Onslaught – Chapter 1: The Flight of Angels

[Bakan]

Okay, my classes start for me tommarrow, starting with my day of hell no less.

DM will occur sometime Thursday or Friday.

[flapjack]

*As Flapjack stepped onto the bridge the expected transmission from the admiral came, immediatly the crew sprung to action, not bothering to salute their captain as he walked towards the center of the command bridge, the XO to busy shouting orders to notice his captain was now standing right next to him*

XO: "Disengage the docking clamps, maneuver us out of the station at once."

TO (Tactical Officer): "The repair team is still aboard sir, we shou.."

XO: "They'll have to come with us, we don't have any time to wait. Tell them they'll be stuck on this ship, we expect them to do their best and they'll even have a chance to get off at the colony, if they still want to."

TO: "Aye sir, relaying the message."

Comm: "We have priority undocking permission, as well all the other escort ships."

Helm: "Taking us out on primary drives, maximum safe speed."

SO (Science Officer): "Captain on the bridge sir."

*After the SO spoke the XO realised he'd managed to miss a tiny important thing, he immediatly turned and saluted to the captain, while the other officers continued doing their jobs. The XO was new but the rest of Flapjack's officer knew that in a crisis situation like this, the code of conduct went into the rubbish bin*

Flapjack: "At ease, take us into formation with the angels, check the stealth plating is intact and shutdown all unneccesary systems. SO, is that AI system up and running yet?"

SO: "The AI system is just being plugged into the main sensor net as we speak, it'll finish booting up in about 1 minute. The enhanced sensor array is completely installed and working perfectly."

EO: "All systems are opperational, despite some problems earlier with the AI trying to reroute power away from the engines, we should have all systems at full capicity. You'll also love to know I've installed some safety measures that'll allow much more precise control of powerlevels in the ship's systems."

Helm: "Clearing space docks now, forming up with angels."

SO: "Slaving the jump systems to the Red Sky At Dawn as ordered."

EO: "Main drives are cleared for full-power operation, maneuvering thrusters are ready to burn, all systems at peak efficiency, fusion beam cannon and the light plasma cannons charged and ready to fire."

TO: "And there'll be plenty of things to shoot at, that's something we can be sure about."

[No Dachi]

Originally Posted by Bakan

DM will occur sometime Thursday or Friday.

That means I don't have to post untill wednesday, right?

[/overworked ND]

[Insane. Badger]

Originally Posted by No Dachi

That means I don't have to post untill wednesday, right?

[/overworked ND]

in this thread, now get to work.

[No Dachi]

Originally Posted by Insane. Badger

in this thread, now get to work.

[anarcharnate]

"oi... i SAID, OI!!! Right, now, is everything up to standard? Well send them down to the gun bays then!"
Looking around his chaotic bridge, Novalis tried in vain to engage his crew. The new "repair teams" had upset the schecule, and his men were in chaos.
"Practically speaking... I SAID, practically speaking, get out of the Sol system- i don't know! Guess! Anyway, get out of Sol, we're spacing out of there. Come on!"
Checking his sensors again, Novalis cursed Brendel for his non-specific instructions. If only he knew what his aims were, he could instruct his crew properly. Calling for the main plasma cannonto be powered up, he checked the engine strength again.
"Redivert the supplemental repair to the tertiary engine bays... YES, i know! redivert, and that is most definately an order!"
Novalis sighed. This is going to be not only difficult, but painful as well. Cursing everything that watched upon him, he gently raised the engines forward. This would happen, despite him......

[Crazyboy]

Sparks flew from the hull of the Vegence as the engineers finished welding on the last of the armour plating. The ship was gleaming. Not only had the Engineers performed miricles with the construction of the new weapon systems on the ship, but they had also managed to polish the hull to a shine, making what was once an old gutted warship with half its bottom missing, to something resembling a ship newly out the construction line.

Richard smiled as he strolled up the loading ramp and onto his ship. Heavily damaged in their last engagement with the swarm, the Vengence had had its bottom literally ripped off. A huge gapping hole from bow to stern. Somehow, they had managed to survive out the rest of the battle, probably because the swarm ships thought the Vengence was dead. They had managed to slip away, and make it back to a friendly docks, where Richard recieved the orders to head to Utopia. After hurridly having the breaches sealed, albeit by having blast doors welded shut, and some quick repairs to the engines, the Vengence made its way to the Utopia shipyards. There it had ungone a major rebuild and refit. The hull was reshaped, the top half remaing virtually the same, while underneaf was fixed a very large gun, with some extra hull and armour fixed around it. Engines from a badly damaged gunship, which were in alot better condition then the Vengence's ones were fixed and replaced the old ones in the gunship.

And now the ship, after having hundreads of men and women work on it day and night, was like nothing Richard had seen before. He smiled again as the lift took him to the bridge. The ship was a hize of activity, as the Engineers started pulling out. The inards of the ship weren't quite fully complete. Panels were missing and wiring was still visible. But that mattered little now. The lift doors hissed open and Richard strode forward. His crew were already in place, at their stations, strapped into their seats and working over the controls.

"Status?"
"All systems green. Engine shakedown is commencing. Weapon system is full installed. Ammo banks are full. We're set to go"
"Engineer repair teams are pulling out. We'll be set to move in a few minutes"
"Excellent. Is our AI network online yet?"
"Why yes I am."

Richard grinned.

"Fantastic. Make ready to move us out. We've got our orders from the Admiral and we've got some ships to escort. We're on a baby sitting job ladies and gentlemen, and the baby is being hunted by wolves. Lets make sure the wolves get bloodied. Helm, we're slaving our jump co-ordinates with the Red Sky at Dawn. Make sure you don't forge.t I don't want to missing our jump. Tactical, warm up our new gun. I want it ready to shoot asap. We'll probably be needing it."
"Engine shakedown complete. We're set to go. Docking clamps are released. Hanger doors are open. Taking us to the Angels'"

The shining ship of the Vengence slipped out of the large hanger bay. Its engines flared, and it nimble headed towards the slowly growing number of ships, that were escorting the Angel craft.

[Heiro]

Dramatis Personae
Doctor Hei Ro – Acting Captain of Pandora’s Box. Loose cannon, but a scientist. A genius, but still only a scientist.

Pandora – The latest enhancement in AI technology, fitted into this primarily science vessel, To act as a first officer, tactical commander and general pain in the ass, With a holographic form, that of a five foot seven tall black haired woman. The woman Captain Ro loves.

Jarle Commandent, aka ‘Rain’ – Chief science officer, only aged 17. Has a triplet of Degrees from Oxford, Imperial station and Genebackis system Astronavigation school. Could possibly repair anything. Anywhere.

Fee Carem – Gunners first mate, chief scavenger, technician and ships best gunner. Mans the luckily converted Hydroponics, As well as acting ships cook. Runs the competition of kills, both spawn, military and pirate, amongst the gun crews. Runs the leading turret group, 5th section alpha.

Carmen Vey – Ships Doctor, Surgeon, Neuroscientist and head medical representative from science colony tri-on alpha.

‘Red’ – Ex Military, Marine squad delta from science outpost axion three. Leads gun team 6th mendalson, second in the tally of kills, mainly military.

Jake ‘The Baron’ Kemp – Freighter come fighter pilot. Wing commander of Pandora’s box’ fighter detachment. Pilot of ‘Lucky Red’

*

Ro began his day, the day, like any other. He woke up feeling fresh and warm, meeting the tingling cold sensation from outside his duvet with a proper military-mans courage. Staggering across the room he puts on the small stove set into the top of one of his cabinets, to in turn begin heating a pan of water. Placing the pan on when the heat seems sufficient, he returns slowly to his bed, his eyes gazing on the lovely form of Pandora, the ships AI, sitting in holographic form in her half of the bed. His mind knew she was patrolling the ships systems, just laying there to keep him comforted, but part of him was reassured by her presence. Of course, the science wouldn’t accept the human half, and after running his hands over her warm ‘skin’ for a moment, he returns to the stove, and the pan of boiling water. Spooning three spoons of coffee into a tin cup, he swiftly adds water and a white, powdery substance, looking like sugar, but totally the opposite. His daily dose of painkillers. Adding something milky, he stirs it, and sips from it, as he returns to his bed. His mind casts back over the weeks events, slowly panning over his vastly declining situation. Seven days ago now he sat in this very bed a free man, now his future is determined by not only the vast hordes of enemies baying at his door, but the horrid pirates bounty sitting on his head, waiting to be collected if he leaves. The loss of his beloved Pandora was also a problem, a problem that chained him to this mission, and in turn, chained his crew to it. Such was the way of the captain. Sighing, he remembered the conversation he had had with Admiral Incom Morgan, his second meeting with the man, the first on his home colony after an inspection of the shielding program he was working on. The second occurred no less than 6 days ago, aboard his personal carrier, The Martyr of Freedom. Forced into talking through less than diplomatic means, Morgan had ordered him dragged to the ready room in irons, for the crimes of treason, murder of military personnel and destruction of property. Once inside, he had gestured his men to leave, and removed the irons. With a smile, his first words had been: Good job you’re still alive. Pathetic, he thought more of the reputation then, than he did now. Still…

[6 days earlier]
“Good job you’re alive”
“Oh, thanks. No thanks to you bastards, hey.”
“That’s no way to treat an admiral of the fleet, in a position to blow your ship to 100000 pieces with a single wave of his hand”
“No. But it’s the way to treat a bastard like you”
“Enough of this. I’ve bought you to me, rather than killing you, for a reason. If you’ll care to listen”
“I don’t listen to men who leave entire planets to die”
Morgans hand slapped hard across Ro’s face, and he fell against the desk, hard.
“Speak of that again, and I will shoot you where you stand”
“Threatening to shoot me for speaking the truth!”
“Of course. I’m a man of principle.”
Morgan took a step toward his drink cabinet, taking a bottle of barely touched whiskey from it, unscrewing the cap and taking down two glasses, poured it neatly for both men. Way past a double.
“We drink, first, to those who gave their lives for your ship”
“You honour us” Ro’s voice rung with sarcasm
“Of course.”
Taking his drink Morgan downed it in less than one, looking no worse for wears. Ro, slowly, took a sip, before finishing the glass with a second gulp. A hiss escaped the side of his mouth
“Smooth…”
“Truly. I need your help, the stake of the entire human race has been placed on the table with the swarm. Those bastards are winning.”
“If they’ve the hand…”
“They don’t. We need you to protect the ships. I assume you’re familiar with them?”
“Of course, I was working on the shields to fit to them, before…”
“Yes, yes. Will you help me?”
“Go to hell.”
“I already will. I know you research mobile hologramatic technology, you wish to leave your ship and set up home with your AI lover.”
“Don’t call her that!”
“What? Is it not the truth?”
“Yes, but she…”
“…You’re a hypocrite.”
With a moment of pause, Ro took his proposal seriously. Forcing his hand like that, the Admiral must have been serious enough to risk Ro ordering his last stand right now.
“I’ll do it…”
“…thank god!”
“…on the following conditions. One, you let myself and my crew go free. And Two, you provide me with all the research notes and funding I need to build mobile holo-emitters.”
“Done”
“Pour me another drink, then”.

[6 days, 2 hours later]
“Ro?”
“Yes, Pandora?”
“Do you love me?”
“Yes, with all my heart”
“Good. Good luck today, I shall see you on the bridge, when you arrive.”
“Thank you.”
Flashing her a quick smile, Ro strode out into the corridor. With his room located 6 decks below the main habitat decks and little to no power to the service lifts this deep, the walk has become considerable. Ro looks back at the door, as it shuts. Hydroponics one it reads, under the rust. Smiling, he remembers why he even bothered living down here. Holographic projection was only available through and around inside three rooms, and that was one. Cursing his bad luck, he accessed the stairwell, and began his ascent.

Three decks up, the mess hall lay open for all to see, eat and talk around. Around 50 of his off duty crew members were eating, and hails called out across the room as he entered. Pushing back a chair next to a tall woman, he sat down, waiting for the food to be served into the plate waiting for him. Fee, standing up from her seat, passes him his meal, and another cup of coffee. He smiles at her, and she gives him her mornlingly report.
“Three gun crews report active, the other 9 are working on repairs. 2 hours tops.”
“Good”
“My crew, still retains the lead, by only a handful of points. Todays work should prove the closing margin for them, and us.”
“Excellent. Keep me informed. Drinks in here after this mess is over.”
“Aye. You do still owe me that brandy.”
Taking his first bite, he smiles again. The food was good as always.
“Anything else?”
“No. Sir”
“You know I dislike that sir crap. It doesn’t suit me.”
“Yes, Hei.”
Going red, Ro takes another folk, pretending to avoid her eyeline. Smiling breaks through in the end, and without saying a word, he finishes his meal.

*

Ro strides onto the bridge something short of noon, and is given about 9 reports by noon 01. Smiling at the efficency of his crew, he begins to look forward to the day of flight, without the possibility of combat. His smile evapourates as he sees the training has been replaced by the launch, a full 3 days early.
Damn you morgan! What are you thinking!
Leaning over to his helmsman, Ro presses a key on his console, and he looks up. Showing him the confidential report, he swears, sitting back in thought. Moments later, he taps the keys needed for the course change. Hitting the engage button for him, Ro smiles at the skills of his crew. His smile vanishes when he thinks what lies ahead.
“Engage, My good man.”
“Aye, Ro”

[No Dachi]

It's wednesday, I have a lot of work :/

I'll make a post later this evening but it probably won't be fantastic, just so you know.

[Inspectre]

I also have been very busy as of late. If you're DMing late tomorrow (Thursday), I *might* be able to get a post in . . . if not, oh well, I'm dead.

If you're DMing Friday night though, I can definately do a post before then.

[Bakan]

If you do NOT post by friday.

Expect anywhere from a 50% to 90% increase in damage suffered.

[KlavoHunter]

Translation - Don't be late for the train, or else the Swarm will run a train on you.

[Fluffie]

The Alice, happily sits inside the Red Sky's large and specialised hangar, its crew performing the prelaunch system checks and protocols. Their commanding officer, was just passing through some of the vessel's corridors, small and still packed with ammo, provisions and reasonably high tech equipment. They had stowed the ship with supplies to their full extent... This was going to be a long trip and gas stations might not come into range that frequently.

The ship and her more than seasoned crew were ready to launch and dive straight into hordes of fire and fighters. It had been their life for a long time... But the ship was just beginning with her. Not entirely sure, but this might be her maiden voyage. Fluffie's previous ship, the Korsakoff, had been too badly damaged to be of any use when it came to protecting the Red Sky from fighters.

Yeah, that was her task.

He remembered the briefing and the introduction to the exceptionally advanced AI, it had been short and buisness-like mostly. Kill the fighters and get a nice and comfy sleeping place, or docking space, in return.

He'd see to that. This ship looked extremely funky and capable when it came to anti-fighter buisness........



"Captain on the bridge.

A bit of mocking, the Corvette's bridge wasn't that large at all, barely worth of the name 'bridge'. But it'd do.

"She's ready to fly, just waiting to launch."

"Alright, open a channel to the Red Sky and ask him to open the doors, will ya?"

"Sure..."

[No Dachi]

The Red Sky At Dawn awoke in a blaze of realisation, all of its remaining systems activating at once. The human engineers had explained that the Shipmind would need to be deactivated in order for the core integration stage of the warship's construction, where the physical component of the entity was installed into its new hull. The prospect had caused the ancient mind a great deal of worry; it had never been deactivated before, not voluntarily at least, for any length of time, and the idea of "going to sleep", as the technicians had put it, had seemed quite unnatural to it. It had feared the swarm attacking early, or the human technicians accidentally destroying it, so that it would not be able to complete its mission, its one mission ever since it had returned from a long excursion to the edge of the galaxy, returned to find the ancients dead and their civilization in ruins. The warship's goal was simple in nature; find the enemy, and destroy it. But all had not gone well. At some point, the ship did not know when exactly, but estimated within the last fifty thousand years, it had been defeated. How, it did not know. This too was unnatural to the warship; unlike the innefficient bio-organic brains of the humans, its memory was perfect. It could recollect everything from the decorative paints on the right index finger of a Nincian ambassador many thousands of years before the Fall just as well as it could recollect the sound of the engines of a freighter of another ancient race as they drove a comparatively primitive vessel through the skies of Nince. But, it could not recall what had happened to it. It had been many years after the Fall when the warship had been tracking an exploration vessel of some race as-yet unknown to it, then nothing. The next thing the Red Sky At Dawn remembered was awakening in the hold of some human warship, rigged up to an auxilliary generator. It had listened with mounting anxiety as the human engineers pointed out that the elipsoid, metallic silver core wasn't doing anything under power, and as they talked about disecting it to see what was inside. Without its ship, the Mind was helpless. No way of communicating, no way of defending itself, no way of constructing new equipment. Nothing. Luckily, the engineers had attempted rigging their own computers to the it first, wherupon the Red Sky At Dawn had been able to converse with them in their own limited written language, the details of which it had siphoned off their computers. Humans; the ship had encountered this race before in their primeval stage, before they had showed even the first signs of civilization, and it was then that the Red Sky At Dawn began to realise that it must have been out for quite some time.

The ship flexed its figurative muscles; already drifting away from the station, it momentarily throttled up to full power before throttling down again, and then began to manouevre itself into position, heading for the rally point. It felt odd, being incarnate into this backward human design, but it was nonetheless an improvement on the sheer helplessness and disability the Shipmind had felt without any ship at all. Getting used to this new body would require some time, no doubt. The Red Sky At Dawn scanned the area briefly with its sensors and found them far less powerful than its previous Nincian versions. It did a couple of internal scans as well, and spotted something interesting. Another ship, within some kind of launch rig concealed within the warship's own sizeable cargo hold. And there were humans in this smaller ship, and walking about the cargo hold. Most interesting. The warship also sensed an incoming signal - the one called Admiral Morgan, kindly informing him that the fleet would be entering battle shortly. The warship was on the verge of contacting the little miniature ship within its hold when suddenly it noticed something else, it only had a handful of weapons. Abruptly the warship realised that it had been launched half-finished; many of its weapon batteries were empty turret bases with no gun mounted. Fortunatly, the warship noticed, it could control the weapons that it did have directly. Presently the vessel turned to the smaller ship - named the Alice - that was sitting in its cargo hold, hailing the ship on a communications frequency.

"Humans, identify yourselves."

[Fluffie]

"Sir, the Red Sky is answering our call."

"Well, lets hear it then."

"But of course, my emperor."

Throwing the man a happy smile, Fluffie waited for him to push the correct buttons and thus enter the required codes into his console. Seconds later, the Red Sky's voice spoke through the speakers on the bridge of the small, yet shiny 'vette.

"Humans, identify yourselves."

"Good mornin' Red Sky At Dawn, good to see you have awoken. I take it all your systems are operating as expected? Oh and as to who we are, consider us your big brother, or little sister, whatever you prefer."

Shrugging, as he suddenly realised that the AI might not be used to this kind of language nor behaviour, Fluffie quickly carried on.

"We, well... I am the commanding officer of the Alice, the corvette sized ship in your hulls. The ship excells in taking down small targets, fighters, large projectiles, myself and the crew even more. We have been assigned to escort and assist you in the battles that will most likely accompany our journey towards our destination. You are our home, we dock inside your hangar bay - I believe I have been told that you have repair facilities... So we'll be diving straight into anything coming your way, return to your side and do it all again... And when the battle has passed away, we'll dock with you and get some repairs. But, I believe I'm talking too much again... I take it you understand who we are now? Or...?"

Signalling the comms man to shut down the sending and await for a reply, another officer looks at Fluffie, softly shaking his head, while still smiling though.

"Captain, you forgot to ask him to open the hangar doors."

"Oh.. Eh.. Right..."

[Spritely Zombie]

The captain surveyed the hectic pre-flight preperations going on in the bridge and sighed. Most of his crew were exceptional individuals well trained and very experienced. Unfortunately due to the impending threat, he'd been forced to take onboard 90 new crewmembers, not a single one of them more than 8 months in the academy. His more experienced crew was telling them what to do and how to do it. Not to mention standing over their shoulders to make sure noone messed up on anyhting vital.

The small ship was at absolute full capacity, food wasn't going to be an issue, there were enough military rations to keep even the 350 men and women aboard the vesel alive for the majority of their remaining natural lives. Unfortunately military rations weren't the most edible of nutritional substances.

He coughed quietly, more of a throat-clearing than anything else. The crew turned and saw him standing just inside the bridge doors.

"Captain on the Bridge." yelled several of them at once before looking at each other accusingly. Inwardly he winced, this was not going to be an easy battle.

"We've recieved our orders and will be launching in a few moments. While I can sympathise with those of you who are new, wanting to be on the bridge when we leave spacedock. I'm afraid that isn't going to be possible. Chances are we'll meet enemy opposition almost immediately .

"So. I'm afraid everyone will have to return to their stations. For those of you who don't know where your stations are. They'll be in your quarters."

About four in five crewmembers on the bridge left, looking downhearted.

Before the door shut Captain Gokan said, slightly louder than necessary, "Helm, reroute main visual to all panels not currently in use."

The hubub rapidly diminished.

"Right. Now that that's over. Signal the Red Sky at Dawn that we're ready. Slave our jump systems and request clearance to depart..." His brow furrowed as he thought for a moment before declaring, "Yellow alert."

An alarm signalling all to stations started blaring throughout the ship. For a moment Gokan stared at the alarm panel then hit a command on his chair, the sirens in the bridge abruptly silenced...

[Inspectre]

Several days later, Joseph was once again sitting in his ready room, contemplating his future. The idea of having a future, Joseph was forced to concede, was ultimately moot, just like the idea of humanity surviving the current war laughable. Still, Joseph had a choice in how he wished to end his life, although after careful thought he realized that the decision to end his life was really out of his hands as well.

True, he could still draw the .45 handgun from the drawer and complete the deed he had attempted earlier, but the chance to salvage what little of his honor was left was now gone. Before Command had contacted him, he could have committed suicide before the ultimate disgrace of being relived of duty as captain of the Deathdealer was forced upon him. With the arrival of the orders to move to Utopia shipyards, followed by Joseph’s latest set of orders from Admiral Morgan, Joseph now had a duty to do. And if this last gamble of humanity was to pay off, everyone would be required to give it their all. And so, if Joseph committed suicide now, he’d look like a coward. Leaning back in his chair, Joseph idly repeated the oath he swore upon taking command of the Deathdealer. The words tasted like ash in his mouth, as they had for some time now.”

“I, Captain Joseph McKinley, do hereby solemnly swear that I will, to my utmost skill and ability, defend the Human Coalition from all enemies both foreign and domestic, protect Coalition citizens till my dying breath, and follow all orders given to me by the chain of command. This I vow of my own free will, and I accept any consequences that result from my breaking of this vow. So help me God.”

Once, he had believed in that oath. Even as little as four years ago, a much younger Joseph McKinley had believed in that oath, before he had received the order to slaughter his family, and more than three million people on the orbital station Tetra Genus. His orders to violate his oath to defend the people of the Coalition came from the most recent horrifying tactic humanity had developed to counter the Swarm: the Salis Protocol. Developed by Vice Admiral John Trevor, the protocol was started with him bombarding the surface of Salis IV, cleansing it of all human life just before the Swarm fleet arrived. Instead of being tried as a madman, Vice Admiral Trevor was actually exonerated, and his method of attempting to control the Swarm’s spread was formally adopted as a Coalition initiative upon losing a battle for a world.

The sheer horror of the protocol never struck Joseph as firmly as it had when he had been ordered to destroy his own home. Normally captains were not asked to kill their own family and friends, but Joseph’s case was a “special exception”. The battered 9th Fleet had lost the battle for the Genus system, and only Joseph’s missile tender could possibly target and destroy the orbital stabilizer of the Tetra Genus space colony before the fleet was forced to hyperspace out. He had argued, he had pleaded, he had even told the Rear Admiral to go to Hell, but in the end, he was a Coalition soldier. He did his duty. The fiery contrails of the ten fusion torpedoes as they raced from the Deathdealer’s forward missile tubes, and the image of Tetra Genus falling towards the Gas giant it orbited would forever be burned in Joseph’s memory.

Joseph was brought out of his reminiscence by the beeping of the comm. Tapping the control, Joseph once again opened up the channel. “Yes, what is it?”
“It’s Thomas. You requested being informed when the Deathdealer was ready to leave dry dock, and indeed, it is now ready. Unfortunately, the repair techs had to make a fair bit of changes to the old girl; that last battle with the Swarm really chewed us up. Still, I think you’ll be pleased to see that this ship still has a lot of fight left in her.”

“That’s good to hear. I’ll see you on the bridge. McKinley out.” Joseph then tapped the control again, closing the comm channel. With a weary sigh he got up, and exited his ready room. On his way to the bridge, he passed several repair techs, working at a furious pace to finish welding new plates into place over power conduits. Judging by the size of the plates that the technicians were using, these new power conduits were much larger than the ones previously running through the Deathdealer. After a bit of thought, the only thing that Joseph could remember requiring such large amounts of power was energy guns.

A few minutes later, the bridge doors slid open, allowing Joseph to see the ordered chaos beyond. Technicians were everywhere, removing access panels, welding in new control panels, along with repairing and replacing the already existing ones that had been damaged in the Deathdealer’s most recent battle. Standing back near the door, watching the work proceed, was Thomas Castleton, Joseph’s XO and closest friend. Hearing the bridge doors slide open, Thomas turned and greeted Joseph with a grand wave that encompassed most of the bridge. “Welcome to Ant Hill Central, sir. In a few more hours though, the ants will be gone and we’ll have a nice new ship all to ourselves.”

Forcing himself to smile, Joseph said, “Very good. I noticed on my way here that there’s technicians installing new power conduits . . . does this mean the Deathdealer has a compliment of energy weapons now as well?”

Thomas matched Joseph’s forced smile with one of his own, and nodded sagely. “Yeah, I’m afraid that it turns out the Utopia Shipyards didn’t have enough time or resources to replace our smashed Fusion Torpedo Launchers with new ones, so instead they ripped it all out and replaced them with Particle Beams. As I understand it, in an hour or so the technicians will have finished up sealing the lower compartments and pumping air back into them, so we should be able to take a tour of the new Particle Beam turrets then. Until then, I can give you a tour of the rest of your new ship, sir. I’m sure you already know a fair bit of the details, but you know what they say . . .”

“A captain and his ship should be inseparable.” Joseph finished for Thomas, and then followed him off the bridge and back out into the corridor.

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

Several hours later . . . .

Joseph sat down into his command chair on the bridge, and marveled at how quickly the technicians had managed to transform the ruined scene that the bridge had been a few days ago into the exemplary room he was in now. True, a number of jury-rigged panels and consoles adorned the bridge here and there, but for the most part the bridge was as it had been when the Deathdealer was first built. No doubt due to the orders of Admiral Morgan, who almost certainly wanted nothing but the best ships he could get for this last gamble.

“Helm, take us out of space dock. I do believe that we are now ready to fly.” Joseph said, then looked over at his communications officer.

“The last of the repair teams has exited the ship, sir. The only ones left on-board are our own personal damage control teams. All of the crew is back from shore leave, along with the marines. We’re ready as we’ll ever be to depart.” The Communications officer answered, and Joseph nodded.

“Good. Then we really are ready. Take us out on thrusters until we’re clear of the docking clamps, then 1/8th ahead until we’re clear of the station. See to it that our hyperspace computer is slaved to the Red Sky at Dawn, as well. Thomas, bring us up to Yellow Alert. I have a feeling the Swarm will be here soon, and they aren’t going to be happy to see someone trying to leave the system.”

“Aye sir.”

[Bakan]

Word of advice, NEVER start a thread on the first week of classes.

Particulary if those classes decide to pull the act of: "You are about to skydive. One of the instructors suddenly removes your parachute and replaces it with one filled with a anvil, then pushes you out."

Yeah, I'll see what I can get done tonight.

[Bakan]

Okay: DM'ing will occur today in about 30 minutes to a hour give or take.

Due to my courseload being.... well.... SHIT, I'm looking for a co-DM.

This person needs to be responsible, and willing to do the following.

Using a spreadsheet system I have, modify and update and give me the results of combat. Modifications will have to be approved by me to the system.

I will pick the person I feel will do the best job out of those who volunteer.

This will GREATLY help me keep DM's rolling smoothly.

Rewards for this position: My thanks, and maybe a small bonus at times.

[Bakan]

DM Post – Turn #1

September 25th, 2391 – 07:48

Angel #1 – Bridge

Standing at the fore section of the bridge on Angel 1, Incom Morgan watched the docking clamps ever so slowly withdraw. Deep in the pits of his stomach, Incom felt twitching as they withdrew, for now was the moment to see if their plan would work or fail. The lights flickered over the bridge as the ship’s power grid switched over from external to internal generators. While the odds of a power burnout were low, the rushed construction, along with the hodgepodge design and lack of testing increased the risk. Thankfully the lights returned to normal, with no damage reports coming in. Smiling slightly, Incom felt the deck vibrate as the main engines fired, and the scaffolding start to slid away as Angel 1 slowly pulled away from it’s cradle, when on the bridge, a alarm indicating a emergency transmission went off……….

Outer Sol Sensor Post #783 – Mid-Orbit of Mars/Asteroid Mining Base Route

Lt. Johnson looked out the viewport at the asteroid belt in the Sol system. Standing at the observation level of the Lookout station #4 for Mars/Asteroid Belt mining route. A very dull and boring station, for it was only 3 levels, 1 observation/control, 1 engineering, and 1 living quarters. With only a crew of 6 it got to be boring very quickly, but it was vital for the early defense network.

Pulling out a picture from his vest pocket, Johnson stared at the picture of his wife, Belle who was right now undergoing deep freeze. While the Angel project was technically top secret, practically everyone in the fleet knew something about it, such as 50 thousand people would be loaded onto the ships. Out of those 50 thousand, 20 of them were pre-selected, due to technical skills, what they could contribute to the new settlement, such as art, technology, agriculture, and teaching. The remaining 30 thousand were randomly selected thanks to standard ID number given to all citizens upon birth. She was one of the lucky ones, picked randomly to travel to GA-. Johnson however, was not lucky.

Johnson stared some more, remembering the final night they spent together. It was not a lot, but it was enough. Even though it was against regulations, even though it posed a serious risk to a women entering deep freeze, they had managed to conceive their first child. They hoped that since it was so soon, that there would be no effects, but they still worried. Johnson had left that night to a shuttle, knowing full well that if the war continued, he would never see her again. Yet some small part of him hoped and prayed that he would be able to.

Hearing a buzzer going off, Johnson stands, stretches and walks over to a nearby sensor station. The station, using the stations sensors linked to remote probes, covered the entire pathway between Mars and the Asteroid Belt. Looking at the panel, fully expecting to see that it was simply a rogue comet, or at worst a smuggler vessel, Johnson blinked and hit another button, rescanning. A solid red blob blinked, and grew larger and closer to the center of the screen, a screen labeled with telemetry from the advance hyperspace probes.

Putting the picture of Belle back into his vest pocket, Johnson reached over, feeling eerily calm and hit the emergency button. The stations lights flickered into a deep red, with alarms starting to blare, waking up the rest of the crew. As they ran into the main deck, many of them still dressed in sleeping clothes, Johnson looked at them. Bastila, a small woman, who happened to be a mother of 3, only 2 living now, looked at Johnson's face.

"They are coming." she asked, obviously not a question. A single nod from Johnson was more than enough for her.

Johnson: "Alright people, we got a job to do. Bastila, start a broadcast to Utopia shipyards, keep them updated with our telemetry. Hudson and Locke, you two get the station battened down. The rest of us will man the gun turrets. The swarm will be over us in 3 minutes. As per the Cole protocol, I will active out hyperdrive inhibiter, slowing them down. Let's make it count."

As the crew made their way to their stations, Johnson sprinted over to the upper gun turret. Climbing up the ladder and settling himself in, he hesitates, and pulls out Belle's picture and places it next to the targeting readout. Flicking off the safeties and putting on the headset, he is shocked to hear the voice of Rear Admiral Morgan.

Read Admiral Morgan: "To the crew of sensor station, you know as well as I do we need every minute possible. The Angel are already almost filled, buy us as much time as possible. When you can't hold out any longer..... follow the Cole protocol.... godspeed."

Looking at the deep approaching space, Johnson sees the bright flashes of light, ships being yanked forcibly out of hyperspace by the inhibitor. He knew that as soon as the code 1 alarm was sounded, every station activated their inhibitors, effectively reducing the swarm to sublight speeds. However, the station was only 15 minutes away from the shipyards at sublight.

For several minutes Johnson watched the readouts, amazed by how many red dots kept appearing, more and more until his readout was one large red blob, that slowely started advancing. Tapping his mic, he took a deep breath.

"Okay everyone, let's do this. We are the first line, but we can buy the shipyards some time. This is much larger than us..... prepare to fulfill the Cole protocol. Let's kick their a*ses."

With those words, several sections of the red blob detached and moved very rapidly. Staring, gripping the trigger so tightly his fingers went white, Johnson stared and stared, until his tracking flashed reticle red, and he fired.

Bright red beams, firing the four gating heavy assault cannons fired, the first several shots being reflected by the hull armor of the Hellraiser, before they punched through tearing the hull apart, sending vital parts, pieces of hull, and what looked to be part of the pilot flying into void. By this point Johnson has already aimed at another Hellraiser.

The three turrets, each advance prototypes were outputting enough fire to challenge a battleship. Slowly the turrets started to glow red, while inside the turrets temperatures rise. Normally in combat the turrets would be allowed to alternate, to cool them off, but as Johnson sweated, he thought about the Alamo, and the last stand.

Seeing a wave of Deathgliders break off, he saw a wave of Merciless Frigates advance rapidly. Firing furiously, he saw them bank and run into the fire of the station near the other turret, being fired by Gavin.

"Gavin, watch it, they are concentrating on you."

"I'm being overwhelmed here, oh blood and bloody ashed, I have leechers!! They are eating the HULL."

"Watch it 3 Deathgliders above."

"I can't see! AHHHH!!!"

Johnson felt more than saw the explosion from the turret where Gavin used to sit, and swore. He had seen many a comrade killed. Looking at Belle smiling at him, he looked at the swarm, tears streaming from his eyes, and something finally snapped. Screaming, he fired all 4 turrets, punching through hulls and what laid underneath them. Still screaming, he saw the other turret flash as a wave of lechers killed themselves, taking poor Wedge with them.

Feeling his turret shake violently, he saw that the shields around him were failing. Seeing the Hellraisers advance again, he screamed again, firing at them, the turrets by now glowing red hot, the inside feeling like a sauna. Firing at the wave, he saw many of them shatter and vaporize, other dodged, then they passed. Even more were killed against the shields, but their deaths allowed the following ones to rush through, passing through and under the shields. Firing still, Johnson saw them flash past, then felt an incredible coldness with a red haze obscuring his vision. Blinking, he tired to breath, but the coldness crept into his lungs. Time seemed to slow to him, as he realized the bubble canopy had been shattered. Pain receptors fired signals and a look down showed his chest and arms, slashed with deep wounds that leaked a red haze that bubbled out. Holding the triggers even as his hands froze to the metal grips, Johnson fired still, not even aiming anymore. As one final Deathglider flew at him, he saw the picture of Belle, floating away into void, sprinkled with his blood. With a sharp pain around his neck and chest, Johnson held the triggers and smiled as he died.

Inside the station, alarms were blaring. Bastila pulled herself up with her left arm, the right several meters away, lying in a puddle of blood and damaged parts, the victim of a blown out control panel. Seeing that the 3 turrets were offline, Bastila looked at the bright red button, the metal safety flap already open. Thinking about her 2 sons, already long gone, she smiled and hit the button.

Angel #1 – Bridge

“I lost contact with the station sir.”

Hearing those words from the communications officer, looking barely in his 20’s Morgan nodded and sighed. The deaths of the sensor crew, a few numbers that in the long run would mean little, had sounded the alarm, fulfilling their job. Now, every ship and station was on the highest level of alert. The Line Fleet was deploying according to plan, but for the Angel’s, their goal was to simply escape.

Science Officer: “Sir, we got enemy contacts, they must have slipped through the outer inhibitors. They are making a run on the shipyards.”

Watching the displays, Morgan felt some relief that most of the Angel fleet had already undocked and were moving away in formation. Two ships though, captained by Hewitt and Flaag were not so lucky, being at the tail end of the un-docking process. The enemy Swarm rained plasma fire on the shipyards, sending large pieces flying away, and seemingly trying to hit the undocking ships, which managed to undock and pull away with only a scattering of fire.

Morgan: “Order all ships, set course, full flank speed towards Jupiter. We will slingshot around that planet away from the inhibitors. Where we stand with enemy.”

Science: “I’m estimating approximately 50 Hellraiser’s, 20 Merciless with Deathglider support, and 2 to 3 Hornet’s in our projected flight path. It’s hard to tell, the inhibitors are yanking them out of Hyperspace randomly.”

Morgan: “Feed the data to the fleet, have al their weapons running hot. Let’s get out of here!”

Enemy Forces
50 Hellraiser’s
20 Merciless
3 Hornet’s

Mission Objectives
ESCAPE! – 4 DM Turns left

NOTES
Hewitt and Flaag suffer 25% hull damage each

[Hewitt]

ooc: either kill me of NPC my ship because I am not going to have time for this thread.

[Fluffie]

"Open the channel again. Get out engines roaring... All gunnery crews are to open up as soon as they have a confirmed lock. No tomorrow until Hyperspace..."

"Aye aye... Channel open, Sir."

"Red Sky At Dawn, immidiately open your hangar bay, we need to get out."

Awaiting the reply, the Alice's crew readied herself. Not in the way the Sensor Outposts' crews had done, but still in a similar fashion, death lured just outside the vessel's hull... Those on the stations had known it would be the end of them, for the corvette's crew, there was hope of escape. Escape and a new beginning.

Replying with a single nod to one of his officers' asking stare, the man prepared to feed sensor data into the ship's navigational systems. The Alice would be heading for enemy fighter formations, flying straight into them, her weapons spewing out death in all directions. It was something the crew had agreed on earlier, either they'd do the standard escort thing, or they'd... do something more drastic. The latter had been agreed on, not a single vote against it.

[Bakan]

FYI: The co-DM/calculator person has been found.

[KlavoHunter]

OOC: I thought it was 100,000 in deep-freeze, and 50,000 hitching along for the ride? Meh.

BTW, the "CRS" designation on my ship not like a Star Trek-esque NCC designation, the CRS stands for Strike Corvette, which is the designation I'm giving my ship. So, realistically, ASME, your ship would be designated "CFE" for "Corvette antiFighter Escort"

IC:

September 25th, 2391 – 0745 hours
Coalition Starship Archipelago, CRS-688

"Contact! Outer sensor stations report incoming Swarm vessels, range, 17 minutes. Station Guns in two." Archipelago's Comm Officer reported, breaking the silence of the Corvette's bridge with his sharply-worded comment. A murmer passed over the bridge, not of fear, but of anticipation. The cream of the Coalition's crews wouldn't feel fear, not even on the eve of the battle that would decide the fate of humanity.

"Very well. All hands, General Quarters! Repeat, General Quarters! Bring engines up for combat maneuvering, and bring us into Angel One's vanguard position. Status of the MAC plasma generators?" James asked, eyes flicking around the bridge at all of the blessedly green status indicators. It'd been months and months since the bridge looked like this, lit up at optimal.

"MAC Plasma Sheath Generators are working to spec, but the Chief still swears he'll baby them along until he's positive they're working." Major Gorge, both XO and Tactical, reported from his console. Archipelago's crew usually served in more than one position, and the Bridge was optimized so that it didn't require as many people on it. The Bridge was silent for perhaps three minutes more, and the outer sensor stations winked out sadly on the main display.

"Outer sensor stations destroyed. Swarm casualties from the defensive cannons are minimal. Swarm fleet now inbound on the shipyards, detachment headed straight for us." the Comms officer reported soon after, indicating the horde of red dots approaching and breaking into sections, especially the 70-some strong contingent headed straight for them.

"Tactical, load one MAC round. Gunners to the Pulse Turrets, begin preload on the Interceptor batteries. Bring up the Tactical Display, let's see which of these bastards wants to dance first..." James ordered, mentally dissecting the formations that the Swarm ships were moving into. The Hellraisers were covering the Merciless', making a tough target for Archipelago, whose MAC could take out the Swarm frigates in a single shot, but lacked the lesser weapons to take down the Gunships. The Deathgliders were not yet launched, though it seems they'd all deployed their Hellraisers. An early strike could knock out significant numbers of their fighters, but the damage incurred from the Gunships covering them could be lethal. Not that it mattered if Archipelago lived or died, just that enough of the enemy died so that the Angels could escape.

"Incoming update from Dragoon." Archipelago's hastily-installed AI intoned, breaking the cadence of orders on the bridge as the crew prepared to swoop through the Swarm formation and peg as many of the Frigates as possible.

"Well, Archie, let's hear it." Captain Hunter asked, leaning back in his seat for a moment.

"They are moving alongside to support us. Their weapons are optimized for anti-Gunship use. Dragoon will clear a path through the Gunships so that we can attack the Frigates." the AI, "Archie", replied. A shame that the system wasn't anywhere near as intelligent as some of the ones mounted on other ships of the escort fleet, but the computer core couldn't handle anything more than the Mark One AI, which was basically a mentally slow little brother to the new Mark 2 and 3s.

"Barely even picked her up on scopes, sir. Those new Jammers are good." Gorge mentioned, and Cordelia quickly changed the maneuvering of the ship so that the bigger Tender would be somewhat ahead to attract most of the attention, rather than the smaller Corvette. But the jamming would cloud up targetting locks on her, or even make her disappear entirely at times, so the ships that would ignore her in favor of Archipelago were easy prey to Dragoon's guns.

"All hands, secure stations. Twenty seconds to maximum range, MAC firing estimated thirty seconds after that mark." James ordered, and then turned to Gorge again. "I want the Pulse gunners to box in the Frigate so she doesn't move out of the MAC's engagement cone. Concentrate on her hangers, I don't want her launching her fighers before we take the ship out."

"Aye, Captain. .512s arming and prepping to fire..." Gorge replied, checking his console.

On the Corvette's dorsal-most decks, the crews in the Number One Pulse Turret were finishing last-second preparations , such as checking the coolant lines, and securing the ammunition feeds into the autoloader. None of them had any thoughts in their minds about their predecessors, who had been cleaned off the walls of the turret mere hours ago. Two crewmen maneuvered the last bulky ammunition feed into place, and gave the go-ahead to the turret chief, who flicked the final switch from "Standby" to "Armed".

The gunner's screen lit up bloody red for a moment, and a tone sounded in his headset as the weapon became fully armed. A quick flick of the wrist to a panel ran the sensor outputs through to the HUD, and he rested his hands on the moulded duraplastic-rubber grips of the weapon controls, and he zoomed in on the large, armor-clad doors of the Swarm Frigate's hanger deck. The accuracy of a heavy-bore Pulse Cannon mated to an Enhanced Sensor Array, and then refined by the AI, was just sickening.

The reticule turned a deep crimson as the weapon came within the reccomended range, and a grin spread across the gunner's face. He tightened his fingers on the twin triggers, and with a roar that shook the ship's structure all the way to the ventral turret, Archipelago fired in with the first massed Coalition salvo of the Battle of the Line. A stream of solid-state shells ripped forth from the barrel of the big gun, joined by its partner, dozens of meters below.

The quarter-c projectiles tore across the Merciless' hanger doors, pummeling and tearing at the thick armor that covered them, boxing the frigate's movement in, to keep it from escaping the deadly arc of the MAC's firing area, and to take down any Deathgliders it might launch. The noise inside the turret was almost deafening, but the enemy frigate would feel more than just noise.

As the twin streams of .512 rounds tore across space into the enemy Merciless, lit up by tracers, the AI struggled to keep the enemy frigate in its sights for the MAC. The massive barrel of the ship-killer cannon was unmistakable in its position, jutting out of the small corvette's prow, and certainly the Swarm frigates knew to avoid Coalition Strike Corvettes by now. Not that they had any choice, as the CRS series easily outmaneuvered any Merciless. Of course, a Hellraiser gunship was an insurmountable adversary to a Strike Corvette, as it lacked the proper weapons to deal with it.

"Plasma Sheath Generation status, and targetting? And tell Dragoon to start firing at those damn Gunships, they're almost on us!" James ordered, snapping orders to both Gorge and the AI. The MAC was too damn heavy to use against a Gunship, and the Pulse Cannons were too weak to damage it before it unleashed its heavy weapons to pound Archipelago to dust.

"Plasma Sheathing at full, entering optimum range for target lock. Awaiting orders to fire, Captain." Gorge said, flicking up the plastic cover over a menacingly red button on his tactical console. The ship's AI blipped in acknowledgement, sending a short burst tranmission to the bigger ship just to fore and port of Archipelago.

"Lock target..." James said, and leaned forward as a box appeared around the frigate on the viewer, and paused for a long moment more. "Fire."

With the press of index finger to weapon toggle, a tiny electrical message raced through several decks worth of cabling, and that little squirt ran into the bank of computers dedicated to the Magnetic Assault Cannon. In a mere microsecond, all that happened, and a deafening roar went through the Corvette from bow to stern as the massive slug was unleashed.

A streak of eye-searing light ripped forth from the huge barrel of Archipelago's main gun as the plasma-sheathed superdense round was flung at its target at hypervelocity speeds, leaving a burning afterimage in any viewer's eyes, leading from Archipelago's prow to the Swarm Frigate's hull...

OOC: Condensing all that story into orders. Hehe.

Orders:

- Form up with Dragoon slightly ahead, to cover my ship from the enemy Gunships.

- Bracket the enemy Merciless with my twin .512s, aimed at the hanger bays, to restrict its evasion.

- Nail the Merciless with the MAC.

[anarcharnate]

Rushing back up to the bridge, Novalis frantically re-buttoned his tunic. A wave of noise and an icy wash from the still broken coolant system met him as he pulled himself sharply up the hatch into the small octagonal room.
Comms Officer Mishka hurried up to him as soon as he entered the room, her large brown eyes set hard.
"What's the situation? I felt blast tremors from the launch bay!" Novalis demanded before she could speak.
"It would appear that the Swarm have broken through to the shipyards; all of the Angels are free, but two escorts have suffered damage already. We're to form up and attempt a slingshot around Jupiter to avoid the hyperspace inhibtors we've set up."
Cursing again, Novalis turned to the rest of his bridge crew, raising his voice greatly.
"Is our course locked? Then move us to the port side of the Angels and line it up. I want all weapons primed, and aimed; and distribute the men to all decks. We won't be boarding anyone yet, so the best they can do is guard us against it. Understood?"
The normally raucous assembly of ex-miners gave their assent with decorum. The sheer scale of the swarm shown on the sensor readouts brought out their grim determination once again. They would fight, and if necessary, die. Returning to their work sations, the noise gradually rose again as Novalis began co-ordinating the weapon targetting.

[ASME]

ooc: if you think it is ok i will post for Hewitt's ship Bakan, if not just slap meoc

Around the Anubis's bridge all was calm, they had manuvered out of the docking bay and taken up a position to the port of Angel 3, upon hearing the news of incoming Swarm, everyone on the bridge began their duties with noisy results, everyone was wanting Captain Anthony's attention. But they got no response.

As the noise increased Anthony contemplatedthe next move he would make. "QUIET," he barked at the bridge crew, silence followed...

"Ok then, i want every station manned, every system checked, every deck secure, and would someone please turn off that siren." Commanded Anthony

"Sir, two ships have taken damage..." said the tactical officer

"What? Bring us up to Full Alert, mn the turrets, get that AI network up an running, it seems the party has started early..."

[mrmao]

Occ/ cries because all he's got that really mattersis a plasma cannon, wait sudden idea/Occ

"Slave a jump drive to Red Sky Dawn" and with that perpertions were complete for the flight to who konws were. Just then the commsofficer spoke up.

"Sir we have reports of a force of 70 odd ships on there way to intercept." the comms officer stated a little unnerved.

Alexander quickly gazed at the tac plot in his chiars arm rest. He knew by the silluhottes they were showing that they had about twenty shios he couldn't go toe to toe with. Undoubtedly though the enemy would try to block there path. There would probably be many gunships though jugeing by the display. He needed a plan now they were about 15mins out. Then ity dawned on him.

"Helm move us up to alongside the Archipelago. Tactical Target the gun ships mainly I don't want i chip of pant nocked of there hull you hear me, they are gonna need cover with that mac of theres"Alexander rapped these orders off, knowing the crew would follow them. After all he had saved most of there lives at some point, but none of that mattered now all that mattered was five ships sitting in the middle of a dozen other ships with 50,000 civillans in cryo tubes.

Occ/klavo i'll fight the fighters off as best i can you worry about the firgates, okay. and if you don't kill at least four firgates i will hunt you down and kill all those important to you and leave there hearts on your doorstep until you have no one left then i kill you. Good luck/occ

[Heiro]

In all truth, Ro saw the enemy through his forward viewer far sooner than the reports came in of their actual numbers. One thing struck him hard, bringing a lump to his throat and a tear to his eye, in sheer awe, was the numbers. As the inhibitors kicked in, the fleet around him began to break away, targeting ships, with the angel carriers keeping a straight course with Red Sky At Dawn. Another lovely oversight was the sheer number of ships plucked randomly from hyperspace, the blue luminescent glow from the inhibitors showering with a cascade of bright white with each ship impact. From a scientific point of view, the reaction was quite simple. From a hyperdynamisists point of view, the ships were being netted like fish, the magnitude of the sample having no relevance. The application of Chaos in this reaction was minimal, and the behaviour similar on a fractal level. Computing this information, and doing some large yet simple calculations to the contrary, Ro leans back in his chair, and with a soft spoken word announces:
“Three minutes. Give or take… a handful of seconds”
“I made it two point seven nine six.”
“Then you made a rounding error on the second diffusion of time
calculation.”
The scientific crew sitting in the room waited with baited breath, for that handful of seconds to pass.
“Yes. You’re right, I did.”
Sagging back in his chair, he smiles to see his other crew members frantically plotting courses, choosing directions and rates of motion and analyzing the tactical data from the last outer station transmissions. A thought slowly drifts into Ro’s head at this point, and without considering, he sits forward, and looks around the room.
“I want you all to stop working.”
“Sir?” Comes the chorus from the bridge crew
“We are to hold, a traditional, One Minute Silence. For those who gave their
lives in the warning stations”
“Aye” The chorus again.
Repeating his orders over the active comm. Ro explains to the crew the situation, and his right to order their halt. They do so, all 600 of them. His ship glides slowly onward, at the rate of .3 lightspeed, drifting slowly behind the lead angel.

*

“…And subsequently, a minute silence shall be held for their memory, and for
their actions.”
Fee sits back and smiles at force field between her and the cold depths of the unknown. She dips her head, and looks down at the triggering block for her .512 assault cannons. Her eyes drift from the worn leather handgrips of the scavenged weapons mounted in the instrument towers along the side of the modified Asimov hull, down to the rust stained pod in which she now sits.
Lying back in the chair from her Malan freighter, she checks her sights, her sensors, her cross, and last of all, herself. She examines her hands with a thorough motion, just as the doctor ordered. Even the captain doesn’t know, she thinks to herself, better this way. She feels, and thankfully, sees no shaking. However that just means it hides itself well. Within just over a minute, the ship roars to life, and around her, the stars seem to blur momentarily, as equally, she is forced back into her seat. The worn hydro cushions comfort her change of momentum as she leans across to lay her fingers onto her headset, eyepiece and link to Pandora’s ranged tactical data. The uplink spreads a rapid ascension of holographic data in front of her eyes, and she closes most of the windows, excluding ammo count, range and target analysis. From her 360 bubble, she can see the first ships coming into range, closing slowly on the Toy Box’s position. Breaking the blue barrier now, the ship begins to emerge completely from hyperspace, and to her limited understanding, will be within range in a matter of minutes. Her radio briefly flicks on, moments before she checks the fuel lines to her weapons.
“Fee?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t miss” the voice sounds vaguely familiar.
“I promise you, I won’t.”
“I need my fighters covered, so few we number.”
“Of course, consider it done Baron.”
“I’ll be in lucky red, as usual.”
“I didn’t expect anything less”
Her radio flicks to silence again. Leaving her alone, ready and awaiting a Whirlwind…

[ooc] As always, Inspectre, I love your character. He's cool ^_^. Keep up the angst, it makes lovely reading. And apologies about the suckiness of this post. I really was going to initiate combat. But... No. Too lazy. Mebbe I'll edit it by DM day.[/ooc]

[KlavoHunter]

OOC: I'm surpremely pissed, I'd almost finished editing my post and then I crashed...

[Bakan]

Originally Posted by ASME

ooc: if you think it is ok i will post for Hewitt's ship Bakan, if not just slap meoc

Eh, sure, go for it.

[flapjack]

hmm, interesting combo tough.
Definate anti-fighter ship and a double MAC ship.
If you can keep them together, they'll totally rockorz.
Oh and they'll probably attract most of the attention as well

[KlavoHunter]

Want to pound the hell out of one of their Carriers with the double MACs? I bet you'd rake in big credits for blowing one of them.

But, seriously, you could just pop two frigates at a time with some degree of success. Only 60% accuraccy, though...

[ASME]

ooc: right then two ships, one purpose oc

Anubis

"Sir, we have a message form the Crow Eater, their captian's dead, and theyve taken 25% hull damage, they are requesting orders... sir? What do i tell them?" reported the officer at comms.

"Tell them to bring their ship to our port bow, for now i'll give the orders, maintain an open comm link at all times with the Crow." replied Anthony, his voice filled with sadness that already a ship had lost its captain, hopefully a occurance that would not befall the crew of the Anubis.

"Sir. the Crow Eater is coming up on our port side, she looks pretty beat up sir..." this time the tactical officer reported.

"Whats the Crow armed with?" asked Anthony

"They are armed with one medium fighter, and two MAC cannons. They alos carry a sensor jammer and a engine with the same manuverability as ours." The tactical oficer whistled as he finished reading out the list, "They could do some serious damage to some of those ships out there sir."

"Tell them to bring their MAC's online, co-ordinate their tactical with ours, well can protect from fighters while they protect us from larger Swarm ships. Also tell them to launch their fighter, and launch ours, they may provide some useful support against rouge fighters that we miss." commanded Anthony

With that the two ships Anubis and Crow Eater launched their fighters, and powered their weapons, they positioned them selves where they could get the best shot at the enemy while leaving the enemy a hard shot back.

"Sir the enemy is closing and we will soon be in range, shall we target the lead ships?" asked the TO

"Yes, have the Crow target the Merciless' with their MAC's though," he answered

"Yes, sir." the TO said, "Targets locked on both ships..."

"Prepare to fire...."

[KlavoHunter]

Post finally remade after bit-and-piece'ing it for a while.

[No Dachi]

The Red Sky At Dawn hears the human captain's request and immediately sets about "feeling" for its hangar bay doors. It had never had a hangar bay as such before, and so the effect was rather like waking up with an extra arm sewn on and trying to figure out how to use it. Within a few moments, the warship works out how to operate the door, and opens it.

Hooray etc. More later, maybe.

[Fluffie]

The moment the bay doors had opened far enough, the Alice's engines flared brightly, almost scorching the walls. Beginning to pick up speed, the slim craft started moving forward, the doors by now having opened entirely. The thrust increasing as they increased the distance between themselves and the Red Sky, the active sensors soon struck gold, finding a gigantic blob of Swarm...

Not hesitating nor asking for explicit orders one single second, the helmsman adjusted the Corvette's heading, now aiming straight for one of the larger concentrations of hostile fighters. Fluffie, seated in his chair on the centre of the small yet sufficient enough bridge, tapped a button, opening a ship wide comm.

"All gunnery crews, take off safeties if you haven't already. They fly, they die. All hands, brace for battle maneuvres and hostile fire."

Tapping the button again, the comm was closed. Looking around the bridge, he stopped turning his head when he saw the officer in charge of the countermeasures, the Interception Missile Launchers. Nodding as he spoke, he gave an order.

"Intercept any missile heading for us or any friendly."

"Sir."

The man nodded back, while Fluffie had already begun continueing his quick survey of his bridge. Soon completed without any additional orders besides the ones already given, the 'vette continued on. Just sitting there for a few, quiet moments, they waited for the inevitable.

The first, .512 Pulse Cannon spoke. Though there were good shock absorbers in place, Fluffie swore he felt the recoil of the Cannon shudder through the ship. There was no time to really feel it, as the Cannon's brothers and sisters did not take long at all to open us as well. Throwing a glance at a sensor screen, Fluffie saw there were plenty of targets to go around, a thought only confirmed by the new contiously firing cannons aboard the Alice.

"Sensors, keep an eye on the Red Sky, if there's anything heading for it, we need to know."

"Sir."

"Comms, keep listening at all friendly channels, if someone requires immidiate aid that we can give, tell us."

"Of course."

"Helm..."

"...I know my job. Keep us near, very near, to the fighters and still dodge most things coming for us. Easy. Sure. Just keep feeding me sensor data..."

"Alright. Sensors, you heard the man. And get our security troops positioned at key positions. We do not want to be boarded."

And so it was

[Spritely Zombie]

"Sir. They've hit the spaceyard." said Yamimoto, one of the bridge's two sensor officers.

He nodded almost imperceptibly and she continued.

"Two ships damaged. Not too severe, they seem to be handling it well enough to continue. Casualty reports from the station are..."

Gokan raised one hand suddenly, cutting her short.

"Casualty reports are meaningless from this point on. When this day is through the death toll will be in the billions and those left alive will likely envy them. As you all know, we're abandoning Earth."

He smiled sardonically and continued. "As an act of kindness, thinly veneered with tactical thinking and heavily seasoned with cowardice, there will be no Salis protocol. Not only are we abandoning Earth to the swarm, we're using them as bait, hoping that the swarm will be so anxious to devour our homeworld, that they'll not send a sizeable force after a few dozen fleeing ships."

There were a few more frowns on the bridge, but noone seemed truly shocked, they'd all known. The sarcastic grin faded instantly.

"Yamimoto. I want you to send a transmission, wide-band, aimed at Earth. One word: Thankyou."

"... Done." The young officer looked like she was about to cry. She'd served in the fleet for four years, but a life in the military; even during war, failed to prepare one to abandon a home, especially not one that had been the home of hundreds of generations of ancestors. She quickly wiped her eyes with one sleeve and reported firmly "Several dozen ships on intercept course." She tapped at her panel. "Looks to be two dozen frigate class, three carriers and numerous gunship-class."

Sitting back in his chair, the same chair that had been in his last command and the command before that, numerous patches made to repair it, the command console was of course replaced with each new ship, but he had insisted that the chair was moved each time. He ran a finger down one of the cracks in the aged pseudo-leather. He inhaled deeply before speaking.

"Target the nearest carriers hangar decks. There're enough deathgliders and hellraisers out there already..." He tapped the command console and a display showing the relative distances of the two ships appeared. "Six torpedo volley, 40 second drift, seven second stagger."

"All tubes loaded sir."

His eyes remained fixed on the display for several long seconds, then he nodded.

The ship, with it's jet-black, U-like shape, shuddered ever so slightly as a slender black cylinder thundered into space, followed seven seconds later by a second then a third and so on. 40 seconds after the launch of the first torpedo, all the torpedoes, that should have registered as merely fast moving debris on the enemy sensors simultaneously activated.

"Full lateral thrusters. Don't want them working out where those came from and firing blind. This armour may make us virtually invisible, but we'd be better protected inside a cardboard box."

Lances of compressed plasma erupted from the side of the ship, pushing it swiftly off it's original course and further from the angels. Similar lances fired from all the torpedoes. Onboard guidance systems aimed the deadly warheads towards the nearest enemy hornet. Point-defence fire lanced from the enemy ship, hoping to destroy the small flaming comets of destruction before they could unleash their payloads upon the relatively fragile hanger-decks.

"Sir we've got incoming!" yelled the tactical officer. "Look to be several smaller ships, coming up behind us!"

"Deploy a mine, I don't care if it destroys them or merely convinces them we've got a stinger in our tail! Get those ships off our ass... Prepare to fire fusion missiles."

"But sir, they're too close, the shockwave'll hit us"

"Damn the shockwave, the plasma cannons on board those ships'll do far more damage! Signal the Pandora's Box, we need a little protection. Damn this cardboard hull!"

[KlavoHunter]

Originally Posted by Spritely Zombie

<snip>

You realize your ship only has 3 torpedoes? The other 3 weapons are 2 fusion MISSILES, and a Minelayer.

[Spritely Zombie]

Indeed. But I can't help but feel that being able to fire only a single torpedo in an abstract and undefined period of time (long enough to contain all the rest of those posts) with each launcher is a tad absurd. *pokes Bakan to introduce rate, or something (just to be awkward ).*

Failing all else, count the extra three as 100% pure meaningless flavour (The main reason I double-volleyed being that a volley of three torpedoes is somewhat unimpressive) and completely discount them, granting them as duds, automatic misses or free kills for the enemy point-defence, its not like I have a limit on the number of miniature sun-producing warheads my ship seems to be carrying.

[KlavoHunter]

Originally Posted by Spritely Zombie

Indeed. But I can't help but feel that being able to fire only a single torpedo in an abstract and undefined period of time (long enough to contain all the rest of those posts) with each launcher is a tad absurd. *pokes Bakan to introduce rate, or something (just to be awkward ).*

Failing all else, count the extra three as 100% pure meaningless flavour (The main reason I double-volleyed being that a volley of three torpedoes is somewhat unimpressive) and completely discount them, granting them as duds, automatic misses or free kills for the enemy point-defence, its not like I have a limit on the number of miniature sun-producing warheads my ship seems to be carrying.

Or the Torpedo Tubes on your particular ship fire a pair of slave-guidanced 375-damage Torpedoes. Heck, I could say that my MAC is a machine-gun that fires an obsene number of small slugs that add up to 6500 damage.

But, anyways, I'd like it if you'd use the other 3 weapons then, too. Lay a mine and donate some of those missiles into the Gunships. It would really help me out if you'd blow some more of their Gunships away, as I can't deal with them. In return, I'll send my next MAC round into the Carrier you just blew a hole into.

[flapjack]

ooc/ hmm, Klavo, are you using that (potentially quite powerfull) carrier type ship, or the MAC bearing corvette? If it's the second, well, give me some time to edit some important things and Gokan, nice shot, let's hope you get a good roll and a bonus for good posting :P/ooc

Flapjack slowly sat down as the AI systems came online, moments later the drydocks they had just left where hit by the enemy fighters, the station's defensive systems firing wildly into the Swarm coming towards it.

AI: "Hmm, nice ship, I know this ship don't I? Are you the captain??"

SO: "Ah, looks like the AI is now online sir, I'll link it up with the main memory banks."

AI: "Main mem... Oh, hey, this is a lot better. It looks like I'm ready for combat, sensor emmissions have been brought down to the utter minimum, somehow I suspect they won't be looking for us to much so we should be able to get up close."

Flapjack: "Perfect, Helm, take us in towards that carrier, maximum stealth speed. All hands to battle stations, you know the drill. SO, keep us undetected untill our nose in their damned hangar bays. TO, fire all weapons on my mark."

Helm: "In we go, all engines to 1/3rd maximum thrust."

SO: "Emissions within nominal operating parameters, we should be almost completely invisible on their sensors. They'll be really damned surprised."

Out in the space the Shadow quickly turned and sped off into the belly of the enemy forces who had gotten into the way, a pale yellow light indicating its engine, which fortunately was invisible to the enemy sensors. Its weapons charging unnoticed, poised to lash out at the enemy carrier the moment they got the order.

SO: "Incoming, 2 fusion torpedoes on ram course, 3 seconds to impact."

Flapjack: "Evasive maneuvers, those torpedoes must be headed towards the carrier, we just got in the way."

Helm: "Then let's pick another place to strike, ah, 1 of the upper hangar decks looks like an attractive target."

SO: "Be carefully of that Point defense fire, if we get hit they'll know we're here."

The Shadow proceeded to slide in closer, it was now within 1 kilometer of the carrier and still went unnoticed, below it several explosions ripped through 1 of the hangar bays as it flew in closer.

Helm: "Perfect, that hangar bay is big enough to fit us and it runs all the way through the ship, we can go in 1 side and out the other."

Flapjack: "Make it so, TO, fire all weapons into that group of fighters as we come into the bay."

TO: "Weapons locked, time to start rocking their boat."

SO: "They're onto us, incoming fire."

Helm: "No more stealth, all engines all ahead full. Hang on guys."

As the carrier noticed the small dot closing in it, streams of weapons fire immediatly filled space. Those on the Angel cruisers noticed a sudden bright yellow blast, as if a ship's reactor core breached on long range. In reality this was nothing more then Shadow's helm officer slamming the engines into maximum power and thus out of stealth mode, the resulting blast of thrust pushing the small ship out of the way of the incoming plasma fire at the very last moment. Mere moments later its own weapons opened up, the 2 light plasma turrets firing into 2 elevators on the sides of the deck which where being used to transport fighters into the hangar bay for launch, the main fusion beam cannon spewed forth a stream of energized particles across a group of parked deathgliders, the thin sheet of metal which was the floor melting and buckling away where the beam smashed across it, the deathgliders stood little chance as they exploded into a ball of flame and lethal shraphnel.

Inside the ship the viewscreen went bright red as the Shadow fell through the resulting ball of fire, the small shraphnel barely strong enough to scratch the hull, but the massive heat enough raise the ship's internal temperature by several degrees the second it was in it. Moments later the small gunship sped out the other side of the carrier, secondary explosions causing yet more damage as it blasted off and smashed a deathglider violently out of its path, before coming about and once more going into stealth mode, its engines off this time as the remaining speed carried it clear of the carrier's guns.

[KlavoHunter]

OOC: Hmmm, flapjack, I don't know. I posted the carrier once, with the explicit label that it was just something to test a theory of mine, and everything else I've done has talked about the Corvette with the MAC, including my post which talks about it like that over and over.

FFS, I'm in the Corvette with the MAC! Duh! *smack*

Besides, I don't think it's a good idea to, y'know, automatically assume that Gokan's torpedoes hit.

Anyways... *prepares to write Flapjack's ship off as a total loss after such a risky maneuver*

Would you at least launch your one fighter before you die? I can always find some use for it if you blow up.

Meh. *goes to go plan the upgrades for his ship after we get out of this mess*

Oh, Bakan? After we get to the nebula-shrouded system with the radiation, can new people join in?

[flapjack]

ooc/ with 75% accuracy and 3 torpedoes, it's very safe to assume at least 1 hits.
In addition to that I won't launch my fighter in this fight, simply because it'll mean giving my position away right now.
Oh and if you call that risky, you haven't seen what I've got planned for the next few fights /ooc

[KlavoHunter]

Originally Posted by flapjack

ooc/ with 75% accuracy and 3 torpedoes, it's very safe to assume at least 1 hits.
In addition to that I won't launch my fighter in this fight, simply because it'll mean giving my position away right now.
Oh and if you call that risky, you haven't seen what I've got planned for the next few fights /ooc

Just saying that it's not wise to base all of your actions about something that hasn't been calc'ed yet... PD fire could be very heavy.

I'll let the fighter thing go. But do try and recall that your armor is akin to toilet paper in thickness... and I'm not talking the extra-thick rippled brand, either.

[flapjack]

ooc/ May I note to you that I'm the 1 doing the calcing. And there's no need to remind me, as it stands me and Gokan might not survive the first round of combat, painfull /ooc

[Heiro]

Pull in close guys. I'll shield you

[Spritely Zombie]

I just editted my original post slightly. Came to the conclusion it was a waste to have those extra guns and not use them.

[flapjack]

No more posting/editing posts for this DM please.

DM is currently in progress.
You'll most likely hear from Bakan soon enough, as in when I shove him the results from the battlecalcs

[mrmao]

hay um Zombie yeah i got a torpedo tube i can donate to you for help in geting another plasma cannon after the ballte or perhaps an ai is bueno para mi

[Bakan]

Originally Posted by Everyone in thread

Whine whine whine whine whine whine whine

Tonight in theory expect the DM to be posted, assuming flapjack there has everything sent to me when I get home (got about 20 minutes of class left give or take).