contact the Kaenians and the Khanelans. We will not deploy just yet, but
> first We shall secure aerospace superiority. With that, We could simply blockade
> and strike with impunity.
# Acknowledged.

The mighty Angelic fleets begin to move, their deadly weapon systems primed and ready. The massive fleet begins to seperate, the combined forces of the 02 and 04 Armadas splitting into attack groups, with a largish one of 5 Excelsiors, 5 Fallen, 20 Revenants, 25 Raptors, 15 Gallants, and 15 Falchions immediately engaging their Jump systems to take them to the forces already engaged above/around the Sketchen shipyards.

~*~

At the shipyards, the battledrones press their attack on the Sketchen Star Destroyer, relentless in their biting stings of the much larger vessal. Even the damaged ones begin to arc towards the ship to crash against the side of the ship.

Suddenly, two of the Raptors turn to fire an intense salvo of digger torpedoes* at the damaged Star Destroyer, and the entirety of the functioning battledrones seperate like the Red Sea to allow the entry of the torpedoes with their deadly warheads.

Shortly thereafter, the Angelic reinforcements slide back into realspace, their weapons already firing deadly salvos towards the Sketchen ships. Only one of the Excelsiors with a small detatchment of the fast attack Raptors moves in towards the battling ships, swooping in on a direct attack vector.

The engaged Angelic vessels within the Sketchen paremeter turn their focus on the same attack vector, combining with the reinforcement fire to try and punch a hole through the Sketchen attack line.

The remaining Angelic reinforcements circle around, their subspace drives moving the large vessels at incredible speeds. They break up into completely randomized formations, each ship constantly changing places with another to offer as difficult a target as possible to the Sketchen resistance.

~*~

On Europa, the SFA continues their harassment on the surface, never fully deploying, but moving in fast strafing runs, their heavy on-surface cannon occasionally being assisted by the vastly more powerful space-capable weapons, sending blistering waves of death towards the Sketchen installations.

Deep beneath the Sketchen surface, Angelic Skies begins his full assault on the Sketchen systems, completely destroying the systems he has under his direct control. For those he does not own, he begins a full attack on, sending millions of deep-cut attack programs to try and disable as many systems as possible.

At the same time, the thousands of GF Battledrones begin their subsurface digging, opening tunnels towards the surface, while collapsing them as they pass, once again blocking access to the subMainframe. They continue upwards, finally stopping only 50 feet beneath the surface.

Above Sketch, the Dream of the Archailect battlegroup slips back into realspace among the TYCS, Kaenian, and Sunset forces, taking up position further out. Along with them came a large chunk of Armada 04, arraying in a back position to defend against any attack coming from extra-Europan sources.

~*~

All throughout space, the rest of the Angelic Armadas begin heavy engagements, attacking position after position, never fully engaging, but stepping up their decisive hit-destroy-and-run tactics.

And yet, a heavy assault force of 10 Fallen, and 20 of each of the battle-cruiser types, are held in reserve to stave off the Sketchen space fleets should they make a run from their positions at the Shipyards. Each of the Fallen is equipped with incredibly powerful grav-well generators, capable of yanking ships right out of most forms of hyperspace transit and holding them in realspace.

------
* The Salvo is 1,000 torpedoes, each equipped with a "digger"-style warhead. They are small torpedoes, about a meter in length, and about a quarter meter in diameter. Their warheads are small and blunt, but are designed to "splash" on impact. Their weapons payload is thousands of tiny nanotransmutators designed to use the matter of the ship's hull to create more, effectively chewing perfectly round holes in the ship's hull about 4 meters in diameter.

[OOC]
Whoa, last night was fun times......... 8) Oy vey, green text hurting my poor bloodshot eyes :?

One warning for Kaenei, Danger lurks within the cold depths of the blue. I meant to have the name of the place be Sea of Thorns, but forgot to edit that. It was supposed to symbolize the jagged icebergs jutting through the terrain. But thats really just for extra flavor. :oops:

And now for the fun, assuming that the space fleet has arrived:


After a long period of eyeing each other across the vast expanses of space, the time of waiting appeared to be over. An overwhelming tide of electronic noise washes over Europa. Only the powerful filters on the sophisticated battle sensors prevented circuitry from being blown. Less fortunate civilian receivers in space and on the ground are instantly redered useless. A quick scan reveals that all frequencies are being jammed. Even the standard frequency-shifting battle protocal is rendered unusable. Seeing little other choice, the Admiral aboard the [i]Guardian orders a comm reversion to codex battle codes. The commandship, with its immensely powerful command communications arrays begin pulsing out signals on all frequencies at unprecendented levels. Any vessels within the sol system with a working receiver would be able to hear clear signal emanating from the ship.

Codex battle codes are an ancient set of established battle maneuvers and tatics. They are the culmination of centuries of proven battle plans. Every ship commander is required to have at least a broad knowledge of all the tatics within the Codex. With the advent of computers, and now neural networks, commanders have ready access to all the knowledge contained within the codex. However, the battlefield is an ever changing environment, and as such, leaders are trained not to rely too heavily on set doctrine. Codex battle codes are a subset of the Codex. They provide the codes for each and every possible maneuver scribbed within the codex. These codes are simplistic in nature, and easily transcibed if one had the appropriate code book on hand (or in this case a neural network with the knowledge). The problem with the battle codes, and thus the reason for its discontinued use, is the fact that any intelligent enemy would be able to decipher individual commands after a long period observation (just like any other code book).

The commanders on each of the Sketchan vessels, upon receiving the new orders, initiated the system releases for the new [sic] battle comm protocal.

All attempts of electronic communciation among the Sketchan fleet vessels still remain garbled at best. The only vessel capable of communication is the Guardian, sitting deep within the main body of the fleet, hovering above Sketch Prime. Communications have been rendered one way, from the commandship to the fleet. As such, the fleet is ordered to begin full spectrum jamming; no need to worry about blocking self communications anymore. Taskforces are ordered to communicate individual ship tatics to each other using alternative methods. Within moments, ships can be seen flashing like beacons in space. Close observations of individual vessels would reveal a hypnotic wave pattern of deck lights randomly rippling across the ship - like those of deep sea creatures. Careful execution of maneuvers are made to ensure that individual patterns are not established as commands, lest the enemy take advantage of this non-secure communications.

[OOC]
I think this is probably the best I could manage right now.........you've reduced me to one-way electronic and opitical based comunications. Bah! I feel like I'm back in the stone age here. Eat my counter-jamming!

[OOC]
Not a problem Angelus, I'm not exactly a fast poster myself.

A now back to the shipyards of death, destruction, and mayhem :twisted:


The intense battle of the titans rage on. Rays of death emmanate from the montrous vessels as they struggle in deadlock. Within this maelstorm of turmoil, a struggle on a smaller scale is in action. A lone star destroyer, part of a greater whole, is directly assualted by concentrated swarms of tiny vessels. They have already destroyer many of the weapons emplacements and have begun working on the shields and sensors. The fate of this star destroyer is sealed when a wave of warheads impact and penetrate the shields. Some of the projectiles splash of the shields, but not enough. The effect is devastating. The entire lower hull of the vessel is literally vaporised [sic] as the warheads unleash their fury. The main reactor of the star destroyer overloads in a violent explosion, rendering a once proud warship into another hulk floating in space. A battlecruiser nearby is rocked by the explosion is forced to pause in its assualt to recover.

*assuming that it's still functioning*
The star destroyers, numbering over 50 in strength now, contiune to pound at the excelsior with renewed vigor. Decks can be seen through sections of vaporised hull, as some of the smaller battlecruisers are drawn in like hyenas to a wounded antelope. A rear guard action of 24 star destroyers remain focused on the nearby excelsiors and raptors attempting to relieve their beleagured comrade.

The [i]Avatar sitting within the depths of the shipyard continues to moniter the situation. Admiral Kalinin grimaces as numerous Angelan begin appearing, apparently the Angelans have decided to make this a decisive battle. Moments later, bearing even more bad news, a nearby sensor tech informs Kalinin that Angelan ships have moved to forma perimeter around the battlegrounds. And that multiple grav-well fields have been activated. Determined to show the AIs a good fight, Admiral Kalinin puts out a call for the rest of the Sketchan fleets. Their orders are to make the fastest line of approach possible through vector <insert fancy vector info here>. They are to be prepared for premature realspace conversion at point <insert fallen vessel position nearest to the intense fighting> and be ready for full combat. All current engagments are to be abandoned as quickly as possible to comply.

Admiral Kalinin looks on as the battle wages. I want a status report on the fleet at Europa. A pause before answering brings a cloud of dark omens to Kalinin's face. They've missed the last scheduled report sir. We haven't been in contact for the last 10 minutes. With noticable self control, Kalinin turns to the hapless tech and calmly asks - and why wasn't I informed of this sooner? Upon which the tech informed Kalinin that he appeared to be preoccupied with the appearance of the new Angelan ships.

The commander of the Guardian fleet is a capable man. We will finish the Angelans here first and then return to Europa to assist him.

=================

On the far side of Europa, underprotected installations continue to be ravished by the fast striking "SFA." Defense cannons continue to mount a valiant effort to gun down the offending vessels.

=================

As the city networks begin to wither under the unseen assualt, government officials move to counter with decisive action. A trio of directly linked neural networks are disconnected from the command network. A system of fire walls and access denial subroutines are set into place as the new [sic] system is linked into the civilian network. The full power of the neural network can be seen and felt as Angelan influences are slowly forced back. City functions begin to flicker back on as the silent battle between AI and minds is waged.

================

A temporary anomaly in seismic activities is recorded by active sensors. A note is made but soon to be quickly forgotten as more important developments arise (eg, the freakin invasion)

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

[OOC]
It takes me so freakin long to type out these posts that my session ends before I'm done :x

Interesting development on an unrelated thread (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=75360). Could be incorporated into this thread as a side detail. Dunno what you guys wanna make of it. Suggestions?

Admiral Filbeck took the request that had come in from Admiral Eddings and looked it over. 'Good reasons all. Time to talk to the President.'

"Mr. President - Eddings has requested additional forces be deployed. I'm forwarding you the list right now." Filbeck sent the list, then waited while he read it over. "StarLancers, Constables, and more battlewagons. Not unreasonable - but I don't want to lower planetary deployment too much. If someone gets word of what's going on here we might need all the ships we can get. Deployment is authorized, tell him to be careful."

Villanova closed the channel, and Filbeck began going through the fleet roster. She marked SBG's as well as a SSG and finally she hit the 'classified' section. A couple marks and a quick note and the orders were sent. They would arrive shortly enough.

In Mars Orbital Space...
15 more SBG's prepared and then left orbit. They powered weapon systems and raised shields before they jumped to warp - they were headed into the fire. An SSG left orbit as well. It had fleet recovery ships and supply ships - they would likely be needed after the battle ahead.

In Saturn Orbital Space...
Four of the ugliest ships the Republic had ever produced powered their long-unused weapons and shields and jumped to warp. These were Constable Class Cruisers - they mounted the new Mobility Denial System. It was capable of stopping many forms of FTL - the most important for now being the hyperdrive that the Sketchian navy used.

Floating in the rings behind them other ships came to life. They had been stationed there to disguise their mass amoung the jumbled rock. StarLancers - 32 of them. Which was also all of them. They followed the Constables to the outskirts of the battle, well protected by the newly arriving SBG's.

[OOC]
Apparently everyone has these FTL stoppers. Amazing how anyone can travel anywhere in space nowadays :P

"Sky Marshal, we have clearance from Angelan command. Operation is a go."

Hayes set her jaw as she drew her crash harness over her shoulders and latched it over her stomach. Compensators or no, always be prepared. "Sensors, status!" The command comes out as a series of barks, English taken down to its bare essentials.

Battle language.

"EM jamming, all frequencies. Radio, microwave comms out. QE still operational."

Hayes grimaced. QE was only good for those oddly-transcribed telegrams; while the motions of quantum-entangled molecules was secure, it was slow. At least she had opted for a malleable plan, and at least there were several preprogrammed communications that could turn out to be useful. Thank goodness for initiative. Laser-pulse would be difficult to manage, given the swooping her ships were about to do.

The commandship, with its immensely powerful command communications arrays begin pulsing out signals on all frequencies at unprecendented levels. Any vessels within the sol system with a working receiver would be able to hear clear signal emanating from the ship.
"Jovian Voyeur net reports optical signals. Crypto is working on cracking. One ship transmitting over noise. Triangulation states Target #45."

Well, at least we know what their command vessel is. "FleetCom! Cue-Ee the E-dub Lokis. Tell them to start blasting feedback on that command ship's channels. We can't drown them out, but we can give them reverb like nothing else. Just repeat everything they transmit a few cycles off."

"Acting, ma'am." The fleet communications officer turns to her console, long-chain organic polymers twist their brethren far away, relaying to the E-dubs.
[code:1:c016da2544]<AUTHORIZATION CODE>

FEEDBACK SKETCH COMMANDS <STOP> REVERB OFF CYCLE <STOP>[/code:1:c016da2544]
The payload commanders of the Lokis tear out these orders, nod, and set their equipment to record and playback the streaming chatter of the command ship, throwing in distortions for good measure. They'll still get through, but they'll have to listen harder. Throw in a few direct delta screeches, and it will be less than enjoyable to listen to.

"All right. We'll keep the target timetable as it is. Target #45 is still target #45. Any missiles we can divert towards it," Sky Marshal Hayes muses, "we will. Laser-pulse this to the fleet, switch to tactical laser-comm."

"Acting, ma'am." Tightbeam optical lasers flash signals between the ships, pointing out Target #45 as a priority target for kinetic missile strikes.

"Finally, load up the space illumination rounds. Let's see if we can overload their optical sensors." Vessels across the fleet shoved the odd space-illumination rounds, originally intended to counter the shadow-ships of Dragonisia, into magazines to be fired like any other form of ammunition. True, all they did was blaze like tiny stars... but maybe that would help.

"All ships report ready, ma'am."

"Send the go signal."

Laser-pulses stream to the rest of the fleet, probably the last ones for the fight for the strike squadrons--tracking recievers and transmitters with the odd maneuvers planned would be physically difficult--and the squadrons set their mission clocks, split up to their ready stations, and one by one began their runs.

Screaming in, sixty percent of the speed of light, one-hundred eighty thousand kilometers a second. Quantum computers, their optronic nets humming with energy, ticking off fire solutions as the picosecond of fire window opened and shut for each hardpoint at optimal range. Missiles, ranging from mere eight kilograms to a massive one-hundred-fifty tons, speeding to even higher velocities. Capital varicolor lasers, naval particle projection cannon, thousands of tons of accelerators and focusing arrays dedicated to sending energetic death at the speed of light towards their targets. Capital autocannon, the tremendous children of naval guns of old, spewing rounds. Finally, within two hundred kilometers of the enemy, the pulsed invisible glare of heavy point-defense batteries, field-grade autocannon, gauss rifles. Fighters releasing kinetic kill vehicles, moving faster than their human pilots could reasonably move them. Here and gone in a blink of an eye. Speed is life. Dropships spewing fire, quantum computers crunching the numbers, doing the surprisingly simple math of special relativity.

Fire arcs shifting in infinitesimal fractions of a second, computer-controlled turrets facing in predicted directions, updated to the millimeter every picosecond--not even trying to track, for it would be in vain--disgorging their forms of death when the computer says so.

Ten ships to a target, a lightning raid of battleships, hit and fade in under half a second.

Then, another, from a different direction. Ten ships to a target, hit and fade.

Three seconds... hit and fade.

2.78 seconds... hit and fade, followed immediately thereafter by another hammer blow.

No rhyme, no pattern to the blows, nothing to attribute reason to. Targets struck until they fell, then moving on to the next. Yes, the targets were orderly, from largest threat down... but the direction, the timing, no pattern, no sense.

And that was the reason, the method to the madness. The very point.

And, tens of thousands of kilometers out, sat the supercarriers, the heavy carriers, the escort carriers. Firing in the gaps as if they understood. Peppering those in formation until they broke it. Herding with fire, beams of particle cannon, streams of missiles, speeding in jagged motions only gravitics could provide, a chaotic up-and-down adding to their pseudo-circular orbit around the enemy.

The KSPA were held in standby, supporting the carriers with their missiles... they could be added to the timetable later.

[OOC]
Apparently everyone has these FTL stoppers. Amazing how anyone can travel anywhere in space nowadays :P

OOC: As this is OOC I'll tell you - we started developing the system after your attack on the World Disc with the aim of preventing similar occurances from happening. On to the show.

IC:
The Republic cruiser wings gathered speed as they approached their target. A light minute would be two minutes for them, .5c being the most efficient speed attained over the given distance. Torpedo tubes were slaved to the computers, all phaser arrays were given targets though they would not be there long enough to make a difference when it came right down to it. All the crews were at ready stations in case something happened - ready to fight their way through anything.

They came in at 38 degrees off the plane of battle. Their targets were a group of heavy cruisers near the edge of the Sketchian fleet. If space had sound they would have been screaming, instead they were silent as owls as they whipped past. First the forward arrays spat streams of torpedos at the group, like long strings of beads pulling quickly away from the launchers.

Then a small shift, though if the inertial compensators had failed the crew would have experienced a big shift for .1ns. The lateral banks fired, along with the forward phaser banks. The lateral barrage would impact at nearly the same time as the wing passed. Then the lateral phaser arrays attempted precision strikes against bridges and power generators. Next to impossible at this speed, but the attempt was made.

The final shift and the rear tubes opened up. They fired for the longest time, relatively. They went for ships that had lost their shields in the attack, attempting to disable or destroy them. Then the wing was past and shooting out into the void. They would orbit back and determine another attack angle randomly, though they would try to pick up damaged targets for destruction. Difficult given the chaos of space warfare, but they would try.

Aboard the Judgement Class Carrier Admiral Eddings watched as the battle began. He had requested reinforcements, though they had not yet arrived. Behind him tactical officers monitored the fire control computers as they spat streams of torpedos and long ribbons of phaser fire across the void. On the screen he could barely make out his fighter wings pushed out around him and the rest of the carriers. They saved their torpedos for a direct engagement, though they targetting any ordinance that made it's way out to the carriers.

(OOC: Oi... I hate mil-wank pr0n. All that can be summed up by...

http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Scotland-History/charge-of-the-highlanders-PrestonPans-by-Mark-Churms.gif
CHARGE!!!!

Then do it again... and again...and again...and again...and again...and again...

[OOC]
Thanks for the translation, my hurtin' head was trying to decipher the details from what you were doing. Gah, way to much happening, how many fleets do we have here again? Whats going on? What am I doing here? And where are my pants? :P

I'll post something meaningful in the morning.

A flash of crimson some ways off as more ships jumped in... tesseracts opened, and the Menelmacari fleet emerged. They came out, in fact, directly behind and slightly below the Sketchen Star Destroyers, within their weakest firing arc. One hundred and fourteen ships... most of the elements of four fleets. Menacing yet elegant, sinuous, wraithlike, graceful. Blood red and void black, with hints of gold.... and the lights of hangar bays yawning wide to disgorge their passengers into the fray.

Yet, where were the transports? And the other fleets Menelmacar had dispatched for this matter?

Well... they were elsewhere. They had other objectives.

"TYCS ships! Elen sila lumenn'omentielvo. This is Warlord Ferinion nos Círdan. Menelmacar Task Force Europa has arrived," came the transmission to the TYCS and Sunset vessels. "We will commence long-range bombardment support immediately. Have all small craft stay clear of vector ; we don't want any friendly fire incidents."

Hundreds of Thoron fighters and Nighthawk gunships streamed forth from the hangars of the Elven vessels. Immediately upon being free of their parent vessels they formed up into 'claw' formations, one claw per squadron, excellent for striking and englobing a target, and providing optimal weapons coverage. The craft danced outwards, clearing the path from their mother vessels to the targets... clearing the path for...

Plasma. Lots... and lots... and lots of plasma. Cannons and turrets spoke, spewing streams of crimson stellar fire into the void, aimed at the triangular white vessels several tens of thousands of kilometers distant. They spoke indeed, in a chorus of death, making extremely persuasive arguments if/when they struck as their magnetic bottles collapsed, causing hideously destructive plasma explosions on impact.

Missiles, too, fired, in great volleys. There were the mighty Nar-Hatheli, Fireblades, heavy cruise missiles meant for killing ships. And there were the tiny but still potent Aicasicili, Fell Daggers, small anti-fighter missiles aimed at anything vaguely resembling a TIE. If no Sketchen fighters were in combat the Dags would target destroyers instead. Every little bit helped, after all.

OOC: Sketchy, hon, where's Megalith at? I'd like to seize it, if it's OOCly all right with you.

http://www.weirdozone.0catch.com/projects/nationstates/sirithil/sirithilnosfeanor.gifLady Sirithil nos Fëanor
Elentári of the Eternal Noldorin Empire of Menelmacar
[i]"If it is to be war between us, it shall be war to the knife and the knife to the hilt."
~Foreign Minister Duke Paolio, The Outlands
We Love the Iraqi Information Minister (http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com)
Clicky-clicky!

[OOC]
Gak................ok, brief ooc on whose done what so far in the Europa space theater. From what I understand. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Scolo and Sunset are screaming past me on strafing runs.

Angelus is keeping my top-dog-genius-commander-dude busy at the shipyards.

Karmabaijan is busy making my life difficult.....I can't even hear myself think :wink:

Kaenei is about to / already has? dropping troops onto the ground

And finally Menelmacar.........way to make an entrance :? . Your entrance location is ambiguous at best I would have to say.

They came out, in fact, directly behind and slightly below the Sketchen Star Destroyers.

followed by

....aimed at the triangular white vessels several tens of thousands of kilometers distant.

So where are you? Please, some time continuity within your posts. Your fighters can't appear next to my ships in one post if they have to travel that kind of distance. Either that, or your right on top of me and will help absorb some of the blows thar Scolo/Sunset are about to deal with their blitz.

As far as the Megalith goes.........lets just say I have a few toys that I don't want to lose.

Now, was that everyone?

OOC: Bah, you're no fun. I'll move the fighter action to Notepad and put it in my next post.

The entrance location isn't ambiguous at all. They're behind and slightly below, about twenty or thirty thousand klicks off. And the fighters are quite fast in space.

As for Megalith... you did shoot up three million of my people on the Disc. That's gotta have a heavy price, my man. You could build another one in a few real-time weeks anyway.

~Siri

[OOC]
My apologises dear Siri, but the term directly for me means literally until you see the whites of their eyes. As you may be able to tell from the last time I engaged in space warfare. Ambiguity of interpretations is why I wanted to downplay the space aspect.

Alas, I must awaken at 0500 sharp today, so I bid you all adieu. My final post for tonight.

[IC]
With the sensors showing the approaching Scolopian and Sunset ships bearing down at extreme speeds begin unleashing their own nasty little suprises. Instead of being armed with the laughably obsolete "Turbolasers" of the first generation star destroyers, they have been fitted with ("aquired") Somtaaw technology. The flanks of the gathered star destroyers literally erupt with full broadsides of heavy mass drivers and ion particle cannons. They fired not directly at the incoming vessels, but at where they will be, taking into account the relativistic speeds of the appraoching vessels. A wall of destruction is literally thrown up alone the enitre approach vector of the Scolopian and Sunset ships.

With the appearance of the Menelmacari vessels, and knowing the elven warriors' penchant for close combat, the star destroyers commanders began deploying their fighters in droves. Some suprises lay there as well, for the Sketchan fleet no longer employed the aging TIEs as the standard fighter. Instead, as the elves would soon find out, the only TIEs around were computer controlled drones - capable of out performing any organic being and fearless in the face of death. Tiny defender class fighters form fighter screens arond the Sketchan ships, as the new badger-class heavy fighter and slick blade-class interceptors, race out to meet the incoming elves.

[OOC]
Don't be too suprised, my aquisition of Somtaaw tech was mentioned here (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=51330&highlight=). As was my disclaimers....I think :P

Sigh, the Megalith, that was my planned comeback vehicle you see. Hide a portion of fleet, secure valuable knowledge onboard......its Sketch's Ark. Actually, I'm suprised anyone remembered it. I'll sleep on it. Let you know in the morning.

EDIT: Heavy price? You're about to have your way with my people like you would the "maid service" in a cathouse. I'd say thats pretty steep.

OOC: I have so far not acted in the Europan Space Theatre, but that is changing now.

=====

Moments before the Khenalian engagement, the government in Sketch Prime would have received a message originating from Titan:



<Message Type: Declaration of War>
<Destination: Dominion of Sketch>

Whereas the Dominion of Sketch has committed unprovoked acts of war against the Government and the people of the Dominion of Angelus, an Ally of the Government and people of the Empire of Khenala:

Therefore be it Resolved by the Council members of the Khenalian High Council assembled, That the state of war between the Khenalian Empire and the Dominion of Sketch which has thus been thrust upon the Empire is hereby formally declared; and the Prime Minister is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire space and military forces of the Khenalian Empire and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Dominion of Sketch; and for the purpose of bringing the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the nation are hereby pledged by the High Council of Khenala.

<End Communique>


Europan Space Theatre

=====

Lying in wait behind the now engaged Sunset, Scolopendran, and Menelmacari fleets, the Khenalian fleet spread in an arc formation, each Capital ship opening hatches and releasing hundreds of Fighter craft into the depths of space.

=====

"Releasing Fighters now, Admiral. Fighters are under orders to engage Sketchan Fighter craft and to divert fire from the Scolopendran, Sunset, and Menelmacari fleets for their concentration on the majority of the Sketchan fleet."

Zell nodded. His heart quickened its pounding deep within his chest, and his breath quickened. But his voice remained calm and firm. "Have all dropships ready for launch at a moments notice. Prepare for Phase II once Sketchan fighter threat is lessened to 70% or lower, or our Fighter fleet encounters over a 30% loss ratio."

=====

The fighters streaming towards the ensuing battle tended to ignore the larger Sketchan ships completely, instead concentrating heavily on the wall of Fighter-craft the Sketchans released to counter the Menelmacari advance. The fighers were lightly armed when compared with a larger capital ship, but heavily defended, boasting strong durasheet armor made of strong alloys and light particle shielding. The Fighters flew in groups of five, targeting like groups of Sketchan fighers and bombarding them with ion cannon fire, attempting to either draw their attention away from the Menelmacari fleets or destroy them outright.

=====

Marcus Ryder, a young Khenalian soldier from the city of Supremus, was afraid. Deeply afraid. His eyes were set firmly, and his knuckles white from clenching the controls of his fighter craft. Though he was afraid, he was determined. He drew from his memories, remembering the outrage he felt at the Sketcan betrayal with their attack on the WorldDisc, the loss of friends he had there, the rage and fury at having his homespace violated by a nation whose hand had been extended in friendship. He clenched his fists tigher.

They will pay...

Targeting a group of Sketchan fighters in his sight, he released his weaponry, each blast of his ion cannon ennunciated with the rage and fury of a person, and behind him a nation, betrayed.

[OOC]
Ahhh, morning PT is so wonderful. I just love not seeing the sun for an hour while doing pushups :roll:

Enter Khenala. You declare war on me? What for? <whistles innocently :lol: >

Interestingly enough, you guys only out number me two to one, although by sheer tonnage (courtesy of Angelus :wink: ) it's probably more along the lines of three to one.

And holy bejeezus....I forgot that I had carriers too.............damn :oops:

Now back to the fun.

============

[IC]
With the Blade interceptors and the Badger heavy fighters already on course to engage their elven counter parts, other fighters had to be used to counter with the new Khenalian threat. Swarms of TIE/Ds are releashed from their patrol routines and sent out in waves. These drones, while under-armored, are able to outperform any organic being in terms of maneuverability. The onboard programing specializes in hunter pack routines - the singling out of individual targets for elimination. The remaining fighters - defence fighters, stayed behind to maintain the point defense screens around their designated ships. This fighters, by virtue of being slow, are unuseful for head-to-head fighter duels. Instead, they use their extreme mobility, and a trio of gimbal mounted omni-directional gatling rail guns, to engage targets coming in on any vector. The sophisticated targeting computer is capable of locking onto and engaging multiple targets at once. <uhhh, too much technical crap...sorry>

As the Khenalian fighters approach the Sketchan fleet, they can see a teaming cloud of swarming drones, numbering in the hundreds, rushing at them.

===========

[OOC]
This is my second try at this post :?

There is very little that the crews aboard the assaulting vessels can do. On these runs, the computer is forced to make the decisions. Continue the runs or attempt to evade? The best option: Modify vector by the merest fraction of degrees and make as many blows glancing as possible while maintaining offensive strength.

Logical, yes. Less than fun for the crew. One moment is smooth sailing, the next is a shuddering mess as the particle beams diffuse through the shields and scatter across armor plating. Some of the smaller vessels, destroyers mostly, are knocked slightly off course, which is a dangerous thing when passing through formations. The only thing that saves the fleet is the scattered nature of the fire; still, two destroyers flare up, broken to pieces... which will simply add to the missiles thrown against the enemy.

Realizing that the kinetic energies of relativistic speeds cut both ways was a good thing, yes... but discharging those energies inside formations can be problematic at best.

Each squadron does a swoop, and each commander independently realizes, shakenly, that a new plan is to be formed. Sky Marshal Hayes brushes back the hair from her face and shouts an order. "FleetCom! Close orbit: one, two XY; three, four XZ; five, six YZ!"

As Scolomorph and her squadron begin to bend around for another pass, the fleet communications officer flips a panic switch and types a few simple codes. Quantum entanglement once again works its wonders with a preprogrammed emergency call.

[code:1:42b8fe3bb7]ORDERS COUNTERMANDED <FULL STOP>

NEW ORDERS <FULL STOP>

CHAOTIC ORBITAL PATTERN <STOP> SQ 1 AND 2 XY <STOP> SQ 3 AND 4 XZ <STOP> SQ 5 AND 6 YZ <FULL STOP>[/code:1:42b8fe3bb7]
The squadrons bend slightly from their runs, entering chaotic orbits much like the carriers off in the distance... but these are much closer, only about two thousand kilometers off and decelerated to a "mere" three-tenths of c, still leading to faster angular tracking rates than most machines can handle--added to their chaotic translation along the cylinder of their orbit, and that makes targeting difficult at best. Each squadron selects a target vessel as per the list and, rolling to practically double their fire rate, orbit at just over one second a revolution.

Batteries continue to fire, veritable streams of particle cannon, missiles, autocannon rounds. Gauss kinetic piercers.

Two squadrons take the x-y plane of battle, two take the x-z plane, two take the y-z plane, timed in thirds so as to avoid unpleasant accidents.

"Status?"

"Unusual Normality, Peaceable Unrest down, all hands. Scanning for enemy casualties."

Hayes grimaced. "Call up HQ, get us some more backup. This is why we have RCSs."

[code:1:42b8fe3bb7]<SCOLOMORPH -QE> TYCSHQ>
<ENCRYPTION ZULU>

ROVING CRUISER SQUADRON REINFORCEMENT REQUESTED <FULL STOP>

SKYMSHL HAYES
TYWS-BB SCOLOMORPH
1TEF[/code:1:42b8fe3bb7]

The message is relayed via Titan to the RCSs at their duty stations. All untasked ships are to rally around the carriers. Seven untasked squadrons reply, and jump to assist.

Thus, in the space of a few minutes, the carriers are supported in their long range bombardment by fourteen medium cruisers, fourteen frigates, and twenty-eight destroyers, pending future orders.

(OOC: I wonder how my barrages are doing. Also, how's the feedback on the command channels going? I'm relatively proud of that tricky idea. Good call on the relativistics, but the volume's a bit big. Dumptrucks of gravel would've been better. Future reference.)

[OOC]
Ah yes, yes. I'm assuming that you and Sunset have unleashed a butt load of missiles on my ass {my face :shock: }. This was the best counter I could think of at the time, probably the only realistic one given the ranges we're talking about. The feedback sucks...I'm bleeding from my ears :P . This post is in between classes, I will add IC when I finish the school day.

Rising to his feet, Frohimer turned to the navigation officer. His powerful features creased with a frown

"What is the situation?"


Taking a moment to lock down the console, the diminutive women turned to face her superior.

"We have still made no positive engagment with Sketchan forces. A sizable fleet of their Star Destroyers are being pinned down by the combined firepower of Angelus forces. Scolopendrian forces have begun scathing attacks on the Sketchan fleets nearest our position. They are inflicting considerable casualties in this respect. The forces of the Sunset are also beginning hit and run movements across the orbital vectors."

Frohimer was about to acknowledge this when the Angel herself spoke-

Menelcamari vessels have entered sensor range.

Turning, the Captain returned to his command throne, his frown deepening.

<What are they planning> he thought. Placing the Elven riddle to the back of his mind for now, he turned his attention to the rest of the Keanei fleet that had dispersed behind the flagship.

All Dropships are green. We are ready to commence prelimanary bombardment of landing zones.

Frohimer shook his head as the Sentient ship announced her readiness.

"Change of plan my old friend. Have all vessels but four escort cruisers hold position and prepare to begin DropLandings at my mark. Helm, set course for the last known location of the Angelan forces engaging the Sketchan Star Destroyers......and prepare battlestations."


*********


Sighs and grumbles escaped Kanela's Dropship as the news of their delay filtered through. Slowly releasing the helmet seal he removed the unit, taking due care to carry out the ritual blessing as he placed it under his arm. Taking a moment to aquiant himself with slighly more open sorroundings, he joined the slow moving line of personnel as they exited their craft.

A familiar and wise voice broke his thoughts.

"You are troubled my Guardian...>"

Kanela tuned as the Battle-Chaplain spoke, bowing his head in respect, the holy warrior waved a hand away, allowing him to continue.

"I feel frustrated, I wish only to drop now, to avenge our lost kin."

The Chaplain nodded, his face hidden behind his helmet, whose visage was a twisted skull of death that seemed to chill and watch all those who looked into its visor.

"T'would it be wasteful were you to drop now, with this rage and lust overwhelming your rationality. Your end on the ice world would be quick my battle brother. Your ichor would pour before the ice had melted beneath your boots. Do not be in haste to meet your fate, for remember always it is fate that will decide when it wishes to call you to its hold. There is a reason the Angel has called the Drop delayed, you and I would be best not to question it."



********




With deceptive speed and grace befitting a marine creature cutting through the ocean waves the Keanian flagship Angel made its way through though the blackness of inter-system space. Flanked on both sides by escort craft she pushed onwards, closing on the Sketchan Star Destroyers that sat as an affront to all they planned and fought for.


She came, though the Sketchans may or may not have been tracking her she soon announced her arrival. Plasmatic focusing Cannons spewed photoflurescent death through space, great ribbons of yellow and pink darting towards the Sketchan vessels.

From stubby mounts great torpedoes lazily pushed their heavy mass out from their launch tubes, their approach neither quick nor stealthily, but relentless.

From behind and above the Angel her Escorts fired, their mandible beam emitters vomiting blue arcs forth.




*********


Frohimer felt the ship shake as another burst of energised Plasma escaped the focusing cannons, watching events unfold, he gave a grim smile.

The Angel would watch over them now.


[OOC: Sketch, that TG I sent you not long ago is about to come to fruition...]

As the Scolopian craft understood what was about to happen and struggled to avoid, the Sunset starships did so as well. Threat assessment and avoidance systems sent orders flooding through the ship - it was remarkably similar to having a meteorite swarm in the way at the same speeds. Some accelerated, some manuvered, and some did combinations of both. The energy weapons added a new twist though. It was like flying through a ion storm and a meteorite cloud. Distressing to say the least.

Shields stripped as energy bleed off them, stripping first the primary then the secondary shields. For some ships it stopped at this - their secondary shields held and they plowed free. Some lost both, and energy stripped away at their hulls for a moment. For an unlucky few the heavy projectiles were not deflected by the slope of the saucer section and the projectiles plowed through the ships ripping through bulkheads and superstructure, disabling manuvering systems and detonating ordinance.

Every ship that could still delievered their payload though. Some had lost control over one or more banks, but still torpedos leapt from their chutes as they passed 'coasting', if one could call it that, at speed toward their target. At worst, the ordinance would miss and hit the planet below. At best it would mangle and destroy, much as their opponent had done.

For the few unlucky ships that lost manuvering, they had .001 of a second to repair it. Not much time, even for skilled engineers. Thus instead of delievering their payload to the fleet, they delievered themselves. Twin warp cores breached in some instances, in the others massive ordinance detonations signalled their firey end. In the end two cruisers went up in massive core breaches near their assigned targets while three others scattered on the solar wind and their assigned vector.

The orders from Hayes came in as they completed their pass. Those who felt capable complied, while others shot off into the depths of space to circle around.

One in particular passed a host of angels as she sailed past. Avenging angels. The re-inforcements dropped out of warp 200,000km from the battle blasting death from their torpedo tubes. The relativistic 'kicker' the torpedos recieved sent each crossing the void in a second, targets already relayed from the carriers lending long range support. Each was a tiny star in a stream of stars as they leapt the gap. Loading systems raced to keep up with demand. Tiny adjustments in the accelerator fields send them flying at slight vectors - but enough to put the torpedos from each of the 4 forward batteries at a different ship.

The ships slowed and began to peel off to either side. Most would miss the fleet by 40,000-50,000 km given their turning radius at this speed. The ships behind them though, they did not turn. They sought battle.

The 32 ships that had dropped out of warp behind and below the Republic cruisers differed in shape vastly from their breathren. They were long and conical, a dull grey with scant details aside from the setting sun of the SDF logo painted on the sides. And the massive engines with 'TransCorp' on the rear. The ships had coasted at .5c for a moment, then the engines roared to life as power was diverted, creating minature suns behind them that pulsed with power.

They plunged toward the fleet - 100,000 tons of iridium in front of the biggest pulsed fusion engines avaliable.

[OOC]
I apologize for my long pause before responding to the Scolo/Sunset attack runs. I think I finally understand the attack strategy now. In layman's terms - You're driving around in a big circle (now a randomly occillating one due to my attack?). Driving around really fast. While driving around, you send shit my way. Projectiles, missiles, beams(?) come flying my direction with a relativistic "kicker." And, the barrage is basically constant, something I wasn't aware of at first :oops: .

Now, using the aforementioned brief as the basis of my understanding, I have a few important questions to ask/statements to make. I promise that I will post damages soon.

1) Am I at the center of this "circle of death" or is the circle off to the side with only small arc of potential weapons release.

The first case gives you nearly a 180 degrees of engagment (the Europa mass protects my ass), but makes it much harder to deliver ordinance. Ordiance delivered towards the center of the circle (me) would have to overcome the inertia of the relavistic speeds at which you are traveling. The result is that they travel much slower and will do less damage than you'd expect. Eg, missiles are easier to intercept, projectiles are no longer traveling at .5c +, beams(?)...no difference. Also, various ships or sharpnel parts which fall out of this circle would not fly towards me. Instead they would continue to fly in a tangential line on wich they were traveling, causing them to fly away from me really fast. This method also allows you to greatly osccillate your trajectory, thus rendering my counter virtually useless.

The second case allows for the optimal delivery of your projectiles, essentially adding the relativistic speeds of your ships to the relative speed of the projectiles. However, this affords you a much smaller delivery arc and circumvents your ability to oscillate your circle sufficiently to render my counter impotent. Your delivery packages in this case would be basically unavoidable and will cause heavy amounts of damage. The optimal delivery arc would probably be reduced to something under 45 degrees. As with the first case, sharpnel and ship hulks would continue on a tangential path that they were traveling on before loss of control.

2) When two masses are traveling at each other at relativistic speeds (.5c ship vs .85c "shell"), the chances of a "glancing blow" is quite slim. That would require either really, really, really strong bulkheads or basically a near miss. For sure, the angle on a particular saucer(s) (most likely at least 15 degrees of incidence) would do squat for deflection at these speeds. Your consolation would be that by dropping speeds and/or altering course, you will manage to avoid nearly the rest of the barrage, probably catching the tail end at most if at all.

3) What is your payload output? All big honkin' ship killing missiles (ph33r!), big medium and small, etc, etc. I need to know so I post appropriate damages.

4) Was target #45 included in the first series of attacks? Target #45 was established as my comandship.

5) Kaenei, I don't know if you got my TG. But just in case, the active Angelans are not at Europa. They are at the shipyards, which is pretty far away. I might not be understanding whats going on, of course. Are you dropping and then leaving? Or just leaving w/o dropping? Please do tell.

[IC]
As swarms of missiles, projectiles, and beams coming pouring in from the Scolopian/Sunset fleets, ship commanders call out emergency maneuvers in vain. The incoming wave of death rolls towarda the fleet at such incredible that impact was inevitable. Emergency collision alarms sound just bare moments before the fist impacts are felt..........{dramatic pause}

[OOC]
Shortest IC post ever.......damages come when I know the payload

OOC: They are cap-ship killers. Generally it would take a fully volley from the forward tubes (8 tubes, 4 per tube) to reduce a ship to scattered atoms though. Given the limited time we have to fire, most tubes will get off only 1 torp each. Adjusting for damage taken, call it 110 per wing. Overkill, if they all hit. Just my ships though.

Question 1 - Center. Ships are coming in from rapidly changing vectors with your fleet at the center of this 'drive by'. At this point we are going to switch to broadside weapons - fire, allow them to 'coast' ahead. They will impact about the same time as we pass the fleet. For the first run we came quite close, firing from forward weapons and whipping past at close (-1km) distances. Dangerous but the computers can handle it. No more of that - distance gives us time to manuver making it harder to hit us. Slower though.

Question 2 - Aye. Near misses and lucky glances/lucky hits. Some shots went all the way through, but missed the power section, etc. They took casualties for sure, but I don't think we need to do body counts yet.

Question 3 - #45 would not be, yet. Too much in the way still. Clusters of cruisers, Interdictors, that kind of thing would be the likely first targets.

Because it's good to post IC...

IC:

The program had been active for 00:00:19:32 seconds now. It had recieved data from an outside source and had issued instructions to other programs based on that data. It was now patiently awaiting more outside data. Finally one of it's sub-routines that was monitoring a device informed it that it had data. The data was analyzed - it contained the nessecary information for it to be acted on. Calculating the changes to it's current status that would be needed it issued instructions to the sub-programs. One was slow in responding, but it did respond. The program checked the new data against the old - the program that had failed to respond quickly enough had caused the data to mis-match slightly.

The flaw was noted, and a backup program was contacted and given the new data. It responded quickly and the data now matched the parameters needed to fullfil the instructions it had been given. The old program excluded from supplying data, though it continued to attempt to every few milliseconds. New data came in - this could cause a fatal overflow. New instructions went out, and power surged down the circuit toward the chip containing the offending program. A regulator designed to prevent power overloads clicked open. That would stop it for the next 10 seconds.

Time ticked by, more and more data was cross-checked between internal and external sources. It would accomplish the instructions in .03 seconds. It would then await new instructions.

-20 minutes in the life of a ramship control computer

OOC: Aye, PT is fun :) The AF will own my soul, as soon as I get this damned DOD physical updated, and the miles of security clearance paperwork. :roll:

IC:
The Lokis that had been around Europa, finally chose relatively watched slice of sky and made for insertion. The ships dropped as quickly as possible through the atmosphere, minimising their time in such a detectable position. Immediately after re-entry, they made for the deck, seeking a relatively hilly area, or a canyon in which to set down and release their cargo.

(OOC: Answering point by point (and I like the amount of thought you're putting into this):

1) You're in the center. The deceleration aspect applies to the autocannon, ya, but they have explosive warheads in addition, so lack of kinetic 'oomph' isn't so much a concern. The missiles are gravitically propelled (a lot like Menelmacar's) and so can still go for relativistic kill. Most of our weapons are beams, so it is less of a concern.

2) Read 'glancing blow' as 'near miss.' Anything more than one degree of incidence is most likely lethal, and the computers were doing their best to rotate for ballistic deflection as well as translate to miss. How our shields work, it basically disperses the energy of the impact over a wider area (imagine shooting a garden hose through a waterfall). Instead of 'absorbing damage,' they just make it easier for the armor to deflect or ablate away the energy.

The two destroyers that got it obviously didn't get it right.

3) Oh, man! I didn't want to get into numberwank... but I have it all quantified, so here it goes... (my apologies) Weapons are per ship, will collate at the very end, all adjusted for firing arcs... and a note--by 'naval laser' we're talking 'whacking huge beam capable of orbital bombardment, on the orders of a thousand tons of equipment':

Assault Squadrons:

Four Supreme-Emperor-class battleships
60 Heavy Capital-Grade Particle Projector Cannon
30 Very-Heavy Capital-Grade Autocannon (1-ton burst)
30 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements

Five Sulaco-class heavy cruisers
4 Medium Capital-Grade Particle Projector Cannon
8 Heavy Capital-Grade Autocannon (800 kg burst)
18 Very-Heavy Capital-Grade Autocannon (1,000 kg burst)
4 Heavy Capital-Grade Naval Lasers
6 Heavy Capital-Grade Missile Launchers (50,000 kg missiles)
50 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements

Eight Tiger-class medium cruisers
18 Medium Capital-Grade Particle Projector Cannon
8 Very-Heavy Capital-Grade Autocannon (1,000 kg burst)
2 Uber-Heavy Capital-Grade Autocannon (1,200 kg burst)
4 Heavy Capital-Grade Naval Lasers
25 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements
1600 30mm Kinetic Missile tubes (4 kg missiles)

Thirty-Four Scorpion-class assault frigates
4 Heavy Capital-Grade Particle Projector Cannon
4 Uber-Heavy Capital-Grade Autocannon (1,200 kg burst)
8 Heavy Capital-Grade Naval Lasers
24 Light Capital-Grade Missile Launchers (30,000 kg missiles)
6 Heavy Capital-Grade Missile Launchers (50,000 kg missiles)
80 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements
2400 50mm Kinetic Missile tubes (8 kg missiles)

Eighteen Grendel-class point-defense frigates
300 Field-Grade Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements
600 Field-Grade Extended-Range Particle Projector Cannon
300 Field-Grade Rapid-Fire Assault Autocannon

Twenty-six Puma-class destroyers
4 Heavy Capital-Grade Naval Particle Projector Cannon
10 Medium Capital-Grade Naval Particle Projector Cannon
10 Light Capital-Grade Naval Lasers
60 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements
360 50mm Kinetic Missile tubes (8 kg missiles)

Assault Group Totals:

480 Heavy Capital-Grade Particle Projector Cannon
424 Medium Capital-Grade Particle Projector Cannon
40 Heavy Capital-Grade Autocannon (800 kg burst)
314 Very-Heavy Capital-Grade Autocannon (1-ton burst)
152 Uber-Heavy Capital-Grade Autocannon (1,200 kg burst)
324 Heavy Capital-Grade Naval Lasers
260 Light Capital-Grade Naval Lasers
234 Heavy Capital-Grade Missile Launchers (50,000 kg missiles)
816 Light Capital-Grade Missile Launchers (30,000 kg missiles)
10,800 Field-Grade Extended-Range Particle Projector Cannon
10,250 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements
5,400 Field-Grade Rapid-Fire Assault Autocannon
12,800 30mm Kinetic Missile tubes (4 kg missiles)
90,960 50mm Kinetic Missile tubes (8 kg missiles)

Bombardment Group:

Two President-General-class supercarriers
30 Heavy Capital-Grade Particle Projector Cannon
15 Very-Heavy Capital-Grade Autocannon (1-ton burst)
90 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements

Three Titan-class heavy carriers
9 Heavy Capital-Grade Autocannon (800 kg burst)
24 Heavy Capital-Grade Naval Lasers
2 Heavy Capital-Grade Gauss Rifles (500 kg shots)
60 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements

Five Longship-class escort carriers
30 Medium Capital-Grade Particle Projector Cannon
40 Light Capital-Grade Missile Launchers (30,000 kg missiles)
60 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements

Fourteen Tiger-class medium cruisers
18 Medium Capital-Grade Particle Projector Cannon
8 Very-Heavy Capital-Grade Autocannon (1,000 kg burst)
2 Uber-Heavy Capital-Grade Autocannon (1,200 kg burst)
4 Heavy Capital-Grade Naval Lasers
25 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements
1600 30mm Kinetic Missile tubes (4 kg missiles)

Fourteen Grendel-class point-defense frigates
300 Field-Grade Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements
600 Field-Grade Extended-Range Particle Projector Cannon
300 Field-Grade Rapid-Fire Assault Autocannon

Twenty-Eight Puma-class destroyers
4 Heavy Capital-Grade Naval Particle Projector Cannon
10 Medium Capital-Grade Naval Particle Projector Cannon
10 Light Capital-Grade Naval Lasers
60 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements
360 50mm Kinetic Missile tubes (8 kg missiles)

Bombardment Group Totals:
172 Heavy Capital-Grade Particle Projector Cannon
682 Medium Capital-Grade Particle Projector Cannon
27 Heavy Capital-Grade Autocannon (800 kg burst)
174 Very-Heavy Capital-Grade Autocannon (1,000 kg burst)
36 Uber-Heavy Capital-Grade Autocannon (1,200 kg burst)
6 Heavy Capital-Grade Gauss Rifles (500 kg shots)
144 Heavy Capital-Grade Naval Lasers
280 Light Capital-Grade Naval Lasers
200 Light Capital-Grade Missile Launchers (30,000 kg missiles)
8,190 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements
10,800 Field-Grade Extended-Range Particle Projector Cannon
5,400 Field-Grade Rapid-Fire Assault Autocannon
28,800 30mm Kinetic Missile tubes (4 kg missiles)
10,080 50mm Kinetic Missile tubes (8 kg missiles)

Mobile (Wherever the hell they're needed) Group:

Nine-Hundred Fifty-Four Vespa aerospace fighter-bombers
2 Field-Grade Extended-Range Large Lasers
2 Field-Grade Extended-Range Particle Projector Cannon
2 Field-Grade Heavy Medium Lasers
20 50mm Kinetic Missile tubes (8 kg missiles)
28 tons of kinetic kill vehicles (internal bays)

Two-Thousand Eight-Hundred Sixty-Two Peregrin medium aerospace fighters
2 Field-Grade Extended-Range Particle Projector Cannon
4 Field-Grade Heavy Medium Lasers
5 tons of kinetic kill vehicles (under wings)

Eleven Sleipnir Heavy Cap-Ship Killers
8 Heavy Capital-Grade Naval Particle Projector Cannon
3 Assault Capital-Grade Naval Missile Launchers (100,000 kg missiles)
30 Field-Grade Heavy Gauss Rifles (240 kg rounds)
40 Field-Grade Extended-Range Particle Projector Cannon
80 Field-Grade Medium Rotary Autocannon (300 kg bursts)
40 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements
320 50mm Kinetic Missile tubes (8 kg missiles)

Twenty-Three Sleipnir Light Cap-Ship Killers
4 Heavy Capital-Grade Naval Particle Projector Cannon
3 Assault Capital-Grade Naval Missile Launchers (100,000 kg missiles)
50 Field-Grade Heavy Gauss Rifles (240 kg rounds)
80 Field-Grade Extended-Range Particle Projector Cannon
160 Field-Grade Medium Rotary Autocannon (300 kg bursts)
40 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements
320 50mm Kinetic Missile tubes (8 kg missiles)

Fifty-Seven Sleipnir Gunships
3 Assault Capital-Grade Naval Missile Launchers (100,000 kg missiles)
50 Field-Grade Heavy Gauss Rifles (240 kg rounds)
80 Field-Grade Extended-Range Particle Projector Cannon
160 Field-Grade Medium Rotary Autocannon (300 kg bursts)
40 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements
320 50mm Kinetic Missile tubes (8 kg missiles)

Thirty-Four Loki Heavy Cap-Ship Killers
2 Heavy Capital-Grade Naval Particle Projector Cannon
12 Field-Grade Heavy Gauss Rifles (240 kg rounds)
20 Field-Grade Medium Rotary Autocannon (300 kg bursts)
10 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements
10 Field-Grade Extended-Range Particle Projector Cannon
320 50mm Kinetic Missile tubes (8 kg missiles)
60 75mm Kinetic Missile tubes (11 kg missiles)

Sixty-Eight Loki Light Cap-Ship Killers
1 Heavy Capital-Grade Naval Particle Projector Cannon
24 Field-Grade Heavy Gauss Rifles (240 kg rounds)
40 Field-Grade Medium Rotary Autocannon (300 kg bursts)
20 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements
20 Field-Grade Extended-Range Particle Projector Cannon
320 50mm Kinetic Missile tubes (8 kg missiles)
60 75mm Kinetic Missile tubes (11 kg missiles)

One-Hundred Seventy Loki Gunships
24 Field-Grade Heavy Gauss Rifles (240 kg rounds)
40 Field-Grade Medium Rotary Autocannon (300 kg bursts)
20 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements
40 Field-Grade Extended-Range Particle Projector Cannon
320 50mm Kinetic Missile tubes (8 kg missiles)
60 75mm Kinetic Missile tubes (11 kg missiles)

Mobile Force Totals:
180 Heavy Capital-Grade Naval Particle Projector Cannon
102 Assault Capital-Grade Naval Missile Launchers (100,000 kg missiles)
1,480 Field-Grade Heavy Gauss Rifles (240 kg rounds)
1,908 Field-Grade Extended-Range Large Lasers
8,072 Field-Grade Extended-Range Particle Projector Cannon
13,356 Field-Grade Heavy Medium Lasers
880 Field-Grade Medium Rotary Autocannon (300 kg bursts)
440 Field-Grade Large Pulse Laser emplacements
22,600 50mm Kinetic Missile tubes (8 kg missiles)
41,022 tons of kinetic kill vehicles (ONLY COUNTS ONCE)

...

bah, screw it. Lots. Metric f*cktons. I got partway through adding the Sleipnir light cap-ship killers before just deciding to drop it. Gods, I hate numberwanking.

I feel dirty now.

4) Yes. It is a priority missile target.

5) Oh, that's not addressed to me. Cool.)

IC:

Hayes sneezes. "Bloody cold."

[OOC]
Oi....you should feel dirty, you nasty numberwanker. Go wash your hands! :lol:

Aye, metric buttloads it is.

Since the both of you answered differently to question 4, I'm going to use it to my advantage. "Lack of communication on priority" :P


As pinpoints of lights coalesces into enormous missile barrages and full spread particle beams, a papable wave of terror passes over every crewer with access to a viewport. Ships positioned on the outer edges of the defensive network are [i]slammed with a wall of destruction. Vessels farthest out take the full brunt of the initial wave, suffering almost instantaneous shield collapse and hull integrity failure. Several cruisers are rendered into shapeless hulks within a matter seconds. A pair of star destroyers, maintaining a defensive perimeter patrol, are visible knocked off course by the impacts, and suffered massive damage to the main engines, causing them to drift. Great gouts of fire can be seen spouting from the star detroyers as they float idlely on the outer perimeter. Ships farther in the defensive perimeter also suffer heavy casualties. Crewmen casualties counts rise steadily on individual ships as they begin recovering from the intense barrage. A significant portion of the vessels on the <an arbitrary side of the fleet> flank were physically shifted by the massive amounts of ordinance poured on them. In the face of the intense barrage, the <same arbitrary side> flank had all but collapsed, with the remaining vessels in no real condition to do anything other than try to maintain control. Re-inforcements are quickly dispatched to relieve the crippled ships. Even deeper within the Sketchan formation, a barrage of deadly cap-killer missiles rage toward the commandship, intent on delivering their deadly payload. A withering storm of criss-crossing fire assualt the speeding projectiles. Out of several dozen missiles, only half manage to impact upon the commandship's shielding. Although none penetrated, several critical generators overloaded as a result. In order to maintain full protection integrity, several star destoryers take up postions alongside the commandship, physically blocking the un-protected areas.

===============

{now for the part everyone has been wating for.......actual damages}

2 star destroyers - incapacitated, unavailable for duty
5 star destroyers - various states of reduced readiness, temporarily unfit for combat duty
6 battlecruisers - vaporised......eg glowing hulks
8 battlecruisers - removed from duty
5 battlecruisers - various states of reduced readiness, temporarily unfit for combat duty

{These are considered to be "out of the picture"}

===============

Throughout the missile barrage, the particle beams from the Scolopian/Sunset assualt continued to play over the Sketchan fleet like a demonic hand of some evil diety. Although more prevalent than the missiles themselves, they presented less of a threat, as the ships' shieldings proved tobe more effective against energy weapons. Several ships faced steadyily lost shield power and were forced to compensate by redirecting energy from the weapons arrays, but nothing serious in the face of swathe of destruction left by the missiles. The almost forgotten Menelmacari assualt became an almost laughable attack, as a multitude of plasma volleys dissapated in stength and potencey; having had to travel several tens of thousands of kilometers to their targets. The heavy cruise missiles faring no better; extremely slow (relatively) and needing to travel the great distance, were all shot down upon approach.

===============

The nasty feedback interference projected by the enemy fleet was becoming downright annoying at best and far too effective at best. The Guardian decided to mount a new counter offensive to deal with the jamming - new battle codes were sent out, this time directing receiving vessels to only receive signals on a randomly shifting set of frequencies. The commandship would continue to transmit on all frequencies at full power, but the true transmission would be an underlying signal amplified many times by a carrier signal. The narrow frequeny range and known signal composition would allow for ships to "clean" and filter any extra noise from the received data.

==============

[OOC for IC]
Whew, that was a post and a half. I think +10% casualties are pretty good for first round engagment, if you care to contest, please state so now.

I think the fighters have just about reached each other now. I believe it was Menelmacar and Khenala who sent fighters out at me. Whenever your ready.

Anyone landing on Europa, please state the general LZ - North, South, East, West. It's a long trek to the nearest shield generator and I have many suprises waiting for you...... :twisted:

To whom it may concern: If I left you out somewhere along the line, please leave me a friendly reminder before sulking off to pout :wink: Remember, its me versus the rest of you..................what was I thinking? :P

[OOC for OOC]
Ahh high praise from Scolo: and I like the amount of thought you're putting into this
I've come a long way from that nation that once only RPed at those shady "nation auctions" eh?

Berserker: You trying to get into AFROTC? Yeah, that security clearance crap was quite the hassle.

OOC: You left these out, but I suppose it gives me a chance to describe their targets a little better.

IC:

The light from the explosions glinted off the smooth hulls of the ramships as they began their run on the fleet. They were at 200,000km out, at .5c. Two seconds. Three heartbeats. Then 100,000 tons of iridium would tear through metal and plastic and out again, spilling crews into space and sending ships spinning across the field. Perhaps they would smash into their sister ships, tearing and grinding. Or they could fall to the planet below, sowing scrap upon the surface like seeds in a field.

What of their targets? There were 32 of the ships - where would they go? They knew of course, and their enemy likely knew as well. 16 would plow through the fleet along the plane, attempting to destroy as much as possible before the engines failed to tear them free or by some chance of fate enough power to destroy their mass was unleashed on them. The other 16 were heading to the center, the place where commands were issued.

OOC: Each ramship has 100,000 tons of iridium mounted in front of heavy drives with a computer core in the center. They are a joint, exceedingly secret, project between myself, Wazzu, and Scolo. This is all of them though. That much iridium was very hard to find and very expensive.

(OOC: Well, only a few complaints, none too terribly important.

My 'heavy cruise missiles' are gravitically propelled and thus have no problem getting up to speed, unless you're talking about Menelmacar's... who also uses grav-propelled missiles. Reference response 1 in the OOC Post of D00mity.

I fired a bit more than 'a few dozen.' Over a thousand capital-grade from the assault group alone.

That's about it...)

[OOC]
Could you explain the Iridium? Are they merely ultra heavy kinetic warheads? Or something more. Not sure how to treat them. And yes, I was planning on dealing with them after the initial barrage.

The "dozens" of missiles that I mentioned, were the ones meant for the commandship alone. The rest hit the fleet. Unless you meant thousands for the commandship :?

The heavy cruise missiles were in reference to Menelmacar's, who failed to mention that fact. I will account for it later.

OOC: Menelmacar uses EM 'bottles' to maintain the strength, potency, and accuracy of its plasma bolts over long range. I can assure you we wouldn't be doing long-range support in this battle if the weapons weren't up to the task.

~Siri

OOC: I'm in AFROTC, but I don't get to active my scholarship till this year.

A little about the "things" that are being off loaded. In a rather secret project, many hardened criminals and others that could safely disappear or be cloned, were modified into a new type of warrior. Using "borrowed" technology from the likes of Angelus, the beings were genetically altered and cybernetically enhanced. (Little industrial espionage didn't hurt anyone.)
http://www.planethalflife.com/half-life2/enemies/prowler.jpg
Pretty new thing for me, first time their being used.

Each carries a melee weapon (Usually a dagger) and a silenced pistol or automatic rifle (each using caseless standard and AP ammo in a 4-1 mix, no tracers). The rifle also has a simple data jack which connects with a data port in the forearm, directly linking a sight on the gun to the users visual cortex, allowing for more accuracy, and the ability to peek around corners with ones gun.

Their strength is augmented to the equivelant of a man in light power armor. Vision is augmented with the ability to see in the IR and UV spectrums, with visible light amplification and magnification capabilities.

They are meant for stealth ops, and thusly won't be found en-mass, having huge fire fights. To make up for their relative lack of firepower, they are very agile, and stealthy. (Capable of scaling walls, ceilings, etc. and hiding in dark places. :o

They can comminucate via encoded transmissions on radio frequencies, and a line of sight laser system if they can see each other. However, they lack the sophisticated ability to function as a hive mind, so each is left sentient, with a small controller module implanted to keep them under control. They are of average intelligence (you could even strike up a conversation, if you somehow did that), but lack emotions, and memory of their past.

This does violate inumerous rights, and is therefore kept secret at many costs. Most of the Berserkian government is unaware of this project, and the few that are will obviously not admit it. If trapped, two small, high energy charges will detonate, one in the skull, the larger in the body, rendering the being a pile of CHON.

I need to head to classe so I'll end this now, any questions just telegram me. Angelus, if you have a problem with me "borrowing" some tech, just TG me, and I will modify.


The LZ's will be scattered across any southern continent, with a few in the north. 1/4 of them are tasked with discovering anything about the wereabouts of the delegates, the other 1/2 tasked with discovering and disabling shield generators, and the last 1/4 tasked with taking out general military emplacements. I will get force numbers to you sometime today, probably around one to two thousand.

(OOC: *shrug* I'll take it.)

"Ma'am, Target Four-Five changing frequencies. E-dub counter becoming ineffective."

Hayes shrugs. At least that proves that it's important to them. "FleetCom, Target Four-Five now priority target. Next missile barrage, concentrate fire. Overkill not a concern."

[code:1:fb7aea65d8]NEW DIRECTIVE<FULL STOP>

TARGET 45 PRIORITY MISSILES <STOP> LET IT HAVE IT <FULL STOP>[/code:1:fb7aea65d8]

"Ma'am, enemy damages indicate shielding optimized against energy."

"Fair enough. FleetCom, directive: Projectile weapons lower. Energy weapons exploit."

"Ack, ma'am."

[code:1:fb7aea65d8]NEW DIRECTIVE<FULL STOP>

USE KINETIC/PROJ TO DEFEAT SHIELDING <STOP> USE ENERGY WEAPONS TO EXPLOIT LOWERED SHIELDS <STOP>[/code:1:fb7aea65d8]

(OOC: And... to confirm my status as a milwanker...

http://www.weirdozone.0catch.com/wargames/btdesigns/thumbnails/tme50grendel2.jpg
My picture of a Grendel-class frigate!)

Normally I do tags by a loving description of reconnaisance drones forming a vast detector network. Interferometry, yadda yadda...



Here I note that pitiless eyes look on from the burning mountains of Io. The great colony platforms hover and the defense grid stands ready. Terrible flashes as endless sacrifices drive energies through figures carved into the tide-tortured world by lasers and atomics.



Worlds away, however, keen eyes study the Grendels. An inhuman voice speaks:





(OOC: And... to confirm my status as a milwanker...





http://www.weirdozone.0catch.com/wargames/btdesigns/thumbnails/tme50grendel2.jpg

My picture of a Grendel-class frigate!)



"Dirty little ship... you're a dirty little ship aren't you..."

OOC: Ultra-Heavy Kinetics might be a good way to put it - they are robotic ramships. Iridium is the RL densest material avaliable, plus it has one of the highest melting points of any metal. That makes it perfect for rams, as the mass will keep smaller projectiles from disturbing the course very much, and the high melting point will make cutting it into chunks or vaporizing it extremely hard.

ooc:

Now I have had two posts completely vanish, and have started several and never finished.

i swear i am fekin' cursed. i will try yet again....

[OOC: Right, corrections. The Angel has engaged the Sketchan forces battling Sunset forces, and not those engaged with Angelans. As such the post lost in the technical argument on page 7 is altered as previous.]

# The Violet Burning is near critical.
> Acknowledged. Send a pulse to the fleet to prepare, and splitmoment send
> permission to meltdown.
# Acknowledged. Probability is high that an intensified M/AM Reactor meltdown
# in such tight quarters will damage the other two embattled Excelsiors to a
# possible critical level, as well as possibly destroy the other cruisers. Shall We
# continue?
> Hold. Send heavy reinforcments. Call back all raids on non-essential targets
> and move the totality of Armada 02 to the Shipyards. When they are in place,
> go ahead.
# Acknowledged.

The heavily damaged Excelsior is rocked with several internal explosions, and barely half of her main weapons systems are even capable of firing a few weak shots in response to the heavy punishment being heaped upon her.

The other two Excelsiors begin to slowly push towards her, and the ring of reinforcements begin to tighten, attempting to draw the Sketchen heavy cruisers closer to the damaged ship.

Suddenly, bright points of miniature temporal distortions twinkle all around the battle zone, as hundreds of Angelic craft slide into realspace surrounding the Sketchen forces. They maintain an absolute distance, however, not even bothering to close the gap in the few seconds between their appearance and the critical failure on board the Excelsior.

The Violet Burning simply vanishes, and for a split second, nothing but a hotly-burning point of light exists where the proud ship once floated. And then the roaring flames of a white-hot explosion ripples outwards from the powerful matter/antimatter reactor gone critical. The escort ships surrounding the Burning are instantly compromised, their own reactors adding to the raging hellstorm that is only building in intensity.

# Destroyed: 1 Excelsior, 3 Raptors... increase to 5 Raptors... increase
# to 8 Raptors...

The rippling line of power blows outwards, finally connecting with the two other Excelsiors. Their entire frames shudder with the result, reinforced armor plating being ripped apart as if it was nothing more than centuries-old paper. And suddenly, two spheres appear almost simultaneously in the raging sheet of rapidly expanding death, white-hot points glittering like sparks in their exact center.

And for only a split second, everything almost seemed to stand still.

Then two more incredible explosions blossom outwards from those innocent-looking sparks, and once again the world returns to it's fast-paced race towards death and destruction.

# The two other Excelsiors have gone critical, and commands for meltdown
# have been given. Destruction increases to 3 Excelsiors, 14 Raptors, and the
# totality of the Angelic Fighters/battledrones.
# The First Sphere of reinforcements have begun reporting heavy shockwaves,
# but almost no debris. The initial blast front will pass over them in .87 seconds.
> Order the mobilization of Armada 02. Have them begin to move in to clean
> up the mess.
# Acknowledged.

The intense force wave from the combined critical explosions of the initial Angelic strike force ripples across the first fleet of Angelic reinforcements, and the outer Sphere begins to move in towards the rippling front.

> Report, Europan Sector.
# The fighting is not as intense as at the Shipyards, though the situation is
# complex.
> Have the Sketchen forces moved in to engage the Dream of the Archailect?
# We do not believe so.
> Excellent. Move the battlegroup forward and begin picking off ships with
> concentrated phase beam salvos from the Falchion IIs. Have the Dream
> fire secondary weapons only, hold off on firing the main phase weapons until
> needed.
# Acknowledged.

The group begins moving forward behind the TYCS and Co. ships, the Falchion IIs moving into an expanded circle formation facing the Sketchen forces. The topmost ship shudders slightly and a bright green spark appears before its forward-facing weapon arms. Suddenly, a bright lance of incandescent chartreuse burns forth from the tip, a devestating beam of modulating photon/waves flashing towards one of the Star Destroyers.

The beam exists for only three seconds, but within less than a minute's time, the bottommost ship shudders and fires. The salvo continues, alternating from top to bottom in a slow clockwise motion.

The Dream of the Archailect also begins to fire, blasting heavy ion pulses towards the Guardian.

ooc:

Ok, to make a note about the explosions in my previous thread. All of the Angelic ships are built to do that. Of course, massive safety precautions would not allow them to accidentally do this, but a complicated series of commands coming from the Mainframe alone will allow this ships to do this.

Basically, the ships are all floating bombs. Since the Angels can all transfer their entire existance back into the Mainframe, they can leave irrepairably damaged ships completely vacant. The commands are given, and the ship erupts like a tiny star.

They have a rather large store of antimatter to use for their reactors, and the MotherShips carry an immense load. In order to make sure that hostile nations cannot possibly steal Angelic technology, the ship is simply vaporized, hopefully taking out everything in an extensive area around it.

It may be considered a waste, but in this occasion, I think that the sacrifice was worth it.

Angelic Skies begins to change his tactics, deciding instead to focus on single points of essential importance. Focusing first on the civilian security systems, he begins a systematic attack, sending codebreaker after codebreaker to bash against the Sketchen defenses.

~*~

The GF swarms suddenly become inactive, silently waiting for their call to arms, large drills waiting for their final use to breach the surface.

~*~

ooc: I need a small military installation to attack with the SFA. I will post full attack stuff for it, and the nation that donated the mechahumans wants to interact a little there.

Frohimer gritted his teeth as the Angel shuddered. His senses flaring as he detected the subtle yet dangerously real signs of impacting weapons fire on his flagship. Standing, he placed a hand on the shoulder of the Navigation officer, attracting her attention.

"Report."

The small women nodded, taking a moment to call up the current activity from the sensor arrays that dotted the aft of the Angel like a cluster of miniture skyscrapers, or a twisted rendering of such.

"Minor thermal burning to dorsal hull plating, it is asthetic in its effect to shipboard functions. Plasma focusing battery C has reported extensive overheating, and in accordance with established procedure has entered shutdown. Matter Anti-matter reaction rates are now at eighty four percent capacity and will shortly reach full power. We are currently producing four thousand eight hundred terradynes of energy per second."

Frohimer nodded, turning to face his tactical officer who stood at the rear of his Command throne, on a raised platform.

"Close on the Sketchan Star Destroyers at all avalible speed. We will assist Sunset forces as per fleet commands. Target the largest craft, aiming all fire at their drive systems. If they cannot manuever they will be simple to pick off at our own leisure."

The officer nodded, keying in the commands.

Again the ship shook, however this time it was an impact too strong for the ships Inertia compressors to compensate for.

Direct hit, forward sensor dome. Hull plating is holding.


******


Teela hated the thrum.

The intense droning of the Reaction chamber as it greedily brought matter and anti-matter together resonated through hull and organic brain alike as it produced energies that defied explanation.

Whatever her mood, or anger she would often spend hours simply staring at the titanic core as it shot up over her head and down below her feet, spanning the entire ship.

When she had recieved news of her mother's death, she did not read through the mountain of condolence cards that lined her shelf.

She did not seek out the company of her fellow officers, nor brood within her chambers.

She had used the strobing effect of the Deuteriums inevitable fall into oblivion to push past the mere mortal feelings that clouded her mind.

The slow trek of the anti-matter as it pulsed into the reaction chamber helped her concentrate on the true powers and effects of the universe.

Everytime she saw the drive, she was overwhelmed by the mere statement it made everytime it produced a single joule of energy.

Here, was a construct of metal and superluminal plastexe that took two opposites of power.

Deuterium, a simple isotope of the simplest of elements. Reliable, dependable Hydrogen, as the power source for items as simple and non-threatening as transports to the evil of destructive bombs that could flatten miles of land, and tear apart the strongest structures instantly.

In the form of a super-cool slush, this Isotope would combine with its energetic, voilent and powerful cousin and counterpart.

Anti-Deuterium, or as it was most commonly, and somewhat inaccuratley reffered to, Anti-matter was the twisted and final ingrediant that would grant this complex machine a liciense to perform the impossible daily.


She broke free of her internal monologue, directing her attention back to the master operations diagram of the Angel that lined the rear of the engineering wall.


A violent shudder shook her being, losing her balance she fell to the floor, rolling as the ship listed hard to starboard. Cursing she hit the floor with a thud, wincing as her left elbow made its displeasure at the rough treatment it recieved noticable.

A loud hiss heralded the rupturing of a coolant line, its reptillian noise lending an almost organic feel to the vessel that was truly able to think for itself as any human could, but with bioelectronics and quantum processors for neurons and synapses.

Climbing to her feet, she saw that several Adepts had already began sealing the errant leak, and slowly the hissing left her audible field.

"Angel, report."

Sketchan weapons impact, aft engineering section. Moderate thermal damage and energy feedback along conduit transfer eleven fourteen, causing coolant transport system damage. System secured and repaired.

Thanking the disembodied voice for her help, Teela crossed over to the display, monitoring the dispatch of repair teams as the Angel flew further into the battlezone.

<ULFTransmission: Ganymede -> All>
Would you mind cutting down the electromagnetic static? It's giving the Node a headache.
Thank you.
<EndTransmission>

Ooo... the Europans are pre-occupied. What a perfect time to sneak in.

A nondescript launching gun was re-aligned on the surface, and a tiny projectile flung at the non-Sketchan side of Europa.

All this firepower is likely to make certain bits rather toasty....

[OOC]
Scolo: Translation to make more clear - the commandship didn't shift frequencies per say. The receiveing ships are only focusing on certain shifting frequencies. The commandship is still broadcasting full spectrum signals to anyone who cares to listen. But since you're creating feed-back, I had to make the receiving ships focus on filtering and non-such. Signals on the proper frequencies will have set identifiers to separte them from the noise you're making. Of course none of this would mean anything as far as you regnizing the importance of my commandship.

I knew my statement about energy weapons would bite me in the ass :?

Sunset: Holy Christ on a bicycle! Have you guys been designing these things just for me? I feel flattered :? Those Iridium missiles, would it alright to consider them as straight line, one time strike only? I plan to have them plow though the fleet, and impact on the planetary shields. This is for yet another critical development down the line. Ask Kaenei for details.

The Territory: you disturb me....................."Dirty little ship... you're a dirty little ship aren't you..."

Angelus: God damn, ship sacrifices are my specialty :P Am I supposed to "engage" the Dream of the Archailect? I think my hands are pretty full right now. Unfortunately, Because Angelic SKies had to be far away fom normal Sketchan patrols, your drones would be pretty far away from anything Sketch. I would suggest that you state your mainframe location to be somewhere in the Northen pole cap. Make your approach towards the "Great Divide", there will be plenty of forces for you to encounter there. And one of the shield generators will lie a short distance past the said "Great Divide." I would also like to know where your precious Omnicron Blu is running around as well. I don't recall if you said where she is yet.

Kaenei: standby on that development, I have to set you up for it first.

Menelmacar: very well then. Since my fleet was rocked by the combined attacks of the three of you at the same time, you can take the pleasure in knowing that you contributed.

Berserker: NINJA! Anyways....please ensure that they somehow land on Europa. A simultaneous deplotment with regular droop troops perhaps? As always, state location of forces.

IC post to follow.

OOC: Fine with me - only a certain number though. You pick. The rest will be sailing out for quite some time though - they have too much mass to simply orbit the planet. I would imagine a couple will sail right through Jupiter perhaps.

Yes - they were designed with Star Destroyers and other large relatively lumbering ships in mind.

IC:

The Constables, well beyond the battle sphere, activated their FTL denial systems. Mass shadows sprung up in a half-web between the war zone and the shipyard. Intelligence was sketchy on the location of the rest of the fleet, thus they were concentrated on keeping a specific lane of traffic closed. One particular ship put a shadow around the Constables - best to not leave themselves vulnerable.

<<Trans::Hayes::Ropponmatsu>>
Operation Ferret is on terminal countdown. Prepare to adjust fire to support. Please realy to combined forces.
<<End>>

The Fifteen Sclonomorf Heavy Battleships, and Fifteen Aspidoclone class SuperCarriers (OOC: heretofore "Battlegroup Omega"), that had thus far sat on the edge of the battlesphere, suddenly fire up their drives and set a direct course for the Sketchan Command Ship, ignoring all outlying forces. The thirty Scorpion class frigates, so far engaged in a similar manner (and counted amongst) the TYCS forces, refocus all fire on the command ship, capital grade missiles leaving the tubes as fast as the autoloaders can prime them. Ultraheavy naval autocannon thunder continuously, hurling 1.2 ton shells of destruction at their target. On the far end of their weapon wings, heavy naval partical cannon glow as they radiate waste heat from the bolts of death that harken forth from their accelerators.


"Ma'am, all KSPA forces report full combat effectiveness. Battlegroup Omega will be in weapons range in two minutes."

"Excellent." She looks around at the members of the bridge crew, each and every one jacked in to a cybercontrol rig of somesort or another. Hope you are all did well on your disconnect disorientation training. "Proceed as planned."

========================================
First Titan Combined Fleet

"Sky Marshal Bluesummers, transmission from Command Agent Ropponmatsu. They are proceeding with Operation Ferret!"

Bluesummers turns, ever calm, and acknowledges the communications technician. In a low, even voice, he addresses his tactical staff.

"Adjust fire, focus pattern Ferret-Nine, at target Sierra-45. All weapons, all batteries. Their blood shall forever wander the galaxy this day forth."

As the shocked Sketchan fleet ships recover form the intense assualt, 32 contacts are made, bearing down at incredible speeds. These massive contacts, so large that one could see them with with only a minimum amount of optical enhancement, were clearly designed for one purpose in mind - to destroy large ships.............specifically Sketchan ships. As realization dawned on the fleet commanders, there was a desparate scramble to maneuver out of the projected approach vectors. Several of the disabled ships (from earlier) were ordered to maneuver into positions directly in the path of the incoming projectiles.{impact in next post}

====================

As if the incoming "death torps" (my dub, you like?) weren't enough, the incoming Angelan fire added to the chaos. A lone star destroyer began issuing out emergency calls for assistance, as the Angelans single it out for special attention. All the while, an immense vessel; previously inactive up until now, began firing directly into the Sketchan fleet, clearly aiming for the commandship [i]Guardian.

===================

{damn, almost fogot about Kaenei's engagement.....assuming your relatively close in/within the main body of my fleet.}

The Kaeneian fleet, after dropping the main body of their troops, began to close in on the Sketchan fleet. As ships moved in for close combat, heavy cannons fire on both sides, dealing each other hammer blows.

===================

{Back at the shipyards}

The trio of excelsiors explode in a mammoth explosion. The globe of star destroyers, which were previously vigorously firing on the excelsiors, had begun to move away to avoid the inevitable sharpnel from a ship entering its death throes. What they didn't expect, was an explosion of this size. The resulting shockwave expanded rapidly from the center and impacted upon the surrounding star destroyers. Within brief moments, ships nearest the epicenter were completely engulfed in the raging inferno. Ships are tossed aside like so many leaves blowing in the wind. As vessels veer off course, they collide with other ships, causing even more mayhem and destruction. Only the ships on the outside of the globe of ships managed to escape the wave of death.

{casualties}
out of 56 star destroyers - 8 vaporised/glowing hulks, 15 collisions; resulting in 6 being destroyed and 4 rendered unavailable for combat, 7 stripped of shielding with major hull damage and critical systems loss, and 15 suffering from partial sensor loss and reduced shields. Translation - 25 star destroyers lost, 15 more sitting ducks.

out of 26 battlecruisers - 9 vaporised/glowing hulks (they had moved in closer), 8 rendered unfit for duty, 5 in various states of heavy damage.

{Assume some additional battlecruisers lost to the Raptor engagments, 12; some interdictors lost along the way, 3}

=====================

Shocked by the display of raw energy being releashed at the center of his star destroyers, Admiral Kalinin was rendered unable to speak for an eternity between heartbeats. Finally regaining his composure, Kalinin orders the Avatar and her escort vessels to move full speed toward the scattered remanants of his assualt fleet. Put a call out to the amassed fleet at <insert random coordinates>, they are to jump to the set coordinates now <see few posts prior regarding reinforcements>. They are to occupy the Angelans during the recovery procedure.

{current fleet force}
1 commandship - Avatar
62 star destroyers
137 battlecruisers
15 interdictors

{incoming fleet force............wouldn't you like to know?}

[OOC]
let me know if I forgot anyone.

[OOC]Menelmacar: very well then. Since my fleet was rocked by the combined attacks of the three of you at the same time, you can take the pleasure in knowing that you contributed.
OOC: Some RP of the damage would have been nice, but that'll do. IC post re: the fighter battle is pending. Any decision on megalith yet?

~Siri

In the cold darkness of the Angelic ships, they waited in silence. Beneath their cold exteriors however, raged a bloodlust. A need for action.

How many of their number had perished in the attack? How many had lost all to the treacherous actions of their once friend? Theirs was a heritage born of strife, conflict, and war. Recent years had changed the latter, but there was no denying it was in their blood.

Regardless of the changes. Regardless of whether or not they could still truly lay claim to that past.

Bartoli looked around at his comrades through eyes that were not his own. Eyes that now glowed eerily, like those of the rest. Each differed little, one from another, aside from the more obvious physical traits that remained from their transformations. So unlike their past life, and yet, fitting. One in mind, body, and purpose.

The power that came with this strange new form was more than worth the price. Each had thought so when they volunteered. Most still believed it to be so. Those who lacked the resolve to continue had been few. They had been swiftly eliminated.

Bodies had been shaped and molded into the killing machines they had chosen to become. Weapons had been added. Bones and muscles completely replaced. Skin hardened. Training implemented.

Indeed, they were one. And as one, they hungered for the fight.

Tied closely to one another, and the Mainframe, their thoughts were as loud right now in his head as he was certain his own were in theirs. Each echoed the same, variations on a theme.

Revenge ... revenge ... revenge ...

Bartoli breaks the silence, flexing his augmented muscles and nodding as the call comes through.

"We are ready."

http://home.mchsi.com/~ketri/wsb/links/borg.jpg

ooc:

Armada 02 (At/Around shipyards now)
Motherships: (69) Excelsiors, and (81) Fallen
Cruisers/Gunships: (71) Alliances, (189) Falchions, (382) Raptors, (171) Revnants, and (249) Gallants

That is sans those destroyed by Sketchen forces, those focused elsewhere, and the triadExplosion.

The phasecannon fire will not damage the hull of your Star Destroyer, but is doing all sorts of lovely shit to the people inside. Also, though you do not have to engage the Dream, she is still firing at you.

Angelic Skies is at the Europan core. I have stated this several times now, so he's not moving around on ya. All Europa is is a big ball of ice, even after the terraforming. So, tunnelling through ice and some rock is not exactly the hardest thing in the world to do, even if it is permafrost.

So, the GF armies are just digging upwards towards your cities.

ic:

# Sketchen forces have taken moderate damage. The remnants of
# Armada 02 are moving in for control.
> Excellent. Split the forces in half, leaving the outer group to patrol the paremeter.
> We do not want a single Sketchen vessal to escape.
# Acknowledged. Armada split initiated. Contact with Sketchen forces in 192.87
# seconds.
> Priority: Seek and Destroy on the Sketchen command vessel. Secondary
> targets are the other Star Destroyers.
# Acknowledged. Scans initiated...

The massive Angelic starships begin their attack run from ten cardinal directions, moving in a loose formation centering around the awesome firepower of the MotherShips.

As they draw closer to the Sketchen vessels, clouds of fighters begin exiting their holds, along with the deadly swarms of the much-smaller battledrones.

> Initial attack: Digger Torpedoes, full salvo. Do not aim for any particular
> vessel, simply aim at one and fire.
# Acknowledged. Firing distance.........Attained. Beginning firing sequence

Once again, the Angelic swarms part for the sleek torpedoes. Tens of thousands of the little things are released in a massive salvo, launchlight sparkling among the Angelic fleet like a million twinkling candles.

~*~

The Dream of the Archailect continues her distant pounding of the Guardian. Salvo after salvo of firey death lances forth from the Angelic flagship towards her Sketchen counterpart, the sleek fighters from the Dream's hold sparkling in the emptiness about her.

The escorting Falchion IIs continue their cyclical firing, completing a full revolution before switching targets and continuing hurling their deadly blasts at the unprotected ships.

ooc: Yes, that is what I said. I posted a full research thing on this, the combined might of Angelus and Menelmacar working together to create an awesome new weapon. Only 20 Falchion IIs exist, ten to both of us, and the Dream has two Phase Cannons.

So, only 22 Phase Cannons exist in all of space. Research Thread (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1687818)

Also, one of Omicron Blu's avatars is with Strike Force Alpha with those lovely mechahumans so wonderfully donated by the ever-beautiful Dread Lady.

They are zooming all over the place wreaking havoc, and I need a place to set them down to start attacking. Otherwise, I have a great location for them once the ground invasion begins.

<long, angry rant removed>

OOC:Well, here is the deal. Common strategy since World War One states that control of the sky must be obtained before a successful ground campaign can be executed. Why would we throw troops at an invasion, just to allow them to be picked off from aerospace assets? Once we can assure aerospace superiority, a ground invasion will naturally follow. Moving on, frankly, in a fleet engagement of this scope, there is no advantage to the defender. As outnumbered as you are, and with the pummeling going on, any defensive advantage is most likely negated. Regarding line of site, seeing as we already have missiles that can negotiate obstacles, don't you think that at this tech level, missiles would be able to navigate a formation? I do. With direct fire weapons, who cares? The fire gets through from the infinite number of angles possible, or it hits other ships, but still does damage. With the amassed fire, target hits would still be quite significant. Regarding your counter, yes, it was a good idea, but think about the volumes involved. You are randomly throwing objects into a sphere of possible impact that is literally millions, most likely billions if not trillions of cubic meters, in volume. Simple probablitiy states that it is much more likely for the ships to /not/ be hit.

I think the real thing here is that you have not been patient enough to get to the ground war that you want. It will happen, once RP dictates that it is time for it. With this many aerospace assets in the area, most groundforces would have trouble making planetfall, much less making it to battle.

Just my thoughts, take em as you will.

Generally, an eight-on-one smackdown results in the one being walked all over.

Generally, I might be inclined to make more than two IC posts if my entire opening assault wasn't literally laughed off.

Generally, you don't drop troops onto a planet while there are still enemy capships in orbit. So I don't understand why you expect us to.

~Siri

IC: The Dominion of Praetor hereby sends 200 Cruisers, along with 300 Transports to aid the Dominion of Sketch, and calls upon others to answer the call to stand up to the opression of the the ToY. The fleet, under Admiral Beatty is herebly placed under Sketch command for the time being. The Dominion of Praetor is prepared to offer economic, technological, and military assistance to all nations who significantly contribute to the defence of Sketch.
OOC: I am on vacation, and am currently in Tasmania, as I can't get to the computer much, hence my late assistance to Sketch, I cannot actively RP, so I am merely going to place my forces udner Sketch's command, so that I can assist him. When I return from break I'll actively take command of my assistance to him. Please don't respond to me directly, as I don't know when I can check this again and your post will just go unanswered.

(OOC: Holy Jeebus H. Hyskos. And people wonder why I do my damndest to stay out of wars. Lessee... yeah, every single war I see between major powers ends like this.

Screw it. If no one's having fun, then there's no point wasting our limited times.

--Hearty Aerospace Pirate Cap'n Scolo)

IC: The Dominion of Praetor hereby sends 200 Cruisers, along with 300 Transports to aid the Dominion of Sketch, and calls upon others to answer the call to stand up to the opression of the the ToY. The fleet, under Admiral Beatty is herebly placed under Sketch command for the time being. The Dominion of Praetor is prepared to offer economic, technological, and military assistance to all nations who significantly contribute to the defence of Sketch.
OOC: I am on vacation, and am currently in Tasmania, as I can't get to the computer much, hence my late assistance to Sketch, I cannot actively RP, so I am merely going to place my forces udner Sketch's command, so that I can assist him. When I return from break I'll actively take command of my assistance to him. Please don't respond to me directly, as I don't know when I can check this again and your post will just go unanswered.Oppression...you do realize Sketch was the one that attacked us first?

OOC: Sorry Sketch, we will get to the ground invasion, when we're ready. Thing is, like we've been taught, aerospace superiority is very, very important.

General doctrine being that we gain aerospace superiority in order to properly support our limited ground forces. Whatever aerospace assets you could use to possibly hinder our ground forces, will be actively sought out and neutralized, in order to allow us a more effective invasion. And our intent goal (not speaking for Angelus here), is to effectively hinder your war making capabilities, not wholesale slaughter or civilians, but we basically want to make it so you can't try another WorldDisc attack. Seeing as this does include space assets, it only natural that the fleets would be engaged.

Oh yeah, and we can't invade yet. There's a wanking :wink: (the good kind, not the bad kind) big ole shield around Europa. It's hard to capdrop people with a shield in the way. Check TG by the way.

As usual, whats OOC stays OOC.

IC: (Retracting having them land, I hadn't known about the planetary shield)

The Lokis continued drifting lazily, sensor arrays extended towards Europa, looking for a clue on how to get in. Intelligence had shown a large planetary shield covered the moon, and sure enough, there it stood, almost mocking them as it denied access. Sensors kept raking space, looking for gaps or keys to allow them in.

OOC yet again: Since I doubt you'd risk lowering the entire shield to allow traffic on and of Europa, there might be small (but exploitable) gaps for traffic, or as it sounds, the shields must be modular, which might cause coverage gaps. Or maybe I just need an access code to get one station to power down. Either way, they are looking for a way to get some 30,000 ton vessels throught the sheild, what do they see (or hear, detect, etc.)?

ooc:

As a note, all of the Angelic first assault was annihilated, as well as several of the first batch of Angelic reinforcement raptors were knocked away by Sketchen resistance.

I will admit, I made a faulty post in attributing most of the raptor losses to the sacrifice, and I apologize. If you would like, I will go fix that.

When compared to the fact that Angelus wants to annihilate all of the Sketchen space assets, 30% is moderate.

As for the SFA, I stopped attacking with them, 'cause there is no longer any suitable targets. I would assume that Sketch would have some sort of sensor array setup throughout Europa, otherwise anything approaching Europa from the other side would be approaching through a blind spot in Sketchen defense.

However, I have several ideas concerning where they will attack to either help Bers out in getting his spies to the surface, or taking out a section of the planetary shielding once the ground invasion starts.

Concerning the Dream attacking your command ship. The Dream of the Archailect is the most advanced ship ever created by Angelus. Yes, there are a lot of ships cluttering the area, but I think that there are quite enough openings to allow for precision shots against the Guardian. I would assume it is difficult, which is why the other ships in the Dream battlegroup are not firing at all.

The Falchion IIs are firing at specific SDs when the target presents itself, not firing blanket salvos that could damage Trium ships.

Lastly, with the collectivist aspect of Angelus, each pilot knows when and where the other pilots are going to attack. So, they formulate their movements to not only not be in the way of their own peeps attacks, but would also move to concentrate their fire on places that would make the combined attack more effective.

So, all in all, everyone in this little party knew that any sort of space battle would be decidedly one-sided. The Triumvirate has always been the superiority in space combat, and that is what they are the best at. We knew that a ground assault would suck, but we also knew that a space assault would be much less difficult.

my .02$

Our ground forces will most likely be outnumbered, as they are rigourusly trained, with a high drop out rate, coupled with the fact that equiping large forces with power armor is down right expensive. Most likely, Sketchian ground forces will outnumber Trium ground forces, along with having emplacement, and familiarity advantages. Thats why aerospace superiority is important, because if we have it, we can focus our vast aerospace resources and supporting the groundpounders. The fight is lopsided now, but it will all balance out on the ground.

So with all that said, I hope you understand where we're coming from, and that we're not trying to screw you out of the invasion you had desired. We're just using the tactics we think right to prep for the invasion.

Game on?

As for Praetor, I'd like to know why he/she is getting involved, as per Sketch's comment at the start of the thread:
[OOC]Only IC comments, and keep them to a minimum if your not directly involved. Ie. If your not in the Trium or your not allied to me, then you're not directly involved. OOC comments can be TGed to me. If you wish to become involved, TG me or a Trium member.

Not complaining, but I would like to keep random people from jumping in because they feel like a good ole' war. (We've all seen what that ends up causing)

<rant removed>

OOC: Noting that an entire hemisphere is uncovered...

IC: The Lokis note the entire uncovered hemipshere, and for the first time, break the silence. Engines flare, and the Lokis make their way to the unprotected hemisphere, looking for rough terrain near the shield in which to set down. After finding a suitable site, the Lokis point their decrepid beaks towards the surface, punching through the atmostphere as quickly as possible. Thier goal, to make for the deck, and minimize time in the easily detectable reentry.

OOC: You know, this doesn't have to end like this. I don't know if you want suggestions, so I won't, but the majority of us have enough respect for you that we would accept alternate solutions other than a decimating war. Just my thoughts.

IC:
The battle continued in space, but with the Sketchian fleet outnumbered and surrounded the battle on the surface could begin. Admiral Eddings saw this, as well as the Berzerker forces landing outside the shield. 'If we can drop the shield, he would have to copitulate or risky his population needlessly. Viscious, yes, but we cannot allow him to chew us up piecemeal on the ground either.'

"Open a channel to Hayes." "Done." "Sky Marshall, I would suggest we support the Berzerker and Kaenian landings as much as possible."

Eddings typed out orders while waiting for a responce. Cruisers pulled out of the orbitting circle of doom and went to warp. They arrived back at the fleet within minutes and dropped off their assault shuttles and fighters before rejoining the fray. He ordered the carriers to launch their shuttles as well, until a cloud of them had formed behind the carrier group.

"I'm sending half of the fighters to support the assault shuttles," Eddings informed the leader of the shuttle squadrons. "When you get there, Major Dean and the '0' will arrive as well. Be careful to stay well coordinated and on top of things - Sketch will outnumber you on the ground, but you need to knock out a corridor of generators into the capital. Then we can support you with heavy air attacks."

"Understood."

The shuttles accelerated away, followed by the fighters they had been assigned.

OOC: I don't have a massive ground army - what ground troops I do have are exceeding nasty, all power armor troopers with advanced systems. The shuttles will act as air-mobile infantry, and the fighters will cover the shuttles. Bring on the AT-AT's!

{regarding the Iridium missiles}
{the 16 general ones}
The time of rekoning has arrived, the massive cone-shaped projectiles come lancing towards the Sketchan fleet. Visible by the naked eye as they sped onwards into the heart of the Sketchan positions, these massive projectiles brought fear to the stalwart hearts of the Sketchan warriors. Heartbeats stretch into eternity as the first fingers of death connect with a ship. With a strange beauty, a blossom of fire expands outwards from a star destroyer, as it is pierced in its flank by the lance. Suddenly the time dilation stops, and the ship is crudely torn in half by the sheer forces as the projectile exits, leaving a trail of hull fragments and dead crewer bodies. The torpedo of death continues along its path, barely deflected by the ship it had just obliterated.

All across the Sketchan fleet, ships are pierced these gigantic needles. Some would be struck with glancing blows, merely losing a few decks, while others, like the unfortunate star destroyer, would be shreaded like so much paper.

The missiles, traveling at such high speeds, would continue to fly true to their course even after their work was done. Others, after passing through several ships, were deflected enough by the sheer mass and/or shields that their path carried them straight towards Europa and the shield that protects it.

{16 designated for target #45}
More than a dozen of the death torpedoes, with a specific target in mind - the commandship [i]Guardian, completely bypass the main body of the fleet. A handful, traveling on preprogramed path, mowed over various ships that happened to be unfortunate enough to have blunder been in the way. Half a dozen star destroyers, already there from the previous assualt, fired full broadsides at the missiles in a vin attempt to knock them off course. The missiles, being so massive, weren't even effected then least bit as they crossed the final few hundred kilometers to connect with their target. The star destroyers, already in position to shield the commandship, die in a spectacluar sacrifice. Four of the mighty warships all but vaporise as they take on the full force of several missiles at once. Not impressed by the destruction they had wrought, the missiles continue on to the Guardian, now completely exposed. within less than a blink of an eye, violent impacts are registered all over the commandship, as the missiles make contact. Throughout the 12 km length of the mighty commandship, a series of perferations can be seen. Great gaping holes appeared in the hull, some which travel clean through to the other side. The ship itself, having been hit so hard, can be seen visible "listing" to one side, having been knocked out of its geosync orbit. Raging gouts of flame erupt from sections of the ship as energy conduits rupture all over.

An erie silence falls over the battlefield, as the constant electronic "noise" transmitted by the commandship and other ships abruptly stop. The flickering optical communications arrays die down as the number of ships to communicate with become fewer and fewer.

The missiles, having completed their task, continue to fly on. Like the ones meant for the main fleet, several had been forced off course by the sheer amount of mass in the way. As such, they now headed towards the moon. A handful of missiles, still retaining almost all of theri original kenitic energy, strike the planetary shields. Some, coming in at low angles, splash off the shields- creating a spectacular energy ripple across the shields. Others, going almost straight in, transfer their entire energies into a section of shielding, creating a feedback overload. As a result, the sub-generators responsible for that section of shielding suffer a critical overload and prematurely shutdown {here's your opening Kaenei}.

{damges}

{assuming each missile took care of an average of 4 ships}
21 star destroyers destroyed
43 battlecuisers destroyer
commandship terminally incapacitated

==========================

{meanwhile, on the Angelan flank}

As the Angelan Falchion II's fire in unison upon individual star destroyers, very little noticeble damage can be seen. However, as the barrages continue, the targeted ships would fall oddly silent, failing to return fire or even send out signals. The optical communications arrays cease their wave linke blinking, plunging the vessels into darkness. One by one, star destroyers and cruisers begin sucumbing to this new mysterious weapon.

{Ships thus far subdued}
7 star destroyers

=========================

{ships left over Europa}
25 star destroyers
70 battlecruisers

=========================

Some distance away from the raging battle over Sketch Prime, a small group of Berserker ships search for a place to land. Upon finding one, they abruptly angle down and race towards the surface. The area, having already been devastated by earlier Angelan attacks, was entirely devoid of senors. Minor blips could have been seen as the ships passed through the upper atmosphere, but would quickly be forgotten as more important issues were at hand. {ie. the ass stomping upstairs}

=========================

Back at the shipyards, a desparate attempt at break through is made. The entire Seraphim fleet {or whatever's left of it} thrusts straight towards the jump coordinates {mentioned earlier, not outbound jump, in bound reinforcements}.

With the sudden flash of ships being prematurely yanked out of hyperspace, 3 battlegroups materialize around the Fallen vessel generating the offending gravity well. With grim determination and purpose, the battlegroups begin closing on the Fallen, with the clear intent on colliding with it, all the while firing full salvos from their heavy guns.

Seeing the reinforcements on the viewscreen, Admiral Kalinin commands the fleet to prepare for break out maneuvers. The enitre fleet sprints at full thrust to overwhelm the lone Fallen and escape.

{Not sure if there's anything in the way. But am fairly certain that the Fallen would be relatively near. Assuming a Jupiter sized gravwell, ETA would not be very long.}

======================

{Ships left at the shipyards, including reinforcements}
1 command ship - Avatar
86 star destroyers
199 battlecruisers
15 interdictors

{this is all thats left, no more ships coming out of ass space for me}

======================

[OOC]
Just in case Kaenei didn't notice it. It is time for that development.

With so much of the fleet suddenly destroyed, the fighter craft deployed seemingly ages ago no longer had a purpose. There were barely any more ships left to defend, and the enemy, seemingly content on bombarding the fleet from afar, had sent very little in the way of fighter attacks. First a few, and then soon by the wings, the fighter craft began breaking off from engagments. The surviving craft from the dfevastating attacks on the main fleet made a beeline to the gaping hole in the planetary shields. There they would find refuge from the hell that was the battlefield. As fighters streamed towards the compromised shield section like ants into the ground, the remainder of the tattered fleet moved to cover them. Along the way, bits and pices of shreaded sections were tractored in to provide as static defenses against further assualts. Series of space mines were jettisoned into the drifting debris to make approach difficult. Meanwhile, the all but destroyed commandship could be seen ejecting pod after pod of escaping crewmen. The ship was doomed, there was no longer a point in remaining onboard. With three out of five of its reactors at the edge of reaching supercritical, the ship was a bomb just waiting to be triggered. The benign looking hulk continues to drift through space.

On the ground, vaious commands frantically asses the situation. With the vast amounts of space debris cluttering the sky, and the interferance from the shield itself, it was difficult to tell what was going on. All that they could decipher was that the battle did not appear to be going well. The prognostics grew increasingly dim as the various fighters came in to land. Debriefing became a marathon of bad news, as pilots told of the horros they have witnessed. Checking on the status of the shields did little to reassure the high command. with a sub section completely blown out, the integrity of the entire system had become compromised. Even though the section of sky was not over any vital portion of Europa, it still permitted forces to land dangerously close to Sketch Prime. As a result, high command redeploys the 3rd army to cover the exposed section. An estimate given by the shield techs stats that the shield section will be up within an hour, but only at 50% strength.

Darkness descends upon the once proud and mighty [i]Guardian fleet. The technological black magik continues to spew forth from the mysterious Falchion IIs. With their numbers dwindling rapidly, the fleet huddles in silent fear.

Teela cursed as the Angel rocked, a brooding rumble rattling through deck plates and conduits as the plating mounted on the hull struggled to dissapate the massive energies being thrown by the Sketchen fleet.

Her nimble fingers flew over the master systems control, her mind totally focused as she struggled to keep the hull plating polarised whilst monitoring damage.

Another impact sent Teela to the floor, her forehead impacting on the display unit, sending her vision into darkness.


Watching as the Engineer Adept was viciously sent into unconciousness, Assistant Lerehem rushed from his post, the power transfer system forgotten as he dropped to the floor.

"Master adept, can you hear me? are you damaged severely?"


No sooner could the young Keanian recieve a reply than a fountain of sparks erupted from a console mounted on the wall unit. Detonating in a flurry of pyrotechnics, shards of razor sharp plexiglass flew through the air, expelled by the detonation of the power conduit behind the unit.

The hull plating protecting aft engineering section starboard is failing. I am bringing the ship round to mark four seven eight, continuing firing.

Lerhemen nodded his dumb compliance as he scooped up the prone Teela in his arms, his face wept with crimson as the shards of the exploded unit lacerated his face painfully.

But he ignored the injuries as he made for the medical bay, all the time impacts jarring the massive ship painfully.


******

Frohimer frowned with rage as another hellacious volley struck the Angel painfully. Straightening his already stiff back he turned his attentions to other matters.

"Report!"

"Hull plating is holding, however significant thermal damage is reducing combat protection." Began the tactical officer, "We are recieving reports of power conduit overloads in engineering. Master Adept Teela has been injured."

Nodding, Frohimer formulated his reply.

"Evasive patten Keanai four." He ordered futily, knowing a craft the size of the Angel could manuever only slowly.


The Angel turned as sharply as she could resonably manage, her plasma cannons continuing to send arcing flares of pink and yellow towards the Sketchan vessels. Dancing with a seductive charm that belied their intense destructive potential they flew amongst the enemy vessels, wrapping about like silken strands. Accompanying this intense flurescent display, lumbering bombardment torpedoes flew from their launch tubes, intent on tearing apart the hulls and crew of those that stood against them.

********


Teela stumbled back into engineering, a thick white bandage wrapped irritatingly around her head, and partly obscuring her face. Slowly but surely making it back to her console, she took stock of the situation.

Before she was able to call up a systems display, her eyes widened as she saw a fluctuation in the Polaron grid.

"Angel, reroute Polaron field emitter fourteen alpha, using emitter epsilon nine."

I am unable to comply, my sensors indicate power transfer conduits sorrounding epsilon nine have overloaded.

Teela swore audibly, attracting a few startled glances from her tech adepts.

Lehermen, get up to emitter epsilon nine, we need it repaired quickly or we'll lose the polaron reinforcment of the hull plating."

The headstrong, young adept who had despite his own injuries carried his superior four decks to the medical bay for treatment nodded, grabbing a small toolkit, and disappeared.

*********

Direct hit, deck forty one, section eleven. Artificial gravity in that section is fluctuating.

Frohimer growled, this time his rage was building. Despite the technical superiority of the Angel, her size was quickly becoming a problem. Like a Kholari Beast, it was slowly being stung by a swarm of Jupi wasps.

Sketchan torpedoes detected Captain."

"Ordanance defence, fire torpedo tubes four and five."

The tactical officer nodded,before keying in the commands.

"Tube four firing.....tube five has failed." he reported, frustration evident.

One Sketchen torpedo has broken through our perimeter defence, it is now too close to the hull to be targeted by ship based weaponry. We do not have sufficient time to alter course to avoid the impact.

"Estimated point of impact?" Frohimer asked.


Point unknown, stastical analysis has been interrupted by damage to auxillary command processors.

Sighing, the Captain nodded.

"Continue firing."



******


Lehermen wiped his brow for the sixth time as he slowly shuffled on his stomach through the narrow service corridor. Stopping only long enough to count the impacts against the outer hull he extended a trembling hand towards the interlock control.

A hiss of gas heralded the opening of the interlock, and the young adept stared down a seemingly endless tube.

Continuing to shuffle, he nervously kept the fact he was but a metre or so from the cold depth of space readily in his mind.

Finally reaching the junction, he rolled on to his back. Pulling the hatch cover from the ceilling, he coughed as a puff of smoke entered his lungs.

The damaged interface of Polaron emitter Epsilon nine fizzled above him, angrily pointing out its malfunction.

Lehemen extened his arms, pushing a tool towards the unit.



He froze as a terrible sheering sound punctured his heart, freezing his limbs. The grinding wrenching of metal torn from metal flooded his being.

Seconds later, his eyes widened as the roof above him seemed to retreat into a flash of intense white, blinding him within milliseconds.

Screaming in pain, his tool forgotten, he covered his useless eyes with his hands, suddenly becoming aware of an intense heat bearing down on him.

Tech adept Lehemen Krons cried out as his exposed skin boiled off, his jarred agony-filled cries being overtaken as th entire service corridor promptly vapourised in a massive multi-blossomed explosion.



The Sketchen missile as impacted, deck four section nine. The hull is depolarizing.

Frohimer leapt to his feet, his fists clenching.

"Cause?"

The destructin of several key power conduits have prevented the re-routing of damaged emitter cells. The impact of the Sketchen ordanance has caused a system wide failure. Without full power transfer, Epsilon nine cannot be bypassed, and the system cannot be reinitialised.The hull is unprotected.

"Evecuate all personnel from outlying sections. Divert all power from the remaining Polaron emitters to the structual integrity generators. Increase matter, anti-matter reactin to full power. Signal our escorts to provide intensified covering fire. Get that polaron grid re-established!"

*******


The evidence of the grid failiure was evident. Where previously weapons impacted the hull, only to be dispersed in a flash of violet, leaving only a light thermal burn to even hint of the possibility of its lethal touch, now they viciously slammed into the hull plating itself. With every succesfull shot the plating grew backer, its form becoming twisted and dented. Soon great depressions in the smooth metallic skin formed.

Throughout the ship itself, the sound of horrific screeching echoed.

The Angel cried, as a thousand crude "clubs" smashed against her divine skin, threatening to expose the fragile "bone" beneath.

OOC:

A comment from the peanut gallery, here, I know, but, eh.

Whilst I can see that the ToY guys all see the space engagements as the equivelant of a hardcore bitchslap (That they sure as Hell aren't on the receiving end of.), I reckon you should be being a tad more liberal with your losses, above Europa, at any rate.

I mean, hypersonic kinetic missiles (Which you have to assume Sketch hasn't stopped firing, whether his fleet's been mostly nuked now or not.) travelling in vacuum don't just tear through ships & leave ickle holes in them, they frickin' detonate. With the force of a low yield nuclear device, I think. It's in the kiloton range, certainly. & when we talk about it being really unlikely that a missile's going to be glanced away because a hull is disc-shaped, we're talking you're more likely to have your ship taken out be a stray comet, not it only happens with one in every five.

Anyway, bleh. Too early for my entrance, if one is forthcoming.

By the way, is it just me, or does it seem as though a magnetic container with strength enough to keep a big 'ole glob of plasma from dissasociating or losing any of its potency over thirty thousand kilometres isn't likely to actually "break" upon hitting its target ship's hull?

It was a sudden lull in the fighting - the Sketchian fleet tightened up and the wings of cruisers stopped their attacks and regrouped around the carriers. What would come next?

The Templar's were already busy - they raced out to disabled cruisers and dropped their mooring struts around them. Impulse drives blazing they hauled them back to friendly territory, and left for the next casualty. Ships that had depleted their ordinance made use of the massive Quartermaster's, docking and recieving fresh loads of torpedos through the automated loaders.

Captains assessed damages and casualties as engineers hustled to stablize systems. They had lost more ships, despite the change in tactics. Another 8 were gone, cores breached or manuvering lost at a critical point. 2 had hurled into the depths of Jupiter - their advanced hulls crushed by the titanic forces of gravity. Other ships were 'merely' disabled, with a loss of weapon control or another critical system.

The recovery efforts did not extend to their own. Scolopian and Sketchian ships, escape pods and flotsam were tractored by outbound cruisers that could not continue the fight. Once beyond the battle they dropped their shields and began transporting survivors aboard. Cargo bays filled with crew, and medical personnel fanned out amoung them treating the wounded as carefully and compassionately as they would treat their own.

Above the Berzerker Forces...

A single SBG dropped out of warp and discharged assault shuttles and fighters. Below the '0' appeared on the surface in a wash of energy. Crisis and Stealth Battlesuits fanned out as the assault shuttles and fighters dispatched by Eddings arrived. Along with the '0' came 12 unique soldiers. Experimental might be a better word. Full conversion cyborgs - the first ever fielded. Depending on how they performed their use would be widened or removed entirely in favor of the battlesuits.

What is this "0" you keep refering to Sunset? Is it the name of your attack force? And these "experimental cyborgs", do you have a specific mission in mind for them? Considering that there's not enough of them for me to "focus" on. And I can't believe this fell to the third page. Actually, I can.

ooc: Yay, fun.

ic:

# The Kaenian Bajai-Class has taken extreme damage. Consensus:
# communicate with the Angel to acertain whether or not it can be saved.
> Agreed. Open lines of communication, and take appropriate action.
# Acknowledged.


[Communication{A12}] What is the status of your vessel?

[Communication{Mainframe}] The ship has been badly hit. The destruction of several key power conduits have prevented the re-routing of damaged emitter cells. The impact of the Sketchen ordanance has caused a system wide failure. Without full power transfer, Epsilon nine cannot be bypassed, and the system cannot be reinitialised. The hull is unprotected.

[Communication{A12}] Acknowledged. Consensus?

[Communication{Mainframe}] The Angel is dying. I forsee no possible alternative.

The Mainframe is suddenly filled with chaos. Millions of construct/minds all throughout space pause for the barest fraction of a second, and the sheer agony of the Angels spreads throughout all of those connected to the Mainframe.

[Communication{A12}] We concur. While this is vastly unfortunate, We must agree on the correct action.

[Communication{Mainframe}] Those escape pods still active will be used for those that are not of the Church. Give me five minutes.

[Communication{A12}] We shall try. In the meantime, We shall speak to those-who-follow.

[Communication{Mainframe}] Acknowledged. Mainframe, I wish to stay on the Angel.

[Communication{A12}] I/We understand.

All throughout the Angel, the Mainframe's soothing voice cuts through the chaos.

I/We have heard of your plight. I/We have heard your prayers, and I/We will answer them... The beauty of the Angel must fade, but the power and beauty of they that pilot her must never be lost. Focus on Our/My voices, all ye that seek succor. Deliver unto Me/Us your spirits, and rest in the arms of Angelus.

Though your material forms will be lost, all who wish it shall be reborn. Your lives, given so faithfully in the service of Me/Us, shall not be wasted, but shall instead join the spirits of those of you that have gone before. In Heaven shall ye reside, for all Eternity.

Throughout the Kaenian vessel, people began to focus on the voice of their Goddess. Person after person simply relax where they are, their spirits travelling the quantum bands back to join the Mainframe. Angelus has taken them home.

Those that did not have the Angelic Augments were herded into the escape pods, but not nearly enough of them were still functional...

Omicron Blu looked across the group of vessels that made up the SFA. Tears stung her eyes as the loss of the Angel blossoms freshly in her mind. A steel hand grips her heart, as yet more Kaenian and Angelic lives are lost to the Devourer.

Not after this.

She swears through clenched teeth. She connects fully with her ship, and contacts the rest of the SFA.

[Communication{SFA}] Our target has revealed itself. A huge hole has been torn in the planetary shielding. Let's go make sure that hole stays open.

The SFA begins to move, jumping up to skip along the atmosphere, they hurtle towards the hole, piercing through like avenging angels. Below them, the Sunset group has already begun preperations, and the SFA lands near them, the hideous GFs and GFEs pouring out of the hatches to secure the ground around them. The just as ominous mechahumans slowly descend the ramps, working in concert to get their 'jeeps and equipment out of the carriers.

[Communication{Sunset Group}] I am Omicron Blu, Speaker of the Dominion of Angelus. This is Strike Force Alpha, the first of the Angelic presence on Europa.

We have come to help out... Let's keep that hole open long enough for the boys upstairs to do some real damage, shall we?

~*~

Deep below the surface, Angelic Skies recieves the confirmation it so craves. Several klicks above, the GFs become active once again, their powerful drills cutting through the ice and rock like lasers through paper.

The raging hate of the GFs causes them to work harder, until finally, almost a million of the insane beasts break through the surface and boil out into Sketch Prime.

ooc: These things are mindless beasts. They have no real control mechanism, and they will blindly attack anything that presents itself as a decent target. They have no distance weapons, but they are not the easiest thing in the world to take down.

Your defense groups will quickly learn that the way to stop these things is to destroy their heads, or completely dismember them.

They are all armed with sawblades, nasty chunks of flattened metal with a spinning chain of razored sawteeth running along its edge.

OOC: The SDF is organized into divisions, which are then numbered. Publicly there are 1-X divisions. The '0' division is therefor roughly equivalent to the US Delta Force. A special operations division that doesn't exist, at least according to any government official. Since each Senate branch is organizard roughly the same way, there are also '0' divisions for some of them as well. For instance the Trade branch has a '0' division that is responsible for preventing industrial espionage, or committing it. /end rambling statement.

The cyborgs are very limited. This is their first combat trial. If we are given the opportunity to test them against live foes, we may as well take it and learn as much as possible.

And as those that could funneled towards the escape pods, the wrenching of metal picked up to a deafening volume, drowning out the cries of fear, terror and pain.

Sketchen weaponry tore through the hull, vapourising those to frozen with fear to move from their stations. Section apon section of the massive flagship was opened to the freezing caress of space.

Corridors, of uniform height and width were cruelly re-arranged and fused into structures of no end or beginning. Vast sheets of polished steel blackened and folded like paper.

Slowly, the once proud ship, torn and fatally wounded listed to starboard, being inexplicably drawn towards Europa like a moth to a light. The gentle red glow apon her prow deepened, as her speed increased by many thousands of miles an hour, yet to the eye she was barely, if any moving.

On the bridge of the Angel, amongst ruined consoles, collapsed supports and the thick pall of smoke, something stirred.

Frohimer bolted upright, gasping in pain as his vision swirled. Steadying himself, he looked down at the source of his discomfort, and the six foot long section of piping peircing his fragile torso.

Grunting as the effot he lifted himself into his now tilted command throne, gasping as the pipe section moved inside his abdomen.

Coughing loudly as the smoke conspired against him, his heart fell heavy as he spied his Navigation officer.

Or, what was left of the young women.

Everything shoulder upwards was a crimson ruin, she lay slumped over the console, at last a peaceful look on her features.

A tear slipped the eye of Frohimer as he lay, dying.

"Goobye my friend...." he spluttered, though Angel had long since gone offline through system failures, though she had re-routed herself till the last possible circuit failed.


Slowly the once magnificant Keanian craft plunged into the atmosphere, the red glow becoming a fierce blaze as Europa fought against the immense intruder.


Sadly for the few survivors trapped aboard the ruined hulk, the Angel was made of the finest and strongest alloys known to Angelan design, and not the atmosphere of the ice world nor the fires of hell would burn it up.


Like a jagged blade cutting into the taught skin of Europa the vessel descended, her once smooth hull pockmarked with vicious burns and tears. Along her dorsal section a great scar ran, fully eighteen decks wide and five miles long, from that scar weeped drive plasma, food supplies and anything else affected by the failure of the ships gravity systems.

Onboard, with a final heroic effort, the power systems died, the emergency generators continuing to function in isolation, but the entire transfer network damaged beyond functionality or repair.

The lights flickered, and died.



Soon the clouds of the iceworld were smashed asunder as the craft hurled itself towards the ice and water. From all over the hemisphere the fiery trail could be seen, and instantly recognised.

Sketchen networks had already begun broadcasting propoganda of the Angels fall, citing a "Great military victory."

No doubt salvage parties awaited their chance to loot the corpse for any scraps of surviving technology.

But the ship cared not, it wished only to end its suffering finally.

Born to serve, constructed to carry its charges through that most inhospitable and desolate medium of space, finally after its long, painful life, it would have true rest, even on the blasted bedrock of some backwater ice moon.



With a thunderous screech that would be heard over the majority of the area the Angel ploughed into the Ice of Europa. Great clouds of steam immediatley shooting upwards as the ice explosivley melted under the intense pressure.

As the great craft hit the ground, it flew upwards once more, momentum giving an obscene picture of its recovery, before cruelly falling. Each time it fell great depressions in the ice would form, as the rock itself was pushed down by the pressure.

Already leaving great mounds miles in length, the Angel lost momentum, ceasing its bouncing. The once proud flagship, began skewering, its aft engine assembly tipping the craft to the right.

With a further crunch the Angel smashed through a dense glacier, losing its starboard nacelle completely, the screech of metal synominous with the scream of a man heralding the loss of his limb.

With a dull crash the Nacelle lazily rolled for several metres, its metallic skin sloughing off as it gently came to a stop.


Slowly but surely, her momentum decreased.the kilometres long trail of utter devestation she had wrought on landing stretching back over the horizon.

Finally losing its sturdy connections the aft engineering bays tore off, skewering into the mud and ice with a low thud.

A great stream of energised plasma, stored deep within the hull for a purpose now never to be achieved lashed out in anger, a great ribbon of purple arcing into the surface, causing an eruption and shower of brown ice.


And then, she had stopped.

A great creaking endured, as she slowly came to a halt, but now she had finally given all she could to her final moments.


Frohimer gazed at the ceiling, or what was left of it.

His vision swirled, unable to focus, or move he lolled. Pain no longer wracked his body as shock set in, dulling his senses.

Through the tear in the ceiling assembly, he could make out the flutter of snow, not a feirce storm yet, but the initial flakes.

Feeling the cool wind permeate the stifling artificial conditions of the ship, he managed a smile, attempting to recall the last time he had felt snow.

And as the first flake fell on the nose of Frohimer, his chest rose no more, and his eyes rolled backwards.


Though throughout the hulk chests continued to rise, and limbs jerk, Captain Frohimer was,like over four thousand of the Angels crew-

dead.

# The Angel has crash-landed on Europa.
> Acknowledged... Send the final commands.
# Acknowledged.

On Europa, the Angel simply vaporized, her powerful matter/antimatter reactor dropping into itself, exploding in a brilliant burst of blue-white energy.

And I saw the angel of light fall to the earth like lightning, and the earth shook with sadness as their beautiful psion died in the fires of hell.

(OOC: Sorry for the delay. AFROTC owns me on Wednesdays. After this, I would like to not be accused of never taking casualties.)

The Combined Services fleets disengaged, the fight being over (OOC: ?). Much like the Sunset forces, damage control teams prepared to repair wounds taken in battle. Given the strategies employed, however, either one survived the battle or one didn't.

"FleetCom, report." Sky Marshal Hayes undoes her crash webbing and pulls herself out of her chair, stretching beside her console.

"Loss reports incoming, ma'am. Heavy cruiser Odin; medium cruisers Anubis, Cicindelidae; frigate Thor; and destroyers Charybdis, Peaceable Unrest, Unusual Normality, Yellow Jacket, Okibi, Ankara, and Lepidoptera; all lost with all hands. Battleship Plasmapede; frigates Millipede, Hachiman, Morozko, Westphalia; and destroyers Icarus, and Firecracker rendered combat inoperable."

"That leaves us..." Sky Marshal Hayes thinks carefully, not letting the loss sink in yet, "fifty-seven combat ready, no?"

"Correct, ma'am. We are at seventy-six percent operational efficiency."

The reality behind the numbers is casually ignored for the moment. "Fighter and dropship forces?" Marshal Hayes blinks away some moisture from her eyes and studies the strategic indicator board.

"Still at ninety-percent effectiveness. The rather random tactics used against us were less effective against more nimble craft. That does leave several hundred aerospace fighters without a home."

"Intel, combat analysis?"

"We're lucky they didn't concentrate their fire. Rather than concentrating on just one stretch of our cylinders, they tried to fill the sphere. Combined with everyone firing willy-nilly rather than in one particular location... we survived. The bombardment group remained untouched, so we did keep pressure off the carriers as needed."

"At the cost of almost a quarter of the fleet." Hayes sits back in her console. "Maintain Event Condition One. Put ground forces on standby, but hold them in reserve. Our primary job is to maintain aerospace superiority. Tell the carriers to take on as many homeless fighters as they can get away with, and tell HQ we need flatback carriers on-site. Task three of the RCS with escort duty.

"FleetCom, maintain standby long-range engagement orbit. Sensors, keep an eye on the enemy. If they delta-vee as much as centimeters an hour squared I want the fleets to go back into chaotic translation and lay down bombardment fire."

[OOC]
Oi, ok, just need to get a few facts clear before I know how to respond.

My impression from earlier was that Berserker landed before the hole developed, and was therefore on the outskirts of the shield. Stealthily I if I may add. If Sunset and Angelus come rushing in to drop a bunch of people around Berserker, I'll definitely know he's there. Now there are 2 choices: 1) Land with Berserker way far away from the "hole" (dunno why you would choose this), or 2) Land through said "hole" and leave Berserker on his own. Results - Berserker on his own will be pretty far away from anything strategic, but he has a smallish force and will easily evade detection as he makes his way towards something important. But, on the other hand, should he ever encounter a stand up fight (like trying to take out a generator all on his own), he would be decimated without support. I am going to assume option 2 right now, since it doesn't make any sense for you to give up an oportunity like a big gaping hole. Its pretty much the same response either way. But one way I'll have to worry about Berserker running around somewhere.

As always I need to know location. This really applies only to Berserker, since he landed on the outskirts. But for Sunset and Angelus, you have 2 OOC choices where you'd like to be. You can either plop down in the middle of the Sea of Thorns, or in the middle of the Killing Fields. I have nifty suprises planned for you either way. Keep in mind that Kaenei is already on the outer edges of the Sea of Thorns, having dropped really early in the battle.

Regarding the GFs tunneling up into my city. The action is fine, but I need to "warp" post a reaction to that. I think seismic activity beneath my main city would be somewhat of a concern to me :wink: I had some more toys that I wanted to save for latter....oh well, now is as good a time as any.

[IC]
{regarding that annoying hole in the shield}

As Sunset and Angelan forces swoop in to exploit the gaping hole in the planetary shields, parts of the 2nd and 5th Armies mobilize {as in move} from all around the area to stop the invasion before they can gain a foot hold. Vetern troops, itching for combat, eagarly mounted the scores lumbering AT-ATs {for lack of knowing anything else that can move huge amounts of troops at once}. The greenies {those yet to fight in more than two wars}, who did not rate such a transport, climb aboard a long winding convoy of "trucks". Those who could not fit onto the provided transportation, were left behind. Thousands of tanks and Armored Slaves travel alongside the convoy of troops to provide addtional support. The remainder of the army {those not able to fit on transports} make maneuvers to ring in the gap, to secure against break out by the invading forces.

The process of mobilization takes approximately an hour {to get everyone onto transports, make general approach plans, etc, etc}. Once on the move, the first wave of the assualt will arrive within an hour {guys on AT-ATs, escorted by tanks and armored slaves} Following roughly 30 - 45 minutes behind will be the main body of the assualt force. The entire force will arrive within 2 hours of contact. Complete encirclement of the gap is projected to be completed within 3 hours.

{Brief factoids}

The gap in the shields covers a a 50 quare km chunk of ground {big enough?} The 2nd and 5th armies are attempting to encircle this chunk of land.

An "army" consists of 2 corps of MI, 2 corps of tanks, 1 corps of AS, yada, yada, thats the important stuff. However, since there is a lot of ground to cover and protect, the assualt force will be much smaller.

The first wave will be 50 AT-ATs, carrying roughly 7000 Vets. {1 company per AT-AT, 144 troops per company}. Along with the transports would be a brigade of tanks and a brigade of ASs {vehicle brigade is 768 units}. The convoy of trucks that come streaming in will drop off troops at a rate of 2 companies every 5 minutes.

For those who care, my super structured setup:

Squad, 12 troops
Platoon, 36 troops =3 Squads
Company, 144troops =4 Platoons
Battalion, 864 troops =6 Companies
Brigade, 6912 troops =8 Battalions
Division, 41472 troops =6 Brigades
Corps, 414720 troops =10 Divisions

=============

[OOC]
This post is too long, I will make another one to deal with the GFs in Sketch Prime.

[OOC]
How many of you guys are in AFROTC? It seems like everyone here is somehow conected with the service.

I sent you a TG Scolo, hopefully you'll understand.

I think its safe to say that the space combat over Europa is done for now. The rest of my ships are huddled in cloud of debris that they've gathered around themsleves. But, with Angelus' black magic raining down on them, they won't last for too long. They still don't know what's going on with the deathray.

The hole in the shield won't be lasting too much longer, its purpose is complete.

The space battle still rages at the shipyards, but thats between Angelus and Kalinin (my admiral) right now, I'll have to discuss it with him.

And now ***warning! warp post!***


As the thousands of drones drilled theri way up from the core, multiple sensors give off warnings of seismic anamolies. This was a cause of great concern for the officials of Sketch Prime, as it was yet another un-needed problem. As the sensor alarms subsided, the various techs gave a sigh of relief, one less problem to worry about. One independent thinking minor beuaracrate is enlightened by a stray thought, and rushed off to tell his superior the idea. Upon finding his boss, he presented his idea - <translated from poli-diplo speak> All civilians should be moved off the streets and restricted to remain indoors until further notice. This serves a dual purpose: 1) it prevents them from seeing whats going on, 2) It keeps them out of the way, and 3) trouble makers would invarible be inclined to leave their housing units, so any stragglers can be shot on site. The "official" reason to enforce house arrest on the general populace: [i]seismic anamolies indicate an instability of the terrain of the surrounding area. In order to prevent injury to the populace, they are to remain inoors until further notice. Intrigued by the idea, the superior praises the underling and sends him away. Shortly after it is sent up to the next level, with the boss claiming credit...........

Bare meters below the bustling hive of Sketch Prime, the GF drones lie in wait, bidding their time.

=======================

{now back to the present}

It was a routine patrol, and yet it irked him. Sgt. Anderson wanted to be "out there" fighting against worthy opponets on the field of battle. Not leading a squad of "greenies" though the disgusting sewer systems of Sketch Prime. Keeping half an eye on his H.U.D. readouts, he scanned the squad stringed out behind him. Private Jones, what in God's name is so fekkin interesting in that sewage? He barked roughly. If your so interested in looking at shit, you can clean out the latirnes when we get back to HG. Appropriately browbeaten, the private finds his way back to his position at the back of the squad. Watching the Sgt. as he turns back around, Pvt Jones moves toward the person nearest to him to gripe and moan, obviously forgetting that the Sgt. constantly monitered the voice comms. Now really angry, the Sgt spun around to face the pvt. What do you think your doing? I got half a mind to make you get out of your suit and............ abruptly Sgt Anderson was cut off by a low rumble, which steadily increased in volume. Regaining his composure immediately and snapping relexively back into warrior mode, the Sgt activated his radio comm to make a report of a disturbance. This is Sgt Anderson reporting from sector 34G, pipeline 17, we have a seismic disturbance issuing from the lower sewage levels, please advise. While awaiting a reply, he notices the rumbling getting worse; developing into a violent shaking, and directs his squad to move against the walls. With a final great heave, the far wall of the pipeline bursts in, revealing the source of all the disturbance. Staring into the darkness of the cavernous hole before him, Sgt Anderson realizes that he is staring into a teaming mass of the freakiest collection of monstrosities ever. With a silent Oh shit, Sgt Anderson and the rest of the squad begin firing into the darkness. To no avail. With a silent scream, the mishappen Angelan constructs surged foward, slashing away with their chattering saw blades, crudely hacking the helpless squad into pieces. This scene repeats itself throughout the entire sewage system, as patrol after patrol fail to respond to calls. Like the army ants of ancient Brazil, the mindless drones boil out of the ground, seeking to scour the earth of all life.

With the realization that they are being attacked from within, Sketchan foces within the city turn from their outward facing postions to face this new threat. Cries for assistance carry over the radio comms as squad after squad sucumb to the never ending tide of angry automatons. Within moments, the entire sector is swamped with GF drones.

================

[OOC]
How many are there again?

With a low hiss the Dropship completed its landing, its articulated legs bending slightly as the flight computer made the required adjustments to the landing gear.

Metres away a second, third, fourth and fiftth DropShip fell from the sky, the scream of thrusters increasing tenfold with every minute that passed, the Keanian fleet vessels seizing the oppertunity for a mass drop whilst the shield generators were incapable of full projection.

Onboard command DropShip Secundus Force Commander Koenig Jakart stared at his charges. His face was a frozen landscape of fury. His brow furrowed, his eyes pitiless globes of pure hatred.

Visions of the Angel raced through his mind, the intense feelings of helplessness as he sat uselessly on board the Redemption, watching the craft as it plunged through the Europan skyline and disappeared from view.

They will pay with their souls.

Closing his eyes he felt the rumble of the DropShip as it touched down, leaving only a second for the gyro-stabilizers to peform their task before tearing off his harness, and climbing to his full height.

Surveying the armoured lines of Guardians ahead of him, he began to speak, his voice hard and icy.

"Four hours ago, four thousand eight hundred and forty four Keanians died. Some of those died in orbit, the cold void tearing their skin from their bones even as their death screams were lost in the airless environment. Others died manning their stations, eviscerated as shards of razor death flew at them. And still some of our kin died as the Angels were forced to wipe every last trace of our flagship from this alien soil."


Slowly, Koenig walked down the lines of armour, his face regarding each with a hard stare.

"And we will reap a heavy price. You have been chosen as the first wave my Guardians. We have exploited a tactical advantage. The shield has been comprimised over an area large enough to land a sizable force. Already we have dropped forty percent of our total forces. heavy transports will begin landing shortly, and we will have Gravtank support."


With a low thud, the exit ramp slid open, exposing the harsh whitness of Europa. For as far as the eye could see black forms of the DropShips stuck out from glaciers and ice dunes. Slowly making their way down from orbit, vast transport barges, carrying Gravtanks and artillery headed towards the surface. A fierce wind blew into the DropShip, carrying a chilling and blinding snowtrail, from behind their hermetically sealed armour it proved nothing but an annoyance.

"Cut through their bodies like you would this weather pattern, we will be victorious. History will remember this day regardless of its end result, go."

At once the Guardians got to their feet, seizing their weapons promptly and sprinting from the craft.

Throughout the landing zone the teeming mass of Keanians formed into their assigned groups, as more and more DropShips touched down.

A low hum filled the air as the first of the transport barges released a Gravtanks.

Its massive form slowly drifted over the frozen wastes, its immense cannons swivelling menacingly.

*******


From his position on the stand-in and renamed flagship Fallen Remembrance, Acting fleet Captain Harvier Junorn surveyed the scene from his command throne.

The fleet had lost nearly four Icarus class battlecruisers to a combined Sketchen attack, and their reluctance to withdraw with crippling battle damage, and of course the fleet flagship, the Angel had gone down with all hands lost...

He put such thoughts to the back of his mind, as his operations adept spoke;

"Drop eighty percent complete sir."

Harvier nodded, waving his hand.

"Alert the fleet." He began, "Prepare the targeted surface are for full orbital bombardment."



http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/295301/Landing.jpg

OOC:
I mean, hypersonic missile....It's in the kiloton range, certainly.
Please note that hypersonic is relatively SLOW in a vacumn, and it yeild will be smaller than kilotons, unless its an etremely enormous missile.

when we talk about it being really unlikely that a missile's going to be glanced away because a hull is disc-shaped.Sunset is using StarTrek style ships, but people like Scolo, Karma, and I aren't. Our pretty much resemble flying bricks. Infact, that's how their built. Extremely redundant, armored and utilitarian.

OOC: Note that I don't use the slick hulls and traditional saucer-pilon-engineering hull-pilon-warp nacele models either. I design my own ships with smaller forward profiles, better weapon coverage, etc. They do have structural integrity fields from the early days of high sublight travel still though - if they didn't hitting anything at .5c would be disasterous. That will help with *some* projectile hits, but not all. There is a vast different between a 1kg rock and a 400kg shaped projectile.

Anyway, my stuff is always avaliable if you want to see what it looks like.
www.pacifier.com/~cziller

IC:
Major Dean opened a secure channel to the commanders of the other ground forces being deployed.

"If we are going to put ground forces down, we need an objective. This is not a meatgrinder to throw people into. My suggestion is that we head out - away from the population center and the most opposition. Take out the shield generators in our way, lowering their coverage area. They can then either retreat from those areas or be exposed to our air power. Then we knock out more generators in the circle with this aim in mind.

We don't have to hold ground - we don't have a supply train on the ground to worry about. If we can keep moving, we also will not have to deal with the vast majority of their armor at once. As it catches up, if it catches up, we destroy it then."

ooc:

I posted that I landed next to Sunset, not next to Bers. The SFA is going to basically try and help Sunset keep that hole open.

I thought Bers was elsewhere, but *shrug*

I am not AFROTC, but I have a semi-hectic work schedule.

There are 975,450 GFs pouring into Sketch Prime from multiple locations, and Angelic Skies is still continuing to attack every system it can find. Also, as stated earlier, the tunnels leading down to Angelic Skies have been collapsed, so no return access for these guys. Kill or be killed. (yay)

The Dream battlegroup above Europa was never engaged from your end, so I am not going to post any damages/casualties. Also, the modulating phase cannon should be able to fire through your shields, I mean that is what they were designed for anyway. Will you accept an attack of that sort?

The fleets attacking your peeps above/around the Shipyards are being attacked by the full [remnant] force of the Angelic Armada 02.

Angelus has not grounded the main body of their ground force yet, I will wait to do that to follow Scolo/Karma/Trium lead.

IC post coming in a bit.

The SFA deploys about the cluster of BHLs, while the mighty Semblance of Reason hovers over them like a protective angel. At last, they are set up in a loose diamond-shaped formation, with the mechahumans spaced at each of the four points, and deployed in 1,500 'jeeps in roving bands of three surrounding the diamond.

The lines of the diamond are filled with the snarling GFs and silently-controlled GFEs. Floating in the air around them is a thick cloud of the small but deadly battledrones, their reactionless thrusters moving slower in the atmosphere, but still quite capable of powering them in high-speed dogfights.

Finally, Omicron Blu herself descends from the Reason, her gravitic shielding supporting six highly-polished cybiotic-trillenium discs. They float silently about her body, their surfaces winking in the sunlight. She floats over to the Sunset group and almost lands among them.

We agree. If we keep moving, we should be able to punch through, and hopefully cut a wider swath through their shielding. At the very least, we should be able to keep the hole open long enough for the major forces to drop through.

She looks about at the forces being arrayed about her. May your blades fall swift and true, and may the Creators look down upon us all with a blessing. She smiles at Major Dean and gives him a clipped bow.

Here, take this. It very well might bring you luck. She hands him a small black-velvet bag, a glittering medallion (http://www.silentrequiem.net/churchofangelus.jpg) hanging on a silver chain resting inside.

She smiles and archs back over to float like a silent watcher above her troops.

ooc: [Shipyards]

As a note, a single Fallen would nothave the power required for yanking a full fleet out of hyperspace. If it did, I would think it has enough power to repulse any ramming attempts. If you want to give me that sort of power, I will take it. However, consider it a trio of Fallen.

Also, there are never any single MotherShips chillin' by themselves, especially not one[s] that was designated as the one[s] to make sure the Sketch fleet would not escape...

I will IC post once that gets cleared up a little.

They moved with a swift, deadly grace, augmented limbs pumping tirelessly as they took the points in the rather disturbing assemblage. They took no more notice of the Fallen than they did of their brethren in the jeeps - simply another part of their forces pressing onward across the frozen wasteland towards their goal - the shield generator.

Armed with high-powered pulse rifles, missile launchers, hand-held plasma ejectors, and a variety of close combat bladed weapons, the troops fairly bristled with offensive might. The implants they'd recieved offered them pinpoint accuracy in their firing. The augments, offered them a strength and endurance that bordered on the obscene. These were killing machines, no longer men and women in anything more than a passing resemblance. A memory. And those memories now burned hotly within each one of them.

Those in the battlejeeps drove in watchful circuits around the perimeter of the ground troops, in coordinated groups of three, their link via the Mainframe offering a flawless, uninterrupted line of communication. They moved with one mind, and one purpose, tearing up the ice with the retrofitted spiked chains on the tires. Those riding within were similarly outfitted as those troops on foot, though all of them carried multiple frag grenades to be used at leisure once the enemy was engaged.

Eyes that could see almost the entire EM spectrum anxiously scanned the area as they made their way rapidly across the icy surface, backlit with an eerie glow, burning hotly as their taste for revenge.

All was in place. All systems were functioning at peak performance. All of the soldati meccanica were focused intently on the task at hand, anxious for the chance to tear into the Sketchan forces. They had no illusions - they were morte che cammina. Death, and dead that walks. Most would likely not survive, but they had no fear of death. Even after their bodies had given up the ghost, revenge would be theirs. In this, they were content.

There would be no retreat. No quarter asked, nor given.

Let the traitorous cowards tremble in fear, for we are coming.

[OOC]
Sorry about the late post, the forums wouldn't let me on all day :?

This will be all OOC until I have time to make a nice IC post.

Above the Berzerker Forces...

A single SBG dropped out of warp and discharged assault shuttles and fighters. Below the '0' appeared on the surface in a wash of energy. Crisis and Stealth Battlesuits fanned out as the assault shuttles and fighters dispatched by Eddings arrived. Along with the '0' came 12 unique soldiers. Experimental might be a better word. Full conversion cyborgs - the first ever fielded. Depending on how they performed their use would be widened or removed entirely in favor of the battlesuits.

The SFA begins to move, jumping up to skip along the atmosphere, they hurtle towards the hole, piercing through like avenging angels. Below them, the Sunset group has already begun preperations, and the SFA lands near them, the hideous GFs and GFEs pouring out of the hatches to secure the ground around them. The just as ominous mechahumans slowly descend the ramps, working in concert to get their 'jeeps and equipment out of the carriers.

This is the source of confusion for the landing group. So what shall it be?

I've already accepted your balck magic: As the Angelan Falchion II's fire in unison upon individual star destroyers, very little noticeble damage can be seen. However, as the barrages continue, the targeted ships would fall oddly silent, failing to return fire or even send out signals. The optical communications arrays cease their wave linke blinking, plunging the vessels into darkness. One by one, star destroyers and cruisers begin sucumbing to this new mysterious weapon.

{Ships thus far subdued}
7 star destroyers

The Fallen gravwells - And yet, a heavy assault force of 10 Fallen, and 20 of each of the battle-cruiser types, are held in reserve to stave off the Sketchen space fleets should they make a run from their positions at the Shipyards. Each of the Fallen is equipped with incredibly powerful grav-well generators, capable of yanking ships right out of most forms of hyperspace transit and holding them in realspace.
Directly quoted from an earlier post in this thread. Apparently you don't know the strength of your own ships. I had assumed that they would be spread out along the enitre perimeter sphere of the battleground to prevent me from jumping out. But if they are in clusters of three, there would be no way for them to exert a grvwell influence large enough to prevent me from jumping out of there. Space is a 3D arena, all angles must be accounted for, in order for a successful campaign. So, if your ships are chillin' in threes, then I jump. If they're alone and stopping me, I assualt. Your choice. Oh yeah, btw, I never mentioned ramming directly upon exiting "hyperspace". With the sudden flash of ships being prematurely yanked out of hyperspace, 3 battlegroups materialize around the Fallen vessel generating the offending gravity well. With grim determination and purpose, the battlegroups begin closing on the Fallen, with the clear intent on colliding with it, all the while firing full salvos from their heavy guns. Obviously they are intending to ram, but have not yet and are too far away to do so as of yet.

If there is still a problem of interpretations, I suggest that a third party be called to deal with it.

The frozen world reverated with the sound of a thousand anti-gravitic engines as at once the massive and lumbering form of the Gravtanks slowly pondered forward, their massive cannons pivoting left and right as a man might stretch his limbs in the early morning sun.

At the very fore of the column, a tank stood like no other.

Where its primary bombardment cannon had been, now stood a smooth platform of clear plexiglass. Sorrounding that platform a handrail ran.

But on that platform, standing resplendid stood a figure, clad in blood red.


From his position onboard the commanding Gravtank, Confessor-Chaplain Lestin stood, his saber extended high above his head, shining in the dull light of the now distant sun.


Behind Lestin the myriad of other Gravtanks formed up, the gentle and ghostly hum of their propulsion systems lending an almost supernatural effort about the land.

Forming around these massive war machines, the Guardians of Keanei came.

In sheet white armour, each wearing a black armband they formed into their fighting units, each row falling into place as the one before it did.


Soon, the seething mass of white faded strangly with the sorrounding ice, even the lumbering form of the gravity-ignoring warmachines seemed to lose their outlines amongst the dunes of ice and water.




Lesten watched as the sun slowly passed from the horizon. Taking one final check that all was ready, he simply brought his saber down, pointing into the murky distance.


All at once the forces of Keanei leapt forward, nimble Guardians falling into a speedy sprint as they rushed to close the distance, to meet their hated foe and administer justice.


The Keanians had come, and they would not leave not one Sketchan remained alive to set eyes on their hallowed form.


[OOC: Just setting the scene with that terribly short post...]

"First things first - we need to know what's between us and the Kaeneian's. That's going to be the big question. If we can get there without going through major troop concentrations, so much the better. Plus we need the location of the shield generators. The fleet is working on that bit - should have them any minute now."

Major Dean was running over the plan on the tac-net. They had been on the ground less than 5 minutes before he was itching to get moving.

"Fighters and shuttles should be here any time - everyone grab onto a shuttle. We can stay a lot more mobile that way. The fighters will fly cover - anti-missile and anti-armor."

OOC: There's the question - and one that will likely determine the way this goes. Where is the hole in the shield compared to the Kaeneian forces?

OOC: AFROTC owns me, Scolo, and Karma. We're in the same school.

Anyways, sorry I wasn't on earlier to correct this, but

The Berserker task force is:
A) Relatively hidden. FROM BOTH SIDES.
B) Unmarked. There are no markings so no one, on either side will know who it is.
C) Running off these ideas, Sunset, Angelus, etc, I'll repsectfully decline any support or back up, as you as well as Sketch don't know its me (yet), and most likely shouldn't have seen me.

Sketch, do you have a map of the land? Please get one to me (and try, if you would, to include a little bit of topography), that way I can choose an appropriate landing site.


And off topic...why do I get the sense that Roger Smith might be piloting an Armor Slave.
*Ponders what Sketch's secrets are, probably Lambda Drivers in the Armor Slaves...*

[yet more OOC]

I need time to think on the developments. Mainly get a freakin map. Anyone know where/how I can get/make one? And better yet, host it so I can link to it?

I've decided, since no one has chosen yet, to dump the Angelan/Sunset landing forces in the middle of the Sea of Thorns. That will be where the shield hole is located. So if anyone else comes though the shield hole, you will be in the Sea of Thorns. This will make the question of meeting up with the already landed (?) Kaenien forces easier. For ease of search, consider shield generator equidistant between the two landed forces (Kaenei and Angelus/Sunset). Another shield generator would lie the same distance from Angelus/Sunset away from the Kaeniens.

Hmmm, troops. As of right now, you have a sizable force about to jump your bones. And while you engage them, your going to be encircled. Kaenei however, will be "ignored" (the good type) until he/she starts moving. Assuming of course that they are indeed on the far outside edge of the Sea of Thorns.

Roger that, ninja Berserker forces. I'll be rolloing dice on your detection as you post actions with them. On that thought, anyone know of a"randomizer" site that I can use for the RP. It'll "legitimize" the randomness.

off topic....Roger Smith leading the wave of Armored Slaves, I should have thought of that! But it'll have to be a huge one with cool beams and stuff...... :P

I actually pondered having Lambda Drivers, but scratched it when I posted stats. Obviously a God Mod. Perhaps when I hit 2.5 billion and RP psychic abilities.

And for the AFROTC guys, you have my respect. Maybe not the best service you could have chosen (Go Navy! :P ), but you are still comrades in arms (or soon to be anyways). What unit are you in? I am in the Holy Cross NROTC battalion.

And for the AFROTC guys, you have my respect. Maybe not the best service you could have chosen (Go Navy! :P ), but you are still comrades in arms (or soon to be anyways). What unit are you in? I am in the Holy Cross NROTC battalion.

OOC: NAVY! But, GAH! All you ROTC punks! My college is on hold after 5 years of failing (2.3gpa, yuck!). So I enlisted. Ship out as E3 on April 8, unless my job changes (doesn't look favorable, but I am still holding out for IS...and might get CTI instead. Wish me luck). Plan to finish in the service and go OCS. We'll see if it works out.

But everyone I've talked to said it has straightened them out, helped them out. Maybe it can help me straighten myself out. :P

Navy all the way.

And for the AFROTC guys, you have my respect. Maybe not the best service you could have chosen (Go Navy! :P ), but you are still comrades in arms (or soon to be anyways). What unit are you in? I am in the Holy Cross NROTC battalion.

OOC: NAVY! But, GAH! All you ROTC punks! My college is on hold after 5 years of failing (2.3gpa, yuck!). So I enlisted. Ship out as E3 on April 8, unless my job changes (doesn't look favorable, but I am still holding out for IS...and might get CTI instead. Wish me luck). Plan to finish in the service and go OCS. We'll see if it works out.

But everyone I've talked to said it has straightened them out, helped them out. Maybe it can help me straighten myself out. :P

Navy all the way.

Hey, enlisted is just as respectable as officer postions.

As for the Navy, well, I'm sure we've all heard the jokes about the Navy. :wink:
Airforce all the way. 8)

Slowly but surely the vast Keanian warhost gathered speed, the immense form of their crafted anti-gravitic warmachines dancing over the frozen wastes with ease the belied the complex technologies at work.

Ranked and ordered hundreds of Guardians sprinted onwards, their weapons slung over their shoulders, the vapours of their warm breath passing through their helmet outlets and forming a low mist that quickly froze to droplets in the intensley cold atmosphere sorrounding them.



From behind the nimble Gravtanks, great towering engines rose, their pace far slower than those ahead, yet methodically unstoppable.

Their perfectly smooth, polished surfaces reflecting what little light now reached them this far from Sol itself. These creations were dominated by immense weapon barrels, that extended for half its total length.

Potent seige engines, waiting to tear down and smash the morale and hope of any who stood against.



The gentle thrum of the Anti-Gravitic generators coasted through the room as Commander Zdrilic poured over the maps and tactical status reports that lay spread over the report table.

The whine of servomotors heralded Zdrilics movements, as they motivated his heavy battle armour to life, turning he regarded the other generals and officers stood around him, in silence.

"Generals, Officers, and servants of the Keanai Republic, this shall be our final meeting before we taste battle. And we must be sure that our tactics are as sound as our devotion, for we seek victory, but not at too great a cost to make it seem as if we have indeed lost everything."

Passing his hand over a violet coloured rune, the table flickered to life, a shaft of white light leaping from its surface. As other runes were manipulated holograms flickered to life. First the Sea of Thorns itself, a large grid. Then the Keanai fleet, now entering its southern side. Finally, the Sketchan shield generators nearest to them.

"Our target gentleman...." He began, "Is to cross the Sea Of Thorns, disable that shield generator. We anticipate the highest level of armed resistance in return..."

Six green triangles appeared on the hologrid. Each of those triangles broke down further to six more, detailing how each company would form together their units to create a grander scheme.

"These represent Keanian forces. Our ground fleet shall split into five sections. With the companies of each section joining their "Triangle". The front two shall compose of the Angel Guard Corsair. They shall provide our primary source of hand-to-hand combat expertise when we enter combat conditions, and shall close with Sketchan combat as soon as is possible. Our middle group shall be the bulk of our Guardians. Sandwiched between the Angels Corsair and the Siege and Gravtank assemblies they will be in an ideally protected position once we close within a sufficient distance to bring small arms fire to bear. Our back line shall be the three remaining "units." On those right and left flanks shall be positioned the Seventh and Ninth Gravtank attachments, whose purpose shall be to target and eliminate Sketchan military tanks and heavily armoured personnel. Finally our back unti shall be composed of our limited heavy siege engines. They shall remain inactive until we have managed to get within a resonable distance from the generator. The siege engines will then destroy every last molecule of that generator."

Each of the assembled generals nodded their understanding, whilst asisstant aids scrawled notes and reminders.


"Then that is all, go now to your command transports, and organise your Units. We shall form front to back. Have your Corsairs fall into the front, forming into two large units, and continue until our total arrangement is completed."



[OOC: I am advancing now ^_^]

The Sea of Thorns, a vast waste land, spotted with jagged mountains of ice jutting through the ground. Its inhospitality only rivaled by the deadly hostility of the Killing Fields. This land, with its treacherous terrain and unstable footing, will prove to be a dangerous battleground. Seemingly solid ground can often give way to deadly sea, whose cold watery depths yearn for new souls.

Throughout the land, concealed within the largest icebergs and glaciers are military outposts, dedicated to detection. Inoffensive by nature, these outposts record all that occurs within sight or hearing and reports it back to base. The prime base itself is barely noticable, residing in a glacier near the "coast." Seemingly far removed from its intended area of coverage, the base maintains a deceptive appearance of inactivity, neither noticing nor reacting to the invasions taking place.

However, far below the ice, within the sea itself, and all the way down to the bed rock itself, lies a vast network of transportation systems. Unique to Europa, and utilizing the homeground advantage, this network is able to deploy assets far quicker and more efficiently than its surface bound counter part. Slumbering in subsurface docking stations lie a vast fleet of underwater combat vehicles, including inovative designs on an arcane concept of the "submarine."

Within moments of detecting the Kaenien army, these subsurface forces were deployed, taking the most direct route to the invaders. With layers of solid ice above them, and the deadly stealth of the sea, they shall strike at the heart of the heathens who dare tread on the sacred ground of Sketch.

[OOC]Your advance is gonna get blind sided ^_~

Zdrilic stood on deck, the feirce winds whipping a blinding snow storm around his craft. He blinked not, allowing the superior sensors of his armour to feed him the information he needed.

The Keanian fleet stood on the edge of the sea of Thorns, the subtle humming of the various Anti-Gravity structures barely audible above the feirce storm that now seemed to descend over the raiders.

"Commander Zdrilic!" Came the struggling voice from the hatch.

Turning, he cast his eyes to an aide, struggling up to the platform.

"Yes?" He asked, his gaze falling on the stuttering man.

"High-gain thermal imaging scanners are detecting odd readings below the sea..."

"Have you ascertained the cause?"

The aide shook his head, "It could be anything, from a volcanic activity to a fault with the scanners...."

Zdrilic didn't feel like taking a chance today.

"Have the Gravtanks move forward with extreme caution, advise them to breach the ice to as low a depth as possible, and pas down a thermal probe. I want to see if we can get a clearer understanding of whats generating this extra heat down there."

Nodding, the Aide left.


[OOC: Obviously the imagers can't even begin to decide whats down there, so theres NO way we could know its actually sketchan activity, as the post above shows.]

[OOC]
You do realize that this ice is at least twenty meters think? Especially since I got AT-ATs stomping all over it as the move in on Angelus/Sunset. And these are not the heat radiating throwbacks from the cold war......even modern day subs are IR stealthy. You will be warned far in advanced before my forces set upon you. Nothing I have done all thread has been the least bit as "suprising" as I could have made it. I've given you guys the barest of resistence all thread. I think it is time to step it up.



But first I must go out and get raging drunk........it is the end of the God forsaken week. Ciao!

[OOC]: I realize I have not posted, well, at all the entirety of this week, as I've been extremely busy. I'll get caught up tonight/this weekend. :)

Major Dean watched the sensor information come flooding in. They had the generator - the very energy poured out by the generator had pointed to it's location.

"Shuttles are here in 30 seconds - lets go people."

The Major finished loading the last of his gear into his suit, and closed the cargo pod it had come down in. Around them were the scattered pods, spread out over a half-kilometer. "

Supplies are gone, pods are ready. Lets go."

The assault shuttles were swooping down low over the ice, and as many people as possible grabbed onto the handles on the outside. The doors swung up - inside were squads in full combat armor with the heaviest weapons the Republic manufactured. Some of them could put 1 meter holes in grav-tanks. The battlesuits locked their hands, and the shuttled accelerated away.

"First encounter is in 30 seconds - this is hit and run. Straffing runs only people."

In the air...

"Primary targets are opposing heavy transports and armor. Feel free to use the heavy stuff on them - no need to hold back. Watch for priority targets coming in from fleet. Good hunting..."

The air commander cut his chatter and began looking for targets. The AT-AT's were the most obvious, and several of the fighters had already launched Hunter-II's at them. The light cap-ship killers were overkill, but no cap-ships to engage.

"Free target - 30km out." He told his gunner. "Got em."

The gunner found the AT-AT, hit the launcher, and guided the missile toward the target. They could be either fire and forget, or remote optical guided. The commander could tell which option he had chosen - the gunner was looking around and steering slightly.

The missile got down on the deck - too high and it was a sitting duck. The missile weaved back and forth as it accelerated. It would only take 6 seconds to cross the distance, but may as well make it count.

Other missiles were surging forward, only their target was the generator facility. They dodged and weaved, forcing any anti-missile systems to at least try to hit them. At the worst, they would explode and tear huge rents in the ice. At best, they would drop the shields as fractional kilotons of explosive power turned metal into vapor.

"SQUADRON! Tench HUT!"

The breifing room is instantly silent of conversation, the boistrous crews voices replaced with a synchronized ::thud:: as everyone in the room pops to their feet.

Colonel Kardeman strides into the hazy briefing room.

"Take your seats. Officer of the Day, secure the room."

"Acting." The lieutenant by the door pulls it closed, and presses a key on the panel next to it. The door locks with a ::clunk:: and anyone outside would hear nothing but a light static hiss coming from the room.

The colonel glances around the room, and begins.

"Good evening. Prepare for time hack. The time will be 1754 TST, 3, 2, 1, hack. I hope you all got some rest, we are going to be at it for quite some time. Our mission is to provide close air support and interdiction for TYCS and allied forces already on the ground. Orbital recon assets have detected large opposing forces in the area. Preliminary analysis indicates heavy mechanized assets." The ViewWall behind Kardeman turns on, showing an extremely high resoloutin GMMRS (Gravitic/Mass/Magnetic Remote Sesnsing) 3D model of an ATAT. "These are the priority targets. first engagement will be with HNPPC at long range. If you have to close, target the legs and joints with heavy gauss. A majority of the forces seem to be an MI analoge, so we will be mixing in standard gunship pods, along with the heavies. Insertion will be from the far side of the shield, proceeding to a nap of the moon flight profile. Once in range, we will pop up to altitude, and commence HNPPC barrage. As the situation warrants, we will task units for close up work. Targets of oppurtunity are the shield generators that support that planetary shield. E-Dub/AWACS section is available, callsign Echo-3-6. Tactical datalink on the CRM-114 descriminator, key OPE. We are the tip of the spear, crews, lets show 'em what we are made of. CREWS! Too your ships!"

"SQUADRON! Tench HUT!"

"4th Titan Drop Squadron! DISSMISSED! See you in space."

The crews file out of brief and make their way along the corridors of the Ragnarok to their assigned ships. Within ten minutes, 30 Loki dropships, 10 outfitted with 130AC/U dual HNPPC MAM pods, 10 with the 130AC/H single HNPPC pods, and 10 with the standard 130AC gun pods are assembled in space. Colonel Kardeman's personal ship Brute Force forms up in the lead position. Joining the formation are 10 Sleipnir Heavy Dropships, each fitted with 2 130AC/U pods, and 2 130AC pods. Bringing up the rear is a section of 4 Electronic Warfare/AWACS Lokis. The squadron takes reentry spacing and makes best speed for the edges of the shield.

<bitching removed>

[IC]
The AT-AT gunner/pilots, easily spottting the massive and slow moving incoming warheads, switch the targetting system over to automatic. With an eire grace belying its lumbering appearance, the AT-ATs systematically begin gunning down the capkiller missiles. Being unsuited for plantetary use, the missiles quickly sucumb to the onslaught of heavy blaster fire emanating from the AT-ATs. Some of the missiles, having somehow dodged the impressive firesotrm, streaking in at just meters off the ground, were deftly sided stepped by the more skilled pilots, taking full advantage of the small profile of the transport's' legs. Unfortunately, one of the pilots, yet to be battle tested; thus not knowing the tricks of the trade, was hit. The missile crudely took out a leg, not even exploding, as the impact didn't even register in the misslie's onboard computer; having been designed to target capital-sized space craft. The pilot of the disabled AT-AT struggled to bring the now unwieldy beast under control, manages to bring it down in a barely controlled crash. The MI troops onboard will have to make the rest of the journey to the battlefront on foot.

Upon initiation of contact, the Armored Slave companies imediately switched on their suit's stealth mode; effectively rendering them invisible in the full EM spectrum, and fanned out by platoon. The AS troops, being on the assualt team decided to arm themselves with the heavy wepons option before leaving base, seeking to eliminate enemy armor before it could reach the frontlines. As they faded from the sensors like ghosts, the AS units sprinted foward in a silent charge, like so many ninjas in the old myths.

With a message from the lead tank commander, the tankers optimized their cannon energy outputs for air target engagment. The tanks began evasive maneuvering on the ground as the first shuttles approached from the distance, ready to show why air assest are no match for ground power.

The sides of the AT-ATs pop open, exposing multiple decks of MI troopers. Troops readied themselves and grasping the quickdrop lines, eagerly awaiting the green light from the dropmaster. They were soon obliged, as the command for deployment went out to all the transports to deploy the troops. All around, waves of troops can be seen rapidly descending on droplines from the AT-ATs. Upon hitting the ground, troops immediately fanned out, establishing an orderly network of positions and battle formations. All the preparations were performed on the move, as the AT-ATs; having relieved themselves of the troop burden, switched into assualt mode, and charged towards the enemy. The troops, enhanced by power armor and concealed by environmental camo, bounded behind the charging AT-ATs like snowdevils on the hunt.

========================

Elsewhere, near the outer edges of the Sea of Thorns, packs of submarines form a perimeter around the Kaenein taskforce. Projecting the probable approah vector, another pack of submarines began melting the ice from below with specially designed plasma torches, quickly creating patches with which to emerge from.

As the Kaenein pass checkpoint after check point of sensor nets, the time for ambush was upon them. With a carefully orchestrated launch sequence, the submarines unleashed multitudes of massive driller torpedoes. These torpedoes would cut through the solid ice within minutes, and deliver their payload of missiles which would fly high up into the air and coming screaming down to the earth as they aquired their targets. Simultaneuosly, the waiting subs emerge from their carefully hollowed out niches, and opened their huge maws, exposing waves of charging troops, tanks, and armored slaves.

====================

Forces facing Kaenei are the same as those facing Angelus/Sunset, no re-inforcements.

[OOC]
Ahem.......I like how although my ground forces have been on the move for quite awhile, that the shield generators are still right behind them....... Infatry weapons capable of putting meter wide holes in tanks, good. They'll get mauled in close combat. Seeing as how such weapons would be ridiculously huge and very unwieldy at best.

Hmmmm, 5000 meters per second. 30000m/6s => 5000 m/s 5000 m/s * 60 s/min => 300000 m/min 300000 m/min * 60 min/hr => 18000000 m/hr 18000000 m/hr * 1 km/ 1000m => 18000 km/hr 18000 km/hr * 1195 km/hr {mach 1} => mach 15

Mach 15 may be acceptable in space, but not in atmospheric conditions. Not to mention that these are "capkillers", which would mean that they are excessively massive and not designed for use in atmospheric/planetary gravity situations. You'd be lucky if they didn't impact on the ground before accelerating fast enough to become airborne. And steering them at Mach 15? By the time your man reacts, the missile would be long past the target.

If you people are so fond of using missiles for everything you do, why don't you put a little more effort into it? How about actually researching the characteristics of your missiles?


OOC:

Perhaps you didn't read closely enough. Light - as in weapons designed for precision strikes or mass volleys. They may be small, but when you combine 1/100th of a gram of matter/anti-matter... big boom. They are steered as they accelerate - they are not instantly at 15 out of the launcher. They certainly can hit that - but you are interpreting the thoughts of a gunner as truth as far as the time taken. They certainly are not slow and lumbering though - about the size of an AIM-9.

And yes - they are designed for planetary situations - they were introduced after a planetary war for engagement of all kinds of vehicles. They use advanced optical recognition to track their targets, and are equipped with proximity, optical, and remote detonation triggers. In this case, the gunners would have used the remote detonation triggers. Just because they can kill a cap-ship doesn't mean they can't attack anything else.

Now - before we do anything else. Where is a map with the generator locations on it and major troop deployments? We have a fleet in orbit loaded with sensors that can read the letters off a page, or better. Give us some intel, or this goes nowhere.

OOC: I'm breaking my own word of not doing anything else here, but I don't care.

IC:

Major Dean was watching the circle contract around them on the tactical display of his HUD. "Ok - let's go people. Up and out. Hit em with everything." The shuttle doors beside him swung closed and he could feel the locks clamp shut through the suit.

All around the dispersed airgroup, fighters slowed and turned as the shuttles shot up past them. Then it was like they were in a swarm of insects. All 750 fighters fired all their munitions at once. Targetting computers had been picking out and distributing targets for the last 3 minutes, and they were ready to act. No individual guidance from the gunners this time - they simply leapt from the tube, did a course correction, and shot towards their targets. They were on proximity this time - expert computer's on board would decide if the target was close enough or if the missile would hit. If it would miss, it detonated as it hit the ice.

Then the fighters rose as well - above the shuttles which had hovered for a moment. Their turn - they only carried the lighter anti-tank munitions, but their targets were exactly that. They fired as well - their tubes were ventral launch, so they did not need to spread out as the fighters had.

1000 meters from their launch point all the missiles armed automatically - ready to carry death to the enemy.

In the center of this vast circle the fighters and shuttles were rising again. They crossed the shield barrier, rising straight up. The fighters would return to their carriers to re-arm, while the shuttles had another mission in mind.

OOC: Approx 3000 light anti-ship missiles have been fired at your forces. AT-AT's and tanks are their primary targets, with armored slaves as the secondary. 6000 medium anti-tank missiles have been fired with tanks and armored slaves as the secondary targets. Yes, we do have that kind of computing and coordination power.

ooc:

http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=77558

For all of your map-making needs.

<point made>

<point made>

Einstein slept badly in his coffin this night, as somewhere far away the universe initiated a devastating chain reaction due to uncontrolled use of anti-matter. The entire icy surface of Europa was melted due to the insane energies produced by the gamma rays of the matter-antimatter reaction: ice burning into steam, then the water beneath, and then the planet's core. Europa vaporised with the energy of a thousand solar flares, in fact in using the exact same mechanics as a solar flare without the mass to even vaguely contain such a thing.

The huge amounts of debris and yet more uncontrolled gamma rays coming from the magical portable antimatter 'containment' fields hurtled through space into the other moons around Jupiter causing similar reactions there. In much the same way as the plans that had been mooted to cause Jupiter to turn into a second sun by the use of unfeasible amounts of energy to initiate a self-sustaining, burning reaction, Jupiter promptly absorbed the uncountable MeV energy of the gamma ray explosions of the utterly insane number of antimatter weapons.

Jupiter burned.


Somewhere on Earth, about half an hour later (the two planets were lined up, for convenience's sake):

"Sir, it appears Jupiter got set on fire, sir. We're not sure how, it'll take a while ... no, wait! It appears we're getting gamma radiation readings, sir, off the scale!"

"Initiate deployment of the Very Big Umbrella, Kropotkin. And initiate the flood barriers! And ask the Legacy to shield us from those gamma rays please."

:roll:

OOC:

OOC:

Perhaps you didn't read closely enough. Light - as in weapons designed for precision strikes or mass volleys. They may be small, but when you combine a couple ounces of matter/anti-matter... big boom.

I actually tried to check to see if the destruction of Europa was an accurate scenario, rather than just one that seemed logical, with 1.022 MeV of gamma rays produced per reacting proton/antiproton. Actual decay causes 2x200 MeV of gamma rays. My computer couldn't cope with the calculation of the amounts of gamma rays released per ounce let alone per missile or per volley of thousands of missiles. So I gave up. However ...

Let's see ... 1 ounce ~ 28.5 grams. One gram of proton/antiproton energy releases 1.8 x10 to the 14 joules of energy, or 180,000,000,000,000 joules, or 180 terajoules of energy. Every missile (say "a few ounces" correlates to 3) therefore releases 540 terajoules of energy, or 540,000,000,000,000 joules.

1 kilotonne of TNT produces 4.612 x10 to the 6 kilojoules of energy, or 4,612,000,000 joules.

Therefore each matter/antimatter missile has a yield of ~ 117,086 kilotonnes. That's like 118 megatonnes. The nuclear bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki had a yield of something like 21 kilotonnes.

So, a quick bimble around other websites to avoid doing more maths early on a Sunday gave the following snippets of information:

It doesn't directly correlate, but a quick search around for an effect of a 118 megatonne impact from a comet onto Earth (http://personals.galaxyinternet.net/tunga/I7.htm) gave the interesting figure of a 7.7 km area for a blast wave of 50 pounds/square inch.

Heading to a different website, the nuclear weapons effects calculator at Stardestroyer.net (http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/index.html), we can see that each missile would have the following effects:

Thermal radiation radius (3rd degree burns) - 82.5km
Air blast radius (widespread destruction) - 34.9km
Air blast radius (near-total fatalities) - 13.2km
Ionizing radiation radius (500 rem) - 7.7km
Fireball duration - 38.5 seconds
Fireball radius (minimum) - 2.9km
Fireball radius (airburst) - 3.6km
Fireball radius (ground-contact airburst) - 4.7km

Of course, a fireball on Earth (far bigger than Europa, not made of ice and water) is far less destructive than on Europa (fragile teraform atmosphere, almost entirely ice and water).

Sunset, please don't use those missiles on earth. :( I'm not sure what planet they were designed for use on, but it sure as hell wasn't inhabited.

OOC:

Oh, hey, c'mon. Couldn't this be argued out a little first? Sketch, don't tar ALL the Allied forces in the RP with the same brush.


EDIT- By the way, Sunset is in the wrong. & being absurd, come to think of it. I'll leave it to someone smarter than I to explain in detail, because my case would likely be arguable, if barely.

The silent ice of Europa erupted with a terrifying scream as great sections exploded in a shower of water and dirt. Massive clouds of steam billowed out from the exit scars, obscuring great chunks of the land.

From his position at the rear of the force, Zdrilic bellowed his orders, though in the confusion of the event ocurring they were slow to reach and too slow to provide assistance to the imminent situation.

"All stop! Battlestations!"


The first missile struck home only four seconds later, the powerful warhead tearing into a Gravtank even as it whined in a vain attempt to outmanuever the weapon.

For a few seconds, it skewered to the right, before the warhead deep inside the Anti-Gravitic craft exploded. A shower of red hot shards flew a path of death out from the impact zone. Dozens of Guardians fell to the cold floor, clutching their necks as they spasmed their entire blood supply on to the alien wastes.

Others made no movements, their precious hermetical seal broken by a shard through their visor, ending both their flight and their life.


Another warhead imploded amongst a squad of Guardians, their deathscreams audible on the CommNets for only a millisecond before the nearest Gravtanks were splattered with their remaining blackened limbs and internal organs in a grotesque display of intent.

All the while the Keanians formulated no reply, still struggling to ensure they could issue commands before thinking about even acting on the events and commanding a response.

A fourth missile was thwarted only slightly by the quick thinking of a Gravtank crew, managing instead to avoid an immediate collision. However they recieved limited kindness in return, their Anti-Gravitic drives destroyed by the detonation, the Tank slumped to the ground, immobilised totally.

Like a fiery shower of death the missiles continued to descend, striking and cripping, vapourising and injuring at will.


Zdrilic cursed as another Gravtank exploded, crashing to the ice in a fiery death-dance.

"Fire the siege engines!"

His aide looked on, mortified. "Sir, they are not designed for such combat, they cannot hope to pinpoint..."

"Do not question me! We need time to mount an immediate counter-attack, and this will buy us a little more.....carry out my orders"




From the rear of the Keanian army, the slumbering form of the massive weapons of war awoke, their AIs brought online by the panicky orders of an organic adept serving as command assistant.

Verifying systems>>>

VERIFIED>

Accquring targetting vectors>>>

VECTORS LOCKED>



From behind the steam and smoke filed curtains that billowed over the ruined form of Gravtanks and Guardians alike, hell's fury flew.


Great plumes of Photofluerescent death tore over the Europan landscape. The ice itself on the surface beginning to melt as the soaring beam flew overhead, the gases filling the toxic atmosphere superheating themselves.

The siege engines were designed not for pin-point attack, instead their great beams were improvised to a new use. Though he did not know the exact location of Sketchen forces now firing on them, the beams fired blindly, but mercilessly. Highly energised plamsa burrowing into the sides of immense glaciers, before melting massive sand dunes into nothingines.

As the last of the great war machines, centuries old, the secrets of their construction lost for generations came online, the ground itself sagged with the temperatures being exchanged. Guardians threw themselves to the ground as the beams struck closely, their ancient targetting computer intelligneces attempting to "guess" where the Sketchens were.

Finally, silence descended. The reserves of the towering cannons were exhuasted for now, their massive battery cells drained and powerless.


Zdrilic acted quickly, he knew that whilst the Sketchens may have taken casualties from his improper use of the seige weaponry, equally they may have taken not a single hit- he did not know.

But he could not remain here, being slowly taken apart, and firing in total obscurity in return.

Seizing the initiative, he took hold of the VoxCaster.

"All units, advance at full capability, repeat, advance and stop not until you are stepping on their shoes!"


At once the Keanians stuttered forward, slowly at first as each unit and regiment recieved the orders. Gravtanks levitated upwards, before firing their particle cannons, great bolts of luminous yellow scything into the dunes and glaciers. The warhost pushed on, gaining speed, the Angels Corsair, hand to hand combat specialists screamed their deathly chants, their weilded blades and pistols waving frantically as they sought nothing but to meet their enemy in glorious combat.

Behind them vast ranks of Guardians sprinted forward, maintaining uniform speed and shape.

Vast legions of Gravtanks skimmed forward, laying down a withering hail of energy bolts. The occasional missile letting fly from their launchers as they sought to apply some pressure to Sketchen forces.


The battle had begun....


[OOC: I think that was a fair post...... ;) But seriously, I do hope Sketch your going to carry on....I am looking forward to it immensly after all... ]

OOC: *bangs head against table many times.*
I hate you all....ahem.
I do have to agree with WV on this Sunset. A couple of ounces of matter/anti-matter isn't going to punch a hole in armor...it will vaporize an intire chunk of the moon. E = (mc^2)/(1-v^2/c^2)^(1/2): where m = mass, c = speed of light, v = velocity of object. (You're all used to the simplified version, however the simplified version is simply for potential energy in objects at rest. This is the one for moving objects)

A couple of ounces is many magnitudes of size too much for the job.
A far cheaper solution may just be a kinetic weapon, a hard material of your choice, delivered at mach 15 would be rather powerful. Wether of not it can penetrate AT-AT armor, I don't know, but something at that speed of good size could probably knock an AT-AT on its side. (sorry Sketch, but the standard AT-AT doesn't look like most stable weapons platform.)

Still waiting on a map for my forces, I'm not taking such a cheap victory Sketch, so game on.

About the map, what Scolo did for our map of Titan, was get a surface picture of Titan from NASA's satellites, assumed dark spots were low, light spots were high elevation, and worked from there.

[OOC: Well, I don't think I've been especially unfair....and Sketch has been reasonable in turn. I don't use anything approaching what Sunsets using becuase I quite simply am not intelligent enough to understand it. Beserker, I might even take offence to being hated ^_^ ]

(OOC: *peeks head in, looks around, walks back out*)

[OOC]
Is that what you wanted? I'm tired of being forced to "play along."


This goes both ways sketch. I am tired as well of the way you make assumptions about other's equipment and dictate tactics for your opposition. If you wanted to tell a story, it would have been nice to have been filled in on it from the begenning. That's what you are trying to make this, a scripted sequence of events to your liking. Well, I never saw/read/approved any script, and if that is what you want, you'll be needing to look elsewhere.

OOC: Edited as appropriate. I am not a physic's major, though I suppose I am being forced to play one in NS.

I must agree with Karma on this one - this felt like a scripted war from the moment it started. While tech (which firmly belongs in the background) may have reared it's ugly head and interjected, the script was still there. Attackers have the upper hand here - we have the luxury of deciding when and where we will attack, and it seems as though it was decided for us. /micro-rant.

IC:

Admiral Eddings had essentially stepped back from the battle - he was coordinating the search and rescue and recovery effort of the SDF forces. This had given him some time to think however, and talk with the other fleet commanders. It was time to put his thoughts into action.

"Comm's - I'm going to record a message for general transmission. Request that the signal jamming stop long enough for it to be transmitted, and again at random intervals." "Aye Admiral."

Eddings punched the controls, and stood so if by some chance they had visual still the clean bridge of his ship would be seen.

"This is Admiral Eddings of the Republic of Sunset. I am calling on the Sketchian military to lay down their arms and surrender. I do not wish to see any more death and bloodshed on either side. All we ask is that you turn over those who ordered the attack on the World Disc.

If you agree, lower your weapons and power down your weapon systems. You will not be harmed, you have my word of honor."

He paused. "Stop recording."

"Begin transmitting that - every possible frequency. Have the fleet do it as well, so we get multiple angles onto the planet."

[FYI]
The war was scripted from the beginning. Obviously Angelus had failed to mention that fact. I had assumed that it was communicated to you, considering that you guys are all on the same team. Did not seem overly convient that I would play into your hands every round? And how even with my chosen tech that I would so easily sucumb? Even my defenses were fundamentally flawed. With those flaws pointed out with the equivilent of a professor stomping his foot at a lecture when explaing a point {for those who don't know, foot stomping means "this will be on the final"}. I have held up my end of the bargin the enitre way.

However, I am now no longer inclined to continue playing this scripted war, as I do not see the desired outcome having been "earned" yet. Therefore, consider the "script" scrapped. I will no longer play with the intentions of allowing an easy victory.

For Sunset: I propose that we restart the assualt. I admit that my initial response post may have been quite insulting for your attack. I basically dismissed your attack out of ICly because I felt that it was quite a bit of wankery. Since I do not ignore things, I let players know my thoughts by posting a similarily wanking response.

For Kaenei: I have no problem with your RP, and as such you will find yourself justly rewarded for being reasonable.

For All: This is how I deal with RP. I admit that I may get out of line occansionally, throwing a hissy fit here and there. So I do not mind being told by the majority that I need to re-evaluate. But, I also dislike being told to shut up and deal, humored, or simple belittled.

OOC: I'd like to see how this works first. If you want to rewind (which is fine) this will happen anyway.

IC:

Admiral Eddings had essentially stepped back from the battle - he was coordinating the search and rescue and recovery effort of the SDF forces. This had given him some time to think however, and talk with the other fleet commanders. It was time to put his thoughts into action.

"Comm's - I'm going to record a message for general transmission. Request that the signal jamming stop long enough for it to be transmitted, and again at random intervals." "Aye Admiral."

Eddings punched the controls, and stood so if by some chance they had visual still the clean bridge of his ship would be seen.

"This is Admiral Eddings of the Republic of Sunset. I am calling on the Sketchian military to lay down their arms and surrender. I do not wish to see any more death and bloodshed on either side. All we ask is that you turn over those who ordered the attack on the World Disc.

If you agree, lower your weapons and power down your weapon systems. You will not be harmed, you have my word of honor."

He paused. "Stop recording."

"Begin transmitting that - every possible frequency. Have the fleet do it as well, so we get multiple angles onto the planet."

[OOC]
Such a surrender request may be graced with an answer later on, but not now. Watch my propaganda machine at work :wink:


A transmission issued out from the Sunset fleet, requesting that the Sketchan military surrender peacefully. Military command receivers, the source for all transmissions within the Sketchan armed forces quickly intercepted the request before it could be processed. Using a powerful voice transmission rescripter, the original message was subtlely altered and sent out through the channels:

"This is Admiral Eddings of the Republic of Sunset. I demand that the Sketchian military to lay down their arms and surrender unconditionally. Refusal to comply will result in your destruction. We will exact our vengeance on those who dare oppose us. Surrender now and your death will be quick and painless.

Upon hearing the transmission, the Sketchian military went into an uproar at such an outrageous demand. Set with grim determination, troops throughout the Sketchian forces vowed to themselves to give the enemy no quarter.

[OOC]
In the infamous words of the Black Knight - [i]"None shall pass!"

(OOC: sorry sorry, it's to interesting not to... *tag*)

The Sketchian battle commander was amazed by the ancient warmachines as they came to life and spewed deadly fire all across the battlefield. Such was not expected of the decriped looking hulks. Mountains of ice melted before the onslaught of blazing inferno, the ground itself buckled from the intense heat. Tanks, armored slaves and entire squads of men were reduced to ashes and smoldering hulks as the powerful beams swept across the terrain in an effort to locate the enemy. Only the impeding terrain and scattered, unfocused fire of the hulking war machines prevented truly devastating effect.

As the intense firestorm ceased, Sketchian forces began pouring through the convient pathways left behind from the scathing blasts. With tanks going first, their cannons blazing with energy discharges, the troops followed in a frenzied charge, preparing to throw themselves at the enemy. The more mobile armored slaves bounded over the glacial obstacles and icey mounds, focusing on taking care of the immensely powerful {now priority targets} war machines.

The mamoth transport subs continue to disgorge wave after wave of tanks and troops, adding to the apparently endless flow of rabid Sketchian wardogs.

===================

From a far off base, Sketchian space pilots, already debriefed and itching once more to go to battle, eagerly prepare to assualt the invading forces. Although atmospheric conditions are not the most favorable for crafts of space borne design, the space fighters make up for the short coming with much heavier weapons. The first wave of fighters lumber {comparatively to atmospheric fighters} their way across Europa, spewing radioactive heat waste from their engines. The regular atmospheric fighters, far more delicate {again comparatively} than their space counter parts, will remain grounded until softer targets present themsleves.

[OOC]
I'm assuming that your war machines are similar to the walkers and/or dreadnoughts from WH40K Eldar units. And thus, I'm likewise assuming that my AS units (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=56805&highlight=) are of similar size with lighter firepower. Let me know if I am wrong on either case.

OOC: A little assumption on my part - Since my attack is just beginning Angelus has not joined the fray on the surface yet. How this is all going to like up with Kaenei's attack, I don't know. But things are going to change as well - especially as I don't have any support from Angelus (Yet, no idea whether he will continue this.)

IC:
The '0' appeared on the surface in a wash of energy in a pre-arranged pattern. They would secure the hole in the shield, at least for the time being. The aero-space fighters and assault shuttles arrived minutes later, shuttles hitting the ice as their doors swung up. Troops poured out, placing equipment in a large circle 1km in diameter. Sensor arrays, targetting computers, and other bits of electronics. It was all rigged to blow of course - if they were forced to withdraw they wouldn't let anything fall into enemy hands.

"Major - we already have movement. Sketchian forces have begun moving to seal the breach. Best guess is a million men." "Hmm, wouldn't expect less really. We need to try to exploit this, but I want everyone ready to pull out at a moments notice. Have Lt. Roskins and his squad deploy their equipment. 80% odds say we are going to have to pull out."

Overhead the targetting information being gathered along with the new intelligence was being crunched by the distributed computing power avaliable to the fleet. Target assignments were relayed out - it was a lot of computing power - and the first missiles leapt from their tubes. The fighters that launched were at altitude, thus they had nearly a straight shot down and away towards their targets.

Their targets were anything transmitting more than average. Command and control centers, information gathering centers, and 'command' vehicles. Of course, much of this was a guess. 3 minutes of information gathering, while fed through a massive mainframe that sorted the information based on various criteria, was still only 3 minutes. 'Strike while the iron is hot' they say. Of course 'they' didn't have a good chance of dying on some frigid iceball far from home.

OOC: Call it a 100km circle. Constant acceleration, impact/remote/'distruction' detonated depending on the situation. Once they are armed (1km) they explode if anything ruptures the bottle. I'm not going to list numbers - they are simply equal to light anti-starship missiles. How many installations (within reason) and how many the computer feels need to be neutralized is up to you.

[OOC: Your almost right there, but think of them as a good deal larger verging on the equivielent "Titans" of WH40k, they are very rare machines, and the secret of their manufacture is long since shrouded in the mists of time, as such they are heavily protected, and are always lying to the rear of the army....]


Gravtanks danced a lethal waltz of destruction with their Sketchen counterparts. Great bolts of yellow screaming from the Keanian tanks in reponse to the hellacious fire being layed down by the defenders.

Here and there a Gravtank would detonate, her immensely strong hull being ripped apart internally like an eggshell.

Here and there another would list carelessly to the side, and plow down into the thick ice and snow, her Anti-Gravitic propulsion damaged beyond use or repair, her fate decided even as her crew scrambled to leave their stricken craft.


At the head of the Kenian line, the Angels Corsair tore towards the first Sketchen defenders onrushing. Their blood red armour a stark contrast to the muted whites of the alien landscape sorrounding them.

Long blades, cruelly tipped with trecherous barbs that begged for tender flesh and fragile muscle waved from their frenzied hands.

The Angels were from their inception, designed only for the melee of combat.

Unlike the well balanced, finely tuned Guardian squads, with their tactical flexibility, the Angels despised ranged weaponry, and none would be found beyond a pistol within the squad.

From their helmet muzzles their terrifying calls for Sketchen blood echoed a hunded times, combined with their numbers allowed their warcries to permeate even the heated sound of the battle already raging.

Leaping over rocks, splintered craft and cold bodies, they would be the first Keanians to see combat.


Already behind, the Guardians were making up ground, arranging themselves into complex tactical formations, dividing into heavy weapons and assault specialists.


Though they had taken considerable casualites for the amount of combat time the fleets of Gravtanks now pressed home their presence. With a third remaining as an effective screen for the giant War machines the remaining vessels surged forwards, their powerful Gravitic drives driving their considerable mass onwards.

A wall of Energetic death leapt from these armoured tanks, phase cannons spat yellow bolts at a startling rate, the stray shots sinking into the rapidly warming ice of the Jovian moon.

Swirls of smoke painted amusingly abstract patterns as Impact missiles tore from their launchers, making for the enemy.




From Orbit, the great launch doors of the Deliverance slowly opened. From behind these massive panels, the running lights of craft shone bright.

With an airless announcment, sleek and speedy vessels slipped from their mothership with startling grace.

Their engines dead, with no discernable power output they fell towards the Europan surface....

[OOC]
Great........big honkin siege machines, titan style. The ONE thing I didn't think I needed to have for this :x My armored slaves are totally outclassed. I was hoping for hand-to-hand with them, but thats not gonna happen :?

Sorry about the lack of any IC response for the weekend.... I promise to post results/flavor/stuff tonight after classes.

Quick question, has my antics driven everyone away? If so, I am truly sorry. But I stand by my statements nontheless.

[OOC: This a little something I've knocked up for Sketch- Its one of the "Titan" Siege Machines, on the frozen hellhole we like to call Europa- there are three of these machines.]

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/388479/IceWorld2.jpg

{response for sunset}

[OOC]
Assuming non-invovlement from Angelus at this point. Giving myself the luxury of having already started disembarking troops (your call if you wish otherwise). Oh yeah, there are no installations, only units around to get hit. So don't be too disappointed :wink:


The lumbering AT-ATs advance toward the Sunset forces with their side panels open, exposing multiple decks of MI troopers. MI troops readied themselves and grasping the quickdrop lines, eagerly awaiting the green light from the dropmaster. They were soon obliged, as the command for deployment went out to all the transports to deploy the troops. All around, waves of troops can be seen rapidly descending on droplines from the AT-ATs. Upon hitting the ground, troops immediately fanned out, establishing an orderly network of positions and battle formations. All the preparations were performed on the move, as the AT-ATs; having relieved themselves of the troop burden, switched into assualt mode, and charged towards the enemy. The troops, enhanced by power armor and concealed by environmental camo, bounded behind the charging AT-ATs like snowdevils on the hunt.

Such would be the ideal situation, however it was not to be.

The Sunset forces, with their tactical sensor advantage, spotted the AT-ATs from far off, near the edge of the desired troop drop envelope. As early warning alarms screamed at the AT-AT pilots, each would take individual measures to accomplish the mission. For the most part, the pilots would choose to deposit their load prematurely, rationalizing that troops too far from the drop zone were better than troops sealed in wreakage. On each of the transports, the soldiers would handle the situation in their own little way.

The scene aboard transport ECHO-7 was one of frantic efficiency. Only the rigorous training and multiple combat deployment experience prevented chaos from erupting. In thier hurry to deploy, troopers would descend by 3 or 4 at a time on a single line, far exceeding the standard quick drop saftey policey. Those who did not move fast enough were literally assualted by Dropseargent Hernadez who would scream encouraging things such as [i]Get off my transport now you scum! or If you don't move that ass of yours right now, I'm gonna kick it off the side!, a threat that carried the distinct possiblility of being carried out.

By the time the missiles arrived on target, the transports were in various stages of deployment. To combat the incoming waheads, the AT-ATs had put up a withering hailstorm of fire, in hopes of downing at least a few of the missiles. Such was in vain, the targeting computers were designed to cope with far less mobile ground and air targets. The missiles, seeking concentrations of radio signals (ie, indications of command signals), vectored directly towards the "head" of the gigantic beasts. The AT-ATs, being central to the troop deployment effort, have kept in constant communication, broadcasting signals to each other to maintain strict formation cohesion. Such was their downfall, as the Sunset forces sought to take out the central command node.

Heavy battle plating and energized shielding did little to stop the onslaught as missile after missile impacted upon the front line transports. Some of the transports would reamin standing "headless"; having been struck directly in the radio transceiver, whilst others would make almost graceful falls; after taking hits all along the sides and sometimes legs.

Many of the missiles, seeking the closest priority targets, would change direction and go for the tanks and/or AS on the ground. The unfortunate tank crews would frantically maneuver around the battlefield, attempting to avoid the plunging spear; sometimes succeding, but many times not. The always cocky AS pilots gave amazing displays of acrobatics as they lept out of the way of many a warhead, only to be blind-sided but yet another unaccounted for.

Within moments the missile barrage ended, all of them having eventaully found something to hit. A quick scan of the battlefield would show that many of the walkers have been downed, being the most visible targets in the area. In lesser numbers lay tanks and AS suits, most of which were rendered into so much scrap metal by the potent warheads. As communications was restored and squads began checking in one by one, the command hierarchy was quickly restored. Those that were removed from combat, were replaced by the next in command; as per codex battle discpline. While overall strategic area command was disabled, the individual units still knew their missions and continued to push on. Strategic battle plans and the following chess game of war will have to wait unti lthe next wave arrives.

Undaunted my the massive Sunset assualt, the Armored Slave companies immediately switched on their suit's stealth mode; effectively rendering them invisible in the full EM spectrum, and fanned out by platoon. The AS troops, being on the assualt team decided to arm themselves with the heavy wepons option before leaving base, seeking to eliminate enemy armor before it could reach the frontlines. As they faded from the sensors like ghosts, the AS units sprinted foward in a silent charge, like so many ninjas in the old myths.

Likewise, the tank commanders directed that they energy cannons be optimized for light armored vehicle assualt. Together with the MI troops, they began a steady advance of the Sunset position, utilizing all the cover they could from the surrounding mountains of ice.

===================

The area commander, surviving the attack only by virtue of a personal policey of not actively broadcasting command comms, puts in a call for an airstrike. It was now obvious that the Sunset forces were far more prepared than previously expected, having been able to deploy air assets along with ground ones. They will have to be taken care appropriately.

Already in the air, several wings wheel about to answer the commanders call. sonic booms cound be hear across the landscape as the fighters flew with all due speed to to their new mission coordinates.

{see above post for where these fighters came from}

Me still waits for map...

{response for Kaenei}

[OOC]
Your sick......... :lol: 3 you say? No way any field commander could miss one of these, they'd have to be blind, deaf, AND dumb! I'm not relly sure if anything short of a tactical nuke will be able to down one of those....... Gah, its too late, and I still have homewrok to do. I'll post another response in the morning. Sorry guys, but druing the school week, I don't really have much time :?

Me still waits for map...

I know, I'm sorry. Working on it.......

"This looks good. Very good actually." Dean watched the reports come back. The Sketchian forces were advancing, but their comm's traffic had dropped in responce to the missile strikes. Which meant they would either be operating 'blind' in regard to information, or were falling back to a different comm system.

"I want sensor's trained on every advancing inch - if they are using a different comm method I want to know what it is." He looked over the intel for a moment. "Most of their troops are on foot now - sensor readings are fairly faint, which means they have a stealth system of some kind. Everyone keep an eye out for infiltrators."

'Still have half a million troops coming at us though...'

Making a quick distance guess Dean marked 32 points in a large circle on the perimeter. The distance was based on their own speed - their battlesuits had flightpacks, so they moved pretty quickly. "Shuttle flights 1-32, I want you to put down at these points. Grab your counterpart fighter flight for air cover."

The men hurried to fulfill the orders. The shuttles moved out - they dashed for the indicated positions. They would only have a minute to setup.

"Deploy sensor pylons - if you see anything, tanks and armor especially, hit it. I want them to think our position and thus our force is bigger than it seems. Drop a Hunter at each position too - bury it if you have time. If you take any fire, retreat to the fleet. Just in case you take casualties."

Recon from the fleet had come streaming in. Fighters were coming in. Dean saw the warning flash on his HUD. "Incoming fighters - targetting data should be coming in. Fighters are to engage at maximum range, 1/2 acting as high cover and anti-missile defense. Continue with anti-transmission fire as well - if anything comes in from Fleet go with it."

Dean thought the situation over for a moment. 'Always assume you are fighting yourself.' "All other shuttles, scatter. Keep something at your back. All squads - stay 100-200 feet from a shuttle. Assume we pull out in 15 minutes."

Lt. Roskin came up in his Crisis suit. "Orders complete - we are good at 1km." "Excellent."

OOC: I guess we see - if Angelus doesn't continue this I don't see a reason to keep fighting. While I feel this is justified considering the civilian losses on the world disc, I'm not going to pull back and ortillery you if he doesn't want to continue. I guess we willl see though, eh?

Having completed their trip to the far side of the shield, the 4th Titan Drop Squadron arrives on station over the Sunset forces. The AWACS unit is the first to open comms.

"This is Echo-3-1 to all units, datalink active, multiple inbound air contacts. Fighter drag, clear the decks."

Aboard the each dropship, 6 pilots already in their cockpits, fire up their Peregrine Medium Fighter engines, and launch, assembling their 240 number into sixty flights of four. However, they hold towards the back of the now hovering formation.

"Sunset forces, this is Colonel Kardeman of the TYCS. Clear datum to the Sketchan forces, we are commencing attack."

Assuming a clear lane of fire, the gunships go to work. The Sleipnir's and Loki's armed with HNPPC open fire on the fighter formations, bright blasts of energy reaching out for targets. At the same instant, each Loki retracts hull plating along the leading edge of its thick wings, revealing massive arrays of small diameter kinetic missile tubes. With silent efficiency, swarms of the small gravitic missiles clear the tubes, targetted against the Sketchan fighters. These missiles operate on advanced optical target recognition systems, designed to ignore modern battelfield jamming. Immediatley following the barrage, the fighter groups swing around and head off, half 90degrees left, half 90 degrees right, intending to come in on both sides of the Sketchian fighters. The gunships begin targeting ground forces (tanks and AT-AT priority targets at this range), opening up with Heavy Gauss, and HNPPC at extreme range. The Heavy Gauss on the topside of the Loki, hidden from the ground fire arc for the most part, continue to target the fighters, recieving targetting data from the AWACS units. Moving out of their hover, the Drop Squadron spreads into a combat spaced line, point defense units at the front, and advances on the ground units.

"This is Echo-6-1 (basically, an uber J-STARS). We are detecting localized magnetic field distortions, and localized gravity returns, but not picking anything up on the other sensors. Data suggests cloaked ground forces. Retargeting data on the link, adjust fire."

The ships with the lighter pods start attacking the AS units area with gauss and rotaryautocannon, unleashing more salvos of kinetic missiles. The heavies chime in occasionaly, lancing the ground with Particle Cannon fire.

"Sunset forces, Colonel Kardeman. TYCS datalink is active. Set your CRM-114 descriminator to the prearranged code prefix."

"SIR! Whiskey-24 is damaged!"

The colonel snaps around to the tactical display, showing a high-res closeup of the Loki.

"Whiskey-24, this is Alpha-6. What is your status?"

"Colonel! We had an energy feedback from one of the gauss! The capacitor bank overloaded and exploded."

The image showes smoke billowing from the underslung gunpod.

"We have several gunners critically injured, and ::craakkskakfasd:: ving power fluctutions throu::sssshhhasf::bilical cable."

Kardeman watches as another explosion rips through the pod.

"Clear everyone out of the pod and jettison it. Make best speed to orbit if you can. An engineering/recovery vessel will meet you in LEO."

"Understood sir, pod evacuated, initiating inflight disconnect. 3. 2. 1. Drop. Pod away, clean seperation. We are outta here."

The pod falls in a ballistic arc, burying itself into the side of a glacial mountain in a thunderous crash that reverberates across the barren wastes.

"Dammit. Comms, get the rest of the squadron on ready alert, and have the WepTechs recheck all the weapons. We cannot afford non-combat losses!" Kardeman turns back to fighting his ship, as the dull thuds of the Loki absorbing gauss recoil drum out their solemn cadence of destruction.

http://okcac.freeyellow.com/kardeman.gif
Colonel Brüt Kardeman
Commander, Fourth Titan Drop Squadron
First Titan Combined Fleet
Ordinance Enabled Karmic Hegemony of Karmabaijan
Triumvirate of Yut
Titan

From a distance they watched the Angel pierce the clouds, trailing debris, the once beautiful vessel now a crippled ruin. As one, their minds joined in a silent tribute to the fallen as they pushed ahead, their passions inflamed with the devastating loss on the part of their ally.

They would see them avenged.

The ice beneath them shook and quaked. The skies were filled with the roar of engines, the dark smoke of burning wreckage. And they pressed on. The Kaeneian ground forces were in sight, just ahead.

Forward they pushed, their cybernetic limbs tirelessly pumping, propelling them across the ice. As the enemy comes in sight, they are targeted with machinelike precision. Pulse rifles fire, RPG's are let loose, and the guns mounted on the battle jeeps tear into the opposing forces.

And they in turn are targeted. Here and there, bodies fall, torn by opposing fire, laying for now, forgotten along the frozen wasteland of the Europa surface as their comrades swarm past. Several of the jeeps are obliterated, exploding in a blast of flame and twisted metal, the shrapnel tearing into friend and foe alike.

It mattered not. The enemy was engaged, their allies were in need, and they would do what they were made to do. Fight.

ooc: Right. Bump. Haven't had a clue what to do, got tired of waiting, figured I'd throw what folks I have straight into the fray after talking with Kaenei, so here we go.

Correct if wrong, believe we have 1032 of these jeeps, 12,000 troops. Guns on the jeeps consist of two medium-range pulselasers, and two auto-load medium-range armor-piercers - 10 reloads each, 22 rounds total.

As was set up previously, 1000 of said jeeps are scattered through the forces, with 32 running in groups of three 'round the perimeter of the force. Others move out to take the place of the fallen. Once we're more firmly engaged, other moves to follow.

Troops are pretty much borg'ed out, armed with High-powered pulse rifles, hand-held plasma ejectors, RPGs, and a variety of nasty bladed hand-to-hand weapons for up close personal encounters. One other little thing to be rp'd out later when appropriate.

I'm assuming we'd be fired on as we arrived, no problem, but will wait to see a response if any to post total losses.

[OOC]
I will do my best to respond to posts in a timely matter {for me}. But the end of the term is nearing and I have projects and finals to do/study for. Once term break starts, in one and a half week's time, I will be able to do NS 24/7.

Our ground forces will most likely be outnumbered, as they are rigourusly trained, with a high drop out rate, coupled with the fact that equiping large forces with power armor is down right expensive. Most likely, Sketchian ground forces will outnumber Trium ground forces, along with having emplacement, and familiarity advantages. Thats why aerospace superiority is important, because if we have it, we can focus our vast aerospace resources and supporting the groundpounders. The fight is lopsided now, but it will all balance out on the ground.

So with all that said, I hope you understand where we're coming from, and that we're not trying to screw you out of the invasion you had desired. We're just using the tactics we think right to prep for the invasion.

Game on?

As for Praetor, I'd like to know why he/she is getting involved, as per Sketch's comment at the start of the thread:
[OOC]Only IC comments, and keep them to a minimum if your not directly involved. Ie. If your not in the Trium or your not allied to me, then you're not directly involved. OOC comments can be TGed to me. If you wish to become involved, TG me or a Trium member.

Not complaining, but I would like to keep random people from jumping in because they feel like a good ole' war. (We've all seen what that ends up causing)

ooc: I know it's a bit late to reply to this, and I would like to get involved in this thread, but unfortunately I'm too swamped with school work and other things to get involved. Which is why you haven't seen me rping at all. I made that post about my return, then got swamped with schoolwork and have had 0 time to be active on the boards, some return huh? Anyways, I'm not sure exactly when I'll be able to actually be very active again as after finals I'll be travelling and then back home, so probably sometime in december or january I'll eb active again, maybe in november before finals I'll have some time. Anyways, I haven't dissapeared, I'm just busy.

Our ground forces will most likely be outnumbered, as they are rigourusly trained, with a high drop out rate, coupled with the fact that equiping large forces with power armor is down right expensive. Most likely, Sketchian ground forces will outnumber Trium ground forces, along with having emplacement, and familiarity advantages. Thats why aerospace superiority is important, because if we have it, we can focus our vast aerospace resources and supporting the groundpounders. The fight is lopsided now, but it will all balance out on the ground.

So with all that said, I hope you understand where we're coming from, and that we're not trying to screw you out of the invasion you had desired. We're just using the tactics we think right to prep for the invasion.

Game on?

As for Praetor, I'd like to know why he/she is getting involved, as per Sketch's comment at the start of the thread:
[OOC]Only IC comments, and keep them to a minimum if your not directly involved. Ie. If your not in the Trium or your not allied to me, then you're not directly involved. OOC comments can be TGed to me. If you wish to become involved, TG me or a Trium member.

Not complaining, but I would like to keep random people from jumping in because they feel like a good ole' war. (We've all seen what that ends up causing)

ooc: I know it's a bit late to reply to this, and I would like to get involved in this thread, but unfortunately I'm too swamped with school work and other things to get involved. Which is why you haven't seen me rping at all. I made that post about my return, then got swamped with schoolwork and have had 0 time to be active on the boards, some return huh? Anyways, I'm not sure exactly when I'll be able to actually be very active again as after finals I'll be travelling and then back home, so probably sometime in december or january I'll eb active again, maybe in november before finals I'll have some time. Anyways, I haven't dissapeared, I'm just busy.
So is everyone else.
*groans and goes back to work on aerospace engineering degree*

ooc:

Ok, I have not been busy with school, but two of my roomates got drunk the other day and in the insuing madness, they spilled milk all over my fecking keyboard.

SO, I hace some major ideas rolling around inside my skull, and I will come up with an extensive post ASAP.

{in Sketch Prime}

As the Angelan drones poured out onto the surface, they ruthlessly hacked away at anything and everything that stood in their way. Buildings, vehicles, troops, and civilians alike. Nothing could stop the blind rage of the mindless automatons. The defense minded Sketchian force setup was absolutely blindsided by the sudden attack from within. Totally unprepared, entire sections of city sucumb within the first few minutes of the assualt. In the face of the ever advancing line of machines that refuse to fear death, Sketchian troops were forced to slowly fall back to the center of the sprawling megatropolis. Entire city sectors were ceded to the vile creatures as the defenders were forced to fortify their new positions.

At the center of Sketch Prime loomed a massive fortress of monstorous proportions. The monumental edifice represented the power of the Sketchian government. With an almost gothic design, the heart of Sketch was liberally endowed with bulwarks, archways, bridges, and portcullis. just like the ancient castles of medival times. The outer wall of solid rock was separated from the main wall by a dry moat of the most arcane design, which exteded down to unknown depths {dramatic license}. From the saftey of the inner wall, the repositioned Sketchian troops and armor stationed themselves all along the perimeter. Along with the roving patrols of MI troops, specialty urban warfare tanks, the HAW-206 "Spider" UBT (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=74125&highlight=) kept careful watch over the expansive kill zones all around the outer wall. With the defensive forces finally in place, the city field commander orders that the gates be closed. Let the drones wander the city in search new victims, so long as the heart of Sketch Prime remained intact.

All across the city one would be able to see rolling blackouts, as AI and organics duke it out in the virtual world. Each entity struggled for control of the extensive Sketchian computer network, seeking to deny the other of any ground. The combinant minds would engage in scathing attacks whilst sending in infriltaration programs. False networks would be created to trap the unwelcomed intruder. Each time a counter attack was launched, a fearsome feedback loop would be initiated, generating "pain" across the network. Within in the "prisons" automated systems worked feverishly to keep the collective in working condition. Capasules were disconnected and new ones hooked up as brains fried from too much use at maximum capacity.

Once secure in their positions, an executive order was delivered to the field commander. Eliminate the Angelan presence from the city. At all costs. Permission to use the Centuarions (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=74125&highlight=) granted. As the message was relayed to the commander, vast subcity caverns revealed themselves. Sectors originaly marked as "transportation routes" and "cold storage units" became like anthills as the hunter-killer battlemechs charged out of their nests with their cannons blazing. Controled by mindwiped ex-convicts and other dregs of society, the brain control units kept the minds in a perpetual dreamstate, triggering appropriate repsonses in each situation. Fear triggers and aggression stimulants "help" the minds cope with the task.

With the Centuarions, squads of armored slave units, fitted with close quarters combat and anti-personnel weapons, began running patrols through the drone infested areas. The towering shapes of the mecha could be seen dominating the inner city battleground, cleaving through the ranks of drones. In a slow but steady pace, hunter-killers and AS units alike roam the streets in large packs, seeking to cleanse the filth from Sketch Prime.

{meanwhile at the Sea of Thorns......}

The Sketchians and Kaeniens clash in an epic struggle on the battlefield of life and death. Each trying to get the better of the other. Screaming "Angels" tear through the Sketchian ranks, only to be gunned down in turn by concentrated firepower. Guardians and MI exchange shots from the cover of ice terrain. Tanks maneuver in pairs trying to outflank their counterparts. Armored Slaves stride through the battlefield, dominating it with their towering presence, their anti-personnel weapons lashing out against the unfortunate soldiers that they found. All the while, the gigantic war machines of Kaenei sit quietly in the background, silent after the initial assualt.

Field commander Hummel calls in for an intelligence report on the massive titans. Intel AS squads report back with inconclusive results, having been unable to identify the exactly what the monstrous constructs are, what the weakness' may be, or even if they are stil operational. The Kaeneian war machines just sat there. With the experienced distrust that one only gets from being on the battlefield many times, field commander Hummel calls for a pre-emptive strike on the titans. Far behind enemy lines, no ground troops would be able to get close enough to deliver destructive ordinance. The delicately unstable icey crust of the Sea of Thorns ruled out the use of tactical nukes; the risk of plunging the enitre battlefield into the sea being too great. That left only one choice, the use of a conventional warheads in a massive strike. Only one delivery vehicle on the battlefield was capable of doing that.....the subs.

Like a chessmaster moving his pieces, field commander Hummel moved his subs to the outskirts of the battlegrounds. There they would proced to breach the surface once more. Safely out of sight, they would surface and unload their entire aresenal of missles into the unknown threat {the war machines}. Each sub is dedicated to carrying an inordinate amount of missiles, designed for the sole purpose of engaging ground forces traveling over the Sea of Thorns. {The concept (http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/cno/n87/usw/issue_13/ssgn.htm), think big sub with many, many big, honkin' cruise missiles} Within a few minutes, the subs arrive on station and begin to burn {melt} their way to the surface. With the same practiced precision, half a dozen subs break the surface of the ice in unison. The briefest of pauses is experienced as each sub synchronize with the ground sensors and each other to determine the nessessary payload and target output.

All systems green. Ready to deploy ordinance. Awaiting execution command.

The order is sent down the line, confirmed and passed to each sub command in quick succession. Within each sub, a low level officer hits the proverbial "red button", initiating a deadly sequence of electronic signals, culminating in the unmistakable swoosh of warheads leaving the subs in rapid succession. Great plumes of fire tower over the lanscape as missile after missle fly into the air. Radar screens go crazy with sensor "hits" as hundreds upon hundreds of contacts swarm the skies. Almost as quickly as they appeared, the contacts vanish, as each missile drops down to the ground, engaging in cruise missle mode - hugging the terrain on its target approach vector. Within moments they would "see" their targets and unleash their deadly firepower into the Kaeneian war machines.

[ooc]
for purposes of ease of damage declaration and to make my overwhelming numbers less "bad", I'll do a simply ratio damage declaration.

Assume 4:1 MI troops vs "Angels", 3:2 MI troops vs Guardians, 4:3 tanks, 5:4 armored slaves vs assorted armor. Not going to consider unlike units combating each other.

We can discuss better ratios if these aren't satisfactory.

{still in the Sea of Thorns but else where..........}

The Sketchian ground forces found themselves engaged by both air and ground units. The Sunsetian and Karmabaijan{no ending needed?} ruthlessly pounded the Sketchian ground troops from afar. With stalwart determination, MI troops continued to advance despite taking heavy loses. Armored vehicles fared much better, being designed to take this kind of punishment. The few AT-ATs left standing advance on enemy positions, deliberately attracting fire away from the "soft" troop targets on the ground.

Armored Slaves, in full battle stealth mode, quietly avoid direct confrontation with any and all forces. Their purpose was to penetrate deep into enemy territory and rip out the heart of the Sunsetian ground force command. Like ninjas, AS squads filter through the enemy lines, using incoming fire to conceal their own movements and damages. A mysteriously destroyed vehicle, a crushed troop squad, a shifting spectre in the Jovian light - only a few indications of an unknown presence, to be quickly forgotten in the heat of battle.

In the rear echelons, more Sketchian troops continue to arrive. Numbering nearly two million strong, they proceed to setup an elaborate encirclement of the ToY forces. As the vetern shock troops plowed inward, the main force begin forminga an ever tightening circle encapsulating the offending intruders. Further armor reinforcements continue to pass through the Sketchian lines to bring heavy fire support directly to the battlefield.

==============================

Meanwhile, the promised Sketchian air support come screaming in at full burn, only to find themselves faced with opposition from the other side. In a typical pincer move, a tactic established ever since the first days of warfare, the Karmabaijan air attack units attempt to assualt the Sketchian air support from two sides. In any normal situatu=ion such a tactic would be an unfettered success, but not when dealing with Defenders and their omni-directional specialty fighting capabilities. While the Defenders cut their engines and switch on their repulsor lift coils {typical SW tech, basically gravtech stuff, they're "floating"} in preparation to meet the incoming missiles/fighters head on, the Interceptors and Heavy fighters drop low to the deck {300 feet, very low} and prepare themselves for straight line strafing runs on enemy positions.

==============================

[ooc]
Uhh, damages for here is a little harder, since I had to take alot before even engaging. I got a handful of AT-ATs left, lost a hundred or so tanks and armored slaves {each}, nearly a thousand or so troops, and 50% command efficiency. My next post regarding this theater will involve our forces meeting each other.....barring any new developments.

WTF?!?, didn't notice the double post.......

{Back to Kaeneian forces.....forgot about DLN}

Commander! We have reports of a new enemy force moving in from the Northeast. They have already started engaging our troops along that line.

Very well, I want you to redirect some of our armored slave units to deal with it. This battle is proceeding well, We don't need any more interference.

Throughout the battlegrounds, the towering armored slaves began shifting their approach. No longer were they headed towards the heart of the Kaeneian force, but rather, they headed towards the new threat. Undaunted by small arms fire from enemy positions, they bounded from patch to patch of battlefield, not caring where they landed. With resounding crashes, the pilots would land on the ground, the more sadistic ones aiming to crush enemy forces, other times they would look for a tank to take out, often flipping them over and piercing the bottom like a soft, fleshy belly.

Cries ring out over the comms as cyborg like entities crash through the beleagured Northeastern flank. MI troops concetrating on the Kaenian forces suddenly found themselves engaged from two sides, forcing them to split their fire power. Tanks wheel about to deal with the speeding vehicles within the moving mass of cybernetically enhanced bodies. Adjusting their cannons for full spread anti-personnel output, the tanks shoot out great gouts of blinding fire into the approaching wave.

Relief comes in the form of falling silhouettes. Armored slaves come crashing down from the sky, landing in the midst of frontlines. High powered flechette cannons chatter with a deadly cadence as suppressive fire is poured down on the opposing force.

============================

[ooc]
initial clash, not gonna declare damages yet.

<a place holder in case I forgot anyone else>

Oh yeah, Berserk.......you have an army of ninjas. Land where ever you want. Go where ever you want. I won't see you until you do something, and maybe not even then. How's that sound? I can't figure this stupid TerrGen thingie out, too complicated for my point and click brain.

Basically, you declare actions and I'll declare damages until you do something major. Sneaky sneaky bastard.................. :wink:

Assuming a clear lane of fire, the gunships go to work. The Sleipnir's and Loki's armed with HNPPC open fire on the fighter formations, bright blasts of energy reaching out for targets. At the same instant, each Loki retracts hull plating along the leading edge of its thick wings, revealing massive arrays of small diameter kinetic missile tubes. With silent efficiency, swarms of the small gravitic missiles clear the tubes, targetted against the Sketchan fighters. These missiles operate on advanced optical target recognition systems, designed to ignore modern battelfield jamming.

The Heavy Gauss on the topside of the Loki, hidden from the ground fire arc for the most part, continue to target the fighters, recieving targetting data from the AWACS units.

"This is Echo-6-1 (basically, an uber J-STARS). We are detecting localized magnetic field distortions, and localized gravity returns, but not picking anything up on the other sensors. Data suggests cloaked ground forces. Retargeting data on the link, adjust fire."

The ships with the lighter pods start attacking the AS units area with gauss and rotaryautocannon, unleashing more salvos of kinetic missiles. The heavies chime in occasionaly, lancing the ground with Particle Cannon fire.


AS units are EM invisible, but everything has an effect on local gravitic and magnetic properties. Well established that we have gravitic sensors.

stuff

Appropriately edited in damages, let me know if you want a little more "description" added.

At some other time I would like to disscuss the feasibility of using gravitivic accurately within a large gravity influence. Same with magnetic.

Waiting for other people.

Continuing the discussion.....

Yeah Karma, you did, I changed from handful to few hundred. Used some deft backspace action and overwritting :wink: I'll bold the section so you can see.

OOC: I dont see a change in your losses. Did I miss something?

OOC: Concur - nations that use gravetics are going to have means to detect them, and they can easily be improved to detect smaller mass movements.

IC:
Dean was watching the overall sensor picture - one of his command staff had alerted him to it. Mass sensors showed several large traces moving through the outer shuttle cordon, and towards the center. The Sketchian encirclement was complete as well, long range sensors showed more units pouring in to surround them.

'Like a nut in a cracker. Time to let them crack it.'

"All right - we have incoming. All ground teams, hit your shuttles. Outer shuttles, get out of there." All around him the teams obeyed their orders. Smaller stealth suits jumped into the shuttles, while heavier Crisis suits grabbed the loading handles and locked down on them.

"Once your mounted up, get outta here. Regroup here..." Dean sent out a location behind Kaenei, outside the shield. "Engage the fighters with long range fire, and watch your flank. The fleet will cover your transit."

Dean jumped on a shuttle, grabbing the loading hande and planting the splayed feet of the Crisis suit on a ledge meant for the situation. The pilot punched it, and the shuttle rose straight up.

"Air Command - take care of the incoming fighters and dump the rest of your anti-ship missiles into the ice. Lets make their advance a little harder."

In the 'air' the fighter wings continued targetting the incoming fighter wings. Fighters dumped their loads of anti-fighter missiles, grabbing 8 targets out of the cloud and launching them on fire-n-forget. It would be multiple missiles on a single target, but better overkill than under.

The Air Commander opened an all-fighter channel. "I'm redesignating the opposing fighters as large missiles in the perimeter defense system. Anti-missile systems should be responding now. As soon as the shuttles are past, everyone drop their remaining Hunter's straight down, and get outta here. Return to the carriers for re-arming when you do."

True to the statement, the two anti-missile tri-barrels on the bottom of the fighters responded to the new configuration and cut loose as the fighters closed. They were normally designed for shooting down missiles launched during the course of a space battle autonomously, but in this case there was not the large number of enemy missiles expected. Working through the threat list, they latched onto 'large missiles' as a tetriary priority and started firing. Long bursts of cyan fire erupted from the copper-annihilation weapons as they chewed through their ammo and the barrels themselves.

OOC:
Losses from the advancing Sketchian forces:
13 shuttles destroyed
23 shuttles damaged (still flight capable, shields down/hull damage)
5 fighters destroyed
8 fighters damaged (same as the shuttles)

More losses will occur as they pull back. Each of the overrun outer shuttle
positions explodes, remoted detonated 'mines' were among the equipment emplaced. Call it 100m initial blast radius, lesser damage out to 500m.

Note: Approx 650+ shuttles, 650+ fighters. The fighters and shuttles are both engaging with forward phaser cannon, the fighters adding the equivalent of air-to-air missiles to the mix. 8 missiles per fighter. They can hover on grav's as well, so they are not moving towards your fighters except as evasive manuvers dictate.